A/N: Hello fanfiction peoples! I know some of you may be quite disappointed with me for not having updated my Best Friend fic. Im sorry, life is rather busy lately and I was hit with a bad case of writer's block for it, I am working on it though! Not to worry. When It will be updated, im not sure yet. Hang in there.
IN the meantime! I have this! It's been running around my head for alittle while and I thought I would see what you all think.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Glee or know that much about hospitals or their security. :)
Chapter 1
"Why do you build me up, buttercup baby just to let me down and mess me around, and then worst of all you never call baby. When you say you will but I love you still, I need you more than anyone, darling. You know I have from the sta…"
WHACK!
Brittany rolled over and hit the iPod effectively silencing the device. Rolling over once more, she curled into the warm body next to her.
10 MINUTES LATER….
"It's five o'clock in the morning, conversation got boring, said you're going to bed soon, so I snuck off to your bedroom." Letting out a huff, Brittany rolled over once again, this time silencing the device for good. Sitting up in her bed she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. 6:30 flashed in red numbers from her clock sitting on her table next to her bed. Looking back over to the warm brown and white body, the bed started to shake as the small dog wagged his tail against the bed. Sensing his owner was looking at him, he rolled over to look at her with his big brown eyes. "Fenway, how do you always manage to wake up looking like a million bucks and I have to spend 30 minutes in the bathroom to look even semi-decent." Brittany chuckled as the dog moved closer to her, nudging her hand that was sitting atop her thigh with his brown nose, begging for the woman to pay him some attention. Brittany gave in to the dog's loving gaze and pat him on his head. "I gotta go to work now bud, it's my first day at my new job! I is gonna be a security officer! It's not the police job yet, but we'll get there buddy, we'll get there." Brittany got out of bed, washed her face, put on her newly minted white and black uniform with a blue stripe going down the side of the leg. Attaching her clip-on tie she walked over to the floor length mirror in her room. She looked good, she looked professional. All she needed was a gun on her side and she would be set. But nooooo, can't have guns when you are working in a hospital or at least in a hospital that has a psych ward attached to it.
Just a few months ago Brittany was walking across a stage accepting her diploma for her degree in criminal justice. She didn't think her first job would be working security in a hospital. Her father would not stop harassing her about finding a job however; it's not like putting time in on the farm where they all lived under one roof wasn't enough. So she went out and found herself a job, it wasn't all that great, the pay sucked but at least she was working full time. It's not like she was planning on being there forever either, it was just a temporary thing while she waited for her applications for the different police departments to go through. It would also give her a bit of play money which she couldn't complain about; I mean a girl's gotta go shopping once in a while.
Shaking her head of her thoughts over the last few months, Brittany gave herself one more, once over, and then headed to the kitchen to brew some coffee. Waking up this early was not her ideal thing, considering the last three years of university she made sure to never take a class that started before 10 in the morning.
Walking into the kitchen she was greeted by her mother, brewing her own coffee before she left for work. "Good morning sweetheart, are you ready for your first day?" "Yea, just need some coffee and I should be set. Coffee and I are going to become close friends. This whole waking up early thing is not something I am used to. " "Well you know once you get on a police force you will most likely be waking up at the crack of dawn doing all kinds of exercises, like pushups and running. Those academies are hard." "Yea, I'm really looking forward to that." Brittany joked with her mom. "At least, I will be on my way to fulfilling my dream." Brittany continued as she gathered her things, kissing her mother goodbye and heading out the door.
The drive to the hospital was rather quick, just a 45 minute drive from her house. Then again it usually took her that long to get anywhere from her house since she lived out in the boonies of Lima, Ohio. Pulling up to the hospital she got out of her truck and glanced up at the large building. "Ohio State Hospital" she breathed out. It was the largest hospital in the entire state, with the reputation that many other hospitals in the state wish they had. OSH was equipped to handle any kind of emergency that came through their doors, with a full trauma team to go at any moment. A state of the art Labor and Delivery wing, a one of a kind Intensive Care Unit team, and this was all just what Brittany had read in the local newspapers after she found out that she got the job.
