I've decided to change the update schedule. I started several new stories during Blam week, and I with my current update schedule, I wouldn't have much time to work on them because I'd be too busy writing this story. So for right now, I'm going to cut back to updating once a week, on Saturdays. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be back to updating twice a week,.

As always, I'd like to thank my beta, Tuuzmorado.

Blaine and the rest of the Cheerios spent the rest of the afternoon practicing the long routine, except for a half hour before their performance that was spent cleaning up and changing into clean uniforms. (Sue had strictly forbid any of them from sweating in front of the judges.) By the time the actual routine came, they were all tired, but not so much that it interfered with their performance. Everything went perfectly, and he could tell from the way that they crowd cheered that they all loved it.

Blaine had to admit, he was kind of happy that they still got the chance to perform. He and the squad had worked hard on this routine, and it would have been a shame if they hadn't got a chance to show it off. Of course, he knew that cheating was wrong, and he still planned on exposing Sue, if he could. But he had to admit that the spotlight felt awesome.

Afterward, Sue had the entire squad sit with her to watch the rest of the teams perform so that they could "revel in their pathetic attempts to beat us". It was incredibly interesting – some of the other teams had amazing moves, though judging by the way Sue sneered at all of them, she didn't agree. But still, the performances lasted for hours, especially with the long breaks in between each routine. (Blaine wasn't entirely sure why the teams couldn't just perform one after another, but apparently the judges needed extra time to talk or take notes or something like that.) Meaning that it was almost eight o'clock before Blaine got the chance to go see the glee club.

Marley had texted him saying that the glee club was in the cafeteria getting dinner (which Blaine hoped they'd still be serving when he got there), so Blaine, Kitty, and Brittany headed down there to meet them.

"You did great!" Tina exclaimed as soon as Blaine, Kitty, and Brittany approached the table where the rest of the glee club was sitting. She jumped to her feet to hug him. He smiled and squeezed her back for a moment, then stepped away.

"Yeah, that routine was off the chain, yo," Artie added.

Blaine smiled. "Thanks. We're going to go grab something to eat, okay?" It looked like everyone else had already gotten their food, probably during the last routine, since Blaine hadn't seen them in the audience for that one.

Sam scrambled to his feet. "I'm going to go get something else, to," he said, hurrying over to go stand by Blaine. He met Blaine's eyes and nodded. Blaine had a feeling he knew what this was really about. So when the girls walked over to the salad bar, Blaine grabbed his tray and headed over to where the servers were dishing out some sort of pasta dish, which was in the complete opposite direction.

Sure enough, as soon as they were far enough away, Sam leaned forward and whispered, "Ryder and I didn't find out anything."

"Nothing?" Blaine asked as he held up his plate for the server to fill with food.

Sam shook his head. "Well, not nothing," he amended. "We saw Sue going to the place where the judges were making their decision, but we didn't get any proof that she was cheating."

"You didn't find anything else?" Blaine asked as he walked over the drinks, Sam following close behind.

Sam thought about that for a moment. "Well, Ryder and Kitty are probably going to start dating soon," he added with a grin.

"Gossiping about me, Trouty?" Kitty asked from right behind them. Sam jumped, though honestly, Blaine wasn't terribly surprised. He hadn't heard her approach, but she was a lot like Sue at times. It figured that she'd have Sue's ability to overhear practically everything. "That's not so smart, considering the kind of gossip I have on you and your boy toy." Luckily, she looked more amused than upset.

"Yeah, but if you were going to say anything, you would have done it last week," Sam said with a grin.

Kitty raised her eyebrows. "Don't underestimate me," she said, giving Sam a long look before walking away.

Blaine smiled, though it slipped slightly when he noticed that she was limping slightly. He moved forward to offer to help her, but Ryder got there before he could. Ryder took her tray from her and carried it in one hand, wrapping the other arm around her waste. Kitty shoved him away, though she was smiling, which just made Ryder laugh and try to grab her again.

