Well here it is!

I'm SO sorry about the delay - something horrible happened to me on Sunday but it's all ok now. I hope the chapter is worth the wait. I think you will all be surprised :D

Liz xxx

Edit 4:46pm: From some comments I've just received this chapter has been ammended slightly :D

Chapter 43 - Hospital

"NATHANIEL!" The word flew from my throat in a scream. Scrambling across the floor I grabbed the figure of my Head Boy, hauling him up so I could see his face. The expression made my gut wrench.

"YOU!" Behind me I heard a commotion. Turning briefly around I saw Scott had appeared, and was now holding back Gabriel, sheer rage written across his face. Blaine dropped down beside me, looking concerned.

"Oh my God." He said. The knife was still wedged into Nathaniel's stomach, just to his left.

"What do we do? WHAT DO WE DO?" I shouted, unable to stop myself from panicking. Blood was still streaming out of the wound and as I tried to stop it it soaked my hands.

"Well we can't take the knife out, but we should stem the bleeding." Blaine replied, somehow managing to stay relatively calm. "You go get help."

"Ok, help." As he took over and began to rip up a part of his shirt, I jumped up, running off past Scott and Gabriel towards the front of Wordsworth.

Immediately I began screaming.

"HELP! HELP!" My feet thumped against the grass, my heart pounding in my ears. I could barely see straight, my whole body still in complete shock.

Suddenly I spotted my History teacher Mr Banner helping out some students that had got out of Wordsworth. When he heard my shout and turned round his eyes widened as he took in my bloodstained hands.

"Mr Banner!" I shouted, my voice now becoming breathless. "Mr Banner help!"

"What the devil is going on Kurt?" He asked, now looking extremely concerned and signalling for other nearby teachers to come over.

"Nathaniel's been stabbed! Nathaniel Archibald's been stabbed!"

When the other teacher's and I reached the scene Blaine seemed to have dealt with the situation. The knife was still sticking out of Nathaniel's stomach and he was moaning in pain, but there was less blood around.

"Mr Banner." Blaine said, relief crossing his face when he saw us. "You need to call 911, now."

"CALL 911!" The teacher repeated, causing several people to get their phones out and begin frantically dialling.

"I removed the knife but he's still losing a lot of blood. He needs medical attention now." Looking over at Scott I realised that instead of holding Gabriel back, he was now holding him up, the figure of the Wildeian slumped down against him.

"He was getting dangerous so I had to knock him out." Scott said. "I wanted to kill him."

"But you didn't." Blaine responded, shooting him a look that both of them seemed to understand. "You did the right thing." Crouching back down by my boyfriend I tried to catch Nathaniel's eye. He whole face was scrunched up with pain and I suddenly grabbed hold of one of his hands, clutching it tightly.

"It's going to be ok." I said, trying to sound as sure of myself as possible. "It's going to be ok…"

Once the ambulance finally arrived we were pushed back, allowing the paramedics to do their job. They commended Blaine on his actions and quick thinking and Nathaniel was quickly loaded up into the ambulance. I insisted I stay with him and Blaine and Scott were allowed along too. Throughout the whole journey to the hospital I didn't let go of his hand, muttering the same phrase over and over again.

The hospital lights hurt my eyes. Everything was so white – the walls, the floor, the seats we were sitting on. It just felt cold. Blaine sat next to me in the corridor, his arm wrapped protectively round my shoulders, rubbing my collarbone comfortingly. Scott was seated on the other side but surprisingly, was completely silent.

"You need to clean your hands." Blaine's voice rang out against the relative silence of bleeping machines and the occasional passing patient. I looked down at my hands, which were still stained red with blood. The colour was a stark contrast to my surroundings and the sight made me feel sick.

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"No." Finally I spoke again, the word sounding strange coming from my mouth. Jumping up abruptly I strode over to the bathroom and shut the door behind me.

As soon as I was alone I let out another deep breath. My whole body felt drained and as I walked over to the sink I was forced to lean against it to hold myself up. This wasn't happening. How had it happened? One moment my biggest problem had been worrying about relationship problems. Now my friend had turned psycho, my boyfriend had almost been killed and my Head Boy was lying in a bed somewhere possibly bleeding to death. Oh my God. He couldn't die. He couldn't. This was nothing to do with him.

