A/N: TRIGGER WARNING – SELF HARM TRIGGER WARNING FOR THIS EPISODE

When Blair walked out of her bedroom that morning, she almost walked right into Sue. Sue stood there with posture straight, arms firmly crossed, and a displeased look upon her face. Well, a more displeased look than normal. "You're doing that angry statue thing again. What did I do this time?" Blair went to the kitchen to snag a protein bar and bottle of juice before school.

"Glee Club?" Sue made her distaste for Glee well known with that question. "You could be up in the penthouse of high school hierarchy with the Cheerios, but you'd rather be in the subbasement with the Glee Club?" She scoffed incredulously as she waved her arms up. "And you didn't even have the decency to tell me."

Blair took a sip of juice and closed the bottle before shoving it in her bag. "Because I knew you'd act like this. If it isn't about the Cheerios then you don't want to hear about it. Or you talk down about it because you don't think it's good enough." She put her bag over her shoulder. "Can't you just be happy that I'm doing something? Or would you rather I lock myself in the closet again and cut up my arms again?"

Sue's face went white when Blair asked her that. Finding Blair that day was one of the most terrifying moments of her life and she never wanted either of them to relive anything like it again. "How can you even ask me that?" Her tone wasn't as poignant as before, in fact it almost cracked as she spoke.

Blair rubbed her forehead. "I shouldn't have said that, Sue. It's just…Glee is actually helping me. It's actually making me start to feel better. I'm not ready to do anything else yet, so please just let me have this?"

"If your little club doesn't place at Regionals then Figgins is cutting the program." Sue was curious if Blair already knew that or not.

Honestly, hearing this didn't surprise her, but she wasn't going to give Sue the satisfaction of hearing her concern. "If that happens then I'll just have to find something else to do." Blair headed to the door because she wanted this conversation to end. "But you gotta accept it, Sue. I am never going to join the Cheerios. Now if you'll excuse me, I don't want to miss the bus."

Sue was about to say something about the Cheerios but stopped when she heard Blair mention the bus. "The bus?!" She darted through the door and called out to Blair, "Riding the bus is for ingrates!"

Blair just answered that by giving her a big thumbs-up before making her way to the bus.

Blair walked off the bus outside the school and pulled down her long sleeves, sticking her thumbs through the holes near the cuff to make sure they stayed there. After her parents died, cutting up her arms was something she did to cope. At the time she wasn't ready to feel the emotional pain so she forced herself to feel a physical one. That stopped the day Sue found her and made her go see a therapist – despite Sue thinking they were all quacks. Blair didn't hide her scars because she was ashamed of them – they were a part of her journey – but that didn't mean she wanted people to question her endlessly about that. That's why she covered them up – it was her story, not theirs.

"Blair!" Rachel rushed over to her and linked arms. "Oh my gosh, I just left the library and found a whole bunch of sheet music that would feature me wonderfully as the lead."

"You're not the only talented singer in the club, Berry," Blair retorted, but Rachel didn't hear a word of it.

"Oh! There's Mr Schue. I need to tell him about the music. I'll see you later!" Rachel darted over to the parking lot, leaving Blair shaking her head and laughing her in wake.

Blair was about to head into school but caught sight of Kurt climbing out of the dumpster again. "You've got to be kidding me." She sprinted over and did her best to give him a hand out of the thing. "I'm serious Kurt, you should hire me as your body guard." Once he was in his feet, she took a piece of stained paper off his shoulder and threw it back where it belonged.

"You can't fight your problems away," Kurt answered as he picked up his bag from the ground.

Blair scoffed a chuckle. "Are you kidding me? I fight my problems every day." She linked her arm with his and walked into the school with him. "So tell me, whose ass do I need to kick this time?"

Kurt sighed dramatically. "Those football jerks. Puck something or other and Liam Fabray with some other guys."

Blair shuddered a bit when Kurt mentioned Liam. Liam looked exactly like Matt Donovan and had to be his Alter in this Reality but the names were different. Bonnie told her at the Alters would have the same names as their counterparts in the other Realities, so it just made her a bit nervous.

Kurt noticed the shudder and raised his brow a bit. "Please tell me you don't have the hots for him."

"I was just thinking that I don't have to punch him in the gut again," Blair answered, trying hard not to think about the possible connection between Matt and Liam. "He's the guy that keeps throwing Slushies at Rachel."

"Good luck with not getting expelled." He waved to Blair as he walked off to his classroom.

Blair went down the hall to stop at her locker and found Rachel making her way to the bathroom, completely covered in blue Slushie. Her blood boiled when she saw Puck laughing with a Slushie cup in his hand. "I've warned you!" Blair shouted before dropping her bag and running over to Puck. She tackled him to the ground and was about to punch him but felt herself being pulled off by someone.

