23 years ago, two brothers, Blaine aged 7 and Justin aged 5, were walking home on 34th street from school. As they rounded the corner of the litter filled, graffiti stained street a large group of familiar looking men - with huge boulders for shoulders, cauliflowers for ears and snubs for noses - crowded around the boys demanding their money and bags and if they didn't they would almost certainly be killed by the guns that could be seen from 3 of the men's pockets. Blaine recognized them, then, as the drunks that he hears nearly every night while his little brother was already asleep in the dingy bedroom Justin and he both shared whilst his parents were either out getting drunk or lying on the sofa passed out from already completing their nightly routine of becoming drunk. Immediately the brothers handed over their possessions and bolted for safety, not taking time to look over their shoulders to see if the men had gone. A gun was fired. Blaine swerved around instantly, just in time to see his little brother hit the ground. Justin, a small scrawny boy, was sprawled in a heap on the ground, bathed in his own blood.
Blaine, now aged 30, is a detective for the NYPD. His little baby brother who had been Blaine's world, his best and only friend, who had given him a distraction, a very welcome one, from the constant hardship that was school, from the bullies and their parents, who hadn't ever been there, so Blaine had practically raised his brother as well as himself since God knows when, his baby brother who had died from those drunk morons' gun, memory of the event had haunted Blaine, every morning, every evening and yes, even in his sleep he cannot get the image of his little brother life draining from his face out of his mind. Only his team know what happened all those years ago and they are like a second family to him, a second chance at happiness that he knows will never accumulate from anywhere or anything.
One morning, just the same as every morning, Blaine woke to the sight of his brother's face always fresh in his mind, poured himself the same bowl of cereal, made himself the same cup of coffee and read the same newspaper as any other morning. He went to work to find a fresh batch of papers to go through and fill out. At around noon his supervisor, the dad he never had, called Blaine into his office. The supervisor, Max, said quite seriously "I have a new case for you," Blaine was confused because he was always getting new assignments and cases, why should this one be any different? Then Max swiftly put in,"A small kid was killed on 31st street." Blaine knew exactly why he was called into his office, he was going to be told he couldn't take on the case because it would be too hard on him and bring back too many bad memories, but Blaine knew what he would say if that was the case but it wasn't. Max simply said "You can take it on if you want but only if you're ready" Blaine was surprise but relieved, even though it was the same street it had happened, this would give him a chance to put some of the events behind him, for he had never back to 31st street after what had happened and never thought he would ever again. In no time Blaine said,"I'll do it". Max was surprised by this but agreed.
Blaine and H, the "brother" of his new family, went to the murder scene on 31st street and immediately, Blaine regretted saying yes to this but didn't say anything, he just went gingerly to the body still lying on the road with nothing but blood around him. H stopped Blaine for he knew Blaine was getting more and more uncomfortable by the second and so suggested that he takes a few minutes just to get used to coming here. But even though Blaine knew he needed it, he refused and walked over to the lifeless boy.
Blaine looked up to see a man who looked around Blaine's age was standing with two police officers, who he recognized at Mark and Ryan, the man was tall with beautiful pale skin and chestnut-brown hair, he had tears streaming down his face whilst talking to Mark and Ryan but Blaine still thought he looked like an angel. Blaine knew he was staring so he quickly shook his head and turned back to the poor boy laying on the ground, the small bullet wound covered in blood, as was most of his bat-man t-shirt, Blaine had to wipe his damp eyes as he remembered Justin's fondness to Bat-man, always saying how he wanted to be Bruce Wane and how Blaine used to call him that when he used his dressing gown as a cape, swooping around the small kitchen in the mornings before school. Once again Blaine shook his head, standing up. He walked over to the man he'd seen talking to Mark and Ryan, he didn't know what he was doing, but he knew he wanted to talk to him, even if it was only to comfort him, he wanted to find out more about the beautiful man.
"Hi. I'm Detective Blaine Anderson, how you doing?" Blaine asked somewhat shyly.
"Hi, I'm Kurt, well I've definitely been better," Kurt tried to joke but his voice was too sullen for it to pull off, but Blaine, ever the gentleman, laughed lightly to save Kurt any embarrassment.
"Do you mind telling me what happened? If it's not too much to tell it twice?" Blaine tried to sound as considerate as he could, knowing how it feels like to be in this position.
When Kurt just looked a little uncomfortable, Blaine immediately supplied an alternative to his question,
"Or we could talk mindless nonsense to distract you from this? You'll have to go down to the station anyway so what do you say?" Blaine gave Kurt his most charming smile, making the latter man smile softly.
"I'd like that." Kurt replied quietly.
The two men walked to Blaine's car, Blaine holding open the passenger door for Kurt to slide in, making Kurt blush lightly. Blaine quickly went over to H to tell him to finish taking in the small amount of evidence left to collect, that he was going to go back to the police department with the only witness; Kurt.
