Santana never did let Blaine and Sam back into the room that night; she insisted that Brittany had to sleep. When the nurses were done bathing and examining the baby—and she was healthy and perfect, which Sam could have told anyone—they let Sam take her to the lounge in her little rollable, see-through crib thingie.

So that's where they were all hanging out: the lounge. Santana didn't actually have the nerve to try to bar Brittany's mother from the room, but Mrs. Pierce preferred to stay with the baby and the other awake people than with her sleeping daughter, who was in Santana's perfectly capable hands.

It was close to midnight when Tom and Tommy's flight arrived in Columbus and they called Carrie. She walked out into the hall to talk to them. Sam couldn't hear her, but he could see her. She was sort of pacing and sometimes her back was to him, but when it wasn't he could see from her face that it was a painful conversation. But the how could it not be? He was so glad she was the one telling them instead of him.

When she returned to the lounge, holding her forehead like she had a headache, Sam asked, "Are they..." But he didn't know how to finish the question.

"They're going to spend the night in Columbus instead of driving out here tonight."

"Did you tell them I'm sorry? That they wasted a trip and...everything?"

Carries hesitated before answering, "I told them that this happens, I reminded them that they've known all along it was a possibility."

"So they'll just fly back home in the morning?" Blaine asked.

"They...they said they still want to drive out to Lima. Just in case."

"I'm gonna have to tell them in person that I'm not changing my mind," Sam said, grabbing Blaine's hand. "Aren't I?"

"Let's just see what happens in the morning." Carrie patted Sam's shoulder before she said goodnight to everyone and went home.

Sam's and Brittany's moms, along with one of the nurses, ganged up on Sam to convince him to go sleep at home rather than staying up all night in the hospital lounge. The baby would be fine in the nursery, and he'd be better able to deal with...well, the unexpected situation he was in now...if he wasn't exhausted. "But I don't want to leave her," Sam said to Blaine, who hadn't shared his opinion on the matter yet.

"I know, baby," Blaine said to him quietly. "And if you only had these couple days with her before she was adopted, then it would make sense to spend every single minute with her. But you're gonna have her for eighteen years. At least."

Sam was totally speechless for a minute. When he did speak, it was to say, "Holy shit."

Blaine didn't remind him that he could still change his mind again. There were enough people who wanted him to do just that; it wasn't likely that Sam could have possibly forgotten.

Mrs. Pierce wanted to check on Brittany again before she went home. Sam left the baby with her and walked out into the still-warm summer night with his mother and his boyfriend. He climbed into Tina's car with Blaine, not even stopping to wonder if his mother knew the way from the hospital to the Hudmels'. She didn't, and she called him for directions just a minute or two after they left the parking lot.

Blaine pulled into the Hudmel driveway and idled the car. Sam unfastened his seatbelt but didn't open the door. "Can you stay over?" he asked. "I'm not...I'm just gonna crash, so no fun stuff, but I'd really like it if you would sleep with me."

Sam fell into bed without even taking his clothes off. Blaine texted his mom to let her know where he was, talked briefly with Carole when she walked out into the hallway half-awake in her nightgown, and helped Mrs. Evans get settled in Finn's room. Finn wasn't around, so he assumed Carole had told him to stay over at Puck's or something; he knew Carole had changed the sheets for her, because he sniffed them when no one was looking just to check.

When Mrs. Evans was done in the bathroom, Blaine went in to brush his teeth using the toothpaste-on-a-finger method, which wasn't great but was better than nothing. He would have slept in his underwear if he had any on to begin with, but he was still in his swim trunks. He thought about borrowing some of Sam's, but decided that since Sam was sleeping in his clothes he may as well too. He spooned Sam, who was curled up on his side, held him tight, and went to sleep.

Sam, however, was actually still awake. He snuggled back against Blaine while he second-guessed his decision to come back to the house. Yeah, this was nice, but if he wasn't going to be able to sleep anyway he should have stayed with his daughter.

He wasn't actually completely convinced, now that he was away from the hospital, that what was going on was really going on. He'd been secretly entertaining daydreams for a while now—ever since he and Brittany agreed on adoption, in fact—in which he and Blaine would raise Lark together.

Some of them were totally unrealistic, like the one where Blond Chameleon and Nightbird would raise Morningbird (larks were morning birds, right?) in their secret lair, and she would have superpowers that would enable her to help out on their missions even while she was a tiny baby. She'd be able to fly, for example, and when she did she'd be able to project the image of a bird—any kind of bird she wanted (though her dads would have to help her choose until she was a little older). It wasn't that she'd shapeshift into bird form; it was just that anyone seeing her would perceive her as a bird. Except Blaine and Sam, of course. They'd see their amazing super baby soaring through the sky destroying evildoers.

