Author: thecivilunrest
Fandom: Glee
Story Title: "Cradle and All"
Summary: Sam isn't sure, but isn't there a limit on how much pink is allowed on one baby?
Character/Relationship(s): Kurt Hummel/Sam Evans
Rating: K+
Warnings: None really.
Story Word Count:
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.
Notes: I have no idea where this came from. Really.
Cradle and All
"There you go, all done!" the photographer chirps.
Sam blinks, hard, the flash leaving white behind his eyelids. Kurt squeezes his hand. Smiles.
"This is the first step to the rest of our lives. Aren't you excited?" He then lets go of Sam's hand and goes to talk to the photographer, Amy, and asks when the prints were going to be ready, when they needed to come by the studio, how many of the pictures are 'appropriate' enough for this. Kurt just wants everything to be perfect.
They both do.
.x.
Sam can't help but think that they look a little too hopeful, bordering on desperate. But the picture is fine, and the trees of Central Park are perfect in the background and they're both clean. So it's good.
They're both smiling and standing side by side, close but not too close. They're dressed sharp (Kurt picked out both of their outfits, and the photographer, and the place for the shoot and... everything.) and it's a picture that, if nothing else, they can hang on their wall in the future.
He hopes they look trustworthy to other people. He hopes that they look like the deserve a baby.
Because they do.
.x.
Kurt calls Sam on a Tuesday, sounding like he's about to pee his pants in excitement. "We're going to have a baby!"
Sam drops his cup of coffee, and for a second is thankful that it's styrofoam and empty. But then he remembers that he-and Kurt-are going to have a baby. A baby! A real live baby.
Honestly Sam didn't think that this was going to happen. They'd been in the adoption circuit for months, but no one had found them to be parent material. Sure there were two dudes in the equation, but it's not like a person needs a mother. Look at Rachel Berry.
Never mind. Bad example. Though even she wasn't that bad all time time. She really has gotten better.
"Really?"
"Yes! The birth mother chose us out of all the other families in the city. I cannot wait. I'm going to have to go shopping after work. Don't wait up!" Kurt sounds giddy as he hangs up the phone, and Sam can't help but smile as he thinks about what his partner's face must look like right now.
A real live baby.
.x.
"Which one do you think? Bubblegum or Cotton Candy or Baby's Breath?"
"Um..." Sam pauses. The shades of light pink were mocking him, he knew it. "They all look the same to me?"
"You are hopeless. Hopeless! You're not helping with her room at all, are you?" Kurt says, referring to their daughter who was coming in three months time. That was plenty of time to decorate the extra, tiny, room in their condo but Kurt is having none of it.
"Actually..." Sam trails off, going into the closet and picking up his contribution to his future daughter's room. He's had this for a while, and had been trying to keep it a surprise from Kurt for a while. Kurt's notoriously nosy, but Sam knows that since it's in a bag with the words Midtown Comics on it he won't touch it. "I do have something for her room!"
He pulls out the poster from the bag. He had it professionally framed and everything. "Ta-da!"
Kurt looks shocked, too shocked, and Sam's grin dims a little. "It's Wonder Woman," Kurt finally says. "Wonder. Woman."
"Yeah!" Sam starts to get excited again, setting the picture on the ground. "I mean, Wonder Woman is a great rolemodel, and even you said that she has great style. I mean she's kickass and nice and I think that our daughter should look up to her!"
"Wonder Woman," Kurt repeats.
"Yeah. You've said that."
"I just... it doesn't go with anything that I've picked out!"
"But... I think that it could go. I mean, her colors are red, white, and blue and red, white, and blue are cute. Right?"
Sam knows that Kurt thinks that his comic book collection is kind of ridiculous and takes up too much space on their bookshelf, but he just wanted to have some input in his child's room. He knew that Kurt was going to take over the whole thing, which was fine with him. Really! But as soon as he found out that she was going to be a girl he realized that he wanted something to do with her, even though she wasn't around yet.
Hence the framed Wonder Woman poster. And the thing was drawn by Phil Jiminez, which made it valuable too.
Kurt finally sighs after a silence settles over the room. "Fine! Fine. She can have a huge Wonder Woman poster on her walls before she's even born. But she is not going to be Wonder Woman for Halloween. Ever."
