Danny and Elise Ch. 09

She and Danny fell asleep again shortly after. Elise felt like a cat curled up next to him. When they finally woke up that afternoon, he talked her into going for a hike at the park. It was unseasonably warm for the end of February, almost 50°.

"As much as I would love to spend all day in bed with you, it's too nice to not get outside," Danny insisted. "Plus, I've been dying to take you on a hike."

"Ok, ok," she laughed softly. "You don't have to convince me. I need some fresh air and sunshine anyways."

They packed a picnic lunch and stopped at one of the lesser known lookouts in the park before heading out on their walk. They'd only had a handful of the donut holes each and were starving. It was an absolutely gorgeous day as they walked hand in hand as they traversed the steep and winding hills. It was a day that Elise would remember for a long time, perfect in its simplicity.

Not that it had taken any coercion on her part, but she convinced Danny to stay the night again. They ran by his house briefly on the way home so he could grab clean clothes and toiletries.

It was the first weekend of many they would spend together over the next several months. Elise hated the weekends he had to spend away doing National Guard training. It made her feel clingy, but she didn't care.They spent almost every night during the week at one of their houses or the other too. The nights they were apart left her feeling empty, alone. They would call each other before bed, which eased the ache in her heart some, but still she felt terribly lonely when she couldn't feel the warmth and weight of his body next to hers.

Unfortunately, the good weather they'd had their first weekend together didn't hold out. Three weeks later and they were expecting one of their notorious late season snow storms. Elise stood outside smoking, moving from one foot to the other it was so cold out. She had been trying to quit completely, knowing it was one of the few things about her Danny wasn't crazy about, but still she indulged in a post-coitous smoke every now and then. She only finished half before returning inside her apartment to join Danny.

"Feels like snow out there," Elise slipped out of her snow boots and coat.

"Supposed to start any time now," he looked up, holding his phone up to her with a radar map pulled up. A giant blob of snow was heading their way. Painton was right on the edge of its frontal boundary.

"Warm me up," she plopped next to him on her couch, snuggling into him.

Danny's phone woke her up. She squinted at the alarm clock on the opposite side of the bed. 5:02 am.

"Hello?" Danny answered groggily. "Ok. I'll be there in 10." He flung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, rubbing his eyes. Elise could hear him yawn.

"I'm guessing you gotta go in to work?" Elise asked quietly.

"God," Danny jumped. "I didn't know you were awake."

"Sorry," she rolled over and rubbed his muscular back.

"Yah, I gotta go in. Sorry, baby."

"It's ok. At least you'll get double time?" It was a Sunday. Danny would be making boocoo money.

"I'd still rather stay here with you," he turned and kissed her on the lips. "I'll be back later."

"Be careful. Please," an uneasiness began to grow in the pit of her stomach, but she somehow managed to fall back asleep as Danny got dressed.

Inches of snow had fallen overnight l and was still coming down in droves. It looked more like miniature snowballs falling from the sky than flakes. Seeing it added to Elise's growing apprehension.

"Please, please be careful." she texted to Danny.

"Good morning to you too. Lol" he texted back right away. "I'm not even driving. They've got me out with Bear." Mike Brakowski, or Bear, was a huge, hulking, hairy man. Just his size alone intimidated Elise. He stood at 6'5" and had a beard that would put Grizzly Adams to shame. He was as eccentric as they come, but always good-humored. Still. He towered over Elise and made her nervous. She knew how good of a driver Danny was. Bear she didn't. It made her worry even more.

"Text me every now and then, ok? Let me know you're alright?"

"Ok, baby. I love you."

Elise received a call from an unknown number an hour later. She'd made a habit of not answering calls from numbers she didn't know, but something told her to answer this one.

"Hello, this is Allison from Brown County General. Is this Elise Roberts?"

"Yes," she tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

"I'm calling to let you know that we've got Danny Mortenson here and he asked us to call you."

