Coalesce.

“Daddy!” Pepper yells from her place on the floor when Sam pushes open the door to their apartment. The blonde laughs, scoops up the little girl with a soft smile on his face.

“Hey, Pep.” He says, resting her deftly on his hip with a technique he’s perfected over the last five years. The girl laughs, nestling herself against her father’s shoulder.

“You still have to show me how you do that.” Santana laughs absently from the other side of the room where she stands cradling a baby girl against her chest.

“Isn’t Alba still a little young for that?” Sam smirks, walking over to her and shifting Pepper on his hip. “She already looks like you.”

“Yeah, except she has your stupid eyes.” She rolls her eyes at the blonde and the baby in her arms gurgles.

“Hey, you and Britt wanted my DNA. You could’ve asked Rory.” Sam pretends to huff and looks away from her, kissing the top of Pepper’s head.

“Shut up.” She laughs, scooping up the baby bag at her feet and heading towards the door. “You’re one of my oldest friends, if anyone was fathering my test tube baby, it was going to be you. I think Britt wants to ask Rory when it comes to having hers, though.”

“Britt wants to ask Rory what?” The brunette in question leans around the doorframe, Irish accent still thick even after years of living in the states. Sam and Santana exchange a quick glance.

“Oh, nothing.” Santana covers quickly, rocking Alba slightly as she starts to whimper. “I’d better head home. Alba’s getting restless.”

She leans up and presses a kiss to Sam’s cheek, kisses Pepper on the forehead before disappearing past Rory and into the elevator at the end of the hall.

“What’s going on?” Rory frowns as Sam passes him and heads for the stairs.

“Oh, nothing. San was just babysitting Pep today.” He sets her down on the floor and she straightens her dress, giving him a disdainful look that he’s sure Santana must’ve taught her. She reaches up and grabs Rory’s hand.

“Rory.” She says, dragging out the second ‘r’ sound in his name. He laughs. “Are you coming for smoothies with me and Daddy?”

Rory looks at Sam, and the blonde nods, starting to walk down the stairs.

“Yeah, I am. Then I have to go back to your dad’s shop and arrange a few stacks of special edition hardcover copies of the new Marvel release that your daddy was too lazy to do.” He pinches her cheek and is swiftly pulled down the stairs. Sam just shakes his head and laughs fondly at his best friend and his daughter.

They reach their usual coffee shop after a five minute walk around the block, and Rory takes Pepper to a table while Sam heads up to order.

The girl that usually serves him, Rachel, isn’t around. Sam frowns a little, because he kind of wanted to know how her audition for Wicked went. She’s very talkative, Sam has learned in the three years he’s been coming here. He knows all about her husband Finn, who she has been with since high school, the off-Broadway productions she’s been starring in since she graduated from NYADA, her best friend and step-brother-in-law Kurt and her two gay dads. She apparently thinks they talk enough to give him her number, since the other month she wrote it on the side of his latte cup.

“Can I get you anything?” The man behind the counter smiles at him, smoothing back his perfectly groomed brown hair. He’s tall and slim, bright blue-green eyes sparkling slightly as he smiles. There’s a name tag pinned on his chest that says ‘Kurt’ in neat cursive.

“Er, yeah. One medium latte, one medium cappuccino and a small summer fruit smoothie, please.”

“Coming right up.” Kurt smiles, noting down the order and ringing it through the checkout. “Five dollars and forty two cents, please.”

Sam hands over the ten dollar bill he already had in his hand and smiles at him.

“So you’re the famous Kurt, then?” Sam asks, after he’s looked behind him to make sure he isn’t holding up a line. The brunette looks up at him as he pins the order to the coffee machine.

“What?” He looks away from the blonde as a dark haired girl wearing glasses starts up the machine to make Sam’s coffee order.

“Rachel. She talks about you a lot.”

“Oh, God, she doesn’t, does she?” Kurt looks embarrassed. “I hope it’s all good.”

“Yeah. Where is she, by the way? She said she’d tell me how her Wicked audition went and she hasn’t texted me yet.”

“She’s at rehearsals. She got Elphaba.” Kurt smiles almost proudly, and Sam smiles back. “Wait, that means you must be Sam, right?”

The blonde nods.

