Will finally has his cast taken off. It’s been a week since they went to say hi to his mom, and the pack met his brother. And six whole weeks since he had it put on.

He had to start physical therapy when he got out of it, since when they checked his leg for the arthritis that had started to appear, it had now been firmly settled there.

The whole deal sucked, especially when he was told his leg healed weird, so his limp is permanent unless he wants to do surgery on it again to try to fix it.

Will is tired of being in the hospital. He’s tired of being away from his friends. He’d rather walk weird and be free of crutches.

So, he’s been undergoing physical therapy for weight-bearing exercises. Whether his limp is permanent or not, being able to walk at all would be great.

Now that his leg cast has been removed, the itchy skin can get air. It feels great to have his leg free of the extra weight weighing it down. The sensitive skin had been relieved on the first day it came off.

Since then, Will has been, to his ire, confined to Eve and his apartment, for his apparent safety, but he can’t help but feel like he can’t breathe. It’s leagues better than the general hospital, but he wants fresh air.

He wants something to happen, something that isn’t weighed down by everything that’s slowly fallen apart.

“What about the park, the movies, maybe we could try painting.” Noah listed activities aimlessly, her body slumped over the back of their couch.

“What if we went to a water park?” She talked to anyone who was listening. Oakley sat a little bit away from her on the couch, scrolling through shows on the TV.

Eveline was moving about the kitchen, raiding their pantry of any snacks, her body doing a pretzel to bend down into the cabinets. With Will sitting at the wooden kitchen table, his head half resting in his crossed arms, one arm stretched out over the table, while the other cushioned one of his cheeks.

It was a particularly boring day, full of moping, unnamed emotions, and dwelling on things they shouldn’t. So when Noah suggests going somewhere, it’s a welcome change. One that has Will figuratively snapping his neck to look at her.

“I would do anything for a bit of fresh air.” He stood up from his seat at the table, the chair sliding out from under him as he pushed off.

Will shuffled his foot as he walked over to where Oakley and Noah sat, then flopped his body over the edge of the couch. Will's arms were touching pillows as his head came to level between them.

“Let’s go outside,” Will almost begged, his tail wagging behind him, “We haven’t left the house in at least a couple of days, and I haven’t been outside for more than a couple of minutes in at least a month or so, let’s go outside.” He reasoned, bumping shoulders with Oakley, and looking over at where Eveline leaned on the counter with a bag of chips and cut-up apple slices.

“If we don’t go outside today, I’m going to die.” He flopped again, dramatically pushing his head into the couch as he slid to the floor slowly.

Oakley huffed out an amused laugh at that, “Okay, too soon, Willbert, let’s go on a walk or something.” Will could see Oakley’s face looking down at him from his spot on the couch, a hand reaching out to him.

He smiled at him before he pulled himself up with his hand.

“Finally.” He muttered to himself as he patted his knees off, ignoring the pain he had incurred by standing up.

“Where should we go? Noah threw a lot of things out there.” Eveline Pondered, putting her chips away, before walking over to where Will stood.

“Water park or regular park? I’m personally all for going to a water park.” Noah started a vote, calling out water park and then regular park, the group putting their hands up to vote for which one they wanted to go to.

Everyone except Oakley voted for the water park. “Looks like you’re outvoted, Oaktree. Do you not want to get watered?” Noah teased, lifting one of her eyebrows smugly as she joked.

“Terrible joke, and no, I just want to listen to the birds, let’s go, though.” Oakley chuckled to himself at Noah’s subpar tree jokes.

With everyone agreeing in some fashion to water fun, Will went rifling through their closet, pulling out a bag of water guns and other things he had prepared for a moment like this.

“I’ve been waiting for this.” He snickered to himself, attracting a couple of worried and amused eyes. Eveline walked over to a corner, her phone ringing a couple of times before it picked up.

They could hear a bit of muffled talking, something about a car, and meeting everyone properly for the first time. “Are your parents off today?” Noah asked curiously since that sounded like them.

“Yeah, it’s the weekend, so they’re free to come to the water park with us,” Eve affirmed after she ended the call, slipping the phone in her pocket. “I told them to pick us up, since we’ll all be going anyway. This way, everyone can meet under better circumstances than last time.”

Eveline’s voice got quiet at the end, a little tense; everyone knew what last time meant. “Have I met them?” Will muttered to himself, half out loud, but under his breath. He was incredibly delirious around the time he was taken to the hospital; his memory production waned to staying awake and alive. Will doesn’t remember meeting them even before that.

“No, I think you left before they could see you,” Eve states, sighing a little. He nodded gently, picking up the bag and setting it on the couch.

“Do we need to grab anything before we go?” Oakley inquired, ever the one for a checklist. He stood up from the couch to glance around the room for things they would require. He began to stockpile them in a bag he found lying around.

“Sure, we should probably grab everything we need now, since they’re on their way.” Eveline rushed them, pushing Noah with her to her room, probably changing. “I’ll leave you to it, I’m gonna go change.” After making a pointed gesture with one arm to his door, Will shuffled to his room as fast as he could. Elbows deep in his dresser, he fished out his swim trunks and a large jacket.

Quickly changing, he took the barest note of the scars over his chest from where they sewed his skin together after setting his ribs. Similar scars over his knee and shin, which led to the ankle.

Healed now, but no less grizzly, he resolved himself to zipping up his jacket over his chest, letting the comfortable material fall over him as he pushed away nightmares of the same skin held open.

Breath, pinched for a moment, he took a deep inhale and let it leave him slowly, reminding himself that he was happy to go outside.

He heard a knock on the door, and he almost jumped out of his skin.

“Do you have extra trunks?”Oakley asked from outside. “Uh, yeah, you can come in.”

He opened the door and stood to the side before returning to the drawer and fishing out another pair of swim trunks, this pair bigger than his. “Thanks.” Oakley took them, walking to another corner of the room.

“I’m gonna go sit on the couch.” Will notified him, before closing the door after himself and sitting down on the couch, fiddling with the edges of his shorts.

He felt nervous, for some strange reason. Why was that? Will didn’t want to dwell on it anymore. Whatever it was, it could wait till after they had a good time at the water park.

William encouraged himself as the rest of the group came out from the rooms, wearing their respective swimsuits and trunks.

Two light raps on the door directed their attention. A muffled and deep voice could be heard on the other side.

You could never guess who the owner was, a high-standing police officer. Usually, people with kind and comforting voices only worked in lower rungs.