They had waited until the boys had come back into the kitchen and Blaine had slowly eaten one of the pancakes Carole had made, before they'd told them about the coming trip to the police station. Kurt had protested but Blaine had just sat there. He looked a little paler than usual but otherwise showed no reaction.

Catching Carole's eye from where she sat next to him, he could see she shared his concerns.

"Look you two, we'll go in, do whatever it is the detectives want and then we'll be on our way home in no time." Burt tried to reassure the two of them, but neither boy responded and he gave up with a sigh.

Pulling into the parking lot he was relieved to see Natalie Anderson standing next to her car, waiting for them.

When he'd called her earlier and informed her about the new situation he had half been expecting her not to show up. He was glad that she had though. The boys were going to need all the support they could get to help them through the next couple of hours.

In fact, he was almost as worried about how he was going to handle it himself. Seeing two of the men that had brutalized his son and boyfriend, he wasn't sure whether he was going to be able to control his anger. He knew the last thing either of the boys needed right now was to see him lose his temper. He'd promised himself that he wouldn't subject them to any more violence. However, he knew that keeping that promise was going to be seriously difficult when faced with those monsters.

As soon as they climbed out of the car, Natalie came over and pulled Blaine into an embrace, but Burt could see the way he tensed up. Obviously Natalie felt it too as she soon let go and stepped back, a sad look on her face. It made Burt sad, and a little angry, that Blaine was clearly so unused to physical affection from his own mother. That even in this situation, when he must really need it, it still felt uncomfortable to him.

"How are you Blaine?" Natalie was asking. "I was worried about you."

Not enough to call and ask though, Burt thought to himself.

"Did you sleep okay?" Natalie was still attempting to show concern.

"Not too bad," Blaine replied, ignoring the look that Kurt gave him.

"Oh that's good," Natalie smiled in relief, only too willing to accept the lie. "I called your father last night."

Jesus H. Christ, didn't this woman know the meaning of the words, time and place? This was definitely a topic of conversation that could have waited until after the hell Blaine was about to face.

"Did you tell him what happened?" Kurt asked when Blaine remained silent. He looked at him with concern noting how he was even paler, if that was possible, than earlier.

"No, I didn't think it would be appropriate to tell him something like that over the phone. Obviously this is a delicate matter and no one deserves to have such a thing just blurted to them carelessly." Well that was subtle. Kurt just narrowed his eyes slightly in response and Burt was proud of him for keeping his mouth shut.

"I did tell him that the situation is a little more serious than Blaine led us to believe. He's going to try to finish up his business a little early so he can get back sooner and help me deal with all of this."

Burt was amazed by the fact that in a few short sentences Natalie had managed to make him dislike her all over again. He wondered how Blaine was able to cope with having this woman as his mother. Between digs at Kurt and her own son and the insensitive way she was talking about something so earth- shattering as though it was merely an inconvenience, he was finding it hard to resist the urge to throttle the woman.

He took a deep breath, a really deep one. None of this was helping him with his promise.

"Shall we go and get this dealt with?" Carole asked, breaking the tension.

Burt nodded and followed Kurt and Blaine as they walked across the parking lot towards the building. He saw Kurt reach for Blaine's hand again but frowned when he noticed Blaine shake his head and actually move slightly further away from the other boy. Kurt looked at his father over his shoulder, his face giving away his hurt and confusion. Burt could do nothing but shrug in response; he didn't know what that was about either.

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On entering the police station, Carole approached the front desk. They were directed to a corridor to sit and wait for Detective Davies to come and fetch them. Blaine and Kurt sat next to each other, close but not touching. She tried to give them a reassuring smile but her face wouldn't comply and it came out looking more like a grimace. Luckily neither boy seemed to notice, both too lost in their own concerns. Natalie sat on the other side of Blaine, nervously clutching her handbag. Burt took the seat next to Kurt and Carole sat down next to him. No one spoke, and nerves were getting the better of all of them.

Voices drifted from around the corner and at first Carole ignored them, until she heard Detective Davies mentioned.

"I've never seen Davies lose his cool on an arrest before," a male voice was saying. " It was like he made it really personal."

Someone else chuckled and then replied, not very quietly.

"You never know, maybe for him it is. All this time, maybe he's secretly been playing for the other team."

"No, I think it's because of the nature of the crime," the first guy argued. "I don't know much but I heard it was really brutal."

Carole was aware that she wasn't the only one listening, In fact, the only person who seemed oblivious was Natalie. She was too busy checking her phone messages.

"I don't get what the big deal is," the second guy spoke again. "From what I heard, the kid's a fag anyway."

