Fic: The Time Machine (17/?)
Title: he Time Machine
Genre: Romance, Humor, Fantasy
Pairing: Klaine, Brittana, Rory/?
Rating: PG - PG 13
Spoilers: none.
Disclaimer: : I own nothing...and do not claim to.
Summary: In a moment of what could be called absolutely brilliance or stupidity, Rory Hummel-Anderson decided that the only way to get his Papa back was to go back in time and stall him, or stop him from getting into the car at all. The only problem is, his Aunt's time machine is still just a prototype and he can't even specify a time. But Rory uses it anyway and suddenly he's back in 2011 and he has to pretend to be an exchange student while he waits for Aunt Brittany to build the time machine again and get back home. In the meanwhile he gets to know his parents as teenagers and even help their relationship along when they hit a bump in the road.
Chapter Seventeen
The Flapping of Butterflies
“Did you know?” Rory asked Sugar later, “about Quinn’s accident.”
nbsp;
The thing was that despite all the information about famous actress Quinn Fabray that could be found on the internet, Rory had never really wondered about her much in the future. He’d thought she was pretty and that she was decent enough on the T.V. show she was in the cast of but he hadn’t really watched that either. His dads did sometimes, and he knew they still kept in contact, but just enough to send well wishes for birthdays and cards for holidays.
“No,” Sugar said, “no idea. I’m actually a little worried. The wedding was stopped for now but they still have plans to go through with it and Quinn is alive in the future.”
They were in the hospital. Rory actually had no idea how he’d gotten there. Car accidents would never be the same to him again and he’d sort of freaked out when Rachel first told them. It was hard to think about any car accident. He remembered Blaine standing next to him and how he’d wrapped an arm around him. Rory had lost himself in knowing that for the moment his papa was alive and well.
He remembered still being with him while they were going to the hospital and along the way they’d gotten separated and now he was with sugar and neither of his dads were anywhere to be found.
“Maybe she’ll be fine,” Rory said, “they said it wasn’t life threatening.”
The entire of the New Directions were sitting in the waiting room, taking up a good portion of the room. They were all still in their wedding clothes and no one wanted to leave to get changed despite how uncomfortable they might be. Maybe his dads had gone to get a change of clothes. It would seem like his something had dad might do.
“Maybe,” Sugar said. She dropped her head on his shoulder, “I hope so.”
It was a few hours before anything happened. Mrs. Fabray hadn’t told them to leave, but being the only blood relative she was technically they only one allowed to see Quinn. Still, they stayed until Mrs. Fabray could tell them something. It wasn’t good news. There was some damage to her spine and the doctors didn’t know if it could mean that she wouldn’t be able to walk again. They still had a lot of testing to do.
Kurt and Blaine did not return the whole time, and when someone asked about them it was Finn that answered.
“They’re back at my house,” he said, “Kurt wasn’t feeling too well.”
But Kurt had been fine. Something had happened, Rory was sure of it. Sugar must have noticed his distress because she grabbed his hand and squeezed it.
“Oh,” Rachel said, “well, I hope he’s feeling better. Although it’s a bit unexpected.”
No one said anything else about it and no one asked about Blaine.
He got a ride with Finn after they all decided it was time to leave the hospital. He insisted that Finn just take him back to the Hummel-Hudson house. He lied to his uncle about needing to pick up his clothes. Finn was distracted enough over the whole Quinn thing and probably the wedding too that he just went along with it.
n fact, Finn was so distracted that after letting Rory in he just walked up the stairs and left Rory standing by the door. He decided to head into the living room and then kitchen, but both rooms were empty so he walked up the stairs.
“Nothing’s wrong,” his dad was saying, “I’m just emotionally exhausted. This week has been a wreck and I just didn’t want to sit in the hospital for hours. We weren’t going to be able to see her.”
His papa’s voice responded. “You don’t seem fine, Kurt. You reacted worse than Rachel and that’s saying something. I just know something else happened. You’re not telling me something.”
They were silent and then Rory heard the creak of a mattress. “I just want you to hold me, okay, and to put this day behind us and just forget about it.”
There was a long pause again before his papa spoke and his words were mumbled. Rory pressed himself against the wall. He was sure something had happened, he just didn’t know what.
“I love you so much, Blaine.”
“Love you too.”
After that they were silent. Rory stayed against the wall for just a little while longer, but then he walked back down the hall and down the stairs. Maybe his dad had just been affected by Karofsky and Quinn. It could easily be nothing. He didn’t have to be so worried. In fact, he had other things to deal with like the possibility that if Quinn didn’t walk ever again that he, Sugar, or the both of them had caused it to happen somehow.
- - -
Quinn was back to school on the same day that Blaine got a text from the one person he hadn’t heard from in months. His brother. He was coming home. Blaine didn’t know if he should be excited or not. He and Cooper didn’t have the best relationship and Blaine hadn’t seen him in almost two years, but they did still e-mail and text each other and to be quite truthful, Blaine did miss his brother. Maybe it would be a good thing that he was coming to visit.
Things had been kind of odd since Regionals. Everyone was still sort of buzzing from their win, but that was overshadowed by Quinn’s accident, and everyone in the school was talking about that. The accident had served to do a few things and that was stop talk of Finn and Rachel’s wedding, but it would be just a matter of time before it was a big topic of conversation, and it had stopped everyone from whispering about Dave’s suicide attempt.
Blaine had been focused on something else while everyone talked about Quinn and tried to figure out when she might return to school, and that was Kurt. Ever since the day of the accident, he’d been acting stranger than usual. He was being contrary. They’d been spending a lot of time together, but he was distant and sometimes Blaine even thought that Kurt was keeping from him, but then his boyfriend would reassure him and hiss him and everything would be alright again. The worst, though, was that Kurt seemed to be keeping Rory at a distance and Blaine could see how much that hurt their son, but Kurt just refused to talk about it. Sometimes, Blaine caught him staring at Rory, though, and the pensive look was always put away when Blaine approached him.
Cooper texted him a few more times that morning until Blaine finally decided to answer and agreed that he’d go out to lunch with him when he was in town, and then also to introduce him to Kurt. Blaine was actually a little concerned about that, but mostly because he’d never told Kurt who his brother was despite how often Kurt asked. His parents had never been ones to display a lot of pictures around the house, so Kurt hadn’t even gotten to see that except for a couple from when they were kids and neither Blaine or Cooper looked much like they did back then.
“Hey, Blaine,” Rory said, coming up to him at his locker.
“Hey. What’s up?”
Rory bit his lip nervously. “She’s in a wheel chair,” he whispered, “I - in my future she can walk.”
Ever since the accident, Blaine had been researching time-travel which was stupid because it hadn’t even been invented yet - and it was possible that only Brittany’s machine worked - and so far most of what he’d found was in movies or books and that wasn’t all that helpful.
There was one thing that had intrigued him though and that was the chaos theory. He hadn’t shared with Rory yet, and a part of him didn’t really want to because Blaine couldn’t even be sure that it was a real thing that would apply to them.
“I don’t think her spine was damaged like Artie’s,” Blaine settled on, “it might just be temporary.”
Rory nodded, but he still looked wary. It was better that he wasn’t going to share what he’d found with him. He might tell Kurt later, thought, or maybe Brittany. It was odd to think that the girl that often made crazy remarks could be some genius inventor in the future, but Blaine could actually sort of see why.
They had actually gone over to help her with building the time machine a few times already and Blaine still couldn’t believe that she had already created so many things. A part of him was intimidated to find out just what kind of changes she would bring to their future and all from ideas she claimed to come from her cat. All geniuses were supposed to be eccentric, though, and Brittany was more than just that, she was sweet.
“Could be,” Rory said.
That day in glee club they found out that she was already getting some feeling back and that Quinn was absolutely positive that she would be walking by the time Nationals came around. Blaine hoped so. The news seemed to have calmed Rory and he could see Rory and Sugar relax some.
Since Valentine’s day, the two of them had decided to continue fake dating. It was mostly because of Artie, but Blaine was starting to wonder if there wasn’t something else there. Sometimes he had to remind himself that Rory was always saying that she was his cousin - though not by blood.
“Hey,” Kurt said after glee was over, “do you want to come over tonight? I’m cooking dinner, but I thought you could help and I’ll maybe even let you make those deliciously fattening cookies of yours.”
Blaine laughed. “Uh, sure.” It might even give him time to talk about the whole Rory thing and the chaos theory even though it looked like Quinn was going to be alright and Rory hadn’t changed anything.
“Cool,” Kurt said, “can you drive Rory home first? He asked me for a ride, but I have to run to the grocery store.”
Blaine stared after him when he walked away. It was probably the third time in two weeks that Kurt had just pushed Rory onto him, not that Blaine minded. He had just been really used to seeing the two of them together so often that he and Kurt had had to start scheduling make out sessions.
“Where did Kurt run off to?”
Rory stood behind him, bag slung over his shoulder. Sugar was nowhere to be seen. She was always disappearing and Blaine was pretty sure that she tried really hard not to interact with anyone if she could help it.
“Has to get groceries,” Blaine said, “he’s cooking dinner tonight.”
Rory frowned. “Oh,” he said.
“But,” Blaine said, “it gives us some time to hang out. And, hey, it looks like Quinn will be just fine. There is no reason for you to still be down about anything.”
Rory nodded, but he still looked noticeably upset. Blaine threw an arm around him. “Come on, we can stop by the Lima Bean. I’ll buy you a cookie.”
Rory laughed, but he nodded.
Blaine really needed to have a talk with Kurt. He didn’t get it. Everything had been fine for weeks and then the day of the accident he’d just freaked out and refused to talk about it. He’d even handed the keys to his car to Blaine and disappeared with his dad. Blaine had had to drive a few of the others to the hospital, but then he’d headed straight to Kurt’s and his boyfriend had given him no explanation and just asked him to make him a cup of tea. Blaine had noticed the two empty cups that had no doubt held milk but hadn’t commented on them.
Then, Kurt had dragged him up to his room and instead of talking he’d kissed Blaine hard and that had been enough to make Blaine forget for a moment, but everything had come back later when they had to cool off because Kurt’s dad was home and things were getting heated fast. That’s when Blaine had seen Kurt’s face again close enough to notice that he had been crying before he got there and that he’d tried to hide it with makeup which had rubbed off when they were rolling around on his bed. He also noticed that he was close to tears in that moment.
Kurt had refused to talk though, and so Blaine had been left just holding him and eventually the two of them just fell asleep and after that Blaine didn’t really see a sign of him being upset, but Kurt had changed a little bit.
“You know my brother’s coming to visit late this week,” Blaine told Rory when they were in his car.
Rory always looked nervous when he was getting in a car. Blaine had never noticed it before he started giving him rides, but he’d decided that it most likely had to do with the old models of cars that were around in comparison to in the future. They were probably much safer in the future.
“Uncle Cooper!” Rory exclaimed, “I didn’t even think I’d get to see him in this time.”
Blaine laughed. “So, I guess you’ve met.”
“He’s the coolest,” Rory said, “he always used to bring the best gifts. When I get home, I’m going to make fun of him so much for how he is now. I’ve heard stories, and everyone says he was way more self-absorbed before he met…well, I probably shouldn’t say, but you always told the best stories about when he was younger.”
The lit up look in Rory’s eyes and the wide smile made Blaine’s heart soar. Was this how it felt to be a parent and experience secondhand happiness for one’s offspring? If it was, then Blaine wanted Rory to always be happy.
- - -
Kurt was sort of freaking out. He had been for the weeks after he took one look at Blaine and Rory and he knew why his son had been in tears just days before. His dad had confirmed it and even explained everything to him, and almost two weeks later, Kurt was still not sure how to get back to normalcy. He knew he was acting off, but who wouldn’t be if they learned that the boy they were going to marry was going to die when their son was sixteen.
When he got home, and not with the groceries that he’d told Blaine he was going to buy, Kurt just went up to his room and collapsed on his bed without even removing his shoes. Lately, all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and stay there forever. Except that he would remember that he and Blaine had only so much time to be together and then he would stop and call Blaine and hope that his boyfriend was free, which most of the time he was.
He stayed on the bed until he heard the doorbell ring and after looking at himself in the mirror and pushing a few pieces of errant hair out of his face, Kurt walked downstairs to open the door. He threw a smile on and when Blaine came into view pulled him into a tight hug.
“Oh, hello,” Blaine said.
Kurt let go, but only long enough to pull him in again and plant a kiss on him. Kurt could tell that Blaine hadn’t expected it, but he settled into it and Kurt hummed when he pulled back. How could he even begin to imagine that one day he wouldn’t be able to do this because Blaine would be gone?
“Not cooking yet, but we can go upstairs and…”
Blaine shook his head. He grabbed both of Kurt’s hands. “Enough,” he said, “there’s been something bothering you for days now, Kurt, and I’m not going to let you kiss your way out of an explanation.”
Kurt had seen this coming. And he knew that he couldn’t answer Blaine. It was one thing for him to know that Blaine was going to die and that Rory had wound up in their time because he was trying to fix it, but it would be another entirely for Blaine to know. It would destroy him, change him in ways that Kurt didn’t even want to think about.
“I - nothing is bothering me,” Kurt said.
Blaine shook his head. “Something is. Something to do with Rory. You hurt him today, you know.”
Kurt knew. Of course he knew.
“Why are you pulling away? What is going on?”
“It’s the time machine,” Kurt said. It was the first thing that had come to him.
“What about it?”
Blaine had grabbed his wrist, and he pulled Kurt towards the living room. Rory had cried in his arms on that very couch two weeks before. He almost couldn’t stand to sit in the same spot.
“He’s going to leave,” Kurt said, “and I just think it’s best if I pull away, if I don’t get attached.”
Blaine was watching him, looking for anything that might tell him there was more to it. Kurt knew that Blaine suspected there was something more, but luckily, Blaine didn’t push. He probably knew they weren’t going to get any farther.
“He was worried about Quinn all week. Did he tell you? He thought that his being here was the reason the wedding was taking place and then that he changed something and that made Quinn have her accident. I started looking into it.”
“How?”
At least having something to discuss that didn’t touch on everything Kurt was terrified of could distract him. He wanted to cling to anything that might make him focus on something else.
“Library. Internet. There isn’t much. But I did look into some hypothetical scientific research - nothing particularly good came up - and then there was this link and I clicked it because I was curious and…”
Kurt loved how Blaine could be like a puppy in his excitement for things. He wondered if putting Blaine’s dog next to him would diminish his dog like qualities.
“What did you find, Blaine?”
“Right,” Blaine said, “I found this theory, the chaos theory. Some call it the butterfly theory.”
“Like the movie?” Kurt asked, “Ashton Kutcher? Finn made me watch with him, can’t really remember a lot of it.”
“Haven’t seen it,” Blaine said.
“Go on.”
“Well, it’s this idea that something complex can never be predicted exactly because of all the chaos that surrounds it. All the crazy little things that just have to come together for it to actually, you know, happen.”
“Okay,” Kurt said. Somehow it was hitting way close to home. A death was a super complicated thing.
“So, and this is why they sometimes call it the butterfly theory, taking weather as an example the idea is that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings is directly affecting say a tornado happening somewhere else in the world. So, if you take that butterfly away it could change everything - the tornado might not happen at all.”
Was it possible that something so big could be altered? Even stopped. Kurt pushed the hope that wanted to rush up, down. No. He couldn’t let himself believe it wouldn’t happen.
Blaine took a deep breath. “So, then, I was thinking about the whole time-travel thing in relation to this and it sort of hit me that if a teeny tiny butterfly flapping its wings could pretty much change the course of the weather then what could two teenagers walking around and living here - in a time they’re not supposed to - do to the world as a whole? What could they change? If x and y are supposed to happen in a certain way so that z happens, then what if the x happens later or earlier or not at all, then what happens to z?”
Kurt was floored. What had Rory done? If this theory - this crazy theory that Blaine probably didn’t know a whole lot about was right, then it wasn’t just Blaine’s death that Kurt had to worry about. He also had to worry about the possibility of another big event not happening at all - Rory’s own existence. And these were just things related to them…there could be so much else altered.
“Oh, god,” Kurt said, “but then, nothing can be predicted then? You can’t say what will or won’t make everything a certain way…there’s too many factors.”
His dad had shared with him something that had worried him a little on the night he discovered why Rory was in the past, now it worried him all the more.
“I haven’t told this to Rory,” his dad had said, “but I’ve been wondering for a while now if it were possible that Blaine…that he, um, dies because Rory is here now. If by trying to save him, if Rory didn’t just create the event…you know, made it set in stone.”
But he couldn’t tell that to Blaine.
“Exactly,” Blaine said, “and I’m still thinking about Finn and Rachel’s wedding because they’ve only rescheduled it and…”
Kurt tuned him out. Of course Blaine would be thinking about the wedding, about the idiotic wedding that Rory and Sugar were adamant they’d never heard of happening. Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn’t. There were more important things to think about, things that were life and death
Genre: Romance, Humor, Fantasy
Pairing: Klaine, Brittana, Rory/?
Rating: PG - PG 13
Spoilers: none.
Disclaimer: : I own nothing...and do not claim to.
Summary: In a moment of what could be called absolutely brilliance or stupidity, Rory Hummel-Anderson decided that the only way to get his Papa back was to go back in time and stall him, or stop him from getting into the car at all. The only problem is, his Aunt's time machine is still just a prototype and he can't even specify a time. But Rory uses it anyway and suddenly he's back in 2011 and he has to pretend to be an exchange student while he waits for Aunt Brittany to build the time machine again and get back home. In the meanwhile he gets to know his parents as teenagers and even help their relationship along when they hit a bump in the road.
Chapter Seventeen
The Flapping of Butterflies
“Did you know?” Rory asked Sugar later, “about Quinn’s accident.”
nbsp;
The thing was that despite all the information about famous actress Quinn Fabray that could be found on the internet, Rory had never really wondered about her much in the future. He’d thought she was pretty and that she was decent enough on the T.V. show she was in the cast of but he hadn’t really watched that either. His dads did sometimes, and he knew they still kept in contact, but just enough to send well wishes for birthdays and cards for holidays.
“No,” Sugar said, “no idea. I’m actually a little worried. The wedding was stopped for now but they still have plans to go through with it and Quinn is alive in the future.”
They were in the hospital. Rory actually had no idea how he’d gotten there. Car accidents would never be the same to him again and he’d sort of freaked out when Rachel first told them. It was hard to think about any car accident. He remembered Blaine standing next to him and how he’d wrapped an arm around him. Rory had lost himself in knowing that for the moment his papa was alive and well.
He remembered still being with him while they were going to the hospital and along the way they’d gotten separated and now he was with sugar and neither of his dads were anywhere to be found.
“Maybe she’ll be fine,” Rory said, “they said it wasn’t life threatening.”
The entire of the New Directions were sitting in the waiting room, taking up a good portion of the room. They were all still in their wedding clothes and no one wanted to leave to get changed despite how uncomfortable they might be. Maybe his dads had gone to get a change of clothes. It would seem like his something had dad might do.
“Maybe,” Sugar said. She dropped her head on his shoulder, “I hope so.”
It was a few hours before anything happened. Mrs. Fabray hadn’t told them to leave, but being the only blood relative she was technically they only one allowed to see Quinn. Still, they stayed until Mrs. Fabray could tell them something. It wasn’t good news. There was some damage to her spine and the doctors didn’t know if it could mean that she wouldn’t be able to walk again. They still had a lot of testing to do.
Kurt and Blaine did not return the whole time, and when someone asked about them it was Finn that answered.
“They’re back at my house,” he said, “Kurt wasn’t feeling too well.”
But Kurt had been fine. Something had happened, Rory was sure of it. Sugar must have noticed his distress because she grabbed his hand and squeezed it.
“Oh,” Rachel said, “well, I hope he’s feeling better. Although it’s a bit unexpected.”
No one said anything else about it and no one asked about Blaine.
He got a ride with Finn after they all decided it was time to leave the hospital. He insisted that Finn just take him back to the Hummel-Hudson house. He lied to his uncle about needing to pick up his clothes. Finn was distracted enough over the whole Quinn thing and probably the wedding too that he just went along with it.
n fact, Finn was so distracted that after letting Rory in he just walked up the stairs and left Rory standing by the door. He decided to head into the living room and then kitchen, but both rooms were empty so he walked up the stairs.
“Nothing’s wrong,” his dad was saying, “I’m just emotionally exhausted. This week has been a wreck and I just didn’t want to sit in the hospital for hours. We weren’t going to be able to see her.”
His papa’s voice responded. “You don’t seem fine, Kurt. You reacted worse than Rachel and that’s saying something. I just know something else happened. You’re not telling me something.”
They were silent and then Rory heard the creak of a mattress. “I just want you to hold me, okay, and to put this day behind us and just forget about it.”
There was a long pause again before his papa spoke and his words were mumbled. Rory pressed himself against the wall. He was sure something had happened, he just didn’t know what.
“I love you so much, Blaine.”
“Love you too.”
