Chapter Nineteen

Blaine didn't say anything in the car on the way to the Hudmel residence. The only peep Kurt heard from him was laboured breathing, and it made the pregnant boy very nervous. Whenever he cast a quick glance over to Blaine. he saw the boy trembling in the seat. It was so unlike Blaine to be like this. There was no 'tough-guy' anymore. There was just a scared, hurt little boy which made Kurt's heart ache so so desperately. Maybe it was the fact that he was going to be a parent soon, but the thought of someone causing their own child to suffer seemed so unimaginable. It didn't seem real. More like a nightmare that he really wanted to wake up from now.

Kurt had no idea what to do. How could he make this better? Was there even a way for him to help? He didn't know if comfort would help Blaine at the moment. That was all he really had to offer. At least he had gotten him out of that horrible house. He didn't care what anyone said, Blaine would not be going back there. He knew once he'd told his dad, that Burt wouldn't want him going back there either; but Kurt was unsure if he'd be able to swing for Blaine to stay with them permanently. He could try.

The journey back home took Kurt twice as long as it normally would have because Kurt was going at a snail's pace. He didn't even change his speed for impatient drivers that angrily beeped at him so they had just started driving around him. Honestly, he didn't trust himself to go even as fast as the speed limit. His nerves were shot and he really couldn't afford to have an accident. Blaine was already too hurt, and he had to look after their little baby.

The baby itself was obviously feeling all of Kurt's discomfort and was making him feel worse by adding sickness to the equation. He knew it wasn't the baby's fault but it was another thing that Kurt had to deal with. And it wasn't like he could complain with a battered and bruised Blaine next to him. He was probably more uncomfortable than Kurt could ever be.

When they got home Kurt stopped the car but didn't make any attempt to get them out of the car. Instead he calmed himself and his stomach. He knew he wouldn't be able to help Blaine with the dizziness that he felt so he allowed himself a few moments to get his strength back. Then, carefully, he helped Blaine from the car and into the house. Out the corner of his eye, he could see Blaine wincing in pain, but he held his mouth firm together, trying not to make a noise. He was always trying to be so strong.

"Kurt, is that you? Would you like to tell me why I got a call telling me that you'd skipped school?" Burt called from the front room.

He didn't say anything but helped Blaine to where his dad was and hopefully, Carole.

"Jesus!" Burt exclaimed when he saw Blaine.

Seeing his son struggling, he moved forward and took the weight of Blaine from him. He helped him over to the sofa and helped lower him down. Kurt shakily moved to sit beside Blaine.

"Carole, can you come in here please? And can you bring Blaine and Kurt a glass of water each?" He called.

He was trying to remain calm for the boys. Blaine was the quietest that Burt had ever seen him and Kurt seemed a few seconds away from passing out. Burt could tell. He would have asked Kurt to go and lay down, but he knew that he'd never leave Blaine by himself.

Carole wandered in with the water but stopped when she saw the state the boys were in. Burt could see her switch over to Nurse Carole in an instant. She handed Burt the waters and then knelt down so that she could get a proper look at Blaine.

"Kurt drink the water, slow sips." She instructed. "Blaine, can you look at me sweetheart? What happened?"

Blaine raised his eyes hesitantly to Carole's and her heart hurt. The swelling of one of his eyes showed the physical pain that he was in, but what made her the most upset was that in his good eye she could see the emotional pain too. There was no way that any child deserved this kind of treatment, but especially not Blaine, not with all the love that he held in his heart.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kurt disregard his water in favour of holding onto one of Blaine's hands. The simple gesture made a lot of difference to Blaine, Carole noted. He wasn't as guarded and the pain in his eyes diminished just a little bit. It was clear these two were made for each other.

"Blaine, honey. Who hurt you?"

Blaine flinched away from her.

"It was his dad..." Kurt said quietly.

"Burt, can you call the police? And then we'll take Blaine to the hospital."

"No!" Blaine shouted.

"Blaine, it's not right, what's happened to you. And you need medical attention." Carole tried to reason with him.

"I won't go. You can't make me. If you try, I'll just get out of here. It's not happening." Blaine rambled.

Kurt was terrified at the thought of Blaine leaving him. It was selfish to think of himself at a time like this, but he knew that without Blaine, he wouldn't be able to do any of this. Their baby needed Blaine. He could feel his dad's hand on his shoulder, squeezing it comfortingly but it did nothing for his rising panic.

