Fic: Transfer ((Glee/White Collar -- Blaine Anderson, Neil Caffrey)) PG
Title: Transfer
Author: kingzgurl
Fandom: Glee/White Collar
Pairings: mentions Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel
Rating: PG
Word Count: 3,875
Timeline: early season 4 of Glee; early season 4 of White Collar
Summary: Blaine is feeling lost in Lima without Kurt. Lucky for him, his older brother just moved back to New York.
***
Kurt hadn’t been gone more than a few days before Blaine’s parents started in about his choice to attend McKinley for his senior year. It was really the last thing he wanted to listen to over breakfast, but there wasn’t a chance to avoid it.
“Come on, Blaine, you need to think about your future. It isn’t too late for you to transfer back to Dalton this year. The rigorous coursework will look so much better for your college applications than a public school,” his mom implored, sipping her coffee as she waited for a response.
“I have friends at McKinley,” Blaine’s response was always the same. “Glee Club won Nationals last year, and that looks good too.”
“You need the academic coursework to back it up,” she tried again.
“Don’t you remember that it was a Dalton kid who sent me to the hospital last time?” he hated bringing up the Sebastian incident, he hated even thinking about it, but it generally got her to drop the subject. Apparently it wasn’t going to work that particular morning.
“That boy graduated last year, and Dalton’s zero-tolerance policy has always been effective on campus,” she pointed out. “But I’m not sure you’ll have much choice, Blaine. You father is being sent to restructure the London office and I’ll be going with him. You can’t stay her alone, so we’ll be transferring you back to Dalton next week.”
His calm broke at her words, frustration and irritation bubbling up inside him until he spit out, “So what you’re saying is that I don’t have any say in the matter. Why did you even bring it up like I had an option, then?”
“It would have been easier if you agreed with me,” she said simply.
“I’m going to school,” he snapped, leaving the table abruptly and abandoning his half-eaten waffles.
Livid was an understatement when he stormed out of the house, barely remembering to grab his car keys before the door slammed shut behind him. He was seething on the inside. How could they do this to him, now? It was the start of his senior year, he was running for class president, and he was likely to get solos in Glee this year! It wasn’t fair that they would drop the news of his transfer on him just like that. He didn’t even have any friends left at Dalton - most of the guys he had been in the Warblers with had graduated and anyone left was more likely to resent his return than welcome him back after abandoning them to win a championship with the New Directions. Not that he really had too many friends at McKinley either. He had transferred to be with Kurt, and the Glee kids were Kurt’s friends first, so at the moment he knew he wasn’t really better off in either place.
It would have been so much easier to fight his parents on this if Kurt was still in Lima. Kurt supported him and loved him, and would have encouraged him to stand up to his parents. Without Kurt, there was no one there to stand up for him.
Blaine rubbed the heels of his hand against his eyes as tears of frustration and loneliness burned hot behind his contacts, annoyed by the unwanted tears. “Dammit,” he swore in the silence of his car, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself as the irritation on his eyes continued to burn. That day was absolutely going to suck if the last ten minutes were any indication.
Slightly calmer, though his eyes still watered dangerously close to tears, he pulled his phone from his pocket. He needed to call Kurt, he needed to talk to someone, and Kurt would support him, but at the same time he didn’t want to bother him. Not with this and not within the first week Kurt was in New York. His thumb hovered over Kurt’s contact name for a long minute before he scrolled higher in the list to click on Cooper’s name instead.
“Hello?” A man’s voice who was distinctly not his brother answered the call on the third ring.
“Um, I think I have the wrong number…” Blaine mumbled, upset that Cooper changed the number and didn’t tell him. He’d had the same number for as long as Blaine could remember, and Blaine had always been able to reach him there.
“That depends, who are you looking for?” the man asked.
“Cooper Anderson… he’s had this number for like three years,” Blaine didn’t know what the point was of explaining.
“Cooper? Oh, you’ve got the right number, hold on--”
There was the sound of the phone being jostled about and he could hear two indistinct voices, one of which was probably the guy he had just been talking to.
“Since when do you go answering random phones, Moz?” The voice was louder and more distinct, as if he had the phone in his hand, and if he had to guess it sounded more like Cooper than the other guy.
“Hello, this is Cooper,” the familiar sound of Cooper’s voice came over the line and the frustration seemed to melt out of his body.
Blaine rested his head against the cool glass of his window and willed his voice not to crack the way it usually did when he was upset. “Hey Coop… sorry for calling so early.”
“Squirt? Is everything okay?” Concern was immediately apparent in his voice and Blaine knew he had made the right choice in calling his brother.
