Kurt stepped off the plane with his carry-on and headed straight for the Gate 17 parking lot where he knew his dad would be waiting, as previously arranged. Finding the ticket had been surprisingly easy considering he bought it at 2:00 when he got off the phone with Blaine and the plane took off at 3:50. Kurt supposed that there weren't that many people flying from New York to Ohio on a random Tuesday afternoon.

"Can you take me straight over to Blaine's house?" Kurt asked his dad as soon as he hopped in the truck. He set his bag down by his feet and buckled up, waiting for his dad to start driving. When the car remained stationary, Kurt looked over to his dad.

"Heya, Kurt. Good to see you, too. I missed you too. Yeah, I've been doin' alright. Doc says I'm lookin' good, thanks for asking."

Kurt ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Sorry. I'm glad you're doing well, Dad, I really am, I'm just distracted. I just—I really need to see Blaine. It's urgent."

"Kid, you were real cryptic on the phone, and you're not givin' me much more to go on now. You wanna explain what's going on?"

"Of course, yeah, but can you please start driving? I don't want to waste any time."

Burt sighed and put the car in drive, heading out of the parking lot and onto the streets to Blaine's house.

"Alright, now talk. I thought you and Blaine broke up. I thought he cheated on you with some guy he met on Facebook."

"That's what I thought too, until Tina called me today," Kurt started, looking out the window. "She said Blaine had some kind of freak out at school. She told me that Blaine wouldn't let anyone touch him, and that he was saying things that made it sound like his cheating wasn't actually cheating, that maybe he didn't want it, that he was..."

Kurt stopped. Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to say it. He almost did earlier, on the phone with Blaine, but now... Now, it was too real.

The car was quiet for a moment. Kurt figured his father probably didn't know what to say. After a minute, Burt asked quietly, "Are you absolutely sure about this, Kurt?"

"Yes. I know Blaine. Something hasn't been sitting right with me since the night he told me he was with someone. And the way he sounded on the phone, Dad... He sounded so lost, so broken. I know I should have waited until the weekend but I'm worried. Really worried."

"You think he might...do something? To himself?"

Kurt paused for a moment, considering. Finally he said, "I don't know."

Burt sped up the car.

It didn't take too long until they were at Blaine's house. Kurt noted that both of his parents' cars were in the driveway. On the one hand, he was glad Blaine wasn't home alone, but on the other hand, he really didn't want to have to deal with Blaine's parents right now. He just wanted to speak directly to Blaine.

His dad dropped him off, telling him to call if needed. When Kurt knocked on the door, Mrs. Anderson answered.

"Oh. Kurt. What are you doing here?" She didn't sound rude, at least. Just honestly curious. She probably knew they broke up and was confused as to why Kurt was there.

"Is Blaine home? May I go up and speak with him?"

"Uh..." Mrs. Anderson turned around and looked up the stairs, then back at him. "I'm not sure if..."

"It's important. If it weren't I wouldn't have flown out here at the last minute. Please."

"Alright."

She took a step back and opened the door to allow Kurt in further, then gestured up the stairs. Kurt showed himself to Blaine's room, knocking on the closed door.

"I'm not hungry, Mom," Blaine called out weakly.

"It's not your mother, Blaine," Kurt answered.

The creaking sound of Blaine's bed springs sounded from behind the door before it opened, revealing someone that looked a lot like Blaine but couldn't possibly be him. This boy had Blaine's curly hair, but it wasn't nicely gelled like Blaine did it, it was wild and sticking up everywhere. This boy wore a loose, navy blue Dalton hoodie and a pair of grey and red McKinley sweatpants, as opposed to Blaine's put-together outfits of sweater vests and bowties and ankle-length slacks. This boy's eyes were red and puffy and completely void of any trace of life, whereas Blaine's were always bright and full of love. This boy standing before Kurt may claim to be Blaine, but Kurt knew better, and this was not His Blaine.

"Why are you here?" Blaine asked. His voice rasped like he'd been crying.

Kurt replied gently, "I told you I was coming home for you. To take care of you."

"I know, I just... I didn't think you meant, you know, today."

"The way you sounded on the phone earlier, I thought the sooner the better. Looking at you now it seems I made the right decision. Can I come into your room?"

"Sure, yeah, of course." Blaine shook his head, mostly to himself, like he couldn't believe he'd forgotten his manners and hadn't invited Kurt in.

Blaine stood awkwardly for a moment after closing the door. Kurt took a seat on the bed and patted the spot next to him. "Come sit next to me?"

