Sometimes, being a congressman was too difficult for Burt. He wished he could be at home more often, watching sports with his stepson, Finn, or being around his wife and see her smiling. Those little thing were nothing, but they meant everything to him. He just hoped that Kurt would come home more often.

Burt knew that his son was a busy man and that his work took over his life, but that didn’t mean that he liked it. He understood, though. Of course he understood – Burt’s work had taken over his life as well and, even if it was rewarding, it wasn’t always entirely pleasant. Burt missed the old times when Kurt would call him almost every day just to tell him about his day. The call would only last ten minutes but at least Burt was able to hear his son’s voice and knew what had happened during his day. But now, Burt would feel lucky when Kurt would give him a call once in a while.

Burt was still in DC, ready to go back to Ohio for the rest of the week when his phone started ringing.

“Hello, Mr. Hummel?”

“Yes, that’s me. How can I help you?” Burt answered, collecting his belongings.

“Mr. Hummel, I am a nurse at the New York Downtown Hospital and we have a patient here named Kurt Hummel…”

Burt didn’t listen to what followed that sentence, didn’t even answer the woman. There was only one thing on his mind: his son was in hospital. This couldn’t happen. His son, his baby, was lying somewhere in New York in a hospital bed. Nothing mattered in that second but how fast Burt could reach New York.

When Burt finally ran into the hospital four hours later, he looked tired and utterly anxious. He was shaking when he gave his name to an uninterested nurse. She told him Kurt’s room number and Burt made his way through the hospital to see his son. Kurt was lying in bed, paler than usual, with tubes attached to his body and his head wrapped in a white bandage. Both his left arm and right leg were in casts. Burt took the chair beside the bed and reached out carefully for his son’s hand. Burt was so focused on his son that he did not hear the doctor enter the room.

“Mr. Hummel? I am Dr. Davis. I’m in charge of taking care of your son.” Burt stood , weakly shaking the doctor’s hand.

“Yeah, I’m Burt Hummel. Doc, what happened to my boy?”

“Your son fell and hit his head against a set of concrete steps late last night – it seems that he must have slipped while walking to his apartment due to the downpour of rain that we had. His fall caused a fracture in both his arm and leg which we placed in casts as soon as we could, but what primarily worried me was the damage to his head. The impact between his skull and the concrete steps gave him a pretty severe cut and caused him to lose a lot of blood, but we rushed him to surgery as soon as he arrived and we managed to stop the bleeding.”

Burt couldn’t believe was he was hearing. He was a little relieved to find out that Kurt had not been beaten or involved in a car crash or kidnapping or one of the other millions of scenarios running through his head at lightning speed. At least it was just a trip. Nothing really wrong could happen with just a fall.

“Is he going to be alright? How is his head? When is he going to wake up? How long does he have to wear the casts?” Burt said without even breathing. Because even though a fall was nothing, his son was still unconscious in a hospital bed.

“Sir, the impact was quite strong and Kurt lost quite a lot of blood. But the cut has been repaired to the best of our ability. Now we need him to wake to determine that everything is completely fine. We will also need to conduct a few routine scans to be sure that everything is healing properly and that there is no internal haemorrhaging. He may need some physical therapy for his arm and leg but nothing too strenuous. Do you have any other questions, sir?”

Burt shook his head and the doctor nodded once before leaving. He was glad that Dr. Davis had simplified things for him. He wasn’t sure he could have stayed calm if the doctor had ranted at him with those indecipherable medical terms. But his son was more or less fine, and Burt was sure Kurt would heal perfectly. His son was strong and Burt tried to focus on that, drifting slowly to sleep with his head on the mattress.

The sun was starting to creep into the room when Kurt woke up. Well, tried to wake up, at least. His head was hurting like hell, his bed was far from being comfortable and his eyes did not want to open. He was feeling dizzy just by being conscious. His alarm clock hadn’t switched on yet, so he decided that he could indulge in sleeping a bit more. Maybe he would be in better shape the second time he woke up.

 When Burt called his wife to tell her what had happened, Carole had cried for nearly half an hour. Kurt might not be her son by blood but she loved him just the same. She told Burt she would catch the next flight to New York, bringing clothes and food for them. Burt was grateful for his wife. She was down one minute and the next she would be planning and organizing in order to be sure that everyone was being taken care of. Burt couldn’t wait to see her – he might be a strong man who didn’t show many emotions, but his wife was his rock and he was not sure he could handle the situation without her.

The next person Burt called was Sebastian. Burt liked the boy well enough. Well, at first he thought that he was an arrogant, spoiled brat and maybe he was still thinking it. But Sebastian looked after Kurt, Burt knew that. Sebastian had called him once asking what Kurt’s favorite meals were for when he was ill before hanging up abruptly. Burt wondered many times if the two of them were a couple, but once the Hudmel family had spent a long weekend in New York and Burt had watched Kurt and Sebastian when he joined them for dinner. They had fought the whole time, bickering about everything and anything just like two old grandmas. But definitely not like a couple.

