Thank you guys so much for the comments. They make me laugh so hard sometimes I cry. Your enthusiasm and loyalty to the story really makes my day (:

Wake up.

That's what kept ringing around in Kurt's ears over and over. Wake up, wake u, wake up.

It couldn't be that hard to just open your eyelids and breathe. But it was. It was very hard. Kurt wanted it to stop. He wanted to be able to stop being consumed by darkness. He wanted to see the lights.

Wake up.

Stop it.

"Is he...awake?"

Blaine! That was Blaine's voice. Kurt could recognize it from anywhere. He wanted to follow it. He wanted to be consumed by Blaine's voice and not by the darkness. Everything was painful, even breathing.

"Not yet, but he can hear you," said an unfamiliar voice.

Yes, Kurt thought, Yes I can hear you and I want to wake up but I can't and Blaine, I want to see you.

Kurt could feel something very warm brushing by his ear. "Kurt? It's me, Blaine."

Blaine! Blaine! I can hear you! I hear you, Blaine!

"All in good time, Blaine," There was Burt's voice. "Just give it some time. He'll come back soon enough."

Dad! I am back. I never left. I'm right here.

Kurt couldn't take this anymore. Though it felt like lifting weights, he attempted to open his eyes. Pulling the muscles up was an effort. It shouldn't have to be. It should not have to be a fucking effort to open your eyes. Kurt felt pathetic, like he was being treated like a new born baby.

"Kurt?" There was the beautiful voice again in his ear. "It's alright, Kurt. Don't hurt yourself."

He didn't even realize the painful growl that ripped from his throat until Blaine soothed him with words.

"Come, everyone," There was the unfamiliar voice again. "We should give Kurt his rest. You can all come visit him tomorrow, and until then, we'll do a few blood tests to determine what went wrong."

There was a sigh, and then Blaine spoke. "Alright. What's the earliest we can come tomorrow?"

"I'd say around 8 o'clock. That's when the visiting hours start."

"Great, thanks," said Burt.

Kurt felt a familiar pair of warm, soft lips pressed against his cheek. "Good night, sweetheart."

No! No, Blaine, wait, I'm here, I'm right here.

"Thanks for stopping by, folks. Have a good night." There was the sound of shuffling towards the door.

Blaine! Dad! Wait, come back! I-

Kurt's mind went blank.

THE NEXT DAY.

Kurt awoke slowly the next morning. He felt cold, much too cold, so he reached down and pulled the thin sheets over his body. It did not help very much. He tried to sit up, but his upper torso area pounded furiously, like something was trying to get out. He ignored the sharp stabs and sat up. He eyes his surroundings, the white bed with the control panel at his side, the minty green walls, the IV stuck in his arm. Home, sweet home.

He sighed heavily, which made his ribs ache even more. He stared out the window, the morning sun just starting to break over the horizon. Suddenly, the blue curtain in his hospital room flew open, making Kurt's head whirl around and his heart beat madly. A nurse walked in, clearly in shock that Kurt was awake.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't know you were awake."

"That's okay," Kurt said, his voice raspy. He cleared his throat.

"I'm going to do a short blood test," the nurse explained. "Is that okay?"

"Yes."

The nurse pulled up a chair from the corner of the room and sat down, taking a small needle from a silver tray sitting on the foot of Kurt's bed. She examined it for a minute, adjusting the tip, before Kurt spoke.

"Have I seen you before? You look familiar," Kurt asked.

The nurse looked up and smiled. "I remember you. I'm Katie. I was new here when I first treated you, and I think you were my very first patient that I ever got to work with without any help."

"Glad I was there," Kurt tried to smile. "Um, Katie? What exactly happened...?"

Katie gave Kurt a sympathetic smile. "Yesterday, when you were out with your friend Bl-"

"Oh, he's my husband, actually," Kurt clarified, and Katie raised her eyebrows.

"Really?" she asked. Her voice sounded surprised and curious, not outraged and disgusted like most people would be. "Congratulations, then."

"Thanks," Kurt smiled.

"Anyway," Katie continued with the story. "Your father told me that you and Blaine were out somewhere, I don't really know what place he mentioned, and then you suddenly passed out. Blaine had to get your father and drive you to the hospital. You're lucky that you got here so fast, other wise your concussion might have gotten worse before we could fix it."

Kurt blinked. "Concussion?"

"Yes," Katie's hand reached up and her fingertips touched Kurt's forehead. It was then that Kurt realized there was a thin gauzy material wrapped around his head, squishing down his bangs. It was a large bandage.

