Author's Note: And a new chapter, finally. And just before Hurricane Sandy arrives. So, yes, getting this out before the power most likely goes out. I really liked working on this chapter and I knew I was going to when I first saw the episode. I hope you all like it, and please review.

For those of you also in the path of Sandy please stay safe.

I did want to get this one out before the next episode of glee...because just from the promo and listening to the songs I've been left emotionally crippled. I don't know how I'll fare afterwards. Also, please do not leave any spoilers in your reviews because I am avoiding them like the plague.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Fox does...and RIB

Chapter Ten

Remembering

Rory really didn't like Sebastian Smythe. He hadn't met him, exactly, other than when he'd seen a lot of the Warblers after West Side Story, but it was listening to Kurt rant that was really making him hate the other boy.

"I didn't even know they were still talking," Kurt was saying, "and it's like I want him to have his friends, but he didn't even tell me and he just thinks it's all just okay."

Michael Jackson week was turning into some insane glee club standoff and Rory hated how much research he'd had to do in order to really pretend that he understood how much of an icon Michael Jackson was. In his time his name was still around and his music was still praised, but it had never been Rory's cup of tea so he wasn't all that knowledgeable on it.

"Maybe he didn't want to upset you," Rory said.

"It's just that it upsets me more to know that he's keeping things from me. And I know Sebastian is the one calling him and pestering him, but I'd like to know about it."

Rory had never heard a lot about Sebastian in the future, so he knew that he was an inconsequential part of their lives – a speck in the bigger picture of what they would become together. So, he wasn't too worried about Sebastian. What did worry him was getting back to his time. Brittany had started working on the machine again and Santana told him she'd gotten some sort of breakthrough, but it just wasn't enough. It was taking too long.

"Anyway," Kurt said, "I'm just not going to worry about that for now. Instead, we have to figure out what we're going to wear tomorrow."

Rory thought it was really weird that they were going to meet the Warblers at some parking lot to sing and dance at each other to figure out who deserved to use Michael's music during their Regionals competition. They'd already done enough Michael Jackson during Sectionals and he really just didn't see what the whole point of it was other than an issue of pride.

Kurt went through rack after rack of black clothing. He picked out a few items and made appreciative noises when he found something particularly nice. It reminded Rory of going shopping with his dad and oddly enough that made him smile even though he'd always found shopping with him rather tiresome.

Several stores later, they finally found what they'd been looking for and Kurt led him towards the food court.

"Come on," he said, "my treat, for dragging you around. I would have brought Blaine, but…"

It wasn't that they were fighting, per say, but that they were giving each other space. Rory had seen them talking earlier in the hallway at school and they had been acting as if absolutely nothing was wrong except that Kurt hadn't defended Blaine from the rest of the club when they were pestering him about telling Sebastian about Michael Jackson and when glee was over they had gone their separate ways.

"You're avoiding each other," Rory finished for him.

"We're seeing each other tonight. We have a date, and the whole point is that Sebastian won't be breaking us up. We'll deal with everything, then."

He and Kurt ate some frozen yogurt at a small two person table with Kurt's bags around them, and Rory tried not to think about the last time he had done this same exact thing with his dad. It was hard not to keep comparing them and wishing that things were different.

They didn't talk about Sebastian, Blaine, or Michael Jackson after that. Instead, Kurt asked Rory about Sugar.

"I don't really know her," he said, "and she's a horrible singer, but she might be good for you."

"Not you too!" Rory said, "I don't like Sugar. Really, I don't. We're just friends."

Kurt was a lot easier to deal with than Blaine when it came to this subject. He seemed to get that Rory didn't want to talk about it.

"But do you have your eye on anyone, then?"

"Not really," Rory told him.

"Not even someone back home."

The truth of the matter was that there really was no one. He went to an all boys school and didn't really get a chance to meet lots of girls, even from the sister school. Rory had always been a bit shy when it came to making friends.

"Nope."

Kurt dropped the subject. "I hope you liked Friday night dinner. My dad really liked you. I think it's because you're here alone. Anyway, he told me to extend an invite for every week."

"Really?" Rory asked.

