Hi, my cherubs! Here's another chapter for you, thank you all for being very patient with me. Here we go!
And yes, I stole the dialogue from episode "Sweet Dreams" to keep the plot going. Just sayin'! Oh, and we are introduced to EVAN EVANS but he won't be relevant to the rest of the story.
Ready?
A Few Weeks Later
When the news about the gun going off at McKinley reached the gang in New York, Rachel, Kurt, and Santana immediately bought tickets to fly back home for the weekend to check on everybody. They could only stay for the weekend, though, because Rachel had to come back and prepare for her Funny Girl revival audition, Kurt had deadlines to meet for Vogue, and Santana recently got a job as a waitress and couldn't afford to miss anymore days.
Rachel's Dad offered them the house with the spare key for the weekend since they were going away on a business trip to which they took kindly since it was only going to be a quick weekend trip.
While preparing, all three of them attempted to touch base with the other Glee kids to check on them. Most of them seemed quite fine, however, they noticed that no one seemed to want to talk about each other. For instance, Brittany just bragged about her early admission and Tina went back to searching for another fashion trend to follow. Asked about anyone else, either the subject would change or the phone line would go dead. Rachel even got worried when Sam stopped answering her calls and texts, and no one would comment on how he was doing.
"Everyone must be taking it harder than we thought." Kurt stated.
They arrived at Rachel's house Thursday night, and the plan was to go visit McKinley the next day. She decided to phone Puck because she forgot that he was probably home with Sam.
"Yo, girlfriend, what's up?"
"Noah!" She said frantically. "Is Sam with you? How is he? Is he all right? He hasn't been answering my calls or texts and no one will tell me how he is and I forgot you were home with him and-"
"Rachel, calm down!" He interrupted. "Take a breath."
She took a deep breath and asked impatiently. "Noah...put Sam on the phone."
"He's not here...he hasn't been home the past few nights."
She gulped. "Where is he?"
"With the other Glee kids, or so he says." Puck replied. "I haven't really been home much lately because I've been looking after Jake, and Blaine said that Sam can't stand being alone in the apartment so he's been crashing with him. I can't even get him to talk about the incident either, he always rushes off when ask."
She bit her lip and shook her head. "I'll get him talking. Kurt, Santana and I are home for the weekend to check up on everyone, I'll bring him home after school tomorrow and we'll talk."
"That'll do nicely, actually. I'm going to LA this weekend and obviously he can't be alone for some reason, and with you here, he'll be just fine."
Rachel grinned. "LA? What for?"
"Gonna see if I can take a dabble at screenwriting...I need to find my niche, babe."
She giggled. "All right, you do that, and good luck. I'll see you around, okay?"
"Sure thing, take care of Sam."
"I will, bye Noah!"
"Later, babe."
After she hung up, she sank onto the couch and put her head in her hands. "My god, Sam must have separation anxiety."
Kurt sat down next to her and rubbed back. "It's all right, honey, you're here now. You'll help him feel better."
Santana checked her watch and yawned. "Well I don't know about any of you, but I am going to bed now...night, chickas."
Rachel rubbed her face. "What if we go to school tomorrow and everyone's been affected?" She asked worriedly. "Guns are super bad, what if everyone's got like PTSD or something and when we get to school, everyone's all crazy and-"
Kurt held her out by the shoulders. "Honey, honey, relax. No one was hurt, no one was killed, everyone at McKinley's fine. But right now, you need to get some sleep, all right?"
She nodded. "You go ahead, I'll be up in a second, I just need a minute alone." When he got up and left, she picked up her phone with shaking hands and called Sam's phone again.
Yo, it's Sam. You know what to do. Beep!
The Next Day
Santana, Kurt, and Rachel woke up early and headed to McKinley hoping to catch the whole gang before they went to first period. They stopped by the front office and picked up their visitor passes under the guise of visiting Mr. Schuester.
After scouting the hallways for a few minutes, they were finally able to locate a few of the Glee members in the middle of a hallway: Brittany, Tina, and Marley. For some reason, they all looked concerned about something because none of them were smiling and everyone looked serious. Brittany seemed to be in a deep conversation about something.
