I do not have any medical training beyond basic first aid so I'm taking liberties with my story. I don't know how realistic what I have written is but it makes sense to me! There are probably another 2 chapters to go after this.
Blaine was already in his seat when Kurt entered the English room. He knew he wouldn't be able to avoid him all day so Kurt had taken the longest possible route arriving just as the bell rang for the start of the lesson. Sitting down slowly Kurt took out his book and pen and looked to the front of the room where Mr Adams was opening up the new slide on the computer.
"You look a lot better than you did this morning," Blaine leaned forward and whispered in Kurt's ear. "How was history?"
"Fine, Nick and Jeff were full of the joys."
"Well you know what they are like. Are you sure…" Blaine's question fell short as Mr Adams began to speak and both boys had to turn their attention to the board.
It was one of these lessons with a lot of class discussion and little space for chatting which Kurt was glad about. He didn't want to talk to Blaine because he knew all he wanted to hear about was the weekend and Kurt's arm was really hurting and his bruised ribs were objecting to sitting upright for so long. Carole had tried to persuade him to stay at home for the week but Kurt was terrified of how much work he would have to catch up on if he missed an entire week of school. His dad had refused to let him drive, his arm was too sore so Finn had driven him over last night, bringing Rachel too so he had company on the drive back. His mind was racing so much trying to compartmentalise all that had happened in the last few days along with desperately trying to follow what Mr Adams was saying that he didn't notice everyone looking at him until Blaine gently tapped his hand and pointed to the door.
Standing there in her white uniform was Nurse Andrews with a smile on her face. "Can you come with me Kurt? Bring your bag, you won't be back this lesson."
Kurt had been very thankful that it was his left arm that was injured so no one noticed in class as he could still write but it did make it hard for him to do simple things like hold his bag open and put stuff away. His hand was shaking as he tried to push his notebook inside and it kept catching on his history textbook. Suddenly Blaine's hand was on top of his, steadying him and guiding the book in smoothly.
Kurt gave him a small smile of thanks and turned towards the door. He had not missed the look of concern of Blaine's face as he failed to do such a simple task on his own.
He slowly followed the nurse out of the room noting as he did that there was still half the lesson left, well it wasn't as if he had managed to take in much of the lesson anyway so he might as well get all the notes from Blaine.
Blaine felt sick, all his fears from last night came flooding back. Something was wrong with Kurt and he wasn't sure if it was to do with him. He had glanced over at Kurt repeatedly during the lesson and his boyfriend may have been there in body but he certainly wasn't in mind. He had been staring ahead the whole time, as if looking to the board but Blaine would have put money on the fact he wasn't seeing anything written there. The biggest indicator to Blaine was that Kurt hadn't written a single thing during the whole lesson, Kurt loved taking notes, in fact it was one of the things Blaine teased him about most. His eyebrows furrowed as he thought about the way Kurt had left, everything seemed to move slowly and he looked as if he was about to cry when he couldn't get his book in his bag, it was all so strange and wrong.
"Mr Anderson, whenever you are ready to join us," Mr Adams said, not quite smiling at him. He tapped at something on the board and Blaine muttered an apology before trying to focus back on the lesson.
Kurt walked slowly behind Nurse Andrews through the corridors to the medical suite. He knew his dad had called the school yesterday so it wasn't a complete surprise that she wanted to see him but he hated being taken out of class with everyone looking at him. He thought back to Blaine's hand on his, helping him with the book. He always felt safe with Blaine, he always knew that touch was from love and friendship but then he remembered the look of anguish in the beautiful hazel eyes and he wanted to curl up and cry again.
Once Blaine had left on Monday evening Kurt had done just that. Climbed onto his bed and just cried for hours. The weekend had been wonderful right up to Saturday afternoon and then it felt like it had all come crashing down. The worst part for Kurt was he couldn't see how he could pick it all up again.
"You know your dad told me about the attack," Nurse Andrews immediately began with no beating about the bush. Kurt nodded meekly. "I need to check your cut and change the dressing and I want to check out your ribs too. Your dad mentioned that you were advised to rest but you insisted on coming back to school."
"I didn't want to miss too much work," Kurt mumbled.
