A/N: Hello there again! So someone brought up a good point last chapter, and I was like flipping out over it for a good few hours before I finally got the chance to read the chapter over and go through my notes / outline. Blaine's birthday in this verse is September 12th, and him and Rachel are back in school at this point. In the county I live in (Oh, and I live in Maryland, United States), we return to school the last week of August normally, and so I'm saying it's like the second week of middle school for Blaine, meaning he turns thirteen after the 'yeah I'm gay' scenario by a few days. Just for the curious reader, and for anyone else who had been scratching their head like 'But Blaine's already younger than our liking, WHAT IS THIS BLACK MAGIC'. Also, a heads up. Trigger warning for this chapter dealing with physical assault.
Leroy looked at his son through the mirror, smiling as Blaine fidgeted in his suit and readjusted his bow tie for the hundredth time that night.
"Son, you look fine," Hiram said from the doorway, and Blaine couldn't help but grimace.
"Dad, you have to say that, youre... Well, you're my dad," Blaine mumbled as he glared at his bow tie through the mirror, his fingers tugging at it. Leroy sighs, and slaps Blaine's hands away from his neck gently.
"Cut that out before you undo it. Chase is going to be here in a few minutes, and would you prefer having him see you with your bow tie looking nice, or undone and messy?" Leroy reminds Blaine, and he let out a noise between a growl and a sigh.
"Blaine, calm down, you're gonna give yourself a heart attack," Rachel said as she passed his bedroom, before backtracking and standing in the doorway next to Hiram.
"Holy crap Blaine," Rachel gasped before giggling, causing Blaine to turn towards her, freaking out.
"What? Do I have something in my teeth? Is there a stain somewhere? Oh my God, I look like a clown don't I, I shouldn't ha-" Blaine rambled as he moved to take off his suit jacket, and Hiram just rolled his eyes and stepped towards Blaine. He fussed with Blaine for a few seconds, before just settling to grab his hands and making his arms lie straight against his body at the side.
"There. Now go downstairs, I think I heard the doorbell ring while you were occupied showing Rachel your teeth," Hiram told his youngest child, and instantly Blaine was jumping the steps two at a time and, if Hiram was hearing correctly, swearing under his breath.
"Since when did he collect such a beautiful and vast vocabulary?" Leroy mumbled under his breath as he made his way out of the room behind Rachel, his husband following him downstairs (Blaine had practically begged Rachel to stay in her room when Chase come over, saying she could meet him when they came back from the dance).
"From where is my question of the hour," Hiram replied smoothly as they heard the nervous whispers from the front door travel up the staircase, the soft laughter breaking the sounds of breathless talking every few seconds. Both men couldn't help but adopt a small fond smile on their faces, and they both turned to each other.
"Reminds me of my first date," Leroy whispers softly, and Hiram nods.
"I can't believe our baby's growing up so quickly," Hiram replied quietly, and Leroy smiles, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
"And yet you still look as dashing as ever," Leroy tells him, just as they reached the bottom of the steps. They watched as Blaine clumsily pinned the corsage he got Chase onto his suit jacket (Chase must have pinned Blaine's on before they got there, judging from the white orchard and rose corsage on Blaine's suit jacket).
"Hello Mr. and Mr. Anderson-Berry," Chase says happily as soon as Blaine is done, turning toward the married couple with his hand out. Both men shook hands with the chipper young man, and Blaine smiled nervously from next to him.
"Dad, Pops. This is Chase," Blaine said, introducing his parents to his date. Both men nodded, with Leroy smiling and Hiram radiating seriousness. Blaine had to stiffle a snort at how his Pops loved to be the 'strict and stern' parent of the two, but he always became a huge teddy bear in the end.
"Be back by ten," Hiram warned the couple, and Blaine nods. It was actually later than his normal curfew (9 P.M.), and he was kinda surprised his dad had given him an extra thirty minutes after the dance was supposed to be done.
"We'll be back by nine thirty at the most," Chase replied, and Hiram beamed at the young man.
"I knew I liked you," He said, and Leroy quickly steped in to advert his husband from embarrassing their son before his first (and at the rate Hiram was going, last) date.
"Come on, I'll give you guys a ride over. Just call me when you're ready to leave, okay Blaine?" Leroy says, directing the last part at his son. Blaine nods quickly, catching on to what his dad was doing.
"Yeah, sure. Thanks dad," Blaine grins, and he turned to Chase. "Ready?"
"Yep," Chase says with a grin of his own to match Blaine's. Hiram watched as his son exited the house on his very first date, with what appeared to be a fairly polite and nice young man. Least he has a seemingly good taste in boys, Hiram thinks to himself as he made his way into the kitchen to start on dinner for him and Leroy. Rachel was going over to Kurt's for a sleepover tonight, and he had made plans to have a surprise romantic night in with his husband.