"They really want me to study string theory, but I'm not all that interested in arts and crafts."
"Isn't M.I.T in Europe? That would suck!" Tina replied.
Rachel, Santana, and Kurt noticed that she was wearing a sort of drab gray dress that looked like it was attacked by suitcases: there was a lot of buckles and she was wearing a matching top hat. In fact, she looked just like she did two years ago when she was going through fashion phases.
Santana snickered. "Tina, you're a senior in high school. Don't you think you're a bit too old to be playing dress up?"
Brittany, Tina and Marley turned to them and showed no reaction.
"It's called Steampunk. It's the next big thing." She said bluntly.
Kurt put on a fake smile and clapped his hands together. "Well...I love it, Tina."
"What are you three doing here, anyway?" Brittany asked.
Santana shrugged. "We heard about the incident and wanted to see how you guys were doing. But we're only here for the weekend this time."
She pouted. "Boo, you're no fun."
Rachel frantically waved her hands. "Okay, okay, let's skip the small talk. Can someone tell me where Sam is?"
Everyone looked behind her and she turned around. As if on cue, Sam came striding up to her but for some reason he looked...different. He was wearing glasses, his hair was slicked back and he head a sweater tied around his neck making him look like a prep-school boy or a character out of Harry Potter.
"G'day, mates!" He drawled out in a thick Australian accent. "How's it hangin'?"
Rachel instantly smiled and she threw her arms around him. "Sammy, it's you! Don't worry, I'm here now so there's nothing to be afraid of."
Sam went limp and he held her out by her shoulders. She noticed him frowning and looking at her as if he's never seen her before. "Beg pardon? Ma'am, you must be mistakin' me for another yank, I'm Evan."
"That's not Sam, Rachel. That's Sam's smarter twin brother Evan." Brittany said with a smile.
"Evan Evans, what a pleasure to meet you." Sam said while shaking Rachel's hand.
She blinked and turned to everyone else confused. "Evan...Evans? This is Sam."
Marley suddenly cleared her throat and addressed Evan. "Hey Evan,this is Rachel, your brother's girlfriend."
Sam's face instantly broke out into a huge grin. "Ah, Sam's babe, the New Yorker! Sam's spoken highly of you."
Marley nodded and pointed to the hallway. "Yeah, can you go get Sam so he can greet her accordingly?"
He nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Oh, phone's ringing! It's my brother." He turned around and began running around the corner. "Hey, Sam, I was just about to call you!"
Rachel turned back to them. "I'm confused, what's going on? Why's Sam acting like that? It's like he doesn't even know me!"
Marley grabbed her arm, gently leading her away from everyone. "Uh, Rachel...I need to tell you something."
"We'll see you at the choir room, Rachel!" Kurt called after her.
She pulled Rachel to a not crowded part of the hallway where there was space to talk. "All right, now you see that Sam's been sort of acting funny since the gun went off. We all have. In Sam's case, I think he might have separation anxiety so he's pretending that he has a twin."
"Well...hasn't anyone tried to reason with him?" Rachel asked.
Marley nodded. "Some of us have...Blaine's been trying the most of the time since he's been housing Sam the past few days. I even heard he's been spending his free period in Ms. Pillsbury's office, although I'm not sure how that's going. For now, we've figured to just play along until he comes to his senses." She looked off and saw Unique passing them so she took off after her. "Hey Unique, wait!"
Rachel took a moment to digest what she just said and she instantly felt guilty. Sam...her boyfriend..the love of her life...just went through a traumatic experience and she wasn't there to comfort him. And he also had an absent roommate so he has to resort to using a figment of his imagination to get him by! At least when he moves to New York, everything would be okay.
She felt a tap on her shoulder so she turned around and came face to face with Sam who lost the glasses, the sweater, and his hair was back to normal, although he still had that Sam Evans grin on his face. "There's my precious girlfriend."
