“Blaine. Blaine!”

“Hmm?”

“You’re hurting me.”

“What? Oh, God, sorry!” Blaine loosened his grip on Kurt’s hand. Alexander and Stephanie were on their way. Kurt reached up to stroke Blaine’s hair, quickly moving his other hand so he could keep holding Blaine’s.

“You know it’s going to be OK, right? I mean, at the very least we’ve got an extra lawyer on our side. That can only be a good thing.”

“But Kurt, what if-” He paused.

“What?”

“What if she’s nice?”

“Blaine, nice is good. We want her to be nice.”

“No, I mean… What if she’s really nice and then it goes wrong? I mean, what if we stop talking again?”

“That won’t happen. We won’t let it. You saw how he was last night; she’s obviously good for him.” Blaine looked into Kurt’s eyes. His own were stinging.

“But Kurt, I can’t-” Kurt lowered his hand, rubbing Blaine’s back and pulling him closer, “I can’t lose another mom, OK?” His voice was weak and cracking, and Kurt closed his eyes tight and pulled Blaine in, kissing his hair and stroking his arm, resisting the urge to dig his fingers in and never let go. He knew that feeling. The feeling of being out on the edge, unable to stop yourself from wanting so desperately to let someone in. He’d missed his mother so much, and even though he felt guilty and scared it would all go wrong, he’d wanted to love Carole. He’d wanted to feel that warmth again, he’d wanted her to love him and treat him like a son, and he’d wanted nothing more than to let her. It felt like he was betraying his mother’s memory, and he knew it wasn’t really, but he was such a mess over it for months. And Blaine was having this thrown at him now, on top of everything with the baby, and seeing his dad again. Kurt didn’t know how he’d kept it together until now. He heard him sniff loudly, and felt him trembling in his arms. He held him tight, closing his eyes as he felt Blaine’s curls brush against his cheek.

“You won’t have to. I know it’s scary, but right now you need to pretend it’s not. Today she’s just another person. I bet in five minutes, we’ll be talking about the baby and it won’t even feel weird. Just remember your dad’s goofy smile when he was talking about her. She’ll be lovely. Hey, if she’s not then maybe she’ll be a better lawyer. But Blaine, they’re going to be here any second.” He cupped Blaine’s face, wiping a tear away with his thumb and smiling encouragingly. “Come on, you look gross when you cry. You need to make a better impression than that.” He picked up his napkin and dabbed at Blaine’s eyes. He smiled.

“Thank you, Kurt. I just, I-”

“No, no, no more of that. She’s an attorney, remember? Toughen up.” He kissed his forehead and they both took a deep breath. Blaine took a big gulp of coffee and stretched his arms out in front of him. Kurt hated changing the subject like that; he wished he could talk him through it properly, but it was more important that Stephanie met them at their strongest. Just at that moment, they heard a bell ring as Alexander walked in, holding hands with a woman. She was the same height as him, with a long, blonde ponytail and a light grey, perfectly-fitting suit underneath a bright red coat that went down to her knees. Her lips were red to match. Nobody would’ve guessed she’d just been on an overnight flight. Kurt resisted the urge to say how fabulous she looked. She whispered to Alexander, looking around nervously. He laughed, putting an arm around her waist and kissing her cheek. Blaine had never seen him smile like that. He and Kurt both stood up, giving a little wave. She patted Alexander on the arm and he looked up at them, nodding to her. They could see him say ‘Yeah, that’s them’, and she smiled a little too widely and waved back. She was every bit as scared as they were.

A minute or two later, they walked over to the table with drinks. Black coffee for him, a cookie and a hot chocolate for her, with cream and marshmallows. Kurt raised his eyebrows. That wasn’t exactly what he expected a lawyer to drink. She raised a hand apologetically.

“I know, it doesn’t exactly look professional, but this isn’t a normal business meeting. When I’m nervous, I need chocolate. Stephanie.” She held her hand out, smiling warmly. If it hadn’t been for the hot drink on the tray in her other hand, Blaine would’ve hugged her right there. Instead he took her hand, speechless, smiling, relieved. She was nice. Kurt took over, knowing Blaine would be overwhelmed.

“Hi, I’m Kurt, and obviously, this is Blaine.”

“Wow, Alex, you two look so alike!”

“Don’t they? It’s so great to meet you. I can’t believe you got a flight so quickly, you know you didn’t have to-”

“Are you kidding? He’s been talking about how much he misses Blaine for years. They finally patched things up; no way am I waiting back home.” Alexander looked around awkwardly. He hoped it would go without saying that he’d missed him. Blaine caught his eye, more surprised than he should have been. Kurt offered Stephanie a seat next to him.

“Well, he’s pretty great. I’d miss him too.” They smiled at each other. Stephanie managed to hold in an ‘Awww’, knowing better than to patronize them.

