A/N: Short chapter! *Glares at self.* The next one looks as though it'll be pretty long, and it'll have Wes! I love him way too much. Hope you all enjoy this one (:

I'm getting really excited about the coming chapters...

Kurt was frozen. Blaine had led him gently to the sofa, where they gingerly took their seats. Carole was tensely curled up on the armchair opposite of them, but Burt didn't seem to be able to do anything but stand there and frown.

"We're not going anywhere, until you explain to us what those are." Carole said softly, pointing to the purple splotches on his skin. Kurt knew she wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Still, for the next five minutes, they simply sat in silence. He couldn't bring himself to speak.

"Kurt..." Blaine began, squeezing his hand. "If you don't tell them I will." The small boy looked up at him with wide, fearful eyes. The last thing Kurt wanted was for his parents to be worried about him.

"Can we talk about this later?" He mumbled, trying to avoid the subject. Blaine sighed next to him, and gave him a warning look. Kurt shook his head, pleading for him not to say anything. Unfortunately for him, Blaine's guilt about not mentioning this to his parents earlier had reached a breaking point.

"Kurt was driving home, when-" He tried to begin, before Kurt shushed him loudly. He held his hand up to Blaine, asking for permission to say something.

"Dad, I'm only going to tell you what happened on one condition." He said seriously. Burt raised his eyebrows, listening.

"Well?"

"Don't freak out. Promise me you'll hear me out before you do something drastic. It's not that big of a deal." He felt Blaine stiffen next to him, clearly disagreeing.

"I'll do my best." Burt said, glaring at the bruises that he could barely see through his sons soaked t-shirt. Kurt took a deep breath and visibly tightened his grip on Blaine's hand.

"Do you remember last time I was here?" He asked, staring at his knees. This was it, he was going to tell them. Part of him felt a strong weight, that he hadn't noticed until then, lift from his shoulders. "I came home from Mercedes' house and-"

"You were bleeding." Carole whispered, frowning deeply. Kurt had told them he slipped on some ice.

"And you looked petrified." Burt recalled, sighing.

"I lied when I said I was okay." Kurt said quietly into his lap. His father coughed. "I stopped by a gas station when I left Mercedes' house. Someone hit me, and I ran away. That's all."

He looked up now, facing his parents. Carole had covered her mouth, and looked close to tears. Burt on the other hand, still looked dissatisfied with the information.

"There's something you're not telling us." He accused, noticing how Blaine grimaced at Kurt's shortened version of the story. "You can't expect me to believe that some guy, randomly decided to beat you up that badly."

"There is more." Blaine whispered, giving Kurt a look. All three of the Hummels noticed this, but none of them could quite understand what it meant.

"No, there isn't. It was dark, he could have been drunk." Kurt lied. If his parents knew he was targeted by Karofsky because he was gay, they would have a fit. He had put his father through so much already, and on top of his heart condition, too.

"Sweetie, tell us the truth." Carole said. None of them believed him in the slightest. They all stared as Kurt looked down and shook his head quickly.

"Blaine?" Burt asked, staring at him. He knew Kurt had told him what happened, and if his son wouldn't tell him, Blaine would.

"It was Karofsky." He murmured, with an apologetic glance at Kurt. The pale boy sent him a disbelieving, and betrayed look.

"I'm going to find that boy." Burt said with forced calm, standing up and striding towards the door. Kurt jumped up and stopped him before he could even leave the room.

"No!" He yelled, panicking. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm gonna go give that kid a piece of my mind!" Burt growled in response. There was no way that asshole was ever going to hurt his son again. He tried to push past Kurt, who surprised him with his strength.

"You promised you wouldn't do anything drastic." Kurt accused, tears welling up in his eyes. He pushed Burt back as gently as he could.

"Listen to me Kurt-" He tried to say, while Blaine and Carole stared at each other with mirrored worry.

"No dad. You listen to me!" He said forcefully. He pushed an unwilling Burt back onto his chair, and stayed standing. "I don't want you to go find Karofsky!"

"Why not?" Burt asked, disbelieving. "I'm trying to help you here, and you're telling me we should let him get away with this?" Kurt put his hands on his hips before replying.

"There is nothing we can do about him, dad. I'm at Dalton now, I'm safe there. The only place he can get me is here, and I won't be stupid enough to go out alone at night anymore." He stared at all three of the angry looking members in the room. They couldn't believe how willingly Kurt would let this go.

"Baby, I don't care if he never hurts you again. You can't let him get away with doing this to you." Carole said, lip wobbling.

"It doesn't matter!" He said desperately. "What will going to Karofsky change? Do you think he'll be punished and have an epiphany? Telling on him isn't going to make him stop, so what's the point? It'll only cause us unnecessary stress."

"The point is, you shouldn't be thrown around like that." Blaine said, eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm not worrying about myself." Kurt whispered, staring at each of them in turn. "I'm worrying about all of you. Dad, I don't want you to be scared about me, or have to worry about going to the police about some bully. I'm safe. Karofsky's never gonna have a chance to hurt me again. I've told you, and now you know. Can't this be over?" The tears fell freely now, streaking down his red cheeks. Burt patted the empty seat next to him and Kurt took it.

"Kid, you're telling me you don't want to go to the police because it'll stress you out, and you're sure it'll never happen again anyways." Burt said, to clarify. Kurt had leaned his head onto his dads shoulder, and nodded.

