Thursday Morning

Kurt lifted his head from under the covers in confusion, realizing that he was alone and that Blaine's side of the bed was cold. He couldn't make sense of the situation at first, what with his sleep foggy brain. He always woke up first. That was one of the things he loved about mornings. He would set his alarm for about ten minutes before he actually had to get up so he would have time to snuggle his husband. Blaine was such a warm bundle of cuddles in the morning. They would always start out in each others arms when they went to bed, but would inevitably drift to their own sides in the middle of the night. Kurt would wake up in the mornings feeling cold and separated from Blaine, and would immediately smack the snooze on his alarm before pulling Blaine into his arms. The nurse would always respond enthusiastically, smiling contentedly in his sleep and nuzzling his face down into Kurt's neck. That was how they spent almost every single morning. It was a little jarring to wake up alone.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he peered toward the window. He sucked in a quick breath and panic shot through him when he saw that it was starting to get light out. It was the middle of October in Ohio. It was normally pitch black still when he got up this time of year. He was late for work.

Shit!

As he desperately tried to untangle himself from the covers, a piece of yellow paper caught his eye. He slowed down long enough to pluck the piece of legal pad paper from Blaine's pillow, and a smile spread across his face when he read the bubbly script.

~ Good morning, my love :) First, stop panicking. You're not late for work. I called Dr. Sanders last night after you finally fell asleep and asked him to cover your shifts until Monday. You need the time off. Don't argue with me. I mean it. Stop right now. Stop it, I say ;)

I love you so much, Kurt. I know you and I know that you're going to feel self conscious this morning about what happened last night. Please don't. Nothing you do could make me love you any less. Honestly, seeing you so real just makes me love you even more. You are absolutely perfect to me.

This is gonna sound creepy, but I'll say it anyway because we're married and you're stuck for life :) I watched you sleep for a little while last night when you finally collapsed in my arms. God, Kurt, you are so breathtakingly beautiful. I didn't even want to sleep because it would mean that I would have to stop looking at you. Then I remembered that we have four children who would be getting up in a few hours, so I went to sleep. I didn't let go of you all night though.

When you get up I was thinking that we could take Cara and the younger kids out to brunch or something fun. Take your time though, baby. You almost never get a chance to sleep in, so enjoy it.

Love you always,

B ~

Kurt smiled to himself and shook his head. He couldn't help thinking that Blaine never got to sleep in either and that he deserved it just as much. That was typical Blaine though. The first thought in his mind was always about the comfort of others. Kurt made a mental note to let Blaine be the one to sleep in tomorrow. He took the note in both hands and snuggled back under the blankets to re-read it. The smile fell from his face when he thought back to the previous night. He honestly didn't know what had come over him. He so rarely lost his composure and he most certainly wasn't resentful of how they had built their family. He supposed it was just the extreme range of emotions he had been through within just a few days time, piled on top of his anger at the parents of their foster kids. The thought that he and Blaine were being the responsible ones and taking over where these people had failed miserably had pushed him over the edge. Every tiny doubt, fear or frustration had come to the surface in that moment and he had had no choice but to let himself break.

He sighed and closed his eyes, remembering how Blaine had held him close for so long last night. Kissing his face, smoothing back his hair, ignoring the mess that Kurt had left on his shoulder as evidence of his little breakdown. He smiled softly to himself then, knowing how blessed he was to have such a husband.

Okay. That's enough. You had your moment, and that's okay, but now you have a family depending on you. Get yourself together and go take care of them.

Just as he was summoning the energy the pull himself from bed, he heard a creak as the door to their bedroom slowly opened. He sat up, curious when he didn't see anyone standing there right away. A smile spread across his face when he saw a pair of bright green eyes peeping timidly from the edge of the door.

"Hey, Liam. It's okay, honey. You can come in."

The toddler smiled shyly and pattered across the floor happily, before climbing onto the bed. He had a little trouble climbing up, as he was holding onto something with both hands and refusing to let go, even for a moment. Kurt reached over to help pull the boy up before realizing what he was clutching in his small hands. The doctor gasped sharply, but bit his tongue when Liam offered gooey hands in front of his face.

"I got you a pancake, Daddy."

