Corpsman, Up!

Then again, maybe she was recently divorced and not ready to date. It wasn't that big a deal, it was just something Chance found very puzzling, and as someone prone to look for explanations, he was having trouble letting it go.

Danika parked in the driveway while Chance pulled up to the curb and parked on the street. He had no intention of staying, and he had no right to pretend he was family or even a friend so this seemed more appropriate to him.

Danika waited for him while Echo got out of the back seat.

"My grandfather's going to be so happy to see you," she told him again. "Since my grandma died, he's been living a life of self-imposed solitary confinement."

Chance saw the look on Danika's face, but this time she didn't laugh, smile, or respond. Evidently she was used to hearing her daughter offer such adult-sounding comments. He knew there were child prodigies who could play Beethoven's symphonies on the piano at very early ages or do incredibly complex math problems at a similar age, but he'd never met one—or someone close to being one—until now.

"Come on. Let's go inside," Danika said with a smile.

As they walked toward the door, Chance couldn't help but think that perhaps the 'mystery' was no greater than Danika's young daughter who could intimidate or scare off potential suitors.

"Dad?" she called when she unlocked the door. "We're here!"

"Come on in, Dani!" a male voice called out.

"Grandpa! We have a surprise for you!" Echo told him as she ran ahead.

"Oh? Is it something delicious I could eat?" he asked. "I'm starving!"

"No, it isn't food this time," she said as Danika entered the room where her father was wearing a neck brace as he lay in a recliner watching television.

"Hi, Dad!" she said as she bent down and kissed him on the cheek.

"Hi, honey. I was getting a little worried."

"Well, we...I...ran out of gas," she admitted.

"Oh, dear. Someone forgot to fill up any time the tank gets below half, didn't she?" her father said in a way that was unclear to Chance if he was teasing or chiding her.

The older man still hadn't seen his 'hero' yet so Danika smiled at him then said to her father, "Dad? You remember how you said you wished you'd known the names of the guys who helped you?"

"Of course. How could I forget? Without them, Lord knows how long I might have hung there upside down or maybe even been hit by another car."

"Well, I know one of their names," Danika told him.

"Oh? Which one?" he asked.

"The tall one with the dark hair," she said admiring Chance's nearly-black hair.

"In fact, I ran into him today," she said, still smiling.

"Oh, my. What are the odds of that happening?" he asked rhetorically.

Echo answered for her mother.

"Without additional information, it would be impossible to compute them, Grandpa. Suffice it to say the odds would be extremely low but most likely higher than winning say...a Powerball jackpot."

Neither he nor Danika laughed this time so Chance made sure not to even smile as she said, "Dad? I'd like you to meet him."

"Him? The young man with the dark hair? Honey, I can't really even get out of this chair let alone go somewhere."

Because he couldn't even turn his neck, the man had no idea anyone else was in the room until Chance moved into his peripheral vision and then in front him.

"Hello, sir. It's good to see you again," Chance said as he extended his right hand.

The older man perked up immediately and smiled broadly.

"Well, hello there, young man! I never got the chance to thank you," he said as they shook hands very gingerly.

"How are you feeling?" Chance asked.

"Well, other than my neck, pretty good, I guess," he replied.

"Don't forget about your fractured clavicle, Grandpa," Echo reminded him.

"Oh, right. Well, that doesn't really hurt too much now. I suppose if I could get around, I'd notice it a lot more, but laying here all day or in bed all night, I can't really tell."

"Dad, this is Chance. I don't believe you told me your last name. Or if you did I forgot it already."

"Petersen," he said.

"Chance, this is my father, George Baker."

"Do you have some time to sit down and talk, Chance?" Mr. Baker asked.

"Well, I could stay a few minutes," he replied. He'd still have plenty of time to take care of a few more things on his list whether he left now or fifteen minutes later.

"Chance? Can I get you something to drink?" Danika asked.

"Oh, no. I'm fine," he told her.

"How about you, Dad?"

"I could really use a cup of coffee, honey," he told her as he reached for the power remote for the chair and raised the back up. "And I am a little hungry."

"I'll get it, Mom," Echo said. "I know how to make coffee. And I can pop something into the microwave to hold Grandpa over while you talk."

"Well, okay. Thank you, sweetie," her mom said.

