His head was tight and even though his eyes were closed, he could feel that his vision was dizzy.

Flashes of someone crying next to him ripped through his mind. Who was it? Part of him thinks it was Kurt, because he was crying when he was singing. Yeah, maybe he was in bed after that.

But how did he get to bed?

He thought he could hear someone asking for his details, but he couldn't give them. But a panicked voice was telling them.

“Uh … his name is Blaine Anderberry... his birthday? I don't know man-listen, he just needs to get to a hospital. No I didn't see who it was, but I think I know-”

He remembered his father greeting a police officer named Murry or Murphy or McMillan. He just knew there was a M in there somewhere.

Someone must have been attacked, who was it?

Maybe it was Puck, he definitely gets himself into plenty of fights, so it wouldn't surprise him.

Was it Kurt?

Oh God … what if it was Kurt? Blaine panicked instantly. Kurt, his delicate Kurt who he loved and who might love him back and who was being bullied and who had sung him a love song and who had put up with bullying for so long and who he had been running to see when-

Oh.

It was Blaine who had been attacked.

When the lights hit his eyes, he didn't know where to look. He felt a soft pressure on his hand and smiled when he saw Hiram next to him, his head resting on the bed. He squeezed his hand.

Hiram blinked and Blaine could see reality unfolding in his eyes.

“Hi,” Blaine rasped out.

“Oh my-Blaine,” Hiram choked out, his hand grasping Blaine's tightly. “Let me get a nurse and some ice chips and ring your dad and Rachel and I'll be right back-”

Hiram jumped up and nearly ran out of the room. He stopped at the door and looked back at a bewildered Blaine.

“I'm so happy you're awake Blaine,” he whispered before leaving.

Blaine smiled, despite his situation.

How long had he been under? Did it really matter? He was awake now and he knew he had to see Kurt.

After a small moment, Hiram walked into the room behind a nurse. She had short caramel hair and Blaine instantly recognised her.

“Carole?” Blaine asked softly.

“Yes,” Carole replied. “How do you feel Blaine?”

Blaine nodded, taking the ice chips Hiram had brought him. He swallowed a mouthful while Carole looked at his head.
“I'm ok,” Blaine said slowly. “My head kinda hurts … a lot.”

Carole hummed in acknowledgement. “I'm just checking the bandages, they're really tight.”

Blaine swallowed before speaking. “What happened?”

Hiram sat down on the chair next to Blaine's bed again, and took his son's hand. “You were attacked right outside of school … if your friend Noah hadn't found you ...”

Blaine bit his lip. “I know who it was – they were probably waiting for K-Kurt but got me instead because Kurt had already left, I was going to see him because I realised-”

“Blaine, Blaine,” Hiram cut his son off, seeing his eyes starting to move wildly. “You need to rest. This … uh, you were asleep for three days. They have the boys that did … it. Noah confirmed that it was them and Kurt-”

“Kurt? Is he ok? I need to see him right now-”

Carole interjected. “No. Right now you need rest. I'll speak to Kurt tonight sweetie, he's busy at the moment.”

Blaine looked up at her, confused. “Why is he busy?”

Carole looked uneasily at Hiram, before continuing on. “Well, the two boys who beat you have denied everything, and seeing as it's their words against Noah Puckerman's, it looked like the Principal was going to let them off...”

“Wait, what does this have to do with Kurt?” Blaine asked, already dreading the answer.

Carole shook her head, looking at Hiram.

“Blaine … I don't know whether you knew this, but one of those boys has been doing stuff to Kurt for quite some t-time now and Kurt stepped forward to report it,” Hiram's voice was barely louder than the steady beep filling the room. “He should be there now.”

“Shit. Shit! Why am I not there?” Blaine asked himself, sitting up and glancing down at his hands furiously. “I need to be there for him-”

“I'm sorry hon, but you need to stay here,” Carole said, a hand on his shoulder to stop him from moving.

“But he can't do this alone-”

“He's not alone,” Carole said quietly. “Burt is with him right now.”

“Oh … ok,” Blaine said softly, leaning back down on the bed. “Could you please tell him to text me or call me or something?”

Carole nodded and retreated from the room.

“He'll be ok,” Hiram whispered, nodding as Blaine closed his eyes. “Burt won't let them touch him.”

Blaine nodded, gulping as he did so.

Charging through the reception, Rachel Anderberry slipped past the nurses and climbed up three flights of steps within three minutes. When she reached the third floor, she practically growled as she saw Blaine's room and ran past Leroy who was carrying more ice chips.

Upon seeing Blaine lying in bed, speaking softly with Hiram, Rachel rested a hand on her hip.

“Blaine Anderberry.”

She could see Blaine wince under her gaze, but that didn't stop her.

“Could you leave me and Rachel alone please dad?” he asked Hiram.

Hiram looked hesitant, but upon seeing the serious looks on both his children's faces, he stood up and walked out of the room, softly explaining to Leroy outside.

As soon as the door closed, Rachel spoke, “Why aren't you back with Kurt yet?”

Blaine looked at her incredulously, “I'm in hospi-”

“Don't be smart, Blaine. I mean why have you been ignoring him?” Rachel demanded.

“I-I didn't think he'd want to speak to me … but when he tried to I didn't know what to do,” Blaine stuttered.

Rachel sighed, softening. “Blaine … you know that's just stupid,” she said gently, sitting down on Hiram's vacated chair.

Blaine shrugged. “Why would he want to have anything to do with me?” Blaine asked quietly, his voice cracking.

“Blaine, you're an idiot for not seeing what everyone else can see so clearly,” Rachel said with a sigh.

Blaine sniffed and wiped furiously at his eyes. “I love him Rach,” he whispered through his hands.

Rachel smiled and nodded. “I know.”

Kurt had avoided his father's gaze after the meeting with principal Figgins, not wanting to answer any more questions.

He had run downstairs as soon as the front door was opened, and he had sat on his bed, when his phone vibrated. It was Mercedes sending her love. After tapping out a quick text, he saw Blaine's name in his message list.

He had been looking through their text messages over the past few weeks and was smiling despite himself because of them.

But now his fingertip was hovering over the send button.

'I miss you. Please wake up. Xxxx'

Kurt had been sat in the Principal's office even though it was the weekend, as Figgins was still dressed in his Sunday best from Church. He was looking sternly at Kurt, while his father was sat to his right, and Mr Shue to his left.

“What you are accusing David Karofsky is very serious Mr Hummel, we need you to be completely honest with us,” Figgins had said.

Kurt nodded and looked up.

“Now, we need to know. When did this start?”

Kurt took a deep breath and felt his father's hand rest on his. He was still unsure of speaking the whole truth … he didn't want to out Karofsky, no matter how bad his bullying was...

“This September, about the third day of school.”

“And what happened?”

Kurt looked away from Figgins. “Well … he's always taunted me, because of my sexuality … but I just thought he would grow out of it and no one seemed to notice so I thought it was normal for everyone like me...”

Burt's grip on his hand tightened.

“But that day, in September, he … he um-”

“Kurt, we need to know everything,” Mr Shue said from next to him. “I understand it's hard, but this school needs to be safe for everyone.”

Kurt instantly thought of Blaine. “He kissed me.”

Burt's jaw tightened loudly. “He what?!”

Kurt nodded. “He uh … yeah, he took my first kiss and he … warned me to not to tell anyone.”

Figgins looked at him sternly again. “What exactly did he say?”

Kurt gulped and looked to his father.

“Kurt, we need to know everything. What did he say?”

“He threatened to kill me.”

Burt's eyes hardened and he looked straight at Principal Figgins. “This happened during your leadership at this school, you should keep a closer eye on your students.”

Figgins' eyes were wide open as Kurt looked towards him, feeling his own tears fall down his face.

But then Mr Shue cleared his throat. “What else has he done, Kurt?”

“You want to know more? My son just told you his life was threatened within this school and you-”

“He touched me,” Kurt interjected quietly, his tears burning down his cheeks.

“-he WHAT?” Burt shouted, standing up.

“Mr Hummel, please calm down,” Figgins said tiredly, still looking at Kurt in shock.

Kurt shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and grabbed his dad's hand. “Please dad, your heart.”

“Damn my heart Kurt,” Burt said angrily. “This bo-person has been harming you not only physically but mentally too and I don't want him anywhere near you any more!”

Kurt tugged on his dad's hand, and as soon as Burt saw Kurt's face, he instantly calmed down. Just seeing his son look so desperate and clinging onto him made him realise the reality of the situation. He was a father. He had to be strong for his son.

Sitting down again, Burt clasped his hand around Kurt's. “I-I just, I can't believe no one noticed, not even me.”

“Blaine did,” Kurt whispered quietly, before his voice rose, “and that's why Karofsky and Azimio attacked him … because he had confronted Karofsky earlier this week about it.”

