I'm sorry that it took me so long to upload this. I had it done, but it took me a while to make sure this is the direction that I want to take the Blaine family situation - and it is. By the way, I've had this story planned for a while with the premise that Blaine is an only child, even though I adore the whole Cooper storyline.
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, capice?
Blaine sputtered to take a breath, which caused him to sharply inhale. It just caused more pain than he could ever remember. He moaned at the agony of breathing. He experimented with shallower breaths, which seemed to make it hurt monumentally less. He began to scope out the room that he was in, simultaneously practicing his shallow breathing.
It was the amount of wires that Blaine was currently hooked up to that alarmed him. He began looking around for something familiar to calm him down the slightest. He recognized the laptop case in the corner as his mother's, which was calming, except for the fact that she was nowhere to be seen.
Ella walked into the hospital room with a coffee cup cradled in her one hand, phone clutched to her face in the other. She instantly walked over to her laptop, setting down her coffee cup, "Yes, Robert, I understand that you have work –"
Blaine groaned a bit from taking in too much air at once. He reprimanded himself for being so foolish.
"He's awake. I'll call you back later," Ella said into her phone, before snapping it shut with a frustrated sigh.
"Where's dad?" Blaine asked with a raspy voice from a lack of moisture in his mouth.
"He's at work," Ella said with an air of annoyance, before sidling up to Blaine's bedside, "I'm so glad that you're awake, baby."
Blaine weakly smiled at the pet name, as she began to idly play with her son's hair. He leaned into her touch with an unwavering smile.
"Do you want me to get you anything?" Ella asked, as Blaine gave a small nod.
"Can I have some water?" Blaine asked with a dry mouth.
"I'll get Dr. Jenkinson and some water, okay?" Ella told Blaine her plans, before striding out of the room. He used all of his willpower to not whimper at the lack of company.
Blaine decided to use the free time to take in more of his surroundings. The sun was just beginning to spread across one wall to break the relative darkness that the rest of the room was enveloped in. It was just enough light to make the whiteboard visible. It told him his nurse (Emily) and doctor's name (Dr. Jenkinson), along with his release date (TBD) and the date (Sunday).
What had happened to Saturday? All he could remember was getting ready for the Winter Semi-Formal. He was going to meet Maxxie at the side doors, when he ran into Josh and the rest of the football jocks. Blaine started to relive the moment, which instantly made his breathing all irregular causing him more pain than he wanted.
"Good morning, Blaine," Dr. Jenkinson cheerfully said walking into the room with his eyes glued to his clipboard.
"Blaine, sweetheart, it's okay," Ella gently said, rushing past Dr. Jenkinson to drop the water bottle on the hospital bed, before tangling her fingers in his hair. She began twisting the curls around her fingers, which had always calmed him down before, "I'm right here with you."
It was almost embarrassing that Blaine couldn't calm himself down from reliving Friday night, but instead needed his mom to play with his hair. Blaine slowed his breathing down to take shallower breaths, taking a ridiculous amount of comfort in the fact that his mom was back.
"Blaine, can you tell me what happened just now?" Dr. Jenkinson asked, clicking his pen to begin writing.
Blaine recalled what had happened when they walked into the room, starting with the whole date change. The only thing that kept him from slipping back into the moment was his mom's constant stroking of his hair.
"Can I have some water now?" Blaine asked after telling his tale.
"Of course," Dr. Jenkinson said without even looking up from his clipboard. Ella quickly twisted off the water bottle cap and handed the opened bottle to Blaine, who instantly chugged half the bottle in one sitting.
"It's going to be okay," Ella whispered into Blaine's hair. He's not sure if she's saying it for his sake, or hers. Blaine deduced that it was probably both.
"You've been here since Friday night," Dr. Jenkinson started to fill in the blanks that Blaine can't seem to remember, "You came in with two broken ribs, one cracked rib, a minor concussion, and a bruised appendix."
Blaine painfully shuddered at the damage that those idiots had done.
"We had decided to remove the bruised appendix, instead of taking a chance with it rupturing during the healing process," Dr. Jenkinson read from his clipboard, "We've been administering painkillers to control the headaches from the concussion and to make sure that your ribs are healing properly."
Dr. Jenkinson walked around the bed to the tangle of wires, "We've been giving you acetaminophen intravenously, but I think we can start with a pill form now that you're awake."
With that said, Dr. Jenkinson walked out of the room, leaving Blaine to settle into a headache. He slid his eyes shut to limit the exposure to the lights that Dr. Jenkinson flipped on when he walked into the room during his attack.
"Here you go," Dr. Jenkinson said, placing a small paper cup on the little table on Blaine's bed.
"Thanks," Blaine said, gathering the pills in his hand. He unscrewed the water bottle to take a swig of water to wash the pills down.
"I've been talking to your mom about treatment," Dr. Jenkinson said, as Ella nods in agreement, "We've been talking about you meeting regularly with a psychologist for the mental and emotional trauma caused from the attack."
"I've been talking to Dad about transferring options," Ella said, barely masking her emotions of disdain for him deciding that work was more important on a Sunday than Blaine.
