Yeah a new one shot!
I am really proud of this, it's over six thousand words which is quite a lot for a one shot (for me.) I originally was going to make it a milti-chap but I really didn't want to have to worry about updates so that's probably why this is so long, and why it's in three parts.
Also, this is based off a bit of research and mostly personal experience. If I screw up something medical I apologize!
Okay you can read it now!
Disclaimer! I DO NOT OWN GLEE OR ANY OTHER BRAND, MUSIC, OR MOVIES I MAY MENTION! I own a lap top and an imagination... that's it!
I. Tummy Aches
August 3 2023 3:52am
She was crying, again.
"It's your turn to go get her." Blaine mumbled into his pillow. This was a regular occurrence in the Hummel-Anderson home, their daughter Sophie hadn't slept a full night in over a year and it was deeply troubling to the young couple.
"You don't have to work tomorrow, you can go get her." Kurt complained. They had been to the doctor's way more than the average family because of Sophie. She had barely grown or gained weight since they had adopted her and her hair hadn't grown in at all. Every time they go to the doctor, she tells them it's "just the way she is" and "she'll grow out of it eventually". They both know however, that there is something wrong with her. Enough of their friends had children for them to know a three year old with a constant tummy ache was not normal.
"I have students coming in at nine, I still have to get up early." Blaine countered. He knew as well as Kurt did that getting Sophie to go back down would not be an easy thing to do.
"I have to be at the shop at seven, I win. Go get her." Kurt said sternly and rolled over, facing away from his husband. Blaine sighed and got up from bed, Kurt did have a point. He walked down the hall of their large, four bedroom, condo to his daughter's room to see her standing in her crib bawling. The sight broke his heart every time and he immediately forgot what time of the morning it was.
"Oh Soph!" he cooed and cradled the girl in his arms.
"Daddy." she whimpered into his shoulder and he hugged her tighter, murmuring little affections until she quieted down.
"What's wrong peanut butter?" he asked.
"My tummy." she said with a pout, rubbing her bloated belly. Another thing Kurt and Blaine had noticed is that while most kids' "toddler tummies" had flattened out to a relatively normal size by her age Sophie's seemed to have swollen even more.
"Okay. Do you want anything?" he asked her even though he knew she'd be hungry, she was always hungry.
"Can I have some food pwease?" she asked with her little lisp.
"Sure, let's see what we have." he carried her to the stairs being careful not to make too much noise as Kurt was probably trying to sleep.
Their condo was three stories in a very nice building. They had bought it shortly after Kurt's boutique had become successful. Kurt had gotten a degree in fashion and an apprenticeship not long after. Still, with Blaine working at a small coffee shop and preforming there at nights in hopes of maybe getting discovered, the two of them didn't have very much money. They were happy so it only started to worry them when they decided to start a family at which point Kurt had just taken a bit of a gamble and opened his own boutique called The Greatest Star. Blaine went to teacher's college, using the money his parents had promised him if he ever wanted to try and get a "real job". Since he had originally paid his own way through a music theory and composition course he easily got a job teaching at a middle school with an arts enriched program. He also started to run some private lessons out of their home, it had been for extra money but they didn't really need that anymore, he did it because he loved it. They applied for an adoption six years ago and three years later they finally were able to call Sophie, who was a little over a year at the time, their beautiful daughter. "All right would you like some animal crackers?" Blaine asked Sophie, pulling the box out of their cupboard and giving it a shake. She gave a small nod and Blaine sat with her while she ate. "Better?" he asked when she was done and she shook her head. He sighed and got up to look for more food. Once they had finished all the munchies Blaine could find he finally convinced her to go back to bed. It was almost five in the morning when Blaine was able to roll back into bed beside Kurt and pass out.
August 3 2023 6:41am
Kurt had been up at six to get ready for work when Sophie started crying again. He quickly grabbed her and and quieted her down, she ended up having some nasty diarrhoea, which sadly wasn't unusual for her. She woke up Blaine, making Kurt feel guilty since he had made him get up with her earlier and now he was leaving him to deal with this alone.
"Two times in one night?" Blaine asked grabbing a mug and filling it with coffee from their expensive machine.
