They'd disappeared without a word and he was starting to worry.
Hank was in rare form the evening of the squadron Christmas party because he did exactly what he promised Danny he wouldn't do. He behaved like an ass and Danny had never seen Evelyn so upset. She was aware of the squadron's loss and because of that, tried to be considerate of Hank. But even her infinite patience was stretched to the limit, as it always was when he acted like a jerk and she argued with him.
"They probably separated to go for a walk and cool off." Ann suggested as they stood in the lobby while he scanned the faces of the guests. "Evelyn was beside herself and she might have needed some time alone before she said something she couldn't take back."
"You could be right." He frowned and then he sighed. "I just don't understand why she doesn't tell him to take a hike."
Ann's laugh was soft as she tucked her arm through his and put her head on his shoulder. "Haven't you figured it out yet?"
"Figured what out?" He asked as he glanced down at her amused face.
"It's very simple Lieutenant." She explained to him. "She's as much in love with him as he is with her and she won't admit it any more than he will."
Why do they have to complicate things so much? He wondered to himself before he asked. "Why in the hell not?"
"From the moment they saw each other again last year they've been sparring over something but it was always safe because he was dating your sister." Ann told him. "Then after Sarah broke up with him that safety net was gone and they had to face some things that they didn't want to face, and still don't for that matter."
"For a guy who seems to have it all together with the rest of his life, he's a wreck when it comes to Evelyn."
"It could be that he might be feeling a little guilty because of he what he feels for Evelyn and that he didn't feel it for Sarah." She mused.
"They haven't talked at all since she broke up with him, have they?" He asked, hoping that Ann would know because his sister wouldn't talk about Hank with him.
"She hasn't said as much to me but I don't think they have." Ann admitted. "The last time we really had the chance to talk she seemed to have a lot of questions about Evelyn. She wants him to be happy and seems to think that Evelyn is the girl to do it."
"I don't know about that Ann, they seem to get more like oil and water the more they're together." Danny didn't like to say it.
"I don't think so." She shook her head in disagreement. "I've never seen two people try harder to make others think that they don't care for each other. Now why would that be?"
"Maybe it's because they really don't and you're just hoping for something that isn't possible." He countered.
Ann shook her head again and was more vehement about it. "Danny, I've watched them since Evelyn was transferred here and it's definitely gotten more interesting since Sarah broke up with Hank. They always set sparks off each other because there's a current that passes between them whenever they're together and I happen to think that deep down it's something they really enjoy."
Danny didn't have the chance to reply when a very worried looking Evelyn rushed up to them asking for their help. Hank was in trouble and he needed them.
He knew that he'd had too much to drink because Dan, Ann and Evelyn were watching him like a hawk all evening and it bothered him to all hell to see the disapproving look on Ev's face.
He'd wanted to tell her all evening how beautiful she looked but didn't know how and that bothered him even more. She didn't usually wear her hair loose, but she had that evening and he couldn't help but notice that it seemed to cascade down her back in dark waves. It was the first time that he'd ever wondered how it would feel if he got the opportunity to touch it.
Her formal was modest by comparison to what some of the other women were wearing. Nevertheless the material still clung to her in places that drew his eye and he wondered if she'd deliberately chosen the champagne colored dress for that purpose. But it was Evelyn that he was nearly leering at and deep down he knew that she'd only chosen it because she thought it was pretty.
She was still keeping him at arm's length and on the one occasion that he'd tried to kiss her, she'd rebuffed him. He thought that they'd come to a point where she might let him get close, but it seemed as though he was wrong. Evelyn Ahern was more than an enigma to him; she was a conundrum.
She was able to persuade him to get a key for one of rooms that were set aside for members of the squadron and made sure that he'd gotten on the elevator and even went so far as to push the button for his floor. She stood in the lobby as the elevator doors closed and his stomach lurched as the car moved up toward his floor. The soft "ding" of a bell and the sudden stop of the elevator told him that he'd reached his destination and he stepped off.
He glanced at the room directory so he could figure out which way he needed to go and stumbled down the hall. He could feel a terrific headache beginning to develop and his stomach was beginning to revolt. It was his own damn fault for overindulging and he prayed that he would make it into his room before he humiliated himself and disgraced his uniform by losing his dinner in the hallway.
802, 802, he repeated to himself and wondered where in the hell Room 802 was! He scanned the numbers on the doors, 780, 782. He held out his key in front of him and his dinner slowly began the ascent up his esophagus. 802, where in the hell are you?
