A.N.: Okay, so I got some majorly wonderful reviews for my last chapter! And I have also been asked to update this story because it's "the best fic ever". That literally made my day. I am not Ryan Murphy, but I am watching the GLEE Project marathon. That has to count for something. Unfortunately, I'm going out with friends tonight, so I may not finish this chapter before Saturday. So sorry!

Blaine wasn't quite sure why he was going to Lima at ten o'clock in the morning, even if he had seen Kurt only nine hours before. The roads were a lot clearer, and he wanted nothing more than to make sure that his boyfriend had been fine for the night.

Pulling into the driveway of the Hudmel household, Blaine was pretty shocked to see Burt shoveling the driveway, whipping his head up.

It suddenly got much too hot for comfort. The lead Warbler shut his car off and got out, waving sheepishly to his boyfriend's father. "Good morning, Mr. Hummel," he practically squeaked out, knowing just how idiotic he really sounded.

A grunt from the man was all Blaine got in response. "Do you know how early it is?" Burt asked in an irritated tone; Blaine cringed.

"Yes, sir. It's ten. In the morning." The lead Warbler began to feel much too uncomfortable for his own liking. "I wanted to know if Kurt's awake yet. If he's not, I can go home and come back later." Had it not been for Burt putting his hand up in protest, Blaine would've continued rambling about how easy it would be for him to come back and forth plenty of times.

"He's inside with his brother eating breakfast. You're devoted." It was a statement void of amazement or disappointment; it was simply a statement.

Blaine nodded in thanks and practically ran inside, skidding slightly on the ice as he went. When he came to a stop and nearly knocked on the door until Burt yelled at him to just go inside. It felt awkward, yes, but he did so. Upon entering, Kurt and Finn looked up from their breakfast. Kurt dropped his spoonful of whole-grain cereal and rose from his chair. "Blaine!" he nearly cried as he ran up to his boyfriend. Finn only grunted in a sort of greeting but continued eating.

"Good morning," Blaine said in his most gentlemanly manner, dropping to a low bow. He smiled as his boyfriend began to giggle in the most adorable way that Blaine had ever heard. He rose to his full height (which wasn't quite as tall as his boyfriend), and pecked Kurt on the cheek.

There was a slight gagging noise from Finn, and Kurt shot daggers at his stepbrother. "Finn, shut up! I don't make fun of you and Quinn!"

Finn only made a pouting look and put his spoon into his cereal as some sort of odd rebellion. "Until you start being nice to me, I won't eat another bite of my cereal!" The tall teen took a wistful glance at his nearly full bowl of Captain Crunch cereal.

Kurt did not seem moved. "I suppose you'll have to start fasting, Mr. Hudson." The way the two acted seemed like they might really be brothers.

Watching the spat between the other teens, Blaine couldn't help but let a small smile cross his face. Unfortunately, he was too caught up with watching the two that he didn't notice them stop and began to stare at him. He also didn't notice his boyfriend break into a smile. "Blaine," Kurt said softly at first. "Blaine, I'm pregnant."

For a few seconds, Blaine didn't even hear anything. After a few moments, however, the statement began to sink into his head. "Wait, what?"

Finn burst into obnoxious laughter, and even Kurt was chuckling lightly at his boyfriend's confused face. "That's not even possible, and you know it!" Blaine exclaimed, trying his best to look upset, even if what Kurt said was pretty funny, in retrospect.

"Sorry, Blaine, but you weren't paying attention to me," Kurt said, coming back to his serious mode. "And you know that you have to pay attention to me. You messed up." And, for a moment, Blaine was quite certain that he really had messed up with his boyfriend in less than fifteen minutes.

Kurt's stepbrother shook his head in a disapproving sort of way. "Dude, you did bad."

Blaine's eyes widened in slight surprise. "Really? Kurt, I didn't mean to, I swear. I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you with coffee or-"

Now the Hudmel boys were nearly on the floor laughing. "Sweetie, you are officially whipped!" Kurt giggled, wiping a tear from his eye. "But you're sweet."

And, if his boyfriend wasn't so cute, Blaine might've been mad. Thankfully, Kurt was the most adorable person in the history of Lima, Ohio (and possibly the world), which meant that there were no problems at the present moment. "Thank you. So, was it fun getting home?" Blaine asked, motioning towards the large pile of snow in the front yard; Burt was still shoveling a path in the ground.

Kurt rolled his eyes and smiled in a supposed-to-be excited sort of way. "Oh, loads. Dad was certainly having a grand old time, too."

