Chapter Text
Kurt did not know what he was doing. He was standing in the lobby of a seedy New York hotel, holding his three year old daughter Cassandra in his arms. The little girl had been asleep on the drive over, but now she was starting to wake up, looking around her. He was just exhausted. They had driven for three hours and now they needed to rest.
He could afford any room in the city, but he needed to be discreet. This was the kind of place that would be discreet. He wasn’t a huge celebrity, by any means, but he was enough of a Broadway name to get noticed at a nicer establishment. He walked to the counter and spoke softly. “I need a room,” he said.
The man barely spoke as Kurt paid in cash. He just wanted to get himself and Cassie to a safe place. This was as safe as it got, for tonight.
Cassie was very sleepy. “Daddy, he’s gone?” she asked. The words made his heart hurt a lot. Cassie was so scared of her own father. Kurt was scared of his now ex-boyfriend too.
They had escaped. “Yes, sweetie,” he said. “Forever, I promise.”
Kurt then took his little girl up to the room. He immediately opened his bag and pulled out the bedding he’d pulled off of Cassandra’s bed for her. He laid it out and put the tiny child on top of it. “You need to sleep now Princess,” he said softly, brushing a hand through her hair. “I know it’s not home, but I promise that you’ll fall asleep.”
“Song?” she asked.
Kurt obliged with shaky hands still running through his little girl’s soft auburn hair. He was having a hard time singing lately. Kurt Hummel, the young Broadway prodigy, was having trouble finding his voice. He knew that it would come back, however, once he found safety for himself and Cassie. It had to.
When Cassie was fast asleep, Kurt breathed a sigh of relief. Things had been so very hard for him in the past few years. When he was eighteen, he started at NYADA and by twenty he had landed a small Broadway ensemble role. He was then discovered by Matthew Bradford, a big time agent. He had skyrocketed to fame. Matthew was gay too and promised Kurt he would be an icon for the times, a good example for the LGBT community and a legend in his own right. Matt had also made Kurt fall in love with him.
It had started out subtly enough for Kurt to be unbothered by it. Matt was controlling because Matt was his agent and manager, not because Matt was his boyfriend. He did what he did because he wanted Kurt to succeed. They were a power couple of the Broadway community. Matt had even convinced Kurt to adopt Cassie as an infant just after his twenty-second birthday. They looked perfect on the surface.
Underneath that same surface, something terrible was happening. Matt wasn’t letting Kurt so much as breathe out of his sight. He was cutting off Kurt’s contacts with important people, friends and family both. He had orchestrated Rachel never speaking to Kurt again because she was a threat. The abuse started out verbally, cutting remarks that tore him to shreds, and eventually escalated into shoving, pushing and blows.
His position and Matt’s position kept Kurt in the relationship. He didn’t want to lose everything. He didn’t want to lose his career. He had so little to fall back on, after all. Who he was as a successful Broadway performer was his identity. He had lost most of his friends along the way.
Cassie deserved more, however. One day when she was crying over a stupid skinned knee, Matt had shoved Kurt in the arm and said the words that changed it all. “Shut that stupid bitch up, would you?” he yelled. He then turned to the girl and screamed, “Shut your stupid face!”
It wasn’t the most significant or life-changing event in their relationship. It wasn’t the worst or most degrading thing that the man had ever said. It wasn’t that significant but it meant more than anything to Kurt, because he had just turned his anger on their daughter. Though he had never laid a hand on Cassie, it showed Kurt that it could happen. His words hit Cassie harder than a fist because she started bawling.
Kurt left that night. Ripped up every contract he had and disappeared, leaving only a letter with a high-profile lawyer, David Madison, detailing everything. He’d have to fight with all of his strength now, but he had to get Cassie safe first. That was the goal.
So, that was how they had wound up in a run-down hotel. Kurt curled around his daughter protectively and tried to sleep. He could not, however, stop his mind from going.
Despite his mind’s stern resolution to never stop running, Kurt must have eventually fallen asleep, because he woke up with his arms wrapped tightly around his daughter, who was squirming. She kicked her legs lightly and tried to get out of his grip.
“Daddy, squishin’ me.”
He let go with a small smile on his face. “Sorry angel,” he said. Despite the fact that he’d regret his relationship with Matt forever, he’d never regret Cassie. He loved his daughter with all of his heart and would die if he lost her. That was why he was so afraid of the impending battles that would occur. He knew that Matt was older, more influential and had the power to make him look any way he wanted him. This was why he’d hired David Madison, one of the most respected lawyers in the area.
He hoped it worked.
“I’ll never let you go sweetie,” he muttered to his daughter, his heart beating fast at the idea of Matt taking her away to live with him forever. He’d hurt her. He couldn’t let that happen. “Never, ever.”
“I have to go potty!” she declared, pouting with a look that Kurt knew she picked up from him.
“Oh, sorry,” he said softly. “I guess I’ll let you go now and again.”
She grinned. “Kay.”
Yeah, he had to be strong for Cassie, even though just about everything in the world scared him senseless. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he had to be strong because there was a strong willed three year old who needed her daddy. He had to stand up for her, because he’d been so scared to stand up for so many years. He had to stand up because it was his job as that beautiful girl’s daddy.