A/N: Thanks as always to my beta JayHawkWrites. Darn those stupid comma's lol.

Chapter 24 Finishing up

Blaine was awake before Kurt and Sere, the next morning, it had been a rough night for all of them. Sere had been restless, not really sleeping comfortably until after 2 am. Blaine lay there as long as he could before finally giving up and crawling out of bed and grabbing the clothes he would be wearing today. He stopped long enough to make sure Sere was still asleep before making his way to the bathroom, shutting the door, and stripping off his pajamas. He turned the water on as hot as he could stand it and then stepped under the spray, enjoying it as the hot water helped loosen his tired, sore muscles.

Blaine was hopeful today would go quicker than yesterday. The biggest part of the packing was complete. The only thing they had to worry about today was getting all the awards from Shey's spare room sorted out, and the moving company would thankfully be taking care of that. Blaine had a few more pictures he wanted to take. Kurt had taken a lot for the story he would be doing for Vogue, but Blaine wanted a few more, especially in Sere's old room. When he got home, well, to the New York apartment, he was going to try to match the paint color from her room here and repaint her new room the same color. It just seemed so peaceful, and that was another way he could keep Shey's memory alive for Sere.

After getting dressed, Blaine fixed his hair, picked up his dirty pajamas, and quietly made his way out of the restroom, not wanting to wake Kurt and Sere up before they needed to be. Last night had been rough on Kurt as well. Every time Sere cried, Kurt was awake and right by Blaine's side, offering his support, holding Sere when she seemed to want anyone but Blaine. Kurt had even beaten Blaine awake once. He had heard Sere crying, rolled over to an empty bed, and the first thing he had seen was Kurt holding Sere, pacing the floor, whispering to her, trying to quiet her down so that Blaine could sleep. This was something he could definitely get used to, having someone else show love and concern for his little girl, and also himself.

When Blaine and Kurt had talked about getting married, and eventually having children together, Blaine had always known that Kurt would be an amazing dad, but seeing him like that, taking care of a child that wasn't even his, made him realize how right he had been. Kurt would have been an amazing dad for their children. If only… Blaine thought with a sigh, once again regretting so much from their past and the paths they had both chosen to take.

Blaine carried his pajamas and put them in the bag he had been using for his dirty clothes. After looking at the time, he picked up the house phone and ordered breakfast and coffee from room service. They didn't have anything pressing that they needed to do this morning until around eleven when he was supposed to meet the moving company at Shey's apartment. When they were done with that, the only thing that was left to do was to go by Shey's lawyer's office, drop off the papers he had brought with him, and then sign a few more to have the apartment put on the market. Blaine was just hoping that they could spend their last day in London tomorrow doing nothing but playing tourists. There was still so much he wanted to share with Kurt, so much he wanted him to see.

"I miss your bow ties sometimes," Blaine heard Kurt say from the bed in his just woken up gravely voice that Blaine had always thought was sexy as hell.

"No, you don't," Blaine said with a soft laugh, making his way over to the bed and curling up next to Kurt, pulling him into his arms.

"Yes, I do. I always loved trying to guess which one you were going to wear next," Kurt said with a grin wrapping his arms around Blaine, snuggling into his side, "It was the blazer I always hated."

"Kurt, we've been through this. You loved the blazer," Blaine said, laughing.

"No, Blaine, I loved you out of the blazer," Kurt said, raising his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

"Oh really?" Blaine said in a husky voice.

"Of course, that's not the only thing I loved you out of," Kurt said softly, pulling Blaine to him, kissing him thoroughly, morning breath be damned. Kurt had just managed to get Blaine's shirt off and his pants undone when there was a soft knock on the door.

"Shit," Blaine said, pulling away and standing up, trying to get his clothes back in order. "I thought I was being smart by ordering from room service this morning so we wouldn't be in a hurry today. Remind me never to try to think before coffee again."

Kurt sat up in the bed and could only smile, watching as Blaine made his way to the door with a pronounced bulge in his pants. He loved that he could still do that with just a kiss. He and Blaine had always been so in tune with each other. It was good to see that not everything had changed.

"We always have tonight," Kurt said before standing up.

