Blaine practically skipped into the apartment he and his mom lived in, excited to tell her the news. If someone thought things could be more perfect, they were crazy.

"Mom, Im home!" He called, excited that he could once again.

The six days since hed been home were everything he thought hed never have with his mother again. She cooked, kept the house clean, went to work. Hed never seen her functioning like an adult, never mind a mother, and on top of it all, they actually talked. Every night they made sure to have dinner together and used that time to talk about their days. She allowed Blaine to tell her about the Hummels, even gave him advice on Kurt, who he finally admitted he had feelings for.

The days prior to him moving home they had a conversation about the past. Blaine told her if he ever saw alcohol in the house or if she ever drank it, he was leaving and not coming back. He told her he was done with giving her chances but that he loved her and hoped this was real. Blaine and Rebecca had both cried, but she told him she understood and that she wanted nothing more than to have him home and would work everyday to keep her addiction at bay.

Blaine smiled knowing that she loved him and the hope in his heart grew.

He looked around the apartment as he took his jacket and shoes off. There was silence.

"Mom?" He called out again.

He jumped a little when his phone vibrated in his pocket, but a text from Kurt made his heart flutter.

Kurt: I miss you already!

Blaine smiled. He had finally taken his moms advice today and told Kurt how he felt. After some time kissing in Kurts car, he had to return home, but the promise of seeing his boyfriend at school tomorrow made it a little easier.

He tapped out a quick response and began looking around the apartment. It seemed that nothing had been touched. Usually when he got home from school and glee, his mom was starting dinner and he would help her finish. There was usually music filling up the apartment. Today, the kitchen was empty and as clean as it had been when he left this morning, there was complete silence.

He walked down the hall. She wasnt in the shower, but her bedroom door was closed.

Blaine knocked, "Mom? Im home from school."

He listened but heard nothing.

Blaine quickly opened the door and his heart dropped. An image he had seen so many times before in his life laid before him. In the bed, his mother was passed out. He took a step into the room and anger began to seep into his skin. Even more, though, was disappointment.

"Are you kidding me?" He mumbled.

Blaine took hold of the door; ready to slam it to try and jar her awake, when he noticed it.

In the past, every time he had found her like this, from the time he was five or six up until last time when he was still living with his father, there was one variable that was always the same: empty bottles of alcohol around her. It was always as though she literally drank until she passed out.

He looked around her. There was nothing, no alcohol bottles, not even a glass.

"Mom?" He asked nervously, walking up to her.

Blaine touched her arm and the phone in his hand dropped to the floor; her skin was cold. He shook her a little, but she did not wake. It was then that he noticed it. Her chest was not rising and falling. She was not breathing.

The phone began ringing as Kurt was adding the pasta to the boiling water. He turned down the fire before grabbing it.

"Hello?"

"Hi Kurt, its Joan. Can I please speak to your father or Carole?" She was speaking urgently.

"Hi Joan, theyre actually not home yet. Have you tried their cell phones?"

"Yes, I havent been able to reach either of them. Please tell them to call me as soon as possible when you speak to them, ok?"

Kurts heart started to race, "What happened?"

"Kurt, you know I cant tell you. Just have someone call me back."

"Please! Please Joan, just tell me hes ok?"

She sighed, "Hes…hes not hurt, ok sweetie? Have your dad call me soon."

"Ok." He nodded and hung up without a goodbye.

Kurt immediately tried his dads cell, knowing Carole kept hers off while she was at work. When it went to voicemail, he called the garage number, but so late in the day the guys usually worked in the back and ignored the phone.

When he was unable to reach him, Kurt turned off the fire on the stove and quickly grabbed his keys, desperate to get to the garage and his father.

Blaines mom was dead. Years of drinking had left her susceptible to a hemorrhagic stroke. The blood vessels in her brain had weakened, and an aneurism had formed and ruptured. There was nothing that could be done to save her. When Blaine found her, it was already too late.

Kurt and Burt had stayed with him at the hospital until the news was delivered. They went with him to say goodbye one final time before an autopsy would be completed to verify that the cause of death was in fact the stroke. Blaine was quiet and barely spoke the entire time they waited. It was almost eleven at night when the three of them got home.

Burt watched as Kurt led Blaine upstairs, his arm around the others boys waist, leading him. He followed behind and said nothing as both boys disappeared into Kurts room.

Kurt led a silent Blaine to his bed and left him sitting on the edge. He walked out of the room and into Blaines, grabbing a t-shirt and sweatpants from his room. When he returned, Blaine was sitting in the same place, still staring down at his hands. Kurt did not miss the fact that Blaine had yet to cry or show any real emotion. He knew his boyfriend was in shock, and would be there when the news finally did hit him.

He helped Blaine out of his sweater and jeans and into the pajamas, and then helped him move to lying in the bed. Blaine immediately turned to his side, but his eyes remained open and staring at nothing. Kurt went about getting changed and doing his nighttime skin routine. When he was finished, he shut off the lights and got into bed.

He was surprised when, almost immediately, Blaine moved towards him and rested his head on his chest and laid his arm across his waist. Kurt rubbed his hand softly up and down Blaines back. Neither spoke and soon Kurt felt Blaine grow heavy on him, and his breathing evened out. He fell asleep quickly after.

Kurt was roused first with a feeling of being shaken. As he slowly came back into wakefulness, he felt the dampness of his t-shirt on his chest and heard sniffling. Before he was even fully awake, only noticing that the room was still mostly dark, his arms automatically tightened around Blaine.

