Blaine was fast asleep with this head still turned towards Kurt. The doctor had finally stepped inside the room with Burt in tow to move Kurt up to radiology. Kurt was still looking at Blaine's tired face, feeling a tiny bit happier that he finally got so see him.

"Hey, kid; it's time to go up. Okay? I promise you'll get to see him later when he's moved upstairs." Burt whispered softly in Kurt's ear as he gently slid his hand in Kurt's open hand.

Kurt nodded, understanding that he needed to be somewhere else for now. He slowly lifted up Blaine's limp hand to his mouth and kissed it gently. "I l-ove y-ou, B-laine." Kurt squeezed his hand one last time before slipping it out of his sleeping boyfriend's hand. He nodded to his dad and Dr. Piker before being quietly rolled out.

"Don't worry, Blaine will be with you in no time. I promise." Carole said soothingly to Kurt as he closed his eyes. Kurt nodded, distracted by a dull ache on his side that was starting to hurt more every time he took a deep breath. He took another deep breath to see if it was temporary; to his dismay, it hurt even more. Kurt cried out in pain, he clutched the left side of his chest.

"Kurt, what is it?" Dr. Piker urgently asked him as he started hyperventilating in pain. Each breath he took caused even more pain than before. Carole quickly slid the oxygen mask over Kurt's mouth and nose.

"My… ribs." He croaked out, tears leaking out of his eyes.

The doctor stopped the gurney in the middle of the hallway removed the stethoscope from around her neck. "Okay, Kurt. I need you to lift your hand so I can see your ribs."

His eyes squeezed shut. "Dad… it hur-ts." He half cried, half whispered.

"I know kiddo, I know. Here, grab my hand and squeeze. Kurt, I know it hurts, kiddo. Grab my hand and squeeze!" Burt said to his son, urging him to take his hand. It hurt Burt's heart to see the pain inside of Kurt's eyes when he finally opened his eyes and stared his father right in the eyes while grabbing his hand like his life depended on it.

Dr. Piker, Carole, and a nurse hissed when they saw the blossoming bruise on his side. It was deep purple and black and reached from the middle of his chest to just short of the bottom of his rib cage. Dr. Piker listened to his breath sounds and moved the stethoscope around his chest, listening to his heart as well as to his lungs. "I have a feeling he has a few fractured ribs and possibly one or two broken ones. The reason why they weren't discovered until now is what I can't figure out. We have to get him to radiology now!" The nurses and the doctor pulled up the rails on the gurney and started jogging the bed to the nearest elevator. "Burt, Carole, I'm afraid you can't come up with Kurt. You two go to Joey Anderson's room and we'll be up there as soon as the x-rays are done." The both nodded and kissed Kurt on his forehead.

"You'll be fine, Kurt. I promise and I love you." Burt whispered, his forehead touching Kurt's.

Kurt nodded before shutting his eyelids again as another wave of pain washed over him from his aching chest. He could hear the elevator announce its arrival as the doors opened and he was rolled in the moving room.

Thursday, six in the evening

Mairead woke up to her mom talking to her dad, Nick listening to his iTouch while staring out the window, and the sun setting outside her window right in front of her bed. Looks like I got lucky with the view.She thought as she rolled her heavy head towards her parents. "Mom?" She croaked out, her throat sore and dry from not using it for a few days.

Jason and Sarah snapped their heads towards Mairead. "Honey, you're awake." Jason said relieved, kissing her on her forehead. Sarah poured a cup of water and put a straw in. Nick handed his dad a small case that held his sister's extra pair of glasses. Jason handed the glasses to his daughter who put them on slowly; Mairead sighed in relief as the world came into clear focus again.

"Okay, sweetie, I'm going to move the head of your bed up but we have to move you down the bed a little bit because if I try to move your upper body right now, your leg is going to hurt." Sarah said.

Mairead nodded and with her father's help, she scooted herself a few inches down the bed while Jason elevated her back and held her while the bed groaned into action. She sighed as she lay back down on the bed but could see the entire room with looking up. Sarah helped her drink the water while Jason gently told her about the boys. She drank the whole cup and stayed silent after her father told her friends. "Where's Blaine? Kurt? Joey?"

"Joey's across the hall in the other room, Kurt's still in the ICU but he's going to be moved up here to Joey's room soon, and Blaine's still in the ICU." Jason repeated, thinking she spaced out during that part of his talk.

"Can I see Joey?" Mairead asked in a small voice.

Jason and Sarah looked at each other. "I think it'd be best if he comes to you. That way you don't need to get out of bed in your condition right now. But before he can see you, you need some food, sweetheart." Sarah told her as she pressed a red button on the side of one of the rails on her bed. As if right on cue, her stomach grumbled. Mairead smiled a half smile while looking embarrassed. Both of her parents laughed and told her they would return in a little bit because of some business they need to take care of before walking out the door.

Nick made sure that they were out the door before taking out his earbuds. "Hey, I missed you." He said quietly, getting off of the window sill he was sitting on.

She smiled wanly, getting a bit tired. "Nick," she asked quietly, a somber expression creeping into her eyes. "Did Matthew do this to us?"

Nick sadly looked down as he took his sister's hand in his. "Yes. It was him."

She sighed, knowing that she was right all along.

A nurse knocked on the door frame. She carried in a food tray and set it on the table without a word.

Mairead and Nick looked and blinked at each other. "O-kay… that was, odd." They both laughed a bit. "I hope there something good here, I'm freaking starving."

Turns out, it was just a bowl of chicken noodle soup, a bread roll, a bowl of jello, and a milk carton. Mairead could barely keep the food down because of amount; she thought it was a small meal but turns out it was a little too much for her to eat after not eating for awhile. Another knock sounded at the door after she finished her milk.

Lauren poked her head in the room, finding her best friend finally up. "Mari!" She yelled, half happy, half crying. Running over towards the bed, she hugged her as gently as she could in her excitement.

Mairead hugged back, being careful of her wrists to not bend the joints too much. "Lauren." She said simply, just enjoying the moment with her sister.

"Hey, what about me?" A voice called from the doorway.

"Yes, Joey. I didn't forget you, yet." Lauren said exasperatingly, rolling her eyes. She broke the hug and walked over to the wheelchair where she abandoned her brother in the doorway.

Mairead and Joey smiled at each other as they came face to face. Lauren backed her brother up to the side of Mairead's bed. Mairead did her best to lean over the side of the bed and give Joey a hug while they both cried. They leaned their foreheads together after breaking the hug, just clutching each other, comforting each other. The both saw a flash of light underneath their closed eyelids. Opening their eyes, they saw Sarah taking a picture with a grim expression.

"What…?" Mairead cocked an eyebrow.

Sarah sighed and turned her head towards the door. "The FBI wants to release a picture to the press of you two 'reuniting' so to say so that there wouldn't be any… rumors of you guys dying. I said no, but they said that either I could take the picture or they would come in and take the picture." She rolled her eyes. "Don't worry; this is the only picture I'm going to take. This camera isn't even mine."

Mairead and Joey nodded, understanding the ridiculousness of what was happening to them. "Can… can Mari and I have a little bit of privacy?" Joey asked timidly at all the people in the room.

Hearing the door close firmly, Mairead immediately turned towards Joey with a serious expression in her eyes. "How's Blaine doing? I know my mom's seen him but she's saying zip. Have you seen him? How is he?" She urgently asked him.

Joey's eyes turned down, he squeezed her hand. "Blaine's… in a coma. And on a ventilator." She gave a small gasp.

"But how is he?"

"He's not looking that great. From what I could see, he's bandaged all over his body. His right leg is like ours and I wouldn't bet that Kurt has a shot leg too." Joey said heavily, looking at his bright orange cast peaking out of the blanket on his lap.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes.

"Joey," Mairead softly started, "You know it was your dad that did this to us, right?"

"…Yeah."

Mairead looked him straight in the eye. "Joey, this isn't your fault. And I can see you blaming yourself right now. Don't. It's not your fault in the slightest. If anyone, it's probably my fault for provoking him when we both came home from Dalton." She told him softly.

"But-"

"No buts, ands, or ifs about this. Stop blaming yourself. Okay?"She told him firmly. "It was your dad. Not. You." Joey sighed.

Someone at the door knocked. "Joey? It's Lauren." She poked her head in. "Kurt's here."

Joey and Mairead looked at each other with wide eyes. Mairead nodded her head up and down quickly, her eyes still wide and still looking at Joey. "Lauren!" The both yelled at her as she nearly closed the door behind her.

She nearly closed the door on her fingers jumping in surprise. "What?" She yelled back in the room.

"Get in here!" Joey shouted, rolling his eyes.