"Yeah tonight," Blaine said with a sigh, standing back and letting the hotel staff bring the trays of food and coffee into the room. Once again, Blaine can't regret having Sere in his life, but he does miss the times when, if he wanted Kurt or Kurt wanted him, they could just make love any time they wanted. Now, it was almost like it had to be planned.

"Have you gotten in touch with Isabelle to see when she expects your story from here, or is she just going to wait and do one story with everything we find?" Blaine asked, joining Kurt at the table. He decided he would wait until Sere woke up on her own to feed her, letting her sleep a little longer.

"She didn't say one way or the other, but after breakfast, I guess I can pull the pictures off of the camera and send them to her and ask that. Before I do though, I'd like you to look through the ones I took, that way you can decide if any of them need to stay private. I know I agreed to take pictures of everything we find, but I also don't want to put too much of your personal stuff out there," Kurt answered, taking his first sip of coffee, closing his eyes.

"Thank you," Blaine said, leaning in to place a kiss on Kurt's cheek.

"No problem," Kurt said with a smile. "So how long do you think it will be before little miss over there wakes up?"

"I'm not even sure. We've never had a night like last night before, not even when she's been sick. I'm sorry she kept disturbing you," Blaine said, looking down at his coffee, wondering if Kurt would soon realize what life was really like with a baby and decide it was too much trouble.

"Hey, there's nothing to be sorry about. She couldn't help it. I can't even imagine how much pain that must cause. The only thing I can think of that could possibly come close would be when my wisdom teeth started bothering me in my junior year, and if you remember, I cried like a baby. I could talk it out, say why I was hurting, and still cried on your shoulder. The only thing she can do is cry and that breaks my heart. I can only imagine what that does to you," Kurt said, reaching out to squeeze Blaine's hand.

Blaine turned his hand over so he could hold Kurt's wandering for the hundredth time since they reconnected how he had gotten so lucky to have this wonderful man back into his life. "I remember that. I also remember how you were right after you woke up from anesthesia." Blaine couldn't keep the grin off his face remembering.

"No, no, none of that. I still can't believe you recorded that. But let's make this clear again. Just like 'He Who Must Not Be Named' in your Harry Potter books, consider that whole thing forever as 'That Which Must Not Be Said,'" Kurt said with a laugh, then put his hand over his mouth when he realized how loud he had been. They both looked over at Sere and saw she'd slept through it.

"But my love, you were so cute talking about what you would love to do to Marc Jacobs. How you didn't care that he was as old as the hills, you'd still 'do' him. But you then went on to say that he was the only one you would ever do, besides me, of course, so that made it ok," Blaine smiled, remembering everything Kurt had gone on and on about that day. Then he realized they had done a lot of talking about what he had done during their year apart, but they had yet to really discuss what Kurt had done.

Blaine looked up at Kurt, knowing that he didn't have a right to ask. He cared, of course he did, but he felt like it wasn't any of his business to ask or know. They had been broken up, and he had slept with Bryce after all, but the thought of Kurt, his Kurt, allowing someone else other than Blaine to touch him, make love to him, tore Blaine apart. He knew he had no right to feel that way, but suddenly he couldn't get the images of Kurt with someone else out of his mind. Blane slowly released Kurt's hand, stood up, and walked over to the window and looked out at the city.

Kurt slowly walked over behind Blaine, wrapping his arms around his waist. "Hey, what's wrong? You got really quiet. Talk to me, Blaine. That whole agreement we made goes both ways, you know. If something's bothering you, we need to talk about it before it builds into some big thing."

"I'm sorry. I really have no right to even think about it," Blaine said, turning in Kurt's arms so that they were facing each other.

"Think about what?" Kurt asked, wondering what was going through Blaine's mind. Everything had been fine no more than two minutes ago.

"It just sort of hit me. I've told you everything about what I've done in the year we were apart, but you haven't said anything. I just started wondering, did you date someone else? Were you in another relationship? I know when we got back together, you weren't seeing anyone, but it made me wonder if you had before. I know it's selfish after everything that I've done, but the thought of you being with someone else hurts. I guess I want to know if you had a boyfriend while we were apart?" Blaine asked, closing his eyes. Wanting an answer and not at the same time.

