Glee Club had barely finished for the day when Jake's phone rang. He checked and correctly deducted that it was Marley. He said goodbye to the others and answered on his way to exit the school.

"Hello?"

"Jake, hi, I need to talk to you." She sounded urgent, frantic, scared. It worried her boyfriend.

"Yeah, okay," he replied, not wanting to bombard her with questions if she was okay. That wouldn't help her state. "What's up?"

"Err…" She sounded hesitant. "Are you with anyone?"

Jake looked around to see if there was anyone else in the hallway. There wasn't. "No. Glee Club's just finished, so I'm on my way home."

"Can I talk to you in person?"

It seemed strange as they could talk now on the phone, but he agreed nonetheless. "Where do you wanna meet? Your house, my house?"

"Yours. I don't want my mom to see me like this."

Jake briskly walked home , contemplating what Marley was in such a state about. It was most likely to be caused by an argument with Wade. He had been very off with her recently.

As he neared his house, he could see his girlfriend standing awkwardly in front of the driveway, impatiently looking for a sign of her boyfriend. She spotted him seconds later and ran towards him. Just before he caught her in a hug, he could see her face was swollen with tears. She sobbed into his ear.

"It's okay, it's okay," he whispered reassuringly into her ear as she wailed. He had no idea if it was okay, but he couldn't think of anything else to say.

He consoled her for a while, and they both took a seat on the porch. He held her hands gently to comfort her, but it didn't help. She was shaking in shock.

"What's happened?" he asked. "Come on, you can tell me. Start from the beginning."

Marley hesitated, but she looked like she needed to unburden herself by telling someone.

"When I took Unique's call earlier, she was really pissy with me, like she was angry with me. I didn't know what it was about at first, but then she said that her problem was with the bullies yesterday. I thought that it was it, but then she hinted towards it also being… me."

"You? You've been great to hi…" He stopped himself. "Her. Why would she say something like that?"

"I thought that at first, but I think I've been neglecting her for you."

Jake scoffed lightly. "When you're in a relationship, some of your time is taken up. She should understand that."

"But I get it now! Even when I'm with her, I'm talking about you or I'm on the phone to you, so I'm not really with her."

Jake pressed for more. "So after the call, what did you do?"

Marley seemed to have trouble talking about it. "I ran to her house. I just… knew something was wrong. I felt it."

"And was there?"

More tears dropped down her face. "Yeah."

Jake felt it would be inappropriate to pressure her for answers, so he waited for her to console herself. She did and continued.

"I got to hers at roughly the same time as his mom. She let me in, and we found Unique on the bathroom floor."

"Whoa. Did he…"

"He's probably at the hospital by now, and it's all my fault."

Jake knew that he should reassure that it wasn't her fault, but there were more pressing matters that he had to address first.

"Is she gonna make it?"

"I don't know. The paramedics didn't say anything to me, but they did say something to his mom. She went in the ambulance with her, and left me there. I have no idea if he's gonna make it."

Jake was about to reply, but then he realised something. Marley was confused, but then he spoke again.

"You said 'he'. You never refer to Wade as 'he'."

Marley lost it there and then. She had been a wreck before, but now her sobbing was uncontrollable. She tried to talk, but it was barely comprehensible.

"She thinks…" she sobbed as Jake held her to him, "that I think she's weird!"

"Shh, it's okay, it's okay." Neither of them believed it would be okay, but they both pretended to. Even if Wade did make it, it still wouldn't be okay.

What would he be going back to?

** G ** G **

After crying on the doorstep for a while longer, Jake brought Marley inside and up to his bedroom. His mom looked surprised at the sight of her son's girlfriend in hysterics, but one pleading look told her not to interfere. She kept out of their way as he led Marley up to his bedroom. Last time he had done this was yesterday, and his plans to bed her had been discouraged. There was certainly no possibility of that happening now.

They both sat on the bed, so close that their thighs were rubbing against each other. He wrapped his arm around her, so she rested her head on his broad shoulder, just like she had done earlier that day. Only this time, it wasn't out of affection. It was emotional pain.

"About Unique," said Jake, gently rubbing his hand across Marley's arm to comfort her, "what she did is not your fault. You cannot be blamed. It was her decision."

