Hey, so this is basically my attempt at what happens after Hell Night. All characters, except the one I made up, are owned by the wonderful amazing CP Coulter and I know this won't be half as good as what she writes but never mind!
Enjoy the story
Sopphires
Blaine sat in his car driving back to Dalton. His hands beat out the rhythm of the song on the radio as he sung along
"Last Friday night! Yeah we danced on tables tops and we took to many shots! Think we kissed but I forgot! Last Friday night!" He moved to the beat as best he could in the cramp conditions, a broad grin stretched across his face. He was going back to Windsor after one of his best dates with Kurt ever.
Blaine had been dating Kurt for about nine months now. When they'd been together at Dalton dating had been easy, they'd sung songs, held hands, hung out in each others rooms, gone for walks around the well kempt grounds, you name it. However after the dreadful, Blaine shuddered and winced, events of last years Parents Night Mr Hummel had decided, not untruthfully, that Dalton wasn't the safest place for his son anymore and had transferred him back to McKinley. Now they were, not only rivals in a ridiculously heated show choir competition, but Blaine was Prefect of Windsor house meaning that if bad things happened, which was often, their dates would be interrupted by slightly panicked phone calls from Dwight, Windsor's acting Prefect. Han was working, Blaine believed, on an automated system that meant he'd get a text if there was an accident that he needed to be informed off, but he hadn't finished it yet.
Kurt's transfer last year was a sad thing for all the Windsor's and indeed most of Dalton, he could have sworn Derek had cried when they went to bid him farewell for the last time. However it hadn't been unexpected.
Blaine had woken up in hospital two days after with a frantic Shane at his bedside. Shane's finger nails were bitten to right down, so far they were bleeding, and his eyes were red. His face was pale and his hair, which normally looked like something akin to a birds nest, was positively wild. Shane had let out a sort of strangled sob and thrown his arms around him and burst into tears. A few seconds later his mother appeared and had also burst into tears hugging him. Slightly perturbed, and very disturbed, he had gingerly, because he was heavily bandaged, hugged them back whilst trying to recall everything.
Going to look for Kurt, running into Logan, Julian was missing too, Reed, Danny bleeding, Dwight and the burning Art Hall, smashing through the door, leaving Dwight to fight the fire, Logan with an axe, then through the third floor and there's Adam with Julian, Reed and Kurt, fear, Julian at knife point, Kurt, Reed injured, flames, Adam raving, Kurt crying, the revelation; Julian in love with Logan, Kurt out of the way, jumped Adam, pain, he's been stabbed, Logan get's knife away, Julian pulling Adam off him, then Logan swinging the axe. Adam collapsed. They're safe. Then horror; their friends ran in after them. Collapsing, flames everywhere. Explosion. Black.
After the doctor had checked up on him and had said that his wounds were healing well, he could be moved back to the Dalton clinic some time tomorrow if he wanted, David came in. He had his arm around Shane and seemed to be hugging him to him. His eyes were heavy and he looked like he hadn't slept. He sat down on the other side of Blaine's bed and looked at him. The sombre expression meant Blaine was finally going to have his questions answered.
"Do you want good or bad first?" asked David trying to lighten to the mood, but failing horribly. His throat was constricted and his tone of voice as black as his hair.
"Kurt." was all Blaine could say, all Blaine could think. David managed a smile, it was tiny, it was infinitesimal but it was there.
"Kurt's fine, he woke up just before you did, that's where I was. He's been badgering me about you ever since, no doubt the moment he can he'll get out of bed and come visit." Blaine breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He took several deep ones to calm his nerves, he had no idea how fast his heart had been racing. The thought that he could have lost Kurt. He was just thankful that Shane hadn't run into the fire, though he had a feeling that he had been restrained, if he had known Reed was in there he would have moved heaven and earth to try and save him.
"And the others, Julian, Reed, Logan, which idiotic people ran in?" but as he said that he saw Shane's eyes begin to fill with tears and David cast his eyes down. He felt something sink, one of them had died and judging by the reactions... He let out a sort of strangled choke.
"No!" Shane nodded, the tears beginning to slide down his face. David reached across and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Not Micah." he felt David's powerful grip on his shoulder as he dissolved into tears. He couldn't help it. Micah, one of his oldest friends, one of their fab five. He couldn't be dead, not after they'd just found him, not after things had just been sorted out.
Blaine wasn't sure how long he and his brother cried for, but he knew that David's strong grip never left his shoulder, nor Shane's. He understood why he looked so wan, so tired. He had been taking care of Shane, stopping him from killing himself from grief and worry. David was good at that, taking care of others even though he was worried and scared. Blaine felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude to the other Windsor boy. He must have had to have been so strong for Shane, and if Blaine wasn't mistaken there had been other deaths. Other friends and David had stood their like a rock for Shane, filling in for Blaine. His eyes met David and it seemed that whilst he was medicated and grieving and slightly disorientated his thoughts were showing on his face because David was clearly giving him a look telling him not to even think about thanking him, they were Windsor's.
"And?" croaked Blaine eventually, when he trusted himself to speak coherently.
"Two other people died." David spoke haltingly, his lack of acceptance showing in those four words.
"Who?"
"Ms Blumefield." Blaine's eyes widened in shock.
"What?"
"She was in the art hall all along, Adam knocked her out." Blaine nodded, still stunned. "And… and…" Blaine looked fearfully up at him, this must have been a Dalton boy for his death to be causing David to falter so much. "And Danny Abott."