Carole noticed this panic in Kurt and against her better judgement, she promised not to get the police or the hospital involved. Blaine relaxed a bit more at her words.

"Now then Kurt, why don't you go and rest while I try to patch Blaine up? You need to remember to look after that baby." She reminded him softly. "When I'm done with Blaine he'll come and join you."

Everyone could see Kurt hesitate. He didn't want to leave Blaine by himself, not after the day he'd had, but at the same time he was completely exhausted. He knew it would be better for the baby and for him if he went and had a lay down. But he loved Blaine, and if he needed him, he wanted to be there for him. But in the end Blaine decided for him.

"I'll be okay." Blaine whispered hoarsely.

The hand that held Kurt's rested against the bump that Kurt had gained, showing that Blaine cared more for his baby right now.

"I won't sleep till you're there." Kurt vowed.

"Then I'll be as quick as I can." Carole said easily.

Kurt brought their linked hands up to his lips and gently kissed Blaine's hand before letting it go, and disappearing up the stairs.

XXXX

It must have been an hour later when Burt and Carole navigated Blaine into Kurt's room. They helped him onto Kurt's bed and pulled the covers up over both of the boys.

As promised, Kurt was still awake. His face was tear-stained from spending the past hour crying. It was useless trying to hide them from Blaine so instead he just ignored them.

He didn't exactly know what to say to Blaine. What could be said? There was no point in asking him if he was okay. It was clear that no, he was not alright. Kurt turned onto his side so that he could face Blaine. It wasn't even dusk yet, so darkness couldn't hide the mess that his boyfriend had been turned into.

"Kurt. Please don't worry about me. I'll be okay." Blaine said before Kurt could even think of something to say.

"How can I not worry about you?" Kurt started sobbing again. "You're hurt!"

"Sweetie, this is nothing. Just some simple basic training."

"Basic training?! What the hell does that mean Blaine?!" Kurt snapped.

"My dad trains me so that when someone decides to beat me up I can easily defend myself. He worries about me because I'm gay."

Blaine had said it so simply, as if it made perfect sense. Kurt couldn't believe it. How was Blaine actually buying that excuse. Clearly his dad was just a homophobe who knew how to hide it. Poor Blaine believed his vicious lies. Or maybe it wasn't that he actually believed his dad, maybe it was that if he didn't, then he'd have to admit to himself that his dad hated him and what he was. Hated him for something that he couldn't change.

"That's why we can't get the police involved, or any hospitals. They wouldn't understand, Kurt." He tried to turn to face Kurt but stopped when it started to hurt too much.

Kurt leaned over him to look at his face properly. He didn't want to hurt him anymore today so he decided to leave it alone. He'd just let Blaine rest for now. The subject could be approached again when things had calmed down. Maybe he'd talk to his dad and explain the situation. His dad would help him decide what to do.

"Shhh. Okay, baby. Just please don't ever scare me like that again. We don't like it." Kurt said, including the baby into his statement because, honestly, Kurt was sure that the baby had a lot of complaints about the situation, from the sick feeling he'd had earlier that had only just now settled.

"I promise. To both of you." Blaine said, his eyes glistening.

XXXX

Kurt woke up with a jolt, but relaxed as soon as he saw Blaine beside him. It seemed that nightmares had decided to plague him.

But there were more pressing matters at hand. His bladder felt as if it was about to burst. As carefully and as quickly as he could, he got out of bed and headed to his bathroom. A quick glance at his alarm clock told him that it was five in the morning. He and Blaine had slept the whole night through.

Just as he was going to get back into bed to snuggle with Blaine, his stomach grumbled loudly, so loud that he had to make sure it hadn't woken the sleeping boy. With a huff, he started downstairs to grab something to eat. He'd gone to bed without lunch or dinner. If his doctor found out, or if anyone in the house realised, he'd be in trouble. He found it ridiculous that his doctor had thought he was underweight. He already had a bump when he knew that some wouldn't have even started showing at this stage.

But it was his and Blaine's baby. Who he already loved, and he knew that Blaine did too. It was for their unplanned miracle, their happy mistake. So while he hated that his body was rapidly changing, the sickness that he often felt and that he felt so drained of energy all the time, he knew that it was going to be worth it.

