Sorry. Fanfiction ate half this story the first time I posted it.

A retelling of the episode 'Sorbet' from an A/O verse standpoint.
Hannibal and Will go to their first murder together. Jack's not happy about it.
Not beta read

holy crap. long chapter is long.
Some dialogue is from the show which I do not own and am using without permission.

Ooo

The call came early in the morning, earlier than Will would have liked. He had been enjoying the thing other people called sleep at lot more lately. The Omega was currently in bed pressed up flush to his Alpha, Will's head tucked under Hannibal's chin, their arms splayed out around each other with their legs woven together, breathing in their combined scents. Hannibal was the one who answered the phone, curling himself over his mate to keep Will close as he reached for the lamenting technology that was trying vibrate itself off of the nightstand. Will was still well in the process of waking, stuck between 'what fuckery is this?! It's dark outside' and 'someone had better be really dead to get a call this early'.

"It's the Ripper." caused both men to flinch for different reasons, Hannibal with an annoyed look as he held the phone at arm's length away from his ear, and Will groaning as he pulled a pillow over his head, curling more into Hannibal's side. At least someone around here had had their coffee. Will would have to tell Jack to cut back or switch to decaf. No one should be that loud or alert at…..Will rose his head to check the ridiculously ornate clock on Hannibal's side….4:48am.

Other things were chattered over the phone, Will missing most of the key points, but it sounded like Hannibal couldn't get a word in edgewise either from arm's length, the Alpha looking at the phone with a miffed expression. Sighing, Will sat up to take the phone from Hannibal, flopping back as if dead as soon as he accomplished that. "What do you want, Jack?" he interrupted, having no qualms about being rude unlike his mate, who huffed at him softly through his nose as he got up.

Jack didn't miss a beat though. "…I need you in on this. Where is your head?"

"On my pillow." Will snapped back, trying to rub the last of sleep from out his eyes. "Like most other people, I was asleep….for once."

"Well, I got just the thing to wake you up. I'm going to need you to prepare yourself for this, Will. It's soup in there." Jack warned, like it was really necessary. Will wasn't ever brought in to look at and decipher pleasant things rainbows or kittens. No, he made witness to acts of Cain being led in one hand with the Devil while the other broke Abel bloody over and over again. The warning was all the babying he was going to get from Jack though, Will having not been out in the field for a while, not since the discovery of his gender. Even with Hannibal's backing, paperwork had taken a while to get pushed through the FBI's higher ups, probably due to the Alpha's terms which would allow Hannibal to retain total control over the empathic Omega. The FBI didn't like dealing with freaks of nature, much less freelance consultants outside of their influence or jurisdiction.

Of course, that was until Jack had made a huge mistake in regard to the Chesapeake Ripper by trying to use the curious case of Abel Gideon to his advantage. In partnership with Freddie Lounds and , Jack had attempted to flush out the infamous serial killer by confirming the tabloid journalist's originally unconfirmed story that Gideon was the Chesapeake Ripper, thus giving all the credit for those kills to a rather confused man. Gideon was seven shades of crazy and intelligent to boot, but he was nowhere on the Ripper's level. To say the venture had gone poorly was a grave understatement, the Ripper basically slapping Jack in the face with Miriam Lass's arm, and only her arm.

Two years ago, the missing young trainee had been working on a possible lead for Jack at the time of her disappearance, one that brought her too close to the Ripper's identity it was theorized. Obviously, the Ripper had not taken the Jack's slight well, but was not so fool hardy enough in his anger to reveal himself. After receiving a series of phone call from Miriam crying and begging for help, Jack had found her. More accurately, the Ripper had let him find what was left of her.

God, Will hated being right sometimes. He had predicted this kind of a reaction. You couldn't keep poking at crazy, and not expect something crazy to poke back. It didn't come as any surprise that the FBI didn't like being publicly embarrassed by a celebrity serial killer they couldn't seem to catch. Will's paperwork had flown through the bureaucracy machine with stamps of approval in triplicate to get the uniquely gifted Omega back into the field, under all of Hannibal's terms of course. The Alpha had the final say in every increment of Will's participation and whereabouts, meaning Will couldn't be on a case if he didn't wish it for any reason, his dedicated shark lawyer making sure of that in triplicate as well. It was something that Jack was very unhappy about, but when he complained, the FBI told the Alpha to suck it up and fight nice with Hannibal. On his part, Will wasn't sure how he felt about any of it, Jack's presumptuous nature or Hannibal's tactical possessiveness.

"Soup isn't good for the soul?" Will mused aloud when he realized that he had zoned out on Jack who was still impatiently waiting for a response, the Alpha all but growling into the phone.

"Not this kind." Jack hung up, a text from the agent popping up with an address. At least it was in the same state as him for once, Will throwing the phone over his shoulder, wondering how far a drive it would be and if he could sleep in a bit longer. It wasn't like the corpse needed to take a break from being dead.

Emerging from the bathroom fully dressed and looking immaculately ready to take on the day, Hannibal was already up and out of bed ever since Will had taken the phone from him. Still in his grey boxers and t-shirt because he thought Hannibal's version of night clothing was excessive, Will hated Alpha just a little bit for it. No one should be that put together at a moment's notice. Even worse, Hannibal was already setting out clothes for him as well. In retaliation, Will fell back into bed, pulling the covers over him as he curled up tight as a pill bug around Hannibal's pillow. The musky scents of vanilla soaked cinnamon and ginger clung to its surface, making Will relax a touch more than he was comfortable with.

"It's too chilly outside to wear the sheets. That and I don't think Jack would appreciate it." Hannibal told the lump in the middle of the mattress, the Alpha leaning over it to retrieve the phone from where it had been thrown before it was forgotten or lost behind the bed frame which would have been annoying. Hannibal's bed was solidly built from mahogany, and was quite heavy and too low to crawl under. It would be easier to buy a new phone than try to move the bed retrieving one.

"He'll only come pick you up if he is not on his way here already." Hannibal pointed out when there was no movement or response, the top of a dark curly head the only thing visible. The Alpha stirred his long fingers through those mess of curls, running his fingertips down a sensitive scalp to have Will press into the touch with a noticeable shiver. The small reaction was enough to make Hannibal wish they had more time, but the clock was ticking down for them. Hannibal knew Jack was already on his way, his stubborn nature allowing no other course of action. As alluring as staying in bed to follow these intimate feelings might be, Hannibal wanted to make sure Will ate some breakfast before they left. The potential for today promised to be long.

"You're hateful." Will muttered, extricating himself from the alluring warmth of slept in bedding at a crawl. Pulled out of bed to help extradite the process, Will's clothing was placed in his arms, Hannibal lightly shoving the Omega in the direction of the bathroom.

"I'll have breakfast ready by the time you are done." Hannibal told Will in parting, pressing his freshly shaved cheek to Will's stubbly one. In a way, it was their version of a good morning kiss. It was casual enough not to intimidate Will, but an intimate enough gesture of claiming to appeal to Hannibal's Alpha nature.

"We could just grab something quick on the way. I'm willing to bet that you've never had a McMuffin." Will said, just wanting see what would happen as he rubbed his hand over the scent marking. The thought of Hannibal in a McDonalds ordering fast food was funny enough to make the Omega chuckle into his palm.

"I have no idea what that is, but I will decline. It sounds lewd." Hannibal said as Will's chuckling evolved into full laughter in response, the Omega not even trying to hide his amusement anymore. "What is so funny?"

"I've never heard anyone describe McDonalds as lewd before. It's like calling a turkey sandwich a harlot." Will laughed, shaking his head at Hannibal who managed to looked regal and bemused all at the same time.

"Please get ready before Jack tries to break down our front door."

oOo

The front door was still intact but not for lack of trying on Jack's part. Pounding on the entryway like it had personally offended him, the agent had turned up just as Will was finishing his second cup of coffee and Hannibal was drying off the last of the cookware. As predicted by Hannibal much to Will's grim amusement, Jack insisted on driving them both to the scene himself instead of the pair just following or meeting him there. Both knew that Jack needed to be in control on some level. To general surprise, Hannibal allowed it with little fuss, but made Will sit in the back of the cavernous black SUV with him. This was all about testing boundaries and establishing dominance in a work relation after all.

In actuality, Hannibal didn't mind if Jack drove. The fewer members of law enforcement who could identify his car on sight the better, but Jack didn't need to know that. Making Will sit in the backseat with him served a dual purpose as well. It was a blatant reminder for Jack that Hannibal owned Will, that was empath's was his and his alone, Will's presence here a gift he could take away any time he liked. It also forced Jack to address them both about the case by denying Jack the opportunity to keep Hannibal out of the loop by muttering details to Will who looked half asleep again despite all the coffee. Hannibal gently nudged the Omega awake when Jack started talking.

"Victim was found in a hotel bathtub. There were abdominal mutilations and organ removal at the scene." Jack called over his shoulder, angry but resolute. He was going to make this work. He had too much riding on the line to have it screwed up by an overprotective Alpha. "Sounds like our guy."

"Sounds more like an urban legend than the Chesapeake Ripper, Jack." Will stretched in place, attempting to stay awake as he rubbed the back of his neck. It didn't help he equated Hannibal's body heat to rest though he wasn't about to move up to the cold leather of the front seat either. Even if he wanted to, Hannibal's firm grip on the top of his thigh was a big enough hint to him that the Alpha would have an issue with it. "It's coming off as a little hammy, don't you think?"

"Why do you say that?" Hannibal asked, keeping his voice low enough so that only Will could really hear him. It certainly wasn't one of his kills, but Will already sounded like he thought that as well without even seeing the killing ground yet.

"The Ripper wants a stage for his art. A hotel bathroom as the framework for one of his masterpieces would be too tasteless. He trying to make a point, say something profound even, not create a cliché. The Ripper would consider mimicking an urban legend gauche." Will explained, shaking his head at the very idea of it. "The thing you have to remember first and foremost about the Chesapeake Ripper is that he is and has always been an artist. He loves beautiful things. It's just that his idea of what is beautiful is completely different from anyone else's."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but without that point of view to sustain it, beauty is just another word. It is the certainty of the spelling that confuses people." Hannibal mused, enjoying the unintended compliments. Will had no idea how parallel in thinking he was to Hannibal. He just needed a little, well timed nudge in the right direction so that their paths intercepted.

There were already pathways beginning to form in that regard, the beginnings of their Bond shifting and shimmering spun into place by Fate's spiders. Confident that Will was not just his mate but his soul mate, Hannibal could already feel what lay between them, plucking at the newly formed strands of it like an musician trying out a new instrument. Sometimes it was plucked back, reminding Hannibal that this was a duet, not the solo he was used to living.

"Esoterically speaking, yes, I guess." Will shrugged. That kind of thinking was a little too much to take in first thing in the morning. He had enough on and in his mind to worry about without adding something abstruse to the mix. There was something larger than himself shifting around in the back, not being very quiet about it either.

"I've had the room sealed. You'll get it fresh." Jack said, glaring at Hannibal in the mirror. The person of his ire amused himself by ignoring Jack, settling in closer to a drowsy Will who looked like he doing his damnedest to fall back asleep. "My people will make sure of that. Looks like you'll be meeting some of the team today.

"Fresh? Fresh as a daisy?" Will mumbled, a small sad smile playing out on his lips. Why couldn't other people get him nice, normal things? Some people got coffee and donuts from their coworkers. In his line of work, Will got uncontaminated crime scenes. He ignored the threat of social interaction, not deigning to comment on it. Jack should really know better by now if he was excepting any enthusiasm about meeting strangers from Will.

"Fresh enough for you to tell me whether or not it's the Ripper." Jack said, gripping the steering wheel hard. It had been bad the last few couple of weeks what with him having to discover about his wife's cancer all on his own. Even worse, his Bella hadn't been planning on telling him about the disease eating away at her until it was obvious she couldn't physically hide the secret any longer. Jack had only figured it out because of their soul bond. Even though Bella still looked and acted healthy, Jack could feel her slowly dying in inches as the cancer grew larger inside her lungs, their bond painfully waning along with her ability to keep breathing.

