An: - THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS CONTENT THAT CERTAIN READERS MAY FIND UPSETTING. Please refer to the tags and sensitive readers tread lightly.
- Apologies for the delay in uploading this. I got stuck into typing another Hannigram one shot and hadto force myself to put it away in order to get this proof read and posted.
- This is not beta'd, my apologies for any mistakes. If anything is too major, please inform me.
-Please view the AO3 upload for additional story images.
What matters an eternity of damnation to someone who has found in one second the infinity of joy?
–Charles Baudelaire
Thursday – 22 Sep 2022 – 7.46 PM
Going head first into the riskiest part of the plan, Will and Chiyoh had a long drive ahead of them, having to travel all the way back and through Florence before heading north of Florence and in the direction of Vicenza. The coordinates Hannibal had given Margot and Alana were for an open area of land in the countryside of Vicenza, a spot about a mile off the main road and quite literally in a wide, clear and flat stretch of land, with no houses or people in any direction for a great distance. No interruptions…no accidental witnesses and also, it was really far from where Hannibal was going with Morgan.
The main advantage of the spot was that from where Will and Chiyoh would be parked and waiting, they could see the main road in the far distance, which meant that when Margot and Alana drove up, they'd immediately see them coming because they'd be able to watch the car turn off the main road to head in their direction…and more importantly, he and Chiyoh would be able to see any additional cars that came along after, if any would be following the Verger's.
Seeing them first wouldn't necessarily keep Will, and possibly even Chiyoh, from getting caught. But it would give Will the window of time he'd need to call Hannibal and let the man know that things had gone wrong.
And shit, just thinking about it made him feel anxious and nauseous, but he forced himself to shrug it off.
Presently he and Chiyoh were parked at the meeting spot in the middle of nowhere, and with the sky heavily overcast the landscape was really dark, and Will knew that was a good thing, because it gave them maximum visibility of headlights in the dark whilst rendering Chiyoh's black SUV almost unseen. Also, it wasn't too windy over such low, flat land, which would be perfect incase Chiyoh needed to make any long distance shots with her rifle. The conditions were all seemingly in their favor and so far their plan was working out really well.
Will was standing outside the SUV right then, leaning against the passenger side door and staring out over the dark uneven landscape. The temperature had dropped a fair amount when night fell over the countryside and Will was really glad for having worn a jacket. He'd been sitting inside the car when they'd first arrived, but when Chiyoh had switched off the radio not long after they'd parked the car off facing the direction of the road, he'd found it too uncomfortable to sit in complete silence and in such close proximity with her, so he'd gotten out, preferring the cold weather to her glacial demeanor.
They hadn't spoken a word to one another on the drive either, and Will honestly couldn't wait to be away from Chiyoh when it was all over. He seriously doubted there would ever be anything but bad blood between them, no matter how many years might pass. Sure, he would always be civil to her, for Hannibal's sake, but other than that, he couldn't manage anything more. Chiyoh was just…well, Chiyoh, and that just didn't gel with who Will was.
He sighed loudly, rolling his eyes into an absent glance toward the main road in the distance, where there was still no sign of a car. In fact, there hadn't been a single one since they'd arrived there almost an hour earlier, and when Will pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and checked the time, he saw that it was close to time for Alana and Margot to show up, the hour for which was set to be 8 PM.
Will held back another sigh and rubbed at the side of his neck, and as a distraction, he checked his usual bookmarked news pages, wanting to be doubly sure that there wasn't anything new about himself and Hannibal making headlines.
And to his relief, there was absolutely nothing. The only news trending right then was about some terrorist bombings happening in the UK, which wasn't really a rare or surprising occurrence anymore.
Will pursed his lips as he relaxed a little more, ignoring a light twinge of pain when he did so, he crossed one ankle over the other where he leaned and continued to browse on his phone, trying to keep his mind busy, trying not to think about what he'd have to do if Alana and Margot drove up with a procession of police cars following them.
As he was tapping through his browser tabs, Will chewed his bottom lip absently and winced that time, being reminded more acutely of the bruising on his lips. Sucking in air quietly through his teeth, Will stood off from the car, locked his phone and then pocketed it in his jacket before he took a few seconds to do a mental assessment of his overall physical pain status.
He'd taken a second dose of Tramadol just before they'd met up with Hannibal earlier, so he figured he could take another two right then. He wasn't really feeling more than a little stiff and achy in places, but he didn't want to be able to feel anything when he was dealing with Margot and Alana, which would be soon.
