As Far As Eye Can See

by NeshaTriumphs1

After serving seven years of a much longer prison sentence, former Neo-Nazi Sam Evans tries to adjust to a normal life, with help from an unlikely source - a blind, black woman, Mercedes Jones.

39. The Retaliation

The Retaliation

Tina had side-eyed the hell out of Sam when he gave her this CD – a CD that was the Japanese version of several anime openings. He was trying to figure out how to make CDs, so that when he started trying to make Mercedes' CD, he wouldn't mess it up. "And, since you're Japanese, I wanted to make your CD work for you," Sam had said, so proud of himself.

"My mom was Korean," she said, trying not to sound too pissed, because she knew that despite Sam's changes, there were some things that his ass had not been taught to understand – like not to assume that all Asians had the same heritage. Sam stared at her blankly and proceeded to hand her the CD that she couldn't understand one damned word of. She kept it in her car, where she kept most of the music that she didn't listen to, too much. But, there were a couple of Scandal songs from Bleach that she enjoyed and some of these songs, even though she had no idea what they were saying, portrayed a high level of emotion and some of them, she even researched the lyrics to. The song that she had on repeat on her way to Mike was a Bleach opening, as well. Bleach was one of Sam's and Mike's favorites and this particular song –Uverworld's D-Technolife was totally appropriate for this current situation.

She couldn't PRECISELY remember the English words, but she remembered much of them, because they appeared on the screen when the show was coming on, and now, she was recalling certain parts. She stopped her car a few blocks away from her mom's old house and made sure that she had every stashed knife that she could think of.

At this point, she had no idea who, if anyone, was still on Paul Karofsky's side. She figured that he was probably alone, seeing how his political career had fallen apart, Will Schuester hung him out to dry and none of the others probably wanted to bother with picking up the pieces to his life, not while trying to keep themselves hidden and undetected after the shitstorm that Schuester's true heritage brought upon them. She guessed that supporters in other cities and states probably would have withdrawn their loyalties and alliance from all of the Lima and maybe even all of Ohio's brotherhood, after finding out the kind of operation that was going on. Imagine the nerve of them letting a slightly black-blooded man into their noble work!

But, there were loyal soldiers. Rick Nelson proved that when he refused to turn on Will Schuester (however, Rick eventually turned, of course, after he found out that Schuester was "one of them" and had been "playing the white man for a fool," and Rick had much more affirmable dirt on Schuester than anyone would have thought, being a flunkie – Rick did a significant amount of dirty work for the man. Grunt work. The filthiest kind… He was worse than Thad had been. Tina remembered Sam saying, "No wonder it was nothing for him to do what he did to that family…" Now, the brotherhood was going to let the Schuesters take the fall for all of that stuff. Russell Fabray and Paul Karofsky might not even be touched by some of it, if the brotherhood backed them up in it. Tina sighed and shook her head at the thoughts fleeting all the hell through her head, distracting her from her focus… Mike. She had to get Mike out of there!

Mike stared straight ahead, wishing he knew some of the stuff from those old kung fu movies that he had been obsessed with since he was a child – where the protagonist could program himself not to feel pain. He kind of wished that he was a ninja, at the moment. Then, realizing that Tina was going to come here and possibly be killed just made him sick to his stomach, but if Tina were to live and have to live without him, after everything that they had been through, and the new things that they were working through, things that Sam and Mercedes told them would be their testimony someday… Mike gagged. Paul looked at him and asked, "How's everything with the whole medical school thing?"

"I'm doing well, despite the fact that last semester I ran into a few road blocks here and there. But, I'll be done with medical school in a year and after that, I intend to get married," Mike answered, calmly – really wanting to tear the man in front of him apart. This was the reason why it took months for Tina to loosen up whenever they were alone. This was the reason why it took years for her to even try to trust a single word that came from his mouth. This was the reason that even after she agreed to marry him, she thought that he could never love her for who she really was! And Mike wanted to kill him.

"Really?" Paul asked and took a seat, crossing his legs as he asked, politely, "Have you decided on colors? Going to dress like a ninja and a geisha?"

"Well, neither Tina, nor myself are Japanese… so…" Mike said.

Paul chuckled and asked, "Do you think that only the Japs should be allowed to have Japanese theme weddings?"

