Chapter Six

Four Weeks and Two Days

After he had brought his boss the test results, Rafe quickly had refreshed up, before making the half-hourlong trip for the third time on this day. The champagne Anthony had procured seemed to be a really good wine. He hoped Evelyn liked champagne. What, if not?

Now he was driving himself nuts while waiting in front of the building for Evelyn's shift to end in a few minutes.

Nervously, he checked the time every few seconds and palpated his bandaged nose. There, she finally appeared. Jittery, he jumped down from the mural he'd been sitting on.

"Hey! Hey!" he greeted her when he stopped in front of her. When she asked after his nose he explained, that the bandaging was just a standard, precautionary thing.

"Look, I got some, uh, genuine French champagne from France. And I thought, you know, maybe we could celebrate?" Rafe hoped that his words sounded less stupid and embarrassing to her than he felt while speaking.

"Celebrate what?" Evelyn asked a little amused.

This question caught Rafe off-guard. "You being my hero?" he suggested eventually. To his even bigger surprise Evelyn responded positively to that offer.

Maybe he could make up for his embarrassing talk from earlier with another 'thank you'. Well, at least he could try. And he could casually mention that he indeed was a great flyer.

As it happened, this amused Evelyn although that was merely him definitely not being modest. He declared that being his candor.

And then, when he wasn't paying enough attention to the cork, it happened: the cork came loose and hit his nose hard.

Rafe clenched his teeth. He was a man after all, he was able to endure that. Yet, his hands were trembling when he poured the champagne and had to fight back his tears.

Luckily, Evelyn was dedicated to her profession and immediately pulled his head into her lap. She grabbed a chunk of ice and pressed it to his nose.

From down here she was even more beautiful. "You're so beautiful, it hurts" he told her.

"That's your nose" she smiled.

All at once Rafe realized he was hopelessly in love with this woman. "I think it's the heart" he whispered.

She bent down and kissed him ever so lightly for the first time. And it wasn't their last kiss, but for tonight it was.

Evelyn brought him back, even though he protested, but she insisted. Because he'd been injured – again.

Reluctantly they said their goodbyes, but promised to meet again soon.

When Rafe came back into his flights' quarters the only one still awake was Danny. It seemed he'd been waiting for Rafe.

"You missed supper" he noted, when Rafe started getting ready for bed. "Doolittle didn't like that. At all."

"That was more important than Doolittle" Rafe explained dreamily. "That was more important than anything in the whole world."

"Sure, you just hit your nose? Not your whole head?" Danny joked. "Now, we should get some sleep, we need to be up early again tomorrow." He climbed back under his blanket.

Rafe did the same and soon everybody on the air force base was sleeping.

Time flew and soon it was Christmas. This year the pilots hadn't been allowed to go on furlough, but Allie had an extensive, intense talk with her father on the phone. Most of the time they corresponded via letters, but with this, her father wrote about other things in the majority of cases, how the crops were doing or how he wanted to do the harvesting for example.

They had resolved the discrepancies last year, but still her father told her how much he loved her and that he admired her for doing what she was doing.

"Your mother would be so proud, Allie dear" his voice came sounding throaty from the earphone. "And now I finally get why your mother always gave sanction to you not being like other girls. But I still miss you, princess."

"I miss you too, Dad" Allie answered and had to clear her throat. "But I'm not alone, Rafe's here too."

"That's true" her father admitted. "Is your brother around?"

Of course, he was and Allie handed him the receiver.

He was also always around, when she was writing letters and dictated what he wanted to tell his father. She did so – not without aversion – but her efforts to get Rafe to write were fruitless.

Talking one on one was more in Rafe's nature and so he was all the more willingly to talk to his father. Allie didn't want to look like she'd be eavesdropping and took some steps away.

"Do you miss home?" somebody asked her from behind and she jumped in surprise. Rapt in her thoughts she hadn't noticed someone getting closer. It was Danny.

"Yeah, somehow, especially that it's Christmas now" she conceded. "What about you?"

He avoided her eyes and glanced down at his toecaps. "I wish I'd miss it, but actually I'm glad I don't have to see my old man in person."

Allie nodded sympathetically. After all, his father hadn't been as forgiving as her father, and when his mother had died, he had lost the most important person in his life. And the next important person for him, his best friend, was here too, so there was absolutely no reason for him to go back to Tennessee.

"When did you hear from him last?" she asked curiously.

He made a vague gesture. "We write letters sometimes. But that's just about the farm and stuff. I'd wish he'd tell me something personal only once…" He'd been overcome with emotions, but he had it right again under control.

With Allie and Rafe he had more trouble to keep his façade up, they knew each other too well. With everybody else it came more naturally to him.

Without another word of explanation, he turned and disappeared.

"Did you say something wrong?" Rafe asked who had just joined them.

