The one that mattered most

Looking at the peaceful, sleeping face of the beautiful two-year old child made Rachel smile. She softly caressed his dark blonde hair and placed a light kiss on his forehead.

"Sleep well my little prince", she whispered. She left the door slightly open and went to the living room, where her husband was sitting. When he heard her entering the room, he looked up to her.

"Is he finally sleeping?" He asked, letting her hear a slightly annoyed undertone in his voice.

"Yes he is asleep. Is something bothering you, Jesse?" Rachel said, taking a seat next to him.

Jesse took a deep breath, slightly shaking his head. "It's fine Rachel, I am heading to bed."

She knew he wasn't alright, they weren't alright.

When they got married almost four years ago she had been genuinely happy. She thought she had finally found her piece of happiness. Jesse understood her, he knew they way she was ticking. They both were so similar in their personalities, that being with Jesse was easy. Easy - that was really what it was. It was when she decided to become a surrogate for Kurt and Blaine, it wasn't easy anymore. Jesse wanted to have children himself, he wanted to have children with Rachel and he wasn't fond of the idea of her being a surrogate. Jesse, however did respect Rachel's choice and tried to be happy for Kurt and Blaine. It was only when Rachel gave birth and she wanted to be a part of that little boys life, that easy became complicated.

The three of them, the three being Rachel, Kurt and Blaine, decided to share custody for their baby. For the first few weeks they were inseparable and spending as much time as possible together. It hadn't even taken four weeks until Kurt and Blaine bought the house next door from Jesse and Rachel and moved. Since the little boy had been born Jesse felt left out. He wanted to start his own family with Rachel, he didn't want his wife's and someone else's child.

It had taken Rachel months until she realized that Jesse wasn't happy. She had been in such a wonderful place with her odd family situation, that she became oblivious to her husband's worries. She had tried to make it up to Jesse and they had started to plan their own children, but even after almost two years Rachel was still not pregnant again. With the time passing the rift between Jesse and Rachel became bigger, but they never talked about it. It was like the big elephant in the room, everybody seemed to ignore.

The mood between Jesse and Rachel always seem to worsen, whenever her son came to visit.

Rachel let out a deep sigh. She didn't know what to do anymore. Once Jesse was so ideal for her, so easy to live and deal with, but now it wasn't easy anymore. Now it was just difficult.

After a while sulking by herself, Rachel decided to go to sleep as well. She quickly changed in to a tank top and some pyjama shorts and followed her daily facial cleaning routine, before slipping under the blankets next to Jesse.

"Hey", he whispered, when he felt the bed shift.

"Hey", she softly said, "you are still up?"

"Yeah." He was lying on his stomach, turning his face towards her. He placed his hand on her cheek and softly stroke it with his thumb. He moved closer to her, pressing a kiss onto her lips. She smiled softly. Jesse robbed closer to his wife, his hand wandering to her waist. His lips pressing kisses on her neck. She felt his fingers playing with the hem of her top until they went underneath and caressed her stomach. When she felt his hand on her breast, she slightly pushed him away.

"Jesse stop. Dalton is next door." She pushed his hand from her and then turned his back to Jesse.

"I am going to sleep Jesse. Good night." She could hear her husband sigh. She knew he was frustrated, but they wouldn't talk about it - they never did. They always avoided conflict.

It must had been the middle of the night, when Rachel woke up from a whimpering noise coming from the baby monitor next to her bed. She quickly got up and went into her son's room. Dalton was sitting in the middle of his baby bed, clutching his stuffed rabbit close to him. Tears in his eyes he was looking to Rachel, when she entered the room.

"Mommy..." he whimpered, reaching out one of his arms towards her.

"Hello baby, what is wrong?" She said, taking him out of the bed and hugging him tightly. She pressed a kiss on his hair, while she was softly rocking him in her arms.

"monster..." He mumbled into her shoulder.

"A monster? Do you want mommy to look if there is a monster in your room, baby?" Rachel asked her son softly. Dalton shook his head forcefully. "No. Sleep with mommy." He said instead. Rachel chuckled softly.

"Okay, you can sleep in mommy's bed tonight." She carefully caressed her sons back, while slowly walking to her bedroom. She carefully lay down onto the bed with her son and they soon fell into a deep slumber.

It had been the late afternoon of the next day, when Blaine came to pick up Dalton.

"Dada!" Dalton yelled in delighted surprised and ran towards Blaine.

"Hey buddy! I missed you" Blaine said, taking Dalton in his arms and spinning him around. "Hey Rach!" He kissed her on the cheek, after he carefully put Dalton down again.

"Blaine, come on in! Where is Kurt?" She asked.

