FIC: Open Wounds
Series: No Day But Today
Title: Open Wounds
Pair: Blainetana frenemyship, Klaine
Includes: grieving, gore, reference to past sexual assault
Word Count: 3083
Summary: Santana and Blaine collide as they are both dealing with the aftermath of the attack.
AN: This part was supposed to move the plot forward, but the characters wanted me to deal with their feels first. And I guess I owe them.
Also, please no rudeness in the comments if you don't like the fic. I'm an unpaid author here.
“No. No! No, let me go. Let me go!”
Santana’s arm swung around and popped Rafe in the face. He stumbled backwards and fell onto a pile of bodies.
“Ugh. Oh, God. Uhh... they’re oozy...”
“Deal with it.” Santana dropped back to the ground and scooped Brittany up again.
“Kurt sent me to check on you. Honey, you can’t stay out here-”
“The boys are on the wall. The walkers inside are dead. Leave us alone.”
“But Kurt-”
“Kurt can come get me himself, if he wants to know so bad how I’m doing.”
“No, he can’t,” Rafe replied sharply.
Santana closed her eyes. It felt like her body had just stopped, every function, just for a second. “Is he alive?”
“Um... he’s alive. Last I saw.”
Her lungs filled with air again. Well, obviously a dead person wouldn’t send Rafe out to check up on her. What had she been thinking? “Is he going to make it? Blaine said he got shot.”
“He’s still breathing.”
“Then tell him Santana is fine. Tell him to stop worrying about me. And I don’t need a babysitter.” She settled in the dirt once more.
Rafe settled next to her, awkwardly, and reached over to pet Brittany’s hair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see her go down. Nick said she fought like hell.”
“She did,” Santana breathed with a fond smile on her lips. “I bet she did. After that guy tried to rape me, she wanted so badly to protect me. She just wanted to make everything okay.”
Rafe moved one leg under himself with his hands and settled next to her.
“Go. Away,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Nope.”
She looked at him with wet and angry eyes, then went back to stroking Brittany’s cheek. The daylight was fading.
***
Blaine came downstairs slowly, then paced at the foot and ran his hands through his hair. He could see Kurt, still sleeping on the sofa, with Tina bent over him checking his pulse.
His eyes narrowed. He swallowed. Then he walked out the door.
The stench was abysmal. There was no hiding that they were now camped out in a war zone. Corpses of varying degrees of rot were scattered everywhere, and moans drifted in from outside the gate. Blaine jogged up the stairs to where their men were still on the wall, taking out walker after walker. At first he didn’t speak, although Finn looked back at him once, as did Nick and Mike, in between shots.
Blaine looked out over their town and the land beyond their wall.
There was a herd milling around, but not a huge one. Just enough that they had clearly just attracted strays and a few small groups that had probably come this way looking for wildlife.
What would Kurt do in a situation like this? Blaine rubbed his temples, trying to push the image of his sick, wounded, and dying loved ones to the periphery of his mind so he could think for a moment.
“I’m gonna go around to the houses and get us some more arrows,” Nick said. “I’m the fastest.”
Mike made a noise.
“I might not be able to defy gravity when I dance, but I’m faster than you, lurch. Yeah, that’s right. I’m makin’ fun of you cause you’re tall.”
“Bite me,” Mike said over his shoulder.
“Unnnngh.” Nick pawed at Mike’s back with one hand.
“That’s enough,” Blaine barked.
All of the men looked at him. Blaine put his hands on his hips. “We lost people today. And we might still lose more. We need to find a way to clear off these walkers faster. We cannot get trapped in here.”
After a moment of awkward silence, Finn spoke up. “He’s right. We’ll run outta food eventually. And we still need more medicine and stuff.”
“Like what?” Mike asked. “I can do a one man run-”
“No.” Blaine drew in a deep breath, looking down at the carnage on either side of the wall. “No one man runs. No crazy individual heroics that just cause us to lose people. There are too many of them out there for you to get out. We need to put them off... Start taking the bodies from down there, and throw them over the side.”
“Oh, my God,” Derek said.
“Make sure you get the bodies all around the town. Having walker bodies around us will lessen the chance that the walkers will smell us. The bodies that are fresher, they’ll fight over. Keep ‘em too busy to try tearing our wall down.”
Finn looked at him, then nodded and started down the stairs.
