The next Wednesday night, Kurt and Blaine leave for a date. It’s not exactly normal for them to go out on a school night, but Burt doesn’t ask questions. He’s getting busy with his campaign stuff, and is heading to Columbus the next night for some meetings. But then Kurt comes in the front door just before midnight, tears streaming down his face and Burt knows something is terribly wrong. Kurt stands in the doorway for just a few seconds before he’s running up the stairs to his room. Burt follows his son up the stairs and his heart breaks when he sees Kurt, curled up on his bed in the fetal position, sobbing uncontrollably.

Burt does the only thing he can think of, crossing the room and sitting down on the bed. He pulls Kurt into his arms and starts rocking him slowly.

“You’re here and you’re safe. Nothing can hurt you here.” Burt whispers into Kurt’s hair, amazed when Kurt doesn’t object to his father stroking his meticulously maintained hair.

“Is Blaine safe? Is he home?”

Kurt lets out a small mumbling of affirmation. Burt’s relieved. Neither boy is hurt physically. Something must have happened between the two, because if it was external, Blaine would be the one comforting Kurt right now, not Burt. Whatever it is, Burt’s sure that the two boys will be able to work things out.

“Did you two fight?” Burt asks, his voice soft.

“I really don’t want to talk about it, Dad.” Kurt says, gasping for breath because of his runny nose from the crying.

“Are you sure about that?” Burt replies, surprised. Kurt’s been so much more open about his feelings since he met Blaine, even when that means talking to his dad about his boyfriend.

“I – I Just…” Kurt sniffles. “It’ll be okay. He didn’t know what he was doing. It’ll be fine tomorrow.”

So Blaine had done something. Something that could make Kurt this upset. Something that Kurt refused to talk about.

“Okay.” Burt finally gives in. “But if you change your mind, you come talk to me, okay? Even if it’s in the middle of the night, okay?”

Kurt nods, his expression thankful.

Burt heads back downstairs, grabbing a beer before sitting down at the couch again. He’s trying not to try to worry about what Blaine might have done. Whatever it was, he hopes for everyone’s sake, including his own, that it can be resolved easily. What the hell will he do if Blaine’s done something awful to Kurt? Blaine wouldn’t. He couldn’t. Right?

Burt does his best to turn off his brain and just watch the game. He doesn’t succeed. Eventually, he gives up and heads up the stairs to go bed. He’s just finally managed to doze off when the obnoxious chime of his cell phone wakes him up. Carole sits up, concern spreading across her face. Phone calls at three in the morning usually only mean one thing. Filled with dread, Burt picks up his phone, and is surprised when he sees the contact who’s calling. Blaine.

“Blaine? What is it?” Burt asks, his voice muddled by sleep.

“Did Kurt make it home? I’ve been texting him and calling him but his phone is off. Is he okay?” Blaine’s voice is filled with panic.

“Kurt’s home, buddy. He’s been home since midnight. He’s really upset, but he’s fine. He didn’t want to talk about it.”

It’s only now that Burt can hear that Blaine is crying, his breath coming out in hoarse gasps. He doesn’t say anything for a few long moments, but when he speaks it’s just in a steady refrain:

“Oh God oh God oh God.”

Burt turns to Carole, her eyes full of worry.

“I think he’s having a panic attack. Can you…?”

Carole takes the phone and begins talking in a soothing but firm voice.

“Blaine, sweetheart, can you hear me? Okay, good. Now I need you to calm down, okay, honey? Everything’s going to be fine. Are you sitting down? Good. I need you to stay as still as you can for me, okay Blaine? Kurt loves you so much. Everything will be fine with you two. Now I need you to focus on your breathing. I’m going to count and I want you to breathe along with my counting. Can you do that, sweetie? Okay. We’re going to breath in one, two. And out one, two.”

It takes nearly ten minutes for Carole to calm Blaine down. When she’s decided that Blaine’s going to be okay, she hands Burt the phone with a final “I’ll see you soon, sweetheart.”

Burt’s not even sure what to say to Blaine after all that.

“Are you better now, buddy?” Burt asks, trying to keep his tone gentle.

“I – I think so.” Blaine says, his voice a little rough.

“Do you want to talk about it, or do you want to sleep a bit first?”

Blaine doesn’t say anything for so long that Burt wonders if he’s asleep. When he does speak, there is so much pain in his voice.

“I fucked up, Burt. I fucked up so bad.”

Having said that, Blaine starts to cry again.

