When Donny first came home, and everyone told him that everything would go back to the way it was four years before, he naively believed them. It made sense, didn't it? The war was over, the soldiers that had made it were back home, there was no reason for things not to go straight back to way they were.

Which is why it was so perplexing to Donny that it didn't. Of course he wasn't the same, not completely. He'd known that for years, when he'd started having the nightmares. But he'd assumed that the rest of the world had kept turning. He hadn't expected everyone else to treat him so differently. They were, after all, the ones who were forcing the whole 'just like it was before' mindset on everyone else.

So why couldn't Donny find a decent paying gig anywhere, when before he'd left, he'd been turning people away because he had too many offers? Hell, why wasn't he getting more offers? He was a veteran, a supposed hero. Everywhere he went people gave him thanks for his service, but no one could give him any employment. Which led him to wonder how sincere their thanks actually was.

He tried to stay as optimistic as he could, though. He smiled through each wedding he played, congratulated the couple before he left. Told himself he'd find something better any day, now. He politely (well, he told himself he was being polite) thanked every club owner who refused him, reminded himself that there were lots of places in Cleveland, and one of them was bound to hire him eventually.

But the longer it went on, the harder it was to stay positive. Eventually, he stopped remembering to tell himself that everything would get better. He became desperate. He took every gig he could get, returning home and trying to numb the pains of the day with a shot of whiskey more often than not.

He began to wonder what the point of any of this was. His days were filled with disappointments, meeting one rude person after another, and losing his faith in the human race, while the nights were spent sleepless at the piano, seeing bombs going off and bullets flying every time he closed his eyes. He was exhausted, and he wasn't getting anywhere for any of his efforts.

Sometimes he thought that he should be scattered across that hill with Michael.

But then he heard that announcement on the radio. As soon as he heard it, he knew could win it. He practically already had. He just had to find enough guys to make a band.

When he heard that announcement, for the first time in years, Donny felt hope.