Making that phone call had been the hardest thing Blaine had ever done in his entire life. The sound of Elaine's gasp, and then a deep male voice coming on the line had almost been too much for him to handle. He'd had to repeat himself for Elaine's husband, Michael – Blaine couldn't bear to think of them as "Mom and Dad", not ever – and Michael had been angry, thinking this was a prank.

Blaine had cried as he'd tried to explain and eventually Sebastian's father had taken the phone from him to assure the Danvers family that this was not a joke.

Blaine collapsed into his mother's arms, Sebastian staring at him with sympathy, all traces of his usual attitude gone. Blaine had no idea what was going to happen next but he had a sinking feeling that nothing would ever been the same again.

Sebastian's father hung up after providing contact information and then turned to face them.

"They've agreed to hold off on calling the cops for now," he said. "But they want to meet." Robert looked at all of them, one at a time. "They want to see Blaine."

"No," his mother replied. "No way. Not yet."

"Susan," Robert protested.

"No," she insisted. "Bill and I will meet with them and discuss how this is going to happen."

"You don't have a lot of choices here," Robert reminded them.

"I'm thinking of Blaine," she said, rubbing his back lightly. "The first meeting is going to be nothing but upset parents screaming things. He shouldn't have to see that."

"I'll run it past them," Robert finally agreed. With that, he gathered Sebastian and they left, Sebastian giving Blaine a fist bump on his way out the door.

"I won't really have to go live with them, will I?" Blaine asked his mother, watching while his father paced around the living room.

"Not if you don't want to," his mother assured him.

Blaine snuggled closer to her and prayed that she was right.

*

It became abundantly clear that Blaine's mother had been so, so very wrong.

His parents had come gone to the first meeting (leaving Blaine home to freak out and worry with Nick, Jeff, and Sebastian), and come back extremely upset. His mother had had to go to bed and his father looked like he'd seen a ghost.

Blaine knew it was bad without either of them having to say anything – he could just tell.

His father told him they had to talk after his friends went home, and it was with a heavy heart that Blaine joined his father in the living room.

"I won't do it," Blaine said, before his father even started talking. "They can't take me away from here."

"They can," Blaine father replied sadly. "Your mother and I have no legal right to you, Blaine – pending the DNA test they're insisting on, they can take you from us quite easily."

"I won't take the test," Blaine told him, desperately trying to think of a way to get out of this.

"You won't have a choice," his father countered. "They'll get a court order if they have to."

"Can't you sue them for custody or something?" Blaine exclaimed, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes.

"We wouldn't stand a chance in court, Blaine," his father's voice was thick with emotion. "Not after everything with Cooper, and then Cooper kidnapping you and us keeping you. No judge in his right mind would award us custody."

"But you're my parents," Blaine whispered, his body going cold. Sure, maybe the Andersons weren't biologically related to him, but they'd raised him. His mother had made chicken soup when he was sick and brownies for every class party, and cried with him that day in the hospital after he'd been beaten up. His father had taught him how to play ball and encouraged him to be himself. Neither parent had ever missed a piano recital or glee club performance.

They were his parents, and the court needed to see that.

A sense of numbness was stealing over him.

"No," his father said, "we're not."

They were silent for a while, just sitting, before his father spoke again. "They want three months of uninterrupted time with you and the mediator the court assigned to your case doesn't find that unreasonable."

"Don't I get a say?" Blaine asked, looking father.

"Yes," he answered. "They're going to have a social worker come and talk to you here tomorrow."

*

Blaine didn't know what to expect when his parents showed the mediator into the kitchen where he was sitting. He'd been struggling with his math homework, trying to distract himself from her arrival.

"Blaine," his mother said, "This is Mrs. Stevens. She's the social worker in your case."

"Pleased to meet you," Blaine greeted softly, knowing it was a lie. He'd have spent the rest of his life happy if he'd never met her. "Sorry," he apologized, hastily closing up his school books and tucking them in his satchel.

"That's okay, Blaine," Mrs. Stevens replied, sitting down across from him. His parents both gave him long looks before leaving them alone. "How are you?"

"I've been better," Blaine murmured.

"I can imagine that things have been rough around here," she said.

"That's probably an understatement," Blaine told her.

"Well, I'm here to help your parents – all four of them – get things sorted out where your concerned," Mrs. Stevens began. "So why don't you tell me what you'd like to see happen?"

