Chapter 14: All Hope Lost
The slow recovery of Ryder's memories was like a salve over the next few days, boosting the spirits of those closest to him. Sam in particular seemed to be invincible lately, and nothing was capable of destroying the permanent good mood he was in. He was spending most of his time doting over Ryder, who had, uncharacteristically, taken a stand and asked Sam out before he could even blink twice. The new couple was in a state of euphoria, and it was contagious. Kurt was all smiles as he followed Blaine down to the rec room one afternoon, intending to watch a few movies with their friends.
"I hope that Dave isn't going to monopolize the movies today." Blaine was saying. "This last week alone I've watched more action movies than in my entire lifespan."
"And the rest of us haven't endured enough Disney yet?" Kurt asked archly.
"Hey, don't diss the Disney." The older man defended. "Disney is the shit. Besides, you've made us watch plenty of rom-coms."
Kurt laughed. "Maybe so, but at least I'm not like Mike. Those cheesy, slap-stick comedies are killing me. We should have a musicals marathon."
Blaine frowned. "Don't we get enough music in Glee practice?"
Kurt rolled his eyes. "You need some culture, Blainers."
Blaine chuckled, pushing the rec room doors open and leading the way toward their favorite TV room as Kurt started singing Annie's Hard Knock Life.
Upon arrival, they found Dave and Artie in a heated argument over what to watch, while Sam cuddled with Ryder on a couch, shooting Dave the occasional glare. If Sam had proven one thing, it was that he could hold a grudge, as he still refused to talk to Dave, even in the wake of his recent good moods, and Sebastian still had to avoid him at all costs, not that Kurt really cared about either situation. Dave and Sebastian had made their choices, and had to live with the consequences.
Dave was trying to push the latest Transformers movie on them, while Artie was attempting to make them watch a documentary on advancements in robotic engineering. Personally, Kurt felt he would rather be upstairs screwing Blaine into a mattress, but he figured it would be interesting to see which of them won out in the end. At last, just as the argument had escalated to the point where Dave was grunting and flexing his muscles, something that made Kurt think he had been a bully in high school, Sam stepped passed them and slipped a movie into the DVD player and pressed play. Dave turned to glare at him, his nostrils flaring dangerously.
"What the fuck, Sam?"
"Shut your big mouth and watch the fucking movie, Karofsky." Sam responded bitingly, giving him a look that almost seemed to drop the temperature in the room. Artie accepted Sam's decision without comment, while Dave, though properly cowed, kept throwing dirty looks at Sam. Sam pointedly ignored these in favor of whispering in his boyfriend's ear.
"Looks like the good mood around here is wearing off, doesn't it?" Kurt whispered to Blaine as the latter covered them with a blanket.
"I'd say so, yes." Blaine replied, snuggling closer to him. "I knew it wouldn't last forever."
Kurt rapidly found himself losing his focus on the movie, since it had bored him within the first five minutes. Feeling slightly mischievous, he carefully snaked his hand to Blaine's stomach, where he began tracing patterns onto the fabric of the material. Blaine smiled at him, enjoying the touch, but his look became questioning as Kurt's hand slid under the fabric and onto his skin. Kurt ignored the look, pretending to watch the movie as his hand steadily lower and lower, slipping beneath the waistband of his sweatpants before coming back up to circle his navel. Blaine's eyes became wide when he realized what Kurt was doing, and he leaned back a little in response, allowing him further access to his nether regions. Kurt's hand went under the material, and under Blaine's boxers, and stroked along his flaccid member, coaxing it to hardness quickly. With a quick glance around the room to make sure that no one was paying attention, Kurt wrapped his hand around it and began to pump it slowly. He raised his legs a little on the couch, causing the blanket to lift up and make his movements less visible before stroking harder. He heard Blaine's breathing hitch and smirked to himself, gliding a thumb over the head of his member and smearing the precum a little. Blaine's hips pushed up occasionally, and his eyes were glazing over as Kurt's hand worked its magic.
"Shit, Kurt," he croaked quietly, "stop."
