Author's Note: This chapter was a bit odd to write and I say that mostly because I hadn't written Cooper before. But it was fun. I enjoyed myself with this one and the next chapter. Hope you all like it.
I'm still considering the title change, but with this being chapter 17, it might be a little late for that. We'll see. Lots of plot in this one, so enjoy.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Fox does...and RIB
Chapter Eighteen
Big Brother
Blaine hadn't actually had a chance to tell Kurt about Cooper coming to visit until the day that Cooper was picking him up from school. Ever since he explained what he'd found, it was all they could talk about. It further isolated Kurt from Rory and somehow it made Kurt a bit clingy. Blaine thought that his boyfriend had almost burst into tears when Blaine had to leave that night. Something was seriously wrong, but Kurt just wasn't budging.
He told Kurt about Cooper when all their classes were over and they only had glee left and Blaine was glad to have a change of subject. Kurt looked happy about it too, he was excited to meet Cooper.
Blaine didn't really talk about his brother, and it had probably been a mistake to not prepare Kurt for who he was going to be meeting, but he'd been distracted and the future really mattered more than if Kurt got upset because Blaine hadn't told Kurt that the good looking guy on the free credit commercials was his brother. There had been a good week during the summer when Kurt had gushed about Cooper at any chance he got and Blaine who had wanted to tell Kurt about the gig his brother landed, had stopped short and then he'd just never told him.
So, he was sort of prepared for Kurt to be surprised and possibly mad. He didn't expect awestruck. He also certainly did not expect for Sue of all people to get a fanatic gleam in her eyes or for her to offer Cooper a boob to sign. Blaine really didn't want to think about that. He also really didn't want to think about how the rest of the glee club would react if they caught sight of him.
"That's why I don't really talk about my brother," Blaine told Kurt while Sue commandeered Cooper into a walk away from them.
Kurt stared after them and didn't even respond to Blaine and Blaine just sighed. It was going to be a long week, and really, he should have seen all of this coming.
Rachel and Finn showed up to drag Kurt away from some senior class business and invited Blaine along except that he knew he had to make sure Cooper didn't go making a fool of himself or Blaine.
"I really like him," Cooper said, "Kurt. Do you mind if we stay a little longer? Ms. Sue Sylvester asked if I could stop by the glee club – there's a meeting in ten minutes."
Blaine could only stare at him. When they were on the phone the night before he'd specifically told Cooper that he had a glee club meeting and to pick him up at least a half hour after school let out.
"Coop, I'm in the glee club."
"Oh, right. Cool. Well, come on, squirt."
Blaine sighed. It was going to be a really long week.
After glee, in which Blaine ended up singing with Cooper – and actually, that part he enjoyed, though not so much how his brother only praised himself afterwards – they went out to Breadstix and Blaine wished that he had invited Kurt or Rory out with them even though he was pretty sure that Rory had been copying his uncle's Irish accent and that might have been too much for Blaine.
Their entire lunch didn't go like Blaine had wanted it to. Part of it was to do with the fact that Blaine wasn't fully there. The possibility that Rory hadn't just changed a teeny tiny thing, but in fact everything in their future nagged at him and having Cooper try to give him pointers on his performance just wasn't something he needed. He didn't understand why Cooper had always been like this with him.
There was a ten year gap between the two of them and growing up, Cooper had always joked that it was because Blaine was an accident – the unplanned child. But Blaine had had a good childhood, unplanned or not up until middle school. He had the childhood that any kid would want. And maybe it was the age difference or jealousy or any other number of reasons, but Cooper had never been impressed with Blaine and it was all that Blaine had wanted – to impress his older grown up brother.
After he came out, Cooper was the only one to really stand by him in the sense that he didn't bat an eye when the news got to him. He took it like "Oh, you're gay. Cool." And then he never mentioned it again. By then, Cooper had a girlfriend and his own life. He was still living at home but going to college, and then months before the whole incident at the Sadie Hawkins dance he was gone, off to California with dreams of becoming an actor. He'd dropped out of school, got himself some headshots and he was out in the world.
Their relationship had never been the best, but after the whole thing with the dance, Cooper had started to try. There were e-mails, phone calls, and texts and when he came home to visit they hung out. It was only when Cooper realized that Blaine too was interested in singing, acting, and dancing that things just changed again. Maybe Cooper thought that he was being helpful when he criticized or tried to give Blaine pointers.
"How's it going in California?" Blaine asked.
Cooper was still twirling a piece of bread between his fingers, "It's great," Cooper said, "you have to come out sometime see what the business is all about."
Blaine could have groaned. He let Cooper talk about Hollywood for a while longer. The thing was that he couldn't really hate Cooper. He was Blaine's brother and the only one in his family that really accepted his sexuality. His parents were getting better about it, but they were always going to be uncomfortable. There was also the fact that Cooper really was unaware of how he came off as well.
"Tell me about Kurt."
Blaine almost jumped.
"Oh, um…well, you met him today…"
Cooper nodded. "Has good taste."
"Oh, thanks…I guess."
