I'd have a million excused but I'm not gonna even bother because you don't deserve excuses, you deserve an apology.

I'm sorry.

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or Time Traveler's Wife

October 17th, 2038: 12.31pm

Rory stared at the pile of cars – the red, the black, the white, the other black... and yellow taxi his dad was in. If he had wondered whether this was the past or future just ten minutes ago, he surely knew now. For this had never happened in the past.

"No... No, Dad!"

Rory stumbled in the rain, pushed shocked people aside to get closer to the crash. He ignored the order to stay away as his panic did not allow him to stop.

"DAD!"

He had seen everything. How Kurt had stepped out of his store and hailed a taxi, not hearing Rory calling for him from down the street. The rain was pouring and Rory figured the staff in the store wouldn't mind him staying there as he was, after all, the owner's son.

Then there had been a screech, the sound of multiple horns, a crash, silence. And then screams.

The screams were still there, mixed with the sound of sirens approaching the scene. They weren't coming fast enough, in Rory's opinion, his mind set on getting to his Dad Kurt.

Suddenly there was a pair of unfamiliar arms around him. He nearly screamed as he tried to move forward but whoever was holding him was just a little too strong.

"Let GO of me! My Dad's in there! I have to help him, please..."

"He'll be fine," a gentle voice said.

"No... No, please, just... please, I have to..."

"You can't. You have to go home."

Rory's eyes widened. No, not now, he couldn't. "What's the date?" he asked. "Tell me, what day is it?!"

He tried to turn around but only saw a glimpse of the man's face before he was pulled back.

October 17th, 2038: 12.20pm

"Holy shit."

Rory was shaking. He couldn't move. He kind of knew he was still naked but couldn't bring himself to care. All his thoughts were in the future as he was trying to remember every detail so he could figure out how far he had been.

"Rory? Rory, hey... Man, are you okay?"

Justin. Right, yeah. Justin. His room-mate.

"Okay, just uh... stay here, I'll go get Peter and Patrick."

Rory let out some sort of a sob as his body suddenly just gave up and he collapsed onto the floor. He closed his eyes and tried to steady his breathing, tried to focus on the images that flashed in his mind.

A clock, a newspaper, a commercial... Anything.

"Jesus Christ, Rory, what happened?"

Rory swallowed when he heard the concerned voices of the twins. "I... I don't..."

"Deep breaths, Rory. Come on, dude, deep breaths. Through the nose. Don't pass out on us, okay? We'll call your dads."

"Here, let's cover you up, eh?" Patrick said and put a blanket around Rory's shoulders as Peter stepped outside to make the call."You're soaked. We should get you something warm to drink."

"No," Rory gasped out. "No, just... Dads. Please."

He may have sounded like a child but he didn't care. Patrick didn't comment on it either. He just sat down next to Rory and put his arm around his friends shoulders, offering comfort even though he didn't know what the problem was.

"They'll be here soon, buddy," Peter said when he came back into the room. "Justin went to get you a water bottle from when vending-machine."

"Wanna tells us what happened?" Patrick prompted but Rory shook his head. It was hard enough to see it over and over again knowing there was no way he could stop if from happening. He could make Kurt swear never to take a taxi but something would happen that'd make his dad forget about his promise and he'd do it anyway. Whether it was a week from now or ten years, it'd happen. And Rory would have to go through it all over again.

Justin came to bring them the water and then mumbled something about finishing an essay in the library. Then the three friends just sat there for 20 long minutes before they finally heard hurried footsteps and the door burst open to reveal Blaine, curls pointing to every direction and an anxious look on his face.

"Oh God, Rory!"

Peter and Patrick moved away as Blaine knelt down in front of his son. Rory broke down into tears and sobbed into his dad's shoulder when Blaine threw his arms around him.

"Hey, hey... Shh, it's okay. It's okay, you're okay. I'm here. I'm right here."

"It's not okay," Rory breathed out. "Nothing's okay."

The expression on Blaine's face was unreadable as he pulled away slightly to look Rory in the eye. "Tell me."

