Kai was in Lima for business again – what kind of business he could possibly have in Lima, Blair didn't know but she didn't question it either. Part of the deal was whenever he was in town they were to have dinner together which is something they already had that evening and now it was time for the trip home. Only…Kai didn't drive Blair back to Sue's place but started to drive into Kurt's neighborhood.

"I know I didn't say I was sleeping at Kurt's tonight so what are we doing here?" Blair expected Kai to give her an answer to that.

Kai pulled up in front of a house with a 'Sold' sign in the front yard. He didn't explain until he turned off the car. "Between my job sending me more often due to a merger and you being in Lima, it just made sense to buy a house here. It'll be easier on my daughter, too, I think. This way she'd be able to come with me on my business trips and you can stay over while I'm in town." He looked behind them, saying, "And it just so happens to be right down the street from your friend's house."

Blair was having a hard time taking him seriously about this. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"No, it's not. I am doing my best to keeping to the joint custody arrangement with Sue, but I do want to have a larger role in your life, Blair." Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out a purple butterfly keychain with a key hanging from it and handed it over to Blair. "This is also your home. Even when I'm not in town, if you need a place to just get away it's yours. I trust you."

Blair's eyes locked onto the purple butterfly keychain for a moment. While purple was indeed her favorite color, purple butterflies were her mom's thing. Purple butterflies – that was the same no matter the Reality.

Bringing herself back to the present, she looked at Kai with a raised brow. "You trust me? You're just starting to get to know me, Kai." Blair laughed, "I mean, what's to stop me from throwing a rager every night you're not here?"

"Because you're an old soul like your mother who respects to those who deserve it." And he knew he hadn't done anything to not deserve her respect. Kai placed the key in her hand. "Besides, if you ever did throw a rager here I'd leave your punishment up to Sue."

Blair's face went white at the idea. "Damn, Kai. You don't pull any punches." She made a mental note to ask how well Kai knew her mother at a later date.

Kai simply laughed as he started the car back up to bring her back to Sue's place. "Like it or not, that's something we have in common."

Sue sat at the kitchen table working on bills when Blair came in after her outing with Kai. She didn't look up from the paperwork as she asked, "Did he show you the house?"

Blair stopped in her tracks for a moment before joining her at the table. "How did you know about that?" She didn't think Kai had mentioned it to Sue so Blair was going to bring it up. To hear that Sue already knew about it surprised her.

Sue took off her reading glasses and set them onto the table. "He called me a couple weeks ago about the idea. I'm the one that convinced him to get the house near your gay friend. You're welcome."

Blair took her bag off her shoulders and dropped it on the table along with her keys. "And you're okay with this? He's planning on making a life here, Sue. He's planning on making a home. That means he's going to expect me to spend more time with him in exchange for you two sharing custody. You know that, right?"

"It's one of my suspicions, yes, but I'm not worried about it. Whether or not you have a temporary home with him doesn't change the fact that you have a permanent home here. So what, you'll have a few things in a room at his place, big deal." Sue returned her glasses to her eyes to get back to the bills. "Don't read too much into the situation."

Blair thought Sue was being too calm about this but was too tired to try and figure it out. Besides, when it came to Sue any ulterior motives would come to light eventually. "I'll try not to. Goodnight, Sue."

Sue waited until Blair was almost to her room before saying, "By the way, I've reserved the Auditorium for the Cheerios, so you're Glee Club is going to need to find a different place to rehearse."

Blair turned right around and went straight back to Sue. "I'm starting think that all your sabotages have more to do with some vendetta against Mr Schue than it does making sure I don't get complacent with life."

Sue didn't answer her either way and proceeded to work on the books.

When Blair finally accepted that Sue wasn't going to confirm or deny this, she rolled her eyes and went to her bedroom. "Real mature, Sue."

Once Sue heard Blair's door close, she said to herself, "Learned from the best, sweets. Learned from the very best."

Blair wasn't one to be a tattler, but if a tidbit of information happened to reach the ears of Mr. Schue to give him a chance to do something about it, that was an entirely different story. Which is exactly what Blair did when she saw him at school that morning. She casually asked that since the Auditorium was reserved for the Cheerios where was the Glee Club going to practice for Regionals? Of course, just like Blair figured, Mr. Schue had no idea what Blair was talking about so he went off to find out what was what.

