(Please bear with me for this stuff if it makes no sense. In approximately 23 minutes it is going to be midnight here and I'm a little tired so it may or may not make sense!) So truthfully – I may have lost a bit of interest in this story for a while there. I don't know if it was because I got busier (now that it's senior year I have a fair bit of study, I play basketball and soccer, my prom is next week and for some reason my popularity seems to be increasing at school which means I finally have something I can call a social life) or if I just got bored with this. All the planning I had in my head kinda stopped at that last chapter so I had no idea where I was going to go from there. And this chapter was the result. It took a while to write, but I think I finally got it out. And the good news is that it may have reignited my interest for this story again, it doesn't look like I'm going to be giving up any time soon. I still don't have a plan and I don't know how long it's going to take but you aren't getting rid of me that easily. Enjoy the chapter!
The small group gathered outside the white door, waiting for one of them to grab the handle and push it open. Santana's name was printed in block letters across the door plate and through a window to the left of the door they could see the said girl fast asleep on her bed. Puck leant forward to open the door but a shout from Brittany caused him to draw back as if he had been burned.
"Wait!" Once all eyes had worriedly turned to the blonde she continued her sentence. "We can't go in there yet! We don't have any flowers or presents or cards! Santana can't wake up to an empty room; she'll think no one cares. We have to get her something to cheer her up."
"But Brittany what happens if Santana wakes up and there's no one there?" Mr Schue tried to reason with the girl but her mind was set.
"It'll take like ten minutes tops! There's a gift shop just downstairs! And look at her, she's sound asleep - it doesn't look like she's gonna wake up that soon."
Begrudgingly everyone agreed to go along with Brittany's plan, especially when Mrs Pierce talked to the nurse and found out that Santana would likely still be out for a good half hour. And Rachel did have to admit that the blonde's plan was a pretty good one, waking up to a room full of gifts sounded much nicer than just waking up to a dull hospital room.
As a group they travelled down to the first floor, only splitting up once they were inside the actual store. Brittany made a beeline to a display of brightly coloured balloons, her mother rolling her eyes before following. Mr Schue wandered over to a small flower stand and Quinn and Puck both walked over to a large shelf filled with various books and magazines. Rachel found herself looking at a collection of stuffed animals, her eyes roaming over each fluffy critter. Did Santana even like stuffed animals? Well surely anyone would like something to cuddle while they were sick and alone in hospital. Not that Santana was really going to be alone, but still. Making up her mind she selected a fluffy chocolate brown bear with a yellow bow around its neck, carrying it over to where the others were at the counter.
Rachel glanced around to see what gifts the others had ended up buying. Quinn and Puck had pooled their money together to buy several books and magazines as well as what appeared to be a child's colouring book and a pack of crayons. Rachel wasn't even going to ask about that one. Brittany had selected a handful of balloons, one of every colour as well as a rainbow "Get Well Soon". Her mother had chosen a more practical gift, a fleece pink bathrobe and a pair of fluffy socks. Mr Schue had chosen an arrangement of fake flowers, the sign above the real flowers warning that they weren't allowed in the ICU for fear of infections. Rachel handed over the bear and a twenty dollar bill. At the last minute she picked up a patterned diary from a table next to the counter, selecting a purple pen to go with it. From what she had heard that day in literature it seemed like writing was a way for Santana to deal with her problems, she might need something to vent in whilst being stuck in the hospital.
Once everyone was back up on Santana's floor they headed over towards her room for the second time. Once the nurse had given them all permission to go through Puck wasted no time reaching over to turn the handle and open the door, the group filing into the room as quietly as possible to not disturb the sleeping applicant. It was a bit crowded, even though Rachel's parents had stayed in the waiting room after the doctor had talked to them once Santana was out of surgery.
All the gifts that had just been recently purchased got piled onto a small table in the far corner of the room. Once Rachel no longer had to worry about dropping the present she turned around and pulled a chair up to Santana's bedside to get her first good look at the sick Latina.
Santana's face looked pale, her eyes slightly sunken and a small tube wrapped around under her nose, no doubt supplying oxygen into her lungs. Rachel could see the steady rise and fall of her chest with each breathe she drew in. It was strange to see the girl so unresponsive and vulnerable, she looked childlike in her oversized hospital gown and the machines by her bed made her look even smaller. She looked peaceful though and Rachel hoped that meant she wasn't in any pain.