Taking a deep breath she made her way towards the entrance, to start her day. Walking into the building she was sure to be bustling with activity, she was slightly surprised to see that, it was rather quiet as she took in her surroundings. The building looked brand new, as she gazed around she felt as though it looked nothing like a hospital but rather a very swanky hotel. Brittany walked over to the front desk where she noticed a very petite, red-haired woman, typing away at a keyboard in front of her. "May I help you?" the woman asks before making eye contact with Brittany's blue eyes. "Hi…uh...Yes, I am a new security officer and it's my first day. I was hoping you could direct me to the security office?" "Oh right, well hello there, Ms…" "Oh sorry, Pierce, Brittany Pierce." Brittany said apologetically. " Well I am Emma, welcome aboard!" Emma greeted extending out her hand to shake the blonde's. "Right, so the security office is up on the top floor so take an elevator behind you there to the 5th floor. Exiting the elevator go to the right, then left down the long corridor. The security office will be the second door on your left." "Great! Thank you so much for your help, Emma. I am sure I will see you around." As she smiled at the woman and turned to walk away, waving her farewell. Looking down the hallway, she was again impressed with the décor of the hospital. The main hallway or at least what Brittany assumed to be the main hallway was huge! It was at least 3 stories high with balconies from the 3 open floors running on one side and then on the other side was a wall made entirely of windows. Looking out through the massive window wall was a sea of tall green grass. Normally this view would be anything but ordinary to Brittany because she sees it every day back at home, however this view was incredible. It gave her a kind of serene feeling and made her feel rather calm, despite being nervous about her first day. I suppose they were aiming for that to be the effect on all of their patients and visitors when they came to this hospital. Taking in a deep breath and re-focusing on her goal, to find the security office. She looked to her right and saw a sign for the elevators.
Arriving on the 5th floor with a ding, Brittany stepped off the elevator and followed Emma's directions precisely. Down the hallway on the left she spotted a wooden door with big, black letters on the front of it saying "SECURITY". Right next to the door was a badge reader, taking her badge off that was clipped to her right shoulder; she swiped it across the reader, in hopes to gain access to the office. No such luck, a beep emitted from the small device, it sounded much like a sound that came from Brittany's application for hangman on her phone, when she guessed the wrong word and the little man died.
Raising her hand to knock on the door, the door swung wide open revealing a tall slender, older woman with short blonde hair. The woman was giving Brittany a rather stern, questioning look, so without hesitating for another moment Brittany introduced herself. "Brittany Pierce" she said extending her hand to the older woman. The other woman continued to eye Brittany up and down without extending her own hand out to shake Brittany's. They stood like this for a few moments, till Brittany withdrew her hand. She decided to try speaking with the other woman once more. Finding her voice, she tentatively spoke "I-I'm here to start my…my first day." Brittany tried clearing her throat to cover the fact that this woman before her was intimidating her to the point where she was making her stutter. The woman did not give Brittany a response instead she just clicked her tongue against the side of her teeth. "Sylvester! That is enough. Quit intimidating the new girl." A man who seemed to be in his late 30's said as he opened the door wider. "I'm Schuster, the Supervisor on the day shift, you must be Brittany. Please, come in." The two people stepped aside so that Brittany could enter the office. "The lovely woman who greeted you at the door is Sue Sylvester and she is the Supervisor for the Midnight Shift. She was just on her way out, weren't you Sue." said the man giving the older woman a disappointed look. "Oh William, I was just having a little fun, don't get your panties all in a bunch. Then again, go right ahead, for all I know, you may like that kind of thing." "Sue!" The man said giving her a warning. "Ok, ok, I am leaving. You are no fun William." which she did after collecting her few items and exiting out of the door they had just come through.
The man, who had actually welcomed her in, looked from the wooden door that had just closed back to Brittany "Brittany, right?" "Yes, sir" "Oh please do call me Mr. Schue, everyone else does." "Ok, Mr. Schue."
"Come with me Ms. Brittany and we will get you started. Today, we are going to start off with a simple tour to allow you to see all of the hospital. I know it will take a few days until you will be comfortable enough not to get lost but not to worry, to also help you out, you will be assigned an FTO or Field training Officer who will train you over the next few days.
