14 Weeks.

The drive back to Dalton was silent, the adults in the front exchanged loaded glances every few moments whilst the teenage boys clutched each other’s hands, Kurt cuddled into Blaine’s chest.

Kurt felt like he had sat outside of Dalton’s board room for hours when in reality he knew mere minuets had passed. It felt like waiting in the hospital the day of his father’s heart attack all over again. He felt sick and dizzy and a cold sweat glistened on his porcelain forehead. His mind was filled with images of what was about to happen. Being expelled meant returning to McKinley and if he had thought he wasn’t safe there before it would be nothing in comparison to what it would be like if they found out he was pregnant.

These thoughts had been running around his head all afternoon and he was exhausted from worrying, from imagining what was going to happen. Blaine had tried to calm him down but the comfort his boyfriend usually provided couldn’t quell his racing mind this time.

“Mr Hummel, can you and your father step inside now.”

A secretary requests sternly as she exits the board room before walking away, leaving the four to exchange quiet words before Kurt and Burt enter the room.

“Whatever happens, son, I will fix this.”

Burt patted Kurt on the shoulder before Blaine wrapped him up in a hug.

“I love you, Kurt.”

All Kurt can do is nod weekly returning Blaine's hug before entering the room. It felt like he was walking to his death. With shaking hands Kurt followed Burt into the board room where he found himself face to face with five men that terrifyingly resembled what Kurt would imagine a court room to look like with these men being the prosecution and himself being the accused. These thoughts were really not helping Kurt stay calm.

“Hello Kurt, Mr Hummel.”

The man in the centre of the panel greeted them, shaking Burt’s hand stiffly before indicating the two to take seats opposite them on the other side of the table. The formal atmosphere was foreign to Kurt. It was nothing like being in Figgins’ office that was small and compact and the glass wall facing onto McKinley’s main corridor distracted from the idea of formality.

This room, on the other hand, looked like it belonged in an old English country manor house. The room was dark and made of cherry wood panelling similar to the dormitories the boys stayed in but it was more decoratively carved with paintings on the walls of countryside views. It was an odd decoration choice for a school meeting room Kurt thought but these were men with money and power and clearly the decoration in the room aimed to show their stature.

“So Mr Hummel, Mr Harris has explained your situation and we appear to be out of options. This school has a policy which Mr Harris has explained and we regretfully must see it through. We must also ask who the, err, other father is if he is another Dalton student.”

The two Hummel men exchanged glances and Kurt could see the anger and frustration in his father’s eyes. Burt nodded to his son and Kurt trusted his father, he knew what he was doing so Kurt turned back to the men seeing the clear awkwardness in their eyes behind the calm confident exteriors. This situation was clearly something they were not comfortable with.

“He is Blaine Anderson, my boyfriend.”

Kurt smiled politely; playing off their discomfort calmed Kurt as he, for the first time today, had the upper hand. It was like being at McKinley, the jocks who were uncomfortable around him were the easiest to fight back at; shooting back at them with sarcastic remarks that left them reeling in discomfort and often confusion.

The man in the middle wrote in his notepad before looking back at Kurt.

“We will have to speak to Mr Anderson once we are done with you. But for now we need to talk about you.”

Kurt nodded, trying not to let the fear show in his eyes, he didn’t want Blaine to get into trouble too after the man’s words reminded him they would expel the fathers alongside the Crawford mothers. Blaine would be in a worse position than Kurt. At least Kurt had the support of his family now but Blaine wouldn’t be so lucky Kurt knew. Mr Anderson had never been the most understanding of fathers to Blaine being gay.

Kurt had never met the elder Anderson but Blaine's stories had never cast the warmest light on the man. Kurt had met Mrs Anderson and she was the picture of an ideal wife to a middle class professional like the man Blaine had described. She had never made Kurt feel unwelcome but he had always a felt a sense of discomfort around her.

“I’d like to know first how you found out about this, I didn’t even know and Kurt is my own son.”

Burt almost growled out at the board members. He wanted to know because he couldn’t imagine Kurt himself had anything to do with it. His son wasn’t even ready to tell him never mind the school.

“We have our sources, a fellow student gave us a tip off from suspicious conversation and we had to investigate.” The board member replied narrowing his eyes.

“Our hands are tied Mr Hummel we must expel you.”

“Now Sir, I'm sure this is policy and I am sure this is about school image. You don’t want the wealthy parents of your students to see teenage pregnancy, I'm sure it doesn’t make a school like this look good as you are 24/7 responsible for their little darlings so expelling students is an easy cover up, what do you do, pay them to keep quiet about the reason for their expulsion? Well, that isn’t going to work on me. I assume you have read enough of my sons file to know I am a sate congressman and so I understand your little politics. I will not keep quiet about something like this; I will not be paid off. Your establishment advocates schools as a place of safety and portrays an image of a home where students can come to escape harassment and bullying from their old schools. This image drew in myself and my son and now at the first sign of trouble you intend to expel him with perfect grades, perfect behaviour, and glowing references from his teachers. I will not let this go, if you expel my son I will have a lot to say about this. If you try and buy me off I will make sure that no other parents fall victim to your image. Parents like myself, only want our children to feel safe and you take advantage of that to create this perfect image for yourselves.”