“No… not really,” he admitted quietly. He wasn’t sure what he expected Cooper to do; he lived half a country away and had been estranged from their mom since Blaine was ten. It wasn’t like Cooper could talk sense into her.”
“Is it that boyfriend of yours? Kurt?”
“No, it isn’t Kurt… well maybe some of it is,” Blaine hadn’t admitted that aloud to anyone. Not even Kurt knew how hard it had been over the last week without him. “He moved to New York last week.”
“Did you break up?”
“No, it isn’t that. We’re fine, it’s just, I miss him,” Blaine whispered the last bit, feeling foolish and silly because he had only been gone a few days. It shouldn’t hurt so much, not yet. Not when they were facing at a year apart.
“Blaine, I know we haven’t talked in a few months, but I don’t think that’s why you called.” Cooper always did know him, even when they weren’t particularly close because of the age and personality differences.
“Mom just told me that they’re transferring me back to Dalton so they can go away to London,” he admitted, just as quietly. “I…”
Cooper waited and gave Blaine the chance to continue, but when it became obvious he wasn’t going to say anything Cooper asked gently, “You liked Dalton a few years ago.”
“I know,” Blaine agreed. “And I know it’s a good school, but there isn’t anything for me there… not that there is anything for me at McKinley either.”
It was Cooper’s turn to be quiet for a long moment, the only sign the call hadn’t ended was Cooper’s breathing on the line and the distant sounds of things being hit against each other on Cooper’s side of the phone.
“It’s just a few more months…” his older brother finally suggested after the extended silence. “After that, you’ll be eighteen and free to come to New York and do anything you want to do.”
Blaine took a shaky breath, “It’s going to be a long ten months until graduation.”
“You’ll get through it, squirt. Focus on glee and your schoolwork, and it’ll be over before you know it.”
Blaine sighed, knowing Cooper was right but still not feeling any better about the knowledge of his transfer. “Yeah.”
There was a muffled conversation that Blaine couldn’t understand before Cooper came back. “I hate to cut this short, but I’ve got to get to work. Are you going to be okay today?”
“Yeah,” Blaine repeated. “I’ll talk to you later, I guess.”
“I’ll call you tonight, I promise,” Cooper’s sincerity was the lifeline Blaine needed. “Just get through today and we’ll talk about it more tonight.”
“’Kay,” Blaine replied quietly. “Love you, Coop.”
“Love you too, squirt.”
When the call ended the silence of the car seemed to engulf him. It was warm, but not overbearing, and he’d calmed down over the course of the call to the point his tears had subsided and his breathing had leveled out again. His eyes were red and itchy, and he had never been so glad for keeping a spare contact case in his car. Carefully he removed them and put a couple of eye drops in his eyes to help, then pulled his glasses from the glove compartment. It was about then he realized he had left his backpack inside, but he wasn’t going to go back for it; especially since he was transferring schools no one would care if he didn’t turn in his homework.
***
“What was that all about?” Mozzie asked curiously.
Neil sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, mussing it enough that he was going to have to fix it before he left for the office. “Blaine’s having some issues with the parents right now, but I’m not sure what there is I can do to help.”
“You can’t exactly help him right now, since the little-Neil is in Ohio and you’ve got a radius. Besides, aren’t you keeping him off the Suit’s radar?”
He had a point. There wasn’t a lot Neil could do at the moment. Except maybe- “Actually, there might be.” He grabbed for his laptop and pulled up the internet, doing a quick search as he dialed a number on his phone. “Do me a favor, go ask June to come up here?”
“Uh, sure thing,” Mozzie looked confused, but that wasn’t anything new. Neil knew he wasn’t giving him enough information to understand the bigger picture.
The call rang through as Mozzie left the room, finally answered on the fourth ring. “This is Jones.”
“Hey Jones, I’m not going to make it in today. Something came up that I have to deal with,” Neil told him quickly.
“Something like an old girlfriend showed up, or a heist going on that you’re part of?” Jones sounded appropriately skeptical. Neil never called out.
“You know I can’t answer that question,” Neil answered lightly. “But I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Jones sighed on the other end of the line. “Fine, but stay out of trouble, Caffrey. I’ll be checking your anklet.”
“Of course you will. I wouldn’t expect anything less,” he admitted. It was true, really, and that’s why he’d run the internet search before calling. He was going to be pushing the boundary of his radius, but not going quite outside of it.
June and Mozzie appeared in the doorway just as he hung up and he waved them both over to sit at the table with him.
“Mozzie said you needed me for something, Neil? Is everything okay?” June’s concern was obvious on her face and Neil smiled at her worry.