Liam hadn't heard the conversation between Blair and Mr. Schue in the hall that morning, but he did see Schue's expression before he took off and was wonder what was up. Liam met Blair at her locker. "Are you quitting Glee or something? Schuester didn't look happy."

"Sue reserved the Auditorium for the entire week to keep Glee from rehearsing there. I brought it up while acting like I thought he already knew in case Sue questions me later." Blair closed her locker with an impish grin. "I'm finally starting to adapt to the lunacy that is Sue Sylvester."

Liam got a good laugh from that. "I don't think anyone is capable of adapting to that, not even you."

"Challenge accepted." Blair spotted Kurt down the hall and wanted to talk to him before class. "See you later, Liam." Without even thinking about it, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek before hurrying down the hall.

Liam was taken so aback by that action that he wasn't even sure if it had actually happened. It was something he'd have to file away to casually ask her about later.

Blair caught up with Kurt and hugged him with a peck to his cheek. Hey, Loser. I've got news."

"Hello, Jerk." Kurt couldn't even begin to imagine what her news could possibly be. "Do I need to mentally or physically prepare myself for this?"

"Not really. Unless you want to pump some iron to help me move some stuff over to Kai's new place. Which just so happens to be a couple houses down from you." Blair grinned, figuring Kurt would like this news. And she was right.

Kurt gasped, "No way! Your uncle was the one bought that place? We're gonna be part-time neighbors! This is so exciting." He linked arms with Blair as they walked to class together. "You have got to let me design your room."

"It wouldn't feel like home if you didn't." Blair shared happy laughter with Kurt and talked over details all the way to class. Granted she really didn't care what her bedroom ended up looking like since it'd never really feel like home, but the project seemed to make Kurt happy and that was the important thing for her.

After Glee Club that day, where Mr. Schue informed them that the Auditorium wasn't usable for the week and promised to find a place off-site for their new home, Finn caught up with Blair in the hallway.

"Hey, Blair, Kurt is acting weirder towards me than normal. He was asking my opinion on paint samples or something. Any idea what that's about?"

Blair, who assumed what the conversation between Kurt and Finn consisted of, answered with, "He's helping me decorate my room at Kai's place, but not sure why he'd ask you about it."

Finn completely brushed the whole redecorating topic aside for the time being and zoomed in on the other part. "Your room at Kai's place? I thought that whole custody thing got sorted out and you weren't moving?"

"The company Kai works for is merging with a company based in Lima or something so he bought a home here. When he's in town I'll be staying there." Blair shrugged nonchalantly, despite not wanting to do it. "It shouldn't be too bad. His house is only a couple away from Kurt's, so if things go south while I'm there I'll just crash with him."

"Well as long as you're not moving out of Lima." That was one of the last things he wanted.

"I'm pretty sure we've covered this already; You can't get rid of me that easily." Blair nudged him with a smile before parting ways to their own destinations.

Blair had gotten a part-time job to keep herself busy and more grounded. It gave her something to focus on so her mind didn't wander too far. She was presently stocking the CDs when Finn came into the shop and stormed right over to her. "Whoa, what happened?" She'd have to have been blind not to see that something was bothering him.

"Did you know?" Finn asked a bit exasperatedly.

Blair set the stack of CDs back into the box and rolled her hands out in front of her. "You should know me well enough by now, Finn. Details."

Finn sighed in frustration. "Did you know my mom was dating Kurt's father?"

Blair's eyes widened in surprise because, nope, she didn't know. "Wow, no I didn't, but is that such a bad thing?"

Finn thought his head was going to explode. "How can you even ask me that?! How could she up and date someone else and say she thinks she's in love when there's no way she could be over my dad."

Blair grabbed his wrist and pulled him along to the back of the store so the customers at the front wouldn't hear what was going on. "Okay, Finn, I see this is a touchy subject for you, but your dad died a long time ago. Wouldn't he want your mom to move on and be happy?"

Finn still hadn't processed this news and really wasn't thinking things through, so he lashed out at Blair, "You don't know what you're talking about. What do you know about losing someone like that?" He realized his words a little too late.

Blair cleared her throat and crossed her arms in an attempt to keep her composure. "I know a little something about love and loss, Finn." When he tried to speak again, she held up her hand before either of them ended up saying anything else that would be regretted. "I have to get back to work." Without another word, Blair walked off to take care of the CDs and didn't look up when Finn walked past her and left the store.

