Michael's Blessing

by swarlock

My take on Will's past with his old flame and inspired by The Robotech Episode A RAINY NIGHT. Twenty years in the future and set a year after Ben and Laila are married, Grace learns some facts about what Will's life was like before from Vince.

WILL AND GRACE: MICHAEL"S BLESSING
By Steven Acevedo

My take on Will's past with his old flame and inspired by The Robotech
Episode A RAINY NIGHT. Twenty years in the future and set a year after
Ben and Laila are married, Grace learns some facts about what Will's
life was like before from his True Love, Vince.

FOOTNOTE: For purposes of this story Michael will be a lawyer as I'm
not entirety sure what the unseen character's profession was.

Year 2027

Grace and Leo had moved from Brooklyn to the Suburbs of New York a
year after they both retired from their professional careers as Graphics Arts
Designer and City Medical Doctor. Of course retirement in these days meant
little to Senior Citizens who were still active enough to spin wheels around their
grandchildren.

And that said a lot for this mixed community in which both Will Truman
and Vince D'Angelo now wedded, chose to live in as well to be close to
the kids. They had started their own enterprise too. Vince was a part
time detective and full time Sheriff. Will was still a lawyer but was
also a musician and painter.

They all decided to disfranchise themselves from city life and The
Corporate World that was still choking on its huge excessive debts
after the Economic crash of 2008.

Years spent cheating the Consumers out of their hard earned money for
lackluster entertainment took its toll when The Record Industry lost
their final battle with The Internet and two Presidents were impeached
within a year of each other for their crime of not serving the public
interest between 2009 and 2010. There was of course more to the
intervening years but Grace didn't want to think about it at that
moment.

Instead she and her Brother In Law Vince Truman D'Angelo were sitting
on a front porch talking about their kids Ben and Laila's moving into
an eight bedroom house across town. It was a lovely wedding. Both
fathers couldn't be prouder of their boy.

He was living out the destiny that was planned for them many years
before. Everyone was there, Joe And Larry - the guys who brought Will
and Vince together, Karen and Jack who were still considered the most
bizarro world pairing of Will And Grace even in the their younger
years, Jack's son Elliot and Karen's daughter Olivia, everyone was
there - except for Beverly Leslie who was still six feet under ground.

"And next week Will and I are going to The Berkshires to reaffirm our
wedding vows, Grace. You and Leo gotta come," he said happily.

"That's great news," she said sipping the lemonade she brought out for
the two of them. "We'll be there."

"I haven't been this happy since the last time I did this," Vince
smiled broadly.

I guess you'll be needing the usual accessories for a Gay Wedding,"
Grace told him. "Something in rainbow colors, maybe a cute pink
bunny."

Vince just rolled his eyes as she nattered on about the making of the
union. "We're gonna have a simple wedding like last time," he interrupted
her.

"How unoriginal!" she sneered at him. "But it's your union."

"Will will be here with the guys to pick up Ben and Laila's other
things soon. Let's move the boxes of their stuff outside by the gate,"
he told Grace. After a short walk from the porch to the main gate they sat
down again to talk.

"Did you hear about what happened to Michael?" Vince asked her.

"There's a name I haven't heard in over twenty years," Grace replied
with surprise.

"How do you know about Will's Ex?"

"He told me about him on our first date years ago. Will wanted to be
sure that I knew everything about his old boyfriends before making a
commitement to me."

"Then you know about his secret fling with another guy while he was
away," Grace said seriously.

"Yes.," Vince said thoughtfully. "From what he told me things got
pretty bad torwards the end of it. And contrary to what you may have
heard. Will wasn't pining away for him for eight years hoping he'd
return."

"From what Will told me after I moved in he and Mike were at each
other's throats all the time in the beginning," Grace said.

"Right. Of course I'm pretty sure he left out a few things about it.
It started like this, Grace," Vince said.

"If this is a flashback you're recalling I hope to God my face won't
get all squishy and blurry as you tell the story," she responded.

"Ah...yeah!" Vince rolled his eyes again.

"ANYWAY!" he shouted for emphasis. "They met during a court battle
between a couple. They were bickering back and forth for the defendants
like Nobody's business. Sometimes the cases they saw over were for wrong
clients who were there for all the right reasons as well as right clients who were
there for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes it was reversed."

In Grace's mind she could visibly see Will and Michael going at it. It
was an unpleasant experience she would wince at knowing how it all
ended for them.

"Mike would always drop off a small gift on his desk as an apology for
anything wrong that he did to him. Will never opened any of them just
to show he couldn't be bribed to change his mind," Vince said.

"But he COULD be rented for ten bucks," Grace said.

"In any event it wasn't until a few months after did they start to get
along. But Michael did take advance of Will's good nature more than
once."

"How so?" she asked.

"When he had a cliente he was suppose to meet and left Will to deal
with the paperwork. While he had a date with the defendant, he spent
all night working on angles for the witness and later found out he
didn't need to at all."

