Cringing Kurt stood at the sink in the school bathroom, the girls' bathroom to be exact. Yes he knew he wasn't supposed to be in there, but it was the safest place to go, since the boy's bathroom was more often than not filled with the guys who made him need to go in there in the first place. As he leaned over the sink, washing the red cherry slushy off his face, it was all he could to keep the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes away. For a moment he glanced up at the mirror and it almost looked as though he was crying despite the effort, the water from the sink sliding down his cheeks.

The boy had never been more grateful that he'd gotten the habit of keeping a spare shift of clothes in his locker, because his dad was picking him up today. They were heading out to Columbus, Kurt had wanted to go there to see if one of his favorite stores had anything new, and Burt had wanted to spend the day with his son. So without any discussion his dad had insisted that they'd go together. He'd even suggested they'd go see a movie and have dinner once they'd been shopping. The two of them hadn't had much time together lately and his father had clearly decided that they needed to, for which Kurt was actually pretty grateful.

It was true that the two of them hadn't spent as much time together as they'd used to, especially since Carole and Finn had moved in with them. It had been nice to get a female influence in the house, but as much as he'd had a massive crush on Finn since freshman year, his presence had been less than pleasant. Not so much because Finn wasn't being nice to him, he was, but because his father had been spending more time with Finn than he had with Kurt and Kurt was honestly more than a little jealous at this point. It was his dad, not Finn's and it hurt like hell every time Burt and Finn went out to a sports event of some sort and didn't even ask him to come along. Not that he enjoyed sports, and he would have spent most of the time being bored out of his mind, but it hurt that they didn't even consider him.

At some point his dad had even commented that it was nice to do 'manly' things with Finn. That had hurt more than anything. Yes, he was gay and he wasn't ashamed of that fact, not anymore, but that didn't mean he didn't wish he could be considered part of the guys every so often. It hurt that most of the guys he knew cringed away from him if he ever got closer than a few feet away. It probably wasn't a conscious thing from most of them, but it happened and hurt non-the less.

Frowning he realized that he'd stopped what he was doing and had just been staring into the mirror instead. Taking one more look at his still slightly red streaked face from the slushie, he sighed and shook his head, forcing himself to focus on what he was doing. Quickly he leaned forward and washed the rest of the red dye off of his skin and grabbed some paper towels to dry his face. For once he was actually glad none of the other New Directions members had seen him get slushied, it was quicker to get cleaned up on his own, and right now he didn't really want anyone's sympathy.

Slowly he reached out to let his hand gently trail over the soft sweater sitting on the sink next to the one that now had water the color of blood. It was a little ominous actually, and for a moment it creeped him out. Sure, no one had ever hurt him enough to draw blood, but that didn't mean he hadn't been scared they would on multiple occasions. His hand quickly reached out to pull the plug from the sink so he could watch the red water vanish, before rinsing the basin out so the red wouldn't stain the white porcelain. Keeping things clean had always been an agenda he took very seriously, whether it was his own room, or the school bathroom. If he'd caused a mess, he'd clean it up.

Once that was done he looked around hastily, making sure no one was around. It should be long enough after the last class of the day at the moment to where no one would suddenly burst into the bathroom. He took a chance and stripped off his cold and wet upper body layers, thankfully nothing had got into his pants this time around, and hastily slipped on the clean turtleneck sweater. Sure, he wouldn't be wearing his usually fabulous layers, but what could he do? It wasn't like he was going to tell his dad that someone had tossed a frozen drink into his face. Telling him would only stress him out, and his dad had worried more than enough about Kurt lately.

Coming out of the closet to his father had been much easier than expected, but the repercussions that came with it had been less than pleasant. As soon as he'd come out to the rest of the world his dad had gotten a few calls saying things like 'your son is a faggot' and other rude remarks. These things didn't bother Kurt most days, he was getting used to it. Even before he'd officially come out, most of the student at his school had just assumed he was gay anyway, and the comments had been there ever since freshman year. Once his dad had caught onto the fact that people said things like this to him, he'd started worrying about it. Sure, his dad was very good at hiding his worries, but that didn't mean Kurt couldn't see it.

In fact, he had been struggling to keep a low profile lately because he felt like he was causing his father more stress than he should be. There had been a constant knot of guilt in his stomach every time he thought about it. Again he'd just been standing there staring at himself, so instead he stuffed his dirty clothes into a plastic bag, and then shoved it into his regular bag before heading for the doors. His dad was probably waiting in the parking lot and wondering what he was doing.

