Alternative Twist: Birds of a Feather Boa

Summary: This is an alternative twist to Will and Jack's storyline in "Birds of a Feather Boa" (Series 8, episode 7)

I'll be including actual dialogue from the episode, so it's not all my own work

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Grace enters her and Will's apartment after a few hours of retail therapy. She practically collides with Jack who was in the process of leaving the apartment.

"Jesus G, you scared the shit out of me" Jack exclaimed picking up his penguin sign he'd dropped.

"What's this?" Grace asked looking at Jacks sign.

"Oh it's a sign for the penguin rally. Did Will not mention it?"

"Probably, I wasn't really listening. Actually he's been acting a bit funny since yesterday"

"He doesn't want me to move" Jack says sadly. "He thinks we'll stop hanging out and end up like strangers"

Grace laughed. Jack would have laughed too but he was worried about Will. Why had his friend gone so cold on him when it was his idea to go out and look at apartments yesterday?

"So how has he been acting funny?" Jack asked Grace.

"Well he's not very talkative, went to bed early, ate too many carbs, that sort of thing. I thought he'd found a grey hair or something, I didn't like to ask"

"Maybe I should put off moving" Jack suggested.

"You can't live your life to please Will. Do what you thinks right for you Jack" Grace told her friend before heading off to her bedroom.

xxxxx

Half an hour later had Jack in the midst of the penguin rally searching for Will. He was surprised by the amount of people that had turned up for it. After all they were only penguins. He was almost thinking about giving up and going home to wait for Will when he spotted his friend in front of him. He ran to catch up with him.

"Hey Will, look what I made" Jack said out of breath and holding his sign up. Will glanced briefly at Jacks sign and went back to looking straight ahead of him.

"Although it's not as good as yours" Jack said laughing. "How did you manage to draw those penguins so accurately?"

"Shouldn't you be signing a lease?" Will asked bitterly.

Jack had to force himself not to scream at Will. What was his problem? But Jack didn't want to make things any worse than they already were. He decided to keep things light.

"I'm doing it tomorrow" Jack replied. "Hey come on Will, lighten up. Up until a few years ago I lived with my mom and we still saw each other all the time, nothing will change between us"

Will ignored Jack and didn't respond to him. For several minutes they just walked side-by-side holding their penguin signs, neither of them actually thinking about anything penguin related. Eventually Jack tried again to make peace with his friend.

"Will, let's ditch this rally and go grab a coffee, we can talk about things" he pleaded.

"Just leave me alone Jack. You never wanted to come to this thing today. We may as well get used to not being in each other's company"

Will walked off throwing his sign to the floor, leaving Jack seething but also wondering what the hell he can do or say to Will to make things better. He contemplated running after him but figured Will needed time to think and maybe come to the conclusion himself that he was being completely unreasonable.

xxxxx

After grabbing something to eat Jack headed back to Will and Grace's apartment hoping to find Will there. But only Grace was there, sitting at the table eating a chocolate muffin out of a box of 4 and reading a magazine.

"Where's Will?" Jack asked Grace sitting down and reaching over to get one of the muffins for himself.

"He's gone to find out the situation on the penguins" Grace replied.

"How did he seem, is he ok?" Jack asked taking a large bite of the muffin.

"Haven't seen him I just found a note on the side when I got out of the bath"

"Oh right" Jack sighed.

xxxxx

Jack was in central park zoo making his way to the penguin pool. As he neared, sure enough, there was Will.

"Hey Will, I'm glad I found you" Jack said softly to Will, putting an arm around him. Will looked at Jack and smiled.

"I'm sorry Jack. I've been a selfish friend" Will said looking down at the floor.

"No you haven't" Jack told Will removing his arm. "You're my best friend and I should take your feelings into account. After all you've bailed me out on several occasions when I've been short of cash"

"I'll really miss you Jack, but I'm excited for you and your new place. When do you move in?"

"I'm not moving. All the money I had is gone. I spent it on some stupid impulse buy"

Before Will could reply the woman from yesterday was approaching them again.

"Hey, guys, guess what? An anonymous donor just gave the Bronx Zoo enough money to buy its own penguin. Doug and Randall don't have to be separated. But don't say anything. I want to tell them myself" and off she went.

Jack began shuffling on his feet and Will grabbed his arm to still him.

"A anonymous donor? I can't believe you did that. I'm so impressed. I never even though about donating money. How did you know how much to give?"

"I'm not an idiot, Will. I think I know how much a penguin costs" Jack replied looking sheepish.

"But that was your apartment money. I can't believe you did that for me"

Will pulled Jack into a hug. They pulled apart and turned to look at Doug and Randall.

"Look at them. They really are cute aren't they?" Will said smiling.

"Yeah" Jack agreed.

xxxxx

Will was at the gym. He'd just finished his work out and was having a shower. After drying himself off for a few minutes he wrapped the towel around his waist and stepped out into the changing room.

He stopped dead. Jack had just walked into the changing room and was heading his way. Will contemplated hiding but Jack spotted him and came over.

"Will, hi" Jack said enthusiastically hugging his friend.

"You look good" Will said to Jack as they broke apart. He did look good.

"You look good as well" Jack told Will.

"Whatever Jack, you can say it. I look fat bald and ugly"

Jack grabbed hold of Will's arm catching Will off guard.

"Will, you look great. Seriously" Jack said, looking at Will rather strangely.

Before Will could ask Jack what he was staring at Jack had yanked the towel away from Will's waist and was backing him into the shower he had just came out of.

Jack captured Will's lips in a passionate kiss. Will felt paralysed to the spot. Lust and desire were coursing through his body and as Jack removed his own clothing Will almost gasped at seeing Jack's very impressive package. Will had always secretly wanted a little glimpse, not that he'd ever told anybody that.

Jack pushed his body up against Will's and Will tried desperately to move his arms and explore every inch of Jack's body. A ringing began filling his ear, getting louder and louder. Everything went dark.

Will opened his eyes to find himself staring at his bedroom ceiling again panting as though he'd just run ten blocks.

"Shit" he said out loud.

xxxxx

Please, please review I will be forever grateful and thank you for all those who have already reviewed (I See London / Nighthawk-Moonshadow / Hayden-B / red-wax). I've written this story from a real episode, and chapter 1 follows it pretty much all the way so not sure about the out of character remark hee hee! On well! (This will now be 3 chapters. I couldn't squeeze what I wanted to write into 2, hope that's ok!)