CHAPTER 10: Lost and Found

Kurt slowly became aware of his surroundings. At first, though, he needed to do inventory. His head felt like it was floating on clouds, there were bandages on his chest, and his left arm was in a sling. He tried to open his eyes again, and after a few seconds the blurry images finally took shape. Carole was sitting on a chair next to what he assumed was a hospital bed, clutching his hand tightly, as if she were afraid she would lose him if she let go.

Kurt had never wanted his mom as much as in this moment. She was supposed to be the one to hold his hand. He blinked away the tears and quickly looked away from Carole. Finn was standing in a corner, looking as if he wanted to be anywhere but here. Finn. Kurt tried to sit up and tried to put some distance between him and the giant teen.

"Kurt, honey. You're in the hospital," Carole tried to calm him down. "You're save now." Kurt scoffed. What was Finn even doing here? He had been the one to text that practice finished early, and Kurt had walked right into Finn's friends' trap.

He wanted to tell Finn to leave, but his tongue wasn't cooperating at the moment and all he managed was "What…?" Carole tried to push his bangs out of his eyes but he dodged her. "Do you remember what happened?"

Kurt nodded, but he didn't know how he had ended up in the hospital. The last things he remembered before he must have passed out were sirens in the distance, cursing and his attackers as they ran away. "How did I get here?" Carole looked over to Finn. Had Finn actually come clean?

"Finn called 911 when he saw what was happening. The sirens must have chased away the people who did that to you. Too bad the paramedics didn't get a good look." So Finn was playing the hero, but still covering for his friends. Well, Kurt Hummel was done playing the victim. After all, no one pushes the Hummels around.

"I need to step out for a moment to make some calls. I'm sure your dad would like an update on your condition, as would other people." She winked at him when she said that, so Kurt knew she was talking about Blaine. Of course his father hadn't cared enough to come to the hospital for him. He was probably mad that Kurt had allowed four overgrown football players to use him as punching bag.

When he looked up, Finn was still in the room. "Why did you help me? Why not just let them finish the job? After all, it was you who told me they were gone, when they were waiting for me in the parking lot." Finn took a step closer to the bed, but Kurt raised his hand to stop him.

"Dude, I didn't know they would do that. I thought they would just prank you or something." There was a brief moment of silence. Pranks. That is what Finn thought the bullying was. Either the jock was really that stupid, or he was a damn good actor.

"Patrick told me to get his bag from the locker room, but I couldn't find it there, and when I came out to tell him, I saw what they were doing and panicked. So I called 911 because I didn't want to get kicked off the team or suspended for something they did."

For a moment, Kurt had actually believed his stepbrother had helped him because he knew what his friends were doing was wrong, but Finn only wanted to save his own skin.

"You can't tell anyone who it was. They're going to make my life hell if they find out I called 911. Just say you got hit on the head and you can't remember what they look like and I'll say I didn't see their faces either." Before Kurt could say something, Carole came back into the room. Kurt sat up straight in his bed and glared at Finn.

"Carole, I think I'm ready to talk to the police. About everything. Oh and Finn. It might be better for you if you told the truth for once." Carole nodded and took out her phone again. "Finn didn't participate, did he?" Carole asked in a small voice. Kurt shook his head "This time he didn't" Carole swallowed before she dragged a livid Finn out of Kurt's hospital room.

Blaine was pacing the Hummel living room waiting to hear back from an airline. As soon as he had gotten off the phone with Carole, he had started looking into plane, bus and train tickets. His boyfriend was in a hospital at the other side of the country, in pain and probably scared, and there was nothing he could do. It was just so frustrating.

After cleaning the dishes, vacuuming the floor and cleaning out the refrigerator, Blaine finally had his plane ticket. The only early morning flight he could still get was departing from Fort Wayne and he would have to change his flight in Dallas. If everything worked out, Blaine could be at the hospital two hours after the official visiting hours started.

