"What do you mean, he's back?" Blaine hissed, keeping his voice low. He didn’t want to wake his boyfriend from his blissful slumber, especially with this particular news.

"I mean, the cops picked him up," Jeff explained, "but his dad got him out. And dude, he's majorly pissed!"

"Shit shit shit!" Blaine paced the small room. He felt helpless again, and just when he had finally been able to get Kurt to feel a little safer. "Do you know what he’s planning on doing?" Blaine asked, hoping that Jeff might have overheard Dave say something.

"I don't know," Jeff said, sounding shaken. "But whatever he's thinking, it doesn't look like he's sticking around here long."

Blaine quickly weighed his options. He couldn't call the police. They wouldn't go and pick up Dave again after his dad had gotten him released, not without him doing something new. Besides, they would probably tell Kurt to get a restraining order. Problem was, they couldn't do anything to Dave unless Dave violated the restraining order.

By then, it might be too late.

Blaine had to stop Dave himself. Or, at least, he had to try.

"Look" - Blaine ran a hand through his hair - "I'm coming up there. Text me if he leaves, but otherwise, try to find a way to keep him there."

On the other end of the line, Blaine heard Nick whimper. Jeff must have had Blaine on speaker.

"And Jeff," Blaine added. "Stay safe. Don't do anything stupid."

"No problem," Jeff said. "Just get here quick."

Blaine hung up and sent a text to his crew, asking everyone and anyone who might still be awake for help.

Fifteen minutes later, Santana called back.

"What is it, hobbit?" Santana's snarky voice greeted him. "Me and Britt Britt's about to get our lady kisses on."

"Any chance you and Brittany can do that over at my house?"

Silence answered him.

"Well, Anderson, I can't say I'm not surprised,” Santana purred, sounding remotely triumphant. “So, are you dumping Lady Hummel to partake in this epic threesome with me and Britt, or is he going to be running the camera?"

"Santana, I really don't have time for this," Blaine said, feeling trapped in his house with a desperate need to leave, multiple plans percolating in his brain, most of them leading to the same distressing outcome. "I really need your help. Can you come over or not?"

The urgent tone of Blaine's voice sobered Santana up.

"No problem, Blaine," she said. He heard Santana murmuring something to Brittany, then the muffled shuffling of clothes being put on. "We'll be there in five. Is that good enough, Captain America, or should I fly?"

"Fly," Blaine said, hanging up the phone and praying someone else might call. He really wanted a second to go to Westerville with him. He tried calling Puck, Sam, and Finn again, but still got no reply. Blaine wasn’t an idiot, but he couldn’t wait. Not the way Jeff sounded over the phone.

Blaine had finished throwing on jeans and a t-shirt just as the girls showed up. He hurried down to meet them, catching them before they could ring the doorbell and wake up Kurt.

Santana blew passed Blaine with Brittany in tow. "So, are you gonna tell us where the fire's at?"

"I have to go to Westerville." Blaine threw on his leather jacket as he explained. "Somehow Dave's dad managed to get him out of jail, and Jeff thinks he's planning on doing something to Kurt."

"And we're here because..."

"Because Kurt's asleep upstairs." Blaine's eyes absentmindedly traveled up the staircase to where his boyfriend lay asleep, in no way wise to the situation at hand. "He's been having nightmares about being attacked, and I don't want him to wake up alone."

Santana had a hundred things to say, sarcastic comments about being relegated to babysitting Blaine's cockpit when she should be off cracking Monster's nuts, but one look in Blaine's eyes kept her quiet. She had never seen it before.

Blaine looked scared.

"You go," Santana said, lightly punching Blaine's shoulder. "Brittany and I gots this."

"Thanks," he said, leaning in to kiss each girl on the cheek. He grabbed Kurt's keys and turned to leave. 

"Oh, uh..." he turned back quickly, eyes bouncing from girl to girl, "don't...go up there, unless you need to. He's...kind of...naked."

Brittany broke into a fit of giggles. A mischievous quirk lit up Santana's face.