Blaine wrenched himself from the terrible memories of last year and checked his watch. 15 minutes till curfew, he'd make it back in time and if he didn't he could always get the Twins and Han to let him back in. He sighed and fiddled with the dials, the station he'd been on had begun to pump out something a little too much like rap for his liking. He landed on the news, boring, some talk show about politics, boring, and then something that sounded suspiciously like an 80's rock ballad. He'd spent enough time around Kurt, who'd spent enough time with the New Directions, who were run by Mr Schue, who was stuck in the 80's, to know a good deal of the songs when they came on the radio. At the moment it was playing 'I'll Stand by You' by the Pretenders. He turned it up a little bit, listening.
I'll stand by you. I'll stand by you…
Everyone else was alive. He'd been relieved to hear that but got the feeling that there was something that David wasn't telling him. After he'd gone round and seen everyone; Kurt was surrounded by the New Directions, Wes had high security armed guards, Charlie had his family and girlfriend, Justin had his sister and all of Hanover, all of whom looked depressed and Evan and Ethan were in a shared room with their family, no doubt plotting mischief to cheer themselves up. Julian, too, had security, but he had one person and it seemed Stuart house had decided to camp out between his room and Logan's. It definitely looked like Bailey had been sleeping in Logan's.
At the end of this Blaine was impatient, Shane depressed and David stressed.
"Where are Reed and Dwight?" he asked. David couldn't bring himself to meet Blaine's eyes first time round. He managed it on his second go though. He stared at Blaine looking hopeless, lost and miserable. "You said everyone was alright."
"No, I said everyone was alive, big difference." David snapped at him. Blaine blinked, then closed his eyes realising that David was the only one of the conspirators that hadn't been hospitalised and as far as leading figures went he was the closest Windsor must have had to a prefect. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like sitting there waiting for news of all your best friends, David had enough bad experience with hospitals to start with.
"I'm sorry." said Blaine. "I just want to know.., my friends." he couldn't say 'what happened to.' it sounded too crude. David pinched the bridge of his nose and slid down a wall till he was in a sitting position. Looking up at Blaine he said.
"They're both in coma's." Blaine felt staggered, he felt winded. He didn't know how else to say it, he wasn't happy, of course, but he wasn't sad either. He was just… he just had the punched in the gut sensation.
"What?"
"Reed, took a bad blow to the back of the head he was bleeding out the whole time, then when the thing." Blaine noted David didn't say 'art hall' "Blew up he landed and knocked his head again. I dunno he's completely unconscious, something about possible brain damage." he shrugged.
"And Dwight?" he sighed.
"I'm not sure but I think Dwight is worse." Blaine couldn't hear that. "He fell from a three story window and then got back up and ran into a burning building and promptly was involved in three explosions that gave out powerful fumes. I mean he's insane, well we all you knew that, but that's reaching a whole new level." he sighed again. "There was something about internal bleeding in his head and he'd inhaled too much smoke. Then when the building came down I think he got buried pretty badly." David shrugged. "I don't know for sure."
Blaine couldn't speak. If he had been standing he would have collapsed under the weight of these revelations but David and Shane had insisted he went round in a wheelchair so he sat there, in the metal hospital contraption, gaping open mouthed at David, who looked like he had been given his death sentence and Shane was silently crying, standing, back straight against the wall where David sat, tears pouring down his face.
"I…I don't know yet. I just have…things going on in my head. I just have this…this feeling—"
Dwight had been right all along. So when no one believed him he'd taken matters into his own hands. When Blaine hadn't believed him.
"Can I see them?" David looked up.
"Dwight, yeah." he ran a hand tiredly across his head. "Reed-no."
"What? Why?"
"Mrs van Kemp has decided that 'we boys with whom Reed kept company' are the reason he's in this state. She hasn't let anyone in. We're getting updates from Clark." Blaine gaped at him, his mouth falling wider than before. Now he could fully comprehend why Shane had not said two words to him, why he looked how he did, why they both did. Shane had just lost one of his best friends had one of the people he loved the most in the world, two of the other people he loved the most in the world were in hospital. One in a serious condition, one in a not so serious condition. He was not being allowed to see the one in the serious condition who happened to be thee freakin love of his life. Then again, Blain knew Reed hadn't told anyone he had a boyfriend and Shane would feel uncomfortable outing him. Despite the fact pretty much everyone thought Reed was gay anyway.
Seeing Dwight was like some sort of hazed nightmare. His mother and uncle, both looked up when they came in and smiled warmly at Blaine. Blaine was also surprised to find Todd there and two girls and another boy there he didn't know. Todd came over to Blaine and gave him a gentle sort of hug and a sad smile. The other three, he guessed, must be part of his hunting gang. He'd mentioned them once. Lucas, Sadie, Morgan. That must be them.
However his eyes quickly became drawn to the figure they surrounded. Dwight Houston. Insane Dwight Houston, who lined doorways with rock salt and believed that evil people were cursed, and yet was still one of his best friends, still cared about him, lay motionless a far cry from his usual self of doing activities he shouldn't but should. He felt his eyes water and David pushed him closer to the bed. The other hunters parted and Blaine gently reached out and took his hand. This was definitely the most intimate physical contact he'd ever had with Dwight, well there'd been group hugs that Dwight got swept into, but this, holding his hand.
He retracted it quickly, like he'd touched the metal of a pan on a stove. It was wrong. Not touching Dwight, he had nothing against touching him per se, but Dwight should have been there to abject and mutter about traces and spirits and possession. David, who must have sensed that he was overwhelmed by it all, wheeled him out and down the hallway, back to his room.
