In which Blaine is in the hospital for a bit

00

Kurt sat on the edge of Blaine's hospital bed. His boyfriend had been admitted over an hour ago and after some begging on Blaine's part Kurt was allowed into the room. The nurse was a kind woman anyway, and she had explained to Kurt all of Blaine's injuries:

"No concussion, but he's gonna have a nice goose egg."

"His nose is broken in a two places, they wrapped that up real nice."

"One of his fingers on his left hand is broken so they taped that."

"He has a lot of cuts and bruises on his legs so they disinfected them and used some bruising salve."

"Overall he's gonna be fine! We've written a prescription for some pain meds for his nose but he should be in tip-top shape in no time!"

Yeah. Sure. Physically, anyway.

Kurt almost didn't even want to look at poor Blaine. His legs were currently exposed thanks to the shorts. He could see Blaine did have several bruises and cuts, his left knee in particular looked like it had taken a beating. His swollen nose was hidden behind tape and plaster. The bruising had migrated from his nose to under his eyes as well, making him look even paler, almost sick. His mouth was open as he slept, causing a slight snore. Poor thing wouldn't be able to breathe through his nose for a while.

Kurt had been watching him sleep for close to an hour now, as he was knocked out on some mild pain medication they had given him. They said they wanted to keep him for a few hours, at least until the pain medication wore off. As he slept every now and then he'd mumble something, or try to talk to Kurt, but he was never coherent enough to actually say anything real.

Kurt broke from his thoughts and glanced up as Blaine's nurse, Ally, popped her head in and sadly shook her head. They didn't even need to say anything out loud. Kurt knew what she was saying.

When Blaine had first been admitted both Kurt and the receptionist tried to get a hold of Blaine's parents but to no avail. Ally's shake of the head told Kurt they still couldn't get a hold of the Andersons. Kurt tried to swallow his fury and focused on being there for Blaine. He had all but had an emotional breakdown back at the school.

Not twenty minutes prior Kurt had been quietly talking to Blaine in his drugged state about it.

"I'm sorry your parents suck, Blaine." Kurt whispered, mostly to himself.

Surprisingly enough, Blaine answered. "M'p…my parents? Coming?" He slurred, still half asleep. Kurt bit his lip, not knowing what to say. "Not coming." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Blaine, even in his half-asleep, drugged hazed knew his parents weren't coming. "S'ok…got m'Kurt." He whispered the last part, his voice fading out as he fell back to sleep.

"Kurt?" The teen was taken from his thoughts as he glanced up again but this time to see three familiar faces poked their heads into the room. Blaine's gym class heroes, Finn, Puck, and Mike all walked in. Mike was holding something black and something gray and as he got closer Kurt realized it was a sweatshirt and sweatpants. Kurt raised an eyebrow at the Asian boy who nervously glanced at Puck and Finn.

"Don't get mad." Mike said quickly, which isn't that just a lovely way to start a conversation?

"What happened now." Kurt said, monotone. It wasn't a question, more of a demand.

"Let's just…" Mike paused, trying to think of the right words to say. "Let's just say that…those assholes had full bladders…and Blaine's going to want to wash his clothes a few times before he wears them again."

A look of disgust and horror passed across Kurt's features. He resisted the urge to scream some vulgarities and insults directed towards those animals. But he clenched his fists, took several deep breathes through his nose, and squeezed his eyes shut. I can be calm.

"Mike had an extra pair of sweats in his car. And I had my hoodie. He can wear that for now." Finn said quickly, placatingly, grabbing the clothing items from Mike and placing them in Kurt's lap. "They'll be big but it's better than shorts and a t-shirt."

Kurt took a long, deep breath and nodded, opening his eyes. He gave a weak, thankful smile to his two friends and step-brother. "Ok. Ok. Thanks." He said slowly, seriously trying to keep his anger in check. Yeah, he got angry when the jocks shoved him around. But this was serious. This wasn't just him. This was Blaine. Blaine who was fucking hospitalized. And no matter how short a time he was going to stay in the hospital this was fucking serious. And the school wasn't going to do a god damn thing about it!

"Woah, woah, calm down!" Puck said, looking panicked.

Had he said all that out loud?

"Yeah man, we won't let this go unnoticed." Mike added quickly.

"Beiste saw the whole thing, she can like report it and stuff." Kurt shook his head at his step-brother's words.

"Do you know how many times teachers reported stuff for me? And how many times was something done? Once. And it lasted a god damn week. My bully was back after a week. They're not going to do anything for Blaine!"

