“I’m glad you’re both here. It takes guts to admit you need help and to see you both here and trying really makes my job easier. So, tell me how this week went. Did you take the hour a day I suggested last…”

Blaine’s phone broke her off, ringing loudly with Finn’s ring tone. He smiled sheepishly at Nick and then at their newly found couples’ therapist. “Sorry. I swear I’d turned it off.”

He didn’t turn it off though, instead he put it on silent and he put the phone back in his pocket. He couldn’t help wondering what Finn needed.

“They didn’t go well,” Nick said, “it’s always about work with him.”

“My work is important,” Blaine said, “I can’t control when they might need me. Burt was buying Carole an early Anniversary present, I think the family lawyer has to be present when the family is buying an island.”

Nick rolled his eyes.

“So, it didn’t go well.”

“No,” Nick said at once.

Blaine saw the light coming from his pocket. His phone was going off again. He wanted to pull it out and see who it was now.

“Blaine?”

Their therapist was a woman in her thirties, Claire Harris. She had red hair and absolutely no fashion sense. The first time he saw her, Blaine had tried to imagine just what kind of comment Kurt would have made about her clothes.

“It could have gone better,” he said.

“If you tried to make time for us then yes, but you haven’t tried, Blaine, and…”

“My schedule isn’t exactly flexible and it isn’t just me in this relationship. You can change things around to make time for us.”

Nick scoffed.

Therapy wasn’t working. Blaine was almost convinced that it was making things worse. They’d gone to their first session a week earlier, just a few days after Nick returned home and slowly Blaine was starting to realize that there was more wrong with than he’d first suspected. He was tired of hearing Nick complain about his job and about the nights when he sometimes got home late, especially when he didn’t appreciate that when he wasn’t at work he was home and that was a huge part of his day. It wasn’t Blaine’s fault that Nick was at the gallery.

“Okay, do what I asked you to do whenever an argument breaks out,” Claire said, “just count to ten and relax.”

Technically they were supposed to call a time out and leave the room to cool off before trying to talk about it with some maturity.

Blaine did as he was told.

“Now,” Claire said, “let’s talk about this week, what might you want to talk about?”

Blaine tried not to show how useless he thought it would be. He already knew what the problem had been all week.

“We only did the hour thing two days and we were both pretty busy the rest of the time. But it’s been like this for a while, even before the incident, ever since Blaine decided to take that job.”

Blaine took a deep breath before he let himself respond. “I don’t understand how it’s my job alone that is apparently causing all of our problems.”

Nick cut him off before he could say anything else, “because if you hadn’t taken that job we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Why? Because I wouldn’t have become Kurt’s friend again? Excuse me for trying to help people through the money I get from the Hummels for charity. And excuse the fact that for once in my life I’m actually enjoying my job.”

It wasn’t that he’d hated the job he had before working for the family, it was just that the sort of things he did for the Hummels were more personal and more interesting even if they did occasionally require long hours of research or doing things that weren’t even in his job description.

“Because you get to work with the love of your life,” Nick said, “because you get to see the man that you meant to be Mia’s father.”

Blaine did sigh after that and he dropped his face in his hands. Nick just wasn’t letting it go and Blaine really didn’t blame him. It was just getting tiring. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Ten missed calls. Three voice mails.

“And there you go with the phone again.”

Blaine dropped it back into his pocket. “Sorry,” he muttered.

Claire tried to smile reassuringly, but came up with something that looked more like a grimace.

“Okay,” she said, “let’s talk about that, then. Your daughter. She’s biologically yours correct?”

Blaine nodded. “Yes.”

“And Nick wasn’t the planned father?”

Nick didn’t say anything, keeping his eyes trained on the wall.

“No. I thought that maybe Kurt might come back into my life and we could just raise her and be happy. It was stupid of course and I sort of chose Nick then and I let him become her other father.”

Claire nodded. “Why did Nick never know about this?”

Blaine felt like he was on trial. He could already see the courtroom form around him, he sitting at the stand with Claire as the judge and Nick sitting at one of the tables with a hired lawyer – one of their friends who’d taken Nick’s side.

“It wasn’t important. I gave up on that silly dream of Kurt just showing up and realizing that he’d been an idiot. I gave up that dream and Nick wasn’t very interested in the process. He never once asked who the surrogate was. I didn’t think he’d care at the time. Amie was her mother but she was out of the picture at once and I gave up on Kurt. Mia was mine and Nick’s no matter what my intentions were.”

“Does Kurt know?”

Blaine shook his head. “I don’t intend for him to find out.”

After Nick found out he’d been silent all the way home, only interacting with Mia when he had to, but for the most part silent. It was only after Mia had been put to bed that he’d finally brought up the subject.

“So, it’s not some crazy coincidence that Amie Hummel and our daughter resemble each other quite a bit, is it?” He asked and Blaine could see the glimmer of hope in his eyes that was asking him to deny it.

“No, it’s not,” Blaine answered knowing fully well that if he tried to deny it, it would come back and bite him in the ass, “she was the surrogate.”

Nick got up from the seat he’d chosen in their kitchen and began to pace. “And why did you choose her? Would no one else have done it?”

