This is a shift day [see above]. There was another upload this morning: You'll Find Wonder, chapter 6.

"Steps 16-36, Time Is On Your Side"

11. Step Twenty-Six, Ease Into It

It had already been weeks since they had fixed up their respective guest bedrooms into a nursery and room for the other, but so far the rooms only just sat there. Now Kurt was thinking they needed to do something about that.

He'd gone to find her at her house, looking at a magazine in her room. "Checking out the latest celebrity hook-ups?" he joked, and she held up the magazine so he could see the cover. "Knitting?" he blinked, not expecting that.

"I want to try and learn, but I'm afraid I'll stab myself or something, I mean they use needles," she shook her head as though reprimanding the knitters of the world.

"Yeah, but they're bigger, like," he mimed it and her eyes went wide.

"That's even worse!"

"You won't stab yourself," he insisted. "And if you really want to learn, I can show you," he smiled.

"You knit?" she asked.

"I… dabble," he shrugged it off like it was no big deal, and she just laughed. "Okay, so I'm fantastic," he admitted, and she nodded. "But good, so that's something we can do on your trial run."

"My trial what?"

"That's what I came to talk to you about. We put together those rooms last month and we haven't used them yet," he explained.

"Well, yeah, the baby's still here," she pointed down.

"I know he is, but I was thinking we could give it a shot before, see what it's like staying at each other's houses, so we can see how it goes, maybe see what we might need to get or change… You stay at my house one night, and I'll stay at yours one night, too."

"Okay," she smiled.

"Great, so I'd like to invite you to come and stay over, how about tomorrow night?"

"Sounds good," she agreed.

The next day, Brittany arrived at the Hummel house in mid to late afternoon, lugging a suitcase and her 'special pillow,' which had been a gift from Santana, for the days when she couldn't be with her to nap. "Need a hand?" Kurt observed the load she carried.

"I'm good," she shook her head, going on ahead.

"At least let me take the suitcase up the stairs," he begged.

"Okay," she turned it around so he could get a hold of the handle. "Thanks." They went up to the room with the purple Winnie the Pooh wallpaper, and Brittany put her pillow on the bed before turning to get her suitcase and unpack.

"You know you can leave clothes and things here, so you don't have to bring a suitcase every time," he pointed out. She stood up, thinking.

"Yeah, that's true," she smiled. He watched her go about putting her things away, and he definitely could see an improvement in her spirits compared to the last little while. She was looking more and more like the Brittany they all knew and loved, only now with a maternal kick.

Before long they were sitting to dinner, him, and her, and his father. "Hope it's alright," Burt told her as he set the plates down. "I'm not that much of a cook," he admitted.

"That's okay, neither am I," she smiled, getting one out of him, too.

"We gotta stick together," he held his hand out and she shook it. Kurt just had to admire how much those two were getting along like old pals now. Brittany was not hard to love if you really got to know her, and Burt had, over these months, now that she was the mother of his soon-to-be grandson. It wasn't as though he expected that kind of relationship with the Pierces, as 'the guy who got their teenage daughter pregnant.' They were dealing with the situation, and he knew they were helping her along, but him… he wasn't sure what to expect of it. He guessed he would soon find out; next week it was going to be his turn, staying at the Pierce house for a trial run night.

After dinner, they had gone back to the nursery, where Kurt presented Brittany with the items she would need as he got her started with the knitting, as promised. She still looked apprehensive about the whole thing, especially when he'd handed her the needles, but she trusted him, so she said she'd give it a shot. They sat face to face on the bed, with a breakfast tray in between them, holding what they would need. Slowly, he showed her how to get started.

"Okay, don't hold those like that or you really will stab yourself," he frowned, and she dropped.

"I can't," she shook her head.

"Yes, you can, come on," he encouraged, so she sighed and tried again. "There, see, it's fine."

"Can I just watch you first?"

"Sure, that might be a good idea," he sat up. As he worked, he could feel her watching him closely, concentrated. He took a breath. "Can I ask you something?"

"Okay," she didn't look away from his hands.

"How's everything going, with you and Santana?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" He did remember what she had said, a few months before their 'fateful voyage' in his basement, how she had very plainly stated that she and Santana had been sleeping together, but he didn't want to go that route. "You two are friends…"

"Best friends," Brittany confirmed, smiling.

"Yes, but I mean Mercedes and I are best friends, too, but not the same as you and Santana are, you know?" Her smile had a flicker of something intimate.

"No, probably not," she agreed.

"And that's all it is?" he asked, and he could see her consider the question.

"Well… no, not exactly." He wasn't sure if he should ask any further, if he hadn't already intruded too far. He could say as much as he wanted that Brittany was carrying his son and, as such, he needed to know certain things, but it was more than that, and already he was properly overstepping his bounds. "I mean, I love her, I…" she shrugged, and the way she said it he knew the pause had not been for realizing it for the first time – she already knew – but that there were complications, and of those she was just as aware. He had learned more than he had anticipated, and she'd hardly said a word.

For the next little while, he knitted, and she watched, and neither of them said a thing. When he stopped, she touched the pattern he had created and she smiled. "You can learn to do it, too, I know you can," he told her. "You can take these with you."

They'd gone and watched television for a while before they went and got ready for bed. He went to check in on her once more before saying goodnight, and then he'd gone off to his room. Lying in his bed now, he sighed. He knew Santana's side of things, at least to some degree, and now he knew of Brittany's side as well. What it could mean for both of them was a lot harder though. He could have just told one what he knew about the other, but it wasn't his place to do it, had to come from them. He knew he had told them he wanted to just focus on the baby, and that was true, but it didn't mean he didn't think about it. And getting to know those two girls, clueless to what they could have, he just wished he could say the same for himself…

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)