This was written for the Dreamwidth Hannibal kink meme in 2013.
Prompt: "The FBI searches Will's electronics after he is arrested in the season finale. They find lots of psychology research, impossibly boring stuff about fishing, and dozens of websites featuring cute dog gifs, pictures, and videos. Everyone is torn between "but he's a killer" and "AWWWW" and "WTF?""
Katz still feels too close, like this is an invasion of privacy. Snooping on a friend. She knows Will Graham is far from a friend but god knows he really needs one right now and she can't change her mind about him even when the ugly truth is in front of her. In front of them.
She's decidedly more somber than Zeller and Price when they gather around Will's confiscated electronics in the lab. She can remember retrieving them, the way the wooden floors creaked to make the thumps of the investigation team's footsteps seem more ominous than they were. The way the whole house smelled like wet dog. The kibble still in the bowls. Apparently he didn't have much to hide, as his computer isn't even password-locked.
"How long is this going to take? You want my opinion, we shouldn't be wasting our time on this, we should be checking the yard for human remains," Price groans, arms folded, eyes rolling.
"Or checking the dog shit, for that matter," adds Zeller, earning a grimace from the other two, Katz's tinged with more shock than disgust.
"You know the drill, boys." Katz runs a hand through her hair, the other resting on her hip, before hunching over the keyboard and getting to work.
His browsing history is rather benign, as are his recent search terms.
freshwater drum recipes
deer dream meaning
define gaslighting
"Nothing kinky? How disappointing." Price is not looking at the screen, seeming more interested in his own fingernails, listening to her read each website title and search query. But then they turn to Will's bookmarks, all of which are labeled with numbers rather than descriptive titles. 1, 2, 3, 4... Katz furrows her brow and clicks the first one.
.com pops up in the address bar and the page loads.
"'The Daily Puppy'... What the everloving fuck..." Katz says slowly, scrolling down a page chock full of adorable puppies in front of a pawprint background. Price, interest suddenly piqued, elbows her out of the way and after a moment begins theatrically reading the website's "about" section aloud.
"'Welcome to The Daily Puppy; your source for cute puppy pictures, videos, articles and supplies. Browse pictures of the puppy of the day, create a profile for you and your puppy and connect with other puppy parents.'"
"Oh my god," mutters Zeller before he cranes his neck and joins, "'Here at The Daily Puppy, we love puppies of all shapes, sizes, breeds, and colors... Visit often to see what cutie-pie graces the front page.'" He unravels into laughter, doubling over, slapping a hand on Price's shoulder.
"Cut it out. S'not funny," Katz says levelly, growing more and more uncomfortable by the minute for a slew of reasons, and Zeller clicks on the second bookmark.
/?search=puppy fills the address bar. The trio frowns at the screen until Zeller suddenly starts smashing keys, copying and pasting the resulting gibberish until a photo of a dog pops up on the right side of the screen. He scoffs and continues tapping command+v to cycle through new pictures until Beverly regains control of the computer.
"What if he wrote all his lecture outlines in that?" Price snickers. The use of the past tense stings Katz. She clicks number three. It's a live streaming video of Shiba Inu dogs. The team falls silent and watches, mesmerized by the cuteness, all three of them slowly tilting their heads to the side as they watch fluffy three-month-old puppies frolic and paw at each other. With a quick shake of her head, Katz snaps out of it and goes on to the next bookmark.
.com appears.
"'Because puppies fucking rock,'" Zeller reads, and with that the two men dissolve into hysterical giggles again. Katz is less amused.
"I still don't see how this is funny. And you're being oh-so-helpful. Assholes." Zeller regains his composure, rubbing a hand over his laughter-reddened face. The list goes on. YouTube videos with titles like Tiniest and Cutest Teacup Pomeranian Puppy! or sleeping puppy...TOO CUTE! or Top 10 Cutest Puppy Breeds. They've reached the end of the bookmarks and the only non-puppy results they've found are Will's equally-benign email account and the website he had students submit their papers to for plagiarism checks and grading.
"Bev, are you sure we've got the right guy?" Price asks, tone still joking.
"Now that you mention it... No, I'm not..." she says under her breath, but the other two are already out the door and on their way to lunch, leaving her alone in the empty, sterile room.