"He is still in Lima", Blaine replied. He and Kurt had been in Lima for the weekend, while Dalton stayed with Rachel and Jesse. The visit was no happy occasion, so they decided to leave Dalton at home.

"Oh, how are Carol and Burt? Are they okay?" Rachel asked, knowing that Kurt must had stayed back for their sake. It was Finn's death anniversary and Carol still suffered from the loss of her son. Rachel had loved Finn once, in fact a part of her still loved the handsome quarterback, who she wanted to marry all those years back. At first she had felt bad for trying to move on, but eventually she did. It was Sam who had helped her, who had healed her heart. Sam was the one, who was approved by Carol and Burt. Sam was the one who had mended her broken heart. Sam was not here. She had left him for the sake of going to New York and Jesse.

"Burt is fine. The doctors are happy with him, very much to Kurt's relief. Carol.. well you know how she is. She still suffers a lot during the days around Finn's anniversary. Kurt said he wanted to spent some mother son quality time with her. He will be back the day after tomorrow."

"That's nice of him. They always had a good relationship and I am sure she will be happy to have some time with him. It will be good for her, keeps her mind away from Finn."

"Absolutely. She was however sad Dalton didn't join, but she understood." Blaine said. "Next time you will join us buddy, right?" Blaine looked at his son, who was very interested into playing with his lego.

"He is in his zone." Rachel chuckled looking at her son.

"That he is!" Blaine said.

They were observing their son for awhile, when Blaine looked at Rachel again.

"So, where is that husband of yours, Rachel?"

"Jesse? He went out to meet some people for his new project. Since Jane Austen Sings just had its last performance, he is throwing himself back into work." She said.

"Oh really? I thought the musical was being picked up in Chicago and London?" Blaine said crouching his eyebrows.

"Yes, but he is not producing those. He is involved as advisor, but he is working on his own new projects."

"So do you have any new projects coming up? Or are you enjoying a short break from Broadway?" Blaine said, knowing that Rachel Berry could never really take a break from Broadway.

"Well to be honest Blaine, I am going to take a short break from Broadway. Jesse and I were trying for a baby for a while now, as you know. I think it just didn't work out, because we were both so busy with work. So I was speaking to Carmen the other day..." Rachel started.

"Carmen? As in Carmen Tibideaux?" Blaine interrupted surprised.

"That's the one!" Rachel replied. "Well I was speaking to her and she offered me to co supervise a vocal class at NYADA. I figured that would be a good way to have a little bit more time with Jesse, while still keeping my voice in perfect condition."

"That is amazing Rachel! Congratulations, I am so happy for you!" Blaine replied, hugging her.

"Thank you. I didn't accept yet though. I wanted to discuss it with Jesse first. Also I wanted to take some time off and visit my fathers. There is so much I want to do, since I have some time now. I love Broadway, but it can be exhausting." Rachel Berry did indeed love Broadway, that is where her heart was, but it was a hard business. She had too little time and too many responsibilities, especially now with her son.

"Well whatever your choice is, Kurt and I will always support you. You know that right?"

"Thank you Blaine!"

Blaine had stayed for dinner, as he was tired from his trip and didn't feel like cooking anymore. Jesse was staying out late, so the two friends shared a friendly dinner with their son.

When Blaine had left, he intended to bring his son to bed and relax on the sofa with a good glass of wine. It was when Dalton had fallen asleep and Blaine was watching him, that he couldn't ignore the little voice in his head anymore. He had this feeling for some time now and yesterday he felt almost confirmed in his suspicion. Blaine let out a deep sigh, caressed the dark blonde hair of his son and left the room. His son, Dalton Samuel Anderson-Hummel, was the most beautiful creature to him. When Rachel decided to become a surrogate for them, they didn't know who's sperm would father their child, but now Blaine wasn't sure if neither him or Kurt had fathered their child.

Neither of them had dark blonde hair or green eyes, nor his most prominent feature: his full lips.

Blaine took a deep breath and sat down onto the sofa, taking out his mobile phone.

He dialled a very familiar number and listened to the familiar ring.

"Blaine? What's up? Did you had a good flight home?" The voice at the other end answered.

"Hey, yes thanks. I was wanting to ask you for a favour."

"Sure, what can I do for you?"

"Could you send me that picture of you, when you were little? The one that I saw today? I am working on a project of how people looked now and then." Blaine said.

"Uhm sure. Wait, I'll just make a photo and app it to you in a second!"

"Great, thank you!" Blaine said and hung up. It took only a couple of seconds until his phone vibrated and he received the picture he had asked for.

The picture he saw, was a picture of his friend - he knew that - but if he wouldn't have known that, he could have sworn that it was a picture of his son.