"Isabelle Wright's office, Kurt speaking, how may I help you?" Kurt paused, his fingers poised above the keyboard in front of him. He quickly typed the message that the caller wanted to leave for Isabelle and he sent it to her in an email.

He disconnected the call and Isabelle waltzed in a moment later, carrying a large cup of coffee, a bright smile on her face. Kurt was slightly taken aback by the large smile but got up to join her in her office.

"Kurt," Isabelle said happily, taking a large sip of her coffee. "I just had the best lunch."

Kurt glanced at the clock on the wall – it read clearly that it was three in the afternoon but he knew that in Isabelle's world, lunches could go on for hours, especially if she was meeting with clients.

"I'm glad," Kurt replied politely.

"You know when you find a good man, you need to hold onto him, Kurt," Isabelle started, kicking off her high heels and Kurt watched them land haphazardly across the room. "Because sometimes, a man can change everything."

"I'll keep that in mind," Kurt replied with a nod. "Is there anything you need me to do?"

Isabelle shook her head. "You can take the rest of the afternoon off, Kurt," she said. "I just have to do a few things here and then I'm going home too."

Kurt bit back a smile at Isabelle's happy face. "Alright," he replied. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Isabelle nodded and waved a hand in Kurt's direction as she took another sip of her coffee.

As Kurt got back to his desk, his phone lit up, signalling an incoming call. He glanced down, seeing Tobias' name on the screen. He answered with a happy 'hello' and he sat down to shut down his computer.

"Hey," Tobias said, sounding a little harried. "Is there any way you can leave work early?"

"Actually, Isabelle just said I could leave now," Kurt responded. "She's met this guy and being in love is definitely agreeing with her if the thousand watt smile on her face is anything to go by."

"Something's happened to Hayley at school," Tobias said and Kurt stopped what he was doing to focus on the conversation. "Our parents can't get there and I'm the only one they could get a hold of. God, I can't begin to think of what would happen if I hadn't been in town right now..."

"Is... Is she okay?" Kurt asked, swallowing thickly, hastily getting up from his desk, and shoving his chair in until it hit the edge. He quickly waved at Isabelle who waved back briefly before he headed to the elevators, viciously jabbing the button with his finger.

"She got into some kind of fight or something," Tobias said. "I'm downstairs now; I just don't think I can do this by myself."

"No, it's fine," Kurt replied. "You know I'm always going to be there for you."

"Thanks," Tobias said.

Kurt stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the ground floor. "I'll be out in a minute, okay?"

"Okay."

They disconnected the call and the moment the elevators stopped, Kurt stepped out and hastily made his way to where Tobias was waiting outside of the building. He gave Tobias a quick hug before sliding into the waiting cab.

They made it to the school rather quickly, which Kurt could tell Tobias was thankful for. He followed Tobias to the front office of the school and Tobias said he was there to pick up his sister.

"She's with the school counsellor at the moment," the receptionist said, pushing her wire framed glasses up her nose. "But I can take you to them now."

"Is she okay?" Tobias asked.

"I'll let Mr Anderson explain everything," the receptionist replied.

Tobias nodded and they followed her down the halls to where the counsellor's office was. Tobias' hand reached back towards Kurt and Kurt automatically slipped their fingers together, squeezing softly. They came to an office and the receptionist knocked on the door and spoke quickly with Mr Anderson before leaving.

"Come in," a male voice said.

Kurt started to take his hand out of Tobias' hold but stopped when Tobias' grip tightened in his. He stepped into the office behind Tobias, who had let go of his hand to see to his sister.

Kurt glanced up and froze as he saw that Mr Anderson was Blaine. He swallowed thickly, unsure of what to even say in the situation they were in.

"What happened?" Tobias asked, slowly removing his arms from around Hayley.

"I got into a fight," Hayley replied. "It wasn't my fault though!"

Kurt listened as Hayley explained that she got into a fist fight with another girl in her grade because she was an outcast, who often spent her afternoons in Mr Anderson's office, doing school work or just for meetings. Hayley said how the girl, Sasha, had been teasing her for a while but it had just gone too far when Sasha purposefully tripped Hayley up in the corridors and Hayley retaliated.

She had a series of scratches on her arm and Kurt winced when she showed them to Tobias, a hint of pride in her voice over her 'war wounds' as she called them.

"Normally we would suspend students for fighting," Blaine started, "but I've asked the principal to allow Hayley to do work in my office for the remainder of the week."

Tobias looked up. "Thank you," he said. "If I were home for another week, she could have stayed with me but I leave again at the weekend."

"It's okay, Toby," Hayley said. "You're here now."

Kurt glanced at the embracing siblings before catching Blaine's gaze. He had no idea how to react to this situation. He hadn't expected Blaine to be a high school counsellor at all. It just wasn't something he'd ever pictured for him, especially after knowing that he used to be a lawyer.

"Can I take her home now?" Tobias asked, turning to Blaine.

Blaine nodded. "Of course," he replied. "Hayley has her homework with her and she knows to come straight to my office before classes start tomorrow so there isn't any conflict in the halls."

Tobias nodded and stood up properly, taking Hayley's hand in his own.

"Bye, Mr Anderson," Hayley said, swinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Take it easy, Hayley," Blaine replied, giving her a small smile.

Tobias nodded at Blaine once and Kurt shot a grateful glance in his direction before following Hayley and Tobias from the room.

"Are you and Kurt back together?" Hayley asked and Kurt swallowed thickly.