He kissed the top of Rachel's head when she came down to tell him she was heading over to Kurt's house, and couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief when his eldest child closed the front door.
"Time to get the candles out," Hiram said to himself, looking at the check list he had made himself earlier that week to make sure everything went smoothly tonight.
Blaine could hear Chase yell and scream, but he couldn't bear the idea of trying to move even his own mouth. The amount of blood that was almost pouring out of his mouth (or around it- he couldn't tell) didn't help the notion. He couldn't even whisper for them to stop, or even for help, like he had been before a foot came in to contact with his face.
Everything was getting darker and darker, more and more out of focus as his eyes closed for longer and longer periods of times. Sweat and blood stung his eyes when he opened them, but Blaine knew he didn't want to see what was about to happen.
He felt trapped within his own body at that point, wishing he could just run away and get help. He surely hadn't been able to make sure Chase would run to safety. He couldn't even curl in on himself to provide some feeling of safety; even his fingers screamed at him with the littlest flinch.
Blaine was waiting for the first blow to sound, for the first howl of pain to haunt him. But instead, all he heard was the sound of a door opening, and heavy footsteps run towards them quickly.
No more, he thought to himself. Oh God, no more.
"Hey, you all!"
The unfamiliar and deep voice made Blaine's heart flutter with hope. Help. Help had finally come, he thought to himself as he heard the scraping sound of brand new dress shoes running pass right by him. He let out ghost of a whimper when he felt someone crush his hand in the process, and swore he saw only red for a quick second. He could hear Chase crying, and him saying 'leave us alone' over and over again.
"Punk ass kids... Hey you a- Son, are you alright?"
Everything was fading in and out now, but he hadn't been too far gone to miss the long string of explicits that the man had let out as pieces began to fall in place as Chase tried his hardest to tell him what had happened in between his broken sobbing. Blaine heard the sudden commotion going on around him as a woman joined them (someone he could only guess as the man's wife), and he certainly hadn't missed the sharp intake of breath and shrill scream when they had seen him up close.
His body was beginning to feel less and less in pain, and more and more numb. Blaine could feel a hand grab on to his, and he wondered just how bad he looked. Couldn't be that bad right? A bit of blood here and there, a couple of scratches on him. Nothing major.
Even at that exact moment, with his brain treading the line between consciousness and unconsciousness, Blaine could tell how much of an unrealistic hope that was.
"Hang in there, the ambulance is coming soon," was the last thing he heard before he blacked out for good.
"Leroy, I knew I shouldn't have let him go."
"Hir, calm down, he's okay now. We can't let him wake up and have him see us freaking out."
"Lee, I know, but... God, someone touched our little boy. They hurt him Leroy, and I'll be damned if I don't do a-"
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, Dr. Shands, hello!"
"Hello Mr. Anderson-Berry. Just wanted to pop on in here and check on Blaine's stitches and IV very quickly on my way to a department meeting."
"Oh, yes, sure. Thank you doctor."
Blaine groaned as he felt a light pressure on his forehead, and he immediately felt a pressure on his hand. His first thought was 'holy crap that hurts like hell', and his second was on why he felt so sore.
"Blaine, are you awake? Can you hear me?"
"Oh, honey, open your eyes, please. Squeeze my hand. Do something."
After a few moments of silence, Blaine opened his eyes quickly, but shut them tightly with a groan as the lights burned them. He could hear his papa tell someone to shut 'the damn lights off', and he was soon being cajoled to open them again.
"God," Blaine croaks out as he opens his eyes again, much slower than he had before. He blinked them several times, to make all the shapes and lines stop blurring everything together. Once he had gotten adjusted to seeing for the first time in what felt like ages (as well as adjusting to seeing in the now semi dark room) he saw his two fathers looking at him with tight smiles.
"Blaine, how do you feel?" Leroy asked his son quietly, and Blaine grimaced.
"Like crap," He whispered, his throat not allowing him to go any louder than that. Immediately, the doctor took the hint, and began to pour Blaine a glass of water from the pitcher at his bed side table. Meanwhile, his papa was currently rubbing Blaine's hand in between in his own, and looked ready to cry.
"Blaine, do you remember what happened?" Hiram asked slowly and carefully, unsure of how Blaine would react. He wrinkled his nose, and suddenly, it all started coming back to him. Getting to the dance and saying bye to his dad. Dancing with Chase and drinking punch with him when they finally chose to sit down and catch their breath. Going for a short walk with Chase outside, the cool night air and full moon being too beautiful to pass up. The boys coming towards them. Yelling. Punching. Kicking. Him trying to protect Chase. Him failing. He could remember that much. He could practically still feel the cold asphalt underneath him, still feel the fear aid his body to paralyze him to his spot on the ground.
