"Just you and me now, Bud. We'll be alright, though. I promise, we'll be alright."

Blaine is wide-eyed as he and Burt finish shaking hands.

Diane placed an arm on Burt's shoulder, "Is one hour good?" She asked.

He nodded. "That's plenty of time. Sure you don't want to stay?"

"It's better if I don't."

This seemed to bring Blaine out of his trance. "Wait. What?"

"Blaine, I'm going to go run some errands," Diane explained, "and let you and Mr. Hummel-"

"Burt," He corrected.

"-And Burt talk. When I get back, we'll have lunch. If you feel like it."

"M- Mom, you can't just leave me here," Blaine replied nervously. His mom didn't just leave him with strangers!

"It's only for an hour, Blaine. You'll be fine." She leaned toward him, gave him a kiss on his cheek, then began to walk off.

He turned in her direction. "Mom!" He called out, wanting her to come back.

She either didn't hear him, or pretended not to, as she walked out of the cafe, never looking back.

"Have a seat," Burt said as he sat back down. Blaine slowly turned toward him and Burt could see a mixture of nervousness, fear, worry, and every other negative feeling out there.

"Don't worry," Burt continued, " Contrary to popular belief, I don't bite."

Blaine cautiously pulled out the seat opposite of Burt, then sat down.

Burt took a sip of the coffee that he had ordered while waiting for them to arrive, then cleared his throat. "Would you like anything to drink? Here, if you want it, you gotta go up and get it."

Blaine shook his head. "I'm fine," He replied quietly.

Burt nodded. "You know, over these past couple of weeks, I've heard a lot about you. It seems that now everything's out in the open, Kurt can't stop talkin' about you."

"Mr. Hummel-"

"Burt."

"Burt. I'm sorry to be rude, but I'd rather not talk about Kurt. He already came to me, and he told me I could take my time on what I decided and-"

Burt held up his hand to stop Blaine. "I'm not here to talk about him," He said. "At least not about you two's relationship- whatever it may be.

"I am here to tell you a story, if you promise that you'll listen."

Blaine hesitated for a moment, still feeling unsure about this whole thing. However, he was stranded here for at least an hour with this man, so he might as well hear whatever he had to say. He nodded, then shifted in his seat to be more comfortable.

"Okay. Good. Now, this story is about a woman named Elizabeth Hummel, also known as my late wife."

Blaine began to interrupt, definitely not feeling ready to hear any stories about her, but Burt held out a hand to stop him. "Now, you promised you'd listen. You don't even know what I have to say."

Blaine sunk back into his chair and sighed. "Okay. Okay, I'll listen," He said quietly.

"Thank you… So, I met Lizzy in nineteen eighty-nine at my ten year high school reunion, which I did not want to go to. My girlfriend at the time had picked up my mail for me, saw the invitation, and practically forced me to go. I sat down at the table Lizzy was at while my girlfriend talked to people I should have known, and we started talking. It turns out she was dragged there by her boyfriend, who had graduated with me. When we found out we shared a hatred for parties, we hit it off. Ended up finding out we had a lot in common.

"However, we didn't start dating until months later. I was getting groceries and she was in the store. We saw each other and started talking again. I had broken up with my girlfriend by that time, and she had broken up with her boyfriend, so we decided to go out."

Burt smiled. "I knew on our first date that I would marry her. No doubt. She was just… beautiful, inside and out.

"Anyway, about a year later, and a month after I had asked her to marry me, a conversation came up. It was one of our serious ones that always happened after we'd go to the movies. We were sitting in this little restaurant and we started talking about death- which was a big part of the movie we had just seen. During that conversation, she told me she was an organ donor. I wasn't, and I had never really bothered to think about it too much, so I asked her why she was one. She shrugged her shoulders and, as though it were the simplest thing in the world, said, "Well, if I don't need them anymore, and someone else does, why wouldn't I be one?""

Blaine wiped his sweaty hands on his pants as he tried to keep the tears out of his eyes. He didn't want Burt to stop, he knew that, but it was all still hard to hear.

"She always took excellent care of herself," Burt continued. "She said it was because she wanted to be able to give someone- or someone's- what she called "the ultimate gift" one day. She donated blood, and bone marrow, regularly. I would go with her sometimes, and she'd always come back out smiling. One day I asked her how she was able to do that, cause if it were me, I'd probably come out lookin' like a truck ran over me, and she'd just shrug and say that it made her happy. She'd tell me that she hoped it truly helped someone who deserved it.

"Lizzy was the most selfless, caring person that I knew. She always wanted to help people. It kinda freaked me out sometimes."

Burt paused to take a sip of his coffee and, before Blaine even knew what he was doing, he was asking a question. "What do you mean?"

Burt was surprised that Blaine was actually wanting more added to the conversation, but he hid it well. "One night, about two years after Kurt was born," Burt said, putting his cup back down, "we were in bed and she told me that she didn't want to live to be "too old." I couldn't believe it when she said it. I thought I had misheard or something. But, she explained to me that if she got too old, her body wouldn't be working properly. She said her organs would all be old and no one would get them then. She said if she died and nothing came from it, she would feel like she died in vain.

"I told her that she sounded ridiculous. I said it didn't matter if she died old, it wouldn't be in vain, because Kurt's here, and his kids would be here, and her memory would live on forever.

