Title: Be My Escape (1/?)

Rating: T for later chapters

Disclaimer: I am not fortunate enough to own Glee.

Author's Note: I didn't actually plan to put this up until I had finished it. I am incredibly busy with exams right now so I don't have that much time for writing this which means updates will be far and few until June. However, I have decided to put the first chapter up so I can see the response that it gets and decide if I should continue it.

He was going to be okay.

Everything was going to be okay again.

Kurt Hummel clasped his hands together and took another look through the window to the hospital room where his father was, finally awake. He was surrounded by doctors and nurses, some with clipboards, others with medicine. Burt looked somewhat uncomfortable with all the attention but Kurt knew that he was thankful to be awake.

A gentle hand rested on the shoulders of the teenage boy and he turned around to see who it was, coming face to face with Carole and Finn. He gave each of them a tired yet happy smile.

Wordlessly, Carole enveloped him in a hug. "I'm so glad he's alright," she whispered, rubbing Kurt's back a little.

He returned the hug and nodded gently. "Me too."

When Carole let him go, Finn stood in front of him, looking a little awkward, not sure if a hug would be appropriate or not. Eventually, he gave Kurt a gentle pat on the shoulder. "Hey, man," he smiled. Kurt returned the greeting with a quiet 'hi'.

"Honey, you look exhausted," Carole said. "Why don't you go get some coffee or something?"

Kurt hesitated. He really was in dire need of caffeine but he looked through the window once again, making sure his dad was alright. Sensing what he was thinking, Carole's hand slipped into his own.

"Don't worry about your Dad," she said, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. "He isn't going anywhere. I'll take care of him. Go with Finn."

Reluctantly Kurt nodded and let go of Carole's hand and began walking to the cafeteria with Finn, falling into step beside him.

"Y'know," the older, much taller, boy spoke up. "Everyone's real glad that your dad's alright. I called Rachel to let her know he woke up and so, of course, she told everyone else in glee club."

A smirk appeared on Kurt's face. Typical Rachel.

The rest of their walk went by in a comfortable silence, none of them speaking, both a little tired after the events of the past few days. However, they were dealing with the overwhelming relief that they felt now that they knew Burt was on the road to recovery.

Upon reaching the cafeteria, Finn began shuffling nervously. "Hey, uh, I gotta go to the bathroom. Like, now... Could you just get me a soda or something?" he asked Kurt, bouncing up and down a little.

Kurt let out a short laugh. "Sure," he said. "Now hurry up before we have a spillage."

"A spillage?" A confused look was now present on Finn's face.

"Bathroom. Go. Now."

And that was all Finn needed as he fled to look for a restroom. Kurt walked up to the counter and ordered a Coke for Finn and a nonfat mocha for himself. He already had a feeling that the coffee in the hospital wouldn't be the best but he could deal with it. He just needed something to keep him awake.

His phone began vibrating in his pocket and he pulled it out to see a text from Mercedes, telling him how happy she was that his dad was awake. With one hand, he typed out a reply, which was proving to be quite difficult as he grabbed Finn's Coke and his coffee and slid them onto a tray.

Once his reply to Mercedes had been sent, he picked up the tray with both hands and walked over to a nearby empty table.

As soon as he sat down, he immediately grabbed his coffee cup, desperate to get some form of energy boost.

He took a sip of the coffee and his face screwed up in disgust. What was this? It was so sweet and horrible and—

"Excuse me?"

A tapping on Kurt shoulder caused him to turn around, forcing him to swallow the vile liquid in his mouth.

Facing him was a young girl, about fourteen years old, her hair tied back in a ponytail. She wore a black hoodie and skinny jeans with matching black Converse. The only colour she had about her was an over-the-shoulder bag she wore that was laden with different colourful keyrings. There must have been about twenty or something. Amongst them, Kurt could pick out a Bugs Bunny one, a soccer ball and—was that a picture or something?

He looked up at the girl's face; her own blue eyes were staring down at him. She was pretty, but a little bit plain. She wore no make-up and her eyes looked tired, just like Kurt felt. However, there was an inquisitive look in them.

"Yes?" he asked her.

She nervously held out a coffee cup. "You took my coffee by mistake," she explained. "That's my latte and this is your..."

"Mocha," he finished for her.

"Yeah," she smiled sheepishly.

Well, that explained things. He must have been so distracted by texting Mercedes back that he had picked up the wrong order by mistake. That was why he was disgusted with the drink he now held. Well, that was rather embarrassing...

He swapped the coffee cups with the girl and raised an eyebrow. "Just a question..."

She tilted her head to the side, curiously, in what Kurt would have described as an adorable manner.

"How do you drink that?" he asked her, eyeing the latte with disdain.