"There's no point anymore. Karofsky's not going to change, we're just going to waste our time...The doctors said you shouldn't be stressed out right now." Kurt could see both Blaine and Carole from where he sat, and saw that they agreed with Burt.

"I don't like it." Carole said, staring straight at her son.

"Please?" Kurt whimpered, breathing heavily now. "Please, just do this for me? It's painful to remember, why can't you just let me forget this? Let's all forget this happened." He twiddled his thumbs, looking away from everyone.

"I won't take it to the police." Burt said finally. Blaine and Carole stared up at him in surprise. That was unlike him...They half expected him to buy a shotgun and hunt that kid down.

"Really?" Kurt said, brightening up. There would be no more Karofsky, no more stress, and no more hiding anything from his parents. How had he gotten so lucky? Blaine and Carole seemed to be wondering the same thing, judging by the looks on their faces.

"But..." His dad continued, making his sons face fall. "I'm going over to his place, and talking to his dad. Then I'll have a talk with that kid. There is no fucking way he will ever touch you again. The only reason I'm not getting his ass thrown into juvy is because you don't want to have to deal with the investigations and crap."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Kurt said, trying to stop the tears. He wrapped his arms around his dad, and buried his face into his shoulder.

"Burt, what if this is serious?" Carole asked, worrying about Kurt.

"Mom, don't worry. I'll just take someone out with me anytime I'm in Lima." He assured her, eternally grateful he wouldn't have to see Karofsky ever again.

"Kurt, I'm doing this on one condition, and if you don't accept this, I will go straight to the police." Burt threatened.

"What?" He asked, biting his lip.

"If anything like this ever happens again, you come straight to us." Burt explained, giving his son a hard stare. "I have to know that you won't keep something like this from us ever again."

"I just don't want you to hurt." Kurt mumbled. His dad sighed.

"If you had told us right away...It would have been better." Carole said. "Now we're just going to worry that you're hiding things from us." Kurt frowned at her apologetically.

"I'm sorry. I'll-I'll tell you if this happens again. Even though it won't." He was determined to keep himself out of Karofsky's path, to ensure his family never dealt with his problems ever again.

"May I ask why Blaine knew about this, but we didn't?" Burt asked, grimacing. He was his father, if anyone should have known first it was him.

"He saw the marks and I made him promise not to say anything." Kurt mumbled, wanting to get this all over with.

"Alright then. Blaine, same goes for you. If he's hurt, you tell us. Even if he tells you not to." Burt said, giving Blaine a stern look. He nodded, running a hand through his curly hair.

"I'm sorry, I should have done something." He said, feeling guilty. Carole leaned over and squeezed his shoulder.

"We don't blame you. Or you, Kurt...But I don't know what we would do if something happened to you. You have to start trusting us." She smiled at the two boys, holding back tears. She had to be strong, so that Kurt knew he could come to her.

"It's late." Burt concluded, staring at the time. It was ten o'clock. Though it was not an ungodly hour, he felt drained of all energy. He could see the bags forming under Carole's eyes. "You two should get to bed. Separately."

"Goodnight, dad." Kurt murmured, squeezing his dads hand. Burt stood up, pulling his son off the couch with him.

"Love you, kid." He said, pulling Kurt into a gentle hug. He didn't want to hurt his already damaged body. His son hugged back tightly, so Burt knew that the bruises weren't too painful anymore. Carole stood up, and joined them.

"Burt will go down to the Karofsky's tomorrow, okay? You don't need to worry." She whispered into Kurt's hair.

"I'm not." He assured them. "Goodnight." With another worried glance, Kurt watched them leave the room, and he could tell they weren't going to sleep. They were going to talk about him, wondering what to do about the situation. It wasn't over. He sighed deeply, but remained standing up.

"You okay?" Blaine asked, staring up at his boyfriends miserable face.

"Why would you do that, Blaine?" Kurt asked, frowning. He looked surprisingly livid, which shocked Blaine. He had never seen Kurt angry...

"Do what?" He asked, standing up. He took a step towards Kurt, and meant to hold his hands. Before he could do this, the porcelain boy took a step back away from him.

"You told them about Karofsky. I wasn't ready for this, and you told them." He mumbled, more tears flowing from his eyes. Blaine let out a long sigh.

"Kurt, you don't realize how serious this is. You could have been really hurt. I was trying to look out for you." He said cautiously, the last thing he needed was Kurt upset with him.

"I don't want them to worry, Blaine." Kurt said, wrapping his arms around himself.

"They don't have to anymore, now that you've told them and they're going to put a stop to it. It's over now." He took a careful step towards Kurt, holding his arms open. Kurt glanced at them for a few seconds, before running into his arms at full speed.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have said that." He mumbled. Blaine squeezed him tight.

"Don't worry." He repeated.

A/N: So there it is! Not sure how I feel about it, but it's the best I could do (: Does anybody have any one-shot ideas? I'd love to write some but I can't seem to think of any! Thank you all, you're amazing and I love you. You never fail to review, therefore never failing to make me smile.

I wrote this chapter more than once, but eventually, I decided this version sounded the best. Kurt wouldn't want to go through the stress of a police investigation, as he knew it would just be harder for his parents. But of course Burt wouldn't let something like this go, so he goes to the Karofsky's to "sort things out." Hope that made sense, it's just that the other versions I wrote felt...wrong.

Ahh, authors note rampage. Leaving now (: