In the Horton Town Square, where Will prepares to leave his apartment for the pub and his afternoon shift, he opens the door and walks right into another cycle. A bad one.

"Will!" Kristen DiMera throws out her arms.

Slow from shock, Will's completely unable to move away before they wrap around him like a vice. Stuck, he's slapped in the face with several impressions. Too much perfume that doesn't cover the smell of booze, the skinny body hardened by years of hardship. Sticky hairspray on top of blonde hair.

And underneath it all is nothing but his own twisted dread.

"Stopped by the pub first, and that cute guy said you were still up here. I'm so glad I found you!" The voice is deceptively light that just resounds loudly in the air. "Let me just take in the view. I swear you're hotter every time I track you down. Honey, I just gotta have a seat and take a breath. I'm so thrilled to see you, I can barely breathe."

She's slurring her words, Will notes, walking too fast on shoes paired with his dress pants. Both warning signs that she's already hit the bottle for her drink of choice just recently.

"Love what you've done with the place." Kristen plops himself into a chair, dumping a bag beside her. She claps her hands like a giddy little child. "I really love it. It suits you."

She'd been beautiful once, Will thinks as he studies his family friend. He's seen the photos. But all that beauty has been chipped away.

At 50, Kristen's face shows all the wear and tear from the bottle, drugs, and too many conquests.

Will purposely leaves the door open, standing just barely inside. The sounds of the square, the smell of a restaurant, keeps him grounded.

"What the hell do you want?"

"To see you, silly." Kristen lets out a shrill laugh that grates at Will's nerves like nails on a chalkboard. "Like you even have to ask. I've been wanting to see you, honey. I told myself, Will's busy, but we need to have just a little time together. So I hopped in a cab, and here I am. Have a seat, and tell me everything that's going on with you."

Disgust rolls over him, and Will holds onto it. He'll take disgust over the despair threatening to burt out from underneath it. "I have to go to work."

"Oh come on, can't you take some time for your own stepmom? The pub's yours anyway. I'm so proud of my stepson, all grown up and running the family business. Seem to be doing pretty well for yourself too."

Will catches her looking around the room, the calculating look in her eyes. It squeezes his chest, making his spine go stiff. "When I said the last time was the last time, I meant it. I'm not giving you money."

"What do you have to be so mean for?" Kristen's eyes widen, filling with tears. "Can't I just want to spend a few days with my little boy?"

"I'm not a little boy." Will says flatly. "Especially not yours."

"Be nice, honey. I just came all this way to see you again. I know I could've been a better stepmom to you, but I promise you I'm gonna make it all up to you."

Kristen jumps up, placing a hand on her chest. Her right pinky's fingernail is long and curvy.

Coke, Will suddenly realizes, not shocked or even remorseful. Now he knows she's doing coke on top of the bottle.

"I've made mistakes, I know I have." Kristen's voice is laced with apology, with remorse. "But you need to understand. I was so young when I married your father."

"You've already tried to pull that one on me before."

Kristen digs into her purse, pulling out a ripped tissue. "Why are you being so hard on me? Why are you trying to break my heart?"

"You don't have a heart. And you sure as hell are not my mom."

"I was there, wasn't I?" Sadness turns into anger, like the flip of a switch. Kristen raises her voice. "Years of being boring and exhausted and stuck in this damn down. Being in that house all by myself keeping house for you and your father."

"And you left me the second I turned 18. A real parent doesn't drop the kid the second they become an adult."

"I was young too!"

And it's that one sad fact that pushes Will to push all the doubt in his heart to the side. Until his heart had finally crystallized from all the hits.

"You haven't been young in a while. Neither have I. I'm not gonna stand here and argue about it with you. I have to work, and you need to leave."

"But honey." Panicked, Kristen shifts, back to being all teary eyed and choked up.

"You have to at least give me a chance to make it right. I'm getting a job. Can I work for you? That would be fun, wouldn't it? We'll have so much fun. We'll be like mother and son."

"No way in hell are you working for me, and definitely no way in hell are you staying with me. I already made that mistake years ago, and when I caught you having sex in here, you stole money from me and took off. I'm not doing that again."

"I was sick, but I'm clean now. I swear I am. You can't just kick me to the curb." She holds out her hands, hands up in a begging gesture. "I'm completely broke. Rob, he took everything I had and left."

Will can only assume Bob is the latest loser that Kristen chose to gravitate towards. "You're coked out of your mind right now. You realize I'm not blind or stupid, right?"

"No I'm not! I just took something because I was so nervous to show up here. I knew you'd be mad." Tears fall out, dribbling mascara down her cheeks. "You have to give me a chance to make it up to you, Will. I'm a changed woman."

Will pulls out his wallet, counting out a hundred dollars. "Here." He slams it into Kristen's hand. "Take this, get the hell out of here, and get as far as humanly possible away from here. And don't even think about trying to come back here. You're not welcome here anymore."

"You can't treat me like this, honey. You can't be this mean."

"I absolutely can." Will picks up the bag, carrying it over to the door and setting it outside. "It's in the DiMera blood. Take the hundred, because you're not getting another penny out of me. Now get the fuck out or I swear to God, I'll throw you out myself."

Kristen marches to the door, the money having already vanished into her purse. But she stops, giving Will one last hard look. "I never wanted to be your mom."

"The feeling's mutual. I never wanted you to be my mom either." Will slams the door in his stepmom's face, then flips the locks, sitting down on the floor.

And proceeds to cry in the privacy of his own apartment.

Will's sure he's all cried out by the time he drives over to the DiMera mansion the same night. He'd almost canceled his dinner plans with Sonny, but that would mean Kristen's little visit was important enough to warrant it.

It would mean acknowledging the pain that had stabbed its way into his heart despite all the iron walls built around it.

He needs to think about other things, and that's never gonna happen if he stays at home wallowing. He'll just get through tonight, minute by minute, and by morning, Kristen will be gone.

Out of sight, out of mind, out of his life.