I really don't own Glee, otherwise there would be more Kurt and Dave, and Dave would be a lot less of an idiot.

Rated M for safety due to themes, language, and potential future scenes.

Tried to stick to canon, now finally at Comeback follows Dave's POV only, there is very little Kurt interaction. And its all AU obviously as Meg wouldn't exist.

Define Imaginary

Chapter Seven – Come Back

Sitting in my truck I grip the steering wheel nervously. This last weekend was great, just Meg and me. It was easy, no pressure, I could just be me. It's now Monday and I'm at school, and now I have to be Karofsky, I have to hide me from all of them.

Glancing to the passenger seat, I can see Meg is happily peering out of the windows at the students wandering past. And I have to hide her from all of them too.

"No you don't, they can't see me." She smiles reassuringly at me. "I promise I'll be good, and you don't have to talk back to me, just think at me," she cocks her head to one side, "I can hear your thoughts remember."

I'm still in two minds over that. Having gotten used to Meg a bit, the stuff she can do is pretty cool, and her just understanding me is awesome. But I have no privacy and she tends to answer unspoken questions, or voice opinions on topics I don't want to broach.

"It's not my fault you have deep thought patterns and are more than capable of reflecting on various subjects not normally within the average teenage boy's purview."

She does it again. Between that and her obsession with Kurt…

Interrupting huffily, "David it's not me who has the obsession, though the fact that you are so homophobic and yet so in love with the boy is a fascinating contraction in itself."

I'm NOT gay!

"And I'm not arguing with you. I just wish that other people were able to see you as you truly are." She sounds proud of me.

I'm just glad other people can't see me, it's one of the reasons why I hide who I am from people.

"I wish you wouldn't," her voice is soft, almost a whisper. "I really wish you could see your own potential David. You have so much talent, and it's frustrating that you just won't tap into it."

Mr Schue said I could be really talented, but I think he just said that so I'd stop shoving people in practice.

A hand rests on my arm, "He was right David; you really could be one of the most talented people in this school. You have been a hockey player, and a football player, and now you're on the baseball team. For each tryout you were in the top five. You kept your grades up to A's and B's until recently with the minimum amount of effort, you rarely have to study to pass tests, you are much smarter than you let on."

Hesitantly I look at her, she seems to mean what she is saying. Only dad has ever really praised me before, and I try so hard to please him.

"I know for a fact that you can sing really well, and you picked up the dance moves in the Glee experiment like you were born to dance. You can draw; have a good eye for colour and themes, and a love of reading."

All of which would get my ass kicked if anyone found out.

Meg hasn't finished, "You are also very charismatic when you want something and if you ever bothered to try you could turn out to be a very good leader. Don't give me that look I know you understand what charismatic means, you're not stupid."

No I'm not stupid, but intelligent multi talented jocks are a bit of an oxymoron, especially here in Lima.

Sighing she agrees with me. "So are we going to sit in the car all day or are we going in?"

Taking the hint I get out of the nice warm truck and pulling my letterman around me to shut out the cold I grab my bag and trudge towards the school. Ahead of me the dumpsters come into view with various jocks all standing around and they've cornered a dweeb. Oh fucking brilliant just want I didn't need.

A polite cough comes from Meg to get my attention, "I meant what I said about being a better person David, the bullying stops; now." I'm not sure what her problem is, I don't want to bully people but it's not like what we do is that wrong anyway. "If it's not wrong David, why do you all make sure there are never any teachers about, and why do you lie to cover for each other when there are complaints from parents?"

The usual feeling of helpless anger and frustration have been building up, her words don't make it any easier. I hate school, I hate this place; I hate me. My shoulders tighten and by the time I make it to the dumpsters and the waiting jocks I'm scowling and pissed off.

"Hey Karofsky, welcome back bro!" Az greets me. His heavy hand falls on the shaking dweeb to stop him running anywhere.

"Az," I reply. "S'up?" Like it's not obvious.