“I asked and she offered,” Blaine said, “Amie was a good friend and I know her and I thought why do it with someone I don’t know. Amie was perfect for it and she wanted to do it.”

Nick hadn’t drawn the right conclusion from the start, he just hated the idea that their daughter was in some way related to the Hummels. It hadn’t been for a while later that night that he saw why.

“She looks like Kurt,” he whispered later that night when they were getting ready for bed. It had almost gone well and Blaine had thought that he was out of the clear. He didn’t want Nick to know the reason why.

“Who?”

“Amie. Mia. She looks like you and Kurt.”

Nick said nothing more after that, that night, but the implication was there.

Until that meeting it hadn’t been brought up again. Blaine could still see the resentment and hurt in Nick’s eyes and a big part of him understood the reason why but another smaller part couldn’t understand why Nick couldn’t see that who Mia’s mom was didn’t matter.

- - -

Session Four

Blaine pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned it off before putting it back into his pocket. The family had all been told about the hour a week that Blaine would not be able to pick up his phone. They were supposed to direct all their calls to his office instead and if it was really serious she would call Claire’s office for him. It was a whole mess that Blaine wanted to avoid completely, but it was a whole part of their therapy sessions. Give and take. He was happy that at least he’d managed to convince Nick and Claire that he couldn’t shut off his phone every day when he and Nick were having their hour or two of alone time to work on their relationship.

Nick smiled at him and walked to his usual seat. Blaine sat down next to him. The chairs were comfortable enough even if they didn’t go with the rest of the d�cor. Blaine couldn’t help but think that Kurt would have hated that room and would have redecorated it in his mind within minutes of entering. He hated how much he thought about Kurt.

“Hello,” Claire said and then jumped right into it, “how was your week?”

It had slowly been getting better. Claire’s techniques to start their communication back up and to get them to try and understand each other better were certainly working.

“Much better,” Nick said, “we’ve had less interruptions lately and Mia is doing wonderfully. We didn’t accomplish the homework exactly, but we did try and spend more time together.”

Claire had told them to go away for the weekend on their own, but even though they’d planned a trip to Boston, the question of where Mia would stay had been brought up and they’d started arguing over it and then Finn had taken out one of the cars and almost hit a pedestrian and the trip had been cancelled.

“What happened?”

“Work happened,” Nick said.

“Which I could have finished in time to go,” Blaine added, “but we argued about who Mia would stay with.”

Claire crossed her legs. “And was it resolved?”

Blaine didn’t think it had. It was part of such a larger fight that he and Nick kept having and Blaine knew it was going to come up again.

“No,” he said, “and it won’t be.”

“Why not?”

Nick opened his mouth to speak, but Claire shook her head at him. “Tell us, Blaine, why do you think it wasn’t resolved. You tried what I suggested didn’t you? And the two of you are here and that old tension isn’t very present these days.”

Blaine sighed. “It’s not the argument about Mia in particular, it’s just that since I started working for the Hummels, Nick hasn’t been very receptive of them. I know with Kurt and everything that it’s hard, but they’re still my family. More so now since my father died.”

Claire turned to Nick and Blaine looked anywhere but at Nick for a while, before he braced himself and faced him.

“Amie is her mom,” Blaine added, “Amie Hummel is Mia’s mom and someday Mia will ask about her and Amie wants to be there for her then and now and they’ve spent time together before. Carole loves children. She used to be a nurse and she’s still CPR certified. When I mentioned the trip Nick and I were planning they offered to look after Amie and the moment it was brought up with Nick he refused. But they are my family and more so Mia’s.”

Nick bit down on his lip before he spoke, “but what about Kurt?” he asked, “what if I don’t want her near him? Could you have guaranteed that he wouldn’t see her?”

“No, but she would have been in a familiar place with people she’s spent more than a few hours with and alone at that.”

Claire had been silent through it all as she sometimes liked to do because she said it was sometimes just better for them to talk things out together, but she spoke up then.

“Nick, I want you to consider trying to come to terms with the fact that their presence in your lives will not change. As the two of you come together I’ve asked you to try and be accommodating to each other and so far I think it’s been working and this is just another place where you’re going to work hard at finding some balance.”

Nick nodded solemnly and Blaine knew this was going to be the hardest part of it all. He knew what Nick wanted and he also knew what he’d ultimately not be willing to give Nick.

For years after his break up with Kurt he’d convinced himself not only that he was over Kurt but that he could blame everything that had destroyed his family on the Hummels when that wasn’t true. He’d tried to hate them because he missed them. Without them he’d been alone until he found Nick and being around Burt and Carole again and even Finn and Rachel brought everything back to him. He loved those people. They were his family far more than his father had been and so much more than his mother.

Nick didn’t understand what Blaine meant when he spoke about Burt as more than just his boss, he didn’t see them like Blaine did and Blaine hated more than anything how he didn’t try to understand. That was probably Blaine’s fault, though, having told Nick about Drew and how he and his mom had divorced because of his job.

“But you couldn’t even consider my parents as good enough to watch her,” Nick shot at Blaine.

