I am so sorry for the tardiness of this chapter. I could give you all kinds of excuses about my muse preferring other stories (which she did), to RL distracting me (which it did), to this chapter somehow being the most difficult one in this story to write (which it was), but the truth is mostly that I'm a coward. I've never been this close to a birth before, and where I could fake knowledge on all the other aspects of pregnancy, I was really afraid to mess up this one. Hopefully I did it justice.

Oh yeah, and Blaine somehow took over this chapter too. *shrugs*

Fuck.

This wasn't happening. It was too early for this to be happening.

Carole looked back into the toilet bowl. The glutinous brown-tinged blob was still there.

Fuck!

Okay, no need to panic. Just call Dr. Wu and find out what to do. She wasn't contracting yet and her back didn't hurt any more than normal, so she probably wasn't in labor. Finn had taken a full two and a half weeks to be born after this happened. Everything was fine. Just a little early.

Oh fuck, let that be Braxton Hicks.

Just in case it was, Carole gulped down a few handfuls of water from the bathroom sink.

Water was good. Water made Braxton Hicks go away for a while.

Just in case, she gulped down a few more handfuls of water and tried her breathing tricks.

Calm was good. Calm was – fuck!

The stretching, pushing, cramping feeling increased tenfold and radiated around from her back. Carole doubled over the sink from the pain. When it was over she tried to catch her breath and reached down to take off her panties. They were damp with more glutinous brown discharge.

Fuck.

Blaine carefully opened the closet door. Minimal light and the slight headache was no worse. So far so good. With slow hands, he carefully took the blanket off his head. Still no worse. He sighed in relief.

Maybe the migraine from hell was truly going away.

Crawling painfully across the floor, trying to ease some of the muscle cramps earned from too long curled in a ball, Blaine left the closet and readjusted the sunglasses on his face. He may be starving and in desperate need of the bathroom, but there was no sense in tempting fate by removing them just yet.

He was so glad he'd managed to convince Kurt to go to school today. It was one thing for his boyfriend to see him cry, it was completely another for him to see the bizarre contortions he put himself through when trying to relieve one of his migraines. He was sure he'd never live down the closet jokes.

Walking slowly toward the downstairs bathroom, Blaine wondered if he'd be able to keep down whatever Carole had made for lunch… however long ago she had made it. He was pretty sure it was after noon, but he was a little afraid to risk the light from his cell phone to check the time, and Kurt had a weird aversion to decorating with clocks. Not that he particularly cared as he closed the bathroom door behind him and proceeded to have one the most fantastic pees of his life. There was nothing worse than a full bladder when you couldn't move from the pain in your head.

When he was done, he wandered toward the kitchen but stopped halfway there when he heard something that sounded like a whimper.

"Fuck."

"Carole?"

She was lying on her left side on the couch, pallid and breathless and gripping the phone so tight he could hear it creak. He rushed over to her, taking it from her and holding her hand.

"Carole, what's wrong? Is the baby-"

"I think I'm in labor."

"But you're only thirty-six weeks."

"Dr. Wu said to get to the hospital as soon as possible so they can try to stop the contractions, but-"

"It's okay, it's okay. Let me warm up the car and I'll drive you, everything will be fine. Thank goodness Kurt was anal enough to have your bag packed and by the door weeks too early."

"Blaine, your head-" she cut off as a contraction went through her, squeezing his hand so hard he thought she might break it. He gritted his teeth and brushed some hair off her damp forehead as she rode out the pain.

"It's barely noticeable anymore," he said when it seemed to be over. "Just let me get the car ready and we'll go, okay?"

She nodded shortly and he ran for the door, picking up her bag and shoving his feet into a pair of snowboots as he went. He thought they might be Finn's.

The snow outside was blinding, and his breath almost froze in his lungs. Why hadn't he grabbed a coat? His headache spiked again like a pickaxe behind his eyes.

