Chapter Three

"I don't want it, and they're not going to make me take it," the words are a low growl, fierce and determined.

Kurt shifts to the side and rests his hand on a subtly trembling shoulder. "Honey, Nurse Dani just wants to help you." He cards his fingers through sandy hair. "The medicine is going to help you."

"No."

There's fear hidden behind the steel in his voice and Kurt's heart pangs with grief.

It was clear less than thirty seconds after the nurse walked in the room that Sebastian was gone, a bitter, distrustful alter taking his place, his eyes darting frantically around the room, scanning. He was assessing the presumed danger present.

"The doctor talked to you about the medicine. It's just something to calm you down-"

"I'm not taking it. It's going to make me sick. Just like it did before."

"Sweetheart, you've never taken this before."

"It always makes you sick!"

"Has someone given you pills that made you sick before?"

A nod.

"Who did that?" Kurt asks, quiet and soothing, shifting protectively to guard the boy backed in the corner. "Did someone hurt you?"

"Not me."

"Did they hurt Sebastian?"

Another nod. "He didn't notice. He drank the whole bottle..." The alter shakes his head. "He was stupid."

Kurt shoots a glance to where the nurse is standing just inside the doorway. She nods for him to continue. "What happened? Can you tell me?"

"Don't remember. We woke up in the backseat of Sebastian's car. I had a headache and Sebastian couldn't find his shoes." Kurt takes his hand and the alter continues. "I helped him forget. But I don't know what happened."

"You do know what happened, but you're not saying..."

The alter nods and shakes his head. "I don't remember everything, but Sebastian started to feel funny and then the next thing I remember was waking up in the back of his car."

"We're not trying to drug you-"

He shakes his head again and points. "I'm not taking anything from her. I don't take anything from anyone. It's not safe."

"I love Sebastian very much and I don't want anything to hurt him. I would never let that happen. I promise that what she's giving you is safe," Kurt assures, squeezing the alter's hand. "Do you trust me?"

It comes out in a derisive scoff as though the answer is obvious. "Of course I do."

"I like that you're so protective over Sebastian-"

"You too. And Blaine. You keep him safe and we want to keep you safe too."

Kurt gives him a small smile. "Thank you." He stands up and takes the paper cups of pills and water from the nurse and gestures for the alter to sit, dropping down beside him and holding out the cups. "Can you trust me?"

"It's not you I don't trust. They all want to hurt us. They want to keep us drugged so we can't fight back while they hurt us." There are tears in his soft voice, lowered now that the panic has subsided. "I don't want anyone to hurt us. You're smart and you can be safe, but Blaine isn't. Blaine trusts everybody."

"Do you honestly think I'd ever let anyone close enough to hurt Blaine?" Kurt asks with a small smile. "You think I'd let anyone touch him?"

The alter swallows thickly and shakes his head, holding his hand out toward Kurt. "We're so lucky to have you, Kurt."

A soft expression crosses Kurt's features and he lets the warm hand slide into his own. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Travis."

"Well, Travis, can you trust that I'll do everything to keep Blaine and Sebastian safe?" He gets a nod and he squeezes Travis' hand. "Will you take this medicine to make Sebastian better? I have all of the papers about side-effects and information about the medicine. I read every single word and I promise that these pills will help."

Travis takes the cups from Kurt's hand and breathes deeply as he squeezes his eyes shut and tosses the pills in his mouth. He drains the cup of water and nods. "I trust you."

-x-

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

Sebastian turns the composition book over in his hands, holding it up toward the doctor in questioning. It's fairly calm today. He's only felt Skylar trying to come out. Skylar doesn't like the doctor. That much is crystal clear.

"I'd like you to ask your alters to use this journal. It might help you communicate with them in order to get a handle on their purposes. They can use it to do whatever they'd like. Writing, drawing..."

Sebastian blinks quickly and his posture softens. There's something in his eye that speaks of excitement. "Can I write stories?" Skylar comes out, momentarily forgetting his worry and distrust in his inquiry.

The doctor offers a smile and nods. "Anything you want, but I'd like it if you could let the other alters know that the journal exists." Skylar tucks his legs up under himself and nods. "You'll do that for me?"

"Can I have some crayons?"

"Yes." There's a small smile on the doctor's face. "I can get you some crayons."