798, 800, thank god he was almost there.
802!
He stuck the key in the lock and turned it. He pushed on the door as he heard it unlatch and didn't even bother turning on a light, that was going to have to wait because his dinner no longer would.
He should have known that she would come to check on him. Of course if he'd had the brain cells to think, he would have realized that in his haste to reach the bathroom he'd left the key in the front door and that was how Evelyn got into his room. If he'd been more aware of the situation, he would have been embarrassed beyond words that she found him on the bathroom floor like a drunken pilot; even though that's exactly what he was.
"Henry, what am I going to do with you?" He heard the concern in her soft voice and was becoming sober enough to know that he wasn't worthy of it.
"Go away Ev; I don't deserve your sympathy. Hell, I don't even deserve you."
"I think that's up to me to decide, don't you?" He felt her hand brush through his hair and her warm lips on his forehead. It was the first time he could recall that she'd ever touched him, in any way.
He was vaguely aware that he was helped off the bathroom floor and knew that it couldn't be Evelyn, it had to be Dan. "If you and Ann would go downstairs to the hotel store and pick up whatever you think he'll need, I'll pour him into bed." He heard the calm baritone of his best friend just as he felt his stomach revolt again. "Go!"
He heard a rush of footsteps toward the door and then heard it close.
All he wanted to do now was lie down, and preferably not on the floor.
He heard the baritone again. "You sure know how to impress a girl."
"Go to hell." It was the only thing he could think to say.
He heard Dan laugh softly as he felt himself being helped up from the floor. "I imagine that you'll feel like you have when you wake up in the morning."
"I'm such an idiot."
"I know, but Evelyn seems to care for you anyway. And you're still my best friend."
He felt the strong support of his friend at his side as he was helped into the room. He stood for what seemed hours before Dan sat him down on the bed and felt the cool sheets underneath his hands. He could feel himself fall backward onto the pillow and the tug of his shoes as Dan pulled them off. "Hank, don't go to sleep yet! Get your feet under the blankets so I can cover you up. Hank!"
He gathered ever ounce of strength that he had to assist and found himself covered up to his chin with a warm blanket and spread. He could feel lethargy overcome him and it carried him into a dreamless sleep.
When he woke, it was with a start. He lay still trying to figure out if he were dreaming because he suddenly realized that he was in an unfamiliar room and a sleeping Evelyn was in bed next to him. He didn't know if he should be elated or shocked.
He was fully awake, his mouth was dry and he felt like hell. He also knew that he needed to clean up and take a shower if he were going to get back to sleep. It was a good thing that he was off duty for the next forty-eight hours otherwise it would have been a real challenge to make it to base by 0700.
The moonlit room made it easy to navigate his way around and he found a pair of pajamas on the dresser. He also found a pair of boxers and a tee shirt folded on top. He picked up the pajamas and the boxers and as quietly as he could, found his way into the bathroom. He braced himself as he closed the door and turned on the light.
Once his eyes adjusted to the brightness he found a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush, a small bottle of mouthwash and a comb. He also found a small bottle of aspirin and silently thanked his friends for remembering something so important. He turned on the water to start his shower and before he stripped out of his uniform, took a couple of tablets and washed them down with a glass of water from the tap.
He stepped into the shower and stood underneath the hard spray. The knot in his head began to uncoil and his body slowly relaxed. He washed his hair and scrubbed every inch of skin he could reach so that he could try and wash away what had happened. The evening hadn't exactly been one of the shining moments of his life and he would just as soon try to put it behind him.
When he stepped out into the steamy room and into the new pair of pajamas twenty minutes later he felt better. He toweled his hair as dry as he could and ran a comb through it before he brushed his teeth and rinsed out the excesses of his overindulgence. He clicked off the light and his head pounded as his eyes readjusted to the dark.
The sight of Evelyn's silhouette made him wish that there were another bed to sleep in because he would have taken that. But there wasn't and as quietly as he could slipped back in between the sheets.
He was warm and sleepy again but no sooner did he settle down than she curled up against him and her hand settled on his chest. It was as though she needed to reassure herself that he was there and all right. His body reacted, as he knew it had no right to but he didn't have the heart, or the will to turn her away. Besides, she was asleep and nothing could possibly happen.
At least that's what he told himself when she stirred and then felt the brush her lips against the underside of his jaw and he was stunned. "Ev."
