A/N1: Thanks for all the reviews, alerts, and adds. All you Gleeks are awesome. Working on the fic is such a joy. Sorry the update took so long.

A/N2: I do not own Glee, the characters, any songs, or any TV shows mentioned. If I owned Glee we would see a lot more of Puck, preferably shirtless.

A/N3: As of 8-22-11 I now have a Beta and am reloading chapters. Thank you GirlInTheMirror121 for helping with this, you're a miracle worker. You are saving my sanity. Updated on 8-26-11.

A/N4: I'm back it's been a long absence, but hopefully this will be complete soon. I am in the process of re-editing, reposting, and refreshing my self with this story. So here we go again. Updated on 11-6-16.

Chapter Seven

Kurt picked up the tray of drinks and headed to the living room. He studied the gentleman his father was greeting. The man was dressed in an impeccably tailored charcoal suit and tie with a navy shirt. Kurt approved. He sat the tray on the coffee table and moved so he would be sitting on the couch between Noah and Finn when they took their seats. Carole and Noah came in behind him, and each brought in a tray of food.

His dad led Mr. Wayne into the living room. It was hard to believe the two went to school together. Mr. Wayne looked years younger than his dad. Maybe his dad's heart attack had been even harder on him than any of them had noticed.

Mr. Wayne shook Carole's hand first. "Mrs. Hummel," he simply greeted.

"Call me Carole," she said moving to stand by the chair nearest the kitchen. His dad stood in front of the chair. Finn came up on Kurt's left and Noah circled the couch to take the place to his right. It was like they were cocooning him in and it made him feel safe and loved.

Mr. Wayne took Noah's hand next.

"Perry Wayne," the lawyer said.

"Noah Puckerman, sir."

"You must be Kurt, you look so much like your mother," Mr. Wayne said shaking his hand and giving him a small, sad smile. "And that makes you Finn, right?"

"Yes, sir," Finn said as he also shook the attorney's hand.

"Fine looking young men," Mr. Wayne told his parents as he seated himself in the vacant chair situated across from his dad. "You two are very lucky."

They all sat down. Kurt sat closer to Noah than Finn. His left side was starting to hurt and he didn't want the clumsy teen to accidentally bump him. Noah may have seen the damage to him, but none of the others had and he wanted to keep it that way.

"I've considered myself the luckiest man I know since the day Kurt was born," his dad said. "And we've both been happy to add Carole and Finn to the family."

He had never heard his dad say that about him before. He blushed and shifted a tiny bit closer to Noah.

"I do wish we had met under better circumstances," the man said as he removed a yellow legal pad from his briefcase. "Burt and I were good friends back in the day."

"I'm just glad you can help," his dad said.

"I hope I can. I've already made a few calls to see what options we have. Basically, we have a 48 hour time frame to work with, and we've almost lost half of it already," Mr. Wayne explained as he flipped through the pages of his yellow legal pad. "Before we go over the options, I need to conduct an initial interview with each of you so I can gather information. We can either do this here as a group or in private as a one on one interview. One on ones are preferred, but most of you have already discussed this to different extents with each other so together would be fine as long as you don't interrupt each other or try to correct each other. You have to understand that each of you will remember things differently and have different points of view. How we do this is up to you? What makes you comfortable?"

Mr. Wayne looked right at Kurt as he asked the last question. He was comforted in the thought that Mr. Wayne was putting him first in this. He wasn't sure he wanted his parents to know everything that happened in that room last night. He also knew he wouldn't be able to handle talking about it without Noah. Sweet Gaga, Noah had been so good to him through all of this. It hadn't even been 24 hours since this mess started, and he knew that he and Noah had formed a special bond. He thought of Noah as a friend now and didn't like the idea that once he was stable things would change. He feared Noah would become Puck again. That once they went back to school, caring Noah would be replaced with badass Puck. It was going to be painful.

He studied his dad for a moment and inched closer to Noah again. Now there were only a couple inches left between them. He was so worried about how his dad would take all this. He still worried constantly about the older man's heart. How much stress could his heart take before it gave out again? His dad would be so furious. Burt would want to storm Dalton, Kurt was sure of it. His Daddy was a bear of a man when he needed to be and when it came to his son, he had a short fuse.

"Daddy promise you want blow up? Please try to stay calm," he pleaded.

"Kurt, I have to know what happened," his dad stated.

"I don't want you upset. What about your heart?" he asked.

Before he or his dad could speak again Noah spoke up. "Kurt you know that's unfair to ask. He's your dad. He's already upset, he's already furious. He has every right to be," Noah looked from the younger Hummel over to the other. "Mr. Hummel it would really help if you tried not to blow up or yell. The calmer you appear the easier this will be for Kurt."

"But his heart, Noah, we talked about this," he pleaded.

"He made it through last night, he already knows ever thing I do. He can handle this. Kurt you are the strongest person I know and, I have a feeling you got that strength from your Dad."

He stared at Noah. Where the hell had this guy come from? Noah had constantly surprised him all day. It really was going to be incredibly hard to return to how things were just yesterday morning. Maybe there were two very different Noah Puckermans. Noah, the guy sitting next to him and Puck, the badass Neanderthal that walked the halls at McKinley. If he was honest he had caught a glimpse of Noah back at the end of babygate. Noah had sung Beth to Quinn. Noah had been there when little Beth was born. Noah was the one in pain when Shelby took little Beth away.

"Fine," he said sounding a little defeated. "We'll do it here."

"Good," Mr. Wayne said taking a digital recorder out. "I really didn't like the idea of having to keep things from your parents. This is how this is going to work. I'm going to record our conversation. I'm also going to take notes. You may not understand why I ask something, or you may not like something I ask, but I need you to answer. Just remember I'm here to help and anything I ask is going to help me assess the situation."

They all nodded. Perry Wayne reached forward and turned the recorder on.

"Kurt we're going to start with you," Mr. Wayne paused and looked up at him. He nodded at the man again. He understood, it only made sense to start with him.

"Will you please confirm that you are Kurt Hummel?"

"Yes, I am Kurt Elizabeth Hummel."

Mr. Wayne gave him a brief smile. "Kurt are you a student at the Dalton Academy?"

"Yes, sir," he answered. He supposed they had to start with the basics first and he relaxed a little.

"Do you board at the school?"

"I board at Dalton Sunday evening thru Friday afternoon. I come home every Friday for the weekend and for all the holidays," this was much easier than he had thought and he was grateful for these simple questions.

"How would you say you are adjusting to life at Dalton?"

"Fine, I suppose. The class work is harder, but I finally felt academically challenged. Everyone there is very civil. I do miss being at home. I hate being away from my Dad, my whole family," he paused and gave Finn and Carole a little smile. Both of them beamed smiles back at him. "I miss my friends and my clothes, but I felt safe there."

"Did you miss those things enough to want to leave Dalton?"

"No," he paused, "Yes, maybe. Sometimes I want to quit and come home. Mostly after talking to Dad or Finn or 'Cedes. But in the end staying at Dalton was better. I was supposed to be safe there."

He realized he had moved again, and now his and Noah's legs were touching.

"Did you make any friends at Dalton?"

"Up until last night, I thought I had," his heart hurt at the memory of last night in that hallway. He still couldn't believe that his friends had sided with his attacker.

"What were their names?"

"Blaine Anderson," he took a deep breath to keep from tearing up. "David Kirkland and Weston Fuller."

"Were you friends with John Johnson?"

"No, we were only acquaintances at the best. The only time I ever spoke to him was during study group. I tutored him and several other boys in French." That was one of the reasons the attack was so hard for him to process. He just couldn't figure out what he had done.

"How did Mr. Johnson get into your room?"

"I had just gotten ready for bed when he knocked on the door. I just assumed it was Blaine, and flung the door open. I'll never, ever do that again."

"Does your door have a peep hole or a chain lock?"

"No." Up until last night he would have never thought that necessary at Dalton's.

"What happened after you opened the door?"

"John started to come in, but I told him it was too late for visitors. If he needed something, he could tell me from where he was. He, he…" He had to pause. Noah wrapped his arm around his shoulders and gently hugged him to his side. Kurt put his hand over the place on his right arm that still had John's handprint on it.

"He grabbed me by the arm and pushed me back into the room. I screamed, but he just tossed me across the room. I hit the desk and was dazed for a minute. I remember him locking the door."

Kurt stopped and leaned into Noah. Noah squeezed him again and reached over and joined their hands. The odd thing was even though he still felt frightened talking about what happened, he still felt safe while Noah held him.

"Kurt," he heard Mr. Wayne say. "Kurt I need you to focus."

"Yes, sir," he whispered.

"What were you wearing?"

"My royal blue silk pajamas," he thought that was an odd questioned, but liked it much better than the last one, and it was so much easier to answer.

"Where are they now?"

"Upstairs, in the bathroom trash."

"What?" his dad asked.

"Why?" Carole said.

"Dude those are your favorite," Finn said.

"It's actually very common in situations like this," Mr. Wayne said.

"I never want to see them again." He told them all. It wasn't a big deal.

"Have you ever flirted with Mr. Johnson?"

"No," was his quick and firm answer.

"Before we get to the harder questions, let's clarify a few facts. Kurt are you homosexual?"

"Yes," he said, trying to instill as much pride into that tiny little colossus answer.

"Are you sexually active?"

He felt his cheeks turning red. "No."

"Are you and Mr. Puckerman in a romantic relationship?"

"No," he and Noah said at the same time. He knew that he was so embarrassed that his face must be a whole new shade of red. He couldn't even look at Noah.

"Are you in a romantic relationship with anyone?"

"No. Not yet. Almost. I've been flirting with Blaine for months," he paused not wanting to say the next part. "Blaine finally kissed me last night. That's why I was so excited and opened the door like that."

"Now Kurt, I need you to tell me ever thing you can remember about what happened after Johnson locked the door. Just keep talking until you get to the point where you got home last night. If it gets too hard we can take a break, but you have to finish. It's important you tell me everything."

"Okay," he replied. He had to extract himself from Noah so he could lean forward. No wonder Mr. Wayne had asked if they were a couple. He poured himself a glass of iced green tea from one the pitchers he'd carried out earlier. "Anyone else care for a drink before I begin?"

Only Mr. Wayne and Noah wanted a drink, though he did see his dad eye the liquor cabinet off in corner of the room. He didn't blame him; for the first time since the April Rhodes incident, he wished for a drink, too.

He poured Noah and Mr. Wayne both glasses of lemonade before settling back against Noah and sipping his tea. He was not so much stalling as gathering strength. He needed to be as collected as possible before he started again.

Half a glass of tea later he returned his glass to the tray. Noah did the same. He settled back into the comforting embrace of the jock.

"I had hit my left side pretty hard against the desk. It had knocked the wind out of me. I was having a hard time standing. He jerked me up and forced a kiss on me. I bit his lip, and he threw me into the wall. I hit my left side again.

"He called me a little bitch and said he was going to teach me a lesson. I was still having a hard time breathing. He said he was tired of waiting on me to notice him.

"I didn't understand. I had never paid him any attention, really. Nothing beyond helping with his French. I never spoke to him outside of the study group. I never even noticed him. I told him that I was sorry, but that this wasn't the way to get my attention.

"He punched me in the ribs three maybe four times. It hurt so badly; I'm not really sure how many times. It was getting really hard to breath. When he let go I slid to the floor. I thought he was going to leave, but he paced back and forth across the room.

"When he finally stopped, he grabbed me by the hair and made me look at him. He asked if I was going to be a good little whore now and jerked me up. He tried to kiss me again, but I bit him again. Then he threw me on the bed. I was so scared.

"I kept screaming no over and over. I screamed for help. I screamed and screamed. I started trying to hit him as soon as he tackled me. I kept trying to get my hands free. I kept moving, squirming and twisting. I did everything I could, but he was stronger than me. Finally, he tried to touch me, to touch my, my private area. He moved just enough that I was able to knee him in the balls. I did it as hard as I could, and he was hurt enough that I wiggled free.

"I ran for the door, but he caught me before I could get it unlocked. He threw me on the floor. I landed on my left side again. He got on top of me before I knew it. He put his hand around my throat. I thought that was it. I thought I was going to die. He squeezed so tight. Things were going black, and I thought that was the end.

"That's when I heard something hit the door. John paused for a moment and asked if I heard something. I couldn't have answered if I wanted too, but he didn't give me a chance either. He just flipped me over onto my stomach.

"I was gasping for breath. My arms were pinned under me. He was holding me down by the back of my neck with one hand. I started twisting and kicking again. It didn't stop him; he started jerking my pants down with his other hand. I was screaming again. He said to shut up and that I was going to enjoy it, that I would beg him for more when he was done.

"Then there was a loud thud and a crash, and suddenly John was gone. I heard Noah asking if I was alright. Then he was gone, too. It took me a few moments to process what had happened. I pulled my pants back up and looked around. I could see Noah across the hall. He had John on the floor against the wall and he was punching him over and over.

"I made my way out into the hall. I couldn't look away. I noticed other students were coming out into the hall. The group was getting pretty large, but Noah was still hitting John. I got worried that Noah was going to kill John. I couldn't let Noah get into trouble. I had to yell a few times before he stopped.

"He just hugged me. I knew I was safe. Things were hard to follow after that. I think I was crying. I had to be, right? John was blaming me, telling everyone it was my fault. It wasn't my fault, I hadn't done anything. Noah defended me. He tried to tell the others what had happened. Blaine and the others acted like it was my fault too. I said no. I said no. Blaine said John was right and I flirted all the time, but I just flirted with him…Blaine, that is. I liked him. I swear I only flirted with Blaine. Only Blaine.

"I don't really remember anything else but Noah holding me."

He was crying so hard again that it was hard to breath. Noah held him tight, and after a minute, so did his dad. He was safe.