CHAPTER 14: Parenting 101

Finn thought his audition had gone very well. He had sung a song one of his mom's ex-boyfriends used to play to him when he was younger and he knew he had nailed it. Unfortunately, the teacher had also wanted to see how he would do with choreography and he might have stumbled a bit. But honestly, how was he supposed to know this when he only had half an hour to learn it?

He didn't deserve to be put in the back. People didn't put Finn Hudson in a corner. He was a leader, not a follower. But he wasn't worried. They would see how great he was soon enough.

Finn's audition had gone better than Kurt had expected, but the boy had two left feet and definitely wasn't the strongest singer in their group. While Ms. Corcoran was talking to Mike about some new choreography that Kurt still wasn't allowed to do, Kurt was watching Finn fruitlessly hit on Santana and Brittany.

He wanted to turn around and tell Blaine what a hopeless case he thought Finn was, before remembering that he was still mad at Blaine for constantly sucking up to his father. He just didn't understand why Blaine was trying so hard to get Burt to like him. It wasn't like Burt would kick him out if he didn't like him. Carole would make sure of it.

But Kurt also knew that he had to talk to Blaine and tell him about his own insecurities. He couldn't help it that he was afraid his father would like Blaine better because he was more traditional masculine than Kurt and shared some of his father's interests. He would take Blaine out to Breadstix tonight so they could talk and make up.

Burt felt like all eyes were on him when he went inside the Toledo community center and followed the arrows pointing the way to the PFLAG meeting. He had no idea what to expect. Would it be like the AA meetings he'd seen in the movies? Did they expect him to stand up and tell the rest of the group why he was here? He wasn't ready for that. He wanted answers but he didn't want to tell everyone his business.

Once he had found the room the meeting was being held in, he sat down on a chair in the back and watched as people were coming in. There were whole families, a group of teenagers and a few men and women who seemed to have come alone just like Burt. A man with a trucker hat sat down next to him and observed the group of teenagers.

"Are you here for your kid too?" Burt was curious to know. "This is my first time here. My wife thought it would help me understand my son better." Burt offered. The man looked just like him. He would understand. "Our daughter's best friend just came out and we're here to support her," the man told him after introducing himself as Ray. "Oh, is your wife here as well? Mine wanted to come, but she had to work."

It was nice to talk to another grown-up apart from Carole. Even if the man couldn't relate. "My husband is running late, but he'll join us later." After he noticed Burt's curious look he added. "We got married a few years back in Boston. Not that Ohio recognizes it."

Burt was surprised to hear the man had a daughter. Maybe he or his husband had been married to a woman before? "And she is living with you and not her mother?" Burt had always thought that being gay meant not getting to have children.

"A friend of ours offered to be our surrogate when we had trouble adopting. It wasn't easy to adopt in the 90s when you were two unmarried men." Burt hadn't expected that. "I didn't know you could do that. I thought with my son being gay, I would never get to have grandchildren," Burt voiced his surprise.

"There are agencies for that, but it's easier if you have a friend who's willing to do it for you. But Tom and I aren't the only ones here. See the couple in the corner over there? Hiram and LeRoy Berry. They have a sixteen year old daughter. She sometimes comes here as well to talk to the other parents." Burt thought the name sounded familiar.

"The girl's name, is it Rachel?" he asked. It would be good to know some of Kurt's friends' parents. "Oh, do you know her?" Ray asked. "She is a friend of my son's." "I'm surprised you didn't know about her parents then. She loves talking about them."

Burt didn't want to tell the guy his whole life story. Elisabeth had probably known the Berrys seeing that Kurt and Rachel had been friends for years. "Excuse me, Ray, but I think I'm going to introduce myself to the Berrys. Thanks for the talk."

Burt quickly stood up and made his way over to Rachel's fathers. The two men seemed surprised to see him at the meeting after he introduced himself, so he had to assume that Elisabeth had talked about him when she was still alive.

Even though they probably hadn't heard anything good about him, they still offered to answer any questions he might have and at the end of the meeting, Burt walked away with the Berrys phone number, so he could call them in case he had problems with Kurt. Burt had to admit that the evening had been quite successful after all.

Blaine left Breadstix with Kurt shortly after nine and he was glad they had managed to talk about what had been bothering them. Kurt had told him how it made him feel when Blaine spent time with his father, and Blaine had assured him, he was only being nice to Burt because he didn't want to get kicked out again. Once they'd made their peace, all Blaine wanted to do was kiss Kurt senseless, but since they were in the middle of a crowed restaurant he had to settle for holding Kurt's hand throughout the rest of dinner.

