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At 2pm on the first Saturday in September, only days short of what would have been his 22nd birthday, the auditorium of Dalton Academy was almost full with people that had travelled from far and wide to remember the life of Wes Montgomery. Friends from both college and his Dalton days; the mothers of the vast majority of the Warblers; the New Directions, excluding of course, Rachel, who was watching nonetheless in her dressing room on Broadway, thanks to a video link set up by Artie. She had been upset at the prospect of missing the day, and being the only one to do so, and this had been a perfect solution. There were also some quite surprising people there; Carmen Tibideaux had arrived, wishing to pay tribute to the great talent that she had seen exhibited only hours before his death. To Mike's surprise, his parents had arrived. Mr and Mrs Chang explained it to him quite simply - Wes had stopped him from being bullied at summer camp, and had helped to create the young man, unafraid to show what he was truly good at, that they were so very proud of. It was his mother that spotted the Warbler pin; when Mike told them he had been made an honorary member of the group by Wes, they were even more proud of their son. The fact that Dave was wearing one went largely unnoticed, unlike Santana's, which caused gasps from some of the older former Warblers that were not in the close circle that had surrounded Wes. Much to her amusement, Santana even heard a couple of them debating which of their number had had a sex change…
Thad had been hastening towards the auditorium when he heard somebody calling out his name. He spun round, and was delighted to see Michelle hurrying towards him. Then his eyes caught sight of what she was holding in her hands. It couldn't be anything else. It was an urn. "I am so sorry that I am late," she said, as she came to stand right in front of him. "I realised that there was something, or rather, someone very important missing from this whole thing, so I brought him. Well, technically, I stole him from the crematorium and my aunt and uncle. If I had left him there with them, he would just have ended up languishing in the back of a cupboard, gathering dust. Even worse, it would probably have been at the crematorium, as they are always so busy, and I doubt they would be able to find the time to pick him up. So I took matters into my own hands…"
The previous day had been another difficult one in Boston. Michelle still felt so awful for Wes, for his friends - and had come to hate her aunt and uncle all the more, particularly after she had overheard a conversation between her aunt and her mother. Mrs Montgomery was angry - she had been unable to stop the memorial at Dalton; her lawyer had persuaded her not to threaten legal action. Her mother had asked if she had picked Wes up yet, and the reply had been terse, something about being too busy to do so, particularly as she had to find time to get to the beauty parlour before the party on Saturday night… Michelle had seen red at that. Her much loved cousin was stuck on a shelf in a crematorium, and all his mother could think about was her hair and nails! He wasn't going to end up sitting on a shelf in a dank cupboard when he had a group of loving friends that would be only too happy to see that he found a decent final resting place….
She had done her research; discovered that she could go and collect him anytime, day or night. Her parents had been going out for dinner that evening. She had told them that she was still too upset to join them, and they had believed her. The moment that they left, she was dressed and heading out in her own car to the facility. There, she got even luckier. The young man behind the collections counter was a good friend of hers from college. They had started to chat, and she decided that she would tell him the truth. So she told him all about Wes, his parents attitude towards him both in life and death, and how they had broken state law to hurry through his funeral so that none of his friends could attend. How, after all that, they now couldn't even be bothered to come and uplift him.
He was crying by the time she finished. He had merely walked out from behind the desk, and locked the door, placing a 'Back in ten minutes' sign on it. He had then motioned to her to follow him to the saddest room in the whole place; the repository for all those ashes that had not been claimed, sitting in plastic bags, in little card boxes. To her horror, Michelle had realised that this could be the eventual fate of Wes. That thought caused her to burst into tears, and she cried for a while, before it hit her all of a sudden. As long as the urn that they had chosen was there for them to uplift, then it didn't really matter whose ashes were in it. It seemed that was her friend's thinking too. They found an urn identical to the one that Wes was stored in, and took a dusty box at random from the back of a shelf; they poured its contents into the urn, and labelled it as Wes Montgomery - in time, Rusty Horowitz would be getting a new home with the Montgomery family…
With her friends good wishes in her ears, Michelle had driven to the airport, the urn containing her cousin's ashes on the seat beside her. She had bought a small bag at the airport so that she could carry him onto the plane - no way was he going in the hold. She had already booked a flight to head to the memorial, against her parent's wishes, but she had managed to find an earlier one. She had sat all the way to Columbus with Wes in her lap. She had been smiling all the way. After all, she was reuniting him with his family.
