"Wow! Something smells really good in here!" Kurt announced as he entered the apartment.

"Kurt! We're so glad you're here," replied Jen, "and that wonderful smell is Annie's shepherd's pie. I'd greet you properly, but I've got to keep stirring this icing or it will burn."

"The rolls you made smell good, too, Jen," said Marisol, coming over to give Kurt a hug. "This is going to be so much fun, Kurt!"

"I hope you're hungry," said Annie, collecting a hug of her own. "It should be ready in about 15 minutes. Hi, Blaine. Can you stay for lunch?"

"Hello, Annie. This apartment is going to be very popular if the others find out you all like to cook. No, I can't stay; I've got another airport run to make. I appreciate the invitation, though. Kurt, I'll be back about 1:45 to pick you up." That was nice of them to include me.

Marisol looked thoughtful. "If you have to go to the airport over lunch, when are you going to eat, Blaine?"

"I'll grab something sooner or later. I'm sure it won't be as good as the lunch you're having, though."

"We'll fix you a plate and you can stop by when you come back. If you don't have time to eat it here, you can take it back to the office with you."

"That would be great, Marisol. I'll be back in an hour or so." He headed for the elevators.

Blaine was proud of himself. He'd just spent an hour with Kurt and he'd managed to keep himself in check the whole time. Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought. And when the twelve weeks are up …. Blaine's imagination took over again. If Kurt lived in New York, we could meet for lunch at least twice a week. There are so many great places to eat in the city. I wonder if he likes Dim Sum. Maybe I'd have to help him with the chopsticks, and I'd take his hand and show him …. Blaine groaned as he realized what he was doing. This is going to be impossible!

Kurt took his suitcases to the room he would be sharing with Marisol and started to unpack. A frisson of excitement ran through him as he thought about what lay ahead. He knew it would be stressful and scary, but would also be wonderful. I can't wait!

He looked up as Marisol entered the room. "I'll help you unpack later if you want, but lunch is ready," she said.

"Thank you. I'm starving!"

In the kitchen, Annie and Jen were setting the food out on the counter. "I think we should just serve ourselves," suggested Jen. "That way, everyone can take as much or as little as they want." She put four plates out. "The silverware and glasses are on the table, and there's tea and water." The designers filled their plates and moved to the table.

"Annie, this is really good!" Jen enthused. There was a general chorus of agreement.

"Thanks. It's my comfort food. Mum makes it several times a month, so it means 'home and family' to me."

"Where does your family live?" Annie and Jen had learned quite a bit about each other from rooming together the first weekend, but Marisol was still getting to know everyone.

"They're Brummies." She laughed at the uniform looks of puzzlement. "That means they live in Birmingham. It's the second largest city, after London. What about you, Marisol?"

"I'm from Cocodrie, Louisiana. It's a little tiny village on the Gulf of Mexico. I'll probably be moving soon, though. My fiancé, Henri, is in the Navy, so I'm sure we'll be transferred pretty often."

"That's French, right?" Jen asked.

"Yes, there's still quite a bit of French influence in the area. It's spelled like Henry, but with an 'i' instead of a 'y', even though it sounds like it starts with an 'o'. What about you, Jen? Where do you call home?"

"Seattle -- home of the first Starbucks. We love our Seahawks, but not as much as we love our coffee."

"Sounds like my kind of place! I'm from Lima, Ohio. It's not really a small town, but it has small town attitudes about some things. We do have a great coffee place, though -- The Lima Bean. Could you pass the rolls, please? These are so good, Jen!"

"That's a great name for a coffee shop! Kind of hard to branch out with, though," Jen commented.

"You know that I'm engaged to Henri. What about the rest of you? Any girlfriends or boyfriends?" Marisol refilled her glass of iced tea and offered the pitcher around the table.

"No boyfriend here," Kurt said. "Gay bars just aren't my scene, so it's hard to meet 'Mr. Right' in Lima, and I refuse to settle for 'Mr. Right Now'."

"Maybe you'll meet someone here, Kurt. I'm single, too," said Jen. "I dated this guy, Sean, for about six months but we broke up at the beginning of November. He seemed to think I was going to support him for the rest of his life. He was great in bed, though. He had this thing he would do with his tongue on my …"

"Jen! TMI!" Annie interrupted.

"Oh, sorry," Jen said. "Kurt, could you hand me the butter, please? What about you, Annie?"

"I'm single, too." She blushed. "You know who I'd like to get to know a little better? Blaine. Don't you think he's cute?" She got up from the table to get more salad. "Does anyone need anything while I'm up?"

"Totally adorable!" said Jen. "Can you bring the bowl over to the table? I want more salad, too. Marisol, I really like this dressing you made. I think he should pierce one of his eyebrows. They're so distinctive now and a little bling would really bring them out."