"That's enough of that," Liam said to Blair as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her off.

"Get your hands off me, jackass!" When he set her down, she whipped around and shoved him. "Intervene again and your next." Blair turned back to Puck who was back on his feet. "I swear to the deity of your choosing that I will kick your ass if you ever do anything like that to my friend again!"

When Blair stormed off, Puck called out to her, "You're lucky you're a chick or else I'd have kicked your ass!"

Blair scooped her bag off the floor, flipped him and those around him the bird, and went to check on Rachel.

She found Rachel standing at the sink, trying to get the Slushie out of her hair. Blair set her backpack on the counter and pulled a smaller bag out of it. "Change of shirt, no-rinse shampoo, and some styling product because the no-rinse stuff can make your hair look flat."

"You just carry this around with you?" Rachel looked a bit in awe at that.

"I have three other kits like this in my locker and they'll continue to be of use until the Slushies finally stop or I break enough hands to make them stop." Blair smiled with pure innocence in that moment.

Rachel blinked at her a few times. "Blair, I know you're my friend, but honestly…you scare me sometimes."

"Which is why you should be glad I'm on your side instead of joining the forces of evil." Blair waved her hand around Rachel's face. "You want help this time or…"

"No, I got it. But thanks for this." Rachel popped off the cap of the no-rinse shampoo bottle and started washing her hair.

"No problem. See you later." Blair grabbed her bag and headed to class.

Glee Club that day was a bit tense. Mr Schue had them performing 'Freak Out' which was so dated. They apparently didn't have a choice because they were going to be performing that song at the Pep Rally to try and gain new recruits. If they didn't have twelve members then they wouldn't even qualify for Regionals. Right now, they only had seven.

Before they all parted for the day, Blair went over to Mr Schue and tried to get him to see reason again. "Mr Schue, I know you said it's not the song that it's us, but seriously…it's the song. Yeah, okay, you took Nationals with it in '93, but this isn't '93 anymore. What was a crowd pleaser then isn't a crowd pleaser now. So I'm literally begging you to pick a different song for the Rally. If you really want kids to join then you're gonna have to give them something to relate to." Blair took a deep breath, "Just please consider it. I don't want Glee to fail."

Mr Schue nodded slightly. "I'll think about it. Now get to class."

"At least you'll think about it." Blair drummed a bit on the piano top before leaving the classroom. She walked down the hall and turned the corner to find Puck standing there with a full Slushie cup in his hand. He was just about to throw it at her but Liam's hand seemed to shoot out of nowhere to stop him.

"What you doing, man?! It was a clear shot!" Puck did not understand the actions of his teammate.

"She's off limits, Puck. You hear me?" Liam stared Puck down to make sure he got the memo.

Puck pushed the cup into Liam's chest with a scoffed, "Whatever," before storming off.

Liam turned around and smiled at Blair. "You're welcome."

"Oh, I wasn't going to say 'thank you'," Blair sassed back. "If you can keep them from throwing Slushies at me then why the hell can't you stop them from going after everyone else?"

"Everyone else isn't Sue's kid," Liam answered back. "I look out for you, Sue won't take her frustrations out on Quinn, and I don't get punched in the gut by you anymore. It's a win-win-win."

"I punched you because you threw a Slushie at Rachel. Not at me." Blair decided to add in an extra point by punching Liam in the stomach again before saying, "I don't need your protection, asshat."

Liam rubbed the spot where she punched him because, damn, it was one hell of a punch and it made him even more attracted to her than he already was.

Blair accepted Rachel's invitation to sleep over at her house that night so presently they were up in her room working on the disco dance routine. "This is so stupid," Blair laughed as she fell back on the bed. "No one is going to join – you do realize this, right?"

Rachel turned off the music. "Of course I do. Which is why Finn and I are going to put up some flyers tomorrow to promote the Glee Club so we don't have to do the assembly."

"You like Finn don't you. And don't even try to deny it because it's written all over your face every time you're in the same room as him." Blair threw a pillow at Rachel that just barely missed her head.

Rachel picked up the pillow and sat on the edge of the bed, picking at a loose thread on the pillowcase. "He doesn't even see him. I'm invisible to him."

Blair's answer to this was simple. "Then screw him."

Rachel looked uncomfortable at that. "How can I even think about sleeping with him when he doesn't even see me?"

Blair laughed, "No, that's not what I meant. I mean 'screw him' as forget about him because he's not worth it. If Finn can't see you then he isn't worth it. You deserve to be with someone who can see you even when you are invisible."

"You mean like Liam with you?" Rachel sighed at Blair's confused expression. "It's all over school how no one is allowed to mess with you or else they'll have to deal with him."

