The Proper Way to Discuss the Unknown Facts

My grandfather would say that a slow build topped with a dramatic climax is the way…

It took me longer than it should have, but I eventually pushed myself to my feet and went to Kurt. He didn't look up at me, which he could have refused to do for several reasons. It could have been because he was still lost in the past, or it could have been that he was angry at me for putting myself at the opposite side of the room as if he was some kind of pariah or something. Either way, angry at me or not, I dropped back down in front of him without hesitation and slid my arms around his neck.

For a moment he was completely tense—a long moment that clenched around my heart like a fist—but then he seemed to lose all ability to hold even the smallest bit of tension in his body and he sagged against me with a sigh.

"I love you," I told him, because after a story like that, I figured he needed to hear it—hell, after my reaction his story, he may have needed to be reminded.

He drew in a long breath at the words and he gently looped his arms around my waist and became even more boneless.

It felt good to hold him—calming in a way I can't really explain. It was a feeling that rolled slowly around my head, sleepy and relaxed. I felt like I could start floating.

"Again," he demanded softly.

"I love you."

I didn't really know what to do beyond that. My list hadn't extended beyond 1) hold him and 2) tell him I love him. But what needed happen next? What was I supposed to do? To say?

There were things in my grandfather's letter that we needed to talk about—disturbing things. The most disturbing was that he not only knew who Kurt was, but he seemed to know that Kurt was a PC. A lot of hows and whys cropped up in response to that, and those questions were only the tip of the iceberg. There were plenty of other questions to consider. Like, how did he know about Cooper, Britt, and Bitches? Was he the only one who knew? Why hadn't he said anything?

And probably the most important question: what did he want Kurt to do?

Whatever it was, I knew it wasn't going to be good. It would probably be horrible in some way and leave the both of us scarred for life.

That of course, brought up more questions. Was there a way out of this mess? Could we somehow get a message to Burt? Had the Hummel family been taken already?

I guess I should have felt really overwhelmed by everything, and maybe at the time I was in shock, but all I really felt was tired and lethargic. I attributed the feeling with the calming effect Kurt had on me, which, in that moment, allowed me to forget about the large pile of shit the universe seemed to dumb on us on a daily basis.

"Would he hurt them?" Kurt asked.

"No," I said truthfully. If Adam did have the Hummels, he would do everything he could to leave them unharmed—not because he wasn't capable of harming them, but because a body count drew unwanted attention and if there was anything my grandfather didn't like, unwanted attention was it.

Kurt sighed—probably in relief.

"Bed," he said and I nodded.

The bed sounded damned good. It sounded fucking amazing.

We could both get up, get in bed, and stay there until we died. Such a lovely, happy thought.

We got to our feet like old people—slowly and feebly with heavy limbs and slumped shoulders. We leaned heavily on each other as we walked and fell all over each other when we finally made it to Kurt's bed.

Covers were overrated so we didn't bother. We just fell asleep.

Kurt used his lips to wake me up. It felt nice and he tasted so good and I did my best to wake up fast but my eye lids were heavy and my body felt like it was beyond lethargic. We couldn't have slept for more than an hour if my sluggishness was any indication.

Kurt didn't seem to mind my grogginess, though. He merely moved his lips to other areas as he waited for me to fight off the remaining remnants of sleep.

He traced his tongue down my neck and my body responded to him with a slow building heat. He kissed me from my neck to my chest and then came back up again to dip his tongue in my mouth before he pulled back to look at me. A silent question presented itself in his eyes as his hands curled around my jeans.

When I nodded, he undid the button and pulled them down without bothering to unzip them first. I tried to pull his shirt up, but he danced away and shook his head. I was about to protest when he closed his lips over my nipple and bit me gently. I let my head fall back with a groan.

He didn't stay in one spot for long. He moved his mouth all over me, kissing and licking and sucking at my skin until I was both pliant beneath him and completely would up. He didn't take my cock in his mouth, but he did press hot, open kisses from base to tip, leaving me whimpering and clutching at the sheets.

I didn't know what switch had suddenly been flipped inside that gorgeous head of his to make him use me as his own human sized popsicle, but when he leaned back to look down at me with sharp, appreciative eyes, I decided I really didn't care. A reason didn't matter as long as he kept looking at me like that.

As I watched him watch me I realized that I had never felt so vulnerable in front of another person before. I was completely naked and gasping for breath between his deliciously masculine thighs, and he was kneeling over me, still dressed with his lips red and swollen and his hair fucked up beyond help.

I rolled my hips up, desperate for some kind of touch, even if it meant I had to grind myself against the denim of his jeans until I came, raw and throbbing. He moved away, denying me relief.

"Kurt," I whined.

He ignored me and grabbed the hem of his shirt. He pulled it up slowly and I whimpered at the sight of his smooth skin and he shot me a look that made it quite clear that I was not allowed to touch. I gripped the sheets hard and he rewarded me by pulling the shirt completely off.

Next he unbuttoned his pants and shoved both them and his underwear down as far as they would go with him still straddling me, which, to tell you the truth, wasn't fucking far at all. It left just the swollen tip of his cock peeking out from beneath his partially removed clothes. It was like torture. The smallest bit of precum clung to the tip and my tongue ached at the sight of it.

He didn't bother himself with it. Instead, he dropped forward to press his mouth hard against mine. I groaned and opened up wide, loving the feel of his tongue shoved into my mouth as far as it would go. He ripped his mouth away from mine too soon only to whisper in my ear and stop my heart.

"Make love to me."

My cock twitched with overenthusiasm at the chance to own his perfect little ass, but doubt clouded my head and I jerked away from his fervently sucking lips.

"Kurt—" I tried, and gnashed my teeth together when he followed me and used his against my ear. "Damn it, Kurt, stop."

"No," he managed between biting licks.

I groaned and pushed hard at his shoulders. His legs might have been stronger than mine, but I had him beat at upper body strength, so it didn't take much effort to force him away from me and back on his knees. Keeping my eyes and mouth off his mostly hidden cock, however, was a different story. I grit my teeth and forced my eyes up to his face.

"Where did this come from?"

He huffed. "Is that really important right now?"

"Fuck yes, it's important. Why does this feel like an I-need-to-lose-it-before-I-die kind of situation?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Could you be any more overdramatic?"

"Yeah right. Because nothing you just did was overdramatic."

He shot me a look to let me know what I could do with that comment and I heaved a sigh.

"Kurt. Can you please just tell me what's going on?"

"There's nothing going on." Maybe I'm tired of everyone controlling my life all the time. Maybe I want to make my own decisions.

"And that includes fucking me?"

He scowled. "Yes." No, that includes having you fuck me.

I smirked, patronizing him just a little. "Yeah?"

He huffed. "Blaine."

With a heavy sigh, I let my head fall back against the mattress and I threw an arm over my eyes. What to do…

"Do you really, really want this? Because it's not like I can take it all back tomorrow if you decide that it was a mistake."

Kurt pulled my arm gently away from my face and made me look at him. "Why would it be?"

I shrugged. "I dunno," I said stubbornly.

He tipped his forehead against mine. "Please," he said and his lips brushed my cheek when he said it.

"Okay," I gave in because what else was I supposed to do? If I had said no, he would probably hate me for the rest of his life, especially after his little make-my-own-decisions speech. Saying yes meant that I got to give him what he wanted and I would get something that I wanted too.

And, fuck, did I want it. He had wrapped his hand around my cock when I pushed him away and had kept it there throughout our short conversation, ensuring that I stayed hard as a rock and desperate to come. He was a sneaky little shit.

As soon as I agreed, his mouth was on mine and he was rubbing himself against me.

"Hey, hey, wait a minute. Jesus, Kurt, fucking stop for a second."

He pulled away with a near growl. "What?" he snapped.

I smirked and kissed his cheek to placate him. "Calm down, gorgeous. It's not like we've got a time limit or anything."

He frowned as if that hadn't occurred to him. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." I kissed him again and gave his ass a smack. "Up."

He glared, but shifted off of me. I got up, ignoring his suspicious look, and walked over to Sebastian's side of the room. I figured that the prick had to have lube hidden all over the place, and the good stuff too. I was right, of course, and I stole it out of his nightstand drawer after making sure that it wasn't contaminated with anything that would have forced me to boil my hands. I grabbed a condom too, figuring that he owed me for being such a pain in the ass. I was tempted to take the rest of them, just to piss him off, but I refrained.

