A/N: Hey everyone! Here's the last chapter of Secrets! I know there are some loose ends, but I didn't want to deal with everyone's skeletons yet, even if the episode is supposed to be about them...Also, I'm hoping to be finished with the next episode by next week's due date, but if I'm not, I'll probably leave the update as a simple Glee-cap. Don't hate me!

A/A/N: Song featured is "Dirty Little Secret" by All-American Rejects.

Nina stepped lightly through the halls on Friday afternoon. She was certain in her decision, but that didn't make her any less nervous about the consequences. She caught sight of the HBIC lingering in front of a classroom and followed her as the Asian girl casually stepped inside.

"So Bubulah, what's my good news?" she asked cheekily.

Nina's eyes narrowed defiantly. "The good news is you can still pack a bikini," she retorted scathingly. "Because it'll be a cold day in Hell before I help you." She watched Nikki's eyes widen in surprise before settling into an icy glare. "You betrayed her; wrecked her—she doesn't want anything to do with anyone because of you. And we may not be best friends, but I'm going to be a faithful teammate still, and not manipulate or deceive her badly as you did, so she can realize one day that she still has people that care about her that are nothing like you."

The brunette's Captain could kill with the look she fixed her with, and her words were laced with venom as she spoke. "Like me?" she scoffed. "You think you're showing you care about her by keeping her from me? You don't know anything about A—just what she lets you see. I've known her for years, and let me tell you: that girl is hanging off of a precipice, and for the last five years, I've been the only thing that's kept her from falling. Stassi needs me; she won't last two weeks without me taking care of her." Her expression turned sinister as she smirked cruelly, stepping nose-to-nose with her subordinate. "So you go ahead and try to fill that void—I'll even let your alcoholic warden's discrepancy slide. Because when Anastassia Moran crashes and burns, I want to see the nice, sweet, good Nina Grannis watch and realize that it was all. Her. Fault."

Dylan left his English class and made his way to the Music Room for Glee rehearsal. However, he found himself distracted by the sight of his Bulgarian teammate staring worriedly out the window from her spot in the middle of an empty classroom.

"Hey," he greeted her, stepping inside and casting a glance around. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied with a half-hearted smile. "Just worrying about the chaos around us. Nikki Hardy is not a girl to take lightly"

"Don't I know it," the shaggy-haired brunette agreed, sliding onto the desk next to her. "How did she take the news about Annie?"

Nina chuckled lightly. "She didn't say anything, but Jennifer Johnson made a spectacle of herself. She could barely contain herself for the entirety of practice, especially after Annie's first words when she walked into the gym yesterday were, 'Guess what? I'm not pregnant!'" The Bulgarian girl joined Dylan as he laughed in amusement. "Of course, Michelle and Caroline decided to make the same announcement, which started a bunch of others on similar 'confessions', and Jennifer just looked like she was going to explode. It was really funny."

Dylan took a deep breath as his laughter died down. "I'm glad Annie's okay though." He replied, pausing as his brown eyes flickering over to the junior. "It'd be rough to take care of a kid at her age."

"Speaking from personal experience?" Nina asked, tone turning somber as she glanced down at her converses in the following silence. "Veronica—my foster mom—she's not a bad person. But she's been drinking so long, she can't seem to physically function without it." Dylan pressed his lips together, breathing deeply in silent criticism. "She's got cirrhosis and tremors, and she can barely keep her catering company going. And she knows—she knows that it's falling apart. But she can't- or won't- get help, and so she just becomes bitter and withdrawn. I've got two sisters in middle school and a brother who can barely dress himself, but I'm the oldest, so what else can I do but take care of them?"
"That's why I've always pushed my brothers to be so involved," Dylan confessed. "Lach is actually kind of a loner naturally, but it's just not safe for them at home when Dad's on a tear. I know it's because he misses Mom, and I guess I remind him of her, but we had to move out of the house because I couldn't depend on him to stay straight enough to lay off of his own boys." He shook his head at her sadly. "So I take over—I push them to be active, to keep up appearances, and now to hide that the four of us are living out of a motel while our dad tries to sober up." He sighed. "They're just kids; it shouldn't be like this for them."

"It shouldn't be like this for us either," Nina reminded him. "But I think it helps to have friends to support us, and a friend who understands is priceless."

The two smiled at each other, and he offered her his hand as they left the classroom.

Hayley slipped into the quiet of the Art Room—was there ever a class here?—as the last dregs of school slipped by. She'd taken to hiding in different spots over the course of the last few weeks to maintain her sanity, and since she rarely showed up to class in the first place, nobody really seemed to notice.

