A/N: Because Glee has a tendency to have weird illicit reasons for completely random things happening, I didn't feel bad about using an illegal substance to induce part of the storyline. And if it seems a little scattered, I promise it will make sense by the end.
A/A/N: Song featured is "Sleigh Ride".
Walt staggered slightly as he made his way through the halls of McKinley Friday morning. He half-wished they'd decided to throw the party tonight instead of the one prior, but the three boys had made commitments to help Emma and Ashwin after the Festival, so they'd decided on a pre-celebration instead. And now he was definitely feeling that decision.
Not that it hadn't been a spectacular party. Coby had brought in some Crawford Country Day girls, uniform and all, and they'd giggled and tittered over his impressions and his crafting abilities (they'd made a fairly impressive fence around their table completely out of breadsticks). Puck, of course, had blazed a trail through at least three different girls from what the sophomore had seen, including two Cheerios and one of the waitresses. Dalton hadn't made an appearance, as he and Roxie had decided on a quiet evening for themselves, and Ash had only stayed the first hour before making his escape; and so it had fallen to Austin Harrison to scrounge up the liquor needed to help Walt keep everyone happily buzzed and provide a specially-spiked dessert for each attendant. He himself had kept a solid gaggle of girls entertained on the dance floor as part of his main hosting duties.
This morning, however, he'd already been berated by Emma for being late (as if he didn't have three classes to get to this morning), and had been regretting not just throwing up before bed to prevent the worst parts of the hangover this morning.
At least he wasn't the only one, though. As he walked into the Music Room for some momentary calm, he found Annie sprawled on the risers, an empty plate of cake crumbs beside her.
"Hey Hudson," he greeted. "I take it you and I are on the same wavelength?"
Annie opened her mouth to reply as she sat up, then arched her eyebrow in puzzlement and distaste. "What are you doing here?" she bit harshly.
Walt put up his hands. "Whoa," he said, taken aback by her sudden mood. "What's up your spanks?"
Annie's mouth fell open in shock at his statement. It took a moment before she was able to finally push out, "Wally?"
The jock nodded slowly, watching her eyes blink hard as they tried to refocus.
"Why do you look like Rachel?"
Walt's expression turned to puzzlement as he glanced down at himself: he had his Freshjive Corsive jacket over his button up, slacks, and his normal Brattas with the busted heels. He ran a hand through his hair—slightly tousled, but still pretty close to the scalp. He was pretty sure all of his anatomy was still where it should be. Which part of him was she referring to?
"What?" was all he could think to say.
The Cheerio herself looked completely thrown, standing awkwardly as she took a step toward him, causing the boy to instinctively take a step back.
"I don't understand," she whispered, mostly to herself.
"I know I'm usually more self-absorbed than most," the jock replied, "but I've been here the whole time, and I don't either."
Annie's eyes widened at his words, and she shook her head hard before ran out the door, clearly spooked. Walt followed her with his eyes, then turned to her property suspiciously. He stepped over to her bag, glancing inside for a clue, before shifting his gaze to the empty plate.
It was one of their's, from last night. He'd barely seen her then, but she'd seemed fine. He put the plastic up to his nose and realized he didn't recognize the type of alcohol wafting from it.
He grabbed his phone and pushed a number on speed dial. "Austin," he barked when the person on the other end answered. "What did you bring to the party for the dessert tray?" He listened intently. "What the hell is Abe Sine Eth?...wait, Absinthe? Your brother sent it from where?!" The sophomore groaned and now felt like banging his head against the wall for a completely different reason. "Austin I'm going to kill you!" He hung up his phone and ran out into the hall looking for a delusional Cheerio, hoping frantically that it was just the one.
Emma was frantic. Her brilliant plan—combining alumni New Directions with the new generation to create a brilliant mash-up in the entertainment—was completely falling apart. Caroline and Quinn were not as compatible a duo as she had originally anticipated, and Annie and Rachel, already on a precipice of hostility, was now a complete wash as Annie, she was fairly certain, had gone completely insane.