Shivering, Blaine unlocked his car door and threw the bag into the passenger seat, jamming his key into the ignition before he'd properly sat down. His and Kurt's makeout mix floated calmly out of the speakers. Blaine blushed and reached around to the backseat, scrabbling around until he found his boxers balled up on the floor. There was no need for Carole to see that.

Shaking his head slightly and readjusting his glasses once more, Blaine shoved his underwear into his glove compartment and turned off his radio. He gave himself a few moments to breathe and will his headache away again. It almost worked.

Carole was whimpering when he entered the house again.

"How far apart are the contractions?"

"Maybe eight minutes," she managed. Blaine could feel the blood drain out of his face.

"Okay," stay calm. "Okay. Let's get you to the hospital."

Blaine shrugged on his pea coat and grabbed Carole's off the hook by the door, draping it around her shoulders and letting her lean heavily on him as they went to the car.

"Lying down on your side is supposed to help slow down the contractions, right?" Blaine asked, opening the back door of his car and easing Carole in.

"How did you-"

"I got a little obsessed with the research, remember? My backseat's not as comfortable as Kurt's, but you should be able to lie on your side a little."

Carole paused in her shifting and managed to give him an amused look.

"Do you spend a lot of time in Kurt's backseat?"

Blaine blushed furiously and was guiltily grateful when Carole tensed with another contraction. Closing the back door, he climbed into the driver's seat and started in the direction of the hospital.

He'd had the best routes mentally plotted for months just in case something like this happened, but for some reason he hadn't factored in the way the snowy roads slowed his progress. People were driving like they'd never seen snow before, and Blaine could only glance back helplessly through the rearview mirror and offer empty platitudes every time Carole had another contraction. He really hoped they weren't getting closer together.

Finally they made it to the maze that was the hospital parking lot and Blaine pulled up right in front of Labor and Delivery. With a quick glance at Carole he jumped out of the car and flagged down a nearby orderly.

"I've got Carole Hummel, thirty-six weeks pregnant, contracting in the back of my car."

The orderly barely glanced at him, but grabbed a wheelchair and gently helped Carole into it.

"You can't park here," he told Blaine. "Go park your car in the parking lot and you can come back and register your mom then."

"I registered over the phone," Carole gritted out.

"All right then, someone at the front desk will tell you what room to go to when you get back," the orderly corrected.

Blaine looked at Carole and sighed when she nodded. The orderly wheeled her away and Blaine grudgingly climbed back into his car to find an empty space.

Burt couldn't believe how stupid people got in cold weather. He'd been working in the shop for over twenty years, but he'd seen more fender benders in the past couple of weeks than he remembered seeing all at once since before Kurt was born. The boys had all gotten sick of his continued orders to be safe on the road.

He looked at his cell phone and resisted the urge to throw it in the trash. Damn thing had been acting up all week. Anytime he tried to make a call or read a text it would shut itself off.

With a sigh, Burt tossed the useless piece of technology on his desk and picked up the office phone. He hated using it for personal calls, but five more work orders had come in during the last hour and there was no way he'd make it out of the shop in time for dinner.

The answering machine picked up and Burt glared at the wall. He knew Carole needed her sleep now more than ever, but he really needed to hear her voice. She was his rock, his calm in the storm, the first person he turned to when things got a little too tough. Plus she'd been forced to go on maternity leave last week after her belly got too big for her to properly drive. She should be home.

The shrill shriek indicating he should talk went off far too loud in his ear and Burt rambled off the pertinent information so that somebody in the house would know he wasn't dead on the side of the road. He hoped the boys had all carpooled in Kurt's tank of a car today. The last thing he needed was for any of them to be hurt in an accident on top of everything else.

Burt hung up and sighed again. So much for his sanity break.

Carole stared at her IV, willing the drugs to work. She hadn't even bothered to pay attention to what the drugs were beyond the fact that they were supposed to stop her contractions.

Dr. Wu said she was at five centimeters. If the drugs didn't work she'd be in active labor and have a premature baby on her hands. She really didn't want to risk having a premature baby. Finn had been a week late. Why was this one coming early? She'd been taking better care of herself this time around. In fact, the combined force of the boys had insured that she could count on one hand the number of times she'd had junk food since becoming aware that she was pregnant. Okay, maybe both hands, but still. She thought she'd done everything right. She'd even been taking those prenatal yoga classes with Kurt. Didn't any of that count for anything?