All this while happening in the middle of the Gideon debacle and the horrible phone calls from Miriam Lass, the ones where the young woman was pleading for her life and begging for help from Jack by name. Professionally speaking, Jack didn't know what was worse. That he had failed to catch the Ripper, that Miriam Lass was another confirmed victim of the Ripper's, or that the Ripper had tricked him into a false sense of hope by making him think that Miriam was still alive.

Personally speaking, his relationship with Bella was a mess, his mate choosing to spend what little time she had left at work instead of with him, and the worst part was that he couldn't really blame her. If he was facing a similar situation, Jack knew he would do the exact same damn thing. He won't want his Bella's last memories of them together be of him dying either. What he resented most about the entire situation was that Bella felt like she couldn't talk about it with him. Even worse, it felt like she was the one protecting him instead of the other way around, severing their bond link by link, a little bit at a time. Unlike regular Bonding, it was common knowledge with Soul Bonds that when one's soul mate died, the other was soon to follow, either by fate, nature, or by their own hand. What Bella was silently doing equated to her gnawing off Jack's arm so at least one of them could escape the trap they were caught in. Jack's opinion flip flopped on a daily basis if it was incredibly brave or incredibly selfish on her part.

All Jack was certain of in life now was that he had to catch the Chesapeake Ripper so that all of this had some sort of meaning or reason for being so terrible and unfair. "I need you to tell me if it's the Ripper, Will. Then you can go back to class." Jack told the Omega who snorted in answer.

"You don't want me in a classroom. You never did." Will pointed out. Like Chilton, Jack had always hovered on the edge of Will's peripheral, wanting something from him. In the end, Jack had won out because he had the moral high ground, basically emotionally blackmailing Will into working for him. By working for Jack, Will was saving lives, and that felt good…..generally speaking. "You want me to wrap my head so tight around the Ripper I won't go back to class until he's caught." On the plus side, if this case ran on and they needed his expertise, Will wouldn't have to grade any midterm papers. Not many people could say that a dead body came with any silver linings.

"Your bad luck that you're the best, pal." Jack said as he shifted in his seat. He didn't like having his back to another Alpha. It was an instinctual thing of course, but there were other alarms bells going off in his head for some reason, though he couldn't fathom why. Remembering that Hannibal was a pure Alpha with a higher social standing than his own let Jack explain it away for now.

If he wanted Will, Jack knew he had to learn to work with or around Hannibal. Most other Alphas would have never let Will out of the bedroom, must less out the front door. It was a stroke of pure luck that Hannibal was so tolerant. A gentleman and a professional practically to a fault, the only thing the doctor had been aggressive about was protecting his mate. As difficult as he found the other Alpha, Jack could hardly fault Hannibal for that. He would have done the same for his Bella in a similar sort of situation if she were born an Omega instead of an Alpha.

"Are you expecting another couple of bodies after this one?" Will asked, trying to pinpoint Jack's mindset. It wasn't going to do anyone any good if the lead agent on this had his own agenda.

"If it's the Ripper, yes, I am." Jack nodded, confirming what Will was dreading.

Will leaned forward in his seat as if to drive the significance of his next point home. "Don't let the Ripper stir you up." Will told the agent firmly. He thought Jack needed to step back and see the big picture here before another piece of trainee was left lying around for them to find. "The reason he left you Miriam Lass's arm is so he could poke you with it. This is a game to him and right now, he's winning it"

"Then why not the rest of her?" Jack snapped back, his temper finally getting the better of him. Not even a whole body, just the poor girl's arm. It meant the Ripper had held onto her corpse or a piece of it for two damn years for whatever reason. Any hope that she could still be alive was crushed when the autopsy report had came in. The limb had been amputated post mortem.

"I apologize for interrupting but who is Miriam Lass?" Hannibal smoothly broke the flow of conversation by feigning ignorance. Getting to witness Jack's humiliation first hand was just too good an opportunity to pass up by keeping quiet.

"A trainee who up till recently was thought of to be missing. She was confirmed dead and made the Ripper's last known victim after Jack received a series of phone calls from her. They were a recording of course, the Ripper's way of taunting the FBI while humiliating Jack." Will explained though it was unnecessary considering his audience. Hannibal enjoyed the reiteration though, hearing a different perspective of what he had done to Jack and enjoying the show of the other Alpha trying to stay calm.

"I've never read anything about the Ripper making contact." Hannibal fed fuel to the fire, curious to see who would answer him first.

"We kept that out of the news. Thankfully, nothing leaked out to Freddie Lounds." Jack got there first, his clove and sage scent smelling burnt and acidic from new and old anger.

"Yes, thank God for small favors especially after you got into bed with her for that story." Will's lips curled in disgust at the very thought of the tabloid report, before turning his attention back to Hannibal. "Contact is atypical of his MO. It was more in response to being pushed. I doubt it will ever happen again. The Ripper is too careful to risk that sort of exposure."

"Pushed?" Hannibal pressed the topic further still, his mouth beginning to water for it. Jack's rage, embarrassment, and discomfort were tangible things to Hannibal, his sensitive nose scenting all those wonderful emotions coming off of the other Alpha in waves.

"I'm sure you have read, or at least heard about, the article Lounds wrote about Gideon." Will sighed, shifting closer to Hannibal. Jack would have to go take a walk and cool off before they hit the scene. Aggression in small spaces with other Alphas was never a good thing for anyone.

"I vaguely remember running across it, yes." Hannibal said lightly enough. He had memorized in precise detail everything about that day while reading that insulting piece of literature that had stolen his identity and gifted it to the undeserving fool Gideon. The man had all the artistic ability of a monkey throwing it own fecal matter against a wall.

"Jack thought by confirming the story, the Ripper might become angry enough to reveal himself." Will shook his head. Why did no one ever listen to him?

"Did it work?" Hannibal poked the bear in the car, the one who was glaring daggers at him in mirrors. He did his best not to smile back.

"About as well as I predicted. We got Lass's arm and her ghost making phone calls as an answer." Will shrugged. "Not much else besides that though."

"But why just her arm?!" Jack growled, gripping the steering wheel tight enough to make it creak under the pressure.

"The other victims the Ripper wanted to humiliate in death, like a public shaming. She was different." Will was beginning to feel like he was talking in circles. He had already explained this many, many times before. At least it looked like Hannibal was paying attention, the doctor's focus on him rapt.

"He was probably impressed that she was able to find him." Jack muttered, wishing to any and every god that Miriam had thought to leave behind some kind of note or hint to what jump in logic she had made with the evidence. As of yet, nothing had turned up though. Jack had personally gone through every piece of paper that Miriam Lass owned, may have come in contact with, or looked sideways at in passing.

"What a shame. It sounds like she was a brave young woman." Hannibal said in all honesty. It had been impressive that Miriam had been able to find him through her cleverness and keen eye for detail. Her lead had been so small and fragile up until it was confirmed by his drawing of the Wound Man left carelessly out on a table. The trainee recognized it for what it was, but by then, it was already way too late for her. Finely tuned survival instinct kicking in, Hannibal had planned to kill Miriam the moment she mentioned the hunter by name, her death an assured thing even before they had finished their conversation.

"He may be starting a new cycle, Will." Jack said low and intense as if willing it to be true.

"The Ripper contacted you directly. If he was killing again, he wouldn't be subtle about it. He would just pick up the phone." Will shook his head in frustration. Jack wasn't listening to him, not really. "Any more phone calls Jack?"

"No." Jack answered tersely. "Look if this is the Ripper, there'll be at least two more bodies and then nothing for months, maybe a year. We'll have a window of opportunity to catch him and then that window will close. The last time it closed, I lost the Ripper and I lost Miriam Lass. I don't intend to do that again."

"Be careful that you don't set yourself up for disappointment, Agent Crawford. Things are not always what they appear to be at first glance." Hannibal soothed even as he taunted, receiving a hard look from the mirror in answer.

"I'll keep that in mind, Doctor Lecter."

OOo

Hannibal looked around the hotel room with cool interest. It was the first time he had been invited to a crime scene, even if it was under protest. It was an unique experience considering it wasn't one of his own making. He usually missed what happened afterward. An absent player who never got to witness his audience's reactions after staging his performance pieces, their reactions to it, or how police, medical personal, and investigators swarmed over everything like ants picking apart a dead bird piece by piece. How there were small crowds of onlookers pressed up against the yellow tape with reporters, journalists, and bloggers mixed in among the mindless ramble that just wanted to be entertained by a loss of life. Since the beginning, death has always gotten the best bookings for shows. Anyone who said otherwise was a fool or just wasn't looking hard enough to see the bone figure behind the curtain, pulling levers and strings alike with skeletal fingers.

An uncharacteristic twinge of nausea in his gut made Hannibal look over at Will, the Alpha realizing the source of the discomfort coming from him. Hiding behind the thick glasses he had slipped on upon exiting the vehicle, Will seemed more content to stare off into space, keeping a careful distance physically and mentally between himself and other people as his insides and mind rolled with discomfort.

Once they got past the yellow and black tape, there were only a couple of techs and plainclothes people in the room itself besides themselves, busy placing numbered markers around blood sprays that went all the way from the hotel's suite to the bathroom, taking pictures, and jotting down notes to really notice them. In Hannibal's profession opinion and from personal experience, the scene suggested a severe violent emergence from deep sedation.

The pressing scents of agitated Alphas wasn't doing anything to calm Will down either, too many of the same gender in his near vicinity. Will still equated Alphas to pain and violent endings, that much was clear though it seemed to appear he at least accepted Hannibal as the exception to this, the Omega pressing close enough to him their shoulders kept bumping. Not that Hannibal minded, the Alpha part of him grinning lupine wide with each small victory he claimed over Will.

Hannibal wondered if the Omega knew how often he touched his collar, today's selection strips of multicolored blue silk woven wide and complicated. The band was attached to an ornate lock carved from white jade in the shape of a kirin. Now that he was outed and was made to wear a collar in public, Will felt exposed and vulnerable, the collar becoming a touchstone of sorts for him as if to remind himself and any other Alphas in the area that he belonged to another. That he was protected or at least he hoped he was, though doubt walked hand in hand with his trepidation. That was what Hannibal realized he was feeling, Will's fear, as least an aspect of it. Hannibal didn't like the uncertainty of it or its presence, the concept a foreign thing to him.

Placing his hand on Will's shoulder, Hannibal exerted some of his own control, sending calm back through their link. If he was getting feedback from Will unintentionally, it would stand to reason that he could do the same with direct intention. The effect was instant, Will breathing in deeply like he had been holding his breath for too long as some color returned to his skin, the finer shaking in his hands easing up. Will looked over at Hannibal in surprise, but was interrupted before he could say anything.

"Has anyone touched the body?" Jack bellowed, some of the newer personal jumping at the sudden rise in volume, not used to working with the agent with the booming voice.

"For once, local police behaved themselves." a tall dark haired man not in uniform but wearing an FBI ID smirked, his opinion clear about anyone in local law enforcement who was not a tech.

It's sentiment was echoed by a shorter man also in street wear of a better variety in Hannibal's opinion, far less casual, and proper identification, obviously another member of the Jack's hand picked science team. "It's fairly evident that the man's dead just by the look of him."

"I touched the body. A lot going on with that body." a young Asian woman in jeans and a leather jacket stated unrepentant in her actions, ignoring Jack's grumpy look in favor of noticing Will who flinched under the blatantly open consideration from her. "You're Will Graham."

The empathic profiler nodded in answer, careful to avoid eye contact with her as he moved to place Hannibal between himself and the tech who was grinning at him like she had just discovered an unexpected prize. Like most other members of law enforcement, she was an Alpha, but Hannibal felt more intrigued than threatened by her. From her scent he could tell that her interest in Will wasn't sexual in nature. The young woman was throwing off scents of gingersnaps and black tea that Hannibal equated more to excited curiosity than arousal. He allowed her pursuit for now. A little admiration in small doses from another might do Will some good. That or push the Omega closer to him.

"You wrote the standard monograph on time of death by insect activity." the woman gave chase in the sense she didn't let Will out of her sight, the two almost completing a full circle around Hannibal before Will made himself stand his ground before things got really ridiculous.