"Wow!" Grace had a surprised look on her face. "Will never told me
that."

"If his first impression of Mike was bad the second one was worse. He
stood in the rain waiting for him to show up, Mike got there very
late," Vince continued. "When he did show in the back of his car were
three other guys blitzed on cold ones. Being the Designated Driver, he
couldn't abandon them. Still it was very tactless."

"I knew Michael was a jerk. But that took the cake," Grace thought to
herself.

"So the next day Will decided to give back all the gifts Mike gave
him. He gladly took them. Will thought he was going to give them to
his other boy toys."

"He was pretty mad at him. But somehow he couldn't bring himself to
stay mad for long. Will decided to go back to Mike's Office later
that day to apologize and yet what he saw was a complete contrast to
what happen earlier in the morning. Mike had a boombox on the floor
and was entertaining the three guys who were in the car Will saw
earlier in the week. He was doing his impression of The Moonwalk
combined with The Robot Dance. They were laughing and having a good
time at his antics. From his vantage point it seemed that they knew him
better than Will did."

"And yet..." Vince paused in mid sentence to take a sip of the
lemonade Grace gave him. "He was frustrated by Will too. He moved in
two months later and he hadn't even met Will's parents. Even though he
was proud of his identity he was still very secretive in those days.
Will was always worried about what his folks would think of any of his
boyfriends. Remember what happened at his Father's funeral all those
years ago when we reconnected again? I was the first person to ever be
introduced formerly to his mother."

Clearly Grace didn't know Will as much as she thought she did back

then and was reprimanded by both Will and Vince during The Birthday Key
incident that almost got botched up by her.

"Will however was frustrated more as their time together over those
first seven years went on. He would get irritated by Michael's morbid fixation
on his own mortality which drove him nuts. Still it was the only time they had
ever had a serious conversation about where their relationship was going.
Needless to say neither one of them mentioned that moment again even after
the day he left Will," he explained. "The rest you pretty much know."

Vince mused for a good long minute on everything he just told
Grace.

"At least in the end you found each other," Grace said smiling.

"True. But it certainly wasn't by magic, Grace. It took a lot of
serious thought on Will's part to figure out who he was and what he
would do after Michael broke up with him. He took a cue from one of
the main characters in The Movie The Broken Hearts Club. All Will's
life was based on what people thought of him as a gay person and
nothing else. He had to be more than that."

"I know. That's part of the reason why I had to leave him for Leo. The
other was that dream I had with him, Jack, Karen and Rosario."

"And Kevin Bacon," Vince added.

"Will didn't see it then but he had been using me as a crutch to not
move on with his life after all that time," she told him. "It's like I
told him all those years ago. I wasn't going to spend my whole life
being miserable for him."

"He told me that too," said Vince.

"We all learn that over time. Some faster than others. I'm happy that
in the end we became a family," Grace answered.

"Will, Joe and Larry will be here soon," Vince said drinking the last
of the lemonade.

Will decided to be grab a few winks as they were turning up the
highway to Long Island. The rest allowed him to dream old memories
and happier times. Drifting off into sleep he dreamed he was in a vast
dimension filled with millions of tv monitors showing his past, future
and present in no particular order. Each monitor had a memory to show.

One had the moment where he sang Love Will Keep Us Together
to Grace on the piano, the argument he had with her over her
indecision to have a child, His first meeting with Vince, the day of
their Civil Union and adoption of Baby Ben from a woman who sold her
sperm eggs for rent money, Ben's first words and birthday, The day
Laila met Ben and later got married uniting The Trumans, The Adler and
The D'Angelo families.

The monitors became more transparent as he walked pass them. They
opened up to a valley with the sun setting in the background. He
seemed to be floating over clouds that parted to reveal a waterfall
below. Will took in the view for a long time.

He then felt a familiar hand touch his back.

"Are there no room for memories of me, Will?" Michael asked softly.
"You left me first," Will replied.
"I was hurt. What did you want me to do?" he questioned.
"You had every right to be mad at me," Will said turning around.

Michael looked the same as he did when they first made eye contact
with each other.

"We had our share of good times, didn't we?"
"We did," Will smiled. "But it was time."
"I know," he said pulling away from Will.

"But if things had been different, Mike."

"No. Everything happens for a reason, Will. It wasn't in the cards for
us to stay together," Mike said matter of factly. "Destiny is like
that. You finally did the one thing I couldn't do for myself. Become
the Master of your own fate. I'm proud of you for that."

The dawning of the sun in the dream began sinking as he let go of Will's
hands and drifted back into the shadows of memory.

"Your true love is waiting for you, Will. Go to him with my blessing,"
Mike's voice echoed as he faded.

The light from the afternoon sun shined brightly as Will woke up from
his sleep. Getting out he greeted the two most important people in his life
that mattered. Piling into the van with the boxes in the trunk, Will looked
lovingly into Vince's face.

"You okay, Will?" Vince asked.

"Better than I have been, Sugarbear," Will said.