I do not own Glee or the characters Kurt Hummel and Dave Karofsky. Any characters based on those form the TV show Glee are property of Fox.

A/N: Sorry this took so long, promise the next won't (I had the fricking flu, ef you the flu!). Thank you for all of the favs/alerts/etc, especially if you submitted a review! A few of you didn't like how catty Kurt has become, there is a reason but I will tone it down a bit, don't worry he isn't one of those stereotypical catty gay guys picking on people for no reason, I promise. This chapter gives you more from Kurt's POV then Dave, we learned what has happened to Dave now we learn what has happened to Kurt. You will also see why Mercedes and Kurt are a lot closer then they were in HS!

Review if you luv me, I luv you I promise! :-p

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The hallway is cold, hospitals always have that eerie chill to them that carries the smell of disinfectant no matter where you go, no matter how far you run from it. Kurt hates hospitals, he didn't have many experiences with hospitals but the few he did always ended badly, life changingly bad. He had visited Warren with Mercedes only a handful of times when she had one of those really bad days. Those days that she just sat around her house staring at nothing, thinking about Warren and unable to think about anything else. She was like a junky, addicted to thinking about "what if Warren woke up", crazy scenarios running through her head until it caused a head ache. Kurt never had the heart to tell her how much it hurt walking into the hospital every time, he was afraid it would break her, if she wasn't broken already.

As he rounds the corner Kurt put the barrier up, a bright smile with flashy eyes and a chipper attitude. It was a practiced art, mastered by just being who he was living in Ohio. Created because of his time in Mckinley, Karofsky being the biggest reason his barrier was created. No one can know you are sad if you put up that practiced smile on your face.

"Excuse me a patient has woken up." Kurt calls out matter of factly but no one was at the nurse's desk. He frowns, "Now what?"

The nurse came out of nowhere, dancing along with whatever song was on his iPod. Kurt watched him move, he was as good as that Asian kid that was in the Glee club at McKinley. He was getting into it a little too much for being in the middle of the hospital, the blue scrubs he wore making him look like a dancing smurf to Kurt which made him smile. Kurt could see his lips moving as well and wonders if he was having one of those dancing fantasies he always had, like when he sang Rose's Turn in the auditorium and suddenly there was a big Kurt sign in flashing lights behind him.

When the nurse finally spots Kurt he laughs and stops dancing, the nurse was a cutie. Tall and lithe, his dark skin indicated he was from the Middle East, his hair and eyes even darker. The nurse smils as he removed his earphones, "Sorry I was getting into it a little too much." He indicated to his earphones. "How can I help you?"

Kurt swooned at the British accent, color rouging his cheeks. "One of the patients just woke up is room 204."

"Oh? Did you give them a kiss and they woke up?"

Kurt giggled and was immediately ashamed of it because it was such a bad pick up line and he was acting like a school girl, "Sorry but sleeping beauty? Please! The girl eats food from a stranger and lives with a bunch of midgets, not exactly my type."

The nurse laughs loudly, guttural, his dark eyes scanning Kurt over. "That is a good one my friend. I am Habib, you say someone has woken up? Are you sure?"

Kurt nodded, "Yes his eyes are open."

Habib waves at Kurt as if to dismiss him, "It happens, just natural reflexes. It is a good sign though; it shows there is still some brain activity. We will have to put tape over his eyes to keep them shut though."

Kurt wonders if Warren's eyes ever opened up in the middle of the night looking for Mercedes. "Well I happen to know the guy and while he is enough of a Neanderthal to think he is brain dead even when he is up and walking…" Kurt stopped himself and sighed. "Sorry, what I mean is his eyes are looking around the room, looking right at us as we move around."

Habib's whole body immediately shifts into gear, throwing a chart on the desk he follows Kurt back down the hall and Kurt moved aside as he worked over Karofsky.

"Mr. Karofsky my name is Habib, can you hear me?"

Dave nods carefully; he suddenly wonders what Mercedes and Kurt were doing over in Iraq and why he was in an Iraqi hospital and not an Army hospital.

"Good, good Mr. Karofsky you have been in a coma for two weeks after the attack. You have been brought back to Ohio, you are right outside of Chicago. Please remain calm, I am going to go and get a doctor to remove the breathing tube and the cuffs on your hands and feet. Is that alright?"

Dave slowly nods and watches as the nurse saunters off, almost making the same movements Kurt made when he walked. His eyes shifted over to Kurt who was obviously watching the nurse intently. Suddenly he found himself jealous and couldn't push those feelings aside. He hadn't thought of Kurt in months, he hadn't thought about his past in the USA at all in fact. He was beginning to feel himself move on; instead of being the closeted homophobe from Ohio he was the jarhead in Iraq. He no longer felt that need to get close to Kurt, to touch him and be around him, Karofsky found his cure.

Now seeing Kurt here, of all places, brought all of those feelings back. To reach out and hold him. To be a part of him. He needed him, craved him, wanted to know if his skin still felt like silk. Wanted to feel his breath on his neck, wanted to taste him. Wanted to hear him sing.

"Oh boy, have the hots for Habib?" Mercedes laughs, cutting Dave away from his revere.

Kurt turns to her and playfully slaps her on the shoulder, "You're awful Mercedes!" He looked solemn all of the sudden. "You know I'm not…"

He stopped in mid sentence as the nurse walked in with a doctor, both of them looking hopeful and excited that Karofsky is awake. Dave desperately wanted to call out to Kurt and ask him to finish that sentence. You're not what? Interested in Iraqis? No way was Hummel straight; the little guy was more queer then a drag queen. What if, though, some bizzaro world action happened and Fancy now favored women? He did go out with that ditz for a while before he left for that school full of fellow fags.

