Chapter 2

Kurt stood outside a wrought iron gate in a large hedge wall in the richest suburb in Lima. Through the gate he could see a driveway that lead up to a large white stone house. This was not what he expected. He expected to walk up to some house and knock on the door and barge in if Sam or his parents wouldn't let him in but instead he was faced with pushing a large button to activate the intercom on the gate. If they didn't want to let him in he would have no chance of seeing if Sam was ok. Well he knew he was ok, but he was hoping he was feeling better than he was when he last saw him.

Kurt had stayed with Sam until Sam's mum had shown up to take him home. The blond woman had hurried over to her son and pulled him up into her arms. Sam hadn't had to say anything. With an "Oh, Sammy, let's get you home sweetie." She pulled him to his feet and with her arm around his waist for support, led him out of the nurse's office.

When they were at the door Sam turned back to Kurt with a desperate look on his face, "Kurt, please don't tell anyone about ... all this." His eyes were pleading at him to keep his secret but how could he, they needed to know. Mercedes needed to know.

"But Sam, I..."

"Please Kurt, at least for the moment, I know I won't be able to keep this secret for ever but I need to do it in my own time Kurt."

Kurt sighed, "I'll keep your secret for now Sam, but I can't keep it forever."

It was enough for Sam as he gave Kurt a weak nod goodbye and left with his mother.

Kurt had kept Sam's secret, as hard as it was with everyone questioning him. In the end he had stopped trying to answer them, or to reassure them that Sam was ok, cause Kurt knew he wasn't, Sam was very far from ok.

To get to where he was standing now Kurt had had to do some things that he wasn't very proud of. It have involved the bribery of the assistant secretary, with some extremely expensive face cream and lipstick to get her to run off to the bathroom to test them out so Kurt could look up Sam address on the computer and here he was now, outside one of the biggest houses in Lima. A part of Kurt was glad that Sam seemed to come from such a rich family; at least they would be paying for the best possible care for Sam. Now the question was to press the button or not to press the button. He made the decision and pressed before he could chicken out.

A few moments later a female voice came out of the speaker, "Hello, who is it?"

"Um, hi, it's Kurt, Sam's friend from school. I don't know if you remember me but I was the one who waited with him for you to pick him up this morning from school." Was she going to let him in he wondered. The reply he got he did not expect.

"Oh, Kurt honey, how nice of you to come over and check on him. Come in, come in honey!"

The gate swung open and he stepped through. Wow, she is friendly and trusting for a rich person. God what was he thinking, she was Sam mum, and Sam was super nice so why wouldn't his family be.

By the time he had made in up the driveway she was standing at the front door holding it open for him. "Hi Mrs Evans, I'm Kurt." he said extending his hand in greeting.

She took his hand and shook it, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you Kurt. Sam has told us so much about you and his other friends from school and it's amazing to finally meet some of them, all we have had the pleasure of meeting so far are Quinn and Mercedes for obvious reasons. Sam's not one for inviting people round because he doesn't want to show off the fact that our family has a lot of money." She was so warm and reminded him so much of Sam.

"It's a pleasure to meet you to Mrs Evans." Kurt said as she swept him inside.

"Please call me Mary, would you like anything to eat or drink Kurt?" Kurt didn't know what to say what he really wanted was to go and see if Sam was ok. "Sam's feeling a lot better than when you saw him this morning, he is upstairs in his room watching movies, but I don't think he can be in the presence of food at the moment so if you need anything to eat it would be best for all involved if you had something to eat down here before going up."

"I'm ok Mrs Evans."

"Are you sure Kurt, this can't be easy for you. It's not easy on anyone finding out someone they care about is very sick. Some people in Sam's life before we came to Lima didn't handle it very well. It's probably one of the reasons Sam's not keen on sharing what is going on with him with others." Mrs Evans even though he had said that he didn't want anything placed a piece of carrot cake and a glass of juice in front of him. He was about to protest but Mary interrupted him. "People think clearer and deal with bad situations better on a full stomach, trust me as much as you want to go up and see Sam, you don't want to be in any more discomfort than you have to be."

After a minute of Kurt digging into the best carrot cake he had ever had and that was saying something because he had honestly believed that he made the best carrot cake in existence. "So how are you handling this Kurt? I know it's only been a few hours, but it can't be easy."

Kurt took a deep breath before answering. "My mum had cancer when I was young. That how I found Sam out. He has the same pills that my Mum used to take before... before... she died."

"Oh Kurt, that's terrible." Exclaimed Mary who came round the bench and swept him up in a mum hug. She gave amazing mum hugs, so good that all the barriers of denial that he had put up about how sick Sam could possibly be quickly started to fall down and all his insecurities came pouring out to this woman that he hardly knew. "I know what cancer does first hand and... and..."

"And you know what could happen to Sam, you scared that how it ended for your mother is what is going to happen to Sam." Mary finished for him wiping away a tear with her finger.

"Is it? Could Sam... Die?"

A darker mood came over Mary, little did he know how deep that question ran. "I'm not going to lie to you Kurt, it is a possibility. Sam suffers from a very aggressive form of leukaemia. It comes on fast and without much warning and it is a bitch to get rid of but we have fought it off before and we will do it again. Sam needs to be surrounded by people who can keep him in a positive head space. Can you be one of those people, Kurt?

Kurt nodded, Sam had fought for him and now it was his turn to return the favour.

