Blaine burst into the backroom and almost ran straight back out again. He would've run before but Kurt was somewhere beyond that room and god was that terrifying. Cooper's sharp intake of breath stopped him from seizing up completely yet he couldn't find it in him to voice a reply when Cooper mentioned something about the police. Informing the authorities meant complications, questions to be asked and answered but it also meant safety, there was no way they'd go free after this, their place would be raided they'd lose everything, and it's just what they deserved.

The place was dark and so familiar that the itch beneath his skin began to flare up with vigour, incessant and maddening. It burnt and the blood in his veins pounded in his ears, made his head swim as he choked back vomit at the stench of stale alcohol, sex and scorched aluminium. It was somewhere Blaine had only ever recently seen in nightmares, a place he had prayed he'd never end up again.

Cooper shuffled into the room, staying close to Blaine, his eyes flitting around the room never willing to land and take in the scene in front of him. The people surrounding them either stared listlessly or barely noticed their presence at all. Blaine fought hard to shut it all out, there was a man on his knees in the corner, eyes blank and glazed over as the man above him fucked his mouth, probably for a fee and his stomach lurched and his vision blurred and the only thing that held him together was finding Kurt. His eyes travelled the room, across countless pale young men, popping pills and snorting coke from every available surface, until he spotted a boy hidden in the shadows by the far wall.

It was like looking straight into a mirror image of his past. The boy had mousey curly hair, matted with sweat and flopping into his dark, solemn eyes. There was so much of himself in the boy that it was painful to watch him yet he just couldn't look away. He was sitting on the floor shirtless, with pants undone and a tourniquet tied around his bicep. Blaine stepped towards him and then stopped, frozen feet away. He remembered everything about what it was like to be that boy. Wondered if he'd be better off if he was charged for possession, if prison would help him clean up or set him up for the biggest fall a kid no older than seventeen could ever experience.

Blaine hovered over the boy and he didn't even look up, too focussed on his fix to care and for Blaine it was that obliviousness, the sheer desperation wracking the young boy's body that hit him the hardest. In that moment Blaine realised that they were no different, that Blaine was still scared and blinded and fragile, he still felt that underlying need, but it was ebbing away for him, excruciatingly slowly but fading day by day in a way that it wasn't for the boy, because Blaine had help and Blaine had hope.

He bent down beside the kid and ripped the syringe right out of his hands. He held it away from them both and was greeted with a pair of terrified, wide, brown eyes. The boy looked so fucking scared that Blaine had to remember how to breathe again. The syringe shook in Blaine's grasp as he bought it closer, inspecting it tentatively because only when you're desperate do you contemplate taking your chances with a dirty, maybe even used needle.

"What are you doing?" The boy asked, his voice scratchy and Blaine knew, he knew exactly why it sounded like that but he refused to let himself think, like a wall had been constructed and beyond his head was blocked and fuzzy. "I'm saving your life." He said, calmly, softly as the boy's eyes pleaded and begged him to hand him back the hypodermic syringe. "I need it." The boy choked out and swiftly, with shaking hands and nimble fingers, Blaine bought the head of the needle down on the floor, snapping it before popping out the plunger and dumping the contents of the cylinder into a shag carpet to his right.

"No, you don't." He replied with all the tenderness and surety he'd gained since he was just a lost little boy with nothing else to lose. The boy sobbed and started to sway, "you don't understand!" he yelled "I had to-" and before he could finish Blaine grabbed his hand, trembling just like his own. "Look at me." Blaine asked sternly, lifting his head with fingers under his chin, forcing him to meet his eye. "I know" he whispered "I know" and he willed everything he'd ever felt or done or had to do into his unwavering gaze and just those few words. When the boy's eyes widened in understanding and something a kin to admiration Blaine knew he just might have the chance to save lives that night.

"What's your name?"

"A-Adam." He stuttered in reply.

"Hi Adam, I'm Blaine I don't have much time. I want to help you, I can help you if that's what you want but right now I need your help." Blaine said urgently. Adam paused, looking apprehensive but never letting go of Blaine's hand. He nodded.

"Take me to Evan."

.oO0Oo.

If Blaine thought simply entering the room was horrifying it was nothing compared to moving through it. He forced himself to just focus on getting out of the room, into the corridor, just turning that corner but it felt like trying to run through water. He was adamant that Cooper and Adam stay close, don't talk to anybody, don't look anybody in the eye, in fact don't look at anybody at all; keep your eyes ahead and feet moving.