“This is kind of... morbid, Blaine,” Nick said quietly.
“It has to be done.” Blaine turned and walked away from them.
“Where are you going?” Mike asked.
“To find Andre. He’s better at tactics than any of us. Living, anyway. Joe’s gone.” Blaine paused. Breaking the news to Santana had been a disaster, but he didn’t know how to do it better. He looked back at Mike.
“What?” Mike stared him down for a moment. Blaine’s lack of response seemed to be all he needed to understand. He dragged a hand over his mouth and held his breath, nodding. “Tina?”
“No. Tina’s fine.”
Mike nodded once more then turned and leaned on the edge of the wall. “My mom.”
Nick reached over and touched Mike’s back. He took a deep breath, then faced them again.
“Derek, stay up here and keep an eye out?” Mike rested his crossbow on his shoulder, then set it down. “Bottom line, we’ve got to buy time for the people who are injured. I like the look of those tanks down there, but how are we gonna get people in them, let alone the other cars if there are walkers everywhere?”
Nick watched Mike cautiously. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll think about later. If there’s later.”
“Sorry,” Blaine said. He looked down, blowing air through his lips. “I’m not very good at breaking the news.”
“Here’s hoping you never have the chance to get good at it,” Mike joked.
They all went back down the stairs and started hauling bodies.
***
“Don’t!”
Santana’s shriek rang out through the courtyard, loud enough to startle Rafe and cause him to look at the gate anxiously. The last thing they wanted to do now was make more noise.
Nick stood back, holding his hands up. “Santana, I wasn’t-”
“Brittany died on your watch,” she spat, her arms shaking as she pulled Brittany’s body close to her and inched away. “You don’t get to use her body for walker-bait!”
“I wasn’t gonna!” Nick met Rafe’s eye.
“Honey! They’re not going to toss our own.” Rafe rose and touched her shoulder.
“They’d better not,” Santana warned. “This is sick. You can be as sick as you want with these fucks. Just not her.”
Slowly, Rafe wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind. “Not a chance. Brittany, and Tamara, and Joseph, and Kate... They get funerals. I promise. You know Kurt would want to make sure they got funerals.”
“It’s what we do now,” she murmured. “We mourn. And we struggle, and then we mourn some fucking more!”
Nick breathed slowly and stepped away to get another body, making Rafe glad that he needed a free hand for his cane so no one would be asking him to throw around dead people.
Behind them, Blaine and Andre were speaking in super serious tones. Rafe turned his head... In Andre’s arms lay probably the second or third most attractive man he’d ever seen in his life. Granted, pale and bloody and covered in scruff, but extremely attractive.
“Take him up to the second floor of the sick house,” Blaine said.
“People ain’t gonna be happy,” Andre said.
“I doubt very many people are rejoicing today,” Blaine replied. “Just get him up there. Tell Tina to do her best. I just... I want Tianna to be able to see him, when she comes around. And maybe he’ll live long enough to help us out.”
Santana slipped out of Rafe’s grasp so quickly that he fell backwards, wondering what had happened. Suddenly she was storming across the courtyard, in Blaine’s face, and trying to get around him to the beautiful, bloody man.
“This isn’t your decision!” Blaine said.
“Why is it a decision? Are you too squishy inside to kill one more guy? Why?!”
She shoved him hard, and Blaine stumbled. She lunged again, trying to get around him, but he blocked her.
“I’m not going to let you murder him!” Blaine said.
“But it’s fine to murder all these other assholes? It’s fine for them to murder us?!”
“This is none of your business, you crazy bitch!”
The other guys had stopped moving bodies and drew closer. Rafe reached frantically for his cane. Andre rolled his eyes and turned towards the houses.
“You think you can do anything you want, don’t you? You’re just so freaking charming, and everyone loves you,” Santana sneered. “And you always get everything you want, right?”
“Shut up, Santana!”
“Someone better tell your husband that you’re letting this murderer live because he makes your panties wet!”
She shoved him again, and he caught her wrist and twisted it, hard.
“Blaine, be careful!” Nick said.
“Don’t. Mess. With. Me. Not today. I sympathize. But not today,” Blaine growled, his hand tightening around her wrist.
“Ah!” Santana bared her teeth at him.
“You won’t touch him,” Blaine ordered. “And you won’t touch Tianna, either.”
“Fucking golden boy!”
