Men in black body armor swarmed through the entrance and pointed their guns with lights around the room.

"Freeze!" One of the men shouted at Mairead. "Show me your hands!" Mairead lifted one of her hands, keeping the other hand, the one that she thought is broken, on top of her shirt that was on top of Blaine's gut wound; her body twisted at the waist, her upper half of her body twisted towards Blaine. She looked blurrily at the man through slitted eyes before closing them. "Now the other one!" The man gruffly shouted at her.

"My… hand is… broken… and he... is going… to bleed… out if… I lift…it!" She panted loudly to him.

"What's your name?" He interrogated rudely.

"Mairead… Stryka. This is… Blaine Anderson. Over there… is Joey Anderson… and Kurt… Hummel… is right… there." She pointed blindly to each boy as she said to the man.

"Alright, everything is clear! We have four wounded persons in basement of house. I repeat, in basement of house is four severely wounded persons. Send EMTs down immediately." The man talked loudly into his radio, finally taking the barrel of his gun off of Mairead's heart, took the whole gun off of his body and setting it aside where it wouldn't get in the way. More black clad people swarmed into the room.

"Julia, you might want to come here." The man said loudly, waving a hand towards someone. "Okay, My-read. I'm going to take your hand off of Blaine here, but I'll put my hand on top of the shirt, okay?" The man's tone towards her changed quickly, from gruff to surprisingly gentle and soft. She nodded slowly, trying not to move any more to prevent the pain from rearing its ugly head at her. "Julia, here is going to help you to lay down, okay?" Mairead cracked open her eyes and inspected the man who was in her face as she nodded. The man had a black helmet that came over his forehead and wore clear plastic eye protector glasses. There was sweat pouring down his face as he looked at her.

"Julia," he called, "I'm over here, by the corner." He waved his black gloved hand again as he looked up towards the doorway.

A person dressed similarly to the man ran up to them and kneeled. Mairead looked at her person in the face. Having the same eye protection and helmet, Mairead could clearly tell she was a female officer. "Hi, sweetie, my name's Julia, and I'm a SWAT officer. I'll be with you the entire time until we get you to the hospital, okay?" She said to her, kindness permeating her voice and smiling at her.

Mairead gritted her teeth and shut her eyes. "Sure." She said through clenched teeth.

"Good. Now, Tyler here is going to pick up your arm and I'm going to help you lay on your back. On the count of three?" Julia looked at the man she called Tyler. He nodded his helmeted head. Julia put her hands under Mairead's back. "One… Two… Three!" Julia grunted as Mairead's body fell onto her hands and she gently lowered her fully to the ground.

Mairead groaned as she felt her arm, and her fractured wrist, drop on the ground beside her. Tyler put a large hand on the purple shirt that was plugging up the bullet hole left in Blaine's gut. He pressed down harder than he thought he did. Blaine started to wake up.

Surfacing from his state of painless bliss, Blaine woke up to people yelling around him. He opened his eyes and started to panic at all the people dressed in black around him, including one that had his hand on his stomach.

"Get… off… of me!" He tried to push the person off but his hands were still attached to the handcuffs. "Leave me… alone!" Blaine struggled against the oppressive hand on him.

"Hold it, Blaine. You're hurt. My name's Tyler, I'm trying to help you but I can't unless you stay still.

Blaine absorbed none of the sentence except for one word: Tyler.

"So you decided to come back and beat me up some more, didn't you? Just because I like boys? I'm right here, go ahead and fight me!" Blaine shouted, looking at Tyler with unseeing eyes.

Mairead heard the shout coming from the boy next to her and figured out what was happening. "Blaine!" she half shouted, half gasped out. "It's me, Mari! Get your butt back here. Get your damn butt back here, right now! Run away from Tyler!" She struggled to sit up and drag herself over to him, but Julia held her shoulders down.

"Tyler!" Mairead gasped to the SWAT member. "What color is your hair?"

Tyler and Julia looked at each other at the peculiar question coming from the injured girl. "My hair is blond, why?" He asked urgently as he tried to get Blaine to lay still.

"Take off your… damn helmet! Let him… see your hair!" She shouted at him.

"Do it, Ty, before he hurts himself even more." Julia said impatiently.

Tyler took off his helmet, revealing sweaty, matted blond hair. "Blaine, look at me! I'm not Tyler." He said to the struggling teen.

Blaine shifted his eyes up to where Tyler was pointing to his hair, gasped and blinked a few times. "Wh-where am I?" He asked as he took a few deep gasping breaths. "Mari… where's Mari? Where's KURT?" He shouted to the man in front of him.

"Blaine! I'm right here, look to your righ-left!" Mairead yelled, turning her head towards him.

He did so quickly, before passing out again.

"Where's the guy with the lock picks?" Julia hollered to the room.

