After school on Monday, Finn took Kurt out to the Lima Bean for a change of scenery, saying he was tired of Kurt's complaints of being stuck around the house. Unlike their previous excursion to the coffee shop, however, Finn asked Artie (Blaine was out of the question and Rachel and Mercedes were both busy) to get there at least ten minutes ahead of them and scout the place for anyone they didn't want to see.

"You mean, Quinn and Sugar," Artie had said over the phone with Finn.

"Yes, I do."

Finn's cell buzzed on the dashboard as he and Kurt pulled into the parking lot, Kurt nervously chewing on his nails and watching out the window. "Hey, Artie," Finn answered the call.

"Okay, no sight of hostiles," Artie replied. "That's a negative on the Queen Bee, Sweet Stuff, the Criminal Chipmunk, and the Hobbit. Over."

Finn snorted. "You're using code names?"

"Affirmative, Commander, this is a top-priority mission and high security is necessary. Sir, are there any more hostiles we should know about? Over."

Rolling his eyes, Finn shut the engine off and nudged Kurt, gesturing for him to get out of the car. "Negative, Corporal," Finn played along. "Area's been secured; we're on our way to you now. Over."

"Yes, sir, I have a visual on you. Over and out."

The inside of the coffee shop was thankfully not crowded – Monday afternoons were usually slow, when people getting out of work really just wanted to go home and make their coffee themselves. Artie was sitting at one of the low tables surrounded by squashy armchairs, and he waved at them as they walked in. Finn told Kurt he'd get their drinks and went to wait in line while Kurt walked over to Artie.

"Man, long time no see," Artie said as Kurt sank into the armchair across from him. Kurt could see that Artie was startled by how short his hair was (and probably how exhausted he looked), but neither boy mentioned it and Kurt was happy to keep it that way.

"Yeah," Kurt agreed, leaning back and draping one leg over the other. "How are you? Mercedes and Rachel have been trying to keep me updated with all the goings-on at school, but to be honest it's kind of hard to remember."

Artie shrugged. "Life's been pretty uneventful since you left school."

Kurt smiled tightly. "Nothing quite compares to my level of crazy, does it?" he said self-deprecatingly, then changed the subject. "How are things with you and Sugar? Mercedes said you were into her."

Another shrug, this time slightly more irritable. "Rory got her with a pity party. Said he was going to be deported."

"That's cheap," Kurt replied. "Want me to have Craig beat him up?"

Artie shook his head. "Nah. Then Sugar might go for you instead."

"…Ew."

"I'll just run him over and be content with his bruised toes."

"Sounds like a plan."

Artie laughed, and Kurt could tell he was surprised by the normalcy of their conversation so far. He didn't know what Artie expected, but it was probably along the lines of rocking back and forth, eating his own hair. He was used to that assumption.

Artie bit the inside of his cheek, then hesitantly spoke. "Kurt, is… is Craig really as bad as Finn says?"

"Yeah." If not worse.

"Jeez." Artie frowned in thought for a few moments. "But… why? I mean, why would someone in you act like that?"

Kurt shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine," he answered. "I've known plenty of assholes he could be based on, though."

Artie looked shocked. "Really? They can be based on other people?"

"Sure."

"I thought they were just really specific aspects of you."

Kurt laughed hollowly. "If I were actually anything like Craig, I would've killed myself a long time ago." He paused. "Well… I would've succeeded in doing so."

Artie's jaw clacked shut, his mouth pressed into a thin line, and Kurt felt sort of guilty. He didn't need to remind people of how close he'd come to falling off that edge completely. He glanced over his shoulder to see where Finn was in line.

"Kurt, are you okay?" Artie blurted.

Kurt turned his head to meet Artie's worried gaze. "In what capacity?" It was a dumb question. Kurt knew exactly what Artie meant.

"Every capacity."

Kurt's mouth twitched slightly. "No more than anyone else, I guess."

Artie raised an eyebrow. "You're dodging the question, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

Artie nodded and raised his hands. "Okay. I won't ask, then."

Kurt sighed, shaking his head. "No, no, uh… It's okay. I'm sorry, I just… I'm nervous about leaving."

Artie's eyes widened. "Leaving? Where are you going?"

"Oh, I… I assumed Finn already told you."

"No?"

Kurt steeled himself – he didn't want to start his goodbyes just yet. But he knew Artie deserved an answer. "I have to go into a hospital for awhile. There's a place in Athens."

"Athens? That's like three hours away."

Kurt nodded.

"Wow, Kurt, I… I don't really know what to say. Good luck, I guess."

"Yeah, that'll work."

"I hope you find your answers."