"I'm not going back to Hamilton," Blaine stated, noticing the headache was ebbing away as quick as it had come.
"That's why we need to have a talk with him," Ella said, patting her free hand on Blaine's folded ones.
"I'm going to write up a psychologist referral, then observe Blaine for another night before release," Dr. Jenkinson explained, before leaving as a woman in scrubs walked in carrying a breakfast tray.
"Good morning, Blaine," The woman – Emily – Blaine deduced from the information on the whiteboard, "My name is Emily, and I will be your nurse for today."
"It smells great," Blaine honestly said with a watering mouth.
"I'll be sure to tell the cooking staff," Emily said with a bright smile, checking the little bags that were hanging above Blaine's head, "Just press the CALL button, if you need assistance."
"Okay," Blaine said, uncovering his dish to reveal pancakes. It didn't matter that it was hospital food because he hadn't eaten in what seemed like a million years.
"No, Robert, keep your voice hushed," Ella reprimanded her husband in the dark hospital room. Blaine had fallen asleep shortly after dinner, and Robert arrived an hour later.
Blaine stirred in his sleep, waking up at the sound of his parent's voices. He cracked his one eye open only to realize that his parent's hadn't heard him wake up. He quickly screwed his eyes shut to eavesdrop just a little bit.
"He doesn't need to transfer," Robert said, lowering his voice a register, "We wouldn't have this problem if he wasn't gay."
"He's still our son," Ella reminded her husband, who seemed to forget this fact, especially after Blaine had come out to them in eighth grade. Blaine couldn't even wrap his head around his dad's comment. It hurt more than breathing did before he had gotten the pills from Dr. Jenkinson.
The comment shut up Robert for a fast second, so Ella took the opportunity to continue her one woman campaign for Blaine's safety at Dalton, "Dalton has a zero tolerance for bullying policy."
"Ella, you know that we can't possibly afford Dalton –" Robert started, before getting cut off by Blaine.
"I have a friend that attends McKinley Dance Academy," Blaine finally spoke up, which garnered the attention of his parents.
"Morning, Blaine," Ella said with a sweet smile, "Do you want anything?"
"To talk about transferring?" Blaine said, even though it came out as a shaky question.
"Go ahead," Ella said, opening the floor to Blaine and his idea of McKinley.
"It's a public magnet school, which means there's no tuition. I know that I don't have much dance experience, but I'm sure that he wouldn't mind helping me learn something small to audition with," Blaine said, bringing up Kurt for the first time, which made him nervous.
"What else do you know about this school, Blaine?" Ella asked, opening her laptop to begin searching the school's website.
"It doesn't have tuition," Blaine restated, since it was his main selling point, especially against Dalton. He wouldn't mind being with Wes and David, but it's financially unavailable as an option.
"Are you allowed to attend, even though we don't live in Lima?" Ella asked, as the website loaded with the address for the magnet school.
"It's open to anyone living in Allen County," Blaine said, before sneakily adding, "But, they try not to advertise that point."
Blaine focused on recalling any more information about McKinley that Kurt may have told him during the times that they texted about their schools. He couldn't think of anything else, which frustrated him because Kurt had told him more than no tuition, but that didn't seem to matter because he could hear his mother humming in response to some of the questions on the FAQ page. He was so excited that McKinley might work out that he doesn't even notice his father's scowl at the whole ordeal.
"Blaine, I think that this would be a good choice for you," Ella concluded, before adding a bit for Robert's agreement, "For us."
"I think that he'd be better off at Dalton, Ella," Robert stated, not bothering to address why he was suddenly all for Dalton, "Besides, don't your friends go there?"
"Wes and David go there, yes," Blaine said, biting back on a smile as he went on to talk about Kurt, "But, I also have a friend at McKinley."
"I'm sure that you'd make lots of friends at either school, Blaine, if that's what you're worried about," Ella chirped, understanding that Blaine had been attached to Wes and David since the first day of Boy Scouts. He didn't bother making friends at Hamilton. And, it was just always like that.
"You are not going to some school to be a fruity dancer," Robert directly said to Blaine with full eye contact that Blaine cowered under.
"Robert!" Ella shrilled, as Blaine distracted himself by playing with the scratchy hospital blanket that had fraying edges.
"You think any serious colleges will accept a transcript from a dance-tart academy without a laugh?" Robert rhetorically asked with a scornful laugh.
"I don't want to go to a serious college," Blaine spoke up, but doesn't lift his attention from playing with fraying edge of the worn blanket.
"Excuse me?" Robert snapped, turning on his heel to face his son.
"I don't want to be a doctor or lawyer," Blaine shrugged, even though his future had been planned for him since the day he was born. He was supposed to become everything that his father couldn't.
"You don't have a choice," Robert snarled at his son.
"It's my future, not yours," Blaine defiantly said, bringing up his icy glare to look at his father.
Robert walked out without a preamble to his leave.
"I'll call the admission office at McKinley tomorrow morning," Ella said, smoothing Blaine's hair, "You should probably sleep now, baby."
I would love to hear what you have to say about this chapter, the story, the weather, anything. Hit me with your best shot.