"Lauren, can you tell my mom to get me a wheelchair? We both need to see Kurt and I need out. I've been cooped up for too long, I need to stretch my legs; figuratively, I mean!" Mairead added.

Lauren rolled her eyes at her best friend. "Okay, are you sure? You just woke up for more than two minutes today, have worse injuries than this little dude here, and you look like you're tired. Are you sure?"

Mairead gave her best friend her look that said, Dude, just do it. Lauren rolled her eyes once more. "Fine." Mairead gave Joey a half smirk and raised her eyebrows.

Kurt was aware of the tight binding around his chest as the bed ran over a small bump in the hallway, grateful for the binding or else it would have hurt like hell. He saw a group of people, including his parents, standing at the end of the hallway behind four police officers. The nurses and Dr. Piker showed the officers their badges and moved Kurt into the room on his left.

"Kurt, it's Dad!" Burt shouted as he was walking into the room behind his rolling bed. He came into Kurt's eyesight just as he was being backed up into his spot in the room closest to the door.

"I'm sorry, Burt, but I'm going to have to ask you to step out until all the equipment is set up for your son. I will get you after we are done." The nurse said politely to him.

"Kurt, I'm right outside the door." Burt called one last time before the door was shut in his face.

The nurse muttered something under her breath about meddling parents and roughly shoved the equipment she was wheeling in against the wall behind Kurt's head.

"Okay, Kurt, since your fractured ribs are starting to heal, I'm going to replace this oxygen mask with an oxygen cannula instead. That way you can still talk without being muffled by the mask. The feeding tube will probably stay in through all of Saturday and I'll see if I can get your gastroenterologist surgeon to remove the tube. Okay?" Dr. Piker said as she ripped open a package holding a coil of clear tubing.

Kurt nodded, his eyes opening and closing slowly. The doctor took off the oxygen mask and replaced with long clear tubing with two little prongs for his nostrils on his face, being careful of the feeding tube. She tucked the long tubing behind his ears with a smile, seeing his sleepy face. "We're all done here, Kurt. Do you need anything else before we leave?" Kurt opened his eyes and shook his head. "Okay, call the nurse if you need anything and I'll see you soon."

"Thank… you." Kurt breathed out, close to being unconscious.

As soon as Dr. Piker opened the door, Burt nodded respectfully to her and headed straight towards Kurt.

Kurt opened his eyes to his father standing over him and stroking his hair. "Hey, kiddo. You've got some visitors." Burt said quietly, tears in his eyes. He looked over to the door where Joey came in first in a wheelchair, followed by Mairead who was also in a wheelchair. Joey looked almost alright while Mari was bandaged and had casts everywhere on her body. Kurt had never been happier to see them. He smiled wanly as they both came up on sides of his bed.

"H-hey." Kurt attempted to clear his throat but the feeding tube got in the way in the back of his throat.

Both of them grinned widely at him as the each took a hand. "Kurt," Mairead asked softly. "Have you seen Blaine?"

"W-woke up." He croaked sleepily.

"Blaine woke up?" Joey and Mairead asked at the same time, astonished.

Kurt nodded, his eyes drooping from exhaustion.

Once again, Joey and Mairead looked at each other. Behind them, Lauren and Sarah did the same thing.

"Kurt," Lauren asked through her tears. "Is Blaine, okay? I mean, did he…" She trailed off, hoping he knew what she meant.

Kurt closed his eyes and nodded. Lauren smiled sadly.

"We'll let you get some sleep, Kurt." Sarah quietly said. "I'll let your mom and dad come in now."

Mairead squeezed his hand before letting go. Kurt smiled back while squeezing her hand in return.

Sarah wheeled her daughter back into her room and slowly helped Mari back up into the bed considering how much pain she was holding back behind her smiling façade. As soon as she was back in her bed, tears of pain started leaking through. "Mom." She cried out quietly. "My wrists… hurts." Mari gritted her teeth, nearly grinding them.

"I know, sweetie." Sarah said sadly. "Honey, what else hurts? Tell me, sweetheart."

"Leg… shoulder…headache…" She trailed off, a wave of pain crashing over her body. It felt like a thousand pounds pulling each of her limbs to the bottom of the ocean.

"Nick, come here." Sarah beckoned to her son, Jason had gone home for the night to take care of some business. "Mari, I want you to squeeze Nick's hand as hard as you can while I go get a nurse and a painkiller for you." She looked at Nick expectantly as she ran out the door.

