A/N: So it's been way too long since I've updated. RL has been kicking my butt lately! Thanks to anyone still reading this, I appreciate it so much! Hopefully my next post will come a lot sooner than this one! Enjoy (:
Sarah woke up first. Her arms were still wrapped around Claire, who had cried herself to sleep. Wes was in their room down the hall. Sarah rubbed a hand gently over her stomach, and thought about what was going to happen when she and Wes inevitably went home. Wes had lost his job that morning. Under any other circumstance, Sarah would have been secretly glad. Wes hated his job, it made him miserable. Working as an accountant in an office was killing him inside. He wanted to be a teacher. A high school music teacher.
Sarah was in the ballet. It paid well, and she loved it, but it took up so much of her life. The life she wanted to spend with Wes. But now that Wes wouldn't be making money, Sarah was the sole bread-winner. How would Wes react to her having to quit? How would they survive and raise the baby?
Sarah continued rubbing circles into her belly. Her clothes were becoming slightly tighter, but she doubted anyone would notice. She was so spindly from constant ballet practice that, now that she wasn't practicing, of course she would gain weight…
When she took the test the night before the phone call from Blaine, she couldn't wait to tell her husband when they went out to dinner for date night. But that had pretty much been shot to hell…
And the only one she wanted advice from was Claire… But how could she ask for help when Claire was the one whose world was falling apart?
How could she tell Claire she was thinking of an abortion when Claire could lose her own daughter?
Sarah wriggled away from Claire and padded to the tiny bathroom. She shut the door, sat on the edge of the bathtub, and cried silently. She had been busy comforting Claire all night, and she needed a few minutes to just fall apart.
So she sat alone, closed her eyes, and imagined someone was comforting her…
"Hummel!" Chief Thompson called to Kurt as he walked into the hospital.
"Hey, Chief!" Kurt smiled. The two of them got along quite well. And the Chief's four year old daughter adored Kurt.
Chief Thompson was in his late fifties. He'd been head of this hospital since it opened. He was one of the most sought after surgeons in the country. His while hair and pale complexion gave him an aura of wisdom.
"As much as I would love to stay and chat," the Chief remarked, "you have a patient waiting to be checked on in the ICU before she can go back to her room. And between you and me, you should probably hurry… The parents are a little… Antsy." Thompson winked and Kurt laughed, heading up to the ICU.
A nurse near the door handed Kurt a chart. He flashed her a smile and thanked her. It was always a good idea to be on the nurses' good sides.
When he opened the chart, however, he froze. This couldn't be right…
"I'm sorry, Emma?" He asked the nurse. "Are you sure this is the right chart? I'm not… I was, uh, removed from this case a few days ago."
Emma shrugged, failing to contain a slightly smug smile. Guess today's your lucky day."
Kurt blushed furiously. Everyone seemed to know about his…personal issues. He felt vulnerable.
He didn't like that.
When he entered the ICU, he quickly located Ava. Ava who used to have Blaine's hair. Ava who now had no hair. Ava who was currently wearing the same angry expression Blaine had mastered.
Ava, who Kurt was slightly intimidated by.
She was sitting up, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. Her jaw was set in a way that clearly said you've already lost this argument, give up now.
"I don't like you." She said in place of a traditional agreement.
Kurt stayed silent. Bite your tongue. She's just a little kid. A little, very annoying kid.
"I know you don't like me either," she pushed.
Kurt put on his best faux smile, perfected by many irritating children over many years. "Now, why would you think that?"
The tiny girl huffed angrily. "Don't talk down to me. I'm not stupid, you know. I'm not stupid."
Kurt dropped the act, and looked seriously at her. "I don't think you're stupid." Ava almost smiled at that, but she kept a straight face, only a small muscle twitch in her cheek giving her away. He continued, "I think you are…annoying. I think you are slightly – no, very – rude, but I don't think you're stupid."
Ava muttered something under her breath that sounded like "prick".
Kurt snorted. "Now, lie down and hush so I can take you back upstairs. Your parents want you back and I'm not going to deny them that. And don't tell her I said this," he leaned in and whispered into Ava's ear "but your mother really scares me."
Ava laughed, genuinely laughed. Kurt smiled; making a child laugh was one of the greatest accomplishments in life.
Claire was half asleep in the chair with Blaine. Her head was lying against his shoulder, her eyes barely open. Blaine was lost in thought. Sarah had a similarly blank expression, her hand flying to her stomach every once in awhile, as if to see if it was still there. Wes scrolled furiously through something on his computer, looking more and more irritated by the second.
All of the potential energy rocked into motion as Ava came strolling through the door; arms crossed with a smug smile tugging on the corners of her mouth. She was quickly followed by an irritated Kurt pushing a hospital bed on wheels.
"Ava! You have to get back in the bed! You're not supposed to be walking around!"
Ava mimed his words with a screwed up face stuck out her tongue as she hopped lightly onto the bed. Kurt rolled his eyes, and Blaine was so amused it took him a moment to be surprised by the fact that it was Kurt who brought Ava in. He quickly dismissed it. They were on better terms now…
Right?
Kurt looked directly at Blaine and Claire. "Can I talk to you two for a moment?" he asked, gesturing towards the hallway. They both stood and followed him out. Out of the corner of his eye, Blaine saw Ava watching them intently. As soon as Kurt could no longer see her, she gingerly jumped off the bed in favor of curling up in Sarah's lap. When she saw Blaine looking at her, she smiled mischievously and pressed her index finger to her lips. Blaine winked at her and continued out the door.
