“That'll be twenty two forty please.”  The cashier drawled, face void of any emotion or concern for Kurt as he pulled out some cash and change to hand over in exchange for the fresh vegetables being bagged to his right by an equally unaffected young boy.   It was New York though.  Most people in grocery work, who had to work in this humidity, and with the line that trailed after Kurt weren't going to be particularly friendly and Kurt certainly didn't fault them for it, though he always felt like some people needed a bit of reality check.  They were getting paid and they did have their freedom after all.  They could be doing a lot more mind numbing work for no money in service, all while being expected to smile for bosses that treated you like cattle.

But that was in the past.

Now Kurt was on his way home from work with a bag of groceries.  They didn't have a huge space in New York, but in all fairness very few people did.  It suited them though.  Two bedrooms, a decent view out their window, and it was in a fairly safe neighborhood with a very good school nearby.

Little Maya deserved only the very best they could provide after all - within reason.  Neither Kurt nor Blaine would ever overextend themselves when it came to providing for the little girl who had made an entrance in their lives six years ago after finding the right surrogate.  She would likely be an only child, given how much they had to pay to have her in the first place, but she was their treasure.

Being in service seemed like a lifetime ago, and in reality, it was.  It had been sixteen years since Kurt had been released from his service, and he had been sixteen then.  So much had happened - finding Blaine, college, marriage, jobs, Maya… Kurt had a very secure job doing portfolio work for several established designers, and Blaine had a tenured contract as a music instructor.  His dad had married Carole long ago now, and was a Congressman now.  They didn't keep debts, only savings, and the only thing any of them ever splurged on was little Maya.

The same girl with bouncing black curls that jumped Kurt the second he entered the door.  “Papa!”

“Oof!”  Kurt swung the bag with the groceries out of her way automatically as the other hand wrapped around her and pressed a kiss to her forehead, “Hey princess.”

“Not a princess.  Hate princesses.”  Maya hissed, her nose wrinkling up in disdain as Kurt perked up an eyebrow.

“But last week you loved princesses.”

“Nope.  I don't wanna be saved in a tower.  I like dragons now.  RAWR!”

Kurt laughed and gave the fierce little dragon a kiss on the nose, earning himself another wrinkled up face of dismay before she ran off to her room and Blaine walked up to Kurt in her wake.  “Hey hon.”

The transition to the kitchen was seamless.  Blaine took the grocery bag and Kurt followed after him as they washed vegetables and chopped them in turn.  The table was set just as easily, and then Maya was summoned from her dragon lair as they sat to eat, talking about what Maya had learned that day in school (or rather, how she “didn't do ‘nothin'” and then proceeded to tell them about how Jimmy had been caught picking his nose and eating it in gym class).

Their lives were simple like this now, and Kurt was thankful for it.  It had taken a lot of pushing, but Blaine had finally agreed to see a counselor in college after what he had experienced in the Smythe household, and that therapy had taken years and many nights of random tears and unexpected triggers making Blaine cower for no reason in particular.  Kurt had been there to help him each step of the way, and together they had grown up and grown stronger.  

After supper Blaine went to clear the table while Kurt took Maya to the bathroom to clear her off of the dirt and grime she managed to accumulate with ease.  How she managed to cram so much filth on her body every day was a mystery to Kurt, but he was convinced that part of her day had to include burying herself in the sand at the park at school.

“I'm not having babies.”  Maya announced once she was situated in the tub and Kurt was going for the shampoo.

“Oh really?”

“Mmmhmm.  Lisa says they come out of your butt and are bloody!”

Kurt really had to work hard to keep the laugh inside of him that build up instantly, failing somewhat as a shrill snort escaped his nose.  It was times like these he had to remember he was a parent, and needed to provide his daughter with the clarity and education she needed.

Even if his gut instinct was to laugh until he had cried himself dry.

“Well Maya… babies do arrive with blood and some other stuff, but not out of your butt -” Kurt began, but was silenced by the crash of plates from the kitchen.  Instantly at alert, he perked up and looked towards the doorway.  “Blaine?!  Are you alright?”

An uncomfortable silence followed, and Kurt quickly told Maya to keep washing up as he went to check to see what had happened, holding his breath in for the entirety of the short walk to the kitchen.

His husband was alive, and that allowed Kurt to exhale as he stepped up beside where Blaine was frozen in place, staring at the small laptop screen he had open as he did the dishes.  Some news station was playing with a reporter in too high hair yammering a mile a minute.  What gave away Blaine's cause for shock was the text scrolling at the bottom of the screen.

