Wednesday, six o'clock in the morning

Knocking on the door to the private waiting where Quinn, Puck, Lauren, Mercedes, Jason, and half the Warblers were dozing fitfully on chairs and the ground, Lauren, Sarah, Nick, Finn, Carole, and Burt woke up the teenagers as a group of doctors trooped in the room along with two of the four's SWAT agents.

Rubbing their eyes, they took in the sight of five doctors with grim faces. Instantly alert, the teenagers all started asking questions at the same time.

"Guys!" Wes shouted over them. "Let them talk first and then we can ask question." They all quieted down and looked at Wes before looking at the doctors who would either make or break their hearts.

"Thank you." One of the doctors nodded to him. "I'm Dr. Moore and I treated all four of them on their bullet shots to their legs. Blaine had the worst case of the four. He had to have two plates, ten screws, and four pins put in to stabilize his leg. I've encased his leg from the mid-thigh down to his toes in a cast which he'll have to wear for the next two weeks and then go to a boot. Joey, Mairead, and Kurt had shotgun wounds also to their legs right below their knees. They all have one plate, five screws, and two pins in their leg. Like Blaine, the all have casts from their upper leg down to their toes; with the exception of a hole in Joey's cast but I'll let Dr. Doyle over there explain.

"I also treated Blaine and Mairead's wounds to their shoulder and wrists. Once again, Blaine had the worst of the two of them. The two long bones, right here," Dr. Moore drew two fingers along his arm from his elbow to his wrist, "were both shot right here." He pointed about an inch and a half away from his wrist bone. "His left wrist is now in a cast and will have to remain that way while the bones heal. I had to put in one small plate and two screws so after the bones heal, he will still have full mobility of his joint." Wes and Warblers breathed a sigh of relief. They all knew that he wouldn't be himself if he couldn't play his guitar again.

"Mairead had a wound to her left shoulder that looked more serious that it was. The bullet actually missed her shoulder bones and went cleanly though the muscle right below the bone. She got lucky with that shot. Her wrist however, was not shot nor was there a bullet wound; but since the bullet shot the hand cuff holding her right wrist, the bones in her wrist are cracked so her entire forearm and hand are casted." Dr. Moore finished, leaning against the wall.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Doyle." A female doctor introduced herself. "I repaired Joey's calf muscle. He should have temporary muscle weakness when he gets out of his cast and a small scar where the bullet entered and exited his leg, but no other problems. Because of his muscle wound, I had Dr. Moore cut an ovular hole in his cast so that the dressing on the wound can be kept clean and dry." She finished up.

"I'll just cut in really quick on Kurt Hummel's wounds on his head." Another doctor cut in. "I'm Dr. Mohammed by the way. When he came into the ED, the wounds on his head were not coming from inside his skull, but rather they were superficial wounds. He had to have forty stitches to his face in various places around his eyes, cheekbones, nose, and mouth. I had him in a CT scanner to check his brain for damage and all he has is a concussion so he is in no immediate risk of any cranial bleeding."

Everyone was quiet as they listened; the girls put their hands in front of their mouths in shock and not trusting themselves to say anything.

"The name's Dr. Berrent. I'm the one who repaired Blaine and Kurt's internal injuries. Both of them have damage to their small intestines and massive internal bleeding. During the course of both of their surgeries, Dr. Smith, who couldn't be here right now, and I noticed that the bullet was still lodged in their digestive system. And while we were searching for the bullet, both boys flat lined." He said with a heavy sigh.

The room was at a dead silence as they took in the news. Then all chaos broke out. Puck lunged towards the doctors with Lauren narrowly grabbing him by his stomach and pulled him back. He continued cussing and shouting at the doctors as he was pulled back. Mercedes and Quinn clutched each other sobbing. The Warblers were also shouting at the doctors with some of them holding their friends back from advancing towards the people who saved their friends' lives. Jason and Burt managed to calm down the room enough for Dr. Berrent to finish.

"We managed to resuscitate both boys and continued their surgeries. Now, since they were shot in their intestines, both boys have had a NG tube, a thin tube that enters through their nose and goes down to their throat to their stomach, inserted. That is how they will receive their nutrition for the next few days while the stitches in their thorax heal. Later, when they have woken up the NG tubes removed, they will have to start with liquid foods like chicken broth and such and then start to eat soft solids."

