Kurt could sense the disapproval, the anger simmering just below the surface, feel Santana shaking next to him, as he reached for another tissue and murmured, "You know, I'm not going to change his mind about this. If he's not ready to be a father, then he's not ready. I'm not going to pressure him into it. It's optional for him, I don't have a choice. I'm going to have this baby, and I'll raise him or her by myself. It won't be so hard. I can drop out of NYADA for a while, just not go back in September, put off my freshman year again until next January. I'll be able to find a nanny to watch the baby by then. I'm independent, I don't need to rely on anyone else. I can do this alone."

"Of course you can," Santana soothed him, slowly rubbing the back of his neck to keep him calm. "But you don't deserve this, the father just running away without saying a thing about the baby. He doesn't even want to accept that you're having his baby, he just doesn't care. Please just let me and Doctor Who over here chase him back to Ohio and make him see the error of his self-centred ways?"

"No, you cannot go and beat him up because he made the decision that he's not ready to have a baby, I'm sure he'll still give me money and as much support as he can," Kurt said, his words ringing untrue in his heart. "Just leave it, it'll make me feel so much better. We're only nineteen, he doesn't have to take so much responsibility for this. It's my fault for not making sure the condom would be effective, I didn't check to make sure it was in date and I know his habits. Just leave it be."

The phone rang loudly, and Rachel reached over to answer it as Adam squeezed Kurt's wrist, giving a soft smile to the curve of his belly beneath the tight shirt clinging to the bump. She listened intently for a moment, then handed it to Kurt with a quietly cheerful, "OB-GYN office, for you."

No sooner had Kurt lifted it to his ear than Dr. Phillips began to speak, his voice slow and reassuring as he said, "We need you to come back into the office, Kurt. There's something we didn't see before with your ten-week scan, that will make this pregnancy significantly harder on you and your body and those you have to support you." All the colour drained from Kurt's face, and he moved a protective hand to cup his belly, a thousand and one worst-case scenarios whirling through his hand, tears prickling behind his eyes as he shook his head faintly.

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes," he said, and hung up, letting the phone clatter onto the table and cupping his head in his hands, allowing a single sob to escape his lips. Looking up, he caught his three friends giving him concerned, curious looks, and moaned out, "They need me back at the office, there's something wrong with the images from my scan. Something's wrong with my baby!"

"I'll take you," Santana said, getting to her feet and helping him up, wrapping an arm around him as they descended the seven flights of stairs into the balmy afternoon, hailing a taxi and speeding towards the offices as she reassured him with whispered, nonsensical words.

The moment they walked into the waiting room, two couples waiting in the blue padded seats, a heavily pregnant woman and her haggard-looking boyfriend, and a pair of young women with unlined faces and joyful smiles, holding hands and giving them a cheerful little wave as Kurt's nails bit crescents into Santana's palms, and Dr. Phillips auburn-haired junior ushered them into the room, Kurt disappearing for a few minutes behind the screen to calm himself down, for the good of his baby.

"Deep breaths, Kurt," Dr. Phillips reminded him when he walked into the room, giving him a smile and bestowing a warm one-armed hug on Santana, just as pale and scared as Kurt. "You look like you're going to throw up. I promise you, this isn't bad news. Shocking, and it will probably mean having to shift around any plans you've already made, but not bad." He slotted a DVD into the player and pulled up a grainy black and white image on the screen, one Kurt recognised from the picture they now had on their fridge, displayed proudly for any visitor to see. "Look at the head, Kurt," Dr. Phillips said, pointing carefully. "We didn't initially notice this, but if you look closely you'll be able to see two heads. Four arms. Four legs. Two beating hearts." He turned shining eyes and a bright smile on a shaking, ashen, teary-eyed Kurt and concluded, "You're having twins."

Kurt let out a gasp, Santana's hand contracting painfully around his, and he pressed a hand to his belly, hoarsely breathing out, "T-Twins? I'm going to have two babies?"

"This will, of course, change a lot of things," Dr. Phillips said brusquely. "You are currently attending NYADA, which has a very demanding curriculum that involves dancing, acting and singing, correct?" Kurt nodded, to shocked to even speak. "I'd recommend talking to the principal and seeing if you'll be able to take a leave of absence and pick the course up again next year, as soon as possible. This pregnancy will be very trying on your body, and I can't recommend putting yourself under the stress of a full-time college programme, especially strenuous dancing and late nights. This also raises the likelihood of a premature birth, which you should prepare for accordingly. As you know, your due date in the fourteenth of November, but even a normal birth may come at the end of October. It's normal with first-time pregnancies, especially multiple births and especially with carriers. You can call me any time you or anyone around you is concerned, okay? I'll make you a new videotape and new pictures that clearly show both babies, and you're free to go."

He left the room, Kurt and Santana sitting in silence until he finally breathed out, "Oh my God," and turned to her, eyes shining with a sheen of tears and lips curved up into a sweet smile. "It's twins, Santana. I'm going to have two children. Two of Blaine's children are growing inside me right now. My God...no wonder I'm already needing to buy new clothes." She laughed and embraced him warmly, holding him close with a hand curved over the swell of his belly, keeping the babies inside safe and sound.

The next day, as soon as he got into NYADA after an early breakfast with Rachel, Adam and Adam's friend Charlie, who had spent the entire meal making eyes at Adam across the table, Kurt skipped his morning dance class, not trusting himself to keep a steady stomach with the pirouettes, and headed along to Madam Tibideaux's office, knocking lightly on the door and ensuring his shirt was loose enough to not cling to his bump before he went in at her called, "Come in."

"Madam Tibideaux, I know I don't have an appointment, but I need to speak to you about my current situation," he said softly, sitting down in the chair opposite her and keeping his eyes from meeting hers. "There are medical circumstances which mean I won't be able to keep up with the demands of the courses here for much longer, and I was wondering if it would be possible to delay my admission until next spring, or I could reaudition in December."

"And, pray tell, Mr. Hummel, what exactly these circumstances are to force you to drop your education here a mere three months after it began?" Madam Tibideaux asked, her lips pursed, obviously unimpressed.

"I'm pregnant," Kurt answered quietly, cupping a hand over his belly and smiling secretively. "And it's twins, and my doctor recommended my withdrawal as soon as possible, to ensure the safety of both me and my children. Please, Madam Tibideaux, I just need a year off to take care of my family. Please give me that."

"Of course," she finally said, with a faint smile on her lips. "You will re-enter your freshman year here next January, if you feel ready, or you will be able to begin it next September if you need more time to care for your young children. I wish you all the luck with your pregnancy, Mr. Hummel. Please feel free to walk these halls any time with your friend Ms. Berry."

Kurt nodded, relieved, and left the school with a soft smile on his face, to meet Santana back at the apartment and spend the day calling everybody around, telling them it was twins rather than a single birth, to many shrieks of excitement and shocked exclamations, knowing that, even if he didn't have Blaine, he still had his friends.

He just wished that could be worth enough.

A knock came on the door, and Kurt glanced over at Rachel and Santana, tangled together and intently watching the episode ofDoctor Whoplaying across the screen, Rachel's knuckles white as she gripped Santana's hand, and he loudly said, "No problem, you guys just keep watching those statues, let the pregnant one answer the door." Rachel just gave him an apologetic shrug as he eased himself up and slid the door carefully open to Quinn and Puck standing on their doorstep, stepping inside as Santana batted Rachel's hand away and paused the episode, sitting up and waving to the pair.

"What are we watching?" Puck asked curiously, toeing off his shoes at Rachel's glare and throwing himself onto the couch beside the two girls. "Ooh, my sister is terrified of these things, so right after she saw it for the first time me and Finn made one out of cardboard and held it up outside her window. She screamed so loud she made Finn fall off the ledge where we were standing."

"Oh so that's how he broke his arm," Quinn said with a mischievous grin. "He always said he did it in a fight with someone, he was all 'You think this is bad, you should see the other guy'." They all laughed at her impersonation of Finn. As Kurt turned to get drinks and the biscuit tin, Puck shot upright and shook his head at him, running to do it himself.