"I'm right here!" The guy yelled back, working on Kurt's hand cuffs.

The EMT with a yellow backboard came running towards Julia and Mairead. "No!" Mairead yelled at the EMT. "I'm… not going… to get… out of… here first. Get him out… before me." She pointed at Kurt, who was freed as Mairead was talking.

"But you're the one wh-"

"I'm not the one… with a shot to the… gut… or a… head wound…" She pointed out, trying to take deep breaths through her gasps of pain. "Get… everyone… out before… me." She looked at Julia, pleading with her eyes.

Julia looked at the girl for a long second before nodding. She could see the steeliness in her eyes, indicating she meant what she said. "Go, get to him before her." She instructed the EMT.

One by one, Blaine, Kurt, and Joey were all released from their shackles and strapped to backboards and whisked away into waiting ambulances outside.

"Mairead," Julia began softly, "Blaine, Joey, and Kurt are in ambulances and on the way to the hospital. It's your turn."

Mairead opened her eyes back to the pained slits she had used to look at everyone. She nodded slowly.

"I promise I won't leave your side. But you need to work with me, okay?" Julia gently gripped her broken right hand in both of her gloved ones.

A pair of new EMTs entered the near empty room with medical supplies and a backboard in hand. Another SWAT member came in with them holding a vest of some sort. An EMT peeled back both of Mairead's eye lids and pointed a too bright light into each of them, seeing if her pupils were blown or dilated; indicating brain damage. The other EMT was busy cleaning her left elbow, preparing it for an IV line.

One of the EMT handed an oxygen mask to Julia, indicating for her to put it on as he took some flat white sticks and putting them on Mairead's wrist, taping them around the swelling joint.

Julia gently lifted Mairead's head, sliding on the oxygen mask over her nose and mouth and making sure the strap wasn't going to hurt her.

Taking a neck brace, one of the EMT moved to put it round her neck, but Mairead swiped it away. The EMT took one look at Julia shaking her head before putting back into this bag. He brought the board down to the ground instead.

"Okay, Mairead. I'm going to put my hands under you and slide you onto the board. It's going to hurt, so get ready." Julia said, not waiting for her response.

Mairead slid onto the board with a loud grunt of pain. She felt straps go around the top part of her chest under her arms and secure her to the board. Her left hand sought out Julia's as she was being lifted up. Feeling something heavy cover her body, her hand was filled by Julia who was walking beside her.

"Wh-what's on me?" Mairead asked tiredly.

"It's just a bullet-proof vest, sweetie. Just in case we're under fire as soon as we go outside. I promise, you won't get hurt; well, anymore than what you have right now." Julia replied tersely as they reached the entrance of the house. She nodded to a group of her fellow squad members as the surrounded the backboard and the EMTs as they walked out to the last ambulance at the entrance of an old decrepit cement building.

Mairead opened up her eyes all the way, seeing the bright, morning sky for the first time in a few days. Feeling herself being gently lowered onto a collapsible gurney, she groaned again; her leg had been jostled in the process. Julia had to let go of her hand so she could be loaded into the ambulance, but quickly climbed in and placed a hand on her upper left arm.

"… 'm sosleepy…" Mairead slurred as one EMT bustled with supplies around her while the other one jumped in the driver's seat and waited for the police cars to start flashing their lights and sounding their sirens before stepping on the gas pedal.

"I know, sweetie." Julia said, looking at the EMT who nodded. "You can sleep, I'll be right here the whole time. Close your eyes and sleep, Mari." Mairead nodded and slept.

Julia looked up and took her hand off of the young woman's shoulder after she was sure she was fast asleep. Taking off her helmet and glasses, she retied her medium length red hair and wiped her brow of the sweat that was dripping into her blue eyes. She could hear her radio chattering at her waist with words like "…Lima Memorial Hospital… follow the rig… all lights and sirens on… rig holding Blaine Anderson arriving safely at LMH…" Julia turned the volume down on the radio while the ambulance jerked and started driving towards Lima Memorial Hospital from Findlay.

Joey woke up to a room he thought was moving around him. He opened his eyes and discovered he was in an ambulance and turned his head to right, staring at a man in black body armor talking into his radio.

"Bro'her?" Joey croaked to the man, noticing the oxygen mask on his face.

The man looked up and took off his helmet, revealing sweaty light brown hair. "Joey? My name's Aaron. I'm the one who helped rescue you, Blaine and your other two friends." Joey nodded slowly as the man told him. "I know you're in pain, Joey, but I need to know who did this to you. Who kidnapped you? Do you know?" Aaron quietly, but urgently asked the injured boy.

Joey felt his eyes start to droop back down in exhaustion.

"Dad."

And then returned to the comforting blackness.

