A/N: I'm baaack! With a lot of good news and updates. (Warning this is long)
1) I have finished both Liberty & Freedom! All I have left is to edit the final chapters and post them. I will be doing that one chapter a day, for each story.
2) While I failed to update these stories, I wrote a Kurtofsky one-shot. If you haven't read it, and are interested, it's called On Bended Knee (look on my profile page) and is a fluffy, cheesy, PG story involving rings.
3) I saw in a single article (I hope it was accurate) that Glee starts September 20. I have created a count down clock for the event at my other journal. Here is the direct link: variablenature. blogspot. com/2011/07/ countdown-to-glee-s3-premiere. html It goes to Sept. 20, 8:00 EST

And before you go to the story... This update is dedicated to the reviewers/commenters who I replied to with a "I hope to get the next chapter out soon/this weekend" or something like that. Thank you all for not PMing me in anger saying that I lied.

Now, onto the story!

Liberty

Chapter 15 –

Dave realized that he should have expected some fuss over that morning's incident considering the crowd's reaction. However, that didn't mean the random people thanking him all day long didn't surprise him. By lunch he was a bit more used to it, but that still hadn't prepared him for what happened at lunch.

He was a little later to lunch this time because a girl from the thespian society had stopped him, trying to give him her number. Finally he just grinned and shook his head saying, "Sorry, I'm taken." Thus he walked up to the gleek table, a large grin on his face because of how good it felt to be able to say that.

The first surprise though came when Tina pulled him down in the seat next to her. "Oh my God, Dave," she said, "I still can't believe you slushied Azimio. What did he do?"

After a few moments of starring at the girl, trying to remember the last time he even heard her speak, let alone directly to him, he finally answered, shrugging. "He wanted me to slushy Puck so I could be his friend again. I didn't want to do either and I told him so."

"Why would you slushying me put you back in good graces with Az?" asked Puck.

Dave looked at Puck who was holding Kurt so close he might as well be on his lap. Raising an eyebrow, Dave said, "Really?"

"What?" asked Puck, appearing to be honest in his confusion.

Shaking his head, Dave sighed. "You honestly thought you'd be able to come to school today, hanging onto Kurt like it was some chick flick where no one else seems to notice or care that you're practically making out, and not be slushied?"

By now, Kurt had turned bright red, trying to detach himself from Puck, while the jock just looked thoughtful. Finally, Puck opened his mouth. "Well, technically I wasn't," he said. "You stopped it."

"And threatened revenge for future offenses," added Kurt, giving up his struggle to escape Puck.

"Yeah," chimed in Santana, "I don't get why we haven't started slushying the jocks before. If we started last year we could have been on top."

"But then we would have sunk to their level," pointed out Kurt.

"But most of them are taller than us," said Brittany, head tilted in confusion, "Wouldn't we want to get to their level?"

The entire table stared before Santana rubbed Brittany's back. "I'll explain later, honey."

"You know," said Artie, changing the direction of conversation, "I know Dave isn't bullying anymore, but what about the other jocks?"

"Yeah," said Mercedes, "I haven't been slushied once this year."

For some reason they all looked to Dave.

Sighing, he explained, "I decided to stop bullying before school started."

He noticed Kurt frown and Puck spoke before Dave could continue. "But you didn't promise that to Kurt until the second week of school."

All eyes turned to Kurt, but Finn was the one to voice their questions. "Dude, we can take care of ourselves. And why would you ask Dave to stop bullying us?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "I don't think you can't all take care of yourselves. I just thought that it would be nice for us to have a bully-free year. Besides, it needed to be something big if he wanted to borrow my bike for a day."

All eyes turned back to Dave. "It was only for an afternoon," he corrected, "And I have a license, so I doubt he'll extend the same courtesy to any of you."

"And I won't let him use my bike again unless it's an absolute emergency," added Kurt, though no one really seemed to care.

"Like I said," continued Dave, "I had already sworn off bullying, but just because I stopped didn't mean you would have a bully-free year. So while Kurt thought I was promising to stop myself, I was really promising to try and get the other jocks to back off. It's no big deal."

"How on earth have you managed?" asked Rachel.

"The jocks and all of you have pretty obvious routines and hangouts. I was able to figure out where you might be and delayed the jocks from getting to you. And there have been some underclassmen that I may or may not have scared into going the opposite direction of a slushy-armed jock."

"You mean you've been protecting other students not in glee?" asked Kurt, not bothering to hide the pride in his voice.

Puck was apparently a little jealous because he made sure to gently kiss the side of Kurt's neck, as if to remind him that he was taken.

Kurt rolled his eyes, but Dave noticed that he leaned back into his boyfriend, a happy smile on his face.