"I'm Beverly Katz." the female Alpha introduced herself, her eyes darting over Will's form, taking in all the detail of him as he twitched in response, blue grey eyes darting elsewhere. "You're not FBI?"

"Strict screening procedures." Will muttered, the irony not lost on him. It felt childish, but he almost wished Hannibal would intercede. This was why he hated fieldwork. It required him to be sociable.

"Detects instability. You unstable?" Beverly asked, but it didn't sound like she was being insulting or even considered the possibility a bad one if he were.

"That's why Omegas shouldn't be in this line of work. No stomach for it." the dark haired Alpha male snorted in open disdain of Will's presence here. Hannibal's eyes narrowed at him, memorizing his scent of roasted chestnuts and butter caramel, and the information on his identification badge.

"Zeller!" Jack snapped, shooting the tech a glare. The male Alpha raising his hands in mock surrender like he had already proven his point, and there was nothing left to be said.

"There have been multiple studies in the medical field on the matter." the other member of the science team pointed out. Unlike the majority of his co-workers though, his scent said he was Beta, his scent almost not there at all. Signature trait of his gender, the Beta's tone of voice neutral in the matter, the man simply stating facts for the sake of it.

"Not helping, Price." Jack growled. The damage had been done though, discomfort and self loathing from Will darting through the bond like pinpricks all over Hannibal's skin. It wasn't painful but it was bothersome. Hannibal made a mental note to research bonding further, and consult some of his colleagues on the matter as well. Will would have to learn some control before they committed themselves fully to the endeavor of soul bond. Until then, certain boundaries had to be set, Hannibal placing his palm on the back of Will's neck as he exerted some controlled power on his part, making everyone step away from them with a gasp as he gained all their attention at once.

"The majority of those studies are meaningless, having been proven to be biased and more often than naught, inconclusive. The truth of the matter is that it is society that places limits an Omega's capabilities, not the gender's own biology. In this modern age of medical advancement and the invention of heat suppressants and birth control to lessen or even eliminate the state of Heat and gestation, there are no physical limitations between any of the genders." Hannibal said, letting his power as an Alpha, one born pure, pour into his words.

From Hannibal's tone of voice, the way that it carried and made everyone pause in what they were doing to listen, Will would have thought they were in a lecture hall rather than a ruined hotel room. "Though Omegas are not drawn to conflict and have a tendency to avoid acts of violence, they have shown a distinct aptitude for clear thinking and undivided focus in stressful situations." Hannibal finished, letting go of Will's nape, the message of ownership clear to all now. Now that he had established himself as a lion in the room, Hannibal pulled his power back in to see what kind of result it would yield.

"That may be, but he's a liability even being here. I bet he's never even fired that gun." Zeller shot back from a safe distance, obviously not happy about Hannibal's presence here. As an Alpha, he was the equivalent of a Jack Russell terrier stuck in the same room with a mastiff and a wolf. "Like you said, avoids acts of violence."

"I used to be in law enforcement." Will snapped, though the truth still hurt. When he was a cop, Will had let himself get stabbed instead of taking another person's life, even in self defense.

"Did you ever pull the trigger?" Zeller countered with a smirk, striking too close to the heart of the matter. As Hannibal began to wonder how the man would pair with a port wine reduction sauce, the Alpha became distracted by a surplus of emotion that were not his own. It was an ocean whose peaking waves were diving and rolling against the high walls of his memory palace. Like any act of nature though, the attack on his kingdom was not deliberate, just more of their bond coming into play. Stress seemed to be evolving it.

"Enough! I don't give a damn if you want Graham here or not! I want him here! This is not up for debate." Jack yelled, his own powers snapping out to make everyone, except for Will and Hannibal, step back from the angered Alpha. Perhaps as a defense mechanism or simply being used to Jack's flairs in temper, Hannibal noticed Will lose interest in the living entirely, the Omega wandering over to the nonjudgmental dead. The current corpse was sitting in the bathtub, doing a good job at looking very dead.

"Someone tell me about the body." Jack ordered, reeling his power back in now that he had everyone's attention and varying shades of obedience.

"Like I said, a lot going on with that body." Beverly told him first, recovering nicely from the smack down. She struck Hannibal as being resiliently flexible, choosing to bend like a reed in the wind instead of letting it break her by being rigidly stubborn. "Surgery was performed and then unperformed."

"Surgery was unperformed with bare hands, sutures clawed apart." Zeller added, mimicking the clawing action with his own hands before realizing what he had just admitted to. "I also did a little bit of touching." he said in defense, looking sheepish as Jack leveled a glare at him.

"Pieces of him were torn off from the bed to the bathroom like breadcrumbs." Price picked up the line of conversation easily enough, the Beta not caring either way. He had a job to do and that was all he really cared about. Betas were often unmoved by the wills and whims of Alphas or Omegas. Price found Jack's outbursts more amusing than threatening, the Beta often entertaining himself by imagining the Alphas and Omegas around him having tails and dog or cat ears with all the reactions that came with the furry appendages. It was a little harder to envision with Hannibal, but Price managed it.

Will drew closer to the man sitting in the tub, Hannibal noting that the Omega's fear was leaving him in rush to be replaced with a cool calm that was eerily like his own, but feeling somewhat more alive like the chilled air of Spring that held the potential for warmth and the stirring of life later on.

"Surgery wasn't performed here. There'd be a lot more blood." Will stated without a doubt in his voice, the man slipping seamlessly into his role, from nervous Omega to crime scene profiler. He chose to sit on the lip of the tub, unbothered by his still company as the other's pulled back to the door, sensing a change in the air around them. The small space hummed with a power that made the hairs on the back of Hannibal's neck stand on end, the Omega gaining focus.

"If he's moving his victims, he could be performing the mutilations in the same transport. Find the car. Find the killer." Beverly said with a nod as she reasoned it out for them aloud.

"Amateur mistake." Hannibal thought to himself in passing, more interested in Will than the techs. That was why he performed onsite. A body was hard enough to transport on its own. Why compound that problem by making a mess out of your car? The Bentley was only used to move his clay of meat while they were drugged and/or unconscious from point A to point B, and was always then meticulously cleaned afterward.

"He tore open his own sutures." Will gazed down at the dead man, absorbing in all the details of his demise.

"It wasn't to get to his kidney. The Ripper already took it with him." Beverly informed him, watching Will with open interest.

"What did he take out of the chest?" Jack asked, following Will's narrow gaze, trying to see what empath was gathering up in his own head.

"That sort of incision is made in limited access heart surgery." Hannibal observed, and done rather sloppily in his opinion. He looked up to see all the techs and Jack staring at him like he had cut the corpse open himself. "In another life, I was a surgeon before I became a psychiatrist."

"He's right. Killer was going for the heart. Probably interrupted. It's intact." Zeller offered up in confirmation. "Traumatized but intact."

Hannibal watched as Will took off his glasses, putting them into his coat pockets as he titled his head in a peculiar way. Jack must have recognized the look as well.

"Everybody out!" Jack yelled, glaring back at Hannibal from the bathroom door. The agent closed it when it became obvious that Hannibal had no intention of leaving, but not before the two Alphas stared each other down. Jack broke it off when he felt Hannibal's greater power start to nip at him in warning. Hannibal allowed himself a smile of all bared teeth at the agent's back, turning his full attention back to Will soon enough, the Omega's eyes closed and completely oblivious to the world of the living.

Abandoning normal means of communication to follow sensations that had been begging for his attention since their arrival, Hannibal turned inward and found that Will's thinking lay with the dead. There was tug through upon those delicate bonds of spun starlight that lay between them like quicksilver spider webbing.

Closing his own eyes, Hannibal entered his mind palace to find new paths there waiting for him, ones not of his own making. Oddly enough, he was joined by a strange creature who gazed down at him with large, darkly fathomless eyes. Moving closer to get a better view of it, Hannibal thought it looked like a stag whose pelt had dark raven's feathers mixed in with its thick fur, its antlers impressive in size and made of black bone covered in drying blood. A predator in hiding mimicking prey, the creature regarded him coolly, but made no move to attack him, choosing instead to stalk off down one of the new paths provided for them.

Curious at this strange development, Hannibal chose to follow it. His mind palace was supposed to be a place of his own construction, its foundations raised by and for his memories alone. The idea behind it was called 'the Method of Ioci', the method of thought retrieval finding its origin in ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical treatises. Hannibal had taken the concept above and beyond just memory enhancement, refining the process to make it a physical place in the safety of his own mind. Its black marble walls were high and impenetrable, its rooms and gardens infinite, and its storage capacity limitless. Up till now though, Hannibal had been its only occupant.

Peculiar, twisting paths of hard packed earth led into wild woods that now bordered his palace on one side while on the other, a vast ocean lay out as far as his mind's eyes could see. Their existence told Hannibal that the bond may start allowing him some company soon enough. Streaming light that connected to his towers and spires like strange banners made of caught comets foretold of other conduits and connections there as well.

The stag's pacing was brisk, Hannibal having to walk quickly to keep up, but he could tell that the animal wasn't trying to lose him. It was simply impatient, the stag every once in while turning its heavy head to huff mists of white air at him. It seemed the ravenstag held winter within itself, frost growing underneath its cloven hoofs and flakes of snow clinging to its furred plumage.

The woods gave way soon enough to scrub fields and then Hannibal found himself stepping back into the hotel room like he had never left it. It was clean now though, its carpets and walls unstained by human paint thrown carelessly about. There were no markers or other people here as well. There was no signs that anything was amiss except for the ravenstag breathing out icy clouds that dissolved in the air. Looking back at Hannibal one last time, the creature strode into the bathroom to disappear from existence like it had never been. Hannibal went after it to be brought up short by the corpse from earlier who was now very much alive, bleeding out that bright life through a poorly sutured cut in his side. Obviously confused but very much alive, at least for now.

That was when Hannibal saw Will standing there beside him. The dying man must have seen Will too because he reacted violently enough to his presence, attacking the Omega, except it wasn't Will. The body language was all wrong, enough so it gave Hannibal reason to pause though his Alpha instincts were screaming at him to attack this man who had dared to threaten his mate.

Rationality was the keystone to Hannibal's thinking though, the Alpha ignoring his more primitive mindset to evaluate the situation. It was like someone else was wearing a Will suit. It was then that Hannibal realized that he was in empath's own version of a mind palace with Will as the killer in it. He also couldn't seem to see Hannibal, but in all fairness, he did have other people on and in his mind as Will grappled with the man, the two heading toward the bathroom where this little drama would soon meet its end.

The man hit a tile wall, too hard, causing his heart to seize, Hannibal recognizing the onset of cardiac arrest. Apparently the killer did as well, producing a scalpel as he laid the man back into bathtub as gently as he could, though gravity did most of the work for him.

Transcendental was the word that came to Hannibal's mind as he watched Will cut into the man without hesitation to spread his ribs apart with a moist cracking sound, blood coating his skin up to his wrists. Will's hands dug into the dying man to take his heart into his palms, and Hannibal's mind sang arias in answer to the vision. It was perfection, Will's face splashed with another's crimson, his blue eye wide and almost feral. He had never looked more beautiful to Hannibal, who memorized every detail of the image to faithfully reproduce later on with paper and pencil. Will grew still like that, as if he were posing for Hannibal, and then suddenly, it all stopped.

Too abruptly so, Hannibal snapping his head back as the vision ceased to be, the Alpha finding himself back in the real hotel room with Will looking pale and drawn, the Omega shaking beside him.

"Jack?" Will called out, making Hannibal growl softly before he could stop himself. He was still recovering from what had just happened to him and didn't want another Alpha around him or his mate, especially when Will looked so frail and feverishly pallid.

The Omega glared up at his Alpha but was still too weak to make it really vehement. This was his job and Hannibal would just have to learn how to live with it if he insisted on being here.

"This wasn't brutal." Will said softly, still out of breath by the time Jack entered the bathroom. God, he had almost been able to forget how horrible this felt, having another person moving under his skin and in his head. He could hear Jack rejoining them, the Alpha standing close but still keeping a respectable distance from him. That might have had something to do with Hannibal moving to intercede, positioning himself between Jack and Will. It was a very unique sensation to feel irritated and grateful all at the same time. "The killer wasn't killing. He was trying to save a life."

As far as the recreations went, this one wasn't so bad when compared to some of the others he'd had to endure in the past. At least, the guy doing this wasn't crazy, not really. Just greedy and desperate, something mundane to experience for once, just some stupid person with enough medical knowledge to be dangerous. That aside, the thinking still took it out of him. At least this killer wouldn't linger in his mind though. Will was thankful for that much.

"The Ripper ever do that?" Will threw the question over his shoulder to the agent to be met with a stormy look from Jack. The man was not going to like what Will had to tell him.

The techs were brought back into the room as well so that Will could tell them the news, Beverly and Price discussing the empath's assessment of the situation in the background. Zeller stood in the doorway though, confident in his opinion. "It's the Chesapeake Ripper." he stated without a doubt.

"It's not the Ripper." Will sighed, ignoring the power trying to play over him. It didn't….couldn't compel him to submit. The only effect it had was making his skin itch in the bad way, and causing Jack and Hannibal to glare at the lesser Alpha who cringed in response but held his ground.

Unlike other Omegas who would fold like a puppet whose strings was cut under the influence of an Alpha, the dominant gender generally didn't have any effect on Will, with the exception of the one beside him. It probably had something to do with Hannibal and him being pure. Will reminded himself that he really needed to do some research on the matter, especially now that there was something permanent beginning to form between them. Sitting hunched over on the toilet, Will leaned into the Alpha standing beside him, Hannibal quietly offering his support. It was a strange, but nice thing to experience, the touch of Hannibal's skin on his own grounding Will.

"There are too many similarities." Zeller huffed, keeping with his assessment like a dog to a bone.

"There aren't enough." Will shook his head, sounding put out even to himself. He was so fucking tired, a headache pinging around inside his skull like a fireworks display of hurting.

Pain was a unique thing to experience, especially when it was someone else's, Hannibal examining the threads that were like vibrating strands of crimson, the silver steadily leaching out of them. Curious, Hannibal plucked the bled strands to have them sing like broken crystal bells, sweetly off key and shrill with distress.

"Knife wound cuts, not stabs, anatomical knowledge, dissection skills, mutilation, organ removal, victim clothed, on display." Zeller listed off effortlessly, taking Will's words as a challenge. "We got 22 signature components, all attributed to the same killer."

Will remained looking unimpressed by the assessment. "22 possible signature components." he said steadily, making Zeller stare at him. In dark amusement, Will surmised the Alpha was wondering why he as an Omega wasn't a sniveling mess on the floor at the moment.

The two men were arguing with each other at Jack's back, the agent staring down at the corpse like it was going to sit up and tell him everything that he wanted to know. Hannibal kept himself at Will's side, the Omega leaning into his mate to keep the Alpha in place. As per usual, Hannibal's face was giving nothing away to his thinking, but Will was getting a feeling of unease from the man's quiet attention to the interaction.

"It the Ripper!" Zeller snapped, his tone one of finality as he gave another push with his power to try and get his point across. In response, Will rose up to close the door in Zeller's face, the Alpha gaping at him in shock. Satisfied, Will retook his makeshift seat, looking and feeling far calmer now. That and he noticed Hannibal smiling, the Alpha moving to the door to ensure it was stayed closed.

"It's not the Ripper, Jack." Will said again, carefully watching the other Alpha. "I'm sorry, but it's not."

"Are you sure?" Jack asked, the words sounding dragged out of him, the man's voice heavy with disappointment.

"More or less." Will sighed, leaning against a tiled wall to help hold himself up. He felt frigid without Hannibal beside him.

"Tell me why you're sure." Jack needed more, always needed more. He couldn't take things at face value, couldn't afford to with this killer.

"The Ripper left a victim in a church pew, using his tongue as a page marker in the bible he was holding." Will said with great deliberation. Hannibal thought it was on excellent example, and would have applauded if he could have. It had been one of his cleverer kills. "This isn't it."

"As you have said before, he wishes to perform, to give his audience a point of view." Hannibal couldn't resist. "He is a killer with purpose and agenda."

"An askewed view, but yes." Will nodded at his mate who looked very pleased about something. He could tell here and there. It was something in those unique blank eyes, something too calm, too at ease. If you knew where and when to look for it, Will could also pick up a faint glint of mirth in those strange sanguine eyes, though he failed to see what was so damn amusing about this situation. "This is a medical student or a trainee or someone trying to make an extra buck in a back alley surgery and it went bad. Actively bad."

Taking in the empath's words, Jack looked crushed with anger and frustration. It was obvious he had wanted so badly for this to be the Ripper. Hannibal wanted to dress himself in the agent's anger and despair, just so that he could admire them anytime he wanted.

"You'll catch the Ripper." Will said softly. It wasn't much of a condolence, but he was doing the best he could. "Eventually."

"Yeah, well I want to catch him now." Jack growled, his voice thick with emotion. A vulgar display of it in Hannibal's opinion. The other Alpha gave too much of himself away. Hannibal now knew exactly what buttons to push and even what sequenced to push them in to set Jack off in any manner he desired. If Hannibal wanted to, he could have the man fired by the end of the day on improper conduct alone.

"When I do, they're not going to get the chance to take him in." Jack stated, promises and good intentions gone bad carved into his dark expression.

"You can't just jack up the law and get under it." Will intervened on the Alpha's behalf. It was sad when he had to be other people's moral compass.

"Can't I?" Jack said, looking a touch feral. He had the bearing of a man willing to make sacrifices, even if it were other people.

"The pressure of responsibilities can muddy one's own powers of perception." Hannibal said in voice that sounded made to deal with people on the edge of breaking. Will realized that it was probably was.

"I've already had my psych eval." Jack glared at the other Alpha.

"Not by me." Hannibal said lightly enough to make Jack put some effort into calming down. The well respected psychiatrist's words carried a great deal of weight. He couldn't afford to be taken off the Ripper case because Hannibal whispered a few of tainted observations into the right ears.

Turning back to Will for some sort of focus, Jack leveled a look at the Omega. "Tell me why this isn't him. Tell me how you see the Ripper. Not the murderer." Jack asked. "The man."

With his eyes closed and his breathing shallow, Will took so long to answer Hannibal wondered if he had perhaps fallen asleep standing up. He looked tired enough to do so, felt it as well. Will's weariness went beyond just his body, Hannibal feeling within himself that it ran soul deep. The lines that lay between them were open, Hannibal falling back into his own head to find himself again on those strange paths of wild earth that led off into the darker forests of Will's mindscape. While Hannibal's head was organized and his mind palace refined, Will's headspace was the organized chaos of nature, planning out in it own way by the elements that shaped it.

Mists poured in from the dark sea to cover this brave new land in the thick blanket of white, one that surrounded Hannibal's mind palace so that it looked like it had been built on clouds into of solid ground. Thick and muted as cotton, the mist pressed itself to Hannibal who found he stood at a crossroads of sorts. The Alpha waited for it to clear a bit before he proceeded. It wouldn't do anyone any good if he got lost.

Soft solidarity parting for it, the stag was back as if called, like it had been waiting for him all this time, the animal nosing at Hannibal before turning down one of the roads, the mist falling back for the beast. Faced standing in a white void by himself and not wishing to waste time, Hannibal followed his strange guide to find himself entering a gallery of sorts. To his surprise, it was one of his own making in a way, each and every highlighted display with its own little information card out front detailed one of his kills. At least the ones the FBI knew about, the one he had let them find. Only special rude were publicly shamed. Other people were simply just meat and not worth the effort, left or buried in unmarked places where no one would ever find them.

In the middle of it all stood Will. Or at least a version of himself, Hannibal comprehended. The Omega in his own mind was left unguarded, naked and unashamed about it. Of course, Hannibal reflected, Will would strip himself down in the only place he felt safe to do so. That or it was a metaphor of self perception in regard to him wearing other killers. Hannibal wondered which it was.

The stag moved to stand behind Will, the empath more involved with all the displays that lay before him instead of paying any attention to the strange animal at his back, breathing down his neck. A faceless shadow figure was coming to life in front of Will, taking shape and form the longer Will looked at it. Hannibal watched in fascination as Will's mind tried to created the Chesapeake Killer from nothing. With no physical details and only supposition to go on, the end result was a solidified void figure that Will circled around pacing.

"I see him born….as one wounded….damaged. I see a monster that was made by another's hand. I see those hands trying to end him. They tear at him, brutalize him, until he falls. Everyone expects him to die from it." Will spoke almost in whispers, too busy getting lost in his made company. "But he doesn't die."

"I see a monster made from something old and into something new….different….unique. I see a survivor, a hunter, but an outcast as well…."

"So what does he look like to you then?" Hannibal could hear Jack ask Will, though his voice sounded tinny and at a distance, like listening to someone speak through a bad connection.

Hannibal opened his real eyes, extricating himself from that place in Will's mind before the vision ended again this time, watching as Will reemerged on his own as well, looking none the wiser that he'd had company. The Omega opened his eyes, but still looked lost somewhere else.

"He looks…."

"Normal."

oOo

Disgruntled but being quiet about it for once, Jack dropped them off at Hannibal's Baltimore home, both men lost in their own thoughts as Will followed Hannibal through the house more out of habit than necessity now. Will blinked in surprise when he found they were back in the bedroom. Still a bit shell shocked, the Omega let himself be guided to and sat on the bed, Hannibal taking Will's shoes and sock off for him.

"What are you doing?" Will asked, feeling vaguely uncomfortable about the Alpha kneeling down in front of him.

"I want you to rest. You are still too pale for my liking. I'm sure Jack has already made arrangements for your classroom." Hannibal told him, pressing his hand to Will's shoulder until the Omega laid down. Will went easily enough with the motion which bespoke of just how tired he was.

"I have bad dreams." Will muttered, committing to the idea as he pulled off the rest of his clothing until he was down to his boxers briefs and tshirt.

"Then I will stay with you until you fall asleep. I don't have any appointments until later on this afternoon." Hannibal said, though it was very tempting to cancel on Franklin. Unfortunately, he held himself in accordance to his own 24 hour cancellation policy. He following Will into bed, though he took time and care in removing his suit properly, folding and hanging the clothing so it didn't crease.

Naked, Hannibal pressed up against Will, knowing that he would be well received. Even if Will wasn't willing to admit what he needed to himself, Hannibal was more than willing to provide. Through the bond, he could feel Will's skin hunger under his own skin now, like an itch he couldn't scratch.

"And what if I don't want to sleep?" the corners of Will's mouth slightly turned up as he spoke, the empath closing his eyes to better experience the heat of another person seeping in through the thin layer of cotton he wore. A recent momentary lapse in judgment had led to lazy, mind blowing sex and Will's gateway drug to desire with Hannibal as his pusher. When once all he could think about was trying to get away from the Alpha, all Will wanted to do now was never leave the safety of their bedroom or have the feel of Hannibal's skin leave his own. Will knew deep down it was his biology working against him. He was just finding it harder to care. Comfort and being cared for was addicting and Will was quickly becoming an addict.

The suits Hannibal predominantly wore, and even his version of casual wear not too removed from this style of clothing, hid a lean compact body that was more dancer or gymnast than the predisposed concept of brute or bodybuilder society seemed to cling to for Alphas. Hannibal was a balanced creature built for speed and strength much like Will was. He was certainly enjoying the exploration of that body, and just how different it was from his own.

"Then I'll have to think of some way to tire you out." Hannibal murmured in all seriousness, his accent becoming thicker the lower his voice went. Will's new acceptance of him in his personal space was a welcome thing, a landmark on the road to his total victory over Will. Soon, Will would see the world as just more than a place to hide from or exist in. Soon, he would take his rightful place beside Hannibal in becoming a master of it. That thought alone was enough to bring him full and ready, Will's scent helping matters along as his pheromones sweetened and flowered. Hannibal's large hands slid underneath Will's tshirt helping the Omega out of it, his underwear soon following the rest of clothing on the floor.

