When the car came screeching down the street, Blaine already had his coat on.  It was the same car that he had seen the night Kurt had been beaten and the same one he had chased off before.  Kurt had been angry though tonight, moreso than his usual irritable self, and as much as Blaine wanted to step in when he saw Kurt chatting up the guy in the car, he also knew he had to stop being such a pathetic shadow to a guy who clearly didn't want or need him.

He regretted not interfering the instant he saw Kurt being pushed out of the vehicle like a slab of human meat.  The car took off and Blaine took off down the stairs and out the door.  When he reached Kurt he tried to keep himself calm, he truly did, but Kurt seemed to be spasming involuntarily and Blaine just didn't know how to handle that.  He scooped Kurt up into his arms and went back into his apartment as quickly as he could.

“Rachel, Rachel… call Wes.” He demanded, banging on her bedroom door with the sole of his foot.  He had Kurt in his arms, and didn't want to let him go.  This boy had a ridiculous hold over him that had Blaine questioning his sanity on a daily basis.  He wasn't going to let him die.

“What the hell Blaine… oh no.  Not again!”  Rachel came out of her room, covered in a housecoat, and the instant she saw Kurt in Blaine's arms she was shaking her head.  “This is not happening again Blaine.  I just replaced that sofa and -”

“Cut the fucking drama and just call Wes!” Blaine yelled, effectively shocking her into silence.  Blaine never yelled.

Kurt was delicately placed on Blaine's bed and Blaine crawled up beside him, trying to figure out what was wrong.  When Kurt had left, there was nothing the matter that Blaine could see.  He was walking, seemed to be able to talk, and now here he was, his whole body feverish, drenched in its own sweat, and unconscious.

“Come on Kurt… come on….”  Blaine tried to cheer him on, listening in the hallway as Rachel called his old friend.  Wes didn't live far away and was in pre-med.  He worked part time at a free clinic so Blaine figured he might know what to do.

“I just want you to know Blaine, that I'm going to tell mom and dad about this.  It's gone too far.” Rachel preened from the doorway.

“And Wes?”

“Is on his way.”

Blaine would have to figure out what to tell his parents later.  He couldn't imagine they'd be much happier about this than Rachel was, but he wasn't going to stand by and let Kurt die outside either.

While he waited for Wes, Blaine did his best to help Kurt, wiping the sweat off his brow with a cool rag and holding his hand, making sure his pulse was still there.

Kurt had a very fast pulse.

When Wes arrived, Rachel let him in since Blaine didn't want to abandon Kurt.  He could hear them murmuring in the hallway as they approached his room, Rachel no doubt informing Wes about her idiot of a brother and Wes acknowledging that Blaine was in fact an idiot.  Blaine was the one who was always trying to coerce the Warblers into adopting new animal mascots after all.

“So Blaine… you've managed to outdo yourself it seems.” Wes noted as he entered the room, eyeing Kurt warily before continuing his approach.

“Just… I know I'm a dumbass… but that doesn't make him need help any less….” Blaine said, looking at Wes with pleading eyes.

Wes went into his doctor mode, looking Kurt over, checking his pulse, and opening his eyes to check his pupils.  “Blaine… not only are you an idiot, you're a damned fool of an idiot.”

Blaine perked up, “What?  Is he alright?  Did I overreact?”

Wes snorted and shook his head, “You've not only got an obsession with a whore, but a crackwhore at that….”

Blaine blinked, and looked down at the boy in his bed.  Crackwhore?  Cocaine?  Is that what did this?  He didn't look like the crackwhores in the movies…

“Great Blaine, just great.” Rachel spoke up then from where she was watching in the doorway.  “Mom and dad will be thrilled. My god… I can't believe you.”

Blaine glanced towards Wes, doing his damndest to ignore his sister, “Is he going to be okay?”

“Well he probably had a seizure… that's why he would have been shaking when you found him…. might have had a reaction to some bad stuff or just a withdrawal symptom.  Hard to know.”  Wes shook his head.  “Honestly Blaine… this guy will only be okay if he decides to cut the habit.  It's not a one shot kind of thing.”

“But… he's going to be okay… right now?”

Wes eyed Blaine warily.  “You can't adopt him like you can a kitten with a broken paw Blaine…”

“I just asked if he's going to be okay right now.”

Wes sighed.  “I don't know.  I'm in pre-med.  When I see crackwhores it's usually because they're getting checked out for diseases and infections and -”

“Oh god Blaine!  He's going to put diseases in your bed!”

“Shut up Rachel!” Wes countered, looking to the doorway before looking back at Blaine, “I don't see them when they're like this.  He needs to see a real doctor.”

“He doesn't have insurance and he doesn't want to get arrested….”

“I'm sure he doesn't want to die either.”

Blaine went quiet, sobered by Wes' words.  Rachel was freaking out in the hallway, grabbing the lysol like it was going to help and Wes was focusing on trying to settle her down while Blaine just looked over Kurt.

