"It's missing pages?" Penny gasped, grabbing the book from Kurt's hands.

"Yeah, look! Page 5 and then page 7! There's no page 6!" Kurt flipped the pages of the book. "And some pages are torn!" he said, pointing to page 18, which had been mostly ripped apart and was barely readable.

Penny took a deep breath, millions of questions running through her mind. When had these pages been torn? Could someone have ripped the pages when it was in the Evidence Deposit? But the evidence bag was sealed…

"Are you sure the book wasn't like that before, when you first received it?" Penny suggested. Maybe Kurt just hadn't noticed the torn pages before. "You said you never paid any attention to the book!"

Kurt fought the urge to roll his eyes. "I never paid much attention to this book, but I would have noticed if there were pages missing!"

"Kurt, this is really serious," Penny said, gripping the book in her hands. Her anxious brown eyes met Kurt's blue. "Are you sure the book was in perfect condition before your father's murder?" she asked.

"Yeah Penny, I'm sure!" Kurt assured her. "I was cleaning my room the day before, and I assure you, I saw this book and it was in perfect condition!"

"Oh my God," Penny said nervously, leaning against the wall.

What was going on?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~
"You totally owe me 10 bucks!" Quinn announced as she threw herself on the old couch under the bleachers where their crew normally sat when they skipped classes. Santana was already there, lying on the couch, looking completely breathtaking as usual. She wore black boots, a tight red t-shirt, high waist shorts and torn fishnets. Her girlfriend, Brittany was there too, curled up at Santana's side, wearing an over sized sweater with a cat print on it and a studded pair of bleached shorts.

"Oh c'mon! Seriously!?" Santana exclaimed, pulling a crumpled pack of cigarettes from her front pocket. "He doesn't have those sexy muscles and broad shoulders?" the Latina girl inquired incredulously, before lighting a cigarette between her red lips.

"Well, there are definitely muscles there," Quinn chuckled, stealing one of Santana's cigs. "He has a nice body, but this Kurt guy is definitely not the beefy type."

"So Blaine's new friend is cute?" Brittany asked, her blue eyes sparkling with curiosity. She looked slightly different from the last time Quinn had seen her. Britt's hair seemed slightly shorter and its tips were dyed purple.

"He's not cute, he's fucking gorgeous," Quinn giggled.

"He's not gorgeous," The girls heard a masculine voice say behind them. They turned around and saw Blaine approaching them, his triangulareyebrows furrowed together and bag slung over his shoulder.

"Well, well, look who we have here, skipping classes and all. Mr. We're late for school!" Quinn mocked. "What happened to that thirst for knowledge you seemed to have this morning?"

"Shut up," Blaine murmured, sitting beside Quinn on the edge of the already crowded couch.

"What? It's fucking true! You were the one who was all eager to come to school, practically dragging me out of Walter's apartment, pointing out every five minutes or so how late we are… What now? Aren't you afraid of getting in trouble with Walter?" Quinn smirked.

Blaine frowned even more than he had already been, his features morphing into an expression Quinn couldn't quite describe, but it was definitely something in between of being utterly annoyed and completely embarrassed…Maybe a mix of both?

"I hate you so much," he muttered, noticing how his stern look didn't affect her at all. Damn her being my best friend, He thought.

Quinn laughed. "No you don't! And get over this stupid denial thing, and just admit it, Kurt is fucking gorgeous!"

Blaine kept his eyebrows furrowed together.

"And stop making your triangular eyebrows look like they are going to attack each other. Frowning that much will give you wrinkles, B," Quinn was checking out her black nails when she said it, but Blaine could still see the pleased look on her face.

"Fuck you Q," He muttered, looking for his cigarettes in his bag. That minted crap Santana and Quinn smoked was too sweet for him. "And you can think that that elf is "gorgeous", but he's just not my type," Blaine retorted, lighting his cigarette.

"Oh, shut up!" Quinn scoffed, bumping her shoulder against Blaine's, her lips curling up into what Blaine only could describe as a knowing smile. It was also somewhat seductive and perverted. "He's everyone's type! He has flawless skin, long legs, that goddamn sexy hair… And those blue eyes!? Let's not even talk about how unbelievably blue his eyes are! If I wasn't sure he's gay, I would totally go for it!"

Santana laughed, tempted to say that Quinn would go for pretty much anything, but the one who broke the silence was her girlfriend.

"So Blaine's new friend is a dolphin?" Brittany asked. "He's not my friend," Blaine muttered, which went ignored by the girls around him.

"What do you mean by Dolphin? Does she mean gay?" Quinn asked, unsure. Santana looked at her, nodding.

