Kurt stared at the screen in shock for a moment, his mouth hanging open. 'He's – Karofsky...'

'Kurt-' Blaine quickly turned the monitor off and turned Kurt to face him. 'Kurt, it's not him. It's not – he seemed perfectly nice, and normal and-'

'I know. I know. I'm fine. It's fine. I'm not freaking out. Or anything.' His cheeks had flushed red. 'Weird. Right?'

'Yeah.'

'So he's married. With a kid.'

'And so are you...'

'It's just weird.'

'I know.'

'Right?'

Xxx

'Daddy?' Caissie appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, where Kurt had been fixing a drink. 'Um, can I head over to Chandler's, Saturday night, for dinner, please?'

'Uh – sure,' Kurt nodded, remembering the at-least-pretend-to-be-okay-with-it talk Blaine had given him the night before.

'I might need a ride back...'

'Oh, could you ask dad? I think' – I think I don't want to go over to their house – 'I might be busy Saturday night.'

'Sure,' she grinned before heading into the living room.

Xxx

'Blaine? Blaine!' A short, blonde-haired woman ran up behind Blaine, tapping him on the shoulder just as he exited the theatre. 'The ASM is sick, I know you were supposed to have tonight off but please, please could you manage this show? I wouldn't ask if we weren't desperate, besides, our leading actress has stomach flu, she puked twice while I was on the phone to her.'

'Um – fine. Okay, sure,' Kurt was the only thing on Blaine's mind. He had taken the evening off his stage management job so he could pick up his daughter from the Karofskys', so Kurt didn't have to. But problems like this at the theatre didn't happen every day. He sighed and grabbed his phone to call Kurt.

'What do you mean, you have to work?'

'There's been an emergency here. I'm so sorry, Kurt.'

'It's fine. I'll be- yeah. It's silly if I just stay away. I have to – yeah.'

'I am so sorry.'

'It's fine.'

'I love you.'

'Love you too.'

Xxx

'You're a grown man...' Kurt mumbled to himself, hands gripping the steering wheel. 'You are not afraid of someone's house...' He glanced out the window at the perfectly unintimidating neat little house, then sighed. 'Well, let's just hope his wife answers the door...' He got out of the car, and much sooner than he would have liked, found himself standing on the doorstep, having just rung the bell. The door started to open, and Kurt held his breath until a petite brunette woman was revealed. She smiled warmly at him.

'You must be Caissie's father.' He nodded, relieved, reaching out to shake her hand. 'I'm Summer Karofsky.'

'Kurt Hummel.' He smiled.

'Do come in, Kurt, I'll go fetch the kids.' She gestured for him to stand in the reception. He nodded gratefully and glanced around as she hurried off. The room was pale yellow and several school pictures were hung in line on the – was that a wedding photo? Kurt stepped forward, peering at it. He had no way of knowing how old it was but Karofsky looked very much the same. Just older. And in a suit. He looked happy in the photo, which set Kurt's mind back again to that time in the locker room. Was Karofsky not even sure if he was gay? Why had he kissed him, then? There were better ways to experiment if you were a little curious. The way he'd grabbed Kurt, and had looked so desperate made Kurt think he actually was... Unless he was, in which case he had now been lying to himself for over two decades, which just made Kurt inexplicably feel really sad.

His breath hitched as he saw someone appear in the doorway across the room.

Him.

'Hummel?'

'K- Dave.' Kurt nodded, pulling his scarf tighter round his neck. 'Good to see you.'

'You're Caissie's father?' Kurt hated the way his daughter's name sounded coming from the other mans lips.

'I am. Yeah.' He bit his lip. 'One of them.' Dave's eyebrow quirked.

'Huh. S-small world.' He tried to smile. Kurt met his gaze stonily.

'I never told anyone.' Dave's eyes widened.

'Oh- uh, yeah. Right. Me neither.' He coughed, then looked up as three sets of footsteps coming down the stairs sounded. 'Good to meet you.' He nodded.

'You too.' Kurt managed a smile as he saw his daughter coming down the stairs, gripping Chandler's hand. 'Hey, Cais.'

'Hey dad!' She glanced at Summer and Dave. 'Thank you so much for having me, Mr and Mrs Karofsky.'

'It was our pleasure, Caissie, you're always welcome here.' Summer smiled.

'Bye,' Chandler said shyly, as though debating whether to kiss her or not.

'Bye, Chandler.' Caissie smiled at him, briefly touching his arm. She followed Kurt out the door, after a few more minutes of pleasantries.

'Did you have a nice night?' Kurt asked shakily.

'Yeah, Chandler showed me his guitar, you know he can play some of that old Katy Perry stuff you still listen to?'

'Great.'

'Daddy, are you okay?'

'Huh? Yeah, why wouldn't I be?'

'You look crazy pale.'

'Oh. Yeah, I think there's something going round. I'll take some medicine when we get home.'

Xxx

This was a really difficult to write chapter, for some reason. Writing a 16 year old girl is inexplicably awkward, I'm not sure why, since I am one myself... And I wasn't sure how the interaction between Kurt and Karofsky would have gone. I just wanted to get the initial stuff out of the way before the twists and turns start happening.

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