I'm back and planning to continue! I left for Honduras, then I came back and started school and two new jobs, and life has been a whirlwind since. But here it is. The quality's not quite what I'd have liked, but I figured I'd made you guys wait long enough, right? Anyway, I wanted to say thank you really quickly to all of you amazing readers who favorited this piece or added it to your alert list or reviewed… Those are what caused a third chapter. You all literally made my day every time one of you added it. I hope I haven't let you down. Read on.

Blaine steadied his breath, attempting to maintain the slow, even pattern of sleep. He could feel the warmth of Kurt's arms snaked steadfastly around his waist and hear his gentle humming. But Blaine just wasn't ready to be awake yet.

Breathe in slowly, he instructed himself. Now out. No, that was too fast. Slower next time. Don't move too much. But don't move too little either. Okay.

Blaine just needed time to think. He was blind. Maybe not forever, but even for the moment, it was scary as hell. He couldn't help but think of everything he might do again: watch a sunrise, sketch an outfit, read a book… He might never get to see the pink glow of Kurt's cheeks after a successful performance or be able to catch the tears in his boyfriend's eyes before they even fell. He might never see his own reflection again. And to be honest, Blaine had no idea how to handle that.

Then there was the matter of how he ended up there, which in some ways left him more confused than the blindness. His friends. His best friends. When he showed up at Dalton, he was a shadow of his real self, scarred by bullying, homophobia and fear. They fixed him. Nick and Jeff dragged him into the Warblers, and he watched as no one touched them, though their fingers remained intertwined the entire way to the choir room. In darker times, he sometimes believed he owed them his life.

But they hadn't all known, right? It had just been Sebastian, which while less surprising, still confused him. He wasn't stupid; he'd sensed the tension between Sebastian and Kurt. He knew something was wrong there. But he had never pegged his friend to be so cruel, nor so foolish.

Without thinking, Blaine sighed, breaking his steady breathing. He froze. It was not until he heard Kurt's continued humming that he relaxed again, once more focusing on the consistent rise and fall of his own chest. Guilt bubbled up in him. Kurt was skipping school and squeezing into a too-small hospital bed for him, and Blaine couldn't even speak to him.

But just Kurt's presence helped. His boyfriend's firm grip granted him a feeling of security he would never have had otherwise. The hours he'd spent alone terrified him- never knowing who was in his room, whose fingers were probing his eyes, whose voice was asking him intrusive questions… It made him want to scream. He still wanted to scream.

Finally, he rolled over, doing his best to drape his arm around Kurt. "Morning, sunshine. What time is it?"

"Quarter to eleven," Kurt answered, a small smile in his voice as he tapped away on the keys of his cellphone. "I'm glad to hear your voice. How'd you sleep?"

"Soundly," Blaine answered honestly. Once Kurt's arms had wrapped around him the previous morning, he'd slipped freely in and out of consciousness and woke only when the nurses poked and prodded his bandages. "What about you?"

"After sleeping in a lobby chair the night before, I can promise you I slept like a rock." Kurt's breath tickled the back of his neck, and Blaine felt two warm lips press against his collarbone. "How do you feel?"

Goosebumps rose on Blaine's arm, and he swiveled his head around needily, his lips searching for his boyfriend's until Kurt's finally met his. The kiss was short but tender; neither tried to deepen it. "I'm really glad you're here."

Kurt didn't ask again, and for that, Blaine was thankful. Instead, he felt Kurt's chin rest gently atop his head, though his fingers tapped once more at his cell phone. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, babe… What do you want to do today?"

"Kurt, it's a hospital," Blaine answered sullenly. "There's really not much we can do. Can we just… Lay here?" With a small nod, Kurt's arms wrapped securely around Blaine's chest and held him tight, his grip loosening only moments later to answer a text.

"Who have you been texting all morning?" Blaine asked, a hint of envy in his voice. He knew Kurt wouldn't cheat on him or anything as serious as that, but he did want Kurt to focus on him, if only for a little while.

"No one important," Kurt answered smoothly, pulling further away from Blaine and standing up. "But I'm going to go get something to eat really quickly. I'll be back soon, babe."

"Kurt?" Blaine asked, his head turning from side to side, as if looking. He almost stood up when he heard them.

When the night, has come,
and the land is dark,
and the moon is the only, light we'll see.No I won't, be afraid,
no I, won't be afraid,
just as long, as you stand,
stand by me.And darling, darling
stand by me, stand by me,
just as long, as you stand,
stand by me.

