Okay, so, I acknowledge that I'm the worst person ever, and I apologize for that. I can't believe it's been four months since I last updated. Hell, almost five now. So, to make it up those of you who are still here, I'm going to post three chapters this week. This one will kick it off, and the next two will follow as promptly as I can get them to, in hopes of either reviving this story, of convincing you guys to not hate me.
Note: my biggest issue with this fic is that it's strayed so far from the show's canon. When I started writing this, I don't think Blaine and Kurt were even together. And clearly, things have changed a lot since then. I'm going to keep this canon the way it is though, but I will be going back and editing the last chapter so at least Rachel's dad's names are correct. I'm sorry if the canon for this story throws anyone off—lord knows it throws me off. But I'm going to keep it consistent and finish it off the way it is.
Second note: with Glee on hiatus until April something, (this note made 2/26, for my own record,) there will probably be a lapse where the fandom isn't as active, and that's chill. But please, if you are at all interested in this story, help me not fall into that lapse? Spam the shit out of my email, I won't hate you, I'll appreciate it. I love this story and want to finish it, but I'm the laziest fuck you'll ever meet, and a little encouragement goes a long way.
Thank you guys, I really appreciate that you're still here reading it. I'm so sorry I've been such a shit author.
-x-x-x-
The sun rose to find an empty Hummel-Hudson household, light rain, and a very panicked Kurt and Finn. The two had tried in vain to get a hold of Puck, resulting in seven failed calls and fifteen unanswered text messages. By the time Carole popped open the door at the top of the stairs and called for them to come to breakfast, both Finn and Kurt were sitting on their respective mattresses, awake and exhausted.
"He'll tell us at school today," Kurt muttered as they moved up the steps. His tone was far less confident than he had hoped it'd be. "If something had happened, we'd have heard about it by now."
Finn's chance to reply dwindled as they reached the top of the stairs. It was strange waking up in another person's house, but stranger still to lie awake wondering if your friend was alive. They ate in silence, neither willing to bring this new twist of events to light. Harim insisted on driving the three seniors to school that day, and Finn briefly wondered if the opportunity would be good to tell Rachel. It took one look from Kurt for him to change his mind.
"It's kind of exciting," Rachel said as they paced up toward the main entrance of the school, her father lingering for only a few moments before peeling away. "Arriving like an entourage from Hollywood. Imagine us on the red carpet."
Kurt gave her a forced smile, one that she recognized. Her eyesbrows dropped just a fraction. "Are you alright?"
"Oh, yeah, just didn't sleep that great. New environment and all that."
Rachel seemed to accept this answer at face value as they entered through the double doors and waded into the lobby. Both Finn and Kurt exchanged a glance, silently agreeing to look for Puckerman. After Rachel gave Finn a quick kiss goodbye, she hooked her arm around Kurt's, and the small group parted.
"So, I know things have been crazy, but I was thinking last night that the three of us should do a song together," Rachel started. Some part of Kurt recognized that she was trying to keep the mood elevated, lest it sink into something depressing and make matters worse. He appreciated it, but as she talked about their ability to practice together after school, and then about song choices, his mind kept pulling back to Noah.
Only, it didn't take long to find him. Or rather, be found by him. Kurt was saying goodbye to Rachel and stepping tiredly in the direction of his French class when a large hand landed on his shoulder, making him flinch.
"There you are. Jesus, Hummel, you're like Casper floating around all up in this place. Listen, I need to talk to you about last night."
"Please don't tell me you did something stupid," Kurt sighed, stopping and turning to face him. Puck hunched his shoulders and glanced left and right, a mischievous grin spreading on his face.
"Don't worry, we didn't get caught. Santana called me yesterday and said she had been doing some undercover shit, and found something interesting, so we met up. Brittany came along too."
Well, Kurt though, that answers why he had her phone. He watched Puckerman closely, waiting for him to continue. Despite his nervousness about it, Kurt was just as desperate to know who was threatening him as everyone else. Perhaps moreso.