"Ugh, no. Liam is only doing that because he wants Quinn to have brownie points with Sue. It literally has nothing to do with me." Blair hopped off the bed and grabbed her pajamas. "I claim the bathroom first."

Rachel didn't argue about it and just started to get her things together for her own bedtime routine. When Blair came out of the bedroom wearing a long-sleeve set, she said, "I keep my room pretty warm at night. You might be uncomfortable wearing that."

"I'm used to it." Blair shrugged and got her sleeping bag ready.

Rachel was going to leave it at that but something stopped her so she turned around to ask, "Why do you wear long sleeves all the time? Even when it comes to our costumes you make sure it's long sleeves."

Blair took a deep breath before turning around to face her. "It's my own business, Berry. I wear long sleeves to avoid the questions that will come if I don't, so please don't ruin it by asking about them." She dropped her pillow and sat on the floor. "Bathroom's free."

Rachel felt concerned for her friend so she didn't move from her standing spot. "Do you cut? Is that why you don't want anyone to see your arms? I only ask because the guidance counselor gave me a whole bunch of self-harm pamphlets when she caught me trying to throw up."

Blair's head shot right up when she heard that. "You tried to make yourself throw up? Rachel!"

"I tried, I failed, I'll never try it again." A disgusted expression appeared on Rachel's face. "It grossed me out. But that's not the point." The concerned expression was present again. "Do you cut?"

Blair rubbed her forehead before answering. "Not anymore. And that's all you're going to get out of me."

Rachel didn't say anything else and just knelt down in front Blair and hugged her. After Blair hugged her back she waited a few moments before pulling away and getting up to go to the bathroom.

Blair fell back onto her pillow and hoped like hell that Rachel wouldn't blab about that too.

At the next Glee Club meeting they met in the Gymnasium. Mr Schue wasn't there before Rachel paid a freshman to ask him for help with irregular verbs in Spanish to keep him busy. Rachel took lead of the meeting and told them she had a different idea for the assembly. "You officially have my attention. What's your idea, Berry."

Rachel grinned. "We're going to give them exactly what they want – sex."

Blair laughed because she didn't think Rachel meant what she said but soon realized she did. "Oh, wow, you're serious? You think it's a good idea to sing a song to bump and grind to? Wow…yeah, I'm not interested."

Rachel couldn't believe that Blair was getting her things and leaving. "Wait, where are you going?"

"If sex is what's most important about this Glee Club then I don't want to be a part of it. I'm not gonna flaunt myself in front of the whole school to get more members. I'd rather quit. So as of now my membership is on probation. Good luck with the assembly."

Rachel scoffed at her actions but soon got back on track. "Moving on. This is what we're going to do…"

Maybe Blair should have told Mr Schue what the rest of the Glee Club was up to, but she didn't. Instead she faked laryngitis and got a note from the school nurse to get out of the performance. The nurse didn't believe she really had it, but didn't want any bad word to get to Sue. Even the school nurse was afraid of Sue's wrath.

So, instead of being on stage with the rest of the club, Blair sat on the bleachers with the rest of the student body. If they came to their senses and didn't do whatever song about sex they picked, then Blair would probably join them. But if they didn't, she was going to stay right where she was.

After Figgins made an announcement that the toilets were broken and no one was allowed to defile the school grounds because of it, he introduced the Glee Club. Yeah…they didn't come to their senses. Blair had a face-palm moment when they started singing 'Push It' by Salt-N-Pepa.

Mr Schue's eyes went wide when they started their performance. He looked to Blair who was sitting next to him and now her face-palm. "You don't have laryngitis, do you?" When she shook her head, he asked another question, "You knew they were going to do this?" This time she nodded. "We're gonna discuss this later." Blair still didn't look at him and just gave him a thumbs-up to indicate she heard him and apparently wasn't going to argue.

At the end of the song the entire student body, just about anyway, got to their feet and cheered. It pissed Blair off because they weren't cheering for the Glee Club, they were cheering for the sexual display that was just put on for them. That wasn't what Glee Club was about – it was supposed to be about something special. A place where you could go and be accepted when no other place like that existed. It would have meant a whole lot more if they showed that instead of this. Which was why Blair grabbed her things and left the Gymnasium.

One thing that Blair really hated about this Reality was that she didn't have anywhere to escape to. In Mystic Falls she had so many of them, but here in Lima, Ohio…she didn't. Not sure what else to do, Blair signed up as a volunteer at the hospital. She had no idea why in the holy blazes she decided to do that, but presently she was in the geriatric wing reading a sappy love story to one of the patients.

