Ch. 3

I whipped my head around at the voice. He had come walking around the book shelf. He was handsome as ever. His dark brown hair the same as it was, his brown eyes, they were all the same. Something seemed off, though. His clothes. It was definitely his clothes. I was so used to seeing him in casual dress or military attire. Not this time. He was wearing jeans with a black button up with the sleeves rolled up. He was sexy.

"Alyssa?"

My voice caught in my throat. I finally regained my composure. I wasn't completely sure if it even was him. How could it be? This is 2015. I met him in 1941. How is this possible? At least with my situation, I had some sort of clue. With his? None.

I was just staring at him. I couldn't believe he was here. I was scared at the same time. What if it wasn't him? What if this is a relative of his? No. Danny was the last from his family. Could this be Rafe's child? No. Their kids would be entirely too old for me. This man standing before me was 25. Well, mid-twenties. No older.

I was standing there with all these thoughts rushing through my head. I didn't notice I dropped the book that was in my hand. I didn't notice that he had gotten closer. I could smell him he was so close. I recognized the smell immediately. This was him. My heart knew for a fact. My brain still didn't seem to register it yet, though.

He had gotten within touching range before I finally gained all of my composure. My eyes were welled with tears. All the memories, good and bad, had just came rushing back. It gave me a headache.

I looked him in the eyes. The tears were freely flowing. I was in shock. I needed him to tell me it was him. I finally spoke.

"D…D…Danny? Is it really you?"

What else was I supposed to say? I needed his reassurance. I had to have it.

He reached out to me and pulled me in a loving embrace. He kissed me softly on the forehead. He was crying by this time. I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Shhh. Yes, it's me. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."

I pulled away. I knew it. I knew it to be him. But, how? How was he here?

"Danny. What hap…?"

He cut me off. He didn't want me to finish asking. He probably didn't want to talk about this here.

"Sh. Not here. Let's go sit down. I'll tell you everything."

I just nodded. I couldn't speak. He took a hold of my hand and led me to the table he was previously sitting at. I had completely forgotten about the work I had to do.

We sat down. I was across the table from him. My hands sitting in my lap. I didn't know where to even begin. I looked on the table. That's when I saw the book he had been reading. It was the history on Pearl Harbor. I was in shock. He lived through this. Why did he need to read the history?

I flipped through the pages of the book. I read this one before. Why did he need it?

"Danny? What are you doing reading this? You've lived through it. Why would you want to relive that?"

I could see the pain in his eyes. To him, and to me, it was like it had all just happened yesterday.

"I needed to know what the world knew about Pearl Harbor. I needed to know if anyone knew Rafe or me."

I was confused. Why did he need to know that? I was pretty sure Daniel Walker was a highly common name. No matter what time period it was.

"Why do you need to know that?"

I was concerned. There was something he wasn't telling me. It must have been what happened before and when he got here.

"Okay. How much do you know about how you traveled, Alyssa?"

I was still confused. Why did he need to know?

"All I remember is going to sleep on my couch with a book and a movie, waking up on the train to New York, and when Rafe came home from the mission with your casket I fainted. That's when I woke back up here. And, it was only the next day after I had fallen asleep here."

He sighed. He thought that maybe I knew more about what happened to me.

"Why, Danny? How'd you get here?"

His eyes shot straight to mine. It was like he didn't want to relive it, but he knew he had to.

"I was on that mission. The Doolittle mission."

His gestures told me he was ready to talk about this. His eyes, on the other hand, told me he was terrified.

My eyes showed my eagerness for him to continue. So, he did.

"I crashed the plane in China. I had a piece of metal in my neck. Rafe went to get it out. That's when the Japs showed up. They knocked him out, and picked me up. They tied me to this board. I saw them getting a hold of Rafe. I had to do something. He was going to be a father, Alyssa."

Danny bowed his head. He was crying. I had tears in my eyes, too. I knew it must be hard for him to have to relive all of this. I grabbed a hold of his hand in a comforting way.

"Danny, you don't have to continue if you don't want to."

He looked me in my eyes. I could see the pain there. I felt so sorry for him.

"I want to tell you, Alyssa. I need to. You're the only one who knows me for me. You're the only one who knew me before I got here. You know the real me, but I can't, not here. Is there some place else we can go to talk?"

I sighed. I didn't want to leave Danny alone like this. I didn't even know if he was staying somewhere. I did the only thing I could think of. I couldn't leave work. I had to stay until my shift was over.

