Burt, Carole and Finn burst through the doors just over half an hour after Kurt’s call home and they all rush at the men sat dazed in the waiting room. Burt sits next to Kurt and gathers him into his arms where Kurt starts sobbing again. Carole kneels in front of Cooper and touches the bruises on his face from where his father had got a couple of hits in when Cooper was trying to get him off of Blaine. She looks at Cooper with heartbroken, loving eyes, ones he remembers his mother looking at him with before leaving their lives forever. Finn stands, confused and worried before slumping next to Cooper and hugging him.

“What happened?” Carole asks and they all turn to Cooper.

Cooper shakes his head, tears in his eyes. “We went for a walk, Kurt and I, just to talk about stuff before we collected Blaine. We-we were walking up the d-driveway and there was a scream, oh god his scream. We rushed in…Blaine, oh fuck, Blaine.” Cooper breaks down again and hides his face in his hands, sobbing loudly.

Kurt leans away from his dad and puts an arm around Cooper’s shoulders. “Cooper…Blaine was being attacked. There was so much glass and blood.”

Finn looks at him, confused. “Was it a burglar?”

Kurt snorts, only the wholesomely loved Finn would never imagine anything else. He shakes his head and looks back at him. “No. It was Blaine’s dad. He was strangling him.”

His parents and Finn’s mouths drop open and Cooper sobs louder before pulling his hands away from his face and trying to compose himself.

Before they can ask any more questions the doctor comes out and looks at them all. “Who called the police and ambulance?”

Kurt stands up and whispers. “I did. He’s my…my boyfriend. Cooper and I came in with him. Cooper’s his brother. How is he?”

The doctor nods and looks over them all. “He’s stable; we managed to bring him back. He’s a fighter. All of the injuries apart from the strangulation are superficial so we’ve bandaged him up. The police have already been to see him but he can’t speak right now. They’ll want to speak to you and Cooper.”

Kurt looks around to where the doctor nods and sees the policemen standing respectfully at the back of the waiting room. “When can we see him?”

The doctor smiles and pats his shoulder softly. “Any time you like. We’ve moved Mr.Anderson to a private room to recover; the nurses are with him now. I think it best you talk to the police first. His father-”

“He’s no father of ours.” Cooper grates from his seat and the doctor nods.

“Of course. His jaw is broken and the doctors dealing with him are working on that. The police want to get your story as quickly as they can so there are no holdups after he’s been discharged.” The doctor explained to Kurt and guided him to a private family room, Cooper, Finn, Burt, Carole and the policemen following them.

“So what do you want to know?” Kurt asks as soon as they sit down and the doctor leaves to go back to check on Blaine.

The policemen glanced at each other then the older one, Kurt guessed he was about 40, leant forward and spoke gently. “Well, let me introduce myself and my colleague first. I’m Lt. Carson and this is Detective Leighton. Just tell us what happened, Mr. Hummel. Don’t leave anything out, just how it happened.”

Kurt nodded and took a deep breath, going back in his mind to just hours ago. “Cooper had picked me up from the airport, I live in New York and I’m back for Thanksgiving. We were going to take Blaine out for dinner then go back to my parents. They live in Lima. Blaine had school; he goes to William McKinley High School in Lima so he couldn’t pick me up. Cooper and I went for a walk for a few minutes to wait for Blaine to come out of the house. His dad…he’s homophobic and hates me, hates Blaine so we were waiting for him to come out. We got to the driveway and heard this scream. Blaine screaming. I’ve only heard him scream in pain once before and…sorry. We went in and there was blood and glass and alcohol everywhere, the house stank of it. Blaine’s school stuff was all over the place by the door and I stood there. I’d never seen anything like that. Cooper shouted, um, ‘Dad, stop’ from the living room and I went in there. I-he had him by the neck. Why would anyone do that? Why would he do that to his son? Cooper tried to get him off of Blaine, he was all bloody and I rang 911. Finally we heard the sirens and Cooper punched him. He broke his jaw. Blaine’s…Blaine’s everything I have. He can’t get away with this, please.”

The policeman nodded and put his hand on Kurt’s shoulder. “Thank you. You’ve done so well. Don’t worry, Mr Anderson won’t get away with this. From what we’ve seen of Blaine and from what Doctor Samuels has told us this isn’t the first time Blaine’s been attacked like this. We’ve taken pictures for evidence; we’ll get him for this. I promise. He’s going away for a long, long time.” The policeman smiled and Kurt smiled sadly back at him.

