A/N I'm introducing an original character in this chapter, loosely based on the experiments Lynsay Sands' mad scientist (whose name is Dr. Dressler, BTW) created on his island. The insane doctor was into gene splicing and altering DNA, and while Lynsay didn't mention this character, I think he would have been something the evil man would have created. Also, I'm tampering with the show's time line again.

There will be two more chapters after this, but who knows, I may revisit this verse in the future with some one shots!

Sorry this took so long, had some computer issues, had to replace the video card and a fan. Also had a bit of writers block, and started crocheted a baby blanket for my niece, who is due to have her first baby on Mother's day! My Brother and his wife are really excited, but kind of forgot to let the rest of the family know they were going to be grandparents, LOL!

Reviews are always welcome!

…

Hang Outs and Hideouts

"And the winner of the duets sing off is...Kurt and Blaine!" Mr. Schue announced at the end of Glee practice on Friday. Kurt grinned and kissed his lifemate as the others applauded.

"Congratulation boys," Mercedes said, smiling.

"Thanks, 'Cedes. You two were awesome, too." He hugged his friend. "I'm sorry you didn't win."

"It's okay. I'm one of the leads for the Troubletones song, and Unique is leading on one of the group numbers, so it's no big deal."

They were all happy with the way things were going with the preparation for Nationals, the choreography and arrangements of the songs going smoothly.

It was almost becoming a custom by now for the entire group, plus Joe, Dave and Damion to hang out at the Hummel-Hudson home on Fridays after school, though today someone was missing.

"Where's Puck?" Blaine asked Lauren.

The large girl just shrugged. "He said he had a family issue to deal with, but he didn't explain exactly what it was. He'll be back on Monday."

While most of the guys played video games, Kurt, Blaine, Unique, and several of the girls began making dinner, deciding to fire up the grill outside to cook chicken, ribs, and burgers. They talked about the numbers they'd been working on for Nationals, and speculating on who they'd be competing against and what they might be singing, and places they'd like to visit in Chicago while they were there.

They were just putting the ribs on the grill when Damion came out. "I just got a call from Lucian. Eshe and Armand will be here on Monday to check on things and visit for a few weeks."

Kurt smiled. "Cool, it'll be nice getting to know them better, and I'm sure you're eager to spend some time with your sister."

Damion nodded. "I did not get the chance to tell her about finding my lifemate. I'm happy she'll get to meet him. Amani is glad she'll be here for a while. She met Mercedes at the family reunion, but they didn't really get the chance to get to know each other. Now we'll all have the chance to get to know each other's lifemates better."

"Speaking of lifemates," Mercedes piped up, looking at Quinn. "What is going on between you and Joe?"

The former cheerleader blushed slightly, but let out a little sigh of defeat. "We're taking things slow."

"What does that mean?" Tina asked. "Are you lifemates or not?"

The blond girl sat down on one of the deck chairs, on the verge of tears. "I didn't want this, you know. I don't want to be immortal. I don't want to out live Beth."

Kurt went to her, sitting beside her and hugging her. "Oh sweetie, there is time for you to figure things out. Who knows, maybe Beth has a lifemate out there too? Don't let fear of the unknown hold you back. If you and Joe are lifemates, his only concern will be making you happy. If it means moving Heaven and Earth to find that girl a lifemate, he'll do it. Just give him a chance. You deserve to be happy, too."

Quinn smiled weakly and hugged him back. "Thanks, Kurt. I'm sorry to be so weepy."

"Hey, don't worry about it! We've all been there! Here!" He handed her a tissue. She wiped her eyes, and hugged him again. The rest of the gang came out then, and Joe took Kurt's spot beside her. Soon enough the conversation changed to something more mundane.

…

Kurt was sitting in the library Monday after lunch, finishing up a research paper for his Government class when he got the distinct feeling that he was being watched. He couldn't pinpoint where the sensation was coming from, and he didn't see anyone in the general area. He went back to reading the reference book in front of him, but the feeling persisted.

Creeped out, he gathered his things and decided to finish the paper later. He walked to his locker, but the feeling of being watched followed him. He glanced around the nearly empty hallway. Most of the students were at lunch, either in the cafeteria, or in the courtyard, but there were a few wandering the halls.

None of them even seemed to notice him. He scanned their minds anyway. Finding nothing out of the ordinary in any of their thoughts, he went to his locker and collected his books for his afternoon classes.

"Hello!"

Startled, Kurt spun around at the voice. A young boy of about six or seven stood there, staring at Kurt. The boy had hair that was such a shiny shade of black, it appeared to have blue highlights. His eyes seemed to have three rings of color in three distinct shades of green, starting with a pale mint near the iris, and blending into a forest and then dark emerald on the outer edges. His skin was a shade darker than Santana's.

