After all of the drama of the previous week, Burt was really hoping for a little peace and quiet. He didn’t get what he hoped for.

Kurt’s candidacy is going just as poorly as his own. Apparently, Coach Sue told Kurt that if he wanted to win, he was going to have to pick a strong platform, and then start “flinging poo” at people. This explained a lot about her mindset about her own campaign – she had started running advertisements saying that Burt had a baboon heart and married a donkey. It didn’t really bother Burt too much, I mean, who’d believe that? Mr Schue, however, was getting worried.

Burt goes to see Kurt’s campaign speech. It’s incredible. Burt’s not sure if it’s all the dramatic arts or what, but Kurt’s a great public speaker. However, he’s picked a platform that Burt thinks, in all honesty, will not actually help him at all – banning dodgeball. Burt gets it for people like Kurt and that little Rory guy, who are naturally easy targets, really. But speaking as a former jock, Burt knows that Kurt’s anti-dodgeball stance will just give the jocks one more reason not to vote for him.

In spite of this, his position starts to look a bit better when Rachel announces that she’s dropping out of the running. Burt admires her for this. Of all the ways she could have dropped out, this one probably required the most bravery. Burt hopes that Kurt will forgive her now, since she’s trying to make up for what she’d done.

When the speeches are finished, it’s Blaine that Kurt hurries over to, not Burt. He can’t hear their conversation, but he knows by the blush on Kurt’s cheeks that Blaine is praising and encouraging him.

This, of course, was not the end of the drama for the week. A day or so after the speeches, Burt gets a package delivered to him at the garage. It’s a CD of a campaign ad from one of the other Congressional candidates smearing Coach Sue. This isn’t what catches Burt’s attention, though. It’s the word ‘lesbian’ accompanied by a picture of that one cheerleader from the Glee Club. Burt’s dialing Mr. Schuester before he even considers that Will might be in a class. When Will asks him to be a part of the conversation with Santana, Burt agrees.

The confrontation with Sue is challenging, largely because Burt didn’t know that she was capable of human emotions, not to mention that she’d get choked up when she hears the news. Gradually, more information comes out. Burt is devastated to know that all this is because of something Finn shouted in the hallway. He’d been so much more considerate lately, Burt thought, or maybe Burt just hadn’t been monitoring him closely enough.

Santana runs out crying and Burt is so sad for her. He is stuck in the moment of Kurt coming out to him, how entirely scared Kurt had seemed, even though Burt had done nothing but love him for sixteen years. Her parents didn’t know she was gay – how would they react? Should he call them? Would that help, or hurt?

Burt’s got his head in his hands, thinking about all this, when Will taps him on the shoulder.

“Um, just a related question.” Will says, his voice uncomfortable. “How does Finn treat Blaine when they’re at your house?”

The question surprises Burt. He takes a minute to think back. Finn had been great with Blaine all of last year and all through the summer, but since school started, he’d been more distant. Burt hadn’t noticed it at the time. Finn was often a bit anti-social, something Burt just attributed to the tendency of teenagers to do everything they can to seem apathetic at all times.

“Fine. Blaine pretty much sticks to Kurt like glue. Why?”

“He’s just had a few comments targeted to Blaine. Nothing particularly hurtful, really just unnecessary reminders that he is the leader of the group. It’s almost like he feels threatened by Blaine. Blaine never says anything, but it seems like it’s getting to him.”

And all of a sudden, everything makes sense to Burt. Blaine’s problem the first week of school. He said he was just “learning [his] place in public school life.” Of course he didn’t want to tell Burt, who was technically Finn’s dad now. Blaine must have made a hierarchy in his mind of who Burt cared about the most – Kurt, Carole, Finn, Blaine. He must have thought that Burt would take Finn’s side of things. He’d said that he thought it would get better; Blaine must have thought that as the year went on he’d figure out how to be less of a target so that Finn wouldn’t pick on him. He saw this as his own fault.

