When Finn returned home after school, he found that Kurt had come home early and was standing in the kitchen, drinking a cup of tea and looking like he was about to cry. Finn stomped the snow off his boots and hung his jacket up by the door before asking Kurt what was wrong.

"I cannot believe you told Blaine about us," Kurt said, his voice cracked. Finn could hear that he'd already been crying a good deal during the afternoon.

Finn sighed. "I knew you were going to be mad at me, dude, but Blaine's got a right to know. I mean, you were kinda betraying his trust."

"You betrayed my trust, Finn!" Kurt cried, slamming his mug down on the counter.

"Yours or theirs?"

"All of ours!" Kurt wiped his eyes with his shirtsleeve, his skin reddened. "We've been getting better, okay? And then you just waltz in and decide to cause so much stress that Eleanor decides to pop out and yell at Blaine at school? Are you insane?"

With anyone else, Finn would raise his voice to defend himself, but he'd learned a long time ago that if he escalated along with Kurt, then it would only make it easier for the alternative personalities to take over. Now, he made sure to keep his voice level as he said, "Kurt? It's okay. Calm down."

"It is not okay, Finn!"

The door opened behind them and Burt came in, shrugging off his coat. He glanced between his son and stepson. "What's not okay?"

Kurt took a long breath to try to steady himself, looking out the window. "Finn told Blaine about us."

Burt's gaze whipped over to Finn. "Is that true?"

"…Yeah."

"Jesus, Finn, what the hell were you thinking?"

"Blaine deserves to know," Finn repeated. "Kurt owes—"

"Kurt does not owe anyone anything," Burt said sternly, his hands planted on his hips. "Look, kid, you're as much a part of this family as any of us, but Kurt and I have been dealing with this for a lot longer than you have and you didn't have a right to talk to Blaine about this without Kurt's permission. It's Kurt's responsibility to tell someone if he wants them to know, and—"

"I HATE YOU!"

Finn and Burt jumped. Neither of them had noticed that while Burt had been talking, Kurt had checked out and someone else had taken his place. From the voice that was coming out of Kurt's mouth, Finn could tell immediately who it was.

"I'm sorry, Tyler," he said softly.

"Daddy, Finn is a mean person!" Kurt sobbed, his chest heaving. "He told everyone our secret!"

Burt nodded, wrapping his arms around Kurt's shoulders as he shuddered. Kurt's arms were cradled against his chest as he buried his face in his father's shirt, his sobs now muffled by the green plaid flannel. "I know, Ty, but you're okay. You're gonna be fine," Burt soothed.

None of Kurt's alters were easy to deal with, but Finn always had an extra hard time staying in the same room whenever Tyler came out. According to Kurt's therapist Dr. Goldberg, Tyler was Kurt himself frozen at age eight, from the time of the accident. Tyler was the only personality who didn't repress any memories at all, and so was the only personality who was actually depressed.

While Eleanor and Craig were violent or abusive most of the time, four-year-old Zack was constantly giggling and drawing pictures, and Robbie was always sullen but otherwise harmless. Finn knew that there was also a man named Truman, who was in his twenties and a bit of a party boy, but Finn had never met him since Truman only surfaced when Kurt needed to feel loose, which was… pretty much never.

Tyler, on the other hand, never seemed to have any specific reason for coming out other than general stress, and would appear at random times, sometimes even when Kurt appeared to be stress-free.

Now, Kurt's sobs were finally starting to fade into hiccoughs, his face flushed and his eyes puffy. "Feeling better, kiddo?" Burt asked softly.

"I still hate Finn," Kurt sniffed, his words still muffled by Burt's shirt.

Finn swallowed. He knew that a normal eight-year-old saying that he hated someone was generally not a true depiction of whatever they were feeling, but it was difficult to hear it coming from Kurt. "Tyler?" Finn ventured. "Can you look at me for a second?"

Kurt didn't say anything, but he did turn his head so that he was looking at Finn without moving away from his father's comforting hold. He hiccoughed again.

"Tyler, I'm really sorry that I told Blaine," Finn said, giving Kurt the most earnest look that he could muster up so that Tyler would understand he was honest. "Okay? I'm sorry."

"Mm-hm." Kurt nodded slightly but buried his face into Burt's shoulder again. That was another characteristic of Tyler – he had a hard time making eye contact with most people, especially if he was upset.

"Tyler, can I have a hug?" Finn ventured.

"No."

"Okay."

Several minutes passed before Kurt pushed his father away, Tyler obviously retreated to some dark recess of Kurt's brain. "Hey, Kurt, welcome back," Burt said with a smile.

"He's not back," Kurt snapped in Eleanor's voice. His sharp gaze turned to Finn. "You are an asshole. Do you have any idea how upset we are?"

Finn swallowed audibly. No matter how often he heard it, any one of Kurt's personalities referring to themselves in plural still raised the hairs on the back of his neck. "I know," he said. "I told Kurt and Tyler that I was sorry."

Kurt's arms crossed over his chest. "Kurt and Tyler aren't the only ones you've pissed off. You should be happy it's me right now and not Craig."

"I don't think that yelling at Finn more is going to do any good," Burt interrupted gently. "He said he was sorry; not much more he can do." He placed a hand on Kurt's shoulder, but Kurt slapped it away.

"Don't touch me."

"Sorry." Burt backed off calmly.

Finn steeled his nerves before attempting another apology. "I promise, I'm really—"

He was cut off by a swift punch in the jaw that he hadn't seen coming. "YOU ALWAYS PROMISE!" Kurt screamed. Burt grabbed his wrists from behind before Kurt could strike Finn again.

Fortunately for Finn (and Burt, since Eleanor's rage was sometimes directed at Hummel Senior), when Eleanor was in control, Kurt's body fully believed that it belonged to an eleven-year-old girl, and so there was never really that much force behind her physical attacks.

Kurt was breathing hard, trying to break free of Burt's hold and glaring at Finn with so much intense anger that Finn would not have been surprised if a hole was burned through his letterman jacket.

"Eleanor, let me talk to Kurt now," Burt ordered firmly as Kurt struggled.

"He doesn't want to talk to you," Kurt snarled breathlessly, his back arching and his fists clenching so tightly that his nails were drawing blood from his palms.

Suddenly, with a jerk and a twist of his arms that Burt hadn't expected, Kurt broke free and lunged straight for Finn. Finn barely managed to seize Kurt's arms and spin the smaller boy around so that his arms were pinned to his chest. He held Kurt as tightly as he could without breaking any ribs. This was something Finn had done repeatedly with Eleanor whenever she became too aggressive – keeping her prisoner until she allowed Kurt to come back or one of the less aggressive alters to take over.

Now, though, Eleanor seemed to be dead set on maintaining control. "Let me go!" Kurt yelled, kicking his legs and stomping on Finn's toes. "I'm gonna rip you to shreds! I hate you!"

"We are not letting you go until we can talk to Kurt," Burt said.

Kurt let out a wordless growl as he tried to twist out of Finn's iron hold. A second growl, louder and higher-pitched than the first, escaped his throat a few seconds later, and then a third, and a fourth, and a fifth. The growls quickly escalated into angry screams, but Finn didn't loosen his arms as he felt Kurt's body tense and squirm and jerk.

In that moment, Finn truly did regret telling Blaine – if he hadn't, this rare fit of hysteria wouldn't have taken place. But as it was, all he could do was hold Kurt and wait for the screaming to stop.