It was just after 4 o'clock by the time Dave arrived home - he had been muttering and cursing himself during the entire drive home. He had cried in front of someone. Worse than that, he had cried in front of Kurt Hummel! Hummel already knew his huge secret and the crying was just another thing he could use against him, despite of all the insistence that he wouldn't be telling anybody.

As he pulled into his driveway he was mentally planning all the ways he could keep Hummel quiet and make sure his secrets were never revealed. He felt sick at some of his own thoughts. He shook his head quickly and tried to calm down, resting his arms across the steering wheel and burying his face in them. He was so confused. This was such a mess.

'HEY ASSHOLE!'

Dave practically leapt out of his seat as the words shot through his car. He glared at the source of the noise and the violent slam against the window. He had to suppress a groan when he saw who it was.

'Hey George.' Dave said as he got out of the car and went over to his older brother.

'What's up asshole?' George replied, his long muscular arms stretched across his barrel of a chest.

'What are you doing back here?' Dave murmured as his brother wrapped an arm around his neck and locked him into a choke hold.

'Aren't you going to ask me how I am baby brother?' George jeered, smirking at his ability to man handle his not particularly small brother.

'Let him go George,' interrupted a slightly husky voice, 'stop being a dick.'

Both brothers peered at the new arrival - a giant of a woman who was made even taller by her high heels. Hannah Karofsky, the eldest of the Karofsky children, had returned.

'Sis!' George cried, shoving Dave away and going to give his sister a hug.

'Hey,' she said, rolling her eyes behind thin framed glasses before smiling at her younger brother, 'hi Dave.'

'Hey.' Dave said with a small smile, nervously hugging his mammoth sister.

Dave had a lot of questions to ask his mysterious sister but he knew he couldn't ask them in front of George. In fact they couldn't say anything before their mother called to them all from the front door.

'What are you three doing outside? Come in!'

The children did as they were told and headed up the driveway to the house. Hannah went first, being fiercely embraced by her mother - she hadn't been home in almost four months so this reaction was to be expected. George also received a large fuss - he was the college star and mums favourite after all.

When it was Dave's turn to be greeted he got a hello and a small kiss on the cheek. As his family walked away from him he couldn't help but feel left out. With a deep sigh, he braced himself for the rest of the evening.

'Hi Kurt,' Blaine said with a smile as he stood up to greet his friend, 'how's it going?'

'Oh I'm fine thanks,' Kurt replied, 'sorry I'm late.'

'No problem.' Blaine smiled as the pair took their seats at the table.

After ordering drinks and food, Blaine spoke up again. 'Are you okay? You're really quiet.'

'Huh?' Kurt grunted in response, glancing up from his diet coke to look at the dark haired boy.

Blaine smirked and raised his eyebrows, leaning back into his seat. 'Are you going to tell me why you're so distracted or am I going to have to nag it out of you?'

Kurt smiled a small smile and sighed heavily, slumping back into his own chair. 'It's nothing really… I just had another run in with Karofsky.'

'What did he say? Are you hurt?' Blaine asked with a more serious tone.

'I'm all right,' Kurt lied with an aching arm, 'it was just so weird…' he looked from side to side as if Karofsky had followed him to the café before whispering, 'he started to cry.'

'Really?' Blaine said with surprise, 'what did you say to him?'

'Heh…' Kurt chuckled weakly, absent-mindedly spinning his straw around the glass.

Blaine watched his friend intently for a few moments before sighing, knowing he would have to take this more seriously. 'Okay, why did he start to cry?'

'I don't know,' Kurt shrugged, his tone barely expressing his disappointment at not knowing. 'He ran away before I could properly talk to him.'

'He has a habit of doing that, doesn't he?' Blaine teased.

'Yeah…' Kurt said vaguely, barely concentrating on what Blaine was saying - he was too focused on wondering what on earth had made Karofsky cry.

Understandably, their meal did not last long.

'So Hannah,' Susanne Karofsky smiled, 'what have you been doing on your travels?'

'Oh you know, the usual stuff.' Hannah said vaguely, shrugging her shoulders slightly as they all shared after dinner coffee (except Dave who stuck with 7up).

'Where did you end up?' asked the blonde man from his seat next to Susanne.

Adam King, a tall, bulky blonde man, was Susanne's long term boyfriend. They had met at one of Dave's hockey games, bonding over patriotism, a love of coffee and pride in their children.

'Well I went visited Mexico with Claude-' Hannah began as she topped up her coffee.

'You still hang out with that little fag?' George interrupted with a mouthful of small biscuits.