On my way back to Kurt's bed, I grabbed the chord that I knew Sebastian kept under his bed and used it to tie off the door so it couldn't be opened even if he used the key to unlock it—Smythe used to fuck around with his previous roommate's boyfriend. The chord kept said roommate out when Sebastian needed him out. And when Sebastian was fucking the roommate, it kept the roommate's boyfriend out too.

When I was finally kneeling next to Kurt, who was propped up on his elbows, I quirked an eyebrow at the look he was sending the bottle of lube.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." We don't need that.

I frowned. "Yeah, we do."

He huffed and kicked his legs until his pants were completely off. Then he grabbed my hand and brought it between his legs. I look up at him in surprise at the feel of his slick opening.

"Shit," I groaned, because the thought of him prepping himself was almost too much.

He smiled a little shyly.

I pulled my hand away to grab the bottle. "We still need it, though, gorgeous. If you had done this before, we might not, but since you haven't…" I shrugged.

Kurt nodded and slowly lowered himself completely down on the mattress. I frowned when he shut his eyes as if he was waiting for the inevitable.

If that was how he thought things were going to go down, he was going to be disappointed. I didn't call him out on it, though. Instead, I shifted forward and kissed him gently. He tensed up, letting me know he was less confident about the whole thing than he was trying to let on.

"It's just me," I whispered against his lips and he whimpered a little bit as he wound his arms around my neck, pulling me close.

Blindly, because like hell was I going to stop kissing him, I reached for the lube and pumped a good amount into my hand. I took a few seconds to warm it before I reached down to grip his cock.

He jerked at the wet sensation and moaned into my mouth as he thrust into my fist. I let him at it for a few seconds before I released him in favor of pressing a finger into his mostly open hole.

"Oh god," he breathed as he tore his mouth away from mine, panting.

I mouthed at his neck and his chest as I worked my finger in and out a couple times before pushing in a second. Despite his prep, he was still pretty tight and I told myself that there was no way I was going anywhere near him with my dick until he could take at least three fingers.

He got to that point faster than I would have thought, and not long after that he was frantically rolling his hips onto my fingers. He had an extremely sensitive prostate, if the way he thrashed and shook when I brushed my fingers against it was any indication. He nearly howled when I wrapped my mouth around his cock, my fingers still greedily probing his hot ass. When I brushed against his prostate that time, he jerked his hips up wildly, jamming his cock down my throat and abruptly came.

I swallowed all of it before I let him fall out of my mouth. I kissed his spent spit, come, and lube covered cock gently and asked, "Do you still want me to?"

"No," he panted. Yes.

I kissed him once more before sitting up to grab the condom. I made fast work of tearing the foil and rolling the condom on before I settled myself between Kurt's thighs. I kissed his lips as I pumped a more than generous amount of lube into my hand and spread it over my cock.

I pushed into him painfully slowly and he gasped at the feeling, holding me close with his fingers tangled in my damp hair.

"Blaine," he whispered, releasing my hair to run his hands up and down my back.

I panted against his neck and remained still. Tight. He was so tight.

"You okay?" I asked him, but really, I just needed a minute to process the overwhelming feel of him all around me.

"Don't move," he grit out.

"Does it hurt? Do you need me to pull out?" I started to ease myself out of him without waiting for an answer, but Kurt stopped me when he threw his legs around my hips. The quick motion forced me to jab myself into him and Kurt's body gave a full jerk in response.

"Ah!"

I grit my teeth and tried to ignore how good it had felt in favor of making sure he was okay. "Fucking hell, Kurt, how bad did you just hurt yourself?"

He took a few deep breaths. "Wait. Just wait."

I kissed his neck, trying to soothe him. "I won't move until you tell me to, gorgeous."

He nodded, but didn't ease up on the death grip his legs had on my hips. "Kiss me," he demanded and I did.

I kissed him until he relaxed his legs to the point where I could get my hand between our bodies. He gasped and went boneless at the feel of my hand on his semi-hard cock. I angled my head and pushed my tongue deep into his mouth.

It didn't take too much longer for him to start thrusting into my hand, which had both of us groaning when the movement forced me a little deeper inside him.

"Alright?" I asked.

"Again," he begged and I tried to copy the movement with a small thrust.