Kurt and Blaine were in their respective ambulances, and were speeding towards Lima Memorial Hospital. Neither of them had woken up as they both had tubes shoved down their trachea to make sure they had a clear airway. But somehow, they felt connected, even unconsciously they were thinking of each other.

Tuesday, eleven o'clock in the morning

The phone rang, and Mr. Shuester interrupted the Spanish skit his students were performing in front of the class room to walk and pick up. "Que pasa?" He said to the amusement of his students.

"Willi-am!" Figgins voice sounded through the phone. "This is no laughing matter. Kurt Hummel has been found. He is at Lima Memorial Hospital. A substitute teacher is heading up to your classroom right now."

"What?" Mr. Shue stupidly said, not comprehending.

"Kurt Hummel has been found. You can go to LMH with your glee club, Willi-am." Figgins repeated.

"Th-thank you, sir." He stumbled. Quickly running to his desk and grabbing his coat and car keys, he explained in Spanish that he had an emergency meeting to go to. He dashed out the classroom door, almost into his substitute, and pulled out his cell phone. Mr. Shue quickly sent a text reading Kurts found. Get to LMH now. to all the members of his glee club.

By the time Mr. Shue got out to his car, he saw a red Explorer and two other cars screeching out of the parking lot.

"Will all Warblers please come to the rehearsal hall?" The speaker over Wes' head sounded.

Wes stood up and walked quickly out the door out of his French classroom. He saw Jeff and Thad walking the same way. Once in the rehearsal hall and settled into the couches there, the principal walked in with a grim expression on his face.

"Boys, I have good news and bad news." All the boys looked at each other before facing the principal again. "Blaine Anderson and Kurt Hummel have been found and are being transported to Lima Memorial Hospital." Cheers rang out in the room, a few boys crying out of happiness.

"However," the grim mood was back in an instant when they heard and saw the expression of the principal. "They are severely wounded and both of them are still unconscious. I don't know the details of their injuries, but I do know that there was a gun involved."

The blood seemed to drain from each one of the Warblers as they tried to comprehend what was just said to them.

"Now, I've just had a bus pull up to the entrance. You boys go and pack a bag for the next seven days and go out to the bus. I've informed all your teachers that you are excused for the next week from any tests or exams due to extenuating circumstances. I have also booked a hotel for the next week, so none of you will have to drive back and forth." The boys mumbled together a hasty thank you and sprinted to the dorms to pack.

They all trooped out to the bus in civilian clothes, having changed out of their uniforms. Once in the bus, they quickly sat down; wanting to get to Lima quick, they all just chose a seat and sat in it. However, they left that long comfortable back seat empty.

Carole was working quietly at the computer station when she heard the radio go off nearby her. "Four rigs to LMH, holding three males, one female. All four have GSW to varying places. Two boys need immediate operations." She froze, a glimmer of hope growing and spreading through her body. Joining the rush of nurses and doctors at the ED doors, she hoped that the first rig that came by would hold Kurt.

The first ambulance came screeching and flashing as it slammed to a stop before the doors.

"Seventeen year-old male, Blaine Anderson, GSWs to lower left quadrant of thorax, one GSW to left arm, one to lower radius and ulna, approximately one inch away from carpal bones. Two GSWs to right leg, one GSW to upper tibia approximately three inches away from the patella, and one GSW to lower fibula, approximately four inches from tarsals. Given him saline and morphine via IV line to left elbow vein." The EMT rattled off as he opened the door.

Carole looked with horror as the body of Blaine Anderson came out of the rig with his chest bare except for the compression pack of gauze on his stomach and his dress pants cut off from his mid-thigh down.

Carole stood out of the way as a group of doctors and nurses broke away from the large group where Carole was standing to tend to Blaine as he was being wheeled into the ED with a black clad SWAT member with him.

Just as the first rig drove away, the second rig came into the doors the same way the first one did: screeching and flashing. The doors opened and out came the EMT pulling out the gurney while rattling vital signs and injuries to the second small group of doctors and nurses. Carole didn't hear a think as she rushed forward without thinking to find Kurt lying on the gurney with blood on his head and two shotgun wounds to his slender body.

"Kurt!" Before she could even get within two feet of him, someone pulled her back by her stomach.

"Carole," her friend Toni yelled in her ear, "you can't treat family members, remember?" Carole calmed down as tears rolled off of her face. Toni relaxed her grip as soon as Kurt was out of Carole's eyesight and hugged her before joining the next group of medical staff.

Carole quickly wiped her tears away and sent her own mind into a state of not feeling anything, it was crucial if she were to treat the next teenager who would come in.

The next rig came in five minutes after Kurt had been rolled into the ED. For the third time, the doors to the ambulance opened and out came the EMT and Joey's pale yet bloody body on the collapsible gurney. And once again for the third time, Joey was rolled into the ED; leaving Carole outside with the last group of her colleges and ED doctors.

