"I would….Believe you…"
Everyone in Hannibal's office turned to look at Will, who flinched in response from all the sudden attention.
"That's the first honest thing you've said." Will offered as he got up from the floor, brushing his pants off so that he wouldn't have to look up at anyone while he talked. Something warned him about wanting to delve too deeply in these stranger's minds.
"Well don't sugarcoat it. Tell me how you really feel." Dean chuckled darkly, tucking the special agent's gun into his belt for safe keeping. The guy seemed too damn twitchy for his liking to be handling a firearm.
"It's obvious that you're not agents. So what are you? Explain your design. Make us understand." Will insisted in a calm tone, his mind already running the gambit for answers that were not forthcoming. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, these men were predators, but not the normal kind that Will usually encountered. This pair of brothers could be very bad men and were definitely killers, capable of great and terrible deeds, but they were not evil. Will could read in their skin and on their faces that they killed on a regular basis, but not indiscriminately. There was a purpose there, a calling that was nearly devout in nature. What these men did for a living was right. Not normal by any means of the word but right…..just even.
"Ok, here it goes." Dean rolled his eyes. He really hated this next part. "My brother and I are hunters. We help people and save lives by finding supernatural things, and then killing those supernatural things. It's kinda the family business."
"When you say supernatural…." Hannibal trailed off, trying to find the right words for the concept as unlikely as it seemed.
"Mostly ghosts, some creatures." Sam expanded on the subject for him. "Actually a lot of creatures lately."
"Oh, demons and angels too." Dean added. "You know, everyday stuff."
"Demons….and angels?" Will questioned while Hannibal snorted in disbelief.
"What's a matter, doc? Don't believe in angels?" Dean grinned crookedly. Holy hell, he loved a disbeliever. This guy's world was about to get rocked.
"Hardly. I'm an atheist." Hannibal stated loftily to have the brothers Winchester grin back at him like cats on crack.
"That's nice. Good on you." Sam chuckled, turning to Dean. "Hey Dean. you want to call Castiel or should I?"
"Why bring him in on this?" Dean grimaced, losing all his humor at the angel's name. Castiel hadn't seemed right since Purgatory. He could feel something was off about him, but just couldn't put his finger on it or know how to ask.
"We could use the assist tracking this demon down, and it might help convince the good doctor here that we shouldn't be fitted for straight jackets." Sam shrugged. That and he liked having Castiel around. Dean acted more human around him and less like the shadows were ready to gut him. As per usual, Dean wasn't talking about his stint in Purgatory, but from what Sam could tell, it had been bad. The kind of bad that was even worse than their usual sort.
"I thought you had inquiries about the Chesapeake Ripper?" Hannibal pointed out, wanting to get back on more solid ground to build some speaking points with these men. They were definitely interesting. Even more so they were dangerous, having the potential of providing hours of entertainment before Hannibal dispatched them. Or had them imprisoned. Whatever suited his purposed better.
"We do. We think he's a demon." Dean said bluntly as he kept an eye on the other man's reaction. Something about this Lecter guy was making every alarm in Dean's head go off, and he didn't like it.
"A demon?" Hannibal questioned back flatly. Small wonder he hadn't been caught yet with people like this hunting him down. He wasn't sure if he should feel flattered or depressed by the absurdity.
"Yeah, I know how it sounds." Dean sighed. "If you could answer our questions, we'll be out of your…."
"He's not." Will interrupted, starting to stare off into the distance as he slipped into that mindscape of his where the Chesapeake Ripper lived and poisoned him slowly from within. "A demon. He just a man. A very talented killer, but just a man. Nothing more, nothing less."
"How are you so sure about that?" Sam asked, wondering if this Special Agent Graham was a psychic or something else. They might end up having to test him too if he got any weirder.
"I can see him in my mind. I know him almost as well as I know myself…..I just can't see his face. I can tell you right now that he's not what you are looking for." Will said, pulling up his nightmare to stare straight at it. The ravenstag stared back at him with cold intense eyes, too cruel and human to be mistaken for an animal.
"Have you ever met a demon?" Sam said, deciding that they were definitely breaking out the salt and silver as he got out his flask of holy water.
Will sputtered as he was jerked out of his head, water hitting him square in the face. "No. Plenty of devils though." he said sourly as he wiped himself off the best he could with his hands.
"No offense but I'm gonna want a second opinion on that." Dean snorted, glad that Sam had doused Will. That guy definitely wasn't right in his melon.
"What are you doing?" Hannibal asked as he watched Dean go still and squint up his eyes in a look of concentration.
"What? Praying. Shut up." Dean snapped, hoping that his angel would answer. Castiel's response time had been patchy of late.
"To whom?" Hannibal sighed who was trying to decide what part of this day was more ridiculous so far. Will's session had started out with so much potential…
"Pay attention and try to keep up. To a frigging angel. Now shut the hell up. I need to concentrate." Dean growled, opening his eyes wide enough to glare at Hannibal for a moment. "Castiel. Come on, Cas. We need you. Gotta a demon down here we want your help with, so shake your tail feathers and come on in."
"How long has your brother been under the delusion that he can speak with angels?" Hannibal asked Sam who seemed to be the more reasonable one of the pair.
"Ever since one dragged him out of Hell. The same one angel expressed me too out of there, but Dean has better luck contacting him." Sam grinned back. He loved it when he could be honest with people.
