Blaine had wanted to ask Kurt to stay in the waiting room with him. He really did not want to be alone with his thoughts right now. But Brittany needed someone with her more than he did, so he’d let Kurt walk through the door with the nurse.

Blaine turned back toward the seating area. Maybe he could call someone … Cooper, or his mother, or one of his friends? It seemed wrong to tell anyone what was going on yet, not before he’d really talked it through with Kurt. Besides, it was too early in the morning to bother anyone. He headed back to the chair he’d been sitting in before, but then changed his mind and sat down directly across from the couple they’d been talking to. Sometimes it’s easier to talk to strangers than to friends, he thought. “My name’s Blaine,” he said.

“Debbie,” the woman said. “And this is Greg.”

Blaine was going to be telling this story for the rest of his life, whether it turned out to be titled “That one time I delivered a baby in an elevator” or “How we adopted our son.” He might as well get started.

“You’re not going to believe how we ended up here tonight,” he said to Debbie and Greg. Debbie’s lips twitched into a smile and Greg raised an eyebrow, excited to hear the full story. Blaine licked his lips and continued. “Kurt and I went out dancing last night. We ran into this friend of ours, Brittany, we hadn’t seen her in ages but we were all pretty close back in high school.”

“You and your partner went to high school together?” Debbie asked, surprised.

“He’s my husband, actually, but yes, we’ve been together since we were seventeen. Married five years now.”

“Well, bless your heart!”

Blaine grinned back at her, his tension evaporating. “Anyway, Brittany was there, and she was way pregnant. But it turned out she didn’t even realize it, if you can believe that. She’s always been … well, she sees the world in her own special way. She ended up coming back to our place, but we got stuck in the elevator, and she went into labor and delivered the baby right there.”

“No!” Greg said. “You have got to be kidding!”

“No, really, that’s what happened! I was the first person in the entire world to hold that baby.” Blaine still could hardly believe it himself. Maybe this was a dream, and he’d wake up and tell Kurt the whole crazy story and they’d laugh about it together and then get up and go out for bagels like they did most Sunday mornings.

“And then—” Blaine cleared his throat, suddenly less confident. “And then Brittany said we should adopt the baby.”

“Oh, wow,” Debbie said. “That’s a huge decision to make on basically no notice. Have you thought about having kids before?”

“Not really. I mean, I guess the idea has always been in our heads that we might have kids someday. We bring it up now and then. But we haven’t ever had a serious discussion about it. It’s always been something for way in the future. We’re still pretty young. I mean, plenty of guys our age are fathers, but when you’re gay it’s … something you have to plan in advance and work really hard for it to happen. It’s not something that you can just do easily, or by accident, you know?” Blaine was starting to blush a little bit. How had he ended up alluding to gay sex in front of this straight couple in their sixties? But they seemed completely unfazed by it.

“Except, it sort of did happen that way for you,” Debbie said softly. “At least, if you want to take the opportunity.”

Blaine ran a hand through his hair. “Being a father sounds fine in the abstract, but now that I start to think about it for real … it’s really scary. I mean, what if I suck at it? What if I don’t know what to do with a kid? What if he’s so different from me that I don’t even know how to relate to him?” Blaine hadn’t understood it during high school, but as an adult, he’d realized that this was why his father had always been so distant. He just didn’t know what to make of Blaine, and had retreated from dealing with him. They got along better now, as adults, when they didn’t have to see each other every day. But as a teenager in need of reassurance and acceptance, it was pretty rough.

“What if he’s so different from you?” Greg said with a little laugh. “That’s not a ‘what if,’ that’s practically a given. Not much chance your kids will turn out the same way as yourself. Look at me, I’m a steelworker from Pittsburgh, and I’ve got one daughter who’s a pharmaceutical researcher and one who’s a ballerina. Never thought I’d spend so much of my life going to science fairs and ballet recitals, I can tell you that for sure! Still love ‘em both to pieces, though.”

“Want some unsolicited parenting advice? Because it looks like you do.” Debbie patted Blaine’s hand. “Parenting is about helping your children become who they are. Not who you want them to be. You find yourself involved in all sorts of things you could never imagine, because your kids love those things. If you do it right, it takes you out of your life’s little comfort bubble and shows you how much more there really is in the world. I don’t know you very well, but you don’t seem like the kind of person who wants to live in a bubble.”

Greg nodded. “The other secret is, every parent worries about not being good enough. But most people do just fine at it. Takes work, of course. And you’ll make some mistakes, everybody does. Works out in the end, though.” He glanced at Blaine, perhaps seeing the deeper worries Blaine hadn’t voiced. “You turned out just fine, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” Blaine said, nodding a little bit. “Yeah, I turned out okay.”

“You won’t make the same mistakes.”

Blaine bit his lip.

“You’ll make different ones. Ain’t no such thing as a perfect parent.” Greg took a sip of his coffee to hide his smile. “Ugh, this coffee’s gone cold.”

“What if he’s …” Blaine hesitated, and lowered his voice to a near-whisper. He felt horrible saying this, like kind of a snob, but the idea had been bothering  him ever since he’d been holding that baby in his hands. “What if he’s not smart? Like Brittany. She had to repeat her senior year of high school, for god’s sake. What if he’s like her?”

“Smart isn’t everything,” Greg said. “You’re good enough friends with this Brittany girl that you’re thinking about adopting her baby. She must have something going for her even if she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.”

“That is a really good point,” Blaine said, sitting back in his chair. Brittany wasn’t school-smart, but she was a good friend. She could be harsh sometimes, but she’d been there for Blaine in some of his darkest moments, when nobody else even saw what he needed. And she was an amazing dancer. Apparently she’d had the sense and the ability to turn that talent into a successful career. One that was not actually all that different from his own career, despite his straight A’s at Dalton and his expensive NYADA education. Now there was some food for thought.

Blaine stood up. “I’m going to go get some bagels to bring to Kurt and Brit. Want me to get you some? And fresh coffee?”

“That would be lovely, dear, thank you,” Debbie said.

Greg fished in his pocket for his wallet, but Blaine put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. “It’s on me.”