A/N: Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!
Chapter Eight
Kurt chewed on his thumb nail as he paced outside of Finn's hospital room until he caught himself and made a look of disgust. Shoving his hand in his pocket, he forced a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He was fine. A doctor checked him out after they took Finn to a curtained off section by himself to check his hand. The burn wasn't major, it was more like a blister. He was going to be fine and wouldn't be scarred, but that didn't ease the conflicting bursts of emotion stressing Kurt out.
They moved Finn into a room after bandaging his hand up, because they wanted to put an oxygen mask on him for a while. The smoke he inhaled seemed to be a bigger concern to them than the light burn. That and the concussion he sustained from getting bashed in the head.
Carole was in there with him now, and his dad was off talking to police. Azimio, Travis, Marcus and Manny were already taken from their homes and arrested for kidnapping and aggravated assault. Karofsky had walked to the nearest gas station and called an ambulance for them but disappeared after that. The charges might go up to attempted murder after the DA looked at the case. As much as Kurt hated them, he didn't think that was their intention. It was a prank gone wrong. Just as he suspected. If Death wasn't hunting them, it might have just been a prank. For that reason only, he wasn't sure whether he wanted them to be charged so heavily.
But thinking about Finn's face, twisted in horror and those screams… He would never in his lifetime rid himself of the sound of Finn screaming for his life inside of that crematorium. The room felt several degrees colder than it was, but it would probably take him a while to shake the chill that had crawled under his skin and taken residence.
Thinking he had given Carole long enough to provide her motherly comfort in private, he gently pushed the door back open and stepped in, closing it quietly behind him. The main light was off, leaving only the area around Finn glowing with soft lamplight from his nightstand. He was sitting up in bed, covered from the waist down by the thin white knit blanket. Carole was in the chair beside him, gently running her fingers through his hair.
He grinned goofily at Kurt as he slowly walked farther in. "Hey, baby." His eyes were half-closed, but his weirdo smirk was a sure tell of the drugs in his system. "Why don't you put on one of these gowns and spin for me."
"Oh wow." Kurt had underestimated the painkillers in Finn. They were strong little bitches, weren't they?
"Finnegan Hudson!" Carole chastised, drawing her hand from his hair and smacking him lightly on the shoulder. It wasn't hard enough to hurt. Kurt would be surprised if it was even hard enough for him to feel at all. He had never seen anyone as pale with simultaneous bouts of horror, relief, and fury as he had when she first rushed into the hospital with Burt.
"Sorry, Mom." Finn didn't look sorry at all. In fact, he was still cocking an eyebrow at Kurt like he had all of his favorite junk foods taped to his body. "My boyfriend's hotter than yours. Can't stop his hotness."
Kurt blushed, but fixed him with a half-smile when he reached the bed and rested a hand on his calf. The blanket was rough under his palm. He shot a frown down at it. He needed to arrange for better covers, not that Finn seemed to notice that the quality was below par. He was still smiling with big dimples and heavy lidded eyes.
Carole fluffed the pillow propped behind her son and shook her head, feigning as much disapproval as she could to hide the rage of emotions still coursing through her. Kurt had no doubt that if she had five minutes in a room with their attackers that she would come out without a scratch but covered in jock blood.
"Finn, Burt is my husband not my boyfriend." She reminded his groggy, drug addled brain.
He was still looking at Kurt, and all of the undivided attention was starting to make him self-conscious. "When I move to New York with Kurt next year, I'll marry him. It's like a law there, Mom. They have to let us. And then he'll be my husband too. And one day we'll have husband babies. I'm not sure how that works. We'll probably need a woman, but don't worry. We won't ask you, Mom. I don't want a daughter-sister. But maybe Rachel could have our husband babies! She'll be in New York too. Doing stage stuff with Kurt and singing. Super awesome future stuff in New York."
Kurt gaped at him. Finn looked absolutely thrilled with his line of thought, but Kurt called on all of his strength to store it away in the 'Stuff Finn Says While High That Doesn't Count' drawer that he created after the time Finn smoked a joint with Puck and giggled at Kurt that his ass was way cooler than Rachel's boobs. One, Finn needed to be coherent for something he said to mean anything. And two, Rachel was an A-cup. His ass had bigger competition.
Still, he couldn't help the part of his heart that swam and expanded at hearing Finn talk about marrying him one day like it was the most natural thing in the world. Kurt didn't know about the paperwork and vows, but if they got past all of this he was going to shoot as hard as he could for forever with Finn. Nothing like a confrontation with Death to make him realize exactly how much the people he loved meant to him.
He completely ignored the part where Finn wasn't moving with him to New York next year and was going to school here in Ohio. That was a problem for next year, and was only further proof that he needed to put Finn's blabbering into that drawer and let it go. And as a side, hell would freeze over and shoot love notes out of volcanoes the day he let Rachel step in as their surrogate. He would rather adopt that creepy kid from Poltergeist.
While Carole was rummaging in her purse and shaking her head at her delirious son, Kurt stepped forward and took Finn's hand, mouthing silently, 'I love you.'
Finn's lopsided smile grew but his eyes nearly closed altogether they were so heavy. "I love you too, babe!" He exclaimed happily, loud and oblivious.
So much for a silent exchange. Kurt blinked against his volume and Carole whipped around startled and looked between them. Kurt half-shrugged. It wasn't anything she hadn't heard before, but it was still kind of embarrassing. She smiled and went back to her purse, pulling her phone out and skimming through her messages.
Kurt leaned forward and whispered inches away from Finn's face. "You are a terrible patient. A couple of pills and you lose all control of your senses."
"I love you so much, Kurt. I knew you would save me." Finn squinted at him seriously, and his sudden earnestness caught Kurt off guard. He leaned forward and pecked his lips, unwilling to do more with Carole in the room. It was impossibly difficult to keep from falling back into sobs thinking about how close he got to losing Finn and losing him in a horrific, unimaginable way. Finn was smiling again after the short kiss though, so Kurt decided to take five and come back when he wasn't so close to a major meltdown.
"I'm going to freshen up, and I'll be back, okay?" He whispered, waiting for Finn to nod to give him control of his exit. It wouldn't do to fall apart again while Finn was feeling okay. He went through enough trauma for one day, but if he asked him to stay, he would. He just leaned back against the bed though and yawned. He would probably be asleep by the time Kurt returned.
Holding a hand up to Carole he indicated he would only be gone for five minutes and closed the door behind him to keep the bright hospital hallway lights out of the room. He was fixing to pull his phone out to check on Rachel again-they couldn't be too careful since her turn was up-but a figure approaching the room caught his attention.
He looked up, mouth dropping open in shock. There was Karofsky, eyes darting around nervously as he made his way over. Kurt straightened his back despite the instant pounding in his chest, and he walked a few paces down from Finn's room to keep Karofsky from getting there. There was no way he was letting Karofsky frighten Finn any more than he already had. If it had been Kurt shoved in that furnace he would be rocking in a corner right now, mumbling incoherently and ripping out his hair. Finn did not need any added stress. In fact, if he could signal security without alarming Finn or Carole he could have him arrested on the spot.
"What do you think you're doing here?" Kurt asked when he was within a few feet. Karofsky wisely stopped. Kurt breathed deeply through his nose and glared at him, blood heating up and quickening his pulse. "You're a special kind of stupid for coming here. Your buddies are all locked up, just so you know. Fair bit of advice, I wouldn't drop the soap when they throw you in there with them. I suspect one or more of you are aggressive closet cases. Jail will be like an all-you-can-eat testosterone bordello to you brainless cavemen."
Karofsky scowled and screwed up his face. Kurt didn't think he got most of that. Brainless indeed.
"Look, I just came here to see how Hudson was. He was acting like his hand hurt when I took off. I don't know, it looked bad in that oven for a second." He was still glaring, but Kurt could tell it was a front for how freaked out he was and shook his head in disgust.
Poor Karofsky, so misunderstood. Closet case or not, there was no excuse for his behavior. Struggling with his own identity did not excuse his hatred, pave a road to forgiveness for his behavior, or make him any more or less horrible than his ignorant comrades.
"It looked bad there for a second?" Kurt stepped toward him, forgetting about the weight and height advantage Karofsky had on him. His short fingernails dug into his palms as he fisted them at his sides. "You almost killed him!"
Karofsky looked shaken, eyes growing wide. "No way, man. That's not what we were trying to do!" He said angrily. "That crematorium hasn't worked in years! My uncle has a new place. That place is dead! There's no way it could have turned on! I wouldn't kill him!"
Kurt just glowered.
Karofsky looked a little panicked now. With his friends arrested, he was probably starting to get the big picture there, and that picture held a lot more consequences than a trip to Figgins' office.
"I'm telling you it couldn't have turned on by itself like that! It had to be… I mean, it must have been…"
Kurt glared.
"Look, man, you were right! About Death or whatever. About it coming back for us. You're a fucking freak and a psycho, but that has to be it. Something else did it!"
Sure, he was ready to believe him now that he needed something else to pawn the blame off on. Good luck pointing the finger at the Grim Reaper in court.
"Oh no fucking way!" An angry growl came from the other end of the hall.
Kurt turned to see Puck staring daggers into Karofsky. Impeccable timing. Some of the tension in Kurt relaxed. He couldn't take Karofsky, but Puck could. He could do it on adrenaline and rage alone. He would keep him away from Finn. When he called him earlier to tell him about Finn, he shouted such a long string of cuss words into the line that Kurt had to wonder what the people near him thought. Several death threats, swears, and unintelligible noises later, he said he was coming to the hospital and hung up. Well, there he was in all his fury. He covered the space between them quickly.
"You think you're tough shit, huh, Karofsky?" Puck stepped up to Kurt, and he took careful steps to the side. If they went at it he didn't want to get caught in the middle.
Karofsky held his hands up to ward off the wall of aggression coming his way. "Look, man-"
Apparently, surrender wasn't an option, because Puck didn't care much for whatever he had to say. Swinging his arm out faster than Kurt could track, he landed a punch across Karofsky's nose and sent him side-stepping unsteadily.
"You like shoving people in trunks? How 'bout I shove you in mine in pieces?" Puck shouted.
Kurt's eyes widened in alarm. If Puck got himself arrested and they stuck them all in the same holding cell it was going to be a blood bath. Going off the crazed-with-anger look in Puck's eyes, Kurt wasn't sure if their numbers would help the jocks.
"Oh! What's going on here?"
Kurt was never so relieved to hear the sound of his father's voice. That was until he turned around and saw the look of recognition click in Burt's eyes as they landed on Karofsky. Suddenly, his relief melted into an anxious pit in his stomach. He hurried back over to Puck's side to put himself between his father and Karofsky. Puck getting arrested was routine, but his father did not need that smear.
"Whoa, Dad, let's just get security." Kurt held his hands up, but as his father stepped closer his eyes were trained solely on Karofsky and he didn't even seem to hear him.
"You." He pointed a stiff finger at him, voice leveled with controlled rage. "You put my boy in a trunk and tried to kill my stepson."
"Dad…"
Puck was looking between Burt and Karofsky now, arms raised slightly at his sides, jaw tense and eyes excited. If Kurt was looking for help, it wouldn't come from his direction. Puck wanted a fight and the idea of tag-teaming with Mr. Hummel only seemed to rile him up more.
"You put your hands on my kid and tied him up." The look in Burt's eyes was chilling.
"I wasn't…" Karofsky sputtered stupidly. "I didn't want to kill them."
Burt laughed and Kurt flinched at the sharp sound of it.
"No, you just wanted to teach them a lesson, right? You wanted to teach my boy a lesson about being a decent human being. Because being gay makes him less than you. Because being gay gives you the right to rough him up and show him what a man you are!" He caught Karofsky by the collar and shoved him back, knocking him into the wall with a loud thud. A nurse down the hall looked over. With an uneasy frown, she turned and hurried off.
"Oh hell." Kurt hadn't wanted to involve the Hudsons, but if this escalated they would have bigger problems than being rattled. "Carole!" He shouted down the hall. He grabbed his father's arm and tugged, knowing that hanging onto his elbow was the only thing holding him back from taking a swing at Karofsky.
His stepmom popped her head out of Finn's room and after looking justifiably shocked by the image of her husband holding a teenager against the wall, she hurried out. Burt was shaking Karofsky and Puck was shoving his side when he got an opening. Kurt tugged on his father, feeling very much like he was trying to pry two Rottweilers away from a cat.
"Burt!" Carole reached them and grabbed his other arm. She threw a deadly parental glare at Puck when he tried to reach out and smack Karofsky's head. Years of reacting to Carole's scolds sent his hand instinctively back to his side. "Kurt, get security!"
She didn't have to tell him twice. Hurrying down the hall, he grabbed his chest with relief when he spotted a uniformed man down the hall with another nurse.
"Help! Hey!" He ran up to him. "The guy who attacked me and my boyfriend is here, and my dad's going to kill him if he can!" Maybe he shouldn't have added that, true as it was. They could force him to repeat it in court. Actually, screw that. He would sooner perjure himself than say something that might hurt his dad.
The security guard didn't need any prompting, and he didn't have one of those big beer guts that always made Kurt stare at security guards and wonder about their actual usefulness. Before he could start sending prayers to Lady Gaga, the big man was hauling his father off of Karofsky, a task made difficult by Burt's manic hold on him.
"You know how long people go away for attempted murder, tough guy?" He bellowed as the security guard finally pushed him back. Karofsky looked absolutely horrified. "My boy didn't do anything to you! You remember that when you're living the worst hell of your life. You remember that you didn't have to be there!"
"Dad…" Kurt's eyes filled with tears as he absorbed his father, shaking with anger. His heart didn't need all of this stress. Fuck Karofsky to life in prison if anything happened to his dad because of this. Burt breathed heavily and turned away at last, tearing his eyes away from Karofsky and pacing back toward Finn's room slowly. Carole's hand went to his back but she turned around to collect Puck, remembering her son's best friend and his tendency for trouble.
The security guard had a grip on Karofsky's arm but looked relieved when a uniformed policeman rounded the corner in their direction. That must have been where the nurse who first spotted them went. Bless her.
Karofsky's eyes got huge when he saw the policeman. He didn't fight the guard holding him, but he seemed to shrink in on himself.
"I… It was just a joke. I wasn't trying to-," his words came to an abrupt stop as Carole reached out and slapped him with an unforgiving swing of her arm.
'A joke'… Kurt shook his head slowly. He stayed standing there, staring at Karofsky as Carole turned around with Puck in tow and walked away toward Burt. Karofsky met his eyes as the policeman took him from the hospital security guard.
Kurt fixed him with a stony expression. "Heads up, Karofsky. There are only four of us left, and then you're next."
He didn't know if he would understand, but the color flooded from his face and he knew that he did. He thought a lot of things about Kurt, but now he believed him. They might have been total opposites, but they were on the same list. Kurt didn't think he would stress over his end of it quite as much as the other. With deadened eyes, he turned on his heel and walked away.