With a smirk that spoke whole volumes, Kurt tightened his grip a little and continued to stroke, and moments later he felt Blaine spilling over his hand and soiling his boxers. Luckily he kept quiet, even through his orgasm, though his breathing had become slightly labored. His eyes squeezed shut as he let out a soft his of pleasure, then slumped back against the couch. Kurt wiped his hand off surreptitiously under the blanket and returned to watching the movie as though nothing had happened, leaving Blaine in a very sticky position. After sitting quietly for a few minutes, he excused himself to go to the bathroom, though Kurt knew he was running upstairs to change his underwear.
"Is everything okay?" Puck asked Kurt in concern. Kurt put on a puzzled expression.
"Yeah, everything is fine. Why?"
Puck shrugged. "Blaine left rather quickly."
"Well, when nature calls, it's best to answer." Kurt answered. Everyone's attention returned to the screen, and Kurt had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. He knew Blaine was going to glare at him all through dinner that night, but it was completely worth it.
A few more minutes passed in comfortable silence before Sam spoke. "Hey, has anyone seen the meerkat lately?"
Dave remained unresponsive, while the others murmured a quiet 'no', with the exception of Mike, who instantly started a rant.
"I saw him this morning, Sammy. He was going up to Figgins for his appointment, and he said something about getting together with Hunter later, though I'm not sure why he looked so pleased about it, since Hunter is a bit of a jerk. Why is that? He doesn't seem so bad when you first meet him, but then he gets really nasty and insulting. It could be how he was brought up, but who would want their children to be like that? It doesn't make sense that anyone would –"
"Enough, Mike." Dave said with a grin. "Sammy wants to know if you know where he is now, not earlier. And none of us care about Hunter's parentage, except to slap his mother for giving birth to him."
Sam's lip twitched into a momentary sneer when Dave said 'Sammy', but since that was what Mike called him he let it go.
"Oh, okay." Mike said, still bubbly. "Well, I know he's been hanging around with Santana and Brittany during the day out near the football field. It's kind of cold out there, though, do you think he's okay?"
"Don't worry Mikey, meerkats can survive in the cold." Kurt said with a laugh.
"Thanks." Sam said, getting to his feet. Turning to Ryder, he murmured something, then walked out of the room. Worried that Sam was going to go kill Sebastian, Kurt slipped out behind him when he could, following the blonde boy down the corridor.
"Sam," he said when he had caught up to him, "you don't need to do this. Sebastian may be a smirky Craigslist reject, but he's already been beaten half to death by Blaine. And he did apologize for what happened. He genuinely feels bad for what he did to Ryder."
Sam raised an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest, and Kurt deflated slightly, not sure what to do next. Sam cracked a smile, though, and Kurt hoped things weren't as bad as he thought.
"Relax, Kurt. I'm not going to kill the idiot. I just wanted to talk to him about what happened, and let him know he doesn't need to avoid me like he has been. And maybe ask him to apologize to Ry, since he does deserve an apology."
Kurt, while relieved, wasn't entirely convinced, and Sam laughed. "Come on, Kurt. Let's go see him together, then. You'll see; it's not meerkat hunting season."
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"I really am sorry, Sam." Sebastian said, finally meeting Sam's eye for the first time in twenty minutes. When he had first seen Kurt and Sam approaching him, Kurt saw how his eyes flickered to the sides in hopes of an escape route, but finding none he stood his ground, looking resigned to receiving the beating of his life. After asking Santana and Brittany to give them a moment alone, not knowing how much the girls knew, Sam, however, had been completely calm and cordial with him, talking the mess out and telling him that, while he was pissed off that someone would do that to Ryder, he was prepared to let bygones be bygones, as was Ryder. Sebastian had apologized profusely at that point, which had made Sam chuckle, and it seemed that
"I know you are." Sam replied. "And Kurt has told me as much too."
"I'll apologize to Ryder before dinner tonight, if that's okay with you." Sebastian offered. "And if he's up to it. I don't want to upset him."