"I was under the impression that you made those suggestions because you presumed that we're Japanese. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't know the true nationality of the woman you had two children with, but she was South Korean. And I have lived in America and have American citizenship, but I was born in Costa Rica and my parents are of Chinese decent. I'm Chinese American and Tina is Korean American. I'm not familiar with these "Japs" that you speak of, but if what you're trying to ask me is if only Japanese people should have Japanese themed weddings, then – yes. Because for anyone else to do it, and not be some percentage of Japanese, that's called cultural appropriation and it's insensitive to the culture, mainly because the rest of us don't really understand much of why such things exist in those cultures and we can't bring them the same honor. Some things are not to be toyed around with, because they are important to certain groups and for the rest of us to just handle them however we feel, because we're trying to be trendy – that really hurts some people."

"Tell me about it. Hurt: That's the way that I feel when I leave my house in the morning. I have this gook neighbor to my right, gardening, a nigger across the street with my flag hanging above his house, and I move a little ways down the road, there's the spic and his hot blonde wife, jogging around the neighborhood, waving at passing cars with smiles. That's what you mean, right? That sounds like this cultural appropriation that you described."

Mike sighed and grunted, then replied, "Are they not American and just doing these things to be cool? Because the Asian woman net door could be an Asian American, like Tina and just love flowers and fruit. The Black man across the street might be a Black American who loves his country. Hell, for all we know, he served in the military to protect it. For all we know, he has a son overseas right now fighting to do what he thinks is protect this country and protect democracy and whatever lies that he's been fed when he enlisted. For all we know, that Hispanic man could be a Hispanic American who fell in love with a woman, because of who she is on the inside and they make each other happy, so they do things together and they wave, because they're friendly and would like to acknowledge other people, even though they're perfectly happy together. Have you ever had just one portion of joy in your miserable life, Mr. Karofsky?" Mike asked.

"As a matter of fact, I have. My greatest portion of joy was perfect. He was beautiful, and your bitch took him away from me!" Paul snapped, his polite politician gone away completely, now as he jumped up from the seat and rushed over to Mike, "And I am going to see to it that she suffers."

"You don't think that she's suffered enough? Watching how you treated her mother all of those years… Feeling the big hands that were supposed to help her learn to tie her shoes and ride a bike, instead, pull her hair and throw her across rooms when she cried? You don't think it was hard for her to try to convince Kim that she had some worth, despite the fact that one of her parents told her that she didn't and her other parent cosigned it with her silence? It was utter shit for T to have to try to gather her sister up and make a full person out of her after their mother hung herself because she thought that they would never come back, because of fear and hatred of you and how you treated them. That woman was so messed up in the head that she didn't know how to just walk away with them. She thought that you would find them. She thought that they were better off with her dead, so that you would leave them alone, but no… Then here comes your son…"

"Don't you talk about him," Paul warned.

"He comes along, pretending to be a friend, for what? To further torment these women that never deserved any of that in the first place? They were just starting to have some semblance of a normal life together, when he restrained and sodomized his own baby sister, in her own bedroom. So, yeah – Tina did make him answer for that, but though her retaliation was warranted and though she earned herself some justice – when you found out… You made her suffer more. You killed her little sister, who was still suffering from the victimization of the son that you were allegedly seeking justice for…"

"DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT HIM!" Paul roared.

"FUCK HIM!" Mike shot right back, "And fuck you," Paul stuck Mike in the side with something sharp and tiny and Mike groaned at the pain of it. But, through his groaning, he said, "Fuck you. You can torture me all that you want, you will never hear this man beg or ask you for anything!"

Stacie, Dwight and Sam were sitting at the bar watching TV together. Mercedes had gone up to the apartment, for the night. She was tired, for running around with her dogs all day and had taken them and herself to lay down, after having taken them to Sandy's shop for their excellent grooming needs. Dwight looked over at Sam as he took off the turtleneck, for the night and changed into his t-shirt. Those tattoos were still so hard to get used to, especially when Sam kept them covered, at all times – even in the heat of the summer. He knew that they made his son feel ugly. He knew that they made him feel insecure and that they were a constant reminder of everything that he had done wrong in life and everything bad that had happened to him and he wanted so badly for them to be gone from his body. "Have you looked into the surgery?" Dwight asked, gently.

Sam didn't even glance his way as he commented, "It's expensive. It's worth more than I'll be able to even save up in years. I'll be aging by the time I can get enough to get rid of them all."

"What about seeing someone about maybe target areas? You could get a quote at least on that one they forced on your neck…"

"I don't want to talk about that stuff in front of Stacie, Dad,:" Sam said, uncomfortably, as he turned red.

Stacie commented, "I'll go up, then. I think it's worth a discussion and even though you ought to trust me with information, by this point, I'll respect your wishes."

"It's not about trust. It's about the fact that you've already had to hear and see and live through too much. What's wrong with me wanting to baby you a little bit?" Sam wondered.

"I ain't a baby, for one," she told him, "And like you said, I've been through a lot. Babying me at this point is putting a band-aid on a busted skull. But, like I said, I'll respect your wishes. I'll see if Mercy's still up and maybe cuddle with her and the doggies." Stacie marched off and Sam could tell that she was angry, but he just couldn't bring himself to ever share the prison stuff with her – probably not for as long as they both shall live.

When she was on the elevator, Dwight said, "I care about you and Mercedes' future together. You can't wear turtlenecks everyday of your life, for the rest of your life."

"I can and it's worth it to not have people look at me the way that they did when I first got out, before Mercy was gracious enough to get me turtlenecks. I can't stand the thought of people looking at us and seeing her with me, like this. She'll be ridiculed and ostracized. I've put her through enough to last a lifetime."

"You didn't put her through this, Sam."

"I put all of them through it. You know what I found out, from Andrea? There's a guy named Nick – blonde guy, handsome features, good breeding, good background, jock… they tried to induct him in high school, too. They tried to get him to get into some of the stuff that I was getting into and he not only told them to go to hell, but he told his parents and the cops about it. They thought he was playing some kind of prank, because he had a few run ins with Karofsky, but this guy made the right choice and he's now got a successful career, a wife, kids, and all that. I could have done that, Dad. I could have had a real life. My friends could have had real lives."

"Sam, what if you had made that choice? What if you ended up never going to prison or enduring all of that and you found yourself a nice little girl in high school and married her and had all of that? Do you think that Mercedes and the others still wouldn't have had this stuff going on with Schuester? Quinn, Tina and Emma brought these guys into her net before she even knew you existed and eventually, they would have fought back. Maybe they wouldn't have lost friends to murder. Maybe Mercedes could have been married to that Puck kid. Maybe she could have been married to Quinn," he said with a shrugged, "But, however it would've been without you – they STILL would've had to eventually deal with these people and having you here while they are doing it has been a significant amount of help. What if without you, they'd all been dead, by now, and what if Stevie had chosen to be with them, even without your help?" Dwight shook his head, "You can't go living and basing your life around what ifs, Sammy. You gotta do what you can do with what you've already got. You've got another chance and you have a shot at real freedom. You have a woman that loves you with her everything and friends that will die for you, just because."

"In what messed up world would Mercedes be married to Quinn?" Sam asked.

"In Quinn's messed up world and please don't tell me that's all that you walked away with?"

Sam laughed and said, "No. I hear you, Dad. And TRUST me, I appreciate everything. I don't think I did, at first. I thought that Mercy was overbearing. I thought that I would just be some charity case for her. I mean, she just gave me this job, without any application or interview or anything. When I asked her about it, after the fact, she said something like – I sounded so down and defeated and she just had to help out – not something I wanted to hear. But, she fell in love with me, and I'll be eternally grateful for that. I just can't get the tattoos removed. Maybe, I'll think about the target thing. It's kind of distracting when I'm with Mercy and her hands or arms are wrapped around my neck and I can feel her skin brush against it. It makes me feel so… dirty, Dad." He shook his head.

"We'll look into some specialists and get you looked at for some quotes," Dwight promised. They talked for a while longer before they heard a knock on the door and Sam went to answer it.

Matt was standing there, dressed in all black – kind of like he was when they went to rescue Quinn and Aphasia. Sam didn't like this, already. It got worse when he noticed the stressed look on Matt's face as he asked, "Is right now, when all of us are in this bullshit together really the time to not have your phone handy?"

"What happened?" Sam asked.

Matt came inside, glanced at Dwight, but didn't acknowledge him as he said, "Paul Kaforsky has Mike Chang and Tina is either on her way or already there, alone – to try to rescue him or trade herself for him. Both of them will end up dead if we don't get there, soon." Sam nodded and left out of the door.

