Chapter 5

Blaine couldn’t wait for the meeting to begin. He wasn’t excited about the whole ‘intervention’ thing; he just couldn’t stand the awkwardness around him. It seemed that the last time they were all chatting animatedly in the cafeteria was months ago while it was only a day before. Now the only people talking to each other were Santana and Sugar. Tina, Sarah, and Noah, who was still in his purple t-shirt, were standing alone, Mike was joined by Jeff but they were silent. Blaine was standing closest to the door so he could hear some voices. He hoped that everything went fine in there.

Glancing at his watch every minute Blaine sighed relieved when it was finally ten and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” he heard Burt say and they all entered the room. “Sit down. Okay, you all know why you are here. You are going to be a team. That’s why you need to solve all the problems you have with each other. I hope you were honest while working on your assignment. Honesty is the key part here.

“Now, how this is going to work… We will go clockwise, each person will address one issue at a time. If someone else has the same thing written, let us know. Then the person, who is accused for something, will have to defend themselves. After that, anyone can add a comment or ask something because we are all going to help solving problems. That’s what a team do. So everything clear? Great. Let’s start with Mike.”

The boy cleared his throat. “I don’t like that after what happened during Christmas Tina went to Noah for comfort. I’m not saying that out of jealousy but I’m her boyfriend and supervisor so I thought I would be the one to comfort her but apparently she needed someone else.”

“Tina, what would you say to that?” Burt asked.

The girl bit her bottom lip before answering. “I just didn’t want to worry you, Mike. Noah offered me his friendship and advice so I thought it would be for the best if I talked to him instead of you. I just didn’t want you to hurt because of me.”

“I don’t get it,” Mike frowned. “We are in a relationship. We are supposed to talk about everything.”

“Um, may I?” Kurt raised his hand looking at his father questioningly. He nodded. “When Blaine and I decided to give us a chance, we talked through this. We are not an ordinary couple. We know that in the future our lives may be in danger; a lot of unexpected things may happen that could shatter what we have. Worrying about each other was one of Blaine’s arguments why we shouldn’t date. Normal couples shouldn’t be afraid of the other one getting shot or beaten to death while for us it’s… kind of normal?”

Kurt looked at Blaine and took his hand. “Christmas was a challenge for all of us. But I learnt something. What happened between Blaine and I… That’s what we had talked about. Some of you told me I was being stubborn trying to get Blaine back but the thing is… I knew I hadn’t lost him. I realised that for a couple like us it may be even normal. There will be ups and downs but if you want your relationship to survive, you need to talk through it; you need to decide how you are going to deal with situations like the one you are in right now.”

“I agree with Kurt,” Blaine said. “After Christmas I was being stupid, I pushed Kurt away. All my doubts about being in a relationship came back to me. But thanks to Burt I realised what Kurt just said – it was a bump in a road. And our road is not ordinary. And yours is not either.”

After his words the room went silent. “We will talk about it in private, okay?” Mike asked silently, looking at the girl.

Burt saw a small nod and smiled. “Moving on. Finn?”

“Please, don’t kill me but I have a problem with Kurt and Blaine being together all the time,” he said looking at his hand.

“Agreed,” Jeff smirked, crossing something out of his list.

“I must agree as well,” Tina said. “Seeing a ghost would surprise me less than seeing those two separately.”

“You saw me alone while waiting outside this room,” Blaine said with a small roll of his eyes.

Jeff snorted. “And you were glued to the door.”

“I won’t argue this,” Kurt sighed. “There are two reasons why we spend so much time together. Firstly, we almost lost each other. It made us appreciate the time we have. Secondly, the fear of the future. We had no idea we would be in the same squad so we thought that maybe we would never go on a mission together. It would limit our time together so we wanted to make the most out of what we had.”

“Okay, I can understand that. I was the same with Rachel,” Finn nodded.

“You still are,” Sugar giggled.

“Shut up,” Finn frowned.

“No need to be grumpy, Finn,” Burt said. “Now, Kurt, what do you have to say?”

