Note: As always, italicized dialogue is from the show and not my own.
If the mentioned backstory for Neil sounds vaguely familiar, I used to use it in my (now abandoned rip) WilSon stories. Kudos to anyone who finds/remembers my embarrassing demons. He almost always had the same one and almost always had a crush on Chad.
On with the story!
This Time: As Will goes to the Kiriakis mansion with information that will help Sonny, it's up to Will to keep a level-head when the situation gets out of control.
It wasn't a far walk back to town square from the old apartment building, thankfully. Will wondered if that had been a selling point for Sami when she'd had the apartment, because it only took him about five minutes just to walk there.
When Will got to the pub, John and Paul were already there. He saw them in the window and smiled softly before going inside. He immediately walked up to the table and took the empty chair by Paul, giving him a kiss on the cheek as he did.
"Hey," Paul said happily, smiling at him, "How's your day been?"
"Tracked down an old apartment, the staff was really nice," Will explained, "The landlord is going to call me back and might let me look at one."
"Will has been going to old places to find some of his memories," Paul explained to John, "We went to the Spot and he met one of his old friends."
"Friends?" John asked.
"Neil Hultgren," Will smiled, "He's a really nice guy."
John went silent.
"Or...is he?" Will asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
"I mean, from what I've heard he is," John told him, "But his family is a different story."
"His family?" Will asked, looking over at Paul with concern.
"The Hultgren family basically runs the underground mafia around here," John said bluntly, "Neil's dad is kind of the head of everything, real close with the DiMera family."
"He said he inherited something from his dad, I thought that meant he was dead," Will said, looking confused.
"Well, legally he's dead," John shrugged, "But does anyone ever really stay dead in Salem?"
Will sighed, shaking his head, "I guess you're right about that," he shrugged, "So you guys think Neil's dad is alive somewhere?"
"We have our theories," John sighed, "But they've never really bothered us, so it's not something we keep too close of an eye on. The most they do is keep the bigger families in line as well as big businesses away from small places like the pub."
"So mafia for a good cause?" Paul laughed.
"Pretty much," John nodded, clearing his throat, "Anyways, Steve and I uncovered information about Leo this morning and we wanted to get it to you as soon as possible with the trial so close."
"What did you get?" Will asked excitedly, "Is it something that could help Sonny's case?"
John put the file onto the table, "It may be just enough to make this whole thing go away all together," he said as Paul grabbed the file and opened it.
Will looked over at the papers, reading them with Paul.
"Leo Stark is an alias," John explained.
Will laughed, "That's not his real name?"
"No, his name is Matthew Cooper," John told them both, "He's got a sizable arrest record."
Will stared at him with wide eyes for a moment before looking back at the file. He felt a little nervous for Sonny, especially if the guy had crimes under his belt. They certainly weren't the best of friends but he didn't want him getting hurt.
"For what?" Will asked.
"Says here mostly petty thefts but he was also a male escort," Paul told him.
"He was a prostitute?!" Will demanded, trying to keep the smile off his face, "That's great!"
"Will," Paul laughed, just shaking his head and going back to the file.
"I mean, y'know, for Sonny's case," Will explained himself, rolling his eyes when he saw John holding in laughter at his comment, "You know what I mean."
"I don't know if it's enough to clear Sonny," Paul told him, "I mean, just because Leo has a shady past, doesn't mean he wasn't sexually harassed," he said before explaining himself, "Look, I know we all know Sonny...and doubt he would do something like that, but until we have definitive proof that he didn't harass Leo, we need to look at all our options here."
"You think Leo might have actually been harassed?" Will asked, looking confused.
"I doubt it, but it's important to look at all the angles here," Paul told him, "We can't just brush off these claims because it's Sonny."
"Well...I believe Sonny," Will mumbled, "But, you're probably right."
"It might not be enough to deter the case, but it certainly proves that he's a liar and that's enough to plant reasonable doubt about his motives," John told them both.
"I mean, this whole case is based on the integrity of his testimony," Will agreed.
Paul sighed, "Why was this so hard to find? It took us weeks to uncover a simple arrest record? We can usually do this in a day. How did Leo do such a good job at covering his tracks?"
"I don't think he set Sonny up on his own," John said, "I think whoever made this happen has had experience at it and a ton of resources."
"You think he had an accomplice," Will realized, nodding.
"No, I know he did," John told them, "I just need to find proof."
"Okay, I need to get this file to Sonny right away," Paul said, "He and Justin will need to use it in court tomorrow."
"Oh, I can take it to him," Will told him, "I was actually going over there to check on Ari anyways, since I'm kind of at a block with any memories or writing today."
