Chapter 21
Blaine was silent. He had no idea what to say.
Burt continued. "I know you two have had your differences in the past, but I thought you'd like to know."
Blaine was stunned, and felt the all too familiar wave of numbness wash over him. "Oh god. Is he okay?"
Burt made a noncommittal noise. "We don't know. They can't tell us anything yet."
"Which hospital?" Blaine asked. Burt told him. It was the same one Carrie worked at. "I'll be right over. I have a friend who works the night shift at the ER there sometimes, and she's on tonight. She might be able to help us get something out of them."
He quickly grabbed Stitch and put him in the laundry room with his bed, food, water, and blankets. Then, without waking her up, he grabbed Rose, Rose's blanket, and Rose's teddy bear and put her in her car seat. Blaine drove as carefully yet quickly as he could and headed to the hospital. Wrapping his daughter in her blanket and handing her the teddy bear, he hurried inside. Rose, still half asleep, curled into her father's chest.
When he arrived inside, Burt stood up and motioned him over. Carole, Rachel, Finn, Levi, and he were all sitting together, worried looks on their faces. "Has anyone heard anything?" Blaine asked.
Burt shook his head. "No. They're still in there with him." Blaine nodded, let Burt take Rose from him, and went to the front desk. "Is Carrie Thurman here?" he demanded.
The man at the front desk (who he vaguely recognized as one of this year's first grader's dads, which meant he possibly taught their child last year) nodded. "She is here, but she's with a patient. I can let her know you came by, Blaine."
Blaine nodded. "Yeah, that'd be great. Just, who is she with?"
The man shook his head slowly. "I can't tell you that."
"Is she with Kurt Hummel?" he asked anxiously.
The man shook his head. "You'll have to wait until she comes out."
Blaine took a deep calming breath and nodded. "Alright. Thanks anyway." He returned and sat by Burt. But he could only sit so long before he stood up and started pacing. After a couple minutes, he felt Rose tug on his shirt.
"Daddy?" she whispered, "Are you okay?"
Blaine wanted to cry, but he knew he needed to pretend he was okay, if only for Rose. "Yeah, I'm okay honey."
"Why are we at a hospital?" she asked.
Blaine hesitated before deciding to tell her "Because Mr. Kurt got into a car accident, Rosie."
Her eyes widened, her face turned white, and he saw the fear cross her face immediately. "Like mommy did?" she whispered.
Blaine leaned down and pulled her into a hug. "Oh honey, I don't know." She started to cry into his shirt. "Shhh, honey, shhh. It's okay. It'll be okay."
"But mommy wasn't." Rose insisted. Blaine half regretted telling her about what happened to her mom, but a couple weeks ago she had asked why she didn't have a mommy and Riley and Jared did. And that led her to wonder why she had grandparents that weren't Daddy's parents, and why she didn't have grandparents who were daddy's parents. So Blaine pulled out some pictures from college and told her the whole story. "Is Mr. Kurt going to be okay?"
"I hope so, sweetie."
"But mommy wasn't!" she insisted again.
"No," Blaine whispered, trying to figure out how to say this. "Mommy wasn't. But mommy was killed as soon as she got in the accident, and Mr. Kurt is still alive hours later." He explained. Rose, with her tear-streaked face, nodded and hugged her father.
Blaine heard the door open and turned to see Carrie walking out. "Blaine!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
Blaine couldn't hold his panic back. "Kurt was in an accident, and he's in Lima for Rose's birthday and he brought Stitch and he was on his way to the airport and his car and Jayden and—"
"Shhh, Blaine, it's okay. Calm down." she tried to sooth him, but she knew Blaine well enough to know that he was in full freak out mode.
"Kurt came back to Lima for Rose's birthday, and he bought her a puppy, and he was driving back to the airport and he got in an accident. Have you seen him? Is he okay?" Blaine begged.
"I was with him while he was in critical condition, but I'm not still with him because of conflict of interest. I haven't seen him recently, but I came to talk to Carole and Burt to see how they were holding up. I didn't know you would be here." Carrie explained.
"Okay, but you need to find out what's wrong and if he's okay and what's going on. Carrie we need to know what's going on." Blaine said urgently.
"Shhh, Blaine it's okay. I know the nurses he's with. He's in good hands. They'll tell Burt and Carole as soon as they know anything. It's okay, honey." Carrie tried to sooth him, but he only calmed for a few seconds before standing back up and pacing around the room.