"Wanky," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

"I mean it, Santana," Blaine said, trying his best to stay serious, which was difficult with Brittany bouncing on her toes, shooting amused looks up the staircase, adorably excited at the idea of naked Kurt.

Blaine couldn’t say he blamed her. Naked Kurt was definitely a sight to behold.

"All right, all right, I'll do my best." Santana said, raising her hands in surrender. "But, I mean, I'm not his biggest fan, right, but have you seen him in those overalls?"

"Yeah," Blaine said with a smile, recalling an image of Kurt without his overalls. But it wasn’t his boyfriend’s gorgeous nakedness that had Blaine gazing wistfully in the direction of his bedroom. It was everything that went with it – his vulnerability, his love, and his trust. Those sacred things that Blaine had the honor of partaking in, being caretaker of. Blaine took one last long look up the staircase before he walked out of his house and headed for Kurt's car.

Blaine felt guilty taking Kurt’s car without his permission. It seemed like a mortal sin to deprive him of it. But Blaine had to drive to Kurt's house to pick up his Mustang. He wasn’t going to take Kurt’s Eclipse as far as Westerville. He couldn’t do that to him.

The farther away Blaine got from Kurt, the worse he felt for leaving him without saying good bye. But he needed to push that aside and focus on the task at hand - intercepting Dave before he could come to Lima and do something to Kurt. Blaine had considered sticking it out at home, holding down the fort at his house since Monster and most of the Dalton Crew had never been there. They wouldn’t know where Kurt was. But that wouldn’t hold them off for long. With the money they had and their connections, they’d find out. Besides, Kurt and Blaine couldn’t do that indefinitely. There was school to consider, and Kurt would have to go home eventually. If Dave came to Lima, he could stake out Kurt’s work, catch him alone again. Maybe he’d even go after Kurt’s dad. Blaine just didn’t know, and he couldn’t take the chance.

In his mind, this was the only way.

Blaine held out hope that another member of his crew would answer his text, but he didn't hear anything from anyone at all. In a way, hearing no news comforted Blaine. It meant that Kurt was still asleep, and that Dave hadn't left Dalton.

***

Blaine decided not to let something as trivial as speed limits restrict him, and made the close to two hour drive to Westerville from Lima in around an hour and fifteen flat. He tried to stay as low-key as possible as he pulled on to the grounds at Dalton, but from what he could see, it wouldn’t have mattered if he was driving a bright purple clown car with sirens and flashing red lights. A crowd was already gathered outside the dorm, formed in a sloppy circle, focused on a gruff voice yelling above the general murmur of onlookers. 

"Who fucked with my car?" Monster roared, confounded by his immobile Dodge Charger. "Who the fuck did this?" 

Blaine parked his car in the shadows, a short distance from the crowd. Many of the students turned when they heard Blaine's Mustang approach, recognizing the sound of his boisterous V8 when it pulled to a stop. Blaine got out of his car and picked his way through the crowd, spotting Jeff and Nick huddled together nervously at the outskirts, Jeff's hands conspicuously smeared with grease that he was wiping on the rear of his jeans.

"Monster!" Blaine yelled as he broke through the crowd and approached the baffled boy stomping around like a bull, charging people indiscriminately. "We have some unfinished business regarding my boyfriend!"

At the word boyfriend, Dave froze, but his eyes shifted, the hazel irises almost entirely encompassed by his black pupils. His eyes, dark with rage, fixed themselves on Blaine.

"Boyfriend?" Dave stumbled in Blaine's direction. Blaine backed up a step, but he was being herded by the boys behind him.

"Yeah, Dave,” Blaine said. “Boyfriend. My boyfriend, Kurt."

Blaine noticed the circle of boys tightening around them. He heard a chant of, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" start, and Blaine prepared himself mentally for the possibility, trying to figure out a strategy...or at least a means of escape.

"What's going on here?" The familiar voice rose over the crowd as Sebastian made his way through the group, with Hunter and Thad at his heels, looking like hyenas waiting for the killing to start.

"I'm just having a little talk with Monster here," Blaine said without turning to look at the boy stepping up behind him. "So back off. This doesn't concern you."