As I turned the tap on and stuck my hands in the flow the water immediately turned red. Reaching for some soap I scrubbed at my palms, trying to release the dry blood that had crusted and formed lines across my skin. Nathaniel's blood. As I turned the temperature of the water up tears suddenly began to brim in my eyes and before I knew it I was sobbing – guttural sobs that shook my body and almost made me fall over. Suddenly the door to the bathroom opened and I heard rapid footsteps come up behind me.

"Oh Kurt." Blaine had obviously sensed something was wrong and followed me – my hands still wet I turned around and threw my arms around him, burying my head into his chest.

"He can't die." I said in between sobs, my voice choked and hoarse. "He can't."

"The doctors are doing all they can." Blaine replied, his voice soothing and his hand reaching up to stroke my hair, the way he knew always relaxed me. "They'll help him as much as they can. And Nathaniel will fight."

"If he dies, it'll be all my fault." My sobs got louder and Blaine rocked my backwards and forwards, before bringing my face up to look directly at his.

"Hey. This is not your fault. It's none of our faults. Nobody knew this would happen."

"I can't. I can't cope if he dies."

"Sssh…" Blaine kissed the top of my head, rocking us backwards and forwards slowly "sssh. I'm here. I'm here…"

When we emerged from the bathroom several minutes later Scott looked up. It seemed like he had been crying too. Walking over with my arms out he stood up and let me hug him. It had been so long since we'd embraced that I clung to him and he clung back. I'd missed him.

"Are you ok?" He asked me when we pulled apart. I laughed.

"Just about. Blaine should be the one that's upset. I can't believe how calm he is." Both of us turned to look at him and he smiled, running his hands through his hair.

"There are more important things to be worrying about now." He said plainly.

"But that was supposed to be you dude." Scott said. "Gabriel was trying to put you in hospital."

"Well he didn't." Taking my hand again he squeezed it, just to reiterate one more time that he was still here. If it really had been him in Nathaniel's position I don't know how I would have coped.

"Yeah…" All of us fell silent, thinking about our friend, holed away in some equally white room with paramedics all over him. The wound was severe, we knew that. But how severe we weren't sure.

"What happened to Gabriel?" Blaine asked as we all sat back down, me leaning my head against his shoulder so he brought his arm back round over me and stroked the side of my face.

"I didn't see. Scott, what happened?"

"Well once the police came he was arrested. So I guess he went with them. I hope he rots in hell." My best friend's eyebrows furrowed in anger and I placed a hand on his arm.

"Hey. I know. But he's messed up."

"Is it too early to say I told you so?" He gave me a side-glance and I couldn't help but laugh.

"I think so. I should be apologising to both of you. Oh Gaga." Suddenly the realisation hit again. This was all my fault.

"Kurt." Blaine could sense immediately what I was about to say. He leant forward to kiss my cheek but I flinched away. Instead he buried his face in the side of my head and whispered in my ear.

"Stop it. We will talk about this later." Feeling tears prick in my eyes again I nodded and tried to concentrate on how nice it felt to feel his breath on my skin.

"I love you." He muttered.

"I love you too."

Suddenly we heard footsteps coming down the corridor that didn't belong to a patient. When the nurse came into view we all sprang up to our feet, my hands instantly clasping onto both Blaine's and Scott's tightly as my gut twisted.

"Do you have any news?" Blaine asked, taking on the role of the responsible adult in the situation. I couldn't tell whether the nurse looked happy or not. She was carrying a clipboard that I gathered had Nathaniel's details on.

"You are friends of Nathaniel Archibald are you not?" She asked, bringing out a pencil.

"Yes." As Blaine replied she scribbled down a few notes in a box, her hand moving slowly. My fear and anxiety turned to frustration.

"IS HE OK? What's going on?" The words came out harsher than I expected, but I was concerned. This was one of my closest friends. And she wouldn't even tell us if he was still alive or not.

"Kurt." Blaine said yet again, giving me a disapproving look before apologising to the nurse. "She's trying to help us."

"I WANT TO KNOW IF MY FRIEND IS ALIVE!" Damn. I was beginning to cry again. Luckily the nurse didn't seem to offended, obviously having dealt with people like me before.

"I'm sorry," She said, putting her pencil down on the board and looking at me. "I just had to make sure you were the right people. Nathaniel is currently in intensive care – he sustained substantial internal injuries to his kidneys and a huge loss of blood. But luckily the knife avoided any other essential organs." With this knowledge my whole body sagged in relief.

"So he's… he's gonna be ok?" Scott asked. The nurse smiled.

