AN: Yes, I am starting a new story. Don't worry I'm still going to continue working on "Someone Like You" and "Time and Space", I just really had to get this one out of my head.

Set six years after the current senior members of New Directions graduate. Also, Blaine is the same age as Kurt in this story. There will be major character deaths in the following chapters and they will get more graphic. Warning for spoilers: up to episode 3x04.

PROLOGUE:

Burt Hummel filled up the kettle with tap water from the sink, his eyes lingering outside for a moment. The sun shone brightly; for others this was the perfect Sunday to go out. For Burt, it was the fourth day since he'd heard from Kurt, Blaine or the rest of his friends. He walked over to the stove, glancing at the time briefly before turning it on and putting the kettle to heat. Eight-thirty in the morning. With a sigh he walked to the living room where he picked up today's newspaper. He walked over to his sofa chair, turned on the TV with the remote control even though he knew there were no news today and sat down.

He skimmed the paper. Nothing about Kurt or Blaine. He threw down the paper on the coffee table, where other newspapers were laid out. Picking up yesterday's paper he read briefly the article in which he'd been interviewed for.

Mr. Hummel immediately suspected something was wrong when his son didn't return his calls on Thursday night.
"My son calls me everyday. I know a lot of parents say that, but Kurt and I don't go a day without communicating with one another in some way," Mr. Hummel said.
Bill Anderson, father of Blaine Anderson, refused to comment or be interviewed for the article. Mr. Anderson, a well known lawyer from New York...

Burt put down the newspaper. Everything published on Kurt and his missing friends was always the same on every paper. The group had gathered at the new Marriott hotel in central Lima for a small Glee club reunion. That night only Artie and Mercedes showed up for their six o'clock dinner reservations which lead to suspicions on the whereabouts of everyone else. An investigation was launched when surveillance videos from around the hotel showed the group board a van. They'd gotten a shot of the driver and it'd been revealed that he was not a staff employee. That's when the story began to gain press. It was when they finally announced the kidnapping of Kurt and his friends.

Burt lowered the volume on the television as he remembered he had a guest staying at his house. Burt had informed Blaine's parents after he got word of what was going. Bill Anderson showed up in his doorstep shortly after landing at the airport some hours later.

"It's unfortunate that we see each other again at a time like this," Bill said after Burt had invited him inside his home. Burt remembered the last time he saw him was in New York after Kurt and Blaine had graduated from college.

Burt nodded before speaking as he handed him a glass of water, "Carole will be home soon."

"How is she, by the way?" Bill said putting the glass down.

"Not well," Burt replied with a sigh. "Both of our sons have been kidnapped. The only reason she goes to work is in hopes that they'll be brought in at the hospital. I have my second best guy at the shop right now since Finn, well you know."

"Finn, he's your wife's son, right?"

"Yeah, but he's my son, too. Which made him the ideal person to pass my shop to."

"Of course," Bill said quickly. "You two must have a great relationship for you to pass on your shop to him instead of to your son."

"Well, Kurt insisted," Burt said with a smile. "I didn't mind. Finn is a responsible person. He is the perfect choice."

Mr. Anderson nodded. "Well, I must get going if I want to find somewhere to stay until I hear anything about Blaine. I flew out here the moment I got your call that I didn't even book a room at a hotel since I just took the next flight out to Lima. I told Linda to stay at home until there were more news. She's very picky about where she stays and I don't think she'd enjoy staying at just any hotel. I told her I would fly her out here the moment Blaine was found."

"You're welcome to stay here," Burt said. "We have a guest bedroom and the boy's room are spare ever since they moved out."

"Oh no, I couldn't-"

"Please, I insist. No point in being alone in a hotel just waiting for news."

"Thanks. I'll get my suitcase out of the car I rented at the airport," Bill said and walked out of the house.

Burt followed, but stopped when he saw a younger man dressed in a black suit walk up to the doorstep with a small suitcase. He saw Bill tip the young man, pick up his suitcase and walk back inside. Why was he surprised? Bill was a man of a high income, of course he would hire someone to drive a car for him and take him wherever he needed. Then again he didn't know this man at all, so he probably shouldn't be so quick to make assumptions about him.

"The guest bedroom is right this way," Burt said motioning for Mr. Anderson to follow. Burt led Bill to the back of the house, finally opening the door to a small room. Inside was a twin sized bed with a small dresser. "Not a five-star hotel, unfortunately, but then again there aren't really any of those in here. Not even the Marriott, Kurt told me it only got three stars which is as fancy as you'll get in Lima."