When he didn't make a noise of discomfort, I did it again, more languidly that time and Kurt let out a long groan. I responded by pulling almost completely out and then gliding back in.

"Ohhh. Fuck, that was good" (amazing, his truth corrected) "Again. Do it again."

I nodded and stopped sucking on his neck to get on my knees, breaking the hold he had on my neck as I went. I wrapped my hands around his hips and gave three quick thrusts.

"Yes," Kurt hissed, eyes shut and his head thrown back. His Adam's apple bobbed enticingly against his throat as he swallowed.

"Fuck, gorgeous, you look amazing like that."

His legs fell completely open and I gave a hard, but searching trust. The first time I missed, but the second time I found what I was looking for and I delighted as Kurt practically screamed and arched his back for more.

"Look at me, Kurt," I demanded, fucking in and out of him. "I want you to watch."

He forced his eyes open with obvious effort and lifted his head. His eyes went wide at the sight of my cock going in and out of his body. His went from intrigued to dark to smoldering, and he pushed himself up on his elbows, watching hungrily as I fucked him.

"That's it, baby," I groaned. "Grab you cock for me. Yeah, just like that. Don't stop watching."

He didn't. He jerked himself hard and fast and I matched his speed, pounding into him as he nearly sobbed with it. I let out a groan at the dirty sound of his skin slapping against mine.

"Fuck, Blaine, fuck. Oh—Oh god, I'm gonna—"

"No," I growled and batted his hand away to squeeze just below the head of his cock with my thumb and forefinger. Kurt let out a broken moan at the sudden halt of his release. "Not yet, gorgeous."

His eyes flashed. "Fuck you!" he spat like the hellion he was, and I grinned.

"If you insist," I said and he frowned in confusion before I rolled us over so that he was on top.

He flailed for a moment, taken by surprise before he steadied himself with his hands on my chest. He glared down at me angrily.

I smirked and gave a sharp trust into his ass. His eyes went wide and he stuttered out a moan before he could stop himself. He scowled at me when he realized what he had done, but I was way past being smug. My taunting trust had forced my cock even deeper in his ass than before and I had only just managed to stop myself from coming.

"Come on, baby," I panted, goading him against my better judgment. "You wanted it. Take it."

He seemed to realize that I was hanging on by a thread and he smirked evilly down at me before he lifted his hips and then slammed his ass back down on my cock.

"FUCK!" I shouted and came right then and there.

He didn't stop for a second. He mercilessly fucked himself on me with delicious virgin sloppiness as I shot into the condom with brutal intensity. He barely made it another few seconds before he was coming in white streaks all over my chest.

He dropped down when he was spent, twisting at the last moment to avoid falling on my cum-splattered chest.

I let out a tired, high pitched laugh. "Fucking hell, gorgeous."

He panted next to me. "Did I hurt you?"

"Hurt me? Fuck no, you didn't hurt me. I don't think I've ever come so fucking hard before. Now I know to only have sex with you if you're pissed off."

I yelped when he pinched me hard in the side and grinned me he used on of his glares to tell me he thought I was an idiot, which was probably true.

I grinned dopily at him. "I love you."

He smiled in response and rolled over to kiss me. When he made to pull away, I grabbed him and brought him back, not finished with him yet. He laughed softly and let me have my way for a few seconds before he made his escape. He dodged my hand when I tried to get him back.

"Mess," he said, looking at my chest.

I snorted. "Who cares?"

He ignored that and cleaned me off anyway.

"That was my shirt," I protested halfheartedly.

"So?" he asked and I grinned, knowing what his opinion was about my clothes.

We got quiet after that, holding each other in the dim light, each of us thinking about what the next day could have in store for us.

"Is there another way?" he asked after a long, extended silence, and I didn't have to wonder what he was talking about.

"I don't think so."

He nodded resolutely and shifted a little closer.

I closed my eyes.

We got to my grandfather's house early. I would never have admitted it to Kurt—and probably not even to myself at the time—but I was afraid of pissing my grandfather off. I was positive that things were going to go from bad to worse once we stepped inside Adam's mansion, and I figured 'worse' would only come sooner if we showed up so much as a second after three o'clock.

My grandfather's house was just as ostentatious as my father's, which didn't really make sense to me. Adam liked to give people the impression that he was just your regular, nobody special Joe Schmo on the street.

Your regular, nobody special Joe Schmo wouldn't have been able to afford so much as a single brick from the behemoth mansion Adam Anderson lived in.

Kurt stared up at it with an open mouth as we drove up the driveway.

"Does he live alone?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, feeling embarrassed for my grandfather.

Kurt's eyebrows shot up. He didn't say anything else.

I had barely stopped the car when my grandfather came out of the house with a wide, welcoming smile on his face.

"I'm so glad that you two could make it!" he greeted happily once Kurt and I stepped out of the car. "How was traffic? I heard on the radio that—"

"Where's my dad?" Kurt interrupted.

Adam's eyes zeroed in on Kurt's face and his smile grew impossibly wider. "Mr. Hummel! It's so nice to finally meet you face to face." He searched Kurt's hands. "Cell phone tucked away this time, I see," he observed and then laughed at his own joke.

"But let's do this properly," he continued and held out a hand. "I'm Adam Anderson, Blaine's grandfather."

Kurt hesitated for only a moment before he shook my grandfather's hand.

We had discussed it on the way over the house and decided that if Adam offered to shake Kurt's hand that Kurt might as well just do it since it was clear that my grandfather already knew more about Kurt than he should have.

My grandfather's grin lost its friendly quality at the skin-to-skin contact. "So much power," he muttered and tightened his grip.

My hands curled into fists at my sides as Adam pulled Kurt closer and stared hard into Kurt's eyes.

"I can see why Blaine chose you," Adam observed quietly. "Just look those intriguing eyes burn. It's like looking at blue fire…"

Just when I was about to lose it, Adam blinked and the intensity was gone from his eyes and the tightness on his lips was replaced with a happy grin. He took a step back and released Kurt's hand.

"Look at us all standing out here in the November cold. I'm a terrible host. Come inside where it's warm."

He led us through the house, pointing out this painting or that 13th century vase to Kurt as if we were on some kind of fucked up tour.

We eventually came to his study and he instructed us to sit down.

"You may take the love seat if you wish, of course. I don't want you to think I'm prejudiced."

With a barely repressed snarl, I lowered myself to sit down on the biggest couch the room had to offer. Kurt sat down to my left and my grandfather took the seat behind his desk.

"Are either of you thirsty? No? You're sure now? It wouldn't be any trouble. I have an intercom system so the maids can hear me from any room in the house. Still no? Alright, alright. Suit yourselves." He pressed a button and leaned over the desk. "Mary, dear, would you be so kind as to bring me my coffee?"

Of course, Mr. Anderson, came the soft reply.

"Thank you."

He leaned back in his leather chair when he was finished showing off. "Now. I mentioned in my letter that I had something to discuss with you both, and we will get to that—eventually. Before we get to specifics, though, I would like to start with a small explanation. You no doubt have many questions for me and an explanation will save us some time, whereas a Q&A has the potential to drag on unnecessarily.

"Kurt—I'm sure you don't mind my calling you that—you're probably wondering how I know you, especially since we hadn't met until yesterday. You see, I don't share my son's obsession with this ridiculous cure business. SIIPA is a fine organization and it has run successfully for decades without one—a cure is, in my opinion, an unnecessary luxury—it could potentially have its uses, but we don't need it. Therefore, I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you when I say that I very seldom venture into the PC laboratories. Most of them are abysmally depressing and poorly run thanks to my son's inability to manage his emotions with any sort of fineness." Adam wrinkled his nose. "He got his berserker qualities from my ex-wife, I'm afraid." He waved a dismissive hand.

"Anyway, that being said, I do keep tabs on what goes on in the PC facilities to a certain extent. I keep track of each PC patient we have, but ultimately all I want to know is one thing: have we finally found the one we've been looking for?" Adam leaned forward, looking directly at Kurt. "Until you came along, the answer to that question was always no."

My mouth dropped open. "What are you saying? That they actually found a way to take away abilities without Kurt?"

Adam slammed his fist hard against the surface of his desk with a force that made Kurt and I jump.

"That," he exclaimed with a loud, excited shout of sheer (misplaced) jubilance, "is the mission dollar question!" That is the most important question! his truth boomed in my head.

A hesitant knock on the open door of the study interrupted the insanity and we all looked to find a young blonde woman standing in the doorway. She was dressed in a sensible (and modest) maid's uniform and held a tray with my grandfather's coffee in one hand. She bit her lip in an obvious show of uncertainty, probably in response to getting startled by my grandfather's sudden assault on his desk. From her jumpy demeanor I figured it was a miracle that she hadn't dropped the damn tray on the floor.

"Ah, Mary! Come in, darling. Right here on the desk is fine."

She smiled weakly and did as he instructed.

Adam watched her with a frown. "Oh, my. Did I startle you just now?"

"N-no," she lied unconvincingly and I scowled at her meek sounding truth.

"Come now, certainly by the look on your face I did. I do apologize. I got carried away."

"It's okay, Mr. Anderson, it's none of my business."

"Still," my grandfather insisted. "Why don't you take the rest of the day off? With pay, of course."

Her back went completely stiff. "But—but I couldn't—"

"Of course you could," he interrupted. "I insist. Now go on and enjoy the rest of your day."

"Well—I—"

He gave her a stern look.

"O-okay. Thank you, sir."

Adam happily sipped his coffee as she rushed out. He chuckled at the sight and put the coffee cup down.

"Now, where were we?" he frowned as if to think about it. "Oh, yes. The million dollar question: did Carl's idiot scientists come up with a formula or DNA based serum—or whatever those sciency types do— to take away abilities without Kurt's assistance? The answer is no." He leaned forward to point a finger at us, adopting Uncle Sam's ridiculous I-Want-You pose. "Why then, you may ask, if Kurt didn't provide us with a way to create a cure, is Kurt that so called one we were looking for? Well, that is because my son was never actually looking for a cure—not really."

What?

"I say not really, because I'm sure Carl would have been quite happy with a weaponized cure. He could have controlled the entire preternatural community with something like that. But, as I said, a cure was not his primary focus. What he was really after was finding someone who had the preternatural means to provide him with an ability of his own choosing. What that ability would be, I'm not entirely sure—something all powerful and dangerous most likely."

I took my eyes off of my grandfather to look at Kurt. He was sitting ramrod straight in his seat with an expression of utter horror on his face. I looked back at my grandfather, getting the feeling that I was missing something.

Adam sat comfortably in his chair, his elbows up on the desk. "I see you've worked out the implications, Kurt."

"What implications?" I snapped.

Adam slid his eyes towards me. "I'm not sure how much you know about your boyfriend's time spent in the PC facility. I can assure you it was appropriately terrible. His stay, however, abruptly ended when Elizabeth Hummel stormed in and put everything to hell.

"Elizabeth had the ability to use mind control, you see. Your father crossed her, it backfired. He was left with an alternate memory of the entire incident. According to Carl and his entire staff, Kurt Hummel never stepped foot in the PC facility. In fact, Kurt Hummel is filed in our system as a D1 with the ability to breathe under water. Instead of Kurt, your father thinks that it was fourteen year old Angelo Alves who had the ability to manipulate abilities, and that Angelo died in the middle of an experiment after he spent eight long months in the PC facility. Mr. Alves, of course, is not a real person."

Adam grinned. "Elizabeth had always been remarkably crafty. Unlike your father, I learned that it was best to leave her alone. I stuck by that philosophy, even after she died, and allowed your father to believe the false memory she had given him. Like I said, I had no real interest in his work to begin with.

"Anyway, back to the point. The day Elizabeth stormed into the PC facility was the very same day that your father sat your mother down in front of Kurt and told him to give her a second ability. What I didn't know until recently was that Kurt had succeeded."

I was sure at that point that my own face mirrored Kurt's horrified one. My stomach was down at my feet and I was positive that I would never be able to pick it up again.

I turned back to look at Kurt and studied his face carefully, looking for signs. I needed to be sure that he hadn't known what he had done—that it had come as just as much of a shock to him as it had to me.

I wasn't pretty sure that he hadn't, but I needed to be sure.

"Did you know?" I demanded. "Did you know that you gave my mother a second ability?"

He turned his horrified eyes on me and I saw a hint of betrayal there, but I ignored it. I had to know.

"How can you even ask me that?" he whispered.

I said nothing.

"Yes," he forced out. "Yes, I knew." No. I didn't know until today.