OoOoOoOoOo

As he walked out into the parking lot he realized he'd been right, his dad's tuck was there, and his dad was standing outside, leaning on the side of it. Kurt smiled and waved enthusiastically at his dad. "Hey dad! I'm sorry I'm late, I had to finish an essay before I could leave!" he said enthusiastically and tried to push everything else out of his mind. This was supposed to be a fun day for the two of them, there was no way he was going to let a slushie ruin that for them.

"Hey kid" Burt replied and smiled at his son, there was a faint odor of cherry coming off his son, and his forehead wrinkled for a moment, but he didn't ask. Instead they both got into the car in silence. Kurt immediately started fiddling with the radio and found a station that would play music they could both tolerate since their tastes in music were quite the opposite from each other. "How was your day?" his dad asked with a smile.

Kurt just shrugged at the question and sent his dad a small smile. "It was fine, nothing out of the usual really." It wasn't directly a lie, getting slushied and shoved into the lockers wasn't anything unusual for him, but he knew his dad would have been angry if he'd told him about that particular event. Again, they sat in silence for a while, his dad seemed to be on the verge of saying something every now and again, but he always seemed to change his mind last minute as the car drove down the road. "Hey dad?" Kurt muttered quietly after a while. Burt just gave a small nod in response. "Thanks… for taking me to Columbus today." His voice was a quiet whisper, but it was loud enough for his dad to hear. "You're welcome Kid. I thought it'd be nice for us to spend the day together, and if shopping is what you want to do, then that's what we'll do."

The response made Kurt's heart swell a little. Yes, it was obvious that his dad wasn't thrilled about shopping, but the fact that he'd come along and do it anyway meant the world to him. The rest of the car ride was spent in relative silence, with the exception of a little small talk every now and then, but there was no deep conversations going on. Every so often Burt would open his mouth to say something, but then change his mind again. It felt strangely awkward to sit there like that.

When the car finally came to a halt Kurt let out a small sigh of relief as he stepped out onto the pavement, stretching in an almost cat like motion. His shirt slid up a little, revealing a small expanse of smooth, pale skin. Usually this wouldn't happen because of the layers he wore, but since his layers were currently in a plastic bag at the bottom of his school bag today was different. A small shiver coursed through his body as he pulled the shirt back down and pulled his jacket a little closer around his shoulders.

"It's a little cold out today" Burt commented before falling silent again and Kurt nodded his head a little in response. "I guess that's what you get at this time of year" he answered before smiling warmly at his dad and leading them over to the shopping area he preferred.

OoOoOoOoOo

A few hours later they walked out of a store laughing. Kurt had tried on the most ridiculous looking outfits and even his dad had to admit that it had been fun. The mood had improved greatly from the car ride, and the two men seemed to have fallen back into the comfortable closeness they'd used to have when Kurt was younger. It was comforting to know that they could still find that place in the world.

Smiling they wandered into a restaurant they usually ate at whenever they made the trip here for one reason or another, and found a table by the window. For a while conversation was light as they looked at the menu, the topic mostly revolving around food and what they were getting. Burt wanted to get a burger what just screamed heart attack, but Kurt managed to talk him into a healthier chicken burger. "It never hurt anyone to eat at least somewhat healthy you know" he told his father before they both fell silent again.

It hadn't been Kurt's intention to lecture his father about food, but the meals Burt usually chose for himself was more than a little worrying. In fact, he'd started stopping by the garage whenever he had the chance to give his dad a proper, healthy meal. His mind drifted to the meals his father usually consumed at the garage and his heart squeezed with worry. His dad may be healthy this far, but with the stress he'd been under lately, the late nights at the garage and the unhealthy food, he felt like there was more than enough reason to worry.

Once he'd started letting his mind wander, it wandered further. School really hadn't been a good place to be lately. This football player had been making his life a lot more difficult than usual. There had always been some locker slams and some slushies, but lately things had gotten worse day by day. It had become so bad that he looked over his shoulder nervously wherever he went. Dave Karofsky was the guy's name and he'd gone out of his way to make his life a miserable hell.

