Author's Note: Huzzah for getting another chapter up! Sorry it took so long, things to doooo!

I finally get to the spinal tap in this chapter, Complete with another crap load of Wikipedia research. That's basically all that happens in this chapter, so I'll go ahead & just let you read it.

-SQ

Disclaimer: If you recognize it from Glee it does not belong to me

Chapter Eleven: Spinal Tap

Finn was still crying quietly into his free hand, his other hand still gripping Kurt's tightly, Doctor Roth's arm draped gently around his shoulders, her low, calming voice uttering a steady stream of words that kept his panic at bay.

"I have a son about your age," she said. "He's a sophomore at Shawnee High School. You remind me of him, he's a lot smaller than you, more of Kurt's size than your own, but a bit more muscular, and a lot tougher than he looks. He's on the football team and the basketball team, but he's also in the jazz band and the orchestra. He plays the bass. It may be just a mother's biased opinion, but he is very good. His name's Tobias, but he goes by Toby, he gets mad if anyone tries to call him Tobias."

"Kurt's a lot tougher than he looks too," said Finn, looking up from his palm. "He was on the football team for a while, as kicker; he was also a cheerleader at one point. I'm the quarterback."

"Oh, the big shot, huh?" said Doctor Roth teasingly. "Toby's a wide receiver. He—"

They both stopped and turned towards Kurt, who had begun to stir. His fingers flexed against Finn's and he tried to move his head to the side.

"Ah-ah-ah," said Doctor Roth, catching the side of his head with her hand. "Not a good idea, sweetheart."

Kurt whimpered and his eyelids flickered. Open and shut, open and shut, open and shut, open.

"Finn…"

"Hey, Kurt."

Doctor Roth removed the mask from Kurt's face.

"Hi," she said, "I'm Doctor Roth. Can you breath?"

"Uh-huh." Kurt's gaze traveled back to Finn. "I…thought you'd…left." His voice was weak and halting, but he seemed more or less lucid.

"Don't be silly," said Finn, his voice carrying the telltale sound of recent tears.

"My dad…?"

"I dunno," said Finn. "They were trying to contact them…" He looked questioningly at Doctor Roth.

"Nurse Shae just paged me," she said with a smile. "They're on their way."

Finn's shoulders sagged with relief and he managed a shaky smile down at his step-brother. "You're gonna be okay."

"I'm going to check your blood pressure, temperature, and heart rate, alright Kurt?" said Doctor Roth. "No, you can stay right where you are." She took his arm and fastened the Velcro of the blood pressure cuff around his bicep.

"Where's Blaine?" asked Kurt.

"They wouldn't let him in," said Finn, still stung by the injustice. "Because he's not family. He's outside with Mr. Shue."

"Someone…should tell him…I'm alright…he's such a worrier…"

"Dude, you're not alright. You're super sick."

"Breathe deeply," instructed Doctor Roth, placing the stethoscope against Kurt's chest.

Kurt complied, trying to focus on his breathing and Finn's hand clutched in his own rather than pain in his head and neck and the roiling of his empty stomach.

"Open your mouth," said Doctor Roth, slipping the thermometer in when he did so. It beeped a few seconds later.

"Looks like you're good to go," said Doctor Roth, putting away the thermometer. "You're temperature's still pretty far up there, 104.3, but your breathing, blood pressure, heart rate, and ICP all appear to be out of the danger zones for the LP."

"Finn," said Kurt, "am I…going to…die?"

"What? No." said Finn. "Don't even say that! Look, you're doing better already. You're talking to me and stuff, aren't you? And Doctor Roth just said all those things are out of the danger zone, right? You're going to be fine."

"I agree," said Doctor Roth. "No one is going to be dying if I have anything to say about it. Are you boys ready to proceed with the spinal tap? That means go ahead with the test to confirm whether he has Meningitis, Finn."

Kurt's lips twitched. "You know him…already."

Doctor Roth patted Kurt's head. "Your step-brother is a very sweet boy."

"I know."

"Are you ready to start the LP, then?"

"Yes," said Kurt. "Finn…can you…not let go of my hand…please?"

Finn squeezed Kurt's slim fingers more tightly in his own.

"Of course. I'll be right here the entire time. Promise."

Doctor Roth pulled Kurt's pajama top off over his head and then put one hand between Kurt's shoulder blades and the other in the small of his back and rolled him onto his side.

"I'm going to have you tuck your knees up to your chest for me, okay?" she said. "Good, just like that. Now bend your head forward, I know it hurts honey, just go slowly, there we go. Stay like that for me, okay, Kurt? Good boy. Relax, okay? Breathe. It's important that you try to stay as relaxed as possible and remember to breathe. This isn't going to feel very pleasant, so just focus on your breathing and on Finn's hand, okay?"

She began to feel Kurt's across lower back with gloved hands, spreading something there that Finn couldn't see. Kurt squirmed.

"You've gotta hold still, sweetheard," she said. "Finn, can you try and hold him still please?"

