Blaine sat in the back of the car staring out of the window at the passing countryside. It was a beautiful summers day but he could see dark clouds on the horizon, pregnant with the promise of rain. He welcomed the coming onslaught as it suited his mood better than the cheery sunshine right now.

He felt like his heart was torn in two. He longed to see Kurt, to know that he was allright, but he was also terrified. What would Kurt remember about what had happened, would he hate Blaine for not being able to protect him? Even if he couldn't remember the previous nights events Blaine had a feeling that one look at him and Kurt would know what had happened. Blaine didn't want to see pity in his boyfriend's beautiful pale eyes but what he feared most was to see disgust there. What if Kurt could just tell how dirty he was now, what if he hated him for ruining everything?

Before he knew it Carole was pulling the car into a space in front of the hospital and he was trailing along behind mother and son as they entered the imposing building. He was glad that Carole remembered the way to Kurt's room as he was sure he would have gotten lost in the seemingly endless miles of monotonous corridors. The two teenagers waited nervously as Carole knocked lightly on the door. It was opened almost immediately and instead of inviting them in Burt stepped out into the hallway to join them.

"Is Kurt okay?" a worried sounding Finn said.

"Yes I just didn't want everyone rushing in there and scaring him. He's still a bit tired and groggy, partly from the painkillers." Burt explained. "He doesn't remember much about what happened but he remembers you guys we're attacked" Burt turned to Blaine. "He's desperate to see you, I told him you we're okay but I guess he needs to see for himself."

Blaine nodded knowing exactly how Kurt felt, because until he saw those beautiful pale blue/green eyes looking back at him he wouldn't be able to breath either.

"Come on, let's go see him". Burt smiled at them opening the door behind him.

Carole was the first to approach the bed and a tired looking Kurt.

"Oh sweetie I'm so glad you're okay, we've been so worried" she gushed. She leaned down and gave the pale boy a gentle squeeze and a kiss on the cheek.

Blaine stood at the door of the room watching Kurt's family surround him, his heart aching a little bit at the sight. He loved his boyfriend with all his heart but he couldn't help feeling a spark of jealousy. The concern and love in the room was almost overwhelming and Blaine felt like an outsider.

Finn was the next to approach the bed and he put his fist out, smiling that adorable goofy smile of his as Kurt gently fist bumped him with his good hand.

All the time that Kurt was interacting with his family Blaine could see that he was looking around as though searching for something else. Then his eyes fell on Blaine.

"Blaine" it came out as a sob as he took in the mess that Blaine's face was now. Just that one word was enough to overide all of Blaine's fears and worries and he was by his boyfriends side in a heartbeat.

"Hi" he spoke quietly.

"Oh my god Blaine what did they do to you?" Kurt raised his hand as though to touch his face and Blaine couldn't help taking an involuntary step backwards. Seeing the hurt and confusion in Kurt's eyes at his reaction he was immediatly angry at himself. This was Kurt goddamn it. He reached down and took the other boy's uninjured hand in his . The feel of Kurt's soft skin against the roughness of his own almost made him want to weep. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to climb up onto the bed beside him and have him hold him, to let him chase the darkness away. Instead he settled for perching on the edge of the bed still keeping a firm grip on the slender hand.

"Nothing as bad as what they did to you?" he managed to say in response to the question that Kurt had asked what seemed a lifetime ago. He refused to look him in the eye as he lied to him. He couldn't believe he'd just done that, but he wanted to be with Kurt so badly and telling the truth would make that an impossibility. He couldn't risk losing the best thing that had ever happened to him.

"Why...why did this happen?" Kurt asked, the pain in his voice almost breaking what was left of Blaine's shredded heart. "What did we do to deserve this?" tears we're running freely down his face now.

"Nothing" Burt's angry voice came from beside them. "You boy's did nothing wrong. You should be allowed to love each other without some narrow minded, ignorant ass..." Carole put her hand on his arm and it pulled him up from the tirade he was about to go on. "I know you think this is somehow your fault Blaine but I want you to know right now that it isn't. You should be able to do something as simple as holding your boyfriend's hand without these sort of people thinking you need to be punished for it. I know this whole thing had been as scary as hell and it's going to take a long while to come back from it, but you will. I hope you boys don't let this define you from now on, because then these bastards will have won and I for one will not stand by and let that happen. Neither of you should ever feel guilty about loving each other."