"Me too."

Kurt looked over his shoulder again to see Finn ordering their drinks.

Artie fidgeted in his chair, toying with the Velcro on his gloves. "Hey, Kurt, I've been meaning to ask you…"

Kurt turned around again. "Hm?"

Artie didn't meet his eye. "I'm applying to film schools and most of them need to see a movie I made as part of the application. Kind of a portfolio."

Kurt swallowed. He was pretty sure he already knew what Artie was going to ask, but he said nothing, waiting for Artie to explain.

"Well, I was hoping… before you go to the hospital… m-maybe I could make a movie about you," Artie stammered, confirming Kurt's suspicion.

Kurt wasn't sure how to respond, so all he said was, "Um…"

"You can absolutely say no," Artie rushed. "If it makes you uncomfortable at all, consider the plug pulled. I'll find something else to film."

Kurt paused, his cheeks sucked in. His first impulse was definitely to say no way in hell, but he was fairly certain that had more to do with the fact that if he said yes, Artie's safety might be at stake. Artie couldn't hold him down or leap out of the way like Finn could.

But then again, Dr. Goldberg had always said that in order for him to get better, then he had to accept himself for who he was – every piece of him – not only for himself but for the people around him. It's only going to get harder for you if you try to hide it forever, were the doctor's exact words. Also, Kurt did like Artie and wanted good things for him. It was unlikely that Artie would find anything else in Lima as interesting as eight people for the price of one.

"Okay."

Artie blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah," Kurt nodded, trying to hide how nervous he was. "It'll give your application an edge. And once you graduate and become the next Steven Spielberg, I expect you to cast me in every movie you make."

Artie laughed loudly. "Okay, deal."

At the office, Burt was hard at work putting together a fundraiser for a cancer charity in Columbus. His assistant Linus was whizzing to and fro, answering the phone, organizing files, forwarding calls to Burt's desk, adding up the fundraiser budget, and answering the phone again.

"Well, I can assure you that we'll do our absolute best with your generous donation," Burt was saying into the receiver. "Yes, ma'am, it all goes to cancer research and rehabilitation."

The phone at Linus' desk rang for the thousandth time, and he hastily answered with, "Representative Burt Hummel's office, how may I help you? …Well, what do you need to speak to him about? …Sir, we're pretty busy here today— All right, please hold." He waved a hand at Burt and pointed at the phone, indicating that the call was at least somewhat important.

Burt nodded and quickly wrapped up his conversation with the donor.

"There's a Hiram Berry on line three," Linus said as soon as Burt had hung up.

Burt frowned, surprised, but maybe Hiram had heard about the charity and wanted to donate. He was fairly rich, after all, if the Berry household was anything to go by. He grabbed the receiver and pressed the button labeled L3. "Hiram, what can I do for you?"

"Hello, Burt," came Hiram's voice through the speaker. Burt could hear from the echo that Hiram was in his car. "Listen, I wanted to talk to you…"

Burt sighed. "Did Finn do something with Rachel?" He'd hoped he'd never have to go through The Talk again, because he was pretty sure he'd done a great job the first time around and he thought that earned him the right to never ever do it again.

"Oh, no, it's not about Finn."

Burt paused. If it wasn't about Finn and Rachel, then maybe Hiram wanted to talk about work. "You want to talk about charity donations or something?"

"Well, as you know," Hiram started, sounding slightly unsure of how Burt would react, which made Burt tense. "I'm a criminal lawyer specializing in investigation, and I called in a favor with the Lima police department."

Burt frowned deeply, now thoroughly confused. "What are you talking about?"

"I got a list of every registered sex offender in Ohio by the name of Franklin."

There was a long pause in which Burt had to connect the dots and figure out why the hell Hiram was calling him about sex offenders. "You what?"

"I got a list of—"

"I heard you the first time," Burt snapped. He was acutely aware that Linus had stopped working, distracted by Burt's aggressive tone. "We didn't mention anything about that kind of thing to you."

"I deal with a lot of different things in my line of work, Burt," Hiram said carefully. "Sexual abuse is not a new thing to me, and I know that it's the main cause of split personalities. We can talk about my breach of your privacy later. Do you want to find the man who hurt your son, or don't you?"

Burt exhaled heavily. Dr. Goldberg had spoken to him very briefly about Kurt's flashbacks and what they might mean, but that had been the day Kurt had attempted to end the flashbacks altogether and once Kurt was in the hospital, everything else had fallen off the table. He hadn't even had time to consider the possibility that Kurt's innocence had been torn away before he even knew what innocence was.

Burt gritted his teeth. "Let's nail this bastard."