"It was a awful"Carole's chin trembled as she spoke. Burt reached a hand out and placed it over his wife's.

"It's okay, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to" he reassured her.

"No, no you need to know. Plus how can we expect Blaine to be open with us and tell us anything if I can't even talk about it".

Burt chose not to speak and just waited for Carole to compose herself enough to tell him what had just happened.

He listened in horror as she described the injuries that Blaine had been hiding from them. "He didn't really say what had happened but the doctor asked him about the bruises on his neck" Carole started to pick at the edge of her coffee cup. " One of those bastards tried to strangle him Burt" she was crying now but Burt once again just wanted to break something. He knew all this pent up rage wasn't good for him but he couldn't help it.

"My god, how did we miss all that" Burt finally responded. "I feel like we've really failed that kid".

"He's very good at hiding his true feelings. In fact I think it's something he's always been good at" Carole finally took a sip of her coffee.

Burt knew what she meant, as much as he liked Blaine he'd always felt like the boy was holding something back. Not so much that he wasn't being genuine but that he felt he needed to keep his true self contained. The only times Burt felt like he was seeing the real Blaine was when the other boy hadn't realised he was being watched. Burt had seen the adoration in his eyes when he was looking at Kurt. The love he had seen on the other boy's face in those moments had helped him enormously in accepting Blaine as Kurt's boyfriend. Having spoken to his father he could understand a little more of why Blaine was always trying so hard to be perfect, constantly trying to live up to that man's expectations must be a very hard way to go through life. Of course Blaine's parents would have to be told about what had happened and Burt couldn't help but wonder if Blaine's dad would finally think his son was more important than his work. Another part of him was scared that he might just make everything a whole lot worse. He decided in that moment that he would do whatever it took to make sure Blaine got through this okay, even if it meant taking on his father.

"Where do we go from here?" Carole broke into his thoughts.

"Well we'll need to tell his parents of course".

"I promised him we'd leave that till the morning. I know they need to be told but to be honest I don't know if even I'm ready to open that can of worms yet" Carole admitted.

"Well there's the police aswell. As much as I'd like to let Blaine set the pace, god knows I don't want to force him into anything, the fact is they already have an idea something happened. That's what I came home to tell you. They rang me at the shop to say they think they've indentified two of the men that did it".

"Have they arrested them yet?" Carole interupted.

"I didn't really give them chance to tell me anything, as soon as he told me their suspisions I came straight home to talk to you and then's when this all blew up in our faces. In fact I should call them before we go back up to the boys, the last thing we need is them just showing up, I don't want Blaine thinking we've gone behind his back. He needs to know he can trust us".

Carole agreed with him. They sat there pretending to drink their coffees for a while before Carole spoke again.

"There's something else. They took some blood tests" Burt's heart sank at the words because he knew what she was going to say.

"The doctor said that we should be able to get the results back early tomorrow"

"I thought those things took a while to come back" Not that Burt wasn't pleased, at least this was one torture that wasn't going to be dragged out for them all, but he was under the impression that HIV tests always took a while to show anything up.

"Apperently things have improved in recent years so they're a lot quicker now" Carole assured him.

"Good at least we'll know one way or the other soon then. Did the doctor have any idea as to whether that was likely?"

"She said that with the amount of tearing" Carole tried to say the word without flinching but wasn't entirley succsseful, "that if any of them had it then the risk of infection is quite high" she finished sadly.

Burt wasn't much for praying but he sent a silent one up just then that that kind, sweet boy who had already been put through so much wouldn't have this to suffer aswell.

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

Kurt watched his boyfriend sleeping. He wasn't sure when it had happened but after a while he'd noticed that Blaine's breathing had evened out and slowed down. He carried on stroking his hair though, beacuse the action was just as calming for him as it was for the other boy. He was glad that Blaine had finally allowed himself to drift off as he was clearly exhausted. Kurt had always liked the carefully gelled look that Blaine usually sported but he hadn't realised how much he would love the feel of his boyfriends soft curls slipping through his fingers. The reason for it saddened him though, because Blaine wasn't choosing to look this way instead it was yet another thing he was neglecting about himself. Looking at his sallow complexion and sweaty skin Kurt wondered what else he had been failing to do for himself. He was glad he was getting out of hospital soon because then he could be there for Blaine, to make sure he ate and that he was getting enough sleep so that he wouldn't end up taking exhausted cat naps when he could.

But part of him was relieved that Blaine was asleep because it meant he didn't have to think what he was going to say to the broken boy. He wanted Blaine to know how much he cared for him and how bad he felt about what had happened but he was terrified of saying the wrong thing. He looked up to see Finn watching him. When Finn saw him looking he stood and came to sit in the seat nearer the bed on the opposite side to Blaine.

"How you doing?" Finn asked.

"Honestly I don't know" Kurt replied.

" I get that" Finn responded. "It's like I don't know how to act, what to say or do, you know".

Kurt competely understood what Finn was saying. He knew that they wern't the first people in the world to be in this situation but it wasn't as if it came with a how to book on what to do. It was so far removed from their normal experiences that he felt like he'd been thrown in the deep end of the pool and now they were all just expected to know how to swim, he just hoped no-one ended up drowning because of it.

"Do you think he'll be allright?" Finn nodded at the for now peaceful boy.

I hope so" Kurt answered honestly.

"Yeah me too" Finn gave him his usual lopsided smile, but this one timid and unsure."I just want to let you know that if you guys need anything, even if it's just someone to talk to, I'm here."

Kurt was overcome with emotion at the simple statement. The two of them may have had some issues in the past but in recent times Kurt couldn't have asked for a better brother.

"Thank you Finn" he smiled back at his step-brother.

There was a small knock at the door and they both looked up as a small dark haired woman walked into the room.

"Kurt" she said and Kurt could tell that Finn was looking curiously at the shocked expression on his face.

"Mrs Anderson" he greeted her back. He refused to move his hand from his boyfriend' hair despite the disapproving look she gave him.

Kurt looked over at the door hoping to see his parents coming through it, saving him from having to answer the questions she would have, but no such luck. He hoped they'd at least return before Blaine woke up and had to face his mom, but it seemed like the fates really were out to get him as he felt Blaine stir beneath his hand.

He looked down at him so that when Blaine raised his head he was the first thing he saw. Blaine blinked the sleep from his eyes and smiled up at him and then Kurt watched as the pull on his split lip caused Blaine to wince. Whatever dream Blaine had been in the middle of vanished and reality sunk in. He watched with a heavy heart as the smile slipped from Blaine's lips and the light faded from his eyes.

"Blaine" the word caused a spark of fear to flash in his eyes as he turned his head towards the woman stood in the doorway and Kurt felt him clench his hand even tighter. He squeezed back to let Blaine know he wasn't going anywhere, that he would be with him through whatever was to come. He just had to hope that would be enough.