"I think he needs this, actually, so he can move on." Sam said. "You didn't scar him for life or anything, but it's still not something easily let go of. We'll meet up outside the cafeteria, then?"
Sebastian nodded, and offered a hand for Sam to shake. Sam instantly recoiled from him, though, so Kurt shook Sebastian's hand instead.
"Sorry, I forgot…" Sebastian mumbled.
"That's okay, meerkat. A lot of people do."
Sebastian frowned at the nickname. "Is everyone in this damn place calling me that now, Gay-face?" he asked Kurt. "First you, then Blaine. Then Santana and Brittany started it, and this morning Mike greeted me by that name in the elevator."
Kurt laughed and feigned innocence. "I'm sure I have no clue what you're talking about, meerkat."
"See you later, Sebastian." Sam said, and he and Kurt began walking back toward the rec room.
"Nicely handled, Sam." Kurt complimented him. "Not a single punch thrown."
"That's hard to do when I can't touch people without freaking out." Sam responded with a laugh. "If it came down to that, I would have asked you to do it."
Kurt grinned wryly. "Nice to know I have some use to you, Sammy."
When they entered the rec room Blaine cast Kurt a worried look, but Kurt smiled back to show everything was okay.
"Just getting some drama behind us with Sebastian." He told Blaine as he curled up beside him. "And before you ask, no Sam didn't bury him."
"That's good to hear."
"Yeah, we just left the body under the bleachers. It was heavier than it looked."
Blaine laughed loudly, making the others in the room give him questioning looks.
There was a knock on the door, and Holly Holliday stepped in, looking strangely somber.
"Kurt? Dr. Figgins and Dr. Schuester would like to see you."
Finn looked to his step-brother in confusion, but Kurt merely shrugged at him.
"I'll see you guys at dinner, I guess, depending on how much Schuester needs to vent about his marriage."
"Didn't you hear?" Holly asked with a tilt of her head. "They're getting a divorce. Apparently she caught him with Mr. Pillsbury in the storage room."
The room went silent, and Holly's face drained of blood. "Shit, I shouldn't have told you that. Please forget I said anything."
"Not likely, Holly." Blaine told her with a grin. "But we won't repeat it to anyone."
"Thank God…" Holly murmured as she ushered Kurt out the door. "I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut."
Kurt privately doubted she could do that, but didn't say it out loud.
"So Kurt, how have you been?" Holly asked, a kind of forced calmness to her tone.
"I've been pretty good." Kurt replied as they walked down the slightly chilly hallway. "Aside from the drama with Ryder and Sebastian."
Holly nodded. "You didn't hear this from me, but they were considering sending Sebastian to Dalton over that debacle. It was a very close call, too."
Kurt gulped, thinking that Sebastian had been lucky to escape that fate. They entered the elevator, and Holly pressed the button to take them to the highest floor.
"What about you and Blaine? Things still good between the two of you?"
"Yeah, things with us are great, actually. By the way, thanks for all the times you've let him stay in my room."
"No problem, sweetie." She responded, her voice cheery but her eyes telling another story. "Did he talk to you about the idea of going to Figgins to request sharing a room?"
The elevator came to a halt and they stepped out onto the carpeted floor.
"No, I didn't even know that was a possibility. I'll talk to him tonight about it."
"It's possible. And Figgins likes Blaine, so that's a plus."
Again, her smile didn't reach her eyes, which seemed incredibly sad.
"Holly, please stop pretending that nothing's wrong…"
Holly's steps faltered, and she met Kurt's determined gaze with one of sympathy and regret.
"I'm sorry, Kurt, I'll have to leave that to Figgins and Schuester."
They rounded the last corner, and seconds later Holly opened the door to Figgins' office, motioning for Kurt to enter. Taking a deep breath, Kurt walked into the office, only to snarl and stop in his tracks. Figgins and Schuester were both there, but so was his father. With one icy glare at the man, Kurt settled into the farthest seat uninvited.
"Dr. Figgins. Dr. Schuester." He greeted stoically, ignoring his father's presence.
"So what, you're just going to pretend I'm not here, Kurt? I raised you better than this, boy!"
