Fic: Too Much Too Soon
Title: Too Much Too Soon
Author: rofro05
Disclaimer: I don't own em and don't make any money off of em.
Warnings: some language and angst
Word Count: 3512
Rating: pg-13
Genre: Drama
Spoilers: episode 2x03 “Grilled Cheesus”
Summary: Kurt's reaching the end of his rope and right now his friends really aren't helping.
A/N: Filled for totalgleekgirl's fantastic prompt on the angst meme. Her prompts regularly steal my brain and this one wasn't any different.
After a long morning at the hospital Kurt arrived at school just in time for fourth period. He needed to be there so that he and his dad could meet with all the doctors, a physical therapist, a counselor and a nutritionist who were all focused on getting his dad back home. Kurt had hoped that things would get easier once his dad woke up but it seemed that he had more on his plate than ever.
No one just walked away from the kind of heart attack that his dad had suffered. Now that he was awake from the coma, the doctors were trying to inform Kurt about how the process was going to proceed. And more importantly the role that Kurt needed to play in his father's recovery. A recovery that was proving to be a long, hard road for the Hummel family.
Just helping with his dad's medical needs would be hard enough for a teen to deal with alone but they weren't the extent of Kurt's responsibilities right now. Not only did he need to help handle things with his dad he also had to keep up with his school work and the household chores. Not to mention paying the bills and managing things at the shop. All the guys there had been great but his dad had always handled all of the billing and ordering. That meant that Kurt was the only other one that completely understood the system. As much as the guys wanted to take care of everything for him, his dad's backwards system meant that only Kurt could do it.
He was exhausted and overwhelmed. It would be great if there was another person to shoulder some of the burden, but he was it. And right now he really had to get through the school day. Right after he had to swing by the shop before spending a couple of hours with his dad. Then he would do his homework, a little light cleaning and then eventually get a little sleep before he had to get up and do it all over again tomorrow.
For a moment Kurt just leaned forward and rested his head on the steering wheel. A headache had been pounding behind his eyes all day and the pills that he had taken didn't seem to be helping at all. He would give anything to be able to go home and sleep for a day or two, but that just wasn't possible right now. It would help if he had gotten more than two hours of sleep any night in the last week but that just wasn't possible right now either. The house was just to big and empty for him to sleep well. So instead of dwelling any longer Kurt just grabbed his bag and headed towards the building.
Somehow he made it through English and even finished the all of the assigned work. Lunch was next and Kurt knew that he should head to the cafeteria and find something that he could eat. But right now the thought to putting anything in his stomach made Kurt want to vomit. So instead of eating Kurt decided to hide out in the choir room until glee started.
Thankfully the choir room was empty when he got there. Kurt knew that he just wasn't going to be capable of carrying on any kind of conversation right now. He was just too tired and he didn't want to take out his bad mood on his friends again. He already regretted that he had allowed his emotions to get the better of him when he spouted off crazy nonsense about the tea pot on the far side of the moon. He didn't particularly care for a repeat performance even if his friends were upsetting him right now.
About ten minutes before the end of lunch period the other gleeks started trailing in. Artie exchanged a quick fist bump with him and then Brittany gave him a quick hug. Even Puck sort of patted his shoulder in a fairly non aggressive way. Kurt relished their quiet support and appreciated that they weren't badgering him for details. Or insisting on praying for him and his immortal soul.
The thing was that it didn't really bother him that his friends believed in God. To each their own and all that jazz. He didn't even mind if they wanted to pray for his dad at home or church or whatever made them happy. That was their right. But when they insisted on talking to him about it and doing it right in front of him he got upset. It was like they didn't care about his feelings at all.
It hadn't gotten any worse since the hospital room debacle, but ever since his dad first woke up a few days ago Quinn, Rachel and Mercedes had been attributing the awakening to God and the power of prayer. And even more than that they were hinting that Kurt should now believe in a divine creator. None of them had come right out and said it to his face or anything but Kurt knew that was what they were all suggesting. In an effort to keep the peace Kurt was just doing his best to avoid the subject all together. If only he could get them to do the same thing.
As the others trickled in Mercedes and Quinn sat next to Kurt. Mercedes immediately grabbed his hand and Kurt looked up and smiled as much as he could. “How's your dad doing today?” she asked.
