“Shh little one.  Uncle Blaine has you.”  He said softly to the whimpering little bundle in his arms, pacing back and forth over the wooden floor and gazing down at the little boy, small tuft of blonde hair sticking straight up like his flailing, uncoordinated, chubby, little hands.

In the bedroom, Kurt was working to console Brittany for the upteenth time as she wailed like a banshee.  She cried so much, and Blaine didn't know if it was post-partum depression or the loss of Santana - probably both.  Brittany had lost two babies before Eugene, both later on in her pregnancy too, and according to Mike and his books, that increased her risk of postpartum depression.  Santana and Brittany had waited until they had safely reached the third trimester for this child to plan anything out.  Why they had decided Brittany would be the one to carry the baby when she had the history of miscarriages was beyond Blaine, but ultimately their choice.  Now, of course, there was the fact that Brittany's wife was missing, which led Brittany to believing now that she was only allowed to ever have one person that she loved in her life at a time.  In her mind, Santana had been sacrificed for Eugene, and now, aside from nursing him, she wouldn't hold him or care for him.  Kurt did it all, with Blaine's help when he was around.

Mercedes had been forgiving, letting Blaine stay home as much as she could to help, especially since her own girls were at their home half the time along with Kitty and Trent's kids, but he still needed to go regularly to check the livestock and help with the ever increasing amount of problems that walked into the clinic.  Fighting had been on the increase, suicide attempts now too with loved ones missing for over a month, and people just freaking out in general.  Aside from Santana's run, and the rescue group that followed, they had lost two more groups on scavenging runs - both going nowhere near where the previous lost groups had gone.  Now no one was doing runs and they were short on all medical supplies, and if it wasn't for Kitty and her natural remedies, they'd probably have nothing.  She at least knew how to make balms and ointments, and was teaching both Carole and Mike so they could keep up with the demand, but even the plant sources of her natural works were limited with the lack of water.

“She's asleep.”  Kurt sighed softed, closing the door to their bedroom, which had increasingly become Brittany's room while they slept on the futons.  

Blaine shook his head, continuing to pace as the rhythm of his movements seemed to calm the baby in his arms.  “Kurt… we can't keep doing this.”

“We have to Blaine.  For as long as she needs it.  What other choice is there?”

He shook his head.  Blaine didn't know but he did know that between the lack of privacy, the subsequent lack of intimacy, and the stress caused by having a very depressed woman and babies around all the time that he was close to breaking.  

“Here.  Give him to me and go take a break if you're stressed.” Kurt insisted, holding out his arms and looking at Blaine as if he had read his mind.  Blaine might have argued, but he knew better, handing the boy off and stepping out into the much quieter atmosphere of the outside.

Except the air wasn't fresh like it should have been.  It smelled like dry, stale dirt.  Pudding whined as she came up to Blaine, sniffing at his pockets and then sitting back on her haunches.  It was the first time she wasn't pregnant at this time of year.  Maybe she was getting too old… or maybe she was just another animal all too aware of the situation they were in.

“Sorry girl.  I have nothing to give you today.”  Blaine said sadly, reaching over to pat the dog on her head.

Kurt was hoarding everything he could.  Water rations, meat from their meals - making it into jerky, and hiding it in his stash below the floorboards.  He told Blaine he wouldn't let them go hungry.  Kurt was so sure they'd survive this.  After all, one year was nothing right?  One year of dry weather wasn't something to get upset over in his mind.  

Blaine wished the community shared Kurt's mindset.  

He walked for a long while, just wandering through the forest that backed onto their home, Pudding following him for the first leg of the trip and then doubling back when it got out of her range.  She never liked to be too far from the house.  

Blaine had to fix this somehow.   

It took a couple hours of walking, until his calves and thighs were cramped and his whole body felt weak to come up with a plan.  A plan he knew Kurt wouldn't like and therefore he wasn't going to share it with him.  When he entered back into the house he looked tiredly towards his room, door still shut, and then to the living room, Kurt snuggled up with baby Eugene - both snoring softly.

