Author's Note: Guess who got their computer fixed. Me. I did a lot of writing regardless of the lack of computer so I actually have this and next chapter ready, but although this one was edited the other one is not. It might take a while as it is in pieces all over my e-mail and I wrote mostly on my phone so typo galore.

The reason two chapters are done is because they cover the rest of "Heart", yes, this one expanded to three chapters. But I think it had to. Next one might be a two parter as well, and hopefully I'll write it as quick as I wrote this one once I got going.

Anyhow, I hope you like it. I'm sure I didn't catch all the mistakes my autocorrect fixed for me, so, there might be some. But this is faster than any update before this and the next chapter will most likely be up by next Saturday at the latest assuming I have the time to edit it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Fox does...and RIB

Chapter Thirteen

Winning Sugar

Sugar had already made up her mind about who she was going to say yes to. Her talk with Blaine though not as good as ones she had had with future Blaine had helped her to the realization that she couldn't just alter things because she was mad that Rory got to be irresponsible and that he got to get away with pretty much anything. It had also reminded her of how Uncle Blaine had explained a lot of things to her back when she'd complained about Rory being treated so much like a child.

"You're very different," Blaine had said, "Sugar, your moms raised you much more independently than we raised Rory. Your mom is a genius and an inventor and your Mami is a performer. They love you and Kurt and I love you but you had to fend for yourself and you are your mother's child. You thrive on doing things on your own. Rory is different and he's always had you to look up to. You don't have to be perfect, but I think maybe because you're older and because you can handle some things a little better that we've always just expected more from you. But whenever something is just too much, Sug, you just tell us."

But deciding that she wouldn't mess things up didn't mean that she couldn't keep Rory and even Kurt trying so hard to get her to see the logics of what they wanted her to do.

That day she saw her moms exchanging presents, or rather her mom giving her Mami her present. Brittany had gone and made her a playlist and although Sugar didn't recognize any of the songs that were on it, she did have to stifle laughter at some of the titles.

It made her oddly serene to witness her moms having a moment that really showed how much they loved each other. They seemed like her moms in this moment and when Sugar saw that they were about the kiss the usual instinctual reaction of any child about to see their parents kiss was wholly gone and replaced with glee. Sugar wondered if that was what Rory felt whenever he saw his dads acting lovey dovey. Rory must have been used to it, though, because they still acted that way in the future.

Sugar saw the principal put a stop to the show of affection and she almost jumped out an started yelling at him, but she stopped herself just in time. It was enough having Rory's dads know about Rory being their son, they couldn't add her moms knowing. They wouldn't take it well at all.

When she got to glee club later that day, Sugar was surprised when Finn and Rachel got up to the front and announced that they were getting married. That had definitely not happened. Finn and Rachel wouldn't get married for a while yet. Out of everyone in that room it was Blaine and Kurt that got married first and that wasn't for a few years yet. But she'd never even heard of there being an engagement this early on for any of them. For a split moment she almost went into a panic because maybe this had come about because they were there. Had they somehow changed the future in such a way that Rachel and Finn were pushed to get married? Rory might know more about it. Sugar had never really been around the two of them in the future. She did know them, but not enough to know if they had ever considered getting married when they were in high school.

The whole room split on the issue but Sugar decided it would probably be better if she did just keep quiet. Rory had decided on the same, but it turned out that his dad had been the one to go to his parents and to tell them about the engagement. She wondered if he had been aided by Rory and if Rory had already known that they'd made a mistake and messed something up. Could they really change the future? There had always been the possibility, but Sugar just hadn't thought that it could happen. Now she wondered if they had changed anything at all.

Sugar also desperately wanted to know if Kurt had asked Rory about the future and if Rory had given him any answers.

But no, Rory looked as shocked as she was over the entire issue, but not the way she had been. After some more talk about it they announced a day for the wedding and sat down.

Artie rolled out to the middle of the room and Sugar suddenly had the strange feeling that she should have already let him down because when he began to sing - and what the hell was Kurt thinking going up there as backup - she swooned.

When he was done and all the other boys had sat down, Sugar couldn't help but get up off her seat and just sit on his lap. No one had ever sang to her like this before and a blanket of being wanted and not just because that person was obligated to, fell around her and she laughed as Artie wheeled them out of the choir room. She didn't see Rory's face drained of color and Kurt's shocked expression. All Sugar was really thinking was that for once someone liked her for who she was, or at least knew how to show her that they wanted her.