"I'll be quick about this. I'm the boys' cardiologist, ." A surprisingly young woman piped up. "After both boys were resuscitated, I was called in to examine their heart for the cause of their flat lining. The boys flat lined not because of their hearts, but of the blood loss. Blaine had to have eleven units of blood infused while Kurt needed eight blood transfusions. Both boys will need to stay in the intensive care unit for the rest of today before being moved into a room next to My-read and Joseph." She finished up. "Do you guys have any questions for us?"

"How long will each of them have to stay here?" Nick asked.

"I can answer that." Tyler cut in. "The Lima PD and the FBI have decided that all four will stay admitted for the next four weeks while we search and apprehend the criminal who abducted them. Because of the circumstance, these amazing doctors in front of us here have decided to do their surgeries pro bono." Carole and Burt's face lit up in relief along with Sarah. Everyone else looked plain confused at the phrase.

"He means that they all did the surgeries without taking pay, essentially volunteering to operate on them rather than charging them." Sarah explained to the high school students.

"Can we see them now?" Mercedes asked timidly through her tears.

Dr. Berrent thought about this for a second. "When they are settled into their rooms, I'll have the nurses call down here."

"You all have your badges, correct?" Tyler spoke to everyone in the room. All of them nodded silently, some taking their badges out of their pockets and holding them in hand. "Good, because from now on, you will have to show the police officers guarding the four before you can see them."

"Dr. Berrent," Finn asked, hesitating before asking, "Do you have a guesstimate as to when Kurt and Blaine will wake up?"

The doctor looked down sadly. "No, I don't. The damage done to their bodies was significant and to react to that shock, their bodies will be in a coma of sorts."

Everyone's eyes bugged out. "Let me explain. Do you know when you get tackled on the football field, you stay down on your back or on your stomach for a second to let your brain register what happened before the pain comes?" Finn, Puck, Lauren Zizes, and a few of the Warblers nodded. "Kurt and Blaine's bodies are working the same way. Their brains have to 'reset' before they can wake up. Their bodies have to comprehend what happened and heal for a bit before they can regain consciousness."

"Any other questions?" The doctor asked. They all shook their heads. "I'll have the nurses call when they're done."

"One moment respectfully, Doctors." Jim cut in before they started walking out the door. "Due to the severity of their injuries and the publicity of this case, we asked that no one talk to any of the media from anywhere on anything to anyone until the four have recovered enough to give statements. Julia and Aaron are over at the hotel telling your friends the same thing. The four and their parents or guardians will give a press conference along with the doctors and the people who discovered and rescued them; mainly us four. As soon as they have recovered sufficiently, the PD and FBI will determine a date to give the press conference. I will make sure that all of you will receive that date four days in advance." He finished before opening the door for the doctors and he and Tyler walked out the door.

Everyone sat in silence before Puck talked. "What does he mean the 'publicity' of the case?"

Lauren (Anderson) and the Styka family stared at him before Lauren turned on the TV. CNN immediately started displaying Anderson Cooper talking to the camera about the four and where they were found. The next picture on screen was an old, crumbling, grey building in the middle of Findlay. The building was an abandoned textile production mill and was currently being swarmed by police and forensics investigators along with several crime scene photographers. It soon switched to an overhead shot of a helicopter flying over the building where only a couple of police cars stood parked at the nearest and only entrance of the abandoned mill, barring anyone from entering. The scene then switched to a female voice talking over the picture of Matthew Anderson and listing off various negative aspects and physical appearances, showing a picture of the model and color of car he's driving.

Soon, the screen showed a reporter outside the main entrance of Lima Memorial Hospital with a reporter talking to Anderson Cooper via satellite and reporting on the possible injuries of the four teens could have based on "eyewitness reports" from people who supposedly saw the four of them coming out of the building. Lauren switched the channel to MSNBC and saw nearly the same sight, a reporter at the entrance of LMH and talking. Switching to the other channels, the saw much of the same sight. When they landed on ABC news, they were showing a clip from earlier showing the half of the Warblers and half of the New Directions coming out through the main entrance with their heads down, except for Brittany who was trying pose for the cameras while pushing Artie's wheelchair before Sam whispered in her ear and then she mimicked everyone else with the same somber expression. The police finally stepped in when the reporters blocked the doorway to the Hyatt Hotel across the street and wouldn't let anyone in if they didn't give them an interview; Sam, Mike, and the Warblers looked like they were trying to protect the girls from being pulled out of their little group while elbowing several photographers.

