Wednesday, a nurse who Kurt recognized from the patient activities council walked into Kurt's room.

"Hi, Kurt," a short brunette woman in a crisp, white, nurses' dress knocked on the door framed, "Can I come in?"

The chestnut haired boy rolled out his arm in a welcoming gesture, though the expression on his face remained stoic.

"You're not here to ask me about future plans, are you?"

The nurse tried not to chuckle, but a sour expression appeared on her face in protest. "No."

"You're not here to administer medicine or give me a sedative shot?"

"No."

"You're not here to tell me that I didn't complete my schoolwork or got another patient mad?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"I'm here to tell you that a gentleman by the name of Blaine Anderson called this morning asking if it would be alright if he visited you on Saturday. Green Meadow's procedure says that if the person is not legally connected and if the patient is a Level One or Level Two, then we ask the patient for their consent about people who want to visit them."

The crease of the boys closed lips curved upwards.

The woman handed the teenager a clipboard with a single sheet on it and a single thin marker, since pens were considered safety hazards at the hospital.

The boy read through the paper quickly, but carefully, signed it, and handed it back to the woman.

He looked up and offered an awkward smile- he didn't particularly trust people who he didn't know- "Thanks."

"You're welcome, sweetie." She smiled and then paused. "Now, on Saturday, "You will come to the front commons by the main desk. Several other level ones and level twos will probably be waiting and mixed in with several visitors. You will find your desk and bring them to the front, where he will sign a confidentiality waiver for whatever he sees here and whatever you may talk to him about that is not 'common knowledge'. Then, you are free to spend time either in the commons, the cafeteria, empty conference rooms, or game room. Do you have any questions?"

"No."

"Great… But if you have any questions, my office is in 312, to the right of the front desk, before the Ward Head's office and before the doctors' offices. Have a good day," the woman smiled and left the room.

Kurt's chest fluttered with anxiety and excitement- he didn't know weather to be nervous that someone who he (let's be honest here) barely knew was coming to visit him in a psychiatric hospital or very excited that a really nice (and cute) boy was coming to hang out with him. Maybe, he felt both.

Thursday and Friday lagged on, but finally Saturday arrived.

The chestnut haired boy opened his eyes at 6 AM and felt wide-awake, as if he had not spent the past 4 hours sleeping. Most nights, he felt exhausted, but he couldn't sleep, even on sleeping pills, so this was something different.

The boy picked up the book that he had been reading and began to read more of it. As he began to read, he remembered the morning texts that he and Mercedes would always send each other to make sure the other was awake. Though he was glad that he didn't have the drama like he did when he had a cellphone, he almost missed that connection to the outside world.

Kurt flipped from his back to his stomach. He stayed in the position for less than 10 seconds then he flipped back. He sat up. Then, he stared at the wall for a half an hour. His nights were usually like this- not asleep, but not awake- he felt like a zombie out of one of those movies that Finn loved so much.

Finally, two hours worth of seconds ticked by. The chestnut haired boy was notified of this because he heard a knock at his door. He jumped and looked up to see Nurse Marie entering the room with her medicine cart.

"Hi, Kurt!"

"Good morning, Nurse Marie!"

"You seem chipper this morning."

Kurt scowled harmlessly.

Nurse Marie glared playfully back and tried not to laugh.

"Okay, okay, someone is coming to visit me today!"

Nurse Marie squealed in delight.

"This is good for you! You don't seem mad about this visitor, either… Who is it?"

"Do you remember how I was telling you that The Warblers from the Dalton Academy came to perform for us? Well, I got talking with this one boy named Blaine. We talked on the phone, too and he's coming to visit this weekend."

"That's good, Kurt!"

Kurt smiled, as the nurse handed him a small paper cup with three pills. He put the cup to his lips, then accepted another cup filled with water and tossed his head back to swallow the pills.

"I hope that you visit goes well, honey," Nurse Marie said as she turned around

"Have a good day, Nurse Marie!" the boy called as he stood up and opened the drawer filled with his clothes that was against the wall in the corner.

Kurt pulled out his favorite, best fitting (and tightest) pair of jeans and his whitest shirt (Burt had sent him with clothes when he had been admitted, but he did not send the majority of Kurt's most fashionable clothes). The teenager found himself wishing that he had asked his father to bring specific items that fit him slightly better and he liked slightly more.

