Smallfandom Big Bang, Falling into Darkness, Chapter 3
Title: Falling Into Darkness
Summary: In a moment of insanity - during one of the many arguments Nick and Will have about Arianna's custody - Nick stabs Will.This is what comes immediatly after.
Will is running late.
This is not a strange thing, though, Sonny knows this. It’s not that his husband is always late, but it’s not uncommon. He’s not even that late, just ten minutes, so it’s not even important. And yet he’s worried, and yet he feels like something is wrong. Sonny can’t explain why, or even if something is going on, but he can feel it. It’s making him nervous. Oh, he knows that everything is alright, Will is just running a bit late, but he still can’t shake the feeling. The worry he’s feeling probably has nothing to do with his husband running late. It probably has more to do with the situation they are in. He’s on edge. And how could he not be, considering Nick is trying to steal Ari away from him and Will? So that’s all this is, just a consequence of the situation they are in.
But he still can’t shake the feeling.
It’s probably because Will said he was going to try and talk to Nick again. That and the fact that Gabi is sitting not too far from him. They’re not fighting - not in the technical sense of the word - and it’s not that he doesn’t understand that Gabi isn’t trying to take Ari away from Will. He knows it’s probably all Nick, but that doesn’t make his dealings with Gabi any easier. Because even if she isn’t doing it herself, she is not stopping Nick, she’s just allowing him to do what he wants. (And what he wants is him and Will out of Ari’s life.)
Or maybe he’s feeling on edge because of the gun in his bag. It’s the knowledge that he has finally reached the end of his rope. It’s the fact that he had actually gone into his uncle’s house and stolen one of his guns. It’s the fact that he’s even thinking about shooting Nick to fix the problem. He can’t tell Will - he can’t even believe he’s thinking it, how can he say it out loud - because Will would never, ever agree to it. But when Nick finally crosses the line - and he knows the other man will - he’s going to make sure he can’t hurt anyone else ever again. He’s going to protect his family no matter what. He’s going to do everything in his power to make sure Will gets to keep his little girl with him, where she belongs. (Well, with him and Gabi of course. But not with Nick.) He’s considered talking to his uncle, but that would mean actually going down this path and he’s still not sure whether or not he actually wants to do that. Besides, it seems wrong to involve his Uncle Victor since his wife loves Nick so much. So he went in and stole the gun. And now it’s in his bag.
He’s not sure he can do it, though.
He’s not sure he’ll ever be able to shoot someone. He hopes it won’t come to that. But if it does he is prepared.
Maybe everything will be alright.
Maybe Nick will come to his senses, as impossible as that seems. Maybe E.J. will finally find a way out of this mess, a way in which they will all be alright. He is a DiMera after all, if anyone can get them out of this it is E.J. Maybe Gabi will somehow find the strength to stand up to Nick for Will and her daughter. Or maybe Will will finally be able to get through to Nick. He has done that before, after all - albeit by almost dying, but still - so who’s to say it won’t happen again. Maybe there is an easy solution they simply haven’t thought of yet.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Fifteen minutes have passed now.
And it’s still not something to worry about, he knows that. But the feeling of uneasiness persists, growing stronger by the second. Oh God, Nick is actually turning him into a pessimist. He’s turning him into someone who thinks bad things will constantly happen. He should just go ahead and call Will. Hearing his voice will make him feel better and then he can forget this ever happened. That’s what he should do, just call him.
“Hey, you’ve reached Will. I can’t answer your call right now, you know what to do.”
“Hey Will, where are you? Call me.”
It is not strange that Will doesn’t answer his phone, Sonny tells himself, it’s not like it’s the first time.
It’s not.
Five minutes pass.
And then another five.
Gabi suddenly asks him if he knows where Will is or how long it will be until he is there. He tells her he doesn’t, but he’ll try calling him again. So he does but there is still no answer. And it’s not strange, it’s not. It’s not strange that his husband is a bit late. It is not strange that he has not called him back or sent a message. But it is strange that he is leaving Ari waiting here when he knows that Gabi is waiting for him. It is strange he is doing that when Nick is looking for excuses and a call would make everything better.
Something has happened.
But it’s not something bad, he assures himself. There’s a completely logical explanation for all that has happened. And it’s not something bad. Will probably has lost his phone or he has forgotten to charge it. It’s not like it’s the first time. Maybe he’s already on his way and he’ll walk through the door any moment now. Or his phone will ring and it will be Will apologizing for not answering.
Everything is fine.
He’s sure of it.
Except he isn’t, not really. If he were he wouldn’t need to convince himself would he?
There are days that Hope truly hates her job.
Oh, she loves being a cop, she truly does, but there are days she wishes she could do something else. Like right now. She’d almost, almost been out the door on her way home to her daughter - to have dinner just like she promised - when Rafe called her back. He was apologetic about it, he truly was, but technically her shift hadn’t ended yet and it’s not like he could respond to the call on his own. (Well, he could, but it would be completely unfair to him. Besides she’s pretty sure she owes him.) Apparently someone had called in a stabbing and they needed to go and check it out. She still might get home on time if she’s really, really lucky, Hope thinks.
She’d been sending a text to her daughter telling her she was going to be just a bit late when Rafe suddenly stopped dead in front of her.
“Rafe, are you…”
That’s when she saw him lying there on the grass, not moving. The caller had been telling the truth when he said someone had been stabbed. He just hadn’t informed them it was Will who had been stabbed. That it was Will who was just lying there, pale as a ghost, covered in blood. This had happened to her before. She remembers it. Walking into that shed. Seeing Will lying there unmoving on the ground. Shot then, not stabbed, but apart from that it was almost exactly the same. How could this be happening? How could so many things happen to Will? (How could so many things happen to all of them?)
It takes her a moment to realize that Rafe isn’t standing in front of her anymore. She’s not sure how she missed it, but Rafe is kneeling next to Will, pressing something - his jacket she realizes - against his wounds. She should move too, but for a moment she seems unable too.
Where is the ambulance?
She knows they are coming, she does, because they left just at the same time they did. So where are they? Why aren’t they here yet? But then they’re suddenly there - and when did they even arrive? How is all of this happening? It’s like it isn’t happening, not to her, it’s like it’s happening to someone else and she’s just watching it unfold. And then she’s suddenly on her knees beside Rafe - and when did she even move?
He’s not dead.
He can’t be.
Will cannot be dead. Telling their family that Will died is not something that is in her immediate future. It cannot be.
It’s not too late.
It’s not.
Calm down, Hope, Calm down. Last year you thought he was dead ,too, at least for a moment. This is the same. This is not the end for him.
But there is so much blood. And he is so pale.
How can there be so much blood?
Rafe is shaking, with anger or grief she cannot quite tell. So is she, it dawns on her suddenly, they are both shaking. There is nothing else they can do. Nothing but watch the paramedics try to save this boy they both love so much.
“Rafe, we’ll find out what happened. We will.”
He doesn’t answer, not that she expects him too. After all, what is there to say? But the determined look in his eyes tells her that he will not rest until he gets his hands on whoever did this. She does not envy that person. But he’s alive - at least the paramedic tells them that he has a pulse and that is enough - and that is, in this moment, all they can hope for.
At least it can’t get worse.
She shouldn’t have thought that.
The scream that suddenly pierces through the silence is practically deafening.
She’d just wanted some ice cream, that’s all.
Ali had been begging for hours and eventually he’d caved. That is the only reason they are even here. That is the only reason why they even saw. She’d been a good girl all day and he’d thought, why the hell not? They could walk around town for a bit, maybe see Will and Ari - something they both loved doing - and then he would take her home to her mother. At the time she’d begged him for ice cream Lucas had seen nothing wrong with it, it hadn’t occurred to him to say no because what could possibly happen? (Admittedly the strangest things did constantly happen in this town, but still.) It was just ice cream. There was no way he could have known what they would stumble on. There was no way he could have known what they would see. If he’d had even an inkling that they could see something like this he would never, ever have taken his daughter there. Never.
But he hadn’t seen it coming. How could he have?
So they’d gone to get ice cream, turned around a corner, and then suddenly she’d screamed. It took him a moment to comprehend what he was seeing and by the time he did there was no way to shield her. She was screaming and crying and there was nothing he could do for her. She shouldn’t have seen it. Hell, he shouldn’t have seen - because that was his boy, his little boy and he was lying there covered in blood, he was not moving. But Ali was just a little girl and she definitely should not see her big brother, her hero, lying there like that.
Oh, God, no, no, he thinks. Not my son, please, not my son.
