Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“What’s with the face? You look like your mother when her glass is empty,” Jack McFarland comments to his niece, Lily. The six-year-old furrows her eyebrows, not quite comprehending the joke her uncle made. Jack reaches under the little girl’s chin, ticking it until she lets out a familiar sounding cackle.

“Uncle Jack!” Lily exclaims and shimmies away from him on the couch. She haphazardly brushes back her dark tresses. The braid her mom attempted this morning is now unraveling after a long day of playing at school. 

“Lillicent Truman!” Jack says, mirroring the girl’s tone. Lily crosses her arms and sits another cushion away from the actor. “Come on, tell me. It will be a secret between us girls.” 

“Some boy at school said that Daddy used to kiss boys,” Lily confesses. Her hazel eyes flicker over to her uncle’s cerulean ones, waiting for him to say something. Jack is frozen in place. He doesn’t know what Karen and Will have told their daughter about their past. 

“Hold that thought for a second Mini-Poodle,” Jack tells Lily. He gets up from the couch and waves frantically to his best friend, Karen Walker. Will’s back is to Jack, but he quickly turns around when Karen points. 

“Do you have to piddle? You know you don’t have to ask us every time.” Will asks Jack when the actor closes the gap between them. Jack rolls his eyes at the lawyer’s question. 

“No! I did a few minutes ago. Anyway, Lily is in the living room very upset,” Jack tells Will and Karen. Will loses his smirk while Karen furrows her eyebrows. 

“Do I have to beat up a six-year-old…again?” Karen asks. Will turns to Karen, confusion flickering across his face.

“What do you mean, again?” Karen shakes her head and puts her hand on Will’s arm.

“Not important, honey. What’s going on, Jackie?” Karen asks her best friend. 

“Some kid at Lily’s school told her today that Will used to ‘kiss boys.’” Karen purses her lips and looks at Will. 

“What did you say to her?” Will asks Jack. He hopes that his best friend didn’t make some remark to his daughter about how her father used to be a homo. 

“Drop the judgy tone, Judy! I didn’t say anything, but you two should.” 

“Uncle Jack! Mommy!” Lily yells from the other room. Karen and Will make eye contact with each other. Their impatient daughter is waiting and they know she won’t let this go. 

“Coming Button!” Karen uses her nickname for Lily. “What do you think, Wilma? Are you ready to tell our daughter that you occasionally used to kiss boys?” Will rolls his eyes at Karen’s subtle dig.

“It’s about time you two told Lily! What were you waiting for? Her eighteenth birthday?” Jack asks. 

“We were going to wait until she was old enough to understand, but thank you for your colorful commentary as always, Jack,” Will remarks. Jack shrugs and reaches around Will to go into the fridge, pulling out a carton of ice cream. “We should do this together, Karen,” Will tells the socialite. Karen sighs and goes over to the mini-bar to make herself a drink. She needs a stiff martini if she’s going to have this conversation with her daughter. 

“Fine! But…” Karen’s eyes avert both Jack and Will. “Please don’t tell her that at first I didn’t want her.” Her usual high-pitched voice lowers to a whisper. Will reaches over and puts the pad of his thumb under her chin, tilting it upwards.

“Of course not, Cruella.” Jack takes a few bites of his ice cream just as Lily comes into the kitchen.

“Hi Daddy!” Lily runs over to Will, giggling as he picks her up and tosses her in the air. Her dad is usually still at work when she gets off of school. “Can I have some ice cream too?” 

“Now I know why you came over to me,” Will remarks. Jack gives his spoon to Lily, letting her have a few bites. 

“I’ll see you guys later for dinner tonight. Ta!” Jack exclaims. Will puts Lily on top of the counter so she can have a few more scoops of ice cream. Jack reaches over and kisses Karen on the lips and waves to Will and Lily.

“Mommy and Uncle Jack are weird. Like you and Aunt Grace!” Lily tells her father. Will laughs and takes a bite of ice cream from Lily. 

“You have no idea,” Will comments. Karen takes the olives out of her martini and Will puts the ice cream away, despite Lily’s protests. Will watches Karen linger around the kitchen, fighting the urge to pour herself another drink. “So…uh…Lily, Uncle Jack said someone said something to you in school?” 

Lily frowns and she nods. Will picks her up and motions for Karen to follow him into a sitting room. Karen hesitates and trails behind him. She makes herself another martini and then joins Will and Lily. She sits on the opposite side of Lily and sets her drink on the table. 

“Jeremy said that you used to kiss boys and you don’t love me or Mommy. Is that true, Daddy?” Lily asks, her hazel eyes brimming with tears. Karen makes eye contact with Will over Lily’s head. The lawyer looks gutted. She reaches behind Lily and squeezes his arm reassuringly. Will clears his throat and weighs his response in his head.

“Well, Lily, I do love you and your mom…very much…but I…used to like boys like Uncle Jack.” Lily tilts her head in confusion. She watches her mother take a long sip.

“Mommy, can I have one of those too?” Lily asks her mother innocently. Karen shakes her head. 

“Not now. Maybe when you are older…like sixteen,” Karen tells her daughter. The socialite giggles at the disapproving look Will gives her. 

“So, if you used to like boys, Daddy…how did you and Mommy have me?” Lily asks. 

“Well..uh…” Will pauses to scratch behind his ear. “We might as well tell her from the beginning.” He directs his comment to Karen. 

“Whatever you want to do, Wilma,” Karen tells him. While she is listening to Will tell their daughter a more kid-friendly version of how she came to be, Karen thinks back to what actually happened. 

“To Stan, may the fat turd rest in peace,” Karen says to her friends. Grace, Jack and Will clink glasses with the socialite who has already had more than a few drinks. They are on her yacht sailing to St. Bart’s as a way to properly send-off Karen’s late third husband. “I’m sorry guys. Do you mind if I’m left alone for a while?”

“No, not at all. Take as much time as you need,” Grace tells her friend. She’s been consumed by a letter from a female colleague she found in her husband, Leo’s, bag and wants to dissect it more with Will. Jack embraces Karen and follows Grace and Will inside. 

“Wait…Stan was Mommy’s husband right, that died before I was born?” Lily interrupts Will for clarification. 

“Yes, your mom and I were on vacation with Uncle Jack and Aunt Grace to celebrate his life,” Wil tells her daughter. More like to celebrate his death, Karen thinks to herself.   “Anyway…”

Karen disappears for most of the day, leaving Grace, Will and Jack to entertain themselves. Grace is too obsessed with the letter to be any fun, so Jack and Will start drinking and dancing without her. Jack gets the hiccups after a few drinks and Grace volunteers to help him to bed. Will refills his drink and goes off to find Karen, figuring she needs the company or someone to hurl insults at. Either way, he’s drunk and bored. 

Will spots Karen outside her room, leaning against the railing with a drink in her head. It’s dark, but Will can tell she’s been crying by the soft light glowing on her face. He turns to head back to his room, not wanting to bother Karen, but she catches him.

“What do you want, Wilma?” Karen asks. She waves him over, eager to have some company. Despite their usual lukewarm attitude towards each other, Karen likes Will. He’s been incredibly supportive when she was going through ill-fated divorce proceedings with Stan. 

“We were drinking a little while ago and missed our resident drunk. How are you doing?” Will’s drunk enough to invade her personal space and wraps his arm around her. Karen still has a strong buzz going and she reaches down for the bottle of vodka she’s been clinging to since she got onto the yacht. 

“I don’t know, honey. Sad, happy, indifferent. As long as I’m drunk, what’s the difference?” Karen takes a swig from the bottle and hands it to Will. They pass the bottle back and forth. Soon, their practically nose-to-nose, their breath hot in each other’s faces. 

Karen leans and kisses him, long and deep. Will is startled at first, but soon leans into the kiss. 

“Wait a second, Wilma! Don’t lie to our daughter! You kissed me first,” Karen argues. Lily stays quiet and lets her parents bicker like they do from time-to-time. 

“In your dreams, Cruella! You totally kissed me first. Lily, who do you think kissed whom first?” Karen points to Will behind his back. A mischievous grin Will has seen on Karen many times forms on Lily’s lips as she points to her father. “Nuh uh!” Will’s voice raises as Karen cackles.

“We are waiting for you to continue. We don’t have all night, honey,” Karen tells Will. 

Will realizes he’s toeing a fine line and flushes out most of the details of his and Karen’s night together. 

“Why Wilma!” Karen says and reaches for him again. They trade ecstasy-laden kisses as they blindly navigate their way to Karen’s room. Both of them are drunk enough to not care about the consequences of their dalliance. Will gently lowers her onto the bed as they work to get each other’s clothes off. Karen arches her back as Will’s hands roam over her pale flesh. She bites back a moan as he enters her. It’s not long before she’s matching him thrust-for-thrust, panting his name in his ear. He finishes first, collapsing on top of her. She grunts and gestures for him to move. Instead, he rolls them over, kissing her lips fully. Karen coils her arms around the back of Will’s neck, smiling against their conjoined lips.

“So…you and Mom had a sleepover?” Lily asks. Karen swallows her laughter at Will’s explanation of what happened during their one-night-stand. 

“Of sorts,” Will explains. “More like a…grown-up sleepover.”

“Without our pants on,” Karen adds in, lifting her eyebrows suggestively. 

“Not helping,” Will comments with a playful glare.  

The next morning, Will wakes up with a pounding headache. He squints at the light pouring into the room. His brown eyes widen when he sees Karen’s dark hair draped over his arm. He gently extracts himself from the socialite and reaches for his clothes in a discarded pile. Karen stirs and opens her eyes. 

“Oh no…no…” Karen says and looks down to confirm she isn’t wearing anything underneath. Will quickly gets dressed and slinks out of her room without another word. They can agree that whatever happened between them the night before, didn’t. 

“So what happened after that?” Lily asks. “Is that when you and Daddy fell in love?”  Karen shakes her head.

“I think you got your sappy-ness from your dad. No, Button, we didn’t get together after that. Take it away, Wilma!” Karen reaches over and playfully hits the lawyer. 

“Okay, well after we got back from our trip…we went back to being friends,” Will explains. “And then…” Will cuts himself off when Karen puts her hand over his.

“Sorry, I got this part, honey. Let’s see…I was with your Aunt Gracie in her office,” Karen starts.

“Is that where you pretend to work every day when I’m at school?” Lily asks innocently. Will nearly spits out his water at their daughter’s question. She is nothing if not honest, a trait she inherited from her mother. 

“Yes, that would be the one. Now, hush, let Mommy tell her story. So I was with your Aunt Grace about two months after we got back from St. Bart’s…”

“Karen!” Grace exclaims, seeing her faux-assistant with her head down on her desk. Normally, Grace wouldn’t care, but she has a client coming by for a progress report on the re-design of their Hamptons house. “KAREN!” 

“Grace Adler Designs!” Karen awakes with a start. She puts her hand on her throbbing head and reaches for her sunglasses. “Honey, why is the light so bright? Do you really want to call more attention to your outfit?” 

Grace frowns and glances up at the flickering light above her. The redhead’s gaze floats over at her assistant, noticing how pale she is. 

“You’re looking a little more hungover than usual. Are you feeling okay, Kare?” Karen brushes it off and gathers her stuff. She only had her usual nightcap of a gin martini, not nearly enough to produce the headache and nausea she’s currently experiencing. 

“Yeah, honey, look, I’m gona get out of your rat's nest of a hairdo and take the rest of the day off. I’ll see you bright and at around 10 am tomorrow. OK?” Grace shrugs. Karen knows she can come and go when she pleases. 

“Sure…feel better,” Grace comments and watches the socialite leave. Karen goes to the nearest drug store and grabs a pregnancy test just in case. She sneaks back to the manse and contemplates calling Jack. He was there for her when she had her pregnancy scare with Stan. Karen digs through her bag for her phone, but hesitates. If she is pregnant, Jack will want to know who the father is and she doesn’t want to say. If she is pregnant, Karen doesn’t know if she wants to keep the baby. 

Karen disappears into the bathroom and takes the test. When she’s done, she sets it on the counter and paces until the allotted time passes. Then, she approaches the test like you would a cobra. She picks it up and closes her eyes. One by one she opens her eyes, seeing the unmistakable plus sign. 

“Crap,” Karen whispers.

Chapter Text

“Were you happy, Mom?” Lily asks with a bright smile on her face. Karen pinches her daughter’s cheek. 

“Of course I was,” Karen lies. She ignores Will’s raised eyebrows. The lawyer had to convince her to keep their daughter, but he won’t mention that in front of Lily. He made a promise to Karen. 

“So…when did you tell Daddy?” Lily asks. Karen licks her lips while she thinks of a way to answer her daughter. She didn’t exactly tell Will, he more or less found out on his own. 

“Well…I di–” Will sees where this is going and throws Karen a lifeline.

“She didn’t have to, Lily. Your dad is so smart and he figured it out all on his own,” Will says. Karen plays along and shoots the lawyer a faux-glare. 

“Kare? What’s going on with you? You barely drank all three of your usual martinis,” Jack says to his best friend. It’s been a week since Karen found out she’s expecting and she hasn’t told anyone, especially Will. She’s been secretly cutting back on the amount she drinks and avoiding most pills. She has a feeling Rosario knows, but the maid is smart enough not to ask. 

Will looks up from his newspaper. He’s been half-listening to his two friends talk on the couch. Jack does have a point. The lawyer hasn’t seen Karen so much as pop a pill in a week. He’s guessing that’s a record for her. 

“Don’t tell me you’re finally admitting you have a problem, Cruella.” Karen lets out a nervous chuckle and brushes a wayward piece of hair behind her ear. 

“Oh…it’s not that. I’m pregnant. Oh gosh, it feels so good to get that off my chest. Woo,” Karen admits and laughs, mostly to herself.

“Oh my gah!” Jack exclaims just as Will spits out his coffee all over the table.

“WHAT?” Will asks. He wants to ask her so many questions, but can’t when Jack is here. 

“Hey guys. Will, what’s with the face?” Grace asks when she breezes through his apartment. She points to her own face. 

“I knew your boobs looked bigger,” Jack tells Karen, reaching out to touch his best friend’s breast. Grace furrows her eyebrows and then gasps when she puts the pieces together. She points at Karen who is doing anything to avoid her friend’s eyes. 

“You’re pregnant! Oh my God, Karen! That’s…amazing?” Grace asks, knowing how her friend feels about children. 

“Oh calm down Red, I don’t even know if I’m keeping it yet. I just got new wood floors put in at the manse,” Karen says. Will scrapes his teeth along his lower lip. The baby has to be his, but his friends will probably assume it’s Stan’s unless Karen spills that secret too. He needs to talk to her privately in case she’s really considering getting an abortion. “Anyway, enough of that, I could use a drink.” 

“So what happened after that?” Lily asks. The six-year-old doesn’t realize she’s being told a sanitized version of what actually happened, and her parents would like to keep it that way. 

“Well, I went to go see your mom to talk about…you,” Will tells Lily. They got way off topic about what Lily originally was upset about, but their daughter’s previously grouchy mood went away. The six-year-old is enthralled with Karen and Will’s story. 

“Karen…I think we should talk about this,” Will says. He came over to the manse because Karen’s been avoiding his calls. Karen groans and puts down her glass of what Will is hoping is water. 

“Why Wilma? We both know I’m not cut out to be anybody’s mother. I barely acknowledged Mason and…and…” 

“Olivia,” Will finishes for her. 

“See? There’s no need to talk. I can take care of this.” WIll shakes his head and grabs Karen’s arm, bringing her over to the sectional. He takes the glass out of her hand, smelling it before setting it on the coffee table. “It’s water you freak.” 

“Karen, I’ll just say it. I want you to keep the baby. I think we could do this…together.” Karen lifts her eyebrows. “I know that I’m gay and what happened between us was…was…an act of…omission, but I’ll be there for you…for the baby…and I want this.” 

“I’m not Grace. I’m not going to just have a baby with you because she abandoned you for that Jew doctor,” Karen says to him. Will takes the insult in stride and grabs her hand. 

“It’s a little late for that, don’t you think? We don’t have to be a couple or even move in together or anything, but we can raise a child together. Take a week and think about it. I won’t hold it against you if you don’t think you can. I just wanted you to know how I feel.” Will leans over and brushes a kiss to Karen’s dark hair. He stands up and she watches him walk out of the manse.

Will doesn’t hear from Karen nor does she come to his apartment. He figures because her week is almost up, she’s decided to not go through with the baby. The lawyer walks over to Jack’s and then remembers he went to Barney’s with Karen.

“So Kare, have you decided yet on the…you know…” Jack mimics rocking a baby in his arms. Karen frowns and puts down the coral sweater she was admiring. 

“I don’t know Jackie, I mean…could you really see me with a kid? I don’t even like children.”  Jack holds up a plum sweater up to Karen and nods. 

“You would be the best mom, K. And your kid would be so well-dressed,” Jack tells his best friend. “You’re kind of already a mom to me…in a way.”

“I suppose…” Karen trails off. She drops Jack off and texts Will to meet her at the manse later. 

Will sees the text and grabs his leather coat off the couch, practically running out of his apartment. He catches a cab to the manse, nearly beating Karen there. 

“Oh hey, Wilma.” Karen brings him into her bedroom, away from the maids bustling around the manse.

“So…what did you decide?” Will asks. Karen fidgets with her camel-colored blazer, running her hand over her flat stomach.

“Honey, I had a bad childhood and I didn’t try with Stan’s kids, but I remember how I felt after thinking I was pregnant and wasn’t. It hurt Will.” Will isn’t exactly sure what Karen is talking about, but he doesn’t interrupt. He gestures for her to continue. “I don’t know how this is going to work…you know…since you are a homo, but I want to be a mom. Just this once.” 