"Breathe, Blaine, breathe," Leroy murmured as Blaine began to hyperventilate, and the doctor put his hand on Blaine's shoulder. Blaine instantly flinched away from the touch, but his heart stopped racing as hard, his breathing slowing down to a normal pace.
"Drink some water Blaine, it'll do you some good. The police will be around to take an incident report from you later, okay?" Dr. Shands told him, and Blaine couldn't help but be a bit annoyed by how calm the doctor was. Something about it just pissed him off. Everything seemed to piss him off. Him being in the hospital. Him being beat up for being who he was. Him not even being able to go to a fucking dance without this happening.
Before he knew it, he could feel his father brush a tear off his cheek. Instantly, the anger deflated to sadness.
"Doctor, can we be left alone with our son please?" Leroy asked quietly, and the doctor nodded before showing himself out. Hiram immediately settled himself onto the bed, holding Blaine in his arms as he started to crack.
Blaine couldn't help it. Everything just seemed so unfair at that moment. Every unfair thing that he could remember happening to him played through his mind (Rachel getting the last fudge pop, being bullied for who his fathers were, Rachel getting a later bedtime, being bullied for dressing so 'faggy like', being made fun of because of who he was), as well as anything unfair that he could possibly think of (his fathers couldn't get married, he couldn't get married, gay people couldn't served in the military, he could never give blood as a donor) just seemed to keep popping up. Every little thing that could help fuel his feelings of self pity and melancholy came to mind. His shoulders shook as he cried into his father's shoulder, before he remembered.
"Chase?" He said frantically as he pushed himself away from his papa and his father's shared a look. Leroy sighed before turning to face Blaine.
"Chase walked away with just a few bruises because of you and Mr. Herold, who broke it up. But-." Blaine did not like the look on his father's face at that exact moment at all "-Honey, his family moved out from Lima yesterday," Leroy said slowly, and Blaine didn't know what to feel. Anger that Chase had left. Pity for himself. Happiness because Chase was okay. Sadness because he would never feel safe at his school, or around any of the people that went to school with him. Not after this.
Hopeless. He felt hopeless. He looked around the room, and at his father's faces. They looked tired as ever, and he was pretty sure his father, who never had stubble – ever – hadn't shaved in days.
"How- how long have I been here?" Blaine asked, his voice still soft as to not irritate his throat further. Hiram poured him more water as Leroy looked out the window, his arms crossed against his chest. Blaine's temper suddenly became as short as a bomb fuse, and his hands curled into fists.
"How long have I been here?" Blaine demanded, and both men looked at their son as if he had grown three heads all at once. Blaine suddenly realized he had banged on the bedside table next to him, and a box of tissue encased in a fancy metal one fell onto the ground with a loud clank. Blaine let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding in, and looked down.
"I'm sorry," He mumbled, and he could tell his father's were having one of their silent conversations again. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and a reassuring squeeze told him that they weren't upset at him.
"You've been here three days Blaine," Hiram told him, his voice cracking slightly. "You had a fractured rib, two broken fingers, needed stitches on your lip and temple, and had some bad brain swelling. It... It didn't look good the first hour or two that we were here for. You woke up a few times - although I'm pretty sure you were so out of it you probably don't even remember it - but after you had a seizure the fourth t-time, they h-had-"
"They had to sedate you for a little while," Leroy finished, rubbing his husbands shoulders. Blaine looked down at himself, and started noticing just how badly things had gotten. There were scratches on his hands, and gauze where he was pretty sure someones heel had twisted back and forth to make the concrete scrape against his skin. Two of his fingers were, indeed, broken, and were set in splints on his other hand. The painkillers they must have me on must be pretty out of this world, Blaine thought bitterly as he continued his survey of all the damage.
Lifting a hand shakily, he touched his temple, where the tell tale signs of raised nylon needlework told him it wasn't a small cut he had gotten. His bottom lip told the same story, and Blaine didn't even want to touch himself anywhere near his ribs, none the less his chest. Breathing felt painful, as if he had swallowed glass, and it somehow had gone down his larynx. His entire body ached, in all actuality.
"Blaine?"
Blinking, Blaine came back to reality, and noticed both of his parents looking at him looking concerned.
"You ok? Do we need to call Dr. Shands back? You did have a concussion and brain swelling and, oh God, do you remember your name and-" Hiram said, his voice rising as he was edging closer and closer to hysterical. Again, Leroy interrupted him.
