Chapter Thirteen: Do Not Go Gentle
"At Christmas, all roads lead home." -Marjorie Holmes
Three Weeks Later
Will pulled up to the Willow Creek parking lot, screeching to a stop. He dashed inside and quickly checked in with the receptionist, who waved him through. Roughly half an hour ago, Will had gotten a call from Doctor Michaels, who informed him that Harlan was lucid.
Harlan was rarely ever lucid, and whenever he was Will always tried to get there as fast as possible before it ended and Harlan fell back into his almost constant state of confusion. Although Will rarely ever managed to get there in time to have more than a few minutes with him, as Harlan's periods of lucidity usually didn't last more than an hour or so, he cherished the short amount of time he had.
As he headed down the hallway towards the rec room, where he knew Harlan would be, he noticed Dr. Michaels coming out of a patient's room.
"Detective, I'm glad you could come by," Dr. Michaels said as she greeted him.
"Yeah, I was just hoping to get a few minutes with him before he starts thinkin' I'm my father again," Will explained.
"Well, if you're lucky, you might have more than a few minutes. He's been lucid for far longer than usual, almost four hours at this point".
Will raised his eyebrows in surprise at that, before excusing himself to go see Harlan.
He saw Harlan sitting on the sofa, and held his breath for a moment, hoping he'd still be lucid. Although the staff had just called, Will knew Harlan's mind could turn on him at any moment. Several times Will had shown up after having been called only to find Harlan calling him Bill upon his arrival.
"Will, get over here," Harlan said, waving him over. "I've been waiting on you for ages".
Will let out a sigh of relief, and walked over to sit next to Harlan.
"It's nice to see you, Harlan".
"Nice to see me remember you is what you mean," Harlan said, never one to beat around the bush.
Will let out a laugh as he sat down on the sofa. "Yeah, I guess that is what I mean. April would've come too, but she's out of town".
"How've you been, boy? And your brother, how's he?" Harlan asked him, taking a sip of tea out of a mug resting on the coffee table.
"He's good, just got promoted to partner. And Amelia and the boys are doing well," Will said, filling him in on what he'd been missing.
"You skipped over yourself, got something to hide, William?" Harlan remarked.
"Jeez, Harlan, You ain't lettin' anything get passed you today, huh?" Will said, once again laughing at the man's antics.
"Well, you gonna tell me or not?" the old man pestered.
"Alright, let's see, I'm dating an FBI agent and sorta got her pregnant so we'll be having a kid in about five months. Oh, yeah, and I'm also raising Tommy Jacobs' kid," Will told the man, who looked stunned.
"I'm gonna ignore the FBI girl for now, we'll circle back to that. What do you mean you're raising Tommy's kid?" Harlan asked.
Will explained to him what had happened with Theo, and watched as Harlan grew pale.
"Did you catch the guy?" Harlan interrupted.
"What?" Will asked, slightly caught off guard.
"The killer. Did you catch him?".
"Yeah, it was just some kid who knew him in foster care, wanted revenge," Will explained.
Harlan seemed to look relieved at that, which further confused Will.
"Everything okay, Harlan?" Will asked. When he told Harlan about Theo's death, the man looked as though he almost had expected it to happen.
"Yeah, just shocked, I suppose," he replied.
Harlan turned towards the nurse that had been talking with another patient, and asked her to go get something from his room for him. Turning back to Will, he asked him to fill him in on the situation with JJ.
"So, two kids in less than a year for you. Honestly, I didn't think I'd see the day," Harlan said.
"Well, Tate isn't exactly my kid," Will remarked.
"Boy, you're a fool if you're telling yourself that. Not with the way you talk about her, looking all proud and protective," Harlan said convincingly.
Will didn't reply to Harlan's comment, not sure how to. He was often torn with how to refer to Tate. She wasn't his daughter, and he knew she didn't see him as a father. At the same time, however, it wasn't like she was going anywhere, and the situation certainly wasn't temporary.
The nurse coming back with a wooden box from Harlan's room saved Will from having to formulate a response.
She handed Harlan the small box, and he sorted through it for a moment before pulling out a necklace. It was a small gold coin, with a small depiction on it, that hung on a simple gold chain.
He held it out to Will expectantly, and dropped it into Will's open palm when he offered his hand out.
"Give this to Tate, hm? For Christmas," Harlan told him.
"What's the carving on it?" Will asked, looking up from inspecting the coin.
"St. Christopher, the patron saint of protection," Harlan explained.
"It's beautiful. Where'd you get it?".