"So why are you two turning up here uninvited?" Rachel asked, shaking out her hair and composing herself. "Not that we aren't so happy to see you, but it seems like this is quickly becoming the centre where everybody just gathers to talk. Do you have a reason or did you just feel like dropping by?"

"Actually, we're here to offer our pregnancy and adoption expertise to Kurt," Puck said from the kitchen, lowering the tray busy with mugs onto the table and opening the biscuit tin, cheerfully propping his feet up on the table. "Kurt, third one from the right is the decaf for you."

"So what did Blaine say when you told him?" Quinn asked, shoving Puck's feet off the table and lifting up her mug, rummaging about in the biscuit tin. "All I've heard is Santana's view of it, which might not have been the correct one."

"I told him, and then asked him to discuss whether we should keep the babies or look for a family to adopt them, and his exact words were 'I can't, Kurt, I just can't, I can't sit here and talk about this with you. I'm not ready for that'," Kurt said sadly, conjuring up the words that had haunted him through all the long nights. "Obviously he's not ready to be a father, and I can accept that. He's the one of us that has a choice."

"But you do have a choice, Kurt," Quinn said, reaching for his hand and squeezing gently, giving him an understanding look. "You could still have an-"

"No!" Kurt protested loudly, cupping a hand protectively over his bump. "I did think about that, but I knew as soon as I saw them for the first time...I just couldn't. And when the bump started growing, and people started congratulating me in the street, I...I love them, Quinn. I can't just give them up. It's why I couldn't have them aborted, and it's why I'm not going to have them adopted." The two reached over to squeeze his hands, gentle and reassuring.

The sun beat through the enormous windows as Blaine watched his friends strumming at guitars and playing the piano and singing loud snatches of songs, shrieking and laughing and exchanging excited chatter, hunched up in the expensive leather recliner, burying his face behindThe Two Towers. A yell of greetings went up as Finn strode through the doors, waving a piece of paper in the air and proclaiming, "I have pictures from Kurt's most recent scan, if anyone's interested! And he said he's thinking of Genevieve as a name, which I thought was so cool. Can't you just picture me: cool Uncle Finn."

"Shut up, you'll be boring Uncle Finn, I'll be cool Aunt Sugar!" Sugar squealed as she leapt across the room, bouncing into Finn's lap to look at the pictures. "Oh my God, look at those little fingers and toes. Oh, that's so sweet!"

Leaving his friends cooing over the picture of Kurt and Adam's unborn child, jealously burning in his chest and anger flaring behind his eyes, Blaine stormed out of the room, grabbing his swim trunks from the pile of wet clothes and towels and heading outside to power through the water and let his anger float away on the waves lapping at the fiery mosaic.

He'd barely walked through the decadent archway onto the patio when he was slammed up against the wall, eyes focusing in on Puck's furious face before him. Spit flecked his face as Puck shook him viciously by the shoulders, as if he was no heavier than a rag doll, yelling, "Just because your dad's a deadbeat doesn't give you the right to follow in his footsteps!"

"What are you talking about?!" Blaine exclaimed, grabbing Puck's hands and trying to shove him away, but Puck just clung on tighter, pushing him against the wall. "I'm not a deadbeat dad! I'm not even a father!"

"You're denying it too?!" Puck screamed into his face, drawing a fist back and punching him in the jaw. Blaine saw stars, cheek throbbing angrily, and Puck just kept screaming, "It's you who knocked him up and walked out on him, but just completely denying that he's even going to have a baby is not cool!"

"Puck, I know Kurt's pregnant, he told me," Blaine said stiffly, working his jaw slowly, pain flaring through it as he spoke. "But I'm not going to be a father!"

"Why, because you're not ready or some crap like that?!" Puck shouted, face blotched red with anger. "You think Kurt is any more ready than you? He's nineteen; he only just started his freshman year at his dream school, that he now has to give up on for the babies; he's expecting twins, for God's sake; and when he does try to tell you, you just storm out without even letting him talk about it, and leave him alone and heartbroken because the love of his life and the father of his children is an asshole!"

"I'm...what?" Blaine asked, as Puck finally calmed a little and his grip on his shoulders loosened, letting him sag back against the wall. "He's...he's having my baby? Mine?"