"Dave's my boy." Sebastian smirked as he and the two other boys cut between Blaine and Dave. “So, yes, it concerns me.”

"Really?" Blaine approached Sebastian, holding his gaze, eyes blazing. "I thought you liked Kurt, Bas. I mean, you're a dick and everything, but I thought you might actually have something like real feelings for him."

Sebastian's cocky glare turned cold. His face fell, looking almost frightened as he continued to stare into Blaine's eyes, discerning his meaning.

"Dave?" Sebastian said, eyes wide, turning slowly to look at Monster. "God, what did you do?"

"What did he do?" Blaine's voice grabbed Sebastian's attention again. "He's your boy, Sebastian? How do you not know?" Blaine didn't want to expose Kurt, but he needed to win a few allies. He pulled out his cell phone and flipped to the pictures he had taken of Kurt’s injuries. He held the phone in front of Sebastian's face, and watched him recoil. Blaine swiped through the shots of Kurt's swollen knuckles, the scratches on his face, his bruised lips. When it landed on the photo of his neck, large finger marks purple on his pale skin, Sebastian actually gasped. A few of the other boys around them reacted as well, pulling away uncomfortably. 

Sebastian didn't know what to say or think. He had pretty much given up on Kurt, but that didn't mean the rejection didn't sting. Blaine was right. Sebastian did have feelings for Kurt - feelings he'd never had for anyone else. Feelings he would have given anything to explore, he just didn't know how to express them. Every day he thought about how he had pushed Kurt into Blaine's arms. Sebastian convinced himself repeatedly that if he had finished first in that race, if Blaine hadn’t “won” Kurt, things would be different now.

Sebastian would be the one smelling like Kurt's shampoo, and that delicious scent of vanilla, and not Blaine.

Sebastian's face went from horrified to livid. 

"Yeah? And where were you, Blaine?" Sebastian yelled. "You're supposed to be his fucking knight in shining fucking armor. What were you doing that you couldn't protect him?"

Sebastian's words cut Blaine deep. Blaine still blamed himself for not getting to Kurt sooner. Of course, there was no way that Blaine could have known that Kurt was being targeted by a violent predator, but that didn’t absolve his sin as far as Blaine was concerned. Kurt had texted Blaine that night to tell him he had gotten to the shop early, and Blaine knew that he was running late. Anything could have happened to Kurt at that time of night, in the deserted parking lot of his dad’s closed shop. Lima’s a relatively safe place to live, but that’s no excuse. Blaine should have called, should have warned Kurt, should have offered to pick him up at his house instead.

He should have done something.

Locked in the grip of Sebastian’s accusatory glare, Blaine didn’t try to come up with a defense.

He didn’t have one.

“Yeah,” Sebastian said. “That’s what I thought. Pathetic.” Sebastian stormed away, pushing spectators out of his path.

Wes had heard the commotion through his open dorm room window, but he felt no rush to get there. He figured that he’d let whatever was going to start get underway before he had to make an appearance. Seeing Blaine’s Mustang pull in and hearing Sebastian gripe about that twink mechanic he still carried a hard-on for told Wes that it was his turn to show his face, let everyone outside know who’s still in charge around here. Dalton was his domain. Wes made it to the circle as Sebastian blew past and quickly took his place.

"I'm not too thrilled with your boy, Hummel," Wes said, circling Blaine. "Having Dave arrested for that little...misunderstanding."

"There was no misunderstanding," Blaine growled between clenched teeth, "when Dave here assaulted my boyfriend."

There was that word again that set Dave's teeth on edge. Boyfriend. Why did Blaine think that Kurt was his boyfriend?

"That's not what the police seem to think," Wes continued, smiling at the grimace on Blaine's face. "You see, they picked Dave here up, talked to him for a little while, and then his dad brought him right back. I doubt he was gone for more than, what?” - Wes turned to Hunter and Thad to get a consensus – “An hour?"

“Yeah,” Thad said, playing along. “I would say an hour, give or take.”

“An hour sounds about right,” Hunter agreed.

“You see that?” Wes said with a toothy, mocking grin for Blaine. “All a big misunderstanding.”

