All while James was gone, Taylor was still in his room, trying to readjust to being able to see after almost a week of darkness. He was sitting in a chair facing the window, while Redheart sat behind him, gently massaging his shoulders and back.
"Hmm, so peaceful", He whispered. "I almost forgot what it was like to be able to see the sun, and the grass, and everything else. I thank God for saving my life, and now even more so for also restoring my vision to me."
Redheart nodded. "Yeah, I know Taylor, and I'm grateful that he did both of those things too." As she thought about this though, she suddenly thought of a question. "Hey Taylor?"
"Yeah?"
"Um, I just thought of something. If your first name is Charles, and your full name is Charles Taylor, why do you prefer to just be called 'Taylor'? The same for James for that matter. His first name is William. Why is that?"
Taylor shrugged. "I can only speak for myself, but for the time I was in the Navy, your last name was your name. I guess that I just got so used to being called 'Taylor', that it's just kind of still stuck with me."
"Well, can I call you Charles?"
"I don't know. I've just been called 'Taylor' for so long, that now 'Charles' just sounds so weird. However, if you want to, then you can call me Charles."
Now it was Nurse Redheart's turn to think about that. "Hmm, I don't know", she said at last, "I've also gotten so used to calling you 'Taylor' as well. I guess, at least for the time being, that I can just keep calling you that."
Taylor nodded. "Sure, if that's what you want."
While they were still talking, there came a knock at the door.
"Come in."
The door opened, and James walked into the room.
"Hello Taylor, it's nice to see you out of bed and back to enjoying life."
"Yeah, I know. And it's nice to see you too James." Taylor then shifted on his chair so that he could face James.
"Oh, James, I asked Taylor this question, and I wanted to ask it to you as well."
"Oh? And what would that be Miss Redheart?"
"Well, you, like Taylor, use your last name as a name. You said that your first name was William. My question is, why do you prefer to be called 'James', instead of William?"
James sighed. "Well, to be perfectly honest, it's just become like a second nature to me. All throughout my time in the navy, I was always called 'James' by my friends and superiors. I at times even forget that my name even is William."
"Well, are you going to stick with 'James', or do you want to be called 'William'?"
James shrugged. "I don't know. I would need some time to think about that."
Redheart nodded. "Sure, take all of the time that you need James. I know that choosing your name is a very important decision."
"Yeah, I guess that it would be."
After a few more moments of silence, Taylor suddenly remembered James's quest.
"Oh, Hey James, how did your trip to find Miss Flutters go? Were you able to locate her?"
James nodded. "Yeah, I found Flutters, a very sweet young mare. I met her, and her animals, including Missy, the albino Mountain Timberwolf."
Taylor was surprised. "Wait, she has a pet albino Mountain Timberwolf? That's wild!"
"Missy is actually quite nice. And Flutters is indeed very sweet James. Animals are her passion."
"Nothing truer than that Miss Redheart."
"But were you able to pitch your 'pet mortuary' business idea to her? And if so, how did she take it?"
James was silent for a few moments. "Well Taylor, that's the thing, I pitched my idea, and she seemed to like it, however, instead of helping me plan to build a pet cemetery, she did me one better."
"Oh? And how so?"
"Well, as it turns out, close to the Everfree Forest, maybe about 5-10 miles outside of Ponyville if I had to guess, Flutters took me to her already existing pet cemetery."
"Wait. You mean to tell me that she already has a pet cemetery?!"
Redheart thought about that. "Huh. I do remember her saying something about having a small cemetery, but I just assumed that she meant a plot of land close to her cottage. I guess not!"
"How big was the cemetery James?"
"Eh, I would have to say maybe 3-4 acres if I had to guess. It wasn't the largest cemetery ever, but it definitely wasn't the smallest either. It is however somewhat overgrown, and needs a bit of fixing up. This might be why Flutters showed it to me; maybe she wants help taking care of it."
"That's possible, I suppose James. So, you at least have an actual pet cemetery to start your side business. Now it just sounds like you have to clean it up a bit before it can be used."
James nodded. "Yeah. Tomorrow, I'll see about heading back to Miss Flutters's cottage, and see what she thinks about cleaning up that cemetery."
This conversation continued along these lines for a number of minutes longer.
Eventually, Taylor remembered something. "Hey James?"
"Yeah?"
"When you went back to the workshop, you said that you found that TBF Avenger operations manual underneath your seat. Where is that? I would like to read it."
"Oh, it'sup in my room. Do you want me to go get it for you?"
Taylor nodded. "Yes, if you wouldn't mind. I would like a good refresher on AvGas before I ever even think about making fuel again!"
James laughed a bit. "Sure thing Taylor, I'll go get it right now."