After that they were silent. Rory stayed against the wall for just a little while longer, but then he walked back down the hall and down the stairs. Maybe his dad had just been affected by Karofsky and Quinn. It could easily be nothing. He didn’t have to be so worried. In fact, he had other things to deal with like the possibility that if Quinn didn’t walk ever again that he, Sugar, or the both of them had caused it to happen somehow.
- - -
Quinn was back to school on the same day that Blaine got a text from the one person he hadn’t heard from in months. His brother. He was coming home. Blaine didn’t know if he should be excited or not. He and Cooper didn’t have the best relationship and Blaine hadn’t seen him in almost two years, but they did still e-mail and text each other and to be quite truthful, Blaine did miss his brother. Maybe it would be a good thing that he was coming to visit.
Things had been kind of odd since Regionals. Everyone was still sort of buzzing from their win, but that was overshadowed by Quinn’s accident, and everyone in the school was talking about that. The accident had served to do a few things and that was stop talk of Finn and Rachel’s wedding, but it would be just a matter of time before it was a big topic of conversation, and it had stopped everyone from whispering about Dave’s suicide attempt.
Blaine had been focused on something else while everyone talked about Quinn and tried to figure out when she might return to school, and that was Kurt. Ever since the day of the accident, he’d been acting stranger than usual. He was being contrary. They’d been spending a lot of time together, but he was distant and sometimes Blaine even thought that Kurt was keeping from him, but then his boyfriend would reassure him and hiss him and everything would be alright again. The worst, though, was that Kurt seemed to be keeping Rory at a distance and Blaine could see how much that hurt their son, but Kurt just refused to talk about it. Sometimes, Blaine caught him staring at Rory, though, and the pensive look was always put away when Blaine approached him.
Cooper texted him a few more times that morning until Blaine finally decided to answer and agreed that he’d go out to lunch with him when he was in town, and then also to introduce him to Kurt. Blaine was actually a little concerned about that, but mostly because he’d never told Kurt who his brother was despite how often Kurt asked. His parents had never been ones to display a lot of pictures around the house, so Kurt hadn’t even gotten to see that except for a couple from when they were kids and neither Blaine or Cooper looked much like they did back then.
“Hey, Blaine,” Rory said, coming up to him at his locker.
“Hey. What’s up?”
Rory bit his lip nervously. “She’s in a wheel chair,” he whispered, “I - in my future she can walk.”
Ever since the accident, Blaine had been researching time-travel which was stupid because it hadn’t even been invented yet - and it was possible that only Brittany’s machine worked - and so far most of what he’d found was in movies or books and that wasn’t all that helpful.
There was one thing that had intrigued him though and that was the chaos theory. He hadn’t shared with Rory yet, and a part of him didn’t really want to because Blaine couldn’t even be sure that it was a real thing that would apply to them.
“I don’t think her spine was damaged like Artie’s,” Blaine settled on, “it might just be temporary.”
Rory nodded, but he still looked wary. It was better that he wasn’t going to share what he’d found with him. He might tell Kurt later, thought, or maybe Brittany. It was odd to think that the girl that often made crazy remarks could be some genius inventor in the future, but Blaine could actually sort of see why.
They had actually gone over to help her with building the time machine a few times already and Blaine still couldn’t believe that she had already created so many things. A part of him was intimidated to find out just what kind of changes she would bring to their future and all from ideas she claimed to come from her cat. All geniuses were supposed to be eccentric, though, and Brittany was more than just that, she was sweet.
“Could be,” Rory said.
That day in glee club they found out that she was already getting some feeling back and that Quinn was absolutely positive that she would be walking by the time Nationals came around. Blaine hoped so. The news seemed to have calmed Rory and he could see Rory and Sugar relax some.
Since Valentine’s day, the two of them had decided to continue fake dating. It was mostly because of Artie, but Blaine was starting to wonder if there wasn’t something else there. Sometimes he had to remind himself that Rory was always saying that she was his cousin - though not by blood.
“Hey,” Kurt said after glee was over, “do you want to come over tonight? I’m cooking dinner, but I thought you could help and I’ll maybe even let you make those deliciously fattening cookies of yours.”
Blaine laughed. “Uh, sure.” It might even give him time to talk about the whole Rory thing and the chaos theory even though it looked like Quinn was going to be alright and Rory hadn’t changed anything.
“Cool,” Kurt said, “can you drive Rory home first? He asked me for a ride, but I have to run to the grocery store.”
