"Kurt, don't you dare turn the water cold like you did last time I let you in my bathroom." Blaine said grumpily as he still had stiffness in his joints as he was getting up from the chair with Mairead and Joey's help. Kurt had gleefully bounded into Blaine's bathroom to fill up the bathtub for him.

"Blaine, it was only to get you actually wake up in time when we had a date to go to the theater for the showing of Wicked! You know how much I love that show and when Wes gave us those tickets, you know I just about died." Kurt shouted from the bathroom, his voice echoing out to the bedroom.

He groaned; it was when he had slept in too late for Kurt's comfort. "Fine, you win." Blaine yelled flatly. "Hey, help me over the drawers, you two? I need to get clean clothes and my swimming suit for this… ordeal. No, Joey; you are so not helping." Blaine pointed out as he opened his mouth. Joey pouted.

Mairead laughed at the brothers' antics. As they brought Blaine into the bathroom, Mairead playfully shoved Joey out the door and slammed it before he could get a word in. She could hear him harrumph behind the door. She quietly giggled to herself one last time as she was nearly falling down with Blaine's weight on her shoulder. "Kurt? Help?"

Kurt turned the faucet off before going to help her with Blaine. He closed the lid on the toilet and helped Mairead lead him over to sit him down.

Blaine sighed in relief; he was starting to get dizzy again from the movement. They sat him down on the seat, and Kurt was about to shoo her out the door but Blaine stopped him.

"Hey, as much as I love you, I think she's more comfortable with um… helping me change… into a bathing suit." He finished quickly, looking quite embarrassed. Blaine looked down at his feet to hide his feelings from the boy he so loved that he was scared of hurting. He tried to hold back the tears that were threatening to overspill.

Kurt saw his expression and took a deep breath. He tipped Blaine's chin up with the tips of his fingers and kissed him gently and lovingly. Blaine's eyes never left his feet.

"Blaine, it's alright. Look at me? Please?" Kurt asked softly.

Blaine slowly looked up, biting his lip from crying. Kurt had a look of deep understanding in his face. A lone tear rolled down his red face. "I'm sorry! I know I'm b-being stupid bu-"Blaine was stopped by another kiss.

"Hush, I understand, Blaine. Really, I do. We'll talk, after you get cleaned up. I promise. I love you." With one last kiss, Kurt excited the bathroom. Closing the door behind him softly, he let out a big sigh. Kurt walked next door to his dorm room to clean up a bit himself. He knew that Blaine was scared of hurting him when Karofsky and the bullies at McKinley already terrorized him.

A few minutes later, dressed in a perfectly pressed pale violet shirt and purple tie with silver around the edge and cream pants with his favorite white no-shoestring, slip-on, suede-covered tennis shoes, he waited for Blaine to finish with his bath with Mairead.

He liked Mairead, a lot. At least she's not a diva like Santana or Rachel. He thought amusingly as he tightened his tie up. I wonder how she and Blaine met. She seems like a perfect fit for him. Funny, fierce, obviously protective, but why do I feel like she's hiding something from the both of us? I mean, Mairead seems to have this dark cloud hanging just under the surface of her skin, like it's threatening to burst at any moment.

Kurt finished perfecting his outfit and went to hangout in Blaine's room next door. The door to his bathroom was still closed shut and quietly he pressed his ear to the door, trying to cause any noise that would alert them.

Blaine was sobbing quietly and Mairead was murmuring words in that language of hers that Kurt had yet to ask what it was.

Kurt sighed, suppressing an urge to knock down the door and comfort Blaine himself. He saw out of the corner of his eye a tall lanky boy leaning against the door frame, dark bags under his eyes. Kurt held up a finger, telling him to wait for a second. Nearly running over to Blaine's desk, he managed to find a post-it note and a pen. He stuck the note on the front of the bathroom door saying that he and Joey were down in the Japanese peace garden and that Blaine should bring the Frisbee he often had whenever they were outside.

Joey was quiet on the way down to the garden Kurt was leading him down the impressive mahogany staircase and out the clear glass doors. He looked around in wonder. The quiet rushing of the small waterfall over smooth river rocks in the middle of the area surrounded by cherry blossom trees and bonsai trees. There were benches situated around the koi pond that remained empty since Dalton was on spring break.