The tallest teen in the room opened his mouth in protest. "No, he was totally using every cuss world in the book! That's more than I know!" Finn looked extremely upset with Burt's apparent outburst, while Kurt just seemed a pretty passive.

"He does that. Get used to it."

Burt chose that moment to walk inside the house, thoroughly covered with snow. "Only when there are other idiots on the road! It wasn't my fault."

"Uh-huh," Kurt retorted.

Blaine began to whip out his cell phone, dialing Nick's number. "Hey, Kurt, do you wanna check how Nick's doing?" he asked, immediately gaining his boyfriend's attention.

"Put it on speaker!" Kurt cried, running over to Blaine's side and leaving his father behind. The phone rang a few times, before a very tired greeting was heard; Nick sounded like he had just woken up (or just gotten home), and Blaine felt pretty bad for waking him up. "How are you feeling?" the countertenor asked.

"Okay, we're on speaker," Nick noted, "But I'm feeling a lot better, thanks. Have you talked to Jeff yet? I haven't gotten to talk to him since an hour ago."

Kurt made a sorry sort of squeak. "You just got home? Oh my - it was Blaine's fault, I swear! We're really sorry; you didn't even get to slee-"

The brunette on the other line began to laugh. "It's not a big deal. I wasn't even going to bed yet. I think I'm going to get some breakfast soon, though. But how are you two doing? Was it fun getting home?" For some reason, everyone liked asking how Burt's driving in the snow and ice went. The older man gave an irritated grunt. "Oh, sorry, Mr. Hummel."

"No problem, kid."

Blaine put the phone closer to his mouth. "I can have Kurt call Jeff, if you want." On cue, Kurt took his cell phone out from his pocket and called Jeff before Nick could even protest. "Put in on speaker."

"Hello?"

"Hey, Jeff!" Kurt chirped. "Were you trying to sleep? So was Nick."

Jeff made a surprised gasp. "You're talking to Nick?" the blonde asked. "Wait, how are you even managing to do that, if you're talking to me." He paused, then in a deadpan asked, "Blaine came over to visit you, then he called Nick, and you called me. Seriously?"

Blaine smirked and took Kurt's phone. "That's about it." The countertenor huffed heavily and grabbed his boyfriend's phone in retaliation. "You still there?" he asked Nick.

"Yeah. Did I hear Blaine say that Jeff was on the phone?"

It was quite impossible not to tell that the two teens were so in love with each other and were so oblivious to their own feelings; even Blaine could see this. "We could do a three-way," he said simply, not quite understanding why Finn, Kurt, and Burt all looked surprised. Especially Kurt and Burt. But mostly Burt. "Call. A three-way call. We can just put yours on speaker and then call Nick."

The countertenor nodded, quite impressed with his boyfriend. "Okay, Jeff, we're going to do a three-way call so you can talk to Nick."

Blaine was explaining the same thing to Nick. "When Kurt calls, answer, okay?" An uncertain agreement from the other end prompted Blaine to end the call, motioning for Kurt to put Jeff on hold.

To be honest, the process itself was probably a little too complicated for four teenagers to find a way to talk; but it worked, and Kurt glared at Finn and Burt to leave the room. The teen ran upstairs, saying he was going to call Quinn from his cell phone, and Burt said that he was going to look after the shop and make sure that it was not too cold or icy, or something.

"All right, we're good," Kurt said finally, holding the cell phone out for Blaine to talk, as well. "Are you both there?"

"Nick?" Jeff asked, his voice unsure.

"Yeah?" came the almost-timid answer. Kurt and Blaine looked to each other with matching smiles on their faces; the countertenor put a finger up to silence his boyfriend, his eyes seeming to say something like, 'Let them talk this out between them'.

Blaine could only stare at Kurt like he was the most romantic person in the entire world; and, to be honest, he probably was.

"How are you feeling?" the blonde asked, "You sound really tired." Kurt rolled his eyes as they heard an audible sigh from Nick, most likely.

"Yeah, I'm fine. And no, I'm not tired. I'm not going to bed because I don't feel like it, not because I can't! Who isn't allowed not to go to bed?" Nick snapped; in all the weeks that Kurt had known him (or Blaine, who had known him for years), neither had heard Nick Duval yell at anyone. Ever. Both could hear the catch in the brunette's voice, the way he seemed to immediately regret what he had said.

Jeff was silent for a few moments. "Okay," he said simply; the blonde was patient and refused to yell at his friend, especially since Jeff had seen who Mr. Duval really was.