That's when it hit Kurt. He took in Liam's anxiously excited eyes as he offered up his sticky present. He looked at the trail of syrup on the floor and the brown smudges left at regular intervals across the Egyptian cotton from when Liam had crawled onto the bed.

To Liam, he was daddy.

Those other people may have been a part his creation, but they were far from parents. They were a sperm donor and a carrier. Liam was right there in front of him, offering up a pancake to one of the men who had taken him in. One of the men whom he thought of as daddy. Something they had never once encouraged. Something Liam had come up with completely on his own.

Kurt didn't think twice then about sticky hands on his white shirt. He didn't think about the mess all over their "dry clean only" comforter and expensive sheets. He pulled Liam into his lap and hugged him close, resting his cheek down on top of the blonde hair. An amazing sense of peace swept through him as he placed a kiss on top of the boy's head. He then said something that, up until yesterday, he had been terrified to give in to.

"Thank you, Liam. That was so thoughtful, baby. Daddy loves his pancake."

"Morning sunshine!" Blaine said cheerily as Kurt padded out into the kitchen a couple minutes later with Liam on his hip. Blaine's smile turned into a look of confusion though when he saw Liam clutching at Kurt's t-shirt with sticky hands. He looked over at the table to see an empty chair where Liam had been sitting and a trail of syrup leading away from the table.

"Geez! I didn't even see him leave. I'm sorry, baby. I meant for you to sleep as long as you wanted."

Kurt shrugged and leaned in for a kiss.

"I was already awake actually, and thank you for letting me sleep in." He gave Blaine a look that said he was thanking him for much more than that. Blaine just smiled and kissed him soundly.

"Liam just... wanted to bring his daddy a pancake." Kurt smiled softly and walked to the sink, setting Liam down on the counter and wiping the sticky face and hands. Blaine looked at his husband in surprise. They had been so carefully avoiding using that word to describe themselves when it came to Tia and Liam. Deep down he knew that the news Finn had brought them yesterday had changed all of that, but he hadn't had a chance to reconcile himself to it yet.

He saw the peace and contentment in Kurt's eyes and felt happiness well up within him. This was exactly what Kurt needed after his emotional night. He stepped up next to the doctor and slipped an arm around his waist, leaning his head on the taller man's shoulder.

"Did you decide to bring daddy a pancake, sweetpea?"

Liam nodded happily and patted Kurt's mouth with his now clean fingers.

"Daddy ate it."

"Daddy choked down one little bite and tossed the rest in the trash can when a certain someone wasn't looking," Kurt murmured out of the corner of his mouth. "God only knows what that thing touched on it's journey."

Blaine snickered with a smile and tapped Liam on the nose. The toddler reached his arms out and Blaine picked him up. The two men wrapped their arms around each other with Liam in the middle, snuggling the child close. Liam practically melted with contentment as he relaxed and let himself be cuddled, wrapping one arm around each of their necks and threading small fingers through their hair. Kurt swallowed hard and pushed the last little bit of fear away.

"Daddies love you, Liam."

Blaine pressed a kiss to Liam's head and then to Kurt's lips.

"So much," he added.

Liam leaned back and looked at them with his always shy smile and pecked each man on the cheek with a little kiss. He wiggled to be put down then and ran as fast as he could, back to the table. Kurt sighed and nuzzled into Blaine, still feeling the after effects of last night, and just wanting to be held. Blaine complied happily, scooting himself up on the counter and then pulling Kurt to him, in-between his legs. Kurt rested his head on the nurse's chest and watched the rest of the family at the table.

Paul had shown up in time to help with breakfast, intent on taking the older two to school, and was quizzing Elliott on some spelling words while the boy finished eating. Addy was feeding Tia tiny bits of pancake from her own plate while Cara put the six-year-old's hair in french braids, something the young girl insisted that her fathers never did quite right. Kurt had always been a little hurt by that. Liam was now in his chair next to Grandpa Paul and the older man cut up another pancake for the child, covering it generously with butter and syrup. Kurt laughed, watching Liam tuck into his meal with gusto.

"Just look at him, Blaine. Less than a week ago that kid was nervous about taking a glass of milk from us and looked like he was afraid we were going to jerk it away. Can you believe the difference?"

Blaine shook his head in wonder.

