Disclaimer: All my medical knowledge comes from Wikipedia, ComaCARE and Scrubs so everything's probably wrong.

first interlude

This was without a doubt the weirdest dream Blaine had ever had. It was definitely the dream with the prettiest landscape – he'd never seen trees so green or water so clear. He spent most of his time sitting either next to the lake or on top of the tree which had fallen over it, and when the silence started getting to him he sang. (He saw his reflection once. His hair gel had lost effect and the sight of a Dalton gentleman with frizzy curls made him half laugh, half grimace so he'd dumped his tie and blazer by the lake and hadn't touched them since.)

After a while, he heard voices. They seemed to echo through the trees, bouncing through the trunks and leaves so they could have come from any direction. He was bemused, to begin with, because he mostly heard his brother's voice and they'd never been especially close, their lives more passing by each other than intertwining. Occasionally there were his parents' voices, and his friends from Dalton. Sometimes they told him what was going on, catching him up on things; sometimes they begged or pleaded or cried for him to wake up. The latter times made his stomach twist uncomfortably, but then the voices fell silent and Blaine would sing again.

Then he heard a voice he didn't recognise, a woman, talking to the disembodied voices of his parents.

Head trauma. Internal bleeding. Punctured lung. Two broken ribs. A broken collar bone. Broken . . . all down his left side. Comatose.

This wasn't a dream.

And, in vivid bursts which left him a with lingering phantom pain, Blaine began to remember.

He remembered leaving the house, locking it behind him because his dad had gone to work already and his mom was still asleep. He remembered singing along to every song on his iPod, except for the ones he'd be rehearsing with the Warblers for the next six hours, as he drove out of Kenton and down US-33. He remembered smoke and cars too close together and slamming on his breaks so hard his car screeched sideways as another car crashed into him. He remembered the smell and the metallic tang of his blood as he tried to cry out and the shock of agony throughout his entire body before everything was replaced by whatever this place was.

He didn't move for what felt like an age after that. The voices continued, as loud as ever, although he barely heard them. He avoided the lake, too. His singing had been so carefree that it felt wrong to go back there, and besides that he hated to catch his reflection any more. He'd picked a random direction and walked until he hadn't wanted to, but the voices never grew any quieter or louder and Blaine still didn't know how to react.

He guessed days were passing, though he had no hope of keeping track. No matter who was visiting him at the hospital (and there was a thought which left his insides cold), he would always hear Cooper's voice at some point, or else there was silence.

One day, he heard someone singing. To begin with, he just dismissed it – sometimes the nurses or Cooper would sing to him. He quickly realised, however, that he'd never heard anyone singing Lady Gaga to him, and on top of that the voice seemed to be changing in volume in a way that suggested someone was moving away instead of lowering their voice. Excitement mixed with relief and a hint of trepidation rushed through Blaine as he shouted out, "Hello?"

The world fell silent, and Blaine's heart sank. Had he just been making it up? Was he finally going crazy with no one to talk to?

But then, the voice called back, "Hello? Is someone there?"

"Yes! Stay – stay where you are. But keep singing so I can find you."

Bad Romance started up again. Blaine jumped to his feet and followed the voice, and it was just about to move into the bridge when Blaine caught sight of a boy through the trees. He had light brown hair and pale skin, and he was wearing what looked like deep blue pyjamas.

"Hi!" he called out cheerfully, a light feeling spreading through his chest because now he wouldn't be alone any more. The boy stopped singing and looked at Blaine curiously as he approached.

"Hi," the boy replied as Blaine got closer.

"Have you been here long?" Blaine asked.

"Hmm, I can't tell. Although I think it's been all night by now."

"What do you mean?"

"Time passes strangely here." The boy looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded and smiled at Blaine. "I made a game to guess how long it is until I wake up and I'm not usually far off. I've been having these dreams all week now and I'm five for seven."

Blaine's body felt cold and his tongue heavy as he asked, "You can wake up?"

"Of course."

Blaine couldn't move, and then the boy began to quickly fade away, smiling triumphantly.

"I thought so!" he said, just before he disappeared entirely. Blaine blinked dumbly. Then his legs gave out and he fell to the ground and cried.