Blaine didn’t address Nick. “His parents live in Southern Jersey and other than a few hours occasionally they haven’t spent any time with Mia when I was not present. She isn’t their granddaughter; they don’t see her that way as much as they don’t think I’m right for Nick.”

Claire looked startled. “Oh,” she said and then looked at Nick, “we haven’t even talked about your parents yet.”

- - -

Session Seven

Nick didn’t know if the therapy was helping or just letting them push their issues aside in a way that let them move on a little, but he had begun to see changes in their relationship. Blaine was trying harder, but then so was he even if in the back of his mind he still thought that it was all going to shatter eventually when Kurt and Blaine were drawn together again.

He was early for the session because the gallery was technically closer to the office and he thought Blaine was at Burt’s office that morning and that was across town.

“Hey, Nick,” the receptionist said. She was a nice girl in her late teens or early twenties. Nearly every time Nick saw her she had a book propped open.

“Hi,” he said, “Blaine’s going to be a little late today, I think.”

They never got there together due to their perspective jobs and during the first session Nick had felt weird meeting Blaine there and he’d gotten there first then too.

“You can just wait out here for him if you want,” the receptionist offered, “unless you want to go in there.”

He walked towards the door leading into Claire’s office and pushed it open. She was seated in her usual chair and had a folder open in front of her.

“Oh, hello, Nick,” she said, “where’s Blaine?”

“Running late, I think,” he said, “he said he might this morning.”

“Well, come on in. Sit down.” She offered another smile and moved something in the folder.

Nick didn’t know if he was supposed to remain silent or try to make small talk. For a moment he wished he’d stayed outside and tried to talk to the receptionist, maybe get a book recommended to him.

“It’s been getting better,” he said, “me and Blaine I mean,” Nick added and then before she could even try to interject continued, “but I still can’t get past the idea that he’s just trying this hard to keep us together because he’s afraid of what would happen if we did break up.”

Claire closed the folder. “Tell me something, Nick, if you think that Blaine will leave you anyway, then are you fighting for the two of you?”

“Of course I am,” Nick said at once. “I love Blaine. He’s the best thing that ever happened to me and I would never give up on him.”

Claire nodded. Sometimes it felt like Claire had a lot to say but only told them a little bit. It was one of those moments and Nick wanted to ask her just what she wanted to say.

Nick waited to see if she would say something, but she didn’t. He continued, “Kurt is the love of his life though, isn’t he? If soul mates existed…if it was possible that two people were meant for each other over everything else. He will never love me like he loved Kurt and I’ve known that all along but of course I thought maybe he could love me that way someday and I just…I saw him on the days leading up to – to the…the kiss and he was different and I think I knew something was up.”

“What are you saying?” Claire asked.

“I’m not giving him up,” Nick said, “I don’t believe in soul mates…and he would never agree to leaving me even if I wanted him to for his own good.”

“Yes,” Claire said, “exactly. He wouldn’t leave you, Nick, because he loves you and because he’ll fight for you and that should be enough to show you that all these insecurities you keep having about his fidelity to you aren’t such big concerns.”

Nick tried to hold onto her words and really make them mean something, but a part of him already knew that there would come a day when Blaine would come to his senses and realize that he’d made a mistake staying with him. And he couldn’t help but let himself be selfish. What kind of man would he be if he just let the person he loved walk away?

When Blaine arrived he was on his phone, taping away at it as he opened the door.

“Sorry,” he said, “traffic. And if you’ll give me just a minute and I’ll be right with you.”

Nick hated seeing the desperate look on Blaine’s face when his phone was not on and near him. His phone was practically his world these days like it hadn’t really been before. Each Hummel had their own ring tones now and Nick knew them all but Kurt’s. Kurt never called Blaine’s phone, or texted. If he did Nick never knew about it. He dealt with their money with his phone, Nick knew, and he had the numbers of a bunch of important people in there. The phone could ring at any moment.

“Okay,” Blaine said and shoved his phone into his pocket, “all good and ready.”

The session was just like the others except that if Nick were to compare this one to one of their firsts he would not that he and Blaine sat with their chairs closer together and they weren’t looking for any small thing to pick out about the other and turn into a fight. They knew how to deal with their issues now. They talked about their problems.

Blaine phone rang. Nick turned to look at him at once. Claire raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry,” Blaine said, “but I really can’t turn it off today. I should have said something.”

The ring tone was unfamiliar and yet familiar at the same time. It sounded like a melody he’d heard before but he couldn’t place where.

He saw Blaine pull out his phone again and tap an answer back to whoever it was he was texting.

It didn’t take fifteen minutes before it rang again. The same ring tone.

“Sorry,” Blaine muttered.

Nick knew then that nothing they did could stop it from crumbling. They had been holding on for just under two months, slowly trying to go back in time but he could see that maybe it was impossible for him to take Kurt’s place in Blaine’s heart.

“What is so important?” Claire asked, “if you don’t mind me asking.”

“Family business,” he said, “kind of need to know.”

It was the way he said it, sort of pausing as if he didn’t know if that was the right answer. He was lying. Nick didn’t dare ask the question nagging at him though. He couldn’t ask, because getting a confirmation would break him, but if he was wrong then he was breaking them.