Kurt flinched away from the rough voice that called out his name from down the hall.

"Hey, Hummel! I'm talking to you." Dave walked up and pulled Kurt's shoulder forcing them to face each other.  "You can't just ignore me when I'm talking."

"And what's going to stop me?"  Kurt immediately wished he could take the words back; he didn't know what had come over him to say them in the first place but based on the look on Dave's face he was going to regret it.

"Well, I don't know, maybe this?" Dave used his grip on Kurt's shoulders to pull him down towards the end of the hallway.

"Blaine! Help me!" The fear built up in Kurt's throat stopping his words.

"Your boyfriend isn't going to save you now just like he wasn't there to save you in elementary school.  Here we are eight years later and nothing has changed.  You're still a girl and I'm still better than you."  Dave smirked over at Kurt before shoving him back against the wall of the hallways causing him to fall to the ground.  He walked over and put his dirty tennis shoe on Kurt's stomach holding him down.  "Have a good summer, lady boy." He gave Kurt's gut one last shove before walking away.

Kurt jolted up from his bed and tried to catch his breath.  He rubbed his hands over his eyes hoping to erase the images from his head.

"Are you okay?"  Blaine sat up next to Kurt looking at him with concern, "You kept kicking your legs and talking in your sleep."

"I just had a bad dream."  Kurt could feel the tears begin to fall down his cheeks but he did nothing to stop it.  All he wanted right now was to sleep next to his mommy, but he knew that she wouldn't be in her bed down the hall.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"  Kurt bit his lip and began to twist his fingers in his lap, a gesture that Blaine remembered well.  "You don't have to; I just thought it might help.  But that's okay if you don't."

"Thanks."  Kurt looked down to his hands and smiled a little.  He had forgotten how well Blaine understood him.

"Do you want me to hold your hand while you try to sleep again?"  Blaine extended his hand for Kurt to take, which he did without hesitation.

Kurt and Blaine lay back down on their backs facing the ceiling.  Blaine felt Kurt's hand firmly in his own.  Whatever was going on with Kurt that was causing bad dreams and giving him bruises he was going to fix it.  Not even his Dad could stop him.

Kurt hated lying to Blaine.  He just wanted to tell him about Dave and he wanted it all to be over.  He wanted to know that next week when summer started the two of them could play every day and they could go to the coffee shop and everything could just be like it was before.

"Hey, Blaine?"

"Yes?"

"Can we be best friends again?"

Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand and smiled to himself.

"Yea, we can."

Kurt turned his head to face Blaine and smiled and Blaine mimicked him.

"Good, cause I missed you."

"I missed you, too."

Both the boys let sleep consume them once again keeping their hands linked together.

Tracy wasn't dumb; she had seen that look on Blaine's face before.  That was the look he used to wear when he and Kurt would hang out.  She thought back to the first time she had seen that look in the coffee shop.  Her son had come running over and sat down at some other lady's table and started talking to her.  It didn't Tracy long to realize that this boy was special to her son.  And he was wearing that look now.

Tracy wasn't dumb; she knew exactly where Cooper and had brought Blaine home from, but she wasn't going to say anything.

What Tracy didn't realize is that knowing that Kurt was in Blaine's life was making her feel better.  She was smiling more; she made dinner every night this week, and spent less and less time in the chair.

Tom saw these differences.  He was so proud of his wife and son; they had overcome so much pain.  He knew he was doing the right thing by separating Blaine from Kurt.  Tom would never admit it to anybody but he was so angry with the Hummels.  He blamed them for all the pain his family had experienced; for all the days Blaine and Tracy had spent wasting their lives away.  And now that Blaine and Kurt weren't friends anymore Tom didn't feel guilty about the fact that he never liked Kurt to begin with.  There was something about their relationship that made Tom uncomfortable, like the way he had walked into Blaine's room one night when Kurt was sleeping over and the two boys were cuddled close together, or how they would hold hands whenever they played together.  Tom had even overheard Blaine telling Tracy that he never wanted to get a girlfriend so he could always hold hands with Kurt.  He had never worried about his son's sexuality until Kurt came along.  Blaine was still young and that gave Tom plenty of time to help Blaine be normal.  Tom wasn't ready, nor would he ever be ready, to raise a gay son.

Blaine lay in his bed replaying everything from the last week in his head.  He was excited because tomorrow was the last day of school which meant tomorrow night he would be able to sleep over at Kurt's house again.  He hoped more than anything that Kurt would finally tell him what was bothering him.  Blaine had thought of so many possibilities as to where the bruises had come from or why he was saying Blaine's name in his sleep before waking up from a bad dream.  All he wanted to do was help but he didn't know how. 

Kurt jumped out of bed the next morning to get ready for his last day of school.  It was the last day before summer, it was the last day before he got to see Blaine, and most importantly it was the last day he had to deal with David Karofsky. 

