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: Sorry it took so long to get another chapter up; I've got three stories that I'm working on simultaneously right now, plus school on top of that keeping me super busy. This chapter wasn't easy to write, because I had to figure out a way to write conversation when one of the parties couldn't hear what was going on… it's not easy.

Blaine wasn't sure what was going on around him. He picked up on the obvious things, like the fact that he was in the hospital. Blaine didn't remember how he'd ended up there, but he knew that when he was awake it seemed like pain radiated through his entire body. There was a reason Blaine preferred to be asleep.

Being awake also meant that people tried to talk to him, which only served to confuse and frustrate Blaine even more than the fact that he couldn't remember how he'd gotten there. Blaine knew that people were trying to talk to him; he could see that their lips were moving and that they were watching him, expecting him to answer. He tried to talk to them, to say something and let them know that he had no idea what they were saying. One of the doctors had put a pair of headphones on him at one point, and eventually Blaine had started to hear a beeping noise. He'd tried to say as much, but he couldn't be sure that they'd heard him. He couldn't even hear his own voice; the only reason he knew that any words had actually come out was because he could feel the vibrations.

There were people coming in and out of the room all the time, faces Blaine recognized but just couldn't place. There weren't any names, but Blaine knew that the boys in the navy blazers were important. Especially the tall, pale boy with perfect skin. He was there more than the other two boys, although they all seemed to show up together.

The only names that ever came were his family. They were there constantly – almost every time he woke up, one of his parents or siblings were there, sitting in silence with him. Alex had been there at first, but Blaine hadn't seen him in a while. He didn't know how long he'd been awake, how many days he'd been there. Time didn't mean anything, because the painkillers they gave him kept him drifting in and out of consciousness so much that he couldn't keep track of anything. What little time he spent awake ran together in a murky haze that Blaine couldn't ever quite decipher. He tried, but every attempt he made at trying to sort things out just made his head ache even more than it had been aching the entire time he had been in the hospital.

Blaine opened his eyes as he felt someone take his hand, smiling at the mass of curls that he instantly recognized as his sister. "Hey Claire." Blaine watched as his sister turned and smiled at him, before she held up a finger to tell him to wait a minute. She pulled out dry erase board and a marker, uncapping the marker and starting to write.

Aren't you glad I thought of this?

"You're brilliant, Cee." Blaine wasn't really sure why no one else had come up with the same idea. He could read; his vision was still off, but as long as it wasn't too far away Blaine could read the things around him.

Thank you. How are you feeling?

"Confused. How long have I been here?"

Six days. But you've only been awake for two.

Blaine closed his eyes for a moment, processing the information. Whatever had happened to him had left him unconscious for four days. "What happened?" Blaine watched as the look on Claire's face changed as she was writing her answer.

You were attacked. Beaten. Don't know why.

"Why can't I hear you? What's wrong with me?"

They don't know yet. Need to do more tests.

Blaine closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. He wasn't sure how he felt about that yet, because that also meant they didn't know whether it was permanent or not. It wasn't until Claire squeezed his hand that Blaine opened his eyes again.

It's bad. Almost profound. I wasn't supposed to tell you.

"I want to know… I have a right to know."

They just don't want to scare you… you freaked out at first. Remember?

Blaine shook his head again. Whatever they'd given him to make him calm down had messed with his ability to remember what had happened, because he couldn't even remember how he'd originally realized that he couldn't hear what people were saying. Even trying to remember all of the things that he couldn't remember was starting to make Blaine's head ache from thinking too much.

A nurse walked into the room at that point with a tray of food, placing it on the table and pushing it in front of Blaine. That was a first, as far as Blaine knew; he didn't remember having food before. He watched in silence as Claire opened the plastic silverware and started getting the food ready for him to actually eat it. He was lucky she thought of the fact that he only had use of one arm and wouldn't be able to get into it himself.

His hand was clumsy as he took the spoon from her hand, doing his best to spoon some of the soup into his mouth. Blaine couldn't stop the shaking as he started bringing it up to his face, spilling a large portion of the warm liquid as he went. He dropped the spoon back onto the tray, sighing and closing his eyes. "I can't even feed myself…" he muttered. He felt Claire squeezing his hand again and opened his eyes.

Claire had the spoon in her hand, holding it for him. "No… no way." Blaine shook his head, reaching up to push Claire's hand away. She put the spoon down in the bowl and picked up the dry erase board again.

You have to eat. I can help you.

"You shouldn't have to… I'm seventeen years old, I should be able to take care of myself." Blaine watched as Claire started writing frantically.

You're hurt, Blaine. Really hurt. Just let me help you.

Blaine tried to pick up the spoon again, stopping as he realized that his hand was going to shake no matter what he did. He wanted to eat – he was hungry and he knew that he would have to be able to eat before he'd be allowed out of the hospital. "Fine. Just this once." Blaine was willing to give in, just this once, because he wanted to get out of the hospital – the one thing Blaine wanted more than anything was to go home.

Claire took the spoon out of Blaine's hand, filling it with soup and lifting it to Blaine's mouth for him. She actually managed to get all of its contents into his mouth on the first try. They sat like that for a while, Claire spooning the warm liquid into his mouth over and over again until the bowl was empty. Blaine took Claire's hand as she started to fill it with something else, shaking his head. "I'm not that hungry."

Blaine looked up as his mother walked into the room, moving towards him. She and Claire spoke for a minute as Blaine watched; he tried to watch their lips and figure out what they were saying, but he didn't understand enough to figure out what was being said. "Please don't do that… I can't understand you." Blaine watched as his mother turned and smiled at him, picking up the whiteboard and scribbling out a message on it.

Your father's taking Claire home, to go back to school. But I'm going to stay with you.

Blaine nodded, closing his eyes. Even if he didn't know what day it was, he knew that Claire needed to be back at school. She was missing too much by being at the hospital with him all the time; they were all missing too much of their lives because he was in the hospital. He opened his eyes again as Claire let go of his hand, reaching up and pulling her into a hug – or at least the closest approximation of a hug that he could give with only one arm and several broken ribs. He watched as his sister left, before he said anything else to his mother.

"What did the doctor say?" Blaine watched as his mother cleared the board and started writing again.

They're going to run some more tests today, see if they can figure out what's wrong.

Blaine nodded at that; it was basically what Claire had told him before. But his mother seemed to be writing something else, hopefully adding to the information.

But they're going to move you to a regular room this afternoon. You're getting better.

Blaine tried to shift his weight in the bed to get more comfortable, wincing at the pain that shot through various parts of his body as he moved. He wasn't sure how long it really was, but it seemed like a nurse was there almost instantly with a shot of pain medication in his IV. It only took a few minutes for it to dull the pain, and it wasn't long after that before he was slipping off to sleep under its influence.