“Okay, Blaine, I need you to stay calm for me. When I talked to Kurt he said that he was sure that things would be okay, that you didn’t know what you were doing. I’m sure he’ll forgive you for whatever happened.”

“But I don’t think I can ever forgive myself.” Blaine whispers. It breaks Burt’s heart.

“Look, bud, I can only help you so much when I don’t know what happened. So unless you want to tell me what happened, I can’t do too much more to help you aside from waking up Kurt.”

“No, don’t!” Blaine says. “I don’t want to wake him up. I just needed to know he was safe.”

“So are you going to tell me about it?” Burt asks. He hates that he’s sounding impatient but, hey, it’s three in the morning.

“I – I’m just going to try to get some sleep. Tonight’s the opening of West Side Story. I’ll see you there, I guess.” Blaine sounds guilty.

“Okay then. Whatever you want.” Burt is about to say goodbye and hang up before he has another thought.

“Hey, buddy? Are you going to be okay? Are you thinking about hurting yourself at all?” Burt asks, filled with concern.

“Kurt made me get rid of all my razors. I don’t have anything to hurt myself with anymore.”

This isn’t quite a good enough answer for Burt, although it’s good to know that Kurt’s being actively involved in Blaine’s recovery.

“Are you thinking about it, though?” Burt persists. He glances over at Carole, and notices that she has tears in her eyes.

“Yeah, I am. I just want to hurt myself like I hurt him, but I know it won’t actually make anything better. And that he’ll see. But then again after tonight – “

“Blaine. I want you to promise me that you won’t hurt yourself. Can you do that for me? If you can’t, I’ll come pick you up right now.”

“No, I promise.”

“Promise what?”

“I promise not to hurt myself, Burt.”

“Okay, good.” Burt says, starting to breathe easily again. “Anything happens, you call again, okay?”

“Okay.” Blaine answers. He’s starting to sound sleepy.

“Good night, Blaine. We’ll sort everything out later.”

“Good night Burt. Thank Carole for me, please.”

“Will do.”

Burt closes his phone and turns to Carole. Her eyes are wide.

“What could he have done?” She asks.

“I don’t know.” Burt replies, shaking his head and lying back down. “I just hope it’s something completely stupid that they’re over-reacting about and will laugh about in a few months.”

Burt, as it turns out, doesn’t get to find out for quite some time. Kurt is up and off to school before Burt even manages to get out of bed, entirely exhausted from his disrupted sleep. The kids were instructed last week to stay after school until the performance, which would be at 7:00 PM. Burt was wanting to get there somewhat early, hoping to see his boys before the show, but he still needed to pack for the trip to Columbus, which took longer than he would have expected. They he didn’t get to the school until fifteen minutes before the show. Carole insisted on sitting down straight away to be sure that they would have a decent seat.

The show was incredible. Kurt makes the most of his role and does an amazing job. Burt is just so proud of his son. Blaine’s performance as Tony is flawless. Burt finds himself marvelling at Blaine the Performer on stage – how different he is from the boy who had a panic attack sixteen short hours ago.

When the show finishes, Burt and Carole go back stage. They brought three bunches of flowers. One for Kurt, one for Blaine and a third for Rachel (suggested by Carole, so as to not play favourites.) They see Rachel first, already holding several bunches of flowers. Congratulating her, they find Kurt next. He’s glowing, the adrenaline of the stage not yet having left his body. They congratulate him and when Burt tells Kurt how proud he was watching him on the stage, tears fill Kurt’s eyes, tears so different from the night before. He hugs the flowers to his chest, and Burt can hardly believe how happy his son looks.

It takes them longer to find Blaine. He’s changed out of his costume already, trading it for sweats, and says he’s about to go back to work trying to fix a bit of choreography he’d flubbed during the show. They give him the flowers and he thanks them, but he seems distant, hesitant. Burt hugs Blaine tightly for a few moments and asks if he’s talked to Kurt yet. He hasn’t, but he will soon he thinks. Carole hugs Blaine, too, and whispers something in his ear that Burt can’t hear.

It’s hard for Burt, but he knows that the best thing he can do for the boys is to let them work this out for themselves. With one last encouraging smile, they leave Blaine to his practicing.

He and Carole head out to the car, and then it’s straight on to Columbus. They haven’t been driving long when Burt’s phone rings. Carole takes it for him since he’s driving.

“Hello? Hi Kurt! Yup, traffic’s fine. What’s that? Good! Oh? Okay. Okay. Call tomorrow before noon. No, of course not! Your dad’s covered all that! Good night!”

She closes the phone with a giggle.