He strolled to the cafeteria and at half of his cereal and oranges and he downed his cup of black coffee in record time, not even to stop and think about how he missed his grande non-fat, no-whip vanilla latte.

Then, he made his way to the commons, picked the most comfortable chair (which was not the one that looked like it had the best back support, which is the one that he would have chosen several months ago), and opened the book that he was reading again.

The chestnut haired boy looked up as a single, clear voice turned into twenty garbled voices. Marginally annoyed, the boy looked up.

He looked around the room.

"Hey," Kurt looked up to see one of the boys in his hall taking a seat next to him.

"Hi, Jason."

"Visitor?" the blonde boy asked, allowing his long bands to flop over his eyes and land on the bridge of his bright red, sunburnt nose.

"Yes, an acquaintance. You?"

"My brother." The boy looked down.

"Good to know that someone likes me enough to come visit a fuck up in a mental hospital."

"I know the feeling." The chestnut haired boy agreed, as another blonde haired boy who looked like an exact replica of Jason aside from the fresh haircut and business suit.

"Good luck." Kurt nodded.

"You too, man." Jason said as he stood up and glanced back at Kurt.

The chestnut haired boy was about to look back down when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

Kurt flinched, instinctively, but then he remembered where he was and that pain didn't usually come without warning.

"Kurt, Hey," The curly, raven haired boy smiled widely.

"Hey, Blaine." The boy tried to smile just as widely back, but secretly hoped that his smile didn't make him look too awkward.

Kurt stood up.

"How was your week?" Kurt asked.

"Busy. Wes and David are a little rehearsal – obsessed because Regionals are coming up- Wes has a compulsive gavel banging problem when he's stressed." Blaine chuckled.

Kurt raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"How was your week?" Blaine asked cautiously, knowing the gravity of their location as he said a quick prayer asking not to hit a nerve.

"My Dad came Tuesday, which was initially awkward and painful, but rather enlightening once we got to talking."

"That's good."

"It is."

"Okay, so I just realized that we actually don't know that much about each other, so I think that we need to play 20 questions or something." Blaine grinned and Kurt raised an eyebrow in response.

The chestnut haired boy bit his lip, not particularly wanting there to be another chance for Green Meadows to come up, which it inevitably would- and he knew that it would be awkward.

"Okay, I guess."

"What's your first and last name?" The raven-haired boy asked.

"Kurt Hummel?"

"Blaine Anderson. Favorite drink?"

"Coffee. You?"

"Coffee. Favorite movie?"

"Harry Potter. You?"

"Ditto. Book?"

"A Separate Peace."

Blaine raised an eyebrow. "My friends Wes and David tried to convince the teacher that Gene and Phineas were gay."

Kurt just about choked.

"Seriously? I mean, I thought that they were, but I wasn't about to say anything, because I went to school in fucking Lima, Ohio."

"Yeah, apparently the teacher had heard it from students in previous years and she told them that she could see how they would think."

"I wish that teachers in Lima would agree like that," Kurt confessed, surprised that he was admitting this thought to a person that he barely knew. "I mean, Mr. Shue might or that sub Ms. Holiday, but other than that, I doubt it.

"Limited in Lima?"

"Extremely."

"That's how it was before Dalton."

"You portray Dalton as very accepting- is it?"

"It is. I mean, there are jerks, but there are jerks everywhere. There are couples and there are singles- some of them are gay and some of them are straight and have girlfriends from other schools. There are still you know PDA rules, but I figure that's normal."

"I didn't know that places like that exist."

"They do- they're just hard to find- I got lucky, I guess."

A comfortable silence fell on the pair.

Blaine looked around.

"Do you want to go to the library?" Kurt asked.

Blaine blinked.

"They have Perry's Ice Cream cups every Saturday for all Level One and Level Twos."

"So what exactly are the levels?" Blaine asked as he bit his lip. "I mean, what exactly do they entail?"