Kurt glanced around, wondering if the boy was someone's younger brother that had wandered off. "Hi! Who are you?"

"I'm Tonio," the boy said in a heavily accented voice. "And you're Kurt Hummel. My new momma says we're going to be related."

Before Kurt could ask anything more, a dark skinned woman with hair dyed blonde and red to look like flames came running around the corner. "Tonio! There you are! Don't ever just disappear like that! You had us worried!"

"Aunt Eshe?" Kurt said, glancing between her and the child.

"Kurt! It's good to see you again, and under much better circumstances than the first time. How have you been, darling?" She hugged him as she spoke. "Your Uncle Armand will be here in a minute, he was talking with Damion on the phone."

Kurt nodded. "I'm doing fine. I never did say thank you for helping to rescue Blaine last year. I didn't get the chance to talk with you at the family reunion."

"We're family, Kurt, that's what we do. You don't need to thank me."

The boy smiled up at Kurt. "I'm family too!"

Eshe smiled sweetly down at the boy. "That's right, Sweetheart. Kurt, this is Tonio, he was one of Dr. Dressler's...experiments that we rescued from the nightmare island."

Kurt raised his eyebrow in question. The boy was one of the genetic mutations created by the insane scientist? He studied the small boy. Other than the unusual eye color, the boy seemed 100% human. As if reading Kurt's thoughts (could he do that?) the boy grinned.

"Wanna see a trick I can do?" And before either of them could speak, the boy began to change color, until he blended into his surroundings, and was virtually invisible, even to Kurt's preternatural vision.

"Tonio!" Eshe said sternly. "Not here! It's not safe."

The boy quickly returned to normal, but looked sad. "I'm sorry, momma Eshe. I forgot."

Kurt smiled kindly at the boy, glancing around to make sure no one had seen the impressive display. "Wow, I wish I could do that. It would have come in handy a couple years ago when I didn't want people to see me."

"Why?" The boy asked with all the bluntness of a young child.

Kurt shrugged. "Some times when you are different from other people, they get jealous, and try to make you feel bad about it."

"They made you feel bad?" Tonio said, moving closer and taking Kurt's hand.

"Some of them did. But eventually I learned that they didn't really hate me, they hated themselves for not having the courage to be true to themselves. And when they realized they couldn't make me feel bad anymore, they stopped. Some of them are even my friends now."

Tonio smiled. "I'd like to meet your friends."

"Well, right now I have to get to class, but, if your new mom here says it is okay, you can come back at three and meet my friends in the choir room."

The boy turned to Eshe. "Can I? Please? Please please please?

She smiled at him. "I think that would be a good idea. Armand and I just wanted to check out the school, and I wanted to say hello to Mercedes. I didn't get to talk to her much at the reunion either."

Just then the girl in question came around the corner, along with Blaine, Stephanie, Artie, and Karofsky.

Mercedes smiled when she saw her sort of sister in law. "Eshe! Hi!"

The two women hugged, and a round of introductions were made. Eshe glanced at Karofsky, a slight frown on her face. "Damion didn't mention he had found a lifemate. I shall have to box his ears soundly!" But the glare was marred when she broke into a grin. "Welcome to the Family."

"Want to see what I can do?" Tonio asked, but before he could disappear again, Kurt stopped him.

"Why don't you wait until you come back this afternoon? You can show everyone then." Just then a thought struck him. "Hey, were you the one watching me in the library a little while ago?"

The boy grinned. "I'm really good at playing hide and seek!"

Kurt laughed. "I bet you are!"

…

Kurt arrived at the choir room that afternoon to find his Aunt and Tonio already there, along with his Uncle Armand. Kurt was looking forward to spending some time with his reclusive uncle. Armand's first lifemate, Susanna, had been murdered shortly after the birth of their son, Nicholas. Armand had then married another immortal woman, who was not a lifemate to him, but whose companionship was welcomed at the time.

They had a son, Kurt's favorite cousin, Thomas, but not long after Thomas was born, Althea was murdered as well. After his third spouse, another immortal named Rosamund, had been murdered shortly after the birth of their daughter, Jeanne Louise, Armand had retreated from the family, for fear that who ever was killing the mothers of his children would turn their ire on to those said children.

After Nicholas' first lifemate, Annie had been killed, and Nicholas framed for the murder of a mortal, it was Nicholas' second lifemate, Jo Whelan, that had figured out what was happening. Eshe had been sent by Lucian to investigate the deaths of Armand's lifemate and wives, and discovered that they were also lifemates.

