It's six months before Burt calls him.

Rachel is standing in front of James and Leroy, performing her new ballet number, and she stops when the phone rings, sitting down to do her homework without either of them having to ask her to wait until he's done on the phone.

Leroy gets up, plucking the phone from its cradle and lifting it to his ear, "Leroy Berry speaking."

It takes a moment, and Leroy's eyebrows shoot into his hairline, but he covers the mouthpiece with his hand, "Honey, it's Burt Hummel..." It almost sounds like a question, and James stands quickly.

"I'll explain later, honey," he takes the phone from his husband and presses it to his own ear, "Burt?"

"Yeah. This is James now?"

James leaves the living room, moving to stand by the sink and stare out the window as he talks, "Is something wrong with your son?"

"No, I just–"the man sighs loudly and James moves the phone away from his ear for a moment, "I don't think anything is wrong, but he's only nine and I don't–I haven't seen him cry since he was five!"

"Oh," James says, and that's it.

"That's all you have to say? Oh? I thought you said you could help me!"

James swallows, "I can help you with the... with the gay stuff, Burt. This isn't because he might be gay. I don't know why he wouldn't be crying like a normal kid, but if something happened around that time, maybe it's affected him more than you thought."

Burt stays quiet for a moment; all James can hear is his breathing.

"Burt? Did something happen to Kurt when he was five?"

"His mom got sick. She passed away a few years ago," Burt chokes around the words and James wishes he knew how to help more than this, knew what to say, but he doesn't. "I'm sorry for bothering you with this. I'll just–I'll let you go."

The phone goes silent.