Grandpa Burt was really busy with his new job, but somehow he made time for him. They'd talked twice since he'd found out the truth and Rory really did appreciate how he didn't push for answers and yet how he wanted nothing more than to help.

"Like I said, he really liked you. Blaine didn't even get an invite that quickly. Anyway, come on, I have to go get ready for my date. And I have to find a bag for that bowtie."

It all happened kind of fast. One minute he was standing there facing the Warblers and the next Blaine was pushing him out of the way, jumping in front of a slushy that had been aimed at him. Blaine fell to the ground and Kurt rushed forward, but when Blaine let out a pained cry and curled up into himself Kurt knew that something was wrong.

"Blaine? Blaine? Are you alright?"

He was crouched down on slushy but he didn't care, all that mattered was Blaine and Blaine was making awful pained noises. This was not the reaction that anyone had to a slushy even if it was the first one they were hit with.

The Warblers all ran off but Kurt didn't even give them mind. Instead he was trying to get Blaine to take his hands off his face to access the damage.

"You're going to be okay, sweetheart, you're going to be just fine."

Blaine just moaned. Kurt shuffled closer and he slowly turned Blaine's face.

"You have to let me see, Blaine."

Someone handed him a water bottle and Tina and Mike were both suddenly kneeling on Blaine's other side. Tina helped to take Blaine's hands from his face. His eyes were closed and his face covered in melting slushy and the red dye. But something else had to be in there – a slushy had never hurt Kurt this much. Kurt turned Blaine's face and poured some of the water. Blaine made a hissing noise and he kept his eyes closed tight.

When he turned back to look at the others he saw that Finn and Rachel were gone.

"Getting the car," Tina said.

Kurt nodded. It was only when and Finn and Rachel appeared in Rachel's car that he noticed Rory and how he was apart from everyone else, sitting on the cold ground and staring lifelessly in front of him. Kurt was torn, but he knew that Blaine had to come first even though for some reason he desperately wanted to rush over there and pull Rory into his arms.

"Bring Rory," he muttered to Tina while helping Blaine towards the car. They put the blanket that Rachel kept in her trunk on the backseat to keep it from staining the seats and they got him inside. Kurt let him rest his head on his lap and ran his hands through his hair soothingly.

"It's going to be okay," he murmured from time to time, "you'll see." He tried to hide how scared he really was and it helped that he had to be brave for Blaine and let him be frightened. In that moment he had to be strong and hold it together and believe that everything was going to be fine and that Blaine's eyes wouldn't be damaged

Rory climbed into the car, helped by Tina who then ran back to Mike's car, and he looked so white that Kurt knew instantly something was wrong. The moment he sat down, his eyes went to Blaine and they remained trained on him, staring so intently and with clear fear written over them and yet he seemed to be in a whole different world entirely. Kurt bit down on his bottom lip hard and then he extended one of his hands out and touched Rory's wrist. Rory gasped and looked up and then he was sobbing.

"Rory, it's going to be just fine," Kurt said.

The other boy nodded and then he dropped his head against the window and closed his eyes tight. Light poured in from outside and until then, Kurt hadn't realized that the car was moving.

Finn was sitting in the front with Rachel who kept trying to glance back and at the same time keep her eyes on the road. Kurt could see how tight she held onto Finn's hand. Finn was on the phone, but Kurt couldn't focus on what he was saying. Blaine was whimpering on his lap and Kurt tried to smooth down his hair from his forehead.

"You'll be perfectly fine."

Rory felt like he wasn't actually there. He was lost in a haze of remembering how lost he'd felt mere months before when he was being rushed into a car by his dad not really understanding a whole lot other than that someone on the phone had given his dad bad news and that it had something to do with his papa not getting home from getting his supplies yet.

His dad was shaking. He gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white and Rory sitting on the passenger seat didn't even try to turn on the radio. They drove fast but only just above the speed limit and when they got to the hospital Rory knew that something was really wrong.

"Dad?"

They parked and Kurt said nothing. When they got out of the car, however, Rory could tell that he had said nothing because he couldn't – he was just holding himself together.

"Is papa okay? Dad? What's going on?"

They rushed into the hospital. His dad wrapped an arm around his shoulders and Rory leaned into him as much as he could. Every possible scenario went through his mind from broken legs, to having been beat up, to a heart attack, and to a coma. And he tried not to think about one possibility, after it came to his mind, because his papa couldn't be dead.

