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: Another chapter down… not sure exactly where I'm going with this one, but I'll figure it out soon enough. I'll definitely get through the trial, but other than that I'm really not sure where I want to end up.

Blaine had grown to hate the hearing aids that he was pretty much forced to use in order to communicate with anyone. They ate through batteries too quickly – his audiologist explained that it was because they were extremely powerful – and he knew that at times other people could hear feedback coming from them because of how high they had to be turned for Blaine to hear and understand what people said to him. Not to mention that he could occasionally hear it himself, if there was any kind of interference.

"I think it's too early to be thinking about any kind of serious intervention… Blaine, you've barely had a chance to get used to your hearing aids. You need to give them more time." Blaine closed his eyes and shook his head at his mother's comments. She said the same thing every time he brought up the subject, but Blaine was determined that he would at least see what his audiologist had to say on the subject.

"Mrs. Anderson, if we're going to try any of the implantable devices it will be easier for Blaine to adapt if we can install it sooner rather than later. The neural pathways that were associated with his hearing will adapt to other functions as he loses more and more of his ability to hear, and it will make it harder for Blaine to adapt to any kind of implanted device in the future. Given his current hearing loss, an implanted device could be his best option in the long run."

"So you agree with him?" Blaine's mother replied.

"If Blaine is willing to go through the surgery, it's definitely something that should be considered. I can't guarantee that this would work any better than the hearing aids, and a cochlear implant would destroy any residual hearing on that side," the doctor replied.

"If it didn't work, I would be screwed," Blaine commented.

"I would only implant one side in your case, at least until we know how well it works. Most likely the left, because you seem to have less hearing on that side already. And you're still losing hearing… I'm not sure how much longer you'll have any residual hearing to work with."

"We'll need to discuss this…" Blaine bit down on his bottom lip at his mother's comment.

"Of course." Blaine closed his eyes as the man started digging through his desk. "I have information here that you should read through and discuss before you make any decision… it will give you all the information you need to consider. For now, though, I do want to go ahead and make some adjustments to the programming in Blaine's hearing aids, to see if we can improve the sound quality for him." Blaine nodded, taking the devices off and passing them over to the doctor. While he hated the hearing aids, he wasn't a big fan of the silence that came whenever he took the devices off.

It didn't take long for the doctor to pass the devices back, and Blaine's mother immediately started to help him put them back on until Blaine swatted her hand away. "I can do it." Blaine winced as turning on the devices caused a moment of brief feedback, which thankfully went away as he adjusted the dial on the back of the device.

"Better?" Blaine shrugged; truthfully, what he heard was about the same as it had been before the doctor had made his adjustments. Things still weren't as loud as they should have been, and the soft noises that

"We should give it some time, see how it works in different environments. If we need to, we can make changes in a couple of weeks at your next appointment." Blaine nodded. "Unless you have something else we need to talk about, I'll see you in two weeks. And I should have the FM system we ordered for Blaine by then."

There was a tense silence between Blaine and his mother as they drove back towards home. Blaine knew that his mother wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of Blaine having more surgery when it wasn't medically necessary. But Blaine was terrified by the thought of not being able to understand anything people might say to him; he was desperate for some kind of guaranteed solution that would at least help him understand, even if it wasn't perfect.

"You really want to talk about cochlear implants?"

"I don't want to risk losing all of my hearing and not being able to understand anyone I love…"

"There's always sign language…" his mother began.

"And everyone I know or might ever know would have to learn how to sign for me, or I'd have to completely rely on reading lips for the rest of my life. Which I'm not good at, in case you haven't noticed."

"You just need practice."

"Mom… I want to be able to hear. Even if it's not completely real, even if it's just a mechanical, computerized voice for the rest of my life… I'd rather have that, and be able to understand people even if I'll never be able to hear your actual voices again. I… I don't want to be constantly waiting for my hearing to be gone completely, not when I have a choice."

"We don't even know that this is a choice, Blaine…"

"But we won't know if we don't look into it. If I don't ask for it, if they don't do the tests to see if it's even an option. You heard what he said… the longer we wait, the harder it will be to make this work. And I want this to work…"

"We all want this to work, Blaine. We want you to be alright again just as much as you want things to go back to the way they were. I just don't think that you should put too much faith into this idea before you know for sure that this is going to be an option. If they do this surgery and it doesn't work, you'll be completely deaf. You won't have any other options to think about."

"I need to give this a shot. I have to try something."

"We'll talk about it. I just don't think it's a good idea for you to get your hopes up too high before we have all of the details here…"

"I know. I'm trying not to put too much faith in it. But I need to know whether or not this is going to work for me, whether or not I have a chance. I'm going to have enough regrets in my life already, without constantly wondering whether or not I might have had a chance to have a life that's at least somewhat normal after all of this."

"We'll talk about it tonight, when your dad gets home." Blaine closed his eyes, wondering exactly what his mother would say to his father before Blaine got a chance to talk to him. Blaine didn't even realize that he'd fallen asleep until he felt his mother gently shaking his shoulder. "Come on… you should get inside and put your foot up again, try to get some rest."

"All I ever do is rest. And I don't see why I still have to keep my foot up all the time. I've been in this cast for six weeks already. Surely my leg has healed enough that I can walk on it now…"

"But the doctor said eight weeks, minimum. And until that cast comes off, it's my job to make sure that you're following his orders so that you don't end up causing long-term damage."