Chapter 3- Of Nightmares
Lima- Hummel/Hudson house
The first day is far from being eventful. Still on a very high dose of pain meds, the two injured sleep for most of the day. Carol wakes up around noon, and eats a bowl of cereal with Sam cross legged on the couch. No words are exchanged between the two, though they silently agree that this will soon become a tradition. When Burt comes through the door at 12:30 for his lunch break, he finds them still on the couch eating in silence in their pyjamas. He doesn't say anything, goes to the kitchen, grabs a bowl for himself and comes and sit down with them.
"Rachel called."
The spoons stopped moving.
"Asked if we were alright. I told them yes. They said they wanted to come next week for the regional's competition, I said it was delayed and that they should absolutely not come. I told them that it was Cheerios that were shot… I didn't lie, you know? I just felt like…" Deep breaths, try to control your tears.
"You did well son. I'll deal with them if they call again." He slowly gets up and pick the three bowls putting them in the sink; he'll wash them when he comes back. He silently hopes his son won't call or come by, he figures he won't. New York has changed his boy, and sometimes he doesn't think that the change is for the best.
The first incident happens while they are trying to have supper downstairs, they hear a sharp cry and they all bolt up the stairs. They arrive to two sobbing mess that are in pain because they made a false movement and hurt themselves. It takes one song and they are calm again. The three caretakers are quite hopeful that their recovery will go well since it was the first incident, Carol decides to lower their morphine dosage since they seemed to be doing fine. She calls in sick for her night shift that night, too tired to even consider going to work.
It was a mistake to lower the pain meds.
The first night is hell. They wake up a total of seven times. Five times because they move too much and hurt their wound. Two times because of the nightmares; those are harder to deal with. Blaine and Brittany scream and thrash around, stuck in their horrid dream world. They are asleep, yet Burt and Carol have to hold them down to prevent them from hurting themselves. Sam tries to sing to calm them down, it sounds more like a blubbering mess from all the crying; but it does the job anyways.
They sleep all through the next day, Carol having up their pain med again to allow everyone a small respite. It's Friday, Burt still needs to go to work that day and brings Sam to distract him figuring that the two wounded will sleep throughout the day anyhow. They force the two patients to eat breakfast and supper, if only a dry toast. They don't realise until Carol leaves for work that night, that the three of them have forgotten to eat since they brought the others home. They will, just later?
The second night is not much better.
When Carol comes home on Saturday morning, they realise they are quite in over their heads as they stare at the mountain of dishes and dirty clothes that seem to grow every hour of the day. Sam calls reinforcements and suddenly the house is buzzing with people and it actually seems to help everyone's morale. Soon Blaine and Brittany are interacting with others and for a moment they don't look like empty shells; they're starting to look alive again.
Sam takes the habit of simply sleeping in the hallway next to their door at night, he hears them better and can calm them down faster that way.
During the 5th night on Monday, he punches a hole in the wall after hearing quiet whispers.
"Why didn't we die?" the silence of the night is broken by the girl's voice, for a second Sam wonders if she's asleep or not.
"I don't know."
"Would anyone care if we did?"
"I don't know."
Definitely not asleep, this was a fully-awake conversation.
"I don't think so…"
"Me neither."
"Maybe they would have all been happier if we'd be gone."
"Wouldn't have to worry about us screwing up their lives anymore."
"I feel like people are always disappointed with me."
"Because we can't do anything right."
"Are we worth anything to anyone Blaine?"
"No."
He waits for the conversation to continue before realising they have probably fallen asleep.
When Burt wakes up the next morning there's a hole in the wall. It's never said what happened and he doesn't ask.
During the 6th night, Burt wakes up in the middle of the night and as he putting a blanket on top of Sam's sleeping form he overhears voices.
"Do you think we deserve what happened to us?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because all we do is disappoint and hurt people, we deserve to suffer for the pain we make them go through."
"We don't deserve to be loved, do we?"
"No."
"They're better off with other people, aren't they?"
"Yes."
"Even if it hurts us so much I want to die?"
"Yes. We deserve it, we hurt them first."
"Is anyone ever going to love us?"
"I don't think so."
"Why can't they love us Brit? Our parents and them…, why don't they love us?
"Because we're not worth of their love Blaine. We deserve to hurt for all we did to them."
"Will we ever find love you think?"
"No."
"I thought so too…"
He waits a moment after they stop speaking to see if there's more. After a few moments he realises that they are sound asleep and that hot tears are rolling down his face.
When Sam wakes up he sees another hole above his own on the wall; he never questions how it got there.
The therapist comes by the house during the afternoon, after three sessions she announces that Blaine and Brittany will try to go back to school on Thursday afternoon. She feels as though they are ready, the occupants of the house know that it's only a front they are putting up, but don't mention it.
Sam comes to pick them up during the lunch break to bring them with him. They flinch when they see the metal detectors, but make no comments. They seem genuinely happy to be there and see their school friends. If anyone finds it odd that they are not letting go of each other's hand; they don't mention it.
"Is there a glee practice tonight?" asks Blaine during their break.
"Yeah, well more like a small get together in the auditorium. Wanna come?" Sam's hopeful at this point and he can see Tina and Artie also looking on with a smile.
Brittany and Blaine exchanged a look before nodding, music had always helped to heal their wounds.
Saturday morning at the Hudson-Hummel household is fairly quiet for once. The occupants having only been woken up once during the night, everyone feels strangely refresh. Carol comes home from work and goes to sleep for a short time (she needs to get back on day schedule for next week), Sam decides to do the same as Burt takes care of feeding Brittany and Blaine. Both scarred teens are too tired to stay up, and after trying to do their homework for a while they head back up to sleep off their exhaustion of the day before.
A little after twelve, only an hour or so after Blaine and Brit went to bed, Carol and Sam get up and go downstairs to eat. This is their tradition now. Carol and Sam will sit on the couch cross-legged and eat their bowl of cereal. If Burt is there he'll sit in the chair and silently drink their coffee, as he is now. For once the house seems strangely peaceful, and they can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel of pain they've been thrust in 10 days ago.
And then their silent moment is broken by the door slamming open.
"I'm home! Surprise!"
Carol and Sam turn their head around staring at reason for their disturbed peace with a dumbfound expression. They must be dreaming. They can't be there; not when everything was finally starting to look up. Even Burt is speechless as he stares at his son and his two friends, maybe he should've answered that phone call last night…
This could not bode well for anyone.
