"Blaine go ahead and head outside to the van and I'll be there in 5 minutes" called Kurt from the master bathroom. They are currently packing the van for a road trip to Ohio to celebrate Christmas. Blaine hadn't been out of the city since his accident and now that they have a van of their own with a lift gate, they don't have to worry about navigating air travel in a power wheelchair. From what they've learned from the people in their support group, it's a nightmare and should be avoided at all costs.
Blaine headed out the front door and onto the elevator to go downstairs. Henry, as usual, opens the front door of the building for him and wishes them a Merry Christmas since he will not be seeing them until after the holiday.
"Merry Christmas to you and your family as well Henry". Blaine uses his right hand to tap on the top of a candy tin in his lap. "This is for you. Kurt was busy all day yesterday making candy and cookies. I wanted to make sure your kiddos get plenty of sugar and keep you awake on Christmas Eve". He winks at Henry and they both laugh. Blaine and Kurt had met Henry's family twice when they came to see him while he worked. The two older kids didn't shy from Blaine's giant wheelchair but the youngest, Ella who is 3, seemed terrified. She hid behind her mother's legs and stared at him while he talked to her older brothers. Eventually, Blaine was able to lure her over to him with the promise of a ride on his lap. She seemed keen on that and they took two trips down the sidewalk and back. Now they are like old friends.
All three of them have spent hours and hours in Kurt and Blaine's apartment after school. Every Wednesday their Mom drops them off at 3pm and they stay until 5 when their Dad takes them home after his shift. This is the day their Mom gets to go grocery shopping alone. Everyone loves the arrangement. The kids love to help Blaine and Blaine tutors them on their homework. He may not be able to move much but he can certainly use his mind.
While Henry and Blaine are saying goodbye, Kurt steps out of the elevator and into the lobby pulling three giant suitcases behind him tethered to one another. Kurt wishes the doorman a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and they head out the door to the van parked in the handicap spot directly in front of the building. Kurt hits the button on the remote to unlock and open the side door and lower the lift gate. The van is a modified Mercedes Sprinter. It doesn't have a lot of the bells and whistles inside but what it does have is an awesome amount of headspace and the ability for Blaine to position his chair in the front passenger seat space so that he doesn't have to ride behind Kurt like a child. Their lawyers fought tooth and nail to make sure the insurance company didn't try to modify a used conversion van for them. They needed something that could maneuver well in NYC traffic when needed and that Blaine could travel in comfortably.
Within 15 minutes the van was loaded and Blaine and Kurt were buckled in and ready to go. They had 3 suitcases, Blaine's adaptive equipment that he would need at his parent's house, an extra battery for the chair along with the charger, a cooler full of drinks for the drive and Blaine's shower wheelchair.
"Okay, let's get this show on the road" Kurt said as he put the van into Drive and pulled away from the curb. The GPS tells them they will arrive at the Anderson's house in 9 hours. Kurt guesses it will take them more like 12 given the fact that everything takes twice as long these days for them. They have found their groove lately but still stumble from time to time with new situations.
After being on the road for two hours, Blaine reclines his wheelchair a little to relieve the pressure on his butt. He can't feel it but changing positions every couple hours or so has become second nature to him. As soon as he reclines he starts coughing. Kurt winces as Blaine struggles to cough effectively. He had a cold a few weeks ago and the nagging cough just keeps hanging on. "Honey, do you need some water?" asks Kurt.
"Yes, please. This cough just won't go away for anything. It would help if I could just cough deep enough to make a difference". With being paralyzed from the chest down comes the problem of not being able to breathe very deeply and use the diaphragm to its full potential. This means that Blaine has to really work at getting a good cough without the use of his core muscles. Kurt pulls off at the next exit and decides that now is a good time to have lunch and fill up the gas tank while giving Blaine a chance to change positions.
Kurt promptly shoots down Blaine's plea to eat at the Waffle House and they pull into an Olive Garden instead. It may be the McDonald's of Italian food but at least he doesn't have to order in code. He doesn't want anything in his body that has the words "Smothered and Covered" in the name.
Blaine always notices the looks he gets when they enter a restaurant or shop. The initial wide-eyed surprise of the hostess and then the immediate attempt to cover up their shock with being overly-polite. The way the waiters always address Kurt and never Blaine. He's not deaf, blind or mentally incapacitated, he's paralyzed. He can order his own ravioli dammit! He doesn't say anything about it though. He remembers when he first started clinicals in medical school. He had been intimidated when dealing with patients with severe disabilities. He didn't know exactly how much they were capable of doing for themselves and never wanted to overestimate and hurt someone's feelings. What he realizes now is that he would LOVE for someone to overestimate his abilities for once instead of assuming he has no abilities whatsoever.
Once lunch was had and gas tank was full, they headed toward Ohio once again on the Interstate. Blaine's cough seems to have subsided for now and his bottled water is secured in the cup holder on his right armrest. Within a half hour Blaine was snoring (a new development when he reclines back in his chair) and Kurt was softly humming to himself to pass the time while driving.
At 10:08pm Kurt turned into the Anderson driveway. Blaine was trying to unlatch his chair before the van even stopped moving. Kurt helped him once he parked and by this point the whole family was on the front porch waiting for them to get out and greet them. Burt and Carole were there as well to welcome them home. Blaine smiled as wide as he ever had in his life when his Mother wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. Marlena Anderson was crying tears of joy to have her baby boy there for Christmas. Burt and Carol and David Anderson all followed in greeting them.
They wouldn't be staying with the Hummel's overnight while they were there because there were no bedrooms on the main floor. They would be sleeping at the Anderson's house which had two guestrooms and two bathrooms on the main floor along with an entryway that had no steps. One of the bathrooms also had a shower that Kurt could roll Blaine into instead of having to put the wheelchair over into a shower and transfer Blaine into it. When you mix water with transferring someone's entire body weight, you are just asking for trouble. It's only a matter of time before he would drop Blaine and hurt him or Kurt would throw his back out.
The Hummel's stuck around until Midnight and headed across town to their house with the promise that the boys would come over tomorrow morning to spend time with them. David and Marlena also declared it to be past their bedtime and headed upstairs to the master suite. Kurt then started the process of getting Blaine and himself ready for bed. Kurt put the bedrail between the mattress and box spring so that Blaine wouldn't fall out in the middle of the night and kissed him sweetly on the lips before climbing in beside him and falling asleep within 45 seconds of hitting the pillow.