The door opened and he was relieved to see Santana enter the room alone. She had an arm full of things that she dropped onto the bed next to him.

"What took so long?"

"Well stealing hospital supplies takes a little bit of sneaking about believe it or not. I'm only a candy striper I'm not actually supposed to touch any of this stuff. Luckily for you I know a male nurse who's very accomodating". Seeing the worried look on his face she quickly added "don't worry I didn't tell him about you, just told him I'd got a bit carried away with the back scratching on my new boyfriend. He knows me well enough to believe that. I also had to tell Kurt where you are" Blaine's face changed from worried to full blown panic at that peice of information.

"You prom..." Sanatan cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"I just told him you we're exhausted, which at least isn't a lie. I had to tell him something, he saw you leave, he's worried about you Blaine." Blaine's heart clenched at that. He was glad that Kurt cared enough to notice he was gone but devestated that he'd caused the other boy to worry.

"He really cares about you you know?" Santana said "he'd want to know what happened to you."

"No" Blaine didn't attempt to explain himself. Kurt was the last person in the world that Blaine wanted to know about this. He couldn't bear to see those eyes look at him with anything but love. Didn't want to see the pity and disgust that would cloud them if he knew.

"Okay first things first " Sanata had clearly decided to just get on with the matter at hand. She grabbed a tube of cream and some bandages "let's get those cuts sorted". Blaine couldn't help but notice that Santana was looking everywhere but at his face.

"This might sting a little" she warned him as she applied some of the cream to the worst of his cuts. He pulled away from her touch and her fingers stilled.

"I'm sorry" Santana looked him in the eye then and he knew that she wasn't talking about hurting him. He could hear how broken up she was, she didn't even sound like Santana right now. He felt bad for making her a part of this, she shouldn't have to deal with his mess. No one else should have to feel bad because of him.

"Do you want me to carry on" she asked and he nodded to let her know it was okay, the quicker this was over with, the better. He tried not to flinch away a second time but he tensed up all the same. Santana quickly but gently covered the worst cuts up with the cream then applied bandages to them.

"You can put your top back on now" Blaine breathed out, not realising he had been holding his breath the whole time.

He pulled first the t-shirt and then the hoody back over his head. When he could see again Santana was holding a sandwich out for him to take.

He started to shake his head. Just the thought of trying to swallow anything past the swelling in his throat made him wince. Not to mention that he doubted he'd be able to keep it down anyway.

"No Blaine, you don't get to refuse this one. Eat the sandwich. You can't take the antibiotics I stole for you on an empty stomach and you need them. Some of those cuts look like they might be infected, god knows what nasty crap was down that alley. I'm going to assume you're not allergic to anything."

Blaine reluctantly took the sandwich from her. He felt her watching him as he slowly removed it from the wrapper. Once last look at her face let him know that there was no way she was going to let him off so he put the sandwich to his mouth and took a tiny bite.

He almost gagged as he tried to swallow it and he saw the flash of pity on Santana's eyes. She held a bottle of orange juice out and he took it gratefully. By alternating small bites with swigs of juice he was eventually able to get one half of the sandwich down. It was a painstaking process though and he could already feel his stomach protesting.

He put the other half down on the night stand and was grateful when Santana didn't say anything about it. She just held out two small white pills and he swallowed them down with the last of the orange juice.

"Do you want to see if you can get some rest?" the gentleness in her voice made him feel close to tears again, he wasn't sure he could handle her sympathy right now. He wanted nothing more than to curl up on this bed and go to sleep. Maybe then he wouldn't have to think for a while, he could sink into blissful oblivion.

He stood up while Sanata pulled the sheets back for him. Kicking his shoes off he climbed back into bed and she pulled the cover over him. He felt like a little boy again when his mom would come to tuck him in at bedtime and read him a story. Some fantastic tale of Knights and dragons, where evil was always vanquished and the good guys never got hurt. But it was a long time since his mom had tucked him in and he didn't believe in fairy tales anymore.

He closed his eyes, aware that Santana still stood by his side and he was suprised to find that the thought comforted him. Feeling slightly less alone he let himself succumb to sleep.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kurt was starting to feel trapped. They'd begun to cut down on his meds so he was a little more uncomfortable but also thankfully a lot less sleepy. He was seeing things a lot more clearly now and he was angry with himself for not keeping a better eye on Blaine. When Santana had come in earlier to let him know that Blaine was really tired and he'd crashed out in a room down the hall he'd wanted nothing more than to go and see his boyfriend, to make sure he was okay. That had been more than an hour ago and Santana still hadn't returned, he really wanted to know how Blaine was doing. He realised she might have just gone home like the rest of New Directions, apart from Mercedes, but he didn't think she would have left without saying goodbye. He felt helpless and he hated feeling like that, it made him irritable.

"God I can't wait to get out of this hospital bed" he said to anyone who would listen. "The thread count on these sheets isn't doing anything for my skin and why am I still wearing this thing?" he plucked at the hideous hospital gown he was wearing.

Burt chuckled at the outburst and Kurt knew his dad was pleased to hear him being a little more like the diva they all loved.

"Tomorrow morning we'll bring you some pyjamas from home" Carole smiled at him. "In fact that's just given me a thought. We could really do with taking Blaine home to collect some of his own clothes."

"Wait, Blaine's staying at our house?" Kurt couldn't believe that no-one had told him that little bit of information.

"Yeah we didn't really want him going home to an empty house" Burt explained.

"Where are his parents?" Mercedes asked. Kurt knew Blaine's parents we're in Italy but he was just as curious to hear the answer, he couldn't believe that they hadn't come home in light of what had happened to their son.

"In Italy, they didn't feel that they needed to come back" Kurt could hear the barely concealed rage in his father's voice.

"Oh that's all kinds of messed up" Mercedes said, echoeing what Kurt was thinking.

"Yeah, pretty much what we thought too" his dad suprised him by saying.

"Have you ever met them Kurt?" Carole asked.

"Only his mom, she seemed nice, a bit distant maybe. His dad always seems to be at work when I've been round. In fact "Kurt admitted "I'd been wondering about that, I was starting to think Blaine was only inviting me round when he knew his dad would be out."

"Well after the conversation I had with the man earlier I wouldn't be suprised".

Kurt squinted his eyes at his dad. "What conversation? What did you say to him dad?"

"Don't worry I didn't get too carried away, it was pretty hard not to though. I'm sorry to say your boyfriend's dad is an ass Kurt." Kurt's eyes widened in suprise at his dads words.

So here was another thing he really needed to talk to Blaine about, it was going to end up being one long conversation if he ever got to see him without someone else hanging around.

He sat there thinking about all the things he didn't know about Blaine. It's not as though Blaine kept things from him, more that he just didn't volunteer infromation. He was going to have to remedy that real soon.

The door to his room opened and he looked up, hoping to see Blaine or at least Santana, but instead found himself looking at the two detectives who'd been by yesterday.

"Mr Hummel" the taller one spoke looking directly at him "we found some cctv footage from the bank across the street from the theatre and we we're hoping you and Mr Anderson could take a look at it. We think it might have picked up the men who attacked you."

Kurt looked at the disc the other man held in his hand and suddenly he found it hard to swallow. Was he finally going to see the faces of the men who had put him in the hospital? Would he finally be able to remember something other than random flashes? He was deperate to remember but the dread he felt in the pit of his stomach made him wonder if he was better off not knowing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------