"It's no big deal," said Dave, wanting to get off the subject. It felt amazing receiving so much approval from those he was lucky enough to call his friends, but he still hated being the center of attention. "Can we just move on?"

"Fine," said Mercedes, "What was with that big smile you had on when you walked in? You usually only have on a smile like that on Fridays."

Dave felt himself blush and glanced over to see Kurt with an encouraging smile on his face. Buying some time, Dave sipped at his water. Only after he had finished off half its contents did he finally speak up. "A girl tried to give me her number, and I finally got to say… that I'm taken." He couldn't help but whisper the last part, already afraid of the outburst it would surely provoke.

"You have a girlfriend?" This came from the half of the table that wasn't shocked into silence, meaning all of the loudest members, minus Kurt who had already known.

Dave looked around, hoping nobody noticed the outburst. "Would you keep it down?" he hissed, "It's not something I'd like to advertise to the entire school. Besides, it's no big deal. I'm in high school, I can have a significant other if I want to."

"Does she go to McKinley?" asked Mercedes, hungry for some kind of gossip.

"No," said Dave. He saw her open her mouth and answered before she spoke, "OSU."

"Dude, you're dating a college chick?" asked Puck. "Sweet. I'll bet she's all kinds of experienced."

"Your soon to be ex is sitting right next to you if you don't stop talking right now," mumbled Kurt.

Dave grinned, "Very experienced. Why do you think I'm so happy on Fridays?"

Kurt raised an eyebrow, surprised. "Really? You've gone…?" he waved a hand in place of finishing that sentence.

Dave raised his own eyebrow, surprised that Kurt was that curious. "You lookin' for suggestions, Kurt?"

Kurt blushed and took a sip of his water. "Just curious," he mumbled.

"No, we haven't," answered Dave, "But the phone conversations have gotten pretty hot."

Kurt started to choke on his water and the entire table laughed.

Dave managed to change the subject and attention was finally shifted off of him and he relaxed. It wasn't until the bell rang that he realized he hadn't called Colton. He pulled out his phone to text him real fast and was faced with a message.

You ok? ~C

Waving goodbye to the others he composed a quick reply.

It's been an interesting day. In a good way. I'll call you after school. ~TB

Needless to say, that afternoon was probably one of the best he'd ever had.

That night, Dave thought that his mom had gotten over whatever it was that had started her crying the night before. She asked him about his day, even asked about Colton and the bike. So Dave was surprised that when he was headed back to his room with a late night glass of water he could hear the sound of crying.

Taking a deep breath, Dave slowly opened the door and walked in. He didn't speak until he was standing next to the bed, and when he tried to say, "Mom?" it came out on a breath, softer than a whisper.

She jumped slightly, startled, but rolled over and gave him a wet smile. Putting out her hand she sat up as Dave took it and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Is there something wrong, sweetie?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

Dave grinned, though there wasn't any humor behind it. "I'm fine, Mom. I just want to know why you're crying. Are you okay? Is it because I'm gay?"

His mom quickly wiped away her tears, shaking her head. "Oh, David, no! No, this has nothing to do with you."

"Then why are you crying?"

She took a deep breath before answering. "I miss your father. He comes home during lunch, but I still miss him at night."

"I'm sorry, Mom, this is all my fault." Because his dad wanted nothing to do with him, his parents had to act like they were keeping their relationship a secret from Dave. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. God, I screwed this all up."

"No David," said his mom, her voice stern. "I wish you had come out sooner. You spent too much time pretending to be someone you're not. You're my son, and I have always loved you. But that boy you were last year? I didn't like him."

Dave sighed, putting his head in his hands. "I didn't like him either. It wasn't until I met Colton this summer that I began to accept the real me." He turned his head and grinned at his mom. "And I wouldn't have met him if Dad hadn't given me the money to get a bike. He probably sees this as being all his fault."

"Oh, sweetie," his mom started rubbing his back, "That's not what he thinks."

"What does he think, Mom?"

"He thinks that he's failed as a father. That if he had done a better job then you wouldn't have been a bully for most of high school. That maybe you wouldn't have been gay."

"I told him I was born this way, Mom. It has nothing to do with how he raised me."

"That's what I keep telling him."

Silence fell over the pair. Dave leaned slightly into his mom, feeling tired but not wanting to go to bed. After a few minutes she started tugging on his arm and he gave in, lying down next to her as she made room for him on the bed. She drew up the blankets covering both of them as he shifted to curl up close to her.

He was relieved that she didn't start crying again. But just before he drifted off to sleep he spoke.

"Mom?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"I miss him, too."

TBC...

Prompt Poll: amelias-nature. livejournal. com/11278. html