Kurt must have felt the same, because he suddenly pulled the car over in front of his father's garage and told Blaine to get into the backseat. Who was Blaine to argue with that? They hadn't had uninterrupted alone time together since before the funeral and all Blaine wanted was to at least feel Kurt on top of him while the kissed.

Luckily they'd only been to Breadstix, which meant while Kurt was still dressed up, he hadn't gone crazy with the layers. He had finally managed to open Kurt's vest and was starting to unbutton his dress shirt, when he heard a knock on the window.

Kurt was already crawling off of him, buttoning his vest as quickly as possible when Blaine finally dared to turn around to check who it was. He shouldn't have been surprised. Burt Hummel was standing next to the car with a blank expression on his face. Why couldn't it have been some passers-by, or the cops? Anyone would have been better than Kurt's father.

By the time Blaine had regained his motor functions, Kurt had already climbed out of the car and was approaching his father with an unreadable expression of his own. Blaine quickly followed him, because he couldn't let his boyfriend deal with his father on his own. Burt stared at both of them for a few more seconds before he finally spoke.

"Go home. You don't want to be late for your curfew. We'll talk about this tomorrow." Blaine nodded and Kurt's father turned around to walk back to his own car.

"Shit, shit, shit," he heard Kurt curse next to him. "What was he doing here? I thought he went to that PFLAG meeting tonight. Is he following us?" "He probably drove by on his way back from Toledo and recognized your car. I don't think even your dad would go as far as to follow you around." Kurt nodded.

"You're right. I'm just being paranoid, but what do we do now? I mean, why didn't he yell or something like that? Doesn't that worry you?" Kurt's voice was getting higher, a sure sign that he was extremely nervous.

"There isn't much we can do right now. Let's just go home and maybe we can leave for school early tomorrow to avoid talking to him," Blaine suggested. He didn't particularly like the idea of having to talk to Kurt's dad about this either, and if there was a way to postpone the talk he was all for it.

They got back into the car and drove back in silence, before sneaking up to their respective bedrooms. Burt's car was already in the driveway, but luckily they hadn't seen the man when they got home. They shared a quick kiss in front of Kurt's door before Blaine walked back to his own room and got ready for bed.

He had a hard time falling asleep because he was worrying about what Burt might do to him. Eventually he must have fallen asleep because he woke up to his alarm clock blaring Katy Perry threw the room.

Burt was sitting on the back porch with a beer next to him staring at the card the Berrys had given him. They had left at the same time, so he assumed they were home by now, but probably still awake. He knew he had overreacted when he had found the boys in bed together after the funeral because he was pretty certain they hadn't done anything after such a horrible day.

But still, he had no idea how to handle this. Because he didn't know what else to do, he took out his phone and punched in the Berrys' number. He just hoped they wouldn't be angry about getting such a late call.

The phone rang five times and Burt was about to hang up when it was finally picked up. "Hiram Berry, speaking." "Yeah, hi. This is Burt Hummel, we met tonight at the meeting. Um, you said to call if I had problems with Kurt and yeah there's something I don't know how to handle. Sorry for the late call. I should have waited till tomorrow." Burt knew he was rambling, but he couldn't help it. He didn't know why he was so nervous all of a sudden.

"It's okay. How can I help you?" Hiram asked. "Well you see. I was driving home and I saw Kurt's car in front of my shop and I thought maybe they had car troubles or something, but then I walked up and I saw him and Blaine making out in the back seat and Blaine was trying to take Kurt's clothes off and I told them to go home, and that we would talk tomorrow, but I have no idea what I should say to them. I don't know if you know, but they are both living in my house." Yep. Still rambling.

"We are aware of Blaine's situation. My husband and I offered to take Blaine in when Kurt moved to Texas, but he didn't want to leave Kurt's house." "Right, so what should I do?"

"Can I ask you a question?" Hiram asked. Burt assumed it was only fair to let the other man ask whatever he wanted in exchange for some advice. "Sure."

"If Kurt were straight and you had caught him doing that with a girl, what would you have said?" Burt thought for a moment. Back when he had thought Kurt was going away overnight with his girlfriend, he had told his son to have fun. "I'd tell him not to get her pregnant and to respect her wishes, I guess. And that they shouldn't fool around in a car where they might be caught by the police." Burt answered honestly.