Breath quickening, Will watched as Hannibal touched him skin almost reverently, the Alpha's caresses light as his hands ran up and down Will's sides to cross over his front, feeling the meager softness of Omega's belly, the firmer planes of his chest and followed the muscular curve of his shoulders. Will was reacting to Hannibal as well, his erection at already half mast just from being touched and the scent of his Alpha's musk intensifying, making Will feel light headed.

"Would you like to take off your collar, Will?" Hannibal offered, his fingers grazing the white jade lock. Will could have easily done it himself when they got home, Hannibal always making it a point to give Will a key to every collar he gifted him with. True proof of ownership was when one gave their intended the means and the chance to their escape, and they chose to stay in the cage by their own free will instead.

"No. You can leave it on. I know you like this one." Will muttered, looking away. He didn't consider it as defeat if it were a favor.

"So you wore it for me?" Hannibal smiled slow and thin like a stiletto blade being unsheathed. Feeling suddenly on edge, Will darted forward to bite his chin instead of answering, staying there to nip at Hannibal's throat. It was an aggressive move to do with an Alpha, especially by an Omega. Curious rather than angered by it though, Hannibal titled his neck back to expose his throat to see what Will would do, the Alpha noting the Omega's surprise by his quick intake of breath.

Baring one's throat to another was an act of trust in Alphas, compliance in Betas, and one of total submission in Omegas. An Alpha baring his neck to an Omega was almost unheard of outside of art, literature, and romantic circles of thinking.

The response was immediate and not disappointing, Will biting down at the crook as he took Hannibal by the shoulders to roll them, the Omega straddling his thighs now with his own on either side. The Omega's teeth were clamped down hard enough to bruise but not break the skin, much to Hannibal's amused disappointment. Will was starting to take chances, but failed to follow them through to their fullest outcomes. Even now, Will was releasing his hold on Hannibal's neck to lick at bruised skin. Patiently, Hannibal laid back and let him, leaving it up to Will to make the next move.

With clumsy hands not yet skilled in such carnal acts, Will guided Hannibal's erection into himself in a great show of impatience, sinking down on the hardened column of flesh until he bottomed out enough to feel the press of the Alpha's balls against his ass. Placing his hands on Hannibal's chest to brace himself, Will shuddered as he kept himself still, too full and still all too new to this. He was slick enough for it without any prep but so tight. The only reason he was not in any real pain was because his body was made of this kind of thing. Rocking more out of instinct than real life application, Will languidly moved, his movements slow and even as he tried to figure out what to do next.

Shifting to accommodate him, but doing nothing to stop Will from exploring these sensations and build upon them, Hannibal placed his hands on Will's swaying hips to help stabilize the Omega as he rode the Alpha's length. Even though his movement was tentative and unsure, Will couldn't look anything but glorious on top of him. The Omega's hair was curled soft and dark against his pale skin, his eyes half lidded and darkened a smoky sapphire blue, full of lust and a wanting that made Hannibal hunger for more.

As Will leaned in over him, his intention clear, Hannibal leaned up so that their lips could bump into each other before truly meeting, silken flesh slickly melding into each other as tongues came into play, twisting together. Will tasted in laps while Hannibal devoured in broad strokes that left them gasping for much needed air, their mouths so close to one another they kept exchanging the same air.

"I saw you, you know." Will breathed out the words, feeling Hannibal move deep inside of him but in an entirely different way. "You were in my head earlier."

Hannibal smiled, darting forward to steal a kiss this time, proud of his mate. "I was." He was pleased by this revelation. Admittedly, he would have lost some respect for Will if the empath was so unaware as to not know when someone else was in his own head, besides the usual suspects of course. It was also important to know that their bond wasn't just one sided, that he would have to take some precautions moving through Will's mind.

"Did you see it? Did you see the stag?" Will gasped as he threw his head back, grinding down as Hannibal pushed up, achieving new depth that made Will's insides roll and the Omega cry out.

"I did. I saw everything." Hannibal braced himself on his forearm so that he could nip at Will's skin, reddening the hollow spaces along his collarbones. That admittance caused Will to pause in such a way Hannibal thought the empath was about to pass out for a moment, his eyes were shut so tight and his body taunt as steel wire.

"You saw me kill." Will's eyes flew open, his body released from its hold to become dead weight as Will fought to keep himself up and moving.

"I saw you recreate a killer's thinking. You haven't killed anyone." Hannibal said, reaching around to press a hand on the small of Will's back, the empath's rhythm flagging in his bewilderment.

"The mirrors in your mind can reflect the best of yourself, not just the worse. You are more than you realize, beloved." Hannibal said not unkindly. This was an extremely malleable moment to shape Will further into his image, but it needed to be done so with great care and a delicate touch.

"Why do you call me that?" Will asked, ignoring the big picture to pick at one of the minor details.

"It is a very old word. It's original meaning was 'to be pleasing'." Hannibal turned the tables on them by flipping Will onto his back with a shifting in his weight. It was done smoothly enough to not disconnect them, Hannibal sinking in deeper from the new position as he placed Will's legs over his shoulders, holding them solidly at the thighs. Shoving pillows under the gap of Will's back and the mattress, Hannibal set a new, vigorous pace, one that had Will reeling from it as all his pleasure buttons were pressed at once. "You are very pleasing to me, my dear William. Perhaps you would like me to say it in another language?"

"What? No…" Will managed out between the embarrassing sounds Hannibal was thrusting out of him.

"Amato." Hannibal pressed the Italian into Will's gaping mouth, accenting it with his tongue.

"Please…" Will gasped back, throwing his head back in open invitation. He wanted Hannibal to stop, was willing to make sacrifices in dignity toward that cause by baring his neck.

"Carus." Hannibal took and took and took, his teeth running along Will's jaw line and down his throat, the Latin spoken into the white jade lock like it were a key. The Alpha bit into the skin right above it, leaving behind a cameo of teeth marks.

"Stop." Will was so close to begging. It hurt so good to hear the adoration, painfully so as his flesh trembled and clenched.

"Mylimasis." Hannibal adored his mate in his mother tongue, his accent fitting into place for once. He reached down to take Will's swollen length in hand, his thumb rubbed little circle over the sticky slit of it.

"Hannibal" Will choked out the name like it were a prayer and curse all in one. He was getting so close, Hannibal's hand bearing down on him in time to his thrusts..

"Saiai." it didn't hurt to speak the Japanese like it would have a lifetime ago, his knowledge of the language from another lover, possibly the only other person Hannibal could have loved. Such gifts were all for Will now though, the Omega struggling with himself to keep it together even while Hannibal was taking him apart with just one word.

"I'm going to…" Will gulped at air, trying to find relief as his skin felt too tight and hot, his body too full and swollen.

"Mon très cher ." It was the French that did it, something harkening back to Will's days of growing up in the Bayou listening to others talk sweet and low to their loved ones. It touched something in Will he didn't know he was vulnerable too, the Omega coming with a harsh cry through clenched teeth as he rode out his orgasm.

Feeling Will's move and press tight around him, the Omega clenched down hard on his erection, making Hannibal reel and gasp. A few more thrusts into the sweet tight heat was enough to bring Hannibal to his completion, the Alpha letting out a stilted sigh as he emptied himself into Will. The Omega shuddered from the sensation of the liquid heat settling inside of him, Hannibal finally parting them to lay Will back down, coving the Omega's panting body with his own.

Wiping away some stray tears from Will's flushed cheeks, Hannibal stared down at his mate as he licked the salt off of them. Will watched him with heavy eyelids, the Omega wiped out. Sleep was a definite thing for him now, Will still unused to such overwhelming sensations or lovemaking.

"I will not be back until later this afternoon. I have to run a few errands after my appointments." Hannibal said softly as to not break the placid mood between them. Contentment hummed through the bond linking them, but there was confusion there as well, like Will didn't know what to do with that feeling. Their connection was practically glowing now, strengthened with new vitality.

"What if Jack needs me again?" Will asked, the idea of the afterglow lost on him. Hannibal expected nothing less from the stunted Omega though, smiling in the face of Will's discomfort.

"Then go to him." Hannibal shrugged, pressing his lips to the side of Will's face to let them linger there. The Alpha enjoyed that fact that he could now, though still in limited amounts. His timing had to be right for it.

"Then what was all the posturing earlier for?" Will sighed, relenting as Hannibal kissing his way down to his neck, his long fingers stroking the silk braiding of Will's collar, tugging it lower to make room for his marks. The collars were lovely tool used to break Will down while claiming ownership over Omega, but Hannibal still liked to personalize his claim.

"I had to make it clear who was your keeper. It is not you that I am worried about. My caution lies with the FBI and Jack Crawford. I feel he does not have your best interests at heart and has made it a habit of abandoning you to the monsters in your head as your only company." Hannibal pressed his words into the soft skin of Will's throat.

"Jack hasn't abandoned me." Will rolled his neck to the side to give the Alpha better access and was rewarded for his obedience with a kiss to his pulse point, and not the bite he had been expecting. It made Will shiver, his body over sensitive to any sensation.

"Not in any discernable way. Perhaps in the way gods abandon their creations. You say he hasn't abandoned you, but at the same time, you suffer from what he places before your eyes." Hannibal pressed himself closer, his penis soft but still wanting to be inside of Will. It was almost enough to make Hannibal wish he was in Rut, a state of being he found aggravating but gave him a much shorter refractory time. The placement of his gentials during this conversation was not lost on him or Will, the Omega losing some of the those softer feeling to glare tiredly at Hannibal as he felt the unique shift and slide of fluids within him.

"Oh, this should be interesting. Please, Doctor, proceed." Will tried to move away, only succeeding in dislodging Hannibal from his opening to make a mess of himself. Will flushed in embarrassment as Hannibal took it with the applaud of any medical professional, one used to dealing with bodily fluids on a regular basis, the Alpha finally rising off of him. It was only to go as far as the bathroom, his mate soon returning cleaned off with a wet washcloth in hand. If Will had expected to be handed the towel, he was sorely disappointed as Hannibal cleaned his mate off himself, his movements practiced but gentle.

"I can…" Will protested weakly to find himself being held still after he tried to move away.

"Hannibal." The stern tone made the Omega look up into sanguine eyes. It was the closest thing to an order that the Alpha had ever given him. As much as Hannibal preferred to be addressed by his title, he didn't want to hear Will call him that. It was the empath's way of erecting barriers between them.

"I like it when you say my name, Will." Hannibal admitted, his tone softening, leaving again only long enough to dispose of the towel. They could change the sheets later. Their bed was big enough to avoid the wet spots, Hannibal shifting Will over so that they could lie side by side comfortably, Will being the little spoon in this arrangement much to his chagrin.

"I am wary of Jack because he leaves you to your own mental devices." Hannibal told the back of Will's head, his nose appreciating the dark silkiness of the Omega's curls and the sweet scent they held there.

"Are you trying to alienate me from Jack Crawford?" Will snorted. "Jealously is not attractively worn by anyone, not even you."

"I am not jealous of Jack. I am angered by him. I will not have my mate abused." Hannibal said, keeping himself from growling out the words.

"I'm not abused!" Will snapped, trying to turn in Hannibal's arms to find such an action impossible the way that the Alpha was gripping him, tight as a vice. Teeth found the back of Will's neck, clamping down on the nape of it. The effect was instant, Will feeling himself go lax from the triggered pressure point on his body. It was like he was being drugged on calm between the bite and the Bond.

"You have an empathy disorder. That is the abuse I was referring to. What you do is not good for you." Hannibal said between licks to the fresh wound. Unlike the ones made by Will on his own neck, the indentations Hannibal left behind were neat and clean cut through flesh, but they would not scar like his first bite, which was still healing all pink and shiny.

"Are you going to make me quit? Now that you've seen? Seen what I can do….what I'm capable of…" Will made himself ask. It hadn't hurt to have Hannibal in his head, the realization coming almost as a shock to him. He knew the moment Hannibal had joined him in the hotel room, watching him kill that man, cut open his chest to get at his heart. The disgust he expected in return was not there, its absence startling. Will could almost allow himself to believe that on some level Hannibal might actually accept him for who and what he was. Will reminded himself that it was a foolish thing to do though. No one was that perfect, not even Hannibal.