Kurt moved his hand from Blaine’s. “I’m unhappy with my dad and my boyfriend. I don’t like being lied to and that’s what my dad made Blaine do – lie to me.”

“Kurt, we have been through this. I told you why I did that,” Burt said.

“And I’m very sorry for lying to you, baby,” Blaine whispered. “I will make it up to you.”

“Kurt?” Santana said to get the boy’s attention. “Sometimes people have no other choice but lie. Think about it from your dad’s perspective. What if he wasn’t an agent and found out about you lying about studying in England? You have been lying to your parents for the whole year because you couldn’t tell them the truth. Maybe your dad couldn’t either?”

Kurt was taken by surprise; he didn’t even think about that. His dad and Blaine were not the only liars – he was as well. “Thank you, Santana,” he whispered and Blaine looked at him with a worry in his face. “She is right. I know I have a right to be angry but I’m a guilty party as well. So I guess we are even?”

“We are,” Burt smiled. “So, Blaine?”

Blaine didn’t even look at his paper which was in front of him because the first thing he wanted to talk about wasn’t written there.

“This morning I found out that Jeff has a girlfriend and they have been dating for quite some time. I don’t understand why he hadn’t told me that earlier and I would love to know.”

Jeff sighed a bit too loudly. “Actually, we haven’t been dating. I mean she is my girlfriend but we have never been on a date. A real one. Though we have had some romantic dinners online.”

“Have you ever met her?” Santana asked confused, a small smile playing on her face.

“Of course I have. It’s just that we have been keeping this a secret so we couldn’t go on a date that easily.”

“Or maybe she is ashamed of you,” Noah laughed and everyone else, except Sarah and Burt, joined in.

“That’s exactly why I hadn’t told you earlier. I knew you thought I wasn’t dating material and you would only tease me,” Jeff said, his voice rising slightly. Everyone fell silent immediately. “I’m just this funny guy, who you love to make fun of, who you like to keep around to entertain you. Well, guess what, I have personality traits that someone may like.”

Suddenly Kurt got an idea. “Of course you do. Just look at your flawless hair,” he said, gently patting Blaine’s knee under the table hoping that his boyfriend would understand what he was doing.

Obviously, Blaine understood. “And you care a lot about your friends,” he said.

“Try dating someone who isn’t funny and you will get bored very quickly,” Santana added.

“Besides, you are really smart. Not only computer smart,” Mike shot him an apologetic smile.

Sugar nodded. “You are also hot. I’ve seen your abs once,” she smirked, making Jeff blush.

“Okay okay, I’m awesome,” he uttered somehow uncomfortably. “But seriously, some respect would be really cool.”

“We do respect you,” Blaine said, “we just forget to show it if that makes sense.”

“Not really… Just start showing maybe?” Jeff asked hopefully.

“Promise,” Sugar said and all ‘blacks’ nodded.

Burt smiled. In his opinion, it was going well. “So, Sarah, do you have anything to say before this becomes couples therapy?”

“Not now,” the woman smiled. “I will keep this for the end.”

“Suit yourself. Noah?”

“I don’t like being in this Black Squad. As far as I know, Sarah was responsible for this. So?”

The woman rolled her eyes. “You are here because you were in the manor on Christmas.”

“I don’t understand why it’s a problem, dude,” Finn said. “It’s not like suddenly you are a worse agent. You are still one of the best agents the C.A.T. has ever had. The difference is that now you get to go on missions with friends. At least I hope we are all friends.”

At first Noah didn’t seem to be convinced but after a moment he decided not to resist anymore. “Well, the ‘Christmas mission’ was fun to be honest…”

“Yeah, I had a blast,” Kurt grimaced.

“Jeff?” Burt said quickly.

“Oh, I have a good one. So Blaine didn’t like me hiding my relationship so I would like to know why Kurt and Blaine hid theirs.”

“I have this one written as well,” Tina added. “Because of them hiding we ended up with that stupid mission to get them together.

“I agree,” Santana said crossing the sentence out of the list.

