Summary: "Sometimes I wonder whether it was better being invisible and alone, or this." After a traumatic event Kurt wishes he was still invisible.
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of the Glee characters. Glee is the property of Ryan Murphy and the other amazing people that helped create the show. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people.
Warning: Mentions of non-con, possible swearing and violence.
A/N: This may be the last chapter you get until the weekend, however, never fear because Thursday night is the start of my weekend, so you'll probably get chapter fourteen then. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 13 – It's a Long Story
Burt and Carole Hummel were positively running down the hall to the principal's office when they spotted their sons' Glee director talking to two uniformed police officers in the office doorway. "What the hell's going on here?" Burt demanded, half to the police, half to Mr. Schuester.
"Mr. and Mrs. Hummel?" The officer asked, sticking out a hand for each of them to shake, "My name is Officer Gilbert Fredericks. Mr. Schuester here has been informing me that your son has been making some very serious accusations."
"Officer Fredericks I assure it's more than just an accusation. Kurt would not lie about something like this," Mr. Schuester told the officer in a tight voice. It was apparent by the tone that the teacher had been arguing this point with the officer for longer than Burt or Carole had just witnessed.
"Someone tell me what's going on with my son!" Burt growled loudly.
"Mr. Hummel," Mr. Schuester's voice was hesitant and soft as he addressed the concerned father. "Today during Glee practice Kurt told us that another student attacked him in an empty classroom last week. Finn also explained that when this student found out Kurt had told him and Blaine about the attack that he turned violent and threatened their lives."
"Attacked?" Burt asked his voice dropping and the father swallowed. "This other student… he beat him up?"
"Not quite," Mr. Schuester explained uncomfortably, his saddened eyes meeting Burt's.
"Where is he?" Carole broke in softly, but she knew right when she asked, her eyes turning to the room where her son and step-son were sitting with Blaine.
Kurt and Finn's parents broke passed the teacher and police officers without so much as another word.
Kurt stood up when he saw his father and fell into his arms as Burt squeezed him tightly. "Dad," he gasped a little, trying to loosen the embrace. "Dad please, it hurts."
"Kurt?" Burt loosened his hold and looked over his son's pained and frightened face.
"It's just some bruises," Kurt mumbled as he chewed his lower lip and gestured to his back slightly. He leaned into his father again, fighting against the urge to cry. It was bad enough he'd cried in front of both Blaine and Finn and had a panic attack in front of the Glee club, but he didn't want to cry in front of his father.
"Kurt, what happened?" Burt gently led his son by the shoulders back to the couch and sat beside him, facing towards his child. He grasped Kurt's hand tightly, "You can tell me son. Whatever happened, it won't make me love you any less; nothing could."
The reassurance calmed his nerves only slightly and Kurt's eyes flashed to where Carole was fussing slightly over Finn's injury, then back to his father. "It's a long story."
"We want to hear it," Carole told him, her voice as gentle as ever, sitting beside her son with an arm around his shoulder to hold him close, though her eyes were now on her step-son. Finn's head rested against her softly, looking unembarrassed and actually rather thankful for the public display of motherly affection. It made Kurt's heart yearn or his own mother desperately.
He knew without a doubt that she would know what to do and how to deal with this. He could still vaguely remember how wisely and patiently she used to answer his never-ending questions and how she used to hold him when he cried.
He closed his eyes for a moment, trying his hardest to remember how her arms had felt around his little body when he was a child and used the memory to give him the courage to say the words aloud.
"Karofsky," Kurt murmured with his head down and to his shame he could feel tears creeping into his eyes, "He raped me."
He waited for his father to explode. Burt always exploded when someone hurt his son. Kurt could appreciate the sentiment and the protectiveness that the anger exuded, but most of the time he just wanted someone to hold him, even if it was just for a moment, like his mother used to.
To Kurt's surprise, Burt seemed to instinctively understand this time and instead grabbed Kurt into another hug. This hug was decidedly gentler, his father obviously remembering what Kurt had said about his injured back.
He couldn't fight it anymore. He broke down and sobbed into his father's arms, knowing as long as he was there, he was safe.
"Shh," Burt rubbed his son's back softly as he fought back his own tears. "It'll be alright. I'm here now. It'll be alright." He pulled Kurt away from him by the shoulders so his son could see his face, "Listen to me now Kurt. It's going to be alright. He's not going to hurt you again. I promise you that now."
Kurt sniffed and nodded slightly, not sure if he really believed it.
Seeing that his son's heartbreaking sobs had subsided, Burt turned to Finn, "Where were you when this happened?"
Finn pressed minutely closer to Carole subconsciously and lowered his head as his mother let out a shocked, "Burt!"
"I told him to watch out for Kurt!" Burt defended himself in a low voice, before his eyes flickered back to Finn, "Well?"