“I wish we could have a real talk and do all of this right. I know you don’t know a lot about me, and this whole situation is just weird and awful. But Alex just explained everything to me, the whole Rebecca thing.” Blaine saw her take his dad’s hand absent-mindedly, like she needed to hold on to him to calm down. She shook her head and shrugged, momentarily lost for words. “Fuck.” She plucked a tiny marshmallow from the top of her drink, licking the cream off it before popping it in her mouth. “I’ll be more articulate about it later, don’t panic. But… Fuck. It’s unbelievable.” Everyone nodded. They didn’t need to add anything. ‘Fuck’ pretty much summed it up. “We can fix it, though. And not just because I want you to like me or anything, although I’m guessing it can’t hurt, but she can’t get away with this. No way.”

“We just don’t know what to do. Can we really fight her?”

“Do you have a contract?”

“Well, yeah, but-”

“No buts. Legally, that baby is yours.”

“But biologically-” Kurt put his hand on Blaine’s.

“He’s ours, Blaine.”

“Kurt’s right.” Stephanie was determined. “She has zero claim here. Biology has nothing to do with it. Billions of people procreate. Kids are born every day to people who don’t deserve them, and they get crappy lives where they aren’t loved like they should be.” Blaine looked at his father, expecting another awkward moment between them, but instead he was looking at Stephanie, putting his hand on her lower back, wrapping her hand up in his as her eyes got narrower and her voice sterner. Kurt looked to Blaine to make sure he wasn’t imagining the tension. They were both suddenly on edge, trying to figure out what was happening. “You can’t define somebody by how their body works. Having a uterus didn’t stop Rebecca from running away. Biology didn’t stop your mother from walking out on you- oh God, Blaine, I-I’m sorry, I-”

“Am I missing something? Did something happen?” She closed her eyes and shook her head.

“It doesn’t matter. The point is, it’s not about biology. That’s the easy part. Any idiot can get pregnant; It’s about the next step that matters. Any idiot can tell you’re dying to hold this baby. Just to see it, and take it home, and be a family. And she had no right to take that away from you.”

She wasn’t smiling or worrying about making a good impression any more. She was angry. Alex’s arm reached up to rub her shoulder, and her hand crossed her chest to meet it. She took a deep breath and looked at him, a faint smile returning to her lips.

“You know what? I think all this chocolate first thing was a bad idea. Post-flight madness. I need something savoury first. Give me a second; I’m going to get a bagel.” She kissed Alex on the cheek, glanced at Kurt and Blaine apologetically, and walked over to the counter. Alex watched her go, and when he turned back to the table there were two concerned faces staring back at him.

“I guess I should explain-”

“Is she OK? Mr – Alex, did something happen?”

“It actually happened before I met her, with her first husband. They tried to have kids for a long time, then when she finally got pregnant, there were complications. The pregnancy was ectopic.” Kurt’s face fell immediately, but Blaine was still confused.

“What does that mean?”

“It just meant the baby couldn’t survive. They had to remove one of her fallopian tubes, but during surgery things kept going wrong, and she ended up having a hysterectomy.” Kurt squeezed Blaine’s hand.

“So she can’t have kids?” Alex shook his head.

“It was terrible, and it was basically what tore her marriage apart. But now it kind of helps her. After everything she went through trying to have a family, she chose to specialize in family law. She just likes making sure kids are brought up by the right people. That’s why-”

“That’s why she wants to help us?”

“Not just that-”

“Not just what?” Stephanie was back, with a salmon and cream cheese bagel in her hand.

“I’m sorry, I had to explain-” She stroked his hair lightly, sliding back into her seat.

“I was kind of hoping you would. Otherwise they’d just think I was crazy. But no, that’s not the only reason I’m doing this. We both want to help you because it’s the right thing to do. You know that, right? You know she’s in the wrong?”

“Of course we do; it’s just…” After a pause, Blaine found the words Kurt couldn’t.

“It’s just that in my head, she’s still my friend. I’ve spent four months thinking she’d be miserable, and being sure it was my fault. It feels wrong being mad at her. I feel like I should still be apologising. And this way she’ll be just as miserable as we would have been. As we were.” She looked straight into his eyes. She wasn’t angry now. She wasn’t upset. She was in control, and even more determined than before.

“You’ve done nothing wrong. Neither of you have. Anyone who would try to take a baby away from someone else shouldn’t be a parent. She has no right.”

“I’m sorry,” Kurt practically whispered, tentatively laying a hand on her arm, “about what happened. It must have been so hard.”

“Well, it was. But if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have met Alex.” He smiled and squeezed her knee. “And I wouldn’t be here, helping you. Like I said, family’s about more than that.”

Blaine couldn’t help smiling. They were giving each other the same looks he spotted Kurt giving him when he thought he wouldn’t notice. The way he probably looked at Kurt without even meaning to. That’s when he realised, if Becca hadn’t done what she’d done, he might never have seen his father again. He might never have seen him smile like that. And if they could get the baby back, it might actually be worth it.