Fic: Shut Your Mouth (Finn, Ensemble) R (9/?)
Title: Shut Your Mouth
Author: hyperemmalawlz
Fandom: Glee
Chapter: 9/? - "Do the Right Thing."
Characters/Pairing: Finn, Ensemble.
Word Count: 2250
Rating: NC-17 overall; R for this chapter.
Summary: After the underwear incident, Karofsky and Azimio simply will not back off already when it comes to Finn. Things quickly go from bad to worse.
Spoilers: Up to 2x05, "The Rocky Horror Glee Show."
Warnings: Swearing, description of sexual assault and harassment, sexual references.
Author's Notes: Written for the glee_angst_meme, the prompt: "After the underwear incident, things get a whole lot worse for Finn. The football jocks won't stop taunting him, but it's worse than before: their comments get really sexual. Then they begin awkwardly touching him when they're alone. He wants to tell someone, but it isn't rape or anything so he figures he should just suck it up. And then Korafsky and Azimo corner him in the locker room and force him to give them head. They tell him he was asking for it, and he starts to believe it."
9: Do the Right Thing
Finn isn't at school the day after... it happens. Kurt wonders why he is even surprised. Finn has just gone through one of the most painful, traumatic experiences a person possibly can, and it happened at this school. Of course he doesn't want to show up again yet.
Kurt's surprise at being immediately ambushed by Finn's girlfriend throwing herself into his arms is a little more justified.
“Um?” he asks as Rachel presses her head against his chin, gripping on tight. People in the hallway stare at them - he swears he sees someone mouth isn't he gay? However, when he pays attention to Rachel's breathing pattern, he realizes she's on the edge of tears. So he lets her just lie there until she's ready to talk.
With a heady sniffle, she finally pulls back. “I'm sorry,” she says. “I shouldn't have... come out of nowhere like that. Oh god, did I wreck your shirt?”
“It's fine,” he answers, pulling on the said fabric. “Wrinkle-free.”
Rachel nods. “It's just... We all know about... Oh god, Finn...”
“I know,” Kurt says, a sour taste flooding the back of throat. “It's awful. You're allowed to be hurting.”
Rachel shakes her head. “Why? It didn't happen to me. It didn't happen to us. We - we have to be strong for him, Kurt; we have to be here and help him handle this the right way, because otherwise-”
“Rachel, it's okay,” Kurt says. “This is scary and stressful. You don't know how you're going to cope with this. You don't like the thought you had two men in your life, in any capacity, that were capable of that and you did not notice. You probably feel guilty for not noticing. Rachel, you can feel all that - if you're going to have any chance of helping Finn, you have to be able to deal with your own emotions too.”
Rachel looks unconvinced. “And you say I should write PSA's for a living if we don't make it on Broadway,” she says, folding her arms against her chest. Kurt sighs and pulls her forward again, letting her collapse against his chest.
“It's just that... I knew things were bad,” she confesses, voice shaking. “I saw. I was with him when they showed up, making awful sexual comments. I knew exactly how much the whole incident with the sex toys in his locker scared him. I realized he may have kept his phone off for a reason a little after I forced him to turn it back on, but I just couldn't find a way to ask. I mean, you remember - how many times did I rant at you, telling you he probably had a case to file for a restraining order?” She's looking up at him now, those tears seeping from her eyes now. “I knew things were out of hand. I just... I was scared of pushing too hard; of making things worse for Finn if it really was nothing. And I just let it...”
Kurt's heart hurts. He knows what she's feeling. “Rachel,” he says, voice thick and forced, “I know the guilt. I understand. I remember rolling my eyes at your complaints; thinking you were exaggerating. I remember telling Finn I probably would have found the incident with the sex toys funny if it wasn't for who did it. I remember telling him he wasn't even one of Karofsky's and Azimio's major targets; I just thought the way they had persistently humiliated us 'losers' for years added to something more.”
He expects Rachel's eyes to narrow in fury; for her to scream and slap him. She doesn't. She looks unsettlingly understanding - but it's not the same thing as what she did, not at all. She was at least trying to do the right thing. Worried about Finn. He was so caught up with his own selfish pain he could never realize the significance of what he was seeing.
He sighs. “Rachel, we are both going to remember a lot of things we said or did 'wrong' in regards to this. Everyone is. And maybe, if we made slightly different choices, things would have been different. But that does not make it our fault, what happened. Finn is not hurt because of us. He is hurt because those two monsters hurt him. He is going to need our help remembering this, so we really ought to convince ourselves of it too.”
Rachel nods and falls away from his chest, falling to his side. He lets her thread her hand through his. “So what do we do?”
He shrugs. “I don't know, Rachel. Talk to him. Comfort him. Help him when he needs us.”
“Testify legally?”
He nods. “That sounds reasonable.”
She bites her lip. “Have you spoken to him since yesterday? He's not answering his cell and I'm worried, and you two are going to be stepbrothers soon, so I was just wondering...?”
Kurt has to shake his head. “No. I called Carole, but that was mostly to pass on the warning about what Jacob Ben Israel did with the photos.”
“Son of a bitch,” Rachel curses, and that takes Kurt by surprise because since when does she do that? “How can he do something like that? Doesn't he understand? Jacob Ben Israel is creepy and generally a despicable cretin, but how can he have suck a lack of morals he would publish the photos proving rape without the victim's consent - just for kicks?”
Kurt feels a little sick - especially because it's Rachel saying it. He's never really been able to understand Jacob's obsession with Rachel, even when trying to put aside the effect of sexual preferences, but he is perfectly aware it exists. It is deeply unsettling at points - when he heard Jacob used Quinn's pregnancy to blackmail Rachel for her underwear he wanted to be sick. And he didn't like either girl at the time.
Rachel's never really complained to a large extent, but that doesn't make him feel better. Especially given the recent results of just ignoring such behavior.
“Did Carole tell you anything?” Rachel asks, snapping him out of his reverie. “I know how much she cares about him.”
“Um... not really. She told me she didn't want to go into detail on the phone, which I guess I can understand... I mean, Finn should at least be there for the explanations of what happened to him.”
Rachel nods along. “Alright,” she says. They fall into a comfortable silence, before Kurt starts hearing whispering behind them.
“What is she doing? That one's open about it, even.”
“Guess she's our token fag-hag for now - since Hudson got outed, she's getting a new target. I dunno, I guess it makes sense if you like...”
Kurt goes still and feels sick. Since Hudson got... Are people that thoughtless and stupid? Can they honestly believe Finn would have wanted one part of this?
Wait, it's William McKinley High School. Of course they can.
“Kurt, what is it?” Rachel asks. She looks like she doesn't fully want to know.
“Didn't you just hear...?” She shakes her head, and he sighs. “Sorry. I just got snapped out of slight sudden-onset naivety - I'm re-realizing the nature of this school. Because people... seem to think whatever happened, happened with Finn's consent. I'm not sure why I'm even surprised.”
Rachel gasps. “H-how? What is wrong with this school? Why would anyone think Finn, my Finn, would under any circumstances let those... neanderthals paw all over him?!”
She shakes with rage, and he squeezes her hand tighter to try and keep her calm (it's Rachel, so he doesn't really expect it to work, but what can you do?). “I don't know. I assume it's a combination of this school's institutionalized homophobia and pre-existing doubts about Finn's sexuality, denial of the fact something that horrible could happen here, and the fact... well, those pictures were fairly ambiguous.”
It backfires. Rachel yanks her hand away from him. “How can you say that?!” she shrieks. “We both know very well what happened to Finn; don't you make out like there's even a chance-”
“I didn't, Rachel. We both know what happened to Finn was an assault, plain and simple - however, we know that because we know Finn; we know Karofsky and Azimio; we know the history behind this. It doesn't excuse the sensationalist way the masses are treating this - especially all the homophobia inherent in it - but it is a factor. That's all I meant.”
Rachel lets out a little puff of breath she does when her self-righteousness has been deflated. “Fine.” Then she sees something out of the corner of her eye. Someone. Puck.
“Do you think he's spoken to Finn?” she asks once their eyes are all focused on the one boy (who is unaware of them). Kurt considers it.
“I'm not sure. On one hand, they've been best friends since early childhood. On the other, Puck has rather betrayed Finn's trust at points in the past as we are all well aware, so I'm not sure Finn would confide in him about this.”
Rachel doesn't answer for a long time. “I'm going to go talk to him,” she says. “See if he knows the reason Finn won't answer his cell. See if he knows some more about the assault.”
Kurt nods along. “You do that,” he says. “I don't particularly want to get into that conversation with Noah Puckerman, but if you feel the need...”
Rachel turns around and walks off to initiate said conversation. Kurt looks at her go until he catches sight of something else.
Mr. Schuester storming into Principal Figgins' office.
Kurt's got a feeling that is not an indicator of good things.
*
“You let this happen.”
Figgins doesn't even have the decency to look surprised by Will's bursting into his office. “William,” he says, “explain yourself.”
“Don't, Figgins,” says Will, shaking his head. “You know exactly what this is about. Finn Hudson? I told you he was scared of those two, and it was sexual. I said something needed to be done. You ignored me, and look what happened. The sexual harassment turned into outright sexual violence. What a surprise.”
“So, you have followed the news from that gossipy journal Mr. Israel established,” Figgins says - is he trying to make Will feel bad for knowing? It's all over school. How could he not know? “Schue, I know this is an intense situation, but please try and remain calm. I am waiting until I have more information on the situation before making hasty decisions.”
“...What information is there to have? Those two - Karofsky and Azimio. They harassed and disturbed Finn for weeks. Then they cornered him in the locker room and forced him to perform sex acts on them. Look, we let Finn down before. I'm not denying that. But we can't keep doing that now - look, Finn's a fairly vulnerable kid as is. If people don't get it right after something like this... it'd probably kill him, and that's only slight hyperbole.”
Figgins sighs deeply. “Your theory is understandable and unsettlingly plausible, but I will not convict two of my students of such a thing without concrete proof - or at least a statement by the actual 'victim', as you would call him. It's easy to assume heroes and villains, William. It is harder to look at the facts. What you say is just another theory, and I have heard many plausible theories. I won't be emotionally manipulated into doing the wrong thing.”
Will gapes at him. “Can you even hear yourself?” he asks. “Because all this? Is exactly what you said before... it happened. And now it has, you just will not learn the lesson. I've talked to Shannon; I know what happened. Please, just... He's a kid. Don't screw this up for him.”
“I feel sorry for you, William,” says Figgins. “I understand you have a close relationship with this student - a perfectly innocent one at that, and it was wrong of me to cast aspersions on that, to try and pressure you out of discussing an uncomfortable issue using that. And now you feel guilty for bowing to said pressure, when I really had no proof. I should have examined the seriousness of this further. If, after looking at all evidence I am convinced this was a sexual assault, I will never forgive myself for letting it happen, I assure you. But until that point... well, none of the three students are even here right now. What would you have me do?”
Will sighs. He doesn't know what should be done either; he just knows he can't let Principal Figgins keep being... indifferent. This isn't like cracks in the cafeteria ceiling, or even, as awful as it sounds, jocks throwing slushies in his glee clubbers' faces. This was something...
“Those sorts of people shouldn't be here,” he says.
Figgins nods.
“Do something about Jacob, at least?”
“Of course,” says Figgins.
It's not enough, but it's something.
Author: hyperemmalawlz
Fandom: Glee
Chapter: 9/? - "Do the Right Thing."
Characters/Pairing: Finn, Ensemble.
Word Count: 2250
Rating: NC-17 overall; R for this chapter.
Summary: After the underwear incident, Karofsky and Azimio simply will not back off already when it comes to Finn. Things quickly go from bad to worse.
Spoilers: Up to 2x05, "The Rocky Horror Glee Show."
Warnings: Swearing, description of sexual assault and harassment, sexual references.
Author's Notes: Written for the glee_angst_meme, the prompt: "After the underwear incident, things get a whole lot worse for Finn. The football jocks won't stop taunting him, but it's worse than before: their comments get really sexual. Then they begin awkwardly touching him when they're alone. He wants to tell someone, but it isn't rape or anything so he figures he should just suck it up. And then Korafsky and Azimo corner him in the locker room and force him to give them head. They tell him he was asking for it, and he starts to believe it."
9: Do the Right Thing
Finn isn't at school the day after... it happens. Kurt wonders why he is even surprised. Finn has just gone through one of the most painful, traumatic experiences a person possibly can, and it happened at this school. Of course he doesn't want to show up again yet.
Kurt's surprise at being immediately ambushed by Finn's girlfriend throwing herself into his arms is a little more justified.
“Um?” he asks as Rachel presses her head against his chin, gripping on tight. People in the hallway stare at them - he swears he sees someone mouth isn't he gay? However, when he pays attention to Rachel's breathing pattern, he realizes she's on the edge of tears. So he lets her just lie there until she's ready to talk.
With a heady sniffle, she finally pulls back. “I'm sorry,” she says. “I shouldn't have... come out of nowhere like that. Oh god, did I wreck your shirt?”
“It's fine,” he answers, pulling on the said fabric. “Wrinkle-free.”
Rachel nods. “It's just... We all know about... Oh god, Finn...”
“I know,” Kurt says, a sour taste flooding the back of throat. “It's awful. You're allowed to be hurting.”