"Different treatment facilities have different systems, but we work on a 6 step system here- at least in the short term wing. 'Short- term' is at least four months here. Upon entering, everyone is a level 6. For passing certain 'markers' in each level, patients go up a level. Once you pass all of the levels, you are able to leave if you want to. That doesn't stop some people from talking their way out of it, just saying what the doctors want them to say, so that they can leave, though." Kurt explained.

Blaine nodded. He looked around awkwardly. "Uh… What level are you on?

"I've completed Level One."

"So you'll be out of here soon then?"

Kurt looked down at his socked- feet and shrugged. "If I want to. I don't want to go back yet. I don't want to have to face everyone I left behind."

Blaine wasn't sure exactly how to reply, so he didn't. But a moment later, a phone emitted a loud ring.

"I've gotta get back to Hogwarts,
I've gotta get back to school.
I've gotta get back to Hogwarts…"

Blaine looked down at his phone and blushed.

"Sorry," The raven-haired boy apologized, pulling his Blackberry out of his pocket. The boy grumbled.

"Something annoying?" The chestnut haired boy asked curiously.

"My dad has been trying to convince me to go to another Cleveland Browns game with him. I like sports enough, but it's I think that it's mostly because he's trying to have 'male bonding'" Blaine made quotes with his fingers, "With hopes that it will turn me straight."

"It's frustrating, right?" Kurt asked. "Do they seriously think that we'd go through so much pain just to annoy them? Do they not realize how hard it is to come out?"

"I don't think that they do, sometimes," Blaine sighed

"Come on," Kurt stood up and offered his hand to Blaine. "Let's go get some ice cream."

Blaine stood up and followed Kurt to the cafeteria, where a woman in a nurses' outfit was standing with an ice cooler.

"Strawberry?" The woman asked.

"Yes, thanks, Nurse Janine."

"What about you, Dearie?" The nurse turned to Blaine, her flawless red ringlets bobbling.

"Chocolate?" Blaine asked, as the nurse reached into the icebox and pulled out a little cup of chocolate ice cream and handed it to the boy.

Then, she reached into her apron pocket and handed each boy a rubber spoon.

"We use rubber spoons because metal ones can do a lot of damage if you think about it or are desperate," Kurt explained, then chuckled dryly. "G-d, you must think that we're really insane here. I mean, some of them really are, but I'm surprised that you're not freaked out."

"Maybe, I'm not showing it."

"Maybe." Kurt said, sitting down on a chair at a table and popping the cardboard lid off of his ice cream and setting it upside down on the table.

Blaine lifted the lid on his ice cream. "Perry's is the best stuff on the East Coast." He declared.

Kurt laughed. "That is the only thing that I don't miss about my old self." He said surely. "I never ate ice cream because Coach Sylvester said it would make us too fat to compete if we ate it even one and it wasn't good for my figure. Now I realize that once a week won't hurt anything."

"Coach Sylvester… Wait, you were a Cheerio?"

"How do you know about The Cheerios?"

"Who doesn't?"

"Touche."

"Do you miss anything about the outside world?"

"Some." Kurt admitted. "I don't want to face people, their rumors, and my dad and his new family. Mostly, I don't want to go back there to the bullying and drama. I thought that I would miss my wardrobe a lot more than I have, and living simply has actually been nice. I do miss my coffee, though."

Blaine raised an eyebrow, interested.

"I mean, it's okay, but it's usually too watery. And call me one of those obnoxious divas, but I really miss my specialty drinks."

A mischievous smile appeared on Blaine's face.

"What?" Kurt demanded to know.

"Are you allowed out on day trips?"

"Why?"

"Because I know this amazing coffee shop and I think that you would really like it."

"Anyone Level Three or higher is allowed out with family members on earned time slots. Any Level One is allowed out with anyone, because Green Meadows encourages us to re-connect with the outside world. I've never really wanted to leave." The chestnut haired boy shrugged.

"You should come get coffee with me next weekend."

Kurt didn't look convinced.

"Aw, come on. I know that you miss your non-fat, no-whip, no-sugar, no-flavor whatever it is that you diva types like."

"Who are you calling a diva?" Kurt challenged.

"No one, no one." The Warbler's lead singer's eyes lit up. "So will you?"

"Fine," The chestnut haired boy sighed.

"Yes!" Blaine grinned. "We get to bond over coffee!"