A/N: This was inspired because it happened to me today and I wish I had a Will to comfort me. While writing this I knew EXACTLY how Emma was feeling and transferred my pain into hers.
Will Schuester was the happiest man alive. After months and months of heart break, longing and a lot of tears Will finally got the greatest gift he'd ever receive: Emma's heart.
Those six months that Emma was dating her dentist were the hardest months he ever had to live through. He didn't know if they did it on purpose but Will constantly saw Carl in Emma's office. He saw them laughing together, smiling together, and even hugging occasionally. Each time he saw the happy couple together he either wanted to burst into tears at the spot or punch something. Due to the reason that he was in school and he didn't want any students to see him in either state, he refrained. There were the occasional times he'd do it at home though and had broken a couple of old picture frames and other small trinkets along the way. He spent every night for one hundred and eighty nights with his last thought being of the red-headed guidance counsellor. At least half of those included tears. He never gave up though, he kept fighting for her because like he told her, he loved her and that love only continued to grow with each passing day.
He waited patiently, not giving into the temptation to fight with Carl the dentist like he so badly wanted to. He knew that if he did, his chances of Emma returning to him were shot. He had already messed up with Emma once before and he could not bare the thought of hurting her again.
Then, one night, shortly after glee club had won sectionals and not long before the school would take a two weeks break for Christmas vacation, Emma showed up at his door.
They talked for hours about everything, about what happened between them, about what happened with Carl - Will was relieved to find out she'd broken up with him just days before- and what was going to happen between them in the future. The night was filled with tears and laughter and they remained cuddled together on Will's couch until one o'clock in the morning, even though there was school the next day, talking about happy memories shared between them. The memorable night was ended with a short, sweet kiss and an 'I love you, too' from Emma.
Since that night, not a single tear had been shed and the only looks between them were smiles and looks of love. They spent Christmas and New Years together, both of them opting to stay in Lima for the holidays instead of visiting their families.
The awkwardness that was sure to come after being apart for long and for the reason the were didn't last as long as they thought. They were both amazed how quickly they fell into a normal, happy relationship.
By the time the third month of their relationship rolled along, Emma assured Will that she was ready to take their relationship to the next level. She had been seeing her therapist and she had gotten a little better handling her OCD and Mysophobia but her real help came from Will. He never pressured her to do anything she wasn't ready for, in the beginnings of the relationship when she stopped him after going a little too far in their make out sessions, he apologized and changed the mood either by putting on a movie or launching into conversation and he never looked frustrated or hurt.
One night when she had allowed Will to take it too far and Will's hand started to slide under her shirt, she panicked a little and Will apologized, stopping it immediately. However, for the rest of the night she couldn't help but think how amazing it felt to have Will's warm hand against her bare skin.
Not even a week later had they finally made love. Emma was nervous and scared but Will helped her through it and it wound up being the most wonderful and amazing night of her life and she was so glad that she did not wind up doing it with Carl. She knew from day one that Will was the only one she wanted to take her virginity.
Shortly after that night, they decided to move in together. Emma didn't feel comfortable moving into Will's apartment since that was the place he had lived with Terri for so long and she felt odd bring Will to her own apartment because she had spent many night alone with Carl there.
They decided to leave their old apartments behind and rent a new one that wouldn't have any memories of their past, a new place that they could start their new lives together in.
The apartment was only a little bigger than their old ones and it was only a few blocks away from the high school and Emma and Will agreed: it was perfect.
It had two bedrooms but after sleeping together on that beautiful night, they knew they couldn't sleep apart.
At first they had tried to keep their newly found relationship a secret but the glee kids were waiting just as patiently and as longingly for their two teachers to get together. The day after Will and Emma had made up and Will came in with tired eyes but a heartfelt, truly happy smile on his face the kids instantly knew and word spread around the school like wildfire. The faculty was always aware of their feelings for one another and their almost relationship especially because of Emma's rant in front of them in the faculty lounge. So when they found out the information of the two finally reconciling and staring anew they rejoiced and Will and Emma got many smiles and nods. Even Sue seemed to be happy for them and showed it her own weird way.
So, the last six months had been absolutely blissful for Will. He was dating and living with the woman of his dreams, his kids had won regionals and would be preparing for Nationals at the end of the summer. Life could not be any better for Will Schuester.
Will had heard Emma move out of his arms in the early hours in the morning. He was half asleep and was too tired to pull her back into his arms, besides she was probably only going to the bathroom. His thoughts were confirmed when only a few seconds later he heard the bathroom door open and close.
