Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

A/n: And it's done. I'd forgotten how quickly I could churn out chapters when I actually had time to sit and think about what I wanted to do.

Nick was a little nervous about doing this. He'd skipped his last class to make sure that he would have time to drive all the way out to Lima and still make it, whether Blaine decided to go with him or not.

Nick rang the doorbell at Kurt's house, biting down on his bottom lip as he waited. He wasn't positive that this was a good idea, but his grandmother had told him that he should at least try to get Blaine to go with him.

The door opened and a woman Nick assumed was Kurt's stepmother smiled at him. He'd never actually met Kurt's family before, so he couldn't be positive. But she seemed to recognize his uniform, which meant that he'd probably gotten the address; Nick hadn't thought to write down the address, so he'd just been hoping that he remembered it correctly. "Can I help you?"

"I'm Nick… I go to school with Kurt and Blaine. I was wondering if I could talk to Blaine…"

"Sure… why don't you come inside. I'll go get him."

"Actually, before you do that… do you mind if I take Blaine out for a while? I… I think it might help…" Nick watched as the woman nodded, her smile widening slightly.

"If he'll go with you, I don't see why not. As long as you have him home by ten." Nick nodded, smiling.

"Yeah, no problem. It's just for a couple of hours."

"I'll go get Blaine… why don't you sit down, it'll be a minute." Nick nodded, perching himself on the edge of the couch as Kurt's stepmother went upstairs. He couldn't help it as his knee bounced slightly while he waited.

"Nick? What are you doing here?" Nick stood up as he heard Blaine's voice. The boy looked a little better than he had the day before – a little less tired, but still as though he needed more sleep. Nick was just glad that Blaine was already dressed.

"After your e-mail last night, I decided that there was somewhere I should take you. Do you mind?" Nick watched as Blaine turned toward the kitchen, where Kurt's stepmother had disappeared. "She already said it was okay. It's just for a few hours. Trust me, okay?" As soon as Blaine nodded, Nick smiled. That was the hard part of his plan. "C'mon. We need to hurry… I don't want to be late."

"Late?" Nick ignored Blaine's question as they walked out to Nick's car, picking up Blaine's coat on the way.

Most of the drive itself was quiet, the only noise coming from the radio. Nick let Blaine control his iPod, but the curly haired boy didn't seem to care. Blaine picked one song, and then let the shuffle take over. Nick wasn't sure what to say in person; over e-mail he could think about things a little more, make sure his words were exactly right. He didn't want to say anything that would make Blaine feel any worse, so he chose to just keep his mouth shut.

Nick pulled into the parking lot outside the church, unsure of what Blaine was going to say. He hadn't meant to be facing the cemetery, but there really wasn't a way to avoid it – the door they needed to go through was on that side of the building.

"What are we doing here?" Nick glanced at the clock, deciding that they had enough time for Nick to explain things before they needed to go inside.

"I know Kurt told you about me… I told him that he should, if it would help." Nick pulled his left arm out of the sleeve of his blazer and unbuttoned the cuff, rolling it back a couple of times to expose the scars. "I refused to let anyone help me after my dad died. I didn't want to be a burden… I didn't want people to know that I was hurting that much. So I found other ways to cope. Ways that weren't healthy. And it really ended up hurting everyone more than it would have if I'd just admitted I needed them…"

Nick held out his arm to show his friend the scars. "There are more elsewhere… I'd show you, but it would require taking off a lot more clothing. These were some of the last cuts I made," Nick commented. He pointed to the largest of the scars for a moment. "This one was the last… I was so depressed; I just didn't give a shit any more. I was planning on slitting both my wrists and just letting myself bleed to death… I'd even taken a handful of sleeping pills so I wouldn't notice it when I was dying."

"Nick…"

"I was lucky… my grandmother found me before I'd lost very much blood, called 911. I spent all of Christmas break in the hospital."

"You don't have to tell me all of this…" Blaine began.

"I think you need to hear it. Because we're all trying to make sure that you're okay… that you aren't feeling like it's hopeless. I think you need to know that there are people who've been there, who want to help you. Which is why we're here."

"I don't get it… are you trying to convert me or something?"

"It has nothing to do with the church. They just let us use the space because the old minister's wife started the group… a lot of the other people aren't religious. I think Erin's actually an atheist…" Nick glanced at the clock. "We should go inside. It starts in a few minutes."

Nick got out of the car, watching to see if Blaine was following him as he rolled down the sleeve of his shirt and buttoned the cuff again, loosening his tie slightly. They walked inside together, Nick leading Blaine over to a table where there were several markers and a stack of nametags. He handed one of the tags to Blaine before writing his own name on one of them and sticking it to his shirt. He'd left his blazer in the car.

