A/N: Thanks again to QuinnAbrams for her contribution to the middle part of this chapter!

Artie

He was so angry as he wheeled out his front door and down the path that led to the driveway, that he nearly forgot his car keys. Kitty ran after him, dangling his keys over her head and shaking them at him. He stopped on the passenger side of the car instead of the driver's side.

"You're gonna have to drive us," he said, closing his eyes briefly, then looking over his shoulder, to make sure he wasn't being followed. He almost couldn't handle the feeling that came with having his heart pound out of his chest, even though he was still planted in the damn chair. His shoulders and hands were shaking.

Kitty just nodded, unlocked the car, and began removing the hand controls from the pedals expertly, as if it hadn't been several months since the last time she'd done that.

When he finally slipped in the passenger seat and began stuffing wheels and chair pieces hastily in the back, she shot him the most apologetic look. "I shouldn't have been the one to tell you first," she admitted, as she stowed the pedals in the back with the chair and climbed in. "It wasn't my place."

"Are you kidding?" Artie replied. "I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that they let Mr. Schue and Ms. Pills- I mean, Mrs. Schue... find out first."

An hour or so ago, the truth had finally come out while Artie was driving Kitty back to his house after their fourth and final Saturday dance rehearsal with Spencer.

Artie and Kitty had been spending a lot of time together over the last few weeks as they worked to prepare Spencer for his wheelchair debut at the upcoming Regional Showchoir competition. Initially, spending so much time together had been pretty awkward — especially when Julie was visiting — but they had gotten comfortable with the "working relationship" they had developed. So comfortable, in fact, that Artie had invited Kitty over for dinner, deciding to go ahead and disregard the guidelines that she had set for them over Christmas break.

"What's up with you?" Artie had asked Kitty, looking over at her briefly before turning his attention back to the road. "You're uncharacteristically quiet. You didn't even make fun of my last dorky pun."

"Huh? Oh. Just a lot on my mind, I guess," Kitty replied, fidgeting with the bottom button on her Cheerios letterman jacket.

Artie decided not to press the issue, and continued driving the short distance between McKinley and his house.

"I need to tell you something," Kitty finally said, just after he had pulled into the driveway. "You're not going to want to hear it, and I don't think they want you to know about it either, but you don't deserve to be in the dark. I know you hate to be coddled and left out, and so I'm just going to go ahead and say it."

"Kitty, what? Just slow down." Artie put the car in park and turned off the ignition. He turned his full attention to her now, taking in the expression on her face that looked like she was going to hurl.

Beginning to get concerned, Artie had set a gloved hand on her arm and rubbed it reassuringly. "Talk to me."

"Amy's pregnant," Kitty blurted out, immediately wincing and bracing herself for the impact of Artie's inevitable reaction.

Artie's stomach dropped. He drew back his hand from Kitty's arm and used it to cover his face, leaning his elbows on the steering wheel in front of him. Now he was the one who felt like he was going to throw up.

"I'm sorry, Artie, I just thought that you should know," Kitty said quietly after a few minutes of silence.

"How do you know?" was Artie's eventual response.

"I overheard the Schuesters talking about it in the choir room. I got suspicious when were all lumped together with the middle schoolers again yesterday. I mean, we have so much to do for Regionals, and it's like the third time. I heard then talking, and he said Amy was at the doctor for a check-up. I kept listening and figured out that Amy told Mrs. Schue about the pregnancy when she was sick at dinner on Valentine's Day," Kitty explained, pouring out all she knew.

In his head, Artie had finally put the pieces together. Amy's unusual fatigue, the avoidance of foods she usually devoured. Puck had been right that night at Breadstix. His sister hadn't had a virus at all.

She was with child. Sam's child.

"I had to tell you," Kitty said. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Artie replied, coolly, as he reached behind himself and started to assemble his chair. "You're not the one who got my sister pregnant."

After transferring from the driver's seat, Artie wheeled up the ramp leading towards the front door, with Kitty right behind him.

He decided then and there, that if they could play games and withhold the truth, then so could he.