"Nick!" Mari cried out in agony. "Why?" She sobbed heavily, both from the physical pain and from the thought that she caused all of this on herself and her closest friends.

Nick looked on helplessly as she tried to crush his hand with whatever force she could muster from her damaged hands. That's it. He took off his shoes and jacket, which had a lot of metal buttons and holes. Keeping one hand in her grasp, Nick got up on the side of the bed, carefully got behind her and leaned her against himself. "Hey, do you remember when you first came here? Hm? From Vietnam? You would always sneak into my bedroom to sleep with me because you didn't trust Mom and Dad at first. You were always speaking Vietnamese and I couldn't understand a word you said." He said soothingly as he rubbed her back. "I remember the first word you said to me, in English. It was my name, Nick. Well, you called me Nicky at first." She had calmed down a little bit but was still crying.

"I know you, Mari. And I knew that you didn't respond to your new name, your name right now. Mom told me your name that they called you at that orphanage, Chau. It means pearl, just like your name right now. Mairead means pearl. And you know what?" Nick whispered softly in her ear as he rocked her from side to side.

Sarah came rushing in with a nurse in tow behind her when she saw Nick on the bed behind Mairead. Her eyes softening from her calm but frantic expression, it was one of the sights she would never forget. The nurse checked her vitals and wristband before injecting the painkiller into her IV line.

"Mari, you are the pearl of the family right now. And I don't know how we got along without you." Nick softly said.

"You… sound so…" Her words slurring with drowsiness from the painkiller.

"Corny." And Mairead was out like a matchstick.

Nick rolled his eyes. "Well, it was kinda true and I did try." He whispered sarcastically into her hair.

Sarah came up to the side of the bed and rubbed her gay son's shoulder. "I'm proud of you, sweetheart." She kissed him on his temple while he blushed. "Do you want me to stay here tonight? I take over here if you want to."

"No." He shook his head. "I can stay here tonight. You go home and get some clothes for her to wear tomorrow? She's going to start complaining tomorrow when she wakes up and wants to take a shower." He rolled his eyes once more as he whispered.

"Okay. I'll be back in the morning. Call me if anything happens, alright?" She asked him as she grabbed her handbag from the windowsill. "I love you, Nick." She kissed him on his forehead and kissed her daughter before leaving the room.

Nick sighed and tried to get comfortable on the barely comfortable hospital bed. He pulled the blankets over his sister and started to fall asleep.

Friday, nine in the morning

Blaine cracked open his eyes to see Jeff and Thad sitting on chairs on both sides of his bed texting on their phones. He tried to open his mouth and talk but realized for some reason he couldn't. By the time he lifted a hand up to his mouth, Thad had noticed the movement.

"Blaine!" Thad shouted, startling Jeff into dropping his phone. Thad stood up and gently took away Blaine's hand from his ventilator tubing in his mouth. "It was helping you breath. You can't take it out yourself." He told him softly as Jeff slid open the glass sliding door to fetch a doctor.

Blaine tried to pull Thad's hand down to the bed, and Thad complied curious to what the lead Warbler was going to do. He flipped Thad's hand so it was palm side up and started to sketch something on his palm.

Thad looked on bemused, trying to figure out what he was trying to tell him. Blaine drew one line down the middle of his palm and then a sideways V connected to the line. "What? What are you trying to tell me?" Thad asked, still confused.

Blaine grunted in frustration and did the same motion again but one line at a time. "I." Thad said after he traced the first line. "V? Blaine, are you saying your IV hurts or something?" He asked, still quite confused.

Seriously, Thad? Can you not connect the dots already? Blaine rolled his eyes and traced on his friend's hand a lower case K, hoping this time he would get it. "Dude, I'm still not getting it." Thad said flatly.

Blaine sighed painfully and in frustration. He tried to lift his left hand, but it felt too heavy for him to lift. Making a tapping motion on his index finger with his right hand, Blaine hoped that this time Thad would recognize he wanted a cell phone to type something in.

"Oh. You want to text?" Thad asked, finally realizing he needed something to talk with.

Blaine once again rolled his eyes as he nodded his head, being careful of the tubes coming out of his mouth. Thad placed his Blackberry in his right hand and looked on as Blaine typed blindly into the phone.

Kurt Blaine typed slowly, not bothering with punctuation.

"Kurt's fine, he's in a room with Joey. You'll be up near both of them soon." Thad said softly.

