Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of its characters. Those would be the property of Ryan Murphy, Fox and so on and so forth.

Author's Note: Guys! I'm so terrible! I'm so sorry! With all of the Holidays, I've been so crazy busy! I didn't mean to leave you like I did, I feel awful! I read a couple of reviews asking me not to give up on the story, which I had no intention of doing, I just got to busy. =( I hope you all aren't super mad at me. But anyway, here's a chapter to take us off that incredibly long and unplanned hiatus. =P

Also, love to all of my reviewers, you all still remain the best!

-Casey

Chapter 20. "The Deal"

"I'm going to give you a choice here, Azimio. One: you can turn around and walk out that door, or two: stay here and be forcibly removed. Either way, you're leaving," Kurt spat at Azimio with a cold and calculating look to boot.

Azimio stared Kurt down in response with an ice cold expression.

"Oh, and who plans to forcibly remove me? You? I can lift you and throw you across the room with one finger, lady-boy, plus, you wouldn't want to break a nail now would you?"

Kurt clenched his fists so hard to the point that his nails were digging into his palms, leaving little crescent moon shaped marks in their wake.

"I'm not giving you an option anymore, leave now," Kurt seethed through gritted teeth.

"They…they have Karofsky, you know."

Both Azimio and Kurt were surprised to hear Blaine speak during this tense showdown. Blaine stared at Azimio with fear etched clearly in his puppy dog eyes, but he was trying to be brave for Kurt; he didn't want to let Kurt down anymore. He couldn't be a victim anymore, even though his fear was screaming at him to hide under the bed and never come out again.

"They what?" Azimio inquired in an eerily calm voice. It was as if he had no idea what had occurred at Dalton only days prior. He was probably trying to cover his own ass as if he had nothing to do with anything that had happened to Blaine.

Blaine didn't respond. He was fighting his inner fear who kept telling him to shut the hell up and just sit there and not move whilst his brain was telling him to jump out of the bed and kick the shit out of Azimio. Blaine surrendered to the fear and sat silently not daring to say another word. Besides, what made him think he could possibly take on Azimio? If he couldn't before the attack, then he certainly had no chance now.

"I find it hard to believe that you haven't heard the news about Karofsky," Kurt said, his tone oozing with doubt.

"I ain't seen my boy Dave in like a week, why? What's going down with him?" Azimio asked playing the part of oblivious well.

"Hmm, I don't know, what's going down with him? He's currently in jail for what he's done to Blaine, so I guess the better question isn't what's going down with him, but rather who he's going down on," Kurt said with a bitter laugh. He didn't know for sure if jail was really a place where you were forced to go down on guys just so that you didn't get your ass kicked, but Kurt decided he'd go with the stereotype anyway. "But, I find it hard that you don't already know that. It's all over town, and Dave's your friend, after all."

"I've been out of town visiting my grandma, old lady's dyin' of cancer," Azimio offered as an excuse.

"This still doesn't explain why you won't leave and why the hell you're here in the first place," Kurt pointed out.

"That's between me and Blaine, lady, so mind your own business."

"What you want with Blaine is my business and after what your pal did to him, I see no reason for you to be here at all. Now just get the hell out of here, I mean it."

"I ain't gonna hurt the fag, lady-boy, I just need to holla at him alone. 2 minutes, then I'm out. I don't want to catch the gay, anyway," Azimio said, not taking his eyes off of Blaine.

"No, now leave," Kurt warned, completely committed to living up to his threat.

"Look, Lady-boy, if you don't let me talk to him for just 2 god damn minutes, I'll—"

"Kurt, I—I'll talk to him, it's OK…"

That surprised Kurt and Azimio both when Blaine spoke up and agreed to speak to Azimio alone. Kurt however, was quick to respond.

"Blaine, sweetheart, there's not a chance in hell that I'm leaving you alone with him, I'd slit my own wrists first and I'm wearing Ralph Lauren, so blood would ruin my ensemble. So the only choice is for him to get to walking."

"If I agree to talk to you, will you leave us alone after I do?" Blaine asked quietly not breaking his gaze with Azimio.

Blaine was terrified to be alone with Azimio, but he felt that if they made him leave now, they'd be seeing him again in the future. If Blaine made a deal to speak to Azimio now and he swore not to come back again, it would make things simpler.

"2 minutes and I'm out, like I said," Azimio responded back at Blaine.

Kurt looked like he was about to protest again, but Blaine gazed at him with his tired eyes that were silently telling him that this had to be done.

Kurt grimaced and bit his lip. He really didn't want to take his eyes off of Blaine in fear that Azimio would do something to him, he didn't even know why Azimio was here in the first place.

"2 minutes," Kurt reluctantly agreed. "But I'm waiting by the door and if I hear you make one false move, Azimio, I will smack you down like the hand of God and you'll wish you had left when I asked you to."