"Oh yeah, Kurt is definitely gay," the pink haired girl said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You don't know that!" Blaine shouted and huffed.

Quinn rolled her eyes, blowing a puff of smoke out past her lips. "Please Blaine, everything about that boy screams gay!" she said, gesturing with her hands and causing Britt to chuckle.

"Who's gay?" Mike inquired, arriving out of nowhere.

"Jesus Mike! How about a little warning? You almost gave me a heart attack!" Santana grunted. Sometimes she wondered if Mike found some secret pleasure in doing that, walking around unnoticed and then scaring the shit of his friends by popping up out of nowhere.

"Sorry, I didn't mean scare you guys," the Asian boy laughed, supporting himself against the bleachers. He was the only one in the "gang" who didn't smoke. Mike was saving up money so go away after high school to a place where he could to be a dancer, far from his oppressive father. He needed to be in the best shape he could if he wanted to be a performer, and doing something that would ruin his lungs wouldn't exactly help him reach his goals. "But who were you guys talking about? Who's gay? Well, besides Santana and Blaine and Britt…"

"Well, apparently Blaine's new friend is the capital G-A-Y," Santana explained.

"He's not my friend!" Blaine snarled, throwing his hands in the air; no one seemed impressed by his fit. "You know what? I'm not taking any more of this shit, I am going smoke in another place," he groaned before standing up.

"Hey, don't think you can run from us! No one can hide from the Snix," Santana teased as Blaine walked away from them.

"Alright, let me see if I get it," Mike said trying to understand what was going on. "Blaine has a new friend and he's gay?"

"And cute!" Brittany squealed excitedly, making her girlfriend chuckle.

"Gorgeous if you ask me" Quinn added with a wink, a smug smile ghosting the corners of her red lips.

Mike shrugged, lips twitching upwards. "Cool."~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Walter! What took you so long?!" Penny had said anxiously as soon as the federal agent had stepped inside his apartment. Walter raised an eyebrow at that, there was something wrong, he could tell by the look on his partner's face.

"What happened?" Walter asked, placing his keys on the coffee table. "Did you tell him about-"

"Yes, Walter, I am aware my father was murdered," Kurt interrupted. The android was sitting on the couch, looking paler than usual. He looked tiredly at Walter, his blue eyes filled with a sort of resigned sadness as if he already was used to such a feeling.

Walter flinched at the sight. Somehow, Kurt looked older, too worn-out for his age. He was so young, yet life had forced him to already have to go through so much. He hadn't experienced what a person would normally be experiencing at his age, but he already knew grief and what living in fear felt like.

Walter didn't know what he was supposed to say, but he needed to say something in order to comfort the boy.

"Kurt-"

"The book, Der Kleine Prinz, is missing pages," Kurt cut off, before the Walter had the chance to say something. He didn't want to hear any more "I'm sorry for your loss"s. He was sick of people feeling sorry for him, and mostly, he was sick of feeling sorry for himself. There was no time for mourning. Not now, at least, when his father's murderer was still out there, threatening his life.

"What did you say?" Walter asked, being caught off guard.

"There are pages missing," Kurt repeated as he stood and held the book towards Walter.

"Are you sure?" Walter asked, taking the book out the android's hands.

"Yeah, look. Do you see this? Page 21? Whoever ripped it was in such a rush that they only tore half of the page, and if you look carefully at the piece that is still hanging, the font on it looks different. It's way smaller than the font used on the other pages of the book," Kurt said pointing to the half torn page.

Penny stood beside Walter. "And there's this word over here, "Metempsychosis"," She pointed out. "It's repeated two times, and this is a Latin term!"

Walter looked at the book, astonished. His mind was filled with thousands of different questions.

"So you think that the pages that contained information about Kurt's origins were mixed with the pages of the original novel?"

"We think so," Penny answered, nodding. "Using my phone, I translated some parts of the intact pages and they matched with the original book. But I have almost all the editions of this book and even the bigger ones didn't have more than 109 pages…But this book? It has almost 200 pages and 50 are missing!"

Walter sighed. "We need get this book to Artie now so he can translate and analyze it."

Penny placed a hand on her partner's shoulder. "I have to go to the office and finish some reports. Artie's house is in my way, so I can drop the book off there," She offered.

"Okay then," Walter nodded "Do you need a ride?"

"No, I drove here, but thanks for the offer!" Penny said, pulling her keys out of her purse.
~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walter grabbed Penny's arm before she could enter the elevator. "Penny, do you have your gun with you?" Walter asked quickly.

"N-no," she chewed her lip, the locks of her strawberry hair falling on her face. "I only carry my gun when we're on missions... I didn't think-"

"From now on, I want you to always carry your gun with you," Walter interrupted her, a stern look darkening his features.

Penny eyes widened. "Why? do you think we're -"

"I don't know," Walter said, running his hands through his curly hair. There was a thought echoing in his head, a suspicion, but he could be wrong, but what if he wasn't wrong? What if What if his suspicions were true? He needed Penny to be safe. "Burt's building had a fire escape," He said, looking into the ginger woman's eyes.

"What?" Penny gasped.

"Burt's building had a fire escape, and this fire escape could be accessed from Kurt's room," Walter clarified.

Penny took a step back, holding out her hand, as if she was taking a moment to absorb what Walter had said. "Wait, wh-what's that supposed to mean? Do you think the assassin saw us?" she asked.

Walter sighed. "I don't know Penny, maybe?" He concurred pensively. "It's a possibility. The poison that killed Burt acted in a matter of a few minutes… What if the killer still was there when we got to the house? It would explain why the killer hadn't taken the book with him."

"What do you mean?"

"Why would the killer tear a few pages out of the book instead of taking the whole thing with him? It seems like a rushed, stupid decision. It's the kind of decision you make when you think you have cops on your ass and you just killed someone," Walter said. There was a brief, inexplicably tense pause, during which Penny looked at him as if he'd grown another head.

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed, her hand above her mouth as the implications of Walter's suspicions finally hit her. The killer could have seen them, and by now they may even know who they are, maybe even where they live...

"Don't-just don't freak out, okay?" Walter said. He approached Penny and held her shoulders, lightly squeezing them as he spoke again. "It's a possibility, but we're not sure."

"But Walter-"

"You don't need to feel scared, Penny," He interrupted her. "If this killer wanted to attack us, he would have done so when we were still there. You were alone in that house for almost twenty minutes before backup arrived, and nothing happened. This person is probably physically weak. They're a coward trying to erase their participation in Kurt's creation. They are not going after two federal agents and harming us would attract too much attention, and that's not what he wants," Walter assured her.

Penny bit her lower lip, still unsure. She looked back at Walter. Her eyes met his reassuring hazel eyes. "You're right, this killer is a coward. He's not going to go after us," she shrugged, trying to sound bolder than she actually felt.

"We're going to catch him first," Walter offered, the corners of his lips lifting in reassurance.

"We will!" Penny nodded "And I guess I- uh- I'll begin carrying my gun, which I'm still afraid of using... in fear of..." She began to trail off nervously.

"Penny! What did I say about freaking out?" He looked at her, and rose his eyebrow.

Penny blushed, lowering her eyes. "I was kinda freaking out, wasn't I?"

Walter nodded. "Kinda."

"Sorry, this is just-I can't imagine-"

"I know, I know. But carrying your gun is just a precautionary measure. We're not really even sure if the killer saw us," Walter said.

"You're right. And I have my Bruce Lee moves. If this killer dares to mess with us or Kurt, I will protect us," She assured him, smiling.

"Of course you will," Walter nodded, allowing himself to respond the ginger girl's smile. That was the Penny he knew, the adorably brave girl who overcame her fears by cracking silly jokes and geeky remarks.

"Now, come here give this old man a hug," Walter said, and then immediately regretted it, thinking about how inappropriate and unprofessional the request was.

"You're not that old," Penny chuckled, throwing her arms around his shoulders. "Just grumpy," She murmured against his trench coat, burying her face in his chest.

After walking Penny to her car, Walter walked back to his apartment. Kurt was once again sitting on the couch, hugging his legs. He seemed so absorbed in his own thoughts, his eyes so lost. Walter looked at him. The boy seemed so small, and he was hugging himself as if he was struggling to keep himself together.

"Hey kiddo, come here," Walter grunted, because why not? Apparently, he was a freaking marshmallow wasn't he? No one bought his grumpy fa�ade anymore.

Kurt stared at Walter, a confused look on his face "What?"

"You heard me," Walter huffed. "Just get your ass over here, Hummel. I want hug you."

Still frowning, Kurt stood and allowed himself to feel some comfort as the older man wrapped his arms around him. He felt lumps forming in his throat as Walter'sarms tightened a bit around him and almost wished his arms were free. But maybe it was a good thing they weren't. If Kurt had returned the hug, it would almost be as if his father was there.

"You know, I'm not letting anything happen to you, right?" Walter assured the boy. "I promise you Kurt, I'll do anything to keep you safe. Do you understand me kiddo? You're safe…"

Kurt nodded. He missed his dad. And he'd give anything to have him back. But that was not going to happen. At least he had Walter, Penny and Artie.