The last and final rig came into the ED entrance and out came, surprisingly, a female SWAT member and then the EMT with the gurney and Mairead lying down in it. Carole rushed forward and checked the IV the EMT had put in out in the field, meaning the EMT put in the IV not in the hospital but rather on location when they administered first aid to her.

As they rushed her into a trauma bay and started cutting her jean pant off, Mairead woke up and noticed people rushing around her. "Julia?" she rasped out.

"Mairead, it's me, Carole. Kurt's mom, remember?" A voice sounded near her left arm.

Mairead slowly moved her head and saw the outline of a woman cleaning her left wrist with a stinging solution and then wrapping it in gauze hastily. "Carole?"

"Yes, sweetie, it's me." Carole crooked a finger towards the female SWAT agent that came with her.

Julia came forward unobtrusively to the other people working on Mairead. "I'm right here, too, Mairead." She said to the girl.

"Mairead, I need to know. How bad is Kurt?" Carole asked urgently as she hung a bag of electrolytes on her IV stand and attached it to her IV line.

"Bad," Mairead whispered. "He's been shot."

Carole's breath seemed to freeze in her throat. "He-he's been shot?" She choked out.

"Carole, you're getting to personal to these cases. I need you to leave the ED right now!" A doctor yelled at her not unkindly as Mairead's eyes rolled up into her head, passed out from the pain in her leg.

"Someone get a saw!" One of Carole's fellow nurses yelled out, lifting up the splinted right wrist with the broken and bloody handcuff still attached to her wrist.

"Don't worry," a quiet voice said. "I have to stay with her." Carole looked over to the red-haired SWAT agent and nodded before getting out of the way.

Carole quickly walked over to the room containing her step-son but was quickly denied a view as one of the doctors quickly yanked the door shut in her face. Sighing, she decided to slowly walk out to the reception area to wait for her son and his friends to come in.

All the members of New Directions crowded around the reception desk at the entrance of the hospital and immediately begin harassing the already busy receptionist.

Mr. Shue walked in and immediately calmed down his show choir before talking to the receptionist. But before he could open his mouth, he heard a female voice crying out for Finn.

"Mom?" Finn called out. The close group of friends parted the way for him.

Carole was silently crying. Finn ran to her and hugged her as she sobbed into his dark maroon-red puffy vest with a blue plaid shirt underneath it.

"Ms. Hudson, how's Kurt doing?" Mercedes asked in a cracked whisper, trying to hold back tears.

Carole only shook her head, too distraught to talk. After calming down for a bit, she led her son's show choir into a spacious room not too far away from the operating rooms or the ED. They all took seats around the room, on chairs and sofas, on the floor and standing; some of them too anxious to sit down were pacing back and forth.

A few minutes later, Burt burst into the room. "Carole? Honey?" He said loudly.

"Over here, Burt." Finn said to Burt from the sofa where he was hugging his mother one armed. Immediately, Burt went over and cradled Carole's sobbing body in his arms.

It was only an hour later that door opened again and in came a group of boys that looked quite familiar to the New Directions. It was the Warblers; they came in looking anxious and tired at the same time.

Taking one look at the mismatched group of people in the room they were led to, they decided to just nodded their greetings and all sat down on the floor together at the opposite end of the private waiting room.

Half an hour later, the door burst open and a group of four people were trying to catch their breath.

"Where's Mairead?" The tallest man boomed as he was gasping.

"Where's Blaine?" A blond girl about their age asked behind him.

"Lauren? How did you get here?" Wes asked surprised.

"Wait, wait a second." Mr. Shue stopped them. "Who exactly are you guys?"

"My name is Jason Styka, this is my wife Sarah, and my son Nick. We're Mairead's family." Jason explained.

"And I'm Lauren Anderson, Blaine's younger and Joey's older sister." The blond girl answered.

The New Directions looked at each other. "Who's My-raid?" Quinn asked, pronouncing the name wrong.

"Mairead's the girl who was kidnapped along with Kurt, Blaine, and Joey. She's Blaine's best friend who's a girl." Sarah explained breathlessly.

They all entered the room as they were being ushered in behind them from four people in black clothing with the word SWAT printed on their right chest pockets on their vests.

Three muscular men and an equally muscular woman entered and shut the door behind them.

"Is this all the friends and family of the four teenagers that were abducted?" One of the men said gruffly and loudly.

Everyone in the room nodded, clearly afraid of them.

"My name is Tyler, and this is Jim, Aaron, and Julia. We're the ones who discovered and rescued Blaine, Joseph, Mairead, and Kurt." He stated carefully, looking at the reactions in the room.

"We've been with all four of them since we rescued them and now all four all being rolled into the operating rooms. Would you like us to talk with each group separately or in one big group?" Jim asked the high school students and parents.

