Ok, so this is the final chapter of Papers and Memories! With a twist. I have posted two endings. One is for all you happy ending lovers who just can't bear to see Klaine apart (me included), the other is for those who have read these chapters and just can't see a way out of their betrayal. So I shall let you choose. Those for the happy ending, stay on this page. Those for the sad ending, go to the next chapter. Both are worth a read (if I do say so myself) but if you only want one (or none at all) that is fine with me!

I'll write my thank you's at the end so enjoy!

Liz xxx

P.S. Both chapters are from Kurt and Blaine's perspectives (separated by lines). There are no flashbacks.

Chapter 21

And that had been it. The end of our relationship.

The silence that descended over the room was different this time. There had been so many silences it was easy to classify them into one big mass, all the same. But they weren't at all. Some silences were sad, some happy, some menacing and hurtful. This silence felt like relief.

Kurt wouldn't look at me. I felt like the moment he'd told me to leave, the way his eyes wouldn't meet mine so he could realise what he was doing. I hadn't really known how to respond, so had just walked out of the room. I had left. He probably hadn't been expecting me too, but I had.

"What happened next?" The man spoke, for the first time in a while. Even he seemed a little shocked – it had surprised me that nothing had seemed to really affect him up until now. All he wanted was story after story, almost like he knew what was going to happen and just wanted to get to the end.

"There are no more stories." Kurt replied, a bitterness in his voice. "That was it."

"Did Blaine leave?"

"Yes, I did." I answered, not really wanting to talk about it either. Kurt looked down at the floor and I saw the hurt in his expression.

"Where did you go?"

"To Tylers, for a while. Until I could find my own place." It hadn't really been that hard. Most of my time with my friend had been to get over what had just happened, the logistics of the break up had been pretty easy to handle. I could afford a new apartment, several times over, but I didn't want one. Or maybe I did.

"Did you carry on at Gringlends?"

Blaine had carried on. He'd kept his word and chosen his job over me. Then once he'd finished his college degree and been offered to take over the company once Mr Gringlend had left, he'd walked right into the office and told him he was gay, that Natasha was being sued and he was leaving the company for a better offer. Now he was CEO of Petersons.

I had to say a part of me was proud. He'd done what I couldn't, achieved his goal. The expensive suits he wore at every meeting we had were more than I could ever dream of affording. But it had come at a price.

"What about you Kurt? What are you doing now?" I laughed.

"Making coffee." My business had failed. I'd lost everything, including my pride. The apartment was still mine due to the fact we'd bought it outright but I couldn't really afford to live there, nor did I really want to. Rachel had taken pity on me after a week or so of moping around doing nothing and scrounged a job at Teen Vogue for me. I was running errands for the people I had wanted to be, failed to be. Every day was like looking in a mirror and being crushed by what I saw.

"You still get to work in fashion though." I looked up at Blaine, seeing sympathy in his eyes as he gazed upon me. Sympathy. That was the final straw.

"Fuck you!" I shouted. Everyone jumped, including the man. "Don't pity me!" I stood up, the ugly sound of the chair we'd been sitting on scraping across the floor hurting my ears. "Look at Blaine, he got everything he wanted in life, he sucked it all out of his husband and left him with NOTHING! Did you set this all up?" Suddenly I pointed to the man and our lawyers. "Did you set this up with them to ruin me? To remind me of everything I've lost? Well ha ha, very funny – look's like nobody's laughing!" My anger was boiling up, hatred for Blaine and for myself, for everyone in this freaking room. "I can't do this anymore!" Turning around without another word I stormed out of the room.

As I threw open the door the receptionist in the hallway jumped. Storming past her I marched towards the exit but stopped in a little alcove and rested my forehead against the wall. Fuck. Outside the room seemed different, like we'd been in a different world. I wasn't sure how long we'd even been in there but it seemed like hours. It could have been days. My stomach grumbled and I realised we hadn't eaten either.

