A/N: This is because Emma should have been in Audition. Hope you enjoy even though its angsty!
Will stepped into the cafeteria and his eyes scanned the room. When they landed on the subject they were looking for, his heart leapt.
Emma Pillsbury sat at one of the tables in the far corner of the room, alone and as usual, cleaning her fruit.
In the past, he paid no heed to her actions because it was just something that Emma did. It was part of her daily ritual and it was normal for her so it felt normal to watch her do it. He never took the time to notice how truly adorable she actually was.
Part of the reason he noticed was possibly because he hadn't seen or talked to her all summer and seeing her there, doing her normal routine, made him realize how much he really missed her.
In the few days that school had been in session, he had talked to Emma but only briefly. They exchanged "hello's" and "how was your summer?'s" but the chat was awkward and before Will could get a chance to attempt to fix the awkwardness, Emma told him she had paperwork to do and some kids to see. They hadn't talked to each other since.
It was the first time that Emma was actually in the faculty lounge since school started. He always made the familiar trek to Emma's office just so he could get a glimpse of her, even though her office was on the completely opposite end of the school from the faculty lounge, and he found her either talking with a student or eating her lunch by herself.
He didn't dare ask her to join him in the faculty lounge no matter how desperately he wanted to. The awkward tension between them not to mention the awkward stares they would receive because of Emma's rant in front of them the year prior would be too much for either of them to handle.
Still, everyday as he walked towards the faculty lounge he hoped that he'd find Emma there and after a few days of her being no where in sight, she finally was.
The other faculty in the room ignored both him and Emma as they were too involved with paperwork and conversing with each other, which Will was grateful for because it ruled out the awkward stares from them.
Now all he had to worry about was the awkward tension between him and Emma. He understood that things were a little rocky between them especially because of his recent admission of his love for her. He never did get a response from her and he imagined he never would unless he somehow managed the courage to badger her until she talked about it. That, however, would cause even more awkward tension and he wanted to fix that, not make it worse.
For the time being he decided he would drop the subject of 'them' just so he could get back on the right track with her. He knew he couldn't be more than her friend but he was determined to win her friendship back.
He took a couple of steps into the faculty lounge and Emma's eyes wandered over to him. He froze momentarily as their eyes met from across the room and he waited for any kind of reaction from her.
Emma's face remained blank for what seemed like hours and Will swore his heart was about to beat right out of his chest. He held his breath, wishing that she would do anything to let him know what she was thinking.
Then, as if by some sort of a miracle, she smiled and for half a second her eyes shot down to the empty chair next to her.
Will let out heavy sigh of relief and a smile crossed his lips. He didn't think it would have been possible but Emma actually wanted him to sit with her. Perhaps things would get better between them alot sooner than he realized.
He had just started to walk towards the table when a hand came crashing down onto his shoulder. He furrowed his brow and whirled around to meet a grinning Sue Sylvester.
"Hey buddy." She greeted and for once her tone was anything but sarcastic. "Come sit over here." She grabbed his elbow and started to pull him towards an empty table.
He threw a longing glance towards Emma's table and noticed her watching them with a confused expression.
"Sue, I was planning to sit with-"
He was cut off when Sue violently pushed him into a chair at the table. "You can sit away from your crazy girlfriend for one day William." Sue replied with a smirk. Will's eyes widened at her words and he glanced towards Emma, wondering if she had heard her.
Emma's eyes met his from across the way and a flame of red flushed her cheeks as she turned her gaze towards the table, suddenly very interested in her lunch.
Will didn't have time to ponder her reaction as Sue slammed her hands down on the table in front of him. Will jumped and his eyes snapped back to Sue. "Focus William, you can make goo-goo eyes in your time. This is my time now."
Will furrowed his brow and cocked his head in confusion.
Sue grinned maliciously. "Prepare to commence phase 2."
"Phase 2?" Will questioned but Sue only continued to grin at him as she slowly back out of the faculty lounge.
Will blinked in confusion as she disappeared out of the faculty lounge. He shook his head, sighing heavily, and reached for his bag which had fallen to the floor in Sue's violent efforts to push him into the chair.
He took out a stack of papers and his bag of lunch and placed them in front of him. As he started to unroll his brown paper bag he caught Emma looking over her shoulder towards him.