"Guys? I'm home!" he'd called as he entered the foyer, his voice sounding much more chipper than he felt. "Kitty's here too. She's come for dinner."

A moment later, Sam and Amy had descended the stairs.

"Hi Kitty," was all Amy said. "It's been awhile since you've been over."

Artie had taken note of her baggy sweatshirt and frowned. She seemed to notice that he was staring at her, and she quickly averted her eyes, tugging at her shirt's hemline.

"Oh, well, you know," Kitty said, shrugging as she unbuttoned her jacket before hanging it up on one of the hooks on the wall. "Life. We're all pretty busy. But I missed this house. Seems like someone's always home around here."

"Sam, I invited your family over for my crockpot chili, too. We have plenty, and I know it's Stacey's favorite. They'll be here soon. I'm gonna go check on it." Artie said casually, as he unzipped his own jacket, hanging it on the lowest hook.

"Oh, okay, cool," Sam replied, too casually for Artie's liking, which made his blood start to boil.

"And Dad's on his way," Artie went on. "So that'll be…" he counted the people in his head. "Ten of us, so we'll need extra seating. Sam, there's a card table and chairs in the storage shed out back. Could you get it?"

"Sure," Sam nodded.

"I'll show him where it is," Amy offered, almost too eagerly. She turned to follow Sam out the back door, but before she could exit the room, Artie called after her.

"Hey, Ames," Artie had made the executive decision not to bring up the fact that he knew what they were hiding right away. Instead, he opted to have a little bit of fun at the expense of his sister and roommate. "Mason and Madison both just got over that virus you had a few weeks ago. They said it was the worst."

"Oh, yeah?" Amy replied, locking ice blue eyes with Artie for a moment or two before glancing off to the side and scratching her arm. "Wow, that sucks. Well, uh, I trust they're better now?"

"Good as new," Artie answered nonchalantly before pivoting his chair and heading off to the kitchen.

"What the hell was that?!" Kitty whispered to him when they reached the kitchen, out of earshot from anybody else.

"What was what?" Artie asked innocently, as he stirred the chili.

"You know what," Kitty hissed.

Before he could answer, the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of the Evans clan.

"Move," Artie directed, a fake cheerful smile plastered on his face as he placed both hands on his wheels. "I need to entertain."

He supposed he could've asked her a little more nicely, but Kitty had already done as he said and stepped out of the way, with no protest other than a signature eye roll.

As the rest headed into the kitchen to dish out their chili, Artie waited patiently for someone to bring him a bowl. The small kitchen was too crowded for him to serve himself. When it was Sam who approached with his chili and soda, however, Artie couldn't stop himself from shooting daggers at the other guy with his eyes.

And now, he was fairly certain, Sam knew the jig was up. The other guy, looking like a dog with his tail between his legs, stumbled back to the table and managed to rattle off the confession.

"Okay, look," he said. "I'll just say it, but I'm pretty sure, Artie, that you already know."

Artie arched a brow. It was a trick of his lying, two-faced sister's too, but he did it much better. He thought it was rather bold of Sam to call him on his behavior, given the circumstances.

"Amy's pregnant. We're having a baby. We were trying to find a good time to say something, and well, you're all here now so..."

Artie was glad that Kitty seemed to still read his mind, even after all these months of not being together. She quickly made up some excuse that she needed to be home, because her dad was bringing home Chinese takeout. It was almost scary, how convincingly the girl could spit out a little white lie. Artie saw this as a perfectly good way to leave the table, and leave he did, his mother's outcry ringing in his ears as he left, forgetting the keys that Kitty was smart enough to grab on her way out behind him.

"You probably shouldn't take this out on the baby, though," Kitty said, after driving Artie's car in silence for most of the trip to her house. "I'm just saying. You ought to consider that there's an actual human being involved here, and that kid's innocent in all this."

Artie leaned back and closed his eyes for a minute. "I'm not gonna do that," he said. "Of course I'm gonna love their kid. I mean, I love both of those idiots, too, even though I think Amy just ruined Sam's life."