"It's still a little crazy to me. I fully expected them to push us away when we tried to love them. I mean, all they've known is cruelty and neglect at the hands of their mother. I really thought it would take them longer to adjust to and accept us. Now Tia only has eyes for us when we're in the room and Liam is bringing you pancakes in bed and calling us daddy."

Kurt just smiled.

"They were just waiting to be loved I guess."

"Well, in the words of Elliott, 'This family is really good at loving people'," Blaine smiled.

"That we are," Kurt smiled. He turned in Blaine's arms then, circling his own arms around the nurse's waist. "Especially you. Thanks for loving me, baby. I just... thank you." Kurt's voice was a little choked up by the end and Blaine just pulled him in close once again.

"Oh, honey," he sighed as he ran his hands up and down Kurt's back. "You wouldn't be thanking me if you realized how incredibly easy you are to love."

The doctor laughed a little, but didn't say anything back. He just determined to always be the husband that Blaine deserved, and to love him back just as much.

"What?" Kurt asked self-consciously when he caught Blaine staring at him yet again. Blaine grinned and averted his gaze as he hiked Liam up on his hip. Kurt had actually left the house in track pants and a simple long sleeved tee today. Granted, they were a designer label, but still something the doctor would normally never wear out in public. His hair was carelessly styled and flopping forward on his forehead a bit, making him look incredibly young. Blaine found it ridiculously adorable and was having a hard time tearing his eyes away.

"Nothing, honey. You just look extra good today is all."

Kurt blushed but smiled. He pulled Tia's little winter hat, complete with monkey ears, closer around her head as he took her from her carseat. He then offered Cara a hand as she climbed down from the high back seat of his SUV. She pulled her winter coat around her as closely as she could, but it wouldn't quite meet in the middle anymore. Kurt eyed her pointedly.

"That goes on the list. You need a coat that will actually keep you warm."

She opened up her mouth to argue but Blaine stepped up to her other side and offered an arm.

"Don't even bother. The more you fight him on it the more he'll buy you."

Kurt just grinned and offered her his arm on the other side. She bit her lip and smiled happily to herself as she took the arms of both men, thinking she had to be one of the luckiest girls in the world.

They walked together as a family through the parking lot and up to the hospital. Cara in the middle, linking arms with the doctor and nurse, Tia in Kurt's free arm and Liam in Blaine's. Once inside, they settled Cara and the kids in the play area located in the pediatric wing before heading to see Brandi.

They had talked it over, and even though they were both taking a few days off, they knew they needed to come in and see the girl. They still hadn't figured out what exactly they were going to do, though both knew deep down that if it worked out for them to bring her home, they would. Especially now that they knew she was related to Tia and Liam. Granted, she didn't even know them. She had been removed from her mother's care years before Liam had even been born. All three children were still related, though, and they felt like keeping them in one family would ultimately be best. Never mind the fact that they both just felt a connection to Brandi and wanted more than anything to take care of her.

It was a nice feeling to walk down the halls of the hospital in their street clothes and not feel the urgency that normally came with their jobs. They held hands as they strolled toward Brandi's room, enjoying the fact that they just got to be together.

Simone was standing outside Brandi's room looking at a chart when they approached. She smiled and looked at them appraisingly.

"Well aren't you just a cutie-patootie today!" She grinned at Kurt. Blaine worked hard at hiding his laughter when Kurt looked at her in disbelief.

"You said I looked fine to come to the hospital like this!" He turned accusingly to Blaine. The nurse pulled him close and laughed.

"You do! You look downright adorable! You're a total cutie-patootie."

Kurt groaned and took the chart from Simone's hand.

"I should have known better than to trust your judgment," he shook his head in annoyance. "I've taken myself down from 'Dr. Hummel' to 'cutie-patootie' in one poorly chosen outfit."

Simone and Blaine just looked at each other with a grin before the two men entered the room.

They found Finn spread out awkwardly between to hospital chairs, one leg propped up over the side rail of a chair and his neck bent in an uncomfortable position as it lolled off to the side in sleep.

Brandi was sitting up in bed, complacently flipping through the channels of the small hospital television. She brightened considerably when the two men walked into the room and sent them a gentle smile. This surprised them. It was such a drastic difference from the previous evening. She had been so incredibly distraught. Even by the time they had left, she had been fairly inconsolable and only willing to talk to Finn.

