A/N: I had kind of given up on this story because I lacked time, but somehow I felt inspired yesterday and decided to start writing it again. Blame it on Vanessa! It's all her and these Twitter pictures' fault... I have one more chapter ready already, so I guess I'm in for the long ride this time. Hope you like it, and sorry for the delay!

Is This A Dream?

The dark envelops her like a second skin, but Sugar never really liked the dark. Her mothers used to let the hallway lamp on at night before she fell asleep. She shifts uncomfortably, and her shoulder bumps into the wall; she fumbles, trying to figure out where she can be, and her fingers make out the shape of a broom and a bucket. Could she be in a closet? Her fingers search some more, following the curve of the wall until she finally finds something that feels like a door. She slowly opens it and passes her head through it, still sitting on her knees.

She sees hallways, and people walking in it. She gets scared, and closes the door again.

What's happening to me? Where am I?

She tries to calm herself, takes a deep breath before opening the door just a little again and peering an eye outside. She conscientiously tries to observe the place, trying to figure out where she can be, trying to find clues like when her moms prepared treasure huntings for her birthdays. She sees boys wearing jackets with a big "M" on it. A banner saying "McKinley High School" hanging on the wall. Cheerleaders wearing the same uniforms she's seen so many times on her moms high school pictures.

For some reason she feels like she's already been here before, and the clues help her figure out why. She's in McKinley, her mothers ex-high school, where they brought her 2 years ago for one of the Glee Club ancient students meeting.

She has absolutely no idea why she ended up here and how, but there's nothing she can do about it.

Maybe I'm dreaming.

She tries to convince herself that that's what's happening. It's a lot less scary than any other perspectives, and she doesn't want to think about these right now. She's still too shaken up by what happened in her garage just a few minutes ago.

She would stay in the closet if it meant she would be safe, but apparently there's no way she can go back to her old garage. Plus she really, really needs to pee. And anyway, if it's a dream she can do anything she wants to, right?

So she takes a huge inspiration, opens the door and gets on her feet, coming out of the closet. She wanders a little in the hallways, trying to remember where the bathrooms were when she visited two years ago, and finally finds them.

When she gets into one of the stalls, she hears a group of girls entering the bathroom after her, talking loudly, and she can't help but listen to them.

"There's no way Becky Jackson gets to be Cheer Captain this year. I'm betting on Santana."

"Santana Lopez? Yeah, this girl's got what it takes to be captain. But after what she, Brittany and Fabray did last year, I wasn't even sure Sylvester would be willing to take them back, let alone put her as Head Cheerio."

"Well do you see anyone else?" a third voice pipes in. "The girl has power, she knows the job, and she can put off some serious moves. Maybe Brittany Pierce is a better dancer, but she could never hold a squad and Coach Sue knows it."

The girls keep talking but Sugar isn't listening anymore. Santana Lopez. Brittany Pierce.

This can't be happening. I'm dreaming right? I'm definitely dreaming.

She tries to regain composure and by the time she walks out the door, she feels strong enough to face anything. If her moms are somewhere in this school, she needs to find them.

She thought looking for them would be hard, but somehow she just needs to walk a few steps in the hallway to spot them next to a range of lockers, talking to each other, their pinkies linked between them.

Oh my God…

She refrains a little scream, and the need to jump at them and hold them in her arms. Maybe it's a dream, but it's her one chance to finally see what they might have been like in high school, and she doesn't want to miss it. So she discreetly stops next to a locker a few meters away from them, pretending to look at her nails but stealing quick glances at the two girls.

They are the exact replica of her two moms. Only a lot younger. One is blonde, her hair in a high ponytail, blue eyes fixed on the other girl's lips, not listening to her. The smaller girl, with dark hair and a darker complexion, smiles sweetly when she realizes the girl in front of her has lost her train of thoughts, and gives her a little shoulder bump to get her back to reality.

"Britt, you were gone again." She laughs.

"I just really like your lips." The blonde blurts out, and it makes the dark-haired girl blush. She shoots a little glance around her to check the hallways before coming closer to the blonde girl.

"I really like yours too. What do you think about coming to my house after classes and…" she comes closer to the young Brittany and whispers the rest of the sentence in her hear. Sugar can't hear it, but she sees a large smile appear on Brittany's face and it's all she needs to figure out what the young Santana just said.