"Sam! Aren't you going to tell Mercedes?" Dwight called.

"We have no time to lose," Matt said.

But Sam nodded and said, "My dad's right." Sam rushed up the elevator to let Mercedes know that he had to leave and to give her a kiss and an 'I love you' while Matt waited, annoyed. "Never been in love, have you?" Dwight asked him. Matt rolled his eyes and Dwight went on to say, "It takes over a great portion of your life and has you wanting to do for the other person, even if it kills you."

"I don't need any filler, okay Evans? I can completely wait in silence and be absolutely fine with that," Matt informed him. He didn't feel like going into anything with Sam's father. For one thing – he liked him less than he liked Sam. For another, he was worried about Tina. Honestly and truly, aside from Santana, who he had been pretty cool with since they were children, Tina was the person out of this group that he connected with the most. They were extremely different folks with extremely different backgrounds, but they thought alike in a number of ways and generally saw eye to eye on a lot of things too. She was an ally, a true ally. She meant a lot to Aphasia and she was a friend. He felt that for her. Matt may have been a lot of things – many bad things, but one thing that he always did pretty well was being a friend, even if he didn't let his friends in all the way or if he wasn't extremely close with them. Sam was wasting time! "I have to go. I can't wait on love," Matt said and left the shop. When he was getting into the vehicle, Sam came rushing out and caught him, just in time to pull the door open as the car was about to speed away.

"Really, Matt? Tina's one of my best friends!" Sam fussed.

"Yeah, mine too – that's why I was trying to hurry up and save her. And let's not forget that Mike and I have been friends since high school," Matt complained. Sam didn't know if he had ever learned that information, but now that he thought about it – Mike and Matt seemed kind of friendly with each other. But, they didn't seem close. They probably fell out when all the stuff started happening to Tina, because of Matt's flier.

Sam felt odd being in a vehicle with Shane and Anthony, but Shane was in the passenger's seat, next to Andrea and Anthony and he were on opposite sides of Matt. Still, rushing out, he hadn't had the chance to grab his turtleneck, and now he felt so exposed with his tattoos… Especially being in a vehicle full of black people. Matt said, "We shouldn't drive to the house. We should park elsewhere and meet at the house. We still don't know who's with him or what, but we have our gear, just like we did before. Will Schuester is behind bars, awaiting trial, Russell Fabray is on the run, and Paul Karofsky has been in hiding. When we go in there, let's make sure that whatever we do to try to get him does not involve Mike or Tina getting hurt." Everyone agreed.

Tina crept into the house. It was dark and she couldn't hear a thing, but surely, Paul would be there. How the hell did he even GET Mike? That was not the important part. The important part was that she had been waiting for this shit her whole life! Tina crept through the old, familiar hallway. Even in the dark, it was familiar, because all of her time there had been dark. After Kim died, Tina tried on numerous occasions to remember better days. She tried to remember the happy times that she had with Kim and with her mom. All that she could really remember was being afraid any time that she thought she might be happy. She was afraid, because she knew that these moments did not last long and even if they did, he would eventually return and when he returned, he would hurt her again. "This is the last time," she said to herself, then began to call out, "PAUL! PAUL!"

She realized that she saw a tiny bit of light – in the one room that she dreaded above any other. Her mother's bedroom… the place that he always took her to brutalize her. The place that she finally gave up on life. Tina held one of her knives tightly in her grasp and she kicked the door open and swung it, just in case. Paul was not in sight, but she saw Mike, immediately.

His mouth was taped up, so she assumed that Paul was behind the door. She withdrew another knife, made her way quickly around the door and threw it, making it stab into the wall. When she shut the door to check, Paul came storming out of the closet and charged right at her. Tina quickly turned around and stabbed him, but he'd knocked her hard enough that she was flung half way across the room. "This little bitch has been playing with knives since she was a girl," he said, removing the knife that she stuck into his forearm, as she shuffled about to get up from the floor and scurried to Mike. "I don't think that I ever taught her," he said as she started to cut the rope off of Mike, "Never bring a knife to a gunfight. Back away from him, you little gook bitch."

At the mention of the word "gun," Tina paused and when she looked at Paul, she saw that he had pulled one out. "Mm hmm… Daddy came prepared, just like you did, all those years ago when you went to see Davie."