"The surgery was a success." Kurt stated as soon as the door had clicked shut. Blaine let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. Claire burst into tears – something she'd been doing a lot as of late. Blaine put a hand on the small of her back to steady her. He saw Kurt's eyes narrow slightly as they flitted momentarily to the contact. But the emotion passed so quickly, Blaine was sure he must have imagined.
"We would like to give her a few days to recover, and then start chemotherapy…" More things were said, details, plans. Blaine felt removed from the situation, from the whole world. Things were better, but not…better.
Blaine came to, feeling Claire tugging gently on his wrist. He followed her, smiling as they entered their room to the sound of Ava recounting her perilous trek back to the room, and the fire-breathing, evil glitter dragon that chased her the entire way, seeking to re-imprison her. Blaine and Claire took the other empty seats – someone had finally taken the hint and brought up a few extra chairs – and listened to her childish antics. Kurt smiled at the happy patchwork family, then silently disappeared to look in on other sick children who weren't as lucky.
Eventually, Ava talked herself out. She snoozed in Blaine's lap and he scratched her back and arms gently. Her face was so peaceful, other than a few times where her eyebrows would knit together for a moment before sliding back to calmness. Blaine wondered what she was dreaming about.
Wes and Sarah helped Claire out of the room not long after that. She was so tired she could hardly walk straight. Blaine watched them go, and wondered what time it was. The curtains were closed and his phone had long since died. Time had lost all meaning anyway.
Ava didn't stir as Blaine carried her back to the bed and tucked her in. He contented himself to read a book Sarah had left. Half an hour and six unabsorbed chapters later, Blaine still had no clue what the book was about. As he flipped through the rest of the pages, trying to recall a single character name, the quietest knock sounded on the door. Blaine glanced up, expecting Wes or Sarah.
But it was Kurt.
Blaine shuffled quietly out of the door to meet him. "Is something wrong?" He asked, alarmed.
Kurt's eyes widened. "No, no!" He flailed, "everything's fine. Er – well."
Blaine hummed in agreement, nodding and gesturing for Kurt to continue.
"I, well… I was just checking to see if she was awake. I thought you all would have gone home – or, wherever – by now. I just…I didn't want her to be alone for too long or…wake up by herself or anything." Kurt stared at the floor, shuffling his feet around in discomfort.
Blaine felt his heart melt a little. "That's sweet," he said quietly. Kurt blushed and wrapped his arms around himself, rocking up onto his toes and back to his heels, trying to find a way to diffuse the tension.
"So," Blaine made an attempt at breaking the silence. "Don't you ever leave this place?"
Kurt smiled, looking up through his long lashes. "Well I could say the same to you. You're here as much as I am."
"I guess you're right," Blaine remarked. The crushing silence was threatening to creep back over the awkward pair. Neither one wanting to say the wrong thing. Walking on eggshells.
"Well, I'm replace the both of you." A nurse bustled past them into the room with a blanket and a wrapped up needle for blood testing.
"Emma you don't have to stay," Blaine whispered kindly. Kurt was impressed he had stopped to learn her name. But then again, it was Blaine.
"Blaine you haven't left her bedside in two days. You need sleep." She paused, "and a shower." The trio chuckled quietly. "And Kurt, the Chief said if you don't get out of here until your shift later, he's forcing you to go on a weekend vacation."
Kurt shuddered. A weekend...at home...alone. He wasn't going down that road.
"Alright, thank you Emma. I'll see you later today." Kurt replied and Emma waved him away, closing Blaine and himself in the hallway...together.
An uncomfortable silence lasted for a moment or a year, pushing Kurt past the point of no return.
"Doyouwannagoeatbreakfastwith me?" Kurt said, quickly launching into a full blown monologue. "Because I was just thinking you might want some company and I don't have to be back until later and I was going to go anyway and I thought you might…"
"Kurt," Blaine tried to cut in before he died of oxygen deprivation.
Kurt sighed inwardly to himself. Way to go, Kurt. You idiot! Now he's never going to…
"Where should we go?" Blaine asked, leaning quickly back inside the hospital room to grab a coat off of the pegs on the back of the door and pulling it on.
Oh… Kurt thought, trying to maintain some dignity as he formulated a response.
"Well…There's this place down the street with really good pancakes if you want something sweet…" Kurt trailed off.
Blaine turned back to look at him, his dark eyebrows jumping up into his messy curls. "Kurt Hummel? In a pancake house? My, how things have changed."
He's making jokes about what happened. That's good, right? Kurt realized he was taking too long to answer.
"They have organic stuff, too. It hasn't been long enough for that big of a change." Kurt replied as he led Blaine through the endless hallways he practically lived in, occasionally tugging gently on Blaine's sleeve when he went the wrong way.
"And how long exactly would a change of such magnitude take?" Blaine joked.
Kurt thought for a moment. "Rebirth." He answered firmly, nodding to himself as Blaine chuckled.
A blast of cold air confronted them as the automatic doors retracted. Blaine tightened his scarf around his neck, tying it around his head and leaving only his eyes exposed. "Uh ma 'inja" he mumbled through the fabric.
Kurt laughed at his childish humor. "C'mon, the resteraunt's right around the corner."
A/N: Shoot me a review! Reviews and Glee tonight will just make my day (: