Slowly Kurt had calmed down a little. He had even agreed that talking about these things while in the middle of a road wasn't the best idea, so they'd gone home. Burt had tried to say something about how they needed to get moving somewhere else but Kurt wouldn't have any of it.
Driving back to the house felt oddly mundane, now, as though this entire afternoon and all the things it brought had never happened, and they could just go back to living their lives the way they always had, but after what he'd been told he doubted things would ever be the same again.
The car ride back had been tense and silent, with both Puck and Finn sensing there was something wrong, but not daring to ask again, after a few awkward attempts at making conversation. They probably thought both Hummels had gone crazy, but Kurt couldn't care less about that. Not that he ever gave much stock into other people's opinions, but this time his thoughts were so far from anything concerning those two that he had to strain to even remember their names.
When they pulled into the drive way he saw Blaine's car, and then noticed Blaine looking a little lost ringing the doorbell for what was probably at least a second time. It occurred to Kurt just now, that they had been supposed to meet for coffee and that he had no idea where his cell phone was. Probably should have tried to retrieve that.
Seeing Blaine gave him mixed feelings. Just a few hours ago he had been on cloud nine just thinking about his boyfriend, the fact that he even had a boyfriend, and now he had no idea who he even was, let alone how to deal with other people, what his future would be like. But seeing Blaine there, someone who he trusted and depended on was a big relief.
"Kurt! I was wondering where you were, you didn't show up for coffee, and I couldn't reach you on your cell phone, so I thought…" Kurt was greeted with when he opened the door and climbed out of the car.
"… Or am I being too pushy, right now?", he asked as he saw everyone else getting out of the car. "Did I miss something?"
"It might be better if you just went home, kid", Burt said. "There's some stuff going on that I don't want to drag you into."
"Huh? Why, what happened?", Blaine asked, for once forgetting his usually undying need to be polite to Burt.
"It's better for you not to know…" Burt started, but Kurt cut him off. "I want him to. Blaine, please stay."
"Are you sure…?", Burt asked and looked at him intently, but Kurt was not in the mood to deal with his Dad's paranoia right now. They had been found already, the thing that had always been the worst case scenario was here, what could telling people possibly do? And if Burt had already taken Finn and Puck along for the ride, Kurt felt it was well within his rights to tell Blaine, too.
Besides, Kurt wasn't so sure if he should really trust Burt right now. After being lied to all his life and never even noticing, though he was a telepath, he was right to be wary. Honestly, he was still not sure if letting Burt tell him was the best idea, and just looking into his head wouldn't be preferable, but he felt like he could still hear the blonde woman's screams.
Some new information couldn't make you change your opinion of someone you loved enough to want to do that to them.
"Let's go inside", Kurt said, and everyone followed him, Blaine exchanging questioning looks with Finn and Puck when Kurt wouldn't meet his eyes.
Kurt went straight into the living room, which looked exactly the same as it had the last time he had been there, but still felt completely foreign, as if he didn't belong there. Or any place that was intended for use by normal people. Real people.
Once everyone was inside, Kurt stood in one corner and gestured for everyone to sit down.
"Don't you want to sit?", Blaine asked, and Kurt just shook his head. Sitting just didn't seem compatible with his current disposition.
Burt looked at his son warily, but then sat down as well.
"Do you want to…", Burt started asking, but Kurt cut him off again. "Just get on with it. I'll know when you're lying, so try not to", he said coldly.
"Okay", Burt said, and looked around the room apprehensively. He took a deep breath. "Before I start, I need you to understand that I didn't tell you this whole story before, because I wanted to protect you. I didn't do that to deceive you, I did it, because I love you and I felt back when you were young that it was easier for you to hear a slightly different version."
"Fundamentally different", Kurt interjected.
"Both your mom and I thought it would be better for you. Maybe we were wrong, that's for you to decide, but we didn't mean any harm. But you are old enough to know the full story, so here goes…"
Secret government project. Now that was something most people couldn't put on their resume. Of course, even the people that it would apply to wouldn't put it on their resume, because it was top secret.
Everyone at Project Bluebird carried themselves with such a gravity that it felt wrong to be this excited to be drafted for it, but newly designated Agent Nevada couldn't help but be proud.
Out of all the military personnel they could've chosen, it was him. His qualifications, the quality of his work, and suddenly there he was, one of the top fifty agents assigned to one of America's most secretive and significant military projects.
Sure, he'd never actually been to Nevada, but apparently it didn't matter what you were codenamed for. What mattered was being important enough to actually get a codename and know the whole scope of the operation.