Blaine pulled his car up to a stand still outside the gates to Dalton Academy. Scrolling down his window he pulled out his swipe card. Since Parent's Night security had the school had gone up dramatically, all mid term transfers were now questioned as to why they were moving and the school had permission to do background checks on people applying. Not just that but security cameras, as well as Han's bugs, had been placed around the grounds and they were now to be monitored, 24/7. Had a system like that been in place the whole thing could have been prevented.
Blaine shook his head, trying to get himself to stop thinking about it. To stop the 'what ifs' and 'had there been'. The swipe cards were the last precautionary measure, they were very high tech stuff, thanks to Han, but it meant the school felt safer. Basically the student each had an individual password. You swiped the wipe card then entered the password and hey presto you were in. The strange thing was that it wasn't just the outer gate, no the sort of key cards Stuart used to have were now on every door, including toilets.
Blaine reached up to tap in his password when he heard it. His head snapped round and his back stiffened. There it was again. Cautiously Blaine lowered his hand. It sounded like someone in pain, like a whimper. Startled and concerned he reached across for the torch in the glove compartment. He couldn't see inside the compartment so he fumbled around for several seconds until his fingers grasped the slim, cool metal of the torch body. He slid out of the car, slammed the door behind him and stuffed the swipe card away. He gave the switch a flick and a beam of yellow light appeared across the dark grass.
The beam ended at a shape huddled at a base of a tree, Blaine knew the tree. It was the oak planted just outside the fences of Dalton and some boys would try to jump from the higher branches onto the fence. Casting the beam around as he walked he noticed, to his ever increasing horror, that there was blood on the grass, flecks of blood lead all the way up to the swipe card thing, had they tried to get in but then crawled back to take shelter from the rain? Her features, because now he was close enough to see it was a girl, were twisted with obvious pain. She had bruises around her neck and on her face. Her nose was dripping blood. Blaine hurried towards her but she curled up even more, the moans become more frequent. He lay the torch on the grass, the beam directly on her, and held up his hands in the universal position that meant I'm unarmed, I'm not going to hurt you.
"It's okay." he whispered soothingly, "It's okay, my name's Blaine. I go to school in there." he jerked his head sideways towards the fence behind which lay the sprawling Dalton Academy. "My school has a clinic, I could take you to the nurse Ms Summers. She's very good, my friend Reed, sweet little thing, looks like an angel, according to my brother, but is so accident prone. I don't know how many times he's been patched up by her." Blaine's inane chatter seemed to soothe her slightly she stopped whimpering and relaxed a bit. He edged closer to her, hands still raised.
"What happened?" she shook her head. "Okay that's fine but I need to take you to Ms Summers. How about we do a deal I take you there and I don't ask you any more questions?" she looked back at him her eyes wide, terrified. Blaine realised that here she was making one of the biggest decisions of her life, she could come with the boy; Blaine, or she could stay outside in the cold. Christ it had already rained. "Please, you have got to trust me. Your leg wound looks serious." he had shuffled forward and forward and he had noticed her left trouser leg was soaked through with blood. "Do you want to come with me, I can take you somewhere safe." finally she nodded. Blaine smiled encouragingly at her. "Okay can you stand?" she shook her head. "Okay." Blaine leant forward.
The scream that rent the air when he tried to pick her up was so loud and piercing that he was sure that it would be heard over in Hanover. He leapt backwards hands raised. She had covered her face with her arms and had retracted completely back inside herself. Blaine swore under his breath.
"Hey, I'm sorry. I just thought 'cause you couldn't walk." he trailed off realising he might of blown his chance and wondering whether he should call for someone. Slowly he extended his arms out palms flat so she could pull herself up, using him. "Hey, look at me." she didn't look. "Look, I don't know what's happened to you but I do know that safety is only minutes away all you need is a little of bit of courage." it took forever but slowly she met his eyes. She flinched but then she extended her arms out and he pulled her up.
She shook. Whether it was the cold or from the physical contact or the fear or all three she trembled like crazy when she stood up in front of him, gazing at him with those terrified eyes but now he saw just a tiny bit of determination.
"Here." said Blaine, he shrugged off the jacket he'd been wearing and gently draped it round her shoulders. Then slowly he began to walk them back to the car.
Blaine folded up his scarf as a pillow and gestured to the backseat. She stared at him blankly.
"You can lie there." she gazed at him, horrified, as if he was mad to suggest it and Blaine reckoned he got that. Asking her to trust him was one thing, asking her to get into his car was a whole new level of trust. "Please I just need to get you through the gates." she shook her head. "Please." Blaine couldn't think of how to make her. "Courage, you don't get in the car whoever will have done this will have won."
She turned her head so fast that she may have cricked her neck. Sick spewed out onto the grass and Blaine, so used to the different outcomes of Drew and Satorou's experiments, didn't even look disgusted. He did notice that there was some dried vomit in her hair, how long had she been alone for?
After she finished being sick she wobbled, tried to take a step and promptly collapsed. Blaine sighed in pity and heaved her into the car. He wondered how long she'd been fighting the exhaustion? Re swiping his card, he punched in his number and put his foot on the pedal when the gates opened.
Normally they weren't allowed to drive around the school grounds, but this was an emergency. Blaine was well aware of the fact that if she was sick again she could choke on it, and that she was bleeding and that her leg was fractured or something. He wanted to text Dwight and tell him but he couldn't drive and text at the same time so he opted to drive.
