Chapter Seven

“Sleep tight,” Kurt whispered, pressing a kiss to Aiden’s forehead. The toddler was drifting off to sleep, tiny fingers clutching his blankets. With one last smile at his little boy, Kurt left the room, making his way down the hall into his own bedroom.

He took a deep breath, settling himself on his bed and pulling out his cell phone.

Step one, he told himself.

He tapped on the symbol for his voicemail, listening to the short ring before the automated voice came on, asking for his password and for him to press pound. He quickly obeyed, tapping in the four digits before hitting the pound key. The automated voice then told him he had forty-six new voice messages, and they started to play.

The first fifteen messages were from his father, Carole, and Finn, and Rachel. Just short messages, asking him to call, wanting to make sure he was okay. After that, the callers varied. The next few were from Mercedes, from Tina, Mike, Brittany, Santana, Puck, Artie, Sam... and then Blaine. They were all roughly the same, offering apologies and sending their wishes, and just wanting to make sure that he was coping in some way. It took at least twenty minutes for Kurt to make his way through them all, occasionally jotting down phone numbers that his friends gave him, for their new work or their new home or their new cell. But this, to him, was making progress, no matter how small.

Finally, the voice came onto the line again. “End of new messages. You have—three—saved voice messages. To listen to your saved messages, press one. To hear more options, press zero.”

Kurt licked his lips, feeling his heart pound a little more quickly. Without a second thought, he pressed the number one.

“Hey there,” came the voice and that was it. That was the voice Kurt had been struggling to remember and he laughed a little bit, feeling tears rolling down his cheek. He knew the message by heart, from the time his little family had gone to Florida on vacation, and then Alex had needed to catch a different flight for business. He could remember it so clearly, remember Aiden’s tears and remember assuring his son that it was just a short trip. It didn’t seem like it had been so long ago at all.

“I know you’re already on the plane back home so you’re phone’s off, but I just wanted to say how much I miss you and A already. Have a safe trip, and I can’t wait to see you at home. Give him my love, of course, and make sure you tell him again that Dada’s coming back as soon as possible. Love you, Kurt. Bye.”

There was a pause in the message before the woman’s voice came on again, requesting him to save or delete. He quickly saved the message before ending the call.

“It is so good to see you again, Kurt,” Mercedes sighed, sitting across from him at what had once been their ‘usual’ booth at Breadstix. “It feels like it’s been forever.”

“It has,” Kurt reasoned with a smile.

“I missed my best friend so much,” she went on, and Kurt raised an eyebrow.

“You still call me your best friend?” he asked, his voice half-teasing, half-incredulous. “After all that stupidity we pulled in high school and after?”

Mercedes sighed. “I was worse than you,” she said, a little bitterly. “Lord, what I was thinking...”

Kurt shrugged. “You’d had enough of being treated like you’re second best,” he told her. “Believe me when I say that I completely understand.”

“Yet you didn’t go off, acting like a complete fool like I did,” she responded, and he laughed. “Seriously, boy, the fact that you’re still willing to see me... Hell, the fact that any of you all are...”

“New Directions has always been a forgiving group,” Kurt reminded her. “You wanted to come back in senior year, so we let you. You want to come back now... well, they’re taking me back. Everyone’s had so much patience with me in the last few months, I can’t even begin to fathom it.”

Mercedes grinned. “We all know how you work,” she said. “I think everyone would have been more surprised if you came looking for help or something of the sort.”

Kurt chuckled softly. “True enough,” he admitted.

“Besides, you were completely in line,” she went on. “I didn’t realize just how out of line I was until my big-time L.A. record label and my stupid, cheating semi-pro football boyfriend from Palm Springs both dumped my ass.” She sighed. “I just never thought I’d be that girl. I always thought I could keep my head on straight.”

They fell quiet for a few moments, idly munching on the complementary breadsticks until Mercedes sighed heavily. Kurt looked up at her, tilting his head slightly.

“I want to make things right with you, Kurt,” she told him suddenly. “I want to right the wrongs from high school.” She shifted a little uncomfortably. “I didn’t want to tell anyone else this, not until I told you.” She took a deep breath. “I’m moving back to Ohio. I’m going to be moving in with Sam.”

