Will keeps his eyes on the floor, listening to Hannibal's uneven breaths as he sits still. Will hadn't seen the fight, but looking at Tobias and looking at Hannibal, he'd say Hannibal took the worst of it. His friend is disheveled, which leaves Will having a hard time looking at him. Hannibal Lecter is always prim, proper, and prepared. Visualizing him in a physical altercation was hard, seeing him bloodied and shaken was even harder. Will looks up when Hannibal makes a quiet noise in his throat, but the other man's eyes are on his leg. Will follows his gaze too, crouching down without thinking and reaching to move Hannibal's hand. "You're lucky it missed your knee," he says without thinking, but Hannibal's a doctor and he already knows anything Will could tell him. There is silence that follows, and Will places the rag back on it and the other man's hand comes up to apply pressure again. Will doesn't stand up, but he looks up at Hannibal's face. The man looks shaken, unnerved; that's expected. To be honest, Will's not sure how he's sitting upright. His clothes are destroyed, and paramedics removed shards of glass from a cut on his head that was apparently from his own table. Hannibal isn't looking down at him, instead his head is bowed and his eyes are closed. He almost looks peaceful, and Will can't help but notice the way his hair is hanging in his face; he can't help but notice it looks blonder than usual.
"Jack," Will calls as he stands up. He suddenly feels responsible for this happening to his friend, a man that never would have been in the middle of this if it weren't for him. He never envisioned there would be a time when Hannibal needed him, but his time to take control and look after his friend had arrived. I do appreciate the company. Jack came over to them, Hannibal never raised his head, but Jack's eyes drift from him to Will. "He can leave, right?" Jack takes a deep breath, and then nods slowly. "I'm going to take him to my place," Will says confidently. Hannibal looks up then, shaking his head slightly to get his hair out of his eyes. He's silent, and Will takes that as acceptance to his offer. "You don't need me here, Jack. You already know what happened, we can look at the rest tomorrow." Will can see in Jack's eyes he wants to protest, but Jack looks away and his eyes meet Hannibal's. The two men stare at each other, and Will looks between the both of them. Jack has no expression, and Hannibal just looks...tired; pained.
"If he doesn't think he needs to be taken to a hospital, then I'll see you both tomorrow," Jack turns around and doesn't look back.
Will returns to Hannibal's side, "I can manage on my own, Will. You haven't been sleeping well, you need your rest." Hannibal's voice isn't as commanding as usual, and Will jumps at the opportunity.
"Truthfully, I don't want to be alone and I'm almost positive you don't either. But if you'd prefer it..." Will's voice trails off, and he looks away from Hannibal's eyes.
"I would enjoy your company," he confirms after a brief silence. Will doesn't let it show, but he's pleased.
"I rode with Jack, I didn't bring my car. I'll ask one of the officers to take us, I don't think you should drive."
Hannibal attempts to stand, wincing, and Will automatically reaches for his arm to steady him. "You can drive my car," Lecter replied, leaning heavily on Will. He can't deny his body hurts, badly. Tobias was stronger, though Hannibal didn't like admitting it to himself. For a moment, he was concerned the other man was going to overpower him right in his own office. He was physically strong, but the way the other man was unrelenting; the way he'd thrown him across the room. His back ached, his chest hurt to breathe, everything hurt. He hadn't hurt this bad in as long as he could remember. Being nearly beaten to death had knocked him off balance; disrupted his mental control. A lot of things were disrupting him lately. Tobias, his attached patient, his overwhelming urge to establish a real friendship with Will, his attraction to Alana; it was sidetracking him from his usual activities. He was functioning too closely in a world he didn't belong in. Trouble was, he liked Will. He wanted Will around him, he enjoyed his company. Pity that Will establishing a friendship with him would eventually cost the man his life, because Hannibal knew there was no other way for it to end. Yet the way Will took control of the situation; stepped up and decided he wasn't going to leave him alone because he cared. The way Will's arm was tightly around his waist as he hobbled towards the door of his own office, not caring that all eyes in the room were on them. The way Hannibal sensed that Will was suspicious of him, but still continued to care about him in a way no one ever did before, made Hannibal's stone heart slightly softer. He swallowed thickly, trying to put more weight on his leg that hurt in more places then just where he'd been stabbed.
Once out of the room, Will seemed to relax; "You took a pretty serious beating, and here I thought you were pretty much indestructible."
Hannibal huffed slightly, a smile playing on his bloodied lips, "I'm far from indestructible, especially in physical altercations. I didn't want to have to hurt him, he had the upper hand due to my hesitation to fight back."
"He would have beaten you to death, Hannibal," Will said, he voice quiet. Lecter took note that this was the first time since he met Will that he addressed him by his first name.
"Indeed he would have," they're at his car, and he flinches when he goes to move his left arm to retrieve his keys in his pocket, "I do think I have to check myself over, I'm not sure where hurts worse." Will reached across him, taking his keys out of his jacket pocket.
"I really never thought I would have the chance to say this," Will said, hitting the unlock button and opening the door, "but you look like hell."
Hannibal laughed slightly, feeling strangely lighthearted as his friend offered a hand to help him ease into the passenger seat, "I must say I feel like hell too, I can't imagine what I look like."
Will closed the door and walked around the front of his car, "We'll clean you up and you'll be looking like yourself in no time. I don't have as wide a selection of food as you do, but I can make us something and you can stay at my house until tomorrow. I have some clothes you can change into, and plenty of first aid supplies," Will's rambling, and Hannibal is curious as to why he is so nervous. He's already decided to let Will tend to him, though he isn't sure why. Perhaps it's alright, occasionally, to allow someone else to care enough to mend you when you need it. Did he need mending right now? Certainly not over killing Tobias, or his patient, which no one knew about. He even felt guilty, sending Will after Tobias knowing it could have very easily gotten him killed. He didn't want that, even though he'd sent him there knowing it was more than likely. He'd regretted the choice when Tobias had shown up at his office, it had made it real for him. He'd really thought it had happened, and the thought of someone else killing Will was painful. "I'm not nearly as good a host as you are, but I can try to make it work. I'm not the best nurse so maybe we could stop at the ER, just to have you checked out?"
Will glanced at him from the corner of his eye, and Hannibal rested the back of his head against the headrest. His body throbbed just about everywhere, and he was anxious to check himself over and survey the damage, but the thought of sitting in a hospital was repulsive. "They can't do anything I can't do, no hospitals."
Will wanted to argue, and his concern for his wellbeing was strangely comforting. "You look really tired, I've never seen you look so exhausted."
He felt completely drained, and he let his eyes fall closed, "I am beyond tired," he felt his skin starting to get sticky and dry from his blood on his skin, and he couldn't wait to clean himself off, "You don't have to be a host for me, Will. I just need a friend, don't be someone you aren't. I know you don't often have company."
Will cleared his throat slightly, "I just know you like things clean and tidy, I just know you. I know we're very different people and I don't want you to hate my company or my house."
"You're forgetting I've already been to your house and it doesn't bother me in the slightest, and I could never hate your company. You and I aren't so different Will, by now you shouldn't feel you have to be someone you aren't around me. I'm too tired for appearances right now anyway, we can close that gap of our differences for the night." He doesn't bother opening his eyes.
He must have dosed off, because when he opens his eyes again, Will is standing next to him with his car door opened. Will looks at him awkwardly, "We're here, I feel bad waking you." He sits up slowly, his body protesting. He's stiff and sore, and he's careful as he steps out of the car and onto the dirt below. The car beeps when Will hits the lock button, and they walk towards the dark house in silence. Will doesn't help him, but he walks slowly next to him. Hannibal hears the dogs on the other side of the door as Will fumbles with the key, and he hangs back when the door finally opens and all Will's pets run out. "No jumping," Will says sternly, and the dogs obediently sniff at his legs instead. Will turns on the lights inside, kicking a dog toy away from the front door as Hannibal follows him in.
"I uh, are you hungry?" Will shuts the door behind him, knowing the dogs won't roam far.
"Not so much," Hannibal looks towards the stairs, "Perhaps you could show me a place to get cleaned up?"
Will looks as if he's suddenly remembered the other man has his own blood caked on his face and in his hair, "Upstairs, let me help you." They awkwardly manage up the stairs, and Will turns on the hallway light and leads him into the bathroom. Lecter only briefly looks at his disgusting reflection, seeing instantly why Will said he looked like hell, then gingerly sits on the lid of the toilet, and Will retrieves a first aid kit and rubbing alcohol from his cabinets. Hannibal expects him to leave, but instead he begins unpacking the supplies. He feels Hannibal's eyes on him, and looks up, "Unless you'd rather I didn't help."
