Nothing could have prepared Kurt for the sight in front of him. He had never seen his hero, his mentor, his best friend, his boyfriend... look so vulnerable. Kurt had to literally take a few steps back from the shock of it all. There were wires and tubes and needles going into Blaine everywhere Kurt could see. And there was an annoying beeping sound coming from a machine sitting next to Blaine's bed. Kurt was relieved that Blaine at least had a single room. He would never want anyone to experience his boyfriend like this. Blaine didn't deserve that. Blaine was such a strong person... he would have hated for people to experience him like this. Kurt almost felt like he was invading by witnessing Blaine like this. Oh, and now Blaine is looking at him with a groggy look on his face. Oh, and he's smiling.
'Why is he smiling? He has canc- oh, that's right. He doesn't know yet that he has cancer. And his parents aren't here. So I'm going to be the one to have to tell him.'
That's when it hit Kurt. He was going to break Blaine's heart. The most precious man in the world to him, and he had to give him the life-changing news.
Tears welled up in Kurt's eyes. But he brushed them away with the back of his hand and walked over to Blaine, taking a seat in the chair next to his bed, too scared to sit on the bed with Blaine, worried that he would upset one of the wires or hurt his fragile boyfriend.
Blaine, nonetheless, made to lean up to grab Kurt into a hug, but fell back with an audible shriek in pain.
"Ow. Who knew a simple surgery like that could hurt so much, huh?" Blaine said to Kurt with a goofy smile.
"You look pretty, baby. Kind of funny too. You keep spinning around the room. Am I on drugs? I feel like I'm flying. I must be on drugs..." Blaine broke off, giggling.
Kurt couldn't help but laugh with him, happy to see his boyfriend so blissfully unaware of how much both of their lives had changed already, in just the past hour.
"Yes, sweetie. You're on morphine right now. You need to rest. You go back to sleep. I'll sit here and watch you."
Then Blaine got an adorably curious look on his face, gazing up at Kurt... or at least attempting to, but his eyes kept going cross-eyed.
"Wait... what are you doing here, Kurt? You didn't have to come. I would have been alright."
Kurt began tearing up again at this. He couldn't tell Blaine about the cancer yet. Not while Blaine was still in his drugged state. Not when he was so content. So he told him a half-truth.
"I wouldn't be anywhere else right now. I wanted to be with you. There is nowhere else I would rather be."
Kurt leaned over and gave Blaine a soft, sweet kiss on his forehead, to which Blaine smiled up at him, and then Blaine fell asleep. And Kurt watched him through his tears.
The next he knew, Kurt was being shaken awake by a man in a white coat. Oh, this must be the doctor. Good. Now Kurt could get some answers.
"Hi. My name's Dr. Patrick.", he said, holding out his hand. "And you are?"
"I'm Kurt. Blaine's boyfriend. I'm all he's got", Kurt replied, shaking the doctor's hand.
"Ah. Well it's a pleasure to meet you Kurt, although I'm sorry it is under such circumstances. I assume you know by now that the surgery didn't go exactly as planned."
Kurt nodded sadly. "Yes, sir. Although I would like to know more. Can you explain to me exactly what happened? What kind of cancer is it? Where do we go from here? Will Blaine live?"
"Shhh, it's ok son."
Kurt didn't realize that his voice had been getting louder and more desperate with each question.
"Sorry. I'm just... scared, I guess."
"It's ok. That's normal. And I have no problem explaining everything to you... but shouldn't we wait for Blaine's parents to arrive?"
Kurt immediately tensed up at the memory. In a cold voice, Kurt said, "they're not coming. They're out of the country on business. It's just me."
"Just you? Don't you have someone who could be here with you? No offense, but your just a young boy. You shouldn't be dealing with this on your own."
Kurt hadn't even thought of this. He had been so consumed with getting to Blaine and being there for him, he hadn't even considered his own needs. He wondered where Wes had gone to. Who knew how long Kurt had been asleep... Wes had probably left by now. Oh! His dad! Why hadn't he called his dad?
"I should call my dad. But not before you tell me what's wrong with Blaine. I need to know. Please."
Dr. Patrick hesitated for a minute, before giving in, sitting in the chair opposite Kurt's. Kurt tried his best to relax into the seat, physically preparing himself for what he was about to hear.
"Well, Kurt. As you know, Blaine came in for a basic surgery due to a ruptured appendix. The surgery was going just fine, until about 5 minutes in. That's when we noticed that something was off with the tissue around his stomach. He has something called gastric cancer, or cancer of the stomach. Luckily, we were able to get it out to the best of our abilities. An oncologist was on call nearby and was able to come and take over the surgery."
Kurt sighed in relief at this news. So Blaine didn't have cancer. He had had cancer. Past tense. Everything would be ok. Kurt stated his thoughts out loud to the doctor.
The doctor shifted uncomfortably in his seat. This made Kurt immediately tense up again.
"Well... not exactly. Yes, it is true that we got the cancer out. But it was already at stage 2 and-"
"Wait, Doctor Patrick. What does that mean? What is stage 2? Is that bad?"
"It's not necessarily bad. But it's not good either. I mean, no cancer is ever good. Cancer is ranked in stages of 1-4, in order of seriousness. Stage 2 is right in the middle. It would have been better if we had found it at stage 1, but be thankful we didn't find it at stage 4. If we had found it at stage 4, there would have been no hope."
Kurt had started crying again at the thought of this. It could have been worse. He could have lost Blaine. He could still lose Blaine. He had just gotten Blaine. He couldn't handle this.
"Please tell me he'll live. Please, doctor. Please. I'm begging you."
"Shh. Calm down, son. It's ok. I can never make any promises. Cancer is an unpredictable and scary thing. But like I said, we got it out. However... there is always a chance that the cancer could come back. Also, there could be microscopic cancer cells left in Blaine's body that could latch on to his stomach, or elsewhere in his body, at any time, causing the cancer to grow back and get worse. So there are necessary precautions that need to be taken."
"What kind of precautions? We'll do anything. Please, just make him be ok."
Kurt was borderline hysterical at this point. He just wanted his Blaine to be ok, no matter what. And then he heard the word that everyone always dreaded to hear. The word that made the cancer seem more real. This word made him finally fall apart.
"Chemotherapy."
Kurt couldn't control his crying anymore. He still couldn't believe that this was happening. Happening to him. Happening to his Blaine. They were 17 years old. 17 year olds weren't supposed to get cancer. They just weren't. It wasn't fair.
Doctor Patrick began to shift in his seat, uncomfortable and not sure what to do about the crying boy in front of him. He had seen patients and friends upset at the news of cancer before, but he had never seen someone mourn to this extreme. It was obvious that Kurt had extremely strong feelings for his boyfriend. Doctor Patrick began to reach his hand out, to give Kurt a comforting pat on his shoulder, but someone beat him there.
Kurt startled at the soft hand on his shoulder. He turned to his right and saw Blaine, staring up at him through his own tears.
A/N: You guysssss... Blaine knows! How will he react to the news?