Kurt raised his eyebrows. “Sam, huh?” he asked with a grin.

Mercedes smiled slightly. “It was stupid to never tell you about it in high school,” she said. “Then when I saw him at the Christmas party... I don’t know, I got there so late, and everyone else was drunk, and you and Tina were already gone... he and I talked, and it probably sounds stupid, but honestly? After all the stupid choices I’ve made in the past ten years, I feel like this is my first really smart one.”

“I’m happy for you,” Kurt assured her, taking her hand in his. “If he makes you happy, then that’s all that matters.” Mercedes smiled and he chuckled slightly. “God, I feel like this really is just high school all over again...”

Mercedes raised an eyebrow. “How so?” she asked. “Please don’t tell me that there’s another Rachel and Finn love triangle, I might just have to kidnap the third party to save us from the drama.”

Kurt laughed. “No,” he assured her. He sighed, resting his head in his hands. “I... Actually, I kissed Blaine.”

He heard as Mercedes took in a slow, deep breath. “Well... damn,” she muttered, looking at him slightly taken aback.

“It was stupid,” he mumbled. “It was just... a lapse in judgment.”

“How was it?” Mercedes asked, and he raised his eyebrows. She rolled her eyes a little and waved her hand. “I don’t mean like that,” she clarified. “Just... any thoughts or feelings?”

Kurt ran a hand through his hair, smiling and thanking their waitress as she brought their food to their table at last. The moment the other woman walked away, he sighed. “I don’t know,” he said. “I just... I don’t know.” He poked at his pasta with his fork. “Honestly, it doesn’t even matter if there were any feelings it brought up. My husband died and it’s about time I stopped playing the victim about it all.” He shut his eyes. “I can’t bring him back,” he continued softly, “and believe me, I wish I could. But what I had with Alex isn’t my life anymore. I need to start making a new life.”

“And what will that be?” Mercedes asked gently.

“I’m staying in Lima,” he told her. “Once things are stable, I’m going to start looking for a house where I can raise Aiden.” He sighed. “In the meantime, I need to find a job. I need to enroll Aiden in preschool... I need to find a professional I can talk to who doesn’t make me feel like I’m going crazy. I need to completely rebuild, get back everything I had in New York.”

Mercedes nodded. “Sounds like you have it worked out,” she commented.

“A bit,” he admitted. He licked his lips and paused. “I did find an ad in the paper, I was thinking about sending them my resumé.”

“That’s great,” she smiled. “What is it?”

He hesitated slightly before pulling out the want ads from his bag, laying it on the table, one of the sections of print outlined in green highlighter. Admittedly, he had been carrying it around for some time, whipping it out at odd moments and taking it all into consideration. It was different, it wasn’t Broadway, but he knew he could do it.

“A fashion columnist?” she asked with a grin.

He nodded. “It’s an online periodical,” he said. “I would mostly be working from home, so I can still be there for Aiden whenever he needs it. But they have a small office building, so I wouldn’t be stuck at the house, either.”

Mercedes nodded. “You know, you don’t have to give up on your dreams,” she told him gently.

He shook his head. “I knew I had to do this from the moment I quit the show back in August,” he admitted. “It’s just... it’s not my dream anymore.”

“Well, everyone will support you no matter what you decide,” Mercedes assured him. “Personally, I can’t think of anything else better for you.”

Kurt smiled in appreciation. “What about you and your big L.A. dreams?” he asked. “No record labels in Lima to sign you.”

Mercedes chuckled slightly. “I figure I need a break from all that,” she said. “Sam and Artie know the ins and outs of recording technology anyway, I figure I can work on a few new songs and send them out. Maybe I’ll get a new deal, and maybe they won’t back out on me this time.”

“I don’t think this is where either of us thought we’d be ten years after high school,” Kurt told her softly, and she laughed.

“Maybe not,” she said. “A lot has changed. Hell, even Breadstix has changed.” She gestured around the restaurant. “But not everything has. Our friends from high school? Still the best, yet most dysfunctional, family in the world. And these tots?” She picked one up from her plate, and Kurt couldn’t suppress a grin. “Still the best damn things I have eaten in my life.”