“You do not understand anything that’s going on!” Blaine pulled her closer to him. “That man is my brother, and I’m sending him up to be with my sister. I know it’s hard for you, but you have to wait for us to decide what to do!”
Santana’s mouth opened, then her jaw trembled, and she faltered, dipping closer to the ground, until Blaine let her go.
A laugh bubbled up from her.
“Why?” Then tears started streaming down her cheeks. “Why! Why do you get everything? Why do you get to keep everything good for yourself? You have... everything! You get to keep all your limbs. You get to not be attacked my psychos in your bed. You get a devoted husband to protect your stupid ass, you get your baby, you get Kurt’s family, and now you get back a brother and sister, too?”
Her palms slammed against the ground. “How is this possible? You have everything, and I have nothing left!”
Blaine pressed his palm against the side of his head, then turned away from her.
That was when Santana launched herself on Blaine.
It took less than a minute before the guys made it over to pull them apart. In that time Rafe stood in disbelief as he watched Santana beating on Blaine with both fists, and Blaine swinging back, at first, to push her off. Then he was grabbing her hair and slamming her into the ground. Santana swiped up with a vicious scratch to his neck, and Blaine caught her wrists for a moment, bringing them over her head so forcefully that Rafe heard a crack.
Then her knee came up to his groin, she slipped out of his grasp, and she punched him clean in the face. His hands moved to her shoulders, holding her away from him, but Blaine had stopped really fighting back. And she continued to punch and kick at him even after Finn lifted her off of him and Mike had pulled Blaine a good distance away.
“Jesus Christ!” Finn hugged her around the waist, carrying her in the other direction. “Rafe, Nick, somebody, get a sedative or something!”
“I’m fine!” Santana yelled. “I’m fine! I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine...”
Her voice trailed off, growing softer and softer, until her lips only moved silently. Finn petted over her forehead and looked at Rafe in bafflement. Rafe finally wrapped his fingers around his cane, pushed himself up, and came over to her.
“Honey? C’mere, okay?” he begged.
Finn held her tight, and Rafe cupped her face in one hand, stroking her cheek with his thumb.
Behind them, Blaine pushed off his friends, threw his hands up and stormed off. Mike and Nick stood there for a moment, helpless and stunned. Rafe just petted on Santana until she leaned forward into his arms and Finn let her go.
“Let’s get inside, huh?” Rafe suggested.
She curled into his body, her face buried into his shoulder, child-like and meek. He had no doubt that this was a momentary lapse in her anger, but if he could keep her from wailing on people, for the time being, he’d count it a win. Blaine had let her hurt him, and that was a little jarring, as well.
Sickeningly... this might have been their best case scenario. The losses, the bodes, the smell, and the moans... They could have lost a lot more to this attack.
Rafe lead her towards the houses, stopping only as Nick assured Santana again that they would make sure Brittany didn’t get tossed with the others.
***
There had been a moment in which Blaine hadn’t been sure he would regain control. He’s broken Santana’s wrist, and he figured, later, when she saw his bruised and swollen face, she might not be too upset about that. If she even remembered how it had happened. But Blaine knew he was teetering towards where he’d been just outside of Buffalo, and it wasn’t a good place to be. If he’d let himself go, he could have hurt her. Killed her, maybe. Santana was more fragile than she seemed.
”You have everything! And I have nothing left!”
As Blaine trudged into the sick house, he didn’t look up at the people. He just went to the sofa where Kurt was resting, slumped next to him, and rested his head against Kurt’s arm. A few minutes later, Kurt seemed to have sensed that he was there, because his hand moved over Blaine’s tangled curls, petting over him. Taming him.
Soon, Kurt’s long fingers were combing through the tangles, and Blaine held still under Kurt’s in-born need to protect, and order, and control. Blaine felt his lungs filling full of oxygen again, and he closed his eyes. Then Kurt’s fingers stopped, and he shifted on the sofa.
“Are you bleeding?”
“Don’t worry about me.” Blaine realized after he’d spoken that his voice sounded strange. Not just rough, like it had before, but muffled. He touched his swollen lips and looked down.
Kurt’s fingertips touched his chin, lifting his face up for inspection.
“Ohhh my god! Tina!”
Tina hurried over, then stopped abruptly, her eyes bulging. “What happened? Are there still intruders out there?”
She knelt down to examine Blaine, but he pulled away. She looked to Kurt.
