Work Text:
Then
“But Dad, you just got back from your shift?!” Will whines, watching his dad strap on his holster.
“Tell that to the bad guys on the South Sid,” his dad slurs around his cigarette.
It had been a week since his mom had died. Four days since the funeral. The house still feels empty and lonely. It’s the first time Will would be home alone. That doesn’t worry him as much as his dad driving his squad car after six beers and a few bourbons.
“But it’s the day after Thanksgiving! We always put up the tree today!” Will’s voice cracks. He doesn't know how to get his dad to stay.
His father looks at him and puts on his heavy uniform coat. “Doesn’t matter what we usually do. She isn’t fucking here. There is no fucking usual.” He staggers out and slams the door without another word.
Will crumples on the bottom step of the stairs. Not crying -- there aren’t any tears left -- but lonely. He sits there staring at the wall as the house gets colder and darker, and comes up with a plan. A fairly terrible plan. But surely it will make his dad feel a little better.
Hours later, Will collapses into the couch, exhausted, sweaty, and covered in dust and pine needles. The tree is up -- he’d dragged it down six blocks after he’d stolen it from the vendor on Park St. He had put up three strings of lights and all the decorations he’d hauled down from the attic. The ornaments and the lights twinkle and shine in the early hours of dawn. He falls asleep watching the lights.
“The fuck did you do?”
Will hits the floor when he hears his dad yelling. He wipes his eyes and pulls himself up. “I thought I would surprise you.”
“Take it down. Fuckin’ take it down.” His dad weaves on his feet as he gestures to the tree, “She isn’t here to see it. I don’t want to see it. Take it the fuck down.”
Every word feels like a slap. Will winces with each one.
Will finally cries as he is cleaning up. He hasn’t cried since the moment the doctor said she died. The tears well up inside him and fall with the last string of lights, endlessly streaming down his face.
He wanted to make his dad smile. He wanted to celebrate like before. It would have made his mom’s absence a little easier to bear.
Instead, he made everything worse.
Now
The snow fall turns Chicago into some old picturesque scene from romantic holiday films, gilding the roughened edges of the worn buildings and abandoned lots into a winter wonderland.
The captain peeks his head into Will’s shared office. “Gorski!”
Will jerks his head away from the window.
“The fuck you do now, Gorski?” Diego asks.
He shrugs, standing up. He knows, but he hasn’t found the time or words to tell his friend yet. Once inside the Captain’s office, Will’s poker face fails him.
“Sit down, Gorski.”
Will sits.
“You will never believe the bullshit I just found in my mailbox. A resignation letter.” He waves it towards Will’s face. “From you?”
“Yes, sir. My girlfriend” - he suppresses the wave of giddiness brought on by the mere thought of Riley - “got offered a job in London.”
“What the fuck does that have to do with you?”
“Well, Sir, I’m going with her.”
“What the fuck are you going to do in London?”
“Honestly, Sir? Hadn’t got that far.”
“You just got back from whatever the Hell you were doing.”
“Yes, Sir.”
There is an awkward silence. Will feels dizzy, lightheaded. He had actually quit his job. His dream job. A month after he had talked the CPD into taking him back.
“Well, merry fucking Christmas, I guess.” The Captain holds out his hand. “And good luck, son.”
Will shakes the captain’s hand and leaves.
“All good, bud?” Diego is waiting outside the door.
“Yeah, yeah, fine.” Will is not a great liar, but he knows Lito is busy shooting right now. “Wanna grab a beer after work?”
“Yeah, definitely. The in-law’s at the house. I’d love a reason to not be at the house.” Diego walks away.
Will’s smile is bittersweet as they sit down at their desks and continue to fight through a mountain of paperwork.
“So what’s going on with you, Gorski?” They had just sat down at the station’s local bar. “Does it have to do with, like, you know your” - he looks around to make sure no one is listening - “Officer Strange stuff?”
Will almost chokes on his beer. “You would make a terrible spy.”