James then turned to leave. As he was leaving the room, Taylor turned back to the window. "I'm so happy for James. I've never seen him this passionate about anything before."
Redheart was surprised. "What? Never?"
"Nope. That's why I'm so happy for him. I'm glad that he......"
At that moment, just outside of the hallway, both Taylor and Redheart suddenly became aware of a loud commotion.
"Huh? What in Celestia's name is going on?"
Taylor was worried. "I don't know Redheart, but we'd probably better go see!"
As quickly as they could, Taylor got up from his chair, and with Redheart just behind him, they quickly made their way out to the hallway. When they arrived, they found James getting into a very heated argument with a nurse.
"There you are!" The nurse shouted. "You traitorous leach!"
"What? What are you talking about Nurse Freckles?"
Freckles then grabbed James by his jacket, and shoved him against the wall. "Oh, you think that I didn't hear about your little trip outside of Ponyville? Does the name, 'Flutters' ring any bells?"
James nodded. "Yes, I met her earlier today."
"Oh? And what, pray tell, was the purpose of meeting her?"
Now James was getting rather annoyed. "Well, it's frankly one of your business, but since I feel like telling you, I went to pitch a business proposal to her."
"What sort of 'business proposal'?"
"Now that, is something for me to know, and for you to not to, for now at least. I don't want to give anything away until I actually go into business, as it could fail before it even begins if too many Ponies know about it."
"So, Flutters is your business partner?" She relaxed a bit, letting James move forwards from the wall.
James nodded. "Yeah, I guess that you could say that."
"Liar!!!' She slammed him against the wall again.
"I thought that we had something James, but now I see that you're perfectly willing to cheat behind my back!"
"Freckles, you leave him alone right now!" Taylor then intervened by jumping between the two.
"Move it Taylor! I have to punish him!"
"No you don't Freckles!" Now Redheart got between them as well. "James did absolutely nothing wrong. You two were maybe becoming friends on a good day, but after you kissed him without asking, that really drove a wedge between you. Next, James is not dating Flutters. He simply came to her with a business proposal. For now, they are just business partners, and friends at best. So you need to just calm down, before I call security!"
Freckles sighed, and after completely letting go of James, she turned to leave. "Yeah, I need to just leave. I have a lot of things to think about." Freckles then turned away, and walked off down the hallway."
After she'd left, James turned to Taylor. "You're ok, right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. You?"
Aside from a few minor bumps from being shoved against a wall, yeah, I'm ok. Thanks for intervening."
"After everything you've done for me while I was burned and blind? It was my pleasure. Plus, you're my comrade. I'm supposed to take a punch for you."
James nodded. "Well, I maybe should have at least slightly suspected that something like that could have happened after the nurse at the front desk said that Freckles was looking for me, and she looked, as she put it, 'mad enough to start smashing skulls'. However, I wasn't expecting this altercation so soon."
"It's not your fault James", Redheart reassured him, you did nothing wrong. Nurse Freckles kissed you first, and you only went to find Flutters on my suggestion, and because she would be the most knowledgeable source of information for starting a pet cemetery."
James shrugged. "I know Miss Redheart. I know that it's not my fault, but I just......" James trailed off a bit. "No, it's just nothing. I'm just going to go grab that operations manual for you Taylor."
James then left the hallway, leaving for his room.
After James had left, Taylor went back to his room, and sat back down in his chair by the window. "Well, that certainly was interesting."
"Yes, yes it was. I'm just glad that James didn't get hurt."
Taylor turned to look at her. "That's why I stepped between them. I knew that James doesn't have the skills to defend himself. Nurse Freckles easily could have caused him serious harm. However, I did learn unarmed combat in naval training, so if the worst came to it, I could have protected him."
"Are you sure that's why you intervened Taylor?" Redheart asked, "Or was it because in a hospital, where your favorite nurse works, which would be the best case scenario for any injuries?"
"Ok, now was that sarcastic question really necessary?" Taylor tried to maintain a straight face.
"Oh, come on. You know it had to happen! Admit it, it was funny!"
After thinking it over, Taylor finally said, "Maybe it was funny, but in a very cringy sort of way!"
Before Redheart could answer, James returned with the book.
"Here it is Taylor." He handed it to him.
Taylor was surprised. First of all, the book was huge. It was easily the thickest book that he had ever seen.
"Gosh, this thing's so big, I can feel my chair about to collapse! How thick is this thing?"
"Um, It's about 3,000 pages if I remember correctly."
"3,000 pages?!"
"Yeah. Well, remember, it is an operation manual. Everything you need to know and more about TBF Avengers is inside this book. It's the complete edition."