The hairs on Blaine’s neck stood on end. An hour? Dave was only gone for an hour? After Blaine found Kurt, running scared, wild and blind, in shock and unable to look him in the eye? After listening to Kurt in the shower, sobbing and ripping off his skin just to forget about it all? After the nightmares? After Kurt’s fight with his dad? After Kurt’s statement, and the cops taking more pictures of his bruises? After all of that, and Dave was only gone for an hour?

Blaine wanted to scream. He wanted to hurt someone the way Dave hurt Kurt. Take away all their peace and security, make sure that they couldn’t sleep at night without fearing for their life.

He wanted to start with Dave, but maybe he’d start with Wes instead.

“In fact” - Wes continued taunting Blaine when he saw just how much it was getting to him, dying to see how much further he could push - “I suggested to Dave here that he go down to Lima, find Kurt, and apologize. You know, for his ungentlemanly behavior.”

Blaine felt a fire burn behind his eyes so hot he was sure his head had burst into flames. That’s where Dave was headed. Jeff was right. Monster wasn’t sticking around, and that was all Wes’s fault. Wes wasn’t sitting idly by. He was willing to set a disturbed boy on Blaine’s boyfriend…to what? To get back at Blaine? That seemed cruel, even for Wes.

But then memories of three boys punching him and a broken bottle piercing his side flashed through his mind, and Blaine realized that no, maybe it wasn’t too cruel for Wes.

Something else struck Blaine at that moment, burying him underneath it like a pile of bricks. By calling Blaine, by doing whatever he did to disable Dave’s car, Jeff may have saved Kurt’s life.

Blaine had to find some way to thank him.

But first, Blaine had to deal with Dave.

"You listen to me, Monster, and you listen good" - Blaine walked up to the mountainous boy, who stared back at Blaine as though he were no more significant than a flea - "you don't come to Lima, and you sure as hell don't go anywhere near Kurt, because if you do, you’ll be sorry. I’ll make you sorry. Do you understand me?"

My Kurt, Dave thought as Blaine threatened him, the words not entirely sinking in. Still my Kurt.

Something dangerous flashed in Dave's eyes, foreboding, extinguishing the whites and with them, erasing any semblance of humanity from his face. Dave rushed forward. For a huge guy, he moved quickly, but Blaine was faster on his feet. Dave lunged, swinging both arms sporadically in an effort to grab Blaine, but Blaine dodged, kicking straight to Dave's stomach, almost spraining his ankle in the process. Dave may have looked burly, but years of football had made this massive boy mostly muscle. He barely stumbled as he rounded on Blaine, swinging again, but having a smaller stature and a leaner body, Blaine avoided him, this time delivering a roundhouse kick to Dave's nose.

The whole group of boys winced and groaned as an audible crack echoed in the courtyard. Dave knew his nose had broken, knew that blood poured down his face, but he couldn't think past the boy standing in front of him, trying to keep him from his Kurt. Dave's vision blurred; his eyes watered. He saw so many bodies, so many faces around him, but he couldn't figure out which one of those shadowy figures was Blaine.

Dave fumbled into the crowd of boys, who parted like the sea to let him pass, wary of Dave's fists as they swung through the air, looking to make contact with anyone in their way. Dave felt a sharp jab to his jaw, and his head snapped to the side. He saw stars, but quickly returned a jab in the same direction. As he turned into the punch, he felt another kick to the stomach. It winded him, but he turned again, swinging like mad. His fist made contact with something that felt like a person. Dave couldn't be sure, but it was all he had to go on, so he launched after it, trying to make contact again. He tripped, sprawling to the asphalt, rocks and pebbles peppering his face.

Blaine kicked Monster once, then again. As soon as he started, he couldn't stop. He didn't see Dave anymore. He saw Kurt running, frightened, covered in leaves and dirt and bruises, his eyes dull, the light slowly fizzling away as he succumbed to anxiety and pain. Another kick, a groan from Monster, and Blaine remembered just hours ago, before he and Kurt had made love, when Kurt woke up whimpering, sweating, shaking. Monster spat blood onto Blaine's shoes as he poised for another kick, mumbling, pleading in agony, but Blaine felt no pity for the boy.

