The Fall of the Aftons

074: William Afton

William watched as Henry paced, and paced, and paced, and paced around the hallway in front of Doc's hospital room. The poor man was so nervous that he was constantly shaking and he couldn't stop pacing as he mumbled things to himself. So when William couldn't take his friend's never-ending anxiety anymore, he stood up from the bench he was sitting on and embraced Henry from behind, stopping the pacing loop. Thankfully, Henry didn't try to fight out of the gentle grasp of his hug. Henry just stood there, enjoying the familiar comfort as he twisted the silver wedding band on his finger. He let William lead him to the bench and sat down, leaning against William as he intertwined his gloved hand with his best friend's.

"Are you excited? You're finally going to have your own children now. You've been waiting for this for years," William said as he brushed a frizzy strand of hair out of his face.

"I still can't believe that she's having twins," Henry mumbled. "Even after months of knowing, it still feels impossible."

"Mister Afton?" someone called.

William looked around, not surprised to find Mister Rixon. Michael was standing next to the tall man.

William stood up, hesitant to let go of Henry's hand for fear of his friend panicking again. As soon as he was on his feet, though, Michael ran over to him and hugged him.

"Thank you, Riley," William said as he waved goodbye to TJ and Lavendar's father.

Riley nodded, waved, and walked away.

William looked down at Michael and offered a smile. Michael returned it as William noticed just how tall his son was. He was a lot taller now than he was a good four years ago. Mike was nine years old now and he was just under five feet tall.

"How did you get so tall so fast?" William asked, laughter filling his words.

Michael shrugged, then laughed. "Maybe I'll be as tall as you soon."

William laughed. "Possibly."

After about an hour of waiting, a nurse left Doc's hospital room and said that Henry was allowed to come inside now. Grinning gratefully, Henry dragged William and Michael inside the room with him.

And there she was.

Henry's wife was laying in her hospital bed, holding two little babies in her arms. Henry rushed to her side and talked to her, asking her how she was and how the twins were doing.

~ ~ ~

Many months passed since Charlotte and Samuel--Henry and Doc's kids--were born. Michael graduated elementary school and turned ten years old shortly after. This year, he had asked for a birthday party. William had tried before to let him have one, but he never wanted it. He said that he didn't like celebrating his birthday very much for two reasons: one was because he couldn't celebrate it with his twin, and two was because Terrance had passed away on his birthday. But, this year, he asked if he was still allowed to have one. Since Noah was going to move away in a couple of weeks because of a promotion his dad was offered, Michael wanted to have a final good memory to share with his best friend.

So that's exactly what they did.

Michael had his party at the park across the street from the Center since that's where he had first met Noah, he said. William was able to rent out the pavilion the park offered for a few hours and decorated the inside with some blue and green balloons per Michael's suggestion--blue because it was his favorite color, green to represent Khael and Terrance's favorite color in memory of them--as well as some dark blue tablecloths.

The party itself was very small. The only people that were invited were Michael's few friends and the Emilys. Lavender couldn't make it because she had a softball game that day, but everybody else made it. Noah, TJ, Ella, and Analex all came. The Emilys didn't, though, since the twins were still so young and Doc was busy all day.

After Michael's party ended, he couldn't stop talking about how much fun he had with his friends. Even though it was small and calm, he still had a blast with all of his friends. He said that it was the very first birthday party that he had and he was glad that he had it. It was also the first birthday that he didn't constantly think about the people he'd lost.