In the emptiness of his office at the tire shop, he finally opened the letter. He gently unfolded and attempted no to cry as he began to read.

Burt had to stop and let go of a breath he never knew he was holding, before reading the rest of the letter.

Burt let tears fall. Her hand writing was exactly like her mother’s, down to the way she wrote her g’s. He wondered if she looked anything like her, if she had her mother’s hair or eyes. Was she tall or short? Was she the kind of girl who liked to dress up fancy and gossip, or did she prefer playing sports and staying at home.

So many questions popped into his mind now about this girl, his girl, his little girl that he had given away seventeen years ago for what they thought was best.

Immediately, Burt wanted to write her back. Just boot up the computer sitting on the desk and start typing out an email telling her to come live with them. To live in their new family with Carole and Finn, with him and Kurt in their new house. Everything could be perfect and the family would be together. Kurt would have a biological sibling, not just a half-brother. They could take care of them all now…

Kurt.

How was he going to explain to Kurt that he had a little sister? A little twin sister actually? What about Carole?

Sure, she had known that he was married before, but how was he supposed to explain to her that Kurt was not an only child? That he actually had a daughter living somewhere else in the country that now wanted to be part of their family now?

Would she be mad that he kept this secret from her? Would she leave him? It was a pretty big thing to keep a secret about, another child. He’d have to break it to her slowly, explain everything that had happened when they had been born.

It gave him a chance to practice explaining to Kurt.

“Hey baby.” Burt looked up from his desk and mentally groaned. He had forgotten that he had made lunch plans with Carole today and now he was really in no mood to eat anything.

The minute she walked in though, she knew something was wrong. She knew when something was being kept from her, she was a nurse and people always tried lying to her about whatever stupid thing they had done to get them in the hospital anyway. It was a learned skill that she was proud to have, especially with Finn being best friends with Puck.

“Burt… What’s wrong?”

*~*

Carole looked from her husband to the letter in disbelief. She wasn’t angry, a little hurt maybe, but not angry. She couldn’t be angry with him over this, he had had his reasons for giving away his only daughter. She just couldn’t believe that he had kept this part of his life, a very important part of his life, a secret from him.

“What are we going to do Carole? I don’t know what to do.” Burt said, staring at the letter again.

“What do you mean? She’s going to come live with us, like she asked. The new house has more than enough room, and I want to meet my step-daughter. I can’t believe you even had to ask about this, I thought you would have already written her telling her the good news.”

“What about Kurt?” Burt asked and Carole gave him a strange look.

“You know he’s going to be upset. He’s lived his whole life thinking that he was an only child, and we all saw that he had some difficulty adjusting to the fact that Finn was around now, that you finally had someone to talk sports and cars with. Now, we’re about to invite this girl to come live with us, who’s not only a sister to him, but a twin sister. You know he’s going to have trouble adjusting to a new person in his life, even though he might not see her all the time. “ Carole said and Burt nodded, knowing she was right. Kurt needed to know, and maybe they would actually get along. Kurt was level-headed enough to understand. Once they told him why they gave Jessie away, he couldn’t be angry with him, could he?

“You should get to writing that email.” Carole smiled, and Burt started up the computer, happy that his family would finally, after seventeen years, be complete again.

*~*

On the other side of the country, in the city of San Francisco, California, there was a seventeen year old girl named Jessica Montgomery, who would rather be called Jessie, working in a small sidewalk coffee-shop, having already finished her school day. Her normally long, wavy, dark brown hair was pulled up in a messy ponytail, bangs barely reaching the top of her bright blue eyes. She walked around the tables, picking up small plates that customers left behind, and placed them in the bin she held with her opposite arm. The work itself was boring, but the people she worked with weren’t. She loved every one of them like family.

“Fall! Fall!” Someone shouted as she almost tripped over a pulled out chair that she hadn’t seen. Jessie looked over to the register and flipped off the blonde boy behind it, who was currently laughing at her.

His name was Elijah, but she just called him Eli. They were best friends and she was positive they’d always be.

“You know, if I had gotten hurt, I would never have forgiven you. I’d curse your soul and made sure you never found love.” She threatened non-chanlantly as she walked past him, heading to the back kitchen to drop off the bin of used coffee mugs and plates.

“Oh surely not! My dear, sweet lady Montgomery, surely you would not be so cruel as to curse my eternal soul from the sweet tenderness of love.” Eli joked dramatically.

“Yes, I would. Now move, bitch.” Jessie lightly shoved Eli out of her way, and he started laughing again as she started refilling the dispenser of plastic cups before he went back to watching the door.

“When‘s he supposed to be here?” She asked and the boy ducked his head down to look at the register keys, which suddenly became very interesting.

“Who? What are you talking about?”

“Whoever your new arm-candy is that you’re waiting to walk through that door. What time is he supposed to show up?” She asked him again and Eli smiled.

“Any minute now. I’m guessing you’re going to make him take ‘The Test’ too?” He asked and Jessie nodded, “Don’t I always?”

Eli just shook his head and continued waiting for his boyfriend to show up, wondering how difficult his friend would make her test for this guy.

The test consisted of Jessie basically pretending to be a homophobe and examining how the person carried themself when faced with someone insulting Eli. Would they defend him, or would they just ignore that anything was going on? She’d tried it on every one of Eli’s boyfriends and she wasn’t going to stop now.

“He’s here!” Eli smiled and waved Jessie close by when he heard the tinkling of the little brass bell over the door.

When Jessie wasn’t immediately by his side, he turned to look for her and found her staring at her phone in amazement. She also looked ready to cry.

“Jessie…?” Eli asked cautiously.

“It’s my dad… I’m-I’m going to Ohio!” She cheered, causing a few heads to turn and give her strange looks, but she didn’t care.