"We really need to take her to the doctor again, this is not normal." Kurt said pouring the girl a bowl of cereal and filling a sippy-cup with apple juice.
"We've taken her so many times already, I'd be surprised if they did anything other than spew the same garbage they have been telling us for two years." Blaine said with an angry tone.
"I want to keep trying. If there is something going on with our daughter's health I want to know what it is." Kurt said sternly and Blaine nodded.
"I'll make an appointment as soon as the office opens, but I doubt it'll help much." he muttered getting his own bowl of cereal.
""I'm sorry I'm making trouble." Sophie said in a quiet voice and both men turned to look at her.
"Oh no sweetie!" Kurt said kneeling beside her booster seat. "It's not your fault! We just want to make sure you're healthy so we can try to stop your tummy aches." he said and she looked at him.
"You're not mad?" she asked.
"Of course not, you've done nothing wrong Soph." Blaine said and joined Kurt at her side.
"Good." Sophie said with a smile and wrapped them both in a hug.
"I have to go to work now sweetie can you give me a kiss?" Kurt asked and Sophie leaned forward to give him a peck on the cheek. "Thank you very much! See you tonight!" he said standing up and ruffling her hair.
"Hey!" she squealed and tried to flatten the little tufts Kurt messed up.
"She's so your daughter." Blaine said with a laugh.
"Who was the one with the hair gel addiction in high school?" Kurt asked giving Blaine a look.
"See you tonight." Blaine said ignoring the question and giving him a quick kiss. Kurt just shook his head and turned to leave.
"Bye!" he called out and he heard his daughter and his husband echo him as he left.
August 7 2023 2:38pm
"Come on Soph we've only been walking for five minutes." Blaine called after his daughter who had sat down an a bench and started to dramatically complain about how tiered she was.
"I can't walk any further!" she said falling over and laying across the bench.
"We're not even half way to the doctors yet, you should be able to get there without stopping." Blaine said and Sophie let out a groan.
"Carry me daddy?" she asked and he sighed, he was a pushover and Sophie knew that.
"All right, come here." he said picking her up in his arms and carrying her the rest of the way to their doctors office.
Kurt and Blaine liked their family doctor, they really did. She was nice and very good with Sophie but she was always running late. She was also a midwife so when she needed to run off and deliver a baby her patients tended to get backed up. Not to mention she kept denying the fact that something was wrong with their child even though it was obvious there was. Other than that they loved her! And it was too much hassle to change all their records and things to someone else so really they were stuck. They arrived at her office and sure enough, once Blaine checked in they told him that Dr. Payton was running a bit behind schedule. He sat in one of the chairs and watched Sophie play with the toys over in the corner occasionally texting Finn who was having trouble finding work. Kurt had offered to let him work at The Greatest Star until he could find something else but Finn had refused to take the offer, he said he needed to do this for himself. Blaine worried about them sometimes, sure Rachel got good roles on Broadway but they still weren't drowning in riches and since they had started to talk about starting a family he wasn't sure what they would do for money.
"Sophie Hummel-Anderson?" A nurse called and Blaine got up.
"That's us." he said picking Sophie up and carrying her down the hall where they would wait for even longer in a private room. The doctor did come eventually, looking in control and cheerful as always.
"All right, Sophie. How've you been?" she asked giving the girl a smile.
"Not good." Sophie said still playing with one of the toys left in the office.
"Well let's see if we can get that figured out okay?" the doctor asked and Sophie ignored her, too preoccupied by moving blocks of wood along a plastic track. "How about you Blaine, how are you and Kurt?" she asked with a friendly smile. Another reason they didn't want to switch doctors is because Dr. Payton is completely accepting of them and has never said a mean thing once.
"We're good, just worried about her." Blaine said referring to Sophie.
"Can you repeat the symptoms again?" she asked getting out a pen and special pad of paper.
"Well she complains of a stomach ache constantly, she has very irregular bowel movements, she doesn't seem to be growing or gaining weight, her hair isn't growing, she has no energy. We really don't know what's wrong." Blaine said, getting a little flustered.