"No, we're not," he replied for Tobias.

"Oh," Hayley said, her face falling a little. "That sucks."

Kurt glanced at Tobias and shook his head once, silently communicating with him that it was not the time to go into it with Tobias' sister.

"C'mon," Tobias said. "Let's get take out and watch movies for the rest of the day."

"Okay," Hayley replied enthusiastically.

~*~

Blaine hummed to himself as he rode the elevator up to Cooper's floor in the Anderson building. It had been a few months since he had visited his brother at work but he had surprisingly had the afternoon free of appointments and decided to pay his older brother a visit.

He watched the numbers highlight one after the other above the elevator doors and the ding to signal his arrival on his decided floor made Blaine smile. It was so strange and yet so perfectly familiar to be back in the building. He stepped out and headed down the corridors, walking straight towards Cooper's office. He waved at Cooper's receptionist in greeting and was about to head straight into Cooper's office when the door opened.

Blaine gave the mysterious (but somehow oddly familiar) girl a polite smile, figuring that she was a new recruit to the firm. She stared at him long and hard.

"Mr Anderson isn't seeing anyone today," she said curtly.

Blaine bit back a laugh. "Well, this Mr Anderson is here to see his brother, and I don't need an appointment."

The girl pursed her lips at him and Blaine just stepped around her, crossing the threshold into Cooper's office.

"Bee," Cooper said in greeting the second he saw him. Cooper stood and gave Blaine a tight hug before sitting down on the couch in his office, folding his legs in front of him.

Blaine sat down in the single arm chair and smiled at his brother. "Who was that I just ran into outside of your office?"

"That's Santana Lopez," Cooper replied. "She's a real firecracker. Fantastically talented and absolutely ruthless. She's just what the firm needs. Plus, she's young, incredibly smart, gay, and she's hilarious at the best of times."

"Sounds like someone has a crush," Blaine teased.

"Yeah, right," Cooper replied with a snort. "She's helped me win more cases in the last three months of being here than most of the associates have in their entire first year."

"No wonder you're so smitten with her," Blaine said with a nod. He could understand Cooper's desire to have someone like Santana in the firm.

Now that their father had retired and Cooper was getting older, it was a must for the firm to keep getting in fresh blood. There were only so many Andersons left and even though they have a relatively big family on their father's side, not all of them wanted to be lawyers. Cooper's three sons who worked at the firm were too young to start their own families yet, only one of his sons, Charles, was engaged. Eric and Grant both had steady girlfriends. There was no way for them to keep the firm going successfully by just relying on the Anderson line.

Sitting and talking with Cooper was something Blaine hadn't been able to properly do in the last few months. Cooper had been busy with the firm and Blaine had been busy at work as well. Blaine had seen Audrey more lately than he had seen his own brother. It was nice to just connect again.

Cooper was always a calming presence to be around, despite the often high stress atmosphere of his work life. Cooper managed to find a balance and it made him an amazing lawyer.

"Are you going to the Vogue masquerade party?" Cooper asked after he had finished a phone call that interrupted them.

"I wasn't planning to," Blaine replied.

"C'mon, little bro," Cooper said. "We're Andersons; it is expected of us to be there. You should come! Who knows, you might meet some little hottie to take home for the night." Cooper waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Blaine and Blaine resisted the urge to snort. Barely.

"You know I don't do casual sex, Coop," Blaine pointed out. "If I'm going to sleep with a guy, it's going to be because I love him, not just to hook up."

Cooper rolled his eyes. "Maybe that's where you're going wrong," he started. "Maybe you need to hook up with someone just to get it out of your system. I know that you've been rejecting all of the guys I've set you up with lately."

"That's because they've all either been boring or self-centred pricks or both," Blaine countered. "Besides, I like being in a relationship. Sure, I miss it since Dale but the few hook ups I have had since him haven't felt right."

Cooper sighed. "Still come to the party," he said. "You never know – you may meet Mr Right while you're there."

Blaine sighed, resolute. "I sincerely doubt that, Cooper."

"Blainey, don't be such a negative Nancy," Cooper cajoled. "It's New York. There's a kid coming out as gay every minute and he just might want you to be his sugar daddy."

"Gross," Blaine replied, wrinkling his nose in distaste. "That is never going to happen."

Cooper rolled his eyes and stared pointedly at Blaine.

"If I agree to go to the ball, will you stop looking at me like that?" Blaine asked. "You're fifty three for crying out loud, you shouldn't be allowed to use the puppy eyed look anymore."

Cooper grinned widely at him. "First of all, I'm forty-nine and some extra months–"

"No, you're not," Blaine cut in and Cooper glared at him.

"I'll let that slide since I love you," Cooper said. "And I am always going to use the puppy eyed look to get my way. It's like an older brother's right or something."

Blaine rolled his eyes and settled back in the arm chair a little more. "I will go," he replied. "Is Audrey going?"

Cooper nodded. "She's an Anderson, after all," he said. "I'll get her to help you pick out a mask. Something to lure the boys with." Cooper winked and Blaine shuddered, feeling a little violated. For a brother, he was weirdly invested in Blaine's sex life.

Blaine shook his head and stood. "I should get going," he said. "You need to finish doing whatever it is you're doing these days and I should call my favourite niece to see if she'll take me shopping."

Cooper beamed at him. "I'll see you at the ball, Blainey, and hopefully, you'll meet your prince before you turn back into a pumpkin at midnight!"

~*~