Blaine damn near hammered down the door when he got home, phone in his hand, and his jacket on backwards.  Inside Wes hobbled up to him and Blaine immediately looked back and forth around, “Anything? Is he back?”

Wes glanced down and Blaine had his answer.  Nothing new since Wes called him.

He had been on a date with Sebastian, listening to him drone on about what was wrong with the way the government invested its money and trying his best to look interested and not drink his wine too quickly when Wes called.  Kurt had gone off a half hour ago to walk Romeo and hadn't returned.  Now, an hour after Kurt had left, and Blaine was back at home having quickly rushed off from Sebastian citing that a friend was having an emergency and jumping on the first train back home.

“I'm so sorry Blaine… I… thought it would be alright…”  Wes said quietly.

“So much for your fucking brilliant ideas now Wes.” Blaine snapped and turned back around through the door.  “Stay here and call me if he comes back!”

Blaine nearly ran into the old man from two doors down the hall who had his hand lifted to knock on the door just as Blaine was going out.  They both stepped back in surprise and then the old man spoke.

“That pink haired boy and brown dog belong to you?”

Blaine nodded quickly, “Yes.  Yes.  You've seen them?”

The old man nodded and pointed to the stairwell.  Blaine rushed past him, letting the door swing shut after him.  “He don't look too good son.” The man called off after him as he ran down into the stairwell, finding both his dog and Kurt huddled together on the landing between the first and second floors.

“Kurt!  Romeo!” Blaine gasped, kneeling down before them both as relief flooded his system.  His dog was sitting right beside Kurt, whining at Blaine as soon as he caught sight of him.  The leash handle on the ground so Blaine knew that Romeo was staying with Kurt because he wanted to, not because he was physically attached.  

Kurt didn't make a sound.  He had his knees drawn up against his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around them.  His head was set on his knees and his eyes looked vacantly ahead of him, absent of life.  As Blaine waved a hand in front of Kurt's eyes, the boy made no indication that it registered with him.  He was here, but he wasn't.  It was like he looks through the hand as if it were a ghost.

“Kurt… Kurt…. what happened?  Kurt?”  Blaine tried to coax him to respond.  Romeo continued whining though, looking at Blaine with big, hopeful eyes and marching his front paws up and down in small steps in an impatient gesture.  

He heard some shuffling behind him and Blaine snapped his head back, seeing Wes slowly descending the stairs.  “What happened to him?”

Blaine shook his head and turned back to look at the shell of Kurt, “I don't know…”

Together they got both the boy and the dog back up into the apartment, Wes holding the leash (even though it was now clear that Romeo was loyal enough to stay by Kurt), and Blaine scooping Kurt up into his arms like he had once months ago.  

Once Kurt was laid down on the couch, he made his first show of movement, rolling away from the other men and hiding his face into the cushions where he silently stayed. Romeo laid down beside the couch and whimpered softly, heavy tail making a thud-thud-thud against the ground in a weak wag.

Wes and Blaine exchanged worried glances to one another before looking back towards Kurt.  That was when Wes noticed something and slid up to Blaine, whispering in his ear.

“His pants are undone.”

Blaine's heart sunk along with his stomach.  Had Kurt gone out and turned a trick in the time he'd been gone?  Was he high?  Was this what it looked like?

Wes sighed beside him and knelt down to pat Romeo's head in the absence of anything else to do, and that's when he noticed the next thing.

“Blaine… look here…”

Blaine crouched down by Wes and looked where Wes was pointing.  In Romeo's mouth, caught between his teeth was a piece of fabric.  Blaine coaxed the dog into opening his mouth with his fingers and found that the bit between his teeth that showed from the outside was part of a much larger torn piece of fabric that was soaked in blood.  As he pulled it out , Romeo used his tongue to lick over the spot it had been in and Blaine was sure he saw gratitude in the dog's eyes.  

Wes took the piece of fabric and looked it over and then looked at Kurt, probably to assess if it came from his clothes - but this bit of fabric was not from the heavy cotton hoodie Kurt had on, nor was it denim from the black jeans he wore.  This looked like it was from someone's suit.