Rachel wasn't sure how long she spent studying the sleeping girl in the silence of the room before she noticed Santana's nose scrunch up. She heard several of the others draw in hopeful breaths, all of them obviously watching her just as closely as Rachel was. A small groan came from the Santana's mouth, her eyes still tightly closed. A few seconds later her eyes peeled slowly open, looking around blearily before falling shut again.
"Santana?" Rachel asked from her position to the left of the girl. She received no response.
"Santana, sweetie can you open your eyes?" Mrs Pierce tried from the right of the bed but there was still no response. Santana obviously wasn't ready to fully wake up yet. The group returned back into their silence, anxiously waiting for the girl to awake.
Five minutes later the girls eyes opened again, squinting against the bright light as a small whimper escaped her throat. A frown was etched onto her features as she looked slowly around the room in confusion, her brain still foggy from the anaesthetic.
It took a while before she registered the voices speaking to her. "Santana can you hear me?" She turned her head ever so slightly towards the sound, blinking her eyes slowly as she tried to register who was speaking.
"Santana it's me. You had us so worried sweetie." The voice was coming from Brittany's mother, her hand gently caressing Santana's arm.
Still extremely groggy Santana tried to speak, her voice coming out in a confused whisper. "Mami?"
Santana was to out of it to notice the way everyone's face fell at her innocent questioning. Natalie took a deep breath before speaking gently to the girl. "No sweetie, it's Natalie. Mami's not here right now."
"Nat." Santana whispered, a small smile crossing her face as her eyes fluttered closed every few seconds. "And Britt?" She asked, her words slurring together.
This time it was Brittany who answered, a soft smile painted on her face as she gazed down at her best friend. "Yeah, and Britt. I'm right here."
"S'good." Santana mumbled, her words nearly unintelligible as she tried to fight off the overwhelming urge to sleep.
"How are you feeling?" Mr Schue questioned gently from the foot of the bed.
"M'tired" Santana replied, her eyelids feeling heavier with each passing second.
Rachel and several others let out a light chuckle at Santana's obvious response and her failing attempts to stay awake. Mrs Pierce finally took pity on the sluggish girl.
"Go back to sleep San. We can talk later, we'll all still be here when you wake up."
Santana nodded her head slowly, her eyelids finally winning the battle to stay closed. Within minutes her breathing had evened out and she was fast asleep again.
It wasn't long after Santana had fallen asleep that one of the nurses entered the room, flashing them all a sympathetic smile as she headed over to one of the machines.
"What are you doing?" Quinn questioned as the nurse started to check the readings on the machines. "Is something wrong?"
"No, no dear everything's as good as it can be right now. I'm just following protocol – all intensive care patients have to be checked on at least every hour to make sure things are running smoothly." She said whilst writing down some words on her clipboard as she read off the heart rate monitor.
Puck frowned, "So she's okay?"
"Yes, for her situation things are looking quite good. Her temperature is still a little higher than we would like and her blood pressure is still low, but both have improved since she first arrived. Now it says here that her heart rate was a bit uneven a few minutes ago which would suggest she is coming out of the anaesthesia. Have you noticed any signs of her waking?"
"Yes, just before you came in she was awake. She asked about who was here and then she fell asleep again. She didn't seem very alert though." Mr Schue spoke up, lifting his gaze from the bedridden girl to the nurse.
"Well it is very common for patients to slip in and out of consciousness before fully waking and the anaesthetic can make the brain a bit fuzzy. I would guess that she should be fully awake within the next twenty minutes if it's already starting to wear off. I will be right outside if you need me when she wakes." The nurse said with kind smile as she left the room, softly closing the door behind her. Rachel turned back to listening to the rhythmic beep of the heart monitor, watching as the thin green line zigzagged across the screen.