“Thank you. Can I go see Blaine now?” Kurt asked, eager to see his boyfriend.

Lieutenant Carson nodded and the other stood up. “Of course. If you don’t mind Detective Leighton here is going to come with you and stand outside the room for a while until you and Blaine say he can ask Blaine some questions, okay?”

Kurt nodded and walked out of the room, meeting the nurse who showed him to Blaine’s room.

Kurt knocked and walked in. The room was mostly white and looked a lot like the one his dad had been in when he’d had his heart attack. Kurt approached the bed and sat down in one of the chairs. Blaine looked so small in the bed, surrounded by sheets and pillows. Kurt took in the bruised arms covered in places by gauze where he’d been cut then looked up, wincing at the bruised neck, finger-marks visible and Kurt remembered the hands wrapped around that delicate neck he’d kissed a thousand times. His face was less of a mess than it had been earlier. His lip was patched with steristrips and the cut above his eye was similarly taped. His right cheek was covered with gauze over the scratches Kurt had seen before. Blaine’s head turned towards him and they smiled at each other. Kurt took Blaine’s hand and kissed the fingers, Blaine’s eyes following his movements. “Oh Blaine. I thought I’d lost you, baby.” Tears slip from Kurt’s eyes and drip onto Blaine’s fingers.

“I’m not going anywhere, Kurt.” Blaine’s voice rasps and Kurt grabs the cup by the bed filled with ice chips. He holds it to Blaine’s mouth and waits while he drinks, holding him as he coughs. Kurt glances at the open back of the gown as Blaine leans over and opens the sides, closing his eyes against the tears as he sees scars on the younger man’s back.

Kurt lays Blaine back down and kisses him gently. Blaine looks at him with love and adoration and Kurt wonders if they’re giving him morphine or something similarly strong for the pain as he looks a little far away too. “The police are outside. Do you feel up to talking to him?”

Blaine nods and Kurt kisses him again gently before getting up and opening the door, ushering the policeman in. “Blaine this is Officer Leighton. Just tell him everything you remember, okay?”

Blaine nods again and watches as Kurt goes around the other side of the bed and sits down, taking his hand before he looks back at the officer. “Where do you want me to start?”

Detective Leighton glances at Kurt then looks back at Blaine. “Just tell me everything that happened, Blaine. You got home, what then?”

Blaine nods and takes another sip from the offered ice chips before speaking. “I got home from school. He was there, waiting. He was drinking, again. He grabbed me, hit me, smashed his glass and hit me with the glass. He was yelling at me that I wouldn’t be going out, that I wasn’t going anywhere. I yelled back at him, told him I was going out with my boyfriend. He chased me into the living room and grabbed my neck. That’s all I remember.”

Kurt grasps Blaine’s hand and Blaine looks at him for acceptance. “You did amazingly baby. I’m so proud of you. I love you.”

Blaine smiles back at Kurt, relief spreading across his face that breaks Kurt’s heart. “I love you too. I need to sleep now.”

Detective Leighton nods and gets up. “Well done, Blaine. You did very well.”

Kurt gets up too and kisses Blaine’s forehead. “I’m just going to see my parents, Finn and Cooper a sec, I’ll be back.”

Blaine nods sleepily and by the time Kurt gets to the door and looks back Blaine is sleeping deeply.

They all get up and crowd around. Kurt nods at them all and tells them Blaine is ok, sleeping now and will be up to talk to and cry over later.

“From what we’ve worked out Blaine arrived home from school and his father was waiting for him. He attacked Blaine immediately. The mess in the house was from their struggle. It was completely one-sided, as we thought. We can go after pre-meditated attempted murder; he had no intention of Blaine living. He’s going away. Thank you.” Detective Leighton said and left with Lt Carson.

Nobody spoke, all trying to process the idea that Blaine’s father had tried to kill him, intended to kill him.

Finn spoke first, still confused. “So, his dad is like some monster? Who tries to kill their kid? Mom?”

Carole sighed and hugged her son, once again feeling blessed with her life and family. “Yes, Finn. Some people are just bad inside and feel it’s ok to hurt people they’re supposed to love. Blaine’s father hated what he is, being gay and dating Kurt and he just wanted to get rid of him. That’s evil; Finn and he’ll go away for a long time.” She explained slowly.

Finn nodded and sat down, looking at Cooper. “You really broke his jaw?” Cooper nodded and Finn clapped a hand on his back. “Awesome.”