"May I have some, too?" Echo asked referring to the coffee.

"Um...nooo," her mom said with a shake of her head. "Just because you're as smart as an adult..."

"I know, I know. That doesn't mean I am an adult," Echo said as she headed for the kitchen.

"That one's something else," George said mostly to Chance.

"I don't think I've ever met anyone her age who's that intelligent," he said in reply.

"Dad taught high school math for 42 years, and as of last year, he couldn't help her anymore," Danika said.

"That's incredible," Chance replied. "Did you always know she was..."

His brain struggled for the right word and he knew 'different' wasn't it.

"Gifted?" Danika offered supplying the word.

"Yes. Gifted."

"We were pretty sure from the time she was about three and a half. She didn't start talking until a couple of months before then when all of a sudden her vocabulary just exploded," Danika told him.

"The first time I read her a book with some simple math problems I could tell she understood," George said. "So I started writing down some simple addition problems and at three she told me, 'So if you do the opposite, you get the top number.' She intuitively saw that subtracting was the inverse of adding."

"She was four and half then and by five she was multiplying and dividing. A few months later she was doing basic algebra and solving for 'x'. The next year she aced both geometry and trigonometry. As you heard she taking calculus this year, but it isn't basic calculus. She did that last year. This is second-year college calculus and everything in her problems looks like a drunk chicken stepped in ink and walked all over the page," Danika explained.

"Not everyone finds her advanced abilities quite as interesting or as...endearing as we do," George said.

"Dad," Danika said in a way that indicated he was getting close to saying something personal.

"Well, it's true, honey. That SOB walked out on you because of it," he said trying to shake his head in spite of the neck brace.

"My ex-husband left us two years ago. A lot of it had to do with his inability to cope with Echo's...personality, but there were other things going on, too," she offered. "I'm sorry. You came by to say 'hello' and we're getting into our family history. Please don't think we're all a bunch of kooks," she said with a smile.

"I think you're all wonderful people with a very interesting, very unusual daughter or granddaughter," Chance said smiling back.

"Unusual doesn't necessarily indicate something negative," they heard Echo say as she carried in a cup of hot, instant coffee for her grandfather.

"Thank you, sweetheart," he said. "And yes, you're right. Unusual can be a positive. Like in your case."

"So is it true you're a registered nurse?" George asked out of the blue. He smiled then said, "You're quite a hit with the ladies at the hospital."

"Oh, well, I don't know about that, but yes, I am an RN," he told him.

"I can see that," Danika said with a smile. "I mean the part about being popular with the ladies."

"My mom's flirting with you," Echo said to her mother's horror. "She lives alone and never goes out because she doesn't think anyone would ever be willing to accept me as their child."

"Echo! Please. I was just making conversation," he mother said, that flustered look back.

"I can't understand why you're offended at the truth," Echo told her mother.

Without waiting for a response, she continued.

"It seems rather obvious Chance doesn't see me as an overall negative. Also, he has a very symmetrical-looking face and is therefore very attractive. The same is true with regard to yours, Mom. Both of you are single, so the only hindrance I see to furthering your relationship is an age differential, but that may not prove to be an insurmountable issue unless you were to choose to make it one."

Chance had no idea what to say as Danika sat there looking like she, too, was at a loss for words.

"See what I mean?" George said with a smile.

Chance saw Echo look at her grandfather then say, "I don't usually get sarcasm, but I am learning to identify the telltale signs, and I believe this is one of those cases."

"Sarcasm doesn't necessarily imply meanness," her grandfather said trying to use words she could relate to.

"No. Not always," she said in reply.

Without warning, Echo asked, "May I go to your study, Grandpa?"

"Oh, sure. Go right ahead, Echo-Gekko," he told her.

Echo gave him a look but didn't say anything before leaving the room.

"She's not a fan of nicknames," her mom explained. "She thinks they're 'juvenile and demeaning'. My dad's the only person she allows to call her that."

"She's fortunate to have people who love her," Chance said without getting into his own childhood experiences.

Chance was going to excuse himself when George asked, "So you've been an RN for a few years then, right?"

"Oh, um. No. I only graduated from college a few months ago," he said.

"I have a hard time telling how old people are anymore, but you don't look 22 or 23 to me," George said with a smile.