Rory sipped at his warm milk. He was in grandpa Burt's kitchen with the man himself. He was making dinner which was a rarity at that house with Kurt and Carole being very capable around the kitchen. But Burt liked to occasionally take over, mostly he only did it when Carole had too many shifts at work or when Kurt was out being a teenager. Both were out of the house for the moment and Rory had been glad to find his grandpa home and to be able to spend some time with him.

It had been hard getting any time alone with him lately. He was always in DC or when he was around so was Kurt and neither was aware that the other knew about Rory. Rory was just about to change that.

"I told them," he said.

"You told who what?"

Rory sighed. "My dads, I told them who I am and where I'm from."

Burt paused. "Those two kind of come as a package deal. I guess they didn't take it too badly, then?"

"I didn't tell them one of them dies. And I won't. I can't." Saying it was hard, but he had to be able to talk about it.

His grandpa continued seasoning the chicken, "you shouldn't. No one should know when they're going to die. It's the great mystery of life..."

"That doesn't mean we can't do anything to stop it from happening though, right?"

"Of course it doesn't, kiddo, but we still haven't figured out a way. And I'm not trusting that time machine to be of any help to you."

Rory drank some more of his milk. Things hadn't gone that great that day. His papa had assured him that Sugar was going to go with him but then she'd thrown herself at Artie earlier that day and Rory had not seen her since. His dad had told him they would work on something to remind her of the position she was in later that night and had invited him over for dinner but then he'd told Rory that he had to go see Blaine because somehow the dog Rory had given Sugar had ended up with Blaine and it was something that just had to be dealt with. Rory had opted to stay behind at Kurt's house so he could talk to his grandpa and Kurt hadn't put up too much of a fight. Rory didn't want to think about it but he was positive that his dads were desperate for some time alone.

"What do you think I should do then? I have to stop it from happening. He can't just be dead. I can't have gone through this just to go back and find him dead."

Burt set his knife down and then he walked around to where Rory was seated. "I don't want to give you false hope that you'll go back and he'll be there, but we will try everything."

Rory nodded. "It just hurts even more now that they know and he acts like him but...he's just not the same. He's not my papa and there's just this crazy possibility that I'm just never going to get to see him in any other form than this one - this seventeen year old."

Burt hugged him. "We'll do everything we can."

After Rory finished his milk he set about helping his grandpa with the meal he was preparing, a very simple chicken with mashed potatoes and a tossed salad. They worked well together and when Kurt got back they were about done.

"Oh wow," Kurt said, "you guys are cooking. I didn't expect that."

He and Kurt went to the living room when Burt ushered them out of the kitchen.

"Are you okay?" Kurt asked when they had sat down, "you look a little upset."

Rory had never been able to figure out how his dad always seemed to know when he was down about something, but it seemed that it was something that was just instinctual because this Kurt was also just as attuned to him.

"I'm alright, really. I'm just missing home I guess."

Last time Rory had said he missed home, his dad hasn't known that home wasn't Ireland. Now he did and maybe that was what made him hug Rory.

"You'll get to go back though," Kurt said, "maybe not right now but soon."

Rory just hugged his dad tighter and Rory who couldn't imagine what he might be going through with this experience thought that his dad really had to be the most amazing person for being able to just hold him, rub his back, and wish that things were different for him. And to think that just a few days before he hadn't even wanted to believe what Rory was telling him.

"Thank you," Rory said, "thank you so much."

His dad hugged him tighter. "No need," he said and then let go a little but only to lead them to the couch.

Once there he didn't let Rory get too far from him, somehow just knowing that Rory would need the physical contact from him. That's how Rory found himself with his head on his dad's shoulder and one if Kurt's arms wrapped around his shoulders.

"I don't even know how Brittany's been doing on it," Rory said and it was true and not just because he hadn't asked her but because he was pretty sure that she hadn't been working on it and he didn't want to ask just to be told that she needed to be inspired by something. He was so tired of waiting.

"Well," Kurt said, "what about asking if we can help her?"