Then, all of a sudden, Blaine felt terrible. He remembered what Kurt had said to him the day they broke up the second time. 'You're so busy feeling bad for yourself…' Blaine groaned and mentally hit himself. If this was nerve-racking for him, he couldn't imagine what this would feel like for Burt. If something ever happened to Rose…
Blaine went to go sit down, but noticed Carole was the only one there. "Where did everyone go?" he asked.
Carole looked up from the magazine she was pretending to read. "Finn, Rachel, Levi, and Rose were getting hungry and Burt was getting antsy just sitting here, so they went to the hospital cafeteria to get something to eat. They said they would bring something back for us, too." She explained.
"Oh." Blaine said. "So how has Levi been? He must be almost nine months old now, right?"
Carole smiled. "Yeah, he's doing really well. He can walk as long as he's holding on to things, but talks up a storm if we let him, even if he only makes sense about five percent of the time, since he only knows three words. Rachel and Finn are talking about moving back to New York with him, though."
Blaine nodded. "That would be good for Rachel, to be back in the city. It's where she belongs. But it wouldn't be much fun to be so far away from your grandchild."
Carole laughed. "I suppose you would know. I'm sure Rose's grandparents give you hell for taking their grand kid across country."
Blaine forced a smile. "I get lectured on it at least once a week."
Carole opened her mouth to reply when they saw the doors open again, and a vaguely familiars nurse walked out and walked to Carole "Are you Kurt Hummel's mother?"
Carole nodded "Yes, do you know anything yet?" Burt, Rachel, Finn, Rose, and Levi came in to the room and she motioned them over.
"He's doing much better. We stabilized him, but he's lost a lot of blood from when the window shattered. He had a concussion from hitting his head on the steering wheel—the airbag didn't activate. He has a couple broken ribs, his right tibia is shattered and his right radius is cracked." She paused. "He's lucky. In a crash like this, he could have been so much worse off. Because of his concussion he is in a coma. But he has no internal bleeding or other inner problems. He is pretty bruised and scratched up, though."
Everyone breathed a mini sigh of relief. While the coma was still to be worried about, at least they knew what was going on and exactly how bad it was.
"Is the coma from the concussion or is it drug induced?" Carole asked.
"It's from the concussion, so we're watching it very closely." The nurse said.
"I thought people with concussions weren't supposed to sleep." Finn commented, glancing down at the baby in his arms to avoid everyone else's eyes.
"Yes, but we can't control whether he goes comatose or not." The nurse addressed Finn. After a couple more comments and questions, the nurse took Burt and Carole to Kurt's room.
Using a few pillows he had left in the car, a couple chairs, and her blanket, Blaine made Rose a make shift bed. Within a couple minutes she was fast asleep. Blaine turned to Rachel and Finn. "How are you two holding up?" he asked.
"Okay." Rachel said. "We're worried, of course, but Kurt's a fighter. He'll be okay."
Finn smiled. "I'm just afraid of how angry he'll be that his right hand is broken. No sketching for a while."
"The company should give him some time off, though." Rachel said. "He was in a serious car accident."
"What exactly happened?" Blaine asked.
Rachel thought about it for a second before she told the story. Apparently he had been driving in the left lane, on his way to the airport, when someone tried to merge into the spot he was. He honked at first, but they ignored him. Since there was traffic he couldn't go into the right lane, and in a state of panic (or so they assumed) he slammed on this brakes and jerked the wheel left, crashing into the concrete divider. Because of the traffic and the fact that he had just slammed on his brakes, he only hit the wall at about thirty-three to thirty-five miles an hour, but when his airbag didn't activate he hit his head on the steering wheel.
"And no one at the scene would admit to being the car that ran him off the road. So either someone was lying or the car kept driving." Rachel said.
"Didn't anyone see it?" Blaine asked.
Finn shrugged. "Yeah, that's how we know what happened. But no one remembers anything about the car that cut Kurt off; they paid more attention to him hitting the wall."
Blaine was about to ask another question when Carole walked out. "Do you guys want to come in? He's still in a coma so it's not too interesting, but at least you can see he's alright."
Rachel took the sleeping baby out of Finn's arms. "You boys go. I'll stay out here with Levi and Rose."
Finn and Blaine nodded as they followed Carole down the hall. They entered the room to see Burt talking to a doctor, and Kurt on a hospital bed. Blaine was immediately at his side, scanning over him, identifying every scratch and bruise. He looked so small and weak hooked up to all the machines. Blaine tried to hold back his tears, but knew it was no use.
