Author's Note: Most of this was the contribution of QuinnAbrams. Special thanks to her, for sharing her ideas for this story and making it better!
They'd done it. It was over. Kitty couldn't have imagined the performance going any more smoothly than it did, even if she'd had a brief moment of panic earlier that day, worrying that they should have spent their final night in preparation, instead of playing at the pier.
"And now, the pivotal moment is here! There can only be one champion show choir per nation," one of the judges said, before announcing the winners.
Those pesky show choir blogs that Blaine was so hell-bent on reading had been correct when predicting the top two teams. The New Directions had executed their Finn tribute setlist flawlessly, but Throat Explosion had certainly wowed the audience with their performance as well. The outcome could really go either way.
Only it couldn't go either way, not if they wanted to have a club next year. Kitty really couldn't believe that a second-place finish wasn't going to be good enough, in the eyes of Sue Sylvester, the school board, the superintendent, and whoever else was behind the nefarious plot.
As they gathered on stage, their opponents standing opposite them, Kitty stood behind Artie and squeezed his shoulders with both hands, taking a deep breath. Their entire season had led up to this one moment.
"Second place goes to… New Directions!"
Kitty felt her heart plummet to her feet. Gold confetti began falling from the sky as the team beside them celebrated. A large trophy was placed at Artie's feet, but no member of the New Directions dared to move an inch. How could this have happened after they had overcome so much this past year?
Kitty blinked back tears as that stupid confetti continued to rain down on them. Artie pivoted his chair slightly, as if he was turning himself away from the cheering crowd and into the comfort and protection of his teammates. He hung his head and bent over, just enough to rest his elbows on his thighs. From behind, Kitty watched him steal a glance at their disappointing second place trophy before looking down at his lap again. All she could do was rub his shoulder to offer her support.
As soon as the cameras stopped flashing and the crowds stopped cheering, Artie quickly wheeled away, leaving the rest of the team behind. Marley, Unique, Ryder, and Jake were huddled together, lamenting the almost certain loss of their team next year. Kitty was torn between joining them and going after Artie. Reasoning that he would need a minute alone anyway, she joined her group of underclassmen.
"Are we even going to be friends next year, without glee club?" Marley sobbed. As Kitty resisted the urge to tell Marley that she was being stupid, it occurred to her that she might be right. Afterall, what else did they really all have in common? If they weren't together in glee club, it would probably almost feel like they were all going to different schools. Or different planets.
When Mr. Schue gave them the go-ahead to return to the dressing room, Kitty went looking for Artie.
Knowing that he probably wouldn't have gone straight back to their designated space, Kitty took it upon herself to wander the backstage hallways of the Orpheum Theatre. It didn't take long for her to find Artie sitting alone in a corner beside the stage door. His back was to her, but she could see his hands covering his face. Was Artie crying?
"I came to see if you were okay," Kitty asked softly, hoping not to scare him, as it didn't appear that he had heard her approaching.
Artie looked up and dropped his hands to his lap. Kitty could see tears brimming in his big blue eyes that threatened to spill over as he shook his head. Here he was again, too ashamed to cry in front of the rest of them, even if they'd all be crying together anyway. It was exactly what he'd shared with her at Finn's funeral. He tended to bottle all of his emotions inside, too afraid to put his sadness on display. The only time she had ever seen him cry was that day by the port-a-potty immediately after hearing the news about Finn.
Kitty knelt down next to his chair and enveloped her boyfriend in a comforting hug. He didn't hug her back, but he did bury his face in the crook of her neck.
"It's okay to cry, Artie," Kitty reminded him. "You just lost someone extremely important to you. Nobody will think that you're weak for caring about somebody else," Kitty said, remembering what Collin had told Hunter last summer after they lost their mom. Her brother had been reluctant to show any emotion, scared that it would make him appear "fragile" to others.
Artie nodded, removing his glasses to wipe away the few tears that had escaped before replacing them.