Cooper tilted his head to the side, "but not really in clothes. You should really stop letting him dress you."
Blaine was pretty sure he'd picked out everything he was wearing on his own. Okay, maybe Kurt had picked out the cardigan and he'd definitely given an opinion on what he should pair things with. But Kurt was better at fashion and Blaine liked the way he dressed.
"He didn't dress me," Blaine said.
"Sure," Cooper said, but he didn't look like he believed it. Blaine was going to hear about this for the rest of the week.
"Well, he's Kurt. He's opinionated and humble, and I'm pretty sure we're going to be together for the rest of our lives."
Cooper coughed. "Right," he said, "isn't it a bit early to have made that decision up already?"
It wasn't too early. Blaine could understand why Finn and Rachel had been so ready to jump into a marriage, because if he was going to be frank, he was ready to leap and take that step with Kurt as well, especially now that he knew that the future he and Kurt wanted for themselves with Rory had every possibility of not happening at all.
Regionals had been won just two weeks before, and Rory couldn't understand why they were working so hard on dance moves for songs they hadn't even decided on for Nationals. Really Rory's problem was that Sue seemed to have taken over and it was just weird to have her around so much. What was also weird was having his Uncle Cooper around.
It was funny, but he didn't look all that different in the future, though maybe less defined. But even in the future, he kept a strict diet and exercise regimen to keep himself looking his best and Rory knew that his uncle went to the salon at least once a month to get his hair dyed. One thing was having grey hairs on the beard he sometimes let grow out, another was having some in his hair.
What was different about him, was how he seemed to know nothing about acting. The 'Master Class' that Sue had asked him to give them was a complete joke and his papa seemed to be the only one to notice.
Broadway was dead? No point in going to College? Rory wanted to laugh. He scribbled down anything and everything he could use later when he was home to make fun of him.
Rory had been so focused on taking things down for later amusement, that he failed to realize how much it was all affecting Blaine. No one seemed to notice, and when he finally had enough and ran out of the room, Cooper acted like he didn't really even care or understand why Blaine had gotten upset.
Rory had to admit though, the whole pointing thing was absolutely ridiculous. Still, he could understand why the rest of the New Directions were all enamored with Cooper. He hadn't exactly grown up with Cooper, but Cooper had always come around for the holidays and he'd always been fascinating to Rory. He loved hearing Cooper stories as ridiculous as they could get, and he'd loved to hear about the crazy Hollywood life that he lead even though most of what was said were lies.
Kurt told Rory not to worry about Blaine, that he'd need to cool off some. Rory was surprised that his dad stuck around long enough for Rory to get to speak to him.
"They get along in the future," Rory said, "it's just a little odd to not see them getting along now."
Kurt nodded. "Hey, Rory, I'm really sorry. I've just been a little busy. You know my audition for NYADA is coming up and there's just a bunch of other things and I just…I'm not ignoring you, okay?"
Rory knew he was lying. His dad hadn't even picked out a song for his audition yet and Rory knew that because Rachel hadn't picked one out yet. No, there was something else going on there. But Rory knew that it would be better for him to just not question it.
Cooper was in the front of the room motioning to his twitter handle. "You all better follow me," he was saying, "and I will take pictures and sign autographs for all of you."
There was a rush to start taking pictures and even Kurt looked a bit excited. That sort of made Rory uncomfortable because the way his dad was looking at Cooper just spoke of how attracted he was to him and Rory just didn't want to think about any of it. It really just wasn't fair.
"Your uncle is delicious," Sugar whispered in ear and he jumped because he hadn't even heard her approach, "I mean, look at that…"
Rory pulled away. "No," he said, "do not finish that sentence."
Sugar only laughed when he pulled away from her. They were sort of fake dating and it all felt all kinds of weird mostly because he hadn't been spending a lot of time with Sugar before Valentine's day and now he was forced to.
"You've met him in the future," Rory insisted, "you didn't think much of him then."
Sugar pouted at him, "he's married then and, you know, older."
Rory just rolled his eyes. He kind of couldn't believe Sugar, expect that actually he could. For being such a smart person, her logic sometimes didn't agree with her. That was yet another reason for the fake dating – he didn't want to give her any reason to go doing something as ridiculous as falling in love. Sometimes he still caught her looking at Artie in a way that suggested something could have definitely happened there. He shuddered to think of it.
"Is that going okay then?" Sugar asked, "you and your dad?"
Spending time with Sugar had served for a few things though, namely having someone to rant to and she knew all about his frustrations with his dad.
"Pointing just makes you appear serious! For real," Cooper was saying, "and using my tornado method will practically guarantee you a role."
It was funny that Cooper seemed to think that was a big part of getting a role – in the future it was a game he played with his uncle in the middle of the living room. They'd gotten in trouble once because Cooper ran into a table that knocked down a lamp whose wire hit Rory on the cheek and cut him. His dad had been pissed and not just because the lamp they'd broken was a very expensive gift from some fashion person that had been around when he first started out in New York. Rory could never remember her name.
