During the day, Blaine feels like he's floating on cloud nine. Kurt texts him random names of potential venues over the next few days, instructing him to google each one and request wedding packs, which he gladly does. In fact, after speaking with Kurt each evening, he then spends hours researching weddings on the internet. Really, anything to avoid having to go to sleep.

The nightmares continue, and Blaine now finds himself averaging about three or four hours sleep a night, which is not good for him at all. He comes home from the garage, and often has to nap because he's so tired, and Angie has privately expressed her concerns to Burt, who agrees with her, but doesn't let on that he knows the reason.

"It's not right," she says one night, when an exhausted Blaine has gone to bed. "He's so tired. He says he sleeps fine, but..."

"I know, and I've tried to talk to him, but he can only talk when he's ready."

"Maybe he'll be better when he's back with Kurt."

"Yeah, maybe."

The conversation ends there, and Angie heads up to bed, while Burt sits in his armchair and thinks. He is woken in the early hours, and at first he thinks it must be the TV, which is still blaring. Annoyed at having fallen asleep yet again in the den, he grumbles as he gets to his feet, shuts off the TV, and flips out the lights, and then he hears it again.

A high pitched scream, like a child in distress, and then hard, desperate crying, and a voice, begging. "Please, not him. No, please."

Burt hurries to the basement door and gives a knock. "Blaine? Buddy?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Blaine is crying, when Burt pushes open the door and hurries down the stairs. "Please don't hurt him, not Kurt, not Kurt."

Burt flips on the desk lamp, but Blaine is not in his bed. He is curled up on the floor in a ball, on his side, rocking back and forth, and whimpering softly.

"Blaine?"

There is no response. Blaine is sound asleep, locked in a world of terror which makes his face twist in agony as he screams again. "No! Not Kurt! Please!"

"Blaine, buddy, come on. Wake up for me, Blaine, come on," Burt urges, but there's still no response. He knows he shouldn't try and touch him when he's like this, but when Blaine bites on his fist, and then breaks down into sobs, Burt can't stand it any more. "Come on, sunshine, wake up for me. It's dad. It's me, it's okay, come on."

Kneeling on the floor, he manages, somehow, to pull Blaine into his arms and hold him tight against his chest.

"Not my face!" Blaine screams, pulling at his hair. "Not my face, please, no!"

Burt keeps talking, over and over and gently shaking Blaine, until eventually he wakes.

"What? Who? Not Kurt! Not... They were..." He starts, and then looks up and realizes Burt is holding him. "They're gonna kill me," he whispers, and then he cries.

"Oh Blaine."

"They're gonna kill me," he gasps, through broken sobs. "For the rest of my life, however hard I try, I'll never be rid of them. They're destroying me."

"Blaine, my boy," Burt soothes, rocking him back and forth like a child. "I'm here. I'm not ever gonna let them win, you hear me? Not ever. You are bigger, stronger, and better than them, and you'll see. You'll see that you can get past this, I promise."

"I don't think I can, though," he cries, as he holds on to Burt. "Every time I think it's okay, that I'm happy and things are good...they're still there. In my head. Laughing at me, hurting the people I love, taunting me...I hate myself for letting them win, but I don't know how to stop it. I don't know... I don't know..."

His sobs are desperate, wretched, and they seem to tear him apart as Burt holds him and soothes him as best he can. Blaine cries for himself, for all the memories he has tried to block out, and for the future, which right now, he can never envision being free from the oppressive, bullying presence of Spencer and his sons, and whether it's in physical form, or through mental torment, doesn't matter, he just feels as though he will never be able to shake it off.

"Okay," Burt says eventually, when his tears are subsiding. "We need to talk about this, but right now, you need some sleep. Here," he says, finding some clean pajamas and handing them to him. "Go clean yourself up while I get some clean sheets on this bed."

By the time Blaine is back under the covers, it is nearing four in the morning. He curls up on his side, his eyes large, as he looks at Burt. "Thank you," he whispers. "You won't tell anyone, will you?"

"Blaine." Burt sits heavily on the bed, and holds his hand. "I won't if you really don't want me to, but I think you need some help here, and I think the best way for you to move past this is by talking to us all about it. Kurt, your mom, me, we love you so much, and we want you to be better."

"They'll think I'm a child," he says, tears rolling down his cheeks. "They won't say it, because they won't want to hurt me, but I'm supposed to marry Kurt," he says sadly. "And he will think he's taking on this pathetic..."

"Blaine, a question," Burt cuts in. "If it was me, having these nightmares, and you had come in and found me as I'd just found you, would you have rolled your eyes and walked away, because I'm an adult? Or would you have helped me?"