Rory opened his mouth but the words died in his throat and he just shook his head, more tears spilling out. Blaine wiped them away with his thumb.

"It... I... I don't know when I..." Rory swallowed and tried to keep his head from spinning. "Where's Dad?" he eventually managed to ask.

"I called him on the way, he'll be here any minute. He said he'd wrestle a grandma out of a taxi if..."

"Taxi?"

Blaine blinked at Rory's sudden panic. "Yeah, it'll be faster than..."

"No. No, Pops, you have to call him again. Please, call him right now."

There was a complete silence in the room until Blaine asked, very slowly with his voice cracking just a bit: "Rory? What happened? What did you see?"

"Just call him," Rory begged, swallowing back a sob.

"Okay. Okay," Blaine mumbled, already looking for his phone. They both jumped when it suddenly started ringing and there was a moment of relief when they say KURT flashing on the screen. "Hey, honey, where...?"

He never finished. Rory's blood turned to ice in his veins when he watched the color disappear from Blaine's face.

"He's my husband," he said to the phone in a very measured tone of voice. "He... He what? Oh my God, is he okay?" Rory felt the need to scream as he wanted to hear what the person on the other end of the line was saying. He was gripping onto Blaine's arm, trying but failing to not jump to the worst conclusions. "I'll be right there."

"Oh God..." Rory choked out when Blaine he saw the tears that were already sparkling in Blaine's eyes. "Oh God, is he...?"

"Rory," Blaine cut him off. "We swore we'd never do this but I have to ask: do you know if he'll make it?"

He didn't have to explain because he knew Rory knew what was going on. It was clear he hated himself for asking but at the same time his world was falling apart, their world was falling apart and Rory might know if it could be fixed.

But he didn't. He tried to remember, tried to think, tried to recall but nothing. He bit his lip and just whispered "I'm sorry, Papa..." because he didn't know what else he could possibly say.

"No, hey... Don't. Let's just... Let's go to the hospital. We'll get answers."

Rory threw on the first pair of pants he found. He didn't even know if they were his or Justin's. He accepted the sweater Peter held out for him and but was too tuned out to hear the twins' offers to drive. Blaine hugged him to his side as they quickly made it out of the building and to the car where Blaine pushed Rory to the backseat and then slid down next to him. His thoughts preoccupied, Rory didn't bother to check which twin was behind the wheel. He simply let himself forget that he was a college student, practically an adult, and buried his face into Blaine's still-wet coat.

The drive didn't take too long. Rory, who had miraculously almost been lulled to sleep by Blaine's familiar scent and the steady rumbling of the car, let his dad go rushing into the ER as he tried to clear his own head of the sleepy mist. One of the twins was at his side the second he stumbled out of the car and offered his silent support that Rory just as silently appreciated. He found Blaine, anxious and nearly trembling, at the front desk where a middle-aged female nurse was clicking through files on her computer.

"He's still in surgery," she said just as Rory reached them. "I'll let the doctor know you're here. They might be able to send someone from the OR to tell you what's going on."

Her voice was sympathetic enough as she directed them to take a seat on the hard benches of the lobby. Not two minutes after sitting down they both had cups of disgusting coffee in their hands. It wouldn't make them feel any better but it was something warm to hold and gave them an excuse not to talk if they didn't want to.

Rory made a mental note to nominate Patrick and Peter for the best-friends-ever award.

The hospital was busy with noises and people and people who made noises but the father and son remained quiet. Their shoulders were pressed together and Rory took comfort in the feeling of it. A part of him wanted to travel, somewhere to the future to see how things played out, but something stronger was keeping him in place, next to his dad where he knew he had to be now.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when, an impossibly long time later, someone called out: "Family of Kurt Hummel-Anderson?"

Both Rory and Blaine were on their feet in a blink. "That's us. How is he?" Blaine asked, his voice wavering. A youngish man dressed in baby-blue scrubs stepped closer, his face solemn but not in a way Rory had feared.