"Do you know how much I love it when you call me that? No one else calls me Ev except for you." Her voice was thick with sleep but she seemed to be awake enough to know what she wanted. And it seemed that she wanted him.
"Did you have anything to drink tonight?" He knew it was a ridiculous question even before he asked.
"I had one glass of wine and you know that." Evelyn answered as he felt her hand on his cheek turning it so he would face her. He tried to look at her face but it was hidden in the shadows as she urged him closer and then kissed him. The shock that jolted through him from the feel of her closeness and her warmth left him momentarily paralyzed as he tried to process what was happening between them.
She seemed to take his lack of response as a challenge and while she continued to ply him with soft feather kisses, her hands found the buttons of his pajama top and began to undo them. "Evelyn what are you doing?"
"Please don't scold Henry; just kiss me." Her voice was breathy as she loosened the last button and began to caress his chest. It was then that he really felt like smiling since he returned from Okinawa.
"Call me Hank and I'll do whatever you want." He laid down a challenge of his own because in all the years he'd known her she'd always called him Henry.
"If I do that will you love me?" Her voice became a whisper and if he didn't know better he would swear that she'd just offered herself to him. But if he was going to love her in the way she asked of him she needed to know something first.
"I do love you Ev; I love you so much that it scares the hell out of me. I love you so much that this wouldn't be enough to show you."
"But it would be a start because I love you too, Hank."
He sensed, more than he saw her smile and he kept his end of the deal when he kissed her and then he loved her.
When sleep finally came, it didn't seem to last very long because as soon as they drifted off, one woke the other with a kiss and then they made love again. By the time the sun began to rise into the morning sky Evelyn had found her way out of her formal and into his pajama top. It looked a damn sight better on her.
He got to find out how her hair felt when he threaded his fingers through it during the night and it was softer than he ever imagined. But then he'd never allowed himself to think, let alone believe that she would ever be his. Or that she would accept him.
He called for room service even though he wasn't sure his stomach could handle food, but he was hungry. He requested that the cart be left outside the room and then got up long enough to put the Do Not Disturb sign on the doorknob. He wanted to be alone with Evelyn for as long as possible without any interruptions and with a noon check out, it would give them the whole morning.
When he walked back to the bed he saw her sitting back on her heels, her hair was tousled and she was flushed. When he reached the edge she boosted herself up onto her knees and skimmed a hand across his chest. "I never realized how beautiful you are."
He gently grasped her arms and leaned in to kiss her but just before he did he smiled at her. "I've always realized how beautiful you are."
It was still early and the last thing he wanted to do was disturb his friend. He was probably going to have a hangover when he woke up and Danny wanted him to get as much sleep as possible, but Hank and Evelyn would need something to wear. He didn't imagine that either one of them would want to walk out of the hotel in the clothes they'd worn the night before and give people the wrong idea.
He had been unable to talk Evelyn out of leaving Hank alone to sleep it off. In the years he'd known him, Danny never saw Henry Metcalf drink himself into the state that he'd done the night before and he hoped it wasn't going to become a habit. It was probably that which worried Evelyn so much that she wanted to keep an eye on him to make sure that he would be all right.
He got off the elevator on the eighth floor and walked down to Hank's room. He noticed the Do Not Disturb sign on the door and there was a breakfast cart that was untouched. The extra key to the room was in his hand and he debated whether he should let himself in or not. He didn't want Hank to think that he was checking up on him but in all honesty, Danny just wanted to make sure that he was all right.
He hesitated opening the door and he wasn't sure why. Hank would most assuredly still be asleep and all Danny wanted to do was drop off a change of clothes. But if he was still asleep, why was there a full breakfast cart outside the door? It could have been Evelyn who ordered the early meal. So why hadn't she taken it inside yet?
Something didn't feel right about the situation and he didn't have a concrete reason why until he knocked softly on the door and turned the key. He walked into the room and found Hank standing at the picture window in his pajama bottoms. And almost simultaneously while he wondered where Evelyn was, he saw a long pair of bare legs in front of Hank's and knew where his top was.
He was obviously trying to protect her from any embarrassment and Danny obliged. He put the clothes on the back of the desk chair and put the extra key on the desk. He tried not to smile and to keep the amusement out of his voice as he told them their breakfast was outside.
"Would you do me a favor and bring it in?" Hank asked him and Danny nodded before he walked out into the hall and rolled the cart into the room.
"I brought a change of clothes for the both of you and left them on the chair." He let Hank know. "Should I assume that you're going to stay here until check out?"
