Everything was foggy and everything hurt. There was a pounding in his head, there was something that felt like a huge weight on his chest, and everything else was sore and stiff. Somewhere, he was sure he heard a faint beeping sound. Using all of his energy, Blaine forced himself to focus, hoping he could get a better idea of what was actually going on.

"Blaine?"

Wait, he knew that voice.

"Coop?" Blaine asked groggily.

"Oh my god. Finally!" Cooper said, clearly relieved.

"Wha' happened?"

"Let's get your doctor in here first, and then we'll talk about it," Cooper said gently as he pressed the call button.

Not long after, a doctor and nurse came into the room. "Mr. Anderson, it's nice to see you awake," the doctor said. The nurse meanwhile, was checking all of Blaine's IV's.

"I'm Doctor Erickson," the doctor said, introducing himself. "How are you feeling?"

"Hurts," Blaine answered simply, suddenly feeling very tired.

Doctor Erickson seemed to notice this and said, "I promise that you can sleep when we are done. It won't take too much longer. Can you tell me what specifically hurts?"

"Everything."

"Well, you sustained some serious injuries, but just the fact that you are up and talking to me is a very good sign. We have you on painkillers now that should be helping with the pain. If it gets any worse, let us know. I'm going to let you get some sleep and we'll talk more in a little while. Does that sound ok?"

"Mmmm," Blaine said, already closing his eyes. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep.

Blaine woke up again some time later, still in pain. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep, but unfortunately, the pain hadn't gotten any better.

"Blaine? Blaine, can you hear me?"

"Mmhmm."

"Thank God," Cooper said. "You've scared the hell out of me for the last couple of weeks."

"Weeks?" Blaine asked. There was no way that he could have been asleep for weeks.

"Blaine, it's February," Cooper said seriously.

"What?" It couldn't be February. It was just November, he had just been at the dance. Wait, the dance. "The dance," Blaine mumbled before becoming silent.

"Well what do we have here?" a voice said behind him. "Looks like a couple of faggots."

"Blaine?" Cooper asked hesitantly. "Blaine, what do you remember?"

"Come one. Why don't we teach these two queers a lesson? Hold him still."

Blaine remained silence as tears started to form in his eyes.

"Stop. Please just stop," Blaine begged, trying not to focus on the pain.

"Blaine, it's ok. They can't hurt you anymore. I promise. You're not going back to that school. I promise you that. Just, please, please talk to me, Blaine," Cooper pleaded.

"Aww he wants us to stop. Isn't that sweet? He wants us to stop. I don't think you've learned your lesson yet."

Blaine sniffled and slowly shook his head.

"Blaine, please," Cooper said moving a bit closer to his younger brother.

"I can't," Blaine whispered through the tears.

Cooper didn't know what to do. His baby brother was sitting here in the hospital in tears and he still wasn't sure what exactly had happened. All he knew was that his brother had been badly beaten and spent the last several weeks in a coma.

"Please, Blaine. I just need to know what happened."

The tears flowed started flowing harder. "I can't, Coop. I can't."

Cooper moved forward to give Blaine a hug. Blaine noticing his brother was reaching out to him, flinched back. Cooper noticed this and immediately stopped. What had happened?

It was a few more days before Blaine finally worked up the courage to tell Cooper what had happened that night.

"I was standing in the parking lot with Luke," Blaine said softly. "We were supposed to meet his dad there, but apparently he was running a little late. We were just talking and then these three guys came up behind us. They just kept laughing at us and calling us names and—"

Blaine stopped for a minute.

"And what Blaine?" Cooper asked, somehow already knowing that these were the three people that had beaten his brother so badly.

Blaine swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "And they just started hitting us and kicking us. I begged for them to stop, but they just kept hitting and punching and kicking," Blaine explained quietly through the tears streaming down his face.

Slowly, not wanting to spook his brother again, Cooper pulled Blaine into a gentle hug. He, too, had tears running down his face.

After a few minutes, Blaine's sobs started to quiet down. Cooper gradually released his brother, even though he never wanted to let his brother go. This happened when he was at school, who knew what else could have gone wrong.

"Who were they?" Cooper asked.

"Some jocks," Blaine mumbled.

Cooper took a deep breath. These were people that Blaine had gone to school with and they put him in here.

"Coop?" Blaine asked softly after a few minutes, bringing Cooper out of his own thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"What happened to Luke?"

"Luke was brought here too. But you were in worse shape than him. He was here for about a week before he was discharged."

"Oh," Blaine said.

"Blaine, there's something else. He moved. His family just kind of packed up and left after everything happened."

Blaine's eyes got wide. His one friend from school just moved away. "Where?"

"I don't know, Blaine. I'm so sorry."

"It's ok," Blaine said, trying to put on a brave face.

"You sure it's really ok?"

"Yeah," Blaine said, unsure if he was trying to convince Cooper or himself that everything would be alright.

"On bright side, though, the doctor's think you're going to be able to go home in a few days. They said you've been doing really well and that you can come home soon. That's good," Cooper said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, going home will be good," Blaine said leaning back into the hospital pillow.