He had just almost fallen completely back asleep when he felt Emma crawl back onto the bed. He waited a few moments for her to pull his arm back around her and snuggle into him but she never did. He forced himself to open his eyes to make sure that Emma was actually on the bed with him and he hadn't imagined it.
Will saw the back of her yellow nightgown and the tips of her orange hair poking out the top. He blinked to clear his vision and wake himself up and propped himself up to see her.
Emma's dainty body was curled up in a ball, her arms around her lower abdomen and her head ducked into her chest, her eyes closed tightly.
"Em?" He called out tiredly. All he got in response was a low moan.
Will furrowed his brow and scooted closer to Emma, resting his hand on her upper arm softly, staring down at her in concern. "What's the matter, Em? Is your stomach upset?"
Emma shook her head, her eyes still remaining tightly closed.
"What's wrong honey?" He prompted gently, reaching out to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear.
Emma finally opened her eyes and slowly turned her face to look at Will. Through the dim light coming in through the shades Will could see the tears pricking her eyes.
His eyes widened in concern and he inched even closer to her to his front was pressed against her back and he reached down to place his hand over hers, still wrapped around her stomach. "Did you throw up Em?" He knew how much she hated doing that.
Emma shook her head again and finally rolled over onto her side, her face scrunching up as she did so. Still holding her arms around her stomach she cuddled into his chest and closed her eyes tightly.
Whatever was bothering her, she clearly wasn't interested in telling him yet. Whatever it was, it couldn't be too bad or else Emma would have been panicking. She'd tell him sooner or later so he just settled back down onto the bed and wrapped his arms tightly around her.
Will sat awake for several minutes, wondering if he'd go back to sleep that night. Just as he did start to drift off again he heard several soft whimpers escape from Emma. He was instantly awake as he stared down at the top of her head, listening. A few minutes passed and then she whimpered again.
"Emma?" He questioned and sat up, Emma clutching to his shirt tightly to remain close to him. He instantly noticed the tears escaping her eyes and running down her cheeks and her slightly sped up breathing. Emma only cried for a few reasons, when something was too dirty that it sent her into a panic attack or when she was emotionally or physically in pain. As far as he knew, Emma was happy with her life so that only led to one conclusion: she was in physical pain. A lot of pain judging by her whimpers and the tears quickening their speed down her cheeks.
"Emma." He repeated, now wide awake and worried. "Em, honey, are you in pain?"
Emma whimpered again and he felt her nod against his chest. He let out a breath, wondering what it possibly could be and moving to get out of the bed. "Okay, okay Emma don't panic honey, alright? I'll call your doctor and we can take you to the..."
"No!" Emma cried and clutched onto him, trying to pull him back into the bed. "Will, no."
Will understood her fear of the hospitals but he wouldn't waste another minute if Emma's health was in danger. "I know you don't like it sweetie but if you're in pain..."
"No." She repeated shaking her head, slowly sitting up and sniffling. Her wide, tearful eyes stared at him as she held onto his hand. "No, Will you don't understand."
"I understand that you're in serious pain Emma and I'm not going to just sit around and..."
"I have my period Will." She quickly cut him off and Will froze. e stared at her, blank faced and blinking as Emma slowly turned bright red.
"Oh." Will finally said and remained standing.
Emma bowed her head and stared at the sheets, twisting the blanket nervously with her free hand. "I'm sorry I worried you. I tried to keep quiet but it hurts. The cramps are never usually this bad and they haven't been this bad in years but um..." She glanced up at him and shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry."
Will's body relaxed and he let out a sigh of relief and crawled back onto the bed. Once he was settled down onto his back, Emma cuddled up to his side and rested one hand over his chest and the two stared into each other's eyes.
"You could have told me Emma." He said, gently rubbing the top of her hand with his thumb. "I'm not ten, I'm mature enough to talk about a woman's period. Lord knows I've had to deal with several teenage girls over the years who are on their periods."
Emma blushed again and ducked her head shyly. "I know." She muttered. "Sorry. I'm just um...not used to being anyone else, especially a man, being around me during that time of the month."
"What about..." He paused, hating to bring up the subject of her ex and he swallowed, forcing out the name, "...Carl?"
Emma blushed further and she shook her head. "I avoided him during that time. He understood, I think."
Will nodded, quickly changing the subject away from Carl. Emma sighed heavily and brought her head down to rest on Will's chest.
"Still hurts?" Will questioned, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
Emma nodded. "Very much." She whispered.
"Turn around." He instructed and she turned her head to look at him skeptically, not wanting to move again.
