Its hours later, as darkness curls around them and sleepy eyes give way to murmurs and shifts then snores. They’ve moved to the family room, the sense of urgency abated as the doctor told them they had Kurt stable, a word that meant nothing to Burt or Blaine. The doctor walks in and takes in the sight. The young men and women are huddled together, a sense of togetherness in loss. One older man is sitting between a tall young man and a petite dark-haired girl, he’s not asleep though, his eyes are slitted, covertly watching another man who’s sat on his own, sniffling. A man he recognises dimly. He clears his throat and both men’s heads snap up, staring at him. “A word?” He says and both men get up, following him into the corridor. The harsher light here stings their eyes for a moment and he waits until they’re adjusted and their attention is on him. “Mr Hummel is stable. He has many external and internal injuries that, for the most part, we were able to fix. He does have a broken arm, a broken tibia and fibula on his right side and ankle on his left side. The injury that caused us the most worry was his head injury. When Mr Hummel collided with the windscreen his arm did take some of the impact but his skull became cracked and caused his brain to swell.”

“What does that mean?” Burt asked.

The doctor looked between them and sighed. He hated this job sometimes and these poor men, obviously the father and partner of the unfortunate young man he’d just saved and their friends sleeping in the room were the most obvious show of love, but of what remains when the world works against good men like Mr Hummel. “In some cases the head trauma, like Mr Hummel-”

“Kurt.” The younger man cut him off.

The doctor nodded. “Some cases with similar trauma as Kurt has sustained the injury is too great, the swelling can lead to loss of oxygen and death. In other cases, like Kurt, we manage to minimise this suffering but other things can occur as a result. In Kurt’s case he has now slipped into a coma.”

The two men stared at the doctor then looked at each other before the younger man spoke. “A coma? But he’s going to live, right? Can I see him?”

The doctor nodded and gestured to the nurse who’d joined them. “With comas we have no idea of the extent of full injury until he wakes but we’re keeping our opinions high right now. Go with Nurse Thomas, she’ll take you to Kurt,” He turned his attention to Burt as Blaine left with the nurse. “If Kurt has any other family, I’d suggest calling them. I talked to the police earlier; they don’t need your son’s account of what happened. The young man they took into custody confessed and your son’s friends all gave their statements.”

The older man nodded. “I’ll just tell them. Thank you for telling me but I don’t want them worrying about the case much right now. The boy who hit Kurt was his sister’s boyfriend.”

The doctor cocked his head, curious and confused. “I thought he only had you, a stepmother and step brother?”

Burt looked back at the room then back at the doctor, his lip quirked up slightly in a sad smile. “He does, but my God after the year they’ve all had I’d never call any one of those kids anything less than my own, and I’d be honoured to call that girl that rang my son every day, held him up and together when he fell apart, told him how amazing he was and cheered extra hard for the boy that’s holding his hand right now just so he’d hear through the voices in his own head, honoured to call her my daughter.”

The doctor gaped at him for a few seconds and then nodded, smiling. “That’s an amazing family you have there Mr Hummel. If there’s anything I can do…”

“Just keep him alive, keep it together.” The man said and walked into the room to be greeted by two tall young men and the others just waking up.

“This is the scene where, on Thursday morning, Kurt Hummel, partner of Blaine Hummel was mown down by what’s believed to be their friend’s boyfriend. There’s been no statement and the family of friends both Hummel’s often talk about as well as their own family have closed ranks. All sightings have stopped and all tweets like the ones we saw in the light of the blog just over a week ago have ceased. Some are saying the closest friends and family are even camped out at Kurt’s bedside at the hospital to be there for Blaine and Kurt and avoid being seen. We-”

“Turn it off.” Blaine whispers from the corner of the room and Cooper turns, startled.

“I thought you were asleep.” He says, walking over to his brother’s huddled body, curled in on himself.

The dark-haired teen shakes his head, curls bouncing as he moves and drags himself off of the floor, using the wall behind him to walk his hands up, shrugging off the hand that Cooper offers. He walks over to the bed and Cooper can barely hear him over the beep and whoosh of the machines keeping Kurt alive. “I didn’t look like that.” Blaine mumbles brokenly and the older man wants to wrap him up in a hug and never let go but Blaine’s shunned all contact since the accident, preferring to go back inside his mind and go back to how it was last year when he couldn’t be touched, but it’s not him hurt, it’s not their father’s fingers around his throat. It’s time and in his mind, it’s running out.

“No.” Cooper whispers.

Blaine looks up then, huge hazel eyes staring at him, shimmering with tears and desperation. “Why hasn’t he woken up yet?”

The other man shakes his head and looks over at the man lying in bed, unknowing to the world and how much it’s shattered over the few days he’s been laying there, his life floating in the air above their heads. He reaches out a hand to Blaine but Blaine bodily turns away from him and his pained eyes turn hard. Cooper’s mouth drops open and a hot spark flares through him. “Blaine stop, let me hold you. Why have you stopped letting people touch you? It’s not healthy.”

Blaine’s face turned red and his lip twisted in a snarl. “I’ll tell you what’s not healthy Cooper, my boyfriend is in a coma! He could die! I could,” He steps away, teeters on his feet as his anger ebbs away. “I could lose him.”