"I just..." Artie tried to find the words. "This was supposed to be for Finn. He was so good to us. I wanted to win this one for him, one more time." He bit his lip. "And also, there's the thing Sue said about losing the club if we lost. I can't stand it if this means you really don't get to compete next year, Kitty. You and Marley and Jake and Unique. You deserved two more years of Nationals. And I was gonna come watch."
"Okay, she's threatened to disband this club numerous times every single year of its existence," Kitty said, rolling her eyes. "We'll figure it out."
Kitty rubbed Artie's shoulder as the pair sat in silence for a moment before Artie spoke up.
"I idolized Finn Hudson, you know," he said. "It's kinda funny, because as enormous as he was, we figured out he was just born a month before I was. You'd never have known it, by looking at us." Artie choked out a laugh, between sobs. "I owe so much to him. And now he's gone. I… I really miss him."
"I know you do. I do too," Kitty assured him, hugging Artie once more. He was usually so tough and perseverant, so it was strange for Kitty to see him in such a vulnerable state.
It didn't last long. Artie had an uncanny ability to shut it back down, something else Kitty didn't think was a terribly healthy emotional practice. "Let's go find everyone else," he said, unlocking his wheels and pushing past her.
Sighing, she followed. That boy was a lot of work sometimes, but he was worth it to her.
They returned to the dressing room to find that someone had placed the second place trophy in the trashcan. Artie, who usually noticed things on the ground, was the first to see it. He frowned, stopping by the waste basket, and then yanked it right back out.
"Good call," Sam said, coming up behind him and patting his shoulder. "Finn wouldn't condone bad sportsmanship." He paused. "Well, actually, it would depend on the day, with Finn. He might have kicked this trophy over if it got in the way of him storming out of the room."
Mercedes, who was with them backstage, chuckled at that. "That's our Finn," she said, fondly. She brushed her fingers over the trophy in Artie's lap. "Guys, second place in the whole nation is nothing to be ashamed of. You should still be proud."
"And we would still be proud," Marley told her. "If it weren't for the fact that the school's not going to support glee club next year, because we didn't win a national title. I guess our school thinks only winners are worthy of support..."
"Well, then I'd rather be a free-floating loser," Tina said suddenly, a small smile on her face.
"Like... me?" Sam said, also smiling as though they had a private joke.
"And me," added Artie, grinning a little bit, as he set the second-place trophy down to roll towards the other seniors, who were gathered in the back righthand corner of the room.
"And me," Blaine concluded, taking a seat at a baby grand piano, which was conveniently there for them, in the back corner of this dressing room. Sam picked up his acoustic guitar, which they'd used earlier for some backstage jam sessions. It seemed the occasion — namely, losing at Nationals — called for just one more.
You may think that I'm a zero / but everyone you wanna be probably started off like me / you may think that I'm a freak show / but give it just a little time / I bet you're gonna change your mind...
Kitty had never heard this song before, but she soon figured it out that it was the ballad version of Loser Like Me. Kitty only knew it because Artie sang it in the car, when it was stuck in his head, which was often. Evidently, they'd written it for Regionals during his sophomore year.
As they finished the song, two more had been added to the audience. Burt and Carole had entered the dressing room, at the beginning of their song, and they joined in clapping appreciatively at the end.
"We seniors were going to save that for you guys, for graduation day," Blaine explained, shrugging. "But it seemed fitting to sing it for you all today..."
He stood from the piano bench and joined the rest of the seniors for a group hug with the Hummels.
"I'm sorry we let you down," Artie said as he hugged Carole, causing her to straighten up and give him a strange look.
"Let who down? Finn?"
Artie shrugged.
"We wanted to win this one for him… and for you," Kitty told Finn's parents. "It's not right. This is not how this story was supposed to end."
"You're right," Carole agreed, to the kids' surprise. "It would have burned Finn to lose to those guys. All we would have heard about for months was how the judges had robbed you or about how you were so much better than them."
