Hey everyone! Thank you all for your reviews on the last chapter. I always love writing the gleeks at holidays! I hope you enjoy this chapter. I've wanted to do a dream sequence for a while and I thought this might be a good time to do one. I know this chapter mostly focuses on Rachel, but there will be focus on other characters in the next chapter. Enjoy and review if I should keep going!

Chapter 50: Opening Night

Today was the day.

Today, Funny Girl opened on Broadway.

Finn sat in his seat in the stands with Kurt, Blaine, Santana, Sam, Artie and Tina. He knew this wasn't what Rachel had been hoping for and couldn't help but worrying about her. He wished that she could sit with them, but he knew that she needed to be backstage in case the lead actress couldn't perform in the middle of the show.

Finn looked at his program. He saw Rachel's head shot and what it said under it. "Rachel Berry - Fanny Brice understudy #2. Rachel is proud to have been chosen to join the team of Funny Girl. Rachel played Maria in her high school's production of West Side Story. She also is a student at NYADA, where she won the 2012 winter showcase. In 2012, she was a member of the high school show choir that won the National championship. Rachel sends her love to her former glee teammates and director, who've helpd make her into the performer she is today; her fathers, who got her into theatre; her mother, from whom she inherited her talent; her sisters Kylie and Beth, whom she loves so much; and her amazing fiance Finn Hudson, who inspires her and makes her a better person in every walk of life."

"Awww, she mentioned you last," Kurt said, looking over Finn's shoulder.

"Yeah," Finn said.

"Do you think she's okay back there?" Kurt asked.

"I don't know," Finn admitted. "She hasn't been talking about it lately."

"Yeah, I know," Kurt said. "I've tried to let her be the one to bring it up."

x

Rachel sat in the wings, watching as Marissa walked around the stage singing Don't Rain On My Parade. For the longest time, Rachel had thought of that as her song. And as she watched the lead actress in the play strut down the stage singing what she once considered her song, she now confirmed with herself what she'd been afraid to admit for months: this girl was much better than she was.

The other understudy for Fanny, Taylor, was also watching the performance. "I can do it better than that," Taylor muttered.

"That's what I thought," Rachel said. "But she's really, really good."

"I thought I was going to get the part," Taylor said. "I know she's been in three Broadway productions before, but I've been in four."

Rachel did really have a disadvantage against these girls. "This is my first production."

"I was just an extra in my first production," Taylor said. "But maybe being an understudy is better. We don't have to do eight shows a week but we still get publicity." Her tone of voice sounded like she thought otherwise though.

"Yeah, maybe," Rachel agreed.

The girls continued to watch the show, but Rachel thought it probably would have been easier if she'd stayed home tonight. She knew all these songs. She knew all these lines. She easily could have done this. And yet here she was, wearing regular clothes rather than a costume, standing in the wings.

If she'd been the one playing Fanny Brice, she was sure that her family would have come into town, that the other glee alumni from out of town would have come to town. She would have gotten a big celebration. She'd fantasized about seeing her photo on the front page of the arts section of the New York Times and having all her high school tormentors realize that she was more successsful than they were. Maybe even some of them would regret how they treated her.

But tonight was a different story. She'd told her dads not to bother coming because they wouldn't see her perform anyway. Shelby had chemo the next day, so Rachel told her she didn't need to come either. She'd told Kylie she didn't want to pull her from prep for Nationals. She'd asked her roommates to come tonight, but mostly for support.

All her life, she'd been raised to think that she was the best, but she really wasn't the best. That had been a cruel awakening she'd gotten these past two years. She may have made it to the callbacks and gotten an understudy role, but she wasn't good enough for the lead role.

Now Marissa was about to sing My Man. This song also was special to Rachel, since she'd sung it about Finn to try out for a solo at Nationals her junior year. But today, she was still thinking of Finn, but watching another girl sing it. She'd fantasized in the past about singing this song on a Broadway stage with Finn in the audience. She'd look directly at him and make sure he knew that this song was for him. Maybe this was one of the things that hurt the most, not being able to sing a song for the man she loved on a real Broadway stage and declare her love for him in front of thousands.

When it came time for the curtain call, all Rachel wanted to do was go home and be with her fiance and her friends. But she knew she had to stay for the after party with the cast. She talked briefly with Jean Baptiste, Taylor and Marissa, but all she really wanted to do was go home. Finally, the party began to wind down, and Rachel started to walk home.

As she left the theatre, she heard a familiar voice. "Well, well, well, if it isn't McKinley High's very own Broadway failure."

Rachel turned and saw Sue Sylvester. "What are you doing here?"

"Mr. Schuester had a ticket for tonight in case you got the part," Sue continued. "But you obviously didn't, and he's preparing for Nationals, so I thought that I'd come and see how much better the girl they picked over you was. And she was so much better than you ever could have been."

Rachel wasn't in the mood for this right now. "Honestly, Coach Sylvester, you need to grow up."

"What?" Sue asked.