Blaine turned back to Sam as he walked over to grab a drink. "Okay, I think you're right about those two," he said, which made Sam nod enthusiastically. "And ignore what she said. She's not actually going to out you, no matter how much she threatens to." At least, Blaine was pretty sure. With Kitty, it was hard to predict anything, but he didn't think she would actually do something like that. He had to admit that he wouldn't have put it past her at the beginning of the year, but she'd changed a lot since then.

Sam nodded again, looking more serious this time. "Oh, I know," he said. "I'm more worried about the fact that Santana's nickname is apparently spreading." Blaine chuckled. After a moment Sam added, "I wouldn't be too upset if she did, you know. I mean, it would suck to not get to choose when to say it, but I don't really care about the glee club knowing. I don't think. Plus, actually saying it will probably be the really hard part, so..." Sam let his voice trail off, then shrugged.

Blaine couldn't help but smile. "That's a big difference than how you acted last week, you know. A week ago you still didn't want to tell anyone." Not that Sam had ever admitted it in so many words, but Blaine had been able to tell. Even on Monday Sam had obviously felt that way. If Sam was telling the truth, then this was a huge change of attitude.

Though Blaine did notice that Sam said he didn't mind the glee club knowing, not the whole school. Still, it was a big improvement.

Sam shrugged, not looking like he really knew how to answer that. After a moment, he said, "I guess I've just gotten used to the idea. It was kind of weird at first. The part about other people knowing, I mean. Not the part about-" Sam lowered his voice "-dating a guy."

"It'd be fine if that part was weird at first, too," Blaine said. Honestly, he'd been a little surprised by how easily Sam had accepted the idea of dating a guy – his reaction to the homophobic bullies notwithstanding.

"But it wasn't really," Sam said. "I mean, it's you."

Blaine didn't know how he did it, but somehow, Sam had a way of making Blaine fall in love with him pretty much every time he opened his mouth, while making Blaine feel just as loved at the same time. It was incredible, really, like everything else about him.

"So, does that mean you've given more thought to how you're going to come out?" Blaine asked, making sure to keep his tone casual.

Sam stiffened ever-so-slightly. For the first time, he started to look uncomfortable. "I don't really know. Can we talk about that some other time?"

Blaine quickly nodded. He grabbed his tray and walked over to the cashier to pay. Sam's eyes suddenly widened. "Crap, I forgot that I was supposed to get something!"

Blaine frowned. "Why do you need to get something?"

"That was my excuse for coming over here with you," Sam said, glancing over to where the glee club was sitting. None of them were paying the slightest attention to the two of them. But Sam apparently didn't realize that, because he said, "If I go back to the table without buying something, then they'll know that I had another reason for coming over here to talk to you and they'll get suspicious."

Blaine rolled his eyes. "They'll think that you came over here because you like to hang out with me, not because the two of us are plotting against Sue. And anyway, why would that have to be a secret from the glee club? It's not like they'd go against us or anything." In fact, most of the club knew a bit of their plan – back when Sue had challenged Blaine to a sing-off, he'd had to told the club not to vote for him. Even with Blaine throwing the contest, he'd known that the glee club would have taken his side if he'd honestly not wanted to join the Cheerios.

"It's not a secret mission if everyone knows about it," Sam insisted, then lowered his voice and hissed, "Plus, she's got spies everywhere, remember? We can't trust anyone but ourselves!"

Blaine just snorted and shook his head, but he grabbed a bag of chips from a nearby basket. Cool Ranch Doritos – Sam's favorite. "There. I'll get this for you and you'll have your excuse." Because sometimes, it was a lot easier to just go along with Sam than to try to change his mind. Not to mention that Blaine was a lot more amused by Sam's spy fantasy than he was letting on.

Sam frowned and glanced down at his stomach, quick enough that most people probably wouldn't have noticed it. "Nah, I think I'll grab something else."

Blaine raised his eyebrows. "Knowing you, you've probably been eating salad all day. One bag of chips isn't going to kill you." He continued over to the register and pulled out his wallet to pay for everything.

"Yeah, but I haven't had time to go to the gym in a week," Sam argued as he followed Blaine over. "This body takes work, you know." He tried to grab the chips off Blaine's tray to put them back.