It was rather funny, she mused. The constant beeping that the machine let off in time with Santana's heartbeat should have annoyed her to no end, at least according to what she had seen in movies and read in books. Instead she couldn't think of a more calming sound right now that that monotonous beeping. It was like every single one of the quiet beeps were reminding her that Santana was still alive, that she was still breathing and her heart was still pumping. She frowned as she heard the beeping get slightly faster, twisting her head back around to check on Santana. Nope, nothing seemed to have changed from when she last looked.
She glanced down at her watch and sighed, this had to be the longest twenty minutes in her life. Well if you didn't count the twenty minutes on the way to the hospital when she thought Santana was going to die, or the countless hours Santana was in surgery, or even that time when she was six and she wandered away from her fathers at the mall and couldn't find them again. Oh and that time when she was lining up to meet Barbara Streisand in New York, there was also when she was about to sing her first solo...okay there were a lot of times, but even so this felt like it was taking forever. She was shaken from her thoughts when she heard a small whimper come from the direction of Santana's bed, noticing that everyone else in the room also seemed to become more alert.
Another whimper left Santana's mouth, her face scrunching up at the same time before her eyelids blinked open, squinting against the bright light in the room. Her hand lazily reached up to try and remove the piece of plastic on her face, her eyebrows furrowing when someone else's hand stopped her.
"No, no sweetie, you have to leave that there. It's helping you to breathe better, so we'll keep it there okay?" Natalie said, cautiously releasing Santana's hand after she had finished speaking.
Santana nodded slightly, pulling her arm back down to her side. She allowed herself to glance around the room properly for the first time, her confusion only increasing at seeing all the people in the room.
"What happened?" She asked croakily, the words directed to no one in particular.
"You don't remember?" Rachel asked before answering herself, "Of course you don't, you were pretty much unconscious the whole time. Well do you remember being in glee club?"
Rachel paused waiting for Santana to answer. Santana bit her lip, her face furrowing before finally shaking her head no. Rachel started to talk again but stopped when she noticed Santana trying to shuffle around on her bed.
"Wait, Santana that's probably a bad idea, you don't want..." She trailed off when Santana gasped sharply, her dark eyes filling with tears as the colour drained from her face. She leaned back down, screwing her eyes shut tightly against the sudden onset of pain that had hit her. She instinctively went to cradle her sore stomach, immediately pulling her hands away when that only caused more pain. She could hear her breaths coming in short gasps, whimpers of pain escaping at the same time.
"Shhh Santana, just breathe. Puck's gone to get the nurse and she's going to give you something for the pain, you just need to breathe and it'll all be over soon." Quinn spoke up from her corner, her voice calm and reassuring, a hint of experience twisted amongst them. Rachel guessed that the exact same words had been said to the blonde girl several times whilst giving birth to Beth.
"It's just like dancing Sanny. One and two and three and four." Brittany started to count slowly, trying to encourage the girl to breathe in time with her voice.
"It hurts!" Santana whimpered shakily, a tear escaping her closed eyes.
"I know baby, but you're going to be okay. Look here comes the nurse now, she's going to make it all better." Natalie said, pushing the hair back off the Latina's face.
"Oh dear, what happened?" Asked the nurse as she came rushing into the room.
"She tried to sit up before we could warn her against it, I think she irritated her stomach." Mr Schue informed the lady.
"Okay. Santana? I need you to tell me what your pain is, on a scale of 1 to 10. Can you do that for me?"
Santana nodded her head stiffly. She remained silent for a few moments, as if deliberating her pain. "Nine." She replied shakily, her voice tight.
"Okay I'm going to give you some medicine now Santana. You should start to feel a bit better soon." She said as she injected something into the IV bag carefully. "It shouldn't be long now honey, but I need you to focus on your breathing while we wait. Can you hear that beeping?"
Santana once again nodded. "Well that's your heart. And it's going a little bit too fast right now, so I need you to try and get it to slow down. Can you take some deep breaths for me? That's it, in and out. In. And out. Good girl. And again, in and out."
Gradually the noise from the heart monitor slowed back down and the colour started to return to Santana's face as the pain medication kicked in.
"Okay, much better." The nurse commented as she read off the machines next to Santana's bed. "Now Santana can you tell me what your pain level is from 1 to 10 again?"
"Two." Santana replied, her voice much stronger than before.