Azimio laughed but immediately began to stifle it, "I'm sorry, lady, the threat's just funny but there won't be any foul play here. Just a quick word, then I'm out."

"2 minutes," Kurt repeated as he vacated the room. His legs didn't even want to carry him out the door. What the hell was Azimio up to anyway? Kurt decided that he would listen in; he didn't trust Azimio with an ounce of his life. It's not like Azimio and Blaine were long lost friends who had to have a private conversation amongst friends. So Kurt left the door open a crack and looked in on the interaction.

Azimio walked over to Kurt's vacant chair and took a seat.

"So…what do you want with me?" Blaine asked so quietly that Kurt could barely tell that Blaine had spoken at all.

"I came here to say I'm sorry that things got out of hand…I never meant for things to go as far as they did," Azimio explained.

Blaine sat in silence not believing what he was hearing. An apology? He hadn't been expecting one and truth be told, he didn't want to hear one because he couldn't accept it. Who could after they went through all of that? Karofsky had been the one who kidnapped him and kept him as his pet in his closet, but Azimio had been an accomplice. He had beaten Blaine and stood by idly knowing that Dave had been keeping him hostage and did nothing to stop Dave from raping him, either. In fact, he had encouraged it; that in Blaine's mind made him equally guilty.

He just nodded; he couldn't form a single word to respond to this half-assed apology.

"If that's all, I-I would prefer it if you could leave now," Blaine stuttered, trying to hold his grip on his courage. It was wavering every second he was alone with Azimio.

"Not so fast," Azimio interjected. "I came here to make a deal with you."

Blaine blinked in surprise. A deal? What kind of deal could he even offer? What's more, what kind of deal would he offer that Blaine would even consider accepting?

"What kind of deal?"

"Dave kidnapped you and kept you locked in that closet, right? He's the one who forced himself on you and abused you."

"That's true, but you did your own share of abusing yourself," Blaine stated, surprising himself with how forward he was about it.

"So I knocked you around a few times, big deal. You're tougher than that ain't you?"

"It was more than a few times," Blaine spoke softly. "You hit me with a belt, Azimio. You punched me, kicked me and whipped me over and over again and you wouldn't stop."

Kurt had to place a hand against his mouth to stifle his sob as he overheard Blaine's words. Sure he knew that these acts had been performed on Blaine, but it made them so much more real to hear them coming straight from Blaine's mouth.

"It was for your own good."

It took every ounce of Kurt's strength to not run back into the room and start whaling on Azimio, whether he did any damage or not didn't concern him. Azimio just needed to feel one ounce of the pain he had caused Blaine. He could hardly believe that the jock was trying to justify his actions by telling Blaine that he deserved it. It made him sick to the point of wanting to vomit but he stayed put as he hung on every additional word that was playing out, waiting for the words that would send him over the edge.

"For my own good?" Blaine surprisingly laughed softly as he repeated Azimio's words. "You told me it was for my own good two years ago when you beat me back at Westerville and those words aren't any truer now than they were then. You like it, Azimio. You like to cause people pain and hide behind the justification that you're trying to help people. You-you're sick."

"I ain't sick!" Azimio shouted louder than necessary as he sprung out of the chair. His hands were balled into fists as if he was preparing to beat Blaine on the spot but he took a second to take a breath and sat himself back down. "Jesus, Anderson, you've always known how to get on my last nerve."

Blaine responded with a simple shrug as he tried to keep himself calm. His heart was racing and he was scared to death, but he couldn't back down now. He finally had a chance to stand up to Azimio and he was taking the moment now that he had it.

"Look, Anderson, you want the pain and torment to end? All those things that I did will be a thing of the past if we just call a truce. If you agree that Dave acted alone with no assistance from me, you won't hear from me again," Azimio offered simply in a tone that sounded like Blaine would be a fool to not consider this offer.

"Y-you'd just bail on your own friend like that? Let him take the full blame?"

"As far I'm concerned, he did the most damage to you. He's the one you should be really pissed at."

Blaine felt nauseous. His head was swimming at this offer. He couldn't believe that Azimio was willing to pin all the blame on Dave to save himself.

"I-I thought that we already had a deal. You'd leave us alone if I agreed to talk to you."

"Yeah well, I never actually agreed to that, did I? Now the cards are all on the table; you say that I was never there and we'll be cool. I'll even leave Lady-Boy alone at school if you agree to this."

"His name is Kurt."

"What?"

"H-his name. It's Kurt, not Lady-Boy," Blaine repeated.

Azimio smirked and laughed a dark laugh. "All right, Tinkerbell, whatever. I'll leave you and Kurt alone if you got my back here."

Blaine licked his lips and tried to clear his dry throat. "And…w-what if I—What if I refuse to take you up on your deal?"

"Well, let's just say that Kurt could how we say…meet with an accident?"

