Chapter 6

This wasn’t happening. As Blaine looked down at the incriminating tabloid, he serious wished it was all a big joke. Even though the picture itself was innocent enough, the accompanying article made it out that he was secret lovers with Kurt Hummel. Blaine was terrified when he realized that all his credibility as a physician would be shot the second they realized that Kurt was his patient. Blaine’s face was very visible on the front page, he wondered how long it would be until someone recognized him.

“I’m sure you see the problem here,” Finn said, glancing at the doctor warily.

“More than one actually,” Blaine commented. “But the first thing I want to know is how someone took that picture. There was nobody in the room besides us, it should’ve been secure.”

“Besides that this slip up will only lead to problems unless we do something about it right away,” Finn pointed out.

“I could be in big trouble over this,” Blaine admitted. “Even though it was harmless what happened.”

“A picture says a thousand words,” Finn replied. “And Kurt is going to be the next TMZ scandal unless we do something. People will also wonder why he was seeing a doctor.”

“I’m sorry I hugged you,” said Kurt regretfully. The young actor had thus far been very quiet during the proceedings, but then he did look exhausted. And concealer couldn’t fully hide the bags under his eyes.

The way I see it,” Blaine said slowly watching Kurt carefully. “Is that we have nothing to regret, but we need to move on to deal with the consequences.”

“I have an idea,” Finn blurted out, but then he blushed and gave Kurt an apologetic idea. “Well actually Rachel had an idea-”

“No, not another one of Rachel Berry’s harebrained schemes,” Kurt groaned.

“Who?” Blaine asked, confused.

“Rachel is Finn’s fiancé and my best friend from high school. She’s an--acquired taste.”

“I swear this is a good idea,” Finn pleaded.

“What is it?” Blaine asked.

“Well doctor,” Finn said glancing briefly at Finn. “Are you gay?”

“What?” Blaine spluttered disbelievingly. Kurt made a strangled sound and glared daggers at his brother.

“I hardly think that is an appropriate topic and why is my personal life of any interest to you?” Blaine demanded.

“Hear me out,” Finn said apologetically looking from Blaine to Kurt. “People are already speculating that you are a couple and right now if you were to deny it, they won’t believe you and will starting digging for any dirt they can find. But lets say that you were hypothetically a couple, then hypothetically we can stop the rumors about Kurt’s poor health and make it seem like a real relationship. The media would back down. So are you gay?” Finn asked. “And do you have a boyfriend?”

Blaine paused trying to slow down his beating heart. He couldn’t believe this was happening. First he was terrified about this whole media leak and now Finn wanted him to pretend to be boyfriends with Kurt Hummel of all people. Blaine had to admit that he loved all the time he spent with Kurt, how Kurt could be kind, humorous, and at the same time had a sharp wit. Only in his deepest daydreams did he wonder what it would be like to be Kurt’s boyfriend. And here Kurt’s brother was offering for him to be his fake boyfriend. It was so unbelievable he didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or cry.

Blaine swallowed hard and glanced at Kurt across the table. “Yes I am gay actually, and no I don’t have a boyfriend.” The last words word hard to say and he struggled to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

“Well will you be Kurt’s pretend boyfriend then?” Finn asked. “It would entail some public appearances and stuff until the media gets it out of their system.

Blaine vaguely wondered what ‘stuff’ Finn was referring to. He distracted himself by trying to think a way out of his own problem, and then it came to him. “I have a colleague who is a physician in my practice, but he operates separately from me. I could transfer Mr. Hummel’s case to him. Then I would be free of any ethical dilemma about dating a patient.”

“But I don’t want to see another doctor,” Kurt said in a rush, looking down at his feet suddenly, apparently ashamed at his outburst.

“I will attend all of your appointments with you, and my friend will listen to my advice. We can trust him, and this is probably the only way I could remain a doctor,” Blaine replied.

“What do you think, Kurt?” Finn asked, looking at his brother cautiously.

“Not that I have much choice in the matter but I agree to everything,” Kurt said, glancing at Blaine. “What do you think doctor?”

“I think,” Blaine said. “That if we are going to be fake boyfriends then you better call me Blaine, Mr. Hummel.”

Kurt’s upper lip quirked in a smile. “And Mr. Hummel is my father, I’m Kurt.”

