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When Kurt opened his eyes, they burned like he had been crying, and his throat felt raw. He heard something rustle next to him, but when he tried to turn, he found he couldn’t move his neck. He felt a flash of panic.
“It’s okay. I’m here,” a familiar, warm voice said, and a face came into view.
Kurt blinked. “Adam?” he asked, feeling confused. His voice sounded raspy.
Adam smiled, a little teary-eyed but somehow proud. Kurt didn’t understand. “What’s going on?”
“You had a bit of a tumble, darling,” Adam said. “Scared us quite a bit.”
Kurt suddenly realized there were more people in the room. He strained to see, incapacitated by what he realized was a neck brace. Rachel. Santana. His dad. Carole. They all smiled at him.
Kurt frowned. “Where’s Blaine?”
Adam’s face fell a little, but he quickly pressed his lips into a smile. “At school, I imagine,” he answered gently.
“I didn’t think you’d want him here,” his father added. “And I didn’t want to step in it like at Christmas, so…”
Kurt felt sick. What was going on? What Christmas?
Kurt looked at the others for clues. They were all looking at him expectantly. He doubled back to Rachel. She was as slim as ever. The last time he had seen her, she was eight months pregnant! Just how long had he been out?
“Rachel…the baby…what-”
Rachel paled and exchanged looks with Santana. Santana shrugged. “Hag sixth sense? I didn’t tell him,” she mumbled.
“It was a false alarm,” Rachel admitted, looking down at her toes.
“A false-?” Then it suddenly dawned on Kurt.
Adam. Why would Adam be here?
“What day is it?” he asked, looking at the one person in his life he trusted never to lie to him.
“Wednesday. You were out for two days,” Adam replied. “The snow let up Sunday night but when you walked me to the subway in Monday morning, it was still very cold, and you slipped and hit your head.”
“The doctors said you might have some trouble remembering but that there’s no reason to assume it’s permanent,” his father added.
“They also said your brain activity showed you were having some pretty disturbing dreams,” Carole chipped in. “Do you feel ok, honey?”
“It’s 2013,” Kurt said quietly.
“No, Kurt von Winkle, it’s 2093, our space suits are just in the wash,” Santana said, rolling her eyes. “Of course it’s 2013.”
Kurt ignored her and turned to Adam. “I’m still in the Apples?”
“Of course you are, darling,” Adam replied curiously.
“I’m not married to Blaine?”
“Not if I can help it,” Burt said gruffly.
Kurt looked at Rachel. “And you’re not carrying our child?”
“Eew,” said Rachel and Santana at the same time.
Tears came to Kurt’s eyes, but not, as Adam would later admit he feared for a moment, out of disappointment. It was because he had just realized something else, too.
At that moment, Finn burst into the room, holding an opened packet of chips.
“Dude! I go outside to get a snack for like, 3 seconds, and you wake up?!” He looked around the room. “Someone tell him I was here the whole time. I totally was! Rachel?!”
Kurt stopped listening, and started laughing. Quietly at first, then louder and louder until he couldn’t stop and tears were rolling down his face.