“It’ll be fine, I’ve just got a bit of a problem I was hoping you would be able to help with.” He closed the laptop so they could talk, laying out his plan and hoping that she would be receptive to helping him and Blaine out. It would take some work, but with a little luck it was doable in a short period of time.
***
“Hey Diana, what’s at 100 Amsterdam Ave?” Clinton Jones called from his computer. Whatever was there, Caffrey had been there for quite a while according to his anklet monitor.
“Isn’t that LaGuardia Arts High School?” she offered, curious herself. “I drive by it everyday on my way here.”
“Why would Neil be there today?” Jones wondered aloud. “Recruiting a new team of art forgers?”
Diana laughed, “Finding his protégé?”
He shook his head. “We’ll find out tomorrow I guess.”
***
True to what Blaine had thought in the morning, the day had indeed sucked. He didn’t have his bag with him, so he was unprepared for classes and most of his day, including missing the sheet music he had needed for a new song in Glee Club in the afternoon. He’d worn his glasses to school because his eyes were still bothering him, something he hadn’t done in years, so everyone was asking him about them, assuming them to be a new development. Instead of answering their questions, he was snappish and irritable for most of the day, and when Brittany and Artie had made a comment about the race for class president, he’d just lost it and declared he was dropping out and snapped, “Congratulations. I hope you manage to do more this year than you did last year.”
Everyone in the choir room had frozen at the comment, twenty pairs of eyes staring at him in shock because he was the ‘nice guy’ and didn’t say things like that. He’d grabbed the one binder he had with him and stormed out without another word, his destination the locker room to beat out his frustrations on the punching bag.
He lost the next hour to the pounding of blood in his ears and sweat dripping from his temples, landing blow after blow on the bag until he had all but exhausted himself, and then he threw a few more punches for good measure. Focused on the bag, and without his glasses, he didn’t realize anyone had approached him until Mr. Shuester said his name a few times.
“Blaine. Blaine, stop and talk to me, please,” he used that soothing tone that just fueled Blaine’s frustrations even more and he landed two more hits before he stepped back.
“What?” his answer was short and snappish, the last hour clearly not having helped except to make him tired on top of irritable.
“What was that all about in glee today? I’ve heard from a few of your teachers you were unprepared and generally defiant and upset about something today… are you going to tell me what’s up?”
“Nothing is up, I just don’t see a point to being here if I’m changing schools next week. It doesn’t matter if I turn my work in or not anymore,” Blaine landed a few more hits as he answered, focusing more clearly when there was something to hit in front of him.
“I heard that, too. Apparently your mom called to get your withdrawal paperwork started. Have you told anyone?”
“No, I haven’t. It won’t matter anyway, no one is going to care except Brittany because it means she’ll win president again, and Tina because she’ll get more solos.” The words sounded hollow and bitter, even to his own ears, but they were true.
“They’re your friends, Blaine. Of course they’ll care that you’re leaving.”
“They’ll care because I’ll be going back to the Warblers and be their competition this year. I’ll be a traitor,” Blaine’s frustration lessened when he finally said it. Any friendships he had made would be broken as soon as he turned tail and went to compete with their rivals, and that bothered him more than anything else.
“They won’t see it that way,” Mr. Shuester added. “Give them a chance, they might surprise you if you’re honest with them.” He left a minute later.
Alone again in the locker room, Blaine tossed his gloves at his locker and headed for a shower to clear his head.
***
Neil’s cell phone sat in the middle of his table, mocking him, tormenting him over the final call he needed to make before he could call Blaine back. He had left home at eighteen, Blaine had only been ten, but for as often as he talked to his brother over the years he hadn’t spoken to his mother since the day he walked out. Neil hadn’t gotten along with her second husband, Blaine’s father, so that was even more of a reason not to call. He’d even avoided them on his occasional trips to Ohio over the years, choosing to pick Blaine up from school or a voice lesson rather than going by the house. The estrangement just made it that much more difficult to pick up the phone and call her.
When he’d been in jail and Mozzie had brought him the news about Blaine landing in the hospital, his friend had dealt with all the paperwork and payments for Dalton, then called his mom while pretending to be someone from the school letting her know that Blaine was accepted and could start as soon as he was out of the hospital. Neil had seen to it that Blaine had never gone back to the public school that hurt him as an innocent and naïve freshman.
