Someone Like You (Chenry)

Chapter Three

For some reason, Charlotte was walking toward the hospital after school ended. She was supposed to go to work to check in with Ray and Schwoz at Junk N' Stuff, but she wanted to check out this Henry dummy that Schwoz made. She was curious as to what it looked like and if it was really hooked up to the monitors. Besides, it was going to be the first time in days that she had been alone.

At school, Henry wouldn't leave her alone in the hallways or even in classes that they had together. It felt just like it did when Henry was regular Henry, but she had to put on a show around their classmates now by getting to know him again and flirting with him. That part wasn't fun because she definitely didn't see him like that, though her kiss dream would like to differ.

Henry, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy flirting with her. He always flirted with her, even when there weren't that many people around. It slightly unnerved her that he flirted easily with her. Some small part of her brain wondered if he had thought about her like this before. But that was crazy because he had told her that he never had feelings for her like that after she revealed her dream to him at the zoo. Maybe it was just his personality. That had to be it.

Henry dummy's hospital room was located in one of the darkest corners of the hospital, probably because they needed as little foot traffic around it as possible. No one needed to know that the boy in that bed was actually a dummy because too many questions would come out from too many people.

Stepping into his room, she nearly burst out laughing. The entire body and head of the dummy was covered in pristine white bandages. That made it easier for no one to be able to see the dummy or feel the dummy's heartbeat. Unless Schwoz somehow figured to get this dummy to simulate a real person with a real heartbeat and real blood pressure . . . Charlotte could definitely believe that, which scared her.

She walked over to the body and reached out to touch its hand. Much to her surprise, it felt real to her through the bandages. Schwoz really was an inventing genius. She thought she was good, but Schwoz was on a whole other level than her.

"Charlotte?" Charlotte was surprised to hear Piper's voice. She turned around and saw her standing in the doorway. "Why are you holding my brother's hand?"

Charlotte quickly let go of the dummy's hand with a shrug. She didn't want to tell Piper anything because she was afraid she was going to accidentally tell her that this was not her real brother. Even though she hadn't told anyone that Henry was Kid Danger in the years that she'd known, she felt very nervous about keeping this secret. 

"What are you doing here?" Charlotte asked her instead of answering.

Mrs. Hart appeared behind Piper and smiled slightly when she saw Charlotte standing next to the Henry dummy. Her eyes were rimmed in red, and it looked like she had lost weight. A pang of guilt ran through Charlotte's body at the sight. His whole family was devastated that something bad had happened to Henry even though nothing had actually happened to him. They just couldn't know that to keep Kid Danger's secret identity a secret and to keep Ray alive.

Ray would rather hurt Henry's family than be out in the open trying to find whoever is threatening him. That showed how selfish he was. But Charlotte wasn't sure what she'd do in his position, so she couldn't berate him for something that she didn't have an answer to.

"It's so good to see you," Mrs. Hart said to Charlotte as her and Piper stepped into the room with her. She wrapped Charlotte up in a tight hug, one where she could barely breathe. She knew that Mrs. Hart needed it, though, so she didn't complain. "You're his only friend that has come to see him here. No one else from school or even his work has come."

Charlotte could believe it, besides with Jasper. He should have come by to see fake Henry right after it happened. Apparently, that was not the case. Otherwise, though, she knew Ray wasn't about to show his face to the world, even as Ray Manchester and not Captain Man. And no one from his family really knew who Schwoz was. And it seemed like no one at school really knew who Henry was either, so she knew they wouldn't come see Henry, even if Kid Danger talked about him.