A/N: I'm still working on Unknown Neighbours but had this idea so I thought I'd write it before I forgot about it. This story doesn't fit anywhere really, Kurt is at Dalton in this story (Not really important but thought I'd say it anyway).Disclaimer: I don't own glee, although that would be awesome. Enjoy and please review, I love criticism, tell me what you think.
Nick burst through the door to the library looking around frantically for any of the Warblers, his eyes landed on Wes, David, Kurt and Blaine at a table studying he ran as fast as he could to them. "Have you seen Jeff?" He asked trying to catch his breath. "No he's your boyfriend." David said and laughed. "No he's not." Nick protested. "But you want him to be." Wes interjected. "Not the point, have you seen him?" Nick was starting to get annoyed. "No, he said he was going back to your dorm at lunch." Blaine said not looking up from his book. "I know but he didn't show up to English and I went back to the dorm and he's not there." Nick said starting to panic again. Kurt looked up and said "calm down Nick and turn around." Nick turned around to see Jeff coming into the library; he ran over and jumped on his friend. "Where were you?" Nick asked as he hopped down. "I fell asleep during lunch and woke up half way through class so I went for a walk instead." Jeff said sitting down with the rest of his friends. Free period flew past and they collected their things and headed to Warblers rehearsal.
Once all the Warblers had arrived they started practice. "Ok everyone Regionals are coming up and we can't lose again, we have to be perfect. The past few competitions we have been told we need to move more so I asked Jeff, David and Trent to help us with some choreography." Everyone got up and followed the dance moves the three Warblers were showing them, they were simple but when everyone was in sync looked good. They practiced for a few hours. "Ok so it looks great, but let's do it once more, then everyone can go." Wes said.
The majority of the Warblers groaned but went to their places. The routine was going great until Jeff collapsed. "Jeff!" Nick screamed and ran over to him. The Warblers stood there stunned. "Stop standing there and someone help me get his blazer off." David rushed over to help, Wes ran to get a glass of water. They got his blazer off with a struggle; they took off his tie and undid a few buttons on his shirt. Wes came back in less than a minute, "maybe you should roll his sleeves up." He suggested. "That's a good idea." Nick began to roll up Jeff's sleeves, when he did he gasped. "Someone call an ambulance." He demanded Trent pulled out his phone and rang, "what's wrong?" David asked. Nick didn't trust himself to speak so he just showed David Jeff's arm, there were cuts all up his arm, some old scars some fresh that hadn't quite closed over yet, Nick took Jeff's other arm and pushed the sleeve up, it looked the same as the other. David called Jeff's mother to let her know what was happening.
It felt like forever that Nick was holding his best friend waiting for the ambulance to come. Finally paramedics came and took Jeff into the ambulance; Nick didn't want to leave Jeff but seeing as he wasn't related he was refused to go in the ambulance. Wes and David took Nick and drove to the hospital with the rest of the Warblers following close behind.
When they got to the hospital Nick ran straight to the front desk. "Where's Jeff Sterling?" he asked the lady at the desk. "He's not allowed visitors yet but you can go up to the waiting room, he's on the third floor." She said pointing towards the elevator. "Thank-you." Nick said before he headed towards the elevator followed by the rest of the Warblers.
They were in the waiting room when Jeff's mother walked in, she walked over and sat down next to Nick and took his hand in hers and squeezed it. Everyone sat in silence until the Dr. Robinson came in. "Mrs Sterling…"Dr. Robinson began but Jeff's mother cut him off. "Call me Marissa."
"Ok Marissa you can see Jeff now, he lost a lot of blood so he fainted. He still hasn't woken up yet. I would suggest no more than three people at a time in the room." He said before he walked off. Marissa stood up. "I would like to see him alone first then you can take turns going to see him." She said before going into Jeff's room. While she was with Jeff the Warblers decided who would go in next. Marissa came out a while later. "Ok three of you can go in." The Warblers all went in to see Jeff, the entire time Nick didn't move from his seat in the waiting room. Wes and David walked over to him. "Come on Nick it's our turn to go see Jeff." Wes said holding his hand out to Nick. Nick took his hand, David stood on the other side of Nick as they walked into the room.