"I guess," he said, looking back at Sugar, "I just think something happened that day. I told you about what I overheard. He was asking for comfort. Something must have happened and it's just changed everything between us and it's like he tries to not be around me. On the other hand Blaine is always around these days and I just know something else is going on between them. And I know papa's noticed – it's like he's trying to compensate for dad not being around."
Sugar bit her lip. She'd heard it all before and she really had nothing more to add to what she'd said before.
"You don't know everything that's going on and it could have nothing to do with you. Maybe it's to do with their relationship or he's just busy. You don't know anything."
He knew that his dad would never just cut him off. He didn't want to admit that that assessment was of his dad in the future and not now.
Kurt was across the room talking to Santana. They looked like they were having an argument. Rory wanted to get closer to try and see what they might be saying, but he knew it probably wouldn't be a good idea to do that because it looked like they were making sure he and possibly even Sugar didn't come near them to listen in.
"What do you think they're talking about?"
Sugar just shrugged. "The time machine, maybe. Mom had a breakthrough this morning, not enough to finish building it quite yet, but enough to have a lot of work to do."
Somehow they all wound up in the hallway, probably because other kids from the school had recognized Cooper and they also wanted pictures with him. At some point his dad and Santana just vanished.
"What the hell, Hummel," Santana said.
"We need to talk, Satan," Kurt said and raised an eyebrow at her, "you know we do. I know you're not stupid. I want to know how long you've known."
Santana rolled her eyes and lifted her hand as if to examine her nails. She was trying to give him the air of uninterested, when in fact she was very interested. Kurt had known her long enough that it was better to just play along.
"Know what?" she asked.
"About Sugar," Kurt said.
This reminded him a lot of the last conversation they'd had in an unused classroom and how he'd admitted that he knew all about Rory and Sugar being from the future and how he wanted to help.
Looking back on it, it had been way too easy for her to just let him and Blaine just help.
"What about Miss Sugar Motta?"
Santana leaned back against a desk and crossed her arms. Kurt didn't want to say it. He didn't want to say it because he didn't want to be the one to tell her if he was wrong. But Santana was certainly not going to admit to it on her own.
"About how she's your daughter," Kurt said and he closed his eyes.
Santana didn't respond. She didn't even laugh and call him crazy. When he opened his eyes again, she was looking down a bit and frowning. He'd been right. She knew all about Sugar being her daughter.
"Of course I knew," Santana said, "what took me a while was figuring out that Mr. doughboy Irish was yours."
Her admittance made everything much simpler. He still wasn't sure about what he was going to do and yet he just felt like he needed to tell her. Kurt couldn't really discuss it with his dad because his dad was convinced they were going find a way to save him – all while trying not to get his hopes up – and he really couldn't talk about it with Blaine. Rory also wasn't an option because Kurt didn't want him to know he knew especially now that there was this whole thing about the chaos theory which he still wasn't too sure about. At least there was something to keep Blaine entertained.
"Well," he said, "now that is out of the way there's something I have to tell you."
"Get on with it," Santana said, "I have things to do and could be seriously unconcerned by whatever it is you and boy wonder want me to do about your spawn."
Kurt held in the first retort that came to him. Instead he took a deep breath. "It's not just about my son," he said, "it's about your daughter and our entire future."
"What do you mean?"
"Didn't you ever wonder why they came?"
She shrugged. "Thought your precious Rory went and touched something he wasn't supposed to and my daughter had to come make sure he didn't get into any trouble."
That gave her away. She cared. In fact, Santana had a competitive look in her eyes that told Kurt she thought Sugar was better than Rory. Kurt could have laughed. Santana tried to act so indifferent to everything around her, as if nothing could touch her, and yet she cared. Kurt shouldn't have been so surprised.
"It's because in the future my husband is dead," Kurt said, "my Blaine dies. I don't know how or when exactly, or any other minute detail but he dies and Rory thought that by using the machine that he could go back to save him. Instead, he came back here. And we sent Sugar – the two of us – we sent her to help him get back."
Santana who was usually so ready with a quip was silent. She rubbed at her arms and she stared at a floor.
"So we have to find a way to save Blaine," Santana said.
Kurt nodded.
"There's more," Santana said.
Kurt shifted his feet, crossing one leg over the other. He fiddled with a thread that was lose on his vest.
"Blaine thinks that Rory's very presence has already changed the course of our future. There's this theory and with everything going on with Finn and Rachel, Quinn's accident and who knows what else, he thinks that a lot of things are already changing."
"He doesn't know," Santana said, "does he?"
Kurt shook his head. "We're not telling him."
"Right," she said, "then what are we going to do?"
Author's Note: Alright, so I wasn't entirely sure about the last scene in this chapter until I started to write it and then it just worked and it made sense and of course Santana knew the entire time about Sugar...and figured things out about Rory when Kurt asked to help with the time machine...and there's progress on the time machine!
Not much else to say for this one...but I'll happily answer any questions.
I'm also on tumblr where I will probably leave little progress reports on how my writing is going and occasionally previews for upcoming chapters. So stop by. tumblr: emquin.
Thank you for reading. Hope you all liked it.
Please Review.
-Erika