It had been Blaine’s choice to go to McKinley, and Neil had been proud of him for it, though he knew Blaine’s parents were less thrilled. They expected him to be the successful child, the one who wouldn’t fight them and would go to college where they chose, while Cooper had been the trouble-making child who had run away at eighteen. Blaine was the good son, almost always giving to his parents’ whims (restoring the car had been proof enough of that), but he needed to stand up for himself and right now he needed his big brother to help him stand up to them.
Decision made, Neil took a deep breath and picked up the phone, dialing his mother’s number in Ohio.
“Hello?” she answered.
Neil had to fight the urge to hang up immediately. “Hello, mom,” he said finally, his voice even and steady only due to practice and willing it to be so. “We need to talk about Blaine.”
It was a testament to her that she didn’t hang up on him immediately either. “Cooper? Is that you?”
“Yeah, it is,” he stared at the wooden tabletop, feeling like the teenager who had left home all over again.
“What- where- It’s been a long time,” her voice was a mixture of confusion, curiosity, and concern. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” he assured her quietly, “but that’s not why I’m calling. I know that you’re planning to transfer Blaine back to Dalton while you go abroad for the year, but I think I have a better option for him.”
The call was long and painful, and by the end of it Neil felt like he’d had his insides torn open and spread across the table. The walls he’d carefully built inside him to lock Cooper away were torn down and destroyed, and Neil hated all the feelings of anger that came back because of it. It was necessary, however, if everything to happen the way he wanted it to. There had to be some level of reconciliation between Cooper Anderson and Neil Caffrey, some of the walls needed to come down.
A glance at the clock told him that Blaine would be on his way home, so he picked his phone up dialed his younger brother’s number.
“Hey Cooper,” Blaine sounded exhausted, like he’d given up.
“Hey kiddo, I’ve got some news that I hope you’ll like.” It wasn’t a conversation they could have if Blaine was driving, however. “Where are you?”
“Stopped at the Lima Bean for coffee… today really sucked.” That explained the muffled noise from the other end of the line.
“I’m hoping I can make it better, then. Have you heard of LaGuardia Arts High School?” Neil led with the biggest news, avoiding the more serious issues until later. At some point he was going to have to tell Blaine about the tracking anklet and his criminal past, but there was other more important news at the moment.
“No, what’s that?” He had caught Blaine’s interest though, and the boy sounded more alert.
“It’s a school of the performing arts, here in Manhattan. They accepted you this afternoon,” Neil smiled as he shared the news. It had taken some finagling because it was a prestigious school and difficult to get accepted to, especially outside their usual enrollment process, but with Neil’s charm, YouTube videos of Blaine performing, and a large donation to the school from June, the admittance board had accepted Blaine with scarcely a glance at his transcripts. “If it’s somewhere you would be interested in going, of course. I don’t want to force you to do this, but I talked to mom this afternoon and she agreed to let you come live in New York with me.”
Blaine was silent on the other end for a long time before he whispered in shock, “You talked to mom?”
“It was about you, squirt. You have to know there’s nothing I won’t do to make things better for you. Including talking to mom,” Neil’s voice wavered, his breath caught in the back of his throat. It was true, though, even when he hadn’t been particularly close to his brother he’d looked after him.
“And she’s going to let me move to New York with you?” he asked the question quietly. “What did dad say?”
“They want you safe and happy, and it seemed that this would be the best option. What do you say?”
“Yes!” Neil could hear the smile in his voice and he smiled to himself in his empty apartment. “A thousand times, yes! You’re the best, Coop!”
“I know,” he laughed. “Now go home, because I’m sure mom is going to want to talk to you about this.”
“I’ll talk to you soon?” Blaine asked, nervousness in his voice that Neil knew was his own fault. He had the bad habit of promising things and not following through, but this wasn’t one of those things.
“I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll figure out the details, promise.”
***
June knocked on Neil’s door later that night with two cups of hot chocolate in her hands, one of which she handed to him as they made their way to the table.
“So, how did Blaine take the news?” she asked with a smile, curious for news.
Neil smiled back, “He’s excited. Thanks again for doing this… it means a lot to me.”
“Oh it’s nothing at all, I’m just taking in a high schooler on an exchange program for the year,” she sipped her drink, eyes bright with amusement to be in on one of their schemes.
“I’m going to have to tell him the truth about all of this,” sadness overtook him as he admitted it. “He’s going to be upset and hurt that I kept it from him for so long, but he’ll forgive me… I hope.”
“And Peter? Are you going to tell him?” she asked gently, her hand reaching out to lay on his arm.
“No, not in the beginning, at least. Blaine isn’t eighteen yet, so we’ll have to keep it quiet for a while. I’ll tell him eventually, though.”
“Blaine is lucky to have you looking out for him, you know. You are a good man, Neil, and you have a good heart, even if you don’t believe that most of the time.”