Sarah finally took the remote out of Lauren's hand before she could switch to other news channels. Turning off the TV, everyone was leaning against each other in exhaustion; barely anyone had gotten any sleep and those who did slept badly.

Wednesday, eleven o'clock in the morning

It was getting close to noon when someone at the door knocked. Jason slowly made his way over from his spot in the corner with his family. Opening the door, Wes and David walked in while the rest of the Warblers and the other members of New Directions were showing their badges to the police officers guarding the doors to the waiting room. Everyone came in bearing gifts of coffee, hot chocolate, bagels, and cream cheese. Mr. Shuester smiled at his glee club looking cheerful if only for a brief moment.

As they were eating, they broke into small groups and the teenagers who stayed overnight at the hospital broke the news to their friends. There cries of surprise and anger erupting at certain points of the narratives at different times. Finally, they all came together and worked out a game plan.

"Alright, why don't you guys go over to the hotel and sleep in the rooms we just left and we'll call you guys if anything happens; I promise. And then we'll switch again maybe around the same time tonight, so about eleven tonight, you guys come over. Sound good to everyone?"

They all nodded and slowly dragged their feet to the door. "Hey guys, wait!" David called right before they reached the door. "The two SWAT agents out there, um… Jim and Tyler? Are going to lead you out a different door so you won't get swamped by the media vultures around the front doors."

Nodding once more, they walked out and met the two SWAT agents. Jason, Nick, Carole, and Finn reluctantly went after Sarah and Burt insisted that they get stuff from home for the four of them.

It wasn't soon after that the phone rang. "Dr. Styk- err, hello?" She fumbled, remembering she wasn't at work right then. "Rooms seven fifteen and seven sixteen? Thank you so much, we'll be up in a minute." Hanging up the phone, she looked at the teenagers anxiously looking at her. "Mairead and Joey have gotten settled into their rooms on the seventh floor. If you guys want to go see them, you can go up there right now. Else, just wait here until the next phone call for Kurt and Blaine." Sarah said simply before sprinting out the door with Lauren at her heels.

The elevator ride was long and tense, stopping at several floors in between with people getting off. During the whole ride, Sarah and Lauren looked at the floor, not wanting to initiate conversation with the other people in the elevator. Once on the floor, they took their badges in hand and ran to the far side of the floor. Four police officers blocked the way to the two rooms until they showed them the badges.

"You go into there for a bit while I go in here and then switch?" Sarah asked Lauren quickly. She nodded before heading into room seven sixteen.

Sarah entered seven fifteen and discovered her daughter lying eerily still. Mairead was in the bed with a big neon orange cast on her right leg beginning from her mid-thigh and going down to the tips of her toes, leaving the toes open to the air. Her knee was bent down at a slight angle in the cast and there was a pillow right where her knee was bent to support the weight of the cast. Her right wrist was in a similar, but different casting compared to her leg to allow the cast to be removed so that the circular gashes to her wrist could be redressed daily. A sling encased her left arm where a huge bandage was covering her shoulder where the bullet entered and exited. Below the bandage was an area of skin where what looked like a very light bandage was put; Sarah suspected that it was where the skin graft was placed on her burn. Taking a peak under her sling, Sarah discovered the IV had been placed on the top of her left hand and her wrist was wrapped in gauze. There was a heart rate monitoring chord coming out of her hospital gown and attaching to the screen above the left side of the wall near her head with the screen angled towards the opposite corner of the room.

Taking a step back, she spotted a chair and dragged it over by her right side. Sarah sat down and let her tears fall freely down her face as she delicately picked up her adopted daughter's casted right hand and kissed her uncasted fingers. Being careful of the small cuts on her face and forehead, she combed back the hair that had fallen across her face, mainly across her oxygen mask. Mairead's eyes had deep and dark purple bags underneath her closed eyelids.

"Honey, it's Mom. I'm here, I'm here. Please wake up soon." Sarah whispered into Mairead's hand. Now, she could only wait while her daughter fights her nightmare demons she couldn't see.

Lauren entered her little brother's room, mentally preparing herself for what she would see. Her brother was lying on the narrow bed next to a steel pole that held at least three different bags of clear and opaque liquids; one was holding a crimson liquid, blood. Like the doctor had said, Joey's leg was in a big orange cast that was bent at the knee and had a hole in the side of it. The rest of him was covered up with a thin blanket with a tube filled with blood snaking out the left side of it.

Joey was shivering and Lauren took off her spring jacket, laying on him. She took the blanket and her jacket and tucked it under his chin, being careful of the oxygen cannula coming from around his ears and down his jaw line to under his chin. He started to move around a bit when Lauren put her hands on his forehead, feeling his temperature and looking at his heart rate screen above his head.

Seeing him move, she quickly but quietly walked to the door way and asked one of the police officers to fetch a nurse and a couple of blankets.

"Joey? It's me, you big sis." She softly said near his ear, standing by his right side and fishing out his hand out from under the blanket. Lauren took his limp hand and rubbed it with both of her own, trying to create friction to warm him up. "Joey, you're safe. You're with me, Joe-shmoe. It's me. Wake up. Please? For Blaine, please wake up?"

Joey started to move his eyes under his eyelids just as the nurse walked in with extra blankets. "Ah," the nurse exclaimed, "he's starting to wake up." She checked his vital signs as Lauren kept egging Joey into waking up. He started to slowly lift his eyelids, blinking slowly and not opening them all the way. Joey finally opened his eyes halfway and shifted his head so he could stare at her drowsily through his half-lidded eyes.

"Wah-er?" Joey rasped out before coughing painfully.

"Careful, honey. You had a tube down your throat during your surgery to help you breathe, so your throat's going to be sore for a little bit." The nurse gently told him as Lauren poured a cup full of water and put a white bendy straw in. She lifted the straw up to his mouth and slipped the straw between his parted lips.

Joey first sipped the water slowly, and then started taking bigger and bigger sips. "Joey, drink it slowly, you're going to get sick if you drink it this fast. Do you remember the time when you drank that big twenty-four ounce cup of Mountain Dew in one sitting and then barfed it up as soon as we were back in the car to finish the road trip from Chicago? Yeah, I don't think either one of us wants to relive that right now." Lauren said in a light voice.

Joey twitched his lips up in a small half-smile as he continued to drink the water; slowly, this time.

"I'll go and get something more substantial for him to drink; chicken broth sound okay with you, Joey?" The nurse asked as she handed the blankets she set down earlier to Lauren. Joey grunted before his eyes slipped back down.

Lauren unfolded the blankets and took her jacket off of him before covering him with two more blankets. Joey slowly moved his right hand out of his blankets and sought out Lauren's hand and squeezed it.

"Bla-ain?" He whispered, his eyes still closed but he moved his head towards Lauren.

Lauren shifted her eyes down; glad he couldn't see the movement. "He's… going to be okay. But right now, you have to focus on yourself. Okay?" She told him gently, waiting for his reaction. "The nurse'll be back with the broth soon, and then you can go back to sleep. I promise." She smoothed back his slightly curly black hair from his forehead while still holding his hand and sitting on the side of the bed.

The nurse soon did come back with a Styrofoam cup of chicken broth. "Let's get you upright first and then give you the broth." She set the cup on his bedside table and reached for the remote that controlled the bed. Pressing the button that lifted the head of his bed up, Joey groaned, reaching his left hand with his IV towards his leg and crushing his sister's hand. "I know it hurts, but only for a second more." The nurse said, still holding the button.

Lauren stared nastily at the nurse. My brother is in pain and you insist on raising his head even more? Can you not see through your blind eyes that every time you move his head up higher, you're shifting his entire body? Considering how dim-witted you are, you probably don't. She thought hotly, not exactly caring. "It's only for a few seconds longer, Joe. And then the pain will stop, right?" She directed towards the nurse, anger flashing in her eyes.

The bed stopped moving and he hissed out a breath through gritted teeth. "It…hurts… leg." He once again hissed through his teeth. Tears started to form at the corner of his eyes.

"Why don't you get something for his damn pain, already?" Lauren nearly yelled at the nurse. "Can't you see he's in freaking pain right now?" She wanted to say more, but bit her tongue to avoid swearing in front of Joey, trying not to aggravating him more than he was.

