“I don’t know how you do it, Blaine. I’ll probably see you in an hour after we’ve finished these off.”

The little girl clinging to the tails of her coat giggled.

“Must be that secret ingredient,” he said, grinning at them both. “And no, I’m not telling you what it is. Have a great evening, you two.”

He kept smiling as the bell on the door jingled when they left and more people came in. He liked work when it was busy like this and he was by himself. Not for the money, but for the noise, the bustle, the chatter and excitement of people choosing their pastries or cakes or just loaves of bread. There was something about buying bread from a bakery instead of a supermarket that really got people in a good mood. But it could have been the smells wafting out of the kitchen. Either way, he was managing to distract himself from the Kitty situation and having a great afternoon when his phone buzzed on the shelf behind him.

Normally he ignored it when it was this busy, especially on Artie’s day off. But Kurt’s name was flashing on the screen.

“Hey, Kurt, what’s up? Thank you miss, that’ll be four seventy-five. Have a great day. Sorry, it’s rammed in here. What’s up?”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called.”

He’d obviously been crying. Blaine froze.

“Kurt?”

“It’s Mai. I’m at the hospital.”

He turned his back on the queue.

“Oh my God. Is she okay? What happened?”

Kurt sniffed.

“She’s fine now, she just- I tried calling Rachel but she didn’t answer and- and I needed to hear a friendly voice, but- wait, you’re at the store, aren’t you? Blaine, just get back to work, okay, forget I called.”

“No, Kurt, wait- which hospital?”

“Lima General, but honestly, she’s okay now. I was just freaking out.”

“Kurt, give me twenty minutes, okay? I’m on my way.”

“No, I- thanks. Thank you, Blaine.”

“Don’t mention it.”

They both hung up and Blaine turned back to the customers.

“I’m really sorry, everybody, but I’ve got to go. Whatever you’re holding right now, it’s yours.” He shushed the elderly ladies as they thanked him profusely, refusing the bills they pushed into his hand. “Don’t worry about it, girls, I’m sure I’ll see you again soon. Just buy yourselves an extra cookie next time and we’ll call it even. I really need to lock up.”

*

Luckily, he still knew where the paediatric ward was. Kurt was hunched forward on a chair, holding Mai’s hand to his lips as she slept. Blaine walked up quietly and placed a hand on his shoulder. He flinched, saw it was him, and rose to yank him into a hug.

They were silent for almost a minute as Kurt squeezed Blaine as hard as he could, crying into his shoulder.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m here,” Blaine whispered as he hugged back, rubbing a firm hand over Kurt’s back and gripping his shoulders. Kurt’s breaths heaved out as if he’d been holding them for hours, which Blaine realised he probably had.

“God, I’m so sorry to drag you down here.”

Blaine pulled back to look Kurt in the eyes.

“Stop that. Tell me what happened?”

“I’ve told her. I told her a million times she can’t have nuts, but the teacher told me she traded with another kid at lunch, and- she couldn’t breathe, Blaine. She must have been terrified.”

“No more terrified than you. Kurt, she’s going to be fine. They’re tougher than you think.”

He winced as soon as he’d said it. He’d heard the same thing a thousand times and he knew it didn’t help.

“Everyone always says that. She doesn’t look very tough right now.”

“Kurt.”

“It’s just that- I was terrified when I adopted her, and so many people told me it was a bad idea doing it on my own, but now I just- every time I think I’m doing okay, something happens, something like this, and I feel like an idiot all over again. I can’t handle this on my own.” He knew it was pointless saying this, because he’d managed to keep her alive this far and he wasn’t just going to give her back, but now that Blaine was sitting here, so calm and together and knowing just what to do, he couldn’t stop himself. “I’m not enough. She needs more than just me.”

Blaine pulled Kurt in again, firmly gripping his shoulder and stroking soothing circles onto his back.

“You’re more than enough. And you’re not alone, Kurt, you’ve got Rachel, Santana, Brittany… and you’ve got me. I’ll do whatever I can.”

Kurt sniffed and pulled away, suddenly sheepish at the solemnity in Blaine’s voice.

“Well, hopefully you won’t have to do this again.”

He sank back into the chair, and Blaine dragged another one over to sit with him. Kurt reached out to stroke Mai’s hair. Blaine reached out to squeeze Kurt’s knee. They were quiet for a little longer.

“She’s so small. I forget how little she is sometimes.”

Blaine smiled.