“I guess they got it sorted out whatever it was!” Carole says.

“Oh? What did he say?” Burt asks, intrigued.

“He asked about traffic. He said that he and Blaine talked it through and everything’s fine.”

“And what else?” Burt pries, getting suspicious.

“They’re going over to Blaine’s house. He’s going to stay over. I told him to call before noon tomorrow. He was surprised that I wasn’t giving him any platitudes or cautions or anything so I said I thought you’d told him everything already.”

And all of a sudden, everything makes sense to Burt. This was about sex. Blaine’s mistake.  The fight. The panic attack at three this morning. It was all about sex. Burt can feel the blood drain from his face, worry setting in. He has to consciously remind himself that he’s driving so that he doesn’t take the car straight off the road.

“Are Blaine’s parents going to be home?” Burt asks, hoping he’s wrong.

“I didn’t ask.” Carole says. “But I think you’re smart enough to know that there’s only one reason that they wouldn’t be at our place.”

Carole must be able to read Burt’s mind.

“I know that this is big and scary and goes against your parental instincts, but you have to let Kurt make his own decisions, for better or worse. You’ve done all that you can to prepare him for this. You’ve done all that you can to prepare Blaine for it, too. Now it’s up to them. Just like it should be.”

Carole’s right. They haven’t even been married for a full year and Burt’s already learned that she’s almost always right. So he’s going to do his best to put the kids out of his mind until he gets a call from Kurt before noon tomorrow.

Putting the kids out of mind doesn’t work as well as he hoped. Not even ten minutes have passed before Finn calls Carole to say that he didn’t get picked up for the football scholarship. It’s just one crisis after another in Hummel-Hudson household.

Kurt calls around eleven o clock the next day. He promises that he will tell Burt the full story of the fight eventually (Burt can hear Blaine protesting that in the background) and that they had a wonderful night. They’re both very happy and in love and everything’s okay and he’ll see Burt soon. There aren’t any answers provided for Burt’s many questions but Kurt’s tone of pure joy is enough to pacify him.

When Burt and Carole get home, Kurt and Blaine are baking in the kitchen. Burt watches them for a few moments before they realize that they are not alone. Their movements are completely in sync. Kurt reaches for the flour and Blaine hands it to him instantaneously without even being asked. Blaine moves away slightly to reach into a cabinet and Kurt compensates so that not even a second passes where they are further apart.

The cookies are just about ready for the oven by the time they notice Burt, so they agree to chat while they’re baking. The boys sit down across from Burt at the table, shifting their chairs together so that their shoulders are touching. All of their contact is appropriate and yet Burt feels as if he’s intruding on something extraordinarily intimate.

“So here’s how it’s going to go. You’re going to tell me what happened. You may spare the details that we know I don’t want to hear, but I do want to know the rest of the story. I’m not going to say anything until I’ve heard it all. I will do my best to not judge either of you. Or get angry. Sounds good?”

The boys nod.

“Okay, then. Either of you can start.”

They boys look at each other for a split second and then Kurt begins talking.

“So we decided to go out on Wednesday night.”

Kurt suddenly turns to Blaine, as if having realized something. His eyes widen. Blaine cringes and then wipes a hand across the front of his face. Kurt turns back to look at Burt.

“Can I have full amnesty for this story?”

Burt snorts.

“Not a chance. But I will try to keep any mistakes you make separate.”

Kurt isn’t pleased with this. He replies in an unapologetic tone meant to shock.

“Fine. We went to a gay bar. With fake ID’s.”

That was not what Burt was expecting, but he’d promised to not be judgemental and not get angry. Might be harder than he thought.

“Blaine met this guy at Dalton last week and he invited us. Blaine said no straight away but I thought that it might be fun so we decided we’d go. I didn’t drink at all but Blaine did.”

Blaine’s drinking again? Hadn’t he learned his lesson the second time, if not the first?

“Kurt.” Blaine interrupts, an uncomfortable look on his face. “I think you need to tell Burt about our conversation first.”

Kurt cringes.

“You do it, then.” He says.

“Kurt and I had been talking over the week leading to this about becoming intimate. We hadn’t done anything at all at that point so it was still highly hypothetical, but we were at the point where we were both feeling more ready. So we’d been talking about it for a while. Just speculatively. What if’s and vague plans.”

“So Blaine drank a bit at the bar. He thought that he only had one beer – “

“I wasn’t trying to get drunk!”

 “– but I think Sebastian, that was the guy, kept switching them out. So anyways, when we were ready to go, I decided that Blaine should ride in the back so that he wouldn’t puke.”

