"Sometimes you fall down because there's something down there worth finding." -Unknown
When Will Graham wakes up, he's surprised. Not surprised at where he is, but surprised that he's anywhere. Was it simply a vivid dream that he had tumbled off the cliff clutching onto Hannibal Lecter? Was it all in his mind that he had plummeted closer and closer to the water below. He remembered blacking out, but he assumed he had died then. Perhaps... he had survived? Well, that must be it.
Will looks around the room he resides in. Wood panels line the room with small windows here and there. There is a small wooden table with a matching chair in the corner and a dresser in the other. There is another chair as well as a small fireplace beside the bed Will lies in. The bed has an ugly quilt on it, but the shabby interior of the cabin does not matter at the moment.
There are more pressing matters that need addressing.
Will sits up and lets out a small cry as he feels a stab of pain in the right side of his chest. That's right, Will thinks. I was stabbed.
"Did you forget you were stabbed?" a voice with a distinct accent asks from seemingly nowhere.
Will looks to his right and leaning against the frame of a hallway leading back into the cabin is someone Will thought he'd never see again.
Hannibal Lecter himself.
The doctor does not look well. Baggy, dark circles underline his brown eyes. His skin is pale and ashen. His hair is disheveled, locks turning this way and that. There's even a bit of stubble on his chin and cheeks. Despite, all this, it's still Hannibal.
Will breaths, "Hannibal."
"Hello, Will." Hannibal replies, walking over and sitting down in the wooden chair in the corner. "How are you feeling?"
"Not great," Will admits, rubbing his eyes.
"Well, taking a tumble off a cliff will do that to a person," Hannibal replies, a slight acidity to his voice.
Will looks down at his hands, fidgeting. "Look, Hannibal, why I did th-"
"I know why you did it," Hannibal interrupts. "You felt that you needed to kill me; I am a menace to society after all. However, you couldn't bring yourself to actually commit murder against me."
"Of course I couldn't kill you," Will replies. "How could I?"
"You couldn't. So you decided on the next best thing," Hannibal says. "It was a good plan... except for the fact that it didn't work out so well."
"No. So, where are we?" Will changes the subject.
"We are in a cabin in Berlin, Maryland. Chiyoh owns it. She's out getting supplies at the moment," Hannibal explains.
"I see," Will nods. "When will she be back?"
"I'm not sure. Don't want to be alone with me, Will?" Hannibal asks.
"No, I'm simply wondering," Will replies, looking at his fidgeting fingers.
There's an awkward silence in the cabin, neither men saying a word. If there was a knife in the room, it'd be cutting the tension.
"I... I'm sorry," Will murmurs.
"Sorry?" Hannibal questions.
"I'm sorry I tried to kill you," Will repeats. "I regretted it as soon as I pulled us over the cliff."
"You did?"
Will nods. He takes a deep breath before speaking. "Yes. All I could think when we were toppling off that cliff was, 'No. No, please, no. I can't lose him. I want to be with him, this man. I want to be with him more than anything.' I couldn't stop thinking those thoughts when we were plummeting to our deaths, or what I thought was our deaths. I thought I needed to kill you, but all I needed was you. Here, with me."
Hannibal looks at Will. Just looks at him, not saying a word. Will can't tell what the older man is thinking; he never can.
"Please say something, Hannibal," Will pleads, a little more pathetically than he meant to. "Please."
"Does something need to be said on my end?" Hannibal asks.
"Usually, a response when one has shared intimate feelings such as I have is generally appreciated."
"I simply figure you must know my feelings for you by now, Will," Hannibal starts. "You know how much I want you. Need you. With you, I don't need anything else. When I first met you, my breath caught in my throat. My heart started to pound. My stomach did back flips. I'd never experienced those things in my life before and I didn't know what they were at the time. I know now that that was the beginning of falling in love with you."
Silence.
"Will?"
"I love you, too."
Hannibal rises from the chair and walks over to where Will lies in his bed. "I know."
"Oh, you do?" Will questions.
"Of course. I always have."
"Always? I only recently realized I did."
"Even if you didn't know, I did. And I'm assuming you always knew about my love for you?"
"I did not, actually," Will admits. "Bedelia had too bring it to my attention for me to finally realize."
"You have your strengths, but you do have your weaknesses, dear Will," Hannibal smirks.
Will scoffs. "Yes, I'm the only one here in the room with any weaknesses!"
Hannibal smirks back at Will. "We all have our weaknesses. You happen to be one of mine."
Will weakly smiles, then abruptly stops. "That's the real reason I tried to kill you. Not because you're a 'menace to society', but because you showed me who I really am. I couldn't take it, couldn't come to grips with it. I'm a..." Will hesitates.
