A/N: So my Mum's really behind on Glee, and was just recently watching the Born This Way episode, and I happened to walk into the room during SOWK and my mum turns and looks at me and goes 'He's just so… ridiculous! I can't stand this character' and yeah, she was talking about Blaine!

… I'm officially calling it; I'm adopted.

Anyway, thank you guys so, so much for all your awesome reviews, I love them. I'm so sorry about the wait for this chapter. It's the end of semester and everything is due and it's kind of killing me. And my immune system decided to conk out on me so I have this awful cold I'm battling in the process.

Also, is it Breadsticks or Breadstix? I've seen both… I don't live in America and had never even heard of the place until Glee.

"Well, he's not coming out anytime soon." Blaine tried to joke casually. Truthfully, he was a little shaken at being slammed up against the railing of the stairs, and the flashbacks to his old school he'd had suddenly, but for Kurt's sake he didn't want to show it.

Kurt didn't laugh though. Far from it. He slumped down with a defeated look and sat on the stairs.

"What's going on?" He asked.

Kurt shrugged.

"Come on Kurt, he's just a bully. Why are you so upset?"

Kurt shook his head.

"Cause, up until yesterday... I'd never been kissed. At least." he let out a short bitter laugh. "When it counted."

Blaine felt shame wash over him. Just a couple of weeks ago hadn't he been trying to kiss Kurt, in the bathroom? What was wrong with him? Kurt was innocent. Really innocent if he hadn't so much as kissed anyone. And sure, maybe he'd never had a boyfriend either, and it wasn't like he'd slept with anyone or anything. But he'd... tested the waters a little. He'd known other gay guys.

He felt like a jerk. Trying to seduce Kurt, making him fall for him. Kurt wasn't ready for any of that yet. He needed to back off and just... be a friend for a little while. Because that was what Kurt needed. A friend. Not a boyfriend. He'd have to just… try and forget everything about Kurt that made his heart beat a little faster, that made him melt just a little. He'd just have to push that all aside and be a friend, a… a mentor to Kurt. Yeah, that's what he'd be. A mentor.

"Come on." he said. "I'll buy you lunch." In a completely platonic way.

He stood up, but didn't take Kurt's hand as he otherwise normally would. He even walked slightly ahead of Kurt the whole way to car. He could do this. He could not hit on Kurt, not be distracted by trying to work out exactly what colour his eyes were, or by the fact he'd never before realised they made pants that fit so… well…

He could be just a friend.

x x x

He missed fifth period English he had straight after lunch for going to Breadsticks with Blaine. Usually he'd panic over missing a class. But today, he didn't really care. It had been nice to just get away from McKinley and take a break from the otherwise awful day he'd been having.

He lost his phone. Karofsky didn't seem to be about to stop making his life hell and Mike Change and Sam had designed their costumes for the mashup competition (they hadn't done a bad job, but he could have done better). But not even lunch with Blaine had made him feel that much better. Blaine had been acting different at lunch. Shorter with him. Never quite meeting his eye. Not reaching out to touch him once and he was confused.

He really shouldn't have told Blaine about Karofsky being his first kiss (with a boy, Quinn and Brittany didn't count). He was on his way to his last class of the day, the hallway was quickly emptying at students disappeared into classrooms when he heard his name.

"Hummel."

He stopped mid step and turned around. He sighed heavily when he saw Puck standing there. He wasn't in the mood.

"What?" he snapped, before realising he was holding out his phone.

"Lose this?"

"Oh. Well… the stuff on facebook makes a whole lot of sense now."

"I was disappointed when you deleted it. Anyway, it's not my fault you don't keep a password on your phone. The opportunity was right there."

Kurt took a few hesitant steps forwards.

"Are you going to give it back?"

"Maybe." Puck mused. "It's in pretty good condition though. I could get a pretty penny from selling it."

"I'm really not in the mood for this." Kurt folded his arms across his chest impatiently. "And I know you don't care, but I'm late for history."

"You skipped English." He said.

"Yeah, I know. Are you giving my phone back or is this a futile conversation?"

"I'll give it back if you answer a question for me."

"No, I don't think you're 'hot stuff'." Kurt brought his hands up to make air quotes.

"Ok, one, I know that's a lie, because everyone thinks I'm hot stuff. And two, not the question I had in mind."

Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Fine. What is it?"

Puck looked around a little uneasily, checking that there truly was no one else around. His free hand shoved deep into his pocket. He stared at the ground for several long seconds before looking up and looking Kurt directly in the eye.

"Are you the father of Quinn's baby?"

Kurt felt himself go cold. He could feel the colour draining quickly from his face and he suddenly felt numb all over. He couldn't form a single coherent thought. His brain just couldn't work fast enough to comprehend what he'd just been asked.

"I... n-no. Why would you, what would give you that idea?"

As the words left his mouth, he remembered suddenly that he still had photos of her on his phone from showing his Dad. Puck had seen them. There was no doubt in Kurt's mind that Puck had gone looking through his phone and had seen them. How did he know the baby was Beth? How did he figure it out?

