THE WORD 'REHAB' had been batted back and forth between Lindy and Kurt several times over the course of the last six months. It appeared though that finally, Kurt had decidedly agreed that going away for treatment would be the best option for him.
On the Monday night before his flight left, Kurt came to Lindy's apartment to say goodbye. She had felt that their parting would have been somewhat romantic, but Kurt was withdrawing, leaving him as a sweaty, panting mess on her couch.
She tried not to let this bother her. Again, it was all about strength. Lindy couldn't find the will to belittle Kurt when she was supposed to be praising him for finally making the difficult choice to change.
The only thing that did bother her was that she had let him leave the next morning without telling him about her pregnancy.
It was a strange feeling, having kept such a massive secret for so long, but as Kurt left and Lindy had gone straight to work, she told herself that she would find a way to tell him once he was in his rehab center. Maybe then the news would be goal-setting rather than terrifying for him.
Lindy was at work, Beth at the hospital working too, as she walked at her usually brisk pace down the hallways. Beth was jabbering away about some man that she had picked up in a bar and Lindy was putting up a good show of smiling and nodding along.
What distracted her was the thought that not many miles away, Kurt would be boarding a flight to California.
As the two women walked by the front nurse's desk, one of the ladies sitting there shot out of her seat and flagged Lindy down with an elaborate wave of her hand. Lindy scrunched her eyes in confusion.
"Me?" she mouthed.
Her fellow nurse, an older woman with a mane of poofy hair, nodded and beckoned her forward. Lindy exchanged a suspicious glance with Beth but approached the desk nonetheless.
"Phone call for you," the nurse explained, holding the phone against her shoulder and covering the mouthpiece. "The young man who called said it was an emergency."
"Another emergency?" Beth cried flippantly, looking at Lindy, aghast. Lindy flapped her fingers, a gesture for the desk nurse to hand her over the phone. There were only so many emergencies that could have happened. All of them involved either Trae or Kurt and none were particularly all that encouraging.
"Hello?" Lindy asked quietly, plugging her free ear to mute the background noise of the hospital.
"It's Krist. Kurt fucking ran away from the airport."
Oh god, here we go.
"What do you mean 'ran away?' You were supposed to be driving him to the airport!" Lindy protested. The nurses at the desk were making a terrible effort to not eavesdrop on her conversation. Beth wasn't setting the example, for she leaned in with curious eyes.
"I did! It's like he changed his mind last minute and didn't want to go. He tried to jump out of the car on I-ninety-five."
"Jesus," Lindy breathed. Krist's retelling of what had happened indicated a meltdown of epic proportions, even for Kurt.
"I got him inside the airport, but he freaked out again and punched me in the face. I wrestled him to the ground but he ended up getting away and the last I saw him, he was turning a corner in a dead sprint."
