Long time no see!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

"How did you even get those?", Kurt asked Blaine after he had drained all the blood bags he had just given to him. He felt so much better now that his thirst was sated, and he didn't need to be afraid anymore that he could hurt those around him because of his uncontrollable bloodthirst.

The two boys were sitting on the floor of the panic room while the rest of the Dope Squad was at the recreation room, watching TV or playing games. In a couple of minutes, they would all meet for group therapy session with Ava.

Blaine rubbed his neck sheepishly. "I…have ways. And connections."

Kurt wiped his mouth with a napkin and smiled at him. "I don't know how to thank you. For what you have ever done for us. And for me."

"We already had this topic, Kurt", Blaine said patiently "You don't need to thank me all the time, that's what friends are for, right?" He retrieved his iPhone from his pocket. "Oh, I think I have the first clue to what happened to you. And how we can reverse it."

Curious, Kurt scooted closer to him and leaned over to his display. "And how?"

Blaine zoomed to the photo of the page of an ancient book of the library he had taken. "According to old tales, there have been incidents of young people acquiring extraordinary abilities a couple of centuries ago, thanks to ancient witches", he started narrating. "There has been a reason why they got changed. Not because they needed to save the world from a disaster or from a super evil witch or something, that's a popular misbelief made famous by our media, superhero comics or Hollywood."

"And what was the real reason?", Kurt wanted to know. Whether there was a connection to what happened to them?

"It's a less drastic one. The reason was that those witches knew how horrible and cruel our world could be. Back then, it had been worse with all those uncurable illnesses such as pestilence, causing a lower life span. Unfortunately, their powers weren't enough to save the entire world, but they wanted to make life for some humans less unbearable. That's why they created the chosen ones."

"Chosen ones?", Kurt repeated.

Blaine nodded. "Exactly. Witches are spirits, they can't manifest, but they can gift others with extraordinary abilities. Different abilities. But together, the chosen ones have the power to grant wishes at specific moments."

"So we only got powers to help others?"

"I think so." Blaine scratched his chin. "I also read that you can only do that at a special moment, but I didn't find out yet when exactly that moment is going to be. I am working on it, I promise." He looked up when something came to his mind.

Kurt cocked his eyebrows knowingly. "I know that face expression. What is going on in that head of yours, Anderson?", he asked jokingly.

Furrowing his eyebrows, he answered: "I might just have found out how we can turn you back to normal."

Kurt looked up, his eyes were literally sparkling with excitement. "And how?"

"If it really is true that you can make wishes come true at a special moment, what if I just wish for it?", Blaine said out loud what he had been thinking.

At the prospect of getting his old life back, Kurt grabbed Blaine's hands, beaming. "You are a genius! Why didn't we think of that sooner?"

"Isn't it a bad idea to build your hopes up?", Blaine commented, cocking his head to the side. "It was just a suggestion. In the end, you are going to be more disappointed if it doesn't work."

Kurt didn't stop smiling anyway. "It's a spark of hope. More than we had a couple of minutes ago."

…

"Ava? Are you okay?", Quinn asked tentatively when their therapist had stayed weirdly silent since she had entered the room.

Ava just waved it off. "I didn't sleep that much. But you can start talking about whatever you want to." Her tone was slightly gruff which was unusual for her. She was known best for her patient behavior towards patients, even towards the worst.

Oblivious to her therapist's bad mood, Brittany raised her hand. "Oh, I need to tell you guys about Lord Tubbington. He stopped smoking for good, isn't it great?"

Ava's right eye started twitching, but she kept her mouth shut.

Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed, Artie said in the round. Does anyone know why she acts like that?

I have no idea, Tina answered. But when I just went to the toilet, Drake and some other nurses were looking at me angrily as if I had done something bad.

Even though they were not talking out loud, Ava was staring at them with a frown as if she knew what they were doing. But that was impossible, right?

Ava doesn't know about us, Kurt, Rachel pointed out.

Did I just think that out loud?, Kurt wondered.

Yeah, you did, dude, Finn confirmed. Surprised, Kurt noticed that the other boy was not blinking. Or twitching. Or winking.

