Adam and Sam arrive in Maine and take Kurt back to NYC in time for Kurt to perform.
Adam sprinted up the stairs to the second floor and scanned the wall in front of him to see which way to turn, then made a beeline for Kurt's room. He knocked on the door and waited impatiently for it to open. As soon as it did, he stepped inside and pulled Kurt into a tight embrace. "God, I missed you so much. I was so worried." He kissed Kurt gently.
"Me too. Me too. I still haven't really processed all of it, but I just want to get out of here." He waddled back over to the heater to grab his underclothes.
Adam followed him. "Just a sec. I brought you some clothes to wear back." He slipped his backpack off, opened it, and handed Kurt a pair of jeans, his favorite NYC hoodie, clean underwear, socks, and his Chucks.
"Thank you." He let the blanket he had wrapped around himself to answer the door drop where he stood and put the clean clothes on. "Just fold everything and put it in the bag. My suit is hanging behind the door by my coat. I'll have to have it dry-cleaned anyway."
Adam picked everything up, folded it, and put it in the backpack, then picked Kurt's dress shoes up to carry them.
"Those shoes are worth the $500 they cost. Well, they didn't cost me anything, but if I had been wearing other shoes I wouldn't have made it as far away as I did."
"Well, then, I'll find their website and leave them a stunning review." Adam pecked him on the lips again. "Shall we, then?" Adam slipped the backpack back on.
Kurt put his coat on, took Adam's hand, and reached for the door, opening it to let Adam walk through first. They made their way down to the lobby quickly, and Kurt approached the front desk while Adam waited near the exit. The same clerk who had been on duty when Kurt arrived was still there.
"Checking out so early?" Troy asked.
He handed his credit card over and returned the keycard. "Yes. It was an unexpected stay. My ride is here."
"I'm sorry to say that our breakfast area isn't set up yet. But we do have coffee ready 24/7 right over there if you'd like some to go."
"Thank you for the offer, but I need to get going."
"Please sign here." The clerk slid a pen towards Kurt.
After he signed, the clerk gave him his card back. "If you're ever in the area, please come back to visit us."
"I'll do that," Kurt said agreeably just to get moving more quickly. "Thank you." He took his credit card and the receipt, slipped them into his wallet, and headed to the door where Adam was still waiting for him.
Adam took his hand and they stepped outside into the pitch darkness, lit up by the bright lights of the hotel entrance. They crossed the loading area and got into the rental car where Sam was waiting in the backseat. Adam put the backpack and Kurt's shoes in the backseat, then went around to the driver's side as Kurt got into the passenger seat.
As soon as Kurt shut his door, Sam reached up and put his hand on Kurt's shoulder. "I'm glad you're okay. What happened?"
"Let's get moving. I'll tell you while we drive." He reached out and put his hand on Adam's thigh feeling his stress level drop from the connection.
After listening to the whole story, Sam asked, "So you have no idea why you were kidnapped?"
"None. I've thought about it all night long. I tried to sleep, but never really succeeded. My mind wouldn't stop racing. I had turned on The Food Network to try to stop thinking, and all the talk about food reminded me that I hadn't eaten. I got back up a few minutes after I had laid down and ate the salad I had abandoned in an effort to sleep while I watched an episode of Chef Roulette, which was entertaining but couldn't keep me from thinking about everything. They knew who I was. They knew about the two of you. They knew where I worked. But they didn't search me, other than to take my phone, so they weren't looking for cash or valuables to hock. They didn't actually hurt me purposefully, like beat me up. I have bruises all over my wrists and my shoulder is strained I think, but that was just from being restrained. My dad was never mentioned. Literally, nothing was mentioned. The two of them talked about sports and movies the whole drive. I didn't recognize their voices and I never saw their faces. It just makes no sense. I'm exhausted. How did you guys get to Bangor so early? I was going to be ready at 6:00, but you got here at 5:15."
Adam said, "We were already most of the way to the car rental location when you messaged me. When got there, they let us take the car right away, so we got on the road a lot earlier than we expected and when we checked the driving time, it was obviously not based on driving in the middle of the night when there is no traffic. I also drove five miles over the speed limit a lot of the time."