"He said he had a date and asked if I could find a ride home," Finn told him quietly, not meeting his step-father's eyes. Despite his defence of himself, he looked positively ashamed. "I didn't know until he told me, or rather until I forced him to tell me when he started acting weird. I tried to convince him to tell you guys, but I couldn't and I couldn't tell you if he didn't want me too. I just-" He stopped and took a deep breath as he tried to figure out the right words. "I felt he deserved to have some control over what happened. Karofsky- he took away Kurt's control over his own body and that's just not right, or fair. I just wanted to give some of that back to him I guess."
Burt pursed his lips tightly. He took a good long look at his step-son, noticing that the boy was nervously rubbing his chest and wincing as he did. "What happened to you Finn?"
"Karofsky found out that Blaine and I knew," Finn muttered with a fresh wince. "I tried to kick his ass, but he knocked me down and stepped on me- kinda hard."
"You boys need to see a doctor," Carole spoke quietly, squeezing her son's shoulders gently as she looked over to her husband. "They're both hurt, Burt. That boy hurt both of them. You can't go blaming one or the other. It's not their fault."
"We should probably talk to the police first," Finn mumbled, his eyes looking out the glass window to where the two police officers were waiting to be beckoned in.
"Finn's right," Blaine added. It had been very uncomfortable for the boy, considering he was sitting on what had to be a very difficult family conversation. "The sooner we talk to the police the sooner they can arrest K-him."
"And what exactly was your part in all of this?" Burt asked with a pointed look at his son's boyfriend.
"Karofsky attac-" he stopped and amended his wording with a slight wince, "threatened me to try and keep us quiet… and I saw what he did to Finn," Blaine said in a quiet voice. "I didn't transfer until Finn told me what happened. As soon as I knew; I just couldn't leave Kurt here without me. I wanted to be here to help him, to protect him."
Burt's eyes softened a little at the amount of emotion in the teen's voice. "Alright then I suppose you're right and we should let you talk to the police first. 'Cause if I see that boy before they do…"
"Dad," Kurt cautioned softly, "maybe you should just call them in."
"Right," he stood up for a moment and waved the police officers in, before sitting right back where he had been, next to his son.
Officer Fredericks immediately pulled up a chair facing the family and Blaine while his partner stood beside him, flipping to a clean page in his notebook. "Which one of you is Kurt?" The officer asked in a quiet voice.
Kurt looked up at the police officer, "That's me."
Officer Fredericks gave him a soft smile and pulled a recording device out of his pocket. "Kurt, your teacher told me that you've accused another student of sexually assaulting you, is that true?"
"Yeah," he mumbled, leaning into his father and grasping Blaine's hand tightly. "He- uh- raped me last Wednesday in the math room and even before that he was, um, harassing me."
"The boy has a history of harassing my son," Burt growled angrily at the police officer. "First time I was in here it was because he threatened to kill him."
The partner wrote something down on his pad and Fredericks nodded quietly and turned his attention to Kurt. "How was he harassing you Kurt?"
"He kissed me a couple times," Kurt said quietly, trying once again to fight back tears. "He would pin me against the wall when no one was around. The first time he threatened me to keep me quiet. I um… already knew he was gay because when he was bullying me back in the fall he kissed me when I confronted him. This time though, he put his hand around my neck and actually squeezed when said he'd kill me if I told anyone, so I'd know he was serious I guess. Then he just kissed me and left. The second time he just said things." He shook his head for a moment, as if trying to shake the memory. "He kept asking me if I wanted to get fucked and that if I didn't I would change my clothes."
"Kurt," Burt admonished his language softly.
"That's the word he used Dad," Kurt told him tiredly, before looking at Officer Fredericks again. "He said that my clothes made it look like I wanted him to do it and if I didn't change them he would do it. So the next day I changed my clothes."
"That didn't stop him," The officer stated the obvious in a gentle voice. He'd come into the interview sceptical, but the look on the young boy's face had wiped most of the scepticism from him.
Kurt shook his head. "I wore some regular jeans and my boyfriend's sweatshirt," he said in a quiet voice, "That made him leave me alone in the morning, for the most part. But I- I took off the sweatshirt during Glee practice because we were dancing and I forgot to put it back on. He didn't like the shirt I was underneath. It was from our Born This Way performance and we all made t-shirts that had a phrase that said something we used to be ashamed of, or was unique about us." His face reddened softly. "It said Likes Boys and Karofsky didn't like that."
"Karofsky?" The officer asked softly.
"David Karofsky," Kurt whispered. "He was the one who was doing it. I was in the middle of texting Finn when I walked straight into him. He was really mad when he saw my shirt and he dragged me into the math room."
Burt gave his son a reassuring squeeze.