"He's still in a very serious condition, and we'll probably have to keep him in hospital for at least a couple of days. But yes. He should survive." My legs felt like jelly. I clung onto Blaine for support, his face lit up with relief and happiness. Thank Prada and Gucci and everyone. He was going to be ok.

"Can we see him?" Blaine asked, which would have been my next question.

"Maybe in a couple of minutes." The nurse replied. "If you follow me I can take you to the room he's in." Pointing her arm down the corridor she began to walk and we followed her, my feet now with an extra spring to their step.

"He's gonna be ok." I whispered to Blaine, still not quite able to believe it. He smiled, kissing the top of my head and squeezing my hand.

"Yes he is."

When we reached the room Nathaniel was being held in there were still lots of people around. I didn't even want to think what it must have been like an hour ago. The nurse signalled for us to stop by the door and went to talk to one of the doctors nearby. I glanced up at Blaine who nodded his head comfortingly and then tried to peek through the blinds covering the window. I couldn't really see anything.

"Mr Archibald should be able to have visitors now." I looked back to see the nurse in front of us again. "We're just trying to locate his family. Do you know anything about them?"

"Yeah. It's his Mum and his sister. They live nearby." I said, suddenly eager to pass on my knowledge. If his family didn't know… well it was important they knew as soon as possible. The nurse nodded, scribbling down yet more things on her piece of paper, before opening the door to the room.

"You can see him now."

We stepped gingerly into the room, Scott leading the way and Blaine tugging me along behind him. Obviously I was desperate to see my friend, but half of me couldn't bear to look at him like this. When I finally laid eyes on him a little gasp escaped from my lips. There were wires everywhere. Nathaniel looked to be asleep, his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling slowly. A machine next to him beeped steadily and there was a huge mass of bandages and wadding over his stomach. As we stepped further into the room he seemed to stir but didn't open his eyes. I held my breath, not wanting to do anything to disturb him.

"Oh my God." Scott stepped forward, reaching out his hand to gently touch Nathaniel's arm. "He looks terrible."

"I doubt anyone looks that good after they've been stabbed." Blaine replied, trying to keep the situation relatively upbeat. I went to join Scott, slotting my hand into his and also stroking the skin on Nathaniel's arm.

"When I think about all of the things I've said about him." My best friend continued. "All the times I've teased him. He didn't deserve it. It should be me here."

"Oh Scott! Don't be silly!" I poked him on the arm playfully.

"What? I'm supposed to be the crazy one, the one that takes risks. I should have jumped in, not him. He…" He paused, looking down. "He's much more of a man than I am."

"Liar." Suddenly another voice joined in the conversation. Immediately my eyes flicked over to Nathaniel lying in the bed and a huge smile spread across my face.

"Nathaniel!" His voice was croaky and his movements very weak, but there was a smile on his face as he looked back at us. I immediately crouched down beside the bed, grabbing hold of his hand and Blaine and Scott followed suit, perching next to me.

"How do you feel?"

"Like I've been shot." Nathaniel laughed and I joined in, squeezing his hand. How was everyone coping with this so much better than me?

"Well you look like hell." Scott said, joining in with the joke. Nathaniel pretended to look offended but smiled again.

"Thanks buddy. What happened to Gabriel? I kind of blacked out after everything happened."

"Gabriel's been arrested." Blaine replied, still taking on the air of sensibility he'd maintained almost this whole time. "He was as soon as the police got there."

"Yeah. I knocked the bugger out beforehand though." Scott mimed a punch in mid air and we all laughed, Nathaniel suddenly coughing and spluttering from the exertion so I leaned forward in concern.

"Hah. I must have been out, I don't remember anything." He said, waving me away as I fussed. "Apart from the pain. And you Blaine." Suddenly he looked over. Blaine smiled, modest as always, shuffling his feet nervously across the linoleum floor.

"I just did what I had to." He replied simply. I wanted to walk over and kiss him but didn't want to leave Nathaniel, settling instead for holding my hand out so he took it gently.

"Well I think you saved my life. You all did." As I looked back to my Head Boy a loud sigh escaped from my lips.

"Nathaniel. You saved Blaine's life."

"Yeah, you did." Blaine closed the distance between us, placing his hand on my shoulder.

"I just did what I had to." Nathaniel smiled and we all laughed softly again. For the first time in a while I felt like things were going to be ok. Yes we were in a hospital. Yes Gabriel was probably locked up in some cell scared out of his mind. But we were all still here. And we were together again.