"David, please refrain from blowing those right to my face, will you?" Wes rolled his eyes at the now bald dandelion David held between two fingers.
Blaine smiled as he brushed off his shoulders the few little specs of white dust.
"Blaine, do you think Kurt would agree to decorate my flat?" David wondered, ignoring completely Wes' scowl. David had been accepted to Berkeley. His parents had gotten him an apartment near campus and from the few pictures Blaine had seen it was still pretty empty and white.
Blaine burst out laughing "Well, sure, if you don't mind giving up total control… and have a rather large decorating budget."
"Cool!" David beamed "I'll call him later tonight!"
Blaine's smile was interrupted by his cell phone ringing "Speak of the devil… Hi Kurt!"
"Hi! How are you?"
"I'm fine, I'm just hanging with Wes and David. What's up?"
"Well, first, I don't really need a reason to call my boyfriend, now do I?" Blaine grinned and he could hear Kurt smiling as well "But, I guess, so, I was just talking with my dad and I kind of let slip that I miss you a little bit" Blaine smiled at the sheepish tone Kurt used and he wondered how he could go from being so in command to the bashful adorable little voice "And he said that if you wanted you could come up and stay for the weekend."
"What? really?"
"Yeah, it's a just a couple of hours driving – ok, dad, a bit more than-a lot more than a couple of hours –, and I think you'd have to sleep in Finn's – no? really? Really? – ok, correction, you'd sleep in my bedroom, and it's just two or three nights top, anyways… So, what do you say, do you want to?"
"Let me see, do I want to go meet you and your pretty amazing family where you're spending your days at the beach and where I'd get to… hmmm… sleep comfortably and be with you all day…? Of course I do! I just have to ask my parents, I'll call you tonight, ok?"
"Yeah, listen, I really hope you can make it, Blaine…" there were sounds of shuffling and a door closing "I don't want to sound clingy or needy, but I really miss you…" Blaine started to slow his pace, letting David and Wes walk ahead.
"I miss you, too. And… thank your dad for me, will you? I thinks he deserves an award of some kind."
"He does..." Kurt chuckled "I think it had something to do with you calling me baby at the dinner table that Friday night dinner before we left. You were too embarrassed to notice how he looked at you… he just looked so… I don't know, I think he kind of fell in love you after that, a little bit… at least."
"You think?"
"Yeah, lately he's been all we should have Blaine over, and what do you think Blaine would say about this, or Blaine should see that… If I wasn't so happy you two got along so well I'd be crazy jealous. Seriously, my dad's just in love with you, I know it." Kurt chuckled.
"So I should make a habit out of saying 'could you pass the salt, baby?' more often then?"
"Mmm, I wouldn't mind either."
"No?" Blaine smirked flirtatiously, even if Kurt couldn't see it. David had turned around now and was gesturing for Blaine to let him talk to Kurt.
"No, it makes me feel all warm and giddy inside… every time. Is that weird?"
"I hope not…" Blaine smiled "Listen, baby, David wants to talk to you, ok?"
"Ok, sweetpea…"
"That's just…"
"Too much?" Kurt giggled.
"Precious in a too much kind of way, yeah…" Blaine laughed.
"Ok, pumpkin, talk to you later!"
"Alright, muffin!"
xXxXx
"Tommy, let your sister have the ball, please." Blaine hollered before checking his wristwatch for the time. Maybe he should get going, the kids still had to shower before dinner. He decided he'd let them play for another ten minutes before calling them over. Picking up his book he sat back. He'd read two lines before his cell rang.
"I know, I know, I'll be home in fifteen…" he said, without asking, surely that was the reason Kurt called- it was always the reason he called because Blaine always lost track of time.
"No. Don't. Don't come home, please."
"What? What happened Kurt?"
"Keep the kids away, don't… don't come home. My dad… had another heart attack. They're still trying to… the paramedics are still here… but it's so scary, Blaine, and they can't see this. Please keep them playing…"
"Ok…"
"I'll… I'll call you, if there's… anything."
"Ok…" Blaine ran a hand over his curls "I love you…"
"I love you, too."
Blaine clutched his cell phone in his hand, so tight it was amazing how it didn't break. "Oh god…" he muttered before burying his head in his hands and trying his hardest at keeping his shoulders from shaking, from giving away everything that was going on inside of him. He heard their little voices laughing and cheering, but they seemed so far away, like they were in a different world altogether. They were still in a world where they had their granddad, where Burt Hummel and his easy laugh existed. Where his granddad would still greet them with the warmest of hugs and the kindest of smiles.
And Blaine, Blaine lived in a world that every second that went by was one second closer to another call. Another excruciating call that would tell him it was over. That Burt Hummel – THE Burt Hummel – had passed away, left, moved on… Died. Where everything that ever went unsaid and undone would never get the chance to be said or done.
Blaine pressed his palms hard against his eyes – trying to block out all the 'what if's' running through his mind, he sniffed back his tears as he heard Alice and Tommy running towards him.