Kurt had thrown his arms around him the moment he had entered his room. Blaine was lain up in bed, horrible images of Dwight plaguing his mind and worry for Reed, though Clark had come and assured him that he was, not okay but as he good be, and that he was doing everything he could to convince her to let them in. Shane was asleep, thank god, his fatigue seemed to have caught him up and he had curled up in the chair next to his bed and fallen quietly to sleep. However Blaine couldn't help but hear that he kept whimpering, suggesting his dreams weren't exactly peaceful. Both Erin and Becca had been in and out but their meeting had been a blur of tears and hugs and whispered promises. David was gone, Blaine reckoned Wes had locked him in his room to stop him from running himself ragged.
Kurt coming was a ray of sunshine. When he'd seen him before it had really just been seen. He'd looked through the door, Kurt hadn't known he was there. He had his family, real and New Directions, with him. They all looked grim and Blaine knew that they wanted to understand exactly what was going on. That they wanted answers, someone to blame. Kurt had been bolstered onto the bed by Finn and wrapped his arms around Blaine. He'd hesitated for half a second, looking at Burt who's expression was unreadable, before wrapping his boyfriend tightly in a hug.
After a minute Kurt shifted, his head coming to rest on Blaine's uninjured shoulder.
"Have you seen everyone?" he asked, his voice quiet so as not to wake Shane.
"Yeah." Blaine replied.
"Dwight really was our little Knight." Blaine nodded, hearing the thick sadness coating Kurt's voice, knowing it was better to let him talk. "Did you hear about the performance he gave?" Blaine raised his head slightly, curious.
"No, what?"
"It was when you were having family crisis." he hiccoughed. "Logan was still high we needed to get him out so the Stuarts and Windsors teamed up. They needed something big to distract everyone. The Tweedles begged him to do it. Apparently he did Panic! At the Disco's 'There's A Reason These Table's Are Numbered You Just Haven't Thought of It Yet'" Blaine, despite the circumstances, burst out laughing.
"He performed that at Parent's night!"
"Yeah, he ran along the buffet table and swung from the drapes, full rock on… with a fedora." Blaine laughed even more.
"That must have been something."
"I didn't see it." he said quietly. "I was leading Logan out with Julian, it didn't work we got waylaid by the people Bailey's parent's sent."
"Was he a good singer?"
"According to Bailey and the rest of the Warblers, yes. So I think he probably is hiding quite a voice." Blaine smiled.
"We need to get him to perform for us." they lapsed into silence, neither mentioning the fact that he may never wake up.
"Where's David?" asked Blaine after a short pause of gently nuzzling Kurt, completely ignoring the New Directions and his Dad and Carole.
"Wes's room, he's been running himself ragged. Wes is making him get some rest. When I went past I heard Wes saying that if David didn't lie down he'd get one of his Dad's bodyguards to hold him down." Blaine smiled thinly.
"Sounds like Wes and David."
"Yes, but I think only for now." the conversation trailed off neither wanting to stray into the territory of the deaths, but they both knew that whilst Wes looked after David he would cope fine. The moment he had to dwell over the loss of one of his best friends it would hit him hard.
"Have you spoken to the others, because I looked at them but it's not the same."
"No, but I spoke to Derek and Bailey. Derek is acting Stuart perfect, he, and the rest of Stuart, forcibly took it off Logan. He's mainly keeping an eye on Julian though, from what I heard he's not good. He's barely said two words. Bailey's been keeping an eye on Logan and stopping him from going insane. I think they've been playing music and stuff. Bailey says Logan's medicated, properly, and is pretty numb right now."
"That's good." they both stayed silent for a couple more minutes. Before Kurt, whose head was burrowed right into the crook of his neck said.
"I'm feeling sleepy." Blaine elicited a half smile.
"Then go to sleep."
"I love you Blaine, thank you for coming to rescue me."
"I wasn't going to let anything happen to you, not if I could help it, 'cause I love you too Kurt." Kurt mumbled something unintelligible in response and in just five minutes he was fast asleep in Blaine's arms. Had this been a normal day he would have examined and marvelled Kurt's exquisite beauty but Burt, Carole and the New Directions were sitting opposite him.
Slowly Blaine turned his head to face. Their faces were still unreadable but Blaine understood. If this had happened to Kurt at McKinley, no when this had happened Blaine had been so angry that his 'family' hadn't gotten involved until it was too late. Of course he'd never said anything but he couldn't help thinking that they had all let Kurt down, and now here they were in the reversed situations. Neither were to blame but the anger was still felt.
"Blaine." Blaine looked at Mercedes. She was watching him with concern written all over her usually no nonsense face. "Are you alright?" he shrugged as best he could without disrupting Kurt. There was no answer he could give. He looked at Shane who had whimpered again.
"Reed! No, Micah no!" he closed his eyes and breathed. Mercedes glanced at the curly haired boy, vaguely recognising him from the Fair. He was Blaine's brother, he was also sort of dating Reed from what she had gathered from gossiping with Kurt.
"Is he okay?" this time Blaine shook his head.
"Micah's dead and he can't see Reed. I'm pretty sure his whole world is falling apart. It would be like me loosing Kurt twice over." they all gazed at him sadly.
"Dude this wasn't your fault." Finn spoke cautiously, as if careful not to say anything wrong.
"How do you know?" Finn looked at him pityingly.
"I don't know what happened exactly, but David gave us a… a picture. It was that Adam dude's fault. No one else's."
"But I didn't believe Dwight and Kurt when they practically told me they thought there was something going on! Then when Logan went high I just covered it up and went along with it even though I thought there was something weird with the way Julian and Kurt were interacting! It was all there in front of me!" Burt was frowning at him, quite darkly.
"What do you mean?"