Kurt led Joey to a bench right in front of the pond, his personal favorite spot. Joey leaned tiredly against the back of the surprisingly comfortable wooden bench. Kurt slung an arm around the back of the bench, just letting him and Joey enjoy the silence for a few moments.

Joey leaned forward and put his face in his hands. Kurt saw this. "Hey, what's wrong? You know, well, kinda know in the time that we've actually known each other, that you can talk to me right?"

Silent tears leaked through Joey's hands and dripped down onto the smooth broad walking stones below their feet. He dropped his hands. "It's just that, I feel helpless against all of this. I mean, if this can happen to Blaine what'll happen to me when Dad blows up again?" Joey angrily shouted to Kurt.
Kurt sighed, trying to come up with a response to Joey. "Sometimes, people do feel frozen when the situation occurs, Joey. It's alright to feel helpless. What you did to help Blaine wasn't helpless. What you did was brave, inspiring even. You did your best to help your brother through what you thought was the worst situation in the world." Kurt somehow flubbed out, not really thinking of what he was saying.

Joey, his face still in his hands, nodded. Kurt rubbed his back soothingly while trying to come up with something else to say to the brother. They just sat there in silence, working through their thoughts.

An hour later, they saw Blaine walking out on his own with Mairead by his side holding a white frisbee.

"Hey guys! What's up?" Mairead smiled at the duo on the bench. She held up the Frisbee, not waiting for their response. "Wanna play? It'll help get the some exercise into this lazy guy." She nudged Blaine in the side with her elbow.

Kurt looked and Joey and smiled, raised his eyebrows for a quick second; the non-verbal way to say You ready? Joey nodded and smiled himself.

Blaine slowly made his way to Kurt's side, taking care not to trip over his feet. Kurt gently put his hands on both sides of Blaine's rib cage. He raised his eyebrows to say You okay? Blaine got the hint and nodded before kissing him sweetly. Kurt responded in same. They could have gone on for awhile but broke apart when they both heard puckering sounds. Kurt opened his eyes to Mairead and Joey puckering their lips and making gooey faces at them. Blaine saw a mischievous smile grace Kurt's face. Kurt gave a quick peck on Blaine's cheek before lunging towards Mairead. She took off running and screaming sounds of laughter with Kurt on her tail. Joey helped his brother over the bench where he and Kurt were sitting earlier and watched the two of them chase each other. Mairead was clearly winning; however, Blaine knew that Kurt was faster than she would soon realize. She started to slow down after the third lap around the garden and that was when Kurt sped up enough to tackle her to the ground.

All four of them laughed when Mairead landed on the cold, hard springtime ground on her stomach with a loud "Oof!" followed by a Vietnamese expletive that no one understood except Blaine, who laughed the hardest. Kurt rolled off of her and on his back to he could breathe. After they caught their breath they followed Kurt and Blaine out of the garden and into the secluded dome that held a football field that had been put for the winter and spring for Dalton's inhouse soccer and flag football team.

"Why don't we just start throwing this around and let's see how fast and far Mr. Hummel here can run." Mairead said, tossing the Frisbee vertically up in the air and catching it. Blaine stuck his tongue out, knowing that Kurt and his brother were going to have a competition of who can run the fastest; Joey played soccer and lacrosse so he was naturally going to win. They had been having fun until the light inside the dome started to blacken and they headed inside to eat and so Blaine could take the medication Carole had given him.

They were talking in Blaine's room about TV shows when Joey noticed Blaine's eyes were drooping from exhaustion. "Hey, looks like big bro's getting a little sleepy." Joey stated jokingly.

Blaine smiled tiredly. "You could say that. I think today's been the most movement I've had since we've gotten here." He said, yawning the last word.

Mairead chuckled. "Sorry, but before you can sleep, I promised my parents that you would talk to them. Else, my mom would have sent an entire emergency department here to check on you." She made a face. Blaine chuckled softly as she speed-dialed her mom, closing his eyes briefly and leaning his head on Kurt's shoulder on his bed.

Mairead hung on the line until Sarah picked up her cell phone on the first ring. "Hello? Mom?" She asked tentatively.

"Oh, Mairead, finally you called. I was getting worried. Do you know how many days it's been since you promised you would call?" Sarah didn't let her daughter answer. "It's been two days! Now, where's Blaine and how is he doing? And don't you dare skimp on the details." Sarah told her as sternly as she could considering she was relieved that she had finally called.

Mairead sighed loudly into the phone while walking out the door for a little privacy from the boys. "Blaine's… going to be alright. He's got a large laceration on this gash which was sutured up with dissolvable sutures, multiple small lacerations to his upper chest around his clavicle, the cartilage in his nose was broken and it was set by Joey but we might have to bring him into the hospital for an x-ray if it's not set right, and sheer exhaustion." Mairead rattled off to her mother while counting them off on her fingers, not leaving anything out. "Carole, Blaine's boyfriend's mother, is an ED nurse who came by and did everything at Dalton. Blaine had spiked a fever for about two days with a temperature high of 103.5 degrees. Carole inserted an IV into the back of his left hand and gave him saline and intravenous ibuprofen for the fever. He was anxious when it was time to insert the IV so she gave him a sedative. After I came back after coming home, Blaine had a bad flashback. It didn't cause anything damaging besides making him bleed a little bit more out of the gash on his forehead, but I changed the bandage on his forehead and gave him the chocolate ice cream Kurt had picked up on his way back to Dalton after dropping off Carole at his house. Carole came back later that night and gave him this drug that was a painkiller and a sleeping aid that helped him fall asleep.

"She left behind a bag full of syringes filled with ten milliliters of oral amoxicillin that he's supposed to have every six hours or so to stave off any infections that the broken plate could have gotten in the lacerations. Today was the first day he was on his feet for the last few days; he seems fine if a little stiff and unsteady. He was a little cold when we went outside for a few hours today." Mairead took a deep breath. "I think that's all of it, Mom." She finished quietly. Listening to the phone, she could hear the barely noticeable scratching of a pen against paper coming from the other end.

"Sorry, honey, just taking notes for the future. I know you just gave me the facts about him, but how is he?" Sarah asked gently.

Sighing deeply and knowing what she meant, "He's… trying to hang in there. But I'm scared he's going to snap. And soon. I wouldn't be surprised if it happens when I'm still here. I'm scared, Mom. If this is what Matthew can do to Blaine, I'm scared what'll happen when Joey goes home." Her voice quivering as she confided in her adoptive mom.

"I know, sweetie, I know. But hang in there, as soon as the situation calms down, we'll get Blaine and Joey the help they need; okay? Now, where's Blaine? I want to talk with him a bit before he falls asleep from today's exertions." Sarah told her. "And Mairead? Sweetie?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm so proud of you. And I love you." Mairead could hear the pride and love in her voice over the phone.

"I love you too, Mom." She finished as she walked in the door. Looking around in the room, she could hear Joey brushing his teeth in Blaine's bathroom and Kurt singing softly to Blaine, who looked asleep. Mairead caught the last few lyrics he was singing:

When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change
Cause you're amazing, just the way you are
And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while
Because Blaine, you're amazing, just the way you are

She smiled at the slight alteration to the lyrics. Mairead walked over to the bed. She smiled to Kurt before gently shaking Blaine's shoulder to wake him up.

"Hey, you. I know you want to sleep, but you need to talk to my mom just for a minute or two, okay?" She said, handing the phone over to the drowsy Blaine. He nodded and slowly sat up with Kurt's help and leaning his naked torso against the headboard.

Kurt gave her a look, asking her with his facial expressions if she'll stay here for a bit. Mairead got the hint and nodded. He nodded back and got off the bed as she sat on the edge of it. Kurt ran out the door and into his dorm room to change into his dark blue silk pajamas and brush his teeth. It took him all of five minutes, considering that he decided to forgo his moisturizing routine for the night. Going back into Blaine's room, he saw Mairead humming softly while rubbing his arm that he tucked back under his Gryffindor blanket. Joey had finished in the bathroom and was gathering his sleeping bag.

"I'm going to sleep on the floor in your room, Kurt. If it's okay with you?" Joey asked him softly as Kurt slid into the bed underneath the blanket besides his brother. He rolled his eyes, cocking his eyebrow up as he nodded at Joey.

Joey grinned as he made the gooey faces he and Mairead had done earlier and bolted out of the room before Kurt could do anything. Kurt rolled his eyes again. Mairead just chuckled.

"Wake me up if he needs anything?" Mairead softly asked Kurt. He nodded. She walked next door to Kurt's room to write in her journal and sleep.