Sebastian had made one or two comments about Kurt and used way too many inappropriate nicknames for his son, but Burt had seen the kindness behind that. Hell, he used to fight with Fred, one of the oldest mechanics of his shop, all the time but he was also one of his best friends. So Burt knew to look over the bickering and see the friendship behind it. Burt was glad Kurt had a friend that looked after him in New York and started to like Sebastian a bit more. The rudeness was even sort of funny sometimes. So of course Burt dialed Sebastian – Kurt could use a friend when he woke up.

“Mr. Hummel? Hello, what do you want?” Well, Sebastian seems to be in a good mood. This will go down well, Burt thought.

“Sebastian, hello kid. Look, I have some bad news. Kurt is in the hospital. He’s hit his head against the floor and has some other injuries. He’s still unconscious, but I thought you might want to come and see him.” Burt heard scuffling through the phone as Sebastian grabbed his wallet and keys before starting to talk again.

“Let me throw the naked man that slept in my bed out of my place and I’ll be there in half an hour. Need coffee?” Burt would never understand how someone could say that kind of thing to a friend’s parent, or to anyone that wasn’t a friend for that matter, but that was part of Sebastian’s charm.

“Yeah, I might need coffee. Grab something to eat, too,” Burt said. Then he hastily added, “But not one of those snack bars that taste like cat food. Grab something with real sugar and real grease. See you in a bit, son.”

Sebastian was not the kind of friend he would have imagined for Kurt, but somehow he was a caring friend and that was all that mattered.

Half an hour later, right on time, Sebastian kicked the doors open and gave Burt his cup of coffee and greasy food. They ate in silence, just being glad that someone else was there for the support.

They waited all day. Carole arrived just after lunch with enough clothes for three weeks and boxes filled with food. She hugged Sebastian, who awkwardly returned it, before they settled in the chairs around the room and waited for Kurt to wake up.

Burt hated waiting.

When Kurt woke up for the second time that day, his head was still hurting, the bed was still uncomfortable and now he could tell that the room smelt like hospital. Kurt tried hard to open his eyes, but they were unbelievably heavy. He could probably have used some more sleep, but the desire to know what he was doing in a hospital bed won out.

Slowly he opened his eyes and tried to look around the room, but his vision was still blurry. He waited, focusing on adjusting to the light of the room and the noise around him. When finally everything went clear he first spotted his father, sleeping a chair.

“Dad?” Kurt called with a raspy voice.

“Kurt?! Carole, look, Kurt’s awake! Hey, kiddo, how are you doing?” Burt asked, stepping closer to Kurt to hold his hand.

“Well, I feel like my head is going to explode, I have the same vision problems as Granny, I can’t move my arm or my leg and I’m pretty sure that I’m having an allergic reaction to these sheets. But other than that I’m doing wonderfully, thanks. What happened?” Kurt asked. He was eager to know how he ended up in the worse place on earth.

“You tripped while trying to climb the stairs in front of your building. You hurt your head babdly, kiddo. And you fell on your arm and twisted your leg, that’s why you have them both in casts,” Burt provided. “They had to rush you into surgery so maybe your head is going to hurt a bit for a little while.”

After Burt had answered all of Kurt’s questions, Sebastian entered the room loudly.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Kurt cautiously asked, wearing a wary look and feeling both angry and confused.

“Well, Carrie Bradshaw, you’re hurt so I came here to check on you.”

“Oh, my god! I didn’t fall! You pushed me, didn’t you?! You tried to kill me! And since you didn’t achieve your goal you’re here to finish the job!” Kurt was yelling now, completely panicked.

“If I wanted to kill you I would have hired someone, but you’re not worth taking up my precious time to schedule your death. Get over yourself, Hummel,” Sebastian snapped. “You’re a pretty shitty friend, without any benefits, but coming to see you seemed like the right thing to do. Now that you’re back from the dead, I’m going to go.”

“A shitty friend? For me to be your friend would mean that we have a friendship. And hitting on my boyfriend while insulting me is not what I call a strong base for a friendship. So I would be forever grateful if you finally got your act together and stay away from me and Blaine. You can drag your pathetic excuse of a body out of this room, now.”

Sebastian turned instantly to look at Burt, a worried look on his face. Kurt had just mentioned Blaine. Kurt never talked about him anymore.

“Blaine?” Sebastian asked carefully.

“Yes, Blaine! Short, beautiful curly hair, voice to die for, caring and loving, on a sugar high 24/7? The one you tried to hit on and failed miserably so many times I lost count,” Kurt said, now looking pissed by Sebastian’s behavior. “Blaine, my boyfriend Blaine!”

Well, fuck, thought Sebastian.