“I’m sorry about everything,” Finn said looking up from his phone at Blaine sadly. “But your life is about to become much more exposed and crazy.”

“Why do you say that?” Blaine asked hesitantly.

“They know who you are.”

//////////

It was complete pandemonium when Blaine arrived at his office later that day. Despite Finn’s warning he had several appointments that day and he wasn’t about to let down any of his patients. Unfortunately the building the completely surrounded by the paparazzi and it was apparent that they were just waiting for the chance to pounce. Still, Blaine wasn’t going to be scared away from his own practice.

He pulled in his parking space and quickly threw on his pair of sunglasses from the car’s console, put his bag across his shoulder and exited his vehicle. Immediately the press was drawn to him like bees to honey, and it probably didn’t help that he was wearing his white lab coat.

“Doctor Anderson, how do you know Kurt Hummel?”

“Are you Kurt Hummel’s boyfriend?”

“Will you comment on the status of your relationship?”

“How did you meet Kurt Hummel?”

Blaine ignored them all, or at least he tried to ignore them all. They held microphones in his face and he had to practically shove them out of the way to move them, and their voices just became one loud drone in his head. Eventually it became too much.

“I have to get to work, now if you’ll excuse me,” he said, which had the opposite of the desired effect. Now even more microphones were in his face.

“Clear the way!” cried a loud booming voice. “You have held him up long enough!”

His savior turned out to be a big burly security guard who reached Blaine and took his arm firmly and led him into the office. In the foyer Blaine let out a breath and looked at the guard gratefully. “Thank you,” he said gratefully.

“Just doing my job,” the man replied with a shrug and Blaine pushed his way into the waiting room. Normally when he came to the office he was greeted cordially by the patients he knew by name and the rest didn’t pay much attention to his presence at all. This time, however, everyone stared. Every single patient in the entire office was looking at him, and Blaine even saw a few copies of the offending tabloid. He quickly opened the door and walked into the back.

“Doctor Anderson,” gasped Christina, his medical assistant looking up at him from her desk. “We didn’t think you would come in today, we rescheduled your appointments.”

“I wish someone would’ve told me,” Blaine replied trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

“We tried, it went straight to voicemail and even that was full,” Christina apologized. “It has been a zoo here all day; we even had to hire security to keep the paparazzi out. The phones won’t stop ringing; over a hundred people have requested to switch doctors to you.”

“Incredible,” Blaine gasped, just now realizing the full scope that celebrity would bring to his ordinary life.

“But is it true?” Christina asked, somewhat hesitantly. “About you and Kurt Hummel?”

Blaine was grateful that his staff still didn’t know he’d been treating the actor since that had been one of Finn’s original demands before he took Kurt on as a patient.

“Yes,” Blaine said, nodding. “We are seeing each other.”

“Really?” Christina gasped. “Can you get me his autograph?”

“Sure,” Blaine said, still trying to get over the novelty that for all intents and purposes he was supposedly dating Kurt Hummel now. It would definitely take some getting used to.

“Wes,” Blaine said seeing an Asian man in a lab coat walk past. Christina turned from him and went back to fielding calls.

“You actually came in?” the other doctor gasped when he recognized Blaine. “Are you nuts?”

“I’m beginning to wonder,” Blaine commented. “I need to transfer a patient into your care, can we discuss it when you have a minute?”

Wes scoffed, “I already have more than I can handle.”

“This is important,” Blaine said, warning him with his eyes.

Wes took the hint, “I had a cancellation at three, meet me in my office then.”

Blaine nodded gratefully and turned to his own office and closed the door gratefully. It was nice to finally have a quiet moment to think, to let the chaos of the last few hours really sink in. He sincerely hoped he wasn’t making a mistake.

Suddenly he heard Christina through the intercom. “Doctor, you have a call on line two.”

“Take a message,” he replied, not really in the mood to deal with it.

“You will want to take this,” she replied. “He says he is your brother.”

Blaine groaned, “Put him through.”

Seconds later Cooper Anderson’s cheerful voice rang out in the small office. “Blainey, how long have you been holding out on me? When did you start going out with Kurt Hummel and why haven’t you told me about him sooner?”

Blaine sighed in exasperation, so much for having a quiet moment to think.