"Still not going to kill you," Blaine said as he batted Sam's hand away. "Besides, you've already put so much effort into your body that you'd have to eat, like, fifty McDonald's hamburgers for it to make a difference." The cashier handed him his change, which Blaine stuck in his pocket, then picked up his tray and headed to the tables. The glee club's table was already crowded with way too many people – Blaine wasn't entirely sure how they got everyone to fit around it – so he sat at the table next to him instead. Secretly, he was a little happy about that. He knew that the point of everyone coming was so that they could do team bonding, but he liked just spending time alone with Sam. And after spending a long day rehearsing, he was ready for a little bit of down time, just the two of them.

"You say that now, but it's a slippery slope," Sam said. Blaine just rolled his eyes and slid the bag over to Sam, who shook his head. "I told you, I don't want them."

Blaine couldn't help but grin a bit at that. "Oh, really?" he asked. He reached over and ripped the bag open, then shook a few of them out onto the table. "Try to resist them now," he said, knowing that Sam wouldn't be able to. Cool Ranch Doritos were like Sam's addiction – he wouldn't buy them on his own, but if they were right in front of him, he'd eat them every single time.

Sam just glared at him for a minute, then gave in and grabbed one. "I hate you," he mumbled.

Blaine just laughed. Sam was a whole lot better now than he'd been in January, but he still had problems with eating too little and exercising too much – and with feeling bad about himself when he didn't do enough of either. He was much more likely to skip workouts, and he wasn't quite as strict about what he ate, but Blaine still considered it a victory when he got Sam to give in and splurge on junk food. Even if one small bag of chips wasn't what anyone but Sam would consider splurging.

"So, you and Ryder really didn't find anything out?" Blaine asked, turning a bit more serious.

"You guys talking about me?" Blaine turned just as Ryder dropped into the seat next to him, still holding Kitty's tray. He placed in front of her as she sat down next to him, then turned back to Blaine, an easygoing grin on his face.

"Blaine was just asking about what happened when we went to follow Sue," Sam said, then seemed to realize that he shouldn't have said that in front of Kitty, because he gave her a horrified look. Not that there was a problem with Kitty knowing – except for the fact that, despite what Blaine had said earlier, it would be easier to hide their plans from Sue if few people knew about it. But Blaine guessed that the real problem was that telling her compromised whatever spy mission Sam had made up in his head.

"That's what you two were after?" Kitty asked, then shrugged. "Something to do with why we still got first place even with my lame fall?" She didn't even wait for them to answer, just assumed that she was right and kept talking. "You find anything?"

"Nothing," Ryder said, his face falling slightly.

"You caught her going to the judge's area, right?" Blaine asked. When Sam nodded, he said, "That's got to count for something. Maybe that alone isn't enough to prove anything, but we could find more evidence. I mean, we already know that something suspicious happened, since she wasn't supposed to be there in the first place."

"Are you guys talking about me?" Brittany asked, suddenly appearing seemingly out of nowhere and taking the seat next to Kitty. "Because I didn't mean to cause any trouble. I swear I thought that was the girls' bathroom."

Blaine raised his eyebrows at Sam, who looked just as confused as Blaine. He decided not to ask. There were times when you just didn't want to know what Brittany meant, and Blaine had a feeling that this was one of those times. "No, we're talking about something else."

"Oh," Brittany said, looking slightly relieved. Then she smiled. "Who are you talking about, then? Is it Joe's new pretty girlfriend? Or Kitty? Or Marley? Or-"

Blaine shook his head before she could start naming every single member of the New Directions. "It's none of those," he said, then hesitated. He wasn't sure if he should add anything more. Not because he didn't want to involve Brittany – he didn't have a problem with it. But he wasn't sure if she'd be able to keep this a secret from Sue. Knowing her, all Sue would have to do is ask and Brittany would spill everything.

Ryder didn't seem to have the same reservations. "We think that Sue might have cheated, and that's why you guys got first place." Brittany gasped, her eyes widening so much that it was almost comical.

