The memories were becoming far too much for him; images of his own stint in rehab were all rushing back into his memory and overwhelming him. Blaine had always promised himself that a patients would have this kind of impact on him – they couldn't. Because getting attached to patients was a dangerous thing considering a lot of them literally ran away or offed themselves when the pain and suffering became too much. Getting attached only hurt him in the end. But with this new boy it was different. He could swear that he'd seen those blue eyes somewhere before. They weren't the kind of eyes that were easily forgotten.

Quietly, Blaine took a deep breath, wiping the tears from his eyes and got back up on his own two feet. He walked back down the hall towards Kurt's unit, Sawyer he remembered. He needed to find Kurt and go over a few more ground rules. He had to find Kurt and not break down crying. He had to.

~*~

Kurt wandered down the hall, ignoring the weird breakdown from the dude with too much hair gel. Bernie? Blake? Fuck it, it wasn't important. He looked down the hall of the unit he assumed was his. There had to be at least a hundred doors up and down the hallway. It was like the college dormitory from hell. Kurt looked down at his piece of paper that he received earlier and started his trek down the various hallways looking for a 209 on one of the doors.

Finally, he came to right door and dug into his pocket for the key he was given, putting it into the handle and jiggling the knob until it opened. The room itself is nothing spectacular, there was a room with four beds and four nightstand and four dressers. There were two other doors, one led to the bathroom and the other lead to the unit's rec room slash cafeteria. Kurt looked at the empty bed, assuming it was his and went to lay on it, ignoring the two other men looking at him like they just witnessed a streaking on the highway on rush hour traffic.

"Uh, hi? Do you not know how to be decent or something?" A short man that looked like he was built like the butt of a sledgehammer spoke up. He had long hair, a beard and thick southern accent. He looked to be somewhere in his early to mid thirties.

With an irritated groan, Kurt sat up on his bed and faced the other three men. "I'm Kurt. I'm being forced here by my dad and I like alcohol the most, but I'll take anything I can gt in any form." He paused, ignoring the obnoxious burn from the hole on his cheek. "And you all are?

The shorter man spoke up again, "I'm Larry."

"And you are?" Kurt looked at the other man. He was rail thin and even older than Larry. He was tn and much too happy for a place like this. How do people smile here?

"I'm Warren. Larry and I were about to play cards. Did you want to join?"

"No, I just want to sleep. Sorry."

The two nodded and didn't offer up anymore words, not that Kurt cared. He leaned back and drifted off for a bit. At least, until he felt some sort of obnoxious presence over him. Kurt opened his eyes to find a man looking at him.

"What the fuck? Get away from me, freak."

He was a clean cut man of medium height. Again, much too perky for a place like this. He doesn't move, and instead continues speaking.

"You're new. I'm John."

John's eyes are empty. Maybe he isn't so happy.

"Yeah, I'm Kurt. Seriously move, this is creepy."

John finally moves and Kurt sits up in the bed. John sits on the end of the bed and has a card in his hand.

"Here, take it."

Kurt takes the card and laughs. It's a business card that reads: John Everett. Sexual Ninja. San Fransico and the world.

"You realize you're in Ohio, right? Might want to change that demographic a bit." Kurt throws the card back at him. "I'm not really interested, but thanks for the flattery."

"Say, Kurt, would you maybe want to go grab some food and talk a bit? You seem like someone I could at least be friendly with."

Kurt sighed as his stomach growled. "Yeah, I guess."

The doorknob clicked right as Kurt stood up and all four men looked towards it. There stood Blaine.

"I'm sorry to intrude, guys. I knocked but I don't think anyone heard me. Uh, no one's in trouble but can I borrow Kurt for a few minutes?"

Blaine's eyes were still red an bloodshot. Old Kurt would have asked what was wrong, but this Kurt was still too fucked up to even make the connection.

"Actually, I was going to go hand out with John here for a bit..."

"Kurt, please. I just need a few minutes of your time and then you're free to do whatever you were planning on doing. Well, within the rules of course."

"Fine." Kurt huffed. "John, I'll be back in a few. Sorry."

Kurt glared at Blaine as he walked into the hallway with him. "What the hell do you want? I thought we were done when you started crying like a five year old?"

"Kurt stop talking for a few minutes so I can finish telling you the rules."

"Don't tell me what to do."

Kurt, please.."

"Fuck off."

Blaine simply shook his head, sighing and looking towards the floor. "So the rest of the rules are for your unit. They're fairly simple, but must be followed." He looked back up at Kurt, finally looking back into those blue eyes.

Kurt nodded, annoyed. He was really only half listening. "Are you going to talk or keep wasting more of my time?"

"I- Sorry. There are between twenty to forty men on the unit at any given time. There's myself and two other counselors for the unit and one unit supervisor. Every week a new chores chart is posted for each room. There are both daily and weekly tasks to be completed by you individually and as a group and they must be done. If one person doesn't do a task your entire room is punished. Every man is required to attend three lectures a day, eat three meals a day and participate in any and all unit activities. Obviously there are no drugs other than the ones prescribed allowed and there is under no circumstances to be alcohol or any other harmful substances at any time."

Kurt rolled his eyes, pretty sure he'd heard this same set of rules at least eight times already. The question was why does Blaine seem so distant and not as obnoxiously perky? Oh well.

Blaine continued. "Mail is passed out once a day and the staff reserves the right to open anything that they deem to be suspicious. Visitors are allowed on Sunday's from one to four. No other contact with anyone outside the facility is allowed unless your counselor, me, deems it appropriate for the circumstances. And finally, all the girls are housed in a completely separate unit on the opposite side of the building. No contact is to be made with anyone of the opposite sex under any circumstance unless it is a staff member. If you see a girl in the hallway hell is appropriate but how are you is not. If we find out you are talking to any girls you will be asked to leave."

"I'm gay. Frankly, you would have been smarter to room me with the girls."

Blaine laughed, pinching the bridge of his nose and shutting his eyes tightly. "Well that's certainly a first here."

"Seriously? There's never been a gay patient? I swear if I will punch someone if there are any ignorant assholes."

"I can promise none of the staff will care. As for the patients, we do have a zero tolerance policy in place. So if anything happens it will taken care of promptly, I assure you."

"You sound like a fucking teleprompter."

Blaine stood there shocked. "Do you have any sort of compassion or emotions?

"I did about three years ago but then I found out how much I liked feeling numb and fucked up. So now, not really. Surely you should be used to it by now working in this hell hole."

"Kurt you don't know anything about me. Please stop. Just...go do whatever you were planning on doing. I'll see you tonight for the new patient meet and greet."

Blaine took a shaky breath, being careful to not let all the memories overwhelm him again. Yeah, he was far too attached to Kurt. He was screwed.

"Whatever." Kurt promptly turned to go into his room again but stopped when he heard Blaine's shuffling down the hallway. He knew he shouldn't be so harsh on him, but he couldn't get close to him. He would just end up hurting yet another unsuspecting person. Not that anyone could want someone like him around anyways.

"Hey Blaine." It was out of Kurt's mouth before his brain could tell him to shut up.

Blaine stopped dead in his tracked, confused he turned to face Kurt. "Yeah?"

"Thanks. For everything. I know I'm an asshole, but I do appreciate what you're trying to do. So..scurry along or whatever."

Blaine nodded, smiling softly at Kurt with a happy nod in his direction. "Sure." Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all. At least, that's what he was going to tell himself so everything didn't hurt as badly. And so he didn't relapse again.

Kurt smiled as Blaine walked away. It was the first time he'd smiled in years.