"You got a pretty big bump right here," Katie pointed to the side of Kurt's forehead. "You must have hit your head on something pretty hard. And now the doctors have sent me in here to take a blood test."

Squinting his eyes, Kurt flipped through his memories like the pages of a book. He tried to remember what he was doing with Blaine before he ended up in the hospital, and his mind froze on something when he remembered... oh. That's right. He was going with Blaine so they could meet up with a couple of friends for a movie, but as they were making their way out to the car Kurt's head suddenly didn't feel to good. So he assumed that's when it must have happened.

"Oh," Kurt breathed.

Katie raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

"No. I'm just...caught up in a bunch of things."

"I know how you must feel," Katie said. "Deep breath, please."

Kurt sucked in a breath and held int there while Katie inserted the needle into his forearm, drawing out the thick, dark liquid.

"I'm sorry, actually," Katie said. "I take that back. I have absolutely no idea what it's like being you. I can't even imagine what it's like having something this fatal for six years."

Kurt didn't even know what to say, he just sat there, watching the little blonde nurse take out the needle now containing Kurt's blood. His dying, sick, contaminated blood.

"There. All done," Katie said, smiling and placing the needle into a plastic bag with a label on it. "We should have the tests done by the end of the day or so."

"Alright," Kurt said. "Thank you."

"And your family should be arriving soon, too," Katie informed. "They wanted to be here first thing in the morning."

"What time is it? Have I been asleep for long?"

"It's about...eight now. And yes, you've been out for almost twelve hours now. Anyway, I'll leave you be. Please let me know if you need anything."

"Okay," Kurt said. "Thank you very much."

"My pleasure, Kurt." Katie smiled and walked off.

And she was right. In no time, Blaine, and Burt came rushing into the room a few minutes later. Blaine looked as if he hadn't gotten any sleep at all the previous night, and it broke Kurt's heart.

"Kurt!" Blaine almost yelled a little bit too loudly, and he instantly regretted the action when he thought of all the other sleeping patients. He zoomed over to Kurt's bedside and gave him a long, firm hug. The hug wasn't too tight however, because Blaine was terrified of hurting his husband. He was so close to losing his husband last night...no. He couldn't cry. Not right now, not in front of people.

"It's okay, Blaine," Kurt patted Blaine's shoulder softly. "Shh, it's alright. I'm alright."

"I was so worried," Blaine pouted. "Oh my god, I was terrified."

Kurt reached up and pecked Blaine on the lips. "It's okay. I'm fine. Thank you for getting me here just in time."

Blaine couldn't resist Kurt's sweet smile, like a child looking up at him on Christmas morning. "You're welcome, sweetie."

"Hey, kiddo," Burt came over and patted Kurt on the knee, covered beneath a few sheets and a hospital garment. "How are you feeling?"

"Hi dad," Kurt grinned. "I'm fine. I feel okay now."

That was a bit of a lie. Kurt's ribs cage area throbbed whenever it was touched. But he didn't think this was too serious, so he didn't tell anyone.

"Good," Burt said. "Carole and Finn are still at home. They'll come by later when it's less early."

Burt and Blaine stayed with Kurt all day. Even when Kurt told Blaine it was okay to go and spend time with his friends on this lovely summer day, Blaine shook his head like a disobedient child and said, "No. Staying right here." Sometimes Blaine could act like a child, but it amused Kurt.

By the end of the day, when Kurt decided to take a little cat nap, a doctor dressed in a white coat came sliding through the blue curtains. He held a clipboard in his hand, a pen behind his ear. Blaine recognized that this was Dr. P. Avery, a doctor who had treated Kurt a couple months ago.

"Nice to see you again, doc," Burt got up to shake the doctor's hand.

"Nice to see you too, Mr. Hummel." He looked over and found Kurt asleep, holding Blaine's hand, gently breathing. Dr. P. Avery's face looked unsure, un-decided. He cleared his throat.

"May I please talk to the both of you outside for a minute, please?" Dr. P. Avery asked politely. "There's some information I think you should both be aware of."

Uh oh.

Blaine did not like the sound of this. He swallowed hard, gently releasing his grip on Kurt's hand, kissing his third knuckle before following Burt and the doctor out. He didn't even want to go out the door and have a chat. He wanted to stay with Kurt. He wanted to cuddle up on the bed with him and fall asleep, never ever waking up so he could live in his dreams forever. But that would never happen. His legs carried him automatically to the door and out into the hall. Since it was nearly nighttime, there wasn't as much commotion going on like there was in the day time.