"So, what, you guys are going to play detective and solve this little mystery?" Kitty asked, in a tone that suggested that she thought they were idiots for even thinking about it.

"Well, yeah!" Sam said, way more passionately than Blaine had been expecting. "I mean, this is just like the situation with the Warblers, right? They cheated and won, so we almost didn't get to move on. But we figured out what was going on, found the proof, and now we get to go to Regionals!" He slung one arm over Blaine's shoulders and grinned, as if to remind everyone who was responsible for figuring out that the Warblers had cheated. "You all know how important it is to us that the Warblers were found out. And it's going to be just as important to whatever team should be the winner, so we've got to expose Sue to everyone!"

Ryder nodded enthusiastically. "He's got a point," he said, turning to Kitty.

Kitty just sighed and rolled her eyes. "Why do I get the feeling I'm going to get drawn into some terrible spy fantasy that Sam has?" Blaine couldn't help but snort at that, since he'd been thinking the same thing.

"That's not what this is," Sam said. "Plus, if I was going to fantasize, it'd be about secret agents, not spies, because they're much cooler."

Ryder frowned. "Aren't they the same thing?"

"Well, the name is cooler," Sam said.

Brittany squealed and clapped her hands. "I want to help!" she exclaimed. "We can all be secret agents together! What's our first mission?"

Everyone turned to Blaine for that one. Which was reasonable, he supposed, since he had been the one to originally come up with the idea to take down Sue all those weeks ago. Or maybe Ryder, Kitty, and Brittany were just following Sam's lead. Either way, all of them looked like they expected Blaine to come up with something. Unfortunately, he had absolutely no idea what to do.

"I doubt we're going to find any evidence today," he said after a moment, since he felt the need to say something. He spoke slowly, thinking it over as he went. "Sue's here eating," he said, noticing that she sat with a group of coaches on the other side of the cafeteria. And from the looks of it, she and a few of the other coaches were on the verge of attacking each other. Blaine doubted they actually would, though – at least, he hoped that they wouldn't – so he turned his attention back to the problem. "Sue isn't doing anything suspicious, so we're not going to get any evidence right now. We'll have to wait and find something later."

"Yeah, but if we wait until after the competition, then you're probably going to win today. That won't be fair," Sam said with a frown.

Blaine had to admit that Sam was right, but he couldn't think of any way around that. "Do you have any idea about how we could find evidence?" he asked, honestly hoping that he would. Because as much as Blaine liked taking the lead most of the time, he wasn't quite sure what to do now.

To his surprise, it was Ryder who spoke up. "We could try searching her office," he suggested. "I mean, she's probably blackmailing them with something. Or bribing them. Either way, she's got to be keeping record of it, right? And those records will probably be in her office."

Blaine thought about that for a second. "Sam and I tried that a few weeks ago," he said. Or, they'd tried to try that. Sue had reappeared after only a few minutes, which meant that they'd had to abort the mission. It had very nearly led to them getting caught, which would have been simultaneously terrible and awkward, especially since Blaine wouldn't have had the slightest idea how to explain the fact that they were in their superhero costumes at the time. (That part had been Sam's idea.) "We were only in there for a little while before she returned, though. There could be something in there that we missed."

"Let me guess, the two of you both sneaked in there together?" Kitty asked. When Blaine nodded, she scoffed. "What you need to do is get someone to distract her, and another person on lookout to warn the people searching her office of when she's going to return." She rolled her eyes. "No wonder you didn't find anything."

That sounded very smart, actually. "So, does that mean you're going to help us?"

"Well, someone needs to think of these things so that Sue doesn't destroy you, and it's clearly not going to be any of you losers," she said.

Sam grinned, seeming to not even notice the insult. "Then we have a plan!" he exclaimed. "When should we-?"

He didn't finish his question, because right then, Tina came over and dropped into the seat next to him. Jake and Marley joined them a second later. "Hey, we haven't seen you guys all day," Tina said, addressing everyone but looking at Blaine, her voice teasing. "You're not allowed to sit over here and not talk to us."

"Sorry," Blaine said with a smile. "Just talking about Cheerio stuff. Right, everyone?"