Deciding that, Will reached into his jeans front pocket and pulled out the two pill containers there, and easily recognizing the pain killers from the Ketazolam pills because the container was smaller, he put the latter back into his pocket and popped the other container lid to drop two Tramadol into his palm. He dry swallowed them and then pressed his fingers into his eyes, sniffing idly and sighing deeply before he turned around and pulled the car door open.
Will left the door open as he sat in the passenger seat and grabbed his almost empty bottle of water he'd had in the console all day, unscrewing the cap and swallowing down what was left of the liquid. He was aware of the pinch of pain he'd felt when he sat down and as he wiped the faint moisture from his lips, Will flashed back to the night before, remembering how Hannibal had been shaking, how much it'd hurt both of them when he'd done what he'd needed to.
Hannibal was evil and he was a monster, but not that kind of monster, and Will had actually witnessed what it had taken out of Hannibal to hurt him that way. God, it'd been fucking horrible.
He frowned when he remembered the Lithuanian words Hannibal had said in a quiet, strained voice against his ear during the short ordeal. They had been quite close to being the same words he'd heard Chiyoh say that morning when she and Hannibal had been talking.
Will leaned back in his seat and replayed the phonation of the words in his head. He figured he might have been able to Google the phrase if he had absolutely any idea how to begin spelling the foreign words, but as it were, he had no clue. But…Chiyoh did.
Pursing his lips, Will raised an eyebrow and turned his head to look at Chiyoh, who was sitting calm and still, occasionally blinking, her fair skin glowing in the dark contrast of the car. He contemplated whether or not he had any boundaries to risk in asking her, but he doubted it, because after all, she'd said the words to Hannibal, so they couldn't really be all that personal.
So he went ahead and shattered the silence they'd been sharing for hours,
"You speak Lithuanian, right?" he turned his head to face forward again, absently keeping his eyes peeled for headlights anywhere on the dark distant road.
Chiyoh was quiet for a few beats more before she spoke,
"Yes." and somehow she managed to make that single word sound as if she were calling him an idiot for asking such a stupid question. He supposed it was a dumb question to ask after having witnessed her and Hannibal's conversation that morning.
Still though, she was being unnecessarily unpleasant and standoffish, but he managed not to let it get to him too much, even as an off balance, teeth clenched smile stretched across his face, accompanied by a huff of laughter. Only just managing to restrain the dark part of him that was deeply annoyed by her, Will kept himself from giving into the urge to reach across the console so that he could strangle her until she was blue in the face.
Drumming his fingers idly against the denim of his jeans, he took a breath and ventured his question anyway,
"Then you can tell me what oosh-tah-veh…me-loo means." he intentionally made it sound like a statement and not a request as he glanced over at her absently. And he did a double take when he realized that she was looking at him, her gaze sharp and her lips pinched in a thin line,
"Why?" she asked quietly.
Will blinked at her and stopped drumming his fingers, holding her gaze steadily,
"Because Hannibal said it." he answered honestly, seeing no reason to hedge.
"To you?" she frowned slightly, and something about the way she asked it suggested she was surprised.
He raised his eyebrows,
"Yes." he answered before licking at the bruised corner of his mouth.
Chiyoh's facial expression shifted from surprise to vague disbelief and then she looked away through the windshield and her features hardened. Will looked forward then too and his heart rate sped up when he saw the headlights of a car turning off the main road and coming their way, it was still quite a distance off though.
He checked the time on the dash, seeing that it was five minutes before eight.
'How punctual.' he smirked to himself, wondering if Alana was expecting Hannibal to be waiting for her and so she'd decided to appeal to his urbane comportment by being so wonderfully on time. Silly girl.
He actually felt a spike of giddiness when he wondered how she'd react to seeing him, because as it stood, she likely had no idea that he was even involved, or alive, and even if she suspected, she'd probably still be horribly surprised to see him.
He and Chiyoh sat in silence watching the oncoming car's headlights dip and shift unevenly as it drove over the landscape, and when it was about fifty meters away, Chiyoh switched the SUV's high beams on and immediately, the Renault slowed down to rolling and then halted about thirty meters away. It was time then, and Will breathed steadily despite his racing pulse, while Chiyoh seemed perfectly calm beside him.
When the headlights of the Renault were switched off, Will grabbed his pair of leather gloves off the dash and pulled them on. Chiyoh was already wearing hers –hadn't taken them off all day- and she reached into the back seat for the tranquilizer gun. They waited a beat, and only when they saw the Renault's doors opening, one on each side –and still no other cars coming in the distance- Will and Chiyoh opened their doors as well but didn't get out.
