When Carole came home from work she found Kurt curled up on the couch, a cup of tea cradled to his chest, staring at the wall.

“Are you okay, dear?” She asked, startling Kurt out of his trance.

“Fine, I’m fine.” He checked his lap for spilled tea. “How was work?”

“Oh, work was fine.” Kurt watched absentmindedly as Carole shed her winter clothing. “I kept thinking about Blaine all day though, how is he doing? “

“He’s asleep again… I found him by the door when I got home.” Kurt put the cup he’d been holding on the coffee table.

“What do you mean, ‘by the door’?” Carole asked, taking a seat on the couch and turning to face him.

“He was sitting by the door waiting for me. I…” Kurt paused, hugging a decorative pillow to his chest. “I don’t know if I can do this.” He wanted to say more, but he just didn’t know where to start.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Carole asked. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder and Kurt looked up to see her face. Carole was looking at him like a mom, and Kurt couldn’t help but love her for it.

“He just has all the wrong ideas and I’m not sure if I can help him.” He started. “I want to, I want to help so badly, but all I do seems to be wrong and he’s constantly on edge, like he’s just waiting for me to beat the crap out of him and I don’t know how to deal with it. I just…” a distressed noise escaped his throat “I just don’t know what to do.” He took a deep, shaky breath.

“Oh honey, you know you can always come to me and your dad for help right? I know your dad talked to you about leaving Blaine in your care, but he didn’t mean that you’re on your own. We’re always here to help, he just meant we didn’t want to overload Blaine with authority figures, you know?”

Carole pulled him closer and Kurt let himself settle against her, holding on to her waist.

Kurt took a few deep breaths, letting Carole’s presence calm him. “I just don’t want to scare him anymore.”

“Well,” Carole began softly, stroking his hair, “I wasn’t around the last time your dad bought a slave, I can just give you educated guesses at the moment, but it seems like Blaine is used to a lot of rules, right?”

Kurt nodded. “Yeah, definitely.”

“Well then maybe, just for the time being, it might help put him at ease if he got new rules from you, since rules are familiar, right?”

He considered that for a moment. “It’s worth a try, I guess, but what do I tell him?”

“Has Burt talked to you about the exam yet?” Carole asked.

“No, but I remember when Cooper had to take it.”

“I’ll go get some of the practice books from the garage tomorrow afternoon, so maybe you could give him a daily workload once he feels better, I’m sure that’s a rule that could make him feel better, you know, things like that?”

“That sounds good.” Kurt whipped his cheeks on the back of his palm, noticing his hands came back moist, he never realized he was crying. “I’ll try that, and I’ll call home at lunch, so he knows he can eat.”

“That sounds wonderful. I’m so proud of you, honey.” He felt Carole kiss the top of his head and it made him smile and hold onto her more tightly.

“Thank you.” He sighed, burying his face in her shoulder again.

Kurt allowed himself to relax with his step-mother for a little while until his eyes caught the digital clock on the TV caught his eye. “We should make dinner.” He sighed, extracting himself from the comforting embrace.

Dinner was done by the time Finn and Burt came home. While his parents and brother had spaghetti, Kurt decided to serve himself the same as he did Blaine, meaning another round of soup and toast. Blaine tiptoed out of his room just as Kurt was about to go fetch him, seemingly drawn out by the smell of food.

“Oh good, you’re up.” Kurt greeted him with a careful smile and gestured for Blaine to follow him into the kitchen. “Dinner is ready, come join us.”

The dinner itself was a lot more pleasant than the one on the previous day had been. Burt and Finn were chatting enthusiastically, while Kurt and Blaine ate in almost content silence. The nap seemed to have calmed Blaine’s nerves and Kurt was thankful for it. Blaine ate slowly as he had been instructed, but with a lot more enthusiasm than Kurt had seen him do before.

“Do you want some more?” Kurt asked quietly, not wanting to interrupt the conversation flowing around them. Blaine seemed to honestly contemplate the offer, but shook his head no. “Thank you, but I don’t think I can, Sir.”

Kurt nodded, finishing the last bite of his own toast. “There’s always more later, if you want.” He contemplated what to do next when it occurred to him that Blaine’s bandages still needed changing. He spoke up when Burt and Finn cleared away the dishes, mostly to distract Blaine from trying to do it for them.

“Do you think you can handle a shower?” He asked. “If not we can draw another bath..”

“A shower is fine, Sir.” Blaine assured him.