Blaine rushed into the room looking like he'd run up the stairs rather than wait for an elevator. How he managed to do it in Finn's boots she had no idea. They had to be at least three sizes too big.

"The baby, is it-"

"They gave me something that's supposed to stop the contractions."

"Magnesium Sulfate?"

Was that it? She knew it was some kind of chemical. "That sounds familiar."

"Good. Good," Blaine nodded, finally taking off those ridiculous sunglasses. Carole wondered absently if he was aware of his nervous pacing or if he had given up trying to be calm for her sake when they separated at the hospital doors. "Have they given you any corticosteroids yet?"

"What?"

"They're supposed to help the baby's lungs develop faster in case they can't delay the pregnancy until you're full term. Really, they'd only have to delay it another week or so. Most doctors consider thirty-seven weeks close enough."

Carole smiled. "You really did obsess over your research."

"It's important. Someone I care about is having a baby. My boyfriend's going to have a little sister. I just, I figured someone might as well be over-informed."

"I love that you care so much. You don't have to."

"Yes I do," Blaine insisted, furrowing his brows. "You guys have all been amazing to me. You took me in when you had no obligation to. You trusted me. That means everything."

"Blaine…"

"Besides, the baby – Susan… she's like a fresh start. The ultimate fresh start. I couldn't stop thinking about it on Thanksgiving. I mean, I thought about other things, other people I'd miss, but I couldn't stop thinking about her."

Carole's heart clenched as he paused. She hoped he wasn't about to confess what she was afraid he would. He'd been so broken that night… Not Blaine. Not this beautiful, charming boy.

"I almost ran away that night," he said quietly, not looking at her. "I got in my car and just started driving. I almost drove to Chicago. Just to get someplace where nobody knew me. I think I thought if nobody knew me, then nobody could really hurt me. But then I started thinking about you and Kurt and the baby and… I couldn't do it. You all mean so much more to me than you'll ever know."

Blaine's eyes were glassy, and Carole knew she might break down at any minute. It wasn't the worst she'd thought, but oh, why did this boy have to know so much heartbreak so young? Why did any of her boys have to feel it so keenly?

"Blaine, honey, you'll always have a place with us. Whatever else happens, you belong to us now, and family sticks by each other."

Carole reached out to grab his hand and he clasped it tightly between both of his for a long moment.

"So," he sniffled. "Do you think the baby will cooperate with all the drugs pumping through your system?"

Carole laughed and shook her head.

"It sounds so horrible when you put it like that."

"It kind of does," Blaine grinned sheepishly.

Carole suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Afraid to open her mouth, she desperately motioned for Blaine to get her a tray or a bedpan she could throw up in.

"I think that means it's working," he said, barely getting his hands out of the way before she heaved.

Carole was dimly aware of her hair being pushed out of her face as all her insides attempted to leave via her throat. It had better be working.

Kurt was livid. Blaine had tried texting him earlier and stupid Mr. Conner with his stupid comb-over and his horrible mismatched ensemble had confiscated his phone. For all he knew, his boyfriend's brains might be leaking out of his ears or something, but he wouldn't be able to find out until the end of the day when he would finally be able to reclaim his rightful property from Mr. Figgins of all people.

Kurt was worried about Blaine. He had come downstairs that morning to find his boyfriend taking way more than the recommended amount of pain medication before crawling back into bed and throwing the blankets over his head. After a hushed fifteen minute conversation with Blaine's comforter about whether or not he should stay home from school too, Kurt had reluctantly headed out the door for class. He regretted that decision more than ever now.

He knew from their time together at Dalton that Blaine was prone to headaches when he was particularly stressed about something, but Kurt had hoped he was helping to alleviate some of that stress. Or at least distract from it. They'd started going on dates again. Proper ones once a week to Breadstix or the movies or, more frequently, the Lima Bean after school. They'd even gone parking a couple of times in an attempt to get more privacy, and although the last thing Kurt wanted was to lose his virginity in the back of a car, the lack of family members potentially walking in on them was liberating to say the least.

Still, Kurt saw the pain in Blaine's eyes when he thought no one was looking. He was miserable, and Kurt knew David Anderson was to blame for it. Kurt didn't think he'd ever hated anyone more than he hated that man. What father disowned his son for something neither of them could control? All the dates and steamy makeout sessions in the world couldn't do anything to fix that.

Instead of feeling helpless, Kurt offered Blaine all the unconditional love and support he had in him to give, and he tried his best to offer it without smothering him. It was a fine line to balance on, but Kurt thought he was doing okay.

Kurt breathed in deeply and looked at the clock. Two more classes and he could get his phone back. He just hoped whatever Blaine wanted wasn't anything urgent.

"Shit."

"Carole?"

Blaine looked up from attempting to decipher the lines and graphs being created on the monitors hooked up to Carole's belly. She was frantically pressing the call button for a nurse.

"I think my water just broke."

"Wait. What?" Blaine had to stop himself from looking down the bed to check.

"Shit," Carole breathed. "Why won't this baby cooperate?"

"It's okay, it's okay," Blaine stroked her hand. "I'm going to see if I can't flag down a nurse or something, okay?"

"She's breech," Carole said absently to the wall. Blaine felt the blood rush out of his face for the second time that day. "I've been trying not to think about that ever since Dr. Wu told me. But she's breech. And she's almost a month premature. I thought I did everything right."

Blaine swallowed and continued to pet her hand. "You did. I was there most of the time, remember? Even when you thought something was stupid you did it just in case it helped. It's just… sometimes these things just happen. And it's better to be premature at thirty-six weeks than any time before that, okay? She's practically at close enough, you know?"

Carole squeezed his hand and they both looked up as an efficient knock sounded at the door.

"Is everything all right in here?" the older nurse who had been checking in on them asked.

"My water broke."

The nurse immediately donned some gloves and walked to the foot of the bed.

"Legs apart."

Blaine carefully watched Carole's face.

"You're at six and a half centimeters and yes, your water has broken. I'll page Dr. Wu to start prepping for the birth," she snapped her gloves off and briefly looked over the lines on the monitors beside the bed. "So far everything with the baby looks good. This should be a fairly straightforward C-section."

"I know Dr. Wu said if we couldn't stop the labor that would be my best option, but do I have to get a C-section?" Carole asked, her grip on Blaine's hand tightening.

"Breech babies, especially if they're premature, have a better chance of survival if they're delivered through C-section," Blaine said quietly.

"He's right," the nurse said. "Besides, it's hospital policy in these cases. Don't worry, everything will be fine. I'll send in the anesthesiologist shortly to get your epidural started."

"Epidural? You mean I'll still be conscious?"

"This way you'll be awake to hear your baby's first cries, but you won't feel anything. It's the best sort of compromise." Carole nodded shortly.

"Don't hesitate to call me if anything else changes." The nurse smiled at them both and walked out the door.

"You said you called everyone?" Carole asked in a small voice.

"I did. I can try them all again. Something must be preventing them from getting my messages. I know they all really want to be here."

Carole smiled tightly and gripped his hand. "Just, wait with me until I get the epidural, okay?"

"Of course."

They didn't have to wait long. Within ten minutes, a handsome, youngish-looking doctor walked in and began explaining what he was doing as he instructed Carole to sit up and hunch her shoulders like she was shrugging.

"We'll numb the area first; it will feel like a wasp sting. Just relax," he said calmly as he swabbed at her lower back. Despite the warning, Carole hissed when the needle went in. Blaine petted her hand and started humming the opening bars to her favorite song.

"You're doing good," the doctor said, smiling at Blaine as he cleaned the area again. He stuck a larger needle into her back and then inserted a catheter. Blaine watched him work calmly and efficiently, his hands deliberate and steady. By the time Blaine was looping around for another chorus of the song, the doctor was done and snapping his gloves off.