"How are you feeling, honey?" Kurt asked gently as he sat down on the side of her bed.

"Okay," she answered shyly.

"You look good," Blaine responded with a smile, reaching out a hand to brush a strand of hair from her face, just as he had done the day before. The meaning of the simple gesture was not lost on the young girl and she sighed contentedly before she realized what she was doing. She stiffened quickly, glancing at the nurse anxiously to see how her response had affected him. The last thing she needed was to get too clingy with these guys. She was lucky they were paying her any attention at all. If there was anything she had learned in her young life it was to make herself as small and as unnoticeable as possible.

Unfortunately for Brandi, this didn't come naturally. As a child she had always been spunky, incredibly loving and bursting with energy and opinions. It had literally taken someone beating her into submission for her to become the girl she was today.

There was something about these men though. They each brought out part of her old self. On one hand it felt incredibly nice. On the other it was absolutely terrifying. With the exception of the short time she had spent with Mr. Hudson, she had only ever had negative reinforcement when it came to her natural tendencies.

Mr. Hudson made her feel safe and taken care of. He had proven time and again that he would be there for her when no other adult in her life was. Even after she thought she had been abandoned for the second time, he had shown up and become her knight in shining armor once again, promising to make everything okay.

Dr. Hummel made her feel comfortable in her own skin. She felt as if she could say or do absolutely anything around him and still be accepted, even loved. Whether she was silent or speaking, she got the sense that his opinion of her never changed. He was there. He was steady. He was a father.

Blaine however, or Mr. Hummel, she still wasn't sure how she was supposed to address him... Blaine's affect on her was a little harder to pinpoint. The closest she could come to describing how he made her feel... was that he made her want to try. His mere presence made her want to dig deep within herself and find the Brandi that she used to be as a young child and become that person again. She had no idea if that was possible, but she certainly wanted to give it a go. One sentence had been echoing through her mind from the moment she woke up, probably even before that in her dreams, to be perfectly honest:

I will always bother. Don't you give up. I won't let you.

The man in question just gave her a little wink and moved to hold her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze before turning to his husband.

For a moment the two men talked about the contents of her chart, but it was in such a different way than any of the other hospital staff. They talked about it, but didn't speak in veiled medical terms that she couldn't understand. They also talked directly to her. Asking her specific questions about how she was feeling and what she thought about things. It warmed her greatly to be talked to like her opinion actually mattered.

Their talking had finally woken Finn, and after sleepily stepping into the bathroom to splash some water on his face, he came back and stood at the end of her bed, ready to join in the conversation.

"So, Brandi," Finn started carefully. "There are a few things that we need to discuss. Some pretty important things that will affect what our next move is."

"What do you mean by our next move?" She asked cautiously.

"Well," Finn said, looking her straight in the eye. "From everything they're telling me here, you're getting better every day. You're going to get to go home soon."

Her body tensed immediately and she attempted to pull away the hand that Blaine was holding. He stopped her though, squeezing her hand gently but firmly.

"Hey now," he said in a soothing voice. "Why are you pulling away? Tell us what's wrong. We will do anything within our power to help, but there is only so much we can do if you shut down."

She looked up at him with wide eyes and he cupped her hand between his. Kurt scooted up the bed a little so that Finn had room to sit down. The doctor gave a reassuring nod and squeezed her other hand, while Finn found a seat on the foot of the bed and patted her ankle, showing that he backed Blaine up.

"What are you scared of right now, Brandi?" The social worker asked.

"I don't want to go home," she said meekly. "You said you'd take care of me. You said you wouldn't let anything else bad happen to me."

Finn wanted to kick himself for his misstep.

"Oh honey, when I said home, I didn't mean your old home. I just meant that you would be able to leave the hospital. We are going to find a good home for you to go to, with people who are going to take care of you."

She relaxed visibly and even squeezed both Blaine and Kurt's hands back just a bit.

"Do... do I get any say in where I go?"