For just a moment he is incapable of moving. He can’t seem to comprehend what he is seeing. All he can do is hold his daughter - and he can’t remember moving to take a hold of her but he must have done it. And then Rafe is there - when did he move? Then Hope is ushering them away. And Lucas knows he should go, he knows that he should take Ali away from here because she is still screaming. But that is his son and he cannot leave him here alone, he has to stay, but he can’t. He has to go with his little girl, but leaving his son behind feels like a betrayal.
He’s not dead.
He can’t be dead.
He can’t be.
This can’t be the end for his little boy.
It’s not.
He wishes he could just ask, but he can’t bring himself to say the words aloud. Besides even if he could bring himself to do so, there is no way he could ask it with Ali here. She doesn’t need to hear it like this if he is actually dead. (She shouldn’t have seen it, either, but he can’t change that anymore.)
She can’t stop screaming.
He’s not sure she ever will.
He looks at Rafe, at this other man holding his daughter, who probably loves his son as much as he does - alright maybe not as much, but he loves Will, too.
Is he dead?
Rafe looks at him for a moment, as if he doesn’t know what to say, but then he shakes his head a little. And Lucas feels like he can breathe again for the first time since he saw his son lying there. Because Will isn’t dead, his little boy has not left this world, not yet. And that means he has a chance. Because Will is young and strong and he can survive this, whatever this is. He still has fight left in him. But the look in Rafe’s eyes tells him that isn’t the whole truth, no matter how much he might want it to be.
The answer isn’t no, Lucas realizes.
It’s not yet.
It’s almost like they’ve gone back in time.
I’s almost like someone has decided they needed to go back and relive that horrible day again. (For a moment Hope wonders if that has actually happened. Stranger things have happened in this town.) But it’s not the same, it’s just different enough to be a whole new day. There is no Gabi, no Ari. Will has been stabbed, not shot. But just like before, they wheel Will away. Just like before, she is standing there watching him go. Just like before, she feels like everything is lost. But it wasn’t last time, Hope reminds herself, everything turned out alright back then, so why shouldn’t it today?
Daniel is there, suddenly, like last year, and then they are truly gone.
She will find out who did this if it is the last thing she does. And when I do, Will, she promises, I will make them pay.
I will not fail you.
There is so much blood.
Daniel has no idea how much blood the younger boy has lost and he has no way of truly finding out. He does know this: there’s a distinct possibility that he has lost too much blood. He doesn’t have the time to stop and ask what happened - just like last year he doesn’t have time to do anything but operate. But whatever happened is not good. It doesn’t matter, knowing what happened won’t help him save Will right now. If he even can. His pulse is so weak that for a moment Daniel thinks he might not be able to do anything. The boy might be lost to all of them. But he has to try, he can’t give up. He can’t accept that he won’t be able to save him. He has to because he has absolutely no desire to go out there and tell Will’s family he is dead. The idea alone is horrifying. So he has to save him, he simply has to.
Naturally, the moment he thinks that Will flat lines.
He suspects it’s going to be a very long day.
This cannot be real.
It can’t be.
This can’t be happening to them, not again. There is absolutely no way he is sitting here again. Not in this same hospital waiting for news on what happened to Will. Waiting for someone to come out and tell him whether or not his husband is still alive. This isn’t real. This has to be some kind of cruel joke someone is playing on him, or a horrible nightmare. It can’t be truth, it just can’t be. Just an hour ago this wasn’t even a distant possibility. He’d been worried about Will being late, but the fact that he might be dying hadn’t even occurred to Sonny. An hour ago he was just sitting at the club, Gabi and Ari in front of him and T working at the bar behind him. She’d been asking him about Will being late and whether or not they should be worrying. T, who had been cleaning some glasses, had laughed and said: “That’s Will for you.”
They’d laughed.
Will had been bleeding out somewhere, all alone, and they’d been laughing.
But they hadn’t known, there was no way they could have known.
And then, just a few minutes later, Rafe had suddenly been there. It had only taken one look at the other man’s face for Sonny to know that something bad had happened, his hands and shirt were covered in blood, he was shaking and he’d been crying. Gabi was the one who asked - logical, he thinks later, that was her brother standing in front of them - what happened? He has no memory of the exact words that Rafe said, he’ll never be able to remember them. And he also doesn’t remember how long it took before the statement actually got through, but he does remember the essence of it. Will had been stabbed. Will was in the hospital. He might be dying. He might be dead already. Gabi had gasped, and Ari - probably because of the commotion, Gabi’s sudden movements and the change in the mood - started to cry. Behind him T dropped whatever it was that he was holding and it shattered on impact.
It was the sound of shattering glass that actually made him move. They needed to go to the hospital, but Ari was crying and they couldn’t leave her alone. For a moment he and Gabi had stared at each other, unable to think clearly enough to figure out what to do. Even Rafe, having told them what happened, seemed incapable of figuring out what to do besides hold his sister. It was T who saved the day - Sonny will thank him when this is all over. T instructed Rafe to take Gabi and Ari home. T drove him to the hospital . T called everyone in their families - he should have done that, Sonny knows that, but he’s not able to do anything. And now they are both sitting here, waiting. T looks just as lost and confused as he feels. Will is his best friend after all. And T had never truly been through this. He hadn’t been here with them last year when Will got shot.
He should move.
He should call someone.
But he can’t.
He’d sunk down on this chair when he arrived and he’s been unable to move since. He’s breathing, he knows he is, but he has no idea how. Nor does he even have a clue of how he’s managing to stay this calm. But he has to stay calm because panicking won’t help anyone. He knows that. His father told him that last year when Will got shot. (And oh God, that was almost exactly a year ago wasn’t it?) He has to stay calm and just breathe and hope and pray and believe that his Will will be alright. T says something to him, but for the life of him Sonny doesn’t know what it is.
T’s gone, and Sonny is left sitting all alone on those chairs. He has no idea where the other boy went and he doesn’t truly care, either. It’s not important. Nothing but Will is important. Then he’s suddenly holding a cup of coffee and T is sitting beside him again. His hands were frozen, how had he not noticed that? He’s shaking, that must be why T brought him a coffee. He hadn’t realized that he was.
This has to be a nightmare.
He can’t be sitting here again.
This is not happening.
He’ll wake up any minute now, shaking, with Will by his side. All of this is nothing but a nightmare because if it is real, then he might lose the person he loves the most. And he’s not sure he can deal with that.
She keeps rocking back and forth.
At least Ari has stopped crying, Gabi thinks, though she still looks upset. She’s too young - just a few days from her first birthday - to be able to understand what is going on. But she can feel that her mother is upset, and she must have been able to tell that Sonny also was upset. So she too is upset, she’s crying and no matter what Gabi does her little girl just won’t stop. She has to calm Ari down, she has to calm herself down. She suspects her calming down is the only way to calm down her little girl. Will would not want his daughter to be this upset, he would not, he would want her to be happy and calm. So she has to calm down. She has to.
But how can she be calm?
How?
Will has been stabbed.
Will has been stabbed.
She remembers that moment last year when Hope told them that Will had been shot. She remembers how happy she’d been right before that, how safe she’d felt, only to be told that her best friend, the father of her child, lay dying. She remembers the feeling of utter hopelessness. She remembers how scared she’d been that her little girl would never even get to meet her father. That she would never see her best friend again. That she and Will and Sonny would never find a way to make their new family work. But he had pulled through and they had found a way to be a family. And now here they are again. Except it was so much worse. She can’t tell if it’s because she was already in shock last year because of all that happened, or if it’s because Ari is older now and can understand a bit better. Because so much has happened since then, both good and bad, and Will can’t die. He cannot.
What happened?
She has no idea and absolutely no way of finding out. She should find a way to go to the hospital. But she can’t leave Ari alone and she doesn’t have the strength to call for help. She doesn’t even know where everybody is and who knows this has happened. Besides, her little girl is upset and she doesn’t understand that her daddy can’t come right now. So she has to stay.
She can’t remember what she said to Will last. She can’t remember the last normal conversation they’ve had. During every conversation they’ve had over the past few weeks Nick has always been there. Even when he wasn’t a part of the conversation, he was. Nick was everywhere.
Nick.
She stops moving then, the truth finally sinking in. She’d been thinking it for a while, even if only subconsciously. Nick had told her that he would make sure that everything was alright. That he was going to make sure they were a family and nothing would get in the way of that. He’d assured her that Sami and Kate would be out of their lives forever. (She admits that a part of her thought life might be easier without the two other women in her life. But not without Will and Sonny.) He told her that she shouldn’t worry, that Will wouldn’t be a problem because he would explain everything to him and they would find a solution. He’d told her he had everything under control. And she’d been too afraid of losing everything that she didn’t even argue with him.