"No. It is still your choice, Will. I'm just worried that Jack has gotten your hands very dirty." Hannibal soothed. He wanted to laugh at Will's obvious worries, tapping that urge down. Now that they were connected, Hannibal wanted to experience all of what Will was, but in return, gradually show the empath what lay in himself. Most of all though, Hannibal wanted to see how he killed in Will's mind with Will mirroring his actions like some sort of obscene shadow.

"I wasn't forced back into the field." Will said softly, enjoying being held, cared for. It felt nice. He had never gotten to experience 'nice' often or on a regular basis, even if the bedroom talk left a lot to be desired. It sounded too much like therapy, but that was a given considering Hannibal's profession.

"I wouldn't say 'forced'. 'Manipulated' would be the word I choose." Hannibal feigned concern as darker things moved deeply within just below the safer surfaces Will was treading like thin ice over a lake.

"I can handle it." Will said with a determination that Hannibal found endearing. Will would always fight, no matter what the odds, no matter against who. It was the enduring quality of Will that made this all so much fun and worth every effort for Hannibal.

"Somewhere between denying horrible events and calling them out lies the truth of psychological trauma." Hannibal told him, because like Will would always fight, he would always play to win.

"So I can't handle it." Will grumbled into his pillow, getting mental whiplash. This was why he hated therapy. There never seemed to be any right answers.

"You can with me by your side for support or better yet, acting as your anchor." Hannibal moved in for checkmate, the sincerity of his words feeling more real than usual for once.

"I appreciate that." Will answered hesitantly. "Thank you."

Hannibal savored the last of the tension leaving Will's body, before continuing. "That being said, since this is not the Ripper or anyone too violent, if the situation arises, would you be comfortable going in by yourself while I take care of a few matters? I might be unavailable in the coming week or so."

"Of course." Will nodded, turning his head to look at the Alpha who rested his own against Will's shoulder to look back at him. "Is it anything I can help you out with?"

"No. I will be lightening my work load, busy finding referrals to my patients while giving notice to others, and such. So that I can accompany you on a regular basis without having to constantly reschedule or cancel on a patient." Hannibal explained, letting his fingers play over Will's ribs at the Omega's sharp intake of breath.

"I don't want you to give up your practice or livelihood for me." Will said, looking almost in a panic about it. He grew still again, feeling Hannibal chuckle against him, the vibrations from it low and deep.

"It is not an imposition. Working for the FBI will be very educational. Plus I have been wanting to delve into a new field of work, and this is a good a time as any to do so." Hannibal said, pressing a kiss to the back of Will's head before getting up, covering Will up in soft silk sheets to keep his body heat with the Omega just a little bit longer while cocooning Will in their mingled scent.

"I can pretty much guarantee that the FBI won't pay your rates." Will said softly as he watched Hannibal dress himself. It was almost an art form unto itself, and an excellent distraction while Will was tried not to feel guilty about the situation, failing at it. Hannibal was a well respected psychologist with an elite clientele. To just give all that up for his sake seemed absurd.

"We don't need the money." Hannibal told him, getting down to part of the matter that was bothering Will. "Being a Count and the sole survivor of a lineage comes not only with land and a title, but a great deal of wealth as well."

"A Count? Really?" Will blinked up at Hannibal as the word's connotations settled in his head, the Alpha looking far too amused as he nodded further confirmation. "Count Hannibal Lecter?"

"Yes, though I don't use the title much these days unless I have to. I tend to avoid it entirely." Hannibal knotted his tie mostly out of habit, his focus more on Will and how debauched he looked, the Alpha within him purring with pride about how sated his mate felt. "For the most part, people seem too impressed by something that I acquired through grace of birth. I much prefer to use titles I have worked to earn."

"What else are you called besides Doctor or Count?" Will yawned, his mind moving slowly under the burden of oncoming sleep.

"I will only answer that 'yes' or 'no'." Hannibal smiled down at Will as the Omega's eyes fluttered shut and started to grow still, sleep finally catching up to him. Pressing a light kiss to Will's temple, the expression on the Ripper's face was dark, deep, and unfathomable. "Sleep well, my beloved."

Ooo

After having such a lovely morning with Will, it was a near travesty to ruin it in the company of fools, but Franklin had to be eventually dealt with. Looking forward to the near future, Hannibal knew he would savor the moment Franklin was given his referral. For right now though, he had to at least feign some interest in his ridiculously codependent patient.

"Would you like to discuss our chance encounter?" Hannibal offered in opening, referring to the opera incident from a couple of night ago, where Franklin had tried to intrude into Hannibal's life outside their sessions. Social and professional boundaries aside, Franklin was not the type of person Hannibal would ever willingly associate with to begin with. A vile combination of attention seeking, desperate and clingy, Franklin proved that imitation was not always the best form of flattery, his apparel and mannerisms echoing Hannibal's own but resonated badly off key.

"It wasn't exactly by chance. I knew you would be there, which isn't why I was there. I was there because I like that sort of thing. It just occurred to me that you might like it too." Franklin babbled, backpedaling clumsily in on himself. "Opera. With all the singing, because I hear you play it quite a bit when I'm sitting in the waiting room. Not that I'm listening in on you. I just notice things. About you."

"In fact, I do." Hannibal inclined his head, enjoying the show for what it was and not what it was trying to be.

"I tried to get your attention." Franklin smiled helplessly in memory of it.

"I was aware of that." Hannibal gave as little back as possible, Franklin already having more than enough rope to hang himself with, figuratively speaking unfortunately. Already bored with their conversation, Hannibal entertained himself, thinking it wouldn't take a whole lot of effort on his part to make Franklin kill himself, but then there was the wild card variable of the Beta leaving a suicide note somewhere or with someone. Franklin was just the type to leave behind a novel about his motivation for demise, and Hannibal didn't want to risk his name coming up any more than it had to, especially while Franklin was still his patient. Perhaps after he gave him a referral to another psychiatrist he despised, he could make this pleasant imagining a reality.

"I knew that you were aware, even though you were pretending you weren't." Franklin pouted even as he tried to keep his tone light and jovial.

"Besides it being unethical to approach a patient or acknowledge in any way our relationship outside of this room without your consent, I was attending the performance with someone whom I had invited. My duties as their host came first." Hannibal explained, keeping his tone cool and clinical. Franklin approaching him like that at the opera while he was with Will had been a serious breach of etiquette.

"I don't really know who you are outside of this room. I didn't even know you had a mate." Franklin said, and didn't he sound self-righteous about it. "You don't have any pictures of him hanging up anywhere. You've never mentioned him either." Franklin's tone heavily hinted that he thought he knew the reason behind that. That Hannibal was ashamed of his mate, enough so that he didn't want any reminders of Will around him.

"I am your psychiatrist. I do not discuss personal details of my life with patients." Hannibal took care to annunciate his words well to keep from grinding his back teeth in anger.

"This is why we should be friends." Franklin jumped at the chance to voice a very bad idea. "Your mate obviously didn't want to be there. Next time, we could go together instead. He doesn't really seem to be our kind of people anyway."

Hannibal stared blankly back at Franklin's idiotic hopeful grin, the Alpha's face a set mask of neutrality while he experienced a very rare moment of indecisiveness. He just couldn't make up his mind on whether or not to snap Franklin's fat neck right here and now for insulting Will, or take the time to create a far more complicated, drawn out death for him. Hannibal allowed himself a slow blink, the Alpha pressing his lips together as he looked away, letting out a soft sigh as quiet as cutters clipping active bomb wire.

"I am a source of stability and clarity in your life, Franklin. I am not your friend." Hannibal reigned himself in, though his words were frostbitten.

"But I'm a great friend. I shouldn't have to pay to see you. It makes me sad." Subtlety and the idea of self preservation was lost on Franklin as badly as good taste and social etiquette was, the Beta not picking up any of the signals to stop talking and start seriously reconsidering some of his life choices. "I want us to be friends."

"Of course you do. I have intimate knowledge of you, but I can't be your friend, Franklin. Not only would it be unprofessional, it would hinder your recovery." Given the option of being Franklin's friend or not, Hannibal found he would rather cut out his own tongue with something dull and rusty than agree to any relationship of that nature with the man.

"Are you friends with your mate?" Franklin asked, trying to look wise and insightful as he leaned back in his seat. Hannibal thought rather uncharitably that the expression made the Beta look constipated.

"That is a peculiar question. Why wouldn't I be?" Hannibal's curiosity got the better of him. Franklin's bumbling at the opera had had an unexpected outcome, the presence of the persistent Beta stirring up feelings of jealousy and possessiveness from out of Will. It was really the only reason Franklin was still alive right now. Hannibal felt he owed the man that much in gratitude.

"He's an Omega." Franklin said with such distaste, the word fairly dripping sodden with it.

"If you would like, we can discuss your prejudice against that particular gender. However, we will not be discussing my personal life or any aspects of it. This is your hour, Franklin. I suggest that you use it wisely to your benefit." which was more warning than Hannibal usually gave his victims.

"I'm not prejudice!" Franklin gaped back at him. Hannibal observed that his eyes bulged rather unattractively when he retained that expression.

"Your inflection and tone say otherwise. Moving on…."

OOo

"It's been a while." Bedelia started off their session, looking as flawless as always. Her expression could have been carved from ice. "I've haven't seen you since the Auction. You seem different which is to be expected considering your purchase. More relaxed, I would even dare to say."

"I met a man. Or more accurately, my mate. My soul mate. You were there. You know." Hannibal nodded back, keeping his own mask firmly in place. It was a game after all between them, to see who would flinch first.

"I was. All I know though it that you purchased a male Omega. I want to hear your thoughts on it. Acquiring a mate this late in life is a monumental change. Considering the unusual circumstances of it as well, it would be for you both." Bedelia said coolly, her inflictions in speech refined and polished keen enough to cut if need be. Hannibal always appreciated the state of her words, beautiful yet still deadly in their craftsmanship. "To my knowledge, you have never been in a lasting relationship with any gender, must less one worthy of a Bond. You have very high walls, Hannibal, and you do not trust easily. Even now, I am having a conversation with a version of you, hoping that the actual you gets what he needs."

"A version of me?" Hannibal countered with a vague smile, the expression slight enough to give nothing away. That was the game they played with one another though, very careful games of mental chess. So far, their scores were evenly matched.

"Naturally, I respect its meticulous construction," Bedelia tilted her lovely head toward him. "But you are wearing a very well tailored person suit."

"Do you refer to me as Person Suit to your psychiatrist friends?" Hannibal asked, allowing his smile to grow though it held more warning than warmth in it. They were playing this game very close to the heart of serious matters, one that were best left undisturbed.

"I don't discuss patients with my psychiatrist friends." Bedelia answered unperturbed by his change in expression, the slight upturn in her own lips telling Hannibal that she had feinted a move, intentionally sacrificing a pawn of phrase to gain an advantage over him. He was now in check. "Especially since I have only one patient now who chose to ignore my retirement."

"A patient who wears a person suit." Hannibal ran the words over his tongue and through his teeth, trying to decide it there was insult or not within them, if he were winning or losing another piece.

"Maybe it's less of a person suit and more of a human veil. That must be lonely." Bedelia smoothly amended. "How is your mate responding to it?"

"We are friendly." Hannibal countered, on guard now that they were discussing the nature of his relationship with Will. 'Friendly' didn't sound good though, at least not in context to what they were talking about. "A Bond is already forming between us."

"And how are you responding to him?" Bedelia pressed, looking pleased while still appearing utterly calm about it. This was why he had chosen her out of everyone else to be his ally in some matters, his confidant in others, but above all else, his psychiatrist. She could play the game well without having even been told the rules.

"I care about him deeply. I wish to protect him." Hannibal answered, seeing how honesty would play out upon her.

"That is a conditioned Alpha response to an Omega. It is to be expected." Bedelia's tone told Hannibal that she was unimpressed by his vapid answer, seeing the emptiness it held. "To be clearer, I was asking how you as a person are responding to him."

"I don't understand your reasoning for asking that sort of question." Hannibal admitted freely. There was only shame in complying with ignorance, to follow its lead blindly. "What are you trying to find out?"

