Tina didn't waste any time after school got out before she asked her father if he could just drop her off at Mercedes house. She knew it probably wasn't the brightest idea to show up unannounced, especially now. But she wanted to talk to Mercedes first, because she knew that she would only be furious with her. She could handle that, actually, she thought that she preferred for the girl to scream at her. It would be a lot better than seeing Kurt and knowing that she had hurt him. Again.

"Um, hi Tina. I'm not sure if Mercedes is…up for visitors at the moment." Ms. Jones said, trying to be polite even though the resentment and disapproval was clearly written on her face. Tina's eyes filled, and before she had a chance to stop herself, she was crying. Great, now she thought she was pathetic and backstabbing liar.

"Ms…I'm so sorry! I know you don't want to hear this, but I swear that I never said any of those things Quinn told Mercedes! They just…they…" She tried to choke out as her sobs cut her off. And these weren't soft little girly sobs either, no that wouldn't be humiliating sobs. These were shacking, snotty, oh-my-God-are-you-having-a-seizure sobs. And they simply wouldn't stop. So she cried, closing her eyes because the pain in her chest was almost unbearable. Before she knew what was happening, she had a pair of hesitant arms around her.

"Shh honey, now what were you saying?" She asked, trying to sound comforting, but she could tell that the woman still didn't trust her. A horrible noise came from her mouth before she had a chance to stop it,

"They…they set me up. They wanted to get back at me, so they told Kurt and Mercedes all those things about me, and I just can't believe it! I just…I'm so sorry!" She said, feeling a little bit better when Ms. Jones' arms tightened around her, her fingers running down her hair.

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry. Mercedes…she isn't very happy as you would expect. She's upstairs with Kurt, but I need to warn you, if you're lying to me, I won't hesitate to throw you out of my house, ok?" She said, pulling her back to look in her eyes seriously. She seemed to relax when she saw Tina's eyes only held relief.

"I wouldn't lie about this 'mam, they're my best friends. I…I couldn't do this." She said, wiping the tears from their eyes. "Have they been out of school since Tuesday?" She asked hesitantly, only knowing that the video was taken Tuesday. Ms. Jones' eyes got dark.

"Yes, both I and Mr. Hummel decided to just let them skip this week. They have had enough to deal with this week, and honestly, I don't think I would feel comfortable letting Mercy go to school. They're…they're both a mess." She said, looking upset herself as she glanced at the staircase. "How much do you know about what happened?"

"I know everything Jenna videotaped. F…Someone gave me the video today because he felt sorry and I came right away. If you don't mind me asking…what happened afterwards?" She asked, hesitating because she knew that this might be too much to ask.

"From what I hear, they ran out of school and walked back to Kurt's house because they knew that he should be working. But apparently they didn't think it would take so long because by the time they came up, we were all there, about to go looking for them. They were…they looked really bad. They were both really scared, so we didn't even get a chance to yell at them about how scared we were before they told us all that happened. Ever since then, we've been switching off days to look after them. Today is my day, and tomorrow is Burt's. It's horrible to watch. If we aren't careful they'll start and be scared all over again for the next hour. You have to open the door, make sure they know you there, speak quietly…I'm sorry, I'm rambling." She said, laughing nervously. They stood awkwardly for a few moments before Mercedes' mother lead her to her daughters room. And just like that, Tina was standing at the mouth of the lion's den. She took a deep breath and opened the door quietly.

A movie was playing from the TV, but it was quiet and hardly noticeable. The two figures on the bed didn't seem to be watching it anyway. Mercedes had her head resting on Kurt's shoulder, his head leaning toward hers. Their hands were intertwined, but Mercedes free hand was wrapped around her body. She seemed to be at least half asleep. Kurt was running his fingers through her hair lazily, looking tired himself. And then he saw her, and the half smile he had been wearing vanished.

"Tina?" He said, his voice an octave higher than usual from shock. Mercedes opened her eyes and didn't waste anytime before glaring at the girl.

"Oh hell to the no, what makes you think you can just waltz in here after all you did? You want to make it worse or something? Or are you here to apologize, because honestly Tina, there is nothing to say." She said, her eyes narrowing and her words containing enough venom to give Tina chills. She tried to take a breath to calm herself, but she could already feel the tears rising again.

"I know what it looks like Mercedes, but please, please just hear me out. I had no idea that this was going on. I didn't even know about it until today!" She tried to remain calm, but she knew her voice was nearing a scream at the end. It was silent for a moment, the tension in the air palpable enough to cut through.

"Why should we trust you Tina? I'm not trying to be mean, but deep down, we all honestly knew that you would probably go back to the popular crowd once you realized what being with us meant. We just didn't expect you to be so mean about it." Kurt said, his voice nearing a whisper, but it held the same chill that Mercedes' had.

"Wh…why would you think that I would do something like this?" She asked quietly, honestly afraid of the answer.

"Because you've done it before Tina. You need people to accept you more than anything else in the world. You would never admit it, but you do." He said, trying to be gentle, but his eyes told his real feelings. He was wary of her, he didn't believe her. And why should he? She tried to argue her point, but Mercedes cut her off.

"Don't even try to deny it Tina. I haven't even known you as long, and I know that you cant deal with someone not thinking well of you. Is this what you had to do for them to accept you? Do you realize that one of us could have been seriously hurt on top of the humiliation of being dumped on camera? If you actually wanted to apologize, why didn't you come days ago?"