And now Will was dying.
He’d been stabbed by someone and been left to die.
Nick could not have done this.
He had not done this.
He couldn’t have.
Right?
She knows Nick and Will don’t get along - which was not a surprise considering everything that had happened - but she knows that Nick cares about Will. She truly believes that. She remembers the moment that he told her that he loved Will, regardless of all that had happened. She remembers the look in his eyes and she knows he was telling the truth. She remembers how broken he had looked when Will got shot. How he had been unable to say anything, unable to say out loud what had happened. Nick had not done this. He could not hurt Will, he would not hurt him.
Right?
Right?
Nick could not have done this.
Oh Gabi, who are you trying to convince? You don’t believe that, not really.
He didn’t do this.
It doesn’t matter how angry he was the last time she saw him. What he said doesn’t matter. He wasn’t angry at Will, at least not overtly. He’d been talking about Sami and Kate and E.J. but he’d barely mentioned Will. She’d thought, she’d hoped, this meant that he was open to working out a solution. (Maybe she’d been lying to herself to make it all easier.) She’d hoped they would find a way to all get along. It’s not like she had a choice. Nick was the one with all the power, after all. That’s what happens, when you try to kill someone. Even if it’s done in self-defence. If that person survives they are the one who has all the power.
But he hadn’t done this.
He couldn’t have.
Because if he had actually tried to kill Will, then it was all her fault. Every single thing. Maybe that’s why she can’t seem to calm down. Not just because her best friend might be dying, but because she’s the one who brought Nick into their lives. She was the one who’d been unable to let him go, unable to see the truth. She was the one who’d hit Nick on the head with that rock. (And if he had done this, then she was the one who hadn’t hit hard enough.) It was all her fault. And if Nick had done this and Will died, she would never, ever be able to forgive herself. Even if he live,s she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to.
It’s all her fault.
He can’t die. How could she ever look into her little girls eyes again if he does? How could she explain she had no daddy because of her?
No, that cannot happen, it will not happen.
It isn’t truth.
It wasn’t Nick. It wasn’t Nick ,and Will is going to be alright.
Maybe if she repeats it enough times she’ll believe it.
Of the many things that Sami had thought would ever happen, Lucas showing up at the DiMera mansion asking for help had never been one of them.
But here they are.
He’d arrived suddenly, knocking on the door in desperation, a completely devastated Ali in his arms. She knew instantly that something bad had happened. It was the look in his eyes that told her that it was about Will. (She knows it’s about Will because the only other person it could be about is, alright.) It’s the same look he had last year when Will had been shot.
“Lucas, what happened?”
“It’s Will, Sami, he’s in the hospital. He’s been stabbed.”
There is a distinct possibility - though she’ll never be able to tell anyone with certainty - that she screamed. Whatever she did, E.J. was suddenly standing beside her, holding her. And then suddenly - it’s like time is skipping - they’re on the couch, all surrounding Ali, trying to calm her down. She needs to go to the hospital, every bone in her body is screaming at her to get to her son. But her daughter is crying and shaking and she can’t leave. (Something else she never thought would happen, the three of them, all on the same page, trying to calm down her daughter.)T calls not that much later but Sami never speaks to him. (E.J. is the one who takes the call.) It takes a long time but eventually Ali manages to calm down. Though Sami is not sure whether she’s actually calm or she simply has no tears left. But she is calm enough to ask some questions and none of them have the answers.
“Is Will going to be okay?”
She doesn’t know, none of them do, but she can’t tell her little girl that. She doesn’t even really know what happened. She knows Will is in the hospital and that he has been stabbed, but she’s lacking any other crucial information. She can’t even ask because Ali should not hear. From the look on both Lucas’ - who saw Will - and E.J.’s - who talked to T - faces she suspects they don’t really know anything, either. But she can’t tell her daughter all that. She has to believe that everything will be alright or she’ll never be able to calm down. So she lies.
“Of course he will be honey, I’m sure of it. Right, Lucas?”
“Your mom is right sweetheart, Will will be just fine.”
She hopes it wasn’t a lie. She truly, truly hopes that they spoke the truth. Not just for Ali, who will be devastated if she learns they lied, but for all of them. She wants to go to the hospital, she needs to go to the hospital, but she has to wait until her little girl is asleep. And when he’s alright - because she has to believe that he will be alright - she’ll find whoever did this to her little boy and she’ll kill them.
If it’s the last thing that she does.
This is so wrong.
He’s been thinking the same thing for hours and it’s stupid, really, surely there are better words, more accurate ones, but it’s the only one that occurs to him to describe the situation they have found themselves in.
It is so wrong.
His best friend cannot be dying. He just can’t be. That cannot be real.
There’s just no way.
And yet, here they are. There’s no denying it is happening, but T is having a hard time with it. He suspects he’s not the only one. He can’t even imagine what Sonny is feeling right now, or Gabi or Sami or anyone else. He just can’t believe it. Only a few weeks ago Sonny and Will were getting married and they had their whole future in front of them. And he was so glad, so happy, that he could prove to Will that he was truly his best friend, and that he was so incredibly sorry about all the things he’d said when he’d found out that Will was gay. They’d been happy. So incredibly happy. And now here they are. Waiting to hear if Will has survived, waiting to hear if he’ll live. He has to be, T thinks, he has to be because the alternative is just too horrible to even consider.
He wonders what Sonny is thinking, but the other man hasn’t said a word since they got here. Not that T truly blames him. He has this feeling that he should be saying or doing something to help Sonny, but he can’t think of anything. He can’t even calm himself down, how is he supposed to help someone else? But he needs to do something.
There’s nothing he can do, he’s not a doctor after all, but just sitting here feels incredibly wrong. That’s his best friend in there, and he might be dying, and he’s just sitting here. If he knew who did this, if he had any idea, then he could go look for them but he has no idea who could have done this. All he can do is sit here and be there for Sonny, even if there isn’t much he can do for his friend. He’s already called everyone that needs to know - at least he hopes he has, he hopes he hasn’t forgotten anyone important. They’ll get here any minute and surely they’ll have a better idea on how to deal with this. They might even be able to give him something to do.
Until then all he can do is wait.
And he doesn’t know how to deal with that.
He should have acted sooner.
Much, much sooner.
He should have just acted on his plans instead of waiting to see what Nick would do next. He should have done something, even if nobody else agreed. He was a DiMera, after all, he had all the power. He should have done something, anything, but he’d decided that the waiting game was better. He’d decided that listening to William was the better plan, it was all about his daughter, after all. He should have just taken Nick out of the equation, consequences be damned. If he had just done what he was supposed to do, if he had not waited, then William would not be dying on an operating table somewhere, Ali would not be crying so hard, and Samantha would not be that broken.
Because Nick did this.
He knows that.
He’s E.J. DiMera, he has learned from the best. So he knows that Nick did this. He can’t prove it. But he knows. It’s the timing. It’s too convenient. It works right into Nick’s favor. Nick was trying so desperately to get his hands on Ari, and now William, the only thing truly standing between him and what he wanted, had been removed from the equation. So this was Nick, it had to be. Or maybe it’s just like last year, someone trying to get to Nick, and William just got caught in the crossfire again. It’s a possibility, but he doesn’t really believe it, it’s too coincidental.
No, Nick has tried to kill William.
He’s tried to kill his stepson. And nobody, absolutely nobody, does something like that to a member of his family. Nobody.
He’ll find Nick. Once he’s taken Samantha to the hospital and they’ve discovered how William is. Once all that is done he will get his hands on Nick and make him pay for what he has done to his family. He’ll do what he should have done in the beginning.
Because he should not have waited.
If he hadn’t then this would not have happened.
This is his fault.
It takes hours before Ali is asleep, but it’s only then that Sami goes to the hospital.
She’s calmer now.
She understands what she couldn’t see before. Sami doesn’t need E.J. to explain things to her, she doesn’t need him to tell her his theory. She knows that Nick did this, knows that because the timing is too perfect for it to be otherwise.
It’s her fault.
Her’s and Kate’s fault, and perhaps even Gabi’s as well. They were the ones who made Nick angry. They were the ones who turned him into an even bigger psycho than he’d been before. It was Gabi who hit him on the head - and yes, she does believe that Nick was trying to rape her and that Gabi was just defending herself. That’s the one thing about this she’s never doubted. But Gabi had done it. And then she and Kate had convinced her to cover it up, to throw what they thought was Nick’s body into the river. But he hadn’t been dead, he’d come back to haunt them. And she’s Sami Brady, she’s incapable of not interfering in things. She is the one who’d always been unable to ignore Nick, regardless of the many consequences.
