Fic: No More Yielding Than a Dream (Rated T/R) (Ch. 3/?)
Title: No More Yielding Than a Dream
Author: spookykat
Rating: T/R
Word count: 1, 913 for this chapter
Characters/Pairings: Klaine, other canon season 3 pairings apply.
Summary: Kurt is teetering between two realities.
Warnings: Mild language. Minor season 3 spoilers. Mental disorders are a huge part of this fic, and half of it is set in a a mental institution. Angst abounds.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Blaine couldn’t remember when they brought Annie home. He told people he did, because he’d heard the story so many times that it was almost a memory. “It was a cold, wintry day,” he would say. “We were worried they weren’t going to come home from the hospital because the roads were so bad…” Truthfully, though, the only things Blaine remembered from when he was three were being terrified of the Evil Queen in Snow White, cutting his lip on the kitchen table so much he had to get stitches (and chewing the stitches out and having to get them again) and being ring-bearer at Aunt Jenny’s wedding.
But he remembered the first time he knew Annie wasn’t….right like it was yesterday.
They were at a cousin’s birthday party, and it was time for the birthday boy to open his presents, but Annie was nowhere to be found. His mother panicked, and Blaine normally didn’t worry because Annie had often wandered off on her own.
They’d found her in the basement.
There was an old rug.
All the tassels had been meticulously straightened except for the last few inches of the far corner.
“Annie, come on sweetie!” her mother coaxed. “Let’s go back to the party! Cole’s about to open his presents!”
“No, Mommy, I’m not done.”
“Not done?” His mother entered the room and was about to pick her up….
Then Annie screamed. It was a blood-curdling kind of scream that made Blaine’s blood run cold.
“NOT DONE! NOT DONE! NOT DONE!”
“Annie you can go back to playing later, okay?”
“YOU MESSED IT UP! YOU MESSED IT UP! YOU MESSED IT UP!”
His mother was crying by now and everyone was running to see what the commotion was about.
“I’m sorry I messed it up, sweetheart,” she said over and over again, smoothing Annie’s hair. “I’ll help you fix it. Just calm down, okay?”
But Annie wouldn’t stop crying, and his mother couldn’t either, which only made Annie sob harder.
Blaine stood at the top of the basement stairs, unsure of what to do or how to help while everyone else could do nothing but watch.
Blaine shut the door swiftly and turned to the crowed gathered behind him.
“Does your mom need help, Blaine?” his Aunt Cindy asked. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” Blaine said, but Aunt Cindy was knocking on the door anyway.
“Susan, you need help down there?”
The tantrum (or meltdown as Blaine would learn to call them later) would last for another two hours, and that was the last family function Annie ever attended.
It had been nearly ten years, and he loved Annie fiercely. Any other time, he would go to the ends of the earth for her if she needed him, but right then?
God, why did it have to be now?
He pulled out of the parking lot and first headed for his neighborhood.
It was getting late, and nippy out, and Blaine hoped she had at least a coat or his mother would have a fit when he brought her home.
The park was empty. Once, he found her in the playground at St. Andrew’s. She had to count all the chains in the swings.
She wasn’t there.
Another time, he found her counting the cracks in a piece of sidewalk that was in bad need of repairs. He’d sat there for hours with her because she’d lost her place. Twice.
He knew she was in no immediate danger. He knew she’d probably be okay at the end of the day. He felt like a horrible person, but he was more than half-tempted to just…leave her there, to let her stay wherever she was, happy as a clam, because Kurt…
He didn’t know if Kurt was going to be okay or not, and that terrified him more than anything.
He turned down his street and still no sign of Annie, but when he approached the Hutchinson’s yard a few houses down from his own, light reflected from the chrome on Annie’s prized bike.
She loved that bike.
She also knew that the Hutchinson’s had the coolest tree house in the neighborhood. Mr. Hutchinson even rigged it so it had plumbing. The Hutchinson kids were kind of weird, but Blaine knew Annie liked to play over there for the tree house and the tree house alone.
“Annie?” Blaine called out. The Hutchinsons weren’t there, so he let himself in their gate.
“I’m busy, Bubba,” Annie called down.
“Mom’s worried sick. You really need to come out of there and let me take you home.”
With any luck he could be back at the hospital in fifteen minutes. Still, he decided to climb up the ladder to the tree house.
“I’m not a little kid anymore,” she huffed. “I’ve got my bike. I can get myself home.”
“Yeah, well, the Hutchinson’s are going to be mad if they come home and find you up here. And Mom’s going to ground you again.”
“And that’s a threat because I’ve got such a jam-packed social calendar,” Annie retorted. It was dark, but Blaine could practically hear her rolling her eyes. “We can’t all be perfect, you know. One of us had to be the fuck-up.”
“You know mom hates it when you use that kind of language,” Blaine said.
“Yeah, well, Mom’s not here, is she?”
“I hate it when you use that kind of language,” he amended.
He went over to the sink and turned the water off, and the faucet creaked, but it wouldn't budge.