There was a small silence in which Mr Shue rested his hand on Kurt's shoulder and Figgins merely looked at the files on his desk, nodding.

“I have taken everything into account about the incident, and we will try our very best to look out for you, Kurt, however, I do not have the power to expel a student, but the board of Governors will be presented with all the evidence so they can make an informed decision. Rest assured David Karofsky will be put on suspension until a decision has been made.”

When Figgins stopped talking, he looked up, sighing as he glanced from Mr Shue, to Burt and then settled his gaze on Kurt.

“I am very sorry that this school has failed you on this occurrence, Mr Hummel,”

Burt bowed his head and breathed out, while Kurt nodded, his eyes glazed over.

Kurt tried to suppress his memory of the day by getting undressed and climbing into bed, only clad in his underwear. He pulled the covers up to his chin and hugged one of his many pillows to his chest. It was the pillow Blaine had been resting on earlier in the week and it still smelt like him.

Kurt pressed send on his phone and closed his eyes, wishing the pillow he was hugging to his chest was Blaine.

“I love you.”

He woke at five pm and felt that his mouth was dry and his head was light. He could hear his door close and knew that it must have been his dad checking up on him.

He climbed out of bed and glared at his feet.

How did he get into this mess?

He grabbed his phone from his sheets and unlocked it. No messages. Dropping the phone, he wandered to his bathroom.

Ten minutes later, he emerged from his room, fully dressed and pulling a coat on. He walked into the living room, looking for his dad.

Burt was sat on his chair, his hands resting in his head.

“Dad?” Kurt said softly. “I'm going out to get coffee … do you want anything?”

Burt looked up and shook his head. “Just be back before seven. We need to talk about the past three months.”

Kurt gulped, but nodded. “Ok, I won't be long.”

The Lima Bean was packed when Kurt went in, with the intentions of getting a take away. But with the cold weather outside, he decided to stay in for a while. He sat down with his coffee, a little bit away from two boys in a navy private school uniform.

He wondered momentarily if they went to Dalton, where Blaine had gone before coming to McKinley. He thought sadly that Blaine would have been better off staying there.

He watched them for a short moment, noting how the brunette one seemed to be telling the blonde one bad news, from the look on their faces and that the brunette boy was talking.

The blonde one's face looked shocked, as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Shortly after, he stood up and walked out of the cafe, leaving the brunette boy on his own with two coffees.

When suddenly the brunette looked up, their eyes met and Kurt shifted his gaze to the coffee in front of himself.

He noticed that the brunette boy walked out moments after.

Kurt grimaced at the thought that he had made him embarrassed. But then the seat in front of him was pulled out.

Looking up, Kurt fully expected to see the brunette private school boy gazing back at him. What he didn't expect was Karofsky.

Kurt jumped, nearly spilling all of his coffee.

Karofsky sat down.

“What-why-” Kurt spluttered, unable to form a sentence.

“I want to talk,” Karofsky said angrily.

“I don't want you near me,” Kurt hissed. “Please leave.”

“I need to tell you something,” Karofsky said quietly, shifting uncomfortably and glancing around. “You need to stay away from that Blaine kid.”

Kurt nearly growled. This boy had ruined his life, messed with his head and now he was going to try and do further damage? “You don't own me, or what I do and who I am with, so please leave, before I ring the police.”

Karofsky laughed a little bit.

“Get away from me,” Kurt ordered. “You're absolutely disgusting for what you did to Blaine and I over these past months, I know that now. I hate you-”

“I love you.”

Kurt recoiled instantly. It felt as though everything but his breathing stopped.

“What?” he asked, outraged.

“That's why I hate you so much,” Karofsky said, suddenly looking sad. “I hate that you walk around like life it amazing when I know it isn't and then I realised … I'm in love with you, it's why I can't stay away from you...”

“I'm sorry but no,” Kurt said, refusing to feel anything but disgust for him. “I'm not accepting that because if you truly loved me you would never have laid a hand on me and anyway … I'm with someone-”

“Doesn't seem like it,” Karofsky spat vindictively. “He didn't seem to want anything to do with you this week.”

Kurt's mouth fell open. “How dare you! The only reason me and Blaine were arguing was because of you, are you happy about that?”

“I'm your only other option,” Karofsky said angrily, clearly annoyed that his plan was falling apart.

Kurt scowled at him. “Even if that was true, I would never go anywhere near you.”

Leaving his coffee to go cold, Kurt stood up and walked out, turning up the collars of his coat and promising himself to have nothing to do with Karofsky from now on.