Summary: Sebastian didn't lie to Blaine about spending time with Sierra and Izzy, he just had to run an errand first. Later, he finally opens up to someone. While that person can't do anything for him, someone else just might.

Warning: Domestic violence resulting in death, depression and opiate addiction are discussed

Reminder: Blaine's Uncle Robert is Al Motta professionally.

10 AM

Sebastian hurried through the metal detector, trying not to be seen. The last thing he wanted was for his father to know he was at the courthouse. He found where he needed to go on the directory and then went to take the stairs. The elevator was too risky. Once he got to the 3rd floor, he found room 305 and waited around the corner as advised. That's when his whole plan to go unnoticed flew out the window. "What are you doing here and why aren't you with your brother?"

"Why, hello to you too." Trent responded. "I'm here to see what kind of people would literally throw away a kid as amazing as Doug for the trash being sentenced today. And since Mom was going to Lima to spend the day with the Andersons anyway, she took Doug with her. He's still having problems coming to terms with his role in what happened to Blaine."

"He had nothing to do with what those assholes did."

"And maybe someday he'll believe that. However, he is excited to work with Cooper's guys to set up the webcast for tonight. What's Blaine up to?"

"No clue, although Cooper said he was proud of Blaine for hi-jacking his soft opening. Said it was a very Old Cooper thing to do." Sebastian could tell by the way Trent was looking at him that he wanted more "I honestly don't know. Before you ask, I didn't go because I really am spending time with Sierra and Izzy when I'm done here. The practice schedule for the next three days is insane. Although, I am looking forward to Friday."

"Let me guess…my mother's cookies?"

"Duh!"

Trent was preparing a comeback when they both received a text from Jeff. Sebastian started to laugh, but Trent was confused "Why would Thad be upset and complaining that Blaine didn't take him to see Santa last night? It's February."

"That's right, you missed…" Sebastian stopped when the person he was waiting for arrived "Thank you again for doing this. I know you need to get to the sentencing."

"Sebastian, are you sure you don't want to wait for me? It will only be you and him in the room."

"I'm sure, Al." Sebastian remembered to refer to Blaine's uncle by his first name and not Robert, something Blaine constantly forgot to do in public.

Mr. Motta turned his attention to the other Warbler "Go home Trent. Nothing you say to the Staffords will do any good."

"But…"

"Go home Trent." This time, it was not a request.

"Fine, but only if Seb comes with me."

"I'm not here for Blaine's case" Sebastian assured him. "And before you ask, I'm not going to tell you anything else. To use one of B's favorite terms, you'll need plausible deniability."

Three hours later, Sebastian was stretched out on his couch, bouncing Izzy on his lap. His mother and sister had gone to the grocery store. They had decided to make all his French favorites for dinner, and while he wasn't going to complain, he was pretty sure there was something going on besides a change in menu.

"So, Izzy-wizzy, what do you want to do until Grand-père gets here? Why are we waiting for Grand-père? He's going to tell Uncle Sebby about what happened to the bad people, or what Blaine said he could tell Uncle Sebby about what happened to the bad people. Do you remember Blaine? Of course, you do. No one ever forgets Blaine. Why, you ask? Because he's handsome and charming and talented and brave and lots of other words that your precious little ears shouldn't hear."

"Speaking of your precious little ears, I'm sorry I scared you. I guess I'm a lot like you because I yell when I'm unhappy too. Izzy, Grand-mère wants me to do something that I don't want to do. If I don't, I'm afraid Grand-mère will be really sad and she just got home from being really sad at the clinic in Paris. If I do what she wants, I'll be really sad because I won't get to see Blaine anymore."

As if on instinct, Izzy reached out toward Sebastian's face. It was a game they would play. She would reach out, he would pretend to eat her fingers and they would laugh. He had no idea what he was going to do when she went back to Paris.

"Look at these long fingers. I bet when you get older you will play the piano. Did you know that Uncle Sebby can play piano? I'm not as good as Blaine, but I am much better than your mommy. You can tell her that. Don't believe me? Come on, I'll prove it." He got up off the couch, strapped her into her bouncy seat and then sat her on top of the piano in front of him. After a rousing rendition of Chopsticks, Sebastian delighted his niece by adding vocals to Three Blind Mice and Frère Jacques. "You like it when Uncle Sebby sings when he plays, don't you? Let's try a big people song."

