A/N: This was my first time writing Carole, and I have to say - this woman just makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. She is Epic with a capital E, and she and Burt make one badass team.


Chapter Six

"Finn, honey?"

Finn's eyes snapped open, and for a split second he was confused about why the room was horizontal. Realizing he was lying down, he glanced at the clock, groaning when he saw that he'd been asleep for only eight restless minutes. The mattress shifted as his mother came in and sat beside him, resting a hand on his leg. "You okay, sweetie?"

He rolled over onto his back, rubbing his eyes. "Yeah. Bad day is all."

"What did you and Kurt fight about?"

For a moment, Finn wondered how she knew about the fight, but he was in the guest bedroom – his safe haven – and if he'd only been asleep for eight minutes then Kurt was probably still banging around in the kitchen. That was probably the major difference between the two of them – Kurt was explosive. He let all his anger out the second it came to him. You always knew why he was mad and who he was mad at (unless the reason was intensely personal, in which case he just fell completely silent and tight-lipped, but you could usually tell who he was mad at by which head he was glaring at the most). Finn, on the other hand, was the quiet brooder, who bottled it up and internalized it until he exploded, then retreated behind a slammed door to calm down.

He thought for a minute – what had he and Kurt fought about?

Carole gave his knee a squeeze. "Kurt said you hit your head."

"Yeah. It's nothing."

"Can I see?" she requested.

Finn sat up so that he was sitting next to her, prodding the tender spot on his head just above his ear. "Right there."

She peered closely at the spot, separating his hair to get a better look at the skin as gently as she could. He winced a little. "Sorry," she said softly. "It doesn't look too bad. Just a little bit of a bruise." Finn nodded silently as she ruffled the hair on the top of his head affectionately. "Sweetie, is everything okay?"

He sighed heavily. "I dunno, Mom…" he said, shaking his head. "This thing is just getting really weird."

Her hand came down from his head to rest on his back. "You mean your insomnia?"

"Well, that…that's just part of it, I think."

"Finn, can I give you some advice?"

"What?"

She smiled. "You got an A on a paper. It's not the end of the world."

He groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. He hadn't told her about the dancing or the all-night reading sessions, nor had he told her about how freaked out he was over the fact that he could think with a speed that was increasing with every passing day. And before he knew it, he was telling her everything. He told her every tiny, insignificant detail that came to mind – and there were a lot – and she just sat and listened with a hand on his back as she waited for him release all the pressure he'd built up over the last couple of weeks. When he finally finished, nearly forty minutes later, he let out a huge breath and waited for her to say something.

"Wow," she said after a few moments. "That's, uh…that's unusual."

"You're telling me."

She rubbed his back. "Maybe we should take you back to the doctor. You know, get you a CT scan or an MRI."

He sighed. "You really think I should?"

"Well, if you aren't just overreacting to something – and I don't think you are – then there's something actually going on in there," she tapped his temple with a finger, "and we should know what it is, even if it's nothing to worry about."

"Okay."

"You all right?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"Come on. I'm taking you out for a milkshake."


Kurt was still sulking an hour later when the doorbell rang. He sighed, knowing that Carole and Finn had gone out for some mother-son bonding time and his Dad was still in the shop, which meant that he was the only one here to answer the door. Trudging upstairs, he opened the door to find a UPS delivery guy standing idly on the steps.

"Hiya, I got a package here for a Mr. Finn Hud?"

"Hudson," Kurt corrected.

The guy glanced down at his clipboard, his gum smacking loudly. "Whoops, my bad. You him?"

"No, but I can sign for him," Kurt replied. Since when did Finn shop online? He scrawled his signature and the deliveryman swaggered back to the truck, lifting a massive box labeled FRAGILE several times over out of the back. Kurt's eyebrows shot up.

"Did he order a complete glass menagerie?" he asked when the box was set onto the porch table.

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Thank you."

After the UPS truck pulled away from the curb, Kurt debated whether or not to open the box, finally deciding to leave the job to Finn – it was too large for him carry downstairs by himself without falling. So he left it sitting on the porch table for Finn to pick up when he and Carole got home, and then returned to his bedroom.

An hour passed in which Kurt completely failed at concentrating on his geometry homework. He was further distracted when there was a shuffling at the top of the stairs and a slight grunt. Finn appeared a few seconds later, taking slow careful steps as he carried the box down – it was clearly very heavy, so Kurt jumped up and met him at the bottom of the stairs, reaching forward and helping him heft it onto his desk (a workspace that Finn had needed but never used).

"Thanks," Finn said, not really looking Kurt in the eye. He pulled a pair of scissors from the desk drawer.

"So…what did you get?" Kurt asked, standing slightly awkwardly off to the side, out of Finn's way.

"You'll see."

"Mysterious, huh?"

"Yep." Using the scissor blade, Finn slit open the top flaps to reveal a flat layer of Styrofoam.

Just as Finn was about to pull the packaging out, Kurt spoke up. "Listen, Finn… About what happened earlier—"

"Don't worry about it; it's fine."

"No, listen to me, please." Finn finally turned his attention from the box to Kurt. "I know I can be…pushy at times—"

Finn's eyebrows rose.

"Okay, all the time," Kurt allowed. "And I'm sorry about that; I'm trying to work on it. But I had no reason to treat you like I did; making fun of your academic difficulties should fall more in Puck's field of expertise, not mine."

"Seriously, dude, it's fine—"

"I'm not finished."

"…Okay."

Kurt sighed, rubbing his upper arm in unease. "I also know that I have very little grasp on the concept of other people's personal space – that's something else I'm trying to work on. So…I apologize. For teasing you and for over-worrying."

Finn analyzed him for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. Apology accepted."

Kurt smiled with relief. "Good. I promise I'll stop pestering you about the doctor."

His freakishly tall stepbrother chuckled lightly. "Actually, I'm going in again next Saturday."

"Really? What made you change your mind?"

Finn shrugged. "Like I said. It's freaking me out as much as you."

He went to pull the packaging off the top of the box, and Kurt could tell the subject was closed. Stepping closer to peer over Finn's shoulder (which was quite a feat considering the difference in height), Kurt frowned at the large, rectangular prism nestled in the Styrofoam flats.

"Finn…" Kurt started patiently. "Why did you get a fish tank?"


A/N: Reviews are a necessity in order to feed my muse (whose name is Rube) so that he doesn't starve and die on me and leave me unable to write.