Chapter Ten: Break on Through
The next few days passed quickly, and before Will knew it, Tate had already been with him for a week. It was Monday morning, and Will had promised his captain he'd be back at work by Wednesday, which meant he had to enroll Tate in school at some point today or tomorrow.
As he was making breakfast in the kitchen, the phone rang. Will set the spoon he was using to scramble the eggs down and reached over to grab the phone.
"LaMontagne residence," he said, adding some salt and cheese to the pan of eggs.
"Oh good, you two haven't burnt the house down yet," JJ quipped over the phone.
"Haha, so funny. You'll be happy to know we're both still alive," Will retorted.
"How'd dinner with Beck go last night?".
Family dinner at Beck's had gone well the previous night, and Amelia adored having a niece, while the boys were just happy to have an older cousin.
"Good, Beck's accepted it and Amelia loves her so everyone knows finally,".
"Everyone knows except your mother," JJ reminded him.
Despite the fact that he hadn't seen his mother in almost 20 years, she still called him every few months. Will had a feeling she did it due to a social obligation, instead of actually wanting to talk to him.
"Why does she need to know?" Will asked.
"Because, Will, she's your mother".
Will sighed and noticing the eggs were done, turned off the stove.
"Look, if it comes up in conversation, then it comes up. But I'm not gonna go to the trouble of calling her up and telling her when she hasn't been bothered to come visit in two decades," Will almost snapped, clearly signaling to JJ that the conversation was over.
Will heard Tate coming down the stairs and put the eggs onto two plates with toast and bacon.
"You wanna talk to Tate or do you gotta go?" he said into the phone.
When JJ responded that she could talk for a while, he handed Tate the phone and sat down to eat his breakfast. After a few minutes, Tate hung up the phone and set it back down on the counter.
"Finish up eating and then we can head over to the school and get you signed up," Will told her.
Tate emptied her plate before getting up and heading over to the sink. She rinsed off the plate and glass and moved to put them away. As Will was getting up to clean his plate off as well, the rinsed-off and wet glass Tate was holding slipped from her grip, shattering on the hardwood floor.
"You alright?" Will asked as he put his hand on the girl's shoulder, wanting to make sure she hadn't gotten any glass shards in her bare feet.
However, as his hand made contact with the girl, he noticed her flinch away from his touch. When she noticed what she'd done, Tate looked up at Will, and for a moment he swore he could see fear in her eyes. He froze for a moment before bending down to grab a dustpan under the sink.
"Why don't you go get ready? I'll clean this up," he told her, glancing up to meet her gaze. She nodded before fleeing from the kitchen.
Will let out a sigh once she'd left the kitchen. He knew she'd been through a lot, both with Carlisle and her previous foster homes, but he thought she'd been getting better. He hoped it was only a minor setback, as the past few days Tate had been growing much more comfortable around him, as well as Beck's family and talking to JJ on the phone.
Four hours later, Tate and Will were walking out of the school, having filled out all the necessary forms to enroll Tate.
When they reached the bottom of the steps, Will's phone rang.
"Here," he said, tossing the car keys to Tate. "I'll be there in a few minutes".
As Tate started heading for the parking lot, Will dug his phone out of his pocket, sighing when he saw the name splashed across the caller ID.
"Hi, Detective LaMontagne, this is Dr. Michaels from Willow Creek," said the woman over the phone. Willow Creek Nursing Facility was the home Harlan's daughter, April, had put him in after his symptoms of Alzheimer's increased, and Will tried to stop by at least once a month to visit.
"Dr. Michaels, what can I do for you?" Will asked.
"Mr. Tibideaux has been very aggravated today, and it's really not good for his health. I tried calling his daughter, but she's in New York all week on business. I was wondering if maybe you could stop by and visit for a while? It might calm him down a little".
After telling the doctor he could be there in twenty minutes, Will hung up the phone, and walked towards the car. Tate was looking at something on her phone that Will had gotten for her a few days ago, and looked up when he hopped in the car.
"We're gonna make a stop on the way home," Will said as he started the car.
"Where?" Tate asked.
Will looked out the rear window of the car as he backed up, before glancing at Tate.
"Did my daddy ever say anything to you about Harlan?". Tate had told Will about the few times that Bill had visited, which Will had been unaware of, but Will wasn't sure how much the kids had gotten to know him.
"Just that he was his partner, I think. And that they were close," Tate responded.
"Harlan's got Alzheimer's. He's in a home right now and apparently he's not having a great day, so we just gotta stop by for a while so I can calm him down a little," Will explained as he pulled out onto the street and headed in the direction of the nursing home.
"Just so you know, he'll think I'm my daddy,". Harlan and Bill had known each other ever since they were four years old, and had grown up as best friends. As a result, unless Harlan was lucid, he mostly thought Will was Bill, which often calmed him down when he was surrounded by people he didn't know.