Relief flooded me like a raging torrent and when Kurt looked down at his lap and refused to meet my eyes, guilt followed. I stamped it down and stared at Adam with narrow eyes. "You said you didn't know until recently. How recenetly?"

"The day the Cooper escaped from the D5 facility."

His hits hit me hard. "W-what?"

"Your mother," he explained calmly. "She got him out."

"How?"

"Teleportation—the absolute strongest form of it at that. Thanks to the very special young man sitting next to you, your mother can teleport anywhere in existence, and she can do it without having been to that place first. Not a single teleporter alive has the ability to do that." His eyes practically glowed when he looked at Kurt and murmured, "You are such a remarkable talent."

Kurt flinched under his gaze.

Adam grinned wide. "Come now, don't tell me that lovely fire in you can be stamped out so easily."

"None of this makes sense," I interrupted my grandfather's leering. "How could you not have known about my mother? Didn't dad—?"

"Your father hasn't touched your mother in years," Adam said, waving a dismissive hand. "And why would he? After Elizabeth got through with him he didn't know up from down. He had no recollection of the little experiment he had forced Kurt to perform on his wife and so that took care of that. Melissa continues to sit in her room smiling the day away. She still has her empathy—" he cut himself off with a frown and looked at me curiously. "Did you know about that? About her empathy?"

I nodded, but didn't mention that I hadn't known until the night before.

Adam shook his head regretfully. "She used to be such a strong, loving person. There was once a time when she had fire in her eyes, too. Your father stamped that out with his damned experiments."

My mouth dropped open. "He experimented on her?"

"Oh yes," Adam said. "In fact, she was the reason he started the PC labs. She was the first person to ever receive a PC classification. Carl thought that her empathy might be the secret towards controlling emotions." Adam rolled his eyes. "A bunch of tomfool nonsense, if you ask me."

He glanced at the clock sitting on his desk. "Oh dear. We are wasting time, I'm afraid. The board will be here in less than two hours and we must be finished by then. I'll cut to the chase. When Cooper escaped, your father acted like a rabid dog and threw a fit ridiculous enough to make a two year old jealous. His reputation took quite a hit for it," Adam scowled.

"But anyway, while your father went on a rampage, I drew up a list of all the potential ways Cooper could have escaped. Teleportation was at the very top and I kept going back to it despite that fact that I knew that there wasn't a teleporter alive who had the ability to do it.

"They would need to have made physical contact with Cooper for one, or been inside his holding cell at one point or another and no one fits that description. After all, the only people Cooper had ever come in contact with were members of our family, that Hispanic girl you are so fond of, and the staff members at the facility. Not a single one of those people could have done it, but there were two people who would have if they could—you and your mother.

"Well, as soon as I realized that, I remembered Kurt and what I thought had been a failed attempt at creating an ability. I went to visit your mother for the first time in years, and sure enough, I was right. I could feel her ability to teleport just as strong as I could feel her empathy."

Adam heaved a heavy sigh and leaned back against his chair as if exhausted. "And that, boys, concludes my explanation. It took much longer than I had anticipated." He smiled apologetically. "I do tend to ramble at times."

It didn't conclude anything as far as I was concerned. "What does all of this have to do with today?"

Adam nodded. "Yes, of course. On to the main event." He used the arm rests on his chair to push himself to his feet. "If you'll both follow me…"

I reluctantly got to my feet and Kurt did the same with stiff, jerky movements. He looked like he was walking to his death and I grabbed tightly to his hand and told myself that would never happen despite the sinking feeling that had taken up residence in my stomach.

My grandfather led us to a nondescript door in his study, which led to a well-lit glass elevator that looked out of place in Adam's modern-technology free home.

I nearly froze at the thought of climbing in that little glass box, my instincts screaming that we were walking right into a trap, but Kurt moved right past me and pulled me inside.

The elevator went down. It took us to a large room that was the definition of modernity. It was bright and open and didn't look intimidating at all except for one thing.

In the middle of the room, strapped to a gurney, was a thrashing male body. His wrists and ankles were bound and the cloth bonds wrinkled his expensive looking suit.

When we got close enough to see who it was, my eyes went wide in horrified disbelief and I turned them on my grandfather even as Kurt whimpered and set a death grip on my hand.

Adam smiled down at the raging, gagged man. "Hello, Carl. Your son and his boyfriend have come to visit you."