WICKED ✓

2

"Welcome back sweetheart. How is your father?" A friendly nurse named Taryn that took care of Stella's mother asks.

"As good as he can be. Happy to spend the day with the little one," Stella says, referring to Sabine. On the weekends, their dad didn't have to work, so it's when he spends time with the family, and Stella used the time off to volunteer at the hospital where her mom was treated for ovarian cancer before she died.

Despite many bad memories in the hospital, Stella spent so much time with her mother there that it holds mostly fond memories, and she can't help but think of the people who don't have large families like hers, people that are going through the same things that she did, but alone. She couldn't imagine not having the chaos of her home when she was going through the toughest times.

"Enjoy your visit," Taryn says to her as she walks past, heading down the familiar hallways that lead her to the cancer ward of the hospital. Wearing a loose, blue and white striped button-down tee and loose white shorts, Stella smiles in anticipation of seeing smiling faces through the glass wall that she approaches.

"Look who's here!" Rita, one of the nurses in the children's ward exclaims and multiple heads turn to face the woman before darting in the opposite direction towards Stella and immediately brightening in recognition of the kind woman.

"Stella!" Many small voices call out and she grins widely with her arms open as the children well enough to stand, run over to embrace her. Stella hugs them all back and greets them before giving hugs to the three children in beds, as well as greeting their parents, obviously just having gone through another round of chemo, judging by the yellow labeled bags hanging from their I.V. drips.

She sits down in a small chair at a small table and chats animatedly about cartoons and zoo animals. She starts to color a piece of paper with "Clifford The Big Red Dog" on it along with two kids who stand over her shoulders, watching her every move with fascination.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Princess. I'm here now," A winded voice bursts into the room and sits with Hazel, an adorable little girl that has been in a coma for over a year, and is looking pale and smaller than usual. Hazel's face stays complacent but he takes her hand and rests his head on top of it, still breathing heavily but focusing on her as Stella watches in rapt silence.

Her heart warms and her lips curl into a smile, watching the way the man interacts with the young girl. She tries not to swoon as she sees the guy place a bouquet of pink flowers on her bedside table. Turning back around when Stella hears her name, she continues to color, answering every question thrown her way quietly, making sure the noise level doesn't get too high, as the kids recovering need rest.

Forced to take a break from the coloring, Stella is dragged to sit on the colorful padded floor shaped like puzzle pieces, surrounded by Legos. A quiet boy named Peter offers to help her build something, and she accept his offer graciously, ending up with some kind of flying speed boat that is really quite impressive. They high five and work on building a skyscraper out of any pieces that they can find and she lets Peter pretend to be Godzilla and smash all of it, quietly of course. Stella really does love to play with children. She imagined having many of her own one day when her siblings were all grown up.

A few pieces of Lego go flying near the coloring station and Stella crawls on hands and knees to retrieve it, bumping her head on the underside of the small table when she hears an unfamiliar voice closer to her than expected.

"I haven't seen you here before. What's your name?" The man says. He can't help but notice the woman. She was young in a way that aged her beyond her years. Plain, but purely beautiful nonetheless. He watches amusedly as she crawls back out from beneath the table and straightens up so that she's kneeling. Her eyes are wide and she is aware that she's staring, but his handsome face prevents her from tearing them away. Buzzed brown hair with various white scars cutting through his scalp, light brown, almost orange eyes, sharp features, and towering height.