Kurt and Blaine were back in their apartment less than an hour later. They went straight to the bedroom, stripped down to their underwear, and collapsed in bed, Kurt spooned around Blaine, his hand tight against Blaine’s chest, an alarm set to allow them just four hours. They fell asleep the moment their heads hit the pillow and woke up in exactly the same position, bleary-eyed and just able to function again, at the buzz of the alarm.

Blaine reached over to the nightstand and shut it off with a groan. He rolled over to face Kurt. “Mornng,” he mumbled.

“Actually, it’s four in the afternoon, but good morning,” Kurt said.

“Curse you and your ability to be cheerful the moment you wake up!”

“We should have sex,” Kurt said.

“Um … why?”

“Because god knows when we’ll ever get the chance to again.” They both laughed nervously, hoping that people with kids were exaggerating about how little time they had for intimacy, but they took this opportunity anyway, just in case, underwear pushed down and rubbing off against each other with their mouths locked together and their hearts pounding in excitement and terror at how their lives were about to change.

They showered and dressed and checked their e-mail quickly and printed off the paperwork they needed to fill out, and then gathered their laptops and phone chargers and some extra clothes and a few other essentials and headed back to the hospital.

It was only when they were on the train that Kurt remembered he had a ton of work obligations this week, leading up to the opera’s opening night on Friday. So they spent the train ride discussing how to work around that schedule, and by the time they arrived at Brittany’s room, Chinese take-out acquired along the way, they’d mostly worked it out.

Rachel looked just the tiniest bit frazzled, bouncing the baby lightly in her arms and pacing around the room. “Oh good, you’re back. He won’t sleep unless I do this. I’ve been walking around like this for an hour and a half, he wakes up whenever I try to sit down. And he cried when I sang to him. What baby does that? Are you sure there’s not something wrong with him?”

Kurt bit his lip, but it wasn’t enough to stop him from laughing. “You probably sang too loud, Rach. I’m sure he’ll love your voice when he’s older.”

Rachel humphed angrily, clearly offended by the infant’s poor taste. “Anyway, you take him for a while, my arms are killing me.” She handed the baby off to Kurt carefully.

Blaine was setting out the Chinese food containers on the narrow counter. He glanced at Kurt, holding the baby, and smiled. “Do you want me to put together a plate for you?”

Kurt considered the logistics of this for a moment. “Maybe it’s better if you just eat and then we’ll switch off.”

There was no way they could know it now, but the next uninterrupted meal Kurt and Blaine would eat together, without the presence of another adult caring for the baby, would be seven weeks later. They would be on edge through most of the meal, ready to dash into the nursery at the first hint of a noise to place a lost pacifier back into the baby’s mouth, and then increasingly giddy as they took their final bites and loaded the plates into the dishwasher along with what seemed like a hundred baby bottles. They would stand in the kitchen, looking at each other, and wonder what they should do next, try to remember what they used to do together after dinner. Blaine would step in close and wind his hands around Kurt’s waist and Kurt would smile, resting his tired head on Blaine’s shoulder and kissing lightly at his neck, the two of them swaying together gently, peacefully, starting to get excited. And then the baby would start to cry.

The four of them chatted happily, mostly catching up on Brittany’s life and filling her in on what they’d been up to in the past few years. It was pleasant, being together like this, old friends reunited. Rachel went home a few hours later, promising to be back tomorrow and to help out whenever they needed it.

The plan was for Kurt to go home and sleep overnight while Blaine stayed with Brittany and the baby, and then Blaine would go home and Kurt would take over in the early morning until his first costume fitting at 12:30. But this plan hit a snag at 8 PM.

“Visiting hours are over,” the nurse told Blaine. Kurt and Blaine looked at each other, their eyes wide with a little bit of panic at their carefully-made plans being upended.

Kurt looked back at the nurse. “He’s the baby’s father. I have to be at work tomorrow, and he doesn’t, so he’s going to stay the night while I go home and rest.”

“Nobody without a wristband stays after eight,” the nurse said firmly. “That’s the rule.”

“Then get him a wristband,” Kurt said, just as firmly.

“I’m sorry, I can’t do that.” There was a touch of annoyance in the nurse’s voice.

Kurt stood up and crossed his arms. Blaine stood up behind him, a gentle hand on his shoulder, saying softly, “It’s just a standard rule for good reasons, Kurt, let it go, we can figure something else out, it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not okay.” Kurt said, looking straight at the nurse. His voice got louder, not yelling but very clear, slow, and emphatic. “This is my husband. He is the baby’s father. He is going to stay here tonight with his son and that is final. Telling him he has to leave is not okay. Not. Okay.”

“Sir, please don’t make me call security,” the nurse said.

Kurt raised an eyebrow. “Don’t make me call my lawyer,” he answered. He was bluffing and he knew it. Blaine had no more legal rights here than Rachel did, not until the adoption was finalized. Kurt himself would have no right to be here either, if Brittany hadn’t made the outrageous claim that he was the biological father. But he was betting that the nurse would cave.

She took a long look at him, and then at Blaine, and then at Brittany. Brittany nodded. “I want him to stay. Please?”

The nurse sighed. “Fine. Just don’t cause any trouble, and definitely don’t try to leave and come back, there’s no way you’d make it past the front desk.”

Kurt’s lip twitched into an almost-smile at the victory, but he stayed silent, too angry to speak politely.

“Thank you, that’s very kind of you,” Blaine said to the nurse as she left the room. He turned to Kurt. “You should get something for her when you come back. Flowers or a box of chocolates or something. For bending the rules for us.”

Kurt was pacing the floor of the small room, trying to let off his nervous energy. “How can you … it’s not okay. That rule, it’s just not okay.”

“It’s not intended to be discriminatory,” Blaine said reassuringly.

“But it is.”

He stopped pacing, and Blaine looked up at him.

There was a sad look in Kurt’s eyes as he realized it. “We’re going to be dealing with this kind of thing forever.”

Blaine wrapped him up in a tight hug. “We’ll make it through, Mama Bear.”

Kurt laughed through the tears in his eyes. He couldn’t help it.