Author: kingzgurl
Fandom: Glee/White Collar
Pairings: mentions Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel
Rating: PG
Word Count: 3,875
Timeline: early season 4 of Glee; early season 4 of White Collar
Summary: Blaine is feeling lost in Lima without Kurt. Lucky for him, his older brother just moved back to New York.
***
Kurt hadn’t been gone more than a few days before Blaine’s parents started in about his choice to attend McKinley for his senior year. It was really the last thing he wanted to listen to over breakfast, but there wasn’t a chance to avoid it.
“Come on, Blaine, you need to think about your future. It isn’t too late for you to transfer back to Dalton this year. The rigorous coursework will look so much better for your college applications than a public school,” his mom implored, sipping her coffee as she waited for a response.
“I have friends at McKinley,” Blaine’s response was always the same. “Glee Club won Nationals last year, and that looks good too.”
“You need the academic coursework to back it up,” she tried again.
“Don’t you remember that it was a Dalton kid who sent me to the hospital last time?” he hated bringing up the Sebastian incident, he hated even thinking about it, but it generally got her to drop the subject. Apparently it wasn’t going to work that particular morning.
“That boy graduated last year, and Dalton’s zero-tolerance policy has always been effective on campus,” she pointed out. “But I’m not sure you’ll have much choice, Blaine. You father is being sent to restructure the London office and I’ll be going with him. You can’t stay her alone, so we’ll be transferring you back to Dalton next week.”
His calm broke at her words, frustration and irritation bubbling up inside him until he spit out, “So what you’re saying is that I don’t have any say in the matter. Why did you even bring it up like I had an option, then?”
“It would have been easier if you agreed with me,” she said simply.
“I’m going to school,” he snapped, leaving the table abruptly and abandoning his half-eaten waffles.
Livid was an understatement when he stormed out of the house, barely remembering to grab his car keys before the door slammed shut behind him. He was seething on the inside. How could they do this to him, now? It was the start of his senior year, he was running for class president, and he was likely to get solos in Glee this year! It wasn’t fair that they would drop the news of his transfer on him just like that. He didn’t even have any friends left at Dalton - most of the guys he had been in the Warblers with had graduated and anyone left was more likely to resent his return than welcome him back after abandoning them to win a championship with the New Directions. Not that he really had too many friends at McKinley either. He had transferred to be with Kurt, and the Glee kids were Kurt’s friends first, so at the moment he knew he wasn’t really better off in either place.
It would have been so much easier to fight his parents on this if Kurt was still in Lima. Kurt supported him and loved him, and would have encouraged him to stand up to his parents. Without Kurt, there was no one there to stand up for him.
Blaine rubbed the heels of his hand against his eyes as tears of frustration and loneliness burned hot behind his contacts, annoyed by the unwanted tears. “Dammit,” he swore in the silence of his car, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself as the irritation on his eyes continued to burn. That day was absolutely going to suck if the last ten minutes were any indication.
Slightly calmer, though his eyes still watered dangerously close to tears, he pulled his phone from his pocket. He needed to call Kurt, he needed to talk to someone, and Kurt would support him, but at the same time he didn’t want to bother him. Not with this and not within the first week Kurt was in New York. His thumb hovered over Kurt’s contact name for a long minute before he scrolled higher in the list to click on Cooper’s name instead.
“Hello?” A man’s voice who was distinctly not his brother answered the call on the third ring.
“Um, I think I have the wrong number…” Blaine mumbled, upset that Cooper changed the number and didn’t tell him. He’d had the same number for as long as Blaine could remember, and Blaine had always been able to reach him there.
“That depends, who are you looking for?” the man asked.
“Cooper Anderson… he’s had this number for like three years,” Blaine didn’t know what the point was of explaining.
“Cooper? Oh, you’ve got the right number, hold on--”
There was the sound of the phone being jostled about and he could hear two indistinct voices, one of which was probably the guy he had just been talking to.
“Since when do you go answering random phones, Moz?” The voice was louder and more distinct, as if he had the phone in his hand, and if he had to guess it sounded more like Cooper than the other guy.
“Hello, this is Cooper,” the familiar sound of Cooper’s voice came over the line and the frustration seemed to melt out of his body.
Blaine rested his head against the cool glass of his window and willed his voice not to crack the way it usually did when he was upset. “Hey Coop… sorry for calling so early.”
“Squirt? Is everything okay?” Concern was immediately apparent in his voice and Blaine knew he had made the right choice in calling his brother.