Nick was looking at the floor not wanting to look; he found the courage to look up. His best friend was lying still on the bed, with tubes coming from him connected to various machines; the room was silent, save for the beeping of the heart monitor. That sound was eerily reassuring to Nick, it meant his friend was still alive but he might not be for much longer. David and Wes sat down next to Jeff's bed and talked for a little while. "Um, can I have some time alone with Jeff?" Nick asked quietly "are you sure you want to be alone?" Wes asked. "Yes, I am." Nick said trying to keep it together. David and Wes left quietly closing the door behind them to give Nick privacy.
Once the door was closed Nick fell into the chair closest to Jeff and broke crying, he took Jeff's hand in his own. "Why would you do this Jeffy?" Nick asked hoping that Jeff would wake up and respond. Nick pulled his seat closer to the bed and rested his head on Jeff's chest. "Together forever, you promised." Nick said with tears streaming down his face. Marissa walked into Jeff's room to find Nick asleep on Jeff's chest with tear stained cheeks. She walked across the room and placed a blanket over Nick and sat down in the chair next to his.
Nick woke up not knowing where he was, he sat up looking around all the events from yesterday came flooding back it took all he had to not cry again. Marissa came into the room with two coffees in her hands. "Oh you're awake, here." She said handing Nick one of the drinks. "Thanks." Nick said taking a sip of the drink. "I called Dalton and explained what's happened, I also told them you might not be back at school while Jeff was in the hospital, in case you wanted to stay with him." Marissa said she smiled seeing the relieved look on his face. "Thank-you so much I don't think I could leave him." He said. "I have to go back to work and I didn't want Jeff to be left alone and I know you'll take care of him, just let me know if anything changes." She said gathering her things, "I'll have to tell the doctor to give any news to you, seeing as you aren't family." She turned and left.
Nick pulled his phone out of his pocket to see three messages. The first was from Wes 'All of us are going back to Dalton; let us know if anything happens.' Nick typed a quick reply and looked at the next message it was his mum 'I heard what happened stay strong honey xx.' Nick messaged back. The last was from an unknown number, he opened it 'Hey its Austin Jeff's bro I mite come by sum time 2day' Nick replied and added Austin's number to his contacts. Nick spent the day sitting by Jeff's side their hands linked, he didn't move from that position until 2:30pm when the doctor came in. "We need to do some more tests, so I have to ask you to leave, you can stay in the waiting room, and I will let you know when you can come back." Nick nodded, quickly kissed Jeff's hand, released his grip and left the room. The tests only took 10 minutes but it felt longer to Nick he just wanted to go back to holding Jeff's hand wishing for him to wake. The rest of the day was spent the same as the morning.
The next thing Nick knew he was being shaken awake and ushered out of the room by Nick's mum. "What's happening?" Nick asked. "I don't know one of the machines started beeping and then the doctors and nurses came in telling me we had to leave." Marissa said starting to cry. Nick pulled her into a tight embrace and they remained like that until the doctor came out a few moments later. "Marissa." They looked up to see Dr. Robinson. "What happened?" Marissa said her voice coming out hoarse and broken. "Jeff had a lack of oxygen to his brain, he's in a coma and it's unknown when he'll recover." Nick put an arm around her shoulder comfortingly. "Thank-you."
Marissa and Nick went back into Jeff's room sitting on opposite sides of the white bed each taking one of his pale hands in their own. Nick stayed like that for the rest of the week; Marissa went to work during the day but came back at night. Visitors came and went but Nick stayed there, days turned into weeks, weeks into months but Jeff showed no signs of improvement. It was late October two months had passed since the Jeff went into hospital; Nick hadn't left his side, except to shower.
That afternoon Marissa and Nick were sitting in Jeff's room talking when Dr. Robinson came in. "Marissa can I talk to you outside for a second?" She got up and followed him out of the room. "Marissa this is hard to say but I think it's time to discuss your options." Dr. Robinson said. "What do you mean by options?" Marissa asked. "Jeff hasn't made any progress and doesn't look like he will be." Marissa started pacing. "So what you're saying is that we should give up?" She paused before starting to pace again. "Not give up just think about what is best for Jeff, I don't want to pressure you into anything but I want you to consider it." Dr. Robinson said. "I'll give you time to think it through, the decision is yours." He added before walking away.