Will could tell it had been expensive, and since it clearly wasn't Harlan's, he didn't know where the man could have gotten it from. Harlan and his wife had gone through a nasty divorce, and he hadn't kept any of her things around, and Will didn't think he'd ever seen April wearing jewelry.
"Just an old friend," Harlan said wistfully.
"I'll be sure to give it to her. She'll love it," he assured the man.
"Will, promise me something," Harlan said, and Will swore he'd never heard the man sound so serious.
"Of course, Harlan. Anything," Will told him.
Harlan reached out and grabbed Will's wrist, keeping a firm hold on it as he looked him straight in the eye.
"You look after her, alright? Stop foolin' yourself and pretending you don't intend on being a father to her," he instructed Will.
"I will, Harlan. God, I swear between you and Dad's journals you got me freaked out,".
"You read your father's journals?" Harlan asked, sounding slightly panicked.
"Yeah, there was just one passage in particular that mentioned Tate. October 2nd, 1997, I'm pretty sure," Will explained.
Will felt Harlan's grip tighten on his wrist, and he swore the man looked afraid.
"William, don't go putting your nose in places it doesn't belong, alright? We don't talk about what happened that night anymore, it's in the past," he told Will firmly.
"What did happen that night, Harlan? My daddy was pretty vague with the details," Will asked him.
"You don't need to know, just forget about it. Because if you keep going down this path, everyone's going to regret it. Just promise me you'll stop looking for answers and focus on taking care of her, okay? ".
Will's blood ran cold at the fear in Harlan's voice. He'd never heard it before, not when his father had been shot on duty and they didn't know if he'd live or die, not when Harlan's other daughter, Lucy, had been diagnosed with cancer.
"Harlan, you're worrying me, okay? I'll take care of Tate, you know I will," Will reassured him, trying to shake the man's hold on his wrist.
"Swear to me, William. I want your word on this," Harlan demanded, gripping his wrist even tighter.
"Harlan, I swear on my daddy's grave, alright? I give you my word," Will promised the man.
Harlan looked straight into his eyes for a moment, considering something, before nodding and releasing Will's wrist.
"Mr. LaMontagne, I'm afraid visiting hours are over," a nurse said as she approached the pair.
"Could I just have a little while longer, since he's lucid?" Will begged the nurse.
He hardly ever got time with the man that had been such a prevalent figure during his childhood, that had been almost like a father. He didn't mind spending time with Harlan when he thought he was Bill, but he didn't want a best friend, he wanted his uncle.
"I'm sorry, Mr. LaMontagne, but it wouldn't be fair to the other patients," the nurse said apologetically.
Will felt Harlan pat his hand, and he turned around to face the man.
"It's alright, Bill, don't worry about it. After All, you gotta be gettin' home to Annie soon," Harlan said, referencing Will's mother.
And just like that, Will's heart sank. Harlan had fallen back into the clutches of his disease and all the recognition that had been present in his eyes for the past hour had faded.
"Guess you're right, Harlan. I best be going now," he said sadly.
Will got up and grabbed his coat from the sofa. As he headed towards the exit, he gripped the gold coin tightly in his hand.
"You look after that girl of yours, you hear me?" Harlan called after him.
Will froze for a moment, before realizing Harlan was referring to his father looking after his mother.
Will nodded stiffly, and walked away from the man, still slightly shaken by Harlan's warning.
Will and Tate stood in the airport, waiting for JJ's plane to disembark. It was three days before Christmas, and JJ was finally able to come to New Orleans for the first time since Tate and Will had left Boston.
"So, is JJ coming to live here?" Tate asked suddenly.
"What do you mean?" Will asked, tearing his gaze away from the door to look over at her.
"Well, you're having a baby, so I figured one of you is gonna move and you haven't said anything about it yet…" Tate trailed off.
Will sighed, as he'd been wondering the same things himself recently. He'd tried to talk to JJ about it several times, but she'd been impossible to get a hold of recently, and even when he managed to, JJ hated to talk about anything that involved commitment or change.
"I dunno, we haven't really talked about it yet. But we still got plenty of time," Will said, trying to reassure himself more than Tate.
Thankfully, Will managed to find a way out of the awkward conversation when he spotted JJ coming down the hallway.
JJ hurried over to them, pulling her suitcase behind her.
"Hey, cher," Will said, embracing her and giving her a kiss that in Tate's opinion lasted way too long considering they were in public.
Once they broke away from each other, Will reached down to grab JJ's bag while she hugged Tate.