Blaine stared after him when he walked away. It was probably the third time in two weeks that Kurt had just pushed Rory onto him, not that Blaine minded. He had just been really used to seeing the two of them together so often that he and Kurt had had to start scheduling make out sessions.
“Where did Kurt run off to?”
Rory stood behind him, bag slung over his shoulder. Sugar was nowhere to be seen. She was always disappearing and Blaine was pretty sure that she tried really hard not to interact with anyone if she could help it.
“Has to get groceries,” Blaine said, “he’s cooking dinner tonight.”
Rory frowned. “Oh,” he said.
“But,” Blaine said, “it gives us some time to hang out. And, hey, it looks like Quinn will be just fine. There is no reason for you to still be down about anything.”
Rory nodded, but he still looked noticeably upset. Blaine threw an arm around him. “Come on, we can stop by the Lima Bean. I’ll buy you a cookie.”
Rory laughed, but he nodded.
Blaine really needed to have a talk with Kurt. He didn’t get it. Everything had been fine for weeks and then the day of the accident he’d just freaked out and refused to talk about it. He’d even handed the keys to his car to Blaine and disappeared with his dad. Blaine had had to drive a few of the others to the hospital, but then he’d headed straight to Kurt’s and his boyfriend had given him no explanation and just asked him to make him a cup of tea. Blaine had noticed the two empty cups that had no doubt held milk but hadn’t commented on them.
Then, Kurt had dragged him up to his room and instead of talking he’d kissed Blaine hard and that had been enough to make Blaine forget for a moment, but everything had come back later when they had to cool off because Kurt’s dad was home and things were getting heated fast. That’s when Blaine had seen Kurt’s face again close enough to notice that he had been crying before he got there and that he’d tried to hide it with makeup which had rubbed off when they were rolling around on his bed. He also noticed that he was close to tears in that moment.
Kurt had refused to talk though, and so Blaine had been left just holding him and eventually the two of them just fell asleep and after that Blaine didn’t really see a sign of him being upset, but Kurt had changed a little bit.
“You know my brother’s coming to visit late this week,” Blaine told Rory when they were in his car.
Rory always looked nervous when he was getting in a car. Blaine had never noticed it before he started giving him rides, but he’d decided that it most likely had to do with the old models of cars that were around in comparison to in the future. They were probably much safer in the future.
“Uncle Cooper!” Rory exclaimed, “I didn’t even think I’d get to see him in this time.”
Blaine laughed. “So, I guess you’ve met.”
“He’s the coolest,” Rory said, “he always used to bring the best gifts. When I get home, I’m going to make fun of him so much for how he is now. I’ve heard stories, and everyone says he was way more self-absorbed before he met…well, I probably shouldn’t say, but you always told the best stories about when he was younger.”
The lit up look in Rory’s eyes and the wide smile made Blaine’s heart soar. Was this how it felt to be a parent and experience secondhand happiness for one’s offspring? If it was, then Blaine wanted Rory to always be happy.
- - -
Kurt was sort of freaking out. He had been for the weeks after he took one look at Blaine and Rory and he knew why his son had been in tears just days before. His dad had confirmed it and even explained everything to him, and almost two weeks later, Kurt was still not sure how to get back to normalcy. He knew he was acting off, but who wouldn’t be if they learned that the boy they were going to marry was going to die when their son was sixteen.
When he got home, and not with the groceries that he’d told Blaine he was going to buy, Kurt just went up to his room and collapsed on his bed without even removing his shoes. Lately, all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and stay there forever. Except that he would remember that he and Blaine had only so much time to be together and then he would stop and call Blaine and hope that his boyfriend was free, which most of the time he was.
He stayed on the bed until he heard the doorbell ring and after looking at himself in the mirror and pushing a few pieces of errant hair out of his face, Kurt walked downstairs to open the door. He threw a smile on and when Blaine came into view pulled him into a tight hug.
“Oh, hello,” Blaine said.
Kurt let go, but only long enough to pull him in again and plant a kiss on him. Kurt could tell that Blaine hadn’t expected it, but he settled into it and Kurt hummed when he pulled back. How could he even begin to imagine that one day he wouldn’t be able to do this because Blaine would be gone?
“Not cooking yet, but we can go upstairs and…”
Blaine shook his head. He grabbed both of Kurt’s hands. “Enough,” he said, “there’s been something bothering you for days now, Kurt, and I’m not going to let you kiss your way out of an explanation.”
