“Two thousand, three hundred and twelve dollars”
“Are you serious?” Blaine gasped at his boyfriend after they had gone through all of Annabelle’s letters and counted the money she had sent. Setting aside all the letters from the cash, Blaine had slowly been reading the long apologies as Kurt counted the money. The young father couldn’t believe how much money Annabelle had managed to send since Claire was born. This had to be almost all of the teenager’s savings.
“Do any of the letters say anything about wanting Claire back like your Dad thought?” Kurt asked softly hoping the answer was no. He didn’t want to see the man he loved lose the most important person in his life.
“No, she just keeps saying sorry for leaving Claire without a word” he shrugged and showed Kurt one of the letters “This one just asks me to tell Claire that she loves her”
“Do you think she does?”
“Does what?”
“Do you think she loves Claire?”
“In some way I think so” Blaine shrugged “We were fifteen and drunk when we slept together and suddenly becoming a parent is scary, I know how she felt in a way. She loves Claire; she just thought she’d be better off with me”
“I guess I should thank Annabelle for everything she did” Kurt chuckled softly as he was quickly met with a confused expression from his boyfriend “If Annabelle had never left Claire with you, you would never have dropped out of school to raise that beautiful little girl of yours, you never would have started working at The Lima Bean, we may not have ever met and I would never have fallen in love with you”
“Be sure to say thank you when you see her at the park later” the dark haired boy chuckled as he took hold of Kurt’s shirt gently and pulled him into a soft kiss “I’ll be sure to thank her too for bringing me you”
Cocking his head to the side, Kurt leant in once again to kiss the handsome and seemingly adorable man in front of him. Just as their lips brushed, a soft cry from the crib adjacent to Blaine’s bed could be heard.
“What is it with women always trying to ruin our moment?” Kurt chuckled as he sat back and let Blaine attend to his daughter.
“Attention” he chuckled and pulled his daughter from the crib and into his arms. Surprised she wasn’t jumping out like most mornings; Blaine knew he’d have to move her to a bigger bed which meant her own room. His small bedroom was getting way too small for the pair. “You just want the attention from Daddy or Kurt, don’t you princess?”
“Blaine...” Kurt spoke up after a few minutes of watching him dance around the room with Claire. Waiting til Blaine had stopped giving him his full attention, Kurt slid to the edge of his boyfriend’s bed “What are you going to do about your Dad?”
Letting out a deep breath, Blaine set Claire down on his bed as he started to pace. The little girl crawled into Kurt’s lap and watched her father.
“I don’t know. What should I do?” he asked and before Kurt could open his moth to say something, Blaine continued “I can’t forgive him for hiding the letters because it was a low move even for him but he apologised. He looked genuinely sorry for treating me like crap for the last year and a half”
“I know when I came out; my Dad wasn’t thrilled about the idea. It did take him some time to really understand what was going on. Maybe it just took your dad a while...”
“18 months though?”
“You do have to throw ‘surprise you’re a grandpa’ in there too”
“But a year and a half? That’s a long time Kurt”
“These things take time...”
“It didn’t take you long to come to terms with me having a child” Blaine sighed and sat down on the bed with a flop
“Ok that was different” he insisted and took his boyfriend’s hands gently “Your Dad was looking at this whole situation very differently to me. He’s your Dad looking at you now as a father yourself. That can’t be easy for any father no matter how old his son is. You became a dad at 15 when he didn’t think that day would come for a long time... if at all” Kurt shrugged weakly “You were growing up faster than he had hoped for and living a life he’d never imagined for you. It was a lot to take in, in a short time”
“Yeah, you’re right...”
“Go talk to him. I’ll bath and change Claire”
“Where would I be without you?” Blaine smiled and pulled Kurt into a gentle hug “I love you so much Kurt”
“I know, now go” he chuckled and kissed Blaine’s cheek softly as he sat back “Go, Claire and I have a date with the bubble bath”
Blaine nodded with a soft chuckle and left the room. Making his way downstairs, he took a deep breath as he entered the living room to see his father waiting for him. He sat on the couch opposite his father’s arm chair and clasped his hands in his lap so they would fidget.
“I’m sorry Blaine” Michael began softly “I’m sorry for the way I handled both you coming out to us and when Claire arrived. I had to accept that I would never see you get married or have grandchildren then your daughter turns up on our front porch. I was in two minds” he continued as he pulled a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket and handed it to Blaine “When Claire was born I opened a bank account in her name. I did the same when you, Emily and Andrew were born because I wanted to set you up with a good life when you went off to college. Claire was no different”
Blaine unfolded the piece of paper and saw it was the account details for Claire’s account. It already had a couple thousand dollars in there “Dad...”
“I didn’t know what else to do but start that account. I was scared when you said you were going to raise Claire on your own. I thought it was a stupid decision especially when you were only a child yourself. I soon realised that you became a man the day Claire arrived”
“I was scared that day too. I watched Claire for hours worried something would go wrong”
“I was the same when Emily was born. You’ll always worry when you first bring them home” Michael chuckled. It was so strange to talk like this to his son but he looked up at Blaine, a man and a father sat in front of him “I’m proud of you Blaine”
“You are?”
“I would never have the strength at just 15 to raise a child and you did it. Of course it will be a long road with it’s struggles but I have faith that you can do it. I have faith you and Kurt can do it together” Michael smiled “He’s a nice boy”
“Thank you Dad” Blaine smiled weakly letting out the breath he didn’t realise he’d held for so long. It was a relieving feeling that his father was starting to accept him for who he was. It was a strange feeling but a good one all the same. Blaine couldn’t completely forgive his Dad for the pain of the last 18 months but this was a positive start.
“Don’t you, Kurt and Claire have a play date at the park?”
“Yes we do” the teenager chuckled and stood up “Thank you Dad”