A/N: Sorry for the delay everyone. I wasn't able to meet my 'one-update-every-two-weeks' deadline because of my busy schedule (read midterms season) and some personal reasons as well. Fourth chapter's up now though so YAY!
Thanks again to the awesomely awesome 4cherryblossoms for, er, beta-ing! I'd also like to credit her friend as well, for providing me with inspiration for Will's first line in this chapter. Apparently, it's copyrighted. XDD
Emma was still a good distance away from the scene and yet she could already hear Will's unusually loud voice. "I told you, I'm not drunk! I am mentally stable!"
His statement confirmed her suspicions. She stopped mid-step as she realized the implications of what she was about to get into. This was the law that she was going to be up against. The gravity of the situation was giving her second thoughts. But there was no backing out now, since the cab had already left and given the lateness of the hour, there won't be any other ones passing by soon. That, and the glee coach also noticed her presence. "Oh, look Tinkerbell. It's Bambi," she heard him tell the plump man in uniform before waving his hands excitedly. The officer only rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath as they watched her walk towards them.
"What seems to be the problem Officer, uh…," she paused, glancing down at the tag fastened on his chest and reading what was written. "…Blart?" Though the answer was rather obvious, she still felt compelled to ask this.
Instead of answering her, he turned towards Will, his thumb pointing in her direction. "Who's this, your girlfriend?"
Will laughed, his hands clutching his sides. "Bambi's a dude. You can't have a guy girlfriend y'know," he corrected him after he had regained his composure. His expression then changed into a more serious one as he managed to get a good look at her. "Though I'd have to say, he does look rather pretty right now, with his dress and make-up and all." He paused again, his admiration shifting to alarm when he reached a rather disturbing conclusion. "Oh God. Bambi, are you gay?"
Blart faced Emma again. "This guy here's been going twenty at a forty miles per hour zone," he finally informed her.
They looked at him for a moment. He was pacing up and down the sidewalk, murmuring to himself. "Bambi's gay. My life is a lie. All lies." was all that they could make out of his babbling.
"Oh yeah and he's drunk too," Blart quickly added, noting his senseless talking.
Will's brows furrowed when he overheard his observation. "How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not drunk! Geez," he denied before pacing again.
"What's the penalty for, uh, driving under the influence?" Emma asked the officer.
"Well since this is his first time, he has two choices. He can either spend the next five days doing jail time or pay the fine," he told her, holding two of his fingers up as he explained it to her.
With the regionals coming up in a few weeks, Will couldn't afford to miss a day of practice with the kids. Paying the fine was his only option. She knew that it wouldn't come cheap, so she felt a little hesitant when she asked how much it was.
"The fine? It depends, actually. Anywhere from $250-$1000, depending on how much alcohol he has consumed," Blart answered her in the same neutral tone.
Emma stared at him for a moment, as though she was still letting his words sink in. She then pulled out her wallet from her purse, grabbed a bundle of hundreds out and handed it to him. It was money she'd been saving up for a rainy day and this, to her, was one of those days. "Is this enough?"
Blart took the wad of bills and counted them. It was 500 dollars flat. He looked at her, clearly surprised by her actions. "Wow, you're paying it for him? That's very sweet. I wish my girlfriend Amy would do that for me too," he admitted to her, shifting his gaze down to the pavement. Realizing what he had just said, he found it necessary to apologize. "I'm sorry about that. That was very unprofessional of me."
"No, no. It's okay," she assured him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "And I'm sure she will. You seem like a good man." She wanted to clarify that she wasn't, as he assumed, Will's girlfriend, but she somehow couldn't bring herself to say it out loud.
"Thank you." He smiled and she promptly returned the gesture. "You know what, here. I'll give you $200 back. Just don't tell anyone all right? I wouldn't want to get in trouble with the guys," he said, handing a portion of the wad of cash back to her.
"You're only doing your job Officer Blart. Take it," she quickly declined.
"Please, I insist," he pressed, brining it even closer to her. He had a feeling that she was going to turn down his offer again, so he decided to shift to a different approach. "If you don't accept, I'm going to have to arrest both of you," he threatened, a grin drawn on his lips. The trick always worked and this time was no exception, as Emma grabbed the cash from his hands in a heartbeat.
"That's better." He chuckled before reaching into his motorcycle's compartment. "Here's the brochure for the AA by the way. He can just drop us a line regarding his preferred schedule for the mandatory rehabilitation session."
Emma took the brochure and placed it inside her purse. "Will tell him," she promised him as she watched him board his vehicle.
"Have a safe trip!" he called out to the two as he sped off.
She waved goodbye to the officer before turning her attention back to Will, who was busy picking a fight with a lamp post. She walked over to him and tapped him lightly on the shoulder.
He turned towards her and, noting Blart's disappearance, began to look around for any sign of the officer. He couldn't find any, even after checking behind the post he'd been kicking earlier twice, so he figured that she might know where he was. "Oh hey Bambi. Where'd Tinkerbell go?"
It took Emma a while before she remembered who he was referring to. "He, uh, left," she told him after a moment of thought.
"Where'd Tinkerbell go?" Will repeated his question, which remained to be unanswered.
