I'd like to thank NayaRiveraSeiMia for the idea of this story.
Warning: Lots of mentions of Anorexia
Volunteer
Brett races into the hospital, skidding pass the nurse's station. He's late again, but it's not his fault this time, his math teacher kept him after school. A couple nurses flirty smile and wink at the handsome young man.
"Mr. Pierce so nice of you to show up." the hospital volunteer director says.
"Sorry Mr. Davis, it's won't happen again." Brett sighs.
"You'll be helping out in the pediatric ward." Mr. Davis tells him.
Brett nods and heads to the nurses locker room, changing into his white top and scrub pants. While everyone else hate volunteering in the peds unit he loves it. So really to him this isn't a punishment for being the last one in. He skips up to the peds floor and looks around for the charge nurse who will tell him where to go.
"Hi Brett," Christine a nurse he's known since he started volunteering here.
"Hey you wouldn't happen to know which rooms I'm supposed to go to?" Brett asks knowing some of the kids don't get treats or aren't allowed to play video games.
"I actually have a huge favor to ask you." Christine says.
"What is it?" Brett sighs.
"We have a teen patient who needs some cheering up after that feel free to visit with anyone in room 201 through 210." Christine tells him, kissing him on the cheek. "You're a doll."
She gives him the room number before hurrying off. Taking a deep breath he walks down the hall, stopping at the door and knocking since the door is closed.
"Come in," a young female voice says.
Opening the door he gasps when he sees laying, propped up is a very beautiful Latina who looks to be around his age.
"You're not a nurse." the young woman says.
"No, I volunteer here after school. One of the nurse's thought you might want some company." Brett sweetly says flashing her a smile.
"Well I don't so you can leave ken doll." the young woman snaps.
"That's rude," Brett huffs. "I just come to try and take your mind off of being here, but since you're so rue I'll just leave."
"Wait," Santana says when he's half out the door. "Don't go."
Brett turns around to face her, wondering why she's in here. From what he can see she doesn't seem sick, but he knows from the year he's been volunteering here that things are not always as they seem.
"I'm sorry, I just hate it here sometimes and I always go to my ragey place." Santana softly says picking at her cuticles.
He frowns at how guilty she looks not understanding why.
"It's okay," Brett says pulling a chair over and sitting next to her bed.
"So what do you normally do?" Santana asks looking up at him.
"I either read to the kids, play video games or just talk." Brett tells her. "It's really whatever they want to do."
"We should talk, I don't play video games." Santana says not even bothering with mentioning the reading part.
"Okay, what do you want to talk about?" Brett asks figuring that's it's better if she picks the topic.
"Well since I don't know you let's start with you." Santana happily says.
It's nice to be talking to someone who is her age and doesn't know about her anorexia. Also it helps that he's extremely good looking.
"My name is Brett Steven Pierce, but my good friends often just call me B. I'm a senior at McKinley and I'm seventeen. I'm the quarterback on the football team, I'm in mathleats and I volunteer here two or three days a week. That's about it about me." Brett tells her.
"You must be popular at school." Santana says biting her lip. "With being on the football team."
"I am, but mathleats knocks me down a bit along with a singing group I'm involved in." Brett says smiling that he's caused her now to smile.
"Personally I don't get why, you're very hot." Santana says blushing and looking down at her hands.
"Thanks, you're gorgeous yourself." Brett says wanting to reach over and grabbing her hands.
"I'm not, I'm fat." Santana says keeping her eyes down.
"No you're not, you're beautiful." Brett counters.
"I'm fat!" Santana shouts getting out of bed to stand up.
That's when Brett notes how thin she is and he wonders what is wrong with her.
"You're not fat." Brett softly says walking over to her.
"Please just leave." Santana says ashamed of him finding out about her.
He wants to ask her so many questions and stay but won't push his luck with his very stubborn, beautiful woman. He'll just come back tomorrow in hopes that she opens up.
"Okay then I'll see you tomorrow." Brett says heading out.
She watches him leave and wonders why he wants to come back. Surely the young man has very beautiful women after his heart. It's not like she is after all she is still over weight. Why he called her beautiful is baffling.
"Ms. Lopez it's time to eat." Colleen the nurse whose been her nurse for the year and a half she's been here.
"I don't need to." Santana says not looking at the nurse.
"Yes you do." Colleen tells her. "You need to gain twenty more pounds before we can consider letting you go home."