"Just do it." He said with a small smile and she groaned and slowly flipped over onto her other side. Will turned onto his side and curved his body around hers, his arms slipping over to rest on her front. He started to roll up her nightgown so it was about halfway up her stomach and in a very non-sexual way started to rub her slightly bloated abdomen.
Emma hummed quietly and let her head rest on the pillow. Resting his head near hers he whispered into her ear, "Is that helping?"
Her lips twitched in a small smiled and she hummed again. "Yes." She whispered. She opened her eyes and turned her head towards him, kissing the tip of his nose. "Thank you."
He smiled in return and kissed the skin near her neck softly. Emma settled back into the pillow as Will continued to rub her pain away.
Will watched her slowly drift off into sleep and he didn't stop the motion of his hands until he was one hundred percent sure that she was dead asleep. When she was, he lowered her nightgown back down and rested his hands over her stomach, cuddling into her and closing his eyes.
When he awoke hours later he was shocked to discover that Emma was still fast asleep in his arms. He glanced at the clock and was even more shocked that it was past noon. Emma never slept past nine o'clock except when she was really ill. Will would rather have her sleep the day whole day away then to be up and writhing in pain. Thankfully he hadn't been born a woman and did not have to deal with that type of pain but that meant he had no idea how to comfort her. He had seen many teenage girls burst into tears in the middle of his class because they were suffering from the same type of pain that Emma was. He could only stand there helplessly and send the poor girl with another classmate to help her to the nurse.
Thankfully, school was over for the summer so Emma didn't have to worry about going to school. He couldn't imagine Emma spending the day at school in the type of pain that she was experiencing.
As he laid there holding Emma while he slept he felt a strong pressure on his bladder. He groaned internally at the uncomfortableness of his need to go to the bathroom but he couldn't leave Emma. If he left, she might wake up and her pain would return. He tapped his foot that was furthest away from Emma, lightly against the bed to distract him from the uncomfortable pressure.
He waited several minutes before it actually felt like he was going to burst. He carefully as he could slid his arms off of Emma and slithered off the bed, tip toeing out of the room and then running as fast and silently as he could to the bathroom.
When he returned a minute later, he was grateful to see Emma still asleep. He paused in the doorway and just smiled, keeping his eyes on the sleeping beauty. He was still amazed, after six months that he was where he was today. Two years ago he would've thought he still would be with Terri, only seeing his best friend a few hours a day at school and missing her during the summer. Two years ago if someone had told him he'd be living across town in an apartment he shared with the lovely Emma Pillsbury and divorced for over a year from his wife, he'd get a small hopeful smile on his face but tell them that they were crazy. He never thought one person could mean the absolute entire world to him. He loved Terri but he once told her that they shouldn't spend every moment of their time together because they'd have nothing to talk about when they got home from their separate jobs. And the truth was he didn't want to spend every waking moment of his life with Terri, especially in the last year of their marriage. He didn't feel that way about Emma, he craved their time together. He loved that he got to wake up to her every morning, see her at school and then come home to her, eat dinner with her, dance, cuddle and make love to her and fall asleep with her. The hours at school that he didn't spend with her he found himself missing her and waiting impatiently for his free period to be with her. He loved Emma more than he thought it was ever possible to love somebody else. They may have only been together for six months but to him it was much longer because truth be told, he started to fall in love with her the moment she stepped through the doors of McKinley High School four years ago. He only admitted to himself that he was falling in love with her almost two years ago when he had dusted her nose with chalk.
He shook his head happily at the memory, it seemed like such a long time ago and they had evolved so much in their relationship and their love since then. Emma was right that time he's come to her bearing flowers shortly after her outburst in the lounge. Their relationship worked now because they knew each other better, they knew each other for who they really were. Before they were just co-workers and friends who only knew what happened in school and occasionally Will would tell her what happened in his married life but they didn't really know each other. It took a lot of mistakes and heart break for their true selves to come out and they found out that they loved each other's real selves, a whole lot better than they liked the facade they put on at school for two years.
Will cautiously made his way back to the bed and slowly crawled up onto it. The bed moved under his weight and he froze, watching for any sign of movement from Emma. To his disappointment, Emma's brow furrowed and her body shifted, and she let out a moan. Her eyes fluttered as he sunk down onto the bed and she slowly turned to face him. "Will?"
He gave her a small smile. "Hey there. How are you feeling?"
She licked her lips and slowly blinked her tiredness away. "Okay." She mumbled and stretched her arms up over her head. "What time is it?"
