EPISODE: DON'T GO TO SLEEP

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"The fun is just beginning…"

And then Matt was falling. Down, down, down the rabbit hole he went, tumbling through the air until he fell with a thump onto… a queen sized bed?

He sat up, slowly, and jolted when he saw that his legs were much longer than he remembered and that his torso had seemingly stretched several inches within seconds. Unlike the other alternate realities he'd visited, he actually looked grown up in this one. He had to be in his early twenties at least.

Matt crawled out of bed, and he walked down the unfamiliar-yet-so-familiar (and that really shouldn't make as much sense as it did) hallway until he suddenly stopped beside a picture on the wall.

It was of him and his sister sitting on a picnic blanket with a little boy that looked like a lot like Matt. Seriously, it was eerie. Same blonde hair, same blue eyes, same scrawny figure that Matt had had at the boy's age, which was around two.

Who was he?

Matt walked a little farther down the hall and saw a birth certificate framed on the wall.

Johnathon Marcus Amsterdam

Father: Matthew Andrew Amsterdam

Mother: Pam Lucy Smith Amsterdam

He was married to his sister? And they had a kid?

No… something didn't feel right here.

Matt climbed the ladder to the attic and dragged a dusty trunk out of the corner of the room and threw open the lid. This was where his family kept all of their important documents.

He found his folder (his parents organized everything into neat, organized folders labeled with their names) on top and withdraw a few papers.

His birth certificate still looked the same, but there were other papers he didn't remember having, as well.

Marriage document, claiming him to be married to Pam.

Photographs of him and Pam on dates, kissing, holding a baby.

Their entire family. His mom, dad, Pam, the boy, and him… But where was his brother?

Matt searched the entire trunk. There was no sign of Greg's birth certificate or his documents or any pictures of him. It was like he'd vanished off the face of the earth.

He didn't find anything about Greg, but he did find a folder on Pam…

He rifled through the papers until he located her birth certificate.

Pam Rosemary Smith

Father: Jeremy Carter Smith

Mother: Mabel Beatrice Walters Smith

They weren't related… they were married with a kid…

It was all too much to take in at once. Matt sat on top of a nearby trunk and groaned as he put his head in his hands.

"Are you all right, honey?" Pam- his wife- asked as she appeared at the top of the ladder and walked into the attic.

"Fine, dear, just a headache," Matt muttered without thinking.

He blinked. Dear? Where had that come from? And why did it feel so right?

"Oh, I'll pick up some aspirin while I'm out today. Can you take Johnny to the playground while I run errands?" she asked.

He nodded and stood, smiling at her. His arms wrapped around her waist without him giving the command. It was instinct, autopilot, and it felt right.

"You are amazing," he told her, kissing her lightly on the lips.

A soft kiss quickly escalated to a full make out sessions, and Matt knew this should be wrong. She was his sister… but she wasn't. Was this reality or an alternate reality? If it was an alternate reality, none of this would feel right, and yet every detail felt painfully correct. A child, a wife, no siblings. It felt right, and he didn't know why.

Or maybe he did.

They parted, and with a kind smile (Matt had never known her to be kind when she was his sister), Pam descended the ladder, and Matt heard her get in the car. He waited until the engine rumbled out of the driveway before moving, and he navigated the house, knowing exactly which room was which, even though it looked drastically different than he remembered from a few hours ago.

He wandered into the middle room on his right and found himself staring at the cute boy from the photo, Johnny, standing up in a play pen.

"Daddy!" the boy squealed, reaching towards him, and Matt lifted him, holding Johnny against his side.

And in that moment, Matt knew that this was right. This was his reality. Whatever had happened with Pam being his sister and having a brother and such… that was the dream. This- Pam as his wife, Johnny as his son, no Greg- was real.

Matt hadn't hated his alternate reality with Pam as a sister; he hadn't even hated having a brother, although Greg could be incredibly irritating at times. But he preferred Pam as his wife; he loved his son, the little boy he held in his arms. In his eyes, this reality was perfect…

He loved his actual life.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading! Goodbye, everyone.