“Well, before telling everyone, we wanted to see how it would go. We didn’t know if we would last actually. Mostly, I didn’t want Jeff to get his hopes up,” Blaine said and sent his best friend a sad smile. “He always wanted me to find someone to love and what if Kurt and I broke up after a week or two? So we decided not to tell anyone until we knew we would last.”

“It may sound smart but next time tell me straight away,” Jeff said.

“There will be no next time though,” Kurt chuckled.

“Exactly,” Blaine leaned and kissed Kurt’s cheek.

“Don’t get carried away, boys,” Burt scolded them softly. “Your turn, Sugar.”

The girl smiled. “Thank you, Burt. The biggest issue I have is that the board and Sarah, who was the closest person to Tom, didn’t notice what was going on for so long.”

“I have that,” Mike said.

“Me too,” Blaine added.

“Same,” Finn nodded.

“He hid it very well,” Jeff answered before Burt or Sarah could say anything. “It took forever for me to find evidence.”

“I don’t even know how it happened,” Sarah sighed. “I thought about it every day, trying to remember something that might have given him away. And nothing…”

Burt looked at her sympathetically. He knew that Tom was her oldest friend. “All we can do is learn from this mistake. Because that’s what it is – a mistake that caused us many lives.”

The silence afterwards was broken by Santana. “My turn. I didn’t like how I was made to come here. Not the fact that I was chosen but the way I was kidnapped from my apartment building. I was drugged or something and brought here. You could have asked me or something…”

“I don’t have that written,” Kurt started, “but I agree. It wasn’t pleasant.”

“This is why this year we are going to change that. I never agreed on this stupidity. You abduct ten people and cross fingers that at least one will want to stay. No, this year we are going to do things differently.”

“How?” Noah asked tilting his head.

“You will find out soon enough. Now, Tina?”

“I wrote ‘Noah hating the Black Squad’ but I guess it’s solved now,” she said and looked at Noah who had a small smile on his face. “So the next one is that I know that Mike heard me speaking in my dreams way before Christmas. He never woke me up and he never admitted it.”

Mike’s first instinct was to lie. To tell her that he never heard her, that he probably slept through the night those times when they ended up sleeping in his apartment, that her voice never woke him up. But Burt was right – they had to be honest with each other.

“You have a beautiful voice. I already liked you back then and I thought I would never have a chance to hear you again. It hurt listening to you having nightmares, shouting, screaming – I wanted to wake you up so bad… But I wanted to hear your voice more. I’m sorry,” he finished in a whisper.

“It’s okay,” Tina whispered with tears in her eyes.

Burt cleared his throat. “Back to you, Mike.”

“It’s kind of to the topic. As Tina’s supervisor, I think I had a right to know about Tina’s nightmares. I think that Santana should have told me.”

“I’m not her babysitter,” Santana defended herself. “She is my friend and I respect her privacy.”

“She is right,” Tina nodded. “I would have been angry with her if she had told you.”

Mike bit his lip. “Fine, let’s forget it.”

“No, we shouldn’t forget,” Burt cut in. “You need to talk about what you feel.”

“I just wish I had known sooner. I would have done something, tried to help–”

“Or you would have suggested having a sleepover sooner,” Tina grimaced.

“I already explained why I did that…”

“Then don’t pretend you would have done something to help. How many times did you just sit there and listened to me? You didn’t do anything so don’t blame Santana for not telling you.”

Mike opened his mouth to argue but nothing came out. After a moment he spoke in a calm voice. “I’m sorry, Santana. I was being stupid.”

“Don’t mention it,” the girl smiled.

“Finn?”

“I would like to know the reason why Noah bullied my brother.”

“You are reading my mind, Finn,” Blaine said looking at the boy in front of him.

“We already talked about this,” Kurt said quickly. “He apologised and everything.”

“Kurt, it’s not your issue. Blaine and Finn need to clear this out with Noah. Let them,” Burt said. “So, Noah?”

The boy ran his hand through his Mohawk. “I don’t even know. At that time I wanted to show off, to show Dave I was as good as he was. So when he made Kurt his target, I did just the same. I’m not proud of it; I promise it will never happen again.”

“I believe him,” Kurt smiled. “You should believe him as well.”

