Valerie knocked tentatively on her brother's door and getting no reply entered anyway. Drake was drawn up into himself at the head of the bed, his face bent over his knees, just the occasional sniff escaping his tightly bunched form.

Val knew that she was perhaps the only person who could get him to talk when he was in a state like this. She knew her brother, and she had her own ways of getting him to talk.

"Whaddya want?"

The question was laced with an unusual amount of defensive hostility, but Val let it slide.

"Figure you got the Talk?" she asked matter-of-factly.

"Oh yeah? Who told you?"

"Dads having an over-emotional argument downstairs, and you crying up here. 2+2."

"I'm not crying!"

Drake rubbed his sleeve vigorously over his face, smudging the tear-streaks already lining his cheeks.

Val sighed.

"Look, it's hard. I know, believe me! I had a hard time coming to terms with it myself when they told me and-"

She trailed off, looking uncertainly at her brother. He was glaring at her with undisguised animosity and hurt flaring in the depths of his eyes.

"Drae...?"

"You knew!" he hissed at her, the fury lacing his voice catching her off-guard.

"All this time... You knew about me and- and you never told me!"

He was leaning forward, tears beginning to flow down his cheeks again, except this time he was making no effort to wipe them off.

Val recoiled a little.

"All my life, I've never been able to keep one secret from you. You've always found me out! But you?! I thought you were on my side, sis!"

"Drae! I-"

Despite herself, Valerie was dismayed. Seeing the hurt in her brother's eyes hurt her somewhere too.

"How could you not tell me, Val? How long have you known? And here I was, all this time, sitting like a fool, the only one who didn't know! How could you play me like that?!"

"Drae, no! It's- it's not like that! They- they made me promise not to tell! I- I couldn't-!"

But Drake shook his head, still unwilling to forgive.

"I trusted you. I believed in you, sis. But you betrayed me."

His words made her heart sink and she looked at him helplessly, tears of anguish stinging the backs of her eyes.

"I could never betray you, little bro," she whispered to no avail.

Drake got to his feet, pacing restlessly.

"You know, if it had been me in your place, I bet you would have got it out of me. You always have, haven't you? You wouldn't have had to face them completely naked and unprepared!"

"Drae, it's not like that at all!"

"Then what's it like?!" he nearly screamed at her.

"What is it like for you to know you were never wanted in the first place?!"

"Enough!"

A thunderous voice interrupted their argument. Drake whipped around to find Blaine standing in his doorway, a deep frown gracing his brows.

"You do not yell at your sister, Drake, you hear me? Whatever she did or did not tell you, she did because we told her to!"

Valerie bit her lip and looked away from her father and brother, discreetly wiping at her eyes.

Drake straightened up and turned to face Blaine, the fire still simmering in his eyes.

"I want to meet them," he demanded finally.

"My real parents. I want to know who they are. I want to go to them."


He stood outside the apartment, in the darkened corridor, shuffling his feet and suddenly unsure of himself. Blaine rang the doorbell and stepped back to wait. Drake cast a quick glance up at his father, but he didn't meet his gaze. There was the faint sound of scuffling and a woman's voice said,

"Andrea! Pick that up and go to your room like I told you!"

Drake's heart skipped a beat and his mouth ran dry. He licked his lips nervously.

Could that have been his mother's voice?

Suddenly the door flew open and a petite young woman with short blonde hair and grey-green eyes stood before them smiling up at Blaine.

"Blaine! Oh my God! It's been so long! You haven't changed a bit!"

Then she seemed to notice the young boy, standing just behind him and her eyes widened as her lips parted into a small 'O' of surprise.

"Collette, I'd like you to meet Drake. Drake, this is Collette."

Drake fidgeted with his jacket, feeling his cheeks heat up.

"Uh- hi..."

"Drake?"

She bent down to his level, taking in every inch of him. He looked away bashfully, too conflicted to even meet her eyes. After a while, she straightened, looking up at Blaine, a hand clutched to her mouth, her eyes swimming with tears.

