A/N: Hey guys! I'm back! I know it's been a long time, but I just couldn't let this story go, so I've finally hopefully gotten back into a swing with it. I'm planning on doing a short Glee-Cap next chapter to help everyone get back into the groove, but I've also started a New Directions: New Generation Wikia to help put everything back together. Find the link on my profile page and feel free to help add to it! In the meantime, let's get back to the story :)

A/A/N: Featured song is "Come Together" by The Beatles.

The choir room was silent as Will stared in disbelief at the students in front of him. He'd called an emergency meeting first thing in the morning (if Sue could do it, so could he) and watched as his team had stumbled in, energy drinks and thermoses in hand as they attempted to hide their long night from their features. "Does someone want to explain to me what any of you were thinking last night?"

Most fidgeted nervously, and Annie took a gulp of her Red Bull before speaking up. "Well, Mr. Schue, you see—" She faltered as she raised her eyes. "I mean—"

"We were just standing up for ourselves," Hayley supplied. She was more than happy to let anyone else answer, but since apparently they were all suffering Chicken-itis, she suddenly felt the urge to defend their actions.

"Standing up for yourselves?" their teacher repeated, eyes widening incredulously. "You went to a bar with fake IDs, broke into another school's auditorium, stole their instruments, and decided to have an impromptu performance on the roof in the middle of the night? Do you know how many different laws you broke with that little stunt?"

"Hey, we were being called out by a bunch of Johnny Englishes and someone had to defend our team," Stassi shot back. "It's not like you were anywhere, even if we had tried going to you."
"I've been dealing with personal matters," the curly-haired teacher replied. "But that doesn't mean you should think you can't come to me—"
"We couldn't come to you," Dylan suddenly spoke up, causing everyone to look at him in surprise. The small-ish brunette wasn't exactly known for his critical demeanor, but you could see the reproach in his eyes now. "Your own wife hasn't been able to come to you. You're about to have a kid, Mr. Schue—you're not allowed to have these weird mood swings and cut yourself off from the world anymore. You've got to step up and act like an adult. You've got a problem? So does everyone else. Suck it up and deal with it."

The room was silent as they continued staring at the mousy boy in shock, who'd suddenly seemed to realize he'd opened his mouth at all and was now ducking his head as his face flushed bright red.

Katie, however, nodded supportively, prompting Stassi to add in a gentler tone. "Mr Schue, we're high schoolers. Without supervision, we kind of just do what seems like a good idea at the time."

Will sighed. He'd been so busy feeling guilty and trying to punish his pregnant wife for making him feel that way, he'd pretty much neglected everything around him. He couldn't even remember what had happened in any of his classes this week.

"You're right, guys," he conceded. "I haven't been there for you, but I'm going to now. We're going to Sectionals as a team, and we're going to stick together and win it. Just promise you won't do anything else to get yourselves arrested?"

The team laughed and agreed in unison.

Dylan sat in class and stared vacantly at the worksheet in front of him. He was continuously checking the clock, trying to decide the earliest moment he could wake up his dad and fix the mess the old man had made.

His phone buzzed quietly, and the shaggy-haired boy snapped to, pulling out the phone and checking the screen. His chest did a double-take, with his fear dropping but his heart racing as he saw Katie's name light up the phone, accompanied by the text "U ok?"

Dylan smiled sadly—everything was far from okay, but when he talked to Katie, he felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. Especially today it felt like an odd sensation. "Im good—u?" he typed.

"B betr if u told the truth." Dylan's expression turned quizzical, and the subsequent text, "Chck the door", caused him to finally look up and see the girl of his dreams waving from the hallway on the other side of the open door.

The boy involuntarily grinned and slid out of his chair, ducking into the corridor. He allowed the blonde to grin and pull him into the empty cafeteria where they sat themselves at one of the bare tables.

"Hey," she greeted, squeezing his hand. He answered in kind and she pushed, "So, do you want to talk? You seem to have a lot on your mind."

The freshman knew that was the understatement of the year. His father had blundered home last night from some bar and apparently had gone looking for him. When he realized his oldest son wasn't in bed, he'd started bellowing in the hallways, drawing out Josh, who was half-asleep and obviously not thinking clearly if he came out of his room after hearing his father's voice. Angry and upset, apparently Mr. Jamieson had shoved his thirteen-year old son into the stair railing and caused him to fall.

"I've just got a lot on my plate," he evaded, "and Schue just kind of set me off I guess."

"Yeah, we saw," Katie replied, still trying to make eye contact. She paused as he checked his phone again. "You know, I'm a pretty good listener if you ever want to talk."

Dylan was about to tell her he was fine, that she shouldn't worry, when he finally looked up from his silent cell. He watched her blue eyes meet his in concern and care, and suddenly the shaggy-haired boy with a mountain of worries wanted nothing more than to share them with her.

Obviously, he couldn't tell her everything, but would it hurt to open up a little? "My brother is in the hospital," he told her. "He fell down the stairs and they think he might have a concussion."

"Oh god, Dyl, I'm so sorry." Katie wrapped her arms around the boy and hugged him tight.