Like I said earlier, I am Will Schuster, not only am I the Day shift Supervisor but I am also the Operations Manager of this site. First off I suppose I'll introduce you to our two day shift dispatch officers. There are always two dispatch officers for each shift, the day shift, the evening shift, and also the midnight shift. You will be working on the day shift, I think you will like it, it's a good crew."
Following Mr. Schue further into the office, Brittany was surprised as they walked through a darkened hallway into a similarly dark circular room. The room itself was huge with a ramp leading from the hallway down into the bottom level of the room. The room had several levels; to Brittany it looked as if it were three large steps that went around the room, leading to the bottom level, where two young men in uniforms similar to hers sat staring at huge televisions sets all placed on the individual levels around the room. In the middle of the bottom floor was also a large plexi-glass sheet. It was amazing Brittany had never seen such technology before; well she did but only on the TV and in movies. She always thought it was just the Hollywood effect, never did she imagine that there might actually be technology this sophisticated. Ok, maybe like in the FBI or the DEA but for a security company? Come on.
"Artie, Mike, this is Brittany Pierce, she is our newest member joining the team. Brittany, Artie and Mike here are our two dispatchers, they are constantly watching our 83 cameras, and each camera is attached to its on individual monitors that you see around this room. Along with their eyes a computer program also helps keep this hospital safe. The computer program is smart enough to determine when an incident occurs."
"I'm sorry, what do you mean by incident?" Brittany asked. "Oh, well say a fight breaks out or someone collapses. The computer program also has a newer piece of software called DRS or Detail Recognition Software, where if we have a runaway patient for example, we are able to type in the description of the missing patient, into the program and the computer helps us locate them."
"Wow!"
So many questions were running through the blonde's head at the moment; like how are they so lucky to get all of this technology? And what kind of hospital is this where there are fights breaking out left and right? Schuster could see the questions rolling around in Brittany's head simply by the pondering look that she had on her face. "If you have any questions my dear, please feel free." "Haha okay, well this is all really impressive! But…uh, well to be honest this all seems like the kind of set up the FBI should have or something, how are ya'll so lucky? And how often does one of these so called incidents occur?"
"Those are great questions Pierce!" and just like that Brittany felt like she was back in high school. "First off, one of the big wigs as I like to call them, more specifically the President of the Ohio State Healthcare, the company that owns the hospital. Well he has a cousin who works for the Department of Defense and he pulled a few strings to get us all this nifty gear about two years ago because he wanted his state of the art hospital to have a state of the art Security system. Personally I think the guy just wanted to have toys like James Bond, but that's just me."
"Oh I see." Brittany nodded. "An as for your second question," the young man with glasses spoke up, I think his name was Artie, "You would be surprised at how much action we get. See we aren't your average hospital. We are the top one in the state, which means there are all kinds of specialties. Our main action tends to come from the psychiatric unit and the trauma floor. We have psych patients who can tend to get a bit feisty and go all crazy on their nurses or doctors so we have to restrain them. Then on our trauma floors, well the families of the patient can get a bit angsty with each other. We have had a few fights break out between family members before. It's not every day that something happens of course but when it does, shit hits the fan!" The young man said enthusiastically.
"Ah gotcha sounds exciting" Brittany commented.
"Well Ms. Pierce, how about we take you for a walk around the hospital and show you what you will be doing here." asked Schuster. Brittany nodded her head in agreement and the two walked up the long ramp out of the dispatch area with Brittany, Artie and Mike saying their goodbyes.
They had been walking for about two hours and they had only been to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors. Mr. Schuster had explained to her that there were two officers at the moment that patrolled the entire hospital and that she would be the additional third one. She was apparently taking over for a Rick "the Stick" Nelson, who had apparently been fired after being caught sexually harassing a young nurse.
Descending down the stairs, Schuster explained that the 4th floor was the one odd ball out of all the floors because the lower floors were all comprised of patient rooms and the 4th floor contained many of the specialty units such as Labor and Delivery, and the Intensive Care Unit. The Emergency Department and the Psych Unit were on the first floor. The Psych Unit was separated from the rest of the hospital by yet another long corridor with large locked doors at the end of it. To say this hospital was huge was an understatement.
