And here it is, chapter 10, the final chapter of In Your Arms. It moves pretty quickly at the end, just tying things together. I also included another note at the end that explains some stuff I alluded to but never explained.
I want to thank every single person who has read any small part of this from the bottom of my heart. It is thanks to all of you that I was motivated to finish this so quickly, and it is also thanks to all of you that this has become my most popular story here! I don't know what I did to deserve that, but thanks!
I love all of you! I can't say thanks enough!
Enjoy!
Mercedes was not having a good day. She was supposed to meet Kurt at the mall that morning, but had to cancel last night because her parents had planned to spend the entire day doing family bonding activities. Then they woke her up this morning and told her that they'd been invited to a friend's for lunch so family bonding was rescheduled. She had tried Kurt, but he wasn't answering his phone. And now her car was breaking down right in the middle of Lima. At least she was near Mr. Hummel's shop.
"Hello! Mr. Hummel? Kurt? Finn?" Mercedes called, walking into the unusually empty garage. There was a rustling of movement and a lone figure emerged from the back office. It was, however, not someone she expected to see.
"Cooper?" she asked.
He looked like a deep caught in the headlights. "Uh, Mercedes, right?"
She nodded. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm – um – I'm helping out Burt. I figured I should get to know Kurt's family, seeing as how Blaine's so attached to him, and I decided to lend a hand here."
"I thought you cooked?"
"I can do more than just cook," he said slightly uncomfortably. "Anyway, Finn's going to be in soon if you wanted to talk to him? Otherwise, I can look over your car."
"Sure," Mercedes said. "It almost broke down a block back, but I was able to get it here."
Cooper lifted the hood and looked around for a few minutes. "This shouldn't take too long, Mercedes. Want to come back in a couple of hours to pick it up?"
Mercedes agreed and left to go wander through the few shops in Lima's downtown.
In glee club on Monday, Mercedes brought up Cooper with Blaine.
"Your bother's weird," she said in a joking tone.
"What?" Blaine asked.
"He wants to bond with your boyfriend's family, so he works in their tire shop?"
All color drained from Blaine's face.
Mercedes was confused, and even more so when Sam jumped into the conversation. "Hey, I think it's awesome that Cooper wants to get to know Kurt's family."
"Of course it's awesome," Mercedes said, backtracking slightly. "It's just a little weird that his 'bonding' consists of working in their tire shop alone. Anyway, how does he have enough time to work there? I thought you always said he was so busy at the restaurant."
Blaine was panicking, Sam looked torn, and Kurt looked livid. "Leave it alone, Mercedes," Kurt said, venom dripping from his every word.
"But -"
"Leave it!"
"No," Blaine said, voice quiet and shaky, but firm. "It's okay. They're my friends, they can know."
Most of the glee club had only begun to listen when Kurt had butted in, so they were confused, but Finn looked worried.
"Dude," he said, "you don't have to."
"I know. I want to," Blaine said, squeezing Kurt's hand. "Remember last year – how Sam's dad lost his job and then their family lost their house and they had to live in the motel?"
There were a few heads nodding around the room.
"Well, Cooper lost his job over the summer, and then we were evicted from our apartment. But because of all my hospital bills last year, we didn't have any savings and we ended up in his car."
Blaine knew that more than one person was looking at him with an expression of pure pity, but he didn't look up from his and Kurt's linked hands. "We did that for a while, occasionally stopping at the homeless shelter, but then I got sick. I don't remember what happened, but Coop says I passed out and we didn't have any money for the hospital but he remembered that Carole's a nurse. So he brought me over to Kurt and Finn's house. We've been staying there since the beginning of break."
The room was silent for a few beats.
"I'm so sorry, Blaine, I had no idea," Mercedes finally whispered.
"It's okay. I didn't want anyone to find out. I mean, we're living at Kurt's house now, but child services could still find Cooper to be an unfit guardian. So the fewer people that know, the better," he explained.
"Are you okay?" Tina asked.
"Yeah, the doctors okayed me, and more importantly, even Kurt let me out of the house."
"But I mean, like … you were really homeless. Like, worse than Sam's family was – no offense, Sam, that still sucked for you – and you could have died, Blaine," Tina said.
Blaine shrugged. "But I didn't. And I had Cooper. We've learned that as long as we have each other, we're good, as sappy as that sounds."
Time passed, and Blaine was thankful that the glee club was treating him no different than they had before. Of course, they had always been a little wary of making fun of him, but that was so as to avoid Kurt's wrath.
When the news somehow spread throughout school that Blaine had been living in a car for a few months, he endured some of the worst teasing since his old high school. However, the glee club rallied around him in support and he was able to ignore most of the jibes directed at him.