Rachel shakes her head. “Why? It didn't happen to me. It didn't happen to us. We - we have to be strong for him, Kurt; we have to be here and help him handle this the right way, because otherwise-”
“Rachel, it's okay,” Kurt says. “This is scary and stressful. You don't know how you're going to cope with this. You don't like the thought you had two men in your life, in any capacity, that were capable of that and you did not notice. You probably feel guilty for not noticing. Rachel, you can feel all that - if you're going to have any chance of helping Finn, you have to be able to deal with your own emotions too.”
Rachel looks unconvinced. “And you say I should write PSA's for a living if we don't make it on Broadway,” she says, folding her arms against her chest. Kurt sighs and pulls her forward again, letting her collapse against his chest.
“It's just that... I knew things were bad,” she confesses, voice shaking. “I saw. I was with him when they showed up, making awful sexual comments. I knew exactly how much the whole incident with the sex toys in his locker scared him. I realized he may have kept his phone off for a reason a little after I forced him to turn it back on, but I just couldn't find a way to ask. I mean, you remember - how many times did I rant at you, telling you he probably had a case to file for a restraining order?” She's looking up at him now, those tears seeping from her eyes now. “I knew things were out of hand. I just... I was scared of pushing too hard; of making things worse for Finn if it really was nothing. And I just let it...”
Kurt's heart hurts. He knows what she's feeling. “Rachel,” he says, voice thick and forced, “I know the guilt. I understand. I remember rolling my eyes at your complaints; thinking you were exaggerating. I remember telling Finn I probably would have found the incident with the sex toys funny if it wasn't for who did it. I remember telling him he wasn't even one of Karofsky's and Azimio's major targets; I just thought the way they had persistently humiliated us 'losers' for years added to something more.”
He expects Rachel's eyes to narrow in fury; for her to scream and slap him. She doesn't. She looks unsettlingly understanding - but it's not the same thing as what she did, not at all. She was at least trying to do the right thing. Worried about Finn. He was so caught up with his own selfish pain he could never realize the significance of what he was seeing.
He sighs. “Rachel, we are both going to remember a lot of things we said or did 'wrong' in regards to this. Everyone is. And maybe, if we made slightly different choices, things would have been different. But that does not make it our fault, what happened. Finn is not hurt because of us. He is hurt because those two monsters hurt him. He is going to need our help remembering this, so we really ought to convince ourselves of it too.”
Rachel nods and falls away from his chest, falling to his side. He lets her thread her hand through his. “So what do we do?”
He shrugs. “I don't know, Rachel. Talk to him. Comfort him. Help him when he needs us.”
“Testify legally?”
He nods. “That sounds reasonable.”
She bites her lip. “Have you spoken to him since yesterday? He's not answering his cell and I'm worried, and you two are going to be stepbrothers soon, so I was just wondering...?”
Kurt has to shake his head. “No. I called Carole, but that was mostly to pass on the warning about what Jacob Ben Israel did with the photos.”
“Son of a bitch,” Rachel curses, and that takes Kurt by surprise because since when does she do that? “How can he do something like that? Doesn't he understand? Jacob Ben Israel is creepy and generally a despicable cretin, but how can he have suck a lack of morals he would publish the photos proving rape without the victim's consent - just for kicks?”
Kurt feels a little sick - especially because it's Rachel saying it. He's never really been able to understand Jacob's obsession with Rachel, even when trying to put aside the effect of sexual preferences, but he is perfectly aware it exists. It is deeply unsettling at points - when he heard Jacob used Quinn's pregnancy to blackmail Rachel for her underwear he wanted to be sick. And he didn't like either girl at the time.
Rachel's never really complained to a large extent, but that doesn't make him feel better. Especially given the recent results of just ignoring such behavior.
“Did Carole tell you anything?” Rachel asks, snapping him out of his reverie. “I know how much she cares about him.”
“Um... not really. She told me she didn't want to go into detail on the phone, which I guess I can understand... I mean, Finn should at least be there for the explanations of what happened to him.”
Rachel nods along. “Alright,” she says. They fall into a comfortable silence, before Kurt starts hearing whispering behind them.
“What is she doing? That one's open about it, even.”
“Guess she's our token fag-hag for now - since Hudson got outed, she's getting a new target. I dunno, I guess it makes sense if you like...”
Kurt goes still and feels sick. Since Hudson got... Are people that thoughtless and stupid? Can they honestly believe Finn would have wanted one part of this?
Wait, it's William McKinley High School. Of course they can.
“Kurt, what is it?” Rachel asks. She looks like she doesn't fully want to know.
“Didn't you just hear...?” She shakes her head, and he sighs. “Sorry. I just got snapped out of slight sudden-onset naivety - I'm re-realizing the nature of this school. Because people... seem to think whatever happened, happened with Finn's consent. I'm not sure why I'm even surprised.”