So now, Burt not only has to deal with the massive problem of Finn outing Santana, but also Finn bullying Blaine. It’s two o clock now. The boys have Glee practice after school. When they come home, they are all going to be sitting down at the kitchen table for a nice long chat. Burt wonders what will happen if the news spreads during Glee Club. His mind provides an image of Kurt attaching Finn with his sai swords. He shudders. He asks Mr. Schue to try to keep the kids away from the topic. He decides to text Blaine a vague text message saying to come home as soon as Glee is over, or sooner if anything happens.

Finn comes home first. Burt and Carole are waiting for him at the kitchen table, and are surprised when Finn walks straight to the freezer to grab an ice pack.

“You will not believe what just happened to me! Santana, that BITCH, just comes up and absolutely slaps the living shit out of me. She’s crazy! Why the hell - ”

Burt isn’t surprised by how oblivious Finn is but it just worsens everything about the situation.

“Sit down, Finn.”

Finn looks confused, and vaguely annoyed to be interrupted, but he sits down all the same.

“What’s going on? Is this about last week? Rachel and I were safe, I promise.”

Burt can feel Carole tense beside him. He decides to get back to that later.

“No, Finn. This is about Santana.”

Finn looks vaguely relieved, but more confused.

“What? How did you know? It just happened a minute ago.”

“This is about what you said to her in the hallway yesterday.” Burt answers, trying to keep his voice calm.

“Whatever I said, it was only because she was attacking me and Rory. She was bullying us! She was saying I was fat and really mean stuff! I’m sick of her doing shit like that to me, and now she’s doing it to Rory to? It’s just awful.”

Burt looks to Carole. She looks as upset as he feels. How can they explain this to Finn?

“Did Burt ever tell you about when Kurt came out to him?” Carole asks.

Finn looks confused. To him, this must seem like a totally unrelated point. He shakes his head.

“You remember that game that he won when he was the kicker?” Finn nods again. “He came out to me after that. I cannot even tell you how scared he was. He was nearly in tears because he was so worried that I’d react badly.”

“But that’s silly. Everyone knew he was gay. I totally did before that. You must have, too. Plus, you’re really cool and everything. Why would he be so scared?”

“Because that’s how scary coming out is, Finn.” Carole says, her eyes wide. Burt can tell that she’s just praying that Finn will understand. “It doesn’t always matter how much support you have or how flamboyant you are. It’s scary because it’s so personal. It’s so much of who you are.”

“Why are we talking about this?” Finn asks. He’s starting to make a face that suggests that he’s not happy that he is being forced to learn things after the end of the school day.

“When you had that spat in the hallway with Santana, you told her she should come out. You two weren’t alone. Several people heard, and one of them told their uncle, who is using it in a campaign ad against Coach Sue. So because of what you said, there is now a commercial on TV with Santana’s picture that says she is a lesbian. She hadn’t even told her parents yet.”

Finn’s face is a mixture of defiance and concern, almost as if he’s beginning to understand what he did but he’s too stubborn to admit he’d done something wrong. It’s in this moment that the front door slams open. Burt can hear a struggle happening, and suddenly Kurt and Blaine appear at the entry to the kitchen.

Blaine is forcibly restraining Kurt who is screaming at the top of his lungs while tears stream down his face.

“HOW COULD YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT! HOW COULD YOU FINN! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE MY BROTHER! HOW COULD YOU!”

Kurt is gasping now in between screams. Blaine’s wrapped his arms even tighter around his boyfriend, less to restrain him now, but more to hold him up as he tires himself out. Blaine’s looking just as bad as Kurt, his eyes full of tears. Finn is more confused.

“What do you mean? I didn’t do anything to you!”

Kurt lets out a yell and makes a renewed attempt to claw his way out of Blaine’s arms.

“Blaine. Take Kurt upstairs. Now.” Burt commands.

Blaine nods and then, surprising everyone, picks Kurt up in his arms as if he weighs nothing at all and hurries out of the room. After a few moments, Kurt’s screams die down as a door slams.

Burt and Carole look at each other again, even more uncertain than before.