"He's... just amazing, Blaine!"

Drake finally managed to look up at her, his mother, or atleast the woman who had given birth to him. He studied her thoughtfully, trying to absorb in the little details while not obviously staring. His sister had her eyes, he figured, and the long, slender fingers which made her such a talented pianist. He couldn't quite make out which of her features he had inherited, though.

Is she into music? he found himself wondering.

She was beaming down at him and holding out her hand.

"Come on in, sweetheart. Would you like some chocolate milk?"

Hesitantly, he placed his hand in hers and allowed himself to be led forward into the small apartment.

It was a small, shabby and cluttered apartment, evidently far too small for the family it housed. Drake automatically found himself thinking that Kurt would have a fit if he saw this place. As he passed by, a small shadow darted into one of the rooms down the hallway. Drake stopped and pretty soon a small blonde head peeked around one of the doors, holding a giant stuffed bunny beneath round, blue eyes. It must be the little girl, Andrea, he'd heard being called for earlier.

Drake felt his stomach flip within him. His mother had had more children after him. Children she had finally kept.

The little girl disappeared back into her room and Drake heaved a sigh, continuing on to join Blaine and Collette in the small living room.

The adults were both regarding him warily as he took a seat, and under their scrutiny, Drake felt at a loss for words.

Out of sheer habit, he found himself looking at Blaine for a cue on how to proceed, but then he remembered himself and looked away.

Collette reached out and touched his knee, her eyes full of sympathy.

"Drake, honey, I want you to feel free to ask me anything, ok? Anything you need to know. I'll do my best to answer."

He looked up at her, meeting her gaze squarely.

"Who's my real father?" he asked.

The tension in the little circle of three seemed to increase ten-fold.

Blaine looked away, staring intently out the room's single window onto a blackened adjacent building wall and Collette fumbled with her hands in her lap.

Finally, she spoke.

"His name is Hank Miller. I- uh- met him while I was working as a check-out girl in a grocery store. We dated for a while..."

"Where is he now?" Drake enquired eagerly, edging forward in his chair.

Collette looked up, an expression of the deepest apology clouding her features.

"I- I don't know, Drake, sweetie. He- he ran out on me before you were born."

A cold weight seemed to descend on his heart as Drake slumped back and he had a hard time keeping tears of defeat from leaking out of his eyes.

His father had run out on his mother. On him.

He looked at Collette again. He was having a hard time thinking of her as his mother. Truth be told, never having had a mother, he didn't really understand how he was supposed to feel towards her. He found himself studying her again, from the luridly painted pink nails to the short lime green skirt. She seemed a nice enough person, though perhaps a little scatter-brained, but she definitely had no sense of how to dress! He could never imagine either of his fathers ever being such a slob!

"Do you- uh- were you thinking of going to meet him too?"

Collette was speaking again, flashing glances of uncertainty first towards him and then towards Blaine.

Blaine finally wrenched his gaze away from the wall outside the window and looked at Drake, his face carefully indifferent. He wanted him to take the call.

Drake looked desperately at Collette.

"I want to know who he is."

But Collette addressed Blaine.

"I- I don't think that's such a good idea..."

Blaine interposed in a gentle tone.

"Did he know?"

Silently Collette shook her head, a tear trickling down her cheek. She reached up to wipe it away, looking embarrassed.

"I- I never told him. He... hated complications. I guess he was only in it for the..."

She sniffed loudly.

"After I found out ab- about the baby coming, I tried to make out whether he might be interested in a long-term committment. We got into a huge fight when I brought it up and the next morning, he was gone. He changed his number and didn't leave a forwarding address. I haven't heard from or seen him since."

She twisted her hands and then looked to Drake.