Sebastian had no idea why this was the song that came to mind, but maybe he should have.

Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you, tell you I need you
Tell you I set you apart

Tell me your secrets, and ask me your questions
Oh let's go back to the start

Where would we go back to? Uptown Girl? That was our true beginning…or was it?

Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard

Oh, take me back to the start

Maybe we didn't truly start until the night of the fight…the night of Wolverine. That was when Bad Ass Blaine showed up and five days later brought Blaine Warbler back to Dalton. Everything before that had been flirting, innuendos and pain. After that we were friends. Ok, friends with benefits, but friends first.

But tell me you love me, come back and haunt me
Oh and I rush to the start
Running in circles, chasing our tails
Coming back as we are

Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part

Maybe our start was actually Thanksgiving weekend when we both admitted I'm in and Blaine sang You+Me. Those memories are so important to us that we wear reminders around our wrists.

I'm going back to the start

When we made love for the first time, next to the Christmas tree and surrounded by candles? Was that our start?

Nobody said it was easy
No, no, no, no

Or was our start only last week? The day I woke up in Blaine's bed and everything was so domestic (Blaine's word)/comfortable (my word). I had a glimpse of what a future with Blaine could look like and it didn't scare me. I'm not going to propose or anything stupid like that. It was just a nice snapshot to have in my head. Although, right now it's breaking me to think that snapshot could be all I'll ever have with him.

Nobody said it was easy
No, no, no, no

Nobody said it was easy

Whether it was his voice or the combination of bouncy seat and piano vibrations, Izzy had fallen asleep. "Je ne sais pas quoi faire ma nièce bébé doux."

"I know what you need to do. Stop trying to get advice from a four-month old and talk to your boyfriend. If you still can't bring yourself to talk to Blaine, then talk to me. I am supposed to be your best friend. And Coldplay, Seb? Seriously?"

Sebastian looked over to the other side of the room and shook his head "Don't read into it, Trent. It was just a song to help put Izzy to sleep."

"Did you know I spent some time with Mercedes this weekend? I ask that so you will understand when I tell you Oh, Hell to the No. How do I know this? How about the fact that at several points you weren't singing the lyrics? Yeah, that's right, you were singing what was probably supposed to be an internal monologue. And for the record, when Blaine got back to Dalton you were friends with a lot of benefits. Remember, I caught the two of you with Blaine's hand down your pants. Never guessed you were such a screamer."

"Ok, I get it…Sassy Warbler. Dad?" Neither of them noticed Sebastian's father had come into the room carrying a gallon of chocolate milk and two glasses. He really, really, really hoped his dad hadn't heard Trent's comment about the screaming. "What's going on?"

"First, the sentencing went as expected. There were no surprises, so Stafford didn't admit that he lied when he said he was gay. However, he did say a couple of things in his allocution that left no doubt that he did."

Sebastian was prepared to go on a rant but the sight of a sleeping baby ended that "Fine. I understand why Blaine accepted the deal, but that doesn't mean I like it."

"If it helps, it seemed like there was something more going on between Al Motta and the other two defendants." Xavier took one look at his son and knew his instincts had been right "What don't I know?"

"Plausible deniability, Dad. Plausible deniability."

"Son, you may say that you're undecided on a major, but you are most definitely going to wind up in Law School. Now, take these." He handed the chocolate milk and glasses to Sebastian and then picked up Izzy. "Talk to him, Sebastian." He began to leave but not before turning to Trent and saying "You've got one hour."

Once his father and niece were out of the room, Sebastian looked at Trent who was getting settled on the couch "What the hell is going on, Nixon?"

"You are going to come sit by me, drink your milk and tell me what happened on Valentine's Day."

"And what makes you think I'm going to do that?" Sebastian asked then watched as Trent pulled a plastic container out of a bag he hadn't noticed, and set it down on the coffee table. "Are those..?"

