“Mollie, sweetheart, please stop crying,” Kurt practically sobbed as he made yet another circuit around the house; through Mollie’s bedroom, across the hall into he and Blaine’s bedroom, down the hall and around the living room, and back to Mollie’s room to start all over again.

He felt as if he had done this a thousand times over the last several hours, trying to calm the three month old. What had started out as simple fussing had evolved over the afternoon into full fledged bawling. Both of them were exhausted and Kurt could feel the last of his patience draining away.

He had tried everything: he was checking her (still clean) diaper about every ten minutes now; he had tried giving her a bottle, only to have her turn her head and cry even harder; he had waved various toys at her, only making her more mad; he had tried putting her down for a nap, which had made her scream harder; and he had tried dancing around the room with her to her favorite music. Nothing was working. Kurt didn’t know how much more he could take.

*****

Blaine was humming to himself as he turned off the car and grabbed his briefcase from the front seat. He smiled as he thought of his beautiful husband Kurt and their precious daughter Mollie; every evening he looked forward to coming home to the two of them. They were the light of his life.

Blaine pushed open the door and walked into the kitchen, prepared to call out the oh-so-cheesy “Honey, I’m home!” when he heard a very angry Mollie crying almost hysterically. Concerned, he set down the briefcase and his keys and walked further into the house. As he listened, he realized that he was also hearing Kurt crying and pleading with the little girl to stop crying. He picked up his pace as he frantically wondered what had happened.

Blaine walked into the living room from the kitchen just as Kurt was walking into the room from the hallway across from him. He quickly assessed the two of them; other than red swollen eyes, tear-streaked cheeks, and almost identical expressions of exhaustion and frustration, both of them looked intact and healthy.

“Kurt,” Blaine said softly. He walked over as Kurt looked up, an expression of relief flitting across his features. “Baby, what’s wrong? Why are both of you crying?”

Kurt handed Mollie over without a word. The tone of her crying immediately changed as she snuggled into Blaine’s chest. He rubbed a hand firmly over her tiny back and kissed her sweaty curls, unconsciously moving to sway with her and murmur softly to her. He looked up at Kurt to comment on how she was calmer now, only to see Kurt becoming even more upset.

“Why d - doesn’t my baby like me?” Kurt sobbed out.

Blaine had no idea what had been going on before he got here, but he knew he needed to nip this in the bud right now.

“Kurt, Mollie loves you,” he said firmly. “You are her daddy and she loves you so much. Now I’m going to take care of her and you’re going to go back and take a long, hot bath. I’ve got things under control here; I don’t want you to even think about either of us. Take your time and enjoy.”

Kurt turned without another word and shuffled back towards their bathroom. Blaine took a deep breath and looked down at their daughter. Her hazel eyes were starting to drift closed as she hiccupped and sniffled. Blaine sighed and walked back to the kitchen to attempt one-handed bottle making, bouncing Mollie gently in his arms the whole way.

*****

Kurt sighed and started over; eyes closed, thinking about relaxing his toes, then his feet, then his ankles, and so on, all the way up his body. Over the course of the afternoon, his body had become more and more tightly strung, until he felt like one big knot of tension. The hot water was helping, the silence was more precious than gold, and as much as he loved Mollie he was thrilled that he did not have to look at her or hear her at the moment. Why didn’t the books and magazines ever talk about this part of parenting?

Kurt heard the bathroom door open and close. He kept his eyes closed and ignored Blaine until he felt a foot slide into the tub next to his left hip, then another foot next to his right hip. He tilted his head back and looked up to see Blaine wearing shorts and a t-shirt, settling on the edge of the tub with Kurt between his knees.

“Lean up a little,” Blaine murmured.

Kurt complied then groaned as Blaine placed his hands on Kurt’s shoulders and dug his thumbs into the muscles in his back. Kurt dropped his head forward and just allowed himself to enjoy the feeling of all the knots being worked out of his aching shoulders and arms. He hadn’t even realized how tight his muscles were from both the tension and stress of the day as well as carrying a baby around nonstop for hours.

