A/N: Second chapter! :D

"A Christmas Carol"

2. The First of the Three Spirits

Sue took a few steps up toward the boy. He didn't blink or break. "Do you honestly believe I'll buy that? You're no ghost."

"True, Kurt Hummel is alive and well… doesn't keep me from using his likeness for the purposes of this night," he rose back from his lean on the door frame. "Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" Sue sneered.

"Great, he didn't explain it," Ghost Kurt spoke to himself with a groan. "Alright!" he turned back to Sue with his previous expression restored. "It's like this: I am the ghost of Christmas past. So you're going to come with me…"

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

"… and I'm going to show you the person you used to be," he continued, unchanged.

"Are you listening to me, I'm not…"

"… going anywhere with me, yes, I heard you," he took her hand. "I'm just not going to listen, alright?"

"No, that's not…" She stopped, suddenly finding herself in a room that wasn't the one she'd been in a moment ago. And yet she recognized this place, it was…

"Welcome home, Sue Sylvester," Ghost Kurt indicated out with his arm.

The living room they stood in was fairly plain, but in one corner there stood a massive Christmas tree, decorated and shining and twinkling. And on the couch, small and innocent, was a four-year-old blonde lying wide awake as she clutched a plush bear and stared fixedly at the fireplace, a grate closing out the opening. Sue looked at the girl, crouching to see her better and still being in absolute shock.

"That's…"

"That's you, Sue. Don't worry, she can't see or hear us. Do you remember this night?" Before she could respond, the small Sue suddenly bolted off the couch, scrambling off up the stairs.

"Well I know where she's going." And a moment later they were there, in her big sister's room as little Sue came in, climbed into the bed and gave a careful nudge at her arm.

"Jeanie?" the child begged, whispering. "Jeanie?" she tried again a little louder a few seconds later. Sue saw her sister's eyes open, and she bit back the urge to cry, seeing her so young again.

"Sue? What's wrong?" young Jean asked the girl sitting next to her.

"Santa can't come, he's not going to be able to get in, what about our presents?" young Sue begged.

"Yes he will, because he's magic," young Jean insisted, a calm smile on her face.

"He is?" young Sue asked, and her sister nodded.

"Even if he doesn't, that's okay," she shrugged.

"But why?" young Sue seemed completely astounded by this. Young Jean took up her sister's hand, made her lie down at her side.

"You're happy now?" young Jean asked, and her sister nodded. "You like… the tree and the lights and the decorations?" she asked, and young Sue nodded again. "You like Christmas?" she got a third nod, and for it she got that wide and happy smile Sue would love to get, even to this day.

"I don't remember this…" she shook her head, looking to Ghost Kurt, not even managing to hide her tears from him.

"Don't you?" She frowned, looking back to the bed and the girls, but then they were gone and she saw that they had moved again. They were back in the living room they had first left, only it didn't look the same, it looked like…

Her eyes fell to the couch, finding a very similar scenario… a very similar little girl. She knelt by the couch, her hand reaching, almost touching the four-year-old… her baby girl… She was just as innocent, more so, if you took into account what the previous child they had visited had become, and what this one would become. In her arms of course it wasn't a teddy bear that she clutched but a blue hippo by the name of Blippo.

"She looks a lot like you," Ghost Kurt commented; she'd almost forgotten about him.

"In some ways, but not everything. She's got a lot of her father in her, a lot of that Pierce side. I didn't give her all that much…"

"Of course you did."

"What would you know, you don't even know she's mine," she threw back at him.

"Okay, again, not actually Kurt Hummel. If I was, I would not know some of the things you do, trust me, that'd be a relief," he persisted. She would have been ready to throw a retort right back at him, but then the small Brittany, who'd been asleep, was now awake, and she sat up, looking around the room. She frowned, got up and stalked off. Sue and Ghost Kurt followed the child, one behind the other. They followed her all the way to her mother's room, where she threw the hippo on to the bed before hoisting herself up on it and crawling up to…

"Mommy?" she shook lightly at the slightly younger Sue.

"Go back to bed, Brittany, it's not morning yet," came the muttered response.

"But Santa hasn't come yet!" young Brittany went on, scooting up to her mother to bend over her and see her face. The half-asleep younger Sue caught up her daughter and placed her at her side, much to the girl's giggling squeals.

"Santa won't forget you, I promise, you have nothing to worry about," younger Sue told her, trying to fight back a yawn. "But do you remember what I told you the other day about Santa and Christmas?" Young Brittany thought about this, then gave a sigh.

"It's not just Santa and the presents. It's the whole Christmas, even without the presents," she replied with effort. She got a kiss on the forehead for her troubles, making her laugh. Even the present Sue laughed along, though she stopped when she remembered she wasn't alone. She looked back to find the ghost smirking with his Kurt Hummel-like face.

"Do you mind?" she told him.

"You remembered, some part of you did. Do you remember what happened when it was morning?" Sue recalled it, again fighting against the smile.

"Santa came, of course I knew he would, or she would, since it was me… But she waited to open them, wanted us to have breakfast first. That's what we did, every year after that."

"What about last year?" Ghost Kurt asked. Sue looked back to him.

"Is that where you're taking me next?" But then they were back in the living room, the one they had first left. He moved to stand at the door.

"No, you know what I think I made the point I was trying to make. I also think my colleague will do just fine in picking up where I left off."

"Colleague?" Sue asked.

"You didn't think this was done, did you?" Ghost Kurt asked, laughing. "You're only just beginning." Then there was the honk of a car outside. "And that'll be your ride. Off you go," he opened the door for her, pointed for her to go. Sue hesitated, but he just went on pointing.

"You ghosts sure are a pushy bunch, aren't you?" she stepped out the door and turned to look back at Ghost Kurt, but he was gone. The honk rang again and Sue saw the car idling at the curb. "Since when do ghosts drive?" she spoke to herself, approaching cautiously; it was still the middle of the night after all. She leaned in to see who was inside and sprang back to stand with a groan.

"Hop in, Sue!" Emma Pillsbury leaned across the passenger seat and opened the door. Sue stared at her, sighed and did as told, again knowing they wouldn't leave her alone.

"And who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm the ghost of Christmas present. Buckle your seat belt, we have to get going."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)

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