The nurse looked coldly at her before dropping the remote and stiffly walking out the door. Lauren looked back equally as cold as she tried and soothe her brother.

"Here, drink this, Joey. It's broth, it'll fill your stomach for now. I promise; it won't hurt anymore after you drink this." She urged him, lifting a spoonful up to his lips. One sniff of the broth and he turned his face away. "I know, it smells nasty but it tastes good. I'll promise to let you sleep as soon as you drink all of this down."

Joey reluctantly drank it all down slowly with his sister's help before drifting off to a fitful sleep filled with pain.

Lauren sank into a nearby chair after slamming down the cup, frustrated. She rubbed her eyes from behind her glasses.

"Badge?" a police officer from the doorway asked someone. A different nurse came in bearing a syringe. She nodded respectfully at Lauren before checking Joey's hospital wristband and injecting the syringe into his IV line.

Joey's breathing deepened and relaxed as he snuggled his head deeper into his pillow. Lauren took one last look at her sleeping brother before slumping in the chair besides him.

Sarah came in and nodded to her. "I'll stay here for a bit; Mari's still asleep." She whispered, looking at the pale boy on the bed.

Lauren sighed as Sarah leaned on the window counter besides her. She quietly recounted her tale with the nurse to her. Sarah was silently fuming by the end. "Why don't you go and sit with Mairead for a bit and I'll go talk to the head nurse on this floor. Joey's fast asleep; go, you need to be with your best friend right now." Sarah commanded in a firm voice.

Lauren nodded and kissed her brother on his forehead before walking out the door. Having the two rooms across from each other helped as she didn't have to flash her badge again; the officers just nodded at her as she entered Mairead's room. She looked at her best friend on the bed and nearly ran out. Taking a seat in the chair recently vacated by Sarah, Lauren clutched her sister's hand with both of her hands and let the tears flow freely down her face. "Please, wake up. I know you can wake up, so wake up. I need you, Mari. Please, I need you. You are the strongest person I know, to go through all this crap and then your crap in the past. So please, I need you. I can't… breathe without you." She half-whispered half-sobbed quietly into her hands, still holding Mairead's, her glasses fogging up with her hot breath.

Suddenly, a slight pressure on her hands alerted Lauren into looking up. Mairead's eyes were barely open, her eyelashes moving the smallest amount up and down were the only indication she was awake. "I…" Mairead struggled to use her voice. "I'm… still… here." She told Lauren before going back to sleep.

Wednesday, four o'clock in the afternoon

The phone rang and Rachel walked over to pick it up. "Hello?" She said, not her usual enthusiastic self. "ICU? Okay, thank you very much."

Hanging up the phone, she turned to Burt and the others in the room. "Kurt and Blaine are settled in the ICU, but the nurse said that they could only see two visitors each." She said softly, looking down at her feet.

"I'll go and see Blaine. Who else wants to come?" Wes asked his fellow Warblers softly, looking the worse for wear. David nodded and stood up.

"You guys don't have to come and see Kurt if you don't want to." Burt told his friends gruffly, trying to act tough so he didn't start crying. "He's probably going to look terrible and not be awake at all."

Rachel shook her head along with Mercedes. "We'll go with you, Mr. Hummel. No matter how bad he looks."

"But the nurse only said-"

"Screw the nurses, I'm going to see my friend no matter what those white chicks say." Mercedes said hotly. Burt only nodded as all four of them walked out the door to the nearest elevator.

Showing their badges to the police officers, the four of them were temporarily blocked for a minute as the nurse on duty told them how bad they might think they looked, but they were in better conditions than they thought.

Burt walked into the room alone at first so he could have a bit of privacy. His son looked so pale and so lifeless lying on the bed that he couldn't believe it at first. Kurt had a massive orange cast on his leg with pillows supporting it underneath, and a blanket covering his other leg and his hips. A massive white bandage was taped to his stomach and was barely moving up and down. Another bandage was covering the right side of his chest; Burt's left side as he was looking down. The NG tube that the doctors were talking about was snaking down Kurt's right cheek and up his nose. It had been taped down and a milky white liquid in the tubing.

