Disclaimer: I do not own glee or the poem below. Those lines are snippets from "Paradise Lost." Type them into google and sparknote them for the full poem. It's really long.

Here's the next chapter for the next week and a couple of days. Enjoy!

With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast,
Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found
No rest...

A universe of death, which God by curse
Created evil, for evil only good;
Where all life dies, death lives...

Abominable, inutterable, and worse...

Blaine looks up at the sky and fully wakes with a start. It is snowing. The weather had been warming but the temperature had not risen yet above mid-40s. (7ish degrees Celcius)

As Blaine rubs the sleep from his eyes, he realizes how tired he must have been to have fallen asleep outside. He remembers the day before, April 29,1945, and he recalls vaguely having a talk with his father before the lack of energy and food caught up with him and he fell asleep, resting next to...Kurt.

He glances down at the boy's still sleeping form and at the short chestnut hair that has started to grow back since his arrival and the customary shave.

Blaine reaches up to feel his scalp and realizes his hair has begun to grow back as well, in short black curls. Like his mother's hair.

He feels a pang of grief as he remembers he will never see his mother again, and at the fact that his father seems to wish for nothing more than to have nothing to do with him.

As he takes stock of his surroundings, Blaine sees more people entering and leaving the camp, showing badges or passes to the new American military guards that man the gates. It is safe to assume the inmates will not be leaving very soon.

He looks to his left and sees a boy, about his age, huddled against the building trying to stay warm and look tough at the same time. He is wearing the prisoner's stripes and glares at Blaine when he sees that he is being studied.

"What are you lookin' at?" He asks in German, although the accent sounds more polish.

Blaine identifies a star of david on the boys shirt, faded into an obscure gray now. Blaine just shakes his head in answer to the question, not wanting to wake Kurt by speaking.

"That's what I thought." The boy says, again attempting to look fierce, and only failing because he lacks nutrition like everyone else here.

Blaine continues to study the boy, trying to figure out just why he looks familiar. Blaine didn't think he was in their barrack. Then he realizes this is the boy from yesterday. The one he saw beating the guard, along with a few other inmates.

Blaine trys to quietly clear his throat as he says, "you beat the guard yesterday." It is a statement of fact, not a question, but the boy seems to consider it as such.

"Yeah, and he deserved it. I ripped this from his uniform, before leaving him dead, as proof." In his hand he holds a slightly battered patch of a skull laying on top of two crossing bones, somewhat similar to the symbol for pirates, although this skull and cross bones don't show where the bones cross. That is hidden behind the skull. It is a patch that strikes fear into every prisoner and Blaine can understand why the boy has kept it.

However hated the guard may have been, Blaine cannot fathom why he would kill him so brutally. The guard that had helped Blaine wasn't all bad, he'd just been forced into the job and Blaine cannot condone doing to the guards what they had done to many of the prisoners. It was too hypocritical.

Still, Blaine thought of his mother, Kurt, and even his father and realized he would have done the same thing as the boy. He realizes there is both good and bad in people, and how they act depends on how people seem them.

The boy pulls his hand back, as if he's afraid Blaine will steal his precious token from him.

"I'm Puck by the way. That's what I go by anyway."

Blaine nodded and said, "I'm Blaine. Blaine Anderson." He feels funny using his last name, as if it no longer belongs to him, but he pushes such thoughts aside as Kurt shifts next to him.

Blaine reaches his arm around Kurt, trying to keep him warm in the cold, and reaches up to run his hand softly through Kurt's hair. As he does this his hand brushes Kurt's forehead and Blaine becomes alarmed.

Kurt is running an incredibly high fever. Blaine's hands are cold and at first he isn't sure, but as he holds his hand to Kurt's forhead and feels Kurt shiver beneath him, he remebers his mothers fever on the train and he gets an ache in the pit of his stomach. Kurt's actually sweating slightly and Blaine knows he shouldn't be out in the cold like this. He shifts a little and places his arm under Kurt's legs. Then he tries to stand cradling Kurt in his arms and stumbles almost falling and dropping Kurt in the process. He needs to at least get him inside and find a medical officer but he can't seem to stand and support both his and Kurt's weight.

The boy shifts slightly and says, "here." He slings one of Kurt's arms over his shoulders and Blaine follows suit, standing back up. Kurt's legs now hang limply between them but it's the best they can do.

"Where are you taking him?"

Blaine scans the camp. There are a few medical officers, wide-eyed and trying to take stock of their surroundings.

