“Really? You’re questioning me?”

“Kurt, no, I can’t. Not now, I have to go.” Before Kurt could get his balance back, she’d gone. The bed was being pushed by a bustling crowd of white coats and all Kurt could hear was the squeaking of the trolley wheels and the pounding in his head. No. What the… No. It couldn’t be. She couldn’t. Blaine.

“Wake up. Blaine, wake up. Now.” Kurt shook Blaine to life. How he’d gone into such a deep sleep in such a short time was mystifying. His eyes opened, and he immediately closed them again.

“No. I’m not done. Come back in a year.”

“Blaine! It’s Becca. It’s fucking Becca, I just, she was just, oh God, Blaine, wake up!” Blaine rubbed his eyes and yawned as he spoke.

“What? You saw Becca? Is she OK?”

“Blaine, she’s pregnant.”

“How did you find out? When did you see her?” He kept mumbling incoherently, “what do you mean, pregnant? Did she get married or something?”

“No, Blaine. She was really pregnant. Like, huge.”

“No, that’s stupid. It’s only been, what, four months? She can’t be.” Kurt grabbed him by the shoulders and sat him up, staring straight into his eyes.

“Blaine. Look at me. Becca is here, working in this hospital, and she is heavily pregnant. Try and think of the only way that could be possible.” Blaine’s jaw dropped. He jumped to his feet.

“Where is she?” Kurt grabbed him by the arms.

“I don’t know. She ran off; she must be in surgery. That gives us some time, OK? We need time to think about this. I’ll speak to the nurse at the desk and find out when she’s free, and we’ll figure something out.”

“But Kurt, she’s – what if -”

“I know.”

“But why would she-”

“I know, Blaine. I don’t understand it either. We just need to stay calm and talk to her.” Blaine opened his mouth to object, how the hell was he supposed to stay calm, how the hell could his best friend- but Kurt held his hand and put his other hand on his cheek. “No. We have to. We’ve waited for months now. We can wait a few minutes.”

*

They were waiting outside the theatre when she got out. Just sitting silently on a bench, looking up at her. Kurt managed to maintain eye contact while Blaine just stared at her stomach. He squeezed Kurt’s hand as tears filled his eyes. Becca looked at the ground.

“We should go somewhere. My office. It’s just down here.” They walked together in silence. Rebecca didn’t know what to say, Kurt knew he couldn’t speak without shouting, and Blaine’s throat had seized up. He felt like he’d swallowed a boulder. He focused on not throwing up and holding on to Kurt. That was all he could manage right now. At least his ankle didn’t hurt any more.

Rebecca held the door open for them as they walked in. Well, Kurt walked, Blaine was practically staggering. He wished he could just be angry like Kurt, but more than anything he was just in pain. She was his best friend. They sat down. She could barely fit behind the desk. Blaine was still staring at the bump and grasping Kurt’s hand.

“So,” Kurt started, breathing slowly, “are you going to explain?”

“Listen, I know you’re probably freaking out.” Kurt let out a single laugh. No fucking kidding. “But I really want you both to know that I didn’t plan this.”

“So you ran away with our baby by accident? Is that it? Seriously, Rebecca, you can do better than that-”

“No, wait, I wasn’t lying. I mean, Blaine, when I was calling you, I really thought something was wrong. I was so sure I was going to lose it, it hurt so much, and I was panicking-”

“It hurt? You know what else hurts?”

“Kurt, listen. Please. That day I honestly thought that was it. I imagined it all, I pictured telling you and going on without it, and then I realised that eventually I would have to go on without it. I’d never thought I would mind giving it up, but that day I started imagining losing it, imagining not having this little thing with me any more, and it was awful.”

“It was awful. Fucking awful. We went through it, Rebecca.”

“I know, and I still hate myself for it. But you don’t understand. You don’t know how it feels. It’s like this baby’s a part of me, OK? I can feel him moving. It’s like his heartbeat is my heartbeat.” Blaine looked up.

“Him?” She put a hand on her stomach and nodded. Blaine couldn’t breathe.

“I lost it, OK? I was a mess, and I didn’t know what to do. The thought of being apart from him felt like a heart attack. I just thought maybe I could… Well…”

“Steal him? You really thought you could just run away and we’d never find out?” Blaine was shaking his head, confused.

“I don’t understand. There was another doctor. He sat there and explained, with the white coat, and the clipboard, and he told me it was gone.”

“Blaine, she worked there. She knew him.” Kurt glared at her, eyes watering, while Blaine kept shaking his head in disbelief.

“No, she can’t have, you wouldn’t, Becca? You… You asked me to stay. I felt so guilty. The only thing that hurt as much as losing it, losing… Him, it was losing you. I thought you were so miserable that you had to leave. I thought it was all our fault for asking so much of you. I kept picturing you in pain, all alone in hospital… Rebecca, I thought I’d lost my best friend and my baby in one day.” He stared at her, lost, tears trickling down his cheeks.

“I regretted it straight away. I was on the plane out here knowing it was all wrong, and I felt so stupid. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t exactly turn around and say ‘Sorry guys, all a big mix up, it’s actually fine, I just had a weird spasm in my uterus, here’s your baby’.”

“And you thought we’d like it better if we never saw you again? You thought we’d rather keep believing our baby was gone?” Kurt was struggling to restrain himself. Blaine just sat, helpless.

“I don’t know! I mean, I just thought it could work. If I told you not to contact me, maybe-”

“No. No, Rebecca-”

“Blaine, please, I hate it when you call me that-”

“I don’t care. I hate it when you tell me my son’s gone when he’s not. I hate holding my husband on the floor outside a hospital, feeling more pain than he’s ever felt, and not being able to do anything about it. I hate crying for days, weeks, over losing two of the most important things in my life. Right now, Rebecca… I think I hate you.” Kurt put a hand on his arm.

“Blaine. This isn’t helping. Listen, Rebecca, it’s over now. We know. We know everything, so can’t we go back to the original plan? We can fix this. It’s due on the 25th, right? Yes, I remember. We both do, and were dreading it, but now, now we can have him. Becca, you can make this right.”

She looked to one side. She looked down. She closed her eyes. She shook her head.

“I can’t. He’s mine.”