"You've spent more time with him than we have, Kurt. Has he ever mentioned a girlfriend?"

Kurt shook his head. "No, Annie, we've never talked about his personal life. Do you want me to see if I can find out?"

Annie grimaced. "Maybe not. I don't want this to get awkward, and he's kind of off-limits, isn't he? Besides, we all need to concentrate on the competition, not our love lives." She placed her elbows on the tables and leaned forward, bringing her hands under her chin. She pretended to gaze off into the distance and gave an exaggerated sigh. "I'll just admire him from afar." She batted her eyelashes and laughed. "Sorry -- too many Disney princess movies. Let's change the subject. He could be back at any moment and that really would be awkward."

"Who wants dessert?" Jen asked.

"Do we get to eat your cake now? I thought it would need to cool," Marisol asked eagerly.

"If you cut it while it's warm, it gets a little messy, but I think it tastes better." Jen brought the cake, a knife and some dessert plates to the table. "I'll let you serve yourselves. It will probably fall apart, but don't worry about it. It will still taste good."

While Jen was bringing dessert, Kurt got up to clear the table, waving his hands at the protests from the girls. "You all cooked. The least I can do is clean up." He stacked the plates in the sink, then returned to the table, taking a good look at the cake for the first time. "Jen, is that German chocolate? It is! It's a four-layer German chocolate cake with coconut pecan icing. That's my favorite cake in the whole world. I never make it because of my dad's diet, but I love it."

"I like the icing best, so I split the layers and double the icing recipe," Jen explained. "The cake is cool, but the icing is still hot when I assemble it. I sprinkle mini chocolate chips between the layers and they melt. It makes the whole thing really moist and gooey."

The designers ate their cake in silence, too overwhelmed by the chocolaty goodness to even attempt to hold a conversation. When everyone had put their forks down on the plates they had scraped clean, Jen sighed and patted her stomach. "That may be the best meal I've ever eaten. As soon as I can move, I'm going to start the dishes. Yes, I know, Kurt," she said, interrupting his protest, "you said you wanted to do them, but you haven't had time to unpack and Blaine said he was coming to get you soon. I'll do them this time, and you can owe me one. Where are you going anyway?"

"Blaine said Heidi wanted to see me. I don't have any idea what it's about. Did any of you meet with her individually?" When the girls all shook their heads, he shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I'll find out soon. Oh, I'll bet that's Blaine, now." He crossed the room to open the door. "Come in, Blaine. Wait until you taste this lunch!"

"Are you ready for this?" Heidi looked at her friend with concern in her eyes.

"I am," Nina replied. "I'm going to tell him what I did, but I'm going to avoid giving him any personal details. I don't think it would be appropriate. I'd like to meet with the whole group as well, if that's okay with you. I think they need to know what happened."

"Okay, I'll put you on the agenda for the meeting tonight." Heidi sighed. She very much wished this had never happened, but at least they were doing their best to make it right. The phone on her desk buzzed. "Yes, Blaine?"

"I have Kurt here. Shall I send him in?"

Kurt entered the office. He was surprised to see Nina waiting there as well, sitting in one of two chairs in front of Heidi's desk.

"Welcome back, Kurt. Please sit down. Nina and I need to explain something to you, and I'd like to ask you to please hear us out before you say anything." She motioned to indicate that Nina should speak.

Nina took a deep breath. She could tell that Kurt was nervous and uncertain. She placed her hand on his arm. "Kurt, first of all, you should know that you didn't do anything wrong and you're not in any kind of trouble." He nodded and relaxed somewhat. "I did a terrible thing, Kurt, and I need to tell you what I did and ask you to forgive me."

Kurt frowned. He wanted to ask questions, but Heidi had asked him to wait, so he just nodded again.

"I did not score your interview correctly," Nina continued. "I deliberately gave you a very poor score to eliminate you from the competition." She paused to give him time to process the information. Kurt's mouth had fallen open and his eyes were … either angry or hurt -- Nina wasn't sure which -- but he still refrained from speaking. "I thought it wasn't a good idea for you to be away from your father when he was having health issues, and for some reason that I can't really explain, I thought that I had the right to make that decision for you." She looked at Kurt again. He was definitely angry now, but still listening. "By the time I realized I was in the wrong, it was too late to do anything about it. The only thing I could think to do was to make sure you applied again a few years down the road. I knew if you did, you would be selected." She checked to see if he was still listening. "I know what I did was wrong, and I want you to know how very sorry I am. I hope you can forgive me, but I'll understand if you can't. I'd also like to say that I know that you must be angry. Please feel free to say whatever you want. It won't affect the competition in any way because I'm going to leave the show."

Heidi looked at Nina in surprise. This was news to her.