How did he get himself into this situation?

“Wes… can you call an ambulance?”

Rachel was happy to see them go, even if she did flirt obnoxiously with one of the paramedics who recognized her from her show.  Blaine and Wes followed in Wes' car, Blaine equipped with his credit card his parents told him was only for emergencies.  He'd have to explain this one later.

He was going to be in such hot water.

Wes took charge thankfully, telling the doctor on call what the situation was and what his hypothesis was based on what he could tell.  Kurt was assessed while Blaine waited in the lobby, Wes trying to figure out from him why he was so suddenly involved with such a dangerous individual.

Kurt could be irritable… but he wasn't dangerous….

Everytime a call was made over the intercom, Wes had to calm Blaine down.  It was never for Kurt, but Blaine was in full panic mode anyhow.

It was a couple hours before the doctor came out to see them.

“Bad cocaine.  He's on an IV and we're running more tests.  I understand you'll be covering his medical costs?”

Blaine just nodded.

“I'll let billing know.  He had no identification on him by the way, so we also had to run extra tests to determine blood type and possible allergies…”

“That's fine.”

“He's sleeping but you can go in if you'd like.”

Blaine didn't need to be told twice.  He left Wes behind and bolted into the room.  Gone were the black clothes.  The eyeliner had been rubbed off and the piercings had been taken out.  All that was left was a pink haired boy with a sweet face in a hospital gown, brow furrowed as he dreamed.

“You're going to hate me when you wake up….” Blaine said to the sleeping boy, walking up aside the hospital bed and looking down.  “I'm sorry.”

Kurt didn't respond.  He just continued sleeping.

“So, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you're not going to want to leave until he either makes you leave or something.” Wes asked from the door.

Blaine just nodded.  “Thank you Wes… I know I -”

“Don't Blaine.  Just…. be careful okay?  A kitten with a broken paw will scratch you at worst.  Him?”  Wes pointed at the sleeping boy, “He'll do much worse.”

Blaine nodded again.  Wes didn't know Kurt though.  

But Blaine didn't either.  Not really.  

As he waited, he walked around the small private room his parents were going to end up paying for.  He drew his fingers over Kurt's folded clothes and smirked at the bowl sitting beside it, full of studs and hoops from all over his face.  Why Kurt needed all of that when he was so good looking without it was beyond Blaine, but this whole situation was beyond Blaine.

Then there was the duct tape phone.  Blaine picked it up and looked at the screen, so full of cracks Blaine didn't know how Kurt would have been able to see anything on it.  He pressed the button at the bottom, watching the screen, or what was left of it, light up.  

Kurt had two missed messages.

Someone named Quinn saying that she had made it.

Someone named Cole asking where he was.

Some kind of party Kurt was missing out on?  Blaine looked over at the clock beside the bed.  It was morning.  Kurt would usually have left his street long ago by now.  Blaine was going to miss classes today.

Blaine sighed and set the phone down, taking out his own phone then - clean and clear and unflawed.

So without the character that Kurt's phone had.

He spent the morning playing various viral games, chatting up the nurses who came to check on Kurt or change his IV, and talking to the sleeping boy about his classes as if he might care.

It was noon when he got a response.

“What the fuck… what… where….”  

Blaine had been half asleep when he heard Kurt's voice, snapping into full alertness as he looked over at Kurt, now sitting up in the bed and trying to tug the IV out of his wrist.

“No Kurt!”

“What the fuck… what the fuck… I need to get out of here… I can't….”

Something must have been triggered because the room flooded with a few nurses and the doctor.  A bell went off and Blaine was shooed to the back of the room while Kurt tried to fight off the staff.  It was a losing battle though and Kurt was sedated and when the staff left again, Kurt's wrists were bound to the bed.  

Blaine hesitated to go up to Kurt.

“I can't….”  Kurt whimpered, still weakly struggling - both against his bonds and the sedative.  “I need to get back….”

“Do I need to call someone for you?  Who?”

Kurt looked at Blaine, his eyes locking, and for the first time Blaine saw fear in Kurt's eyes.  Pure, unadulterated fear.  “Please get me out of here.”

“I can't Kurt… you're sick…”

“No.. I'm an addict.  Now let me out of these… please.”

“I won't.”

“Why the fuck not?  Why did you do this to me?”

“I'm sorry.”

The bed shook as Kurt tried to pull his hands out of the restraints, “Let me out!”

“No.”

The nurse came in again then, checking the chart and then preparing another syringe in front of them both.  Blaine dared not ask what it was for while Kurt started swearing up a storm and shaking the bed violently.  The nurse had to call in another two nurses to hold Kurt back so she could administer the medication.

“More sedative.”  She explained when it was over and Blaine had his arms wrapped up around himself.  “His addiction makes him more tolerant of the usual dose than we normally have.”

Blaine nodded, watching as Kurt's body relaxed and then fell into sleep again.  It was terrifying.  How could someone do this to themselves?