As soon as they had their nametags, Nick led Blaine into a room that had several chairs and couches and towards one of the couches that was sort of in a corner. "You can sit wherever you want. And you don't have to say anything if you don't want to… just listen." Blaine nodded and Nick smiled at him, trying to reassure him that it was okay. The soloist seemed to be nervous about being there. "It really is okay. No one is going to bite, I promise. They're actually all really nice."

"I don't know about this…" Nick placed a hand on the other boy's shoulder.

"It's okay. Everyone here knows what you're going through… we've all lost a parent. Or both. Nothing you say is going to surprise anyone here."

The two boys sat down, with Blaine tucking himself into one corner of the couch and pulling his knees up to his chest. Nick recognized that posture; he'd done the same thing when he'd first started attending the support group because he wasn't ready to talk. He just had to hope that Blaine would realize that this was a safe place and become comfortable with the idea of sharing his story soon. Nick reached out and gently put a hand on Blaine's shoulder as the meeting started, smiling at the boy when he looked up for a moment.

Nick couldn't help being preoccupied while a few of the other members were talking; he was worried about what Blaine was thinking, whether or not the boy would be willing to come back with him again. He wanted to make sure that Blaine was going to be okay; Nick had been through so many of the same things and he couldn't stand the thought of seeing his friend fall apart like that.

"Nick, it seems like you're somewhere else today." Nick looked up as he realized that his name had been called. "Is everything alright with you?"

Nick nodded. "I'm doing okay… school's kind of stressful, but I'm dealing. I'm kind of worried about a friend, though."

"Is everything alright?" Nick glanced at Blaine, but the boy didn't seem to take any notice of him. He was lost in his own little world, and Nick wasn't really sure how much Blaine would want him to tell.

"His mom died last week. I… I don't know a lot about what happened. It's not really my place to say anything…" Nick gently placed a hand on Blaine's knee, trying to snap him out of his thoughts and get some kind of affirmation that it was okay for him to be telling the group what was going on.

"Is this your friend?" Nick nodded, a little worried that Blaine still wasn't acknowledging the conversation. He knew it wasn't a good idea for them to push him, but he wanted Blaine to be ready to talk. "Blaine?" The curly haired boy looked up when his name was called. "Do you want to talk about it?" Nick watched as Blaine's face visibly paled (something Nick hadn't even though possible) while he shook his head. After a moment, the boy shot up and ran out of the room. Nick sighed.

"I'm sorry… I guess it's too soon," he said, jumping up and following Blaine out into the hallway. Blaine was standing just inside the glass double doors, leaning his forehead against the glass with his eyes closed behind the black frames of his glasses. Nick reached up and put a hand on Blaine's shoulder as he walked up. "Hey. You okay?"

"I'm sorry. I just… some of the things they were saying…"

"I know… it's intense at times. I should have talked to you more before I brought you here, made sure you were ready for that…" Nick bit down on his bottom lip for a moment. "Do you want to go?"

"You can go back… I'll be okay. You don't have to leave just because of me."

"It's not a big deal. I'm here every Friday… it won't hurt to miss one week. I'm actually doing okay right now." Nick led Blaine back out to the car, cranking it up and starting back towards Lima. "Do you want to get some coffee or something?"

"I'd rather just go home… I'm still kind of tired…" Nick nodded. Obviously Blaine wasn't ready yet. Nick just had to hope that it wouldn't take too much longer; he wasn't sure that Blaine was going to make it through much more of this.

Blaine stared at the homework he'd been working on silently, thinking over what he'd heard during the meeting Nick had taken him to. He appreciated it, really. Blaine just wasn't sure he was ready to actually think about the emotions he was feeling; he was having a hard enough time dealing with the emotional roller coaster he'd been on for the past week. One minute he was okay, the next he was fighting back tears over absolutely nothing, and a minute later he wanted nothing more than to punch something or yell because he was so angry and he didn't understand why. It was frustrating and exhausting, and all he really wanted was for things to at least be a little bit normal because he wasn't sure he could take it any more.

"What are you up to?" Blaine turned his head towards the door of his room, smiling slightly at Kurt.

"Makeup work. I'm trying to get caught up as much as possible so that it won't take so long when I get back." He closed his eyes as Kurt sat down on the bed next to him, squeezing one of his shoulders. "It's overwhelming… I spent a week not even bothering to think about school, and now it's like my homework assignments are mating. Or reproducing asexually."