Kurt disregarded his father's words and turned to Figgins. "Any particular reason that that is in the room? I'd prefer not to see it."
Angered, Burt got to his feet and took a step toward his son, unconsciously raising a hand as he did so, but Schuester stepped deftly between them.
"Actually, Mr. Hummel, I think we can take it from here. It's a long drive to the airport, and I'm sure you'd like to get there before the sun sets."
Burt glared at Schuester as if he wanted to argue, but instead he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Right. I'll just send along the runt's stuff, shall I? Then I can use that room for something better."
Burt stomped out of the room, his footsteps heavy on the carpeted floor, and slammed the door behind him.
A moment of silence followed his departure, until Kurt spoke. "What did he mean by that?"
Figgins cleared his throat uncomfortably, and Schuester took a seat beside Kurt, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Kurt, we have some news to tell you, and you may not like it much. We've been going over all of your tests, your response to your medication, and covered every aspect of each of your illnesses, and this is what we've come up with…"
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Mercedes walked down the corridor with a scowl. She had just run into Burt Hummel, and she had greeted the man cheerfully, but he had sneered at her and flung some rather vicious remarks at her, mostly regarding Kurt. She knew that the two of them didn't have the best of relationships, but she didn't think it was quite that bad…
Ahead of her in the corridor, she saw Holly leaning against the wall opposite from Figgins' office, tapping his fingers nervously against her arm.
"Hey Holly, what's up? You look really worried."
Hey, Mercedes." Holly replied tensely. "Yeah, Kurt's in there with Figgins and Schuester at the moment talking."
"I just ran into Kurt's dad," Mercedes told her, "and he was a total ass to me. Kurt's lucky to be away from there."
There was a loud crash from inside the office, followed by the sound of raised voices, and Holly yelled down the corridor for some orderlies immediately.
"What the hell is going on in there?" Mercedes asked, her eyes wide and scared.
The orderlies burst into the room, and Mercedes caught a glimpse of a deadly looking needle before it was plunged into Kurt's arm. He struggled in their grip for a few moments before going slack, and they promptly carried him out. Mercedes watched their progress, her eyes on the limp form of her friend in their arms. Her eyes returned to the office, which was not in its usual impeccable state. Figgins' desk was trashed, and there were pieces of broken photo frames as well as all manner of stationary and miscellaneous objects scattered around the floor.
"What the hell happened in there?" Mercedes asked again, turning her wide eyes on Holly, who sighed and hung her head. When the blonde woman replied, her voice was sad.
"They just told Kurt that he can't go home again. He's going to be a permanent resident here."
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Kurt sat in on the soft floor of the brightly lit padded room, glaring darkly at the locked door. At least this time they didn't put him in a strait-jacket, like when he had stabbed that boy in the cafeteria. Still, he resented being brought here. Hours must have passed, and he still felt groggy from the sedative they had injected him with, but now that he had some time to think he had calmed down considerably. In truth, he hadn't been expecting that news, but when he thought about it he found that he preferred it this way. It was a ticket away from his father, and he was more comfortable at McKinley than he had been in his own home for the past few years. Also, there was Blaine to consider. He didn't think he would be capable of leaving Blaine behind and returning to Ohio, even if he wanted to. He had made great friends within the walls of the mental institution, and he would hate to be separated from them all. In honesty, the news had been good, but he had reacted badly to it. He would have to apologize to Figgins and Schuester next time he saw them, a thought that set his teeth on edge, but it was necessary. He had overreacted, after all.
Since he had woken up, there had been two instances when he could have sworn he heard Blaine, Sam, and even Mike outside the padded room, and he realized that they were probably worried about him, though Holly would surely have told them what had transpired.
Staring at the ceiling, Kurt began to sing to himself, figuring it would be a good way to pass the time. He had just begun his fifth song when he heard the lock click and the door opened, revealing a young orderly with dreadlocks.
"Hey man, they say that you can come out now." He told Kurt with a smile. "You've served your time."