"I missed you guys. How's everything been going?" JJ asked.
"Well, we haven't burnt the house down yet and we're both still alive, so things are looking pretty promising," Tate quipped as they made their way towards the parking lot.
JJ laughed, and Will wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close as they walked.
"Did I mention how much I missed you?" he whispered into her ear.
"I think that might have been several times, over several phone calls" she joked.
JJ felt herself relaxing around Will in a way she hadn't been able to do in weeks. All the stress of her job, picking which cases to take, choosing who got saved and who didn't, tended to pile up, but whenever she was with Will, it was as if it just slipped away.
"Well, now you're stuck with us for at least a week, so it's gonna be a perfect Christmas," he told her.
"I don't think it can be a perfect Christmas without snow," JJ said. Having grown up in Pennsylvania, it had snowed almost every Christmas without fail, and she could barely fathom the idea of it being 60 degrees out on Christmas day.
"I second that," Tate added.
"Fine, fine, as perfect a Christmas one can have without snow," Will said, knowing when he was in a losing argument.
An hour later, and they were back at the house, with Tate upstairs talking on the phone to Grant and Will and JJ in Will's room. Will set JJ's bag down on the bed, and went to open it to help her unpack.
"Uh-uh," JJ said as she reached out to stop him. "I have presents in there, no peeking".
"Alright, fine then. Unpack yourself," Will jokingly pouted.
JJ took off her coat and went to hang it in the closet. When she came back in the room, Will noticed the baby bump she had that he hadn't been able to see under the layers she'd been wearing.
Will walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder and embracing her from the back. He rested one hand over JJ's stomach, right where their unborn child would be, and pressed a kiss into her neck.
"You're showing," he told her, as if she didn't already know.
"Yeah, that's been happening for a while," she replied, laughing. "I have a present for you".
Will feigned a gasp. "A present for me? Before Christmas?".
JJ reached into her suitcase and pulled out a black and white photo that Will recognized instantly as an ultrasound picture.
JJ plopped down on the bed next to him and he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. He traced the outline of the small baby on the piece of paper.
JJ could only smile as he looked over the photo, with the gentlest look on his face. The way he lovingly traced his finger over the baby made her heart feel like it was going to burst.
She'd had her doubts when she first found out she was pregnant, not about whether or not she wanted to keep the baby, but about whether or not Will was going to stick around and be a father. Looking at him now, she couldn't believe she'd doubted him.
"That's our baby," he whispered incredulously.
"Mhm, pretty perfect isn't it?" JJ said.
Will could only nod in response. He'd been terrified when he first found out, but now he was nothing but excited. He knew he and JJ still had a lot to figure out, but everything would work out for the best.
JJ was now 16 weeks along into her pregnancy, having found out fairly late at 12 weeks. At first, she was surprised she'd missed all the symptoms, but her period had always been fairly irregular, and with all the stress she'd been under, she didn't have the time to worry about all the other symptoms. She'd assume her morning sickness was just the flu, and the weight gain was due to eating too much junk food while traveling.
"I know you said you thought you might wanna wait, but they told me the gender. You wanna know?" JJ asked, secretly dying to tell him.
"That's why you're showing me this huh? You knew I wouldn't be able to say no after you showed me the ultrasound," Will said.
"Well, maybe I was hoping".
"Alright, cmon then, tell me".
JJ leaned away from Will, wanting to be able to see his reaction when she told him.
"It's a boy," she said.
Will's face broke out into a beaming smile, and JJ let out a laugh. Will couldn't help himself though. Although he would've been perfectly happy with a girl, he was secretly routing for a boy.
Will leaned down towards JJ's stomach. "I can't wait to meet you, buddy," he whispered.
JJ pressed a kiss into Will's hair as he leaned over her.
"I hate to tell you, but he can't hear you yet," she told him.
"Nah, of course he can. Our boy's an early achiever," Will joked.
On Christmas morning, instead of opening presents at Will's house, they headed over to Beck's to spend the day as one big family.
JJ watched as Will chased his nephews around, trying to stop Ezra from opening his presents before they'd finished breakfast. He picked the young boy up and tossed him over his shoulder, tickling the boy who let out a shrieking giggle in response.
Amelia sat down beside JJ on the sofa and watched Will with her for a moment.
"What are you thinking about?" Amelia asked her.
"Not much. Just that he's gonna be such a good dad," JJ said.
"He already is," Amelia reminded her, pointedly looking over at Tate.
