#vmc:tina

Tina had just been enjoying her day with Mike. In the small time that she had stepped out of the room to use the bathroom, she could have never guessed that soon the very secret she was trying her hardest to keep would be exposed. "Hey, I'm back-" Tina said as she re-entered the room, a bright smile resting on her face at first. But as soon as she saw her phone in Mike's hands and an angry look on his face, her smile instantly dropped and she could feel the color drain from her face. It wasn't hard to know what Mike was looking at. "Mike," she started, her voice weak as she cautiously walked toward him. "That's... that's nothing," she spoke, her voice anything but convincing. Tina knew it wasn't nothing, but she couldn't think of anything else to say to him in that moment.

To say Mike was furious would have been an understatement. It wasn't like he didn't know Tina was hiding something, he just never expected it to be this. He didn't even look up when Tina walked back into the room, he didn't want to direct his anger at her, not yet. His mind was still racing at the prospect of A still having been around all this time and what that implied about the things that had been happening, most of which he was sure he was still unaware of. Though as his girlfriend began speaking he finally looked at her. "Stop lying to me. Please, just stop. I knew you were keeping something from me, but I didn't think it would be this. Why didn't you tell me? What other secrets have you been keeping from me?"

Tina could feel her frown go deeper and deeper by the second. She had truthfully seen Mike this angry before. And of course he didn't. Mike wasn't an angry person and it took a lot to get him that why since he was very peaceful sort of person in general. But this was just enough to push him to that point. Tina bit her lip as she moved forward to take her phone back and tuck it in away. "Mike, please," she pleaded, running a hand through her hair in a frustrated manner before looking back at him. "I promise you I'm not hiding anything else. I just-" Tina cut herself off, not being able to help slightly stuttering and stumbling through the next words. "W-What was I supposed to do? I didn't tell you because I... I was scared. I didn't want you to have to deal with this, too. I was just trying to protect you."

Hearing the stutter in her voice melted Mike's heart almost immediately, and his anger was put on the backburner. He hadn't heard her stutter in years, and to hear it now was like a swift kick to the gut. "Hey, come here." He said, reaching out for her and pulling her closer. She genuinely looked terrified and that was enough for the protective side of himself to leap to the forefront. "We're together, Tee. That means that your problems are my problems, and this," he pointed to the phone, "is a big problem." He reached up to push her hair behind her ear and see her face. "What are you so afraid of?" His mind ran back to homecoming night and Tina's disappearance that night. "What did A do to you?"

Tina could almost feel herself on the verge of tears, the stress from the past weeks and the possibility of Mike being angry with her getting to her. But as soon as she felt his arms wrap around her, she let out a sigh of relief. It felt like a weight lifted off of her shoulders, honestly. At least it was out in the open now. Even if a stubborn voice at the back of her mind said that something bad would happen because Mike found out, she ignored it, choosing to just let herself calm down a little. She looked up to Mike. "It's what they did to the others," she spoke softly. "All those things that happened at homecoming... I'm sure you know now that A was behind all of that. Quinn's sister getting the Carrie treatment, Harmony's defaced posters..." she trailed off. "They did something to me, too," she added, biting her lip. "I told you when I came back from the bathroom that I was just overwhelmed, but... that was a lie." She sighed. "When I was in there, A got to me. Somehow, they turned off all the lights in the bathroom and locked me inside. And then they... they played this audio clip.. I don't know what it came from, but it was Quinn's voice." She stopped, collecting herself. "She was talking about how pathetic I was and how.. how good she would look for reforming me." She groaned, burying her face in his hands. "A finally let me out a while later. That's what happened," she finished, taking in a breath.

Mike wasn't surprised to hear that A had been behind what happened at homecoming. Since reading the text his mind had started piecing a few things together and he was starting to get an idea of the picture here. Someone, whoever they were, had gone through a great deal of trouble to punish others for whatever their reasons may be, and it seemed that they were using Quinn's murder as one of their tools. Which in itself made him sick to his stomach. A girl who had been younger than him at the time was brutally murdered, and despite what she did in her life no one deserved that. Much less did they deserve someone terrorizing their former friends and family, that was just sickening. Finally he understood why thinking of what Tina was hiding left a bad taste in his mouth, and perhaps deep down he suspected that she had been getting the texts again. But he never expected for it to escalate past that. Now that he knew he didn't know how he was supposed to protect her. "This is getting serious." If someone could lock Tina in a dark room...they could have done anything to her. It could have been worse, and it was already bad. "I'm so sorry that happened to you." He wrapped his arms around her tighter, as if by embracing her he could keep her from the cruelty of the world. "I should have been there to protect you." What sort of boyfriend was he that he could let this happen to her? She was being tormented and he was only feet away in the gym, dancing to pop music.

Tina nodded her head in agreement. She knew A was dangerous by now. It seemed like whoever it was had all this ammunition. Not even just against the three former best friends of Quinn Fabray, but against everyone and it was terrifying. She hugged Mike back tightly, closing her eyes and just allowing herself to feel safe in his embrace for the moment. A wasn't joking and Tina almost felt foolish because she hadn't even realized that when reading the reports back then about how Hunter's dorm room had been burned down. "Please don't blame yourself," she pleaded softly. "I was trying to protect you. I don't want anything to happen to you, Mike."

Mike shook his head at those words, he refused to accept them. "You don't have to protect me, I'm fine. My biggest problem is that my girlfriend had been keeping a huge secret from me, but now that I know what it is, we can finally help each other." He lifted Tina's chin to look into her beautiful brown eyes, the same eyes he fell in love with a long time ago. "I love you, Tee. Nothing is going to stop me from wanting to protect you, especially from this." It killed him that she had already been tormented by this person and worse than that she seemed terrified. That's why she'd been acting so weird, it wasn't just him it was because of all of this. "You're just always scared, aren't you?" He asked, fearing the answer to that question.

Tina smiled gently, nodding. "I love you, too," she promised. She bit her lip at his question, actually taking a few moments to think about it. "I'm notscared all the time," she started. "But if we're talking about being more paranoid and constantly more cautious, then yes," she settled on an answer. "I just have no idea who A is and it's frustrating. I have no idea who would want to do this to people for fun, it's such a sick thing to actually comprehend, you know?"

She may not have been scared all the time, but that didn't mean Mike was anymore comforted by her answer. "That sounds an awful lot like fear to me." But yes, he understood, and he nodded to show as much. He didn't know why anyone would do this, it was so wrong on so many levels. But past that human empathy part he was furious that someone went after Tina, the anger from before still curling somewhere deep inside of him. He ignored it for now in favor of caring for his girlfriend, but it didn't stop him from feeling it. "You shouldn't have to feel this way." And he knew that there was only one way for it to stop. He needed to figure out who A was, it was the only way to protect her.

Tina moved to snuggle more into Mike's arms, sighing softly. "I know," she breathed, not wanting to let go of him for even one moment. "Mike, I don't know what you're thinking, but please don't do anything too careless. It's like you said, A is serious. They can hurt people. I don't want you getting hurt, okay?" She frowned as she looked up at him, worry clear in her expression. She knew how much Mike cared about her and that was a whole point of what scared her. She knew that Mike would do anything he could to help her, even if it put himself at risk.