Hannibal carefully slips his jacket off his arms and hangs it from the towel rack screwed into the wall, "If you feel comfortable, then by all means."
Will has a cotton ball in his fingers, wets it with alcohol, and turns towards him, "Tilt your head back." Surprised by Will's boldness, he does as he's told. It stings when the wet cotton touches his split lip, and he flinches. Will works rather quickly, cleaning the dried blood from his face, even using tweezers to pluck a stray piece of glass from his head that the paramedics missed. "I'm alright with outer damage, but do you have a concussion? Or any broken bones?" Will feels stupid, asking the man to determine his own condition, maybe the hospital would have been better.
"Well, without any tests I can't be certain, but if I thought I was hurt that badly I would have gone to the hospital," Hannibal kept his eyes on the wall across from him, trying to keep Will from being uncomfortable. He'd done this to himself before, even given himself stitches in the past, but having someone else tend to him wasn't an entirely bad feeling. "I don't feel dizzy, faint, or nauseous, but I haven't looked at the rest of me."
Will steps back, surprising Hannibal even more, leaving him room to unbutton his shirt. He does, revealing dark bruises on his chest and stomach. Will's eyes don't look at him until he's slipped the shirt off himself and is looking down to investigate. He gets up, using the mirror to see more clearly. His arm has a red ring around it, where the wire had tightened around it. His chest and abdomen has some darkening bruising, and theres a nasty gash on his hip. "Wow," is all Will says, and their eyes meet in the mirror. Will looks empathetic, he's empathizing with him. It's intriguing, and he prods his chest and winces. "Anything really serious?"
"No, it doesn't appear so. These will need some time to heal, but a hot shower and some ice should ease the ache." He's relieved the damage isn't serious, and he can tell Will is too. When he undoes his belt, that's when Will's eyes go wide.
"Don't worry, I'll roll my pant leg up to check on my leg," he's slightly amused, then bewildered when Will kneels to untie his shoelaces so he didn't have to bend down. He keeps the surprise off his face, toeing out of his shoes and and pulling the pant leg up. As bad as it hurts, the stab is nothing more than flesh and tissue wound, missing anything important. It had stopped bleeding on it's own already, and Hannibal moved his ankle which was sore. "That'll need ice, and the wound will need a bandage, but I was fortunate."
Will doesn't reply, but reaches for a bandage to wrap Hannibal's leg in, the rubbing alcohol burns terribly and he bites his lip while Will cleans it. He even sticks one over the gash on his hip, and wraps his swollen arm. The tenderness in his movements are intriguing, and Hannibal smiles at him slightly when he shoves everything back in the kit and puts it away again. "Thank you Will, you're an exceptional friend."
Will snorts slightly, pushing his glasses higher on his nose, "After everything you do for me, I owe you."
"Friends don't owe each other for their kindness," he replies simply.
Will leads him out of the room and into his bedroom. "I don't have a spare room, but you can sleep in my bed and I can sleep on the recliner," Hannibal noted the old recliner in the corner of the room, "or down on the couch if you prefer." Will's digging around in his drawers, and Hannibal sits on the edge of his bed. He's never been in Will's room, yet it looks exactly how he'd imagined it would. Finding what he was searching for, Will turns and hands him a plain white t-shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants. "I'll hang your stuff up in the bathroom and you can go shower and change, I'll feed the dogs and make us tea." Hannibal looks at the clothes, then back up at Will. Friendship is strange, it's an uncomfortable feeling to be so at ease with someone else. It's never happened before, someone spending so much time with him willingly and surviving, and not paying for treatment. Will is just another person, who somehow crossed his path, and had decided to stay there. Decided to bandage him and go far out of his comfort zone. He'd gotten to know Will, and none of this was something he was comfortable doing. He'd rushed to Hannibal's just to tell him he'd kissed Alana, and here he was handing him a pair of his own clothes. This was friendship, Hannibal decided, they were actual friends. Will and Hannibal had very different views on what was normal then the rest of the world, and though their views differed from each others as well; their differences from society was something they bonded over.
"I appreciate it Will, really. I appreciate everything, thank you." Will smiled slightly, looking him directly in the eye as he shrugged. They held eye contact for a second before Will turned and headed back down the hall.