"Oh, that… I guess we haven't talked about it, have we?" Kurt said, stepping out of Blaine's arms and turning around, facing the room, running his hands through his hair. "Blaine, when you told me no, that you wouldn't get back with me after we had made love...hearing you say that it had been a mistake...I was hurt and mad and confused. I never thought it could ever be a mistake for us to make love. I decided I needed to try to get over you. I had been home for almost two weeks when I heard about this speed dating event hosted by NYADA. I didn't have any intentions of going, but Rachel wouldn't shut up until I agreed to go. You know how she can get sometimes. I met this guy named Jared. He was sweet and kind, and we got along really well. We started dating." Kurt took a moment to collect his thoughts, wanting to tell Blaine everything and trying to be as gentle about it as he possibly could.

"Jared was someone I could talk to, who listened to me with no judgment. It was never the same as it was with you and me, but it was comfortable. The night I heard you got married, to be honest, was the first night I ever let him touch me. We had kissed, but nothing more than that. I cried the whole time. You were supposed to be the only man to touch me like that. I felt cheap and dirty. Not because of something he did, but the whole time we were having sex, I just kept thinking about you. If I closed my eyes, I could remember our times together. I could hear your voice whispering in my ear, and I could almost believe it was you," Kurt's voice broke as tears ran down his face, he slowly turned around to face Blaine.

"After that night, I came up with one excuse after another why we couldn't do it again. It had felt so wrong the whole time. We only went out about a month after that. We had some intense makeout sessions, a few lousy blowjobs, and then we were breaking up. He could tell I wasn't really into him and had known it since the night we slept together. The funny, or not so funny part was when we said goodbye, he said 'good luck with the one who got away,' almost like he had known I was thinking about you the whole time. After that, I didn't try anymore. I guess you will never be able to look at me the same, will you?" Kurt asked, tears still running down his face.

Blaine reached out, pulling Kurt to him, holding him tight. Blaine placed soft kisses on the top of his head as they both cried. Crying for decisions they had made, things they had done that couldn't be undone, the pain they had inflicted on each other as well as themselves. Blaine took a deep breath before he took a step back, still keeping Kurt close. He slowly raised his hands and framed Kurt's face, and placed a soft kiss on his lips, and then looked down into Kurt's beautiful eyes.

"Sweetheart, have you, knowing I was with Bryce, changed the way you look at me?" Blaine asked but not giving Kurt a chance to talk just yet. "You had every right to try to move on and find someone new. Was I selfishly hoping you hadn't? Yes. But I could never, nor will I ever hold that against you. We weren't together. You were free to do as you saw fit. If you think about it, I had closed the door on us the day I married someone else. You didn't know if I would ever be free to be with you again," Blaine said, kissing Kurt one more time.

"I know, but to me, you were always it. You've always been the only person I ever thought I would be with that way. I know you once said I was your person, but you have to remember you were my person as well," Kurt said with a watery smile.

"I know sweetheart, I know. We've both done things that if possible, we would undo. But that's part of growing up. As you said, our last night together in New York we were just kids. I know that hurt me when you said it at the time, but it was true. You had been my only boyfriend and I had been yours. We needed our time apart, to learn what we were together. Do I wish we could have learned that any other way? Hell yes, but it was still a step we had to take, a lesson we both had to learn. We had to break ourselves apart to rebuild ourselves stronger than ever. Did we get a few extra parts in the process? Yes. I still feel like we're better than we ever were," Blaine whispered softly, kissing Kurt one more time.

"You make it sound so easy," Kurt said with a slight smile.

"Not easy. I know we're both going to have to work at it. But we are so worth the work. We're good together and always have been, minus a few hiccups we've had along the way," Blaine said, smiling back.

"Definitely worth it," Kurt said, pulling Blaine into a hug.

"Can I make a suggestion without hurting your feelings?" Blaine asks, stepping back a little, but keeping his arms around Kurt's waist.

"What?" Kurt asks, getting a little nervous again.