"Okay, that's good. I'm going to go and leave you to be alone with your family for a bit, but if you feel any more pain you can press this button here and it will give you some more pain killers on a restricted dosage, or you someone can get me again. If you have any questions your surgeon should be around shortly. Try not to move too much this time." She flashed a small smile at the brunette before softly walking out of the room.
"Okay what the hell happened to me? I feel like I've been hit by a bus." Santana demanded, trying to gain back her tough reputation after that little episode. Quinn just scoffed, clearly seeing right through the girl's intentions before allowing Rachel to continue her explanation from earlier.
"Where was I...Oh right so we were in glee and you seemed really spaced out, you ended up messing up our routine, not that anyone here blames you for that of course, it was not your fault that you suffered from such an unexpected dose of misfortune."
A pointed look from Puck caused Rachel to stop her rambling and get back to the important details. "Well anyway after we stopped dancing you were acting really weird and you threw up and then just sort of fell. Your forehead was so hot, it felt like you were on fire. We drove you to the hospital but they didn't know what was wrong until the machines all started beeping and then they had to take you into emergency surgery to fix some infection thing in your stomach. They even had to remove some of your intestine." Rachel finished, taking a deep breath before finishing her explanation. "You really scared us Santana."
"So some guy's hand was halfway inside my stomach and then kept some of it? That's gross!" Santana spat out, looking down at her stomach warily.
"Seriously Santana? We just told you all of that and the only thing you get from it is that?" Puck exclaimed in disbelief.
"Well what else am I supposed to say? I just found out that I totally embarrassed myself in front of the entire glee club by puking my guts out and then acting like some helpless chick that can't control her own body. To top it off I woke up in hospital with no idea how I got there, experienced the worst pain I've ever felt in my life because I had to have life saving surgery and even after all that my own mother isn't here with me." By the time Santana had finished her rant her lip was quivering and she was blinking furiously to keep her tears at bay.
Rachel was the fastest to act, leaning over and wrapping the Latina into a friendly hug, being mindful of her stomach.
"Hey it's okay. Everything's okay." She whispered into Santana's hair. The simple action caused the taller girl to completely break down.
"I'm so scared! And I'm tired, and I feel sick and my stomach hurts and I just want to go home!" Santana wailed through her tears, clinging tightly onto Rachel as she sought desperately for human contact. Everyone else in the room felt their heart's break from the uncharacteristic display of emotion Santana was showing.
"I know sweetie, it's a lot to take in, isn't it? How about you try and get some sleep and maybe things will feel better in the morning?" Mrs Pierce said from the other side of Santana after she had finally released Rachel from the hug, reaching up to wipe her eyes in the process. Settling further into the bed Santana allowed herself to feel the familiar hand of Natalie's rubbing comforting circles across her tanned skin. The continuous movement was actually sort of relaxing she thought, the gentle movements lulling her further and further into a state of relaxation.
"Promise?" Santana asked meekly, her voice barely above a whisper as her eyelids drooped dangerously.
"Promise what honey?" Natalie asked confused, maintaining her gentle rhythm on Santana's skin. The same look of confusion was painted on all of their faces at the simple question.
"That things will be better tomorrow?" Santana's voice was even quieter than before, but everyone in the room could hear the hopeful tone in her words.
Natalie sighed sadly before answering with a sad smile. "Yeah sweetie. I promise."
With those final words Santana allowed herself to be carried off to sleep, a small smile gracing her lips before all her features relaxed as she drifted into an exhausted slumber.
Rachel felt her own eyes begin to close as she watched Santana sleep peacefully, hoping with all her heart that the simple promise would not be broken. After all tomorrow was another day – but there was no telling if it was going to be a good one.
So there you have it. The end of chapter ten. I made it all the way to the double digits. Seems crazy that this was only supposed to be a teensy-tiny little one-shot. Now it's the longest thing I've ever written! So was it an intense chapter. I mean it was intense to write but it didn't really feel like a lot happened. But that's how the saying goes; slow and steady wins the race. I tend to find that the more detail that is put into events, no matter how boring they might seem, makes them way more enjoyable to read than stories that fly past everything. I hope you guys are the same and aren't getting too bored haha! Hopefully you will hear from me soon, later guys!