"Ex Memoria"

19. Clumsy Start

May 2012 – Lima, Ohio

They needed to have this done before they got back on the bus. They knew at the worst they could keep at it later, but if they were to start here and not finish, then the odds were that they would lose their window of opportunity, and Mike and Tina would never hear them out again.

But the problem was that they were pressed for time, and as tended to be the case, this made for rush judgments and bad ideas.

They couldn't crowd up around the pair of them, and they couldn't do what they tended to do when they were at school, which was to pull whoever they wanted to speak to into an empty classroom or broom closet. But then they did know they would be going through an exhibit soon, so the obvious solution became that they should find a way to fall behind from the group and make sure Tina and Mike fell behind as well. If anyone asked, they could say it was 'special Glee Club business.' The worst thing they had to look forward to, if this fell through, was not so much the wrath of Sylvester but the wrath of Berry.

Santana had wanted them to go to Gemma and make her do the same thing she'd done with Blaine, which was to fetch a note from the future Mike and Tina, but the others were of a mind that if this was an option in any way, the substitute would have brought it up. It seemed more likely that the Blaine thing had been a one-time exception, so they were on their own.

Puck had been willing to deface one artifact or another, to make it seem as though the Doctor had been there. This was immediately shot down by the rest of the group.

Brittany wanted to pretend she was possessed by an alien, to which they had needed to point out it would be too far, too involved, especially since they had no expectations of actually seeing the Doctor anytime soon. Brittany promised she wouldn't mind carrying on the charade, but still the idea was thrown away.

Before they could end up spitting out more and more terrible ideas, they had come to the conclusion that it might have been a better idea to be straightforward with the truth. They had enough stories amongst themselves, and if necessary they could somehow manage to throw Mike and Tina on to Kurt, Blaine, and Sam, so that they could give the others even more reason to trust what they had been told. It was as hit or miss as it got, but they had to go forward believing that they could succeed, or they would face plant… hard.

"Uh… I know my vantage point is a bit low right now," Quinn frowned, "But where did they go?"

The others looked up, around. They'd lost sight of Mike and Tina. No matter where they turned, they could not spot them.

"Alright, let's split up and look for them, we've already been too grouped up for too long. Spread out, go," Puck nudged them to separate before getting hold of the back of Artie's chair so to guide him along.

"No running," Artie warned, already too aware of the way Puck could get if allowed to steer him.

"Relax," he chuckled, which did not do anything to reassure Artie.

"They can't have gotten far, right?" he asked, hoping it might calm him down, on top of giving Puck a reason not to speed off.

"Maybe they went off somewhere to hook up," Puck offered, which earned him a pointed glare from Artie, whether he saw it or not.

"Artie!" a voice called loudly from further on, and if it had startled him and Puck, it couldn't have escaped the rest of the field trip group, students, chaperones and guides alike. They didn't have much of a choice but to look up and see an aggravated Santana trying to make herself inconspicuous by Brittany's side, while the blonde was waving her arm at the boys to get their attention.

"Why would you even…" Artie muttered, while Puck was trying to very discreetly to get her to stop. At least Santana was able to finally silence her, but then they had at least achieved their goal. They spotted Tina and Mike out of the crowd, so they knew where they had to get themselves to. The one thing they knew now was that Brittany was 'out,' as far as the Tina/Mike mission. If she went up to them now, they would ask her what she'd been up to, and it would only make it look as though it was a prank after all.

They would have to let a few minutes go by, with peace and quiet restored, or else they would fail. They couldn't get those minutes back.

"We have to get over there before someone else messes it up," Puck told him as they went on.

"Okay, but we have to…" Artie started to say, then paused.

They were too far back, which prevented them from hearing what was being said, but before they knew it, Mike and Tina had been approached by Sam and Blaine, and a few seconds later, they had walked off with Tina. A moment later, Kurt was at Mike's side, and it didn't matter whether or not they heard, the tip of the head translated clearly as 'I need to talk you, let's go somewhere else.' Mike followed Kurt, and looking around, Artie and Puck knew the others had seen this, too.

"What just happened?" Puck asked.

"I'm not sure," Artie frowned. "But I think they know…"

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)