"What happened? Is he ok?" Panic rose within her.

"He's fine, ma'am, just a little banged up. His truck slid off the road and rolled down a hill, but he's ok."

"Oh my God," she gasped, covering her mouth. "What room is he in?"

"Mr.Mortenson is in room #212 on the second floor. He should be released later today."

"Ok, thank you," she fought back tears as she hung up the phone. Elise jammed her thumbs into the corners of her eyes, trying to stay calm. She threw her coat on quickly, grabbed her purse, and rushed out to her car. It was buried under roughly 4 inches of snow. Now she really wanted to cry. She didn't want to waste any time getting to the hospital, whether Danny was ok or not.

Elise wiped at the snow on her back door haphazardly with her fluffy coat sleeve. She had to pull hard to open it, frozen shut. Using her snow brush, she worked quickly to remove enough snow to be able to see while she was driving. She tried her key in the ignition several times before it finally came to life. Elise took a deep breath before putting the car in reverse, willing herself to calm down, not wanting to end up in a gulley herself on the way there.

She shifted into reverse and managed to back up a foot before her tires began to spin. Taking another deep breath, she inched the car forward, then put it in reverse again with no luck. The snow was too high. No one had come to plow her apartment's parking area yet. Her vision blurred as hot tears streamed down her face. She felt helpless, and it was one of her least favorite feelings in the world. More than that, it pissed her off. Elise was angry and mad as the tears kept coming, sitting in her car, trying to figure out what to do.

She put it back into park and turned it off. After waiting a few minutes to calm down, she called the hospital back.

"Can you please put me through to Danny Mortenson in room #212, please," she struggled to speak evenly.

"Hello?" Just hearing his voice brought tears back to her ears, knowing he really was ok.

"Danny? Oh my God, are you ok?" she still asked.

"Elise? Hey, baby. I'm fine, honest."

"I want to come see you, but I can't get my car out of the parking lot," she broke down.

"Baby, you don't need to be out in that. I'll probably be home by this afternoon," he spoke to her gently.

"I don't care!" she yelled. "I want to come see you," she cried.

"Calm down, sweetheart," he soothed. "Listen, if I can't talk you out of coming, I'll see if my parents can come get you. Ok? The hospital already called them first anyways, so they're on their way here. I'll text my mom."

"Ok," Elise agreed without even thinking. Dread filled her, thinking about meeting his parents for the first time, but she was beyond caring. She needed to see Danny.

"I'll text them and let you know, ok?"

"Ok," she said quietly, feeling silly for her sudden outburst a minute before.

"I love you. I'll see you soon," he paused. "And stop worrying. I'm fine."

She couldn't help but laugh as she sniffled.

"Ok. You know I will, though. I love you. Bye."

"They'll be there as soon as they can. Black truck. Extended cab." Danny texted a few minutes later.

"I'll watch for them...if I can. It's really coming down."

"Which is why you should stay at home. :P"

":P"

Elise waited anxiously for the next 20 minutes. It felt like a lifetime. She could barely the see the road past the parking lot from her window. She smoked once in the howling wind while she waited, past caring whether his parents caught her or not. She fiddled with the buttons on her coat, the zipper, even paced a little a few times. Finally they arrived. She began to feel bad for having them drive out of their way to come get her. They were probably just as worried about Danny as she was.

She turned and locked her door quickly and hustled through the growing snow to the truck parked at the edge of her parking area.

"Get in, sweetheart. It's freezing!" a middle-aged woman called from the passenger window. She did as she was told and climbed in behind her. Elise was suddenly at a loss of what to say. Introductions seemed odd at a time like this.

The woman saved her by speaking first.

"I'm Lorraine," she turned around in her seat, extending her hand. Elise couldn't make out much of what she looked like, hidden behind the seat in front of her.

"I'm Elise," she shook her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"I only wish it were under different circumstances," Lorraine said with a hint of regret in her voice.

