Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, obviously. Although I'm very happy that the creators are giving both Samuel and Damian a chance. And that we get to see Brittany try to figure out what the hell Damian is saying…
A/n: So I wasn't expecting this chapter to be quite so long… but I started typing and it just sort of happened. Not that it's exceptionally long or anything – it's just a bit longer than my chapters usually are.
Blaine stood leaning against his car as he waited for Kurt to arrive. He was early; Blaine hadn't been able to sleep the night before, and he'd decided to just go ahead and get ready for school early because he didn't know what else to do with himself. He was still trying to wrap his head around all of the things he had been told by the doctor the day before, all of the potential diagnoses.
"You look like hell." Blaine glanced up at the sound of a voice, a little surprised to see Coach Beiste walking around the parking lot.
"Thanks." Blaine wrapped his coat a little tighter around his body, glancing at the clock on his phone for what felt like the millionth time.
"Something wrong? I don't usually see students hanging around in the parking lot this early…"
"Just waiting on Kurt. He was going to bring me my homework assignments from yesterday." It wasn't exactly difficult for Blaine to lie; he'd had years of experience from trying to cover up so many different things about himself, that lies just sort of rolled off his tongue whenever he needed them.
"At seven-twenty in the morning? Class doesn't start for more than an hour…"
"He's meeting me at seven-thirty. I'm just early. But he was going to go over some of what I missed in our calculus class with me before school." Another lie. Not that the football coach really needed to know his business or that they weren't going to be doing anything homework related. They weren't going to be doing anything they shouldn't be doing, so Blaine really didn't feel bad about the lie. Kurt pulled up on the other side of Blaine's car at that moment, saving him from having to think of anything else to tell Coach Beiste. "I should go talk to Kurt… I really need to keep on top of things."
Blaine climbed into the passenger seat of Kurt's Navigator, leaning over and pressing a soft kiss against the boy's lips. "You look tired…"
"I didn't sleep much last night… I had a lot on my mind." Blaine glanced down at his hand as Kurt took it, squeezing gently.
"Tell me what's going on… that wasn't just a normal check-up yesterday, was it?"
"No… it was supposed to be, but things kind of changed when I got up there." Blaine sighed, shaking his head. "I have to start from the beginning for you to understand. So please, don't be upset with me for not telling you all of this before."
"Why would I be upset with you?"
"Because I never told you what was wrong with me when I was little. And it's kind of big…" Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand for a moment, before he pulled the taller boy's hand up towards the collar of his shirt. He undid the buttons with his free hand, moving Kurt's fingers under his shirt and over towards a small lump just underneath his collarbone. "You asked me what this was once, and I told you that it was just something left over from when I was sick."
"I remember."
"It's a portacath. They need to replace it now…" Blaine began. He felt Kurt's fingers moving away from the bump and back towards Blaine's hand. "They were going to take it out this year."
"My mom had one…" Blaine nodded, squeezing Kurt's hand for a moment.
"It was medulloblastoma… a brain tumor. Malignant. I was eight… I don't really remember much about how they found it. I just remember being sick a lot and having awful headaches. Then one afternoon I woke up in the hospital… I'd fallen down the stairs at home, and when they were checking me for a concussion, they found two tumors. They took them out, and I did chemo and I've been going to the doctor every few months since I went into remission to make sure that everything's okay." Blaine closed his eyes, trying to figure out where to go from there.
"Cancer. You thought I would be mad because you never told me that you'd beaten cancer?" Kurt asked.
"I didn't want to upset you, or make you worry. Not after you told me about your mom…"
"I'm not upset, okay? But I can't help worrying about you… what did they find? What did the doctor say yesterday?"
"Tumors. The doctor found two new tumors on the CT scan. With my history, they're afraid to wait for a biopsy to come back before they do anything about it. And the tumors weren't there six months ago… they're growing fast." Blaine glanced over at Kurt. The other boy looked more thoughtful than upset, and Blaine wasn't really sure what that meant.
"Okay. So what's the plan? What are they going to do?" Kurt asked. Blaine swallowed, trying to figure out how to tell Kurt what was going on. "Hey… whatever it is, I'm here for you, okay?" Blaine nodded.
"Surgery. First thing Monday morning to remove the tumors. After that, it'll depend on the pathologist's findings."
"Okay. Don't worry about homework… I'll pick up your assignments, and I'll bring them to you as soon as you're feeling up to it. And I'll come see you as much as possible…"
"Kurt, they're doing the surgery in Cleveland…" Blaine began.
"So? I can go to Cleveland on the weekends if you're still up there, and we'll talk every night. It'll just be like things were when you were at Dalton, just until you're out of the hospital…"
"Kurt… if it's cancer, I might have to move back to Cleveland. My dad's still up there, and he said that if we needed to he'd let me and my mom stay with him…" Blaine hated the thought of moving back to Cleveland; he and his father had never really gotten along. The only reason Blaine still believed that his father loved him was because the man had practically insisted that they live with him if they had to come back to Cleveland for treatments, even if he and Blaine's mother were in the process of getting a divorce.
Blaine could tell that Kurt hadn't been expecting that. "But… there are hospitals here in Lima. There are a lot of hospitals that are closer than Cleveland…"
"But my doctor is in Cleveland. And my parents agreed that it would be better to stick with the same doctor as last time because he knows my case and he has all of the notes about which drugs fucked with my system and which ones I had bad reactions to and all of that." Blaine closed his eyes. "I don't want to leave. But I might not have a choice."
"When will you know?"
"I dunno… a week or so after the surgery, I guess. It takes some time for the lab reports to come back. I'll be out of the hospital by the time we know anything official." The two boys sat there in silence for a moment, just holding hands and staring out the windshield as other students pulled into the parking lot.
"Why did you come to school today? You don't even have time to do all of the make-up work before you'll be gone… you should have stayed at home, gotten some rest…"
"I need to explain…" Blaine began.
"Your mom can call. She can tell them what's going on… you don't have to be here…"
"I needed to explain to you, Kurt. I needed to tell you what was going on. I couldn't just leave you for that long without knowing that you understood…" Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand again. "I don't care about the school understanding. They could fail me for missing so much school for all I care right now."
"You shouldn't say things like that… once you're back at school, after they've told you you're fine, you'll care." Blaine sighed, fighting back the first set of tears that had started since he'd been told about the tumors.
"Kurt, if this is cancer…" Blaine bit down on his lip. "If it's a relapse, I'm probably not going to make it. The survival rate for a relapse is really low, and the older you are, the worse the numbers get. I'm eighteen…"
"You're going to be fine, Blaine. You shouldn't worry about all of that until you have a real reason to believe you're sick. And I'm not going to believe it until they say the tumors are malignant."
"We should get inside and go to class. I need to talk to my teachers, and I don't want to be late…" Blaine commented, starting to get out of the car. He stopped when Kurt put a hand on his arm.
"Dinner tonight. Come over. I know it's Friday family dinner, but I want you to come, okay?" Blaine nodded, smiling slightly as Kurt leaned over and pressed a soft kiss against his lips.
