Glee: A New Beginning: Chapter 5: A Thousand Miles
By Wilde Abrams
Authors Notes: I wanted to take a minute to remind my readers that this series was planned when almost nothing was known about about season 6 of Glee so everything at McKinley was AU but the references to the New York stuff still followed cannon for the most part. This story marks the first major divergence. It take place a few weeks after the episode Tested in which Artie behaved in a very uncharacteristic way by hooking up with two different girls and perusing a third (apparently completely forgetting about Kitty) and contracting the clap. In this story, he did date several girls while in New York, because he thought Kitty was doing that same, but did not hook up with them.
For a variety of reasons this story jumps ahead and takes place almost 2 months later, the week before thanksgiving.
* # * # *
For the next two months things settled down at McKinley. Drama club decided to forego doing a fall musical, and spend more time and resources and do their annual musical in the spring. The club continued to meet twice a week and practiced acting from plays in books already owned by the English department. They planned to begin preparing for the spring musical as soon as they got back from their winter, post holiday break.
Little by little, Marley began to come out of the funk she’s been in ever since she and Jake had broken up. She and Ryder had been seen hanging out again, but she insisted that they were just friends.
Things looked up a little bit for Kitty as well. After Bree realized that Kitty had real power as Principal Sylvester’s assistant, she began to back off and leave she and the others former glee members alone, and for the most part the cheerleaders and jocks just ignored them. They once again began to socialize in public, ever with Unique. The group of them began to eat lunch together again, and sometimes other Drama club members joined them.
Kitty and Betty continued to take verbal jabs and make evil glares at each other, but there were no further physical altercations, and with no witnesses to the first one, the matter was officially dropped. The red mark on Betty’s face warranted nothing but an inquisitive look from Coach Roz.
Mid-Term grades were down pretty much across the board at McKinley, frustrating Principal Sylvester, who was mystified as to the reason. Several key football players and Cheerios were in danger of becoming academically ineligible. She wrote it off as a fluke and decided to wait till the end of the semester before disciplining her teachers.
# # #
The Monday morning before thanksgiving, Kitty was having lunch with Marley, Ryder, Unique, and Dottie, when she saw a familiar face Approach.
What is she doing here, she thought. Oh my God, has smithing happened to him?.
She suddenly felt sick of her stomach.
“Kitty,” the woman said.
“Yes, Mrs. Abrams? What are you doing here?” Then after a moment she added, “Is Artie okay?”
“Artie is fine,” Mrs Abrams reassured her.
Relief flowed over her when she heard those words. Despite deciding to give him the freedom to live his own life, and date if he wanted to, she was still very much in love with Artie Abrams. She didn’t know what she would do if something happened to him.
She felt the eyes of the rest of the group, on her and she was brought back to reality. “Oh, I’m sorry. Everyone this is Artie’s mom, Mrs. Abrams-”
“-I keep telling this one to call me Nancy, Mrs. Abrams makes me seem like an old maid-”
“-sorry, Nancy Abrams. Nancy, this is Marley, Ryder, Unique, and Dottie. ”
She greeted each of of them in turn and exchanged pleasantries about how much they liked her son.
“Well it was nice to meet all of you,” she told them. “I’m so happy Artie has so many good friends, but if it’s okay, I’d like to steal Kitty away for a few minutes.”
Amid a chorus of sure no problems Kitty rose to her feet and said, “I was done anyway, I’ll see you guys later in gle-drama club,”
She rose to her feet, tossed what was left of her lunch tray and joined Nancy, who lead her away from the crowd of students.
When they were safely alone Nancy asked, “How are you doing Kitty? I haven’t talked to you since Artie moved to New York.”
“I’m doing okay,” Kitty said not sure what how much she should tell her.
“How are things between you and my son?” She asked. “He doesn’t really tell me much.”
“We’re doing fine as far as I know,” Kitty answered. “We … we talk or email about once a week or so like we agreed that we would.”
“Yeah, but how are you really doing?” The older woman pressed.
Kitty could see that the usual pleasantries would not suffice, so she stepped closer to the her and lowered her voice and said, “I have to admit it’s been kind of hard. I miss him.”
“I thought you loved him?” She asked.
“I do,” Kitty said.
“Then I don’t get it. why did you agree to this ‘open relationship’? That’s the term right? Where you’re allowed to see other people?”
“We didn’t use that exact word, but I guess that’s what it is,” Kitty told her.
After a slight hesitation, she added, “That was actually my idea,” she lowered her head, averting her eyes. “I wanted to give him the freedom to do what he wanted, and for him to be attached to me didn’t seem fair to him when we’re hundreds of miles apart.”