"Of course you do," Finn nodded with a smile. "In fact..." He trailed off, sending a discreet and questioning look Kurt and Blaine's way. The husbands glanced at each other and smiled the tiniest bit. They didn't even have to ask Finn what he was wondering or ask what the other wanted to do. They all knew that they were on the same page. Finn nodded, patting Kurt on the shoulder as he spoke.

"This is actually my brother, Brandi," Finn said to the girl. "I don't think I got a chance to tell you that yet."

She looked to them in surprise and they laughed a little.

"Well, step-brothers," Kurt amended. "I know, we don't look anything alike. Thank goodness for me," he gave her a little wink, causing her to smile.

"Thanks for that, Kurt." Finn rolled his eyes, pushing Kurt's shoulder lightly from behind.

"Anyway, before my brother so rudely insulted my ruggedly handsome looks, I was about to tell you something really great about him."

Kurt had the grace to look a little chagrined and turned around to shrug apologetically. Finn shot him a mock glare but smiled again as he turned back to Brandi.

"So, sweetie. There's some pretty big news that we need to share with you. You would have had no way of knowing this, but after you were taken from your mom... a good bit after, she had two more babies. They have a different father from yours, but you have a half-brother and a half-sister."

Brandi's eyes widened. She tightened her grip on Kurt and Blaine's hands, but she didn't open her mouth or say a word. Finn took in her expression and decided to keep on going.

"They were taken from your mother last week, for the same reasons that you were taken away." He finished the sentence quietly, and Kurt could hear the shame and anger still resonating in his voice. He turned around for a moment and squeezed Finn's hand, hating that his brother was blaming himself at all for what happened.

"They are, however, safe and doing very well now," Finn went on with a genuine smile. "Dr. and Mr. Hummel are actually their foster parents, they..."

Brandi sat up straight in her bed then, squeezing the husbands' hands so tightly her knuckles were turning white.

"You have Tia and Liam? They're safe? They're really okay?" She looked at them earnestly, with sudden tears running down her cheeks.

All three men stared back at her in complete shock.

"How do you know about them?" Finn asked in a whisper. "Have you been back to your mom's Brandi?"

She hesitated then, looking like she was afraid of getting into trouble. Kurt shook his head quickly.

"Hey, whatever you tell you us is fine. Nobody is going to be upset with you. We're just trying to piece this all together. We had know idea you were even aware of their existence."

At Finn's earnest nod and Blaine's reassuring smile she timidly opened her mouth to speak, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"It was about... I dunno, eight months ago I think. I was shopping at the store for my dad and I... I heard her voice. I was so terrified. I dropped everything in my hands and hid under a counter in the deli." Finn nodded encouragingly, shooting her a small smile, but Kurt could practically feel the tension radiating from him. "I just closed my eyes at first, hoping I could disappear and that she wouldn't see me, but then I realized that she was yelling at someone. She was yelling at a child the way she used to yell at me. It took me a minute to get up enough courage to peek out, but when I did... that's when I saw them. Tia was still a little baby then. I was so scared, Mr. Hudson," she whispered in a broken voice and Finn caved in a little then, wiping his own tears away, but still nodding for her to continue. "I was s-scared for me, but I was more scared for them. I... I watched her walk out of the store that day, yelling at them and pushing them around. She sh-shoved Liam so hard that he ran into the door on the way out. I couldn't understand why not one single person did anything to stop her."

Kurt was almost trembling with rage by then, thinking about that loving little boy who had just that morning brought him a pancake in bed and called him daddy. That little boy who was just waiting to love and be loved. He could figure out pretty easily the types of things that Tia and Liam had been through, but hearing it actually described was almost more than he could take. He thought to himself that it was probably a good thing this woman was in jail and that he'd never see her again.

"I went home that night and all I could think about was those kids," she shook her head as she looked down into her lap. "A couple days went by and... I just couldn't do it. I couldn't leave them alone to deal with things like I'd had to." Those words were like a knife in the heart to Finn. "So, I started sneaking over there. At first I just hid outside and listened from the windows. I figured out their names and I figured out her schedule so I knew when it would be safe to try and go inside the house. Turns out she did the same things that she did with me," she smiled, but her eyes were cold. "She beat them, half starved them, and then left them alone in the house while she went out and got drunk. Sometimes she'd even bring people back to the house and have... parties." Her cheeks grew bright red then and she refused to meet their eyes. Kurt looked over at Blaine to see that he was almost biting through his lip in an attempt to not say anything. "I started going in every night after she left the house, or when she'd stay home but pass out drunk. Tia was just happy to be held. Mama hardly ever picked her up except to feed her I think. I tried to snuggle her every night. Liam was scared at first though. I told him that I was his sister and that it was okay for me to be there, even though I knew mama would probably kill me if she saw me there."

