Hey guys. I'm so sorry for the long wait. Not gonna bother making excuses as I'm in a bit of a rush. Here's the chapter.

It was with a heavy heart that Finn made his way to Mr. Schue's house, where the entire Glee Club were waiting for news about Kurt and Blaine. He felt so lost; Kurt was in surgery, Blaine was... He felt sick even thinking about Blaine. He could feel the tendrils of guilt wrap around his heart and squeeze for all they were worth. Wasn't be considered the leader of the group? How could he not see what was happening? How could he cast out Blaine without even considering to listen to his side of the story? And how was he even going to begin to explain what happened to the others when he didn't even understand it himself?

He saw the lights and heard the worried, curious chatter through the window as he approached the door. Briefly, he hoped they were enjoying their last few minutes of semi-innocence to the situation because there was a whole lot of guilt coming their way. Schue pulled the door open almost the second that Finn knocked, like he'd been standing beside it just waiting for news. He probably had been...

Finn walked by and into the crowded living room, where the Glee club were spread over the couches and floor. Even though the room was packed, it almost felt empty without the presence of Kurt and Blaine. Questions were thrown at Finn immediately from every direction the second he entered the room. He sat next to Puck, who put a supportive hand on his shoulder. It was obvious to Finn that he hadn't told anyone about his suspicions about who had hurt Blaine, which he was very grateful for. It would sound better coming from him with the rest of the story.

"Okay, so I have some stuff to tell you guys. It's pretty heavy. Like really heavy..." he started.

"Finn, is Kurt okay?" Mercedes interrupted.

"And Blaine?" Mike added, frowning at Mercedes. He still wasn't happy with how his Glee friends had treated Blaine in the aftermath of the breakup, but Tina had told him that everyone was meeting at Schue's to wait for news about the boys and he decided to go anyways. He wanted at least one person to be there because they were worried about Blaine, not just Kurt. He'd known the second Puck came in that something serious was wrong, especially when he yelled at Rachel to shut up when she'd been blaming Blaine for the whole incident. He hadn't been very forthcoming with information though, so they were more than relieved that Finn had finally shown up.

"No, neither of them are okay." Mike felt his stomach drop, and judging by the look on everyone else's faces, he assumed that they felt the same.

"What did Blaine do to Kurt?" asked Rachel. Her voice was giving Mike a headache. He was just about to jump in on Blaine's behalf, but was surprised when Finn did it for her.

"Blaine did NOTHING wrong Rachel, everybody. Blaine did absolutely nothing wrong, and if I hear anyone say otherwise there'll be trouble." Silence descended on the whole room, waiting for Finn to continue.

"Kurt's been... he's been hitting Blaine. He's been beating him badly."

"Kurt would never do that," Santana interrupted, sounding as ill as Mike felt.

"He has. He's been beating him up and saying horrible things to him and none of us noticed. And then he broke up with him and convinced us that it was all Blaine's fault. And we believed him. We didn't even ask Blaine. Kurt beat him up pretty badly in the auditorium today."

"I'm going to KILL him," Mike heard himself say. It surprised everyone, including himself. He had a strict no-violence policy, but he could let it go this once, to defend one of his closest friends.

"This isn't Kurt's fault," Finn cut in. Everyone could hear the tears in his voice. "He had a seizure while he was attacking Blaine. That's why he had to go to hospital too. He... he has a brain tumour. It's pretty bad. They're operating now. That's why he did what he did. He didn't know what he was doing."

Mr. Schue could barely breathe. Things like this didn't happen in real life; they just didn't. He pulled Emma against his side. He needed to feel her against him. He needed to know she was there; that she was okay. The only sounds in the room were of the girls and some of the boys silently crying, and the remaining kids comforting them. That's what he loved about his kids; they were always there for each other, and he was always there for them. So why hadn't any of them been there for Blaine? Why hadn't he?

The more he thought about it, the more distressed he felt. There'd been signs. There'd been signs that it was his job to pick up, but he'd ignored. All the teachers were told countless times what abusive teen relationships can do to a child in such a crucial stage of development, and informed of the signs to look out for. So why hadn't he noticed? Blaine had been so different than the cool, confident Dalton boy he'd met the year before. Heck, he'd noticeably deteriorated every week since he'd started McKinley, and Will had always had more important issues in his mind than finding out what was bothering his newest student.