After a moment, Blaine complied. They fell into a silence. Kurt wanted so badly to talk, to try and reach out to Blaine, to hold him and comfort him and tell him everything was going to be okay, but he knew he couldn't. After what happened, how would Blaine react to someone holding him in an intimate manner? Tina said all Mr. Schue did was lay a hand on Blaine's shoulder and he freaked out. What would he do if Kurt tried to pull him into a tight embrace? What if he pushed Kurt away? Kurt wasn't sure he could handle that.

"You didn't fly all this way just to sit with me, did you?"

Kurt knew Blaine was trying to make a joke, but the delivery was so pitiful that neither of them laughed.

"No, I'm thinking, sorry."

"Thinking about what?"

"How best to go about this, I guess? I don't want to push you into talking if you're not ready, but there are things I'm wondering about, and I just..." Kurt trailed off. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"You're going to ruin your hair," Blaine pointed out quietly.

"Pot and kettle, Blaine."

Blaine coughed out what sounded like a laugh, the edges of his mouth curving up a fraction. If this is what passed for happiness with Blaine these days, Kurt was going to vomit.

"Okay, I think I have an idea. I'll only ask you yes or no questions, and you can respond with a yes or a no, or you can say pass, and you won't have to answer the question. Does that sound alright?"

Blaine nodded, so Kurt nodded in agreement and turned to fully face Blaine on the bed, taking both of Blaine's hands in his own.

"Okay, um...Did you go to Scandals with Eli?"

"Yes."

"Did you dance with Eli?"

"Yes."

"Did Eli order drinks and then hand them to you?"

Blaine hesitated. "Yes."

"Did those drinks make you feel fuzzy, like your whole head needed glasses to see the world right?"

Again, Blaine hesitated. "Yes."

"Did you go back to Eli's house with him?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember this?"

This time, not only did Blaine hesitate, but when he finally responded, his voice cracked. "No."

Kurt's heart clenched in his chest. He fought back his own tears, struggling to continue and stay strong for Blaine, who had so obviously already fallen apart. He softened his voice.

"Did you have sex with Eli, Blaine?"

"Yes."

"Did you at any point say you didn't want it? Did you tell him no?"

Tears started splashing out of Blaine's eyes, jumping off the tips of his eyelashes to race down his cheeks. "Yes."

"Do you remember any of this with the clarity that you would remember our conversation right now?"

Blaine just shook his head and choked out a sob. Kurt's body reacted before his mind did, immediately reaching forward and pulling Blaine into his chest. They fell back onto the bed together, Kurt holding Blaine's head against his chest with one hand and using his other around Blaine's waist, holding him close. Kurt could feel his silk shirt being soaked with Blaine's tears and snot but he couldn't possibly care less about his clothes than he did in that moment. The only thing that mattered was Blaine.

"Shh. Shh, it's going to be okay, Blaine. I promise. We're going to get you help. I'm going to help you, alright? I'm not going anywhere."

Kurt felt Blaine nod against his chest. They laid like that for about an hour, Kurt letting Blaine sob into his shirt, before the cries finally subsided and they both fell into a fitful sleep.

...

...

When Kurt woke up and checked the time, he was surprised to find that two hours had passed. It felt that they'd been asleep for an eternity to him. Blaine was still sleeping, a troubled look on his face. Kurt's heart broke for Blaine who could not even find peace in sleep.

Just as Kurt was going to try and settle in to go back to sleep, he heard voices floating up the stairs. They sounded angry, like they were fighting. He recognized them as belonging to Blaine's parents. He debated for a moment before detaching himself from Blaine and heading out of the room, carefully shutting the door behind them to let Blaine sleep.

The voices grew louder and clearer as Kurt descended the stairs.

"I'm not going to send him home now, James. They're sleeping. When they wake up, I'll tell Blaine to send the boy home."

"They shouldn't be sleeping together at all! Why are we allowing this to continue under our roof?"

"Because he is our son!"

Kurt stopped in the doorway of the kitchen, staring between them uneasily. "Excuse me? Mr. and Mrs. Anderson?"

They turned simultaneously to him. Mr. Anderson glared at him hard while Mrs. Anderson just looked tired.

"I'm so sorry, Kurt, we didn't mean for you to hear any of that," Mrs. Anderson said.

"Right, um, can I talk to you both for a minute? It's about Blaine. It's...It's rather important."

