And Time Slows Down (Chapter Four)
Title: And Time Slows Down
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Blaine/Kurt
Warnings: School Shooting, minor character death (as in not Kurt or Blaine, but one canon character), mentions of Columbine and Virginia Tech
Spoilers: None
Summary: AU: Sometimes tragedy happens, and sometimes it ends things, and then other times its just the start of something else. Those times are called fate.
A/N: Mostly this is just Kurt and Blaine talking. Well pretty much it all is. Chapter five will be a lot more interesting, you get to find out what happens to some people and I will get ready to be killed after you guys read chapter five. Credit goes to my sis
raelynnmadeline as this is the product of a RolePlay we did (although I'm changing a bit and adding a lot more too it).
(Chapter One) (Chapter Two) (Chapter Three)
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November 7th, 2026
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“How is it that you and your husband are able to function after something like that? I know a lot of people would find it difficult to move on after such a horrible event.” Penelope continued her interview.
“The two of us function just fine. We’ve now moved on from that day and we live our lives. Some days are a little harder than all the others, for instance… today, the anniversary of that day. We will always have scars from that day, both physically and mentally but it doesn’t control our lives, we don’t let it.” Kurt answered, smoothing out his pants.
“You and your husband have a daughter, don’t you? How old is she?”
“She’s eleven, she turns twelve in December.” Kurt replied, hoping this wouldn’t focus too much on her.
“Does she know what happened?”
“She’s heard about it but she doesn’t know that my husband and I were at all involved and I would like to keep it that way. We don’t plan to tell her until she’s old enough. She’s a kid; she doesn’t need to know about something like that.”
11:56 PM, Monday, November 7th, 2011
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Kurt stared up at the ceiling, the throbbing pain in his left shoulder keeping him from falling asleep. He supposed he should be thankful that he could feel pain now, whereas he couldn’t earlier in the day.
He sighed.
Earlier in the day he was bleeding from a gunshot wound. Earlier in the day he was hiding in a closet with some guy he hardly knew, hiding from a crazy teenager with a gun. Earlier in the day that same guy was using his phone to text Kurt’s dad, and he was calling 911, desperate for them to send some help.
Earlier in the day he was brought through the halls of McKinley High. No longer had they been swarming with students, and for once he wasn’t ducking in fear of being slushied. Instead he had been ducking in fear of loud noises, in fear that someone would turn the corner and shoot him dead. Instead some of the once lively students of McKinley High lay dead throughout the halls, their blood pooling and eyes unseeing.
Kurt clenched his own eyes shut, trying to force his thoughts elsewhere, but only numbers and red swam through his head.
Nine. That was how many dead bodies he had set eyes on before he had gotten out of the school. Nine. That was how many lives were cut short. Nine. That was how many families-that he knew of-were going to have a funeral for their perished children.
Nine and probably counting. That was how many people were going to haunt his nightmares. The only comfort he could take was that none of those nine had been anyone he personally knew, but that fear that one of his friends were laying in the morgue couldn’t help but rush through his veins.
It could’ve been him. That was also another thought that clouded his mind. He could’ve been one of the perished, laying in the morgue, waiting for his family to be told that he would never be coming home. He wondered if his dad, if Carole, if Finn had been told about him yet. Their cell phones and names had been collected, but they were probably still trying to sort through who survived, who was injured, and who… didn’t.
He jumped as the sound of a door closing out in the hall echoed into the room. His breath came in short, quick pants and he shook his head, biting down on his lip. Kurt was scared of doors closing now.
Kurt had never felt so weak, so helpless and it angered him. He was used to being strong, or at least seeming strong, but his mask had slipped off. He had lost it somewhere in the school, and there was no way he was going to go back there to find it. All the red, the blood, it haunted him.
Some of it was his…
The door creaked open and Kurt kept his eyes clenched shut, afraid that somehow the gunman wasn’t dead and was coming back to finish off the ones that had survived. A hand touched his and he winced a bit before opening his eyes, letting out a relieved sob.
“I-I thought… I thought you were…” Kurt began, not able to get it out, his eyes glazing over with tears. Blaine nodded, squeezing his hand comfortingly, and Kurt leaned back on his pillow, looking at him.
“Its okay, trust me, I know how you feel.” Blaine stated. “Earlier someone dropped something in the hall outside of the room I was in and I freaked out… you’re not alone in these feelings, Kurt.”
Kurt swallowed, forcing back the tears as he nodded. “Okay, I’m calm.” Blaine gave him a small smile, rubbing his hand and Kurt felt automatically comforted. Something about Blaine made him feel safe. Was it because Blaine had taken care of him when he couldn’t do himself? Was it because they had been trapped in that closet together that whole time?
It had only been a short time in reality, but it had felt as if they had been in there for hours. One day had never felt so long, and he had never felt so tired. Kurt really wished he could sleep.
“What’re you doing here?” Kurt asked quietly, curious. “It’s midnight. You weren’t allowed to visit me right? Doctors wouldn’t allow you to just after getting out of surgery…”
“Well…” Blaine blushed slightly. “Its not my fault they left the wheelchair in the room and told me your room number. There was no way I was going to sleep without at least seeing you, Kurt. I just… I needed to know you were okay. It was bothering me.”
Kurt smiled, his own cheeks turning pink. “That’s probably because we went through that together… I guess you would grow a bond with someone if you went through that together. I don’t mind, just don’t get into trouble, okay? We don’t need you not being allowed to visit.”
“I promise I won’t get into trouble, Kurt.” Kurt nodded, looking at their hands. “There’s press outside still… why won’t they just leave? It’s past midnight; there’s no point in being here.”
“School shootings are always big news.” Kurt stated, sighing. He agreed with Blaine, but he would rather they not come at all. There was no way Kurt was going to talk to the press about this. Normally he would love the attention of the media, but not about something like this. Not because he was shot and survived a school shooting.
“I bet our parents are freaking out.” Blaine continued, looking at the opposite wall. “I wish they would hurry up and contact them, but we probably won’t see them for at least another day. They’re probably still trying to figure out who survived and who… and who didn’t.”
Kurt gave a small nod. “I wonder how many people died… I wonder if anyone I know died. I hope none of my friends did.”
“I want to know too.” Blaine agreed. “But the nurse won’t let me turn the news on. I think we have more of a right than anybody else to know… just how bad it was.”
“I saw nine bodies…”
Blaine looked at him, frowning, not wanting to tell them that he himself had seen thirteen-and that was just as bad as Columbine.
“So, how’s your leg?” Kurt asked, looking over at Blaine. Blaine gave a small smile, looking down at said leg.
“It… the bullet destroyed a lot of my leg muscles.” He answered and Kurt frowned, feeling guilty. “They have to monitor my leg now but they don’t know if I’ll ever walk without a limp again. I’m going to need physical therapy and it might be a month or two before I’m out of this chair.”
“I’m sorry,” Kurt told him quickly, leaning forward slightly. “We were so focused on me that… neither of us noticed you had been shot. Its my fault. Maybe if either of us had noticed, we couldn’t at least have done something for you as well.”
Blaine smiled, squeezing his hand again. “Kurt, its okay. All that matters to me is that you’re alive… knowing I helped save your life is really the only thing I care about, okay?”
Kurt gave him a small nod. “We are both extremely lucky. Luckier than a lot of others, at least.”
“That’s true. I think there are something around thirty people injured in hospitals all over Lima and some of them are a lot worse off than us. In the ICU there was this guy next to me who had been shot five times, and he lived.”
Kurt’s eyes widened in shock, his jaw dropping at what Blaine said. He couldn’t be more thankful that he wasn’t that guy. “He was shot five times?”
“I think he was shot twice in the back, once in the arm and leg, and once in the head.” Blaine stated as he remembered what the doctors said. He felt sorry for the poor guy, but the kid must’ve been tough to survive something like that.
A slightly confused look rose to Kurt’s face. “How does someone survive getting shot in the head?”
“I was medicated but I think the doctors said that the bullet had only grazed his scalp. Still sounds… exceedingly painful though-and even that would probably not quite describe how painful that would’ve been.” Blaine winced at the thought.
Kurt gave a scoff. “More like understatement of the century, probably.”
“I want to meet some of the other people here.” Blaine told him, looking down at their still intertwined hands. “It might be nice to talk to them. Some of the nurses were saying that this was worse than Virginia Tech-The William McKinley High School Massacre 2011 is what they’re calling it.”
Kurt swallowed tightly, the sight of the dead bodies once again rising to the front of his mind. “I hope not. Virginia Tech is the worst and it needs to stay the worst. Thirty-two people died that day.”
“Its just the gossip going around.” Blaine told him. “Some are saying there was more than one shooter, others were saying that there was just one, but you know, nurses like to gossip.”
He shook his head, laying back against his pillow. “I wish they would tell us at least something. Don’t we have a right to know seeing as we’re… survivors of this?”
Blaine shrugged slightly. “They said we’re just lucky we survived.”
“We almost didn’t… any longer and would have-or at least I would have…”
“Don’t talk like that.” Blaine told him firmly, looking at him seriously, and Kurt suddenly felt guilty for what he was about to say. “You wouldn’t have died, okay?” Kurt nodded, biting his lip. “Damn it… stuff like this isn’t supposed to happen. You’re supposed to read about it in the newspaper or see it on the news, but its not supposed to… its not supposed to become a reality.”
“Guess those fantasies are ruined.”
Blaine sighed, closing his eyes. “I’m so tired. I want to sleep but noises make me jumpy, and every time I close my eyes I see-“
“Red?” Kurt asked quietly and Blaine opened his eyes, looking over at him. Blaine nodded. Letting go of Blaine’s hand, Kurt scooted over on the bed. “Get up here.”
“Are you sure?” Blaine asked, already beginning to push himself out of the chair. Kurt smiled, telling him that he was and Blaine climbed onto the bed, laying down next to his new friend. “We can protect each other then, like we did before.”
“You protected me earlier, Blaine. I didn’t do anything.”
“Yes you did.” Blaine took his hand again and Kurt leaned into him very slightly. “If I had been alone, I wouldn’t have known what to do and you were with me. I would’ve much rather been with you than alone; it helped keep me sane, Kurt.”
Kurt smiled slightly, cheeks turning pink. “I’m tired.”
“Let’s try sleeping, see if we can get an okay one.”
“Okay.” Sleep sounded good.
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(Chapter Five)