"It happened while we were out last night," the brunette said guiltily. "He was in trouble, and I wasn't there for him."

"Dylan, it was an accident; you couldn't have done anything more than what your dad did."

Dylan managed not to snort at the comment: after his brother's fall, his dad had screamed for about another minute, kicked his brother, and left. Lachlan and Mitchell, young as they were, had panicked and called for an ambulance, telling them that their brother had fallen accidentally on his way to the kitchen for a glass of water.

However, Katie didn't know this, couldn't know this, and so the minute Mr. Schuester had dropped them off Dylan raced for the hospital, fielding as many questions as he could and covering for his father by making up an extended route that would keep him away for another twelve hours or so.

"I just—" a buzzing in his pocket interrupted the boy as he checked his phone. "My dad's up—I mean, back—I mean, it's my dad," he fumbled, trying to remember his lines. "I've got to get Tim; he's driving me to the hospital."

He was focusing intently on putting everything together when he felt a light touch radiating warmth from his arm. Dylan looked up and saw Katie watching him closely. "I'm sure everything's going to be okay," she told him, "but let me know if there's anything I can do."

The small boy felt his chest tighten as he stared into her oceanic eyes, his heart pounding like crazy as her face inched closer until their lips touched and he realized he was kissing Katie Bennet. Everything around them—school, his family, the chaos—slipped away in the precious moments that he felt her soft lips on his, tasted the Twizzler she'd no doubt been eating before she'd found him. Everything was perfect.

The moment ended, and Dylan hugged her hard before receiving Tim's text, and he rushed out the door to meet his family.

Dalton made his way to his table in what felt like slow motion. He'd barely been able to keep his eyes open in his classes, and had almost fallen asleep in a couple. By the looks of the rest of the group, no one else felt much better: Wally was staring half-lidded off into the distance, Stassi was downing her second Monster, Roxie was holding her head up with one hand and half-heartedly stabbing her food with her other; and Nina apparently had given up appearances entirely and was lying face first in her arms.

The sophomore sat down and looked around. "Where's Coby?" he asked no one in particular.

"Sent me a text saying he had to take care of something," Nina mumbled sleepily without moving.

Dalton merely nodded, knowing that if she didn't offer any more, she probably hadn't asked. After another moment's pause, he sighed. "Okay, I admit it," he announced, causing everyone to look up curiously. "Last night was my bad. I completely underestimated the situation and almost doomed us."

"A bit over-exaggerated, but yeah," Stassi said with a smirk.

Dalton lowered his eyes guiltily. "I'm just really sorry guys. I let you down."

Stassi glanced at him before shrugging and going back to her Monster, while Roxanne placed her hand on his arm. Nina and Wally just let an indifferent "Eh" escape their lips, and Dalton looked around in confusion.

"Really? That's it?" he asked them. "I screwed up big time as Captain, and nobody wants my head?" Or my title? he thought to himself.

"You probably should keep it," Stassi told him. "At least through Sectionals. Maybe screw it on a little tighter though?"

Roxanne squeezed his arm encouragingly, and Walt nudged him from across the table. "Yeah, man, you did pretty good at keeping eighteen kids on the same page. We'll probably keep you around awhile."

The dark-haired boy was suddenly distracted by a buzzing sound coming from his pocket. He glanced at the phone, then put it back. "Ugh," he commented. "Some girls are so clingy."

Stassi glanced at the sophomore. "Why, who do you have on the hook now?"

Wally shrugged. "You remember that junior I was kind of messing around with from Rigby?"

Dalton's face turned down at the memory. "Collete?"

His friend nodded. "Right. Well, she was fun, but now that her girlfriend knows she's suddenly become a lot of drama. It's just not my style."

Nina's head snapped up from her face down position. "So you're ignoring her?" When the boy shrugged, she continued, "After you destroyed her relationship in order to spy on her team, you're just blowing the poor girl off?"

The jock looked around the table at the looks of distaste—even Stassi thought that seemed a bit low. "Hey, come on," he argued. "I just made winning Sectionals, like, a thousand times easier."

"At what cost though, Walt?" Dalton retorted, feeling way more disappointed in his friend than usual.

"I cannot believe this," the self-proclaimed player stated, shaking his head in disbelief. "I infiltrated the enemy's camp—"

"They may be competition, but you can't just go around screwing with people's lives, Wally," Nina chastised him.

"This is bull. I'm not going to sit and take this. I'll see you guys around." The boy all but threw his food back onto his tray and slammed it onto the trash cans as he strode out into the halls.

He was so livid he didn't even notice he'd all but rammed into Michelle until the girl was almost face first into his chest.

"Crap! Sorry," he apologized gruffly as he caught her by the arms. The larger boy set his tiny teammate aside a safe distance and moved to continue his angry trek.

"Wait!" the tiny Cheerio called, her interest in his mood piqued. "What's going on?"

"Bunch of ingrates, that's what's going on," the boy mumbled, pushing a hand through his short dark hair. He glanced at the freshman warily. "Look, it's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"It doesn't seem like nothing," she replied, taking two steps for every one of his strides to keep up.

