Kurt thanked the barista and took his mocha, going to find a seat in the little coffee shop just off Broadway to read his latest issue of Vogue in peace. Blaine had taken the kids to Ohio to visit family for the next week, giving Kurt the opportunity to have a week of peace - aside from the rehearsals and fittings he needed to go to. He didn't remember the last time he had so much free time on his hands. He wasn't sure he knew what to do with it. It was bad enough that he made breakfast for five this morning without thinking that he was the only one there. He ended up having eggs and pancakes for lunch, and would finish off the rest for his dinner.

For now though, he had a few hours of peace before he needed to be back on the stage. He found a seat near one of the windows and had barely opened up the magazine and taken a sip of his drink when a somewhat familiar voice interrupted him.

"Kurt? Kurt Hummel?"

Kurt looked up, processing the person before him. Sandy brown hair, a smattering of freckles, green eyes, in a suit... not unlike how he used to look in high school. What was different was the beard, how he had filled in more with time, and the ring of grey hair around his temples.

"Sebastian Smythe...?"

Sebastian laughed and invited himself to sit across from Kurt, putting a leather briefcase on the table between them. "Well, well, well... I knew you made it to New York. Looks like you haven't left."

Kurt recalled in an instant how jealous and irritated Sebastian had made him in high school. How angry he had been when he had caused Blaine to need eye surgery after the rock salt slushie. He remembered when Finn had almost been blackmailed by this man. It didn't matter how much time had passed, he still was feeling, to say the least, annoyed by Sebastian's presence.

His response was cool, "No. And it's Hummel-Anderson now... has been for a long time."

Sebastian smirked, "I know."

"You know?" Kurt cocked an eyebrow, lifting his mocha up for another sip.

Sebastian nodded, "I know. Been keeping tabs."

Kurt narrowed his eyes, his brows raised in question as he looked at Sebastian, with that all too familiar smugness covering his face.

"Well?" Sebastian prompted, waiting for Kurt to respond.

"Well what? You just told me you've been keeping tabs on us. Do I need to be concerned about stalking here or what?" Kurt set his mocha down, looking Sebastian in the eye.

Sebastian laughed, "Hardly." He shook his head at Kurt then, looking him over in turn before propping his elbows on the table and leaning forward, "You never figured it out did you?"

If Kurt could have raised his eyebrows anymore, he would have, instead leaning back as Sebastian leaned forward, "Figured what out?"

"The baby. I knew you ended up adopting her. My lawyers delivered copies of the paperwork back to me."

Kurt could feel the breath stop in his throat, and his whole body froze in place, muscles tensing. He saw them, those green eyes then, but on Sebastian. Julie had Sebastian's eyes.

Sebastian sat back in his chair and let out another chuckle, "Oh man. I thought you two would have figured it out eventually, but really? After all this time?" Another laugh followed.

Kurt kept his eyes on Sebastian, just staring at him in disbelief. Images flashed through his mind of Julie, and for every vision of her he had, he saw different bits of Sebastian in her. Her hair - sandy with just a bit of wave to it like his. Her skin - mottled with the same freckles. Her build - lean and lithe, but still so athletic, just like his was. They were both tall, they had that same smirk, and those eyes. Those cool green eyes.

Sebastian watched Kurt as he himself was being watched, clearly uncomfortable as it lasted longer than he expected, "So... how is she?"

"I thought you kept tabs on us..." Kurt managed to squeak out, hiding his hands under the table as a shake had developed in them.

"Just general stuff. Make sure you're still together, all that." Sebastian flagged a barista over and asked for a coffee. Kurt leaned forward a little, feeling sick.

Kurt had a million questions. A million things he could say. He didn't know where to start though or if he wanted to. All this time. All this time he had been raising Sebastian's daughter. How the hell did Sebastian even have a daughter?