Burt’s face was reddening slowly by the second. Kurt had only once previously seen his father this angry; when he confronted Figgins about David Karofsky’s bullying and threats towards Kurt.

“Are you making threats, Mr Hummel?”

The eldest man on the panel asked with a glare.

“No, of course not, I am merely stating that your image isn’t as clean as you make out. Do what you will with that information.”

Burt simply held the man’s gaze without expanding further and Kurt looked between the two. He knew his father would go to any lengths to protect and defend him, though often letting his anger get the better of him as he had when coming face to face with Dave Karofsky during the dance lessons Kurt had been giving his father and Finn for the wedding. Kurt was glad his father was not shouting at these men as he had done with Figgins over Karofsky’s reinstatement at McKinley, which probably wouldn’t go down well. Being around the Washington politicians had clearly taught Burt Hummel how to deal with these types of upper class men on their level.

“Thank you Mr Hummel, we would like to talk to Mr Anderson now before we make our final decision.”

The man in the middle broke the stiff silence as the elderly gentleman and Burt held each other’s gazes unflinchingly.

“Come on Kurt.”

Burt took his sons hand when Kurt realised he was sat unmoving. Burt led Kurt gently back into the hallway where Blaine and Carol were waiting. Carol was sat on the edge of her seat, the worry clearly shining in her eyes. Blaine, on the other hand, was on his feet. He appeared to have been pacing throughout the entire meeting; his hair was curling outwards from its usual gelled confinement as though he had been running his hands through it, his usually bright eyes were drained; the usual honey colour was a dark muddy brown.

Yet Kurt barely noticed these things before they were holding each other in a tight embrace as though it were their last chance.

“Blaine, they want to talk to you now” Burt touched the boys arm to catch his attention. Blaine merely nodded and gave Kurt one last fleeting hug before entering the board room.

Kurt hated waiting. He was impatient but the atmosphere of waiting rooms was something he hated with a passion. The worst moments of his life centred around waiting. When he was a child he had been left to wait with a nurse when his mother had first become sick. That little boy whom Kurt would barely recognise to be himself has been terrified while he waited for his father to return to collect him. After that he had spent over a year waiting for his mother to die from the cancer that had killed her. He didn’t know that was what they were waiting for at the time but now, looking back, it was as if the Hummel family had spent over a year in a waiting room, trying desperately to cling together in the dark.

Now here was Kurt waiting for Blaine to return when he needed him most. Kurt wanted his love, needed his love to be beside him now; to wrap his arms around him and hold him tight. Blaine's arms were his safe place and had been since their first meeting. Blaine had given Kurt a fleeting hug as they departed after Kurt had finally let out all his worries and fears.

“Come on kiddo it’s going to be okay.”

Burt said defiantly as he watched his son sitting almost visibly shaking. Silent tears began to streak down Kurt’s cheek.

“It’s over Dad, it’s all over.”

 Kurt stuttered in a shaky voice. Burt pulled Kurt into his side with an arm around his son’s shoulders. Kurt looked so small and fragile there being held by his father. The usual portrayal of confidence was gone and left was a tiny young boy seeking comfort from the harsh world around him.

“Try to calm down honey; it’s not good for the baby.” Carol added softly, taking one of Kurt’s hands in her own, squeezing comfortingly.

Kurt's hand dropped to his stomach automatically. Over the course of this long day he had barely had a thought for his baby. The baby had been the centre of it all and he and his father had certainly talked about it enough but that oddly disjointed feeling had returned. Kurt’s thoughts had been plagued with the fear of his own expulsion and the threat of Blaine’s.

Kurt was terrified of the disjointed feeling. The last time he had felt like this Kurt had almost lost Blaine and he couldn’t lose Blaine, not now.

Kurt jumped up the instant the door swung open and he couldn’t help the smile that graced his tear stained face at the sight of his boyfriend. Kurt stumbled forwards into Blaine's open arms.

“What did they say?” Kurt asked quietly. Blaine kissed his forehead gently.

“They said they need a little while to come to their final decision. They asked about my grades and extra curricula’s and those stupid things they could get from my file. Then they asked how long we had known each other and I explained how we had known each other before you transferred, though I didn’t say you were spying even though you were quite a bad spy.”

Blaine chuckled throatily. Kurt spying on the Warblers performance of Teenage Dream was something Blaine had always found endearing and would regularly remind him of that and any time they talked about the New Directions, specifically Puck, Blaine would ask Kurt to remind him to thank them one day for sending him. However, Dalton’s school board, when trying to decide if the boys should be expelled, probably wouldn’t find spying on rival competition glee clubs so endearing.

“All we can do now is wait.” Burt Hummel sighed.