“Babe, please? Don’t make me... Don’t make me worry about you any more than I already am,” Kurt said.
His hand stroked down the back of Blaine’s neck, and Blaine stilled. He let Tina stitch up his lip, and his brow, and pat antiseptic over his face.
“She’s working through the second round of retrovirals,” Tina said. “She’ll be lucid in a day or so, I think. Jumpy, but we all know how that goes.”
“Good,” Blaine said.
Tina set her hands in her lap.
“You should go check on Santana,” Blaine said. “She needs her wrist bound up.”
Tina frowned, looked over his face again, then nodded slowly. “Okay. I’ll send... Actually, I’ll go.”
She rose and headed to the door with her medical kit in hand. She cast a curious glance over her shoulder once, but hurried on her way.
“Come here?” Kurt’s voice was quiet... careful. Gentle. Kurt understood where Blaine was right now, even if he didn’t have the details to make sense of why it had happened. The tone was so familiar.
”Come here?”
“We have to find shelter,” Blaine growled.
Kurt took Blaine’s hand, kissed his knuckles, and pressed it to the curve of his belly.
Blaine rose and moved close to Kurt, resting himself on his husband for a moment. “I’m fine, Kurt. I’m fine.”
“How are things out there?”
“Need a way to draw off the walkers. We’re distracting them, a little. The boys are tossing all the bodies around the perimeter.”
“Gross,” Kurt said dryly. “But probably somewhat effective.” He paused to move air in and out of his lungs. “When they’re done, maybe we can get a volunteer to take some Molotov cocktails or fireworks in a truck, lead them away and then let them chase the explosions.”
“I’ll talk to Andre about it.”
“Thank you. He’ll know how to put together a diversion.”
Kurt’s hand brought Blaine’s head to his chest. His ear pressed against his husband’s cool flesh, a willing audience for Kurt’s rapidly beating heart.
“Can we... get as many people in here as possible? When we’ve gotten things a little more secure?”
“I can make that happen.”
“Good. We all have a lot to sort out.”
Blaine curled his arm around Kurt’s waist and prayed he’d never have to go without him.
Next Part: Family Reunion
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth.
comments posted there. Please comment there using OpenID or your DW account.
Title: Open Wounds
Pair: Blainetana frenemyship, Klaine
Includes: grieving, gore, reference to past sexual assault
Word Count: 3083
Summary: Santana and Blaine collide as they are both dealing with the aftermath of the attack.
AN: This part was supposed to move the plot forward, but the characters wanted me to deal with their feels first. And I guess I owe them.
Also, please no rudeness in the comments if you don't like the fic. I'm an unpaid author here.
“No. No! No, let me go. Let me go!”
Santana’s arm swung around and popped Rafe in the face. He stumbled backwards and fell onto a pile of bodies.
“Ugh. Oh, God. Uhh... they’re oozy...”
“Deal with it.” Santana dropped back to the ground and scooped Brittany up again.
“Kurt sent me to check on you. Honey, you can’t stay out here-”
“The boys are on the wall. The walkers inside are dead. Leave us alone.”
“But Kurt-”
“Kurt can come get me himself, if he wants to know so bad how I’m doing.”
“No, he can’t,” Rafe replied sharply.
Santana closed her eyes. It felt like her body had just stopped, every function, just for a second. “Is he alive?”
“Um... he’s alive. Last I saw.”
Her lungs filled with air again. Well, obviously a dead person wouldn’t send Rafe out to check up on her. What had she been thinking? “Is he going to make it? Blaine said he got shot.”
“He’s still breathing.”
“Then tell him Santana is fine. Tell him to stop worrying about me. And I don’t need a babysitter.” She settled in the dirt once more.
Rafe settled next to her, awkwardly, and reached over to pet Brittany’s hair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see her go down. Nick said she fought like hell.”
“She did,” Santana breathed with a fond smile on her lips. “I bet she did. After that guy tried to rape me, she wanted so badly to protect me. She just wanted to make everything okay.”
Rafe moved one leg under himself with his hands and settled next to her.
“Go. Away,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Nope.”
She looked at him with wet and angry eyes, then went back to stroking Brittany’s cheek. The daylight was fading.
***
Blaine came downstairs slowly, then paced at the foot and ran his hands through his hair. He could see Kurt, still sleeping on the sofa, with Tina bent over him checking his pulse.