Kurt swallowed hard. Only one truly coherent thought was going through his mind.

Lie. Lie. Lie. Lie.

"Hummel, I'm not an idiot."

"I'm not. I swear, I'm not." He was shaking his head. Puck had long ago stopped shoving him into lockers and throwing him in the dumpster. But would he start again? Wasn't Puck in love with Quinn, or something? It had sure seemed like it last year.

"And I'm pretty sure you are." Puck took a step forward.

"Don't hurt me." He was flinching already.

Puck paused and frowned.

"Why would I hurt you?" He sounded genuinely confused that Kurt had thought he would.

"Aren't you in love with her?"

Puck paused, just long enough to give Kurt his answer.

"No."

"Yeah, right."

"Are you Beth's father?" He asked again, slowly.

Kurt chanced a look at Puck. He was surprised to see there was no anger in his face. Just… something he couldn't quite describe. And suddenly, Kurt felt an overwhelming desire to admit it, just to… to see how it would feel. But he couldn't. He'd sooner tell Mercedes than Puck. Hell, he'd sooner tell Rachel.

"Yes." His eyes went wide as he processed what he'd said. "I-I mean…" he faltered. There was no backtracking now. It was done. It was over. Puck knew, and soon everyone would know. He sighed and stared at the ground, refusing to meet Puck's gaze.

"Oh." Puck only looked mildly surprised. "I thought it would be harder to get you to admit it. I was honestly ready to hold your phone under threat. Especially that some guy named Blaine has sent you about fifty thousand messages since I found it."

Blaine had been messaging him? What had he been saying? Kurt tried to push to momentary distraction of Blaine aside.

"What are you going to do now? Tell the school?"

"How?"

Kurt shrugged.

"I don't know, you still have my phone, post it as my status or something. Though, no one would believe that. You might want to upload some of those photo's as well."

Puck shook his head.

"I meant how did... how did youand Fabray come about? In what world was there a situation where the two of you were alone together long enough to… you know? And how did you even… don't you like dudes?"

Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Really, that's the question you ask?"

Puck shrugged.

"I don't know what I'm suppose to say. This is the biggest mind fuck ever. Seriously, I've been tryingto picture the two of you together and I just can't."

"Can I ask you a question then?" Kurt asked, more than happy to gloss over the fact that Puck had actually admitted to trying to mentally imagine him… yeah… because that wasn't weird…

"Yeah, you can have your phone back."

"Ok, this assuming we know what the other is going to ask thing needs to stop. But… if you don't mind." Kurt held out his hand and Puck handed the phone over. "Did you actually believe she was yours?"

"Beth?"

"Yeah."

"No." Puck shook his head. "I mean, Quinn is hot and all… kind of really hot. But, bros' before hoes' yeah? I wouldn't to do that to Finn."

Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"Ok… maybe if the opportunity was there, it would be hard to resist. But, it wasn't."

"Then why did you tell people you were the father?"

"I was protecting her." Puck said. "And… you, I guess, inadvertently, not that I knew that. It had nothing to do with me!"

"You're not making any sense."

"Fine, look. I knew about it because Finn told me."

x x x

Quinn was pregnant. Quinn Fabray, captain of the celibacy club (and probably the only one in that club actually celibate, or so he'd once thought) was pregnant.

With a child that wasn't Finn's. Puck knew that. He knew that because Finn had said 'Quinn's pregnant.' Not 'I had sex with Quinn, and now she's pregnant.' But he also knew that Finn was under the impression the baby currently growing inside his girlfriend was his. He didn't know how Finn figured that worked, but… whatever.

He spotted her walking down the hall. She was holding her books against her stomach and avoiding eye contact with everything. He took quicker strides to catch up to her.

"Sup MILF?"

"Leave me alone." She walked a little faster.

"Who's the daddy?" He easily kept up with her, because, no, she wasn't getting out of this so easily. "I just think it's kind weird if it's Finn, since I know for a fact you didn't do it with him."

She stopped suddenly and he smirked a little.

"How can you be so sure?" She asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"Finn's my boy, he would've told me." He said, watching as doubt flickered briefly across her face before her neutral, hard, expression fell back into place.

"Maybe I told him not to."

"Or maybe." He dragged the word out. "You're hiding a dirty little secret."

"Just shut up Puckerman. This isn't any of your business. Now leave me alone."

She started to storm off.

"Well call the Vatican, we got ourselves another immaculate conception." Before he knew what was happened she'd grabbed him by the collar as was pulling him aside, hissing at him to shut up and asking him what the hell he wanted from her.

"I'll take care of it you know? You too."

"What? It's Finn's baby. I don't need you to be taking care of anything."

"Come on." Puck folded his arms across his chest. "You and I both know… it's not Finn's baby is it?"

