Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.

Author's Note - PLEASE READ!:

After much debate, and advice I recieved from firewordsparkler, I have decided that this is the final chapter, and it is an epilogue. Please note the time jump, which includes flashbacks to what occured after the trial ended. It actually worked better that way, since there were only a few more things I needed to put into the story, so I'm glad I went ahead and ended it this way.

I would now like to thank all of you for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and story alerting this fic. You have no idea how happy it makes me, and I appreciate every bit of feedback that I have recieved. You are all amazing - I mean it.

Also, I am contemplating doing a companion piece to this fic - a series of one-shots about Blaine and his father that take place pre-this fic, during this fic (deleted scenes if you will), and post-this fic. If y'all are interested, I'll post the first chapter later on in the week.

And now I shall shut up, so you all can enjoy this final chapter!

Chapter 48:

Six months later: November, 2011

"Blaine move it!" hollered Isabel as she grabbed her son's bag and made her way to the front door. "Kurt will be here in at least ten minutes!"

Blaine walked into view a few moments late. His physical therapy was just about over for his leg, which had healed extremely well, and his wrist and ribs had already healed up. According to Doctor Taylor, he was just about physically recovered.

He looked a lot happier also, (according to the therapist Isabel had gotten, his nightmares weren't occuring as often; he had asked his mother to sit in on the sessions for fear of having another panic attack).

"Thanks Mom." he said, grinning at her before kissing her cheek.

"Are you ready for your first day at McKinley?" asked Nick as he joined them.

Blaine nodded, his eyes unusually bright.

"Yeah...I haven't changed my mind, Dad. This is something I want -"

Nick laughed and touched his son's shoulder.

"I know, Blaine. You made that clear only a million times in the past three months...and I guess with Kurt and his friends, you're going to be safe."

Blaine sighed, shoulders sagging slightly under his father's touch.

"Maybe later...we could watch TV?" he said hopefully.

Nick grinned.

"Yeah sure!"

Isabel rolled her eyes. She remembered their first conversation about Blaine transfering, and it hadn't been pretty:

"Mom I want to do this! I'm sick of being at Dalton when I know what goes on in the real world!" Blaine was livid. "Why can't I face my demons like Kurt does?"

Isabel stood up, gripping Nick's shoulder to keep herself calm.

"Do you have any idea what we went through two years ago? What we went through when Kurt's father called about the Prom incident? I can't handle it if soething happens and you -"

Nick rubbed her arm soothingly.

"Mom," Blaine fought to keep his voice calm. "Azimio is serving twenty-five to life in jail. Dave and Mark are there, and Mark is helping him and Santana with the Bully Whip program that I told you about."

"Mark hit you, Blaine -"

"And I forgave him. Seriously, Mom - it's okay." he sighed. "Please. Let me transfer."

Isabel exchanged a look with Nick.

"We'll think about it."

The other conversations had been pretty much the same until the Hummel-Hudsons got together with the Andersons for dinner in September, and Kurt's father had spoken to Nick and Isabel. They agreed to transfer Blaine out of Dalton and into William McKinley High School. Blaine's aunt, Cara, was ecstatic. Isabel pointed out that she was only happy that she could afford to go into a Coach store again.

Cara retaliated by smacking her sister with her purse.

Blaine and Kurt had been too busy kissing each other to care.

"Are they not here yet?"

"Obviously. This was stupid, Mark, I doubt anyone's going to -"

Mark turned and looked at his boyfriend exasperatedly.

"Do you remember when you came out to your dad?" he asked, tangling their fingers together.

Dave tried to pull away, but Mark's grip was firm.

"Relax, no one can see us over here. You didn't answer me."

Dave shrugged, hands fisting the insides of his jacket.

No big deal, he could do this, right?

His dad wasn't a jerk...he would understand. He had to.

Dave needed him to.

He took a deep breath and knocked on his parents' bedroom door.

"Mom? Dad? I, uh...can we talk?" he called.

"Of course," called his mother, "We'll be out in a moment, Dave."

He let out a sigh of relief and slumped against the wall.

"Okay. I'll be in the kitchen."