"Okay well that seems to be a lot of things." Dr. Payton said. "And looking at her growth chart she seems to be falling way bellow the norm and not growing nearly fast enough." she said tapping a chart with her pen.
"Yeah, so you see there's a problem." Blaine said, feeling a bit relieved.
"Yes, I do. Although what I'm thinking of is going to be harder to determine since we don't know the identity of her birth parents." the doctor said staring at her notes with a furrowed brow.
"Well we know the mother, I can't name her off the top of my head but we could look it up. The father was never identified though." Blaine said with little hope.
"No." she said shaking her head. "I'm going to send you to a specialist and I recommend that both you and Kurt attend the appointment. Could you manage that?" she asked.
"Yeah, we're both pretty flexible." he said, still waiting for an explanation of what is going on with their daughter.
"Good." she said and gave him the information of the specialist.
"Thank you." he said weakly and left feeling more worried and confused that when he went in.
August 7 2023 4:47pm
"Honey I'm home!" Kurt called out as he entered their apartment. He walked through, carefully removing his shoes at the door, and spotted his daughter and his husband curled up on the couch watching some children's cartoon.
"Hey, how was your day?" Blaine asked giving Kurt a smile as he moved to sit next to Sophie. Kurt let out a sigh.
"Pretty good." he said. "We got a new coat in that's been in such a high demand so that's good." he said and Blaine hummed in agreement. "Linda just about had a panic attack over a kid who spilled juice on a shirt they hadn't bought but I took care of it and just sold it to the mom for half-price promising that a good dry clean would take it right out." he said. Linda was the manager of Kurt's boutique and could get stressed way too easily, although she did put a lot into her work. Kurt was a great boss and gave her plenty of time off and stuff but he was always saying how worried he was for the woman's social life.
"You're just amazing." Blaine commented.
"I try." Kurt said with a shrug. "But what about you guys, how was your day cheeky monkey!" he asked giving Sophie a small tickle eliciting a shriek of giggles from the girl. One she had calmed down her expression turned a bit sad.
"We went to the doctors." she said with a pout and Kurt nodded.
"I knew that. What did the doctors say sweetie?" he asked gently.
"I don't know!" she said with a bit of a whine and she leaned over so her head was in Kurt's lap. Kurt gave a small chuckle at her dramatics and turned to Blaine with a questioning look.
"She said we need to see a specialist, also that we should both be present for the appointment." Blaine said in a neutral tone, Kurt's expression turned a bit confused.
"Okay." he said slowly, with an edge of nervousness in his voice.
"I'm sure everything's fine." Blaine said placing his hand over top of Kurt's in a reassuring manner.
"Let's hope." Kurt said with a small smile.
II. Doctors
August 24 2023 1:24pm
"Where are we?" Sophie asked curiously looking around and taking in her surroundings with a judging look.
"We're at a hospital sweetie." Kurt said quietly, he didn't particularly like the places himself. Sophie looked around once more then turned to Blaine who was holding her and scrunched up her nose.
"It smells weird here!" she declared and Blaine had to let out a small laugh. Of all the things to say about a hospital only their daughter would comment on the smell.
"Yes well, hospitals usually smell like that peanut butter." Blaine said and she gave him a suspicious look, as if he were the one causing the smell.
"Why?" she asked.
"Well... I'm not sure. They just do!" Blaine said thinking about it for himself.
"Well I don't like it!" Sophie declared crossing her arms and turning up her nose in the most fashionable way a four year old could.
"Me either sweetheart." Kurt said rubbing her back gently and the three of them took a seat in the waiting area, Blaine still holding Sophie as not to take up extra chairs.
"Sophie Hummel-Anderson?" a nurse called out a while later and the little family stood up from where they were.
"That's us!" Kurt said a bit nervously and the nurse gave him a friendly smile.
"Great! Right this way please." she said walking along a hallway and humming a little tune. "Here we are!" she said cheerfully, opening the door to a simple room, not unlike their doctor's office.
"Thanks." Blaine said with a nod, still carrying Sophie. Kurt was trying to get her to walk on her own but as soon as she batted an eyelid Blaine caved and immediately picked her up.