He smiled, suddenly forgetting all about Sue, and waved to her. Emma smiled hesitantly and waved back before she quickly turned back to her lunch.
Will's smile faded slightly and he was half tempted to ignore Sue's request and go over there and sit with Emma like he wanted to do. He didn't even understand what Sue wanted with him and why she had him sit by himself.
It was the first time he had the chance to sit with Emma in months and he couldn't believe he was just throwing that away because of Sue. He could deal with Sue being angry with him, Sue was always angry with him but he didn't want to spend a precious second away from Emma, not when he had the opportunity sitting right in front of him.
He had just started to pack up his lunch to move over to Emma's table when Sue entered the room. She sneakily made her way over to him and sat down in a chair at the table in front of him.
Will stared at her curiously as she explained, "Beiste is on the move. Operation 'Mean Girl' is a go."
Will frowned as Sue ordered the other teachers sitting at her table to leave just as the new football coach, Shannon Beiste, entered the room. She paused in the doorway and looked around hesitantly, searching for an empty table. Will glanced towards Sue who sat confidently and arrogantly at her empty table and he suddenly got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Coach Beiste approached the table and asked, "Is anyone sitting here?" She motioned towards one of the empty chairs at Sue's table.
"Yes, these seats are currently being occupied by my ghost friends." Sue replied without a bit of hesitance.
"I beg your pardon?" Beiste asked.
"My ghost friends." Sue stressed again. "Hideous, lonely faculty members who were met with an early death because of good old fashioned school yard bullying and you know why? They tried to cross me."
Will narrowed his eyes slightly at Sue's outrageous excuse.
"So why don't you just keep on walking?" Sue smirked up at Coach Beiste and took a sip of the drink she had stolen from the female teacher that was formerly sitting at the table.
Will resisted an eye roll and he looked up towards Coach Beiste who started to approach his table. His eyes widened in horror as he suddenly realized why Sue wanted him to sit by himself.
"Hi Will." Coach Beiste greeted him hesitantly. Her tone of voice was the complete opposite of what it had been the first time they met. She was confident and over powering, she was a threat to him and the glee club and she wanted to make it known. But she was standing in front of him now with a hesitance and uncertainty that made Will suddenly hate himself for judging her.
"Mind if I sit here?" She pointed to the empty seat and Sue slowly turned to look over her shoulder, giving him a knowing look. He also caught Emma's gaze and she stared at him with a confused and curious expression, waiting to see what he would do.
Will swallowed and glanced back at Sue, who waggled her eyebrows a few times, encouraging him to do the same thing she had. He quickly glanced back at Emma, who was now frowning with a look of disbelief in her eyes, and then he glanced up at Coach Beiste.
"Uh...sorry." His voice shook as he avoided all the stares in the room by staring down at the stack of papers on the table. "Taken."
"What about there?" Beiste asked, motioning to the other empty chair at the table.
"Actually..." Will started hesitantly, his brain screaming at him to stop, "They're all sort of taken." His stomach sunk at the look of hurtful understanding that crossed Beiste's face. "I'm um, meeting with uh Sc-science teachers." He mumbled the excuse and focused all his attention on the stack of papers.
"You think its easy being a female football coach?" Beiste rhetorically asked him and he winced quietly. "Being different? Do you think I don't get this everywhere I go?"
Will bravely stole a glance at her and he swore he could see tears starting to pool behind the large woman's eyes and suddenly felt incredibly sick to his stomach.
"Everybody told me that Sue was the school bully and that you were really cool. I'm guessing they got that last part wrong."
Coach Beiste's hurt stare burned into his mind and he started to sink in his seat, feeling very ashamed of himself. She shook her head and slowly walked out of the room. As soon as she was gone, Sue burst into a fit of prideful laughter.
His eyes travelled over to Sue and his nausea only continued to grow. He had sworn to himself that he would never be like Sue, never.
Sue flashed a grin at him and she leaned over, extending her hand to high five him. Will could only stare at her hand in disgust - of Sue and of what Sue had him do.
Sue shrugged off his unwillingness to participate in their high five and rose from her seat. "Good job Will. She'll be out of here in no time."
Leaving her garbage on the table, Sue strutted out of her room, yelling at a random student in the hallway as she disappeared out of the faculty lounge.