Her non-response was enough of an answer for him. He knew it. She'd never have slept with Finn. Not with her 'I'm going to be a tease in this skirt, but never give it up' attitude and the fact that Finn was actually way too terrified of Quinn to even suggest the possibility that maybe they could go a little further.

"Who's is it?" He asked. "Do they know?"

"It's none of your damn business." She said, blinking back tears, and oh crap… he didn't deal with crying. Not ever. Not even Quinn freaking Fabray. "And no, they don't know."

"Are you going to tell them?"

She shook her head. "He won't care that I'm pregnant."

"Then I'll do it." Puck wasn't really sure what he was saying, only that… he was saying it.

"Do what?"

"Look, I know my boy Finn is a bit of an idiot, but he's going to work it out one day. One day he'll realise that you actually need to do the deed to get a girl preggers, or he'll see that this kid actually looks nothing like him, or something will happen and he'll figure out you lied to him, and what are you going to do then? What will you do when he starts to get really angry at you for lying to him? If you don't want people to know who the real father is… tell them I am."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"Is it really?"

"Finn is your best friend. Why would you sacrifice that for a lie?"

He knew the answer. It was because Quinn was the sort of girl you gave the world to if she asked for it. It was because she was the sort of girl you wanted, but watched from a distance because you'd screw it up royally if you convinced her to give you a chance. Quinn was the sort of girl you protected from anything and everything.

"Let me ask you this. Whoever… whoever he was, this guy that you actually did sleep with… what would happen if people found out?"

"I'd go straight to the bottom of the food chain at this school. But that's going to happen anyway when people work out that I didn't just eat big lunch, but am pregnant."

Puck raised his eyebrows a little.

"A nerd got it on with you? A nerd? That's just… see? This is my point… do you want to be pregnant and getting a slushie facial every day? At least say you cheated on Finn with someone cool."

"You?"

"I'm not saying that you… that you have to but isn't it better? To at least have cheated on your boyfriend with someone hot who everyone wants? Rather than some… skinny white nerd?"

"I'm not making any promises."

x x x

Kurt was silent for a few long moments after Puck finished telling his story, because, really, it didn't clear anything up for him at all. If he'd been truthful, right up until the moment Beth was born, Kurt hadn't been able to help but wonder, in the back of his mind, if maybe something had gone on between Puck and Quinn. Once he'd tried to approach her about it and find out, but all he'd gotten was a sharp look and a quick 'I've had sex once, and I got pregnant from it. That's all you need to know.' Before she'd walked off. He'd never been sure if she had a reason to lie to him or not.

"That still doesn't explain why you told Mercedes you were the father."

Puck shrugged.

"I don't have to explain myself to you."

"You told people you were the father of my child! I think you definitely have to explain yourself."

"I did more than you. You just sat on the sidelines, watched her get kicked out of home, move from Finn's, to mine, to Mercedes' and never said a word. You were a coward Hummel. Someone had to be willing to step up and take the place as that kid's Dad and you did jack all. What if she'd decided to keep it? What would you have done then? Because she nearly did you know? She nearly kept it."

Kurt hadn't known that. He'd always thought… from day one that…

She nearly kept her?

He didn't know why that wanted to make him burst into tears.

"Her." He said quietly.

"What?"

"Not 'it'… her. I don't know what you want me to say." He was staring at the ground now. "I did what I could think to do. It's easy for you to stand where you are and judge… but if I'd come out," He let out a short, humourless laugh at his choice of words. "And said I was the father she'd have denied it. And people would have believed her. Because why would she have sex with someone like me? And why would I be having sex with a girl anyway?"

Puck shrugged. He supposed he could see Kurt's point, in a way. About why he never told anyone.

"Please Puck, for both our sakes don't tell anyone. The baby drama was supposed to be over. This year is a new start everything's different and last year doesn't matter anymore. Don't go… opening it all up again. Quinn just wants to forget about her."

"Should she?"

"What?"

"Should she forget about Beth?"

Kurt shrugged.

"If it's easier, then, I suppose." He thought to the day, it hadn't been that long ago when Quinn had collapsed into his arms crying. He sometimes forgot, that as hard as the situation was for him, it was probably a hundred times harder for her. It probably was easier for her to try and forget it ever happened, to try and forget Beth ever existed. Which… broke his heart, honestly. Because in his completely biased opinion, Beth was the most amazing little girl ever and Quinn deserved to know her.

"What about you?"

"Why do you care so much?"

"I don't." Puck folded his arms across his chest. "I really don't care. I'm just curious. That's all. Because you have photos of her on your phone, they look pretty recent too. I just mean… you know, how'd you get them? Why are they on your phone?"

"I'm not having this conversation with you." Kurt said. "Just… don't tell anyone. Please."

"I won't. Only because Quinn scares the shit out of me most of the time."

"Thank you."

"Yeah, whatever. You owe me though."

Kurt would be lying if he said he wasn't a little terrified at what Puck would pull, now having the biggest piece of blackmail ever.

x x x