PREVIOUSLY: Rory Flanagan has gone undercover as Rory O'Carroll on behalf of Artie to get vital information on the New Directions opponents in London, England. While trying to gather information, his cover is scrutinized heavily by mostly Cedric Brewster, the group's manager who works for Rick Baxter, Michael's brother, who put the team together after trying to win a bet he made with Michael. Can he survive the scrutiny?

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And now the continuation.

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CHAPTER 51 - THE SITUATION CHANGES

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Rory sat there as the KHAOS members returned back to their seats after performing.

"Nice job guys," smiled Rory

The men looked at Rory with disdain looks on their faces, while some of the women gave him a smile.

Cedric was the last to return, Rory got up and moved out into the aisle to let Cedric in to his seat, just then a few people walked past, and one person bumped into Rory.

"Excuse me," said a guy in a Scottish accent "I'm in a rush, it's very crowded."

Rory felt the guy, who was actually his friend who had filmed KHAOS performing, and he nodded to earlier, put something in his pocket.

"That's okay," smiled Rory "It is a bit crowded."

The man walked off in the direction that he was going. The interaction looked normal to everyone else around, so Cedric didn't look like he gave it a second thought. Rory sat back down in his seat.

"What did you think?" asked Cedric

"They were good," replied Rory "I think the strongest of the night so far."

"Just good?" asked Cedric "I thought they were outstanding."

"Yes they were outstanding, I agree," smiled Rory "They together very well."

"I'm expecting a great expose then," replied Cedric

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The last group performed and then it was time for the awards and to find out which team would be going to Regionals. Cedric joined KHAOS on stage which gave Rory the opportunity to see what was put in his pocket.

It was a small flash drive, which would have the pefromance on it.

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KHAOS won, which meant celebrations.

On the bus trip back to the Training Center, the bus was loud with every celebrating.

"There's going to be a small celebration when we get back to base," said Cedric, looking the most relaxed Rory had seen since meeting him "You are more than welcome to join us."

Rory had to think quickly. On one hand it would be a great chance to speak to a few individuals but on the other hand he could get away as far as he could and get ready to leave England. But in order not to attract any attention that the New Directions might be involved, Rory would have to at least wait out until the middle of the week to at least leave.

"No thank you, Mr Brewster," smiled Rory "It's been a tiring night. I'll pass. I have to get home and finish off the article."

"That's fair enough," smiled Cedric "I can't wait to read it."

"I'll handle you the first copy on Monday morning, then,"

"I'll look forward to it."

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The bus finally made it back to base. Rory was the first off and watched the members of the team pull out boxes of beer, and open them on the way into the Training Center.

Rory headed back to his place. He decided halfway back, to instead go to his 2nd Place. He had some kind of feeling that he needed to. So he kept with the feeling.

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He got to his second place, and then spent the next two hours uploading all the information he had on the flash drive that he was given at the Sectionals competition, he uploaded it to his computer at home in Ireland. He then decided to leave both the flash drive, and his main phone, back at the place to play it safe for now.

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He walked back to his first place, around 11 p.m. 2 hours after he should of been there, he walked up to the door, then something made him look down to the foot of the door. He knelt down. the rubber tubing was lying on the ground. He picked it up, and placed it in his pocket. He slowly stood up, and opened the door. He walked into his small house, and suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks. He could make out his computer in the dark. it was on. And the light coming from it was illuminating from it, and it shone on a figure who was sitting in front of it, and he had a balaclava on.

"Good evening, Mr O'Carroll," the balaclava clad figure said before clicking his fingers.

Suddenly Rory's arms were grabbed from either side by two separate people. Both of who were also wearing balaclavas.

"Hey what's the meaning of this?" asked Rory struggling against the grips of the holds of his captives.

"Stop struggling Mr O'Carroll, it won't do you any good," said the guy sitting at the computer "Search him."

Another guy walked out of the darkness, he was also wearing a balaclava. He walked straight up to Rory and started checking his pockets. He took out Rory's wallet, and keys, and a flyer for Sectionals.

He walked over to the guy who was sitting in front of the computer, and gave him Rory's stuff. The guy flipped through the wallet, and found some cash but nothing else.

"Is that all you found?"

"Yes sir,"

The Main Guy looked at the Computer screen, obviously thinking of what to do next.

"Mr O'Carroll," he soon said

"What?"

"Where have you been the last few hours?"

"I've been to Sectionals today," said Rory "But I'm pretty sure you already know that."

"What do you mean by that?" asked the main guy standing up

"It's exactly what I said," replied Rory

"Spell it out for me," said the main guy walking in front of Rory, and was just a few meters away

"You knew I was at Sectionals, so you knew I would be home eventually."

"But the bus returned to base a few hours ago," said the guy who checked his pockets.

"Shut up," said the Main guy looking at the other guy

"And there it is," smiled Rory "You guys knew of my whereabouts."

"Go on then," snarled the main guy "Explain your movements of the past two hours since you got back."

"And what if I do?" asked Rory

The main guy lifted up a metal stick "I'm sure I can persuade you."

Rory looked at the metal stick and gulped hard "I've been walking around thinking of ways to end my expose for KHAOS."

"And how did that go?" asked the main guy

"Well I'm back here now to write the ending."

The main guy walked straight into Rory's personal space

"Do you know why we are here?"

"Something to do with the expose, or KHAOS, or maybe in direct relation to Cedric Brewster."

"He knows too much," said the guy who checked Rory's pockets.

The main guys looked back to the other guy "Geez do you ever learn to shut up?"

"Sorry."

"Get outside, now."

The other guy shook his head in disbelief and headed for the door. He opened it. Standing about to knock with a box of beer in one arm was Jesse St. James, standing behind him were Brody Weston, and Jean Baptiste.

Jesse's facial expression changed once he saw the guy in the balaclava standing in front of him.

"What the hell?"

The guy turned back around to look at the main guy when without thinking Jesse threw the box of beer at him. The force of the box hitting the guy sent him stumbling backwards.

One of the guys holding Rory let go of him, and with arm now free he pushed that guy towards the door, and turned the 2nd guy, and kneed him in the stomach, which forced him to let Rory go.

Meanwhile Jesse threw a punch at the guy that Rory had pushed towards the door making him stumble backwards over the fallen box.

Jesse, Brody and Jean walked into the room. Jesse looked at Rory.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. What are you guys doing here?"

"We wanted to have a few drinks with you, to see where I remember you from. It was lucky we came wasn't it?"

Rory wasn't so sure sure, he was suspicious of them being there.

"Yea, lucky," replied Rory in a cynical voice

Rory, Jesse, Brody and Jean all looked at the guys in front of them.

"Do you want us to hold these guys here O'Carroll, while you call the cops?" asked Brody "Or do you want to let them go?"

"Call the cops," replied Rory "Then I'll know what the hell is going on here."

"Please don't," said the main guy "We'll leave right now and you'll never see us again."

"Who do you work for?" asked Rory

"I'm not going to give you that information."

"Then the cops it is."

Rory turned to Jesse "Got a phone?"

Jesse handed Rory the phone. Rory looked back at Jesse.

"How much do you know about attempts to keep you guys off the radar and out of the media spotlight?"

"Nothing at all," replied Jesse "We've been too busy practicing for Sectionals to even worry about anything at all."

"Why would there be media coverage of us?" asked Jean "We were brought together for a reason."

"And what reason would that be?" asked Rory

"Why don't you ask Mr Brewster himself? I'm sure he could tell you that."

"Ah guys," said Brody noticing something that the others weren't noticing

"He won't tell me anything," replied Rory

"Well then that's too bad."

Suddenly a few bottles of beer came flying in their direction. One of the guys who had balaclavas on had discreetly pulled the box that had fallen to the ground, towards him, and then taken out some bottles, and then quietly gave them to the others, and then on their leader signal threw the bottles at Rory, Jesse, Brody and Jean.

All 4 moved out of the way, and the bottles smashed into the walls and shattered. and then the balaclava clad men, ran at then, pushing them into the walls, letting the leader escape, and then escaping themselves.

"Damn it," said Rory recovering from the shock of hitting the wall.

"There goes our beer," said Jean

"Phone please," said Jesse turning to Rory

Rory gave Jesse back his phone, and he turned and walked out of the room.

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Twenty minutes later after Rory had cleaned up the mess that was caused by the broken beer bottles, Jean and Broidy, were sitting around drinking the remaining beer bottles that hadn't broken, or been used. Brody was sitting on the couch, and Jean was sitting at Rory's computer, discreetly reading Rory's expose.

Suddenly Jesse walked back in, he had been talking to someone on the phone for the last twenty minutes outside, in the dark. Cedric Brewster walked in behind him.

Cedric looked around. He saw Brody, and Jean.

"Weston, Baptiste, wait for me in the car, NOW."

Brody got up and exited the room pretty quick. Jean took his time, and walked up to Rory.

"You are a very good writer, good expose."

"Thanks," smiled Rory

Jean then walked out of the house. Jesse turned and looked at Cedric, who gave him the sign, and he too turned and left.

Cedric then turned to look at Rory.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," replied Rory "I'm just sick of this crap who would have thought observing would lead to stuff like this?"

Cedric chuckled "Who isn't sick of this?"

Cedric walked over to Rory's computer, and took out his phone.

"In this line of business Mr O'Carroll, when things get too complicated there's several ways to end things."

"Are you threatening me Mr Brewster?" asked Rory

"No I wasn't," said Cedric walking in front of Rory's computer "You misheard me."

