Author's Note: Just a brief little timestamp. The title comes from Mumford & Sons' "Ghosts That We Knew."
Summary: It was a month after Cooper's dramatic escape from Lima that Blaine got a postcard.
South from that Place
It was a month after Cooper's dramatic air escape from Lima that Blaine got a postcard. There was no signature, but Blaine would recognize the scrawled Good luck at Nationals anywhere. It was the same handwriting from all those anonymous postcards he'd gotten while Cooper—or Neal, since Blaine, despite knowing and accepting the truth, still had a hard time reconciling the brother he'd grown up idolizing with a world renowned art thief, forger, and overall con artist—had been evading arrest in New York and abroad. He grinned for a moment, impressed that his brother knew that Nationals were a week and pleased that he'd actually taken the time to send something despite being on the run.
The palm tree on the front of the card also told him that his brother was still breathing free air—or at least had been when he'd sent the card. And that confirmation was a major relief. Blaine had been keeping an eye on the news—both national and New York—even creating a news alert for "Neal Caffrey" for any hint of his brother's whereabouts. Agent Burke promised to call if he heard anything and Blaine promised the same. But with radio silence on all fronts, Blaine could only hope Cooper was sitting on a beach somewhere Kramer would never find him, sipping an umbrella drink and getting a tan.
After Cooper's escape, Kramer and his team had done their best to tear apart Blaine's and his parents' lives apart in an effort to find Cooper—to find Neal. Their mother had been heartbroken to learn the truth and had nearly shut down as a result but for Steve's support. But in the last couple of weeks, she had taken to muttering about the apple not falling far from the tree when she didn't think anyone was listening.
Blaine tried not to think that she might be waiting for him to turn criminal like his father and brother.
Meanwhile, Agent Burke had done his best to fill in the blanks about Cooper's life since he'd gotten to New York eight years before. He hadn't held back, as promised. Burke told him about Neal's friends Mozzie and Alex, his enemies Adler and Keller, his lovers Kate and Sara, and rogue agents Fowler and Kramer. He talked about hunting Neal for three years, the four years Neal spent in prison, and the strange, tenuous partnership that had turned into a lifelong friendship.
But rather than spook Blaine, as both Burke and Cooper had clearly feared, finding out about his brother's life had only made Blaine more certain about the decision he'd made in that park to cover for Cooper. He couldn't explain why, but it did, especially in light of their mother unofficially disowning Cooper.
So while the rumors flew around Lima and strange looks followed him down the halls of McKinley, Blaine was more at peace with how things were in his life than he'd been in years. Kurt and the other members of New Directions had tried to act supportive when the truth had come out, almost as though his brother had died or something, but he hadn't needed it. None of them seemed to believe him, though.
Blaine checked the postmark on the card but immediately discarded the Hawaii mark as his brother's location. Cooper wouldn't be dumb enough to send a postcard out of his hiding place. He would know the Feds had an eye on the Anderson house in case of any communication.
Hell, they had probably already seen this and only let it pass on to him because the lead had gone nowhere.
Cooper also wouldn't be dumb enough to stop at Hawaii. No, he would have found some island that wasn't on a map and holed up—so-to-speak, or at least Blaine hoped.
But despite all of that, Blaine was thankful to his brother for the gesture. He was putting himself at risk with any communication, but he was also keeping his promise from that night. And that meant more than Blaine could ever put into words. Somehow, it told him that the brothers Anderson would be all right in the end. Agent Burke would figure something out and bring Cooper home. After all their talks in the week and a half the agent had remained behind in Lima with the Andersons, Blaine had come to see why Cooper trusted the man so implicitly and felt safe doing the same.
And with the possibility of Cooper coming back home and Kurt planning a move to New York for college, Blaine could see his future taking shape. He had to believe it would work out.
After staring at the postcard for a good half an hour, Blaine picked up his phone and dialed.
"Agent Burke? It's Blaine. I heard from him…"
- fin -
