A/N: I did not write this. Meiko gave me explicit permission to repost this here, for your ease of reading. But I am not claiming to own this, have written this or been involved in the writing of this in any way. I also have not edited it in any way, shape or form.

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, this idea or this chapter.

David followed Wes out of Blaine's room nervously, the two of them had been best friends for as long as he could remember and he just knew that Wes had been holding back in that room. People who didn't know the boy would describe Wes as anal, harsh and a little bit conceited but David knew better than this. His best friend was the single most compassionate person he had ever met; he just didn't know to express those feelings. Ever since they were little Wes had felt extreme pressure from his parents to be perfect. The Warblers were like Wes' babies and he had clear ideas of how everything should look and sound, he just didn't know how to put those ideas across without seeming uptight. As for seeming harsh, Wes was just honest and brutally so. He refused to lie saying that "The truth is always so much simpler", the issue with this however was that he often forgot to consider how things sounded before he said them. He was also more moral than anyone in David's life and a wicked practical joker once you got him out of his uniform and relaxed.

The tall dark boy found himself running to keep up with his best friend, "Wes wait!" He laid a hand on his arm and the head Warbler turned his dark eyes on his friend.

"No David. You're not going to calm me down this time. I am going to find James and I am going to beat the living shit out of him, then I am going to get the bastard expelled." He growled trying to pull his arm free, David hung on valiantly.

"That's not you and you know it! Kurt wouldn't thank you for it and it wouldn't help in the long run anyway. Besides I don't think you're 'beating the living shit' out of anyone with that hand. Not tonight."

Wes grinned, somewhat mollified, "Yeah," he murmured. "Punching the bed probably wasn't my best decision."

"No," David agreed readily, "But I know why you did it. Now if you're quite done freaking out we need to go and talk to Thad, and then we should probably go and explain to Jeff why his dorm is covered in blood." He slung his arm around his friends shoulders, "I know that you're upset Wes, we both are, but there's nothing that we could have done to stop this. We didn't know, Kurt didn't tell us."

Wes nodded and dropped his head onto the David's shoulder as the headed towards Thad's dorm. Despite what people thought there really was nothing romantic going on between the two, David was 100% straight and (officially) Wes was too – if some brief experiments the previous year were not taken into account. They were just unnaturally close, the correct term was "bromance" they supposed.

"Still," Wes sighed, all fight seemingly gone. "At least some good came out of this mess; I bet you anything those two are together by morning."

David let out a deep chuckle "No one in their right mind would take that bet mate. It's about time though; if I had to listen to one more minute of Katy Perry I swear I'd have thrown myself out of the window… Or Blaine out of it at least, followed by his IPod."

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Ten minutes later Thad was fully aware of the situation, he had taken the news better than expected. David assumed this was due to the fact that Thad didn't really know Kurt, he was angry of course – who wouldn't be? – but he was more worried about the damage to the Warblers. Wes and David had left him pouring over diagrams trying to work out how to rearrange the group now that they were one member down. Ordinarily Wes would be in there helping him but the boys had one more stop to make before they could relax for the night. They reached Kurt's room and took a deep breath before knocking. A very angry looking Jeff answered the door.

"Wes. David." He nodded kurtly, "I suppose you're here to tell me what the fuck happened in my fucking room. I just spent two hours getting stains out of the carpet, two hours guys! What do I look like a maid? If I find out it was because you two played some stupid prank on Kurt again I swear I will come after your families – as if the feathers and honey from last time wasn't bad enough – what are you guys twelve? And another thing - "

David held up his hands in mock surrender, "Jeff please, it wasn't us this time!"

"And for the record, that last prank was a classic. I saw it on The Parent Trap!" Wes pouted, unable to help himself.

"Anyway," David continued, shaking his head at his friend, "James attacked Kurt. He's staying in Blaine's room tonight."

"A – Attacked him?" Jeff sat down heavily on the bed, he didn't really get on with Kurt, he was a nice kid he supposed but he didn't really understand him. He couldn't imagine anybody wanting to hurt him though. "Is he ok?"

Wes glared murderously at the floor, his brief moment of good humour gone "No." He said shortly.

"He will be." David said more softly, "Look Jeff, we really can't tell you anything else. We just thought you should know. See you tomorrow in rehearsal."