Rory shrugged. Santana would definitely not be happy that he had told Kurt and Blaine and she couldn't find out that he was their son and much less that Sugar was her daughter. It might work, but it would be hard to pull off. Santana wanted him and Sugar gone so this was in all their interests. Rory's problem laid in that he still hadn't figured out how he was going to save his papa. Would they be able to go to the future to before he died to save him? Or would there be another way?

"You'll get back, Rory, don't worry."

"Not too worried about that. She invented it once right, if she didn't I wouldn't be here."

"Exactly," his dad said.

Kurt stared at him. "But you're also worried about something else," he said, "whatever reason you had to come back here or to travel back in time at all, you're worried about that, aren't you?"

Rory just nodded.

"You really can't tell me?"

This time he just shook his head and then he closed his eyes and dropped his head back on Kurt's shoulder.

"You know Sugar has to be feeling the same way," His dad said after a while, "what if you sang something about home. You have to remind her I guess and if not that then just make her feel something."

His dad had that look in his eyes that he often got in the future, the look that said he had just gotten a good idea and that he was going to lock himself in his work room for days and come out a disheveled mess with a new wonderful creation.

It was a look that Rory had always wanted to have on his face and he didn't think that it had been one that was actually present when he decided to get on the time machine and travel back in time. Maybe had he checked he wouldn't be in this situation right now.

His grandpa called them over to eat when Finn arrived looking so sweaty that he was dripping. Kurt stared at him for a long time and then pointed him up the stairs, "no shower, no food."

Finn groaned and muttered as he climbed up the stairs. In the meanwhile Kurt set the table and Rory helped Burt take everything into the dinning room. It was such a familiar feeling from the future that Rory couldn't help but smile except that then it was Rory being told to shower first when he got home from doing anything sporty with his uncle or papa. By the time Finn came back down, Carole had gotten home looking very very worn.

"Oh good, you have dinner ready," she said and kissed Burt on the cheek before taking her seat. "Oh, hello, Rory."

"Hi, Mrs. Hummel," Rory said and felt weird saying it because he had always called her grandma.

Finn greeted him mom with a kiss and despite being the last at the table he was the first to dig in, piling his plate high. Again it was a familiar sight and it made him miss home more than ever.

"How was school, boys?"

"Good," Kurt said, "but I'm still missing Blaine like crazy."

"He'll be back in no time kid," his dad said.

Kurt nodded.

"Well, I've asked the godsquad to sing to Rachel tomorrow. They're doing these singing Valentines thing."

Rory noticed that the looks shared between his grandparents were not happy ones. He had almost forgotten about the whole situation with Finn and Rachel and how they thought they were getting married in a few weeks time. Rory knew that it wasn't going to happen. His dads had never told him what stopped the wedding but something did and after it was stopped it just never happened until years later. Talk about a postponement.

"Well, Rory and I have to find a song for him to sing to Sugar tomorrow," Kurt said, changing the subject, "he's been trying to get her to go with him to her party at Breadstix."

Finn frowned at them, "I thought Artie was taking Sugar."

"Not officially," Rory said and tried his hardest not to look worried. Had Sugar already said yes to Artie?

After dinner Rory followed his dad up to his room. When Rory had first set foot into this room he'd been really surprised at how proficient in decor his dad had already been at this time. Now he just walked to the bed and sat down while his dad brought out his laptop and they began a search for what he might want to sing to Sugar. It reminded Rory of the days when he needed help with projects and he and his dad would spend hours to make absolutely everything perfect. But thinking about school and projects just reminded him how his papa had gone out to get him supplies when the accident happened.

"Home," his dad said, "it's perfect."

Rory scanned the lyrics. He'd never heard the song before, but he knew he could pull it off with practice. He gave a nod.

"You'll go back, Rory, you have to. I know the me in the future will do everything to get you back to him. Okay?"

"Yeah."

And then Rory thought of something that should have been important enough to have thought of before, if his dad knew now in this time that Rory was his son and in the past then wouldn't he remember all of this in the future?

The emotion in Rory's voice was unexpected and it hit him like a bunch of bricks. He was seated in the back row of the choir room and his son was in the front of the room singing about how much he wanted to go home even though the words didn't quite reflect that sentiment. Kurt had heard him sing the song so many times the night before that even he knew all the words, but maybe he hadn't been listening because hearing it now brought tears to his eyes as well a deep need to get up, rush forward, and wrap his arms tightly around the boy at the front who was pouring his entire heart into this song.