“No… not really,” he admitted quietly. He wasn’t sure what he expected Cooper to do; he lived half a country away and had been estranged from their mom since Blaine was ten. It wasn’t like Cooper could talk sense into her.”
“Is it that boyfriend of yours? Kurt?”
“No, it isn’t Kurt… well maybe some of it is,” Blaine hadn’t admitted that aloud to anyone. Not even Kurt knew how hard it had been over the last week without him. “He moved to New York last week.”
“Did you break up?”
“No, it isn’t that. We’re fine, it’s just, I miss him,” Blaine whispered the last bit, feeling foolish and silly because he had only been gone a few days. It shouldn’t hurt so much, not yet. Not when they were facing at a year apart.
“Blaine, I know we haven’t talked in a few months, but I don’t think that’s why you called.” Cooper always did know him, even when they weren’t particularly close because of the age and personality differences.
“Mom just told me that they’re transferring me back to Dalton so they can go away to London,” he admitted, just as quietly. “I…”
Cooper waited and gave Blaine the chance to continue, but when it became obvious he wasn’t going to say anything Cooper asked gently, “You liked Dalton a few years ago.”
“I know,” Blaine agreed. “And I know it’s a good school, but there isn’t anything for me there… not that there is anything for me at McKinley either.”
It was Cooper’s turn to be quiet for a long moment, the only sign the call hadn’t ended was Cooper’s breathing on the line and the distant sounds of things being hit against each other on Cooper’s side of the phone.
“It’s just a few more months…” his older brother finally suggested after the extended silence. “After that, you’ll be eighteen and free to come to New York and do anything you want to do.”
Blaine took a shaky breath, “It’s going to be a long ten months until graduation.”
“You’ll get through it, squirt. Focus on glee and your schoolwork, and it’ll be over before you know it.”
Blaine sighed, knowing Cooper was right but still not feeling any better about the knowledge of his transfer. “Yeah.”
There was a muffled conversation that Blaine couldn’t understand before Cooper came back. “I hate to cut this short, but I’ve got to get to work. Are you going to be okay today?”
“Yeah,” Blaine repeated. “I’ll talk to you later, I guess.”
“I’ll call you tonight, I promise,” Cooper’s sincerity was the lifeline Blaine needed. “Just get through today and we’ll talk about it more tonight.”
“’Kay,” Blaine replied quietly. “Love you, Coop.”
“Love you too, squirt.”
When the call ended the silence of the car seemed to engulf him. It was warm, but not overbearing, and he’d calmed down over the course of the call to the point his tears had subsided and his breathing had leveled out again. His eyes were red and itchy, and he had never been so glad for keeping a spare contact case in his car. Carefully he removed them and put a couple of eye drops in his eyes to help, then pulled his glasses from the glove compartment. It was about then he realized he had left his backpack inside, but he wasn’t going to go back for it; especially since he was transferring schools no one would care if he didn’t turn in his homework.
***
“What was that all about?” Mozzie asked curiously.
Neil sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, mussing it enough that he was going to have to fix it before he left for the office. “Blaine’s having some issues with the parents right now, but I’m not sure what there is I can do to help.”
“You can’t exactly help him right now, since the little-Neil is in Ohio and you’ve got a radius. Besides, aren’t you keeping him off the Suit’s radar?”
He had a point. There wasn’t a lot Neil could do at the moment. Except maybe- “Actually, there might be.” He grabbed for his laptop and pulled up the internet, doing a quick search as he dialed a number on his phone. “Do me a favor, go ask June to come up here?”
“Uh, sure thing,” Mozzie looked confused, but that wasn’t anything new. Neil knew he wasn’t giving him enough information to understand the bigger picture.
The call rang through as Mozzie left the room, finally answered on the fourth ring. “This is Jones.”
“Hey Jones, I’m not going to make it in today. Something came up that I have to deal with,” Neil told him quickly.
“Something like an old girlfriend showed up, or a heist going on that you’re part of?” Jones sounded appropriately skeptical. Neil never called out.
“You know I can’t answer that question,” Neil answered lightly. “But I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Jones sighed on the other end of the line. “Fine, but stay out of trouble, Caffrey. I’ll be checking your anklet.”
“Of course you will. I wouldn’t expect anything less,” he admitted. It was true, really, and that’s why he’d run the internet search before calling. He was going to be pushing the boundary of his radius, but not going quite outside of it.
June and Mozzie appeared in the doorway just as he hung up and he waved them both over to sit at the table with him.
“Mozzie said you needed me for something, Neil? Is everything okay?” June’s concern was obvious on her face and Neil smiled at her worry.