“Do you think Romeo attacked someone?” Wes asked quietly, glancing over at Blaine.

Blaine couldn't see it, but then, his dog was friendly like no human had ever been and he'd never seen Romeo so much as growl yet.  He guessed it wasn't out of the realm of possibility though if Romeo was turning out to be as loyal to Kurt as it appeared, especially if the dog perceived that Kurt was being harmed.

“I don't know….”

Wes awkwardly sat himself down on the bit of edge of the couch he could find that Kurt's body hadn't taken over and whispered down the the defeated looking boy.  “Kurt.  I need to know if we need to take you to the hospital or if I need to give you something to help you with a panic attack.”

No response.

Again the boys shared looks and Blaine slowly pulled his phone out of his back pocket.  He wasn't going to take a chance.

“Kurt.  Blaine is going to call for an ambulance…”  Wes started when he saw the movement, and then the tiniest little squeak of “No” could be heard in the couch.

“You need to tell us what happened then…” Wes urged.

“No.” came the small voice again.

“Then we need to call for help.”

“No.”

Wes growled in frustration and shot a look to Blaine that clearly read as ‘You need to deal with this' to which Blaine did his best to shoot back a look that said ‘I don't know how to deal with this anymore than you do!'.

“I'm going to go get the ativan…”  Wes said, standing up and hobbling to the kitchen where the medication was stored, making sure he made an over dramatic sigh as he went.

With Wes gone, Blaine took over the small spot on the couch and gently put a hand to Kurt's shoulder, “Hey Kurt… whatever happened… you're safe… but -”

Blaine was cut off by Kurt rolling over and resting his head on Blaine's knees his fingers wrapping around Blaine's thighs and digging in painfully.  “Don't make me go…”

For the first instant of this change, Blaine just sat, dumbfounded and focused on Kurt's grip into the meaty parts of his thighs.  This was definitely not the boy he knew, and, damn, that hurt.  He didn't know Kurt was that strong.

Then, as Blaine looked down at the boy, now using his lap as a pillow and a brace all at once, he saw the fear and the trepidation.  Something had happened.  Something that wasn't Kurt's fault.  He was deathly afraid.

“It's okay, you're safe.” Blaine murmured softly, wrapping a hand gently around Kurt's shoulders.  “It's okay, you're safe.”

Over and over he repeated the mantra until Wes returned to the sight, arching both eyebrows for only a moment before kneeling in front of Kurt and offering him a pill.  

“Let this melt under your tongue.”

Kurt opened his mouth obediently and let the pill fizzle under his rarely seen tongue ring.  His eyes closed and while it might have looked like he had fallen asleep there, the fingers dug into Blaine's legs told a different story.

“Wes… maybe you could stay the night?  Just to make sure things are alright?” Blaine said, looking up at his old friend while he kept one hand around Kurt and the other now moved to gently stroke Kurt's hair back rhythmically in his effort to soothe him.

“Yeah, sure.”  Wes said, hobbling to the kitchen table to grab his phone.  “But I'm calling for pizza.”

The rest of the night was quiet and consisted of Blaine's legs going numb as Kurt refused to move away.  In that place they watched TV, silently eating pizza and trying to persuade Kurt to eat until they realized that, for now, it was a futile effort.  Concerned glances were shared between Wes and Blaine, seeking answers in one another that neither had to give.  What had happened to upset Kurt to the point that he seemed to lose all that he was in a matter of an hour?

Sebastian left several messages and texts, all of which Blaine ignored for the moment.  How could he possibly explain the situation to his boyfriend when he wasn't even sure what the situation was?  

At one point Blaine was sure Kurt was asleep as his fingers relaxed just a bit and Blaine thought he might be able to escape if only to make a run to the washroom.  No such luck though because as soon as Blaine shifted the fingers dug back in.

“Sleeping on the couch tonight?” Wes joked.

Blaine sighed and resumed petting Kurt's hair.  “Seems so.  My bladder might explode though and then I'll definitely need to replace another couch because this fabric won't get rid of that smell.”

“Don't go.” Kurt whimpered again.  The only thing he had said all night aside from ‘No'.