"It's fine," Bill said as he stepped inside and put down his suitcase. He sat down on the bed before looking up at Burt.

"Have they-," Bill began just as Burt was about to close the door and leave him alone. He cleared his throat. "Are they married?"

"Not yet," Burt answered shaking his head. "They're engaged, but they're still trying to pick out a date."

"I thought they maybe had and Blaine just hadn't wanted us there," Bill said with a sigh. "I know it would have killed Linda."

Burt didn't know much about Blaine's relationship with his father, but from what he did was that it was not a good one. He wondered how long had it been since Blaine and his father talked. He recalled how Blaine was always joining them for holidays saying he didn't mind spending it with them since it meant being with Kurt. Kurt would always then mention to him in private how Blaine just didn't want to go home, mostly because of his dad.

"You have a good kid, you know," Burt finally said unsure of the point he wanted to make. "He's treated my son right; he makes Kurt happy which is all I've ever wanted for him. What more can a father want than to see the people they care for or love happy? Blaine's done that for my son and family. I know that if you put aside the fact that they're both men, you would see what I see, two people in love."

Bill didn't say anything and Burt took that as his cue to leave. Bill and Carole only talked the first night during dinner, but after that only when they saw each other. In the last couple of days, Bill would come out of his room only for breakfast and dinner, other than that he was on his cell phone or laptop most of the time. Burt figured the man was handling the situation differently than he was. Burt would go into the shop a few hours, not wanting to leave his house for long just in case anything on Kurt came up.

Burt turned his attention back to the television and began flipping through the channels until he found a re-run game of college football. With his mind elsewhere he didn't hear Bill walk into the room until he spoke.

"Morning," Bill said as he took a seat on the sofa opposite of him. He was wearing what looked like to Burt an expensive gray business suit. It made him wonder if he ever wore anything that wasn't tailored or bought at a designer store. He on the other hand was wearing a pair of faded out denim jeans, a flannel shirt with his usual vest and his baseball cap.

"Morning," Burt replied, also not bothering to the add the 'good' in front as it wasn't a good morning after all.

They sat in silence before Bill spoke.

"Ever been to a game?"

Burt looked up."Yeah a few months ago Kurt and Finn got me tickets for the final play offs. Although, Blaine went with us instead of Kurt. My son doesn't like stadiums unless he's singing in them, he's more of stage guy."

Bill smiled for a moment. "I'm more of a hockey and basketball guy myself. But Blaine, when he was thirteen, he just kept going on and on about football. One day out of nowhere I decided to take the day off, surprised Blaine at school and took him to see a game. He spent most of the game explaining to me everything that was happening. Before he went to bed that night he didn't say anything just hugged me. Now that I think about it I think it's the last time we hugged. Not even when he graduated from high school or college, I just shook his hand and gave him a pat on the back, even though I was so proud of him."

Burt looked down, he hated knowing that this happened with parents and their kids because of their sexuality. It brought him back to Kurt's sophomore year when he finally came out to him. Burt had known all along, but even so he hugged Kurt for being brave and honest with him and himself. Then he remembered how Blaine had come to the shop one day asking him to take advantage of the relationship he had with Kurt as he didn't have the same one with his dad.

"Six months later he started to distance himself," Bill continued. "It was shortly after he started high school. When he got sent to the hospital after that silly dance, I thought I'd never be able to hug again. He wouldn't speak much to me afterward saying I could have done something about it if only I'd listened to him. Linda told me he didn't want to go back to that school so when we found him Dalton, I paid the tuition and sent him there. I only visited when I had to after that. Blaine seemed to be enjoying himself there so I let him have his space. Linda and I would only see him during the summer and certain holidays, when he had no choice but to go home. Linda naturally blamed me for that fact, hell, I blamed myself too, yet I never did anything about it.

"My pride and stubbornness made me push him away. I tried to overcome the fact that my son was into other boys. I thought that maybe sending him to Dalton would in some way help me accept my son. All I did though was bury myself with work. Then the summer before his senior year he comes home and tells us he's seeing someone. I knew I wasn't ready, but I want to try. I thought this was my chance to prove to Blaine that I wanted to change. I told myself that if maybe I saw my son happy then I could ignore that he was with another boy. I couldn't do it though and Blaine saw how uncomfortable I was with the whole thing. He took it as me not wanting to accept him or his lifestyle.

