A/N: Alright everyone just a quick reminder I'm still looking for names for characters! Thanks to those who have responded, your character's and name's will be showing up soon!

Also, I forgot to mention in the last chapter the songs were Welcome to the Breakdown by I Fight Dragons and Not Alone by Darren Criss from A Very Potter Musical.

Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing!

"Ava, sweetie, we need to talk to you about something." Claire sat down next to Ava on the colorful carpet of the children's waiting room. Blaine sat in a chair directly in front of them, looking down at his feet.

"Ava we… We're going away tonight. We're going to New York." Ava perked up, eyes shining, though she looked very confused.

"We're going there because they have another hospital there. It's just for kids though. You have to go there to… To have a surgery because… Because you're sick. And we want you to get better."

Ava looked thoughtfully at her hand, twitching where it lay lazily across my lap.

"Will it fix my h-hand? And my headache? And m-my stutter?" She asked. Blaine's mind flying back to when the symptoms had started. Why hadn't they known?

"Mommy? Daddy?" Ava whispered as she crept down the stairs to the living room. Blaine sat in the recliner, Austin and Claire on the couch as the announcer of the football game droned quietly from the television.

"What's wrong, Ava? Did you have a nightmare?" Blaine asked, spinning in the chair to look at her.

"No, my head hurts." Ava whispered, the television light illuminating tear-trails on her face.

Claire jumped off the couch. "I'll get you some water and Tylenol."

That wasn't the only time she had complained of a headache. It had happened almost every other day for several months. The children's drugs didn't work, so they took her to an optometrist to see if she was straining her eyes and causing herself headaches. Everyone told them that there was nothing wrong. No shit, Blaine thought, and how about now? Is she still 'perfectly fine' now?

The twitch had started about a week before. Blaine and Claire had taken her again to her doctor, who told them she was probably dehydrated and to make her drink water. Then the stutter had started this morning, and Ava fainted at breakfast. They had brought her to the hospital, learning after they got there that Ava didn't even remember fainting… Or most of the morning… A scan of her head had revealed a large growth in her brain.

"Mom?" Ava said, her voice didn't waver, there were no tears, just monotonous acceptance. "Do I have a tumor?"

Flying to New York. Tests. Hospital rooms. IV's. Doctors. Nurses. Crash carts. Everything was a blur to Blaine, as if he was seeing his life in a slideshow of grainy, unfocused pictures.

But some pictures were clearer than others.

Some words rang louder and truer. Hit faster and harder. Stung greater and longer.

"The cancer has spread down and curled around her spinal cord."

"There is a chance she could end up paralyzed if we proceed."

"There is a greater chance she could die if we don't."

Blaine felt himself receding into his own thoughts, like he always did when the pain got to be too much.

They were at a crossroads really. Just like they always were.

Popcorn or ice cream. Music or movies. Not much life or much more death.

Blaine's thoughts were so scrambled he couldn't tell up from down, life from dreams. But he didn't really want to. He wanted to see a nightmare hiding under his bed, not the ugly truth.

"Blaine? Blaine?" Claire's voice cut through the haze, bringing the sullen Blaine back to the surface of his thoughts.

"I'm…Sorry?" Blaine mumbled, looking between Claire and the doctor.

"We need to make the decision soon. Tonight, if possible. The longer we wait, the higher the risk."

"Thank you," Claire whispered as he walked out of their room. Ava was still having tests run, and the room was suddenly painfully empty. Claire looked at Blaine. "What are we going to do?"

Blaine pinched the bridge of his nose. "Let's just cut the technical bullshit. The chance of survival is higher with the surgery."

"But there's so many risks. She could wake up and never be able to move again. What kind of quality of life is that?"

"What kind of quality of life is being dead?" Claire gasped. He tried to back-track quickly. "No I… I didn't mean that. I shouldn't have said…"

"No you're right… I just d-don't want to hear it. I don't want to b-b-be here." Claire broke down, sinking into Blaine's arms. He held on to her tightly, wishing he had someone to hold him too.

"I know… I know… But we've come so far Claire. We've made it through so much since we met. When we found out you were pregnant, having a home to bring the baby to seemed impossible, but we did it. It's been nine years of "we did it's". This is just one more thing we're going to do. We'll make it, okay?" He murmured gently, he felt her nod into his chest before she pulled away, wiping her eyes.

"Okay," she said. Blaine gripped her hands.

"Okay."

Blaine couldn't sleep. He couldn't close his eyes. Couldn't move, breathe… He didn't want to. Claire was curled up in the hospital bed, hugging Ava while they both slept, Ava snoring loudly. Blaine nearly smiled, but his grief was dragging him down too far to do anything but breathe; barely even that.

He stood up finally, not being able to sit any longer. He wandered out of the room, careful to shut the door silently. The hallway was empty, the windows revealing that the sun was just barely coming up. Blaine ran his fingers through his unmaintained hair. His curls fell free, unhindered by hair gel. He slid down the wall until he was sprawled out on the floor. Everything was quiet, and he felt all alone. He couldn't handle the quiet, it was pressing in on him. It was squeezing him around the throat and cutting off his air. The only sound in the entire world was of his heartbreaking. And there was only one person he felt like could stop it. One person he couldn't reach; couldn't ever talk to again. Couldn't ever hold again, laugh with again, kiss again. The one person that he would miss always.

