Fic: By the Grace of God Go I
Title: By The Grace of God Go I
Disclaimer: I don't own em, I if I did glee would probably have to be on a different channel.
Rating: R
Spoilers: Up to Home I think.
Characters: Kurt, Burt, Carole, Finn, Puck, Mercedes, Tina, Artie, OC's *The bad guys*
Warnings: Homophobic language, violence, language, gore, heavy angst, and imagery.
Word count: 10,234-Yeah this one's a monster!
Summary: Kurt never in his worst nightmares, thought it would be like this.
A/N: Ok, so this is a fill for This prompt by sj_r over at glee_angst_meme This one was like a run away train, and it spiraled completely out of control, so I hope it's somewhere in the general ballpark of what you wanted!
Things had been going so well between Carole and Burt recently that Carole decided she wanted Burt and Kurt to meet her older brothers. A dinner had been set up, and things had gone swimmingly well between Burt and her brothers Devon and Jeff. It wasn’t until Finn and Kurt came home from glee rehearsal that things started to go bad. Finn had been greeted warmly, but Jeff took one look at Kurt and his expression closed off. Kurt however just smiled, squashing his unease and holding out his hand for them to shake.
“It’s nice to meet you, I’m Kurt.” When his hand was ignored, and Devon clearly snubbed him, he lowered it, and averted his eyes to the floor; he could already tell this was going to be a bad night. He would just try and keep his head down and keep his mouth shut, for his father’s sake if nothing else. He felt his dad bristle slightly at the snub, but when Carole quickly tried to over compensate by hugging Kurt enthusiastically he renewed the vow he made to make it through the dinner.
Which was easier said than done, because Carole’s brothers made it very clear they did not approve of Kurt. Oh, Burt was fine, but Kurt? He was a problem. Even Finn, who could normally dwell in ignorant bliss, could feel the discomfort, and when Jeff muttered a derogatory comment under his breath about not sitting near the queer, Finn spoke up.
“Kurt, come over here and sit next to me.” It was louder than it needed to be, but Finn felt better with Kurt sandwiched between himself and Burt. He was not blind to the distasteful looks his uncles kept shooting Kurt, who was a little red faced and was starring rather intently at his dinner, which he had not actually started eating.
It was an awkward affair. Burt was straddling a fine line of staying for Carole’s sake, and getting Kurt the hell out of there. It finally came to a head when one too many “innocent” comments came Kurt’s way that Burt stood up, glancing at Carole. He thought it was important to make a good impression with Carole’s family, but Kurt was his son, and he wasn’t going to sit by and let them bad mouth him for one more second.
“I’m sorry Carole, but I’m not going to sit here and listen to them talk that way about my son.” He tugs Kurt up, and the boy casts an apologetic glance at Carole, who looks furious, and Finn, who looks mildly mortified. Kurt completely misinterprets the look on Carole’s face though, and quickly tries to smooth it over.
“No, Dad, its ok…I could just go. You should stay…enjoy your dinner.” Kurt says, and Jeff beams.
“That’s a fantastic idea.” Kurt feels his father bristle with anger, and he tugs Kurt to him a little more. Carole shakes her head.
“Absolutely not, your father’s right. I have no idea why I thought this would be a good idea.”
“I’m sorry.” And with that Kurt fled the room. Carole shot a nasty look at her brothers before following Kurt, Finn stands and followed Burt out. Once in the hall, he watched as Kurt tugged on his jacket. “I’m sorry Dad.” He apologized again and Burt pinched his lips together in a tight line.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” Carole cut in before Burt could. “If I had realized for even a moment they would have behaved that way I never would have suggested this.” Finn caught Kurt’s shoulder briefly giving it a quick squeeze before Burt started ushering them out the door.
“Sorry, dude.”
“I hope you’ll wash your hands, Finn.” Jeff spoke up from the doorway. Finn hoped that the Hummel’s hadn’t heard that, but by the way Burt tenses up, and Kurt starts moving faster towards the car he realizes that they must have. His mother whirls on his uncles and Finn is a little intimidated by the sheer anger on her face.
Finn retreats to his room, but he could hear the angry argument that went on between his mother and her brothers for an hour before the door slammed shut. He briefly thinks about calling Kurt, making sure he and Burt got home ok, but he quickly decided to just send him a text.
‘sorry :(' he isn’t nearly as surprised as he thinks he should be when Kurt doesn’t text him back. He is however worried that he hasn’t heard the last of this particular fight.
*******************
The harassing phone calls start two days later. The religious pamphlets and bible quotes come pouring in shortly after. They know its Devon and Jeff, but there’s no actual way to prove it, so Carole and Finn just grit their teeth and try and ignore it the best they can. It isn’t until they’re over at the Hummel’s and Carole is telling Burt everything that’s been going on while Kurt and Finn sit silently next to each other that Finn ends up saying something stupid.
“They just don’t like Kurt, so they keep harassing us. Like we have any say in how Kurt is.” And it isn’t until it’s just hanging heavily in the air does he realize how insulting that actually is. He hadn’t meant it to be really, he just meant to say that Kurt was just himself, and they didn’t like it. But it wasn’t as if Kurt could help how he was. Finn opens his mouth to apologize, but Kurt’s already talking, twisting his fingers together.
“I know, and I’m really sorry they’re doing this to you guys. You have no idea, I’m so sorry.” He chances a glance up at his dad, before standing and beating a hasty retreat down the stairs into the basement.
“I didn’t mean it the way that came out.” Finn said his ears burning red in embarrassment.
“I know you didn’t.” Burt says with a sigh. “And he does too, because this is something new and painful and irritating for you. But now you know how he feels, because Kurt, he goes through this kind of thing every day. He feels guilty that you are going through it now.” And knowing that, makes Finn feel even worse.
Kurt stays in his room for the rest of the time that Carole and Finn are there, and Finn wants to go down and apologize, to see if Kurt’s ok, but something keeps him from doing it. He likes to think that it’s the fear of him making it even worse that’s keeping him still and not the fact that he’s just scared to do it. When he and his mother leave, he hears his mother vow to put an end to all this.
He hears his mother’s half of the phone conversation as he’s lingering nearby. He knows he shouldn’t be eavesdropping, but he can’t help himself, he wants to know what his mother has to say. He can’t hear his uncle’s side of it, but from his mother’s tone and angry words, it isn’t good. The argument goes in circles for a while before what seems like an agreement is reached, Finn straights in his seat when he hears his mother.
“So you’ll stop.” It’s quiet for a few moment and his mother nods to herself. “Good, because I really like Burt, and while I’d like for you to get a long, I’ll choose him, and Kurt.” There’s another pause before a slow smile creeps across her face. “Just as long as we understand each other, ok, thank you. You too, bye.”
*******************
The next day, Finn excitedly recounts the story to Kurt, who smiles slightly and nods at all the right places. Part of him wants to tell Finn that people like that, they don’t just stop. They’re going to just find a different way to torment them. He doesn’t have to heart to do it, because Finn looks so happy, so pleased that his mother was able to work it out and everyone’s happy.
“I…I didn’t mean it the way it came out you know. I was mad and you know how I can be, words just string together without any sort of thought.” Finn says suddenly, as he twists his hands guiltily for a moment, because really Kurt shouldn’t feel guilty about what was going on with his family. Kurt was just, well, Kurt.
“It’s fine Finn, really.” Kurt didn’t harbor any ill will towards Finn for it, he understood, he was upset. He was rightfully upset because no one should have to go through that kind of crap, especially with family. He smiles briefly before breaking away. “I’m glad your mom was able to work it out. I’ll see you later.”
Finn spends the rest of the day in a really good mood. His family had settled their differences, Kurt wasn’t mad at him, and he and Burt had plans to go get some hoagies following glee; things were looking up and looking good. So he throws himself rather exuberantly into Glee, and if he notices that Artie and Mercedes are glaring at him a little from either side of Kurt, he doesn’t notice it.
At least not much.
“You guys go on ok?” Kurt says once Glee ends and Mercedes, Artie, and Tina hover around him. “I think I’m going to practice for a while before I head home.” Tina and Artie exchange a glance before nodding and heading out. Mercedes hesitates before giving Kurt’s hand a squeeze.
“You call me if you need me.” She instructs and Kurt nods obediently. Finn is almost amused by that, but when Kurt sits down at the piano, but doesn’t actually play anything, Finn realizes he’s probably overstayed his welcome.
“Uh, so I’m going out with your dad for hoagies, if you want to um, tag along, maybe?” and Kurt shakes his head a little.
“No, it’s fine. Have fun though.”
“Don’t stay too late, seriously Kurt.” The smaller boy gives him a rather amused smile but nods anyhow, and Finn exit’s the room, trying not to think about how small and alone Kurt looked in that room. Instead he goes out for hoagies with Burt, and within ten minutes of it, he’s completely forgotten about Kurt.
When Burt gets home, hours later, he’s in a good mood.
The lights are all off, which is a little unusual, because Kurt usually leaves the kitchen light on for him. When he flips on the lights in the living room however, he freezes and feels like he can’t breathe. It looks like a tornado swept through. The coffee table is broken and the framed photo of his wife is fractured. There’s blood, and Burt doesn’t need any kind of forensic team to tell him it’s Kurt’s.
He stands motionless for several moments before he makes a mad dash through the house, looking for Kurt, but knowing in his gut he wouldn’t find him. The window in the kitchen is open, and there’s scattered food around. Wherever Kurt went, he obviously did not go on his own. He doesn’t actually remember calling the police, but soon enough he’s been exiled into his yard, answering questions for an officer while a crime scene unit processes his home. He feels like he might throw up.
It isn’t until he’s asked if he has a place he can stay tonight that it occurs to him to call Carole. She picks up on the third ring and he robotically repeats what he’s told the officers. When she tells him that of course it’s ok for him to stay, he doesn’t even bother to pack a bag, he can’t go back into his home. He isn’t sure if he would want to if he could.
*******************
The next day it’s all over the school that Kurt Hummel is missing. Mercedes looks like she’s been crying all day, and if Finn’s honest with himself, he knows he probably doesn’t look much better. There’s a part of him, a dark part that keeps telling him that his uncles have something to do with this, but he can’t actually come up with what it could be. He really wasn’t sure if they could be cruel enough to do something like this to Kurt.
Artie is quiet, drawn into himself and he looks so worried that it’s almost painful to look at him for too long. While Rachel rails on and on about how they have to be proactive and how they should all be out looking, he can’t help but be surprised when Puck of all people suddenly and angrily shuts her up by pointing out what they were all thinking.
“Jesus Berry, it isn’t like Kurt just up and left, and he’s just missing. Someone. Took. Him.” Rachel starts crying quietly and Quinn of all people puts an arm around her soothingly. Honestly, Rachel knows that it won’t help, not really, but she has to do something to feel like she’s helping, because she and Kurt might not always have gotten along, but she did kind of like him, he was amusing in his own way.
“Listen guys, I know we’re all upset,” Mr. Schue starts, “But snipping at each other isn’t going to help.” Puck doesn’t verbally apologize, but he does offer Rachel a somewhat apologetic look. It surprises Finn just how honestly upset the glee club is, even Puck, while he hasn’t thrown Kurt in the garbage in a while; the two hadn’t ever been close. They spoke to each other civilly when they needed to, but didn’t go out of the way to talk.
It’s an amazingly unproductive glee meeting, no one could really concentrate, and Mercedes would go into random bouts of crying as her mind came up with horrible scenarios that her boy could possible be in. Mostly, they just sat around and spoke quietly amongst themselves. Finn was questioned a few times if he knew anything, but he really didn’t, because as much as he thought his uncle’s probably did have something to do with it, he couldn’t actually say anything. There was no proof other than some nasty comments.
So instead he just keeps saying he isn’t sure, but he’ll make sure to keep everyone updated. He knows that since his mother is dating Kurt’s father, it puts him in the ideal position to get them information that would otherwise be kept from them, but still, it hurts him a little bit, because he’s so worried that something honestly bad could be happening.