“I'm not going Kurt.”  Blaine tried to convince him.  “But I really do have to go to the bathroom.  Maybe you could affix yourself to Wes for -”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

Blaine sighed and looked back up at Wes who just looked the tiniest bit amused given the way the corner of his mouth was peeking up as he watched the interaction.  

“Well you're going to have to come to the bathroom with me then.”

“Don't go.”

Wes shook his head and poked around on his phone, “I'm going to call his psychologist and see if she does home appointments or at least has some kind of idea of what's going on…”

Blaine nodded, again trying ease Kurt's fingers out of his thighs.  He really need to go to the washroom and the pressure on him wasn't helping things at all.  “Come on… what if you just come to my bedroom and lay on the bed while I use my bathroom?  Would that be okay?”

Kurt made a little nod against Blaine's thighs, relaxing his fingers and letting Blaine help him up and support him as they walked down the hall.  Kurt moved as if he were a zombie, and once they got to the bedroom Blaine had to help him lay down.  Romeo followed and hopped up onto the bed with Kurt, laying aside him and looking to Blaine as if to say ‘Go ahead.  I've got this.'

It was the fastest bathroom break Blaine had ever taken and he also used the opportunity to quickly change into his pyjamas since he had the feeling Kurt wasn't going to unlatch himself again.  But when Blaine came back into the room, Romeo had nudged his head under Kurt's arm and Kurt was breathing softly into the dog's neck.  On closer inspection, Blaine saw that Kurt's whole body was relaxed and boneless.  He had fallen asleep.

“Good boy.” Blaine whispered to Romeo.  “Stay.”

With that, Blaine retreated to the living room where Wes was engaged in a phone call.

“Yes….. I understand….. Yes….. Yes….. No…. A dose of ativan…. Two hours ago….. Well, yes actually….. Mmmhmm…. When we were going to call emergency and again when Blaine tried to move…. Yes… Okay…. Okay… Yes…. Thank you doctor.  Have a good night.”

Blaine's ears perked up and he looked impatiently towards Wes.  Clearly the call was centered on Kurt.  “He fell asleep.  What's up?”

“Well, “ Wes began, turning towards Blaine, “She'll stop by tomorrow, and for reference she's a psychiatrist, not a psychologist.”

“There's a difference?”

Wes rolled his eyes and continued, “If he continues to avoid eating and continues to be mostly catatonic than she'll be referring him to a colleague at the mental institute in the city and hopefully we can get him there.  However, the fact that he has responded to threats from us about taking him anywhere suggests he's still there, just… removed.  Some kind of coping mechanism for whatever happened out there.  She says it's not ideal but if we're really concerned about him and need him to open up than we should threaten him with the hospital again to jerk him back to reality.”

“Did she have any ideas about what could have done this…?”

Wes shook his head, “Not specifically.  She can't say much about their sessions because of patient confidentiality but she did admit it's really too early to have expected him to open up much around her when he's not even opening up to us.  She'll come by in the morning and check on things with him.”

Blaine sighed in relief.  “Thank goodness.”

“She also said you should stay with him tonight if you can.  If he wakes up and finds you not there he might freak out again.”

“Oh Sebastian will love that.”  Blaine grumbled.  “Won't sleep with him but I'll snuggle up to my roommate and past prostitute.”

“You don't have to have sex with him Blaine!” Wes snorted.

“I know… I know… it's just… well it's weird.”

Wes shrugged, “Sucks to be you.  I'll take his bed.  Enjoy your snuggles tonight.”

Blaine groaned, left alone as Wes retreated to Kurt's bedroom.  He delayed going to bed just yet, prolonging his evening routine of brushing his teeth, washing the gel from his hair, and doing his facial scrub.

But he couldn't avoid it forever.

When he did get to the bedroom, Kurt and Romeo were still intertwined, leaving Blaine a small sliver of bed which he awkwardly tried to creep into without causing the other boy to wake.  It seemed to work up until he put his head down on the pillow at which point Kurt rolled over and affixed his arms around Blaine.

“Don't go.”

Blaine sighed.  This was going to be a long night.