And now her son was in the hospital, fighting for his life again.
Nick had done this, he had tried to kill her son.
But it was also her fault.
Last year Hope called her.
This time it was T.
A friend of her grandson she’s not quite sure she’s ever talked to. She knows him, she’s met him several times, but Marlena doesn’t think she’s ever had a conversation with the man that lasted longer than a few minutes. Not until he called her to tell her that her grandson, her Will, has been stabbed and is in the hospital. She’d consider the possibility that it’s a cruel joke if the sound of his voice hadn’t been so broken. She can’t believe it.
How time goes. She can’t believe that two years ago Will had been struggling so hard with who he was. And then, just a few weeks ago, she’d married them, Will and Sonny, and they’d been so happy. With Ari, and even Gabi by their side, they had been a happy family. And now Will is dying and it is all too much. How could this have happened? How could they have gone from that truly happy moment to the one they were in right now? What had happened? Marlena doesn’t have the answers to any of these questions and she suspects she won’t have them for a while. She has to go to the hospital. She has to go right now.
Will needs her.
Sami needs her.
She has to go, immediately. Still for a few minutes she’s unable to get up, unable to move from the couch she’d sunk into when T told her what happened. She’s unable to do anything but just sit there and stare straight ahead at nothing. She snaps out of it eventually but she doesn’t know how long she sat there unmoving. There’s a message on her phone.
Somebody tried to call her earlier today but she hadn’t noticed. She hadn’t noticed. What if it was Will? What if Will had tried to call her earlier today? But as she listens to the message left behind she realizes, that it is not Will. It’s Nick. Begging her for help, telling her he wants to change, that he needs someone to talk to. She should help him. She can hear in his voice that he’s completely broken down, that he truly, honestly needs help right now, but she can’t. Not right now. Right now all that matters is that her grandson is in the hospital. She’ll talk to Nick later. She’ll help him and perhaps they can find a solution for that horrible situation, as well. For now she needs to go to the hospital. She needs to be there for her daughter. She needs to be there for her grandson.
Everything else can wait.
There is something seriously wrong with this town.
Maybe it’s something in the water.
How else, Justin wonders, could one explain all the bad things that keep happening. And why so many of them happen to his son-in-law? Why must Will be hurt by life so many times? Why must Sonny be hurt? Neither of them have done anything to deserve any of it. But here they are, after all the months of fighting with Nick for their daughter, here they are in the hospital with Will fighting for his life. It’s just so unbelievable. It was bad enough last year when Will had been shot, but this time everything is just so much worse. Last year the shooter had been taken care of. But this time they don’t even know who stabbed Will, who did this. This time everything is uncertain. Perhaps it’s because Sonny and Will have been together longer, perhaps it’s because they’ve only just gotten married.
Justin doesn’t know.
He does know this: he never wants to go through something like this again. He never wants to see that look on his son’s face again. He never wants him to look so lost, or in so much pain. He just doesn’t want that to happen again. Surely they’ve had enough? Surely any minute now Daniel will come out to tell them that Will is alright. Surely this is the extent of it. Surely nothing bad will happen to Will again. Surely life can’t be cruel enough to steal Will away from Sonny and Ari. Surely.
Justin wishes he was completely convinced about that.
Because if he was, then he could say something to his son. If he was, then he could help his boy.
But he’s not sure.
And telling Sonny something he’s not sure of will probably make everything worse.
So he just sits beside his boy and waits.
There’s nothing else he can do.
Oh, if his nephew had only come to him.
Victor isn’t an idiot. An idiot could never have survived for as long a he did. An idiot would have been murdered a long time ago. So no, he is not an idiot, he knows what’s going on in this town, and he certainly knows every single thing that happens in his family. He knows how much trouble Nick was making for his nephew and his husband. And he also knows that the other man needed to be stopped, he’d reached that conclusion a while ago, but he’d decided to do nothing until Sonny came to him. He’s not sure why he decided that, it sounded like the right thing to do at the time. And then, just this morning, he’d discovered one of his guns was missing. And he’d known it was Sonny - and oh Sonny, how could you be this stupid? Why didn’t you just come to me? Why?
He’d spent all day trying to call his nephew, attempting to stop him from doing something incredibly stupid.
And then he’d gotten that phone call.
He’d expected to be told that Nick had been shot. He had not expected that it was Will who was in the hospital because he’d gotten stabbed. For a moment Victor had truly not understood. For a moment he’d been completely confused. But then it had dawned on him. Nick had done this. Nick must have stabbed Will in an attempt to get him out of the way and now the younger man was fighting for his life. Victor knows this. He can’t prove it, but he knows it. He’s not an idiot, after all.
He has to go to the hospital.
He has to be there for his nephew.
But first he has to get his hands on that gun. He has to find out where his nephew hid that gun and put it back with the others. Before Sonny figures out this has happened and decides to take matters into his own hands. Then he will go to the hospital and be there for Sonny. And once Will is better - because he’ll get better, he has to - once he is better Victor will make Nick pay for what he has done to his family. And if he won’t be able to, then he’s sure E.J. DiMera will. (He and a DiMera working for the same goal. Who would have ever thought it.)
That’s what he’ll do.
That’s all he can do.
He’s too late to do anything else.
His hands are still shaking.
He has no idea how much time has passed. He could probably find out, but his brain isn’t working properly. At least there’s no more blood on his hands. Well, no literal blood at least. Nick suspects that nothing in the world will ever be able to wash the metaphorical blood from his hands. No matter how hard he scrubs - and he’s been scrubbing for hours - his hands still seem bloody to him, even though he knows the actual blood has long since washed off.
Because he killed Will.
He killed Will.
He hadn’t meant to do it, but it had happened. And no matter what he does, no matter how hard he tries to change, nothing will ever be able to wash that sin away. That will always be a part of him now. Will, who had been one of the only people willing to give him a second chance when he got out of prison. Will, who’d believed in him so much that he’d never even considered Nick wasn’t on his side until it was too late. Will, who hadn’t left him behind to be killed, even though he probably deserved it and who had almost died in an attempt to save his life. Will who was still polite to him, despite all that he had done. Will, who was just a good person. Who had never actually done anything to him, beside exist. And he had killed him.
He’d stabbed him.
He he’d done that.
Nothing could ever change that.
But he can’t go back to prison. He just can’t. The idea of what they’ll do to him there, again, is too horrible. He has to find a way out of this. And he will. All he has to do is get rid of the evidence. The knife is already gone, washed downriver, and even if they find it all the evidence will be gone. It’s just his clothes that are left. He has to get rid of them somehow, but how? He can’t just throw those down the river, someone will eventually find them and someone might recognize them, or trace them back to him. He can’t burn them here, either, it will be to suspicious, and someone would see it. He can’t throw them away either. He’ll wash them for now, see if he can get all the blood out of them, and then he’ll get rid of them somehow. Because he can’t go back to prison.
He just can’t.
The guilt eats at him. He knows that will never go away, it will be a part of him forever. He will forever be the one who murdered William Horton, even if he is the only one who knows. Even if no one else ever suspects it. Will’s blood is on his hands and he can’t wash it away. It’s a part of him. He’ll have to live with that. He can’t stay, he knows that too. Maybe in the before he could have, maybe he could have found a way, but even he can’t justify holding Arianna if her father’s blood is on his hands.
He has to leave.
But he can’t do it immediately, that would seem too suspicious. He’ll have to wait until everyone has calmed down a bit.
And hope that nobody discovers the truth in the meantime.
He’s tired.
Surgeries on people he knows always seem to last so much longer than normal surgeries, even though logically Daniel knows they don’t. There’s a reason why most doctors won’t work on somebody they love or know, because it’s too much to ask. Daniel agrees with that, but sometimes you just don’t have a choice. Still, every time it’s someone he knows lying on the table, Daniel feels he ages ten years in the operating room.
This was no different.
But at least he’s alive. For now. Daniel has no idea if Will is going to survive. His blood loss was extensive and his injury severe, but he had done all he could to save him. And the younger man is still alive, at least that was something. He is still alive, breathing on his own, and that means he has the chance to get better. Will has a lot to live for - a husband and a daughter - and that gives Daniel hope. He has to tell Will’s family, has to tell them how bad things look. Has to tell them that things might not turn out alright.