"My mother's cookies? Yes, they are. You see, when I called my mom to ask how I could get you to talk, all she said was Even Superman has his Kryptonite. Fortunately, when she knows she's going to have to bake a big batch, she makes the dough ahead of time and freezes it."

"You're not playing fair."

"No, what's not fair is you're about to eat 10 of those and will look like you and I'll eat 4 and my cheeks will go up 5 points on the pinchable scale. Now talk."

"Fine" Sebastian came over and poured the milk, all the while wondering what the connection between Trent and his father was. After he had drank his milk and had 2 of the promised 10 cookies, he let it all out "I'm adopted."

"Really?" Trent asked him "Because you look a lot like your dad."

"We're related. Xavier and Juliette Smythe's first child was a son…Julien. He's my biological father."

"And you found this out…"

"Hummel. Indirectly, but Hummel." Sebastian proceeded to tell him about Kurt refusing to believe he had a sister and the disastrous dinner when Kurt had said his mother was 17 when she had him. "All you have to do is take one look at my mom and know there's no way she could have been only 17 when she had me, let alone my sister considering Sierra is 12 years older than I am. I think for a while Hummel thought Sierra was my mother. I'll give the guy he had googling me some credit for being close considering all the documents were in French. I looked into it when I went for Christmas."

"That son-of-a-bitch! Does Blaine know any of this?"

"He knows I'm adopted. I don't know if he figured it out on his own or if Hummel told him when he blackmailed him."

"Ok, we are going to table the rest of that story for when we have a bottle of tequila. What does any of this have to do with you thinking you have to break up with Blaine. That's the real problem, isn't it? I had an idea but Coldplay, who I like for the record, sealed the deal."

"Long story short since this is definitely one for tequila as well, Julien and my biological mother were drug addicts but she left him and got clean when she found out about me. Hummel did get one thing right in that she was 16 at the time. Anyway, Julien found her when she was seven months pregnant and decided he didn't want to be a dad. He was beating the shit out of her when the cops arrived and she died at the hospital, but not before I was born obviously. She died protecting me."

They sat still for a few minutes. There was no good response to what Sebastian had said. Finally, Sebastian gave Trent a nod as a sign he could continue the conversation.

"Seb, Blaine's not going to judge you with this. There's no reason to break up…"

"It's not that. Hard to believe that's not the most fucked up part of the story. My biological mother's family wouldn't take me, but it didn't matter because my parents were ready to fight for custody. Julien went to jail, but not for murder. He was charged with a Crime of Passion which in the US is the equivalent of Manslaughter. He wasn't supposed to be released until I was an adult, 21. But somehow someone got it screwed up and read it as 18."

"So, he's out."

"Yes, and my family wasn't told so it was a shock when he went to see Sierra. He told her he's ready to be a father to me. Can you believe that shit? He tried to fucking kill me!"

Trent knew Sebastian would need to calm down from his last revelation. He waited while the last of the cookies and milk were polished off. When he felt Sebastian was ready, he asked "So, you're protecting Blaine from him?"

"No, my mom. Trent, my mom has always been an amazing mother to me, but this fucked her up. She's battled depression my whole life. Three years ago, she was in a really bad car crash that screwed up her back. She got addicted to Vicodin and between that and her depression she had a breakdown."

"Seb, I'm so sorry."

"My dad quietly got her into a clinic outside of Paris so Sierra could keep an eye on things while he resigned as State's Attorney. He didn't want her condition to become public knowledge, which it would have been if the media found out."

"People do love a political scandal even if it's really just a family matter."

"Exactly. My mom had been better for a while now, but Julien contacting Sierra set her off again. Valentine's Day she told me she didn't want me to go to Columbia. She said it would be the first place he would look for me since it's my dad's alma mater. She wants me to go to Stanford, other side of the country and all. I told her no, yelled a lot, she started crying, screamed a lot, I locked myself in my room, called you to pick me up and left without telling anyone. I also smashed my phone so I didn't have to talk to them."

"When I asked him, Blaine did say that he thought your story about accidently stepping on your phone was a bunch of bull shit."

