Cooper was half asleep when he felt someone nudge his shoulder, bringing him back to coherency. He looked around to see two of Blaine's classmates, a blonde haired boy and a brunette with glasses in a wheelchair.

His stomach lurched.

"Cooper?" said the blonde hesitantly. "I -- We wanted to see him, I mean -- Glee ended a while ago, and we --"

Cooper wracked his brains, trying to remember both boy's names. Sam. The blonde was Sam -- the boy who'd run as Blaine's VP for Student Council. The other boy's name was Artie.

"Sam." he said tiredly. "I -- It's fine. I was just going to get some air." He stood and saw Artie looking at the folded up wheel chair in the corner of the hospital room. "He won't let us put him in it. Threatened to pull out his IV." he looked back at his brother's sleeping form. "Been asleep most of the day, so don't hold your breath."

Artie looked thoughtful.

"I can try talking to him. It's -- It's not so bad." he gestured to his own chair. "but if he doesn't want to talk about it I won't push him."

Cooper smiled, relieved.

"Thanks. I won't be long." He stood and gave Blaine a sad smile before slipping from the room.

Sam took his vacated seat, and Artie maneuvered his chair so that he was sitting next to his friend.

"We miss you, man." said Sam quietly.

"Britt's staged a coup -- she and Unique took over Glee while you've been here. You gotta come back -- I think we might end up dressed as unicorns for Sectionals." said Artie. "and you know me, I can't pull that off."

"I don't think anyone can," Sam chuckled.

Blaine groaned quietly and tried to roll onto his side, frustrated whimpers mixed with Kurt's name leaving his lips.

His friends exchanged an uneasy look.

"Blaine?" said Sam.

It took a few minutes, but then Blaine's eyes opened slowly, and settled on the other two boys.

"Sam...Artie? What are you two doing here?" he mumbled.

Sam grinned.

"We came to see you." he said. "Tina and Marley'll be by later."

Blaine smiled.

"Cool."

"How're you feeling?" asked Artie.

"I woke up from a week long coma induced by a car accident yesterday, and the doctors say I'm going to be in a wheel chair for the rest of my life. How do you think I feel?" Blaine looked at the bag of books at Sam's feet. "That homework?"

Sam looked down, startled by the sudden change in subject.

"Yeah." he said. "You don't have to start on it right now --"

Blaine extended the arm not hooked up to the IV.

"No, it's fine. Now I have something to distract me from that." he jerked his head toward the chair in the corner.

Artie hesitated.

"You can't avoid it forever, Blaine." he said.

"I am for now," Blaine snapped. "Either of you heard from Kurt?"

Sam glanced at Artie.

"No. We haven't." he said.

"Oh." the dark haired boy sighed. "I -- I thought, I just --" he shook his head absently, obviously lost in thought. "Can you hand me that?" he gestured to the bag. "Might as well get some of this out of the way."
Sam handed it to him, finally noticing that Cooper was not in the room. "Cooper --?"

"He'll be back. He just went to get some air."

Blaine was quiet for a moment."Oh." Warning bells went off in Sam's head: he could tell by the way Blaine was leaning over his History notebook, the way his shoulders shook that his friend was about to have a meltdown. "I-I think you guys should go. Just -- I'll see you around, okay?"Artie sighed and backed his chair away from the bed before turning it so he could leave.

"Okay." he knew if they stayed or tried to keep a conversation going, Blaine would blow up. Whatever had happened with Kurt, combined with the accident -- . Artie had been there. The difference was (besides the fact that he'd not been involved in a relationship at the time) he'd had time -- years to adjust to what had happened -- even if some days were still hard as hell.

Blaine had been in a coma for a week, coming home from a trip to see Kurt in New York. A trip that Blaine clearly wasn't happy about.

He needed time, and Artie was more than willing to give him that.

"Let's go," he said to Sam.

--

"Come on." Cooper swore for what seemed like the billionth time and hit 'send' again. "Pick up -- pick up your damn phone!" he hit 'end' when it went straight to voicemail.

"You look like you're having a great day." he turned to see Burt standing in the hallway. "Still can't get a hold of your dad?"

He shook his head as he pocketed the phone.

"No. I'm not really that surprised, I guess. I just thought after the fiftieth voice message that he'd figure out something was wrong."

"You try your mom?"

"Yeah. She's not answering either." Cooper closed his eyes briefly, inhaling through his nose and willing himself to stay calm. "You talk to Kurt?"

"I did."

"What'd you find out?"

"I'm not sure if you want to know. You might fly up to New York and castrate him."

"Unless he did something horrible, and I'm not saying he did, my ass is staying here in Ohio with Blaine. What'd Kurt say?"

Burt inhaled and crossed his arms.

"He said, that Blaine told him he cheated on him."Cooper stared at him incredulously.

"Blaine. Cheat on him? Seriously?" he laughed, even though inwardly he was panicking. Blaine's distress, how he kept telling Cooper that he'd broken his boyfriend's heart -- he couldn't have -- "My brother's not a cheater, Burt."

"I know." Burt sighed. "It's the only reason I don't want to kill him right now." His eyes widened. "You don't think --"

"I say we talk to him before we make assumptions." Cooper felt sick at the the thought. "Chances are this is a misunderstanding and, knowing Blaine, he'd think breathing on another guy was cheating."Burt was silent for a moment."And if it's not?"

"Then he either cheated or -- " He exhaled and lifted one hand to run his fingers through his hair. "Either way, you try to kill him and I make no promises on not beating the shit out of you."

The older man rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. Whatever."