As soon as Kurt and Blaine walked back into the trailer, Finn confronted them.

"He offered you a house?" Finn sounded frantic, "In Los Angeles? And you turned him down!?"

Kurt's eyes narrowed.

"Finn Christopher Hudson, Jr.!" Kurt said sternly. "Were you listening in on our conversation?"

Dave walked in at the sound of Finn being called by his full name.

"Finn..." Kurt tried to stay calm, knowing how the boy felt. "I can't just accept Blaine's offer. There are things you don't understand."

"I'm not stupid, Kurt!" Finn was beside himself, like he was trying to climb out of a hole that was collapsing around him. "I know about adult problems!"

"No, Finn." Kurt tried to assuage Finn. "You don't understand. You're just a little boy. You're not supposed to understand."

"I do understand!" Finn yelled. "I understand that you're being stupid!"

Kurt jerked back, as if the boy had just slapped him in the face.

"Finn!" Dave interjected firmly. "That was uncalled for. Apologize right now!"

"I won't apologize! What he's doing is wrong! Do you think my parents wanted us to live like this!?" Finn was crying. Kurt watched in horror, feeling every tear as it ran down Finn's cheek burn his own skin.

The adults continued to argue, continued to try and calm Finn down. Barbra was in their bedroom playing video games, not really concerned with the happenings of the various tall people inhabiting the house. Elphaba had drifted to sleep, but awoke now at the sound of fighting, and whimpered, raising her arms, looking for comfort. Inside poor Eva's head, her thoughts were spinning. Everything was suddenly too loud. Too much, too loud. Too much yelling, too loud. Finn yelling, Uncle Kurt talking, Uncle Dave talking, the strange man talking, baby yelling, too loud. It was so loud her eyes hurt. So loud it made the lights too bright. So loud she almost couldn't move. Eva panicked. She wanted to roll into a ball, but there was no place to sit. She slapped the side of her head with her hand, hoping to stop the noise, stop the lights, stop the pounding. There were only two things she could do: drop to the ground and scream the noise away, or run. She chose run.

Eva bolted down the hall and out the back door. She just had to get to the front yard where things were open, and quiet and the air was cool and the lights weren't as bright. As soon as Eva's legs started going they were hard to stop. She bolted into the street, arms spread wide, hoping she could go fast enough to take flight.

She didn't see the car coming her way.

Inside the house, Kurt suddenly got a chill. Time slowed down as many things registered at once - all of them sounds. Babbling...feet running...the back door slamming as the breeze blew it shut...the creak of wood...the screech of car tires...a dull thud.

Kurt didn't need to hear the screaming to know what had happened.

Crying and sweating he bolted from the group still arguing and raced outside screaming.

"Eva! Eva! Oh my God! Eva!"

"I'm sorry!" the driver of the car, the friend of a neighbor, cried as he bolted from his Honda. "I'm so sorry! I didn't see her!"

"Call 9-1-1!" Kurt yelled, knowing that Blaine and Dave had run out behind him, feeling their wide eyes staring at him.

Eva's shrill scream was deafening. Kurt knelt by her side, but he didn't know what to do, didn't know how to touch her or comfort her. Even when she wasn't hurt, touching Eva was a tricky business. Luckily, she had never been seriously sick or injured. He never had to make a plan for what to do if such a tragedy occurred. Eva was considered off the spectrum as far as autism was concerned. Kurt and Dave had always been told that she would most likely outgrow a lot of her symptoms.

Kurt prayed every day that nothing tremendous would happen until then.

But then things weren't always in Kurt's control.

Even Kurt's dominatrix, who always helped him in times of trouble, had run and hid. Stupid useless bitch.

Kurt hummed and cooed, trying to get the little girl to settle down, but nothing helped. Her eyes were huge and unseeing brown pools, darting around wildly at the many faces that had gathered to help. From the corner of his eye, Kurt could see his next door neighbors standing in the distance, arms crossed, shaking their heads judgmentally. They turned and walked back to their house, one with a cell phone in hand.

An ambulance, a fire truck, and a police officer arrived in no time, and the crowd dispersed to let the EMTs get through. Kurt could vaguely hear a cop talking to the driver of the Honda, Dave talking with Blaine, Finn crying softly. The EMTs loaded Eva's rigid body onto a gurney, wheeling her toward the ambulance. Kurt was about to climb in when he realized just how frightened he was. He was bombarded by too many vivid images at once - his mom on her death bed, Dave in the hospital, his dad in a coma after his heart attack, visiting Rachel and Finn in the morgue. It was all too much. He stood on the lip at the back of the ambulance, his eyes searching the many faces, tears clouding his vision, his mouth moving as he tried to call to anyone for help.