The nasty laugh I know so well rolls out of my supposed best friend, "Caught us a geek, we thought we'd have a little fun with the dumpster." All the jocks laugh at that. Az shoves the kid at me and I automatically grab and steady the freshman, "How about as a come back present you can toss the loser in the trash."

Meg is silently pleading with me, the guys are all waiting for blood and the kid has this resigned air about him. My hands are on his shoulders and they aren't the shoulders I want. With a sigh I push the kid away from us gently and say "Shoo." His jaw drops and he just stands there stunned, "Go on, get, before I change my mind." With a surprising turn of speed he takes to his heels and flees inside, huh, he'd make a good addition to the track team.

"What the hell!" Az is yelling at me about letting the kid go and my lack of brainpower.

"Maybe I don't want to get expelled Az!" I yell back. "And I've only just gotten out of the frecking hospital I'm not doing any heavy lifting."

All the jocks suddenly look uncomfortable, "By the way, thanks for all the visits while I was in my coma!" Some of them look confused. "Doctors say it was a miracle I even woke up."

Telling most of the jocks to get lost Az waits until it's just a few of us. Him, me, Strando and two others I remember as being there when the accident happened. "Bro," Az starts, "We may have told people you tripped down the last step."

"What?" I bellow, not bothering to hide my anger.

"Dude," he tries to placate me, "We had to, they were asking questions."

Meg's earlier question comes back to haunt me, if what we do isn't wrong why do we hide it? It's something I'm not ready to face yet but it does seriously piss me off and I'm practically screaming when I ask, "So I fall down the fucking stairs, get slushied, and then get electrocuted and take out the power to half of frecking Lima and you tell them I tripped down the last step?"

"Chill Karofsky," Strando says. "There was no electro thingy, Figgins says a server went down somewhere."

Huh?

"Principle Figgins did not fully renew the school insurance to cover electrocutions, drowning in quiche, or alien abductions, due to various budget cuts, basically he lied about your accident so he wouldn't be sued," Meg supplies. Drowning in quiche? "Long story, happened about twelve years ago, just tragic, some of the survivors are still in therapy."

"So how many people know I was even in a coma?" I ask bewildered.

"Um, us," Az tells me. "And the Principle." He shivers, "Come on man, let's get inside its cold out here."

I trail in after them trying to wrap my head around what they've told me. No one knows I've been missing?

"Well the people you bullied noticed, and frankly they've really enjoyed your time away." Meg is so frecking cheerful, "They even started a Facebook page and have been trying to find out if you'd been transferred or just died, in which case they already have a venue picked out for the big party."

Her words stop me cold, pun not intended as we're next to the slushy machines. Strando hands me a cup, which I take. Seriously they have a venue picked out for a party for me dying?

Shrugging a bit she says, "Well it's not like you've gone out of your way to make friends with people. And David you are not going to throw that drink in someone's face, unless you tell them no and leave right now I will be forced to interfere."

Looking down at the icy cold drink and up to Az's smiling face I hesitate. Oh shit what the hell am I gonna do now?

Sighing Meg interferes. The machines start making a loud groaning noise; "Oh did I mention that I hang out with gremlins sometimes?" Her fangs show in her smile. The ice cold slushy erupts from the machines and a long sharp shower of flavoured drink rains down on just the five of us jocks.

Drenched we can only stand there in stunned amazement. At that moment someone yells "Smile," we turn and that annoying Jewish kid with the weird hair takes a picture before scurrying off, probably to post that on his blog. This day blows. Some come back.

A few teachers and a maintenance man later, we make it to the showers. Meg tells me she's put clean clothes in my locker for me so at least I can dress properly, the others get sent home in summer sportswear, that is gonna be chilly.

"Okay David I am willing to help you out a bit more than I should," Meg says seriously as we walk to my first class. "As you have worked out I'm invisible to most people, I can extend that to you, for a short time, which would give you a chance to not bully people and still not have to stand up to your so called friends. Do you want to give it a go?"

I think it over for a heartbeat, I'd be invisible, hell yeah I wanna give it a go.

"Fine, leave it to me, between classes no one will notice you."