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"I'm not nothing, and I'm not worthless."

"What did you say?"

Wes stood immobilised behind the councils table, his body shaking with suppressed fury. He longed to jump over the table and smack James' smug face in. He felt David place a warning hand on his elbow and relaxed into it. David was right of course, he wasn't a fighter, he never had been. But still. How dare he? How dare he just walk into this rehearsal as if nothing had ever happened? As if the three of them hadn't walked in on his sick little games last night? How dare he lie like that in front of all of the Warblers, all of Kurt's friends?

"I said. I'm not nothing, and I'm not worthless. It's taken me a long time to work that out. You're a bastard and what you did was fucking wrong. It wasn't my fault. Now go."

The council leader couldn't help but smile a little, he was proud of Kurt for standing up to him like that. Wes would be the first to admit that he had not always got on with Kurt Hummel. If he was honest, his first thoughts had been 'SPY!' and he hadn't moved on from that for a while. And then Kurt had transferred and all Wes could see was a spoilt little boy who stuck out far too much and was using a little name calling as an excuse to steal one of his best friends. But then he saw how much Blaine had come to love Kurt and he was forced to reassess his views of him, over the last few weeks Wes had started to warm to the slender boy, and from what Blaine had briefly explained to them the previous night it seemed that he had vastly underestimated just how bad the bullying at McKinley had been.

Wes watched as James hissed a final insult at Kurt before storming out, he saw Kurt's lip tremble and his knees begin to give, he quickly found his voice,

"Warblers! I think we can safely say that the rehearsals cancelled for today. I want you all here at 4'oclock sharp tomorrow. No excuses!" He banged his gavel for good measure and hung back, exchanging nervous glances with David as everyone else filed out.

David walked up to Kurt and clapped him gently on the shoulder, "We'll see you later Kurt yeah?" he murmured softly before heading out of the door.

Wes followed, head down, wishing that he could have thought of something comforting to say.

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David knocked twice on his best friend's door and entered, he hadn't seen Wes since the disastrous Warblers rehearsal and he was worried. He thought he knew what was upsetting his friend but he needed to talk to him to be sure, unfortunately it wasn't a conversation that he was looking forward to having.

Wes was sat on his floor, back against his bed, and book abandoned next to him, staring off into space. His hair was sticking up as though he'd been running his hands through it. Anyone else seeing this version of Wes would be shocked, this was not the straight laced leader of Dalton Academy Warblers or his partner in pranking crime. David however knew this side of his friend all too well. He let out a sigh and sank down on the floor next to Wes, when he spoke he kept his gaze straight ahead, David knew that Wes would not thank him for eye contact during this conversation.

"What are you thinking about mate?"

Wes was silent for a couple of minutes before he replied, "You know what I'm thinking David," he said quietly, looking down, "I'm thinking that we need to tell someone."

David nodded slowly, "Normally I'd agree Wes, but you heard what Kurt said about his dad. What if he's right?"

"From what Blaine's told us Kurt's dad is a lot stronger than people think. What if James goes after Kurt again David? Or what if he does it to someone else? We can't let him get away with it. I won't let someone get away with something like this again."

He said this last sentence so quietly that David could barely hear it, he had however been waiting for it, "Wes mate…. This is a completely different situation to what happened with Julie, and we've been through this, you know that wasn't your fault."

Wes turned sideways to face David, his deep eyes burning directly into his friends down turned ones, David winced as he looked up, their gazes locked and he saw Wes's steely determination, "I knew that he was beating her up and I didn't say anything because she begged me not to. I knew that her husband was hurting her. It is exactly the same thing."

"Please Wes," David practically begged, "Don't do this to yourself, Julie wouldn't want-"

"I don't know what Julie would want!" Wes practically screeched jumping up, he took a deep breath and spoke again, more quietly, "I do not know what she would want because she isn't here to tell me. My sister is dead and nothing can change that but I won't let Kurt get hurt anymore than he has been, no matter how much he and Blaine hate me for it. Now either hand me the bloody phone or get out, but I need to do this."

David looked into his best friends eyes for a fraction of a second more before he handed over his own cell phone. He closed his eyes as Wes dialled three numbers:

9-1-1.