Will's POV

In the wee hours of Monday morning, Emma and I were sitting across from each other at our glass dining room table that was too big for the condo. Between us were scattered papers: discarded setlists, sheet music, Rules and Regulations for Regionals. As the hours pressed on, Emma sighed sweetly, but didn't complain about our lack of sleep. We'd been up night after night, trying to pull everything together in the twelve… now eleven days we had left. Emma hadn't said a word about the fact that we hadn't been to bed for twenty seven hours, whereas Terri would have been long gone by now. I penned another possible setlist and slid it across the table for her approval. She eyed it tiredly before saying,

"Will, it's great, but you forgot Rachel's ballad again." She slid it back to me. I closed my eyes and let my head fall forward into my hands.

"We have to be at work in four and a half hours," she reminded me gently. I jolted myself awake… again. I grabbed my pen for the countless time that night and crossed out a random selection, adding Rachel's selection in its place. Emma glanced at it again.

"Will, I know you want to please everybody, but I really don't think we'll be able to do Bust a Move. Okay?"

I really don't know what I'd do without her. She was the only thing keeping me sane… and awake.

We'd been working ourselves like dogs. We called the hotel to make sure they still had enough rooms, spoken to the director of the competition a dozen times about two dozen different things, bought at least $70 worth of sheet music, gone over the rules 393 times, and tried to come up with a setlist, with no success whatsoever.

So far this is what we had:

She's So High- Solo: Finn

Nolita Fairytale- Solo: Kurt

Finn's Mashup- Solo: Finn

Cross My Heart- Boys Only- Solo: Puck

My Life Would Suck Without You- All

People Who Need People- Rachel

Neither of us was pleased with it. It just didn't seem to… fit, for some reason.

"Why don't we go to bed?" Emma suggested. "We'll keep the first three and Rachel's ballad for sure, and we'll figure out the other two later, okay?"

Succumbing to pure fatigue, I nodded. We had until lunch time, anyway. We headed through the crowded condo towards the bedroom. The truth was, even though I was exhausted, I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. We had eleven days… that'd be only about twenty rehearsals left until we had to perform for the judges at Regionals. And if we weren't ready… if we didn't place… Glee club would be over, and Figgins would start using the choir room for his Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. These kids would have nowhere else where they would really belong, and it would all be my fault.

I tried to put this aside and at least get some sleep before the dreaded alarm went off at quarter after six. I collapsed onto the bed, Emma lying beside me.

Five minutes later, I was up again. I got dressed this time, but left the hall lights off so Emma could sleep. I went through all of the sheet music on the table again, looking for something that would be easy enough to learn and sound amazing at the same time. My eyes were drooping, and I didn't know how I'd possibly make it through the rest of the day, but I couldn't let these kids down. I couldn't let Emma down.

I don't know how long she'd been standing there before I noticed her. Her arms were wrapped around her torso, fastening a purple silk housecoat to her figure. She gave me a hopeful smile and crossed the floor, taking her seat across from me again. That's why I loved her… she knew me. She knew why I was doing this.

She slowly slid her smaller hand over mine. "Will, everything will be okay. It always is. The kids will be great. I know it."

I think I managed a dopey smile. "I gotta get this finished…" I said incompetently. She eased the sheet out from under my arms with her free hand.

"Let me do it," she insisted. I didn't even have the energy to respond. I crumpled onto my forearms right there on the table and fell asleep thinking about how much I was in love with Emma. It was making me completely crazy… I'd never felt this way about anyone before, not even Terri when we'd first met. And Glee was the whole reason we'd even started talking in the first place. I owed it all to this club, to these kids, and now I had to fight to keep Figgins from destroying it. If we didn't have Glee Club anymore, we wouldn't have anything.