August 1993

It was noon as they crossed the Ohio state line. Even with his sunglasses, Blaine found it bright. Bright and hot. All four windows were down and as the car speed along the highway and the wind that wiped by him at least made the Midwest summer sun bearable.

As a sign welcomed them to Ohio, Blaine turned to Kurt. His boyfriend had his shoeless feet propped up on the dash and a notebook in his lap that he was writing away in. Blaine didn't understand how Kurt could work in the car. He always got motion sick if his eyes were anywhere but the road ahead.

"Wha'cha writing?" he asked. He had to yell a bit so his voice could be heard over the noise of the wind and the other cars on the highway.

"Nothing," Kurt replied. Blaine chuckled to himself when Kurt didn't look up or lift his pen, a clear indication that he was indeed writing something. "What?" Kurt finally lifted his head.

"You're just very concentrated for someone doing nothing."

That earned him an eye role. "It's just not for sharing yet."

"You arty types are always so secretive with your work. We're in Ohio by the way."

"Oh. That was quick." Kurt turned away from him to gaze out at the road and the fields on either side of it. It looked just like the road and the fields before the boarder but Blaine could tell that Kurt saw a difference.

"What was your favorite thing about Ohio as a kid?"

"Favorite?" he asked setting down his pen.

"Yeah, you must have some good memories."

"Oh I don't know. Maybe the openness. I'm definitely a city person but when Mercedes and I got our licenses, would just hope in a car and drive and there were so many deserted back roads that just went on forever. The world just seemed so big and it made all the ass holes at school seem so small and insignificant."

Blaine hummed in response, noting ironically that his world seemed to be collapsing in on itself, following the line of the highway as it disintegrated into a single point in the distance. His eyes fixed on that point of oblivion, where everything would come to a head, forcing him to face their every existence but at the same time it all failing to exist at all. Speeding towards that point, his world became smaller and smaller and his troubles bigger. He could not find the escape in it that Kurt could. Why did Kurt get to run and not him?

"How about you?" Kurt asked, taking him from his thoughts. "What's your favourite thing about Indiana?"

"Notre Dame," he answered confidently without having to think.

"Doesn't count," Kurt answered, somehow making his voice sound like the wrong answer buzzer on Jeopardy. "You weren't a kid."

"Yours is when you were sixteen."

"In the eyes of the law, Mr. Lawyer, sixteen is two years shy of the adult mark."

"Minors can be tried as adults."

"But can adults be tried as minors? I didn't think so."

"Well, actually, they can. If they were minors-"

"Oh my god. Here we go."

"Yes. Here we do go. If they were a minor when they committed the crime but then turned eighteen before or during the trial then technically, they would be an adult being tried as a minor."

"Jesus. Okay so how old were you when you started university?"

Blaine sighed and ducked his head a little before mumbled "Eighteen."

"I'm sorry. What was that? I couldn't hear over the wind."

Blaine didn't have to look to know Kurt had a smirk on his face. "Yeah, yeah, okay. I don't exactly know why there are rules to this but fine. I guess I always liked church as a kid. I had lots of friends there and I loved singing in the choir."

"Is that weird now?"

"Yeah," Blaine nodded. I was very weird now. He loved church when he was little and because he loved it he listened to the sermons without question. If things had been different, it probably would not have caused him too much grief. He learned the importance of patients, self-control, about being kind and respectful to others, and about always trying to use his knowledge and abilities to do good in the world. It wasn't until he was older that some of the other teachings began to sit oddly with him, or maybe more accurately, his own self, began to sit oddly with some of the teachings and suddenly, the thing he had loved as a child turned on him as his body refused to cooperate and rid itself of a seemingly Devil's curse.

"What do you believe now?" Kurt asked curiously.

"Nothing. I know some people just take that good parts and keep going but I guess I've taken a scientific approach. Although, I guess now it seems science has decided to turn on me as well."

Kurt snorted out a laugh. "I'm sorry. Sorry. But you just can't win, can you?"

"Nope," he smiled. "Maybe I should have chosen a different career."

"Here we are," Blaine said, looking out the car window on the in a sort of disparaging disbelief. He'd been here before. Several times. He knew she hadn't moved or anything, they drove here for goodness sakes but there was always that smallest sliver of hope that something had changed. Blaine was getting used to living on that pathetic, childlike, beyond any rational or universal law plea and applying it to other day to day experiences, like getting a parking spot within a block of the office after leaving late for work because his head was in the toilet longer than the allotted twenty minutes. And this, well this meant more to him than a good parking spot.

"It's…nice?"

"It's a wreck." The double wide trailer was in desperate need of paint and the side gutter was dangling from the roof. He could see holes, the size of a small plate, in the black screen on the front door. The lot it was sitting on didn't fare much better. The dented, metal garbage can was overflowing and where there was grass, it was browning and sparse, course with death and drought and neglect. Mostly though, it was gravel, dusty and grey.

The car was getting uncomfortably hot, sitting idle in the summer sun but outside looked more unwelcoming. Blaine was beginning to think they should just turn around a head home. Even stopping off in Ohio on the way back to visit Kurt's very protective father and telling him was beginning to look more appealing this. There was no use trying though. Kurt had been trying to get him to Indiana since January and unfortunately for Blaine, the summer theatre season ended before the summer work lull around his office and so he had run out of excuses. And now that he was here, he knew Kurt would not be above jumping out of the car if he threw it in reverse and refusing to get back in until he saw Rachel.