And it was true. Tate had improved so much since moving in with Will, and he was an amazing parent to her. She rarely had nightmares, and no longer flinched around Will. She'd even begun to make some friends at school, and her personality was so different from the one JJ had seen when she first met the girl almost a month prior.
As everyone finished up opening their presents, Will handed Tate the small black box that he'd put the necklace in. Tate was slightly confused, as she'd already gotten quite a lot of gifts, including new soccer cleats, several books that she had a feeling Reid had helped pick out, and some earrings from JJ.
"It's from Harlan," Will said when he noticed Tate's confusion. "He gave it to me when he was lucid".
Tate flipped open the lid of the box, and carefully pulled out the necklace. It seemed Harlan had rather good taste in jewelry, as the necklace was beautiful.
JJ complimented the necklace before helping her put it on.
"Sometimes I really wonder where that old man finds half the things he owns," Beck joked.
Will laughed, as it was true, Harlan was quite a packrat, and seemed to have a story for every random item he had.
Looking over at JJ for permission, Will cleared his throat, and everyone looked up from what they'd been doing.
"JJ and I just thought you all like to know that the littlest member of the LaMontagne family is going to be a boy," Will announced.
Amelia let out a shriek of delight, while Beck clapped Will on the shoulder and Asher and Ezra argued over which one of them had one the bet on the baby's gender.
Although Beck and Amelia had been quite shocked when Will first told them about the baby, they'd been incredibly happy and excited for him and JJ.
It wasn't until after dinner that Will noticed something off about Tate. She'd been quiet for most of the afternoon, and after dinner had headed outside to read a book by herself.
"You noticed something's up with her right?" Amelia asked, suddenly appearing next to him where he was standing at the window, looking out at Tate in the yard.
Will stepped out onto the porch, closing the sliding glass door behind him. He walked over to the steps and sat down on the top one, right next to Tate.
"So, what's up, kiddo?" he asked her.
"It's nothing. You don't need to worry about it," Tate told him, turning back to her book.
Will reached forward and gently pulled the book from her grasp, marking the page before setting it down beside him.
"It's sorta my job to worry, so out with it,".
Tate fiddled with her necklace for a moment, sliding the coin along the chain.
"Am I gonna have to leave?" Tate asked, glancing up quickly before looking back down.
Even in the brief moment she'd looked up, Will could see the hurt and fear in her eyes.
"What?" he asked, confused.
"Well, with the baby and JJ, I guess I just figured…" Tate trailed off.
Will didn't respond for a moment, trying to wrap his head around what the young girl had just asked him. He thought he'd convinced the girl that she was staying with him, that he wanted her there, but apparently, he hadn't. This is what JJ had warned him about when she told him to get Tate a psychologist, that Tate had abandonment issues and a deep mistrust for adults, but Will thought she'd been getting better.
The nightmares, that he hadn't told JJ about, had gone away, or at least he thought they had. But now that Will realized it, maybe they were just not severe enough to wake him up.
And although Tate no longer jumped or flinched around him, he knew that Tate realizing he wasn't going to physically hurt her wasn't the same as her realizing he wasn't going to hurt her emotionally.
A slight sniffle from the girl broke Will out of his thoughts and made him realize his silence had been an answer in and of itself. He looked over at Tate and noticed her shoulders shaking lightly, and he could tell she was starting to cry.
"Hey," he said, grabbing her shoulders and turning her to face him. He lightly lifted her chin and forced her to look up at him, before gently wiping away the tears on her cheeks.
"That's what you've been so worried about recently?" Will asked, as he had noticed during the past few days while JJ had been there Tate had been more withdrawn.
Tate slowly nodded. It's not like this hadn't happened before, people gave foster kids back all the time once they had their own kids. She acknowledged that this situation was a little different, that Will and JJ hadn't exactly planned to have a baby, but maybe they thought they'd be too busy to keep Tate around.
"Listen chérie, you're stuck with us, alright? The only way you're leaving is if you don't wanna be here anymore, ok?".
"Okay," Tate responded quietly.
Will put his arm around Tate and pulled her close, tucking her head under his chin. They sat there quietly for a few minutes, until Will heard the door sliding open behind him.
"Can you guys finish up out here cause I'm hungry and Amelia won't let us eat without you," Beck called to them.
Tate let out a laugh at that, and Will couldn't stop himself from joining. Typical Beck, trying to fix things with a quick joke.
As Tate and Will made their way back inside, JJ stopped Will at the doorway.
"Everything ok?" she whispered, as Tate made her way to where Ezra and Asher were currently playing a board game.