"Are you in love?" Bedelia expanded, gesturing gracefully with her hand. "Does your relationship go beyond the boundaries of friendship?"

"We have already been intimate with each other on several memorable occasions." Hannibal said to be met with a frosty look that was all winter steel from the blue eyed, platinum blonde.

"One can be intimate with a friend and feel nothing amorous toward them." Bedelia pointed out. "Are you capable of experiencing such emotions and attachments romantically?"

"Because I wear a Person Suit?" Hannibal jabbed back though her words made his mind whirl and wonder, losing knights and rooks left and right. "That I would be unable to grasp such concepts as love?"

"No, but I would imagine that the application of love in real life, and not just as a concept to be experienced second hand through art or literature, would be difficult for you." Bedelia wounded with truth, her words a white queen moving in for the kill from across the board.

"You make me sound like a monster." Hannibal retreated, moving his black king to safety. He couldn't answer a question and hold the line when he had to dwell on the concept of it himself. "Why do you bother?"

"Because I see enough of you to see the truth of you." Bedelia said, flicking her wrist to check her watch in a well practiced gesture, rising elegantly from her seat as their session came to an end. "And I like you. Red or white?"

Hannibal regarded her with cool eyes before inclining his head forward, realizing he had been put into checkmate. She had won this round, this time. That deserved his respect, but not his submission.

"I'm thinking pink."

OOo

Upon waking, Will found that he had slept most of the day away, the Omega rolling out of bed well past when afternoon turned into evening. After getting dressed and changing the linen the way Hannibal liked, it came as no surprise to find the Alpha in his kitchen by then, Hannibal stripped out of his suit down to his dress shirt and wearing his long bistro apron. What was unusual was an open, mostly empty bottle of blush wine on the counter, sitting snugly in its silver cooler with an equally empty wine glass for company, Hannibal finished off the last sip with a bit of a flourish.

"I don't think I've ever seen you drink pink wine before." Will commented with an arched brow. Hannibal tended to delight in lush dark red wines, velvety vintages that were a story for the nose and a journey for the palette. "Drinking because of a patient?"

"No, she was drinking because of a patient. I have an unconventional psychiatrist." Hannibal smiled, feeling warm and deliciously light from the wine. He had been given a great deal to think about this afternoon. That didn't happen often in his experience.

"I didn't know you went to a psychiatrist. For how long?" Will asked, thrown for a loop. He never would have thought someone like Hannibal would ever need that kind of help. It made sense though. If he had to sit around all day listening to other people's problems and mentally wade through their crap, Will wagered he would want someone to bitch at too.

"Even since I chose to be a psychiatrist." Hannibal was feeling slightly light headed. He had drank more wine than he should have on an empty stomach but Bedelia's questions had bothered him on so many different levels. The wine didn't help in solving them but it did take some of the edge off. With the Bond settling more in place, Hannibal didn't want to risk putting Will off with his form of thinking if the Omega happened to stumble over it. Most would find the complexity of it unsettling, Hannibal tending to overlap his thinking to save time. If most people's thought process was a single sheet of paper, Hannibal's would be origami.

"Join me?" Hannibal asked, gesturing with the wine bottle as he tipped out what little was left into his glass to retrieve another like it along with an extra wine glass. "I assure you it is quite normal to partake in a glass or two during evening appointments."

"I don't think I've ever seen you drunk." Will chuckled, accepting the offer. He didn't really care for wine being more of a whisky drinker, but Hannibal seemed to be in such a oddly good mood he didn't want to ruin it by being obtuse.

"I assure you, I am not inebriated. Would you like me to recite something to prove it to you?" Hannibal challenged, to find his mate looking back at him amused. He liked how surprise and delight were worn by Will, the Omega still loose in limb and soft in expression from much needed sleep.

"Recite what? Poetry? Shakespeare?" Will bit his bottom lip trying not to laugh, hiding his smile in the wine that was light and sweet on his tongue, tasting faintly of honey and strawberries.

"A comprise then. A sonnet." Hannibal smiled, grandly gesturing with wine glass in hand. "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand'ring bark, whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken."

Applauding as Hannibal took a small courtly bow, Will tried not to think about what had made Hannibal pick those words to recite or the meaning behind them. "Death makes angels of us all and gives us wings where we had shoulders smooth as ravens claws." Will countered to receive a questioning look from Hannibal. "Jim Morrison." he added, a touch smug though he felt silly about his superior musical knowledge, at least in the more modern eras of it. Hannibal didn't strike him as a Doors fan. "Not exactly Shakespeare."

"But very spoken well, none the less." Hannibal said, putting down his wine glass to gather Will up in his arms, startling the empath as they began to sway in time to the background music. It was something soft and classical, of course Will noted, but a lot of Hannibal's music was that. The Alpha was light on his feet, but wasn't trying any fancy footwork on him so Will let him lead, the chosen movements nothing more complex than a box step that even Will could pick up in an instant.

"While I was out, I read an article today about our case from earlier. So the Ripper rips again? Or is this Uncle Jack trying to be clever, playing with a stacked deck to trick the Ripper into tipping his hand?" Hannibal mused aloud, greatly enjoying himself.

"No, it's not him. It's not the same guy. It's somebody else." Will sighed. Hannibal's head was resting heavily on his shoulder, the Alpha shamelessly breathing in his scent.

"Maybe, it's never been the same guy." Hannibal exhaled, liking how Will's skin goose bumped and shivered in response. His bite marks were like dark gems of onyx and amethyst embedded in the Omega's skin, Hannibal running his tongue over them.

"What, now he has a friend?" Will chuckled, his neck ticklish and sensitive after all the attention it had received earlier from Hannibal. "Are you planning on serving me for dinner?"

It was light hearted joke in reaction to being licked, made entirely in innocent jest, but it caused Hannibal to step back from Will, suddenly looking chastened. Whatever mood that had been growing between was shattered now, Will watching in dismay as Hannibal tightened the bindings of his mask back in place, while trying not to appear like he was as the Alpha retreated behind the counter to start cooking again.

"Was there any variation in the murder that might have suggested there could be more than one Ripper? You seemed confident in the hotel room that it wasn't him." It was a diversion, an obvious tactic to drawn Will's attention elsewhere away from him. Even when Will checked the bonds between them, he found that Hannibal was being very careful not to give anything back. Will didn't know if it was worse not that he could actually see the walls that Hannibal hid behind. From the safety of the path, he could only glimpsed into the impressive structure that lay before him through doorways and arches that came and went on their own, its graceful spires and tall towers looming over Will from behind high black walls of polished marble.

Will found he had rather liked that version of Hannibal, the one who could let himself be relaxed enough around him to waltz in the kitchen while buzzed off of pink wine, but the Omega had no idea how to get that him back. His lack of experience in relationships was feeling painfully crippling to Will at the moment.

"Some variations. Enough." Will sighed into his glass, taking his usual place at the counter to watch Hannibal cook while still being kind of the way. In retaliation, he was given a bowl of peas to shuck, a slight smile on Hannibal's face lightening the mood again somewhat. Whatever the issue was, Hannibal didn't want Will to think it pertained directly to him, the empath could read that much from his mate's face. Apparently, Will mused to himself, he wasn't the only one here with issues.

"The victims were all brutalized. What was the brutalization hiding? What did you see that all of us missed?" Hannibal asked, feigning ignorance even as he tried to repair the damage done by his abrupt reaction. The wine had made his withdrawal sharper than he had intended, but Will's joking had brought too many real things to the forefront of his thinking, things that Will was not ready to know just yet. Even now, Hannibal doubted that Will would appreciate learning the true nature of the creature they were eating tonight or the real face that went with it. The book collector who had tried to sell Hannibal a fake first edition had squealed like the pig he was faking this evening when Hannibal had started flaying the skin off his arms to look like book pages.

"The surgical removal and preservation of vital organs." Will said, eating more peas than he actually removing from their casings.

"Valuable organs?" Hannibal hinted, working on the idea that was already there in Will's mind. It just needed a little more attention to flourish. "Please don't eat all the peas. I would like some of them to make it into the dish."

"Organ harvesters?" Will toyed with the idea, seeing how it fit together in his head as he ate some more of his given task just to be difficult.

"Jack is looking for a serial killer he can't seem to catch. It's a brilliant diversion." Hannibal feigned mildly surprised realization as he reworked the Goulash recipe in his head. He could easily substitute fava beans for the peas instead, since Will seemed intent on eating them all up for whatever reason. "I believe you mentioned it before in the hotel that this was the work of trainee or a student with medical training."

"It's an interesting theory. I will have to keep it in mind if another body drops." Will muttered to the too few peas in his bowl, his mind already running loops in on itself.

On the edge of his perception, Hannibal could feel Will's mind already running, the ravenstag on the hunt picking up speed as it traveled over hill and dale made of pale bones, through dark forests filled with leaves that shed drops of blood like dew, and through streams of liquid terror. Taking a thoughtful sip as he made his plans for the upcoming week, Hannibal hid his own smile behind the rim of his glass. He had a dinner party to prepare for after all.

"Please do."

OOo
"Found him in a school bus sitting across the aisle from himself."

Staring at the row of bodies, Will's mind was going nuts with reconstructions, one building right on top of the other in rapid secession. Zeller kept right on talking though, like Will's head wasn't trying to tear itself apart bloody. "Not only did the Ripper take his kidney, he also took his heart, which, if you'll recall, is what he tried to do in the hotel room, but was interrupted before he could paint his picture."

"The Ripper wasn't painting a picture in the hotel room. Someone else was." Will muttered, his arms crossed over his chest in a tight hold. Hannibal wasn't with him this time. Will tried to remember how he had done this job before without Hannibal, feeling exposed from all sides, the stink of agitated Alphas that were not his own pressing in on him too suffocatingly close. It made his skin want to crawl off his bones as Will held himself together in place.

"You still think the Ripper was ripping out a heart to save a life?" Zeller said, sounding incredulous as he tried to stare Will down.

"Yes. I do." Will was proud how steady his voice was. Straightening his spine, Will reminded himself that he was an old hand at this game. He didn't have a Beta status to hide behind anymore, but he was more than used to clashing wills with Alphas, and how to remain intact while doing so. Will wasn't about to buckle, especially not to an lesser Alpha like Zeller. Though it helped, he didn't need Hannibal or any Alpha for that matter.

"The Ripper painted this picture for sure." Beverly interrupted the stare off, bless her heart. Will found he was growing rather fond of her in his own way. "In big, broad strokes."

"Could both victim's organs have been harvested for transport?" Will asked, a conversation over pink wine coming into play.

"Like waking up in a tub of ice, missing a kidney?" Beverly looked amused, probably more than she should.

"I love a good urban legend." Price picking up on the line of thought easily enough. "You could put the organs on a ventilator long enough to coordinate the donation."

"At the hotel, the victim's aorta and inferior vena cava, that's the kidney's in-and-out for blood, were removed." Zeller played along as well, despite himself.

"They are like the USB cables you keep intact for an easy reconnect." Beverly explained quickly to Will to keep this murder train going.

"Were Mr. Caldwell's heart and kidney disconnected for an easy reconnect?" Will ventured, though he already had a pretty good idea about the answer, Zeller nodding as their train of thought picked up speed. "Other Ripper victim's organs and USB cables missing as well?"

"It's inconclusive due to the degree of the mutilation but yes. That is how the Ripper rip." Zeller tried to derail in that condescending manner that made Will want to grit his teeth.

"Two different killers, same agenda?" Beverly picking up on the agenda Will was delivering at the station of motives.

"Oh, that's good." Price mused aloud. "Is an organ harvester disguising his work as the crime of a serial killer, or is a serial killer disguising his work as the crime of an organ harvester?"

"The Ripper's style of mutilation hides the nature to his crimes, but it has a technique to it, an art. The Ripper has a signature brutality that is like his own trademark." Will looked inwardly for answers, reviewing his internal gallery. It was all there of course, the Ripper's pattern plain as day like a mental fingerprint made of other people's pain, fear, and blood. "Tell me about the rest."