He saw Dave a little more clearly than anyone else, holding the baby with Barbra and Finn clutching his sides, looking just as helpless as Kurt, mouth moving with words Kurt couldn't hear as he shook his head. He remembered Dave looking that same way once before, except he was wearing a black suit instead of his t-shirt and jeans, and the kids were dressed in their best Sunday clothes.

Then there was Blaine, and Kurt saw it. The thing that Kurt was missing right now. Strength. Calm. Determination. Blaine gently took Dave's head in his hands. Kurt couldn't hear their words, only saw Blaine's lips move and Dave nod, closing his eyes as tears streamed down his face. Blaine patted Dave firmly on the back, giving him a brief hug. Blaine locked eyes with Kurt, pointing to his own black car and Kurt knew. Blaine was coming with him.

Kurt found the will to move, climbing into the back of the ambulance and sitting beside the gurney as the EMT closed the back behind him.

Everything at the emergency room blurred together, and Kurt couldn't do anything but switch to autopilot and let it wash over him, around him, like the ocean waves not so long ago when Kurt would sit and stare at the water, sated by his time with Blaine, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

These waves didn't soothe - they beeped and blinked and sometimes rang out harshly. Kurt's heart broke for little Eva, who couldn't stand bright lights and loud noises.

Kurt thought she would just cry herself to unconsciousness, but Eva didn't. She was rigid and tense and completely uncooperative until a sympathetic nurse finally gave her something to calm her down. Kurt sat beside Eva, watching as her face relaxed, her eyes fluttered closed, and her breathing became calm. Kurt appraised her broken body and gasped. Her leg was definitely broken.

Blaine found his way into the room they had put Eva and Kurt. Kurt wasn't sure how he had charmed them into letting him in, but he wasn't in the mood to ask. He was just happy that Blaine could be there.

Blaine's heart sank when he saw Kurt sitting by little Eva's bedside, holding her hand, rubbing soothing circles into the tiny girl's skin as she slept. Blaine sat beside him, putting a comforting hand on Kurt's knee, trying hard not to burden him, just be there for him.

Blaine had never seen Kurt looking so vulnerable - not when he had left him at the hotel, not when he was sitting on the steps at the gala, not even when Blaine showed up to his house unannounced. Blaine took for granted so often that his swan was always so strong for everyone else. He wore his courage like a badge on his skin.

Eventually a doctor came and took Eva to another room so that he could set her leg. Kurt and Blaine sat alone in the hallway waiting. Kurt looked lost; so incredibly lost. Blaine didn't know how to reach him.

Blaine texted Dave to let him know they were in the hospital and they were okay. Blaine bought Kurt a cup of coffee that he held in his hands but didn't drink, just staring at the cup as if he wasn't exactly sure what it was or how it had gotten into his hands.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, Kurt started crying. Blaine put an arm around him, but he wouldn't look up, and he wouldn't move. He sobbed uncontrollably, inconsolably. It seemed to Blaine that Kurt was crying over more than just a little girl with a broken leg. He was crying over a man, in many ways little more than a boy, with a broken life. And he was right. Blaine ran his hand down Kurt's back, and around in soothing circles.

Blaine wasn't sure why he said it.

"Tell me something about yourself that I don't already know."

Blaine half expected Kurt to look up from his hands and give Blaine his, "Are you kidding me?" glare.

Instead, Kurt started talking, and once he did, he couldn't stop.

"I didn't want any of this," Kurt sobbed, his voice high-pitched and broken. "And sometimes I hate it all so much."

Kurt turned his face, eyes puffy and red, to finally look at Blaine. Blaine looked back, his own eyes soft and encouraging, ready to shoulder the burden of Kurt's confession. Kurt shook his head.

"I used to live in New York. I was going to NYADA. I was an intern at Vogue. I designed my own clothes. I sang every day. There were so many roads ahead of me. I was so happy..."

Blaine handed Kurt a napkin. Kurt put down the coffee cup and blew his nose, not even caring at how uncouth it seemed.

"I was so naive to think it was all going to last."

Blaine looked at Kurt and for the first time saw someone a lot like himself - with talent, drive, and overwhelming ambition...who just became stuck. Inside Blaine's chest he felt something break.

"I don't know what I'm doing," Kurt whispered. "I don't know anything about being a parent. At heart...I'm a selfish bitch..."

Blaine chuckled a little. Kurt snapped his head up to look at him.

"It's true," Kurt continued, pleading with Blaine to believe him. "I didn't want kids. I didn't want Dave. I was so mad at Finn and Rachel for dying. So mad..."

Kurt's body trembled. He gripped the napkin so hard it bit into his fingers. They started to bleed. Blaine grabbed Kurt's hand and held a clean napkin to the wound, but Kurt barely noticed.

"My dad and Carole try and help me...give me advice. They're great, but they've never had disabled kids. They were going to take the kids on weekends, but they're pretty far away, and then my dad had another heart attack..." Kurt waved a hand in front of his face, as if physically pushing the subject away. "Rachel's dads had moved to Greece before she died, so they can't really help. I haven't seen my dad since they died. Now, we're here, and I hate it..."