“It’ll be fine, I’ve just got a bit of a problem I was hoping you would be able to help with.” He closed the laptop so they could talk, laying out his plan and hoping that she would be receptive to helping him and Blaine out. It would take some work, but with a little luck it was doable in a short period of time.
***
“Hey Diana, what’s at 100 Amsterdam Ave?” Clinton Jones called from his computer. Whatever was there, Caffrey had been there for quite a while according to his anklet monitor.
“Isn’t that LaGuardia Arts High School?” she offered, curious herself. “I drive by it everyday on my way here.”
“Why would Neil be there today?” Jones wondered aloud. “Recruiting a new team of art forgers?”
Diana laughed, “Finding his protégé?”
He shook his head. “We’ll find out tomorrow I guess.”
***
True to what Blaine had thought in the morning, the day had indeed sucked. He didn’t have his bag with him, so he was unprepared for classes and most of his day, including missing the sheet music he had needed for a new song in Glee Club in the afternoon. He’d worn his glasses to school because his eyes were still bothering him, something he hadn’t done in years, so everyone was asking him about them, assuming them to be a new development. Instead of answering their questions, he was snappish and irritable for most of the day, and when Brittany and Artie had made a comment about the race for class president, he’d just lost it and declared he was dropping out and snapped, “Congratulations. I hope you manage to do more this year than you did last year.”
Everyone in the choir room had frozen at the comment, twenty pairs of eyes staring at him in shock because he was the ‘nice guy’ and didn’t say things like that. He’d grabbed the one binder he had with him and stormed out without another word, his destination the locker room to beat out his frustrations on the punching bag.
He lost the next hour to the pounding of blood in his ears and sweat dripping from his temples, landing blow after blow on the bag until he had all but exhausted himself, and then he threw a few more punches for good measure. Focused on the bag, and without his glasses, he didn’t realize anyone had approached him until Mr. Shuester said his name a few times.
“Blaine. Blaine, stop and talk to me, please,” he used that soothing tone that just fueled Blaine’s frustrations even more and he landed two more hits before he stepped back.
“What?” his answer was short and snappish, the last hour clearly not having helped except to make him tired on top of irritable.
“What was that all about in glee today? I’ve heard from a few of your teachers you were unprepared and generally defiant and upset about something today… are you going to tell me what’s up?”
“Nothing is up, I just don’t see a point to being here if I’m changing schools next week. It doesn’t matter if I turn my work in or not anymore,” Blaine landed a few more hits as he answered, focusing more clearly when there was something to hit in front of him.
“I heard that, too. Apparently your mom called to get your withdrawal paperwork started. Have you told anyone?”
“No, I haven’t. It won’t matter anyway, no one is going to care except Brittany because it means she’ll win president again, and Tina because she’ll get more solos.” The words sounded hollow and bitter, even to his own ears, but they were true.
“They’re your friends, Blaine. Of course they’ll care that you’re leaving.”
“They’ll care because I’ll be going back to the Warblers and be their competition this year. I’ll be a traitor,” Blaine’s frustration lessened when he finally said it. Any friendships he had made would be broken as soon as he turned tail and went to compete with their rivals, and that bothered him more than anything else.
“They won’t see it that way,” Mr. Shuester added. “Give them a chance, they might surprise you if you’re honest with them.” He left a minute later.
Alone again in the locker room, Blaine tossed his gloves at his locker and headed for a shower to clear his head.
***
Neil’s cell phone sat in the middle of his table, mocking him, tormenting him over the final call he needed to make before he could call Blaine back. He had left home at eighteen, Blaine had only been ten, but for as often as he talked to his brother over the years he hadn’t spoken to his mother since the day he walked out. Neil hadn’t gotten along with her second husband, Blaine’s father, so that was even more of a reason not to call. He’d even avoided them on his occasional trips to Ohio over the years, choosing to pick Blaine up from school or a voice lesson rather than going by the house. The estrangement just made it that much more difficult to pick up the phone and call her.
When he’d been in jail and Mozzie had brought him the news about Blaine landing in the hospital, his friend had dealt with all the paperwork and payments for Dalton, then called his mom while pretending to be someone from the school letting her know that Blaine was accepted and could start as soon as he was out of the hospital. Neil had seen to it that Blaine had never gone back to the public school that hurt him as an innocent and naïve freshman.
It had been Blaine’s choice to go to McKinley, and Neil had been proud of him for it, though he knew Blaine’s parents were less thrilled. They expected him to be the successful child, the one who wouldn’t fight them and would go to college where they chose, while Cooper had been the trouble-making child who had run away at eighteen. Blaine was the good son, almost always giving to his parents’ whims (restoring the car had been proof enough of that), but he needed to stand up for himself and right now he needed his big brother to help him stand up to them.