"Well, they're all missing different organs. Before we might have looked at waiting lists for a heart or kidney, keeping it simple." Price sounded like he wanted a stiff drink or like he wanted to kick something until it broke, the Beta irritated enough to smell like wet earth after a hard rain. Price strode down the line of corpses, gesturing to them in agitation. "But now we're looking at hearts, kidneys, livers. This guy is missing a spleen. A spleen! Who the hell get's a spleen transplant!?"

"Intestines are the only organ missing from this body?" Will noted, peeking into the cavity left rendered open.

"Yeah, so we're either looking for someone with short bowels or the Ripper is making sausage." Zeller sighed, obviously at a loss, the Alpha throwing his hand up in the air in dismay.

"He's selling these organs to someone." Jack boomed, making everyone jump, earning him glares from the group. In retaliation, Beverly threw out the agent's coffee when the Alpha wasn't looking, too busy stalking down the row of corpses in search of answers he wasn't going to get from them.

"We aren't even sure if he's transporting them within the US. He could be exporting them to China for all we know." Zeller shrugged. There was only so much he could do, only so much information that could be pulled from a body.

"The Chinese have a cultural taboo." Price explained further. "You gotta die with all your parts or you dishonor mummy and daddy."

"You could still kill a guy for parts. That doesn't break the taboo." Zeller snapped to receive an exaggerated eye roll from the Beta.

"I was agreeing with you." The 'you moron' at the end of that sentence was left more implied than spoken by Price to an answering look of disbelief from the Alpha. "Well, I was…"

"Your tone was a little…."

"Okay, okay. Settle down." Jack rolled his eyes, turning to Will who had backed himself into a corner to stare at the row of corpses with empty eyes, the kind that saw too much. "How many killers?"

"Two." Will said softly though it carried though the dead space well enough.

"You confident that one of them is the Ripper?" Jack's dark eyes were gleaming, the Alpha chomping at the bit for the only answer he wanted to hear.

"At least one of them, yep." Will nodded with a sigh, pushing himself off the wall as he stumbled toward the nearest exit.

"Where are you going?" Jack barked after him, trailing behind his profiler. Will ignored the heated Alpha and the play of his power that danced over Will's shoulders and down his back, trying desperately to get Will to heel.
Not even pausing in step, Will ignored the Alpha as he threw out some of his own power back to bring Jack up short with a gasp.

"I'm going home."

OOo
The kitchen was in a state of disarray that told Will that several culinary projects were going on simultaneously. It all looked terribly complicated, Will's food skills running more along the lines of frying everything, a gift from his Southern upbringing, though he could clean, gut, and filet any fish in under five minutes. He could also open up trickier, more difficult fare like oysters and clams as easily as a coin purse. Even Hannibal had been impressed by his level of skill with seafood, which was saying something.

An array of machines in gleaming steel and white ceramic stood out on the counter and metal prep table. Hannibal was currently beside something with a crank, messing around with what looked like moist white tubing. "What are you making now?" Will asked, grabbing bottle of distilled water off the counter though he wanted a whole shitload of whiskey to go with it. Today had not been a good day. All those bodies had gotten to him.

"Siskomakkara." was said so smoothly, and Will was sure spoken perfectly, though his brain was refusing to make sense of it.

"So, fancy hot dogs?" That hazarded guess earned Will a look from Hannibal. "Cocktail weenies?" Will tried again, just to see what kind of flat expression of disapproval, or lack there of, he would get.

"I suppose it is of the same idea in the sense it is ground meat squeezed into a casing. I use much better quality ingredients though." Hannibal told him, focusing as filling and twisting the people sausage just so. "Though I wouldn't even begin to presume what is in a cocktail weenie." Hearing Hannibal say 'cocktail weenie' with his cultured way of speaking and in his accent was enough to make Will choke on his water. He made it to the sink in time to spit it out laughing.

"Are you alright?" Hannibal asked, glancing over at his mate in concern. He was never sure what really amused Will. Apparently, the Omega enjoyed hearing him utter absurd words for whatever reason.

"Sorry. Drinking problem." Will laughed ruefully at his own bad joke. "Are you serving those….whatever at your dinner party?" There was another thing looming in on him from the horizon, the event late tomorrow evening. It was the reason Hannibal hadn't been with him today or around much at all lately. No wonder he didn't throw these things often, Will mused to himself. All this work just for one dinner seemed a little ridiculous to him.

"Yes. They are meant to be eaten fresh unlike a lot of their smoked brethren." Hannibal told him, tying off the ends of the links when he was done.

"Do I have to go?" Will leaned up against the counter, feeling especially tired. The thought of having to spend an evening with people other than Hannibal was daunting.

"It is in your honor, so yes." Hannibal said firmly, really looking up at Will for the first time now that he was free to do so. The Omega looked drained, his face pale and his skin sallow. Concerned, Hannibal washed people juice off of his hands, drying them off with a towel as he moved quickly to Will's side, placing a cool back of hand to the Omega's forehead.

"You're warm." Hannibal noted, leaning in to inhale deeply. The sweeter notes of a fever played up Will's own natural scents, making Hannibal's nose tingle. It wasn't Heat but it gave Hannibal a hint to what Will was going to smell like soon enough.

"I run hot." Will mumbled, enjoying Hannibal's sudden closeness. It was what he had been needing all day. Will wanted to sink into it, wrap himself in Hannibal.

"It's probably from stress. You should take an aspirin." Hannibal told him, carefully standing still as he noticed the Omega begin to lean into him, Will's forehead bumping up against his shoulder.

"Way ahead of you." Will dug the white and red bottle out of his pocket to rattle it remaining contents at the Alpha. He was just so tired. He wanted to wrap his arms around Hannibal and just let the man hold him for a while, wipe all those other awful scents off of him, to erase away the smell of other Alphas and dead people. It took a moment but Will realized that he could. That was a viable option for him now, no longer alone and having to fake or substitute human interaction with dogs and too many layers.

Sighing, Will wrapped his arms around Hannibal's waist, letting the Alpha take his weight as he rested his head on Hannibal's shoulder. Mercifully, Hannibal remained quiet, giving Will what he wanted and needed. From his position though, the Omega was unable to see the grin that spread across Hannibal's face like a wound.

OOo

"Where's Will Graham!?"

Hannibal had taken it into the habit to hit the answer button at arm's length or put the phone on speaker whenever Jack Crawford's name came up on the ID.

"I'm here." Will glared at the phone. He had just gotten back from Quantico, his messenger bag full of papers that needed to be looked over and graded, most of which should be shredded in Will's opinion to save time and ink.

"We got a lead." Jack boomed over the phone, way too excited about life at the moment for Will. "Would you care to help us catch the Ripper?"

Will was too busy glaring at the phone to catch Hannibal's smirk. In the end though, it was all rather anticlimactic, at least in Hannibal's opinion.

It was Beverley who figured it all out using Will's working theory of there being two very different killers. Taking the Ripper out of the equation to focus on a killer she could actually catch, Beverly tracked down their organ thief through keen observation to detail and video surveillance from the hotel, now that she had an idea of what to look for. Their killer turned out to be a part time driver for a local kill truck company. Using a DF sweep for the ambulance, Beverly pinpointed one Mr. Devon Silvestri's whereabouts easily enough.

Calling in the cavalry, Jack and a full SWAT team swept in on an abandoned building where the ambulance was hiding in partial shadow, the armed Alphas sweeping in like a pack of wolves dressed in body armor with Jack taking point, shotgun in hand. Will and Hannibal hung back by the vehicles, still apart of the hunt, but taking on the roles of observer. That was until the ambulance's doors were popped open.

"Doctor Lecter!" Jack roared over his shoulders. Will and Hannibal exchanged looks as they moved toward the scene, the problem at hand soon becoming obvious. Mr. Silvestri had literally been caught red handed, his current victim's blood up to his wrist and his hands still in the man's side.

"I need you to assess the situation, Doctor." Jack growled. Will knew it must be killing Jack to have to rely on Hannibal. It acknowledged that his Alpha was useful which would damage any effort Jack sought to remove his presence from cases later on.

Will watched as Hannibal climbed into the rig with ease of a former emergency room surgeon, leaning in to evaluate the damage done. "He was removing his kidney." Hannibal informed them all. "Poorly." He added, to be glared at by Mr. Silvestri. "I can stop the bleeding."

"Do it." Jack snapped, waiting until he got the all clear from Hannibal to remove Mr. Silvestri from the vehicle. Engaged in his work, Hannibal ignored Jack and his team from that point on, easily attending to the bleeding and mending the damage done. This sad little killer was a dull, talentless thing, not worth his time or his attention. Glancing up, Hannibal realized belated that he had an audience.

Head titled slightly to the side, Will watched him work with a lost look on his normally expressive face, the Omega's expression unusually blank and his blue gray eyes vacantly wide. The Bond between them glittered and shimmered with something unrecognizable to Hannibal, but unfortunately, he was too involved at the moment to commit himself to self exploration. Mr. Silvestri had butchered this man trying to relieve him of his kidney. Though he felt nothing for the victim, Hannibal was a perfectionist. He would not allow this man to die if it was in his power to prevent it.

The feeling that Will currently found in himself could only be best described as awe or something akin to it. He was watching Hannibal place his hands inside another human being, with blood up to his wrists, and all he could think about was how beautiful it looked. It was hard for Will to remember in this line of work that incisions and spilled blood could be made to save a life, not just take one. That healing could begin in cuts and bruises, instead of aiding in the loss of life.

In the privacy of his own head, Will thought that Hannibal was in his element, truly stunning just like that, covered in another person's blood.

OOo

Will was hiding in the kitchen, studying the backs of wine bottles like he actually gave a damn about vintages, the serving staff Hannibal had hired for the event flitting around him. Sighing with relief, Hannibal knew he should be grateful that the Omega was at least properly dressed, wearing the suit and collar Hannibal had picked out for him. Mingling with their guests was really too much to hope for. As much as he wanted to show Will off, Hannibal knew he could only push the antisocial Omega so far until he did something unfortunate back. This feast was for him and Hannibal wanted Will to be here for it, to taste all the fruits of his labor.

"There you are. I was beginning to worry you had run off to Wolf Trap." Hannibal said, coming up to run his hands down the front of Will's dark suit, smoothing out the wrinkles the Omega had somehow managed to put into the material. Dressed in deep shades of blue that brought out the color of his eyes, Will looked truly stunning, his collar a simple band of blackened steel, slim and smooth to the touch.

"Well it was either this or a date with the Ripper. I had a hard time picking between a sadist or socialites." Will grumbled, bringing a smile to Hannibal's lips. "Still could go either way. I don't think I would be good company."

"I disagree." Hannibal told him, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead. Will glowered back at him before sighing in defeat, gesturing helplessly toward the dining room where their guests were gathering, the dinner bell having already been sounded. Not wishing to keep their guest waiting or put off presenting Will any longer, Hannibal offered the Omega his arm, Will taking it only after a moment's hesitation.

"Come. This is all for you." Hannibal said as he lead them out. And it was in a way. Everyone would get to look at and admire Will, but would be never allowed to touch.

"I swear to god I will use the wrong flatware on purpose, and slurp my wine if you leave me alone with these people." Will muttered under his breath as their arrival was met with light applause.

"I will keep that in mind." Hannibal smirked, pulling out Will's chair for him, seating the Omega to his right between himself and Alana, and across from Mrs. Komeda. To seat properly in a formal manner would risk appealing to Will's flight or fight nature. Hannibal wanted his mate to remain seated for all the course.

Will nearly jumped out of his skin when Mrs. Komeda paused in taking her seat to speak quietly to him. "Don't be nervous or worry about what fork to use, Will." Mrs. Komeda told him with a wide smile, nodding her head toward Hannibal who watched their conversation with interest. "No one is going to point it out or risk being seen as rude at Hannibal's table. They'll never get invited back for dinner."

Hannibal smiled at that, but shook his head. "That's not true. They'll get a chance to grace my table one last time and be given a fair chance to make amends one way or another."

Tonight's courses were proof enough of that, his chosen sounder of pigs proving their worth in a way they never could in life.

"I'm not that cruel."

oOo
TBC