"Why do you get so much pleasure out of tormenting people?" Rachel said. "It's really pathetic."

"Well, Rachel, I think you're the one who's pathetic," Sue said. "I may not have liked you early on, but in some ways you reminded me of a young Sue Sylvester. Your ruthless passion and your obsessive drive to be the best... I think the old Rachel Berry would have been up there tonight, playing Fanny Brice, if she'd stuck around."

"Okay, I've had enough," Rachel said. "I'm tired, and I want to go home. Have a nice night."

Rachel walked back to her apartment, not getting the last thing Sue Sylvester had said to her. The old Rachel Berry would have gotten the part. The old Rachel Berry would have gotten the part...

When Rachel arrived back at her apartment, everyone was hanging out in the living room. "The show was great, but you would have been a better Fanny!" Finn said.

Well, if the old Rachel Berry had gotten the part... "I'm just really tired," Rachel said. "I'm going to bed."

Finn looked worried. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rachel said. Well, she was as fine as she could have been after spending the night watching another girl play the role on Broadway she'd dreamed of since she was a kid. Rachel put on her pajamas, turned off the lights and climbed into bed, Sue Sylvester's words still stuck in her head. "I think the old Rachel Berry would have been up there tonight, playing Fanny Brice, if she'd stuck around."

"Maybe the old Rachel Berry should have stuck around," Rachel whispered to herself as she fell asleep.

x

Rachel opened her eyes. She wasn't in her apartment in New York. She was in her bedroom at her dads' house in Lima. Well, an old incarnation of her bedroom. The wall was covered with posters of various Broadway musicals, just like the room she'd left in Lima.

But the photos she had of herselves and her friends were surprisingly missing. So were any pictures of herself with her mom and sisters. Pictures of her and her dads were still there - but what had happened? How had she even gotten here? Did she go home without remembering?

Rachel went to her closet to get dressed. The closet was full of sweaters with animals on them. She hadn't seen those in a while. She knew that Kurt hated them, but since he wasn't here, maybe wearing one wouldn't hurt. After all, she hadn't worn them in a while. She put on her reindeer sweater and put on a pleated skirt as well before going through her jewelry box, looking for her Finchel necklace.

Then she looked at her hand. Where was her ring? She looked through her drawers and her jewelry boxes with no luck. She could hear her dads talking downstairs, so maybe they could help. "Dad, Daddy, where's my ring? And my Finchel necklace?"

"What kind of word is Finchel?" Hiram asked.

"And what ring?" LeRoy asked.

Rachel groaned. "Dads, don't be silly. My engagement ring?"

Both Rachel's dads looked shocked. "I should hope you're not engaged yet!" LeRoy said.

"I don't understand why none of the boys want to date you though," Hiram said.

Her dads knew about Finn. "This isn't funny."

"It's not funny," Hiram agreed. "Now go get your bag. You're going to be late for school. You have a change of clothes, right?"

School? "But I go to school in New York!"

"You will in a few years," LeRoy said. "Right now you're at McKinley High."

"Why are you acting so weird?" Rachel asked.

"Rachel, just get in the car," Hiram said, clearly getting frustrated.

Rachel saw her school bookbag. Surprisingly, it looked completely packed. Maybe this was a trick of some sort. Her dads drove her to school, and she walked inside. As she entered the main hall, she saw Santana and Puck making out. "What is going on?" Rachel asked.

Puck and Santana looked at her. "Why are you talking to us?" Santana asked.

"Because I'm wondering why you're making out with him when you like girls!"

Santana walked toward Rachel with a threatening glare. "What did you just say?"

"Santana, you know and I know that you like girls, so why are you making out with Puck?" Rachel asked.

"You're just jealous," Puck said. "Jealous that you're never going to get to do this and all the other girls in the school do."

"And why are you cheating on Quinn?" Rachel asked Puck.

Puck cracked up. "She's with someone else. I can't break the bro code."

Before Rachel had a chance to respond, Mike Chang and Matt Rutherford came charging toward her. They each threw a slushie on her as Rachel froze. She'd forgotten how much they stung. Why was Mike throwing a slushie on her? And what was Matt doing here? She didn't even know where he was now!

"Nice one!" Puck said as he high fived Matt and Mike.

Rachel now knew what her dads had meant when they said to bring a change of clothes. This was getting weirder and weirder. Had the clock been turned back?

Rachel went into the girls' bathroom and attempted to clean herself off when Mercedes and Tina came in.

"Th-th-th-that looks like a b-b-b-b-bad one," Tina said to Mercedes.

Rachel turned to Tina. "Tina, why are you stuttering again?"

"What do you mean, stuttering again?" Mercedes snapped. "Are you insulting my girl?"

"No, but Tina doesn't stutter anymore!" Rachel said. "She got the courage to stop a while ago..."

"You're even crazier than I thought you were," Mercedes said.

"T-t-t-t-totally," Tina agreed.

"I'm surprised you two are hanging out," Rachel said. "Aren't you kind of in a love triangle with Sam?"

