911. Immediate assistance required. Dire. Considering shopping at Wal Mart willingly.

There was only one thing to do when a person received such a text message from Kurt Hummel, Mercedes reasoned. You jumped into your car, speed limits be damned and you high tail it to where ever he was. After all it she was driving the speed limit somewhere, she figured. Throwing her car into park awkwardly in front of Kurt's house, (she could just see the look Mr. Hummel was going to give her when he spotted her half on the lawn, half on the street parking space) she raced in, not bothering to knock. This was clearly a situation where normal polite routines of society did not apply. Besides, Kurt would do the exact same thing for her if the situation was reversed.

"Hi Mercedes." Finn smiled from his spot at the kitchen table. "I didn't hear the doorbell."

"Hey Finn." She couldn't outright ignore Finn when he spoke directly to her. If she did breeze past him, he would probably follow her downstairs like the big overgrown puppy dog he could be (an adorable puppy dog, Mercedes allowed but still), which would lead to him wondering what had Kurt so upset because she was sure her boy had taken refuge in his room to avoid all sorts of questions about how he was feeling. Which would lead to Kurt shutting down, even to her, and clearly he needed to talk about something. "Kurt's in his room right?"

Finn shrugged. "I guess. Haven't seen him. Thought he might actually be sleeping in since Matt was here last night."

Mercedes couldn't help the confused look she felt cross her features. Matt had been here the night before? Was that why Kurt had ignored her texted invitation for a marathon of Sex and The City with Quinn? She had been shocked when the question had been met with silence since Kurt had taken it as his personal mission in life to get Quinn acquainted with Carrie and the gang once he found out the former cheerleader had never seen an episode. He missed a chance to tease Quinn about being Charlotte (because of course he was Carrie) to hang out with Matt? What was Kurt up to? "Matt was here last night?"

Finn nodded, stirring his cereal with his spoon. "His car was here when I got back from Rachel's last night and it was gone when I got up this morning. I was wiped and just went up to my room."

"Sure. Makes sense." Well Finn's actions at least did. Kurt's on the other hand? She was going to have sit down and have a serious discussion with him. "I'll just head down then."

"Cool." Finn smiled brightly and waved as she made her way towards the door.

Figuring Kurt would want privacy for whatever it was that had him such a fit, Mercedes shut the door carefully behind her. Making her way down the steps, she tried to figure the odds that Kurt's frantic message wasn't related to Matt's presence last night. There were probably better odds of Rachel willingly giving up a solo to Brittany. She didn't care what her best friend said. He was seriously getting sprung, for lack of a better word, on Matt.

"What's up White Boy?" She called as she hit the bottom step, seeing Kurt pacing along the length of his room.

"Cedes." Kurt ran towards and grabbed her shoulders with both hands. "I am in major trouble. I am this close to foreswearing Marc Jacobs for Kathy Ireland."

"Calm down. Nothing can be that bad." Mercedes said calmly, moving him towards his couch. "Deep breaths and start from the beginning. Like how Matt fits into this mood of yours."

She almost wished she had her camera out to take a picture of the truly stunned look on Kurt's face. The boy truly had no poker face to speak of. Her fears had been correct. Kurt hanging out with Matt was only going to lead to disaster. She pointed towards the ceiling. "Finn mentioned Matt's car was here last night."

"Finn saw?" Kurt all but hit a high F with his screech. "Oh this is worse than I thought."

"Saw what? Matt's car? What's the big deal about that?"

"Mercedes, what I am about to tell you does not leave this room." Kurt looked her straight in the eyes, his tone deadly serious. "I mean it. One word and I will make sure Rachel gets every solo from here to graduation."

She fought the urge to scoff at his threat. Everyone knew that was going to happen anyway. Still she recognized Kurt was clearly hanging on a rapidly fraying thread. "Fine. No one will hear of this clearly spectacular crisis from me."

"Not even Quinn or Tina."

"Not even them." Mercedes held up her fingers in an approximation of what she remembered to be a Girl Scout sign. "Now what has your weave so flipped?"

"Yesterday Matt and I planned on working on our glee assignment and after we did that…" Kurt paused and looked up to the ceiling as if he were praying for strength. "We were watching Rent upstairs, and apparently I fell asleep on him."

"So you fell asleep watching a movie? Kurt, I love you but this isn't that big of a deal."

"Mercedes. I fell asleep on him. On him" Kurt emphasized the last two words slowly.

"Oh. Oooh." Mercedes eyes lit up as she realized what he was trying to tell her. Well that was certainly something she hadn't expected. "Ok seeing the awkward moment in the morning."

"I wouldn't know about that." Kurt stood up and began to pace again. "Because when I woke up I was the only one on the couch and Carole just couldn't stop talking about how cute the whole scene was."

"So Matt left before you woke up clearly."

"Yes. And while I'm not an expert on straight guy behavior, I'm thinking calling him up and apologizing would be frowned on."

"Not that I'm an expert, if Matt is as cool as you keep claiming, I don't see the big deal if you guys are just friends. I think Finn's fallen asleep on Puck a couple of times in the glee bus." Mercedes pointed out. "It's a different deal entirely if you know; you had a crush on him or something….."

She deliberately let her voice trail off to judge his reaction. Seeing him turn away from her in a really lame attempt to hide his flushed cheeks, Mercedes let out a sigh. Heaven help her for getting him through this again.

"Kurt" she waved her finger in a warning manner. "We talked about this."

"I know. Why do you think I'm freaking out?"

"I thought once you had a boyfriend this crushing on the straight jock stuff was supposed to stop."

"It's not a crush. It's the beginning of a crush. Completely different." Kurt protested.

