Never Say Goodbye

The next morning, Blaine woke up with an excitement thrumming through his body. After being cared for and helped over the past couple of months, it felt nice to finally get the chance to help someone else.

"Blaine?" he heard Kurt's voice call through his closed bedroom door. "Are you up?"

"Yep," he smiled, crossing the room and opening the door to reveal himself. He had chosen a slightly bolder outfit today, one similar to what he had worn before the accident, according to all of the pictures that he'd seen of himself at least. He wore a light grey, stripped cardigan, grey pants, and a bright green bow tie. Kurt's eyes widened at the sight before him. All that was missing was the gel in his hair for Blaine to look just how he used to.

"R-Ready to go?" Kurt stuttered, desperately fighting to keep his emotions in check. Here standing before him was the spitting image of the man that he had fallen in love with back in his junior year.

"I think so," Blaine nodded, moving to pass by Kurt. As he did so, his hand brushed against Kurt, making a tingle rush through Kurt. He couldn't help but blush at the feeling.

"You coming, Kurt?" Blaine asked, stopping at the top of the stairs as he noticed that Kurt wasn't following him.

"Oh! Um, yep!" Kurt sputtered, turning and following Blaine down the stairs. He almost wished that he hadn't risked a glance over at Blaine as they walked down the stairs because then he wouldn't have seen the small, knowing smirk on his lips.

"So, ahem, you seem pretty excited about going today," Kurt commented, trying to sound casual. "Any special reason why?"

"Oh, no reason," Blaine shrugged. "I'm just looking forward to seeing everyone again, to get a chance to really get to know them. It's so hard seeing all of these people who are supposedly my best friends when I have no clue who they are."

"I know it's tough," Kurt said, slowly taking Blaine's hand and giving it a light squeeze. "But I'll be there with you. You're not alone."

"I know," Blaine smiled, squeezing his hand back. "Thanks."

Oddly enough, Blaine didn't let go, even once they reached the kitchen.

"Morning, boys," Burt greeted them, only barely glancing up from his newspaper. He did happen to catch their entwined hands and raised an eyebrow at Kurt, which he just ignored.

"Morning, Dad. Morning, Carole," Kurt replied, leading Blaine over to the cereal cabinet.

"Any plans for today, bud?" Burt asked suspiciously.

"Yes, Sir," Blaine answered for him. "We're going to visit McKinley today."

"Blaine, I've told you a hundred times, you can just call me Burt," he grinned. "And are you sure that's such a good idea, Kurt?"

"It was my idea, Sir- I mean, Burt," Blaine jumped in. "I really wanted to go back, try again, so to speak. I really want to get to know my friends again."

"I think that that's a great idea, Blaine," Carole smiled encouragingly. "We can't really keep you cooped up here forever, now can we?"

"Why does everyone keep saying that he's being cooped up here!?" Kurt exclaimed unhappily. "It makes it sound like he's being forced to stay here against his will!"

"It's okay, Kurt," Blaine said softly, giving his hand a tight squeeze. "I've been perfectly happy staying here. I feel safe here. I feel at home."

Kurt's heart swelled with pride at his words.

You are my home, he wanted to say, but he held the words back, afraid that they might freak Blaine out.

"If you boys are in a hurry to go then, I have a package of muffins that I just picked up this morning," Carole said, pulling a small package out of the cupboard.

"That sounds great, Carole," Blaine smiled, taking one of the muffins from the package. Instead of eating it, he turned and handed it to Kurt.

"T-Thanks," Kurt smiled, blushing at the sudden, sweet gesture.

"You're welcome," Blaine smiled back before turning to take a second muffin from the package. "Thank you, Carole."

"You are quite welcome, Blaine," she smiled.

"I guess that we should probably get going then," Kurt said before taking a small bite from his muffin. "We'll see you later, Dad, Carole."

"Have fun, kids," Burt nodded, returning his attention to his newspaper.

"I like your parents," Blaine said as they walked out to the car.