Will's hands shook slightly as he placed them on the table and as he lifted his head, he saw a look that nearly shattered his heart. Emma was staring at him with a mixed look of disbelief, disgust, shock and disappointment.
He swallowed hard and focused all of his attention on the stack of papers in front of him. He tried to read the words on the page but all he could hear was Coach Beiste's words on repeat.
He shoved the brown paper bag away from him, way too nauseous to even think about eating and tapped the table with his fingertips nervously.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a lime green blob of color walking towards him and it stopped on the opposite end of the table. He flattened his hands against the table, wishing that he could hold onto it.
He slowly glanced up and sunk further into his seat at the glare on Emma's face. "How dare you?" She hissed, narrowing her eyes.
"Emma...I-"
"She's new here, Will!" She cried and caught a few faculty members attention. Will suddenly felt like he was six inches tall and not six feet. "She's burly and a little intimidating but she's new and she's scared and she just wants to be accepted!"
Will opened his mouth to speak but words escaped him and he continued to sink into his chair.
"Do you remember how you welcomed me when I first started working here?" Emma continued, softening her voice. "Do you? You welcomed me with open arms, Will. I was scared, I felt everyone here was judging me, everyone looked at me like I was some sort of freak but not you. I walked in here on my first day and you called me over immediately to sit with you and you started to talk to me like I had been working here for years and not half a day. I may not have felt welcome with anyone else but you made me feel like I belonged here."
Emma shook her head, the glare gone from her face but the disappointment still there. Will truly felt like the lowest life form on Earth in that moment. Not only had he hurt the new teacher but he had hurt Emma...again.
"What's happening to you, Will?" Emma's voice was now a low whisper and it broke Will's heart to hear the hurt and disappointment in her tone.
"You're not the Will Schuester I once knew." Emma's words cut deep into his heart because he knew exactly what she meant. 'You're not the Will Schuester I once loved.' He had blown it, he had completely blown it. He was holding onto the chance that maybe one day Emma would come back to him but he had just blown that one chance that he might have had.
Tears pricked at his eyes as Emma continued to shake her head at him. He really, really hated himself so he didn't blame Emma if she hated him too. He wanted to crawl under a rock and hide there until he somehow managed to not hate himself anymore.
"Of course I am." He whispered pathetically, his voice broken and lacking the confidence that was needed to back up that statement.
Emma bowed her head and when she looked back up at him, Will could have sworn his heart literally just broke in two. "I wish I could believe that, I really do."
"Emma..." He sat up in his chair and started to reach out to her but she shook her head and took a step back. She shot him another disappointed look before she slowly turned and walked away.
Will felt his heart sink lower as he watched her retreating figure and tried to avoid the gazes of the other faculty members.
He took a shuddering breath and looked down at his lap, forcing back tears. Emma was right, what was happening to him? He had let Sue and her conniving ways trick him into doing something that hurt other people. It was clear Sue wanted the new coach gone and she was willing to do anything to make that happen and she convinced him to help him somehow. The truth was even though Coach Beiste was forcing Figgins to cut his budget for glee club, they'd still be able to manage, or if not perhaps he could have talked to Coach Beiste and Principal Figgins without Sue being present to ruin everything.
How could he have been so stupid to agree to team up with Sue? How could he have been so cruel to not allow the new coach to sit with him when clearly she wasn't as tough or mean as he thought she was. He was not that person, he couldn't be that person, he refused to be that person.
Screw his alliance with Sue, he would not change who he is just because of her. He would much rather have Sue mad at him then see that look on Emma's face again and to see that look on Shannon Beiste's face again. He had to make it right, he had to prove that he was who he used to be. He had to prove that he was worthy of his consecutive title of 'Teacher of the Year'. He had to prove that he was 'the cool' one, he was the one who accepted everybody when everyone else was against them. William Schuester was not a bully and he refused to become one.
He gathered the stack of papers in his hands and shoved them into his bag, not really caring if they weren't completely organized, and grabbed his lunch bag and rose from his seat.
Still feeling sick to his stomach, he threw the bag of lunch in the trash as he headed out of the room, heading towards the locker room, determined to let Coach Beiste see exactly who he was.
Then hopefully Emma would see that too.