"The Benevolent Doctor"

29. Secrets Must

March 2012 – Lima, Ohio

Sometimes Artie wished Gemma had never revealed herself to him. It seemed insane, especially after how hard he'd tried to get her to do it for a while, but at the point where he was at now, he actually missed those days. He missed snooping around with Puck, wondering what was happening in their city, in their school, that would make the Doctor send her companion in such a fashion. Back then, finding out that Santana and Brittany had met the Doctor, too, and then finding out that Quinn had done so as well, that there were all these versions of the Doctor in different bodies, all of it would have intrigued him. Now, it only added more and more stress.

When Quinn had told them her story, in that one moment, he had sort of… reverted. He'd forgotten about Gemma and her warning, her request. He was simply enthralled with the tale, wanted to know more and more. Only after she'd been done, and he'd gone on his way again, he had crossed 'Miss Harrison' in the hall, and their conversation had played back in his head, the one where she'd confessed to her identity, the same one where she had told him to keep the truth contained, to not let it get too far. And what was he doing now?

Every time someone else came along, their circle got wider and wider. Once it had only been him and Puck, and that had been manageable, for sure. Then they'd pulled Sugar in. Then both Brittany AND Santana were added. And now there was Quinn. It seemed every time things were starting to stabilize, someone would wedge in, forcing their circle out of shape, putting them into further stages of adjustment, and then there'd be another someone…

It was fascinating, for sure, but if they stopped and stood back, they had to admit it was odd. Somewhere out there, across time and space, there was one alien, one singular being anyone might be lucky to meet, if circumstances allowed it, and somehow he had met 'her,' and Puck had met 'him,' and so had Sugar, and another 'him' for Brittany and Santana, and another 'him' for Quinn… This mysterious being, so elusive, had gone and met six of them, six McKinley students, all of them of the Glee Club. What were the odds of that happening, really? And who knew where it stopped. Now that he thought about it, he had to wonder if they were the only ones, if the circle would keep widening, until they couldn't even hide anymore…

Part of him wanted to pull Gemma aside, to get to talk to her in private again, so he might be able to ask her all these questions that were creeping up inside him, the biggest ones being why he had to keep the secret this way, and why she was really here. He knew it was just about impossible to expect a straight answer on either question, but it was driving him so mad that he couldn't keep himself from bringing it up for much longer. It was making him defiant. He wasn't far from deciding that Gemma had it wrong, that he should work with those friends he had on his side and get back to what he'd first attempted to do.

He thought back to when they'd talked to Quinn. She had told it all, how she'd been in her car one moment, and then when some guy had literally appeared out of nowhere in the seat next to her before grabbing her and taking her away, to another time, the time she'd spent in the circus, everything she had done with the Doctor and the captured aliens forced to perform, the circus hands… She'd told them how she'd been sent back to the moment in time where she'd been taken, only to be hit seconds later by the truck which had landed her in the chair until further notice.

Artie had thought about this part long and hard. And the worst, most agonizing part of it was that in his head all he could ask himself was 'wouldn't the Doctor have known? Shouldn't he have stopped it?' and then without much thought, his mind would counter with 'if he could do that, wouldn't he have done it?' But more likely, he believed the Doctor might have let it happen, for some supposedly noble and time-important reason. And that made him upset, more than he thought it would. Couldn't he have spared Quinn the hurt? If he cared for her, at all?

In the end, they had asked Quinn if she'd seen anyone else there that she might have recognized, that might have been out of place. They still hesitated to bring up Gemma's name, fake or otherwise, like Quinn was still too new to be read in to this side of their truth. Either way, it didn't matter. Quinn did not remember seeing anyone that way. When she asked why they thought she might have, they were so evasive, in a cartoonish sort of way, that there was no way Quinn would believe that. Artie felt just awkward about the whole scene, and he had half a mind to shoot the blonde an apologetic look, but Quinn brushed it off.

It was still connected, Artie believed that. Even if Quinn hadn't seen Gemma, it didn't mean she hadn't been there. By all accounts they'd had so far, the fact that she had ever seen was nothing short of a fluke. They hadn't been meant to see her, but it had happened, so maybe she'd been particularly sneaky when she'd been to see Quinn.

Then there were those other times where he felt maybe Quinn might not have been telling them the whole truth, that she might have been hiding parts of what she did know. Artie wouldn't dare suggest it, in front of the others, and especially in front of Quinn. There really were too many of them now, they were losing control. Soon, it would be so out of hand they couldn't even touch it from the tip of their fingers.

TO BE CONTINUED (SATURDAY)