Blair had tried so hard to stay focused on this life, in this Reality, but there were so many times that memories would hit her like a freight train and make her wonder if it was worth staying in this Reality anymore or try and find a way back to her own. She was pulled from these thoughts when she heard her supervisor ask,

"Everything alright, Blair?"

She turned around to nod with as much of a convincing smile as she could muster. "Yeah, Owen. Everything's normal."

On her way home after work, Blair had an odd conversation with Kurt. Well, it wasn't exactly odd but it certainly didn't sit well with her. Kurt filled her in on how Sue wanted him and Mercedes to lose weight that week. Blair almost lost it when he said Mercedes needed to lose ten pounds in one week.

Blair ended the call there and went straight home to have a little chat with Sue. Waiting until she cooled off was not an option, she intended to talk to Sue right off. So when Blair saw Sue setting up a movie for that evening, she stormed right over to her. "What the hell are you thinking telling Mercedes she has to lose ten pounds in a week just to stay on the Cheerios?!"

Sue brushed that off like it was nothing. "I don't actually expect her to do it. I'm expecting her to prove to me that she doesn't."

Blair held her hands at the side of her head before shooting them outward while trying to find the right words. "Sue! Oh my god! Mercedes is essentially starving herself to lose the weight! This isn't one of your empowerment lessons for me, Sue. Mercedes doesn't get how your mind works! She's taking you seriously!"

Sue could understand Blair's rage but didn't respond with any of her own. Instead she sat down on the sofa and patted the seat beside her. "Come sit."

Blair scoffed and plopped down beside her with crossed arms. "I can't believe you're doing this."

"I get that, but listen to where I'm coming from. This whole world is set up against people who are different. Lima isn't even the tip of the iceberg, it's hardly even a snowflake landing on the iceberg."

Blair had no idea what Sue was talking about. "Get to the point, Sue."

"And here I thought you liked details." Sue grinned but could see that wasn't appreciated so she went back to what she was talking about. "As I was saying, this world is set up against anyone who's different. Mercedes is no exception. She has accepted herself and – don't you dare tell anyone I said this – I applaud her for that, but she hasn't found her way to tell the world they need to accept her, too. If she can't stand up to me about it, how is she or anyone else going to be able to stand up to the world?"

Blair's firmly placed shoulders slouched a bit. "So you're saying that this whole terrible thing is masked as a lesson?" She rubbed her face with both hands. "You're sadistic, Sue."

"You say sadistic, I say genius." Sue picked up two DVDs from the table. "Which do you want to watch tonight? The musical with the kidnapper lumberjacks or four eyes with the magic wand?"

Blair sighed resignedly and pointed to Seven Brides for Seven brothers. "Harry Potter next time."

"Your choice." Sue got up to put the movie in and as she did, said, "Don't tell Aretha what I'm up to. How is she going to learn if others give her the answers?"

"I'm not going to let her starve herself." Blair was very adamant about that.

Sue didn't say anything more about this and just picked up the remote to hit play.

Blair called Mercedes that night because this wasn't something that could wait until morning. "Hey, Mercedes. Look, I'm just going come right and say don't starve yourself. I don't care what my insane Godmother told you, you don't have to do anything."

Mercedes sighed, knowing it was just a matter of time before Blair heard about what was going on. "Blair, I appreciate what you're saying but I want to do this. I want to lose the weight and stay on the Cheerios. I know what I'm doing."

Blair couldn't believe Mercedes was being this hardheaded. "Changing yourself to please someone else isn't worth it!"

"I got to go. See you at school." Mercedes ended the call there.

A high pitched gasp escaped Blair when she realized Mercedes had hung up on her. "Are you kidding me?"

Sue was standing at the doorway of Blair's room and heard the conversation. "I told you she needed to learn it for herself."

Blair turned to face Sue and fell back onto her bed with a groan because while this was initially thought to be a normal Reality, she was starting to learn that there really wasn't much normalcy in it.

Blair couldn't get what was going on with Mercedes our of her head but when she tried to talk to her about it at school Mercedes didn't want to hear a word of it. Apparently this was something Mercedes was going to have to learn on her own and while Blair hated it, she wasn't going to interfere anymore.

Blair was thinking about this while getting into her locker. She didn't even realize Puck had come up to her until he said something.

"Uh oh, I know that face. What's up?"