Because I have it under control now, dude, Finn explained, slightly annoyed.

Bullshit, Santana interjected. You just increased the dose of your meds. In a couple of days, he will be twitchy again.

"Stop that!", Ava suddenly shouted, irritated.

"Stop what?" Sam feigned confusion. Oh, shoot, did she find out?, he thought while he asked: "What do you mean?"

Ava narrowed her eyes. "You know exactly what I mean."

"No, we don't", Mercedes insisted, shaking her head slowly. "We have absolutely no idea." Just play along, guys, okay?

If we admit it, we are doomed, so we better deny it until the very end, Kurt agreed.

Frustrated, Ava rubbed her forehead, but then, she inhaled and sighed deeply. "Look, I am sorry about my behavior. It's just…I learned bad news, but it's not fair to let you suffer."

Phew, Tina thought. So it's not about us.

"Do you want to talk about it, Ava?", Quinn suggested compassionately.

Ava laughed. "That's nice of you, but actually, I am here to help you, not the other way around. After all, I am the only person in this room that has a PhD in psychology." She looked down her notes and looked back up before she took a deep breath. "So Brittany, why did Lord Tubbington stop smoking? Did you make him?"

Brittany's face lit up. "Actually, I didn't. Lord Tubbington came to senses eventually after my mom threatened to kick him out."

…

"Okay, children, get back to your seats", Mrs. Spire said, clapping his hands to get the teenagers' attention. The kids followed orders, and the history teacher started writing something onto the blackboard. "French Revolution, we had that topic over the past two weeks. Who can tell me about it?"

A brown-haired teen boy yawned loudly. "We don't care about what happened in Europe, we live in America", he whined.

The students laughed, and Mrs. Spire threw him a stern glance. "Is that so, Jamie? So you don't care about getting detention either, right?"

Jamie pouted and crossed his arms, not answering.

"I thought so", Mrs. Spire answered. She turned away from Jamie and turned to a certain blonde with a somewhat sleepy face expression. "Brittany, would you please summarize what we have learned about the French Revolution?"

Brittany looked up from what she had been drawing in her notebook. "Of course, Mrs. Spire", she answered obediently. "Once upon a time, many, many years ago, there lived a handsome French prince. He named his horse Napoleon because he loved taking a nap. Napoleon had a lot of enemies, such as the ducks of the lake nearby. And because the prince feared he would get eaten by those ducks, he hired three men, the three muscleteers, to protect him, because they were scrawny."

Her peers broke into a fit if laughter after hearing Brittany' s interpretation of the French revolution.

"It's called Musketeers, just by the way", Jamie corrected her, wiping away the tears of laughter.

The only one who didn't laugh about it was Mrs. Spire. "Do you think this is funny, Ms. Pierce?"

Brittany blinked obliviously. "What do you mean, Ma'am? You wanted me to tell you about the French Revolution, I did."

"But this it the sixth time you come up with one of your fantasy stories! Last time, you told us that the United States was founded by unicorns with blue- red manes with white stars. And the time before that, you said that Lord-Tubbington was the eighteenth prime Minister of Canada."

"Fantasy stories?" Brittany scratched her head. "I don't know what you are talking about. I don't lie, my mother said that Santa won't bring me presents if I do."

The entire class cracked up while Mrs. Spire could only stare at her student, scandalized.

…

"Good afternoon, Kurt" Dr. Fink's face expression was somewhat wary when he sat down on the couch on her opposite, and Kurt wondered why. Almost all the therapists and nurses that crossed his way acted kind of…off, even Polly had eyed him up and down in distrust when he had left the cafeteria after lunch.

Whatever was up with them, Dr. Fink seemed to have the same problem with him and his friends as well.

These were going to be interesting one and a half hours.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Fink", Kurt answered politely.

"Is there something you want to talk about, Kurt?", Dr. Fink asked him. "Did something happen to you lately? Something…life changing?"