So far on her tour, Brittany had determined that not everyone who worked at OSH were necessarily the nicest people in the world. Schuster had told her that he had been working here for nearly 3 years and felt like he knew maybe a quarter of the staff here by their first name. According to him there are a few departments which are rather friendly and tend to make new employees welcome, while others it takes them some time to warm up to you. The Emergency Department for example, was very welcoming or at least they all seemed to have friendly faces when they saw Schuster and Brittany walking around. The psych ward employees on the other hand, yea…no, not so much, they just looked evil!
"So Brittany, each patrolling officer has certain areas that they are responsible for, even though they monitor the whole hospital. Being the third patrolling officer, your areas are the 3rd and 4th floors. You have the busiest route." Schuster explained as they made their way through the various units on the 4th floor. Brittany's main job everyday was to mainly be seen by the employees as she made her rounds, so that the staff knows security is around if and when they are needed. Also Brittany was told that in each unit on her floor was a badge reader designated for Security only to swipe as they passed it, this record the time and date that they were in the unit, so as to make sure they were making their rounds and not falling asleep on the job.
Opening the double doors to the Labor and Delivery hallway, Schuster started to explain the layout of the unit and how it was the top ranking nursery in the state. Brittany was starting to get a little annoyed with all this "This hospital is top in the state blah blah…" She got it, the hospital was awesome, no need to tell her twenty billion times. Brittany giggled to herself at this thought as Mr. Schue continued to blab on and on.
As they rounded the corner a flash of black caught Brittany's eye. She had to do a double take, as she looked over her shoulder she saw the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, talking with a nurse. Long flowing black hair that was pulled up into a ponytail, sun kissed skin. She had on black rimmed glasses, so Brittany couldn't quite see her eyes, an she was also turned to the side. She was a very petite woman with her long white lab coat draped over her tiny frame. Brittany was mesmerized. Schuster turned around, "Uh Brittany? Everything ok?" "Yea…Yea, sorry" Brittany apologized as she caught up. Taking one last look over her shoulder at the mysterious person blues eyes immediately met the woman's deep mocha brown eyes, as a shiver ran up Brittany's spine. She gave the woman a small smile even though the woman had already turned back to facing the nurse.
"Who was that?" she asked. "Oh, that's Santana Lopez, she is the head of the Labor and Delivery Unit and head bitch of this hospital. She seems to hate everyone here, especially security, so watch your back. I do believe she has a soft spot for these kids though, whenever she is holding a newborn, it is the only time I ever see her smile." Schuster commented motioning for them to continue their walk. Brittany couldn't help but take one more look over her shoulder at the retreating figure; there was just something about the woman that Brittany couldn't put her finger on. Besides the whole being drop dead gorgeous human being that she was and the hospital badass, there was just something about her, the way her hair bounced up and down in that ponytail as she walked past. The way she carried herself, it was like a movie scene, the kind in slow motion and everything. Who knows…Brittany shook her head, freeing her thoughts and focused back at learning how to do her job.
By the end of the day Brittany had walked the entire hospital twice, learned some procedures in dispatch and even made a few friends. Artie and Mike seemed to like her and she had also talked for a few minutes with the coffee shop attendant, Quinn, on her lunch break. All in all, it was a successful first day, as 5pm rolled around signaling the end of her shift, Brittany headed home, jamming out to the tunes in her car.
The rest of the evening for her was rather relaxing. She told her parents all about her first day and the few interesting things that did happen, like how she learned how to operate the cameras and that everything was touch screen! Don't judge, touch screen items made Brittany really excited for some reason. She was still a kid at heart and pushing buttons or playing with any kind of technology was just awesome in her opinion.
Lying down for the night, her thoughts were filled with the hospital. Not just the hospital however, but the mysterious Santana Lopez was also haunting her thoughts. Brittany wasn't sure why, the only people who ever haunted her thoughts were guys whom she had crushes on. So why was this women haunting her thoughts? Brittany fell asleep pondering this question, but she simply couldn't come up with an answer.
A/N: So what did ya'll think? If you liked it please let me know! Im not one to beg for reviews but if you guys really truly liked it and would like to see what happens. You know what to do ;) Thank you for taking your time to read it any way. I hope you enjoyed it :)