But Blaine realized that it was getting easier. It came as a shock to him when he realized how long it had been since he'd thought about that night. And he realized how far he had made it in… Ten years? Had it really been ten years? He had a baby girl, he had a family, so he wasn't really alone.

But he was.

He was alone before Ava even got sick. He was alone because he made it that way. Cut himself off from any man who ever tried to get close to him, all because of one man that had broken his heart. And he never wanted it to happen again.

He pulled out his phone, noting that it was 6:30 in the morning.

3:30 am in California…

Blaine had no idea why he thought of it after all this time. A text every once in a while.

Ava's learning to play guitar!

Sarah and I are getting married!

But it had been years. He didn't know why he'd thought of it, or when he pushed the send button, he was only aware of a dial tone, and a very groggy…

"Hello?"

"Hi, Wes?"

"Alright… Okay I'll see you… Bye."

Wes rubbed his eyes and hung up the phone, looking over to Sarah, who was watching through her sleep crusted eyes. "What's wrong?"

Wes fumbled for words, trying to explain exactly how important this was to him. "Ava… Blaine's daughter… She… She has a t-tumor. In her brain and spine."

"Shhh. Shhh it's okay." Sarah ran a hand up and down Wes' back, his breathing was short and shallow. Wes and Blaine had a crazy connection. Even though they hadn't seen each other – talked – in years, they were still as much of best friends as they had been in high school. They still felt for each other and cared like brothers.

"They're at a hospital in… In New York…" Wes tried to compose himself, slow his breathing.

Sarah slid off the bed, pulling Wes up with her. He looked quizzically at her.

"Well get dressed! We're going to New York, aren't we?"

Blaine propped the door open with his hip, two lattes in one hand and a muffin for Ava in the other. Claire pressed a finger to her lips and pointing to Ava in the hospital bed...Sound asleep. That was one thing she could always be counted on for: sleeping anywhere, anytime, all the time. Blaine chuckled a little to himself in spite of everything life had thrown at him lately. He settled into a chair next to Claire, and she crawled over the arm into his lap. She curled up and Blaine stroked her hair as silent tears streamed down her face.

Eventually Claire wiped her eyes and looked up at Blaine. "The doctor was here before you got back," she whispered. "He said he'd come back soon to explain everything to both of us..." She bit her lip, looking like she had something more to say.

"And?"

"He's really... And I think he's... I mean he has to be... His hair! Like damn..."

Blaine gaped at her. "I know you are not saying what I think you're saying because you're not trying to set me up with a doctor. Our daughter's doctor. In New York."

Claire laughed. Laughed so hard her stomach hurt and her eyes started leaking again. She hadn't laughed in so long and it felt so good. Blaine laughed too, loud enough to wake Ava. She stared groggily at her parents, but as a nine year old, she couldn't control her giggles either.

And for a moment, nothing even mattered anymore. It didn't matter Ava had a tumor. Or that Claire and Blaine didn't have money to pay for the surgeries and chemo. Or that they were in a hospital in a strange city. Or how screwed up all of their lives had been for the past decade. It didn't even matter why they were laughing, because it was the best any of them had felt in what seemed like forever.

As the laughter began to die down, Blaine gave Ava the muffin she requested and went to get her a paper towel from the sink in the corner. He was still smiling brightly, sipping his coffee.

Kurt looked at his watch, quickly signing off on the last of his charts. He had one more family to talk to, then he was off for the night...To go on his date. He stared almost longingly at the doors leading to the ambulance lane, half hoping for a trauma to postpone this night yet again. He had been with Ethan for about a month, but he had been able to tell in about in hour the relationship would go no where. They were going out to dinner and Kurt was finally going to bite the bullet and dump him. He was a great guy, he just wasn't...

Kurt pinched himself, trying to push his dreams back away from the reality in which he had to stay. At least Ethan was gay. At least he stood a chance at winning his heart. But of course, Ethan's was not the heart he wanted.

Kurt mentally slapped himself again. 'No more thinking about the past. Move forward.' Kurt was going to tell the parents of a sweet, nine year old that the survival rate of her surgery was about 50/50. There wasn't a parent in the world that was prepared for that.

Kurt grabbed Ava Stinson's chart off the counter and read over it again as he walked to her room.

He knocked twice then entered the room, glancing up briefly and seeing a dark haired man in the corner. He extended a hand toward the man's turned back and began to introduce himself.

"Hi, you must be Ava's father. I'm Doctor Hummel, but you can call me Kurt. I'll be in ch-"

Kurt broke of as the man screamed, furiously trying to wipe of the cup of coffee he spilled down the front of his shirt. He could still smell the fresh cup - it must have been searing his skin.

"Sir, are you alright?" Kurt put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm. The man jerked away like he had been electrocuted. The man turned to face Kurt.

Blaine turned to face Kurt.

Blaine.

Well, fuck.

Kurt took a step back, opening and closing his mouth, fumbling for words. Words that he had rehearsed through his tears for when he got up the courage to call Blaine and tell him exactly how he felt. But the words were gone.

The patient, Ava, and her mother, Claire, both looked shocked and confused. But Kurt was shocked by the anger blazing in Blaine's eyes.

"No." Blaine said, his tone dripping with venom.

"What?" Kurt furrowed his eyebrows. His brain wasn't capable of processing this much all at once.

"No. I am not 'alright'." Blaine spat out and pushed past Kurt and disappeared into the hallway.

Well, what did you think? Send me a review, let me know, include a name, and help me out with my writing! Thanks, all!