Kurt needed to shudder against his will. What did Dr. Fink want to refer to? Did she find out because he hadn't been careful enough? Did he forget to wipe away blood traces on the corners of his mouth? Or did he forget to retract his fangs and she had seen them?

This was not good.

He laughed nervously. "I have no idea what you are talking about." What he had told the others from the Dope Squad was right.

No matter what their therapist may know, they needed to deny what happened to them until the very end. Or else, they could get into serious trouble.

Dr. Fink threw him a scrutinizing glance. "Let's change the topic", she suggested, and Kurt sighed a breath of relief. "Your motives of ending your life. Your depression." Why did he get a feeling that his relief was a mistake?

"Dr. Fink, I feel so much better now that I got the right treatment", he told her earnestly. That was true. In the past months, he didn't even think about wanting to end his life. Yes, he was aware that he wasn't cured, there was no cure for depression, but actually, he could laugh at his past self's problems because they were peanuts compared to what he had to deal now.

Wanting to kill himself because he felt misunderstood and unloved? Oh, come on. Dealing with all kinds of creatures he only knew from fairytales and supernatural movies, and trying to hide his true nature while people of a mental ward kept a jealous watch over him? Definitely a reason to lose it.

But with Dr. Fink's, Ava's and Polly's help, everything became more bearable, and Kurt wondered why he didn't try to get psychological help sooner. He was about to tell Dr. Fink exactly that, without the vampire detail of course, when she said: "Oh, is that so?"

Confused, he blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Why did you land in the DBC in the first place?", Dr. Fink asked him, leaning forward.

What the hell?

"Dr. Fink, I don't think I…"

"Because you are weak, Kurt, easy as that." Suddenly, her tone was harsh, and Kurt flinched slightly.

"Ex...Excuse me?" Maybe he misheard things.

"You are weak. Too weak to handle what every other person could have handled. Instead of just swallowing it and continue living, you gave in to your fears."

Kurt just couldn't believe what he had just heard. He narrowed his eyes. "Dr. Fink, I beg to di…"

"And what did you try to do instead of facing your fears and problems? You try killing yourself, regardless of what it might do to those close to you. That was a selfish move, wasn't it? Don't you feel ashamed?"

All Kurt could do was open and close his mouth, like a fish. He was rendered speechless. Dr. Fink had always been so kind, so understanding, she always could give him some good advice, and they always chatted about the latest fashion or TV-series, like old friends. She helped him through a hard time, and he thought that they were on a friendly basis. This version of her was completely new to him. He was sure that this kind of behavior towards patients was not allowed. But if he complained, Dr. Fink would deny everything. And nobody would believe one of the patients but rather a psychologist with a PhD.

"Say something, Kurt", Dr. Fink almost demanded. Even though her face expression was neutral, Kurt could see some maliciousness sparkling in her eyes. "You can tell me everything. Remember: What happens in this room, stays in this room."

These words that made Kurt disburden his heart back then suddenly changed their meaning, her behavior shed new light on these nine words that used to be so reassuring.

Now, it sounded more like a threat.

"Did I do something to you? Did I anger you with what I said? Where did I go wrong?", Kurt wanted to know, trying to solve this peacefully.

"What brings you to that conclusion, Kurt?", Dr. Fink asked, eyebrows cocked and crossed her arms. "So you are telling me it's my fault you failed your own father? Your poor, old father that already lost his wife long ago? Just because you were too weak to fight your inner demons, you chose the most coward way out of it. If something, you should be the one who is mad at himself, not me who is mad at you."

Kurt paled because she had hit a sore spot.

Yes, he wanted to end his life because he was sick and tired of dealing with his problems.

Yes, he regretted that he almost let down his dad, that's why he agreed to get help in the first place.

But that was all water under the bridge now. He was done with his past, and he had needed a lot of time to get over it. That Dr. Fink tried to destroy everything within a couple of minutes he had achieved in the past weeks was making him angry.

"Listen, Dr. Fink, I don't know what your problem is. But I won't listen to what you are trying to tell me any longer." Kurt got up abruptly and walked towards the door. "If you have a bad hair day, I totally understand, but please don't let those suffer who don't deserve it. I will leave now, let's consider this session ended because your counseling is not quite helpful anymore."