"No problem, have a nice day!" the nurse gave a small wave before walking out of the room humming her little tune. Nobody said anything as they all sat around and waited for the doctor. Sophie leaned her head against Blaine's shoulder, her wispy blonde hair tickling his cheek. They had only ever taken her for one haircut and yet her hair was practically the same length as Blaine's, only thinner.
"How we doing today." a man said, strolling into the room and picking up some charts from the pocket on the door. "I'm doctor McGuire, I'll be taking a look at Sophie today." he said giving the girl, who had perked up at the mention of her name, a smile. They went through a lot of questions, more than their family doctor usually asked, and Dr. McGuire look at Sophie a bit. After a while he sat down in his chair and gave a thoughtful hum.
"So?" Blaine eventually said, breaking the silence.
"Well," the doctor started. "There are a few different possibilities here." Kurt and Blaine listened intently while Sophie had taken to playing with some of the office's toys in the corner. "It seems like she is malnourished."
"What? That's crazy, she's always eating!" Kurt exclaimed.
"It is probably not a result in lack of food, but her body not being able to process the food or absorb the nutrients." he said slowly, Blaine had a bad feeling there was bad news coming.
"So what does that mean?" he asked slowly.
"Well she may have cystic fibrosis, which is a disease that affects the lungs and the intestines. It can be managed for a number of years and the child could seem basically healthy if they take a large amount of medication and come in for frequent treatment." he took a pause and his expression turned very serious. "The thing is that only really helps the malnutrition problem, their lungs will still be affected and most people living with cystic fibrosis only live until their early thirties." he said and Kurt let out something between a gasp and a sob. Blaine sat still, not quite believing what he was hearing. He knew his daughter wasn't perfectly healthy but that didn't mean she wasn't perfect in his eyes. She deserved as much as anybody to have a healthy, full, long life. "Now this isn't the only possibility but right now it seems like the most likely, of course we won't know for sure until we test her for it."
"And how would we do that?" Blaine asked, his voice cracking slightly.
"There are two options: a sweat test, which will be painless but not as conclusive or a blood test." Dr. McGuire said. "We can do the blood test today, but you'll have to wait for an appointment if you want to do the sweat test." he added seeing how hesitant the couple was being. Blaine and Kurt shared a look and decided without words what they would do.
"We'll take the blood test." Kurt said quietly and Blaine nodded.
"Great." the doctor said with a small smile before leaving to fill out paperwork or something. Kurt was on the verge of tears and Blaine couldn't blame him. He had already lost his mother and had been close to losing his father before he turned eighteen and now he was being told he would probably have to attend his first daughter's funeral in thirty years. Blaine simply opened his arms and Kurt collapsed into them.
"It'll be okay." Blaine whispered mindlessly into his husband's ear as he felt tears streaming down his own face too. Sophie seemed to have noticed her parents were upset and had abandoned her toys in favour of wrapping her little arms around Kurt and as much of Blaine as she could manage.
"Don't cry daddies." she said quietly and Kurt turned around to give her a smile.
"Don't worry about us sweetie." Kurt said taking the girl's face in his hands as her own eyes started to water. She gave a nod and small sniff wiping her eyes and then her nose. They had moved onto happier topics after that, not wanting to upset themselves or each other and soon the doctor was back.
"Okay, you'll just have to go wait for a bit then she can have some blood taken and we'll send it for testing." he told them giving them a pamphlet on cystic fibrosis.
"Thank you." was all Blaine managed to squeak out before moving on to the next part of the hospital to wait for the testing.
September 3 2023 4:12pm
They were back at the hospital to see Dr. McGuire, they had tried not to think about the possibility of Sophie having cystic fibrosis and they hadn't told her that there was anything wrong. She may deserve to know and it may be worse if they tell her later but they couldn't bring themselves to upset or worry their little girl. Besides, they didn't even know for sure what was wrong. Despite keeping things light and positive, being at the hospital had stirred up some nerves in both Kurt and Blaine and the wait for the doctor was silent and tense.
"Alright, how are we doing today?" he said when he finally showed up.
"Fine." Kurt answered from where Sophie had fallen asleep on his lap.