The thing that really did the men in was her terminology. They all knew that they had used phrases like that when they were teenagers. That their parents were going to "kill them" over something. Brandi meant it literally, and it didn't even register to her that this was abnormal. There was nothing like being smacked across the face with harsh reality to make you realize how much you had to be grateful for.

"It took a couple of weeks, but pretty soon Liam trusted me. I brought them food whenever I could and I would clean up their cuts, as long as it wouldn't look too suspicious to mama. I would try to play with them a little and read them some books, but mama didn't really keep that kind of stuff in the house. I tried to feed them, I really did," she looked at them anxiously. "I brought them my own food from home when I could, but I haven't lived at home for a while now so I didn't have anything to give them." she finished softly. They all worked hard not to tense up and react. This was far and away the most information she had given them concerning herself, and they didn't want to scare her away from telling them anything more. "I-I stole formula lots of times for Tia." She glanced at them warily, waiting to be reprimanded, but all she received were understanding looks from all three. "Mama breast fed her, I think, but I never saw a baby so skinny and I knew she wasn't getting enough to eat. I tried to steal some food for Liam too, whenever I could, but the guy at the store was starting to get suspicious, and I didn't want to get caught."

Suddenly, to all three men, something clicked. They had all been surprised at how easily Tia and Liam had accepted them. The two young children had grown incredibly comfortable with Kurt and Blaine in such a short amount of time. The kids had come from an incredibly abusive home and the fact that they had responded so well to the new and loving environment had seemed nothing short of miraculous. They had decided to just be grateful, instead of trying to decipher the reasons why. They now realized that the reason why was sitting right in front of their faces.

Brandi. All this time, she had been loving them in secret. She had been giving them the hugs and food and care that should have been coming from their parents. A thirteen-year-old, who was abused and neglected herself, had been doing her best to cover the jobs of both a mother and a father... and doing it in hiding because of the consequences should she be caught.

Finn leaned in and looked her in the eye.

"Brandi, you did an incredible job taking care of them. It wasn't even supposed to be your job. You are such an amazing and responsible girl. Those two are lucky they had you." She brightened and her cheeks blushed at the compliment. She gazed at each of them shyly and both the doctor and nurse gave her reassuring smiles and clasped her hands a little more tightly. Neither could find it within themselves to say aloud what they were thinking: that if it was true, and that their mother had indeed left Tia alone so much as a newborn, unfed for hours at a time, that Brandi might very well be the only reason the baby was still alive at all. They both took deep breaths and held in their anger for the mother, knowing that the teen didn't need to see that right now. Blaine reached out to smooth back her hair once more and caressed her cheek lightly. She looked down at her lap, but it was obvious to see that their positive reinforcement was doing her a world of good.

"I went back there, a few nights ago," she spoke up again, "and they were all gone. Mama, the kids... I was so upset! I thought maybe she had picked up and moved with them," she was tearing up again and she moved a trembling hand to wipe at her eyes. "I'm the only thing they had and I was so afraid for them..."

"They are fine, honey," Blaine said, moving to pull her into his arms. Kurt smiled. The doctor had honestly just been waiting for him to break down and hug her. He had been a little surprised at his husband's self control at having held off for so long. "Mr. Hudson took them away from your mom last week and brought them to stay with us. They're happy and healthy. We're taking good care of them." She nodded into his shoulder, clinging to him as she cried her relief. When she finally let go, she wiped her eyes and smiled at them happily.

"You don't know how much that means to me. Really. As long as they're okay then I'm happy."

Blaine and Kurt looked at each other and smiled.

"Actually," Kurt began. "We can do you one better. How would you like to see them?"

She looked up sharply, staring at them to see if they were for real, then looked to Finn. The social worker winked and nodded.

"When?" She managed to croak out in a tight voice.