"What's going on?" Blaine asked, his voice starting to shake.

Please let it be good news. Please let him get better and let us never have to come back here again.

"I just received the results from Kurt's blood test we examined a few hours ago," said the doctor, flipping through some pages on the clipboard. Blaine held his breath now. He looked down at his shoes on the linoleum tiled floors. There was either one way or another, now. No stuck in the in between.

Burt tried to remain calm. "Yeah? How did that go?"

"Not too well, I'm afraid," Dr. P. Avery told them with a tint of regret in his voice. "Kurt's leukocytes have dramatically dropped since the last time he was here. Because of this, his body hasn't been able to fight of sicknesses off as much, which was why he's been experiencing vomiting, fainting and head trauma more frequently. And since Kurt's immune system and his body did not respond to treatments in the past, there's nothing that we, as doctors and nurses, can do for him at the moment."

Dr. P. Avery paused, closing the papers on the clipboards in his hand and drew in a breath. This was the worst part about being a doctor, in his opinion. He never enjoyed seeing people's reactions when he delivered bad news.

"Mr. Hummel... Kurt's body cannot physically take what's being thrown at him anymore. I'm afraid he's terminal."

Blaine wanted to throw up.

He had to throw up.

The whole fucking building was spinning. It was on fire. Blaine couldn't see, he couldn't breath or speak. Kurt was inside the room right now, sleeping away like an angel, not even knowing that he was terminal.

Blaine hated that word. He hated everything.

You could tell just by looking on Burt's face that he was struggling to keep tears inside. "Are you sure?"

"Positive, sir," the doctor replied.

"How much..." Burt paused to sigh, a big lump forming in his throat. "How much time does he have left?"

Dr. P. Avery said, "I'd say about... a month or so, maybe a bit longer than that."

Blaine sprinted as fast as he could back down the hall, his sneakers slapping loudly against the floor. It echoed, and he didn't even care if he woke anybody up at this point. He didn't care about them. He needed to see Kurt. He needed to make sure his face wasn't just a beautiful dream. He needed to feel him in his hands, his mouth. Blaine ignored Burt calling his name from down the hall, telling him to please stop, please wait, slow down. He would not.

Bursting into the room, Blaine through back the curtain, seeing his lovely Kurt rubbing his eyes with his arm and leaning up on one elbow, just waking up from sleep. His cheeks were the shade of a rose, his hair tousled and messy, his eyes tired but alert. He spotted Blaine and smiled wide.

"Hi, baby," Kurt grinned his adorable, drowsy, sleepy smile. "What's up?"

Blaine lost it. He ran right into Kurt and held onto him like someone was trying to pry him away. He sobbed into Kurt's neck, getting tears all over his hospital garment. Kurt jumped, a little startled at first, but he immediately sprung into action. He wrapped his arms around Blaine's back, rubbing his hands up and down to try to get him to calm down.

"Blaine," he whispered frantically, "Blaine, what's wrong, honey?"

Blaine didn't answer. Instead, he pulled his face out of Kurt's neck and seized his face, pulling it to his own as if they were running out of time. He kissed Kurt so passionately and hungrily that Kurt thought he might topple over. Kurt could feel the salty tears spilling down Blaine's cheeks, but neither of them pulled away.

They'd never pull away.

Author's note: Hey everyone, I am really sorry that this is what I've chosen to do to Kurt and his illness. I debated with myself for months and months trying to figure out if I should keep him alive or not. I decided that this would have fit the story more and it would have made more sense to have him die instead of live. Think about it: he's had the disease for six years. Just because Blaine comes into his life does not mean that he suddenly gets to survive and live happily ever after. I'm so sorry, I want Kurt to live as well, but things don't always work that way. If you don't like this ending, leave the story. Don't harass me in my PM box or in my comments saying that I'm a bad author by killing off Kurt. Because I'm pretty proud of this story, and even though it's not finished yet, I think I did an okay job for my second story. Plus, for the people who saw the movie/read the book, you all knew this was coming. You have to believe me when I say that I cry sometimes at my computer as I type these words. I'm sorry if I'm coming off as rude. I just want to try and be honest. I cherish all of your opinions and I try my best to incorporate them into my stories, but this was just something I needed to do as a writer. But the story is not over yet. Thanks for reading, I hope you don't all hate me too much, because I love you, faithful readers (: