Who: William and Luke Hayes, Dominic Akana What: A long awaited reunion and some new facts. Where: The Hayes family home in Boston When: Friday, December 15; afternoon Warnings: Mention of past physical and sexual abuse, others TBD
There were mornings when Will woke up and expected to find out that his memory of his father's arrest was a dream and he was stuck in the same lie that he'd been stuck in for most of his life. He'd told himself it would just take time and that he'd eventually adjust to it just like he'd adjusted to the rest of the changes in his life; he even believed it, mostly. The mornings that he woke up thinking he was still in hell would get fewer and further between the longer time stretched between where he was and when it had actually been true.
That didn't mean that they'd stop completely. Will still woke up sometimes expecting to be able to talk as quickly and as clearly as his mind worked.
Mostly Will had been too busy to dwell on that early morning confusion. As soon as it wore off every morning he knew that there was a lot to do that day if he was going to wrestle his life, and Kait's life, into any kind of semblance of something normal. He didn't know how she felt about it yet. She hadn't started talking any more than she had before. Will worried but he also knew that as horrible as Doyle was, he was still her father. She was still going to school every day with everyone knowing that her father was in jail and her mother had split, just like Will had known she would as soon as his father was no longer around to hand her money. She'd never been much of a mom but she'd been what Kait had. Will guessed she'd cared in her own way, when it came to dressing her up like a doll and showing her off. She was old enough to understand that even if she was still young enough to pretend that it wasn't true.
It was Will that had kept things under control just like Will had always kept things under control and slowly but surely life was starting to come together into something that he could handle step by step and day by day. He wished for Olivia to be there more often than he'd be admitting to anyone but he hadn't called her. Not yet. Not until he had the time to do something selfish and not until he was sure that it would be as equals. Partners.
There hadn't been any worrying about Kait or thinking about Olivia when Will woke up that morning though. There hadn't been any confusion about where he was or what life he was living. That would have required a deeper sleep than the one that Will had gotten the night before because his mind hadn't been able to stop spinning through all of the details that he'd needed to take care of for the next day. When Will woke up he knew exactly what was going on: Luke was coming home.
Kait was still in school at the time that Will and Luke had worked out for him to get there... just for a few hours and then she'd get to see the older brother she barely remembered again. Will was nervous about that but not as nervous as he was to see his little brother for himself. He couldn't have pulled Kait from school for this. He couldn't have had her there while he was facing Luke and seeing what kind of man his brother had grown into. Maybe it was selfish of him to want Luke to himself for a few minutes, have his own reunion before he worried about whether he and Kait would get along and whether she'd open up to him at all or whether Luke would understand that Kait wasn't quiet because she didn't want him there.
Will just wanted his little brother back. Just for a few hours before he tried to be the responsible one for both of them again.
The house was perfect, or as close as it was going to get. Will hadn't wasted any time in gutting as much of his father's belongings as he could to make it look different than the place where they'd grown up. He couldn't make too many changes. He didn't own it. He didn't even expect that they'd be living there for too much longer before he had to find another place for the two of them. His father wasn't going to let Will keep it when Will had destroyed everything that he had. For then though, until Will had a chance to sort all of that out on top of the thousand other things he'd been trying to handle alone, this would have to do.
Luke should be there any minute and Will couldn't hold still for more than a few seconds before nervous energy had him up out of his chair pacing again. His little brother was coming home and Will couldn't stop worrying that something would interfere at the last second and keep him from walking through the door.