Will hugs Karen tightly and lets her go when she starts protesting. The lawyer holds out his hand. Karen furrows her eyebrows and high-fives him.

“No, Karen, I need your pills. C’mon.” Will puts his hand on her back, bringing her over to her walk-in closet. “Go get them.” 

“Honey, is this really necessary?” Karen asks. She pouts when Will nods. “Fine.” Karen starts digging through her purse collection, tossing various pill bottles at him. After she goes through her purses, she comes to stand next to him. “There. All done. Let’s go.” 

“And the rest of the pills,” Will lets a few pill bottles fall to the ground to free up one of his hands. Karen scowls and reaches between her boobs, pulling out a bottle and handing it to him. “And the pills.”

“You’re no fun,” Karen pulls up her pant leg and reaches into her boot for another pill bottle.  “Those are my favorite. You should try those, Wilma. They might help your mood.” 

“Mommy, why did you have so much medicine? Were you sick?” Lily asks. Karen giggles and gently touches her daughter’s nose with her finger. 

“Your mom used to single-handedly keep pharmacies in business,” Will remarks. He glances at his watch. His stomach is growling and they are late to meet Grace and Jack for dinner. “We can pick this up later. We gotta go.” 

“Oh boo!” Lily and Karen speak at the same time. Will laughs at the socialite enthusiasm. He didn’t think she was enjoying reminiscing as much as their daughter. “Button, you want to come to dinner with us?” 

Karen and Will try to have dinner with their friends away from Lily at least one night a week, but they can reschedule their kid-free dinner for another night. 

Lily excitedly nods and rushes to put her coat on. Will holds out his hand for Karen to take, pulling her off the couch. He wraps his arm around her waist briefly before separating to grab his jacket. The socialite scoops her mink coat off the hanger and rushes to catch up to the over-excited six-year-old.

Chapter Text

“Hey Lily, I didn’t know you were coming,” Grace says to her niece. They are at Jack’s apartment, which used to be Will’s. He took over the lease when Will moved into the manse. 

“Hi Aunt Gracie,” Lily goes over to hug the redhead. Jack is in the kitchen, pointing to the pot of sauce Will told him to start boiling. Will and Jack switch places so the actor can hang out with Karen and Lily.

“Is Laila here?” Lily asks. She glances around for her younger cousin, but doesn’t see her. 

“No, I’m sorry sweetie, Laila’s sick. Your Uncle Leo is taking care of her at home,” Grace says. Lily pouts and goes over to the couch to sit next to her mom. 

“Did you take care of the…situation?” Jack asks Karen quietly so Lily won’t hear. Karen shakes her head and takes her daughter’s coat from her. 

“No, Wilma turned it into a walk down memory lane. He’s such a sap,” Karen says with an eye roll. Jack claps his hands excitedly.

“Oh that’s fun!” Jack exclaims, catching Grace’s attention. The interior designer looks over at the three of them on the couch and tilts her head.  “Karen and Will are telling Mini-Poodle about how her father used to be a homo and how the two of them fell in love.”

“Jack!” Will says to his friend. The actor is incapable of censoring himself in front of the six-year-old. Karen bats her hand at Jack while Grace shoots him a disapproving look. 

“What? It doesn’t matter what word you use, it doesn’t change the fact that you used to date men…Well…Lil, your dad wasn’t exactly what you would call a go-getter in the romance department…not like your Uncle Jack.”

“Where’s your boyfriend then, Uncle Jack?” Lily asks innocently. Karen puts a hand over her mouth to cover her smirk. 

“That’s not relevant, dear. Anyway, how far did you guys get?” Jack asks. 

“We were just about to tell her about when we told you guys about us…and Lily,” Will gestures between him and Karen. 

“Oh! You mean when Grace threw a tantrum about Karen having Will’s baby,” Jack states. 

“Hey! I did not. I was just surprised. It was very surprising,” Grace says in protest. Will stirs his pasta, remaining silent on the topic.

“Sure. Yeah, let me get this one guys.” Jack tells his friends.

“Fine, but keep it PG, please,” Will reminds Jack. 

“Okay, I’m ignoring you. Alright Lily, so your Aunt Grace and I were in this exact apartment with your mom and Dad…”

“Are you sure you want to do this, honey? I mean, we can send them a picture of the baby when it’s eighteen like I intend to do with my mother,” Karen asks Will. They are walking back to Will’s apartment from the doctor’s office. The lawyer doesn’t hear Karen, he’s too busy staring at the sonogram of their child. “Hey! Stop looking at that blob and focus, Wilma!” 

“That blob is our baby, and it’s kind of cute. See?” Will moves his hand down so Karen can see the picture too. Karen tilts her head and smiles in agreement. “We should tell them. They are going to find out the baby isn’t Stan’s eventually when it doesn’t weigh 600 pounds at birth.” 

Karen cracks a tiny grin at Will’s joke and considers her options. This is going to change everything between their friend group. 

“Fine, but if your wife hits me, I’m going for her throat.” Will rolls his eyes at his friend’s dramatics. 

“She’s not going to attack you, she might hit me though. You might want to cover your ears in case Jack starts screeching like a monkey. I have to get back to work. We can have dinner at the apartment tonight.” Will squeezes Karen’s wrist and watches her get into the limo that just pulled up for her.

“Do you really screech like a monkey, Uncle Jack?” Lily asks. 

“No! I don’t know who to–” Jack lowers his voice and clears his throat. “Back to Jack, Lily.” 

“Hello you gorgeous people, hello Will,” Jack says to the trio as he breezes through Will’s open apartment door. 

“I hate to interrupt, but come sit. Dinner is ready,” Will says to the group. Karen, Will, Grace, Jack and Lily take their usual seats at the table. 

“Jackie, where’s the wine?” Karen asks Jack. 

“Oh, sorry, Kare, I ran out.” Karen frowns and goes over to her purse, taking out a mini bottle of red wine. “It’s like a magic trick.” The actor watches his best friend pour herself a drink and sits back down next to Will.

“Button, take some garlic bread,” Karen tells her daughter. Lily makes a face, but does as she’s told.

“Go back to your story, Uncle Jack,” Lily excitedly says. Karen points her piece of garlic bread at Will.

“This is your fault, Wilma.”

“Excuse me, Jack is talking. So, Lily…we were just about to sit down for dinner, like we are doing now…” 

“So, K, how are you feeling and everything? Your boobs look huge,” Jack comments when he sits down next to his best friend. He oogles at Karen’s breasts while Grace hands Will the salad bowl.

“Yeah, Karen, you don’t seem to be showing yet or anything,” Grace comments. Karen shrugs and nervously looks at Will. She’s waiting for him to get onto the topic.

“Ugh, I can’t drink, I can’t take any pills that aren’t for nausea, my boobs hurt, but I’m great. Yeah, growing a human being is all it’s hyped up to be,” Karen says sarcastically. She reaches for her wine glass and takes a sip, much to everyone’s confusion. “Anyway, kids, I have…we have something to say. Go ahead, Wilma.” 

“Confuse me?” Jack asks at the sudden switch to Will. Will’s brown eyes widen and he swallows his bite of food. Karen always seems to leave him with the heavy lifting in difficult conversations. 

“Right…um…so you remember when we went to St. Bart’s…the four of us…together…” Will’s voice trails off. 

“Yes, Will, that was like three months ago,” Grace comments. 

“Well, Karen and I were drinking…and we woke up next to each other in bed.” Grace and Jack trade confused expressions. Their friend group doesn’t have many boundaries with one another. It’s not unusual that they share beds with one another, but it is strange that Karen and Will did. 

“So? Karen and I sleep together all the time,” Jack says dismissively. 

“Right…we were in bed…together…without any clothes on…and she’s now pregnant…” Will pauses for his friends to put everything together. 

“OH MY GOD! Will!” Grace yells and hits Will on the arm. Will flinches and rubs his arm. Jack has a disgusted look on his face.

“You and Will? I think I just lost my appetite. How…unnatural…how straight of you two…” Jack gags as Karen nervously looks at Will.

“Oh, so because a year ago I didn’t want to have a baby with you, you just go to Karen instead?” Grace asks. 

“Hey!” Karen exclaims in protest. “It’s not my fault your husband got me drunk and took advantage of me.” 

“I didn’t…Gracie, it was an accident, but it happened. We are keeping the baby and want you and Jack to be on board with this.” Will reasons with his best friend. Grace lets out a deep sigh.

“Will…this is huge. I need a few minutes to digest. Are you two going to be a couple? Move in together to take care of the baby? What’s going to happen?” 

“We haven’t figured all that out yet, but no, we aren’t a couple. We agreed to raise the baby together, that’s all we know right now.” Karen admittedly hasn’t thought about anything Grace just asked. With her age and how much booze and pills she ingests on a daily basis, she didn’t think the baby would survive past the first trimester. Her and Will have been taking it day-by-day.

“Wow…you and Karen…having a baby together…I’m shocked,” Grace says quietly. 

“Honey, I’ve known for almost a month and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it,” Karen tells her. Will glances at Jack, who has been unusually quiet.

“Jack, any pearls of wisdom to offer?” Will asks sarcastically. Personally, Jack doesn’t care if Karen and Will want to have a child together. It’s odd to him, but he isn’t as emotionally invested as Grace. 

“Can I be the one to introduce the kid to Cher?” Jack asks. 

“Sure you can, buddy,” Will says for him and Karen. 

“And no, we aren’t naming the baby Patti, Bernadette, Judy or any other idols you homo’s have,” Karen tells Jack and Will. Grace laughs at Jack’s pout. 

“Who are Patti, Bernadette and Judy?” Lily asks. Jack gasps and holds his hand over his heart. 

“What have you been teaching this poor girl? You two ought to be ashamed of yourselves!” Jack reaches across Grace and puts his hand on Lily’s arm. “Don’t worry, Mini-Poodle, Uncle Jack will teach you everything you need to know about the gay saints.” 

“So what happened after that?” Lily asks the group. Lily hops onto Grace’s lap and plays with her aunt’s red, curly hair. “What’s a good story, Aunt Grace?” Lily asks the interior decorator. Grace pauses for a second to think. 

“Hmm…I think when your parents found out you were a girl is a good one. Go ahead, Karen,” Grace smiles at her friend. She wraps her arms around Lily and gently rocks them back and forth. Karen takes a second to pour herself another glass of wine and swirls the carmine liquid around before taking a long sip.

“I got this, K.” Jack seems to be enjoying reminiscing more than Karen. 

“It’s okay, Jackie. Your father begged me to find out if you were going to be a boy or girl and then didn’t show up to the appointment,” Karen says with a little bitterness in her voice. 

“Excuse me! One of us had to actually work. And don’t pretend you were mad,” Will tells Karen. Karen winks at Lily and reaches over to run the tips of her fingers up Will’s arm.

“I’m just flirtin with ya, Wilma,” Karen says teasingly. She leans over and presses a kiss to Will’s lips. Will smiles against her lips and kisses her back.

“Ew, gross! There are children present,” Grace scolds her two friends and points to Lily and Jack. Jack blows Grace a raspberry and crosses his arms in mock-frustration. 

“Get back to the story, Cruella,” Will tells her with a smile. He extends his arm lazily around the back of her chair. 

“Okay! Okay! Um…I think I was about five months along?”

“Wilma, where the hell are you?” Karen heatedly whispers into the phone. She hears Will sigh  on the other end. 

“Your appointment is tomorrow, Satan,” Will is in no mood to argue with Karen. He’s absolutely swamped at work. 

“Nuh huh, honey. Have your wife check your calendar. Today is Tuesday. Now get your ass over here!”  Will checks his calendar on his Blackberry and winces. Karen is right. 

“Damn it. Karen, I’m so sorry. I can’t come.” 

“Huh? I’m sorry I thought you said you couldn’t come to an appointment for the child you told me you wanted.” Karen hears her name being called and stands up, smoothing her light pink dress shirt over the bump that’s starting to form. “Gotta go.” 

Will swears softly to himself when he hears the dial tone on the other end. Karen hung up on him. Not that he blames her, but it was a simple mistake. He’s been to all of her appointments besides this one. There’s just no possible way he can leave work right now. The lawyer has a client meeting in ten minutes that he’s not fully prepared for.  He sends a text to Jack to check on Karen and forces himself to focus on his work. 

“Daddy! How could you not go?” Lily asks her father. She squints her eyes at Will.

“Hey, you look like your mom when you do that,” Grace comments. “God, just what the world needs: a mini-Karen.”

“You should see her try and throw a ball. That’s all her father,” Karen quips. 

“The only thing I’ve seen you throw is your martini glass at an unsuspecting maid,” Will shoots back, nudging Karen playfully. Karen laughs and lightly hits him back.

“Alright, save it for later, kids. You're making me want to lose my dinner. Yuck,” Jack tells his friends.

“I think we are skipping over the part where I canceled a meeting with a very important client and almost lost my job,” Will says in his defense.

“Yeah, we know, you’re a hero,” Jack says in a monotone voice with an eye roll. 

“I’m so sorry, tell Mr. Kline that I am going to have to reschedule,” Will tells his assistant. He rushes to grab his charcoal wool coat and swings it over his shoulders. The lawyer practically runs to Karen’s doctor’s office, which is luckily only a block from his office. 

Will greets the receptionist and rushes to the exam room Karen is waiting in. Karen is flipping through a magazine. Will knocks in case Karen is naked and then enters.

“Honey what’s this? What are you doing here? Why are you panting?” Karen asks, noticing how out of breath the lawyer is. 

“I ran up Madison Avenue and up some stairs. Jack’s right, I’m out of shape,” Will takes a seat next to her. 

“I’m glad you’re here, honey,” Karen mumbles. Will puts a hand on her thigh as another knock on the door interrupts them. A petite African American woman in mint green scrubs comes in, wheeling an ultrasound machine. 

“Hi Mrs. Walker, I’m here for your ultrasound. Hop on the table and unbutton your blouse,” the woman says. Karen raises her eyebrows and pushes down her onyx dress pants and hikes up her pink blouse.

“You’re very forward. I like you,” Karen comments. Will stands behind Karen on the table. His eyes float down to her bump, noticing it is forming more of a rounded shape. He rests his hands on her shoulders, watching the tech put some gel on the probe and then onto Karen’s stomach. “Look at the size of that thing, honey! I don’t remember yours being that big.” Will blushes and tilts his head to get a better vantage point on the screen.

“She’s joking,” Will tells the tech, who completely ignores him. Karen shivers at the coolness of the gel and reaches up to squeeze Will’s hand. 

“Do you want to know the sex?” The tech asks. 

“I think we already know,” Karen wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. 

“It’s a girl, that’s her leg,” the woman says.

“A girl?” Will asks, a wide smile spreading across his lips. He leans down and brushes a chaste kiss to Karen’s lips. She’s surprised, but accepts the kiss.

Chapter Text

“Did you want a boy, Mom?” Lily asks Karen. The socialite shrugs. It didn’t particularly matter to her, but she was leaning more towards a boy. 

“I don’t know Button, I just thought you were a boy for some reason,” Karen admits. “Let’s see…what happened–oh yeah, so we go back to this apartment…”

“Wilma, we should probably figure out what to do with the kid as far as the living situation goes. I mean, your crappy apartment might not be good enough for our girl,” Karen says when she strolls into Will’s apartment. He’s a step behind her, closing the door behind them. 

“I like the sound of that, ‘our girl’,” Will mutters. Karen sits on the couch and flips off her heels. 

“Don’t get soft on me, Mary. Pay attention! I don’t want our daughter growing up in some crime-riddled neighborhood.” Karen leans into the cushions and skims her hand over her swollen abdomen. 

“Karen, this isn’t New Jersey. I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. People would kill for this apartment. In fact, people have…” Will stops abruptly when he notices Karen gasp quietly and move her hand to the lower left side of her stomach. He abandons his train of thought and rushes to sit down next to her on the couch. “Sweetie, what is it?” 

“I don’t know. I felt something, here,” Karen grabs Will’s hand and guides it to where she felt a tiny flutter. 

“I don’t feel anything,” Will complains.

“Hold on, you scared her with your poor people talk,” Karen presses Will’s hand into her stomach, antagonizing the baby. After a few moments, Will feels the previous movement Karen felt. The lawyer’s face lights up and he tries to get his daughter to move again. “Did you feel that, honey?” 

“I did. She’s going to be a dancer, for sure,” Will keeps his hand where it is just as Grace and Jack walk into the apartment. 

“You already got her pregnant Will, you don’t need to feel her up again. That’s my job,” Jack comments and sits next to Karen. Grace sits on the other side of Will, wondering the same thing as the actor. Will begrudgingly removes his hand and leans back so he’s facing Grace. 

“No Poodle, Wilma and I just went to the doctor. We found out what the baby is,” Karen says. Grace notices the excitement on Will’s face. She reaches over and rubs his arm. 

“So is it pink for boys or...the other one?” Jack asks his best friends. 

“It’s a girl!” Will giddily responds, throwing his arm over Karen’s back. The socialite is slightly less excited than Will, but she’s happy that he’s so happy.

“That’s great!” Grace exclaims and pecks Will on the lips. She leans over and hugs Karen, despite her protests. 

“Oh my gah, I can’t wait to go shopping,” Jack says with excitement.

“Alright Button, one more story for now and then you can go watch TV while the adults talk, okay?” Karen asks. 

