It was a nice enough looking place, not at all like mental hospitals looked in the movies. There were beautiful grounds and a bright sunshiny entryway. He stilled his nerves and smiled at the receptionist. "Hi, I don't know if it's visiting hours but um, I'm here to see Blaine Anderson."

She smiled warmly and typed something into her computer. "Thank you, your name?"

"Thad Harwood. We go to school together." He chewed at his lip to stop himself adding too much extraneous information, the tell tale sign of a lie.

Again she typed something into her computer then looked up, "Have you been here before?"

"No."

"Blaine is in room 24, take the hallway to your right and follow the green line on the floor to the patient rooms. His should be the 3rd on the left."

He couldn't believe it was that easy, after all this worry, waiting and longing, Blaine was a hallway away.

He forced himself to walk at what he hoped was a normal pace, not even sure what normal looked like anymore, settling for not breaking into a run. He took a minute outside the door of room 24 to compose himself, somehow still preparing for disappointment. A piece of him was sure there would be no one behind the door, that he had been misled, this was a trap. He knocked softly and received no answer so pushed the door open carefully.

It was a private room, the curtains drawn to create near darkness. He could make out a flower arrangement on the windowsill and a figure in the bed. He went in quietly and found Blaine sleeping; his dark curls matted to his head and face glistening as though he'd had night sweats. Kurt pulled a chair closer to the bedside and ran his fingers through his boyfriend's hair, stroking his thumb across his cheek, then letting the tips of his fingers lightly stroke the back of his neck. He needed time to just look at him, his strong features, the plump curve of his bottom lip, but didn't want to risk waiting too long less his identity somehow be discovered. More than anything he wanted Blaine to wake calmly.

After a few minutes someone came in with clean laundry and Kurt pulled his hand back quickly.

"Oh, hi, Thad right?"

"Yeah, hi, is he okay? I tried to wake him up but…"

She smiled, everyone here smiled just a little too much, "He was having some pain earlier so we gave him something for it. Do you want me to try to wake him?"

"No, no I'll just sit here a bit if that's okay."

"Sure thing, he could use a visit from a friend, he doesn't really talk much, doesn't get many visitors. I think visitors really make a difference here. It's easy to disconnect from your real life if you don't see pieces of it. They don't bring his pictures here, nothing from his home, doesn't make sense to me."

"His parents are…different." Was all Kurt would offer.

She left the room and he sighed in relief. He had worried Blaine would wake up, call him by name and get him kicked out. It was clear visitors were cataloged and the information shared quickly. When they were alone again he stood and stroked the side of his face, "Honey, can you wake up? I don't know how much longer I can stay before I get caught."

The triangular eyebrows twitched, then his mouth, and then Kurt was looking into the eyes of the man he loved. It took a few seconds for the connection between dream and reality to focus in Blaine's eyes, "Are you real?"

Kurt kissed him softly, feathering his bottom lip against Blaine's. "I'm real."

Blaine reached up and cupped Kurt's jaw in his hand, closing his eyes, "Thank God."

After another chaste kiss Kurt sat on the edge of the bed lacing their fingers together. "I told them I was Thad, how did you get to call me?"

"There's a night intern who's gay, he saw my record and asked if I wanted another intern, if I was afraid because of what my father said happened to me."

Kurt shoved his rage at the accusation aside and focused on Blaine.

"I told him I've been out for years now, that my father just can't accept us, he believed me, understood, and agreed to let me call you from his cell phone. If they found out he'd be fired."

"We owe him big time when we get you out of here."

"Honey I don't think we can get me out, but I don't care, as long as you know where I am, as long as I know you don't hate me…"

"Hate you? How would you ever think I could hate you?" Kurt was flabbergasted.

"What my father is accusing you of, I tried to reason with him, I tried to get him to let me tell you what was happening, I didn't want to just disappear like that. I hate that I couldn't prepare you, protect you, I know how hurt you must have been when I left without a word."

"It never occurred to me to blame you. When you weren't online or on the phone I sent Finn over to check on you, your dad flat out said he sent you somewhere to fix you…FIX YOU, like there could be anything wrong with you…I hate him Blaine, I'm sorry because I know you're conflicted and you love him but I hate him, I hate what he does to you."

"Shhh, Honey, it doesn't matter. It used to, it used to kill me but now I have you, he can't hurt me anymore. He can send me away, he can call me whatever he wants to call me, but I don't care. You're all I need. People here, they're treating me like a trauma victim but it won't be long before they see the truth and Dad will have to see reason. Or he won't, but they won't keep me here, it's not the dark ages."

Kurt was quiet, considering. He squeezed Blaine's hand and placed his free hand on Blaine's chest. "Promise me something?"

"Anything."

"Try talking to them here. Really let them know how you feel. Maybe they can help, you know? Maybe they can help you resolve some of how growing up the way you did weighs on you. I love you, Blaine, and I can see the hurt in you, if there's a chance they can help with that I think we should take it."

"Maybe."

Kurt saw a wall go up then that he hadn't expected. He'd watched it happen before with other people, Blaine would let them get so close and then shut down, but he'd never done that to Kurt. "Hey, don't, don't do that, we talk about everything, if you don't want to talk to people here about this then just tell me so. You've taught me to be more open, to talk about what scares me and face it in the light of day, am I not allowed to encourage you to do the same?"

Blaine softened; he sat up and leaned his forehead against Kurt's, "I'm sorry, you're right. I promise I will always be honest with you, but I don't know if I'm ready to talk to anyone else about this. When I asked you to trust enough to share your fears I was asking you to trust me, not someone I didn't even know."

"Fair enough." He smiled at his lover, the word running through his mind for the first time. That was what Blaine was now, and it changed everything for Kurt. "Blaine?"

"Mmm." Blaine was softly stroking Kurt's arm where it lay on his chest, obviously close to giving back in to whatever painkiller he'd taken.

"I'm sorry I wasn't more careful, that I didn't time things better." Kurt's voice was soft, he spoke slowly, allowing Blaine to gain and lose focus but still keep the thread of his words. "I'm sorry what we did landed us in this mess, but I'm never going to be sorry for being ...close to you. All those stories you used to tell me, about things we'd do after graduation, they always seemed like fairy tales, stories about someone else. I never told you but I don't think I ever really saw our future. I don't know how to explain it but now, I just feel this bond."

Dark lashes obscured the amber eyes he loved to gaze into. Blaine mumbled something so Kurt leaned in to hear, asking him to repeat himself. Blaine took the opportunity to twist his fingers in the material of Kurt's shirt at his side and rumbled from somewhere deep in his throat, "I belong to you, Kurt."

Kurt kissed his forehead, "That's good, because I'm 100 percent yours."