Author's Note: I tried not to rush, but on the other hand, I wanted to write as soon as inspiration hit. And, sure enough, the actual episode nine that I've been speculating about for so long was quite inspiring! My speculations were, of course, completely wrong. But hopefully, I've explained it away in THIS, the FINAL CHAPTER. Enjoy, Tarts, and be sure to let me know what you thought with a review!

Jenna

"Why is my lap covered in cereal?" Kevin stares down in horror, but his face quickly brightens. "Hey! I can feel my lap again!" He looks around. "And… we're in my trailer! Hey, Jenna, we're home!"

I sigh. "Looks that way," I say, dejectedly. "But did we accomplish anything? I feel like I was sent on some kind of mission with no clear direction of what I was supposed to be doing…"

"Yeah, it's kind of like that in Call of Duty: Black Ops…"

"How can you talk about video games at a time like this?" I wonder, amazed at how truly similar Kevin and Artie are sometimes. It's strange to be thinking of Artie as a real person, odd to know that are Artie and Tina back in their world now, probably just as baffled as Kevin and me.

"Sorry." Kevin even looks like Artie when he apologizes. He's infused so much of his own personality into his character that if it weren't for the grandpa sweaters and the wheelchair, I'd have a hard time telling them apart.

I sigh and rise to get Kevin a wet dish towel for his lap. He mutters a thank you, and I watch him mop up the milk and cereal in silence for a few minutes. Spending time in Tina's body has made me empathetic. I consider how torn she must feel, having to choose between two pretty terrific guys. Mike Chang's been nothing but wonderful to her, but she can't get over Artie either. There are love triangles everywhere you turn.

As Kevin rises to return the towel to the sink, stretching out his legs and giving a small sigh of relief, I stare out the window listlessly. The view of the rest of the parking lot and a wardrobe trailer isn't particularly spectacular. I idly think to myself that I'm going to be sad when I return to McKinley High School only to find that it's merely a set on a television show. Tina Cohen-Chang is an amazing girl, a girl who's often overlooked. Sometimes I think I'd like to be her… except for the whole love triangle thing…

A sudden loud bang on the door interrupts my thoughts, and I startle with a jolt. The banging continues, growing more and more impatient. Kevin rushes to the door with a cry of, "Okay, okay, coming!" He flings it open to reveal a very flustered and very angry Lea. She blows her bangs out of her face and glowers at us in a very Rachel-like manner.

"She warned you!" Lea shrieks, pointing an accusing finger at Kevin. He backs up as she approaches and nearly falls over the couch. He ends up sitting down as she glowers down at him. I'd giggle because I can't help but picture Rachel cornering Artie under the staircase, but Lea's really freaking me out.

"Who warned me?"

"Rachel, of course," she screeches, throwing up her hands in frustration. "She told you not to stray from the script, but instead, you two decided to distort the whole thing! And the result? Re-writes."

She slaps two scripts down on the tiny plywood coffee table as both Kevin and I gasp in unison. Does this mean that our changes made it in? That Artie, instead of fighting with Mike and hating Tina, befriends Tina once again? And that this renewed friendship could eventually grow into something more?

"No," says Lea, flatly.

Double gasp. "You… you can read minds?"

She exhales loudly and fixes me with an irritated glare. "No, Jenna, you're just that transparent. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to talk to Lea – I mean, Rachel – and…"

Kevin covers his mouth and does that goofy wide-eyed face that Artie always makes whenever he's super surprised. "I knew it, you're not Lea, you're an imposter!"

"Well, someone has to fix things," insists Rachel Berry, tossing her hair over her shoulder with an exasperated huff. "Now we have a brand new script in which I get no solos and lose my boyfriend."

"How… how did Artie and Tina's story affect you, Rachel?"

"Everything in the Glee-universe is intertwined," she explains, rolling her eyes at us as though we shouldn't even be asking such a stupid question. I exchange a troubled look with Kevin as she paces the floor in front of us, clearly distraught. "Or maybe you didn't notice, what with all the various Glee pairings?"

"More combinations than Fleetwood Mac," Kevin quips, in a spot-on impression of Kurt. His humor is not well received by Rachel and he bites his lip and offers a quick apology.

