Promises, Promises

Insert Standard Disclaimer … Here
Setting: December 31, 2003

Karen Walker sat curled up on her king sized bed. The absolute silence, both peaceful and eerie, covered the manse like a heavy fog. She didn't notice, though, her mind reeling as she scanned the page of the fat trashy romance novel she held open in one hand, a tumbler of copper liquor balanced in the other. Her eyes widened behind her glasses and she gasped slightly upon reaching a certain passage. "Good Lord," she muttered as she took a sip of her drink and paused to turn the page. Karen looked stunned as she continued reading, not hearing the knock on her bedroom door as the intricate descriptions and lame clichéd dialogue jumped off the page and cavorted through her brain. "Now why haven't I ever thought of that?" she remarked as she fanned herself with the book, having stopped to press the cold glass to her forehead and neck.

Whoever was out in the hallway knocked on her door again, louder this time, and Karen jumped. "Go away, Rosie, I'm busy!" she panted, wanting nothing more than to be left alone to drown in this Harlequin.

"Kaaaaaaaaren!" a chorus of voices responded in harmony, one of which was severely off-key and significantly louder than the others.

The banging on her door continued and Karen became genuinely annoyed. "I'm not here!" Karen bellowed, hoping that whoever was there was a little on the special side.

Her prediction seemed correct and there was a long pause as Karen settled back into her novel. She only got through one sentence, however, when the knocking resumed. Growling in frustration, Karen slammed the book down on the bed. "I'm naked!"

"Whee! It's a party!" Without any further hesitation, the door flew open and Jack appeared there, flanked by Will and Grace. Upon seeing Karen fully dressed and glaring at him, Jack's look of elation slid off his face. "Dammit, Karen, getting my hopes all up like that."

The three friends marched into the room, all clad in their pajamas and laden with snacks, DVDs, and drinks. Karen scowled and buried her nose again in her book. "What the hell are you doing here so late? And why do you look like you're fourteen years old and you're ready for your first boy-girl slumber party?" Karen peered warily over the top of the novel.

"It's New Years Eve, Kar! We have to celebrate!" Jack ran over and leapt onto the bed beside her, bouncing up and down on his knees a few times. He slid across the sheets on his stomach and tugged on the sleeve of her nightgown. "You need to watch the ball drop!"

Karen's nose wrinkled in distaste. "Oh, honey, you should really have that looked at by a doctor. I'll pass, thanks."

"No! In Times Square!"

"Jackie, you're not an exhibitionist." Karen smiled obliviously and pat his hand, trying once again to go back to her novel.

Will and Grace climbed up on the bed as well and Grace wasted no time tearing into a bag of potato chips. They leaned over and peered at the cover of Karen's novel, taking in the photo of Fabio, shirt hanging open and hair blowing in the wind, clinging to a tiny blonde woman. "I've read that one," Grace remarked through a full mouth. "It's hot."

"Congratulations," Will replied, "You've just contributed once again to the dumbing down of America. I'll lump you right in there with MTV and any Presidential address."

Will reached for a chip as Grace scowled at him, clutching the bag close to her body. "Please, I know you stole it from my room, Mr. I-Only-Read-The-Classics-Unless-There's-A-Half-Naked-Foreign-Man-On-The-Cover."

Will looked defensive for a moment before becoming embarrassed. He sighed. "The cabana boy turns out to be her nephew," he admitted as Karen stared up at him, flabbergasted. Her mouth hung open in shock as Will realized the gravity of his admission. "Oops."

"Well, thanks a lot, Wilma!" she shrieked. "Now it's not even worth finishing!" Karen hauled back and hurled the book at Will, who ducked just in time. He turned and watched it sail across the room, hitting the wall loudly and sliding to the floor.

"Oh, but it is. Trust me," Grace insisted. "There's this one part with the – wait, let me just – yeah, that was good," Grace trailed off as she stared in a random direction reliving certain parts of the book. Will rolled his eyes and took the bag of chips from her limp arms.

