The Fall of the Aftons

119: William Afton

With an exhausted yawn, William shoved his house key into the lock, unlocked the door, and pushed it open. He expected to be greeted by Michael taking care of Elizabeth, Evan, and Charlie. But he was instead greeted by Michael's friends taking care of the kids with Michael nowhere to be seen.

"What are you four doing here?" William asked as he closed the door behind him, his voice annoyed and exhausted. He didn't want to deal with this right now. He just wanted to go upstairs, take a shower, finish up his last few sheets of paperwork, and go to bed. "Where's Michael?"

"He's upstairs, sleeping," Lavender answered quietly as she lifted Evan from the couch. "Analex, can you get his Fredbear plush from the laundry room when you're done helping Beth with her nebulizer?"

"Yeah," Analex replied kindly as she adjusted the nebulizer mask on Elizabeth's face.

Lavender grinned and brought Evan upstairs to assumedly put him to bed.

"Did Michael seriously call you here just so he could sleep?" William asked, starting to get irritated.

"What? No!" Estella exclaimed, looking at William like he was crazy as she set one of Charlie's dolls on the floor.

"He hasn't been at school all week!" Analex continued. "We came to make sure that he was okay. He was basically sleepwalking when we got here, so we stayed to watch over the kids and he could catch some desperately needed zs."

"He hasn't been at school?" he asked. "Why?"

"Are you being serious right now?" Analex nearly shouted as she set Elizabeth back on the floor and stood up. "He's been here all week, taking care of his siblings and watching over Charlie! He told us that you've been 'too tired'"--she finger-quoted--"to call a babysitter. But I'm starting to think that's not the case here!"

"Back off, Lex," TJ said calmly, coming in from the kitchen with a plate of cookies. He kneeled next to Charlie and gave her two of them before he stood back up. "I know that you're upset. We all are. But that's no reason to be disrespectful."

"TJ's right," Estella agreed, then went over to him and took one of the cookies, taking a big bite out of it. "We're all tired and frustrated, but we shouldn't be rude."

"Were you even the one to take Beth and Evan to the doctor? Or was that Michael?" Analex continued, ignoring her friends' warnings.

"Michael took them to the doctor's office? Who paid for the appointment?" William asked, starting to feel a little bad. Had he been that ignorant?

"Assumedly he did," Estella said.

"How did he get them to the doctor's office, to begin with?"

"He probably asked my brother to bring them," Analex answered, crossing her arms. "He told Michael that if he ever needed a ride, he could call him." She bent back down next to Elizabeth and turned off the nebulizer, then took the mask off of the little girl's head before she lifted Elizabeth onto her hip.

"Could you all shut up?!" Noah demanded as he walked up to the guard rails by the entrance to the second floor. "I can hear all of you from the third floor! I finally got Michael to fall asleep, and you guys are going to wake him up!"

"Sorry," Analex, TJ, Estella, and William all said.

"When he has a nightmare, don't--" William started, but Noah cut him off.

"Michael already told me what to do when he has a nightmare. I don't need your inaccurate guidance on what to do, too." He looked at his friends. "Do you guys need any help before I go back with Michael?"

"Can you come watch Beth so I can go get Evan's plush for Lavender?" Analex asked.

"Mmhmm," he hummed as he came downstairs. "Does she need her peak flow meter done?"

"If you could do that, that'd be great," she said appreciatively. "If she's in yellow, don't be surprised. Michael said that her doctor already knows about her extended time in yellow because of her flu."

"Got it," Noah said as he took Elizabeth from her. "Go get your stuff done."

William sighed and watched Michael's friends take care of the kids for a few more minutes before he went upstairs to get his work done.