She walked up to him again and wrapped her arms around him, holding him close. He followed suit and she felt the sudden urgency of the hug. She felt him exhale and relax as he held her, feeling the tension he had built up melt away.
"I'm here, Sam, I'm here."
He kissed the top of her head and gripped her tighter. "I know."
Later
Everyone gathered in the choir room after school where Santana, Kurt, Rachel and Mr. Schuester were waiting. Everyone greeted the trio warmly while Mr. Schuester had a quick word with Brad.
Throughout the day, Rachel noticed that Mr. Schuester was a little more tense than usual. He usually greeted everyone warmly, but he mostly kept a straight face the majority of the day. She figured the incident was stressing him out too and she wondered if his attitude reflected the way he handled the Glee Club.
"All right everyone," Mr. Schuester said clapping his hands together. "we have less than three weeks before Regionals and I have our set list picked out. I just got a text from the Greater Midwest Regional High School Show Choir Board of Directors." He walked up to the board and wrote the word Dreams. "The theme is Dreams, so our best bet is to take the dream theme literally. For our set list, I picked out Dream Weaver by Gary Wright, Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics, and You Make My Dreams Come True by Hall and Oates." As he stated the songs, Brad walked around and passed out music sheets to everyone.
Once everyone got their sheets, there was a mix reaction between everyone. Some of the boys like Artie, Sam, and Ryder cheered, but everyone else looked very uneasy.
"I've never heard these songs before." Sugar said,
"I think my Mom jammed out to these when she was my age." Kitty said with disdain.
Santana looked over at Brittany's sheet music and rolled her eyes. "Mr. Schue, these are old school songs, I thought you were past that! This is an even bigger low than when you rapped Bust a Move. You shouldn't be taking a step back, you should be keeping up with the times."
Mr. Schuester sighed and shrugged. "Yes, well...unfortunately Santana, you are not a present member of New Directions at the moment so technically your opinion doesn't count right now." He noticed Marley frowning at her music sheets. "Marley, you're frowning. Anything wrong with my song choices?"
She shook her head. "No, it's just that...I don't know any of these songs."
He nodded. "Well you'll know them soon enough, because we're learning them today. First I'm gonna audition any guys that want a solo, so line it up, boys!"
Marley cleared her throat. "Maybe...we could try original songs? Like you did two years ago?"
"Yeah, we totally crushed Regionals two years ago with those sweet things!" Sam spoke up.
"Well Sam, that was a different year and a different team." Mr. Schuester replied coldly.
Marley's jaw dropped and she stared at him incredulously. "Mr. Schue, can't we just talk about the set list? I mean, when Finn was here, we got to help-"
"Do I have to remind you guys how lucky we are to even be at Regionals?" He fired back, raising his voice. "We are there on a technicality, which means there is even no room for the smallest of mistakes. Trust me." He added with exasperation. "Anyone else have something they wanna say?"
Santana looked like she was about to start arguing with him about his treatment of the club, but Kurt nudged her to be quiet. No one else said anything which pretty much satisfied him. "Great. Brad, warm them up." When everyone stood up to gather around the piano, he cornered Rachel, Santana and Kurt. "I'm sorry to do this, but can you three please leave the room? I can't have them distracted with any more ideas or rebellion."
Santana opened her mouth again but Kurt grabbed her arm and spoke for her. "Mr. Schuester, is everything all right? You seem pretty tense, especially with everyone in the club."
Mr. Schuester shook his head and pointed to the door. "I'm fine. If anything's wrong, I'll consult Ms. Pillsbury or Coach Beiste, I don't need your help. And I really don't need you disrupting my lesson, so if you please."
Rachel sighed. "All right, but if you ever do want someone to talk to, we're here." She looked over at Sam. "Sam, I'll be outside afterwards."
When they walked into the hallway, Santana instantly spoke up.
"What the hell, you guys? Everyone's acting weird because of a gun and now Schuester's being a complete douchebag!"
Kurt scratched his chin. "Well...trauma does make people act weird."