"You could call it that," Kitty said dryly.

The rest of the evening was spent talking with all of the New Directions. After the first few minutes everyone got up and pushed the two tables together (as much as two circular tables could be pushed together), so that they could all talk to each other. And even though it interrupted their plotting and made it harder to talk to Sam, Blaine was having a great time. It had been a while since the New Directions had done anything as a group – at least, it had been a while since they'd done something that didn't involve singing – and Blaine definitely enjoyed it. There was a two-hour break in between the last routine and the start of the final award ceremony, but it felt like only minutes had passed when Sue was suddenly grabbing them by the hair (literally, in Brittany and Kitty's case, though she just made a disgusted face at Blaine's hair and refused to touch it) and dragging them over to join the squad for awards.

The ceremony lasted for far too long, especially since Blaine essentially knew what the outcome would be. Not to mention that after such a long day, he and the rest of the squad were all ready to just go home. But Sue growled at anyone who let their eyes droop, so Blaine made sure to stay alert.

Blaine was zoning out a little by the time they started to announce the winner. He hadn't even realized what they were announcing until he heard his team's name called and everyone around him started jumping and screaming. Their enthusiasm was so infectious that Blaine couldn't help but join in and start celebrating with them, but it didn't really feel right. Blaine loved to win, maybe a little more than he should - Sam teased him about that all the time. But still, winning seemed pointless when it wasn't because they deserved it. Honestly, Blaine was relieved when it was time to climb onto the bus and ride back to McKinley.

They were about halfway to the school when Blaine's phone rang, barely audible over the excited chattering around him. He pulled it out and answered without bothering to check the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Congratulations," Kurt said, an obvious smile in his voice. "I just saw on Sue's twitter that you guys won the cheerleading competition. Or, specifically, I just saw that you guys apparently 'crushed our enemies and made them bleed both failure and tears'. That's a direct quote, by the way."

"Sue has a twitter?" was the first thing Blaine asked. Because seriously, he had a hard time imagining that.

"Surprisingly, yes," Kurt said. "And she's just as insane and psychotic in 140 characters as she is in real life. But anyway, congratulations on the win."

"Thanks," Blaine said, feeling slightly weird about accepting his congratulations when they hadn't exactly earned their win. But that wasn't the kind of thing he wanted to say out loud when he was on a crowded bus where Sue might overhear him, so he kept quiet. Then he noticed something odd. "It's almost midnight," he said, checking his watch to make sure. "What are you still doing up?"

"Blaine, I'm a college student living in New York – what makes you think that I'd go to sleep at a reasonable time?" Kurt laughed, but Blaine could hear something off in his voice. Not to mention that Kurt had always been incredibly firm about getting enough beauty sleep. Sometimes he'd make an exception, but only if he had a good reason. Blaine had a hard time believing that that had changed in less than a year. Kurt seemed to take his silence for disbelief – which it was – because after a second, he sighed. "I haven't been sleeping that well," he admitted. "And I'm kind of going stir crazy being the only awake one in the apartment, so when I saw that the competition had just ended, I figured I'd call since you had to still be up."

"What's wrong?" Blaine asked, frowning and leaning his head against the bus window.

"Nothing," Kurt said quickly. "Just forget I mentioned it, okay? It's fine."

"Kurt," Blaine said slowly. "We agreed that we're still going to be friends, remember? So whatever is bothering you, you can tell me."

For a minute, he thought that Kurt was still going to protest. Then Kurt sighed again, and when he spoke, his voice lacked his usual confidence. "It's Dad," he said quietly. "What if his cancer isn't gone?"

Blaine felt a flash of guilt – between everything else that was going on, he'd almost forgotten about Burt's cancer, which made him feel terrible. Last year, Burt had practically been a substitute dad to him when his own dad spent all him time working. But after the break up, Blaine had felt awkward seeing him, and had avoided going down to the garage as much as he could. But now he remembered that Burt had a doctor appointment coming up to tell him whether or not he was in remission. "It is," Blaine said, with more confidence than he felt. "He's doing great, Kurt. He's back at the garage, he looks healthy. It's going to be okay."