"Well I was in Windsor and I heard Dwight and the Twins talking, I didn't really bother with it, it was something about him being mad but then he said something like 'Do it for Kurt? Don't you like him? I think he may be getting himself into trouble.' Then, naturally, I was interested. I stuck my head over and asked what was going on, if they'd seen him, we had to practise. Then the Twins said that Dwight thought Kurt was in danger so I came down and he, well." Blaine looked at Burt a little ashamed. "We asked how. Then he said he had this feeling. I don't know why he said that, I think he must have been protecting Julian, Kurt and us, I guess, but then we didn't believe him." Burt still had a dark expression. "Dwight is a little odd, well not a little, he genuinely believed that Kurt was cursed when he came to Dalton because of everything that had happened." This did nothing to clear up Burt's confusion. "Well anyway Dwight turned around and walked away really dejected and all so I told them to get what he wanted off Han, it isn't right for him to be that way and then I went looking for Kurt."
"When was this?"
"A day…" Blaine didn't get any further and Carole was sending Burt warning looks.
"And when you found my son?"
"He seemed a little off. He was in the Warblers Hall. He said he had a feeling, too. He said an ominous feeling, like in Shakespeare; Romeo and Juliet." Blaine's speech was becoming more disjointed. "I asked him to tell me 'cause he wasn't the only person acting odd; Dwight. I wanted to know if it was my dad, I wanted to help. I wanted him to tell me. But he said that he thought that stress was causing him to go into overdrive. Then I sang him 'Smile' by Uncle Kracker, it got him to smile again. He seemed okay. I don't think he knew that Adam was the stalker, I think he was suspicious. I don't think he wanted to compromise Julian's privacy." A muscle jumped in Burt's jaw at that.
"And that Night, where were you?" Blaine looked at Shane, he'd calmed right down.
"You know where I was. I was with my family. I went to Orion Hall. They said Kurt went looking for me but he wasn't back and he wasn't answering his phone. I called Logan and he seemed… normal. But confused. I went looking for Kurt, I was worried. He was different. I ran into Bailey and Logan. And then…" he stopped, drawing up short tears forming in his eyes. He took several deep breaths and blinked rapidly to dispel the tears. "We found out Adam had taken Julian to Art Hall." there was shaky tone to his voice. "And I just knew that Kurt was there because Kurt knew, Kurt had been acting so odd because Julian had told him. So Adam had taken him. Then I ran off, to Art Hall. Logan followed me." He was clutching Kurt to him, he could see the burning building in his minds eye. He could picture Dwight's terrified face but his resolution. He was scared but he was staying. He could remember the panic; they couldn't get in!It was choking him, those moments when he'd thought he wouldn't be able to reach Kurt. He wondered now if they'd brought Dwight with them, he hadn't tried to fight the fire he'd be alright.
"Blaine?" Mercedes had moved round and was perching on the edge of his bed. He could hear whispers, in the background he thought Carole was telling off Burt.
"I didn't think I could get in. Dwight was there and he couldn't open the door and there was that awful moment when I thought Kurt was stuck in there with that psychopath." he spat the word. "And there was nothing I could do." The tears were coming back and he didn't bother to fight them. He didn't have the energy.
"Do you want me to get someone?" he shook his head.
"Wes'll probably have me readmitted to hospital if we get David up." she smiled faintly.
"Blaine?" it was Mr Hummel, Burt. He looked serious. "You lost one of your best friends." he winced. Micah. He nodded.
"You'd think it'd be easier, but I think it's worse, Micah after Jude. We lost Micah, my dad through him out. He was outed to his parents sent to some school to straighten him out. He was Shane's boyfriend and Shane loved him but I took the fall. I told dad he was mine. Dad doesn't know Shane's gay, Shane'd never survive, he's not as strong as he'd like to think. But the guilt just ate him away. Then things had just resolved between him and Reed and Micah. Erin and Becca found him, see, at a book convention in San Fransico and they brought him back. The thing was was that Shane was crazy about Reed from the moment he met him but Reed was… he didn't know. At first he thought of him like a brother then feelings started to develop but it's all kind of slow and Shane nearly dies and he's in a different place. Then at the Fair we make some progress and Micah comes back and Shane is suddenly torn, well not really I think he was always going to pick Reed but seeing Micah he was caught in the rush of old emotions. In the end it took Micah talking to Reed for them to get together, he told Reed to go for it. I think they were becoming friends." Blaine's eyes were fully misted over again and his sentence died.
"You did what you could." Blaine looked up, surprised. "I may not like it and I may not think it's enough but I see that you did what you could. You tried to get him to talk but it seems if you didn't know about the stalker." Blaine flinched. This was too soon. "What I want to know is what this Julian was doing about it?"
"I don't know you'll have to talk to Derek or Bailey."
"Who?"
"They're from Stuart, I don't know the Stuart side of things, I just know Adam wanted Julian and Julian was trying to protect Logan because he was in love with him. Try speaking to Derek, he's Julian and Logan's best friend but don't get angry if he doesn't answer you or whatever he's really busy at the moment. He shouldn't be up. He's got a head injury, but he insisted on looking after Logan and Julian." Burt nodded. "Please be kind to Julian if you speak to him." Blaine wasn't sure what was making him talk but he knew that the last thing Julian deserved right now, after all the pain, was angry parents baring down on him. Burt looked at him and nodded again.
"You're a good kid Blaine." Blaine shook his head. He wasn't good enough. He had let Kurt get hurt and he would never let that go. "You ran into a burning building for him." Blaine didn't point out that running into a burning building meant nothing, look at Dwight, he'd been there first. Their friendship was strong enough to make them risk their lives for each other.