"Yeah, I lucked out with them," Kurt agreed, smiling proudly as he got into the car. "My dad was really cool about everything when I came out to him. I don't think that I would have been able to survive high school if he hadn't supported me."

"I think that it's really cool that you have such a supportive dad," Blaine said softly as Kurt backed out of the driveway. "My dad just tried to ignore it, pretend like I had never told him. At least that way he wouldn't have to be ashamed of me."

"Hey, hey, let's not think about stuff like that, okay?" Kurt said quickly. "Sometimes parents just don't get it, you know? But you have Cooper at least. And me."

"I'm thankful that I have you," Blaine smiled, reaching over and placing his hand on Kurt's leg. A slight tingle sparked through the area where his hand touched Kurt.

"And I'm thankful that I have you too," Kurt smiled back, casting a quick glance over at Blaine. "So now be honest with me. What are you planning?"

"What do you mean?" Blaine asked innocently.

"I know that you're planning something," Kurt pushed. "I know that you didn't invite Rachel to come today just because."

"I guess that you'll just have to wait and see," Blaine shrugged.

"That's not fair, Blaine!" Kurt exclaimed unhappily. "You used to always tell me everything!"

A sudden silence fell over the car at Kurt's words.

"Blaine, I didn't-" Kurt started to say.

"How about some music?" Blaine cut him off quickly, moving his hand away from Kurt's leg to turn on the radio. The familiar tunes of a Lady Gaga song blasted through the speakers.

"Oh gosh, not this song!" Kurt blushed, starting to reach for the dial to change the station.

"What's wrong with Bad Romance?" Blaine asked curiously.

"We did this song for a Glee assignment once," Kurt explained, his cheeks red with embarrassment. "And I went all out Gaga for the performance. I'm talking silver outfit, big, white wig, and huge, silver stilettos. My dad still has pictures of it that he says he's gonna save for my wedding!"

"I'm gonna have to ask Burt to show me those pictures," Blaine teased lightly. "I'd love to see you Gaga-ed out."

"No!" Kurt exclaimed. "Don't you dare! It's humiliating!"

"Aww, but I'm sure that you were an awesome Gaga," Blaine smirked. "Do you still have the outfit? Maybe you'll have to model it for me..."

"Oh, look! We're here!" Kurt said quickly as they pulled into the school parking lot.

"I'm going to make you show me that outfit," Blaine promised teasingly as they got out of the car.

"Can you just drop it?" Kurt begged, fully mortified.

"Nope!" Blaine gave him a goofy, lopsided grin.

"Drop what?" Rachel asked, suddenly coming up behind them.

"Nothing!" Kurt said quickly, trying desperately to clamp his hand over Blaine's mouth before he told her the truth.

"Kurt was telling me about his Gaga outfit," Blaine smiled, pushing Kurt's hand away.

"Oh my gosh!" Rachel exclaimed, horror filling her eyes. "Please don't ever mention that again!"

Rachel turned, signalling that that was the end of it, and walked into the school.

"Was your outfit really that bad?" Blaine asked Kurt hesitantly as they followed Rachel into the building.

"Not mine," Kurt smirked. "Hers. She made an outfit out of a bunch of stuffed animals. It was not a pretty sight."

"Ouch!" Blaine winced. "I don't even want to picture that!"

"No, you do not," Kurt agreed, chuckling lightly.

"Are you two coming or not?" Rachel asked, stopping a little ways ahead of them down the hallway.

"Sorry," they both apologized at the same time as they quickly hurried to catch up with her. She looped her arms through both of theirs and half dragged them down the hall towards the choir room.

Once they reached the room, they paused for a second before opening the door and stepping inside.

"Blaine!" Tina's voice carried loudly through the room as she spotted them. Everyone else's attention were quickly drawn towards them.

"Blaine!" a tall, slightly curly haired man smiled at him.

"That's Mr. Schue," Kurt whispered in Blaine's ear. He was now standing beside Blaine, having been released from Rachel's hold.