This had started happening when Kurt had gone to confront the guy in the guy's locker rooms and as he'd been yelling, Karofsky had leaned forward and kissed him. He'd never been more stunned in his life, and for a small moment he'd just stood there, wide eyed. Soon enough Karofsky had pulled away as if burned and then stalked off, leaving Kurt staring at the spot the guy had been standing in before. It had been his first kiss, and it had been an absolutely horrible experience. Just thinking about it almost brought tears to his eyes.

Things had gotten progressively worse from then on, the physical assaults had become more frequent, but that wasn't what made it so bad. Karofsky had started intimidating him because he was worried Kurt would tell the rest of the student body about the kiss. There had even been a threat to his life at one point. His hand was shaking slightly against the menu, and suddenly there was a hand on his. Kurt almost fell out of his seat.

"We need your order Kurt" His father spoke gently. That's when he noticed the waitress that was standing there, looking at him with some concern on her face. Kurt ordered his salad and then looked at his hands, trying to keep them steady. "Are you alright?" Burt's voice was gentle; worry clearly lacing the words as he spoke. Kurt just nodded a little. "Yeah, I'm fine, it's just been a long day I guess" he replied enthusiastically. It sounded extremely forced even to him. Burt didn't press the matter and the rest of the meal was spent in relative silence, with the occasional conversation about the movie they were going to watch.

OoOoOoOoOo

The mood had lifted again once they walked out of the movie theatre, and they were discussing the action comedy they'd just seen happily. The weather had made a change for the worse and rain was pouring down once they got outside. Laughing they ran over to the car and got into their seats. Burt was strangely out of breath as they sat there, but neither of them thought much about it as the car started and they made it out of the parking lot. Again Kurt started fiddling with the radio, finding music they could both listen to.

With a small yawn he settled back in his seat, content to just be quiet. The drive home would last around two hours and the silence between them was so comfortable right now. With his eyes closed, Kurt hummed lightly to the song coming off the speakers, almost dozing off a little every so often. That was until he heard his dad make a bit of a grunting noise.

His eyes fluttered open and he looked over at his dad, who had a hand placed loosely on his chest. "Are you alright dad?" he inquired, his voice filled with worry. Burt nodded and smiled at his son. "I'm fine Kurt, it's just a bit of heartburn" he responded and Kurt settled back against his seat once more.

From there things went wrong terribly fast. Suddenly the horn was honking and Kurt's eyes snapped open. His dad was slumped forward against the steering wheel and the car suddenly swerved towards the edge of the road. Kurt let out a small scream as he tried to grab the wheel, to get the car back onto the road. There was nothing he could do as the car hydroplaned and went completely out of control. "Dad!" he screamed, but there was no reaction from his father. The next thing he saw was the edge of the bridge as the car smacked into the railing and straight through it.

The drop down into the water wasn't a long one but the car had tipped forward and landed front first into the ground with a very loud crash. The last thing Kurt remembered was a sharp pain and then everything went black. It was like floating in a velvety darkness, and for a while it all seemed comforting. Then slowly something seeped into the darkness and his mind screamed that something wasn't right. Where was he? What was going on? There was a sharp pain in his head as he tried to think and the thoughts kept slipping from his mind. What had happened? Suddenly it all rushed back to him in one painful memory.

"DAD!" he screamed, long before he could manage to get his mouth open. Over and over again he screamed for his dad, but there was no response. Finally he managed to force his eyes to open and all he saw was his father slumped over the steering wheel, blood running down the side of his face. He wasn't moving. "Dad! Oh God. Dad! Please!" he begged. His own voice sounded muffled and watery. It was hard to breathe and he couldn't feel his lower body at all. "Please wake up!" Panic threatened to take over and he let out another scream. No one responded this time either.

Suddenly he remembered his pone, and tried to fish it out of his pocket. His hand touched something warm and wet, and as he looked at the phone in his hand it was covered in blood. His blood. No, now wasn't the time to think about that and somehow he managed to dial 911. A voice responded in the other end, but it took him a long time to answer. The voice was trying to speak to him urgently, asking what was the matter and who he was. "… off the road…" he managed to mutter finally. "… need help…" His voice sounded strangely distant and quiet. The voice on the other end asked if he knew where he was, or at least he thought that's what the woman asked. "…not sure… somewhere.." he had to stop to cough violently and he tasted iron in his mouth. The woman kept talking, asking him to stay awake, but he couldn't. The darkness that started sneaking into his vision was so tempting, and then everything went black, the phone dropping out of his hand and into the water that filled the bottom of the car.

-TBC-