“You can even kick my ass if you want. Though I would fight back,” Noah laughed nervously.

“We will think about it,” Finn smirked.

“No violence towards each other,” Burt frowned though he knew his son was just joking. “Kurt?”

Blaine quickly raised his hand. “I just want to discuss one thing. I have it written but it’s king of to the topic.”

“Go on,” Burt nodded.

“Well, I was thinking… Kurt was bullied by Noah and Dave. What did other ‘whites’ do? Wes and Sebastian are not here but I would like to hear the story from Santana and Tina.”

“I can answer–” Kurt started but wasn’t allowed to finish.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Blaine said sternly. “Girls, could you enlighten me why you didn’t help your squadmate?”

Santana and Tina looked at each other, looking for right words. Finally Santana spoke. “We were scared that the same would happen to us.”

“You can’t blame them. I didn’t want them to interfere,” Kurt said softly. “I wanted them safe.”

“Okay, I can understand the girls but Wes and Sebastian–”

“–are not here,” Burt finished. “Let’s focus on why we are here. Kurt, your turn.”

“Jeff has no concept of privacy,” the boy said.

“Oh, I second that,” Blaine nodded.

Jeff rolled his eyes. “I may have read a few text messages, that’s it!”

“Daily,” Blaine said.

“A message a day keeps the doctor away!”

“I’m sure it’s not how the saying goes,” Kurt raised one eyebrow.

“Maybe you should just keep your phones out of Jeff’s reach?” Tina suggested.

The boys went silent. They almost gave away the computer room secret.

“Yeah, um, good idea, boys,” Burt smiled. “Now, what else do you have to say, Blaine?”

“I know it’s been a while but I want to talk to Noah about something that happened a few years ago,” he said and the ex-‘purples’ visibly tensed. “I’m not really comfortable with being on missions with him. I have some trust issues regarding Noah since that time when he left me in a burning building.”

Kurt gasped. Was it the reason why Noah and Blaine, who used to be roommates, suddenly became enemies?

“I was jealous and stupid. You were so much better than me and I… wanted to get rid of competition,” he answered, his face pale, eyes focused on the table.

“You left me to die because you were jealous?” Blaine forced a cold laugh. “Priceless… Just priceless.”

“Look, I wasn’t thinking–”

“You were… You were thinking about yourself. Were you sad when you found out I was alive?”

“No, I was relieved! It’s something I regret most.”

Blaine snorted. “At least now I have friends to watch over my back,” he shrugged.

“I would never do something like that again! I changed I swear!”

“I hope so. I miss the real you. The guy I lived with during our first year. One day I would like us to be friends again.”

Noah nodded. “It doesn’t matter how long it will take for me to prove you that I’m trustworthy but I will do whatever it takes.”

Blaine nodded. They were civil towards each other for a long time. Maybe it was time to move on, especially when Noah reminded him more of the guy he used to know than the ‘purple’ he became soon after the sorting.

“Well done, guys,” Burt encouraged them. “Your turn, Noah.”

“My problem is that you all, guys, are making me less badass,” he laughed and everyone joined in. “But to be serious, I’m angry at Finn because he ate my bacon.”

“Oh my god, it was two years ago!”

“Noah, you should take this assignment seriously,” Burt reminded him.

Noah showed him his paper with only one sentence written. “Well, I didn’t and now I can’t think of anything…”

“Take your time. We will skip you now. Well, Jeff?”

Jeff looked at hid paper. “I have only one left. I don’t keep grudge, you know… So, um, I noticed that Sugar is spending way too much time on her phone… And I can add that those phone calls are mostly international…”

“It annoys me as well,” Santana added.

“Ugh, fine! I have a boyfriend in Ireland. Happy now?”

“Not really,” Jeff answered thoughtfully.

“Is it normal to hide relationships here?” Tina asked. “I start to think Mike and I should have done that as well.”

“No, we shouldn’t,” Mike smiled at her.

“It seems that most of your problems are coming from relationships…” Burt sighed. He thought they had some more serious issues. “Let’s move on, okay? Sugar?”