"Blaine." Blaine looked up at the door in instinct, recognising the friendly voice. "How are you?" Staring at the figure his brain began to catch up with him.
Ms Summers came running out with a stretcher when Blaine pulled up, Blaine guessed that she thought Reed was in there.
"How is he?"
"It's not Reed, Miss."
"What?"
"It's this girl…" Blaine trailed off at the confused look on her face. She stared at him then beckoned for him to continue. "I found her just outside the checkpoint, she's been beaten and her leg's damaged and she was sick, twice, and out in the rain. I think someone assaulted her or something, she screamed so loudly when I tried to lift her up and she was sick when I told her to get in the car. She's passed out." Ms Summers nodded and opened the back door. Her eyes widened at the sight.
"Blaine." she said. "Help me to get her out, then call Dwight, get him to alert the Dean and the others of this." Blaine nodded and carefully lifted the girl onto the stretcher. Her hair, which fell past her shoulder blades would normally be somewhere between curly and wavy was straggly and messy with sick. Her glasses, which Blaine had just noticed she was wearing, were a black plastic frame and he noticed the bridge was broken. 'Like Harry Potter' said an annoying voice, that he immediately told to shut up. Her jumper sleeves were soaked with blood. Ms Summers wheeled her quickly in calling for help. Blaine pulled up short pulling his phone back out and calling Dwight.
"Beep beep… beep beep"
"Come on Dwight." muttered Blaine.
"Blaine!" came Dwight's voice, as always he sounded a little panicky. Sometimes he doubted his decision to make him acting, other times he really, really didn't. "Are you alright? Why aren't you back? Have you been attacked by demon spawn, do you need me to come and rescue you? Is it the cursed of McKinley?" Blaine refrained from rolling his eyes.
"Dwight shut up I'm fine, I'm late back because I've taken a slight detour to the clinic. I'm fine but I found someone else who wasn't."
"What?"
"Look, I need you to tell Ramsey, Howard, Murdoch and Newman that we have a refugee okay?"
"Right. Should I tell the other prefects?" Blaine scratched the back of his neck trying to remember what he should do now.
"Yeah I guess you should, this looks serious."
"How serious, is serious?"
"Assault." whispered Blaine. There was a quiet pause.
"I'll come over and exorcise it right now. Better purify him, make sure there are no malignant spirits hanging over him."
"Her."
"What?"
"Sorry forgot to say the person I found is a girl, partly why this is so serious." He could almost hear Dwight's nod.
"I'll tell them now, get my kit and come over." Blaine didn't bother telling him that he wasn't needed here.
"Bye."
"What? Oh, bye." He hung up with a smile and sat down waiting anxiously.
Blaine blinked at the figure in the doorway.
"Joshua?" he asked unable to believe what he was seeing. "Joshua!" he cried out, quite forgetting that Shane and Kurt were asleep. Both of them jolted awake. Shane looked around and blinked up at him in shock, Kurt just gaped at him like his brain couldn't handle this. He saw Joshua's eyes flicker from Kurt snuggled up against Blaine and Blaine's arm around him and Kurt's slightly narrowed eyes. Shane just stared wide eyed.
"Joshua." Blaine's voice was suddenly hoarse again. "Josh, what are you doing here?"
"Well Bailey called and told me what happened. I freaked out, I was worried about him, though he said he wasn't hurt and all of you, my old Windsor dorm mates." he said it with a tiny smile. Blaine nodded, forgetting of course that Bailey would have told him about everything. "I heard… I'm so sorry." he shook his head and Shane's head dropped. There was an awkward silence when Shane buried his head in his hands and sobbed a few times.
"Have you seen the others?" asked Blaine. Joshua made a funny movement with his head.
"I went to Bailey first so I've seen Julian, Derek and Logan but I haven't seen the other Windsors. Is it true about Reed and Dwight?" Blaine nodded. He sighed and rubbed a hand up and down his face.
"I always said I'd come back and see you guys again. I kept thinking that it would be just a couple more months. I never thought it'd take this." he shook his head. Blaine nodded.
"Josh you'll see them again. They'll be okay." he nodded and hastily wiped his eyes. Blaine stretched out and managed to reach to stroke one of Shane's stray curls.
"Yeah." an awkward silence filled the room again as Kurt continued to stare at Joshua through slightly narrowed eyes. "I'm gonna go see the others."
"Josh!"
"Yeah?"
"You can't see Reed, you know that don't you?"
"What?" his aghast tone told the opposite of what Blaine meant.
"You can't see him. Mrs Van Kemp doesn't think we're a good influence." Blaine shot Shane a half glance before continuing. "She won't let us in, won't talk to us. We get our news via Clark Sawyer."
"Sawyer? From Something Damaged and Haven?"
"Yeah he's his step-brother."
"Oh, but I can see Dwight?"
"Yeah, Todd's in there."
"Still sharing after all that time of full blown crazy?"
"I think the longer you stay the more you can stand, Kurt's proof of that." Josh turned his small smile to Kurt, he nodded slightly.
"It's nice to meet you Kurt, I've heard a lot about the adventures of 'Alice' from Bailey." Kurt frowned at him. "I'm the Mock Turtle. It's strange but when you're there you'll hate your name but if you go you'll find yourself missing it." Kurt nodded at him. Joshua gave them another half smile before leaving.
"Blaine!" Dwight came sprinting towards him. Blaine had no idea how he had got here so fast. Running behind, he could see Logan.