After checking his email and printing out his ticket, he picked up his phone and called Carole to let her know when he would arrive in Texas. Carole had tried to convince him that it wasn't necessary for him to come and that they should stick to their original plan, but Blaine couldn't wait any longer.

So Carole had agreed to pick him up at the airport at 10:15 am and promised they would drive straight to the hospital afterward while Burt was at work. Now all he had to do was make it through the night and not miss his flight.

The police officer the station had sent over left shortly after eight and Kurt wanted nothing more than to just sleep. The man had told him that unless Finn confirmed his story, there wasn't much they could do, because it would be Kurt's word against the jocks'. His father had still not shown up, and for all he knew, Finn was currently telling his friends that he talked to the police and they might come back to finish the job.

There was nothing keeping him here. His father didn't even care enough to visit him in the hospital and the person he really needed a hug from would never ever be able to give him one again. He needed to get out of here. He needed to get back home where people actually cared about him.

Carole had thankfully brought him clothes, and for once he didn't mind his baggy jeans because it was easier to pull them over his bandaged ankle. Once dressed, he carefully stood up, and tried to take a few steps. His ankle and ribs were immediately protesting, but that was nothing some medication wouldn't take care of. He put his wallet into the remains of his backpack and after he made sure that the coast was clear, made his way toward the exist.

Once outside he hailed a cab, which drove him to the bus station. He picked up some over the counter painkillers at an open supermarket and after picking up a ticket for the 9:50 am bus to Dallas, sat down in a booth in the corner of a 24/7 diner where he promptly fell asleep with his head on the table.

Luckily, the sole waitress didn't kick him out and only woke him when people started coming in for their morning coffee. He gave her a generous tip and then made his way across the street to the bus terminal to hide out until the bus left.

By now, the hospital should have realized that he had left without permission. He swallowed a couple more painkillers once the pain got really bad, but at close to ten Kurt Hummel finally left Austin, just as Blaine's plane landed at the airport.

Burt was already gone when Carole left the house to pick up Blaine at the airport. The boy looked like he hadn't slept at all and was immediately bombarding her with questions about his boyfriend's condition. She told him about the dislocated shoulder, the broken and bruised ribs, the sprained ankle and the array of bruises covering his body and face.

She was glad he didn't ask her about the attackers because she had briefly spoken to the police officer after his interview with Kurt. She had tried to talk to Finn when she came home, but he had locked himself into his room and pretended to be asleep when she had called his name. She just hoped the boy she raised was still somewhere in Finn and he would do the right thing.

When they arrived at the hospital, the parking lot was already filling up and she dropped Blaine off at the entrance, after telling him Kurt's room number, before she went looking for a parking space.

Twenty minutes later she finally made it onto Kurt's floor and as she rounded the corner she could here shouting. Burt was blocking Kurt's door trying to keep Blaine out. "I don't know what you think you're doing here, but you're sure as hell not going in," she heard Burt say. A nurse was standing close by trying to get the two men's attention, but to no avail so far.

"I flew all the way down here. I need to see he's okay." Blaine looked close to tears as he pleaded with Burt. "It's you're fault he's in the hospital. If you hadn't corrupted him with this gay crap, no one would have felt the need to beat him up." "If you hadn't dragged him to a place that's even worse the Ohio, no one would have gotten hurt at all." Blaine fired back.

Carole had about enough. "Both of you shut up. We are here for Kurt and all that shouting can't be good for him." Both men froze and looked over to Carole who was glaring daggers at them. The nurse used the momentary quiet to get their attention again.

"Mr. and Mrs. Hummel. What I've been trying to tell you is that your son left the hospital some time last night. We're currently checking our security footage, but unfortunately we don't know yet what time he left." "What? Have you called the police?" Blaine demanded.

"They wouldn't do anything anyway. It hasn't been twenty-four hours yet." Burt interrupted. Carole took a closer look at her husband. He looked almost guilty. "Why don't we try to call him and see where he is," Carole suggested before she took out her phone and dialed Kurt's number.