"So, her I am, with Wes. He is yours now, Thad; you and the Warblers can decide what happens to him now. He must have said something to you at some point that would indicate where he wished to be…"
"At Dalton. He always said that this place was his home, so yes, here at Dalton. We can bury him somewhere in the grounds, so that he will always be here. I will have to speak to the Principal after the memorial…." Thad glanced down at his watch, and gasped. Taking Wes carefully from Michelle, he turned to her and said, "Come on, we are late already. We'd best hurry up and get there, before a riot starts. Trust me, if we hold things up for too long, it will…"
Thad had been correct in his assertion that his late arrival would have provoked a near riot. As he walked down the central aisle of the auditorium, towards the stage at the front, he heard raised voices and even tutting from some of the assembled people, not to mention curiosity about the identity of the young woman at his side. By the time that he reached the front, however, where David sat with Mercedes at his side in the front row, the noise had begun to diminish, helped in part by the fact that Principal Carmichael had stood up and was glaring at those that were still conversing. With barely a glance towards the Warblers that sat in the front row, he escorted Michelle to the steps of the stage. He did hear a small gasp from Trent as he walked past him, and he laughed internally as he realised that he alone had spotted the urn, partially hidden as it was by his blazer. Then he was up on the stage with Michelle, heading straight to the lectern. Still concealing the urn under his blazer, he cleared his throat, and with the room falling silent, he began to speak.
"Principal Lefevre, Principal Carmichael, Ladies and Gentlemen, please forgive my tardiness. I was halted in my progress here by the young lady next to me. For those of you that do not know, this is Michelle Lau; she is the cousin of the man that we are here to honour today - our beloved Wes. She has come her today, against the express wishes of her family, to help us celebrate the life of the man we all loved. But she believed that our memorial was lacking one crucial thing. What is that, you ask?" He paused, scanning the people before him, and found Trent smiling at him, tears in his eyes. He grinned right back, and started again, ignoring the curious looks that his wide smile had attracted. "The one thing missing? At his funeral, all of us - his friends, his real family were absent. At this memorial, his birth family, with one exception, are not here. And neither was Wes, of course - until now…"
With those words, he produced the urn, and stepped away from the lectern to place it reverentially below the large framed photograph of Wes that stood to one side of the stage. He returned to the lectern, conscious that David was now crying loudly, wrapped in Mercedes' arms; that Jeff was being held tightly by Nick as tears streamed down both their faces; indeed, that tears were flowing around the room. He stepped up again, and began to speak once more. "Wes loved this place. To him, Dalton was home. This was the only place, other than the Thompson's kitchen, that he had ever been shown true love and affection. So, it is only right and fitting that he should be brought here. For once, Wes has broken the rules, and run away without the permission of his parents. If what Michelle tells me is true, they may not even notice - and is that not a tragedy in itself? For that reason, he must remain here, where he will be cared for, loved and mourned. Now, we have delayed long enough, and anyone that knew Wes would tell you that he would not like that at all. He was always so strict on his timekeeping, as every former Warbler in this room could tell you. So, let us get under way…" With those words, he pulled Mr Bangy from his pocket, and brought the gavel down sharply on the lectern. That one gesture was more than enough to make the whole room smile; to make David stare up at him, and nod in approval. To get him a warm handshake from everyone on the stage. And most importantly of all, it got him a radiant smile from the newest of the four angels at the back of the room.
The memorial progressed as planned after that. After an opening speech from Principal Lefevre, they all sang the school hymn; a tradition from the past, but one which they all embraced. This lead on to the speeches proper. Principal Carmichael spoke about Wes' time at Dalton, and gave everyone some insights that even the closest of the Warblers to him had not known; then he had broken down in tears as he told the room how he had seen Wes as a son. He was comforted by his wife, who finished his speech for him. Then, the current generation of Warblers had sung Yesterday. Burt Hummel had then taken centre stage, as he talked about Wes the man; he talked lovingly of his compassion, his humanity, his modesty. He lamented on what Wes would have become had fate not intervened in the cruellest way. This view of his future was only reinforced by his college tutor, who announced that Harvard had decided to award Wes a First Class degree posthumously, based on his thesis. That was warmly received with a round of applause. The New Directions sung next, and had decided to reprise Seasons of Love - doing so brought back so many memories of Finn; of Kurt and Blaine, but it was the most fitting choice for the event. Then it was time for the alumni Warblers, his boys, to step up and sing for the room.