It hurt just a tiny bit whenever Harlan called him Bill, reminding him of the fact that his father was no longer here. But it helped Harlan, so he would play along and listen to Harlan tell stories about his and Bill's childhood or the cases they had worked together.
Fifteen minutes later, Will was pulling into the parking lot of Willow Creek.
"You wanna come in or stay out here?" Will asked Tate.
Tate considered it for a moment. She had liked Bill and had heard plenty of stories about Harlan from him, so she was interested in meeting the man. She also felt slightly bad that Will would have to go in alone and pretend to be his dead father if she didn't come.
"Is it gonna upset him if I'm there?".
Will was impressed she had thought to ask that. The truth was, Harlan was often upset by his own daughters, having no memory of the women who claimed they were his children. But with Will there, he figured Harlan would be fine with it.
"It shouldn't, but if it does you can always just come back out and wait in the car," he told her.
When they entered the lobby, Will headed over to the front desk to check in.
"William LaMontagne, here to see Harlan Tibideaux,". The receptionist handed him a visitor log to sign, and then they were let into the building. The doors between the rest of the home and the lobby were kept locked, just in case any confused residents tried to make a break for it.
Looking around the room that served as the living room/recreation room, Will spotted Harlan sitting on a sofa by the fireplace, who seemed slightly frantic as a nurse tried to calm him down.
Will quickly crossed the room in four long strides, and was soon standing in front of Harlan.
"Hey, Harlan, How've you been doing?" he asked the man in a soothing voice.
"Bill, where am I? You gotta get me out of here, these people won't let me go!" Harlan told him as he panicked.
"Harlan, everything's okay. These people are trying to help you, remember?" Will said, trying to get the man to trust him.
Usually, Will coming by calmed the man down, but today it seemed Harlan was past the point of being soothed by the man he believed to be his best friend. In fact, Harlan only seemed to be getting more stressed by Will's arrival, as now it wasn't just strangers turning against him, but his best friend as well.
Will sighed, as he never knew what to do when Harlan got like this. There'd only been two previous times where he hadn't been able to calm Harlan down, and both of them unfortunately ended with the staff having to sedate him before he hurt himself or someone else.
However, as Tate finally approached the coach after standing by the door for a few moments while Will tried to calm Harlan down, Harlan seemed to snap out of his panic.
"Oh Bill, you should've said you brought Lila," Harlan told Will.
"Harlan, this is Tate. Thomas Jacobs' daughter. You remember Thomas, right?" Will prompted him.
"Lila, come here honey. Tell me, how've you been doing in school?" Harlan asked Tate, ignoring Will.
Tate shot Will a confused look, asking him what to do, and he nodded towards the couch. He had no clue who Lila was, nor did he have any idea why Harlan thought Tate was Lila, but if it calmed him down, so be it.
For the next half hour, Tate sat next to Harlan and answered whatever questions he asked her. Most of them were about sports or school, and an occasional few about a friend named Charlie that Tate made up answers about.
When Will got up to get a glass of water, Doctor Michaels approached him.
"I didn't know you had a daughter," she said to him, looking over at Tate.
"Uh, foster daughter. She'll be staying with me for a while,".
"Well, Harlan seems to like her, and no ones been able to calm him down all day, so I'm all for it," the doctor joked before excusing herself to see other patients.
Truth be told, Will liked what Tate brought out in Harlan as well. Even when Harlan was in a good mood, he was still quieter than the man Will had once known, withdrawn and almost depressed. However, since he'd seen Tate, he'd been acting more like the uncle Will had known as a boy, always ready with a joke or a smile for his nephews.
Visiting hours ended an hour later, and Will and Tate got up to leave. As Tate grabbed her coat off the sofa, Harlan reached out and lightly took hold of her wrist.
"You'll come visit again, won't you Lila?" he asked the girl.
"Sure, Harlan," Tate told him, glancing at Will.
"Good. Now you make sure Bill isn't getting into any trouble," he said, shaking his finger at Will.
Tate laughed at that. "I will Harlan, I promise," she reassured him.
Once Will and Tate had gotten back in the car, Will looked over at Tate.
"Thank you for doing this today, I know it's not the easiest thing," he said.
"I didn't mind, besides I mostly just talked about myself most of the time," Tate replied.
"You don't have to come back next time if you don't want to," Will offered.
Tate thought about it for a moment, before shaking her head. "If it makes him less stressed, then I'm fine coming by once in a while".
The rest of the car ride was silent as Tate texted who Will was assuming was JJ or Grant. While she looked down at her phone, Will smiled to himself. He'd been worried in the beginning that Tate would hate him, or they just wouldn't get along, but she was a sweet kid. She'd sat through what was basically an interrogation by Amelia at dinner on Sunday, patiently played with Asher and Ezra all afternoon, and was willing to sit with Harlan and talk about nonsense for two hours, something even Will got tired of doing after twenty minutes.
It was then that Will realized how attached he'd grown to Tate over the past week. JJ had warned him a few days before that soon Tate would have him wrapped around her little finger, and Will had no doubt that she was right about that.