"Obviously you liked biology more than you like chemistry."

"Biology made more sense… less math. This whole balancing thing with chemical reactions is a pain in the ass," Blaine replied.

"Do you need some help? I'm pretty sure I understand what's going on."

"I'm good… I was about to pack it up for a while anyway. I've been working since six."

"You've got to be kidding me… why did you get up so early?"

"Couldn't go back to sleep. It's been happening a lot lately…" Kurt's hand gently rubbed his back and Blaine smiled slightly.

"That's really not healthy."

"Tell me about it. I've never felt shittier in my life…" Blaine rolled over onto his back, closing his eyes. "I can't afford to get sick again, but I feel like it's inevitable at this point."

"You should really talk to someone about that…"

"I thought I was."

"I mean an adult. You know that Dad and Carole would be willing to do whatever they need to do to help you… and you obviously need someone to do something to help you. You're…"

"I'm fine, other than the sleep thing." Blaine purposely ignored the look on Kurt's face.

"Come with me." Blaine could tell from the tone of Kurt's voice that the boy meant business, so he did what he was told and got off the bed to follow Kurt. He raised an eyebrow as the younger boy led him to the bathroom. "Scale. Now." Blaine sighed, shaking his head and doing what he was told. Blaine crossed his arms, glancing down at the number.

"You do realize that you weigh less than I do right now, don't you? You're so much thinner than you were a week and a half ago…" Kurt began. Blaine closed his eyes as he felt Kurt's hands grazing across his sides. "Blaine, I can feel your ribs sticking out… I know you aren't doing it on purpose, but I still can't help but worry about you." Blaine glanced at Kurt and saw the pain in his eyes. It made him feel sort of guilty; Blaine hadn't realized how much Kurt really cared about him, that it was hurting the younger boy so much to see him like this.

Blaine stepped off the scale, turning towards Kurt and wrapping his arms around the countertenor's waist. He knew exactly what Kurt was doing, pointing out how unhealthy his current behavior was, even if it wasn't intentional. "I just… what is there that I can do? I'm so tired but I can't sleep… nothing tastes good any more, and if I force myself to eat I just feel like I'm going to be sick…"

"Why don't we just go downstairs and find something to eat? It's lunch time… anything sound particularly good to you?"

"Nothing sounds good to me. I'll just eat whatever you're having…"

"You would eat more if you were eating something you actually liked. What's your favorite food?" Blaine shrugged in response; the only thing he really wanted to think about was sleeping, but he knew that Kurt wouldn't let him get away with not eating. "Anything you really hate, then?"

"I can't have shellfish. And I'm really not a fan of tofu…"

"You seriously aren't helping me here…"

"I just really don't care, Kurt," Blaine replied, pulling away from the younger boy and sitting down on the edge of the tub. "I'm not eating because I'm not hungry. Nothing sounds good, nothing tastes good, there's nothing I want… I only eat as much as I do because I know that I have to eat something." Blaine buried his face in his hands, hoping that Kurt would understand and stop asking so many questions that he didn't have an answer for.

"Okay. Okay. I'll figure something out." Blaine felt Kurt put a hand on his shoulder before the younger boy started to walk out of the room. "Why don't we go downstairs? We can put in a movie… maybe The Princess Bride?" Blaine shrugged in response, before he stood up to follow the younger boy downstairs. He could deal with that; Blaine actually really liked the movie Kurt had suggested. And it was a comedy, which was pretty much the only type of movie Blaine had any interest in watching at the moment.

Blaine followed Kurt like a puppy down the stairs and into the kitchen, sitting down at the table as Kurt started wandering around the kitchen trying to figure out what they could have for lunch.

"Don't make lunch… we can stop and grab something on the way." Blaine looked up as Burt walked in the back door.

"On the way where?"

"Reynoldsburg. We're going to get some more of Blaine's clothes and things… get started cleaning out the house." Blaine looked up, biting down on his bottom lip. "Don't worry. It's just for a couple of hours, and we don't have to touch anything you aren't ready to deal with." Blaine nodded; he'd known that they would have to take care of the house at some point. Not to mention his mother's car and all of her belongings.

Blaine got up silently and went back up to his room, sliding his feet into an old pair of shoes. He knew that under other circumstances Kurt would probably berate him for wearing these shoes, but the boy was going to leave him alone at the moment because no one really wanted to deal with another of his mood swings. He knew that Blaine didn't really care what he looked like, and until the older boy started actually caring again it was pointless to bug him about it.

Blaine curled up in the back seat of Kurt's SUV, wrapping his arms around his knees and letting his chin rest on his knees. He was asleep before they had even finished backing out of the driveway.