An amused smile played on her lips. "You don't like caramel lattes?"

Caramel? That would be the reason for why it was so sickly.

He shook his head a little. "How can you even stomach that?"

She giggled in response, although the noise was short-lived and sounded almost hollow and empty.

Kurt raised the cup with his own order in it and took a sip, revelling in the way the warm liquid ran down his throat. It wasn't too bad for a hospital drink.

"You're Kurt Hummel, aren't you?" the girl piped up.

That got his attention.

"Um, yes. How did you know?" he enquired, setting his coffee cup down on the table.

Without any invitation, the girl walked around Kurt and seated herself down on the chair across from him. He didn't really mind. After all, the girl seemed harmless and he was intrigued as to why she knew his name.

"My brother is on the same ward as your dad," she explained. "I've seen you around."

Oh, that was a surprise. Kurt had never seen the girl before. Mind you, he had been busy focusing on other things like his father and the persistence of his fellow glee club members to pray and preach and whatnot.

"Ah, I see. Well, yes, I am indeed Kurt Hummel," he said. "It's nice to meet you..."

It was the perfect prompt to find out the girl's name.

She reached her hand over the table and he took it in his, giving it a quick shake. "I'm Joey Anderson," she told him.

The name suited her, Kurt noted. She didn't look like a typical girl, her outfit was rather laidback and tomboyish. However, as much as Kurt wanted to reprimand her for her lack of style, he remembered that they were in a hospital and she had just told him that her brother was in the same ward as her dad. He was tempted to ask why but decided it was best not to pry.

"I'm really happy that your dad woke up," she said, smiling kindly at him after a drink of her coffee.

He returned the smile. This kid was sweet. "Thanks," he replied. "I'm pretty glad myself."

"I think my brother will wake up soon too..." she trailed off absent-mindedly, as if the comment was made only for her to hear.

Kurt felt a pang of sympathy for the girl. He knew what it was like, not knowing if a loved one would reopen their eyes again. He himself had experienced it up until only a short while ago. "What's your brother's name?" he asked, softly.

"Blaine."

Hmm, that was an unusual name. Kurt had never met anyone else called Bla—

"Kurt!"

At his name being called, the boy turned to see Finn lumbering over to him and Joey and plonking himself down beside Kurt, beginning to babble on about how the dryers in the bathroom made him feel like he had superpowers when he stopped abruptly, noticing they had company.

"Hi..." he began, uncertainly.

Joey smiled at him, giving him a small half-wave.

"Finn, this is Joey," he introduced them. "Her brother is in the same ward as my dad." He attempted to caution Finn with his eyes, silently begging him not to ask for details. No such luck.

"What's your brother in for?" he asked, bluntly.

Kurt could have slapped his friend for his lack of tact.

Although, Kurt caught the flicker of hesitation in Joey's eyes, she gave Finn a small smile. "He fell down a flight of stairs," she said, sadly.

Both Kurt and Finn's eyes widened and immediately Joey bit her lip, looking like she regretted telling them. A crease appeared in Kurt's forehead and he leaned forwards slightly, dropping his voice.

"I'm so sorry to hear that, Joey," he told her, and was answered by a half-hearted shrug.

"Is he okay?" Finn asked around the mouth of his bottle of Coke.

"Finn!" Kurt hissed. Clearly Joey's brother was not okay after taking a tumble down a flight of stairs. Boy, he really needed to help Finn develop some form of verbal filter.

"What?" a confused Finn replied, but upon seeing the glare Kurt was giving hum, he understood and winced, turning to Joey with an apologetic look on his face. "I'm sorry, I mean, I didn't know..."

"It's okay," the younger girl reassured him. She slipped her bag over her shoulder and rested it on top of the table. "He's in a coma right now. He's stayed in the same condition for about a week now." She clasped her hands tightly together, staring down at the table so neither of the boys in front of her could see her expression.

An uncomfortable silence crept over the three of them. Finn was tempted to say something like 'I'm sure he'll be okay' but he figured that Kurt would probably tell him off so, instead, he sat up and cleared his throat. "Want a cookie?"

Joey looked up and smiled at him, despite the tears gathering in her eyes. She giggled. "I'd love one."

Grinning, Finn jumped up. "Great, I'll go get you one. Kurt?"

"No thanks," Kurt said, with a wave of his hand. He wasn't sure that his stomach would be able to handle a cookie after all the events of the day.

When Finn left, Kurt turned back to Joey and tilted his head to the side. "Sorry about Finn. He has Foot in Mouth Syndrome, we're trying to cure it."

Joey shook her head. "It's alright. I often suffer from it too," she stated, then unclasped her hands, taking another drink of her latte. "Is he your boyfriend?"