Kurt picks up his bag and slings it over his shoulder, "Well M, I think it is time for us to make our exit. I am really not interested in watching them remove the catheter and Gaga, does he have a colostomy bag?" He whispers in an eerie curiosity he looks over trying to see if Dave was defecating into a bag.

Mercedes glares at him, "Look Kurt don't be talking about them like that, k?"

Kurt stood and looked over to Warren realizing everything he said about Dave also applied to him as well, "Oh my Gaga…I am so sorry M. I didn't mean to…"

"Kurt its fine just stop ok? I know you don't like hospitals but I wanted you to be here, for me." She looked over to Dave. "Even though he was, well, an ass at Mckinley he probably went through a lot. Warren did. These guys aren't here because it's club med."

Kurt puts a hand on her shoulder and squeezes gently, "I promise I will be as pristine in attitude as I am with my outfit for now on." He kissed her on the cheek. "I will see you later, ok?"

She nodded with a smile. Kurt stood and looked over to Karofsky one last time, the doctor and cute nurse were explaining how the air tube would come out of his throat. Karofsky did look helpless and Kurt figured that was why he didn't fear Karofsky anymore. Still, Karofsky did threaten his life after all, that wasn't something you just forgave as if did it accidentally.

As Kurt made his way out to the hall Dave watches him go, not paying attention at all to what the doctor was saying. He saw as the Iraqi nurse waved playfully at Kurt, obviously flirting. His eyes glass over from pain to wanting to anger to tears falling down gently form the corner of his eyes, each one twinkling in the over head light.

And Mercedes saw all of the emotions his eyes conveyed.

The whole ride home Kurt bounced so many feelings and memories around in his head that he couldn't pin them down to decide how he truly felt about the whole thing. Karofsky made his life miserable in High School but neither of them were students anymore, Karofsky was a soldier in the army. He would admit that his catty attitude wasn't necessary; Karofsky didn't disserve that in the state he was in. Plus the year in Dalton did him well; Blaine really helped him understand Dave Karofsky. He understood that Karofsky was acting out because he couldn't express his feelings. Since Kurt was the only one he met that had similar feelings he acted out around Kurt. Kurt never pointed out that all the fellow Gleeks had slushy facials from the brute but the other behavior, the attacks, began to make sense.

How do you forgive someone like that, though? Kurt was gay and he never lifted a hand against anyone. Kurt was gay and he accepted everyone for who they are. Kurt struggled with it, maybe not as much as everyone else but that doesn't make his pain any less hurtful then Karofsky's pain in accepting what he was.

After he pulled into his driveway all the emotions were swept under the rug of anger. He slammed his car door shut and did the same to the front door, throwing his bag on the couch and walking furiously into the kitchen. He would realize later that night that it was the first time he didn't look at the picture of Blake and himself holding hands in Honolulu, tropical flowers surrounding them and a small green frog jumping from his shoulder over to Blaine's shoulder. For half a year now he walked into the house and like a religious alter he stood before that picture, starring, wondering what happened.

Kurt's three corgis came bouncing into the living room toppling one over the other to vie for Kurt's attention first. Their tongues hanging out and one quickly was running at the back door, scratching and the sliding glass. "Huey, Dewey and Louie Vuitton behave!" He smiled, opening the door for his babies and letting them run out into the fenced in yard and kicking off his shoes onto the kitchen floor.

Kurt walked forward, entranced, not even noticing he left the door open. He made his way across the white deck and down into the yard, the grass tickling his feet through his socks. The cherry blossom tree, its flowers just starting to turn a slight pink began to bloom that day. He couldn't wait for the day that it would tower over the house, he hated to idea of picking up all the petals but it would be marvelous for his little sky blue home (with accents of white, of course).

He sits at the side of the tree, not touching it because it has only been in the ground for a few months.

"I saw Karofsky today." He spoke to the grass beneath him. "He is hurt pretty bad, still looks the brute but he had all of these tubes and machines hooked into him, he is in the VA Hospital with Warren. Part of me wanted to close off his air supply and part of me wanted to hug him. I doubt you would have approved of either actions" He pauses, looking over to the corgis chasing one another through the white rose bushes. "He looked so sad, that same look he gave me in high school. I thought it was anger back then, that look. but…it is sadness, I cn see that now."

Kurt grabs a few strands of grass and pulls them from the ground, moving the blades across his fingers. "You would tell me to visit him, to be there for him. I am…I'm scared Blaine." Dewey looked up to Kurt, tongue hanging out and tail waging at Blaine's name. "I don't know what to do. I wish you could tell me, you were always so good at these things."

He stands, admonishing himself for getting his pants dirty in the grass. He calls the three dogs in and looks back to the budding tree, "If you see Warren tell M is waiting for him to come back, I don't think she will make it if he stays there much longer Blaine."

The cherry blossom tree is only ten feet tall, the branches skinny but supporting the budding flowers well. Before it stands a gold plaque, big and heavy inside a clear plastic casing staked into the yard. When the tree grows for a few more years Kurt Hummel plans on having it put directly into the tree.

The plaque reads:

Blaine Anderson

1993 - 2012

"Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy."

A tiny infinity symbol carved at the bottom of the plaque, two perfect circles with a heart at the center of each one, the circles touching at the center.