Blaine was miserable, Kurt could see that clearly now. He'd tried to avoid that word when describing his fiancé over the last several months but there was no use in denying it anymore. The words 'tired and 'worn out' had slipped from his lips fairly easily for months when friends and family had called to check in but after the baby dropped the previous day, in preparation of his appearance in this world, there were no longer any other words to use, just miserable. Kurt knew that if the baby came early it would be okay; their doctor had told them as much but the words 'emergency c-section' scared him even if an emergency c-section in Blaine's case would still be a semi-routine one. Now he was almost hoping his son would come early, just so he would no longer have to watch Blaine wince or listen to him grunt in pain with every little movement.
His body was not built to do this. Everyone told them that from the start but Blaine handled it all so well that it was easy for Kurt to forget it most of the time. When their little boy dropped that all changed. There wasn't a natural way for him to be born and therefore Kurt had assumed that Blaine's body wouldn't attempt to prepare their son to be birthed through a body part that Blaine didn't possess. His hips weren't meant to stretch the way they had and now with their child resting so low they were again being forced to accommodate a strain they were never meant too. The only good news in all of this was that despite the pain; Blaine could now breathe easier since their son no longer rested directly against Blaine's diaphragm.
"I'm fine, Kurt," Blaine grunted out from where he rested on their bed, "Go to work. I'll call you if anything happens, though I doubt anything will."
Kurt worried his lower lip between his teeth; he really did need to go to work, they needed the money but he just did not feel right about leaving Blaine alone today. This had all been so much easier over the holiday when his parents had been around to keep him company as well as keep an eye on him.
"Kurt," Blaine tried again, "Rachel is off work in two hours and she said she would stop by and check in with me then and Finn is only a couple of blocks away at his work if anything should happen before then."
Kurt took a deep breath; it would be fine, "Okay, but if I don't get at least one text an hour from you letting me know you're fine then I'm coming home."
An hour and five minutes into Kurt's shift Blaine hadn't text messaged him and he was just about to inform his coworker that he would be leaving when his phone finally buzzed.
"Don't freak out, I fell asleep for a few minutes, sorry."
The messages flowed for the next few hours until Kurt became so engrossed in his work that he didn't notice when after an hour there was no text. It wasn't until he clocked out at work nearly four hours later that he remembered the deal he made with his fiancé. He unlocked his phone to find that he had three missed calls and six missed text messages from Rachel and Finn, none from Blaine.
"Blaine seems to be in a lot of pain…" The first one read.
"He says that he isn't having contractions but I'm not sure I believe him."
"Do you think I should call his doctor?"
"Kurt? I'm taking Blaine to the hospital, will you meet us there?"
"Dude, Blaine is kind of freaking out. He doesn't want to go to the hospital without you." Read the first text from Finn.
"Could you at least call? He's having a fit."
The text messages stopped there with the last one having been sent nearly three hours ago. Kurt was in an absolute panic as he dialed his voicemail.
"Damn it Kurt, answer your phone," Rachel's voice shrieked, "We're on our way to the hospital; I wanted to call an ambulance but Blaine insisted we take a cab. Please call me back."
Kurt was beginning to feel hysterical as the next message began.
"Dude, where are you? The doctor is here and I don't understand anything he is saying. It sounds like he doesn't think Blaine's having the baby though, which is weird because Rachel was absolutely positive he was. She was telling him to push and everything."
Kurt took a deep breath and hoped that this was just over reacting. Just as he was deleting the second message his call waiting came up; Blaine was calling.
"I am so sor-" Kurt started before being cut off.
"I told her I wasn't in labor," Blaine ground out on the other end, "I told her this was the least pain I've been in recently, I told her not to call Finn, I begged her not to call you. Did she listen? NO," Blaine fumed, "Dr. Adams even told her not to take me to the hospital but who cares what the freaking doctor thinks?" He practically growled.
"I'm sorry, Blaine," Kurt sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he made his way to the subway station. Of course Rachel would overreact, he should have known better than to let her get him all riled up. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Blaine huffed down the line, "I just spent the last hour and a half getting poked and prodded by strangers because Dr. Adams didn't come down to the hospital for what she'd already told us wasn't labor."
"I'm so sorry, Blaine," Kurt repeated, "Where are you now? Are you still at the hospital?"
"No," Blaine sighed, finally losing some of his steam, "I made Finn and Rachel call me a cab and leave me the hell alone. I'm almost home now."
Kurt arrived outside their building just as the cab was pulling away and he found Blaine leaning tiredly against the wall inside while waiting for the elevator. If possible, he was looking even more miserable than when Kurt left him that morning.
"Okay, so Rachel is no longer allowed in the apartment unless she is accompanied by a sane person," Kurt sighed as the elevator dinging and he grasped his fiancé by the elbow and lead the way on, punching the button for their floor.
"In Finn's defense, he actually did try to stand up to her," Blaine mumbled as he leaned into Kurt tiredly. "She was just obsessed; it was like she wanted this kid to be born on her watch."
Kurt shook his head as they arrived on their floor, "Well, I've got the next two days off; during that time I'll try to find someone with a shred of sanity to check on you incase this one hasn't shown up by then," He placed a protective hand over Blaine's belly as he steered them towards their apartment.
"Where has Santana been hiding out at? I know she came out here after graduation but I haven't seen or heard from her and no one has really said anything about her," Blaine wondered aloud as Kurt helped him down onto the couch.
"She's around," Kurt brushed a stray curl from Blaine's forehead and then pressed a kiss there. "I think she is trying to separate herself from high school as much as possible; I do have her number though," He sighed and made a mental note to call her the next day.
Kurt tried his best to keep Blaine as comfortable and as stress free as possible the rest of the evening; making him his favorite dinner and drawing him a hot bath afterwards to help ease the pain in his hips and back. Blaine seemed to doze off easily once they settled into bed but Kurt still felt horrible that he'd become so engrossed with his work that he'd forgotten something as important as checking in with his due any day fiancé. He was just on the verge of sleep when Blaine began to fidget but when he didn't say anything Kurt just assumed that their son had woken up.
Two hours later Kurt jerked back to consciousness when Blaine sat up rather abruptly, "Blaine," Kurt sat up as well, his eyes straining in the dark to make out the other man's face.
"Don't freak out," Blaine's voice came out strained; automatically sending Kurt into a panic. "I don't think these are Braxton-Hicks contractions anymore."