Walking around the compound in the discreet black suit that was his new uniform felt great. But going where he was going right now, he was filled with some level of trepidation. Being picked for superior special ops fighting training and having proven your worth in more than one high risk military operation was one thing…
… taking care of a baby was another. Or toddler. Or whatever. Apparently the kid could be between 6 months and two years old when he was assigned to it, and right now he had no information whatsoever as to which. He'd heard the briefing, and his ears were practically ringing from all the times he'd been told how important it was to observe these children and their abilities and how it was crucial to be judged by trained military professionals of the highest qualifications.
Still, he'd never really been good with children, and didn't know what to do at all. Because he'd asked, and if the child wasn't that old, diaper duty could definitely be on the itinerary.
But they weren't really children, he tried to remind himself. Not normal ones, anyway, and while you were supposed to gain their trust the one thing that was absolutely prohibited was getting emotionally attached. Best to refer to them only as test subjects of experiments, and not call them he or she because they were military assets, not real people. He wasn't too sure how he felt about that rule, but that was not the point. Following orders. He was good at that.
So maybe not being great with children would turn out to be a blessing. Easier not to grow attached when taking care of it was just an annoyance.
He could do this. He was trained to be able to deal with unknown situations. He'd adapt and handle this just fine.
With that in mind, he pushed open the door to the lab he was told to report to for his first assignment.
"Oh there you are", a voice greeted him in an annoyed tone.
"08.00 just like I was told", Agent Nevada answered after checking his watch. He was right on time.
"Am I supposed to be impressed?" the woman said and came out into view. She was wearing an immaculate lab coat, brown hair pulled back into a strict bun, with one or to strands escaping and finding their way onto her face. She pushed her glasses up, and Burt couldn't help but find her light green eyes somehow pretty.
But looks didn't really mean anything around here. Agent Maine was also quite attractive, but talking to her for more than a few minutes was enough to know that she was a total bitch.
"I'm Agent Nevada, here to pick up my assignment", he said, choosing to ignore her attitude.
"Yes, I know that. I have this thing called a schedule which tells me when a bunch of punctual people are going to show up during the day."
Burt wasn't quite sure what to say to that, so he decided to wait for her.
"Anyway, he's over there", she said, gesturing towards one area of the confusingly laid out lab.
"We're not supposed to call them he or she", Agent Nevada noted.
"No, you're not supposed to call them that. I don't follow the same rules, and when I say he I do it, so I don't need to waste another sentence telling you your test subject is male. And now you made me waste even more sentences explaining that to you."
"What, are you reaching your quota for the day?", Burt shot back. She looked up at him briefly with a look he couldn't quite read.
"His designation is 734", she said, and started walking towards the area she had indicated before, which Burt took as his cure to follow.
"Don't they usually have these greek letters in their names?", he asked while they were walking.
"You're new at this, aren't you? Those letters are what you're there to determine. At first all subjects got designated with greek letters, but once those ran out, they switched to a new system. The numbers are running indexes of all the created zygotes, no matter what their status, the latin letter after the name indicate their power level, and the greek letter indicates which priority their testing has. Both of which can only be determined after thorough examination and observation. Once both those values are assigned you don't need to observe any more and you'll receive a different test subject. Make sense?", she asked as she spun around in front of a door. Burt nodded.
"Good. You have all the guideline protocols and you've been briefed, so now you need to sign this", she said, and handed him a clipboard that had been hanging next to the door. "This means that you've officially taken guardianship of subject 734 and that he's no longer the responsibility of this lab."
"Okay. Um… pen?", he asked when he realized she hadn't given him one.
"You do know you're gonna have to write down your observations, don't you? You're gonna have some trouble with that without a pen", she said, but fumbled around in her coat pocket anyway, handing him a completely nondescript pen.
He scribbled his signature down at the form, and had to forcefully remind himself that he was Agent Nevada now and not Burt anymore, and then held the pen back for her. She raised her eyebrows. "You're probably the first Agent who's ever given back a pen after asking me for one", she commented somewhat impressed.
"You might find I'm full of surprises", he said with a charming grin as she put the pen back into her pocket. As she did, he noticed her ID tag. No title, no first or last name, just one word: Sigma.
Interesting.
"Yeah well I'm used to Agents saying that, and you know what? None of you are." She pushed open the door. "Meet your new charge."
She led him into a small nondescript white room with a small equally white playpen in it. In the playpen was a kid, no more than a year old with bright blue eyes and a wide grin on his face as they opened the door.
Sigma stepped in and Agent Nevada followed her. "Hey there", she said in a friendly tone and knelt down to talk to the kid. "This here is Agent Nevada. He's going to be your new friend, and take care of you. So you be nice to him, alright?"
Agent Nevada wasn't sure how much of that speech the little guy had actually understood, but he nodded enthusiastically. It. The test subject. It nodded enthusiastically. He'd have to do some work to get used to thinking that…
Sigma looked completely different dealing with the kid. She picked him up and rocked him a little, whispering something in his ears. A little more of that tenderness when dealing with grown ups would probably make her a lot more pleasant to deal with.
"Here, take him", she said softly and handed him the kid. It was lighter than he'd expected, and immediately started trying to climb onto the Agent's head. If he'd been someone who liked kids, and if this was a regular kid, he'd probably have described him as cute.
"You know where to go?", she asked, and fussed about the test subject's hair a little.
"Yes. The room has everything, or do I need to take anything?", Agent Nevada asked.
"Everything is there, including a schedule and detailed instructions on how to deal with certain situations. I'm sure a more or less intelligent guy like you can figure it out."
"Okay then", he said. "See you."
And with that he left the lab, with the little guy still trying to climb his head and giggling. He had no idea if that would mean he'd be easier to deal with, or harder.
Subject 734 was a lively kid, to be sure. Agent Nevada had noticed that immediately, and if he were completely honest (which he couldn't be, of course) he'd taken somewhat of a liking to that. It made dealing with him more pleasant, especially since he was pretty vocal about what he needed, so Agent Nevada got a hang of dealing with him rather quickly.
He hadn't really considered that that was something out of the ordinary here, until he'd first went to one of the strictly organized socializing events for test subjects of similar age groups. Which was basically a play date. The subjects were supposed to be supplied with everything they could possibly need to develop well, they were supposed to be read to, got access to a great variety of toys and some pretty advanced education for their ages.
And one thing that helped children out in the real world develop was of course playing with other children, so every day at 14:00 hours there was a playgroup which was organized by Sigma's lab.
Really, it was almost like parents taking their children to the playground, all Agents trying to measure their charge's development in comparison to the others, just like parents. Except that the parents were better dressed and the children more depressing.
Most of the children were, to say it scientifically, weird.
One girl kept spinning in a circle with absolutely no concern for the outside world, while one boy kept staring at his shoes and glaring at anyone daring to ask his attention.
Subject 734 looked a little out of place with all those very quiet kids that seemed to barely even acknowledge each other's presence. There was one girl there, who seemed more like him and they started building a sand castle together, giggling whenever they came up with a particularly great way of decorating it.
"Hey", one Agent next to Agent Nevada said and held out his hand. "You're new here, right? I'm Agent Washington, but everybody calls me Wash."
Agent Nevada shook his hand. "Yeah, I'm Agent Nevada. And I haven't been here long enough to come up with a good nickname, so that's just what I'm called."
"Right. Well, people around here will probably come up with one pretty soon, so you don't need to worry about that." Wash sat down on the bench next to him. "Things around here are less formal than what you're probably used to from the military, but way more competitive."
"Well, it's definitely not like any other project I've ever worked at."
"Didn't sign up for babysitting duties, huh? But don't worry, that's a big part of what we do, but not all. And in the end this is important work, and once the scientists get a little further this division is going to shape up to be one of the most important of all."
"I think I've heard that before", Agent Nevada mused. It sounded a lot like the speech he'd been given during his orientation after his transfer to this unit."
Wash gave a short laugh. "Yeah, it's not that original. But sometimes it's what you have to tell yourself when you're looking at a dirty diaper and wondering, 'how did this become my life?'"
"Probably. Which one's yours?", Nevada asked, even though he wasn't quite sure if that was the proper phrasing.
"That one, over there", Wash said, pointing at a girl who was doing an expert job at chewing on her bright pink dress. "It's one of the most promising experiments, actually."
"Well… is she supposed to be doing that, though?", Nevada asked, wondering vaguely if maybe someone should interfere.
"Not really, but I've tried to get her to stop and it just doesn't work. It needs something to distract from its pain, and this is just what it chose."
"What pain?", Nevada asked, concerned.
"Well most of them have some health problems, usually worse for the more powerful ones, so that's just par for the course. I could get the file and read out everything that's wrong with it, but suffice it to say, it's not pleasant." The casual way Wash said that seemed to prove that the other Agents had an easier time dealing with not getting emotionally attached. "So which one's yours?"
"That one", Burt said, pointing at subject 734, who was now playing hide and go seek with the little girl.
"Oh. Huh. Well, not to disappoint you on your first assignment, but I don't think it's going to have any powers. The healthy ones never do, and it looks like it's fine from here."
"What happens if it doesn't?" Agent Nevada was happy that he managed to say it, because he'd been close to misspeaking.
"Oh those? They get terminated, usually", Wash said, and turned to look back at the more or less playing kids.
Agent Nevada didn't really believe that until a week later his subjects' playmate didn't show up. And never did again, after that.