"Well, she didn't know we were coming. She didn't have a chance to tidy up." Blaine finally looked away from the disaster in front of him and turned to Kurt, his eyebrow raised. No one should be living like this, guests or not. It looked like a tornado had come through overnight but they had been on the road for the past nine hours and there had been nothing but clear skies. And honestly, he had his doubts about Rachel's relief abilities even given ample warning. "Oh, come on. She's a single mother of two. It's not like she has a lot of options here."

"I guess," Blaine relented. "Not any more at least."

January 1974

"Here's your laundry."

"Thanks," Blaine smiled. He looked up from his duffle bag though as he heard the click of his bedroom door shutting. He watched as Rachel walked over to his bed and set the basket of clean clothes down opposite him.

"I needed the drier," she shrugged. He glanced back at his closed bedroom door because usually Rachel would have simply shrieked at him from down stairs when his clothes were done so there was definitely something else. "Dance rehearsal tomorrow."

"Man they get right back at it after Christmas break, don't they?" He grabbed his Notre Dame hoodie from the top of the pile and threw in on over his t-shirt. It did a good job of hiding the weight he'd gained over the last week or so from turkey and stuffing and baked goods.

"Yeah but it's the best part of school so whatever."

"Is the rest of school going okay?" He asked, trying to throw out lines for her to grab while picking up a shirt from the top of the pile and folding it and placing it into his bag.

"Yeah. Yeah, no school's fine," she answered picking up a shirt and folding it as well. "You must be excited to get back."

"You have no idea," Blaine chuckled. Being home was now awkward at best. His father's little comments hadn't stopped after the Christmas party. "Started working on your college apps?"

"I've had my NYU application filled out since freshman year."

Blaine smiled remembering how Rachel had sat next to him at the kitchen table practicing her NYU admissions letter four years ago while he worked on his for Notre Dame. Broadway was a far cry from law but her drive matched his mile for mile.

"You're going to get in, you know? You're brilliant and although I think it's insanity, some people might see it as dedication."

Usually that would have earned him a playful slap but she didn't even seen to register the jab today. "I know. I'm just not sure I'll be able to go now," she said, her eyes down, focused too intensely on the pair of jeans she was folding. He could see the beginnings of tears forming.

"Rach?" She shook her head and he could tell she was trying to keep from crying. "Rach, come on. It's me."

"I'm pregnant," she whispered, her big brown eyes still downcast and covered by her long brown hair.

"Fuck." It was all he could say. He was frozen in shock and heartbreak for his sister. "Finn?"

She nodded.

"Fuck." This time there was anger behind the word. He'd only met Finn a handful of times but it was easy to see the boy was a loser. Blaine had gone to high school with his own share of Finns. They were quarterbacks who were good enough to earn stardom within small minded high schools but that was about it. They lure people to them though because high school is one of those things that boxes people in so tight that they can't see beyond it into the vast world that swallows guys like Finn whole and unapologetically. They can't see how they're actually not good enough to get scouted for a college team or how they're not smart enough to get into college otherwise. They can't see how there's nothing besides football in their brains and how their inflated ego makes their own realization of peaking in high school a higher peak to fall from. And so girls get tangled in their web of mediocrity at best, losing their own dreams along the way and end up impregnated by a guy who graduated a year ahead them and still lives in his mother's house, drinking beer and playing video games.

"He, he's a good guy, Blaine," she pleaded.

"He's ruined your life, Rach. You must see that."

"Of course I see that," she yelled. "Why do you think I'm crying?"

He looked at her and saw the fear and hopelessness now. "Shit, I'm sorry. Rachel, I'm so sorry. Come here." He open his arms and she walked around the bed and tucked herself into them. "I just…" He just wanted the world for her.

"It's okay," she sniffled into his chest. "I know."

He rubbed her back and rested his chin on the top of her head. "Mom and dad don't know, do they?"

Rachel shook her head.

He couldn't imagine she would want to tell them especially witnessing how they had handled his coming out. And at least he had had years to come to terms with his predicament and didn't have a ticking clock to deal with. He had had the chance to settle his faith and his own morals and values and find love within himself again instead of the turmoil he was sure was brewing within his sister. He could have gone his whole life without telling his parents and oddly enough, that lack of pressure made it easier.

"How long do you have?"

"Maybe another month if I start dressing strategically. I'm three months along. I need one of these," she said plucking at his hoodie.

"I'll send you one," he smiled into her hair. "If I were you, I'd get as much as a plan together as I could before telling them. And, I hate to say it, but the more Finn is in the picture, the better it'll look to them."

"It's not all his fault."

"Yeah, well, it's just easier that way."

August 1993

"Well, should we get out?" Kurt asked.

"Is anyone even home?"

"Well I don't know. You would know better than I would. Go knock."

Blaine followed his instructions. He had a suspicion that he'd be carrying out marching orders this entire trip. In some ways it was nice. He didn't have to think as much and thinking lead to dark places these days. It was a little cooler outside the car but still far too hot for six in the evening. He walked up to the door and knocked. When he got no answer, he returned to the car where Kurt had once again pulled out his note book.

"Wha'cha writing?"

"We've had this conversation. No one home?"

"Nope. And so? I'm curious."

"Clearly."

"Will I ever get to know?"

"Possibly. Depends how far I get," Kurt answered, head down, pen moving.

"Is it a play?"

"Yes."

"What's it about?"

"Too many questions."

"Well what am I supposed to do while I sit here and wait in the heat? Why do you get to bring work with you on trips but I can't?"

"Because this isn't work. It's art."

"Oh my god. I'm dating a freak," he said, reclining his car seat and kicking off his shoes.

"And I'm dating a Republican lawyer."

A/N: alright, that one was a little shorter but I hope you all still enjoyed it!