Turning the last corner they approached quickly, the door at the end of the hall looking ominous and sinister. Adam was shaking and Cooper's strides were stilted and anxious but Blaine just walked with purpose, almost breaking into a run as they drew near. Dread seeped into his veins, his blood running cold as the heat in his chest flared with panic and anger. He threw open the door.

Within seconds Blaine had Evan by the throat backed against the wall. Through the open doorway he was the first thing he saw, draping himself over the love of his life's lifeless body. Dirty, greedy, trembling hands pawed at the exposed skin of his torso as Kurt whimpered beneath him, dazed and scared when he could barely lift a hand to attempt to push him away.

There was shouting and the scramble of feet and he vaguely registered the sound of a sickening crunch as Cooper's fist must have connected with Zach's jaw. "Is he okay?! Take him! Fucking make sure he's okay please!" Blaine yelled back at Adam who had pulled Kurt into his lap muttering at him to stay with him as his cloudy eyes threatened to slip shut. "I think i-it's GHB, he-he's losing consciousness!" Blaine's hand tightened on Evan's throat ignoring his laboured and choked off breaths. "FUCK! Just try and keep him awake please!"

He should've been the one to hold Kurt, make him safe again but this was the last straw. Evan was not going to get away with hurting Kurt. He was on the brink of tears when suddenly Evan was laughing. Manically giggling, choking as not quite enough air entered his lungs with each breath between fits of laughter.

"Oh Blainey," he sing songed eyes wild and hazy, pupils constricted almost to pinpoints "now I know why you like this one so much, such a gorgeous l-little-"

"Say it. I dare you. Say it and I swear to God I will make sure you never breathe a word again." Blaine growled.

"Blaine-" Cooper interrupted meekly, it was meant as a warning but he didn't heed it. Both brothers knew that if Blaine wasn't the one pinning Evan to the wall by his throat then it would just be Cooper instead. Evan tilted his head as much as he could in Blaine's grasp, trying to get as close as possible and smiling tauntingly.

"Sluuut" He fell to his knees after two blows to the stomach.

"What do you want from me?!" Blaine screamed and he lost it. His steady composure and control evaporated and he lashed out, hitting Evan again and again as he fought back. He expected each thud of fist to flesh to satisfy him, make the venom and bitterness and contempt flood out of him but with every blow it just got worse. Cooper restrained him when he was spitting blood, thrashing and writhing to escape his hold.

"Come back to me Blaine." Evan wheezed his face swollen and marred. "You were our best customer."

"Oh yeah?" Blaine smirked. "Not anymore. I'm bad for business." Distant sirens blared and grew louder, the bang of the heavy backroom door hitting the wall and the drone of dozens of heavy footsteps echoed down the dingy corridors and into the room.

Blaine wrenched himself from Cooper's hold to kneel before Kurt and Adam. "Kurt, Kurt baby are you with us?" He muttered soothingly, brushing hair back from his forehead. Kurt nodded weakly, his blue eyes desperately trying to focus on Blaine's face. Blaine did up the buttons on Kurt's shirt quickly and with trembling hands getting his jacket back from Adam to wrap around him.

"I- Let's go home. We need to go home."

"But what about the police?"

"You weren't anonymous they'll find us. Please can we- can we just go home?"

Cooper didn't reply but turned to crash through the backdoor and out into the alley behind the club to hail a cab. Blaine lifted Kurt into his arms, wobbling a little under the dead weight as he made his way to the door, stopping and huffing out an annoyed breath when Adam didn't follow.

"Come on." He called jerking his head in the direction of the street.

"But I-" Adam stuttered out shaking his head.

"You're coming with us kid, for tonight at least." Blaine left no room for argument and shuffled out of the door, down the alley and on towards the awaiting cab. Adam followed quickly, folding his arms around him as the chilly night air whipped at his bare skin.

How Blaine tended to his boyfriend, so sweet and careful, made Adam's heartache. Despite how similar their circumstances used to be Adam envied Blaine. His fight, his care and his love for the man in his arms was overwhelming as he sat with him in his lap in the back of the taxi, rocking them back and forth and whispering soothing words and sweet nothings into his hair as tears and blood and bruises stained his stricken face.

That night Adam had been offered help, something he'd been crying out for since the very beginning. He knew that Blaine could be his chance at finding it, and he also knew that Blaine just might've saved his life.