"Davie?" She repeated, "You actually call that big ape something cute and affectionate, like Davie?"

"Shut the hell up!" He snapped at her. "Davie was a great boy. He loved to laugh and play and dance. He was excellent at football and he was going to be a great sports agent, some day."

"Funny… Kim was a great girl. She actually was, not just in my mind, but to other people, too. She loved knitting and decorating. We were going to go into business together, but she ended up in a psyche ward and so I went into business with a friend of a friend, instead."

"David was fed a lie," Paul defended.

"Yeah – I wonder who served it up," she said, unphased by the man's tears.

"I taught him everything that he knew, but I couldn't make his decisions for him. I couldn't stop Jesse St. James and Sam Evans for bullying him into the things that he was doing with them," Paul said. "It was because of them that he ever had those types of urges."

"Nnnn-not because his father was exactly the same way?" Tina asked, judging Paul with every muscle in her face.

"Davie never saw me hurt a single fly."

"But, you did teach him that non-white people's lives were worthless. You did program him to have faith in the omnipotence of white privilege. David could have been a human being, but thanks to you, he was a monster and he had to be slain." A shot was fired and Tina froze at the sound of it. Mike began to shake and move around. He was desperately trying to free himself, while she seemed to move in slow motion. Tina's face fell to look down at herself. "You shot me?" She asked and laughed as she reached to hold her chest.

"It was always my intention to kill you. Your boyfriend was just the bait to get you here," Paul said. "I hate you more than I ever hated your mother. She was so pretty. She was so perfect, but she was wrapped up in that gook flesh and I could never forgive her for it. But, I just couldn't leave her alone. I was hooked on her. She was like a drug to me. I never knew that Davie sought you and Kim out. He'd always wanted to know about my secret life. He'd always been curious about what I was hiding from him."

Tina leaned against Mike and whispered, "This asshole really wants me to suffer, making me listen to this bullshit before I die," she said and ripped the tape from Mike's mouth.

"Hey!" Paul screamed, but Tina ignored it to tell Mike, "Say something worth hearing."

"You aren't going to die," Mike said, softly as Tina snuck a knife into his hands, which were bound behind his back. Paul rushed over to grab her and threw her on the floor. "You asshole!" Mike snarled, trying to cut himself free.

"When he sought you out, he just wanted to know who you were. He saw that I had a secret, just like he did and mine was worse, because you and Kim existed. He was gay and he could hide it forever, if he wanted to – but the only way to hide a couple of gook kids was to kill them or abandon them. I did you a favor and let you live and you took my boy away from me!" Paul whined.

"This is some bullshit. Mike, will you promise me to fuck him up? I am so light headed…" Tina said and shut her eyes. Paul leaned down to check to see if she was dead… and Tina elbowed him in the side of the face. He stumbled and dropped his gun, which gave her a window. Tina punched him in the groin, then shoved him down and kicked his gun out of his reach. "Are you that off of it, right now? You think I'd come in here without some protection?" Tina pulled her shirt open and showed the blood bag bullet proof vest. "I have friends, too, Motherfucker!" She snapped and kicked him in the side. Just then, Mike was cutting himself free.

As soon as he was free, he rushed at Paul and pulled him by the shirt, "Stand up, you coward!" He ordered, pulling the heavier man to his feet. "You get up and fight me!" He urged.

"Mike…" Tina started. But, Paul found his way to his feet and he and Mike began to legit fight. Tina backed out of their way and went to retrieve the gun. She heard someone coming into the house and she stealthily went to check to see who it was. It had better be friendlies. No… it was two of those damned red-head triplet bastards. She pointed her gun at them and asked, "Are you two alone?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. One thing's for sure though – you are!" They rushed at her and Tina fired the gun, unloading it, though her aim was not great, because a gun has that bounce in it that made your hands go all crazy if you didn't know what the hell you were doing. She simply didn't have the time to think about it. She saw that one of them fell, but the other reached her, punched her and disarmed her.

Mike heard the gunshots and rushed to check on Tina, damned near forgetting about the man that he was fighting, who used that time to grab the rope and try to strangle him. Mike opened the door and began to crush Paul against the wall behind him. He could see Tina wrestling with a red head teenager, even though it was dark, there was a bit of light from the moon outside and the open door that he and Paul had waited for Tina inside. When Paul fell to the floor, Mike jerked the rope from himself and used it to wrap around that redhead demon that had the upper hand on Tina. He tightened the rope around his arms and tried to restrain him, warning him, "You're a kid – and I don't want to hurt you."