"You didn't switch off?"
"There's an additional $50 fee for someone under 21 driving the car. Sam kept me awake and entertained."
Kurt glanced back over his shoulder and smiled at Sam. "Thank you."
Sam winked at him. "Any time."
Adam put his hand over the top of Kurt's briefly, pulling it up to his lips and kissing his knuckles, before placing it back on his leg, then returned his own hand to the steering wheel. "I'm so glad you're okay."
"Me too." Kur tipped his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes. "I'm going to try to nap for a bit if that's okay."
"Sure, darling. We'll stop in a bit for some breakfast and more coffee once the sun is up and some restaurants open."
"Oh, I almost forgot," Sam said. "I grabbed your little pillow from the couch." He passed it up to Kurt.
"Thank you. This will help a lot." He positioned the pillow against the window and closed his eyes.
Kurt stretched a bit after the car came to a stop. "Where are we?" he asked without opening his eyes.
Adam answered, "Somewhere in New Hampshire. We're getting out to stretch our legs and eat. It's been over 12 hours since we've eaten anything and we've been awake all night." Adam opened his door and walked around to the passenger side to wait for Kurt.
When he stepped out he looked around. "A beach café? Are we near a real beach? I've never seen the ocean."
"That's what I learned from Sam on the drive up here. He hasn't either. We're going to go watch the sunrise. Come on. It's just a 2-block walk." Adam reached out for his hand. "You can wait here with Sam and stretch some more while I go place a to-go order to pick up when we get back."
Kurt leaned into Sam and wrapped his arm around his waist. He looked over and saw tears streaming down Sam's cheeks. "Oh, Sam." He turned and faced Sam and wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. "I'm okay."
"But you might not have been. If you hadn't known how to disable their car so quickly, you could be even farther away without your phone or wallet or ID. Or—"
"Dead. I know. I think I'm still just in survival mode right now. I still have to perform tonight. I just can't talk about it anymore right now, but I'm here." Saying those words and thinking about performing made him thinking about to singing in the round room the previous spring.
They stood just holding each other until Adam came back out. When he got close enough, Kurt let go of Sam and threw his arms around Adam, who held him tight for a few seconds.
"Our food will be ready in 15 minutes, which gives us just enough time to walk over and watch the sunrise, then pick up our food and get back on the road. We've got another four and a half hours of driving ahead of us."
Kurt took Adam's hand, then reached out for Sam's and pulled him along. They crossed the street and walked down to the beach and stood together, making it just in time to watch the sun crest the horizon.
They watched in awed silence, listening to the waves crash on the shore as the sky changed to a warm salmon pink.
Kurt said, "Let's take pictures of each other with Adam's phone. It has a decent camera. We can take a few group selfies too."
A few minutes later, they had to head back to the café. Adam went back inside and brought out a bag of food and a tray with two coffees and a bottle of orange juice. He gave Sam his coffee and teasingly said, "Here's your large milk with a dash of coffee."
"Har, har, har," Sam said, rolling his eyes.
"That's another thing I learned about Sam last night. He likes a small coffee in a large coffee cup with a lot of cream and milk."
"I've never actually seen him drink coffee."
"That's because I hate it. But if I want to stay awake, it does help. It leaves such a terrible taste in my mouth that I can't sleep."
"Sacrilege," Kurt said. "Blasphemy," he teased.
Sam just cackled. "Well, you know I don't like to consume a lot of sugar and I don't like the taste of artificial sweeteners, so it's nasty Diet Coke or disgusting coffee."
"And how is it that we are best friends?"
Sam smiled. "Because I'm awesome and you know it."
"That must be it." He handed the bag with Sam's breakfast sandwich back to him.
"This is actually really good," Adam said after taking a bite of his.
Kurt finally took a bite. "You're right. Totally better than McDonald's. Thanks for thinking of getting me juice. I'm going to try to sleep again as soon as I finish eating this. And thanks for finding this place. I don't know how far off the highway we came, but it was totally worth it."