“I know the feeling.” Kurt raised his eyebrows. “Kitty had to have her appendix out when she was seven. We thought she was just trying to get attention, because Zach was only a few weeks old and we were too tired to be any fun, so we just tried to distract her, but then she doubled up in pain and we panicked. She was in surgery an hour later.”

“Oh my God, was she okay?”

“Yeah. We just felt awful for not listening.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

Blaine looked at him pointedly, and Kurt realised why he’d chosen that story.

“I know. We were trying to do what was best. That’s all anyone can do.”

Kurt put his hand over the one on his knee and gripped onto it, smiling at Blaine through tear-filled eyes.

“Mai’s going to be okay,” he repeated.

Kurt sighed.

“I know she is, but when I saw it was the school calling me, when I heard the word hospital, I really thought-” Blaine shuffled closer, putting his arm around Kurt’s shoulders. “I thought I was going to lose her.”

He closed his eyes and leaned his head on Blaine’s collar bone. There was a pause. Kurt let himself be held.

“I remember when Kitty woke up. I stayed at the hospital and Quinn went home to take Zach off my mom’s hands, and I barely slept. Just sat by her bed, holding her hand. Then I felt her fingers twitch and I started crying with relief, and she told me to stop embarrassing her.”

Kurt laughed.

“She must have been a great kid.”

“She was. Is. She’s still in there somewhere.”

“How do you do it, Blaine?”

Blaine frowned.

“Do what?”

“Stay so calm? Know what to say? How often were your kids in hospital?”

Blaine laughed.

“I don’t know. There’s a limit to how much you can protect them when they decide they want to be cheerleaders and stuntmen. I’m glad that one didn’t last long enough to break anything.”

Kurt took a deep breath and puffed his cheeks out, sliding down in his seat and tilting his head back.

“Well. Some second date this turning out to be.” Blaine looked at him, unable to keep the surprise from his face. Kurt tried to backtrack. “I’m just kidding. This is just-”

“I was just going to agree with you.” Blaine covered Kurt’s hand with his own. “Maybe something more conventional for the next one?”

Kurt blushed and smiled.

“Good idea. I’ll leave it up to you, seeing as I organised this extravaganza.”

“Stop taking credit for your daughter’s work. Don’t be that dad.”

“Sorry.”

They kept smiling and holding hands and watching Mai sleep until a nurse came up behind them.

“I’m sorry, but visiting hours are over.”

They parted as if they’d been caught doing something terrible, and Blaine grabbed at his wrist only to remember he’d left his watch at work.

“Wait, what time is it?”

“Four thirty.”

“Shit. Kurt, I’m really sorry, Kitty’s supposed to be meeting me at the store so I can drive her home. This isn’t going to be pretty. I’m so sorry, I’ve gotta run- shit, shit, shit-”

“No, I get it. Thanks for coming. I can’t tell you what it means.”

Blaine paused to smile at him, shifting awkwardly. It was all too abrupt and rushed.

“It’s okay. If there’s anything else I can do, let me know,” he called on his way out of the children’s ward.

*

He expected to see an angry daughter when he arrived. Maybe nothing there and an angry daughter at home. He found chaos.

The door was wide open, swinging in the breeze, the glass in the frame unbroken. He could barely see the floor. It was covered in food and shattered glass from the shelves that had been broken. The cash register was open, but he could tell nothing had been taken from it.

It wasn’t a robbery. It was someone with a key trying to do as much damage as possible. It was Kitty.

He stood in the middle of the store, hopelessly trying to take it all in. Jars of cookies had been smashed on the floor. Loaves of bread had been torn apart. There was a space on the wall where their family photograph had been taken off and thrown to the ground. He didn’t look at the broken frame on the floor. He locked the door, closed the blinds and picked up a broom.

Blaine forced himself to breathe slowly as he swept up. He tried to pretend it was a clean-up like he’d have to do any other day. He picked up the bigger things by hand then found the dustpan to get the rest of the debris. He hovered to get the last pieces of glass, and apart from the floury vapour hanging in the air, the missing stock, and the lack of glass shelves that should have been displaying it, it almost looked normal. He walked behind the counter and picked up the frame from the floor. He looked at the crumpled picture, smoothing it out by the register: him, Quinn and the kids, a couple of summers ago, at some barbecue. There was a splodge of ketchup on Zach’s shirt and it was a little blurry, but they all looked happy. They were happy. He looked around himself at the store and it looked so heartbreakingly empty. He used to have a family, and now he had an empty store and a lot of lonely Friday nights ahead of him.