The question surprised Kurt. Normally, such a question would be asked with tones of sarcasm or malice in the voice of the asker, but with Joey, she merely sounded curious. Her question seemed absolutely genuine and it surprised him. She seemed like she was perfectly okay with the idea of two males in a relationship.

Joey misinterpreted his silence as one of horror and immediately began apologising. "Oh gosh, there I go, foot in mouth. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to jump to conclusions. It's not that you look... You know... Ack, I'm so sorry—"

"Joey!" Kurt cut her off, laughing a little. She ceased talking, an apologetic look still present on her face. "Don't worry about it. I'm gay, yes." He figured there was no harm in telling the girl this. "However, Finn isn't my boyfriend. He's my... Well, our parents are dating."

Taking all this in, Joey seemed to calm down and nodded. "Oh. Okay. I'm just glad I didn't offend you."

"Of course not," Kurt said, kindly. "In fact I was just surprised that you were talking so casually about homosexuality. It seemed like you didn't have a problem with it."

"I don't!" she replied quickly. "My brother..."

There it was again, Joey trailing off and looking afraid that she had given out too much information. Kurt wondered if she was always like this, scared of what she was saying. Even though he wasn't one for physical contact, he reached across the table and gave her hand a gentle tap. "I understand."

So her brother, he assumed she meant Blaine, was gay too. Kurt wondered if he was openly gay or in the closet. Judging by how Joey talked about him, he couldn't really figure it out. He may have guessed the latter but surely Joey couldn't be that open and carelessly throwing about information like that. Instead of overthinking the situation, he drew back his hand as Finn returned to the table and handed Joey her cookie.

"Thanks," she said and immediately began rummaging in her bag for change. Finn stopped her.

"No need. It's on me."

Joey shook her head. "No, no, let me pay. That wouldn't be fair."

"Relax," Finn chuckled. "I'm not going to let you pay for a stupid cookie."

Instead of arguing, Joey's shoulders slumped in defeat and she let out a sigh, the guilty look not leaving her face as she nibbled on the snack. Kurt felt bad for her. She seemed so unsure of her actions and words and it appeared as if she wasn't used to people acting nice to her, yet she was such a sweet person and the fact that she had no problem with gay people just gave her brownie points.

"Hey, you like skateboarding?" Finn's voice snapped Kurt out of his thoughts and he looked at him, confused. However, Finn wasn't looking at Kurt. He was more focused on Joey's bag and Kurt noticed why. A skateboard shaped keyring dangled in between a Superman one and one shaped like a sunflower.

Joey brightened up at once, grinning excitedly. "I love skateboarding!"

Finn nodded. "That's cool. You being a girl and all." There he went again.

Thankfully, Joey didn't seem to be insulted. "I'm not really a typical girl. I prefer skateboarding over dancing and comics over romance novels."

Kurt could tell that this girl was climbing higher and higher on Finn's list of 'Favourite People'. "That's awesome!" his bear of a friend exclaimed. He was surprised that Finn wasn't already dragging Joey off to some church to proclaim their wedding vows.

Joey blushed and looked down, swallowing the last bite of her cookie and playing with a loose thread on her hoodie. Clearly she wasn't used to praise and attention of the positive variety.

Suddenly, Carry on my Wayward Son began playing, causing both Kurt and Finn to jump a little. Joey hurriedly reached into her pocket and brought out her cell phone, where the music was coming from and flipped it open, pressing it to her ear.

"Hey, Dad." The smiled had now gone from her face and so had the happy glow it had only a moment ago.

"I'm sorry, I'm in the cafe, I didn't realise I was taking so long." her blue eyes darted to Kurt and Finn and both of them averted their eyes, attempting to look like they weren't listening to the one-sided conversation.

"I'll be there in a minute. I'm sorry. Bye."

She closed her phone and stood up, wiping some spare crumbs from her cookie off her hoodie. She smiled at the two boys, shoving her phone back into her pocket. "I have to go," she informed them, as if they hadn't already gathered that. "My dad was wondering where I was."

"Everything okay?" Kurt asked, a little concerned at the sudden change in Joey's mood.

"Fine," she said, a little too quickly. "I just better be on my way. Thanks for the cookie, Finn. It was good seeing you guys."

Both of them nodded and Kurt stood. "Do you need me to talk you back?" He didn't miss the way her eyes widened ever so slightly before she shook her head. "No, no, it's okay. I know where to go."

She chewed on her lip and glanced at the pair of them again. "Will I see you guys around?" Kurt smiled at the hopeful tone in her voice.

"Of course," he reassured her. After all, he doubted that the doctors would be too keen on letting his father out any time soon. They would probably want to keep an eye on him before he was discharged.

"Great," she smiled, although it didn't really meet her eyes. Then with a final 'goodbye' she set off, at a rather quick pace, towards the exit of the cafeteria.