"That's great," Paul said, "I actually have another case I'm working on anyways, so that's perfect," he said, handing the blue file over to Will.
"Oh...be careful," Will told him.
"Always am," Paul said, giving him a smile.
"And tell Justin and Sonny if they want to go over that with me, that I'm here," John said, "And that I'm more than happy to testify."
"I will," Will told him, "I'm sure they're going to be so grateful for you help," he said with a smile.
"Hey, that's why we're here," John said, taking a drink.
"Yeah, we both just want the best for Sonny," Paul agreed.
"Well, he's lucky to have both of you," Will nodded before grabbing his bag, "Okay, I'm going to go. I'll see you later," he said, leaning in and giving Paul a quick kiss, "I love you."
Paul smiled, watching him get up, "Love you too."
"Bye, John," Will said before hurrying out.
"See you around," John called, watching him as well.
Paul continued to watch him until he walked out the door before turning back to John, a smile on his face when he saw John's look as well, "What?"
"That's new!" John said with a laugh as the door closed.
Paul laughed, ducking his head, "Yeah, it is."
"When did that happen?" John asked, honestly more excited than Paul had ever seen him.
"He told me the day he got the serum," Paul said, unable to keep the smile off his face, "I told him that night. It's been a thing ever since."
John laughed, "Well, I'm happy for the two of you. It's good to see you so happy."
Paul just smiled, taking a drink of his coffee.
"I don't know if I should threaten him if he hurts you, or threaten you not to hurt my grandson," John joked.
Paul choked on his coffee.
Will got to the Kiriakis mansion quickly, excitement in his step. This could really help Sonny and make all their lives a lot easier, especially Ari's. He knew Sonny obviously wouldn't have told a child anything about it, but he'd noticed over the time he'd been in Salem that...kids can really sense their parents' stress.
Will walked into the mansion, not knocking in his excitement, but stopped when he heard Sonny and Leo talking.
"The case goes to court tomorrow and I need your decision," Leo was saying.
"My decision," Sonny said quietly.
"Mhmm," Leo told him, "Allow your business and your entire family to be destroyed...or marry me, make all your problems go away."
"Okay….okay, I'll do it. I'll marry you."
Yeah, Will couldn't just stand there. Sonny was supposedly an intelligent guy but here he was about to marry a con-artist who's plan sounded so dumb it would be on a soap opera.
"What?" Will demanded, walking in. He tried not to laugh, "You're going to marry this loser?"
"Stay out of this, Will," Leo said, walking in front of Sonny, "It's none of your business."
Will laughed, "None of my business? Sonny is one of Ari's parents, she lives here, Sonny is my friend. If you actually think I'm going to stand here and let you do this, you're crazier than I thought...and that's saying something," he added before turning to look at Sonny, "You can't be serious."
"You heard him," Leo said, "He wants to marry me and we're doing it now, I have a number for the justice of the peace."
"Oh, cool, what name is going to be on the marriage certificate, Matthew?" Will asked bluntly.
"What?" Sonny asked.
"Stop," Leo cut him off, "Will, you aren't invited, get out of here."
"Sonny-" Will started.
"Please, Will, you don't understand-" Sonny started.
"I understand that you have lost your mind," Will said, still looking at him in shock, "You can't be serious about all of this."
"No, you need to stay out of this," Sonny said slowly, like he was talking to a child.
"Like hell I'm staying out of this!" Will yelled, "And stop talking to me like I'm an idiot! I'm not going to let you throw your life away by letting you marry this son of a bitch!" he snapped, finally talking over Sonny for probably the first time since Memphis, surprising the other man into silence.
"Look, nobody asked for your opinion," Leo said, "You left Sonny and broke his heart, you have no say in this matter."
Will rolled his eyes, "I didn't break his heart. Do you know how stupid you and everyone else in this town sounds when you say that?" he asked, making eye contact with Sonny briefly as he spoke, "Would you really like to stay with someone who doesn't return your feelings? And don't answer that, because you're obviously about to force him into marrying you when you've made his life hell for the past few weeks.
Me staying with him wasn't fair to Sonny, it wasn't fair to Arianna, and it wasn't fair to me. So don't bring that up, Matthew ."
The name finally snapped Sonny out of his trance as he stared at Will, "What is he talking about? Why does he keep calling you Matthew?"
"Take a look at this file, see what Black Patch found out about this guy," Will said, taking it out of his page and shoving it into Sonny's hands, "Right now. Don't say 'later', don't act like I'm being hysterical, read it now, Sonny."
Sonny opened the file, still shocked by Will's sudden backbone towards him as he read.