“But Mommy I—” 

“A bup bup bup. What did I say?” Karen asks. Will never thought between the two of them Karen would be the stricter parent. She doesn’t put her foot down often, but he respects it when she does. Lily’s hazel eyes shift over to Will, trying to do her best puppy dog look for her father.

“Oh no, no, no, don’t come to me. You get one more story or none, you pick,” Will says. Grace and Jack mouth ‘wow’ to each other. Even six years later, it’s still weird to see Karen and Will as parents.

“Tough crowd,” Jack comments. “Since Grace got to pick, I’m picking the next one.” Lily giggles at her uncle and gestures for him to start. “Alright, well, your not-too-bright parents decided to wait until Thanksgiving to tell Will’s mom about you.” 

“I’m not going. I’m sick,” Karen tells Will and fake coughs. She crosses her arms over her six- month-pregnant stomach and dares him to challenge her. They know she has the upper hand in their debate. Karen doesn’t care if Will’s mom knows about the baby or not. The socialite is aware that Will wants to tell Marilyn before the baby is born. 

“Come on, Karen, do this for our daughter. If you go, I promise you can have a Blue Marilyn,” Will mentions his mom’s namesake drink she makes on holidays that Karen loves.

“I was going to have one…or several anyways,” Karen says, half-jokingly. Even though she doesn’t have any Thanksgiving plans, the socialite doesn’t want to spend the holiday being gawked at and asked a million questions by Will’s family. 

“I’ll let you sit up front and control the radio,” Will says. He gently wraps his arm around Karen, bringing her as close to him as her stomach will allow. Karen sighs. She can see how important this is to Will and since she won’t tell her mother or anyone on her side of the family about the impending arrival, Will’s family is the only extended family her daughter is going to have.

“And the temperature?” Karen asks with a demure grin. Will sighs, but nods. “Ha ha! Your wife is going to be so pissed she has to sit in the back and be groped by Jack for the two hour drive.” 

“Kare, on the way back, can you sit with me? Grace won’t even let me touch her inappropriately,” Jack whines from the back seat. “I can’t even do this,” the actor starts reaching for Grace’s chest, but the interior designer smacks him on the head. “Ow! Grace!”

“There’s nothing to grab anyways,” Grace comments. 

“So Wilma, how are we going to tell your mom about the baby? I was thinking of doing a musical number. What do you think?” Karen asks Will. 

“Olivia Newton-John, you haven’t told Will’s mom yet?” Jack asks in horror. Grace’s eyes widen. She didn’t realize the situation she was walking into when she agreed to go to Will’s mom’s for Thanksgiving.

“Will! How could you not tell Marilyn? The baby is due in a few months!” Grace admonishes her best friend. 

“I…didn’t want to call her. I thought it would be better to do it in person,” Will offers as a lame excuse. 

“Yeah, nobody is buying that. Try again,” Jack says. Karen turns towards Will, furrowing her eyebrows at him.

“Oh I get it! Your mother is going to ask why Grace isn’t the one knocked up with your kid? Isn’t that right?” Karen asks with disgust in her tone. 

“No,” Will reaches over and puts his hand on her leg. “No, that’s not it. I think she’s going to have a hard time accepting that we aren’t together and we are going to raise the baby in two separate houses, that’s all.” Karen and Will agreed to have their daughter split time between his apartment and the manse since neither of them wants to move into the other’s home. 

“Well honey if you want to make it seem like we are together, I can get a little frisky with you in front of your mother. Although, I don’t know if she would buy it,” Karen comments. She doesn’t entirely believe Will’s reasoning for keeping the baby a secret from Marilyn. Sometimes Karen feels it should be Grace in her place instead. And the socialite barely knows Marilyn. She doesn’t have the established relationship with Will’s mother that Grace has. 

Will pulls into the driveway of his mother’s Connecticut home. Grace and Jack get out first. Will and Karen linger behind them, each debating whether they should hop back in the car and drive back to Manhattan before it’s too late. 

“You are doing all the talking, Mary. And I am not hugging any of your weird relatives,” Karen tells Will and winces slightly as she approaches the door. Will moves his bottle of wine to the other hand to rub Karen’s back.

“You okay?” Will asks with sincerity. Jack and Grace turn around to look at Karen with concern on each of their faces.

“I’m fine! The kid just woke up from a nap,” Karen snaps. Will breathes a sigh of relief. He thought there was something wrong or Karen was faking it to get out of this dinner. The lawyer rubs the side of Karen’s stomach over her jacket, feeling tiny kicks from the baby. 

“Grace! Hello, where is your husband today? Working I suppose?” Marilyn asks as the group walks into the house. The interior designer forces a smile and hands Will’s mom some cookies. 

“Yes, Leo is on call today. I’ll bring him leftovers later,” Grace tells Marilyn and moves aside so she can greet Jack. 

“Jack, always lovely to see you. The next time my son invites me to New York, we are going to see Mamma Mia again. It was fantastic!” Marilyn hugs Jack. Karen takes off her coat and purposely stands behind Will. Will steps forward, sensing Karen stepping with him. “William, dear, Sam is running late again, so we can just eat without him…again,” Marilyn comments and stamps a kiss to Will’s check. “Where’s that other one you three travel with? The one with that shrill voice who loves to drink.”

“That is a spot-on description of Karen,” Grace whispers to Jack. 

“Right! All that’s missing is her gigantic rack,” Jack mumbles back. Will moves so Karen is visible. Marilyn zeros in on Karen’s bump and lifts her eyebrows in surprise. 

“I could use a Blue Marilyn right about now,” Karen comments. She stands next to Will, pushing her ivory v-neck sweater down. 

“You're about six months too late on that, dear,” Marilyn quips. She motions for the group to come further into the house. Karen stays close to Jack, hoping Will isn’t going to drag her into a conversation with Marilyn. However, the quicker the lawyer tells his mother, the quicker they can leave. “Your husband must be thrilled, Karen. Is this your first?” 

Will quickly goes to get drinks for his friends while they make themselves comfortable on the couch. Grace bites back a grin, absolutely relishing in how uncomfortable Karen looks. 

“Honey, Stan has been dead too long to do this to me,” Karen comments, pointing to her stomach. “Lucky bastard.” Marilyn furrows her eyebrows, but the question dies on her lips.

Will comes back into the room, handing Grace and Jack some wine. He hands Karen a glass and keeps one for himself.

“Should you be having that, Karen?” Marilyn asks with concern. 

“Oh…hair of the dog, Marilyn,” Karen says with a chuckle. She takes a sip of the wine and looks at Will, wondering how long they have to keep up this charade. 

“Jack, can you help me with something?” Grace asks the actor and points to the kitchen. The actor hurriedly springs out of his seat and follows Grace, leaving Will and Karen awkwardly on the couch. 

“Why didn’t you just tell Grandma?” Lily asks.

“Well…you know your grandmother can get Lily. We wanted to ease into it,” Will explains.

“Puh, your dad was just being a pu–scaredy cat, Button,” Karen corrects herself.

“Mom…” Will reaches over and grabs Marilyn’s hand. “We…I wanted to tell you in person. Karen and I are going to have a baby . It’s going to be a girl.” 

“What’s going on in there?” Grace asks Jack. They are in the kitchen peeking into the living room. 

“I think they just told Marilyn based on her face. Now I see where Will gets his stuffy, old lady expression from,” Jack comments. “Look.” The actor switches places with the interior designer.

“I don’t understand, William. For years you have been telling me you are a homosexual. Is that not the case anymore? I can’t keep track,” Marilyn says bluntly to her son. 

“Trust me, I can’t either,” Karen quips and takes a sip of her wine. Will gives her his classic ‘not helping’ expression and returns his focus to his mother. 

“No Mom, it was a one time thing. We aren’t together, but we are going to raise our daughter together,” Will explains. Karen nods and flashes a closed-lipped smile at Marilyn.

“Well, it’s going to take me a minute, but I guess I can get behind this.” Marilyn leans in a little closer, “I’ve always liked you slightly more than Grace.”

“Who doesn’t honey?” Karen asks with a laugh.

“Marilyn did not say that!” Grace protests. 

“It’s funny how you heard everything else but that with your ear pressed up against the kitchen wall,” Will comments. 

“We weren’t…oh whatever, we totally were.” Grace shrugs, not bothering to deny she and Jack were listening the whole time.

“Alright, you’ve had enough stories for one night, Lily. Now beat it!” Karen gestures for her daughter to get off Grace’s lap. 

“Oh come on, Kare! This is fun!” Jack juts out his lower lip into a pout. Lily sees what her uncle is doing and copies him. Will wonders why Karen is so insistent on stopping. Their daughter is being occupied and their friends don’t mind reminiscing. At least they aren’t listening to Jack tell another over-dramatized dating saga.

Karen’s hazel eyes flicker around the table. It’s obvious to her that she is fighting a losing battle. When she agreed to tell Lily everything, she thought her daughter would get bored by now and not want to hear the rest. 

“Fine, you guys can continue on without me.” Karen abruptly gets up from the table and walks out onto Jack’s balcony, slamming the door behind her.

Chapter Text

“Woah! What was that about?” Grace asks. A deep frown tugs at Lily’s lips. 

“Why is Mommy mad, Daddy?” The six-year-old asks Will. 

“I’m not sure sweetie. Don’t worry. I’m going to go talk to her,” Will stands up. 

“Oh Will, since you’re up, can you get me another Coke?” Jack asks and points to the fridge. Will sighs and walks over the fridge and then back to the table to give Jack his soda. 

“I’ll keep an eye on Lily,” Grace tells Will.

Will walks out onto the balcony, closing the door behind him. Karen has her back to him and is smoking a cigarette. She turns her head and moves aside so Will can stand next to her. 

“Do you have Jack’s entire apartment booby trapped for cigarettes, booze and pills?” Will asks lightheartedly. Karen flicks the cigarette with her finger, watching a few embers fall onto the ground. “Alright Cruella, what’s going on with you?” 

Karen lets the smoke filter out of her mouth before she takes another drag. 

“Nothing. I was just getting bored.” Will doesn’t buy her excuse for a second. Whenever Karen is feeling insecure or any other strong emotion, she runs away. Based on what is coming next in the story they are telling to their daughter, he can guess why she is suddenly pretending not to be interested.

“This wouldn’t have anything to do with Vince would it?” Will asks, venturing a guess. Karen scoffs and narrows her eyes at him. 

“No! I don’t care about that gay cop you used to date who put way too much product in his hair.” Will tilts his head and watches Karen take another puff of her cigarette.

“Okay, so then let’s go in there and tell Lily about him like we promised we would.” Karen shakes her head. She can tell by Will’s tone that he is challenging her and she’s not going to take the bait.

“Go ahead, Wilma. You were the one who got us into this mess in the first place. Go on,” Will crosses his arms. He’s not budging until Karen admits what’s wrong. 

“What the hell is a matter with you?” Karen throws the cigarette butt over the balcony and starts walking back inside Jack’s apartment. Will gently grabs her wrist and pulls her back to him. He watches her eyes become glassy with tears. “Sweetie, what is it?” 

“Karen Walker doesn’t do emotions,” Karen whispers quietly, sniffing. She dodges Will’s gaze, but lets him reach down and clasp her hand.

“I think Karen Truman should try,” Will says, using her current married name. He lifts up her hand and grazes his thumb over her diamond-encrusted wedding band. Karen nibbles on her lip and looks over at Grace, Jack and Lily talking in the kitchen and then back at her husband. 

“Well…you turned straight and left Vince for me…what if one day you turn back into a homo and leave me for Vince…or some other guy?” Karen mumbles so quietly Will has to strain to hear her. 

“First of all, I’m not Cinderella. I’m not going to ‘turn’ into anything at midnight. And second,” Will cups her cheeks, making sure he has her full attention. “Vince is the one who made me realize I was–and still am–in love with you. Lily should hear that.”

“Yeah, but honey!” Karen practically whines. “Do you think if we didn’t have Lily you would still be a fairy and we wouldn’t be together?”

Will can guess what Karen is trying to insinuate and he wants to stop her train of thought before she unravels entirely. He loosens his grip on her hand and slides his arms around her waist, bringing her closer.

“Ew, I think your parents are about to kiss,” Jack says from the other side of the sliding glass door. He and Lily cover each other's eyes while Grace walks over to check it out. “Wait…false alarm, your mom looks like she might yell at him some more first.”

“They are so gross sometimes,” Lily says with a grimace. 

“Most straight people are, dear,” Jack responds, narrowly avoiding Grace batting her hand at him.

“I think it doesn’t matter who we dated or married in the past. I fell in love with you and Lily was…an added bonus, not the entire reason we are together. You don’t have to worry,” Will tells Karen. 

“You will say anything to get into my pants, won’t you, Wilma?” Karen asks with a blush. “I love you too, honey.” She stands on her tip toes and kisses him ardently.

“Ew!” Jack, Grace and Lily yell at the same time.

“Quick, they are coming back, go sit down,” Jack tells Grace and Lily when he sees Will clasp Karen’s hand. Grace picks up Lily and brings her back to the dining room table. Jack scrambles and nearly falls over trying to sit down where he was before.

Will opens the door and lets Karen walk through it first. She keeps her grip on his hand until they sit down in the spots they were previously occupying. 

“You okay, K?” Jack asks. Whether his best friend will admit it or not, Karen was slightly jealous of Vince’s relationship with Will, especially towards the end of her pregnancy. 

“Yeah…I just needed a smoke break. Wilma, it was your boyfriend, go ahead,” Karen would rather not talk about Vince at all, but Will is right. They can’t just omit his part in their story, even if Lily was too young to remember him.

“So I was teaching your mom how to drive an–” Lily lifts her eyebrows in disbelief. 

“You didn’t know how to drive, Mom?” 

“Honey, I don’t drive, I’m driven around. Now, let your dad continue his story,” Karen says to her daughter. 

“And of course, your mom got pulled over by a cop named Vince, who was really cute.” 

“Come on Will, we don’t have all…Haley Joel Osmet, what is going on?” Jack asks. He just stormed into Will’s apartment with Karen on his tail. He, Karen and Will are supposed to go baby shopping to finalize the nursery going into the apartment. Will abruptly pulls away from Vince. Karen can deduce what she and Jack walked in on and her lips collapse into a frown.

“Oh…hi, I’m Vince.” Jack walks over to where Will and Vince are sitting on the couch and sizes him up. He has slicked back, dark hair and olive skin. Not necessarily his taste, but cute for Will.

“Just Jack,” Jack says with his trademark hand gesture. He swivels his head to make eye contact with Karen and gestures his head towards Will.

“Oh…we were going shopping today…I forgot,” Will admits. 

“That’s okay honey, if you want to stay here and play tonsil hockey with a reject from “The Sopranos” instead of shopping for our daughter, I won’t stop you.” Karen says with a sarcastic grin. She can tell by the sideways glance Vince gave Will when she said ‘our daughter’ that he doesn’t know about their precarious situation. Karen steps forward and offers her hand to Vince. “Hi, Karen Walker, Wilma’s baby momma.” 

“Karen,” Will begins. She gives him an innocent expression as Vince awkwardly shakes her hand. 

“Come on, Jackie. We wouldn’t want to interrupt Will’s little date. We know how few and far between those are for him,” Karen comments and smacks Will’s arm a little too hard. Jack follows Karen out of Will’s apartment and sticks his tongue out at Will before slamming the door behind him. 

“Daddy! What were you thinking?” Lily scolds her father and hits him on the arm. 

“Hey! Your mother and I were not together at this time,” Will defends himself. Jack puts his hand on the six-year-old’s arm. 

“Don’t worry Mini-Poodle, your Uncle Jack told your father what a bonehead he was. Heh…bone,” Jack giggles to himself. 

Jack strolls into Will’s apartment with the bags Karen sent him home with. She didn’t feel the need to go back to Riverside Drive in case Vince was still there. 

“Will, come sit on the couch, we need to have a chat…you know, woman to woman.” Jack drops the bags in a heap on the floor and launches onto the couch. Will sighs, knowing exactly what Jack wants to discuss. It’s really none of his business, but the actor won’t listen to that excuse. Begrudgingly, Will goes over to sit next to Jack.

“Now, I’m going to tell you what I heard from my mother many times throughout my life…” Jack begins.

“Stop wearing my high heels?” Will guesses with a nervous laugh. 

“Yes…but no. You’re being an idiot. What are you doing dating someone new right now? You’ve spent most of your miserable adult life single, must you start trying to change that when Karen is a beached whale? Don’t tell her I told you that, she’s very emotional these days.” 

“Karen and I have an agreement that the baby doesn’t change anything between us. And I like Vince. He’s aware of our…situation and he’s okay with it.”

“Listen, babycakes,” Jack taps Will’s arm, “I don’t care about that walking ad for hair gel. We both know he’s going to be nothing but a memory in a few weeks. I do care about my large-breasted, heavily pregnant best friend who feels alone in what you like to call your ‘situation’.”

“She does?” Will asks while scratching behind his ear. 

“God knows why, but Karen likes you and she’s not going to be the one to admit she was a tiny bit hurt with that little stunt you pulled today. I think you should go make things right with your baby momma.”

“Can we stop calling her that?” Jack rolls his eyes and gestures for Will to get off the couch.

“So…how did you make it up to Mom?” Lily asks.

Will checks his watch. It’s getting close to Lily’s bedtime and they have to get back to the manse. 

“I hate to break up this little love fest, but I have a date coming over soon,” Jack tells his friends.

