Author's Note: Yep, exactly what it says on the tin. Someone's got it out for Kurt and Blaine...

Chapter 7: Sabotage

"When I consider," she added, in a yet more agitated voice, 'that I might have prevented it! – I who knew what he was."

(An excerpt from Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The morning of the shoot, Blaine was up even earlier than usual, and arrived at the location even before his brother. A good thing, too, seeing as it was pure chaos, and he needed to solve quite a few problems and tell everyone where to set up their stuff and how the décor was supposed to look.

By the time Cooper arrived, the set looked as it should, and Coop nodded approvingly.

"Are Kurt and the others here yet?"

Blaine shook his head. "Still early."

"Then go make yourself pretty now. Reena's just arrived. She can do your hair and make-up first."

When Reena had worked her magic, Blaine wriggled into the tight jeans he'd be wearing for the commercial and then walked around the warehouse helping out where needed while he was waiting for Kurt.

Kurt was supposed to be there at eight, but stepped into the warehouse at a quarter to, gaping at the hustle and bustle and seeming very much out of his depth.

Blaine hastened towards him, and tugged him along to Kyle and Reena, feeling in the best of spirits, especially when he saw Kurt give him a thorough once-over, with a glint in his eye that proved he liked what he saw.

His mood plummeted when Kurt, once again, made it all about Cooper. Ugh.

Kurt seemed to realise he'd said something wrong, but his bumbling apology made matters worse rather than better, and Blaine gritted his teeth and told himself not to lose his temper.

Cooper came to smooth things over, at usual, but Blaine wasn't in the mood to humour him, and left Kurt in Kyle's capable hands as soon as he'd told him what Kurt's look was supposed to be.

He turned back, though, when Kurt hesitantly asked if there were changing rooms, and there was a loud scoff.

Chandler! Oh, I might have known the little weasel would make trouble… He had better not mess with Kurt!

Chandler was a new hire, fresh from Parsons. He helped Kyle, mostly, but also assisted Reena if she had too much on her plate.

When he'd first started working for the Anderson firm, in June, he'd followed Cooper around like a yapping dog, forever gushing. Two days later, he'd asked Cooper out, and had seemed miffed when he was let down gently.

After that, Chandler had zeroed in on Blaine as the next best thing, and had started his spiel with him. Blaine wasn't any more interested than Cooper had been, so he tried as hard as he could to avoid Chandler, and if he couldn't, he pretended not to hear or not to understand his innuendoes and invitations.

Chandler proved persistent, though, and never gave up, so in the end, Blaine had to tell him plainly that he was wasting his time.

Ever since, Chandler had walked around the sets with a face like thunder, doing as little as he could get away with and slyly instigating fights between models or giving them wrong clothes on purpose. Blaine had started documenting every misstep Chandler made. He wanted the guy out, but Coop refused to fire him without solid proof of misbehavior. "We can't afford to lose an employee! We're run off our feet as it is! Also, he's the kind of guy who'd sue us for firing him, you just know it."

So Blaine bided his time and built his case bit by bit, without Chandler being the wiser.

Now, the guy seemed to have zeroed in on Kurt. Maybe because Blaine had greeted him with so much enthusiasm?

Whatever the reason, Blaine would watch him like a hawk. No-one would harm Kurt. Not while Blaine was around.

Absently, he stopped Kurt from falling when he tripped over the pants he was putting on, and then sent him to Reena while he helped Kyle unbox the hats. Chandler was supposed to do that, but had disappeared.

It wasn't until Blaine was introducing Kurt to Mandy and the other handlers that he saw Chandler again, skulking around the horses with a smirk on his face.

Blaine sent him back to Kyle at once, and hoped that the misgivings he felt would prove to be an overreaction.

When he saw the saddle slide off Kurt's horse when he tried to mount it, he knew that his hunch had been correct. Chandler was targeting him. Sabotaging him.

Blaine maneuvered his own horse closer to Kurt's, and sighed in relief when the next half hour, nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Just as he was lulled into complacency, though, he saw Chandler pop up again in his line of vision, and he was holding… Was that a sparkler? The guy was mad!

Blaine rode in Chandler's direction, hoping to wrestle the sparkler from him before it went off.

Too late! Chandler threw it in front of Kurt, and it exploded with a flash and a bang, spooking the horses, especially Kurt's.

