A/N: I apologize in advance for playing a bit fast and loose with the DCFS office and happenings in the story. I played it to suit the story I wanted to tell instead of absolute reality.
The vibrations of Blaine's cell phone against his bedside table pulled him out of quite a pleasant dream. Kurt had been there, he remembered. Something with a picnic and songs. And making out. Damn phone.
Blaine reached out groggily to grab the phone, blinking at the caller ID before he answered it. "This better be good Cooper. I have a day off today, and you're interrupting it way too early."
"You're off today? Good. I need you. I really, really need your help. When have I ever asked you for anything?" Even through the phone line, Cooper sounded stressed, odd for him.
Blaine bit back a sigh. He'd refrain from pointing out that Cooper asked for stuff all the time. It was just usually petty little stuff. "What do you need Cooper?" Blaine swung his legs over the side of his bed, rubbing his eyes. Seemed like sleeping in really late had just been crossed off his list of things to do on his day off.
"I'm at the Department of Family Services. On Wilshire street. Can you come meet me here? I don't know how to explain this over the phone." Blaine could practically picture Cooper running his hands through his hair as he talked, making it all crazy.
"You're at DCFS? I know where that is. Shit, Coop. What did you get yourself caught up in? Never mind. Let me pull on some clothes." Blaine glanced at the clock, 9:15. "I'll be there about ten. Just be ready to fill me in."
A quick shower, a bit of gel through his hair, and a muffin and coffee on the road later, Blaine was pulling into the parking lot. Blaine had driven by the place a million times, but he'd never been inside. From the moment he answered Cooper's call, a feeling of dread had been settling into Blaine's stomach.
Blaine tugged on the bottom of his maroon polo shirt, straightening the fabric over his dark jeans before he pushed the door open.
The receptionist smiled politely over at him from his desk. "May I help you?" Maybe it was because it was a Saturday morning, but place wasn't as jammed with people as Blaine had imagined it.
Blaine flashed a smile back, ever ready to be politely social, walking up to the counter. "I'm actually looking for my brother. He called and asked me to meet him here. Cooper Anderson?"
"Let me see." The receptionist looked over to the computer screen next to her for a moment before turning her smile back up to Blaine. "You are meeting with Cassandra. They're down the hall, third door on the right. Let me walk you there."
"Thank you so much!" Blaine flashed one more charming smile over before he was led down the hallway, turning into the appropriate doorway only to be yanked into a big hug. "Oof. Cooper. Get off."
"Blaine! I'm so glad to see you." Everything about Cooper's eyes said, 'Save me.' Blaine just gave him a 'look' before he turned to nod to the social worker behind the desk.
"You must be Blaine. Mr. Anderso-, Cooper said he'd called his brother." The social worker was friendly but professional as Blaine walked over to shake her hand. It would be just like Cooper to want to avoid being called Mr. Anderson. "What has he told you so far?"
"I am. It's nice to meet you." Blaine kept that professional smile on his face. It had lots of practice being there. "And he's told me nothing, other than that he needed me down here. What's going on?"
Cassandra looked to Cooper for permission to share the story, then waved the Andersons over toward two empty chairs. "We got a call from the police early this morning. They went to investigate a domestic disturbance call and found a woman who was unconscious, probably from an overdose. They called an ambulance. As they were investigating further, they found there was a baby in the house, so they called for us. The baby was healthy, so we brought him here to look for placement options after a quick check in at the hospital. When his birth certificate was located, we found that he is one Julian Anderson, three months old."
At the end of that whole story, Blaine turned to stare over to Cooper, catching on pretty quickly. "Yours? Did you know about this?" It only took one look at the expression on his brother's face for Blaine to know that he did indeed know about this. "You knew. You knew you had a kid and didn't tell me? Does Dad know?"