And now this…she thought as she came upon Ashwin's trailer where the boy was unloading a shipment of equines.
"What are these?" she asked incredulously, her voice raising in frustration.
Ashwin straightened and patted the small creature's shaggy black mane. "They're Dales ponies," he answered with a hopeful smile. "Aren't they adorable?"
"I wanted Missouri Fox Trotters," she reminded him indignantly. "Horses. I researched the breeds and chose them specifically, and you promised you'd get them. What happened?"
"Look, Ems, my other guy had to back out, but Clark here—" he waved at the old man with the reins, "—he was willing to loan us the number we needed. Plus they're smaller, so they've got a sort of cuteness factor to them. I checked them all out—"
"It's not the same!" the perfectionist insisted. "I wanted magical, effortless sleigh rides; now I'll have people thinking they might break the horse's back with these ugly things."
"Emma, come on," Ashwin argued, and in the back of her mind, she knew he was right. Her ex would never agree to taking on horses (or ponies) that he hadn't checked for health and temperament thoroughly. They were a little smaller than she would have liked, and they were a weird mottled black, but they were sort of cute- in a non-traditional way. And he'd apparently gotten them for free, which would cut on the overhead when they divied out the earnings later.
However, she was still so frustrated about everything around her, she found herself arguing with the Indian boy for another five minutes about the horses (ponies).
Finally, Ashwin had apparently had enough. "That's it," he told her, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her up over his shoulder.
"What are you doing? Ash, put me down!" She wriggled petulantly. "I've got a billion things to do, and—"
"Nope—you are too high-strung, you are missing the whole point of the season." He plopped her into one of the sleighs that had been hitched up. "I am simultaneously unwinding you and proving a point." He grabbed the reins and urged the pony forward with a "Hup, Chip!"
Just hear those sleigh bells jingle-ing, Ring ting tingle-ing too, he sang to her
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you
Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling "Yoo Hoo", Ashwin continued and Emma grinned and waved as she watched them pass by friends who waved happily as they put the finishing touches on their booths.
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you
Giddy-yap giddy-yap giddy-yap let's go
Let's look at the snow
We're riding in a wonderland of snow
Giddy-yap giddy-yap giddy-yap it's grand
Just holding your hand, he smiled and placed a gloved hand in hers, kissing it lightly.
We're gliding along with the song of a wintry fairy land
The made a turn and approached the top of the quad, Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy cozy are we
We're snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be
Let's take the road before us and sing a chorus or two, he sang, jumping from the sleigh and offering her his hand.
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you
Emma grinned, finally allowing herself to relax as he led her on stage where the two finished the song together.
Just hear those sleigh bells jingle-ing, ring ting tingle-ing too
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you
Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling "Yoo Hoo"
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you
Annie felt bad. Something had gone very, very wrong, and she had been completely lost since that moment in the Glee room when she saw Rachel staring down at her. But it hadn't been Rachel, it was Wally. Somehow. And his voice was ringing in her head in a horrible echo usually reserved for TV shows.
"I know I'm usually more self-absorbed than most…" his voice reverberated.
And that hadn't been the end of it either. She had rushed to the bathroom, only to be stopped by Rachel again, only she was shorter (if that was possible), and wearing a Cheerio uniform. The tiny girl had talked about finding Austin and trapping him in some scheme or other for what seemed like forever before Annie had realized she was actually facing Michelle.
Unable to cope with the scene in front of her, she'd turned and run without a word, but that had just caused her to collide with another Rachel, whom she realized after a brutal tongue lashing was actually Stassi.
The junior seemed to have realized something was wrong with her teammate, but they were interrupted by Rachel, whose rouched dress and lace scarf had swished impatiently as she pulled out a clipboard and dragged Annie alongside her, explaining in specific detail the design for her part in the pageant.
This one had to be real right? "Rachel, I still haven't said I'd do it," she argued with the unusually-dressed girl. "You can't just go all obsessive-stickler on me for something I didn't even agree on."
