Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or "Never Again".

Note: Hey, Gleeks! It's Tuesday night, and we're still on our 3-week hiatus. Boo! So, I'll give you the next chapter of this. It took me until a few hours ago to decide on a song for this chapter (I was debating between this and "Call Me When You're Sober"), so this is all off the top of my head right now. Anyway, please review! I'd love to get to 50 soon!

Kurt stumbled downstairs the next morning, still dazed from his confrontation with Karofsky. He looked in the mirror while in the bathroom and saw the black and purple bruise surrounding his eye. He'd just have to hide it with sunglasses for now. Once he'd had his morning coffee, he'd surely be able to think up a quick lie to tell the Glee kids—and Mr. Schue, for that matter.

"Kurt, sweetie, are you feeling okay?" Carole called from the kitchen. "I made pancakes!"

He sighed and shuffled into the kitchen. "Oh my, Kurt, what happened to your eye?"

Kurt blinked at her for a second. "I tripped and slammed it against my bedroom doorknob."

She rushed over to him and examined it. "That looks painful, honey." She touched it, causing Kurt to wince. Carole clucked her tongue in sympathy. "Try to be more careful from now on, Kurt." He nodded, not wanting to start something. "Here, I'll put some extra blueberries on your pancakes," she said, not noticing his silence. He gave her a wan smile. "We won't tell Finn," she whispered.

"Thanks, Carole," he said gratefully. He was glad to have such a nice stepmother. Even though she wasn't his real mother, he still loved her very much. After slowly eating his breakfast, he slipped on his glasses and headed off to school. The Glee kids were running around prepping the gymnasium for the assembly. Kurt halfheartedly hung some posters up and ran through his vocal warm-ups.

"Kurt, I hope you're not nervous or anything," Mr. Schue said, pulling Kurt aside.

"I'm not. I mean, I realize you awarded me a male solo for once, instead of giving it to Artie or Finn, but I'm not nervous at all. I'm also fully prepared to give this speech before the assembly."

"Good. And Kurt? No sunglasses, please."

Kurt begrudgingly took off the Aviators, exposing his black eye.

"Wow, nice makeup," Mr. Schue said. "Getting into character?"

"Um, yeah," Kurt said, surprised that he was getting away with this. "I saw it in a musical once and it looked, um, cool. Sent a powerful message, you know?"

"I think I'm gonna get the rest of the kids to do it, too," Schue said. "Do you mind?" Kurt shook his head. "Great!" Before Kurt could register what was happening, the other kids were scurrying around, applying fake bruises to their arms and legs and faces. Kurt sighed. You win some, you lose some, he thought. Or sometimes, you win both your family over and your friends.

"Kurt," Santana dragged him to a private corner. "I know you're lying. What's the deal with the eye?"

"I confronted Karofsky yesterday."

Her eyes widened. "Oh my God. And he punched you?"

"Attempted to, several times. This is the only one he managed to leave, though. The others, I avoided. Anyway, I stood up to him."

"And….?"

"It felt good," Kurt said. "Empowering."

She gave his shoulder a squeeze. "I'm proud, Kurt." He gave a sad smile of thanks in return.

Rachel ran up to them. "Showtime," she whispered.

Kurt parted the curtains and took his place at the microphone that had been set up for him. "Um, hello," he started. "This month is domestic violence awareness month. How many of you know someone, family or friend, who has been in an abusive relationship of any kind?" Almost all of the hands in the audience went up. Kurt raised his own hand. "How many of you have tried to stop the abuse?" Only a few hands went up this time. "That's the problem. So many people see it happening, but they don't do anything to try and stop it. That's why we're here today. We want you to do something about domestic abuse. No one, girl or boy, deserves to be hit, ever." He paused for a moment, staring down some of the kids in the stands. "I know firsthand how bad physical abuse can get. I also know firsthand about sexual and verbal abuse. All of these things…all of these times…nobody did anything to stop it. And now, I carry the scars from it." Backstage, Mr. Schue's brows furrowed. He wished he'd pre-read Kurt's speech now. "So what I'm trying to say," Kurt continued. "Is to not just let it go, because 'someone else will help'. What I'm saying, McKinley High students, is to help them. Because sometimes, it's too late to be helped. Thank you. Please enjoy our performance." He ducked back into the curtain again. Santana squeezed his hand. "Beautiful," she mouthed to him.

The curtains parted to reveal the kids in various poses, all of them sporting a bruise or two. Kurt's was the only real one. He walked in from the side and began to sing.

