Once again, as soon as the door opened, his mom appeared in the kitchen doorway.

"Hi. Did you have a nice day?" she asked, drying her hands on a hand towel.

Blaine found himself smiling down at the teddy bear he had clutched in one of his hands. "Yeah, actually I did," he replied.

"What's that you have there?" His mom approached him and he resisted the urge to hide it behind his back. Despite their differences, his mom was not a cruel woman, and he knew she wouldn't take it away from him. At least not while his father wasn't here.

"A bear. A friend gave it to me." Blaine surprised himself with the emotion in his voice.

"How sweet. Can I look at it?" She put a hand out and he reluctantly handed it over.

She looked it over, tugging on the little tie and smiling at the hi-top sneakers it was wearing. He wondered if she realized who it looked like, and he had to assume not, because otherwise her smile wouldn't be quite so bright.

She almost dropped the bear in surprise when she pressed its paw and it spoke. She looked at him with wide eyes as she once again pressed the paw. He saw her eyes fill with tears immediately as his boyfriend's voice came out loud and clear saying that one, all important word.

"Oh, Blaine," she said, and in the next instant he found himself clutched tightly in her embrace.

"I'm so sorry, Blaine," she sobbed into his shoulder. He raised his hands to pat her awkwardly on the back.

"It's okay, Mom," he said, not quite sure what she was apologizing for, anyway.

"No, it's not," she replied, pulling back from him.

He looked at her in surprise, not sure he'd ever heard her so forceful in his life.

"I'm sorry, Blaine. I've been selfish." He knew he should disagree with her, but couldn't find it within himself to deny what she was saying.

"And not just recently, but for a long time. I've let your father control me for too long."

"You're not the only one," Blaine admitted, hanging his head in shame at both their weaknesses.

"But I'm the adult here. I shouldn't have put you second….ever. You should always come first. I've always been so afraid of upsetting your father that I let it cloud everything I do. I'm sorry that it took something like this to open my eyes."

Blaine just stood there. This was like some kind of dream,…he hadn't known just how much he needed his mom until now. Finally, maybe, he could have her.

"I promise you, Blaine," she said, putting her hand on either side of his face and looking him straight in the eyes. "I will always put you first from now on. You don't have to be the strong one anymore, that's my job."

Blaine started to cry then, but before he could wipe the tears away, his mom ran her thumb gently over his cheeks, doing it for him. He grabbed her to him and spoke into the softness of her hair.

"Thank you, Mom."

"No, Blaine, thank you. For not giving up on me."

They stood like that for a while and Blaine couldn't help thinking that for a day that had been full of tears, it had actually been a good one.

They eventually pulled apart, smiling at each other sheepishly. Neither of them was used to being this open with one another.

"Why don't you go freshen up before dinner?" his mom said, handing the bear back to him. "You've got a while before your father gets home."

Something of his trepidation must have shown on his face, because she ran a comforting hand up his arm. "Don't worry, Blaine, let's wait and see how he is, but no matter what, we'll face him together, okay?"

Blaine just nodded at her before heading for the stairs.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I found your cell phone at the bottom of your bag and put it on charge in your room," she called after him.

"Thanks," he said, not sure if he meant it or not. It was bound to contain plenty of missed calls and messages from people he wasn't sure he wanted to face yet.

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

Half an hour later, Blaine's hair was still wet from the shower, but he knew he couldn't put off checking his phone any longer. Turning it on, he couldn't pretend to be surprised at the amount of messages he'd received.

There were several from friends at Dalton and feeling slightly guilty, he deleted most of them without even reading them. He found the last one he'd received from Wes and after reading the clearly worried boy's most recent text, he decided that he really needed to respond. If not he had a feeling that the older boy might show up on his doorstep any moment to check on him. He still wasn't sure whether he wanted anyone from Dalton to know. After all, most of those guys worshipped him and if he was honest, he didn't want to do anything to ruin that. He settled on letting Wes know that he'd had a tough last few days and that things were starting to look a little better. The relieved text he got back only seconds after he sent his made him feel even worse about ignoring his friend for so long. Looking through the rest, there was a significant amount from Kurt, but as all but the last two were from before he'd seen him today, he left them unread for now.

That left only three texts that he'd received this evening. Two from Kurt,and one from a number he didn't recognize. He frowned at the unfamiliar number before choosing to ignore it for now and read the ones from Kurt. The first made him smile.

DON'T WASTE ALL YOUR CUDDLES ON THE BEAR. SAVE SOME FOR ME.

Still smiling, he read the second one.

SORRY I MAY HAVE DONE SOMETHING STUPID, PLEASE DON'T HATE ME.

He frowned down at the message. What was that supposed to mean?

He debated between calling his boyfriend right away and his curiosity about the unknown text. He'd just check the text and then call Kurt. One more second couldn't hurt.

KURT GAVE ME YOUR NUMBER. TOLD ME YOUR DAD IS BACK. JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT NO MATTER WHAT, OUR DOOR IS ALWAYS OPEN. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, KID. BURT.

Blaine was completely blown away.

There were no other words for it.

Burt Hummel, a completely stereotypical older male in his lack of knowledge of anything remotely resembling modern technology, had just texted him.

What he'd said in the text was almost irrelevant compared to the fact that he'd texted him at all. That one message must have taken him forever. Blaine couldn't help smiling at the thought of the older man hunched over, jabbing at the small buttons on his outdated cell phone.

Once again, Blaine felt his eyes filling up with tears. How could an experience so horrible be responsible for all these incredible feelings he was experiencing? In the last week he'd been shown the worst in humanity, but as a result, he was now getting to see some of the best, too.

Before he could reply to either text there was a light knock at the door. His mom stuck her head in the door, but seeing the tears on his face, she hesitated in what she was about to say.

"Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

"Yeah, Mom, I'm good," he said, smiling back at her.

She nodded in relief, and he knew from the way she bit her lip nervously that she was about to burst his happy bubble.

"Will you come down for dinner then? Your father's home."

Blaine felt his heart sink a little but looking down at the phone in his hand and the bear that sat on his bed, he took a deep breath and got up. He walked over to where his mom stood looking at him nervously and took her hand in his.

"Come on then, let's not keep him waiting." She smiled at his hand clasped in hers, and together they left what felt like the safety of his bedroom and descended the stairs into the lion's den.