Sam smiles and kisses his husband's cheek. "We'll see."
.x.
"What about Samantha?" Sam suggests.
Kurt snorts. "Cute. Next?"
"Laura?"
"Too plain."
"Dominique?"
"That's too much?"
"Lucy?"
"Do you really want to name our first child after your ex-girlfriend?"
Sam hadn't thought of that. "Um, how about Diana?" Sam smiled, knowing that his latest suggestion was going to get a rise out of Kurt.
"You think you're cute, don't you? I don't think so. We're not naming our daughter after a comic book heroine. Not even one as stylish as Wonder Woman."
"What about Roxanne?"
"No."
"Then I give up. You pick!"
"Hmm..." Kurt gives it a moment of thought. "What about Anabel?"
"Like Poe?" Sam remembers reading that in freshman English. That was one freaky poem, though all the girls liked it.
"Kind of. Only with one 'n' instead of two."
"Anabel," Sam repeats, letting the name settle over his tongue. "Yeah. I like that."
.x.
Kurt goes crazy over the clothes, and Sam lets him do this all by himself. Kurt goes shopping one morning and spends all day there, and after dinner it's like someone that's had a little too much Pepto-Bismol has vomited all over the living room.
There are pink onesies, pink headbands, tiny pink socks, and pink bows. Sam isn't sure, but isn't there a limit on how much pink is allowed on one baby?
"Do you think that she's going to like it?" Kurt asks, hands on his hips as he surveys his handiwork.
"I think that she's not going to care."
"Our daughter will care about fashion!" Kurt insists.
"Of course she will. And she'll also care about football and comics and cooking. But when we get to take her home," Sam pauses and swallows here, because just thinking about it makes his heart swell. They've been waiting for this moment for so long. "She'll only care about us and whether or not we've changed her diaper or kept her fed."
"You're right," Kurt allows. "Of course you're right. I'm just so excited! Only a month left!"
.x.
Sam's holding a pink "IT'S A GIRL" balloon and Kurt's holding onto a lacy, pink outfit and tiny socks in a matching shade. They're in the waiting room, and waiting has got to be the worst part.
There's a tiny part of him, about the same size of one of those socks, that ponders the possibility that the mom might not want two gay dudes adopting her daughter after all. That she might want to keep Anabel (to Sam she was already Anabel) for herself. But that didn't happen often. Right?
The doors open and the case worker walks into the room. Sam squeezes Kurt's hand, which he hadn't let go of since they walked into the hospital and sat in one of these uncomfortable hand. She smiles, which is a relief. People don't smile like that unless there's good news.
"She's a girl. And she's all yours."
Kurt lets out a strangled squeal and pulls Sam up by the hand. Sam kisses him on the cheek and they march on to meet their daughter. The walk to see her is long and it seems to take forever, but it didn't really. It can't have.
Even though there is a sheet of glass between them and Anabel, Sam couldn't help but think that the moment was perfect. One of the nurses, who had been informed of the situation, wheeled the little plastic bed that Anabel is laying in so that they can see her better.
Anabel looked like any other baby, but Sam didn't care. She was still the most beautiful baby that he'd ever seen.
"She's ours," Kurt says, and Sam doesn't even realize that he's crying until Kurt wipes away one of his tears. "I'm going to have to call Dad now, and tell him, and do you want to call your parents?"
"No, I'm good," Sam tells Kurt. He just wants to look at his daughter for a little while longer.
.x.
There's something nice about Anabel's bedroom. The walls are a rich red, and there is navy and stars all over her bed. The Wonder Woman poster is in the middle of the wall across from the crib, in a place of honor.
But that's not what's so nice about it, Sam thinks. Though he's still proud of himself for his contribution to her room and always will be.
"Hey," Kurt whispers, Anabel on his shoulder. She's awake, and the empty bottle in Kurt's hand suggests that she's just been fed. "Do you want to burp her?"
"Of course," Sam whispers back. They smile at each other, in a very tired way. Neither of them has gotten very much sleep for the past three months, but they wouldn't have it any other way.
He takes Anabel from Kurt's arms, and he still marvels about how small she is, how light, even though she's grown so much. Kurt squeezes his shoulder as he stands next to him. And this has got to be what Sam likes so much about this room.
It's the family here. And it's perfect.