"They're still operating on him and it's going to take a while longer," he said. His tone sounded calculated.

"How much longer?"

"We're not completely sure. He's suffered a severe internal trauma and there's a lot of bleeding we have to get under control. If he makes it through surgery, he has a long road of recovery ahead of him."

"...if?"

The doctor turned to look at Rory who looked back with unblinking eyes, begging him to take back that ugly, stupid word.

"We're doing all we can. He's in very good hands."

Oh God, the times Rory had heard those words in all those TV shows Kurt so loved...

"I have to go back. I promise, I'll come tell you if there are any updates."

Blaine nodded and gently guided Rory back to the benches. "It's going to be okay," he murmured, whether to Rory's benefit or his own would remain unknown, and Rory gave some sort of a half-shrug, half-nod as a response.

"It is gonna be okay."

Rory looked up to see pretty much the most familiar face he could see: his own. Older, though closer to his age than Blaine's, but still Rory, down to the very specific color of his eyes.

"Dad's gonna be fine."

"O-oh my God..." Blaine breathed out shakily, the relief positively radiating from him. Rory felt himself sag as the adrenaline vanished from his veins and his stomach grumbled in hunger he had not noticed before. "Oh, Rory, you're here again."

Rory watched as Blaine got up to envelope his older self into a tight hug. The older Rory looked tired, Rory realized now, exhausted even and he was drenched to the bone.

"It was you," he said suddenly. "You held me back from the crash site."

"Yeah," the older one replied when Blaine released him.

"Do I – Do I come back often?"

"A couple of times before this. Only for a few minutes, though."

"How long have you been here?"

"Uh... I don't remember. 12, maybe 13 hours?"

Rory swallowed something bitter, already dreading the idea of having to re-live this. His thoughts were starting to organize themselves again now that they weren't all tangled up in a simple 'please, please, please...' and he blinked as he suddenly remembered: "...the wedding."

"Rory?" Blaine said softly.

"The wedding! At the Plaza, I... I appeared to Sugar's hotel room. Dad was there. He was there to get Sugar ready for her wedding." Wait... Oh. "Our wedding?"

The older Rory winked. "You'll just have to wait and see, man. One word of advice, though." He leaned in a bit closer. "Don't let her go."

And if Rory saw a glimpse of the ring on his finger, well... That was purely accidental.

Blaine tried to urge Rory to go home and get some sleep ("You can go home, Rory, you don't have to return to campus.") but Rory refused. His dad sighed but didn't argue further, only sent Patrick and Peter back to campus with some money for a taxi and litany of thank yous. Rory even managed to flash them a weak but genuine smile.

"I need to use the restroom. And I have to go call Carole and Finn," Blaine said when the twins had disappeared. He looked he had aged 10 years in the last couple of hours. "I'll be right back."

"I can't believe I forgot about the wedding," Rory mumbled as soon as Blaine was out of ear-shot.

"We were young," the older one said.

"Yeah, but still."

"You were in shock. And it was such a long time ago. Don't beat yourself up over it."

"I thought we hit the rock bottom when grandpa died," Rory sighed. "But when I thought that Dad... I... I can't explain it."

"Well, it's a good thing I've lived it then."

Rory bit his lip. "Am I horrible person?"

"No."

"You don't know what I'm gonna say!"

"Of course I do. I've said it."

"Fuck."

"Come on, out with it anyway. You'll feel better."

Rory closed his eyes, a lone tear falling down on his cheek. "When – when grandpa died... It was horrible. But it wasn't... it wasn't that big of a... surprise. You know? I mean, of course it was a surprise but it wasn't like a lightning from the clear sky. We all hoped it wouldn't happen for years but also knew it might. Am I making any sense?"

"Yeah."

"This? I don't know what I would've done if... If dad really..."

"But he didn't," the older Rory said strongly. "He won't."

"He will. They both will. Some day."

"Everyone does."

"And we'll know how. How and when. Won't we?"

The two of them looked at each other for a long while. "Probably," the older one finally said. "But I can honestly tell you that I don't. Not yet anyway."