"I agree," Adam said. "But I need to hightail it back to the city now. I have to get you to NYADA by your 2:00 class."
"Why?"
"If you don't show up to any of your classes today, your understudy will perform tonight instead of you."
"No one ever said anything."
Adam shrugged. I'm betting it's another one of those things you missed out on learning because no one saw fit to give you a proper introduction to NYADA like everyone who went through the mandatory fall orientation."
"Probably." He finished eating his sandwich. He considered switching places so that Sam could talk with Adam more easily while he slept, but the thought of getting in the backseat alone made him change his mind. He propped his pillow back up against the window and closed his eyes.
When Adam's phone rang, Kurt reached out and picked it up since Adam was driving, then swiped to answer.
"Hello?"
"Is this Kurt Hummel?"
"It is." He yawned as quietly as possible.
"This is Detective Clements from the Bangor Police Department."
"Yes?" He opened his eyes and sat up straight, wiggling his feet to wake himself up.
"We picked up the two guys in the video surveillance."
"That was quick."
"They didn't flee the area. They were at the shop they had the rental car towed to this morning to pick it up once it was fixed."
"Okay?" What the detective was saying made no sense. Why would they just stick around?"
"Look. I'll cut to the chase. They claim that it was a hired improv acting gig. And they insist that you were in on it."
Kurt's mind raced, but he tried to focus. "What?"
"They have requested the public defender, but insist that they didn't actually kidnap you, that it's all a big misunderstanding."
"Well, I swear to you that I did not sign up for or agree to any type of improv acting gig. I mentioned that I'm opening a show tonight in New York City. Why would I agree to anything that would take me over seven hours away from the city I need to be in this evening by 6 pm to get dressed for the show?"
"I can't answer that, Mr. Hummel. But I'll be honest with you here. I can only hold them until Monday without bail, and that's based solely on the video evidence from the security cameras positively matching their DMV photos and the credit card used to buy the gas. And the fact that you can be seen in the video footage messing with the engine and running away."
"This is crazy. Will they tell you who hired them? Or where they found this 'gig' listed?"
"Yeah. I already asked that. They told me and even pulled up emails on their phones showing the details being worked out. I'm not at liberty to say anything else. But it doesn't look good for your claim at this point."
"Alright. I'm in a car about three-quarters of the way back to New York City. I haven't had a chance to talk to my lawyer yet. I don't have his contact information handy since my phone was taken from me last night and I've been sleeping on the drive since I have to perform tonight."
"I have your phone. It's being held as evidence."
"Well, that's good news. I'll make some calls now that I'm awake. I have nine people who will testify to the fact that I planned an event for all of them last evening with handwritten invitations sent out two weeks ago. And I can send a copy of the playbill for the musical tonight. I'm not sure what else to offer at the moment."
"You have my fax number on my card. When you get back, you can fax me anything you think might substantiate your case enough for me to extradite them to New York on Monday and file a case against them instead of letting them out on bail here."
"Thank you for giving me a chance to do that instead of just letting them go."
"You seemed very sincere last night, so I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt."
Kurt took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then looked up Hiram's office number online. He called but hung up without leaving a message before he put Adam's phone back down.
"That's absurd," Sam said.
"Welcome to my life," Kurt said. "The one where Rachel stuffs the ballot boxes, but I lose the election. The one where Rachel chokes her audition, but gets into NYADA. The one where I win the first football game halfway through the season, but still get harassed. The one—" He stopped mid-sentence before he brought up Blaine's public accusation of him cheating, then shook his head and sighed heavily. "It doesn't matter. I just need to make some phone calls instead of sleep." He started by texting Isabelle.
That evening, Kurt smelled the small bouquet of flowers on his dressing table before he sat down to have his makeup done. He closed his eyes and did his best to push away everything that had happened in the last 27 hours. He let his mind wander back to dawn that morning, standing between the men he loved, his boyfriend and his best friend, watching the most beautiful sunrise he had ever seen. He let the calm of that moment fill him.