"And in better weather," his father mumbled tensely, eyes glued to the road. Unlike his mother, she could see Danny's father's profile clearly. She reminded him a lot of Danny. He had salt and pepper hair, his shorter facial hair the same. His eyes were strikingly, blue, though, given a steel color by the reflection from all the snow.

"This is Danny's father, Harold."

"Hello," she greeted meekly. "It's nice to meet you, sir."

"Please, call me Harold," his father kept looking forward.

"Yes, please, just call us by our first names, dear. No need to be formal around us."

Elise didn't say anything. She tried her best not to become more anxious, but they were barely moving and time felt like it was standing still. Even in the large, 4-wheel drive truck, they were only able to go about 15 miles per hour, Elise could see on the speedometer.

"It's nice to finally put a face with a name," Danny's mother brought up again. "I still don't understand why Danny didn't introduce us sooner. He's told us all about you."

"It's probably my fault," she piped up.

"Why do you say that?"

"I get really nervous meeting new people," she stated simply.

"Oh, well you don't have to be nervous around us. I don't know what stories Danny has told you about him, but don't let Harold's demeanor fool you. He's really a big teddy bear."

Elise couldn't help noticing that Harold didn't try to defend himself after this comment. She felt like she should say something, but was not terrible with chit chat and could not for the life of her think of anything that wouldn't sound stupid or asinine. The minutes ticked by. They were about halfway to the hospital. It had already been 8 minutes and they were only halfway there, the time it normally took the entire trip across town to take.

"You really don't say much, do you?" Lorraine spoke after awhile.

"Jesus, Lorraine. Give the girl a break."

"Oh, Harold. You know how I am. I turn into a chatter box when I'm nervous."

"It's ok. I'm sorry," Elise interjected. "I'm just not great at making conversation."

"Well you must not be this quiet all the time because if there's one thing I know about my Danny it's that he has a way of getting people to talk." His mother's words made Elise blush because they were true. She had become more talkative than she'd ever been since meeting Danny.

"And I wonder where he gets that from," Harold teased.

"You are right about that, Mrs.Mor-Lorraine," she paused, thinking of something she should have said minutes ago, feeling stupid it took her this long to think of it.

"I meant to say, too, if it makes you feel any better, Danny hasn't met my parents yet either. But they don't really get down much to visit during the winter."

"Do they live around here?"

"No, they live about an hour north of Indy. That's where I grew up."

Danny's mom continued asking her "life story" questions, as Elise liked to call them, the last few minutes to the hospital. In that time, she began to feel surprisingly at ease talking to his mother. Elise could definitely see which parent Danny got his gift from.

Once inside the hospital, his parents seemed to be more familiar with the place than she was, only having to go there for a work physical before she started her job at INDOT, so she followed them through the halls like an obedient dog. They made their way to the second floor. His father knocked on the door before opening it. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw next.

"Damn, son," she heard Harold say as he entered in front of her.

"Oh, Danny," his mother spoke, surprisingly quietly.

At this point Elise was almost afraid to walk in the room, but she had to. She had made such a fuss about coming to see him, even making his parents take longer to see their son, that she had to.

"Jesus Christ! Danny!" she ran past his parents, suddenly not caring how she acted in front of them. They were the least of her concerns after seeing her beloved's face.

A large portion of the right side of his face was red. What wasn't red was covered by a deep purple and black bruise around his eye, which was swollen almost completely shut. Several layers of gauze were wrapped around his head. The left side of his face and both arms were dotted with bandages or cuts that had already been stitched back together.

Elise threw herself on top of him, careful not to touch any of his obvious injured areas.

"What the hell happened, Danny?" she sobbed.

"Ssshh. It's ok, baby. I'm alright. It looks a lot worse than it is," he stroked her hair.

"Bullshit," her lip quivered, making her feel like a child. "I don't believe you," she whispered as she sat up and lightly stroked the side of his face that wasn't bruised.