"This is a trick," Leo said desperately, "He's bluffing, look at him he's just...being hysterical and trying to get you to stop this wedding because he regrets what he did-"
"One; I'm not bluffing. Two; I don't regret a thing about what I did," Will snapped at him, "So shut your damn mouth, Matthew. Let him see the person you truly are."
Sonny read everything in shock, "What?"
"Yeah, Leo's not even his real name," Will said, satisfied that Sonny was finally acting sane again, "His name is Matthew Cooper; he has an arrest record and he was a prostitute."
Sonny finished reading before staring at Will in shock. He closed the file and turned back to Leo, "Well, I guess we'll be holding off on sending out those wedding invitations."
"You weren't going to send out invitations, you were going to do it here where no one could interrupt you," Will deadpanned.
"It was a joke, Will," Sonny sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"This doesn't change anything," Leo said, starting to get flustered, "I had another name, who cares?"
Will studied his body language and he could tell if anyone in the room was getting hysterical, it was Leo. He slipped out his phone once he was sure Leo was focusing on his conversation with Sonny.
Time to call for backup.
Will Horton: Kiriakis mansion, ASAP, SOS
Will put his phone back away, going to back to the conversation that was unfolding, "You're a criminal," he deadpanned.
"A couple of petty thefts? That doesn't mean I wasn't sexually harassed," Leo/Matthew/whatever his name was said.
"No, but it proves you're a liar," Sonny said, snorting.
"What kind of jackass lies about this?" Will demanded, "You know, there are actually people in the world being harassed that are scared to come forward and you do something like this?" he snorted, shaking his head, "Then you expect to blackmail Sonny into marrying you?"
Leo ignored Will, "Are you changing your mind about marrying me?"
Will burst into laughter, "No, he's just deciding what name he should put on the wedding invites," he said sarcastically.
"This is going to be bad for you, if this comes out," Sonny told Leo.
"How bad is it going to be for you, Sonny? Blaming the victim?" Leo asked, "This is not going to save you the way marrying me will."
Will rolled his eyes, "Yeah, you're unhinged."
"This has opened my eyes," Sonny said, "Will is right; you're a loser and a con-artist. I'm not going to marry someone like you."
"So you're going to let your whole business go up in flames; allow your business and family to be destroyed?" Leo demanded.
"I mean, they've done worse, probably," Will said under his breath.
"I'll take my chances in court," Sonny said, glaring at Leo and ignoring Will's comment, "Matthew. Because I could rather be honest than spend my life with you. Matter of fact, I don't want to spend another minute with you."
Now, Will would later admit, he probably shouldn't have been making as many comments during this serious moment as he did. But, it just felt so good to get justice for once, to see his friend acting rational and basically telling this loser to fuck off.
So he had to egg it on a little bit, if he was honest.
"Well," Will said, walking forward, "You heard the man. So why don't you get the hell out, before I throw you out."
And that's when things went south pretty fast.
Will didn't remember what Leo had said, but his hands wrapped around his neck and Will froze.
Memories flooded back into his brain, despite Will kind of wanting them to stop for the first time. Any other time, he'd welcome the memories, but this time, things were different; this wasn't something he wanted to know, this was Ben.
This was dying.
He was remembering dying at the hands of Ben Weston.
Time slowed down around Will; he remembered being in Ben and Abigail's apartment, the red flashing light out the window. He was waiting on someone...the cable guy, maybe?
He was alone.
He was so alone.
Ben took pleasure in killing him, Will knew that but he didn't know why. He did it slowly too, practically playing with him.
Will knew that it was Ben.
Ben was the one who killed all the others.
Ben was the one who was going to kill him.
Ben killed him.
Will's ears were ringing, but he heard Sonny yelling at Leo to let him go.
It didn't feel like falling asleep, dying, for him at least; but that was probably given the circumstances.
Will Horton had died alone, scared, and at the hands of someone he was supposed to be able to trust.
The hands released him and he was back in the Kiriakis mansion, his ears still ringing.
He watched as Sonny threw Leo and Leo stumbled into the fireplace, hitting his head and falling to the floor with a thud.
And Will didn't care, not right now at least.
Sonny was talking to him, but Will couldn't hear him over the ringing. He was checking him over, trying to get Will to move his hands from protecting his neck so he could see the damage, if anything.
"-okay? Will? Are you okay?" Sonny asked desperate when the ringing finally, stopped, "Talk to me, please-"
"Oh my god," a familiar voice said, cutting them off.
Will turned and looked, Paul was standing in the doorway of the room.
Will didn't stop himself when he ran over and hugged him as tightly as he could, breathing heavily.
"Will? Hey, focus for me," Paul said, trying to get his attention in a softer voice, "Will, babe, come on-"
Will just shook his head, refusing to let go. He buried his head in Paul's chest and let out a sob, one of his hands still on his neck.
