A/N: Okay, I apologize for the back-to-back-to-back updates, but like I said, I'm feeling inspired. Also, a few things of note- I can't remember if I mentioned this before and I'm too lazy to go back looking through all my notes, but in case I haven't said it, I'm pretty much using the same Warblers from season two in this story. In other words, no one graduated and the only change is that Sebastian is in the mix. Also, I have no idea where the fuse panel would be on Kurt's car, but hopefully my limited knowledge about cars won't offend too many of you. Thanks for reading.

I don't own Glee or United States of Tara.


Chapter 29

"Attention! I hereby call this emergency lunchtime meeting of the Warblers to order! Thad, is everybody present and accounted for?"

"All but Blaine."

"Of course," Wes took a deep breath as he looked over the morose crowd in front of him. "Now, as most of you have no doubt already heard, Kurt Hummel was in a serious car accident on his way home from our performance yesterday afternoon."

There was a gasp or two in the air, but for the most part everyone had already heard the news. Blaine had called Jeff from the hospital the evening before and word travelled from there.

One person who hadn't heard, however, was Sebastian. The words leaving the head Warbler's mouth were like cement balls being chucked at Sebastian's gut. For a moment he felt like he couldn't breathe, but he knew that he had to keep his composure or someone would notice.

"I touched base with Blaine this morning," Wes continued. "Despite the severity of the accident, Kurt is alive and in better shape than anyone could imagine considering the condition his car is in. It's the very definition of a miracle. That being said, Kurt's injuries are still very serious and apparently there were some complications last night at the hospital and the full extent of the damage done to Kurt is still unknown at this time."

Worried murmurs rippled through the room and within a few seconds, Warblers were almost shouting to be heard above the din.

"Order! Order!" Wes banged his gavel several times until the room faded into silence again. "Now, I know everyone is very upset about this news, but we need to figure out what we're going to do as a group to help Kurt and Blaine. According to Blaine, Dean Parker gave him through Wednesday before he has to be back, although he's still responsible for getting his assignments in on time. Do I have some volunteers to help get his assignments to Blaine and from Blaine back to the teachers?"

"We're on it," Nick piped up, indicating to himself and Jeff. Jeff nodded in agreement.

"Perfect," Wes nodded to Thad, who was taking notes. "Now, as for Kurt—"

"Wait a minute." Heads all around the room whipped back to Sebastian, who'd taken a very big risk by interrupting Wes. "I understand helping Blaine because he's a Warbler, but why do we care about this Kurt guy?"

It was total chaos as Jeff lunged toward Sebastian with no warning, landing halfway in Nick's lap as he tried to climb over him to get to the newest Warbler. Sebastian, still wary of the nearly healed injuries to his face, stumbled back against the wall. Nick was able to keep hold of Jeff around his waist.

"Jeff, stop!" Nick whispered into his ear as Jeff continued to struggle against him. "Remember what happened last time? This can't be your answer again, he's doing this on purpose."

Jeff finally stopped struggling and Nick released his grip. Standing up and walking slowly toward Sebastian but still maintaining a safe distance, he waited until the room was silent again before speaking.

"First of all, we care about Kurt because he is a Warbler. Once a Warbler, always a Warbler. Second, don't you dare pretend like you don't know who Kurt is or why he's important to us ever again. He's more of a Warbler than you will ever—"

"Enough!" Wes banged his gavel with so much force the handle cracked lengthwise down the middle. "Both of you, take your seats! Jeff is right about Kurt being a Warbler, but Sterling, I will not have you degrade a fellow Warbler like that again, do you understand me?"

"Yes," Jeff answered with a clenched jaw. If Nick wasn't beside him, rubbing his shoulder reassuringly, Jeff probably would have answered with something that would have gotten him suspended, if not kicked out of the group entirely.

"Now, back to where we were…"

Sebastian drowned out the sound of Wes's voice with his own thoughts, which were rumbling through his brain at a high rate of speed. He was experiencing a lot of emotions including shock, anger and frustration, but above all else, he was feeling intense fear. He wanted to tell himself it was because he was afraid that he could have killed Kurt with what was meant to be a harmless prank. But if he was being honest with himself, the only thing he truly feared was getting caught.


Burt couldn't believe what he was seeing. Granted, it took a little while for the shock to wear off at seeing the mangled mess that used to be Kurt's Navigator. He understood now why it had taken awhile for the EMT's and firefighters to extract his son from the vehicle and for the thousandth time since he got that first phone call the night before, he thanked God that Kurt had survived at all.

Once he was able to move again, Burt made his way over to the car. Josh was beside him, rambling about something having to do with the piston rods, but Burt's eyes narrowed in on something else. Something he shouldn't be seeing in a car that merely lost traction and tumbled down an embankment.

"Josh, look at this, did you see this?" Burt leaned in to get a closer look, hoping that he was mistaken at first glance.

"What?" Josh leaned in too, sharing the space with Burt. He squinted for a moment before standing back up straight, more confused than ever.

"It looks like the cylinder head is fused, but that…that doesn't make any sense either." Josh rested his hand on the back of his neck, trying to add everything up.

"It makes perfect sense if you take into account the broken piston rods," Burt muttered, shifting through the other parts of the engine. "You see this corrosion? There's no way this was caused by the accident. Someone tampered with the engine."

"Boss," Josh answered quietly with a slightly-guarded skepticism. "I know you're upset about Kurt, but the car rolled over twice and hit a bank of trees, don't you think—"

"You're smarter than that, Josh," Burt turned to him angrily. "When's the last time you remember seeing a head fused to the engine wall because of a roll-over accident?"

"Okay, you're right," Josh conceded. He felt stupid for suggesting that it could have just been the accident, but who would do that to Kurt? The kid had a rough enough go at it from what he could tell, but he was as nice as could be. Who would hate Kurt enough to do something like that?