He couldn't stop going over it all in his head. He'd stopped participating, he'd stopped trying to be friends with the other kids, he'd stopped talking to anyone other than Kurt, he'd given away the solo that he'd been so excited to get at the beginning of the year. How could Will have ignored all those signs that something was awry? He knew the answer. He'd ignored them because Blaine had Kurt, and he wrongly assumed that Kurt would be helping him with any issues he had. Boy had he messed up...

And Kurt... What about Kurt? He had a brain tumor... Surely there were signs. Will closed his eyes. He needed to stop. He needed to stop thinking for a few minutes or this would drive him insane. He remembered the beginning of his career, when all he'd wanted was to help and inspire young people. When had he become this person? This person who couldn't see further than his own problems... Even now, he'd just found out that one of his students had been abused and another might be dying and he was feeling sorry for himself. He needed to think about his kids, and they needed to find a way to try to fix this.

Xx(",)xX

"Blainey, you have to eat. There's no other option here," Kate said, trying to coax her son into eating one of the multitudes of foods she'd bought from the bakery down the street from the hospital. She'd went down there as soon as the porter had sat the tray of crap that they called dinner in front of her son. She was shocked to say the least when she saw how gaunt he'd become, almost malnourished looking, and she knew that there was no chance of him getting his strength back up if all he had to eat was that garbage. Blaine had always been a fussy eater, but he'd always loved baked goods.

"I'm not hungry, mom," he replied, barely over a whisper. That was another thing that Kate and Joe had noticed. His voice always remained extremely quiet as of late. They now felt foolish for never asking him was there anything wrong, but they'd both been raised in strict households where talking about feelings was something that just didn't happen. They'd always told themselves and each other that things would be different when they had children of their own, and they tried their best, but clearly it just hadn't been good enough. They'd had sixteen years to get the hang of this; why were they still so useless everytime their baby needed them most?

"Blaine, you look like you haven't eaten anything decent in days. Please just eat one thing," Joe tried. When he saw that Blaine wasn't going to budge on this, he decided that he'd have to say something that he really hoped it wouldn't come to, but the doctors had told him that if they couldn't get him to eat, he'd have to be fed through a drip, because he hadn't been getting the nourishment that his body needs to heal and survive healthily. "Kurt... Kurt would want you to get better, and be healthy." He felt sick even saying that, especially when he saw how his son flinched at the sound of the name.

"No, Kurt would want me to be thin and perfect. Please, I need to be thin and perfect for him when he wakes up after his surgery. Maybe then he'll want me again." Joe closed his eyes for a second. He needed to regroup his thoughts. Blaine sounded so hopeful of the fact that someone might actually want him. Joe had felt permanently nauseous in the hours since the hospital had called and told him that his son had been brought in, but this was the first time that he actually felt that he'd vomit. This was the first time that he realised what all the family dinners and holiday plans he and his wife had cancelled because of their hectic work schedules had done to their son.

He felt tears burn the back of his eyes when he thought of Blaine, his little Blaine, sitting alone at their huge dining room table, waiting patiently with a meal that he'd lovingly cooked for his parents. He imagined his face when they called to say they couldn't make it, that they'd just eat at the office as they were too busy. Too busy for their son. He imagined Blaine sitting their eating alone with just his thoughts for company; thoughts that of late had no doubt been filled with wonder about what was wrong with him that made his parents not want to spend time with him and his boyfriend hate him enough to beat him.

When Joe managed to pull himself back to reality, he saw that Kate was now sitting on the bed beside Blaine, cooing at him and hugging him while he sobbed the most heart wrenching sobs Joe had ever heard into her shoulder. Joe joined his family on the bed, putting his arms around the two most important things in the world to him. He'd never go back to work again if it meant that Blaine would feel even a tiny bit less hopeless.

As Blaine finally started to calm down again, they heard a knock on the door before a young nurse entered. "There's a Carole Hummel waiting outside to see you. She said she has news about your friend's surgery. Should I bring her in?"

Sorry again for the wait and that the chapter is short. Trying to ease my way back into it. I've been very busy as of late but there's a dip in my schedule until September so I'm gonna try beat out a few chapters. As always, reviews would be lovely :)