Highschool Sweethearts

Chapter 16 - Am I dreaming?

Daniel's Pov:

Dad's fine, bruised, and with a couple new stitches on his abdomen but fine.

He went home as soon as his stitches were in. From my understanding, his Kevlar did its job well, and only 1 of the 3 bullets he was hit with actually made it to his skin, and the one that did was only superficial.

I don't have all the details because he left without talking to me, and I didn't even know he left until I asked a nurse if he was ok.

Bastard

I'm sitting in Katey's room now, waiting for her to wake up. Marry, Josh and the boys are grabbing breakfast in the cafeteria.

I'm not hungry. Marry didn't want to leave either, but Josh made her. He said sitting in the room was going to drive her crazy. Which she argued she was already crazy but he won in the end.

Katey had woken up a couple of times but wasn't very coherent any of the times. She would mumble to herself and cower in the bed or make grabby hands towards the water but haven't spoken to anyone.

She was starting to move again now; she slowly sat up, looking a bit scared, and then just as slowly turned her head to the right, then to the left where I was sitting.

"Dani?" she whispered when she saw me.

"Yeah, princess?"

"You're really here, right? Am I really in the hospital? I'm not dreaming?" she whispered.

"No princess, you're safe," I said and moved to pull her closer, but she flinched violently.

"Sorry," she whimpered.

"It's ok," I said before slowly taking her hand in mine. She squeezed my hand but kept her head lowered.

I texted everyone to let them know she was awake again before refocusing on her.

"Are you feeling ok?"

She nodded,

"Anything hurt"

She shook her head

"What's wrong, princess? Talk to me." I leaned over so I could look her in the eye.

"I'm fine," she said in a sad, tiny little voice. "I just don't want to talk right now,"

"Ok," I rubbed my thumb over the top of her hand while I waited for her to want to talk or for Marry to come running in whichever comes first.

Marry came running in, skidding to a stop at Katie's bedside. Following a few seconds behind was Josh, the twins, Ollie and Ryker, who had come to visit since his OSU is only a short drive away.

"How are you feeling?" Marry hurried over to the bedside, causing Katey to flinch again, although not as bad as she did just a minute ago. She pulled herself back rather than hugging Katey and looked just as sad and miserable as Katey did.

The boys all stayed in the doorway, but Josh moved in to stand behind Marry.

"Are you ok sweetheart?" he asked

She nodded and forced a smile over at them.

She stayed like this, only speaking when she absolutely had to with the doctors. They were very accommodating to her and asked her mostly yes or no questions.

It took forever, but she was eventually cleared to go home.

"You can ride with Marry and I or the twins or with Daniel. It's up to you, Katey." Josh said gently when we were leaving.

She reached over and held my hand. She wanted to ride with me.

Dylan and Alex had gone and picked up my car for me a few hours ago, so it was at the hospital.

I held her hand all the way home and sang softly along with the radio when I felt the need, but we didn't talk, and she didn't sing along with me.

She fell asleep a few minutes before we got home, so I carried her up to her room and lay down behind her.

She woke up about an hour later, and I asked, "Do you want me to leave you alone? I wanna lay up here with you, but if you want to be alone or just don't want me up here right now, I'll go."

She didn't do or say anything at first, so I started to slip my arm out from under her, but she grabbed it and whispered, "please don't leave me alone."

I happily snuggled back down next to her. "I never want you out of my sight again princess, you're going to be sick of me," I whispered.

"never"

—

Katey hasn't been the same these last few weeks. She's been just as clingy as normal towards me, and when it's just the two of us, it's like nothing has changed, but she doesn't talk much around anyone else.

We haven't talked about what happened at all, and although I think it might be good for her to talk about it, I get why she doesn't want to, and I respect it.

It's Christmas eve, and we are curled up in her bed watching the Santa Clause movies, and I couldn't be more content with life.

"You're stuck with me forever, you know that, right?" I asked

"Oh, I am, am I? Please do tell,"

"I love you too much; I can't be anywhere you aren't."

She laughed. "Baby, you couldn't get rid of me if you tried. You're stuck with me too; wherever you end up for school, I'll follow, and after college, I'll still follow you wherever I need to so I can be with you."

"You bet your ass you are. I'm glad we are on the same page, and I don't have to kidnap you." I said, kissing the top of her head.

I don't know where my life is going right now, but I do know that as long as Katey is with me, it's going to be fucking fantastic.