"Listen, I'm just . . . I was going to say 'tired.' But I just said that I'm not. I'm sorry, I-" Nick stopped abruptly, a small gasp escaping from him. "I have to go," he said quickly, ending the call abruptly. When the three other teens heard a small click, Kurt looked to Blaine curiously, who only shrugged his shoulders in a similar sort of confusion; they both knew that something was definitely wrong. They just didn't know what.

"Did he just get off?" they heard Jeff asked, his voice worried; the blonde may have seemed like an idiot most of the time, but he knew more about Nick than any other Warbler (or any boyfriend), could ever hope to know. Which is why the two were so perfect for each other.

Kurt nodded. "Yeah. I guess he did."

"Hey, Blaine," Jeff started, getting the lead Warbler's attention easily, "I know something's wrong with Nick, but he won't tell me what's wrong. He's been acting really weird lately, and I know that it has something to do with his dad. You should've seen that guy today at the hospital. He was making fun of Nick right in front of his face. And Nick didn't even do anything! He never doesn't do anything!"

Despite the misuse of grammar, Blaine had to admit that Jeff was right - Nick never took anything sitting down. He always fought for his cause, even if he knew that it was a losing matter. "He's not going to tell us anything, then. You have to get him to tell you," Blaine responded, biting his lip in thought.

"But I don't know what to say. I mean, he might get mad at me for even asking, like he did just now. He kinda freaked out on me." And, no matter how Jeff sounded, Blaine knew how much that the outburst from Nick hurt the blonde. Friends never yell at each other, and when they do, it always hurts at least a little bit. That's why the fight between him and Kurt was so intense. (Even if Blaine knew which of the two was in the right during that argument - and it wasn't Blaine).

Kurt took the phone from his boyfriend. "Listen, you have to wait for him to talk about it. Nick won't tell you anything if he's not ready to say it himself. You can't force anyone to talk about anything. Still, that really worries me; his dad's a politician!"

Blaine nodded. "Yeah, our families have dinners together a lot. My dad wants us to be on good terms." Kurt looked over, and it was obvious (from the way that Jeff was), that he would've been staring at Blaine as well.

"I know that Nick won't talk about anything with me. But that's not what worries me. Well, it actually kind of is. He's been really quiet lately, and Nick's always so loud and funny. He barely even talked at the party." No one else, not even Blaine, had thought for a moment that Nick had been acting odd; but to Jeff, he was completely out of character. But, like always, best friends know different traits about each other's character that no one else could ever hope to know.

Kurt made a humming noise in thought. "You have to be relatable. That, or just confront him. I'm retracting my previous statement, because maybe a confrontation is the best thing for your relatio- that is, Nick's well-being." The countertenor looked to Blaine for help.

"He'll hate me." The blonde's voice was so sure that Blaine couldn't help but believe him.

"Listen, Jeff, you're going to have to try," Blaine said gently, "If you're so worried about him, then you have to be able to talk to him about these kinds of things. I know it's hard, but if you think that something's wrong with Nick, then you have to find out before something bad happens to him. I'm not trying to scare you or anything, but-" Before the lead Warbler could get out anymore of his speech, the line went dead once more. "Why do they always hang up when I'm talking?"

Kurt patted his boyfriend's shoulder gently.

Elsewhere, in Westerville, Jeff was furiously running through his contacts. He didn't really understand why, because Nick was first on his speed dial. The phone rang twice, as it usually did, and Nick would always pick up. But it rang a third time, then a fourth.

"Hi, this is Nick Duval. I don't seem to be here at the moment, so I'd recommend calling Jeff. He'll know where I am. Feel free to leave a message, anyway."

The blonde dialed again. And again. After four more tries and the same answer still, the blonde ran a hand through his hair. Nick wasn't answering his phone, and Jeff didn't know where he was. That never happened; it had never happened. It shouldn't have happened.

And now, Jeff felt his heart beating in his chest, and it was not because of the ironic lyrics to a song.

A.N.: Sucky ending! Ugh, I hope to bring everyone back to Dalton in the next chapter, and I obviously wasn't able to update yesterday. My bad. On the upside, I did acquire my first Hummel doll. The wonderful German creation is depicting a young brunette with a canary sitting on his foot. The statue is entitled "Singing Lesson". I got it for a great deal (thank you, Ohio antique stores), and I have aptly named my boy and his canary "Kurt and Pavarotti". I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope that you all look forward to the next!