But Nancy Abrams wasn’t buying it. “Cut the crap Kitty! If you love someone that much then you want to be with them no matter what. What’s really going on?”
Kitty leaned in even father and lowered her gaze before she continued almost at a whisper. “I was afraid alright. All year last year we watched what happened when our friends in the glee club were separated from the ones that they loved. Look at Kurt and Blaine, Tina and Mike, Finn and Rachel, Brittany and Santana. Every one of them had problems when they tried to do long distance relationships! They grew apart. One would meet someone else, or one would cheat on the other one or whatever, but they all had problems, and the simple fact is I’m afraid of getting hurt.
“For years I protected myself from being close with people and Artie is the first one in a long time that I let get close to me to the point where he could hurt me even if it was unintentional.”
“Kitty you and Artie are not them. I know my son. Artie loves you,” she reassured her, placing her hand on the younger woman’s shoulder, “He would never cheat on you, especially given his past track record with girls cheating on him.”
Kitty slowly nodded. “My head and my heart know that, but there is this part inside of me that can’t or won’t believe that anyone could love me that much.”
The two women continued to walk through more minutes in silence before the elder woman broke the silence by asking, “Do you know when you are going to get to see him again?”
“Unfortunately no,” Kitty answered. “No-one here seems to have a desire to visit the alumni in New York, and I haven’t heard anything about he coming home for a visit.”
“I take it by your answer you wanted to go see him.”
“Yes, of course,” she told her. “But I can’t go by myself and none of my friends seem to be interested.”
Nancy Abrams nodded hesitating for a moment
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Of course,” Kitty said.
“Artie’s dad and I are going to be going down there to visit him over Thanksgiving weekend. This is the first time we’ve done anything like this since the divorce. We’ve rented a hotel suite with a fold out couch with a bed on it and we were wondering if you would like to come with us.”
Kitty smiled, “Are you kidding me?”
“Now you would need to pay for your plane ticket and some of your expenses however the room is paid for.”
Kitty smiled broadly, hugging the older woman, “Oh thank you! thank you! thank you! thank you!”
Then she noticed people around them staring and went back to her more reserved self.
“We also have to get your parents permission of course.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Kitty said. “Once she got to know him, my mom really starting to like Artie.”
“Ok good. But remember this is a secret. I asked Rachel for all the details on the sly and she probably thinks I’m being overprotective mom, but we’re going to go down there and surprise him. Only Rachel and Sam know.”
Kitty nodded. “I promise. Thank you so much for this. I miss Artie so much!”
“We all do, dear,” the older woman told her. “And I’m sure he’s missed you as well.”
After a few more moments of silence the older woman added, “Okay I’ve got to go I’ll text you with the details. Keep it to yourself as much as possible, just in case any of your friends forget and happen to talk to Artie. Make sure anyone who does knows it’s going to be a surprise. ”
And with that she was gone.
# # #
That evening Kitty talked to her parents about the idea, and while her dad was still a little skeptical, and neither of her parents were thrilled about her missing Thanksgiving, her mom was really excited that Kitty was going to get to see Artie again. Both of her parents liked the change that came over her when she and Artie were together, and they gave her their blessing, as well as the money she would need for the trip.
As she lay in bed Kitty began thinking about Artie and how excited she was now that she was going to finally get to see him again. They hadn’t seen each other in the flesh since he’d moved to New York the first week of August. She didn’t realize until she started talking to Mrs. Abrams how much she really missed him.
Mrs. Abrams was right; this open relationship thing sucked, but Kitty still had her insecurities and her fears. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but decided to focus instead on how excited she was finally get to see him again.
This was going to be an amazing weekend.
# # #
Kitty was on cloud nine all day Tuesday. Whenever people asked what was up, she retorted with something snarky. She didn’t want to give anything away but it was hard not to. It was finally happening. She was going to get to see her Artie!
# # #
Wednesday morning Kitty skipped class and headed to the auditorium during her study hall and began to sing, A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton.Making my way downtown, walking fast,
Kitty:
Faces pass and I’m home bound
Staring blankly ahead, just making my way,
Making my way through the crowd