"I have to go," Rachel says, heading for the door and leaving the new scripts on the coffee table. She gestures to them, saying, "Get to work on those lines. And do be sure to stick to the script this time. We wouldn't want something worse to happen…"

She slams the door on her way out, shaking the whole trailer and causing several of Kevin's framed photos to fall off of a shelf. As he hurries to examine them for any damage, I cautiously lift the new script, almost afraid of what I'll see. Rachel's ominous threat of "something worse" still lingers…

"You think there's still going to be a wheelchair number in the new version episode nine?" Kevin wonders, taking a seat next to me on the couch. He picks up his own script and flips through quickly, evidently looking to see if the number is still there. It was a really cute rendition of "Roll to Me" by some random band from the nineties.

I can't flip through the script like Kevin's doing. I do not read this way. I read everything page by page without looking ahead, whereas Kevin always treats books and scripts like Cliff's Notes. He once told me that he read the ending to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" while waiting in line at the bookstore.

After a solid fifteen minutes of reading in strained silence, I finally find my voice again. I'm not even completely finished reading, but I've seen enough to know that absolutely nothing about this script is like the one we'd had before. There is no wheelchair number. Mike and Tina don't race wheelchairs through the hallway. Mike and Artie don't get into a horrible fight. In fact, the episode hardly focuses on Tina and Artie at all.

"At least they're kind of… friendly again?" I say, thinking maybe this is the small impact we've somehow made by visiting Artie and Tina's world.

"Yeah, but the Asian fusion is stronger than ever," Kevin says, grabbing my script and turning several pages ahead for me. I don't protest, out of pure curiosity, and instead look to see what he's referring to.

"'Asian kiss?'" Oh, dear Lord.

"And a lucky comb," he adds, smiling crookedly and rolling his eyes. "Brittany and Artie's working relationship has indeed blossomed into romance. Romance and… weirdness."

"But that is kind of cute…" I admit. I can't believe it, but I'm picturing the scene between Brittany and Artie with a smile on my face. The words that leave my mouth are even worse: "I ship it."

"'Asian kiss' is funny," says Kevin, staring down at the script. "I… I ship it, too, I guess. But only because of the context. Hell, I'd probably ship Kurt and Karofsky if the context was right."

I glance at the script in my hand again. "This is… this is just part of growing up," I reason. "And growing as a person. Mike is good for Tina… for the time being. And Brittany, she seems to need someone like Artie. And he seems to need to feel cool, to date a cheerleader and be on the football team. He's certainly been acting a lot nicer…"

"But Tartie is endgame."

"Tartie is endgame," I giggle. "But Kevin, what the heck is endgame?"

"It's from chess," he explains, pushing up his glasses in a very scholarly manner. "It means that there are very few pieces left on the board and the game is about to be over. You can also use the term to describe the final stage of any dramatic event."

His explanation is so very Artie that I just have to laugh. He grins back at me and I realize that our friendship is what makes Artie and Tina's chemistry so strong. We really aren't dating, despite what the tabloids want people to believe, but he's my best friend.

"So, you and I like the growth opportunity that comes from these two dating other people," I conclude. "But… we both still think Tartie is endgame. I can live with that. But what do we do about it?"

Kevin snaps his fingers. "The fans," he says, eyes widening with inspiration. "The fans are influencing the show now, more than Ryan or any of the writers would have us believe. And I know for a fact that they read fanfiction. Speaking of which, did you know that there are over fourteen thousand stories written in the Glee category on fanfiction dot net?"

"Almost as many as Gilmore Girls, which has been around way longer," I comment vaguely, as Kevin grimaces at me. He hates it when I watch Gilmore Girls. I've gotten nearly all of the girls in the cast hooked on the old seasons.

"Anyway," Kevin drawls, his sporadic Texan accent coming through. "I was figuring that maybe if the fans wrote more stories about Artie and Tina, then maybe the show's writers would read them and…"

"The Artie-and-Tina stories are the best!" I exclaim, loving this idea. "But lately, there haven't been very many. There's been a lot of Artie and Quinn, which isn't remotely canon, but Tartie stories have all but disappeared lately…"

"And that is why we need to contact the authors to let them know that we need their help," says Kevin. "There are some really clever stories out there. But if they don't continue, I'm just not sure about the outlook for our characters."

As Kevin preaches passionately about the future of Artie and Tina, I can't help but smile. I like the idea of reading fun stories about the future of these two star-crossed misfits even more than actually seeing it play out on the show. I always was more of a book nerd anyway…

"Endgame?" I ask, extending my fist for a friendly bump. Kevin quickly returns the gesture, smiling back at me as our fists "explode," complete with geeky sound effects.

"Endgame."