"That's our plan." He answered. "My car is down in the parking garage and I'll drive her home."
"All right." And he felt very much the third wheel. "Well, I'll bug out now and leave you two alone."
Hank glanced over his shoulder. "Thanks for everything you did for me last night. I can promise you that I won't do it again."
"I'm glad to hear that." He nodded as he opened the door and walked out of the room, leaving his two friends alone.
They spent a leisurely morning eating their breakfast and when they were finished, sat together in bed to read the paper. But the closer that it came to check out, Evelyn left him alone to shower and get dressed. While she did that, he stacked the dishes on the breakfast cart and rolled it back out into the hallway. He made sure that the Do Not Disturb sign was still on the door before he padded back into the room. He looked at the bed that they'd shared during the night before he laid out his fresh clothes on it and he knew the trick from there on out would be building on the intimacy they'd established and learn to forge a relationship that he hoped might become permanent.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think we time for that." Hank felt Evelyn's arms curl around his waist as she pressed herself against his back and wondered how long he'd been standing there.
Her obvious comment made him laugh and he turned around in her arms so she could see him as pulled her close. "Believe it or not I wasn't actually thinking about that, but now that you mention it."
"You need to go shower Henry." She smiled back at him and there was a look of contentment in her eyes he'd never seen before.
"I already did." He stated the obvious knowing that she wouldn't fall for it.
"I know that, but you really should go take another one." She replied and her face flushed a pretty shade of pink.
He tipped her chin up so that he could look into her eyes. "You're not sorry about it, are you?"
Her arms tightened around him as she shook her head. "Of course not! I know that you were sober by then so you know that I was the one who started it."
She was right about that, but. "Why last night?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't really have an answer. I didn't stay with you with a plan to do that and I know that you know that." Evelyn reacted to his preparing to protest and put a hand to his lips. "I stayed with you mostly because I was worried about you. In all the time that we've known each other you've never knowingly passed your limit." She sighed and seemed reluctant to say what she was thinking.
"I know about the pilots from your squadron that were lost during your last mission. Dan said that you were good friends with one of the boys that was killed and it didn't take me too long to figure out that he was one of the reasons that you chose to overindulge. And at the risk of sounding a little self-centered I figured that I was one of those reasons too."
He nodded, reluctantly. "The truth is, when I saw you in that dress last night with your hair down around your shoulders I saw this incredibly beautiful woman that I'd fallen in love with and didn't have the guts to tell her how I felt about her. I could see all the other guys looking at you too and I knew what some of them were thinking. And knowing what they were thinking, I wanted to punch out every one of them."
"So instead of punching them out, you got drunk." She raised an eyebrow at him and he grinned.
"It seemed to be a better choice at the time."
"Well, I guess when it's all said and done it was." Her laugh was gentle and he felt goose bumps rise on his arms from the sound of it. "I was really upset with you for drinking so much but when I saw what you'd been reduced to because of it, I was just worried."
"I'm sorry Ev." He apologized and then kissed her cheek. "I'm sorry for worrying you and I'm sorry for being such a jerk to you. And I'm not just talking about last night. I've been a horse's behind ever since you came to Oahu and it's a wonder that we ended up here."
"We ended up here because I think that deep down I always knew that you would be the only man I would break my no serviceman rule for. I remember how we used to spar when you were at the Academy but that's just the way we were with each other then. After I got here though and we started it all up again, it felt different after awhile. But I didn't know if it was because of you or me."
He nodded in understanding. "It was because of me. The first time I got a reaction out of you when I never had before it got me to start seeing you differently. After that, it became something of a game to see if I could get you to react, and you usually did. But it was the first time that I made you blush and I hadn't really said anything that I knew things had changed."
"How did you feel about that?"
"I was confused because Sarah and I were still together and we were having problems. She wasn't talking to me, I was trying to patch things up and then I gradually found myself thinking about you, a lot." He admitted. "She was the one who saw that things were developing between us and had the courage to call me on it."
"She sounds like a very nice girl, Henry." Her sincerity got him to smile and hug her to him for a moment.
"She is and you're calling me Henry." He teased her.
"Would you mind terribly if I kept calling you that? You just don't look like a Hank to me and I think that's one of the reasons I never got in the habit."
"No one calls me Henry except for you. Dan does on occasion but you're the only one who uses my given name regularly. And no, I wouldn't mind." He assured her. "I like the way it sounds coming from you."