"They're here now," Kurt answered. "Right here in the hospital." When she looked immediately concerned he realized his mistake and hurried to correct himself. "They're not here as patients, they're just here with us because we came to visit you. Would you like to go see them?"

She nodded shakily, hiccupping back a teary laugh. She moved back the covers from her bed and eagerly swung her legs over the side to stand. It was then that Kurt realized she was now wearing a brand new and fashionable pair of sweats with a t-shirt instead of the hospital gown. As he worked to steady her on her still uncertain legs, her glanced at Finn, nodding toward the outfit. Finn gave a proud little smile and mouthed 'Rachel'. Kurt nodded then, loving his sister-in-law for being thoughtful enough to bring the girl an outfit to wear that wasn't baggy hospital garb.

Blaine hurried to grab a wheelchair from the hall and they settled her into it gently, hanging her IV bag on the side. She was silent and anxiously gripped the sides of the chair as they headed down the hall. Finn was at her back, pushing her along. Kurt and Blaine had linked hands and were walking alongside of her. The husbands looked at each other, hearts beating fast, though they weren't exactly sure why. When they approached the play area, Blaine let go of Kurt's hand and hurried to step forward and open the door.

For the three men, everything seemed to slow in those next moments. Cara was on the floor with Liam, building a tower with blocks. Tia was sitting close by, banging one block on top of another. The baby looked up first, eyes shining when she saw the two men. Her bright green eyes shifted to the girl sitting in the chair though, and she let out an excited little gurgle as she dropped the blocks and started to steadily crawl toward the door. Liam heard his sister's noise of enthusiasm and turned to the door quickly to see what the fuss was about. He had the same look of excitement on his face when he saw his two 'dads', but his happiness faded for a just moment and turned to shock when he saw his older sister. His smile returned then, even brighter than before, and he dove to his feet. Cara looked on in shocked confusion, but was wearing a hesitant smile, able to tell what a happy moment it was even if she didn't know exactly what was happening.

"Bwandi!" Liam shrieked, hurtling himself across the room and into her arms.

Kurt watched on, covering his mouth with a shaking hand as he broke, happy tears streaming down his face. Blaine just looked ecstatic. His eyes were shining with unshed tears, but his bright smile rivaled the sun in that moment. Finn was feeling every emotion he was capable of all at once, but any fears or anxieties were trumped by the look of contentment on the faces of the children. He stepped to the side, pulling Kurt into a tight embrace, needing to express what he was feeling in some way. The doctor grinned and held him back, knowing what a big moment this was for his brother. Seeing any kind of happy closure after all of the heartbreak had to be an incredible affirmation.

Tia had reached the bottom of the chair by then and was clambering to be in Brandi's lap too. Blaine leaned over and scooped her from the floor, setting her in the older girl's lap. Brandi held them both close, shaking a little as she tried to sniff back some happy tears. She kissed them each on the cheek and pulled back to look at them. Three pairs of bright green eyes all met and looked at each other in disbelief.

"I thought I might never see you guys again," Brandi whispered in a broken voice. "Sissy loves you, you know that?"

Liam grinned.

"Wuv you sissy."

He then tapped her excitedly before reaching his hands up to Kurt. The doctor stepped forward hesitantly, not wanting to break up their moment, but the toddler seemed adamant. Liam climbed into his arms with a smile and patted his face gently before looking back down at Brandi.

"Sissy! We got daddies!"

Silence fell across the room. Kurt and Blaine looked at each other, then Kurt looked at Finn, who shrugged, as if to say, 'The ball's in your court, man.' Cara watched on with bated breath. Blaine stepped up next to Brandi and squatted down by her side, placing a hand over hers. Kurt kissed Liam on the cheek and tickled his tummy.

"Yes, Liam. You do have daddies, huh?"

Brandi watched them in awe, still holding a squirming Tia in her lap. She turned carefully to look at Blaine, who was right by her side. Her desperately questioning look was heart-wrenching. He squeezed her hand and smiled with a nod.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to, honey, but we would be so honored if you would come and stay with us too."

She couldn't find it within herself to do anything more than nod at first, but inside... inside the happiness and contentment were swirling around like a storm. She nodded more eagerly then, feeling for the first time, in a long time, that things might actually be going her way.