Except for the stupid Gleeks. Liam, especially, had taken to chasing after her with a persistence that made her seriously consider a restraining order. All to go to idiotic rehearsals for a club she couldn't give two shits about. And so her hiding places became, in an effort of evasive-maneuvering, much more varied, from super-creative places like the walk-in refrigerator of the cafeteria to on top of the stack bookshelves in the back of the library.

They'd found her every time, though, and so today she decided to try hiding in plain sight. Surely they wouldn't think to look for her in somewhere she'd obviously be, right?

"Seriously? This was the best you could come up with?" Apparently not.

The crimson-streaked girl huffed unhappily as she turned to face the lanky sophomore in the doorway. "Am I bugged? How do you keep finding me?"

"Probably because you're not really trying," the brunette replied, causing the girl to arch her eyebrows incredulously. "Come on—no one believes that you're actually trying to ditch Glee. You just don't want to admit you like us."

Hayley scoffed derisively. "Yeah, that's it," she retorted as she rolled her eyes. "I just love singing and dancing and learning life lessons side by side with a quirky band of loveable misfits."

"Actually yeah," he stated, continuing at the rebel's dubious stare. "Otherwise I wouldn't find you—hell, you wouldn't be hiding at school. You could have easily skipped the last five minutes of class and just bolted home. No one would have followed you."

"And you think Schue or Figgins would have put up with that?" she reminded him. "It's this misery or expulsion."

"Figgins doesn't keep track of anything not immediately affecting him, and Schue would never go out of his way to get you kicked out of school. Face it," Liam's face broke into a smug grin. "Subconsciously or not, you actually like being in this club. You like having a place to belong. And you like us."

"Yeah right," the Asian girl scoffed.

"Uh-huh," the prankster replied teasingly.

"I don't like stupid Glee Club!"

"Okay."

Hayley stomped her foot petulantly as her temper gave way to the boy's mocking expression. She pushed him roughly, causing him to laugh as he fell back against a table. "Shut up!"

She inhaled sharply as she stared resentfully at him. He'd finally stopped laughing, but his stupid expression was still all amusement and her eyes further narrowed into thin slits.

Liam finally put up his hands up in surrender and gestured toward the door. Hayley's sour expression lifted slowly into one of resignation and she acquiesced with a sigh and stepped toward him.

"Don't worry," he told her softly as they stepped into the hall. "I won't tell anyone."

"Okay guys," Mr. Schuester proclaimed to the group. "I think we've had an amazing breakthrough this week, and I hope that it's brought you closer as a group." The team looked around uncertainly at each other, but their teacher plowed ahead. "I think Nina and Hayley have prepared something for us in the auditorium, so without further ado…"

The group shuffled from their seats toward the exit, but Caroline held back. "Wait," she told her cheer teammates. Nina, Annie, Michelle, and Katie eyed her warily, but the honey-brunette waited with watchful eyes until the others had left. "I wanted to talk about the lies and secrets between us."

"Care—" Annie began, but the freshman raised a hand to cut her off.

"I don't care anymore," she told them simply. "Medusa has already done so much to hurt all of us, and things are coming at us from all sides now. Mr. Schue is right—if we're going to land on top, we've got to hold together. So I think we should just let this go, and accept that, whatever circumstances brought us together—well, we're together now, so it doesn't matter."

Michelle grinned and placed a hand on her captain's shoulder. "I'm one-hundred percent with you on that," she told her friend, and the other Cheerios smiled in relief and nodded.

"Good," Caroline smiled at them. "Then let's see what Nina's got."

The girls grinned and offered words of encouragement to the junior as the exited the room. As they entered the hallway, however, Katie hung back slightly and placed a hand on her friend's arm to do the same.

"That's it?" she asked the brunette incredulously. "You're just over it?"

Caroline glanced ahead at the others and then back to the baby blues watching her. "No," she admitted. "I know they're good people, but with that HBIC pulling so many strings, I can't tell if anyone is acting on their own or as a pawn, and I don't know who I can trust." The green-eyed girl arched her eyebrows at her friend's questioning expression. "But I want to keep our team safe, and Hardy is behind any of this, then we need her to think my guard's down. I'm done playing the good girl—if I'm going to take her out, it's time we start playing her game."

Katie nodded in understanding, and with a grim smile followed her best friend as she made her way after the others.

Nina straddled the microphone as the band started a guitar riff.
Let me know that I've done wrong, she sang out, when I've known this all along
Hayley strode in behind her to harmonize as she twisted and spun, I go around a time or two
Just to waste my time with you

Tell me all that you've thrown away, the Cheerio belted as she took back the lead, and began following the sophomore into a complex mix of choreography, find out games you don't wanna play
The two girls faced each other and harmonized, You are the only one that needs to know

Caroline watched her teammates' performance with a smile, and when Michelle nudged her happily, she returned the sentiment. However, in her mind's eye, she found herself revisiting all of the times the group had convened in the halls, had been talking in the cafeteria. She found herself reconsidering all of Nikki's sharp glances their way and allowed her expression to fall minutely as she watched her teammates around her.

