Burt Hummel just hung up the phone with Finn, so he and Carole could finish their dinner.

Burt barely touched his food. He lost several pounds since Kurt left and he was unreachable. He was tired. He was bushed.

Carole was worried about him. She did everything for him, and if it weren't for her Burt wouldn't be so sure about where he'd be. She forced him to eat. She forced him to sleep and take care of himself and his job.

“Everything okay?” Carole asked. He barely said a word unless it was about Finn, work or Carole's work.  “Sweetie, what did Finn say?” Carole had given the phone to him for him to talk.

 “It's nothing to worry about, they've arrived and they tied with The Warblers,” Burt said coolly, giving a fake smile.

He didn't want to burden Carole with the hope of what Finn had just told him. Finn swore he saw Kurt in New York, but the way he described him to Burt made him feel sick to the stomach.

Carole smiled sadly. “You're thinking about Kurt aren't you? How you wish he'd be there with them,  we all know how excited he was to go to New York,” Burt nodded poorly.

~Flashback~

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?

Kurt had the whole room decorated rather…well unmanly like and Burt could understand why Finn was annoyed to an extent but something was fishy about the way the two boys were glaring at each other. He had heard shouting downstairs from when he walked into the house after arriving from work and he needed to get to the bottom of it. Coming home from work to find his family falling apart was not what he needed right now. He just wanted to sleep, he just needed everyone to stop shouting and stop telling lies so he could sleep for one peaceful night.

Someone at the school, a random father had called anonymously on him on the phone telling him to take his faggot, gay son out of McKinley high so he didn't spread fairy dust everywhere. Burt couldn't just leave it at that and go home to talk to Kurt about it. He had to work a 10 hour shift only to come home listening to Finn and Kurt argue.

 “We all know how much you love Kurt honey…you were just overly stressed, you can't keep beating yourself up over this,” Carole was saying. He looked at her and shrugged.

“What else am I meant to do? Act all happy and pretend I'm in lala-land?”

“Come with me to the hospital tomorrow, you're going to meet some of my patients so you remember what you still have left,”

“I don't feel like going anywhere Carole. I don't even like going to work anymore, the customers make me so angry when they tell me their (so-called-problems) and I feel like shouting that (My son is MISSING and you complain you don't have your car to go on a holiday?) ”

“Burt Hummel, you're coming with me tomorrow whether I have to drag you out of the house myself or not,”

“You'll have to drag me out then, because Im not going anywhere unless its too look for Kurt, and since you wont let me do that no more-”

Carole sighed and they quietly returned to their meal.

His baby boy was scared of him. He was the worse father of the year, particularly when he talked to Kurt's teachers and realised what idiots they all were and how nobody seemed to know what was going on in Kurt's mind.

His mind replayed the scene of the basement. Burt played with the food on his plate and then his eyes trailed over to his right hand, the hand that had hit Kurt. The hand he now hated with every fibre of his being.

Burt sighed as he put down his fork. “I'm not hungry Carole. I'm going to bed,”

Carole ate dinner alone that night and put Burt's untouched food in the fridge before she left for work.

…….

Back at ‘The New York Inn' where the Warblers were staying in Blaine, Jeff and Nick's room. Kurt sang ‘Blackbird' for his solo audition and The Warblers stared in awe. They were blown away.

Blaine in particular couldn't get his eyes of Kurt, eventually humming in the background which encouraged the others to do the same. Kurt was flawless. Kurt sang as though he was the bird with the broken wing and it moved him. When he finished, tears were falling down his face because there was complete silence before Trent got up and gave him a big hug.

The others one by one got up and they clapped Kurt on the shoulder who was obviously overwhelmed. He wasn't used to so much support from boys before.

“I think I speak on behalf of all of us when I say you're definitely in Kurt,” Blaine said as Wes handed Kurt a broach.

“What is this?” Kurt asked eyeing the bird on the front running his fingers over the picture.

“It's the Warbler badge…picture of a Warbler and the badge is made in bronze, we always nominate a special member of the group when we think they did spectacular and deserve to be rewarded, it's yours Kurt”

Kurt was at loss for words. “Thank you,” He whispered as Thad helped him put it on.

Blaine was watching the scene with a huge smile on his face, he then clapped his hands to grab the boys attention “Alright boys let's get practising,”

“Woah woah woah, so everyone is okay with this all of a sudden?” Sebastian demanded as he looked around the room. The boys went silent. Blaine had moved next to Kurt again  and Wes was sitting next to David on the couch with Thad who were the Warbler council. Everyone else was standing near Kurt or Blaine except for Sebastian who had been sitting on the floors carpet.

“We don't know where you're from, who you are, he could be a spy for all we know,” Sebastian explained himself, waving a hand at Kurt to Thad and David who looked at each other taking that into consideration. Blaine didn't looked concerned at all as he replied calmly “Kurt's not a spy Sebastian, and where Kurt is from does not matter, like you mentioned he only needs to wear the blazer”

“Yes I said that but we still don't need to accept him straight away! Not only that we still know nothing about him! It does matter when it concerns the rest of us and our safety as to where he comes from, and his girly voice won't help us in the competition anyway,” Sebastian looked at Blaine angrily.

Kurt was quiet, as much as he didn't like Sebastian, he could understand where he was coming from.

“Girly voice?! Sebastian if you can't speak to Kurt with respect, you're not singing for Nationals, and now we have Kurt we dont really need you anyway, we don't tolerate this kind of behaviour, so you make your choice, get of your high horse, and get over the fact that you're just jealous because Kurt got in with all of us in agreement and you had to audition 3 times, now no more comments for you or I'll ban you for the rest of the year,” David stood up as he said this to Sebastian eyeing him careful while the others watched in alert.

“Screw you all then,” Sebastian fumed. He stormed out of the room.

"Good riddance," Trent nodded.

David was still in a foul mood when he pointed at him and said "Watch it Trent," when Nick turned to his friend. He had never seen him act that way “You okay dude?”

David shut his eyes and nodded as he calmed himself down. “He made a mockery of my cultural background when I first joined, I wasn't going to let him do the same with Kurt, I don't care where your from Kurt, you can sing kid, and you're one of us, don't ever listen to him,”

“Any more objections?” David asked the room and they all immediately shook their heads as Kurt smiled at him. He made a mental note to pay him back somehow for sticking up for him. "I didnt think so, now lets go back to the beginning,"

…….

 “We should be practising our next songs guys!”  Rachel whined as the New Directions sat around Hyde Park eating hot dogs the next day after their own victory tie with the Warblers. Mercedes rolled her eyes and Quinn spoke up “Berry relax, the finals isn't on till next week, we got another 5 days till then,”

Mike nodded next to Tina who was sharing their hot dog.

Mr Shuester had allowed them to go out for a bit to enjoy their victory in making it to the finals while he organised their stay in a hotel. They didn't have much money, and had slept in the school bus the night before.

“Finn…you're so lucky that they had allowed a 10 minute interval because we would have been screwed, and the Garglers would have beaten us” Puck commented as Artie then looked at Finn “Yeah man, why'd you run of like that,”

“It's the Warblers Puck, not the Garglers,” Finn said matter-of-factly.

“The Warblers then…what kind of a stupid name is that anyway?” Puck rolled his eyes as Mercedes and Tina chuckled and Artie shook his head unbelievingly at Puck.

“I thought I saw someone,” Finn added in answer to Puck's remark.

“He was seeing ghosts,” Mercedes answered still angry at Finn and barely talking to him. She hated him for bringing up Kurt. She already found it hard enough to sleep at night. Finn looked frustrated, and he didn't like sitting still. His girlfriend could see there was more to it as she put an arm on his “Finn what's wrong?”

“You've been acting weird all day potato head,” Santana added with an unamused presence.

“Just lay off me alright! I know you all think I'm stupid anyway,” Finn got up and threw his hotdog in the bin without barely touching it which wasn't like Finn, he turned to face the group but there was too much anger on his face and he marched away.

