Author's notes: First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who has ever read, reviewed, alerted, or favorited this story. I know I haven't said it in a while but you guys are seriously the only reason I have continued this. Anyway, I started out writing Kurt's (which, fyi, is half written) but then I was sitting in the car and was like hey Artie's in a wheelchair, I can work with that. I'm not sure who's coming out next because I've sort of hanged the finale setting. So. Yeah. Enjoy?
They're normal, before. That's how they define it: before and after. Artie was a runner before; his mom got a Prozac prescription after. His father was proud of him before; he rarely spoke after.
Before: his family has dinners together and his dad stays late at work sometimes but not always. It's simple, easy, a small town life personified. And then.
~0~
After: it's a Tuesday.
One second they're chatting about his birthday plans and the next it's just blood and the sickening sound of metal being bent and pleas for help that cause his mother to lose her voice for a week. She crawls away with a scratch on her forehead and shards of glass in her hair that glitters in the sunlight. He doesn't get to walk away and really there's not too much to say after that.
He's in the hospital forever, and when he finally does get home his mom follows him around like he's plotting his own demise by stairs; his dad hides baseball equipment and golf clubs and he's not obvious about it but Artie knows he's beyond disappointed.
They get second third fourth opinions but the men and woman in their pristine white coats all just shake their heads and point to x-rays he can't understand.
~0~
Two years later and his mom is still dragging him to appointments and church like either could heal him; it's on another Tuesday when his dad strings together more than three words to tell his mom to leave him the fuck alone it's over, they need to move on. His mom looks like his dad just plowed his son over again, but Artie just breathes deep and decides not to give a damn.
He doesn't go out, doesn't talk to his previous friends, just sits quietly in class and pretends he can't hear the whispered chants of you can't you can't you can't.
~0~
It takes too long but by sophomore year he's more than caught up and gets placed in the AP lit class with all the kids who sat in their tiny desks back in fifth grade with pity in their eyes and sneers on their faces.
The first assignment is kind of interesting (if he was nine but. still) and his paper is done three days before its due date. The beginning's boring and the end is the introduction just with smaller words but sandwiched in between all the fluff is a lesson: Fear of failure must never be a reason not to try something.
(It's so beautifully written that even Artie almost believes that it's true.)
~0~
It's in that same class that he meets Tina Cohen-Chang. With her stutter and her averted eyes; the black clothes she wears like a suit of armor, life just doesn't seem as awkward around her.
~0~
Glee falls into his lap unexpectedly. Well technically it's thrown into his lap by Tina and he's so busy staring at her that she's wheeled him over and signed his name before he can say no.
It's not bad when it's just the five of them, these high school misfits singing because it's the only thing they can do, but then there's Puck and Matt and Mike, and then there's Quinn and Brittany and Santana. Glee transforms into the Real World: Lima before he can blink; everyone has a title and cripple is pinned to his chest like a name tag.
When Tina chooses to stay right next to him, he's not that upset because he's used to having Tina by now, but there's this nagging feeling in his stomach when he looks at her.
(Like he needs anymore complications.)
~0~
The pairs all switch at once, like a square dance, and he's not really that uncomfortable until Tina makes a pregnant Quinn sob in the middle of practice and the only one not stunned into silence is Puck who makes a smartass remark with an underlying tone of don't shit with her or I'll kick your ass.
It scares him and infuriates him but it's his own fucking fault to think she wouldn't take the chance to jump the guy with functioning legs.
(He'd say heart, too, but everyone knows Noah Puckerman's died long ago.)
~0~
After she forms an entire sentence without stuttering in an empty hallway, his heart slams to the floor and he wheels away without bothering to pick it up and brush it off.
It takes two weeks, monologues from both Kurt and Mercedes that each border on Rachel Berry type crazy, and a two hour talk about lying and scars. He's exhausted but they're together. Finally.
The baby-gate finale goes like this: Quinn calls (threatens and blames) Puck who calls Finn. Santana finds out from Brittany who swears her ESPN told her but no one really believes her.
Puck goes with the screaming mother, Artie sort of suspects that he and Finn drew straws, while everybody else sits in the waiting room watching Brittany and Mike sneaking entire boxes of sterile gloves out of storage rooms. Tina smiles at them, in her navy blouse and blue jeans, and is the first one to say congratulations to Puck when he comes out saying their daughter, his daughter is just beautiful.
~0~
They stay together through high school. He's thinking of becoming a teacher and she takes up photography sometime at the end of her senior year. They're happy, but he's always wanted to be able to call her his wife so he buys a ring and hands it to her while she's stirring Mac&Cheese on the stove. (Because they have never been anywhere near traditional.)
She says yes, and wears white like the virgin bride she never was. The pregnancy is expected and at the hospital nine months in, Brittany still claims her ESPN told her, but this time everybody laughs and tells her they love her because this birth isn't tragic.
It's weird, seeing her domesticated and happy, so that's probably why he's so intent on ruining it. (He has been defined as a masochist since the accident thirteen years ago that strips him of his legs and his life.)
The funny thing is: she gets there first.
He finds them on their kitchen floor. The special one with the lowered countertops and drawers that sit within reach because no matter how normal they appear, he still spends his entire life in a chair with wheels.
She doesn't even react, just stands up and fixes the straps on her dress; tells him he's going to take a shower and then they can make dinner. (He doesn't realize until it's too late that he didn't just take her pain, but her life, when he tried to fix her.)
He kicks her out, because he has always been so damn good at being the victim and now isn't a time to change his ways. There are divorce papers at her hotel room the next day and he takes Julianne for a couple weeks just until things can be settled.
Three weeks later, she calls him sobbing. He expects apologies and begging, but instead she tells him that she just needs some time to figure herself out, to find the person she lost so long ago. Tells him to remind Julianne that mommy loves her but that mommy is sick right now. Tells him she'll be back soon. Tells him the papers are on the porch.
(She hangs up before he can tell her that he never planned on signing the papers himself.)
His mom moves in with him, just to help him out until he can figure some stuff out. Julianne's just starting to sleep through the night and he thinks maybe, just maybe we'll make it.
~0~
It seems like it all happens at once.
He's at his kitchen table sliding his finger under the seal of a thick white envelope with Kurt's California address written neatly in the top left corner, when the phone rings. Matt sounds panicked, out of breath and half choking on god knows what, so Artie presses the phone to his ear and still only catches the end of the sentence.
What he does hear reminds him of that one joke: grandma's on the roof and she won't come down.
(Puck's in a coma and he won't wake up.)
He thinks they didn't have a chance in hell of making it.