"Yes, yours, who else's would it be?!" Puck yelped indignantly. "Are you drugged or something? How could you totally forget the conversation when Kurt told you he was pregnant and you walked out on him?"

"No, I thought he was telling me...oh God, I've made such a mess of things," Blaine groaned, rubbing his temples as an ache began to gather there. "No, I do love him, and I am so ready to be a father with him, and I do so want to be there for this, I just...I thought it was Adam's."

Puck's face finally relaxed, his lips twitching into a condescending grin. "Well, you ain't good at your math, are you? He's due on the fourteenth of November, exactly nine months after Valentine's Day, when he was at the wedding that wasn't with you, not Adam. And him and Adam never even made it to grinding, never mind sex that could get him pregnant."

Blaine slid down the wall to land on the warm wood, drawing his knees up to his chest and staring at the overly-green grass swaying in the summer breeze. Reaching for the cooler Sam had provided, Puck tossed him a beer and cracked open his own, sinking down beside him. "We're not so different," he observed quietly. "We both have deadbeat dads we never want to be like. We both think we're not worth very much. We both make mistakes and lose people who are incredibly important to us. And now we've both knocked up someone else's partner."

Chuckling sourly, Blaine took a swift swig of beer as Puck apologetically grabbed a few cubes of ice and wrapped them in a rag, pressing the bundle to his bruised, swelling cheek. "What do I do now?" he asked hopelessly. "I must've made him feel like crap, had him thinking I wasn't ready and I was never going to talk to him about it, and I haven't responded to anything from him."

"You can make up for it," Puck soothed him. "Not with, like, a serenade or anything, this is way too serious, but by going out there, right now, and apologising and telling him what you thought. You can talk it out and, then, maybe, have babies together."

Letting the lump in his throat finally break, the tears rolled down Blaine's cheeks and he let himself fall slowly sideways against Puck's shoulder, as Puck's hand came up to awkwardly pat his back. "Hey, it's okay, dude," he assured him. "You can be a man. You can totally talk this out and be in love again. You can do this, Blaine."

The door rattled on its hinges as Kurt slid it open, expecting Rachel or Santana to be there, having forgotten their key when they'd taken Quinn out for shopping and lunch, giving her the full New York experience. His jaw dropped when he found Blaine standing on the doorstep, bobbing anxiously on the balls of his feet, clutching a veritable fountain or red and yellow rose, an apologetic smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "What are you doing here?" Kurt asked, turning away so Blaine wouldn't see the sheen of tears in his eyes.

"I came to apologise," Blaine murmured thickly, his footsteps soft over the floor as he approached Kurt nervously. "I'm so sorry, Kurt. Please believe that I never meant to hurt you."

"How can I be-believe that?" Kurt choked out, tears rolling down his cheeks even when he tried to hold them back. "I asked you to come to me so I could talk to you, I told you I was pregnant with our twins and you just walked out on me!"

"No, no, that's not the reason I left!" Blaine told him vehemently, laying a hand gently on his arm and spinning him around, frowning sadly as Kurt wiped away the tear tracks clinging to his skin, other hand cupped protectively over his bump. "The way you talked about it when you told me was so ambiguous. When you said 'we', I didn't know you meant you and I. I thought you meant you and Adam."

Kurt finally breathed, eyes lighting up with sudden joy, pressing a hand over his mouth in an attempt to contain the grin stretching his cheeks. "Blaine, no, Adam and I never even had sex. I couldn't let myself go that far for him, I...I didn't want to give him the right to touch me the way you did. I always knew it was you, there was never even a question." Wiping his eyes, he continued, "But if you had known that they're yours, how would you have felt? How do you feel now?"

"A little scared," Blaine answered hesitantly, eyes alight with genuine honesty. "We're just so young to be parents, and to twins. Surprised, because I know we used protection and I know the condoms were in-date and intact. But happy, Kurt. Really happy. And so excited to be a father, with you."

"OhBlaine," Kurt breathed, wrapping his arms around Blaine and leaning their foreheads together, one hand stroking Blaine's waist. "I'm so glad you're not freaked out about this. You really mean it? You really want to be here and help me with our children?" Blaine nodded firmly and Kurt's arms slid around him, cheeks flushed with happiness, his lips barely a breath away as he whispered, "I love you so much," and pressed his mouth to Blaine's, their lips moving perfectly together.