"I didn't tell anyone." Cooper admitted, glancing down to his hands. "His mom and I dated for a few weeks. She told me was pregnant, but she didn't want anything from me but money. I gave it to her when I could. She was never high around me. I didn't even know she had anything to do with drugs. Believe me on that, Blaine, please."
One look into his brother's face, and Blaine nodded. Cooper might think he's some great actor, but in reality? Blaine could read him like an open book. "I believe you. Do we know if the baby was exposed?" Blaine ran his hand up through his curls, greasing it slightly from the light amount of gel he'd used. This was not what he'd expected for his day off. He was going to repaint those cabinet doors and go on a date with Kurt. That was the plan for the day. This was not.
"As far as we can tell from the medical records, he wasn't. There's no record of prenatal care, so it's possible that he was at some point in utero, but he wasn't born addicted or we would have been pulled into this much earlier." Cassandra stated, leaning back in her chair to watch the two brothers.
"Good. That's good for him. Julian, you said?" Blaine sank lower in his seat, pushing out a breath of air. "What happens to him now?"
"That depends on your family. Our first priority in new intake situations is to place a child with a family member if there is a suitable one available. The mother was in the system herself, and there are no suitable possibilities on that side of the family. What about yours? Cooper?" Cassandra looked over his brother, giving him a once over, and probably not for the first time that day.
Blaine could not imagine Cooper taking care of a baby. He was far too self-centered for that. At 34, he still did not have a regular, full time job. He worked odd jobs to pay the bills between commercial gigs and bit parts on television shows. It paid for Cooper's small apartment, but Blaine couldn't imagine that being right for a baby, especially with the number of parties Cooper ended up at.
"Our family. Huh. Dad would take him, I'm sure, but I'm not sure that would be the best choice. My parents travel extensively for work." Blaine added towards Cassandra, not even mentioning Cooper as a possibility. "Your mom?"
"She's as bad as Dad. She didn't even take me after they split, and I was six. You think she'd take an infant?" Cooper pointed out before he gave Blaine his very best 'please, please' look. "What about you?"
"Me?" Blaine squeaked out. He hadn't even considered that.
"Yeah. You're good with kids, Blainers. I mean, you like them and all that. You job means you have to, right? You want to be a dad someday. I know you told me that." Cooper wheedled, practically begging his little brother. "You've got that college degree, a job, and a place of your own."
"Someday, yes. But I didn't really think that would be today." Blaine blew out a long breath, thinking for a moment before he looked up to Cassandra. Might as well bite the bullet. How could he be the one responsible for this kid ending up possibly being tossed around the system? "What would I have to do?"
"Are you sure you want to do this? We want to give Julian as few disruptions in his life as possible. Our other option would be foster care, but at Julian's age, it should be fairly easy to find a good family to take him." Cassandra had turned her gaze over to Blaine now, as if she was judging him.
"I'm sure. I may not have been planning on it yet, but Cooper's right. I have always wanted to have kids. Things are fairly stable in my life right now. I've got a good, steady job. I can do this." The more the idea sunk in, the more right it felt to Blaine. "So what do I have to do to be approved?"
"The process is simpler because you're Julian's uncle. We can actually release him to you today after we do a criminal background check. And then I'll come by at some point next week to do a home check and make sure everything is going all right. I do need to ask a few questions first, though."
Cassandra stood up to take papers out of a filing cabinet near her desk before glancing back to Blaine. "Does anyone else live with you? Anyone over 18 in the house will need a check."
"Oh, no. Not anymore. I did live with my friend Mike and his wife Tina for a couple of years, but I moved out a couple months ago. Bought my own place. It's just a little townhouse, but it has two bedrooms. Guess the second will be a nursery not a music room, huh?" Blaine rubbed his hands down on his pants. "Can I see him? I mean, this is all great in the abstract, but I'd really like to see him. Hold him."
"We've got him back in one of our family rooms. How about you fill out the background check paperwork, then I'll take you to see him while this processes." Cassandra attached the papers to a clipboard, passing it over with a pen. "What's your support system like? Anyone who can help you get settled? Do you have any experience with babies?"