"So, I take it by your paler than usual skin tone and the fact that you've stopped drinking... whatever it was you were drinking, that this news is perhaps a little unsettling?" Sebastian offered, clearly becoming uncomfortable with the silence.

Kurt's brow bunched up and he glared towards Sebastian, "You think?!"

A laugh again was the response from Sebastian, who shook his head at Kurt. "Haven't changed much since high school hey? Still the same ol' snarly faced lady."

Kurt snapped then, "Changed? I have gotten married and raised three children. One of which apparently was yours. What the hell Sebastian!"

Several diners near them looked back with surprised eyes and Kurt dropped the volume as he noticed them and continued. "How did we end up with your child?"

Sebastian, through all this, seemed relatively unphased. He gave a small shrug and began talking, "Met this girl at Scandals who wanted to have a kid with her lover, and they asked me to donate my quality seed for them. Gave me a nice check for the transaction. Now as I recall, I had to get really drunk for it to happen, but it happened. Nine months later, she shows up on my door and hands me the kid. Apparently her girlfriend left her and she never really wanted to be a mom anyhow. Left before I could do or say anything about it."

Kurt shook his head every now and then in disbelief, trying to fathom how this less than romantic scenario was the cause of him having a daughter.

Sebastian continued, "Bloodwork was done, and indeed I was the father. Of course I, well I'm not interested in kids now, and most definitely wasn't then. Mom and dad didn't want anyone to know about my having a bastard child since dad was entering politics, and so we couldn't give her to anyone in the family. When I was asked if there was any couple I could think of that was deserving, lo and behold, only thing I could come up with was you two. Made me want to gag."

Sebastian's coffee arrived and he took a few sips, looking at Kurt quietly while Kurt tried to process this information. He didn't know what he expected to hear about Julie's conception, but that was definitely not it.

"You couldn't get her birth mother...?" Kurt asked, looking up towards Sebastian.

Sebastian shook his head, setting the coffee down. "It was all a terrible set up. I didn't know anything about either of those girls except for their first names."

Kurt nodded, looking down at the floor. He thought of Blaine then, how he would have to tell Blaine all this. How would Blaine react? Would it matter? Did it matter?

"So... how is she?"

Kurt looked up again, "Julie. I named her Julie."

Sebastian nodded, and Kurt wasn't sure if that was because he already knew and wanted to maintain the distance he had set up, or because he was waiting for Kurt to continue. Kurt opted to continue though, since talking about her came easily.

"She graduates this year. Top of her class, valedictorian, lead soloist in her Glee club, captain of her lacrosse team, tons of scholarships and offers for college and university..."

Sebastian smirked, "Naturally."

Kurt rolled his eyes at that, preferring in this instant that nurture had more to do with nature. "She's in Ohio with Blaine and her little sister and brother visiting family right now during the school break this week."

"Figures that I come out here for business and she's in Ohio."

Kurt looked at Sebastian curiously and then forced out, "Did you... do you want to meet her?"

Sebastian let out a little snort, "No. Of course not. I don't visit any of the other places my sperm has landed, why would I bother with this one?"

Kurt balled a hand into a fist, "Because this one is a human. You created her. You must feel something for her."

Sebastian shook his head, taking another sip of his coffee before explaining, "Kurt. That's why, despite the fact that I never liked you much at all back in Ohio, you were better suited to parenthood than I was... or am. You have that mothering look about you."

Kurt wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult, but whatever it was, he wasn't going to let it bother him. "So then why keep tabs?"

"To make sure that if you had found out where she came from, that you weren't spilling it out or using it to blackmail my family."

Again, Kurt rolled his eyes. Everytime Kurt thought Sebastian was being complimentary towards him, he found that Sebastian really didn't know that much about him to begin with. "I wouldn't do that - use her as a pawn."

"And that..." Sebastian looked back at Kurt, "... is why I picked you boys."

Kurt sighed and leaned back in his seat, "I don't know whether I should thank you or punch you."

