A week had passed since Artie's surprise party for Blaine and everyone had eventually slept off their hangovers. Blaine and Artie had become closer and had started spending more time together both during, and after school.

Cooper had stuck around, as had Kurt, and life literally couldn't be better for the younger Anderson.

Burt sat and smiled as he thought about Blaine and the man he had turned into-he had finally started calling him by his first name and he could see how much more relaxed he had become in the Hummel household.

He looked up and smiled as Blaine and Artie came into view, "Hey, guys!"

"Sup, Mr Hummel?"

"Hey, Burt! Um, Artie's gotta go now because his mom's outside but thanks for letting him come over and everything."

"Don't worry about it, I'll see you later Artie!"

Both Burt and Blaine watched as Artie left and waved him off. When Artie had gone, Burt gestured for Blaine to join him on the couch and the younger man complied, focussing all of his energy into shifting from his chair to the couch using only his hands.

Burt leant forward to catch him when it looked as if he was about to fall and he remained on the edge of his seat, ready to catch him if he did.

"You good?"

"I'm okay."

"Listen, Blaine-your doctor called today."

He frowned, confused.

"Really?"

"Yeah. They want to try and start your physical therapy tomorrow. I know you said that you've started to regain feeling in your legs so I told the doc and they think it would be better if you started your physical therapy sooner rather than later."

"I see."

If he was being completely honest, Burt was expecting a little more than just two words; he expected Blaine to have some opinion on the matter.

"Do you think you're ready for it?"

"I don't know."

Burt patted Blaine's knee, letting him know that it was okay-a signal for him to continue.

"I mean, I haven't really given it much thought, but if the doctor thinks it would be good then it's worth a shot I guess."

"I think it'll be good for you. I'll take you there and pick you back up, and if you want me to stay then I will. It's completely up to you."

Blaine was about to thank him when Kurt walked through the door, so instead, he chose to smile at him in a silent thank you.

Burt helped him back into his chair and they all joined Carole in the kitchen to help her with dinner.

Blaine didn't sleep at all that night. He didn't need to tell Kurt why because he already knew, so instead, Kurt spent the night with his arms wrapped around Blaine, occasionally pressing soft kisses against his scalp, and Blaine spent the night wide awake, breathing in and savouring Kurt's scent.

Although he was practically living with his future in laws, he genuinely couldn't remember ever feeling as safe as he did that night.

So when morning came, although he hadn't had a minute of sleep, he was okay. He sat with Kurt and ate breakfast and at one o'clock, he joined Burt in his car where they set off.

Their car journey lasted just under an hour and luckily for him, Blaine was able to sleep the entire way there. Burt thought nothing of it, because he could see how worried Blaine was about today and decided to just let him sleep.

"Hey, Blaine-wake up kid, we're here."

Blaine was a little confused when he woke up but he soon snapped out of it when he realised where he was.

Burt chuckled.

"Easy, kid. You want me to take you in, make sure you get to the right place?"

"Actually, Burt-would you mind staying with me? It's just-I know you offered and everything, and I would really like it if you stayed."

"Of course I'll stay with you kiddo. Come on-we should get going."

The woman at the front desk was nice. She looked way too young to be working full time but at the same time she looked like there was nothing that she hadn't seen.

And that put Blaine's mind at rest. He felt less subconscious and a lot less worried.

Burt got him booked in and together they followed the young woman down a very long hallway into the last room on the right.

There was another woman already waiting for them, but she was a little older than the woman at the front desk.

This woman had grey hair, wiry, round glasses and smelled a little of cats and peaches.

"Hello sweetie, my name is Mandy and I'm gonna be working very closely with you over the next few months to see if we can get you back up on your feet. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Great. So we're not going to start with anything too strenuous to begin with. I just want you to follow me over here real quick, can you do that for me?"

He nodded and both he and Burt followed Mandy over to the other side of the room where there were two metal bars on either side of a padded crash mat.

"Now if you could just pull yourself up onto here for me, and your dad can help you if you want."

Burt went to correct her but when he saw Blaine smile and look up to him, silently asking for his help, he thought again.