"Have you drained the oil?" Burt asked, moving away from the engine and grabbing a creeper.

"N-not yet," Josh answered. Burt squatted down and positioned himself on the creeper before rolling underneath.

"I'm surprised the pan isn't busted," Burt called out, voice muffled by the undercarriage. A few minutes later, he was wheeling back out with the drain pan filled with oil. Without getting off of the creeper, Burt stuck his index finger in the liquid and rubbed it against his thumb. Within seconds he was shaking his head and getting up from the floor.

"What is it?" Josh asked, not sure that he wanted to know the answer.

"You tell me," Burt answered, handing the pan over to him. Josh stuck his finger in it and rubbed it against his thumb like Burt had done.

"Holy shit," Josh muttered. The oil felt like water mixed with cornstarch, with absolutely no lubrication. Something had definitely been put in the oil to cause it to break down. "What do you think it is?"

"Bleach," Burt answered immediately. "Smell it."

Josh moved his face close to the pan and inhaled. It was faint, but Burt was right and all the pieces fell into place.

"How did Kurt make it even a mile down the road without noticing something was wrong?" Josh asked.

"That's the thing," Burt answered, grabbing a sealable plastic container and transferring the oil to it. "Kurt is such a careful driver and he would have been more so considering the weather. I don't know how he could have overlooked the warning light on his dash."

"I need to check something," Josh answered, leaving Burt to continue pouring the oil mixture into the container. Burt hardly noticed as he left.

"Boss, I think you should look at this," Josh called over after a minute. It had only taken him a few moments to disassemble the kick board on the passenger side of the Navigator to expose the fuse panel. Burt walked slowly over and looked over Josh's shoulder and immediately saw what Josh was alluding to.

"A fuse is gone," Burt said, reaching over Josh's shoulder to reach into the glove compartment. He pulled out the owner's manual tucked inside and began flipping through until he found what he was looking for.

"Damn it!" he shouted, throwing the book to the floor. "That's the fuse to the warning lights. That's it, I'm calling the cops."

Josh froze, unsure of what to do next. He decided his best course of action was to remain by the car until getting further instruction from Burt. He watched as his boss slammed into his office and picked up the phone, dialing briefly before holding the phone to his ear. He saw the fear and anger in Burt's eyes and steeled himself to do whatever Burt needed him to do to get through this mess.

In the meantime, he tried to make sense out of everything they'd just learned, but try as he might, he couldn't for the life of him figure out who would want to harm Kurt Hummel.


Blaine stood anxiously as the door clicked open and Kurt was wheeled back into the room. He was somewhat relieved to see that Kurt was still asleep, since Burt wasn't back yet, nor had he heard anything from him about when he'd be returning.

Dr. Sparks followed in the room after Kurt and looked around for Burt.

"He's uh, he had to leave for a while, but he'll be back," Blaine stuttered.

"Gotcha," Dr. Sparks answered. "Well, Mr. Hummel left permission at the nurse's station to talk to you if he wasn't back in time, so I can tell you that he did fine in surgery. It took a little longer than anticipated, but with physical therapy he should regain full use of his left foot. Also, he has a bit more bruising from the incidents overnight, but other than that, he was lucky not to sustain any additional injury. You guys took good care of him."

"Thank you," Blaine breathed a sigh of relief.

"He'll probably be out of it for a while longer and I think that the new sedative and pain killers we've started him on should have the desired affect this time around, but be sure to let us know if they don't."

"I will, Doctor, thank you." Blaine was overwhelmed with gratitude and nodded graciously to the doctor as he exited the room, leaving Blaine alone with a sleeping Kurt. Blaine couldn't help but admire how beautiful Kurt was in his sleep. He loved the way his facial muscles relaxed and the way his mouth was slightly upturned in his sleep. He wanted to crawl in bed next to Kurt, but he knew that it wasn't a good idea for so many reasons. Instead, he settled for letting his imagination wander, thinking about the next time he would be able to snuggle with Kurt, hopefully sooner rather than later.

A few quiet minutes passed before Blaine's phone began to buzz in his pocket. Finally, he thought to himself as he saw Burt's name come across the screen.

"Hey, are you on your way back?" Blaine greeted, eager to hear the voice on the other end.

"Not yet, but I will be soon. Is Kurt back?"

"Yeah, they just brought him in, Dr. Sparks said everything went well and the x-rays were fine, just a bit of extra bruising."

"That's good news. Is he awake?"

"No, he's still knocked out," Blaine was starting to feel uneasy. There was something in Burt's voice that he couldn't quite put his finger on. "Is everything okay with the car?"

"Not quite, kid. Kurt was right about not hydroplaning. I should have believed him. Someone…listen, Blaine, I don't want you to freak out and if Kurt wakes up before I'm back, I need you to keep this information to yourself, do you think you can do that?"

"Yes sir," Blaine answered with a fair amount of trepidation.

"Someone put bleach in the engine oil. I don't know if it was some prank or what, but I'm headed to the police station in Westerville now. I'm going to tell the investigator what I know and then he's going to meet us at the hospital to talk to you and Kurt, okay?"

"O-okay." Blaine was on autopilot now. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, but he forced his brain to cooperate.

"And in the meantime, if you can think of anyone who may have wanted to harm Kurt, or even just play a stupid joke on him, I need you to tell the investigator about it, alright son?"

"I will."

"See you soon, and remember not to mention any of this to Kurt just yet."

Blaine heard the long beep signaling the end of the call and his shaky hand lowered the phone to his lap. There was only one person he could think off who could possibly do this, and if he was capable of almost killing Kurt, what else was he capable of doing to the others who had crossed his path?