It was six in the morning, and Kurt and Blaine had both been awake for going on twenty-four hours. The stubble on their chins, Blaine’s a bit more prominent than Kurt’s, proved it, as did the faint smell of dried sweat from their night of dancing at the club.

The waiting room of the labor and delivery area of the hospital was empty, save for the two of them, a set of nervous-looking grandparents, and a bored receptionist. They’d been here for hours with no news, not allowed in the mom-and-baby room outside of visiting hours, but reluctant to leave Brittany all alone.

Kurt swallowed the last bit of his double-shot espresso. “We can’t, you know,” he said, breaking the silence.

Blaine looked up from the five-month-old issue of Sports Illustrated he’d been paging through. “Of course not,” he said. “We’ll have to think of how to let Brittany down gently.”

“It would be a crazy thing to do,” Kurt said. “For one thing, we’re much too young. Much too young. Only twenty-six.”

Blaine nodded. They’d been to his five-year McKinley reunion last summer, and Kurt’s the year before, and both times, almost half of their former classmates had been showing off pictures of their kids. Some of them even had more than one kid. He and Kurt had smiled politely and cooed over their sometimes dubious adorableness. Then they’d gone home to have loud, wild sex and congratulate each other on their mutual decision, before they’d gotten married, to wait until they were thirty before even discussing whether to have children.

“We’re just starting out in our careers, too,” Kurt continued. His voice sounded much more certain than his eyes looked, Blaine noticed. “A baby could throw things off the rails for years. Maybe forever, if we’re not established enough to take some time off and manage a comeback. You’re well on your way to stardom, and I’ve finally found a place that makes me happy, and we wouldn’t want to jeopardize any of that.”

Blaine closed his magazine and set it down on the end table. It was true, he was living his dream. After graduating from NYADA, he’d been in a few unsuccessful small productions before being cast in a big role for what turned out to be the surprise hit musical of the season. He still couldn’t believe he’d been nominated for a Tony Award, for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Rachel was out of her mind with jealousy, though she’d never admit it. But he’d just come off a year-long run with that show, and he’d been cast as a short-term replacement for Mark in Rent two months in advance, with nothing to do in between.

“That’s true,” Blaine said. “In the grand scheme of things, early in our careers is a bad time to take a break. But when you think about it, right this minute is not terrible. I’ve got this two-month break between projects, and once you’re done with Rinaldo the company shuts down for the whole summer, right when I go back for Rent. The baby would be five months old before we’d need full-time childcare.” Kurt was staring at him. “I mean, not that we necessarily should,” Blaine added quickly. “Just that we could. If we wanted to. It’s still a crazy idea. Completely crazy.”

Kurt opened his mouth to speak, but a woman’s voice interjected before he could say anything.

“I don’t mean to butt into something that’s none of my business, except that I totally do.” It was the grandmotherly woman sitting halfway across the room, and she had a kind smile on her face. “I have no idea what your situation is, but I’ve been sitting here watching you be adorable and kind of stunned for the past two hours and I just want to say, there’s never a good time to have a baby. If you’re waiting for a good time, you’ll never find it, life just keeps on happening. I found out I was pregnant with my oldest daughter, Jennifer, on the day Greg here lost his job.” She tapped her hand fondly against her husband’s leg. “But it all worked out, he found another one and we got by, and here she is, all grown up and having her second baby. And she said when she moved to New York that she’d only have one! Things change, you know? None of us would trade it for the world, right, Greg?”

Greg blushed and looked at his feet. “I don’t know why you always have to talk to strangers like that,” he mumbled.

“Go on, Greg, tell them you’re happy,” she said, nudging his shoulder with hers.

He looked up at them. “I’m very happy. Wouldn’t trade it for the world. Except for my nosy wife!” He took a sip of his coffee, his eyes twinkling.

“Hah!” She laughed with the playful and easy teasing of a long-married couple. “If I were like you, never talking to anybody, we’d never make friends at all.”

Kurt smiled despite himself. Blaine gave the woman a little wink.

“Even if we do find a good time, there might not be a baby for us right then,” Kurt said slowly. “Remember what Phil and Robert went through? They waited two years for someone to give them a baby. Two years! They went through hell with it, that one birth mother who they almost adopted from and then she changed her mind at the last minute, god, Robert would burst into tears at the drop of a hat for months after that.”

Blaine nodded. “And here’s Brittany just dropping a baby into our laps,” he said softly.

“Almost literally!” Kurt said, and they both collapsed into laughter at what had happened a few hours ago in the elevator. The tension had been so huge and the endless waiting at the hospital had been nothing but nervousness, and now, finally, the ridiculousness of the whole situation finally hit them and they could not stop laughing.

“Kurt Hummel?” a nurse called out, punctuated by the alarmed door slamming shut behind her.

The laughter cut off immediately. “Yes?” Kurt answered, standing up.

“You can come in now, to see Brittany and the baby.”

“Okay,” he said, the nervousness returning. He and Blaine walked toward the door.

“Oh, sorry,” the nurse said to Blaine. “Just the dad, no other visitors until eight.”

Kurt froze. “The what?”

“You’re the dad, right?” the nurse asked, confused. “Brittany listed your name on the birth certificate form.”

“She did what?”