Authors note: Thanks for the positive feedback guys :D Woohoo for inspiration, I love getting this stuff down!

'You must be Mr Hummel?' James asked, extending his hand to Burt.

'Yeah that's me.' Burt replied, shaking James' hand briskly, surprised at his greeting. 'You Mr Karofsky?'

'I'm one of them, yes.'

Kurt and the others had now joined them around the car. Blaine caught Kurt's eye at James reply and raised his eyebrows just a little, as if asking "does that mean what I think it means?" and Kurt nodded in silent response. Blaine pulled a surprised face but kept quiet.

'I'm sorry we kept Kurt out for so long-' James began before he was interrupted.

'What hell has been going on Mr Kar-'

'Call me James, please.' James said calmly.

'What exactly has been going on, huh? Why is Kurt going to that bullies house?'

Kurt responded before James could, stepped closer to the two men and said, 'can we please talk about this inside? I don't want the whole neighbourhood knowing our business.'

Burt heard the irritation in his son's voice so he agreed with a nod of the head. 'Come inside.'

The three adults went inside first, leaving Kurt, Blaine and Finn lingering outside. As soon as they were alone, Kurt glared up at his step brother and snapped, 'why did you tell them?'

'I didn't mean-' Finn began, wringing his hands.

'It was my fault really,' Blaine stepped in.

Kurt looked at his friend and said, 'meaning?'

'Finn got hold of me on Facebook and asked if I knew where you were. I said I didn't and then he sort of blurted out how he was freaking out because he dropped you off at Karofsky's house,' Blaine explained with the smallest of smiles, 'he told me that that was hours ago. I told him that he had to tell your dad, and he did,' he shrugged slightly, 'and here we are.'

Kurt groaned, his hand over his eyes as he tried to ignore his tiredness and stay focused. 'Fine, I guess that makes sense,' he tutted finally, looking at Finn with an expression that was meant to show forgiveness but came out more frustrated. 'God I am exhausted.'

'I was gonna say dude,' Finn said, 'you look awful! You've got bags under your eyes and everything.'

'Yes thank you Finn,' Kurt mocked, 'thank you for reminding me.'

'Let's get inside.' Blaine suggested, still smiling at the exchange between the two step brothers.

Susanne and William had met when they were in college together. He was studying history and she was a graphic designer. They married not long after graduation, and settled into a simple life on what little money they had. Children were born, promotions were earned and life was good. The only thing odd was the fact that William wasn't, and never had been, sexually attracted to Susanne.

He loved her with all his heart, he really did. They were best friends and William could see why people thought she was good looking – she was petite, dark and had a strong air of confidence, but that wasn't enough. William would see the young men around the university and know that that was how he was meant to feel about Susanne. Hormones, an active imagination and an overwhelming desire to fit in were the only reasons for their sex life, something that became weaker the longer their marriage went on.

William's only cures for his ever growing unhappiness were his children. The day Hannah was born was the happiness day of his life, and he knew that with her in his life, he couldn't leave. A few years later, George came along and then finally there was David. For seventeen years that was enough, but as time ticked away, William knew he couldn't keep this up much longer. The rows between he and Susanne were becoming worse – they had stopped sharing a bed and only saw each other when they had to. They agreed to remain civil around the children, but as time went on, that became harder and harder.

It was getting close to the nineteenth year of marriage when he met James. They had met a function held at the university where William worked. It was a very fast, almost fairytale like meeting – they had locked eyes over the room and began talking. The connection was instant and within just a few hours William knew this man was his soul mate, the man he was meant to be. They had left the party together and returned to James apartment where William confessed forty years worth of regret, isolation and lies. By the end of that first night together, they both knew what had to be done. William had to leave his wife.

'Are you okay, David?' Hannah asked as the door was closed on them.

'I'm tired,' he grunted, 'and my nose hurts.'

'That's not what I meant...' Hannah sighed, leading her brother into the kitchen to get some pain killers.

'I don't wanna talk about him.' Dave grumbled, his eyes locked on the floor. He took the tablets from his sister and washed them down, his fingers gripping the counter top. He could feel his sister's eyes boring into him and he could hardly take it. 'Stop staring at me.'

'I'm sorry,' she said weakly, 'I just wish you'd talk to me... you do understand why he left, right?'

Before he could really stop himself, Dave swung his left out and kicked the small counter door in front of him as hard as he could. 'Of course I do, I'm not an idiot!'

'Well, why are-'

'He left he got scared! He left because he couldn't be bothered to handle this shit with me anymore, so he bailed! He ran away because he's a little liar!'

'Dave come on-' Hannah pleaded, placing a hand on his shoulder that he shrugged away.

'He said he'd help me but he fucking didn't! He's a lying piece of shit!'

Hannah watched her brother leave the room with his head lowered, his voice cracking from exhaustion and unhappiness. She heard him enter his room with a slam and she tried so hard not to listen to the soft sobs that echoed through the silent house.

'Look James,' Burt continued once they were seated inside the house, 'I just don't understand what any of this has to do with my son.'

'I'll be honest with you Mr Hummel,' James smiled at Kurt and said, 'neither do I. William and I were just as shocked as you are that Kurt wanted anything to do with all of this.'

Kurt lowered his eyes when he saw James smile at him, knowing that Burt would also look at him. In fact, he could feel five sets of eyes on him and he wanted to scream.

'Don't get me wrong,' James continued when he saw Kurt's discomfort, 'we're incredible grateful that he did come. You have an amazing son, Mr Hummel.'

'I know.' Burt said matter-of-factly, as if anybody would ever doubt it.

'All I can say is that I'm sorry we didn't get him out there sooner,' James sighed, 'none of us could have predicted how,' he paused to think of the right world, 'volatile the situation would become.'

Burt frowned deeply and snapped, 'what does that mean? Did you get hurt, Kurt?'

'No,' Kurt lied, ignoring the lingering pain from George's grip, 'I'm fine.'

Those five eyes returned to him and Kurt groaned, leaning back onto the sofa. Carole spoke up and said, 'maybe you should go to sleep Kurt? You look so tired.'

'He can go to sleep when we're done,' Burt replied before his son could, 'you still have told us why you even went there?'

Blaine perked up at his question and Kurt tried to ignore his look of interest. He felt his cheeks turn rosy –he blamed it on the attention but he knew otherwise. 'I just got curious, I guess.'

'Curious?' Burt repeated, obviously wanting more information.

'Yeah. David has been making my life hell this past year and I guess I just got sick of it. I had no idea I would find out all of this.'

Burt paused before nodding a little, accepting his son's explanation. 'Okay, you can go now Kurt.'

Kurt did as he was told and got to his feet, not surprised when he heard Blaine stand up to follow him.

'Goodbye Kurt,' James said, standing up and extending a hand to him, 'it was nice meeting you.'

Looking at James hand was enough to make tears well up in Kurt's eyes. He quickly shook the older mans hand and muttered his farewell before almost running down to the basement, Blaine not far behind him. As Kurt dived onto his bed, Blaine closed the door behind them and said, 'okay, what has really been going on?'

Authors note: Sorry, no William and Susanne confrontation in this one. I want to try and get that part right, so I don't want to rush it, but I had quite a lot of Kurt and co stuff to get down so I thought I'd put it in this one instead. Hope you enjoyed!