“Okay, let’s talk about Mikey. He can be a control freak. On our last mission we were supposed to make decisions together but he overtook everything. Also, Blaine let him do it, totally ignoring my comments about Mike.”

“Yeah, sorry, Mike, but it’s kind of true,” Finn smiled sheepishly, crossing out his sentence.

“It’s true. I like to be in control because in my life there isn’t much control. I’m told where to go, what to do. And during missions most things depend on the behaviour of other people; we – agents – have to adapt to any situation. That’s why I take every opportunity to feel like I’m the one in charge.”

“I guess, I can see your point,” Sugar said. “I feel like that as well sometimes.”

“But you don’t go around bossing people,” Mike shrugged.

“Well, we all deal with it differently,” Finn said and Mike nodded.

“Okay, Santana?” Burt said.

“Sugar has a tendency to use foreign words that I don’t understand.”

Blaine laughed. “Oh yeah, she’s been like this for years. She likes showing off that she knows many languages.”

Kurt and Tina exchanged a confused look. “I never noticed that,” Kurt said.

“She only does that with close friends,” Mike explained.

“Sorry,” Sugar giggled. “I promise I will try my best to stop.”

“Impossible,” Blaine laughed. “You could just use some languages that Santana knows when you talk to her.”

Sugar nodded enthusiastically. “You have always been my favourite genius.”

“Moving on…” Burt rolled his eyes. “Tina?”

“Santana keeps leaving her dirty clothes on the floor. It’s really annoying.”

“Well, it not a problem anymore,” Sarah said. “You will get permanent places to live, much better than dorm rooms that you had to share. They won’t be as nice as the apartments that ‘purples’ have but still better.”

“And I always told you that you could move in with me like Kurt did with Blaine,” Mike commented.

“I know,” Tina said. “It still doesn’t change the fact that it’s annoying.”

“You should have told me before,” Santana said, a slight blush on her face.

“I didn’t want to cause any disagreements…”

“So you chose to bottle it up,” the girl said. “I’m really sorry.”

Tina smiled. “Apology accepted.”

“Splendid! Mike, anything else?” Burt asked.

“I didn’t like Noah being an ass to Tina yesterday,” the boy said.

“I know, I was stupid. I was caught off guard and snapped. I had no right and what I said was a total nonsense.”

“Not really, it was truth–” Tina began.

“No, it wasn’t! I didn’t mean any of that,” Noah shook his head. “You are my friend, I don’t care what I’m doing – I will always be there for you. So I’m really, really sorry for what I said yesterday.”

“Thank you,” Tina smiled.

“Finn, back to you,” Burt said.

“I have an issue with Blaine breaking Kurt’s heart after Christmas.”

“Finn,” Kurt hissed.

“No, Kurt, he did. And I don’t like that one bit,” Finn replied.

Blaine opened his mouth but Kurt was faster to speak. “Blaine, shut up, you don’t need to explain anything to anyone. I know it’s between Finn and Blaine but–”

“No but’s, Kurt,” Burt interrupted. “Like I said before, you need to let them talk it out.”

Burt nodded at Blaine and the boy started talking. “I know, I broke Kurt’s heart, Finn. I beat myself up for that every day. Every day I remind myself how lucky I am to have him. I know that what I did is unforgivable and I didn’t expect Kurt to take me back. I will spend every second of my life to make up for it.”

“I forgave you ages ago,” Kurt said softly caressing Blaine’s hand. “It’s time you forgive yourself.”

“Maybe one day…” Blaine smiled sadly.

“Um, I guess I forgive as well if Kurt forgave,” Finn shrugged.

Kurt rolled his eyes. “Do you think we would still be together if I hadn’t forgiven?”

“Sometimes I don’t know what’s happening in your head,” his brother joked and Kurt elbowed him. “Ouch!”

Everyone laughed and Burt was really pleased with them – it was a good idea after all. Risky but good. “So, Kurt?”

“Oh, I forgot to add something when we talked about your so called ‘mission’. For the future know that you should mind your own business.”

“You would have thanked us if you hadn’t been already dating,” Jeff giggled.

