Will woke up at nine, still tired from his late-night trek. He flinched at remembering the two dead bodies, but he pushed it out of his mind. Will got dressed, grabbed his wallet and badge, put his in-waist holster for his Five-seveN, and went to the door. However, upon going to the door, there was somebody already there.
"Long night?" Suguru's grandfather questioned. William lightly laughed.
"You don't know the half of it." Of course this was true; the old man wouldn't guess Will had been in a firefight.
"I just wanted to let you know that I'll be leaving today."
"He would be better off with you, you know." This made the grandfather sigh.
"I trust Suguru in your hands. I can't take care of him, and Misato trusted you."
"Well then, I suppose I should get going over," Will said while stretching. They both walked the minute in silence, neither having much more to say to the other. Upon walking in, they sat next to Suguru.
"Umm, Mr. Migdal…" Suguru started, fumbling over the name.
"Please, call me Will."
"Okay, Will… I was wondering, you seem vaguely familiar. Have I met you before?" Suguru asked, still somewhat hesitant.
"Yes, but the last time I came here to Japan was when your mother died."
"Umm… How did you and my dad meet?"
"Ah, well for college I went to an English-speaking school for foreigners here in Japan. Outside of school grounds, I met your father and we got talking. I helped him with English, and he helped me with Japanese. It was hard because of the language difference, but we slowly became friends." Suguru grew silent.
"What happens now?" He asked, clearly scared of the future without any parents.
"Well, you said that you wish to live on your own, so you shall stay in this house by yourself. I will stay in a house just down the street, so you can come to see me anytime. I will also handle all the finances. I'll give you an atm card, so just be smart on how you spend your money. Beyond that, life goes on. It'll be hard, but I'm sure your friends will help you and you can always talk to me anytime. Your classes start back up in a week, so right now you should just take this time to recover."
. . .
William stayed at the Misato residence that whole day, including after Suguru's grandfather left in the afternoon. In the evening, Will cooked dinner. It was American, of course, so it was difference than Suguru had eaten before.
At 8:30, Will figured he should put Suguru to bed. The problem was, he had no clue how. Will figured it couldn't be that hard; just tell Suguru to change into PJ's, make his bed, and tuck him. Luckily for him, this worked. That is, until he said good night and went to leave.
"No, wait!" Will turned, surprised. "I, I'm scared," Suguru said quietly. Will was about to speak, but Suguru continued. "W-what if something happens? What if somebody breaks in?"
Will was momentarily fazed by this, but quickly regained his composure and said, "Suguru, I have alarm systems set up to notify me if something happens. You don't have to worry."
"But what if something happens to you then?" Will saw more than selfless worry in Suguru's eyes, so reflective of Misato's. Will saw fear, an inability to loose anyone else. Will gave a soft smile.
"Don't worry about me. I'll be just fine, and always there for you okay?" It was a lie, a damned lie that left a bad taste in his mouth. He was one of the riskiest FBI agents. Chances are Will wouldn't be around for long. SKV work wasn't for family men, that's for damn sure. And Suguru seemed unsatisfied, but nodded slightly, and Will patted his head in an attempt to comfort him. As Will walked out of the room, he hoped he had put Suguru's unnecessary doubts to rest. But unnecessary doesn't always mean unfounded.
. . .
William awoke to the cell phone ringing and the pitter-patter of its vibrations on the desk. The sun had risen just barely over the horizon. Will begrudgingly picked up the electric device.
"Hello?" Will said, slightly irritated.
"Hey. I have quite a few things to report. First off, we got your car to Japan, it'll be dropped off at your house today." William's car was a nice sleek two-door that doubled as both his normal car and one for response to FBI situations. It has bullet-resistant windows and doors, a pop-up siren and lights in the roof, and a powerful engine with a manual transmission.
"Halya-fuck'n-lyua. Let me guess: the other thing to report is about the missile silo." It had been a full week since Will had investigated the silo, and he had yet to hear much about it.
"You would be correct; the SEAL's cleared out the place with no resistance, and the special weapons squads disarmed the missiles. We're examining them now, but there isn't much else of use there. Any hard drives and completely and utterly destroyed, though I doubt they forgot to override the data first. With no useful info, it could be a while before we get a new lead after this; but I assure you, we'll find a new wild goose chase for ya soon enough." Will chuckled.
"Fantastic. Anything else I should know?"
"Law enforcement in the area have been notified that an advanced FBI agent is in the area on standby. They will be able to get in contact with you if they need help."
"Heh, just like at home, huh? Even when SKV's slow, not that it ever is, there's still always somebody who needs help. But hey, at least its work for which I actually joined the feds in the first place." Brian chuckled in response.
"Hey, you chose to be the best of the best, and you let yourself get dragged into this SKV bullshit."
"It was that or the HRT's," Will replied. (HRT is the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team. They are a national high-level SWAT team that are employed full-time and train daily. They can be deployed across the country but also have been involved in Afghanistan and Iraq.)
"Or you could have just stayed where you were," Brian said mater-of-factly. To this Will sighed.
"I don't believe in not moving up and forward, and the HRT wasn't for me."