Blaine wasn't sure where to begin. "I don't want to go live with the Danvers," he finally started. "This house, these parents... this is the only home I can remember. I don't know the Danvers. I'm sorry that I walked away from them that day, but they're not my parents anymore."

"Why did you call then, tell them about yourself, if you feel that way?"

"My mother made a good point – they spent all these years not knowing what happened to me. I thought that if they knew where I was and that I was happy, it would give them some peace of mind."

She nodded. "And now?"

"Now I wish I'd never done it," Blaine whispered. He felt horrible about it, but it was the truth. "They want me to leave the only home I've ever known and go live with strangers."

"You can meet them first," Mrs. Stevens offered. "We're trying to keep the courts out of this, Blaine. For the Danvers to be willing to work with your parents on a custody arrangement is a big deal."

"I know," Blaine murmured. "I just... I have a good life here. I have friends and school and glee club. I love my parents and I don't want to leave them."

*

It didn't take long for the DNA test to be run or for the results to come back. Blaine Anderson was in fact Blane Danvers. The media had run wild with the story once the Danvers family had released a statement. Blaine wasn't really approached by the media, but one of them did get his yearbook photo and he was startled to see it on TV. A lot of the reports seemed to bash his parents and paint the Danvers family as victims, but Blaine knew it hadn't been like that.

Blaine had been the one to walk off with Cooper. Cooper had been the one to cause this whole mess and the Andersons and the Danvers had just gotten caught up in the middle.

He kept away from the news reports after that.

*

Elaine and Michael Danvers were not what Blaine expected. Elaine was petite and delicate looking and Michael was average height and sturdy. They looked almost mismatched.

Blaine's first thought upon seeing them was how much he looked like Elaine. She let out a choked gasp and crossed the room to him, enveloping him in a hug.

He understood why and let it happen, but it felt all wrong. Elaine Danvers wasn't his mother – Susan Anderson was.

"I promised myself I wouldn't do this," Elaine whispered, pulling back, tears on her face. "They showed us pictures, but I just... I can't believe it's you."

He didn't say anything, couldn't say anything. He didn't even know where to begin. After all, the Danvers were strangers.

"It's good to see you, son," Michael said, getting up and giving Blaine a quick hug as well. "Julie can't wait to meet you."

Blaine understood why Julie hadn't come with them. She was only fifteen, and this was going to be hard enough.
The social worker had determined that Blaine needed to meet his biological family before any decisions were made regarding custody and had gotten a judge to sign off on it. The mediator assigned to help them determine custody would be given the results of the visit and they would go from there.

They made small talk – Elaine and Michael told him what they did for a living (he was a factory worker and she was a teacher), a little bit about Julie, but mostly there was just uncomfortable silence and the Danvers would sometimes stop and stare at him.

"We know this is difficult," Elaine whispered after a long moment of silence. "We know that you don't know us."
Blaine bit his lip.

"We'd like for you to get to know us, for us to get to know you. Which is why we'd like you to come and live with us for a while," she continued.

They seemed like nice people and there was no faking their joy at seeing him again.

He looked at the social worker and sighed. He could see she was gauging his reaction. Blaine was tired. He was tired of the fighting and the hurting and of feeling guilty about everything. So he did the only thing he could think of.

"Tell the mediator that I'll adhere to any agreement my parents can work out," he said softly. Elaine's delighted cry met his ears, but Blaine didn't address them. He just got up and left the room, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes.

He hoped his parents wouldn't hate him.

*

It was officially happening – Blaine Anderson was going to be Blane Danvers and go live with his biological family. He didn't want to go, but he didn't know what else to do.

His mother picked him up after his last day of school at Dalton, helping him situate the box of his belongings in the back of the car. It hadn't been much of a day – he'd had to turn in all of his uniforms and clean out his locker. The Warblers had had to do another vote and Jeff had been elected to the council in his place. The Warblers saw him off, through song of course. He hugged them all, promising to call as soon as he could.

The drive home was silent, so many things unsaid between him and his mother.

"Are they there?" he finally asked.

She nodded, gripping the wheel tightly. The things he was taking with him (clothes, books, and his laptop) had already been packed and were waiting for them at home.

He'd been formally withdrawn from Dalton, and would be enrolling at McKinley High with his sister Julie on Monday.

He hated all of it, the entire thing.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, turning to his mother. His mother saw his anguished expression and pulled the car over.

"It's not your fault, baby," she comforted him, pulling him close for a hug, despite the awkwardness of doing so in the car.