The receptionist seemed to have been so used to dealing with people in their state of mind, that she just took Kurt's frantic questioning without batting an eye and then she grabbed a bunch of forms and put them on a clipboard.

"We need to know all of his information, sir," she said, "your husband is still with the doctors."

Kurt shoved the clipboard aside, "I don't care about that. I just need to know how Blaine is. Where is he? Where is my Blaine?"

Rory had seen his dad angry before, but he'd never been like this. He wasn't just mad, he was scared and distraught and upset in a way that he had never displayed in front of Rory.

"I don't need to fill out some forms, what I need is to see my husband and you will find him for me, now!"

The receptionist took a deep breath. "Sir, you have to calm down. Your husband was just brought in, he's still with the doctors. I don't have any information to give you. All I can do is let a nurse know you're here, but you can't see him yet. You can fill out the form."

"Then bring me someone that can tell me something," Kurt said and he walked away from the desk to drop into a bench.

Rory picked up the clipboard and didn't look at the receptionist who had grabbed the phone.

"Dad?" he asked.

Kurt looked up from where he'd dropped his face into his hands. There were tears pouring down his cheeks.

"Oh, Rory," he said and opened his arms. Rory sat down next to him, and his dad pulled him tight into his arms, "everything is going to be okay."

But it wasn't. Hours later they were standing in a hospital room with the still body of Blaine Hummel-Anderson. The machines around him were turned off and there were no wires or tubing connected to him. His skin was still bruised in places, and there were cuts, but everything had been cleaned. Blaine was in a hospital gown and his eyes were closed, mouth set in a straight line, and his arms at his side. Had Rory not known any better, he would have just believed his papa asleep.

His dad gasped next to him. There was a doctor standing by the door and he was silent, looking down at the floor.

"Blaine," his dad said and then rushed forward and draped himself onto Blaine and he kept muttering something Rory couldn't hear.

Rory was stuck by the door not being able to properly believe what was in front of him. He would wake up and it would all be just a nightmare and his dad and papa would rush into his room and hug him and put him back to sleep. It couldn't be happening.

"Rory, we're here."

"Oh."

They got out of Rachel's car. Kurt was still supporting Blaine who was walking but still wouldn't open his eyes. The emergency room was a mess. There were so many people with all different kinds of issues. They put his name down on a list and the receptionist nodded and then went to call someone's name. It was going to take hours.

Finn had disappeared right as they were entering the hospital, but he appeared then and Carole was with him. She was in her nurse's outfit and she rushed right to Blaine.

"Oh, dear," she said and tilted his head up, "what happened?"

"They threw a slushy on him, but it had to be tampered with – we've all had this happen to us before."

Carole frowned. "Could he have been allergic?"

None of them knew. With everything going on around him, Rory had managed to stop thinking about what had happened in the future.

"Well," Carole said, "it's that or something got into his eyes. Can you try to open them Blaine?"

At first he didn't even try, but when he did he cried out.

"Okay, no, bad idea. But come with me, honey, I'll get someone to look at you right now."

She told them to wait there, even Kurt, and had to tear Blaine away from Kurt to lead him through double doors into another part of the hospital. They all sat down to wait and even though Rory knew that everything would turn out fine he couldn't help but worry with them.

"I'll go get coffee," Rachel said and patted Kurt's hand when she got up.

Mike, Tina, Puck, Santana, and Brittany entered the hospital then and rushed towards them. Finn told them what was happening and they all found seats. Rory had wound up next to Kurt and he fought everything in himself to not lean his head against his dad's shoulder.

"What's wrong?" Kurt asked, "did something happen, Rory?"

"I –"

What could he say? How could he explain anything?

"Blaine's going to fine, Rory. It was just a slushy and they're looking at him and he'll be perfectly fine."

All his memories were rushing back and all he could remember was his dad saying that before. "Everything is going to be okay."

"You said that last time," he said and regretted it immediately.

"What? Rory what are you talking about?"

"I – nothing."

Rory got up, pushed up from his chair and walked out of the room. He didn't look back. It was too much, he couldn't handle being in that room waiting for a younger version of his papa to finish being examined and not being able to not think about the future and how that had gotten him to the past in the first place.