Ew, Mom.

The bell rings and the hallways start to clear out, and Sugar sees the two cheerleaders enter into one of the rooms nearby.

She doesn't have anywhere to go, but staying alone in the hallways doesn't sound like the best idea. So she comes back to the janitor's closet – somehow she feels safe in here – and closes the door behind her, sitting on the floor to try to gather her thoughts.

She really wishes she were dreaming, but the succession of events and the way she gets to decide what to do – usually when she dreams, she's dragged along and can't make any decision by herself – make her believe that's it's far from being a dream. She tries to pinch her arm but it doesn't wake her up; it's just painful. She wishes she could understand what has happened to her, but she doesn't. The only thing she knows is that it must have something to do with the horrible iron machine in her garage, the one she almost died into because of the lack of air.

She shivers, and tries to concentrate on happier thoughts. The young Brittany and Santana look so much like her mothers that it's physically painful for her to stay away from them. Apparently they're still secretly dating, if the fearful look on Santana's face and her whispers can be of any indication. If she's stuck in this dream-that-doesn't-feel-like-a-dream, she might as well try to get as many information as she can about them; that could be useful the next time she gets into a fight with them, if she ever wakes up and come back to them.

She sights.

It's funny because it's all she's always wanted, to be able to witness her moms' lives when they were in high school, but somehow it's not as fun as she thought it would be. Somehow she wishes she could come back home, to the older versions of her moms, to hold them close and apologize for being stupid earlier.

But she can't. At least not for now.

The bell rings again and she realizes that she's been sitting in the janitor's closet for an hour. If she wants to get out of here, it's not by hiding here doing nothing that she will succeed. So she gets on her feet, wipes of the dust from her knees, and opens the door again, stepping into the hallways.

People are all heading in the same direction and she dives into the crowd, following them until she ends up in the cafeteria. She doesn't really know what to do, until she spots the young Santana and follows her, trying to look like a normal high school student. After all, even if she's supposed to come from more than 20 years later, high school hasn't changed that much… And she's lucky enough that fashion came back to the oldies, because her clothes don't seem too misplaced. She stops by a trail and starts to fill in a plate with food, listening intently as a boy with a lot of curly hair interviews Santana. It's funny how hard the girl is working to look bitchy and badass, especially knowing how nice she is now. But Sugar has to remember that Santana was scared, and very much in the closet, to know that it's who she used to be.

Sugar spots Brittany from the corner of her eyes, and so does Santana; it's like her whole body is attracted by the blonde Cheerio, like a magnet, and can't do anything to stay away from her. She smiles at her, and her bitchy façade crumbles; the curly boy doesn't exist anymore in her world.

"Hey!" Brittany says.

"Hi!" Santana answers.

They start leaving and Sugar is trying to figure out a way to follow them without being caught, but the curly boy doesn't give up that easily. He follows them, trying to keep in track with their fast pace.

"Brittany! What are your plans for the future?"

Brittany stops and spins around, a bewildered look on her face.

"Wait…" Her voice lowers, and Sugar has to prick up her ears to be able to hear the next words.

"Are you working on a time machine too?"

The curly boy shrugs and leaves; he got the images he wanted. Santana takes Brittany's arm and leads her to a table near the windows.

Sugar hasn't moved since the young Brittany's last words. She's trying to process the new information she's gathered, trying to put the pieces together. She knows her mother sometimes says things without thinking too much about it, but there's something in this sentence that puts her off.

The strange iron box. The girls who look so much like younger versions of her mothers. Who are exactly like the pictures she's seen of them when they were young, and also have the same names. The dream that doesn't feel like a dream. The time machine.

And that's when a very old memory comes back to her; she sees herself, as a little girl, and a strange machine which looks like the one she was in before she woke up in this strange place. She remembers Brittany's terrorized face when she had seen her so close to the machine. And now she also remembers words – her mother's words – and a promise that she broke.

"It's a time machine, but it's not finished yet. You have to promise me to never touch it, ok?"

And that's when it hits her.

She's trapped in the past. In a world where she shouldn't be born yet, and where her mothers are still in high school.

I came back from the future.