Kurt sat back down in his chair and finished off his coffee. "She was pretty nice, huh?" he said to Finn.

Finn nodded, enthusiastically. "Yeah, she was really cool. Plus, she liked comics so obviously that made her kinda awesome."

With an eyeroll, Kurt turned away from Finn and picked up his empty coffee cup and put it in the bin when Finn's voice sounded again.

"Dude, Joey left her bag," he said to Kurt. Looking back at the table, Kurt saw he was right. There was no missing the mound of keyrings on the bag that lay abandoned at the end of the table. In her haste to leave, Joey must have forgotten to lift it.

Picking it up, he slung it on his shoulder. "She said her brother was in the same ward as my dad. We could go give it to her the now."

With Finn's agreement, the two of them walked out of the cafeteria and down the corridors, back in the direction that they had first came.

Burt's room was the first one in the ward so they stopped at that and peered in the window. There was only one doctor there with Burt and Carole but they didn't look like they were talking about anything medical. The three of them were laughing, even Burt who looked a lot better, if a little tired. The sight sent Kurt's heart soaring. It looked like his dad was already on the road to recovery.

"You go ahead," he told Finn. "I'll just drop this off to Joey."

"That's cool, dude," Finn said, noticing that Burt was turning on the room's TV. There must have been a game on.

Walking away, Kurt looked down at Joey's keyrings. There was so many. He noticed a basketball, a TARDIS and, oh, there was that photograph that he had first picked out upon seeing her. He brought it closer to his eyes and inspected it. It was Joey and an older boy, who didn't really look much like her. He had curly black hair and hazel eyes. The two of them were staring at the camera with wide eyes and their tongues hanging out of their mouths. Kurt wondered if this was her brother, Blaine. Well, he was good looking to say the least, even with a goofy pose like that.

He walked over to one of the nurses, who was sorting a stack of magazines on the reception desk. "Excuse me, could you tell me where Blaine Anderson's room is?" He prayed he had the name right.

"Down the corridor there, take a left and it's the second door on your right," she told Kurt, smiling at him. During the time he had spent here with his dad, Kurt had gotten to know a few of the nurses and they had all seemed to have taken a liking to him.

He memorised her instructions and followed them. Turning the corner that she had told him about, he spotted the door and walked towards it. He looked in the window, just to double check. He saw Joey sitting beside the bed, her hand holding onto someone else's. From where he was standing, Kurt couldn't see her facial expression. Kurt's eyes travelled up the bed and landed on its occupant.

It was definitely the guy from the picture, his curly hair made Kurt sure. However, Kurt couldn't see his hazel eyes. They were closed and rather swollen from what Kurt could see. He had a horrific cut on his temple with travelled down to his cheekbone. A few tubes were protruding from sporadic places and it made Kurt feel a little sick. That must have been one long flight of stairs. Poor Blaine.

"Can I help you?" a gruff voice asked from behind, causing Kurt to whirl around.

Facing him was a guy who Kurt at once recognised as Joey's father. He had the same blue eyes as her and brown hair. However, this guy's face seemed hardened and less friendly than Joey's. He frowned at Kurt, silently telling him that his presence was not welcomed.

"Oh, uh, hi. This is Joey's bag," he thrust the object forwards, causing a few of the keyrings to clink together. "She left it in the cafeteria."

The frown on the man's face deepened. "You were talking to Josephine?"

Josephine? It took Kurt a minute before he realised that the man was talking about Joey. Josephine must be her real name. It didn't really suit her though. 'Joey' seemed much better.

Kurt nodded in the affirmative. "Yeah, our coffee orders got mixed up and, well, it's a long story." A weak smile appeared on Kurt's face; however Joey's father's face did not change. He took the bag off of Kurt with a little bit more force than was necessary, causing Kurt to stumble forward a little bit.

He stood up straight and tugged his jacket down. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your son, Mr Anderson," Kurt said, sincerely. Just because this guy wasn't going to polite, doesn't mean Kurt couldn't be.

His eyes narrowed. "What did Josephine tell you?"

Kurt was careful. He remembered the look on Joey's face when her father had called her. Something told him this guy wasn't the friendliest of people. He didn't want her to get into trouble. "Just that he fell down a flight of stairs."

Eventually, after Joey's father stared Kurt down, he nodded. "Right," he said. "You can go now. I don't believe you have any other business being here, am I right?"

Kurt shook his head. "No, sir. Goodbye."

The teenager then walked off, rounding the corner before stopping and leaning against the wall, his head reeling. Something about Joey and Blaine's father unnerved him. His attitude made Kurt suspicious.

Something was going on with the Andersons and Kurt wanted to find out more.