"When we get back to New York, I think we should both go and get tested. I always wore a condom with Bryce when we had sex, but I gave him blowjobs without one. Knowing what I know now about him, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea. And since you probably didn't wear one with Jared if you gave him a blowjob, even though I doubt that was one of the lousy blowjobs you mentioned, it probably wouldn't hurt for you to as well," Blaine said and then laughed at his next thought, remembering when they had been tested together before.

"We could always do it together, make it a boys day as Artie called it, minus the whole 'all-boys abstinence club' thing. No matter how great Sam thought it would be at the time, I still say no, not a good idea," Blaine said, trying to make Kurt smile again. The first thing he sees though is what had been the beginnings of a smile slowly slip off Kurt's face.

"That day, when I threw the whole Eli C. thing up in your face, why didn't you say something then? You knew there was no way you could have caught anything from him, and yet you went through that testing for nothing. Why?" Kurt asked the thought just hitting him.

"Kurt, I did it because I didn't have a problem with it. You and I had always had unprotected sex. Sure, we had both been virgins the first time, but still... We didn't start wearing condoms until after we got back together, remember. There was no harm in getting tested, no harm in protecting ourselves," Blaine answered.

"Yeah, I remember. I remember all too well the first time we had sex after we got tested, even knowing that you were clean, I still pulled that box of condoms out and forced you to wear one. I remember the way you looked at me, how hurt you looked, but you did it anyway. Even though I said I forgave you, I was still holding it against you," Kurt said, slowly shaking his head. If only he had taken the time to listen.

"Kurt, I would have done anything for you. If me wearing a condom when we made love made you feel more comfortable, then I was fine with it. I was fine with anything as long as I got to hold you, love you again. It was my fault that you felt the need for me to wear one, to begin with," Blaine said, placing a soft kiss on Kurt's lips.

"It was still wrong, though, Blaine. I used them as another way to punish you, to strike back at you for something I kept saying I forgave you for," Kurt said, no longer able to look Blaine in the eyes, realizing something that had been right in front of him the whole time. He had purposely done things to hurt Blaine, not just because he was afraid of getting married young, but also because he had still been angry that his Blaine had cheated on him.

"Kurt, it's ok. Chalk it up to the whole growing up thing. That's all in the past, let's leave it there. Let's work on the now and on our future," Blaine said, pulling Kurt back to him.

"So, you still feel we have a future?" Kurt asked, hopeful again.

"I hope so, Kurt. I can't live my life without you in it. What the future holds for us is yet to be seen, but I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to spending the rest of my life with you, if that will work for you," Blaine said, kissing Kurt on the forehead, and stepping back as he heard Sere start to fuss.

"That definitely works for me," Kurt said, smiling and happy again. "And I guess getting tested wouldn't be a bad thing, and maybe we can splurge and get one of the frozen hot chocolates you loved so much from Gino's."

"And then jog home, of course," Blaine said laughing. Glad that they could get back to a happy place.

"Most definitely. Ok, I'm going to go and shower. I love you, Blaine," Kurt whispered, happy again.

"I love you too," Blaine said and saying those words never got old.

While Kurt took his shower and got ready for his day, Blaine fed and dressed Sere, glad to see she was feeling better this morning. He gave her some more baby Tylenol to play it safe and then sat her in the high chair and gave her her breakfast, laughing as she babbled the whole time. She was dying to talk, and Blaine was dying to hear what she would come up with. When Kurt was ready they walked toward the elevator hand in hand, ready to get this day finished.

When they got to the apartment, Blaine took a close up picture of the paint in Sere's room, and then one of the border Shey had hung up. It matched the quilt that had been in Sere's crib, and Blaine was hoping to either find more like it for her new room or see about having it recreated. He stood back as Kurt walked around, taking even more pictures of how the apartment looked now that most of the packing was completed.

While Blaine worked with the movers to pack and ship Shey's awards and a few other things, Kurt went into the kitchen, deciding to do a sweep of the room to make sure there was nothing in there that Blaine might decide he wanted. Kurt knew all the dishes and pans were going to be left for the new owners but just wanted to double-check since Blaine hadn't looked through it yet. Kurt made his way around the kitchen, opening up one cabinet after the next. In the last door, Kurt opened, he found two little white boxes, a small photo album, and several bottles that Shey would have used for Sere. Opening up the photo album first, Kurt was glad he had taken his time to come into the kitchen. He didn't know why Shey had kept this album separate from the others, but looking at the cover, he could tell that she had looked through it a lot.