"Whatever." Mercedes waved her hand. "You need to get over this pronto. You know how you are when you get like this. I don't want you wrecking things with Sam over something that's not going to happen."

"I know Cedes. That's why I need you. I need backup here. I have a plan and I'm going to need you to stick to it."

Mercedes nodded her head. Somewhere in the back of her mind, it occurred to her that almost none of Kurt's plans ever worked out for him. But he was her best friend and he needed her. "Hit me White Boy."

"Matty not that I don't love surprises or seeing you, but you want to get to the reason why you showed up on my doorstep with no warning?" Leah Rutherford leaned forward in her chair, trying to catch the rays of the sun from under the shelter of the elm tree they currently sat beneath. She idly stirred her cappuccino, fixing her younger brother with her best concerned big sister stare. She stretched her long thin legs under the table, gently kicking his shin.

"Can't a guy just miss his sister?" Matt asked trying to smile at her. Waking up on Kurt's couch with Kurt draped over him had been a situation he had never dreamed of. He'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy it. But he knew in the depths of his soul Kurt would have been embarrassed, even more so if Finn happened to notice them when he came home. He didn't want to deal with that. Not to mention if Sam ever heard about that, well Matt wouldn't blame him for being upset. If Kurt was his boyfriend….well Kurt wasn't his boyfriend. Wasn't that his entire problem?

So as carefully as he could, he got off the couch without waking up Kurt, and raced home to change. He was there no more than an hour before the idea of seeing Leah occurred to him. Writing a quick note to his parents to let them know he was leaving, he jumped back into his car and drove to Columbus before he could over think it.

"Not when the guy in question is you." Leah answered patiently. "Or when Mom and Dad didn't have any idea you were coming. Come on Matty. Level with me. You drove all this way, interrupted my study time…"

"You study? I thought you just tried to get with all the theater dorks."

"Says the dance nerd." She shook her finger at him. "I assume you needed to talk to me and you didn't want anyone to overhear you. Or two specific eavesdropping someones who live to tattletale?"

Matt smiled at her reference to their younger brothers. With a sigh, he looked down at the table. She was right. He did need her advice. "There's this guy."

Leah immediately straightened up and clapped her hands in delight, her smile growing larger. "You have a boyfriend? Yeah! When do I get to meet him? What's his name? What's he like?"

"His name is Kurt. We're in glee together so if you ever come to one of our competitions you'll see him there and he's not my boyfriend. Because he already has one." Matt finished with a self-depreciating grin.

"Ouch." Leah winced in sympathy. "Been there. Hate that."

"Oh did I also mention he doesn't know I'm gay and sees me as his straight friend who he wants to find a girlfriend? And that we're working together on our current glee assignment so I can't just not spend time with him like a normal person in this situation?"

"Oh Matty." Leah sighed, with a slight chuckle in her voice.

"I'm so beyond screwed here Lee. I thought I could handle spending time with him. Become better friends. Figured it might help me get over this crush you know because I might find some complete deal breaker like he laughs when Bambi's mom dies or something. "

"I take it that's not working so well for you?"

"Yeah. I admit now it was a stupid idea. Lee, I even like it when we disagree on stuff. We're in the middle of this movie war. I spend more time with him than I do with Mike these days. And it's driving me crazy! You have to help me."

Leah chewed her bottom lip and twirled a piece of her hair around her finger. "I'm not putting pressure on you to do anything you aren't ready for. You know that. But you do realize at least the whole him setting up with a girlfriend thing would be avoided if you were just honest with him right?"

"Leah…"

"I know. It's completely crazy being honest. I just think you'd feel better and it would help you in the long run. Not to mention, how do you know he doesn't have feelings for you that he hides because he thinks your straight?"

"Did you miss the point where I said he had a boyfriend? And the boyfriend is perfect. I'm not just saying that because he has the relationship I want. I can't find a fault with him other than he may be a bit overprotective, but given its Lima I can't really blame him on that one. "

"And it's Lima." Leah countered quickly. "Let me guess they're the only two out gay guys in the entire school? With the exception of some cheerleaders who like to make out with each other?" Seeing him raise his eyebrows at her last comment, Leah leaned back in her chair and smirked. "McKinley doesn't change that much from year to year Matty. Every class of Cheerios has a pair. My point is he might be in to you but he's with this guy because he thinks Mr. So-Called Perfect is his only option."

"You haven't seen them together. It's not that at all. And I don't want to be that guy Lee. "

"Honey I know you don't and you know I love that about you, but Matt if he doesn't know you're gay he's never going to just magically walk up to you and ask you out. Being openly gay in Lima is hard enough. I would hope he wouldn't go out of his way to court trouble. Not from you but some smaller minded alleged humans." Leah pointed out softly. "You're just going to be miserable. Do you really want that?"

"I don't really have a choice if Kurt still wants to be with Sam." Matt pointed out, resting his chin on his hand.

"But at least you'll have told him and you can move on." Leah counseled reaching over the table. "It will suck but in the long run it will do you a world of good. Not to mention you'd have support in town. If Kurt is as great as you apparently think, I would think he would be a friend and support you with who you told the truth to and such."

"Maybe."

"Maybe nothing. I'm right. And to prove my point, I'm coming to your next Invitational thingy and meeting this Mr. Wonderful myself. If I approve of him and we both know I have wonderful taste, and then you really consider what I just told you."

"Dear God, please don't embarrass me. He's already met Steven and Gabe."

"He's met the gruesome twosome and he still wants to be your friend?" Leah smiled. "Doesn't sound like he scares easily. I like."

"I'm going to regret this aren't I?"

"Completely. But as older sister, that's my job."