"But-"
"Listen Santana if you want to go home then you have to keep eating and gaining weight. No more exercising." Colleen says handing her, her lunch.
"Fine," Santana sighs taking a bite.
"So are your parents coming by today?" Colleen asks.
"I don't know, you know how they are." Santana says between bites.
"I saw you had a visitor earlier." Colleen says winking at her.
"Just some volunteer named Brett." Santana whispers.
"Oh, he's the really hot one. I like when he's up on this floor. Makes for some good eye candy." Colleen says.
"He is good looking." Santana says taking another bite.
"What did you two talk about?" Colleen asks since she knows she's one of Santana's only friends.
"Just stuff," Santana shyly says.
"You like him." Colleen happily says squeezing her hand.
"Who does our favorite patient like?" Christine asks coming in with her own lunch and sitting next to Colleen.
"Hey Chris," Santana softly says nibbling on a piece of cheese.
"That hot volunteer Brett." Colleen says.
"He's such a sweetheart." Christine says. "You should be nice to him, he's so nice and a really good friend to have." she tells Santana knowing the girl could use a friend.
Santana actually finishes her dinner chatting with the two nurses. She's sad when they have to leave to go check on other patients. There's going to be no other visitors for her even though her dad's a surgeon in this very hospital. Her parents don't like visiting her at all since she's not getting any better according to them. They don't think she's trying to get better.
She's lonely and when she's lonely all she can think about is how fat she is. The hospital at night is boring, but not quiet like you'd think. Up on the peds floor there's always some little kids crying or parents yelling. Honestly she wishes she was on any other floor most of the time. Picking up a pencil and paper she starts counting the calories she had today.
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The whole night and following day all Brett can think about is the very beautiful woman whose name he doesn't know. So he decides to skip out of glee's practice and heads to the hospital even though it's not his normal volunteer day.
"Hey Brett this isn't one of your normal days." Christine says smiling at the fact that he's back.
"I'm here to hang out with that girl." Brett says all smiles.
"I knew you'd hit it off with her." Christine says proud of herself. "Don't you know her name?"
"No we never got around to it." Brett shyly admits hoping Christine will tell him.
"You like her don't you." Christine says bumping shoulders with him. "By the way her name is Santana."
"Santana, that's a beautiful name." Brett whispers. "I'll see you later."
He heads up to the peds ward thinking about Santana and what a beautiful name it is. He waves at the nurses giving them a flirty smile as he heads to Santana's room. Knocking on the door he waits for an acknowledgement.
"Come in," Santana says straightening up when she sees who comes in.
"Hi Santana, I hope you don't mind me stopping by." Brett starts rambling.
"Not at all it's okay I don't have anyone else stopping by." Santana says glad he came back.
"Really you don't have anyone visiting." Brett says shocked as he closes the door.
"No my parents stop by sometimes, but not often anymore." Santana admits.
Brett stores that nugget of information away for another time. He's decided not to push her and let him open up as she wishes.
"So since we talked about me yesterday why don't we talk about you." Brett suggests.
"I'm not very interesting." Santana mumbles biting her nails.
"I think you are." Brett says staring at her.
"I'm not," Santana says blushing.
"To me you are." Brett says being bold and reaching for her hand.
"Why? You don't even know anything about me." Santana says looking up when he touches her hand.
"But I want to, you interest me." Brett softly says.
He feels like he's breaking down her first of many walls she has to protect her.
"Okay," Santana whispers looking away. "What do you want to know?"
"If you don't mind, I'd like to know what's wrong with you. Why you're here?" Brett asks.
"Well…" Santana trails off not sure if she can tell him.
The last thing she wants is for him to hate her. She doesn't want him to think of her like her parents do.
"If you don't want to tell me that's fine." Brett tells her.
"I just don't want you to dislike me." Santana admits. "You're the first person aside from the nurses who has come by two days in a row."
"I highly doubt I could ever dislike you. You really interest me and I want to spend time with you to get to know you." Brett softly tells her.
"Trust me you will." Santana says looking down, ashamed of why she's here.
"Why don't you trust that I can handle it. I do volunteer here in a hospital." Brett says. "But if you want to wait that's fine with me."
"Yeah I'd rather wait." Santana says looking up. "Thank you for being so understanding."
"No problem, how about instead you tell me about you." Brett suggests.