"Well I have some very good news back from the labs." Dr. McGuire said with a cheery smile and both men perked up at this. "The blood tests came back and it looks like Sophie does not have CF." he said and Blaine let out a relived laugh that might have also been a sob. He was fighting hard against the tears of joy that were threatening to pool over, he shared a look with his husband and knew that Kurt had similar feelings. They both knew they would love Sophie no matter what she had or didn't have and they would do anything they could to keep her healthy but this was just such a weight off their shoulders. "However the blood samples we took also showed very high levels of some auto-antibodies." the doctor said with a more serious expression. Blaine's happy mood evaporated from him as quickly as it had flooded in.
"What does that mean?" he asked quickly.
"It means that there is a very high chance your daughter has celiac disease." Blaine was panicking, they went from one disease to the other causing him and Kurt endless amounts of stress.
"What is that?" Kurt asked frantically. Sophie stirred in his arms slightly but didn't wake up completely.
"It's a digestive disease that damages the small intestines and interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food." Blaine ran his hands through his hair and let out a worried sigh. "The disease is quite manageable with the right diet and after a short time your daughter will seem like any other child her age. She can live a long, happy, and healthy life with very minor long term effects." he explained calmly.
"What long term effects?" Blaine asked, tiered of all the medical crap and just wanting to know what was wrong with his child.
"Well she will probably start puberty later than she would without celiac disease, she may not grow quite as tall and there is a very slight she will not be able to get pregnant if she so chooses to later in life." the doctor said and Blaine mentally ran through what this meant. The situation might not be ideal but he wasn't really hearing any life threatening symptoms or side effects.
"You mentioned managing it with a diet?" Kurt asked calmly.
"Ah yes! In people with celiac disease the immune system reacts abnormally to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye, and it damages or even destroys the villi which are essential to absorbing nutrients from foods. By eliminating gluten completely from what she eats her body will function just the same as any other three year old's." he said back to his cheerful expression.
"So what now? Do we put her on the diet right away?" Blaine asked anxiously.
"No." the man replied. "I want her to have an intestinal biopsy to be completely sure this is what is causing her problems and for that to be effective she must continue eating normally." he explained.
"So, we don't do anything until after the biopsy?" Kurt asked.
"You don't have to, but I recommend you look up more information on the subject and search for some gluten-free options so that you are prepared if she does have celiac disease, which is very likely." he finished. Kurt and Blaine thanked him as they booked the biopsy and left to learn more on the new way they will have to live.
September 3 2023 9:58pm
Blaine was in the en-suite bathroom brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed while Kurt was laying on their bed with his laptop. He had searched up celiac disease as soon as they had put Sophie to bed and was becoming more and more hopeful the more he looked.
"Blaine come here!" he called excitedly.
"What?" Blaine mumbled with a toothbrush still in his mouth, poking his head out the door.
"Look at all the different gluten-free stores and restaurants here in New York, oh and there's a few different gluten-free cookbooks I want to pick up." Kurt rambled while his husband finished brushing and joined him on the bed.
"Wow," he said. "Looks like Sophie is going to be spoiled with fancy restaurants and you're amazing cooking all because of her diet. I'm jealous!"
"Well you know me, always the best for Sophie!" Kurt said and Blaine let out a little laugh.
"You and me both babe!" he said giving Kurt a kiss.
"She's going to be alright, isn't she." Kurt said, not really meaning it as a question.
"With us as her parents how could she not be!" Blaine joked. Kurt let out a laugh before gasping.
"Oh god, we're going to be so embarrassing when she gets older!" he exclaimed with a horrified expression and Blaine laughed harder.
"The ones who care always are!" he said. Kurt leaned in again to kiss him, this time more forcefully. Blaine started to deepen the kiss as Kurt's hand slid under his shirt and that's when Sophie started crying. Kurt let out a frustrated sigh and got up.
"I'll be so glad once they figure this out." he said moving to the door.
"I'll be waiting for you when you get back." Blaine said innocently and Kurt turned to him.
"I'm holding you to that!"
III. Silly Yak
October 21 2023 11:41am
"Oh my gosh, our baby just went in for a biopsy! Oh my god, their shoving a tube down her unconscious throat as we speak and taking bits of her intestines out! Oh. My! GOD!" Kurt rambled as him and Blaine waited at the hospital.