“I should get going. Hopefully Laila is feeling better.” Grace leans over and kisses Will, Karen and then Lily. Jack hugs Lily goodbye and stamps a kiss to Karen’s cheek. Will, Karen, Lily and Grace pile into the elevator and separate at the door of Jack’s apartment building. Will picks up Lily and wraps his free arm around Karen as they walk towards the limo.

“Go get into your pajamas and you can have one more story before bed,” Will tells Lily when they arrive at the manse. Lily says hi to Rosario as she sprints to her bedroom. Karen and Will hand Rosario their coats and go into the library to wait for Lily. 

“Sweetie, pour me a drink too, would you?” Will asks Karen. Karen is already at the mini-bar fixing herself a drink and grabs another tumbler for her husband. She hands Will his drink and sits next to him on the couch. They clink glasses and take a sip of their respective drink.

“Good God, you make these strong,” Will complains and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. 

“Don’t be such a sissy, Wilma.” Karen laughs to herself and swallows another sip of her beverage. They sit in a comfortable silence for a few moments and then Will remembers what he wanted to say to Karen earlier.

“A few days ago, Lily came home from school the other day asking when we were going to give her a sibling.” Karen chokes on her drink and coughs into her hand. “Apparently, some of her friends’ parents just had kids.” 

“What did you tell her?” Karen asks, hoping to keep a nonchalant tone. Will furrows his eyebrows at his wife’s sudden shift in demeanor. 

“I didn’t tell her anything. I thought I would discuss it with you first.” 

“Wha…honey, the shop is closed.” Will tilts his head at her abrupt shut down of the topic. 

“You don’t want t–”

“No. Nuh huh. Nope.” Karen starts shaking her head and swallows the rest of her drink. 

“But what if—”

“Mommy? Daddy?” Lily yells from the entrance of the manse. 

“In the library, Button!” Karen yells back. They hear the six-year-old scamper in and silently agree to table their conversation for later. Lily sandwiches herself in between her parents, not picking up on the tension in the room.

Chapter Text

“What were you guys talking about?” Lily asks out of curiosity. Will shrugs and does anything he can not to look at Karen.

“We just were trying to pick out your last story for tonight,” Will says for he and Karen. 

“You were going to tell her how you made nice with me after you had your little boyfriend over,” Karen interrupts. She can tell Will isn’t exactly pleased with her right now and revels in pushing his buttons a little bit in front of their daughter. 

“Right. Not that I had to, but I felt it was the right thing to do. Your Uncle Jack can be very persuasive.” 

“OK, you invited Karen over for dinner, right?” Will asks Jack again. Jack rolls his eyes. 

“Would you calm down? She’s coming over in a little bit. Now, chill. God, no wonder you never get a second date,” Jack comments. Will glares at him and takes his chicken out of the oven. He’s making Karen one of her favorite dishes of his to semi-apologize for blowing her off for Vince the other day. 

Karen comes strolling into the apartment and shrugs her coat off. 

“Hey homos, what’s going on?” Karen asks and sits down on the couch. Jack comes over and sits next to his best friend, kissing her briefly on the lips. 

“Will made you dinner. I have an actors showcase tonight, so see ya wouldn’t want to be ya! Especially now,” Jack points to Karen’s swollen abdomen and waves goodbye to Will over his shoulder. 

“Dinner’s ready, Karen. Come sit,” Will tells her. 

“I might need a little help, honey,” Karen says. Will walks over to the couch and offers his hand to assist her in standing. He’s surprised she’s not acting differently towards him. Maybe Jack misread the situation. 

“How are you doing?” Will asks, his hand lingering on her stomach. Karen sighs and walks away from him. 

“I’m fine, I just wish I could see my feet. Now I know how Stanley felt. You don’t have to suck up to me, Wilma.” Karen says as she sits down. 

“What? No, I just thought I could cook you dinner. We haven’t eaten just the two of us in a long time. I missed our witty banter.” 

“Mhmm. We should probably decide on a name. Although, you gays probably have had a baby name picked out since you could crawl. So let’s hear it, Wilma. What do you want to name our daughter?” 

“What makes you think…” The sentence dies on his lips when he sees Karen’s skeptical look. “Well if you must know, I want to name her Emily.” 

“You were going to name me Emily?” Lily says with disgust. 

“Emily is a beautiful name! What’s wrong with Emily?” Will asks in protest. 

“Honey, that’s the bitch we hate who pushed Lily off the swings,” Karen reminds her husband. 

“Can we not call a six-year-old a bitch please, Cruella?” Will snaps at her. “Anyway…your mom didn’t have any better ideas.”  

“Hey! I wanted Lily, so you’re welcome, Wilma!” 

“No. Next!” Karen exclaims. 

“What? Don’t just shoot it down! Let me hear some ideas from you then.” Karen shrugs. 

“I don’t know, I don’t really have any. I just wanted to hear yours.”

“Let me guess, Jackie Daniels, Josie Cuervo…um—”

“No! Lily…well…Lillian, but I don’t have a middle name yet. And I think we should give her your last name, honey,” Karen mutters. Will opens his mouth in shock. “Close your mouth Wilma, you look like a fish.” 

Will thought he would have to fight Karen on the baby’s last name, but he’s glad she’s willing to concede. He can compromise on their daughter’s first name and they can figure out a middle name later on.

“I love the name, Karen, but…that’s Grace’s name for her future daughter.” Karen rolls her eyes. 

“Fine. Check with your wife first, but you better have a better suggestion than Emily if she says no.”

After they eat, Will puts the dishes in the sink and walks over to Karen, gently grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet.

“Come with me, I want to show you something,” Will tells her. Karen holds onto Will’s hand and walks behind him. He opens the door to Grace’s old bedroom and turns the light on. “I finished the nursery.” 

Karen glances around, taking in the modern twist on a butterfly-themed nursery. The crib, changing table and chair are all crisp white with splashes of pink and purple. One wall is a dark magenta with an ornate butterfly chandelier hanging in the room. 

“You like?” Will asks. He steps behind Karen and moves his arm so it’s draped across the front of her chest. 

“I do. Honey, did you do this all by yourself?” Karen asks. She steps away from Will and opens the closet, smiling when she sees some of the outfits she bought hanging on pink baby-sized hangers. 

“Gracie helped me,” Will admits. “I need some more toys and books, but it’s basically done.” 

“I’m surprised. Grace has real taste. She should apply some of that taste to her wardrobe,” Karen jokes and runs her fingers along the pink Hermes blanket draped over the top of the chair.

“Alright Lily, it’s time for bed. Say goodnight to your mom,” Will tells his daughter. Lily presses a kiss to Karen’s cheek and hops off the couch. 

“What? No kiss?” Karen asks Will. She normally wouldn’t care, she just wants to test if Will is truly upset with her. He sighs and stamps a half-hearted kiss to her lips. Will follows Lily to her bedroom, tucking her in and kissing her goodnight. 

Karen is still in the library, debating whether she wants to push the issue with her husband tonight. She’s never been one to be the first to confront a problem head-on. When she and Stan were having problems, one of them–usually Stan–would disappear on a trip and come back with a present and all would be forgiven. Will couldn’t be more opposite. It’s been a hard adjustment for her to make in the past few years since she’s been with Will.

Instead, Karen grabs her half-empty drink and heads into the master bathroom. She can hear Will talking to Lily in their daughter’s bedroom, so she has some time. Karen sets her drink on the counter and starts running a bath. She starts throwing random soaps into the water, watching more bubbles form. Eventually, Karen shuts off the water and strips, easing herself into the near-scalding water. 

Will comes into the bedroom, seeing the light on in the attached bathroom. His curiosity is piqued. He enters the bathroom. Karen is in the bath, her dark hair collected in a clip, sipping the rest of her cocktail.

“Hi Wilma! Come join me,” Karen leans back into the headrest, arching her back so her breasts are exposed through the bubbles. Will knows what she is doing and won’t allow himself to be wooed. “I’ll let you touch me under the bubbles.” Karen blows some bubbles towards him and giggles. 

Will doesn’t want to sidestep their current debate, and he knows Karen didn’t draw a bath for them because she’s itching to get to the heart of why they are on opposing sides of wanting more children. She uses the pretense of sex as a distraction.

“Nah, I’m just going to take a shower before I go to work tomorrow.” Karen pouts as Will turns around and exits the bathroom. The socialite finishes up in the tub and reaches for her black silk robe, cinching the tie around her waist. 

“Ugh fine,” Karen says to herself. She spent too many nights walking on eggshells with Stan that she vowed she wasn’t going to do it with Will. If he wants to make his case, she can at least listen. She finishes drying herself off and throws open the bathroom door. “You win, Wilma let’s–” 

Karen cuts herself off when she realizes all of the lights are off in the bedroom and Will is sound asleep. She quietly changes into a powder blue silk nightie and climbs into bed next to him. They can have their argument tomorrow.

“You will never believe what your husband said to me last night,” Karen says to Grace the next day at the office. Grace looks up from her sketch and furrows her eyebrows.

“When did you talk to Leo?” Karen tilts her head in confusion.

“Who said anything about Lebron? No, I meant your other husband.” Grace drops her pencil and turns toward Karen. 

“You mean your actual husband?” The interior designer catches a miniscule smile from Karen as she plays with her wedding band. 

“Wilma wants to have another kid. It’s bad enough he knocked me up once by accident, now he wants to do it again on purpose?” Grace blinks and purses her lips. 

“What did you tell him?” Grace approaches this subject with caution. Sometimes she and Jack have to play mediator between Karen and Will when they are having a disagreement. This seems to be one of those times. Karen blows on her freshly painted maroon nails to avoid answering Grace’s question. “Do you want another child?” 

“Honey, I don’t know. I mean, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but we are almost too old. What about you and Leon? Do you guys want another?” 

“Yes, we’ve been trying. Has Lily mentioned anything about wanting a sibling?” Karen balances her chin on the heel of her hand. 

“A few times, but then I usually send her over to your house to play with Laila and she gets over it.” Karen walks over to Grace’s desk and starts playing with some paint swatches. “It’s not that I don’t want another one of Will’s kids, it’s just…I don’t want to start over again…with a baby.”

Grace can tell Karen is being serious because she’s avoiding eye contact. The interior designer rests her hand on the socialite’s arm.

“Have you told any of this to Will?” Karen shakes her head. “I think you should Karen. It might be hard for him to hear, but he will appreciate your honesty.” 

Karen lightly bats Grace on the arm and walks over to grab her purse.

“You’re right honey, I should go talk to Will! Are you going to be fine on your own if I leave?” Karen asks. Her and Grace burst into laughter. “That was just for us girls. I’m going to see my man.”

Will can hear the familiar stride of his wife’s heels as she walks down the long hallway to his office. Karen strolls in and closes the door behind her.

“Hi honey,” Karen says and sets her purse down on the chair next to her. Will mumbles his greeting, but is still focused on his paperwork. “Hey Atticus Finch, eyes up here!” 

“Karen, what do you want? I have a lot of work to do,” Will says. Karen bites her lips and rounds the corner of Will’s desk. She straddles her husband and coils her arms around his neck. 

“Honey, why do you want to have another baby? We aren’t exactly young anymore.” She didn’t give Will the chance to explain last night when he brought up the subject. 

Will can sense Karen’s fingernails lightly scratching the back of his head. He clears his throat and rests his hands on her hips. 

“Well, we didn’t really get to experience everything with Lily…together, as a couple. And maybe I want a boy this time.” Karen grins at him as he tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“Oh Will, if we were in our thirties, I would say let’s have a whole litter of gorgeous, smart and rich babies, but we’re not. Starting over with another baby now, when we are closer to our fifties than our forties? Honey…” Karen sighs as she sees the disappointment forming on her husband’s face. “If it happens like it did with Lily, then great, but I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

“So what are you saying?” Karen responds by flashing him a dirty grin and kissing him fervently. Will responds by picking Karen up and placing her on his desk. She tilts her head back, granting him full access to her neck. He places butterfly kisses up the curve of her neck while his hands navigate down and under her black skirt. She tugs off her matching blazer, exposing her scarlet, strapless bustier-like top underneath. 

Will kisses up her jaw and chin, hearing her moan quietly in his ear. His thumbs hook around each side of her thong and he glides it down her legs. Karen smirks as her hands clumsily grasp at his belt, nearly yanking it off his body.

“Mr. Truman, your two-o’clock is here,” Will’s assistant says through the intercom. Karen lets out an aggravated sigh as their rendezvous reaches an abrupt end. Will begrudgingly hands his wife back her underwear and takes a few breaths to calm down. 

“I’ll see you at home, Mr. Truman,” Karen quickly puts her underwear back on and leans over the desk to kiss her husband, winking at him on the way out the door. 

“Right back at you, Mrs. Truman,” Will wiggles his eyebrows at his wife, making her giggle.

Chapter Text

“Daddy! Me and Laila are princesses! See?” Lily tells Will when she sees him in the kitchen of the manse. Karen is standing behind the counter, watching their daughter twirl in her lilac dress. Laila sees what Lily is doing and copies her, her cinnamon curls bouncing on her shoulders. 

“Yeah, look at us Uncle Will!” Laila excitedly says. Will walks over to the girls and leans down, hugging both of them. 

“You girls are so pretty,” Will tells the girls and twirls them around briefly before setting them back on the floor. 

“Girls, Grace and Grace’s husband will be here soon. Go change,” Karen instructs her daughter and niece. The girls scamper off to Lily’s bedroom, whispering and giggling to each other the whole way. Will slinks his arms around Karen’s waist, taking in the saccharine smell of her shampoo.

“You should probably call Leo by his name in front of Laila,” Will gently scolds Karen, fully anticipating the eye roll he receives. Karen spins around in his arms, and pops a strawberry in her mouth.

“What was so important earlier that it had to interrupt our mid-afternoon booty call?” Karen asks. Will shrugs off his gray blazer and sets it on the granite countertop. 

“One of my clients is trying to siphon off cash from her husband before he croaks. Ring a bell?” Karen fake laughs as Will reaches behind her to grab a piece of fruit. 

“Oh hon, by the way, Lily was asking for more stories when she came home from school. I told her we could talk later.” Will nods in agreement and glances around the room.

“Why are you in the kitchen anyways? It’s not like I’ve ever seen you cook,” Will comments. Karen furrows her eyebrows. 

“Oh…I was out of olives for the mini-bar and Chef said there was more in here.” 

“Mr. Will, Ms. Karen, Ms. Grace and Ms. Grace’s husband are here,” Rosario announces from the living room. 

“Thanks Rosie!” Karen yells back and giggles at the unamused expression on Will’s face. Karen brushes a kiss to Will’s lips in an effort to cheer him up.

“I’m still not used to seeing that,” Grace comments when she and Leo find Will and Karen. Karen pulls away and brings the group into the living room instead. “So I take it you worked things out with Will?”

“And then some, honey,” Karen whispers back. “Oh, hey, Lebron.”

“Hey Kate,” Leo says with a wave. He and Karen have reached a sort of detente over the years. They don’t necessarily like each other, but can tolerate one another in group settings. “Where are the girls?” 

“Probably hiding in their castle,” Will says. “They were princesses when I got home earlier.” 

“L&L let’s go!” Karen yells. The four adults hear the girls chase each other down the hallway and into the living room. “You just had to go and name your progeny Laila didn’t you?” 

“Well someone stole our name so we had to improvise,” Grace shoots back. 

“Hey! I asked you and you said you were okay with it,” Will defends his wife, throwing his arm around her shoulder. 

“What are you guys talking about?” Lily asks when she and Laila get into the living room. Each girl goes over to their respective parents. Will picks up Lily and sets her in his lap while Leo does the same with Laila. 

“Hold on…”Leo spots Karen’s half-drunken martini on the side table next to him and hands it to her. “It’s weird to see you without it.” Grace laughs and watches Karen’s eyes light up at the sight of her drink.

“You’re good people sometimes,” Karen comments. “Well, Button I was just teasing your Aunt Gracie about how your cousin’s name sounds a lot like yours.”

“Why do you call her Button?” Grace asks Karen. Will looks down at his wife, getting her silent permission to elaborate.

“We might as well start from the beginning of that day,” Will tells her. Karen shakes her head.

“They don’t want to hear about Lily’s birth. They were there, honey.” 

“No, it’s okay. I missed most of it, go on,” Leo encourages. Grace nods. 

“One story and then we can go,” Grace tells Laila. She cards her fingers through her daughter’s identical red curls and leans into the cushions. 

“Wilma was on a date with Vince…poor bast–guy…” Karen starts, laughing at the memory.

“I’m so glad we are doing this, thanks for coming out tonight,” Will says to Vince. After their first date that was interrupted by Karen and Jack, Will didn’t think Vince wanted to go out again. Thankfully, Vince was accepting of the situation and gave Will another shot.

“It’s no problem, I think you’re really cute…and I like spending time with you.” Will blushes and takes a sip of his red wine. “How is Karen by the way?” 

“Oh Satan’s Mistress is doing just fine. In fact she’s…” Will’s cell phone vibrates against the table. “Calling me right now.”

“You have her as Baby Momma on your phone? That’s not really respectful,” Vince comments. Will furrows his eyebrows. 

“Jack must’ve found my phone. I’m so sorry, I should take this.” Will flips open his phone and flinches at the sound of Jack screeching on the other end. “Jack? Why are you calling me on Karen’s phone? You have your own, I should know..I pay–”

“Will! There’s all sorts of weird things coming out of Karen’s lady parts! It’s disgusting!” Will’s brown eyes widen and Vince signals for the waiter to get the check. 

“Jack, where is Karen?” Will can hear someone breathing heavily in the background, but he’s unsure if it’s Jack or Karen.