Plodding into the kitchen, he saw his dad and Carole sat at the kitchen table. Both of them looked like they hadn't slept a wink. Carole looked as if she had been crying. They were both nursing a cup of coffee, and were just staring off in to space. They both looked up at him when he entered and gave him a tired smile, neither of them reaching his eyes.

"Did you sleep okay?" Carole asked.

Kurt just shrugged and grabbed himself a bowl of cereal before joining them at the table. He dutifully ate it, but it felt tasteless in his mouth. He was dying to feed his coffee addiction but knew that he couldn't drink any, even though it always seemed to calm his nerves.

"Kiddo, we have to talk about Blaine." Burt said after Kurt had finished the whole bowl.

"I know, dad. He doesn't think that his dad is in the wrong. He thinks he was helping teach him how to protect himself. How screwed up is that? It makes me feel sick. I'd get the police on the phone right now, but Blaine doesn't want them involved at all. And honestly, I'm afraid that if we go behind his back and call them, that he'll just walk away from all this."

They could see what Kurt was thinking about and, while they doubted that Blaine would leave Kurt, they didn't want to risk it. Kurt didn't need the stress or the heartache. But they couldn't just leave it. Blaine had rights and his father had completely taken them away. Burt couldn't understand how a parent could ever hurt their child. The thought of Kurt getting hurt by anyone was horrific to him and he wouldn't dream of laying a hand on him himself. It was a parents' job to love their child no matter what. Even before Kurt had come out to him Burt had known that. He had just assumed that every parent went by that.

"Well we'll need to take pictures of all of his injuries. He may not want to go to the police now but we may be able to change his mind."

"We'll have to get them while he's asleep. He'll never go for it otherwise." Burt said.

"What if we can't get him to change his mind?" Kurt asked nervously.

The table lapsed into silence. Each one trying to think of how to help Blaine.

"What other family does he have? A mother? Any siblings?" Carole asked.

"His mum ran out on him when he was a kid, and he hasn't seen his brother since he moved away to LA." Kurt said.

Blaine hadn't been very forthcoming about his family information. He never seemed to want to talk about it and Kurt didn't want to push him. Slowly, he'd begin to say little things, allowing Kurt to get even closer to him. He'd never paint the whole picture though, so Kurt didn't really know much.

"Maybe you could talk to him? Convince him to call them or something. He can't be alone right now... I know that he's got us but it would be better to have actual family there too."

"I'll try."

XXXX

A few days passed and Kurt had had no luck in getting Blaine to open up more. His constant pressuring was creating a tension between the two of them and even though Kurt was afraid of the conclusion of that tension he still continued to push.

All he wanted to do was help Blaine. It was all he'd ever wanted to do. But Blaine was just about as stubborn as Kurt was so he had no idea what he could do to make Blaine see sense and understand.

It was four days after Kurt had found Blaine beaten up that he finally lost his cool with him. He'd later blame the outburst entirely on the baby. His emotions were, after all, through the roof.

They had someone come back to Blaine's father and his 'training' techniques. Kurt was still disgusted by the idea.

"It's sick. How could anyone be so heartless." Kurt said with a snarl.

He stood in the doorway of his room looking in on Blaine wincing his way through getting changed.

"You don't understand. He's helping me learn to protect myself!" Blaine had said it so many times and Kurt could tell that he believed it.

"Blaine!" Kurt cried in exasperation. "He is hurting you. There is no way that you can justify this!"

Kurt stood with his arms crossed , resting above the slight bump. He was trying to show Blaine that he wouldn't budge. Not this time. He wasn't about to let this go. There was no way that he'd let him minimise it.

"He's making me strong so no homophobes can hurt me. It means I can protect you. I can protect our baby. Don't you want that?"

"Of course I was our baby to be safe. I always want that. But what happened when your dad beats you so bad that you can't protect us? What happens then, Blaine?"

Blaine didn't say anything. Kurt did have a slight point. His dad could be rough on him sometimes. Like the day that Kurt came to find Blaine. He hadn't wanted to leave Kurt alone at school but he could hardly move. He couldn't even get close enough to his phone so that he could text Kurt and warn him. In a way Blaine was glad that Kurt had come to find him because that meant that he wouldn't be at school without protection. He would never trust the New Directions with his safety and beside they didn't even know what was at stake if Kurt was hurt.

"And what about our baby, Blaine?" Kurt's voice shook. "Would you train them the way your father has?"