"Honey, you got to calm down." Blaine tried to reassure him but he wasn't doing so well himself. Sophie had never been for any type of elaborate procedure, sure she had gotten some blood work done but they had been able to hold her hand through the whole thing. This was very different, they were sitting in a waiting room while she was knocked out on drugs and doctors were poking and prodding her insides.
"Don't tell me to calm down, she is my only daughter and I have the right to worry." he snapped and Blaine gave up. Kurt went back to pacing frantically while Blaine sat in a chair repeating the mantra that "this wasn't a serious procedure" and "there is no reason for her not to be fine." They were doing this so that she could get better, this was supposed to help her. Blaine couldn't deal with it anymore, his irrational anxiety took over the logical part of his brain and he quickly did the first thing he could think of.
"Blaine! Oh my gosh is Sophie okay? Did something go wrong?" Rachel asked him frantically after only one ring.
"She's fine, everything's going fine, it's just this is the first time me and Kurt have had to deal with anything like this and... we're not handling it well." he said trying to keep his voice as even as he could.
"Oh thank goodness. I thought something had gone wrong and they were going to have to try to do another procedure to do it again and you guys didn't know what was wrong with her. Haha, I actually thought maybe there was some weird complications with the biopsy-"
"Rachel!" Blaine interrupted quickly, her words weren't exactly reassuring.
"Right, sorry." she muttered and then paused to talk to someone in the background, probably Finn. "We're not doing anything today and even though he's complaining I'm sure Finn would love to go see his favourite niece, even in the hospital."
"You really don't have to do that, I was just calling so that you could maybe talk to us and get us thinking properly again." Blaine protested quickly. Having Finn and Rachel there would probably make it so much easier for both him and Kurt, even if they couldn't comfort them very well they were great distractions, but they also had crazy busy lives, trying to keep up with all of Rachel's Broadway stuff and Finn's job interviews was near impossible. He didn't want them to feel obligated to come and wait for Sophie to be finished.
"Don't be silly, you guys all mean so much to us and it's been a while since we've talked so it's time to catch up." Rachel said in her usual demanding fashion, it sounded so much more modest now that she was demanding to come comfort them rather than have all the solos like she did in high school.
"All right, we'll see you in a bit right?" he asked knowing once Rachel set her mind on something there was no changing it.
"Sure thing." she chirped happily.
"You know where it is?" he asked skeptically.
"Of course, New york has given me an impeccable sense of direction." she said matter-of-factually.
"All right then, bye Rachel." he said and hung up. Kurt was then immediately asking questions with an accusing tone.
"Why did you ask Rachel to come?" he sounded almost angry with Blaine but he supposed that was just the stress.
"I didn't, she invited herself over." he explained. "You know how she is." he added waving his hand round as if he was swatting away the accusation like a fly.
"Yes and you know how Rachel is so why would you call her in the first place?" Kurt asked sounding frustrated.
"I don't know!" Blaine said defensively. "I was panicking, you were panicking, I didn't know what else to do!"
"Well next time you don't know what else to do don't do anything!" he near yelled. Blaine knew that it was the stress of years of doctors visits and everything boiling down to this point where their first, and only child at the moment, was having a biopsy and they were forced to wait for her without any knowledge of what was going on but he was stressed too and he wished Kurt could be a little bit more understanding of that.
"Can you not yell at me?" Blaine asked and quickly realized he was almost yelling himself. "Look, I know how you feel so can you please not get mad at me because you're scared?" he said dropping his voice down to almost a whisper. "I'm scared too and- and I can't deal with this on my own." he said his voice cracking and starting to brake down. He plunked himself down in a chair and covered his face with his hands to try and hide the tears that were pooling up in his eyes.
"I'm sorry sweetie." Kurt said sitting down nest to him and rubbing his back in comforting circles.
"No, I get it. It's okay." Blaine said and leaned back so his head was resting on Kurt's chest. He closed his eyes and listened to his husband breathing in a steady rhythm. They both must have fallen asleep, which wasn't a surprise given how exhausted they were, because the next thing Blaine knew he was gently being shaken awake by Rachel.
