The next morning, I wake up to the smell of pancakes. I see Danny sitting on his bed playing solitaire. The pancakes are on the table between us. He must have brought them up from the continental breakfast. I turn over and I fall off the bed. When I hit the ground, I start laughing.

    “Watch out, there’s a floor there,” Danny says. He doesn’t come over to help me up, which surprises me.

    “Yeah, I’ve figured that out.” I stand up and walk over to him. “Thanks for the breakfast.” Danny grunts in reply. “Are you okay?” He normally doesn’t answer in noises like that. He grunts again. “What’s wrong, Danny?”

    “Nothing.” Danny places another card down.

    “Don’t give me that. I can tell something is wrong.” I rest my hand on his arm.

    “I just have a headache. It’s no big deal.”

    “If you say so.” I rub his shoulder and I sit back down on my bed. My stomach rumbles and I start eating the pancakes. I can’t remember the last time I ate these. They warm me up inside and out.

    As Danny finishes his game, I finish my breakfast. “So, Lucy, what do you want to do?”

    “We don’t have to do anything. We can stay here and rest until your headache passes.” I don’t want him to be uncomfortable.

    Danny smiles. “Thanks.”

    “Besides, it’s still fun to stay home and play games, or watch TV.”

    “If you don’t mind, I need to sleep,” Danny says.

“Yeah, of course you can.” I should’ve known that he needed that. “Can I see you cards?”

“Sure.” Danny hands me the deck of fifty two cards. “Do you even know how to play?”

“I’m sure I can figure it out.”

“Well, if you need me, don’t be afraid to wake me up.” Danny turns so he is facing the wall and he falls asleep.

By eleven o'clock, I have invented my own game. I know I won’t remember how to play tomorrow, but that’s fine with me.

By noon, I’ve given up on the cards. I’m getting bored. I decide to lay down. When I start to sleep, I hear movement to my left. My head turns towards the sound. Danny is sitting up. “You’re awake.”

“And it looks like I’ve kept you from sleeping,” Danny says.

“Ehh, not really. I was just getting bored.” I move myself to a sitting position.

“You could have woken me up.”

“But you needed to sleep. How’s your head?”

“It’s doing much better. I need to do something now.” Danny glances at the clock on the wall. “Are you hungry?”

    I haven’t noticed how much noise my stomach has been making. I shrug. “Yeah.”

    “Well, then. Do you want to get something to eat?” He stands and stretches his arm out. I take his hand. “Let’s get going then.” Danny pulls me to my feet. “What are you hungry for?”

    “Nothing in particular. Maybe chinese,” I answer.

    “Chinese it is then.”

    We drive around for twenty minutes until we find somewhere to eat. When I get out of the car, I remember that I’m wearing shorts. Everyone can see my prosthetic. I suddenly become self-conscious. When people walk by, they stare at my leg.

    “Mommy, what’s wrong with her?” a little girl asks when she passes. The memories of others calling me ‘Broken’ comes to my mind. I see Molly. Then I see Danny. Tears cloud my vision.

    I feel Danny’s arms wrap around me from behind. He kisses my cheek. “Don’t listen to them.” He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t realize why I’m actually crying. For some reason, a new fear has been in my thoughts. The fear of Danny leaving me. The fear of him returning to who he used to be. But he’s promised me he won’t. I should trust him. I used to. “Let’s go in.”

    I look at Danny. I hesitate a moment before I move forward. I want to get a good look at him in case he leaves me. I know I shouldn’t be so scared. “Danny?”

    “Hmm?” Danny pauses with the door handle in his hand.

    “Are you sure you won’t leave me?” I grab my hands behind my back and I bite my lip.

    “Why do you keep asking me that? I’ve told you over and over that I wouldn’t even think about that. I’ll always be right here.” Danny walks over and rubs my shoulders. I force my eyes up. “Okay?” I nod. Danny gives me a hug. I allow my shoulders to relax. When he pulls back, there’s a smile on his face. “Come on.” As we walk through the doors, the fear slowly dims, but it doesn’t disappear completely. I wish it would.

    The atmosphere helps me forget about everything. A waiter sits Danny and I down at a table.

    We both order the same thing. Orange chicken, what I always get. When we finish eating, I look up at Danny and he has sauce all over his face. I laugh. “What are you laughing at?”

    “You have some stuff on your face.” I touch my face to show him the area.

    “You don’t like it?” Danny asks as he wipes it off. “Is it all gone?” I nod. “Great. Now we can go swimming.”

    “That sounds wonderful right now.”

    We stand up and leave the restaurant. “Good thing our swimsuits are in the back, so we don’t have to return to the hotel. There should be some place to change at the beach,” Danny says. I hope he’s right.