Once he was dressed and ready, he stood in his place in the wings and cleared his mind once more.
"That was spectacular," Adam said as he approached Kurt in the stage door area where the actors came out to greet anyone who wanted to meet them. "You were fantastic, darling."
Kurt's smile spread across his face, still on a performance high. "You're biased," he insisted playfully.
"Perhaps, but I'm not wrong." He stepped closer and spoke where only Kurt could hear. "I'll slip backstage and wait for you by your dressing table."
Kurt nodded and continued to sign playbills.
After he locked the door, Kurt said, "I feel bad for canceling our first-Friday-of-the-month karaoke night out with everyone, especially after missing out on the murder mystery dinner last night."
Adam wrapped his arms around Kurt and held him close. "We'll get together with everyone once this issue is a bit more settled. I know that everyone will want to know what happened, and I also know that you're not ready to talk about it."
Kurt pressed into Adam's neck and just breathed in and out slowly, relaxing into Adam's embrace "I'm not. I'm really not. It's hard to reconcile what those two guys are saying with the absolute panic and realness of what I was feeling. To them, it was just an acting exercise, something fun and different to do, just like so many things we've done in class. Pretend this. Be this person in this situation. I mean, obviously, it went too far. But at the time, it was real to me, so very real. Even pulling my hoodie on this morning gave me a quick flash of panic from them putting that pillowcase over my head. I considered riding in the back this morning so you and Sam could talk more easily, but then couldn't bring myself to offer to trade places with him."
"There's no quick fix to being traumatized." Adam gently ran his hand up and down Kurt's back.
"There isn't. I know that. Of all people, I know that. But I also don't want to go back to feeling like a victim. I want to know why I was targeted. This was deliberate, and I want to know why."
Adam began to hum and moved in time with the song. "You were fantastic tonight, darling. I know that what happened is filling your mind, but I want to take your mind off it for a while if I can."
Kurt nodded and repositioned himself a bit to slow dance with Adam. "I don't recognize that song."
"It's from the '70s. My dad was a bit of a disco fan."
Kurt chuckled.
"Up there on stage tonight, it was just so clear to see that you were born to perform. You just come alive in front of an audience." He continued to hum for a bit, then began to sing.
Oh, can't you see, yeah,
That you're so much a part of mе?
I could never, ever lead you wrong.
With my arms wide open,
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna make you strong.
Baby, I'll give you all I've got to give.
And if you'll just open up your heart and live,
You've got stars in your eyes.
There's a whole world out there for you.
You've got stars in your eyes.
What are you gonna do?
You've got stars in your eyes.
And the whole world is waiting for you.
Tears streamed down Kurt's cheeks as the words washed over him and he let go of the chokehold he had kept on his emotions all day.
Adam led him to the bathroom where they undressed and showed in a quiet companionship of trust and love that needed no words.
The next morning, Kurt slept until nearly 10:00, which surprised him since he rarely slept past 8:00.
When he rolled back over after checking the time on Adam's phone and putting it back on the bedside table, he came face to face with Adam, whose eyes were open and radiating love.
"Good morning, darling." He wrapped his arm over Kurt's waist and pressed forward enough to peck him on the lips. "I love you."
"I love you too."
"Are you ready for the crazy?"
"I think so. 'Cookies and Characters'. It should be fun, as long as no one dumps milk or wipes their chocolaty hands all over my costume."
"I'm sure that the photo area will be separate from the snacks. I cannot imagine Mrs. Harper letting little hands covered in chocolate or crumbs anywhere near the costumes."
Kurt nodded. "That's true." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Last night went well, so I think things will go even smoother today. Everyone has gotten over their nerves a bit, and I've had a good night's sleep finally. Suggesting that I ask for this morning off was a good idea. I'm glad I did, despite the crimp it's going to put in my budget for a while."
He knew that Kurt had slept somewhat fitfully, but since he didn't mention it, Adam kept it to himself for the time being, not wanting to add any stress to the long day ahead with the children's event that afternoon and his parents coming into town for the evening performance. "Well, you definitely needed the rest. You can only run on adrenaline and willpower for so long."