And I need you, / And I miss you, / And now I wonder,
If I could fall, into the sky
Do you think time, would pass me by?
‘Cause you know I’d walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you tonight

It’s always times like these when I think of you
And I wonder if you ever think of me
‘Cause everything’s so wrong and I don’t belong
Living in your precious memory

Cause I’ll need you,
And I miss you,
And now I wonder

If I could fall, into the sky,
Do you think time, would pass me by?
‘Cause you know I’d walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you,
Tonight.

And I, I
Don’t wanna let you go
I, I
Drown in your memory
I, I
Don’t wanna let this go
I, I don’t

Making my way downtown, walking fast
Faces pass and I’m home bound
Staring blankly ahead, just making my way
Making a way through the crowd

And I still need you,
And I still miss you,
And now I wonder

If I could fall, into the sky,
Do you think time, would pass us by?
‘Cause you know I’d walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you

If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass me by?
‘Cause you know I’d walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you
If I could just hold you
Tonight

If if could fall into the night
Do you think time would pass me by?
‘Cause you know I’d walk a thousand miles
If I could see you
If I could hold you
Tonight

Kitty smiled, as the music finished. It was finally happening. She was finally going to see him!
“Someone’s in a good mood!” Marley said, startling Kitty.
“Geez! Marley, you scared me!”
She turned to see her best friend enter from the fourier.
“You’re in a good mood, and happier than I’ve seen you in months,” Marley observed. “Than can only mean one thing… When is Artie getting in?”
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration isn’t it?” Kitty retorted. “And he’s not. I’m going to New York with his parents to see him. Keep that under your Newsies hat, it’s a surprise. ”
“How did you manage that?” Her best friend wanted to know. “And no, not really. You’ve had a big gray cloud following you around since the day you saw him off back in August.”
Kitty rolled her eyes. “That’s what his mom wanted to to talk to me about Monday. She invited me. We’re leaving after lunch.”
Marley walled up and gave her a big hug! “I’m so happy for you! Say hi to him for me.”
“I will, thanks,” she told her. “And remember, mums the word.”
“I won’t say anything,” she told her.
# # #
Kitty skipped lunch that day and met the Abrams’ back at her house where she returned her car and retrieve her suitcase and carry on bag.
This was the first time she was meeting Artie’s dad, James. He seemed nice enough, but she spent most of the trip jabbering with Nancy in the car, at the airport, and finally on the plane until they decided to nap the rest of the flight.
# # #
When the plane landed and they’d retrieved their luggage and carry-ons, they were met by Sam Evans, who had been elected to be their guide until the following day.
Kitty gave him a hug. They’d never been particularly close, but had spent a lot of time together preparing for nationals when Mr. Schue had decided to mix things up for the competition. The nationals they had lost. The nationals they had performed in to honor Finn. The competition they should have won. That she was sure they would have won if they hadn’t decided to do things different. But Mr. Schue had wanted to feature the seniors. And they had lost. No, she didn’t want to think about that. She wanted to concentrate on the positive, not the regrets of their past. “Good to see you Sam,” she told him.
“Nice to see you too Kitty,” he told her. “I wasn’t really expecting you though.”
“Change of plans,” Nancy told him. “I hope that’s not a problem.”
“Not at all,” Sam said. “Rachel and Kurt have a tradition of welcoming anyone who doesn’t have family in town to Thanksgiving dinner. We’ll just have to tell them to plan on one more ‘friend’ for dinner.”
Sam got them on a cab and delivered them to their hotel and helped them get their stuff into the room before excusing himself, telling him he’d be there around 9am to bring them to the Bushwick apartment to surprise everybody.