Carole felt Burt tense up beside her. She put her hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him down, but she could still feel the how tightly he was clenching his hand.

The second guy carried on talking.

"For all we know it was a bit of fun that got out of hand. I mean you know what these fags are like. Any opportunity for a stiff cock up their ass and they jump at the chance."

Carole didn't know whether it was the words themselves or look of utter devastation that they caused to appear on Blaine's face, but that's when her husband lost it.

He was on his feet and out of sight before she could think to stop him. She was going to tell the two boys to stay where they were but one look at their shocked faces told her it wasn't necessary. Natalie just looked confused.

In the brief moment that Burt was out of her sight he had managed to pin a uniformed police officer to the wall by his throat. For the first time in her life, Carole was not only scared for her husband, but also of him. She'd never seen him so angry and she was genuinely concerned that he might take this too far. All the rage that he'd been struggling so hard to keep under control the last few days had finally found an outlet. The man that was pinned to the wall was starting to turn purple as his fingers grasped at Burt's vise-like grip.

"Sir, please let go of him," another uniformed officer was saying, but Carole thought it was interesting that so far he'd made no move to intervene physically.

"You don't know those boys," Burt was snarling. "Nobody deserves what happened to Blaine, nobody."

"Sir, I understand that you're angry," the other officer was still trying to calm Burt down. "But this is no way to handle it. Robins is an idiot."

"I want a fucking apology from this piece of scum. I want him to walk around that corner and face the boy he was so quick to judge. I want him to look him in the eye and then try and tell me again that he wanted any of this fucking nightmare to happen."

"Burt," Carole said the word quietly but something about her voice seemed to get through to him. At that one word his shoulders sagged and his hand let go of Officer Robins. The other man slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor. He had his hands at his throat and he was taking great gulps of air.

Carole put her arm around a shaking Burt. The other officer just stood there, making no effort to help his colleague up.

"I'll have you charged for that," Robins was saying. "You can't just assault an officer of the law."

"I can if he's a homophobic jackass," Burt snapped back.

"What the hell is going on here?" Detective Davies asked as he walked around the corner into the middle of it all.

"That man attacked me," Robins said from where he was still sitting on the floor.

"What?" Davies exclaimed. Carole was expecting him to question Burt at that point, but he clearly knew Robins already. "Why would he do that? What did you do?"

"Nothing. I just..." He started to stammer.

"Robins made some very insensitive comments about your current case and unfortunately for him he was overheard." The other officer clearly had no love for his fellow worker. Robins shot him a glare but he ignored it.

"Really?" Davies sounded weary and Carole had a feeling that this wasn't much of a surprise to him.

"Well I just..." Robins didn't know how to defend himself.

"How about we forget this ever happened? Mr. Hummel, I'm sure that you have enough on your plate at the minute without adding this to the pile and Robins, why don't you show a little sensitivity for once and let this go, unless you want to face a disciplinary hearing about your comments."

"As long as that man has nothing to do with this case then I'll agree to that," Burt spoke up.

"Don't worry, Mr. Hummel. That's a given," Davies reassured him.

"Fine," Robins said, climbing back to his feet. Carole thought he sounded like a petulant child. He stormed off down the corridor.

"I really am sorry for what he said Mr. Hummel," the other officer apologized. "What he said, he's the only one who thinks that."

"If only that were true," Burt replied sadly. Carole knew what he meant. Just because most of the people they'd come across so far had been sympathetic didn't mean there wouldn't be plenty of people out there who would share Robins' views. She just wished that the boys could have had a bit more time to heal before having to deal with that. She knew they must have heard every word and she was impressed by the fact that Kurt hadn't come running to his father's side.

She should have realized that Blaine was the only reason that Kurt wouldn't rush to his father's side. It must kill him to have to choose between the two men he loved. He caught her eye as she walked back around the corner and she knew that he had trusted her to look after his father. She knew what a huge deal that was for him and she nodded to let him know how much she appreciated it.

All the while Kurt had his arm wrapped around Blaine and was whispering comforting words into his ear. Natalie just stood there looking at the pair of them, lost. Carole resented the look of relief that crossed the other woman's face when she saw them. Once again she was expecting them to fix this so she didn't have to.

"Okay, I think it might be best if I give you guys a few minutes," Davies said taking into account everyone's appearance. "I'll come back and get you in a short while. Let's get this over with as soon as we can, shall we?"

Carole watched him walk away and sat down to offer comfort where she could.

As much as she found herself liking the detective, she dreaded the moment he would return.