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: So yay for a new chapter! I know it's taken a while; school's getting kind of intense and crazy. Plus my muse is going bananas for a couple of other ideas I've had for Blaine-centric stories (can you all tell that I'm in love with Blaine/Darren?). Anyways, enjoy!

As much as Kurt hated hospitals, he actually found himself looking forward to going to see Blaine the next afternoon. It was just a matter of time before the boy was released from the hospital; Kurt wasn't even sure why he was still there, unless it had something to do with the head injury and his memory loss. Physically the older boy seemed to be doing okay, even if he couldn't get very far on his own.

He'd purposely chosen to wait until the afternoon; Blaine's father and sister had driven down from Toledo the night before to spend the weekend with him, and Kurt didn't want to intrude on the family's time together. It just didn't feel right for him to be there the whole time, especially when he and Blaine were going to take things slowly. Plus there was the fact that Kurt actually had to do homework to keep up with things at Dalton, and that kept him busy the entire morning and a decent chunk of the afternoon as well.

Kurt wasn't expecting to arrive at the hospital to find that he couldn't go into the older boy's room. The police were there, and from the concerned looks that he could see on Claire and Mr. Anderson's faces, Kurt knew that something was up. "What's going on?" he asked, sitting down in a chair across from the two of them in the lobby down the hall from Blaine's room.

"It was a rough night… I'm not sure any of us got any sleep." Kurt glanced down the hall towards Blaine's room, wondering what exactly had happened. "He's starting to remember what happened… having nightmares. He doesn't want to go to sleep, but he won't give us any details about what he remembers." Kurt turned around as he saw Blaine's father look up at someone passing behind him and realized that the police officers he had spoken to the day before were on their way out. One of them carried what appeared to be a McKinley yearbook.

Kurt waited until Claire got up before he made any kind of move. "Claire, why don't you and Kurt go stay with Blaine for a while. Your mom needs a break, and I think she and I need to talk." Kurt followed the girl down the hall and watched as she knocked on the door before opening it and walking inside.

"Hey, Blaine… Kurt's here." Kurt slowly made his way inside, smiling but not really knowing what to expect. The older boy looked exhausted, and there were tear tracks over his cheeks where Blaine had been crying. Kurt really wasn't sure if the older boy wanted to see him or not, or even if Blaine had heard them coming in. The boy was wearing his hearing aids, but he didn't acknowledge their presence.

Kurt followed Claire into the room, walking over towards the bed as Claire went to speak quietly to her mother. He gently reached out and touched the back of Blaine's right hand to get the boy's attention, although he was surprised at the way the older boy jerked his hand away.

"Hey… it's okay…" Kurt said, looking up at Blaine's face and watching the older boy carefully. He smiled as Blaine looked up at him, hoping everything was okay.

"Sorry… I…" Blaine began, shaking his head. Kurt's heart ached as he saw fresh tears starting to trickle down Blaine's face, creating fresh wet tracks that Kurt did his best to wipe away with one of his thumbs. He used his other hand to rub gentle circles around the back of Blaine's good hand.

"It's okay. Do you want to talk?" Kurt watched as Blaine slowly shook his head.

"Will you lie down? I just want you here with me right now…" Kurt nodded moving so that he could first sit next to the boy and then put an arm around his shoulders. He smiled as Blaine sort of snuggled into his side, or at least did the best he could given his injuries. "I saw some of their faces… they were all in the yearbook the police had."

"They were all McKinley students…"

"The ones I saw, yeah… three of them. I… I didn't see the fourth guy. He was always behind me…" Kurt turned his head to look at the older boy as Blaine's voice trailed off mid-sentence. Blaine's eyes were closed and he had turned his face away from Kurt as much as possible. Kurt reached out and gently pushed some of the curls out of Blaine's face. "I can't remember what they said."

"It's okay," Kurt whispered. The words were out of his mouth before he realized that Blaine couldn't hear him, so he had to repeat himself a little louder. "It's okay."

"Obviously it's not… they kept asking for details I didn't know. Like harassing me was going to make me remember…"

"They're just trying to figure out what happened. I guess they figure that if they ask the right question it'll trigger something."

"It's not working." Kurt turned onto his side, lacing his fingers in with Blaine's good hand and bringing it up so that he could press a soft kiss against the back of it. Even though the older boy's bruises were starting to heal, Kurt still felt the need to be careful. "I don't know that I want to remember… just being able to see their faces is terrifying enough…"

"Hey… you don't have to be so scared. They aren't here. They aren't going to hurt you again, okay? No one is ever going to let them anywhere near you."

"But there are other people…" Blaine began.

"You don't need to worry about it right now, Blaine. Worry about getting better first, okay? I want you to be well enough to come watch us at regionals in a couple of weeks. We all want you to come."

"I'm a mess…"

"We don't care. I know all of the other guys want to see you…" Kurt began.

"They could have come down here."

"We've been telling them to wait… your parents didn't want a ton of people down here crowding you before you were ready. If you're okay with it, I'll let them know they can come. But they're still going to want you to come to the competition."

"We'll see…. I'm sure my parents will have something to say about driving that far to watch a competition I'm not going to be in," Blaine replied.

"We'll both beg. You should get to see your friends." Kurt looked up and smiled at Claire; he'd almost forgotten that the girl was in the room until she spoke up. "There's no way you're missing that competition, even if you can't compete. Not if you want to go."

"You really think we can convince them?"

"Blaine, I'm the baby of the family and you're hurt. There's no way they can resist both of us asking if we can go." Kurt turned to face Blaine again smiling. Even though Kurt could still tell that Blaine had been upset a few minutes before, the older boy had a slight smile on his face.

"Okay… we'll work on them. But don't tell everyone I'm coming, okay? I don't want to get anyone's hopes up." Kurt felt the smile on his face widening as Blaine turned back to look at him.

"Don't worry… I won't say a word. Not even Wes and David."

"You're kind of ridiculously happy about this," Claire commented, giving Kurt a look.

"You guys are going home in a few days, and I can't drive to Toledo very often. If it means I'm going to get to see my best friend, I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to be excited about that. Since I'm not going to get to see him five days a week for a while, anyway."

"Best friend, huh? That's all?"

"Claire… that's all we are. For now, at least. I'll let you know when and if that changes," Blaine commented. "I'm kind of tired… you guys don't mind if I fall asleep, do you?"

"Go ahead and sleep. You need it. We'll be here when you wake up."