"He knows me well. When Blaine brought me back Sunday, he only stayed long enough to meet Izzy. No one has said anything about what happened Saturday and now we're in an awkward standoff. I thought my mom and I were going to talk about things today, but when I got here she and Sierra left me with Izzy."

"Do you know what you're going to say?"

"What can I say? I have a choice...either I give my mother another nervous breakdown or break up with Blaine. We need more chocolate milk." Sebastian stood up to go to the kitchen and was surprised to see his dad standing there holding Izzy "What's going on?"

Xavier didn't answer him, but instead spoke to Trent "Did he tell you anything you didn't know?"

"Nope, except Hummel's blackmail seems a little more extensive than we thought." Trent stood up and stretched "I take it since Izzy's ready to go, my idea worked?"

"Yes, just like you thought. He was more than happy to help. I went ahead and put her car seat in your car."

"Stop!" Sebastian walked away from where he had been sitting to calm down "One of you needs to start explaining what the hell is going on. You're freaking me out."

Sebastian's dad handed the baby to Trent and then went and put his hands on his son's shoulders "Sebastian, you have amazing friends. You should know that by now. Trent contacted me, wanting to understand what was going on with you."

"That's the real reason I was at the courthouse" Trent told him.

"Which means I know you were there and we will discuss that, but back to the topic at hand. Once Trent and I talked, and filled in some blanks each of us had, he had a suggestion of how to solve our family dilemma. That's really where your mother and sister have been all of this time."

Flashback…2 Hours Earlier at the diner between Westerville and Lima

"I can see Seb liking this place" Sierra told her mother as they sat down in their booth. "Did you see that stack of pancakes the waitress was carrying?"

"Your brother does love his breakfasts. So, was that enough small talk for you to tell me why we are at this greasy-spoon diner in the middle of nowhere?"

"Your waiting for me, Mrs. Smythe. And you must be Sierra?"

"Yes, and you must be Blaine's brother, Cooper. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Sebastian stared at his father as he tried to think of any stretch of the imagination where Cooper Anderson was the solution to all of this "I don't understand."

"That's why you three are going to Lima to meet up with your mother, sister and Cooper. You also might want to find out whatever it is your boyfriend is up to."

"We three are going to Lima?"

"You, me and Izzy" Trent told him "And we probably want to get going. Lima's not just right around the corner."

"What about you, Dad?"

"I have opening arguments in that embezzlement case in the morning. There's a lot of work I still left to do, but I will watch the webcast. Now, why were you at the courthouse this morning?"

Oh, this wasn't going to be good "I was pissed, Dad. I couldn't yell at Mom again and Julien was out of the question. So, I took action against the one person in this mess that I could."

Earlier that morning at the courthouse

"So, I tell my lawyer about Hummel and you're not going to testify against me?"

"No, I will answer any questions I am asked honestly and to the best of my ability. I will not however, offer any information that does not tie directly back to Dalton. We both know I have a lot more shit on you than just what they're after."

"Can't deny that. Anything else?"

"You can't just tell your lawyer about Kurt's involvement. You have to make a full statement and provide some sort of evidence. If you accept my offer, you'll need to hurry. I give my deposition next Wednesday."

"This isn't just about the Golden Boy or the crap he had my uncle give you, is it?"

"No, this is about consequences for trying to mess with my family."

"Damn Smythe, I'm impressed. Maybe on some other Earth we could have been friends."

"I don't know, Clarington. Maybe we could have."

He waited for his dad to say something, but when he didn't, Sebastian decided he should "Are you mad?"

Xavier took his hands off Sebastian's shoulders and pulled him into an embrace "You're going to be a brilliant lawyer."

Twenty minutes later, they were on their way to Lima. Sebastian couldn't get over what Trent had done for him. "I'm never going to be able to thank you for all of this, you know."

"Before you say that, you should probably wait until you talk with your mom. But, if you truly want to do something for me then please explain why Thad is still bitching about not seeing Santa."

"Oh, my friend, I have two words for you…Gap Attack."

TBC in Lima

Notes:

The Scientist: Christopher Martin, Guy Berryman, Jonathan Buckland, William Champion 2002

Je ne sais pas quoi faire ma nièce bébé doux: I don't know what to do my sweet baby niece (Google Translator)