So Kiss Me Goodbye

Will had been sitting in the LAX airport for three hours watching the planes come in.

Every time one of them brought a new load of passengers Will's fingers subconsciously dug deeper into the armrest of his seat.

As they filed through every moment or so he'd glance down at the flight number written on a scrap of paper and up at the board, checking to see if it had come in and he missed it.

In the silence of the airport he was left to his own painful thoughts of what had happened in the last twenty-four hours

It all felt so wrong, leaving Lilly and his son all for the sake of what now felt like a stupid standoff of stubbornness.

For being a lyricist he knew the letter he left Lilly ended up as more of an ultimatum of marriage or separation; a mistake he made in the early morning hours with little sleep.

If she chose to stay in Chicago he didn't know how he'd live without her.

If she came to LA though... he knew he'd never let her go again.

As much as he knew his label would be furious, Will decided then and there that if Lilly didn’t come to LA he would go back to Chicago.

"Flight 32A from O'Hare to LAX arriving on time in Gate 12, Terminal 6." A cool feminine voice announced over the intercom.

Will perked up, looking down to check that is was the same flight, which it was.

His hands began getting a little clammy, knowing this was the moment of truth to see whether or not their marriage would survive.

After he couldn’t stand sitting for much longer, Will got up from his seat and began pacing, letting his long legs awkwardly lead him across the carpeted terminal.

People soon began filling out into the terminal as Will looked at each of their faces, moving onto the next once he realized it wasn’t her.

He spent what felt like a lifetime scanning strangers faces as the crowd thinned, but he still held out hope.

It wasn’t till the flight crew walked out and the doors closed with a click did that bubble of hope pop.

Will shakily dropped down into his chair, everything around him growing quiet while chaos began in his mind.

As his thoughts settled he finally realized it.

She wasn’t coming.

~x~

Will didn’t remember how he made it back to the apartment complex from the airport but before he knew it he was sitting in the living room staring at a blank TV.

It was like when those doors closed his heart stopped.

All it took was time for Will to began feeling once more, but it all hit him like a tidal wave.

He was overwhelmed with that feeling of failure and sadness, resigning himself to the end of his marriage, his family, and Lilly.

Will never meant their fight to go that far last night, for things to escalate so fast and so dangerous.

He loved her so much he didn’t want to see her hurt, but avoiding all those problems like they had had come to bite them in the ass.

The thought that maybe it wasn’t meant to be lingered in the back of his mind, but his head was already reeling from their fight he couldn’t quite let that be added to the equation.

For hours he sat like that, almost invalid as he slowly drowned in his thoughts.

He was so far withdrawn in his head he didn’t hear the door open.

"Will?" A panicked voice exclaimed from the doorway.

That one voice could’ve woken him from death, drawing him closer to the entryway.

As he looked around the doorway he thought his heart would explode from the rate it was beating.

Lilly had never looked so gorgeous to him, despite her obvious nerves and disheveled appearance as she stood in the hallway surrounded by bags with the baby next to them in his car seat.

"You!" She whirled upon seeing him. "You expect me to fly from O'Hare to LAX with six bags and a baby all by myself? What the hell is wrong with you? You said you'd be there but no, I had to drag all of this crap and a child here on my own!"

Lilly's exclamations didn’t faze Will as he quickly ran up to her and gathered her up in his arms, giving her a long passionate kiss like there was no tomorrow.

As he pulled away for air he rested his forehead against hers.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry for everything, I didn't mean it, I'm so sorry Lilly, I love you." He breathed, his words coming out almost as fast as his heartbeat.

She withdrew a little out of surprise, confusion on her face.

"Will?"

"I thought I'd lost you." He whispered, slipping his arms back around her, afraid if he didn’t hold her she'd disappear.

His sudden serious affection caught Lilly off guard as she was expecting another argument like in Chicago, not this.

"I... I... You didn’t think that I would actually leave you did you?" She asked softly.

Will didn’t answer, he didn’t have to as Lilly could see just by the look in his eyes he did.

"I was late to my flight and I spent half an hour arguing with the people there to give me a ticket on the next flight. Trust me I got so desperate to get here I pulled a Wedding Singer and told everyone around me the whole story. Peer pressure does amazing things." She laughed softly. "I did it all to get back to you."

Will still didn’t say anything to her, somewhat lost in the situation till Zackie began fussing a little.

Letting go of Lilly he reached down and picked Zackie up, giving him a lingering kiss on his forehead as he held him close.

Lilly took his free hand and led him over to the living room, her feet already tired from getting there as she shut the door and left the bags there.

They sank into the couch, knowing there was a lot they needed to talk about.

"I'm sorry for everything that happened last night. Some things I said I didn’t mean, I just said them to hurt you." He murmured sadly.

Lilly nodded. "I know... and they did. But I did the same and we needed to fight. We needed to get all of that out. I mean, we've gone through all of this drama and never really confronted each other."

"Let's just promise we'll work things out when they happen and not let things get this bad." Will stated, giving her a quick kiss.

She nodded quickly, having come to the same conclusion on the flight there.

Entwining his fingers with hers Will spoke up.

"So does this mean you're staying?" He asked hopefully.

"You said you'd do the believing for the both of us right? Well I love you, and those two things should be enough." Lilly replied. "I've seen what it's like without you and if being with you means living on the road and risking everything.... well then I'd rather take the chance than none at all."

Will's warm brown eyes softened and with Zackie in between them he pulled Lilly into a tender kiss.

"If things ever get this bad just remember, I love you more than anything in the world and I'll do whatever I have to do to keep us together." He replied softly.

Lilly melted right then and there into his arms.

She knew Will would never let the fears she had toward their future come true.

They'd almost lost everything out of their own insecurities, but they had to so the could rise from the ashes of their mistakes.

There were still a lot of things they needed to work out but they had time, neither of them was going anywhere.

Somehow through all the touring and traveling, fans and fame, they'd make it.