The diva gave her a look. "Annie, are you okay?" she asked in a voice not her own. Annie squinted her eyes as she tried to understand why her future sister-in-law seemed so like and yet unlike herself. The older girl added, "Hello?"
"I am so lost," she admitted with a slump of her shoulders, and the petite perfectionist in front of her narrowed her eyes.
"Look Annie, I've got at least a dozen other things to worry about for this festival. I do not have time to figure out why you've become a raving lunatic. You made a commitment, and I am begging you to get your head on straight and get over your issues before your performance, because I've got enough on my plate besides worrying about if you are going to axe-murder the crowd."
Not-Rachel had practically stormed off after that, leaving Annie to wander in confusion through the halls as she slowly made her way to the bathroom, trying not to see the growing multitudes of brunette diva Broadway wannabes surrounding her, talking to geeks, to Cheerios, to teachers...
When she made it to through the door, she slipped quickly into the stalls and threw up, trying not to look at the remains of the dessert that she'd grabbed from the boy's big party as she quickly flushed to get rid of it. She stood and took a deep breath, pausing behind her door as she heard the entrance open and two sets of feet enter.
"Please Care—I know you're angry," Rachel's voice pled clearly, and Annie wondered what the midget had done to piss off the new Fabray. "I know a lot has happened, but now's our chance to start fresh."
"You sound just like Mom," Rachel said angrily, and Annie wondered what the sudden change in context meant. She peaked out of the crack in the door to see the two girls, and her eyes widened in shock as she watched Rachel Berry standing in front of the sink, glaring daggers at…Rachel Berry.
But the second Rachel wasn't finished yet. "Don't you understand?" she demanded of the taller girl. "You just shipped me off to England without a thought of my happiness. You just forgot about me—all of you! I've only known Lucy my whole life, and now you're surprised that I don't know or even like Quinn?"
"I'm still Lucy," Rachel insisted softly, reaching out to the uniformed-version, but the other pulled away. "Look, Caroline, I know you're mad, but Mom and Dad did what they thought was best for you."
"And you? What was your excuse for forgetting about me?"
"I never did," the older Rachel maintained. "I missed you so much. But what could I do? You were special, Care—that's what our parents told me, and that's why I thought you were better off at that school. And I lost my best friend too—you. I couldn't stand being Lucy Caboosey alone, it hurt too much. So I did what I had to do: I changed and became Quinn Fabray. I became what I am now, just like you did. You're not the same person either, Caroline. We can't go back—we can only start over."
The Cheerio-clad diva looked at her counterpart hard. "I guess," she acknowledged, and her sister gave a hopeful smile. "We'll have to start slow."
"How about a song at the Christmas Pageant?"
"Winter Pageant," younger Rachel corrected with a smile, and the two hugged before walking out the door.
Annie whipped around to vomit again.
Will walked slowly with his wife as they made their way through the Winter Festival. He'd praised Emma immensely when he'd seen her, it was so amazing. They'd taken a sleigh ride and played some games, and of course they had circulated back to the stage often to watch his kids in various performances. He'd congratulated Quinn, Santana, and Brittany on maintaining their Unholy Trinity chemistry as they'd performed "Deck The Halls", and had loudly praised Teddy and Artie's performance of "Winter Wonderland". It had been a wonderful day.
"Thank you for taking me here," Emma told him with a smile. "It's been really helpful for keeping my mind off of things." She gestured around her. "I mean, how often are the two of us going to be able to be by ourselves for the next weeks, or months? We should be taking all of the opportunities we can get to get the most of these last days of just the two of us."
"Because soon it will be a whole different set of adventures with three of us," he reminded her with a grin as he gently touched her stomach.
She smiled. "I'm going to use the restroom and then get some more cotton candy," she told him, standing up.
Will frowned as she stood in place, face furrowed in thought. "Emma?" he asked warily.
"Will," she said slowly and carefully. "I think my water just broke."