Chapter 11: Answers

Danny slowly sat up on the couch, awake; trying to comprehend what was going on. He was in a motel room, his body feeling slightly better on a couch. Then he remembered. He was at Valerie's after being locked out because his family was gone.

Danny decided to test to see how much he had healed since two days ago. He moved his arms, and was barely able to lift them up from the side of his body. He tried to get up, but the soreness of his muscles made it so hard to move. He could hardly move anything, which made Danny really angry. He hoped he would get better soon.

While Danny was trying to make himself move at least two inches, when Valerie walked in. She was still expecting to see Danny lying on the couch, like yesterday. That's what Valerie would have done. She wouldn't have had the guts to move right away after whatever had happened to him. She wondered how he had gotten in this condition, but was afraid to ask…she would ask later.

Valerie walked to her closet in her bedroom and dug out some crutches. She went back to the living room where Danny was still trying to get himself to walk. His face was set in a determined expression, and Valerie knew that right now wouldn't be the right time to interrupt.

She decided to see what Danny would do for a couple minutes. He sat up from the couch again, his body shaking from the pain, and shuffled forward one step. His arms were dangling weakly for the side of his body, and his legs seemed slightly limp. Actually, to Danny, his whole body felt like it wasn't even there. Valerie tried to empathize how horrible it felt to Danny right now.

Valerie looked away, towards the kitchen, to think about what she should make for Danny, when she heard a crash. She turned around, and saw Danny sprawled on the floor. For a second she swore that his legs were gone, but when she looked back, they were there on his body.

She ran towards him, offering a hand to help him up. "No. I think if I'm going to be like this for a while, I think I should get used to it." Danny grunted while he tried to push himself back up.

"Please." Valerie begged. "Just let me help you. If you keep going on like this, you're going to get hurt."

Danny fell back in to the ground, obviously too tired to try to get up. "Ugh. Fine." He held up his hand for Valerie to pull.

Slowly Valerie pulled Danny up, and motioned him to sit on the couch. Danny sat down, relived to be on a comfy surface again.

"Here." Valerie handed Danny the blue crutches. "You can use these to help you walk."

Danny glanced at them, and his face slowly formed a smile. "Blue. Nice."

Valerie started smiling now. Somehow blue crutches were funny, but she didn't know why. "Yeah. I kind of got them when I broke my leg a couple years ago."

Danny looked up at Valerie, his face confused. "You broke your leg? I never knew that."

"Yeah. In seventh grade. Second quarter. I tripped over a log." Valerie commented, almost on the verge of blushing. She had talked to Danny many times before, but never really on a personal level, like discussing things from the past.

"You? Tripped over a log? Sure, maybe I could see Tucker doing that, but not you." Danny laughed a little bit, but soon realized it hurt in his lungs when he laughed. Danny hated that dang squirrel right now.

Suddenly Danny realized something, and once he did, it felt like he was being slapped. He had never noticed that Valerie had ever broken her leg. In fact, he didn't even remember seeing her in seventh grade. He only started paying attention to her in high school. Danny felt really stupid right now, his face begging to feel hot.

Danny tried to push out the thought on how oblivious he was, but he just couldn't forget. Slowly, as a distraction, Danny balanced on the crutches and started to walk. It was still hard to walk with crutches. Besides almost breaking his leg, he was close to breaking his arm. His body felt weak, and every once in a while he would lose feeling in some part of his body. Most of the times his whole body felt like it was being stabbed by pins, or smashed.

Danny had no clue what that venomous squirrel had done to him. He shook his head, mad.

Danny's thought were interrupted by Valerie. "Hey, Danny, why don't you sit down while I get you some food?"

As if stomach was listening to the teen, it growled. Valerie let out a giggle then walked to the kitchen.

Danny sat down, careful not to crash into anything. He sat down successfully, avoiding embarrassment.

In a couple of minutes Valerie came out with perfectly made eggs, bacon, toast, and a glass of orange juice. She sat the plate on the table in front of Danny. He just stared at it.

"Umm...Danny? Aren't you going to eat?" Valerie asked, confused. She didn't want her cooking to go to waste.

"I can't move my arm." Danny replied weakly, with a tiny smile on his face. Valerie picked up the fork, and slowly moved the eggs into Danny's mouth.