“I told her to go clean herself up. It’s like she peed her pants! Women are so gross!”  Vince pays the check while Will is preoccupied on the phone.

“Jack, you need to take Karen to the hospital now. Her water broke. I will meet you guys there,” Will instructs his best friend. 

“Okay! TTYL,” Jack hangs up the phone and Will shoots Vince an apologetic look. 

“Vince, I’m so sorry–” Vince holds up his hand.

“Don’t be. Go. We can talk later.” Will stamps a kiss to Vince’s lips and races out of the restaurant. He hails a cab to the hospital, leaving a message for Grace in case Jack forgot in the rush to get Karen there. 

“Excuse me, do you know where Karen Walker is?” Will asks the first nurse he can find when he arrives on the labor and delivery floor of the hospital. Before the nurse can respond, they hear a high-pitch scream followed by Karen yelling ‘where are my drugs?’ “Nevermind.”

Will follows the noise to a room a few doors down the hall. Karen is in a hospital gown, lying on the bed while Jack is hovering next to her, unsure of what to do.

“Will! Thank Cher you are here! I saw Karen’s lady business.” Jack makes a disgusted face. “Can I have some money for the cafeteria?” Will can see Karen writhing in pain behind him and pulls out a twenty from his wallet.

“Here. Get me a coffee and call Grace again.” Jack grabs the money and sprints out of the room. Will drapes his leather jacket over the chair next to Karen and sits in it. He grabs her hand, ignoring the glare he receives from her. “Hi sweetie.” 

“Wilma! I need you to call Pharmacist for me and get me some painkillers. Not the weak ones…but…the…ones they use on horses. He’ll know what I’m talking about,” Karen tells him and winces. Will stands up and reaches for a washcloth, dousing it in cold water before gently putting it on Karen’s head.

“Honey, I don’t think Pharmacist would be allowed in an actual hospital.” Karen frowns and reaches for Will’s hand, squeezing it tightly. Will does his best to hide his discomfort because he knows Karen has it a lot worse. 

Grace and Leo arrive about an hour after Jack calls them. Jack has been hanging out in the waiting room instead of being in the room with Will and Karen. He’s been preoccupying his time by reading magazines and scoping out hot guys.

“Jack! How’s it going?” Grace asks when she sees her friend. Jack moves so Leo can sit down next to him. 

“I got out of there after I saw Karen’s funny business. I don’t want any part of that. Will is in there now with her,” Jack tells Grace and Leo. 

“I’ll go check it out,” Grace tells the men after Jack points to which room Karen is in.

“Good luck,” Jack calls out. Grace knocks on the door and Will lets her in, closing it behind her. 

“Hey Karen, how’s it going?” Grace asks. 

“Just…peachy,” Karen grounds out through clenched teeth. Grace remains quiet as she watches her best friend rub Karen’s back. Karen’s usual put-together appearance has completely fallen by the wayside. Her sweaty hair is matted to her forehead and she’s griping Will’s arm with one hand and the bedside railing with the other. 

Karen collapses against the pillows and closes her eyes. Will gives her a minute and pushes Grace off to the side. 

“Wow, you are really doing this, huh?” Grace asks her best friend. Will nods and watches in amusement as Karen groans and pulls a blanket over her face. 

“Gracie, there’s something I wanted to ask y–”

“Of course I will be the baby’s godmother. Frankly, I don’t know why it took you two so long to ask.” Will opens his mouth and closes it.

“That is part of it, and thanks. But, Karen really wants to name the baby Lily and I know that’s your name and—” 

“Will, it’s okay. You can have the name. I’m pretty sure Leo and I are having a boy anyway.” A wide smile stretches across Will’s face.

“You’re pregnant? Oh my gosh, sweetie! That’s wonderful,” Will kisses the corner of Grace’s mouth.

“Thanks, we found out a few weeks ago, but didn’t want to say anything unt—” Grace stops when a loud alarm starts beeping near Karen’s head. A flurry of nurses and a doctor rush into the room, nearly knocking into Grace and Will. “I’ll get Leo.” 

Will rejoins Karen, lacing his fingers through hers. They watch a nurse check one of the monitors and alert the doctor. 

“We need to get her into surgery, now,” The doctor tells the nurse. Karen and Will nervously glance at each other. “Mrs. Walker, your baby’s heartbeat has dropped significantly. We need to do an emergency c-section right away.”

“Wha–Will?” Karen squeaks out. A team of nurses are already working to move Karen out of the room and get an operating room cleared. Will kisses her cheek and quickly reassures her as they wheel her out. 

“Come with me,” A male nurse tells Will and brings him down the hall. Will can see Grace and Leo follow Karen while he goes the opposite way. “You need to wash up and put a cap and a gown on over your clothes. Hurry though.”

“What’s a c-section?” Lily asks. 

“Your mom had surgery so the doctors could safely get you out of her belly,” Will explains. He can swear he saw Karen tearing up a bit when he was recounting the story, but she caught him and looked away. 

“Will! Will! What’s happening?” Grace asks. 

“I gotta go! She’s in surgery!” Will yells over his shoulder. He can hear Leo reassuring Grace as he enters the operating room. Karen is lying flat on the table, a blue surgical cap securing her brown bob. There is a curtain splitting her body in half. Will momentarily glances over, seeing her enlarged stomach covered in an amber liquid.

“Hey, no looking at my lady parts, Wilma!” Karen scolds him. He tell by her shaky voice that she’s scared. He’s instructed to sit next to Karen and grabs her IV-riddled hand. 

“Are you ready Mrs. Walker?” An older, male doctor asks Karen. 

“Yeah, let’s get this over with,” Karen comments. Will laughs despite the situation and thinks of something to talk about to distract her.

“Grace said we could use Lily as her name,” Will tells Karen. Karen pauses for a second and bites her lip.

“Grace…that’s what her middle name should be. What do you think? Not that we need to inflate Grace’s ego anymore than it already is…” Karen trails off and looks at Will. 

“I love the idea,” Will reaches and wraps his arm around her head, rubbing his thumb up and down her porcelain cheek. 

“Okay, she’s out,” the doctor announces. Will and Karen wait for the baby to start crying, but they are met by silence. 

“Is she shy?” Karen asks and tries to lift her head up. The curtain is completely obstructing her view of the newborn.

“She needs air. I need the bag! Now!” A male nurse calls out. Will tilts his head, but his view is blocked by different nurses working on the baby. 

“Will, what’s happening?” Karen tries to talk around the lump forming in her throat. Will shakes his head and stands up. Then, out of nowhere, a loud cry fills the room. Will and Karen breathe a sigh of relief. 

“Sir, you can go over and cut the cord,” the doctor tells Will. Will wipes his eyes briefly and walks over to see his daughter. The baby is a mirror image of Karen—dark hair, dark eyes, but has his heart-shaped face and nose. 

“Hi Lily,” Will whispers, overcome with emotion. He cuts the cord and watches the nurse swaddle the baby in a blanket and hand her to him. Will walks over to Karen who lets out a sob as he gently helps her put the baby on her chest. 

“Hey honey,” Karen whispers and smiles at Will. Will presses a kiss to Karen’s lips. 

“Is this you and your wife’s first?” A female nurse asks Karen and Will. 

“Uh…yes,” Will answers, not bothering to explain their situation. Karen beams at the baby, feeling her daughter’s warm skin pressed up against her shoulder. 

“Love you Wilma,” Karen whispers to Will. 

“Love you too, Cruella.” 

“Ma’am, we need to take the baby for some tests and set you up in a room,” the same nurse tells Karen. Karen pouts, but hands Lily back with Will’s help. 

Will goes back into the waiting room where Grace, Jack and Leo are anxiously waiting. 

“Is Karen okay?” Jack asks, shedding his usual goofy persona. Grace and Leo stand up next to Jack, looking at Will with trepidation. 

“She’s fine and so is the baby. Lily Grace,” Will says, looking at his best friend. Grace hugs Will tightly. 

“I’m so glad, you scared me,” Grace whispers to the lawyer. She steps away and lets Will hug Jack and Leo.

“Congratulations Will,” Leo says. 

“Congrats to you! I heard the news.” Will says to Leo and Grace. Leo wraps his arm around Grace. 

“Mr. Truman, you can come see your wife and daughter now,” the nurse from the operating room tells Will. 

“Wife?” Grace asks in confusion. Will shrugs and gestures for the group to follow him. He knocks on the door and opens it. Karen is lying in bed holding Lily. She waves her friends in. Grace and Leo gather on one side and Jack and Will stand on the other.

“Aw, she looks like Will with her thin hair and pudgy body,” Jack quips. Will is too enthralled with his daughter to care about Jack’s remark. 

“I think she’s as cute as a button,” Karen remarks, still euphoric from a combination of painkillers and giving birth. She gently presses her finger on the baby’s nose, smiling when she gets a reaction from her daughter.

“Karen are you…crying?” Grace asks when she catches her friend stealthily wiping away a tear.  

“No! My eyes are tearing up from staring at your god awful bright yellow blouse for too long,” Karen deflects and sniffs. Will rubs her shoulder and laughs at his wife.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Karen cry,” Leo says to Grace. Karen frowns and sneers at Leo.

“Oh can it, Lars! Don’t you and the wife have somewhere to be?” Grace giggles and gestures for Laila to get off her lap. 

“Bye guys,” Grace grabs a few tissues and hands them to Karen. “Here you go, you wouldn’t want to ruin your makeup.” Karen snatches them out of her friend’s hand. “Bye Lily, Will.” Grace hugs both of them. Lily gets off Will’s lap and goes to hug her younger cousin. 

“Bye Lily! You come over to my house soon, k?” Laila tells her older cousin. She runs over and hugs her uncle and aunt. 

“Bye Baby Grace, we will ship Lily to your side of the bridge soon, okay?” Karen tells her niece. Laila nods even though she doesn’t comprehend what her Aunt Karen just told her. She follows her parents out of the manse. 

“So…what happens after I’m born?” Lily asks her parents.

“Well, we took you home from the hospital and…learned how to be parents,” Will tells their daughter. After Lily was born, Karen and Will started switching off weeks of where their daughter would stay. 

“Were you together then?” Lily asks impatiently. Karen giggles and pinches Lily’s cheek.

“No honey, that doesn’t come for a while, but we will get there, I promise.” Rosie comes into the room to inform them that Chef has their dinner ready for them. Will picks up Lily off of his lap and the three of them settle into the dining room. 

“What was the hardest part…of being my mom and dad?” Lily asks out of curiosity while Will is cutting up her chicken into bite-sized pieces. 

“Hmm…well babies are hard to take care of, Button. They don’t talk so they can’t tell you what’s wrong. I remember when you were about three months old, you were sick…” 

“Damn it Wilma, stop screwing that cop and answer your phone!” Karen exclaims when she receives Will’s answering machine for the second time. Lily has been crying non-stop for almost an hour and Karen has no clue what to do. “Ssh honey, here,” Karen rocks Lily in her arm and reaches for a pacifier. Lily rejects it immediately and starts wailing even louder. 

Karen briefly sets Lily down in her crib and walks out of the nursery, needing a second to consider her options. Jack wouldn’t be any help in this situation, and Will is seemingly unavailable. The nanny Will and Karen hired for the daytime while they are at work is out of town. There is always Rosario, but Karen can’t bring herself to dump her daughter on her maid. Plus, Will would be absolutely furious if he found out. Karen digs out her phone from her silk robe and dials Grace. 

“I need you over at the manse, Red,” Karen tells her friend. 

“What’s wrong? I’m too pregnant to move,” Grace complains. Karen rolls her eyes. The interior designer is barely five months along.

“I..uh…rented some new lesbian porn and Rosie just restocked the snacks in the theater room,” Karen lies. She’s hoping Grace can’t hear Lily crying in the background.

“I’ll be right over.” 

“That’s how you got Grace to come over?” Will asks in disbelief. Karen wags her eyebrows.

“Works like a charm every time.” 

“Hey, what’s going on?” Grace asks when she arrives at the manse. Karen is holding Lily and trying unsuccessfully to feed her a bottle. 

“Apparently Will doesn’t get cell service in the projects because he won’t answer the phone. Lily won’t stop crying and I need a drink,” Karen tells her friend. She hands her daughter to the interior designer and grabs her purse. Grace’s eyes widen and she puts Lily back in her crib. She hurriedly walks out of the nursery, hoping Karen was just bluffing about leaving.

“Woah! You can’t just leave me here with Lily! Karen, I don’t know what to do.” 

“Neither do I. Consider it practice for you and Lebron’s kid. I’ll be back after one drink,” Karen winks at Grace and turns on her heels. 

“You were really going to leave Lily with Grace?” Will asks, anger seeping into his voice. Lily looks up from her dinner, sensing her father’s aggravated tone. Karen’s hazel eyes dart around the dining room.

“No?” Karen gives Will a closed-lipped grin that he doesn’t buy. “Oh calm down Wilma, I didn’t actually go anywhere.” 

“Alright, alright! I will stay, but Karen, you can’t leave. Come on, we can do this together,” Grace encourages her friend. Karen sighs and sets down her purse. When Lily was born, it was undoubtedly the happiest moment of her life. Now that her daughter is home, it hasn’t been an easy adjustment to motherhood. Karen is exhausted all the time, and barely finds time to herself when Lily is staying at the manse. The baby stays at Will’s for a week and then the manse for a week even though Will and Karen see each other almost every day in some capacity. 

Karen reluctantly follows Grace back to the nursery and picks up Lily. It takes about an hour, but the two women finally get Lily to sleep. 

“Okay, now I see the appeal,” Grace comments to Karen, looking down at Lily sleeping in the crib. Karen stands up and glances down at her daughter. “She looks like you when you sleep, how she sucks her thumb.” 

“I do not!” Karen says a little too loudly and winces. Thankfully, Lily merely stirs and Grace and Karen slowly walk out of the nursery. 

The next morning, Grace leaves and Karen brings Lily over to Will’s for the weekly trade-off. 

“I’m gonna kill your daddy,” Karen tells Lily as she pushes the baby in the stroller. Vince, Jack and Will are having breakfast when Karen arrives at the apartment. “Does your phone not work over here in fairyland?”

Will sheepishly looks over at Vince and smirks into his coffee mug. He didn’t hear his phone ring last night on the account of purposely leaving it on vibrate. 

“I’m sorry. How did your night go?” Will asks, although based on Karen’s slightly disheveled appearance, he can already guess. The socialite probably doesn’t even know there’s dried spit-up on her purple, designer blazer. 

“I ended up getting about one hour of sleep and woke up spooning Grace, which sadly, wasn’t as enjoyable as it sounds. I’m going to the spa. Jackie, you wanna come with?” Jack eagerly stands up and nods. The actor hears Lily coo and gently extracts her from the stroller. Will takes the baby from Jack and bounces her. 

“Hey Karen…you g–” Vince points down to his own navy shirt.  

“What?” Karen glances down at her blazer and spots the stain left from her daughter. “This is all you, Wilma because my child would never ruin designer fabric.” Will hands Lily to Vince and walks over to grab a wet rag. He feels guilty for not calling Karen back, but he figured she and Grace would try harder to contact him if it was a real emergency. 

“Stop fidgeting,” Will instructs Karen as he expertly blots the stain from her blazer. He tosses the rag on the counter and brings a piece of Karen’s hair back to its correct side. “Have fun at the spa. And get some sleep.” 

“Come on, Kare,” Jack tugs at her sleeve like an overexcited child. Karen waves goodbye to Lily and Vince uses her hand to wave back.

“Okay, let’s speed this up a little bit,” Karen comments. They’ve been telling various stories for the past two days and the socialite is getting bored with the idea. 

Will nods in agreement. There is still so much to cover, but they can omit more of the less-exciting stuff. 

“What do you want to hear more of Lily?” Will asks their daughter. If it were up to Karen, they would stop all together, but their story isn’t over yet.

“How you two got together Daddy!” Lily says in a blunt voice. Karen smirks, thinking her daughter sounds an awful lot like her when she gets annoyed with Will. 

“Okay, let’s skip ahead to her first birthday, Wilma…you know…the kiss?” Karen glides her tongue over her top lip seductively and giggles.

Chapter Text

“Sure. But I think this requires some ice cream!” Will says. Lily bounces in her chair and claps her hands. 

“I’ll get it and meet you in the living room!” Lily exclaims and Karen and Will can hear her yelling for Rosario. Will stands up and walks over to Karen, holding his hand out for her to grab. Karen obliges and laughs when Will picks her up and throws her over her shoulder. 

“Wilma, put me down!” Karen halfheartedly says as he carries her out of the dining room. “I forgot my drink!”

Will pretends not to hear her and tosses her gently on the couch. He goes over to the mini-bar to refill her martini but stops short of handing it to her.

“I’ll give this to you if you admit why you kissed me on Lily’s birthday,” Will tells her, holding the drink just out of her reach. Karen lunges for it, but Will is quicker. “Ah ah ah, I know how you don’t like to waste alcohol.” 

“You know why you fruit!” Karen quips and watches Will hold the martini glass up to his lips. Lily comes back into the room with Rosario, barging in on her parents’ standoff. 

“Rosie, what are they doing?” Lily asks the maid. Rosie sets the bowls of chocolate ice cream down and shrugs.  

“Who knows, Ms. Lily.” Will or Karen haven’t noticed their daughter’s return, they are too wrapped up in their powerplay. 

“Admit it. You kissed me because you were in love with me,” Will emphasizes the two words to annoy his wife. 

“Let’s give your dad and Count Drunkula a moment,” Rosie tells the little girl, bringing her back into the kitchen to grab more supplies. 