"Sorry." Blaine said sadly, his voice wavering.

"You dont need to be sorry." Kurt said with a sleep heavy voice, "Are you ok?"

Blaine sniffled again, "I dont think so."

Kurts hand moved to Blaines head, still on his chest, and he ran his hand through his hair soothingly, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I dont…I dont know what to say." He sounded miserable.

"Just, how are you feeling, start there."

"Im angry, and I feel so guilty because Im so, so angry with her."

"Whats making you angry?" He asked.

"Because she…she did this. She left me again, and its her fault. They said her drinking caused this, and she made me believe that she was finally here. That she was going to be my mom again and things were going to be ok. I believed it and now…and now shes gone," His voice wavered, "And I just…shes dead and Im blaming her. What kind of person does that make me?" His voice was thick and Kurt could tell, even without seeing, that tears were falling from his eyes.

"Being angry with her doesnt make you a bad person, Blaine. Youre allowed to feel what you feel."

"Im just…Its not fair! I already lost a mom once. Its not fair that this happened."

Kurt didnt have to ask what he meant; he knew Blaine had always thought of his mom as his own, that she had been the mother Blaine had never had.

"Youre right, its not." He continued running his hand through his hair. Allowing Blaine the time to think.

"Do you think it makes me a horrible person because I was more upset when your mom died?" He paused but spoke before Kurt could answer, "Its just…with my mom, Im upset and angry, but its almost like I never really had her until last week. Ive always felt like I was waiting for her to disappear again. I think it hurts so much because I had wanted, so badly, for her to pick me over the alcohol, you know? And she finally did, but the alcohol still took her away from me. Its like I was never meant to be hers…your mom always made me feel like I was one of you. I was never an outsider, she always made me feel like she loved me as much as you and Burt."

"She did love you just as much." Kurt said quietly, placing a kiss on the top of his head, "And of course it doesnt make you a bad person. And its not that you didnt love her or that you arent sad."

Blaine was quiet for a while and Kurt was fighting sleep. About twenty minutes passed before Blaine spoke once more.

"Thank you." He whispered and hugged Kurt tightly for a moment.

Kurt hugged him back and waited until Blaine fell asleep once again. His heart was heavy for his boyfriend. For all of the pain and loss he had experienced in his short life. He kissed his head once again and then allowed himself to follow Blaine into sleep.

The next few weeks had the entire family trying to comfort Blaine. He seemed to be walking around in a fog, though still functioning. They had received Rebeccas ashes a few days after she had died, but Blaine had not been ready to spread them. It took three weeks for him to decide that he was ready, and so Burt, Carole, Kurt, Finn, and Blaine headed out to a campground on the Scioto River. Blaine had told them of a memory he had, one of the few happy ones, where his mother had taken him to the campground and they had spent a weekend there. She had been drinking and it hadnt been perfect, but she had shown him how to fish and they spent a few hours swimming in the lake. It was one of the happiest memories he had with his mother and knew it was the perfect place to spread her ashes.

After they parked and got out of the car, Kurt took Blaines hand (the one not holding the jar of ashes) and squeezed it. Blaine squeezed back and gave a small smile to him and then led the family to a quiet spot by the water under a large tree that hung over the lake. They stood in a half circle with Blaine in the middle and waited quietly.

"I, uh…" Blaine began to speak quietly, "I dont really know what Im supposed to do." He was staring down at the jar.

"Theres no script here, kid, you can do what feels right. If you want to say something, then you can say it, if you want to just spread her ashes, thats ok too." Burt said kindly, placing a comforting hand on Blaines shoulder.

No one in the group spoke, allowing Blaine the time to figure this out; not knowing what to say anyway. After a little time, he finally cleared his throat.

"Mom, I umm…I hope youre happy now. I hope you found peace and that you are in a place free from your demons." His voice caught a little, a few tears fell from his eyes, but he continued after Kurt squeezed his hand for support and Burt kept his hand on his shoulder. "I want you to know that I love you and that I forgive you. I wish things could have turned out differently and that…that I couldve lived with you like we had planned and been a family finally. I wish that could have happened more than anything. I think maybe thats what Im most sad about in all of this. Even though I was trying to be smart, I knew in my heart that you had finally changed. That you were there and sober and happy. That you were finally my mom."

He lifted the both his and Kurts entwined hands and wiped his eyes with his forearm. When their hands were back down, Kurt placed his other hand on top of Blaines, enclosing it between the two. Carole and Finn were there for support but knew that this was something more for the three of them. That they were both part of this family, but this moment was shared and understood in a different and deeper way by the three men huddled together.

"Im going to miss you so much, even though…even though I was mad at you so much of the time growing up, I always loved you and I always wanted you in my life... Goodbye mom." He said sadly and opened the lid to the jar.

The family helped him spread the ashes of his mother and with the final breeze, Blaine felt a weight lifted off of him. Though his mother was gone, so was the anger, the disappointment, and the hurt that came along with always waiting for her to come back into his life only to leave again.

The drive back was quiet and somewhere along the way Blaine fell asleep, his hand secured in Kurts and his head on his shoulder. He slept more peacefully then he had in a long time.

Burt waited. He knew the next step, what he wanted to have happen. Though he was eager to have the conversations needed, he wanted to wait until the timing felt right. Three months after Rebeccas death, Burt finally decided it was time.

He was sitting in bed, waiting for Carole to come into the room so that they could go to sleep. She walked in and smiled at him.

"I think its time." He said as she sat down next to him.

Carole leaned over and kissed him, "I think youre right."