EPILOUGE

I paced the floor, my shoes squeaking on the vinyl flooring slightly.

“Will you calm down,” Blaine said wearily from his seat. I whirled round to him face him.

“Will you show some emotion,” I snapped. He merely raised and eye brow at me, far to use to my anxiety outburst. “How can you be so placid?” I asked him angrily. He pulled a face that was clearly him trying to hide a smirk.

“I wonder,” he mused sarcastically. I sighed, his previous job and the training for that had instilled this annoying ability he had to stay calm and level headed even in the most stressful situations. True, I may owe my life to that and it may have offset my tendency to get overly worked up but still it was very irritating. Another half hidden expression passed across his face as a doctor hurried past us, his eyes tracking the harried woman.

“You’re not calm are you?” I said quietly, moving to his side.

“I’m terrified,” he answered, reaching out to grab my hand. I looked at the hand in mine; it was his left so I could see the wedding band on his finger. I crouched down beside him and pressed my lips over the golden ring.

“I love you,” I told him. He smiled back.

“I love you too.”

“Mr Hummel, Mr Anderson?” A doctor called us. We stood, still hand in hand and faced him.

“Yes?” I asked shakily. Blaine’s hand tightened around mine.

“Mother and baby are completely healthy. Congratulations gentleman, you have a beautiful baby girl. Would you like to meet her?”

“Yes,” Blaine answered excitedly.

We followed the doctor into a room full of cribs. Wrapped in a pink blanket was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. A nurse passed the tiny bundle into my arms. I felt Blaine wrap an arm around me, hooking his chin over my shoulder, the other hand barely brushing the apple of one tiny little cheek.

“She’s gorgeous,” he whispered in my ear, I could hear the tears in his voice.

“What’s her name?” The nurse asked. I felt the arm around me tighten. Many long and sometimes painful conversations had gone into picking the perfect name for our daughter. She would have two middle names, one would be my mother’s the other Blaine’s mother, so at least she’d get to meet one of her namesakes. But the first name had been hard. In the end she was named after a woman I’d never even met but who had saved both our lives and allowed this little girl to even exist.

“Annabelle Katherine Grace Hummel-Anderson,” I told the nurse who laughed good-naturedly.

“That’s quite a mouthful but very beautiful,” she told them.

“Well she’ll mostly just be Annie,” Blaine told her as I said,

“Beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” The nurse laughed again, patted my shoulder and left. I don’t think either Blaine or I had looked at her once.

“We’re Dad’s,” Blaine breathed into my ear.

“Yes we are,” I replied with a smile.

“I’m going to spend my life protecting her from the world… and you,” he said for the first time looking away to press a kiss to my cheek. I smiled and shook my head at his protective nature, though it was understandable.

“Hold her,” I said, turning round so I could pass her too her other Daddy.