**•**Blaine's POV**•**
Was that, Dad? Blaine couldn't help but wonder as he danced with his mother. At the beginning of Rachel's song he was facing the far left corner of the hall and almost immediately he saw a man with Cooper and his girlfriend. It sure looked like his father, but Mom hadn't said anything so he didn't mention it. So, Blaine just tried his best to look happy and relaxed.
At the end of the song his mother stepped back, but kept her arms gently on her son's forearms. "I am so proud of you, Blaine Anderson, and-"
"Mom?" Blaine cut her off. He couldn't help but ask. "Is Dad here?"
His Mom averted her eyes for a moment, looking uncomfortable. She let go of Blaine to push some stray hairs behind her ear, her mouth twitched nervously.
"Mom." Blaine repeated. "Tell me, please. Is Dad here? Did he come?"
Slowly Deb Anderson nodded her head. "Yeah, he came. He's in the back with Cooper and Raina."
"Coward." Blaine muttered under his breath so that his mom wouldn't hear his comment. "Okay, well I'm going to talk to him." He said aloud.
Mrs. Anderson was about to object, but thought better. Instead she just brushed a hand gently over Blaine's cheek and looked into his eyes. "Alright, sweetie. Be careful. I love you."
Blaine laughed inside. She was telling him to be careful? Not like he was going to challenge his dad to a physical duel... So he just nodded and whispered, "I love you too, Mom." then marched off. Kurt started to walk after him, but Blaine shook his head. "I have to talk to Dad by myself."
Kurt stopped. "You sure?" he called after Blaine.
Blaine turned around. "Yeah, I'm sure." Though honestly, he wasn't so sure.
As he made his way to the corner he saw his dad glance at him. Then David Anderson looked down, pretending not to have noticed his son. Cooper walked towards his brother with Raina clinging to one of his strong biceps.
When they were face to face, Cooper nodded towards their dad. "So you found him."
Blaine nodded in a way that said, Well that's obvious! "How long has he been here?"
"The whole time." Cooper replied, letting go of a very reluctant, Raina, she tried to hold his hand, but he shook his head. "No, not right now." he whispered to her. Then to Blaine he continued, "Yeah, turns out last minute he ran out the door and hopped into the car with Mom."
Blaine was in disbelief. Sarcastically he said, "Last minute? Heh, must have been really hard for him to make up his mind."
Cooper shrugged. "Guess so. Anyway, good luck talking to him. He keeps changing the subject every time I try to talk about you." Cooper clapped Blaine on the back before leading Raina to the dessert table.
Blaine felt a little deserted after that. Cooper was somewhat helpful, but now he wondered if he should have had Kurt accompany him this time.
So, Blaine pivoted on his right heel and stepped the way he came with his left. He found Kurt in a conversation with, was that Marley? It was Marley!
Momentarily Blane forgot about his dad. When Marley saw him she threw her arms around his neck. "Blaine! I'm so, so sorry this all happened. I... didn't expect him, meaning Ryder, to get into what he did. I'm so sorry I missed the wedding. And I left our gift in the car. I completely forgot to bring it. I'm so sor-"
Blaine stopped her. "Don't keep apologizing. It's me who should be saying the 'I'm sorries'. None of us knew Ryder would crash his car on the highway today. If God exists, then only He was the one that knew this would happen. So don't blame yourself or even Ryder. You're here, so have fun, please."
Marley pulled away and nodded. When she looked up at Blaine he assumed she had been wearing make-up, but it had all been washed off, or more likely cried off. Now, her eyes had puffy, red rings under them, giving her a very exhausted and painful expression.
Blaine asked her, "And the news on Ryder is?"
Marley bit her tongue before saying, "He's... he's doing alright. Got a broken rib, a fractured other rib, a bruised lung, and some cuts, but the doctors said he should recover and be released from the hospital sometime soon, next week at the latest. You and Sam, maybe Kurt, but he doesn't really know Kurt, but you and Sam should visit him when you get the chance. I think he would like that."
Blaine was a little relieved. At least Ryder was alive and would get better soon. He really should visit him, Sam too, and probably Jake, together. Not Kurt since one of them needed to stay and represent the two of them. "Thanks for the update." he told Marley. "Now you should go enjoy yourself. Did you come with Kitty, Unique, and Tina?"
Marley nodded. "Yeah, well Kitty drove. Tina left a few minutes before we did." Then she walked off, carefully stepping forward in her 3-inch heels.
That left Blaine with Kurt and he remembered about his dad. Kurt did too.
"So you did or didn't talk to your dad?" Kurt asked him as he reached over to adjust Blaine's navy bow tie.
Blaine shook his head. "I sound like a coward when I say this, but can you go with me? I think it would help to present both of us together. That way dad can say whatever he wants to both of us."
Kurt finished tweaking Blaine's tie and smiled. "Okay." he said. "Let's go."
Alas, they stood before Mr. Anderson. Kurt lightly elbowed Blaine ad pointed to himself, signaling that he would talk first, which Blaine was okay with since he knew he would come out saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. "It's great to see you, Mr. Anderson!" Kurt said, a genuinely pleasant smile on his face.
This caught his dad off guard, he was probably expecting Kurt to be angry with him, at least that's how Blaine would have reacted. "You, too... Kurt." Mr. Anderson nearly mumbled, he wrung his hands once and then wiped them on his kakis.
Kurt continued, "Did you come to the service? We, Blaine and I, were looking for you, but didn't know if you were there or not."