"Daddy, daddy! Alice's saying we don't have time for a re-match because we need to go home! She just wants to win! Always! And she's afraid I'll win her this time."
Blaine noticed the strange look that Alice gave him and he wondered if his eyes were all that red already, but he ignored it, smiling "No, there's time. Your dad just called and he said dinner's running late, so there's plenty of time for a re-match."
"See? I told you!"
"Well, it's just another chance for me to win!" she said haughtily, forgetting about her father's red eyes as quickly as she'd noticed them.
"You wish!"
"Bring it on!"
"Be nice!" Blaine warned the two of them as they ran off "Be careful!"
Theyre still atteptint CPR. It's ben 1 hour. – K
Ok. 3 – B
Blaine laid down his cell. He just knew, he could feel it in the pit of his stomach. Burt was gone. It was just a matter of time now. Of waiting helplessly for that call.
He couldn't stand it. He just couldn't. But he had too. It was then that he saw the small figure running towards them and he was never as grateful as he was now for Rachel Berry.
"Rachel?" He asked as she collided with him in a tackling hug before anything else.
She pulled back, gasping for air and he could see her tear stained cheeks and her red eyes "I came home for a small vacation and I was coming over to see Kurt and… Well, I was just getting in the way in there, so… You should go. I'll take care of them!"
"I… Are you sure?"
"Of course, I'll just… take them out for dinner or something. Go, and call me if there's anything else you need." She urged him. He just nodded and picked up his back. He almost took off running before he remembered to turn around.
"Alice, Tommy!" he called running to meet them where they stood "Daddy needs to go home, ok? But Auntie Rachel told me she really wants an evening out with you guys, so… behave!" he shot them a warning look and they both nodded "I'll see you later." He kissed them both with as much love as he had. Next time he'd see them it would be bearing terrible news and he wasn't quite sure how to deal with that just yet.
He took off practically sprinting for his car. When he parked in front of their house he could see the ambulance parked there. How was he supposed to think Burt was going to make it when they hadn't even moved him to the hospital?
He burst through the front door and left it wide open to run to the living room where he could hear stressed voices and barks of orders.
A paramedic stood over a body in the living room floor, pressing his hands rhythmically onto Burt's chest, but he looked… well… Blaine couldn't really bring himself to even think what Burt looked like. It was one of those things he wasn't sure anyone should ever go through seeing -someone looking like that, it's just so haunting and overwhelmingly real. He looked around the rest of the room. Finn had enveloped Carole in tight hug at the corner of the room and she was a sobbing mess, he seemed a bit lost in thoughts, his eyes shiny and unfocused. He found Kurt, with his back turned to the whole spectacle, shoulders shaking violently, as he supported himself against the doorframe to the kitchen.
One of the paramedics approached Blaine "Sir…"
"I'm the son-in-law…" he muttered, holding out a hand, before barely sparing him another glance and starting towards Kurt.
"Ok…" The man on the floor, running a shaky hand through his hair – a hand that should be pressing on Burt's chest, not there, never there…, said "I… Ok… Time of death… five forty six p.m."
Blaine was so painfully aware of everything that happened then, like everyone slacking a bit in disappointment, regret and maybe, just a little bit of relief. But at the same time all he could see was how Kurt had turned around immediately at those words, how his eyes were so full of tears it was a miracle if he could see anything at all, how he opened his mouth to say something, or maybe it was just to scream or beg for more effort, but Blaine got there before he could. The second Blaine enveloped him in tight, strong arms, he melted at once into his embrace like it was everything keeping him in place. He felt as Kurt's legs gave out a little and Blaine had to keep him from falling, and when Kurt gripped him so hard that he was pretty sure it bruised, but it didn't hurt – somehow, because he could feel things, he could know they were happening but… he was numb in a way, and all that mattered was Kurt in his arms and Burt dead on the floor.
The whole room stayed silent for a long time, only sobs and shaky breaths breaking the silence every once in a while, or every few seconds occasional Carole's gasps of 'Oh god… oh Burt…'
Blaine wasn't sure when he started crying too because he was so lost in it all. Everything about that room was heavy, suffocating and claustrophobic, and yet he couldn't move. He couldn't move one inch.
It felt like he was trapped in a cage of both feelings and numbness – and the paradox of it all was just as paralyzing.
One of the paramedics pulled a white sheet over Burt and he felt as Kurt stopped breathing for a second, wide eyed, horrified, before looking away, burying his face "My dad, my dad, my dad… Blaine, my daddy!" Kurt mumbled, voice buried deep in the crook of Blaine's neck.
"I'm here, baby, I'm here, I'm right here…"
Kurt held onto Blaine for a while longer, fingers clutching fabric almost to the point of ripping, before his sobs started to subside and he finally extricated himself from Blaine's embrace, wiping his face with the back of his hand and sighing "Ok… Ok."