"But if I'd just kept my mouth shut..." he murmured.

"Then the Danvers would still be out there, no knowing what happened to their son," she smiled sadly. "And that is worse than this. Daddy and I will know where you are and what you're doing and we can visit sometimes."

Blaine had serious doubts about that happening, but he didn't tell her that. He was pretty sure once the Danvers had him in their home, he'd never see his parents again. He forced a smile to his lips. "Right," he agreed softly.

She eventually let go of him and put the car in motion again. They pulled up at the house after a few more minutes, Blaine's heart pounding his chest. There was an unfamiliar car in the driveway.

He wanted to scream and cry in protest. This couldn't be happening. He wanted to wake up from the nightmare he'd found himself in, but he couldn't. So he put on his brave face, got his things out of the car, and followed his mother up to the front porch of the car. He set the box of his school things next to his bags in the hallway, where they were waiting to be loaded.

Blaine took a deep breath, shot his mother a look, and then went into the living room.

*

Elaine and Michael were waiting for them, practically bursting with excitement. Blaine tried to force a smile as he greeted them, but he couldn't really. He was too busy taking in his surroundings one last time. He was pretty sure he was never coming back to this house.

All he wanted was to run upstairs to his room, pull the overs over his head and shut out the world.

Blaine's mother started to cry and Blaine wanted to go to her, but he couldn't. He felt frozen, unable to move. Everything was happening around him and he had lost total control of his entire life.

All he could do was watch as Michael and his father grabbed at his bags and headed for the car. He knew it would only take a moment for them to load them up and urgency settled over him. He was out of time.

Elaine followed them out to the car, and Blaine's mother walked him to the door. His father joined them after a second, Michael getting into the car with Elaine.

He didn't know what to say.

He finally settled for one sentence. "I love you," he said, holding back his tears. If he started to cry now, he'd never stop. He couldn't do that to them.

"We love you too, so much," his mother insisted, pulling him in for a three way hug.

Blaine took a step and swallowed hard as he moved toward the car in his driveway on wooden legs, the agony in his chest almost crushing him. He had no idea he could actually feel that much pain at one time and not die.
Numb fingers held his satchel and his box of school stuff, which he slid in the car next to him on the seat. He shut the car door and then sat back, concentrating on his breathing and not how his heart was breaking.
He'd done this. He'd made his own bed and now he had to lie in it.

*

Blaine was silent for the entire drive to Lima. The Danvers sat in the front seat, holding hands, and talking chipper voices. Elaine told him about the house and the neighborhood and Julie and who knows what else. He tuned her out and concentrated on not crying – he didn't know these people and there was no way he was going to let them see him like that. He'd save it for later, when he was alone.

The car moved forward toward a future Blaine didn't want, his past slipping through his fingers.

Blaine had to force himself not to look back.

It was dark by the time they arrived at the house, and Blaine just followed behind Elaine and Michael as they grabbed his things from the back of the car and took them into the house. He walked as slowly as he could, feeling like once he was in the house, he'd possibly never be allowed out ever again.

"The bedroom's back that way," Michael directed as they shut the front door behind them. Blaine nodded, turning to head that way. Suddenly there was a teenage girl in the way, and Blaine jerked back in surprise.

"Is this him?" Julie asked, sounding cross.

"Julie, be nice," Elaine admonished. "He's had a long day." She smiled. "Blaine, this is Julie – she's your sister."

"He's not an idiot, Mom," Julie snapped.

"Julie," Michael warned. She bit her lip and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Are you hungry, Blaine?" Elaine asked. Blaine shook his head.

"You can speak, right?" Julie asked, looking suddenly wary.

"Julie Elizabeth," Michael snapped. Blaine jumped, tightening his grip on his satchel.

"I'm sorry," Blaine whispered. "I'm really tired."

"Of course," Elaine smiled softly. "Let's get you settled in."

Getting him "settled" seemed to take forever. Julie was present for several more snarky comments before Michael eventually sent her to her room. She'd glared at Blaine like it was his fault and stomped off. Elaine was like a mother hen, constantly hovering over him, asking if he was okay, if he wanted anything. It would have been funny if it wasn't so sad. Michael seemed content to let her take over, occasionally checking in with them.

Finally, Blaine was left in peace. He promptly stripped out of his clothes, threw on his most comfortable lounging clothes and climbed into an unfamiliar bed. He pulled the covers over his head, shutting out the world, and cried himself to sleep.