"Okay, listen. I get off work in a couple hours. I don't know if you have a place to stay, but you can go to my house from here. There's TV, and food, and you could use a relaxing bath. Something to help calm you down."

Before he could say anything, I got up and went over to where Emily was sitting. I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper. I hurriedly scribbled my address down before she could say anything.

I walked back over to Danny with the paper in hand. I held it out to him. He took it hesitantly.

"Wh…What is this?"

He still had tears in his eyes. I was hurting for him. This was the man I loved, and I couldn't stand to see him like this.

"It's my address. Go there, and make yourself at home. I'm worried about you. If I could, I would leave right now and go with you, but I can't. I have to work."

He nodded and stood up. He pulled me into a tight hug, and gave me a swift kiss on the lips. He pulled away, but his arms never left my waist.

"Thank you, so much. This means a lot."

He smiled a mischievous smile. It was good to see it. I had missed it so much.

"I'll have a surprise waiting on you for when you get home. I want everything to be back to normal. I love you, Alyssa. Thank you again."

He was giddy. I could tell that this meant more to him than what he could express. I gave him a genuine smile. I was glad I could do this for him.

"Well, maybe, when I get home, we can hurry up with this conversation and go back to being us?"

He smiled and gave me a passionate kiss. We kissed a little longer than I would have expected. We both missed this. Neither one of us wanted to let go.

I was the first to break it. I had to get back to work. I gave him a small smile.

"You have to go. You're going to get me in trouble."

I giggled some. I didn't want to let go, but I had to.

"Fine, but, you'll owe me when you get home. I love you."

"I love you, too, Danny."

He gave me one last quick kiss, and then he left. I couldn't help the grin that was plastered to my face. I was genuinely happy, for the first time, since I had gotten back.

Little did I know, our whole escapade had some prying eyes. Emily saw the whole thing. She didn't hear everything, but she saw it. She saw enough to know something was up. As soon as he disappeared out the door, she came to me and started asking all sorts of questions.

"Who was that, Ally? What did he want? Why did you kiss him?"

They came, one after the other. I felt like I was in a rapid fire game show with all the questions she was asking me. I couldn't help the big smile on my face, though.

"Sit down, there's something you need to know."

She nodded. She sat back at the table and I sat across from her.

"So, who was he?"

She was eager. She wanted to know so bad, she couldn't stand it.

"That was Danny."

Her mouth just hung open. She was in as much shock as I was. She didn't know what to say. I just laughed at her. I knew when I first saw him, I had the same expression on my face.

"But, how? Why?"

I shrugged my shoulders. I really didn't know the answers to those questions. That was something he and I would talk about later. I was just glad he was here, with me.

"I don't know, Em. I want you doing as much research on this as you can. I'll find out everything from him that I can, and we'll all figure this out together. If he and I still want to."

She was shocked at that last part. She was also kind of mad.

"What the hell do you mean 'if you still want to'? It won't matter if you two want to or not, I want to know. I want to know how you traveled there and back. I want to know how he traveled here. I want to know everything. I need to know. I'm invested, Ally!"

She was right. I saw the stacks of paper with notes of what she had already learned. It was amazing. I wasn't interested in it at the moment, though. I just wanted to be with Danny.

"I know, Em. We'll get to the bottom of this. Don't worry. I just want to be with him right now. He's probably in more shock than I was when I traveled."

She gave an exasperated sigh.

"Fine, but I have already found loads of stuff. We can get together tonight…"

I stopped her. She must have sensed that I had already made plans.

"Fine. We'll get together tomorrow after you two have your reunion. But, this is stuff he's going to have to see, too. We can all meet at my place tomorrow. Sometime around noon?"

She was right. Whatever she found involved both of us.

"Alright, sounds good. Thank you so much."

She nodded and started cleaning up her mess. She was done for the day. I could tell.

We had decided to close up early. It was an extremely slow day. I wanted to leave early anyway, that way I could see Danny sooner.

When I got in the car to head home, I noticed I had a voicemail. It was from Ms. Leslie.

"Alyssa. Call me as soon as you can. I need to tell you something."

It didn't sound too urgent. It didn't sound like 'this is an emergency call me immediately' type of message. I just brushed it off for now. I was too anxious to see Danny. I didn't want to be stuck on the phone with her for an hour. I wanted to spend all my time with him.

When I pulled into the drive-way of my house, I saw a car I didn't recognize. I knew right away it was Danny.

This was it. I was about to find out what he had in store for me.

I couldn't be any more excited.