Everyone looked at each other and nodded. "I think we'd all like to hear the bad news only once." Mr. Shue supplied to the SWAT agents.

The agents nodded and sat down in the chairs Puck, Sam, David, and Thad sacrificed for them.

The female agent spoke up first. "My name is Julia, and I was with Mairead. It was originally Tyler who found her conscious in the place where all four were being kept and he called me over. Mairead was trying to urge Blaine to 'come back' to her as he was having some kind of vision or something and kept trying to get up to go over to him. Blaine finally did 'come back' and Tyler attended to him after. Mairead has pretty bad injuries; first and foremost, her wrists are rubbed extremely raw from struggling against the handcuffs she was attached to. One of her wrists had a broken handcuff still on her when we came down and secured the area. I believe she either found a way to break the chain and slip her other hand out or that the abductor shot the chain, effectively breaking it.

"Mairead was mostly lucid as she told us which boy was who. Her injuries, like I said, were pretty bad. She has a GSW, a gunshot wound, to her left shoulder, her right leg just below her knee, and a second to third degree burn on her left should, just below the GSW. She was also shot by her left hip, not quite shooting her hip bone, but grazed it instead. She's currently sedated and is in the operation room right now." Julia finished up.

Sarah was curled up next to Jason who had his arms around her. They were both crying silently along with Nick and Lauren.

"I promised her that I would stay with her; so when she wakes up, I promise I will do everything in my power to protect her while she is in this hospital." Julia said, speaking only to the Stryka family and Lauren. They all nodded.

"Hi guys, I'm Aaron. I was with Joey in the ambulance and in the place where all of them were found. I'll cut to the chase. Joey has a deep stab wound in his right lower leg, in his calf muscle. When I got to him, he had been shot in the same leg; about six inches away from the stab wound. He lost a ton of blood and when I was escorting him out to the ambulance. And, like Julia here, I also promised that I would not leave him until his abductor was brought to justice. Lauren, I will need to speak with you after we're done here." Aaron said to her as he finished his report. She nodded silently.

"Hello, name's Jim. I was with Kurt the entire time. When I found him, he was unconscious and his head bled pretty heavily. His chest was bleeding sluggishly from looks like a series of cuts carved into his right chest. He was shot in the gut about right here." Jim pointed with his finger near his belly button. "And then, like the others, he was also shot in the right leg below his knee. Also, I hate to repeat Aaron and Julia and probably Tyler here, I told Kurt that I would not leave his side even though he probably didn't hear me." Jim said.

All of New Directions, including Mr. Shue, were crying; tears rolling down their faces, they looked over at the Warblers and all of them had their heads down, some crying and some looked angry.

Tyler sighed heavily before he began. "I should warn you guys, what I'm about to describe is not going to sound pretty in any way, shape, or form. So if you don't want to listen or don't want to know, you can step outside the door."

None of them moved.

"Did Blaine Warbler grow wings and become an angel? Like I told these guys?" Brittany piped up. Silence reigned the space while everyone in the room held their breath for what could be coming Brittany's way from the SWAT member.

"Erm… no, um…" Tyler looked at her with a questioning look.

"Brittany S. Pierce." She told him proudly. A few people, including the other three SWAT agents, chuckled.

"No, Brittany, Blaine didn't grow wings or become an angel." Tyler told her kindly, a twinkle in his eye.

"However, he nearly did from the extent of his injuries." His face growing somber. "Blaine has had the most severe injuries I've seen so far in my career as a SWAT team member. He, like Mairead, had bleeding and quite raw wrists from the handcuffs. Blaine seemed to be trying to get away from me when I discovered Mairead holding her shirt over his gut wound and was telling me to fight him. She then asked me what the color of my hair was, and was able to bring Blaine back to lucidity before Julia tended to her." Tyler sighed heavily once more. "Blaine has a GSW to the gut, about the same place where Kurt's GSW is. His left arm, near his wrist, was shot. And, the same to the others, he was shot in the right leg; twice in the leg, a matter of fact." Tyler finished up.

Everyone was in absolute shock. Lauren was full out sobbing into Nick's shoulder when she heard the extent of her brothers' injuries.

"How-" David's voice cracked. "How long ago did each of them go into surgery?"

"Blaine pretty much rolled right into the OR when he came in. Just a brief stop in the ED to get the clothes off of him and then right into the OR."

"Kurt was much the same way. He came in after Blaine and then right into the surgical operation room."

"Joey wasn't in that much danger, if you compare him to Blaine and Kurt. So he had to wait for about fifteen minutes for an OR to open up."

"Ditto with Aaron. Mairead pretty much was the same thing." Julia finished for all of her fellow SWAT team members.