His eyes narrowed. He swallowed. Then he walked out the door.
The stench was abysmal. There was no hiding that they were now camped out in a war zone. Corpses of varying degrees of rot were scattered everywhere, and moans drifted in from outside the gate. Blaine jogged up the stairs to where their men were still on the wall, taking out walker after walker. At first he didn’t speak, although Finn looked back at him once, as did Nick and Mike, in between shots.
Blaine looked out over their town and the land beyond their wall.
There was a herd milling around, but not a huge one. Just enough that they had clearly just attracted strays and a few small groups that had probably come this way looking for wildlife.
What would Kurt do in a situation like this? Blaine rubbed his temples, trying to push the image of his sick, wounded, and dying loved ones to the periphery of his mind so he could think for a moment.
“I’m gonna go around to the houses and get us some more arrows,” Nick said. “I’m the fastest.”
Mike made a noise.
“I might not be able to defy gravity when I dance, but I’m faster than you, lurch. Yeah, that’s right. I’m makin’ fun of you cause you’re tall.”
“Bite me,” Mike said over his shoulder.
“Unnnngh.” Nick pawed at Mike’s back with one hand.
“That’s enough,” Blaine barked.
All of the men looked at him. Blaine put his hands on his hips. “We lost people today. And we might still lose more. We need to find a way to clear off these walkers faster. We cannot get trapped in here.”
After a moment of awkward silence, Finn spoke up. “He’s right. We’ll run outta food eventually. And we still need more medicine and stuff.”
“Like what?” Mike asked. “I can do a one man run-”
“No.” Blaine drew in a deep breath, looking down at the carnage on either side of the wall. “No one man runs. No crazy individual heroics that just cause us to lose people. There are too many of them out there for you to get out. We need to put them off... Start taking the bodies from down there, and throw them over the side.”
“Oh, my God,” Derek said.
“Make sure you get the bodies all around the town. Having walker bodies around us will lessen the chance that the walkers will smell us. The bodies that are fresher, they’ll fight over. Keep ‘em too busy to try tearing our wall down.”
Finn looked at him, then nodded and started down the stairs.
“This is kind of... morbid, Blaine,” Nick said quietly.
“It has to be done.” Blaine turned and walked away from them.
“Where are you going?” Mike asked.
“To find Andre. He’s better at tactics than any of us. Living, anyway. Joe’s gone.” Blaine paused. Breaking the news to Santana had been a disaster, but he didn’t know how to do it better. He looked back at Mike.
“What?” Mike stared him down for a moment. Blaine’s lack of response seemed to be all he needed to understand. He dragged a hand over his mouth and held his breath, nodding. “Tina?”
“No. Tina’s fine.”
Mike nodded once more then turned and leaned on the edge of the wall. “My mom.”
Nick reached over and touched Mike’s back. He took a deep breath, then faced them again.
“Derek, stay up here and keep an eye out?” Mike rested his crossbow on his shoulder, then set it down. “Bottom line, we’ve got to buy time for the people who are injured. I like the look of those tanks down there, but how are we gonna get people in them, let alone the other cars if there are walkers everywhere?”
Nick watched Mike cautiously. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll think about later. If there’s later.”
“Sorry,” Blaine said. He looked down, blowing air through his lips. “I’m not very good at breaking the news.”
“Here’s hoping you never have the chance to get good at it,” Mike joked.
They all went back down the stairs and started hauling bodies.
***
“Don’t!”
Santana’s shriek rang out through the courtyard, loud enough to startle Rafe and cause him to look at the gate anxiously. The last thing they wanted to do now was make more noise.
Nick stood back, holding his hands up. “Santana, I wasn’t-”
“Brittany died on your watch,” she spat, her arms shaking as she pulled Brittany’s body close to her and inched away. “You don’t get to use her body for walker-bait!”
“I wasn’t gonna!” Nick met Rafe’s eye.
“Honey! They’re not going to toss our own.” Rafe rose and touched her shoulder.
“They’d better not,” Santana warned. “This is sick. You can be as sick as you want with these fucks. Just not her.”
Slowly, Rafe wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind. “Not a chance. Brittany, and Tamara, and Joseph, and Kate... They get funerals. I promise. You know Kurt would want to make sure they got funerals.”
“It’s what we do now,” she murmured. “We mourn. And we struggle, and then we mourn some fucking more!”
