A/N: Hello readers. Thank you for reading my story. I just want to assure you that I have no intention of Blaine forming a romantic relationship with Jack in any way. He is brilliant at his job and has not been interested in teenage boys since he was one. His heart is definitely in one place with a certain old flame in Hollywood…just so you know. : )


Chapter 2

A scream echoed through the building at Trevor's House. Blaine booked it up the stairs to the second floor dorms to see a night staffer leaning heavily on the shut door to room 21 with a look of total resignation on her face. A few other staff members appeared on the floor and stood silently watching while everyone tried to assess the situation.

"Jack, come on honey, you need to eat something. This is beyond ridiculous".

"NO!"

The counselor looked at Blaine with a total look of frustration. The door was locked from the inside but the staff had the keys to override this. Of course they only would do that in an emergency.

"How long has this been going on for?" Blaine asked. He had not yet had time to read the weekend handover notes and so was feeling a bit behind.

"He has not come out of his room all weekend. On Saturday Doris broke down and brought him food in his room as she could not stand the thought of him starving himself. Since then he has been living off peanut butter sandwiches and juice that staff have been bringing him. Apart from thanking staff for the food and returning the empty plates, he has not interacted with anyone. Now it's Monday morning and the School Side say that he has to be in education but he is flatly refusing."

"What was the scream about?"

"I'm not sure but I think he is getting as frustrated as I am. He is clearly OK but he is begging to be left alone. I don't know what to do."

Blaine stepped up to her and saw the tiredness in her eyes. She had been up all night monitoring the hallways to ensure the boys were all safe and asleep. This was the end of her shift and Blaine knew she had college in a few hours.

"Go home, I'll take it from here," he said. He also nodded to the other staff members on the floor. "I've got this. I'll radio you if I need anything. Please tell the School Side that we will be down when Jack is ready."

The staff left the floor one by one leaving Blaine to stare at a locked door. He racked his brains to think about the next step. He heard nothing from the other side of the door but guessed that Jack was probably leaned up against it listening intently.

Blaine took a seat on the floor and leant back against the door and decided to wait Jack out.

After about 10 minutes he heard the lock disengage and felt the door swing open away from him by half an inch. He squinted in to the darkness of the room behind him but made no effort to move. Silence.

"What are you doing?" came the disembodied voice from inside the room.

"Waiting for you," Blaine replied.

There was a soft snort of frustrated amusement in response to this. "Look I'm not coming out and I don't want to talk. Please just leave me alone."

Blaine took a deep breath and weighed his next words carefully. The door had not been shut again so he took this as a positive step. "You've been alone for a long time Jack. I'm worried about you."

Blaine could hear shuffling inside the room. He did not move. He felt like he was gentling a scared animal, just letting Jack get used to him being there, trying hard not to spook him. About ten minutes passed before eventually the door opened a couple more inches and he could see a knee near the doorway suggesting that Jack was sitting on the floor.

"Are you going to just sit there?" Jack asked in bemusement.

"Yes… unless you are hungry and want to raid the kitchen," Blaine replied.

Jack seemed to consider this but said nothing.

"I heard you playing the guitar the other night," Blaine said. "Where did you learn to play?"

"Taught myself."

"That's impressive. You sing well too."

"I know," Jack replied.

Blaine smiled slightly at the pride he heard in Jack's voice. At least there was something in Jack's life that he knew was worth something. Blaine felt it was a good sign that he tolerated the compliments so well.

"Do you play?" Jack asked.

Blaine felt a pang of emotion go through him. "I used to." He suddenly was hit with a flood of memories of him and Kurt messing around with different vocal arrangements while he strummed away on his guitar. They were mostly really happy memories but after the relationship ended he had found it too painful to play often and gradually the guitar had slipped out of his life.

"I don't think I could ever stop. It's like my left hand or something," Jack said.

"I know what you mean. I used to feel like that."

"So why did you stop playing?"

"That's a good question. I don't know that I have a good answer. Life just got in the way I guess."

"That sucks."

"Yes."

Silence followed this rather bald statement. Blaine continued to just sit, allowing Jack to make the next move.

"I hate it here."

"Why?"

"Why do you think? This place sucks. There are so many rules and everybody wants to be in you business. The other kids are all losers."

Blaine smiled a bit at this. "They are not all losers. I think you probably would quite like them if you gave them a chance."

"I'm leaving."

"Where are you going to go to?"

"Dunno but anywhere is better than this dump."

Blaine knew full well that he was being tested. He had heard too many kids say things like this and the reality was that if Jack had somewhere else to go he would have left already or would not have agreed to come in the first place.

"Where were you before you came here?"

"At a mate's house."

"How was that?"

"Fine, I guess. There were a lot of people there."

"Did you feel safe there?"

"Sure. Why not? I can look after myself."

Blaine did not miss the puffed up bravado.

"What kind of people were there?"

"All sorts. They just came and went. It wasn't really my mate's house. It was like an empty house I guess that people had moved in to. Anyone could go there you know. There were no locks or anything."

"It sounds pretty scary to me."

"Yeah, that's 'cause you are a wuss. I mean look at you, you wouldn't survive a single night on the streets. You'd get your ass kicked so fast."

"I'm sure that's true," Blaine said with no heat in his voice.

There was another pause. Slowly Jack opened the door a little more and the light from the hallway hit his face.

"You're weird, "Jack said.

"I know," responded Blaine.

Another silence hit.

"So how did you keep your guitar safe in a place like that?" Blaine asked.

"Oh…well I was using it to busk to get some money. At night I found an empty dumpster a few streets away from the house. It had like this really heavy lid on it and it was outside an abandoned building site. I put it in there in its case, and then loaded some cinder blocks on the top to make it look like it hadn't been opened."

Blaine felt a bit sick to his stomach. Knowing how much the guitar meant to the kid he could just imagine how hard it must have been for him to take that risk every night. It also spoke volumes about the place that Jack was staying if that was a preferable option than keeping the guitar with him every night.

"Could you have asked a friend to look after it?"

"I don't have any real friends anymore," Jack said blankly.

Blaine took a moment to process this.

"What about leaving the guitar at home?" It was definitely a risky moment to ask about home and Blaine felt himself take in a silent breath and hold it while trying to look as relaxed as possible to Jack.

Jack raised his thumb to his mouth and started gnawing on his nail. "I haven't spoken to my Dad in a while. I kind of wanted to prove to him that I could manage on my own and I did not want to go crawling back to him begging for help. Besides he's not interested in me anymore."

Blaine knew there was volumes of stuff under that statement but he let it go, relieved that Jack had not slammed the door shut and retreated all the way back in to his room.

At that point Blaine's stomach growled. Jack smiled a bit. Blaine laughed and said "Look I'm hungry and heading down to the kitchen. No one will be down there right now. Do you want to come and raid the fridge for leftovers?"

Jack looked at him suspiciously. "I don't want to go to school."

Blaine looked at him and decided to take things very slowly. "Look I'll level with you," he said. "I can't leave you alone as you are meant to be in school right now and as you already said, there are loads of rules here. How about we get some food, you can bring your guitar and then we can go to my office and I will clear some of the paperwork that is covering my desk while you keep me company?"

Jack thought about this for a minute and then said "I am not willing to get therapised or whatever shit it is that you think you are going to do to me."

Blaine laughed. "I promise, no therapising (great word by the way). I genuinely will leave you alone… and I have candy."

That seemed to do it. Jack got to his feet and grabbed his guitar. "Fine but it had better not be the shit candy – I expect Reese's pieces and Red Vines."

"I'll see what I can do."