"What the hell happened?!" Paul yelled at Sonny.
"I-I didn't mean to kill him, I didn't-" Sonny was panicking, "He grabbed Will's neck, he-"
"Christ," Paul breathed out, "Will, I'm going to pull your hand away, okay. I just need to make sure he didn't do any damage."
Will shook his head, not moving.
"Okay, okay," Paul told him, his voice soothing as ever, "Sonny, call the cops."
"What?! No," Sonny said quickly, "Paul, do you know how this looks-"
"Yeah, it looks like you stopped someone from strangling Will-" Paul winced when Will let out another sob, "-in self-defense. The Salem PD will rule it a self-defense and everything will be fine."
"Paul," Sonny said desperately, tears in his eyes.
"Will, where's your phone? I left mine in the car," Paul said, despite knowing he probably wouldn't get a response. He felt around on Will's pockets before he finally found it and quickly called 911, using his free hand to rub soothing circles on Will's back as he talked on the phone.
"Paul-" Sonny tried again.
"Hi, this is Paul Narita, I'm going to need the police and an ambulance to the Kiriakis mansion," he said over the phone, "There's been a murder."
Paul was sitting on the steps with Will when the police arrived five minutes later; it was Hope and Roman, thankfully. Sonny was leaning on the wall outside the doorway, obviously in shock.
Will still hadn't spoke.
"Will?!" Roman demanded, running over to him with Hope.
"It was Leo," Paul explained, "We uncovered some information that would be bad for his case, Will brought it over here and Leo attacked him...all I got was a text from him telling me to come here, that's all I know. Talk to Sonny, body is in the living room," he mumbled.
"Will, sweetheart, let me see," Hope said, touching the hand covering his neck softly, "The EMTs are here, they're going to want to take you to the hospital to get this checked out."
Will took a shaky breath, "I remember Ben," he whispered, surprising everyone in the room.
"What?" Sonny demanded.
Will didn't say anything.
Hope swallowed, nodding, "We'll swing by later to get your statement later, Will," she said before going over to talk to Sonny with Roman.
Will put his head on Paul's shoulder as the EMTs came in.
The ride to the hospital was a blur; all Will remembered was being told to lay down in the ambulance, Paul sitting beside him along with a cute EMT in a blue uniform checking his vitals and trying to get him to talk before telling Paul that he thought Will was in shock.
Will didn't remember much, if he was honest. The next thing he knew was that he was in a hospital room, lying in bed with his Aunt Kayla checking over his neck and trying to get him to focus.
"Ben killed me," Will rasped out, "H-He didn't even feel bad. Why did you guys let him out?" he demanded, not caring that he sounded hysterical.
Kayla gave Paul a look, tears in her eyes. Will couldn't blame her, it was probably hard for her to see him like this, given that they were family.
"I'm going to tell Marlena to come here," Paul told her, reassuring her silently that he'd be making sure Will would get help for the mental anguish he was currently in.
Whenever Kayla told Paul something and left, Paul was on the edge of his bed, pulling him into his arms. Will just relaxed against him, not saying a word.
Paul held Will close, silently regretting ever supporting Will getting the serum...silently cursing Sonny for being reckless...silent cursing Leo for existing.
Paul enjoyed seeing Will happy getting all his memories back, sure, he didn't regret that part. He just regretted the state Will was currently, now remembering what Ben did to him.
"Oh, son," someone said suddenly.
Paul looked up and saw John in the doorway. He gave him a weak smile, "Hey," he said, before mouthing, "Ben," at John, who quickly put the pieces together.
John sighed, "How you feelin', kid?" he asked Will, "Your grandma is on her way and your aunt says you can leave tonight, if you're feeling up to it."
"Crummy," Will said bluntly, "I'm getting pretty sick of people grabbing my neck when I don't ask them to," he grumbled, pressing his face against Paul's chest again, "And I really hate being in the hospital," he added.
"Well, once Marlena gets here, we'll give you both a ride home," John told them, trying to keep the mood light, "She told me to let you know it's your turn on Words With Friends."
Will huffed, "She played amphibology last time," he looked up at Paul, "How am I going to beat that?"
"Beats me," Paul said, trying to give him a smile and handing him his phone.
Will just hummed in thanks, opening up the app and not saying anything else.
Paul made eye contact with John who was now sitting down on the couch in the room, watching them. He quickly went back to holding Will and looking down at his phone, not saying anything.
It would be a long road to recovery ahead of them.
Next Time (July 28): Will and Paul deal with the aftermath of Will remembering one of the most traumatic moments in his life with the help of their friends and family.
