Summary: Sebastian goes to get the truth. Is he still willing to accept the consequences if he doesn't like what he hears?
Notes: Gigi is back and her identity is revealed. Have an open mind. Speaking of open mind…
Everything from Blaine's explanation with few exception (Sebastian's involvement and, you know, Blaine being shot) comes directly from canon, only arranged to fit this narrative.
As stated in the end notes of last chapter, Chapter 6 refers to Blaine's father was as that Michael Anderson, implying he's rich and extremely powerful. This important to the story. How he got to be (legally or illegally) is not. I'll leave that choice to your imagination.
Reminder: Any conversations with members of Blaine's (Italian) family would be in Italian.
Warning: Mentions of gun violence, threats of harm and a near-death experience
Christian was pacing in the hotel suite across the hall from the one he shared with Sebastian. The knock he was waiting for stopped him in his tracks. He knew in his heart he had done the right thing. That didn't mean he wasn't scared shitless.
"Ciao, Bella. It's so nice of you to come."
Santana rolled her eyes but did kiss his cheek as she entered the suite. "Like I had a choice. Santana dear, I'm calling with a Code Black. A car will be picking you up in an hour" she delivered in a tone mocking his French accent. "What was so fucking important?"
"I cannot tell you."
Her expression change explained everything he had ever wondered about the oft-mentioned Lima Heights. "Excuse me? I just flew 9 fucking hours, Frenchy. You said Code Black. According to Trouty's emergency system that meant I had to come no questions asked, and I did. I expect answers."
"I cannot tell you. It must be Bastian. However…" Christian walked into the bedroom and waved his arm like a model on a game show. There were racks of designer clothing and bags on the bed with labels such as Gucci, Versace and Louboutin. "I hope you find these acceptable."
"Holy Shit!" Santana went to one rack and began pulling dresses. "When you said not to bother packing, I wasn't expecting Italian Fashion Week to be waiting for me."
"Here is your room key card and the shopper's number. Call her if she forgot something." Christian handed her a small envelope then took her hand. "Thank you for coming. I'll be back as I assume you want a shower. Do you need a nap?"
"I'm good but you're right about the shower." Christian turned to leave but Santana held firm to his hand. "Why did you call me? Artie's Seb's best friend."
Christian shrugged although he remembered the exact moment he knew. "I heard a voice. She said it had to be you."
An hour later the two of them walked across the hallway. When they were in, Christian pointed to Sebastian sitting out on the balcony. "I'm headed back to Paris but I found you some company."
"What do you mean…" Sebastian got up, then froze when he saw who his cousin was referring to. "What the fuck is she doing here? I told you not to fucking tell anyone" he yelled in French to keep Santana out of the conversation.
"I didn't. I called her with one of Samuel's Code Blacks so no questions asked."
"Those are only in cases of fucking life and death."
"Think about what you just said but as death and life."
"That's enough!" Santana went to Sebastian and gave him a hug, which he did return. "One of you tell me what's going on. I've learned enough French to know Stretch was dropping f-bombs." When Sebastian left and slammed the bedroom door behind him, Santana looked to Christian but didn't like what she saw. "You're not going to tell me, are you?"
"Sorry, nothing's changed. I'll be back in four days then we can all go back to the Big Apple together."
That was new information. "You're coming to NYC? Since when?"
"Yesterday"
It had been an easy decision. No matter the result of Sebastian's meeting with Blaine, he was going to need him. The rest of the Fam would be dealing with their own emotions. First, he had to go to Paris and settle a few issues, like telling his mother he would not be attending the Sorbonne in the fall. But on a lighter note…"Be ready to assist me in wooing the love of my life, the fabulous Miss Rachel Berry."
"Oh god, I can't wait until you actually meet her and Kurt meets you. He's going to haaaaaaate you."
"I'm sure the feeling will be mutual."
A few more Rachel quips were shared before Christian left and Santana sat on the couch to wait Sebastian out. She was more tired than she thought because the next thing she knew he was waking her. "I'm leaving."
"I'm coming with you." She stood and stretched, happy with the fact he woke her. It would have been easy to leave without saying anything. "Are you finally going to tell me what's going on?"
"I will…after. You can't come with me."
"Seb…"
"Tana, I'm sorry Chris brought you here but I can't tell you, not yet." Sebastian embraced her and wished he could find a way to make her understand. The problem was he didn't understand any of this himself. "Do me a favor. There's a guy named Franco at the concierge who can get his hands on anything. We're going to need alcohol for when I get back…lots and lots of alcohol."
Once he left, it didn't take long to get to Blaine's. Sebastian was surprised to see the courtyard in front so empty until he remembered the restaurant was closed while the family went boar hunting. Was that the reason Blaine wanted to wait 24 hours before telling him what happened?
"I've been waiting for you."
