Will tried to keep his emotions under check as he thought back to his wife and daughter who were upstairs with Alana and her family. He had never seen Rachel look so scared before. He had never seen such fear in her eyes. There had been times in the past when he had seen her filled with fear, but this was different. This time she had Annie to think about. This time she had their daughter. Annabelle was innocent and she was being dragged into Will's life and mess. Will hated himself more than anything at that moment in time.

If he had just been sensible and stayed home then everything would be fine. If he had just stayed with his wife and daughter and their normal life then Annie wouldn't be crying with fear.

Will's emotions were a mixture of rage and fear, but as soon as he saw Hannibal Lecter's face, he knew what emotion he felt more. It was rage. He felt red hot rage at seeing him, but he refused to fly off the handle. The room was dark, but Will could make out the outline of Hannibal as he approached the glass, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

"I've just about had it with you crazy bastards," Will seethed. "What did you say to him?"

"I told him that he had to kill them all to save himself. I gave him Alana's address…how is Rachel?"

"My wife," Will responded, "is upstairs with our daughter. She is lucky."

Hannibal's lips arched upwards at hearing that, wondering just how much more Rachel could survive. Somehow she had managed to survive his wrath. She had survived Mason Verger. And now she had survived the Great Red Dragon.

"I commend her, truly," Hannibal said, sincerity apparent in his tone. "Rachel has survived a lot. She has seen so much. Tell me, Will, do you think your marriage is strong enough to survive this? Do you think that you can overcome the Great Red Dragon? He will not stop…he has become a man he could only dream to be and you are his enemy. He craves change…he didn't kill the families, but he changed them. Tell me, do you not crave change? Is that not why you are here?"

Will gulped loudly, his eyes watering slightly. "I came here to stop a monster from murdering more families."

"And in return the Great Red Dragon intends to take something from you," Hannibal said. "He intended to take your family, but he did not complete his task, yet, in a way, I imagine he has taken your family from you. When you saw Rachel…what did you see?"

Will shook his head. "You know what I saw."

"What you have seen many times before," Hannibal said. "It is the thing that you fear the most, isn't it? I saw it that night she was in my basement…I saw the fear in your eyes when I had her chained and ready to be killed. You saw her death then, just as you see her death now. You cannot protect her, Will. You have never been able to protect her. You have a family, Will, but you cannot protect them."

"I can do my damnedest," Will responded. "Why did you give the Great Red Dragon Alana's address, Hannibal? You have been down here for three years. You have had time to think and plan revenge. Was this revenge, Hannibal? Revenge because I chose her?"

"I gave you a choice, Will," Hannibal spoke. "We were in my kitchen and I gave you the choice to become the man you were destined to become. You chose to become someone else. You chose to become someone you aren't because you are blinded by infatuation with her."

Will arched a brow, his arms folding over his chest. "Infatuation?" he repeated the word. "Do you think that I am simply just infatuated with her? You don't understand, do you? You don't understand that I love her more than anything? She knows me. She knows me more than you ever will."

"But does she know what you hide from her?" Hannibal enquired, hands going behind his back. "Does she know the dark thoughts that you harbour?"

"She has no need to know of my thoughts because they are not there when I am with her," Will said. "When I am with Rachel then nothing else but her matters. You tried to take her from me before. Do you remember that? It didn't work then and it will not work now."

"I almost had her," Hannibal responded. "Do you ever think about that, Will? If things had gone differently then I could have been the one to wake up besides her."

Will shook his head. "That would never have happened."

"She didn't believe you for a time, Will," Hannibal reminded him. "I am certain that it might have happened had things been different."

"You never knew her," Will said. "You never knew her like I did."

"Knowing someone does not mean that you can protect them. I only wonder if you can protect her should he come again."

Will didn't respond to that. He had nothing more to say, finding himself unable to conduct words. Instead he moved away to the door, preparing to leave and take his wife and daughter somewhere safe.

Rachel didn't entirely like what she was hearing from Will, but she knew that he would not be saying it if there was another way. He had told her how he intended to aggravate the Red Dragon to bring him out of hiding. He was going to conduct an interview with Freddie Lounds and Frederick Chilton, the three of them working together to lure the Red Dragon to make a move. Will was, once again, putting himself in the line of fire. They were currently camped out in a hotel in Washington D.C. after Alana's apartment had been declared a crime scene.

The suite was large with two bedrooms, but Annie had no intention of sleeping by herself. She had curled into bed besides her mother the following evening and Rachel had held her as she fell asleep and Will spoke with Jack in the suite down the hall. After making certain that Annie was sound asleep, Rachel had moved into the living area, looking out of the window and over Capitol Hill. She only wore her long pyjamas and a fluffy white robe provided by the hotel.

