It was only a fortnight later that they dared to address the subject again.

For weeks, the three of them hadn’t mentioned it. Quinn had continued living with them, unable to return home until after the birth – apparently, Finn thought she was helping her parents with their divorce in Chicago for a few months – and life had gone back to normal; busy, hectic, other things more pressing.

But, like always, as soon as the phone rang with news from the adoption services, normality shut down and Kurt and Blaine’s life flew into turmoil. Every time, they hoped and prayed to every God under the sun that it was good news – and every time they were disappointed. But, after another frustrating meeting with the services, Blaine was beginning to understand the vicious circle and what they’d just have to do.

‘We should just give up.’

Kurt frowned into the darkness of the night. ‘What do you mean?’

Blaine leant up on one arm so he could survey his partner, pokerfaced. ‘The adoption. We’ve been trying for almost a year, Kurt. I don’t think – To me, it doesn’t look like the services are going to let it happen any time soon.’

Kurt pulled a face as he met Blaine’s eyes. ‘As much as it hurts me to admit… I think you’re right. We’ve done everything and still…Why can’t people just accept that we’re no different to a straight couple?’

‘If only there was another way,’ Blaine agreed. ‘One that didn’t include the services.’

Knowing exactly what he meant, Kurt sat up quickly, forcing his partner to lean back quickly to avoid being headbutted. ‘No, Blaine. No.’

He looked over his right shoulder, to the wall opposite Kurt, clearly thinking about the sleeping woman next door, before turning back to his partner. ‘She asked, Kurt. She offered us her unborn baby.’

‘That’s my brother’s wife,’ Kurt hissed, ‘who is carrying his best friend’s child! Again! I am not getting involved in that mess, Blaine. It was bad enough the first time.’

‘I know it’s not the best circumstances,’ he concealed, ‘but think about that baby; think about what will happen if we don’t take it. Quinn’s not going to keep it – that’s why she came to us. She can’t keep it – she can’t let Finn bring up a child that he thinks is his but isn’t.’

‘Then she should come clean and tell Finn she’s a dirty little – ’

‘Then what would happen? They’d get divorced, break up. They’d fight and row, bitch and moan about each other – and how would that effect the twins, Kurt? They’d be stuck in the middle, forced to take sides.’

Kurt narrowed his eyes. ‘You’re saying that, if we don’t take that baby, we’ll be responsible for the destruction of that family?’

‘I’m saying it’s one of the possible outcomes of this,’ Blaine corrected. ‘If we don’t take Quinn’s baby, she’ll either go home to Finn and break his heart, or she’ll give the baby up for adoption anyway. She’ll lose it, just like she lost Beth – you wouldn’t do that to her again, would you?’

Kurt shrugged. ‘Then she shouldn’t have slept with Puckerman.’

‘I’m not saying what she did was right,’ Blaine told him, continuing, ‘But she’s giving us a lifeline, Kurt! She’s giving us her baby, to look after and love! Us – not Mercedes or Mike, or anyone else – us. If we don’t accept, I don’t think we’ll have another chance at raising a family.’

Kurt had to admit, seeing that light in Blaine’s eyes, the beam on his face, as he laid the bare truth – that Quinn had chosen them, that out of everyone, she wanted them to raise her baby as their own – out for him to see, he was warming to the idea. Anything that made Blaine look that happy was absolutely fine with him. But it still didn’t wash away the fact that, if the truth got out, they’d be just as guilty in Finn’s eyes as Quinn.

‘I understand,’ Kurt assured Blaine quietly, ‘but Finn is my brother. First and foremost, I have an obligation to be honest to him. I can’t – I can’t raise his wife’s illegitimate child without telling him.’

‘Will you tell him Quinn had an affair even if we don’t take her up?’ Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow when Kurt opened his mouth to reply, then shut it, stumped. ‘You can’t, can you? Because you know it’ll break his heart. So what difference does it make to Finn if we raise the child as our own?’

Kurt sighed, knowing Blaine had won. ‘None at all.’

Four months later, however, when he was handed Quinn’s baby girl, Colbie – a pile of soft, pink flesh and bright green eyes – all the doubt drained from Kurt. Blaine was right; it shouldn’t be about his loyalty to Finn, or lying for Quinn. It was all about Colbie, about raising the baby Blaine and he had wanted for such a long time. So Kurt signed the papers and never looked back. Why would he, when he had a beautiful baby girl that cancelled out all the deceit of her birth a million times over?