"You go to hell, Chink." He said and kicked at Tina, hitting her in the side of the face with his foot. That made Mike slam him, face first into the wall. The kid was dazed, but conscious when Mike dropped him.

He checked on Tina and she pointed at the other one, "I think I shot him."

Mike went to check on him and sure enough, he was laying down with wide open blue eyes, not breathing. "I thought they had been arrested," he said.

"They were, but the one that shot Mary Evans took the blame for everything and these were let out on probation or something, because they never technically kidnapped Quinn or Aphasia – Stevie did, and they never technically hurt anyone either. They're in a family of lawyers. They knew how to spin it," she said as she saw Mike trying to work on the teenager, to try to revive him, if possible. "Did I kill the kid?" She wondered. Mike stopped his efforts and she looked sad, but it was quickly replaced by anger and she turned it towards Paul. "People like YOU, who program your children to hate and to build an empire upon hate… now a what – sixteen, seventeen year old boy is dead?" Paul was breathing hard and still seated on the floor. "Get up," she said and reached for the rope. "Get! Up!" She insisted, pulling out a knife, as she did.

"Tina," Mike started.

"No. You've had your piece of him!" She fussed. They heard someone else, approaching and Tina quickly grabbed Paul and put her knife to his throat as the door opened and an unofficial tactical unit entered. "Matt?" She called out. Matt quickly rushed to her and paused when he saw the scenery. She nudged her head at the boy on the floor, "I shot him. The other one got knocked against a wall. Mike is safe. You can get the police, now."

"Tina, what are you doing with that man?" Matt asked.

"We are going to have some father-daughter time," she said.

Sam stepped forward and shook his head, "Tina, let the police sort him out."

"The police?" Tina questioned. "The same police that sorted him out when my mother, my sister and I were being tormented? No, no – I am sorting him out!" She said. "Mike, I need your help." Mike quickly rushed to help her to tie up Paul's wrists.

"Don't do anything crazy, Tina," Matt warned.

"We're going to talk!" She snapped and shoved him, towards the door, with the knife to his throat. Mike followed, as Sam and Matt watched.

"She's going to kill him," Matt whispered to Sam.

"I think so, too," Sam told him.

Matt shook his head and told him, "That's not how I want us to deal with our problems."

"Everyone isn't you, Matt," Sam said, shaking his head. "We need to try to get the police here to sort this out."

"And tell them what?" Anthony asked, annoyed.

Matt said, "That we came to try to rescue our friend; that these kids were like this when we got here, but no one else was, and we don't know where they went."

"Sounds like a job for anonymous caller," Andrea said and pulled out one of her prepaid phones. The others made their way to the vehicle.

"You do realize that some of this might have been prevented if you had kept your phone on you?" Matt asked Sam. Sam simply sighed.

Tina was crying as she drove her car and Mike simply didn't know what to think or to do. What the hell was he doing? He should be trying to talk some sense into her. She was going to do something that might destroy her life. She might get caught and be in prison for the rest of her years. He turned D-Technolife down and asked, "Are you sure that you want to do this?"

"I've been waiting on this shit my whole life, Mike… and my father has finally come to a point in his where he wants it too," she answered. Tina drove out to the cemetery and let Paul lead her and Mike to David's burial. "Matt and Sam made amends at the graves of the Rutherfords. I figured that this is the perfect place for me to make my peace." She pushed Paul to his knees and said, "He always wanted to know about your secret life. Tell him. Tell him everything. Tell him about how you promised my mother the world and let her fall in love with you. Tell him how you got her pregnant with me, then tried to beat me out of her. Tell him how when you got her pregnant again, you stabbed her in the stomach, because you knew that a beatings might not work – I was proof that the beatings wouldn't work! Tell him!" She cried. "You weren't too shy to tell me this shit! I was just a little girl when you told me! I think that Davie can handle it!"

"Tina," Mike said, but she ignored him and kneeled next to her father.