“Excuse me; Blaine’s been alone too long.” Kurt whispered a while later and turned back to Blaine’s room, smiling as Blaine who was awake again, saw him through the glass and shifted in bed, excited that his love was coming back.

Burt walked over. “Hey, do you think I could come see him?” Burt asked and Kurt nodded.

Kurt opens the door and Blaine grins as much as he can with his split lip. “Hi.” He whispers and Kurt sits down, kissing his fingers again.

“Hey baby.” Kurt whispers back and places his hand on Blaine’s good cheek.

Blaine looks up at Burt and frowns for a second then seems to remember why he’s there and smiles at him. Burt smiles back and sits down next to Kurt.

They talked for a while until Blaine fell asleep. Kurt and Burt walked into the waiting room, exhausted.

Burt looked at his family. Carole and Finn looked scared and upset, Cooper looked terrified and exhausted and Kurt looked like he was about to collapse. “I think we need to go home, have some food and sleep.” Burt said and Carole nodded at her husband.

Kurt nodded, too tired to resist. Cooper suddenly gasped, looking around with wide eyes. “I don’t have a home. Not here. Oh my god. My home is an evidence… thing. I can’t go home.”

Finn snorted. “No dude, you’re coming home with us. We’re Hummel-Hudson-Andersons now, right Burt?”

Burt looked at Finn and his heart swelled, proud of this kid that wasn’t his own but still as much a part of him as Kurt, and yes, Blaine. “That’s right, Finn. You’re with us now Cooper.”

Cooper looked up at him with round eyes and at Kurt next to him, nodding and for a heart-breaking, earth shattering moment Cooper realised he’d never been a part of a normal, loving, balanced family like the one in front of him. He nodded numbly ad followed them out. He, Finn and Kurt walked the 8 minute walk from the hospital to the Anderson house. None of them looked at it, just slid into the car and drove away.

The ride is mostly silent until they’re nearly at the Hummel-Hudson house when Cooper blurts out. “I think I’ll change my name.”

Kurt looks in the rear-view mirror and sees the serious expression on his face as Finn focuses on the road. Cooper’s looking out of the window at the houses passing them by. “Okay. Change it then.” Kurt says back.

Cooper looks at him through the mirror and thinks, then asks. “What about Blaine?”

Finn snorts, glancing back at him and mutters. “He’s been calling himself Hummel for ages.” Kurt elbows him and he gives Kurt a ‘what?’ look.

Cooper’s mouth forms the words Blaine Hummel and he looks at Kurt. “Really?”

Kurt turns and looks back at him properly. “Yeah he kind of started doing it just after graduation. It was cute but I guess he wanted to forget being an Anderson too.

Cooper nods and looks back out of the window at the houses, wondering about the people in them. The families, the couples, the brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents and wonders of they’re happy, sad, if any of them are watching his commercial right now. “Love and forgetting. Poetic, if my brother wasn’t lying in a hospital bed. I wish I’d hit him harder.”

“I don’t,” Kurt says back and Cooper looks at him. “Then we’d lose you too. Either to getting arrested for extreme force or something or he’d have hit you back.”

Cooper nods, silent as they all think about it. A few minutes later they turn into the Hummel-Hudson driveway and Kurt sighs. He’s home, finally, though part of him is still in that hospital with his love.

Burt and Carole are waiting as they walk in and they all hug each other.

“Cooper you can sleep in Kurt’s room, Finn will get the air mattress out, how do you guys feel about pizza?” Burt said as he closed the door and Finn runs off to get the air mattress out of the cupboard.

Kurt and Cooper shared a glance, the vision of their Blaine, his eyes rolled back in his head still swimming in their heads. “Um, is it ok if we just go to bed, dad? I don’t think either of us could eat.”

Burt’s jaw clicks shut and he looks between the men. Kurt’s eyes are hollow, his world broken open at his feet. Cooper’s head is bowed again, he looks like he’s about to cry. Finn shuffles past them all wordlessly and suddenly the adrenalin floods out of Burt and the night hits him hard. He rushes at Kurt and Cooper and yanks them both into a bear hug, the three men crying into each other’s shirts. Carole comes over a second later, wrapping her arms around Burt and Kurt, who wraps his arm around her and a few seconds after that Finn comes down the stairs three at a time, almost leaping on them to join in. Cooper wraps his arm around him with Burt pulling him in closer. Together, the family cries.