A segment of the Warblers were in the room, each of the four voices as immaculate as it had always been, filled with power and emotion. Each boy in turn came up, squeezing Blaine's shoulders and murmuring a name. "Trent." "Thad." "Jeff."

If the sky, that we look upon.
Should tumble and fall,
all the mountains, crumble, to the sea.I won't cry, I won't cry,
no I, won't shed a tear,
just as long, as you stand,
stand by me.

The lead vocals shifted there; even with everything going on, he had to notice. Nick, who had been singing, was suddenly next to him, ruffling the mess that was his ungelled hair. "It's me, Nick," the older boy said, however unnecessarily. "We love you."

Blaine swallowed heavily, his chest aching with an unwelcome swell of emotion.

And darling, darling
stand by me, stand by me,
just as long, as you stand,
stand by me.Whenever you're in trouble just stand by me
Oh stand by me
Whoa stand now, oh stand, stand by me

By the end, all of Blaine trembled, his body wracked with silent sobs which only intensified as Nick and Jeff squeezed into the bed on either side and squished him in one of their oh-so-familiar hugs. "We're so sorry, Blaine. We- None of us ever thought Sebastian would do something like that. We'd never have let him join or-"

"I know, Jeff," Blaine choked, still tight-throated. "I never thought you guys had anything to do with it."

"Then why are you crying?" Nick asked gently from his other side. "Oh, god. Are you in pain? Do we need to get a nurse or something?"

"No," Blaine answered more solidly. "No. They keep me on strong enough medicine that the pain's bearable. I'm just... That song… And you guys being here… How'd you know where I was?"

"Kurt's been texting Jeff and me to let us know how you are. This morning, he said you were pretending to be asleep and that he was worried about you, so it might be a good idea if we came to get you out of your head for a bit. So here we are. We've been wanting to see you anyway, we just didn't know if you were mad at us or not, and Kurt hadn't gotten to talk to you about it, and…"

"He knew I was pretending?" Blaine asked, unable to focus beyond that point. "Why didn't he say anything?"

He felt the boy on his left- Jeff- shrug against him. "He knew you had a reason and that you'd talk to him when you were ready. For as pushy as Kurt can be, you have to give him credit for giving you your space."

"So how are you?" Trent's voice cut in awkwardly, jumping to the heart of the matter. "Ugh. Sorry. I just- We all want to know, and I hate dancing around it like it's a forbidden topic or something. What have the doctors said?"

Blaine cleared his throat, searching carefully for the words. He didn't want to make things worse when they were already awkward, but he owed them a solid truth. "I don't know how much Kurt has told you. I'll try to stick to the basics so we don't have to deal with any of the medical jargon or whatever it is. The slushie Sebastian threw at me was laced with bleach. It got in both of my eyes and caused chemical burns and severed some of the nerves. I had surgery almost as soon as I arrived- as soon as they finished flushing out my eyes, I went directly in- and we won't know the results for a couple of weeks. I'm going to start working with an occupational therapist tomorrow so I can function normally until then and in case… Yeah."

"And what are the odds?"

"Low," Blaine answered with a sigh. "Full vision is an almost guaranteed failure, but there's a fifty-fifty shot on whether my vision will come back in any form at all. It's all dependent on how well the nerve endings repair themselves."

"And how are you handling that?" Thad's voice chimed in for the first time since he'd said his name what felt like forever before.

"I just… Am. I don't have a choice this time. I have to deal with it. I'm scared, but there's no way to fix this one."

Silence resonated through the room, and it was several moments before Nick broke the silence. "Well… On a happier note, both of our teams sounded really good the other day. It'll be a close competition, you know?"

And with that, they were back to normal: laughing, joking, teasing Blaine about his gel addiction… It didn't matter that he couldn't see or that he wasn't a Warbler anymore or that he did use too much hair product. It was just him with his best friends, and things couldn't be better.

The Warblers left an hour later, forced to return to Dalton for rehearsal, and Kurt slipped back into the room to be greeted by Blaine's heartfelt, "Today was something I really needed, and you are the best boyfriend in the world," and a kiss much more passionate than that morning's. Things were looking up.

I thought about putting another Kurt heart-to-heart here, but I figured I'd save that for sometime next chapter. This one was for the Warblers. Anywho, I'm back, and I would LOVE to see some new reviews coming my way if you would be willing. I'll do my best to be a better updater from here on out.