don't own Glee or Charmed!
Melinda stood on the edge of the ballroom, glancing around the large room as most of her family mingled with the other guests. PJ, Kat, and Tam were flirting with a couple of TV stars, while her mom and aunts were talking with some adults she didn't know, while her dad and uncles were sitting around their table and just talking to each other, and Chris and Bianca were keeping tabs on Parker, Peyton, and Henry Jr. She really had to search the room the room to find Wyatt and Kurt, but eventually saw them in a corner mostly hidden by a plant.
"Looks like they have the right idea." A voice behind her said, and she turned to see a man actually taller than her oldest brother, though not by much. He had a kinda goofy grin on his face, which she found extremely endearing, and he looked just out of place as she felt.
"That's my older brother, the blond one, and his boyfriend." She explained, hoping to have found someone she could at least talk to while she was here, and not be bored out of her mind.
She was hoping he would respond, that they really were starting a conversation, but his focus seemed to be on Kurt who was standing next to Wyatt, the two men having no idea they were being watched. "That's my brother Wyatt's boyfriend, Kurt..." She trailed off when the young man started walking away from her, but something told her to follow him.
"Kurt, why didn't you tell us you were seeing som..." He trailed off when Kurt turned to look at him in confusion, "Kurt?" The young man asked in confusion, looking around the room.
"I'm sorry, am I supposed to know you?" The questions was kindly asked, the confusion clear on Kurt's face as Wyatt wrapped an arm around his boyfriend's waist, though it was more of a show of support, not a show of possession.
"Yes...No...I'm so confused." The young man asked as he looked around the room for someone, "You look a lot like my brother, like a lot like him, you even sound more like him than he does." He paused when he saw the confusion on the rest of their faces, "I'm Finn by the way, Finn Hudson." He held out his hand for them to shake, but they were all staring at him in shock.
"I suddenly have a medley of Journey songs running through my head right now." It was obvious to her that Kurt hadn't meant to say that out loud, they were used to him having small flashbacks to his previous life, but none of them were big enough to tell them anything about him.
"That's my brother, out there on the dance floor." Finn pointed to a young man who looked remarkably like Kurt, though without the scar on his face, and who was obviously drunk, something that obviously made Finn very uncomfortable." He looked like he was about to approach his brother, but then a man about their parents age did, and almost forcefully removed the young man from the dance floor.
"Sorry, he's had some issues, and really shouldn't be drinking." Finn said when he realized they had seen the entire thing, and it was obvious he was embarrassed by the whole display. "He hasn't had the easiest of lives." He tried to explain it away.
"Hey, no need to explain it to us, we are all familiar with the ways people find to cope with things." Kurt answered for the three of them, and Melinda noticed that Finn seemed to hang on every word spoken by her brother's boyfriend, and she was starting to not like her chances of having possibly found a nice guy who was interested in her and not gay.
"I'm sorry, it is just really uncanny how much you remind me of my brother." Finn said again, not able to take his eyes off Kurt. They were all surprised when he turned to his left and called out to someone passing by, "Mom, look at him, doesn't he look like Kurt." A pretty older woman turned to look at an obviously uncomfortable Kurt, and they all saw confusion as well as tears fill the woman's eyes. "His name is even Kurt too, isn't that strange."
"You do look a lot like my son, well step-son really." The woman had tears in her eyes, but they for the life of them couldn't understand why she would be upset by finding someone who looked like her son, that shouldn't make anyone said, especially when they saw that said son was still alive and they were not having to come to terms with his death.
"Just wait till you hear him talk, Kurt's voice was deeper after they found him, but this guy sounds just Kurt did before he was taken." Finn continued talking as if it was not making things more awkward. "Dude, say something, you gotta hear this." Finn turned to his mom.
"Oh, sweetie, you don't have to say anything, and I'm so sorry if we are making you uncomfortable." The woman said, as she reached out to put a comforting hand on Kurt's shoulder, only to have him flinch away from her.
"Sorry, force of habit." Kurt said when he saw the sorrowful look on her face, "And surprisingly enough, it doesn't make me uncomfortable, it's almost like coming home, if that makes any sense to you Carole." Kurt said with a smile, "What?" He asked all of them when he saw the stunned look on their faces.
"She never said her name," Wyatt said quietly before looking at Carole, "Is that your name?" She nodded, unable to speak. "Kurt, is it possible..." Wyatt trailed off, as Kurt and Melinda knew what he was getting at. He was asking if it was possible that these people could be from his past.
"No...I mean it's not...It couldn't be..." Kurt was obviously in denial, but Melinda thought it was highly possible that these people were in fact people he'd known in his past, and looking at her brother he thought the same thing. It was at that point that the older man from before approached with the "Kurt Lookalike" in tow. "Dad..." they all turned at the stunned whisper from Kurt.
