Squares Learns to Face Fatherhood

This thread follows Squares as Wanda’s pregnancy forces him to confront his unresolved grief over the son he lost and decide whether he can build a family in the present.

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The Pregnancy Revealed

Wanda’s News A Private Disclosure Wanda tells Will that she is pregnant and that Squares has known for a week. She expected him to be happy, but instead he has been avoiding her, taking extra van shifts, and teaching more classes. The news exposes a silence inside the close friendship between Will and Squares: even a man who shares nearly everything with Will has withheld this fear. Wanda asks Will not to excuse Squares’s retreat simply because Will is grieving. An Unanswered Choice Wanda fears Squares wants her to end the pregnancy, though he has not said so directly. His absence leaves her facing both the medical uncertainty of pregnancy and the emotional uncertainty of whether he will stand beside her. The disclosure makes the coming decision personal rather than abstract. Squares’s response will reveal whether the care he gives others can extend to the people closest to him.

A Child in the Past

Michael’s Death The Secret Squares Carried While driving through Manhattan, Squares asks Will how surprised he would be to learn that Squares had a child. He admits that his son, Michael, died before reaching his fourth birthday. Squares had been only a teenager when Michael was born. He saw him twice and left him with a young mother struggling with addiction, a decision he cannot soften with the excuse that he was a child himself. A Burden That Remains Michael’s mother later drove into a truck while intoxicated, killing them both. Squares still does not know whether the crash was deliberate, and the uncertainty keeps his guilt unresolved. He explains that saving runaway children has become entangled with a private hope: perhaps rescuing enough young people could somehow answer for the child he failed to protect. His confession shows the pain beneath his work and his fear that he is beyond redemption.

Fear of Becoming a Father

The Pregnancy Becomes Real Wanda’s History Wanda explains that she was the only Black girl in her high-school class and excelled academically before choosing Princeton. There, a growing conviction that she did not belong led to anorexia and dangerous starvation. Her illness damaged her organs, and doctors once doubted she could become pregnant or carry a child to term. Now she is pregnant, but her physician cannot promise that continuing will be safe. Wanda tells Squares that she is frightened, both for her health and for what the pregnancy asks of their relationship. The Choice Is Hers Squares initially argues around the decision, raising the idea of choice without saying plainly what he wants. Wanda rejects the evasion: she needs him to speak honestly and not use abstract principles to hide from his feelings. She makes clear that the medical risk is hers to take. The scene reframes the pregnancy as a test of trust: Wanda is not asking Squares to decide for her, but to remain emotionally present while she decides.

Retreat at the Threshold

Squares Shuts Down The Question Returns At three in the morning, Wanda waits for Squares in their dark apartment and asks whether he wants her to end the pregnancy. She is still in the first trimester, she says, and could take a pill, but she will not make the choice without knowing where he stands. Squares says he is exhausted and tries to postpone the conversation. Wanda refuses to let him disappear behind fatigue; his silence has already made her feel alone with a decision that affects both of them. Fear Disguised as Caution Wanda reveals how much the pregnancy means after years of believing her body might not allow it. Squares acknowledges that he loves her but says he may not be equipped to handle fatherhood. He then suggests that they should not continue, citing the risks to her health. Wanda answers that the risk is hers, while making clear that her fear is not limited to medicine. Squares leaves before he can offer the reassurance she needs, repeating the pattern of avoidance that the story has been exposing.

A Shared Decision

Squares Returns to Wanda A Conversation Finally Held After Will and Squares have returned from Idaho, Squares tells Will that he and Wanda have talked. He does not explain every detail, but the relief in his words marks a change: he has stopped treating the pregnancy as a problem he can evade by staying away. Their decision is to become parents sooner than expected. The resolution does not erase Squares’s grief over Michael or Wanda’s health concerns; instead, it lets them face the future together rather than leaving Wanda to carry the uncertainty alone. Care in the Present Squares’s movement from avoidance to commitment parallels the work he does at Covenant House: staying, returning, and offering support even when he cannot guarantee an outcome. His past remains part of him, but it no longer dictates that he must withdraw from another child’s life. For Will, the news arrives amid his own sudden approach to fatherhood. Their conversation quietly binds the friends’ futures together, without pretending that either man can control what parenthood will bring.

During the first week after Sheila Rogers disappears

After Will and Squares begin searching the streets for Sheila

After Squares tells Will about Michael

The night before Will and Squares fly to Idaho

Five days after Will and Katy escape the forest hideout