Blaine looked in horror at Kurt. He could never even imagine laying a hand on his baby. He'd never harm his child. And then his mind seemed to grasp the point that Kurt was trying to make. If he wouldn't do that to his own child then why would it be okay for his dad to do it to him.

"Please Blaine. It breaks my heart to see you hurt."

"I would never hurt our baby, Kurt. You have to know that." He couldn't have Kurt thinking that he'd be a danger.

Blaine darted forward and fell to his knees in front of Kurt. He needed to be close to the both of them. He rested his head slightly against the evidence of his growing child. Tears pooled from his eyes and he started sobbing. It was partly from the thought of Kurt not being able to trust him with their child and also from the realisation that his father didn't actually love him.

All his life he'd looked up to his dad. He'd wanted to be just like him and his dad had always been there for him. When his mum had left, for whatever reason, Blaine still had no clue, they both of them had stuck together. His older brother, Cooper, had lost contact with them completely and it was literally just the two of them. Blaine didn't even know if he had any family on his mother's side. Not once had his mother tried to contact him and so all Blaine had was his father.

Everything had been pretty great. Blaine was into sports and he was pretty popular. He got into football and his father never ever missed a game. He'd always be cheering on the front row. Blaine should have noticed when his dad went quiet when Blaine had talked about joining a show choir club. His dad never spoke out against it but it was easy to see he disapproved. Another thing he should have noticed was when he came out to his dad. The house seemed to get colder. His dad didn't seem to care much anymore. And then after the disaster that was the Sadie Hawkins dance and his transfer over to Dalton Academy. That was when his 'training' had begun.

He was so stupid to have not seen this all before.

Kurt tried to comfort Blaine. He cradled his head against his body, trying to keep him as close as possible,.

"Shh. I know, baby. I know." He tried to sooth him. "You're going to be a wonderful father. I know you are."

Blaine just continued to sob. Kurt could understand why though. Everything Blaine had knew had been shattered.

"Sweetie we need to try to contact your mum or your brother. You know you've got me and my dad, Carole and Finn but you need more too."

"What if they don't want me?" Blaine asked brokenly.

"You will never know unless you contact them. At least let them know what's going on. Give them a chance."

Blaine just nodded but his head was screaming in protest.

XXXX

That evening, after dinner, everyone had moved into the living room and together they were watching a movie on the television. Kurt and Blaine were snuggled together on one sofa and Burt and Carole were on another. Finn was sprawled across the floor.

The Free Credit Rating commercial came on the screen and Blaine shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

"You okay? I'm not hurting you am I?" Kurt asked, worriedly.

"No, no. Its just that... Well that's my brother." Blaine said pointing at the screen.

Everyone turned toward the screen and watched the energetic man, their mouths going slack in surprise. Kurt was the first to recover.

"If your brother is an actor then he'll have a agent. We'll probably be able to find out their contact information so that we can get in contact with him. And maybe he's in contact with your mother." Kurt said excitedly.

"I guess so." Blaine mumbled.

"C'mon, let's go upstairs and look up the number." Kurt pulled Blaine out of his seat.

In his room, he got the website with the contact details on. He had to admit he was excited that they were so close to getting Blaine in touch with his family. He didn't really notice that Blaine was unenthusiastic until he'd shoved the phone at him.

"What's the matter?"

"It's just, I don't know what is going to happen after I ring that number. Are they gonna care or not? If they do care, what will happen next? I hate everything being so uncertain."

"Blaine." Kurt said taking his hands. "No matter what, you are not without family. We are always going to be here to love and support you. That will never change. You've got nothing to lose and only things to gain."

"Okay... I'll do it."

Blaine took the phone and dialled the number. He tapped his foot as he waited for the call to connect.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

"Uh, hi. Is this Miss Harris, Cooper Anderson's agent?"

"Yes, this is she."

"My name is, uh, Blaine Anderson. I was wondering if I could leave my contact details with you and if you could get Cooper to call me, or something."

"I'll pass along the details but I can make no promises." Miss Harris warned.

"I understand."

Blaine then rattled of all his contact details and ended the call.

"And now we wait?" Kurt asked.

"Now we wait."

XXXX

A few hours later, as both the boys were getting ready for bed, Blaine's phone rung.

"Hello." He answered almost yawning into the receiver.

"Blaine? It's me, Cooper."