Aaron looked at his watch, seeing it was getting pretty late in the afternoon. "It's almost six o'clock, I'm sure some of you are going to want to go home and sleep. But I, meaning all four of us and the Lima and Ohio Police Department, need you to promise us that you will, under no circumstances, talk to the media about this until we have released a statement or given a news conference. Am I understood?" Everyone in the room nodded immediately.

Aaron nodded back. "Good. Now, there is the matter of security to these four teenagers. Since we haven't caught their abductor yet, or gotten any new information on his whereabouts, all of you will need to register for a permanent guest pass from the hospital that allows you to come into a room where anyone of the four are resting in or doing physical therapy or anything else. So after we leave, police officers and hospital staff are going to come in here with computers and portable printers to make badges for all of you. You will need to show the officers guarding the doors to their room before you're allowed to enter. We're in the process of trying to get all four of them staying in one big room to let you guys stay as long as possible with your friends. We'll let you know if that works or not."

"Do you know when we can see them?" Rachel asked the man quietly.

Tyler shook his head. "At best, probably tomorrow morning or so. Depending if they'll be able to wake up from the anesthesia and be alert enough for visitors."

Everyone was silent and looking at the ground when the four of them stood up.

"We'll be in constant contact with you guys if anything changes." Julia said softly as she exited the room.

Tyler stopped at the door way and asked for Finn, Burt, Carole, the Stryka family, and Lauren to come outside.

One of Carole's friends was waiting outside the door with Tyler. "Hummel family?" Tyler inquired. The all nodded. "This lovely lady said that there was a way for you to watch Kurt's surgery from an observation room above the operating room. Would you all like to do that? Jim would be going with you as well, for both security reasons and personal reasons."

"Why didn't I think of that…" Carole muttered to herself. "Yes, I think it would be best for us to see him." She awkward said, not really making sense in the moment.

"Very good. Carole, if you could lead your family and Jim up there, it would be a great help." She nodded and led her band of three to the room.

Tyler turned to the Stryka family and Lauren. "There's something we need to discuss in private." And led them to a small room across from the room where they had been sitting in prior.

As soon as everyone had gotten their badges, Artie had asked that they print out another copy of Brittany's, they started to head home but not before Wes stopped them.

"Wait," Wes started. "If some of you don't want to drive back to your houses, Dalton told us as we were coming out here that they booked rooms at the hotel right across the street. So if you want, some of us will go with you and get the rooms while the rest of us stay here."

The New Directions' members looked at each other. "That sounds like a great plan. Thank you." Mike softly said, talking for the first time in hours. It was quickly decided that Mike, Tina, Brittany, Artie, Santana, Sam, and Rachel would go to the hotel with half of the Warblers while Quinn, Puck, Lauren, and Mercedes would stay at the hospital waiting for Finn and stay the night. Mr. Shue agreed as long as the girls and the boys were in separate rooms, and decided to drive back home and return in the morning. Wes and David gave him their words and promises to keep them in different rooms.

Lauren and the Styka family sat down across from Tyler, Aaron, and Julia. Tyler turned to Lauren. "Your name is Lauren Anderson, sister to Blaine and Joseph Anderson?"

She gulped, nodding.

Tyler and Aaron looked at each other, Tyler grimaced. "Lauren, there's two things we need to tell you and neither of them good."

The blood drained out of her face. She gripped Nick's hand under the table as Sarah stood up and sat herself down on Lauren's other side.

"I'm extremely sorry to tell you, that at three o'clock this afternoon the police broke into your home after no one would answer the door and discovered your mother, Miranda…"

"Oh, God, please no. Please don't tell me, please…" She looked and sobbed pleadingly at him.

Tyler sighed heavily once more. "They discovered your mother, Miranda, beaten to death in the kitchen. I'm so sorry for your loss."

Lauren cried out and sobbed loudly into Sarah's shoulder, who was crying almost as hard as Miranda's daughter. Sarah had lost a very good friend and neighbor.

"Lauren," Aaron spoke softly, "I know you just had a big shock, but there's something else we need to tell you. Can you handle it?"

Lauren lifted her face and red-rimmed eyes at him before nodding.

"On the way here, I was with Joey and he had woken up briefly during the ambulance ride. I asked him if he knew who had kidnapped him. And he said that your father had done it."

Staring at him for a brief moment, she looked like she was about to regurgitate her barely eaten lunch nearly ten hours ago. Sarah had gotten the trash bin to her mouth in time. Nick rubbed her back soothingly as she heaved.

Julia got up and went out of the room, returning a few minutes later with a water bottle for the distraught girl. Lauren had finished vomiting at that point and muttered a quiet thank you to Julia.

"We need to know, Lauren, everything about your father. So we can find him and put him in prison for life." Lauren nodded as Tyler talked.

Lauren told him everything she could remember about the man she called her father. She cried a few times and Sarah was there to help her while Nick rubbed her back. Jason had gone back into the waiting room.