Kurt took a deep breath and considered. He was angry, very angry, but he knew how hurtful words could be. He wanted to communicate, not to wound. "Do you have any idea how much time I spent wondering why I was rejected?" he said, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "How many times I asked myself what I did wrong, why I wasn't good enough, what I needed to change? I went over every moment of that weekend, time and time again, and I couldn't find anything. I wasn't sleeping; I wasn't eating; and I stopped designing."

Nina was close to tears. "I'm so sorry, Kurt. You should never have had to go through that. I hope you can see that my intentions were good, although my actions were not."

"Yeah, well, you know what they say about the road to Hell," he snapped. He covered his mouth in horror when he realized what he had said. "I shouldn't have said that, Nina. I didn't mean it."

"Believe me, you have the right to say much worse, and nothing you could say would be as bad as the things I've been telling myself. I just had a vision -- not a clairvoyant type of vision, just an idea -- of something happening to your dad and you not being able to make it back home in time ..."

Kurt was silent, remembering his dad's heart attack, thinking of how he would have felt if Burt had died, of how it would feel if Burt died and he didn't even get to say goodbye. He sighed, deliberately letting go of his anger. It wasn't productive and Nina was doing the best she could to make amends. "Yes," he said quietly. "I forgive you. I know you weren't trying to hurt me -- that you were just trying to help. I wish you had told me, though. Dad had just been to the doctor and had a full range of tests. He's not in any immediate danger. He just needs to stick to his diet and exercise program."

"I guess that's another mistake I made, then," Nina said softly. Tears were rolling gently down her face.

Heidi handed Nina a box of tissues. "There's something else you should know, Kurt," she said gently. "We don't normally tell the designers their overall ranking, but I think circumstances warrant it this time. If Nina had scored you accurately, you would have been one of the top three designers. You earned excellent scores from all of us."

Kurt smiled for the first time since Nina had started talking. "Really? I was good?"

"You were fantastic!" Nina said. "I'm going to tell the others that too, when I meet with them tonight. It isn't fair that they think you just barely made it onto the show."

Kurt was lost in thought. The women waited for him. They wanted to make sure he had the chance to say everything that was on his mind. "You know," he said slowly, "my mom always said that things generally work out for the best, and I've found that she was right about that most of the time. Being underestimated isn't always a bad thing. Unless you feel strongly about it, I think I'd rather no one else knew anything about this. Except maybe Blaine. I don't want him to think he did anything that caused me not to make the cut. And he doesn't need to know the whole story. You could just tell him it was a scoring error and leave it at that. Maybe say that Nina was sleepy or distracted or something and turned in the sheet without filling most of it out and no one noticed until later."

Heidi looked at Nina, then said, "I think we can do that, Kurt. Do you want to tell Blaine, or do you want me to do it?"

"You can do it. He's less likely to question you about it." Kurt thought some more. Turning to Nina, he asked, "Do you think you can judge me fairly from here on out? No favoritism to try to make things up to me?"

Nina was incredulous. "You mean you aren't concerned that I might give you low scores to get you sent home?"

"Of course not. You apologized and said you were wrong. You aren't going to give me low scores, but you might give me high ones out of guilt, and that wouldn't be fair to the other designers."

Heidi decided to step in. "We have a rubric, Kurt. Are you familiar with the term?"

"Yes, it's like a checklist, a guideline for grading something."

"That's correct. One of its purposes is to keep personalities from entering into the judges' decisions. As long as Nina follows the rubric, she'll be fair."

"I can promise, Kurt. No favoritism," Nina said.

"In that case, I don't see any reason for you to leave the show."

"I appreciate that, Kurt," Heidi said gratefully. "It would be a problem to find another judge at this point, and I'd hate to lose Nina."

"Thank you, Kurt. I would really like to stay. But I have to ask why? Why didn't you make me leave?"

"It's a selfish reason, mostly. I've watched Runway since the first season. When you don't like something, you let the designer know, but you do it cleanly and fairly, without ridicule. Your criticism is always constructive criticism, and I've seen it happen time and time again -- if a designer pays attention to what you say and learns from it, he does better in the succeeding challenges. I want the opportunity to learn from you."

"I don't even know what to say, Kurt. Thank you," Nina said softly.

"Now, I think we need to come up with a cover story," Kurt said briskly. "My roommates know I'm here seeing Heidi. Perhaps you were on the phone when I got here so I had to wait a while, and then you told me I wasn't allowed to throw any more parties. Or maybe you just wanted to make sure I didn't have any issues about not having as long to practice as everyone else."

"Practice?"

"Sure. You know, rereading my technique books, drafting some pattern pieces, sewing some things I don't do often. Just preparing for the show. Nothing in the rules precludes it, so I'm sure most people started as soon as they got home."

Nina and Heidi exchanged another look. "Maybe you should say you aren't allowed to throw any more parties unless you invite the judges. I understand the first one you had was very successful," Heidi joked.

"Well, there were a number of people involved. It was a joint effort."

