Hello & Farewell- Part 2

### Plot

An adopted teenager learns that his biological mother is a Vietnam veteran suffering from PTSD.

### Episode Details

It starts out with Commander Kimberly Michaels checking on a sleeping David Hastings in his room and looks at his chart. She stares at him and sees his flying magazine. She starts having a flashback of the Vietnam War and of a helicopter getting a wounded soilder. In her haze, she ends up dropping the chart waking up David. She apologizes and he introduces himself asking if he will be able to leave soon. She stares at him and he points it out and she apologizes again. The phone rings and David picks it up and it is his mom. Commander Michaels leaves and David resumes talking to his mom.

Commander Michaels is in her house staring at a picture of her and another man, drinking whiskey. The doorbell rings and it is Commander Matthew Rogers. He asks why isn't she dressed where she remarks that she forgot about their date. He says it's still early and she can still change and they can make their dinner reservations. She replies she's not in the mood and he asks her if she can be honest with him and then he asks about the picture and she yells that there's another man and she's in love with him which makes him leave.

Commander Rogers is at a bar drinking his sorrows. Jonathan approaches him and Commander Rogers tells him about the fight. Jonathan asks him if he loves her and he says yes but he replies why does it matter since it's over between them and says he's tired of waiting for her. Jonathan replies to give her more time and go easy on the booze and leaves.

At the hospital, Mark is waiting outside and says Jonathan is late. Jonathan appears in his car, scaring him. Jonathan asks if Mark is having a bad day, which he says yes and that he and Colonel Frances Mahon are having dinner that night. He says that she came into his office and demanded dinner with him which he was forced to agree. Mark wants Jonathan to come with him but Jonathan needs to take Commander Rogers to the Veteran's Outreach meeting. Mark complains about how she's very strict and he's not looking forward to it.

Later that evening, Mark is wearing a suit and knocks on her door to a dressed up Colonel Frances Mahon. He is stunned by her beauty and she tells him to call her Fran and then she informs him the restaurant is a health food restaurant with no steak. Mark says it's perfectly fine and when she's out of hearing range that he can get steak anytime.

At the meeting, another woman is talking about her trauma from the war. Commander Michaels is watching her, nervously and sympathetic. The room is silent until another woman talks about her experience in the Mekong Delta and it was her job to set up service clubs in the supposedly safe areas and they were running late to go back to the base. She was the only woman on the car and a Sergant Wagner needed to relieve himself and he was a kid and didn't want to embarrass her so he jumped off and went to the bushes but then she heard an explosion and he stepped on a mine and the woman starts crying that he died because he didn't want to embarrass her. The woman next to her holds her hand and tells her it's not her fault and it's the war's. She still blames herself. The other woman says that what matters is what comes after where the women nod to. The other woman starts to say that she's old enough to be the women's mother or grandmother but that she's no different but she lived with the pain longer. She talks about how at the end of World War 2, she was a nurse in Guam. She met a pilot named Frank and they fell in love. She remarks she was two kids in the middle of war thousands of miles away. She plays with her lighter and pulls out her cigarette box. She says they wouldn't let them get married but they found a local judge. They spent their honeymoon on the beach but on the next day his plane was shot down. She was on duty when he was brought in and everyone tried to save him, but he died, right in front of her. This hits closer to home to Commander Michaels. The woman remarks she never got to tell him she loved him and goodbye. The woman from before holds her hand.

In the car, Jonathan asked if Commander Michaels is okay. She replies she was hesistant on going to the meeting but was very glad she did and understands the other's feelings. He said maybe one day she'll be able to share her pain with them.

Mark is disturbed by the entire meal with Colonel Mahon ordering him to get a physical. As they exit the restaurant, she says that she left her purse in the bathroom and he takes this opportunity to go to a liquor store across the street. He grabs some junk food but unfortunately finds out that the store is being robbed at a lone gunman. The gunman gets attacked from behind by Colonel Mahon and she grabs the assailant and hurls him out of the window. She comments about what good health could do to Mark's surprise and he asks the shopkeep for a bottle of wheatgrass.

A very healthy smoothie is being made by Mark and Jonathan walks into the room. Jonathan is surprised by Mark's sudden change of tune of Colonel Mahon and how Mark is only going to eating healthy. Jonathan leaves to go to work. Mark tries the smoothie making a very disturbed face.

The news announces that they recovered the remains of 5 servicemen and as they announced Commander Michael's deceased love, she runs out of the room crying.

She is at the hospital chapel and Jonathan finds her there. She says that for 17 years, she been dreading and preparing for the news and her feeling of immense pain. Jonathan sympathizes and says with the confirmation of his death, it would give her peace and how she could finally give up the guilt of giving Bill and hers baby up for adoption. She is surprised that he knew and she said that she needed to back to the war so she gave the baby up for adoption because she still believed that Bill was still alive and wanted to be there for him. Jonathan reveals that her son is David Hastings. She is comforted by that fact.

Mr. Hastings is looking out of the window. Mrs. Hastings enters and says she finally got David to sleep since Jonathan called. Mr. Hastings says he felt insecure with David meeting his birth parents but Mark convinced him that David's love for both of them is still there until he found out his birth father was a Navy fighter pilot and that he is in competition with a dead hero. Mrs. Hastings says that's crazy and he doesn't want David to meet them. She tells him she understands and that he is only up against someone dead, while she is up against Kimberly Michaels who's alive and real but she is not afraid and she knows that David is still their son. Mr. Hastings hugs her and says he hopes everything will turn out well.

Mark and Jonathan drive Commander Michaels to the reunion and she confesses she's scared but Jonathan dissuades her fears. The Hastings are anxious and Mr. Hastings greet them at the door. Jonathan introduces them .Kimberly asks where's David and Mrs. Hastings says he's in the backyard. David is standing in the middle of the yard and Kimberly asks if they could go together but the Hastings encourage her that she needs to go alone. They thank her for giving them David and she thanks them for raising him. She wipes some tears and walks to David. They talk to one another and shake hands.

At the meeting, one of the women, Joyce, is talking about her car accident with a tree. When she woke up in the trauma center, she said she is proud of Vietnam, because the techniques are being used in the center by the doctors and nurses and that she is still working on her alcoholism. It is almost the end of the meeting but Commander Michaels volunteered to giver her story. She starts out talking but gets emotional and cries a little. She pulls through and talks about how post traumatic stress disorders affects everyone and how if by giving a piece of themselves they can help others. She says that for the past 18 years, she hid her pain, lost the man she loved and gave up her baby and says those two pains have finally stopped hurting. She got closure of his death but their child is alive and she says that tomorrow a new life finally begins. The other women applaud her.

At the cemetery, Commander Michaels, Commander , Jonathan, and Mark are in from of William (Bill) Campbell's grave. She says her goodbyes to him and leaves him flowers.

The ending narrator dedicates this episode on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor to those who served.

### Cast

David Ackroyd as Commander Matthew Rogers

Cristina Raines as Commander Kimberly Michaels

Matthew Perry as David Hastings

Lora Staley as Col. Frances Mahon