"Doesn't mean we can't try." Finn said quietly, and Kurt couldn't help but give a soft smile, thankful for Finn's change in attitude about Blaine.

"Mmmm." Blaine mumbled, bringing all the attention back to him as he shifted and reached his hand out towards Kurt, the taller boy took it without hesitation.

"You wakin' up this time, honey?" Kurt asked with a small smirk.

"Mmm…where…where's Char'lee?"

"Charlie?" Finn repeated dumbly, glancing at Kurt. Kurt held the same look of confusion for a moment before realization hit him.

"Charlie's fine, Blaine. He's not hurt."

"They…h…hit 'im." Blaine said, still not opening his eyes but furrowing his brow in confusion.

"No sugar, not this time. He's fine."

"S'fine?"

"Yeah, Blaine. Charlie is still in Mississippi. You're here with me, Kurt."

"…urt. K….kuh…urt. Kurt. Kurt?" Blaine slurred, his words coming out slow. Despite his slurred words the 't' in 'Kurt' was very clearly enunciated - as it always was.

"I'm right here, Blaine." Kurt said, leaning onto the bed and smoothing back Blaine's free curls.

Blaine finally blinked his eyes open. He blinked slowly a few times as he looked at Kurt. "Hi." He said, a soft, tired, goofy smile forming on his lips.

"Hi there." Kurt laughed, smoothing back his curls again. "How are you feeling?"

"I—I'm…m'floaty."

"Floaty?"

"Mmmhmm."

"Is floaty a word?" Finn asked, causing Blaine to slowly turn his head towards his three classmates. He merely furrowed his brow at them.

"They brought you some clothes, Blaine." Kurt said.

"My clothes?"

"No, but they brought you something comfy. Do you want to put them on?"

Blaine paused for a long moment. "Mm-mm." He said slightly shaking his head, tugging Kurt's hand, which he was still holding. Kurt stepped closer to the bed but Blaine kept tugging. "With me."

Kurt chuckled slightly, "Ok, but you gotta scoot over just a little." Blaine did as asked, slowly, and soon Kurt was on the bed with him sitting up against the headboard. Blaine wrapped his one arm around Kurt's waist, clinging closely, his head resting on Kurt's thigh,. Kurt wrapped his right arm around Blaine's shoulder, pulling him just as close, and stroking his free curls with that hand. With his other hand he took Blaine's free hand in his, rubbing his thumb over his knuckles.

"Man, Anderson, you got Kurt whipped." Puck said, earning a glare from Kurt but a quiet chuckle from Blaine.

"Jealous?" Blaine asked, eyes closed again, as he drew out the 's' in jealous for longer than necessary.

Mike and Kurt laughed outright at the look on Finn's face when Puck pretended to actually consider Kurt. "They must have given you something good, Blaine." Mike joked, trying to change the subject before Finn went into 'brother mode.'

"Mm. Real good." Blaine mumbled, snuggling closer to Kurt.

"You tired, honey?" Kurt asked, still slowly stroking Blaine's curls. All he got in response was a fading 'Mmmm…' "Go to sleep, honey. You've got a little while before they'll let you leave anyway." Blaine was out before Kurt stopped talking.

After a while Puck broke their comfortable silence by asking, "So, uh, who's Charlie?"

Kurt paused considering his answer. "It's not really my place to tell you…but I'll say this. One time Blaine went to a dance with a friend named Charlie. They got beat up pretty bad afterwards." Kurt stopped talking then, looking hard at a spot on the wall. There was clearly more to the story than that but they dropped it then, Puck quietly only adding:

"I guess his reaction in the gym makes more sense now."

The four boys chatted quietly after sitting in silence for a while. For about half an hour they talked about anything but the bullying before there was a knock at the door. They turned in time to see Tina rush in. "Oh my God, is he ok? I only read Mike's text after last period and I freaked out! Is he ok? How bad did they hurt him?"

"Take a breath, Teen." Mike said, standing and rubbing his hands up and down his girlfriend's arms.

"Sorry." She smiled weakly, before turning back to Blaine, who was still fast asleep. "Oh man, his nose…"

"Yeah, it was nice enough to break his fall."

Tina shook her head, "Poor thing. And it was—this was all in gym class?" Kurt nodded, eyes searing. "This is a joke, right?

"Sadly, no."

"Jesus Christ." She mumbled.

Before anything more could be said four other figures appeared in the doorway. "Jesus, Tina, how fast did you run?" Everyone in the room turned to see Artie, Rachel, Mercedes, and Quinn in the doorway.

