Summary: Karofsky's pled guilty but the fallout of his conviction sends tidal waves through McKinley High. It's hard enough to deal with the fallout, but it's even harder when no one knows just how far Karofsky's friends will go for revenge. Sequel to Invisible.
Warning: I actually don't think there's any swearing in this chapter, or at least not much. However like every chapter there's a warning for mentions of non-con.
A/N: So my head-canon has Carole has a nurse. I hope no one has a problem with that. Oh and I forgot to mention in the last chapter that I did end up getting the idea from Criminal Minds, so kudos to jackalakala who was the only person who guessed correctly.
Also, this chapter is the longest yet. It's over 4000 words in just content. It was shorter before but I realized that I had nothing on the reactions of the teachers and went back and wrote some scenes. However I'm not sure how great they are since I find it difficult to write for Sue and Coach Beiste. Also I wrote them, and am writing this in the midst of having a fever, so I hope everything made sense!
Chapter 10 – I'm Not Okay
The five students found Coach Beiste leaving the locker room with a pile of ripped and tattered clothes held up in her hands along with a look of confusion and dread lining her face.
Her eyes locked on the students and the baggy gym wear two of them were clad in. The look crumpled into complete and utter horror when she realized just whose clothing she was holding. She looked straight at Kurt and Blaine for an answer, "What happened?"
"The football team," Finn spoke up roughly, "That's what happened."
She looked between the five of them; taking in Brittany's tearstained face and the tremors that were shooting through Kurt along with the tension in his and Blaine's muscles. There was a rigidness in Finn and Puck as well that screamed their anger as well as their protectiveness. "Tell me exactly what happened."
"I think Kurt, Blaine and Brittany need to sit down first," Puck said in a soft tone.
"We should talk to the principal too," Finn added his body relaxing slightly now that they were in the presence of an adult; particularly one who actually cared like Coach Beiste.
"Alright, Principal Figgins should still be around," the coach told them in a voice that sounded outwardly calm, but the slight treble of anger was still apparent. It was obvious that she had at the very least an idea of what had gone down.
She ushered them towards the office and motioned for them to sit down on the couches that lay in the outer area of the office. "Kids, I need you to tell me what happened now. Do I need to call the police?"
"No," Kurt blurted immediately as a tremor of fear slipped into his voice. "No. We don't need the police. We- we just need it to stop, that's all."
"What to stop?"
"The- the team," Kurt murmured after a moment. "They-they won't let it go."
"What did my team do?" Coach Beiste asked in a low voice. There was a clear contempt in her tone as she spoke of her football team.
Kurt just shook his head and looked to Blaine.
Blaine licked his lips carefully and recounted as swiftly as possible, "They duct taped us to the flag pole and locked Brittany in a closet."
"What?" The creases around the coach's eyes deepened as her face seemed to scrunch up in fury.
"That's not all Coach," Finn added since Blaine seemed to be leaving out the most humiliating part of it all. "They stripped them naked first- before duct taping them I mean."
She pressed her lips together in a tight line, "Principal Figgins will probably be here in a minute. He's usually here by this time." There was a pause in the deadly calm of her voice, "Would you say the students involved are still here?"
"I- maybe," Finn shrugged his shoulders quietly. "It wasn't that long ago."
"Who was involved?" She asked abruptly as she looked towards the door and the hallway.
"Um, pretty much everybody but Mike, Artie, Sam, us and Azimio," Finn explained to the coach readily.
"I have to go speak to a couple students. You wait here for Principal Figgins," she muttered darkly, before moving in the general direction of the locker room.
Kurt sat on the couch in the all too familiar room, peering out to where Principal Figgins was looking very uncomfortable and nervous. His eyes turned to Blaine, whose hand he was still clutching tightly.
The other boy's knee was shaking up and down nervously and when he noticed Kurt's gaze, he squeezed his hand gently. Almost at the same time Brittany leaned into his shoulder. The girl was no longer crying, but her face was downturned and she kept herself glued to his side.
Finn was just kind of staring at him from across the room, like he was afraid he'd shatter at any moment. Puck had taken off approximately twenty minutes earlier, muttering something about catching up with Kevin.