"Back to fairyland, I guess," she replied, finding it best to just go along with the flow. He seemed to be satisfied by her answer, as he merely nodded. "And it's about time you got home too."
His features lit up instantly, making her smile a little. He looked like a nine-year-old in a candy store. "To the forest with other talking animals like you? All right!" he expressed his agreement, raising his fist up in the air. "How are we going to get there? Are we going to ride on your magic carpet?"
She led him towards his beat-up sedan. "Sorry, but it's down at the carpet repair shop for maintenance. We can use your car, though."
He shook his head slowly, his expression amused. "But a deer can't drive. You have hooves," he reasoned, laughing his head off afterwards.
"Well guess what Will? They can," Emma differed, her tone challenging.
"No way," he stood by his words. She only responded with a grin as she guided him inside the passenger seat. She then took her place on the driver's side and finding the keys still in the ignition, started the engine and took off into the road. She turned towards him for a moment, amused at the disbelief that had surfaced in his features. "No way!"
"Told you," she replied smugly. She found it silly, but she couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment in disproving a drunken man's argument.
"Whoa. So you're actually a gay, car-driving deer? Talk about false knowledge," he remarked with amazement. His smile grew wide as an idea hit him. "Since you proved me wrong, I'm going to get you something special Bambi. What do you want?"
"I don't know," Emma said, not taking her eyes off the road.
"Come on, there has to be something. What do deers eat? Hay? Carrots? Caviar?" he insisted, enumerating a number of food items that grew more and more random by the minute. It was cute in the beginning but soon enough Emma started to get rather annoyed. When he suggested doorknobs, she knew she had had enough.
"Okay, you want to know what I want? I want you to get me a star," she finally answered him, rather impulsively at that.
"A star?" he repeated, unsure if he heard her right.
"Yes, a star. But not just any star. I want a periwinkle one and I want you to place it inside a bottle. Yeah, that's it," she clarified. The idea wasn't as random as it seemed to be. Her mother used to tell her that during her fifth birthday, she wished for a periwinkle star in a bottle. Apparently, she even threw a fit when she found out that they weren't able to get her one.
Will grew silent for a moment. "Wow. That's pretty demanding," was all he could say, his words slurring a bit. He then turned towards her with a look so intense that Emma's heart skipped a beat. "But sure, even though I don't see what a woodland creature would want with a heavenly body. If it's a star you want then it's a star you'll get. I promise."
Emma nodded. "Okay, Will. I'll wait for it."
The rest of the trip was spent in silence. Emma only had the courage to look at him again when they reached a stoplight. It turns out that the reason why he suddenly turned quiet was that he had fallen asleep. His head was slumped against the window, the light from the street lamp overhead illuminating his features with a mesmerizing glow. A smile crept up her face as she watched his shoulders move up and down in a steady rhythm. He looked so peaceful, so vulnerable. Looking at him at that state almost made her forget about his gallivanting.
The incessant honking of the car behind them brought her back to her senses. She sighed before shifting the gears back to drive.
It didn't take long before they reached Will's apartment. This was when reality hit her- since Will was fast asleep, he obviously wouldn't be able to get back up on his own. She didn't know how exactly she did it, but she somehow managed to carry the man up to the fifth floor without any untoward incidents, save for the time when she took too big a step and almost tumbled down to the ground with him. Thankfully, she regained her balance, though in doing so the two of them ended up in a rather awkward position.
Just like before, his keys were still hidden under the welcome mat on his doorstep. She brought him inside and put him down on his bed, covering him with a blanket and dimming the lights to ensure a good night's sleep. After making sure that he was comfortably settled in, she took one last look at him before turning on her heel to leave. However, she was stopped in her tracks when she thought she heard him say her name. She was going to dismiss it as a product of her imagination when she heard it again, clearly this time.
"Emma," he repeated, as though he sensed her doubtfulness. This was impossible of course, as he was still fast asleep. She froze when he grabbed her arm in a firm yet gentle grip. "Stay, please. I need you. Don't leave me."
His tone sounded so genuine, so desperate. Emma couldn't resist him anymore. Without a word she obliged to his request, moving towards the other side of the bed and taking her place right beside him. "I love you," he told her softly when she settled in, snuggling against what he thought was his pillow.
She didn't realize just how tired she was until the moment her body came into contact with the soft, inviting bed and took her off to slumber land in a matter of seconds.
When Will woke up that morning, he felt weird. His head throbbed, his pillow smelled of women's perfume and he had a strange urge to look for a periwinkle star and place it in a bottle. His confusion only grew when his vision shifted to his bedside drawer, where a pack of aspirin, a brochure and a baby monitor lay.
The events of the previous night only came back to him after he noticed a post-it attached behind the container of aspirin. Written in a neat scrawl that was undeniably Emma's, it read: Left some breakfast on the table. Used some of your toothpaste by the way. Take care. All he understood from that was 'I still love you, Will.'
How Will found out about the baby monitors Sue placed in his apartment remains to be unresolved, so I added here a possible answer to that. Cookies for those who know where I got the officer's and his girlfriend's name. :))
Next chapter revolves around Dream On. What if Bryan Ryan made a little stopover to Emma's office when he dropped by the school? And how is Carl doing as McKinley's new dentist? Read on to find out.
Review and I'll love you to bits.