I waited for a couple of seconds to see if anyone had followed me, but when I heard nothing banged my head against the wall and screamed. How had this happened? Four years ago I'd been as happy as Larry – leaving for New York, about to live my dream. I'd been so full of promise, hope, happiness. If I had known it would turn out like this I never would have left.

The room fell silent as the sound of Kurt's angry footsteps faded into the distance. I looked across at Brian, who shrugged his shoulders and then towards Steve, who just stared back blankly.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"Someone should go get him." Brain replied, not looking at me. There was a brief silence again before Steve shook his head.

"I'm not going."

"You're his lawyer. I'm not getting him."

"I fight his legal battles, not his personal ones."

"Well we need him to complete the legal contract, so you'd better hop to it." Steve bristled and I suddenly realised yet another fight was brewing. How saddening that mine and Kurt's toxic relationship had poisoned even innocent people.

"Guys." I replied, before one of them stood up and things got messy. "I'll go." The two men stopped and looked at me like I was crazy.

"Are you serious?" Brian asked. "He pretty much wants to kill you right now."

"Well I want to kill myself, so that makes two of us." Before another word could be spoken I stood up and walked out of the room.

When I opened the door the receptionist seemed guarded, as if she were expecting me to storm out like Kurt had. I smiled, holding up my hands to show I was safe and she relaxed. As I walked down the corridor I began to hypothesise where Kurt might have gone, before I heard a scream and realised he was close.

I hadn't really prepared what I was going to say, so when I saw him right in front of me stayed quiet for a bit.

"AAAAAARGH!" Kurt was banging his hands against the wall pretty roughly, if he didn't stop soon he was in danger of breaking something.

"Kurt." I said softly, trying to acknowledge him of my presence in the least offensive way. Immediately I was assaulted.

"YOU!" Luckily my reactions were quick and I grabbed the fist before it came crashing into my face. Kurt screamed louder and for a second we were locked in a stationary tussle, with his hand inches away and me frantically trying to push it back.

"Kurt! Stop!" I yelled, heaving with all my strength and feeling my face go red as Kurt's veins became visible in his forehead. Eventually his strength gave out and his hand went crashing back against the wall. I quickly pinned the other one up and felt his immediately thrash with his legs. One went into my gut and I doubled over, but still managed to hold him down.

"Go on, kick me!" I shouted in his face. "I don't care! Kick me!" It was amazing how this was the closest we'd been in months, sitting across a room from each other for hours but never once touching. Our relationship had never come to blows and I was glad for that, but right now I wanted a fight. Kurt responded to my request, sending three more excruciating kicks into my stomach before he glared angrily at me.

"Fight back!" He screamed. "You coward fight back!"

"Do you know why you're so angry?" I replied, gripping onto his wrists tightly and feeling the blood pump through his veins.

"Because I hate you!"
"No, you're angry because once you take away the anger, then only the sadness is left. I know, it happened to me." Kurt stopped fighting. His shoulders drooped and I realised he was more exhausted than defeated. I was exhausted too.

"You're not sad." He mumbled. "You got everything. You should be happy."

"I didn't get everything." I said back. "I lost you. That was what I wanted. Always."

"Then why did you give me up?"

"You'd already given me up."

I stared back at Blaine's face. I couldn't tell if he was telling the truth. This could all be some rouse to get me back in the room. Blaine was good at rouses – he'd run one right through our relationship. I didn't know if I could trust him anymore. But I wanted to.

"I never gave you up."

"You did. Ever since I got that job you resented me."

"Well that was because you worshipped it! As soon as you immersed yourself in those stupid numbers you didn't care about me anymore!"

"Of course I did! I cared about that job because it was giving success to the both of us. I wanted to prove I could do it, that I wouldn't waste the opportunity you have given me." I paused. I'd never thought of it like that.

"Then why didn't you want me anymore?"

"You didn't want me. You were just as obsessed with your job as I was mine."

"I was not!"