Blaine followed Kurt into the bathroom where Kurt quickly explained the two knobs that regulated the temperature and water pressure and left Blaine with a towel and the instruction to get a new set of pajamas to change into for after they had redressed his wounds.

Blaine did as he was told, while Kurt went to gather more bandages from the medicine cabinet for later. When he went to place them next to the bathroom sink he stopped short in the door. Blaine had taken his shirt off and was trying to reach the bandages on his back to take them off. His face scrunched up in pain from the contortion, but that was only a small part of what made Kurt halt abruptly in the door. With the way Blaine was stretching Kurt could see the bones of his rib cage and hips protruding to an extent he hadn’t been aware they could. It was shocking in a way that made Kurt want to cry. He had known, logically, how skinny Blaine was. He had seen his own clothes become oversized looking on Blaine, but in the harsh artificial lighting of the bathroom and in a pose like this reality hit him hard. If Santana hadn’t dragged him to that stupid market, Blaine would not be here. He wouldn’t be anywhere, he would be dead, either from an injection, or hypothermia, or starvation and lying under a bridge near Marysville.

“Let me help you.” Kurt stressed, hurrying over to Blaine who lowered his arms gratefully and turned his back to Kurt for better access. One of the cuts on Blaine’s shoulder had torn open a little because of the strain, but otherwise his back seemed to look better for all Kurt could tell. “They’re looking better.” He commented as he removed the last bandage. “Shower as warm as you like, okay? And call me when you’re decent.” Kurt added before heading out the door.

Once outside, he didn’t know what to do with himself. He heard the shower turn on behind the closed door and wondered if he could really leave Blaine alone. Kurt hadn’t seen Blaine stand for longer than a minute at a time and he got tired very quickly. What if he fell? What if…

“Dude, you okay? You look like you’re gonna have an anarhythm.” Kurt was startled out of worrying.

“You mean an aneurysm, Finn.” He corrected him gently, trying not to sound amused.

“Yeah, that. You okay?” Finn repeated his initial question.

Kurt sighed. “I don’t know, I think so. Just worried, I guess.” Finn gave the bathroom door an understanding glance before patting Kurt’s shoulder.

“He’ll be fine. You always make people better, like Burt, or that one time Rachel had that nasty cold. You’re a totally awesome nurse. You know, a guy nurse. You’re like the smartest guy I know, you’ll make him better in no time.”

Kurt couldn’t help but laugh a little at Finn’s rambling. “Thanks, Finn.”

“Oh and Burt sent me to tell you that he brought ‘the books’ back from the garage. I don’t know what books he means though, he said you knew.” Finn suddenly remembered. “I’m supposed to get them from the car.”

With that Finn hurried outside without his shoes or jacket to retrieve a big, heavy box from the trunk of his father’s car while Kurt watched him, confused as to how Finn’s feet didn’t instantly turn into icicles.

“Where do you want me to put them?” He asked, kicking the front door shut behind him with his foot a moment later.

“Erm… my room, please.”

“You got it.” Finn said, heaving the box up the stairs, Kurt trailing behind him.

He thanked Finn after he put the box down on Kurt’s bedroom floor, opening the lid. It was halfway filled with various school books on different topics, all of which would be subjects on the test. The test… Kurt wasn’t quite sure if Blaine was ready for that conversation quite yet, maybe it would be best to wait until Blaine had gotten a little more acclimated.

The sound of the shower downstairs cut out and Kurt took it as his cue to head down again to be there when Blaine was ready.

“How badly do they hurt?” Kurt asked, carefully applying ointment to one of the deeper cuts, trying to touch the torn skin as little as possible.

Blaine was sitting on a chair in front of him, hugging the backrest to his chest for support while Kurt was sitting on the edge of the bathtub. The ointment and bandages lined up on the edge next to him.

“Not very, Kurt.” Blaine assured him, not even flinching a little bit when Kurt pressed the bandage down around the cut.

When he saw Kurt frown in disbelief in the mirror he quietly added. “This really isn’t so bad. I’ve had a lot worse, Kurt.”

Kurt pressed his lips into a small line to keep himself from wincing at the thought. “I’m sorry.”

Blaine looked bewildered for a moment, before schooling his features into a curious but neutral expression when he remembered that Kurt could see him in the mirror as well. “May I ask why, Kurt?” He asked carefully.

“I’m sorry someone hurt you so much that this…” He let his eyes linger on Blaine’s torn up back “… doesn’t even compare.” Kurt swallowed heavily and went back to applying ointment to the cuts, one at a time. He wasn’t satisfied with his own answer. Kurt felt as though he should say more, offer comfort and promise safety, but all his usual skill for heartfelt speeches seemed to have left him.