There had been much debate over what they should sing. They all wished to honour Wes and his memory; the debate centred between whether they should choose something overtly cheerful or stick with something downright dirge like. Voices had been raised from the various cameras they had been using on Skype; Thad had found that even Mr Bangy had no effect on them on this topic; it was only when Trent saw that Nick and Jeff had turned on each other, and actually screamed out loud at them all to shut the hell up that their was actually silence, apart from Nick and Jeff apologising to each other. "If we want to honour Wes, and his memory," Trent said, nearly in tears, "then all of this arguing and screaming is not the way to do it! We should sing a song that he liked, that isn't risqué, and shows off our vocal talents…" Again, there was total silence, broken only by the distant sound of whistling from the kitchen in L.A., as Mrs Thompson prepared supper. David's face suddenly lit up as he recognised the tune that she was humming, and he was transported back to a day over a decade ago, when he and Wes had been sat in the kitchen back in Ohio; the two of them laughing and smiling as they sang along to the radio playing the same song that his mother was whistling now…
"Don't worry, be happy," he said suddenly, earning him confused glances from the various cameras showing on his computer screen. "Wes loved that song. He always told me that he thought that it was how people should try and live…"
"It has multiple parts," said Trent from his sofa in Washington DC.
"It needs a beatboxer," came a pleased voice from Princeton.
"All kinds of vocal acrobatics involved, when you listen to it," said Ethan, Drew nodding his agreement from where he sat next to him.
"We could do it," said Jeff. "It isn't too happy…"
"But it isn't too sad either," said Nick, finishing his husband's sentence.
When Thad asked for a show of hands for David's suggestion, there was a completely unanimous vote of approval.
There choice did cause some raised eyebrows amongst the assembled mourners, but it did show off the vocal dexterity that Wes had instilled in them - and at the back of the room, the man himself wholeheartedly approved. Then came their own speech, written by Trent, with a little bit of help from Kurt and Blaine. It was a mixture of the sweet and the sad, both in perfect balance, ensuring that it did not cause too many tears, or bore the assembled audience too much. They talked about the Warblers, their time under his leadership, his emphasis on friendship rather than on ruthless, all out competition. They managed to raise a few smiles as well - the line "You gave us love and taught us loyalty; in return we gave you a serious headache every so often" was delivered so deadpan by Sebastian that half the audience burst out laughing. It was finished by words delivered by Gabriel, standing in for the reluctant David.
"Wes, we will miss you. To know that we will never be able to touch you again in the same way; to know that we will never see that smile, or hear you scold us lovingly when we mess up - it breaks our hearts. The most important lesson that we all learnt from you was how to be a brother to your fellow man. To place others before our own selfish needs and wants. You taught us that; you brought us together. In your memory, we all pledge here and now to stick together, to care for each other, and respect each other until the day that we die, and can be with you once again. Because we all loved you; and we honour you by loving each other."
There was silence then as the Warblers reassembled themselves on the stage for their final song, the one that Wes had planned to sing at his own audition on that fateful Sunday. When the first notes of Bye Bye Blackbird were sung out, many in the audience did not get it - it was only afterwards, when Wes and his bird names were explained to them, that they realised the significance. It was, everyone said afterwards, the best ever performance given by Thad. For Puck and Quinn, sat next to each other in the throng, it was an immediate cause for concern. At the end, he stood there, dry eyed. Behind him, the others were in bits; they had seen how at the very end, hands were being held and tears were already falling; how when it had finished they had fallen on each other and sobbed. All, except Thad. It was almost as if they had never been together, had meant nothing to each other. They both realised at the same moment that something was wrong - and that Thad was on the verge of a total breakdown.
The Warblers' performance marked the end of the official memorial. As the invited guests made their way towards the doors, stopping on their way to talk to each other, the speakers and the Warblers, Sam had made his way to the back of the room with Rory, Mike, Dave and Santana, so that they, the named honorary Warblers, could talk to Wes and the other angels. They knew that the others would be occupied for some time yet by governors, parents and teachers, and somebody had to come and ask him the key question - what should they do now with the urn and its contents? It could not just sit like a trophy in the Senior Commons, much as some might like that notion. After all, the Warblers were teenage boys - they could be boisterous, and all it would take would be one unintended jostle, and there would be a heap of ash on the floor for them to deal with.