He lifted Blaine from behind and stood just one step behind him as Blaine's muscles strained with the tension of supporting his body weight on the two metal bars, ready to catch him if he fell backwards, but also wanting to give Blaine the independence he needed.

"Okay that's wonderful Blaine, now I just want you to get to the end of this. Don't worry if you can't because the crash mat is below you if you fall, but I want you to try and get as far as you can, can you give that a go for me?"

Slowly and shakily, Blaine lifted up his left leg. He wasn't able to lift it very far, but he was able to get it a couple of inches of the ground and move it forward slightly. His right leg was a little more difficult and he was only able to raise his right foot enough so that nothing but his toes touched the mat. Toes brushing against the blue crash mat, he dragged his foot across to meet his left leg.

Then he repeated the process until he reached the end of the bar, where he dropped to the crash mat, sweating and utterly exhausted.

Burt had to admit, he was a little impressed; Blaine was a lot stronger than he looked.

It was clear to all of them that he had regained more feeling in his left leg than his right because he wasn't able to get his toes off the mat, but was able to lift his left leg a few inches of the floor every time.

Mandy made a note on a small clipboard before addressing the two of them again.

"That was great, you're already making excellent progress Blaine, keep it up. Okay, so we need to head over to that bed now, so I'll just get your chair for you-"

Burt stopped her and instead bent down to pick Blaine up. With Blaine in his arms, he walked over to the black, leather bed that Mandy had pointed to and lay Blaine down on top of it.

Mandy brought his chair over anyway and handed it to Burt who folded it up and moved it so it was leaning against the wall. Then, he stood at the head of the bed with a hand on Blaine's shoulder as Mandy sat at the foot of the bed on her computer chair.

She picked up Blaine's left foot and placed the palm of her hand against the sole of his foot.

"Can you push against my hand as hard as you can, Blaine?"

Blaine tried and squeezed his eyes shut as he focussed on pushing his foot towards her. Just like before with walking, he was able to move her hand a little, but even that exhausted him.

Next, they did the same with his right foot, but he wasn't able to move her hand at all.

She frowned and wrote something else down, before looking back up at Blaine and smiling.

"Okay, Blaine, I think we're all done here. I have a few things that I need to talk to you doctor about but it's nothing to worry about, so now all we need to do is schedule your next appointment."

She took out a small card and pen and looked at him, expectantly.

Blaine looked to Burt and shrugged-he had no idea what to say.

Luckily, Burt did.

He chuckled, clapped a hand on his shoulder and looked at Mandy.

"How about same time next week?"

She checked her diary before writing something down on the small card which she gave to Burt.

"That's perfect. Okay so if you go hand this to Savannah at reception she'll book this in for you, but until then, if you could keep trying to get your son to push against your hand with both feet that would be great-it just keeps the muscles active, that's all."

"Okay, no worries, thank you ma'am. Right, come on then kiddo-we should get going."

He looked down at Blaine, but was surprised to find him fast asleep.

He was unfazed by this though, and unfolded his chair, before picking Blaine up and gently lowering him down into it.

Then he waved goodbye to Mandy and started to push Blaine out the door.

With his next appointment sorted, he got him strapped into the car, with his chair in the back-by which time, he had woken up.

"You know, I'm proud of you kid."

"Thank you, Burt."

"No, really, I am. I've got one question though-why didn't you correct her when she called me your dad?"

Blaine sighed; he knew this was coming.

"Burt, you are the only decent father figure I've had in my life. My dad was more interested in Cooper and Cooper was more interested in acting-growing up, of course. I can't deny that Cooper is much better now, but he's my brother, and I've never seen him as a father figure-but you were there for me, and you forgave me, even when all that stuff went down between me and Kurt, and if I'm being completely honest, before I met Kurt, I wasn't even sure that decent fathers existed, but you and Carole have given me so much more than a roof over my head-you've given me a second chance-a second chance with Kurt, and a second chance at experiencing life with parents, and I am never going to be able to thank you enough for that. Burt, I didn't correct her because I already view you as a father, my father."

"You know what, Blaine? I would be proud to call you my son."

"Thank you, Burt."

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out, staring down at it in confusion.

"What is it?"

"It's a text from Artie. He says he wants to talk."