"Kurt, turn around and sit down", Dr. Fink instructed sternly. "Or else, I will write down a negative comment in your record. Your record that determines how long you are going to stay at the DBC."

He just shrugged. "Feel free to do so." With that, Kurt opened the door and left.

Once outside, he leaned against the wall, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. What had he just done?

"Suicidal Kurt? What are you doing?"

Kurt startled and reopened his eyes. None other than Sugar was standing in front of him with a curious face expression. He wondered why that girl was still talking to him, after all, he tried to kill her when he was all vamped-out. At first, he was worried that Sugar would tell everyone about him being a vampire, but Blaine had pointed out that nobody would believe a girl with Asperger's Syndrome anyway.

"I was just …" Kurt didn't know what to say, he was at a loss of words.

Sugar didn't seem to care. "Do you know what? I dreamt that you wanted to bite down my neck. Crazy, right?" She laughed, and Kurt did his best to join her laughter even though he started to feel antsy.

So she thought it had been just a dream?

"Yes, that's crazy", Kurt agreed, slightly nervous. "Because vampires don't exist. Maybe you have watched too many fantasy movies."

Sugar nodded in agreement. "You are probably right." She checked her watch. "Oh, I need to go, my session is going to start in exactly five minutes and twenty-four seconds. See you around, Suicidal Kurt." She turned on her heel and left.

Kurt cocked his head to the side. He would never be able to figure that girl out, no matter how hard he tried.

So he slowly walked towards the recreation room. He had barely closed the door behind him when someone hugged him from behind. "Kurtie!"

"Let go of me, Brittany", he laughed. "You are suffocating me."

The blonde did as he said and threw him a scrutinizing glance. "You don't look good. Are you okay?"

Actually, Brittany was not as clueless as people thought she was. She was a pretty observant person and always seemed to notice whenever one of her friends was down.

"It's just…Dr. Fink was mean to be for some reason, and I don't know, why. Right now, I am about to ditch her session.", Kurt confessed.

Brittany cocked her head to the side. "Dr. Andrews was mean to me as well. She called me stupid because I told her about Lord Tubbington's smoking problem." Downcast, the blonde looked to her fingers, and Kurt was sure he had never seen her this sad before. Just at that moment, he noticed that her eyes were red, so she must have cried. "She never called me stupid before."

That was indeed weird. Dr. Andrews got Brittany as a client because she was known for being one of the most patient doctors of the DBC, after Ava. Kurt took Brittany's hands. "Look at me, Britt, okay?"

Hesitantly, the blonde looked up, her face expression was so sad it almost broke Kurt's heart. Because Britt was one of the happiest people he knew, her happiness was infectious which was essential at a place like DBC. "You are not stupid, okay? Your brain is just working in another way, another way all the people out there don't understand. And just because you are different, it doesn't mean that it's bad."

Brittany smiled faintly, and seeing her smile made Kurt feel relieved.

"And you are not weak, do you understand?", Brittany said, suddenly earnest. "You feel sad because of someone calling you weak. And insecure. You ask yourself whether you really made some progress or whether you were lying to yourself. But don't despair, okay?"

Surprised, Kurt looked at the blonde. "How…how do you know what I was just feeling?"

Brittany shrugged. "I don't know. When you just took my hands, I suddenly could."

Kurt's widened when realization dawned on him. He was faster and stronger and had heightened senses. Quinn could breathe underwater and turn into a mermaid at special occasions, Mercedes and Rachel had wings, Santana had cat reflexes, not to mention all the abilities of the rest of them. What if that was part of Brittany's elvish powers? That would make sense.

"Brittany", he gasped "I think you are an empath."

Confused, Brittany blinked. "A what now?"

…

"Mrs. Pierce, you need to do something about your daughter", Principal Emerson told Brittany's mother at her office. "Things cannot continue like that."

"What exactly do you mean?", Whitney wanted to know. "Just because Brittany lets her imagination run wild, that doesn't mean that something is wrong with her."