The killer had been caught, but had died in a fire that had been deliberately set by his sister. Only recently had his uncle come out of seclusion. He smiled at the older immortal as he entered the room.

"Uncle Armand! I'm glad you are here! And that you'll be staying for a while!"

The older man smiled at him, too. "I'm glad too, Kurt. It's about darn time I meet the rest of the family and get to know them better." The two hugged briefly as the rest of the New Directions filed in.

Tonio was bouncing, excited to see so many people. He stopped dead in his tracks, though, and started talking excitedly in Spanish when he spotted Santana. The Latina looked him over, and to everyone's shock, knelt down and smiled kindly at the boy, speaking softly to him in his native language. After a moment, the little boy squealed happily and threw himself at her for a big hug. She glanced around the room at the others, and after rolling her eyes, just smiled happily.

"What was that all about?" Blaine asked, slipping an arm around Kurt's waist. It was Eshe who replied as she hugged Unique, her grandchild.

"Tonio mistook your friend for an Angel. Seems she looks a lot like Sarita, the woman who helped us rescue the prisoners from the island. She's your cousin Domitian's lifemate, by the way. Your friend told Tonio she'd be honored to be his Aunt."

The boy hurried over to Kurt just then. "Can I show them my trick now?"

The immortal teen glanced around the room, and saw that everyone was there now, and Mr. Schue was just closing the doors. "Okay. Everyone, this is Tonio, and he wants to show you all something. Remember to be kind, please!"

They all turned to smile at the young boy, and then blinked in shock as he disappeared in front of their eyes.

"Dude! How'd he do that?" Puck asked, looking all around for the boy. They were all surprised again when they heard the boy giggle from the vicinity of the ceiling in the back corner. They all turned and looked up to see the boy hanging upside down from all four limbs like a lizard.

"Kurt! You're new friend is Spiderman!" Finn called out in awe.

"Tonio was one of Dr. Dressler's experiments," Armand explained. "He spliced human DNA with that of a chameleon and gecko, creating a hybrid. Tonio was lucky. There were seven others before him, but none of them survived."

Eshe smiled fondly at the boy, who was now climbing back down the wall with the ease of the reptile that made up part of his genetics. "Armand and I are in the process of adopting him. Unlike some of the other captives, Tonio is capable of integrating with humans. We just have to teach him to be cautious with his abilities."

Mr. Schue smiled at their guests. "Well, he fits right in with this group, and is welcome to join us whenever he'd like while you are here. Would you like to take a seat, and watch our rehearsals? I believe Rachel was going to start us off with her solo, and then we were going to work on the choreography for Kurt and Blaine's duet."

…

Rehearsals that week went well, and Tonio was a delight. He learned the choreography for all of their numbers for Nationals, and even out danced Brittany and Mike one day during an impromptu dance off during a break one afternoon. Mr. Schue had even quipped that it was a shame the boy was too young to officially join the group, as he'd be the perfect secret weapon.

Friday afternoon, they were all getting ready to head over to the Hummel-Hudson home when Quinn's cellphone pinged an incoming text. She glanced at it with a frown.

"Something wrong?" Stephanie asked.

"It's Shelby, Beth's adopted mom." She was dialing the phone as she spoke. "She says it's an emergency."

She put the phone to her ear. It was answered on the first ring. "Quinn?"

"Shelby? What's up? Is everything okay?"

Shelby Corcoran sighed. "Everything is fine, but I was hoping you could do me a HUGE favor. One of my best friends is very sick and is in the hospital, and I said I would fly out to New York to see her, but I don't want Beth to be stuck in the waiting room of a hospital all weekend. Would it possibly be okay for Beth to spend the weekend with you?"

Quinn relaxed visibly. "I would love that, actually. There is someone I'd like to introduce her to."

"Great, can you come pick her up this afternoon? My flight leaves at seven, and I still need to pack a bag for both of us."

"Sure, I'll be there in about forty minutes."

"Thank you so much, Quinn, I really appreciate this."

"No, really, it's not a problem at all. You really are doing me a favor, actually."

She hung up, smiling. Stephanie smiled back at her, having heard both sides of the conversation.

"Would you like some company for the drive?" She offered.

"Sure, that sounds great." The two girls said good bye to the others, telling them they'd be over in a couple hours.

The two girls had become really good friends over the last several months, and were laughing and talking as Quinn drove. They were on a back road in a rural area that didn't see much traffic. Quinn had made the drive several times over the past year to visit her daughter, and had rarely ever seen another vehicle.

She was looking over at the younger girl in the passenger seat, joking about lifemates, and didn't notice the other car come barreling out of a side street. Stephanie glanced over at her and spotted it, but it was too late to warn the blonde girl.