Marissa walked back into the room to see Nick holding Jeff's hand and crying into his chest. Marissa closed the door behind her when it clicked shut Nick's head whipped up. "What did Dr. Robinson want?" He asked quietly. "Oh it was nothing." Marissa replied nervously not making eye contact. "Something's wrong, I can tell." Nick said walking over to where Marissa sat down looking at her hands. "They want me to consider all my options, even if it means losing Jeff." She replied looking up only to see the door closing. Nick ran out into the waiting room and broke down crying. Marissa came over and sat next to Nick pulling him into a tight embrace, they stayed like that for a while until Nick lifted is head. "You aren't actually considering it are you?" He asked. Marissa looked down and sighed. "I think it might be what's best for Jeff." Nick pulled away from her. "No!" he shouted. "You can't just give up on him." He began to pace around the waiting room. "I think we should both go back to Jeff's room and get some sleep." Marissa said trying to calm him down, Nick got up and followed Marissa to the room.
Nick awoke the next morning to see that Marissa had already left for work. Nick looked up to see Jeff in the same position he had been the entire time, Nick took his hand from Nick's and left the room quietly. He walked down the empty halls of the hospital to the cafeteria, he got some coffee and took a seat at a table in the corner of the room and immersed himself in his thoughts.
What's going to happen if he doesn't make it? We've been friends forever; I don't know what I would do. I can't live without him; I miss him even though I'm around him all the time.
Nick was pulled from his thoughts when he felt something drop onto his hand; he hadn't realized he was crying. He got up and put his half drank coffee in the bin and began to walk back to Jeff's room. When he was getting closer he heard a commotion coming from Jeff's room. He ran through the door to see Jeff awake and trying to get out of bed but being held back by two nurses. "Dr. Robinson what's going on?" Nick asked worriedly. "Jeff woke up and his body went into shock." He replied leading Nick towards the door. "Nicky!" Jeff yelled. "You need to leave so we can sort this out." Dr. Robinson said pushing Nick out the door. Nick ducked under the doctor's arm and ran to Jeff's side. "I'm here Jeff, I'm here." Nick said grabbing his friend's hand. Jeff's heart monitor began to beep slower until it was at a normal rate. "You scared me Jeffy I thought I'd lost you." Nick said pulling Jeff into a tight hug. "Together forever, I promised and as you know I never go back on a promise." Jeff replied leaning out of the hug, but leaning back in as he captured Nick's lips with his own Nick gasped; it was a short but sweet kiss. "Why?" Nick asked shocked. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to." Jeff said looking down. "That's not what I meant, I've liked you since we were 8 when you told me you were gay, you were so brave to be able to say it, it took me 2 and a half years after that to be able to say it out loud, I always knew but I just didn't have the courage like you." Nick confessed. "Wow I can't believe I never noticed or I would've done that years ago." Jeff replied blushing, then yawning. "Go back to sleep, you look exhausted." Nick said making Jeff lay back. "Lay with me?" Jeff asked. "I'll quickly call your mum to let her know you woke up and that you're ok, and then I'll come back and lay with you ok?" Nick said. "Ok but don't be too long." Jeff said giving Nick the puppy dog eyes. Nick got up and left the room.
Nick opened his phone and scrolled through his contacts until he found the number Marissa gave him for her work. He pressed the call button and held the phone to his ear; it rang three times before someone answered. "Hello Heather speaking, how may I help you?" The voice on the other end said as they picked up. "Hello Heather, I was wondering if I could speak to Marissa." He heard some clicking on the other end. "I'm sorry but she is in a meeting at the moment, is it important dear?" The lady replied. "Yes it is, it's about her son." Nick said quickly. "In that case I will put you through." Nick once again heard clicking on the other end. "Nick is something wrong?" Marissa said panicking. "Everything's fine." Nick said reassuringly. "Then what happened Heather said it was important. "Jeff woke up, he's sleeping now, but I just thought I should tell you." Nick said. "Well I've still got some things to so at the office so I'll see you at about 4:30." Marissa replied. "Ok see you then." Nick said hanging up the phone and returning to Jeff's room.
