Kurt couldn't help himself.  He launched himself into his father and, thankfully, his father did the same in that moment, hugging each other with desperation.

Kurt heard a sob break from his father and realized then that he was sobbing too into the all too familiar and comforting flannel of his dad's shirt.  Another arm looped around him and he could smell Carole's perfume - still known to him after all these years, so different from his mother's and yet still as soothing.

They just cried like that, and hugged for god knew how long until the strong arms pulled back and Kurt lifted his face to look up at his dad, tears streaked down his face.  

“It's you… it's you… god Kurt… I never thought… I wanted to believe… but I prepared myself to hear the worst one day… but you're here.  It's really you.”

Kurt wanted to say something back, but all he could up with was another choked sound as the emotion bubbled up inside of him and he could only squeak out a distorted, “Daddy…” like a small child needing comfort.

He was wrapped up in those arms again, his dad holding on fiercely and Kurt holding on just as tightly.  Kurt heard Carole then, taking a step behind him and uttering a quiet question to Blaine, whom, up until now, Kurt had forgotten was there.  “Hello… I'm Carole.”

“Blaine.”

He didn't see the interaction, but knowing Blaine, Kurt knew he most likely had held out a hand for shaking, and, even though years had passed, he knew Carole had ignored the hand and swept Blaine up into a hug by the sudden “Omph!” noise emitted by his boyfriend behind him.

After a while longer, when his heart had stopped beating out of his chest, Kurt pulled back and rubbed the drying tears off his face with the back of his hand, his dad keeping one hand on his shoulder to ensure he stayed close.  “Can we… go inside maybe?”

“Yeah, yeah… of course kiddo… god… it's you Kurt.”

They all shuffled in together and Kurt was led to the living room, so much more nicer than the living room he remembered growing up in but somehow much more impersonal with the perfect looking, unused furniture.  

That's when his dad seemed to notice Blaine for the first time, looking at him curiously when Blaine sat down beside Kurt and offered him a tissue that he must have brought with him out of a package in his pocket.

“Hello?”

Blaine looked up, smiling perhaps a bit too much, “Hello Congressman.  I'm Blaine Anderberry.”

Kurt quickly tacked on, “He's my boyfriend.”

Burt looked from boy to boy and then just nodded, sitting down on the couch that was align perpendicular to the loveseat they were on with Carole running to the kitchen to get them drinks and snacks.

Then it was awkwardly silent.  No one seemed to know what to say now that the obligatory sobbing and hugging was out of the way, so Blaine, being his usual self, chirped up.

“We came in from New York yesterday.  We wrapped up our semester courses just on Friday.  Kurt had the highest GPA, again, between him, me, and our roommate.”

Burt nodded, looking thoughtful as he looked again to Kurt, “You're in school buddy?”

He nodded, thankful for something to talk about.  “Yeah… just… undeclared though I'm thinking of taking journalism now… NYU… I do all online courses.”

“Really?  Journalism?  Honestly not something I would have ever thought you'd be into!  Not that I don't think you'd be good at it.”  

Kurt smiled weakly.  His old self wouldn't have considered it either, but, things had changed.

“Blaine helps me a lot.  So does Wes, our roommate.  If I could help Wes with his medicine stuff I would, and Blaine does a lot of philosophy courses that just blow my mind when I try to listen to him talk about them.”

“So you two… together huh?”  

Kurt smiled and nodded, glancing over at Blaine who was blushing, definitely nervous, and nodding as well.  “Yeah.  Since Christmas.”

“Gotta be honest… you don't match.”  Burt chuckled as he said it and Kurt chuckled along with him.  They were quite the pair.  Blaine always had his bowties and button-ups and perfectly pressed pants and Kurt had his jeans and hoodies.  Blaine's hair was always smoothed back with gel like a dapper 50's movie star while Kurt's was striped down the center with pink, always a bit too long, and tousled randomly.

Not to mention that Blaine looked absolutely clean cut while Kurt had his piercings and tattoo.

“He matches me where it matters dad.”  Kurt said with a grin as he looked back to the man he'd been so stressed over for the past month, marvelling in how easy it was to just be near him again.  God he missed his dad.  How much had his pride cost him when it came to this relationship?

They spent the whole morning just talking, mostly about school and his relationship with Blaine, Connecticut, and Blaine's family.  He didn't talk about how his first two years in New York had been spent.  He didn't think he could stomach telling his dad what had truly happened there and the things he had done to get by.

“When Quinn Fabray came back to town… we were all so hopeful Kurt… but she told the police that she didn't know where you were…  I went out to talk to her after she had her baby but she wouldn't tell me anything and I was so worried she knew that something terrible had happened to you and she didn't want to tell me.”  Burt finally admitted when lunch arrived, delivered by some chinese food place in town even though the delivery man was hispanic.

Kurt perked up.  “Quinn had a baby?”

Burt nodded, “You didn't know?  I guess she really didn't know anything… yeah… she was already a couple months along when she came back to Lima and had her baby… oh… I think it was in the summer or fall last year.  Little boy.”

Well, fuck.  That explained why she had been so bloody emotional and stopped using before she ran back home.  Why the hell didn't she tell Kurt though?  She would have had to of known he would have helped her out…

Granted, he was a different person then.  Someone could have put some coke in front of him and he would have done anything for it.  Quinn was right to doubt his loyalty.

“Did she…. tell you about what she did in New York…?”  Kurt asked hesitantly.

Burt looked down at his hands and sighed, “She told the cops when they came to question her… so I heard… yeah… and…”

Kurt felt the tears growing behind his eyes, “She told you…?”

“About you too… yeah….”

So he knew… he knew… Kurt dropped his head into his palms and cried silently into them, Blaine wrapping an arm around his shoulders.  “I'm sorry dad… I'm sorry.”

Heavy, solid hands found their ways to his knees as his dad moved to crouch in front of Burt, “No Kurt… no… I shouldn't have forced your hand… you never should have felt that you had to go…. son, please.”

More sobbing, more hugging, more holding onto one another for dear life.  He never wanted to let go of his dad ever again.

“How is she….?  Quinn I mean.  Do you know?”  Kurt asked his dad once he had control control over his currently fluctuating emotions.

His dad hesitated, which wasn't a good indication of how Quinn was.  “I guess she was fine until the baby came… then she tried, and failed, to get joint custody of the girl she had in high school… her parents wouldn't take her back, not after what happened in New York…. and… well…. she went down a bad road.”

“Is she okay?” Kurt's eyes got wide as worry flooded him for his old friend.

“Last I heard she was in some kind of rehabilitation program.  Foster system has the kid since her parents wouldn't take him and there's no dad.  Poor boy.”

Kurt immediately decided that a visit would be in order.  He needed to help Quinn get back on her feet even if she hadn't been there when Kurt was.

They were invited to stay over for as long as they wanted, a spacious guest room, certainly bigger than his room from the old house, provided to them which Blaine excused himself into to unpack and call his mom and Wes to let them know how things had gone.

“How long do you think you can stay?”  His dad asked, hopefulness and dread both apparent in the tone of his voice.

Kurt shook his head and shrugged at the same time, “We made no plans for the summer… we might even be changing universities to somewhere more… accommodating to me…”  He sighed when his dad looked confused by that and explained, “I kind of have a fear of going out in the big city… it's why I do all my work online.”

“Oh… well.. you know you're always welcome here son…. you need to know that… I've missed you so much…”

Another hug, and Kurt promised his dad he'd stay as long as he could, citing that Blaine was totally supportive of anything he chose to do.

“Seems like a nice enough guy…”

Kurt smiled, “Yeah… pretty much is.  My Prince Charming.”

“How long have you two known one another?”

Kurt rolled his eyes upwards as he thought back.  “Since last winter… but I didn't move in as his roommate until early last summer.”

“And together since Christmas?”

Kurt nodded, “Yeah… I wanted to wait until I was sure I wasn't just ogling him because he was basically the main person in my life and he got out of a bad relationship in the fall and I think maybe he wanted to wait until a while after that ended…”

“Well, so long as you're good to one another.”

Kurt chuckled as a thought surfaced in his mind, “Well, my last name currently is Anderberry… so…”

“Wait… what?”

“The only way I could register for university and my benefits was if I had a legal last name and Blaine technically took guardianship of me last year… so I took on his last name.”

“You going to change it back?  I mean… you don't have to… I just….”

Kurt smiled up at his dad, “Probably?  I don't know?  I didn't even think about it until now to be honest.  In my head I was always Hummel but I didn't ever let anyone else know that.”

“Why?”  His dad looked saddened by that.

“Because I didn't want to come back until I'd done something… anything good with myself… I ran out of this town with that stupid ‘I'll show you' attitude and I never did have anything to show…”

“Oh son…”  Burt's voice cracked again, “You never have to prove anything to me… I'm just so glad you're back and you're healthy and you seem happy….”

“I am…”  Kurt said quickly, thinking of school, and Romeo, and Blaine.  “We have a dog too.”

Burt's cry-hoarse voice turned jovial again as he chuckled, “A dog?  What kind?”

“Chocolate lab.  His name is Romeo.  He's a good snuggler.”

Another chuckle, “Your mom and I always thought you'd get a cat long before you ever got a dog.”

“Well… things change.”

Burt nodded, “Yeah… you know I'm a congressman now.”

Kurt laughed at that.  “Yeah dad.  I know.  I've seen all the articles.”

“And would you vote for me?”

Kurt looked his dad up and down, eyes twinkling, “I would have before and I still would now.  As stupid as I was before, I still loved you you know.”

And for the hundredth time that day, Kurt was pulled into his father's arms.  “I know son.  I know.  I love you too.”