Disclaimer: I don't own Glee
Chapter 26
Kurt studied his reflection in the bathroom mirror.
His eyes slowly looked at every feature of his face, his eyebrows seemed knitted in a permanent frown, and his eyes were red and bloodshot.
It was like he was looking at a stranger.
In the corner of his eye another face joined his in the mirror.
"Kurt, dude, I don't want us to be mad at each other, can we talk?"
Both boys sat down on each of their beds and faced one another.
"Kurt, I-"
Finn couldn't finish his sentence as Kurt threw himself into the other boy's arms.
"Finn, I'm sorry, I'm sorry about Carol, I'm sorry I've been so distant, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
"Hey, come on dude, its ok, none of this is your fault" Finn said tearfully.
His throat closed as he held his step-brother in his arms.
They stayed in each others embrace for what felt like hours, Finn could swear that Kurt had fallen asleep he was so still and quite.
After the mornings talk Humbert had left the two boys to think things over, he knew this was a pivotal time and he was in a precarious position, if he really wanted Kurt he couldn't take him by force, he had to gain their trust. Well, he had to gain Finn's trust for he knew that Kurt would never come without him.
The whole day had been torture, neither boy's had spoken to him all day, and it seemed neither had spoken to each other either, until now.
Humbert had spent most of the day on his laptop, looking up fostering and how to go about it, he nearly spilt his coffee all over the keypad when he heard voices coming from the bathroom.
Now he was pressed against the wall, listening in through a gap in the door.
They had been quiet for a long time now.
Finn was about to lay Kurt down and put the blanket over him when he finally stirred and sat back on his bed.
"These past few days, well, past few weeks have been so…hard."
Finn nodded, he knew this was Kurt's time to talk, he would talk later.
"I've just been so confused, I don't know who I am anymore, I don't even know if any of this is real."
He took a deep breath.
"Coach Humbert has been the only solid thing in my life, he was there for me when the Glee club turned on me and then suddenly when I thought I was going to lose it at the hospital he was there, and now he wants to look out for us, and I want to let him. Is that stupid?"
Humbert held his breath, wanting to cough from the pressure of his beating heart.
"I don't know Kurt, I mean, I don't get it. He's just come from no where, I mean, I've got to admit I thought he was a good guy when he got rid of Karofky for you, he was like the only one…"
Humbert listened closer. He heard Finn sigh.
"The only one who helped you"
Humbert could barley stand he was shaking so badly.
Kurt looked at Finn, "He was there for me, and-"
"We weren't" Finn put his hands over his face.
"No, Finn, it's not like that, you were-"
"No we weren't Kurt! Everyone turned on you, and I should have been there, I just, I don't know!"
"Finn, its ok, you were there, you and Puck, but then-"
"Puck went AWOL"
Kurt frowned, "Yea, everyone just seemed to leave one by one, Puck, Mr. Schue…Blaine"
Finn looked at Kurt sympathetically.
"Has he contacted you at all?"
Kurt shook his head, trying not to cry for the millionth time that day. "No, he as well as everyone else has just turned their backs on me. Except you, and Coach Humbert"
Rupert smiled, feeling an incredible warmth flood through him.
Finn frowned again, "I still don't get it- I"
"He was a friend of dads, I remember him saying that dad told him to look out for us, in a way, its like with Humbert looking out for us, dad is looking out for us."
Finn looked doubtful, "But Burt never talked of him-"
"He did! I remember now, he told me to talk to Humbert, he… he told me that he'd asked Humbert to look out for me…I remember now"
Finn's eyes widened, "He did?"
Humbert nearly screamed with joy, Burt said that?
"Look Kurt, I'm never going to let you down again, I'm always going to be there for you, and if you trust this guy and if Burt trusted him then that's good enough for me."
Kurt smiled.
Humbert nearly wept with joy.
"But, I still don't know the guy, and I think being fostered by him and moving away from Lima is a big step to make"
Humberts face dropped and he went cold inside.
"Let's just take things slowly, ok? We need to get back to school, we need to talk to everyone at Glee and tell them what's happening with us, they'll be worried sick"
Kurt wrapped his arms around his body, "I don't know if I'm ready"
"I'll do all the talking, we can't run away Kurt, we have to face up to things at some point"
Kurt looked at Finn, a feeling of admiration swelling inside him, "How can you be so strong, when did you get so…sensible"
Finn grinned sadly, "I guess things like this are there to test you, you either rise to the challenge or you let it get the better of you, you know who told me that?"
Kurt shook his head.
"Burt did, we can both do him proud Kurt, him and mom"
Humbert stood outside the door, listening to the boys talk about their parents well into the night, as he decided he'd heard enough he walked back to his room, a million thoughts swirling round his head.
He starred at the wall, a spider crawled out of a crack in the ceiling and scurried down it.