Blaine started to scribble down a life's worth of addresses and information as he considered that. "Support system? I have friends in town. Colleagues. Church. I should call someone from church. Miriam maybe. She and her partner have a baby girl, older than Julian, though. I bet she can help me get things figured out. Most of my direct experience is with elementary kids. I've cooed at and cuddled a lot of babies, but that feels like not nearly enough knowledge right now." Crap. Was he really ready to do this? Well, Blaine knew he certainly wasn't ready, but could he do it? Blaine made a mental note to call Kurt as soon as he could. That'd be a fun bombshell to drop.
"And what do you do for a living, Blaine?" The social worked asked. Keeping the questions coming as the forms were worked on.
"I teach fourth grade for LA Unified. Right now, I've been busy with my summer job at an arts nonprofit. Act Out. We provide music, theater, and dance camps and classes on a sliding scale to make them accessible to as many kids as possible." Blaine explained as he scrawled his signature on the bottom of the form.
"Oh! I've heard of that. You all work with several of the kids on my caseload. I keep hoping to get to a recital or a performance." The social worker stated. "You all do good work."
"We try." Blaine replied with a distracted smile. This was a conversation he'd be loving to have at any normal time. Right now, his mind was other places. "Getting kids in foster care and group homes into our programs has been a priority." Blaine passed the paperwork back and stood, looking over to Cooper. "I'm doing this, but you're the one calling Dad." He smirked at the frightened look on Cooper's face as he followed Cassandra out of the office, to a more comfortable room with worn couches and a crib set up in the corner.
"This is our family room. We use it most for supervised visitation, but it's also helpful if we have kids waiting here for placement." The social worker smiled at a college aged woman cradling an infant on one of the couches. "Sally, this is Blaine and Cooper Anderson. Blaine, this is Sally, one of our current crop of interns."
Blaine barely noticed that Cooper had been left out of the second half of that greeting, because his eyes had been drawn to the baby held in Sally's arms. He stepped forward, raising his arms hopefully. "May I?"
The intern looked over for Cassandra's nod of permission and then passed the baby carefully over to Blaine. "He's so tiny." Blaine stated quietly as the baby blinked thickly lashed blue eyes up at him, sticking his whole little hand up to his mouth to chew on it. "And he looks like a mini version of you, Coop. Man, no doubt you're his dad, huh?" Blaine held the baby close as he reached up with his other hand to finger one loose brown curl.
"He is small for his age. We can help you out with recommendations for a pediatrician, but it would be a good idea to get him checked out in more depth than they did at the hospital this morning. He's been eating well today, but there's no way to know if that has always been the case." Cassandra pointed out gently, watching Blaine hold the baby close with a satisfied smile. It might not be an easy one, but she was confident that this would end up being a good match. "Let me just get these papers processed while you bond with Julian. You're a teacher. I have little doubt that your background check will pass, since I'm sure you've been fingerprinted and background check more times than you can remember."
Blaine nodded absently. The need for a pediatrician appointment registered, but then his attention was all on the baby, warm and snuggly in his arms. Any doubt that he was going to follow through with this faded away. How could he say no to this helpless child?
Early afternoon found Blaine sitting in the parking lot of Target, scarfing down the last of a fast food burrito, with a newly installed car seat in the back of his car. The wrapper got shoved down into the bag, and Blaine was out of the car around back trying to get the infant seat out of its base.
"Blaine! I'm glad you called me. Always nice to be able to help a friend." Blaine got the carrier out of the base just in time to see a short woman with long blond hair caught up in a ponytail coming toward coming towards him, her daughter held on her hip. "Ooh. Is this your nephew? He's adorable! I didn't realize you had a nephew."