"Well, speaking as a senior partner in a well known law firm, I'd advise you not to punch me." Sebastian winked.

Kurt couldn't help but laugh and shook his head at Sebastian, "I can't believe this... You. Of all people... it had to be you..."

Sebastian grinned at Kurt, squaring his shoulders up a little in a shrug, "Well then. I'll take it as a thank you, so you're welcome."

"I am thankful Sebastian..." Kurt admitted, "So thank you."

Now Sebastian rolled his eyes, "No sappiness required. I didn't come to New York intending to meet up with you, or her, just here on a business trip and saw you."

"Still," Kurt continued, "Thank you. She means a lot to me, to us. Although now a lot of her behaviour makes a lot more sense..."

"Oh really?" Sebastian's eyes twinkled and Kurt knew his interest was peeked.

"For starters... she likes boys, but not relationships."

Sebastian smirked to himself, knowing full well what Kurt was implying.

"She also has serious attitude."

"Well that could have been learned from you too." Sebastian countered.

Kurt chuckled and shook his head, "No. From me she learned how to dress herself without looking like a door-to-door sales rep."

Sebastian scoffed, "Poor kid probably has the oddest clothing in all of New York."

"Actually she's done some modelling for . I used to work there. She loves the vault." Kurt smirked now.

"Well... I guess that's good anyhow. Any idea of what she wants to do after graduation? Perhaps law?"

Kurt shook his head with a smile, "Of everything she's talked about, that particular profession has never come up. She's still not sure but she's going to spend the summer with Blaine's brother in California to try and figure things out."

Sebastian arched an eyebrow, "Everyone in my family is in law..."

Kurt shrugged and leaned back, "Well she's part of my family, so I guess she's not."

Sebastian laughed and Kurt was pleasantly surprised to find that he and Sebastian were able to have a rather level headed conversation after all these years and after that bombshell. They spent the next hour talking about things at random. Whenever Kurt steered the conversation to Julie and the kids though, Sebastian managed to steer it back to something random. Kurt quickly determined that Sebastian wanted to avoid getting attached at all to his daughter, even if just thinking about her.

"Kurt... please don't tell her about me. I don't want a relationship with her. I'm happy you guys have her and that's all I ever wanted. I don't need a kid, especially a full grown one."

They parted on good terms, and as Kurt left the coffee shop, he thought about the past 18 years and how much his life had changed in that time, and how sweet it had been overall. He would have to figure out how to deal with the fact that in all these years, Julie had been compared to him, when in fact, her features were Sebastian's, but he wouldn't trade her for anything. He didn't even know how much he had wanted to be a dad until he set sights on her, and he had Sebastian of all people to thank for that.

As he walked down Broadway, Kurt pulled out his phone and dialled Julie's number.

"Daddy?" came her voice on the other end.

"Hey sweetheart. How's Ohio?"

"Alright. Grandpa took me shopping. Complained the whole time about how long it took me to go through the stores and how much things cost. Honestly, how did you live with him?

Kurt chuckled, "He made up for it by being an otherwise amazing father... and I never took him shopping. He only does that for his granddaughters."

"You should visit this fantastic little vintage place I found. It had the cutest handmade clothing..."

Kurt smiled as he listened to his daughter talk, and happily talked with her about clothing, his parents, and the rest of the family. She told him all about how Burt and George had gone fishing together, and how Carole was teaching Audrey how to crochet. Blaine had been kept busy helping Burt do some accounting for the shop.

It was only the first full day of them being gone and already he missed them terribly.

"Julie. I love you."

There was a pause on the other end and then a reply, "I love you too daddy. Are you alright?"

"I am. I miss you all lots, and was just reminded of how much you mean to me."

"Oh daddy... you're such a sap sometimes. You have a nice time by yourself and remember just how much you miss me when I'm gone so you can spoil me when I get back."

Kurt laughed and ended the call with Julie before sending a text out to Blaine.

You'll never guess who I ran into today...