"Blaine, it's so good to see you back and well again!" Mr. Schue said. "We've sorely missed you in this room, especially your voice. We're really going to need it for Sectionals coming up soon."

"Sectionals?" Blaine asked Kurt quietly.

"Show choir competition," Kurt whispered back hesitantly. "Don't worry, Schuester won't force you to sing in it. You're not ready to be back yet."

"Mr. Schue, Blaine isn't officially back yet," Kurt spoke up. "He's still in the healing stages."

"Oh, of course," Mr. Schue nodded. "I'm sorry, I'm just eager to have such an amazing talent back."

"Because it's pretty hard to find talent like that since I left, right, Mr. Schue?" Rachel spoke up for the first time since they entered the room.

"Rachel!" Mr. Schue smiled widely. "It's so good to see you again! How's the New York life been treating you? Are you enjoying NYADA?"

"It's been great," Rachel smiled. "I really like it there. There's more room to hold all of my talent."

"And there's the Rachel that we all know and love," Sam grinned, stepping forward to give her a hug. A few of the other older members also stepped forward to hug her too, while all of the newer members hung back. It made sense though as they didn't know who Rachel was.

"Okay, I finished photocopying all of these music sheets," Finn's voice suddenly entered the room, followed by the tall man himself. He was looking down at the papers in his hands so he didn't notice that they had guests.

"Marley gets the solo piece, righ-" his words drifted away as he finally looked up and saw the three people standing in the middle of the room, especially one person in particular.

"Rachel," he whispered, accidentally dropping all of the papers in his hands. A sudden, awkward silence fell across the room as the papers fluttered to the ground. Finn stood frozen in spot, staring at Rachel, who was staring back at him, just as surprised.

"I am not picking those up," Kitty's voice suddenly broke the silence. Finn blinked a couple of times before he quickly bent down and started picking up the dropped papers. And slowly, but surely, Rachel bent down and did the same.

"T-Thanks," Finn stuttered as Rachel handed him the papers that she'd collected.

Blaine watched the entire scene unfold in front of him with an eager smile. He looked like a five year old on Christmas.

Rachel suddenly glance over at him, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at him. All Blaine did was smile and look at her, then at Finn, then back to her again, and then back to Finn. She rolled her eyes, clearing getting his unsubtle hint before turning back to Finn.

"Can we go somewhere to talk?" she asked him softly.

"Um, yeah, of course," Finn stammered, suddenly handing the papers off to Sam, who happened to be standing the closest. He then quickly followed Rachel out of the room, the door softly shutting behind them.

"Well, that was awkward," Kitty's snide voice perked up again.

"Well, no one asked you," Kurt retorted sharply.

"Alright, everyone, settle down!" Mr. Schue ordered, taking control of the situation. "I know that that was a little... tense, but that was the perfect example of why we have to be a team here. When two people have an issue with each other, it causes tension within the whole group. Now I'm not saying that you can't date each other, but I'm just saying don't let the relationship become a distraction that can lead to tension.

Blaine happened to be watching the other students as Mr. Schue spoke and he happened to notice the small, quick glance that was exchanged between two people. A good-looking, shaggy, brown haired guy in the back and a thin, long haired brunette in the front, a girl who had the arm of a well built, slightly darker skinned, dark haired guy draped across her shoulders. Ryder, Marley, and Jake, if Blaine remembered correctly...

Uh oh, Blaine frowned to himself. I see possible tension happening there!

"You see, teamwork is one of the key things that you need in show choir," Mr. Schue continued to lecture on. "Without it, you will crumble. You need to make sure that you have people who will always have your back, who will catch you when you fall. If there's tension in a relationship, then it's hard to trust the other person enough to believe that they will catch you when you fall. Teamwork, guys. Teamwork is key. That's what this week's assignment is. I'm going to pair you up with someone else and I want you to either sing a duet with them or sing a song to them about trust or working together."

As Mr. Schue went on to pair the members off with each other, Blaine turned back to Kurt.

"I like that idea," Blaine told him with a smile. "Having people there watching your back. It sounds like a real family."