“Yeah, I know. But I would look damn good in a suit.” They knock their beer bottles together and take a sip. “But seriously man, what’s going on?”
Will sighs. “Riley got a job offer.”
At the thought, Riley appears at his shoulder. It’s about eleven in London, she’s getting ready for her set, one of his dress shirts over a sexy black bra, the buttons undone. She winks before adding the final touch to her smokey eye, sexy as Hell. His chest throbs from their prolonged absence.
“That’s great, man! She is so good. I knew she’d find something.”
“Riley got a job offer in London .” Will picks at the label on his beer, unable to look at Diego. “It’s a regular paying gig. She can’t say no.”
“And you’re going with her.” It isn’t a question. Diego’s his best friend. He doesn’t need to ask. “That fucking sucks, man. I just got you back. Now you are leaving again?”
“I’m an asshole. I know.”
I don’t think you’re an asshole, Riley whispers, her phantom hands ruffling his hair.
Diego nods. “Yeah, yeah you are.” They sit in silence, sipping their beers. Will knows Diego is building up to a speech. “She better be worth it. And you better not screw it up once you get over there.”
Guess I got the best friend’s approval, Riley whispers.
“I won’t. Promise.”
“Welcome to London Heathrow Airport,” crackles a robotic voice over the loudspeaker. After spending two hours getting through customs and passport control, all Will wants is a beer and a cuddle in bed with Riley. But it’s only 10 am local time, so that might not happen for a while.
Where are you? Riley pesters again.
Just got through control. Coming out in baggage claim now.
He hears an “ooh!” before -
“Oomph!” Riley tackles him from behind, knocking the air out of Will’s lungs. “And I thought Europeans were supposed to be more restrained,” he mumbles.
“I missed you,” is all she says.
Riley cradles his face between her hands, delighting in the electricity coursing through their reunited bodies. Will breathes a sigh of relief. He had craved her touch for so long. The relief of being in her presence again makes him weak at the knees.
“I missed you too.” He kisses her, consciousness switching between his body and hers, and gasping into her mouth at the sheer pleasure of being connected again.
“I have a surprise at home.” Riley hands him a blindfold.
“Can we at least walk through London not blindfolded? I want to see it properly. It’s my first time here not as an internationally hunted fugitive.”
Riley rolls her eyes, but doesn’t argue.
A tube ride and four block walk later, Riley forces him into the blindfold.
“How did you even keep the secret? I can literally read your mind,” Will complains as he stumbles into a door frame.
“I got the rest of the family in on it.”
Hermano. Lito joins them on the stairs. You spend so long protecting us. It’s time we do something for you.
He’d always done what he felt he should do, with his dad, and Sara… And his cluster. He’d never thought of it as protecting . It was all part of who he was. Who he’d grown up to become.
Riley leads him down a narrow hallway and stops him in front of a door. “Ready?”
Will inches down and finds her lips, giving her a quick peck. “Ready.”
Riley pushes him through the open door and takes off the blindfold.
“Surprise!”
The apartment is lit with thousands of tiny Christmas lights. A plump, oversized pine tree in the corner. There are Christmas carols playing and a video of a fire on the television. The entire cluster and their families are there. In person. Their sensate connections click into place as their shared consciousness realigns, their thoughts and emotions amplified by their proximity.
Capheus is the first to speak. “We saw your memory the other night.” Zakia leans against his side, a gentle smile on her face.
“I have always wanted to celebrate Christmas,” Kala adds from where she perches on the counter. Wolfgang nods from behind her. Felix is helping himself to beer, but passes one to Will on his way across the room.
Lito is snuggled up with Dani and Hernando on the couch. “I have never seen snow.”
“Mun had never seen London,” Sun adds.
Amanita and Nomi are standing by the oven, sporting matching aprons. “Noms and I have extra vacation time before the wedding.”
Riley looks at Will. Is this too much? she whispers to his mind. I just wanted to -
Will kisses her before she can finish, then looks around, smiling.
It’s perfect.