“All right I suppose.” Kurt said with a sigh. “It's still going to be at least another week or two before he comes home, but the doctors seem to think that he'll make a full recovery eventually.” It was nice to be able to discuss things with Mercedes like normal. Even if those things were the details of his father's convalescence and not something like fashion or gossip that they would usually talk about.
“It's really wonderful the way that prayer has worked in your like Kurt.” Quinn broke in with a smile. “This is all real life proof of the ways that God helps us when we ask. We asked and he brought your dad back.”
So here was the direct confrontation that he had been trying to avoid. Kurt swallowed to force back a quick retort. It wasn't going to help anything for him to snap at Quinn right now. “Well, Quinn, I like to think that the doctors and modern medicine might have had a little something to do with it.” He just turned away hoping that they could leave the conversation there. He just wasn't in the mood to deal with all this right now.
“You can't possibly tell me that you still don't believe in God now.” Quinn said a little shrilly as she started at him in disbelief. “Not after everything that's happened in the last week.”
“All that I know is that I've just had the hardest week of my life Quinn.” Kurt said with a sigh. He really hoped that someone else would jump in and divert a little of the attention from him but no one moved. “And right now all that I care about is the fact that my dad is going to be alright and that he's going to eventually come back home. That's all that really matters to me.” He deliberately turned away hoping that she would understand that he couldn't have this conversation right now.
Quinn jumped up from her seat and came around to stand in front of Kurt. His eyes were involuntarily drawn to her face. “That's not all that matters.” she said tightly. “Kurt if it wasn't for God, if he really didn't exist, your father would probably be dead right now.”
Complete silence fell over the room. Quinn covered her mouth with her hand and stared down at Kurt with wide eyes. Kurt just stood up and gathered his things in silence. He could feel his hands shaking as he put on his jacket and pulled his bag up to rest on his shoulder. He had to get away from this situation as quickly as possible. No one else was speaking up for him and he was afraid of what he would say if he opened his mouth.
Before he could walk away Mercedes grabbed his arm. “Baby, don't leave.” she pleaded. “Quinn didn't mean it like that, she was just trying to make a point.”
“What, that if it wasn't for everyone else's well meaning intervention God would have struck my dad down for my lack of faith? Or maybe that if I believed more this wouldn't have happened at all. Oh, or there's the popular opinion that if I wasn't gay bad things wouldn't happen to my family. At least that's what the pamphlet from my mailbox said this morning.” Kurt ground out. “Well I've had enough of those points to last me for quite some time, thank you very much.” He tugged at his arm but Mercedes refused to let him go.
“Please Kurt!” she cried. “We' were just trying to be there for you in the only way we knew how.”
Now ugly anger burned in Kurt's stomach and he finally jerked his arm away. “Maybe your energy would have been better spent actually trying to help me instead of trying to convert me, if all you really wanted was to do was be there for me.” He could see tears running down Mercedes' cheeks but now that he had started he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop.
“That's not fair Kurt.” Tina protested. The girl had come forward to grasp Mercedes' hand.
“Not fair?” Kurt asked as he forced back his own tears. “You think that I'm not being fair to all of you? The way that I see it there were approximately a million unfair things that happened this week But me refusing to listen to this crap is not one of them.” he waited for a minute hoping that someone, anyone really, would finally jump to his defense. But everyone just sat there staring at him in shock.
“I'll tell you what's not fair.” Kurt finally spat. “It's not fair that none of my friends asked me what I needed this week or payed any attention to what I wanted. It's not fair that no one took the time to just sit with me when I spent hours everyday at the hospital. Or that no one thought to see if I needed a place to stay. It's not fair that I had to go home to an empty house every night to spend hours alone hoping that my dad wouldn't die while I wasn't at the hospital. It's not fair that I can't sleep more than two hours a night because I'm worried about what's going to happen to my only family.”
Now Kurt was barely holding back choking sobs. He had never wanted to unload all of this on his friends but they just wouldn't stop pushing and he couldn't hold the words back. If they couldn't help why wouldn't they just leave him alone? He turned to face Mercedes.
“I may not have wanted your prayers this week.” he was barely able to gasp out the words, unable to see her face through his tears clouding his vision. “But I needed you. And you weren't there for me.” He turned to flee from the room as the tears started to roll down his face.
Before Kurt could get through the door he was grabbed by a pair of strong arms. He was just able to see an ugly sweater vest before he was pulled into a warm chest. For a moment Kurt contemplated pulling away but this was the physical comfort that he had been longing for all week. So instead he just buried his head in Mr. Schue's shoulder and cried.
All that Kurt could tell was that he was pulled through the door before he completely broke down. He would have never picked William Schuester as the one person he would cling to, but it seemed that he was the only person that Kurt could get right now.
When the sobs started to die down, Kurt found himself led to Mr. Schue's office. Without saying anything the teacher helped him lay down on the couch and covered him with the jacket from the back of the desk chair. The exhaustion that had been plaguing him took over and Kurt allowed sleep to pull him under into oblivion.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Will took a deep breath as he walked back down to the choir room after leaving the exhausted teen passed out on his couch. He had to cool down a little so that he could talk to his kids about everything that he had overheard from the door. And yelling was not going to help anything right now. When he got back he braced himself and looked at the teens seated inside. He closed the door and took a careful seat on a stool.
“I'm incredibly disappointed in all of you right now.” Will said quietly. “I've always expected you all to respect one another and that includes your individual religious beliefs. Why would you think that it was alright to push your personal beliefs on one of your friends, especially right now with everything that's happened this week. Kurt's dad almost died and right now he still has a pretty long recovery.”
“We're only worried about him.” Quinn pleaded. “We want him to believe in the right things.”
“Bull shit.” Puck said lazily. “Like I said before, I've got a problem with people using J-money to push other people around. Hummel didn't need your shit this week and you couldn't wait for the chance to push Jesus and crap all over him. Just cause I went to temple and prayed for his dad didn't mean that I needed to rub it in his face. My praying is between me and my home G.”
“We weren't pushing Jesus on Kurt!” Mercedes all but shouted. “We were all worried and when I'm worried I like to pray. There's nothing wrong with that.”
“No one said that there was anything wrong with praying for Kurt.” Mike chimed in. “But it's not like you had to go to Mr. Hummel's hospital room to pray for him. Especially after Kurt said that he didn't want you there. He's the family, what he wants matters.”
“Mercedes, what did Kurt mean about going home alone?” Artie asked slowly. “I thought that he was staying with you. That's why my mom didn't cook for him or kidnap him to stay with us or anything.”
“No I didn't offer because I thought that he would stay with Finn and his mom.” Mercedes said with a look of horror on her face. “Since Burt's dating Mrs. Hudson and all. Or I thought that maybe they were staying with Kurt at his house.”
“No, I thought that he was staying with you.” Finn chimed in. “And my mom was worried that we would make him uncomfortable by offering. He really doesn't know us all that well and she didn't want him to be pressured right now.”
“Oh no!” Mercedes said with all new tears. “I was trying to give him the space that he needed to deal with everything. I thought that he would ask if he needed anything. I didn't think to see if he needed a place to stay.”
“So was he supposed to ask during one of your God rants or after.” Santana said disdainfully as she filed her nails. “It's been pretty obvious that Kurt is uncomfortable around you right now what with all of your preaching and expecting him to attend church and everything. At what point did you expect him to ask you for favors?”
“The point is that none of us have done the things that we needed to for Kurt this week.” Will broke into the conversation before it could go any further. “You told me a couple of weeks ago that we had become a family but no one here has been family for Kurt this week. And he needs all of us to be there for him right now while he's going through such a hard time.”
For the next few minutes Will just sat there and looked at all of his kids. Mercedes, Quinn and Rachel were all crying. Strangely enough Finn looked like he might start to cry too. Puck just looked bored but the one that really surprised him was Artie. Normally Artie was so laid back but right now he looked like he could jump out of his wheelchair and kill someone.
“Where is he right now?” Artie asked quietly. Will looked down on his student with serious eyes. “I just.. there's something that I need to talk to him about.” Will just nodded and clapped Artie on the shoulder.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kurt woke slowly feeling like his head weight about a thousand pounds. His little crying jag had done absolutely nothing for his pounding headache and now the pain was starting to make him feel a little bit nauseous. Before he could sit all the way up a hand reached out to hand him a couple of Advil and a cold bottle of water. Assuming that it was Mr. Schue, Kurt just threw back the pills and then leaned his head against the back of the couch hoping that he would be able to keep the pills down long enough for them to do some good. How had his day turned so quickly from bad to horrible?
When the other person cleared their throat Kurt made himself look up. To his surprise instead of Mr. Schue sitting there it was Artie. Before he could say anything Artie held up one hand to cut him off.
“I'm so sorry Kurt.” Artie said quietly.
“For what?” Kurt asked not really knowing what to say. Of all his friends in glee Artie was the last one that he expected and kind of apology from. “You didn't do anything.”
“That's the problem.” Artie said tightly. “I didn't do anything. We've been friends practically our entire lives. If there was anyone that should have known what you needed it should have been me.” Artie cut off abruptly to gab Kurt''s hand. “You've always been there for me. Hell, after the accident you were pretty much they only one there for me. And I didn't even ask what you needed me to do for you this week.”
Kurt looked up as he tried to hold the tears back. Artie just squeezed the hand he was holding tighter and continued. “But I'm going to do better now. I want you to come to dinner at my house tonight and then we'll work everything else out from there. I just want you to know that you don't have to go through all of this alone.”
“Thanks you.” Kurt whispered. “I really appreciate it.” Now the tears really were back and Artie reached forward to pull him into a real hug. Kurt just rested his head against Artie's shoulder and thought about the fact that he was crying into his second ugly sweater vest of the day. At this rate maybe he would be able to rid the world of said monstrosities. The two friends just sat there together until Kurt started yawning.
“Why don't you get some more rest.” Artie suggested. “I'll let Mr. Schue know that you're still in here and then I'll come back to get you when school is over and we'll make plans from there.”
As he yawned again Kurt just nodded his agreement. He lay back down and Artie reached forward to pull the jacket back over his shoulders. As he drifted off, Kurt felt better than he had in a week. His dad was going to be alright. And he had at least one friend that wanted to stand by his side. Everything else could be worked out later.
Author: rofro05
Disclaimer: I don't own em and don't make any money off of em.
Warnings: some language and angst
Word Count: 3512
Rating: pg-13
Genre: Drama
Spoilers: episode 2x03 “Grilled Cheesus”
Summary: Kurt's reaching the end of his rope and right now his friends really aren't helping.
A/N: Filled for totalgleekgirl's fantastic prompt on the angst meme. Her prompts regularly steal my brain and this one wasn't any different.
After a long morning at the hospital Kurt arrived at school just in time for fourth period. He needed to be there so that he and his dad could meet with all the doctors, a physical therapist, a counselor and a nutritionist who were all focused on getting his dad back home. Kurt had hoped that things would get easier once his dad woke up but it seemed that he had more on his plate than ever.
No one just walked away from the kind of heart attack that his dad had suffered. Now that he was awake from the coma, the doctors were trying to inform Kurt about how the process was going to proceed. And more importantly the role that Kurt needed to play in his father's recovery. A recovery that was proving to be a long, hard road for the Hummel family.
Just helping with his dad's medical needs would be hard enough for a teen to deal with alone but they weren't the extent of Kurt's responsibilities right now. Not only did he need to help handle things with his dad he also had to keep up with his school work and the household chores. Not to mention paying the bills and managing things at the shop. All the guys there had been great but his dad had always handled all of the billing and ordering. That meant that Kurt was the only other one that completely understood the system. As much as the guys wanted to take care of everything for him, his dad's backwards system meant that only Kurt could do it.
He was exhausted and overwhelmed. It would be great if there was another person to shoulder some of the burden, but he was it. And right now he really had to get through the school day. Right after he had to swing by the shop before spending a couple of hours with his dad. Then he would do his homework, a little light cleaning and then eventually get a little sleep before he had to get up and do it all over again tomorrow.
For a moment Kurt just leaned forward and rested his head on the steering wheel. A headache had been pounding behind his eyes all day and the pills that he had taken didn't seem to be helping at all. He would give anything to be able to go home and sleep for a day or two, but that just wasn't possible right now. It would help if he had gotten more than two hours of sleep any night in the last week but that just wasn't possible right now either. The house was just to big and empty for him to sleep well. So instead of dwelling any longer Kurt just grabbed his bag and headed towards the building.
Somehow he made it through English and even finished the all of the assigned work. Lunch was next and Kurt knew that he should head to the cafeteria and find something that he could eat. But right now the thought to putting anything in his stomach made Kurt want to vomit. So instead of eating Kurt decided to hide out in the choir room until glee started.
Thankfully the choir room was empty when he got there. Kurt knew that he just wasn't going to be capable of carrying on any kind of conversation right now. He was just too tired and he didn't want to take out his bad mood on his friends again. He already regretted that he had allowed his emotions to get the better of him when he spouted off crazy nonsense about the tea pot on the far side of the moon. He didn't particularly care for a repeat performance even if his friends were upsetting him right now.
About ten minutes before the end of lunch period the other gleeks started trailing in. Artie exchanged a quick fist bump with him and then Brittany gave him a quick hug. Even Puck sort of patted his shoulder in a fairly non aggressive way. Kurt relished their quiet support and appreciated that they weren't badgering him for details. Or insisting on praying for him and his immortal soul.
The thing was that it didn't really bother him that his friends believed in God. To each their own and all that jazz. He didn't even mind if they wanted to pray for his dad at home or church or whatever made them happy. That was their right. But when they insisted on talking to him about it and doing it right in front of him he got upset. It was like they didn't care about his feelings at all.
It hadn't gotten any worse since the hospital room debacle, but ever since his dad first woke up a few days ago Quinn, Rachel and Mercedes had been attributing the awakening to God and the power of prayer. And even more than that they were hinting that Kurt should now believe in a divine creator. None of them had come right out and said it to his face or anything but Kurt knew that was what they were all suggesting. In an effort to keep the peace Kurt was just doing his best to avoid the subject all together. If only he could get them to do the same thing.
As the others trickled in Mercedes and Quinn sat next to Kurt. Mercedes immediately grabbed his hand and Kurt looked up and smiled as much as he could. “How's your dad doing today?” she asked.
“All right I suppose.” Kurt said with a sigh. “It's still going to be at least another week or two before he comes home, but the doctors seem to think that he'll make a full recovery eventually.” It was nice to be able to discuss things with Mercedes like normal. Even if those things were the details of his father's convalescence and not something like fashion or gossip that they would usually talk about.
“It's really wonderful the way that prayer has worked in your like Kurt.” Quinn broke in with a smile. “This is all real life proof of the ways that God helps us when we ask. We asked and he brought your dad back.”
So here was the direct confrontation that he had been trying to avoid. Kurt swallowed to force back a quick retort. It wasn't going to help anything for him to snap at Quinn right now. “Well, Quinn, I like to think that the doctors and modern medicine might have had a little something to do with it.” He just turned away hoping that they could leave the conversation there. He just wasn't in the mood to deal with all this right now.
“You can't possibly tell me that you still don't believe in God now.” Quinn said a little shrilly as she started at him in disbelief. “Not after everything that's happened in the last week.”
“All that I know is that I've just had the hardest week of my life Quinn.” Kurt said with a sigh. He really hoped that someone else would jump in and divert a little of the attention from him but no one moved. “And right now all that I care about is the fact that my dad is going to be alright and that he's going to eventually come back home. That's all that really matters to me.” He deliberately turned away hoping that she would understand that he couldn't have this conversation right now.
Quinn jumped up from her seat and came around to stand in front of Kurt. His eyes were involuntarily drawn to her face. “That's not all that matters.” she said tightly. “Kurt if it wasn't for God, if he really didn't exist, your father would probably be dead right now.”
Complete silence fell over the room. Quinn covered her mouth with her hand and stared down at Kurt with wide eyes. Kurt just stood up and gathered his things in silence. He could feel his hands shaking as he put on his jacket and pulled his bag up to rest on his shoulder. He had to get away from this situation as quickly as possible. No one else was speaking up for him and he was afraid of what he would say if he opened his mouth.
Before he could walk away Mercedes grabbed his arm. “Baby, don't leave.” she pleaded. “Quinn didn't mean it like that, she was just trying to make a point.”
“What, that if it wasn't for everyone else's well meaning intervention God would have struck my dad down for my lack of faith? Or maybe that if I believed more this wouldn't have happened at all. Oh, or there's the popular opinion that if I wasn't gay bad things wouldn't happen to my family. At least that's what the pamphlet from my mailbox said this morning.” Kurt ground out. “Well I've had enough of those points to last me for quite some time, thank you very much.” He tugged at his arm but Mercedes refused to let him go.
“Please Kurt!” she cried. “We' were just trying to be there for you in the only way we knew how.”
Now ugly anger burned in Kurt's stomach and he finally jerked his arm away. “Maybe your energy would have been better spent actually trying to help me instead of trying to convert me, if all you really wanted was to do was be there for me.” He could see tears running down Mercedes' cheeks but now that he had started he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop.
“That's not fair Kurt.” Tina protested. The girl had come forward to grasp Mercedes' hand.
“Not fair?” Kurt asked as he forced back his own tears. “You think that I'm not being fair to all of you? The way that I see it there were approximately a million unfair things that happened this week But me refusing to listen to this crap is not one of them.” he waited for a minute hoping that someone, anyone really, would finally jump to his defense. But everyone just sat there staring at him in shock.
“I'll tell you what's not fair.” Kurt finally spat. “It's not fair that none of my friends asked me what I needed this week or payed any attention to what I wanted. It's not fair that no one took the time to just sit with me when I spent hours everyday at the hospital. Or that no one thought to see if I needed a place to stay. It's not fair that I had to go home to an empty house every night to spend hours alone hoping that my dad wouldn't die while I wasn't at the hospital. It's not fair that I can't sleep more than two hours a night because I'm worried about what's going to happen to my only family.”
Now Kurt was barely holding back choking sobs. He had never wanted to unload all of this on his friends but they just wouldn't stop pushing and he couldn't hold the words back. If they couldn't help why wouldn't they just leave him alone? He turned to face Mercedes.
“I may not have wanted your prayers this week.” he was barely able to gasp out the words, unable to see her face through his tears clouding his vision. “But I needed you. And you weren't there for me.” He turned to flee from the room as the tears started to roll down his face.
Before Kurt could get through the door he was grabbed by a pair of strong arms. He was just able to see an ugly sweater vest before he was pulled into a warm chest. For a moment Kurt contemplated pulling away but this was the physical comfort that he had been longing for all week. So instead he just buried his head in Mr. Schue's shoulder and cried.
All that Kurt could tell was that he was pulled through the door before he completely broke down. He would have never picked William Schuester as the one person he would cling to, but it seemed that he was the only person that Kurt could get right now.
When the sobs started to die down, Kurt found himself led to Mr. Schue's office. Without saying anything the teacher helped him lay down on the couch and covered him with the jacket from the back of the desk chair. The exhaustion that had been plaguing him took over and Kurt allowed sleep to pull him under into oblivion.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Will took a deep breath as he walked back down to the choir room after leaving the exhausted teen passed out on his couch. He had to cool down a little so that he could talk to his kids about everything that he had overheard from the door. And yelling was not going to help anything right now. When he got back he braced himself and looked at the teens seated inside. He closed the door and took a careful seat on a stool.
“I'm incredibly disappointed in all of you right now.” Will said quietly. “I've always expected you all to respect one another and that includes your individual religious beliefs. Why would you think that it was alright to push your personal beliefs on one of your friends, especially right now with everything that's happened this week. Kurt's dad almost died and right now he still has a pretty long recovery.”
“We're only worried about him.” Quinn pleaded. “We want him to believe in the right things.”
“Bull shit.” Puck said lazily. “Like I said before, I've got a problem with people using J-money to push other people around. Hummel didn't need your shit this week and you couldn't wait for the chance to push Jesus and crap all over him. Just cause I went to temple and prayed for his dad didn't mean that I needed to rub it in his face. My praying is between me and my home G.”
“We weren't pushing Jesus on Kurt!” Mercedes all but shouted. “We were all worried and when I'm worried I like to pray. There's nothing wrong with that.”
“No one said that there was anything wrong with praying for Kurt.” Mike chimed in. “But it's not like you had to go to Mr. Hummel's hospital room to pray for him. Especially after Kurt said that he didn't want you there. He's the family, what he wants matters.”
“Mercedes, what did Kurt mean about going home alone?” Artie asked slowly. “I thought that he was staying with you. That's why my mom didn't cook for him or kidnap him to stay with us or anything.”
“No I didn't offer because I thought that he would stay with Finn and his mom.” Mercedes said with a look of horror on her face. “Since Burt's dating Mrs. Hudson and all. Or I thought that maybe they were staying with Kurt at his house.”
“No, I thought that he was staying with you.” Finn chimed in. “And my mom was worried that we would make him uncomfortable by offering. He really doesn't know us all that well and she didn't want him to be pressured right now.”
“Oh no!” Mercedes said with all new tears. “I was trying to give him the space that he needed to deal with everything. I thought that he would ask if he needed anything. I didn't think to see if he needed a place to stay.”
“So was he supposed to ask during one of your God rants or after.” Santana said disdainfully as she filed her nails. “It's been pretty obvious that Kurt is uncomfortable around you right now what with all of your preaching and expecting him to attend church and everything. At what point did you expect him to ask you for favors?”
“The point is that none of us have done the things that we needed to for Kurt this week.” Will broke into the conversation before it could go any further. “You told me a couple of weeks ago that we had become a family but no one here has been family for Kurt this week. And he needs all of us to be there for him right now while he's going through such a hard time.”
For the next few minutes Will just sat there and looked at all of his kids. Mercedes, Quinn and Rachel were all crying. Strangely enough Finn looked like he might start to cry too. Puck just looked bored but the one that really surprised him was Artie. Normally Artie was so laid back but right now he looked like he could jump out of his wheelchair and kill someone.
“Where is he right now?” Artie asked quietly. Will looked down on his student with serious eyes. “I just.. there's something that I need to talk to him about.” Will just nodded and clapped Artie on the shoulder.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kurt woke slowly feeling like his head weight about a thousand pounds. His little crying jag had done absolutely nothing for his pounding headache and now the pain was starting to make him feel a little bit nauseous. Before he could sit all the way up a hand reached out to hand him a couple of Advil and a cold bottle of water. Assuming that it was Mr. Schue, Kurt just threw back the pills and then leaned his head against the back of the couch hoping that he would be able to keep the pills down long enough for them to do some good. How had his day turned so quickly from bad to horrible?
When the other person cleared their throat Kurt made himself look up. To his surprise instead of Mr. Schue sitting there it was Artie. Before he could say anything Artie held up one hand to cut him off.
“I'm so sorry Kurt.” Artie said quietly.
“For what?” Kurt asked not really knowing what to say. Of all his friends in glee Artie was the last one that he expected and kind of apology from. “You didn't do anything.”
“That's the problem.” Artie said tightly. “I didn't do anything. We've been friends practically our entire lives. If there was anyone that should have known what you needed it should have been me.” Artie cut off abruptly to gab Kurt''s hand. “You've always been there for me. Hell, after the accident you were pretty much they only one there for me. And I didn't even ask what you needed me to do for you this week.”
Kurt looked up as he tried to hold the tears back. Artie just squeezed the hand he was holding tighter and continued. “But I'm going to do better now. I want you to come to dinner at my house tonight and then we'll work everything else out from there. I just want you to know that you don't have to go through all of this alone.”
“Thanks you.” Kurt whispered. “I really appreciate it.” Now the tears really were back and Artie reached forward to pull him into a real hug. Kurt just rested his head against Artie's shoulder and thought about the fact that he was crying into his second ugly sweater vest of the day. At this rate maybe he would be able to rid the world of said monstrosities. The two friends just sat there together until Kurt started yawning.
“Why don't you get some more rest.” Artie suggested. “I'll let Mr. Schue know that you're still in here and then I'll come back to get you when school is over and we'll make plans from there.”
As he yawned again Kurt just nodded his agreement. He lay back down and Artie reached forward to pull the jacket back over his shoulders. As he drifted off, Kurt felt better than he had in a week. His dad was going to be alright. And he had at least one friend that wanted to stand by his side. Everything else could be worked out later.