Blaine felt his lungs constrict. It was like Dave all over again. Dave and Azimio both knew that Kurt was his weak spot, if any threat went towards Kurt, Blaine would do whatever it took to remove him from harm's way. He couldn't believe that he was being threatened with Kurt's well-being again. His head felt like it was going to explode as all of the trauma coming back to him. It was never going to end was it? He was going to constantly be putting Kurt in danger due to these psychotic neanderthals. He felt his breathing quicken as Azimio's form was starting to fade in and out. 'C'mon, just focus,' Blaine commanded himself, trying to get himself to calm down and handle the situation, but his efforts proved fruitless.

"Yo, what's wrong with you? You can't fuckin' pass out on me! You need to let me know that we got an understanding!" Azimio yelled, grabbing Blaine by the shoulders.

Blaine had stayed attentive long enough to see Kurt burst in through the door behind Azimio with an onslaught of Doctors and Nurses behind him. He felt Azimio's grip on his shoulders loosen as he was pried away from him. Not even a second later, Blaine surrendered to the dark world of unconsciousness.

Kurt watched in shock as Azimio was pulled unwillingly from the room. A few nurses stayed behind to attend to Blaine. They had to usher Kurt out of the room as well while they checked on Blaine. He didn't want to leave the room now, but he understood that he was safe now as he made his way to the waiting room. He wanted to slap himself for agreeing to let Blaine be alone with Azimio. He knew there was something wrong and if he hadn't been listening in, this could have gone further south than it already had. As soon as he heard Azimio threatening Blaine with Kurt's well-being, he took off for the front desk to request help and asked for someone to call the police.

Kurt took a seat out in the waiting room watching all the action unfold as the doctor's held on to Azimio waiting for the police to arrive. He could feel Azimio's glare fall on him as he sat alone in the waiting room. Kurt returned the gaze with an ice cold gaze of his own. He shouldn't have been surprised that Azimio had played a part in this. If Dave had been involved in something this heinous, naturally he couldn't have been too far away from the action. What really surprised him was that Blaine and Azimio had a past. When Kurt had gone to Dalton and Blaine had informed him about all the torment he'd received from his previous school, it had been Azimio that he'd been referring to.

The timelines matched, too. Azimio had been a transfer student during their sophomore year; Kurt had known that from all of his work in the school's office. During his free hour, he had taken on being an office aid and when Azimio had been transferred in, Kurt had been given his paperwork to file. He had broken a major rule by glancing through Azimio's file and learning that he'd been expelled from his previous school for a massive assault he took part in during a school dance.

Now it all made sense. Kurt couldn't recall the name of the school that Azimio had been expelled from, but now that he thought about it, Westerville High School sounded right. Of course at the time, it meant absolutely nothing to him. Azimio had been expelled for the assault he and his friends had done to Blaine; he felt his stomach twist as all of the pieces were starting to come together. This was some form of sick and twisted fate, if Azimio hadn't beaten Blaine in the first place, he might not have transferred to Dalton which in turn would have lead Kurt to finding no salvation when he first went to the school. He was thankful that he had met Blaine but he really wished that the circumstances were different.

Kurt was pulled from his thoughts when he started to hear shouting. He blinked up in surprise as he caught sight of the action. One minute Azimio was standing complacent in the doctor's grasps, too complacent that even the doctors had let their guard down and just like that, Azimio wrenched himself from their hold and raced towards the back exit. Kurt didn't even have time to react to what was happening; it happened and was over before anyone had time to fully react to it.

"Someone stop that kid!" Someone yelled, but it was too late. Azimio was gone.

The police had shown up about five minutes later to pick up Azimio, but he had been long gone before they had arrived. The hospital staff who had attempted to chase after Azimio weren't able to catch up to the football player after he had his head start. Kurt was certain that they would catch him sooner than later. There was really no where he could run where he could hide forever. He would be caught and he too would join Dave in jail for all of the damage that he had done to Blaine.

A couple of police officers remained in the waiting room to guard Blaine's hospital room in case Azimio were to return, but even Kurt knew that was doubtful. Azimio wouldn't come back here after the scene he had caused. He'd be an idiot to try and even though Kurt thought very little of Azimio, he knew that he at least had enough common sense not to even attempt to come back to the hospital. The remaining police officers left to scower the streets and the issue was radioed in with Azimio's description. If any officer found him, they were instructed to arrest him on sight.

Kurt sat alone in the waiting room with his head in his hands as he tried to catch his breath. Would this nightmare ever be over?

I really didn't leave you guys with a very happy chapter did I? Hmm, I'm sort of at a cross road here…I can end it within the next two chapters or so, or I could keep writing with the other ideas I have. Not sure what I want to do yet, but with the ideas I have in mind, I can either end it or keep writing with some stuff that I have in mind...hmm, something to definitely ponder. Sorry it was also semi-short, but I wanted to get an update out, but it also has become a very late night. =P

So anyway, thoughts, comments, smily faces? =D Also, since I didn't get a chance to say it before, I hope you all had wonderful holidays! =)

-Casey