Kurt thought he heard Mr. Anderson mutter something under his breath like, "Yes, because after an evening nap you know our son better than we do," but he chose to ignore it. Instead, he stepped further into the kitchen.

"I'm sure you're both aware that Blaine and I broke up a few months ago. Do you know why?"

Mrs. Anderson shook her head.

"He flew up to visit me for a weekend back in October and told me that he'd been with somebody else. At the time, I was upset and hurt. Now, new information has come to light, and it seems that Blaine never gave me the whole story."

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Anderson asked.

Kurt took a deep breath, fighting the lump in his throat and tears threatening to fill his eyes. "It's my understanding after speaking with a friend of ours from school earlier, and now Blaine himself earlier this evening, that Blaine didn't cheat on me. He was, um—He was ra—raped."

The kitchen was silent. Mrs. Anderson clutched the gold cross pendant that hung from her neck; Mr. Anderson turned with his back to Kurt and clutched the edge of the counter. Each second that ticked loudly by on the clock on the wall felt like a stab in Kurt's heart. He knew the Andersons weren't his biggest fans, and they weren't the biggest fans of Blaine's sexuality, but Kurt held his breath and hoped that for once, they'd put all of that aside and be there for their son.

Mr. Anderson began shaking his head. "No. Impossible."

"Yes, I've spoken about it with Blaine, asked him specific questions, and I—"

"No!" Mr. Anderson spun around, and Kurt was shocked to find that there were tears in Blaine's father's eyes. "Not our Blaine! Our Blaine is smarter than that."

"Mr. Anderson, with all due respect, this has nothing to do with how smart your son is—"

"You are mistaken, Kurt. He must have said something vague and confused you. This wouldn't happen to our son."

Mrs. Anderson reached out a hand to her husband, tears in her eyes as well. "James, I think maybe we should hear Kurt out. You have to admit, Blaine hasn't been himself lately. The guidance counselor called me today and had me pick Blaine up early from school because he had a panic attack. She said we should consider finding him someone to speak to, that maybe something happened to him that he isn't telling us. If this is it, if this is what happened..."

Mrs. Anderson trailed off, leaving the kitchen quiet again. Kurt spoke up. "I agree with Ms. Pillsbury. I don't want to overstep, but I believe you should consider seeking professional counseling for Blaine."

Mr. Anderson immediately shook his head. "No. No way."

"Please, Mr. Anderson, you should know that I wouldn't be having this conversation with you if I didn't think the situation was critical. Blaine is...He's not the same. All it takes is one look at him to know that there is something very wrong with him. There's nothing you can do legally at this point, there's no way to prove that Eli raped him, it would just be Blaine's word against his. You can, however, help Blaine. You can help him move on from this, help him be himself again. Please."

Before either of the Andersons had a chance to reply, there was the sound of stairs creaking, and Kurt turned around to see Blaine entering the kitchen, rubbing his eyes.

"Kurt? What are you doing down here?"

"Nothing, Blaine, I was just talking to your parents. It's fine."

Blaine looked from Kurt to his parents and back again. "Were you talking about...?"

Kurt reached out and began to lead Blaine back up the stairs. "Don't worry about it, alright? Let's just go back upstairs."

"You probably have to leave soon."

"No, it's okay. I'll just text my dad."

"I don't think my parents will let you stay here."

Kurt took one last look back at Mr. and Mrs. Anderson in the kitchen, making eye contact with both of them as he said, "No, I already spoke with your parents, they're allowing me to stay the night with you, just this once."

With that last look, Kurt turned back and headed up the stairs to Blaine's room. He shut the door behind them and gently guided Blaine back to the bed, cuddling him up again.

"We're going to get through this together, okay, Blaine?"

"Okay."

Ten minutes later, just as Kurt was about to drift back off to sleep, he felt Blaine mumble something against his chest. He pulled away a little, looking down at Blaine. "What was that?"

Blaine hesitated before quietly saying, "I love you."

Kurt looked into Blaine's eyes, the ones that refused to meet his own. He rubbed his hand up and down Blaine's back, pulled them closer together. He pressed a kiss to Blaine's forehead and murmured, "I love you too."

There was still a lot they needed to figure out. Kurt wasn't sure how long he could stay, or where Blaine's parents stood on Kurt's suggestion to get Blaine professional help, or if they even believed a word Kurt said. For now, though, Kurt held the broken remnants of the boy he loved in his arms and told himself that this was enough. They would get through this together, like he said.

But for now, this was enough.