How had he not seen her sitting on the bench? "Gigi"
The elderly woman patted the space beside her "Come sit with me, darling boy."
He thought of protesting but asked himself What's the point? When he was seated, he linked their arms like she had done the day before. For as much as she freaked him out, Sebastian was already very fond of his new friend. "Does your family know you're gone?"
"They will, but that's not important. Love is important."
Sebastian lifted his eyes to Blaine's open window and asked "What if love isn't enough?"
"Just listen to him but listen…"
"…with my heart" he finished for her. He took a deep breath and for the first time felt ready to hear what Blaine had to say.
"Go to him. And give Santana a kiss for me."
As much as he wanted to ask WTF? he decided to add the comment to the growing list of inexplicable events of the past 24 hours. He had to be in the right mindset when he laid eyes on Blaine again.
However, no amount of preparation stopped his heart from nearly beating out of his chest when the door opened.
"Thank you for coming, Ba…Sebastian." Blaine motioned toward a small couch by the infamous window. "Are you hungry? I have some of my family's Papardelle al Cinghiale. I didn't know if you got any yesterday…"
"B, you're rambling and maybe later on the Papardelle al Cinghiale."
"B?"
"I felt it's an acceptable compromise. You can call me Seb or Bastian like my cousin does, if you want to. I know last night…" He wasn't going to say the night before was a mistake, but winding up in bed (even without sex) probably wasn't the best idea. And letting Blaine call him Bas…well, that couldn't happen again. At least not until he had answers.
"No, I get it, Seb" Blaine said, attempting (but failing) to hide the disappointment in his voice with a forced smile.
Sebastian looked closer as Blaine sat on the opposite end of the couch. His appearance had changed from the night before. The glasses were gone, the beard had been neatly trimmed and his clothes were similar to his old style, though they hung from his body. He had put in some effort which Sebastian saw as positive. "You look good."
"You're even more gorgeous than I remembered." It took a moment for Blaine to realize what he said. "Oh god, I'm sorry. I, I'm…I'm just really, really nervous."
From the way he was shaking, Sebastian knew that was a massive understatement. He also knew that had to change or Blaine wouldn't open up. "Did you know I performed with the New Directions at last year's Nationals?"
Blaine let out an audible sigh and relaxed, at least a little. "When I saw the video, I thought the pain meds were making me hallucinate."
Thoughts which had never crossed his mind began flooding Sebastian You had access to the internet? Facebook, Twitter, email? but he didn't want to scare Blaine into silence "Since I didn't take the steroids the Show Choir Association gave me an exemption."
"And you took lead on the Warbler song."
"Jeff said Raise Your Glass was your favorite and the routine was ridiculously easy to learn."
"Hey, the Warbler 2-step is a classic and you wouldn't have thought that if you would have had to teach Puck or Finn."
Blaine was laughing so hard, Sebastian caught a brief glimpse of his Blaine. He almost hated doing this. "Yesterday you kept saying I'm so close. Close to what?"
Blaine stopped laughing but didn't shrink back into himself. The diversion had worked. "Going home…to the States, to New York, to Cooper, to my friends, to…"
Three letters, Y-O-U. Three letters Blaine couldn't say because he was afraid of the response, but Sebastian understood. "I think you better start at the beginning."
"Ok" Blaine moved back and pulled his knees into his chest, an obvious defensive measure. "Becky didn't shoot me, Sue did."
For the first time Sebastian believed someone's eyes could pop out of their sockets because he was sure his had. Seriously, what the fuck? Becky accidently shooting Blaine as Sue tried to take the gun from her was the one truth Sebastian thought he knew. "Was it an accident?"
"No"
Sebastian sprung up and ran down a small hall, thankful he found the bathroom before he began to vomit. When he finally collected himself, he went back to the living area to find Blaine offering him a bottle of water. "Are you ok?"
"Not even close" he answered truthfully, taking the bottle and sitting down. "Do your parents know? Do the police know? Does Becky know? I mean she's got to know but seriously B, what the fuck?"
"My parents and the police know, so does Figgins, the School Superintendent and to some point, Burt Hummel." Blaine waited for a reaction but Sebastian motioned for him to continue. "Becky's parents also know. Despite the extenuating circumstances, Becky brought a gun to school. There was no choice but to expel her. Artie had taken her to visit a program at Ohio State and my dad pulled a few strings to get her accepted early. She felt comfortable there. And as for her knowing, she wasn't in the room. Did Kitty ever remember anything?"
Blaine seemed to be well informed about what happened during the time he was gone, but he didn't know about Kitty? "Nothing between you pushing her and waking up in the hospital. You pushed her pretty fucking hard."