"Fair enough but if you get too tired or the pain becomes too much you must come and see me. Understand." Kurt nodded knowing it would have to be really bad before he would give in and see the nurse. "Right take off your blazer and shirt and lie down on the bed."
Kurt did as she said, wincing as he tried to bend his left arm. The nurse came back into the room with a tray of dressings and antiseptic which she placed on the little table next to the bed. Very slowly she pulled off the long dressing which ran the length of Kurt's forearm. He hissed slightly as it caught on his arm hairs and she made small cooing noises to try and calm him.
"That's quite a cut," she said surprised. She hadn't had much to do with Kurt but he always seemed a sweet kid, she couldn't understand why anyone would want to hurt him. "Ok, this is going to sting a bit but I need to give it a clean again," and she gently began to wipe antiseptic over the wound. "Looks like you needed quite a few stitches there."
"45," Kurt muttered through clenched teeth, the antiseptic really did sting.
"Did they not give you a sling to wear at the hospital? If you keep the arm hanging like that you are likely to knock it on something and dislodge some of the stitches. I should have one in the cupboard."
"No it's fine, they gave me one. It's in my bag," the teenager replied. "I just thought as long as I was careful I could avoid wearing it."
"May I?" said Nurse Andrews gesturing to the bag and retrieving the sling. "Kurt, as careful as you may try to be you are still in a school and boarding house full of teenage boys who get up to all sorts of ridiculous things. I understand you don't want to stand out but at the moment you shouldn't have a big scar, it may heal almost invisibly but if you keep getting the cut ripped open by careless actions then you may not be so lucky."
Kurt nodded, not so much in agreement but in acceptance. If he didn't wear the sling his dad would probably find out and make him and he certainly wanted as small a scar as possible, Saturday was not a day he wanted reminded about.
Once Nurse Andrews had changed the dressing on Kurt's arm she had insisted on checking his ribs, as much as she could without an x-ray and also had a look at the bruise on his cheek which was now quite a dark purple. As she worked she watched Kurt's face closely and could feel the fatigue. He clearly hadn't slept properly in a few days which was understandable but she figured he needed sleep more than anything.
The bell had already rung for the next lesson by the time she finished and she told Kurt just to lie down for a moment while she went to put the dressings away. As she suspected he had fallen asleep by the time she came back through so she pulled the curtain round to give him some privacy and went back to her little office to let his home economics teacher know he was with her and write up her notes.
Blaine managed to get through the rest of English Lit unscaved and thankfully Geography had been pretty challenging, enough that he hadn't had a chance to think about Kurt. Now however it was lunchtime and as he wandered over towards the dining hall he wondered if Kurt would be there. He had realised pretty early on in their relationship that when things went wrong Kurt tended to hide away, miss meals and cut himself off. He had a feeling he wouldn't come to lunch so Blaine decided to get a sandwich for him and go find him once he had eaten.
Sitting down at the table with a group of Warblers he saw Nick and Jeff make their way over to him.
"You and Kurt had a fight?" Jeff said with a smirk.
"Why?" Blaine replied hesitantly, worrying what Kurt had said in History.
"I'm joking, don't look so frightened. I just meant that's quite a bruise he's got."
"So what, now you're going round implying we had an argument and I hit him. Not everyone gets your sense of humour Jeff, that's not funny!"
"Hey relax. We haven't mentioned it to anyone else."
"Where is Kurt anyway?" asked Eddie joining the table. "I was sure he was in history but he certainly wasn't in Home Ecc which was a shame because I could really have used his help with the recipe…."
Eddie kept talking but Blaine's mind had started to wander again. The nurse had taken him out of English but surely he couldn't have been with her the whole time. He ate quickly, leaving half his lunch and grabbing the sandwich off the plate he headed over to the dorms where he was sure Kurt must be.
After knocking for several minutes Blaine left Kurt's room, either he wasn't in, was asleep or was ignoring him. None of the options made him feel particularly happy but a glance of his watch told him the warning bell would go soon and having forgotten his homework for yesterday's Italian lesson Blaine knew better than to turn up late today. Either Kurt would be in music in which case he could relax or he wouldn't and then Blaine could continue his endless worrying. He sent Kurt a quick text to ask if everything had been alright at the nurse once he was safely seated in Italian before he tried to focus on the lesson.