"It should take about twenty minutes for it to take full effect, but you should be fine by the time we're ready to take you into surgery. You did very well," he said, clapping Carole gently on the shoulder. "Just try to relax and take advantage of your young man here. He's got an excellent voice."

The doctor winked at Blaine before he left and Blaine tried not to look too closely at Carole's amused face. He felt weird enough about that without her teasing him.

Another nurse entered the room a few minutes later to shave her for the surgery and Blaine quickly excused himself after garnering a few more assurances that she'd be fine without him.

Blaine strode out into the hallway and took a few moments to breathe. It had been hours since they got here, but everything still seemed like it was happening too fast. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, once again grateful he'd automatically grabbed it along with his keys.

Burt. He needed to try calling Burt again first. He had no idea why the man wasn't here yet, but maybe he hadn't gotten the message Blaine had left after parking his car what felt like a mile away from the hospital building. Or maybe the phones were down.

He sent Kurt another quick text asking him where he was, then scrolled through his contacts for Burt's shop. Surely someone would answer the phone there.

"Hummel Tire and Lube," Burt said shortly.

"Burt! Finally."

"Blaine? What's going on? Are you boys hurt? Did something happen to Kurt?"

"Kurt's fine. I think. He won't answer any of my texts but… I'm at the hospital with Carole. They want to do an emergency C-section."

"What? Why are you-"

"I stayed home from school today. I never thought I'd be grateful to have a migraine, but it meant I was able to be there for Carole when she went into labor and drive her here… Burt, they couldn't stop the labor. They're prepping her for surgery now."

"I'm already on my way. What room are you in?"

"Um, 432. I'm not sure if they're going to move her first or not, though."

"Shit. Okay. You said you told the boys?"

"I tried texting them both, but Kurt's not answering back and, um, I think the number I have for Finn is wrong." Well, he certainly hoped it was wrong. He couldn't imagine even Puck screwing with them like that. The message he had received in return was… explicit, to say the least.

"All right. Look, I want you to stay with Carole. Tell her I'm coming. And don't for one second let the doctors think they can kick you out of the room."

"It's not a problem. Dr. Wu already thinks I should go to med school. Apparently I know more than a lot of people about – anyway, I'll be there. Don't worry."

"Good. I'll be there as soon as I can. And try to get the boys again. They'll be pissed if they miss this."

"Already done."

They hung up and Blaine rubbed at his face. Right, he needed to change into scrubs so he could be with Carole. He'd done all he could think of to let people know.

He sent off one more text to Kurt and walked back into the room.

Kurt stormed into the choir room and threw himself into a chair. Finn looked at an equally worried Rachel then turned himself around to face the back of the room.

"Um, Kurt, dude, is everything all right?"

Kurt blew air out his nose like a dragon and focused his glare in Finn's direction. Finn couldn't remember what he might have done, but he really hoped his brother wasn't this pissed at him.

"No, Finn, everything is not 'all right'. My phone has been confiscated and left in the care of the esteemed Principal Figgins, who decided today would be an excellent day to leave early for a three day intramural Candy Land tournament in Toledo, meaning I can't get it back until he returns to school on Monday!"

"Um, okay." At least it wasn't him.

"Kurt, if you're worried about Blaine, I'm sure he's fine," Rachel piped up. "He's home with Carole after all, and we all know what a great caregiver she is."

Finn smiled and kissed her for that. She really was an amazing girlfriend sometimes. Kurt made a sound of annoyed disgust.

"Kurt, is there something else going on?" Tina asked quietly. Finn looked at her before quickly turning his attention back to Kurt. Please don't let it be more bullying, please don't let it be more bullying…

Kurt sighed. "Blaine tried to text me in fourth period, but Mr. Conner took my phone away before I could read what it actually said. All I saw was a bunch of capital letters."

"Sometimes I forget how to turn off my caps lock," Brittany offered.