"I..."

"If I came to you, and said I was scared about something, would you laugh at me? Did I tell your mom to get over it when she left him? Blaine, it doesn't matter if you're six or sixty, if people love you, they want to help you, no matter what the problem, or how old you are, or anything else. Not one of us will think you're a child, we will all just think how brave you are in asking for help."

He doesn't say anything for a long time, just lies there holding Burt's hand, and thinking how easy it could be to just let them help, to share his problems. He feels as if he might be able to sleep again, at least, and even if the nightmares did come, there would be someone there for him to talk to.

"Will you stay with me?" he asks quietly. "Until I fall asleep?"

"Of course."

Burt sits on the bed, leaning back against the headboard, and still holding Blaine's hand. "You can sleep. I'll be here when you wake up, I promise."

Burt is the first one to stir, at eight, when he hears Angie leaving for work. His back is stiff from sleeping while sitting up, and he stands and stretches, before settling back down and waiting for Blaine to stir. It takes another half hour, but he blinks awake, surprised to find Burt next to him, before he remembers.

"Oh."

"How you feelin'?"

"Okay, I guess," he shrugs. "Are we late for work?"

"We're not working today," Burt declares. "Liam can manage. I'll give him a call, and then you and I are heading to the doctors."

"What? No! Dad, I really don't want..."

"Blaine. I don't care. You're going."

"But..."

"Don't start with me about how you're not a kid," Burt barks at him, as he heads to the stairs. "I know you're not, but I also know that you can't go on like this."

So Blaine goes to the doctor, albeit reluctantly, and he tells him more about his dreams, as Burt sits beside him and listens.

"They're always taking my people," he explains. "The ones I love. My dads, mostly, both of them. And Kurt. They already have my mom. It's like...every night the same, but different. It's hard to explain."

"I think I understand," the doctor says. "And you know, flashbacks, recurring dreams...they're all normal after a traumatic experience."

"But why, though?" Blaine asks desperately. "Haven't I been through enough? Why is my brain doing this to me?"

"Many reasons," the doctor tells him calmly. "It could be extraneous stresses causing you to revisit a hard time in your life, or it could be that you never properly dealt with it at the time..."

"You did seem to bounce back pretty quick," Burt says gently.

"Yeah, but...Kurt...Kurt and me, we helped each other, I thought. I honestly felt okay."

"You might have felt it," the doctor says. "But you really do need time for emotional trauma like that to heal. It's no different than the break of a leg, or a bad brain needs to recover."

"And you rushed into finals," Burt points out. "Maybe that's why. I'm not saying you and Kurt didn't help each other out, and I know you were a huge support to him, just like he was to you, but like the doc says, you need time to work through this."

"How?"

"I would suggest a therapist," the doctor offers. "I know a good one in New York, actually. My brother. I'm sure he'd take you. I'd also like to give you some sleeping pills so you can rest at night."

"Oh, no way, no," Blaine snaps. "I'm not being drugged."

"Ah well, they're only light, to help you nod off, rather than put you under for hours on end. I'll prescribe them, and you can decide if you get it filled or not. There is one other thing you can do."

"Oh?"

"Talk. Share this with the people you love, and the ones you can trust. Tell them how you feel, ask for their support. Your dad here seems like a good guy."

"Yeah," Blaine says, with a sideways glance and a small smile. "He's kinda the best."

"You can easily overcome this, Blaine," the doctor says kindly. "You just have to let yourself."

But he doesn't tell Kurt that night, in fact, he doesn't tell anyone anything at all. On Burt's stubborn insistence, the prescription is filled, Blaine takes a pill, and at last, he sleeps. So when Kurt eventually gives up trying to find him on skype, he calls the house phone, and Angie answers.

"He's in bed," she tells Kurt when he asks. "He went down right after dinner to take a bath, then he called for Burt to go down there, and there he's been ever since."

"Dad? Why?"

"Blaine's not sleeping, for whatever reason, and your dad was sitting with him all last night too. It seems he's more reassured if he's next to him."

"Well he can move out tomorrow."

"I'm sure he will," Angie laughs. "I'm glad you're coming back. We all need each other right now."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that I don't think Blaine is well at all, and we all need to pull together on this."

"Can you tell him, when he wakes up, that I love him? I mean, I know I can text him, or whatever, but I think that sometimes...sometimes it does good to hear it from someone else. It might make him smile."

"I will," Angie promises. "And I'll see you tomorrow."

Angie delivers her message over breakfast, and Kurt is right, it brings a hint of color to Blaine's cheeks, and makes him smile softly. It's only later though, when he sees Kurt running toward him at the airport, that he finally feels complete.