"Here comes the Choo Choo train!" Valerie teased her voice sounding like she was talking to a little kid. Gosh, did Danny feel like an idiot right now. He even tried to avoid the utensil with a turn of his head, but decided against it figuring it was better to co-operate. After a while, Valerie finally finished feeding Danny. There was a long silence.

"Danny?" Danny looked at Valerie, curious on what she was going to ask, but had a little feeling what her question was going to be. "I don't want to be intruding or anything, but who or what hurt you so badly?"

Danny was in no state to tell her he was attacked by a tiny, nut-eating rodent. "I fell down the stairs." He responded, hearing the lie on his tongue once he said it.

"Yeah, right. So you are pretty clumsy, but I wouldn't believe that. Then where did you get those bite marks from? Did the stairs bite you?" She wondered, her sarcasm beginning to show.

"Okay, so I didn't fall down the stairs. But I think it'd be better if I didn't tell. It's pretty ridiculous, and no way would you believe me anyways." Danny said, his voice strained. He could stall, but eventually Valerie would make him voice the truth to her.

"Oh please. I'll believe anything you say, except nonsense about falling down the stairs. Anyways, you owe me at least a little bit."

Drat. Danny knew eventually that accepting Valerie's help would backfire. He decided on one last shot. "Who ever said anything about owing anyone? It was you who offered for me to stay here." Danny had tried his best to sound fierce, but his voice didn't seem to be working for him, and just ended up sounding ten times quieter that he had anticipated.

"And it was you who accepted. You could have walked away. Danny, I care about you. Like a friend. All I want is to know what honestly happened to you, and then I'll back off. That's all I ask." Valerie picked up the remnants of Danny's lunch and dishes, and turned around towards the kitchen, her long glossy hair hanging down.

"Fine." Danny muttered, his head down, and his long ragged hair falling down his scratched face. "If you need to know; I was attacked. By a squirrel."

"A squirrel? Since when do people get attacked by squirrels?" The female teen let out a laugh, figuring it was another one of his silly attempts to deny the truth. Danny had a feeling this was going to be difficult.

"It wasn't like a regular squirrel. It looked possessed or something. You should have seen it. It had these horrible green eyes and venom coming out..." Although Danny couldn't use his hands to describe, his eyes told it all. They were wide, while his mind was replaying that horrible day for the hundredth time. His memory always ended with him shivering.

"Okay, I believe you." She could understand now where the bite marks came from and everything. She was still a little curious but she didn't want to push it. Danny was miserable as it was already.

Danny's face still had this scared expression on it. Valerie had always remembered Danny as a strong person, during times when Dash took a beating on him, but now she knew behind all of that, was some pain, which was coming out right now.

Valerie put her arm around Danny to comfort him. Slowly his face turned back to normal and he stopped shaking. Valerie tried to visualize what had happed to Danny that day. She came up with nothing.

Suddenly the phone rang. Valerie slowly unwrapped her arm around Danny and went to the phone. She answered it. "Hi. Yes, this is Valerie. Yes. Really? Oh, thanks! Ok. Friday. Bye!"

She skipped back to Danny, suddenly happy.

"What's this all about?" Danny was asking about Valerie's sudden cheerfulness. Maybe she was bi-polar.

"Well, you know that movie?" She didn't wait for Danny to answer, caught in her own excitement. "I made one of the main roles!"

"Really?" Danny's face had a mix of surprise and happiness."Who are you?"

"Susan." Valerie smiled.

"Great job!" Danny faked his enthusiasm, now realizing if he got the part he would be stuck filiming with none other than Valerie. There was silence after that, although it seemed Valerie's smile was screaming at him enough as it was already.

"I guess I better go." Danny told her. "My parents are probably home now." Danny tried to get up, but only with Valerie's help. Valerie led Danny to the room next door, Danny's room. She knocked on the door for him. Jazz answered.

"Valerie? Danny?" Jazz's face showed her surprise. It was almost in a perfect 'O' shape. "What happened to you?"

"I'll tell you later. Please just let me in." Danny walked in his room, but not without thanking Valerie.

Before Danny could begin his story, the phone rang.