And he really doesn’t want to be the one to have to tell the rest of them.
*******************
When Kurt first comes to, the first thing he’s aware of is the pounding of his head, and how bad his throat hurts. It takes him several moments to remember what happened, and he squirms slightly as the memories come flooding back to him. He had been at home, he’d gotten home about an hour after glee had ended, and done his homework before heading into the kitchen for dinner.
It started there.
He had been surprised and maybe a little alarmed to find the kitchen window open. It was normally kept shut; he had been in the process of leaning across to close it when the first attack came. He’d been shoved brutally against the counter top, and if Kurt thought about it he could feel the bruises it left. He’d been battered around until they reached the living room, and Kurt vaguely remembered lifting an arm to try and ward them off, but he distinctly remembers the feel of hands around his throat, and the air being brutally taken from him.
He takes a good look around him, before sighing and looking down. He’s tied to a chair, and the ropes are so tight it’s actually digging into his skin, it‘s just a matter of time before it rubs the skin raw. He’s just in his pants, and he spends just a moment lamenting the loss of his shirt, he had been exceptionally fond of it. When he hears the heavy tread of boots on the stairs, he stiffens and tries to calm his breathing. When the door opens and more light comes flooding in, Kurt thinks he shouldn’t be as surprised as he is to see Devon and Jeff there.
“Look who is finally awake.” Jeff jibes, like he was concerned for him.
“Took him long enough.” Devon agrees, and Kurt eyes them both warily, because he already knows this is going to be a painful experience, and he’s trying to mentally prepare himself to survive whatever it is they have in store for him. They don’t seem like the type to just kill him and be done with it, no that would be too easy, and if that was the case, they probably would have killed him at home. This…This was supposed to be something else entirely. He’s meant to feel this, his father is meant to feel this, and more importantly, Kurt thinks Carole is supposed to feel it. They move in closer to him, and Kurt tenses up.
“I won’t lie to you, this will hurt.” Jeff tells him, and there’s a mocking pity in his voice that makes Kurt tense up even further. He struggles when the ropes are loosened and he takes a wild swing once his right arm is loose, but he’s brutally punished for that and the punch to his solar plexus renders him helpless long enough for them to move him to lie flat on his stomach, hands tied up above his head.
When he can finally get air back into his lungs, he ignores the tears that trickle out of his eyes and attempts to thrash away, but one of them, Kurt can’t see who, is sitting on his thighs, and it isn’t until he feels something sharp trailing across his back does the real honest terror set in. He can’t see what they plan to do, and somehow it makes it worse.
The first jab makes him let out a disjointed sound of pain, and it takes him a few moments to realize that they’re actually carving words into his skin. He can’t make out what they are, he’s in to much pain to do so, but it’s a horror he’s never considered before. Sure he’s been through a lot of crap growing up, but he never, not once in his worst nightmares, expected something like this. He shudders out a sob as it continues, and he tries to distance himself, to shut himself off, but every time he gets close another stab of agony brings him hurtling back into the here and now.
So when darkness begins to creep around the edge of his vision, he welcomes it He lets out a relieved sigh when unconsciousness finally claims him.
“He lasted longer than I thought.” Devon comments off handedly. “Get him back in the chair and bring him back around.”
Kurt is brought back to the here and now brutally when a bucket of ice water is thrown on him. He’s back in the chair, his wrists once again tied far too tightly to the wooden chair. The back of the chair grates across his back, which is alight with fire, and Kurt knows, he’s never known a pain like this before. He hopes he’ll never have to know one like it again.
“Well, it’s about time you decided to join us.” Devon sneers, and he leans down to examine Kurt, who’s shivering. “You’re an awfully pale little thing.”
“Wh-why are you doing this?” Kurt asks, and he tries not to whimper when he’s viciously backhanded, he tastes blood and can feel it dribbling down his chin.
“Why?” Jeff mimics voice high and grating. “Because our sister deserves to be happy, and she can’t be with a little homo like you. Burt, he could be good for her, those two and Finn, they could be happy, but you? You aren’t part of that, you can’t be. We know what you’ll do; you’ll rip them apart, because we all know that’s what you queers are good at. Tearing apart good wholesome homes.”
“You’re insane.” Kurt breaths out, before flinching at the blow he’s expecting. It doesn’t come and instead Devon laughs.
“And you’re a sinner, I’m just doing gods work.” Kurt doesn’t bother to reply, because he’s to focused on the pliers Jeff’s holding. Part of him knows what’s going to happen before it does, and when Jeff grabs his hand in a vice like grip and then sets the pliers to his finger nail, he takes in a shaking breath, and does his best not to scream. He just cries as the finger nail on his left pointer finger is ripped out whole. Then he sees the knife again and he can’t help but cry out when Devon pushes him against the chair, one hand firmly against his chest, the other wrapped around his shoulders to keep him as still as possible.
Jeff starts to carve into the flesh of his stomach, and Kurt bites the inside of his mouth so hard, he feels it flood with blood when he breaks into the skin to deeply. He tries to move out of the way, but Devon’s grip is too tight and it just causes him more pain. Kurt makes another vow to himself, he won’t scream. He won’t scream anymore, not if he can help it. He won’t give them the satisfaction of it. He’ll try so hard, harder than anything he’s ever done not to scream.
He fails.
*******************
It’s a full day before either comes back to Kurt. He’s still throbbing from the treatment from before, and the glaring bloody ‘FAG’ carved into his stomach makes him want to be violently sick. So when Jeff comes thundering down the stairs the only thing Kurt can think about is trying to make himself as small a target as possible, which he can’t really do being so tightly tied to the chair. As it is, his wrists have been rubbed raw and blood is trickling down his hands, splaying out across his fingers. Jeff simply grabs his chair and drags him violently towards the closet.
“We’re having company, so you shut the hell up.” He tells him, before gagging him. It’s too tight and it hurts like hell, but Kurt really isn’t in the position to argue. Instead he just watches as Jeff slams the door thrusting him into complete darkness. His eyes water, and Kurt wants to cry, but he knows with the gag it could be dangerous so he forces himself to calm down. Instead he contemplates his options and realizes that he can actually touch the door with his foot from here.
Once he hears a new voice upstairs and people moving around he makes a desperate bid for help and starts kicking the door. He keeps it up until he hears someone come down the stairs. He knew it had been foolish to hope for help, but he was not expecting to be so violently thrown against the wall by Jeff who was seething. He was even less prepared for the tire iron to come crashing into his legs with enough force to break the right one, and leave a big bloody gash in the left.
The gag muffled his shriek, but when Jeff just kept on hitting him, Kurt eventually lacked the energy to even scream, he simply accepted the punishment, silently to weak to do anything else, and when he finally starts to black out a part of him hoped that it was for good this time, that he wasn’t going to wake up back in this hell.
He was learning quickly, it was foolish to hope.
Kurt feels hands on him and he tries to flinch away, though the best his body can come up with is a twitch. He hears Jeff laugh and vaguely registers the sound of the tire iron clanking to the ground. He knows better now though, it may be over for now, but there would be a next time. Kurt was just biding his time until they decided they’d had their fun and killed him. He just hoped that his body would be returned to his father, he would like to be buried next to his mother.
He’s brought back from the brink of unconsciousness when he feels a hot burning on his arm, he tries to jerk away, but he can’t. He just watches helplessly as Jeff puts cigarette after cigarette out on his arms, and then onto the souls of his feet. He can’t help the tears that escape his eyes then, and he makes a pathetic whimpering sound through the gag.
A strong right hook to the face makes the lights go out for Kurt, and the last thought he has before unconsciousness takes him, is that he hopes he’ll get to see his mother soon.
*******************
It’s been two whole days since Kurt’s gone missing, and the fact that no one can find his uncles solidifies the fact they did it in Finn’s mind. He can’t really go around accusing them though and he has to be subtle if he talks to family. He figures out of everyone, his cousin Benji will be the most forthcoming. Devon’s son had always favored Finn, and if he asked him the right way, he was sure he’d tell him if he knew where his father was.
“Hey Finn!” Benji’s voice was happy and light over the phone line. Finn adjusts the phone a little before trying to infuse some enthusiasm and pleasantness into his own voice.
“Hey Benji, how ya been?” He listens to his cousin talk about school and his new girlfriend for a while, before he finally asks Finn what he can do for him. Finn clears his throat a little before shifting uncomfortably.
“Well, I was hoping you might know where your dad was? I wanted to ask him to go fishing with me, and I can’t seem to get a hold of him.” Finn’s a bad liar, but luckily Benji isn’t paying to close attention to him, because he goes on to happily tell him where he is.
“Oh, well, he’s at the cabin.”
“Cabin?”
“Oh yeah! He and Uncle Jeff bought a cabin in the beginning of this year. It’s pretty cool, all in the middle of the woods and stuff. Sometimes they go there if they want to get a way for a while. I was out there yesterday actually; it’s probably only a three hour drive from where you are. Be careful though, there’s a raccoon downstairs or something.”
“What?”
“I kept hearing this weird thumping noise, and Uncle Jeff told me this big Raccoon got in there, and they were trying to get rid of it cause they thought it was diseased. I think he must have done something though, cause he went down there and there was this weird shrieking noise, and then silence.”
“Where is the cabin?” Finn asks, trying to keep his cool. “I might swing by to check it out, maybe plan a guy’s weekend there if they’ll let me.”
“Oh I’m sure they would!” And Benji rattles off the address while Finn writes it down with shaking hands. He lets Benji chattering on for a few more minutes before he forces some regret into his voice and says he has to go. Once he hangs up he tries to swallow the bile in his throat, because part of him just knows.
He ends up calling Puck, even though he isn’t supposed to like him anymore, and the two decide to make a trip out there instead of going to school tomorrow. It’s much more likely his uncles won’t be in the cabin then too, or at least that’s what he hopes. If anything, he can always call the police if he sees the cars in the driveway. Plus, he figures out of everyone, Puck would probably be the best backup to have.
Puck shows up at seven the next morning, and Finn tells his mom it’s because they’re going to have an extra early practice first. She nods and lets him go without any further questions. And with Puck breaking every speed limit on the way, they make it in just under two and a half hours. As Finn was hoping, he sees no sign of either truck and when he cautiously enters the house, with Puck at his back, it’s silent.
“Benji said he kept hearing noises downstairs.” Finn whispers, even though he’s relatively certain no one is actually in the house. The two creep silently down the stairs, but the smell hits them first. It smells so heavily of iron, that Puck curses angrily and pushes past Finn, racing down the rest of the stairs. He freezes once he sees what’s in front of him.
“Oh god…” He gasps, doubling over and breathing deeply through his teeth. “Call an ambulance, get them here, yesterday.” Puck stresses. Finn pauses at the foot of the stairs, but when he sees the massive pile of blood and gore that is Kurt, he promptly throws up. It seems to take him far to long to gather himself, and thunder back up the stairs to make that call, at least to Puck.
Puck moves hesitantly, because he isn’t sure if there’s an inch of Kurt that isn’t hurt. His fingers finally go to the blood slick pulse on Kurt’s neck, relieved to find one there. It’s thready and a little weak, but it’s there. Next he moves his fingers down to the blood soaked ropes that are encasing Kurt’s wrists. He tries to keep his eyes away from the word carved into his stomach, a word he knows he’s said far to many times in the past. He also tries to keep his eyes away from Kurt’s face, which is so bruised, swollen, and bloody; it almost doesn’t look like Kurt. He has to use his utility knife to hack the ropes away, as they were actually embedded into Kurt’s skin. He eases Kurt forward slightly to look at his back, and his stomach bottoms out. The words that had been carved were angry looking and some of them were weeping yellow puss, infection must be setting in.
“Shit Hummel.” Puck hisses, gently holding the limp body to him. He isn’t sure what else he can do, Kurt’s a bloody mess and he can only assume his body is thrumming with agony.
“Stop, please.” It’s wheezed out and Puck feels his eyes sting with tears. He blinks slightly and looks down at Kurt, who’s eyes are glassy enough that he’s pretty sure he doesn’t actually see him. “…please.”
“Easy…Easy Hummel.” Puck clears his throat, and blinks hard because he’s not going to cry. Kurt’s head drops forward to loll against Puck’s shoulder and the bigger boy fumbles around to try and find a piece of him that isn’t bloody or bruised and he’s coming up empty at every turn. It isn’t until Finn comes stampeding back down the stairs that Kurt moves again, he flinches and tries to pull away.
“No…no…” and he’s crying, tears working out of the eye that isn’t completely swollen shut.
“He has no idea what the hell is going on.” Puck tells him, fingers slipping against Kurt’s blood slicked skin. Puck isn’t sure how he missed it before, maybe the angle of Kurt’s head, but when he puts gently fingers under Kurt’s chin and tilts his head, it exposes that horrible bruising on his neck, and Puck sees red. Kurt was a kid, and while yes, Puck had done his fair share of bullying and causing Kurt pain, he’d never even considered doing something like this.
“The ambulance should be here soon.” Finn pants, fidgeting in the entrance. “I called his dad too, he’s gonna meet us at the hospital…he’s uh, really pissed we didn’t tell him about this.”
“Dude, I think it might kill him to see him like this.” Finn takes a hesitant step forward. Even from his original distance, the injuries had been bad enough to cause him to loose his lunch. He could only imagine who much worse they were up close.
“Do you think he’ll be ok?”
“I have no idea…It’s Hummel, so the odds are substantially better.” Puck says, trying to make himself sound more sure than he is. Finn gives him a blank look and Puck sighs. “I don’t know, hopefully.” It seems to take forever for the ambulance to arrive, but when the sirens are finally heard, both boys let out a sigh of relief.
That sound was normally associated with annoyance and loudness, to Puck, at this moment, it sounded like a choir of angels.
*******************
If it hadn’t been for the fact that they actually found Kurt, Burt may have had to murder Finn and Puck himself. What they did was stupid and dangerous, it happened to pay off, but it didn’t take away what a stupid thing it was that they did. All he knew for certain that Kurt was hurt badly enough that he couldn’t be moved to the Lima hospital yet. So Burt drove the three hours it took to get to the small hospital just outside of the rinky dink town the cabin had been located in.
Finn looks sick, but the other boy, Puck, he was wearing a scrub top, but his hands were still tinted pink with blood. Kurt’s blood. He feels weak in the knees for a moment before he manages to get the front desk to tell him anything. The pitying look the receptionist sets him with is anything but encouraging though. Finn fills him in somewhat on what they had found, and Burt has to swallow to try and keep the bile down. Just the image that Finn was painting was enough for him to feel like he might lose it.
It takes forever for a doctor to finally come out, and the news is anything but soothing. It turns out that the hospital isn’t quite equipped to deal with the magnitude of Kurt’s injuries and it would be best if they flew him back to Lima. Puck had to wonder just what kind of shitty town this was if Lima was a better alternative. Burt agrees immediately, anything to help his son.
So Burt takes Finn and Puck and they pile into the respective cars and head back to Lima, and for Burt, it’s the longest drive of his life. For Finn and Puck its one of the most uncomfortable silences they’ve ever known. Finn can’t even be pissed at Puck anymore, Puck was the only person who was in that room, who saw what Finn saw and more. He swallows thickly glancing at Puck who was starring unseeing out the window.
By the time they actually reach the Lima hospital, Carole is there and Kurt’s already been rushed into surgery. She scolds both Finn and Puck until they look suitably shame faced, before pulling each one into a hug.
“Now tell me what happened?” Finn is so tired, he isn’t sure he can go into it again, but he doesn’t have to, because Puck starts talking.
“He‘s real messed up.” Puck murmurs. “Carved things into his back, across his stomach.” He shivers and Finn watches as his mother puts an arm around him, eyes clouded with horror. “Must have hit him with something pretty bad to make his legs look like that. It was kinda hard to tell all that happened.” Puck seems to realize he’s letting Finn’s mother hug him, and he pulls away, even if it is a little reluctantly. Carole is hesitant to approach Burt, but she does, and sits down next to him, tentatively reaching out for his hand.
“I’m so sorry Burt.” He doesn’t pull his hand away, which she thinks is something, but he doesn’t attempt to hold her hand either.
“They tried to kill my boy.” Burt says and Carole flinches. It would have better if he had been screaming, accusing her, but it’s just so flat and disbelieving, it makes it worse. “He could still die.”
“If I had known…” She trails off as Burt’s fingers tighten around hers momentarily.
“If you had known you never would have introduced us to them. I know.” Carole doesn’t really respond because she knows that right now, Burt needs to worry about Kurt. When a doctor finally comes out, Carole moves to stand, but Burt tightens his hold, so she stays seated, and barely notices when Finn and Puck migrate over.
“Mr. Hummel,” The doctor starts. “Would you like to step into my office so we could discuss your son’s condition?”
“No…No, tell me right now.” Burt pleads and his voice is rough and hoarse. The doctor nods once before grimly stating what needs to be said.
“We’ve started your son on a broad spectrum of antibiotics to try and combat the infection. As you may have been told, someone used a knife to cut into you son and the wound were allowed to fester for a couple days at least. There are several cigarette burns on his arms and the souls of his feet, these will be painful, but should fade on their own. We’ve wrapped the index finger on his left hand, since his finger nail is missing, as well as his wrists, because of the ropes. His left cheek bone and the orbital bone of his left eye have been broken.” He pauses for a moment to take in the sick shock that paints over the faces.
“Unfortunately, there is more. While there are several contusions and cuts, our main concerns right now consist of the massive bruising around his neck, and the damage his legs took. His right leg was broken badly enough that we’ve had to put pins in it to reconstruct it. The left leg was hit hard enough to cut it open, but we were able to suture that back together.”
“But…he’s gonna be ok, right?” Finn’s voice sounds funny even to himself, and when he mother grips his hand he realizes he may be crying a little.
“It’s to soon to tell, at the moment, he’s hanging in there though. I’m afraid I could only allow immediate family into the room until tomorrow though.” Carole quickly assures them she understands and assures a protesting Finn, and silent, but stricken looking Puck out of the room, telling Burt to call her with any news. Burt takes a deep breath, steadies himself, and follows the doctor into his son’s room.
Kurt’s dressed in the hospital pajamas instead of a gown, and Burt flinches at the massive bruising on the left side of Kurt’s face and the bruising and slight swelling around his neck. There’s a breathing cannula under his nose, and his right leg is propped up slightly. Burt takes a seat and takes up Kurt’s right hand gently clenching his eyes shut and trying not to feel like he’s failed his son.
It isn’t working.
*******************
Three days later, they move Kurt to a regular room and he’s allowed more visitors. So far, Burt has restricted it to Carole, Finn, and Puck. He thinks the other kids could come later, when Kurt can stay awake for more than two minutes at a time, and he doesn’t wake up terrified each time. He’d learned quickly that he had to let Kurt figure out where he was before anything else, because the first time Kurt had opened his eyes, Burt had stood up quickly and was leaning over his son before Kurt had even gotten his eyes fully open.
The reaction had been terrible. Kurt visibly panicked, and flinched as far away as he could, mumbling incoherently and clenching his eyes shut. He’d had to be sedated. Burt quickly learned from that mistake and waited until Kurt figured out where he was, and who he was with before he moved. Kurt didn’t seem to be getting much better though. The doctors were worried that the infection wasn’t being combated and that even if Kurt being conscious was a good sign, his lack of understand of what was going on around him was worrying.
Burt sat, exhausted and worried, Kurt’s good hand clutched in both his own. The doctors said talking to him may help, because he may respond to something familiar. So Burt starts talking, tells him about what was going on at the shop, stories from when he was younger, hell he talked about his late wife. Anything he could think about, until he began to get disheartened, and his tone turned pleading and teary.
“I don’t know how many more scares like this I can take, Kurt.” Burt tells him. “I remember when you were born, so early, to early. The doctors didn’t have much hope, kept telling us that there wasn’t anything they could do, but even then, you were so strong. I remember the first time you grabbed your mom’s finger. You couldn’t even open your eyes and you were so tiny, but you grabbed her finger and she smiled, do you know what she said?” And he pauses, as if he’s hoping that Kurt is going to respond. He doesn’t, his face remains lax in sleep.
“She said, ‘I think you’re stronger than you’re letting on.’ And she was right. Because you survived Kurt, when no one thought you would. No one but your mom. Even I was afraid we were going to lose you. I wasn’t sure I was ready to be a dad you know. But then we had you, and I realized I wanted nothing more. You pulled through then. You pulled through every tough time, and you’ve always been strong. Stronger than you should have had to be, but I’m asking you, please just one more time, be strong and pull through.” He blinks hard and swallows trying to rid himself of tears, because he knows they won’t help. Not now, and he lets out a sad sigh.
“Please Kurt; just…be strong this one last time. Then I’ll be the strong one. I’ll do what it takes to be there, and if you need to fall apart, it’ll be fine, I just really need you to hang in there, just be strong, just this one last time.” He finally falls silent, but Kurt doesn’t reply. Burt doesn’t really expect him too.
*******************
It’s five hours after that when Kurt opens his eyes and calls for Burt, who is up and hesitantly talking to Kurt, who actually seems aware of where he is for once. Kurt haltingly tells him everything that he can remember when he’s asked, and Burt feels his vision tint red with rage. The fact that someone hurt his son like this, that they knew exactly what they were doing, well he just hoped that the police found them before he did. He’s almost afraid to touch him, something he hasn’t been afraid to do since Kurt was a baby.
But when Kurt breaks down recounting when they started carving words into his flesh, Burt gathers him up gently, still mindful of the wounds he’s sure hurts, and holds on. When Kurt wraps his hands around his arm and leans his head into his shoulder, Burt simply adjusts his hold. Burt has seen the words, seen the police photos taken when Kurt was unconscious and he can hardly stand to breath knowing the monsters who carved hateful, derogatory words into his sons flesh are still out there. He can almost feel how terrified Kurt must have been, still is.
He doesn’t have to heart to tell him that they’ll probably scar.
He lets the tears run their course and is a bit reluctant to let go when Kurt begins to pull back. Kurt takes a moment to accept the tissue he’s offered and clean up his face a little. It starts to feel heavy and oppressive in the room, so Burt scrambles to find safer ground.
“So your friends all want to come up, Mercedes has called me everyday since you’ve been here.”
“Not...Not yet. Please dad, I can’t see them all yet. I-” But Burt cuts him off with a soothing noise and gently smoothing his hair off his face.
“That’s fine, no one is rushing you. Finn and Puck have already been given permission to visit though, they’ve already seen the worst of it Kurt.”
“That’s fine…” it kind of wasn’t, but he wasn’t going to argue it. If they’d already seen him, he couldn’t keep them away now.
“Do you think you may be up for talking with Carole? She’s been wanting to talk to you.” For a moment, Kurt isn’t sure he is, but he nods anyway and Burt smiles in what can only be described as relief. He spends a few more minutes with Kurt, before going to find Carole. Kurt figures the sooner they have this conversation the better.
When Carole steps into the room, she takes one look at Kurt and then burst into tears. Which wasn’t at all how Kurt was expecting this to go, and he visibly panics. He doesn’t handle tears particularly well to begin with and being bound to the bed the way he was wasn’t making it any easier. Carole moves forward, leans over the guard rail and starts apologizing. Something Kurt finds a little confusing, because he isn’t sure why she would be apologizing to him. When she finally pulls back she’s surprised at what she sees.
She expected Kurt to be furious, bitter and quite possibly hate her, but she doesn’t see any of that. She sees confusion and he seems a little overwhelmed by everything, but he doesn’t seem upset with her. Which all in all doesn’t make sense, because he should be. Her family did this to him, hurt him in ways that barbaric and unheard of, and he should be furious, bitter that she had the gall to speak to him now, but he’s doing the exact opposite of that.
“Carole,” Kurt finally says and she brings her eyes back up to his face, battered and swollen, and she gently reaches out for his hand, careful of the gauze that’s wrapped around both wrists. “Why are you apologizing? You didn’t do this.”
“My brothers did.” Carole says, like that explains it. It apparently doesn’t, because Kurt still looks baffled.
“Last I checked…you weren’t them.” She can’t help it, she starts crying again, because this is going better than she had ever dared dream it would. Realistically, she can’t figure out why Kurt is being so kind to her still, because if it had been anyone else in this position, she was sure she would be blamed. Instead Kurt just gives her a weak smile before lying back against the bed heavily. “I’m tired.” He admits, and Carole stands, smoothing his hair back a little and giving him a smile.
“Ok, rest…we’ll be here if you need us ok?” She wants to apologize again, but Kurt’s already drifting off. When she goes back into the waiting room, and Burt notices her red eyes, she smiles and tells him what happened, that from all initial appearances, Kurt seems to harbor no hard feeling towards her at all. She notices the fond sad smile that flits across Burt’s face before he responds.
“He is his mother.”
*******************
The next time Kurt opens his eyes, Puck’s busy drawing something on his casted leg and Finn is kind of poking at the bag attached to his IV. That should probably concern him more than it does, but instead of telling Finn to quit, he decides to focus on Puck.
“That better not be obscene.” He says and Puck jerks in surprise before snorting, a relieved smirk filtering across his face.
“I make no promises.” Puck replies and Kurt can’t help but grin. At least Puck was behaving normally. Which is more than he could say for Finn, who nearly tripped all over himself to get closer to Kurt’s bed. If he shoved the chair much closer he’d meld with the side rail.
“Dude, it’s about time, we’ve been waiting forever!” Finn tells him, and Puck rolls his eyes.
“And by forever, he means about ten minutes.”
“Shut up, anyhow, how are you feeling? Are you ok, do you need anything? I could go get your dad…”
“Finn, breath.” Kurt tells him, head swimming a bit.
“You’re going to drive him back into unconsciousness if you don’t calm the hell down.” Puck says, not looking up from whatever it was he was drawing on the cast. Finn shoots Puck a nasty look before taking in a deep breath and trying again.
“How are you feeling?”
“Ok,” Kurt says with a shrug. Truth was he was a little sore, and uncomfortable, but they didn’t need to know that. Puck lets out a small snort and Kurt lets his eyes flicker down to him.
“Right, so tell me Hummel, if you’re ok, why do they have you on the real good shit?”
“That’s why I feel ok.” Kurt snarks back and Puck grins, because if he’s honest, he’s kind of missed this. Arguing with Kurt was fun for him a lot of the time, even if half the time he didn’t actually understand what it was Kurt insulted him with.
“The doctors said that once the infections gone, you can probably go home. It’ll be a while until you can go back to school though.” Finn tells him, he hesitates for a moment before gripping the hand rail. “Dude, I’m really sor-”
“No, no more apologies!” Kurt cuts in. “First your mom, and then you…why the hell are you apologizing? Stop doing that!” Finn looks like he’s going to say something, apologize again, but Puck glances up, capping the black sharpie and pulling out a red one.
“Told you so.” Then he bends his head to continuing working on the cast. Finn flounders for a moment, before switching topics.
“Mercedes is starting to scare me Kurt; you need to see her soon. I’m afraid she’s going to kill me if you don’t.”
“I will, just…not yet.” And Puck glances discreetly at him, and Finn looks like he‘s going to say something, so Kurt continues, feeling uncomfortable. “I just need a little time ok? The only reason you’re even here is because my dad said you saw the worst of it already.”
“Kurt…” Finn begins, unsure how to continue, but Kurt ends up yawning and then flinching as the movement pulls at his bruised face.
“Just give me another day or two, and then it’ll be fine. But small doses, I don’t know if I can handle to many people at once.”
“I’ll send Mercedes, Artie, and Tina as the first wave then.” Puck says, as if he’s planning a military invasion. “They’re the ones who keep threatening to murder Finn if they don’t get some information, like right now.”
“Fine, the day after tomorrow then.” Puck nods and it’s as simple as that. Finn fidgets before smiling and telling him about how everyone at school was so relieved that Kurt was ok, and even Karofsky had sent along some well wishes. He talks about anything he can think of that might interest Kurt, until the other boy dozes back off. He can’t bring himself to leave yet though, so he just contents himself to watching the machines around Kurt, and occasionally glancing at Puck, who’s still drawing on Kurt’s cast. He hopes that he’ll leave space for the rest of them, or Mercedes might kill him.
*******************
When Mercedes, Tina, and Artie are finally let in to see him, Mercedes starts crying the second she sees him, and carefully, crawls up onto the bed to lay beside him. Artie looks pale, and slightly murderous, but simply holds his fist out for Kurt to bump, which he does. Tina seems the most composed, though he can see the horror in her eyes.
“I can’t believe you let Puck sign your cast first.” Tina says finally, looking for a way to break the awkward silence. When Mercedes looks upset, Kurt holds his hands up in the surrender position, inadvertently flashing the white bandages around his wrists at them.
“I didn’t really let him; he just went ahead and took the liberty while I was sleeping.”
“Oh, well I guess we can forgive you for that then.” Artie tells him, and Kurt rolls his eyes.
“You’re to kind.”
“Don’t I know it.” The playful tone drops from Artie’s voice as he wheels closer. “Seriously though, how are you?”
“Sore.” Kurt admits, because if he’s going to come clean to anyone, it’ll be them, his closest friends. Mercedes rolls onto her side to hug him, draping her arm carefully across his body, resting just above where the hateful slur had been carved into his stomach, head resting on his shoulder.
“I’m so sorry.” She says, sniffling and Kurt isn’t quite sure what to do. He lets a hand pat her shoulder gently, but otherwise says nothing; he just looks at Tina and Artie who shift uncomfortably.
“Uh, so glee has been totally tyrannical without you.” Artie says, searching for something to take the heaviness away. “Rachel has been completely insane recently.” Which wasn’t untrue, she had been a little more insane than usual, constantly telling them how they needed to pull together and finding completely obscure and sometimes inappropriate songs to make her point. Apparently with Kurt gone, Rachel had gone several times more crazy.
“Ah, well I should be able to back to school after a few weeks, so you’ll just have to hang in there until then…”
“Oh man, a few more weeks, really?” Artie groaned and Kurt shrugged.
“Coach Sylvester is going to freak.” Mercedes says and Kurt bit his lower lip, he would probably have to drop out of the cheerios now that he thought about it. It was unfortunate because he did genuinely enjoy it, but there was no way coach Sylvester was going to let something like this stop her, she was simply going to kick him out if he didn’t drop out.
“Yeah, I know.” He replies softly and she tries to adjust her hold on him a little, trying to make sure not to hurt him, but wanting to comfort him nonetheless.
“The others want to come see you.” Tina says. “Brittany really wants to come, and even Santana said she wanted to swing by.”
“Yeah, ok.” Kurt says though he really isn’t ready to see people, he wasn’t ready to see Finn or Puck, he wasn’t ready to see Mercedes, Tina, or Artie, so he guesses it doesn’t matter that the others want to come, because it doesn’t seem to matter, he won’t ever be ready it feels like.
“Is there anything we can do for your Kurt?” Tina asks, and he actually takes a minute to think about it.
“Just…don’t worry so much. I’m ok…or I will be. Just relax and give me a little bit of time ok?” His friends exchanged looks, none of them knowing quite how to respond to that request. They all feel a little guilty, it seems like they expect a lot from Kurt, and he just can’t give it to them, not yet. It’s finally Mercedes who finds her voice.
“Sure. Can we come back and visit tomorrow?” And by tomorrow Mercedes means everyday, and Kurt nods his agreement, his friends love him, and he appreciates that, even if it will quite possibly drive him insane.
*******************
It’s just shy of a month before Kurt can return to school, and when he does its on crutches. He goes with as much dignity as he can muster, but it’s spread all over the entire school what happened, so he just watches on in surprise as people give him a wide berth or welcome him back. Karofsky even holds open a door for him. It’s weird and feels very twilight zone, Kurt just kind of wants it to go back to normal.
It’s fifth period on his third day back when he’s called into Ms. Pillsbury’s office, and he’s surprised when Finn is already there. Emma smiles when Kurt enters and wait’s for the time it takes him to get into his seat, thanking Finn quietly when he takes his crutches, and sets them to the side.
“I’m sorry for pulling you out of class for this, but I thought you should both know, Finn, you’re uncles have been found, and taken into custody for what they‘ve done to you Kurt.” She glances at Kurt, and for a moment she’s worried he’s going to pass out, the relief is so strong, and obvious. Then he turns to look guiltily at Finn, ready to apologize for his own relief when his uncles had just been arrested, but he’s startled when Finn lets out a whoop and jumps up, crushing Kurt to him in a hug, yanking him to his feet in his joy.
“That’s fantastic, it’s about damn time!”
“Ow…” Kurt manages as Finn seems to find every sore spot on his back to squeeze, and just barely avoids slamming into his broken leg. Finn lets go quickly, apologizing and getting red in the face, but Kurt brushes it off. “So…so it’s over then?”
“Well, there will most likely be a trial…Kurt you’ll have to testify if there is one.” She tells him gently, and Kurt stills for a moment, and when Finn’s hand latches around his shoulder and gives it a gentle squeeze he glances over at him.
“We’ll be there, if you want us to be.” Finn tells him. “Well, I’ll be there whether you want me to be or not actually.” And it’s said teasingly, meant to lighten the mood, and Kurt smiles weakly but nods.
“Ok…what else?”
“If it does go to trial, the lawyers will want to talk with you, and then they’ll go from there.” Kurt nods, and doesn’t resist when Finn yanks him into another hug, this one less enthusiastic than the last. He remains standing in the awkward position Finn pulled him up into as he retrieves his crutches for him. They exit together, but Finn can see this news, while good, has shaken Kurt a little, and suggests they cut the rest of the day.
When Mr. Schue comes across them in the auditorium instead of being in sixth, he’s surprisingly cool about it, and Finn figures that Ms. Pillsbury must have told him about what was going on. So he actually helps them go over the songs Kurt’s missed and when the bell rings, leaves them in peace, because he has a class that period. Finn sits beside Kurt, pulling up his loose pant leg to get better access to the cast. When Kurt looks at him strangely he just shrugs.
“I never got to sign it.” He tells him. He lets his eyes flicker over some of the designs, and messages from the other members of glee, and hell even several cheerios. After a few moments, Finn taps his pen against Kurt’s cast several times trying to think of what to say until Kurt looks at him in annoyance.
“Are you deliberately trying to annoy me?” Kurt asks, with amused exasperation in his voice.
“Uh,” and then Finn grins. “Yes. Because at the rate our parents are going, well may very well be step-brothers soon, and I think I should start annoying you now, so you’re prepared.” It works how Finn had hoped and Kurt lets out a surprised laugh, but rolls his eyes anyhow.
“Oh, well good to know, I guess.” He goes back to texting Mercedes who’s texted him asking where he is, and effectively ignores Finn as he draws every superhero symbol he can think of on Kurt’s cast, because really, he knows Kurt will hate it….and he thinks that will be kinda funny.
*******************
As it turns out, a trial will not be necessary as both Devon and Jeff cop to a slightly lesser charge and get a reduced sentence. Kurt has mixed feelings about it, but as long as their put away he suppose he can live with it. He manages to enjoy his time in Glee, even if he can’t participate as much as he would like, he finds his time spent with Artie to be amusing at the very least.
Life slowly, but surely, starts to go back to normal, and while they all seem to be a little closer in glee club, no one is treating him like he might break anymore. He figures once the news coverage of what happened dies down; things will go back to normal. And eventually, they begin to. So of course he’s surprised when two months later, Puck hesitantly, and rather awkwardly, asks him to go to the movies with him, as in, like a date. He isn’t sure what possess him to say yes, but he does.
The panic stricken look on his dad’s face is almost worth the awkwardness of telling him about it.
Yeah, things were getting back to normal.
Disclaimer: I don't own em, I if I did glee would probably have to be on a different channel.
Rating: R
Spoilers: Up to Home I think.
Characters: Kurt, Burt, Carole, Finn, Puck, Mercedes, Tina, Artie, OC's *The bad guys*
Warnings: Homophobic language, violence, language, gore, heavy angst, and imagery.
Word count: 10,234-Yeah this one's a monster!
Summary: Kurt never in his worst nightmares, thought it would be like this.
A/N: Ok, so this is a fill for This prompt by sj_r over at glee_angst_meme This one was like a run away train, and it spiraled completely out of control, so I hope it's somewhere in the general ballpark of what you wanted!
Things had been going so well between Carole and Burt recently that Carole decided she wanted Burt and Kurt to meet her older brothers. A dinner had been set up, and things had gone swimmingly well between Burt and her brothers Devon and Jeff. It wasn’t until Finn and Kurt came home from glee rehearsal that things started to go bad. Finn had been greeted warmly, but Jeff took one look at Kurt and his expression closed off. Kurt however just smiled, squashing his unease and holding out his hand for them to shake.
“It’s nice to meet you, I’m Kurt.” When his hand was ignored, and Devon clearly snubbed him, he lowered it, and averted his eyes to the floor; he could already tell this was going to be a bad night. He would just try and keep his head down and keep his mouth shut, for his father’s sake if nothing else. He felt his dad bristle slightly at the snub, but when Carole quickly tried to over compensate by hugging Kurt enthusiastically he renewed the vow he made to make it through the dinner.
Which was easier said than done, because Carole’s brothers made it very clear they did not approve of Kurt. Oh, Burt was fine, but Kurt? He was a problem. Even Finn, who could normally dwell in ignorant bliss, could feel the discomfort, and when Jeff muttered a derogatory comment under his breath about not sitting near the queer, Finn spoke up.
“Kurt, come over here and sit next to me.” It was louder than it needed to be, but Finn felt better with Kurt sandwiched between himself and Burt. He was not blind to the distasteful looks his uncles kept shooting Kurt, who was a little red faced and was starring rather intently at his dinner, which he had not actually started eating.
It was an awkward affair. Burt was straddling a fine line of staying for Carole’s sake, and getting Kurt the hell out of there. It finally came to a head when one too many “innocent” comments came Kurt’s way that Burt stood up, glancing at Carole. He thought it was important to make a good impression with Carole’s family, but Kurt was his son, and he wasn’t going to sit by and let them bad mouth him for one more second.
“I’m sorry Carole, but I’m not going to sit here and listen to them talk that way about my son.” He tugs Kurt up, and the boy casts an apologetic glance at Carole, who looks furious, and Finn, who looks mildly mortified. Kurt completely misinterprets the look on Carole’s face though, and quickly tries to smooth it over.
“No, Dad, its ok…I could just go. You should stay…enjoy your dinner.” Kurt says, and Jeff beams.
“That’s a fantastic idea.” Kurt feels his father bristle with anger, and he tugs Kurt to him a little more. Carole shakes her head.
“Absolutely not, your father’s right. I have no idea why I thought this would be a good idea.”
“I’m sorry.” And with that Kurt fled the room. Carole shot a nasty look at her brothers before following Kurt, Finn stands and followed Burt out. Once in the hall, he watched as Kurt tugged on his jacket. “I’m sorry Dad.” He apologized again and Burt pinched his lips together in a tight line.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” Carole cut in before Burt could. “If I had realized for even a moment they would have behaved that way I never would have suggested this.” Finn caught Kurt’s shoulder briefly giving it a quick squeeze before Burt started ushering them out the door.
“Sorry, dude.”
“I hope you’ll wash your hands, Finn.” Jeff spoke up from the doorway. Finn hoped that the Hummel’s hadn’t heard that, but by the way Burt tenses up, and Kurt starts moving faster towards the car he realizes that they must have. His mother whirls on his uncles and Finn is a little intimidated by the sheer anger on her face.
Finn retreats to his room, but he could hear the angry argument that went on between his mother and her brothers for an hour before the door slammed shut. He briefly thinks about calling Kurt, making sure he and Burt got home ok, but he quickly decided to just send him a text.
‘sorry :(' he isn’t nearly as surprised as he thinks he should be when Kurt doesn’t text him back. He is however worried that he hasn’t heard the last of this particular fight.
*******************
The harassing phone calls start two days later. The religious pamphlets and bible quotes come pouring in shortly after. They know its Devon and Jeff, but there’s no actual way to prove it, so Carole and Finn just grit their teeth and try and ignore it the best they can. It isn’t until they’re over at the Hummel’s and Carole is telling Burt everything that’s been going on while Kurt and Finn sit silently next to each other that Finn ends up saying something stupid.
“They just don’t like Kurt, so they keep harassing us. Like we have any say in how Kurt is.” And it isn’t until it’s just hanging heavily in the air does he realize how insulting that actually is. He hadn’t meant it to be really, he just meant to say that Kurt was just himself, and they didn’t like it. But it wasn’t as if Kurt could help how he was. Finn opens his mouth to apologize, but Kurt’s already talking, twisting his fingers together.
“I know, and I’m really sorry they’re doing this to you guys. You have no idea, I’m so sorry.” He chances a glance up at his dad, before standing and beating a hasty retreat down the stairs into the basement.
“I didn’t mean it the way that came out.” Finn said his ears burning red in embarrassment.
“I know you didn’t.” Burt says with a sigh. “And he does too, because this is something new and painful and irritating for you. But now you know how he feels, because Kurt, he goes through this kind of thing every day. He feels guilty that you are going through it now.” And knowing that, makes Finn feel even worse.
Kurt stays in his room for the rest of the time that Carole and Finn are there, and Finn wants to go down and apologize, to see if Kurt’s ok, but something keeps him from doing it. He likes to think that it’s the fear of him making it even worse that’s keeping him still and not the fact that he’s just scared to do it. When he and his mother leave, he hears his mother vow to put an end to all this.
He hears his mother’s half of the phone conversation as he’s lingering nearby. He knows he shouldn’t be eavesdropping, but he can’t help himself, he wants to know what his mother has to say. He can’t hear his uncle’s side of it, but from his mother’s tone and angry words, it isn’t good. The argument goes in circles for a while before what seems like an agreement is reached, Finn straights in his seat when he hears his mother.
“So you’ll stop.” It’s quiet for a few moment and his mother nods to herself. “Good, because I really like Burt, and while I’d like for you to get a long, I’ll choose him, and Kurt.” There’s another pause before a slow smile creeps across her face. “Just as long as we understand each other, ok, thank you. You too, bye.”
*******************
The next day, Finn excitedly recounts the story to Kurt, who smiles slightly and nods at all the right places. Part of him wants to tell Finn that people like that, they don’t just stop. They’re going to just find a different way to torment them. He doesn’t have to heart to do it, because Finn looks so happy, so pleased that his mother was able to work it out and everyone’s happy.
“I…I didn’t mean it the way it came out you know. I was mad and you know how I can be, words just string together without any sort of thought.” Finn says suddenly, as he twists his hands guiltily for a moment, because really Kurt shouldn’t feel guilty about what was going on with his family. Kurt was just, well, Kurt.
“It’s fine Finn, really.” Kurt didn’t harbor any ill will towards Finn for it, he understood, he was upset. He was rightfully upset because no one should have to go through that kind of crap, especially with family. He smiles briefly before breaking away. “I’m glad your mom was able to work it out. I’ll see you later.”
Finn spends the rest of the day in a really good mood. His family had settled their differences, Kurt wasn’t mad at him, and he and Burt had plans to go get some hoagies following glee; things were looking up and looking good. So he throws himself rather exuberantly into Glee, and if he notices that Artie and Mercedes are glaring at him a little from either side of Kurt, he doesn’t notice it.
At least not much.
“You guys go on ok?” Kurt says once Glee ends and Mercedes, Artie, and Tina hover around him. “I think I’m going to practice for a while before I head home.” Tina and Artie exchange a glance before nodding and heading out. Mercedes hesitates before giving Kurt’s hand a squeeze.
“You call me if you need me.” She instructs and Kurt nods obediently. Finn is almost amused by that, but when Kurt sits down at the piano, but doesn’t actually play anything, Finn realizes he’s probably overstayed his welcome.
“Uh, so I’m going out with your dad for hoagies, if you want to um, tag along, maybe?” and Kurt shakes his head a little.
“No, it’s fine. Have fun though.”
“Don’t stay too late, seriously Kurt.” The smaller boy gives him a rather amused smile but nods anyhow, and Finn exit’s the room, trying not to think about how small and alone Kurt looked in that room. Instead he goes out for hoagies with Burt, and within ten minutes of it, he’s completely forgotten about Kurt.
When Burt gets home, hours later, he’s in a good mood.
The lights are all off, which is a little unusual, because Kurt usually leaves the kitchen light on for him. When he flips on the lights in the living room however, he freezes and feels like he can’t breathe. It looks like a tornado swept through. The coffee table is broken and the framed photo of his wife is fractured. There’s blood, and Burt doesn’t need any kind of forensic team to tell him it’s Kurt’s.
He stands motionless for several moments before he makes a mad dash through the house, looking for Kurt, but knowing in his gut he wouldn’t find him. The window in the kitchen is open, and there’s scattered food around. Wherever Kurt went, he obviously did not go on his own. He doesn’t actually remember calling the police, but soon enough he’s been exiled into his yard, answering questions for an officer while a crime scene unit processes his home. He feels like he might throw up.
It isn’t until he’s asked if he has a place he can stay tonight that it occurs to him to call Carole. She picks up on the third ring and he robotically repeats what he’s told the officers. When she tells him that of course it’s ok for him to stay, he doesn’t even bother to pack a bag, he can’t go back into his home. He isn’t sure if he would want to if he could.
*******************
The next day it’s all over the school that Kurt Hummel is missing. Mercedes looks like she’s been crying all day, and if Finn’s honest with himself, he knows he probably doesn’t look much better. There’s a part of him, a dark part that keeps telling him that his uncles have something to do with this, but he can’t actually come up with what it could be. He really wasn’t sure if they could be cruel enough to do something like this to Kurt.
Artie is quiet, drawn into himself and he looks so worried that it’s almost painful to look at him for too long. While Rachel rails on and on about how they have to be proactive and how they should all be out looking, he can’t help but be surprised when Puck of all people suddenly and angrily shuts her up by pointing out what they were all thinking.
“Jesus Berry, it isn’t like Kurt just up and left, and he’s just missing. Someone. Took. Him.” Rachel starts crying quietly and Quinn of all people puts an arm around her soothingly. Honestly, Rachel knows that it won’t help, not really, but she has to do something to feel like she’s helping, because she and Kurt might not always have gotten along, but she did kind of like him, he was amusing in his own way.
“Listen guys, I know we’re all upset,” Mr. Schue starts, “But snipping at each other isn’t going to help.” Puck doesn’t verbally apologize, but he does offer Rachel a somewhat apologetic look. It surprises Finn just how honestly upset the glee club is, even Puck, while he hasn’t thrown Kurt in the garbage in a while; the two hadn’t ever been close. They spoke to each other civilly when they needed to, but didn’t go out of the way to talk.
It’s an amazingly unproductive glee meeting, no one could really concentrate, and Mercedes would go into random bouts of crying as her mind came up with horrible scenarios that her boy could possible be in. Mostly, they just sat around and spoke quietly amongst themselves. Finn was questioned a few times if he knew anything, but he really didn’t, because as much as he thought his uncle’s probably did have something to do with it, he couldn’t actually say anything. There was no proof other than some nasty comments.
So instead he just keeps saying he isn’t sure, but he’ll make sure to keep everyone updated. He knows that since his mother is dating Kurt’s father, it puts him in the ideal position to get them information that would otherwise be kept from them, but still, it hurts him a little bit, because he’s so worried that something honestly bad could be happening.
And he really doesn’t want to be the one to have to tell the rest of them.
*******************
When Kurt first comes to, the first thing he’s aware of is the pounding of his head, and how bad his throat hurts. It takes him several moments to remember what happened, and he squirms slightly as the memories come flooding back to him. He had been at home, he’d gotten home about an hour after glee had ended, and done his homework before heading into the kitchen for dinner.
It started there.
He had been surprised and maybe a little alarmed to find the kitchen window open. It was normally kept shut; he had been in the process of leaning across to close it when the first attack came. He’d been shoved brutally against the counter top, and if Kurt thought about it he could feel the bruises it left. He’d been battered around until they reached the living room, and Kurt vaguely remembered lifting an arm to try and ward them off, but he distinctly remembers the feel of hands around his throat, and the air being brutally taken from him.
He takes a good look around him, before sighing and looking down. He’s tied to a chair, and the ropes are so tight it’s actually digging into his skin, it‘s just a matter of time before it rubs the skin raw. He’s just in his pants, and he spends just a moment lamenting the loss of his shirt, he had been exceptionally fond of it. When he hears the heavy tread of boots on the stairs, he stiffens and tries to calm his breathing. When the door opens and more light comes flooding in, Kurt thinks he shouldn’t be as surprised as he is to see Devon and Jeff there.
“Look who is finally awake.” Jeff jibes, like he was concerned for him.
“Took him long enough.” Devon agrees, and Kurt eyes them both warily, because he already knows this is going to be a painful experience, and he’s trying to mentally prepare himself to survive whatever it is they have in store for him. They don’t seem like the type to just kill him and be done with it, no that would be too easy, and if that was the case, they probably would have killed him at home. This…This was supposed to be something else entirely. He’s meant to feel this, his father is meant to feel this, and more importantly, Kurt thinks Carole is supposed to feel it. They move in closer to him, and Kurt tenses up.
“I won’t lie to you, this will hurt.” Jeff tells him, and there’s a mocking pity in his voice that makes Kurt tense up even further. He struggles when the ropes are loosened and he takes a wild swing once his right arm is loose, but he’s brutally punished for that and the punch to his solar plexus renders him helpless long enough for them to move him to lie flat on his stomach, hands tied up above his head.
When he can finally get air back into his lungs, he ignores the tears that trickle out of his eyes and attempts to thrash away, but one of them, Kurt can’t see who, is sitting on his thighs, and it isn’t until he feels something sharp trailing across his back does the real honest terror set in. He can’t see what they plan to do, and somehow it makes it worse.
The first jab makes him let out a disjointed sound of pain, and it takes him a few moments to realize that they’re actually carving words into his skin. He can’t make out what they are, he’s in to much pain to do so, but it’s a horror he’s never considered before. Sure he’s been through a lot of crap growing up, but he never, not once in his worst nightmares, expected something like this. He shudders out a sob as it continues, and he tries to distance himself, to shut himself off, but every time he gets close another stab of agony brings him hurtling back into the here and now.
So when darkness begins to creep around the edge of his vision, he welcomes it He lets out a relieved sigh when unconsciousness finally claims him.
“He lasted longer than I thought.” Devon comments off handedly. “Get him back in the chair and bring him back around.”
Kurt is brought back to the here and now brutally when a bucket of ice water is thrown on him. He’s back in the chair, his wrists once again tied far too tightly to the wooden chair. The back of the chair grates across his back, which is alight with fire, and Kurt knows, he’s never known a pain like this before. He hopes he’ll never have to know one like it again.
“Well, it’s about time you decided to join us.” Devon sneers, and he leans down to examine Kurt, who’s shivering. “You’re an awfully pale little thing.”
“Wh-why are you doing this?” Kurt asks, and he tries not to whimper when he’s viciously backhanded, he tastes blood and can feel it dribbling down his chin.
“Why?” Jeff mimics voice high and grating. “Because our sister deserves to be happy, and she can’t be with a little homo like you. Burt, he could be good for her, those two and Finn, they could be happy, but you? You aren’t part of that, you can’t be. We know what you’ll do; you’ll rip them apart, because we all know that’s what you queers are good at. Tearing apart good wholesome homes.”
“You’re insane.” Kurt breaths out, before flinching at the blow he’s expecting. It doesn’t come and instead Devon laughs.
“And you’re a sinner, I’m just doing gods work.” Kurt doesn’t bother to reply, because he’s to focused on the pliers Jeff’s holding. Part of him knows what’s going to happen before it does, and when Jeff grabs his hand in a vice like grip and then sets the pliers to his finger nail, he takes in a shaking breath, and does his best not to scream. He just cries as the finger nail on his left pointer finger is ripped out whole. Then he sees the knife again and he can’t help but cry out when Devon pushes him against the chair, one hand firmly against his chest, the other wrapped around his shoulders to keep him as still as possible.
Jeff starts to carve into the flesh of his stomach, and Kurt bites the inside of his mouth so hard, he feels it flood with blood when he breaks into the skin to deeply. He tries to move out of the way, but Devon’s grip is too tight and it just causes him more pain. Kurt makes another vow to himself, he won’t scream. He won’t scream anymore, not if he can help it. He won’t give them the satisfaction of it. He’ll try so hard, harder than anything he’s ever done not to scream.
He fails.
*******************
It’s a full day before either comes back to Kurt. He’s still throbbing from the treatment from before, and the glaring bloody ‘FAG’ carved into his stomach makes him want to be violently sick. So when Jeff comes thundering down the stairs the only thing Kurt can think about is trying to make himself as small a target as possible, which he can’t really do being so tightly tied to the chair. As it is, his wrists have been rubbed raw and blood is trickling down his hands, splaying out across his fingers. Jeff simply grabs his chair and drags him violently towards the closet.
“We’re having company, so you shut the hell up.” He tells him, before gagging him. It’s too tight and it hurts like hell, but Kurt really isn’t in the position to argue. Instead he just watches as Jeff slams the door thrusting him into complete darkness. His eyes water, and Kurt wants to cry, but he knows with the gag it could be dangerous so he forces himself to calm down. Instead he contemplates his options and realizes that he can actually touch the door with his foot from here.
Once he hears a new voice upstairs and people moving around he makes a desperate bid for help and starts kicking the door. He keeps it up until he hears someone come down the stairs. He knew it had been foolish to hope for help, but he was not expecting to be so violently thrown against the wall by Jeff who was seething. He was even less prepared for the tire iron to come crashing into his legs with enough force to break the right one, and leave a big bloody gash in the left.
The gag muffled his shriek, but when Jeff just kept on hitting him, Kurt eventually lacked the energy to even scream, he simply accepted the punishment, silently to weak to do anything else, and when he finally starts to black out a part of him hoped that it was for good this time, that he wasn’t going to wake up back in this hell.
He was learning quickly, it was foolish to hope.
Kurt feels hands on him and he tries to flinch away, though the best his body can come up with is a twitch. He hears Jeff laugh and vaguely registers the sound of the tire iron clanking to the ground. He knows better now though, it may be over for now, but there would be a next time. Kurt was just biding his time until they decided they’d had their fun and killed him. He just hoped that his body would be returned to his father, he would like to be buried next to his mother.
He’s brought back from the brink of unconsciousness when he feels a hot burning on his arm, he tries to jerk away, but he can’t. He just watches helplessly as Jeff puts cigarette after cigarette out on his arms, and then onto the souls of his feet. He can’t help the tears that escape his eyes then, and he makes a pathetic whimpering sound through the gag.
A strong right hook to the face makes the lights go out for Kurt, and the last thought he has before unconsciousness takes him, is that he hopes he’ll get to see his mother soon.
*******************
It’s been two whole days since Kurt’s gone missing, and the fact that no one can find his uncles solidifies the fact they did it in Finn’s mind. He can’t really go around accusing them though and he has to be subtle if he talks to family. He figures out of everyone, his cousin Benji will be the most forthcoming. Devon’s son had always favored Finn, and if he asked him the right way, he was sure he’d tell him if he knew where his father was.
“Hey Finn!” Benji’s voice was happy and light over the phone line. Finn adjusts the phone a little before trying to infuse some enthusiasm and pleasantness into his own voice.
“Hey Benji, how ya been?” He listens to his cousin talk about school and his new girlfriend for a while, before he finally asks Finn what he can do for him. Finn clears his throat a little before shifting uncomfortably.
“Well, I was hoping you might know where your dad was? I wanted to ask him to go fishing with me, and I can’t seem to get a hold of him.” Finn’s a bad liar, but luckily Benji isn’t paying to close attention to him, because he goes on to happily tell him where he is.
“Oh, well, he’s at the cabin.”
“Cabin?”
“Oh yeah! He and Uncle Jeff bought a cabin in the beginning of this year. It’s pretty cool, all in the middle of the woods and stuff. Sometimes they go there if they want to get a way for a while. I was out there yesterday actually; it’s probably only a three hour drive from where you are. Be careful though, there’s a raccoon downstairs or something.”
“What?”
“I kept hearing this weird thumping noise, and Uncle Jeff told me this big Raccoon got in there, and they were trying to get rid of it cause they thought it was diseased. I think he must have done something though, cause he went down there and there was this weird shrieking noise, and then silence.”
“Where is the cabin?” Finn asks, trying to keep his cool. “I might swing by to check it out, maybe plan a guy’s weekend there if they’ll let me.”
“Oh I’m sure they would!” And Benji rattles off the address while Finn writes it down with shaking hands. He lets Benji chattering on for a few more minutes before he forces some regret into his voice and says he has to go. Once he hangs up he tries to swallow the bile in his throat, because part of him just knows.
He ends up calling Puck, even though he isn’t supposed to like him anymore, and the two decide to make a trip out there instead of going to school tomorrow. It’s much more likely his uncles won’t be in the cabin then too, or at least that’s what he hopes. If anything, he can always call the police if he sees the cars in the driveway. Plus, he figures out of everyone, Puck would probably be the best backup to have.
Puck shows up at seven the next morning, and Finn tells his mom it’s because they’re going to have an extra early practice first. She nods and lets him go without any further questions. And with Puck breaking every speed limit on the way, they make it in just under two and a half hours. As Finn was hoping, he sees no sign of either truck and when he cautiously enters the house, with Puck at his back, it’s silent.
“Benji said he kept hearing noises downstairs.” Finn whispers, even though he’s relatively certain no one is actually in the house. The two creep silently down the stairs, but the smell hits them first. It smells so heavily of iron, that Puck curses angrily and pushes past Finn, racing down the rest of the stairs. He freezes once he sees what’s in front of him.
“Oh god…” He gasps, doubling over and breathing deeply through his teeth. “Call an ambulance, get them here, yesterday.” Puck stresses. Finn pauses at the foot of the stairs, but when he sees the massive pile of blood and gore that is Kurt, he promptly throws up. It seems to take him far to long to gather himself, and thunder back up the stairs to make that call, at least to Puck.
Puck moves hesitantly, because he isn’t sure if there’s an inch of Kurt that isn’t hurt. His fingers finally go to the blood slick pulse on Kurt’s neck, relieved to find one there. It’s thready and a little weak, but it’s there. Next he moves his fingers down to the blood soaked ropes that are encasing Kurt’s wrists. He tries to keep his eyes away from the word carved into his stomach, a word he knows he’s said far to many times in the past. He also tries to keep his eyes away from Kurt’s face, which is so bruised, swollen, and bloody; it almost doesn’t look like Kurt. He has to use his utility knife to hack the ropes away, as they were actually embedded into Kurt’s skin. He eases Kurt forward slightly to look at his back, and his stomach bottoms out. The words that had been carved were angry looking and some of them were weeping yellow puss, infection must be setting in.
“Shit Hummel.” Puck hisses, gently holding the limp body to him. He isn’t sure what else he can do, Kurt’s a bloody mess and he can only assume his body is thrumming with agony.
“Stop, please.” It’s wheezed out and Puck feels his eyes sting with tears. He blinks slightly and looks down at Kurt, who’s eyes are glassy enough that he’s pretty sure he doesn’t actually see him. “…please.”
“Easy…Easy Hummel.” Puck clears his throat, and blinks hard because he’s not going to cry. Kurt’s head drops forward to loll against Puck’s shoulder and the bigger boy fumbles around to try and find a piece of him that isn’t bloody or bruised and he’s coming up empty at every turn. It isn’t until Finn comes stampeding back down the stairs that Kurt moves again, he flinches and tries to pull away.
“No…no…” and he’s crying, tears working out of the eye that isn’t completely swollen shut.
“He has no idea what the hell is going on.” Puck tells him, fingers slipping against Kurt’s blood slicked skin. Puck isn’t sure how he missed it before, maybe the angle of Kurt’s head, but when he puts gently fingers under Kurt’s chin and tilts his head, it exposes that horrible bruising on his neck, and Puck sees red. Kurt was a kid, and while yes, Puck had done his fair share of bullying and causing Kurt pain, he’d never even considered doing something like this.
“The ambulance should be here soon.” Finn pants, fidgeting in the entrance. “I called his dad too, he’s gonna meet us at the hospital…he’s uh, really pissed we didn’t tell him about this.”
“Dude, I think it might kill him to see him like this.” Finn takes a hesitant step forward. Even from his original distance, the injuries had been bad enough to cause him to loose his lunch. He could only imagine who much worse they were up close.
“Do you think he’ll be ok?”
“I have no idea…It’s Hummel, so the odds are substantially better.” Puck says, trying to make himself sound more sure than he is. Finn gives him a blank look and Puck sighs. “I don’t know, hopefully.” It seems to take forever for the ambulance to arrive, but when the sirens are finally heard, both boys let out a sigh of relief.
That sound was normally associated with annoyance and loudness, to Puck, at this moment, it sounded like a choir of angels.
*******************
If it hadn’t been for the fact that they actually found Kurt, Burt may have had to murder Finn and Puck himself. What they did was stupid and dangerous, it happened to pay off, but it didn’t take away what a stupid thing it was that they did. All he knew for certain that Kurt was hurt badly enough that he couldn’t be moved to the Lima hospital yet. So Burt drove the three hours it took to get to the small hospital just outside of the rinky dink town the cabin had been located in.
Finn looks sick, but the other boy, Puck, he was wearing a scrub top, but his hands were still tinted pink with blood. Kurt’s blood. He feels weak in the knees for a moment before he manages to get the front desk to tell him anything. The pitying look the receptionist sets him with is anything but encouraging though. Finn fills him in somewhat on what they had found, and Burt has to swallow to try and keep the bile down. Just the image that Finn was painting was enough for him to feel like he might lose it.
It takes forever for a doctor to finally come out, and the news is anything but soothing. It turns out that the hospital isn’t quite equipped to deal with the magnitude of Kurt’s injuries and it would be best if they flew him back to Lima. Puck had to wonder just what kind of shitty town this was if Lima was a better alternative. Burt agrees immediately, anything to help his son.
So Burt takes Finn and Puck and they pile into the respective cars and head back to Lima, and for Burt, it’s the longest drive of his life. For Finn and Puck its one of the most uncomfortable silences they’ve ever known. Finn can’t even be pissed at Puck anymore, Puck was the only person who was in that room, who saw what Finn saw and more. He swallows thickly glancing at Puck who was starring unseeing out the window.
By the time they actually reach the Lima hospital, Carole is there and Kurt’s already been rushed into surgery. She scolds both Finn and Puck until they look suitably shame faced, before pulling each one into a hug.
“Now tell me what happened?” Finn is so tired, he isn’t sure he can go into it again, but he doesn’t have to, because Puck starts talking.
“He‘s real messed up.” Puck murmurs. “Carved things into his back, across his stomach.” He shivers and Finn watches as his mother puts an arm around him, eyes clouded with horror. “Must have hit him with something pretty bad to make his legs look like that. It was kinda hard to tell all that happened.” Puck seems to realize he’s letting Finn’s mother hug him, and he pulls away, even if it is a little reluctantly. Carole is hesitant to approach Burt, but she does, and sits down next to him, tentatively reaching out for his hand.
“I’m so sorry Burt.” He doesn’t pull his hand away, which she thinks is something, but he doesn’t attempt to hold her hand either.
“They tried to kill my boy.” Burt says and Carole flinches. It would have better if he had been screaming, accusing her, but it’s just so flat and disbelieving, it makes it worse. “He could still die.”
“If I had known…” She trails off as Burt’s fingers tighten around hers momentarily.
“If you had known you never would have introduced us to them. I know.” Carole doesn’t really respond because she knows that right now, Burt needs to worry about Kurt. When a doctor finally comes out, Carole moves to stand, but Burt tightens his hold, so she stays seated, and barely notices when Finn and Puck migrate over.
“Mr. Hummel,” The doctor starts. “Would you like to step into my office so we could discuss your son’s condition?”
“No…No, tell me right now.” Burt pleads and his voice is rough and hoarse. The doctor nods once before grimly stating what needs to be said.
“We’ve started your son on a broad spectrum of antibiotics to try and combat the infection. As you may have been told, someone used a knife to cut into you son and the wound were allowed to fester for a couple days at least. There are several cigarette burns on his arms and the souls of his feet, these will be painful, but should fade on their own. We’ve wrapped the index finger on his left hand, since his finger nail is missing, as well as his wrists, because of the ropes. His left cheek bone and the orbital bone of his left eye have been broken.” He pauses for a moment to take in the sick shock that paints over the faces.
“Unfortunately, there is more. While there are several contusions and cuts, our main concerns right now consist of the massive bruising around his neck, and the damage his legs took. His right leg was broken badly enough that we’ve had to put pins in it to reconstruct it. The left leg was hit hard enough to cut it open, but we were able to suture that back together.”
“But…he’s gonna be ok, right?” Finn’s voice sounds funny even to himself, and when he mother grips his hand he realizes he may be crying a little.
“It’s to soon to tell, at the moment, he’s hanging in there though. I’m afraid I could only allow immediate family into the room until tomorrow though.” Carole quickly assures them she understands and assures a protesting Finn, and silent, but stricken looking Puck out of the room, telling Burt to call her with any news. Burt takes a deep breath, steadies himself, and follows the doctor into his son’s room.
Kurt’s dressed in the hospital pajamas instead of a gown, and Burt flinches at the massive bruising on the left side of Kurt’s face and the bruising and slight swelling around his neck. There’s a breathing cannula under his nose, and his right leg is propped up slightly. Burt takes a seat and takes up Kurt’s right hand gently clenching his eyes shut and trying not to feel like he’s failed his son.
It isn’t working.
*******************
Three days later, they move Kurt to a regular room and he’s allowed more visitors. So far, Burt has restricted it to Carole, Finn, and Puck. He thinks the other kids could come later, when Kurt can stay awake for more than two minutes at a time, and he doesn’t wake up terrified each time. He’d learned quickly that he had to let Kurt figure out where he was before anything else, because the first time Kurt had opened his eyes, Burt had stood up quickly and was leaning over his son before Kurt had even gotten his eyes fully open.
The reaction had been terrible. Kurt visibly panicked, and flinched as far away as he could, mumbling incoherently and clenching his eyes shut. He’d had to be sedated. Burt quickly learned from that mistake and waited until Kurt figured out where he was, and who he was with before he moved. Kurt didn’t seem to be getting much better though. The doctors were worried that the infection wasn’t being combated and that even if Kurt being conscious was a good sign, his lack of understand of what was going on around him was worrying.
Burt sat, exhausted and worried, Kurt’s good hand clutched in both his own. The doctors said talking to him may help, because he may respond to something familiar. So Burt starts talking, tells him about what was going on at the shop, stories from when he was younger, hell he talked about his late wife. Anything he could think about, until he began to get disheartened, and his tone turned pleading and teary.
“I don’t know how many more scares like this I can take, Kurt.” Burt tells him. “I remember when you were born, so early, to early. The doctors didn’t have much hope, kept telling us that there wasn’t anything they could do, but even then, you were so strong. I remember the first time you grabbed your mom’s finger. You couldn’t even open your eyes and you were so tiny, but you grabbed her finger and she smiled, do you know what she said?” And he pauses, as if he’s hoping that Kurt is going to respond. He doesn’t, his face remains lax in sleep.
“She said, ‘I think you’re stronger than you’re letting on.’ And she was right. Because you survived Kurt, when no one thought you would. No one but your mom. Even I was afraid we were going to lose you. I wasn’t sure I was ready to be a dad you know. But then we had you, and I realized I wanted nothing more. You pulled through then. You pulled through every tough time, and you’ve always been strong. Stronger than you should have had to be, but I’m asking you, please just one more time, be strong and pull through.” He blinks hard and swallows trying to rid himself of tears, because he knows they won’t help. Not now, and he lets out a sad sigh.
“Please Kurt; just…be strong this one last time. Then I’ll be the strong one. I’ll do what it takes to be there, and if you need to fall apart, it’ll be fine, I just really need you to hang in there, just be strong, just this one last time.” He finally falls silent, but Kurt doesn’t reply. Burt doesn’t really expect him too.
*******************
It’s five hours after that when Kurt opens his eyes and calls for Burt, who is up and hesitantly talking to Kurt, who actually seems aware of where he is for once. Kurt haltingly tells him everything that he can remember when he’s asked, and Burt feels his vision tint red with rage. The fact that someone hurt his son like this, that they knew exactly what they were doing, well he just hoped that the police found them before he did. He’s almost afraid to touch him, something he hasn’t been afraid to do since Kurt was a baby.
But when Kurt breaks down recounting when they started carving words into his flesh, Burt gathers him up gently, still mindful of the wounds he’s sure hurts, and holds on. When Kurt wraps his hands around his arm and leans his head into his shoulder, Burt simply adjusts his hold. Burt has seen the words, seen the police photos taken when Kurt was unconscious and he can hardly stand to breath knowing the monsters who carved hateful, derogatory words into his sons flesh are still out there. He can almost feel how terrified Kurt must have been, still is.
He doesn’t have to heart to tell him that they’ll probably scar.
He lets the tears run their course and is a bit reluctant to let go when Kurt begins to pull back. Kurt takes a moment to accept the tissue he’s offered and clean up his face a little. It starts to feel heavy and oppressive in the room, so Burt scrambles to find safer ground.
“So your friends all want to come up, Mercedes has called me everyday since you’ve been here.”
“Not...Not yet. Please dad, I can’t see them all yet. I-” But Burt cuts him off with a soothing noise and gently smoothing his hair off his face.
“That’s fine, no one is rushing you. Finn and Puck have already been given permission to visit though, they’ve already seen the worst of it Kurt.”
“That’s fine…” it kind of wasn’t, but he wasn’t going to argue it. If they’d already seen him, he couldn’t keep them away now.
“Do you think you may be up for talking with Carole? She’s been wanting to talk to you.” For a moment, Kurt isn’t sure he is, but he nods anyway and Burt smiles in what can only be described as relief. He spends a few more minutes with Kurt, before going to find Carole. Kurt figures the sooner they have this conversation the better.
When Carole steps into the room, she takes one look at Kurt and then burst into tears. Which wasn’t at all how Kurt was expecting this to go, and he visibly panics. He doesn’t handle tears particularly well to begin with and being bound to the bed the way he was wasn’t making it any easier. Carole moves forward, leans over the guard rail and starts apologizing. Something Kurt finds a little confusing, because he isn’t sure why she would be apologizing to him. When she finally pulls back she’s surprised at what she sees.
She expected Kurt to be furious, bitter and quite possibly hate her, but she doesn’t see any of that. She sees confusion and he seems a little overwhelmed by everything, but he doesn’t seem upset with her. Which all in all doesn’t make sense, because he should be. Her family did this to him, hurt him in ways that barbaric and unheard of, and he should be furious, bitter that she had the gall to speak to him now, but he’s doing the exact opposite of that.
“Carole,” Kurt finally says and she brings her eyes back up to his face, battered and swollen, and she gently reaches out for his hand, careful of the gauze that’s wrapped around both wrists. “Why are you apologizing? You didn’t do this.”
“My brothers did.” Carole says, like that explains it. It apparently doesn’t, because Kurt still looks baffled.
“Last I checked…you weren’t them.” She can’t help it, she starts crying again, because this is going better than she had ever dared dream it would. Realistically, she can’t figure out why Kurt is being so kind to her still, because if it had been anyone else in this position, she was sure she would be blamed. Instead Kurt just gives her a weak smile before lying back against the bed heavily. “I’m tired.” He admits, and Carole stands, smoothing his hair back a little and giving him a smile.
“Ok, rest…we’ll be here if you need us ok?” She wants to apologize again, but Kurt’s already drifting off. When she goes back into the waiting room, and Burt notices her red eyes, she smiles and tells him what happened, that from all initial appearances, Kurt seems to harbor no hard feeling towards her at all. She notices the fond sad smile that flits across Burt’s face before he responds.
“He is his mother.”
*******************
The next time Kurt opens his eyes, Puck’s busy drawing something on his casted leg and Finn is kind of poking at the bag attached to his IV. That should probably concern him more than it does, but instead of telling Finn to quit, he decides to focus on Puck.
“That better not be obscene.” He says and Puck jerks in surprise before snorting, a relieved smirk filtering across his face.
“I make no promises.” Puck replies and Kurt can’t help but grin. At least Puck was behaving normally. Which is more than he could say for Finn, who nearly tripped all over himself to get closer to Kurt’s bed. If he shoved the chair much closer he’d meld with the side rail.
“Dude, it’s about time, we’ve been waiting forever!” Finn tells him, and Puck rolls his eyes.
“And by forever, he means about ten minutes.”
“Shut up, anyhow, how are you feeling? Are you ok, do you need anything? I could go get your dad…”
“Finn, breath.” Kurt tells him, head swimming a bit.
“You’re going to drive him back into unconsciousness if you don’t calm the hell down.” Puck says, not looking up from whatever it was he was drawing on the cast. Finn shoots Puck a nasty look before taking in a deep breath and trying again.
“How are you feeling?”
“Ok,” Kurt says with a shrug. Truth was he was a little sore, and uncomfortable, but they didn’t need to know that. Puck lets out a small snort and Kurt lets his eyes flicker down to him.
“Right, so tell me Hummel, if you’re ok, why do they have you on the real good shit?”
“That’s why I feel ok.” Kurt snarks back and Puck grins, because if he’s honest, he’s kind of missed this. Arguing with Kurt was fun for him a lot of the time, even if half the time he didn’t actually understand what it was Kurt insulted him with.
“The doctors said that once the infections gone, you can probably go home. It’ll be a while until you can go back to school though.” Finn tells him, he hesitates for a moment before gripping the hand rail. “Dude, I’m really sor-”
“No, no more apologies!” Kurt cuts in. “First your mom, and then you…why the hell are you apologizing? Stop doing that!” Finn looks like he’s going to say something, apologize again, but Puck glances up, capping the black sharpie and pulling out a red one.
“Told you so.” Then he bends his head to continuing working on the cast. Finn flounders for a moment, before switching topics.
“Mercedes is starting to scare me Kurt; you need to see her soon. I’m afraid she’s going to kill me if you don’t.”
“I will, just…not yet.” And Puck glances discreetly at him, and Finn looks like he‘s going to say something, so Kurt continues, feeling uncomfortable. “I just need a little time ok? The only reason you’re even here is because my dad said you saw the worst of it already.”
“Kurt…” Finn begins, unsure how to continue, but Kurt ends up yawning and then flinching as the movement pulls at his bruised face.
“Just give me another day or two, and then it’ll be fine. But small doses, I don’t know if I can handle to many people at once.”
“I’ll send Mercedes, Artie, and Tina as the first wave then.” Puck says, as if he’s planning a military invasion. “They’re the ones who keep threatening to murder Finn if they don’t get some information, like right now.”
“Fine, the day after tomorrow then.” Puck nods and it’s as simple as that. Finn fidgets before smiling and telling him about how everyone at school was so relieved that Kurt was ok, and even Karofsky had sent along some well wishes. He talks about anything he can think of that might interest Kurt, until the other boy dozes back off. He can’t bring himself to leave yet though, so he just contents himself to watching the machines around Kurt, and occasionally glancing at Puck, who’s still drawing on Kurt’s cast. He hopes that he’ll leave space for the rest of them, or Mercedes might kill him.
*******************
When Mercedes, Tina, and Artie are finally let in to see him, Mercedes starts crying the second she sees him, and carefully, crawls up onto the bed to lay beside him. Artie looks pale, and slightly murderous, but simply holds his fist out for Kurt to bump, which he does. Tina seems the most composed, though he can see the horror in her eyes.
“I can’t believe you let Puck sign your cast first.” Tina says finally, looking for a way to break the awkward silence. When Mercedes looks upset, Kurt holds his hands up in the surrender position, inadvertently flashing the white bandages around his wrists at them.
“I didn’t really let him; he just went ahead and took the liberty while I was sleeping.”
“Oh, well I guess we can forgive you for that then.” Artie tells him, and Kurt rolls his eyes.
“You’re to kind.”
“Don’t I know it.” The playful tone drops from Artie’s voice as he wheels closer. “Seriously though, how are you?”
“Sore.” Kurt admits, because if he’s going to come clean to anyone, it’ll be them, his closest friends. Mercedes rolls onto her side to hug him, draping her arm carefully across his body, resting just above where the hateful slur had been carved into his stomach, head resting on his shoulder.
“I’m so sorry.” She says, sniffling and Kurt isn’t quite sure what to do. He lets a hand pat her shoulder gently, but otherwise says nothing; he just looks at Tina and Artie who shift uncomfortably.
“Uh, so glee has been totally tyrannical without you.” Artie says, searching for something to take the heaviness away. “Rachel has been completely insane recently.” Which wasn’t untrue, she had been a little more insane than usual, constantly telling them how they needed to pull together and finding completely obscure and sometimes inappropriate songs to make her point. Apparently with Kurt gone, Rachel had gone several times more crazy.
“Ah, well I should be able to back to school after a few weeks, so you’ll just have to hang in there until then…”
“Oh man, a few more weeks, really?” Artie groaned and Kurt shrugged.
“Coach Sylvester is going to freak.” Mercedes says and Kurt bit his lower lip, he would probably have to drop out of the cheerios now that he thought about it. It was unfortunate because he did genuinely enjoy it, but there was no way coach Sylvester was going to let something like this stop her, she was simply going to kick him out if he didn’t drop out.
“Yeah, I know.” He replies softly and she tries to adjust her hold on him a little, trying to make sure not to hurt him, but wanting to comfort him nonetheless.
“The others want to come see you.” Tina says. “Brittany really wants to come, and even Santana said she wanted to swing by.”
“Yeah, ok.” Kurt says though he really isn’t ready to see people, he wasn’t ready to see Finn or Puck, he wasn’t ready to see Mercedes, Tina, or Artie, so he guesses it doesn’t matter that the others want to come, because it doesn’t seem to matter, he won’t ever be ready it feels like.
“Is there anything we can do for your Kurt?” Tina asks, and he actually takes a minute to think about it.
“Just…don’t worry so much. I’m ok…or I will be. Just relax and give me a little bit of time ok?” His friends exchanged looks, none of them knowing quite how to respond to that request. They all feel a little guilty, it seems like they expect a lot from Kurt, and he just can’t give it to them, not yet. It’s finally Mercedes who finds her voice.
“Sure. Can we come back and visit tomorrow?” And by tomorrow Mercedes means everyday, and Kurt nods his agreement, his friends love him, and he appreciates that, even if it will quite possibly drive him insane.
*******************
It’s just shy of a month before Kurt can return to school, and when he does its on crutches. He goes with as much dignity as he can muster, but it’s spread all over the entire school what happened, so he just watches on in surprise as people give him a wide berth or welcome him back. Karofsky even holds open a door for him. It’s weird and feels very twilight zone, Kurt just kind of wants it to go back to normal.
It’s fifth period on his third day back when he’s called into Ms. Pillsbury’s office, and he’s surprised when Finn is already there. Emma smiles when Kurt enters and wait’s for the time it takes him to get into his seat, thanking Finn quietly when he takes his crutches, and sets them to the side.
“I’m sorry for pulling you out of class for this, but I thought you should both know, Finn, you’re uncles have been found, and taken into custody for what they‘ve done to you Kurt.” She glances at Kurt, and for a moment she’s worried he’s going to pass out, the relief is so strong, and obvious. Then he turns to look guiltily at Finn, ready to apologize for his own relief when his uncles had just been arrested, but he’s startled when Finn lets out a whoop and jumps up, crushing Kurt to him in a hug, yanking him to his feet in his joy.
“That’s fantastic, it’s about damn time!”
“Ow…” Kurt manages as Finn seems to find every sore spot on his back to squeeze, and just barely avoids slamming into his broken leg. Finn lets go quickly, apologizing and getting red in the face, but Kurt brushes it off. “So…so it’s over then?”
“Well, there will most likely be a trial…Kurt you’ll have to testify if there is one.” She tells him gently, and Kurt stills for a moment, and when Finn’s hand latches around his shoulder and gives it a gentle squeeze he glances over at him.
“We’ll be there, if you want us to be.” Finn tells him. “Well, I’ll be there whether you want me to be or not actually.” And it’s said teasingly, meant to lighten the mood, and Kurt smiles weakly but nods.
“Ok…what else?”
“If it does go to trial, the lawyers will want to talk with you, and then they’ll go from there.” Kurt nods, and doesn’t resist when Finn yanks him into another hug, this one less enthusiastic than the last. He remains standing in the awkward position Finn pulled him up into as he retrieves his crutches for him. They exit together, but Finn can see this news, while good, has shaken Kurt a little, and suggests they cut the rest of the day.
When Mr. Schue comes across them in the auditorium instead of being in sixth, he’s surprisingly cool about it, and Finn figures that Ms. Pillsbury must have told him about what was going on. So he actually helps them go over the songs Kurt’s missed and when the bell rings, leaves them in peace, because he has a class that period. Finn sits beside Kurt, pulling up his loose pant leg to get better access to the cast. When Kurt looks at him strangely he just shrugs.
“I never got to sign it.” He tells him. He lets his eyes flicker over some of the designs, and messages from the other members of glee, and hell even several cheerios. After a few moments, Finn taps his pen against Kurt’s cast several times trying to think of what to say until Kurt looks at him in annoyance.
“Are you deliberately trying to annoy me?” Kurt asks, with amused exasperation in his voice.
“Uh,” and then Finn grins. “Yes. Because at the rate our parents are going, well may very well be step-brothers soon, and I think I should start annoying you now, so you’re prepared.” It works how Finn had hoped and Kurt lets out a surprised laugh, but rolls his eyes anyhow.
“Oh, well good to know, I guess.” He goes back to texting Mercedes who’s texted him asking where he is, and effectively ignores Finn as he draws every superhero symbol he can think of on Kurt’s cast, because really, he knows Kurt will hate it….and he thinks that will be kinda funny.
*******************
As it turns out, a trial will not be necessary as both Devon and Jeff cop to a slightly lesser charge and get a reduced sentence. Kurt has mixed feelings about it, but as long as their put away he suppose he can live with it. He manages to enjoy his time in Glee, even if he can’t participate as much as he would like, he finds his time spent with Artie to be amusing at the very least.
Life slowly, but surely, starts to go back to normal, and while they all seem to be a little closer in glee club, no one is treating him like he might break anymore. He figures once the news coverage of what happened dies down; things will go back to normal. And eventually, they begin to. So of course he’s surprised when two months later, Puck hesitantly, and rather awkwardly, asks him to go to the movies with him, as in, like a date. He isn’t sure what possess him to say yes, but he does.
The panic stricken look on his dad’s face is almost worth the awkwardness of telling him about it.
Yeah, things were getting back to normal.