Rory sighed. It was a little bit after midnight. He was tired of all of this. This wasn't worth anything to him at the moment. But at the back of his mind, was his commitment to Artie and the New Directions.

"What ARE you saying?"

"We can make this all go away just by not publishing your little expose."

"Is that all this about? Is your fear of my expose?" yelled Rory "Geez why don't I just delete it now then?"

"Calm down Mr O'Carroll," said Cedric surprised at Rory's reaction. "I could do that myself. But what's more important is who you actually are."

Rory rolled his eyes again. Not this again. Should he just come clean now? And take whatever punishment was coming his way? Or could he held out a few more days. He decided to stay strong.

"I told you I am Rory O'Carroll."

"Fine, have it that way," said Cedric pressing a button on his cell phone and waiting "Sir, he's still not saying anything... Okay... Good go ahead."

Cedric placed the phone down on the desk and pushed the loud speaker button. A dialing tone could be heard, and then someone answered. Of all the people in the world he didn't want to answer was... Michael Baxter. Although he never met him before, Artie had spoken about him. Apparently he was the New Directions number 1 fan, so he would know a lot. Which wasn't a good thing.

"Michael Baxter," came the reply, there was a lot of noise going on around him

"Mr Baxter, this is someone who would be interested in supporting the road to the Worlds for the New Directions." started Cedric

"Oh that's good," came Michael's reply "But now's not really the best time to be having this conversation. The New Directions are about to perform."

Ohio was 5 hours behind London, so it was basically Sectionals was now underway across most of America.

"I'm sorry Mr Baxter," replied Cedric "I can call you back to discuss the situation, but I'm just intrigued, I was told that you are their number 1 fan."

"That I am... That's why I got them back together."

"That's good. Dreams are big. Dreams can come true. Can you answer something for me?"

"Can it wait?"

"It'll only take a second."

"Hurry up then please."

"Did they ever have an Irish person in their team?"

Cedric looked at Rory and smiled. Rory wasn't sure if he should run for the door or stay put. 3 quarts of him wanted to run, but his head said to stay put.

"Um..." came Michael's reply "Gee I don't know. I think there was but I can't remember. There's too much going on. Can you give me a couple of days before ringing me back, and then we can discuss what you like to do?"

The smiled disappeared from Cedric's face. Rory felt like smiling on the inside. He had been granted time. Which he really needed right now.

"I'm sure if you could think quite quickly Mr Baxter, it would be very helpful," pushed Cedric

"Um... no, sorry, like I said you caught me during New Directions Sectionals. They're about to perform. Call me back Monday. Sorry I have to go."

Michael hung up. Cedric looked like he was fuming. He looked at Rory.

"You have a 2 day grace period before I call back," replied Cedric

"Lucky me," smiled Rory

"Maybe you should come back with us to the training center," said Cedric putting his phone back in his pocket

"Are you forcing me to come back?" asked Rory "Because that will be holding me against my will."

Cedric shook his head. He couldn't believe how out of control the situation had become for him. He had worked for Rick Baxter for years, but this was his most frustrating assignment ever.

"And besides I need to finish the expose," replied Rory

Cedric looked back at the computer, and fixated on the screen. He highlighted the expose and deleted it.

"Not any more you don't, there's no longer any reason to do an expose any more."

Rory was looking for a way not to get it done anyway, but he hadn't expected this way. But he'll take it. He had to act all defensive.

"But I've been working on that for months, it's for my readers, all that work for nothing, how could you?"

Cedric smiled "Frustrating isn't it when nothing goes your way."

Rory just shook his head, as Cedric walked towards the door.

"Last chance for safety, those goons may come back."

"Are you threatening me with them?" asked Rory

"No I'm just giving you an option just in case they do,"

"I'll take my chances."

"Okay, I tried. See you Monday."

Cedric headed for the door, and Rory watched him go. He walked over to the window, and watched as Cedric headed towards a van. Jesse, Brody, and Jean, were waiting for him. He said something to them, as they quickly dispersed into the van. He got into the front passenger seat, and the van then drove off.

Rory walked over to the desk and grabbed his wallet, and keys. He went and sat down in front os his computer, and needed to think what he needed to do. And he needed to do it quickly.

It was just after 12.30 a.m. Like he had heard before New Directions were currently performing in Ohio, which meant Artie was busy. He knew he needed to lay low for a few days before he could even contemplate contacting him.

He needed to get back to his real home, in Ireland. So he could send Artie the vital information. That alone could take hours. He knew once he disappeared a search would begin.

At the end of the day, he was in a right royal pickle. The only person who could help now was Artie.

Rory made the only choice possible, now... He ran.

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Can Rory get to safety? What will Artie do once he finds out that Rory is on the run and in trouble? What will Cedric Brewster do once he finds out that Rory had run?

Find out next chapter.