When they got to Blaine's office, cheap, murky coffee cups in hand, they sat down on the sofa and talked, they talked about nothing of importance, what age they were, Blaine 30 and Kurt 31, what Kurt did for a living, he was a fashion designer, and other seemingly unimportant topics arose, but to both Kurt and Blaine, these little tidbits of information was preciously stored in the back of their minds for, hopefully, future reference.
About an hour later Kurt was taken away for more questioning, both men seemed reluctant to part but didn't show their emotions as they would probably meet again. When Kurt had left, Blaine sat down; memories from all those years ago came rushing back.
Once Justin hit the ground Blaine sprinted over to him, quickly checking that the men had gone, and tried unsuccessfully to help him. Blaine sat there for what seemed like an age with Justin lying limp in his arms, the blood from Justin's bullet wounds that had splattered everywhere was beginning to dry. Blaine was balling like the child he actually was, after having to be an adult for his brother because his parents wouldn't, a woman came rushing over with a phone in hand and a gobsmacked expression on her face. An ambulance came and took the two boys away to the hospital.
In the station downtown Blaine was asked what happened over and over but when he did, he saw his brothers face, the gun shot and the men's face over again in his head and makes him cry all over again. Each time this happened he always got the same sideways tilt and nod of the head and a pat on the back while a voice said reassuringly, "it'll all be okay". All he wanted to do was run far away from there to where Justin was even though he knew it was impossible.
Instead of sitting around reminiscing over the painful past, Blaine went off to help H in the lab to process what they gathered. Blaine went to the coroner's office for the bullet that killed the little boy, Nathan; the coroner told him it was a 9 caliber bullet. Straight away Blaine went to the evidence locker and brought out the box saying "1990 17th November". He grabbed a bag and ran upstairs with 2 bullets one from today and the other from 23 years ago. As soon as he was in Jess lab he asked her to run a comparison for the 2 bullets. After some persuasion to a confused Jess she did it straight away instead of putting it at the bottom of the huge pile she still needed to run. The results came back. Both bullets were fired from the same gun. This confirmed Blaine's theory.
Instead of telling his partner, H, he ran to tell Max his findings. Max was shocked and looked very worried. There seemed to be a dark mood even before Max said "You're off the case". Blaine was about to refuse but the look on Max's face and the tone of his voice told him that nothing was going to change his decision. H took over the case but with some resistance on his part, it was Blaine who got him to agree in the end up. H was confused to why Blaine had done this but all was made clear when he took H to the side and said "You have to tell me everything new that happens in this case, everything" H agreed but only on 1 condition - that Blaine stays out of it and didn't do anything stupid. Blaine agreed even though he always has to do something and it's usually something he's not meant to do.
Max deliberated with Lindsey, Blaine's other supervisor, whether or not to even let Blaine in the lab whilst the case was going on. They came to the conclusion that they shouldn't and so-called Blaine back into the office. Once the news was broken, Blaine went straight home even though Max and Lindsey said that he could stay until the end of the day but Blaine knew that if he stayed it would just make him angry because he would not be back for an unknown space of time. But before leaving, Blaine took a detour down to the interrogation room, where Kurt was. Kurt was sitting alone in the room, fiddling with the now empty coffee cup that Blaine had given him. Blaine slipped in the room quietly as not to disturb or startle Kurt. He pulled out the hard metal chair and sat down opposite Kurt. When the elder man looked up, he smiled; it was small but a smile all the same.
"Hello again, I just thought I'd let you know that I'm off the case." Blaine didn't understand why he felt compelled to tell Kurt but he did anyway. Kurt seemed confused as to why this was.
"I don't understand, why? Did you do something?" Kurt asked curiously, his deep blue eyes looking at Blaine with such interest that the detective had to stop himself from staring yet again.
"Because the person that killed Nathan was the same person that killed a little boy called Justin." Kurt still looked confused.
"Who's Justin?" Blaine sighed, looking down at the table,
"He was my little brother." Kurt placed a hand softly over one of Blaine's, giving it a gentle, reassuring squeeze, and just like that Blaine started telling Kurt what happened 23 years ago.
By the end of it Blaine had to wipe away the few tears that had gotten through his hold, Kurt had placed both his hands over and around Blaine's.
"Nathan is, was, my little brother." Blaine looked up and saw that Kurt's eyes were glossed over with tears of his own.
Suddenly Blaine stood up, realizing he needed to leave.
"Um, can I get your number? Because, um, I'm not going to be here for a while? I'd like to get to know more abou-about you." Blaine fumbled awkwardly over his words, making Kurt smile.
"I'd like that." Kurt brought out his phone, as did Blaine and they exchanged numbers, Blaine took a ridiculous picture of himself and set it as the caller ID for his number on Kurt's phone. Afterwards they said their reluctant goodbyes and Blaine left Kurt sitting in the room alone once more.
On the way home Blaine called H to ask if anything new had happened but H simply said "You're not keeping your side of the deal" and hung up. Blaine could feel the fury boiling up inside him but immediately simmered down after he thought about what H had said; he hadn't kept his side of the deal. He'd have to just be patient and wait for news.