"It wasn't that, Britt. Blaine never uses incorrect grammar in his texts. They might sometimes read like poetry, but they're always very purposeful and immaculate. Just like him."

Finn simultaneously felt the urge to throw up and squeeze his brother while saying, "Awww!" in a really loud voice.

"If it's that big a deal, why don't you borrow one of our phones and find out what's going on?" Mercedes asked, digging in her bag as she spoke. Kurt's face looked like a lightbulb just went off over his head, and Finn wondered if that's what he looked like when he finally got something. That's what he felt like, anyway.

Kurt grabbed the offered phone and immediately started pressing buttons.

"You have Blaine listed as 'Kurt's boy'?"

"Well, he is."

Kurt shot her a look and pressed the phone to his ear as Mr. Schue entered the room.

"All right, guys, so I have some great ideas for Regionals-"

"Shhh!" Kurt shushed him with the finger of doom. Finn hoped the teacher didn't try to object. You didn't mess with Kurt once the finger of doom came into play.

"Um, what's-"

"Blaine! Honey, what's going on?"

"Kurt-"

"I know. Mr. Conners took my phone away," Kurt said over the teacher, purposefully turning in the opposite direction and covering his free ear.

"Don't shush him, Mr. Schue," Rachel said imperiously. "He's having a critical relationship moment."

"If he really needs to talk to Blaine, he can do it-"

"YOU'RE WHAT?"

Finn turned his head with everybody else to look at Kurt. He somehow looked about ten shades paler than usual and was shaking like he had last year before transferring to Dalton. Crap. Something really was wrong with Blaine. Was he a horrible person for not thinking it was that big a deal when Kurt was freaking out about it earlier?

"Shit!" Woah. Kurt never cursed like that. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"

"Kurt…" Mr. Schue tried again.

"Okay, okay. We're coming right now… I know, it's okay. Just, keep holding her hand. We'll be there as soon as we can."

Kurt hung up and it was Finn's turn to pale. Did he just say 'her hand'?

"Finn, get up we're leaving. Mr. Schue, I'm sorry, but our mom is being prepped for an emergency C-section. We need to leave now."

The choir room erupted into chaos, but Finn only heard it as a muffled buzzing in his ears. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. His mom was supposed to go into labor on a weekend when they were all home and could go to the hospital with her. And it wasn't February yet. Would the baby be okay being born this early? What happened?

"Finn!" Kurt snapped. He was holding both their bags and standing impatiently by the door. Finn shook himself.

"Right, right. I'm coming."

He lumbered to his feet and dazedly followed his brother through the halls. They might as well have been running for as fast as they were going. Finn still felt like his ears were buzzing.

"Dude, you're driving, right?" he asked, putting a hand on Kurt's elbow as they walked out into the cold that wasn't as bad as he thought it should be. Huh. When did he put his coat on?

"Of course I am. Now get in."

They both climbed into Kurt's Navigator and Finn continued to try to get his brain working again.

He was about to become a big brother. Shit.

They finally allowed Burt into the room just before cutting into the skin of Carole's lower abdomen. The hospital staff had practically made him take a shower before showing him which room to go to. While he understood the need for sterility, that was also his wife lying on that table having major surgery.

Blaine glanced up from where he was intensely watching the proceedings long enough to shoot Burt a relieved smile. He squeezed Carole's hand and eagerly turned back to what the doctors were doing with the scalpel. He was kind of a weird kid, but through the rush of adrenaline still pumping through his veins and his anger at himself for not being here from the start, Burt found himself grateful to him. He'd been there for Carole, holding her hand every step of the way.

Blaine playacted like an adult all the time, but today it sounded like he'd actually been one.

Taking a deep breath, Burt let the nurse he was with lead him over to the far side of the operating table where he wouldn't be in anybody's way. He carefully trained his eyes on Carole's anxious face as he walked instead of on the carnage they were doing to her belly. He didn't think he could stand to see that, for all that it was supposedly medically necessary.

"Hey, honey," he breathed, carefully squeezing her shoulder.

"You're here."

