Warning: This chapter contains mentions of both physical and mental abuse, stabbing and sensitive issues.

Epilogue

Several years later there was a highly regarded Sub school in the area which was openly run by both Doms and Subs. Dalton was a distant memory in the town history but those more personally involved had a harder time shaking the scars off of them.

It turned out that during the brainwashing Dalton had implanted trigger words into Kurt's subconcious. At this time he had nearly half a dozen obscure words that could trigger different reactions out of him. The first time it happened he had been preparing lunch in the kitchen with Blaine while Sebastian was in the lounge with a few other teachers from the school. Blaine nearly died that day.

Kurt didn't remember sinking the knife into Blaine's gut or any of that day at all. His first memory was waking up in a tiny padded room in the hospital all alone and not knowing what was going on. Sebastian had spent the day wondering between their rooms not knowing whether either of his Subs would be coming home with him at all. Once staff at the hospital had figured that Kurt's trigger wasn't permanent they allowed him to be taken out of seclusion.

Kurt refused to allow anyone to speak to him after that, doing everything he could to block out the sound of their voices. Of course they had managed to break through eventually but it involved a lot of shouting and crying, kisses and shoves. No matter what either Sebastian nor Blaine had said or done, Kurt never forgave himself for that incident.

The second time Kurt was triggered he put himself into a comatose state, unable to respond to any outside stimuli. He was hooked up to various machines at the hospital while a team worked around the clock to bring him back. It took Sebastian reading the dictionary at his bedside to find the reversing trigger word. Needless to say their was now a list of words that Sebastian refused to allow to be said around his Sub (most of the list was made of random words he could recall from his first conversation but he wasn't taking a chance on any of them). Kurt later revealed that while he was unresponsive, he relived every moment that he had spent at Dalton the second time, feeling the burn of the brand, watching the video and the feel of people violating him again and again.

The third forced him to relive the incident consciously, screaming out of his Dom to help him. He could easily be taken out of this state by someone introducing a happier memory. Usually Blaine was the one to do, the one time Sebastian had tried Kurt had been taken back to the first time they had sex when Sebastian refused to focus on him. Sebastian never realised how badly that had affected him until he broke down. This trigger was the one the doctors played with the most, putting Kurt into an emotional state in hopes that he would be able to reveal other trigger words so they wouldn't be surprised by them. They had found two before Sebastian had put his foot down and refused to allow them near his Sub again.

Kurt spent little time in public any more and was always clinging onto either Blaine or Sebastian when he was. Sebastian had set him up with a job keeping him in charge of most of the equipment at Dalton. People rarely interacted with him and he was able to work with headphones on to block out conversations of people walking by.

Blaine had been far less affected by the actions of Dalton despite being held hostage and beaten among other things. After Kurt stabbed him, Blaine had gone crazy in the hospital room screaming for him. He was terrified of what they might have done to Kurt while he was unconscious, the horribly familiar pain in his head was already strong when he woke. Not even Sebastian had been able to calm him down and Blaine had ripped out all of his stitches trying to get to Kurt's room which was in a secluded area of the hospital. When he found it, Blaine sat outside the door singing until Kurt responded, only then did he allow Sebastian to carry him away to be fixed up.

Blaine had spent the following months showering Kurt and Sebastian with love trying to keep the three of them together. He was terrified that they would be separated and even without the mental bond that he and Kurt shared, Blaine knew the separation would kill Sebastian as well. He wore himself down until one day he collapsed in exhaustion and spent the next week on bed rest with the other two doting on his every whim.

He now taught many of the younger Subs that came through the school, helping them accept their submissive nature and showing them what they could really become. The children adored Blaine and would aspire to being just like him when they grew up.

Sebastian often took on too much and refused outside help from anyone, often even his own Subs. Each episode that either of them went through added another layer of guilt to Sebastian's conscience. From the branding on Kurt's back that he was never able to have repaired to Blaine working himself sick, Sebastian often wondered if they would have been better off had he never come into their world.

When he finally broke down and explained all of this to his Subs between huge sobs and agonizing screams, they sprung into action. They did everything they possible could to show Sebastian how much worse off they would have been without him. While it did little to lessen the weight on his shoulder, he did allow them to take care of him instead of trying to be strong all the time.

He became one of the head teachers at Dalton and refused all promotions, preferring to work with the Subs and show them that they could be more than society dictated. Recently he had added a few Dom classes to the mix in hopes that he would be a able to teach a new level of mutual respect between the two that would insure that something like Dalton was never created again.

Kurt made it his personal responsibility to make sure that school work was left at school and would collect Blaine and Sebastian at the end of every day. He kept a close eye on the both of them to make sure that they weren't working themselves exhausted again, often assigning total work bans at home when it became too much. Of course these were usually accompanied by languid sexual exploits so no one tended to complain about them.

Sebastian looked up as someone knocked on his office door, "Come in," he called.

Kurt slipped into the room, "Afternoon Sir, how has your day been?" he crossed the room until he was behind Sebastian's chair and wrapped his arms around his Dom's shoulders.

"Much better now that you're here," Sebastian leant back and rubbed Kurt's forearm softly.

Kurt nuzzled the side of Sebastian's head, "It wasn't that bad today, was it Sir? I don't like it when the students give you a hard time,"

Sebastian chuckled, "Well that's what happens when you decide to throw a couple of Dom classes into a Sub school. Half of them were trying to usurp my authority and the others were trying to sneak out of the room,"

"What are you hoping for with this class anyway?" he moved around the chair until he was perched on Sebastian's lap.

Sebastian stroked Kurt's thigh, "I just want them to understand that they have to have actual respect for their Subs and in order to do that they have to interact with them on the same level,"

Kurt grinned brightly and bopped Sebastian on the nose, "And that is why you are in charge. You are so clever,"

Sebastian chuckled, "You're in a good mood today,"

"I finally finished sorting out all of the supplies for this quarter. There will be a list of new items that the library needs on your desk tomorrow but it isn't much. The kids have really been taking care of the equipment lately,"

"Excellent, we will be able to get some new stuff in then. Have you seen Blaine this afternoon?" Sebastian asked while kissing the column of Kurt's throat, tugging at his collar with his teeth.

Kurt moaned, "Yeah, I saw him about an hour ago. One of the Subs bit his hand so I had to watch them while he got patched up,"

"Is everyone okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine and the Sub was just a little over excited. I managed to calm her down when I got back," Blaine said from the doorway, "What about you Kurt? They didn't..." his voice faded away as he wrung his hands together.

Kurt smiled, "I'm fine, they are just kids and it wasn't for long. I can handle it,"

Sebastian kissed his temple, "Of course but that doesn't mean that neither of us won't worry," He held out a hand towards Blaine, "Let me see,"

Blaine placed his hand between Sebastian, palm up showing the small bandage. Sebastian examined it as best he could before kissing the covering.

"Come on, time to head home," Sebastian said pushing slightly on Kurt's back.

Kurt jumped up and curled into Blaine's side, happily murmuring as he nuzzled Blaine's neck. Blaine chuckled lightly as Kurt's breathe tickled him.

"Someone is very affectionate tonight," Blaine observed.

Kurt puffed in annoyance, "Well if you two would take me home instead of talking about it, I would show you just how affectionate I am feeling," Kurt stalked out of the room with the two of them hot on his heels.

In the wake of Dalton there had been many bad days but slowly the good days were catching up with fewer incidents between them. Someday Sebastian hoped that he would be able to wake without having to go through a list of potential threats they faced that day. One day he and his boys would have a normal, happy life.