"He pinned me against the wall and held my wrists over my head and he was kissing me and touching me," Kurt whispered even more softly than before, his breath hitching in his throat every so often. "I was struggling so he pinned me with an arm against my throat instead. He-um- put his hand down my pants and I kept trying to push him away. He… uh, didn't really like that."
"I know this is difficult Kurt," the officer told him reassuringly when Kurt paused, "but you're doing great. The more we know the better chance we have at conviction."
Kurt nodded slightly, squeezing Blaine's hand evermore tightly. "He hit me and my head hit the wall pretty hard. He flipped me around while I was dizzy and pulled my – my pants down. He kept telling me I wanted it and I kept telling him I didn't." He stopped again, leaning forward and viciously wiping the tears from his eyes. "It hurt so much. I wanted to scream, but I just couldn't. I could barely breathe."
He looked around for a moment and noticed the reactions of the other people in the room. The cops looked calm, but genuinely sympathetic. Carole was crying. Finn, Blaine and his father were white, and shaking with barely contained rage. If they were pissed about that, he wondered what they would think about what he had to say next.
It was the part he was most ashamed of and he wished he could skip it entirely.
"While he was-uh- doing it, he started touching me again," he whispered. He could feel heat seep into his cheeks and he dropped his head down again, refusing to face any of them. "He said I had to be a good boy and-." He shook his head, shaking almost as much as the others in the room, though in shame rather than rage.
"It's okay Kurt," Officer Fredericks tried to reassure him again. "It's not your fault. You can tell us what happened."
"It was so humiliating," he whispered as he pressed his head into his hands as his palms tried to simultaneously hide and wipe away his tears. "I don't understand why he was able to make me do that. I thought- I thought that only happened when you wanted it with someone, but he was touching me and he forced me to-to come and he said it was proof I wanted it, that I l-liked it, but I didn't. I didn't!"
"Kurt," Officer Fredericks leaned forward a little bit as he spoke to the boy. "That sounds to me like a ploy he used against you, to try and make sure you wouldn't tell anyone what he did to you. It's similar to something that we see in child abuse cases quite often. The abuser will tell the victim that no one will believe them, or that no one will care-"
"That's exactly what he told me," Kurt murmured.
"It's not true," the police officer told him quietly. "People take things like child abuse, and things like this, very, very seriously."
Kurt nodded slightly, still unsure if he believed the police officer.
"What happened after that?"
"He finished and put his pants back on," Kurt mumbled, then added, "and mine. I couldn't do it myself. I was afraid if I moved he'd hurt me, or I'd fall apart. Then he made me clean up the mess before he left." He lowered his eyes at the last part. "I drove home after that and showered. I crawled into bed."
"We thought he was sick," Finn added in a soft voice. "Well he was sick. He had a fever and he was acting really strange, but I had no idea then what happened."
The officer looked at Finn, "Your teacher also made me aware that Mr. Karofsky assaulted you as well."
Finn looked decidedly uncomfortable, "Well not like he did Kurt." He shifted slightly and looked at the police officer. "He came into the choir room just after I told Blaine what he did to Kurt. I got angry and pinned him against the wall. I didn't want him to try to hurt Kurt again. He threw me off him and I fell over some chairs and he put his foot on my chest and pressed down really hard. I couldn't breathe. He told Kurt and Blaine that if they didn't promise not to tell anyone that he wouldn't let me breathe again. I think he cracked something. Once Kurt and Blaine agreed, he left."
Blaine nodded his head, "That's about what happened there. He um… found me in the hallway later and threatened me to keep me quiet. I guess he thought the threat against Finn wasn't enough." He shrugged his shoulders softly, "He told me if I told anyone about what happened to Kurt that he would-," he paused softly, not looking at Kurt, "do to me what he did to Kurt."
"I think we should take the boys to the hospital," Carole spoke to the police officer after a moment.
The officer nodded, "I think we have all we need for the initial arrest." He looked at Blaine, "Will you're parents be coming? I'd like to have them here before I take your official statement."
"I couldn't reach them," Blaine said softly. "They live in Westerville, so when I do get a hold of them, they'll still take a while to get here." He paused for a minute, "I want to go with Kurt to the hospital, if that's okay. I can call my dad and have them meet us there, or- or I can call my aunt."
"That's alright," the officer told him in a gentle tone, "If you'd prefer to have your father with you when we take your statement, we can wait until he gets here."
Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand gently and looked hopefully over at Burt, "W-would you mind if I went with you guys to the hospital?"
"I'd like him to be there," Kurt added in a soft whisper, his light eyes looking up at his father.
Upon looking into his son's eyes, the ones that were so much like his mother's and reflected all the pain he'd endured, there was no way Burt Hummel could say no.
A/N: I have to say writing about Kurt wishing his mom was there was really hard for me. It nearly broke my heart… so now I'm going to call my mom this weekend because it made me miss her even more than usual!