Rating: PG13

Warning: Mentions of teen drinking and sex.

Spoilers: It's AU from S2E01 Audition.

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. Isn't that obvious by now?

Word Count: ~1,700

Author Notes: A one-shot. I wanted some more practice writing Burt, because Papa Bear Hummel is an awesome guy. Also, because quite a lot of the fics in which this sort of thing happens tend to skip over this particular scene.


"Dad?"

Kurt's face greeted Burt from around the basement door. But something was off – he was jumpier than usual, the tension visible in his face. His hair was a mess, and his face didn't appear as 'done' as usual.

"Can I talk you about… about something?"

"Sure, kid. Lemme just grab a beer, and I'll be all ears. You wanna talk in the living room?"

Kurt nodded nervously and the rest of his body appeared around the door frame. He was wearing track pants and a zip up hoodie. This couldn't be good.

Burt grabbed a beer (a light beer, thank you very much) and made his way to the couch.

Kurt paced backwards and forwards across the living room. Burt waited patiently for his son to speak, to share what was troubling him. Several times Kurt stopped, as though to speak, but continued pacing.

After a few minutes of this, Burt spoke up. "Kurt, you know you can tell me anything, right? Even if it's about a guy or something, I'll try and do my best. Whatever it is, I've gotta know if it's causing you this much stress."

Kurt nodded again and took a deep breath, perching on the far side of the couch.

"Dad, I… I did something really stupid. Daddy, I…" Kurt's voice caught in his throat.

Burt couldn't help himself. Seeing his son looking so small, so afraid and ashamed. He slid over and wrapped his arms around his son. Kurt was shaking under his touch. Burt remained silent, waiting for Kurt to continue.

"Dad… you know how I said I would never get anyone pregnant?" Kurt's voice was barely audible. "Turns out I was wrong." Kurt shook more, with slightly hysterical, humourless laughter, which quickly dissolved into huge wracking sobs.

Burt was frozen still in shock, his arms still wrapped tight around his son. For several minutes, the only sound was Kurt's sobs, as Burt slowly unfroze and rubbed his hand up and down his son's back.

As Kurt's sobs quietened, Burt managed to make his throat function sufficiently to ask, "How… how did…" He cleared his throat. "When did it happen?"

"It was at that house party. Six weeks ago. We got really drunk. She was really upset about her boy troubles, and we just…" Kurt choked out the words, struggling to string a sentence together through his tears. "We were consoling each other, and we were lonely, so when… when she kissed me, I kissed back. And then…" Kurt made an indistinct gesture with his hands.

Burt nodded, sniffing a little to hold back tears himself. This wasn't supposed to happen. His gay son, his baby boy, he wasn't supposed to get someone pregnant.

"And you didn't use…?" Burt didn't need to finish the question for Kurt to know what he wanted to ask.

"We were so drunk… we didn't think. We were so stupid."

"Okay." Thoughts whirled around Burt's head. "Well, for starters, you gotta to talk to this girl. Do you know what she's planning to do?"

"She's not getting an abortion, if that's what you mean. And I don't think… I don't think I would be okay with it if even if she wanted to."

"Okay, so what are your plans for after it's born?"

"I don't know, Dad!" Tears started to leak again from Kurt's eyes. "I found out about this an hour ago! I don't know what to do! I can't be with her, but I've got to be responsible. But to raise a kid with two separate parents, a kid that was never wanted. How could I do that?"

As the tears poured again, Burt gently shushed his son and rocked him in his arms. As he rocked him, he realised that he didn't even know this girl's name. The girl who was carrying his grandchild. The girl who had seduced his naïve son and taken his innocence away.

Even as he thought it, he knew he wasn't being fair. Kurt himself had said that he had kissed back.

"So Kurt, what's this girl's name? Who is she?"

Burt's heard his son's muffled voice say something, where his face was buried in Burt's flannel shirt.

"What was that, buddy?"

"Tina." Kurt's voice was just about distinguishable this time.

"Tina… Tina..." Burt muttered, trying to remember. "One of the Glee girls, right? The Chinese one."

"Korean. Yes." Kurt extracted his face from Burt's shirt to continue. "She's in Glee. She was really upset about breaking up with Mike, and I was despairing about being the only gay kid in this town, and we were drowning our sorrows, kinda. And, well, you can guess the rest…"

Burt tried not to imagine.

He paused while Kurt reached over for tissues, seemingly having pulled himself together again.

"So can I meet her?"

"Tina?"

"Uh-huh. She's carrying my grandchild, after all."