Sitting in my History class I feel much happier. I don't have to worry about the guys kicking my ass, and I don't have to worry about upsetting Meg. Running feet and then a couple of people are flying past the classroom, wonder what that was about?

"Oh that's just Will Schuester and Emma Pillsbury falling for Coach Sylvester's new plan to destroy Glee club. Apparently she has just faked a suicide attempt by eating vitamin gummy bears."

I just turn my attention back to the lesson; those Gleeks are just plain weird.

Meg is as good as her word and between lessons I can just drift through the school and no one notices me. It's a little freaky but fun. I get stuck outside behind that weird Berry chick and the really dumb ex cheerleader. Wait the blonde one is wearing leg warmers on her arms? And she's copying Berry? She really is dumber than I thought which is saying something.

And I'm just in time to see Coach Sylvester go bat-shit in the corridor. Later I see her humming as she walks through the corridors carrying a hangman's noose. She has got way too much time on her hands. I think she needs a hobby.

I spend part of lunch visible with the guys in the cafeteria messing around and joking, and then I vanish off with Meg and go hide in the library. Its quiet, I can read and get my homework out of the way, and nothing bad happens. The day is looking up.

Killing time before practice I wander through the corridors and stop outside the choir room to watch the Evans' kid sing some strange song while wearing this purple hoodie and what has he done to his hair? The song is okay I guess, not my type of thing but the girls are all going crazy and making googly eyes at him, while the rest of the guys look sour. And there in the back is Coach Sylvester, is that part of her plan?

"Yes, she believes she is now poised to destroy the club from within." She really needs to find something to do.

Changing for baseball practice I can hear the guys around the corner talking to Sam, something about joining a band and Puckerman's hair. But the thing that really grabs my attention is Finn, I can't believe that Sam fell for the lie about the gumball, its so obvious that Quinn cheated on him with Finn and that's where the mono came from, oh that and a rumour from a kid who was in the nurse's office about a hot kiss with Santana. I really wouldn't put it past that bitch to have set them up. Sneaky.

Leaving the Gleeks behind I go to practice. Standing up to bat I discover an awesome new ability, I seem to know where the ball is going to be thrown, and WHACK I can hit it every single time. I know I was good at batting, but I still missed now and again. I'm not missing now. It's just spooky.

Coach is happy with me and tells me to keep it up, especially at the next big game. The competition won't know what hit them. A few high fives and back slaps after the showers and I hum walking back to my truck. It may have had a glitch or two this morning, but this is the best school day ever. I may just make it out of high school alive.

Meg's quiet on the ride home and looks tired, when I ask if she's okay she just nods "I'm fine David, oh look your dad's already home."

Jumping out of the car I bounce into the house, this is great; hopefully I can spend time with him. Normally he does a lot of unpaid overtime coz his boss is a real bitch. We decide on take out and settle in front of the TV to watch those nature programs he likes. And we talk, like properly, how was your day, what did you do, stuff like that.

Out of the corner of my eye I notice something gleaming, but when I turn to look at it, it vanishes. Going back to the TV its there again, I just can't catch it.

"It's fine David," Meg tells me. "Just ignore it for now, you're not quite ready to see it properly, give it a day or two to come into focus."

I wait until I'm lying in bed before I bring it back up again. She lounges next to me, "Have you ever heard the term 'Emotional Tie'?" I nod. "Well that is what you caught a glimpse of, the emotional ties linking you and your dad. There's one running from you to him and another one from him to you."

"So there are two ties?" I frown.

"Yes, your tie and his tie. One shows your feelings for him, and the other his feelings for you. It's why you can have one sided relationships where the other can feel nothing at all."

That makes sense. "And the golden bit of it?" I ask curious and strangely relieved, my dad has an emotional tie to me and I can see it, sort of.

"Golden ties show that the emotion is true love."

It takes a moment for her words to sink in, "Absolutely no way! I do not have those kind of feelings for my dad!" Her mentioning Kurt and love in the same sentence is bad enough, but my dad? That's just sick!

Instead of apologising to me she cracks up and laughs so hard I scowl at her getting pissed off. It's not funny! This is serious!

"I'm sorry David," she really doesn't sound it. "It's just you have such a narrow view of true love."

What? That makes as much sense as Coach Beiste's sayings. "Everyone knows what true love means," I tell the still giggling madwoman.

Wiping away tears she says, "You know of one type of true love, the romantic type."

"Yeah, so." I still don't get it.

"There are lots of different types of love, not all of them are romantic or sexual," she tells me. "The love between father and son for example. Neither you nor your father have any romantic or sexual feelings but you love each other."

"Okay…" I think I can see what she means.

"And the love you have for each other, the emotional tie of your love is true. You would both go that little further to help each other, to support each other. It takes a lot more to break such a tie, and it always leaves a scar behind."

"Oh." My dad loves me, and he true love, loves me. I know I'd do a hell of a lot for him, that I crave his attention and want to please him, does that mean he has similar thoughts and needs about me?

"Yes, he does. Though as the parent they are slightly different. He would do a hell of a lot for you, and he craves your happiness, he wants only the best for you, and he is really proud of you."

"Oh," my dad is proud of me. The biggest smile ever sits on my face. "Cool. So there other types of love too?"

"There are many types of love. Parent and child, sibling, pretty much any family," she leans back in bed. "Friends, the close ones. Teammates, co-workers; any time you make a connection there is the chance of true love forming. That knowledge of someone having your back, of going that extra mile when you need it and just being there."

I'm not sure I'm ready to accept the true love thing for most relationships but the TV and movies are full of people doing over the top stuff for friends, so I guess it's kind of possible. I just never really thought of it that way.

"So David are you ready for your story now?" Holding an imaginary book she's posed and waiting.

"Huh?"

"Reading stories to my mortal is part of my duties as a good imaginary friend, I've picked out Charlotte's Web because I know you've not read it." I'm not a little kid and I don't need to be read to and the book sounds like a girl book, but Meg's helped me out today, she's been true, so I just lay back and let her voice wash over me.

000

By Wednesday I'm getting the hang of this invisibility stuff, I can pop in and out of sight, with Meg's help, so everyone knows I'm at school but there is none of the hassle, Meg is now fast becoming my best imaginary friend ever.

"I'm your only imaginary friend," she points out. I just shrug and keep walking. "Now what are they doing?"

We stop walking, "Who?" I ask.

"The Glee kids," she's frowning. "This could go badly," and then she's walking away.

Curious I follow her. I have to admit another benefit of people not being able to see me is that they act very differently. And the Glee kids, while weird, are very entertaining.

We turn up at the choir room in time to hear that a Diva Off is about to start. Rachel and Mercedes are standing and glaring at each other and appear to be a moment from an actual punch up. Yet I can clearly see the golden ties running between them. In fact looking around all of the Gleeks are linked by gold threads, except for Lauren they're still silver but in the process of changing to gold.

Since Tuesday I've been seeing the threads much easier and it was strange to see only silver ones between most people, or very tarnished silver. Meg told me that silver is the most common and that tarnished ones rarely last long. I found that the ties between me and Az are silver, but the ones between me and the rest of the jocks are tarnished silver. It was not a good discovery but has made avoiding them easier on me.

Meg explains about the Diva Off and then the two girls are off. Each of them is trying to get the upper hand over the other and they are so angry. In the background Coach Sylvester is gloating and watching the proceedings very closely, she totally set this up. Part of the way through the song things change and the girls pull together, no longer fighting to sing a line or a word, they just work it between them.

At the very end they are laughing and hugging and being complete girls. Then they give each other credit and everything is set right and they are back to being friends.

"Hey where's the hate?" Coach Sylvester asks.

"Not the point of Glee club Sue," Will tells her, it seems her plan just got sunk.

As I'm just about to leave I notice a tie running from Sue to Will, and its gold; but running from Will to Sue is just a thin silver tie. Huh, wonder what that's about?

"She likes him," Meg says. "After all there are very few people in this world who can and will stand up to her."

Making our way up the corridor I notice all the girls are now wearing legwarmers on their arms, oh that has got to bite Berry hard and I can't stop the smile on my face.

000

Glad it's almost the weekend I stroll through the school on Friday and try not to laugh too hard at the new fashion sweeping the female students, they are wearing some kind of Rachel rip off outfit. And they all think they are just copying Britt instead. Wandering past the Gleeks I hear Rachel try and defend the choice and that Britt is being paid, hilarious, I end up having to sit in a classroom for a few minutes as I'm laughing so hard. Meg just rolls her eyes at me.

Sitting in the library Meg is helping me with my homework, as this rate I wont have to do anything at the weekend and we can relax and play video games. Sam pulls out a chair and slumps in it pulling his own homework out. He's quiet so I ignore him.

Santana, however, is anything but quiet. While Sam is doing dorky but funny impressions I'm thinking of switching tables, and then things get interesting. Lopez comes on to him, in her unsubtle way, and he gently, shoots her down because he's with Quinn.

The bitch then lets him have it about Quinn and Finn, even offering up her so called new and improved chest. Walking away she tells Sam to think it over and she'll see him later. He goes back to homework but there's a look in his eyes that says she was right, he was letting himself believe Quinn because he wanted to.

By the end of the day Sam dumps Quinn and starts dating Santana, the rumours fly around the school. Seriously, how did I not know how much fun they were?

"Probably because you were too busy throwing drinks in their faces?" Meg asks.

Visible as it's the end of the day, I am washing my hands in the bathroom sink and decide to ignore her comment. In walks Henry, the kid who'd been there at my accident. Freezing in place he just stares at me shocked.

"Be nice," Meg warns me.

Nodding at the freshman, "Henry."

"Um, Karofsky," he says and moves slowly towards one of the cubicles as if he is trying to not upset a predator.

Drying my hands I ignore him, its as I go to leave that he asks, "Are you alright now?"

I stop and look at him, he flattens himself back against the edge of the cubicle, "Only you didn't look so good last time I saw you."

"I'm fine, thank you Henry," I smile a little awkwardly. Here is the kid we were bullying and going to stuff in a locker and he is the only person in the whole school to ask me how I am. I'm not sure what prompted me but I said, "Be care who you tell about what happened, Az and co are hiding just how I was injured, and Principle Figgins is hiding other stuff."

Henry nods, the orange glasses slipping slightly on his nose, "Oh you mean the electrocution. You know you knocked power out over much of Lima."

"I heard; you know it takes skill to do that," I joke. It makes him laugh, just a short startled sound; which stops as he realises who he just laughed at. "Have a nice weekend Henry," I say and walk out.

When bedtime rolls around I'm under the covers and Meg is just finishing off the book, she was completely serious and has read to me each night. We've come to a compromise, she'll read during the week and we'll watch movies or TV at the weekend. I have to admit I've enjoyed Charlotte's Web more than I thought I would.

Ten minutes after the end of the book and I'm sulking downstairs eating ice cream straight from the tub. Dad walks in from work. "David, is something wrong?" He looks tired and worn, another late night all unpaid of course.

"Hey dad, no I'm fine, I've been readying Charlotte's Web and I've just finished."

"Ah," is all he says and he grabs a spoon to join me.

The silence is comfortable, and behind me Meg is running a soothing hand over my shoulders and occasionally rubbing a tight muscle.

"I loved that book as a boy," dad says. "It was so beautiful, and then at the end…" He sighs.

"Dad, it sucks at the end," I dig an extra big bit of ice cream out and stuff it in my mouth.

He gives me a tired smile, "I think it was supposed to be some kind of metaphor for life, along the lines of life isn't fair, or something."

"It still sucks," I mumble around the food.

"I know son, I know," is all he says as we finish off the tub in front of us.

A/N: I've done my best to catch as many mistakes as I can but any and all mistakes are entirely the fault of my keyboard, I've talked to it and it promises to try harder.

And that's the reason Dave was not seen in the Comeback episode, because he was invisible, and not just unloved by Ryan Murphy and Co.

And I don't own Charlotte's Web, great and wonderful if sad book that it is.

Again, many thanks for the reviews, you've been very kind.