A/N: I'm sorry this update took so long. I'm about to have my last big exam at university in only some weeks, and some other stuff went down too, and fear connected to all of that makes me horribly and painfully unproductive in all the work that is most important to me. I hope you like the read none the less. Only a couple more chapters left until this story will be complete.

Tears Stained

Chapter 19: All eyes on …

Kurt and Wes both feel weird and cannot help the bad feeling they share when they leave Blaine behind in Kurt's home – fast asleep in Kurt's bed, but that knowledge and even Burt insisting on staying home with Blaine while they, Finn and Carole are out, only eases so much of the worry.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Kurt whispers, as his left hand carefully caresses Blaine's features, and he leans down to place a kiss to Blaine's cheek. "I love you."

"He'll be fine," Wes assures in a whisper, supported by a deep hum from Burt, walking them downstairs.

"You be careful, you two."

His father looks entirely too worried for Kurt's taste. Stepping close he pulls him into a tight hug, "Dad, it will be fine. We will be fine."

"Okay," Burt hums, as he squeezes his son firmly back. "… okay."

Wes is fast to look away, to step outside already, and part from the man only with a distant wave.

Burt stays by the door until the car is out of sight – walking back up the stairs a moment later and taking a seat on the couch on the other side of Kurt's room, quietly watching over the boy he knows means the world to Kurt, the young man who is beginning to mean more and more to him too. "Thank you," Burt almost silently whispers, "… thank you for loving my boy so very much, Blaine."

Burt is startled as the boy moves in between the covers, weight presumably shifting into a more comfortable position, before the quietness of the house fills too this room.

The New Directions have been briefed and re-rehearsed, are all mingling now some more in the choir room, will all be back very soon, taking their assigned positions, but for now, in this moment, Kurt is alone on stage, can appreciate the quiet and solitude especially much this time, after all the previous days, crammed with exhaustion, worry and pain.

Kurt is beaming none the less when he sees "Wes!" re-enter the auditorium. He had begun to wonder where his friend had disappeared to while they had been re-rehearsing. "You are in your old Dalton uniform."

"I thought it might give me some authority with the new guys in the group. I also had a quick look outside, and I saw all of them pull up in their cars just before I came back in. So they should be here any moment now. I'll wait in the wings."

"Okay, brilliant. Thank you again for being here."

"The guys seem to need some sense infusion, and I really wanted to see you and Blaine. I still can't believe they follow that guy around like pit-bulls, fletching their teeth."

Kurt gives a weak smile, "Well, to be fair, they followed Blaine around like lovesick puppies, most days."

"I don't know about you, but puppy to pit-bull, to me that screams devolution," Wes replies, shaking his head, smile pained. "I better go. Don't want to spoil the surprise."

Kurt nods to Wes one more time, as the New Directions pour out onto the stage, and soon enough the Warblers step through the doors of the auditorium as well.

The performance goes as planned, and Kurt and Wes, hiding himself away deeper in the wings still, exchange a quick glance of relief as the Warblers, one after the other, join the New Directions on stage.

Wes waits until Smythe has grumpily gotten to his feet and left, glad to see it had not taken as much as he had feared to pry the Warblers out of that slimy net they had been spun into.

As the applause dies away, a hollow knocking sound remains, and not only the Warblers look around confused for a moment.

"Kurt what is going on? What is that?" Jeff asks, noticing the smile on Kurt's face.

The sound's source becomes apparent as a boy in Dalton uniform, the new members do not recognize as one of them, takes the first couple of steps out onto the stage.

"You really should have known better. ALL of you," Wes says looking into the crowd and at no one in particular, though his eyes linger on Trent, Nick and Jeff, hush quickly over David and Thad.

"Wes?"

Wes's eyes bounce back to David at the simple sound.

And David would run over and hug his friend did Wes not look so positively livid, arms crossed over his chest, gavel in his left hand. Kurt can only assume Wes has kept with his uniform all along – made sure to be here for emphasis.

Wes is not in a forgiving mood, not yet. "Explain yourselves. Now!"

The silence that follows is deafening. It is not the comfortable quiet of a lazy afternoon cuddle with the person you love most in this life, not the sound of a night of warm tranquility. Wes's ears are already ringing with the hollowness of his former friends' silence, and he feels that sinking feeling again he had when David and Thad had abandoned their friends' side. Although he had known there and then this split in his former group of friends must have happened a while ago, maybe even totally unrelated to Sebastian Smythe. And he had known, there and then, too, there will be no fixing this, because there is nothing to be fixed here. Dynamics shift and people change when people, someone leaves. He had been the one to leave first. So who is he to blame anyone for this side of things? Wes is not mad about any of that. He had wished it all to work out differently, sure, … but it had not.

And Wes is livid, and tells them so, "… LIVID down to my core for any of you having allowed this all to get SO out of hand. You really hurt Kurt and Blaine, and I am not only talking about Blaine's eye. But that alone is bad enough. Were any of you thinking anything when you agreed to take part in that? Tainted or not, throwing slushies into anyone's face, since when is that what we do?"

"Who even is this guy, prancing in here …," one of the new Warblers starts until ….

"Shut up," one of the older boys hushes him, "he is the reason being a Warbler is even this big a deal at Dalton at all these days."

"What, did he hang the stars and the moon too?" the same guy goes on louder now.

Wes turns his gaze on him then, "You," the boy's ego instantly visibly shrinks with all eyes on him now, "… you are very welcome to leave. Follow in the footsteps of your idol, and just … go. This group has never needed people who were just in it for the attention. We never used to be about that, and it made us so SO much better, that I am sure the group could still do just fine without not only Sebastian Smythe, but without you too."

"What do you mean without Smythe?" another boy asks.

"I am imploring you guys to vote him out of the Warblers, today, here, right now. And don't wait to make it official until Monday. Thad, I know you still have our headmaster's number somewhere in that phone. He still says we can call him any time during the week provided we leave him his peace on Saturday and Sunday, right?"

"Yes," Thad confirms hesitantly.

Wes had counted on this, on the fact that although Smythe had declared himself captain, there are still obligations involved for the group, Wes had in no way expected Smythe to have taken on himself, instead delegating everything to others. "Good. So, Please," Wes looks around the room again, "… we will give you the auditorium for the next 15 minutes should you need them. Take that vote. And let me know what you decide?" Wes directs the question at Trent, Jeff and Nick who are still standing there in slight shock that Wes is here at all, but they nod.

And with that reassurance Wes and the New Directions leave The Warblers alone, to fight it all out if there is still a need for that.