"Ex Memoria"

26. Unity

May 2012 – Lima, Ohio

The field trip was nearly over, and before long they had all been gathered in such a way that the group had decided it wouldn't be too questionable for them to gather and speak amongst themselves for a beat.

Santana had pulled Kurt along, with Brittany and Sugar trailing behind in such a way that they might have been there to make sure he didn't escape them. Their approach had attracted the others, Puck, and Quinn, and Mercedes, and Artie to join them, and even Sam and Blaine, who had left Tina only to see Kurt ushered away by the Cheerio.

"Well, he probably messed it all up," Santana declared to the rest.

"I did not mess anything up," he frowned, pulling his arm free.

"What happened?" Quinn asked.

"I told Mike the truth," Kurt told her, and the others spoke all at once. After they had been silenced, he went on. "Can't be sure, but I think he believed me.

"Says you," Santana frowned.

"Maybe if you hadn't been so bent on keeping us out of this…" Sam complained, only getting an eye roll in return. "We're just as good."

"Better, if you ask me," Blaine tipped a nod of confidence toward his boyfriend, who smiled.

"Then it's a good thing we didn't," Santana threw back, sighing before looking around the group. "Now what do we do?"

"If Mike does believe it, he might tell Tina," Artie suggested.

"He'll probably forget half of it, and then he'll screw it up," Puck frowned.

"He might now," Quinn countered.

"How about we get in there while we still can?" Kurt added. "We can talk to Tina, me, and Artie and Mercedes."

"Why you?" Sugar asked.

"We've been her friends the longest," Kurt pointed out. "If she'll trust anyone, it'll be us."

"Okay, but none of those tricks with her," Mercedes spoke up. "We have to be straight with her."

"So go," Quinn told her. "She'll talk to Mike first otherwise." With that, Kurt, Artie, and Mercedes had split from the group in search of Tina.

As they were walking through, they'd found themselves standing in front of Gemma, and it wasn't until she handed Artie something that they figured out it might have been an intentional encounter.

"What's this?" Artie asked, feeling the pouch in his palm and reaching to open it with his other hand.

"Don't," she stopped him. "Just when you go to her, let her have it. She'll know what it is. You guys looked like you might need help."

And she'd wandered off, leaving them to stop and wonder. But then they saw Tina, and they hurried to her.

"Tina!" Mercedes called to her as they neared. She turned.

"Have you seen Mike? I was trying to…"

"Haven't seen him, no, sorry," Artie spoke, a little too fast even for him. "But look, we have something for you, I'm not sure what it…" he held up the pouch. As soon as she saw it, Tina's eyes bugged out and she snatched it up.

She'd only been seven years old the last time she'd seen it, but she knew beyond a doubt that it was the same one. It was striped, black and white vertically, but with one red horizontal stripe along the middle, the same color as the string that held it shut.

Slowly, she'd opened the pouch, peering inside rather than emptying out the contents, which left the trio standing before her as clueless as they had been before.

"Who gave it to you?" Tina asked.

"Uh… well…" Artie hesitated.

"Miss Harrison," Kurt answered truthfully. Tina paused to think, and she smiled.

"It was her?" she asked herself before turning to her friends. "She said whoever gave it back to me would have something important to tell me and I would have to listen."

"Wait, this was yours?" Mercedes asked.

"Come to think of it, I think she was wearing the same thing she is now," Tina blinked. "But how's that possible, she…"

"She can travel in time," Artie revealed. "That's what we had to say. Well, part of it."

"In… in time?" Tina asked, clutching the striped keepsake she'd only just received; it looked just as new as it had been a decade ago. "What else could there be?" The trio shared a quiet look.

"We'll tell you everything, but when we're done, you need to do two things. One, you can't tell anyone, two, you have to convince Mike. We tried to tell him, but we're not sure he believes it yet," Kurt told her.

"Is that why Blaine and Sam made me go with them?" realization dawned on her. The trio nodded. "Okay, I promise," she told them.

They laid out the story for her. Every time a new, slightly unbelievable element was brought up, she gave the pouch a squeeze, as though to remind herself that it was all real, and she could trust them.

When they had finished, Tina had been almost surprised at how much she had started to believe them, not even because of the pouch. It was incredible sometimes, how many strange things could be happening around them, unbeknownst to them, but when the truth was revealed, suddenly all the pieces fit together like they always had. That was what it felt like here, to realize that some things had been happening at her school for months, right under her nose, and she had completely ignored them. Now she knew, and however much she would have denied that it could ever be real before, now with the pouch clutched in her hand, she was firm in the belief that every word her friends told her was true. Soon she left them to do as they'd asked. She went and found Mike so that she might share with him the story of how she'd come to be parted from the small cloth thing.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)