Rachel started pacing. "I don't think it's the gun that's upset him. I think it's something else...did you see how he cut Marley off and got even angrier at the mention of Finn?"
Kurt shook his head. "Right, we don't have time to worry about Mr. Schuester or Finn. Right now, we just need to spend this weekend making sure everyone else is okay."
Santana crossed her arms. "What's the matter, lady lips? Missing your Blaine-boo already?"
Kurt glared at her. "Psh, no, but these are our friends and right now, they're going through a bit of a tough time. So we need to use this weekend to make sure everyone's all right before we head back to New York."
The door of the choir room opened and Ryder poked his head out. "Um, Rachel? Sam's about to do his audition for a solo and said he won't perform it without you seeing it."
She swallowed nervously. "Is it all right with Mr. Schuester?"
He shrugged. "I guess, he just wants these auditions over with."
She followed him inside and saw that all the boys were lined up by the piano, Sam standing center stage. Mr. Schuester sat in his seat, a blank look on his face. She took a seat right next to him and whispered, "I'll leave as soon as he's done."
He ignored her and waved to Brad. "Begin."
Brad suddenly started playing a slow and somewhat melancholy ballad she'd never heard before. Sam watched her, keeping a solemn look on his face.
What would I do without your smart mouth?
Drawing me in, and you kicking me out
You've got my head spinning, no kidding, I can't pin you down
What's going on in that beautiful mind
I'm on your magical mystery ride
And I'm so dizzy, don't know what hit me, but I'll be alright
My head's under water
But I'm breathing fine
You're crazy and I'm out of my mind
'Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I'll give my all to you
You're my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I'm winning
'Cause I give you all of me
And you give me all of you, oh oh
In all honesty, Rachel adored the song. She absolutely loved when Sam serenaded her with songs that professed his love for her and this one was perfect. However, there was also something about the song that gave her a small feeling of...uncertainty. She listened closely and within the song, she also felt a stint of sadness coming from him. And for some reason, the more the song went on, the sadder she began to feel.
Give me all of you
Cards on the table, we're both showing hearts
Risking it all, though it's hard
'Cause all of me I give you all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I'll give my all to you
You're my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I'm winning
'Cause I give you all of me
And you give me all of you
And you give me all of you, oh oh
When the song ended, she felt slightly choked up, but she didn't want anyone to see her cry, so gave him a small smile and slowly walked out.
Kurt and Santana looked up at her. "How was it?"
She shrugged. "It was a ice song, but there was something about it and the way he sang it that made the song seemed...uncertain."
Santana nodded. "We heard the song, very touching. How much longer until they're done?"
They waited outside in the hallway for an hour until the Glee Club was finally released. Most of them were still grumbling about the song choice, Unique and Jake were comforting Marley, and Brittany came up to Santana burying her face in her shoulder.
Sam came up to Rachel and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "So...my place or yours tonight?"
Rachel took a step away from him and faced him. "Um...Sam, Santana, Kurt, and I are using my house during our stay because they're out of town for the weekend. And I don't think it's safe for you to go back to the apartment until Noah gets back, so you're coming home with us."
He stared at her blankly and then smiled. "Fine with me. Did you like my song?"
Blaine came out of the choir room and approached Sam. "Yo man, ready to go?"
He shook his head and nodded to Rachel. "Nope, I'm going home with my lovely lady this weekend. But thanks again for letting me crash with you, I really appreciate it."
Blaine looked from Rachel, to Kurt and then back at him nervously. "What about Evan?"
He shrugged. "I don't know, but if you see him, tell him I'm hanging at Rachel's this weekend."
Blaine shifted his gaze from them to Kurt and Rachel suddenly saw a mournful look on his face. He clicked his tongue and walked away briskly.
Santana nudged Kurt. "Why don't you go after your honey boo-boo?"
He rolled his eyes and all four of them left the school.
And scene! That's a wrap for today, everyone.
All righty folks, we are getting closer and closer to some MAJOR plot stuff going on so hang in there! And those of you that still are, thank you.
Night, all!