‘Smythe father and son found guilty in fraud scam.  Sentencing to be held next month.  More reports coming in regarding the verdict…'

The screen flashed back then, and the reporter voice-overed that this was the footage of the Smythe's as they left the courtroom.  Three men, two of whom were clearly related whether or not Kurt was told so, were exiting a building and immediately swarmed by reporters all asking questions at once while the odd man out declared that there was “No statement” and hurried the other two men into the car.

Those men, those two… they were the ones that had hurt his Blaine.  He always knew they existed, and had never doubted the integrity of Blaine's claims against them, but to see them in the flesh, to know they really did exist and be able to put faces to names… well, Kurt needed to remind himself to breath before setting a very careful hand on Blaine's arm.

“Sweetheart…”

Blaine was still rooted in place, staring at the screen as tears crept up into his eyes.  Without hesitation Kurt stepped away to grab his phone off the front table and called up his dad, telling him what had just happened as Kurt went to check on Maya who was still splashing in the tub, innocently oblivious to the trauma unfolding in her home.  Minutes later Kurt had confirmation that Carole was on her way to New York - all while finishing up Maya's cleaning and sending her off to bed early - citing that daddy was sick and he needed to take care of him.

Which was exactly what Kurt did.  Blaine hadn't moved an inch since Kurt had left him there.  First the laptop was turned off, and then Kurt took Blaine by the hands and gently led him to their bedroom where he laid Blaine down and then started digging through the medicine cupboard where he found a long abandoned pill bottle.  A glass of water was drawn, and Kurt sat gingerly down beside Blaine, who was still crying silent tears that were streaking his face as he looked out at nothing in terror.  

Blaine didn't fight or argue when Kurt nudged his mouth open with two fingers and set the pill under Blaine's tongue, waiting for it to dissolve before holding the water to Blaine's lips and letting him sip it slowly.  Then Kurt waited, watching Blaine loosen up second by second, minute by minute, until he could turn his head and look at Kurt.

“Thank you… Sorry….”

Kurt had to keep it together, just like he had to earlier when Maya had threatened to make him laugh out his lungs.  Now though, it was for his husband who needed him to be a rock that he could count on as he processed this new information and dealt with the fallout of having to see those two mens faces again.

So Kurt held Blaine as he cried until he had no more tears to press out, and insisted that he was alright.  He drew upon the memory of the last time Blaine had had such a panic attack, not long after Maya was born, when the reality of fatherhood hit him and he started worrying about whether or not he was even capable of being a good father after what his own dad had sold him into.  Worry became fears, and fears became all consuming.  The trick was, as Kurt recalled, not letting worry grow with Blaine.  Worry and stress was healthy, Blaine's counselor had once told Kurt when he had come in with Blaine, but Blaine could only handle so much before his fight, flight, or freeze reaction kicked in, and with Blaine, it was freeze.

Like he had in the kitchen.

This stress couldn't have been predicted though.  It was a sudden, unexpected trigger that set him off, and one that Kurt would have to help him work through.  It might take hours, or it could take days.  Kurt couldn't imagine what was going on in Blaine's head, and, given the choice, really didn't want to.  So he held him.  Held him until Blaine found words.  First it was apologies, which Kurt shook off.  Then it was disbelief, which Kurt listened to and agreed with.  Finally it was a small bubble of laughter, which was the last thing Kurt expected.

“God… they're in trouble… they'll go to jail or be put into service Kurt… it's… it's like karma…”

Kurt forced up a weak smile at Blaine's attempt to turn it all around.  If anything, those rotten bastards should have been in jail long ago for what they did to Blaine and others they acquired for service, but it took taking people's money to get them in trouble.  

Unfortunately it showed just what the government valued when it came down to it.

“Daddy?”

Both men looked up from where they were thoroughly wrapped around one another in bed to the little girl peering in from the doorway with a teddy bear in tow.

“Papa says you're sick.  Can I kiss you better?”

Another laugh, one which made Kurt's heart break with joy.  His husband was handling this all beautifully.  Blaine nodded to Maya who quickly scrambled up into the bed and wedged herself between the two men, kissing Blaine's cheek over and then looking up at him with those bright blue eyes.

“Better?”

“So much sweetie… so much….”  Blaine cooed, wrapping an arm around her and her bear and immediately breaking into a bedtime story for her benefit.

Kurt just watched, mesmerized by the scene.  How far his husband had come.  From a brash, obnoxious child, to an uncertain teenager, to a broken young man, and now this… a wonderful husband and amazing father, able to withstand the heartache and find the good in anything.  Kurt wondered absently if Blaine would want to read up on the sentencing, if he would want to ever face that pair, if it would do any good, and if he'd need to see his therapist again with Carole coming to help with watch Maya.  

Whatever he did though, Kurt noted to himself, Blaine would be strong, and he'd be free.  That was certain.