“You can’t prove that,” Kurt smirked at him. “Okay, my last issue is… Blaine. From time to time he has nightmares. He says that it’s still the same one he used to have after Christmas but from what he says in his sleep, I know it’s something different but he doesn’t tell me.”

Blaine thought for a moment. He didn’t want anyone to know about him having nightmares, let alone knowing what they were about. “Can we talk about that later in private?” he finally asked.

“Of course,” Kurt gave him a worried look.

“Sure?” Burt asked and Kurt nodded. “Okay. Blaine?”

“My last one is that I don’t like it when Finn hits on some girls while he is dating Rachel. And I mean not during missions.”

Finn’s eyes went big. “It’s innocent! I just want to have some fun, remember good old days when I was single… It’s not like I kiss them or something.”

“Well, I don’t go around hitting on guys because I’m in a relationship,” Blaine said.

“Do that and I will make you regret the day you were born,” Kurt threatened half-jokingly.

Finn sighed. “I know it’s wrong but sometimes I can’t help myself. I love Rachel, I really do but it’s fun to talk to girls in bars, you know…”

Santana looked at his, obviously losing her patience. “You two are agents. You two are good actors. Why don’t you go to a bar or a nightclub and pretend to not know each other? You can wear wigs and stuff.”

“Wow, that’s a good idea,” Finn said surprised. “Thanks, Santana.”

“Sure.”

“Noah, did you think of something?”

“No, not really. Sorry.”

“Okay. Jeff, I think you have said your last one, right?” Burt asked and Jeff nodded. “Sugar?”

“I do yoga sometimes so just like Jeff I don’t keep grudge,” the girl smiled.

“Santana?”

Nothing else.”

“Tina?”

The girl nodded. “I have one more thing to say. It goes to Jeff, Santana and Sarah. When we were in the manor and that man told you to drop your guns, you did that. It made me feel like the failure because you had to surrender because I had gotten caught. I thought that maybe if you fought with him, I would have felt better… I don’t even know if that makes sense.”

“It does,” Santana was quick to answer. “But you need to understand that we did that because we care. We didn’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Santana is right,” Jeff nodded. “I don’t care if it made you feel like crap – your life is more important. Wait, it didn’t sound right…”

“It sounded perfectly,” Tina smiled. “Thank you.”

“Any time?” Jeff answered with a questioning look.

“Done? Okay,” Burt nodded. “Everyone done? Then it leaves Sarah. What did you want to say?”

Sarah cleared her throat after not talking for a while. “I don’t like that Wes quit.”

Burt was not ready for the uproar that Sarah’s words cause. “Hey! Hey, shut it!” he shouted until everyone heard him.

“What do you mean ‘Wes quit’?” Blaine was the first to ask.

Sarah sighed. “After he was sorted into the Blue Squad he came to me and said he didn’t want to be an agent. He didn’t really tell me why. I wonder if any of you know. I mean, you were his closest friends.”

“He wasn’t… I mean, he was more like Nick’s friend,” Santana said, guilt evident in her face.

“What Santana is trying to say is that maybe he didn’t really include him in our group,” Kurt bit his bottom lip. “Sebastian had Sam, Wes was mostly with Nick, so we kind of didn’t want to… bother them.”

“It started with my ‘mission’,” Jeff admitted. “I didn’t want to include too many people and kind of left Wes out of it. Then we kind of bonded while preparing and plotting against Blaine and Kurt.”

“We didn’t mean to exclude him,” Tina said sadly. “We didn’t even think of it. Later it just seemed normal…”

Sarah sighed. “It doesn’t matter. It’s just sad whenever this happens. And maybe one day he will change his mind.”

Nobody said anything else and Burt broke the silence. “Okay, so, what do you think? Are you good? Can you work in a team?”

With no hesitation everybody nodded.

“I’m proud of all of you, guys,” Burt said. “Now the funny bit. We need to test you as a squad. We will start with easy missions and then make them more and more difficult. Then we will see what you are capable of. Sound fair?”

Another round of nods.

“So for the first ‘black’ mission you will have to bring the newbies to the base.”