"No. I'm a little older. I was in the Navy for five years."

"Oh. A military man. What'd you do?"

"I was a corpsman," Chance told him.

He wasn't sure why, but then he said, "My dad was a doctor so maybe that's why I chose nursing. Or maybe it was just a logical step after kind of being a nurse on active duty."

"That's like a medic, right?" Danika asked not quite sure what the difference was.

"Yes. The Army and Air Force call them medics and the Navy uses the term corpsman," he explained.

"So did you go to war?" George asked before taking another sip.

"I did," Chance said quietly. "Twice."

"I never served. I got a deferment during Vietnam to finish college and then they stopped drafting so I never had to enlist," the older man explained. "But I guess things worked out okay. I met Dani's mother, and we had her, so between the two of them I've had a pretty great life. And now I have a granddaughter I dearly love, too."

"You're daughter is a very intelligent and beautiful woman," Chance said to him as he looked at Danika.

She rolled her eyes as if to say, "Oh, there you go again." She smiled pleasantly but didn't reply.

"Echo was right, you know. Dani is single," her father said as he watched for his daughter's reaction.

"Dad! What on earth is in that coffee! Did you tell Echo to 'spice it up' again?"

"No. There's no brandy in it. I was just letting this handsome young fellow know you're available. That's all."

"Oh, my God!" Danika said.

She turned to Chance and apologized.

"I am so sorry, Chance. I've learned to accept this kind of thing from my daughter. But my dad? Oh, no. He is in so much trouble!" she said to Chance as she glared at her father who was still grinning.

"Well, you won't go on those dating sites and you never get out. So if you won't look after yourself, someone has to, right?" George said before he laughed which caused his neck to hurt.

"Hah! See. You deserved that, Dad!" Danika told him as he winced.

She turned to Chance again then said, "If we hadn't scared you off before, you're probably praying for a way to escape and run like hell by now."

"I do have a bunch of things to do today, but I'm definitely not trying to escape. So if I do excuse myself it's not because I haven't enjoyed meeting you or your family," Chance explained.

"I'm glad you stopped by, Chance," George said as the younger man stood up.

"I'm glad you're doing okay, sir," he told him. "Or at least relatively speaking."

"If not for you, who knows?" he said again as they very gently shook hands again.

As Chance turned to walk away Danika offered to show him out as her father called out, "Don't be a stranger, okay?"

He turned halfway around, waved, and said, "Take care of yourself, sir!"

"You do the same, young man!" he called back trying to wave with arm that didn't hurt when he raised it. "And thank you again!"

They stopped at the door where Danika stood quietly for a moment then said, "My dad is right. I don't get out much so it really was a pleasure meeting you today, Chance. And I really can't thank you enough for coming to my rescue or to my dad's."

"I'm glad I could help," he told her. "And please do fill up when your tank gets a little low, okay?"

The way she looked at him made him wonder if there was something more to her statement about not getting out much than meets they eye, but he didn't ask.

He stepped outside and when he did, Danika said, "Chance?"

He turned around and looked at her, waiting for her to speak.

"Oh, never mind," she said with a smile.

"Did you need to tell me something?"

"No. I was going to ask you something, but that's okay," she told him.

As he stood there looking at her, he found himself thinking she had to be one of the most attractive women he'd ever met.

"Okay, well, maybe we'll bump into each other again sometime," she said with a warm smile.

"Would it be rude to remind you that low-probability events do sometimes happen?" Chance said smiling back at her.

Danika covered her mouth and laughed loudly for several seconds.

"Oh, I really needed that!" she told him as she instinctively looked behind her to make sure her daughter wasn't somehow watching or listening.

"I love her dearly, but sometimes living with an adult in a nine-year old body can be a real challenge. Especially when the nine-year old doesn't usually get sarcasm or just kidding around. So thank you for making me laugh."

"I'm glad I did. You're even more beautiful when you do," he told her.

Her smile faded immediately and at the same time she stopped looking at him and instead looked down at the sidewalk.

"Danika? Have I offended you today? I know I've mentioned how nice-looking you are several times. If I came across as crass or like I was hitting on you, I'm truly sorry," he told her.

"Not at all," she replied. "I just don't hear that kind of thing anymore, you know?"

She'd glanced up at him one time then looked away again.

