I apologise for the length of this chapter. To have made it longer would have, I felt, belittled the events. Trust me, you don't want this any longer. Plus I have homework to do in preparation for solid writing of the final T&C chapter tomorrow. Wish me luck!

This chapter is dedicated to jobelle516 for keeping me sane in her crazy and crazy in her sane, for making me smile and making me question.

Trigger warning.

Story so far...

Everyone is exhausted, Kurt didn't get his promotion, and the Warblers have all said goodbye to Robert.

-*T&C*-

Blaine knew it was going to happen before it did. Everything seemed too calm, too peaceful. He'd managed a good night's sleep and was refreshed. He'd thought he was ready for anything.

The usual rush and panic of the morning hadn't happened. There was no dashing out the door with rushed "I love you"s. Kurt had seemed nervous, and still wore the sleepless darkness around his eyes, but they'd had time to stop, to cuddle, to be themselves. For the first time that he could remember, his drive to Dalton had been pleasant; there'd been no rush to arrive, and in fact he still arrived early, the first in the staffroom, even though he'd made a stop by the tree just off the grounds that he and Kurt had carved their initials into a couple of months after they got together.

And everything seemed to be going well. He didn't lose the notes which Kurt had typed up and printed for him the night before. He'd remembered to tuck his phone into his jacket pocket and could flick through photos they'd taken lazily this morning. His usual gel helmet wasn't destroyed by an impromptu downpour. It was a beautiful day and the sun was bright but it wasn't too hot nor too cold and there was no threat of rain. The sky was cloudless and sunlight illuminated the genuine old brick of the main building and the faked old brick of the Aviary. Everything was perfect.

The boys filed through the door perfectly on time. They all sat down perfectly without interruption. They got up and did as he suggested, trying bits of song: perfectly. Something was horribly, terribly wrong. And then the piercing sound of a ringtone filled the air.

Blaine frowned when the noise didn't stop. "Whosever phone that is? Can they switch it off, please? Just because this isn't timetabled doesn't mean it isn't a lesson." Nobody made any move to turn a phone off, and the ringing continued. "No? Whose is it?"

Jack coughed awkwardly. "Blaine? I think it might be yours."

Blaine listened, then blushed, embarrassed, when he realised Jack was right. "Sorry. I'll just..." His thumb froze over the 'reject call' button. He'd been expecting Kurt's photo on the screen, maybe even Greg's. But instead there was no photo, just a name.

"I... Sorry, I think I have to take this." He hit accept and turned away from the group, as if by turning around they'd no longer be able to hear him, or twig what was happening. "Hello?"

The noise on the other end of the phone was the furthest from perfect he had ever heard. There were no words said, and none needed. Only the sobs of a mother who had just lost her son.

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