Rachel gasps. “H-how? What is wrong with this school? Why would anyone think Finn, my Finn, would under any circumstances let those... neanderthals paw all over him?!”
She shakes with rage, and he squeezes her hand tighter to try and keep her calm (it's Rachel, so he doesn't really expect it to work, but what can you do?). “I don't know. I assume it's a combination of this school's institutionalized homophobia and pre-existing doubts about Finn's sexuality, denial of the fact something that horrible could happen here, and the fact... well, those pictures were fairly ambiguous.”
It backfires. Rachel yanks her hand away from him. “How can you say that?!” she shrieks. “We both know very well what happened to Finn; don't you make out like there's even a chance-”
“I didn't, Rachel. We both know what happened to Finn was an assault, plain and simple - however, we know that because we know Finn; we know Karofsky and Azimio; we know the history behind this. It doesn't excuse the sensationalist way the masses are treating this - especially all the homophobia inherent in it - but it is a factor. That's all I meant.”
Rachel lets out a little puff of breath she does when her self-righteousness has been deflated. “Fine.” Then she sees something out of the corner of her eye. Someone. Puck.
“Do you think he's spoken to Finn?” she asks once their eyes are all focused on the one boy (who is unaware of them). Kurt considers it.
“I'm not sure. On one hand, they've been best friends since early childhood. On the other, Puck has rather betrayed Finn's trust at points in the past as we are all well aware, so I'm not sure Finn would confide in him about this.”
Rachel doesn't answer for a long time. “I'm going to go talk to him,” she says. “See if he knows the reason Finn won't answer his cell. See if he knows some more about the assault.”
Kurt nods along. “You do that,” he says. “I don't particularly want to get into that conversation with Noah Puckerman, but if you feel the need...”
Rachel turns around and walks off to initiate said conversation. Kurt looks at her go until he catches sight of something else.
Mr. Schuester storming into Principal Figgins' office.
Kurt's got a feeling that is not an indicator of good things.
*
“You let this happen.”
Figgins doesn't even have the decency to look surprised by Will's bursting into his office. “William,” he says, “explain yourself.”
“Don't, Figgins,” says Will, shaking his head. “You know exactly what this is about. Finn Hudson? I told you he was scared of those two, and it was sexual. I said something needed to be done. You ignored me, and look what happened. The sexual harassment turned into outright sexual violence. What a surprise.”
“So, you have followed the news from that gossipy journal Mr. Israel established,” Figgins says - is he trying to make Will feel bad for knowing? It's all over school. How could he not know? “Schue, I know this is an intense situation, but please try and remain calm. I am waiting until I have more information on the situation before making hasty decisions.”
“...What information is there to have? Those two - Karofsky and Azimio. They harassed and disturbed Finn for weeks. Then they cornered him in the locker room and forced him to perform sex acts on them. Look, we let Finn down before. I'm not denying that. But we can't keep doing that now - look, Finn's a fairly vulnerable kid as is. If people don't get it right after something like this... it'd probably kill him, and that's only slight hyperbole.”
Figgins sighs deeply. “Your theory is understandable and unsettlingly plausible, but I will not convict two of my students of such a thing without concrete proof - or at least a statement by the actual 'victim', as you would call him. It's easy to assume heroes and villains, William. It is harder to look at the facts. What you say is just another theory, and I have heard many plausible theories. I won't be emotionally manipulated into doing the wrong thing.”
Will gapes at him. “Can you even hear yourself?” he asks. “Because all this? Is exactly what you said before... it happened. And now it has, you just will not learn the lesson. I've talked to Shannon; I know what happened. Please, just... He's a kid. Don't screw this up for him.”
“I feel sorry for you, William,” says Figgins. “I understand you have a close relationship with this student - a perfectly innocent one at that, and it was wrong of me to cast aspersions on that, to try and pressure you out of discussing an uncomfortable issue using that. And now you feel guilty for bowing to said pressure, when I really had no proof. I should have examined the seriousness of this further. If, after looking at all evidence I am convinced this was a sexual assault, I will never forgive myself for letting it happen, I assure you. But until that point... well, none of the three students are even here right now. What would you have me do?”
Will sighs. He doesn't know what should be done either; he just knows he can't let Principal Figgins keep being... indifferent. This isn't like cracks in the cafeteria ceiling, or even, as awful as it sounds, jocks throwing slushies in his glee clubbers' faces. This was something...
“Those sorts of people shouldn't be here,” he says.
Figgins nods.
“Do something about Jacob, at least?”
“Of course,” says Figgins.
It's not enough, but it's something.