Will Graham was unstable. That much was obvious, the young woman noticed as she watched him from afar. Her green eyes were alight with curiosity as she trailed behind Jack.
"Should you even have him out here?" She asks Jack, tripping over a branch embedded into the ground.
"I could be saying the same about you." Jack turns around to shoot the petite blonde a glare, "Should you be out here? I'm breaking a lot of rules bringing you out here Lydia, but I want to see how you measure up."
Lydia eyes him, "What do you mean measure up?"
"You're right about Will. He shouldn't be out here. He's... not in his best mental state." Jack quips, as he clambers up the hill, "But he's all I've got for a good criminal profiler. That's why you're here."
Lydia stops, folding her arms over her chest, "You want me to replace him." She says it as a statement rather than a question.
Jack turns around, he nods, "Yes. I don't want to push Will, but I have to, I don't have any other choice."
"So Will's sanity is just.." Lydia takes a few steps towards him, "A small cost for the lives of others?"
"I never said this job was easy." Jack answers, shoving his hands into his pockets. He looks up at the dreary morning sky, "But it has to be done." He says with a definite tone, before charging back up the hill. Lydia stumbles after him, not another word was shared between the two.
When they reach the top of the hill, they see bodies, everywhere. They're hanging from trees, some are missing body parts, carelessly thrown dismembered arms and feet littered the cold ground. Lydia put her hand over her mouth, the stench was horrid, as was the scene.
"Not used to this?" Jack asks, managing to chuckle. "Okay boys! Put markers next to the ones with missing body parts - we'll be playing mixing and matching today!" Jack calls, he gives Lydia a pat on the shoulder. "Take a good look, kid." He leaves her then, going over to talk to Will.
Lydia walks along the bodies, looking at them closely. Only a few of them had their eyes open, to add onto that, those with their eyes open had knife marks along their lips. Dragging up their cheekbone, as if it was a smile. She noted that one of the people, a woman, had her wedding finger cut off. And that her face had more knife wounds than the rest.
She hadn't realized the vision was coming until it did. She almost fell over, yet she had nothing to hold onto. So she had to awkwardly sway on her feet as she stared down at the dead woman.
In her vision, she was watching the murder. She casually strolled past the barely breathing bodies to the woman, the woman in response looked up at her in fear.
"Who did this?" Lydia whispered, leaning down to ghost her hand across the woman's face.
The woman couldn't respond, her face was bleeding. She lifted up her hand to reveal the missing wedding ring finger, then she died.
Lydia snapped out of it, waking up to see one of the investigators hovering over her.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Lydia realized she was on the cold ground, she pulled herself up. "Yeah, sorry.. must have gotten.. overwhelmed." She says sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head with an almost too innocent smile.
"Perfectly understandable, here, let me help you up." His name tag clearly read Jimmy Price, he was one of the crime scene investigators, "You're new, aren't you?" He says as he reaches under her arm and hoists her up.
She gives him a smile, "Yep. First day. Obviously going well."
Jack stormed over to the two then, "What the hell happened?" Jimmy, in the process, flees.
"Overwhelmed." Lydia says calmly, "I won't let it happen again."
Will walks over to them then, his glasses perched on the edge of his nose. He pushes them up to his eyes, "Are you okay? You hit the ground pretty hard."
She absentmindedly rubs the back of her head, feeling a small bump, "I'm fine. Just a tad bit-"
"What did you see." Jack asked her, leaning in towards her, "You had a vision."
Her eyes widen, realizing she'd been caught. "It was her husband." Brie walks them over to the woman with the missing finger and the wild eyes. "She did something, to betray him. So he killed her and cut off her wedding ring finger. Then he sliced her face so we wouldn't be able to recognize her."
"What about all these people?" Jack gestures around to them, "I'm sure they're not all his wives."
"No, they're randoms, people he.." Lydia took a deep breath, closing her eyes, "Practiced on. He wanted to make sure he inflicted as much pain on her as possible.. so she would know how badly she had hurt him."
Jack looks at her, then he turns to the crime scene investigators, "Finger print this woman immediately! Figure out who her husband is, then bring him down." He calls. "We have no time to sit around - we have a killer on the loose." Then he turns to Will, "What about you? What did you see?"
Will was silent for a few moments, his eyes glued to the small blonde, Lydia. She was biting her nail, nervous and bouncing on her feet. She was cold in the Autumn air, her knit cap and scarf doing little to help her.
"Same thing." Will answers plainly, almost bitterly.
Lydia's eyes unexpectedly connect with his. Green hitting blue, her eyes are defiant and confident. His are layered with sadness and knowledge, and just a spark of curiosity.
"Hm." Jack says, "Hm."
Lydia could not get out of there soon enough. She trailed behind Jack was he led her to his car. Once they were inside, doors locked, Jack turned to her.
"You out did Will."
Lydia looks down at her hands, fiddling with them nervously in her lap. "I wouldn't say that. It was fairly obvious.. I mean it's not rocket science or anything.." She's stumbling over her words.
"He didn't make the husband connection. He figured it was personal, but not the husband connection." Jack leans against his seat, "Just promise me, if you do end up replacing Will, you won't.."
"Become unstable? Mentally unhinged?" Lydia licks her lips, "I can't say I won't. All minds respond differently to.. these type of situations. Whatever type this is." Lydia leans her head against the window, "I don't know, Jack."
"I want you to allow Alanna Bloom to do a report on you."
Lydia looks at him, raising an eyebrow, "Worried I've already lost it, Jack?"
"It'd help me sleep at night."
"You?"
"Yes, me."
She scoffs, "Don't bullshit me, Jack. I can see right through you. Who wants me analyzed?"
"Will Graham."
She looks taken back, "Why on earth would, of all people, Will Graham, want me analyzed? Have I done something that said 'oh hey look at me, I'm crazy'?" Lydia takes her head away from the window. "Jack, you better tell me why or I'll storm out of this car and force him to tell me."
"He doesn't know about you, and that scares him." Jack leans back in his car seat, "He thinks you might be like him. I think, that in Will's head, he's trying to save you from turning into him."
"I don't have the same gift as him though." Lydia leans forward in her car seat, on the edge, "I see visions, I don't emotionally connect myself-"
"That woman today, the way you talked about her.."
"I talked about her as if she was any other dead woman." Lydia snapped.
"You really wish that were the case, don't you? You can't bullshit me either, kid."
Lydia grabs her seat belt, yanking it over her body and clicking it. "Lets go, I'll let this Alanna chick analyze me, just so you all can realize how stupid this is."
Jack doesn't answer her, he just starts the car and drives.
Lydia crawls into her bed that night, her calico cat Wilson was already curled up at the edge of her bed.
"Hi, sweetie." She says, letting her hand slide across Wilson's fur, "Mama had a hard day. Everyone thought I was crazy today. Same as any other day, right?" She dryly laughs, but the words sting.
"I'm getting analyzed tomorrow morning, what do you think they'll say? Probably start off with: definitely not a morning person." She laughs as she takes the covers off, sliding herself in. She clicks her lamp off.
"I'm terrified, Wilson. Terrified of what they'll say, does that make me crazy?"
No it makes you sane.
That's what she tells herself before she dozes off to nightmare ridden sleep.
My first Hannibal fanfiction! This will be featuring an OC (Lydia) and Will Graham, so yes, please enjoy
& review, & rate, & favorite. That'd be cool!
Hah.. :)