I'll keep you my dirty little secret (dirty little secret), Nina sang as Hayley echoed her sentiment.
Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret (Just another regret, hope that you can keep it)

Through the chorus, the rebellious sophomore cast a glance at Liam, who was watching her with an encouraging grin from between Andrew and Teddy. She shook her head in irritation, but her lips pulled up slightly all the same as she turned back to her performance. My dirty little secret-who has to know?

Nina strode across the stage with her hands on her chest dramatically, When we live such fragile lives, it's the best way we survive
I go around a time or two, she continued as Hayley sidled up next to her and the spun back-to-back, just to waste my time with you
They pushed off of each other and stepped in different directions, throwing their hands upwards, Tell me all that you've thrown away
Find out games you don't wanna play
You are the only one that needs to know...the two girls duetted as they came together again.

Nina had been able to restrain herself until lunch. It was then, upon seeing the vacant seat that her friend usually occupied and hearing the normal excuse of his hiding in the 4H Room, that she'd given up on propriety and flitted down the halls.

"Ashwin, seriously?" the junior had demanded of the Indian boy when she entered the room and found him alone. "What are you doing?"

The sophomore watched her quizzically, shrugging and running an uneasy hand through his black hair. "I'm trying to make things easier—" he tried to explain, but Nina cut him off.

"By lying to Emma? How does that make it easier on her?" she demanded. "She deserves to know the truth Ash."

The boy's eyebrows arched in surprise. "I didn't lie to Emma," he argued.

Nina scoffed. "You didn't lie to her and tell her you slept with Casey Lawson? Because I was at soccer camp with you Ash—that girl was an insufferable bigoted snob who'd barely give me the time of day, much less you. I don't believe for a minute that even if you completely lost your mind and were willing to cash in your V-card with that girl that she would sleep with you."

Ashwin looked shocked. "I never said I slept with Casey Lawson," he retorted disdainfully.

"Emma said you told her you slept with Casey from soccer camp," Nina insisted, looking at the boy dubiously. "There were only two Casey's in that entire facility, and if you didn't sleep with Casey Lawson, then—"

Ashwin bit his lip as he kept his eyes on the floor, purposely ignoring the wide-eyed expression that set unyielding on the junior's face until she could finally choke out, "Casey Austin? Kam's coach? You—?"

Her eyes filled with questions, but the boy's face was too flushed with embarrassment and shame to stay in the room any longer. He blinked hard and muttered, "Please don't tell anyone Neens—please," before all but running from the room.

I'll keep you my dirty little secret (Dirty little secret), the two girls sang out again, and Emma glanced nervously from her ex to Liam.

Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret (Just another regret), She felt betrayal and anger and fear as she watched them, both knowing just enough to destroy her completely. They wouldn't understand why she needed to do what she was doing, that running and purging was the only thing holding her together. How could they? How could anyone?

Hope that you can keep it, my dirty little secret, She had so much pressure on her, and nothing she did ever felt like enough. How could an adulterous lecher and a slacker ever understand what she was going through?

Who has to know?

Nina and Hayley reached out to the audience, tossing and turning in exaggerated movements as the verse built up, The way she feels inside (Inside)

From the hallways, Stassi stared vacantly into her locker in a moment of solitude. Those thoughts I can't deny (deny)
These sleeping dogs won't lie (won't lie), Hayley and Nina sang, and the Armenian girl allowed her cold expression to slip, just for a moment to reveal her misery. The ease of her rigidity caused her skinny jeans to sag just low enough for her bony hips to slip over her belt, and she blinked hard as she took in her reflection, cringing at the semi-yellowish that she couldn't unsee, while feeling gratitude that everyone else was possibly too afraid to bring up around her.

It's eating me apart, trace this life line…

After another moment, she berated herself internally for her weakness, grabbing her concealer to even out her color and pushing away from the locker, slamming the door shut

Hayley and Nina came together, their voices dropping as their tone became subdued for the final chorus

I'll keep you my dirty little secret, they sang together. Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret

After rehearsals, after everything, Katie waited until she was in the safety of her own home to sit on her bed in silence. She glanced over at a sweet and simple text with a greeting and love from Dylan, and then over to a paper bag that peaked out from her nightstand. She pulled out the bag and glanced inside at the plastic sticks, the three positive results that they yielded, and curled into herself as she softly began to sob.

Just another regret, hope that you can keep it
My dirty little secret
Dirty little secret
Dirty little secret

Who has to know?
Who has to know?