It was about ten at night by the time Will returned, but Rachel was not even vaguely tired after putting Annie to bed at seven. Looking as the door opened, she saw Will enter the suite, closing and bolting the door behind him. He shrugged out of his coat and held a brown paper bag in his hand. Holding it up, he managed a small smile.

"I brought you a burger and fries in case you were hungry," Will said and Rachel felt her lips quirk despite everything. She moved over to him and Will placed the bag down on the coffee table before wrapping his wife into his arms. Kissing her on the forehead, he let his cheek rest on the top of her head. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know," Rachel admitted. "I don't know about any of this."

"There's no other option," Will muttered before pulling back, his hands moving to cup her cheeks and push her hair behind her ears. She closed her eyes for a second as her hands went to rest on top of his. "I did the interview with Frederick, Lounds and Jack this afternoon. It is already out there. He will make a move soon."

Rachel scrunched her eyes closed even more at hearing that, bowing her head until it hit Will's chest, feeling every ounce of panic she had tried to hide rise up inside of her.

"Will…I can't…"

"Nothing is going to happen to you or Annie," Will promised her, moving with haste and picking her chin up with his fingers, forcing her to look at him, her eyes wide and wet as Will tried to soothe her. "Nothing will happen to both of you."

"And you?" Rachel demanded from him. "What about you, Will? We need you. Annie needs you…you're her father. You're my husband and if he comes after you and if he…if he hurts you…takes you from us…I can't handle that. I can't let it happen. Please, Will. Please stop this."

"I want to," Will promised her. "I want to make it all stop, but it can't stop until we catch him and this is the only way."

"And if it isn't?" she demanded of him. "What if this isn't the only way? What if he kills you before you catch him? What then?"

"He won't-"

"-You don't know that," Rachel interrupted, arms flapping by her sides. "He was this close," Rachel said, holding her fingers an inch apart, "from killing us. He was so close to killing Annie…your daughter…our little girl…"

"That is why I am doing this," Will said to her. "I am going to make this stop. I am going to make all of it stop, but until it does then we can't go back to normal. We can't go back home while he is still on the loose. We cannot return back to normal. There is no normal…not while he is on the loose."

"So what do we do?" Rachel asked. "We sit here as bait?"

"No," Will said. "I have an armed escort everywhere and I have the finest FBI agents outside of this suite making sure no one can come here to get you or Annie."

"So Annie and I sit here?" Rachel wondered from him. "And you go out there…into the unknown."

"He won't make any move so long as I am holed up. I need to be out there to stop this. I need to make it go away…please, Rachel…don't make this harder than it is for me…I'm already suffering…so much."

Rachel felt a sense of fear then. Will sounded broken. He sounded defeated. She had heard him sound like this before, but it was many years ago when he had been sick. It was when he had been sick and he had had clung to her as his reality. She had stood by him then. She had never abandoned him then and she wasn't going to abandon him now.

Moving her hands up his front to his shoulders, she felt the tweed of his jacket under her grip as she clung onto him and moved, kissing him harshly, the motion full of urgency and desire; desire to keep him with her.

"Talk to me," Rachel urged from him. "Will, I know you are doing all of this to keep us safe, but I know your thoughts. I know you bottle them up…hide them…to protect us. But I am your wife and I have been with you through everything. I don't need protecting, trust me, I just need you to talk to me."

Moving to perch on the edge of the sofa, Will took a moment to gather himself, his hands moving down his cheeks in exasperation before he felt his wife move her arm around his shoulders, holding onto him gently. Will moved a hand to take hold of her free one, resting it on his thigh.

"I remember…those years ago," Will said, "when you were with Hannibal and no matter what I said, you wouldn't believe me. It killed me every night to know that you were sharing the bed of a killer and there was nothing that I could do. I knew when it came to a head…when he had you in his basement…that it had to end. I swore, as soon as I saw you there, that if we survived then that would be it. I would stop Hannibal, but no more. I couldn't do it anymore, not after everything that had happened…all of the monsters I had faced that had come close to hurting you…I swore that none of them would get close to you again."

Rachel said nothing, preferring to let Will talk while he was in a mood to open up to her.

"But then I had to take this case, didn't I? I had to ruin it all and all I keep feeling is the same fear I felt when Hannibal had you," Will responded. "It's the exact same feeling and there's only one way I know how to make it go away and that is by catching this son of a bitch, just like I caught Hannibal. I close my eyes and I see what might have happened…I see you and Annie…both of you gone…and I don't want that image. I need to catch him to make it stop and to make it go away."

Rachel didn't entirely know what to say to him then. She remained silent, choosing to move until he was nestled against her and she could hold him tightly. Closing her eyes, she felt his arms move to wrap around her waist, holding onto her tightly as her hair spilled down the side of his face and tickled his skin.

"I love you, Will," Rachel whispered. "Never forget that. I love you so much."

"I know," Will responded. "I love you too and that is why I have to do this. I have to give us a chance to go back to how it was."