He walked up to the wall, put his forehead against it and pressed his finger over the spider and crushed it.
He knew exactly what he had to do.
GGGGG
As Finn woke up the next morning he knew what he had to do.
He had to man up, he had to be there for Kurt and he had to be sensible and think things over. He would go back to school, he would talk to Rachel and…well he hadn't really thought further then that.
Oh jeez, I don't know if I can do this.
He walked into the living room and had to blink several times.
Humbert walked into the room holding a cup of tea, he offered it to Finn with a smile.
"Hey Finn, how did you sleep?"
Finn took the offered cup, his head darting about the now much larger looking room.
"Whereeee have all the plants gone?"
Humbert looked around himself, "Oh, yea I cleared them all out, I'm having a bit of a sale out front, ones I can't sell I'll just burn."
Finn nodded his head slowly/
"I don't really want to take them all with me when I move, I'm having a clear out of all the things I want to get rid of, and some of the plants had to go, I'm keeping my favourites of course."
Finn followed him nervously into the kitchen and watched as he took some bread from the bread bin.
"Toast?"
Finn shook his head.
"Hmn, wonder if Kurt wants some, Kurt!"
"Wait! Before Kurt gets up I need to talk to you"
Humbert turned his back as he put the bread in the toaster and smiled at the wall.
As he turned his expression changed instantly to one of understanding, "Wait, Finn, I need to talk to you too, sit down"
Finn complied.
"I think I've been taking things way too fast for the both of you, and I feel terrible. I took you away from your friends, I must have frightened you to death yesterday talking about moving and fostering! I haven't even thought it through, I didn't think that there could be other people out there who would be your guardians, and what about all the legal stuff, social services, just, I wanted to take you both away, to keep you safe! I'm afraid that's how I deal with things when things get tough, I panic, I just wanted to do what was the best for the two of you and I didn't think things through. I promised Burt I'd watch out for you, but I didn't even consider the possibility that some one else would take you, you could even go into foster care but they may not let me be the one to foster you!"
Finn on his part was shocked. He hadn't thought about any of that stuff, he hadn't even considered about being taken away into care. He suddenly felt very afraid.
"So that's why I think we should all go to McKinley's today and gather everyone up and have a big discussion and see what we should do and decide what the next plan of action is."
Finn nodded, it was all he could think of to do, he studied Humbert closely, and he came to a decision.
"Coach, I'm sorry that I yelled yesterday and got angry and stuff"
"No no, you had a right to"
"Its just, I was scarred and I didn't really know you that well, but, Kurt told me what Burt said, that he asked you to look out for us, so, I just wanted to say thanks, and we're cool and I'd really appreciate your help"
Humbert smiled, "Thank you Finn, that means a lot to me. I'll make a phone call and organise a meeting"
The rest of the morning went by and Humbert felt the happiest he'd ever felt in his life.
This felt right, every time he looked at Kurt he thought he was dreaming, he couldn't let this go.
Ever.
GGGG
As they pulled up into the school car park, Humbert, Finn and Kurt all felt trepidations, but each for very different reasons.
"Right, are you both ready?"
The two boys nodded, both as unready as they could ever feel.
Walking through the school felt so strange, like everything had changed and suddenly they didn't belong there. Students starred at them as they passed, all of them aware of Burt and Carol's death.
Kurt felt his hands shaking and he moved closer to Finn. He couldn't look them in the eye.
As they walked into the meeting room Kurt found himself under four new pairs of staring eyes.
Three of them he didn't recognise. One he did.
"Kurt, Finn, do you know how worried I've been for the both of you? What were you thinking just taking off with him like that? I couldn't contact you, you just disappeared off the face of the earth!"
Sue Sylvester wasn't dressed in her usual tracksuit, instead she wore a purple suit and had a face like thunder.
Humbert placed a hand on both of the boy's shoulders, "Nice to see you Sue"
Sue glared at Humbert then looked back to the boys, "Come on, sit down, we've got a lot to talk about"
As Kurt sat down he studied the three men, he didn't like the look of any of them, one of them looked angry, one looked bored, and the other looked like he had somewhere else to be, and fast.
"It's been quite inconvenient not being able to contact the boys Mr. Humbert" said the angry looking man who glared at Humbert and then looked at Kurt with equal distain as if this whole affair was his fault.
"Well, we're here now"
Humbert started to feel nervous, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.
The mans eyes hardened, "Indeed"
As everyone talked Kurt found himself growing more and more frightened and moving closer to Humbert.
He didn't understand what they were saying, he tried to answer their questions but he didn't know how and the more and more he sat there and listened the more and more he just wanted to go back with Humbert.
