DANNY

He couldn't understand why women got so excited about things like weddings and maybe it was a good idea that it was they that planned the special day and not the man. Men would be too practical when all women seemed to want on that day was to be Cinderella.

He was too young to remember when Ann's parent's got married, even though he was a part of the wedding and only had vague memories of when Mama's friend Mrs. Dearborn got married. But in each case, he'd only been a kid and not given the responsibility of being someone's best man.

And Danny McCawley found out rather quickly that part of his responsibility meant no bachelor party.

Evelyn had already made it clear to her intended and his best man that she would not tolerate any form of a bachelor party before their wedding day. She'd seen what her parents were put through when they were forced to deal with her highly inebriated brothers after a night of carousing when their friends started to get married. The spectacles were always held the night before the wedding, she never understood why and the groom, his best man and groomsmen were barely sober when he would say his "I Do's" the next morning.

Hank played up his disappointment to the hilt, even though Danny knew his friend didn't want one. As he put it, he wanted to tweak Evelyn to make her believe that he was disappointed he wouldn't be able to sow his last wild oats before making his vows to her. The truth of it was Danny, Hank's parents and several of the pilots in their squadron were going to take him out to dinner the night before the wedding.

As was tradition in the Metcalf family and he had no idea where it originated because Hank didn't even know, the morning of the wedding the groom and his father would have one stiff belt of Irish whiskey before the ceremony.

He supposed the original purpose was to calm the nerves of a nervous or reluctant groom, but knew Hank wouldn't have that problem. It made Hank's father sick the morning of his own wedding, so they had both agreed that they would water it down so it would go down smoother.

Danny wondered why they did it at all, but tradition was tradition and who was he to tell his friend not to do it?

He'd already told Hank that the Metcalf's could stay at his quarters if they wanted to. Since he and Ann were going to stand up for Hank and Evelyn, it made sense that Danny stay at his parent's house the night before the ceremony. It would save a lot of time for him and Hank's parents would get to be close to their youngest child before he got married.

ANN

It was going to be small as weddings went and she was nervous.

Ann never had the responsibility of being a maid of honor before and she didn't want to let Evelyn down. It was going to be a little unconventional as weddings went, but Evelyn had gotten this idea in her head of where she wanted the ceremony to be and Ann would never dream of talking her out of it.

It seemed the more she and Hank talked about getting married at the Wheeler Chapel, the bride decided that she didn't want to have a wedding like everyone else's because she felt that she and Hank weren't like every other couple. Their courtship had been a little unusual as had their brief relationship and as she explained to Ann, she'd decided that she wanted the ceremony to reflect that, without being irreverent.

Her original idea had been to have the ceremony on the beach, but with a strong objection from Hank she needed to modify her idea. The way Evelyn described it, he didn't want to get married in a hula shirt and be dumping sand out of his shoes all day. The place she eventually settled on was the oldest hotel in Waikiki built on what once was the playground of Hawaiian royalty.

With it's grand columns and wrap around terraces Evelyn said that she knew she'd found the right place and after Ann got a look at it, couldn't imagine a more romantic place to get married. It was only after she showed Hank, Danny and Ann a spot near the beach on the hotel grounds that he agreed. "The First Lady of Waikiki" would be the gracious hostess of Hank and Evelyn's wedding day and the ceremony would be presided over by the chaplain from Wheeler.

It all seemed to be happening so fast, but not so fast that Ann felt they were rushing into anything.

She supposed that she should have felt a little envious that they were getting married, but the plain truth was she didn't. Marriage wasn't something that she was ready to consider and she believed that Danny felt the same way. Things had moved much too fast for them in the beginning of their relationship and she even thought that she'd fallen for him too fast as well.

Looking back, they hadn't really taken the time to get to know each other before their emotions got the better of them. The situation was compounded when Danny was shot down and missing for all of those weeks. When he finally did come home, their emotions got the better of them again and it was then that Ann knew things really had to slow down.