"To them." Blaine says, motioning forward.

Puck looks and nods and then both begin walking.

As they reach the men Blaine quickly says, "Please, sirs, my friend. He has a fever he needs medical attention."

The men glance at Blaine and then at Puck before their eyes rest on Kurt. They say something in a language Blaine doesn't understand, but he thinks he can identify as english.

One of the officers stutteringly says in German, "speak a little...slower please."

Blaine nods and slowly enunciates every word. "My friend," he gestures to Kurt, "has a fever. Fever." He repeats a little desperately.

The medic nods and informs his colleagues of the problem.

They study Kurt for a moment and sigh a little in relief before informing Blaine, "be thankful. He has pnuemonia. It is bad, but at least it is not typhus fever or typhoid fever." All during this exchange, Puck is silent but at this halting German he becomes annoyed.

"Well what the hell are you going to do about it?" He asks a little harshly.

Blaine agrees with Puck, although he would not have phrased his question quite that rudely. These men have just arrived today and are still trying to get used to the idea of having to accept these atrocities around them and treat all of the ill as well as the healthy (or as healthy as can be).

The medical officer looks at his colleagues and then reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a a small round pill and a small C-ration cracker.

"Give him this." He held up the cracker. "And then after ten or fifteen minutes, give him this." He held up the pill. He handed them to Blaine and shrugged, signaling that was the best he could do.

Blaine nodded his thanks and motioned for Puck to help him get Kurt inside somewhere.

The two boys hurry Kurt into an over-crowded barrack. There are no available bunks and Blaine scans the entire room in a slight frenzy.

Suddenly Blaine is almost buckling under Kurt's slight weight as he regains his balance, although Kurt's head lolls to the side Puck had been supporting.

Blaine watches as Puck strolls over to two prisoners laying on a bottom bunk. He stoops to look straight in their eyes and speaks softly, in a low menacing voice.

The two men can't get out of the bunk fast enough and half trip over each other as they scramble to the other side of the barrack to rest on the floor.

Puck motions for Blaine and he struggles over to the bunk with Kurt. "What did you say to them?"

Puck just shrugged and helped Blaine get Kurt on the bunk. "Nothing too important or threatening."

Kurt looked so small and delicate on the bunk and Blaine climbed on beside him. "Do you wanna get yourself sick too?" Puck asked him, sitting down on the floor next to the bunk.

"No, but he needs to keep warm. Well warm enough. If he keeps freezing like this it will only get worse." Blaine propped himself up on his elbow slightly and tried to get Kurt to take the cracker. He knew Kurt was at least awake, considering they'd carried him in a most uncomfortable manner.

"Kurt, I need you to open your eyes if you can. If not at least try and eat this."

He pushed the cracker against Kurt's lips and they parted slightly. Slowly, Kurt nibbled on the cracker. As the morsel of food diminished piece by piece, Blaine let out a sigh of relief. It felt good to get something into Kurt. The boy had probably been skinny enough when he got here.

Then Blaine lay back and wrapped his arms around Kurt trying to keep him warm and get his temperature to drop just a little at the same time.

Puck watched all of this fascinated. He'd never seen such compassion before. No one had ever really cared about him or looked at him the way Blaine was looking at Kurt.

His mother had been left by his father, so he was literally a bastard child. She'd had to work at a really trying job for very little pay and most of that had gone to rent for their little closet of an apartment.

Their next door neighbors had been two men and their daughter. Who had concieved their daughter was a very good question, but in his neighborhood, Puck wouldn't have been surprised to find out one of those men was actually a woman.

His mother had been friends with the family and so Puck and their daughter, Rachel, had been thrown togethre since they were little. They were the same age and they had slowly developed a relationship. They had a sort of dysfunctional brother/sister relationship and she and Puck had reeked havoc on their small town.

Rachel would create a distraction while Puck managed to snag their families dinners for that night.

When his family had been taken from their homes, he and Rachel had been seperated from their parents, he had promised Rachel's father's he would look out for her and he had, up until she had been sent to one of Dachau's satellite work camps.

When her father's had asked him to look after Rachel, he'd seen the same look of compassion, and while he and his mother loved each other, their eyes never shown like that when they looked at or spoke of each other.

Now here was Blaine, a complete and total stranger, whom Puck and decided to help for some reason.

Maybe he'd seen the look of panic in his eyes when he realized Kurt had a fever. Whatever the reason, Puck looked away, because what he saw made him wish for the same thing.