"The boys have no known family to speak of, no next of kin, no one to stand as legal guardian so that makes them state custody and they'll have to go into care for the time being"
"No!" Finn's stomach clenched, they were talking about them as if they weren't in the room.
"They have me!" Humbert's heart began to beat faster, he didn't like the way this was going, he felt himself start to panic.
Sue threw her hands up, "I ask again, who the heck in who are you? Look Mr, you can't just come on the scene and take two boys away who's just lost their parents, ok, it doesn't work like that!"
"What if we want to go with him!"
Kurt had stood up at this point, Humbert looked at him, his eyes wide.
Pride and desire surged through him.
"Yea, Miss Sylvester, doesn't their opinion matter at all?"
"They're not thinking straight! They haven't thought of their options!"
"Doesn't sound like they have many options as you've pretty much told them they're going into care!"
Sue felt her pulse racing, "Hudson, what about Berry, have you spoken to her? Have you spoken to any of the Glee club, are you thinking at all!"
Finn's face went red, "I-"
"What about staying with her family?"
"I suppose I could talk to her"
Kurt looked around in exasperation, "I'm not so sure about that, I've already told you, I want-"
"Porcelain, listen to me, I've got a lot on my plate right now, Figgins is no where to be seen, the schools in chaos, I've got the police and the parents on my back as well as these guys" she motioned to the three people sat by her side "and I've got to do all this as well as making sure you two are ok, I just-"
"So what, we're just an inconvenience! Well I'm sorry that we're such an annoyance to you all but we're not some dogs you've found on the street and need to take to the pound!"
Kurt turned to Humbert, "Can we go now? I've made up my mind, please don't let them take us away!"
Humbert stood up and protectively led the boys out the room, "This has been a very interesting meeting but-"
"No! I won't just let you disappear with them again! Finn, talk to Berry, please!"
"Miss Sylvester! This whole affair has been very poorly handled, I think its time we left, I'm extremely appalled. If you'll be so kind gentlemen to give me your number we'll be in touch about legal matters of fostering and guardianship?"
The bored looking man handed Humbert a card and shrugged his shoulders at the other two while proceeding to pack his suitcase.
Sue's face was pink with rage, "You can't just kidnap them Humbert!"
Humbert stopped so suddenly in his tracks that Sue ran into him, he grabbed her arm, leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Watch me".
He slammed the door in her outraged face and, putting his arms around the boys shoulders, walked away, distantly hearing her desperate cries, "Do something!"
"Look Miss Sylvester, the boys have no other family to speak of, our job is to-"
That was close. Humbert thought as he felt relief flood through him.
As Kurt walked past another group of staring students he looked up to Humbert, "That didn't go very well did it."
Humbert tried not to smile, I think it went exceptionally well.
"No, it didn't, I'm so angry, those people never listen, they don't care, they just- urgh! I knew this was a bad idea, I knew we should have just left and tried to avoid all this"
Finn felt a surge of guilt, "I'm sorry, this was my idea, I just thought that-"
"No, Finn, I didn't mean it like that, I just-"
He sighed and turned to face the boys, "I know how the world works, it's not fair and it's not kind, I want to do this by your terms and I want to respect your wishes, but, your going to have to trust me a little, ok?"
Finn nodded, feeling a little confused and stressed out by the meeting. He didn't think it would go that way at all.
Humbert paused and looked at Finn.
"If you want to talk to, Rachel is it? If you want to talk to her about the possibility of you both going to stay with her parents, then I'm fine with that, it looks like we'll have to do this together, those people aren't going to be much help it seems" he said quietly.
Finn smiled, "Yea, ok, that'd be good, is that ok Kurt?"
Humbert looked down at Kurt.
"I- I don't know Finn, living with Rachel, I'm not sure-"
"Look, let's go home now, and we'll have a talk and think about it and decide what to do tomorrow, no rush"
Finn nodded and noted how Kurt instantly relaxed, deep down he really wanted to talk to Rachel, but even he wasn't sure if that was exactly what was best for Kurt.
GGGG
A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I thought the summer holiday would give me more time to write, not less! Thanks to everyone for the incredible reviews! I'm sorry that the story has upset some people, I'd like to promise a bit of happiness for Kurt, but, right now I'm not sure when that's going to be possible. This story is dark, be warned!
I wanted the 'fostering' to happen in this chapter, but I think its going to happen in the next one. The whole 'fostering' part of the story has been quite hard for me, but I'm almost there I think, trying to keep Finn trusting Humbert and also thinking about all the realities and the legal side to it, I think Finn, Kurt and Humbert are just as clueless to it all as I am! So I'm sorry if that side to the story is inaccurate! I have to make it all work for the purposes of the storyline! :) Oh, and in the Glee universe Finn and Kurt probably do have more family, but in my story they don't!
Anyway, reviews are always appreciated! I hope to update soon.