Blaine's father looked ahead at the stage where Puck, Rory, Sam, and Artie were belting out Carry On by Fun singing, "If you're lost and alone, or sinking like a stone, carry on! May your path be the sound of your feet upon the ground, carry on!" The he looked down at his shoes and told them, "I- I was there."
What? Blaine thought. He was there? Where was he? Why hide? Mom and Cooper were right there in the front! Man, Dad is such a coward! But the way Kurt was acting told Blaine that he shouldn't lash out, no, that wasn't the right thing to do. Instead he just nodded and said, "Where did you sit? You weren't with Mom or Cooper."
"I was in the back." was the response. "I came late, there wasn't room left to sit."
Blaine didn't completely believe his father, but still he replied, "That's fine. As long as you were there, that's what counts. Thanks."
His father slowly looked up with an almost surprised look on his stubbly face. "You're not mad at me, son?"
Blaine grabbed Kurt's hand to prevent his own from shaking, because for the first time in forever his father had called him his son! "Why would I be?" He said, "I must actually mean something to you if you came."
"Your Mom convinced me, Blaine" then he looked to Kurt and added, "so did your Dad, Kurt. Honestly, I still don't feel comfortable with you... you know... being gay and all. It's not right and I'm fearful for you." He took a step towards his son. Blaine didn't move. "It's just... I felt... I guess I felt stupid for ignoring you. Even though I don't like your decision, and probably never will, I need to learn to live with it and still embrace you as my son." He opened his arms. "I'm sorry. I really am."
Blaine glanced at Kurt. Kurt nodded towards Blaine's dad like he was saying, Go ahead, he is your dad after all!
Awkwardly, Blaine accepted his father's embrace. His dad held him lightly at first before giving him a squeeze and a pat on his back. His father's shirt was warm and smooth and made Blaine remembered when he used to scratch his dad's back when he was little. He would run his fingers across his father's shoulders after supper and slowly get faster and press harder. It was a way for his dad to relax after work and a way for the two of them to have 1-on-1 together.
His dad hardly came to his piano recitals or various talent shows. Cooper was a performer from the start and his dad spent most of his free time preparing Cooper for his next play or audition. Blaine was just the second wheel. Just the little brother wanting to be just like the big brother. Nothing new.
Still, the evenings when Blaine would rub his dad's back and occasionally sing were his best memories with his father. He never was into cars and machinery like his dad and Cooper dominated their lives. So Blaine seized every moment he could get with his father.
So now, at his reception, he ran his hand across his dad's back and smiled. "Do you remember our evening ritual, Dad?" he asked his father.
He felt his dad's chin move up and dow on his shoulder as he replied, "Yes, yes I do. You always were the best back scratcher. No only did you know just how to make me feel better, you could sing and do it at the same time."
Blaine stepped back and noticed Kurt had walked off to talk with Madame Tibideaux. Blaine stayed where he was at. "What would I sing to you?" he asked.
His father thought a while and then smiled and said, "Well from age four to age fourteen you went from singing Row, Row, Row, Your Boat to Sit Down Your Rockin' The Boat from Guys and Dolls. You went from your ABCs to singing all the songs by Jackson 5." He scratched his ear and added, "You would have every lyric memorized to every song and though I often grew tired of you singing the same songs over and over, I still let you sing."
"Sometimes." Blaine corrected. "Sometimes when you had a really bad day you would almost command me to stop singing. Often you wouldn't even allow me to say even one word."
His dad slowly nodded."Not that often though."
Blaine disagreed. He remembered. "No, you would let me sing occasionally. A lot of times you just wanted to hear 'Cooper play this, Cooper recite that'. I remember as I grew older you started ignoring me more and having me sing less and less. Don't try to object."
His dad but his lip, reluctantly agreeing.
"But," Blaine added, "Those times I spent with you were the best times because you had some reason to pay attention to me. I just wish you hadn't been so obsessed with Cooper."
His father ran a hand across his face before saying, "Well I want to get past my mistakes. I need to ask you for forgiveness so I can start over."
"You don't need to ask for my forgiveness to change, Dad." Blaine told him. "Just do it. There's a quote I love that simply says, don't be sad, just do something. It's that easy. Don't mope over your wrongdoings, look at the problem and fix it."
His dad responded saying, "It will take a while, son for us to rekindle our relationship, but I pray to God we will find amends."
Blaine finally felt like he'd reached a turning point. This would turn out alright. "Thanks, Dad. I finally believe you."
They hugged again and his dad reached up to ruffle his curls.
Blaine leaned back and patted down his hair. "Okay, I'm glad we are slowly starting to love each other again, but no curl ruffling. Everyone does it to me now and I'm tempted to go back to wearing hair gel! You don't have to feel it to believe it!"
His dad backed up defensively, but he smiled, amused. "Alright, son. I won't touch the hair."
Then someone came next to them and whispered in Blaine's ear, "Is that your dad?"
Blaine whipped around and then relaxed when he saw it was just Sam. "Yes." he whispered back, though he didn't see why they needed to be whispering.
"Oh, okay, cool." Sam said then added, "So can we go see Ryder now? Jake wants to come too."
Blaine nodded. "Sounds great. Let me just say good-bye to Dad first, okay?"
"Okay."
***•***
I do not own any rights to the song, Carry On by Fun. I also don't own any rights to a quote mentioned in this part that was said by Chris Colfer.