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Will Schuester wakes up in a hospital bed. There are bars on the window and restraints on his bed. The suit he picked out for Nationals hangs over a chair in the back, but apart from the chair the room is bare. No one comes at first when he calls for help.
He doesn’t understand what’s wrong. The last thing he remembers is getting the kids on the bus to … well where ever the hell Nationals is being held this year … and Blaine, Blaine who constantly questioned his authority this year, refusing to get on the bus, mumbling something about being disqualified. Which is ridiculous. He’s spent the last 12 weeks since February whipping the new kids into shape.
Eventually, the door opens and a middle aged man in a white coat steps into the room.
“What’s going on? Why am I here?” Will cries indignantly. He is a nationally acclaimed show choir director and he deserves to be treated accordingly.
“Mr. Schuester. Do you know where you are?” the man asks in a bored voice, like he’d rather be anywhere but here.
“ A hospital,” Will replies, because he isn’t stupid.
“You are in the psych ward of Lima Memorial hospital,” the doctor corrects him and Will just gapes at him. Because if someone deserves to end up in a mental hospital it’s his ex-wife.
“Why am I here?” he demands through clenched teeth.
“You attacked a student,” the doctor informs him, his eyes trained on the clipboard in his hand.
“What?” Will exclaims. “That is ridiculous. I love my students. Some even say I love them too much. They are my best friends. I would never attack them.”
And don’t you dare mock him for being friends with his glee kids. Those people have no idea how hard it is to make friends when you are a failed performer with a crazy ex-wife who not even the other teachers at school want to spend time with.
"Where is Emma? Where is my wife?” he tries when the doctor ignores his outrage.
“She’s the one who brought you here.”
This is a nightmare, Will concludes. And he’s going to wake up any moment now. It’s probably just stress over Nationals. After all he is trying to win Nationals with a group of mostly backup singers. This has to be it. Stuff like this never happened when Rachel was still his star.
When pinching himself doesn’t wake him up he turns to the doctor.
“Please explain?”
“You attacked a student after he made you aware of your delusions. You tried to force four students to get on a bus to a show choir competition you weren’t invited to. We spoke to your wife after the police arrived on scene and she filled us in on your condition.”
“Condition?” Will asks incredulously. The doctor nods.
“How many kids are in your glee club Mr. Schuester?”
What a stupid question, Will thinks.
“10. No wait, 9. Brittany got accepted into MIT a few weeks back. There’s the seniors Artie, Sam, Tina and Blaine and the new kids, Unique, Kitty, Marley, Jake and Ryder.”
The doctor smiles at him sadly confusing him even more.
“Mr. Schuester, only five of those kids exist. There is no record of a Unique, Marley, Kitty, Jake or Ryder at McKinley. And according to your wife, Brittany is still very much a student.”
“What no. I see them three times a week. If they weren’t real, surely someone would have told me about it,” Will argues, because this sounds crazy and he is not crazy.
“Your wife discouraged your students from anything about the matter after consulting a psychiatrist. Last fall, after your condition became apparent she arranged for you to take a job out of town, hoping it would help you get better, but when you returned and nothing had changed so was afraid to tell you.”
“I need to see my wife. You’re lying to me,” Will argues weakly, mentally replaying the last ten months. They had a slight hiccup at Sectionals but after their Regionals performance his glee club was back on track to win another national title.
“But what about Sectionals, Regionals?” When the doctor frowns, he elaborates. “Show choir competitions.”
“Oh, yes. Well your kids tried their hands on one performance in the fall but one of the band members who helped out fainted and your group left the stage. They were disqualified.”
“But we got reinstated at Regionals because of the Warblers.”
“I have nothing about that in my notes but according to your wife your club only participated in one competition.
He repeats his demand to see his wife and the doctor leaves him alone to his thoughts.
Emma’s eyes are red-rimmed when she enters the room and she avoids eye contact.
“Is it true?” If one person is going to tell him the truth it’s going to be Emma. His wife nods.
Will buries his head in his hands as tears threaten to spill over.
“Why would I do that?” he whispers.
Emma sits down on the bed next to him.
“Oh Will. Did you never wonder why those new kids in your class were pretty much copies of those who graduated. Unique representing Kurt’s well uniqueness. Ryder to replace Finn, Jake to replace Puck. Marley, who could be a Rachel if she would just listen to you. And Kitty who I imagine to be a mix of Quinn and Santana by the way you described her.”
Will just shakes his head.
"But Unique exists. You saw her too last year." Emma nods.
"Yes, but she never transfered." When Will remains silent she continues.
“I know you had a hard time saying goodbye to those kids and Dr. Fletcher thinks that’s why those new kids came in. They filled a void.”
Will breaks down then and starts sobbing.
“I can’t believe I made it all up in my mind.”