It rang twice before going straight to voice mail. When she tried with Burt's phone, the call was sent to voice mail straight away. "You call him," Burt ordered pointing at Blaine who was sitting on the floor with his head in his hands.

"You know I can't call his oh so special phone. You made sure of that," Blaine accused. Wanting to prevent another shouting match Carole suggested that they best all went back to the house and started calling around from there.

They had searched for Kurt all afternoon but all they had found out was that Kurt didn't have any friends at school who could have taken him in and the writer's club hadn't heard from him either.

Carole had called the airport to check if Kurt had purchased a ticket and at first they had refused to check the passenger list, but after Carole had told them about Kurt's condition, they had relented and checked, but no Kurt Hummel was on any of the lists. Burt could only sit there and listen to his wife take charge while he felt utterly useless.

He could only repeat the words Carole had said to him last night in his mind. What if he had really lost his son for good? What if Kurt was lying somewhere in a ditch because he had tried to run away and didn't make it? He hadn't realized how much time had past until he heard his wife on the phone with the airport again, ordering two tickets to Indiana.

Before she could tell them the names of the passengers he took the phone and told them his instead of hers. Kurt was his responsibility after all. They were lucky to get two last minute tickets for a flight that would arrive in Fort Wayne close to midnight. They had all agreed that Kurt would probably try to get to Ohio somehow.

The drive to the airport was quite. Next to him Carole was still trying to reach Finn who was also still M.I.A, but it wouldn't be a first for Finn. He had no idea how he was supposed to spend the next six hours with Blaine right next to him. Maybe he could pretend to be asleep on the plane. He was way in over his head.

Blaine had been relieved when Carole had agreed to fly up to Ohio with him to look for Kurt who still wasn't picking up his phone. It came as even more of a shock when Mr. Hummel took Carole's phone and bought a ticket for himself instead of his wife.

How was he supposed to spend time with a man his boyfriend so clearly despised and was a known homophobe? He couldn't just sit next to him and say nothing. He had never been good with prolonged silence and tended to fill it with his own rambling.

Thirty minutes into the flight he couldn't stand it anymore. He could tell by the way Mr. Hummel's breathing was anything but even that the older man was just pretending to be asleep but he didn't want to be ignored any longer. Maybe if he could get Kurt's father to talk to him, it would make things better for Kurt and his father.

"I saw some of your old football trophies at your house. What position did you play?" he asked before he could chicken out. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the other man sit up and give him a curious look. "You like football?"

"Yeah, would play too if I were taller. I used to play in Junior High until I came out. The team wasn't to happy about it and asked me "nicely" to quit the team?" Blaine saw Mr. Hummel raise an eyebrow at that. Blaine usually didn't like talking about his past, but maybe it would help opening up to Kurt's father.

"They beat me up one day after practice. I was home schooled for the rest of the semester and transferred to Dalton for my freshman year of High School." Kurt's father definitely looked uncomfortable now. "That why you don't live at home?" Blaine chuckled.

He was sure his parents had suspected something but had been in denial for a long time. When he had asked if he could finish his education at Dalton because of it's higher academic standard, his parents had loved the idea, especially because a lot of his father's business partners had sons attending as well and Blaine would be boarding there most of the year.

"By the time the ambulance arrived, the guys were gone and without any witnesses it would have been my word against theirs. So I told everyone it was a mugging gone wrong. But I hate that the guys never got punished for what they did. At least with Finn being a witness and all that shouldn't happen to Kurt."

They were both quiet for a moment, before Kurt's father spoke up again. "I'm sorry about that, you know. I never wanted anything like that for Kurt. To get attacked. I thought if he toned it down and kept quiet he would be save. But you don't even look gay and they attacked you too."