"Oh my god!" Kurt shrieks loudly, but Blaine doesn't care that everyone turns to look at them, or that they keep staring when he scoops Kurt clean of the ground and kisses him passionately. He just cares that Kurt is here with him once more, that they are in each others arms, and now they have two whole weeks of no work, just plenty of time together.

"I've missed you," Kurt says softly into his ear, sensing it's what Blaine needs to hear. "I know I can survive without you, but it's like I just don't function as well, you know?"

"Oh, I know, trust me."

Kurt pulls back to study him, and Blaine looks down. "My puppy," he says sadly. "You're really not doing too good, are you?"

Blaine shakes his head, looking up with tears in his eyes. He doesn't speak, but Kurt knows, and gently kisses his forehead. "You wanna talk now? We could get coffee, or wait until we're home, I don't mind."

"Uh..yeah, actually, I've kinda had enough of crying so...now would be good. I'm less likely to cry in the middle of a Starbucks, I guess."

Kurt listens patiently, while Blaine tells him everything. He'd guessed a lot, though he would never tell Blaine that, but he wonders for a moment whether he should have forced Blaine to a doctor after the first dream.

"No, not at all," Blaine insists, and Kurt realizes his inner musings have slipped out. "I wouldn't have gone, we'd have had this huge fight right after we had gotten engaged, and it would have been awful."

"Still, I shouldn't have gone back to New York and left you here. I feel bad that it was left to dad."

"Don't be sad, because I needed it to be him," Blaine admits. "I love you endlessly, you know that, but I feel like now I can sit and tell you all this, and I know how I need you to help me, because he's already started that healing process for me. Does that make sense? It's not that I don't need you, because I do. It's just that he's my dad."

"I get that," Kurt says, reaching across the table for his hand. "And I will help you, any way I can. I'm so sorry I didn't notice you waking. Leave it to me to only wake up when I got cold. You could blast Beethoven's fifth and I'd still continue to sleep, but take my blanket and I'm awake in an instant."

"Well, I'm kinda happy to be your blanket," Blaine admits shyly, and Kurt's heart flutters with delight.

"Let's go," he declares, pulling Blaine to his feet. "We can talk more in the car, after we've made out."

And Blaine does talk more. Together, he and Kurt talk about every moment of that fateful day, and it helps Blaine enormously to hear it from Kurt's perspective.

"I was so angry already," Kurt tells him, as they head home in Bessie. "At myself for forgetting my laptop, mainly, plus I was stressed out, as you know. Of course, me being me, that had turned into me being mad at you for not answering your phone. Man, I was really gonna let you have it," he admits with a laugh. "So when I walked in and saw...well, all my adrenaline, fueled by anger, just came rushing out. I couldn't hold back. They could've been sitting there having tea, and I'd still have tried to kill them, but they weren't. They were hurting you. And I know how you feel, about being seen as weak, but I know for a fact that if that had been me getting beat on, you'd have wanted to kill them too."

"Is that what you wanted? To actually kill them?"

"Yes...no. I don't know. I just wanted to let them know that what they were doing was not okay. I needed them to stop."

"And how do you feel now?"

"Honestly?"

"Yeah."

"Like they haven't stopped."

Blaine glances across at him in surprise. "Really?"

"I feel like... I feel like they've paused," Kurt admits. "But I think we're being naive if we think they'll never come back."

They are nearly home, just a few streets away, but Blaine pulls over, and taking Kurt's face in his hands, he kisses him firmly on the mouth. "Thank you."

"Huh?"

"That is exactly how I feel too," Blaine says. Kurt looks at him, so open and earnest, and he realizes he's been waiting to hear this all along, the reassurance that he's not alone in worrying about it. "I am sure that somehow they're planning revenge. I don't mean they're going to come back to the apartment, or that they're going to...I don't know...try and kidnap mom, but I just mean that somehow they'll come back, and I try not to think about it, but..."

"But it's coming into your dreams instead," Kurt finishes for him. "Whereas I do think about it. I spend many hours when I'm supposed to be working just wondering, thinking, hoping you're okay, worrying that they'll turn up at dad's garage one day..."

"I would rip them apart," Blaine says, his face like stone. "I would find them and I would make sure they were incapable of ever hurting anyone again."

"You see! That's how I felt when they were on you! So please don't get hung up on anyone thinking you're a child. It's not that, it's just that we love you."

"Huh." Blaine turns to stare through the windshield. "Yeah. Dad said something similar."

"Of course. We're always right. All of us are in this, Blaine. All four of us."