"As I have explained before, Dean and I share a profound bond." were the words that startled Hannibal and Will, who both stared at the being who had abruptly joined them, appearing out of thin air to stand right beside Dean.
"See? Told you." Sam sighed, shaking his shaggy head.
"Cas, we've talked about this. About not mentioning the 'P' word in front of other people, along with maintaining personal space and staring." Dean grumbled, though he made no move to put any distance between them. "You wanna introduce yourself. Doctor Lecter here is an atheist."
"How unfortunate. You will find this next part unpleasant then." the dark haired man with the sad blue eyes said gravely. "I am Castiel, an angel of the Lord."
"You are quite mundane for a celestial being." Hannibal said dryly, looking over the angel with a speculative gaze.
"Viewing my true form would burn out your eyes." Castiel informed him, dismissing Hannibal entirely to move on to Will.
"How convenient." Hannibal pointed out. He was still put off by Castiel's sudden appearance. He could figure out how the man had accomplished such a feat without his notice.
"Not really. It's why I have to wear this vessel." Castiel said absently as he got way too close to Will who began to fidget under the intense examination.
"That must be uncomfortable." Hannibal said, his tone telling everyone clearly that he didn't believe Castiel in the slightest, but was trying to keep the situation calm by playing along.
"That is an understatement. Folding something the size of skyscraper into a bag of meat and keeping it there can be trying and test one's restraint." Castiel said, more intent on studying Will's head than answering.
"Cas! Focus, man. He's getting on shrinky dink on you." Dean warned, wondering what the hell the angel was doing as he grabbed Will's face to peer intently into his eyes. The special agent struggled to get away, but Dean knew from experience that the man had a better chance of getting out from under a mountain. "Quit dicking around with him and …."
"What an regrettable gift that you have been given, Will Graham, though the encephalitis isn't helping either." Castiel observed in the careless manner of angels, making Will go still under his immoveable grip.
"What?! What the hell did you just do to me?!" Will wanted to get as far as he could from this Castiel guy, but then something tingly and warm rushed through his body like a wave of fever but not. His body cooled down in an instant as the constant headache he'd had since Jack pulled him from his classroom began to fade away into nothingness. Will hadn't realized just how much pain he had been in until it wasn't there anymore, the man sagging forward into Castiel's arm, feeling hollow without it.
"Damn it, Cas! What did you do to him?!" Dean snapped as they all watched Castiel easily pick up Will to lay out the man on the doctor's couch. Hannibal strode over quickly to join them, taking Will's vitals as he asked general medical questions of Will who answered in nods and shakes of head.
"I cured the disease he was suffering from." Castiel answered with furrowed brow at the hunter, the angel feeling like he was unnecessarily stating the obvious. Human seemed to need constant recapping for events, even ones they witnessed for themselves. He had never understood the reason why though.
"You should start feeling better now, at least physically. I only cured the ailment. I can not relieve you of your empathy though. It's woven into your soul. Any attempt on my part to remove it would kill you." Castiel told Will. "I believe it to be of celestial origin."
"That's alright. I'm used to it." Will muttered, making himself sit up and found that he could. He didn't feel dizzy, weak, or shaky like he would have before trying to attempt the same motion.
"So what? This guy's part angel?" Dean asked, not liking the sound of that. He hated it when things got complicated. 'Celestial origin' had 'monkey shit show' written all over it in red permanent marker.
"I find that to be highly improbable." Hannibal stated stiffly as he inwardly seethed. Whatever this man…angel…whatever had done, Will was cured of his encephalitis. The empath's scent was clean of the delightful fever that had been making his brain do so many interesting things.
"It has been extensively diluted, but yes, there was a nephilim bred somewhere into his line of ancestors. The residual grace from that being has been twisted and rewritten so many times in the genetic coding that it is hardly worth mentioning though. This man's gift of pure empathy is the byproduct of what's left of it." Castiel shrugged, the angel proud he had remembered to incorporate the human gesture into his speech. He was slightly irked no one seemed to notice.
At that point, The conversation came to an abrupt halt, the confines of Hannibal's office filled with a bizarre whining moan from a machine of some sort. It was high pitched yet held a bass to it that thrummed through everyone's bones.
Something was coming.
Just right before the noise came to the point of deafening, it stopped just as suddenly as it occurred. In its place, a blue box resolved itself in the corner of the office by the ladder. Hannibal stared in disbelief, wondering briefly if madness was contagious, because things seemed to keep appearing out of thin air. It was almost comforting to know that other people could see the blue box too, and that the hunters didn't look especially happy about it either.
"Oh fuck." Dean summed up the brother's feelings on the matter nicely.
Monkey shit show? Nope, Dean wished though. The situation was now officially upgraded to DefCon 1, all hands on deck, smoke them if you got them, with a healthy dash of 'put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye'.
"Hope you all got your running shoes on, cause we're going to be doing a lot of that."
OoOoO
TBC
OoOoO
AN- HEY! HEY YOU! YEAH YOU! I'M TALKING TO YOU, SAD SACK!
Take a hot second and tell me which Doctor/companion you want in the next chapter. You can only bitch at me about it if you took the time to vote. If I don't pick your doctor or your doctor doesn't win by voting, let's be all sweet Whovians about this. That goes for you too, SPN. Rudeness will not be tolerated so fight nice.
...
Or the Fannibals will eat you. Tee hee.