"I think that Davie should hear about the time that my mother tried to kill herself, convinced that maybe if she was dead, we would go into the system, and you wouldn't come find us, because you didn't care enough to bother. Tell him how she failed and when you came to see her, you told her, right in front of us that if she ever tried to leave you again, she could at least kill us first, because we were never wanted, anyway…" There were tears in Paul's eyes, but he was still silent. "Why the fuck are you crying, you piece of shit?" She asked.

"Because, no matter what I've ever done, no matter how terrible of a person I am, I loved my son," he said. "Just being here always reminds me that if I did the things that I did and I was never killed for them, he should not have been, either. Why didn't you kill me, then? When he hurt her that way… when you found out what Davie did, why the fuck didn't you kill me then?" Paul asked, the tears flowing from his eyes.

"Because I didn't know how the fuck to find you, that's why I have never killed you, in all o0f this time. I could never get my hands on you. But, it is somewhat rewarding to know that you got to suffer. Frankly, I didn't think that you had any capacity to give a shit about anyone but yourself."

"You and I aren't that much different, Tina," Paul said.

"This fucker actually knows my name," she announced to whomever.

"Don't mock me. I was going to let your boyfriend watch you die, because I knew that if you died knowing that he would have to suffer here without you, that would be the ultimate punishment. I think that some part of you killed David because you knew that I would be somewhere, suffering because of it. It was very well played. If you weren't wrapped in all of that gook flesh like your mother, I might be proud of you," he said.

Tina stood up and handed Paul the knife. "You can kill yourself, like I suggested. You know that you don't have shit left to return to in the world. Or, you can go on living without him and just suffer somewhere. It's your choice, and either way – I'll feel like I won. But, what you will never have the chance to do again is hurt me or Mike. We won't give you that kind of power. Our love for each other is stronger than all the hate that you shoveled over me for all of those years. I only just realized it. You destroyed your children's lives with that shit… but you won't continue to destroy mine with it. Fuck you, Daddy." She stepped a good distance away from him, so that if he did try one last time to injure her, she would be able to dodge it. Then, she walked off, and reached for Mike's hand.

Mike stared at Paul, saying something to the gravestone and he took Tina's hand. "God, T – I was so afraid that I was about to watch you kill him or make him kill himself, like you told me you did to… I'm relieved that it didn't happen. But, what makes you think that he won't come after us again?" They heard Paul make a groaning sound and they both turned and saw him topple over. Mike presumed that he'd stabbed himself.

"I hate to admit it, but – he was right. We are sort of alike… and if I didn't have you, I probably would have killed myself. It's very hard to have to face someone that you loved and wanted to protect and to show them that there is a monster somewhere inside of you, especially if the monster inside of you has made them have to hurt." She glanced back at the lump in front of Dave's gravestone, "I took into consideration the guilt that he would have for David dying and played on it by revealing the deplorable things that he's done, somewhere that he never wanted it brought out – in front of David. Now, they get to burn together," she said, and kept walking.

The English lyrics to Uverworld: DTechnolife –

You've been hurt by incurable pain and sadness
We can't erase the past, so let's share the burden
Don't throw life away
I hold your hand

Will I lose it someday?
I want to protect your fading smile
Even the echoing voice that calls me gets hoarse
And is sometimes blown away by the wind
I'll find you

You've been hurt by incurable pain and sadness
Don't say you can't smile anymore or that you hate humanity
There's a meaning to everything that happens in the unforseeable future
Now just stay as you are; I'm sure the day will come when you realize
Just like a rusted person

Just making love is empty
You said you can live alone
You're aching with the words of overflowing tenderness
That won't reach you now

Wow the hand I hold
Wow is longing for casual tenderness
Do you remember
People become gentler by knowing pain
Drive your life

You've been hurt by incurable pain and sadness
Don't say you can't smile anymore or that you hate humanity
There's a meaning to everything that happens in the unforseeable future
Now just stay as you are; I'm sure the day will come when you realize

How can I see the meaning of life
Disappearing, your're the only...

