Chapter Text
At times like this, Will is incredibly grateful for the Toff family. The Sharks are halfway through their season, and the tension leading up to the playoffs is starting to become real. Luckily for most of the team, Cat demanded a mandatory “Team Dinner” at her and Ty’s place, with every teammate's wife, girlfriend, and kids invited.
As Will shuffles around the kitchen, adjusting the chain around his neck, he can’t help but wish Toff had bought a larger house. He’s a millionaire, and yet he and Cat decided to buy a house with a layout just big enough that he can’t see Mack, but small enough that he’s had to duck away from a few drunk guys around the living room.
Will has found his way into a conversation with some of the WAGs over near the fridge about... something. He nods along, smile plastered, as another platinum blond lady recalls a trip to the Bahamas. At the five-minute mark of her story, Will fights the urge to groan. He looks down at his half-filled glass of wine and decides it’s not enough to keep him glued here. As much help as they’ve been to recommend him baking recipes, the focus has long since changed.
Putting the glass down and wiping his cold and comfortably numb hand on his black sweatpants, Will gives a half-smile to the lady rambling and slips out into the heavily populated living room. Will looks around the open space, eyes searching for one person in the maze of alcohol and sound. Instead, his eyes widen as he witnesses a zooted Sam attempt to dance the macarena on top of one of the couches while Misa sits on the other side of it, girlfriend drunkenly leaning on him. At this, Will feels his lip curl for a second before he’s clapped on the shoulder by a clammy hand.
His gaze flickers around the crowd before focusing on a grinning Eklund, who has apparently decided that Will’s personal space is optional. Will loves Eky and is very lucky to have him as a friend, but when the older blond smells like beer and is tripping on air, Will wonders if they’ve both been at this party too long. Even more reason for him to find Mack so they can go back to Jumbo’s and do more productive things with their night.
“Why aren’t you joining in on the festivities, Kibble?” Eky manages, loud enough for Will to understand.
“I was just talking with the girls for a bit,” Will answered, eyes already darting around again, “You seen Mack anywhere, bud?”
“Um. I think he’s… uh, off to like, the side with Toff? He looked pretty annoyed you weren’t with him.”
A snort leaves him at that. Leave it to Macklin Celebrini to insist they stay apart for a bit to make it less obvious they’re attached at the hip, only to get annoyed about it anyway. He flashes his best smile at the drunk man in thanks, subtly steering him toward the veteran players in hopes they’ll deal with his increasingly pale complexion.
Clenching his jaw, Will drifts through the waves of sweaty men, screaming kids and laughing women until he makes it to where he assumes is “off to the side.” He winds up in a dimmer, less crowded place near the stairs, where he can still see everyone, but doesn’t have to breathe their air. Observing the outskirts around him, Will can spy shoes and jackets strewn across the floor. To his disappointment, Mack is nowhere to be seen. Mostly safe from prying eyes, Will huffs out a small sigh, picking at his fingers and leaning totally-not-wistfully against the railing of the stairs.
Will would rather be anywhere but here. Going somewhere with Mack. Golfing with him, driving nowhere with him, baking for him, watching TV with him, kissing him senseless…
He must have zoned out for a bit, because there is suddenly a very small but tight grip on his knee. Opening his eyes (when had they closed?), he glances down to see a little girl, probably no more than four, sporting curly caramel hair and a smirk too mischievous to fit her baby face.
“Hey, kid!” Will puts on his biggest smile for the kid. “Why aren’t you partying?”
“I have a secret!”
It was then that Will noticed that the girl was holding one hand behind her frilly blue dress, obviously clutching something out of sight. Something fond comes alive in Will's chest – moments like these make him want nothing more than a kid of his own. Maybe one day he and Mack... Well. Not any day soon. Mack acts too much like a child already. Will won’t need another one for a long time.
“Oh yeah?” he badgers, “What’ve you got?”
The kid doesn’t answer, only takes in a rapid breath and excitedly shows Will what she’s holding. As the mystery item is presented, Will’s pretty sure his eyes bulge out of his head.
Still delighted, the little girl pulls out a glimmering knife from behind her back. She must have found it somewhere, Will supplies. Kids her age are attracted to shiny things like a dog is attached to a bone. At the reveal, Will is torn between bursting into laughter at the absurdity and tearing the large and dangerous weapon from her tiny hands. For the greater good, he chooses the latter.
Two arms launch out before Will recognizes them as his own, reaching towards the object, “oh sh- hey! That’s-“
Maybe it was Will's sudden reaction startling the kid. Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was some idiot who left a damn knife out on a table. But the kid startles. Far too late, Will realizes that his initial sharpness was a terrible idea. But now, time seems to slow as the girl flinches backwards and the knife is dropped. It’s not thrown or stabbed, it slips from her grip. It seems completely harmless for the first few micro-seconds. Then gravity wins. He’s not fast enough to throw himself back before the knife lands.