Kurt's face was looking rather horrible, with gauze taped everywhere on his pale face. There was a long piece of gauze taped to the right side of his forehead, another covering the bridge of his nose, his entire left side of his face leading up and into his hair was covered, there were stitches not covered by gauze on his chin and jaw line, and Burt could see that there were a few stitches on his right cheek where the NG tube wasn't taped down. There was also a thick white and blue mouthpiece with a blue tube attached to his mouth, a ventilator to help him breathe.

Burt staggered, never had he thought that it would be this bad. He took a deep breath and step by step by step, walked over to his son. He gently took Kurt's right hand in both of his and started to cry. "Kurt, I never told you this, but when I was in my c-coma," Burt sniffed, "I could hear you talking to me. I know you can hear me, so I want you to please wake up. I l-love you, Kurt; and I can't stand the thought of losing you after I lost your m-mother. So, please, for m-me, for Blaine, please w-wake up!" He sobbed quietly.

A hand rested on his shoulder, he looked up. Carole was smiling sadly behind him."Honey, I know it's hard and you need to stay with him; but let Rachel and Mercedes come in for a minute. One of his doctors needs to talk with both of us. Okay?" She whispered in his ear. He nodded, tears still streaming down his face.

Carole helped him stand up and they walked hand in hand out the door.

"How is he, Mr. Hummel?" Rachel asked anxiously.

Burt shook his head, not trusting himself to speak.

"I think you'd better see for yourself, Rachel, sweetie." Carole told her gently. "We'll be back in a few minutes." Both girls nodded.

The pair of them were greeted by a doctor in her early thirties, looking grimly at him. "Mr. Hummel? My name is Dr. Piker, I was the trauma doctor when Kurt came in and I was also in the operation room with him; I was stitching up his lacerations. There is something of a private matter I must tell you about. Shall we go to an empty room?" She offered him.

Burt nodded, taking one last look through the windows and seeing Rachel and Mercedes leaning on each other. They walked a short distance down the hall and into a small office area. Dr. Piker offered them a seat and pulled out a manila folder.

"As I was suturing up his cuts, there were a series of deep cuts on his chest that were disturbing to everyone in the room." She opened the folder and set in front of them photos of Kurt's bloody chest. "As you can see in this first photo, there is barely anything recognizable. I had one of my nurses clean up the blood and this is what was revealed." The doctor set another photo on top of the previous one. Burt cried out.

Across the photo was a bloody word carved into Kurt's chest; FAGGOT, it read clearly in bright red letters.

"We have treated the wounds, but he will have scars in the shapes of those letters. I'm sorry." She said apologetically.

Suddenly at the doorway, Mercedes appeared. "Mr. Hummel!" She gasped. "Kurt's waking up!"

Kurt looked terrible in Rachel's opinion. He was so pale and still with various bandages all over his body, including the cast on his leg.

"Oh, Kurt." Mercedes said tearfully, sitting down in the chair Burt recently vacated. "Please wake up. Me and Rachel are here, and we just want to wake up. C'mon white boy, we gotta go shopping together soon. Please wake up." She rambled, thinking of anything to say to the unconscious boy.

Rachel was standing there, just looking at him. Then a brilliant thought came to her. She crossed to the other side of the bed and gently took Kurt's left hand with his IV and covered it with both of her hands.

"Kurt, I know what you did last year. I know that you threw the last note of Defying Gravity so that you wouldn't shame your dad. But what you did, singing a song meant to be sung by a woman, was inspiring to me; even though I opposed it at the time. Like I said, Kurt, you're the only one who could compete with me for solos." Tears started rolling down her face. "Kurt, you can have all the solos you want, but please, wake up."

She wiped her tears and started to sing.

Something has changed within me,
Something is not the same.
I'm through with playing by the rules
Of someone else's game.

Too late for second-guessing,
Too late to go back to sleep.
It's time to trust my instincts,
Close my eyes and leap.

It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity

Rachel didn't have the heart to sing the last few lines of the stanza, instead going on.

I'm through accepting limits
'Cause someone says they're so.

Some things I cannot change,
But till I try, I'll never know.

Too long I've been afraid of

"Rachel, look!" Mercedes whispered urgently.

Rachel looked up from clutching Kurt's hand. Kurt's eyes were fluttering but still closed. "Mercedes, go get Burt." She said simply.

She ran from the room. "Kurt, it's me, Rachel. You're safe."

