Grace walked into the half-awake Will's room with his medicine and cup of tea. "How are you doing?"
"Alright I guess." He said with an unspoken 'considering what just happened.' He paused to take the medicine. "Gracie, you can't tell Jack."
"You think it'd affect him that much?" She paused. "He's going to find out. You can't just lie like that. You should know that better than anyone."
"This is different, it goes away."
"Even so."
"I just can't deal with it now. Jack's so… well he's not nearly as sure of himself as he sometimes pretends to be."
"Your worried he'll think he's next?"
"A little, but its more than that… You know Jack's not out to his parents."
"What? But he's out to the rest of the world."
"Yes. Maybe the two things are related. He wants so much to be accepted, but in some ways he's still such a child, he needs his parents acceptance for him to really get past needing them. Sometimes he's just so innocent. He's so… so sensitive and fragile, he doesn't know how to deal with this stuff."
"But what would Jack do when he finds out?"
"I don't know. I owe it him. He saved my life; after you through me out, I thought no one would ever love me… I didn't know how I could live a meaningful life…" He paused.
"Oh Will sweetie," She said.
He continued. "He talked me out of killing myself, and he helped me realize that I'm OK, that life is worth living. It's the same reason we never talk about that year. Jack can be so innocent."
"Why don't we talk about it?" She asked.
"Because I don't want you to know what you put me through." He said totally honestly. "Because you never asked."
The phone rang. "I'm going back to sleep." Will said as she walked out to get the phone hesitating as she left.
When Grace picked up the phone and it was Ben's, Wills boss's voice on the other line. "Is Will there?" He said sternly.
"He's sleeping." Grace said, her voice shaking.
"What the hell is going on? Why wasn't he at work yesterday?"
"He was the victim of a hate crime." Grace said trying to compose herself. "He was released from the hospital early this morning."
"Holy fuck." Then taking a few minutes to compose himself Ben said, "How is he doing?"
"OK, I think. He's on a lot of pain medication."
"I'm so sorry Grace. Tell him to take all the time he needs, paid leave."
"Thank you." She said.
"Grace are you OK?"
"I want to watch the people who did this burn in hell after I kill them myself."
"Just don't do anything stupid." He said.
"I won't. What about Woolchuck?"
"Do you think he had any thing to do with this?" He asked.
"No, well not really. I'm mostly worried about when Will goes back to work."
"I know he and Will have issues and that he can be a real ignorant bastard. If he's anything less than respectful and helpful it'll be the last time anyone at this firm sees him." He said.
"Thank you." She said.
"Is there anything else I can do? If you figure out who did this and hire a hit man I'll pay for your lawyer." He told her.
"I just might take you up on that." She answered.
"Well, bye Grace." He said and hung up.
Grace stumbled down to the couch and passed out from exhaustion; she'd slept three of the last thirty hours.
• • •
"What happened honey, switched to my hours?" Karen asked tapping her on the shoulder.
"Karen?"
"Yes Grace it's me. That's the 2nd day in a row you weren't at work."
"And you were?" Grace asked sarcastically.
"Yes. I figured I'd check your place before I figured you'd just ditched me, moved out of the city or something. Would you mind telling me what the hell is up with you?"
"It's Will. You remember I called you the other night?"
"Well sort of. I was pretty loaded. Honey are OK?"
"I'm fine." She lied. "Will was attacked and badly injured. We spent like 24 hours in the hospital and he's still in a lot of pain."
"Attacked?" Karen asked doing something between sitting and falling; there was no color left in her face except her makeup.
"He passed out after some hit him on the head with a beer bottle. Then they wrote fag on his forehead with a piece of broken glass dragged him into an ally and left him there."
"Jack?" Karen asked.
"He doesn't know and Will wants to keep it that way. Will said something about him being innocent."
"Wow, he's on something strong." Karen commented. "Do you have any idea who?"
"Well I found this picture…" Grace said and pulled out the picture of her, Will & Nathan.
"You think Nathan had something to do with this?"
"Don't know. But I'm going to talk to him."
"Whatever. Honey, you smell like kitty litter. I'll take care of Will while you shower."
"Thank you." Grace said, taking her up on the offer. "You know how right?"
"Yeah, call Rosie if he wakes up."
"And while you wait for her to come?"
"Do her job." Karen answered.
"Good." Grace said relived that she was serious.
When Grace got out of the bathroom she saw only Rosario in the apartment. "Where's Karen?"
"She went out. She didn't seem well."
"Did she tell you?" Grace said.
"What? That Will was hurt?"
"How?" Grace said.
"Hit by a car?"
"No, but I don't want to talk about it."
"Are you well?" She asked Grace.
"I'm worried…"
"Gracie?" Wills voice.
Grace ran in to see him. "Will?"
"Can you get me some juice?"
"Of course." She said and ran to get it for him.
"Is that Rosie and Karen?" Will asked when she returned.
Grace nodded. "She came to see why I wasn't at work. When I told her she almost passed out."
"There is a silver lining to everything." Will said sarcastically making Grace laugh.
"Grace!" Karen yelled knocking on the door.
"What?" Grace asked opening the door.
"I got you breakfast and coffee." Karen answered.
"Thank you Karen." Grace said. Taking the bag and the huge cup of Starbucks, "that was very thoughtful." She turned and winked at Will, he laughed because Karen being thoughtful was like a pigeon giving a person a piece of bread before they ate it.
"Oww." He said, the back of his neck had been badly bruised and moving his head quickly to laugh hurt.
"Will sweetie, are you OK?" Grace asked running to his side.
"Yeah. When can I take more of the pain medication?"
Grace looked at her watch. "Half hour." She answered. "Are you hungry?"
"No, I'm a little nauseas. And dizzy, and tired…"
"If you want to go back to sleep…"
"Mumhum."
"OK, I'll be in the other room, call if you need me."
"Of course Gracie."
Grace slowly closed the door behind her as she left.
"Karen, do you know anything about the time between when Will and I broke up and when we met again?"
"You mean when Jack and Will were well…" Karen answered.
"What?" Asked Grace.
"Will was a mess. For the first month or so he was in shock. Every time anyone would mention something that brought the subject up he'd look like he was going to pass out. Then he tried to kill himself by taking half a bottle of aspirin. Jack caught him, took the bottle and stayed with him all night – after they got back from the hospital. The first time Jack took him to a gay club Will had a shit-load of alcohol and three ecstasy pills behind his back. They ended up in the emergency room again but Will doesn't remember it and we've had no reason to remind him. The worst of it was when he became a republican for a month. He was so confused it was pathetic. Jack could get so fed up with him; he'd say things he didn't mean about Jack and himself, really nasty stuff. I couldn't understand why Jack put up with it, he kept trying to tell me but Will wouldn't let him. Will couldn't do it, he made himself sick. One of his conservative friends asked him what was wrong, he came out to them told them and to go to hell. That was the begging of the Will we know."
"Will, a republican? Is that possible?"
"Yeah honey, it was pretty sad. And it literally made him sick so I'd say it isn't really possible. I don't think he'd do that again for a million bucks."
"Why didn't I know about any of this?" Grace asked.
"Because you, well you…"
"All right I get it. I was a real jerk at the time."
Karen continued with her story. "Then Will met Michel and you again, I think you know the story from there."
Grace nodded and changed the subject "Karen I'm going into work tomorrow afternoon, can you stay with Will?"
"Of course."
"You absolutely can't tell Jack what happed."
"I get it." Karen said.