"Honey, breathe. Just breathe," He reminded him, before turning to Blaine. "You alright? The doctor did say you might be a bit disoriented when you first woke up."
"Daddy, I'm ok," Blaine lied, and Hiram looked at him with the look that he had reserved for his younger child whenever he came back lying about how he tripped and fell, and how lost his new toy truck somewhere in the bushes. But, he didn't call him out on it, just like he hadn't when he saw the neighborhood boys play with the exact same truck that Hiram was positive he had just bought Blaine the other day.
It was quiet for a few minutes, as Leroy paced in front of the windows, and Hiram situated himself so that Blaine could lean on his shoulder if he wanted to. He gladly did, and let out a small sigh of content as his father began to, very lightly, mess with his curls, like he had when Blaine had been a little kid. He closed his eyes and let himself get lost in the familiar feeling, and almost fell asleep.
Almost being the key word. He felt a small nudge come from his father, and he opened his eyes lazily.
"Whaaaat?" Blaine whined, and a small smile played out on Leroy's face.
"Me and your father were talking, and a coworker of his told us... Well, here," Leroy said, before suddenly pulling something papers and... Brochures out of his pocket. Brochures? Blaine's eyebrows knitted together, and Hiram took the papers before handing them over to Blaine.
There was a picture of a gate and an assortment of gorgeous buildings behind it on the very first brochure he saw. Trees surrounded it, and if he wasn't mistaken, a football field was visible just where the brochure ended. One word jumped out automatically from everything else, the blue and red lettering somehow meshing just right with the gorgeous landscape pictures above it, the light crème coloured banner it was set on possibly the reason why.
DALTON ACADEMY
He looked at his father's confused, and Hiram gently took the brochure and opened it before handing it back over to Blaine. He scanned through the brochure as quickly as he could, and everything began to make more and more sense as he finished the first paragraph.
Dalton Academy is a prestigious, all male boarding school in Westerville, Ohio. An institution that has been run since 1951, Dalton provides the best professors in the region at the junior high and high school level, as well as the widest selection of courses in all of Ohio. At Dalton, there is a strict implemented bullying policy, which covers students from all walks of life and backgrounds, to ensure a safe and healthy school environment for all.
He looked over the rest of the pamphlet, which told him all about the different courses and programs at Dalton, including their fairly impressive catalog of two hundred plus clubs and organizations on the campus. He had been relieved to see that there was a student drop in program for those who lived close enough to the school, but then he realized. Westerville was a little over an hour and a half away. There was no way he'd be able to keep up the commute for the rest of his school career. And then he remembered the other thing that was nagging at him.
Kurt.
He had been looking forward to seeing and being in the same school as Kurt again in the fall. They had always promised each other they'd take high school by storm together. But... Blaine knew this was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. He wasn't even sure his father's would let him, to tell the truth.
"We're... Well, we're not going to force you to go here Blaine. But, it would certainly make us feel a lot better about your safety and well being," Leroy said quietly, and Hiram nodded.
Blaine looked down at the rest of the papers, and saw the tuition. Instantly, he wanted to protest, but he saw the scrawl his dad had perfected over the years to make sure it was barely legible to anyone outside of the family (which had long since included Burt and Kurt).
The tuition isn't a problem – Papa and I talked to your grandparents, and they agreed to cover half the cost. They actually were more than willing to pay for you to go to a private school in NJ. Your choice Blaine.
Sighing, Blaine read the rest of the papers. Or, he tried to. A small pounding in his head began to start up, and he squinted to make sense of the text in front of him. Leroy must have noticed, because the papers were quickly out of his hands and on the night table.
"Rest," Leroy said, and Hiram cleared his throat.
"We can talk about this some more tomorrow Blaine. You're not due back in school for another week at least, so you have time," Hiram told him, and kissed the top of Blaine's head before getting up. Leroy closed the curtains, hiding the twilight, cloud ridden sky. Both men promised they'd back back to check on Blaine in the morning, and bring Rachel and Kurt with them. Blaine nodded, and hid his urge to grimace at the thought of his sister and best friend seeing him like this.
At least they didn't see you when Mr. Holden or Harold or Henley or whatever his name is found you, Blaine thought darkly to himself, I must have been quite the sight.
Looking over at the papers, he could already tell he had long since made his decision. With a sigh, he rolled over and brought the blankets around him, trying to fall asleep to the soundtrack of a hospital playing in the background. The sounds of slippers sliding across the linoleum floors of the hallway, the constant beeping telling him and everyone with a beeper in the ward that he was, indeed, alive, and the random roll and squeak of a wheelchair or a hospital bed in motion all lulled him to sleep as his last thoughts strayed to one phrase.
How am I going to tell Kurt?