She smiled at him and then let him go. "Well, since we seem to have that settled why don't you go take your shower? We don't have much time before we have to leave."
She wasn't going to get away from him that easily just yet. "You could always join me."
As he figured it would, her face flamed red but her smile grew. "It would serve you right to say I would just to see the look on your face. But sadly, I have to decline because if I did join you we'd miss our checkout."
He tried another tack. "We could always book the room for another night."
The color in her face deepened and her eyes seem to sparkle with mischief. "And start carping at each other within the hour?"
"Carping wasn't exactly what I had in mind Evelyn." He tried leering at her but it only made her laugh and she leaned up to kiss him.
"I know, so go take your shower Henry. We have to be out of here by noon."
The two people that he never thought would be together were finally together.
It never crossed Danny's mind that when he left Evelyn in the room with a sleeping Hank that they would end up making love. He knew it hadn't crossed hers either because her only concern was that he would wake up in a strange room by himself. She thought that it would be a little less disorienting if there were someone familiar there with him.
But something had obviously changed during those hours and while he knew it was none of his business, he was curious to all hell to know what happened that led up to it.
"You've been awfully quiet all morning." Ann commented as they took a walk on the beach. He held her hand in his and hoped that she wouldn't ask too many questions about his stop at Hank's hotel room. "What aren't you telling me?"
"What wouldn't I be telling you? That my best friend made an absolute fool of himself last night?" He glanced at her.
"I've never seen him get into such a state and I know how worried Evelyn was about him." She frowned at his seeming lack of concern.
"Everything is fine Ann. She stayed with him to make sure he would be okay and he's as right as rain this morning." He squeezed her hand and tried to reassure her.
"How can that be? As much as he drank last night I would have thought that he'd have a pretty bad hangover this morning."
She was being persistent.
He didn't like being evasive but he didn't know how she would react to the news or if it was even his place to tell her. "Don't you remember that one of the items that you and Evelyn brought back was a bottle of aspirin? If he had any brains at all, he would have gotten himself out of bed and taken a couple."
"How did he look when you stopped by to check on him?"
"I didn't get a good look because he had his back to me." He was telling her the truth, he just wasn't telling her the whole truth.
"It must have been a long night for Evelyn." Ann commented and Danny knew that he wasn't going to be able to keep it from her much longer without lying to her.
"Evelyn's fine and Hank will be driving her home."
She stopped him suddenly with a tug on his hand. "Daniel McCawley, what aren't you telling me? Whenever there's something you don't want me to know, you refuse to look me in the eye. And ever since you came to get me after breakfast to go for a walk, you haven't looked at me. You're being deliberately vague about what happened this morning and I want to know what it is that you're not saying."
He was going to have to tell her and didn't know where to begin.
"Something happened last night, didn't it? And that's why you can't tell me."
Maybe he wouldn't have to say anything after all. "Let it go Ann."
A light flush began to creep across her face and her eyes widened as the realization seemed to dawn on her. She didn't say anything to him but he knew that she'd figured it out.
He grasped her hand and began to walk again. "Are you all right with this?"
"Are they all right? They've been so scared to let the other know how they feel and then they find themselves in a situation that they have to face those feelings." She sighed.
Danny smiled and then leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Leave it to you to worry about them."
Ann shrugged her shoulders. "They took a really big step last night and it's going to change things between them. I think about us and how difficult it was to be around each other for awhile when we nearly took that step ourselves."
"But they aren't us. I don't believe that they planned what happened last night but they did go through with something that we made a choice not to. I think the only question now is how long it's going to be before he proposes." He told her.
"He wouldn't propose to her just because of that would he?" Ann seemed disappointed at the idea.
"No. I think he'll propose to her because he loves her and I don't think they would have been together last night if they hadn't made it clear to each other how they feel. Hank acts the clown a lot, I know but he's a stand up guy and he would never have been with her just for something physical. And Evelyn isn't the kind of girl to do that sort of thing either."
"Do you think she would accept?" The worried frown was replaced by a smile.
"Evelyn's the only one who knows the answer to that. But if she loves him as much as you seem to think she does, she would." He let go of her hand long enough to put an arm around her shoulders and hold her close as they continued to walk. "But I don't think that they'll be jumping into marriage because of this so I wouldn't be expecting a wedding invitation any time soon."
"So I shouldn't haunt my mailbox then?" She laughed and he smiled back at her.
"You won't need to because they'll tell us something when they're ready and only when they're ready."