He didn't want to tell Blaine about Dave again, in fact, he was hoping that after today he could just forget about it all together.  Somehow after not seeing Blaine for so long he thought that if he told him that the bullying from Dave had just gotten worse Blaine would think he was a coward or that he would want to stop being his friend and Kurt couldn't handle that.  He would keep his problems with Dave to himself.

His elementary school always had a fair on the last day to bring all the students together and give them one last day of fun before summer started which means that avoiding Dave would be easy today and then he was carefree.  However, the day didn't go as planned.

Dave ended up being in Kurt's group.  He tripped Kurt during the relay race, he held Kurt's head under the water for too long at bobbing for apples, he painted "lady boy" on his face at the face painting station and none of the teachers did anything.  They either didn't realize or just turned a blind eye.  Kurt spent the better half of his afternoon hiding in the bathroom with a wet paper towel washing the paint off.  He hid in a stall behind a locked door so that if Dave came in he couldn't see that Kurt was crying.  That was just one more thing Dave could come after Kurt for: being a baby.  By the end of the day Kurt was so hurt and confused and exhausted from trying to hide everything that he couldn't even make it an entire car ride home without falling asleep.

Burt slipped the seatbelt off of Kurt's small body and held him in his arms.  He remembered the nights that he and Liz would go into Kurt's room after he went to bed and just watch him sleep.  Liz would always talk about how he looked so peaceful laying there.  They had many conversations about how they wanted to protect him and keep him innocent for forever, but they both knew the truth about Kurt.  They had known for years that Kurt was gay but that didn't matter.  They both loved him and would be there when the rest of the world would try to hurt him.  But ever since Liz died Burt hadn't taken the time to actually look at Kurt while he slept.  Something about him was different; he had a much smaller frame around his face and dark bags under his eyes.  Even in his sleep Burt could tell how much of Liz's death had changed Kurt.  He looked more mature, like he had grown up too much too soon, and all of his innocence had been lost.  Burt had nothing left to protect.

Carefully he placed Kurt on the couch before going into the kitchen to fix them both snacks.

"Dave! Stop it! Ouch!" Burt came running into the living room still carrying the peanut butter and knife to check on his son.  Kurt was squirming and kicking his legs in his sleep with his face scrunched up in pain. "Stop it! Blaine, help me!"

"Whoa, buddy." Burt squatted down and shook his shoulders and Kurt shot up from the couch in a panic.  "Hey, kiddo, you're alright. It was just a bad dream."  Kurt looked over at his dad and gave a small smile that Burt saw right through.

 "Do you want to tell me about it?"

"No thanks," Kurt looked down at the table and saw Burt's peanut butter and knife, "I would much rather go have a snack.  Peanut butter and honey sandwich?"

"Sounds good."  Burt placed a fake grin on his face and helped Kurt into the kitchen.  Something was going on and he was going to find out.  

"No more school!" Blaine went running into Kurt's house with his arms out like an airplane.  Kurt quickly stood up from the couch and joined him in running around the house.  Cooper watched from the doorway with a smile on his face waiting for Burt.

"I think we made the right decision." Burt looked at the boys as he stepped around the corner.  "We may have to lie to Tom about this, but the look on their faces every time they see each other is worth it."

"I know.  Blaine has been so happy all week, he is even helping my mom feel better."  Cooper smiled at the thought of his mother's progress.  She had come so far and he had Kurt and Burt to thank for that.

"Really? That's fantastic."

"It is.  I'm hoping things in our house will go back to normal and I will be able to tell Dad about you two.  But I want to be 100% sure he won't react badly."

"That's probably smart cause I don't think I could put Kurt through that separation again.  It was so hard."

"I know.  I can't do that to Blaine either.  I only wish I would have thought of it sooner, maybe saved some suffering."

Burt hesitated with his thoughts before turning completely towards Cooper.

"Can I ask you something?"

Cooper furrowed his eyebrows for a moment and stepped closer to Burt so the boys couldn't hear.

"Sure. What's up?"

Burt quick looked over at the boys playing in the living room to make sure they weren't listening.

"This afternoon Kurt was taking a nap and he had a nightmare.  He kept saying ‘help me' ‘save me' like he was in pain.  He even asked for Blaine to help him. But the part that I don't get is he said somebody else's name. Do you know someone named Dave?  Has Blaine ever talked about anything going on?"

Cooper took a moment to think back to anything Blaine could have said before shaking his head.

"I've never heard Blaine talk about someone named Dave.  But if you want I could ask him about it; see if he can figure out what's going on?"

"Could you? I'm just really worried for him."

"Of course. Kurt is like a brother to me, if something is bothering him it's going to bother me too."

"Thanks, Coop.  I've never had Kurt not tell me what's bothering him.  I'm a little worried."

"Let's just hope it's nothing."

Burt nodded and looked back at his son.  He wore what Burt referred to as his Blaine smile.

"Let's hope."