"Come on, Karen, forget that stupid book! It's New Years; it's time to party, time to have fun!" Jack resumed his tugging on her nightgown. He lay his head down on her arm and pouted up at her. "Pleeeeeease? I need a kiss at midnight and I'm not into flat redheads or mincing queens. No offense."

"Really? 'Cause ya could've fooled me with that last one," Will responded as Grace snatched the chips back from him and a small fight ensued.

Karen sighed. "Oh, you know I haven't been much in the holiday spirit this year, kids."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that when I unwrapped a pint of goat's blood and a voodoo doll of Marlo Thomas."

"Oh, no, Will, honey, that was for you." Karen smiled at him. "Enjoy."

"Listen, Karen," Grace began, "I know this is tough, spending your first Christmas without Stan. But we're gonna make sure your holiday season ends on a high note. And that's not what I mean!" she added hastily when she saw Karen's eyes light up. "We're gonna have a fun, cozy, substance-abuse-free night. Look, I've got all sorts of fun stuff," she continued, pulling things out of a plastic grocery bag. She handed a glittery feathered 'Happy New Year' tiara to Karen, who eyed it suspiciously before dropping it off the side of the bed. "We'll pig out, watch Dick Clark freeze his toupee off in Times Square, cuddle and talk about stuff." Grace grinned and tossed Jack a noise maker before turning to Will, who was shaking his head in disbelief. "C'mere, Will." When he didn't move she glared at him. "Put on the stupid hat I bought for you, grab a cookie, get your ass over here and cuddle and have some frickin' fun, dammit!" Grace continued glaring at him until Will slowly began to crawl over from the other side of the bed. She quickly lit up again and turned back to Karen. "See, we're having fun, we're laughing, we're cuddling." Grace grabbed Will's arm and shoved him down on the bed, landing on her back beside him.

"Look, Karen, Will and Grace are working through their domestic squabbles to be here for you. It'll be fun. Please try to have a good time."

"Oh, poodle, I wouldn't want to leave you alone with these two tonight, so what the hell. Okay, you kids can stay."

"Yay!" Grace and Jack chorused. Grace clapped and kicked her feet in the air as Jack shot up and began bouncing again, jostling his three friends and the bags of food around. He landed on his knees on the edge of the bed and climbed hastily under the covers, nudging Karen towards the center of the bed and closer to Grace, who quickly slipped under the blankets as well, sinking into the thick mattress.

Hours later, the four friends still lay together across the large bed, food packages and wine bottles littering the room. Jack dropped an empty candy wrapper onto the floor and licked his chocolate covered fingers, those of his other hand idly entwined with Karen's in the air between them. "Geez, Kar, it's a good thing you have a staff of thirty. This place is a sty. It looks like the inside of Grace's purse in here."

"Quiet, you bitch." Grace threw a Hershey's Kiss at him over Karen, hitting Jack square in the forehead.

Jack turned and peered at Karen through his glittery '2004' glasses. She stared up at the ceiling, not giving any indication that she had heard any part of their exchange. Jack paused for a moment and glanced up at the ceiling to see if she was looking at anything in particular. Deciding that she wasn't, Jack grabbed a noise maker and blew it once at her and she jumped.

"What?!"

"What's the matter, K? Tired of my company already?" Jack pouted and batted his eyelashes at her. He brought the hand he still held to him and kissed it softly.

"Of course not, poodle. I just hate New Years. It's so overrated. It shouldn't even be considered a holiday."

"Aww, don't say that, Karen. New Years Eve can be so romantic," Grace started wistfully. "Getting all dressed up, going to a fancy party with that special someone, ringing in the new year with a kiss. What the hell am I talking about? I got none of that, my husband's half way around the world. I hate New Years. Gimme those cookies." Grace tossed the candy aside and began plowing through a bag of Oreos.