"Lizzy said she knew that, but it's just how she felt. She felt as though her life, and death, would have less of a meaning if she didn't do all that she could to help someone else live."

Burt shrugged. "Still can't say I fully get it. And I know that, if she can see me, she's rollin' her eyes and sayin' I never will. Now, I know that she would never have wanted to leave Kurt while he was still so young. What mother would? But, I also know that she wouldn't come back for anything. She would be so happy that she didn't die in vain. She would take one look at you Blaine, and she'd be happy with the way things turned out.

"Kurt's a good kid. He misses her, of course, but I think I've done her proud in the raising-a-child department. I know that if she had a choice to come back, or to have things remain the way they are, she'd choose the latter. She'd choose you in a heartbeat, Blaine."

Blaine broke eye contact with Burt to quickly wipe a tear from his eye.

"What she wouldn't like, however," Burt continued, bringing Blaine's attention back to him, "is you spending days- weeks even- hiding from the world. She would want you to live every moment of every day to its fullest."

"I just…" Blaine sniffed, "Sometimes I feel like I'm undeserving. Like someone else could have benefited so much more from it; Could have done more to honor her life."

"Listen to me, kid." Burt leaned forward in his seat, "As long as you don't waste your life away, as long as you do anything and everything you want to do during your lifetime, then there's no way you could let her down."

More tears fell from Blaine's eyes. He looked down as he wiped them away with his hands, wishing they'd just stop and come back when he was alone.

"Mr.- Um, Burt?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you… I mean, if you don't mind, would you tell me what happened… to her? I know she got into a car accident… but that's about it."

Burt nodded, then began. "She had gone to visit her sister, who lived about fifteen minutes outside of Columbus, for the day. We were all supposed to go for the weekend, but Kurt was just getting over being sick and we didn't want to take him out. She wasn't going to go at all, but I knew she wanted to see her sister, so I told her to go. I knew I could take care of Kurt for the weekend just fine, but she refused to stay that long. She said she'd go for the day and that was it.

"She called the house just before leaving her sister's place that night. They had lost track of time- something they always did when they were together- and it was already getting dark outside. I told her to just wait and come back the next day. I told her that Kurt was fine, I was fine, and it would be better for her to stay with her sister. She, of course, wouldn't listen to me. Kurt takes after her a lot in that department.

"Anyway, she told me she wanted to be home, and she assured me she would be fine. She said she'd driven home in the dark plenty of times. She told me she loved me, and to give Kurt a kiss goodnight since he'd already be in bed by the time she got home, then we hung up.

"The house phone rang two hours later, which would have been right about when she should have been pulling up. It was a police officer…" Burt paused to take a breath.

"You don't have to continue," Blaine said, knowing this was hard on the man. He felt bad for asking about it now.

"No, I'm fine, kid. Just needed a second." He cleared his throat. "Um, the officer told me that there had been a bad accident and Lizzy had been rushed to the hospital. He didn't know anything on her condition, just told me what had happened and where I needed to go. It had been raining earlier and a dip in the road had filled with water. Lizzy must not have seen it; she didn't go around and instead went right into it. She lost control of the car, over-corrected, and hit right into a tree at fifty miles an hour.

"I hung up as soon with the officer as soon as I got all of the information, rushed into Kurt's room, and grabbed him up from his bed. I probably scared him half to death, but I didn't even notice his reaction. I just carried him downstairs, grabbed the car keys, and headed to the OSU Medical Center.

"We had to wait for a little bit once we got there cause the doctor couldn't come out right away. When he did come out, I could see on his face that it wasn't good. I went off to the side, away from Kurt, and that's when he told me that she didn't make it. She had already been gone for a while. There was nothing that could have been done for her. She had extensive brain damage, internal bleeding, both legs were broken, and her left arm was broken. Even if all of the surgeries she would have needed had been successful, she would have never talked, walked, or been able to do much of anything at all ever again. It was just all too much for her body to take."

Blaine was crying again. He didn't even bother to hide the tears this time. Burt handed him a napkin and, after a sniffy "thank you", Blaine wiped his eyes and nose with it.

"Anything else you wanna know?" Burt asked in a soft tone. "I don't mind answerin' any questions that you have."

Blaine took a deep breath, thinking for a quick moment, then shook his head. He figured he had learned enough for the day.

Burt nodded, "Alright. Your mom should be gettin' back soon and we can eat. I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick. Will you be okay out here?"

"Yes," Blaine replied, looking back at Burt, "Thank you, Burt… for everything."

"Anytime."

Burt stood and began to walk off when Blaine called to him.

"Burt?"

"Yeah?" He replied, turning back to Blaine.

"Um, when… When is Kurt's grounding over?"

"A little less than two weeks-"

Blaine nodded.

"But, for you," Burt continued, "He's free anytime."

I know this chapter really doesn't seem that long, but it took forever to write. I thought it would be so easy, but it has been my most difficult one so far. I hope the stuff about Kurt's mom didn't seem unrealistic to you guys. I based her off of a couple of people that I know. One was my grandma that just passed away. She died at 89, but I will always remember her telling me that she never wanted to live to be too old. She wanted to die before she was unable to care for her self... She ended up dying two months after she became unable to take care of herself.

Anyway, thanks for the reviews and everything else! You guys are so amazing :)

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