"Miriam! Neither did I. Suffice it to say, it's a long story." Blaine admitted with a sheepish smile as he led the way towards the store. "I'm glad you and Ella could make it today. I'll admit that I'm clueless in this. I know he needs diapers and formula, but that's about where my knowledge ends. I certainly did not wake up today thinking I'd end up taking custody of a three-month old."
"You can set that right there on the cart." Miriam noted, pulling out a second cart to get her eight month old settled into the front seat of it. "I needed a few things from the store today anyway. It's a good excuse to get Ella out of the house and all that. See, I can come up with all sorts of reasons to be here, but really, you're family, Blaine. We take care of each other, right? Now, the baby section is back here. What do you have so far?"
Blaine moved alongside Miriam, reaching up to grasp Julian's hand and play with it when the baby started to fuss. "Right. Especially those of us whose relationship with our own family is more, well, complicated." Blaine paused for a moment before he laughed almost bitterly. "Nothing. I have nothing at all. Well, I have a loaner car seat I have to give back by the end of the week and a few sample packs of diapers and formula. And the clothes Julian has on."
"And you have all of us. I'll call Pastor Dan later. I'm sure there are members of the church with little boys who have outgrown clothes and baby items. We'll see what we can round up for you. For now we'll get the basics. Diapers, formula, bottles, some onesies and sleepers. Oh, maybe a pack and play. He'll need somewhere to sleep tonight. That'll work until you get a crib." Miriam went down the list on her fingers, ticking off the basics. "I'll see what we have of Ella's that's more gender neutral. I doubt you really want Julian in a bright pink dress."
That last got a laugh of out of Blaine. "No. No. I may be gay, but I'm certainly not doing that to this little guy. If he grows older and wants to wear it? Fine. But nothing pink and frilly now. Right Julian?" The baby just stared back up at his uncle, bringing the finger he was holding to his mouth to chew on it. "That sounds like a good starter list. And maybe a pacifier to suck on instead of my finger? And thank you. For everything."
"No worries. Kelly and I had nine months to prepare for Ella, and we still didn't really feel ready. Well, I was quite ready to have her off my bladder. I can't imagine doing it all this fast. I'll help however I can." Miriam reached out to smooth down her daughter's hair before she grinned over. "So, I guess this means you're skipping out on choir on Thursday, huh?"
"Oh God. Yes. Probably indefinitely." Blaine glanced down at the little boy in front of him. "I have nothing figured out. Nothing. I keep trying not to freak out, but I mean, I have to figure out insurance so I can take him in to get checked out at the doctor. Then I have to find a doctor. My first phone call when I get home has to be to my summer job. I'm going to need to take at least a few weeks off to get everything figured out. Maybe just put in a few volunteer hours the rest of this summer. I'm not sure that the efforts to not freak out are going to hold together."
Miriam reached out to rest a hand on Blaine's shoulder. "You deserve a chance to freak out, but can we wait until we're out of Target first?" She joked, waiting to get a grin out of Blaine before she continued on. "And that's why you have friends and your church family. I know we can't do all of that for you, but you know we'll help. I stay at home with Ella. If you need someone to watch Julian while you put in a few day camp hours, I can help out with the little guy. I'm sure there's other people who'd help if you need them. Peg, for one. You know that ever since she retired, she's been going stir crazy and missing her grandchildren. We'll work this out. Plus, at least it happened in July. You've got plenty of time to get day care issues settled before the school year starts again."
Blaine let out a deep breath. "One step at a time. The first step is to actually have at least one change of clothes for Julian, right?"
"Right. And maybe a bottle to feed him with." Miriam said with a teasing smile. "And a pacifier so that someday you can have your finger back."
Julian started to holler mere seconds before someone started to knock at the door. Blaine cursed under his breath, glancing in the two directions torn between where to go first. After a moment's hesitation, Blaine started toward the door, pulling it open quickly when he spotted who was waiting through the peephole.