"My name is Santana Lopez, I'm sixteen and a sophomore even though I should be a junior. Being here for so long I've fallen really far behind. Before I was in here I was very popular and Sue wanted me on the Cheerios. Everything was great until I had to come here." Santana tells him.
"If you want I can help you with your school work to get you caught up." Brett offers wanting to spend more time with her.
"I'm sure you have better things to do than to help me." Santana says hoping that he actually does stay.
"No I want to." Brett quickly says.
"Okay," Santana says.
He stays for another two hours before he has to go home for dinner.
"So you'll get your work tomorrow?" Brett says getting up.
"Yes, I should be able to get my mom to bring it." Santana tells him.
"Good I'll come after school. I'll see you tomorrow Santana." Brett says waving.
"Bye," Santana says waving.
Santana texts her mom asking her to bring her homework and school books before tomorrow afternoon. Unsurprisingly she gets no text back. What is surprising though is an hour later right before she gets dinner her dad stops by.
"Your mom wanted me to drop this stuff off for you." Mario says glancing at his daughter to see if she's gained any weight.
"Thanks dad," Santana says shocked as to why he's here.
"You look like you've gained some weight back. That's good." Mario says.
Of course all Santana hears is gained weight and thinks that her dad is calling her fat.
"I'm headed to work now, keep up the eating." Mario says not realizing that he's not helping, but hurting his daughter getting better.
"Bye dad," Santana says.
She manages to avoid eating dinner by tricking one of the newer nurses. That night she has a restless sleep thinking about her dad's words and Brett. He's so nice and understanding which is not something she is used to. By the time Brett arrives she hasn't eaten in more than a day and she's jogged around her room several dozen times.
"Hey," Brett says coming in with two McDonald's bags. "I hope you don't mind, but I brought snacks for us."
"Of course not, I was actually going to get a snack soon." Santana lies patting the spot next to her.
"I got five cheeseburgers, a four piece McNugget and two small fries." Brett says pulling the food out.
Their quiet as they eat, occasionally glancing over at each other smiling shyly at each other.
"So should we start with math?" Brett asks once they have finished eating.
"Yeah, but first do you mind if we go for a walk around the floor. I could use the exercise." Santana says planning to sneak out and go jog off the rest of the calories later after Brett leaves.
"Okay," Brett says helping her up.
After their walk, they settle down and start with her math course work. It surprises her how much easier her work is with Brett's help. They manage to finish five chapters before he has to go.
"Now remember try to memorize that chart, it will make things easier." Brett says.
"Thanks Brett, you've been a big help." Santana says not sure when he'll be back to help.
"So I'll be back tomorrow okay." Brett softly says squeezing her hand.
"Yeah that works." Santana says smiling at the fact that he's coming back tomorrow.
"Cool," Brett says.
He leaves with a smile on his face. At this point he'll use any excuse to come see her. He's curious as to why she's here, but isn't going to ask her.
She waits for twenty minutes to be sure that he's gone before she gets up to go for a jog.
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"I'm sorry Brett, but the doctor's in there and I don't think you'll be able to see her today." Christine says when Brett reaches the nurses station.
Over the last month Brett has gone to the hospital every day after school to spend time with Santana. Each day he falls for her a little more and even though he doesn't know what's wrong with her he's still falling hard for her.
"What's wrong?" Brett asks hopefully thinking he might finally find out what's wrong.
"Brett you know I can't tell you." Christine says.
"But-"
"Maybe if you ask Santana she'll tell you." Christine suggests wishing she could tell him.
She's sure if he knew he'd be able to help Santana. It's obvious to anyone who sees them together that he cares deeply for Santana and she cares deeply for him too.
"She won't every time I've tried she starts tearing up and saying I'd hate her." Brett sigs. "So I've given up asking."
"Maybe-"
Christine is cut off by a very angry Mario Lopez storming by shouting and kicking Santana's door open.
"Just fucking eat like a fucking normal person for once!" Mario shouts.
"Hey!" Brett shouts at the man who just stormed into Santana's room." Don't talk to her like that." he says walking over.
"Stay out of this boy." Mario growls.
"Well seeing as I'm her best friend I'll stay in it." Brett says staring down Mario.
Santana watches this with wide eyes, no one has ever stood up to her dad for her before.
"You're friends with her even though she's fucking anorexic and doesn't want to get better. Are you stupid or something?" Mario growls.
Santana's face goes pale and Brett looking questioning over at her.