He's drunk again, it's time to fight
She must have done something wrong tonight
The living room becomes a boxing ring
It's time to run when you see him
Clenching his hands
She's just a woman
Never again

The male members, save for Kurt, walked over to their respective sweethearts, pretending to punch them. The girls cowered in fear, slinking down to the floor of the stage, in terror for the man's fists. They pretended to scream, some of them to crawl away, all acting. Some of them showed no emotion, like Lauren. Santana, on the other hand, began to cry, her 'acting' suddenly becoming very real. Kurt continued to sing.

I hear her scream from down the hall
Amazing she can even talk at all
She cries to me, "Go back to bed"
I'm terrified that she'll wind up
Dead in his hands, she's just a woman
Never again

Santana crawled over to Kurt, acting as if she was begging him to go back to bed. Kurt looked down at her, extending his hand, but she pulled away, not wanting his help. Sam stormed over and dragged her away from Kurt, arm still outstretched towards his friend. The other couples were in various states of destruction, of violence. They all began to join in on the chorus.

Been there before, but not like this
Seen it before, but not like this
Never before have I ever
Seen it this bad
She's just a woman
Never again

Kurt stomped around the stage, pausing at each couple as he went along. Some of them, he tried to break apart, but they just shoved him off. Some of them, he reached out to for help. The girls all reached back, but the boys pulled them back, not allowing her to seek comfort from Kurt. Their voices all blended in beautiful, painful harmony. Kurt took up the next verse, solo.

Just tell the nurse, you slipped and fell
It starts to sting as it starts to swell
She looks at you, she wants the truth
It's right out there in the waiting room
With those hands
Lookin' just as sweet as he can
Never again

He cringed as he sang "tell the nurse you slipped and fell". Wasn't that the same lie he'd told Carole just that morning? He'd had to tell her that lie so many times. He'd had to tell that lie to everyone. They always wanted the truth, but Kurt never gave it to them. Well, he just had, to Santana, but that was one of the only times that he'd told the truth about one of his bruises. He turned around to face the group as they joined in once more.

Seen it before, but not like this
Been there before, but not like this
Never before have I ever
Seen it this bad
She's just a woman
Never again

Two of the couples left the stage as they began to "die" off. Mike dragged Tina away, her body gone limp in his arms. She was sporting a few bruises on her arm and one on her head. His lips curled into a snarl as he pulled her broken body away from the prying eyes. Finn was carrying Quinn in his arms, her arm dropping, limp, over the side of his arms. She had bruises on her wrists. Kurt shook his head at the sight of them, acting as if he couldn't believe this had happened.

Father's a name you haven't earned yet
You're just a child with a temper
Haven't you heard "Don't hit a lady"?
Kickin' your ass would be a pleasure

Puck and Lauren stood up from where they had been on the floor. They began to physically fight, hitting and punching each other. Puck turned Lauren around and began hitting her back, causing her to fall to her knees and into the wings. Artie pushed Brittany to the floor. As she tried to stand up and walk away, he pushed her down again, punching her on the way. They continued this punch-and-run routine until they had exited the stage. Now it was only Kurt, Rachel, Sam, and Quinn left.

He's drunk again, it's time to fight
Same old stuff, just on a different night
She grabs the gun, she's had enough
Tonight she'll find out how freakin'
Tough is this man
Pulls the trigger as fast as she can
Never again

Rachel grabbed a water gun and tossed it to Santana, who stood up and pushed Sam down. He stood up quickly and tried to grab the gun from her hands. They struggled over the gun for several moments before she finally managed to get it away from him, blindly pulling the trigger. Sam staggered offstage, as if he'd been shot. Santana dropped the gun, tears pooling in her eyes as Rachel led her offstage.

Seen it before, but not like this
Been there before, but not like this
Never before have I ever
Seen it this bad
She's just a woman
Never again

Kurt picked up the gun from where it had been dropped and put it carefully in his pocket before walking offstage on that final line. There was silence in the gymnasium. Slowly, the students broke into solemn applause. It built up, coming faster and stronger.

"Go on and take your bows," Mr. Schue prodded the kids.

They ran back onstage, holding hands and bowing. Kurt looked out into the audience. He saw Karofksy give him a death glare and gulped, looking away.

But they'd done it. They'd gotten the message across, all of them.

Especially Kurt.

Everyone had heard him, hadn't they? He'd practically admitted straight-out that he'd had the crap kicked out of him. But he'd kept his promise. He didn't name names, didn't point the finger in anyone's face. He never did tell them that it was Karofsky that abused him, never mentioned him by name.

He never did tell him that he was in an abusive relationship with himself.

No, with the flames.

Or was it with himself?

It was getting hard for Kurt to tell the difference between the two anymore.

"We love you," the flames whispered to Kurt in his mind.