"Kurt! I-" Blaine trailed off for a moment before his eyes went wide as he took in the impeccably dressed man waiting on his porch. "Our date!"
He could just feel Kurt's gaze boring into the worn jeans and old college t-shirt he'd pulled on after the second time Julian had spit up on him that afternoon. "Which I take it you're not ready for?" Kurt just said, tone caught somewhere between curious and icy.
"No. I can ex-" The wailing reached a new pitch, and Blaine glanced back toward the stairs. "Just come in? And give me a second?"
He didn't even wait to see if Kurt stepped in behind him or not, just heading upstairs to the play pen set up at the end of his bed to scoop Julian up, trying to rub soothingly at the baby's back. "You're okay, little guy." He whispered, only to hear the sound of a throat clearing behind him over the baby, who had at least moved from screeching to simple tears.
Blaine spun around, Julian held tight against his chest as he saw that Kurt had followed him up. "So- this thing you can explain involves why you suddenly have an infant you've never mentioned?"
"Yeah. I suppose. But let me get him changed and get a bottle? I can explain much better without talking over a crying baby." Blaine sighed. "I know this isn't what you signed up for tonight, but I'll meet you in the living room?"
Ten minutes later, Blaine was finally settled on the couch cradling a baby and a bottle, having managed a successful diaper change. "So, this wasn't exactly how I expected today to go." Blaine admitted.
"Well, that makes two of us." Kurt leaned across the arm of the chair he'd settled in to study the baby. The few minutes of waiting seemed to have warmed the ice in his tone, leaving him with just the curiosity. "Last minute babysitting emergency?"
Blaine gulped and shook his head. "Only if you take that in a very large scale, long term kind of way." He admitted.
Kurt cocked his head to the side at that, raising his eyebrows. "Then where did you get the baby from? He's not yours is he?" The look on Kurt's face very clearly added, 'I thought you were gay' to that.
"DCFS. That's where I got the baby from. And he's only sort of mine. He's my nephew. Apparently." Blaine looked down to the baby sucking hungrily at the bottle. "Maybe I should just tell you the story?"
"Your nephew?" Kurt repeated before he nodded. "Tell away."
"I have an older brother, Cooper. He lives out here, too, acting in commercials and bit parts for TV shows. People have long been joking about how he might be older, but I'm more mature. Well, this morning, I got a call from him. He was at the Department of Child and Family Services." Blaine shook his head with a soft sigh. "Turns out this little guy's mother is in the hospital from a drug overdose. His birth certificate lists Cooper as the father, so they called him. Imagining Cooper taking care of a cat is hard enough, let alone a real live person. I may have given Cooper a few withering looks when he admitted that he knew about Julian and never told me."
Blaine paused for a moment shifting the baby to a more comfortable position in his arms, getting a smack of displeasure from Julian when that took the bottle from his mouth. "Anyway, it was clear Cooper couldn't take care of him. The mom doesn't have any family. My parents-" Blaine paused to laugh sadly as he settled the bottle back into place. "Let's just say they'd take him, but he'd be lucky to see anyone but a nanny more than once a week." Blaine looked up from the baby and over to Kurt. "So the options were either that, foster care, or I took him."
"Wow." Kurt couldn't keep a rather stunned look off his face. "That's a big, sudden life change, huh?"
Blaine nodded fervently. "Oh yeah. I feel like I'm so far in over my head." His gaze turned back down to the baby as Julian's sucking slowed as he neared the end of the bottle, and a full stomach. "I don't even know for sure how long I'll have him for yet. A part of me, though…." Blaine trailed off for a minute, taking a deep breath before he admitted. "I'll admit that it went through my head that maybe this is fate or something. Maybe this is the one real chance I'll ever have to have a child to raise myself. How could I turn that down?"
Kurt just nodded staring over at Blaine with the baby for a moment. "I guess- I could see that." He hesitated himself before asking, "Are children something you've always wanted?"