“I really don’t have time for this tonight, Annie. Do you have any idea what Mom called me away from?”
“What, another make-out session with your boyfriend? Like that’s a rare occasion.”
“For your information, Annie, I was at the hospital and Kurt…” he sucked in a deep breath and successfully turned off the faucet this time, which creaked with the effort.
He grabbed her hand and she screamed.
He looked down at her hands and that’s when he realized they were raw and blistered.
He looked around, tore off one of the ancient, faded curtains and ripped it in two, wrapped each around her wrist and dragged her by the arm.
“You’re calling the Hutchinson’s when we get home and explaining what happened to the tree house.”
The ride was silent until he shut the engine off when he pulled into their driveway.
“Hey Blaine?” she said, not looking him in the eye. “Sorry about Kurt. Hope he’s okay. I’ll tell Mom what happened if you want to go back to the hospital. I can get the bike out of the trunk tomorrow morning.”
* * *
“Hey, you,” Blaine said with a nervous smile. Kurt kind of hated the way Blaine was looking at him right then, like Blaine was afraid he’d break if he blinked for even a second. Kurt really couldn’t think of anything to say so he remained silent, and Blaine, for his part, looked like he wanted to start a sentence a couple of times, but for whatever reason, couldn’t follow through.
“You okay?” Kurt asked.
“You’re the one in the hospital bed and you’re asking me if…” he laughed humorlessly and shook his head. “I’m fine. You just…when you fell, you weren’t moving, weren’t responding to our voices at all, and...” he swallowed. “I just…” he sucked in a deep breath. “It really scared me.”
“Finn said you had to leave,” Kurt said, scooting up in the bed.
“Oh. That,” Blaine answered. “Annie emergency.”
Kurt nodded in understanding, because that has always been Blaine’s reason if he had to cancel something, and Kurt really did understand. Family was important.
Kurt took his hand (the one that wasn’t hooked up to the IV), and it was awkward because he had to reach over with the hand that was farthest from Blaine, but there were elements of that dream he had that was still echoing in his head.
“Where are your parents?” Blaine asked, but Kurt didn’t answer right away.
“…He’s not really your boyfriend,” his mother’s voice echoed in his ears. “Dr. Sylvester thinks you’ve built this whole world up in your head as some kind of…coping mechanism.”
“Kurt?”
“Oh. Carole demanded they get dinner somewhere and they’ll be back soon. So is everything okay?” When Blaine shot him a questioning look, he added: “I mean, with Annie?”
“Oh yeah, everything’s fine. I can’t say the same for the Hutchinson’s tree house décor, however, but all things considered, I’d say it ended well. You, though. I was so worried…”
“If I have any leftover fabric from my Halloween costume, maybe we can replace the curtains.”
“The curtains are kind of the least of my concerns right now,” Blaine said with a pointed look.
“They just want to keep me here overnight for some fluids and observation. That’s all. And to run some tests. I’ll be home tomorrow good as new. And then you can come over after school and we can catch up on Real Housewives and you can help me make my Halloween costume.”
“So what do they think is wrong?” Blaine asked, sitting on the bed.
Kurt shrugged. “That’s what the tests are for. They haven’t found anything yet.”
“That’s…unsettling,” Blaine said, unable to keep the tremble out of his voice.
“Hey, come here,” Kurt whispered, patting the space on the pillow next to him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Your family’s going to be back soon,” Blaine tried to protest, discovering that the bed wasn’t exactly an easy fit for the two of them, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.
“I realize it’s ridiculous since I’ve been out like a light most of the day, but I’m actually kind of tired.”
“I should go…let you rest,” Blaine said, and tried to get up, but Kurt just tugged on his wrist.
“Stay?”
How could Blaine refuse?
* * *
“You’re awake,” a familiar voice said next to him.
Kurt opened his eyes.
Finn was peering at him. When did Blaine leave? When did Finn get here.
“You might wanna go back to sleep, dude. They can’t do shit to you while you’re asleep. I mean, they can, but at least you don’t know about it, you know?”
“The doctors are just trying to help.”
“That’s what they want you to believe. That’s the line they feed you to make you sit still and let them poke and prod and probe your ass. But you, like, probably like that…”
“Finn, what the hell?”
“I saw the way you look at the intern kid. You’d have to be you know…a veggie like Abrams not to notice. But just a tip, dude…you might not wanna make it so obvious with Them. They could use it against you, you know?”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Now will you please leave me alone?”
“Oh would that I could, but this place is for crazy people, and They seem to be under the impression that I belong here.”
“I’m not crazy.”
“You keep tellin’ yourself that. I’m heading to the cafeteria. It’s Sloppy-Joe day.”
“I’m a vegetarian,” Kurt replied, hoping that he’d wake up again back in the hospital bed any minute.
“Probably better that you are. That way they can’t poison you. Easily, anyway. I’d better hurry before all the red jell-o’s gone.”
With that, he was alone, and Kurt was grateful, but more than anything, he wanted his old reality back.
Maybe if he clicked his heels three times., he could go home.