Ch. 1

He closed the door behind Shelby with a sight, quietly, so not to wake up Beth. He loved her, but he remembered with dread the sleepless nights and frustrated days of Sarah's infant years, due to the crying.

This was it. He was alone with an eight years old and a newborn, with a drunk mother who only cared for her own needs and… his phone gave a beep. 'Talking to dad now, he wants to meet you before promising anything, can you come over?' It was Kurt 'do you mean like right now?' he first looked down at the sleeping baby in his arms, then at the celling, above witch a clueless Sarah was doing her homework. Another beep sounded. 'Yes, you can take the girls with you; I'll look after them while you talk to dad.'

20 minutes later, after first explaining to Sarah that he was keeping Beth, and getting an enthusiastic hug, a squeal and a big smile in answer. And putting Beth in the car seat Shelby had been nice enough to buy him; he stood, with a baby in his arms, an 8 years old hiding behind his legs and a baby bag which also included Sarah's unfinished homework, on the Hummel porch, knocking on the door.

Kurt let them in. Then practically grabbed the baby out of his arms, and soon had Sarah in his other hand and the baby bag over the shoulder.

"He's in the kitchen, just be honest and I promise you he will agree."

Then he looked down at Sarah and gave the somewhat scared girl a big grin. "why don't you come with me downstairs, I just went through the attic, and found all of my old Barbie dolls, would you like to play with them?"

She looked so excited when she looked at her brother for permission, that he almost couldn't bear to say what he said next, especially because Barbie dolls where one of the things he just couldn't afford, and she therefor only played with on one of the rare playdates. Not because she wasn't popular with the other kids, but because of his reputation, it was seldom that parents wanted her over.

"Homework." Was all he said and the light died in her eyes.

Kurt smiled at her with sympathy and said; "if you hurry up I'm sure there will be time to play. And if not, you will get to play next time." And the light was right back in her eyes.

And suddenly he was left alone in the entry way. He took a deep breath and walked in to the kitchen.

Mr. Hummel wasn't exactly a big man. But even sitting at the table, in the big feminine kitchen, he had a presents that were quite frankly intimidating.

Noah suddenly got the feeling that this man knew all about Noah's bulling of his only son. The stare he was leveled with was assessing, and Noah felt lost. He made a gulping noise and slowly moved towards the table.

"Well son, my Kurt tells me you are looking for a job." He threw Noah another assessing look.

"Why come to Kurt, and why do you need a full time job. Hell how will you even be able to work in the hours when you have school too?"

Noah took a deep breath and hold it for 5 seconds, while keeping the mantra of just be honest, just be honest, just be honest in his head. He breathed out and in again and started talking.

"First I want you to know that I've done all this before, yeah I had my nana Puckerman to help both with looking after Sarah when I was I school, and with finances, but I was also a whole lot younger." And then suddenly he felt threatened and had to defend, not himself, but Sarah.

"And no matter what you say about me Sarah turned out damn fine, so please believe me when I say I can do this."

He took another deep breath and flicked his eyes to meet Mr. Hummel's, then continued talking. "I don't know if Kurt told you, but Beth is my daughter. She was born the day before yesterday and her mother couldn't sign away custody fast enough. She had picked out a new mom for Beth and everything; she just needed me to sign. But how could I, especially when I knew I could take care of her. She's my god damned daughter." The last part was almost yelled out. But even through the yelling, Mr. Hummel had an understanding and even, dare he think it, sympatric look. He took another deep breath.

"Nana is in a retirement home, it cost a lot of money, so she can't help with the finances anymore. I have a job, but… no I promised myself to be honest… I call what I do being a pool boy. But let's be honest. How many pools need cleaning in the winter?" he gave a self-discriminating smile, and continued. "To say it frankly, I'm a prostitute." Mr. Hummel's shocked face made him snort in hilarity. "I have been selling myself since nana went to the retirement home a year ago." He bowed his head in shame.

"What the hell, that's statutory rape." Mr. Hummel almost yelled. The only reason he wasn't was because Kurt, Sarah and Beth was downstairs, and would hear it if he did.

"I know but it was the only way to keep food on the table, and Sarah started girl scouts, and… well… yeah, I had to do something to keep above water, or they would have taken Sarah away. I couldn't lose my daug-sister, I couldn't." he looked Mr. Hummel right in the eyes, he HAD to understand. Mr. Hummel nodded, with a grave face; he remembered the fear of losing Kurt right after Elisabeth's death.

Noah continued; "Sarah is 8 years old now. She's starting to wonder where the money comes from. I can't tell her what I do, and anyway I don't earn enough and the hours are too irregular, I need a real job, and I know that Kurt have to have a really good paying job to be able to always go around in that expensive clothing he's wearing." The break he took after the long explanation must have been too long, because Mr. Hummel spoke up.

"I can see where you're coming from son, but how are you going to work enough hours to earn that money, and still finish high school, because I'm not going to support you dropping out of high school. If you want any of your girls to have what you want for them, then you need to finish school, and get somewhere in life." Mr. Hummel gave him a stern look, and then a supportive smile.

"I know your garage is open in the weekend, I can work all weekend every weekend if needed, I mean as far as I'm able to have someone look after the girls, I mean I know that Kurt offered but that would be a little too much wouldn't it, and I can work after school, if I drop out of football and glee I'll have the time to work at least 4 hours a day without having to take days of for tournaments of contests, and…"

"Whoa son, deep breaths. Yes you can work in the weekend, I'm sure Kurt would love to have the girls when you work, he has said as much to me. You cannot drop out of glee, it would break Kurt's heart, and if you drop out of football you are throwing away your chance at a college scholarship."

They sat in silence for a little while when Mr. Hummel started talking again. "I see that you are serious about the hours but please don't throw your future chance at becoming something away, we will figure it out. Now there's only one question left; what do you know about cars?" Noah stiffened and hanged his head.

Why, oh why didn't he think this trough? He knew nothing about cars; at least not about fixing them, what was he going to do? He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up.

"okay." it was said in a tired voice, but there was laughter in his eyes. "I will teach you what you need to know, but you will have to work really hard, and I seriously hope you are a fast learner, because I can't take you on as charity son, I just don't have that kind of money. But if you do your best to carry your weight, and Kurt agrees to help out for a month or two when needed, we can do this."

Noah could feel the tears gather in his eyes. Normally he would have hidden the tears and acted like a real badass, but this was the first time someone outside of his nana cared… no, that wasn't true, Kurt cared first, if it wasn't for Kurt, he wouldn't even be here right now.

"Thank you." It was said in a whisper, and he didn't even know who he was talking to, Mr. Hummel, Kurt, maybe god. He didn't know, maybe all of them. He was given a chance. That was enough.