AN: Boy am I feeling productive today...

Chapter 9 – Brother May I?

Tina was struggling to concentrate on her driving as the Beetle curved along with the morning traffic. In the passenger seat Artie was bouncing in anticipation, toying with his fingers distractedly.

"We need to convince your brother that I know you," Tina said, glancing sideways at him as she stopped at a red light. "What kind of secrets do you know about him?"

Artie chuckled. "He's my big brother," he responded. "I know everything."

"Alright, so tell me something," she said.

"Well, when we were kids he wanted to be a fashion designer," Artie said. "He used to design clothes for my Power Rangers and G.I. Joes."

Tina arched an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"In high school his favourite teacher called him Porcelain," he continued.

"Well that's good but that's not really something too secret," she pointed out. "What's something that no one but you knows about him?"

Artie paused and was deep in thought for two city blocks, before his eyes lit up. "On the day of his wedding, he made out with a female friend, a girl named Sadie that he went to college with, right before the ceremony," he said.

"He cheated on his wife on his wedding day?" Tina asked in shock.

To her surprise, Artie laughed outright. "Actually he's gay," he added.

Tina's eyes widened. "That's even better," she said with a laugh. "Great, that will work."

As they got closer Artie directed her to the right place, and when they pulled up Tina had to take a second to gawk at the house. The little square cottage looked like it had come straight out of a magazine, with perfectly shaped coordinated curtains in each of the windows to the carefully arranged plants lining the wrap-around porch. It was a vision of domestic perfection.

"Wow," she breathed as she climbed out of the car.

Artie snorted. "Kurt likes things to be just so," he explained. "If he hadn't gone into fashion he would have most definitely been an interior designer. Blaine pretty much just lets him decorate however he wants, I think he just likes that it feels more homey than where he grew up."

"I wanna invite him over to do my place," Tina said with a laugh. She walked up to the front door, pausing to admire the porch swing with the name 'Anderson' carved into the backboard in a delicate script. Bracing herself, she knocked.

A young boy's voice from inside bellowed, "Dad, door!" There was a blend of overlapping noises after that, until the door was finally opened. Tina surveyed the man in front of her with interest. He was beautiful, plain and simple. Still there were places where she could see the distinct similarities between Artie and his brother. They both had the same smooth, pale skin and their hair was the same colour, although Kurt's was obviously more thoroughly styled. And most of all they both had wide, cornflower blue eyes.

"Can I help you?" Kurt asked politely.

"Uh, yeah," Tina said, scrambling to recover herself. "I was wondering if I could talk to you about your brother, Artie."

Surprise flashed quickly across Kurt's face before he composed his expression again. "How do you know my brother?" he asked suspiciously.

"Tell him you're a patient," Artie hissed. "He knows I wasn't dating anyone, he won't fall for that."

"I was a patient of his," Tina said. "Before his accident. He helped cure me of meningitis." Kurt's eyebrows drew down slightly and, panicking, she said, "Cerebral meningitis."

"Cerebral meningitis?" Artie asked sarcastically. "What the hell? Meningitis is in the brain, you don't need to say cerebral too."

Trying to ignore him, Tina continued, "I really liked him. A lot of people were telling me that things were never going to get better, but Artie always stuck by me, and in the end he's the one who really helped me get through it. I might not be here if it wasn't for him."

A soft smile lifted the corner of Kurt's lips. "Yeah, that sounds like Artie," he agreed. "Here, why don't you come inside?"

Tina smiled gratefully as she slipped through the door. "Your house is beautiful," she added once she'd had the chance to look around the entry room. She had never seen such a gorgeous house, even with the Spongebob doll sitting on the decorative table beside the door.

"Thank you," Kurt said with a pleased smile and then he led her through to the kitchen. "So what did you want to talk about?" he asked, setting up the pot for tea.

"I just –" Tina hesitated, trying to think how best to say it. A glance at Artie told her he didn't have any clever answers either. Finally she could only think of one thing to say. "I wanted to ask you not to take him off life support."

Kurt's hand stumbled on the pot, splashing a bit of water onto the stovetop. "Excuse me?"

"I just wanted to ask you not to give up on him just yet," Tina insisted. "When I was sick, Artie never gave up on me. It just seems wrong to give up on him, doesn't it? He can get better, you just need to give him time."