"A killer? It's not a swear word, Will," Hannibal says. "It's what you are. And you need to come to terms with it."
"I know what I am," Will says softly. "I'm just... it's just hard."
"I know," Hannibal nods. "However, when you finally do, you can finally live."
Hannibal moves to the chair beside Will's bed. "And love."
Will grabs Hannibal's hand and squeezes it tightly. "I already know how to love. Believe you me."
Hannibal smiles warmly, genuine affection in his eyes. "I believe you, Will."
Having the worst possible timing in the world, it seemed to Will, Chiyoh walked in at this time. "I am sorry. I am interrupting?" Chiyoh asks.
Will blushes and drops Hannibal's hand. "What? No."
Hannibal rolls his eyes. "Will is still coming to terms with what he is."
"A killer or a bisexual?" Chiyoh asks, setting down multiple bags on the wooden table.
"Both."
"Hey!"
"I have supplies," Chiyoh changes the subject. "Enough for a few weeks while you two heal, but then you must leave. Go overseas."
"We will," Hannibal nods.
"Well, I only wanted to drop off supplies. I can get out of here," Chiyoh says. "I need to, actually. I don't want to get into trouble with the police over helping you two."
"No one would want that," Hannibal stands. "You'll be going now?"
"Why?" Chiyoh cocks an eyebrow. "Do you have something you'd rather be doing at the moment?"
Will's heartbeat accelerates and his eyes flick back to Hannibal.
Hannibal's lips curl into a mischievous grin. "Whatever can you mean by that, Chiyoh?"
"I meant sleeping, of course," she replies. "You two need to rest in order to heal completely."
"Of course that's what you meant," Hannibal retorts.
"Well, I will leave you to that," Chiyoh says, opening the door to the cabin. "I will not be seeing you two again. I mean, I might see you both in the papers when you're caught inevitably, but I doubt in person."
"Who says we're going to be caught?" Will questions.
"Fate does," Chiyoh says simply, before exiting and slamming the door behind her.
"She definitely has a flair for the dramatic," Hannibal says.
"She's certainly not the only one who does," Will cracks a smile."You can be quite dramatic yourself, Hannibal. You surely love the theatricality in life."
"I love you in my life," Hannibal smiles softly, crossing the floor and sitting in a chair beside the bed this time.
"And I you," Will replies.
The two sit there for a good minute, not saying a word, simply enjoying the silence passing between the two.
"Hannibal?"
"Yes, Will?"
"Will you sleep with me tonight?"
"I would love to, but I think that your injuries are too severe for such vigorous activity at the mo-"
"No, no, not like that!" Will interrupts. "I meant I just want to fall asleep together, but it's nice to see where your mind is at."
"Oh, I see," Hannibal chuckles. "I would love to, Will."
Will smiles at Hannibal. He cannot believe this. He thought that he hated this man, loathed him even, but deep down he must have known that it was not hate, but love he felt for Hannibal. Deep down, he must have known it, he just couldn't admit it until he knew that Hannibal returned his feelings. When he finally found out how the other man felt, he could admit how he feels to himself and also to the man he was in love with.
The killer he was in love with.
That was another thing that Will had to admit to himself; what he himself was. He also was a killer. When he had killed Garret Jacob Hobbs, yes it had felt good, but he convinced himself that was simply because Hobbs was a killer and he had stopped Hobbs from hurting any more girls. That was not the reason.
The actual act of killing someone was why it had felt so good, so great. That is how it actually felt now that he felt about it. It felt absolutely great.
But when he killed Francis Dolarhyde, that was... orgasmic. That's the only way to describe it. When Will stabbed him, gutting the man like a pig, the world seemed to stop. Time seemed to slow and then stand still.
And the fact that he was killing with Hannibal made everything so much better. When Hannibal ripped out the man's throat with his bare teeth, Will's heartbeat quickened and he suddenly saw Hannibal in a different light. A darker light, if that made any sense.
He liked it. A lot. That was the moment that Will knew what he was.
"Will?" Will snaps out of his apparent trance. "What?"
"You were staring off into space."
"Oh, was I?" Will says sheepishly. "Sorry, I was just thinking."
"Something you do too much," Hannibal replies.
"Well, get in bed with me and I'll stop."
Hannibal rises from the chair, sheds his dress shirt, folds it, and hangs it over the back of the chair. Will moves over in the bed and Hannibal climbs in. Uncharacteristically of the man, Hannibal quite tentatively wraps his arms around Will.
"What's wrong?" Will asks.
"I simply can't believe I finally have you."
"You've always had me."
With that final thought in both of their minds, the two drift off to sleep.