"Because I didn't even know until today! That's what I've been trying to tell you, I had no part in this! The only way I figured out was because I got this!" She said, holding the DVD up. Both pairs of eyes widened in surprise.

"Who…who gave you that?"

"Finn, but you cant tell anyone. He's scared half to death that someone is going to figure out he slipped it to me. I came right after I saw it. I'm so sorry about this, but I didn't know. Jenna just wanted to get back at me, and you guys were the easiest way for her to do that." She pleaded, hoping fervently that they would understand. They looked at each other in that way that you knew they had to be reading each other's minds.

"Why should we believe you Tina? Give us one good reason." Mercedes said, her voice level.

"Because you two are the best friends I've ever had! I've never actually been myself around anyone but you two. Because every single word of what you said was true, but being friends with you has made me realize that being accepted isn't really that important. Why should I ever need the world when I have friends as amazing as the two of you? I hated Jenna and Quinn, but I put up with them because I was stupid and didn't know what I was missing. And now that I know, I think it would kill me to let it go. I could never hurt you, either of you, that way. Not again." She said, pouring out every emotion she was feeling as she spoke. Mercedes looked like she was mostly convinced, but to her surprise, Kurt still looked wary. Like she was a dog that was about to bite him. The tears came without hesitation.

"Kurt, I know that you have absolutely no reason to trust me. You didn't have a reason to trust me when you took me back, and you certainly don't now. But I can honestly say that all of those years when I sat with Jenna and listened to her rant, I wished that I hadn't been so stupid to let you go. You're the one person that saw through my quiet face and saw me for me. When we met, we agreed that we would make sure that we would never leave each other lonely. And I left you alone for years. I know that you have Mercedes now, and I've hurt you more than should ever be allowed. But the only thing I want is to make it up to you, and I'll do anything to do it. Just name it. Seriously." She said, realizing that she was one the floor in front of the bed where they were sitting, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She would beg if she had to.

"I'll forgive you if you tell me exactly what I said when we met." He said, looking seriously into her eyes. She thought back, desperate to get this right.

"You said that no one should ever have to be sad alone." She said, realizing where he was going with this. A single tear rolled down her face, but he brushed it away.

"Exactly. I can tell that you're telling the truth, and from what it seems, this is killing you just as much as it is us. I'm just…this is a horrible misunderstanding, and obviously, they almost got what they wanted. To separate us and make us hate each other. I hate letting them win, but I also never go back on a promise. It may be absolutely stupid of me, but as long as you let me, I'm never going to let you be sad alone." He said, gently tilting her face up to make sure she had heard him. The stream of tears they had all been holding back was set free, and before any of the three knew what was happening, they were all on the bed, crying and holding onto each other.

"Tina came by earlier today. None of the kids have come down." Ms. Jones informed her husband the second he walked through the door. He put his coat on the rack, trying not to look too concerned. If Delia hadn't burst into the room from the sound of screams, nothing could have gone terribly wrong, right?

"How long have they been up there?"

"Almost three hours now. Mercy was yelling for a little while, and so was Tina, but now it's completely quiet. Cal, what do we do?" She asked, feeling useless for having to ask her husband what she should do to deal with three teenage kids.

"Let's just go check on them, and ask if Tina is staying the nice. If things are too rough in there, we'll just call Tina's parents to come and get her." He said, taking his wife's hand as they made their way up the stairs into their daughter's room. No screaming yet, he noted as they turned onto the hallway. With a deep sigh, he opened the door slowly. Both parents peaked their heads in cautiously, as if they were afraid something would come flying at them. They certainly didn't expect all three children to be asleep, curled up together on Mercedes' twin sized bed.

"Should we…"

"No, let them sleep. They're too peaceful." Mr. Jones said, closing the door as softly as he could. After creeping back down the stairs, he picked up the phone to explain the situation to the Cohen-Chang's. They were surprisingly understanding and kept up with the drama of their daughter's life amazingly well. They asked if someone could just bring her back by their house whenever the children woke up and got moving and said they would call the school to say that she was preparing for the Chinese New Year. For some reason, Tina's father had quite a lot of leverage in the school system. Something about the school board had been informed he was a vampire or something? But at the moment, it didn't matter. He walked back into the kitchen to find his wife on the phone with Burt Hummel. He walked up to her, putting his arms around her stomach just the way she liked. She leaned her head against his shoulder as a sound was heard on the other line.

"Hey Burt, we were just wondering if Kurt could spend the night. Yeah, the kids are asleep." She said, waiting for a moment as his worried voice came through to where even her husband could hear it. She smiled, feeling successful as a mother for the first time this week.

"No nothing's wrong, I think something has finally went right."

A/N You didn't think I would just end my Tina/Kurt/Mercedes friendship, now did you? Nope, im just getting started! And yes, I could use some ideas! I know basically where this fic is going, but I started out with a climax and all of this is just a whole lot of leading up to that. Next, we are going to high school! Wonder what kind of crazy shenanigans will happen there? Oh, and if you guys are reading this and you could find it in your kind, sweet hearts to review, that would be amazing! I really need feedback, I kind of thrive on it. So, peace my wonderful readers (Oh, can I get a fan girl scream for the Klaine moment tonight? Aww!)