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Burt Hummel looked up at the whispered voice he hadn't heard in such a long time, and stopped in his tracks when he saw the face of the smaller man talking with his wife and stepson. It was obvious the young man following him wasn't paying attention to the fact that he had stopped as he collided with his back.
A million questions were running through his head as he stared into the eyes of his dead wife, looking back at him from the face of the son he'd lost, the son he'd thought he'd found.
He had been so happy when they had told him that Kurt had been found he had been willing to overlook just about everything about the boy that had been returned to him that said he might not really be his son. It was easy to write off Kurt's eyes darkening to a dark blueish gray when you thought about all that he had been through. The same with the deepening of Kurt's voice, damage done by the people who had taken him had deepened it. The differences in behavior were caused by the drugs he'd been hooked on when he was found. Deep down he was pretty sure he knew that the Kurt that had been returned to him was not the real Kurt, but he didn't want to admit it to himself as he knew the alternative, that his son was really dead, was just too painful to bear.
So he clung to what he had, and prayed with all of his might that it was real, that his son was home. He put him into rehab to deal with his drug habit, and again and again when he would slip. The family put the kid's needs before everything else, with the exception of Kate, and did everything they could to help him.
"NO WAY!" The kid behind him shouted as he sprang forward trying to get to Kurt. Luckily in his drunkenness it was easy for Finn and the tall blond who had his arm wrapped around who Burt was sure was the real Kurt to grab him and march him out of the ballroom, the rest of the group following. "Nicholson told me that if I did what he said I would never have to go back, I did everything he said, no one is going send me back." The kid fought all the way to the empty room Kurt the young lady with them had directed them to.
"What do you mean Nicholson told you?" The blond was very intimidating when he was angry, and it was not hard to miss how he put himself between the young lady and the other young man he'd been standing with in the ballroom. "I have no problem beating you to a pulp if it'll get you to talk." Burt really wished he knew this guy's name, he was really starting to like him.
"I'd talk to him, I've got connections with the local police department, and I have no problem using them to make sure he stays out of jail for beating you." Came another voice behind them, and he turned to see three men his age enter the room, along with a man and a woman Kurt and Finn's age.
"Nicholson told me if I learned everything there was to know about Kurt Hummel that I could take his place, I would never have to go back to living on the streets, I would never be hungry or beaten again. All I had to do was have plastic surgery to look like some pathetic teenager, and then I could take over his privileged life." The young man was spitting mad, "He told me you would be dead, that you would bear his child, and then he would kill you like he did the others. That..." He was cut off by the tall blond punching him across the face.
"Wyatt! Wyatt! That's enough." The older blond man and the young brunette who had entered the room after them sprang forward, both of them holding the tall blond, Wyatt back. "Calm down, this is not helping anyone, especially not Kurt." That calmed the young man down, and they both turned to see Kurt, the man Burt was sure was his real son, being held by the young lady as he rocked back and forth on the floor.
"Kurt, Kurt, I'm so sorry." Wyatt was kneeling next to them in a second whispering soothing words to Kurt. He wished he could say he saw Kurt getting better, but he seemed to not be getting through to him. No one was.
"Hey kiddo, you need to calm down before you make yourself sick." He whispered to Kurt just like he did when he was a kid. "You know neither on of us enjoys it when you're sick."
"I'm sorry daddy." The young man whispered as he unwound himself and practically crawled into his lap. It was pretty obvious that Kurt had no idea he was doing it, he was pretty sure he had no idea of anything going on around him. He quieted down a bit, and eventually looked up at Burt, "Dad? What are you doing here?" He looked so confused that Burt's heart ached for him. "Where have you been, I haven't seen you in ages." He then looked behind them, "And who are they?"
"Well that is Finn and Carole, though I don't know who the others are." He answered, and Kurt waved him off.
"I know who the rest of them are, I'm dating Wyatt, and that is his dad Leo and his brother Chris." He pointed to the young blond and the two men who had pulled him off the fake Kurt, "That is Bianca, Chris's girlfriend, and Wyatt and Chris's uncles Henry and Coop."
"Nice to meet you all," He said to the group of people his son knew, but he did not. "You really don't remember Finn or Carole?" He asked, and Kurt just shook his head. "Well, Carole and I got married your junior year of high school, and Finn is her son. You boys were in Glee Club together." He explained, though it was obvious it was not jogging any memories. "It's ok Kiddo, it's ok, we'll get through this."
"Dude, you remembered me a little bit, you mentioned the Journey songs back in the ball room, that was like half of our set lists for glee club." That was the great thing about Finn, and one of the things that made him such a great teacher, he was such an optimist. "So you don't remember us now, don't worry about it, we'll find a way to make you remember us." Finn's smile grew even bigger, "Dude, I can't wait for you to meet Kate!"