Instead Blaine went and grabbed a beer then settled himself down on his couch, letting his head fall back on the back of the sofa.
Blaine couldn't bear to go back to 34th street so he stayed with an aunt until his mum and dad found another council flat to live in. The days afterwards were hard for Blaine and his parents. It was uncomfortable at school so Blaine just left his friends and became an outcast. Those days turned into months. His parents turned back to alcohol as a cure for the pain left from her son's death. The police soon gave up on trying to find Justin's killers. But Blaine hadn't. He couldn't do much but he did the only thing he really could and that was just look at people in the streets to see if he recognizes them as the killers. Those months turned into years. Blaine still hadn't found anything. He was 16 by this time the age most kids drop out of school and either join a gang or go to prison but not him. He had decided to become a detective. Blaine had never forgiven the police department for giving up so he was going to take up where they had left off. But what Blaine hadn't realized was that they hadn't given up; there was no evidence to carry on the case.
Ring ring … ring ring. It was H. Blaine answered the phone like a hungry dog pounces on a bone because the only reason H would call would be to tell him news and Blaine knew this. "Hello" Blaine said in such a way that H was taken aback. "You know why I'm calling. We've found one of the guys. We're going after them now. We've got them and all thanks to you. Well done!" says H joyfully down the line. Blaine is shell-shocked. No words will come out of his mouth and H understands and says "Come to the office in an hour or so for the interrogation." H hangs up. Blaine doesn't know what to do so he goes to have a shower. He comes out with a clear mind. The shower had given him time to think of what he was going to do and say when he got there. He dressed in a casual suit, as always, and headed to the office.
Once there he was lead straight to Max's office. He was met by grinning faces. Max and H said nothing but smiled. Blaine went over and said "thank you" to both of them, giving H a huge hug. They then went to the interrogation room but separated for Blaine and Max to go into the viewing room. Straight away Blaine recognized the man sitting in the chair looking awkwardly around him. Older but still recognizable The interrogation went on for an age in Blaine's mind. The man, called Joe, wouldn't say anything except "I did it" after H showed him photo after photo of Nathan and Justin making him so uncomfortable that he wiped the photos clean off the table and confessed. But he wouldn't say who else was there until he heard the word "deal". This made him say names, addresses and even work places. It meant that they were going away for a very long time.
The court date was set, 13th July. Blaine was nervous but had no reason to be for once the jury hear that 4 men mercilessly robbed and killed 2 young boys for no reason they will definitely find them guilty especially with a confession. The courtroom was silent for a long time. The audience were glaring at the 4 men sitting there as calm as anything, including Blaine. Blaine wanted to go over and tell them what he thought of them all, but it would only give them the satisfaction of upsetting people that they had intended.
Once the judge came in the men looked very scared because it was Judge Cooper a mum of 3 and all below the age of 7. Blaine was so pleased he even grinned at Nathan's mother and Kurt. Seeing Blaine, Nathan's mother was relieved to see a happy face instead of pitying sullen faces, Kurt smiled back at Blaine, giving him a small nod of gratitude until they saw each other after the trial. And then seeing the Judge H smirked at him; glad to see the men weren't going to get off lightly. The whole trial went smoothly without anything new, surprising or worrying for Blaine. At the end the Judge needed no more time to come to a conclusion and the same went for the jury, whose face, as the trial proceeded, got more and more disgusted. All 4 men were convicted. The 3 men who were caught later got 20 years and Joe, who betrayed the rest, got 15. This was a very long time, but they all deserved it.
Blaine was overcome with joy. The men who had killed his brother, who he had been searching 23 years for. He went over to Nathans mother and hugged her, this was more than any amount of words could ever do to say how happy they were and the thanks Nathans mother wanted to gratify Blaine with. Then he went over to Kurt, pulling the taller man in for a long hug, Blaine felt Kurt smile into his shoulder. When they pulled away Blaine whispered, "I want to take you out." Kurt looked shocked, but only for a second then he nodded and they agreed to text each other that night to arrange it all. Then H came over to congratulate him. Blaine said his thanks to H and Max for all they had done and to show it he took them out for drinks.
After a huge celebration at their local bar, Blaine went home content, texting Kurt the whole walk home, arranging their date. Blaine was happy at last that justice had been served. He finally slept a calm, dreamless sleep that night, the first time in a very long time. He didn't wake up to his brothers' face. He woke to birds singing, sun shining and a smile on his face. He had the day off so he went to say goodbye to his brother in the cemetery. After this he was truly happy, that he was able to go to the cemetery, to say something to Justin, instead of getting to the gates and turning around like a coward. Afterwards he took Kurt out for coffee, it was strangely comfortable, like they had been doing this for years.
Blaine's life was normal after this. Going out at the weekends, making more friends than just his workmates and team but most of all, he fell in love with Kurt, with Kurt loving him back wholly and unconditionally.
The end.