Kurt had stopped shivering now and Puck turned back to see Blaine ease Kurt into a sitting position. As close to a sitting position as he could manage, with the close bunk above them. Then he eased the pill into Kurt's mouth and told Kurt he needed to swallow it.

Then Kurt lay back down and curled up next to Blaine.

"Right well," Puck said, moving to stand up, "I've got to go. I have someone I need to find."

"Oh, right." Blaine said, reaching out his hand. "Good luck with that, and thanks."

Puck shook Blaine's hand and then quickly left the building, looking back only once, to find Blaine slowly resting his arm across Kurt's torso, trying to act as a blanket. Then he crossed to the gate and tried to walk past the guards at the gate.

"Excuse me sir. I'm afraid we can't let you leave until you've been deloused and checked out, as well as filled out some information."

"What?" Puck said loudly.

"Those men over there are going through the process of helping any displaced persons."

"I have to find someone though. They're in a different camp close by here!"

"I'm sure they're trying to find you as well. If you both fill out a card, maybe they can help you find one another."

Puck gave a disgusted growl and turned around heading back to the barrack Blaine and Kurt we.

He slouched against the wall next to the bunk and stared at the ground.

"Did you find who you were looking for?" Blaine asked quietly.

Puck shook his head. "They won't let me leave."

'Oh,' Blaine mouthed.

Puck nodded and hung his head, closing his eyes and hoping for sleep.

The next morning Blaine was woken by a sound that began near the door of the barrack they had taken Kurt into. There was a cart with a steaming pot on it. Blaine's stomach felt a pang of hunger and he looked down at Kurt before slowly edging off the bunk.

Kurt's fever hadn't diminished but it hadn't gotten any worse either. Blaine figured that was a blessing at the very least.

Puck also woke due to the noise of the ladel clanging against the pot and he hurried over to the kitchen workers who were serving the soup in equal proportions, stepping over a few dead prisoners that had not been cleared out yet and were littering the ground.

Blaine held his bowl carefully and threaded his way back to Kurt's bunk. Kurt was awake thankfully and he blinked his wide blue-gray eyes at Blaine, slowly sitting up. Blaine gave Kurt a wide smile, holding out the bowl of soup. "Do you think you can eat this on your own, or do you need help?"

Kurt held out his hands and Blaine carefully passed him the bowl, before turning around to grab another bowl for himself.

To his surprise, Puck was standing there holding out a bowl to him in one hand, while the other hand balanced his own bowl.

He gave puck a questioning glance, taking the proffered bowl.

"I knew you'd give him yours." Puck explained, shrugging.

Blaine smiled and remembering his manners said, "thank you."

Puck nodded and sat by the wall again.

Kurt glanced between Blaine and Puck, a frown on his face.

Luckily Blaine noticed and chuckled lightly saying, "This is Puck. He helped me carry you in here yesterday.

Kurt nodded and smiled, sipping delicately from his bowl. The portions were still small on the orders of the medics who were there. Their stomachs couldn't handle too much food, or anything too nutritious at the moment. They had to take it slow, so the soup was still a little bland. It was still better than anything they'd had at Dachau before liberation.

Once the three boys were done eating, Blaine stood up holding his hands out for the bowls so he could take them back to the cart. Puck shook his head and pushed Blaine's hand away, standing up to grab the other two boy's bowls and hurrying off in the direction of the door.

Blaine smiled softly and climbed back onto the bunk next to Kurt who was slouching down and whose eyes were drooping, but weren't quite closing.

"You should go to sleep, you need your rest." Blaine said soothingly.

Kurt smiled and nodded, allowing his eyes to close lightly.

Blaine lay down next to Kurt who rested his head on Blaine's chest while Blaine wrapped his arm around Kurt and threaded his hands together.

When Puck came back they were both asleep again and he sighed, wandering outside to see if there was any physical work he could do to get his mind off of Rachel, Kurt, and Blaine.

So what did you think? Like it? Hate it? Review it? Lol, please drop me a line and let me know what you thought.

Thankies for all the support and I have to let you know, I have a camping trip coming up. So from July 1st to the 6th I will probably not be able to update. There may or may not be wifi access where I am going, but don't get your hopes up. For more details visit my webpage (link on my profile) and go to my "journal."

Not sure how many chapters there will be after this one, but we'll see.

Thankies for the reviews, favorites, alerts, and for supporting this story!

Loves,
OSK