Welcome to the final part of the Unicorns and Angels trilogy. I will post every Sunday at least from now on...
Turned Upside Down
Saturday the 28th of June 2014 began in the normal way for Finn Hudson and Kurt and Blaine Hummel-Warbler. Finn had stayed in bed slightly longer than usual as he had been assisting on a collection after an accident on the highway near Cleveland. He found them far less upsetting now than he had done when he had first been made to undertake the task shortly after his own arrival, but that was what nearly a year of doing the job did to you. He freely admitted that victims of auto accidents were his least favourite category of collectee - it brought reminders of his own death. But he had a job to carry out and his jovial easy going nature made him an ideal angel to send. He could calm small children (although afterwards he would often cry in Kurt's arms for hours); deal with teenagers, and charm the elderly with his manners, most of the time. Sometimes he took Blaine with him for that extra dapper touch; Kurt was great when it came to comforting the fashion obsessed teenage girls. Neither of them had yet had to undertake a collection on their own, but that was overdue to change. Both of them were aware of it, and had promised that they would accompany each other, at least at first. They just had to get used to it - it was part of the responsibility of being an angel after all.
Finn woke up, dressed, and headed across the hallway to Kurt and Blaine's loft. A loft so clearly sat in the heart of Manhattan, but accessed from a door on the first floor of Dalton Academy. A Dalton where the Senior Commons had a door that lead straight into the choir room at McKinley. The whole concept had confused him once, but now, he totally got it. Heaven after all was the places that you were happiest - to his stepbrother and brother-in-law, that was a combination of New York, Dalton and Lima. His thoughts stopped abruptly when he smelt the unmistakeable aroma of pancakes being made in the loft - with either blueberries or chocolate chips - and also when he was confronted by a note taped to the door, with three names written on it in handwriting he immediately recognised as belonging to his boss, Elizabeth Hummel. He pulled it free as he knocked on the door, and without waiting for an answer, entered. Sure enough, there was a stack of blueberry pancakes sitting on a plate in the middle of the table, and behind them a scene of domestic harmony that made Finn's heart light and happy. As Kurt cooked the last few pancakes, Blaine made coffee - on the table there was already a jug of juice. He greeted them warmly before heading to the fridge for butter, and to pull a bottle of maple syrup out of the adjacent cupboard. Another of the pleasures of being an angel was that you didn't have to worry about your weight.
Finn placed the note on the table, knowing that they would not worry about it until they had eaten. He took his usual seat at the table, waiting to help himself to pancakes once the others were seated, but pouring them all a glass of juice. Then they ate - Kurt eating a couple of the stack, whilst his husband and stepbrother between them demolished the remainder, smothered in butter and syrup. He shuddered at the calorie count - he knew in his head that it didn't matter, but old habits die hard. Cheesecake, now there was an exception; that and hot chocolate. He kept a close eye on Blaine; the main reason he put blueberries and chocolate chips in the pancake batter was to prevent bacon appearing with them instead - that was a treat reserved strictly for the weekend. They ate in silence - Kurt got up to fetch the coffee whilst the other two finished their pancakes. It was a sign of the big changes that had taken place in Finn that he would accept a cup of coffee. Before he had rarely drunk it - now, like the other two, he could not imagine starting the day without a latte, with just a spot of hazelnut syrup. It was whilst he was savouring his coffee that he remembered about the note.
He handed it to Kurt - it had been stuck to his door, and was from his mother after all. He took it, and after quickly draining his coffee cup, he opened it. The message inside was short and succinct - 'Boys, I need to see the three of you today as a matter of some urgency. The time has arrived for Blaine to make his first collection, and I know that he has asked you for support. I will be in my office all morning, but the earlier that you can make it, the better. Love Mom/Elizabeth.' Finn laughed at the signature, as he always did. She was mom to both Kurt and Blaine these days, but she would always be Elizabeth to him - it had taken him a long time to get used to that, and even now, he would occasionally refer to her as Mrs Hummel. He stopped laughing when he realised that Blaine had tears running down his face; that Kurt, his arm wrapped tightly around him, was in much the same state. He could recall his own first time all too vividly; the knowledge that you were going to collect someone whose time on earth was now over - it was hard, no matter how long it had been since your own life had ended. He got up, and placed his arms around both of his brothers. He would be there for both of them, whatever they had to do. He owed them so much…
Elizabeth knew that they were coming long before they arrived at the door. She could sense her son all the time and the state of his heart. She was sure that at this moment, he was in pain, because Blaine was in pain. She regretted now that she had stated on the note that it was Blaine that had to make the collection - it might have been better to have waited and told them once they were here with her. 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing,' she thought. As she waited, she monitored the world, keeping an eye on six boys that were boarding a flight at Dublin airport that would return them back home to the United States after a month long tour of Europe. They had all enjoyed themselves and had created a store of good memories. They would be able to draw on them in the near future, she hoped, when… it still hurt to even think about it. They had all bonded so closely when they had lost Finn, Kurt and Blaine in swift succession. That would ensure that what was about to happen would rip through them all with the same intensity, like a sword slicing right through them. Right now, however, it was the three young men at the door she had to focus on.
They knocked, and she invited them in. She had been rehearsing what she was going to say next for four months. It never got any easier, and the reaction that she imagined never changed - it was always a deep, heart-wrenching outpouring of emotion. As they entered, she noted the red eyes of both Kurt and Blaine - she mentally congratulated herself on ensuring that there was an extra supply of tissues in the room. She motioned to them to sit down, and after they had done so, she took a deep breath and began.
"I've asked you to come here today because, as I said in my note, the time has come for Blaine to make his first collection. I have to confess something though - I did not tell you the whole truth. Both of you have ably assisted Finn on collections, and you will both be allocated a task of your own in the next fortnight. The truth is, Kurt will actually make the first ordinary collection…"
Before they could speak and voice the questions in their eyes, she continued. "During the month of February, with the distractions of the Clarington trial, I let the paperwork slide so I could support you all. At the start of March, I finally got round to checking the lists for February. As you know, they show me six months in advance who is going to be joining us. The one for the week commencing 24th August drew my attention. When I said that Blaine would be the first to make a collection, I meant the first of someone that he knew - that you all knew." With that, she pulled out the relevant list, and pushed it to them, one name highlighted amongst all the others…
There was a moment of shocked silence. Finn had read the name and instantly felt cold. This was as big as their demise all those months before. Kurt had just frozen in place, his eyes reading and re-reading the name, as if he hoped to erase it by doing so. It stayed stubbornly in place, going nowhere. All he could think was that this would be like a bomb going off in the midst of his friends, tearing them all apart in the ensuing carnage. He turned to Blaine, to find him slumped forward onto the table, a low keening noise coming from him as he processed the full horror of what he had just read. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair; it had to be stopped. It could not be allowed to happen, under any set of circumstances.
As if she was reading his mind, Elizabeth said, "It is set in stone. It cannot be altered. There is nothing that any of us can do to prevent it. I am so sorry. I hoped that it would be several years before anything like this took place…."
"When will it happen?" said Blaine, in a tone filled with despair.
"Eight weeks tomorrow - the day after Nick and Jeff's wedding," she replied.
"So soon after it…is there nothing we can do, mom? Nothing at all?" begged Kurt. His mother just shook her head sadly.
"Don't think I'm ready for this - I can't do this…" said Blaine.
"It's always a shock, when it's someone you know. But you are ready," said Finn.
"Even if he is ready, why does it have to be them?" said Kurt.
"Sometimes there is a reason why they have been chosen to die we are unaware of," said Elizabeth. "Some good, and some…"
She stopped again, unable to think of the words to finish the statement. Blinking back his tears, Blaine finished it for her. "Lousy. In this case their reasons are lousy. If anyone deserves to live, and for a long time, they do. It is wrong, so wrong. It is just going to destroy everyone all over again, especially…" Blaine stopped, and took a breath. "Are they on the lists afterwards?" he said, in a hushed voice, noticing that Kurt's face had taken on a look of horror.
Elizabeth knew exactly who he was referring to, and shook her head. "None of your other friends have appeared on the lists so far, and I don't think they will. You are in a position to give them all the support that they will need. The advantage this time around is that they can all see you - and once our new arrival has grown their wings, then they will be visible to them all too. It will be a great comfort to them, given the circumstances of their death…"
"It's not another murder, is it?" said Kurt, in shock. His mother just looked at him; he knew that she could not say anything more, and so he did not press her to.
In the aftermath, they made their way back to the loft. Elizabeth had given both Kurt and Blaine the name and identity of the first collection that they had to make, along with the date, time and location they would be required to be in to do it. They would find them a useful distraction as the days passed. They also knew that another door on the corridor would have to lead to another apartment, and they already knew which door it would be. The style of the apartment contained therein they could guess at, based on what they knew of their friend. Once they arrived, weeks of adjustment would have to take place, no doubt beginning with a period of tears, pain and distress. The worst thing about it was the timing. They would have to keep a secret for the next eight weeks; have to pretend to be happy and carefree as they helped Niff with their wedding plans. They would have to see the person that would be joining them in heaven - there was no way of avoiding it. For Finn, things were all the more difficult. He could remember the last time it had happened to him. The sheer pain of having to go and collect Blaine had almost overwhelmed him. He had barely been past the pain of his own arrival when it happened. He could still recall it, and every other moment since the day he had woken up here; since the day he had died…