Nick breathed slowly and stepped away to get another body, making Rafe glad that he needed a free hand for his cane so no one would be asking him to throw around dead people.
Behind them, Blaine and Andre were speaking in super serious tones. Rafe turned his head... In Andre’s arms lay probably the second or third most attractive man he’d ever seen in his life. Granted, pale and bloody and covered in scruff, but extremely attractive.
“Take him up to the second floor of the sick house,” Blaine said.
“People ain’t gonna be happy,” Andre said.
“I doubt very many people are rejoicing today,” Blaine replied. “Just get him up there. Tell Tina to do her best. I just... I want Tianna to be able to see him, when she comes around. And maybe he’ll live long enough to help us out.”
Santana slipped out of Rafe’s grasp so quickly that he fell backwards, wondering what had happened. Suddenly she was storming across the courtyard, in Blaine’s face, and trying to get around him to the beautiful, bloody man.
“This isn’t your decision!” Blaine said.
“Why is it a decision? Are you too squishy inside to kill one more guy? Why?!”
She shoved him hard, and Blaine stumbled. She lunged again, trying to get around him, but he blocked her.
“I’m not going to let you murder him!” Blaine said.
“But it’s fine to murder all these other assholes? It’s fine for them to murder us?!”
“This is none of your business, you crazy bitch!”
The other guys had stopped moving bodies and drew closer. Rafe reached frantically for his cane. Andre rolled his eyes and turned towards the houses.
“You think you can do anything you want, don’t you? You’re just so freaking charming, and everyone loves you,” Santana sneered. “And you always get everything you want, right?”
“Shut up, Santana!”
“Someone better tell your husband that you’re letting this murderer live because he makes your panties wet!”
She shoved him again, and he caught her wrist and twisted it, hard.
“Blaine, be careful!” Nick said.
“Don’t. Mess. With. Me. Not today. I sympathize. But not today,” Blaine growled, his hand tightening around her wrist.
“Ah!” Santana bared her teeth at him.
“You won’t touch him,” Blaine ordered. “And you won’t touch Tianna, either.”
“Fucking golden boy!”
“You do not understand anything that’s going on!” Blaine pulled her closer to him. “That man is my brother, and I’m sending him up to be with my sister. I know it’s hard for you, but you have to wait for us to decide what to do!”
Santana’s mouth opened, then her jaw trembled, and she faltered, dipping closer to the ground, until Blaine let her go.
A laugh bubbled up from her.
“Why?” Then tears started streaming down her cheeks. “Why! Why do you get everything? Why do you get to keep everything good for yourself? You have... everything! You get to keep all your limbs. You get to not be attacked my psychos in your bed. You get a devoted husband to protect your stupid ass, you get your baby, you get Kurt’s family, and now you get back a brother and sister, too?”
Her palms slammed against the ground. “How is this possible? You have everything, and I have nothing left!”
Blaine pressed his palm against the side of his head, then turned away from her.
That was when Santana launched herself on Blaine.
It took less than a minute before the guys made it over to pull them apart. In that time Rafe stood in disbelief as he watched Santana beating on Blaine with both fists, and Blaine swinging back, at first, to push her off. Then he was grabbing her hair and slamming her into the ground. Santana swiped up with a vicious scratch to his neck, and Blaine caught her wrists for a moment, bringing them over her head so forcefully that Rafe heard a crack.
Then her knee came up to his groin, she slipped out of his grasp, and she punched him clean in the face. His hands moved to her shoulders, holding her away from him, but Blaine had stopped really fighting back. And she continued to punch and kick at him even after Finn lifted her off of him and Mike had pulled Blaine a good distance away.
“Jesus Christ!” Finn hugged her around the waist, carrying her in the other direction. “Rafe, Nick, somebody, get a sedative or something!”
“I’m fine!” Santana yelled. “I’m fine! I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine...”
Her voice trailed off, growing softer and softer, until her lips only moved silently. Finn petted over her forehead and looked at Rafe in bafflement. Rafe finally wrapped his fingers around his cane, pushed himself up, and came over to her.
“Honey? C’mere, okay?” he begged.
Finn held her tight, and Rafe cupped her face in one hand, stroking her cheek with his thumb.
Behind them, Blaine pushed off his friends, threw his hands up and stormed off. Mike and Nick stood there for a moment, helpless and stunned. Rafe just petted on Santana until she leaned forward into his arms and Finn let her go.