"Well, you should," he told her as he took a step back toward her.

"Oh, it's okay. I have a pretty full plate between Echo, work, and taking care of my dad," she told him without looking at him.

"Is...is your plate too full to possibly make some time for me to, you know, maybe see you again sometime?" he finally asked as he found her almost irresistibly attractive.

"What? You mean like a...date?" she asked finally looking at him but only for a second knowing she'd wanted to ask him a similar question before chickening out.

"Yes. Like a date. We don't have to call it a date, I'd be more like a...chance...to get to know you a little better."

She smiled then laughed again before getting serious.

"Chance, that's really sweet of you, but I...I don't know. I mean, there's a reason I don't really...date...a lot. It's just easier this way, you know?" she told him as she realized why she'd lost her nerve.

"Easier for whom?" he asked as he took another step toward her.

"Well...everyone," she said still looking down.

"Danika? I'm not certain what you mean, but if it's Echo..."

"She's not easy to...handle," Danika said choosing her words carefully.

"I think she's pretty amazing," he told her. "And being different isn't a bad thing."

"Ha! Had you used bigger words, I'd have told you you sound just like her," she said trying not to smile or laugh.

Chance was now maybe eighteen inches away as he said, "If the reason you don't want to go out with me is me, that's fine. Not every woman finds me dashingly handsome and irresistibly charming..."

He paused to let Danika laugh then continued. "But unless you just don't want to go out with me, then maybe you could let me decide for myself how much of a 'handful' is too much."

"No. It isn't you at all. Really. I...I think you're...very attractive. And you've been incredibly kind and helpful. I just don't understand why you'd want to, you know, maybe get involved with a woman my age who has a child most people can't really relate to. I mean, I saw a couple of the cute, young nurses at the ER who were going on and on about you. I'm sure they'd be thrilled to go on a date with someone as handsome and as nice as you."

Suddenly feeling emboldened, he gently reached out for her hands and when she let him take them, he knew she'd eventually say 'yes'.

"I'm not interested in them, Danika," he told her. "In fact, you're the first woman I have been interested in in quite some time, and I would very much like to get better acquainted. With you and your daughter."

"Well, I suppose one date wouldn't be all that bad," she told him.

The truth was she'd had her self-confidence shattered when her husband walked out on her and then again four separate times after men she'd dated got to know her daughter and couldn't deal with her rather unique personality.

He kind of lowered his head to see if he could get her to look up at him and when she finally did he told her, "With that...ringing endorsement...could I maybe call you later today and see if we can find a time when we're both free?"

She finally smiled at him and said, "I didn't mean to be so negative. I guess I've just gotten a little cynical where men are concerned."

She stopped then said, "Make that very cynical."

"I'm not arrogant enough to say I can change any woman's opinion about men, but I do honestly believe I can change yours about me if you'll give me the..."

"Chance?" she said before his smile caused her to smile then both of them to laugh.

"In a word, yes," he told her. "So...may I call you?"

"Yes. I'd like that," she told him. "Very much."

"Okay. Great. You said you don't get out much, and I don't get a lot of time off, and this is the first weekend I've had off since I took the job at the ER. Would it be presumptuous of me to assume you might be available this evening or maybe tomorrow sometime?"

"Presumptuous. I guess I'm really on high alert for certain words, huh?" she said still smiling.

"There's probably a reason for that," he said in a kind, polite way.

"Oh, you have no idea!" she replied just as kindly.

"Although you just met, it is socially acceptable for you to kiss my mom," the two of them heard a young, female voice say.

Danika pulled her hands back so fast it startled Chance.

"I...I didn't know you were there, honey," Danika said as she turned around.

"I've been observing your behavior from the second floor and when Chance held your hands, I was hoping that as the man, he might take the initiative and kiss you," she told her mom. "As a way of indicating his interest in developing a relationship with you."

Danika looked over her shoulder at Chance in a kind of, "Are you sure you want to get involved with us?" look.

He just smiled then said mostly to Echo, "I thought it might be more appropriate to wait until after our first date."

Echo nodded then said, "That's another reasonable approach. It gives the female time to ensure she really wants to be kissed so I see no reason to hurry things, although I do worry that my mother will end up alone if she doesn't step outside of her so-called comfort zone in the near future."