Kurt had seen this coming. And he knew that he couldn’t answer Blaine. It was one thing for him to know that Blaine was going to die and that Rory had wound up in their time because he was trying to fix it, but it would be another entirely for Blaine to know. It would destroy him, change him in ways that Kurt didn’t even want to think about.
“I - nothing is bothering me,” Kurt said.
Blaine shook his head. “Something is. Something to do with Rory. You hurt him today, you know.”
Kurt knew. Of course he knew.
“Why are you pulling away? What is going on?”
“It’s the time machine,” Kurt said. It was the first thing that had come to him.
“What about it?”
Blaine had grabbed his wrist, and he pulled Kurt towards the living room. Rory had cried in his arms on that very couch two weeks before. He almost couldn’t stand to sit in the same spot.
“He’s going to leave,” Kurt said, “and I just think it’s best if I pull away, if I don’t get attached.”
Blaine was watching him, looking for anything that might tell him there was more to it. Kurt knew that Blaine suspected there was something more, but luckily, Blaine didn’t push. He probably knew they weren’t going to get any farther.
“He was worried about Quinn all week. Did he tell you? He thought that his being here was the reason the wedding was taking place and then that he changed something and that made Quinn have her accident. I started looking into it.”
“How?”
At least having something to discuss that didn’t touch on everything Kurt was terrified of could distract him. He wanted to cling to anything that might make him focus on something else.
“Library. Internet. There isn’t much. But I did look into some hypothetical scientific research - nothing particularly good came up - and then there was this link and I clicked it because I was curious and…”
Kurt loved how Blaine could be like a puppy in his excitement for things. He wondered if putting Blaine’s dog next to him would diminish his dog like qualities.
“What did you find, Blaine?”
“Right,” Blaine said, “I found this theory, the chaos theory. Some call it the butterfly theory.”
“Like the movie?” Kurt asked, “Ashton Kutcher? Finn made me watch with him, can’t really remember a lot of it.”
“Haven’t seen it,” Blaine said.
“Go on.”
“Well, it’s this idea that something complex can never be predicted exactly because of all the chaos that surrounds it. All the crazy little things that just have to come together for it to actually, you know, happen.”
“Okay,” Kurt said. Somehow it was hitting way close to home. A death was a super complicated thing.
“So, and this is why they sometimes call it the butterfly theory, taking weather as an example the idea is that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings is directly affecting say a tornado happening somewhere else in the world. So, if you take that butterfly away it could change everything - the tornado might not happen at all.”
Was it possible that something so big could be altered? Even stopped. Kurt pushed the hope that wanted to rush up, down. No. He couldn’t let himself believe it wouldn’t happen.
Blaine took a deep breath. “So, then, I was thinking about the whole time-travel thing in relation to this and it sort of hit me that if a teeny tiny butterfly flapping its wings could pretty much change the course of the weather then what could two teenagers walking around and living here - in a time they’re not supposed to - do to the world as a whole? What could they change? If x and y are supposed to happen in a certain way so that z happens, then what if the x happens later or earlier or not at all, then what happens to z?”
Kurt was floored. What had Rory done? If this theory - this crazy theory that Blaine probably didn’t know a whole lot about was right, then it wasn’t just Blaine’s death that Kurt had to worry about. He also had to worry about the possibility of another big event not happening at all - Rory’s own existence. And these were just things related to them…there could be so much else altered.
“Oh, god,” Kurt said, “but then, nothing can be predicted then? You can’t say what will or won’t make everything a certain way…there’s too many factors.”
His dad had shared with him something that had worried him a little on the night he discovered why Rory was in the past, now it worried him all the more.
“I haven’t told this to Rory,” his dad had said, “but I’ve been wondering for a while now if it were possible that Blaine…that he, um, dies because Rory is here now. If by trying to save him, if Rory didn’t just create the event…you know, made it set in stone.”
But he couldn’t tell that to Blaine.
“Exactly,” Blaine said, “and I’m still thinking about Finn and Rachel’s wedding because they’ve only rescheduled it and…”
Kurt tuned him out. Of course Blaine would be thinking about the wedding, about the idiotic wedding that Rory and Sugar were adamant they’d never heard of happening. Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn’t. There were more important things to think about, things that were life and death