The Fall of the Aftons

058: William Afton

William knocked on Evan's bedroom door, then peeked his head inside. Terrance was sitting on the floor, playing with the little boy.

"Hey, Terr," he said loudly to get his nephew's attention.

Terrance looked up at him with a smile, as did Evan. Evan pushed himself up from the floor and ran over to William on his weak legs. The boy was still so young and was still technically learning how to walk and run.

"Do you need something?" Terrance queried politely.

"Henry and I are going to head over to Fazbear's," William explained. "Will you be okay watching the boys?"

"I'll be fine. We'll see you when you arrive home."

"Brilliant! I should be home around five, okay?"

"See you."

~ ~ ~

"Henry, do you remember what time Mr. Fitzgerald arrives?" William asked as he peeked his head into the dining room from the hallway. "I can't find my diary."

He quickly spotted his friend in the middle of the dining area. Henry was standing in the middle of the room. The first finished endoskeleton stood in front of him, powered off. He was busy making adjustments to the springlocks in the exoskeleton armpiece he held in his hands.

"He comes at noon. Could you help me get some of these pieces on?" he asked with a smile as he looked at William.

"Sure. I need to put this file down first. I won't be long," William said. He walked back down the hallway, entered his office, put the file down, then went to the dining room again. 

"Oh, dammit," Henry muttered as he stared inside the armpiece. "Stupid things." He shoved his hand inside the piece carefully, twisting his arm in uncomfortable positions to fix whatever was wrong. 

Suddenly, a sharp click sounded against the walls. Henry's eyes extended wide in pure terror. 

"Crap, Henry, was that--"

Henry nodded his head excessively fast with his eyes shut in anguish. "Just get over here and crank it open!"

William rushed to his friend's side and grabbed the costume piece. He held it up and scanned it for the crank. When he found it, he instantly took hold of the handle and started to turn it.

Henry screamed in agony, and William panicked as he immediately started to turn the crank the other way. As soon as the crank was as loose as it could go, he let go and took off his jacket as Henry flung the bloody costume piece off of his arm. He grabbed his friend's flailing arm and wrapped his jacket around the deep wound before he sped away to the First Aid kit from the supply closet.

The moment he entered the small room, he found the medical bag and grabbed it, then ran out of the room as fast as his long legs could take him. He went back to the dining room, where Henry was sitting as he pressed his hand strongly on the still-carpeted floor, and fell to his knees next to his pained friend. He dug through the bag and pulled out a few rolls of thick gauze before he grabbed Henry's hand. He unwrapped his now blood-soaked jacket from his friend's injured arm, blood splattering onto both of them--mostly William.

"Gah! Blimey, this is worse than I thought," William mumbled nervously as he started to wrap Henry's hand and wrist with the gauze.

It took two and a half rolls of gauze for the bleeding to stop.

"Are you all right?" William asked when he finished treating Henry's hand.

Henry carefully examined his hand, hissing in pain. "I'll be fine," he replied quietly. "I just have to keep it clean. I'll disinfect it when I get home." He sighed, then slumped and leaned on his friend's shoulder. "Thanks for helping me. I'm so sorry that this even happened--I was trying to be careful, but the springlock was more dislocated than I thought."

"It's perfectly fine. Don't worry about it. I'm sorry that I cranked it the wrong way. I didn't mean to make it worse."

Henry chuckled. He shifted his weight so he now relied on William to keep him upright. "It's fine," he promised sweetly. He reached out and grabbed the bloody costume piece with his uninjured hand. "Looks like working on the new characters will have to take a break." He set the piece down and sighed again.

"I'm sorry," William said as he rested his hand on Henry's knee, trying to be comforting. "Is it feeling better, at least?"

"No. Not at all."

"Why don't we go to your house to properly treat the wound?" he suggested.

Henry sighed yet again. "I guess so."

~ ~ ~

William walked to the back door of Henry's house. But he stopped in his tracks when he didn't hear his friend's footsteps following behind him. He turned around and found Henry looking through his bedroom window. Not surprising. It was probably a habit.

William frowned and asked, "Is she there?"

Henry shook his head slowly and walked over to William, then stood at his friend's side. William could see on Henry's face that he was thinking about all of the times he caught his wife cheating on him. The poor guy...

Trying to be comforting, William grabbed Henry's hand after he double-checked that the hand he took wasn't the injured one. He have a sad smile when Henry responded by gently squeezing his hand.

The two made their way inside the house. They walked down the back hall. Henry let go of William's hand when they neared the bathroom. Henry quickly walked into the bathroom and started to take off the bandage wrap. William hesitated, watching his close friend, before he left to go into the kitchen.

As soon as he arrived at the kitchen, he grabbed the stuffed-to-the-brim duffel bag filled with medical supplies. He quickly made his way back to the bathroom, where Henry was unwrapping his hand super carefully. His frown deepened when he saw that Henry winced every time he went too fast.

"Slow down, Hen. I can help," William said reassuringly. He rested his hand on his friend's shoulder. "But for me to do that, you need to actually give me the chance to help."

Henry swallowed hard and wiped his eyes with the back of his uninjured hand. "Sorry. I'm sorry. I just wanna get outta here before Doc comes home with her boyfriend."

William nodded his head understandingly as he softly lifted Henry's hand. He started to unwrap the thick gauze, apologizing every time Henry grimaced. It took about five minutes to get the gauze wrap off without hurting Henry too much. He chuckled when all of the bandages were off and Henry gagged at the sight of the wound.

"Hold your hand above the sink," William demanded gently as he went over to the First Aid bag. He bent down next to the bag and took out an oversized dropper and a bottle of iodine. He stood back up and went over to the sink, then filled the dropper with water and a small amount of iodine. He carefully grabbed Henry's hand and started to cautiously irrigate the wound.

Henry hissed in sharp pain as the water-iodine mix disinfected the deep wound. He couldn't stop flinching as William worked. When William was about halfway done, he flinched so much that bloody water splattered over him and William.

William sighed. "Henry, I know it hurts, but you have to stop moving. If you don't, this is just going to take us longer," he told his friend disappointedly.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It just hurts," Henry muttered as he looked away from the deep wound. "How are Michael's shoulder and leg?" he asked in a desperate attempt to distract himself from the pain.

William chuckled softly. "Much better. He's allowed to take the bandages off of his shoulder soon. His leg is almost healed, too." He sighed. "He's nervous about the scars that are going to be there, though."

"Yeah. I can understand that. None of those hold good memories."

"Scars rarely do," he agreed. "There. I'm done cleaning it. What's next?"

"You have to dry it, then wrap it," Henry mumbled as he flexed his fingers. He grimaced and reached to clutch his pained hand, but stopped himself at the last second and took a deep breath instead.

William did as he said. As soon as he was done, he gave Henry a huge hug. Henry buried his head in between William's shoulder and neck, soaking up the comfort.