"I see." Kurt frowned, flicking his hair back off of his forehead distractedly. "Do you know what these last eight months have been like for my family? I've had to watch my younger brother slowly but surely drifting away from us. We lost our parents a few years ago, and he's all the family I've got left. My children ask me every night if their uncle is ever going to wake up and play with them again. How can I explain this to them? How can I tell them he might never come out of this? I can't do that. These eight months have been slowly wearing us all down. I can't put my kids through that anymore. We're running out of hope."

"Dad?" The door to the kitchen was pushed open by a little boy with a mop of curly brown hair. "Can we watch the monkey show?"

"Yes, alright," Kurt said with a gentle smile. "But only for a little while; it's almost lunchtime."

"Yay!" the boy crowed eagerly. He looked around the room and for a minute his eyes settled on where Artie was standing. The boy grinned and waved, and then turned around and darted out of the room.

"He saw me," Artie breathed and took off after the boy.

"Please, sir," Tina pressed on, disoriented at being left alone, "all I'm asking is that you don't sign those papers. Not yet."

Kurt sighed and leaned his weight against the countertop. "It's too late," he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"No," she said, her breath rushing out of her. "You didn't."

"I took them over first thing this morning," Kurt responded. "They're pulling the plug at noon tomorrow. It was time to face the facts. Artie is not waking up. We couldn't keep pretending any longer. Artie had signed documents saying he didn't want to be kept alive artificially. I spent too many years thinking I knew what was best for him. This time I'm going to honour his decisions. This is what he wanted. "

"No, please, I swear to you he doesn't want this," Tina said frantically. "You just need to call the hospital and stop this whole thing. Just give him a little more time, he'll come out of this."

Kurt scowled and shook his head. "It's too late," he repeated.

"But he's here," Tina insisted. "He's here, with us, right now. I can see him. I don't know why, but I can see him. Please, we're trying to find a way to get him back into his body, but you have to give us a little more time to figure it out."

"He's here?" Kurt asked sceptically.

"He just walked into the other room, I swear it," Tina said. "When I moved into his house he started haunting me. He can talk to me, and I can hear him."

Kurt's perfectly sculpted eyebrow swept high up onto his brow. "Oh really?"

"Like he told me how you always knew you wanted to be a fashion designer, so you used to dress the GI Joes up in clothes you'd made," Tina rambled off. "And your high school teacher called you Porcelain. And on the day of your wedding you kissed a girl named Sadie."

Something flashed in Kurt's eyes and he tensed up. "How did you know that?" he asked menacingly.

"Artie told me," Tina said firmly. "Just this morning, on the drive over here. I told you, he's still around and you can't give up on him just yet. Give us some more time."

"Oh, of course," Kurt said, his voice suddenly detached. There was an awkward pause while Tina tried to make sense of his sudden shift in mood, and then he leapt sideways and jerked a cutting knife from the rack above the stove. Holding it up in front of him defensively, Kurt said, "Get out of my house."

"Wait, no please," Tina said, holding her hands up in surrender. "I'm telling the truth."

"Out!" Kurt shouted and brandished the knife threateningly. Tina hesitated for a second longer and then turned and rushed out of the room.

She was barrelling down the hall when Artie's upper half appeared through the wall. "What's going-?" His eyes landed on Kurt, who was following her with the knife, and he gasped. Tina bolted out of the front door with Artie right behind her. Kurt paused at the doorframe long enough to say, "And stay away from my family," before slamming it shut.

"Well that didn't go well," Tina muttered darkly, straightening out her jacket and stepping down off the porch.

"What happened?" Artie asked curiously.

Tina sighed and then quickly recounted the conversation she'd had with his brother. "I'm sorry, I had no choice but to tell him," she finished. "He wasn't listening. I had to try."

"I know," Artie said. "I don't blame him for not believing you though. It's a pretty insane story. He was just protecting the kids."

"You look a lot alike," Tina commented. "But I thought you said he was your older brother?"

Artie grinned. "By eighteen months," he amended. "Still, he definitely always acted the older brother. He always knew best. I hated him for it sometimes, when he'd meddle in my life a little too much, but he was usually right in the end."

"Well he's not right this time," Tina said adamantly. "So if we can't stop them, we'll just have to beat them. We're going to find out how to send you back, tonight."