“Mollie’s fed, clean and dry, and sound asleep in her crib,” Blaine said softly. “I’ve ordered your favorites from the Chinese place, there’s a bottle of wine breathing on the counter, music playing, and I’m going to give you a proper massage with massage oil before you go to sleep tonight.”

Kurt turned his head to press his lips to Blaine’s forearm; the only part of him that he could easily reach.

“You are an angel of mercy. I’m not sure what I would have done if you hadn’t shown up when you had.”

Blaine leaned down to press a kiss to the top of Kurt’s head. “You would have been fine. I have complete faith that you could have continued to take care of our little girl as long as you needed to. Both of you would have been miserable, but you would have been fine. Because you’re an amazing father who loves his little girl with all his heart, and that little girl loves her daddy with all of her heart.”

Kurt sniffled. “But why wouldn’t she stop crying? Nothing that I did worked. I had been trying for hours to calm her down, and everything just made her more upset. Then I hand her over to you and within less than a minute you had her calmer than she had been all day! What was I doing wrong?”

“Kurt, by the time I got home you were so worked up that I’m surprised I wasn’t knocked over by the tension and frustration as soon as I walked in the door. Babies pick up on stuff like that. She could probably feel you getting more and more upset and that just got her more and more wound up. You were feeding off of each other. When I took her, I was fresh from work and calm and quiet and she felt that. It wasn’t you, baby, it was just that you were both so stressed out.”

Blaine stood up, grabbing a towel to dry off his legs and turning to Kurt with another towel.

“Come on. I want to show you something,” Blaine said as he held the towel open for Kurt to step into.

Kurt sighed, pulled the plug on the tub, and stepped out and into Blaine’s strong arms. He lowered his forehead to Blaine’s shoulder for a moment as Blaine rubbed the towel up and down Kurt’s arms and back. Kurt reveled in the attention, while Blaine thoroughly enjoyed Kurt allowing him to take care of him for once.

When Kurt was dressed in his most comfortable sweats, they walked hand in hand to Mollie’s room and quietly pushed open the door. Mollie was lying on her back in her crib, head turned to one side, her mouth open slightly as she breathed gently in and out. Kurt marveled at how peaceful she looked; no one would ever guess that this little angel had been a screaming, sobbing mess not even an hour ago.

He wrapped his arms around Blaine’s waist, laying his head on his shoulder and breathing in the comforting smell of home. Blaine rubbed his back.

“Let’s go to bed, sweetheart,” Blaine said as they walked out of the room and pulled the door closed behind them.

*****

The next morning, Blaine woke up to an empty bed. He listened carefully and realized that he heard Kurt speaking in a low voice, too quietly for Blaine to make out what he was saying. He got out of bed and padded lightly across the hallway to peek around the doorway into Mollie’s room.

His heart melted and he smiled at the scene before him. Kurt was sitting in the rocking chair, gently rocking back and forth while he fed Mollie. She was cradled in his arms, her tiny, plump hands holding onto the hand he had wrapped around the bottle. Her hazel eyes were gazing intently into Kurt’s as he tipped his head down and finished the story he was telling her.

“And the princes lived happily ever after, with their beautiful daughter.”

Kurt set the bottle aside, lifting Mollie up to his shoulder to burp her. After a few moments of rubbing and patting, Mollie let out a large burp. Kurt giggled as he resettled her in his arms and wiped her mouth with the burp cloth.

“I love you so much sweetheart,” Kurt whispered quietly as he leaned down to kiss her gently on the forehead.

“It won’t be too long before she responds to that by saying it back to you,” Blaine said as he walked over to kiss Kurt softly on the lips. “And good morning to you, Angel.” Blaine leaned down to kiss Mollie on the top of her head.

“Thank you for last night, baby,” Kurt murmured. “I think we both needed a break from each other. And obviously we both needed you.”

“Anytime, love,” Blaine assured Kurt as he wrapped his arms around his family.