"You guys were so cute we didn't want to wake you up but we figured staring at you while you're unconscious might be a little creepy." was the first thing she said once Blaine opened his eyes. He smiled and got up to give her and Finn a hug each.
"Thank you guys so much for coming, we were both pretty emotional." he said and turned to see Kurt stirring behind him.
"How you doing little bro?" Finn asked Kurt with a smile. Kurt rolled his eyes and got up from the chair to give his step-brother a hug.
"I wish you wouldn't call me that." he grumbled.
"And I wish you got me a crossbow for Christmas but you can't always get what you want." Finn said with a smile and Kurt once again rolled his eyes.
"So how long has she been in the operating room?" Rachel asked and Blaine looked to Kurt who gave him an unknowing look.
"We don't really know, we fell asleep." Blaine muttered sheepishly. Rachel laughed and gave them a fond look.
"I noticed." she said. The four of them continued chatting but it was only a few minutes before a nurse came to get them and they saw Sophie.
"How you doing peanut butter?" Blaine asked and Sophie gave him a dazed look before rubbing her eyes.
"Look who we found!" Kurt said stepping out of the way so a beaming Finn and Rachel could be seen. Sophie smiled and waved, then she opened her mouth to speak but quickly brought her hands up to her throat.
"The doctor says your throat is going to be sore for a while and you won't be able to talk for a little bit but we'll get you lot's of popsicles." Kurt said sitting down next to her on the bed and brushing some of her hair off her face. Sophie gave a smile at the sound of popsicles and pointed at Blaine, then the door.
"You want me to get one?" he inferred and she nodded wildly. Everyone laughed and Blaine got up to go find a popsicle at the cafeteria.
Sophie was only at the hospital for another few hours before the doctors deemed her fit to go home and wait for the results. They said they would call them and let them know whether she had celiac disease but in the mean time Kurt and Rachel started obsessing over all the different thing they could make Sophie using rice flour, and tapioca starch and something called quinoa. Blaine had a feeling him and Finn were going to have to start hoarding pretzels.
~o0o~
November 27 2023 4:05pm
"Daddy look at this one!" Sophie said holding up a piece of paper she had made a few scribbles on with crayons. Blaine looked up from the theory test he was grading and gave her a smile.
"It looks great peanut butter." he said and she happily went back to her colouring. Kurt would be home from the boutique any minute now and they were going to meet up with Finn and Rachel for dinner. Sophie sat on a small foam chair with a red Elmo cover and coloured on the little plastic table Kurt and Blaine had gotten for her while Blaine sat at their dining room table and marked tests. He loved doing things like this with his daughter, they didn't have to do fancy activities to bond with each other. "Hey Soph do you want to draw smiley faces on the kid's tests?" he asked her. His students had met Sophie a couple times and they adored her so when she drew little pictures on their marked tests they always got excited! Well, the ones who got good marks were excited at least. He handed his daughter the pile of marked tests and she meticulously started drawing happy faces at the top of each one. They worked in silence for a few long moments before the phone rang and Blaine answered it.
"Hello?" he said.
"Hi Mr. Hummel-Anderson?" the lady on the other end asked.
"Speaking." Blaine answered.
"I'm calling about Sophie Hummel-Anderson. The results from her biopsy have come back and it is now confirmed that she has celiac disease." the lady explained. So that was it? Blaine thought it would be a bigger deal than just a phone call saying 'yep, she's got it!'
"All right, thank you very much." he said.
"Have a nice day." the lady replied and then hung up. Blaine look at Sophie and then shrugged, they better get on that special diet then if they ever wanted her to grow.
"Hello?" Kurt called as he walked through the door to their home and threw his keys in the nearby bowl.
"Perfect timing!" Blaine said getting up from his seat and greeting his husband at the door.
"Hey you!" Kurt said giving him a kiss.
"Hey!" Blaine said happily once they had broken apart. "Just got great news!" he said.
"What?" Kurt asked, his brow furrowing with confusion. Blaine gently led him to the kitchen and made sure Sophie was occupied. They had told her the general situation but they didn't want to confuse her with details before they knew for sure.