-x-

Blaine raps softly on the door as he opens it, peeking inside. It's Saturday and by the grace of God, he didn't have to work (unlike Kurt) so he took off as early as possible, stopping to get coffee on the way to visit Sebastian.

"Hey, sweetheart," Blaine greets, shutting the door behind himself and crossing over to kiss Sebastian. He doesn't look up from where he's scribbling in a notebook, so Blaine just drops a kiss to the top of his head. "What are you doing? I brought coffee."

He scrunches his nose and looks up to meet Blaine's eyes. "The doctor said I could color in Sebastian's notebook. He gave me some crayons."

"Oh. Alright." Blaine kisses his head again, settling in beside him. "What are you drawing?"

"It's you and Kurt and Seb," Skylar answers, pointing to each heavy-handedly scribbled figure. "He's been real sad and I don't like it, so I wanted to make him a picture of something happy." He bites his lip nervously. "Do you think he'll like it?"

Blaine smiles warmly and wraps an arm around the boy's waist. "I think he'll love it. I bet he'd like it even more if you drew yourself in the picture, too," he prompts. "What do you look like?"

Skylar flips to a clean page and shifts back, picking up a pencil from beside himself and propping the notebook on his knees as he sets the tip to the paper with determination. Blaine watches silently as the pencil flies feverishly over the page. He brushes lightly through sandy hair as he watches.

Even in the childishly drawn image, the figure is clear. It's a boy, yellow-blond hair and blue eyes. He embellishes the picture with a striped t-shirt and shorts before smiling and holding the notebook out to Blaine. "Here."

"And this is you?" Blaine clarifies. Skylar nods. "You've very cute."

Skylar blushes and looks down. "Thank you, Blaine, but I don't think I like boys like Seb does."

Blaine gives his shoulder a playful shove. "Well, what do you like then?"

Skylar smiles hugely. "I like Power Rangers!"

It makes Blaine laugh. Sebastian had a shelf in his closet that contained a shoebox full of Power Rangers. Blaine had thought they were from his childhood, but maybe Skylar had just decided to obtain them.

"Would you like me to bring your Power Rangers next time I come?" he asks before thinking, "Kurt is coming later. I can get him to bring them. We brought all of Sebastian's things over to Kurt's house."

Skylar frowns and looks down at his feet, wiggling his toes in his socks. "You..took everything?"

"We didn't take anything. It's all safe over at Kurt's house. We thought it would be best if Sebastian didn't go back to his parents' house after he's better."

Skylar nods. "M-My box did you find it?"

"The box of Power Rangers is in the pile somewhere-"

"No." He shakes his head, still frowning. "It's a wooden box. Please don't lose it," he whispers, voice threatening to break. "It's-It's all we have left."

Blaine squeezes his hand. "All you have left of what?"

It's clearly visible when Skylar's shoulders start to shake and hands flash to cover his eyes.

"What happened?" Blaine prods. "Please, just tell me what happened so I can help you."

Skylar lays down sideways across the bed, curling into a ball and crying loudly, whimpers and pleas falling from his lips as his entire body is wracked with violent sobs, his breath hitching and tearing from his throat. He's panicking and Blaine doesn't know how to help.

A nurse throws open the door and runs across the room while Skylar screams, thrashing and crying on the bed as he fights her off weakly.

It never gets easier to see someone shove a needle into your boyfriend's thigh, his screams turning into choked off sobs before his body goes limp on the bed. Blaine has to step outside for a moment to try and make the shaking in his hands stop. He just has to be strong. Sebastian is sick. He will get better.

Blaine repeats it as a mantra and tries his best not to shake apart at the seams.

-x-

It's been over a week and the pills aren't working. Well, not for their intended purpose anyway.

The doctor blames the dosage. "It's always a delicate process trying to find the right dosage to treat each illness. I know it's not ideal, but this isn't uncommon or unexpected-"

Kurt rubs his eyes, so tired. "I don't really care how 'uncommon or unexpected' it is. I just want to know why. You're hedging around an answer and I just don't have the patience for this today." The words come out just as trudging and exhausted as Kurt feels. He can't find it in himself to be angry. Not when all he wants to do is curl up and sleep.

"Mr. Hummel, we started Sebastian out at a high dosage and are working out way down until we find the proper one to treat him."

A short burst of frustration flash-burns through Kurt. "So, essentially, the reason he's become catatonic and unresponsive is because you've got him doped out of his mind?" Kurt nods, lips pursing as his jaw sets. "My boyfriend hasn't spoken to or even recognized Blaine or myself in almost two weeks because you've decided this was the best course of action..."