Mike glanced at his girlfriend again, eyebrow raised. "I may have run up the stairs while they were waiting for the elevator…" Everyone in the room chuckled as Mike leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

"So, how is he?" Rachel asked as she and the other three new visitors entered the room.

"He's fine. His nose'll be fucked up for a while but he's fine." Kurt said tiredly, earning a surprised look for his language (but everyone decided not to comment on it).

"Are they making him stay the night?"

"No, they said they wanted him to stay at least until the drugs wore off." Kurt glanced over to the almost empty IV bag that was connected Blaine's hand that Kurt was currently holding.

"God, how bad did they beat him up? I mean – it was gym class! A class! You'd think-" Rachel trailed off, lowering her voice as she was shushed by several of them.

"Rachel, don't get Kurt started." Finn whispered, tugging on his girlfriend's arm so she was sitting beside him on the unoccupied bed. "He's really pissed."

"You're damn right I'm pissed!" Kurt snarled, making most everyone jump. "I swear toChrist. Tomorrow I'm going right to Figgin's office and if he doesn't do something about this-"

"Sorry we're late." Came two new voices. They all turned to see Santana and Brittany walking through the door. "We were—taking care of something with Shelby."

"No we weren't." Brittany said, looking at her girlfriend in confusion, "We went to find the Hockey Team and-" Santana's hand quickly smacked over Brittany's mouth, effectively silencing her. Everyone else in the room glanced at the two suspiciously.

"If you happen to hear a few stories about what happened to certain hockey jocks that involves scratching, rope, and tampons…it wasn't us."

Kurt blinked slowly, staring hard at the two cheerleaders. "I don't even want to know." He mumbled as Quinn mouthed 'tampons?' with a questioning look. Santana just shrugged dismissively and that was the end of that.

"So how's my Narwhal?" Brittany asked, walking towards the bed. She glanced at his face and frowned. "They broke his nose?"

Kurt nodded, "Pretty badly."

"Poor Narwhal." Brittany shook her head.

"Narwhal?"

Brittany just nodded, "He told me all about Narwhals the other day in study hall. He said they're like…if a dolphin and a unicorn had a baby." She grinned at Kurt, "So you guys are narwhals." That earned a chuckle out of most everyone in the room.

After they stopped laughing Mercedes spoke up, glancing towards the door "Where are his parents?"

Kurt's good mood immediately disappeared. "They're not coming. They haven't even answered their phones." Kurt growled, biting his lip hard. They don't want to be there for their son when he's fucking hospitalized? That's fine. Then Blaine will just come home with me and they can go fuck themselves if they think they're gonna come see him.

"Kurt?" Kurt glanced up to see everyone staring.

"Sorry. He's just gonna come home with us, ok Finn?" Finn nodded, deciding not to ask if Burt would be ok with that.

All attention turned to Blaine as he groaned, turning his head to bury it in Kurt's leg. "Blaine?" Kurt asked, "You lucid?"

Blaine moaned again, before blinking his eyes open and glancing up at Kurt. "Hi." He smiled dopily.

"Hey there, sugar. Nice to see you awake and aware. How are you feeling?"

Blaine shrugged, but winced slightly as the movement. "Been better, but I'll live. How long was I out?"

"Maybe three hours?" Kurt shrugged, before glancing at his friend. "I'm not the only one here, you know." Blaine turned from Kurt and glanced around the room, eyes widening at all the people there.

"Oh, uh, hi. What are you guys doing here?"

"We came to visit you, silly!" Brittany smiled, earning a surprised look from Blaine, like he honestly hadn't thought that'd be their reason for being there.

He covered up his surprise by asking, "So, uh, when did you guys get here?"

"Not long ago." Rachel supplied, as Finn said "We were here before, you don't remember talking to us?" Blaine looked confused but shook his head.

"I guess they really did give him the good stuff." Puck joked, earning a laugh from Finn, Mike, and Kurt – though Blaine just sat there looking confused.

"It's ok, honey. They're laughing with you not at you." Blaine didn't look so convinced but he shrugged it off.

"So, uh, what's gonna happen now?" Blaine asked sitting up fully.

"I'm gonna call the nurse, get you checked out, and you're coming back to my place and we're all gonna eat ice cream and watch Mary Poppins." As Kurt spoke he turned to the other occupants of the room, who nodded in agreement to the plan. Blaine looked pleased with the idea but shook his head, starting to protest. But Kurt cut him off before he could get any farther. "Don't even try, Blaine. You're coming home with us and that's that." Blaine shut his mouth, looked both pleased and displeased at the same time, but said nothing more. "Now, will someone go find his nurse? I think it's time we all get out of here."