You pull away from me, saying it's so you won't break
Don't say you can't smile anymore or that you hate humanity
Now by and by even if you can't see it
There's a meaning to everything
We can't erase the past, so let's share the burden
Don't throw life away

You'd better forget everything
Remember...your different life?
You'd better forget everything
Remember...you can't go back
Wow but someday, like a warped memory
You'll understand

Mercedes wrapped her arms around Tina and rested her head on her shoulder. "I always thought that when Paul Karofsky died, you, me and Quinn would have ourselves a celebration," Tina said. "I thought – everything important that I go through is gonna be gone through with them. I miss her, Cedes. I miss Quinnie," Tina said. "I was so angry with her because she didn't tell us, but since then, I thought about how I didn't tell Mike all that stuff, and when he found out, it took him practically no time to forgive me. I feel so bad that I wasn't willing to do that for her, when God knows how much I love her, too."

"One day, we'll see her again," Mercedes promised.

"Yeah, but the three of us should have been seeing each other through this, and I shoved her away," Tina said, sadly.

"She needed it. She'll get some help that she should have gotten a long time ago. Soon, you'll be branching out and getting into some things for yourself that only include you and Mike and you'll see that you did her a favor when you pushed her away. By the time we see her again, she might be more relaxed. Maybe, by then – she'll love herself, like a person is supposed to."

Mercedes heard the balcony door open and Tina said, "Hey, Girl."

"How are you?" Stacie asked, setting down on the concrete.

"I'm fine," Tina said. "Honestly and truly. I feel like so much weight has been lifted off of my chest. I feel like everything is right in the world… except for one thing and I really can't do anything about that, so – I've just decided to have peace with that thing, too."

Stacie asked the two women, "Are we going to have a chance to just rebuild and heal our family, now, or is there more mess that has to be sorted through?"

Tina said, "Well, Paul Karofsky honestly and truly killed himself. That one Giardi triplet that didn't get shot has disappeared into obscurity, the one that did get shot – the only prints on the gun were one Paul's hand and nobody else was around after the cops got there. I think that whoever is left – they've most likely decided that having dissolved a chapter of the brotherhood that had already been tainted is good enough for them… They probably will all honestly and truly leave us the hell alone."

Stacie let out a relieved sigh and said, "I can't lie to you – I was really worried that tomorrow or next week or something, that missing Fabray dude was gonna jump out and try to sew us together or something."

"I think that they found him," Tina said.

"Did they?" Mercedes asked.

Tina said, "Well, I don't want to make a liar out of myself." She pulled out her phone and pulled up Matt's website on it. "Yeah – Russell Fabray found and taken in for questioning on alleged connections to Will Schuester and Paul Karofsky on conspiracy to commit murder and acts of domestic terrorism… It's on Matt's site. You know he wouldn't just post something there." Mercedes nodded her head in agreement. "Oh, and Kurt and Blaine will be back in a couple of days, so – seems like we should have a welcome back?"

"I don't feel like celebrating," Mercedes said.

"Are you kidding? We've gotten justice for all of us! What's not to celebrate?" Tina asked.

"Emma's still in a coma," Mercedes said.

Stacie offered, "Well, my mama's dead and my brother's in a mental hospital, but as long as we know that the people responsible are being dealt with – there's still a reason to celebrate!"

"They haven't been proven guilty, yet," Mercedes reminded them.

"It's a damned done deal," Tina said, "And Matt and Andrea's genius asses have fixed everything in such a way that no residue of any of the things that we did to protect and defend ourselves will ever come back on us. I know that they probably felt that safe and untouchable at some point, too… but they were covering up for evil. All we want to do is live." Tina began to stand up and Mercedes and Stacie followed her lead. "My butt hurts, and I hear that there's a couch inside," Tina said. "Tomorrow, Mike and I will be moving into our new secret-free apartment." Mercedes and Stacie both snickered a little at the description as they went inside. The three of them got comfortable on the couch and Tina began to flip through channels.

"Something has changed," Stacie said.

"What do you think it is?" Mercedes wondered.

Stacie commented, "It feels like a normal night. I don't feel like someone that I know and love is going to die tonight." Tina smirked and landed on Alice in Wonderland on Disney. "You're actually going to watch a Disney movie?" Stacie asked, chuckling.

"I'm actually going to allow myself a nice retreat into fantasy, since reality is not currently demanding anything at all from me," Tina said, with a smile. Clusterfrak and Kissy-Kissy-Bang-Bang came rushing to the couch and settled themselves, one on either side of Mercedes, so that Kissy was between Mercy and Stacie and Cluster was in between Mercy and Tina. Mercedes didn't comment, but she felt it too… Tonight was different. Maybe all the hell was truly over.