"But what if it isn't?" Kurt asked in a small voice that Blaine hadn't heard from him in two years. It was the same voice he'd used when Karofsky had been bullying him, and Kurt hadn't been able to do anything about it.

"It will be," Blaine said firmly. "What day is the appointment?"

"Thursday afternoon," Kurt said.

"Then you have less than five days left to worry about it," Blaine said. "When you get the good news on Thursday, you'll look back and realize that you had no reason to be scared, because the cancer is going to be in remission and everything is going to work out fine." He bit his lip, then said, "This is something that you should talk to Rachel about. Or Santana." As much as Blaine wanted to help, there was only so much he could do over the phone from several states away. Kurt would be better off with someone who could actually be there for him, and not just virtually.

"I know," Kurt said. "I do talk to them. But Rachel is getting ready for her Funny Girl callback – this could completely make her career, Blaine. And Santana... You remember the girlfriend she mentioned on Fondue for Two? Well, apparently her girlfriend wasn't too happy about the things Santana said, and you do not want to know about the drama that's been going down."

Between everything else that was going on, Santana's new girlfriend was another thing that Blaine had forgotten about. He was a little curious, but knew that now was definitely not the right time to ask, so he just said, "Even if they have a lot going on, they care about you, Kurt. I'm sure that they'd both be more than willing to help you." He hesitated, then said, "And I know I've only met Adam twice, so I don't know him too well, but he seems like he really cares about you, too."

"Yeah, Adam has been great," Kurt said, and despite everything, Blaine could hear a hint of a smile in his voice. "I don't know how I'd get through this without him. But at the same time, we haven't known each other that long. I don't want this to end up being too much, too soon." Blaine didn't have anything to say to that. Like he'd said, he hardly knew Adam, so he couldn't exactly judge whether they were moving at the right pace or not. But after a moment, Kurt added, "He is skipping his Wednesday and Thursday classes to come to Lima with Santana, Quinn, and I."

"See? That sounds like something he'd do if he really wanted to be there for you, Kurt," Blaine said. Then he frowned. "Santana and Quinn are both coming?"

"Yeah, they've been planning it for ages. Something about getting your asses in line for Regionals," Kurt said dryly. "Trust me, this is going to be an interesting trip."

"Why is that?" Blaine asked.

"Oh, you'll see," Kurt said, then yawned. "I think I'm going to see if I can get some sleep."

"Sounds good," Blaine agreed quickly, since Kurt sounded like he could use it. "Thanks for calling to congratulate us. And you can call back if you can't sleep. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," Kurt said, though from the sound of his voice, Blaine doubted that he would. "I'll probably just go to Rachel's room and sleep in there. She stole all of the good pillows from me, anyway, so she owes me."

Blaine chuckled when he heard a hint of the usual bitchiness creep into Kurt's tone. "What day are you coming to Ohio?"

"We'll be there to help with glee on Wednesday," Kurt answered.

"Then I'll see you then," Blaine said. "Bye, Kurt."

"Goodnight, Blaine."

Blaine hung up his phone and stuck it into his pocket, then turned to stare out the window into the almost-pitch-black night. Sam was supposed to work for Burt tomorrow – apparently Burt insisted that he needed to finish up a car that he hadn't had time to get to during the week, and Sam had offered to go in and help, mostly so he could keep an eye on Burt and make sure he didn't overexert himself. Blaine had already offered to drive Sam home after work, since they planned on spending the evening together, anyway. The thought of seeing Burt again was still a little weird – and even weirder now that he and Kurt weren't planning on ever getting back together. But maybe it was time that Blaine stopped in, just to see how he was doing.

Blaine would never admit it out loud to Kurt, but he was a lot more worried about Burt's appointment than he'd said. And if something happened, Blaine would hate himself if he kept avoiding the man who had been such a father figure to him last year.

But nothing would happen, Blaine reminded himself. Burt was going to be fine.

Still, Blaine made up his mind to stop in and talk to him tomorrow. Just in case.