"Grandchi…" A slightly gobsmacked expression spread over Kurt's face. "You're going to a grandfather," he said, as though the thought hadn't occurred to him before. In all honesty, it hadn't. "And I'm going to be a f-father." His tongue stumbled over the word, as though unused to it.

A tiny smile appeared in the corner of Kurt's mouth. "I never thought I'd be…" Kurt trailed off, a look of wonder on his face.

"Me neither, kiddo," Burt said, shaking his head ruefully.

Kurt still had a faraway look in his eyes as he continued, "I mean, I knew that maybe I could adopt, or do what Rachel's dads did, but I'm going to have a child… that's mine." He shook himself. "Well, mine and Tina's."

"So this Tina girl, what's she like?"

"She's… she's one of my friends."

To most, this might seems obvious, but Burt knew better. There were very few people in the world that Kurt would refer to as a friend. This girl must be pretty special if she was one of them.

"She's a great singer. Her fashion sense is…" Kurt pulled a face. "Eclectic. Goth slash emo slash punk. Ish. She'll always come and practice dancing with me. And we'll often sit together in lunch with Mercedes and talk about b-ooys…" Kurt stumbled over this last word, another fresh realisation having just popped up, and worried expression crossed his face.

"?" Burt made a questioning noise, querying Kurt's sudden halt.

"Her boyfriends. Ex. Ex boyfriends. They'll kill me…"

"And who are these boys?" Burt was trying to keep track of all the participants in this utterly tangled web of relationships.

"Artie. He's in a wheelchair, he won't be able to mess me up too badly. Unless he runs me over." A small, dismissive smile flashed across Kurt's features before he continued.

"But then there's Mike. He's on the football team. He's kinda skinny, but he's strong. He's going to beat me to a pulp!" The panicked look was back as Kurt finished speaking.

"Alright now, so does this Mike guy know what happened with you and Tina?"

Kurt shook his head. "No. No-one does."

"And were they…" Burt coughed nervously. "Were they together when you two…?"

"No. That's why she was so upset; she'd just broken up with him."

"And is there anyone else?" Please God, don't let there be anyone else.

Kurt shook his head again.

"Right, so you've got her two exes. Mike and Art…?"

"Artie."

"And are you friends with either of them?"

"With Artie, sorta. Not so much since he and Tina broke up. Not really with Mike. We're in Glee together, but that's pretty much it."

"And are they good guys?"

Kurt pondered this with a dubious expression. "Mike is. Artie… not always."

"And Mike's the one you're worried about, right?"

"Yeah. He could beat me up for sure. And if he got some of his football buddies to help him…" Kurt explained morosely."

"But you said he's a good guy, right? So maybe he won't. Maybe he'll understand. And this Artie kid's in a wheelchair?"

Kurt nodded.

"So you could just run up some stairs to get away from him."

A watery smile appeared on Kurt's face.

"But right now, kiddo, I think that's kinda the least of your worries. Look, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna meet this Tina girl, and we're gonna talk about what you guys are going to do. We'll talk with her parents as well, and…" Burt trailed to halt. "Um… Kurt?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Has she told her parents?"

Kurt shook his head. "I don't think so."

"How d'you think they're gonna take it?"

Kurt bit his lip worriedly. "I don't know. I don't really see them that often. They always seemed nice enough, but this…" He trailed off.

Burt filled the silence, "Okay, so we're gonna talk to them as well. We'll figure out how this is gonna work."

"Okay." Kurt stood up, a determined look on his face.

"You know something?" Burt asked as he lumbered to his feet.

Kurt looked at him and shook his head curiously.

"I'm proud of you, kiddo. Not the part where you knocked her up!" Burt added hastily in response to Kurt's weirded out expression. He explained, "You coulda just left her to do this by herself, but you manned up. You took responsibility and that takes guts. That's the first step to being a good dad."

Kurt smiled weakly. "I had a good role model."

Burt smiled. "C'mere." He pulled his son into a tight hug. "You're gonna make it through this, alright?"

Kurt nodded again. He spoke into Burt's shoulder, "Thanks Dad. Love you."

"Love you too." Burt pulled back and placed his hand on Kurt's shoulder. "Now let's go find this girl, eh? Show her that the Hummels are stand up guys, that we take responsibility?"

"Yeah." Kurt looked for the first time as though the sky wasn't falling in. Some of the awful weight from his shoulders had lifted. That was a relief, at least. "Maybe we can stop by the mall on the way? See what they've got in the way of fashionable maternity wear?"

Burt shook his head. Some things would never change.


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