Marieda Blaine misspelled without knowing.

"Marieda? Did you mean Mairead? She's fine. Blaine, don't worry about them. You need to focus on yourself right now."

No

Thad rolled his eyes as Jeff came back into the room with a doctor behind him.

"Blaine? I'm Dr. Piker. Are you feeling any pain right now? Give me a thumb's up or down if you are." She said, immediately looking a screen connected to his ventilator.

Blaine pointed his thumb down, considering he couldn't really feel anything. He watched with his eyes as the doctor told his friends that they had to leave the room as she and another nurse would be taking out his ventilator tubing. He never thought it would be so painful though.

"Okay, Blaine. This is the last part then I'll see if I can get you upstairs to a general room where you can see Kurt." Dr. Piker said, removing the unneeded supplies from the table besides her and getting an oxygen mask ready. Once again, she felt a familiar grip at her arm. Turning around, it was Blaine weakly grabbing her elbow. "Kurt's okay, I promise. You'll get to see him today." She soothingly said to him as he let go.

"Blaine, I need you to cough as I'm removing this tube. And as I do, Katie here will be putting a suction tube in your mouth to suck out the saliva and mucus so you don't choke, okay?" The doctor told him. He nodded, closing his eyes.

"On one, two, three!" The doctor pulled out the tube and Blaine tried as hard as he could to cough. He could feel the tube sliding out of his throat and another tube coming into his mouth sucking the thick liquid out. Blaine coughed painfully as Dr. Piker slid the mask over his mouth and nose. He could still feel something in the back of this throat though. Seeing as the doctor's back was turned, he looked towards the nurse who was cleaning up the tubing in front of him. Blaine touched the woman's arm and she looked up. He raised his hand towards his jaw and down his throat.

"That's your feeding tube." She said simply, her lips in a tight line.

"It's temporary, Blaine. It'll come out as soon as your gut heals enough for you to take liquids." Dr. Piker said distractedly, typing something in the computer.

Blaine took a deep breath through his mouth and nose and closed his eyes. I can't believe I actually made it out of that stupid basement or whatever we were in. I thought Dad killed me… oh shit, what am I going to tell Lauren and Joey about Mom? Blaine opened his eyes after someone placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Blaine, we're going to take you up to radiology right now to x-ray all your injuries before we can move you upstairs, okay?" The doctor said softly.

Blaine nodded before closing his eyes and hearing the door open and Jeff and Thad come in. The doctor explained what was going to happen and told them to go up to the fifth floor to meet him there when his x-rays were done.

"See you up there, buddy." Jeff said as he was being rolled out of his ICU room. Thad had reached over the bedrails and grasped his hand. Blaine squeezed back before opening his eyes slowly and seeing unshed tears in both his friends' eyes.

"We should go." Dr. Piker said quietly. Thad let go and nodded.

Friday, noon

Mairead woke up to voices talking quietly behind the curtain that was blocking her view of the door. Nick had woken up hours before and was just as perplexed as she was.

"Hey, sis." Nick hugged her from his place on the bed, lying down beside her. Her casted wrist was on a pillow in his lap.

"Morning." She yawned. "What's going on right there?" She pointed with her eyes and tilted her head towards the commotion.

Nick smiled widely. "Oh, just a little surprise that Mom arranged. You'll see soon enough."

She cocked an eyebrow and closed her eyes again, still a little sleepy from the drugs and her nightmare.

"Hey, are you hungry? It's almost lunch. You have to be hungry." Nick nudged her gently in the shoulder.

Unfortunately, that sent a spear of pain up her arm and into her collarbone. She winced before looking at her brother. "One," she squeaked out. "Don't bump the arms, both of them. And two, yeah, I'm getting hungry."

"Sorry, Mari. I'll see if I can get you something soft to eat. Soup or something. Sound good to you?" Nick said as he slowly got off the bed, being careful not to jostle any part of his sister's fragile body.

She nodded, looking out the windows in front of her bed and sighing. I hope Blaine comes up soon.

"O-open it."

Mairead heard a very familiar voice croak out. She slowly sat up in her bed, looking towards the curtain. A nurse in dark blue scrubs rolled the curtain back to reveal a very tired looking Blaine Anderson.

Nick smiled at the two of them. "I'll go get you food, sis." He quietly left the room with the nurses.

Blaine and Mairead were just looking at each other, not quite wanting to say anything yet.