And then there were some that weren't exactly realistic but weren't quite as out there. Like the one where Blaine's parents would decide to buy them a little house in Oberlin—well, they'd buy it for Blaine, technically, but Blaine would always insist on calling it "ours" and not "mine"—and Blaine would go to college and Sam would find a job that would pay for daycare and his half of the bills and stuff—and it wouldn't be that much because they wouldn't have a rent payment and Blaine's parents would be paying his half of the bills, plus probably a little extra because they'd be super generous like that. When Blaine got home from school and Sam got home from work they'd make dinner together and play with Lark and Blaine would study and Sam would mow the lawn or whatever, and they'd sing Lark to sleep and then they'd go in their own room and fuck like animals and fall asleep in each others' arms. And after Blaine graduated they'd move to wherever his career took them, and it would be somewhere near a not-horrible college, but one that also wasn't too elite for Sam to get into, and he'd start college when Lark started kindergarten. He and Blaine would be married by then, because by then same-sex marriage would be legal everywhere, not just a handful of states.

Obviously Sam never told Blaine about any of these little daydreams. He had really had every intention of going through with the adoption. Now, lying in bed with Blaine's arm around him, he realized that not only did he and Blaine not have any real plan for being dads together, he didn't even know if Blaine wanted to be a dad with him. He rolled onto his other side so he could breathe in Blaine's scent better, and that's how he was finally able to fall asleep.

He woke up early—sunlight was just starting to filter in through Kurt's gauzy curtains—in the same position. He snuggled in closer to Blaine and gently stroked his face until Blaine woke up too. "Morning, baby," Blaine muttered before pressing a kiss to his lips.

Sam returned the kiss and deepened it. But he broke it off before things got a chance to turn sexual. "I need to ask you something, and I want you to take a day to think about it. I mean, I'd tell you to take longer, but...but you're leaving for Oberlin the day after tomorrow, so..."

"Uh-huh," Blaine said. He willed himself to wake up fully so he could give Sam's question his complete attention.

"I, uh...God, I don't even know..."

"You don't know what you want, or you don't know how to ask?"

"How. It's probably too much to ask. I mean, it is too much to ask..."

"Well, just tell me," Blaine said. He reached under Sam's shirt to rub his back. "If it's too much I can say no. But isn't that better than if it's not too much but you never find out because you don't even ask?"

"Yeah." Sam guessed that made sense. "So...you know I love you. I mean, I hope you know that..."

"I know that. I love you too."

Sam smiled and kissed his forehead. "And I'll still love you even if you say no..." He waited for Blaine to nod before continuing. "Well...what I'd like, more than anything, is for us to stay together. To live together, I mean, and be Lark's dads together and get married as soon as it's legal wherever we're living."

"Uh. Wow." Even though Sam had totally telegraphed that he was going to ask something big, and even though it should have been obvious what it was given the situation, Blaine had somehow not expected that.

"Don't answer yet, obviously."

"Okay...Where would we even live if we did that?"

"I don't know. Oberlin? We could get an apartment maybe? Or are you required to live in a dorm?"

"There might be exceptions..." Blaine said, although he kind of suspected there weren't, not for incoming freshmen who didn't even ask until the very last minute. "Or New York! I never actually told NYADA I wasn't coming, so..."

"Yeah..." Sam said. He didn't really know if he'd want to live in New York, much less raise a child there. And he had no idea how they could possibly afford to do so, unless Blaine's parents were as generous in reality as they were in his daydreams. But he'd probably be willing to give it a shot if that was what Blaine wanted.

Blaine couldn't help but notice Sam's lack of enthusiasm about the New York idea. But what were their other options? There had to be some, he just...Well, of course none were coming to mind immediately. Sam had just sprung this on him and it was early and he hadn't slept much and...and Sam told him to take a day to think about it, and that's what he'd do. "Are you going to be at the hospital all day?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Can I come by later?"

"Later?" Sam thought Blaine would go with him.

"Well, I want to go home and shower and change. I still have Tina's car, and mine is still at the country club..."

"Oh. Sure, yeah. Come by whenever."

"I should go then." Blaine threw the covers off, but Sam didn't let go of him. "Unless you're in the mood for a quickie?"

Sam kissed him chastely and pulled his arm off him. "I'm always in the mood. But it sounds like my mom's awake in Finn's room..."

Blaine got out of bed. "You're gonna have to learn how to be quiet during sex since you're gonna have a kid around."

Sam noticed that Blaine didn't say "...we're gonna have a kid around," but he didn't mention it. He got out of bed too and looked around on the floor for his clothes before realizing he still had them on. Blaine was still dressed too, and he didn't even try to do anything with his hair, probably since he was only going home. Sam walked him to the door.

Blaine meant to take a shower as soon as he got home, but he found himself curling up on the couch for just a minute first. And then he found himself waking up on the couch with his mom standing over him. "Your dad and I have to leave for work soon," she told him, "but why don't you come have some coffee and tell us how it went."

He rubbed his eyes and followed her into the kitchen, where his father was sitting with a cup of coffee and a carrot muffin. Blaine sat next to him and watched his mother pour him some coffee. "Everyone's good?" his dad asked. "The baby? Brittany?"

"Sam's keeping her." Both his parents froze, his dad with his coffee cup half an inch from his lips. "I mean, yes, everyone's fine and healthy. And Sam isn't going through with the adoption, he's keeping the baby."

