Ack. I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry. Real life got in the way and I had like 4 exams in the space of 3 days and I know it's no excuse, but then I kind of forgot. I just remembered about an hour ago, and that is how this happened. On the upside, I remembered what I was gonna write, so … yay?

Sam took the stairs up two at a time, as quietly as he could so he wouldn't wake up Stevie or Stacey. When he reached his parents' door, he knocked softly and waited until he heard a quiet "come in" before entering.

Sam's mother, Mary, was sitting up in bed, reading one of those romance novels she liked so much, when he walked in. He whispered the situation quietly into her ear, and she nodded and woke up her husband, Dwight. The two of them got out of bed and pulled on bathrobes and slippers. Mary grabbed her cellphone from the nightstand and started to call 911 as she brushed past her son and started down the stairs.

Blaine was still unconscious on the couch, so Mary put her arm around the boy. She thought he might be running a slight fever, but it was hard to tell. As she explained the situation to the phone operator, she rubbed her thumb along the boy's cheek, wondering how horrible a person would have to be to do this to his own child. After giving as many details as she could, she hung up and looked worriedly at her husband and her oldest child. "We can't let him go back there again, Sam. It looks like that man did his damned best to kill him; who knows how long it'll be before he succeeds?" She bit her lip, unable to speak any more.

Sam nodded. "Can … can he stay here with us until graduation? I know money's tight right now, but we can get jobs after school if we need to; I know a great coffee place – "

Dwight put an arm around Sam's shoulders. "He can stay with us if he wants to, but let's just get him to the hospital to get checked out before we worry about finances." Just then, an ambulance pulled into the driveway, its siren blaring and its bright lights flashing. Dwight went to the door to allow the EMTs inside and helped put Blaine on the stretcher. The female EMT looked from one Evans to another. "Are any of you family?"

Mary shook her head. "No, he's a friend of our son Sam. They're both eighteen years old, though, so maybe Sam can ride in the ambulance with him and my husband and I can follow in the car?" She looked at her son worriedly. "Is that alright with you, sweetheart? It might calm him down a bit to wake up to a familiar face…"

Sam nodded. "It's okay with me, Mom, but shouldn't one of you guys stay home with Stevie and Stacey, in case something happens?"

Mary pulled her phone out again. "I'll call one of the sitters and see if one of them can come and watch them for a bit, and then we'll head out to the hospital once the sitter gets here." Putting the phone up to her ear, she motioned for her son to follow Blaine and the EMTs out to the ambulance.

Sam was actually pretty numb for most of the ambulance ride, and he really didn't understand most of what was said. Blaine woke up once or twice during the ride, but only for a few seconds at most; he didn't really seem to understand what was going on. Once they arrived at the emergency room, Sam was told to wait in the waiting room for his parents; Blaine was going to be taken to get his ribs wrapped and to check on his breathing because one of his ribs could have punctured a lung.

About twenty minutes of waiting later, Mr. and Mrs. Evans ran into the waiting room, their two younger kids in tow. Confused, Sam looked up to his parents for an explanation; he had assumed that they would have gotten Quinn's older sister Franny or one of the neighbors' teenagers to watch Stevie and Stacey.

Mary sat next to her older son, Dwight on his other side. Stacey and Stevie sat on either side of their parents as well, both looking extremely exhausted from being woken up in the middle of the night. Mary only said, "We couldn't find a sitter quickly enough, so we just brought them here."

It was shortly after midnight on Saturday morning when a doctor finally came out to explain the situation to the Evanses. The first thing the doctor asked was, "Are any of you related to the patient?" When they all (except for Stacey, who had fallen asleep about twenty minutes before) shook their heads, he said, "We're afraid that this boy has been heavily abused. Do any of you know anything about this?" He motioned behind him for a police officer who had been waiting in the hallway. "If any of you do, I encourage you to step forward now and talk to Officer Jones."

Officer Jones was a slightly heavyset, middle-aged African-American woman; her resemblance to Mercedes was uncanny. Sam stood up and followed the officer back out into the hallway. He looked down at his shoes until Officer Jones looked at him more closely and asked, "Aren't you friends with my daughter, Mercedes? I've been to all her glee club competitions, and I think I remember you being in a few of them."

Sam nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah, I know her; she's a great singer. How's she doing in Los Angeles?"

Officer Jones smiled. "She's doing pretty well. Her record deal fell through, but she's taking some classes at UCLA until she figures out what to do next. As long as she's happy and doing well, I'm sure she'll do alright wherever she is. Now, what can you tell me about what happened to Blaine. Isn't he in glee club as well?"

Sam nodded again. "Yeah, he's one of our better singers right now, always getting solos and stuff. When Blaine's dad gets drunk, he tends to take out his anger and frustrations from work on him; I don't know why for sure, but I think it's because he's pretty homophobic…"

Officer Jones pulled out a notepad and started writing down notes. "And do you know how long this has been going on?"

Sam shook his head. "Not really. The first time I noticed it was last year, when we went to a pool party together and I saw him shirtless. My guess is that it started soon after he came out, though."

Officer Jones noted that down, as well. "And when did he come out?"

Sam thought for a moment. "I think he came out during his first freshman year. He asked another guy to homecoming and gotten beaten up for it. He was out of school for a few months, and by the time he came back to school – oh, he transferred after that to Dalton Academy – he was so far behind that he had to repeat the year…"

Officer Jones nodded. "Alright. Thank you, Sam. I'll be back if I have any more questions, but for now I need to call this in so we can decide what legal actions we should take."

Sam shook Officer Jones' hand and then went back to sit with his parents. It felt like hours before another doctor finally came out and told them they could visit Blaine. Dwight stayed with the kids, who had by now both fallen asleep, while Mary and Sam went upstairs to Blaine's hospital room.

Blaine stared blearily up at his visitors as they entered the room; his head was kind of fuzzy from the pain medication they had given him for his ribs. He smiled up at Sam. "Thanks … for helping me, Sam. And you, too, Mrs. Evans."

Mary brushed Blaine's ungelled hair back with her fingers. "Anytime, sweetheart."

Sam cleared his throat. "We think it's best if you live with us until graduation. I can't keep letting you back there and getting hurt."

Blaine nodded sleepily. "'Kay, Sam." He could barely keep his eyes open.

Mary leaned forward and kissed Blaine on the forehead; she couldn't stand seeing any child, whether hers or someone else's, in so much pain. "Get some sleep, honey; we'll be back in a few hours to visit and see when you can come home with us, okay?"

Blaine gave a half-nod before fully falling asleep. Mary and Sam walked back down to the waiting room. Dwight and Sam picked up the kids and walked back to the car; Sam fell asleep on the way back home, and Mary and Dwight attempted to distract themselves from how tired they all were and were very, very happy when they finally reached home.

Gah. Horrible, horrible, rambly chapter. I am so, so, so sorry. Again. I'll try to make the next chapter better… I think we've finally arrived on the funeral chapter, but I can't be sure… Oh, and any OOC-ness on Blaine's part is because of pain and medication, whereas Sam's is mostly out of worry for his best friend… I will try to update before next weekend, but if I do it'll either be on Tuesday or on Thursday.