Kitty was impressed with the room. It was one of the nicer ones, not just a tourist hotel like she’d expected. They really spared no expense. The room was a suite, like Nancy had said. There was a bedroom with two queen sized beds in it, a spacious bathroom, a small kitchenette, and as promised, a main room with a hide-a-bed couch.
She momentarily wondered if the two beds were standard with the room or requested. But she shoved that thought out of her head. It really wasn’t any of her business weather Artie’s parents still slept together even though they were divorced.
Kitty unpacked her things and then excused herself to freshen herself up before they needed off to the hotel restaurant for dinner.
After taking a shower, redoing her makeup, and changing into clean clothes, Kitty reached into her purse and retrieved the container of birth control pills she had hidden in an inner compartment. When she and Artie had gotten serious, she had gotten her own from the same source as she’d gotten them from for Unique. After a few weeks apart, Kitty had stopped taking them, but resumed when she found about this trip. She didn’t know what might happen, but she wanted to be prepared. She hoped four days would be enough time to have enough of the drug to be effective if it came to that. She also had condoms AND some very thin lingerie tucked away in the same purse.
When Nancy hollered that they were ready, Kitty put it out of her head and joined them on their walk to the hotel restaurant.
# # #
At the restaurant, the three of them shared a table and Kitty spent most of the meal answering questions about herself from Artie’s mom and dad. Apparently James had wanted to meet Kitty for a long time since Artie had been talking about her quite a bit when they’d been dating.
# # #
Kitty hadn’t slept a lot the previous night, but was now so exhausted that she was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
That night she dreamed about Artie: eyes, his touch, the filing of his arms around her when she sat in his lap, his lips that felt like pillows, the feeling of his body against hers when they made love, and had the best nights sleep she’d had in ages.
# # #
The following morning Kitty awoke bright and early. She wanted to be ready when Sam got there and she still had to decide what she was going to wear from that three finalists she’d brought with her. She finally settled on a nice blouse and skirt that she thought he would like.
Sam arrived just when he said he would, and the four of them headed off to the subway. 45 minutes and 3 transfers later, they were approaching the building their apartment was located in.
When they began to ride the elevator up to the apparent, Kitty started to get nervous. Nancy, who was watching her whispered in her ear, “relax, it’s be fine. Breathe.” She hugged her shoulder and smiled.
Kitty smiled back as the door open to reveal Rachel, who clearly hadn’t been clued into the fact that she was coming either, but recovered quickly.
“Nice to see everyone,” she greeted them. “Welcome. If you’ll follow me.”
And she lead them into the main part of for apartment where a large group sitting down. She could see his chair faced away from her. Mercedes, Blaine, Kurt, and a number of other people she didn’t know were sitting around. She took them to be other NYADA students. Then she noticed the brunette sitting next to Artie.
“Everybody, we have a few more guests.” then she asked, “Artie I believe you know these ones…”
“MOM!” He shouted as he turned his chair, and Nancy come over to hug her son. His dad followed suit.
“Everybody,” he announced, “these are my parents, Nancy and James Abrams.”
Then seeing Kitty, who glanced at him shyly, he added, “and this is my- this is Kitty.”
The brunette suddenly seemed very uncomfortable.
Kitty’s eyes widened in surprise…
To Be Continued…
#$#$#
Author’s Endnotes:
I dont usually do cliffhangers but figured it would be more dramatic.
Oh, and for for record. The rough draft of this was written long before the spoilers of the song being used in season 6 came out. It was always my intention to have Kitty sing this song before she saw him again.
As always, please subscribe, favorite (if you are so inclined) ang review.