"Wes left his blazer," Flint said, staring at it hanging on the back of his chair. This was somewhere between unprecedented and downright impossible. The other Warblers were just breaking up to go to their rooms and stopped to stare as well.

"He must be really distracted by trying to work out the new choreographies. We're on the same floor, I'll drop it off." Thad picked it up and when he folded it over his arm, Wes' key card dropped out of the pocket and he picked that up, too. As it turned out, most of the Warblers were on the same floor and Wes' and Kurt's room was closest to the elevator, so most of them lingered.

Thad knocked quietly and when there was no answer, he shrugged and said, "I'll just hang it on the inside door, if I leave it outside, somebody might think he left it out for cleaning."

He slipped the key card into the slot and pushed the door open slightly. When he heard a quick cry of fear, he pushed it all the way open and he and the others crowded in. In the same instant, the bedside light flicked on, and they all saw Wes and Kurt in the one bed, with the other bed not even touched.

Kurt was staring at them in obvious near-panic, eyes huge and pupils dilated. Wes was apparently completely ignoring them in favor of holding Kurt by the shoulders until his breathing slowed down, then hugging him, saying, "Nobody is going to hurt you here, you're safe, Kurt, everything's okay." Kurt finally nodded, shakily.

"Hmmm, would Blaine agree with that?" Trent demanded sarcastically and that was the pebble that started the avalanche of shouted accusations, with only a few words emerging coherently from the tumult, "trusted," "violation," "cheating," "Michelle," and "Blaine."

When the first lull opened, Wes shouted, "Shut up!" This was startling enough, even in these circumstances, that everybody fell silent, and he swung his legs to the ground, got up, and stepped forward with a glare.

"First of all, how dare you make accusations first and not even ask questions?" He started counting the points off on his fingers. "Second, why are you so quick to think that I would cheat on Michelle or that Kurt would cheat on Blaine, let alone that I would hide being bisexual from all of you? Third, if Kurt and I were having sex, we'd hardly both still be in our pajamas, and fourth, how could you possibly imagine that even if Kurt and I were cheating, that I would do so during an official Warblers activity?" He had taken a step forward with each point and by the end, was practically nose to nose with Thad, who took a step back.

"But you were in bed together," Thad protested, weakly. Jeff added, "And the way you were acting with Kurt before..." Wes turned to look at Kurt and, to the Warblers, it appeared as though their shared glance was an entire conversation. Wes was asking something, Kurt agreeing, Wes asking again, and Kurt reconfirming.

Wes' voice softened. "Something happened to Kurt." His mouth tightened again as he said, firmly, "It's his choice, not mine, whether to say what," but became gentle again as he continued. "He's been having trouble sleeping and having somebody right there helps."

Now, the Warblers' faces were showing a score of different emotions, concern, embarrassment, compassion, and confusion. Wes also saw some of them frowning in thought as if they might be trying to figure out what had happened to Kurt. He tried to make eye contact with all of them before adding, "Please respect his privacy about this."

Kurt swallowed hard. He never would have expected the reaction that he was seeing, all the awkward concern and compassion in their eyes, and now the various murmurs of, "We should have known better" and "I'm sorry, should have trusted you." A few of them came closer, just a few steps, not to crowd him, but to provide silent support. Maybe, in one important way, the Warblers were just like New Directions. On the surface, they could both seem bizarre and uncaring, whether it was New Directions hurling insults or the Warblers' adherence to traditions and suppression of individuality. But the reality was that they cared for and protected their own.

He cleared his throat softly. "Thank you, Wes. But...I've been thinking a lot...after how you reacted...and it made me realize that I don't have to be ashamed of what happened to me. I need to tell Blaine, first, and then I can tell the rest of you."

"You don't have to!" Thad said immediately. "We...it's okay if you..." He trailed off inarticulately and Kurt nodded, saying softly, "I know," as Thad and the rest retreated to the door.

Wes got back into the bed and asked Kurt, "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Better than I thought I'd be. Thanks, Wes."

Two days later.

Blaine and Kurt were sitting on Kurt's bed facing one another. Blaine was holding both Kurt's hands in his, his face still scrunched and red, made ugly by tears and anger. Kurt, though, was looking at him in utter relief, his own eyes red. He had just told Blaine what had happened and after his first outburst of rage and grief, storming around the room and shouting threats, he'd returned to the bed to clasp Kurt's hands in his.

Kurt repeated, "All they know is that he ran away. I...the police are already looking for him since he stole a car after he totaled his. I...I don't know what I'll do if they find him, it depends on so much, on how dad is, if...if it seems like he'd be a danger to anybody else." He cleared his throat. "I want to pay attention to getting better. To being with you."

"What, what do you need me to do?"

Kurt closed his eyes for a moment, not knowing how to put it in words. The fears that had weighed on him, that Blaine would disbelieve him, think that he was tainted, or have any other reason to reject him had all disappeared. Of course, he had been sure that Blaine wouldn't, that he had the ordinary human decency not to blame him and was mature and loving enough to put aside whatever biologically-induced rage and possessiveness he might feel, but now there wasn't even the possibility that Blaine would take it badly and hurt him further. "I don't know," he answered, honestly. "I...just be Blaine, all right?"

His boyfriend caught him in a fierce hug and they clung tightly to one another, united in giving and sharing strength and comfort, disarming the past of its power to hurt and the future of its power to frighten.

AN:
Sorry about the wait on this one! Writers block was really standing in the way with arms folded, every darned time I opened this file.