"Nothing." Blair groaned when she realized she had put the wrong books into her bag and proceeded to swap them out appropriately.

"Okay now I know there's really something going on." Puck waited to see if she'd say something and when she didn't, he decided to do a little prodding. "I seem to remember an agreement about trying to be friends. I pretty sure talking to each other is a part of that."

As much as Blair wanted to be annoyed with him for pointing that out to her, she couldn't. "Fine." Blair closed the locker and turned to face him. "You know how Sue does all sorts of messed up things to teach me a lesson or moral or whatever?" When Puck nodded, she continued. "Well now Sue is doing that to Mercedes and Mercedes won't listen to me."

"Don't punch me for this, but maybe it's something she needs to learn? Based off everything I've learned about Sue from you, she's a complete whack job but she has a heart somewhere. Just go with the flow and see what happens."

"I'm starting to feel like there's a lesson in this for me, too." Blair crossed her arms and leaned back against the row of lockers.

Now Puck was a bit curious. "And what's that?"

Blair looked down to the floor, not wanting to see him when she answered. "That maybe despite how much I want to fix everything…I can't."

The bell indicating they were going to be late for class so Blair rushed off away from him without another word.

Puck felt pretty good about this progression of their friendship. He and Blair had a conversation that didn't result in yelling or tears or any other strong emotion. It was just…normal. It felt good.

Puck was on his way to class when out of nowhere he was slammed against the lockers. He scoffed a chuckle upon seeing it was Liam who was the culprit. "Normal people say 'hey' when they want someone's attention."

Liam didn't even bother responding to that and got straight to the matter at hand. "Stay the hell away from Blair. You're not going to hurt her again."

Puck shoved Liam off him and actually laughed. "Still got a thing for her, huh? You had your chance, man, and you blew it. You've been friend-zoned. We all see it." His tone went from baiting to serious when he added in, "Not that it's any of your business but I have no intention of hurting her ever again."

Before anything else could be exchanged between them, a teacher came out into the hall and ordered the boys to get to class. They didn't say another word to each other and went their opposite ways to class.

Last period of school that day was replaced with a pep rally. Blair sat with Rachel and Jesse for it since pretty much all the other spots were taken. Before the rally started, Jesse actually had something to say to her.

"So how are things going at the music shop? You got a job there, right?"

Blair looked at him oddly. "Yeah…how did you know that?" She would have remembered if he was a customer.

"Owen told me there was a new girl who knew more about music than his boss. When he said her name was Blair and was an intimidating little Asian chick, I figured it had to be you." In case she wondered where he knew Owen from, he added in, "Owen is a member of Vocal Adrenaline. He's a senior."

"Thanks for the head's up. I'll be sure not to talk about Glee while I'm at work." Blair had no intention of finishing this conversation so she turned her attention to the Cheerios who were making their way onto the Gymnasium's floor.

Once all the Cheerios where standing in place, Mercedes came out and stood at the microphone. She took a deep breath before speaking into it. "Hey guys. I'm Mercedes Jones. So most of you know Cheerios is about perfection and winning, looking hot and being popular. Well, I thing that it should be about something different. How many of you at this school feel fat?" An array of students raised their hands. "How many of you feel like maybe you're not worth very much?" More students raised their hands, Blair included. "Or you're ugly, or you have too many pimples and not enough friends? Well, I felt all those things about myself at one time or another. Hell, I felt most of those things about myself today. And that just ain't right. And we've got something to say about it. And if you like what we have to say, come down here and sing it with us."

Blair thought she was going to cry when Mercedes started singing 'Beautiful'. She looked over to where Sue was sitting and shook her head slightly with a little smile on her face when Sue nodded once in her direction. How Sue's insanity continually worked, Blair had no idea. If she was back in her own Reality, she'd swear Sue was a Witch. But they weren't in her Reality, so Blair focused on this one and went down with the others to stand and sing with Mercedes and the Cheerios.

Once they were down there, Blair hugged Mercedes then stood beside her to continue with the song. The rest of the Glee kids went down, too, and just about everyone else stood up to show their solidarity. It was such a powerful moment that would never be forgotten. What was just as powerful was that Blair realized something; Maybe home wasn't a place but a feeling. And right there in that moment, singing with the people she cared about, sharing the meaning and the lesson with all those present…she was home.

End Season 1 Episode 16