Rachel nodded, kissing the top of his head as the two of them remained entwined in each other, longing for that moment to last forever as they both knew they were safe. That was all they needed.

….

Will knew that his wife would be safe, but he still did not like the idea of her going back to see Hannibal Lecter. He knew what Rachel wanted. She wanted to give Hannibal a piece of her mind. She wanted to know why he had done what he had done. But Will already knew the answers. He could tell her that. But she wanted it to come from Hannibal's mouth. She wanted closure. She had gone to the hospital the following morning when Margot had come to spend the morning with Morgan and Annie, the two children playing together and trying to get back to normal.

Rachel had not seen Will go early that morning after hearing news that Frederick had been abducted following the interview. He had spent the night on the sofa with his wife, both of them reminiscing about the nicer times they had in their minds. Will had felt Rachel doze off after a while and had kissed her tenderly, covering her with a blanket and then slipping out from the suite. She had called him to tell him that she was going to see Hannibal and, despite trying to dissuade her, she had gone anyway.

Alana had done the same as Will, but Rachel was adamant. Walking down the steps into the intricately decorated prison, Rachel saw Hannibal in his white suit on the other side of the glass. His face was impassive, but his eyes were glimmering. She heard the door close behind her as she took the final step, her arms folding over her chest.

"You want answers," Hannibal commented.

"You sent a man to kill me and my daughter," Rachel said. "I want to know why."

"Why do you think?" Hannibal responded.

"Because you want Will," Rachel said. "You want Will all to yourself, just like all those years ago in your kitchen."

"I knew the man that Will could have become all those years ago," Hannibal responded. "But now that man is gone. He will come back out eventually. He will become that man again if this course continues down the route I think it is on."

"And what route is that?" Rachel wondered, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

"He will not stay the Will you know," Hannibal said. "Eventually I will be out of here, Rachel. I will be freed one day. Every moment that ticks by is simply a moment that is borrowed time."

"Why the hell would you ever be freed?"

"Because they will need my help eventually," Hannibal said. "Do you think that this isn't planned? By the end of the day I can guarantee you that there will be a plan to free me. You can ask Will…but as soon as that plan comes to fruition then I will make certain that everything around you comes crumbling down. Once you are gone…out of the way…then Will can be free."

"Why do you think I hold Will back?" Rachel wondered from him and he saw her tug on the skirt she wore. "I love Will. Why could you never accept that?"

"Because you were weak," Hannibal said. "You were never good enough for him. Do you not see that? You clung onto him when Andrew Manderly abused you. You needed him to save you. And then you abandoned him for me. You didn't stand by his side when he needed you. You warmed my bed…you held on to any man who could provide you with safety…comfort…and, for some reason unbeknownst to me, you bewitched Will."

"What the hell did I do to you?" Rachel wondered from Hannibal in a broken voice. "I thought that you were my friend. I thought that you actually cared about me."

"Do not get me wrong," Hannibal mused, "what I felt for you at the time was real. A part of me did think that I could have you…that it would be nice to have you…but then you lied to me, Rachel. You used me."

"No," Rachel shook her head. "I never lied to you. I told you the truth at the time. I told you that I loved Will…I never stopped loving Will…but you were the one who lied to me, Hannibal. You were the one who set Will up. You were the one who tried to destroy him."

"Alas, I did," Hannibal said to her.

"And I defended you," Rachel said. "I defended you through everything until the truth came out. Does that mean nothing to you? Does the fact that I took your side…protected you…mean nothing to you?"

"You wish to talk about loyalty?" Hannibal asked from her.

"No," Rachel shook her head. "I just wish to know why you want me dead so badly. I do not understand it. I do not understand how I wronged you when all I did was love Will…and care for you."

"I confess, Rachel, you have done nothing horrendous. You have committed no crime nor have you truly wronged me," Hannibal spoke. "Yet you still lied to me all those years ago, just as I lied to you. You chose Will. You chose a man who, I think, deserves much better…a man who can be so much more if it were not for you."

"He doesn't need to be anything more," Rachel said. "He proved all those years ago that he was not like you. He is Will. He is my Will. He is not your Will. He is not the man you claim to know. I know him. I have had a child with him. He is not yours, Hannibal. He is mine."

"Only time shall tell," Hannibal spoke. "However, I would suggest you be careful, Rachel. Our lives have been entwined for many years now. I do believe that…when the final time comes…we will all be together again. You, me and Will…that is how it has always been. It is how it shall end, as it should have in the basement of my kitchen."

"And our daughter?" Rachel dared to question.

"You may not believe me, Rachel, but I have no desire to harm your child…not now…" Hannibal spoke. "No, this is between us three. It always has been."

Rachel said nothing more than, wondering if he was right. Was it that they were going to go through this together? She didn't know. All she knew was that she could do nothing more but leave that room, praying that he was wrong and that she never had to see him again.

A/N: Do let me know what you think!