Burt looks over at Blaine, whose eyes are suddenly tear-filled. Kurt seems to notice at the same time and wraps an arm around his boyfriend. He whispers into his ear for a few moments and Blaine’s head shakes almost imperceptibly a few times. Finally, Kurt turns back to Burt.

“So as we’ve learned before, Blaine tends to get particularly affectionate when he’s had too much to drink.”

Kurt doesn’t seem upset as he tells the story, which is good because Burt is having to work really hard to not get concerned.

“So Blaine pulls me into the back with him and, well, uh, propositions me. And I got out of the car and told him that I was definitely not going to lose my virginity in the back of a car in the parking lot of a sketchy bar.”

Blaine sobs at this. Kurt just holds him tighter.

“It took Blaine a little while to figure out why I was yelling at him but when he did, he got a bit belligerent and said he was going to walk home. I, uh, took a few moments to compose myself, and then I followed him as he walked. Once I figured he’d calmed down, I got him to ride in the car. We didn’t say anything at all the whole way to his house. I took him home and got him settled into bed. And then I came home.”

Blaine hiccups and then starts talking.

“So I called you when I’d sobered up enough to understand what happened. I just – I’m still so disgusted with myself.”

Burt arches his eyebrows. As much as he wants to say something, he’d promised that he’d hear the full story first. Kurt seems to figure this out.

“So after West Side Story we talked about things. Blaine apologized and I forgave him. Everyone else was going to Breadstix to celebrate but we just wanted to be alone. Finn was bringing Ra– ”

Kurt’s eyes widened as he realizes his mistake. Burt pretends to not have heard.

“Anyway!” Blaine redirects. “We decided to go back to my house.”

The boys look at each other for a few long moments.

“We made some dinner and we talked some more and we…” Blaine trails off. Burt is grateful.

“It was perfect. I mean, it wasn’t technically perfect. But I have no regrets at all.” Kurt says, a smile on his face.

“Same.” Blaine agrees, smiling over at Kurt.

As difficult as all that had been to hear, Burt is still relieved.

“Okay, my turn to talk now, okay?”

The boys nod, starting to look worried.

“A gay bar? Really? Did you want to get arrested or assaulted? It’s a miracle nothing worse happened! If you ever even THINK about going back there before you’re both twenty-one, there will be hell to pay, I promise you that!”

Burt had snuck into a bar at eighteen, too, but that was different. And they didn’t need to know about it.

“Kurt, I’m glad that you weren’t drinking, especially since you were driving. Blaine, I don’t even know what to say to you. Actually, how about this: you tell me. What does all this mean to you?”

“I’m not going to drink again, Burt, at least until I’m twenty one but I don’t even know if I will then. Bad things always happen when I drink. I always hurt people and I become dangerous to myself. I don’t think I’m ever going to forget the moment that I understood what I’d done in the parking lot. I was puking my guts out for fifteen minutes before I could calm down enough to call you. I promise you that it will never happen again.”

Burt nods. That was a good response. Burt decides not to beat up on Blaine too much, because he knows how much the boy regrets everything that happened, and will learn from his mistakes.

“And you’re never going to pressure Kurt again?” Burt knows the answer, even feels silly asking the question, but knows that as a father, it’s a question he has to ask. Blaine shakes his head rapidly.

“So anything else you want to tell me?” Burt asks.

The boys look at each other, considering the question for a few moments. Burt’s starting to get slightly unnerved by their newfound telepathic abilities. Eventually, Kurt answers.

“We wanted to thank you for all of your advice before. It was really helpful and we’re both glad that you were willing to talk about things with us. It means a lot.”

Blaine nods, a very sincere expression on his face.

“You’re very welcome. I’m happy for you two.”

Kurt gets up to get the cookies out of the oven. Suddenly, something that Burt had read in one of those pamphlets comes to mind. It’s out of his mouth before he even thinks about it.

“Did it hurt?” Both boys stare at him. “You’re okay, right. Everything’s fine?”

Kurt and Blaine look at each other and laugh a little bit. Burt feels like they’re both thinking about something he doesn’t want to know.

“We’re fine, Burt.” Blaine answers, still laughing.

That’s a good enough answer for Burt. He grabs a cookie hot off the tray. When Kurt tries to slap his hand away, Burt laughs saying:

“Kurt, after that conversation, I think I deserve all the cookies in the world. Or do you want to be grounded til Christmas for the whole gay bar incident?”

Kurt’s face goes bright red. Burt takes two more cookie