"I had this horrible, sinking feeling watching Sue get the gun away from Becky. I just wanted her out of the way. When she fell and hit her head, Sue sent Becky to go get help. The next thing I remember is indescribable pain, Mr. Schue yelling about an ambulance and having Artie call you."
"To tell me what you felt for me was real."
"I'm sorry it took me so long to tell you."
Sebastian didn't know if Blaine's admission made what he was feeling better or worse, especially since he still didn't have the answers to the biggest questions. "But why?"
"Why did it take me so long to admit I had feelings for you all along? Even when I was still with Kurt?"
Sebastian Alexander Smythe, who had a quick retort for everything, was officially speechless.
Blaine looked disappointed there wasn't a response, yet understood and reluctantly moved on. "I talked with my parents last night, it's one of the reasons I asked for 24 hours. I told them I planned to tell you everything. But Seb, if I tell you, you can't tell anyone, at least not yet."
Sebastian thought of Santana back at the hotel but decided one bridge at a time. "I'm listening."
With your heart, darling boy.
Was it odd hearing Gigi in his head no longer freaked him out?
Again, Blaine took a deep breath but it wasn't for calm. It was for strength. "Remember when I told you why I rejoined the Cheerios?"
"Yes, because you and Sam thought Sue was up to something shady."
"Right. And remember how I returned?"
"You purposefully lost a Feud sing-off."
"Two for two. What I didn't know was she had back-up plans. One was an attempt to ruin my parents' credit."
"And she clearly had no idea your dad was that Michael Anderson." Sebastian always wondered how Blaine kept his dad's identity secret at McKinley. Then again, he had been able to hide Cooper for a long time from super-fanboy Kurt. Wait a minute…"She shot you because she was afraid of your dad? That doesn't make sense."
"Like I said, no one knows. My dad got an alert from his accountant about suspicious activity, which he had traced back to Sue, while I was in surgery. Dad told the authorities but also had his own guys look into it. By the end of the day they had found everything Sam and I expected. She had embezzled funds from the district, was blackmailing Figgins and others with fabricated evidence…you get the drift. But none of that came close to the level of bat-shit crazy Becky showed them."
"Becky?"
"Her parents and the authorities told her Sue hurt me but not that I was shot. She didn't deserve to live with the guilt of bringing the gun. Well, Becky always had a soft spot for Gay Blaine. She declared Sue was no longer her friend and told them about a storage unit. Sebastian, it wasn't a storage unit. It was a hurt locker."
"I don't understand."
"There were hundreds of pictures of Mr. Schue and members of the New Directions, past and present, with detailed plans on how to quote/unquote ruin each of them. My dad said it was totally bizarre especially…"
Sebastian became unnerved when he felt a chill blast through him. "Especially?"
"A hidden room devoted to her undying love for Klaine. There were close to 1,000 photos including ones of Kurt and I at Dalton and a video playing of Kurt and I wearing tuxedos, dancing in a dreamlike Moulin Rouge set while singing Come What May, which obviously never happened. She also had mannequins, with cut-outs of mine and Kurt's faces, dressed for our wedding. This was when Burt Hummel was brought in. But Seb, that wasn't the most disturbing thing."
Blaine turned to the side table and picked up a file. When Sebastian opened it there was a picture of the two of them with Jake's mom at the diner. His face was crossed out in red marker. "She knew about the diner?"
"My parents and the authorities didn't know what to do about this level of crazy. They feared not only for me but you and anyone else she might have perceived as keeping me and Kurt apart."
Sebastian sat down the file before he vomited again. "Then why did she shoot YOU?"
"That's the part I can't tell you. Did she find out Sam and I were investigating her? Was she afraid of what she did before she found out my dad was that Michael Anderson? Did she think if Kurt couldn't have me no one could? No one knows. That's when my parents shipped me here to recover and told everyone I died. The authorities thought it would give her a false sense of security and draw her back since everyone assumed Becky shot me."
He'd comment on how stupid that was later. "But when it didn't happen, why didn't they say something?"
"I got an infection doctors didn't think I'd recover from. My parents thought it would be cruel to tell everyone I didn't die only for me to actually die. I obviously didn't but for eight months it was really bad." Blaine's tone was almost pitiful as he stood and waved his arm down his body. "As you can see, my recovery hasn't been much better."
Though he didn't have all his answers, the walls Sebastian built to protect his heart came crashing down. "You are still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
Sobs wracked Blaine's small frame so Sebastian scooped him onto his lap and held him close as they cried together. It was almost an hour before Blaine confessed "I would make up stories about you finding me and tell them to my Bisnonna. I told you she has dementia, right?"
"Yeah, you said this had been her place."
"In the early days of my recovery I couldn't do much. Telling her stories helped calm her, which my family appreciated, and gave me a reason to get out of bed. I told her hundreds of them but it wasn't just you. I included Santana, Wes, Sam and all the New New Directions…"
"The Fam."
"What fam?"
"When the New New Directions adopted me, like you knew they would, they also took in Santana, Wes, Cooper and later my cousin, Christian. The name changed to the Fam."
"I'm glad Cooper was included."
"He's not going to forgive your parents."
"Good, because I haven't forgiven them for taking me away from everyone I…" Blaine sat up, stared into Sebastian's eyes and gave into his feelings. "Everyone I love. Especially you, Sebastian. I know you said last night you did too but…"
"B…"
"Seb, I need you to hear this. Since I've been well enough to make my own decisions, I've chosen to remain in hiding. My dad had investigators all over the world trying to find Sue but she was a ghost. Her parents might have not been the Nazi hunters she claimed but they were experts at both world travel and staying off the grid. With the stuff in that locker, and no explanation for why she shot me…I was afraid, if she knew I was alive, she'd go after one of you in an attempt to find me."
The outpouring of truth overwhelmed Sebastian. "I'm supposed to go back to NYC in less than a week. I can't keep this from the others."
"You won't have to. When I kept saying I'm so close it was because they had found Sue. Yesterday, when I called my parents to tell them you were here, they told me she was in custody. Some cosmic force saw fit to have you find me at the exact moment I was freed from my nightmare. My parents will be here tomorrow to try to figure out a way to bring me back from the dead."
Sebastian kissed him with an intensity that made the kiss they shared the night before seem like the sweet pecks they shared at Will Schuester's non-wedding reception. When they parted, he put their foreheads together. "I know it will be hard but I'll be with you through all of it. I can't promise I won't go off on your parents."
"I would expect nothing less from Sebastian Smythe."
"Babe, my name is Bas."
The variation on Bas, my name is Babe brought back Blaine's tears, but this time happy ones. It was probably the one thing Sebastian could have said to make Blaine believe him. "I love you, Bas."
"I love you, Babe. By the way, that cosmic force of yours has a name, Gigi." An expression of utter confusion was not what Sebastian expected. "What's wrong?"
"How do you know Gigi?"
"She's the woman I told you about yesterday."
"That's not possible. Gigi is what I call my Bisnonna, g…g for great grandmother. I'm the only one who does this because I'm the only one who speaks English. Bas, she not only has dementia, she doesn't talk unless she's talking about…"
"The American soldier she met during World War II who may or may not be your uncle's father?"
Before Blaine could form the words, there was a frantic knock on his door. He opened it to a woman who must have been one of his aunts. "I'm sorry, Blaine. She wouldn't calm down until I said I'd bring her here."
"No, this is perfect timing." Blaine opened the door wider and offered his arm to a frail, older woman Sebastian recognized immediately.
And she recognized him
Blaine and his aunt were completely flabbergasted watching Gigi shuffle to Sebastian, linking their arms as they sat together on the couch. While the two of them smiled at each other, Blaine's aunt remembered the bag she was carrying. "She…she, um, wanted you to have this."
"Chocolates?" Blaine stared into the cloth bag full of dozens of individually wrapped candies. "I don't understand.
Sebastian did. "He told you the story of Santana and the chocolates, didn't he?"
Gigi reached across and patted his cheek but her only response was "Darling Boy."
2 Hours Later
"Tana, I'm back."
The sound of Sebastian's voice woke her. She had fallen asleep, again, but who could blame her? The bed in this 5-star hotel was the most comfortable thing she had ever laid on.
When she entered the living area of the suite, it was dark. Why hadn't he turned on the light?
"Hi." It wasn't Sebastian standing before her. "Are you happy today?"
Santana braced herself on an end table. She hadn't heard the question in almost 2 years. "I don't know how to answer. If I say no, it will be a lie because if you are you…if you are Blaine, I don't know if I've ever been so happy in my life. But if I say yes, you'd have say I don't need you anymore and that would be the lie."
Blaine reached into the bag Gigi brought him and pulled out a candy. "There are 100 pieces of chocolate in here. How about if you say yes but I just give you one piece for the next 100 days?"
"What if 100 isn't enough?"
"I'll give you as much as you want. If you'll let me."
Sebastian, who had been standing in the shadows, moved next to Blaine. "He's real Tana. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you before."
"Just shut up." Santana ran into Blaine's arms, almost knocking him over. "You look like hell."
"I missed you too."
Notes:
Despite Becky's Down Syndrome, bringing a gun to school would have gotten her expelled and not a 30-day suspension. Glee took a lot of liberties with school policies (don't get me started on how they didn't win Nationals) but this is a zero tolerance mandate throughout the US.
For those of you who choose to ignore Season 6, Becky showed the Superintendent the "Hurt Locker" when Sue was mean to Gay Blaine and wouldn't let the Warblers join the ND after the fire at Dalton. Sorry, for the bad memories.