It hadn't been easy keeping her distance from him, but it was what they needed to do. She still tried to make sure that they weren't alone for any appreciable length of time because he could be very persuasive when he wanted something, as could she. She hadn't earned his affectionate nickname of 'Vixen' for letting him take the lead in everything.

Still, when the idea of marriage did come to mind there was only one man she could think of.

HANK

She picked a nice spot to get married, he couldn't argue with that.

They were going to have a hell of a view of the beach during the ceremony, but Hank couldn't help but laugh when he realized that Ev wouldn't like it if she thought that he would be looking at the blue Pacific and not her.

But she didn't need to worry about that.

Evelyn Ahern would have his full and undivided attention when she became his wife in two weeks time and while most grooms seemed to get more nervous as the big day approached, Hank was more than a little anxious to get it over with. It seemed at times that he'd waited his whole life for her and now wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with her.

He couldn't help but wonder, however if he should have waited to propose to her again after they found out she wasn't pregnant. He sometimes felt that he'd cheated her out of a real relationship because they'd gone from antagonists to lovers and because of that were engaged within weeks. But he'd promised himself that they would have that time after they got married to have as much time for themselves as she wanted before they started their family. She'd already told him that she wasn't in any particular hurry and neither was he.

All he could think about at the moment was the idea of standing under a rose covered arch in his full dress uniform standing next to the love of his life and making her his. Or as Ev would invariably correct him and say, making him hers.

In the end it didn't really matter because he knew how lucky he was to be taking this step with her.

They decided to keep the wedding small and invite their families and closest friends and those friends included the families of Dan and Ann. He had thought about including Sarah in the invitation and Ev was all for it when he asked her opinion about it but she pointed out that it might be an awkward situation for his former girlfriend.

She did, however suggest that he leave it up to Sarah to make the decision to come or not because invitations were funny things. While she might not want to come and see her former beau marry someone else, she might feel slighted that she hadn't even been asked. So Hank decided to leave that detail up to his best man and have him ask his sister if it was something she wanted to come home for.

Part of him wished that she would and let him know that his getting married to someone else was all right with her. He didn't know why it was important for him to hear that from her except that she'd been a big part of his life and what she thought still mattered.

But Ev was right and it had to be up to Sarah to decide.

EVELYN

Two weeks!

How was she going to finish pulling a wedding together when she only had two weeks left?

Evelyn couldn't believe her luck when she'd discovered that the hotel where Henry's squadron party had been held at Christmastime was available for weddings. It seemed appropriate to her that since it was the very place where they'd first been together, it was the right place for them to begin their married life.

He'd just returned from Okinawa a couple of days earlier after being gone since they'd decided to get married. She was holding her breath that he wouldn't be put back on rotation before their wedding day and was now beginning to really understand why he wanted it to happen as quickly as humanly possible.

She'd found a small spot outside in the back of the hotel that faced the beach and thought it was perfect, even Henry couldn't argue with the view when he saw it. It was small as venues went but their guest list was too and would fulfill their wish for an intimate family wedding perfectly.

The reception would also be outside, near the wedding site. A large grassy area, surrounded by several trees would give the wedding party and their guests shade. Evelyn and Henry had both wanted to invite their entire families to the wedding, but it had been such short notice that it wasn't possible. As a consolation for those would wouldn't be able to fly to Hawaii, their parents were going to host a family reception at a hotel in Chicago when Henry was able to get more than a couple of days leave.

As an added bonus, the hotel had offered Evelyn a suite for their wedding night as part of the package. It would work out perfectly because truth to tell, she hadn't especially looked forward to spending her wedding night in Henry's quarters because it would be where they would be staying for awhile after they got back from their abbreviated honeymoon to Maui.

They were currently on a waiting list for housing but Henry was told it might be awhile so they would have to make due with his B O Q in the meantime, even though he would no longer be a bachelor and technically they shouldn't be living there.

Time was not on their side and it seemed that Henry was gone more and more and for longer periods. It seemed as though Evelyn would begin married life on her own.