He sent a quick text message to Mark:

To: Mark
about to tell him. Can we meet in an hour?

The reply was instantaneous:

From: Mark
Absolutely. Call me with a location and I'll be waiting.

Dave didn't have to wait long. His mother and father joined him less than five minutes later.

"What's going on?" asked Paul.

"Is everything alright? I know you said Azimio was convicted, but -"

"Marlene, let him breathe." said Paul, squeezing his wife's hand.

"Dad..." Dave leaned forward, resting his elbows on the edge of the table. "Do you remember what happened with Kurt back in November?"

Paul nodded.

"I do. How is he by the way?"

The jock stared at his hands.

"He's fine, I guess...anyway, I uh, I sort of lied about what happened...well Kurt did, but he didn't want to - he wanted me to tell you myself, I -"

He squirmed uncomfortably in his chair. It almost felt like he couldn't breathe.

"The incident - that I threatened him over -" Dave swallowed back bile - he felt so disgusted with himself for how he had handled the situation. " - he was yelling at me to back off bullying, and I - I kissed him."

Paul's eyes looked ready to pop out of his head while the color seemed to drain out of Marlene's face.

"You sexually assaulted him?" demanded Paul. "David do you understand the seriousness of what you did? Burt Hummel would have had you arrested if he'd known!"

Of course he'd known that, he wasn't stupid.

"He doesn't know, and I appologized to Kurt." whispered Dave. "I meant it, Dad. I don't ever want to hurt someone the way I did him...but Dad, I'm gay."

His parents stared at him for a moment.

Then Paul stood and hugged him. Marlene's hand gripped his free hand tightly in her own.

He took that as a pretty good sign that they were okay with it.

Blaine couldn't move.

He was drenched in red ice, staring up at a group of boys in red letterman jackets - the same boys who had attacked him and Kurt months ago.

"Blaine!"

Kurt, who had been roped into conversation with Mercedes, rushed to his side. Mark, who'd been waiting for Dave to get out of class, joined him.

"Kurt, get Blaine to the Boys' Room now." he said, glaring at Strando. "I've put up with your shit for over a month, Strando. This stops now. I'm not going to let you and your idiot friends try and hurt Blaine or Kurt, you got that?"

Strando scowled, reaching forward as if he wanted to throttle the other boy. Mark smirked and adjusted his Bully Whip jacket.

"You're not as stupid as you look," he said casually. "Though of course I'm not surprised you got held back."

Blaine's mouth was slightly ajar. What the hell had he missed? He'd never seen Mark like that before - calm and in control of his temper.

Kurt tugged Blaine's arm gently.

"Come on," he said, "I can help you clean up. Okay?"

Blaine didn't seem to hear him. Mark swore audibly.

"Kurt, go!"

The counter-tenor seemed to understand, and gripped Blaine's arm, leaning over and whispering into his boyfriend's ear:

"It's okay. You're safe. You're coming with me to the bathroom alright?" Still no response. "Blaine, it's me - Kurt. Look at me."

He was starting to get really scared. Another hand reached over and tentatively gripped Blaine's other arm.

It was Dave. He looked at Kurt.

"C'mon."

Kurt nodded and the two boys led Blaine to the restroom.

"Thank you." said Kurt to Dave, giving him a small smile. "Mark was about to get strangled by Strando -"

"I'll take care of Mark, Santana can deal with Strando," said Dave.

Kurt laughed.

"Here's to hoping he at least escapes with his balls intact." he said dryly.

Dave snorted and briefly clapped his shoulder.

"If he's dealing with her? You're crazy, Hummel." he replied. "If anything, he'll escape with only his dignity shattered - not that he really had much of that to begin with."

Kurt nodded in agreement.

Dave looked over at Blaine

"He gonna be okay?"

Kurt sighed.

"He will. You want to leave so I can snap him out of this?"

Dave shrugged.

"Nah. I'm gonna go grab Mark before Strando does somethin' stupid."

Kurt nodded and Dave turned to leave.

"Dave?"

He stopped.

"What?" he asked.

"Thanks."

Blaine was leaning heavily on crutches outside a prison interview room. Kurt stood next to him, their hands entwined.

He felt sick.

