The sensible thing to do was advance quietly and check out the situation, as long as they had no idea what they were dealing with. There were a million possible explanations for the shop being empty, many devoid of conspiracies, but without knowing it was better to err on the side of caution.
Alternatively, one could also take a somewhat drugged Finn Hudson into a garage full of car parts, tools, and some pieces of furniture, all conveniently located to trip over.
After the inevitable crash had resounded through the garage, Kurt gave up all pretenses of sneaking, and went back to check, if Finn had broken anything, but Frankenteen had already managed to pick himself up off the floor.
Kurt looked around the garage more carefully now, but also moving more quickly. Things didn't seem to be out of place, and he could find no evidence of any sinister reasons for the absence. But he couldn't find anything to tell him why no one was there, either.
He pulled out his cellphone and stared at it undecided for a while. He was quite honestly at a loss as to what he should be doing next, and he couldn't just ride around town looking for his Dad randomly. And even though he had been told more than once, should worst come to worst, to just make a run for it on his own, but he had no way of knowing if that was actually the case.
And honestly, when talking about it in theory, it had seemed somewhat reasonable, but now, faced with the reality of it, he realized he wasn't exactly ready to run away, start a new life and stay hidden indefinitely.
So screw plans.
He hit his Dad's name on the display and pressed the phone to his ear, listening anxiously to the dial tone. No answer. Which, again, could mean any number of things, but all the scenarios his mind was drawn to weren't exactly favorable.
And there went that idea. Because what options did he have? Just go back home and hope his attempts at manipulating the agents' thoughts were enough to keep them away from Lima forever, pretending that nothing was wrong.
Kurt just knew he was probably not that lucky.
Finn's cell phone started ringing. As he watched the taller teen pick up, Kurt had to hope against hope that Finn wouldn't say anything stupid about the situation they were in.
"Hey… Puck", Finn said, slowly and still seemed a little too dazed to carry a conversation.
"Yeah… don't know", Finn said and Kurt got the impression that he wasn't really listening to what Puck was saying.
Kurt resumed looking around the garage. The only theory he could come up with as to his Dad's absence had a lot to do with the people he and Finn had encountered before, but why would everyone else have left as well?
And it didn't look like they left in the middle of doing things, either. It looked a lot like it did when they closed up for the evening, everything put into place more or less neatly. When they were in the middle of work, or left for a lunch break, things would be lying around, so they didn't leave in a hurry.
"Oh, you saw Burt?", Finn asked his phone, and Kurt whipped around so quickly that anyone with lesser balance would've fallen over. "I think we're looking for him, actually", Finn managed to say, not quite back at his usual speed of talking.
Kurt stalked over there and held out a hand impatiently. Finn handed the phone over immediately. Bless his more or less drugged state. You wouldn't expect it, but Finn was actually a lot easier to deal with, with his thoughts at half speed.
"Where did you see him?", Kurt asked without preamble.
"What's up with Finn?", Puck asked. "Is that where my latest batch of cupcakes went?"
"You're still making those? But that's not the point, he'll be fine, where did you see my Dad?"
"At this warehouse, I was just here to -" Kurt cut him off before he could get any farther in his explanation.
"I don't care why you're there, where is the warehouse, and what made you mention it?"
"Okay, nevermind what's up with Finn, what's up with you?"
"Puck…"
"Well I noticed, because I didn't think Burt would be hanging out this side of town, and there was this weird dude he was arguing with. I don't know why, but that guy kind of gave me the creeps", Puck explained. "Not that Puckzilla gets scared of something, there was just something off about the guy."
"When was that?", Kurt asked. He actually wanted to know more details about the guy, in order to be sure it was even one of the people he thought it might be, but he couldn't waste time of that. If it wasn't he was just interrupting his Dad talking to an obnoxious costumer, or something, and under these circumstances he was pretty sure no one was going to have a problem with that.
"I don't know, like five minutes ago?"