"I know it's not just my fault, but I'm partially to blame."

"No you're not."
"You don't have to say that, you know. You don't have to protect me from it."

"But I want to. I hate seeing you beat up about something. I want to help you. I just don't know how."

She looked him in the eyes, and weakly smiled at him. "You can help me by being with me tonight. I need you."

He gently kissed her on the lips, and she responded so that he wouldn't feel embarrassed. When it was released, he said: "Then I'll stay with you tonight. But I think you should talk to your mom today."

She groaned. "I don't what I'm supposed to say."

He stroked her cheek affectionately. "I'll be by your side if you want me to be."

She gripped his hand tightly. "I want you to be."

"Okay then. I think we should do it now."

Marley raised her eyebrows.

Jake realised the innuendo he had just made and groaned in frustration. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just…"

Surprising both of them, she laughed, but it was only brief and abruptly cut off. She continued to smile at him though.

"I know what you meant, Mr Puckerman."

** G ** G **

Jake spoke to his mother, and she agreed that it was suitable to stay the night at Marley's to comfort her. He packed some clothes and toiletries, and then walked to Marley's house. Marley held his hand the entire way, dreading having to tell the story again.

Miss Rose was initially concerned for Marley's previous whereabouts as she had been back later than usual after Glee Club, but she let Marley retell the story. It was tense for Jake to watch, and as they embraced lovingly with Marley in tears, he felt extremely uncomfortable with the situation. He stood in the doorway as they hugged on the sofa. However, it was still touching to see Miss Rose calming her daughter with soothing words. Jake watched, thinking of how great a mother she was.

Afterwards, Marley and Jake had dinner with Miss Rose, and then just sat upstairs, talking about Wade.

"I think we should tell the Glee Club."

Jake was surprised at Marley's revelation, but also relieved as he had wanted to say that to her as well. Even so, he was still hesitant about the idea.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I know it's been difficult for you having to repeat the story."

"I don't want to do it, but I think it's the right thing to do."

"You just think they should know?"

"Not just that. When they were loading Unique into the ambulance, I swear I could see people peering through their windows. Some of those people will their kids, and their kids will most likely tell everyone at McKinley, so I think it's better if we tell the Glee Club before everyone else finds out. Let's face it, everyone in the town will know in a few days."

"Fair point." Jake hadn't thought of that. "I'll help you out if you're struggling."

Marley smiled, but it was an empty expression. "I was thinking about Unique said, or… suggested… to me."

"Oh yeah? What about?"

She turned to him. They were both lying down on her bed. "Do we spend too much time together?"

"I don't think so."

"It's just that… we haven't really seen much of our other friends since Regionals."

"That was only last week. We're allowed to spend a few days away from our friends."

"But even when we're with them, we don't really talk to them. Like at Glee Club, we practically ignore everyone else. Have you seen much of Ryder recently?"

"No, but I haven't had much of a chance to, since he quit the Glee Club."

On an unrelated note, Marley said: "I think that, if Unique makes it, we need to get Ryder to talk to her."

Jake was shocked by her questioning of Wade's survival, but he didn't comment on it. "Why?"

"Because clearly something has been happening in Unique's life that drove her to do… that. And I don't think it was just one thing that caused it."

Jake was curious. "What do you think caused it?"

"Well, in part me, because I've been neglecting her for you. But all of us have been doing it. Unique feels bad because she unintentionally caused Ryder to quit the Glee Club, which made everyone be off with her, and then there's the bullies. We need to sort them out."

Jake had a sudden idea. "Were they cheerleaders? Or jocks, or something?"

"They weren't in cheerleading uniform, but they might be cheerleaders. I don't know."

"Were they popular?"

"I remember seeing their faces at the lunch table for the popular kids. They're definitely popular. No one could be that mean at McKinley and not be popular."

"Kitty could help us out there."

"But will she?"

"She's friends with Wade, despite all the jokes. She can get the girls to back off."

"I don't know, they were quite mouthy."

"We're talking about Kitty here. She'll destroy them in an argument."

They continued to plot how to clear up Unique's problems, but it was only so long before they eventually dropped off to sleep, Jake's arm around Marley as they did so.