It took another piece of carrot cake and a trip to the bathroom to wash his face before Mary considered him ready to go up and see Sam. She led him up the stairs and to a door halfway along the corridor. She quietly knocked then stuck her head in. "Hey Sweeties, someone is here to see you."

"Who is it?" replied the excited voice of a little girl, and Mary stepped aside to let him in the room.

The room was really big compared to what Kurt considered normal bedroom size. There was a large queen bed, a couch, a desk and computer, a TV mounted on the wall which was at this moment playing one of the final scenes from Avatar and a door that led through to a bathroom, as well as the usual bedroom accumulation and junk. Sam lay on his stomach propped up by a pile of pillows with a couple of six year olds laying on top of him, the little girl who had obviously been the one that spoke and a little boy.

"Hi Sam." Kurt said and before Sam could reply the little girl spoke up again.

"Who are you?" She got a swat from Sam, and he muttered in her ear not to be so rude.

"Hi Kurt." Sam replied, "This is Kurt, my friend from school. Kurt, these two rascals are my little brother and sister, Stacy and Stevie."

"Hi Kurt!" they screamed out in unison.

Sam turned to his brother and sister. "Can you two please give Kurt and me some big people time, please?"

Stevie, who was like a miniature clone of Sam, got up without question and left. Stacy wasn't so compliant, "What do you do when you have big person time, last time you had big person time with Mercy you two were making these weird moaning noises? Are you going to do that with Kurt?" Kurt flushed pink but Sam just smiled at the girl's innocence.

"Nah, that's just something special me and Mercy do."

She wasn't convinced. "You made the same noises with Quinnie!" She pointed out.

"It's something that I do with girls, not guys, Stacy."

"I'm a girl, it sounds like fun, why don't you do it with me?"

"Stacy please, Kurt and I need to talk, thats all. Talking is boring, isn't that what you said before."

"Talking is boring! Playing games and watch movies is so much more fun!"

"Go and play a game with Stevie then. I promise I will play Wii with you later." Sam said nudging the girl in the ribs.

"Fine!" She said, "Love you Sammy." She said as she skipped out the door.

"Love you too!" He called out to her.

"They're cute." Kurt commented.

"That they are. Stacy is reaching that age where she questions everything. It can be a little awkward, especially with the big age gap between me and them. They don't really understand the concept of girlfriends, and what Mercy and I do together behind closed doors."

"Twins?"

"Yep two for the price of one, quite literally, they were IVF."

"Cool..." There were a few moments of awkward silence before Kurt got up the courage to ask. "How are you Sam?"

Sam looked down into the pillow. "I'm feeling better than this morning. I'll be up to going to school tomorrow. Mum and dad organised it so I would have chemo on Friday nights so I had the weekend to get better for school on Monday but sometimes it takes a little longer for the nausea to go away."

"Is the Chemo working?"

"Not sure yet. I have my six week review in a couple of weeks and I will find out then.

Kurt tried to give him a reassuring smile. "I'm sure there will be good news!"

Sam looked down once again into the pillows. "There has never been good news for me at a six week review. The soonest I got the news that my blood cells seem to show that I'm in remission was at one of my six month reviews."

They talked for a while, Sam shared how he hated chemo and what it did to his body. Shaking huge chucks of blond hair of his head to prove his point, saying that he wasn't looking forward to being bald again and if he made it through this time he hoped that he didn't end up ginger like he had been when he was 9. Apparently it was true that your hair grew back different after chemo, Sam had apparently been born blond then gone ginger followed by light brown and back to blond again. He wasn't keen on the fact that ginger came next in the pattern.

Kurt for the first time opened up to someone about his mum and for the first time someone listened to him. He opened up about how near the end his mum had seemed to stop fighting it and had let the inevitable come quickly and Sam sadly explained that for some people the pain got so bad that they needed to get out and for them death was the only way. He explained that it had nothing to do with how much she loved him, in fact she probably did it so she could remember what love truly was before she died and so that he didn't have to watch her go through the worst part, the part where the end was enviable yet everyone was doing everything in their power to keep them alive no matter how far gone their mind was or how much pain they were in. For the first time in years Kurt was starting to accept and even forgive his mum for dying.

After about 2 hours Kurt received a call from Finn wanting to know where the hell he was and that dinner was going to be soon.

Before he turned to leave he had to know one last thing.

"Sam can I ask you one more question?"

"Sure."

"When you were in the nurse's office, you kept repeating one thing over and over. You kept saying 'only four more months to go.' What did you mean by that?"

Sam couldn't look at him, "It nothing Kurt."

Kurt didn't believe him for a second, "Sam.."

"Really Kurt, it's nothing."

Kurt realised he wasn't going to get the answer out of him so he wished him a good night and turned to go. As Kurt was walking out the door he got an answer. "It's when I turn 18."

That confused Kurt, "But you're a junior, you're sixteen, not seventeen."

"People just assumed that I was sixteen and I chose not to correct them. Do you really think I could go through all the illness I have been through and not have it affect my schooling?" He had a point there.

"And why is you 18th birthday so important to you? A celebration because you made it to adulthood? I am so up for organising that party."

"No, it's the day that my parents cannot dictate my medical treatment. It's the day that I can stop having chemo and all this can be over."

After that big bomb shell Sam rolled over so that his back was to Kurt and he pulled his blanked up over his head. The conversation was over and Kurt was left with the worst feeling. Just like his mother, Sam was tired of fighting for his life and dealing with the pain that came with it. Sam Evans wanted out. Sam Evans wanted to die.