He’s walking down the halls of McKinley when he thinks he hears the familiar music coming from the auditorium. Most of the staff have gone home for the day, and he’s only there because he had some last minute things to pick up from his office.

He wanders into one of his favourite places at the school, waiting to be caught off guard by six kids singing their hearts out on stage, but it’s empty. It figures, really, because today, most of them graduated, and he didn’t really expect them to stick around to humour him.

He knows that as a teacher, he shouldn’t have preferences regarding his students, but he figures it’s okay to have a few exceptions. They don’t know it, but the New Directions saved his life and got him to the place that he is, and he’ll forever be grateful for that.

The tears come unashamedly quickly, even after all the ones he shed when he saw his kids collecting their diplomas (if someone had told him three years ago that he would have cried so much over Noah Puckerman getting a scholarship to Ohio State, he would have asked them if Sandy Ryerson had been supplying them with pot).

He still has some of them at least. Sure, their biggest star might be leaving for New York with her boyfriend, but it doesn’t mean he’s any less grateful for the ones he gets to keep for a little while longer (Artie will no doubt resent how clingy he knows he’s going to become, but it’s better than nothing).

His kids? They’re all going to be fine, and though he’s always dreamt of having a family of his own, he’s had one all along, and he’s only just beginning to realise that. There’s a reason that they all promised to keep in touch, even Quinn and Santana, and he knows that he’s going to be waiting anxiously to hear from them all. Kurt promised him front row seats to his first show, and he’s more than a little excited at the idea.

He scans the empty auditorium one last time, his eyes glazed over with tears, and he knows that it isn’t over, not really. They’re all invited to the wedding, of course, and with Finn as his best man, getting married again doesn’t seem as daunting as he expected.

Will smiles wistfully, grips his bag tightly on his shoulder, then turns out the auditorium lights. Things might be different now, but one thing’s for sure; his New Directions have made him the proudest man on earth. 

Mr Schuester: You should know that there’s some boy out there who’s gonna like you for everything you are, including those parts of you that even you don’t like; those are gonna be the things he likes the most.