"Are you sure about this?" Kurt asked. "I know it's only been a month -"

Blaine shook his head, even though he looked terrified.

"I want to talk to him, Kurt. I have to. I think it'll stop the nightmares."

The horrible dreams had started occuring soon after the trial ended.

Kurt nodded hesitantly, and looked over at Blaine's father.

"I'll make sure he doesn't get hurt," said Nick reassuringly, "and there'll be at least one guard outside. He'll be okay, Kurt."

Blaine sighed. He and his father entered the Interview room. Ten minutes later, Azimio was brought in and sat down across from them.

"What the hell do you two want?" he asked bluntly.

"Why?" asked Blaine. "Why did you -?"

He snorted.

"You know why, f -" he caught the scowl on Nick's face. "It was for Hummel. Idiot can't take a joke -"

"I'm sorry," said Nick, "You think what you did to my son and his boy - boyfriend was a joke?"

"Just like making Hummel Prom Queen," Azimio smirked, leaning back casually in his chair. "Clearly your kid's an ass -"

Nick looked furious.

"Let me tell you something, alright? What you did was nowhere near considered a joke - you know you did it on purpose, and you know they both could have died that night. To be honest, if I had the guts to, I would have found you that week, and made your life a living hell. It's a damn good thing the jury didn't buy half of your crap, because I promise you, I will make you sorry you ever touched Blaine, and Kurt. You're pathetic, and to put it bluntly, an idiot. Blaine, we're leaving."

Blaine hesitated when he reached the door. Azimio glared at him.

"What?"

Blaine was silent for a moment.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore." he said quietly.

The first thing he did when they were outside the interview room was hug his father fiercely.

"Blaine?" Kurt was staring at him, worried. "Can you hearr me?"

He flinched.

"Y-Yeah." he became gradually aware of the fact that his boyfriend was carefully cleaning the slush off of his face and neck with a wet paper towel. "First slushie. Interesting."

Kurt laughed.

"More like barbaric and childish." he said brusquely.

The curly haired boy nodded in agreement as he took in the stains on his light yellow polo shirt.

"Those aren't coming out anytime soon." he sighed.

Kurt grinned.

"I came prepared." he reached into his bag and withdrew a dark brown button down shirt. Blaine recognized it as one of the new clothing items Kurt had given him with the photo frame. Blaine yanked the polo up over his head and let Kurt help him into the clean shirt. He shivered slightly as Kurt's fingers brushed against the bare skin at the collar of his undershirt.

Kurt finished buttoning the shirt and tilted his head slightly to rest his forehead against Blaine's. Blaine sighed at the contact, bringing his arms up to wrap gently around the counter-tenor's shoulders.

"I really don't want to go to class." he mumbled.

Kurt smiled.

"We could stay here, but I'm sure Finn would hunt the both of us down...or at least Coach Sylvester would." he smiled tenderly, and touched Blaine's cheek. "Are you sorry you transfered?"

Blaine shook his head.

"No. All of this...all of it was worth it, and honestly, I wouldn't have been able to do it without you. I really do love you, Kurt. You're amazing."

Kurt kissed him.

"Not half as amazing as you," he said, pressing a kiss to Blaine's cheek, and then his neck, making the other boy gasp and clutch hard at his shoulders. "I wouldn't have gotten through everything that happened at Prom - you're so strong, Blaine - I mean that."

Blaine kissed him back.

"Ready to go to class?" he said quietly.

Kurt smiled.

"You bet."

They left the bathroom hand in hand, and Blaine found that he didn't give a crap if anyone looked at them strange, or hurled insults their way.

They were together, and that was all that he cared about.

That and the fact that he would have to find a way to alert Mark to the pending raid that Kurt had mentioned at some point early on in the week (he was complaining about the baggy t-shirts and jeans again) planning on his closet.

Then again, he could just let Mark get taken by surprise.

Yeah, that worked better.

And he was pretty sure the rest of the year was going to rock, because he had a boyfriend whom he loved, and who loved him back.

That was really all he needed for now.

The End

Sappy, somewhat humorous end for the win! haha.

Thoughts? No flames please, constructive criticism only!