"Hey, Blaine, can you come in here a minute?" Kurt knew this was something that Blaine needed to see.

"What's up?" Blaine asked as he walked into the kitchen, still looking over the shipping forms the movers had handed him.

"I thought you might want to look at this. I don't know why, but I decided to check out the kitchen before we left, and now I'm glad I did," Kurt said, handing the album to Blaine. He had quickly flipped through it until he realized what it was, and realized that it was Blaine's place to have the first look at the album's content.

Blaine opened the album, and the very first picture he saw was one of a very young-looking Shey and Bryce, arms around each other and smiles across their faces. They had looked so happy, and judging by their age, this picture had probably been taken after they had first started dating at seventeen. Blaine smiled, looking at the two of them. They had seemed to be so in love. It was sad that both of their lives had ended so young.

The next few pictures were of this apartment from when Shey first moved in. She took pictures as she added each new thing. There were a few selfies of Shey as she painted Sere's room and a few of her putting together Sere's baby bed. Blaine could only smile as he looked at the picture. She had put it together herself, and the smile on her face showed just how happy she was to do it.

The next two pictures had tears streaming down Blaine's cheeks. One was of Shey's ultrasound, and the next was of her holding up the ultrasound picture in front of her rounded stomach, with the most beautiful smile on her face. Directly below the picture, Shey had written 'my sweet little girl. Mommy loves you already and can hardly wait for you to get here.'

"This must have been when she found out she was having a little girl," Blaine said, looking at Kurt with a smile. "Look how big she was."

Blaine continued to look through the rest of the pictures of Shey as she grew bigger in each picture that had been taken until he got to the picture of Shey holding Sere in her arms. She had had the biggest smile on her face, but Blaine noticed right away there was not another person in the room with her other than the nurses and Sere. On what should have been the happiest day of her life, Shey had been alone. No one had been there to share in her joy of having that sweet little girl finally in her arms. The final picture in the book was of a newborn Sere spending her first night in her crib.

"Thank you, Kurt, for taking the time to look in here, for finding this. Just think, I would have missed this, and what a waste that would have been," Blaine said, hugging Kurt.

"I found these too. I haven't had a chance to look at them yet," Kurt said, pointing to the two boxes.

Blaine picked up the bigger of the two, opened it up, and pulled out a baby plate that Shey had apparently gotten for Sere to use when she was older. Turning the plate over, Blaine saw where Shey had had Sere's name and date of birth engraved on the bottom in gold. On the top, gold had also been painted around the outside edge of the little plate, but what had a tear running down Blaine's cheeks was what was on the front of the plate itself. A little ballerina had been painted in the very center, and a poem had been written around it.

I loved you from the very start,

You stole my breath, embraced my heart.

Our life together has just begun

You're part of me, my little one.

As mother with child, each day I grew,

My mind was filled with thoughts of you.

It was beautiful, and something Blaine would always cherish and hold on to for Sere. He opened up the second box and smiled. In this box was a sippy cup with the same little ballerina and Sere's name. Blaine slid both back in their boxes and then carried them over to the diaper bag, slipping them inside. Those two precious items would not be entrusted with the movers. They would stay with him.

While Blaine went back to work with the movers, Kurt continued to look around, making sure there was nothing else that might potentially be left behind. Trying, like Blaine, to save any memories he could for that sweet little girl. She had already lost so much and it would be years before she understood. Sere would never again be held by the mother that loved her. The only thing she would ever have would be pictures. Kurt stood there almost in tears, thinking that she would never get to know her mother. Yes, Kurt has lost his mom as well, but he had been eight, and still had very fond memories of Elizabeth Hummel. Poor Sere would never be given that chance.

When the movers were done, and all the boxes had been loaded in their truck, Blaine and Kurt made a final sweep of the apartment, making sure nothing was being left behind. With a sad smile, Blaine pushed Sere's stroller to the door, turned around, and took one more look before turning off the lights and closing the door.

A/N: Author of the poem located on Sere's plate is unknown. I would love to be able to give credit where credit is due.