This is different from anything I've ever done and I'm really excited about it. Now I'm of course doing research, and taking a few small artistic liberties but if there are any glaring inaccuracies please let me know.
Tabby Hudson groaned deeply as she stepped out of her mom's minivan. How had she gotten herself into this? She loved her Grampy, she really did, but he was the biggest weirdo, especially since Gramsy died a few years back, a reality that he never quite accepted. She knew it was partially the alzheimer's catching up to him, but he wasn't that far gone yet, something told her that her grandpa was a space cadet long before the senility kicked in. Gramsy, even with all of her crazy was the one who kept him grounded, the one who kept him together. They had always had a theory that while she was the more outwardly emotional and eccentric of the two, he was the one who was always on the verge of snapping.
The day of her funeral he showed up wearing a track suit and house shoes and carrying a giant teddy bear after he had stolen his son's car and disappeared for hours the night before. He explained to them that he had spent all of his money at Cedar Point winning it for her at the basketball hoop, that he couldn't show up at Gramsy's funeral without a giant teddy bear. It only got worse from there. Without his wife there to take care of him he got worse and worse, making scenes in public, picking fights, that time he showed up to Tabby's 14th birthday party in a Christmas sweater and swim shorts because he couldn't figure out his laundry. He never really forgave his children for sending him to a home, and his children never really forgave themselves, but the reality of the situation was that Finn couldn't make it without her, they were together for 65 years, you couldn't be with someone for 65 years without losing a piece of yourself when they left. It didn't matter that she had lived a long, full life, that she had traveled the world and raised babies and sang her heart out for years on the stage in front of adoring crowds. None of that brought him any solace in facing her death. He fell apart, plain and simple, and every time Tabby's mom, Finn's daughter, forced her to visit him at Shady Springs the experience was invariably maddening.
"Mr Hudson you have a visitor," The young nurse said.
"Tell them to fuck off," Finn said, not turning to face her.
"Hey Grampy," Tabby said ignoring his hostile behavior as she leaned into the door, trying to remain as positive as she could.
Finn turned to face her, "Who are you?" he said, narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously.
"It's me, it's Tabitha," she sighed. "You know who I am, don't pretend like you don't." She gave the tall, world-weary old man a hesitant hug that he didn't immediately return, she looked over his shoulder at the wedding picture sitting on his desk. Tabby was always surprised to see how handsome he was in his youth, he looked good for 91 she supposed, but still, she wondered what 26 year old Finn Hudson, with his thick brown hair and fine complexion and smoldering eyes would think of 91 year old Finn Hudson, with his white hair and hunched over posture, saggy skin and milky eyes framed by boxy old man glasses.
"Did you bring me any cookies?" He said scratching his silver moustache.
"You're not allowed to eat that stuff, remember?" She said. "Mom baked you some sugar free banana bread," She continued, handing him the dish. He reluctantly took it, the grimace on his face suggesting that he had just accepted a pile of barber hair baked into a loaf.
"I told you not to show your face here unless you have cookies," he said in a manner too serious to be taken as an attempt at humor.
"You've never said that, not once," Tabby argued dismissively.
"Well I'm saying it now, and don't you forget it," he said.
"So, how's the home treating you?" Tabby said, a bored expression on her face as she circled the room, absentmindedly touching the framed pictures on his desk and walls.
"The nurse stole my hearing aid," Finn said.
"You don't need a hearing aid Grampy," she sighed.
"Well I might, and then what?"
Tabby exasperatedly buried her face in her hand for a second as she sank into the nearest chair. "I'll talk to her," she said, humoring him.
"So, how old are you now anyways?" Finn said taking a seat next to Tabby.
"I'm 16," She said.
"You're tall, it ain't natural for a girl to be that tall."
"Sorry," Tabby said. "I'm not doing it on purpose."
"Your grandma was that smallest Dame I'd ever seen up close," he said fondly. "Did I ever tell you about when we met?"
"Yeah, she was a nightclub singer at that club in New York, you met the month before you shipped out to England."
"No, that's all wrong," Finn said. "Listen, this is a great story."
Tabby tried not to groan. "Okay," she said, checking her watch inconspicuously. It would be 45 minutes before her mom picked her up. "I'm all ears."
"Okay," Finn started. "It was the month before I shipped out to England. Me and Noah Puckerman were enjoying our last days as free men in New York City when one day we happened upon this nightclub…"
This was going to be a very long story, Tabby thought to herself.
If it makes any sense, Finn is 91 but the year is still 2011 so this is definitely an AU story, not a futurefic. And I'm looking very forward to featuring the other glee-clubbers as senior citizens. Finn is the framing device in the story, but it isn't entirely about him.