Kitty scoffed. "Hmph."

Artie opened one eye, then the other, and gave her a most disdainful look. "Uh, okay, care to share what you meant by hmph?!'" he wanted to know.

"I just mean," she began. "That Amy did not ruin his life. And anyway, the girl is not the only one to blame in these situations. The guy shoulders just as much blame. But that's not the point I'm making. The point, Arthur, is that maybe they're happy about having an oops-baby and, yeah they could have brought you in on the secret sooner, but maybe you should let them be happy."

Artie looked at her like she had two heads. "Katherine," he said, because if she got to use his full name, he got to use hers. "Sam is a broke-ass, college freshman male model on a girl's swim dance team." He paused. "And also, he's my best friend and I had him first."

Kitty smirked. "And that's the part that bugs you the most," she said. "Look, if Tina Cohen-Wilde-Chang goes and gets herself knocked up with Hunter, I'm sure I'll go ballistic too, and you can drive me home."

Artie paused. A small laugh escaped. "Tina Cohen-Wilde-Chang?" More laughter ensued. "Did you just make that up, on the spot? That's good."

Kitty was grinning. "Yeah, and it got you to laugh, too." She pulled up in her driveway. "Listen. You look like you're not ready to go back home just yet. My dad always orders way too much Chinese. You can come in and split chicken fried rice with me, how's that sound?"

Artie furrowed his brow. "Wait, I thought that excuse about your dad was just to give me a way to leave."

"Uh, no," she said. "We really ordered Chinese. Like, every Saturday night. It's kind of pathetic. And I actually did forget."

Artie laughed. "What's Ryder say about that?"

Kitty turned off the ignition and kindly reached for his hand controls again, in order to put them back on for Artie so they'd be ready for when he drove home. "Oh, uh," she began. "That's, um, that's over. We're still friends and, I mean, and he still wants to go to prom as friends but..." Kitty shrugged. "I may or may not have avoided telling you because I didn't want it to be weird, what with us working together."

Artie got busy with retrieving his wheels from the back so that he wouldn't have to look right at her. His heart was pounding again, just like it had when he'd stormed out of his house, but for an entirely different reason.

"It-it doesn't have to be weird," Artie said, because if everyone else could run around, spouting off lie after lie, so could he.

As if that wasn't strange enough, Kitty's oldest brothers, the twins, Logan and Collin, had come for a quick visit. They greeted Artie like a long-lost brother, as Logan quickly made a space for him at the table and Collin handed him a plate.

The twins lived together, just outside of Columbus. Had Artie and Kitty not broken it off shortly after college began, the original plan had been for Kitty to stay with her brothers anytime she visited. Of course, it never did happen, because they broke up and thus, she had no reason to visit.

"Artie got some crazy news tonight," Kitty shared, while they were all gathered around the table with her dad. Artie could care less now, if she told them. He just nodded, as she elaborated. "His best friend and roommate got his sister pregnant."

"Hang on," Logan said, jumping up. "Let me get Artie a drink. Sounds like quite a night, bro."

"He's five years younger than her," Artie added. "She's twenty-three, he's eighteen and still in college. He's younger than me. She's got a job, he... I don't know, he models sometimes but usually he just eats my food..."

He didn't know why, but he stopped rambling long enough to look down and finally notice that he had a text from Sam. Please forgive me man.

"Maybe... maybe I need to go," he said, suddenly, pushing his plate back. "Sorry, thank you for the offer of dinner and a place to hide out. But think I need to get back and talk with them. My sister's probably been crying her eyes out after the way I stormed out of there..."

"I'll walk you out," Kitty said.

It was starting to get dark, and it was cold. Artie realized he'd rushed out so fast that he'd forgotten a jacket. Kitty ran back inside and grabbed hers. "Here," she said. "You... you can just drop it by tomorrow. I know you're not supposed to let yourself get cold..."

It was her letterman jacket. "Isn't the guy supposed to give the girl these things?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I guess," she said, hanging back and hugging herself now, to stay warm, since she had no jacket. He felt weird but wore it all the same. It was cold enough that his top half had started to shiver. She watched him dismantle his chair again and slide into the driver's seat.