"Take me to bed, Blaine," Kurt begged softly against Blaine's mouth, words punctuated by a moan, steering them towards his bedroom, yanking the curtain aside and closing it immediately behind them, pushing Blaine down onto the end of the bed and straddling him, back bowing as Blaine kissed down his neck, reaching down to untie his shoes and throwing them into the corner of the room.

"I love you," Blaine murmured, eyes bright with joy, hands on Kurt's waist, grounding him and steadying him and keeping him safe. "I've always loved you. I always will." His hands slid down Kurt's chest to curve over his belly. "And you look so utterly beautiful like this, sweetheart. You really are glowing."

Kurt kissed him again, hands sinking into Blaine's hair as Blaine carefully got them both out of their shirts, easing himself down onto the mattress, Kurt straddling his waist as they kissed slow and sweet, hands caressing every newly-bare inch of skin they could reach, remembering long nights spent tracing curves and angles with hands and lips, tender and reverent. Blaine pulled back, dark-eyed and breathing heavily, asking, "Can we still have sex with you pregnant? Is this going to be okay?"

"It's fine," Kurt assured him softly, stroking his hair and pressing a line of kisses from the corner of his mouth to just beneath his ear, tonguing at the sensitive lobe. "Just be gentle. And I don't feel comfortable being on my back like this, so is it okay if I...if I ride you?"

A groan spilled from Blaine's lips, hands gripping tightly at Kurt's hips for a second before he caught himself and loosened his grip. "So okay, Kurt," he promised. "I love you." As Kurt eased himself up, unbuttoning his pants and sliding them off, exposing acres of flawless pale skin, the only blemish the slight stretch marks sketching in at his hips and the insides of his thighs, and the red marks of lips and tongue and teeth scattered over his neck, one shining out on his shoulder, later to turn deep purple and show the whole world that he was happily taken.

"Lube's in the middle drawer of the nightstand," Kurt murmured as Blaine kicked his feet wildly to get his jeans off. "And we're already in trouble, no point using a condom." Blaine laughed softly and gave him another kiss before scrambling up the bed to retrieve the bottle, waiting for Kurt to crawl up the bed towards him and comfortably straddle him before sliding two fingers into him, making Kurt moan low in his chest and thrown his head back, eyes sliding shut.

Blaine's free hand ran across Kurt's bump, tracing every inch of stretched skin, as Kurt batted his fingers away and lowered himself onto Blaine's cock with a cry of pleasure, rocking slowly into a rhythm, reaching over Blaine's head to brace himself on the headboard, sliding his cock through his own fist as Blaine met every one of his downward thrusts, arms stretched above his head, the very picture of sin in Kurt's sheets.

When Blaine arched up off the bed, teeth gritted and eyes closed, skin glistening with sweat, a groan freeing his tensed muscles as he came hot and wet into Kurt, Kurt finally found his release, white striping Blaine's olive skin, mingling with sweat on his belly and chest and all the way up to his chin. Rolling away, hissing as Blaine's cock stretched his oversensitive hole, Kurt lay down next to him, panting. Blaine's hand found his and he turned his head to look at him, smiling dizzily as Blaine roughly breathed out, "That was amazing. You're amazing."

"How did you know about me?" Kurt asked curiously, wiping a hand across his sweaty forehead. "Who told you that you're the father? Because I don't expect that you did the math and figured it out."

"Puck told me," Blaine answered, cupping a hand over the top of Kurt's bump. "He came and yelled at me, punched me in the jaw and then sat and had a beer with me and convinced me to come out here and talk to you."

"Sounds like Puck's style of confrontation," Kurt observed laughingly, stroking a curl back from Blaine's temple. "Okay, honey, not that I'm hinting, but the shower is through the only door is this apartment. Just, don't be surprised if I'm asleep when you get back." Blaine grinned and pressed a kiss to his belly before scampering off to the shower, giving Kurt a perfect view of his muscled back and round ass as he left, visions that danced through his mind as he rolled over and just let himself drift.