The word that would usually bring any conversation to an abrupt end didn't even make the Karofsky's blink. Dave kept poker face as well even though it made his stomach jolt. He busied himself with his drink, his eyes locked on the placemat in front of him.

'George,' Hannah replied with a stern voice, 'don't talk about my friends that way.'

'What?' George said with surprise, 'he's a little homo!'

'So what?' Hannah answered, raising her eyebrows slightly in expectance.

That silenced everyone. George looked angry and confused, his huge fists clenched on the table top. Susanne and Adam shared an identical expression of disappointment and disgust. Dave kept his eyes on the floral, slightly stained placemat.

'What do you mean, "so what"?' George asked in a low, threatening voice, the same one Dave had practiced mimicking as he was growing up. It worked on almost everybody George used it on, except Hannah. Hannah was not afraid of George. Dave had to admire her for that.

'Claude is my friend and I don't like it when you say that sort of stuff. I don't call your friends "fags"'

'That's because my friends aren't!' George cried, outraged at the very idea of being friends with homosexuals.

'Sure,' Hannah chuckled, 'sure they're not.'

'What the hell is that supposed to mean?' George yelled, slamming his fist on the table, making all the cutlery do a small jump.

'All right, all right,' Susanne snapped, frowning at her daughter, 'that's enough of that.' The older children continued to stare each other down whilst their mother spoke. 'David clear the table. The rest of you, come with me into the living room. We can all calm down and talk.'

'Hey Kurt,' Finn said from his position on the sofa, his eyes locked on a football game, 'you're back late.'

'Yeah, I met-' he had to stop himself before he revealed he was hanging out with a rival. 'I stayed back in the library for a while.'

'On a Friday? That's lame dude.' Finn chuckled, taking a large gulp of fizzy drink from a novelty cup Burt had bought him from a football game.

With a roll of the eyes Kurt headed downstairs to his basement bedroom. He took off his shoes, placing them neatly into their designated area, and lay down on his comfortable, cushion covered bed. He lay their deep in thought for several minutes, not even turning on music which was very unusual, unable to think about anything by Karofsky and those mysterious tears.

You don't even like him Kurt's conscience said, why do you even care? He didn't know. He blamed it on curiosity - he would want to know why anybody was crying, but he knew Karofsky was a special case. Karofsky was a bully, his bully, and as a rule, bullies did not cry, especially in front of their victims. Whatever sparked it off must have been bad.

"Don't you dare talk about my dad!"

The memory came flooding back and it suddenly clicked. It was because of his father. Sitting up on the bed, Kurt thought to himself I knew it was the dad! I knew it! Homophobic parents breed homophobic children!

He needed to know more. He knew what he had to do.

Dave took his time clearing the table, he didn't want to face his arguing family right now. This family gathering was the last thing he had wanted today. He was all set to just run upstairs and bury his face in his pillow, ignoring his mother and Adam for the night, hoping he would wake up the next day and everything would be magically fixed.

'David!' cried Susanne from the living room. 'Get in here!'

With a sigh, Dave finished loading the dishwasher and joined his family.

'Sit down.' Susanne said with a smile, gesturing for him to take a seat. There were two spares - one by George and one by Hannah. He quickly placed himself next to his sister.

'Okay you three,' Susanne began, 'Adam and I have something to tell you all.'

They're engaged. That had to be it. Dave could tell by their expressions. Mum's over the moon and Adam looks proud and smug at the same time. They must be engaged.

'I'm pregnant!'

He was not expecting that and couldn't stop his jaw falling open. His mother was pregnant? How could this be? She was old!

'And we're getting married!'

He couldn't help but feel slightly smug that he had guessed that part correctly.

Everyone got up and exchanged congratulations, kisses and hugs before Adam nipped into the kitchen, returning with champagne and three glasses.

'Sorry Davey,' Adam smirked as he filled up the glasses, 'you can have one when the babies four.'

Everyone shared a laugh at Adams joke even though Dave's laugh was so forced he was surprised nobody called him on it.

The family finished off the bottle throughout the course of the night, sharing laughs and stories of college, work and travel. Dave was silent for the majority of the evening, not that anybody noticed or cared, and was able to excuse himself at around 8.30, using homework as an excuse.

As he was making his way up the staircase he felt his mobile phone buzz. It surprised him, he rarely got text messages as he had so many enemies, and he read it assuming it would be from Azimio. His face twisted into a mixture of surprise, annoyance and mocking when he saw it was from Finn Hudson, or "glee dork" as he had him saved.

When he read the text he almost dropped the phone in shock. He felt his blood run cold and his stomach knot.

"We have to talk. Meet me outside city hall tomorrow. K."