I seriously didn't believe people would like my writing style that much! Thank you, that'll show my stupid English teacher. She gave me a D! The lowest grade I've ever gotten was an A before that I love all your reviews; they make me cry when I read them! Sakura12 there's a reason for that and it'll be coming in a few chapters' time. I have some sort of idea as to where this story is going, but I need you to tell me something – should Karofsky come back? I need to work out how he'll be caught and I can see him trying to hurt maybe Blaine to crush Kurt, and the police guards catching him? I dunno, it was just an idea. I'm posting this after watching the Yes/No episode of Glee for about the tenth time – BLAINE WAS WET, IN A SWIMMING POOL! You have no idea how much that made me squeal! I'm so sorry about how late this is, I've been redecorating my bedroom and I lost my laptop for a week :'( I promise that I'll get the next one up soon, I only have a week until February Holidays so expect a couple then!
Chapter Seven – Any Other World
A week had passed since Kurt had woken up and Blaine had yet to leave the hospital. Kurt still shook around men, and refused to talk to anyone but Blaine. The police guards at the door were pushing for Kurt to make a statement but both Blaine and Burt refused to allow it. The manhunt for Karofsky was on-going, and warnings issued about the rapist periodically on the news channels – something Blaine would not let Kurt watch.
The pale boy's bruises were finally healing, as were the more minor cuts and scrapes. The stab wounds to his abdomen were beginning to heal too but at a much slower rate. It was after one of his dressing changes by a female nurse that Kurt found himself awake but Blaine asleep for the first time since being admitted to the hospital.
Kurt didn't know what to do, he knew he couldn't physically go anywhere, but why were his boyfriend and father restricting his TV access, and why were there police guards outside his door? He knew something had happened in his room at Dalton, something bad, but he had yet to work out the full extent of his trauma. The terrifying dreams he experienced vanished as he woke up, leaving only a sobbing mess of a teenage boy on the bed crying over an experience he couldn't even remember fully.
Blaine normally put the movies they watched together on the TV – Kurt had never even touched the remote. The countertenor picked up the TV remote; even after nearly four weeks without his iPhone, laptop or his own TV set he easily figured out how to work it. He figured that after being locked up for four weeks he should catch up with the outside world, an action he would come to regret less than five minutes after doing it.
The news reader's voice that carried from the tinny TV speakers into the room was quiet enough not to wake up Blaine but still loud enough for Kurt to hear exactly what was being broadcasted to the nation.
"And onto more serious news, here's Sarah." The anchor man announced the presenter and the camera switched scenes to a school that looked hauntingly like Dalton…
"Nearly four weeks to the day after a student here at Dalton Academy in Westerville, Ohio, was brutally attacked, beaten and raped-"
Kurt's breath caught alarmingly fast in his lungs. He couldn't move or breathe while his thoughts and memories whirled around his mind's eye. As his heart rate monitor beeped furiously Doctor Mauswell ran into the room, slamming the door open and waking Blaine. The curly haired boy too one look at where Kurt's glasz eyes were staring but not seeing and pushed past the nurses that were crowded into the room.
"Kurt, Kurt, listen to me! You're safe, you're at the hospital, that monster can't get you here. It's me, Blaine, remember?" Blaine pulled the almost catatonic Kurt onto his lap, wary of his injuries. He rubbed Kurt's back and laid gently kisses all over his face as the teen calmed down enough to breathe. However with the breathing came the sobs, loud, harsh ones that ripped through Kurt's throat. Any thoughts of Kurt just not remembering the incident had disappeared along with his boyfriend's innocence. Noting that Kurt was shaking with fear at the large crowd in his room Blaine gestured to Doctor Mauswell that he would speak to him later, and would he please ring Burt or Finn. While Kurt had yet to speak to his father or stepbrother they were the only other people Kurt visibly relaxed around.
As Kurt's sobs subsided Blaine decided he would have to talk to Kurt; it would do him no good to keep all of his emotions bottled up inside waiting for the next explosion.
"Kurt?" He asked timidly, "baby, speak to me. What did you remember?"
"He- he grabbed me, and hit me."
Blaine realised that this may be the only time Kurt would want to speak about this and set up the video camera on his iPhone to record the whole thing.
"And then what sweetie?"
"I tried to fight back Blaine! I did, but he was too big."