"So," Puck continued, standing up a bit straighter now that he was sure Kurt wouldn't cut him off, "Santana was trying to think about who was-"
"No, no," a new voice cut in, before a pair of sultry brown eyes swept in between the two of them. Santana gave Puckerman a disapproving look and turned her shoulder toward him, facing Kurt directly. "This is my genius discovery, I get to tell it."
"Hi Boo," Brittany cooed over Santana's shoulder. Kurt gave her a small half-smile before Santana snapped to get his attention.
"Okay, so listen to this. I was thinking about who would have any connection to you. I mean, some random Bible beater isn't going to go this far to scare you off, right? And while I was getting my Dragon Tattoo on at the library, I found this article about a your dad's garage from a few years ago."
Puck leaned back in. "I didn't want to go, because she was at the library, but when she told me what she found-"
"Seriously, Puckerman, let me tell it."
"Well excuse me, I was the freakin' ninja last night."
"Oh, please, the only thing you can 'ninja' is your-"
"Ladies," Kurt cut in, throwing an exasperated sigh into the middle of the conversation, "I have to get to class. Can you crouch your tigers some other time and get on with it?"
Santana responded with an indignant flick of her hair before planting her palms on her hips. "As I was saying," she pushed, ignoring Noah's brief spluttering, "this article about your dad's garage was just as boring as everything else until I found until it mentioned something about a rival business. So I look into it, right? And it's some other garage on the outskirts of Lima, owned by this older guy and his two partners."
Kurt stared at her, clearly missing the punchline. She sighed and looked toward Brittany, who shrugged back. "I don't get it either."
"Brit, you were there. Ugh," Santana sighed, "I have to spoon feed it, fine. These three guys are super religious, right? And their shop is practically a ghost town now that your dad's garage is doing so well and taking all their business. So this first guy that attacked you, who you said looked like he was covered in grease, right? He gets arrested. And then a second guy chucks a brick at your window, and he looked slimy too?"
Kurt suddenly felt uncomfortable-the memories were just a bit too recent, and at the same time, he didn't need everyone in the hallway to hear about it. Still, Santana's implications were starting to dawn on him.
"Yeah?"
She practically beamed at his positive affirmation. "Well then, we figured that was it. I mean, it has to be them, right? They have a grudge against your dad, and they're Jesus freaks, so they attack you because they get some sick sense of justice from it."
Kurt stared at her for a moment, only collecting himself once the bell rang above them. "So, you went to the library. That's it?"
She seemed to deflate a little, annoyed that her hard work wasn't getting the praise from Kurt she had anticipated. Before she could speak, though, Puck shrugged.
"No, we totally went over to their place to check it out, and we found all these old cars and shit that are totally busted up, and it was super creepy. And when we looked inside, there were only two guys hanging out in there. Not three. And they looked pretty pissed about something."
People started to move around the hallways, heading toward whatever class they had. Kurt took a deep breath and chewed carefully on his lower lip, considering this new information.
"Well?" Santana looked at him expectantly.
"Well," he returned, perhaps too sharply, "I think it's all really circumstantial. Listen, I appreciate you guys trying to help, but Finn and I were seriously worried that you'd get hurt last night. So please, Noah, don't do anything stupid, okay? And Santana, while I really appreciate the effort, I just think it's a reach, that's all."
She looked miffed at this, and lifted her hands up to display it. "Oh, come on, you've been through so much shit since high school started, you don't deserve this. Besides, you have to live with that dwarf now, it's absolutely unjust."
"How's Mr Bubbles?" Brittany asked, suddenly stealing the conversation. Kurt sighed and gave her a grateful smile.
"He's fine. Right next to my bag at Rachel's, safe and sound."
Santana huffed. "Okay, whatever, but I'm so right. Just you wait."
-x-x-x-
Okay. Onto the next chapter.