“I will never! I just…liked your cologne that day,” Karen proclaims and snatches the drink of her husband’s hand while he’s contemplating her response. 

“Hey!” Will protests and leans down, gently taking the martini out of Karen’s hand and setting it on the coffee table next to her. He skims his thumb up and down her cheek and lovingly kisses her. “It’s okay, Cruella, your secret is safe with me.”

Lily and Rosario return to the living room, seeing Karen and Will whispering to each other like teenagers. The maid clears her throat and gently pushes Lily towards her parents. 

“Thanks Ro Ro,” Lily says to the maid. Will sits next to Karen and accepts his bowl of ice cream from the six-year-old. Lily hands her ice cream to Karen and hops in her dad’s lap. 

“Okay…so we threw a party at your Uncle Jack’s apartment for your first birthday…” Will begins and takes a bite of ice cream.

“What did we get Lily for her birthday?” Will asks Karen. He is busy grabbing appetizers out of the fridge for the mini-birthday party they are having for Lily. Karen shrugs and sees Jack trying to dress an uncooperative Lily into a tan Burberry dress. 

“I got her what every one-year-old wants, honey: access to a G5 and 1,000 shares of stock in Walker Inc. Duh. I’m not an idiot,” Karen says with a scoff. Will blinks, not quite sure if she’s joking or not. 

“Great,” Will deadpans and smiles as Jack brings Lily into the kitchen. 

“There she is,” Karen says excitedly and takes Lily from Jack. 

“I never thought I would have to convince Karen’s daughter to wear designer clothes. My goddaughter will not be seen in that heinous outfit Will picked out. You oughta be ashamed of yourself, Will!” Jack says in mock-outrage. Will tickles Lily under her chin, eliciting a smile from the baby. 

“Grace picked it out,” Will comments. 

“That figures,” Jack and Karen say together. Grace and Leo stroll through the door, holding a baby carrier. 

“Why isn’t Lily wearing the outfit I picked out yesterday?” Grace asks. Leo is busy extracting five-month-old Laila out of the car seat. 

“Uh…she spit up on it,” Karen lies unconvincingly. Grace glares at Karen and goes over to kiss Will.

“You guys still kiss way too much,” Leo comments as he’s bouncing a fussy Laila in his arms. Grace smiles at Will and walks over to her husband, smoothing down her daughter’s red, wispy hair.

“It’s gross, right, Kare?” Jack asks and plants a kiss on his best friend’s lips. 

“Alright, alright, get out of the kitchen. I know none of you want to help anyways,” Will shoos his friends into the living room just as his mother arrives.

“Come on Lily, come get the martini glass,” Karen encourages from the couch. Lily is on the cusp of walking, but she takes a few stutter steps and sits back down, opting to crawl. 

“Momma,” Lily mumbles and tries to get to her feet. Karen reaches down and plops her daughter back on her feet. 

“Karen is trying to get your daughter to walk by using a martini glass as bait,” Grace informs Will who places another tray of finger food down on the coffee table.

“You should’ve seen it when she did it with her pill bottle yesterday. Lily almost ran right to it,” Will jokes and watches his best friend immediately fill her lap with food. Leo cracks a smile and sits down next to his wife on the couch.

“I tried the same thing with Will using a pearl necklace, except he didn’t want to give it back,” Marilyn tells Karen. 

“You hear that, Wilma? Your mom just called you a gay baby,” Karen yells to Will. Will ignores her, too focused on talking to Vince in the kitchen to respond. 

“Hey Will, stop being antisocial and bring your boyfriend over here!” Jack says for his best friend. A few more of Will’s friends that Karen barely knows trickle in while the group is talking, all wanting to see Lily. 

“Okay Lily, go ahead,” Will encourages. He sets down a piece of cake in front of the one-year-old to see what she will do. Karen is standing next to Will, holding a camera. Lily grabs some cake in her fist and shoves it in her mouth.

“Aw, she takes after her Aunt Gracie,” Karen quips. 

“When do you guys kiss?” Lily asks impatiently. 

“Yeah, get to the good stuff, Wilma. That party was a snooze fest,” Karen comments. 

“Hey! That was our one–okay, it was boring,” Will concedes. “So after everyone left for the night, I went looking for your mom.” 

“Goodbye, get home safe,” Will kisses Grace’s cheek and waves to Leo who is holding a sleeping Laila. He hasn’t seen Karen in the past half an hour, not that he’s surprised. Will is guessing she snuck off with Jack somewhere when people started leaving. He goes to check on Lily and finds Karen hanging over the crib, watching their daughter sleep. 

“Hey honey,” Karen whispers. She senses Will walk up behind her and gently rests his hand on her shoulder. 

“What are you doing?” Will asks out of curiosity. Karen shrugs, she came in here to hide from Will’s mom, who kept asking about when she can expect another grandchild. 

“Just hanging with my girl,” Karen says. Will invades Karen’s personal bubble, so much so that his stomach is pressed up against her back. 

“Gracie’s right, she does look like you sleep. It’s cute,” Will remarks offhandedly. Karen turns her head so she’s facing Will. She gives him a flirty smile, one fueled by the martinis and uppers she took in the bathroom to get through the party.

“You think so?” Karen asks. She stands on her tiptoes and combs her fingers through Will’s hair. Will furrows his eyebrows as she gets closer to his lips, but doesn’t back away. When her lips meet his, he leans into it. When her hands reach up to frame either side of his face, he doesn’t stop it. 

“W-wa-wait, Karen.” Reality crashes into Will, hard. He pulls away from her and shakes his head. “I can’t…I can’t do this. I’m with Vince. I-I…I’m sorry.” 

Karen is thankful the dim lighting in the nursery is covering the rosiness of her cheeks. She doesn’t know what came over her, but she wanted to kiss him. Needed to kiss him. And now, the sting of him rejecting her is causing all of her walls to go up. She needs to find an excuse to get out of Will’s apartment, away from him. 

“Jeez honey, it’s not like I was trying to have sex with you. We’ve already done that and look what happened,” Karen gestures her head down at their sleeping infant and swiftly walks out of the room. Will scratches his head and follows her out of Lily’s room. He’s too late though, Karen slams the door behind her before he can even get a word out. 

“What? Daddy! I thought you two were going to get together,” Lily pouts and crosses her arms across her chest. 

“That’s all you,” Will comments to his wife and points at their daughter. 

“I have no idea what you are talking about Wilma,” Karen says and unconsciously copies Lily’s pose. 

  “Hey, I got your text…okay, it’s serious,” Grace says to her best friend. Will is vacuuming the couch cushions at a faster rate than usual. “Where’s Lily and Vince?” 

“Vince is at work and Lily is taking what Jack refers to as a ‘disco nap’. I think the party wore her out yesterday.” Grace maneuvers around Will and walks over to the fridge. 

“Is there any leftover cake?” Grace asks. “Will! WILL!” Will turns off the vacuum and spins around. 

“What? You are going to wake up Lily,” Will chides the interior designer. 

“Is there cake in the fridge?” 

“My God, can you focus? Oh never mind, it’s on the top shelf. Go ahead.” Grace rips open the fridge door and grabs a slice of cake and some milk for herself. 

“So what’s with the emergency text?” Grace says with her mouth full. Will grimaces and plops down next to her at the kitchen table. 

“After everyone left yesterday, Karen kissed me,” Will admits quietly. 

“So? Karen kissed me yesterday too and offered me some of her drugs.” Will fidgets in his chair and unsuccessfully tries to take a bite of cake from Grace. “Oh…Oh! Well, sweetie, of course Karen kissed you.” 

“What do you mean?” Will asks. Grace shakes her head at the lawyer. For someone who is as smart as Will is, he can be incredibly dense sometimes. 

“Karen has always had a thing for you, Will.” 

“No she hasn’t!” 

“Oh, please! Might I remind you of the one-year-old the two of you share sleeping in the next room. And before you say that it was a drunken mishap and your gay, which both of those things might be true, but Will, you both are kidding yourselves if you don’t think there’s something there between you and Karen.” 

Will sighs, and Grace reluctantly pushes the last few bites of her cake towards her best friend, knowing he needs it more than she does. 

“What do I do? Should I tell Vince?” Grace shrugs and holds her hands up defensively when Will glares at her.

“Hey! Look, Will, what do you really have to gain by telling Vince? We know how Karen operates: she’s going to lick her wounds, get drunk…er, make out with Jack and pretend like your kiss never happened. It’s going to be up to you if you want to pursue this, so just think about it, okay? I have to go. Call me later.” Grace reaches over and kisses Will’s cheek. 

“Did you Daddy? Did you do what Aunt Grace said?” Lily asks in anticipation. She frowns when Will shakes his head. He makes eye contact with Karen who nods for him to continue.

“Not quite. It took me a while to…admit my feelings for your mom.” Lily groans in frustration. Karen suppresses a grin.  

“What made you do it?” Lily is bouncing in her seat, waiting with baited breath for her father’s response. 

“The accident.”

Chapter Text

“What accident?” Lily asks. Karen reflexively reaches for Will, smiling to herself when his hand already cups her elbow, bringing her closer to him. Lily moves slightly so her mom can rest her head on Will’s shoulder. 

“When you were about a year-and-a-half old, you and your mom got into a car accident,” Will explains. He remembers that day so vividly even four years later. 

“We did?” Lily asks her mom in awe. She has no memory of what happened, but based on how serious Karen looks now, it must’ve been bad. 

“Hold on, I think I forgot something,” Will tells Vince. He checks his suitcase again to make sure his toiletry bag is on top. He and Vince are going to the Poconos for the weekend to celebrate their anniversary. 

“I checked, you checked…another hundred times. It’s there. Are you ready?” Vince asks. Will nods and carries his suitcase out of the apartment with Vince following. They pack up the Range Rover and head towards the mountains. 

About an hour into the drive, Will’s phone rings. Vince grabs it and checks to make sure it’s not Karen, calling about Lily. He hasn’t seen much of Karen in the past six months, just occasionally when she and Will swap Lily for the week. She’s always brief and doesn’t stay long, preferring to bring Lily over to Jack’s instead of staying at Will’s. 

“It’s an unknown number,” Vince tells Will. He sets Will’s phone on the console between them. Will feels Vince put his hand on his thigh and rests his hand over it. 

“I’m glad we are doing this,” Will admits. He could use a weekend away from the city and more importantly, Karen, who is acting exactly how Grace predicted. They haven’t talked about the kiss since it happened, even though Will has tried. She quickly changes the subject or does whatever she can to bring up Vince, almost throwing the fact he has a boyfriend in his face. Will gave up and decided to concentrate on his relationship with Vince. 

About fifteen minutes later, Will’s cell rings again. Vince picks it up and furrows his eyebrows. 

“It’s the same number. Do you want me to answer it?” Vince asks. Will sighs and shrugs. “Hello…no, this is his phone. What? Are you sure? H-Hold on…” 

“What is it? Did Jack steal another one of my credit cards?” Will asks. He can see the tension in Vince’s face. Whatever is going on is about to disrupt their weekend getaway.

“Karen and Lily got into a car accident.”

“What?” Will loses his cheerful grin and pulls over on the highway. Vince hands him the phone. “Yes, this is him. What happened?” Vince gestures for Will to get out of the car so they can switch spots. “Let me talk to her. She’s not conscious? Oh my God!” Vince reaches over and grabs Will’s hand. He isn’t sure if Will was referring to Karen or Lily. “Yes. Uh huh. We are on our way.” 

Will hangs up the phone and rubs his face in his hands. Vince glides his hand up and down the plane of Will’s back. 

“How bad is it?” Vince asks after a few moments. He is driving back to the city while Will is trapped in his thoughts. “Will, it’s going to be okay.” 

“You don’t know that,” Will snaps. He shakes his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know the details but Karen is in bad shape. Lily seems okay, but I won’t know until we get there. I have to call Grace and Jack.” 

An hour and a half later, Vince and Will are at the emergency room, searching for Karen, Lily or their friends. 

“Will! Over here!” Grace waves her best friend over. Jack is sitting next to her, playing with Lily. Will runs over with Vince a step behind him. 

“Daddy!” Lily exclaims, clapping when she sees Will. Jack hands Lily to Will who hugs her tightly. 

“Hi sweetie, you okay?” Will asks. Thankfully, he doesn’t see any visible injuries on Lily. Vince waves to the little girl who smiles at him. Lily rests her head on Will’s shoulder. “Did the doctors say anything about Lily?” His daughter first, then Karen. 

“Leo gave her a full exam and cleared her. She has some scratches on her arm, but she’s okay.” Will breathes a sigh of relief. 

“Where is she? Where is Karen?” Will asks, scanning the room for where the socialite could be. 

“Aw honey, you did care,” Karen teases her husband. Lily giggles at the slightly perturbed expression on her dad’s face. 

“Continue with the story, Cruella,” Will says and kisses her temple.

“Will, come here,” Grace takes her best friend to the side. Will hands Lily to Vince so he can talk to Grace. “Karen…um…s–”

“Grace, just say it.” Will feels a lump form in his throat. Grace sees the unbridled fear on the lawyer’s face and holds her hands up.

“Oh my God, Karen is fine! She just fractured her wrist and has some scratches on her face.” Will lets out a humongous sigh and glares at his best friend. 

“You could’ve just said that, drama queen!” Grace points to Will with a raise of her eyebrows. 

“Would you two just talk to each other already? Come on, you can go see her. She’s in the third room over there.” Will and Grace separate and he opens the sliding glass door to Karen’s room.

“Will?” Karen is laying in bed, still in her black dress pants and magenta blouse. Her wrist is in a cast. Cuts and scratches mar her usually clear, porcelain skin. 

“You scared me,” Will admits. He walks over and stands on the side of the bed. “What happened?” Karen gestures for Will to help her to a seated position. Will grabs Karen’s uncasted hand and holds onto it while she swings her legs around the bed. 

“Driver had to get his eyelids done…I was tired of looking at those things…um…” Karen winces when she attempts to move her injured arm in a different position. “Damn it.” She unexpectedly bursts into tears. 

“Sweetie…” Will says softly and bends down, gently taking her into his arms, being mindful of her injury. He can’t imagine the amount of pain she must be in for her to openly cry in front of him. The only other time he’s seen Karen cry is when she gave birth to Lily. 

“I’m s-s-so sor–sorry Will,” Karen admits. Will rubs her back, but stops after he hears Karen moan in pain. He carefully extracts himself from her, cupping her cheeks with his hands. 

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Karen. What happened?” Karen sniffs and wipes her tears with the back of her good hand. 

“Someone ran a red light and crashed into me on my side. Lily was on the other side babbling about something. I didn’t even see the car coming…” Karen trails off and presses her knuckle to her eyelid to collect a tear before it rolls down her cheek. 

“Karen, don’t blame yourself. I’m just glad the two of you are okay.” Will may give Karen a lot of grief for her affinity for booze and pills, but he knows she would never do anything intentionally to hurt herself or Lily. He steps closer and coils one arm around her back, pressing her unaffected side into his chest. “Look at it this way, you now have an actual excuse to get high.” 

“Way ahead of you, honey,” Karen lightly jokes. 

“Will, I n—” Vince steps into the room, confused by what he sees. Will steps away from Karen and basically blocks her from Vince’s view. He’s guessing she doesn’t want the cop to see her in her current disheveled state. “Lily’s been asking for you.”

“Okay, thank you, I’ll be right out,” Will tells Vince. Vince frowns and leaves Will in the room with Karen. 

“What are you going to do? Do you want to stay with me and Lily?” Will asks. Karen shakes her head, she doesn’t think that would be a good idea. 

“Jackie is going to stay at the manse with me for a few days. I know it’s not your week, but would you mind taking Lily for the weekend? I can’t carry her with my claw hand. You think I could hit some servants with this thing?” Will laughs at Karen moving her casted arm back and forth in a slapping motion. 

“I can take Lily,” Will says without hesitation. An older female doctor comes in to discharge Karen. Will presses a kiss to her forehead and walks out to grab their daughter. 

Vince is quiet on the way back to Will’s apartment. Lily is asleep in the back seat. When they get back to Will’s, the lawyer carries Lily into her room and sets her in the crib. Vince lingers around the apartment, grabbing a drink out of Will’s fridge. Will carefully closes Lily’s door behind him and goes into the kitchen. 

“Are you okay? I’m sorry about this weekend, I just think I need to be close by in case Karen needs something.” Vince scratches his head. He almost expected Will to use Lily as an excuse, but not Karen. 

“Will…” Vince sighs and debates whether he wants to bring it up now after the day they just had. Will stops fidgeting in the kitchen and focuses his attention on his boyfriend. 

“What’s wrong?” Will asks. 

“I’ve been trying to be as understanding as I can with this weird situation with Karen. Frankly…with Grace too, but that’s another story. I think that you like her more than a friend. I think you’re in love with her.” 

A laugh bubbles in Will’s throat and explodes out of his mouth. He quickly stops when he notices how serious Vince looks. 

“Sorry I didn’t…Vince, I’m gay. I do love Karen b—” 

“Look, I know you guys kissed or whatever and didn’t do anything about it, but I don’t think either of you can deny there are feelings there. I think you should figure them out…without me. This isn’t working for me anymore.” 

Will is stunned by what he’s hearing. They went from almost going away together for their anniversary to Vince wanting to end things in less than a day. 

“Are y-y-you…breaking up with me?” Will asks. Vince nods and reaches out to skim his thumb over Will’s cheek.

“I’m sorry.” Will watches in stunned silence while Vince gathers up some of his things he has at the apartment. “Tell Lily goodbye.” Vince closes the door behind him and leaves an astonished Will in his wake.