Kurt looked up at Blaine before curling into his chest for comfort.
"He hit me, a lot. I didn't see his face until after, but I'd pretty much guessed who it was that hated me that much. He beat me a lot, I can't remember exactly what he did, but I whacked my head on something and passed out. When I woke up he was pulling- oh God Blaine, he was pulling my jeans off!"
The small countertenor shook hard in Blaine's arms while he continued his story.
"He unzipped his own pants and I could feel something against my legs. He s-stuck a f-finger in me and I screamed. I-I think I passed out then."
Blaine pressed a kiss against Kurt's hair, tears streaming silently down both of their faces.
"Kurt sweetheart, I am so, so proud of you."
He clicked the camera off and rubbed Kurt's back until he fell asleep in his arms.
Ten minutes later and Blaine was stood outside Kurt's room with Finn and Burt showing the recording of Kurt's memory to the police. He copied the file and sent it to the guard's phone so that it could be used as Kurt's statement.
"Thank you Mr Anderson." The guard nodded once.
Blaine turned to go back into Kurt's room, where he was followed by Burt.
The elder man dropped heavily into a chair at Kurt's bedside while Blaine resumed his previous position of lying propped up by a pillow next to Kurt, school work on his lap.
"Blaine," Burt started, "I just wanted to thank you. Not many would have stuck by him after everything he's been through. I know this must bring up memories for you."
"Mr- Burt, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I love Kurt so much, he's my everything." A lonely tear slid down Blaine's hollow cheek. The four weeks spent in the hospital had not been kind to him, something Burt noted with a hint of worry. He couldn't help but think of Blaine as one of his own, but even under the watch of the doctors Blaine barely ate or slept, instead watching over Kurt, and it was scaring Burt.
"Kid, why don't you go to the cafeteria and eat something? You look like death warmed over."
Blaine looked up from a set of conjugated French verbs that he was memorizing.
"I'm not really hungry. The memories do this to me; anything I try to eat just comes back up."
Kurt's father narrowed his eyes, "Can't the doctors give you something to stop the nausea?"
"Don't know, never asked. My parents don't have the time nor the inclination-" Blaine stopped once he realised he'd said too much.
"WHAT?" Burt half yelled, half whispered. "Come on, once Carole gets here I'll take you over to Doctor Mauswell. You need to eat."
Once again Blaine choked up and looked down to his French work in embarrassment.
"Thank you."
Kurt woke up to a warm hand on his forehead and another checking his pulse. Groaning softly he opened his eyes, before flinching as the blurred face of Doctor Mauswell came into view.
Blaine stroked Kurt's hand to remind him he was safe, locking eyes with the terrified teen and not breaking eye contact until the physical examination was over.
As the doctor cleared his throat all eyes in the room – Kurt's, Blaine's, Finn's, Burt's, Carole's and for some reason Rachel's – snapped to his face.
"It appears Kurt that many of the smaller cuts and bruises have finally healed; your ribs are healing nicely, as are you shoulder blade and hip. However the stab wounds have become infected – I'll prescribe you a set of antibiotics to combat that."
Burt shook hands with the doctor before motioning to speak with him outside.
"What about the, you know, rape?"
"Well, it seems to be healing alright but the constant tension in his body isn't helping. Normally I would follow hospital regulations and send a therapist in but I think that could destroy everything we have done; he is making progress emotionally speaking, slowly but surely, especially with the help of Blaine."
Burt smiled sadly, "Any idea of when he can get out of here?"
"Again normally it would be around a week or two, but with the manhunt and Karofsky still at large the police feel it would be safer to keep him here. At least if – God forbid – Karofsky comes back Kurt can have immediate medical attention. I won't lie to you Burt, Kurt isn't out of the woods yet. I didn't want to scare the teens in there but Kurt's condition is worse than it seems, and the infection isn't helping. Prepare yourself for a nasty fever in the least. I'm sorry, I'm doing everything I can."
Burt nodded solemnly and turned back into his son's hospital room to find Rachel softly singing a lullaby to a sleeping Kurt and Blaine, her hand wrapped tightly in Finn's. Huh, Burt thought, I guess Kurt really does have true friends. He had heard Kurt's stories about Rachel, but Burt knew deep down she was Kurt's second best friend, after Blaine of course.