Chapter 10

"Is the baby all right?" Brittany asked immediately.

Finn blinked, letting himself be led over to a chair by Rachel, a warm can of coke pressed into his hand. He blinked again, noticing that the chair had been placed right in the middle of a semi-circle of concerned gleeks. It felt like an interrogation scene on CSI.

"Kurt's not pregnant Brittany. He's a guy." Finn explained carefully, relieved when she seemed to accept that explanation with a nod.

"Uhm...he liked your duck by the way." he said, and was rewarded with a beaming smile.

Mercedes rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yeah, that's nice and all, but can you tell us what the hell just happened here?"

"And who possessed Puck?" Artie added uncertainly.

Finn sighed, and blew out a long breath. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Okay, uhm. Well he really wanted to tell you...and I think he should be the one to give all the details, but Kurt has panic attacks. You know how he freaks out when he gets slushies on his shirt? Well like that, but a thousand times worse. He hadn't had one since last year, when some-" Finn swallowed. "-some jocks tied him up to the flag pole. That was right before we all joined glee."

"I forgot that was him" Santana said. "Wasn't he out of school for like ...a month or something?"

"A week." Finn corrected. "But he's been doing really good. ...uhm well not lately. He had a panic attack one day at our house. Puck was able to calm him down. Because he has a little sister, so he knows what to do." he added quickly, trying to defend Puck's baddassness.

"I still think we should call an exorcist." Artie muttered, trying to lighten the mood. It seemed to work a little, and Finn took a gulp of soda before continuing.

"That's why he's been quiet sometimes, and all those trips to the bathroom. He can usually tell when he's about to start freaking out, and he doesn't like people around when it happens, so he goes some place quiet. He can't really control it. It's like a medical condition. His brain's not hooked up right or something, but he's not crazy. He just...freaks out" And wow, Finn really needed to shut up when he started to ramble.

"Why didn't he tell anyone?" Quinn asked, sounding hurt.

"The same reason you didn't tell anyone you were pregnant" Tina said. "You were scared, and embarrassed. And Kurt's already secretive about a lot of stuff anyway."

"He was going to tell you!" Finn blurted out. "He told all his teachers today, and he was going to tell you guys after the throw-down with Vocal Adrenaline. He was up all night practicing a speech or... something. But then they-they tied to him the flagpole, and he freaked out. He's still freaking out. Puck's taking care of him and his dad will be here soon and-" Rambling. Stop it. Finn chastised himself.

"Will he be okay?" Matt asked, finally speaking up.

Finn just shrugged helplessly. "He's had some pretty bad ones, but I've never seen him like this before. I think his Dad had to take him to the hospital once, when he was real little, and they have some medicine or something that helps."

He shrugged again and for a moment everyone stayed quiet, pretending not to hear Kurt crying behind the office door, or Puck singing to him softly, too quiet for any of them to make out the song.

"Jesse said it was just a prank." Rachel, of course, was the one to break the silence. She was waving her cellphone too fast for anyone to see the texts, and shrank back slightly at the looks directed towards her.

"He said that they had no idea that Kurt would react badly. They knew about the flag pole thing, that a teacher had found him crying, but he thought that was an exaggeration. It was just a prank."

"Why are you talking to him?" Mercedes asked, exasperated.

"Because, he's the leader of Vocal Adrenaline." Rachel said as if the answer was obvious.

Finn stared at her blankly.

He knew he should have punched St. James earlier.

Rachel sighed. "And as their leader, he has a front row seat to what's going on out there. Mr. Schuester is threatening lawsuits, and two of the boys have already admitted to it. They keep asking Jesse to make sure Kurt knows they didn't mean to hurt him. It was just supposed to be a prank. They're all very sorry."

And Finn couldn't help but be impressed that Kurt had managed to psych out the entire 26 member rival glee club. If Kurt freaking out scared them, he really hoped those assholes got a glimpse of Burt.

"What can we do to help Kurt?" Mike asked, steering them all back away from their Vocal Adrenaline based thoughts. "From now on. How do we take care of him?"

Finn knew he shouldn't be surprised, but the honesty in Mike's voice dazed him. He looked around the room, each person was nodding in agreement.

"We don't want him to be scared." Brittany said simply.

"And we need to let him know that we're going to be there for him." Mercedes added.

Finn smiled. Kurt had a lot of good friends. weird friends maybe, but good, and he knew that they'd stand by him. No matter what. It's what friends did. What family did.

"Oh god." Matt muttered, faking an expression of dawning horror. "We're going to have to do a song and dance aren't we?"

The room exploded into, oddly quiet (Kurt was still in the next room), laughter, and Finn let himself relax down into his chair, while the group started arguing about choreography and music styles as they kept watch over Schuester's office, guarding and waiting for their friend.