Niff without Klaine
"I don't know if this is a good idea, Nicky. He is in a fragile state and seeing the two of us together just might make him worse. I couldn't imagine what it must be like to lose the love of your life - well, I could, but I don't want to…"
Nick knew exactly how Jeff felt as they stood in the hospital corridor. Only two days earlier they had been in another almost identical corridor, and had found out that Kurt had died. How long they had stood with their arms around each other, huddled around Wes with Trent, Thad and David, they did not know. When your heart is breaking, you do not measure time. Then there had been that scream, and they had had to catch Wes as he slumped to the floor. He had always been their rock, the one stable thing around which the Warblers circulated. To see him shatter had been frightening. Now the priority was Blaine, confined to a hospital bed. When they had heard that Cooper needed people to give him a break, they had volunteered at once. Now in the harsh fluorescent light of the hospital, it suddenly seemed a bad idea.
"Maybe you are right Jeff, but we have promised to do this for Cooper. Blaine needs his friends around him more than ever. He was there for us after Hunter, so I feel that we owe him. The best option might be that I go in alone, and you wait outside for me. That way he doesn't have to see us together - and that might help. I don't really know what we should do. For all of the education that Dalton gives us in being decent men, they miss out a lot on coping with death."
So it was that Nick entered the room alone, to see Cooper sat half asleep at his brother's bedside. The scene was so pitiful - from what Nick had been told, Blaine had demanded that he leave on Friday night - now, he was his best friend. Blaine was asleep as Cooper looked up, smiled, and motioned Nick over. "Here on your own, Nick? That I didn't expect." Then Cooper suddenly added up the situation and realised. "Ah, Jeff is outside, isn't he? You're such good friends to even think about doing this. You've done the right thing just now, but ask him when he wakes up - you might be surprised. I won't be long, just going to freshen up and get something to eat."
With that, Cooper left the room, and Nick went to sit in the chair he had just vacated. This was the first time he had seen Blaine since the party, and the difference was striking. He was so pale, and seemed to have shrunk. He knew that he couldn't have done, but it looked that way. Nick could feel his eyes start to tear up and he tried to blink them away. The last thing Blaine needed to see if he woke up was him in tears when he, after all, still had Jeff. He did it just in time, as Blaine stirred, and opened his eyes. Hazel eyes that had lost their sparkle…
"Hey Nick. Cooper gone to get some rest? That's good. He looks so tired. It's good of you to come - but there's something wrong. No Jeff. Can't have a Nick without a Jeff, just not right." Then a look of realisation came over his face. "He's here, but you didn't want to upset me. It won't, trust me. Might cheer me up to see that you still have each other. Get him in - I need my Niff…" So Nick got up and made Jeff come in. For the next three hours they chatted away as if everything was normal - and every time some little moment occurred between Nick and Jeff, Blaine smiled. Then Cooper was back, and they said their goodbyes. Once back in the corridor, they both broke down and cried. Because Blaine was different - something was very off…
They saw him at the funeral, and after his speech, they were in as much shock as the other Warblers. Thus began a week of discussions between them on Skype as to how they could get him back to normal. It was on the fourth day after the funeral that Jeff turned to Nick, as they lay in each others arms in bed, and said "We can't fix him. Only Kurt could do it. If I was in his shoes, I would be so broken that I wouldn't want to live anymore." Then he started to cry, Nick wrapping him in his arms. He silently prayed that Jeff was wrong, but knew in his heart that he wasn't. Because if he was in Blaine's shoes, that was how he would feel too…
Jeff wasn't wrong. When Sam appeared on camera instead of Santana, and said that there wasn't an easy way to say this, they both knew. The violence of his death was a shock, but not the fact that it had happened. Hunter's involvement made things a hundred times worse. After all he had put them through, this was a final straw. He had to be made to pay. Nick was determined that he would do whatever it took to ensure that he did - not just for Finn, Kurt and Blaine, but for himself and Jeff. He wasn't going to let anyone else get hurt.