Blaine stared at the mirror of his dresser from the bed, his knees pulled up to his chest. "Blaine… you ready to go?" He shook his head, never taking his eyes off his reflection in the mirror. "Something wrong, kid?"

"I just… I'm not ready to leave her. Not yet." Blaine sighed, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. He felt Burt sit down beside him and wrap an arm around his shoulders.

"You're not leaving her, Blaine… she's always with you. Right here." Blaine opened his eyes as he felt Burt poke a finger in the direction of his heart. He bit down on his bottom lip for the millionth time, even though he knew that it was making his lips chap. "Why don't you take something of hers with you? Something special."

"I… I don't know if I can go in her room…" Blaine began, glancing at the doorway. He'd been terrified to go near his mother's room since he'd left the hospital, mostly because he didn't want the memories to become too much for him again. He watched as Burt nodded, gently squeezing his shoulders.

"It's tough, I know. But you're going to have to face it at some point… maybe it will help you."

"I don't want to deal with it yet… I'm afraid that it's going to be too hard, that I'm going to lose it if I actually do this…" Blaine whispered.

"You won't lose it. And we're all here to help you if you need us." Blaine nodded, standing up and crossing his arms. "What is there that you want? I can help you find it…"

"There's a necklace," Blaine replied, walking out into the hall. He stopped at his mother's door, his hand resting on the door handle for a moment. "She wore it every day for two years when my grandfather had cancer… she didn't take it off until after we'd buried him." Finally Blaine slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open, closing his eyes as his nose was assaulted by the scent of his mother's perfume. He'd almost forgotten what she smelled like. Blaine could feel the tears starting to slide down his face before he even got into the room.

"It's okay… take your time…" Blaine sighed as Burt squeezed his shoulder again. He walked over to his mother's dresser, his hand softly stroking the top of the wooden box where his mother had kept all of her jewelry before he lifted the lid and started digging through the box's contents. Each piece was wrapped in tissue paper and Blaine carefully unwrapped and then re-wrapped each necklace until he found the small silver disk he was looking for. He curled his fingers around it quickly, wondering what he should do with the delicate piece of jewelry.

"Burt… c-can I have a minute?" Blaine asked. He sat down on the edge of his mother's bed, gently playing with the necklace as he waited for the older man to leave. Almost immediately, he felt the tears streaming down his face, completely uncontrollable. Blaine let his body collapse across his mother's bed, burying his face into her pillow because it still smelled like her and that was comforting to him. He hugged the pillow to his chest tightly, just letting the tears fall without worrying about whether or not anyone saw. He had a feeling that Burt would keep Kurt away from the room for a while so that he could have this moment.

Blaine wasn't sure how long he was in there; he felt fairly sure that he'd fallen asleep at some point and his nose was clogged up to the point that he was forced to breathe through his mouth. Blaine got up and wandered into his mother's bathroom, grabbing a tissue from the box and blowing his nose into it before he wadded it up and threw it into the trashcan. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed, shaking his head. After a moment, he glanced down at the necklace still grasped in his fist and undid the clasp, fastening the necklace around his neck and tucking it under his sweater. Oddly enough he felt better.

"Blaine?"

"In here…" he replied, walking out of the bathroom. Kurt was waiting in the doorway for him.

"My dad says we need to go… are you okay?" Blaine nodded, walking over towards Kurt and sighing. He still wasn't ready to talk about it, but he didn't feel quite as lost and alone as he had for the past few weeks.

Blaine groaned as he opened his eyes, wondering why he was on the floor rather than in his bed. His head felt as though he'd been hit with a baseball bat and every other part of his body ached as well. "Blaine, are you okay?" It took a couple of blinks before he could focus on Carole's face, and he could tell that she was worried. Blaine wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew that it wasn't good.

"What…?" Blaine slowly pushed himself up into a seated position with his right hand before reaching up to rub his temple. Everything was sort of spinning, and it was all Blaine could do to keep himself upright. He instinctively cradled his left wrist against his chest without even thinking about it. His wrist was hurting almost as much as his head. Even after he sat up it took him a minute to realize that he was on the floor at the foot of the stairs, which made no sense because he had been in his bed when he'd fallen asleep.

"I think you were sleepwalking, sweetie… you must have fallen down the stairs." Blaine closed his eyes, feeling exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to fall back to sleep, but Burt seemed to have read his mind.

"Don't you dare fall asleep, kid. I'm taking you to the hospital… you can't go back to sleep in case you have a concussion." Blaine turned his head slowly towards Burt's voice, although even just that slight movement was enough to make him feel dizzy and a little nauseated.