“Look, Finn, you might not be able to understand it, but what you did really hurt Santana. She might not be accepted by her parents now. A lot of gay teens get kicked out of their house, just like Quinn did two years ago. She lives in a fairly violent neighbourhood and might be seen as a target outside of school. And at school, well, you’ve seen the sorts of things they do to Kurt. Hell, you did some of those things to him. And I know you feel bad about that, but Kurt right now doesn’t think you do. Because, to him, you hurting someone who is gay makes him think he can’t trust you anymore.”

Burt is actively trying to say things that might hurt Finn’s feelings now, hoping that he can find a way to make Finn understand the situation. Carole taps him on the knee. She knows what he’s doing, but it’s a gentle suggestion to lay off a bit. She’s right, of course.

“I’m going to go check on Kurt and Blaine.” Burt says, standing up. He really hopes that Carole can fix this mess.

He heads up the stairs and knocks lightly on Kurt’s closed door. He waits until he hears a muffled reply before opening. The boys are lying on Kurt’s bed, Kurt curled into Blaine’s chest. Blaine’s arms are wrapped tightly around Kurt and his eyes are red and puffy. Burt can’t see Kurt’s face, but he’s sure that his eyes are the same.

“So it’s been really hard to get Finn to understand what happened. I did my best and Carole’s going to keep trying, but it might take him a while. I know this is really personal to both of you, but if it helps at all, he didn’t know what he was doing. It’s just ignorance. I’m sure that we can teach him about outings and get him to be a better person for it.”

Burt knows that nothing he says is going to help the boys, that nothing he can say will undo Finn’s actions, but he still feels the need to try. He’s just thinking that he should leave the boys alone to comfort each other, but then he remembers something.

“Hey Blaine.” Burt says softly. Blaine looks up. “I want to ask you about something.”

Kurt shifts a bit so that he can see his dad and his boyfriend, concern appearing on his tear-stained face.

“Okay.” Blaine says, his voice soft.

“I was talking with Schuester today and he mentioned about Finn saying some mean things to you in Glee. Is that what was upsetting you during the first week?”

In just a few seconds, the positioning of the boys changes completely. Instead of Blaine comforting Kurt, Kurt is now comforting Blaine. The tears have disappeared from Kurt’s eyes, but returned to Blaine’s.

“I just feel like he doesn’t want me there. He doesn’t think I belong. And I just – I get it, I do. But I’m not trying to take over the club or anything. I’m just making occasional suggestions, trying to keep people positive. The only solo I’ve had all year was in a song that I came up with just to boost morale. And I’m trying to defer to him and agree with him, even when he does things like welcome Rory into the group with solos with a glance in my direction like he’s trying to hurt my feelings. I just don’t understand why he’s doing this.”

“Look, Blaine.” Burt says eventually. “I don’t want you to ever feel like you can’t tell me something. Even if it’s something to do with Finn or even Kurt, Carole or myself. No matter what happens, I will always listen to you and do whatever I can to help.”

Blaine nods. But then he says something that surprises Burt.

“Just, please don’t say anything to him? He’s really upset right now and I don’t want to be just another thing that he’s getting in trouble over. It’s not that bad. I can handle it. Please, Burt.”

Burt doesn’t really understand why he’s so emphatic about this, but, grudgingly, he nods.

“Okay, but you have to promise me that if you change or mind or it gets worse at all, that you’ll tell me or Kurt or even Mr. Schue. You have as much right as anyone to be in Glee Club, and no one, not even Finn, should be allowed to make you feel differently.”

Blaine nods, but, just like with their conversation two months ago, Burt feels like Blaine’s just agreeing to be able to stop talking about things.

Burt leaves Kurt’s room, but instead of going back downstairs, he goes into the master bedroom. Burt’s just so sad right now, and still so upset with Finn. Seeing Kurt and Blaine so distraught only made things worse. It’s taking Burt back to that awful day a year and a half ago when he found Finn screaming slurs at Kurt. It was easy then to kick Finn out of the house, but he can’t do that now. This problem can’t be ignored: Burt is going to have to fix it.