"I thought I told you to get some rest." Nick said shaking his head when he saw Jeff sitting up staring at the door. "I didn't want to without you." Jeff said sounding like a little kid. "Ok then move over." Nick said climbing into the bed next to Jeff, wrapped his arms around him and the both fell asleep.
Nick and Jeff were woken by Marissa. "Jeff honey, you're awake!" She cried with excitement. "Mum I'm sorry, I didn't mean for anything like this to happen." Jeff said crying into his mother's chest. "Shh, it's ok; you're awake now that's all that matters." Marissa said, Nick was rubbing Jeff's back. "Should we tell the Warblers that I'm awake?" Jeff asked looking towards Nick. "I think we should wait until the weekend, that's only two days away just to give you time to relax before all the Warblers bombard you at once, you know how they are." Nick said Jeff chuckled. "That's a good idea." He replied. "Well I am the smart one out of us." Nick said with a proud look on his face. "Yeah sure, whatever you say Nicky." Jeff said laughing and lay back in the bed.
Jeff woke up early the next morning, he went to sit up but something was weighing down on his chest he looked down to see Nick curled into him with his head on his chest. Not long after Nick woke up, they spent the day watching movies. During the afternoon there was nothing on TV so they decided to just talk instead. "How are the Warblers? And what did they do about Sectionals? Who did they replace me with?" Jeff asked. "From what I heard last they're good. They had two people from the year below fill in for us. They won so we get to go to Regionals." Nick said. "That's great." Jeff said excitedly. "Why didn't you go?" He then asked. "I didn't want to leave you, I haven't since I got here." Nick replied blushing. "Thank-you, but you didn't have to miss out on all that school." Jeff said. "Well know we can catch up together." Nick said Jeff just smiled back a small silence followed. "Jeff." Nick said breaking the silence. "Yea?" He said looking up from his bed. "Why did you do it?" Nick asked motioning to Jeff's arms. "I knew this was coming." Jeff said looking down before going on to explain.
"I never felt as though I was good enough, I got straight A's in school but Austin always had A+'s. If I got an award Austin got two. I was never as good as him, no matter what I did he was always better, the one thing I was good at Dad said that dancing wasn't a good career. When I came out to my parents they were supportive but I could tell Dad was disappointed that I wasn't like Austin, after that Dad started to ignore me more and more, why would he need me when he had the perfect straight son already. That's why he hasn't come to see me. The first time I did it, it was an accident I cut my arm on something and it made the pain in my life go away so I started to do it deliberately, every time something went wrong I would go and do it." "I never knew you felt like that, just make me a promise now, if you ever feel like that, if you feel like you want to do it again come and find me and we'll deal with it together, promise?" "I promise." Nick pulled Jeff into a hug kissing the top of his head.
That afternoon Dr. Robinson came in. "Hello Jeff how are you feeling today?" He asked. "I'm feeling great." Jeff replied with a smile on his face. "Well I've spoken with the nurses and we agree that you can go home tomorrow instead of Saturday." Dr. Robinson said. "Thank-you." Jeff said giving Nick's hand a big squeeze. "We do want you to be careful, we don't want to see you back here again anytime soon." Dr. Robinson said jokingly. "Don't worry I don't think I'll be back for a while." Jeff said. "I've called your mum and she has given Nick permission to sign you out and he will take you home tomorrow." Dr. Robinson said looking towards Nick. "Thank-you, but I don't have my car it's at Dalton." He said. "Marissa organized for her assistant to go and get it a few days ago." Dr. Robison said leaving the room. The rest of the day passed slowly for Jeff, all he wanted to do was go home.
Friday morning was spent organizing all of Jeff and Nick's things and Nick filling out paperwork so Jeff could go home. The car trip home was just like any other car trip the two boys had, singing along to the radio having random conversations. When they got to Jeff's house they went up to Jeff's room and watched Disney movies. They were about halfway through the Fox and the Hound when Nick looked at the clock and paused the movie. "What's wrong?" Jeff asked looking confused as to why Nick stopped the movie. "Its 4:15 they would be in the middle of Warblers practice, should we call them and tell them you're home?, they don't even know you're awake yet." Nick said. "Ok." Jeff said as Nick pulled out his phone. "Who would've forgotten to put their phone on silent?" Nick asked. "Thad definitely, he always forgets." Nick pressed Thad's number and put it on speaker, it began to ring.