"Speaking of parties, I understand the girls cooked lunch for you today. How was it?"

"It was fantastic. Annie made shepherd's pie and Jen baked rolls. Marisol whipped up a wonderful salad dressing using canned tomato soup. Blaine brought a huge piece of Jen's German chocolate cake to the office with him. Maybe he hasn't had a chance to finish it yet."

Heidi and Nina smiled at each other. It was always fun to tease Blaine. "Kurt, do you think Jen would share any more of that cake?" Heidi asked. "Good. Here's what we're going to do ..."

Heidi buzzed Blaine's phone.

"Yes, Heidi?"

"Could you come in here, please Blaine? Oh, and bring that piece of cake with you. And two forks."

A strangled sound was heard from the phone. "What if I tell you I already ate it?" Blaine said desperately.

"I won't believe you. You're saving it for your 3:00 coffee run. And speaking of which, Nina and I need coffee to go with the cake."

I can't believe they took my cake! I was really looking forward to a treat this afternoon. Blaine was on his way back from the coffee bar in the lobby, carrying two cups of coffee. He was so annoyed that hadn't even gotten a cup for himself, preferring to sulk instead, and he was taking his time coming back. Burt had called as promised, shortly after 2:00, apologizing profusely for putting Blaine in such an awkward position and begging for his help coming up with a plausible Christmas gift. Obviously, it couldn't be a puppy or kitten -- the Atlas didn't allow pets, and a pet wasn't practical anyway. Blaine suggested something perishable, like a cheesecake but Burt claimed that Kurt rarely ate desserts. Today must have been an exception. I could have eaten his piece of cake if he didn't want dessert. They finally settled on an excursion of some kind. Blaine's help really would be needed for something like that. The designers weren't allowed to leave the building without a staff member, so Blaine would have to get permission and arrange an escort. Burt had hinted strongly that Blaine should accompany Kurt, but he wasn't sure that was a good idea, at least not if it was just the two of them. Blaine was supposed to see what was available and call Burt back. This is getting complicated. I should probably run this by Heidi before it goes any further. Great, another fun conversation. He had just begun to start worrying about what was going on in Heidi's office when Heidi called and confiscated his cake. That's got to be some kind of harassment.

Blaine delivered the coffee, still fuming. He stopped dead in his tracks when he got to Sandy's desk. This is just too much! What is Sandy doing with my cake?

"This is really good, Blaine," Sandy said around a forkful of chocolate and coconut. "Yum!"

Blaine continued to his desk, where he found a large envelope with a note that read 'Jon needs this right away -- H'. He sighed and headed down the hall to Jon's office. At least I won't have to watch Sandy devour that cake.

Lori wasn't at her desk, so he knocked on Jon's door.

"Come in," came the reply. He opened the door. Oh, this is just not fair! How did Jon get some? He waited until Jon had set the fork back down beside the half-eaten slice of cake before handing him the envelope. "Thank you, Blaine. Listen, could you do me a favor?"

You don't deserve a favor. You've got cake. "Of course. What do you need?"

"One second -- I need to finish reading this." Jon seemed to be taking his time going over the report Heidi had sent him. Finally he continued, "Lori's out today. Could you run down to the mail room? They have a package for me, but they're shorthanded and don't have anyone to bring it up." Sure, Jon. Bringing the mail will just make my day. He nodded abruptly, not trusting himself to speak, and made his way to the mail room. He retrieved the package, making sure to keep it level and carry it gently, as instructed by the clerk.

Jon took one look at the package and said, "Oh, this isn't for me. It needs to go to Heidi. Are you headed back to the office?"

"I would be happy to take it, Jon." Blaine was beginning to regret his hasty action. I wish I had at least gotten myself a coffee. Coffee would be better than nothing.

When he got back to the office, he frowned at Sandy, who was still enjoying her cake. He took the box to Heidi. She and Nina had evidently just finished eating. Heidi slowly licked her fork. "That girl has talent! Maybe we need to have some kind of challenge that involves making dessert."

"I wonder if we could make that work," laughed Nina.

"Jon said this package was for you, Heidi. Where should I put it?"

"Oh, I know what that is. Just take it to your desk and open it. You'll know what to do with it. But be careful with it. It's fragile."

Muttering to himself, Blaine took the package to his desk and cut the tape. He unfolded the flaps and took out the sheet of paper on top. His name was written on the outside, so he unfolded it.

We love you, Blaine!

~Heidi, Nina, Sandy, Jon, Annie, Jen, Kurt, and Marisol

He lifted off the layer of crumpled paper and found a large cup. He sniffed at the contents. Coffee! Beside it was a plate covered by an inverted bowl, forming a makeshift container. He discovered a fork tucked into one corner of the box. He laughed as he removed the bowl, revealing the most beautiful piece of German chocolate cake he had ever seen. I love my job!