"The only thing I did for him was let him transfer when he came to us saying he didn't want to attend Dalton anymore. Here I am paying thousands a year so my son can get the best education and he comes to tell me he wants to go to public school? I sat down with him and talked things through. I thought it was his way of wanting to prove something to himself for having left his old school. But no, Blaine straight out told me that it was so he could be with Kurt. I looked at my son and couldn't help, but be reminded of myself. I transferred colleges for Linda; I was in Stanford when I met her, she went to UCLA. We'd known each other for a few months, but I knew she was the one for me, so I transferred. So who was I to say no to Blaine and tell him it was just a high school romance and that he'd get over it. We sort of bonded somewhat after that, at least for a while," Bill sighed turning his gaze to meet Burt's.

"When he applied for law school I could not have been happier. Then he told me why, so he could help other gay people. So he could protect his rights along with Kurt's, something I'd never done. And that hurt me, to be told by my only son that I'd never protected him. I tried to explain to him how hard it had been for me to watch him go through all that simply because he was gay. I'd only wanted the best for him. He told me that as long as I didn't acknowledge that Kurt was the best for him then I should probably stay away. And I have come to understand that Kurt and Blaine care for each other, but I haven't talked to him since that day," Bill finished, his voice barely a whisper.

Burt's eyes watered as he asked, "Why not?"

"Blaine seemed happier without trying to get me to accept him, I think," Bill said with a small shrug. "Linda kept in touch with him, they've always been close. When you called me three days ago, it felt like the world had punched me in the stomach. All I could think was that I'd never told my son that I loved him, that he was my son or even hug him," Bill said running his right hand through his short, silver hair. "What if I've lost that chance?"

"No," Burt said walking over to sit next to him. "No, you'll see. They'll find them. Alive. When they do you are going tell Blaine everything you just told me, understood?"

Burt was about to say more when his cell phone started ringing. He quickly picked it up, glancing down at Bill who was wiping away a few tears that had slipped with a silk handkerchief.

"Burt Hummel speaking" he said when he saw that it was an unknown number.

"Mr. Hummel?" a male voice asked.

"Yes?"

"Mr. Hummel we have your son Kurt on the other line-"

"Kurt?" Burt asked quickly, not believing it. "Let me speak to him," he nearly demanded gripping to the phone tightly.

"In one moment," the man on the other end said. "We need you to help calm down Kurt and keep him on the line for as long as possible so we can track down where he is. Please try to stay calm as well, can you do that?"

"Yes, yes, just let me speak with my son," Burt nearly pleaded. Burt met Bill's eyes for a moment and held up his hand, signaling for him to wait.

"Okay," the operator spoke before he heard a small beep.

"Kurt?" Burt asked cautiously.

"Dad?" he heard Kurt ask his voice so weak it reminded him of a much younger Kurt. It reminded him of when Kurt would call out to him in the dark when he'd had a nightmare. Burt fought back tears before he spoke again.

"Yes, son, it's me." His heart swelled up with joy at the realization that Kurt was alive. "Where are you? Are you okay?"

"I don't know," Kurt responded before he coughed. "I don't know, dad." There was a brief moment of silence before he heard Kurt move and speak again. "Blaine, wake up! Dad something is wrong with Blaine, he's not moving. I tried to save him, I-"

"Kurt, calm down," Burt said into the phone, avoiding Bill's eyes. "Blaine is going to be fine."

"What's wrong with Blaine?" Bill asked immediately, his eyes wide open.

Burt shook his head at Bill and wondered if Kurt had heard him. Kurt's next words sent a chill down his back.

"Dad, Blaine's not breathing. Why isn't he breathing?"

Burt was left speechless as he sat back down on the sofa with his head down. No. Blaine couldn't be dead. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He didn't need to speak though as the operator, a female this time spoke.

"Kurt we've got your location. Back-up is on it's way as we speak right now. Don't hang-up! We are coming."

Tears began to spill out of Burt's eyes.

"They've found them," Burt managed to say to Bill who let out a deep sigh of relief.

Burt continued to cry as he heard Kurt on the other line plead, "Blaine? Blaine, please wake up."

AN: Lastly, this story was inspired by the movie series: Saw. I did want to follow the Saw story line, but then realized I didn't have time to watch all the movies and then try to adapt it to Glee. Instead, I've taken bits and applied them to this work of fiction. Any kind of feedback is welcome!

JD Bloom