Finn put his free hand on Kurt's bare shoulder, holding him gently in place as Doctor Roth prepared a syringe and held it to the same area of Kurt's back. "This is they anesthetic," she explained. "It will numb the area so I can insert the spinal tap needle." She injected Kurt with the contents of the syringe. He whimpered and flinched. Finn held him steady, his teeth digging dents into his lower lip.

Doctor Roth now withdrew a long, scary looking needle from a drawer.

"Are you going to stick that into Kurt?" asked Finn in alram.

"Yes," said the doctor. "This is how we test for Meningitis."

"It looks like a medieval torture weapon," said Finn, shuddering.

"Just focus on keeping him calm, okay?"

Finn was more than happy to have an excuse not to watch as Doctor Roth prepared and inserted the needle into his step-brother's spine. He knew the moment when it happened by the sudden tension in Kurt's shoulders and the added pressure on his hand.

"Relax," he said, his voice nearly as chocked as Kurt's by this point. "Kurt, you gotta relax. Breathe." He rubbed the smaller boy's shoulder.

"Hurts…" whimpered Kurt.

"I know," said Finn, biting his lip once more and tasting tears there. He rubbed his hand up and down on Kurt's shoulder. "It's almost over. It's gotta be almost over."

"It's over," said Doctor Roth gently, withdrawing the needle and turning to the counter to deposit the fluid she had collected.

The hand that held Kurt's was by now quite numb, Finn moved his other hand to Kurt's forehead and brushed his bangs away from his eyes. "Kurt? Are you okay?" He slid off the bed to kneel on the floor, still holding Kurt's hand in his own. "It's over now. The needle's gone."

Kurt's eyes, which had been scrunched tightly shut, slit open.

"I just…want…it to…end."

"I know," said Finn helplessly. "I'm so sorry this is happening to you."

"You're…bleeding."

"I am?" said Finn in surprise.

"Your…lip."

Finn touched his finger to it. It came away red.

"Oh…I must have bitten through it… It doesn't matter."

"I'm going to send this to the lab," said Doctor Roth, holding up a small vial that Finn assumed must contain whatever it was they needed to get out of Kurt for the test. "What Kurt needs now is rest. I'm going to hook him back up to the ventilator, just to be on the safe side, and also to an IV for another antibiotic and an IV for liquids so that he doesn't get dehydrated. I also think it a good idea to give him a caffeine injection, as it will hopefully prevent a spinal headache."

"Caffeine?" said Finn. "Isn't that that stuff that's in coffee?"

Doctor Roth laughed. "Yes, Finn, that is indeed 'that stuff that's in coffee'."

She pulled out yet another needle (why did they need to stick so many needles into Kurt?) and gave Kurt a shot in his arm. Then, while Doctor Roth was once again placing the breathing mask over Kurt's face, Nurse Shae arrived with things that looked like plastic bags hanging on metal poles and which looked vaguely familiar from Finn's mom's hospital dramas. These bag-on-pole things, as far as Finn could see, involved even more needles being stuck into Kurt's arms, only these ones stayed in, and were connected to tubes which were in turn connected to the bags hanging from the poles. Then Nurse Shae left with the vial of what she and Doctor Roth had called 'ceribrospinal fluid'.

"Kurt?" asked Doctor Roth, "are you comfortable? Well, as comfortable as you can be at the moment."

"Uh-huh," came the reply, muffled by the oxygen mask.

"Try and get some sleep, okay? I'll be back in a while to check on you."

Looking at his step-brother's drooping eyelids Finn didn't think that getting some sleep was going to be much of a problem for him.

"Are you staying or going, Finn?" asked Doctor Roth.

"Staying," said Finn at once.

"You really should get some sleep yourself."

"I can't leave him," said Finn, looking up at the doctor earnestly. "At least not until Blaine or my parents can be here. If he woke up all alone he'd be terrified."

"There's a sedative in the IV drip," said Doctor Roth. "He won't wake up for a good while."

"But it he did…"

Doctor Roth smiled.

"You are a very devoted brother."

Finn glanced down at Kurt and saw that he had already fallen asleep, his cheek pressed up against Finn's knee. "I try."

"I'll see you in a bit, okay, Finn?" said Doctor Roth. "You see that button over there? The blue one?"

Finn looked. "Yeah."

"That's the call button. Press it if you need anything, okay? His monitor is also hooked up to call automatically if anything important changes. If there's an emergency press the red button, it's next to the blue one."

Finn nodded.

"Oh, and Finn, I think it would probably be okay to let go of his hand now, at least for long enough to get feeling back into your own."

Finn looked down at his hand in surprise and somewhat sheepishly detached it from Kurt's, flexing his fingers gingerly. "Ah…thanks, Doctor Roth."

"No problem," she said with a smile. "Just doing my job."

AN: Yes, yes, I know, no Blaine, but this is first & foremost a Furt fic, & I promise Blaine will be in the next chapter.

Reviews=smiles!

-SQ