Blaine hated it when people assumed he was any less gay because he didn't look like people expected a gay man to look like. "Doesn't change the fact that I'm as gay as Kurt is and before you say anything – neither of us chose this for ourselves. It's just who we are and ever since I met Kurt I couldn't be happier about it." They didn't talk anymore till the end of the flight and Blaine hoped he might have gotten through to Mr. Hummel a little bit.

Kurt wasn't at the house when they arrived close to one in the morning but they hadn't really expected it. If Kurt had taken a bus or a train it would take him more than a day to get home. He really hoped they hadn't been wrong, and Kurt really was on the way back to Ohio.

Kurt was beyond exhausted when he finally got off the bus in Lima the next afternoon. He had to change buses twice and spending close to twenty-eight hours on a bus had not helped his healing process. He had slept on and off during the trip but he still felt like he'd been on his feet the entire time. All he wanted to do was get back to his house and go to sleep, but he needed to talk to his mom first before he surprised Blaine at school, where he knew Blaine had Glee Club Thursday afternoon.

He asked the cab driver, who had driven him to the cemetery, to wait for him and then slowly made his way over to his mom's grave. Kurt hadn't been here since the funeral nearly four month ago, but there were fresh flowers that Kurt suspected Blaine had brought. He carefully lowered himself to the ground, not caring for once if his clothes got dirty. He had no idea what to do now. He didn't believe in God, so praying was out. Maybe he could just talk to her.

"Mom, it's Kurt. I just wanted to tell you that I miss you so much. The last months without you have been horrible. Burt forced me to move to Texas and I just ran away because I got beat up badly after school. I wish you could hold you right now. Burt's wife Carole is nice, but she isn't you." Kurt drew a shaky breath. He couldn't break down now. "I guess Blaine has come to visit you too. He always said he wanted you to be his mom, but was to embarrassed to tell you."

He couldn't stop the tears anymore. Why did all those awful things have to happen to him? He wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "If you were here you'd know what to do. I now I promised I was going to stay strong and not let others get to me, but I don't know how much more I can take. I can't go back there mom. They're going to kill me, if I come back."

Kurt knew he must be quite the spectacle by now. He needed to leave. He needed someone to hold him in his arm and tell him it was going to be okay. Even if it wasn't.

The cab driver sent him a sympathetic look when his saw his red rimmed eyes as he climbed back into the cab and offered him a tissue that Kurt gratefully accepted. Once he deemed himself presentable enough he gave the driver McKinley's address.

He could already hear singing as he approached the choir room. An unfamiliar woman was standing in the front, running scales with the class. He could see Rachel and Mercedes and some other familiar faces, but couldn't find Blaine. His ex-girlfriend, who was standing close to another girl, was the first who spotted him and immediately dragged him into the choir room.

Before he knew what was happening, he was being bombarded with questions but eventually he was told that Blaine had flown down to Texas to visit him in the hospital. Rachel lent him her phone to call Blaine but all he got was his voice mail. He couldn't help it as tears started streaming down his face yet again. Blaine had gone all the way to Texas and now he couldn't reach him without having to call Carole first.

Before he knew it, his legs gave out and he sank to the floor. Rachel's mom insisted he visited the school nurse, but luckily he convinced the nurse that he had just forgotten to take his meds and would be alright as soon as he took them. When Rachel offered to take him back to her house, he agreed because he didn't want to be alone at his house and Blaine still hadn't called back.

Even though he was dead tired he just couldn't fall asleep in Rachel's guest bedroom. So at two thirty in the morning he left her a note, borrowed her car keys and thanked his lucky star that he was still able to drive as he made his way home.

The spare key was where his mom had left it and he made his way downstairs to his bedroom as quickly as he could with his injuries. He didn't bother with turning on the light, carefully took off his shirt and crawled into his bed in the pajama bottoms Rachel had lent him and then promptly screamed, because someone was already in his bed.

Before he could get his bearings, the light was turned on as he father came down the stairs brandishing a baseball bat, while a very confused and sleepy looking Blaine sat up next to him.