"I-I'm so sorry, sweetie. I- I was such an idiot back then. I never knew what I was getting myself into. That's why I set you up for adoption. I couldn't trust myself to be a good enough mom to you. I had so many things I had to sort out first. And I always wanted that you should have a good daddy. Kurt and Blaine were the most amazing parents I knew with Valerie and when I called them, I was so hoping they would take you too. That way I knew I'd never have to worry. You'd be going to the best home there was."

Drake was frozen in his seat, his eyes swollen and red with his effort of holding his overwhelming emotions in check. He glared at her, waiting for her to finish.

"So that's it?" he managed, his voice wavering terribly.

"You don't even know where he is?"

Collette apologetically shook her head.

Drake jumped off his chair and Blaine too got to his feet.

"Well, I guess this is where we say goodbye. I can't thank you enough for this, Collette. I know this can't have been easy for you."

But Collette was looking at Drake, standing with his hands jammed into his pockets, harnessing all his will power to just keep from breaking down and crying. She knelt in front of him and brushed his hair with her fingers.

"You've got the best family in the world, Drake, ok? I know your dads and I can safely tell you no one would have loved you more. Not even me."

Drake lifted his head, his eyes brimming over with his tears, his face crumbling as he looked at her.

"I don't know who I am anymore," he whispered tearfully.
"I used to think I did, but now I just don't know."

Collette's heart nearly broke for him and she quickly gathered him up into her arms.

"Oh honey. You're such a marvellous little boy. You don't have to worry about that! You're smart and so... so handsome!"

She smiled, tears gathering in her own eyes as she smiled proudly at him.

"I- I just wanted to see where I come from... you know? Just... for once."

Collette nodded.

"Look, I can't promise anything, but I could call some of the guys Hank used to hang out with. They might just have a lead on where he is, ok? If I find anything, I'll call you at home."

She looked up at Blaine to see if that was alright and he nodded once. Then the three headed for the door.

As he passed the hallway, Drake stopped once more and looked down the row of doors. The little girl from before was nowhere to be seen.

"You- you have kids?" he asked, a little hesitantly.

Collette smiled down at him and nodded.

"Yes, I have a little girl, Andrea. Would you like to meet her?"

Drake shrugged, suddenly shy again.

Collette walked down the hallway and opened one of the inner doors.

"Annie? Honey, could you come out for a minute? There's someone I want you to meet."

She walked back out, trailed by the little girl with blonde hair like her mom's, tied into a messy little braid. She was still clutching onto the big stuffed bunny as she gazed up at Drake. She couldn't have been more than five years old.

"Annie, this is Drake. Can you say hi?"

"Hi, Drake," she mumbled from behind her stuffed animal.

Drake did his best to smile back.

"Hi."

He looked back at Collette.

"Have- have you met... Val?"

Collette's smile slipped a little and she fumbled with her fingers again, not quite meeting his eyes.

"Uh... no, I haven't. I- uh- don't think she wanted to..."

She looked to Blaine for help. Blaine looked down at his son and said briskly,

"Come on, Drake. Time we headed home."

He reached out his hand.

Drake took one last look at his birth mother and the daughter she'd decided to keep, nodded them a farewell and followed Blaine, keeping his hands still stuffed down his pockets, refusing to accept his father's hand.


The next few days passed in a series of tense, awkward moments for the Hummel-Anderson family. Drake would barely talk to any of them, exchanging only the most cursory of communications needed to get on with their everyday tasks. He would hole himself up in his room most of the time and only come out for meals or to use the bathroom. Kurt and Blaine decided to be patient, giving Drake the space he needed to sort the situation out. But it was evident that Valerie missed her little brother. His denouncement of her had touched her deeply, even though she was loath to admit it, and even though Kurt and Blaine tried their best to comfort her and keep her distracted, telling her that he just needed a little time to come around, she would find herself lying awake in bed late into the night, staring longingly at the wall separating her room from his.

It was almost a week later, after the kids had gone to bed that Blaine's phone buzzed urgently on the nightstand. Blaine picked it up and frowned at the name blinking on the screen.

