Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 80th cycle. Now cycle 81!

"To a New World"
In Gen2!world: G1!Santana, G2!Kurt
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Santana still fully expected to wake up at some point and realize that this had all been a dream and she'd just had way too much to drink the night before, even though she couldn't remember whatever night it was that would have led her to get so wasted. Even though she'd been in this place for a week already, and she'd had much too much evidence proving that this place was real to really have any way to deny it, holding on to that one last tiny shred was keeping her sane, so she wasn't about to let go.

She was doing her best to keep it together, but deep down she was freaking out, and one afternoon, she had been sitting in class, staring without listening at the teacher standing in front of her, and it dawned on her that this was not the same man as the one who usually taught her this class. Or, more precisely, it was the same man in every way, name, appearance, overall memories and knowledge, but it wasn't him, physically. No, instead, this was another version of him, which couldn't have been all that different. That thought, and everything that it would mean for the entire world around her made her head spin. How many worlds like this existed, how many versions of herself were out there?

It had gotten bad enough that she'd needed to make up an excuse and get out of there, step outside and breathe fresh air before she could pass out.

"What are you doing out here?" She jumped. She hadn't seen Kurt sitting there until he spoke.

"What, can't a girl get out of class once in a while?" she frowned at him like the next words out of her mouth might have been 'what are you, my mother?'

"Did the world get a little too real for you?" he asked knowingly, and she blinked. She'd forgotten about him, but it dawned on her now. Rachel had explained it to her, how he'd been through this at the start of the year, him, and Mike, and Quinn and Jesse, except he had been swapped back, on the same day she'd ended up in this place.

"So, you were over… there… Right? Before…" she asked, trying to sound more in control than she was.

"I was," he confirmed. "I know what it's like for you right now… It sucks," he breathed out.

"So much," she agreed, moving to sit next to him. "That means you weren't the one that face planted off that stool, were you?"

"No, that was the other one. Of course, I had the misfortune of passing out on the floor of the boys' room," he pointed back to the school.

"Oh no," Santana tried not to laugh but she couldn't help herself. When he laughed, too, she at least felt less guilty about it. "Well, last I'd heard, before this happened, you were in the hospital, so I guess he's okay."

"Yeah, good," he nodded. They were silent for a beat.

"Shouldn't you be happy by now? I mean you're back where you're supposed to be."

"I am," he promised. "I'm happy, but… I just sort of wish I'd gotten to see how it turned out in the end, if they got the Glee Club back together and all that. They were go and recruit you, you know."

"Right, because I was meant to be there," she spoke with a flourish.

"But you were," Kurt insisted. "Say what you want about all this, but I've seen you in there, with the rest of us. You like this."

"So?" she tried to shrug it off.

"When you go back there, you need to keep doing it."

"What makes you think I wouldn't have?" She didn't like his tone.

"Well, you're here aren't you? And our Santana, she's over there. Our Santana who was already in Glee Club, who wouldn't hesitate to join, not anymore, not since she'd already been with us here… The way I see it, you were going to be the thing that held them back, so you got sent here, so you could see what it was like, and she was sent there so the Glee Club could have all its people, sooner rather than later."

It was frightening how much it made sense to her, and she wasn't crazy about the implications. What if she just chose not to do it? She could quit this one here, go on with her life the way she'd had it, and what could they do? So what if she never went home? These people were the same, weren't they? And in this place, there hadn't been that accident, no one was hurt… She could make it work.

"I need to get back to class," she got back up and stomped into the school.

Not five minutes had gone by when, as he was getting up to return to class, too, Kurt saw Santana was back. "Didn't you have somewhere to be?" he gave her a frown.

She did, and she was fully intending to, and she would have, if it hadn't been for… her. She'd turned the corner and spotted Rachel, standing at her locker. It looked as though she'd gotten out of class to get something out of there. When she shut the door and turned, she stopped when she saw Santana.

It was the look in her eyes that had turned Santana around. For one second, Rachel Berry had looked at her and forgotten she wasn't the same Santana who belonged here with her. She'd looked at her, and she'd been happy. But then she'd remembered, and it was like watching a heart break. Here she was, deciding for everyone, staking her claim to this life, by her own rules, and in doing so she was condemning not only Rachel but her own counterpart to be parted from the ones they loved. Santana may have been a lot of thing, but she didn't want to be that girl who would do something like this. So she'd gone back outside.

"Look, I'm new with this…"

"I know," Kurt nodded. "I was, too, not long ago."

That was all he needed to say, and it was all she needed to hear. From that day on, she knew that if the world ever got 'too real' again, she had him to talk to. That just might do all the difference in the world.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!