With a quick glance to the clock he answered, "Almost twelve thirty."
Emma's eyes snapped open. "What?" She sprang up and her eyes closed tightly as she winced in pain.
"Easy Em.." He reached over to place a hand over her back. "It's okay Emma, its summer."
She opened her eyes and cast a pitiful look at him. "Will, you know I don't like sleeping this late."
"I know honey," He brushed her hair back, "but I think you can make an exception this time huh? You're in pain Em, its okay to rest."
"I don't want to stay in bed all day." She protested.
"You want to go out to the couch? We could watch some TV, maybe have a little movie-thon?" He raised his eyebrows with a smirk.
Emma pondered the request and as another twinge of pain coursed through her abdomen she nodded. "Okay." She looked up at him with a small smile, "I just need to take a shower."
He smiled in understanding and kissed her forehead. "Do you want to take a bath instead? It might be more comfortable for you."
Emma shook her head. "No not this time, I'll be fine, I promise." She pulled out of his grasp and slowly made her way around the room to gather up her clothes. She gave Will a small smile before she headed out towards the bathroom.
Will waited until he heard the shower start until he got up. He changed into gray sweat pants and a white T-shirt to not gross out Emma by staying in his pajamas all day. Then he went into the kitchen and made two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cut off the crusts nice and neat just the way she liked it.
While she was in the shower, he brought the two plates into the living room, setting them on the coffee table in front of the couch. He had put on some hot tea, hearing that heat was good for comforting menstrual cramps. He went through the DVD case and chose all of Emma's favorite movies and placed them in a stack on one side of the table. Once the tea was done he placed it on a coaster near the sandwiches, knowing Emma would absolutely have a fit if he hadn't put a coaster down. He hoped she didn't have a fit about the messy peanut butter being in their clean living room. She didn't typically like for food, except for the occasional popcorn bowl, to be in the living room. He also laid an light afghan, that Emma's grandmother had made for her many years ago, over the couch.
A half an hour later, just as he finished cleaning and setting everything up, he heard Emma's footsteps down the hall. He lifted his head and was surprised to see her walk in a pair of his black sweat pants and a gray T-shirt of his. He lifted his eyebrows in pleasant surprise and gave her a questioning look.
Emma blushed and fiddled with the T-shirt. "They're alot more comfortable." She explained quietly.
He only smiled and held out his arms for her. She smiled and walked over to him, wrapping his arms around him and burying her face in his chest. He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back gently. "Are you feeling any better?"
Emma shrugged. "A little I guess...the hot water helped for a little while but..."
"Come sit." Will released one arm around her and led her to sit down on the couch. Emma tucked her legs behind her as she sat down on the couch and cuddled into Will's side, his arm draped around he shoulder.
It was then that her eyes settled on the peanut butter sandwiches. Will noticed that she was looking at them and held his breath, hoping for the best. Emma's eyes narrowed slightly as she eyed the sandwiches and then she looked up at Will. "You made these?"
Will shrugged. "I thought you might have been hungry. I didn't want you making anything fancy."
She licked her lips, looked back at the sandwiches and then smiled. She slowly reached over and grabbed a plate, bringing it onto her lap. Will let out a small sigh in relief and watched as Emma nibbled on a perfectly cut triangle.
"So...movie?" Will questioned looking down at her. Emma nodded quietly, still chewing on the sandwich.
"Which one?" Will asked, moving out from under her and walking over to the stack of DVD's.
"Any one." Emma answered after swallowing. Will pursed his lips and went through them and held up the DVD case for 'The Wizard of Oz'.
Being one of Emma's favorites besides 'My Fair Lady' her face immediately brightened and she nodded. Will grinned at her and quickly set up the movie. As the TV screen lit up, Will grabbed the remote off of the top of the TV and moved to sit back down beside Emma.
Emma snuggled up against him, the plate back on the table and the cup of tea rested in her hands. Will carefully slipped an arm around her, pulling her tighter against him. As he pressed the play button, Emma leaned up and kissed his cheek.
Will looked down at her, his eyebrow raising with a smile. She smiled brightly, gazing lovingly into his eyes, "I love you."
Will's smile brightened and he captured her lips in a short, loving kiss. "I love you Emma, always."
They turned back to the screen as the black and white beginning credits began to roll. Emma sighed happily, the pain in her abdomen still there but dulling with every passing second as she cuddled with Will and watched one of her favorite movie of all times.
Will rested his head on top of hers, loving every second with her. One thing he knew for sure:
Will Schuester was the happiest man alive.