The light spilling in through the thin curtains woke Blaine from his restless sleep. He had a vague recollection of sitting on the floor of the shower until the water turned cold and his body was covered in goosebumps. It was only once he'd become comfortably numb that he'd managed to pull himself together enough to climb from the shower and dry himself off. As exhausted as he'd been when he'd finally curled up under the cover, a combination of worrying about Kurt, the pain in his body and the sickening images running through his head stopped him from ever really being able to nod off. Instead he'd spent the night tossing and turning, wishing for the night to be over so he could go back to the hospital and see Kurt.

He sat up groaning as all his aches and pains made themselves known. The pain in his ribs took his breath at first and he had to take shallow breaths until it eased off. Looking around he saw that Carole must have snuck in at some point and left him some clean clothes to change into. He wondered briefly who they belonged to as none of the men of the house were a similar physical type to him, as long as they weren't Finn's though he should be okay. He got off the bed quickly as a thought occured to him. Rushing over to the bathroom he threw open the door and almost collapsed in relief at seeing the pile of clothes he'd taken off last night where he'd left them. He was worried that Carole might have collected them up to wash them and he couldn't let her see them up close, it would bring up too many questions. As he gathered them up the smell alone almost made him gag. He looked around frantically for somewhere he could hide them until he could dipsose of them later. He finally settled on stuffing them right at the back of the closet, he just had to hope that with everything that was going on no one would need to go in there. At least until he could collect them and burn them or something.

He removed the black pyjamas smiling slightly at the Hugo Boss tag in the neck, he might know Kurt would never be seen in anything that didn't have a designer label. He was glad for the color though as it meant the blood didn't show up on it too much. Looking down at his body he could see that a few cuts were still oozing and that he'd probably have to do something about them soon, he might be at risk of infection otherwise. Of course the simple answer would be to let someone know he was hurt and get himself checked over. But even without looking too closely he could tell that some of the marks covering his body told a story he didn't want told. No, best to keep quiet. It's not as if he had anything life threatening wrong, in fact most of the cuts had scabbed over by themselves anyway. He was grateful that there was a dark t-shirt and a long sleeved hoody to wear though, those should help to hide any blood that came through.

Dressed and feeling sligtly more human he picked up his cell phone from where he'd left it on the bedside table checking to see if he'd had any messages. There was one missed call from Wes and he was glad he'd not heard it, as he didn't know how to even begin to tell him what had happened last night. He was a little bit disapointed, but not exactly suprised, that there were no messgages from his parents. Admittedly he hadn't really told his mother too much but she hadn't really asked much either. He couldn't help thinking that most parents would be concerned that their son had been attacked regardless, but then again he didn't have most parents. He could imagine that his mother was concerned that this was going to be like the last time this had happened and all the embarresment that had brought their family. His father had been mortified to discover that his son had been beaten up for taking another boy to a school dance, much more concerned about people finding out he had a gay son than that his only child was injured. It was what had eventually led to him transferring to Dalton. He was supposed to feel safe now, what a joke that was. He should have realised cruelty doesn't end in High School, that was just the training ground for it. Thinking about his father's reaction that time only strengthened his resolve to keep what had really happened last night to himself. He could only imagine the disappointment and disgust he would have to face if his father found out. No he would just have to deal with it on his own.

Pocketing his cell phone and taking as deep a breath as he could he turned the handle of the door and left the guest room, hoping he was strong enough to face what the day would bring him.

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Blaine made his way slowly down the stairs, feeling a little nervous all of a sudden. He was very aware that this wasn't his home. If it wasn't for his desperate need to find out about Kurt he would have quite gladly hidden in the guest room for the rest of the day.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs voices drew him towards the kitchen. As he walked through the doorway the conversation broke off as Carole saw him. Her hand immediatly went to her mouth as tears came unbidden to her eyes at the sight of him.

Seeing his mom's reaction Finn twisted round in his and his mouth dropped open at what he was seeing.

"Holy crap" he muttered under his breath.

Blaine tried to smile, but it streched the cut in his lip making him wince instead. Carole moved over to him, her hand reaching out as though to touch.

