"Y-Your mother?" Kurt said incredulously.

Blaine sighed.

"Cooper and I really don't like talking about her -- she wasn't really 'Mommy Dearest'." he said bitterly. "The last time I was remotely close to her --" his voice cracked. "-- I was three, and I could hear Coop screaming all the way up in my room."

Kurt stared at him, horrified.

"She never hit me," his boyfriend continued. "He made sure she didn't --- even if it made her hit him worse. One night she hurt his back really badly. When he finally made it up to my room and got me, he said we were going to leave. He called our aunt the next day and, after she was arrested, our grandparents got custody of us and we moved from Sacramento to Westerville." he was quiet for a minute or two. "Promise me you won't say anything to the others. I don't want them to know."

The brunette nodded and leaned over, brushing his lips gently against the shorter boy's.

"I won't." he murmured. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Neither spoke for a while, and before long, Blaine fell asleep. There was a soft knock on the door, and Kurt jumped up to answer it.

It was Tina.

"Everything okay?" she asked softly. "We just got back."

Kurt shrugged.

"I -- I don't know, T. He's sleeping."

She frowned.

"That woman really scared him, didn't she?"

He nodded.

"I'd tell you more if I could, but it's not my place. Just tell the others that I'm handling it. Okay?"

Tina nodded and left.

---

The house was silent as Cooper and Blaine entered it.Always a bad sign.

The light in the basement was on when Cooper checked, and their mother must have heard them because she yelled,

"Cooper get Blaine and get your both your asses down here now!"

Cooper turned and squatted down so he was on the same level with his three-year-old brother.

"Listen to me, buddy. Go up into your room, and hide in your closet, okay? Lock it from the inside, like I showed you. No matter what happens you stay there until I come get you. Understand?"

The toddler's lip wobbled, but he nodded. Cooper hugged him tightly.

"I love you, Blainey." he whispered.

"Love you too, Coop." His brother pulled back and ruffled his curls once before shooing him away and up the stairs.

In his room, Blaine grabbed the stuffed bear that Cooper had given him at the hospital when he was born and then ran into the closet, pulling the door shut and throwing the special lock. He then curled up in the far corner, clutching the bear to his chest, trying not to cry.

Then he heard Cooper scream...and he didn't stop for a good thirty minutes.

By the time his big brother had made it up to his room, an hour had passed, and Blaine was crying uncontrollably.

The moment Blaine had unlocked it (after hearing his big brother knock and tell him it was okay for him to unlock it), and Cooper had thrown the door open, the little boy was in his arms, and Cooper collapsed, rocking him back and forth, trying to calm him. Neither said anything about the injuries. It was an unspoken rule between them not to.

"It's okay, B." the elder boy whispered, trying not to wince as Blaine's cheek pressed against a still healing bruise near his shoulder. "Sshh. It's okay. I'm here, buddy. Ssshh."

Cooper threw his phone onto his bed in frustration and ran a hand through his hair.

How the hell had their mother gotten out of Sacramento?! More importantly, how had she found Blaine?!

It scared the shit out of him to be honest.

He hadn't been able to get a hold of their aunt, nor their grandparents. He vaguely considered trying to get a hold of their father, Thomas, but decided against it. The idiot had left their mother when he was ten, and after their grandparents gained custody, had made sporadic visits over the years -- his latest had been when Blaine came out. They'd built a '59 Chevy together but that hadn't worked out really well -- and had ended with Blaine accusing him of trying to turn him straight.

Cooper hadn't seen him since. He was still angry that Thomas hadn't come in when Blaine had ended up in the hospital after Sadie Hawkins. He hadn't expected him to, but it still would have been nice.

He would never admit it, but he still had nightmares of the brief period where their mother had lost her sanity and begun abusing him. When she'd started screaming at him to bring Blaine in too, he'd refused.

He was, essentially, the only real parent Blaine had ever known (even if their grandparents were their -- now Blaine's as Cooper was now legally an adult -- legal guardians), even if he knew at that age that Cooper was his big brother, not his father.

And the elder Anderson sibling had done what he could, refusing to let the toddler get hurt. He'd found a baby-sitter whom Blaine adored -- Lydia -- who'd lived down the street at the time, was always willing to watch Blaine while he was in school.

The night Jenna Anderson had injured his back, he knew that putting Blaine with a babysitter during the day was not going to protect him forever.

They needed help.

He knew they had to get out, and so after getting Blaine his breakfast the next day, he'd called their aunt, and within two weeks, he and Blaine were headed for Westerville, Ohio to live with their paternal grandparents.

Jenna had been incarcerated in a mental facility, forced to undergo psychiatric care.

And now for some reason she was out -- after fourteen years, and he'd had no notice. Blaine had had no notice, and she'd ambushed him in Chicago.

Blaine had told him not to fly out -- that he would be fine. Cooper was pretty sure that was a lie. He hurriedly pulled up all available flights and booked the first flight to Chicago that he could find:

depart: Two-thirty p.m.
arrive: Eight-thirty p.m.

He would be exhausted, but he would see his little brother perform at Nationals in forty-eight hours, and hopefully prevent their mother from coming near him again.And that was all that mattered.

---

Kurt and Blaine got a lot of questions that night when they joined Mr. Schuester and the rest of New Directions for dinner.

Blaine barely said a word, and in the end, Kurt put his foot down, saying that it was nobody's business but his boyfriend's, and if he wanted to talk about it, he would -- when he was ready.Everyone pretty much shut up after that, and they went back to the hotel to get some sleep.