He knew this was completely dangerous. The technology for time travel had its glitches. But he had to do it—he had to know why he almost never came to be. It was something neither his mother nor father ever held an interest in talking about. "It doesn't matter now, baby—what matters is that we did find our way back to each other." That was always his mom's response. "It's all in the past, Son," his dad would always say, without giving indication as to when that other day would come. His fears of time travel were eased by the fact that his friends, Rory and Sugar would already be there, so maybe they would be able help him out before they all returned to the present together. Just as long as all three of them remembered to erase their parents' memories of them before they returned, then they should all be okay.

With a duffle bag-full of clothes, toiletries, money, a few helpful devices from his time and a folded photo of his family, he stepped up to the bulky, metallic machine. After finding the keypad, he dialed in the month of February, the year 2012 and finally, the location: Lima, Ohio. After punching "enter", he heard the machine begin to give its warning beeps while a whirring noise started to crescendo beneath his feet. His hazel green eyes looked around the interior of the box as he stepped inside of it, clenched his jaw and took a few deep breaths while waiting for that uncontrollable yanking feeling his friends would always describe to him.

Beep, beep, beeeeeep!

In a flash, he vanished from the inner chambers of the machine. The descriptions of what time travel felt like was nothing compared to the actual experience. An invisible cluster of strong hands yanked at your every appendage, forcing the air out of your lungs while pulling you rapidly into the past. And just when the feeling of breathlessness started bearing down on him, his feet slammed down on the hard, compacted earth. He lost his balance from the landing and stumbled forward—gaining no favors from the bulky duffle at his hip—but just before he could fall, he instinctively stuck out his hand. To his relief, his hand pressed against something oddly soft and fleshy like, yet it was firm enough to keep him standing. Next, he lowered his hand away and looked up to see what, or who had broken his fall.

Almost immediately, blood rushed up to his cheeks and ears. He was staring down at the mortified face of none other than his mother, Mercedes Jones. He absolutely dreaded the thought of just where his hand had previously been. Gauging the disrespected look on her face, he had some idea of what to expect next.

"…Do I need to tell you how rude that was?" she asked in a sharp tone that was all too familiar to him.

He definitely hadn't prepared to run into anyone familiar so soon, and it showed as he stammered for a response. "Uh…I-uh… didn't mean to?"

Mercedes put her hands on her hips while arching an incredulous brow at him.

"Really! I didn't," he said in a tone that begged for her to believe him. While he stared nervously, his eyes were also taking in his mom's youthful appearance. He had seen plenty of pictures of her in her high school year book, as well as some photos of her after she had graduated but it was an entirely different thing to be standing less than two feet away from her eighteen year-old self. His eyes squinted but his features quickly smoothed out into a smile when he noticed that she had a stud in her nose. It reminded him of a conversation—or rather, an argument—he had with her about him wanting to get his own nose pierced.

"You know, I might not be the most popular girl in school but I'm pretty sure I've never seen you around here before. Are you new?"

"What?" Joe asked, drawing himself back to the present. Or rather, the current. "Oh, yeah this is my first day here. I'm Joe Ev—" catching himself, he whipped his head to the side and faked a few coughs. "Sorry. Um I'm Joe…" His eye darted around the surrounding area in search of a possible last name to cover with. Lamp? No. School? No. Hurry up; she's staring at you like you're crazy again!

"Hart! I'm Joe Hart," he re-extending his hand out to her. Thank goodness for all the V-Day stuff.

She warily accepted, "Mercedes Jones. Anyway, you should really be more careful. "

As she started to walk away, towards the school's entrance, Joe looked around to see if he might catch any other familiar faces. He didn't want to stray too far from his mom, but he also didn't want to scare her by stalking her. Other McKinley students were heading inside as well, so he figured following her in this case wouldn't hurt.

After passing through the threshold, his eyes were restless. High school in 2012 was…odd. There was so much paper on the walls and the lockers were huge. At his high school, locker bays were more like cubbies and any announcements made to the student body were displayed digitally, or sent directly to the student and staff's smartphones. Still, he admired the vintage look, meshed with all the red, pink and white Valentine's Day décor. It was one of the greatest holidays to celebrate, as far as he was concerned and girlfriend or not, he always found a way to spread the love.