When he was finally able to tear his eyes away, he scanned the room until he found Sugar. She was almost as misty eyed as Kurt and had Kurt not been feeling like he could break into tears at any moment, he would have been grinning madly because it was working.

Artie sitting close to her on the other hand wasn't feeling the emotion in the room. He was frowning and it seemed like he too knew that he was losing. Rory finished his song and Sugar stood up. She said something about feeling bad for him and then they were hugging and Kurt couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't anything else there. But he shook the thought.

He wiped at his eyes and pulled out his phone, calling Blaine as he stepped out of the choir room. Blaine answered after two rings.

"Hey," he said, "how'd it go?"

"We picked a song about not wanting to go home, but it worked, He sang it so emotionally. Blaine, is it bad that I'm getting so attached to him. I don't know if it's that I know he's our son now or something, but I just care about him so much."

Blaine laughed, "you've always been closer to him than me, and he really is amazing. I almost can't believe we raised him."

"I can," Kurt said.

There was a bark and Kurt rolled his eyes. He really should not have let them talk him into getting a dog for Sugar. It hadn't made her make up her mind and now he was going to have to deal with it on a daily basis seeing as Blaine had become so enamored of the furry thing that there was no way that Kurt would get him to give the dog up.

"I think he knows you're on the phone," Blaine said, "he just wants to say hi."

Kurt laughed. "You're going to become one of those people who dress their dogs and buy them Christmas presents."

"As if you wouldn't be the one making him clothes."

Kurt hadn't thought about it until then, but now he was considering it. Maybe if he had nothing better to do one of these weekends. He could admit that the dog was cute even if he couldn't handle the shedding or the licking he'd tried to inflict on him when he'd gone to see Blaine the night before.

"Anyway," Kurt said, "Sugar has chosen him and they're going together so everything will work out wonderfully."

"That's great. Am I going to see you later?"

"Probably."

Kurt got to his locker and opened it one handed. Yet another card fell out. He couldn't help but grin.

"Thanks," he said into the phone.

"What? What for?"

Kurt sighed. "You know."

"Do I?"

Kurt just laughed. "I'll see you later, Blaine."

"I'm still confused," Blaine said, "but alright."

Kurt slipped his phone into a pocket and then opened the card. It was just as sweet as the others and still signed by a secret admirer. The card asked him to meet up at Breadstix before Sugar's party. Would Blaine be allowed out by then? He smiled wide, maybe Valentine's day would turn out better than he'd expected. He and Blaine had sort of planned to watch a bunch of movies at Blaine's house, but that was something they did on a regular day so Kurt hadn't been particularly excited about it. But now, he could be excited because they would be going to Sugar's party together. He put the card back into the envelope and then grabbed everything he needed from his locker and headed to his next class.

Now that it was a few days until Valentine's Day, more and more pink had been cropping up. There were more cards being exchanged and more people getting together and some breaking up. Had it not been for the secret admirer cards from Blaine, Kurt would have probably hated the whole ritual as he had in years previous. He remembered the last year, when he'd had to do backup for Blaine serenading another boy. He'd actually told Blaine he liked him, then, even if it didn't lead anywhere until a while later.

He met up with Rory later and the younger boy looked ecstatic. "She's going with me," he told Kurt, "and she wants to help Brittany with the machine. We have to go home. You were right about her feeling the same way I did. I think she has it worse than me."

Kurt decided he would approach Brittany and in turn Santana at the party or after and they could figure out a way to really work on it. Rory had to go home and his future self needed to have his son back, Kurt couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of heartbreak that the Kurt and Blaine of the future had to be suffering with Rory gone just like that. And how did time travel work, even? Could Rory just show up hours after he'd disappeared or would it be days? Weeks? Months?

When he looked at Rory he saw his future and he would do absolutely anything in his power to make sure that it happened and that it was protected even if he had to lie to Santana and Brittany to make it happen.

Author's Note: I have to say that this has been the most fun I've had writing for this fic. I just loved exploring every nuance of this episode, maybe, or there was just so much to work with. It also has moved a few things along behind all the craziness going on.

Anyhow, next chapter will be out later this week. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'm also on tumblr where I will probably leave little progress reports on how my writing is going and occasionally previews for upcoming chapters. So stop by. tumblr: emquin.

Thank you for reading.

Please Review.

-Erika