"Where is it?", Kurt demanded bluntly. Puck rattled off the directions, and Kurt grabbed Finn by the arm to drag him back to the car, which looked like it surprised the tall teen, but he went along with without protest, anyway.
He hung up and wrestled Finn into the car, slamming the passenger door shut. Then he walked around as quickly as he could, and before Finn had even clicked his seatbelt, they were already moving. On the way he felt irrationally angry with all the regulations of traffic, specifically stop signs, red lights and speed limits. But he didn't break any, because he knew he drawing attention to their car right now could prove to be a very bad idea. Not that the Navigator didn't draw plenty of attention all by itself.
When he arrived there, he was surprised to see Puck was waiting for them. Now that they were there, Kurt actually remembered the location. His dad had rented out some space in that warehouse for storing parts that weren't as frequently needed, or simply too bulky to store in the garage.
Kurt got out quickly, and shot past Puck, not bothering with a greeting. He also didn't lock the car as he normally would, because Finn was still trying to figure out how to exit the vehicle without getting too closely acquainted with gravity.
The door to the warehouse was open, but Kurt needed an instant to orient himself in the room. He hadn't been there all too often, but he was reasonably certain that their storage compartment was to the left.
As soon as he heard voices in that direction he slowed down, careful not to make too much sound. He tried to find out how many people were there, by using his powers, but his heart was beating a little too loudly in his ears for him to focus properly.
"Ohio, huh? To be honest, I was a little disappointed when we didn't find you in Nevada", an unfamiliar voice said.
"You know as well as I do, that those code names don't really mean anything", his father's gruff voice responded.
"No, you're right. Though I hear Agent Arkansas went there on vacation once, as a child. I know what you're doing, though."
"And what would that be?", Burt asked.
"You're trying to stall. This warehouse, talking to me… and it would be a more or less successful tactic, if I were the only one of us looking in this town. But I've already dispatched two other agents to your house, so you might as well quit wasting both our time."
Kurt slowly crept closer, as he listened for his father to answer. He didn't though, so the unfamiliar man carried on.
"I honestly don't understand you, though. Even after all these years, I still don't get why you did all this. Go through all this trouble, for one text subject. Throwing away your career, for what? Playing mechanic in some backwater little town in the middle of nowhere?"
Puck and Finn had apparently followed Kurt, and he gestured for them to keep quiet. Finn was still in his weird mind set that made him happily go along with orders, while Puck looked vaguely intrigued. Kurt had no idea what Puck made of all this, but he seemed content to go along with it for now. Maybe he thought it was a prank or something. Puckzilla was always up for a good prank.
"The fact that you, and I'm guessing most of the other people at that place don't understand is the reason I don't want any career there", Burt said.
"Too bad. I always thought you could've been promising. But I guess that ship sailed as soon as you stole the military's property."
Kurt peered into the doorway, and almost forgot breathing at the sight in front of him. His Dad, in his usual coveralls talking calmly to a man in a grey suit. Who had a gun pointed at him.
He wasn't quite sure, what he was doing, to be honest, but Kurt knew he couldn't sit idly by. He checked the vicinity for other thought signatures, but came up empty.
And then he launched himself into the man's mind. The idea was really just to get him to drop the gun, but as the man crumbled to floor, out like a light, Kurt realized he may have been a little too forceful in his intrusion. He had never actually made anyone loose consciousness before with his power, and to have done so without meaning to left Kurt feeling a little startled.
Gun wasn't pointed at anybody, anymore though. Success.
His Dad looked at the man dumbfounded for a moment, and then looked at the doorway.
"What are you doing here?" Burt snapped as soon as he spotted Kurt in the doorway. Kurt entered the room.
"Saving you from the bad guy with the gun?", Kurt suggested.
"You shouldn't've come", Burt said. "Why are you even here?"
"There were people at the house. I got rid of them, but I had to find you."
"What people? Agents?", Burt asked. As Kurt nodded, he exclaimed, "And you got rid of them and then decided to come here? You know better than that! We've had this conversation!"
Indeed they had. Many times. Maybe that was why it had taken them so long to get around to a sex talk. They had been all too busy with the "what to do if shady government agents come to take you away to experiment on you." And most of the content of those talks had been to run like hell and never look back.
"Finn was there. At the house, and they thought he was who they were looking for. I couldn't just leave him there", Kurt protested.
Burt looked torn at that. He let out a sigh. "Still, you shouldn't have sought me out."
"Honestly? Maybe that original plan wasn't as well thought out as it could've been. Do yo really think I could just go off on my own and get myself a new identity, without any help? Much less with Finn involved."
"I shouldn't have married her", Burt said quietly. "We never should've dragged them into this."
"Dad, we didn't know they were still looking for us. It's been so many years, I didn't think…"
"Well, you don't know them as well as I do. I should've realized, they wouldn't let up so easily", Burt said, looking introspective.
"Okay, stop it right there, Dad. All of this talking about what we should've done isn't getting us anywhere. Maybe you're right, and getting attached here wasn't the smartest thing to do, but we didn't know that at the time, and you deserve happiness just like anyone else does. Marrying her wasn't a mistake. The more important thing is, what to we do now?"
"We go. I assume you took some things?", Burt asked with that intense look of his, making sure that his son had heeded at least a little bit of their original talks' warning.
"Okay, what is going on here?", Puck asked, entering the room with Finn following him.
"You brought them here?", Burt asked incredulously.
"I didn't bring Puck, he was the one who saw where you were. And I couldn't just leave Finn at home, what if they came back?", Kurt defended his actions. To be honest, he really didn't feel ready for all of this. Even though they had had that talk about what to do, now that there were actually people there, proof other than his powers for what his Dad had warned him about, he felt incredibly ill-prepared.
"Who is they? What's going on?", Puck asked, looking between the two Hummels. Apparently having people act mysteriously had lost its novelty, and now he wanted to solve the mystery.
"It's not your problem", Burt said gruffly. "The less you know, the better. Come on, Kurt let's go."
"Go where?"
"We'll figure that out soon, but you know we can't stay in Lima." And just then Kurt realized what that really meant. Sure, before Glee he couldn't wait to get out, and he'd sometimes lain awake, just hoping for some sinister government figures to come, so he would have an excuse for leaving, and starting over somewhere else.
Now, though.
Now he had Blaine, and Mercedes, and all his new directions friends, not to mention Finn and Carole, who were probably not included in his Dad's relocations plans. And he would just vanish from their lives. Not being able to say goodbye, no staying in touch with anybody… He wasn't particularly attached to Lima, the town, but the thought of never seeing any of the people again gave him a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"So we're leaving, just like that?"
"You always knew that this could happen, Kurt. Don't try to argue with it now, you know perfectly well that we have to."
Of course he knew. But knowing and doing were two very different things.
"I… I could make him forget", he blurted out, pointing at the man on the floor. "I convinced the others that they were wrong, and I could just alter his memory, as if he'd never seen you here. And then they'd have to leave, thinking there was nothing in Lima, and never bother us again."
His father looked at him with one raised eyebrow. "And can you guarantee, one hundred percent, that he won't remember? I'm pretty sure you've never done something as elaborate before. And unless you can be completely sure, it's not something we can risk everything on", Burt said.
Kurt swallowed. He really wanted to say that he was sure, that he could just make this all go away, but he couldn't lie to his Dad. There were a lot of maybes in this plan, and betting everything on it wouldn't be a smart thing to do.
Still, there were few things Kurt could think of that he wanted more than just pretend all this had never happened and just go back to everything the way it was.
"You can try that thing anyway, it might give us more of a head start", Burt conceded.
"Oh", a voice from behind them said, and they both swirled around to the doorway, where the blonde from before was standing. "Well in order to get a head start, we would need to let you leave first, wouldn't we?"
A/N: Thanks so much for all the alerts and favs. But, if you have a moment, I'd love to hear what you think :)