Mercedes and Tina exchanged a look. "Sam who?" Mercedes asked.

Sam who? They'd known Sam since their junior year of high school. (Well, Sam and Tina's sophomore year.) "What is going on here?" Rachel asked. "You're my friends."

Mercedes and Tina both laughed and left the bathroom as Rachel heard the bell ring. As she entered the hall, she saw Mr. Schue. "There you are, Rachel," Mr. Schue said. "Come on in."

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.

"Don't be ridiculous," Mr. Schue said. "It's time for Spanish."

Time for Spanish? Was Rachel in high school again? She walked into the classroom and saw Kurt. "Why are you wearing that?" Kurt snapped.

"What?" Rachel asked.

"That," Kurt said, pointing at Rachel's sweater. "We're sixteen. You're dressed like you're in preschool."

So Kurt had said they were sixteen. Time had definitely gone back. Rachel sat next to Kurt. "Kurt... why would you say that to me?"

"Why would you expect me to be nice to you?" Kurt asked. "We aren't friends."

We aren't friends. Those words stung. She didn't want to imagine her life without Kurt as her friend. "I see you got your dose of a slushie already today," Kurt continued.

"At least it's not like the one Blaine got hit with," Rachel said, trying to focus on the positive.

Kurt looked confused. "Who's Blaine?"

Who's Blaine? Rachel could barely stay focused throughout Spanish class. At the end of class, she stopped to talk to Mr. Schue. Maybe if she was back in high school, getting the glee club together could fix everything. "Mr. Schue, can we have an emergency glee club meeting?"

"Glee club?" Mr. Schue asked. "What glee club? We disbanded because we couldn't find enough members to qualify for competitions. And quite frankly, the glee club wouldn't have gone anywhere with you always talking about how much better you were than everyone else."

Disbanded? Oh no, this was getting even worse.

Then Rachel saw him in the hall. Finn. With everything that had happened so far, she didn't even want to go near Finn. Her two closest friends had insulted her. Other friends didn't appear to like her. Glee club had been disbanded - and Mr. Schue had, in a way, blamed her for it. She'd been slushied...

What was she supposed to do as Finn passed? The least she could do was try to talk to him. He stopped at his locker and Rachel went to the locker. "Hi."

Finn looked at her. "Why are you talking to me?"

That stung. Well, he hadn't said some of the things other people had said, but it still hurt. "Well... it's... complicated."

"Yeah," Finn agreed. "I know you're in some of my classes... but we've never talked before."

Had Finn never joined glee in this timeline? "This is going to sound crazy and you're not going to believe this, but I'm from an alternate universe," Rachel tried to explain.

Finn wrinked his nose. "Okay..."

"And in that alternate universe, you and I joined glee club together and sang some epic songs together and then we fell in love and dated and moved to New York together, and in the universe I come from, we're about to get married," Rachel rambled.

Finn shook his head. "You're really freaking me out."

"You have to believe me!" Rachel protested.

Quinn came over to Finn. "Why are you talking to HER?" she demanded.

"Uh..." Finn began.

"Finn can talk to whoever he wants to talk to," Rachel shot back.

"Quinn, be easy on her," Finn said. "I think she's a little mentally ill. She thinks she's from an alternate universe where she and I are living in New York and getting married."

Quinn looked at Rachel like a bug in her food. "What? Are you trying to steal my boyfriend?"

Rachel shook her head. "No, of course not. Your boyfriend was making out with a lesbian this morning!"

Quinn turned to Finn. "She's even crazier than you said she was. I know you would never cheat on me."

"Well, he did cheat on you with me twice when you were together," Rachel admitted. Oh crap.

"Whoa whoa whoa," Finn said. "Okay, you're officially out of control."

"And we ARE together," Quinn snapped. "So leave him alone."

Finn wasn't with her? No! Rachel wasn't going to tolerate this anymore. Then she remembered. She'd said to herself earlier today that she wished she'd stayed the old Rachel. Well, here it was, a trip back in time to being the old Rachel. "Okay, I think this is the universe's way of punishing me for something I said in the alternate universe I come from," Rachel said. "But you have to believe me. Quinn, you're dating Noah Puckerman, and you two had a baby together."

Quinn pushed Rachel. "That does it. You know I'm president of the celibacy club. I would never get pregnant, let alone with my best friend's boyfriend's baby!"

She turned to Finn. "Come on Finn." Before they walked away, they began making out, and Rachel wanted to scream. "Stop it!"

x

Rachel opened her eyes. It had all been a dream. A bad dream, but still a dream.

The old Rachel Berry may have gotten the part on Broadway, but the old Rachel Berry also would have probably been completely friendless and would not be planning her wedding. And she'd much rather have Finn and her friends than a part on Broadway.

Chapter 51 preview: Finn gets his first interview for the glee club directing position. Meanwhile, a former gleek is going through a hard time, and old feelings may be rediscovered. More wedding planning too!

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