"It is," Kurt smiled. "These people, this room, it's more than just a Glee club. It's a family. It's home."

"You know what?" Blaine said softly. "I'm kind of looking forward to being able to come back here. I'd like to have a family like this."

"You already do," Kurt smiled, motioning towards all of the people before them. "All of these people, they care about you, Blaine. They care about you because you're family to them."

"You're family to me," Blaine whispered softly, taking Kurt's hand in his. Kurt could feel his heart starting to beat faster and faster.

"You're my family too," Kurt replied softly. "Your my ev-"

Kurt's words were cut off by the loud sound of a phone going off, a phone that he quickly realized was his own.

"Sorry!" he blushed, apologizing to the roomful of people who were all now staring at him. He quickly pulled his phone out and held it up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Kurt?" a familiar voice came through the phone. "Hey, it's Jeff! Sorry I missed your call yesterday. So what's up? How's Blaine doing?"

"Blaine's doing good," Kurt smiled, quickly slipping out of the door to have some privacy. "And speaking of Blaine, I have a favour to ask..."

Blaine watched as Kurt slipped out of the room. He was curious as to who was calling Kurt, but he didn't want to intrude by following him.

"Hey, man," Sam's voice suddenly came from beside him. Blaine turned to him with a smile.

"Hey, Sam," he greeted happily. "Were you able to get what I asked you to?"

"Of course, man," Sam nodded, pulling a stack of papers out of his backpack and handing them to Blaine. "I talked to all of your teachers and they were all pretty understanding. They said that if you were able to catch up on the work, then there would be no issues with having you rejoin the classes."

"Thanks, man," Blaine smiled, slipping the papers into the side-bag that he'd brought with him . "You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Why are you so eager to catch up?" Sam asked curiously. "I mean, if I had a get-out-of-school-free card, I'd be milking it up! Not doing school work!"

"I want to be able to graduate this year," Blaine told him. "Then I can go back New York with Kurt. I hate feeling like I'm holding him back here. He has so much talent. He belongs in New York. So I'm going to make sure that I get him back there as soon as I possibly can."

"Whatever you say, man," Sam shrugged. "But hey, let me know if you need any help with any of the work, okay? Or when you need me to pick some of it up for you."

"Will do," Blaine smiled. "Well, I should probably go check on Kurt..."

"Alright, that's cool, man," Sam smiled. "Hey, if you're not too busy, you should come over sometime and play some video games with the guys. We've missed having you play."

"Sounds like fun," Blaine grinned. "Though I don't know how good I'll be..."

"Oh, trust me, you're good," Sam chuckled. "And if you can't remember how to play, just button mash like Kurt does. He always seems to win somehow when he does that..."

"I'll keep that in mind," Blaine laughed. "Thanks again, man."

"No problem," Sam nodded before Blaine quickly turned and slipped out of the room, finding himself alone in an empty hallway.

"Kurt?" he called out, getting no reply.

Maybe he went to the auditorium, Blaine thought, turning to head towards there. As it turned out, Kurt was not there. But someone else was.

"You hurt me, Finn!" Rachel exclaimed. "You just took off to who knows where, without saying a word! I had no idea if you were alive or dead! It took me weeks to finally move on and accept the fact that you basically dumped me at that train station! And it was only once I finally met a nice guy who made me feel wanted again that you showed up on my doorstep. And then you get mad at me for kissing him? We weren't even together any more!"

"Do I get to speak now, or are you just going to yell at me some more?" Finn asked softly. When she didn't say anything, he took that as his cue to continue. "Rach, you were willing to give up your dream because I hadn't found mine yet and I couldn't let you do that. That's why I had to let you go. I knew that you would someday resent me for holding you back."

"I could never resent you for that!" Rachel started to argue, but Finn stopped her.

"No, you would have," he sighed. "I know you, Rach. You never let anything or anyone get in the way of what you want. And at the time, I was in the way. I was lost, Rach. I needed to find myself again. I needed to find my dream. And you know what? I realized what that dream was. But then when I came back to you, I found out that it was too late. So yes, I was upset and I took it out on you. But I think I was more upset with myself for ever letting you slip through my fingers!"

