Santana lays her hand atop Blaine’s limp one lightly. She can’t quite bring herself to look at his face yet, so instead she directs her eyes to the IV taped to the top of Blaine’s hand.

She still can’t quell her tears though, and she quickly swipes at a few rebel tears that make their way down her cheeks. It’s hard, harder than she thought, not having Blaine around the house. She keeps looking to his room, keeps waiting up for him in the morning to drink coffee with him, and keeps sneaking out at night, waiting for him to join her for a smoke and a late night chat.

Blaine has always been there, and now it’s hard to think of how to live without him.

It’s the day after her seventh birthday, and Santana is sitting on a swing at the park, pouting. Her new yellow hat – a present from Cooper – had gotten blown away when they first came to the park. Blaine has run off somewhere, probably playing without her.

She kicks at the sand with a grunt and blows a piece of hair out of her face. If Blaine were here he would play with her and make her feel better.

Stupid Blaine. Stupid wind.

She’s just about to go tell her parents she wants to go home when she hears a familiar sniffle and footsteps. Santana turns and finds Blaine shuffling toward her with a limp, her new yellow hat held delicately in his hands.

“Blainers! You found my hat!” She says, running towards him and almost knocking him off his feet at the force of her hug.

He winces, and a quiet yelp escapes him. Santana pulls back and studies his face; his eyes are shiny with tears and his lip is trembling.

“What’s wrong?”

Blaine reaches up and puts her hat on her head before bursting into tears and falling to the ground. Santana cuddles close to him and rubs his head – a trick she learned from her mom, who always does it when Santana doesn’t feel good.

“I – I went to go find your hat, but – but it was stuck in a tree so I went and climbed it-“

“Why are always climbing things, Blainey? You always fall-“

“And – and I got your hat but then I went to climb down a-and the wind knocked me over and I hurted myself!”

Santana hugs him tighter, kisses his cheek.

“Can you walk? If you have an ouchie then we need mami. I don’t think I can carry you, but you are kinda small so maybe I can try.”

He rubs his fists against his eyes and nods, so Santana helps him up, now noticing the way he’s cradling his arm. They slowly make their way back to the picnic table their parents are sitting at, Santana carrying most of Blaine’s weight.

When they get within sight, their mother notices them and runs toward them, immediately cradling Blaine into her arms and kissing him.

“What happened to you, baby?”

Santana brushes back Blaine’s curls and says proudly, “Blaine saved my hat, mami! He’s like a superhero!”

Santana hasn’t been to school in a week and quite frankly, Kurt’s worried. Brittany apparently doesn’t know anything apart from the fact that Santana’s grandma came and picked her up from her house in the middle of the night and she hasn’t heard from her since. Kurt has been doing exercises and stretching with Brittany while Santana has been away, but it isn’t the same.

Despite not knowing very much about Santana’s personal life, he likes hanging out with her. Underneath her bite and inappropriate comments, there is warmth and intelligence. Kurt’s even found they have some things in common, like music and a desire to escape Ohio.

He’s just about to put his history book in his locker when Brittany comes up to him, a sad look on her usually happy face.

“I went to ‘Tana’s house this morning and Cooper was there, but no one was happy. I couldn’t see Blaine and Charlie told me to visit Santana tomorrow because she wasn’t feeling up to visitors. I don’t understand what that means, Kurt! Santana always wants to see me, especially when she’s sad, and usually Blaine is there to explain what things mean when Santana can’t, but he wasn’t there and-“

“Okay, okay, Brit, calm down, okay sweetie? I’m sure everything’s okay.”

Brittany nods and takes a deep breath before clinging to Kurt. He holds her gently and rests his cheek on her hair, hoping his words are true.

Cooper plops down next to Santana heavily, his eyes drooping. He looks over to her to find she hasn’t even noticed he’s there; she’s sleeping, her head pillowed on Blaine’s forearm. There are tear tracks on her cheeks and she’s frowning in her sleep. Cooper manages a small smile and brushes the hair back off her face and then reaches back to grab a small blanket he’d brought with him. He tucks it over her shoulders and watches her fondly as she snuggles into it.

He rests his head on his fist and turns his attention to Blaine. He’s just got back from another surgery, though Cooper doesn’t know what for. His dad and Maribel have been tight lipped on what exactly the doctors are trying to do when it comes to tests and surgeries. Cooper just wants to know what’s going on; wants to know when Blaine will wake up and this whole nightmare can fade away.

But for now, Cooper rests his head down on the bed and joins Santana in sleep, waiting for his brother to wake up, wishing he could go back and be a better brother.

“Come on squirt, I’m only here for another two days! Show me what you can really do. You have to put some effort in!”

Cooper watches as Blaine nods and moves his feet in perfect rhythm, bopping his head to the beat. Cooper counts out and directs Blaine throughout the song, watches out of the corner of his eye as Santana pokes her head into the room.

He returns his attention to Blaine just in time to watch his little brother attempt a twirl; Blaine’s foot catches on the rug and he tumbles down, earning him a huff from Cooper and a giggle from Santana.

“Have you even been practicing? That was mediocre at best, Blaine.”

Santana rolls her eyes at Cooper, who sticks his tongue out at her in retaliation. She walks into the room and helps Blaine up.

“He couldn’t practice dummy head, he had a broken ankle!”

Blaine sighs and sits on the couch, letting Santana fuss over him.

“Wait, really? When did that happen?”

Again with the eye rolling; Cooper’s pretty sure Santana knows all the buttons to push to get him aggravated.

“If you actually paid attention to us when you call, you would know! Come on Blainey, Power Rangers is on.”