"Mm-hmm." Kurt nuzzled closer. "Is that offer of a full body massage that I turned down last night still available?"
"Only always," Adam teased. He kissed the top of Kurt's head. "Yes, darling. I would absolutely love to give you a massage."
Saturday afternoon after the matinée show, the NYADA dance hall was filled with cacophonous energy as excited kids, many dressed in their fairy tale finest, waited to meet the cast in costume. They stood in line in the various photo areas that had been decorated with backgrounds built by the Intro to Stagecraft students. Photography students manned each area to take photos as part of their coursework.
A loud round of cheering started as the actors entered the room and dispersed to their assigned photo areas.
Benny didn't manage to keep his enthusiasm under control and rushed out of the line where he had been standing with Jennessa and their mother Kamilla.
"Kurt!" he squealed and plowed into Kurt, hugging him around the waist. "I loved it. Me and Jennessa are in line to get pictures with you first."
Kurt refrained from ruffling his hair like he usually did. "I'm glad you had such a good time. Go back and stand with them so I can go get started with the photos."
"Okay," he said cheerfully as he ran back to the line.
Jennessa waved at him as he got into position on the stool in front of the painted backdrop. He smiled back at her and waved. He was glad that Kamilla had agreed to accept the comped tickets he had offered after originally balking a bit, once he explained that he was supposed to give them out to kids in the community.
Kurt talked to each of the kids that came up, signed their playbills, and gave them each a small Once Upon a Mattress themed coloring book to take home.
After the initial rush of photos, the actors wandered around the room talking to the kids for a while, then joined them in the snack area, all seated at a head table, much like the royalty they were dressed as.
Burt and Carole arrived as the last of the stragglers were heading out. Kurt noticed them hanging back along the wall.
"Allie?" Kurt called out.
She turned to look at him. "Yeah?"
"Can I persuade you to take a few more photos? Personal ones. Not ones to add to the event?"
"Um, sure. I guess. I didn't put my tripod away yet." She looked towards where he was glancing. "Your parents are here?"
"They are." He smiled and waved for Burt and Carole to approach.
"Allie, these are my parents, Burt and Carole Hummel."
"Nice to meet you," she said. "Give me a sec. Kurt, go grab a stool from over there. To get the fairy tale effect, all three of you will have to be sitting down."
Allie positioned the three of them and took several photos. "I'll email them to you later."
"Thanks."
"No problem. It was nice meeting the two of you." She turned and went back to packing her stuff up.
"You too," Carole said smiling.
"So, I obviously still need to go change. Adam is at home making an early dinner. I'll just change my clothes and shower once we get there. You can come with me."
"That's fine, bud. Lead the way."
"And this isn't one of those tall tales that you've decided to whip up just to yank my chain, right?" Burt asked incredulously.
"Not at all," Kurt answered flatly. "I still have an active imagination, but I would never tell you something like this just to rile you up. You should know by now that I do my best never to get you worked up."
"I mean I do know that, but this? This just sounds insane."
"That's because it is, Burt," Carole chided. "it IS insane. So you're going to have to go to Maine again on Tuesday?"
"I'm hoping not. I'm hoping that the next call I get is from an NYD liaison officer, someone here I can work with to get this straightened out. The detective mentioned having them extradited here since I was abducted here in the city. It's a 10-hour train ride each way, so I can't go in a day and come back. I'd have to stay overnight again. I'm already out the $120 I had to cough up to stay Thursday night."
"That should be part of the case you file, honey. Request that you be reimbursed for the hotel, the car rental, the gas, and the money that you, Adam, and Sam might have lost from missing any hours you were supposed to work on Friday."
"And this morning," Kurt added.
Adam nodded. "That's a good point that neither of us had thought of yet. Even if the two guys who grabbed Kurt get off without actually facing kidnapping charges, but they can find who's behind the whole thing, you can ask for those expenditures to be reimbursed on top of the jail time for conspiracy to kidnap or whatever the actual charges might be."