"What kind of school is this?" He winced automatically as he heard his father before he saw him. "Don't you have any control over any of your students?"
He was slightly surprised when he heard a female voice (since no one had been able to contact Carole due to an emergency at the hospital) chime in angrily, "What the hell is going on in this school? You'd think after what happened last time you'd have some kind of anti-harassment policy going on, but you just can't get your head out of your ass long enough to do something about it, can you?"
Blaine was noticeably more surprised, his head whipping around at the sound of his aunt's voice. His mouth dropped open softly.
"Blaine?" Kurt asked in a quiet voice, "What's wrong?"
Blaine shook his head, "Nothing. I'm fine."
Kurt frowned at him, not really believing the other boy, but his father's increased volume caught his attention and he immediately rose from his chair and ran into the Principal's office. His presence stalled all the yelling and all three adults in the room stared at him.
"Dad," Kurt spoke in a quiet voice, "You need to be careful-"
"I'm fine," Burt cut off his son softly, his eyes taking in the oversized clothes Kurt was wearing, "You need to stop worrying about me Kurt. It's my job to worry about you, okay?"
"Dad-"
"I'm serious," Burt told him firmly as he placed a hand on his shoulder. His father turned to look at Principal Figgins again, "and I'm dead serious when I say that I better see some Goddamn change in this school, starting with some serious punishment for the boys who attacked my son and his boyfriend."
"I think nothing less than expulsion would be sufficient," Marina Anderson added darkly. "I would hate to see any of those students being allowed to share a classroom with my nephew ever again."
"The boy who planned the attack will certainly be expelled," Figgins voice wavered slightly as he spoke, "The other boys will be suspended for the rest of the school year and will have their sports privileges revoked for the remainder of their high school careers."
"They practically kidnapped two boys and forcibly removed their clothing before duct taping them to a goal post and you think that a measly one week suspension is enough?" Marina's voice lowered dangerously, "Is that what you call punishment?"
"The suspensions include their examinations and it's on top of whether you or Mr. Hummel here decide to press charges against the boys-" Figgin's began, but Kurt immediately shook his head.
"Dad," Kurt murmured in a soft voice, "I don't want to go through with another trial."
There was a grumble under his breath, but after a moment his father spoke quietly, "Alright, then you don't have to. I guess we'll just have to suffice with what Principal Figgins here has suggested."
Kurt frowned, his eyes being drawn over to the door where Azimio was standing looking uncertain of something. "I think someone's at the door."
Figgins gestured for the boy to come in.
Kurt had never seen the bigger boy look more awkward or uncomfortable.
"What seems to be the problem Mr. Adams?" Figgins asked after a moment, "I certainly hope you weren't involved in the unfortunate incident that took place this afternoon."
"I wouldn't say involved," Azimio shrugged, "I just kind of broke it up. Um, but I think Mr. Hummel needs to know that I don't think it was Kevin's idea really." He looked between the three adults in the room and purposely avoided looking at Kurt, "I went to visit – um – Karofsky last week and he wanted me to help him in some kind of revenge plot. I said no and I thought- well I thought no one would help him if I didn't."
"So you knew this was going to happen and you didn't do anything about it?" Marina sniped at the boy, her hands on her hips and her eyes blazing. Considering the look on her face Kurt didn't blame the bigger boy at all for shrinking back at the petite woman's glare.
"No- I-" Azimio shook his head, "I didn't know this was going to happen, but um- since it did- I figured you should know who's really behind it."
"I'll have a discussion with Mr. Turner about the mastermind behind this prank," Figgins tried to sound confident, but merely got a glare from both Marina and Burt at the word 'prank'. Kurt found himself stiffening at the use of the word.
This had been no prank.
"However I would suggest," Figgins continued quietly, trying to save some face, "That no one tells Mr. Turner of your intention not to press charges until he tells the truth about who planned this attack."
Almost at that particular moment a tall woman burst into the room with Santana at her side. Both the middle aged blonde and the teen Latina looked absolutely furious.
"Alright, before I ends our principal here I'd like to announce that there's gonna be a Glee meeting tomorrow," Santana looked directly at Kurt, "It's gonna be right after school. Spread the word." She turned to the blonde woman, "Kay, we can ends him now."
The woman gave Principal Figgins a dark glare, "Mr. Figgins."
"Ah, Mrs. Pierce," Figgins grimaced as more loud, and decidedly more shrill, yells began to assail the ears of everyone in the room, and everyone in the general vicinity.
"Sue I need your expertise," Mr. Schue burst into the cheerleading coach's office unannounced and without ceremony.
Coach Sylvester looked 'slightly' outraged at his unannounced arrival but merely raised an eyebrow at his request for her expertise. She took in his appearance. His hair had flyaways and there were worry lines in his forehead and the rest of his face. There was also something undeterminable in his eyes that reminded her a little of herself when she was in a rage. She took it all in before speaking in her usual tone, "I was wondering when you'd show up asking me how to be a winner, but sorry I just can't help you until all the butter has been removed from your ridiculously curly hair."
"Don't you even care?" Mr. Schue asked as his mouth dropped open slightly. He couldn't remember a time when he'd ever felt more unadulterated contempt for the woman in front of him. "Two of those kids used to be your Cheerios."
If it was at all possible Sue Sylvester actually looked genuinely confused. "Listen Schuester," she said dispassionately, "Either tell me what's got your panties in such a twist or get out of my office."
The rage slowly, but not completely drained from Mr. Schue and he said in an oddly disjointed tone, "You really- don't know?" The contempt crept back into his voice, "I thought Sue Sylvester knew everything that goes on at McKinley High?"
"Tell me what happened Will," Sue ordered, dropping all pretense and using his first name which was a somewhat unusual occurrence for her. "Something happen to one of your Glee kids?" The last time she'd seen him like this had been because of something awful happening to one of his kids, to Porcelain; she could only imagine what had happened this time.
"Three of them," Mr. Schue spat out; more angry at the kids who'd participated in the attack than at Sue for not knowing. "A majority of the football team thought it would be funny to lock poor Brittany in a closet-"
A slight redness started creeping up Sue's neck but she allowed him to continue.
"-and use her phone to distract my students so they could get Kurt and Blaine alone-"
The redness reached upwards, crawling up her face.
"-so they could strip them and duct tape them naked to a flag pole. Obviously you understand how that is unbelievably cruel to do to any child, let alone to those two who are still struggling with the events a few months ago."
The redness reached her ears and the roots of her hair and she asked in a deadly calm voice, "And what kind of expertise were you looking for William?"
"Figgins is letting the team off too easy. You've manipulated him before. I want those kids expelled and a new no harassment policy that's enforced and implemented immediately."
"They locked Brittany Pierce in a closet and messed with Porcelain and Eyebrows?" She asked but didn't allow him an answer, "Are you sure you wouldn't like me to do a little more?"
"More?" Mr. Schue asked softly.
"Yes, Schue; more," she growled in a dark voice.
"Sue-" he began.
"Consider it done," she cut him off firmly. "Now get out of my office."
Schue left; wondering slightly if he'd accidentally took out a hit (something he wouldn't put past Sue) and was surprised to find he hardly cared.
Blaine fell into his bed the moment he got home and dropped his phone as it flashed the 'new text message from Wes' alert. It landed with a small thud onto his night table and he turned away from it.
He certainly didn't want to talk to either Wes or David right now. He just wanted to sleep and pretend that everything that had happened that day hadn't.
He felt the side of the mattress sink in a flinched slightly when a hand slid onto his shoulder, "Blaine, sweetie-"
"I'm not in the mood to talk right now Auntie," he told her in a hoarse voice, "I'm really tired."
"Alright," she told him quietly, patting his arm, "but you should really think about answering your friends' messages. They miss you and they're worried about you."
"They don't need to be worried, I'm fine," he mumbled the lie into his pillow, wishing desperately that she'd just leave him alone. "I'm fine."
"You can say it all you want, but that doesn't make it true," she told him in a soft voice. He felt her pressed a kiss atop his head as the depression in his mattress eased as she rose. "And it's okay to not be okay. No one would be, especially after today."
"I'm fine," he mumbled again, "Go away."
He heard her let out a sad, soft sigh before stepping away from the bed. "I'm not sure what's worse, Blaine, the fact that you're lying to me or that you insist on lying to yourself."
He turned over on the bed as his door closed and grasped his hand around the phone.
Was he really lying to himself? He knew he wasn't exactly happy in his life at the moment and that things were difficult, but did that mean he wasn't fine? He was okay, he was surviving and that was enough.
Kurt needed him to stay strong and he needed to be fine to be strong.
His fingers tightened around the phone and he fought against the tiny wet pinpricks in the corners of his eyes. The problem was being fine, being strong and keeping himself together took up so much of his energy. It was so Goddamn hard. "I'm not okay," he whispered to himself softly and hoped his aunt was right and it was okay to not be okay.
Carefully he read the message Wes had sent him.
I don't care how long u ignore me. I'm going to keep texting u. Answer me!
He swallowed the lump in his throat and let his fingers slowly type out a message to his friend. Can I come visit tomorrow?
The response was almost immediate. Yes!
He smiled slightly at the message and set his phone back down on the nightstand, before curling up on the bed.
He wasn't okay, not by a long shot, no matter how many times he said he was but he did miss his friends at Dalton and it certainly couldn't hurt to visit them.
Kurt slipped upstairs silently merely moments after stepping foot into his house. He found a slight amount of comfort as he got into some of his own clothes, or rather pajamas. He wasn't short in the same way that Blaine was, but Finn's clothes still swam on him.
He'd hoped that he'd feel marginally more like himself, saner, now that he was in his own clothing. He sat on the edge of his bed and took in a few deep breaths.
It was so much easier to hold himself together when so much was going on, but now that he was alone, thoughts and images were sliding through his brain at a pace that nothing, not even his own clothing could make him feel sane; or safe for that matter.
When he could hear the angry parents (he included Blaine's aunt in that label, considering she was being more of a parent than Blaine's real parents were) yelling at least there had been something to distract him from the events of the day. At least Blaine had been there for him to hold onto, even if they were more holding onto each other than anything else.
"Dude," he looked up at the voice, knowing instantaneously it was his step-brother both by the tone and the irritating slang he always used, "You alright?"
"What do you think?" Kurt snapped automatically
"No?" Finn asked awkwardly, stepping into the room and settling himself beside Kurt on the bed. "Kurt, like I know you're not alright, but-"
"I know," Kurt stopped him, slightly apologetic. "I shouldn't have snapped at you. I just- I thought this was supposed to be over by now."
"I hate to tell you, but I don't think it'll ever be over the way you want it to be," Finn told him with a shrug, "It's like you can't go back in time and you're probably always going to remember it and stuff."
"Way to make me feel better," Kurt growled softly despite that he still leant towards his brother.
"Just telling the truth, man," Finn explained softly. "I'm just saying, you're always going to remember it, but you don't have to let it, take you over or anything."
"Neither do you," Kurt reminded him, poking his brother in the side slightly, "You're not dealing with this any better than I am."
"I know," Finn shrugged softly, "but at least I figured that out." The taller boy's voice dropped softly, "I seriously scared myself today. I was so angry when I found out what they did. I wanted to kill Kevin. Hell if I'd been alone with him I might have- and before- I hurt Rachel bad. I never wanted to hurt her. I hate Karofsky. I hate how angry he's made me. I hate being angry, Kurt. I hate how it makes me someone I'm not and I hate that I hurt her. Mostly I hate how I seem to hate everything."
"Maybe you could talk to Dr. MacLeod about it?" Kurt suggested in a soft voice, wary of Finn's reaction.
"Yeah," Finn agreed in an equally soft tone, "I think I could manage that." He gave Kurt an impromptu hug, ignoring his slight flinch. "I love you bro, alright?"
Kurt made a face at him and rolled his eyes slightly, "I love you too bro."
"Alright, everyone's here," Santana announced as Rachel flounced into the room and took a seat purposefully on the opposite side of the room as Finn. "Not that starting without Man Hands wouldn't be a plus, but whatever- at least everyone's here."
"You want to tell us what's going on?" Quinn cut in, a hand sweeping through her short hair, "I thought Glee was over for the year and now you're dragging us all back in here?"
Santana pressed her mouth shut for a moment, "Look, just let me talk Q." She looked at all the people she loosely defined as friends. "I called you all here because of what happened yesterday. I assume you all heard about it."
There were several growls throughout the room and both Kurt and Blaine stiffened slightly at the mention. Brittany choked back a small sob.
"Britt, come here," Santana beckoned the blonde softly with a smile and took her hand when Brittany came to stand beside her. With Brittany at her side, she addressed the rest of the glee members and her teacher, "Well what happened yesterday made me realize something. All this self-hate and homophobia is just getting people that I-" she looked at Kurt and forced herself to say the words, "care about hurt."
She took a deep breath before continuing, "and I guess I realized I'm part of the problem. All this 'in the closet' bullshit started all this and I don't want to be angry anymore."
She turned to Brittany and squeezed her hand, "I'm in love with you Brittany and I'm ready to tell the world, or at least our friends in Glee." She looked at the club, "I'm a lesbian and if you laugh at me I will destroy you."
"You really told people," Brittany whispered in a soft voice as she threw her arms around Santana. "You really told everyone you love me." A bright, happy smile lit up the blonde's face for the first time since the night before.
"Yeah Britt, I did," Santana squeezed her back, "I don't care about anything else but you and maybe some of the other people in this room- possibly."
"Can I be your girlfriend now?" Brittany asked softly, cocking her head to the side.
"Sweetie," Santana told her, her voice gentle in the way that was reserved just for the blonde, "Now and forever if that's alright with you?"
Brittany grinned and kissed her in full view of the club.
"Finally," Quinn's voice spoke up with a sigh, a smile hidden behind her supposedly sarcastic words, "Now the rest of us can stop pretending we don't know."
"What do you mean?" Santana asked, managing to tear her lips from her girlfriend's.
"San, I hate to say this," Quinn told her in a way that sounded like she was actually enjoying the words quite a bit, "but you guys are kind of obvious. I know I've known longer than you have. I'm pretty sure Rachel figured it out during Landslide. The only people who probably didn't figure it out are Finn, Sam and Puck. Finn mostly because he can be an idiot most of the time-"
"Hey-" Finn started to complain, but was silenced by a glare from his ex-girlfriend.
"-Puck because if he knew his head would explode from the fantasies and there'd be bits of Mohawk everywhere, and Sam because he's got a lot more important things on his mind than your sexuality; that and you used to make out with him," Quinn finished, sounding somewhat pleased with herself.
"Look Q-" Santana began, her voice dark and irate.
"Oh shut up San. I'm happy for you, okay?" Quinn rolled her eyes at the girl and let out a soft laugh, "Not everyone hates you, okay? At least they wouldn't if you didn't expect them to."
"Love you too Q," Santana managed to mutter sarcastically, despite that her lips were curving upward slightly. She stifled the smile.
"I think one girlfriend is enough for you," Quinn teased her good-naturedly.
"Congrats on coming out Santana," Kurt spoke up, breaking through the semi-friendly banter between the two girls, "but I have to ask, is this unofficial Glee meeting over?"
She rolled her eyes, "Yes Kurt, you can leave now."
He smiled at her and hugged both her and Brittany momentarily, "I'm really proud of you two, you know that right?"
"Let me guess, you knew too?" Santana asked in a wry voice.
"I guessed," Kurt told her with a shrug, "but I didn't assume. I'll admit my gaydar is a bit faulty at times."
"Yeah," her voice was uncharacteristically soft, "I'm still really sorry about everything, you know-"
"Shut up Santana," he smiled weakly at her, "There's nothing to be sorry about. I've got to go. Maybe I'll see you around this summer." He pulled away from her and accepted Blaine's awaiting hand before the two boys, closely followed by Finn and Puck, disappeared from the choir room.
A/N: Well there you go, chapter 10. It's not my favourite chapter because that's reserved for the next one! Please leave me a review telling me what you thought. Thanks!