Blaine was impressed by the older man's passionate speech, wanted to believe him when he said that none of it was his fault. There was only one small problem with it all though and that was Burt's assumption that the attack was homophobic in nature. If he knew the real reason those men had singled Kurt and Blaine out, he knew that Burt wouldn't be so quick to forgive him.

"Wow dad" Kurt's voice broke the silence that had fallen after Burt had stopped speaking "that was..." whatever he was about to say was interupted by someone knocking at the door.

A nurse popped his head round and spoke the words Blaine had been dreading hearing all day "The police are here they want to speak to you."

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Kurt lay in the bed watching his boyfriend sleep with his head resting next to their clasped hand. He resisted the urge to run his hand through the mess of curls that Blaine's hair was without gel. He knew Blaine couldn't be comfortable in that position but he didn't want to disturb the sleeping boy, he looked exhausted. He looked him over, eyes filling up at the bruises and cuts that marred his boyfriend's face and hands. Anger at the people who'd done this to them, to Blaine, rose up in him and he must have clenched his fingers because Blaine started to stir. He forced himself to relax and was rewarded with Blaine relaxing against him.

The police hadn't stayed very long earlier, just long enough to take statements. Kurt had been frustrated with how little he remembered but had listened in horror to Blaine's account. The two policemen left with the usual rhetoric of how they would do everything they could to try and find the guys. But Kurt had seen the look of revulsion on one of their faces when he realised that he and Blaine were on a date when it happened and he doubted that the case would be at the top of their priorities. They hadn't even seemed that bothered that Blaine's parents weren't there whilst he gave his statement, satisfied that Burt and Carole could stand in for them. Once they had left Kurt had started to doze on and off as the painkillers he was on kicked in. Carole saw how tired he was and somehow managed to persuade Burt to go home with Finn for a while to get freshened up. His dad had protested at first until Kurt had joined in the arguement, his father had never really had been able to say no to him.

He'd heard Blaine and Carole talking as he's started to drop off again.

"When are your parents going to be back Blaine?" he heard Carole ask.

"Not before tomorrow" Blaine had answered and even in his sleep fuddeled state Kurt picked up on the fact that that wasn't really an answer.

"Well you can stay at our's tonight then, I don't want you going home to an empty house" Kurt loved that woman so much.

"Thanks" Kurt forced his eyes open again to see Blaine hadn't moved from his position next to him. He could see tears in the eye that wasn't swollen shut and he wanted to be able to comfort him but he couldn't keep his eyelids from drooping again.

"I'm going to go to the canteen, do you want to come?" Carole asked.

"I don't want to leave him" Blaine's words caused Kurt's heart to skip. He still couldn't believe that this wonderful, beautiful, perfect boy was his and that he seemed to love Kurt just as much as he loved him aswell. With those thoughts running through his head he'd allowed himself to succumb to the sleep that was trying to claim him.

He'd woken later to find himself in this position. Carole was still gone and for now it was just Blaine and himself. He remembered his dad's rules about being alone in a bedroom with Blaine but he knew Burt never imagined such a scenario as this. If nothing else the pain that was making itself known now that the painkillers were wearing off was a bit of a turn off. Still he'd love to just be able to kiss his boyfriend right now and maybe wrap his arms round his neck... something flashed at the back of Kurt's mind. He felt sick for a moment and an overwhelming feeling of dread. He tried to focus in on what he was feeling but every time he did it was as though his mind shied away from it, stopping him from looking too deeply. His normally smooth forehead crinkled up in concentration as he tried desperately to remember what happened, but as had been the case since he'd woken up that morning all he kept getting we're flashes of things. Pain and fear we're the two overrding things and thinking about it too hard made his stomach muscles clench and his heartbeat quicken. Just as he felt panic starting to take over him the door to his room opened and one of the last people he would have expected to see right then walked into the room.

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