The high beams were blindingly bright, making it so that Alana and Margot couldn't see them, which had been the plan from the beginning and Will only got out of the car, slowly and remaining behind his open door, when he saw Alana and Margot squinting into the bright lights of the SUV.
"Hannibal?" Alana said aloud as she shut the car door, a second sound following as Margot did the same. Alana's voice was tense but not antagonizing, which meant she was wary, if not scared. Will looked her over from his vantage point, where she was clearly visible to him in the stream of light, seeing that she looked as lovely as ever. She was still wearing her necessitated pants suit fashion –to cover the scars on her legs-, her present ensemble was of a bright red jacket and skinny legged pants that matched the color of her lipstick, worn with a black under top and strappy heels, and her dark long hair was open and gathered on one side in a clasp. Though honestly, the pale distress of her face didn't compliment her pretentious outfit at all, and the sight of it made Will smile.
Poor Alana, where was all of that confidence she'd exuded when she'd been baiting Hannibal while he'd been in her cage and under her watch in Baltimore? Tut, tut.
Margot looked equally stunning, as always, in a deep purple and gold plaid pants suit, worn over a soft lilac bow-neck halter blouse and with black stilettos. And beneath her immaculate makeup, her big green eyes gave away that she was absolutely terrified. Although, Will suspected that her fear was mostly for her little Verger baby boy, whereas Alana's fear was probably broader spectrum, since she knew just how many bones Hannibal had to pick with her, or break of hers...either way, really.
"H-hannibal?" Alana said again, approaching slowly with Margot falling in just behind her.
Will waited, not having to look through the car at Chiyoh to know what was coming, because the second he heard a soft snicking sound, followed by Margot's startled yelp as she grabbed at her leg, he knew Chiyoh had shot her with the tranquilizer dart. Alana yelled her wife's name as Margot wobbled and fell against her weakly, and they held onto one another as they crumbled to the grass and sandy ground, Alana supporting Margot's weakening weight as much as she could.
Will could hear Alana's accelerated breathing even from several meters away. She was quickly starting to panic as she pulled the dart out of her unconscious wife's leg with a trembling hand, her crystalline blue eyes were wide and appeared pellucid due to the high beams from the SUV as she looked fearfully at the dart.
It was Will's turn to show himself then, and after slowly sliding his firearm out from the back of his pants and unlocking the safety, quietly, Will walked around his door, away from the car and toward Alana, where she was sitting back on her legs with Margot's upper body cradled in her arms. Alana's head was down at that moment, so she didn't see him approach, and her breathing was so loud that the soft crunch of his boots on the grass didn't register to her either.
And only once he was a mere meter from them, looming over the couple with the high beams on his back silhouetting him somewhat, did Will raise his gun and point it down, aimed at Alana's head,
"Relax, Alana," she instantly gasped, her head snapping up and eyes going wide for a second before she squinted at him, and as her breath shuddered out, Will continued speaking, "it was just a tranquilizer, she'll be fine..." '…for now.' he didn't verbally add that last part, deeming it unnecessary as he instead kept his tone neutral and comforting, even as he trained his gun on her steadily.
He was aware that he and Chiyoh weren't out of the danger zone yet, any second a procession of police vehicles could still appear on the dark road. There was no way of knowing for sure that they were safe, not yet at least, so Will had to be careful to maintain his behavior as a possible victim, just in case Alana might need a reason to back him up later, if he was taken into custody.
"Will?" she breathed his name out with something like horrified amazement, squinting up at his unclear silhouette, "Oh my God, Will, you're a-alive?" she sounded like she had genuinely believed he were dead.
"Mostly, the last time I checked." he added a trademark 'Will Graham of Old' grimacing smile to that statement, choosing his words carefully to represent enough self-awareness of his position as a 'victim', while still training his gun on her as a sign of his loyalty to Hannibal.
He had to find the perfect balance between the two, Alana was smart after all.
He watched Alana swallow tensely, looking at the gun he held aimed at her before her eyes darted around,
"Where's Morgan?" she asked with a sad frown, then, "Where's Hannibal?" and that time her tone was more aggressive when she asked after the serial killer, in fact it was almost tangibly acrid when she said his name. Will figured that she might be assuming he was alone there, since she wouldn't have known who shot Margot, and not having seen a second person with him, she probably assumed he'd done it.
"The answer to both your questions is the same, Alana…" Will informed her calmly, "…not here."
She hiccupped softly, clutching Margot's shoulders, her pretty blue eyes starting to brim with tears,
"Did Hannibal…did he hu-hurt Morg-…?"
