Three week Glee hiatus, the horrors! To try and make it go by faster, I decided to do this project. I'll put up one new ficlet every day (I hope...) up to the day Glee returns! So be on the lookout! :)
"SMOKING GUN"
Will and Emma
She kept her eyes closed for the longest time once she’d regained her office, her chair… shutting out the world, shutting out the light, she could try and find her way back to before what she’d seen. Just as much as she was trying to shut it out though, there was another part still that wanted to understand, that could not in good conscience ignore…
“Hey, Emma, got a second?”
She jumped, her knee jerking up and crashing into her desk in the process. She didn’t cry out - she squeaked, trying to remain collected, as her eyes had flown open in an instant and shown Will standing at her door. She tried to brush off the incident, but her knee was throbbing and her eyes were tearing.
“I-I’m fine, I…” she shook her head, but Will had already moved to inspect her knee, crouching, touching it gently. She winced… shivered.
“Didn’t break skin…” he observed. He was looking at her knee… she was trying not to look at him. “I’ll get you some ice,” he stood.
“N-no, I… it’s fine,” she waved her hand, moving to sit up straight again. “What did you want to talk about?” Will remained standing there for a while, as though he was still considering the ice. After giving him a nod, he let out a breath and went to sit across from her desk. Once he couldn’t see, her hand moved to massage at her aching knee.
“It’s about Terri, and the baby…”
Her hand shuddered over her knee. Did he know? She blinked, looked to her desk, her cup, the ink stain on his sleeve, before she managed to look at him again. “Oh…” she tried to sound normal.
“Yeah,” he continued slowly. “I’ve just been thinking, after the baby’s born, with the Glee club… Already, it seems like time is getting harder to divide…”
Emma just stared as he spoke. Right then, she really wished she didn’t know what she knew. If she was the one to tell him how his wife had been lying to him for months, things would never be as they’d been… but if she didn’t tell him…
“Emma?”
She blinked, looked back to him. She needed time to think… she couldn’t do it with him standing there.
“Sorry, it’s… my… knee,” she finally sputtered out.
“Say no more,” he nodded with a smile. “I’ll be right back.”
“Okay,” she remained still as she watched him go. Once he was gone, she let out a breath, sitting back in her chair, closing her eyes.
“Miss Pillsbury?” a voice cut into her attempt to form coherent thought.
“Not now…” she muttered.
“S-sorry,” said the shy voice. She snapped out of it then, sitting up.
“No, uh… Derek, right?” The short freshman stammered a nod. “Come back in… ten minutes?” he nodded again, shuffling away. Emma stood as she watched him go and, once again, she squeaked, realizing this was a mistake. She sank back in her chair.
What was she supposed to do? No matter what happened, she could end up the “bad guy.” Was she better off not knowing?
She’d walked into Sheets & Things on her lunch break, her sole mission being to stock Ken up on clean, fresher towels, in hopes he’d rid himself of the ones he was using. She was picking through a stack of blue towels when she saw her… Terri Schuester. Ever since her last encounter with Will’s wife, she’d made sure to keep out of her path, and yet she’d ended up doing quite the opposite.
She was just going to abandon her towel hunt to another day, when she noticed something… odd. She ducked behind a shelf of towels, staring above the stack. Terri was still bent over, picking up sheets that had been left on the ground.
Something wasn’t right, her stomach folded as though… No, it couldn’t… When she stood back up, she looked to herself, looked around, and…
Emma gasped, moving away from the shelf. Ken’s towels could wait. She scurried out of the store, back to her car, back to school.
“The old standard,” she was drawn back to reality, finding Will had returned, brandishing a frozen bag of peas. He gestured to assure that it was okay to approach. She blinked, then nodded. She watched him come to stand in front of her once again. She winced, then relaxed as the initial shock of the cold faded and she reached to hold the bag in place herself. She hesitated, knowing in the handoff their fingers would likely brush. They didn’t, no more than a graze. For a moment, neither of them moved, or talked.
“I’m sure the kids will understand,” she finally broke silence. He was confused at first, but then he remembered their earlier conversation.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“You can always get some help, an assistant, or co-director.”
“Well we know how that went the last time…” he gave her a look.
“Well, that was different,” she pointed out. Will seemed to agree.
“I’ll think about it,” he stood back.
“Okay,” she nodded. He started to move away. She could feel the words on the tip of her tongue, begging to come out. She tried to hold them back, fearing they would just spill out, uncontrolled and crushing everything in their path. She tried, tried… one escaped. “Will…”
He stopped at the door, and she had to look to the bag of peas, reminding herself that, even when not in her current predicament, she couldn’t physically kick herself in any attempt to hold back more words. “Yeah?” Will spoke. He was looking at her, she was looking at him… it would be so easy to just come clean, and yet…
“I, uh…”
“Miss Pillsbury?” She almost struck her knee… again. Derek was back, looking smaller, if that was possible. Will smiled to him… Derek didn’t respond.
“Well, I’ll leave you two alone. You take care of that knee,” Will told Emma. She tried to say something, but it appeared her will to hold on to the secret was well able to hold, letting Will get away, leaving her alone with shrinking Derek. Emma sat back, uncertain whether she was disappointed or relieved that she hadn’t been able to speak. That she hadn’t been able to speak. All she knew was that she’d have to find a way to deal with this secret… or it would eat her alive.
THE END
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