"Oh Blaine, your neck" she couldn't seem to take her eyes of the deep purple bruising that encircled his throat. "I knew I shouldn't have let you leave the hospital without getting properly checked over, why didn't you tell us?"

"It looks worse than it feels" Blaine tried to say but the lie was somewhat hard to pull off when his voice came out in such a strangled whisper.

"What about anywhere else?" and for a panic filled moment Blaine was sure she was going to insist on him removing his sweatshirt so she could have a look.

"No, no. I got lucky, just this" he pointed to his visible injuries. He took a step backwards just in case though.

"You call that lucky?"Finn said raising his eyebrows in disbelief.

"I'm not the one who's unconcious" Blaine regretted the harsh words as soon as they left his mouth. Especially when he saw Finn blanche at them.

Finn was shocked at how bitter Blaine sounded. His mom had already told him what had happened last night, When Blaine had entered the room they had been in the middle of discussing whether he should let the other members of New Directions know what was happening. His mom had persuaded him to wait until Kurt woke up. That way they wouldn't be worrying them any more than neccessary. Finn knew that in the very least Mercedes would be pissed at him for not telling her sooner. But he agreed with his mom that they had enough to deal with now without adding a bunch of scared and confused teenagers to the mix. He was struggling to get his own head around it right now and seeing the mess that those guys had made of Blaine's face made him feel angrier than he had ever thought himself capable of.

"Have you heard anything?" Blaine rasped out. Just listening to him speak made Finn wince in sympathy. He found himself staring at the bruises that covered the curly haired boys neck. They almost looked like..., oh my god, were they hand prints? He looked up slightly in shock to find Blaine looking at him intently. As their eyes met something flashed in Blaine's one good eye before he looked away quickly as though ashamed.

"Not yet" Carole spoke again. "Come and sit down" she gestured towards the empty stool next to Finn's. "I'll get you some breakfast."

"I'm not hungry" Blaine protested and Finn could tell that it was going against every one of his mom's instincts not to argue with Blaine, but for some reason she didn't. It made him wonder why she wasn't pushing Blaine about anything. He couldn't imagine her letting him leave the hospital without getting checked out first. Maybe it was because Blaine wasn't her son but he got the feeling it was more to do with the fact that he always came across as being very capable of looking after himself. It was easy to forget that they were all the same age because Blaine always seemed much older than him. If he was being honest, since he'd met him he'd been a little bit in awe of the other teen, at how cool and collected he was. He wished he could be as sure of who he was as Blaine seemed to be.

"Well at least have some orange juice, it might help your throat" Carole voice interupted Finn's musings. Blaine nodded and as Carole went to the fridge to get the juice Finn watched as the much shorter boy made his way over to his side. The way Blaine held himself and then carefully sat down next to him set alarm bells ringing for Finn. The quarterback had had his fair share of injuries and he was pretty sure that Blaine was lying about not being hurt anywhere else. He couldn't figure out why he would be lying but he was pretty sure he was. He wanted to call Blaine out on it but he didn't know how to ask. After all why hadn't Blaine said anything already, what had he got to hide? Unless there was more to the story that he wasn't telling. But what could have happened that Blaine didn't want to say? What did he have to feel gulity about... unless. Finn's mind went into overdrive. What if Blaine knew more than he was saying, maybe Kurt being hurt was something to do with Blaine. Finn didn't want to think bad things about Blaine but right now all he could think about was the fact that his brother was laying in a hospital bed and the one person who knew what had happened to him was lying. What other conclusion could he come too other than that Blaine was somewhat responsible for what had happened.

Again Finn's thoughts were interupted, but this time it was by the ringing of the phone. Everyone jumped at the shrill noise before Carole quickly grabbed the handset of the wall.

"Hello" the two boys both started to rise from their seats in anticipation. "He is, oh thank god" Carole slumped against the wall in relief. "Yes we'll be right there. Tell him we're coming and... that we all love him" she hung up the phone said the two words they's all been waiting to hear.

"Kurt's awake".

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