Kurt slowly opened his eyes and blinked several times. He looked at her with glazed eyes for a few seconds. He slowly raised his hand out of Rachel's, who quickly took her hand away, and wiped the tear that was threatening to fall off of her chin. Kurt tried to speak but soon realized that there was something in his mouth.

Burt, Carole, Dr. Piker, Mercedes, and a nurse came running in. "Kurt. It's me, Dad. I love you, son. I love you so much." Burt cried out, sobbing.

Kurt reached out for Rachel's hand. She gave it to him immediately. "What is it, Kurt?" She softly asked.

He laid her hand with her palm up and started to trace something with his finger slowly, realizing he couldn't talk.

Rachel looked down and tried to visualize what he was tracing in her hand. One line down, and then two bumps on the side…

"Blaine? You're asking for Blaine?" Rachel said, looking at his bandaged face.

Kurt gave the barest of nods, his eyes blinking slowly. He looked at Mercedes', then his father's faces, searching for an answer.

"Kid, Blaine's fine. You need to focus on yourself right now. You're in pretty bad shape." Burt tried to tell him convincingly.

Kurt didn't buy it from Rachel and Mercedes' reactions. He lifted a hand to his mouth and started to grip the tubes, intending to remove it himself.

Everyone clamored to stop him. Carole and Burt held both his hands down from each side of the bed. "Hold it, kid. You're going to hurt yourself even more if you try to do it."

A tear rolled down his cheek, but Kurt wasn't crying.

Dr. Piker was looking at a monitor that was measuring his oxygen input and output from the ventilator attached to Kurt. "Kurt, since you're awake I'm going to take the tube out of your throat, but you need to stay here for another day before you can go to a general room. Okay?" She looked him in the eyes, her expression gentle as Kurt nodded. "I'm going to ask you four to go outside of the room while I take the tube out. I will call you back in when he's ready." All four nodded and headed out the door with Burt going out last.

"Why don't you two go and check in with Blaine, while we wait out here? It'll do Kurt good if we can actually tell him something." Carole told them as Burt leaned his head against a wall.

The two girls looked at each other before nodding silently. They walked down the ICU hallway, not looking in the rooms in the ward until they reached Blaine's room. Wes and David were in the room on both sides of the bed in chairs and holding his hands carefully. Mercedes could see both boys had been crying; their eyes red rimmed.

Rachel's heart broke at the sight of Blaine in the bed. His leg was in a big cast under the blankets, a bigger bandage than Kurt's was on his stomach, a cast on his left arm was different from the one on his leg, gauze wrapping his right wrist, and a ventilation tube in his mouth. Blaine's hair was a shock of black against the stark white pillow. His face was as peaceful as it could be with a tube sticking out of his mouth. Rachel thought his eyes were the worst; under his eyes were bags that were so deep and nearly purple.

Mercedes knocked softly on the doorframe after she and Rachel showed the police officers their badges. "Hey, David, Wes." She said softly.

They both looked at the two girls, sniffing. "H-hey, Mercedes." David answered her, just as quiet.

"How is he?" Rachel asked Wes as she rubbed his shoulder.

"According to the nurses, he's lucky but bad. He's not going to be awake for a day or so, and he's had some internal bleeding so that's why there's like three blood bags up there." Wes pointed towards his IV stand. Neither of the boys could really focus on forming sentences that could make sense.

"I can't believe that anyone would do this to him. I really can't." David whispered into Mercedes' shoulder, she had kneeled down to his level. "If there was something going on at home or anywhere, I would think that he would tell us. I mean, when he first told us that he fell and his head on a step, I didn't think anything of it."

"Hey, you know that he didn't want to hurt you or anything. You need to remember that this isn't anyone's fault. No one's fault." Mercedes enunciated.

"Mercedes' right, Wes, David. It's no one's fault except for the person who did this to Kurt, Blaine, and his brother and that girl. You guys really need to remember this." Rachel voiced her agreement with Mercedes. "Why don't you guys go and visit Kurt, he's awake. He woke up a few minutes ago after Rachel here sung to him. We'll take over from here for a little bit. You both need a break."

Both boys nodded and stood up with the girls' help. They squeezed his hands one last time before walking out.

Rachel sighed as she took Wes' chair and Mercedes did the same to the other chair. "Some situation Kurt got himself into this time, huh?" Rachel quietly said to Mercedes, sadly smiling at her.