"That's insane," his mother said.

"I think what your mom means is—"

"I mean it's insane. Does he have any idea how hard raising a child is? I don't know how much he's making at Burt's garage, but I bet it's barely enough to pay for daycare. And if he doesn't go to college, what does he—"

"Theresa, I'm sure his own mother is telling him all this. Is she here, Blaine?"

"Yep. She drove up right away."

"Blaine, honey, you told him how insane this is, didn't you?"

"No." Blaine glanced at his mother just long enough to see her incredulous expression. He turned to his father, who seemed slightly more likely to be sympathetic or at least to listen to him and said, "You should have seen him with her. He loves her so much. If you could have seen it you'd never be able to tell him he had to give her away. And I mean, you guys were young when you had Cooper, and—"

"We weren't that young," his mom interjected. "And we had jobs that paid more than minimum wage."

"Sam's job pays more than minimum wage," Blaine said, although he didn't know if this was true.

"And we were married. It wasn't one of us raising Cooper alone."

Blaine looked down at his coffee and pushed it away. "I think I'm gonna go back to sleep for a while, I was up really late last night." He stood up and carried his cup to the sink. "I probably won't be home for dinner," he said before he headed up to his room.

He was lying face down on his bed on top of the covers, still in his swim trunks and polo, when there was a knock on his door about ten minutes later. "Come in," he called reluctantly.

His dad came in and sat on the edge of the bed. "You didn't say anything after your mother mentioned being married and not raising Cooper alone."

"It didn't sound like a question," Blaine said into his pillow. "And it's not like it was a surprise."

"Sam's a nice guy, Blaine. And you're a smart guy. So I don't need to tell you all the reasons that raising a baby that's not yours with your boyfriend of a few months, instead of going to college, would not be your best move."

"No. You don't."

"Are you thinking about it anyway?"

Blaine turned his head to look in his father's direction. "I told him I would. Think about it, I mean. He asked me to think about it for a day and I said I would."

His dad nodded and said, "Fair enough. Just do me a favor, will you? Promise me that if you're leaning toward saying yes you'll tell me before you tell Sam?"

"Why? So you have a chance to talk me out of it?"

"Will you just promise?"

Blaine took a deep breath. "Okay. I promise." He put his face back in his pillow.

"Thanks, kid." His dad patted his shoulder, kind of awkwardly—they weren't really a super touchy family. "I have to go to work, but I don't have anything uninterruptable today, so if you want to talk..."

"Thanks. Bye." Blaine's words were muffled by his pillow, but it was fine: his dad got the message, apparently, because he left.

Blaine slept again, until after noon this time. He called Sam. "Blaine! I was starting to worry something happened to you!"

"Sorry. I fell asleep." He felt so guilty admitting that he was sleeping in—well, on—his comfy bed while Sam was at the hospital with the baby. "I'll be there as soon as I can." By the time he'd showered, dressed, grabbed a bite to eat, gotten Tina back her car and picked up his, "as soon as he could" turned out to be almost three o'clock.

In the lobby he saw Tom and Tommy, looking as emotionally devastated as you'd expect. He kind of hoped they wouldn't notice him or recognize him, but they did. "You're Blaine, right? Sam's boyfriend?" the taller guy asked. Tom, he thought. Or maybe Tommy.

"Yeah. Hi. Look, I'm really sorry about all this. I mean...sympathy sorry, not apology sorry, because I didn't really have anything to do with...But I mean, Sam really likes you guys, it's just that..."

The shorter guy held up his hand to stop him. "We're not mad at Sam."

"Speak for yourself," the taller guy said under his breath.

The shorter guy elbowed him and went, "Tom!"

"What?" Tom said. "You're the one who said it's only natural for us to grieve. I just happen to grieve by being angry at eighteen-year-old boys who want to take care of their children."

"This isn't really what I meant," Tommy said.

Tom turned abruptly to Blaine and said, "We've got something for Sam. Follow me." He started walking toward the exit, and Blaine and Tommy hesitated for a minute and then had to scramble to catch up with him.

When they did, Tommy took his hand and said, "I'm glad you decided to do this," and Tom sort of grunted in reply. Blaine still had no idea what was going on except that they were now in the parking lot. They got to the guys' rental car, and Tom opened the door to the back seat, unhooked an infant car seat, took it out, and handed it to Blaine.

"Oh!" Blaine said, hesitating to take it. "But aren't these kind of expensive? And you'll still adopt, right, so you can still use it?" It wasn't until after he said it that he realized it's probably not cool to decline a gift that isn't even meant for you.

But they insisted anyway. "We will still adopt, but right now Sam can use this more than we can," Tommy said.

"But honestly that's not why I want him to have it," Tom said, more to Tommy than to Blaine. "I want him to have it because the idea of flying home with an empty baby carrier is so depressing it makes me want to literally rip my heart out." Then Tommy hugged him, and Blaine couldn't tell for sure if one or both of them was crying but it kind of seemed like it. So he mumbled some completely inadequate thanks and hurried back into the hospital.