"If you were in my situation – if you had to choose between your line becoming successful and me – would you do it?" I dithered.

"No…"

"Liar." Blaine stared at me again and I felt the anger boil up inside me once more.

"Why do you always have to be right?" I shouted. Blaine had loosened his grip on my hands so I pushed him away and he stepped back a few paces, putting his face in his hands.

"Why are we acting like children? When did we go back to high school?" I couldn't believe this. All the time we'd had to get over what had happened. Both of us were too stubborn to let it go. Looking at Kurt I saw him glaring back with childlike eyes, lips pouted and arms folded defensively.

"All those years ago that we met – we were young, barely adults. Now we're in full time employment and we can barely string a sentence together without bickering.

"You're in full time employment." Kurt retorted back.

"There you go again! Stop feeling so sorry for yourself!" I took a step forward again

"I'll feel whatever I like about myself! My life is ruined because of you!"

"No. Your life is ruined because of you. When I came to New York I had no future, no prospects. I was living off scraps, virtually rock bottom. But I pulled myself together and did something about it."

"Thanks to me."

"Yes! Sometimes if you want to make something of your life, you have to get help from someone else."

"So that's all I was to you? A springboard for your career?"

"Of course you weren't. You were much more than that." I paused, running out of energy. Arguing like this sucked the life out of me. I hated it. Kurt looked up at the wall like he was trying to avoid eye contact.

How dare he say I was a child. Yes I was younger than him, but I was still 25. I'd had more life experiences than most people could ever dream of. I certainly wasn't immature. But there was that stubbornness inside me. I couldn't seem to let go of it no matter how hard I tried.

For a while there was silence. I scuffed my feet along the floor trying not to look like I was waiting for something. Blaine fiddled with the cuff on his shirtsleeve. The gold button turned back and fourth through his fingers. I remember when he used to do that. I'd seen it many times when we went to the doctors surgery or he was waiting for an important phone call. He only did it when he was nervous.

"You've made mistakes too." I mumbled.

"Of course I have!" Blaine exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "I've made loads of mistakes! Really bad ones, ones I'll regret for the rest of my life. Everyone does. But at some point you've got to work out if holding onto those mistakes is gonna make your life worse than letting them go would."

"I don't think I can." I mumbled again.

"What?"

"Let them go. I think I've gone too far."

"Well let me bring you back." Suddenly Blaine took hold of my hands. The movement was so fast that I almost instinctively moved them away, but he managed to hold on and I drew a sharp intake of breath instead. Finally I let my eyes rest on his and I saw in them something I hadn't seen in a long time. Affection.

"I miss you." Blaine said. "I miss you a lot. And as much as I hate to say it, you kept me grounded. I feel like I'm losing focus without you." I didn't quite know what to say back. The words were something I'd wanted to hear for months, had dreamt about. But now they had finally been said I was confused.

"I'm…broken." I said, my voice trembling as I spoke. "We're broken. This isn't going to be easy to fix."

"I know." Blaine replied, sounding more and more confident with every word he uttered. "But when two things are broken, they know what it's like. They know how much the other wants to be fixed. And they can help." How could this be happening? How could suddenly everything be so clear? Somehow all the anger we'd held in that room felt like it had been staged – we'd been performing to our audience, not really thinking about what we were saying. The drama of the events had taken over, we were poisoned by our own jealously and vanity. Instead of deceiving each other we'd only been deceiving ourselves.

"I know we've done some terrible things, things that were wrong and never should have been done. We've let each other down and pretty much destroyed every happy memory we ever had. But I don't hate you. And you don't hate me. We never really did. So could there still be love?"

He was right. I didn't hate Blaine, I never had. I hated myself. Blaine had achieved what I hadn't. And I'd helped him. Because I'd wanted to. That wasn't anything to be ashamed of. If living vicariously through my husband was what I had to do to get my dreams in life, well…was that enough?