"You did good, Lauren. You did real good." Tyler said to her softly, an hour past from when they had started. "Now, you remember what I told the Hummels about an observation room?" She nodded. "It happens to be, that Blaine's OR also has an observation room. If you can handle it, we can all go up together and watch his surgery. How does that sound to you?"

"Let's go." She simply said and the four of them walked to the room above Blaine Anderson's OR.

Burt, Carole, and Finn were sitting in the seats closest to the slanted window overlooking the OR as three or four surgeons worked on Kurt's broken body. They were all talking quietly while staring at Kurt's unconscious face when all the surgeons stopped and someone yelled something and pulled a cart over to the side of Kurt's body.

"Oh my God, Burt! Kurt's heart…" Carole sobbed, pointing to the heart monitor above them. Burt looked up and nearly smashed the window trying to get to his son. Finn couldn't believe what he saw.

Kurt Hummel's heartbeat had stopped.

Lauren couldn't believe what she saw in front of the windows. Her brother's body was lying so incredibly still as several surgeons worked simultaneously on putting the broken pieces of him together. Suddenly, all the doctors in the room were shouting and pointing to each other various monitors. They knocked over a cart full of instruments getting a big cart over to the side of the table.

Lauren froze and slowly, inch by agonizing inch, turned her head towards the computer screen mounted to the corner of the observation room's ceiling and started crying at what she saw.

Blaine Anderson's heartbeat had stopped.

Kurt slowly opened his eyes, still feeling drowsy and wanted to go back to sleep when a voice called his name.

"Kurt."

The voice sounded familiar, but as if he hadn't heard it for awhile.

"Kurt."

Kurt was trying to connect the dots under his eyes. Where had he heard the voice before?

"Kurt, it's me."

Kurt's eyes snapped open. He was floating in some kind of cloudy world. He looked around, trying to find the source of the voice.

Elizabeth made her way to her son's back and touched his shoulder.

Kurt turned around, coming face to face with his dead mother.

"Momma?" He whispered, not believing his eyes. Kurt reached his hand out and touched her on the cheek. It was soft and warm.

"Yes, Kurt. It's really me. It's really Mom." She stretched her arms out for an embrace. Kurt threw himself into her outstretched arms.

They just stayed like that for minutes. Reacquainting themselves with the feel of a hug long forgotten.

"Mom?" Kurt asked. "If I'm really talking, seeing, touching, feeling you, does this mean I'm… dead?" He choked out the last word.

"Oh, honey." Elizabeth drew her crying son back into her arms. "No, this doesn't mean you're dead. But it means that you're close to death. So very close. It's too close for my comfort." She whispered gently in his ear, not quite touching her lips to his ear.

"Then what does this mean?"

"It means you have a choice to make, either you go back and live with Blaine for the rest of your life, or you can choose to stay here with me." She said sadly. "I don't want you to stay here with me."

Kurt quickly stepped back, as if he were stung by a bee. "You mean, you don't love me anymore?" His voice ripped through two higher octaves.

"No, no! That's not what I meant at all, honey." Kurt's mother said quickly. "I meant that you have so much more life to live. It's not your time yet, Kurt. But you have to choose to go back."

"Back to where?"

"You know where, sweetheart. Back to Blaine, back to the Warblers, back to Mercedes, back to the New Directions, and most of all," Elizabeth smiled sadly. "Back to Burt, your father."

"But I miss you, Momma! I just found you again, and now I have to let you go, again?" He cried out.

"Honey, you will never ever lose me. I'm right here," she placed a hand on his heart, "and here." She placed her other hand and Kurt's face, cupping his cheek.

Kurt looked into his mother's beautiful bright blue eyes. "Okay, I'll go back. There's something that's been calling this whole time I've been talking to you, Momma."

Elizabeth smiled and cried at the same time as she hugged her only son. "Remember, I'm always watching over you, and your father. Tell him I'm so glad he found Carole and that I'm not at all mad at him. And Kurt," She looked him in the eye. "You have found a beautiful soul mate in Blaine Anderson. Don't ever let him go."

Kurt hugged his mother one last, hard time. "I love you and miss you Momma."

"And I love and miss you too, Kurt, sweetheart." She let go of her son and kissed his cheek before slowly fading from his sight.

Soon, he was all alone until a thin yellow rope that seemed to be pulsating appeared. Kurt took hold of the rope and walked into the unknown.

Blaine slowly opened his eyes to a surreal environment. He looked around, seeing all the clouds surrounding him.

"Blaine."

He turned around quickly, but finding nothing he could see that was saying his name.

"Blaine."

Once again he turned around and saw nothing.

Miranda walked behind her son's back and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Blaine jumped and turned around. "Mom? What are you doing in my dream?" He spluttered.