In the midst of basking in wonder, Joe ran into yet another person.

"Oh, sorry I—oh my God!"

His dark green eyes widened at the sight of his friend, Sugar Pierce-Lopez, completely decked out in an outfit that screamed Valentine's Day—from the bow in her head, right down to her stockings and shoes.

"Sugar! Ah man it's so good to see a familiar face!"

"What are you doing here!" she hissed, seizing him by the arm to steer him away from the crowded hall. "You, me and Rory all in the same place? Ugh—I already told him to get lost but he's too caught up like a kid in a candy store, watching his dads be the next Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka!"

"Whoa," Joe put a hand up, "You and Rory came back here to be flies on a wall. I came back for a real purpose."

"I know, I know but…geeze, I thought you were gonna wait until one of us got back though, so it wouldn't seem suspicious. One of our parents is bound to notice, or our hologram selves will give one of us away and then we're all screwed!"

"Hey Sugar!"

Sugar and Joe turned to see who hailed the tiny brunette. For the second time already, he was seeing his mom. She was smiling brightly but her smile faded at the sight of Joe. He offered a crooked smile in return, however.

"I see you met the new kid too."

"Huh?" replied Sugar until Joe nudged her. "Oh, right! Yeah, Mercedes this is Joe…"

"Hart," the diva finished. "I remember. Anyway, Sam and I are welcoming Quinn back to the God Squad today so the Troubletones will meet after school instead to rehearse our number for Regionals."

"The God Squad?" Joe perked up curiously."

Sugar beat Mercedes to answering, "It's a Bible club."

"Noooot exactly," interjected Mercedes with a friendly smile. "We used to have a celibacy club at school but…it was kind of a joke to a lot of people and I didn't want my faith to be represented as a joke, so I talked to the counselor, Ms. Pillsbury about re-vamping it with a friend of mine. And now we're the God Squad."

"Mercedes is the president," Sugar whispered loudly and directly to Joe. She gave a subtle wink and then jolted over to wrap the diva in a hug while jumping up and down. "All hail President Mercedes!"

Joe chuckled, seeing his mother's look of uncertain amusement.

"Oookay, thanks Sugar. Anyway, I'll catch you later?"

"You got it, Troubletone Jones!" replied Sugar.

"Hey!" Joe chimed in, "Could I join the club? I'm a Christian and I don't think my faith's a joke. My mom didn't raise me to treat it that way at least. And um…" he caught himself trying not to be too revealing of his heritage so he thought up another lie, "My dad sells bibles after church on Sundays!"

Internally he wanted to smack his forehead. How lame could you get, Joe?

"Cool," Mercedes replied casually. "Well we're meeting a lunch today. You're welcome to come!"

"Righteous!" Joe cast a triumphant, lop-sided grin but he closed his mouth when he saw Mercedes tilt her head while gazing oddly at him.

You have your Daddy's smile, I swear. My handsome little man! He heard his mother's voice echoing in his head from when he was younger, as she would tickle his sides. Even as he progressed through his teens, she would tell him this.

"Alright, well…catch you later," she said, walking away with a confused expression.

Joe's cheeks were burning but he yelped when Sugar sucker punched his arm. "Ow!"

"You gotta be careful, idiot! And while you're at it, get your story straight before you go finding anyone else from the past. You and Rory are sophomores, so find him and see if he can help you out."

"But…what about you? Why can't you help me?"

Sugar rolled her eyes while counting off on her fingers, "One, I'm a Freshmen."

"So what?"

"Two, I'm pretty sure Principal Figgins—he's the principal—will notice a non-student with dreadlocks walking around the school in no time so I hope you have plans to get yourself registered. And three, I have a big announcement to go make in the glee club so…bye!"

With that, she skipped away, leaving Joe's head filed with all sorts of worries. He hadn't planned out how he was going to get himself enrolled in the school and the campus wasn't exactly small—how was he supposed to find Rory?

The panic was rising in him, so he did the only thing he could think to do; carried his duffle bag into the nearest boys' bathroom and locked himself inside a stall while he thought of who Joseph Hart, not Joseph Evans was, and how best to find his best friend, Rory Anderson.

Please leave reviews! This fic won't be terribly long, but it will be told from Joe's POV throughout its duration. More will come over time! :)