"Are you sure?", Mr. Addington, Brittany's English teacher, spoke up. "She wrote her last English test in her fantasy language she invented as a kindergartener."

"And she thinks that children get delivered by storks, that's what she wrote in her last biology test", Ms. Cordwell, her biology teacher complained. "I would understand if a seven-year-old would tell me, but not a fourteen-year-old, for heaven's sake!"

"Brittany is one of a kind, she always was", Whitney defended her daughter.

"Mrs. Pierce, we all think that something is wrong with her. Such naivety is not normal for a teenage girl her age", Principal Emerson concluded.

Whitney scowled at her. "You are unbelievable! I will talk to my husband, and we are going to search for another school for my daughter. And that's why you called me up while I worked? What a waste of time."

The only one who had stayed silent was Mr. Harkins, Brittany's math teacher. "And what if the reason for Brittany's social incompetence is that she is a genius?"

At that, the teachers broke out laughing.

"Are you serious, Charles?", Ms. Cordwell laughed. "Brittany is failing your tests as well."

"Because she interpreted them differently", Mr. Harkins explained. "I mean, Einstein initially failed math as well because he was smarter than his own teacher. What if Brittany is just not challenged enough? What if she is extraordinarily gifted at math only, similar to savants? Haven't you ever seen the movie Rain Man?"

Whitney's eyes lit up. "So you are telling me that my baby is a genius?"

Mr. Harkins nodded while the other teachers exchanged confused glances. "I already sent all of Brittany's tests to the MIT, plus an IQ test I made her do. They are interested in her, they want to offer her a full-time scholarship once she has graduated, no matter how her grades are going to be."

"Oh my!" This was too much for Brittany's mother. She fanned herself excitedly. "My baby will go to college!"

"Mrs. Pierce, I am happy for your daughter, I really am", Principal Emerson spoke up. "But academical success is not everything Brittany will need to succeed in life. She needs social competences, common sense and groundedness. If she doesn't acquire those abilities, her IQ won't save her."

"So you are telling me to knock her joy of life, what makes her so unique, out of her?" Whitney didn't look so thrilled about it.

The principal nodded, serious. "That would be for the best."

…

Someone touched Kurt's shoulder, and he turned around, startled. Luckily, it was only Blaine. "We need to talk, guys."

"About what?", Brittany wanted to know.

"Sam told me that his therapist has been acting weird towards him", Blaine explained after he had led Kurt and Brittany out of the recreation room to the janitor's closet.

"So did mine and Britt's", Kurt commented, remembering how mean Dr. Fink had been.

Blaine nodded. "I could imagine. Listen, I have overheard how Polly talked to my boss. They are all in the know. They know that you are the ones that got special abilities, and they are mad at you because of that."

"And why?", Kurt asked.

"Because they wanted to get those powers, that's how they planned it."

That made sense.

"But that's just the tip of the iceberg", Blaine continued talking nervously.

"Oh no, more bad news?", Kurt groaned. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse…

"I overheard them talking about harming you guys. Because you foiled their plans."

"Harming us?" Brittany looked scared. "And how? Do they want to hurt us?"

"I guess so", Blaine agreed, and a cold shiver was running down Kurt's spine. "They sounded like they were serious, Kurt. Those people are trained psychologists, they know all of your sore spots. They can manipulate you and break you, they can make you use your powers for bad purposes, against your will, and there is nothing you can do about it."

"So our own therapists that have once been our allies have become our worst enemies?" Kurt gulped while Brittany gripped his hand tigher. What a great prospect. "And what now?"

Blaine took a deep breath. "You have no other choice now", he said, still looking serious. "You guys need to break out of the DBC, and you need to do it fast."

Some people complained, saying that it didn't make any sense why Brittany was a math genius all of a sudden. Actually, it perfectly made sense for me, and I say it as someone that worked with autistic people, just think of Sheldon's behavior from the Big Bang Theory (and nope, Britt is definitely not autistic). That would explain why she acts how she acts, maybe because she was misunderstood throught the series and didn't get the right support, but that's only my opinion =D