*At Warbler Rehearsal*
They were in the middle of practicing vocals for one on the numbers they were thinking of doing at Regionals when Thad's phone began to ring. "What did I say about phones in practice?" Wes said glaring at Thad. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID. "It's Nick, it could be something about Jeff." He said looking at Wes. "Ok answer it but put it on speaker." Thad did as he was told.
*At Jeff's house*
"Hello." Thad said. "Hey, I thought I should let you know Jeff's home." Nick said. "We didn't even know he was awake." David said. "Yea I woke up on Thursday." Jeff piped in. "Why didn't you tell us?" Wes asked sounding hurt. "Because you all would have rushed in demanding all of you to see him at one time, am I right?" Nick said. "Smart idea Nick." Trent said. "See Jeff I told you I'm the smart one." Nick said. "I never said you weren't." Jeff said rolling his eyes. "So when do we get to see him?" Blaine asked. "You can come around but not before ten." Jeff said. "Ok we won't be there until ten." Kurt said. "Ok well I guess we'll see you tomorrow then, bye." Nick said. "Bye!" The Warblers chorused. Nick hung up the phone and went back to watching the movie.
Jeff woke up to the door bell ringing, he rolled over to look at the clock it said 10:00 he groaned but got up. When he got to the door he saw the Warblers smiling. "You know when someone says not to come over before ten they really mean come at ten thirty." Jeff said running a hand through his hair in an attempt to make it stay down. "But it's us you should have known we would come at ten." David said grinning. "Yea we haven't seen you in ages we will take all the time we get." Thad added. "Ok come in I'll go wake Nick up and get dressed." Jeff said going back upstairs.
"Nicky." Jeff said shaking the body in his bed. "Come one wake up." Nick mumbled something that sounded like five more minutes. "Come on, or I'll get Wes and David to wake you up." Jeff said sitting on the bed. "Ok I'm up." Nick said jumping out of bed. "We have to get dressed quickly the warblers are down stairs." Jeff said throwing clothes at Nick and finding some for himself. "Why it's ten on a Saturday morning?" Nick said clearly annoyed at being woken up. "Just get dressed I'm going to brush my hair." Jeff said walking to the bathroom. About fifteen minutes later Jeff and Nick were downstairs with the Warblers. They spent the day just hanging out, they went to a playground and had played a huge game of hide and seek, Thad won by hiding between the top of the tunnel and the bridge over it, it took five of them and a piece of rope to be able to get him out, overall it was a great day.
The next two months passed quickly Nick and Jeff spent any spare time they had catching up on the work they missed. The Warblers won Regionals and went on to Nationals, they placed second behind the New Directions. After the competition they had a big party with the New Directions, Kurt organized the whole thing, it was good to mingle with the other glee club. Most of the Warblers enjoyed being able to talk to girls, even if most of them had boyfriends who were in the glee club or a girlfriend in Brittany and Santana's case.
Jeff pulled Nick aside at the party. "Look I know I said I wanted to keep our relationship to ourselves." "And I'm ok with that." Nick said. "But I'm not, I hate having to watch what I do, I just want everyone to know." Jeff said taking Nick's hand in his own. "If you're sure that's what you want then let's do it." Nick said pulling Jeff back towards the group. "Can I have everyone's attention?" Nick yelled turning down the music. Everyone turned to look at them. "Thank-you, firstly I would like to congratulate everyone here, you all did fantastic, especially the New Directions those original songs were amazing. Secondly I am happy to announce that Jeff and I are officially a couple. "About time." Nick looked to where the voice came from, it was Puck. "I've only met you a few times, I can't imagine what the Warblers ad to go through you were worse than Kurt and Blaine." Puck called Nick and Jeff just laughed. "Hey we weren't that bad." Kurt said looking offended. "I'm sorry honey but looking back we were quite oblivious." Blaine said giving Kurt a hug. "Anyway let's get back to the party." Nick said turning the music up. "Thank-you Nicky." Jeff said giving his boyfriend a kiss. "Anytime, together forever right?" Nick said Jeff giggled. "Together forever."
A/N: Just a quick note in my head the original songs are Pretending and Light up the World.