"Well, their relationship isn't any different, apart from the whole pregnancy thing." Burt heard someone, probably LeRoy, laugh in the back.

"Just tell them they shouldn't do anything in a car because it's too dangerous for them and to use protection if they are having sex, because you don't want them to get sick. Tell them what they can and can't do in your house. Your house, your rules. It's the same for Rachel. And make sure the same rules apply to your other son as well, because otherwise one of them is going to be pissed."

Burt didn't want to think about his son having sex. It wasn't even a gay thing. Kids weren't supposed to think about their parents in that way and vice versa.

"I don't really know what else to tell you. Just stay calm and explain why you don't want them to do what they were doing. Kurt's pretty sensitive about you, so he's going to analyze everything you say." As if Burt didn't know that already. That's why he had called in the first place. It was so easy to say something that pissed Kurt off even if Burt hadn't meant it that way.

"Thanks for your help. Next time I try not to call in the middle of the night." They both said good night and Burt finished his beer before going back inside to wait for his wife to come home. She probably would want to know how his night had gone.

Finn hadn't meant to listen in to Burt's conversation with Kurt and Blaine, but he couldn't help but be curious when he saw them sitting opposite Burt in the living room. They both didn't look too happy, and Finn wanted to know what was going on. He hid himself in the hallway leading to the living room where he had a good view of most of the room without being seen himself.

"Listen, about last night," Burt started and Finn wondered what had happened last night. "I met Rachel's parents at the meeting and they told me to call if I needed advice and so I called them last night because I didn't know how to deal with what I saw last night."

Did Burt catch them having sex? It sounded like it. But then why wasn't he angrier? "Great if they tell Rachel she'll never let us forget it," Kurt muttered looking distinctively unhappy. Hell, if Finn managed to get laid, he wouldn't look that unhappy, getting caught or not.

"You already know the house rules. No closed doors if you are in each other's bedrooms. I want to know when you are home alone and where you go when you go out at night." At least they had the same rules Finn had. Not that Finn had ever been punished when Kelly had been over and neither Burt nor his mom had been home.

"I want you to promise me that you won't do stuff like that in a car again. It's just not safe," Burt continued. They had done it in a car? But what did Burt mean by safe? You couldn't wear a seat belt when you were making out. He'd tried once and failed.

"You were lucky that it was me who found you, because it also could have been the police or even worse some one like the guys that hurt you before." Finn saw Blaine flinch and Kurt shoot him a questioning look. If he didn't know any better he would have assumed that Blaine had gotten beat up once too, but who would want to beat up Blaine? He was probably just imagining things.

By the time Finn returned his focus to the living room, Kurt and Blaine were promising not to do stuff in the car again. But if they couldn't do it in the car anymore, did that mean they would do it here? He had to talk to them to make sure they didn't do anything while he was in the next room.

He quickly tiptoed back upstairs and when he heard Kurt and Blaine come up the stairs as well he quickly asked them to come into his room. They were both looking at him questioningly while he tried to figure out what he wanted to say.

"I don't want you to have sex when I'm home," he blurted out. Blaine paled and Kurt turned a nice shade of red. "Who said anything about sex?" Kurt asked once he seemed to have calmed down a bit. "I heard what you and Burt were talking about. About doing it in the car." There was no way they could deny it. He had heard most of their conversation.

"We weren't "doing it" in Kurt's car as you so eloquently put it." Blaine spoke up as it became clear that Kurt was done talking about the subject. Elo –what? "And we have no plans to have sex with you in the next room. Kurt and I haven't even had sex yet." Kurt glared at Blaine, but Finn was surprised.

"Seriously dude? My mom said you've been dating for like a year and you haven't done it yet?" "That's none of your business." Apparently Kurt had found his voice again.

"But I thought gay guys have lots of sex. Like all the time." At least that was what the man on the news had said when he talked about the spreading of AIDS.

"I'm pretty sure there are as many straight people who like to sleep around as there are gay people. But being gay doesn't mean that you can't be in a committed relationship." Blaine said using his I want to teach you something voice.

Finn's head was swimming. Whenever he thought something to be true, he was being told that what he knew was actually a lie or exaggeration. He didn't know whom to believe anymore. He told Kurt and Blaine that he still had to do homework and kicked them out of his room. His life had been a lot easier back in Austin; that was for sure.