Blair stopped mid-sentence to say to Mrs Whipple, "Okay, I'm sorry, but you know how predictable these things are, right? I mean, no matter what extra lady they throw in the guy is always going to end up with the girl. And why do almost all the lead guys have blue eyes? Seriously."

Mrs Whipple laughed at Blair's comments about her preferred choice of book. "That's what makes them enjoyable, toots. There's no worry, no anxiety, no fear of the unknown. It's a comfort to old ladies like me to pick up a book like that and just know we're going to love it, as predicable as it may be." She reached over from her hospital bed and patted Blair's knee. "Now quiet denying this dying old lady her love story and keep reading. You're almost at the proposal."

"You're recovering from hip surgery. You're not dying." Blair gave Mrs Whipple a teasing stink eye before getting back to the story. About a half an hour later they finished the book.

"Same time next week?" Mrs Whipple wanted to know this because no one else would read her stories to her.

"Absolutely." Blair waved goodbye and headed down the hall only to stop when she heard guitar playing from another patient's room. This made her curious so she moved closer and peeked around the corner. Her eyes went wide when she saw Liam Fabray standing near the patient's bed playing the guitar and singing to them. Not only was he singing but singing well. He was singing 'La Da Dee' and at one point of the song he looked right at Blair and sang the lyrics, "While other girls are looking fine, you're the only one on my mind."

Blair realized she'd been caught so she booked it out of there. She thought she was safe when she made it to the bus stop but since the bus was late Liam caught up with her there.

"You stalking me, Han?" Liam asked as he took a seat on the bus bench next to her and grinned.

"I was here first," Blair retorted, not looking at him.

Liam sat his guitar case down beside him. "I was at the hospital first. Been volunteering there since last Summer and it's the first time I've ever seen you there."

"You don't seem like the kind of a guy to do something like that." Blair still wasn't looking at him.

"Just because we have brief encounters at school doesn't mean you know me." Liam leaned back a little and looked down the street. "Bus is late. Want a ride?"

"Nope." Blair crossed her arms and did everything she could to will the bus to her.

"I didn't see you performing at the assembly. You quit or something?" At Blair's severe glare, he held up his hands. "I'm just making conversation."

"No, you're just looking for a way to make sure Quinn stays on good terms with Sue. Well, guess what, I'm the last person you should be looking to for that. You think that just because Sue's my guardian that I have sway with her?" Blair laughed at the possibility. "Sue would dump me off on the next person if she could but there isn't anyone else for her to dump me off on. So please just leave me the hell alone with all…" Blair waved her hand around her, "…this. Quinn's on her own as far as Sue's concerned."

Finally the bus pulled up to the stop. She pointed at it saying, "That's my ride."

Before Blair stepped onto the bus, he said, "I lied. When I told you it was for keeping Quinn on good terms with Sue, I lied. I intervened because if Puck Slushied you his face would have met my fist instead of yours."

Blair stopped on the first step long enough to say, "I don't believe you." She darted on the bus and went straight to the back, hating the fact that she wanted to believe him but didn't know if it was because of Liam or because he was Matt's Alter.

When Blair had free period the following day, she went into the auditorium. The first thing she did was do a few back-flips across the stage just because she could. There was just something about being there on the empty stage that Blair loved. She'd spend her entire school day there if she could. The only that was wrong with it was the silence. Blair hated the silence she did something about it. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, plugged it in and picked an instrumental version of 'Cut to the Feeling' then grabbed a microphone.

Blair didn't care if she hit the notes right or if the lyrics were perfect, she just had fun. This is what singing was supposed to be about – letting go, expressing yourself, and just being yourself. There was a point in the song where Blair even pulled off her sweat-jacket and threw her aside. Her scars were exposed in a place that wasn't her home or a bathroom fir the first time in a long time and she didn't care.

When the song came to it's end, she laughed. It just felt so good, she had to do it. Her laughter was cut short when she heard a single applause and looked out to see Liam walking down towards the stage. Blair didn't get a chance to talk before he did.

"You know, after seeing that assembly performance I decided there was no way in hell I was going to join Glee Club. But if that club lets its members thrive like that," he pointed at Blair to refer to what she just performed, "then I just might have to reconsider." Liam turned around to head back where he came and waved at her over his shoulder. "See you around, Han."

Blair opened her mouth to speak but found she had no words. One thing was for sure though. As much as Liam looked like Matt Donovan, there was no way she'd ever be able to compare them again. They really were two distinctly different people and realizing that, well that just might change everything.

End Season 1 Episode 2

A/N: A special thanks to Thisismexxo for all the brainstorming help! Honestly, this Episode wouldn't have existed without them because I didn't think I was actually going to continue it, but here it is. Hope y'all enjoyed it! : )