Will’s brain is lagging behind, like he’s suddenly been plunged underwater. Through the fog, he manages to make out panicked cries from the girl. Will does a double take, sending up a quick prayer that she didn’t just stab herself, before moving. He ignores the part of him that registers a dull pressure in his right foot, squatting down to the girl’s level, face twisting with worry.
“Hey – hey, it’s okay,” Will murmurs immediately, reaching for her, “You’re okay, right?”
The girl doesn’t answer his question. As quick as she’d frozen, just as soon did she start crying, “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t- I-“
Shit, Will ruminates, she's in distress. She must have hurt herself. Without a second thought, he wraps his arms around the sobbing girl, squeezing just tight enough to be considered comforting without risking any more damage. When she latches on, he swiftly picks her up, turning towards the populated area.
Will’s eyes narrow as he scans the crowd. Nobody seems to have noticed the girl’s choppy sobs over the noise. Fortunately, he manages to spot a woman among the various blurry faces that looks both sober and an awful lot like Reavo’s wife.
Letting out a huff when his eye contact with the woman isn’t reciprocated, he moves to step forward, when his fuzzy socks unexpectedly slip on the floor underneath him. His hold tightens before his knee hits the floor. He looks down at the floorboards.
There’s a growing puddle of red. It’s not massive, but it’s not small either, and it’s getting bigger. Clearly, this girl needs help - Now. Any logical thought in Will’s mind evaporates. He tries to get up again but the blunt pain in his foot returns. He quickly maneuvers the hand cradling the girls head away.
Without a glance, he brings his hand to his foot and feels something sticking out of it. He wraps his fingers around the solid thing before his brain follows and wrenches it out without ceremony. The dog themed woolly socks he bought with Mack are getting uncomfortably warm. Pushing intrusive thoughts aside, Will thinks, This girl is dying - His problems can wait.
The puddle is growing much faster now. An odd heat fills his body. He needs to find that woman. Will throws away any idea of moving her and lets out a strained howl, praying his crackling voice reaches someone over the noise, “She’s hurt- someone- please!”
“Good Lord!”
It’s the woman from before. She’s moving before the words fully leave her mouth, pushing past other still-unaware bodies and sound like it’s nothing. Her focus locks onto the girl first, small, crying, clinging, and she drops to their level without a second thought.
“Hey, sweetheart, I’ve got you,” she murmurs, already reaching in, carefully peeling the girl from Will’s grip. Will complies immediately, sending over a jerky nod. The kid resists for half a second, fingers clutching at his shirt, before being guided into safer arms.
The girl weeps into the woman’s – Alanna, he thinks – arms. He listens as her thick voice soothes the child while she checks her over. Clenching his teeth together, Will impatiently waits for Alanna to hurry up and call an ambulance for her. Among other things, his mother taught him very well when it was time to get help.
Instead, something in Alanna’s gaze flickers. She loosens her grip on the girl, before letting her go entirely. Will watches, dumbstruck, as she pushes the kid gently to the side, before swiftly kneeling next to him. Her jaw all but unhinges as she notices something just below his line of sight.
Without warning, she shouts, “Towels! I need towels!”
Like a flip is switched, conversations cut off mid sentence, heads turn, and suddenly the noise switches from bliss to terror.
“Oh sh-“
“Kibble?!”
“Misa get some fucking towels!”
“What happened?”
“Smitty?”
In no time, there is an abundance of people near Will. He vaguely notices Toff crouching on his right side. The man looks more horrified than Will has ever seen him, which is weird, because there’s really nothing wrong with Will. It’s the girl who’s hurt. Will can’t see the girl, amongst all the panicked faces.
“Give him space!” someone – Toff – shouts. In an instant, the space around Will is occupied only by Will, Toff, Alanna and someone loosely shaped like Wenny. Will lets out a rather embarrassing sound at the lack of his best friend in his line of sight.
No, Will tries to cry out, but his tongue isn’t working properly. The girl! Help her! He can’t seem to form words, and the world around him is getting darker, so he opts for a large frown, crinkling his nose. He’s so upset with these people. And if his eyes are welling up, so what?
Hands are shoving him down, and when Will opens his eyes back up again, he sees Alanna’s concerned expression directly above him. The soft cushion his head is elevated upon must be her lap. What’s going on?
through the chaos, there’s an aggressive roar that makes him perk up from his place on the floor. Mack. Will could cry from relief that his best friend is here. But why can’t Will see him?
“Mack...?”
Then there’s something shoving down on his foot, putting agonizing pressure on it, and Will sees stars. One last yowl is let out, and the darkness around Will’s vision pulls him under.