“Let’s get inside, huh?” Rafe suggested.
She curled into his body, her face buried into his shoulder, child-like and meek. He had no doubt that this was a momentary lapse in her anger, but if he could keep her from wailing on people, for the time being, he’d count it a win. Blaine had let her hurt him, and that was a little jarring, as well.
Sickeningly... this might have been their best case scenario. The losses, the bodes, the smell, and the moans... They could have lost a lot more to this attack.
Rafe lead her towards the houses, stopping only as Nick assured Santana again that they would make sure Brittany didn’t get tossed with the others.
***
There had been a moment in which Blaine hadn’t been sure he would regain control. He’s broken Santana’s wrist, and he figured, later, when she saw his bruised and swollen face, she might not be too upset about that. If she even remembered how it had happened. But Blaine knew he was teetering towards where he’d been just outside of Buffalo, and it wasn’t a good place to be. If he’d let himself go, he could have hurt her. Killed her, maybe. Santana was more fragile than she seemed.
”You have everything! And I have nothing left!”
As Blaine trudged into the sick house, he didn’t look up at the people. He just went to the sofa where Kurt was resting, slumped next to him, and rested his head against Kurt’s arm. A few minutes later, Kurt seemed to have sensed that he was there, because his hand moved over Blaine’s tangled curls, petting over him. Taming him.
Soon, Kurt’s long fingers were combing through the tangles, and Blaine held still under Kurt’s in-born need to protect, and order, and control. Blaine felt his lungs filling full of oxygen again, and he closed his eyes. Then Kurt’s fingers stopped, and he shifted on the sofa.
“Are you bleeding?”
“Don’t worry about me.” Blaine realized after he’d spoken that his voice sounded strange. Not just rough, like it had before, but muffled. He touched his swollen lips and looked down.
Kurt’s fingertips touched his chin, lifting his face up for inspection.
“Ohhh my god! Tina!”
Tina hurried over, then stopped abruptly, her eyes bulging. “What happened? Are there still intruders out there?”
She knelt down to examine Blaine, but he pulled away. She looked to Kurt.
“Babe, please? Don’t make me... Don’t make me worry about you any more than I already am,” Kurt said.
His hand stroked down the back of Blaine’s neck, and Blaine stilled. He let Tina stitch up his lip, and his brow, and pat antiseptic over his face.
“She’s working through the second round of retrovirals,” Tina said. “She’ll be lucid in a day or so, I think. Jumpy, but we all know how that goes.”
“Good,” Blaine said.
Tina set her hands in her lap.
“You should go check on Santana,” Blaine said. “She needs her wrist bound up.”
Tina frowned, looked over his face again, then nodded slowly. “Okay. I’ll send... Actually, I’ll go.”
She rose and headed to the door with her medical kit in hand. She cast a curious glance over her shoulder once, but hurried on her way.
“Come here?” Kurt’s voice was quiet... careful. Gentle. Kurt understood where Blaine was right now, even if he didn’t have the details to make sense of why it had happened. The tone was so familiar.
”Come here?”
“We have to find shelter,” Blaine growled.
Kurt took Blaine’s hand, kissed his knuckles, and pressed it to the curve of his belly.
Blaine rose and moved close to Kurt, resting himself on his husband for a moment. “I’m fine, Kurt. I’m fine.”
“How are things out there?”
“Need a way to draw off the walkers. We’re distracting them, a little. The boys are tossing all the bodies around the perimeter.”
“Gross,” Kurt said dryly. “But probably somewhat effective.” He paused to move air in and out of his lungs. “When they’re done, maybe we can get a volunteer to take some Molotov cocktails or fireworks in a truck, lead them away and then let them chase the explosions.”
“I’ll talk to Andre about it.”
“Thank you. He’ll know how to put together a diversion.”
Kurt’s hand brought Blaine’s head to his chest. His ear pressed against his husband’s cool flesh, a willing audience for Kurt’s rapidly beating heart.
“Can we... get as many people in here as possible? When we’ve gotten things a little more secure?”
“I can make that happen.”
“Good. We all have a lot to sort out.”
Blaine curled his arm around Kurt’s waist and prayed he’d never have to go without him.
Next Part: Family Reunion
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth.
comments posted there. Please comment there using OpenID or your DW account.