"The doctors called and they say Sophie definitely has celiac disease." he explained. Kurt's eyes widened comically with surprise.
"Really?" he asked.
"Really." Blaine said with a casual shrug. It was weird, they had just gotten some really big news and yet they their reactions were seriously lacking in drama, especially for them.
"We should tell her." Kurt said.
"Yeah." Blaine agreed and so they made their way to the living room where Sophie was still colouring, oblivious to everything that was happening.
"Dada!" she said happily and got up to give Kurt a hug.
"Hi sweetie, how was your day?" he asked her.
"Good!" she said and then sat back down to resume colouring.
"Peanut butter we have something that we need to tell you." Blaine said and Sophie looked up with a curious expression.
"What?" she asked.
"Remember when you went to get those tests and we told you you might have to stop eating some things because they were making you sick?" Kurt started their conversation.
"Yeah." Sophie said looking worried.
"Well honey you have to do that, you have to stop eating gluten." Kurt said and Sophie simultaneously look scared and confused.
"What's gluten again?" she asked.
"It's wheat which is in bread stuff remember." Blaine tried to explain and realization dawned on the little girl.
"Wait, I can't eat bread, or cake, or cookies?" she asked horrified.
"Sure you can!" Kurt reassured her. "They'll just be different, they'll be made of rice!" he said and Sophie pouted.
"I don't want rice stuff, I want normal stuff." she said crossing her arms.
"Well honey if you want your tummy aches to go away you have to stop eating most normal food." Blaine said.
"And if you want to get bigger and have long, thick, beautiful hair." Kurt said. "You do want long hair don't you? Hair like a princess right?" Blaine smiled. Ever since they had shown Sophie the movie Tangled* she had wanted long hair, unfortunately hers hadn't grown, this would surely persuade her.
"Yeah, I guess." she gave in.
"Do you know what it's called?" Blaine asked.
"Of course she doesn't Blaine!" Kurt said shaking his head. "Honey, you have a special allergy called celiac disease." Kurt explained and Sophie's face screwed up like she was thinking really hard.
"Silly yak disease?" she asked and the two men let out a small laugh.
"No no honey, celiac disease." Kurt repeated.
"Silly yak disease." Sophie said again.
"Peanut butter say see." Blaine instructed.
"See." she parroted.
"Say lee" he said.
"Lee." she repeated.
"Say yac."
"Yac."
"Now say celiac." Blaine said slowly sounding out each syllable.
"Silly yak." Sophie said looking at Blaine as if he was the one not getting it.
"Let's just let it go." Kurt said patting Blaine's shoulder.
"Yeah you're right." he said.
"Okay honey you can go back to your colouring now unless you have any questions." Kurt said to their little girl.
"Nope!" she said and then happily went back to drawing her happy faces.
"Babe can you cancel the dinner reservations?" Kurt asked and Blaine looked at him with a questioning look.
"Why?" he expanded when Kurt didn't notice his expression.
"Because I really want to try out some gluten free recipes!" he said bouncing excitedly.
"Okay but what about Finn and Rachel?" Blaine asked not wanting Kurt to get too carried away.
"You don't think Rachel has been helping me sort through different meal options since celiac disease was a possibility?" he asked. "Honestly Blaine." he added shaking his head jokingly.
"Okay fine, I'll cancel them." Blaine said.
"Great!" Kurt chirped and then got up and put on his coat.
"Wait, where are you going?" Blaine asked.
"To the store, we don't own any teff yet." he said cheerily and then left with a quick goodbye. Blaine sat there wondering many things; how difficult life will be for all of them now that Sophie was on a strict diet, how much he'll worry about giving her the wrong bread, how devastated she was going to be when she found out she couldn't eat her favourite foods, but most importantly... what the hell was teff?
*In an unrelated one-shot I said Kurt hated the movie Tangled; well, it's unrelated for a reason! Oh and Tangled belongs to Disney and all that crap...
So I hoped you liked this!
I have a lot more one shots planned (and maybe even a multi-chap) coming up for the Hummel-Anderson family. There are two more members you have yet to meet! ;)
Let me know what you think!