Right before regionals, Sugar came to school with a very smug look on her face.
"My daddy's opening a new restaurant in Lima, and we want your brother to be the head chef," she told Blaine in front of the entire glee club.
"That's – uh – very nice, Sugar, but Coop and I – we don't want handouts," Blaine said politely, a slight blush creeping up his cheeks.
"It's not a handout. I told daddy that my friend's brother used to be the chef at Breadstix, and then he asked if it was before or after they got crappy and I said before, and so he wants to talk to your brother to see if he'll accept the job," Sugar explained.
"Really?" Blaine asked, face lighting up. "Oh my god, that's amazing! I have to tell Coop!"
When Blaine ran from the room to call Cooper, Kurt walked over to Sugar.
"Thank you, Sugar. I know we don't really know each other well, but I'm glad you're looking out for Blaine too."
"Of course. Plus, my family's rich, and even though I've never been poor, I'm sure it sucks. So I'm trying to help Blaine."
Kurt laughed.
"Anyway, daddy's going to hire Cooper regardless because I told him to. It just helps that he's actually good."
Two months later, Mr. Motta's restaurant opened to a private crowd of New Directions members and their families. Blaine had gotten a job as a waiter there, and didn't feel one twinge of embarrassment as he brought heaping platefuls of food his brother had concocted out to his friends.
"Oh my god, Blaine, tell your brother that his food is amazing," Mercedes gushed.
"Of course. Although I don't think we really need to add to his ego," Blaine joked, winking at his friend.
By the end of the summer, with the help of Burt, Carole, and the Mottas, Blaine and Cooper had moved into their own apartment again. It was even smaller than the last one, but it was closer to McKinley and the restaurant.
Blaine had already finished his college applications – NYU, NYADA, Julliard, Ohio State – as well as several scholarship applications. Obviously he was partial to New York so he could go live with Kurt again as soon as possible, but Blaine knew that those schools were expensive and he wouldn't be able to go unless he got really good scholarships. Thankfully he had padded his resume with good grades, class presidency, a job at the Motta's restaurant, volunteer work, and participation in almost every club offered at McKinley. Blaine was confident in his chances.
One Friday night, while Cooper was at work, Blaine was putting the finishing touches on one of his essays when he looked down at his watch and saw that he was very nearly late. He practically sprinted the six blocks to the Lima Homeless Shelter, and arrived in the parking lot just as Sam was pulling in.
"Ready?" Sam asked.
"Ready," Blaine replied.
The two boys walked inside, greeting the owner warmly, before taking their positions behind the pots of food and beginning to serve.
ENDNOTES: In case you were wondering, Blaine's father died in a fire seven months after Christmas – Blaine was just 7 and Cooper was almost 16. Dan was a firefighter and he died a hero's death, having rescued a young child from the building moments before running back in the unsafe and unsound structure to try to rescue more people. The roof caved in and landed on him. It broke his back, paralyzing him, and he inhaled a lot of smoke. His partner managed to run into the building and pull him out, but it was too late. He was in a coma for two days and passed away on the third.
Blaine's mother died from breast cancer while Blaine was in the 7th grade (he was 13), and Cooper had just graduated from culinary school (22). She had been diagnosed only a few months earlier, but was already at an advanced stage. Blaine had told his mother that he thought he might be gay a week before she died, and she loved him just the same.
The chemo and other medical bills had been great, which is why there was very little money left to Cooper and Blaine, even once their childhood home in Westerville had been sold. Neither parent had worked a particularly lucrative job – Marie was a high school teacher and Dan, of course, was a firefighter – so money had always been tight. Their grandparents were all dead by the time Marie died, which is why Blaine's options were to either enter the foster care system or have Cooper become his legal guardian. Men and women who had worked with Dan at the station and Marie at the school had all rallied around Blaine and Cooper in support of Cooper's abilities as a guardian and helped to sway the social worker to give Cooper guardianship rights over Blaine.
Blaine and Cooper had always been close as children, despite the nine year age difference. Both boys were surprises – Marie and Dan had been newlyweds not planning on starting a family quite yet when Cooper was born, and Marie had been told after Cooper's birth that she most likely wouldn't be able to get pregnant again due to complications from the difficult pregnancy and birth. Blaine was born early which is why he was a little short for his age. Cooper had cared for his brother when his father was on duty at the firehouse and after Dan died, so Cooper had always been a cross between father and brother to Blaine. They'd shared many interests in their youth, including sports (which both loved, but were terrible at), and singing and dancing. Cooper had considered getting a degree in theatre, but instead chose to follow his other passion, culinary arts. He went to a community college for two years before the two year culinary school.
whew, that was long.
hope you all liked this! I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but thank you all again for all the hits, reviews, favorites, and follows!