Kurt Hummel was in a good mood. His new line, based out of Milan, was selling like hotcakes. He was sitting in the living room of his apartment, enjoying a nice Italian sparkling wine, on a perfect late afternoon, with Blaine. They had tickets for La Scala that night: Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio was playing, with the new tenor Enrico Falcone. His phone buzzed, and he cringed when he saw who it was. He had a feeling the perfect day was about to screw the pooch.

"Hi Rachel, " he said, pleasantly, fighting it to the end.

"Hi Kurt! " Rachel sounded good. His hopes rose. "Guess who I met today?"

Crap.

"Who?" But he knew.

"Your lovely niece, Nell, that's who!" Rachel hissed. "Apparently, she got into NYADA! Imagine my surprise, especially after finding out you suggested she look me up!"

Kurt sighed.

"Fortunately," Rachel went on, "She is a delightful, talented girl. And I have three months off, as you know. So I can devote a lot of time to helping her out. I'm introducing her to Tom later in the week."

Relief washed over him. His instincts about his best friend, who he loved to death, had been right, after all. That made what followed so much easier to bear.

"That's great! Thank you," he said, sincerely.

"Yes, it is. What isn't great, however…" there was a pause on the line. An image flashed before his eyes of Rachel loading a blunderbuss. "…is you're failure to let me know she was admitted! What the fuck, Kurt?"

There was another pause, then:

"Is it Finn, Kurt? Did he prevent you from telling me? "

He wasn't going to outright lie to her.

"Rachel, Finn didn't want me to tell you. But that's because he didn't even want Nell to attend NYADA."

"WHAT?" He could almost smell the ozone rising from the burning airwaves. "Is he insane? Nell is perfect for NYADA."

"Agreed, Rachel."

Kurt sighed. Long ago, they had agreed to stop discussing his brother, because it always ended at the same place.

"It's me, isn't it? Isn't it? Does he hate me that much? " The anger and frustration behind her voice killed him to hear. But he had to let her know one thing.

"Rachel, he doesn't hate you. I keep telling you that."

He could hear her clear her throat.

"What's a bullshit euphemism for hate, Kurt? 'Cause that's exactly what it feels like, the way he's treated me." Then she stopped, sighing resignedly. "I'm sorry. I hate when we talk about him. Family. I just hope your useless brother appreciates what I'm doing, even though you can tell him from me that I'm not doing it for him. Or even for you, for that matter. It's for Nell."

Kurt carefully said nothing, and waited for that to sink in.

"Oh my God! Finn doesn't know you told Nell to look me up, does he?"

"Um…no."

"Well, I 'm going to tell you one thing, Kurt Elizabeth Hummel, if he gives me any crap for it, there's going to be bloodshed, and most of it will be yours, you hear me?"

He made a mental note to hate himself later for smiling at the image of an outraged Rachel making a death threat. Oh how he missed her.

He admitted he had gone ahead and told her without Finn's permission, because he wanted the best for his niece. After all, he was the one that convinced Finn to let her go in the first place.

"Will he be angry with you? Not that I understand why he should feel that way. I never—" She stopped herself, and Kurt smiled. He knew how hard it was for her to talk about Finn without ranting. Not that he blamed her; his brother's shadow haunted Rachel still. It pained him not to be able to tell her everything he knew. He just wished she believed him when he said Finn didn't hate her. Such a thing was, literally, inconceivable for his brother.

"Finn does have his lucid moments, but he has a lot on his plate these days. He may be furious with me for a while, maybe not. But if so, he'll calm down, eventually."

"Is he ok, Kurt?" Rachel's voice had softened, finally. "Nell was cagey when I asked her."

"She's had a tough time, Rachel," Kurt said. "Nell's been practically running the house since Alice died. Finn pretty much shut down for the first few months. I intervened when he balked about letting her attend NYADA. I told him Nell had been the interim head of his household, damnit, AND keeping her schoolwork up. She deserved this honor, and she deserved to live her life. After all, he wasn't the only one who lost Alice. Sarah's been doing her part as well, bless her heart. She lets me know how he's doing. She says he seems to be getting over Alice, but his behavior has become erratic overall lately, as if he is under some other stress. It's affecting his sleep. But Sarah promised to raise the alarm if it was anything she couldn't handle."

He heard Rachel sigh.

"Okay, let's hope he gets better—for their sake." Kurt agreed, but Rachel then asked, "Does Nell know anything about Finn and me? Even just being co-captains of Glee? I didn't broach the subject, given this whole fucking weird situation, but I don't want to step out of bounds."

He had to down almost an entire glass of wine in one swallow before he could answer.

"Neither of the girls know about you, other than you and I have been friends since high school," he managed to get out.

"Oh." His heart went out to his friend, hearing the hurt in her voice. "Well, I suppose that's to be expected, out of respect for their mother." That was better, though what she said next broke his heart. "I suppose you expect me to carry on this ridiculous fiction, if Nell asks? I mean, she's not stupid."

"Please do what you think best for Nell," he said. "I trust you with my niece, because you have a beautiful heart."

"Thank you," she said quietly. "I'll be discrete, but I won't lie for him, Kurt."

"I know," Kurt said, "And I would never expect you to lie for him."

In fact, he thought as he got up for more wine, he was counting on it.