Once he was finished with his dinner, Gabriel put his empty cup on his plate, stood up and sighed, looking over at his son's back in the corner of the other room. There were just some times when being a parent was a lot less fun than others.

"Alright, Blaine. Couch." His son turned his head timidly. Mr. Anderson gestured his head towards the other end of the room.

Blaine complied, sitting nervously on the sofa and tensely folding his hands on his lap. Mr. Anderson put his plate in the sink, walked in the living room, and grabbed a chair from the side of the room. He placed it in front of Blaine and sat, looking him over.

Rosalie was getting her coat on already. She walked over to Blaine.

"Keys?"

"Oh... right." Blaine reached into his pocket and handed them over. Probably won't be seeing those for awhile I suppose...

Mrs. Anderson considered the keys in her hand for a moment.

"Blaine you made some choices today that could have been pretty dangerous."

Blaine looked at the floor. She touched his cheek to make him look at her.

"Your father and I are glad you're okay."

Blaine nodded. There wasn't anything to say to that. She put the keys in her purse and headed for the door. Blaine watched her leave and bit his lip.

Leaving me alone with Dad. That always goes well.

"Well then." Mr. Anderson cleared his throat and Blaine turned back towards him, eyes to the floor with what he hoped looked like an appropriately chastised look on his face. "Your mother and I have discussed your behavior today. Needless to say, we are not pleased."

"Yes sir. It- won't happen again sir."

"Oh I know it's not going to happen again, Blaine. But- would you- do it all over again?"

"Sir?"

"I'm sure you're not thrilled to be in trouble at the moment, but if that weren't a factor, would you go back and do this all over again?"

Blaine shifted uncomfortably on the couch, rubbing his hand against the back of his neck. "I- Dad- it was wrong- of course I wouldn't..."

"Blaine." Mr. Anderson's gaze on his son was unwavering. The teenager slumped a little.

"I- I don't know sir." Blaine conceded.

"That's about what I figured. Which means we have a bit of a problem here. Because you're getting to an age where you need to do what you're supposed to do because it's what you're supposed to do. Not just because you don't want to get punished. It isn't okay to do the wrong thing as long as you think you won't get caught."

Blaine nodded miserably.

"Your mother and I don't expect you to be perfect, but we do expect to be able to trust you. You know how I feel about lying, and lying by sneaking around or simply not telling us things are lies too, son. And I meant it about not being able to send you to your room. The message I got today was that I can't trust you to do what you say you will do, or to act the way you know I expect you to if you think your parents are never going to find out."

Blaine's faced scrunched in his displeasure. This sucked.

"So. There are a couple of things that are going to happen. You're not driving anywhere but school for the next month. Your mother and I discussed whether you should be allowed to drive to school at all, honestly, but we decided that Mom having to go back to chauffeur duty was more of a punishment for her than for you. But this means you finish at Dalton and you'll have to be back in time for dinner. It's your new curfew during the week. No hanging out after your Warbler practice, driving to the coffee shop, none of that until the month is up. I'm marking it on the calendar, and any day you show up late coming back, we're adding a day to this, understand?"

Blaine nodded obediently.

"You're on restriction from your phone and the intenet this week too. Your friends need help with homework they can call the house and you can answer it in the kitchen. You need to do work for school on a computer you borrow your mother's laptop and do it in the living room- where we can see you. If giving you the privacy and independence to send messages to your friends in your room means you're going to abuse that privilege by working out ways to sneak around, that tells me you need to be reminded that it is a privilege and it can be taken away."

Blaine nodded again. He wasn't going to argue. A week was less than some of his friends would get for something like this, actually.

"Cars are dangerous enough when we know where you are Blaine. Now, I know you can defend yourself." Blaine was secretly pleased to hear his father say those words aloud. "But your mother makes a good point that you didn't know this kid- this bully- and while you may have wanted to help him, or at least, help this friend of yours- there were safer choices you could have made there."

Blaine shrugged, still looking at the floor. He had been caught off guard when Karofsky had pushed him up against the fence. It could have gotten more violent.

"We hold Dalton accountable for keeping you safe, but that only works if you're there when you're expected to be there. After... everything that happened before... your mother and I are committed to making your safety our number one priority. Your choices today could have put that safety in jeopardy. So, for that reason most of all, we agreed you also need a good spanking young man. Ignoring right from wrong has long term consequences, but when you choose to do what you want anyway you're going to face this short term consequence here."

Blaine looked at his hands. It was, more or less, expected. But it still sucked.