Maybe Kurt was going to be okay after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quinn was being ridiculous, with that malicious smile of her, by asking Kurt to hang out with them. Ridiculous. She was just looking for an excuse to tease Blaine and get some sort of revenge on him for all the times that Blaine had made fun of her past relationships. That was the only reasonable explanation for her behavior. Or at least that was what Blaine kept telling himself.

He spent the whole day grumpily avoiding his best friend. What Quinn had said to him about Kurt being someone with who Blaine could actually share more than just cheap alcohol, cigarettes and body fluids was complete bullshit.

What the hell I would share with the Ice Queen? He thought, rolling his eyes. "Our hatred for each other is one thing we share..." He murmured to himself as he opened the door to Walter's apartment.

He looked around and raised his eyebrow. Where was everybody? Blaine was sure that Walter would be expecting him at home, ready to lecture his son about skipping classes. After all, Walter had promised that he would call the principal to make sure Blaine had showed up in class. But surprisingly, all Blaine found was a half empty bottle of whiskey on the coffee table, and a note hanging on the refrigerator saying that Walter had gone out for a walk to clear his head, that there were 50 bucks under the cat figurine, and that the boys should order something to eat. That was weird. From what Blaine remembered, Walter drank and went on walks only when he was working on some big and complicated case.

But what kind of complicated case could Walter have been working on, being in the FDTC... The boy considered. Even Blaine knew that 94% of the FDTC's cases consisted mainly of the seizure of illegal androids used for sexual satisfaction and the destruction of robots who, suddenly refused to do what their owners had programmed them to do. And please, if Walter was acting like a complete workaholic because of that job, he really was a lost cause.

"Hey there, Ice Queen!" He greeted, entering his and Kurt's bedroom. The other boy didn't even bother to look at him. His eyes were glued to what seemed to be Walter's phone. What was he doing with Walter's cell phone?

"Did something happen?" Blaine asked, dropping his bag on the floor.

At that, Kurt looked up. "What made you think that?" he asked.

"Well, there's some serious tension in the atmosphere, and it seems like Walter drank half a whiskey bottle," Blaine shrugged.

"Well, I-I don't know why your father would do such a destructive thing, but I assure you, nothing happened," Kurt replied, a bit nervously, and scoffed.

Blaine laughed and plopped down on the futon, which was now placed on what seemed to be his half of the room. "Bro, you used so many big words, when you could just fucking say, no dude, everything's fine," he mocked. "But I guess you're not the type of guy that says, dude."

Kurt snorted. "Why are you making it sound like using big words is a bad thing?" he said, a hint of smugness sounding clear in his voice.

"What the hell are you doing with Walter's phone?" Blaine asked, seeing that the other boy was clearly struggling to do whatever he was trying to do.

"I have no idea," Kurt cried, frustrated. There were so many buttons and options and applications! How ironic was it that apparently, he was some sort of technological miracle, and he couldn't even work a simple piece of technology? "I just wanna look up the meaning of a word, but I think I just called the Chinese food place!"

"What?" Blaine stood up. "Have you not seen a cell phone before? Jesus..." He asked, grabbing the device from Kurt's hands.

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Of course I've seen a cell phone!" he retorted. "I've just... never actually used one..." he concluded in a small voice, his cheeks flustering with embarrassment.

"You're kidding me, right?" Blaine looked at him unbelievably. Kurt turned redder. "What are you? Amish?"

"No, I just never had anyone to talk to," Kurt mumbled, looking away, the sadness perceptible in his voice. "Why would I have a phone?"

Blaine's astonished eyes remained on him. "That's disturbingly sad," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Anyways, what's the word you want to know the meaning of?

Kurt looked at Blaine. "Metempsychosis," He said, remembering the Latin word Penny had found on that one piece of page 21.

Blaine frowned. "what?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "M-E-T-E-M-P-S-Y-C-H-O-S-I-S" He spelled.

Blaine typed in the word, and snorted as he read the results of the search. "I never would've guessed you were into esoteric stuff, Hummel," he mocked.

Kurt rose an eyebrow at that. "Why d'you say that?" he asked.

"Metempsychosis, Late Latin, from the Greek word metempsychōsis, the belief in the transmigration of the soul, its reincarnation after death. It is a doctrine popular among a number of Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism whereby upon death the soul takes up residence in a new body…" Blaine read out loud in a mocking tone, because seriously? Reincarnation? That was so lame.

When Kurt didn't make any snarky remarks, Blaine looked at him. "Are you okay?" He asked. Kurt was pale, completely immobile. The words Walter said once echoing again inside of his head.

"You can't be Kurt Hummel…

Kurt Hummel died ten years ago."

TBC...