#4

October 5, 2017

“I hate you, hate you, hate you.”

Quinn's voice came sharp through the closed door and echoed in the quiet hospital corridor, ending with a ragged scream. Kurt dropped the magazine he was reading. There was a breath of silence, and then a piercing, “No, get out!”

The door to the birthing room opened a moment later and out came Blaine, looking pale and dejected. He slumped into the armchair opposite Kurt and just sat there, looking into space with a spooked expression.

Eventually, Kurt decided to break the silence. He was here more for Blaine than Quinn anyway. Even though he'd come to know her better over the months she'd been living with Rachel, she was still nowhere near as close to his heart as either of the Anderberry siblings. Not to mention, he still held a bit of a grudge. She did hurt his best friend.

“I hear this happens a lot,” he said.

Blaine shrugged and looked down at his hands. There was a neat line of red crescents on the top of his left palm. “She let Rachel stay.”

“Rachel didn't put that baby in her belly,” Kurt pointed out gently.

“I guess.”

Blaine got up from the chair and started pacing the small space, never able to keep still when he was nervous. A nurse passing in a hurry nearly collided with him in the narrow corridor.

Kurt waited until Blaine was done apologizing, then continued calmly.

“Plus, Rachel did Lamaze with her. She knows how to help.”

Blaine just hummed, frowning as he kept pacing. As devoted as he was to his daughter, he'd decided to hoard up his leave days for the time after Rose was born, so it was Rachel who had accompanied Quinn to most of her doctor's appointments and birthing classes. It didn't seem like a hardship to her, seeing as they were still living together, but Kurt knew that Blaine felt guilty about it anyway.

“So how was it going before you got kicked out?” Kurt asked after a while. Blaine perked up.

“Well the doctor said she's almost there.” Then his face fell. “I can't believe I won't be there to…”

“… to see her slip out of your ex's vagina?” Kurt finished for him, and then slapped a hand over his mouth. “Sorry,” he mumbled through his fingers. “No sleep, no filter.”

Blaine's eyes widened and then he snorted, a startled sound unwinding into a fit of giggles that left him bent over, clutching his stomach. Kurt was relieved to see the tension that had been on his face all through this long night gone. Blaine smiled at him, wiping his eyes.

“Thank you. You have no idea how much I needed a laugh.”

Kurt grinned. “You're welcome. Now come on, sit down. There's nothing more you can do right now. Stop annoying the nurses and let me give you a shoulder rub.”

*

The baby was tiny and wrinkled, her face a little swollen. Kurt had followed Blaine to Quinn's room once she was settled, but he held back, the only one unaffected by the new arrival and unwilling to crowd them. Instead, he watched his friends' reactions, stupidly moved by the fact that he was allowed to witness such a moment in their lives.

Quinn looked exhausted, but glowing with quiet happiness as she held the mewling bundle in her arms. Rachel was bursting with joy, her energy filling the little room. Kurt could see how hard she had to restrain herself from bouncing and squealing. Instead, she just beamed like a thousand suns.

But it was Blaine Kurt couldn't stop looking at – Blaine with eyes full of love like Kurt had never seen. Not even an hour old and that little girl was already the love of his life. When he got to hold her – Quinn's grudge gone as soon as the pain stopped – Kurt had to actually avert his eyes. The moment felt too private to watch.

*

They left before 6 a.m., to let Quinn rest and to catch some sleep themselves. When they came back to visit that afternoon, Rachel was already there, sitting at Quinn's bedside, Rose asleep in the bassinette nearby.

Before Kurt had time to step through the open door, a tug to the back of his shirt made him pause. He turned to frown at Blaine who was standing behind him, staring into the room with a haunted expression. Kurt followed his line of sight and it was only then that he noticed it – the girls' hands joined on the covers by Quinn's side, the look on their faces as they talked quietly, too intimate for mere roommates or even sisters-in-law. As they watched, Rachel brought Quinn's hand to her lips and brushed a quick kiss to the inside of her wrist.

A door banged down the corridor, making the girls startle, and in a blink, the scene before them was sweet and innocent again, just two friends talking about the newborn baby. But Rachel looked up in time to see Kurt frozen there. Panic flashed in her eyes.

Blaine wasn't behind him when Kurt stepped into the room with a bouquet of flowers for the new mom. He came in a few minutes later, carrying a large pink balloon and looking calm and collected as ever. And if Kurt hadn't spent years with this boy as they grew up, hours and hours every day, he might have missed it – the tight set of his jaw, the minutely changed angle of his eyebrows. The lack of sparkle in his eyes. All through their visit, he never once looked at his sister or his ex-fiancée, all his attention focused on his little daughter instead.

Rachel and Quinn didn't notice, busy cooing over Rose as she woke up.

They were leaving when Rachel ran up to Kurt and hugged him tightly, only to whisper in his ear, “Please don't tell Blaine.”

Right. Of course he wouldn't.

He didn't need to.

*

Blaine was pacing Kurt's living room, his arms wound tightly around his middle.

“I can't believe she left me for Rachel. God, I should have known. They were always texting, talking on the phone almost every day. ‘Quinn's like a sister to me already'.” He mocked in Rachel's most earnest tone. Then he huffed out a bitter laugh. “Sisters my ass.”

 “So you think they are really a couple?” Kurt asked carefully.

Blaine scoffed. “Of course they are. I know what Rachel looks like when she's in love. I know what Quinn looks like when she's in love.” He turned to Kurt. “Did you know there was something between them?”

“No,” Kurt said. “I wondered, but I didn't think it was anything more than a possibility yet.”

Blaine nodded, still pacing.

“Do you want to talk to them?” Kurt asked after a minute.

“No.” Blaine stopped by the window, his face blank. “I don't even know what I feel about it yet. Let it be for now. I only have a week left with Rose before going home, I don't want to waste it on conflicts.”

Kurt nodded. “Okay. Do you want wine?”

“Fuck yes. Please.”

—-

CHAPTER ART by headbandxbowties

Love of his life