My heart was pounding. I'd laid everything out on the line and so far had got nothing back. If Kurt really was too far gone than I'd have to accept that – it would crush me, but I would. I just couldn't understand the thought that there was nothing left – that every bit of love he had for me had been burnt away. I still had some. It would need some nurturing, but I was willing to do it. I wanted a chance at happiness again, and Kurt was the only one that could give it to me.

Staring back at him I could feel my palms beginning to sweat, the grip on his tight but not too much so it looked like desperation. He hadn't loosened or pulled away so I guess that was a good sign. But there was still no answer.

"If this isn't going to work-" I started giving him my get out clause but was interrupted.

"-Shut up." Well that was unexpected. I almost drew my hands away but Kurt kept hold of them, his grip tightening so I breathed in deeply.

"Do you promise to try?" He asked, sounding guarded. My heart leapt.

"Yes."

"And if this doesn't work, we never try again?"

"Of course." I wasn't going to shoot a dead horse in the foot. Kurt paused for another few agonising seconds, the cogs in his brain whirring so I felt like I was going to die if I didn't hear something soon. Then, finally, he sighed.

"We never did go on that honeymoon." He said. My eyebrows furrowed for a second, trying to work out what he meant. Then something beautiful spread across that perfect porcelain face.

A smile.

The phone went on the bedside table. I was roused from my half sleep and felt Kurt stir beside me. He nestled his head further into my bare chest and I stroked his hair with my fingers as I picked up the receiver.

"Hello?" The weather outside was pretty atrocious – the rain battered against the window and the trees waved around like people in a mosh pit, dangerously close to breaking their way inside. It wasn't exactly the best scene for a honeymoon. But then again, Kurt and I had to lot of catching up to do, that didn't involve going outside.

"Who is it?" My husband asked. He pulled himself upwards, grinning cheekily as he brought his lips to my mouth, kissing me slowly so I struggled to what was being said on the other line.

"Sssh." I replied, pushing him away but enjoying the contact, my hand lingering on his shoulder. "Yes, this is Blaine Anderson-Hummel." Kurt pouted, as if he wanted the conversation to be over and began to run his fingers down my chest until I froze.

"What?" That couldn't be… It couldn't… My husband looked worried but I waved him away, wanting to be sure what I had heard was correct, that I hadn't somehow dreamt it.

"Are you sure? Like, really sure?" The voice on the other line confirmed what he had told me. My mouth opening and closing like a goldfish I wondered how to end the conversation, and how I was going to tell Kurt.

"Um, thanks for letting me know. Bye…" The line went dead. Kurt immediately took the phone away from me and threw it on the bed.

"What happened Blaine?" He asked, looking concerned. "You're scaring me."

"That was the man from the solicitors office." I said slowly, still not quite believing what I was about to say. "He said we both missed our divorce proceeding appointment."

"But we went to that. And we didn't need it after all anyway." Kurt smiled, moving to lie down on my chest again, before I held his arm to keep him up.

"He said it got postponed. Somebody had a prior agreement they couldn't get out of - we should have been informed. The presiding figure was there waiting for us…" Suddenly the penny dropped. Kurt's face immediately fell and his whole complexion turned white.

"But if he's there today, then…"

Who was the man?

The End

So that's the end of another fic! I have really anjoyed writing this, even if it was a complete angst-fest towards the end, so thank you to everyone that enjoyed it with me! I know it's hard to read about sad things, especially with how canon is going at the moment, so thanks for sticking around and not leaving me! I love each and every one of you very much.

Next I have many plans, the big one being a trilogy of fics all centred around one theme that I am VERY excited about. The 2nd and 3rd stories will also contain different pairings that I hope you will stick around to read. There is also the task of YDOYD:SY to complete and the Sambastian twin fic I have already started too! (Please take a look at that because I think Sambastian are an underrated pairing and I would love some feedback)

So, all that is left to say is thank you again and stay tuned! If you ever want a chat or have an prompt you would like me to write message me on here or tumblr I would love to chat!

Thanks

Liz xxx