"You look like shit, son," Harold's voice came from her left. Elise hadn't noticed his parents move closer, though they kept their distance, standing several feet away from the hospital bed Danny occupied.

"Thanks, dad," he laughed. Elise wiped her hands across each cheek, trying to pull herself together.

"Christ on a cracker, Danny. What happened?" his mother asked.

"We hit a patch of ice and the truck slid. He couldn't correct it and we started sliding down a hill. Damn thing rolled over 3 or 4 times, which is no easy feat. That's how I got these lovely cuts and bruises," he gestured to his face.

"Slammed the side of my face into the passenger window the first roll," Danny pointed to his swollen and bruised eye and bandaged head.

"Busted the window out the second time, which is where all the cuts came from," he lifted both arms up. "Could have been worse," he shrugged, non-chalant. "At least I'm still alive."

Elise could feel hot tears threatening to spill again at any moment.

"Had some x-rays taken, of course. Should be able to leave once they come back. Uh, speaking of which, think you can give me a ride back to my truck once we leave here?" Danny asked.

"Are you supposed to be driving?" Lorraine asked.

"Should be. I don't have a concussion or anything..." he looked to Elise with a look of hesitation on his face, probably trying to decide whether or not he should say his next sentence out loud, not wanting to upset her more.

"I don't know how if you hit your head that hard against the window," Lorraine winced.

"Me neither. Knocked me out cold. Woke up to hear the sirens coming," he looked apologetically at her, knowing she probably didn't want any more details.

"Well, we'll stick around until they release you," his mother said.

"Yep. Not a problem taking you back to your truck either. Lorraine, why don't we go get a snack from the vending machine?" Harold looked to his wife.

"I'm not really hungry, but do you guys want anything?" she looked at her and and Danny.

"I would love a Snickers bar," he replied.

"No, thank you," Elise politely declined.

Harold started walking toward the door without his wife following.

"Lorraine?"

"What?"

Harold jerked his head toward the door with a look of "get your ass out here now".

"Oh," she finally got the hint and followed after. Elise was starting to like his dad more and more. She turned back to Danny and just shook her head.

"It's fine," he drew out.

"No, it's not. Bear should have been more careful."

"Elise, it was no one's fault. The same thing could have happened to me."

"You're a good driver, Danny. He was probably going to fast."

"Elise..."

She held up a hand, cutting him off.

"I don't want to hear it. I had a bad feeling the moment you left this morning," she shook her head again, fighting back more tears. "I want to kill him right now," Elise barely grazed his swollen cheek.

"He's pretty banged up too."

"I don't care. You could have been killed."

"But I'm not. I'm still here," he took one of her hands in his. "Come here," he scooted over, making room for her next to him. "Sit next to me for awhile. My dad will keep my mom occupied for awhile."

"Is your shoulder ok?" Elise asked before laying her head on it.

"Yes," he chuckled.

"I'm really glad you're ok," she spoke quietly. "I'm sorry I freaked out," she squeezed his hand.

"It's alright. That's part of the reason I didn't want you to come. I knew you'd flip out when you saw my face."

"What? Were you just going to avoid me all week?" she laughed.

"Maybe," he raised an eyebrow at her indignantly.

"Shut up," she elbowed him lightly. "I hate to ask, but think you can drop me off once we get your truck? I hate to ask your parents."

"Of course. How did that go by the way?"

"It wasn't that bad once your mom started talking a lot," Elise laughed.

"Yah, she talks a lot when she gets nervous."

"So she said."

"And my dad?"

"Not quite as scary as I had imagined," she laughed. "You look a lot like him."

"People tell me that all the time," Danny laughed.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to run away with your dad," Elise teased, remembering something he had said when they first started dating.

"You better not!" Danny laughed even harder. "I'd hate to have to beat my own dad up."

"I'm not sure you could take him."

"Ouch," he grabbed his chest. "That one hurt."

Elise giggled and kissed him on the lips carefully.