"Finally. I need a better damn phone."

She smiled at him and Burt leaned down to kiss her forehead. They just stared at each other for a while, and Burt knew they both needed that special kind of reassurance only they could give each other.

Blaine gasped from just the other side of the curtain-thing they had set up. Burt wondered just why the hell the doctors were letting him watch from so close. Or at all. And then he heard the baby cry.

Suddenly, a pair of gloved hands was holding up a tiny, squalling, goo-covered baby girl over the top of the curtain-thing.

"It's a girl," Dr. Wu's voice floated over.

Carole choked out a sob and Burt turned to look at her as the doctors took Susan away to clean her up a bit.

"You doing okay?" he asked.

Carole opened and shut her mouth a few times before closing her eyes and sighing.

"It's been a long day," she finally said.

She looked tired, and one of the nurses had told him on the way up here that she'd be in pain for the next few weeks, but Burt didn't think he'd ever loved her more. To have gone through all that she had today with just a scared kid for support… she was an amazing woman. He vowed to himself to be there when she needed him from now on.

"I'm glad you got here," she whispered.

"Me too."

"I was afraid you wouldn't be able to come. I really wanted you to be here when she was born."

"Well, I'm here now." Burt said. "And I'm not going anywhere."

A nurse carefully placed the baby in Carole's arms and Burt had to blink away his own tears.

Yeah, he definitely wasn't going anywhere.

Blaine pulled the paper hat thing from his head and looked over the occupants of the waiting room. He caught sight of Kurt just before the taller boy swept him up in his arms.

"Blaine! What happened? They wouldn't let us in and they tried to tell us that it didn't matter if it was our mom, the surgery had already started, but we got here as fast as we could. Is she okay? Is the baby-"

"Kurt! Kurt, calm down. Everything's fine. They're just closing her back up now. Your dad wanted to make sure you guys knew, so I volunteered to come out. I figured they probably wanted some time together anyway."

Kurt let out a breath and collapsed back into Blaine's arms. Finn hovered awkwardly a few feet away.

"Your mom was awesome, Finn," Blaine smiled at him. "I think she's my new hero."

Finn half-smiled back and shifted his weight. He couldn't quite seem to meet Blaine's eyes.

"Finn?"

"Dude, why didn't you call me? I mean, I get you not getting through to Kurt cause of that whole phone thing, but she's my mom. Didn't you think I'd want to know?"

Kurt pulled out of his arms again to look at his brother and Blaine felt like ten kinds of fool.

"Finn, it wasn't on purpose. I tried texting you right after Kurt, but, well, the message I got back in return made me think I had the wrong number and I got kind of scared to try it again. And it didn't even occur to me to try calling somebody else to get a hold of you. I guess I wasn't really thinking clearly."

"You got scared of a text?"

Both of them were giving him looks of such matching incredulity that Blaine could almost believe them to be related by blood. With a sigh and a quick glance over both his shoulders Blaine pulled out his phone and brought up the message in question.

"Ugh!"

"I'm officially scarred for life now."

"Sorry. But, yeah, you can see why I didn't really want to risk it."

"Dude, what number do you have for me? That's just… ugh."

"Sorry."

Kurt took a deep breath and visibly shook himself. "Well, putting all that aside, are you going to tell us about our sister?"

"Yeah, is she okay? I thought it was supposed to be a really bad thing for them to be born this early."

"She came out just fine. They're going to keep her under closer observation just to make sure her lungs are all right and everything but I can't imagine she'll have too many problems. She wailed like a banshee once she realized she was no longer in the womb."

"What does she look like?" Kurt asked. "Does she have any hair on her head?"

Blaine laughed. "Honestly? Her face looked a bit like a squashed cabbage. But she's kind of amazing. She gripped my finger when I held her like it was the most important thing in the world. And she kept sticking her tongue out like a lizard. It was adorable."

Kurt gave him a look at that last word and Finn looked like he was trying to suppress his jealousy again.

"They let you hold her?"

