Fics like The Long Way Back

In July, Will Smith is traded to Calgary. He sits across from his coach and nods in the right places and says the right things, and the whole time the floor is quietly dropping out from underneath him. Prior to this, he had a plan. San Jose. The rebuild. A future he'd let himself believe in without ever saying out loud who was at the center of it. He texts Mack that night. He waits two hours. Yeah. That sucks. But you'll be good up there. Nine words. From the person who has been the fixed point of his life for years now. And then silence, the kind that doesn't stop, that stretches through August and September and October while Will settles into a furnished Calgary apartment with a hollow feeling he's gotten very good at carrying. He stops checking for Mack's name on his phone sometime in August. The Sharks come to Calgary for a game on a Tuesday in November. Will has not been thinking about it for six weeks. It's just a game. He's fine. Then he gets hurt, and he opens his eyes, and Mack is already there.

Fics like The Long Way Back

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