He couldn’t care less if he killed him.

"Blaine!" Jeff's voice cut through the veil of Blaine's hatred and he stopped. Whether Jeff was trying to keep him from killing Dave, or warning him about an impending attack, Blaine didn’t know. Blaine turned in time to see Wes's fist coming at him, but he wasn't quick enough to keep it from connecting with his face. Blaine spun and fell to the floor, his head glancing off the pavement, stars spinning behind his eyelids

"Blaine Devon Anderson! You stupid motherfucker!" Wes roared. "You have the nerve to come here, to bring this bullshit to my doorstep?" Wes spun around to address the crowd of boys behind him, gesturing to two in particular. "Hunter! Thad! Pin him!"

Before Blaine could think, the two boys emerged from the crowd and pinned his arms behind his back. Thad brought a foot down behind Blaine’s right leg, sending him to his knees. Wes rushed at Blaine and kicked him in the stomach, hard enough to knock every inch of breath from his body. Blaine slumped over, but the two boys on either side of him pulled him upright. Wes swung a second time and punched Blaine in the face.

"No!" Jeff screamed, breaking from the crowd and blocking Blaine with his body. "No, Wes! You can't do this, man! You can't!"

"Get out of my way, Jeff," Wes growled, trying to push Jeff aside, but Jeff moved just out of his reach.

"Come on," Jeff pleaded, holding his arms out so that Wes couldn't maneuver around him. "We used to be friends. All of us. Blaine included, remember?"

Wes faltered, but only for a moment, then he turned his rage on Jeff. Without a word, Wes punched him square in the jaw. Jeff's took a step back, then fell to one knee.

"Jeff!" Nick yelled, but someone grabbed him and held him back. A few boys snickered at Nick’s attempt to fight. He felt his blood become ice cold with fear as more hands reached out to hold him, determined to keep him from helping his boyfriend.

Jeff stumbled, fighting to regain his feet, and Wes punched him again. His head spun, lights shooting before his eyes, but he didn't move against Wes. On unsteady feet, he stood again to shield his friend.

"I'm not going to fight you, man," Jeff mumbled through a split lip, blood pooling around his teeth, but he held his ground. "You're my friend. But Blaine's our friend, too. Isn't it time this ends, Wes?"

Jeff's eye had already started to swell shut, and he rocked on his feet, trying to keep his balance. Wes, uninjured, untouched, approached Jeff, his face blank and expressionless. 

“You’re right, Jeff,” Wes said quietly. “You’re absolutely right. We used to be friends. All of us…but not anymore.”

Wes had a pretty vicious hook, and in his current condition, it only took one more punch to lay Jeff flat. Wes looked down at the boy lying at his feet. Such a shame, he thought. Wes had had such high hopes for Jeff, regardless of his circumstances. He was loyal, obedient, good natured, fair minded. He might have made a decent second. But as it turned out, he was a loser.

Just like Blaine.

“Get him out of here,” Wes said, waving dismissively at Jeff’s prone body.

A couple of the snickering boys from the group came out and dragged Jeff a few feet away, dumping him in a patch of wet grass. Nick wrenched himself free and ran to his boyfriend’s side. Since he was no longer a threat, the boys holding him back let him go. Nick dropped to his knees. He lifted Jeff’s head gently, brushing a tentative finger over Jeff’s swollen eye.

“Oh, Jeff,” Nick whispered, tears running down his face and falling into Jeff's tousled hair.

"Nick!" Wes called, shaking out his hand from the last punch. "If you don't want Jeff to be next, keep your boyfriend down!" Nick shivered at Wes's words, wrapping his arms tightly around Jeff's torso, determined to keep him safe. Jeff moaned against Nick’s chest, feeling his boyfriend's arms wind around him, but other than that, he didn't move. 

Wes turned back to Blaine, limply hanging from the grip of the boys flanking him. Wes relished this defeated image of the one boy who used to best him at everything, the Mr. High and Mighty Blaine Anderson.

Oh, how far the mighty had fallen.

"Jeff's right," Wes said, flexing his fingers. "It’s time this ends."