Thankfully, Kurt was a good enough rider to keep the animal under control and to stop it from trampling anything or anyone.

Blaine was livid, though. He signaled to Jason from Security to follow him, and chased Chandler, who was now running away.

Blaine blocked Chandler from leaving the warehouse and had Jason take him into custody until Cooper would deal with him.

Then he had to go back and smile and sing and pretend to have a nice evening out with friends. With the rage that simmered inside of him, it was hard pretending everything was fine, and Blaine found himself slipping towards the end, glaring at Puck when he belittled Kurt.

As soon as Kurt and his friends were gone, Blaine confronted his brother, showing them the footage of Chandler throwing the sparkler. It had all been caught on camera, and was all the proof they needed to get rid of this psychopath.

"Don't you dare put your head in the sand again! This guy is dangerous, and we need to get rid of him!"

Cooper nodded, his mouth a thin line. "You're right. Kurt could have been hurt or killed. My future brother-in-law!"

Blaine quirked an eyebrow at his brother, but he seemed completely serious.

"Consider him gone, squirt. I'll fire him and sue him for damage."

"What damage? Nothing was destroyed. Kurt is an excellent horseman."

"We know that. But Chandler doesn't, and neither will his counsel. We'll give the money to Kurt, as grievance compensation."

K&B

It took nine months until they heard from Kurt again.

Blaine had done his utmost to get rid of the crush that would never go anywhere, seeing as Kurt preferred Cooper.

Still, when Coop waved a wedding invitation at him and sing-songed, "Look what your Kurt sent us!", Blaine felt his heart skip a beat, and he snatched the card out of Cooper's hands.

"My, my, someone's eager!"

Blaine paid no attention to his brother's teasing and focused on the wedding information.

The people getting married this time were Mercedes and Sam. That last name rang a bell. That was the blond cowboy from the jeans commercial, and probably also the Jaws guy that proposed at the Halloween party.

The venue was a church in Ohio.

"Ohio?"

Cooper grinned. "Yep, they're originally from Ohio, like us. Lima. That's about two hours from Westerville."

"You're going all the way to Ohio to attend a wedding? Of two people you don't know?"

Coop looked offended. "Hey! I do know them! Just because you're unsociable and taciturn doesn't mean I am! They were at Brittany and Santana's wedding, and then at the Halloween party too. I danced with Mercedes and talked about modelling with Sam. Booked him for several ads, and talked to him at the shoot each time. So there."

Blaine shrugged. "Okay. Yeah, I've talked to Sam too. We've done quite a few ad campaigns together by now. He's into Star Wars, like me. Gave me some great recs for FinnPoe fanfic. He's nice, I guess. A very laid-back guy. Never makes a fuss about anything."

"So put it in your Outlook calendar. We're going to Ohio next month!"

"Yay."

"You could sound a little more enthusiastic, you know."

Blaine rolled his eyes, and then jumped up with his arms in the air. "Yaaay!"

Cooper beamed. "That's more like it. Any suggestions as to what I should buy them? It's a pretty boring wedding registry list this time around."

K&B

Blaine suppressed a sigh and pretended to sip his wine. As soon as the Anderson brothers had arrived home for the weekend, their mother had arranged for the whole family to go out to dinner, and surprise, surprise, when they entered the restaurant, a business partner of their father just happened to be there with his wife and daughters, and invited the Andersons to come sit with them.

Clearly, Pam Anderson hadn't given up on matchmaking. Not that it would ever work. Cooper was charming, but slithered out of any attempt the girl made to score his phone number or a date. And Blaine, well, he was gay, no matter how deep in denial his parents seemed to be about that. So the girl sitting across from him was out of luck. He did try to be friendly and sociable, though. After all, his mother's scheming wasn't the girl's fault.

His father became more boisterous and talkative after a few glasses of wine. The endless stream of words that came out of his mouth made Blaine despair of ever getting out of there. He'd been working long hours all week, and was exhausted and cranky. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep.

Cooper had bags under his eyes too, but he smiled and talked as if he was having the time of his life. Sometimes, Blaine envied Cooper's easy manners.

The more exuberant their father got, the more he gesticulated, until at one point, he knocked Blaine's glass over. It was still full, and the wine soaked and stained Blaine's shirt and pants.