"I bet you and Stan went to your fair share of those parties," Will mused. "Hob-knobbing with all those rich snooty society people with their four thousand dollar hair-dos. God, I wish I was them." Will turned away and took a swig out of the champagne bottle he had clutched in one hand.

Karen sighed. "That couldn't be further from the truth, Wilma. We'd actually spend our New Years' just like this."

"In bed with two queens?" Grace asked only to be immediately shushed by Jack, who tossed the Hershey's projectile back at her, where she immediately unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth.

"No, just in bed with each other."

"Uh, Kar, if this is gonna turn into one of those stories where –."

"And when the kids were little they used to climb in here with us."

"Eww."
"Jack!" He flinched and peered over the girls at Will, becoming very thankful that he couldn't reach him at that moment.

"We'd always make an appearance at the parties, sure. I mean, a girl's got a reputation to maintain. If I didn't show up, who knows what nasty rumors Mrs. Carolyn van Schrute might spread about me. Evil, vicious, gossipy woman, that one. Fourteen facelifts and a boob job, but you didn't hear it from me," Karen laughed and added quickly. "But we'd stay for a few minutes, fifteen tops, and then Stan would make up some excuse about why we had to leave early. Like one of the kids was sick, or Rosie got arrested, or the goiter died. You know, nothing serious. Or sometimes we'd just sneak out when no one was looking and rush home. Olivia and Mason would be waiting up here for us, the fat one all hopped up on sugar and deli meats. We'd all put on our pajamas and climb into bed. The kids would fall asleep long before eleven, but we'd wake them up just before midnight, and they'd be so excited, but they'd be unconscious again by quarter after, so we'd let them stay in here for the night."

Will, Grace, and Jack exchanged intrigued looks, but didn't dare interrupt Karen as she monologued about her past New Years Eves with Stanley and his kids. They had no idea she could articulate so well such a vivid and, well, normal family memory. It was as if she wasn't even aware that her friends were in the room at this point; she was lost in thought, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth as she spoke. Jack rolled onto his side, still holding her hand, and gazed intently at Karen's profile as she continued to stare up at the ceiling.

"When the kids got older, they started spending the night with their friends and forgot all about us. But I'm not gonna lie to you, we didn't really mind that much."

Karen stopped and stared wistfully up at the ceiling. When she made no move to continue with her story, Will finally spoke up. "You know, I'm gonna make a resolution this year. I'm going to be nicer to you people. Even though you're idiots, all of you."

"That's sweet, Will," Grace responded softly. "You know, I think I'll resolve to try to not make everything about me. I do that sometimes, you know."

"Really?" Will gasped, feigning surprise. "I don't think that's possible, Gracie."

"Fine. I resolve to not eat so much."

"Grace…"

"Well, what do you want me to say?!"

"Start small, sweetie."

"Um. I resolve to fold my laundry within a week of washing it."

"I think you can handle that. Jack?"

Jack's face twisted in concentration as he thought. "I resolve to let Karen take me shopping as much as she wants," he finally decided with a grin. "What about you, Kar?"

Karen heaved a deep sigh. "Oh, I don't make resolutions any more, Jackie."

"Why not?"

"They're never kept. A few years ago, Stanley and I did away with resolutions and decided to make each other promises instead."

"Oh, that's cute, Karen," Grace mused, rolling onto her side to face her friend.

"Three years ago, our last New Years together in this room," she began, "I promised Stanley that I would cut back on the pills and the alcohol."

"This is you cutting back?" Will asked incredulously before he could stop himself.

"No," she answered curtly and paused for a moment before continuing in a much softer voice, "I didn't keep my promise because Stanley didn't keep his."

Jack linked an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. "What was it?" Karen was silent for a long moment, not sure if she wanted to tell them. On her other side, Grace took Karen's hand and Will leaned his chin on Grace's shoulder, all eyes on Karen. She finally sighed again.

"I made him promise me that he would never die."