"This is great conversation for what was supposed to be our second date, isn't it?" Blaine tried joking, as he pulled the empty bottle away from the infant. He turned to set it down on the end table and grab the dish towel he'd left there. He'd learned quickly to have something over his shoulder after Julian finished eating, shifting the baby up vertically to pat at his back, mimicking what he'd seen people doing for years. "But yes. I have always wanted to be a dad someday. I just always thought I'd be in my thirties and married first. I mean, I wouldn't work with kids everyday if I didn't like them."
"I usually wait for the third date for it, myself." Kurt drawled with a dry smile over. "I guess sometimes life has other ideas for us."
"I guess it does. What's the saying? We plan, and God laughs?"
"That'd be your area of expertise, religious man." Kurt replied, trying to keep it light.
That earned a laugh from Blaine, beyond the stress of the day. "You make me sound like I'm a preacher or something, instead of just another voice in the choir."
"Still puts you much farther down that spectrum than me." Kurt pointed out, shifting position to slouch back in his chair. "Are we still counting this as a second date?"
"Oh Lord. It doesn't really feel like one." Blaine said pausing for a moment before he shook his head. "I don't- I mean, I really like you Kurt, but-"
"But a new relationship isn't at the top of your mind right now is it?" Kurt asked, filling in what he though Blaine was asking there with a sigh. "This isn't going to work right now, is it?"
Blaine's face fell at that, letting out his own deep breath before he shook his head. "As much as it hurts to admit it, I don't see how it can be. New relationships take a lot of work or at least time to build. I'm note even sure when I'm going to have time to breathe."
"Then we put it on hold." Kurt said, trying to fix the pained look on Blaine's face. "We can build our friendship right now, and then when things settle down to simply crazy instead of batshit insane, we can try this again."
Blaine let out another low sigh, standing to try bouncing the baby as Julian started to fuss. "As much as I wish I'd be able to be on a real second date right now, I think that sounds like the smart plan."
"I'm settling in to a new job and a new city. You're settling in to an instant family. I think we could both use the time. But I don't want to lose the friendship we've been building." Kurt insisted, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "You know, I've had the 'do you want kids someday' talk with several past boyfriends, but never really come to a firm answer."
Blaine's eyes went wide as he looked over at that, trying to hide the hit of panic that sent to his gut. They'd only gone on one date. He didn't have any right for that to effect him this much. "Is this going to be a deal breaker here then? If Julian ends up being here with me for good?"
Something in Blaine's chest loosened back up as Kurt shook his head. "No. Not for me. Just something that might take getting used to. I always thought that I might be more likely to adopt an older kid someday. Babies kind of scare me." He admitted with a self-deprecating smile watching the baby whimper and fuss. "They're messy and rather easy to break. I will however call a claim on helping you decorate a nursery, because every kid deserves a cute one. So long as you'll have me."
"I'll take all the help I can get." Blaine said with a thankful tone showing through. "My second bedroom is just boxes and musical equipment right now. Hell, don't even look in my kitchen. How I'm supposed to convince a social worker next week to let me keep Julian when I don't even have doors on the cabinets, I don't know." The sigh was back, right before Julian traded his whiny unhappiness for throwing up all over the towel and down onto the back of Blaine's shirt. "Shit."
Kurt just settled for wrinkling his nose. "Ick. See what I mean about the mess?" Kurt stood as well, not approaching. "Why don't you show me that extra bedroom, and I'll take a look while you both get changed."
"Changed and starting laundry. I have like one clean crotch snap t-shirt thing for him left. How does he go through this many clothes in one day?" Blaine practically whined as he pulled the baby, who now seemed quite a bit happier, back away from his shoulder, looking at the extent of mess on Julian's sleeper.
"It's the mystery of small children everywhere." Kurt replied dryly as he followed Blaine off upstairs. "After you get changed, why don't you show me what needs done with the cabinets? Maybe we can make a plan."