But at least he is still alive.
That’s something.
Summary: In a moment of insanity - during one of the many arguments Nick and Will have about Arianna's custody - Nick stabs Will.This is what comes immediatly after.
Will is running late.
This is not a strange thing, though, Sonny knows this. It’s not that his husband is always late, but it’s not uncommon. He’s not even that late, just ten minutes, so it’s not even important. And yet he’s worried, and yet he feels like something is wrong. Sonny can’t explain why, or even if something is going on, but he can feel it. It’s making him nervous. Oh, he knows that everything is alright, Will is just running a bit late, but he still can’t shake the feeling. The worry he’s feeling probably has nothing to do with his husband running late. It probably has more to do with the situation they are in. He’s on edge. And how could he not be, considering Nick is trying to steal Ari away from him and Will? So that’s all this is, just a consequence of the situation they are in.
But he still can’t shake the feeling.
It’s probably because Will said he was going to try and talk to Nick again. That and the fact that Gabi is sitting not too far from him. They’re not fighting - not in the technical sense of the word - and it’s not that he doesn’t understand that Gabi isn’t trying to take Ari away from Will. He knows it’s probably all Nick, but that doesn’t make his dealings with Gabi any easier. Because even if she isn’t doing it herself, she is not stopping Nick, she’s just allowing him to do what he wants. (And what he wants is him and Will out of Ari’s life.)
Or maybe he’s feeling on edge because of the gun in his bag. It’s the knowledge that he has finally reached the end of his rope. It’s the fact that he had actually gone into his uncle’s house and stolen one of his guns. It’s the fact that he’s even thinking about shooting Nick to fix the problem. He can’t tell Will - he can’t even believe he’s thinking it, how can he say it out loud - because Will would never, ever agree to it. But when Nick finally crosses the line - and he knows the other man will - he’s going to make sure he can’t hurt anyone else ever again. He’s going to protect his family no matter what. He’s going to do everything in his power to make sure Will gets to keep his little girl with him, where she belongs. (Well, with him and Gabi of course. But not with Nick.) He’s considered talking to his uncle, but that would mean actually going down this path and he’s still not sure whether or not he actually wants to do that. Besides, it seems wrong to involve his Uncle Victor since his wife loves Nick so much. So he went in and stole the gun. And now it’s in his bag.
He’s not sure he can do it, though.
He’s not sure he’ll ever be able to shoot someone. He hopes it won’t come to that. But if it does he is prepared.
Maybe everything will be alright.
Maybe Nick will come to his senses, as impossible as that seems. Maybe E.J. will finally find a way out of this mess, a way in which they will all be alright. He is a DiMera after all, if anyone can get them out of this it is E.J. Maybe Gabi will somehow find the strength to stand up to Nick for Will and her daughter. Or maybe Will will finally be able to get through to Nick. He has done that before, after all - albeit by almost dying, but still - so who’s to say it won’t happen again. Maybe there is an easy solution they simply haven’t thought of yet.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Fifteen minutes have passed now.
And it’s still not something to worry about, he knows that. But the feeling of uneasiness persists, growing stronger by the second. Oh God, Nick is actually turning him into a pessimist. He’s turning him into someone who thinks bad things will constantly happen. He should just go ahead and call Will. Hearing his voice will make him feel better and then he can forget this ever happened. That’s what he should do, just call him.
“Hey, you’ve reached Will. I can’t answer your call right now, you know what to do.”
“Hey Will, where are you? Call me.”
It is not strange that Will doesn’t answer his phone, Sonny tells himself, it’s not like it’s the first time.
It’s not.
Five minutes pass.
And then another five.
Gabi suddenly asks him if he knows where Will is or how long it will be until he is there. He tells her he doesn’t, but he’ll try calling him again. So he does but there is still no answer. And it’s not strange, it’s not. It’s not strange that his husband is a bit late. It is not strange that he has not called him back or sent a message. But it is strange that he is leaving Ari waiting here when he knows that Gabi is waiting for him. It is strange he is doing that when Nick is looking for excuses and a call would make everything better.
Something has happened.
But it’s not something bad, he assures himself. There’s a completely logical explanation for all that has happened. And it’s not something bad. Will probably has lost his phone or he has forgotten to charge it. It’s not like it’s the first time. Maybe he’s already on his way and he’ll walk through the door any moment now. Or his phone will ring and it will be Will apologizing for not answering.
Everything is fine.
He’s sure of it.
Except he isn’t, not really. If he were he wouldn’t need to convince himself would he?
There are days that Hope truly hates her job.
Oh, she loves being a cop, she truly does, but there are days she wishes she could do something else. Like right now. She’d almost, almost been out the door on her way home to her daughter - to have dinner just like she promised - when Rafe called her back. He was apologetic about it, he truly was, but technically her shift hadn’t ended yet and it’s not like he could respond to the call on his own. (Well, he could, but it would be completely unfair to him. Besides she’s pretty sure she owes him.) Apparently someone had called in a stabbing and they needed to go and check it out. She still might get home on time if she’s really, really lucky, Hope thinks.
She’d been sending a text to her daughter telling her she was going to be just a bit late when Rafe suddenly stopped dead in front of her.
“Rafe, are you…”
That’s when she saw him lying there on the grass, not moving. The caller had been telling the truth when he said someone had been stabbed. He just hadn’t informed them it was Will who had been stabbed. That it was Will who was just lying there, pale as a ghost, covered in blood. This had happened to her before. She remembers it. Walking into that shed. Seeing Will lying there unmoving on the ground. Shot then, not stabbed, but apart from that it was almost exactly the same. How could this be happening? How could so many things happen to Will? (How could so many things happen to all of them?)
It takes her a moment to realize that Rafe isn’t standing in front of her anymore. She’s not sure how she missed it, but Rafe is kneeling next to Will, pressing something - his jacket she realizes - against his wounds. She should move too, but for a moment she seems unable too.
Where is the ambulance?
She knows they are coming, she does, because they left just at the same time they did. So where are they? Why aren’t they here yet? But then they’re suddenly there - and when did they even arrive? How is all of this happening? It’s like it isn’t happening, not to her, it’s like it’s happening to someone else and she’s just watching it unfold. And then she’s suddenly on her knees beside Rafe - and when did she even move?
He’s not dead.
He can’t be.
Will cannot be dead. Telling their family that Will died is not something that is in her immediate future. It cannot be.
It’s not too late.
It’s not.
Calm down, Hope, Calm down. Last year you thought he was dead ,too, at least for a moment. This is the same. This is not the end for him.
But there is so much blood. And he is so pale.
How can there be so much blood?
Rafe is shaking, with anger or grief she cannot quite tell. So is she, it dawns on her suddenly, they are both shaking. There is nothing else they can do. Nothing but watch the paramedics try to save this boy they both love so much.
“Rafe, we’ll find out what happened. We will.”
He doesn’t answer, not that she expects him too. After all, what is there to say? But the determined look in his eyes tells her that he will not rest until he gets his hands on whoever did this. She does not envy that person. But he’s alive - at least the paramedic tells them that he has a pulse and that is enough - and that is, in this moment, all they can hope for.
At least it can’t get worse.
She shouldn’t have thought that.
The scream that suddenly pierces through the silence is practically deafening.
She’d just wanted some ice cream, that’s all.
Ali had been begging for hours and eventually he’d caved. That is the only reason they are even here. That is the only reason why they even saw. She’d been a good girl all day and he’d thought, why the hell not? They could walk around town for a bit, maybe see Will and Ari - something they both loved doing - and then he would take her home to her mother. At the time she’d begged him for ice cream Lucas had seen nothing wrong with it, it hadn’t occurred to him to say no because what could possibly happen? (Admittedly the strangest things did constantly happen in this town, but still.) It was just ice cream. There was no way he could have known what they would stumble on. There was no way he could have known what they would see. If he’d had even an inkling that they could see something like this he would never, ever have taken his daughter there. Never.
But he hadn’t seen it coming. How could he have?
So they’d gone to get ice cream, turned around a corner, and then suddenly she’d screamed. It took him a moment to comprehend what he was seeing and by the time he did there was no way to shield her. She was screaming and crying and there was nothing he could do for her. She shouldn’t have seen it. Hell, he shouldn’t have seen - because that was his boy, his little boy and he was lying there covered in blood, he was not moving. But Ali was just a little girl and she definitely should not see her big brother, her hero, lying there like that.
Oh, God, no, no, he thinks. Not my son, please, not my son.
For just a moment he is incapable of moving. He can’t seem to comprehend what he is seeing. All he can do is hold his daughter - and he can’t remember moving to take a hold of her but he must have done it. And then Rafe is there - when did he move? Then Hope is ushering them away. And Lucas knows he should go, he knows that he should take Ali away from here because she is still screaming. But that is his son and he cannot leave him here alone, he has to stay, but he can’t. He has to go with his little girl, but leaving his son behind feels like a betrayal.
He’s not dead.
He can’t be dead.
He can’t be.
This can’t be the end for his little boy.
It’s not.
He wishes he could just ask, but he can’t bring himself to say the words aloud. Besides even if he could bring himself to do so, there is no way he could ask it with Ali here. She doesn’t need to hear it like this if he is actually dead. (She shouldn’t have seen it, either, but he can’t change that anymore.)
She can’t stop screaming.
He’s not sure she ever will.
He looks at Rafe, at this other man holding his daughter, who probably loves his son as much as he does - alright maybe not as much, but he loves Will, too.
Is he dead?
Rafe looks at him for a moment, as if he doesn’t know what to say, but then he shakes his head a little. And Lucas feels like he can breathe again for the first time since he saw his son lying there. Because Will isn’t dead, his little boy has not left this world, not yet. And that means he has a chance. Because Will is young and strong and he can survive this, whatever this is. He still has fight left in him. But the look in Rafe’s eyes tells him that isn’t the whole truth, no matter how much he might want it to be.
The answer isn’t no, Lucas realizes.
It’s not yet.
It’s almost like they’ve gone back in time.
I’s almost like someone has decided they needed to go back and relive that horrible day again. (For a moment Hope wonders if that has actually happened. Stranger things have happened in this town.) But it’s not the same, it’s just different enough to be a whole new day. There is no Gabi, no Ari. Will has been stabbed, not shot. But just like before, they wheel Will away. Just like before, she is standing there watching him go. Just like before, she feels like everything is lost. But it wasn’t last time, Hope reminds herself, everything turned out alright back then, so why shouldn’t it today?
Daniel is there, suddenly, like last year, and then they are truly gone.
She will find out who did this if it is the last thing she does. And when I do, Will, she promises, I will make them pay.
I will not fail you.
There is so much blood.
Daniel has no idea how much blood the younger boy has lost and he has no way of truly finding out. He does know this: there’s a distinct possibility that he has lost too much blood. He doesn’t have the time to stop and ask what happened - just like last year he doesn’t have time to do anything but operate. But whatever happened is not good. It doesn’t matter, knowing what happened won’t help him save Will right now. If he even can. His pulse is so weak that for a moment Daniel thinks he might not be able to do anything. The boy might be lost to all of them. But he has to try, he can’t give up. He can’t accept that he won’t be able to save him. He has to because he has absolutely no desire to go out there and tell Will’s family he is dead. The idea alone is horrifying. So he has to save him, he simply has to.
Naturally, the moment he thinks that Will flat lines.
He suspects it’s going to be a very long day.
This cannot be real.
It can’t be.
This can’t be happening to them, not again. There is absolutely no way he is sitting here again. Not in this same hospital waiting for news on what happened to Will. Waiting for someone to come out and tell him whether or not his husband is still alive. This isn’t real. This has to be some kind of cruel joke someone is playing on him, or a horrible nightmare. It can’t be truth, it just can’t be. Just an hour ago this wasn’t even a distant possibility. He’d been worried about Will being late, but the fact that he might be dying hadn’t even occurred to Sonny. An hour ago he was just sitting at the club, Gabi and Ari in front of him and T working at the bar behind him. She’d been asking him about Will being late and whether or not they should be worrying. T, who had been cleaning some glasses, had laughed and said: “That’s Will for you.”
They’d laughed.
Will had been bleeding out somewhere, all alone, and they’d been laughing.
But they hadn’t known, there was no way they could have known.
And then, just a few minutes later, Rafe had suddenly been there. It had only taken one look at the other man’s face for Sonny to know that something bad had happened, his hands and shirt were covered in blood, he was shaking and he’d been crying. Gabi was the one who asked - logical, he thinks later, that was her brother standing in front of them - what happened? He has no memory of the exact words that Rafe said, he’ll never be able to remember them. And he also doesn’t remember how long it took before the statement actually got through, but he does remember the essence of it. Will had been stabbed. Will was in the hospital. He might be dying. He might be dead already. Gabi had gasped, and Ari - probably because of the commotion, Gabi’s sudden movements and the change in the mood - started to cry. Behind him T dropped whatever it was that he was holding and it shattered on impact.
It was the sound of shattering glass that actually made him move. They needed to go to the hospital, but Ari was crying and they couldn’t leave her alone. For a moment he and Gabi had stared at each other, unable to think clearly enough to figure out what to do. Even Rafe, having told them what happened, seemed incapable of figuring out what to do besides hold his sister. It was T who saved the day - Sonny will thank him when this is all over. T instructed Rafe to take Gabi and Ari home. T drove him to the hospital . T called everyone in their families - he should have done that, Sonny knows that, but he’s not able to do anything. And now they are both sitting here, waiting. T looks just as lost and confused as he feels. Will is his best friend after all. And T had never truly been through this. He hadn’t been here with them last year when Will got shot.
He should move.
He should call someone.
But he can’t.
He’d sunk down on this chair when he arrived and he’s been unable to move since. He’s breathing, he knows he is, but he has no idea how. Nor does he even have a clue of how he’s managing to stay this calm. But he has to stay calm because panicking won’t help anyone. He knows that. His father told him that last year when Will got shot. (And oh God, that was almost exactly a year ago wasn’t it?) He has to stay calm and just breathe and hope and pray and believe that his Will will be alright. T says something to him, but for the life of him Sonny doesn’t know what it is.
T’s gone, and Sonny is left sitting all alone on those chairs. He has no idea where the other boy went and he doesn’t truly care, either. It’s not important. Nothing but Will is important. Then he’s suddenly holding a cup of coffee and T is sitting beside him again. His hands were frozen, how had he not noticed that? He’s shaking, that must be why T brought him a coffee. He hadn’t realized that he was.
This has to be a nightmare.
He can’t be sitting here again.
This is not happening.
He’ll wake up any minute now, shaking, with Will by his side. All of this is nothing but a nightmare because if it is real, then he might lose the person he loves the most. And he’s not sure he can deal with that.
She keeps rocking back and forth.
At least Ari has stopped crying, Gabi thinks, though she still looks upset. She’s too young - just a few days from her first birthday - to be able to understand what is going on. But she can feel that her mother is upset, and she must have been able to tell that Sonny also was upset. So she too is upset, she’s crying and no matter what Gabi does her little girl just won’t stop. She has to calm Ari down, she has to calm herself down. She suspects her calming down is the only way to calm down her little girl. Will would not want his daughter to be this upset, he would not, he would want her to be happy and calm. So she has to calm down. She has to.
But how can she be calm?
How?
Will has been stabbed.
Will has been stabbed.
She remembers that moment last year when Hope told them that Will had been shot. She remembers how happy she’d been right before that, how safe she’d felt, only to be told that her best friend, the father of her child, lay dying. She remembers the feeling of utter hopelessness. She remembers how scared she’d been that her little girl would never even get to meet her father. That she would never see her best friend again. That she and Will and Sonny would never find a way to make their new family work. But he had pulled through and they had found a way to be a family. And now here they are again. Except it was so much worse. She can’t tell if it’s because she was already in shock last year because of all that happened, or if it’s because Ari is older now and can understand a bit better. Because so much has happened since then, both good and bad, and Will can’t die. He cannot.
What happened?
She has no idea and absolutely no way of finding out. She should find a way to go to the hospital. But she can’t leave Ari alone and she doesn’t have the strength to call for help. She doesn’t even know where everybody is and who knows this has happened. Besides, her little girl is upset and she doesn’t understand that her daddy can’t come right now. So she has to stay.
She can’t remember what she said to Will last. She can’t remember the last normal conversation they’ve had. During every conversation they’ve had over the past few weeks Nick has always been there. Even when he wasn’t a part of the conversation, he was. Nick was everywhere.
Nick.
She stops moving then, the truth finally sinking in. She’d been thinking it for a while, even if only subconsciously. Nick had told her that he would make sure that everything was alright. That he was going to make sure they were a family and nothing would get in the way of that. He’d assured her that Sami and Kate would be out of their lives forever. (She admits that a part of her thought life might be easier without the two other women in her life. But not without Will and Sonny.) He told her that she shouldn’t worry, that Will wouldn’t be a problem because he would explain everything to him and they would find a solution. He’d told her he had everything under control. And she’d been too afraid of losing everything that she didn’t even argue with him.
And now Will was dying.
He’d been stabbed by someone and been left to die.
Nick could not have done this.
He had not done this.
He couldn’t have.
Right?
She knows Nick and Will don’t get along - which was not a surprise considering everything that had happened - but she knows that Nick cares about Will. She truly believes that. She remembers the moment that he told her that he loved Will, regardless of all that had happened. She remembers the look in his eyes and she knows he was telling the truth. She remembers how broken he had looked when Will got shot. How he had been unable to say anything, unable to say out loud what had happened. Nick had not done this. He could not hurt Will, he would not hurt him.
Right?
Right?
Nick could not have done this.
Oh Gabi, who are you trying to convince? You don’t believe that, not really.
He didn’t do this.
It doesn’t matter how angry he was the last time she saw him. What he said doesn’t matter. He wasn’t angry at Will, at least not overtly. He’d been talking about Sami and Kate and E.J. but he’d barely mentioned Will. She’d thought, she’d hoped, this meant that he was open to working out a solution. (Maybe she’d been lying to herself to make it all easier.) She’d hoped they would find a way to all get along. It’s not like she had a choice. Nick was the one with all the power, after all. That’s what happens, when you try to kill someone. Even if it’s done in self-defence. If that person survives they are the one who has all the power.
But he hadn’t done this.
He couldn’t have.
Because if he had actually tried to kill Will, then it was all her fault. Every single thing. Maybe that’s why she can’t seem to calm down. Not just because her best friend might be dying, but because she’s the one who brought Nick into their lives. She was the one who’d been unable to let him go, unable to see the truth. She was the one who’d hit Nick on the head with that rock. (And if he had done this, then she was the one who hadn’t hit hard enough.) It was all her fault. And if Nick had done this and Will died, she would never, ever be able to forgive herself. Even if he live,s she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to.
It’s all her fault.
He can’t die. How could she ever look into her little girls eyes again if he does? How could she explain she had no daddy because of her?
No, that cannot happen, it will not happen.
It isn’t truth.
It wasn’t Nick. It wasn’t Nick ,and Will is going to be alright.
Maybe if she repeats it enough times she’ll believe it.
Of the many things that Sami had thought would ever happen, Lucas showing up at the DiMera mansion asking for help had never been one of them.
But here they are.
He’d arrived suddenly, knocking on the door in desperation, a completely devastated Ali in his arms. She knew instantly that something bad had happened. It was the look in his eyes that told her that it was about Will. (She knows it’s about Will because the only other person it could be about is, alright.) It’s the same look he had last year when Will had been shot.
“Lucas, what happened?”
“It’s Will, Sami, he’s in the hospital. He’s been stabbed.”
There is a distinct possibility - though she’ll never be able to tell anyone with certainty - that she screamed. Whatever she did, E.J. was suddenly standing beside her, holding her. And then suddenly - it’s like time is skipping - they’re on the couch, all surrounding Ali, trying to calm her down. She needs to go to the hospital, every bone in her body is screaming at her to get to her son. But her daughter is crying and shaking and she can’t leave. (Something else she never thought would happen, the three of them, all on the same page, trying to calm down her daughter.)T calls not that much later but Sami never speaks to him. (E.J. is the one who takes the call.) It takes a long time but eventually Ali manages to calm down. Though Sami is not sure whether she’s actually calm or she simply has no tears left. But she is calm enough to ask some questions and none of them have the answers.
“Is Will going to be okay?”
She doesn’t know, none of them do, but she can’t tell her little girl that. She doesn’t even really know what happened. She knows Will is in the hospital and that he has been stabbed, but she’s lacking any other crucial information. She can’t even ask because Ali should not hear. From the look on both Lucas’ - who saw Will - and E.J.’s - who talked to T - faces she suspects they don’t really know anything, either. But she can’t tell her daughter all that. She has to believe that everything will be alright or she’ll never be able to calm down. So she lies.
“Of course he will be honey, I’m sure of it. Right, Lucas?”
“Your mom is right sweetheart, Will will be just fine.”
She hopes it wasn’t a lie. She truly, truly hopes that they spoke the truth. Not just for Ali, who will be devastated if she learns they lied, but for all of them. She wants to go to the hospital, she needs to go to the hospital, but she has to wait until her little girl is asleep. And when he’s alright - because she has to believe that he will be alright - she’ll find whoever did this to her little boy and she’ll kill them.
If it’s the last thing that she does.
This is so wrong.
He’s been thinking the same thing for hours and it’s stupid, really, surely there are better words, more accurate ones, but it’s the only one that occurs to him to describe the situation they have found themselves in.
It is so wrong.
His best friend cannot be dying. He just can’t be. That cannot be real.
There’s just no way.
And yet, here they are. There’s no denying it is happening, but T is having a hard time with it. He suspects he’s not the only one. He can’t even imagine what Sonny is feeling right now, or Gabi or Sami or anyone else. He just can’t believe it. Only a few weeks ago Sonny and Will were getting married and they had their whole future in front of them. And he was so glad, so happy, that he could prove to Will that he was truly his best friend, and that he was so incredibly sorry about all the things he’d said when he’d found out that Will was gay. They’d been happy. So incredibly happy. And now here they are. Waiting to hear if Will has survived, waiting to hear if he’ll live. He has to be, T thinks, he has to be because the alternative is just too horrible to even consider.
He wonders what Sonny is thinking, but the other man hasn’t said a word since they got here. Not that T truly blames him. He has this feeling that he should be saying or doing something to help Sonny, but he can’t think of anything. He can’t even calm himself down, how is he supposed to help someone else? But he needs to do something.
There’s nothing he can do, he’s not a doctor after all, but just sitting here feels incredibly wrong. That’s his best friend in there, and he might be dying, and he’s just sitting here. If he knew who did this, if he had any idea, then he could go look for them but he has no idea who could have done this. All he can do is sit here and be there for Sonny, even if there isn’t much he can do for his friend. He’s already called everyone that needs to know - at least he hopes he has, he hopes he hasn’t forgotten anyone important. They’ll get here any minute and surely they’ll have a better idea on how to deal with this. They might even be able to give him something to do.
Until then all he can do is wait.
And he doesn’t know how to deal with that.
He should have acted sooner.
Much, much sooner.
He should have just acted on his plans instead of waiting to see what Nick would do next. He should have done something, even if nobody else agreed. He was a DiMera, after all, he had all the power. He should have done something, anything, but he’d decided that the waiting game was better. He’d decided that listening to William was the better plan, it was all about his daughter, after all. He should have just taken Nick out of the equation, consequences be damned. If he had just done what he was supposed to do, if he had not waited, then William would not be dying on an operating table somewhere, Ali would not be crying so hard, and Samantha would not be that broken.
Because Nick did this.
He knows that.
He’s E.J. DiMera, he has learned from the best. So he knows that Nick did this. He can’t prove it. But he knows. It’s the timing. It’s too convenient. It works right into Nick’s favor. Nick was trying so desperately to get his hands on Ari, and now William, the only thing truly standing between him and what he wanted, had been removed from the equation. So this was Nick, it had to be. Or maybe it’s just like last year, someone trying to get to Nick, and William just got caught in the crossfire again. It’s a possibility, but he doesn’t really believe it, it’s too coincidental.
No, Nick has tried to kill William.
He’s tried to kill his stepson. And nobody, absolutely nobody, does something like that to a member of his family. Nobody.
He’ll find Nick. Once he’s taken Samantha to the hospital and they’ve discovered how William is. Once all that is done he will get his hands on Nick and make him pay for what he has done to his family. He’ll do what he should have done in the beginning.
Because he should not have waited.
If he hadn’t then this would not have happened.
This is his fault.
It takes hours before Ali is asleep, but it’s only then that Sami goes to the hospital.
She’s calmer now.
She understands what she couldn’t see before. Sami doesn’t need E.J. to explain things to her, she doesn’t need him to tell her his theory. She knows that Nick did this, knows that because the timing is too perfect for it to be otherwise.
It’s her fault.
Her’s and Kate’s fault, and perhaps even Gabi’s as well. They were the ones who made Nick angry. They were the ones who turned him into an even bigger psycho than he’d been before. It was Gabi who hit him on the head - and yes, she does believe that Nick was trying to rape her and that Gabi was just defending herself. That’s the one thing about this she’s never doubted. But Gabi had done it. And then she and Kate had convinced her to cover it up, to throw what they thought was Nick’s body into the river. But he hadn’t been dead, he’d come back to haunt them. And she’s Sami Brady, she’s incapable of not interfering in things. She is the one who’d always been unable to ignore Nick, regardless of the many consequences.