"Even though Finn didn't have the best voice, or the best rhythm, or the best throwing arm, he always brought out the best in himself and in others," Burt added. "And the great thing about him is that he always managed to find a way to feel like he won."
"I was really proud of you guys up there. Hearing those songs was so healing for me. I could see how much he meant to you, so, win or lose, Finn lives in you guys," Carole said, looking between Artie and Kitty. "He loved you — all of you — and we will all carry him in our hearts forever."
Kitty's eyes welled up with tears. Carole noticed, and even though she'd only just met the girl, she wrapped her up in a hug all the same. Kitty had the strangest urge to tell the woman that they had something important in common. She'd lost a mother, Carole had lost a son.
For a moment just then, as she held onto Carole, Kitty put aside all her worries about glee club and about Artie graduating. For the moment, it seemed like everything would be okay.
Later on, back at the hotel, they'd only had time for a quick lunch with Mercedes before it was time say good-bye to her and go get their stuff from the hotel. Then they'd be catching the bus and the shuttle, back to the airport.
Artie's travel anxiety was back, and he was grumpy, either for that reason or due to the competition, or a little of both. He concluded that the less he said, the better, as they waited in the lobby for the luggage rack. Neither he nor Sam were up to recreating the empty luggage rack versus wheelchair race in the lobby, like they'd done on Friday, when the group had arrived.
"Maybe, instead of glee club, we could all put on a few more musicals next year," Marley suggested, pacing around their suitcases. Then she looked at Artie, suddenly getting tearful. "But it won't be the same without Artie there to be our director."
"I don't know who to feel worse for," Unique added, looking at the four seniors. "You guys or us."
"How about... not feeling bad for anyone," Will said, walking up to them, looking way too cheerful, for someone who had just probably lost his job, as well as his after-school club. At least that was what Kitty overheard from the three spies, Sarah, Amanda, and China, who quite obviously couldn't have cared less about the club's fate. Kitty had overheard China telling the other two that Sue couldn't wait to fire Will altogether, now that the school board and superintendent would probably be glad to look the other way when she made up some bizarre justification for terminating his contract.
"Mr. Schue, what?" Tina asked, rising to her feet and approaching him. Without warning, he gave her a huge hug.
"Glee club gets another year!" he exclaimed, to thunderous cheers that disrupted the lobby. As the cheers subsided, they looked at their teacher, still awaiting the explanation.
"Oh, right," Mr. Schuester said. "And now for the best part. It's because Jean Baptiste, leader of Throat Explosion, is actually a senior in college! Guys, they're disqualified! I'm headed to the Orpheum right now to go and trade this for the first place trophy before we fly out."
Mr. Schuester gestured to the second-place trophy, the one they'd been treating like something of a Horcrux, ever since they'd brought it back with them. They were all just staring, kind of in shock.
"Mr. Schue, if this is a joke, it's not funny," Artie said, crossing his arms across his chest.
"I'm not joking!" he said. "We won! I can't talk, I have to hurry and take this back. Everybody, listen to the Hummels, and I'll see you at the airport. We fly back as a winning team today!"
"I'm calling Mercedes!" Tina said, immediately dialing her on the phone and hurrying to a quieter corner of the lobby, putting a finger in her ear.
"Guys, we just won Nationals during our senior year," Sam screamed. He leaned over to wrap Artie in a huge hug. "WE JUST WON NATIONALS DURING OUR SENIOR YEAR!"
"And that," said Blaine. "Really was for Finn."
Carole and Burt stepped off the elevator at that exact moment. "What was for Finn?" she wanted to know, upon hearing Blaine's comment.
Blaine looked down. "You tell them, Artie," he said, with a nod. "You've been here the longest."
Well, technically Artie and Tina had been there the longest, but Tina was busy filling Mercedes in.
"The first place team got disqualified," Artie said, pushing himself forward and grinning that signature smile of his that Kitty had missed, as he looked up at them, proudly. "We did it, Mrs. H! We won the damn thing for Finn!"