“So you’re the chivalrous single father who’s always in here with his... Friend. Rachel talks about you sometimes. You’re the only person who lets her talk for hours on end.” Kurt laughs playfully, glancing at Rory in the far corner of the coffee shop.

“What do you mean, friend? Rory?” Sam frowns, following Kurt’s gaze to where Rory is helping Pepper draw something in his sketchbook. “He works for me. We’ve known each other for years. He’s practically Pepper’s uncle.”

“Wait, you called your kid Pepper? What kind of a name is that?”

“Dude, did you never read the Iron Man comics? I named her after Pepper Potts. She’s awesome!” Sam replies with an almost shy grin.

“No, Sam, I have never read the Iron Man comics. Do I really look like the type? I daresay my step-brother has, though.”

“Your step-brother likes comics?”

“He is an accountant. Let the man have one pleasure in his life.” Kurt laughs playfully, grabbing the smoothie cup that his co-worker had just deposited next to him.

“Well, I run the comic store a few blocks away from here, tell-”

“Evans’ Comic Emporium? That’s yours?” Kurt asks, sticking a plastic straw into the smoothie cup and popping the dome lid on. “I’ve been in to buy Finn birthday presents before. I don’t remember seeing you, though.”

“I was probably looking after Pepper. Rory’s usually around, though. You’ll have to stop by.” Sam smiles shyly and he can feel his cheeks burning harder than they have since high school.

Kurt pushes two mugs on a small, circular tray over to him, setting the smoothie in the small remaining gap.

“I think I will.” Kurt smiles, handing Sam the tray. “It was nice to meet you.”

“Yeah. You too.”

Sam stumbles his way over to Rory and Pepper, sets the tray down and slumps into the chair opposite Rory.

“Daddy, look! Rory helped me draw Steve!” Pepper says proudly, picking up Rory’s pocket sketchbook and showing off a pretty detailed drawing of Captain America, shield and all.

“That’s good, sweetie.” Sam replies with a smile, kissing her on the top of her head and handing her the smoothie she wanted.

“Sam,” Rory asks as he passes him his latte, “what’s this?”

He’s holding the order slip Kurt had written their drinks on earlier, except now, written on the back is what looks to be his cell phone number, and the phrase ‘maybe you could teach me about Iron Man?’ written in thick, black cursive.

“Er, that would be a phone number.” Sam blushes and stares into his coffee, suddenly finding the swirl of cream very interesting.

“No shit, Sherlock. Whose phone number?” Rory presses. Sam eyes Pepper warily, but she is stirring her smoothie happily.

Sam chances a look over at the counter, and Kurt catches his eye and smiles at him, waving slightly with one hand. Sam smiles back, and Rory turns in his seat to look at Kurt.

“Well then.” Rory laughs. “You’ve pulled.”

Sam leans across the table to hit him.

The door of the shop opens then, and two people enter, chatting excitedly. One of them is a guy in a wheelchair, who is rolling the wheels with one hand whilst the other holds the hand of a small, dark-skinned girl.

“Mercedes!” Kurt shouts, grinning at the two of them as they walk over. Sam watches them from the corner of his eye.

“Hey, boo.” She leans over the counter to hug him. “Artie and I have some news for you.”

“All good, I hope.”

Mercedes doesn’t say anything, just rests her left hand on the counter top and grins at him. Kurt frowns at her for a second until he notices she’s wearing a ring.

“You’re engaged? Congratulations!”

Sam looks at the guy in the wheelchair, Artie, for a long moment, until he realizes that he’s seen the guy in the store before. He remembers the ‘discussion’ (perhaps argument might be a better word, he thinks) he had with him last month about whether DC is better than Marvel –which, for the record, he won. DC sucks.

“Yes! He asked me when we went out last night to that restaurant a few blocks from our apartment that he knows I love and it was perfect!” She exclaims excitedly, leaning down to kiss Artie. He blushes.

“You’re staring.” Rory comments offhandedly as he passes Pepper a dark blue marker. “It’s weird, stop it.”

Sam jumps, shakes his head and drinks what’s left of his coffee.

“Shut up. I’ll listen to you when a girl gives you her number in a coffee shop.” Sam replies indignantly, his lips quirking up into a smirk as he watches Kurt talk animatedly to his friends. Rory rolls his eyes and leans over to help Pepper colour in some of the smaller shapes.

