Chapter 16
The final chapter.
My thanks go to Mettespo for her support and beta-ing of some of the chapters including the previous one. But this one is a surprise so I hope it hits the spot.
Will stands still in the freezing wind, with snow falling around him. He feels nothing, he has shut down. He watches the lights of her cab glow faintly in the distance and knows he should move but he has no power over his limbs.
A couple of minutes later a young man jogs up to him and starts to talk but he can't seem to hear. Is he still human or has he turned to stone? He feels weirdly disconnected…she's pregnant she said….with child…Mac! She'll need help….he has to be there for her no matter who the father is. And marriage, oh fuck, how can she marry someone she hardly knows.
"Mr McAvoy, Will McAvoy" the young man continues and somehow Will finds the sound of his voice soothing. When Will fails to respond, the man starts shaking Will's arm as well. Will's gaze focuses on this person, who seems to know him - but many people know him - millions. It finally strikes him how useless those people are when the people you do want to love you aren't there.
"Mr. McAvoy, please. Come with me, you need to get out of the cold" the man repeats "Mac'll kill me if anything happens to you"
He's said the magic word: Mac. Will turns his head and looks at this man-boy who is gently pulling him back towards her apartment building. "Come," he keeps muttering through chattering teeth, as he encourages Will to move inside.
As Will begins to pay attention, he sees his companion is slight with a thin coat, hardly a protection in the winters of Canada. His shoes are trainers, worn and faded and his jeans display the unfashionable sort of rips. In contrast to his shoddy attire, the young man appears earnest, and kind and has a well-spoken English accent, Will realises. And he knows Mac. Not one of his virtual friends then!
"What's your name?" Will finally asks when they reach the lobby.
"Adam, and you have to be more careful. You can freeze to death quickly here if you stop moving"
"How do you know Mac?" Will wants to know
"Ummm, well I think I was going to marry her next week but you're here now so I guess it's all off" Adam says sheepishly. "I won't ever stand in the way of Mac's being happy, no matter what." He goes on in a whisper "She is too special for that "
Will is confused but he understands now that Mac has to be trusted, even when things seem ludicrous. He had almost flipped when he saw Wade…but a more trusting reaction stopped another round of misunderstandings turning everything to worms. And she had turned out to have been completely innocent. Again!
But this is a bit different. He needs to talk to this young man without it ending in a shouting match. He inhales deeply, his new found strategy for managing his emotional responses and turns to face Adam square on.
"Can we go somewhere private?" he suggests and the lad nods.
"Come upstairs" he says "we can talk in Mac's flat"
"You sure she won't mind? We can sit in a coffee shop" Will replies
"I know she won't. Who do you think sent me to find you when she had to go for her scan?" he stated firmly. "Mac is worried about you. She texted me to get you off the street but not to agree to stopping the wedding. But I don't care. I won't marry her just to save myself."
Will is totally confused but he also finds he likes this English man in his early twenties. He can keep calm and find out what is going on or get angry and sarcastic and loose Mac to this youngster.
Once back in her sitting-room Will tries to keep control of his now tumultuous feelings.
"Adam, can you tell me about Mac's pregnancy" is where he chooses to start
"Mac is almost six months pregnant and I think you need to ask her about it yourself." Adam says diplomatically, while watching Will warily.
"Good answer" Will smiles and tries not to let any incredulity infest his voice as he says "And I presume you two are planning to marry to ensure the baby is legitimate?"
"God no! " Adam shouts, clearly becoming upset "Mac is not that sort of person. She would never try to cover up her baby's….. . No. it's all my fault. She's trying to save me and she's willing to make herself a laughing stock to do it." He pauses, then continues more slowly "It was her idea. She offered me something because she was never going to use it. But now I am saying it out loud, I can't let her do this. I'll just have to go home!"
And tears start to trickle down his face as he jumps up and crosses to a door leading from the room…his bedroom it seems. He slams the door and thumps and crashes sound out as he packs his few belongings. Within 5 minutes he reappears with a tattered backpack.
"I want you to tell Mac I'll always think of her as my second mother. The one who tried to keep me safe, which my own poor mum couldn't manage." Adam commands Will "Tell her I love her most of everyone and I am grateful just to have had the experience of being loved by her – even for just a few weeks. No one has come anywhere near that since I was eight."
And Adam heads for the door, stops, turns and holds out his hand to Will saying "Good to meet you sir, Look after her…..them"
And he turns again to undo the locks on the front door. Fishing in his pockets he pulls out keys and places them carefully on the stand beside the door and …Will's hand lands forcefully on Adam's shoulder.
"Wait" Will instructs "What is Mac going to do to me when she finds I've let you go? Oh no! You're staying right here and when she comes back we'll figure it out. Together! If Mac loves you , you are not alone and you really don't want to piss her off. Trust me."