“That’s it, isn’t it?” Cooper asks, shocked and Blaine just looks at him. “He’s the last person who touched you, so you want him to be the last person to ever touch you.”

Blaine stares then breaks down in a sob, slumping down next to Kurt and crying over his chest. “Wake up baby.” He whispers and Cooper moves his hand over Blaine’s hair, centimetres away from actually touching him. It’s enough.

Rachel sits, unmoving, her knees drawn up to her chin and her arms wrapped around them, staring blankly at the poster on the wall about muscles and bones. The scuff of shoes passes her and the soft couch dips next to her as she blinks slowly but her gaze doesn’t drift to the person who’s sat next to her.

“What are you doing?” The deep voice asks.

The dark-haired girl blinks, resting her cheek against her knees and looking at the man, taking in his angles and lines, the soft whoosh of his hair, like but unlike his brother’s and the blue eyes set like sapphires into bronzed skin. “Trying to hold myself in.” She whispers.

Cooper nods and slides a little closer to her and wraps an arm around her. “Do you remember when I came to Blaine’s school and everyone fawned all over me and, hey, why wouldn’t they and I completely embarrassed Blaine by acting like I was better than him?” He watches her as she giggles and nods, remembering the acted out scenes and she points at him, poking him in the chest and he grins at her. “I was trying to impress Kurt. The rest of you too and I was full of myself but when I got there I wanted to see the guy my kid brother had changed schools and become happy and defied my dad for. Then he’s this kid who’s in awe of me. Part of me wanted to show off and part of me wanted to show him and the rest of you that you could do it.”

“Do they know?” She asks, her eyes wide.

Cooper nods, sighing. “Yeah they do. I think I told Kurt after Blaine and I had our ‘talk’ back then and Blaine knew but I told him a while back when he needed to be reminded how awesome he is.”

Rachel shifted towards the older man a little more, her cheek still on her knee. “How’s he holding up?” She asked and realised she hadn’t really been there, hadn’t been out of the room since they’d filed in here apart from the two times Burt’s forced her to go eat with him, since then they’ve allowed the few of them left to eat in the room.

Cooper sighed and looked faraway for a second then looked at her. “He’s not doing well. I think I got through to him about being touched, I don’t know if he’ll let anyone but I guess I can understand. I keep thinking, poor them. Why can’t the world give them a break? How about you? How are you doing?”

Rachel finally lifted her cheek off of her knee and smiled sadly. “I’m…I don’t know. He’s my best friend, they both are. I keep thinking about it. My dads say that the world has a balance and when something happens something happens to right it. Maybe Blaine needs to go through this to understand Kurt, or, I guess the world really is as awful as people say.”

“Do you really believe that?” Cooper asks.

Rachel shook her head, her long hair fluttering around her. “I don’t know what I believe any more. You know, I dreamed of Broadway and all this stuff and NYADA and Kurt and I were going to take the place by storm but I’m so lonely there and it is not what I thought it was. I think I’m losing myself and with everyone over here…maybe the world is awful, maybe Blaine is learning something, maybe all of this means nothing but people should pay more attention but all I know is I’ve watched my best friends almost die, one right in front of me and I don’t know how much more I can take.”

Cooper stares at her and wraps his arms around her tither. “Have you thought of coming out here?” He whispers.

“All the time,” She sniffs. “I was going to talk to Kurt about it at lunch.”

“Maybe you can talk to Blaine about it; he’d have the same answers. That’s the good thing about best friends who are soul mates.” Cooper replies.

Rachel nods and leans away, smiling at Cooper and their eyes lock and something shines between them. “Maybe I will.” She says.

She stumbles into the room, the door closing gently behind her. She blinks, not sure how she made it here and looks around at the mess of wires, tubes and machines all leading to the pale, silent form of her best friend, lying in bed. She wants to rip them out, shake him until he wakes, comes back to them and smiles that smile again. She wants to reverse time and stop all of this but all she can do as tears slip down her face is open her mouth and do what’s always made sense. The only thing the misfit of a family they’ve made together have known to do when things need to be said, done and felt. It makes sense and in the darkness, that’s all she can cling to. Her voice echoes, quiet and soulful in the silence.

I'm too tired to go to bed
I'm too wired for anything except
The crossfire in my head
It's been a long night
Cos I took all I can take
Til the walls shook and the windows break
I want to phone you but it's far too late
It's been a long night

So talk me down
Talk me down
Talk me down
Talk me down

Cos we fought an endless war
Til we forgot what we were fighting for
Now we can't stop
But we can withdraw
In the long night

So talk me down
Talk me down
Talk me down
Talk me down

The light flashed and I thought I'd died
My life passed before my eyes
It went too fast for the love I feel
Inside

So talk me down
Talk me down
Talk me down
Talk me down

Down, down, down

Lay your head near mine
Tell me that it's all fine
Love me while there's still time
It's been a long night

She sniffles and looks down at the shape in the corner, snuffling and shifting restlessly in sleep. Her feet take her over to him and she slumps down, sitting up close to him and he blinks a sleepy eye open and pulls her into his arms as she wraps her arms around him. The two of them huddle together, knees drawn up to their chests, arms wrapped around each other, and sleep, dreaming of blue eyes and heart-stopping smiles.