Allie shrugged her shoulders. "Sometimes with Danny, I don't know what the right and wrong things are to say. I think Christmas gets to him."

Somehow, they did manage the holidays and soon the new year began. Allie was promoted, she now was a lieutenant like all the men in her flight. She finally was in no way inferior to them. Her flying skills had become better and with a self-satisfied grin she climbed out of the plane after an efficient day of training. So did Anthony and Billy.

"Where's McCawley and Walker?" the sergeant on duty bellowed who'd been out on the airfield with them today.

"Here, Sir", Allie saluted, which she had also mastered by now. But the higher-ranking man just cut her short with a wave of his hand.

"The other one, Miss. So, where is he?" He looked around and eventually somebody else told him. "Still flying, Sir."

Just this second two planes started closing in on each other at high speed.

A low "Oh no" escaped Allie's lips. She'd been expecting something like this, yet until now she'd managed keeping her brother from the dumb shenanigans. But it had to happen sometime. She crossed her fingers and prayed, that leastwise Danny would be wise enough to talk Rafe out of this idea of his.

The planes got closer and she was afraid that she'd witnessed an accident any second. Quickly she squinched her eyes shut and turned away.

But the anticipated explosion never happened and the men around her cheered loudly while a gust of wind whirled her hair around.

"Those are some smooth aces." Anthony couldn't hide the admiration in his voice. Alice disapproved of that and so did the sergeant obviously.

"Those farm boys are grounded!" he yelled indignantly before he sent Red to get his hat. "Get those hedgehoppers in Doolittle's office."

"That's bullshit, McCawley!" Major Doolittle had talked so loudly that even Allie out on the corridor flinched. She just hoped that Rafe could bluff it out. Because he – and Danny – had actually went on with these shenanigans they'd been brought to Doolittle's office by a very smug looking sergeant. And that was why their plans for the evening were now endangered. For the first time in a long while they'd been allowed to go out in the city to have a good time. Allie had been looking forward to meeting the nurses again. Sometimes, she felt quite lonely in this male-dominated field, and the secretary was the last person she could get along with at the base. For whatever reason, she'd done nothing to annoy the other woman.

The conversion went on in a lower tone of voices and she could do nothing else than wait.

A few minutes later Rafe and Danny emerged from the office. Rafe's expression was strange, stern but also… delighted? There was something shady about it. She glanced at Danny, who seemed afflicted. That she'd been expecting, after all they'd been chided for their reckless and irresponsible flight maneuver, some remorse was in order.

"I have to get ready" Rafe excused himself without reacting to Allie's questioning look.

"What happened in there?" she turned to Danny. He screwed up his face into a pained expression. He beckoned her over.

"Rafe has been accepted into the Eagle Squadron. He'll be gone tomorrow." In his voice was a pain Allie could relate to only to well. This piece of news felt like a slap in the face.

Of course, Rafe had talked about this, that he'd join the squadron gladly, but Allie had never figured that this could become reality.

"No, Danny, he mustn't do that, we have to persuade him out of that" she begged the young man. The look on his face agreed, but his words left little to no hope.

"Rafe says he can't refuse, but I'll talk to him."

He focused a vague point behind her. "You wanna be out on the town uniformed?" he changed the topic abruptly.

No, she definitely didn't want that. This was one of the few opportunities for her to wear her private clothes, and she'd make use of that. She darted one last hopeless glance at Danny before she hurried to go get changed.

For tonight, she already had picked out a dress, that emphasized her feminine charms without seeming too saucy. Her professed goal was to have fun, but not too much.

During the last few days, she'd overheard various snaps of conversations about miscellaneous strategies the boys wanted to prepare to (literally) charm the pants off the nurses; strategies, that made them seem thoroughly desperate; and Allie wasn't sure if any of the boys had ever had been doing it with a girl. Admittedly, they'd boast about it, telling stories, but she couldn't be fooled.

She also didn't have firsthand experiences exceeding making out, but Catherine, her only real friend in Tennessee, had told her what she had learned from the popular girls. And that didn't correspond with the boys' stories.

Allie tried to push away the thoughts about Rafe's decision marring her plans for having fun tonight and washed her face. Even though she thought poorly of makeup she put on some mascara and lipstick, before she donned the deep red dress. She gave herself a scrutinizing look in the mirror, before throwing on her coat and scarf, slipped into her only pair of high heels she owned – a heirloom from her mother – and scurried out, where the guys surely would be waiting for her.

Sure enough, Red beckoned her over, when she came down the stairs. Only just she caught a glimpse of Rafe and Danny talking, when Rafe seemed to make a final point, and also headed for the car. Allie stopped on the stairs when Danny shot her a glance and shook his head with sorrow.

Tonight wouldn't be fun. With a pinched face she climbed into the seat next to Rafe, but they didn't exchange one word during the ride.
He knew that she already knew, and she knew he wouldn't talk about it. The decision had been made.