Blaine grimaced and excused himself from the table. When he turned around the corner, he bumped into someone, and started apologizing until he noticed exactly who it was. Chandler!

"What are you doing here?" he hissed.

"Is anything the matter?" a cool voice said.

Blaine looked at the newcomer, and froze when he saw it was Kurt. Chandler smiled at Kurt and slid his arm through the crook of his elbow. What? Were they dating?

"Nothing's the matter, sweetie," Chandler purred, patting Kurt's arm and smirking at Blaine.

Kurt quirked an eyebrow, and then took in the stains on Blaine's clothes. "Oh dear, you need to get those stains out stat before they dry in and become even harder to get out. Pour some really hot water on the stains and they should disappear. I hope the restrooms here have hot water on tap."

Blaine hated that Kurt had to see him like this, and hurried away with a quick "Bye!" thrown over his shoulder.

The restroom, of course, only had cold water, so he had to go back to his table with the stains still there, shivering because his shirt and crotch were so cold and wet.

Cooper took one look at him, got up and announced that he would drive Blaine home, waving off their parents' protests and glibly excusing himself to their father's business partner and family.

"Thanks for giving me an out!" Coop said when they were in his rental car. "I was getting bored."

"Same. Hey, you know who I ran into while going to the bathroom?"

"Kurt, right? I saw him a few tables over, with Sam and Mercedes and their family. Probably the rehearsal dinner."

Blaine scowled. "Not just him. He was with Chandler, of all people."

"Chandler? As in the guy I fired and sued?"

"Yep. They seemed pretty cosy."

"Wait. What? You think they're dating?"

"Looks like it. Do you think Chandler's plotting something else? To get back at the lot of us? Should I warn Kurt?"

Cooper whistled long and slow. "It's possible. But I don't think Kurt will believe you. It's your word against Chandler's, and you've been too rash with your accusations before."

Blaine clenched his jaw. Yes, that was true. But he was scared for Kurt, and anyone else Chandler might target. "Do we still have that private investigator following Chandler around and documenting his every move?"

"Yep. You said to keep tabs on him for at least a year. Because you thought he'd try and retaliate."

Blaine raked a hand through his curls, and winced when his fingers were instantly coated in hair gel. "I have a really bad feeling about this. I'm going to get in touch with the P.I. to see what Chandler's been up to lately."

Coop shrugged. "Go ahead, squirt."

The phone call to the PI, and the pictures and videos the man e-mailed to him, made Blaine even more uneasy.

Chandler had moved to Ohio after he'd been fired, and was now living with his parents again. He'd found a job in a wedding dress store, and had done nothing interesting until the day Kurt and his friend had turned up at the store. The PI told Blaine that they'd come out of the store without the woman trying on any dresses, and the video he'd taken showed Kurt looking displeased, and telling his friend that Chandler didn't have a clue what would look good on her. The rest of the conversation was even more enlightening. Apparently, Kurt had briefly dated Chandler in high school. Was that why Chandler bore him a grudge? Because things hadn't worked out then? If so, why were they dating again now?

After Kurt and his friend had left the store, Chandler had quit his job, just like that, and had started stalking Kurt, following him around whenever Kurt was in Ohio to help his friends prepare their wedding. Chandler had also orchestrated "chance meetings" with Kurt at all the important places: the bakery for the wedding cake, the flower shop for the church decoration, the venue for the reception and dinner. Not at the church, but the PI had spotted him there, too.

"He's forever snooping around without making it seem so," said the PI. "If he weren't such a fucker, I'd employ him. He'd be good at this job."

Blaine shuddered at the thought of Chandler as a PI. That would lead to blackmail, for sure.

"He's been back at the bakery, the flower shop and the restaurant several times. Under several pretexts, and dressed up differently, so as not to be recognized."

So far, Chandler hadn't done anything harmful, though. That was the PI's conclusion.

"I'm sure he's planning something," Blaine told him. "And it won't be pretty. The wedding is tomorrow, so I need you to hang on to Chandler like a barnacle. Maybe contact a colleague so that you can shadow him around the clock. I wouldn't put it past him to try something tonight."

"Around the clock? That'll cost you!"

"I can afford it, trust me."

"All right, I'll see what I can do."

"Call me the minute he steps out of line, understood?"

"Will do."