"Why not?" Brian seemed genuinely interested.
"I dunno, it just wasn't. Maybe it's the never-ending training. Maybe it's cuz you rarely go into the field and actually make a goddamned difference. Maybe it's just cuz the only casualties has been in training rather than in the actual line of duty. I guess I just think that I should be out here doing shit, not spending my whole life training in case I get the opportunity to do something." Will seemed very detached as he said this. "But either way, I chose to join SKV. In all fairness, I had no idea what the hell I was getting myself into."
"Must have seemed great at first. Fighting alien invaders for the good of humanity, Men in Black shit."
"We're the Federal Bureau of Investigation, not some super black-ops squad! Sure, I fight the occasional Kaisma or Vesper, maybe even a Saintling, but I do more investigation than actual combat." Whist chuckling, Brian said,
"There's a reason why they chose you for SKV investigation, pistol-sniper." Will laughed heartily.
"To think they still call me that after all these years. Besides, they just wanted their main investigator to a: be able to respond to and handle SKV situations, and b: to not die when shit hits the fan."
"Still, I remember when I was first told I was going to be field support for you. Normally I would have minded, worried my brilliance would go to waste on just plain support," Will chuckled and muttered a sarcastic of course, "but you were like a celebrity, a real-life Hollywood hero. Still are…" Brian trailed off.
"What do you mean?" Will questioned.
"With the recent increase in SKV activity and you leaving, they got three more SKV investigators from the Bureau. Apparently one of them accepted the job when they heard you were the first one to be in the position in the FBI." Lightheartedly, Will exclaimed,
"Oh for Christ's sakes! Don't get me wrong, I'm a damn good shot with a pistol, but it was a lucky shot! The media just acted like it wasn't for publicity."
"35 yards is still a hell of a ways for a lucky shot on a running man with a pistol. Anyway, the police want to meet you in one hour," Brian said, getting back to business.
"Alright, I'll be there. Anything else I should know about this meeting?" Will knew Brian had a habit of not telling Will everything, or as Brian put it, what Will "didn't need to know." Brian nervously chuckled.
"Well, the director wanted to score some political points by making it look like we were sending great help to Japan's law enforcement…"
"Aw hell, just spill it!" Will said irritatedly as he groaned.
"Well, um, it might have been mentioned that you are highly trained with special weapons, and it might have been noted that you were recommended for the HRT. So there's a chance the SWAT's will be there to talk with you as well."
"You have got to be shitting me," was Will's only reply.
"I shit you not." Was Brian's simple response. Will groaned even louder.
"Why does he do this to me? I swear one of these days I'm gonna kill the old bastard." Will mumbled, very pissed off.
"Well, you have been great in FBI squads the occasional times you've been in an all-out raid," Brian noted
"In leading squads! We both know when shit hits the fan in combat, I don't take orders. I cant believe they thought they could be that out of me in the HRT."
"Or maybe they though you could rise up quickly to a commanding role," Brian suggested.
"Heh, maybe. But I still cant stand the thought of training all day every day, only to see combat a few times."
"Ya know, most people would be happy to never see combat." Brian said I a slightly condescending tone.
"If I'm not in the field fighting, I'm not doing something that matters." At this, Brian chuckled darkly.
"Maybe Suguru will change your mind." Will was caught off guard at what Brian said.
"I –" Will started but didn't know what to say.
"I know, I know. You've never had a wife you hold dear or a kid you brought into this world. But now you have somebody to live for. Don't forget that." Will knew what Brian meant. Suicide missions were something he had been known to do before, biting off more than he could chew when it came to the FBI. He had nothing to live for, everything to die for. That's how he saw it, anyway. But if will died, Suguru would be all alone. Again. But the scariest part was that with the way Will faced his duties, it was not if. It was when. Suguru's scared face from the other night came to mind.
"Th-that," Will tried to find the right words. "This, this is SKV work. Millions of lives are on the line in the shit we do. Even if I'm living for two, millions of lives outweighs the needs of two." Will argued this even though he wasn't sure himself anymore. At this, Brian started to become angry.
"It must be real goddamn nice to live in a world where numbers can dictate everything! Human lives aren't statistics! If I died tomorrow, do you think my son would just say, 'well, it was only one in eight billion. Minor casualties, nothing to cry over.' Is that what you think?! Or would that just be what you would say?!" Brian yelled. William couldn't respond, he didn't know how to respond. He was inclined to disagree, say "it may not be right, but it's how the world works." But William knew, deep down, that Brian was right. Even if he was too proud to admit it, even to himself.
"I- I-" Brian started after a long silence. "I'm sorry. With the silo, and now Vesper seems to be on the move, I'm just tired."
"Don't… Don't worry about it," Will said quietly. He didn't know what else to say. He said his goodbyes to Brian and hung up. Solemnly, Will got dressed, holstered the Five-seveN, and began to walk out. Part-way, however, he pulled out his wallet and looked at the empty photo holder in it. He never thought much about it, never had a wife or kid to put in it. Now he noticed how desolate it seemed. William put it away and tried to shake it off.