The last words out of Kurt's mouth were a growl, and it chilled Blaine to hear.

"We're dirt poor no matter how hard we work, and we live in that p.o.s. trailer that should have been condemned decades ago, and our hateful asshole neighbors call child protective services almost every day..."

Kurt sighed. Blaine had put an arm around Kurt's shoulder, but he didn't realize he'd been squeezing until Kurt shifted out of his grasp uncomfortably.

"So, you see, Blaine, it would be so easy to accept your offer and move to that house of yours in L. A. But, that's a pretty big rug you're offering us, and if it got yanked away...those kids..."

Kurt shook his head, putting his face back in his hands while Blaine looked at the blank wall ahead. The man he was a few months ago would have probably found the nearest exit and run. The man he was today, made stronger by Kurt's willingness to love him, wanted nothing more than to see Kurt smile again, wanted to wrap his arms around him - all of them - and carry them away from all of this to a place of safety. He just had to figure out how to get Kurt to accept his offer.

Blaine didn't know how long they sat, wrapped in each others' arms, before a nurse wheeled little Eva out to them, setting her in front of them, facing them. She was still sleeping peacefully, her head lolled onto one shoulder. Her right leg was completely encased in a giant cast, wrapped over with bright pink tape.

"Mr. Hummel," the nurse spoke gently. Kurt turned to look at the woman who reminded him so much of Carole. "Before we can release Eva, I need to go over some paper work with you."

"Oh." Kurt looked at Eva, then at Blaine. "I guess I could..."

Kurt reached out for the wheelchair, but Blaine stopped him.

"Leave her," Blaine offered. "I'll keep an eye on her."

"Are you sure?" Kurt asked around a yawn.

"Yes, Kurt." Blaine slapped his hand playfully with a smile. "Now go. I'll let Dave know we're coming home."

Kurt smiled when he turned to leave, wondering if Blaine realized what he had just said.

Blaine looked over the poor girl in the wheelchair. So much going on in her head that no one seemed to understand. Blaine hoped against hope that someday Kurt could find the answer. If anyone could do it, Kurt definitely could.

Blaine pulled out his iPhone and squinted at the bright screen.

2:45 a.m.

Jesus Christ. Wasn't it just three in the afternoon not a little while ago? How did it get so late? Blaine had a ton of missed messages, but when he noticed who they were all from, he cleared them all without opening a single one.

He started to compose his text to Dave, shuddering a little at the sound of his keypad tone as he pressed the letters.

'Ugh, that's loud.'

Blaine heard a tiny whimper as Eva reacted to the sound of his phone beeping.

'Oh, no.'

Blaine shushed her gently, not wanting her to wake up, and not just because she was hurt. Blaine knew she could be slightly volatile, and he didn't know how to handle her. He felt, in some ways, like he was babysitting a tiny grenade. He wanted to know Eva, he just needed Kurt to tell him how.

The girl opened two brown eyes, blinking slowly, and looked at him. She cocked her head as she looked over his face. Blaine expected her to come to completely and, realizing Kurt was no where to be seen, start screaming.

But she only looked at him in a curious way. Her eyes swept back and forth over his hair, curls sticking out in almost all directions from the amount of times he had run his hands through his hair. Eva raised a hand and pulled at her own curls. Then she reached a slow, shaky hand towards Blaine. Blaine squinted his eyes as he looked at Eva. Then he realized what she was looking at. His hair was curly, alot like hers. No one else in the house had curly hair. Blaine leaned over cautiously, and let the little girl run her fingers through his hair. She grabbed one curl in particular and tugged on it gently, letting go and watching it bounce back into place. When he heard the girl giggle he looked up and smiled.

"Like me," she said clearly. "Your hair, like me."

Blaine's smile widened.

"Yeah," he said in response. "I have curly hair like you."

Eva giggled again, dancing her fingers through his hair. When she seemed to have her fill of playing with his curls, she tapped on his forehead, a silent indicator for him to sit up. Blaine did, looking at Eva with a bright smile as she wiggled her fingers and pointed at him.

"Blaine like Eva all the time, everyday, all morning," the tired girl mumbled brightly.

Blaine's eyes went wide.

"You know my name," Blaine said matter-of-factly.

Eva nodded.

"All the time, everyday, all morning."

Blaine smiled.

Eva reached out a hand, and Blaine tentatively took it, moving forward in his chair to get a little closer to the girl.

"Blaine and Eva," Eva repeated, closing her eyes, and putting Blaine's hand to her face.

"All the time..." she yawned. "Every day...all morning."

Soon, Eva drifted back to sleep, still clutching Blaine's hand.

Blaine heard a soft gasp and turned to see Kurt staring at them with tears in his eyes.