Miranda smiled sadly at him. "Blaine, this is no dream, honey. I'm… I've died, sweetheart."

The blood rushed out of Blaine's body. "What? No, no. This isn't real, this can't be happening. "

"Sweetheart, look at me." Miranda tilted his cheek up so he could look at her face. "I'm dead; your father beat me to death when I spoke out against him. You should know, Blaine honey, I've always supported you no matter what. It was your father who insisted that I be harsh against you when you came out to us."

"So you never… hated me for being…gay?" Blaine said slowly, trying to comprehend what Miranda just told him.

Miranda laughed sadly. "Never in my life, sweetheart, never in my life. I was so proud of you when you told me. But your father brainwashed me into thinking that your lifestyle was wrong. But now I know better, it gets much better for you, Blaine. I know that this was the way God made you and be proud of it. Nothing will ever change the way I think about you."

"You know that it was Dad…that shot me, right?"

"Yes, and I am so sorry for the pain you had to endure. But know this, Matthew will get what he deserves, and soon. But you will always have to be careful with him." Miranda instructed her son. "Blaine, it's time for you to make a choice. Do you want to go back or do you want to stay with me?"

Blaine stared at her. "What-what do you mean?"

"Sweetheart, you have to choose to go back and start living again or you can stay here with me." She said simply.

"You mean all this time that I've been talking to you, I haven't been alive?" He asked tearfully, thinking of the pain he was causing everyone he knew.

"Blaine, you haven't died yet, but you are close to; too close for my comfort. I want you to go back. Back to Kurt, back to the Warblers; but most of all, back to Joey and Lauren." Miranda urged him gently.

He thought for a minute before answering. "Okay, Mom." He cried.

She opened her arms and he jumped into them, hugging her tightly. Miranda rubbed his back as he sobbed into her neck and shoulder. "Honey, I want you to know some things before I go. First, you will never ever forget me. I still live in here," she touched his heart, "and in here." Miranda cupped Blaine's face with both of her hands."Second, when you go back home, there is a secret box under my shoe rack in the walk-in closet in the master bedroom. Find it and put your name in the lock."

Miranda's oldest son looked confused. "Okay, but why?"

She smiled sweetly. "You'll know why soon, which brings me to my last point." She pulled Blaine back into a loose embrace. "You have found a beautiful soul in Kurt Hummel, he completes you. Don't ever let him go." Miranda pulled her son into one last tight embrace. "I love you, Joey and Lauren with all my heart, my entire being. I love you, Blaine." She said, crying.

"I love you too, Mom!" He half shouted, half cried, tears streaming down his face.

Miranda kissed his cheek before slowly disappearing before his eyes.

Blaine stood there for a moment before a thin yellow rope that seemed to be beating with energy appeared before him. He gripped the rope and walked forward to an uncertain future.

The two boys followed their ropes, trying to see in the darkness they were walking in. Soon enough, they could see a thin yellow line not unlike their own in the distance ahead of them. Squinting, they could make out a figure walking towards them.

Horrified expressions on their faces appeared when they saw who was walking towards them.

"Kurt?" "Blaine?" The two boys said at the exactly same time.

"What are you doing here?" They asked simultaneously.

"I just came here and my mom talked to me. She told me to go back." Kurt said softly, not taking his eyes off of Blaine.

Blaine chuckled quietly. "I was about to say the same thing. My mom's dead, Kurt. Matthew beat her to death." Blaine told him somberly.

Kurt stepped forward, closer to his boyfriend and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Blaine. But I know that she's watching you every step of your life."

Blaine wiped a stray tear away before smiling. "I know. C'mon, let's go back, shall we?" offering his arm to Kurt.

Smiling from ear to ear, Kurt grabbed his arm and they both sank back into their bodies.

Burt watched as the doctors zapped his son's body with electricity for the eighth time. He could see the doctors about to look at the clock to announce the time of death of his son when something glorious happened.

A bump on the heart monitor.

And then three more.

Soon, Kurt's heartbeat was beating normally and showing up on the monitor.

Burt cried out in joy and threw his hands and arms up in the air of seeing the one of the most beautiful scenes he's ever seen in his life. Carole and Finn were crying and laughing at the same time.

The doctors looked at each other confused, and started to carefully put Kurt Hummel's body back in order.

Lauren leaned her head against the wall, anguished with losing another member of her family when Sarah touched her shoulder. "Look, honey. Look at Blaine's heart monitor." Lauren did so quickly, looking for some tiny spark of hope.

At first, the flat line was still there; and then a small blip came along the flat line. Soon it was back to the regular crooked line of a rhythm of a human heart beating.

Blaine Anderson, her brother, Joey's brother, Miranda's son, was starting to come back to life.

She half laughed and half cried, hugging Sarah as they both jumped up and down.

They soon calmed down and watched the surgeons piece together Blaine.