"Thanks for looking out for me," he said, as he was about to shut the door and drive off. "You're a good friend, Kitty."

"Good luck," she said. "Remember, that's a new little person in her stomach. It would serve you well not to forget that part, okay?"

As much as Artie didn't want to admit it, she was right. He tried to imagine Sam with a baby, though, and couldn't. He couldn't even really imagine Sam with a dog. Then again, he was amazing with Stacey and Stevie. He'd even supported his family, when times were hard, even if it did involve some lap dances for old women...

He got home to find that everyone had finished their chili, and they were all gathered in the living room. Everyone, that was, except for Amy and Sam. They'd gone upstairs. Artie managed to slip in unnoticed, which was not an easy thing to do, in a chair.

He commenced with the art of lowering himself to the floor and scooting along upstairs, dragging himself up. "Hope you're both decent," he called. "I'm coming up there. Very sloooooowly."

Amy looked over from where she'd been tucked against Sam on the couch, her face puffy and eyes red from crying. Sam looked up, too, his eyes full of remorse and maybe a little bit of fear. Not that there was anything to fear, really, from a guy who was scooting towards a couch on his butt. But, now that Artie's initial outrage had worn off, he softened a bit towards Sam.

Only a little. And only because Amy had been crying. A lot, from the looks of it.

Artie stayed on the floor, for they looked kind of cozy on the couch, and he was weirdly supportive of that. Now that they were pregnant, he supposed he needed to root for them.

He grabbed a few pillows for support. "So," he began. "Now that we're done keeping secrets, I have a few questions."

"Are you also going to ask us if we're getting married?" Amy countered, and was it Artie's imagination, or did Sam look a little hurt by that?

"Well, that wasn't my first question," Artie replied. He looked at Sam. "My first question is, are you planning on raising a baby in a dorm room? Because I only signed up to have one roommate."

Sam just looked annoyed by the joke, but since he probably didn't want to try Artie's patience, he just answered as though it had been a serious question.

"I'd like to rent a house or an apartment with her," he said. "Maybe starting this summer, right before the baby's born. Your mom is trying to convince us to live here and save money, though. I guess we have a few things to talk about."

"I guess you do," Artie countered. He paused. "Well, and I guess that means you're dropping out and our dorm days are just about done. It was fun while it lasted."

"He's not dropping out," Amy fired back. "He's going to finish this semester at OSU and then finish his associate's degree in community college. And then he's going to become a physical therapy assistant and, eventually, a physical therapist."

Artie lowered his eyes. He bit back the urge to lash out at Amy with the same snippy tone she'd just used with him, but then he remembered what Kitty had said.

That's a new little person in her stomach. It would serve you well not to forget that part.

"So, question two, when's this baby due?"

"August," Amy said.

"August," Artie repeated, looking between them both, still trying to process the idea of them as parents by August. He couldn't imagine it.

"Hopefully you'll be recovered from your back surgery by then," Sam added.

Artie had nearly forgotten about that, mostly because he tried to put off thinking about it as much as he could. He pressed his lips together in a tight line and nodded.

"Can you find it in yourself to be happy for us?" Amy wanted to know. "Because I don't think I could find a better guy than Sam Evans."

Artie felt himself truly soften inside as she said that. "I don't think you could either," he teased, and she reached for him with her sock-clad toe and gave his shoulder a playful nudge. He scooted a bit closer, as she lowered herself to the floor, to hug him firmly around his shoulders.

"Can you do me one favor?" he asked, giving Sam a serious expression.

Sam nodded. "Anything."

"Don't," Artie said. "Name this kid after a grandparent or great-grandparent or what have you. Nobody needs to go through life with an old-person name. Take it from me, and Mary, and Dwight."

Sam looked relieved that it seemed like he was allowed to laugh now. "Deal," he said.

"Artie," Amy said, looking curiously at him. "Uh, I have a question for you. Is that... Kitty's jacket?"