Grace pulled the door closed behind her as she followed Will into the dark hospital room. The shades were drawn and the only light came from the moon shining through the slats and a small lamp in the back corner of the room, sitting on a table next to a tray of hospital food.

Karen was seated in a chair on wheels that was pulled up next to the head of the bed, both of her hands grasping one of Jack's as it lay next to his side. He was asleep, and her head was bowed as if in prayer, eyes closed. Will wondered if she was sleeping, too.

"Karen?" he whispered, leaning down next to her and placing a hand gently on her back. She looked up at him immediately as his voice brought her out of her thoughts. "We brought you some dinner. You don't have to eat it now but we thought you might want something later and the cafeteria is about to close."

She looked back at Jack before releasing his hand to take the carry out sack from Will and mouthing "thank you." He just smiled back and took the seat next to her, which he had been occupying all day, and Grace sat on the other side of the bed from them. Will picked up his book and Grace went back to watching reruns of some old sitcom on her cell phone. But Karen just took up Jack's hand again and watched him sleep; listening intently to the beeping of his heart monitor to make sure that every beat was just as steady as the one before it.

It was a lucky thing that Ben had been the doctor on call that day at the hospital when Jack had been rushed in. It appeared as though his body was having some kind of adverse reaction to the medication that Ben had given Karen, and had it been any other doctor that greeted them in the ER, Ben surely would have lost his job and Karen would've been in serious legal trouble. The drug was not available to the public yet, and they were still doing testing on it. Apparently spells such as the one Jack had been just a side effect, and it had taken this long for enough of the drug to build up in his system to have this kind of toxicity.

His ordeal had been mild, but it frightened all of them. Will and Grace were relieved to find Karen waiting for them in the atrium of the hospital, a smile on her face, with the news that Jack was fine. They were keeping him now for observation and to allow Ben time to run a few tests, the results of which would be used in the further development of the drug.

An hour later, Will looked up from his book and pulled his half-moon reading glasses off of his face. Grace was snoring in her chair across him from him, and Karen was also dozing, still holding Jack's hand loosely in her own, but slumped down in her chair with her head rolled to one side. He was about to go back to reading his book when he noticed Jack stir slightly, and his eyes flicker open.

"Hi," Will whispered, as Jack yawned and noticed the sleeping forms of Karen and Grace. He grinned at Will.

"Look at these old broads. Must be past their bedtime."

"Yeah," Will nodded, "but it is kind of late. Do you want us to leave?" he asked, gesturing towards the door. Jack shook his head.

"No, no. I'm glad you guys are here."

The two looked at each other for a moment, and suddenly an unexpected poignancy hit the air. When Will had first met Jack, he would've laughed in your face if you had told him that in almost 50 years they'd still be best friends, watching each other's lives come full circle. And now, he could barely remember that high school party where he had met the strange gay boy, his hair teased to the sky and his pants as tight as Madonna's leggings.

"How are you feeling?" Will asked him softly.

"Tired," Jack admitted. He frowned, and looked at Will as though he wanted to say something but wasn't sure that he should.

"What?"

Jack hesitated.

"I'm scared, Will."

It was an admission that Will was not expecting. They rarely spoke of it, but throughout this whole ordeal, Jack had been so strong. He was adamant about the fact that he didn't want anybody's life to change just because he was dying, not even his own. And now here he was, lying in a hospital bed surrounded by the three people who had loved him the most for almost all of his life, admitting his fear.

"Of death?"

Jack shrugged.

"Of the process. Of the pain…" Jack nodded towards Karen. "…of watching her suffer. For me." Will looked at Karen now, too, slumbering peacefully less than a foot next to him, blithely unaware of the serious conversation that was occurring right in front of her. It was probably better that way. It was at that moment that it hit Will just how much these two people meant to each other; that as he considered his own unavoidable demise, Jack's biggest worry was Karen's sorrow.

Will wasn't even sure he would have felt that way with Vince if it was him lying in that bed instead of Jack. This was heavy, and this was real. Maybe Grace was right; maybe they were made for each other.

"I'm just…scared," Jack continued. "There, I said it. I'm scared."

"So am I, Jack," Will told him, patting his leg that was stretched out on the bed in front of Will. "But you're not alone. We're all here for you, and we all love you."

Jack couldn't respond, just pressed his lips together and bit the end of his tongue to keep his emotion from spilling out. He sighed, closed his eyes and leaned his head back against his pillow. Will put his glasses back on and picked up where he had left off with his book.

And as he teetered on the edge of sleep once again, Jack squeezed Karen's hand that had a grasp on his own, and he smiled when he felt the warm pressure of hers squeezing back.