Doodle Heart | ✓

chapter eleven: mural

"Cool, see ya," she waved, walking towards the nurse's station further down the hall. A woman with blond hair pinned up into a ponytail smiled at her when she approached.

"Hello, are you here for painting the murals?" The woman asked.

Mae nodded.

"Perfect!" The woman clicked something on her computer. "Can I get a name please?"

"Mae Chen."

A moment later, Mae was directed to a patient's room who (she was informed) was a six year old little boy. She was instructed to first do a miniature interview with the patient to get an idea of what she should paint on the walls before actually beginning. Areas outlined in blue masking tape were not to be tampered with, and paint could be accessed at the nurse's station.

Mae knocked gently on Room C6 before being granted access. She first locked eyes with a woman with smile wrinkles under her eyes, then a little boy in the bed, and finally, two very familiar faces.

"Mae?" Dustin and Parker exclaimed in disbelief.

Mae's eyes widened in shock. "Uh, hi, may I come in?"

The woman nodded eagerly. "Of course, dear." She turned swiftly to the older boys, and with a stern tone, ordered them to move out of their seats and offer Mae theirs.

Of course, the humble painter politely declined. She offered her hand to the woman, "I'm Mae, and I've been assigned to paint the mural in this room." Mae turned to the little boy who had a shy smile on. "Hey, what's your name?" She asked kindly, her voice slowly becoming more high-pitched.

"I'm Pete," he said, suddenly grinning. "And that's my brother Parky, and his best friend Dusty."

"I swear," Dustin told her instantly, "he has never called me that name ever in his life."

But what Mae was stunned to hear was the fact Parker had a little brother with... cancer? Sadness coursed through her brain and all of a sudden she felt very down. But she cut it out with an ecstatic smile. "Yeah, I kind of know them from school."

Parker arched an amused brow. "Kind of? I thought you loved us more than that, babe."

Mae's cheeks reddened and she stood slightly uncomfortably at the foot of Peter's bed. "Well, let's begin with a little interview, shall we?"

"Ooh! An interview! I've always wanted to do one of those!" Peter chirped, grinning excitedly.

Peter's happiness transferred to Mae almost immediately. "This interview is going to be so cool because I'll be able to know how I should paint your room."

"Anything?" Peter asked in awe.

Mae nodded. "Anything you want."

The six year old rubbed his hands together excitedly, and Mae could tell that she was going to love the idea already. "So, I just thought of something so cool..."

"OKAY, ROGER THAT, Captain Pete," Mae saluted with a faux serious expression on her face. Peter saluted in return, and Parker had a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest from watching how well Mae and Peter got along. Throughout the whole interview, Mae was optimistic and loved Peter's ideas, then described exactly how she was going to paint it to make sure Peter would be okay with it. They eventually decided on a space adventure.

"I'll probably need some help with the paint though," Mae laughed, setting her brush bag down at the foot of Peter's bed.

"I'll do it," Both Parker and Dustin piped in at the same time.

Mae eyed them, "I only need one extra set of hands, I believe. One of you could fill up a plastic cup with water for me and grab some paper towels." Before Dustin could even react, Parker shot up and out of his seat, and dragged Mae out the door.

In the hallway, Mae stared up at Parker who stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Well? Where do we get the paint?"

"Right..." she drawled with uncertainty, leading them in the direction of the nurse's station.

"Thank you for doing this—painting his whole room—for Pete. You made his day, ya know?" Parker said in a low voice.

A smile reached Mae's lips. "No problem. I love painting, and Pete is a total sweetheart, too. I didn't know you had a brother though."

"Yeah, I don't bring him up a lot to people other than my mom and Dustin," he replied. "I saw your paintings in Dustin's office, too. They were gorgeous."

"Thanks," she let out a breathy laugh as they reached the station.

The nurse from before smiled at the both of them. "Ready for paint?"

Mae nodded.

"Great! I'll just grab you a small box to carry them with and there's a huge hamper of paint bottles just behind here that you can pick from." The nurse handed Mae a nicely sized cardboard box and Mae slipped behind the station to pick and choose her colors.

Parker recognized the woman to be the Head Nurse (Felicity Halls) and greeted her warmly.

Felicity slyly leaned in towards him and whispered, "You're gonna keep her, right?"

Parker's eyebrows shot up in confusion. "What do you mean?"

The nurse rolled her eyes. "Men. What I mean is that you don't meet a girl like that every generation! She seems so sweet. How's she with Pete?"

Parker involuntarily smiled. "They're great, actually. Just listening to her converse with him gave me—" His eyes managed to absentmindedly wander towards where Mae was diving head first into the canvas hamper for paint. Her eyebrows were furrowed cutely in concentration as she kept adding more colors to the box.

"Aw, the little bad boy likes somebody," Felicity cooed.

Parker rolled his eyes. "Oh please. I don't like her like that."

Felicity's eyebrow arched high. "Yeah, and I'm the new President of America."

"That would be nice if you were," Parker played along.

The nurse rolled her eyes this time, and before she could come up with a come back, Mae returned to Parker's side a little out of breath.

"Did you go cave diving or something? You're so out of breath," Parker teased as the two of them walked back towards Peter's room.

Mae shot him a mild glare. "That damn hamper is very much like a cave. I almost fell in all the way because of how deep it is."

The boy laughed. "Here, I'll hold the box for you." Mae was about to protest when he took it from her arms, but he shut her up by handing her a piece of paper from the back of his pocket. "Oh yeah, and I also sort of drew you," he added, his cheeks turning a light shade of red.

When Mae took a good look at it, she realized it was the sketch she had found in his sketchbook of that day at Dustin's house. They had arrived just outside Peter's room when Mae noticed red ink on the back.

Parker didn't even glance back as she froze in her steps and didn't follow him into the room. Scribbled in red ink said in Parker's handwriting: "I know who you are, Snow."

Mae felt like she was about to faint and panic coursed through her brain. She was going to need an out-of-this-world comeback for this.

a/n: surprise...?

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