Liz rang the doorbell and rested her arm on Kurt's scarf while they waited for an answer.

"Hey, Kurt!" Blaine pulled Kurt into the house and helped him out of his winter coat before the two boys ran into the family room to start playing.

"Thanks again for watching him today, Tracy." Liz whispered to make sure Kurt couldn't hear her, "Burt will come pick him up after my appointment."

"Take your time, you just take care of yourself, okay?"

"Thank you." Liz smiled sadly and pulled Tracy into a hug before she walked through the front door on her way to her first session of chemo.

Tracy turned back into her house and walked to the kitchen to start making the boys some blue box mac n cheese.

Liz had only been her friend for five months but they had grown so close.  Maybe the bond their sons shared brought them together, maybe it was that they both shared the same view-points about their son's relationship, or maybe it had absolutely nothing to do with their sons at all.  The reason didn't matter to Tracy though, her best friend was not doing very well and, besides watching Kurt, there was absolutely nothing she could do to help.

"Tracy?" Kurt's quiet voice pulled her back to reality as she finished stirring the powdered cheesed onto the noodles.

"Yes?"

"Why are we playing at your house today? Don't you and Blaine usually come to my house on Saturdays?"

"Well, your mommy is busy today so I said I would watch you."

"Where is she?"

Tracy squatted down next to Kurt and looked into his blue eyes.  This boy had no idea how his life was changing right before his eyes.  He had no idea his mother was fighting for her life and that she only had a 20% chance of winning.  Everything seen through those blue eyes was so innocent.  The world is full of rights and wrongs, there was no in-between, where he gets to play with his best friend and color with his crayons in school.

"She and your dad just had to run some errands this afternoon."

"Oh, okay." Kurt waited bouncing on his toes for Tracy to hand him two bowls and ran back into the family room to eat with Blaine.

Tracy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew this was going to be a rough battle for everyone.

Back in the living room Kurt and Blaine sat crisscross applesauce on the couch facing each other asking questions about school.

"Did that meany Dave do anythin' to you this week?"

Kurt ducked his head down and twisted his fingers with the hem of his pants.

"He did, didn't he?"

"Well, it wasn't anything big like that one time. He just sorta ran into me in the hall." Kurt looked up to see Blaine getting angry, "But it could have been a accident.  Honest."

"Kurt!" Blaine grabbed Kurt's shoulders so he could look his straight in the face, "It wasn't an accident.  Last week you said that he pushed you down in recess.  He's just bullyin' you. You gotta tell someone."

"No." Kurt looked back down at the couch again, "My dad will be so mad, Blaine. I can take care of it."

"You want me to tell my brother or somethin'? He could beat him up for you."

"No, Blaine. I can handle it on my own." Kurt turned to face the TV and crossed his arms. "Are we going to start the movie or not?"

Blaine looked at his friend for a few short seconds before getting up and obediently started the movie.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame was Blaine's favorite movie but today he couldn't concentrate on watching it.  He kept glancing over at Kurt trying to think of ways he could protect him.  This would be so much easier if he and Kurt went to the same school.  Blaine had the courage to stand up to Dave if it meant he wouldn't hurt Kurt anymore.  He could not figure out how someone would ever want to hurt Kurt. He is so nice, and smart, and he was Blaine's best friend; he could never be mean to Kurt.  Coop had always said he would help if anyone was being mean to him, but Kurt didn't want Cooper's help. He was so lost.

"Hey, how come you're not singing along?"

"Huh?" Blaine snapped his head back to the TV hoping that Kurt didn't catch him staring.

"This is your favorite song. You always sing along."

"Oh, I guess I just don't feel like singin' today."

"Why not?" Kurt scrunched his eyebrows and turned to look at Blaine, "Does your tummy hurt?"

"No, I..." Blaine started chewing on his bottom lip, "It's nothing. Let's just watch the movie."

"Blaine, what is it? I'm your best friend, remember?"

"It's nothing. I'm fine. I swear it."

"Okay..." Kurt scooted closer to Blaine on the couch and grabbed his hand just to make sure his friend was okay.  He gave him a sad smile before he turned back to the movie.

Blaine sighed and leaned against Kurt before turning his attention to Esmeralda's singing.

"Of course he can stay here, Burt. It's not a problem." Tracy paced back and forth holding the phone tightly to her ear, "You just take care of Liz, okay?"

"Okay, thank you."

"Anytime. Call me tomorrow."

"I will. Bye."

"Goodbye."

Tracy hung up the phone and sighed against the counter.  It was only Liz's first session and things were already going bad.  The doctors wanted to keep her overnight because her immediate reaction to the treatment was not what they wanted.  Tracy wanted to be there for her friend more than anything in the world but she had two little boys to take care of.  One of whose world was about to shatter because he was going to lose his mom and then there was her own son whose heart was about to shatter for Kurt.

That night Tom came home from work surprised to find Kurt still at his house.

"Hey, buddy. How's it going?"

"I'm good Mr. Anderson. My mommy and daddy said I could spend the night at your house. That's so cool, huh?"

"It is. I'm sure Blaine is happy, too?"

"I am, Daddy. This is two weeks in a row we get a sleepover. It's so awesome." Blaine turned and ran up the stairs towards his room with Kurt following immediately behind.

As soon as the boys were out of sight the smile fell from his face and he walked into the living room to greet Tracy.

"So, I take it Liz's treatment isn't off to a great start?" Tom sat next to her on the couch and snuck his arm around her waist and kissing her forehead.  He looked down to see Tracy had been holding back tears. "That bad, huh?"

"What's going to happen to Kurt? He is so happy. This is going to crush him."  Tracy hid her face in Tom's neck and pulled him closer.

"Well, darling, I wish I knew the answer, but I don't.  Situations like this are hard and we have no way of knowing how he is going to take it."

"At least he has Blaine, right?"

"Honey..." Tom thought of little Blaine playing upstairs with Kurt. Kurt, the person he had come to depend on so much.  He thought about the effect this could have on his son; how crushed and broken Blaine would be for Kurt, "Do you think we should let them spend this much time together? I mean, they are always together and this is not going to be easy on Blaine. Maybe we should let them have a couple weeks apart from each other?"

Tracy immediately pulled back to look her husband in the eyes.

"Are you kidding?"

"No. I just think it would be better for Blaine if we..."

"And what about Kurt? Do you think this is going to be easy on him? He is going to need Blaine more than ever before. We can't be selfish with our son when his best friend, a young boy our son cares very much about, is going to be going through hell."

"I just thought..."

"No. I cannot believe you could even suggest that. Kurt is practically one of our sons, too. You just want to throw him under the bus?" Tracy stood on her feet and faced Tom while she yelled, "Do you not see how dependent they are on each other? I am not going to do that to Kurt. Never."

"Don't you think their dependency is a little unhealthy?"

"No. I don't." Tracy Anderson stormed out of the room to order pizza for their dinner.

Little did they know that Kurt and Blaine sat at the top of the stairs listening to their argument.

Kurt looked up to Blaine with wide eyes.

"What's going on?"

 Blaine wrapped his arm around Kurt's waist and pulled his friend close to him.

"I don't know. But we'll figure it okay."