"What is going on?" panted Logan as he came to a stop. Hands on knees, he bent over breathing hard Blaine tried hard no to smirk from the chair in the waiting room at Logan's inability to breath. The creases between Stuart and Windsor had all but been ironed over after last year but that didn't mean that they didn't like poking fun at each other. "I got this phone call from Dwight who said he got a phone call from you who said there was an assaulted girl on campus and we should come here." There was a pause in which Logan stared at Blaine.
"What?"
"Well?"
"You pretty much summed up everything." Logan stared at him and then sat down on the chair frowning.
"So what exactly are we doing?" Blaine shrugged.
"I'm not sure but I think she's alone. She freaked badly when I tried to help her. I think she'll have to stay here and, well, this is a boy's school." Logan nodded comprehension dawning. "I think the Dean is coming and the Heads of House, too."
"Speaking of houses where is Hanover?" asked Logan. Inter-house relations being as good as they were they normally didn't call the other prefects 'Windsor' or 'Stuart' but sometimes out of sheer habit, or when you maybe commenting on the houses time keeping or something to that effect, it slipped through.
"It's okay Stuart I'm right here." this time the name 'Stuart' was used purely for retaliation as was shown by the undue emphasis put on the word. Turning around they saw, striding towards them through the still open doors of the clinic, their hair a little messy due to the unexpectedness of the call, Merril Portman.
It didn't take long for kids to start leaving. Blaine noted each day as he sat in his bed in the clinic that each time David would come back with his mouth in a hard line and report the name of another person whose parents had taken them out. This was bad, if people kept leaving Dalton was close. Dalton might close anyway, the rumours were flying about. The Dean and the Headmaster were doing everything they could to tighten security but it may be too little too late. And Julian Larson was still on campus. You couldn't exactly blame those who didn't want their kids around Julian in case it happened again but if you looked at him just once and saw how broken he was, how much this had killed him, you'd realise it just wasn't possible.
Some people stayed. Some people put there foot down and point blank refused to leave. David had very calmly and collectedly told his family that he was staying at Dalton, his friends were here, Katherine was at Dobry, which had been remarkably unaffected, and he was not moving away from her. His parents had taken one look at his resolute face and yielded, David never asked for much and he loved Katherine, they may as well give him this. Kurt had struck a bargain with his parents that he could stay at Dalton, near the hospital, until Dwight and Reed woke up and then he was moving back to McKinley. In all honesty the deal didn't make much sense if you thought about it for very long but it had been agreed to and so Kurt was staying, for the time being.
Others had to resort to less dignified ways to make sure they stayed. Both Wes and Logan had shouting matches with their respective parents in the middle of the clinic point blank refusing to leave. Wes' family wanted him out as they were convinced that it had been a plot to try and kill him. Wes was incensed to say the least. One of his best friends had died. Two of his best friends could die and still his parents didn't get it. In the end he'd dragged them to Julian and showed him to them, practically snarling out the story of Adam. Then he'd dropped their arms and stalked away. Wes wasn't sure why he wanted to stay, part of him wanted to run screaming from the places that him and Danny had shared but the other part of him wanted to stay and face it all, and that part of him knew that the place to get through it was with David and if David was here than he was killing two birds with one stone.
Logan had a similar encounter with his father, he had ended up shouting about how far Julian had gone to protect him and now he was going to return that favour. He was going to do everything that he could to help him. He wasn't going to leave his best friend in this state. He couldn't and he wouldn't. There was nothing his father could do to make him leave. If he did Logan swore that he would never ever take his medication again. That he would go off the rails and he would ruin his fathers career. Faced with such a threat Logan Wright Junior conceded to his son.
Bailey was another person to remain. His parents dropped by to pick him up, expecting him to be standing there with his bags packed eager to fly off to Joshua's school but instead found him in his room mixing a CD for Julian and Shane to try and distract them. He had looked up and said quite firmly that he wasn't going. He was staying where he wanted to be and where he was needed and then had gone back to his music. His parents had stood there for several seconds shocked before ordering him to go and pack. He'd looked back up and said no. The Tipton's were now severely confused, their sons never talked back, they always did as they were told. Shocked they left, deciding that they would think the problem over and get their son out of there somehow.
Merril shocked everyone when one day she announced that she, too, was staying. Blaine had been sitting with his head resting on Kurt's shoulder. Shane, who was now officially a Dalton boy their mum had signed after Blaine had told her that this was safest place for them, was curled up staring at the ceiling. He often wore a blank expression, now. Reed had been in the coma for two weeks and it was killing him. David and Wes were throwing a ball between themselves and the Twins were shooting Nerfs at each other in a rather half hearted manner. On the other side of the room were Julian, Logan, Derek and Bailey. They'd got Julian up and about but he moved in a rather zoombie like fashion and he barely spoke. The four of them were now the only four boarding Stuart Juniors and were rarely seen out of each others company. At the moment Logan and Derek were having a whispered conversation and Bailey was trying to get Julian to talk about something. In the far corner was a small huddle of Hanovers made up of Jesse, Jeff and couple of the other Warbler Hanovers that were all Juniors. Medel and Harvey sat at the desk in quiet conversation with each other. They had pulled out of Regionals, they couldn't perform like this because this was most of the Warblers, huddled in Warbler Hall because they didn't have anywhere else to be, drawn together by their loss.
The doors open and in their shadow stood Merril. She looked as ever, very pretty, her hair curled loosely down her back but it didn't hide the grief that emanated from her. Either side of her stood Justin and Spencer. All the Seniors remained for the purpose of sitting their exams. They couldn't move schools it was too inconvenient.