"I didn't want you to let go," Rachel said softly. There were tears rolling down her cheeks. "I didn't. Not at first. I kept thinking, hoping, that you were going to come back to me. But you never did."

"Rach, I'm sorry," Finn said sadly. "I never meant to hurt you. I loved you. I was just trying to do what was best for you."

"You were what was best for me!" Rachel cried. "And then you left me all alone!"

"I'm sorry," Finn whimpered. "I'm sorry."

Blaine watched, horrified, as Finn turned as started to walk away. This was not what he had hoped would happen.

Rachel, stop him! Blaine pleaded with his mind. Don't let him walk away again!

"What was it?" Rachel suddenly called out after Finn, making him stop.

"What was what?" Finn asked, turning back to her.

"Your dream," Rachel said. "What was your dream?"

"You," Finn smiled sadly. "You were my dream. And you always have been. It just took me too long to realize it."

With that, Finn slowly turned and started to walk away again.

"Finn?" Rachel called out after him once more.

"Yeah?" he asked, turning back towards her.

It all seemed to happen in a flash. Rachel was suddenly beside Finn, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him down to kiss him. Blaine felt slightly awkward watching them kiss, feeling like he was intruding on a private moment. He quietly moved to leave, but just before he slipped out the door, he heard Rachel say, "You were my dream too."

Blaine's heart filled with joy at her words. He had done it! He had brought them back together! He had been able to fix one of the broken relationships. Now the only question was, could he fix the other?

Speaking of which, where is Kurt? Blaine wondered as he wandered back down the hallway. He wandered past the cafeteria and happened to look out the windows to see Kurt sitting on the steps outside, still on his phone. With a smile, Blaine changed his course and headed towards the exit to go outside.

"Alright, sounds great," Blaine heard Kurt say as he got closer. "We'll see you tomorrow then. Okay. Bye." He hung up his phone and then smiled up at Blaine.

"Looks like you're gonna get to meet the Warblers tomorrow," Kurt smiled. "Unfortunately, we won't get to visit the school because the Warbler's common room is under construction, something about a gavel going through the wall or something, so we're going to meet them at the Lima Bean."

"What's that?" Blaine asked curiously.

"It's a coffee shop that we used to go to all the time," Kurt explained. "Trust me, you'll love it."

"So tell me about these Warblers," Blaine said as he sat down beside Kurt on the stairs.

"Gladly," Kurt grinned. "Well, there's Jeff, he's like the only blond one in the group, and then there's Nick. Some people think that the two are dating..."

~ Meanwhile, in a room at Dalton ~

"Alright, see you tomorrow," Jeff smiled. "Bye."

"Who was that?" Nick asked curiously.

"Kurt Hummel," Jeff answered. "Looks like we've got a date to see Blainers tomorrow."

"That's great!" Nick exclaimed.

"What's great?" another voice suddenly asked. Both boys looks up to see Sebastian walk into the room.

"Oh, hey, Bas," Nick smiled. "How was the foreign exchange program?"

"It was alright," he shrugged. "Did I miss anything?"

"Did you ever!" Jeff exclaimed. "You know how Blaine was like super depressed after he and Kurt broke up?"

"Yeah?" Sebastian nodded.

"Well, it got really bad and well, Blaine did something stupid and ended up in the hospital! And now he has amnesia! Apparently he doesn't remember any of us or anything! It's so crazy! So anyways, we're all going to see him and Kurt tomorrow at the Lima Bean. You're welcome to come "meet" Blaine, if you want."

"Sure, sounds like fun," Sebastian shrugged nonchalantly. But inside his head, the wheels were turning.

If he doesn't remember anything, then he won't know fact from fiction, Sebastian realized with a grin. You know what? I think that it's about time that Blaine was reintroduced to his dear, sweet boyfriend. And by boyfriend, I mean me.