Chapter Text

Will has been sitting on his couch for almost an hour, staring off into the distance and replaying his conversation with Vince over and over. He almost doesn’t hear Jack barging into his apartment. 

“Hello! Earth to Will,” Jack waves his hand in front of Will’s face and sits down next to him. Will jumps and looks at Jack.

“How long have you been here?” Will asks. “Why aren’t you at Karen’s?” Jack rolls his blue eyes and waves his hand dismissively. 

“She kicked me out. What’s with the face? You look more constipated than usual.” 

“Vince and I broke up,” Will mumbles. He hasn’t told anyone yet, even Grace. Jack’s jaw drops. 

“Kumquat? Why? Is it because of your shiny forehead?” Jack pretends to check for food in his teeth and leans in closer to Will. 

“No!” Will pushes Jack away. 

“Is it because of your widening hips?” Jack asks again, pointing to his own hips. 

“No!” Will sighs and reminds himself to keep his voice down so he doesn’t wake up Lily. “He said it was because he thinks I’m in love with Karen.” Will is expecting Jack to dramatically express his outrage, but the actor merely nods slowly. 

“I suspected this. Yes.”

“What are you talking about?” Will asks. Jack smacks Will on the forehead. “Ow!” 

“When are you going to get it through your large, thick head that you are in love with Karen? I don’t really understand how you could be in love with a woman, and I’m a little grossed out by it, but at least it’s my best friend.” 

Will is quiet for a few moments, thinking about what Jack said.

“Do you think she…feels the same way?” Will doesn’t want to put himself out there if Karen is just going to reject him. Jack walks over to Will’s fridge and grabs a bottle of water for himself.

“The ways of the heteros is not for me to know. If you want to know so badly, go over there and ask her.” 

“I can’t. I have Lily. She’s already down for the night.” Jack scoffs. 

“Oh please, I’ll watch Mini-Poodle, as long as she stays asleep. Go!” 

“I’m so excited!” Lily squeals and bounces in her chair. Will laughs and shakes his head. 

“Just wait until you hear the whole story first,” Will cautions her.

“Well come on, honey, she’ll be graduating college by the time you are done. Out with it!” Karen exclaims. 

Will waves hi to Rosario and wanders through the manse until he finds Karen in the sitting room. She’s struggling to open a pill bottle with just one hand, something Will finds incredibly amusing. 

“Need some help?” Will asks. Karen glances up and smiles at the lawyer. She hands him the bottle which he easily opens and gives back to her. 

“What are you doing here, Wilma? Where’s Button?” Karen asks. 

“She’s with Jack…hopefully.”

“Well, I appreciate you checking on me, honey, but I’m fine here by myself.” Will furrows his eyebrows as he sees a few maids walk by. 

“No, that’s not why I’m here…exactly. Vince and I broke up earlier.” Karen holds up her hand in a stopping motion.

“Oh I get it. You’ve come here because you know I can help get your mind off things. I’ll have Rosie walk you over to liquor storage and you can p—” 

“No, Karen, that’s not it either. He broke up with me because he thinks I’m in love with you…and it took me a while, but I think he’s right.” Will’s brown eyes flicker up to Karen’s hazel ones, waiting for her reaction. 

“Umm…Will, I know it’s been a few years since you’ve seen me naked, but I don’t have a penis.” Will sighs, pleading with her to take this seriously. He turns so he’s completely facing her and puts his hand on her cheek.

“I think that you would be lying if you didn’t have feelings for me too. And I don’t want to wait until Lily’s second birthday for us to kiss again. Or her third.” To his shock, Karen doesn’t pull away or ask him to leave. She merely sits there, chewing on her lower lip. 

“Honey…I’m not going to lie, I’m on like three different painkillers and something I found in my closet that is probably expired.” Will’s smile deflates. He feels like such an idiot for coming over here and expressing to Karen how he feels. Of course she is acting this way, he shouldn’t have expected anything different. 

“Just forget it,” Will angrily gets up and starts walking out of the room. 

“No, honey, wait!” Karen stumbles to her feet and makes her way over to him. “I just need some time.” She reaches down and clutches his hand. “I want to be…relatively sober for this conversation and I’m just not right now. I’m not saying I don’t want to do this…I’m just saying I can’t tonight. Okay?” 

Will tilts his head down so he’s looking at her. 

“How much time do you need?” He comprehends what she’s asking, but he’s not going to wait another six months for her to be ready. Karen opens his hand and traces the lines on his palm with her finger.

“Just give me a couple of days. I’ll pick up Lily and we can talk.”

“Mommy! What are you doing?” Lily asks. Karen laughs at her daughter’s outrage. 

“You’ve been watching too many sappy movies with Uncle Jack. I went to your dad’s apartment the next day.” 

Karen stops in front of Will’s apartment door and knocks. She doesn’t know why, typically she will just burst in unannounced. Will opens the door, somewhat surprised to see her there. 

“Hey, come in,” Will steps aside and lets her inside. Karen struggles to take her coat off with her casted hand. Will, being the gentleman he is, assists her and tosses her fur coat on the couch. Lily is already buckled into her high chair, squishing bananas between her fingers. 

“Mommy! Drink!” Lily says and slams her sippy cup against the tray of the high chair. 

“She is your daughter,” Will comments. Karen kisses Lily’s cheek and hands Will the sippy cup to refill. He wants so badly to ask Karen about their conversation the night before, but hesitates. Karen sits down at the table next to Lily and uses her good hand to place some bites of cereal on the tray. 

“I…um…have been thinking about our talk yesterday, Wilma.” Will sits next to her at the table. 

“Oh yeah?…And?” He’s trying desperately to keep his voice casual in case she rejects him. Karen reaches over and splays her tiny hand over his arm. 

“Are you sure about this, honey? I mean…you had a boyfriend up until yesterday. What would it even mean for us to be together?” Will pauses to mull over Karen’s question. She’s right in the sense that it will forever alter things between them regardless if it works out or not. They can never go back. 

“I don’t know if we,” Will gestures between the two of them, “will be able to make it work, but I really think we should try…unless you don’t feel the same way.” 

“More!” Lily demands and slaps her hands on the tray. Karen is grateful for the momentary reprieve their daughter unknowingly granted her. Will gets up and pours a handful of cereal in front of Lily. 

“I do…I just don’t want to get hurt,” Karen whispers. Will swallows deeply and looks over at her, trying not to stare at the scratches the glass left on her face. There are no guarantees, but he won’t vocalize something she already knows. Will grabs her hand and brings her over to his lap. Karen gently rests her head on his shoulder as they stare at Lily.

“We take this slow, keep it between us for a while and see where it goes,” Will mutters. He feels Karen nod against his shoulder. She lifts her head up to look at him.

“Will, can I kiss you?” Karen asks, a grin tugging at the corner of her lips.

“Alright.” Will leans and accepts her kiss, snaking his fingers through her silky, brown hair. He escalates the kiss by pushing her closer to him, eliciting a grunt from Karen.

“Geez Wilma, I just got out of the hospital. I still have a gimpy arm.” Karen waves her casted appendage in front of his face. “What happened to ‘lets take it slow?’” Will blushes and tilts her head down to kiss her forehead. 

“Sorry, I’m just…excited.” Karen giggles.

“Me too honey, me too.”

Chapter Text

“Why did you keep it a secret from Aunt Grace and Uncle Jack?” Lily asks out of curiosity.

“Well…your aunt and uncle can be very…nosey.” Will says diplomatically. He and Karen agreed they wanted to figure out what being together meant before they brought Jack and Grace’s opinions into their budding relationship. “They found out eventually though. Apparently we weren’t being as sneaky as we thought.” 

“Willicent Truman! Are you even listening?” Jack asks. Will can feel Karen’s stiletto working its way agonizingly slow up his leg. Karen’s face is completely unreadable as she focuses her attention on her best friend. 

“Yeah, Wilma, pay attention!” Karen adds in. Grace reaches over and takes a large portion of pasta off of Will’s plate. The socialite presses the pointed tip of her high heel into Will’s calf, causing him to jump.

“What is going on with you?” Grace asks her best friend. Will glances over at Karen who is staring at him expectantly. 

“Aw, are you still sad cause your cop boyfriend dumped you?” Jack asks in a baby voice. Will frowns and turns towards Grace, blocking one of his hands which he reaches under the table and grabs Karen’s leg. 

“No! I’m just a little tired, that’s all.” Will takes the opportunity to yank on Karen’s leg, causing her to almost slip under the table.

“Karen, are you okay?” Grace asks with concern. Will conceals his smirk in his hand. Karen sits back up and glares at Will. 

“One too many martinis, Cruella?” Will asks. Karen quirks an eyebrow, impressed Will can match her tit-for-tat. Jack and Grace glance between their two friends.

“Now,” Jack mouths to Grace. 

“Jack and I are going to go to a movie, you guys want to come?” Grace asks. 

“Nah, I think I’m just going to hang around here,” Will says. 

“Ugh, boring! What about you, Kare?” Jack asks his best friend. Karen shakes her head. 

“Not tonight, Poodle. Rosie is watching Lily in the limo.” 

“What?” Will asks in mock-outrage. They arranged for the maid to watch Lily at the manse overnight.

“I cracked the window, Wilma…geez. What kind of a mother do you think I am?” Grace winks at Jack.

“Alright. See you guys later,” Grace kisses Will on the cheek while Jack waves goodbye. 

“Rosie is watching Lily in the limo? Really?” Will asks Karen after they hear the apartment door slam. Karen smirks and straddles him, her arms landing criss-cross around his neck.

“Jack takes all the popcorn and makes me pay for it. Plus, you owe me for spilling the rest of my martini.” 

“That wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t tease me under the table.” Will takes a piece of Karen’s curled hair between his fingers and moves it behind her ear. Karen kisses Will fully on the lips. Will places his hands on either side of Karen’s hips. He feels her tongue probe inside his mouth. 

“Ah ha!” Jack exclaims, swinging the apartment door open. Grace is on his tail, looking rather smug. Karen sighs against Will’s lips, knowing they are caught red-handed. “Oh my dog, I was right!” 

“Here you go,” Grace hands Jack a twenty and shakes her head at her friends. 

“You guys knew?” Will asks. Karen stays seated in his lap. 

“Of course we knew. I knew the second Will didn’t immediately reach for a bobsled brownie to numb the pain of being dumped by Vince,” Grace says. 

“And thank God because we know Will doesn’t need the extra calories,” Jack adds in.

“Hey! Are you…okay with this?” Will asks. 

“Oh please, its gross, weird and against everything I stand for as a gay man, but…why not? Will couldn’t make it work with men, why not try a woman?” Jack shrugs. 

“Your ‘pretend to hate each other’ schtick was getting old,” Grace comments. Admittedly, she’s a bit jealous of Karen because she wasn’t able to make Will fall in love with her all those years ago, but she’s happy for her two best friends.

“If you two break up, I get Karen in the divorce,” Jack comments. Grace smacks Jack on the forehead. “Ow!”

“That’s the kind of confidence booster we need,” Will says sarcastically. 

“Great, now that we got all that out in the open, scram!” Karen tells Jack and Grace.     

“Alright, it’s almost your bedtime, I think we should wrap this up. What else do you want to hear about?” Will asks Lily. They’ve been doing this on and off for the past two days and have reached almost to the end. Lily taps her chin, pretending to be in deep thought. 

“Um…I don’t know. Mommy?” Lily asks Karen. Karen gets off the couch and goes over to the mini-bar.

“Hon, you want another?” Karen asks, holding up her empty glass. Will quirks an eyebrow, silently asking her how many she’s had tonight. He really tries not to monitor her drinking, but will speak up on occasion. “Fine. More for me.” 

“We could tell her about me moving into the manse,” Will suggests. Karen bites her lip and finishes making herself a martini. 

“You sure?” Karen asks, knowing the situation surrounding Will’s eventual move-in wasn’t exactly pleasant. Lily’s hazel eyes dart from Will to Karen. Karen sits back down next to Lily. 

“We’ve told her everything else. It wouldn’t make sense to leave this out,” Will says.

“Okay. Let’s get going,” Karen tells him and takes a sip of her drink.

“Where the hell are you?” Will asks and dials Karen’s phone again. He angrily hangs up when he hears her voicemail on the other end. The lawyer doesn’t bother to leave a message. Lily’s mini-dance recital is already starting. 

When it’s over, Lily runs over to Will, reaching for him. Will picks her up and walks towards the back of the dance studio.

“You did so good, Lily!” Will presses a kiss to his daughter’ cheek.

“Mommy?” Lily asks, looking around for Karen. 

“She had to work, sweetie, but I will tell her how good you did when I see her.” Will lies and walks Lily out of the dance studio. He drops her off at the manse where the nanny is waiting and goes to Grace’s office to vent before he heads back to his office. 

“Wait, you don’t work!” Lily exclaims at her mother. 

“You told her I was working?” Karen asks her husband. “That’s hilarious!” Will shrugs. He’s glad they are able to find some humor in this situation because he wanted to kill Karen at the time for skipping Lily’s dance recital. 

“I had to tell her something. Anyway…” 

“Gracie, you will nev—” Will walks into Grace’s office and sees Karen sitting at her desk like always. “Where the hell have you been?” 

Grace glances up when she hears the fury in Will’s voice and realizes it’s being directed at Karen instead of her. She grabs a pencil and pretends to be intensely focused on her sketch. 

“Jackie and I went shopping and got mani’s. What’s with the expressive eyebrows, Wilma? I can call Dermy for you if you want.” Karen waits expectantly for her kiss from Will, but he merely sneers at her. 

“Maybe you were too boozed out to notice, but you missed Lily’s dance recital!” Karen furrows her eyebrows. She could’ve sworn their daughter’s dance recital was tomorrow. The socialite even told Grace she’s going to be out for a few hours to go to it and take Lily and Will out to lunch after. 

“Oh…well then I’ll just go to the next one. There’s no need to come in here making a gay parade out of it.”

“Our daughter was asking for you. She wanted you to be there.” Karen scoffs.

“She’s two-and-a-half! She’ll be fine. It’s not like I forgot her birthday. It was a dance recital.” 

“It doesn’t matter what it is! You don’t get to run off with Jack to get your nails done and ignore Lily like you did with Mason and Olivia,” Karen and Grace’s jaw drop simultaneously at Will’s below-the-belt comment. 

“Will!” Grace exclaims for Karen. Karen merely downs the rest of her drink and starts throwing stuff in her purse, ignoring Will completely. She stands up and walks to the door, stopping at the threshold. 

“I am a damn good mother, Will. Screw you,” Karen says through clenched teeth. She slams the door to Grace’s office as hard as she can. 

“Can you believe her?” Will asks Grace. 

“Her? What the hell is a matter with you?” Grace asks her best friend. “What was that?” 

“She was the one who missed Lily’s recital. I had to lie for her!” Grace sighs and walks over to Will. She puts her hand on his lower back and pushes him towards Karen’s desk. 

“Will, I need to show you something,” Grace explains. She pushes an assortment of fashion magazines out of the way and grabs Karen’s day planner she neglected to grab when she fled the office. Grace flips it open to the current week and points to tomorrow’s date. “She wrote it down on the wrong day. She didn’t skip it Will, she just wrote it down wrong.” 

Will tosses his head back in frustration when he confirms Karen scribbled lunch and the recital down in her loopy handwriting for tomorrow. 

“Oh no,” Will covers his mouth with his hand as the reality of his mistake seeps in. “Damn it. Why didn’t she just say that?” 

Grace tilts her head at her best friend in utter disbelief. 

“You didn’t give her the chance! You jumped down her throat and assumed the worst.” 

“Alright, alright! I messed up. I get it.” Grace sets her hand on Will’s arm and sits down in Karen’s seat. 

“Why did you think she just didn’t want to go? Has she been neglecting Lily or something?” From what Karen and Will have told her separately, Grace thought their relationship was going well. ‘Like a buzz you don’t ever want to go away,’ Karen told Grace at one point. Will shakes his head and buries his face in his hands. 

“No…I just know how she can be. She wasn’t exactly there for Olivia and Mason and I don’t want her to not be there for Lily.” 

“Well sweetie, she made a mistake and you crucified her for it. You need to make this right. You can start by re-stocking the mini-bar. She’s out of giant Kit Kats.” Grace hugs her best friend and kisses his cheek. 

“You’re right. Thanks Gracie.” Grace holds out her hand to Will with a demure grin.

“Karen likes the giant Kit Kats too.” Will sighs and reaches into his wallet to give her some money. 

“Daddy! You were so mean to Mommy!” Lily pouts. Karen laughs and tilts her head towards her husband with a smirk on her face. 

“I made it up to you, so don’t even start,” Will tells Karen. Karen leans over Lily and kisses Will on the cheek. He grimaces when she wipes off her leftover lipstick that transferred onto him.

“Well, your dad tried, but it didn’t work the first time,” Karen tells Lily.

Will arrives at the manse, bypassing Rosie in case he’s been declared persona non grata by Karen. It’s his day to pick up Lily, and he owes Karen an apology. Karen is in her bedroom, curled up on the bench next to her bed. She looks up and scowls at his arrival.

“What do you want? I told Rosie not to let you in here.” Karen has no intention of making this easy for Will. What he said was callous and intentionally hit her where she’s most vulnerable. 

“I came to pick up Lily. Where is she?” Will asks. Karen lets out a bitter chuckle. 