The same question it turned out had been bothering Wes himself. He was grateful to Michelle; so glad that she had liberated his earthly remains from the storeroom of a Boston crematorium, but what next? He did not relish the idea of being scattered on the winds in the grounds of Dalton, and being locked away in a cabinet inside the school would be little better than the situation that he had previously been in. No, they need to place him somewhere that his parents, if they ever found out, would not be able to retrieve him from easily, but where they could all come and visit him, if they felt so inclined. The room was almost empty by the time that Blaine made the casual remark that the urn looked so dull compared to Pavarotti's casket - and it promptly hit him and Kurt simultaneously. Kurt's poor bird lay in a spot on Dalton's grounds with a beautiful view. It was far enough from the school buildings to be private, but was nonetheless easy to find. It would therefore be the perfect spot to inter the remains of the Head Warbler, if he did not mind sharing the spot with the remains of a tiny caged bird…
Not all of the assembled Warblers and New Directions made their way to the spot under the tree half an hour later. The majority of the younger generation stayed at the school, although Colin, Edward, Seth and Skylar did join the procession. The path was too rough and steep for Artie to be wheeled comfortably, so Puck carried him whilst Sam followed on, carrying his chair. The two Principals, Mrs Carmichael, Burt, Carole, Cooper and Grace came with them, as did Michelle and Mrs Thompson. The latter lady recalled Wes' cousin from a childhood visit, and on discovering that she had nowhere to stay that night, had offered to accommodate her. She had accepted the invite with no qualms, knowing her cousin's opinion of the lady. They were guided to the spot by two angels; Finn and Wes came at their heels. Not everyone there could see them, but that did not matter. The spot where a bird had been buried by two boys, newly together, was greener now in the late summer, and if anything was even more beautiful. They all remarked on that as they got to work with spades brought from the groundskeeper's hut. A turf was removed first from a spot that was close to where the other casket lay, and then a deep hole dug underneath. They did not dig down the six feet that would be required for a coffin, but they dug deep enough to ensure that it would be difficult for anyone, animal or man, to unearth.
Before the box was placed in the hole, Sebastian called a halt to proceedings. He removed his blazer, buttoned it back up, and placed it carefully in the bottom of the hole with the words "He needs a shroud, and what would be better than this?" The others all had to agree, and David broke away from Mercedes to pull Sebastian into a deep hug for having thought of it. In the end, it fell to Principal Lefevre to kneel down and place the urn carefully on the blazer, and then wrap it up within the folds of fabric. None of the boys had felt capable of doing it, as it had a sense of finality about it that they still were not entirely prepared to accept.
As she did so, Burt spoke; "Lord, we lay to rest here today the mortal remains of your humble servant Wesley Montgomery. He was a young man of integrity, decency and great strength. Look after him as he looked after all of his friends here below. We hope to join him in your kingdom in our time; until then, grant us all the privilege of his love and yours, to guide us through life. Amen." As his final word was repeated, Puck lifted the first shovel full of earth back into the hole; as each successive spadeful was placed in the hole, tears began to be shed - of loss, but also of joy. At least now his remains were somewhere that he had loved, and wished to be.
The hole filled, they all began to make their way back to the school, the Warblers all walking arm in arm - but Thad lingered for a moment. David had considered stopping with him, but Mercedes had shaken her head at him, and helped him away. Thad stood and silently looked at the spot, now marked only by the tree and a slightly raised piece of turf. They would have to get some kind of permanent marker for him. In the meantime, Thad just stood and stared out at the landscape beyond the tree, where the ground fell away and the vista went on for miles. It was a beautiful spot - he could see clearly now why Blaine had brought Kurt here to bury Pavarotti. That poor bird's death had been the thing that had made them the Klaine that they had all hoped for and loved so dearly. Now the same spot would mark the final resting place of a Warbler who would never be forgotten by anyone who had had the good fortune to have known him.
"I like it here," said a voice behind him, startling Thad from his reverie. He turned with a smile to face Wes. "Do you know, I had no idea that such a beautiful spot lay on the Dalton grounds. Then again, I never was one for exploring the grounds too well. I was always so busy with my coursework…"
"I want to be brought here too, when I die Wes. I want to be laid to rest with you by my side, if that is what you would like…"
"I wouldn't want it any other way, my love. But just us two; none of the others, not even David. Make sure that when you get me a stone, and don't deny that you are intending to, that you get one with space for your name on it. We might be apart in life, but we will be together in death…."
Thad nodded, and sighed. It was time to return to the school, for the final memorial. He turned away from the grave, and with Wes at his side, began a slow walk back towards the familiar buildings.