"Should we call an ambulance?" Blaine started to shake his head in response to Carole's question, before he realized that it was only going to make him feel even more like vomiting.

"I think we can get him to the hospital without one… Blaine, do you think you can walk?"

"Yeah… I think so…" Blaine winced as Burt and Carole helped him to his feet, inadvertently jostling his injured arm. Standing didn't do anything to help his head; Blaine felt dizzier now that he was on his feet, and that certainly didn't help the nausea any. "I-I don't feel so good…" Blaine stumbled over towards the downstairs bathroom, dropping to his knees to deposit what was left of his dinner in the porcelain bowl. He could feel Carole rubbing his back and pushing his hair out of his face as he vomited, until it was all finally out of his system. Blaine felt like his head was going to explode, but at least he no longer felt like he was going to ralph on someone's shoes.

"Feeling better?"

"Yeah, a little…" Blaine closed his eyes as Burt and Carole helped him to his feet again. "Carole, will you help me take off the necklace? It was my mom's… I don't want to lose it." Carole's hands moved quickly and Blaine smiled slightly as she closed it back.

"I'll put it in your room. Are you going to be alright taking him on your own?"

"I think we've got it covered… I'll call and let you know what's going on as soon as I can. But maybe we should get some ice for his wrist before we go…" Blaine leaned against Burt slightly because he was afraid he might fall if he didn't. "You going to be alright, kid?"

"I'm just really tired. And sore…"

"I'm sure. Just keep those eyes open… you can't fall asleep until a doctor has looked at you," Burt replied. Carole walked back into the room at that moment, gently placing a bag of ice into his good hand. Blaine gently held it against his wrist, hissing as the cold touched his skin. "Alright, kid, let's go."

The ride to the hospital was mostly silent, occasionally punctuated by Burt checking to make sure that Blaine hadn't fallen asleep. The hospital emergency room wasn't that busy, surprisingly, so it only took a few minutes for Blaine to be taken back into one of the curtained areas. The wait for a doctor, on the other hand, seemed to go on indefinitely.

"I can't believe they're making us wait this long. There's almost no one here…"

"It's a hospital… if you aren't dying, they think you can wait," Blaine replied. He winced as he tried to move his fingers.

"Don't do that… you don't know how bad it is yet."

"Something has to keep me awake until a doctor comes…" Blaine began. He glanced up as the curtain was pushed back. Once the doctor was there, it wasn't long before he'd been thoroughly poked, prodded, and x-rayed. In the end, he was diagnosed with a mild concussion, several bruised ribs, and a fractured wrist.

"Someone will need to wake him up every few hours. I'll give you a prescription for some painkillers for his arm. For now he just needs lots of rest. I'll give you a list of things to watch out for… if his symptoms get worse you'll need to bring him back in, but he should be fine in a week or so."

"What about school?" Blaine hadn't actually discussed going back to school with Burt and Carole yet, but he had a feeling that he should at least find out when he was okay to go from the doctor's perspective.

"That'll depend on how long it takes for your symptoms to start going away. You can try going to school when the headaches start to go away, but take it easy… I can write you an excuse for PE or any sports if necessary."

Within an hour Blaine's arm was encased in a fiberglass cast and they were on their way home. It itched, but Blaine couldn't do anything about it. The doctor had mentioned something about using a hair dryer, but Blaine wasn't really sure how that was supposed to work; he hadn't really paid that much attention because he'd spent the whole time the doctor had been going over his instructions fighting sleep.

"How you holdin' up, kid?" Blaine glanced at Burt before he answered.

"'m tired… can't wait to get home and go to sleep."

"We'll be back to the house soon."

"I guess this means there's no point in bringing up the possibility of going to school on Monday."

"Technically it's tomorrow at this point. And don't bother… you're not going until your concussion heals," Burt replied.

"I'm getting way too far behind…"

"We'll figure something out. I'm sure you'll catch up in no time."

"This is Dalton we're talking about… I feel like I'm buried in work up to my eyeballs. I'm already two weeks behind as it is…"

"Blaine, you've got to stop worrying so much about schoolwork. Most kids your age would kill for the chance to miss this much school… some of them literally. You need to just relax and get some rest, like the doctor said." Blaine closed his eyes and let his head lean against the cool glass of his window. "You'll get it all done. And your teachers will just have to deal with it and give you the extra time to complete your assignments because this is doctor's orders."

"Can we just not talk about this now?"

"Okay. But you have to do what the doctor said… you've spent enough time around hospitals lately."