Kurt looked over at him from where he was reading, curled up on the opposite end of the couch.

"Who is it?" he enquired.

"Aren't you going to get it?"

Blaine continued to frown absent-mindedly.

"Yeah... It's Collette."

"Hi, Blaine?" Collette's voice rang out from the other end as Blaine put it discreetly on loudspeaker.

"Hi, Collette. What's up?"

"Hey, is this a good time? I needed to talk to you about something."

Kurt was listening in attentively too and at this, the two husbands exchanged a wary glance.

"Sure, Collette. Go ahead."

"Uh... it's about Drake's dad, Blaine. I- I think I've found him."


Kurt's glasz eyes bored into him as he pursed his lips into a clearly disapproving thin white line.

Blaine was still looking at his phone, a puzzled faraway expression on his face.

Collette had called to say that she had called some old friends of her ex-boyfriend's and had managed to locate Hank Miller, Drake's biological father. He was currently living in Jackson, New Jersey, and worked at a gas station there. If they wanted, they could drive down there to meet him.

"No," was Kurt's flat answer.

"Absolutely not. I don't want Drake mixing with any gas station hand from Jersey!"

Blaine looked over at him.

"That gas station hand is his father, Kurt," he tried to reason, calmly.

Kurt's eyes flashed with indignation.

"We're his fathers, Blaine! Or do I have to drag out the adoption papers to remind you!"

Blaine sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"We promised him answers, Kurt," he responded wearily.

"And right now he wants to know who his biological father is."

"He's a booze-addled good-for-nothing who ran out on his pregnant girlfriend the minute he realized he might have to take on some responsibility for the first time in his life! What kind of a father is that?!" Kurt grumbled darkly.

Blaine rested his hand on top of his husband's.

"I don't like it any more than you do, honey, but I don't think he's going to let this go until he faces him atleast once. He needs the closure, Kurt."

Kurt didn't respond, choosing to stew in his stormy silence.

"I'll be with him the whole time, I promise, Kurt. I won't let anythng happen to him."

"What if he doesn't want to come back, Blaine?"

The question was quiet, but the hurt and the fear stung at Blaine all the same.

"Well then this is where all the love we've invested in him over the last ten years gets put to the test. We've got to keep some faith in our son. We have to believe he'll come back."


It had been a long drive into New Jersey and the three people sitting in the car, Blaine, Drake and Collette were hot, sweaty and on edge.

They were parked across from the gas station at which Collette had found out Hank Miller worked and were now debating their next course of action.

Drake stared out his window at the people walking about the pumps, desperately trying to see if any of them might be recognizable as his father. But it was strange to think of his father being anyone other than Kurt or Blaine. Bubbles of heat were forming and exploding in the pit of his stomach as he waited, and he drummed his feet incessantly against his seat.

"Can you tell which one he is?" Blaine asked Collette, twisting around in the driver's seat.

Collette lifted her hot pink shades high on her forehead and squinted out at the distant station. She studied the number of figures milling around until her attention was caught by the tallest, dressed in the standard coloured jumpsuit of an attendant, pulling out a fuel hose. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the ghost from her past and she fought to quell the wave of anger and hurt that flared within when she saw him.

"That's him," she indicated, pointing.

"The tall guy in the jumpsuit with the hose."

Drake's stomach flip-flopped as his eyes locked onto the man she had indicated. He couldn't make out his features from this distance, just that he was really tall and had a messy mop of dark brown hair.

His father. His real father.

He forced himself to feel excited, even though what he really felt was more like a sick dampening feeling of disappointment. Somehow he'd always pictured his father being a bit more dramatic.

Ha! That's how Kurt would think! he caught himself thinking, before he could stop himself.

The man had disappeared behind the chassis of an SUV, but Drake kept his eyes fixated to the spot.

"So how are we going to do this?" Blaine looked around at the other two.

"You want me to come with you?"

He directed the last question directly at his son. Drake looked up at Blaine. He seemed nothing but supportive, but he shook his head slowly.

"I'll go on my own."

Collette reached out a hand to Drake.

"Honey, remember he doesn't know about you, ok? So don't think he'll recognize you."

Drake nodded again, forcing himself to be calm.

"Yeah. Sure."

He cleared his throat which had suddenly gone dry.

Blaine fumbled in his pocket and handed him a ten dollar bill.

"Here. Pretend like you're going into the 7-Eleven, ok? See if you can strike up a conversation. You can even ask him for a can of motor oil. Think you can handle that? Sure you don't want me along?"

Blaine's genuine concern made Drake's chest constrict somewhat. But he smiled awkwardly and nodded, opening his side door.

"I'll be fine."

He stuffed the ten-dollar bill inside his pockets, hunched his shoulders and quickly walked across the street towards the man who didn't even know that he would be meeting his son for the first time.


Hank Miller was muttering various profanities under his breath as he helped change a flat tyre for the pretty rich blonde girl who had pulled her SUV into the station. She seemed to have no qualms about strutting around in her ultra-short skirt showing off her long tanned legs which distracted his partner from the job he was supposed to be helping him with.

"Hey, Bo! Wouldja get your eyes off her shanks and give me a hand with this?" he growled nevertheless getting an eyeful of the beauty standing to the side.

He spat out his gum and lifted a car-jack, positioning it so he could get at the wheel. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a young boy walking towards the attached 7-Eleven store stop and watch the proceedings with more than the usual amount of interest.

Ha! Hank thought to himself, There's a kid might turn into a grease monkey like me though his posh papa might not be too happy about it!

It took a while, but finally he had the tyre changed and accepted a generous tip from the girl with a doff of his cap. She waved flirtatiously at his much younger partner and he had no doubts he'd be having wet dreams about her tonight. Much to his chagrin, though, Hank noticed the boy who was staring at him earlier didn't seem to have moved from his spot. He was still gawping at him as though he was some sort of celebrity and it was beginning to get on his nerves.

He scowled as he walked over to the kid, wiping his grease-blackened hands on a rag.

"See anything you like, kid?" he growled.

The boy took a step back. Hank towered over him like a giant.

"Uh... n-no, sir."

"Then what you been staring at?"

"Uh..."

The boy seemed to have lost his tongue.

"You goin' to the store?"

"Uh... y-yeah...?"

"Well then beat it!"

The child looked terrified. He swallowed hard but then stepped up.

"Uh... I'd like to buy a c-can of oil... sir."

Hank turned with agonizing slowness. Would this kid never get off his back?!

"Oil? You mean engine oil?"

"Y-yes."

"Which one?"

For a moment, the boy seemed baffled, then he looked around him to a rack with motor oil cans arranged on it.

"Th-that one."

He pointed, seemingly at random, to a can of Mobil oil.

Hank took it down, wiping it off with his rag before handing it to him. He scrutinized the boy up and down. He seemed posh, well-dressed in expensive clothes and high-end trainers.

Fat chance of him ever ending up a grease monkey.

"That'll be 8.50."

The boy pulled out a crumpled ten dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to him. Hank passed on the can of oil. Their fingers brushed upon the exchange and Hank fiddled in his own pockets for change.

"Sorry kid. Only got two dollars."

The boy nodded, taking him in just as he'd been doing a moment earlier.

"It's ok. Keep the change."

With a last look back, the boy walked away, crossing the street to a Land Rover parked across the street.

Hank watched him go, unable to shake a strange feeling about him. Almost as though he'd seen him before...


Drake got into the car, Blaine and Collette both waiting breathlessly for a reaction. He didn't look at them even though he could feel their expectant gazes on him. He stared out the windscreen, setting the oil can on the dashboard. Finally, he broke the silence.

"Can we please go home now?"

Sorry for the late update, but was swamped all weekend. Enjoy and let me know what you thought!