And now her son was in the hospital, fighting for his life again.
Nick had done this, he had tried to kill her son.
But it was also her fault.
Last year Hope called her.
This time it was T.
A friend of her grandson she’s not quite sure she’s ever talked to. She knows him, she’s met him several times, but Marlena doesn’t think she’s ever had a conversation with the man that lasted longer than a few minutes. Not until he called her to tell her that her grandson, her Will, has been stabbed and is in the hospital. She’d consider the possibility that it’s a cruel joke if the sound of his voice hadn’t been so broken. She can’t believe it.
How time goes. She can’t believe that two years ago Will had been struggling so hard with who he was. And then, just a few weeks ago, she’d married them, Will and Sonny, and they’d been so happy. With Ari, and even Gabi by their side, they had been a happy family. And now Will is dying and it is all too much. How could this have happened? How could they have gone from that truly happy moment to the one they were in right now? What had happened? Marlena doesn’t have the answers to any of these questions and she suspects she won’t have them for a while. She has to go to the hospital. She has to go right now.
Will needs her.
Sami needs her.
She has to go, immediately. Still for a few minutes she’s unable to get up, unable to move from the couch she’d sunk into when T told her what happened. She’s unable to do anything but just sit there and stare straight ahead at nothing. She snaps out of it eventually but she doesn’t know how long she sat there unmoving. There’s a message on her phone.
Somebody tried to call her earlier today but she hadn’t noticed. She hadn’t noticed. What if it was Will? What if Will had tried to call her earlier today? But as she listens to the message left behind she realizes, that it is not Will. It’s Nick. Begging her for help, telling her he wants to change, that he needs someone to talk to. She should help him. She can hear in his voice that he’s completely broken down, that he truly, honestly needs help right now, but she can’t. Not right now. Right now all that matters is that her grandson is in the hospital. She’ll talk to Nick later. She’ll help him and perhaps they can find a solution for that horrible situation, as well. For now she needs to go to the hospital. She needs to be there for her daughter. She needs to be there for her grandson.
Everything else can wait.
There is something seriously wrong with this town.
Maybe it’s something in the water.
How else, Justin wonders, could one explain all the bad things that keep happening. And why so many of them happen to his son-in-law? Why must Will be hurt by life so many times? Why must Sonny be hurt? Neither of them have done anything to deserve any of it. But here they are, after all the months of fighting with Nick for their daughter, here they are in the hospital with Will fighting for his life. It’s just so unbelievable. It was bad enough last year when Will had been shot, but this time everything is just so much worse. Last year the shooter had been taken care of. But this time they don’t even know who stabbed Will, who did this. This time everything is uncertain. Perhaps it’s because Sonny and Will have been together longer, perhaps it’s because they’ve only just gotten married.
Justin doesn’t know.
He does know this: he never wants to go through something like this again. He never wants to see that look on his son’s face again. He never wants him to look so lost, or in so much pain. He just doesn’t want that to happen again. Surely they’ve had enough? Surely any minute now Daniel will come out to tell them that Will is alright. Surely this is the extent of it. Surely nothing bad will happen to Will again. Surely life can’t be cruel enough to steal Will away from Sonny and Ari. Surely.
Justin wishes he was completely convinced about that.
Because if he was, then he could say something to his son. If he was, then he could help his boy.
But he’s not sure.
And telling Sonny something he’s not sure of will probably make everything worse.
So he just sits beside his boy and waits.
There’s nothing else he can do.
Oh, if his nephew had only come to him.
Victor isn’t an idiot. An idiot could never have survived for as long a he did. An idiot would have been murdered a long time ago. So no, he is not an idiot, he knows what’s going on in this town, and he certainly knows every single thing that happens in his family. He knows how much trouble Nick was making for his nephew and his husband. And he also knows that the other man needed to be stopped, he’d reached that conclusion a while ago, but he’d decided to do nothing until Sonny came to him. He’s not sure why he decided that, it sounded like the right thing to do at the time. And then, just this morning, he’d discovered one of his guns was missing. And he’d known it was Sonny - and oh Sonny, how could you be this stupid? Why didn’t you just come to me? Why?
He’d spent all day trying to call his nephew, attempting to stop him from doing something incredibly stupid.
And then he’d gotten that phone call.
He’d expected to be told that Nick had been shot. He had not expected that it was Will who was in the hospital because he’d gotten stabbed. For a moment Victor had truly not understood. For a moment he’d been completely confused. But then it had dawned on him. Nick had done this. Nick must have stabbed Will in an attempt to get him out of the way and now the younger man was fighting for his life. Victor knows this. He can’t prove it, but he knows it. He’s not an idiot, after all.
He has to go to the hospital.
He has to be there for his nephew.
But first he has to get his hands on that gun. He has to find out where his nephew hid that gun and put it back with the others. Before Sonny figures out this has happened and decides to take matters into his own hands. Then he will go to the hospital and be there for Sonny. And once Will is better - because he’ll get better, he has to - once he is better Victor will make Nick pay for what he has done to his family. And if he won’t be able to, then he’s sure E.J. DiMera will. (He and a DiMera working for the same goal. Who would have ever thought it.)
That’s what he’ll do.
That’s all he can do.
He’s too late to do anything else.
His hands are still shaking.
He has no idea how much time has passed. He could probably find out, but his brain isn’t working properly. At least there’s no more blood on his hands. Well, no literal blood at least. Nick suspects that nothing in the world will ever be able to wash the metaphorical blood from his hands. No matter how hard he scrubs - and he’s been scrubbing for hours - his hands still seem bloody to him, even though he knows the actual blood has long since washed off.
Because he killed Will.
He killed Will.
He hadn’t meant to do it, but it had happened. And no matter what he does, no matter how hard he tries to change, nothing will ever be able to wash that sin away. That will always be a part of him now. Will, who had been one of the only people willing to give him a second chance when he got out of prison. Will, who’d believed in him so much that he’d never even considered Nick wasn’t on his side until it was too late. Will, who hadn’t left him behind to be killed, even though he probably deserved it and who had almost died in an attempt to save his life. Will who was still polite to him, despite all that he had done. Will, who was just a good person. Who had never actually done anything to him, beside exist. And he had killed him.
He’d stabbed him.
He he’d done that.
Nothing could ever change that.
But he can’t go back to prison. He just can’t. The idea of what they’ll do to him there, again, is too horrible. He has to find a way out of this. And he will. All he has to do is get rid of the evidence. The knife is already gone, washed downriver, and even if they find it all the evidence will be gone. It’s just his clothes that are left. He has to get rid of them somehow, but how? He can’t just throw those down the river, someone will eventually find them and someone might recognize them, or trace them back to him. He can’t burn them here, either, it will be to suspicious, and someone would see it. He can’t throw them away either. He’ll wash them for now, see if he can get all the blood out of them, and then he’ll get rid of them somehow. Because he can’t go back to prison.
He just can’t.
The guilt eats at him. He knows that will never go away, it will be a part of him forever. He will forever be the one who murdered William Horton, even if he is the only one who knows. Even if no one else ever suspects it. Will’s blood is on his hands and he can’t wash it away. It’s a part of him. He’ll have to live with that. He can’t stay, he knows that too. Maybe in the before he could have, maybe he could have found a way, but even he can’t justify holding Arianna if her father’s blood is on his hands.
He has to leave.
But he can’t do it immediately, that would seem too suspicious. He’ll have to wait until everyone has calmed down a bit.
And hope that nobody discovers the truth in the meantime.
He’s tired.
Surgeries on people he knows always seem to last so much longer than normal surgeries, even though logically Daniel knows they don’t. There’s a reason why most doctors won’t work on somebody they love or know, because it’s too much to ask. Daniel agrees with that, but sometimes you just don’t have a choice. Still, every time it’s someone he knows lying on the table, Daniel feels he ages ten years in the operating room.
This was no different.
But at least he’s alive. For now. Daniel has no idea if Will is going to survive. His blood loss was extensive and his injury severe, but he had done all he could to save him. And the younger man is still alive, at least that was something. He is still alive, breathing on his own, and that means he has the chance to get better. Will has a lot to live for - a husband and a daughter - and that gives Daniel hope. He has to tell Will’s family, has to tell them how bad things look. Has to tell them that things might not turn out alright.
But at least he is still alive.
That’s something.