Will just sat there, alone in the park, for a while. The photos clutched in his hand. He'd watched them get in Emma's car and drive away and now he had to look at the photos every now and then to prove that they'd been here at all.
The light was fading. He reached in his pocket for his phone and dialled.
"Shan?"
"Will, are you okay? Ya don't sound right." His old friend knew him well.
"Can I come over?"
"Ya know you're always welcome, Will."
He found himself on Shannon's porch just as he had that night three years ago. This time when he knocked on her door there were a fistful of photos held in his hand.
"Will, buddy. Ya look like a ghost."
Shannon eyed him carefully as he walked into her lounge.
"Want a beer?"
He nodded and sat down on her couch, wordlessly.
Shannon frowned when she handed him the bottle, slick with condensation. Will definitely wasn't himself.
"You okay, Will?"
He looked up at her, surprised to see her there.
"I'm a father."
Her first thought was it was one of those blondes, in that phase after Emma left. The women who'd hang around him at Rosalita's, feeding off his loneliness and confusion, all fake concern and boobs and offers of support. Of course, she knew her friend well, and she knew Will had accepted "support" on quite a few occasions.
"Are you sure the kid's yours, Will?"
First Terri, and now some parasite who saw a guy like Will as a meal ticket and free child care.
Will's face registered surprise. He shook his head.
"It's Emma." He stated it simply, as though it answered her question.
Shannon blew out her cheeks. That was not what she'd been expecting.
"Emma?" She sat down heavily on the couch. "But she's been gone three years, Will."
"I know" was his only answer.
She remembered the night he'd turned up on her doorstep, clearly upset, pacing her lounge, one moment on the verge of leaving, the next stock still, asking her what he should do.
"She loves you, Will. You guys are meant to be. Once this silly argument blows over, you'll be back to your normal lovey dovey ways in no time." She'd laughed. It seemed like nonsense. It was clear to anyone in a five mile radius that they belonged together.
Of course, her friend hadn't been entirely honest about the cause of the disagreement. She'd believed him then when he'd said Emma was upset about someone in his past. Emma was sensitive, maybe a little insecure, it was understandable that she might get worked up over that. People do.
But when it didn't all blow over, when Will returned to her house the next morning, to the couch on which he'd slept, ashen faced and mumbling the words "she left" over and over, when the days past and then weeks, Will walking around the halls of McKinley like a man who'd lost everything he owned, then she knew it must be something more.
She'd press him sometimes when he'd talk about Emma but he never wanted to talk about that night. He'd get this look in his eye that told her there was something more, something he was ashamed of. He mentioned April once too, staggering back from the bar one night. When she asked him again, he swore that was long ago but Shannon was smart enough when it came to Will to know that might not be true.
She'd held a torch for him for a while, never told him that though. And over the years she'd come to realize that she was probably lucky not to go there. She'd seen him flirt with enough girls in bars to know that they couldn't have survived that. They were better off as friends. She still loved him. Just not in that way. And she'd hurt for him bad when Emma had gone and she'd had to watch him suffer. She'd been mad at her too. Will was Will and if Emma didn't know that, didn't recognize the great guy he was, then she didn't deserve him. She couldn't help that ball of anger growing in her gut when she thought of what this meant, if it were true.
Emma would have taken this child from Will. Taken everything he'd wanted, and she couldn't think of a good enough reason for that.
"Still, do you really know it's yours, Will?" Maybe it would be better if it weren't, then he wouldn't have lost so much.
He looked up at her then and she could see in his eyes that it wouldn't be better.
"It's a boy. I have a son."
"But why now, Will? Why tell you now?" She spread her hands. "Does she want money? Someone to look after the kid? Is it all too much?" She knew Emma found a lot of things tough. Maybe raising a child was too hard with her issues. She'd always liked her timid friend but she couldn't understand her actions. And she couldn't help it, when it came to Will she was always going to be protective.
"His name's Zac." Will shook his head. "And I don't think it's like that. She seems to be coping fine." He paused. "In fact she's amazing. And God, Shan, you should see him." His voice was choked with wonder.
She just nodded as Will described the little boy, pausing often to stare at the photos he held. There was nothing else she could say, nothing that wouldn't rain on his parade at least, but she hoped to God it would work out okay. She didn't know if he could survive another loss like this.
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