    Danny pulls the car into a spot. I see a few changing rooms ahead of us. “You change first.” Before he can ask why, I say, “So you have to wait longer to see my suit.”

    “You’re cruel.” Danny gets out of the car and grabs our suits from the back. To my surprise, he doesn’t look in my bag, he just hands it to me.

    After Danny changes, I slip into the room. I change into my suit and I stuff my clothes back into the bag. I slowly pull the curtain open. Danny smiles when he sees me. "It's amazing."

    I can't help but grin at him as he stands and grabs my hand, lacing our fingers together.

Danny suddenly speaks, “I’ll beat you to the water.”

I narrow my eyes. “You’re on.” I release his hand and take off sprinting. I remember the last time I ran. Right before I got shot. I push the memory out of my thoughts and I focus on the heat of the sand under my feet. A laugh escapes me. It feels good to run. I reach the water before Danny does, but he could have beat me if he wanted to. The cool liquid relaxes me. I walk further in until it’s up to my elbows.

I turn around and I can’t see Danny. I scan the beach. He isn’t there. Where’d he go? As soon as I think to look behind me, I’m lifted into the air. Danny’s strong arms supporting me. He throws me into the deeper part of the ocean. It takes me a few seconds to decide that I won’t come back out of the water, well, until I get back at Danny. I carefully swim behind him and I push his knees out from under him. I stand up again with a wide smile stretched across my face. Danny stands and wipes his face with his hands before he looks at me.

“Sometimes, you cause a lot of problems.” Danny closes the distance between us. He sets his hands on my waist.

“Yeah. I do. Good thing you love me.” I wrap my arms around his neck.

“Always.” Danny kisses me. I keep myself stable by interlocking my fingers behind his neck. We break away and I place my head on his shoulder. "You're beautiful."

I smile and blush. No matter how many times Danny, or anyone for that matter, tells me I'm worth while, I'll still blush.

We spend the next few days at the ocean, until I get bored. "I think I'm ready to go home now," I say. Danny and I are driving back to the hotel from a day full of swimming.

"Yeah, me too. We can leave tomorrow morning, after breakfast."

All day, I've had one thought in my mind, always. I can't focus on anything else. "Do you think that Alex will ever be nice to me again?"

Danny waits to answer me until the car is parked by the hotel. "I'm not really sure. People change. Just keep in mind what he has been going through." He holds my eyes with his.

"What he's been going through? What about me? I’m the one that got shot. I'm the one with a fake leg. I'm the one that was betrayed by my father. He doesn't have that much against me."

"Yes, but he also had to go to a mental place to receive help. He might not be fully healed. He may never be."

"Well neither am I." Before Danny can say anything, I get out of the car and I enter the hotel. I can’t get into the hotel room without Danny, he has the key. I lean up against the wall as I wait for him to show up. I study the ground.

Danny laughs. “Figured I see you here.” I look up at him and he’s holding the card key in his hand. When I don’t smile or laugh, his shoulders drop. “I’m just trying to lighten the mood.”

“I know you are. But I want to stay in this mood.” I train my eyes back to the floor.

“Do you want to talk about anything?” Danny asks. When I don’t respond, he says, “Or you can just come here.” Before I can move away he folds his arms around me. “Just because a few people aren’t being nice, doesn’t mean that no one loves you.”

His words bring a slight smile to my lips, but not enough to cheer me up. “Yeah, but they’ve always been there, and now they aren’t. And I don’t even know why.”

I hear Danny slide the key into the door, and when it unlocks, he pushes it open. He guides me over to my bed and we sit down, next to each other. “I think you need help, like Alex did.”

“What?!” I yell for two reasons. One, because it’s rude of him to say so, and two, because I fear he’s right. “You want me to seek guidance? It’s not like it did Alex any good. He’s still broken.” I shiver as I say ‘broken’. It’s a word that means thousands of things for me. It’s a word I feared and hated. Now I’m using to classify my brother, as everyone used it to classify me.

“Lucy…” Danny’s voice trails off. As soon as I feel a tear on my cheek, I feel Danny’s hand wiping it away. “I’m only thinking of what’s best for you in the long run. If you do this, you will live a happier life, you will get over this. But if you don’t, you may never forgive him, or yourself.”

I know he’s right. He’s always right. “But if I do, what will you do? I don’t want to leave you alone.”

“I’ve been alone before, Lucy. I can handle it. Besides, if you get too stressed out, you can always call me and I’ll come and pick you up and take you away. And if I get stressed out, I guess you’ll never know.” Danny smiles. “Now, let’s get some sleep. We have a long drive ahead of us tomorrow.”