Sam was the one who decided to confront Finn telling Rachel to sit back down as she was going to do so. Nobody spoke more than 10 words to Finn unless it was about rehearsals in Glee. That's the way it's been since Kurt had vanished, but today in particular he had been more vocal and more strange than usual. He looked distant and uninterested in everything that was happening, something was clouding his mind and only Rachel and Sam noticed.

Everyone else didn't pay any attention to Finn, they started chatting again about what they were going to do next and where they should practise there next performance, as well as which song they should practise.

Sam followed Finn walk down the path “Mind if I join you?” He asked as Finn shrugged in reply.

“I don't think you're stupid by the way,” Sam added as they walked side by side. Finn sighed heavily. “I'm not stupid- but I am an idiot, so it doesn't matter, what's the difference?”

“It does matter, there's something you're not telling us man, talk to me? You helped me when I was homeless, you helped me come back to you guys; let me do the same,”

Finn stared at Sam. They could see the others laughing and chatting away clearly uninterested where they had disappeared to. Only Rachel was looking their way giving them a sharp glance of suspicion.

Finn smiled at her to reassure it was okay and she was distracted by something Santana was saying. Finn turned back to Sam his face stern as Sam waited “

“Now look. I know you don't like me, you don't have to lie like they all do just to keep me in the club, but I am 100% sure I saw him that day. I even went to look for him and saw him again in the foyer. Kurt's here…”

“In New York?” Sam asked and Finn nodded saying loudly “YES in New York. And I plan on finding him,”

“How?”  Sam asked looking around him and causing Finn to do the same “Do you realise how big New York City is?”

“He couldn't have gotten far from here. He'd be in the main city, since that's where I saw him. Sam I don't care if I have to search every park, every café, I have to find him,”

“I thought you didn't even like Kurt,” Sam admitted since Finn rarely talked about what happened at home, even though there was gossip, and the glee club found out through Jacob Israel, and of course Burt and Carole who were griefly stricken over Kurt's disappearance.

Burt was working himself like a dog trying to take his mind of it and searching for Kurt every night in his truck until Carole convinced him to stop.

They cancelled the wedding Burt and Carole were going to have because of the tense atmosphere and how nothing was going right with the Hummels and Hudsons.

“It's not Kurt himself…it's the way he was behaving…” Finn told as they continued to walk further away so they wouldn't look stupid just standing there. Finn put a hand on his head looking like he wanted to tear his hair out.

“I said things I'm not proud of Sam, I AM the reason Kurt's gone, not because Burt hit him. If I hadn't shouted at Kurt…if I hadn't said he was a faggot,” Finn said disgusted at himself.

Sam stared long and hard at him “You of all people called him a faggot? We already knew he was gay! I didn't realise you were that shallow,”

Finn paced up and down looking at Sam with defeat but also something else Sam couldn't quite understand.

“I know!!  I know alright? I know what I said was wrong, can't you see this is why I have to fix this,”

“Finding Kurt is not going to make him want to come home again you know, I know what it's like to be homeless, and when you've been fighting on the streets for so long and it's all you've ever known then it changes you, it makes you more resilient, it makes you rely on fighting for survival,” Sam promised and Finn agreed “Yes I know, but it's a start, and I'll do everything I can to make Kurt realise that I hadn't meant what I said…anything,”

“But you did mean it, you wouldn't have said it, if you hadn't meant it, don't give me that crap,” Sam frowned looking unconvinced at Finn's defence.

“I already hate myself as it is, I don't need your help in that department,” Finn announced as he looked around him. He was supposed to be having the time of his life, but instead he hated New York. Hated it for being so big, so far away from what he knew.

“I'm sorry man, I didn't mean to sound cruel but…I miss Kurt too you know? He helped donate clothes to me and cook for my family. I want him safe just as much as anyone else,”

“Then please…help me Sam, help me find Kurt,” Finn was holding Sam's shoulders and he didn't care that Rachel was eyeing them anxiously.

Sam stared back at him with equal amount of determination as he nodded “Where do we start?”

“I have an idea…” Finn began and told Sam to sit down so he could tell him his plan.