Rory nodded, his eyes clouded with thoughts too heavy for anyone. "Remember Shadie Hawkins?"

"Way too well. Let's talk about Sugar."

Blaine came back a while later, offering comments here and there but mostly he stayed quiet. The clock ticked on, counting seconds and minutes that turned into a few hours and then finally, finally, the young doctor came back, this time actually smiling a little.

"He made it," he said and even though Blaine and Rory had known it would, it still felt like something heavy had been lifted from their shoulders. "He's been taken to ICU but it's all looking quite positive right now."

"Can we see him?" Blaine asked hopefully.

"Yes, of course. Follow me."

He warned them about the wires, the sounds and the tube that went down Kurt's throat to help him breathe. They all made everything seem like it was worse than it really was but they were there to help, no matter how scary they looked.

"The doctor will come tell you more details soon," the young man said when they reached Kurt's room. Everything was so very white and Kurt would definitely let everyone know what he thought about the interior design as soon as he woke up. "Just call if you need anything."

"God, Kurt..."

Blaine was on his husband's side in a mere blink, holding his hand, smoothing his hair and murmuring nonsense that Rory couldn't hear from his position next to the door. He felt sick and too young and this was just too wrong to be true.

"I have to go." Rory jumped. He had already almost forgotten his older self was still there. "When you take his hand, it'll be warm. Not cold like I know you think it will be. He can feel it. And he can hear you. Let him know you're here and he'll wake up in no time."

"When?" Rory asked.

"Soon. I promise. A lot sooner than you'd think."

And it suddenly dawned on Rory that the other had also lived all this. He had known it before, of course, but he hadn't realized what it meant.

"Thank you," he said quietly, earnestly.

"Don't mention it," was the last thing the other one said before he faded away.

Rory took a deep breath and made his way to Kurt's bedside. His dad was pale and looked younger than what he was, small in the huge hospital bed and ill-fitting gown. He slowly reached out to take his hand and yes, as he had been promised, it was indeed warm. Full of life.

"Hey, Dad," he choked out. "You're going to be okay."

"We're all going to be okay," Blaine added.

"Yeah." A short silence. "I love you, Daddy."

October 17th, 12.33pm

Rory almost hated himself for not saying more to himself before he disappeared, leaving him with a bundle of soaked clothes in his arms. People were yelling all around him, some commanding, some panicked. Rory's vision swam when someone pulled the driver out of the taxi in which Kurt still was, broken and bleeding.

He was told to stop but he didn't listen. He crawled, pushed and forced his way to the yellow car and yanked the door of it open, knowing what he'd see but still unprepared.

"Dad?"

Kurt didn't respond. He had been knocked unconscious and Rory knew not to move him as it might only cause further damage. He reached out the best he could and managed to awkwardly lace his fingers with Kurt's.

"Help is coming. You're going to be fine and you'll live to see and babysit your grandkids. You'll live to plan my wedding. It'll be amazing. I don't think I ever truly thanked you enough for it. So just hang in there because it will all be okay. I promise."

He was pushed away by paramedics in the next second and he didn't bother to protest. He knew how this would all play out but it didn't make it any easier, no matter that this was the fourth time he but the first time he had ever made it to the car.

Knowing there'd soon be a panicked father and son in the waiting room of the ER, Rory backed away and started making his way towards the hospital.

'He'll be fine, he'll be fine, he'll be fine, he'll be fine...' was the only thought going through his head.

AN: Alright, a HEADS UP!

In exactly a month from now, I'll be leaving to do my second internship abroad. I have just been alerted to the fact that there MIGHT NOT BE WIFI where I'm going as it kind of in the middle of nowhere.

I will try my best to wrap this story up before I go but I have 3 essays to write and a group to lead through a huge project so I don't know if that will be possible. And even if I do, wrapping up MIGHT only mean HIATUS until I come back... And that won't be until September.

Just wanted to let you guys know because you have all be AMAZING! Thank you!