"There's lots of brain activity," the doctor was telling Burt, "so brain damage doesn't seem to be an issue. It's just a matter of when his knock to the head allows him to wake up."
"But with a concussion, isn't there brain damage anyway?" Finn asked.
"Not necessarily." Blaine said, remembering this from his Anatomy class in college. "A concussion is just a bruise on the brain from hitting the skull, and damage depends on how hard you've hit, right?" Blaine asked the doctor.
"That's one way of putting it, yes. We're keeping an eye out for any permanent damage to the brain, but it seems as if Mr. Hummel will make a full recovery." The doctor said. After talking to Burt a few more minutes, he too left the room.
The four sat around Kurt's bed, waiting for any sign of improvement, for hours. The annoying beep of the heart monitor quickly became a steady beat of reassurance for Blaine, that Kurt was still okay and that his heart was still doing its best to keep him alive.
"Blaine, it's late." Carole said, checking her watch. It was three in the morning. "You and Rose have school tomorrow. Shouldn't you get home?"
"I'll call a substitute. It's just a couple hours anyway. Maybe Stephanie will take both classes tomorrow." Blaine commented. He called the other kindergarten teacher and left a message on her phone, explaining the situation. Eventually, Finn took Rachel and Levi home. Around four in the morning, Burt left too, claiming he had to sleep so he could go to work tomorrow. Carrie came in to tell Blaine she was taking Rose and Stitch to her house around four thirty, leaving only he, Carole, and the stream of nurses coming in to check Kurt's vitals.
They urged the two to leave, but Carole didn't want to leave the hospital in case something happened, and Blaine didn't want to leave Kurt. Blaine actually had a feeling that she was still there so he wouldn't have to leave-as a nurse who had been there for years, she would be less likely to be 'kicked out' when it got too late, and if he was with her...
"You two are really in love." Carole commented around six in the morning. The two had dozed here and there, but mostly were too anxious to sleep. Blaine shrugged. He had no idea what to say to that. "It's almost as if there's an invisible string connecting you two. Sometimes it's against your will and sometimes it's not, but it's always there. And no matter where you go, you always end up together again somehow."
"I guess." Blaine said. "But the circumstances seem to really suck." They were both fell silent and Blaine sighed. He and Kurt just seemed too different sometimes.
"He's going to be okay, you know." Carole assured. Blaine nodded and tried to believe her, but he'd lost too many people to completely believe Kurt would wake up and be one hundred percent fine.
The day passed in a blur. He had to go in for surgery around noon for his broken bones. Carole eventually convinced Blaine to eat something. "You're doing him no help by starving yourself, Blaine. You need to sleep, too. Do you want to end up on one of these hospital beds?"
Throughout the day Rachel, Finn, Levi, Burt, Hiram, Leroy, Carrie, and Rose came in to check on Kurt. Each time, they urged Blaine and Carole to head home and get some rest. After a while the two promised they would go home that night.
So they did, and they both found the other walking into the hospital by six thirty the next morning. When they walked in, Burt, who had been there all night, left to get breakfast and coffee.
"Why am I such a terrible person?" he asked, leaning on Carole's shoulder.
"You're not a terrible person." Carole said. "You're a wounded person, maybe, but not terrible."
Blaine snorted. "You didn't hear the things I said to Kurt in June." He said. "I am a terrible person."
Carole thought about this. "I've heard. And I heard all about the things he said back," she paused, "But you do love him."
Blaine shrugged. "I'm not sure I can help loving him. I don't think I'll ever stop." He paused. "I just don't want him to die before I apologize for the way I treated him."
"He's not going to die." Carole assured. "You can apologize the minute he wakes up. Or the minute you get here after he wakes up."
"I guess I can't help but feel bad, and I won't feel better until I talk to him." Blaine shrugged. "But he has to wake up first."
"He will." She said.
"I wish I could be so certain." Blaine sighed.
"As a nurse," Carole said, "I've seen my share of deaths—both unexpected and predictable. But I'm sure it's so much different when it's your own family and friends deaths. And you've seen too much of that, Blaine. Far too much."
Blaine mutely nodded. Carole put her arm around him and let him lean into her. "He'll be okay."
Blaine looked at her. "Yeah?"
"Yeah, and know what else?" she asked. Blaine looked at her, puzzled and she smiled at him. "You're going to be okay, too."
So my dad's doing a LOT better, so thanks to everyone for your messages and everything. It really meant a lot.
On another note, how sad (well, for me) is it that there are only three more weeks until this is over?