He sighed.  He definitely needed to fix this.

Blaine shed his layers and boots, and crawled up into the empty futon, falling asleep easily, his body a mass of aches and worries that were all too happy to be conquered by dreams.  Dreams of better days and being able to snuggle up against Kurt with nothing between them.  

Morning came too soon.

He was awoken not by Kurt's hand grazing over his chest, or by a kiss to his temple as had become their tradition, but by Isaac jumping onto his stomach and knocking the wind right out of him.

“Unca' BLAINE!”

His response was a gasp and a wheeze, and then a quick utterance that he now needed to go relieve himself since his bladder was also hit in the attack, running outside without his boots to go to the hole in the trees where he emptied what little was in him.  God, what a terrible way to wake up.

When he returned he was better able to see what he had awoken into.  Kitty was dropping off her kids and Kurt was Eugene free as he had talked Brittany into nursing the little boy.  Poor little guy, his own mother not wanting anything to do with him because his other mother was missing, and in her broken mind she somehow associated his existence with her loss.  This was going to end though.  

“Kitty.  Wait up for me at the clinic.”

“You don't have a shift…”  She murmured, arching a brow at him curiously.

“We're taking Brittany in.  She needs help.”

Kitty just nodded, as if she already knew and Kurt looked at Blaine questioningly but didn't argue.  The fact that Brittany was so far along in her depression and they had allowed it to get so bad made arguing the matter unnecessary.  She needed help.  She needed to understand that she had a wonderful little baby who just wanted her love.  Blaine was going to do all he could to make her understand that.

Then he was going to go after Santana.

Kurt left Eugene to be watched by Blaine while he got Brittany ready.  She had been wearing the same thing for days, and both of them were pretty sure she had peed herself rather than go outside - which Kurt was also now helping her along with since she had zero motivation to even do that.  When they came out of the room, she still looked terrible, like a ghost with vacant eyes and drooping frame.  She wouldn't even look at Eugene when Blaine got close and handed him back to Kurt.

“Have a good day with the kids.”

It was all he said to Kurt, aside from giving him a chaste peck on the lips.  Blaine wanted to do more - take Kurt into his arms and make love to him and tell him everything he thought of him.  How he thought Kurt was amazing, brave, brilliant, gorgeous, talented…. how much he worshipped him, probably too much, and how much he loved him.

But that would just tip Kurt off as to something being amiss, and Blaine couldn't risk it.

He told Kitty his plan once they got Brittany to one of the rooms at the clinic, and had laid her down.  Brittany had, almost surprisingly, come along easily, whimpering every now and then about how she had Santana, “had walked there” or “held hands here”, a total mess but at least one that they could maybe help out now that Carole and Mike were around to help assess her.

“You're insane you know that?” Kitty said stoically as she put on her apron - a safeguard against any blood spatter or bodily fluids they might have to deal with.

“We lost all of Santana's group and the group that went after them as well.  Two more groups after that.  Their absence is making the drought seem ever worse.  I need to find them and get them back.”

“What if they're dead?  Think of that genius?”

Blaine frowned.  Of course he had.  “If Trent had been in one of those groups, would you be arguing with me right now?”

She was silent for a second and then she said softly, “Karofsky was on the rescue mission.”

“I'm know and I'm going… and you can't tell Kurt until after I'm gone because he'll get mad… and I'd rather do it and ask for forgiveness than try and fight for permission I won't get.”

“What if you die too idiot?”

“Then at least I'd have died doing something that needs to be done.  We need to find our people.”

He spent the day gathering supplies, talking with people who had a vested interest in finding their friends or family, and figuring out how to use the radio system.  They were down to only a couple of walkie talkies, and he intended to take both, just in case one of them failed.

“I'm going with you.”  Sam said, stepping up behind Blaine while he was tinkering with the frequencies on the radios.

“No you're not.  Mercedes would kill you.”

“She knows.  She agrees.  You need my help Blaine.  We need to find our friends.”

Blaine sighed and abandoned the technology for the moment, standing up to face his friend, “I will not be responsible for those girls losing their dad.”

“You make it sound like this is a suicide mission man.”

“It might just be.”

“You have a death wish then?”

Blaine shook his head, “No… I just… Hope for the best but prepare for the worst right?  I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to you too.”

“Well good thing it's a suicide mission then because you won't have to live with yourself if you're dead.  I'm going.”

Blaine sighed and nodded, letting Sam collect food for the trip.  If Mercedes was on board, at least Kurt knew they'd have good horses and supplies.  He wouldn't have to fight for those.  Assuming they needed all the gear, they'd have it.

The group of volunteers gathered at the clinic later on in the afternoon, scanning over a map.  There was himself, Sam, Azimio, and Jeff.  

“We lost contact with the first group here… the second group here…. the third here… the fourth here….”  Sam said, plotting the points on the map.  It looked like a triangle around their community, and had Blaine rubbing the scruff on his chin as he tried to see if he could figure out a pattern from the limited data.

“Where did you and Mercedes go when you were gone Sam?”

Sam pointed to a place and then explained how they had gone along the creek labeled on the map until they had actually found water.  It was all within the triangle.

The others had similar thoughts.  

“It's like a reverse Bermuda triangle man.”  Jeff said, head tilting to the side like a curious puppy as he looked it over.

“Well… limited data… for all we know it's a reverse Bermuda square or pentagon or circle… but yeah… odd indeed.” Blaine noted, connecting the points of the triangle together.  “Let's go towards where we lost the first two groups and stop before we reach this invisible border.  Bring binoculars so we can see far ahead… scope things out before we cross any lines.”

“Any ideas of what we might be up against?” Azimio grunted.

Blaine shook his head.  “Others, a human group, natural disasters, an uprising of rabbits…. no clue.  We have nothing to go on.”

“I had a rabbit when I was a kid.  His name was Skippy.  He pooped EVERYWHERE.”

Everyone turned to look at Jeff, eyebrows rising at him.  He shrugged when he saw their expressions, “Just sayin'.”

Not everyone knew they were going.  They didn't want to instill false hope in those that had lost loved ones to what they were now calling “The Triangle” in their small group as they prepared.  They packed small bags of rations, just in case they found one of the other groups and they needed nourishment, but otherwise only planned on taking their own food and water, weapons, and the walkie's - keep things light so they could move fast.  

Blaine took a break to check on Brittany, who had just taken a questionnaire with Carole and then had Mike look her over.  She was sobbing in the clinic bed, clutching the pillow and crying for Santana.  Seeing her like that reaffirmed his need to go.  She deserved to know what had happened to Santana one way or another.

“Well… postpartum depression for sure…. I'll send Kitty back to Kurt with whatever formula we have.  She's working on making a vitamin tea for Brittany to maybe help with some of the symptoms, but it'll take some time before anything works.  Thankfully we have Kurt with the little one.  He'd have made a good dad….”  Mike said when he and Blaine were alone in the lobby.

Blaine nodded, “I know….”

“Even if you find Santana, it won't fix Brittany.”

Blaine looked up, “But it'll help… and that baby will have both his mothers then.  She should have never gone…”

“It wasn't your fault Blaine.  We're short on everything and it has nothing to do with you.  We've used up everything the other towns around here have to offer.  We need to start making our own things to deal with health issues… we just weren't ready to accept that I think.  Now we have no choice.”

“I'm going to find them Mike.”

It was that strong determination that forced Blaine to walk into the library in the afternoon before they were planning to leave, Trent giving him one solid, angry glare when he entered that immediately told Blaine that Kitty had told him.

“You're an idiot.”

Blaine nodded, “Maybe.”

“What're we supposed to tell Kurt?”

“The truth.”

“He's going to be irate Blaine.  Why are you doing this to him.”

“Because I can't just stand by idly.  Not anymore.  Not since Charles and Sebastian.”

They were quiet for a minute, reflecting on the moment that had caused the division in the Warbler ranks years ago and what it had led into.  Charles had diabetes.  They had traded, made risks, and collected those damned ears to keep Charles alive.  

“We should leave him behind.” Sebastian had argued to the group when Charles was asleep one night, exhausted after what had been a short day.

“He's one of us.” Blaine had argued back, reaching to take Sebastian's hand and find it pulled away.

“He's an inconvenience… and he slows us down.  It's getting harder and harder to find insulin.. and then what?”

“Then we still keep looking. He's our friend Sebastian.  If you had diabetes we'd do the same for you!” Trent had argued from where he sat.

Hunter grumbled from beside Sebastian, “Even if it means we have to check coastal cities?  He's one person.  We're many.  We can't risk all of us for one of him.”

“It's not right not to though.” Jeff insisted, looking worriedly between them all in that all too twitchy manner about him.

“Let's just… not have this conversation.  This is a bad conversation to have.  A dark one.”  Wes said, getting nods from most of the group, Blaine included.  It was a slippery slope - talking about something like that.  

So when Charles was found a week later, dead in his sleep, looks were given, tears fell, but no one said a thing.  

“Probably had one of those sugar seizures and choked on his own spit or something.” Sebastian had offered as a means of explanation.

No one said it, but they all knew.  Someone had killed Charles.  Someone from THAT side of the Warbler group.  That's when the division really grew within their group, and instead of dealing with it, they ignored it.  The continued to move from place to place knowing that one of them was a murdered, if not a couple or a few of them.  Blaine broke off what little he had with Sebastian shortly thereafter, the fact that Sebastian wasn't interested in being a one-man kind of guy making it easier, though for Blaine, it had more to do with the fact that he knew, deep in his heart, that Sebastian had been a part of Charles' death.  

And because they had never addressed that death, that side of the Warblers was allowed to flourish in their dark mindset, until the point they had locked up the other half of the Warblers in the silo several years before and tried to take over the community, tried to kill Kurt, and tried to take everything away from Blaine that had given him peace.

If they had just dealt with the murderers in their group, that could have been avoided.  Blaine would never again allow darkness to thrive when he could do something about it.

“This isn't the same as what happened to Charles Blaine.”  Trent said, bringing Blaine out of his memories and back to the present.

“There's still something I can do though Trent.  I'm not going to do nothing just because it'd be easier for me.  You've seen Brittany.  She's a wreck without Santana.”

“But she'll manage.  Everyone managed before when the Tides happened.  Our world isn't safe Blaine, and one of the downfalls of a place like this is that people get too complacent and think that everything will be alright.  If the Tides showed us anything, it's that we can't be totally comfortable.” Trent insisted, slamming a palm down on the counter for added effect.

“Is that why you're with Kitty and having kids by the litter Trent?  Because based on the way you just described how things are, that doesn't seem very responsible.”  Blaine spat back.

Trent sighed and slumped down into his chair behind the counter.  “That's not… it's not the same Blaine.”

“Then explain it to me.”

“Kitty… the kids… they're hope for the future.  Even if the world isn't safe… they give it meaning.”

“And you wouldn't go looking for them if one of them disappeared?”

Another sigh.  “You're using my words against me Blaine.”

“And you're contradicting yourself.  I'm going, and I need to you look out for Kurt and Eugene while I'm gone.”

“Blaine….”

“And give him this.” Blaine pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it over.

“For Kurt.”  Trent read off the envelope somberly before tucking it into his pocket.  “I can't talk you out of this?”

“No.”

“Can you at least promise you'll be safe and turn around if anything looks out of sorts?  Even remotely?”

Blaine nodded.  “The people who've lost family though… they're owed much more than worry and wonder though.”

“Unless of course you just join that list of disappeared and make it worse.”

“I won't.”

“How do you know that?”

Blaine shrugged, “I don't.  But I have to hope - just like you do.”

They stood then, giving one another a brotherly hug before Blaine stepped out of the library, taking a pause and breathing in that musty, stale scent that had overtaken everything.  They had been spoiled out here.  Where in most communities they fought and argued over water, here they had a system that had only now failed because of the short winter and lack of rain.  People had gotten too complacent, and it had cost them.  

He felt bad, not telling Kurt what he was about to do, but he knew with every fibre of his being that Kurt would pin him down if it meant keeping Blaine here and safe and Blaine couldn't let that happen.  He needed to go and find their people.  He needed to help Brittany.  He needed to make sure that whatever was out there making their people go missing didn't come into the community and take away those he cared about - Kurt chief among them.  He had almost lost Kurt once, he wouldn't risk it again.  

“Ready?”

Blaine looked up, finding himself face to face with Sam and nodding solemnly.  It was time.  Together they walked to the center of town where their four horses were waiting and climbed on.  Goodbye's had already been said to those that knew, with only Mercedes left there to whisper a teary goodbye to Sam, promising the girls would get kisses in his name that night.

Then they were off.

The first leg of the journey was done in silence, all of them much too jumpy and overly alert even though they knew they were well within the line they had drawn earlier that day.  Blaine knew Sam was probably focused on Mercedes, Azimio on his pair, and Jeff on… well… whatever Jeff thought about - like Brittany, Blaine was never really sure.  Blaine on the other hand was trying to not think about Kurt, knowing that by now he had been told and was probably fuming.  He tried not to think about how he could be nestled in Kurt's arms right now instead of on the road, each trot of the horse causing a small spike of pain go up his back muscles which were definitely starting to feel closer to thirty than to twenty.

They stopped to set up camp and sleep, though Blaine had to wonder how much any of them really slept since they were all too quiet as they laid in place - no snoring or wheezing or anything that would indicate they were at ease and at rest.  After a few hours of that, they were back in the saddle, heading towards the line that made all their hearts seem to beat that much faster and make them all the more on edge.

“It's just a line we drew on a piece of paper guys… come on…” Blaine said softly as they reached the road where the line crossed, leading them over it and holding his breath.  Nothing came of it, and he sighed with relief, leading them on - though with a lot more diligence than before.  

Six more hours they continued on, only stopping to stretch and test the radio frequency, Sam being the one to talk over it to ensure Mercedes he was alright still and Mercedes telling him what Blaine already knew.

Kurt was mad.

“You know….”  Jeff began, looking around the area they were slowly walking the horses though, another nondescript field of flat brown land, “If you made a midpoint between the intersection of first point and the second point, and then drew a line from the third point equidistant to the length of the triangle sides… it'd be around here.”

They all looked around, Blaine personally wondering what that had to do with anything aside from the fact Jeff had apparently been paying more attention in the math classes they had before the Tides than he had, when a flash of light made them all yelp in surprise.  It was so bright, blinding even, and Blaine put his forearm over his eyes to protect them and try to see what had caused the sudden burst.  

But all he could make out were shadows, and then the world seemed to spin and shake under them and he slipped off his horse, hitting the ground hard and trying to scramble back to his feet except he couldn't remember how to use them.   How did he make the muscles work together with the bone?  Where were they even on his body?

Voices crept over him, and in the intensity of the light he still couldn't see anything or who was coming towards him.  What Blaine did feel though was vertigo coursing through him and making him grip the dirt under his hands to hold himself in place because it felt like he was going to fall off the earth that, up until a moment ago, had been painfully flat.  

“Kurt…. Kurt!”

He cried out his lover's name, knowing it wouldn't do any good.  Blaine had missed whatever hints that there was anything amiss about where they had ended up and it was that was making him lose control of his body now, complete with his ability to stay away as he fell into a very sudden, very deep sleep, with no dreams to console him - only blackness.