Moving On

Meeting the Glee Club

            Two days later found Kurt running around trying to finish cleaning before everyone arrived.

            "Babe, relax," Noah said as he adjusted the mask on Maisie's face. "It's clean."

            "Not clean enough," Kurt said, "I was supposed to have an extra two days to do this!"

            "Sorry," Shane said sadly from his spot on the couch. They had gotten home late last night and decided it would be easier and more comfortable to set the boy up on the couch rather than carrying him up and down the stairs.

            "Oh, no, that's not what I meant," Kurt said immediately, kissing the boy's head. "Besides, I suppose there's not much point in cleaning is there? Mia and the boys are like a hurricane."

            Noah laughed at that, knowing it was true, just as the doorbell rang. Noah and Kurt looked at each other before looking at the kids.

            "You guys ready?" Kurt asked an, despite looking slightly frightened, both of them nodded. Both men took a deep breath and then went to open the door. There stood Carole, Finn, Rachel, Mia, Patrick, Ian, and Christopher.

            "Boys!" Carole exclaimed, hugging them both tightly, "How are you? We're not early are we?"

            "No, no, you're right on time," Kurt smiled, "And we're good."

            "The others are on their way, Sam texted a few minutes ago and their plane just landed," Finn said, hugging his brother.

            "Where are they?" Mia asked excitedly, "Are they here?"

            "Yes they're here," Kurt smiled down at her, "But they're a little nervous about meeting everyone so don't go bouncing off the walls, okay?"

            The three kids nodded and Kurt and Noah led everyone down the hall. The two men walked over to the kids on the couch.

            "This is Shane and Maisie," Kurt said, turning to look at his family and noticing they all looked slightly shocked. Carole shook herself out of it first.

            "Hi there," she said, walking over and crouching in front of the couch. "I'm Carole, Kurt's step-mom."

            "Does that make you our grandma?" Maisie asked and Carole smiled.

            "I guess it does," she said, "Are you okay with that?" Both children nodded slowly and Maisie reached forward to hug her just like she had with Kurt. This seemed to snap everyone else out of their trance and they all surged forward to meet the children.

            "What's wrong with your leg?" Patrick asked.

            "Patrick!" Carole hissed and the boy looked up, eyes wide.

            "It's okay," Kurt said, "Shane had a bit of an accident a couple days ago so he has to keep the casts on until he's better."

            "What happened?" Rachel asked.

            "I slipped on the stairs," Shane said.

            "Oh," Rachel said quietly, but before anyone could say any more, the doorbell rang again.

            "I'll get it," Kurt said, walking back down the hall.

            Shane tugged on Noah's arm and the man bent down.

            "There's more people?" he asked quietly.

            "Yeah bud, you okay with that?" Noah asked and the boy nodded, biting his lip. "Alright, if it's too much though, just tell one of us, okay?" Shane nodded again.

            "Where are they? Where are they?" A voice drifted down the hall as Kurt led the Glee Club into the room.

            "Everyone, this is Shane and Maisie." The group stared at the children for a moment until the kids look up at Noah.

            "Alright," he said, "Uh, have a seat, talk to each, these two aren't going anywhere so you can all relax."

            Shane and Maisie both looked relieved when everyone did exactly that and began speaking to each other and moving around.

            Over the course of the day, Kurt and Noah stayed close to their kids and introduced them to each member of the Glee Club.

            "This is Mercedes..."

            "Sam..."

            "Brittany and Santana..."

            "It's okay if you don't remember all their names right away," Noah whispered, "Trust me, it took years before I even remembered your dad's name."

            "Hey!" Kurt said indignantly as Shane and Maisie laughed. Kurt rolled his eyes and looked around the room, noticing Carole standing in the entrance to the kitchen. She gestured for him to come over.

            "I'll be right back," he said and walked over to her.

            "Everything okay?" he asked.

            "Yes, everything's fine," she nodded and then smiled. "They're wonderful Kurt. I mean, it's only been a week and they already seem to comfortable here."

            "Well that's nice to hear," Kurt replied, "We've been trying to make sure they know this is their home now. Maisie seemed comfortable right away, a little wary at first, but then she was fine. Shane was a bit harder, but after he fell... I think he's coming around, but we both know it'll still take some time."

            "Well, I supposed his hesitation is to be expected," Carols said, "He's a bit older and after being in various homes it's probably a bit harder for him to settle."

            "The doctor said his OI will probably affect how quickly he settles in too," Kurt said Carole looked at him questioningly.

            "What do you mean?"

            "Well, when they're babies and toddlers and they get a break, you can't explain it to them," Kurt explained, "For them, all they know is that someone picked them up and they got hurt. Shane's doctor told us it can make it so that when kids with OI get older they have a bit of harder time around new people and in new situations because they associate those things with getting hurt."

            "Makes sense," Carole said sadly, "You and Noah... you've  really done your research on this stuff, haven't you?"

            "Of course," Kurt said, "Neither of us had ever heard of OI or BDA until we met Shane and Maisie. before we even knew the adoption was 100% going ahead we looked them up. We needed to be ready for whatever might happen and to do that we needed to know as much as we could about both things."

            "Well, that's good," Carole said, "You may need to explain them to me a bit more though."

            "Once the kids go to bed we plan to answer any questions you all have," Kurt tol her and then his expression grew serious. "We didn't jump into this headfirst. We thought hard and talked about it. We know it's not going to be easy, but neither of us can imagine anything different now. Waking up in the morning and having them there... it's the greatest thing in the world."

Alright, the kids have met the Glee Club!

 

Next chapter is going to be a bit of info dump as it's going to be Kurt and Noah explaining OI and BDA to the Glee Club.

 

Thanks so much for reading and let me know what you think!