Decision made, Neil took a deep breath and picked up the phone, dialing his mother’s number in Ohio.
“Hello?” she answered.
Neil had to fight the urge to hang up immediately. “Hello, mom,” he said finally, his voice even and steady only due to practice and willing it to be so. “We need to talk about Blaine.”
It was a testament to her that she didn’t hang up on him immediately either. “Cooper? Is that you?”
“Yeah, it is,” he stared at the wooden tabletop, feeling like the teenager who had left home all over again.
“What- where- It’s been a long time,” her voice was a mixture of confusion, curiosity, and concern. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” he assured her quietly, “but that’s not why I’m calling. I know that you’re planning to transfer Blaine back to Dalton while you go abroad for the year, but I think I have a better option for him.”
The call was long and painful, and by the end of it Neil felt like he’d had his insides torn open and spread across the table. The walls he’d carefully built inside him to lock Cooper away were torn down and destroyed, and Neil hated all the feelings of anger that came back because of it. It was necessary, however, if everything to happen the way he wanted it to. There had to be some level of reconciliation between Cooper Anderson and Neil Caffrey, some of the walls needed to come down.
A glance at the clock told him that Blaine would be on his way home, so he picked his phone up dialed his younger brother’s number.
“Hey Cooper,” Blaine sounded exhausted, like he’d given up.
“Hey kiddo, I’ve got some news that I hope you’ll like.” It wasn’t a conversation they could have if Blaine was driving, however. “Where are you?”
“Stopped at the Lima Bean for coffee… today really sucked.” That explained the muffled noise from the other end of the line.
“I’m hoping I can make it better, then. Have you heard of LaGuardia Arts High School?” Neil led with the biggest news, avoiding the more serious issues until later. At some point he was going to have to tell Blaine about the tracking anklet and his criminal past, but there was other more important news at the moment.
“No, what’s that?” He had caught Blaine’s interest though, and the boy sounded more alert.
“It’s a school of the performing arts, here in Manhattan. They accepted you this afternoon,” Neil smiled as he shared the news. It had taken some finagling because it was a prestigious school and difficult to get accepted to, especially outside their usual enrollment process, but with Neil’s charm, YouTube videos of Blaine performing, and a large donation to the school from June, the admittance board had accepted Blaine with scarcely a glance at his transcripts. “If it’s somewhere you would be interested in going, of course. I don’t want to force you to do this, but I talked to mom this afternoon and she agreed to let you come live in New York with me.”
Blaine was silent on the other end for a long time before he whispered in shock, “You talked to mom?”
“It was about you, squirt. You have to know there’s nothing I won’t do to make things better for you. Including talking to mom,” Neil’s voice wavered, his breath caught in the back of his throat. It was true, though, even when he hadn’t been particularly close to his brother he’d looked after him.
“And she’s going to let me move to New York with you?” he asked the question quietly. “What did dad say?”
“They want you safe and happy, and it seemed that this would be the best option. What do you say?”
“Yes!” Neil could hear the smile in his voice and he smiled to himself in his empty apartment. “A thousand times, yes! You’re the best, Coop!”
“I know,” he laughed. “Now go home, because I’m sure mom is going to want to talk to you about this.”
“I’ll talk to you soon?” Blaine asked, nervousness in his voice that Neil knew was his own fault. He had the bad habit of promising things and not following through, but this wasn’t one of those things.
“I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll figure out the details, promise.”
***
June knocked on Neil’s door later that night with two cups of hot chocolate in her hands, one of which she handed to him as they made their way to the table.
“So, how did Blaine take the news?” she asked with a smile, curious for news.
Neil smiled back, “He’s excited. Thanks again for doing this… it means a lot to me.”
“Oh it’s nothing at all, I’m just taking in a high schooler on an exchange program for the year,” she sipped her drink, eyes bright with amusement to be in on one of their schemes.
“I’m going to have to tell him the truth about all of this,” sadness overtook him as he admitted it. “He’s going to be upset and hurt that I kept it from him for so long, but he’ll forgive me… I hope.”
“And Peter? Are you going to tell him?” she asked gently, her hand reaching out to lay on his arm.
“No, not in the beginning, at least. Blaine isn’t eighteen yet, so we’ll have to keep it quiet for a while. I’ll tell him eventually, though.”
“Blaine is lucky to have you looking out for him, you know. You are a good man, Neil, and you have a good heart, even if you don’t believe that most of the time.”