"I have something I need to say." she said looking at Harvey and Medel. Medel smiled warmly at her and indicated the floor. This wasn't a proper meet. Blaine gazed up at Merril, was this goodbye? He could Jesse and Jeff's eyes filling with tears from where he lay. He knew that Dalton had been in touch with Dobry about several things, had they asked if Merril could move? It had been her ambition and both schools were in the process of making it happen.
"I'm not going." she said abruptly. Blaine stared at her in shock. He knew his expression must mirror everyone else's. "I want to stay here, I… Dalton's my home." she said her voice thick with tears. "And someone has to… someone has to…" but she didn't need to finish that one. She was going to be prefect next year. She was going to do what Danny should have done. He looked down unsure how to react. He looked back up when he heard movement and saw the Hanovers embracing their fellow and he smiled as the Twins started to applaud. She was right they were staying home.
Blaine stared right back at the four adults who all looked quite irritated at being woken at this time of night. Behind him stood Logan, Dwight and Merril. Ms Summers had yet to return and Blaine wondered whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"Well Blaine you did the right thing." said the Dean eventually and Blaine almost sighed with relief. "However this situation is quite complex especially as you seem to have breached our security procedure."
"But she-"
"I'm not criticising I think anybody in your position would do the same thing, however the question is what do we do now?"
"Shouldn't we wait for her to wake up." said Howard. "She might be able to tell us something. Have somewhere she was trying to get to." Mr Newman nodded.
"I agree with Todd, we shouldn't make any decisions until we've talked to her. Then we can properly asses the situation, see how serious this is." Mr Murdoch grumbled slightly.
"You have a problem with that Bradley?" asked Mr Howard and Blaine did his best to hold back a smirk as his head of house turned on the Stuarts, the kids may have sorted things out but Mr Murdoch was still a ruthless teacher.
"Well she's our problem now. What if she's an escaped criminal?" there was a pause in which he was sure he heard Merril stifle a giggle. The Dean blinked at the comment and moved on.
"We must wait for Ms Summers and then, I agree with Todd and Murray." Bradley Murdoch rolled his eyes at the same time Ms Summers came out of one of the rooms.
"And?"
"Well she'll be okay, I can tell you that. She's got a nasty gash on her leg, nearly chipped the bone. Anyway, I bandaged that but I'm worried I think… I think…." She trailed off and paused. "Well actually I know. Someone held her down, that's how she got the bruises on her face and arms. She also cut her arms, there are words."
"Self harm?" asked the Dean shortly.
"I think so and that's not the worst. There are scratch marks all the way up her back and, well, she's been raped."
There was a dreadful silence after that. Blaine felt like he'd been clubbed. No wonder she'd screamed when he'd tried to touch her. Merril had tears brimming in her eyes and Blaine slipped an arm around her shoulder. Logan looked down, he may be a medicated haze most of the time but hearing that made him feel wrong. Dwight raised his bottle of holy water immediately this would take a serious amount of work. He'd have to do it all tonight as well, he couldn't leave someone like that in there to be pray to the malignant spirits.
"Is she awake?" asked Dean Ramsey at last.
"Yes. She freaked when she saw me and when I tried to take her temperature. I fear she has developed an aversion to touch." Ramsey nodded.
"How old is she?"
"Hard to tell, she looks quite young but I think being scared does that to people. At a guess I'd say Dwight's year."
"Okay Blaine, Merril and Dwight go in there."
"What?" said Logan. "She's been raped and you want two guys and a male to female to question her."
"Well she trusts Blaine, that's been proven already and Merril is a girl."
"Sorry Merril." said Logan immediately knowing that referring to her as that had been a stupid thing to do."
"It's okay Logan." said Merril. She squared her shoulders and stood between Blaine and Dwight. "Let's do this."
The room was white and reminded Blaine of all the things he hated about hospital rooms. He remembered the vigils by Dwight's bed. The waiting for a glimpse into Reed's room. All of it horrible memories but, he reminded himself strictly, hospitals make you better. In this bed lay the same girl as before. She was still pale, still scared looking but she was a bit cleaner. The blood was gone and the vomit. Blaine smiled at her warmly and knew Merril was doing the same. Dwight on the other hand took out his rock salt and immediately began to purify the room. Blaine slapped a palm to his forehead. This was insane, she was never going to talk to them if she thought they were nutters. He watched as she shrank back into the covers and stared wide eyed at Dwight as he continued to salt the room.
"Hi." said Merril from the doorway. She turned around so fast and shrank back some more her eyes darting between them and Dwight trying to keep them all in her vision. To make things easier they moved across to where he was but keeping a safe distance from the bed.
"My name's Merril, I think you met my friend Blaine. I hope you're feeling a bit better now." She continued to gaze wide eyed through her rectangular glasses.
"What's your name?" asked Blaine. She shook her head violently and Blaine nodded. "Okay, don't tell us your name."
"Thank you." she barely spoke above a hoarse whisper but Blaine heard it.
"You're very welcome and if you need anything you can always ask for one of us."
"What is he doing?"
"Purifying the room to protect you from things of evil." said a casual voice from the doorway. All heads spun around as they noticed a blonde boy lounging on the frame. Getting up and moving over to where Blaine, who was frowning, and Merril were standing. He said
"My name's Logan Wright III, Logan, I was sent to collect him to make sure he wasn't doing anything too insane." he glanced pensively at the floor. "I see I'm too late."
"Why are you protecting me?" she directed her next question at Dwight who was actually quite close to the bed.
"Because I can. Because I want protect you. Because I have to protect everyone when I can. I can save you from evil spirits, so I will. My name's Dwight Houston by the way, what's yours?" she blinked at him so taken aback by his manner that she replied without thinking.
"Alice. My name is Alice."