"So what do we do then?" Blaine asks. "How do I..we, move forward?"

"I don't know," Kurt admits. "But we start by telling your mom about the dreams."

By the time Kurt and Blaine fall into bed, both are drained from the hours spent talking, but both also feel lighter than they have in weeks. It's not like it's been a noticeable oppression, it's just that when it's suddenly not there anymore, both realize the effect it had been having upon them.

"We'll get there, huh?" Blaine asks, when, fresh from the shower, he lies down on his front next to Kurt.

"Yeah."

Kurt turns out the light and pulls the covers up, turning onto his side so he can study Blaine in the moonlight. This is his favourite time, when Blaine is all fluffy, his hair softly curling, and he smells so good. "That's not to say the nightmares will stop right away, though, you know that? You still need to see a therapist. Or maybe, we both do."

"Both of us?"

"I thought I could come with you," Kurt says hesitantly. "I mean, maybe you would find it easier if I didn't..."

"I'd find it easier if you did," Blaine says, turning his head to the side to smile at him. "I love you so much, Kurt."

"I love you too. And I'm gonna keep on loving you. Whatever happens, I'll love you until...well, until at least the middle of next week. Maybe a day or two longer, if you're lucky."

Blaine gives a soft laugh, and closes his eyes when Kurt reaches out to play with his hair. "You're silly."

"Uh...no. You are, for saying yes to my proposal."

"Ha! Totally."

"We're good, you know?" Kurt says. "You and I. We're really strong together, and with the support of dad and your mom. That's why we'll make it, and why they won't win. They can't touch the love we all have for each other."

"Yeah. You're right," Blaine says, smiling at the thought. "They can't. I mean, they tried, didn't they? With mom? And for a while there, they succeeded. But she realized."

"Of course she did. Because she has a heart, and she has you for her son. No one could ever walk away from you."

Blaine opens his eyes in surprise. "What about that time you stormed off in Target?"

"Um..."

"And when you left me alone in that Bakery on Linden, because you thought Tom Selleck had walked past the window?"

"That was..."

"You also walked away in the middle of fifth avenue, because you thought Saks might have a sale, and I had to call you because you had suddenly disappeared. You stormed off in a huff when we were in Central Park, because I laughed when a dog licked your knee, you walked away in Pottery Barn, because I wouldn't let you buy that table, and you also left me in Whole Foods, because I said you'd never actually make Soda Bread, so it was pointless buying the ingredients."

"I hate you."

"I totally won that one," Blaine says smugly, and he laughs when Kurt digs him in the ribs, then yawns and closes his eyes again.

"You sleepy?"

"A little."

"You want one of your pills?"

"Hmm. No. Not right now. Just you."

"Um, you're gonna need to clarify that, cause I don't know if that means you want me, or just that you want me."

"Can we see how it goes?"

"Of course. Here. Let me give you a massage."

"Oh." He grins into the pillow, as Kurt straddles him and starts rubbing gently at his shoulders. "Then we're definitely gonna have sex."

"I might say no," Kurt teases, but he leans down and kisses above Blaine's shoulder. "I might have given it up."

"Kurt, that's the funniest joke you've ever made," Blaine quips, then he shuts up at the feel of his hands massaging over him.

Soft kisses are interspersed with gentle yet firm pressure, as Kurt works through every knot of tension in Blaine's back. When that's done, and he is soft and pliant, he moves lower.

Blaine moans quietly at the feel of Kurt's mouth there. It feels so good, and it's so easy to forget, to just let Kurt take over all his senses. Even the touch of his hands, running over the back of his thighs, gets him going, but it's not just that. It's the feel of Kurt's tongue, as he draws his knees up under him. It's Kurt's fingers, stretching him, making him ready, and then Kurt himself, his chest pressed tight against Blaine's back, as he enters him with a groan of satisfaction.

"I love you," he whispers, leaning down to tug his earlobe between his teeth. "I'm so happy to be back with you again."

"Hmm," Blaine agrees happily, and his agreement turns into a gasp of pleasure, when Kurt starts to move slowly.

They are unhurried, and when Kurt does eventually give in and let his orgasm take him, it is quietly, with his teeth scraping over Blaine's neck, as he holds his hand tightly. "What do you..."

"Just touch me," Blaine says, guiding Kurt's hand down. "Stay where you are and just touch me."

He comes quickly, with Kurt pressed tight against him, his body overwhelming Blaine completely. He keeps him close after, too, letting Kurt pull out, before curling around him once more, as they fall onto their sides. Kurt kisses his cheek gently, but within moments, Blaine is sound asleep.