"We're reevaluating our strategy-"

Kurt barks out a short, humorless laugh. "That's fantastic. Well, I'm sure glad to hear that. It sets my mind right at ease." He slaps his hands on his thighs. "Let me tell you your new strategy. Sebastian isn't psychotic, there is no need to keep him so strongly sedated. What I want you to do is flip your damn strategy and start him with a low dose and work your way up. That way he'll be able to actually tell you if the goddamn pills are working."

The doctor nods once and makes a note in the open folder of Sebastian's chart. "You have to understand the policy of the institution-"

"I'm well aware of the policy. I've read it several times. Thank you," Kurt says with just a bit more bite than he intends. "And I understand that the policy is to treat those with severe psychosis at the high end of the dosing spectrum and work your way down in an attempt to be proactive about treating their illness. I understand. But Sebastian isn't psychotic. And I believe that you know you gave him too much."

"That is a strong accusation, Mr. Hummel-"

"Yes. Yes, it is." There's fire in Kurt's eyes. "And I suggest you fix this before I go over your head and let someone know that you purposefully over-medicated my boyfriend."

"He was having trouble sleeping-"

Kurt stands up and brushes off the front of his pants. "Well, that certainly isn't the case now, is it?"

The doctor comes up short for words and Kurt is sure that he's noticed the fact that Sebastian spends the better portion of each day asleep, knocked out by the high dosage of medication he's been given. He sleeps while Kurt and Blaine sit with him. He's rarely awake long enough to realize that he doesn't recognize them anymore.

"I'll begin a new treatment plan immediately," the doctor says, sympathetic and sheepish.

Kurt turns around. "No. You won't. I don't want Sebastian under your care anymore. I want him to have a new doctor."

"Very well."

Kurt slams the door on his way out, already late for work. He grabs a cup of coffee on the way and waits for a phone call from Sebastian's new doctor. Kurt is on break when it comes. There's a new treatment plan in place and he looks forward to a meeting with Kurt and Blaine tomorrow.

With a deep breath and a "Thank you," Kurt goes back to work.

By the time he gets home, falling in bed beside Blaine-spending the night at the Hudson-Hummels' to get an early start to the hospital in the morning-and wrapping the smaller boy in his arms, he's completely and totally exhausted.

The next morning, Blaine sits downstairs with Burt, waiting on Kurt to finish getting ready. He stares dejectedly into a cup of tea as Burt speaks.

"You boys have been doin' real good at keeping up appearances, but I know it's startin' to get to ya," the man says with a sympathetic grimace. "Hell, I don't know how you're doin' as well as ya are, but you're strong kids."

Blaine shifts slightly in his chair and sighs. "Mr. Hummel-"

"Come on, kid," Burt cajoles, tilting his head and Blaine nods, a tight, half-smile on his face as he starts again.

"Burt," he corrects. "It's not as though we have a choice. He needs us right now and that's what's important."

Burt lifts his baseball hat and rubs at his head. "I can't imagine your parents handling this well."

"It's been..." Blaine trails off, looking for the right word. "Contentious." He swallows thickly and turns his head away, fighting the tears beading in his eyes.

Saying that the relationship with his parents has been contentious as of late, is the understatement of the century. Blaine took a job in order to save up money after the conversation with his parents that essentially stated that, if he didn't come to his senses and drop Kurt and Sebastian, he had to move out on his eighteenth birthday, and after long days of school and work, he'd come home to lectures about how he should follow in his father's footsteps and pursue a "practical" future. It was taxing in a way he couldn't even begin to describe.

He can't tell Kurt. How would it be fair to add to Kurt's worry when there's already so much on his shoulders.

It seems as though Burt knows that his explanation is lacking, because the man gives him a reproving glance.

Blaine sighs. "I've been stretching myself so thin lately and my parents are breathing down my neck telling me that I need to wise up and leave Kurt and Sebastian, but I'm not going to do that. I can't. I love them with all my heart."

"And what are they saying is going to happen if you don't?"

"I've been working and ferreting away every penny I've made for the last few months, but I haven't been able to work as much since Sebastian has been in the hospital and I've been going to school-"

"Blaine."

"They're kicking me out on my eighteenth birthday."

"Which is?"

Blaine sighs. "Next week."

A/N: Reviews are always appreciated