Recap: Blaine turned to head back to the mall, pulling out his phone to text Amanda like he should have done before running off. Suddenly, there was a hand on his back and he was yanked backwards before being thrown forward and slammed face first into the alley wall.

Blaine started to push back to try to get his attacker off of him but his right arms was quickly seized and twisted against his back and he didn't want to play "does my arm bend that way?" so he stopped.

"Why are you-" The voice was forceful but it cut off suddenly to be replaced by one much more familiar. "Shit." Blaine was released and he used his new freedom to put more than an inch between himself and the wall then to turn around and rub his arm.

"Amanda?" Amanda stood a few feet away. She no longer looked tired or sick- she was alert and looked frustrated, bordering on angry.

"Why are you following me?" Blaine blinked as he tried to form words despite his confusion. Consequently, he voiced the first thought that came to mind.

"Aren't you sick?" Amanda but a hand to her face as she groaned slightly.

"Why must you always be so nice?" Blaine wasn't sure what to do with that. Amanda had evidently collected her thoughts though. She removed her hand from her face and spoke quickly and quietly. "Look, I'm fine. You are going to go back to the New Directions and tell them that my mom came and picked me up. Then, you'll enjoy the movie and the time with our friends." Blaine shook his head.

"No way." Amanda was clearly not pleased with his answer, but Blaine wasn't particularly worried. "I'm not an idiot Amanda. Something's really wrong and I'm not just going to leave you to deal with it." Amanda frowned.

"Blaine, I appreciate your desire to help but there is really nothing you can do." They stared each other down for a second, then Amanda shook her head and started to leave. Blaine grabbed her arm to prevent her from leaving.

"Tell me what's going on." He swore he caught a bit of amusement in her eyes, which threw him completely. Why the hell was she amused in this situation? The amusement was quickly gone though, and she studied him for a second before nodding.

"I will tell you what's going on. But first we should go to your car; it's a more secure location." Blaine nodded and they exited the alley side by side. As he led the way to his car, he tried to figure out what was wrong. Amanda wasn't acting anything like herself- she was alert and seemed to be studying her suroundings. The closest example of her behavior he could think of was that flash of something dangerous he'd seen when Kitty had slushied Amanda and Marley. He wondered if something had happened with the bullies- were they after Amanda now? Did something happen with Kitty?

By the time they were settled into his car, Blaine behind the wheel and Amanda in the passenger seat, he was very anxious. Amanda glanced around and pulled out her cell phone, pushed some buttons, then set it on the dash before continuing.

"Blaine, I will start by apologizing. I've lied to you." Blaine wasn't sure which of the scenarios flying through his head this fit in with. "I'm not from New Jersey, I didn't move here because my mom got a new job, and my name is not Amanda." He didn't even fully process what she had said for a second because, really, this wasn't a scenario he'd ever have thought of.

"What?" He didn't realize he'd spoken until she responded.

"I'm basically in witness protection," she explained, this time a little gentler and less frank. "My name's actually Barbara Gordon." Blaine's mind was reeling but he managed to center on one thing: his friend who had gotten him to open back up to everyone had been freaking lying to him about everything.

"Why?"

"My father, James Gordon, is the police commissioner in Gotham City." Blaine figured that explained Amanda's- Barbara's?- alert nature and ability to take on a couple football players. He'd heard of Gotham and its insane crime rate. He nodded to show understanding. "He has been trying to eliminate a particularly nasty crime family from the city. Said family took this personally and made some threats against me if he didn't stop. There was a bit of an attack on my school and then I got shipped off to Ohio." Blaine nodded to show he'd heard before he tried to actually process everything.

"Wait. A bit of an attack?" Blaine felt a little silly for focusing on this when his friend had just told him she was a completely different person who had a crime family after her, but he found himself hung up on it. She shrugged.

"Couple of gunmen. They weren't intelligent enough to find me though so it wasn't a big deal."

"A couple of…" Blaine trailed off. What would be bad for her?

"Really, that was minor. This is worse." Blaine was snapped out of his debate over whether he knew this girl at all by the word "this". That was right, something had happened which triggered the whole revelation.

"Obviously they've been looking for me," she pointed out. "Thus I dyed my hair, became a cheerleader, swapped the gender of my parent, et cetera. It's also why I was mostly absent over Thanksgiving. Someone tipped them off that I was in Lima."

"So they know where you are?" Amanda-Barbara shook her head.

"That wouldn't have been too much of a problem. No, they went and got it wrong." Blaine tilted his head in a silent question. "You know that girl you spent your time with over break? Rachel?"

"Rachel?" Blaine repeated. She nodded.

"It was probably because she was obviously visiting or something," she noted. "But either way, I'm about 85% certain they think she is me." It took about five seconds for Blaine to figure out that this meant the crime family was after Rachel.

"THEY WHAT?"

"That's why I'm telling you all this. Ten minutes ago I was going to leave you in that alley by any means necessary. But- the fact is I've never actually met Rachel. If I'm going to travel all the way to New York to find this girl, it might help to have someone who knows where to look, and who she'll listen to." Blaine blinked.

"You're going to New York?"

"I was starting to work out how I'd get to the airport before you started following me. Though, I want to make it perfectly clear that you have absolutely no obligation to be involved in this. You're welcome to leave now and I won't think any less of you." Blaine gave himself a little time to think about it. There was a part of him that wanted to get as far away from Amanda/Barbara as possible because she'd been freaking lying to him about everything and he now severely doubted she had ever been his friend (another part of his mind protested that she'd coaxed him out of his shell so she must care at least a bit). But his instinct was to ignore whether Amanda was ever his friend because he did believe her when she told him Rachel was in danger.

"So we're going to the airport?" he confirmed, starting his car. Barbara blinked at him.

"You really are a much braver person than anyone gives you credit for," she informed him as she fastened her seatbelt.