“I have a book for you… well, loads of books, but we’re starting with one. I’ll show it to you later. I thought it would be nice if you had something to do while we’re all gone. Those books are really important. I’d like it if you could work through maybe a chapter a day during the week. They’re small chapters and you can still read other books, if you want to. I promise there won’t be any punishment if you don’t manage a whole chapter, and if you ever get stuck you can ask for help. I’d just really like it if we could make this a thing.”

“Of course, Kurt.” Blaine sounded anxious, even though he obviously tried very hard to sound neutral and obedient.

“This isn’t a test, I swear. I’m not trying to set you up or trick you into failing. They’re just important preparations for …life”, he decided to explain what exactly Blaine was studying for another time “since you can’t go to school or anything. You’ll see, they start from scratch, you’ll be able to follow them. You don’t have to start right away; I know you’re still really tired.” Kurt trailed off. Maybe he shouldn’t have sprung this on Blaine like he did? He could feel himself putting pressure on Blaine that he hadn’t meant to put there. He was doing this to put Blaine at ease. “I’ll show you in a few minutes. Don’t worry for now.”

“Yes, Kurt.” Blaine had immediately picked up on Kurt’s uncertainty and was trying hard to gauge what was in store for him. Kurt finished treating the cuts on Blaine’s back.

“I’ll just check your knees, you can put your shirt on.” He sat down on the floor in front of Blaine’s chair. “Can I roll these up?” Kurt asked, pointing at the legs of Blaine’s pants. Blaine nodded, his fingers twitching restlessly as though he wanted to take the task off Kurt’s hand.

“There’s something I’ve been wondering…” Kurt mused as he gently prodded the skin around Blaine’s swollen knee “..and I’m not sure how to ask, but those men, at the market, how… why…” Kurt paused to sort out his thought process. “Why would they …” He trailed off again, but Blaine knew how to end his sentence.

“Kill me and not sell me into hard labor, Kurt?” Blaine asked.

“Yeah.” Kurt confirmed quietly, looking up at Blaine carefully.

“Traders don’t buy diseased slaves.” Blaine began, avoiding Kurt’s gaze. “I was…okay when my last owner sold me, but one of the traders … took a liking to me. We get screened every time we are bought. Three weeks ago someone was going to buy me… that’s when they found out.” Blaine’s hands were clutching the back of the chair tightly, his eyes still averted. “They screened all the traders and found out what he did. It got him in a lot of trouble, I think.”

Blaine looked up as if to gauge Kurt’s reaction. Kurt ran a hand over the still fabric covered leg in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture.

“He was so mad.” Blaine continued. “They kept… forgetting to feed me after that and I wasn’t allowed to clean myself with the other slaves. He didn’t want me to be sold. He wasn’t allowed near us anymore, but his friends… if you hadn’t …” He lowered his gaze again. “There’s something I’ve been wondering as well, Kurt, if I may?”

“What’s that?” Kurt asked softly.

“If they weren’t going to… if he hadn’t been about to… would you have taken me with you? If I had been standing with the others?”

Kurt’s hand stilled. His breath hitched at the thought, because no, he wouldn’t have. If Blaine hadn’t been about to be murdered he wouldn’t have even glanced at him twice, just like he hadn’t looked at the other miserable men and women he had passed.

Blaine understood his silence and nodded.

“I’m sorry.” Kurt whispered, seeking Blaine’s gaze to make him understand.

“No, no, don’t be.” Blaine said earnestly. Then his face broke into an incredulous smile. “I guess I’m lucky then.” He added, smiling wistfully, his smile not faltering when he caught Kurt’s mystified expression.

“If he hadn’t made me sick I would have been in line with all the others and you’d have walked right by me. If it hadn’t been for him you wouldn’t have seen me. I got lucky!”

“Lucky.” Kurt repeated dumbfounded. “You really think so?” Hope bubbled up in Kurt’s stomach that maybe he wasn’t scaring Blaine as much as he thought he was… at least not anymore.

“I really do.” Blaine confirmed, smile brightening when he saw a happy grin spread across Kurt’s face.

Kurt finished inspecting the progress of Blaine’s knees, still smiling to himself. “I think the swelling has gone down, that’s great!” He commented, smoothing out the legs of Blaine’s sweatpants. “Come on, I’ll show you the first book.” Kurt led the way to his room with Blaine following right behind him.