"Yeah, only for about a minute though. Your mom and Burt got to hold her first. Then they had to take her away to do tests and stuff. I don't think either of your parents could stop crying by that point."

"Carole was awake by then?" Kurt asked.

"Of course, she was never asleep."

"Wait, you mean she was awake through the whole thing?" Finn asked.

"Yeah," Blaine shrugged. "They really only put women completely under if something is going wrong."

"She couldn't feel them slicing into her, though, right?" a hint of panic was now edging his voice.

"No," Blaine laughed. "They gave her an epidural first. She couldn't feel anything, I promise."

"I can't believe you've been here all afternoon," Kurt said, shaking his head.

"Where else would I be?"

"Your headache…"

Blaine shrugged again. "Carole was more important. Besides, it kind of went away when I realized it was up to me to be there for her. What's a minor annoyance in the face of something as huge as childbirth?"

"Minor annoyance?"

"It became a minor annoyance once the adrenaline fully kicked in. That and I took some more pain killers when I parked the car."

"Blaine! You could have overdosed! I saw how much you took this morning."

"Kurt, I'm fine."

"Besides, dude, if he was gonna OD at least he was in the hospital already," Finn chipped in. Kurt glared at him.

"You're not helping."

One of the nurses from earlier came up to them then and touched Blaine's elbow.

"You can go observe her now," she smiled. "Everything looks fine."

Blaine grinned and thanked her. He couldn't wait to see Kurt and Finn's reactions when they first saw their sister.

The nurse led them to a hallway with large windows looking into a room filled with babies. Even with the nurse's help pointing out the right crib, it still took Blaine a moment to find her. And there she was, in a pink cap and swaddling with the name Susan Lee Hummel printed on the foot of her crib. She was crying again.

Blaine looked over at his companions and bit his lip. Finn was doing his best not to cry and Kurt looked like he'd just discovered the most interesting thing on the planet.

"Dude, she's so tiny."

"I can't believe we're related to something so small. And red. Do you think she'll hurt herself if she cries any harder?"

A male nurse walked up to the crib just then and picked Susan up to calm her.

"I could believe she's related to you," Finn said, elbowing Kurt in the side. "You're kinda tiny yourself."

"Oh, very funny."

Blaine grinned and unobtrusively backed up a few paces, turning his attention back to the little girl in the crib. He was staying out of this one.

Carole gripped Burt's forearm and slowly continued down the hall.

One foot in front of the other, don't think about the pain, don't think about the pain.

The nurses were all insane. And sadistic. She really just wanted to be in bed. Asleep. She'd been sliced open twelve hours ago, it made no sense for her to be moving about so soon, but the nurses had insisted.

Ow.

Don't think about the pain.

Burt was half asleep beside her. The silly man had insisted on sleeping on the couch in her recovery room but had barely been able curl himself tight enough to fit. The boys had sensibly all gone home to sleep. She expected they'd be back as soon as school let out, as she'd flat out refused to let them take the day off. They'd already had Monday off school for the holiday, and Blaine had missed all of yesterday. They could stand the agony of one more school day before the weekend.

Besides, Carole figured their entire glee club probably wanted to meet the baby, and that would be much more easily accomplished after classes let out.

Carole grimaced as she thought about her daughter. She was having trouble eating, often refusing to even acknowledge the existence of the nipple presented to her, but the nurses assured her that was fairly normal for preemie babies. They were watching her more closely, but the fact that she sometimes did eat was considered to be a good sign.

Carole didn't quite want to trust them. Too many things that shouldn't have happened with this pregnancy had in just the last twenty-four hours. She shuddered to think about what could happen to her baby girl now that she was actually out of the womb.

Ow! Fuck. Okay, now she knew not to step like that.

Carole sighed as they reached the end of the hall and turned around to go back.

She needed to just take things as they came. Everything would fall into place later. That's what had been happening all year after all. At some point she'd get used to it.

For anyone who's curious/confused, the first scene was talking about a lovely little thing called the mucus plug. Go look it up. It's kind of fascinating.

As always, reviews are marvelous things.