“Oh, I sent her into the bathtub with a blender. Yeah, and then after that, I’m going to teach her how to stick a knife into an electrical socket.” Karen makes a stabbing motion to emphasize her point. Will sighs and walks over to her. He leans down and puts his hand on her arm. She shrugs him off. 

“Karen, I am so sorry. Grace explained everything and showed me your day planner.” Karen makes eye contact with Will for the first time since he walked into her bedroom. 

“You assumed the worst of me without even giving me a chance to explain,” Karen mumbles, her voice cracking with emotion. She turns away from him to regain some semblance of composure.

“Sweetie, I know now what I said w—” Will is cut off by a loud thud and the sound of Lily bursting into tears. Karen and Will’s ears immediately perk up, and they table their conversation. 

“Mommy?” Lily yells. 

“In my room, honey!” Karen yells back. Lily comes storming into Karen’s bedroom, bypassing Will completely. Karen wraps her arms around Lily, letting her cry into her shoulder. “What happened, honey? Hmmm? Tell Momma.”  She rubs her daughter’s back, waiting for her sobs to subside. 

“I-I-I-run a-a-and I f-fall,” Lily chokes out. Will tilts his head to look for any visible cut or scrape on Lily.

“Oh no, did you hurt yourself, Button? Let me see.” Karen whispers to Lily. Lily sniffs and shows Karen her leg with a tiny red mark on it. “Hmmm…I think you are going to be okay. But should we cut it off just to be sure?” 

Will laughs when outrage blossoms onto their toddler’s face. Lily shakes her head and wipes her tears with the back of her hand.

“No! It hurted before. It not hurt, Mommy,” Lily tells Karen in a matter-of-fact tone. 

“Are you sure?” Karen pokes Lily’s side, teasing her until she sees her daughter grin. 

Will watches the interaction unfold between Karen and Lily and the realization of how wrong he was before smacks him in the face. He had no business doubting Karen’s ability to be a mother, especially after she instinctively knew what to do when Lily ran to her crying.

“Is Mommy being silly?” Will asks Lily. Lily runs over to him and jumps in his lap. Karen makes a face at Lily who then sticks her tongue out at her mother. Will stands up, still holding onto Lily. He figures her bag is packed by the door like it always is and Karen doesn’t seem to want him to linger. “Say goodbye to Mommy.”

“Bye Mommy!” Lily waves to Karen who waves back. 

“Bye honey, be good.” Will walks over to Karen so Lily can hug her goodbye. He puts his hand on her cheek, feeling her stiffen under his touch. 

“You are an amazing mother and I’m sorry.” Will kisses her cheek. 

“I know. We can talk later. You should go.” Will nods in understanding and walks out of the manse with Lily in tow.

“Wait, how did you end up here at Mommy’s then, Daddy?” Lily asks in confusion. 

“Your Uncle Jack can be very convincing,” Will tells his daughter.

Chapter Text

Will lets a few days go by before he tries to contact Karen again. It’s clear Jack heard from Grace or Karen or both about what happened because he too is avoiding Will. 

“Jack, I need—Jack!” Will yells after Jack pretends not to notice him in the hallway between the two apartments. 

“Sssh!” Jack blows a raspberry at him. “You are dead to me.” The actor then fake spits on the floor. Will crosses his arms and gives him a pleading look.

“I’m trying to make it up to her. Can you please come inside and help?” Jack narrows his eyes and takes a step closer to Will’s apartment. “I have thin mints.” 

“Fine! But if Karen asks, you tell her I put up at least a tiny fight. Wait…nevermind, she wouldn’t ask you, she hates you,” Jack laughs and steps into Will’s apartment. 

“Right. She’s still that mad?” Will asks in defeat. Jack scoffs. 

“Will, what did you expect? You hit her right in her lady balls,” Jack pauses to laugh at the mention of balls and then gets serious again. “You know how hard she tries with Lily compared to Stan’s kids.” 

“I know, I know, I screwed up. I want to take her out to a nice dinner, but I know she won’t come unless you drag her there. Could you help me? Please,” Will sticks his lower lip out. 

“Why don’t you just shake a pill bottle in her general direction? She’ll follow you anywhere.” 

“I’ll forget about all the money you owe me.” Jack pauses and taps his finger to his chin in thought. “And I won’t ask you to babysit for three months.” 

“Make it six. I love your kid, but she is a faster, more sober version of Karen.” Jack complains. 

“You got yourself a deal. Now, I made reservations at that cozy Italian restaurant she likes. Bring her there around six.”

“Fine. Can I give you some advice?” Jack asks.

“No.” 

“Don’t wear those god awful loafers you like. She hates those.” 

“She does not!” Jack quirks an eyebrow and exits Will’s apartment. 

“Jack, I already told you, I’m not hungry. I drank my dinner an h—” Karen stops when she sees Will waiting at an empty table. “Goodbye.” 

“No! Wait! Karen, he’s really sorry. Please hear him out,” Jack says, standing in front of Karen to stop her. “He wanted to surprise you.” 

“Fine,” Karen uncrosses her arms and walks over to Will. Jack gives Will a thumbs up and walks out of the restaurant. 

“Let me take your coat,” Will offers. Karen slides her onyx-colored fur coat off her shoulders and hands it to Will. 

“Where’s Lily? Did you leave her at home alone with some porn and booze or were you going to leave that to me?” Karen asks bitterly. An older couple next to them overhears Karen and glances up in outrage. 

“She was kidding. Go back to gumming your chicken.” Karen smiles into her hand at Will’s remark. ”Okay, so we are still angry,” 

“You’re damn r—” Karen is interrupted by a waiter taking their drink orders. They quickly order their entrees so they can have their conversation without any intrusions. 

“Grace is watching Lily. And don’t worry, she’s mad at me too.” Karen sits up a little higher in her seat and accepts the wine she ordered from the waiter. 

“Good. It serves you right to have your wife angry at you for what you said to me. I told her to withhold sex from you, but considering how the two of you don’t have any to begin with…” Will sighs and grabs Karen’s hand with both of his. She jerks away for a second and then realizes he has a lot stronger of a grip than she does. 

“Karen, trust me, if I could take back what I said in a second, I would. I had no right to say that to you.” 

“Then why did you, Will? Is that what you really think of me?” It doesn’t make a difference to Karen how sorry Will is for what he said, she wants to know the reason behind it. 

“No, I handled this situation all wrong. Look, I saw how you were with Mason and Olivia and I was afraid you were…falling back into old habits with Lily. Clearly, I was terribly mistaken.” Karen and Will pause to allow the waiter to set their food in front of them. 

“I’ll be the first to admit I tossed Stan’s kids aside, but I love that girl, Will. I would do anything for our daughter, except run in one of those 5k things poor people do. Why do they do that?” Will twirls his spaghetti around his spoon. 

“For charity, Karen. They do it to raise money for charity.” Karen contemplates that as she bites into her veal Parmesan. 

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just write a check than run in a circle?” Will laughs. 

“Oh Karen, I love you,” Will says and freezes. Karen jerks her head up from her pasta to look at Will. She can tell by the way he’s reeling, he said it by accident. They’ve said that to each other before, but in a friendly way. It carries more of a weight now that they are in a relationship. 

“You mean it? You love me?” Karen whispers. Will puts his silverware down and takes her hand. 

“I do. And I’m sorry.” 

“I love you too, honey.” Karen leans into the kiss and rests her hand on his cheek. She pulls away for a second. “But if you ever say something like that to me again, I will burn your entire Barry Manilow record collection and make you watch. Got it?” 

“Yes, I think that’s more than fair.” Karen grins at him and playfully pats his cheek before leaning in to kiss him again. They separate and go back to eating their dinner. Will clears his throat. “You know Karen…when you are ready, it doesn’t have to be today, or next week or any time soon, but I would eventually like to move into the manse.” 

“You are full of surprises tonight, aren’t you, Wilma?” Karen asks. 

“When you are ready, I don’t want you to feel pressured.” 

“You would give up your crappy little apartment for me? You love that place…God knows why.” Will frowns and swallows his comment about his apartment being in an elite neighborhood of New York City. He had this conversation many times with Karen when she was pregnant with Lily.

“Well, I figured my place would be too small to fit all of your booze, and you like the manse, so…why not?” Will shrugs. It’s a lot easier now that he lives alone and doesn’t have to worry about where Grace might end up if he moves out. 

“Okay honey! Why don’t you start packing up your stuff and moving some of it over to the manse? Leave those loafers though, I won’t let those ugly things in my house.” 

Will looks at his watch and frowns. It’s way past Lily’s bedtime. He shows Karen the time who nods in understanding. 

“Alright honey, this is your last story and then you have to go to bed,” Karen says firmly. Lily nods and grabs a nearby afghan, throwing it over her and Will. 

“What is it?” Lily asks, bouncing in her father’s lap with excitement.

“When I asked your mom to marry me…and you spilled the secret first,” Will says with a smile.     

“Uh…Poodle, how many torso sculptures does one gay man need?” Karen asks, peeking into a box. Grace laughs and starts taking the pieces out of the moving box. Will didn’t move into the manse right away, he decided to wait until his lease ended and offered the place to Jack, who gleefully accepted the additional space. 

“One for every room is the gay standard,” Jack comments and grabs one from Grace. 

“Where’s Will? I thought he was going to help,” Grace asks Karen. Karen grabs a new box from the pile and opens it.

“He took Lily somewhere…the zoo…the vet…I don’t know, I don’t remember.” Grace laughs at the socialite’s ambivalence and accepts a pile of kitchen supplies from her.

About a half an hour later, Will walks into his old apartment holding Lily. Lily is eating a Ring Pop, her mouth and cheeks covered in red dye. Will puts Lily on the floor and she runs over to Grace. 

“Look Aunt Grace! Look at my ring!” Lily exclaims. The three-year-old waves her hand back and forth. Grace laughs at Lily’s excitement and picks her up. 

“Where were you and your dad all afternoon?” Grace asks. She doesn’t see Will frantically signaling her to switch subjects. Lily can’t keep a secret. Karen goes over to stand next to Will, furrowing her eyebrows. She presses a kiss to his lips.

“Daddy and I go to the sparkly store!” Lily exclaims. 

“You did?” Karen asks, glancing behind her at Will.

“Uh huh, Lily, can you help me with something?” Will asks their daughter. Lily isn’t paying attention, she’s too busy laughing at Jack jokingly admiring her candy. 

“Daddy! Show Mommy the ring you get for her!” Lily tells Will, pointing at Karen. Karen and Grace gasp. And Jack dramatically puts a hand on his chest.

“Honey?” Karen asks Will in a tiny voice. Will sighs. He grabs both of Karen’s hands. Grace scoops up Lily and motions for Jack to move towards her so they aren’t in the way. 

“Well, I had a whole evening planned, but maybe it’s better this way. Karen, will you come with me?” Will asks Karen.

“Sure honey, but should I pee before we leave?” Karen points behind her to the bathroom. Will shakes his head and brings her over to the fireplace. Grace and Jack not-so-subtly take a few steps closer, wanting to hear their whole conversation. “Uh…Will, why are we standing in front of your fireplace that doesn’t even work?” 

“Because this spot where we are standing,” Will points down to their feet, “is where I first knew I wanted to marry you.” Karen swallows her retort when she sees the crimson Cartier box that Will grabbed out of his pocket. “It was a few months ago and you came in holding Lily beaming from ear to ear. You were telling me about something our daughter did and you were so…proud of her. It just made me fall in love with you that much more. Do you remember?” 

Karen nods, but is too overwhelmed to speak. Grace quietly sniffs and clutches Lily tighter just in case the toddler wants to break free and go over by her parents. 

Will opens the ring box and hears Karen gasp. Jack leans over to see if he can catch a glimpse of the ring only to be deterred by Grace hitting his arm. Lily giggles and reaches for her Uncle Jack. Grace quietly passes the toddler off and gestures for Will to continue. 

“Sorry. Go on,” Grace tells Will. 

“I realized that I made the right choice with you. You are a fantastic mother and partner, and I love you.” Karen clears her throat and sniffs as Will gets down on one knee. “Karen, will you marry me?”  

“Oh my gah!” Jack exclaims. He grabs Grace’s arm and bounces on his heels. Karen puts her hand over her mouth and smiles at Will. 

Karen nods vigorously and sniffs when Will slides the diamond ring on her ring finger. 

“Yay!” Grace cheers and her and Jack clap. Karen kisses Will fervently, resting her hands on either side of his face.  

“Alright, alright, gross,” Jack says. Karen pulls away and leans into Will’s frame, feeling his arm coil around her back. Grace walks over, wanting to see the ring his best friend ended up choosing. Karen gives Grace her hand, showing her the silver, princess cut ring with a large stone in the center and smaller ones on the band. 

“What was the thing that Lily did that made you so proud of her?” Grace asks Will and Karen.

The socialite winks at her new fiance. Will rolls his eyes and smiles. 

“She taught our daughter how to trick Rosie into giving her more candy before bed.” Grace furrows her eyebrows. “It wasn’t what Karen taught her, Grace. It was the way she looked when she was telling me. I’ve never seen anyone more proud.” Will can tell his best friend still isn’t convinced. “You had to have been there. It was a moment.”   

Jack hands Lily over to Karen who is showing her daughter the ring. 

“It’s pwetty! Can I has one?” Lily asks.

“Not until you are a lot older,” Will tells Lily.

“I can’t wait to go dress shopping, Kare! And before you ask, I already told Will I would be his best man, so Grace will have to be your maid of honor,” Jack tells his best friend. He pecks Karen on the lips and admires her ring.

“Shortly after that, your mom and I got married and that’s it!” Will says with a shrug. They didn’t have a big wedding since neither of them wanted one. Karen and Will decided to go to the courthouse with Jack, Grace and Lily and get it over with. 

“Alright Button, say goodnight to your dad.” Karen gets off the couch while Lily kisses Will on the cheek. “Come on, get in your bed.” 

For once, Lily doesn’t argue and allows Karen to tuck her into bed. 

“Mommy?” Lily asks. Karen turns on the nightlight by her daughter’s bed. She leans down and kisses Lily’s cheek.

“Yeah, honey?” Karen sits next to Lily on the bed, on top of the covers. 

“I want a brother or sister.” Karen slips and almost falls off the bed. She quickly recovers and clears her throat. 

“Lily…uh…did your dad say something to you?” Lily shakes her head and grabs her favorite stuffed animal, a ‘gay’ penguin Jack gave her for her last birthday. “Well, I don’t think that’s going to happen.” 

“Why not?” Lily asks in a whiny voice. Karen plays with her wedding band and debates what she wants to say. 

“Honey, your dad and I are old. It’s not safe to have a baby when you are our age.” The socialite would rather be honest with her daughter than give her any sort of false hope. “Hey! I got an idea. Why don’t we take your dad, Aunt Grace, Laila and Uncle Jack on vacation? Yeah, we can go to the house in the Virgin Islands I shared with Stan!” 

“And Uncle Leo?” Lily asks. Karen flashes a fake closed-lipped grin at her daughter. 

“Of course, we can bring Lebron too. What do you say?” Lily nods excitedly. “I’ll talk to your dad. You have some time off school coming up. Get some sleep. Love you.” Karen kisses the top of Lily’s head.

“Love you too, Mommy.” Karen walks out of Lily’s bedroom and into the master bedroom. She hears some rustling around in the bathroom and goes in to investigate. Will is bent over the tub, adding in some soap, butt naked. 

“Hubba hubba!” Karen exclaims, scaring her husband. She cackles when Will jumps and almost falls face first into the tub. “What are you doing honey?” 

“Apparently almost dying naked in my bathroom,” Will says and steps into the tub. “Care to join me?” Karen eagerly nods and starts stripping, leaving her clothes in a pile near the toilet. 

Will hands Karen the clip she keeps by the bath, watching her effortlessly gather her chestnut hair into a twist and secure it at the top. She backs up to him, smiling when he wraps both arms around her chest. 

“We’ve got quite the story, Wilma,” Karen says wistfully. She hasn’t thought about how she got together with Will in a long time. It’s making her feel oddly nostalgic. 

“We went from hating each other to screwing each other by accident to screwing each other on purpose. That’s a rom-com just waiting to be made,” Will comments.

“Do you regret not being a fruit anymore?” Karen asks. She feels Will’s chin press into the top of her head. 

“Yes,” Will says. 

“Wha–” Karen whips her head to the side to look at her husband. Will laughs and tightens his grip on her. 

“Only every time you leave your hair in the brush or somehow end up in the middle of the bed despite how tiny you are. Of course not, sweetie.” Karen playfully glares at him and then readjusts so her head is resting on his chest. She grabs one of his hands, running her finger over his silver wedding ring. 

“Lily told me she wanted a brother or sister. Did you put her up to that, Wilma?” Karen asks. Will detects a serious edge to her otherwise playful tone. 

“No, but I figured she wouldn’t just let it go. What did you tell her?” Will inquires. 

“I told her what I told you: We are too old. I’m forty-six, Will. As much as I want another I–” Karen’s voice trails off.

“I know.” They’ve already had this particular discussion yesterday, there’s no need to re-hash. He’s okay with where they left things. If by some chance Karen does get pregnant again, they will be thrilled, but if not, they are fine with that too. 

“I told her we can take Grace and Co. to the Virgin Islands for a week soon, maybe for her birthday.” 

“I like that idea.” Will lets one of his hands fall from Karen’s chest and glide down her stomach, getting lost under the barrage of bubbles. Karen tosses her head back and moans when she feels her husband’s hand glide up her inner thigh.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish,” Karen whispers. She gasps when one of his fingers enters her. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Karen giggles and turns in his arms to passionately kiss him.