His hand had started shaking as it gripped onto the photo and he turned his back to the counter, sliding down to the floor. He barely noticed the tears rolling down his cheeks as he imagined Kitty tearing this place apart, so angry and hurt and miserable and lashing out, and he was somewhere between sympathetic and furious. She knew how much the place meant to him. She wanted to hurt him and it had worked. Hidden in the, dark, empty shop which for once didn’t smell of fresh bread, he sat behind the counter and cried, clutching the photograph in his fist.

He put a sign in the window: ‘Closed until further notice. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.’

Kitty heard the door open downstairs. She waited for it to slam closed, but it clicked quietly. She grabbed a tissue and wiped the tears from her face, blowing her nose so she would sound relatively normal, and hauled herself out of her room.

Blaine was waiting for her when she padded down the stairs. She fixed his gaze and assumed an air of confidence, standing up straight.

“You look happy with yourself.”

“Where were you?”

“No, Kitty. Me first. I know it was you. Why did you do it?”

“You weren’t there.”

“I know. I was with Kurt, and I’m sorry-”

She snorted.

“Of course you were. Should have fucking guessed.”

“That word doesn’t make you sound clever, Kitty. I’m sorry I was late, but-”

“An hour late, Dad.”

“Yes. It was an emergency. Was there some sort of emergency that made you destroy my store?”

She paused. She’d practised this fight in her head but now it was all going wrong. She tucked her hair behind her ear and Blaine noticed that her hand was red and messily bandaged.

“I’m going out.”

“What’s that?”

She glanced at her hand and tried to hide it.

“It’s nothing. I… hurt it.”

“Come here. Let me fix it up for you.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Now.”

He reached into a cupboard for the first aid kit. He took her wrist and carefully unwrapped the cut, which was deep enough to risk infection. He ran cool water over it and she hissed involuntarily at the sting. She didn’t speak, but his dad instincts were hard to fight off.

“Okay. I’ll just get it cleaned up and it won’t hurt so much.”

“Mmm.”

“Was it the broken glass?”

She nodded.

Any other time he would say something about karma, or ‘this is why you don’t play with sharp things’, but he didn’t have the energy to joke.

“Well, at least nothing’s stuck in there. Let me just-”

He gave it a wipe with some antiseptic and she winced.

“Sorry.”

She shook her head with the slightest shrug. They both knew he wasn’t the one that should really be apologising. He took a bandage out of the tin and wrapped it around her palm gently. It almost felt like any other scraped knee or splinter she’d had when she was little, except she wasn’t crying. They both wanted to more than they ever had before.

He tucked the bandage and rummaged around for a safety pin to hold it in place. He allowed himself a moment to hold her hand, using the pretence of checking it was okay; neither of them bought it but Kitty didn’t fight it. Blaine took a breath and looked into her eyes.

“Kitty, I-”

She looked cautiously hopeful.

“Yeah?”

They paused for a moment, eyes locked.

“I think you should go to your mom’s.”

“Oh.”

“Not permanently, not if you don’t want to, but- but we can’t keep going like this. You’re obviously unhappy here.”

“Okay.”

“I don’t want to make you stay where you’re unhappy.” She didn’t argue. “And honestly, I…” he hated himself before he even said it, “I don’t want you here tonight.”

“Dad-”

“You know you hurt me today. Don’t pretend you don’t know. I think tonight we both need some space.”

She pulled her hand away.

“Fine.”

“I just- maybe I made a mistake. Maybe you should have stayed with her. I thought you’d both be better off here but if you want to stay with her- we can just try it out for a couple of nights.”

She stared at her hand as she held it close to her chest.

“I’ll call her. I better go pack.”

She slid out of her seat at the table and made for the stairs.

“I was at the hospital, Kitty. That’s why I was so late. Kurt’s daughter had an allergic reaction and he was scared, so he called me. I’m sorry it made me late, but I had to go.”

He saw her knuckles whiten as she gripped the bannister. She looked at the floor.

“Oh.”

“I knew how he was feeling. He thought she was- it’s terrifying. I wouldn’t want anyone to go through that alone. Do you understand?”

No response. She kept looking down.

“I have to pick Zach up from swimming. You probably shouldn’t be here when I get back.”

Kitty watched as he picked up his keys and walked out.