Mr. Grey

Chapter 17

***MR. GREY'S POV***

I couldn't stop thinking about her. Not just the fact that she's in the hospital with horrifying scars that will never go away, but her personality. It's all I can think about. The second she woke up, the first thing she said was how were was going to keep this a secret. She didn't care about how she was doing or even how I was... No, don't think like that. Danni loves you, she's just scared and doesn't want to show it. I took a deep breath and looked around the waiting room. There was a family of five, two parents with three kids. The parents were reading magazines while the kids were sleeping on the chairs. I played a game with myself as to guess 1) Who are they waiting for, 2) Why is that person in the hospital, and 3) How long until they come out. Of course, I never got any guess right but it kept my mind busy.

A few hours later I saw the investigator leave Danni's room. He noticed me as he walked out and politely smiled. That's a good sign, right? He could be happy that I was there to help her... Or he could be happy because I could be going to jail? I have to know what Danni told him. I took another deep breath and made my way to Danni's room. She smiled gently when I walked in and my heart skipped a beat. I don't think that's ever gonna stop happening, she will always have that effect on me...

"How are you doing?" I pulled a seat next to her bed and sat down.

"Been better." We both chuckled, I noticed her wincing and my heart sank. It killed me that she was in pain. I would do anything in the world to switch places with her. I guess we already did switch places from when I had my car accident...

"Are you okay?" Her question startled me. Here she is, hooked up to countless machines, asking me how I was doing. I must have looked pretty bad.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." I forced a smile and held her hand. I told the doctors that I was her uncle, they didn't seem to question me. I started to realize how much of an age gap Danni and I have. The fact that I can pass as her uncle scared me a bit. Am I really that old? I'm only 32, which I guess is a pretty big jump from 17. Tons of celebrity couples have big age gaps: Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita have an age gap of 10 years. There are 17 years between George and Amal Clooney. Danni and I have 15 years in between us, it could be worse?

"Is something wrong?" Danni's voice broke my trance.

"Of course not." My gaze was fixed on the wall.

"Do you want to know what I told the investigator?" She was looking straight at me but my head was a cement block. I couldn't move it at all, no matter how hard I tried. "Lucas?" When she said my name my head snapped towards her, my neck cracking. Danni chuckled at the sound and I smiled, her laugh was perfect. Everything about her was perfect.

"What did you tell him?" I had forgotten all about the investigator.

"Well, my father was out of town," She started to act sad, as if I was the investigator, "My uncle was going to pick me up to bring me to his house for thanksgiving." Danni faked a sniffle and asked for the tissue box. Damn, she was good. "Everything happened so fast, I had no idea who did it." Danni smiled when she was done and I applauded her.

"That was amazing. Holy shit, that was actually perfect." I felt a flow of relief. We were both in the clear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

School started about a week later and I was excited to see Danni again. We decided not to hang out once she got back from the hospital so that we wouldn't risk getting caught. When I walked through the hallways, I didn't see her anywhere. I pulled my keys out of my pocket and opened the heavy wooden door into my classroom. I was half expecting to see Danni sitting at my desk like she was in my dream the other night...

After the whole incident, I called the school saying that I wanted Danni to stay in my class. We thought it would be a good idea that she had a "safe place" to go to every day. She knew the material, probably better than I did, so she could just relax and have a place to regather herself for the rest of the day.

There were only three weeks left until Christmas break and I tried my best to keep my students' grades up. The seniors were getting antsy since it would be their last break as high schoolers. All the other teachers were assigning tons of homework and tests, as I was told, so I decided to keep my work on the down low. I gave them a few open note quizzes and easy homework to get the extra points. Danni told me one day after school at the library that I was one of the favorite teachers amongst the students. Although I wasn't that surprised, that made my day. It's always nice to get compliments from students, especially when you're a calculus teacher.

"What are you thinking about doing for college?" Danni was sitting at her desk and I was resting on the counter. The library was almost empty except for an older woman trying to find a book for her daughter.

"I'm not sure. I don't have the money so I haven't really thought about it." She kept her eyes fixed on the desktop

"Are you kidding? With your intelligence, you could get a scholarship! What are you interested in?" I was a little angry at her for not even considering college.

"I've always been interested in computer science." She said quietly.

"That's perfect! Did you take the ACT's last year? Those are perfect for techy people like you."

"Yeah, I got a 34." She tried to cover her smile.

"That's incredible!" I said a little too loud. "What about your SAT's?" I tried to keep my voice low but I could barely contain myself. She got an almost perfect on her ACT's, I couldn't even contemplate what she would have gotten on her SAT's.

"In total? 1540." This time she couldn't keep a straight face. "I guess I could start looking at colleges."

"Of course you can! You're taking my honors class, you're getting incredible grades in your others. Are you taking computer science?" My heart was racing, I was really excited for her.

"I'm taking the AP course and I'm developing an app on my own time as well." She motioned me over and I looked at her computer. She pulled up all the code and I was astonished.

"What does it do?" I've always loved the idea of creating apps, but I've never done anything about it.

"Well, when you're at a restaurant with your friends, you can take a picture of the check and the app will calculate the tip and how much everyone should pay. You can even adjust the settings if you want someone to pay more or less than someone else." Danni went off on what she did to do it and how it worked.

"You can submit this! This app is your ticket to a scholarship!" I didn't care how loud I got. "Danni! You can go to incredible schools with this app!"

"You really think so?" She blushed and avoided eye contact.

"Of course I do! Here, I'll give you a ride home and I want you to look at technology colleges that you might be interested in. Don't worry about cost or anything. Just pick your favorites and text them to me." I helped her out of her chair and shut down the library computers.

"Thank you, Lucas. Really. I never thought that I could even be looking at colleges." Danni couldn't stop smiling and I couldn't stop looking at her smile. It was perfect.

I could just see the day that she's driving off to college...