“Kurt! Hi!” Brittany’s voice was clear and excited. “They gave me so many pain meds!”

“Hi,” Kurt answered, sounding much more nervous, tentative.

The nurse snapped a plastic bracelet around Kurt’s wrist. “Push the call button if you need anything,” she said, gesturing to the red button beside the bed, then flitted out of the room. Kurt glanced at the baby, sleeping peacefully in the bassinette, and then quickly looked back to Brittany.

“Blaine’s not mad, is he?” Brittany asked. “I wanted to put both of your names down as parents, but they said I had to be one of them and there wasn’t space for three people. I thought I should put you, because we did used to date and we hooked up that one time, so it’s at least possible that you’re the one who got me pregnant.”

Kurt closed his eyes for a second, trying to compose himself, then re-opened them. “Brittany, all we did was kiss. And it was ten years ago! There’s no way I’m … it’s impossible.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” she said. “You’ll both be the official fathers after the adoption goes through.”

Kurt sighed. “Brittany, we haven’t made any decision about it yet. You can’t expect us to adopt the baby just because you say so.”

She cocked her head to one side. “But it’s fate, don’t you see? The reason I never saw any storks around was because the baby isn’t for me. It’s for you and Blaine. The storks must have been hanging around with you two the whole time, and they brought me here when the baby was ready for you.”

“I haven’t seen any storks either,” Kurt said dryly.

“You probably just weren’t looking. They’re hard to see in the city, with all these buildings in the way.”

“Brit … let’s just talk about it later. When Blaine is here.”

“Okay,” Brittany said. She leaned back against the pillows. “I’m tired, do you mind if I take a nap?”

“Sure,” Kurt said. “I’ll just go back out in the waiting room and—”

“No, you should stay here,” Brittany said. “If the baby cries, you can feed him before he wakes me up, that way I’ll get more rest.”

“I … I …” Kurt stammered. He had no idea how to take care of a baby. He hadn’t held one in years, and that had been his cousin’s nine-month-old at a family reunion, and this baby was so much smaller than that one it wasn’t even a comparison.

“Great, thank you! They left bottles of formula right over there on the counter.” Brittany pointed, and then pushed a button next to her bed, turning off the overhead lights. Plenty of sunshine still came in through the window, but it didn’t seem to bother Brittany. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep almost immediately.

Kurt tiptoed up to the baby’s bassinette. “You’d better stay asleep,” he whispered. Then he sat down on the small plastic couch on the other side of the room. He fiddled with the two bands on his left wrist, and then looked down at them and almost laughed out loud at the symbolism. One band, neon green, was printed with the name of a gay nightclub. The other, a clinical shade of white, said Baby Boy Pierce-Hummel. The two choices for how the rest of his life could go, laid out side by side on his arm.

Out in the waiting room, talking with Blaine, adopting the baby had seemed almost like a good idea. But now, faced with the reality of it all over again, Kurt panicked. He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t old enough. He hadn’t spent long enough being wild and free and childless in New York. And even if he were ready, this was too fast for it to happen. He needed time. Time to read some parenting books and figure out how to change a diaper and what to do when the baby got a cold. Time to research fashionable cribs and strollers and baby clothing. Time to turn the guest room / office into a nursery. These were things he couldn’t do overnight, they would take weeks at the very least. He stopped himself all of a sudden. Why was he thinking about this? It didn’t matter, because they weren’t going to adopt the baby anyway.

A single small cry came from the bassinette, and Kurt’s eyes widened in fear. He stood up and walked quickly across the room until he found himself looking down at the tiniest little face he had ever seen. In the elevator, the baby had been squalling and red, naked and covered in icky goop. This seemed like a different creature entirely, bathed and sleepy-eyed, wrapped tightly in a blanket and wearing a hat, nothing but its round face visible.

The baby looked up at Kurt and blinked.

It hit him like a bolt of lightning. Kurt had felt this feeling before, and it stunned him as much now as it had then. He remembered every detail of it, as if it were yesterday. The moment that had changed his life forever. Ten years ago, when a dark-haired boy had turned around at the bottom of the staircase, held out his hand, and said, “My name’s Blaine.”

Kurt reached out his arm, tentatively, almost trembling, and pressed his palm against the baby’s cheek. He really was impossibly tiny, his whole head smaller than Kurt’s hand, his nose hardly more than a button. He turned his head the slightest bit, cuddling into the warmth of Kurt’s palm.

“Hi,” Kurt whispered. “Is it okay if I pick you up now?”

The baby seemed not to have any objection, though how would Kurt know? He carefully scooped the tiny creature up into his arms, resting its head against the crook of his left elbow. Kurt turned and walked exceedingly slowly, step by cautious step, back to the couch and sat down.

The baby heaved out a deep breath and fell asleep in Kurt’s arms. Kurt couldn’t stop staring at him. He was beautiful, perfect, a little bundle of preciousness, and Kurt knew he would do anything to keep this tiny little person safe and happy and close to him no matter what.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when a soft knock at the door made him look up. “Come in,” he called, hoping it wasn’t loud enough to wake Brittany.

Blaine stuck his head in, looked around, and then entered the room quietly. He set a paper bag and two cups of coffee down on the counter near the sink, and came to sit next to Kurt. He looked at the baby, still asleep in Kurt’s arms, and then at Kurt.

He knew. It was written there in Kurt’s eyes, plain to see. It was done. There were details to work out, but the decision was made.

This is our family.

Blaine stroked the baby’s cheek softly with two fingers, then leaned over and pressed a kiss against Kurt’s forehead. He nodded. “Okay.”