They reached the gym and Walt finally stopped, leaning against the wall to give the small girl a reprieve.

"Let's just say I guess you and I have something in common now," he told her as he shook his head.

Coby tugged at his jacket as he made his way into Scandals. It was pretty much the opposite of every time he'd ever seen it: bright, empty, quiet. Even the air was cleaner: without the saturation of smoke wafting about, the place was almost respectable. He would have taken more time to appreciate it, but he was honestly so exhausted from last night that he couldn't believe he had the energy to beg for a ride down here (and he wasn't really in the mindset to drive).

He took a seat at the bar even though there was no bartender; the junior couldn't figure out what he was even doing here.

"Hey," a smooth voice greeted from behind as Gabriel Millan suddenly appeared behind him. Coby felt his chest tighten as he watched the boy smile and push back his scarlet locks. "I was worried you might not come." He looked around. "Where's your girlfriend?"

"Nina's not here." Yeah right; Nina would have killed him if Coby had asked her to take him here after everything that had happened. Speaking of… "What happened with you last night?"

"Oh, that," the senior dismissed with a wave. "I thought you guys were behind me, I swear." He took a step forward, hand grazing the larger boy's. "Lucky for you, I happen to dig guys with a little dirt on their records."

"You thought we were behind you?" Coby asked incredulously. "How could we have been behind you when we were still in the middle of a performance you set up?"

"Hey, I've got a lot to lose okay?" Gabe replied defensively. He paused, then took a deep breath. "I've kind of got a reputation amongst the boys in blue: a stricter code to uphold, if you will. If they had seen me there—"

"So you left us to take the fall?" Coby accused. "Me? Your own teammates?"

"The guys can handle themselves," Gabe told him.

"We were there for hours," the husky boy said lividly. "We could have gone to juvie—"
"No one was going to juvie," the red-haired boy interjected condescendingly, his eyes rolling at what he felt was Coby's melodramatics.

"The only reason we were even up on that rooftop was because you suggested it, and when you saw the cops you didn't even bother to warn anyone." He took a hand and pushed it through his tousled hair in disbelief. There was no response, the junior blinked hard and sighed. "I've got to go. I don't even know what I'm doing here."

The angel-eyed rival in front of him arched his eyebrow, letting his fingers rest on the juniors another moment before pulling back. "I guess we just came to wish each other luck at Sectionals then," he finally answered.

Back in the daylight of the parking lot, Coby opened the passenger door and collapsed in his seat. He'd wasted his lunch period, which he supposed didn't really matter since, for once in his life, he wasn't hungry.

"What did he say?" Everett asked him, watching his teammate curiously.

"Just…good luck, pretty much," Coby answered after a pause.

The smaller boy continued to watch the other as his mind seemed to churn behind his eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Coby sighed, shaking his head and scoffing a little at himself. "You know," he told his friend. "I think I may be over the whole 'bad boy' thing."

Everett laughed with him and leaned in to start the car's ignition and shift the gear into drive, trying to keep hidden the pleased grin that had threatened to overcome his expression.

In the auditorium, Roxie stood next to Dalton as Annie played a chord. Here come old flat top

He come groovin' up slowly
He got joo joo eyeballs
He one holy rollers
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker
He just do what he please

Caroline stood in the gymnasium surrounded by Cheerios. She'd lectured them for five minutes straight, explaining that they may have gotten off to a rocky start, but this was a championship year and even though she was a freshman, she was their Captain and that meant that they were all going to step up their focus and discipline until they had the Cheerleading trophy firmly in their grip. She'd then started them on as many laps as were needed to make up for the slacking that had occurred, and now they were practicing round out drills.

Nikki took a moment to watch as Caroline stepped in front of Annie and rebuked her for her sloppiness before leading her through the proper technique. She smirked in pleasure and then returned to Stassi's side where they worked on drills.

Roxie slid next to Dylan where they began to harmonize, He wear no shoeshine

He got toe jam football
He got monkey finger
He shoot Coca Cola
He say I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is
You got to be free
Come together, right now
Over me

Emma Schuester sat quietly in the living room, holding a baby blanket tightly as tears ran softly down her face.

The doorknob slowly turned, and she looked up to see Will coming through the door, eyes full of guilt as he lingered and held her gaze.

She stood and they met in the middle, hugging tightly. They both knew there was a lot to work out in the coming weeks, but Will knew they would both step up and be the best parents they could.

Roxie came back to the center and continued solo, He roller coaster

He got early warning
He got muddy water
He one Mojo filter
He say one and one and one is three
Got to be good looking
Cause he's so hard to see
Come together right now
Over me

Back in the auditorium, Wally and Michelle stood together on the edge of the choreography. The sophomore watched as his friends weaved their lives around the stage—Dalton front and center with Roxie by his side; Ashwin and Emma constantly making their way together and apart; even Coby seemed to be connecting to the theater guys. And now, by doing what he always did, somehow he was being punished, ostracized, and only the tiny Cheerio beside him could seem to forgive him for his nature. He shrugged and continued their performance, hoping that his friends would forgive him faster than hers.

Come together right now

Over me