"Oh boy. Well, if we're ever going to have a chance at ever figuring out how to fix the plane again, we're going to have to have a better understanding of the TBF Avenger. And to have that, I'm going to have to read the important parts of this book."
James shrugged. "Well, planes and engineering are your deal, and architecture, design, and pet cemeteries are mine. I guess that I'll leave you to it."
James then turned to leave.
"And where are you going now?"
"Well, it's about 6pm. I was thinking of maybe going back to talk to Flutters for a while. There's something I saw in the cemetery that bothered me."
"What? What was it?"
But James was already gone."
"Hmm, I wonder what James saw in that cemetery?"
Taylor shrugged. "I don't know Redheart. Hopefully it wasn't something serious."
Neither of them knew what to think about this, so they instead turned their attention to the manual, and Taylor began to read from it, while Redheart took notes.
Meanwhile, James was making his way back to Flutters's cottage. "How could she have had a cat that matched Patch's description perfectly, and also be names Patches? It doesn't make any sense!"
Eventually, he found himself once again at Flutters's door. After bracing himself this time, just in case Missy would be glad to see him again, he knocked on her door.
"Hello? Miss Flutters, are you home?"
"Just a moment."
After a few moments, the door opened, and Flutters stuck her head out. "Oh, James! I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon! What brings you back here?"
James sighed. "Well Flutters, when we were still in the cemetery, I saw and heard something that I haven't been able to get off my mind, so that's why I came back here; you would probably be the only pony who could tell me about it."
Flutters was curious. "Well, I certainly hope that I can give an answer to what you want to talk about. However, before you begin, won't you come inside? This conversation might go better if we sat down first."
James hesitated a bit.
Flutters noticed this. "Oh, if you're worried about Missy, don't be. She's currently sleeping. However, if you wake her up, the events of earlier this afternoon could repeat themselves."
James nodded. "Yes, I would like to avoid getting knocked down again, so I'll be quiet!"
Flutters then opened the door fully, and James walked inside of her cottage again. This time though, they walked over to her couch in what James guessed was her living room.
After they'd both taken their seats, Flutters turned to James. "So, um, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Well, um...." James hesitated for a moment. He didn't want to seem crazy, but yet, he needed an answer. Finally, he decided to just go for it. "Well, remember how when we were in the pet cemetery, and I asked you about the grave of a cat named Patches?"
Flutters thought for a moment. "Um, yes, I'm pretty sure that I do. Why?"
"Because, well, um..." James sighed. "The truth is, when I was a lot younger, I also had a cat named Patches. He had grey fur with patches of white on him, hence his name. He also had a black tail, one black ear, and one blue eye and one green eye. He also died of natural causes at age 12. I guess that my question is, what time-frame did your Patches live during?"
When Flutters heard what James said, she was speechless. "U-um, m-my Patches was alive about 7 years ago or so, and he lived with me for about 5 years before he died."
"I was 4 years old when I got Patches for my birthday. That was back in 1926. Add 12 years to that, and Patches died in 1938. He was the first pet I buried, and I stopped about four years later in 1942, when I went to war."
"So, um, that means that, by Earth time standards, I found Patches in what would have been the Earth-year 1938."
Flutters stopped, and they both looked at each other. They both knew what the other was thinking, but neither was brave enough to say it.
"it's almost as if", James whispered at last, "W-when Patches died, h-he somehow found his way to you."
"He, um, w-was an adult c-cat when I found him, a-and he seemed to be what would be m-middle aged for a cat."
Flutters then remembered something. She flew across the room to a cabinet. After opening it, she rummaged through it for something. Eventually, she found it, and flew back to the couch. When she landed, James saw that she was holding a small wooden box.
"When I found Patches, he was wearing a collar. The collar had writing on it, but I didn't really pay much attention to it then. All I can remember was his name, 'Patches'." She then handed the box to James. "Inside this box is the collar. I kept it after Patches passed. I would open the box myself, but, I.....just....can't. the m-memories are too much!"
Wordlessly, James took the box, and after unlocking the latch, he opened the box, and peered inside. When he did, he saw an object wrapped up in a handkerchief. He pulled the object out, and after unwrapping it from the handkerchief, all he could do was stare with the shock to end all shock.
He kept opening his mouth, but no sounds came out.
Inside the handkerchief was a collar. It was black, and fastened at the back. It looked like any other collar, but what really had James, was a small tag on the collar. "Patches." The tag read. "If found, please return to William James, at (*illegible*)." The tag also gave a phone number.
By this point, James's body and mind had had all they could take of the shock of this revelation, and he fainted. Flutters wasn't too far behind. She fainted as well, still in shock that, for a while, she had owned a cat from Earth.