"Thank god." Kurt muttered, getting to his feet and stretching out his muscles.
"I'm Joe." The orderly said, offering a hand. Kurt shook it and gave him a thin-lipped smile, remembering that Joe was the orderly that had slept with Schuester's wife.
"I'm Kurt. Do you know what the time is?"
"Just past seven." Joe said. "You can head down for dinner, if you'd like, but Figgins wants to see you as soon as you're done."
Kurt nodded. "Alright, I'll go to him after dinner. Thanks, Joe."
There was silence over the dinner table, which Kurt chose to ignore. It appeared that Holly had indeed informed them of Kurt's escapades in Figgins' office, and the underlying cause behind it, and they were treating him like he were made of glass. The mood was both somber and pitying, much to his chagrin, and Blaine kept shooting him furtive, worried glances that irritated him even further.
Eventually, unable to take it anymore, he snapped. He sighed deeply, then suddenly yelled, "Boo!" making them all jump in fright. His face split into a wide grin as he started laughing, and he nearly fell off his seat.
"You should see your faces!" he said with mirth. "Classic!"
"Fucking asshole." Dave mumbled, one hand over his heart. Everyone else simply glared at him, except for Mike, who seemed to be in shock.
"Now that we've established that I'm not about to fucking break," Kurt said, having regained his usual icy composure, "can things get back to normal? Honestly, I'm kind of happy that I'm going to be staying here. Most of the rest of you guys are, too, so it's not like I'd be left alone or anything."
"Dick move, Kurt." Sam told him, but he grinned a little.
"Major dick move, dude." Finn agreed placing an arm around Puck, who was now very jittery.
"It broke the tension, at least." Puck stated, leaning into Finn's touch.
"I agree with Kurt." Artie said. "It's not the first time one of us has heard this, so let's just carry on. He's obviously okay with it."
"Despite the epic bitch-fit that destroyed half of Figgins' office." Blaine said with a grin. "So tell us, did you really throw a chair through the window and attack Schuester with your bare hands?"
Kurt looked taken aback at that. "No, of course not! Where did you get that idea."
"The rumor-mill has been running all afternoon," Finn told him. "Ever since you fought off five orderlies and pushed Figgins against the wall and threatened his life before finally getting sedated."
Kurt chuckled. "That didn't happen either, you know. All I did was trash Figgins' desk a little and broke a few photographs."
"Aw, man! I preferred the version were I was dating a psychopath with superhuman strength." Blaine complained, making everyone laugh.
"And they say I read too many comics…" Sam said in a conspiratorial whisper to Ryder.
"Sorry to disappoint, but they had no trouble sedating me, though I think I might have bitten someone."
"I hope they have a rabies shot laying around." Finn joked, making Kurt fling some food at him.
"Oh god, not another food fight, please." Artie moaned. "The last time it was really bad. And everyone involved was put in solitary confinement for two days."
"Solitary confinement?" Kurt asked in shock. "This isn't a prison!"
Dave shrugged. "There are a few rooms up on the higher floors that they lock you up in and slip food through a slot in the door. It's bad. I was in there after the food fight."
"Holy shit." Kurt muttered.
"McKinley certainly does have its dark side too." Blaine said evenly.
"I'm coming to realize that." Kurt replied. "By the way, Blainers, Holly mentioned something to me earlier, about you wanting to request a shared room for us from Figgins?"
Blaine nodded. "Yeah, we've talked about it a little in my therapy sessions. I think he's going to approve it."
Kurt nodded calmly. "That's good. One problem though; when were you going to tell me about it?"
Blaine frowned and opened his mouth, then closed it and frowned again, his brow furrowed in thought.
"You thought you told me?" Kurt asked with a sly grin. "No, you didn't. But that's okay, I'm all for it. Especially since I'm going to be staying."
Blaine's answering smile was light pure sunlight, and he gave Kurt a light kiss on the cheek. While their faces were close together, he quickly muttered something into Kurt's ear.
"I'm still going to get even with you for earlier in the rec room."
"Bring it on." Kurt whispered in reply.
~XoXoX~