Adam blinks furiously to stop his tears. Here's another person who is trying to help him? He is overwhelmed by the kindness of the people in this continent.
"Want to tell me why you don't want to go to England, I presune?" Will suggests gently
Adam pales and looks at the floor. Thoughts of wrong doings, terrorism and drug dealing occur to Will. But Adam shakes his head and says quietly that he really can't talk about his problem but its a certain death if he returns home.
"Then how about a coffee" Will says
"Will tea do? I make a great cup of tea" Adam brightens and sets to boiling and brewing.
As their cups are all but empty, a key turns and Mac appears, looking exceptionally tired but still so beautiful to Will.
"I see you two have introduced yourselves" she smiles and turning to Will "I'm sorry about today, I guess I got spooked when you turned up, then disappeared then turned up again. I thought you might have found out about my pregnancy and come to stake a claim to the baby."
"Our baby I presume" Will smiles back "But I get that you are in charge and I will have whatever you want me to have, and do whatever you'll let me do and no more"
"I thought you might believe I was trying to hide her from you. But I have already written a letter to your lawyer saying you are her father and can have as much contact as you want as long as it is reasonable for her and doesn't harm her development." Mac states
His eyes light up at her magnanimous offer after his dumping his pregnant fiancé and sleeping with his ex-girlfriend.
"And you're going to marry Adam here? He tells me it is to protect him" he goes on evenly,without any accusation, "Can you explain why? Can I help?"
In reply, Mac looks at Adam and asks him to nip out and get a loaf from the store on the corner as she craves some cinnamon toast. "And please put your back pack in your room, it's cluttering up the entryway" Mac continues, revealing she has noticed his attempted exit and is not in favour of that solution,
When he's gone Mac sits on the couch and tells Will how she met Adam at the local supermarket. He had started to pick up her groceries when her bag burst and sent her vegetables dancing across the sidewalk. Suspecting he would run off with some of her goods, she decided to risk it anyway because he looked starved. Then she heard his accent and they got to talking about how he was in Canada on a student visa and had to leave in a few months. She'd asked him in for tea and used her journalist powers to extract his story. He had a violent, alcoholic father and had lived in constant state of dread as a small child. When he was 9 he hit his father in the face to stop him beating his mother up. But he was a small child and his father threw him to the kitchen floor and grabbed a knife and slit his mother's and sister's throat in front of his eyes, screaming "Look what you made me do"
Adam had been terrified and had run out of the house covered in his mother's blood. Luckily for him, he was so scared that he ran straight across the road and ended under a police car, and his father, who was chasing him with the knife was arrested.
Adam still can't return to those memories without nightmares and anxiety attacks but the newspapers at the time reported the whole gory mess which Mac has verified.
Every year, on his birthday, Adam gets a card from his dad, promising to kill him in a very painful manner, when he gets out of prison. His father can never be linked to these missives, which seem to be smuggled out by released inmates. And the police have explained that without evidence they can't do anything until he actually attacks. His dad was released last year and Adam is terrified of returning to the uk.
Mac covers this ground fast as the store is close by and Adam will return shortly.
"So you plan to marry him to keep him here or in the US? To save his life? Is that what he meant?"
Mac nods "He needs help and I am the only resource I have" she whispers "It's not like a marriage of convenience at all Will. I do love him…as a son. He can divorce me in a few years and marry a young person. And when his father dies he can go home safe and…and I wish he'd been my son and I could have protected him…."
Will sits silently. He can see just where Mac's love for this young person has come from. A boy, who hits his father to protect his mother. It could so easily have been him. It was him!
With a heavy heart Will leans over to Mac and takes her small hand in his large one. "I don't mean to interfere in your plans but is it ok if I contact my lawyer to see if there is another way to keep Adam this side of the pond? Marriage is a little drastic. And he's too old to adopt but who knows?" Will offers gently
Mac looks at him with a grateful smile. "Thanks Will, I'd be most grateful. I think Adam is less than committed to marriage with an old crow."
Will grins. He's on her couch, holding her hand and has dealt with several issues without blowing his cool. He's grown up. His father truly does not define him. He senses a second of pride in his own ability to manage and a recognition of the maturity of Adam who has been through more than he has and still can think of others before himself.
And even better, Mac is smiling back at him. And she's concerned for him and just maybe, if he can work on his terrible and unfounded accusations about her dishonesty and deception then he might become a full –time father and husband and lover. It will take a while he thinks, but he loves that Mac is having his child, another brilliant thing from her to him, their best. And he might get a full grown son out of this to mentor and guide and possibly learn from in the process.
He's never going to know how he got so lucky as to have Mac love him, he thinks, but from now he is just going to accept that she knows enough for both...all three...no the four of them!