Kurt nodded, then let out a long breath. "I've honestly not thought through the process. I needed to be on my best fairy tale character behavior this afternoon for the kids. Cheerful and chipper."
"I get that, honey. Sometimes, we just have to put a mask on and push through." She wiped the tears that were threatening to fall.
Kurt knew the pain behind those words. "I just didn't want the two of you blindsided with a possible press leak. All it would take is someone who knows someone in the police force up there to be nosy and figure out that you're a congressman."
Burt nodded. "We've dealt with that already, as you know."
Kurt shuddered at the way the press hounded his dad about Finn's death. "I do, which is why I didn't want it to come at you as a surprise from an article somewhere."
"I appreciate that. You've spoken with Hiram, I take it?"
"I actually haven't. He was out of the office yesterday when I called on the drive back. It was just a regular leave-your-name-and-number-at-the-tone recording, so I didn't get to talk to him, and I didn't want to leave what I had to say on an answering machine. But I talked to Isabelle after that, and one of the in-house lawyers that Vogue employs will be taking my case at no cost to me."
"Well, that's good news, honey."
"It is. Surprising, though," Burt said.
"She said I was kidnapped while on the clock, so she arranged it all. I'll be meeting with him on Monday at the beginning of my regular shift since I can't get there any earlier because of my classes."
The oven began beeping. Adam got up to pull the casserole he had baked out. Kurt followed him and set the table.
"After I eat, I'll have to head back to NYADA to get ready again." Kurt sat down.
Adam carried the casserole over and set it on a hot pad, then served each of them. They continued to chat while the food cooled a bit on their plates.
"That's fine, honey. We knew you couldn't stay long between the shows. We're both excited to see you in it. I kept myself from looking the musical up, so it's going to be a surprise, other than the fact that we know it's a fairy tale."
"I don't have the lead, but it is one of the featured roles. As a sophomore, it's really the best I could hope for. The juniors generally get cast in all of the main roles with the sophomores in chorus or non-speaking background roles. The seniors have their own production which was last weekend. Juniors are allowed to audition for it, but not many get roles. We'll be doing another all-school musical in the spring. This one in the fall is part of our practicum class."
"So, you get credit for being in it?" Carole asked.
"It's a 3-credit course that we all have to take starting sophomore year, but the people who didn't get roles have other assignments to do. Tonight's show will be recorded, and we'll get graded based on our performance. We'll have an individual session with the professor next week instead of our regular class meetings. He'll go over our performances with us."
"It's as nerve-racking as it sounds," Adam said. "But the professor is a fair fellow and he's not overly critical. His comments are instructional rather than cutting."
"Well, there's that at least," Carole said. She cut a bite and carefully put it in her mouth. "Ooh, this is good, Adam. I'd like the recipe if you're willing to share it."
"Certainly. I'll just send you the photo I took of it from a magazine I was looking through one day on my break at the coffee shop. Someone left it behind, so I was just skimming through it, mostly out of boredom, and it looked so tempting. This is the second time I've made it. I didn't make any changes to it except using turkey sausage."
Burt was lost in thought.
"Dad? Do you want something different?"
"What?" He paused. "Oh, no. This looks fine. I was just thinking." He picked up his fork and took a bite. "It's good. I wonder if it freezes well."
"It does," Adam said.
"Well, then maybe Carole could make it for me and freeze it."
"I can do that," she smiled at him sweetly. "So, tell us about your other classes."
Burt was the first to pull Kurt into a bear hug once he came out to the lobby. "You were great, bud!"
Burt's enthusiasm made him chuckle. "Thanks." He stepped into Carole's awaiting arms next.
"That was really fun. I could tell how much fun you were having too."
"I really do love performing."
Burt said, "I'm ready for that amazing New York ice cream you promised me."
"Just let me borrow your phone." Kurt texted Adam that they were leaving so he could meet them at the ice cream shop, then returned Burt's phone and extended his arm towards the lobby doors. "Right this way. You're going to LOVE this place."
Kadam Week 2023 Day 5 Prompt
Stars in your eyes