Fifteen minutes later, Artie and Mercedes have settled into seats around a table a few feet away from Sam and Rory, so when Rory loudly mentions that he’s leaving to go and set up that Black Widow standee that came in earlier and stack up those new Marvel books, Artie overhears them.

“Wait, you have those in stock?” He asks, a little too excitedly for someone his age.

“Yeah, they just came in today.” Sam says, picking up the slip of paper with Kurt’s number on it and tucking it into his pocket.

“Oh, awesome. I’ll have to come in tomorrow and get one.”

“We can reserve you a copy, if you’d like.”

“Sure, okay. Do you need any details?”

Sam plucks a business card from his shirt pocket (even he has to admit it’s horribly nerdy –there’s a faded superhero on one side that he designed some time last year, with his name and details on the other side and the words ‘Artist and Designer available for commissions’ underneath it) and hands it to Artie, along with a black pen.

“Just your name and contact number, please.”

Artie starts writing, and Sam looks up to see Rory and Mercedes chatting to each other, while Pepper colours in with her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth.

“Thanks.” Artie smiles at him as he hands back the card, and Sam tucks it into his pocket and taps Pepper on the shoulder to get her attention.

“Come on, sweetie. Uncle Rory has to go to the shop and you have some schoolwork to do.”

“But Dad.” She whines, dragging out the ‘a’ sound, and yeah, she’s definitely his daughter.

“No buts, Pep. You’ll have all day to draw with Rory tomorrow, it’s Saturday. If you finish your work tonight, you can come to the store with me all day.”

“Fine.” She sighs begrudgingly, tugging herself up on to her feet and holding out her arms. Sam laughs at her and scoops her up, resting her against his hip and poking her on the nose.

“Good girl. Now say goodbye to Rory.”

She waves exuberantly at the Irishman, and he laughs, kissing her on the top of the head.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Pepper. You too, Sam.”

The blonde smiles, hugs his friend and waves as he leaves for the car. Rory mutters something along the lines of ‘if I didn’t know you liked guys I’d be concerned’ under his breath. Sam laughs, rolls his eyes and disappears out of the door.

An hour or two later, after he has spent some time getting to know Artie and Mercedes (they’ve been dating since college, he’s working in accounting with Kurt’s brother, she’s working in fashion design with her friend Tina, who he apparently just has to meet because she’s adorable, among a million other things) and exchanged phone numbers, Rory is just about to get up and head for the shop when Kurt comes dashing over. His shift must be over, or something, Rory guesses.

“You’re Rory, right? Sam’s friend?”

“Er, yeah, why?”

“I think I need your help.”

“What with? If it’s Sam, then you met the guy, what, two hours ago? I’m sure you’re fine.”

“Well, it is about Sam, but it’s just... A few questions, I guess.”

“No offence, but wouldn’t you be better off asking him?” Rory deadpans, frowning slightly.

“I would’ve done that, but there’s no socially acceptable way to just go ‘where’s her mother’, now is there?” Kurt almost snaps at the other man, but he bites at his lower lip and looks at the floor.

“Look, I’ll tell you what I tell everyone else who asks. Yes, she is his. No, he is not in a relationship with her mother, or anyone else. He hasn’t heard from her in years. Yes, he has full custody. Yes, he likes women too. Does that about cover it?”

Kurt gapes at him for a moment before shaking his head.

“I-I’m sorry, I’m just... Not very good with relationships, I guess.” Kurt admits sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and flushing pink. “I don’t want to accidentally offend him, or anything.”

“Trust me; it’s pretty hard to offend Sam. He’s kind of like a kid, just with a better attention span. If you ever upset him, he’ll have forgotten or forgiven you within two days.” Rory laughs gently, pulling his jacket closed.

“Okay. Thanks.” Kurt smiles gently, but Rory can still tell he’s nervous.

“Oh, Kurt?” He says suddenly when he’s halfway out of the door. “If you remember anything I’ve said, remember this; please be careful with him.”

Kurt nods; Rory smiles and disappears through the door, the bell attached to the hinge tinkling quietly.

Kurt’s shoulders sag as he sighs and looks at his cell phone to see if Sam has texted him yet.