"I know it's a little scary, but you're way too freaked out about this, Rory, what happened? Something must have."

Rory turned around. There was his dad. Ever so compassionate and caring, of course he would follow him. Rory just wanted to hug him.

"I lost someone," Rory said, "and this – it's just bringing everything back."

"Oh," Kurt said, "do you, do you want to go home?"

"To Brittany's?" Rory asked and laughed a little, "no."

Kurt nodded. He looked a little lost, as if he didn't know what to do despite wanting nothing more than to do something.

"What do you need then? It has to be hard."

Rory shrugged a little. "Maybe a hug," he whispered.

Arms were around him and it broke him because suddenly all the tears he'd been holding back were just coming out and he was sobbing on Kurt's shoulder and his dad's arms tightened around him and made a shushing noise.

Blaine leaned his head back against his headboard. He was bored senseless, but mostly because he wasn't allowed to do anything. His mom was shadowing his every move, unless Kurt was there and then it was Kurt making sure that he was following the instructions his doctor had given him to pretty much do nothing. He couldn't read for longer than an hour or be on his computer, and texting was definitely out of the question. So, he was bored. All he could really do was listen to music and that was just getting boring. He was going to be out of school for two more weeks after this and it was going to pretty much be much of the same.

Someone knocked on his door and then pushed it open.

"Hey," Rory said.

Blaine immediately perked up. For the past few days he was living for visits. Most of the glee club had already come by, and Kurt was there as soon as he could get out of school and he left with just enough time to make his weekday curfew. Even Kurt's dad had come by to visit and they had watched a game together.

"Rory! I haven't seen you in a while. Kurt told me you were dealing with some stuff."

Rory nodded. "Yeah, it just brought some memories about someone I lost back in Ireland."

"Oh," Blaine said, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Rory said.

He sat down in the chair that Kurt had left just by Blaine's bed and fiddled with his fingers.

"But, how are you?"

"Good. A little worried about the operation, but mostly I'm just bored. There's not a lot I can do and my mom's turned into a worrywart. Kurt has too, really, but not to the same extent. He just seems to think I'm fragile or something. Also, I'm on way too much pain medication."

Rory laughed a little. "I was really worried about you," he said, "I couldn't stand knowing you'd gotten hurt like that."

"Yeah, well, I couldn't let it happen to Kurt."

No one mentioned the warblers around him, not even Kurt, and Blaine didn't really want to talk about them, or about Sebastian. He hated what he'd done, more so because it had been aimed to hurt Kurt, but mostly Blaine couldn't understand how the rest of them had just gone along with it and let Sebastian do it. The part of him that still sort of considered them his friends told him that the rest of them hadn't known it wasn't just a slushy, but they had known the history that Kurt had with them. That should have been enough for one or more of them to put a stop to it.

Rory was much quieter than usual. He seemed to be spacing out, looking a bit lost. Kurt had told Blaine that he'd been acting a bit odd since the slushy incident but Blaine hadn't given it that much thought. Now looking at him, he knew there was cause to worry. Had everything that happened really gotten to Rory that badly?

"Rory, is everything alright?"

"Don't worry about me," he said at once, "I'm okay. Really. I should go."

The door opened before Rory could get up and Kurt walked in holding a plate of crackers in a cheese.

"Your mom sent these up. She said you had company." He closed the door behind him. "Rory, you're here."

Rory looked between them and then he burst into tears, muttering, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Author's Note: Alright, so I absolutely loved writing this chapter, mostly because it didn't hit me until I was a bit into it, that I could be able to have a flashback - which I've wanted to do for a while...but it just didn't fit right anywhere else. I'm also excited because this is the chapter where things sorta change a bit, as far as the next few chapters go. Anyhow, I hope you all liked it and as always, no idea when the next one will be up...

And for anyone interested, I wrote a very long one-shot about The Break Up which I hope is a realistic way in which it all works out. Check it out.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. I'm also on tumblr where I will probably leave little progress reports on how my writing is going and occasionally previews for upcoming chapters. So stop by. tumblr: emquin.

Thank you for reading.

Please Review.

-Erika