The two leave Cooper in the den alone, and he sighs in frustration. If Blaine had just gotten the move right, then he would have taken him out for ice cream or something.

He just wants Blaine to be the best he can be, is that really so hard to ask?

Charles takes his glasses off and rubs his eyes tiredly. He’d been forced to sit out Blaine’s surgery yesterday, because of conflict of interest. Charles understands, of course he does, but he can’t help thinking about the what ifs and how the surgery might have gone different if he had-

“You’re thinking too hard, mi amore.”

He closes his eyes and sighs as Maribel rests her hands on his shoulders.

“We can’t change anything now. All we can do is wait and hope. And when Blaine wakes up, we can support him and make sure he knows he has all the help and love in the world.”

Charles nods; unable to speak for fear that when he does open his mouth all that will come out is a sob. So he covers his wife’s hands with his and he breathes, clears his mind for just a few minutes of peace until he has to make calls and worry about how things will change once they bring Blaine home.

Maribel rubs his shoulders, bringing him back to her, away from worry and frustration.

He breathes, in and out.

Santana comes back the following week and is immediately ushered into Coach Sylvester’s office. Kurt, Mercedes and Brittany are waiting dutifully outside for her when she emerges, an hour later.

Something is obviously wrong, but Santana is trying with all her might to hide whatever is troubling her.

She greets them all with a subdued hello and latches onto Brittany instantly, hiding her face in Brittany’s neck and holding the girl so tightly her knuckles turn white. Brittany doesn’t mind though, she hasn’t seen Santana in so long and so she holds Santana close, making sure she doesn’t lose her again.

After a while Santana seems to come back to herself and disentangles herself from Brittany, discreetly wiping her eyes. Kurt and Mercedes give her soft smiles and she breathes deep, hardens her face and starts walking, confident that they’ll follow her down the halls.

Quinn finds out about the dance, of course she does. To say she’s furious would be an understatement. She gets called into the principal’s office four times just that first week. The kids here at this school are all idiots, laughing and joking about Blaine and Seth like it’s something funny. Blaine is in the hospital, hasn’t woken up yet and Seth –

Quinn can’t think about Seth yet.

She scowls as she walks with Mrs. Geller to the see the principal. Quinn had been getting her lunch when some boy had the nerve to say Blaine and Seth deserved it. So of course Quinn hit him, what else was she supposed to do?

Her parents are furious with her, but Quinn doesn’t care. All she can think of is Blaine in that hospital bed, with his body broken and –

No, Quinn can’t really bring herself to care about getting in trouble, not when all she can think about is Blaine.

Blaine and Seth, who didn’t deserve any of this.

He’s floating. The ground is the ceiling and the ceiling is the floor and Blaine doesn’t quite understand why, but there is no one here to ask anyway.

He just keeps floating and waiting, waiting for someone to come get him, because isn’t that what’s supposed to happen?

He knows someone is coming to get him.

Or… maybe he’s supposed to go to them? He’s not sure; his head feels heavy and his eyes hurt and-

And everything hurts.

Everything hurts and he knows he’s not supposed to be here now. None of this makes sense and he’s so scared. Everything is loud all of a sudden and he hurries to cover his ears but he still hears yelling and the sound of fists hitting flesh and someone’s boot connecting with bone.

He just wants this to stop.

Her mom takes great pleasure in boxing up all of her clothes and replacing them with white lacy dresses, yellow sundresses, flats and pink cardigans.

Quinn is pretty sure she’s about to vomit.

The principal expelled her, so of course her parents are livid. Her mother has taken it upon her to reform Quinn back into a respectable young lady and her father has decided to ignore her presence altogether.

They’ve also decided to enroll Quinn at McKinley, which she is secretly happy about. She can get updates on Blaine from Santana and hopefully gain some friends.

Without Seth and Blaine, she’s pretty lonely.

On Monday, she will walk down the halls of McKinley in a Cheerios uniform – another of her mother’s decisions that Quinn hates. It isn’t that Quinn hates the idea of cheerleading; she can appreciate the gymnastics and likes the routine.

It’s that her mother has forced her into something without asking and completely disregarding her feelings.

Not once since Blaine and Seth got hurt has her mother asked if she’d like to go to the hospital or asked if Quinn wanted to talk about how she was feeling.

In fact, her mother has pretty much said she’s not allowed near Blaine or Seth ever again.

Well, Quinn certainly isn’t going to let her mother think that’s going to happen.

Santana, Brittany and Kurt are practicing throws when Coach Sylvester calls her over.

She runs over to her quickly and listens with baited breath as Coach tells her that her brother Cooper is waiting for her in the front office, tells her that she needs to hurry and to not worry about coming to the morning practice. Santana nods quickly, thanks Coach with a watery smile and runs to grab her things.

Kurt and Brittany follow her, exchanging curious glances, but she ignores them. All she can think about is Blaine, Blaine might be awake, or he could be worse and she needs to get out of here now.

Her duffle bag is slung over her shoulder and she doesn’t even glance back at her two friends as she leaves.

Brittany holds Kurt’s hand as they watch Santana sprint toward the school.

“I hope Blaine is okay.” She says, and Kurt looks at her with interest.

He’s never been more frustrated with how little he knows about Santana. Who is Blaine and why is Santana leaving practice for him? Is he a boyfriend? Though, Kurt’s not too sure about that one considering the way Santana looks at Brittany. He just wants to know though; everything about Santana is a mystery to him. Maybe when he sees her tomorrow he’ll ask her, but for now he has Brittany to worry about.

“Yeah, Brit, me too.”