"Yeah, we were just clearing a few things up," he said, giving her a quick kiss.
After dinner, JJ watched as Tate, Ezra, Asher, Beck, and Will played a game of soccer in the backyard. Will's nephews loved being around Tate, as she was always ready with a joke or to play a game with them.
When they finished the game, they headed back inside, and the boys tried to steal cookie dough from the kitchen while Amelia was baking, whereas Tate sat down next to JJ on the couch.
"What are you reading?" Tate asked JJ, indicating towards her book.
"It's just baby names, Will and I can't agree on anything so far," JJ said.
"Tate, will you come play with us again?" Ezra asked, running in from the kitchen holding a soccer ball. Apparently, the only thing an eight-year-old needed to rejuvenate after an hour long game of soccer was some sugar.
"Maybe later, Ezra," Tate told the boy, whose face fell in response.
Seeing his reaction, Tate decided to compromise.
"How about you go walk Max with Asher like you promised your mom," Tate said, indicating the family dog lying on his bed in the corner. "And then we can play a board game when you get back?".
Ezra nodded enthusiastically, before dashing off to get the dog's leash.
"You're gonna be a good big sister," JJ said, running a hand over her swollen belly.
Tate was slightly surprised by JJ's comment, as she knew it was mostly Will pushing the whole family idea.
Tate glanced at JJ, and realized she was waiting for a response.
"I had a lot of younger foster siblings," she told JJ. What she didn't tell the woman was that most of the time it was her responsibility to look after those kids, if she wanted to stay in the home that is.
Sensing it was a slightly sensitive topic, JJ decided to shift the conversation. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see some of the books Tate had gotten for Christmas on the table in the corner.
"Do you think you'll like those?" JJ said, nodding towards them.
"Hm?" Tate asked before realizing what JJ was talking about.
"Oh, yeah, they look interesting. I'm assuming Reid helped you pick a few of them out?".
"A few of them," JJ admitted.
"Yeah, I had a feeling you wouldn't buy me Emerson," Tate said, laughing.
"He had some statistics about how reading Emerson is beneficial or something," JJ told her. "I wasn't really listening, he kinda has way too many facts memorized".
Tate smiled in amusement; she'd only had a few conversations with Reid, but she could tell her was basically a walking encyclopedia.
"Hey, you're almost as smart as he is. How come you don't do that?" JJ asked jokingly.
"Well, I can, I just recognize that I wouldn't exactly be popular if I did that," Tate defended.
"Yeah, that's fair," JJ said laughing.
"You should tell him statistics are no substitute for judgment next time he starts rambling," Tate advised the woman.
JJ cocked her head to the side, thinking for a moment, before giving up.
"Who said that?" she asked.
"Henry Clay," Tate said absentmindedly as she looked over to the kitchen where Beck had just let out a loud laugh.
"I like Henry," JJ announced, after thinking for a moment.
"Well, most people did. Except Andrew Jackson but he was basically psychotic so".
"No, I mean the name. Henry. For the baby," JJ informed the girl.
"Oh, yeah, it's nice," Tate said, getting up and heading towards the kitchen as Amelia announced the cookies were done.
"Henry," JJ whispered quietly as she ran her hand over where her baby was nestled inside her.
As JJ sat on the couch thinking about her baby, Tate had wandered up to Beck who had already managed to scarf down three cookies.
"You got enough to eat there?" Tate asked, laughing as Beck wiped a smudge of melted chocolate off his chin.
"Well I gotta eat these before the boys get back and they devour them in five seconds," he said.
"Yeah, that's fair," Tate replied, snatching a cookie for herself.
"So how has my favorite niece's Christmas been?" Beck asked, wrapping an arm around Tate's shoulders.
"Good, really good. Best one in a while," she assured him.
"Good, I'm glad," Beck said, as he went to help Amelia clean up in the kitchen.
And Tate had meant every word she'd said. For years, her and Theo had been stuck in some awful foster home, sometimes not even having each other for the holidays. Although they'd had Christmas together last year at home, it'd just been too quiet.
Today was everything Christmas should be. There'd been plenty of noise, what with the boys running around, lots of food for them to feast on, a fair share of jokes and laughs, and most importantly, they'd all been together.
It was the first time in her life she'd ever been with a family that wasn't the Jacobs that she felt she truly belonged. Like she was actually a member of the family instead of just a guest. And it was wonderful.
"I have come to believe that we are bound forever to those with whom we share blood. And while we may not choose our family... their blood can be our greatest strength, or our deepest regret." -Elijah Mikaelson