Chapter Two:

Day Two:

Will was awakened by an arm falling across his torso and as he opened his eyes a smile spread across his face at the realization that it was Jack's. He allowed himself a moment to indulge in the simple pleasure of lying in bed next to the man that he loved before giving Jack's hand a gentle squeeze and then tapping it twice so as to indicate that he needed him to move his arm and allow him to get up.

After he had finished getting dressed for work, Will sat down on the edge of the bed and put on his shoes. The light jostling seemed to rouse Jack from his slumber and he rustled for a minute before fully waking and then smiling as he made eye contact with Will.

"What time is it," he asked groggily.

"It's early," Will whispered as he leaned down to give him a quick peck, "Go back to sleep and I'll see you later tonight. I was thinking, since Grace is going to be out tonight, maybe we could just have a nice romantic dinner here."

"Sounds great," Jack replied.

"Okay, it's a date then. And remember, you have to stay in here until after Grace leaves for work."

"I know, I know," Jack said impatiently. "Have a good day at work. I love you."

Will leaned down to place another kiss on Jack's lips and then replied,

"I love you, too."

He turned to exit the room and smiled to himself as he heard Jack begin to snore lightly before he even reached the door.

It took only a split second for Will to become aware of his surroundings. The theme of Moonstruck played repeatedly on the T.V. as the movie had clearly been over for some time and had returned to the main menu, there were the remnants from dinner still on the kitchen counter, a bowl of popcorn sat on his lap, and the weight he felt on his shoulder was due to Jack's head laying upon it. In the next split second, Will was able to gather what it was that had woken him out of such a sound sleep – the sound of keys jangling as they hit the floor in the hallway and the sound of Grace's voice as she cursed them out.

Looking back later, Will surmised that he probably could have just woken Jack up, told him to play it cool, and acted like the two of them had just been hanging out and watching a movie like they had a million times before. But in that moment, his guilty conscience, caused by having lied to his best friend every day for the last two and a half months, took over and he went into panic mode.

He shook Jack awake, yanked him up from the couch, dragged him through the living room, shoved him through the doorway of his bedroom, and slammed the door just as Grace walked into the apartment.

"Hey, sweetie," he said a little too enthusiastically as he walked back into the living room.

His enthusiasm didn't seem to faze Grace as much as the fact that he was awake at all. In fact, that almost seemed to startle her more.

"Hey," she replied, "What are you still doing up?"

"Oh, you know, I just finished watching a movie and now I'm going to clean up dinner," he said, praying that she wouldn't look over and realize there were two sets of dishes. "You're home late. Good date?"

"What? Um, yeah, yeah, it was a good date. We really, uh, connected."

"Yes, I can see that. You're lip-stick is smudged and you missed a few buttons," he paused to point at her shirt. "So you're going to see him again?"

"Yes, um, I am definitely going to see, you know…my date…again," she said as she felt the red heat rise from her chest up to her cheeks, "Anyway, I'm really beat so I'm going to head to bed. Good night."

"Good night, slutty – I mean sweetie," he said with a smirk.

Grace turned her head back toward the kitchen and stuck her tongue out at him before flashing him a smile.

As soon as he heard her bedroom door close, he ran across the apartment and burst into his room while still trying to be as quiet as possible.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he whispered to an obviously very annoyed Jack.

"You should be," he replied dramatically, "You really couldn't have woken me up at a more inopportune time. I was dreaming that I was at this big Hollywood party and then all of a sudden it turned into an orgy. It was me, Cher, Bette, Liza, Kevin Bacon, Bill Nye the Science Guy – "

"Jack," Will exclaimed impatiently.

"Don't worry, you were there, too."

"No, that's not – wait a minute. Did you say Bill Nye the Science Guy? Why was Bill Nye the Science Guy a part of your dream orgy?"

"You know, I don't know but I think it's best if I don't dig too deep with that one."

"Agreed," Will replied, just a bit disturbed. "But anyway, as I was saying, I'm sorry that I freaked out like that. I'm just not ready for Grace to find out about us yet," he said apologetically.

"I know. As much as I wish you were, I understand. And besides it's kind of fun to have a secret lover."

Will smiled and reached up to caress Jack's face.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. But I'm putting it on your tab."

Will raised an eyebrow and Jack responded,

"Oh yeah, mister. You're buying me something. I don't know what it is yet, but it's going to be big."

"Okay," Will chuckled, "deal. Will you stay again?"

"I would love to."

As they got ready for bed, Will reflected on how far they'd come in their relationship. They laid down next to one another and after a quick goodnight kiss, they settled in for the night. Will opened his eyes once more and took in the sight of the man who had gone from being one of his best friends to the man he was now certain he was going to spend his life with and smiled with the knowledge that all of the heartache it had taken him to get to this place with Jack was worth it because it was always supposed to be him.