A/N This is just a sneak peak of the epilogue that will go by months of Finn's senior year. I figured you've all been waiting a while and this is an informal celebration of Dot-Marie Jones' Emmy nomination for guest actress in a comedy.

+ I feel like I should warn for Will's appearance

Shannon wasn't sure why she was doing this. She wasn't sure she'd do it even when she sent in the paperwork. He was probably safer out at Marion instead of being in town at Oakwood , but the drive was a pain in her ass. She hands over her i.d. and confirmation number and after a search she's taken to a mostly empty room with several heavy duty tables and chairs. After a few minutes the door at the other side of the room opens and Will is brought in. He looks surprised to see her, but he sits down across from her and stares at his hands.

"Thank you," he says quietly. She watches him for another minute, taking in the fading bruises on his arms, the uniform that reminds her more of hospital scrubs than anything else, and asks "For what?"

"For coming to see me. For taking the kids to New York. For not letting me take the easy way out and make things worse for him," he says.

She nods, "I didn't do it for you."

"You're here. That's more than anyone else. Well, Sue sent me the headline from the Lima News but she blacked out the details. I know they took fourth place, but that's all."

"That seems fair," she says and waits to see if he'll argue with her, she doesn't think he will.

"It's not like I have a lot of news of my own to share with you. I'm sober now. Not having a choice will do that for you. It was kind of rough for a while, when I was waiting for them to transfer me here. The withdrawals, and not being able to blur out what I did," he says, his eyes fixed at some point on the table.

"Reality sucks, in this case because you made it this way. Now we all have to deal with it." She's stopped looking for explanations, it's not like it would ever make any sense anyhow. She's seen the reality from Hudson's end, she's here because for some reason she needed to see this too.

"Look Shannon, I know I don't deserve to, but I need to know if his name got out." His voice is quiet, and when he looks up she can see the pleading look in his eyes.

She considers this for a moment. She can see why he needs to know, that he is coming to terms with how much suffering he'd caused. "No. Not yet anyway. There were rumors of course, but the newspapers and television stations were especially careful about the details. Thank goodness, he's had enough to deal with."

"Good. It was on the news everywhere, and people keep trying to arrange interviews with me. I'll never do it though. It's the best I can do, and it's not much."

She nods again, still not quite sure what to say to him. "They said you could have magazines, with the staples out. I brought some music ones. You'll get them after they check them over."

"Thanks, they've got me doing some clerical work sometimes. I guess I read and write better than most of the other pervs." She can hear the self-loathing in his voice, and it's satisfying in a way. "There's still a lot of time to fill."

"I don't think I can come back, Will. I think it's better if everyone involved puts you and all of this as far behind us as possible," she says, getting up from the table.

She watches as he runs a hand through his now short-cropped hair, "Yeah, I get it. This is already more than I deserve."

She'd thought a lot about what to expect when she saw him. She had predicted that seeing him and revisiting the pain he caused would bring feelings of anger and disgust. Now, however, as she looks at this broken version of her best friend mostly what she feels is pity. He has no one else to blame for becoming the worst possible version of himself, but he's clearly horrified by it and will rightly pay for it the rest of his life, in prison or out.

She stops on her way to the door and faces him again. She probably shouldn't say anything, and it sounds harsh but she hopes he understands what she's telling him, "Take care of yourself Will. You're the one who is left alone to face a ruined life. You're the one who might not be strong enough to face this."

She sees him flinch at first, and then his relief as he realizes what she's not saying. His whole body sags with the understanding and as she leaves the room for good he puts his head in his hands and sobs.

On the drive back to Lima she thinks about the preparations she needs to do for football camp, and how she's going to convince Figgins to let her hire a new glee club director.