"No," Will cut her off with a slight shake of his head, "and as per his instructions, so long as you and Margot followed them, no harm has or will come to Morgan Verger." he said evenly and she swallowed again, blinking wetly up at him, "Did you follow his instructions to the letter, Alana?" he asked quietly, tensely.
He needed to know, because if she had, then technically they were in the clear, and Morgan would be safe.
Her lips were quivering and she was struggling to steadily focus on him because of the bright light. So it took her a few seconds of shaky breathing before she nodded unevenly.
Will had to force himself not to smile in relief,
"Good, that's very good, Alana." he allowed himself a sigh though, which was in genuine relief for himself, but false relief for her. He moved things along next, "Now, I need you to give me yours and Margot's cell phones, and any weapons you have on you."
"Will, W-Will, why are you doing this?" she asked suddenly, frowning deeply, "Why did you let him take our son, why are you helping him?" her voice was getting whispery, a weakened tone he'd only heard once before from her when she'd been lying more broken than intact on Hannibal's front steps. It was obviously her pained and scared voice, "Are you…helping him? Will, wha-…"
"Weapons and…c-cellphones, Alana." he purposely inflected a note of uncomfortable urgency into his tone, expecting that she would assume he was at least partially distressed about what he was doing…when in fact, he was clenching his teeth together so he didn't start snapping at her to shut up and do as he said. It had been a long day and he was so fucking tired, he just wanted it over with.
Alana fell silent then and moved a shaking hand slowly into her suit jacket, and Will watched her warningly as she first removed a small handgun from under her jacket. He gestured with the barrel of his gun for her to toss it onto the ground near his feet. She did, and then she brought out her cellphone as well before she felt around inside Margot's suit jacket, retrieving a second gun, and after a few more pats, she found Margot's cellphone.
When she'd tossed all of it on the ground, Will ignored the small pile and reached into his jacket pocket for the Nokia phone,
"I really hope that's everything, Alana…" he said softly, keeping his gun aimed at her as he switched the phone on, "…because if you try to surprise me, I'll have to return the favor." and that was pretty much a blatant threat, and it was too late now that he'd said it, he couldn't take it back anyway.
Alana was staring up at his unclear form with confusion, fear and panic in her eyes…but also curiosity, because as she'd always tried to, she wanted to understand him, even right then, with her life in danger.
Will extended the Nokia out to her, but not all the way,
"I'm assuming you've taken care of putting your disappearance failsafe into place, as he told you to?" Will purposely didn't say Hannibal's name, leaving Alana to draw her own conclusions about why he wouldn't say the man's name, and when she nodded tensely, looking pained, he held the phone out the rest of the way, "Then all that's left for you to do is to call whatever people you have on standby, so that you can tell them that you're going into hiding because you believe he's found out where you are. You need to make it clear that they shouldn't go looking for you." and when she looked at him desperately and afraid, Will added, "Because no one will find you where you're going." and he knew that it was the last straws she'd had to grasp at, whatever people she had in place to take note if she just went missing without forewarning, because she broke down then and sobbed.
Perfect. They officially had her in checkmate.
He nudged the phone at her when she still hadn't taken it from him and she started sobbing louder as she breathed out,
"Will, please don't do thi-…"
"Alana," he said softly, "I don't want to have to remind you of what happens to Morgan if you don't cooperate." and he made sure his voice was just a little unsteady, feigning fear and empathy for her and her family.
And after his indirect reminder of the potential fate of her son, it took a moment for her to get her bearings and calm her sobbing, before she carefully let go of Margot's shoulders and then reached for the phone with a trembling hand. She pressed the buttons unsteadily to key in a number, but before she activated the call, just to make her hopeless situation as clear to her as possible, Will lowered his gun.
Alana immediately looked up at him, a flash of hope in her eyes, but Will made a show of taking his cellphone out of his pocket, and after unlocking the screen, he tapped into his contacts list and then briefly showed her the screen, showed her that he had a number ready to call. The word 'Hannes' was displayed on the screen followed by a number, but he'd barely let her see it before he turned the phone away again.
And only once he had her absolute, unwavering attention, did he speak,
"That's his number, and all I have to do is call him and he'll know what it means." he clarified for her, "So make it convincing, make sure that whoever you call believes that you're disappearing voluntarily," he paused and lowered his voice, "because if any of this ever comes back to him after your gone, it's his promise that your son will face the consequences." he said seriously, "Cooperation is the only price for Morgan's life, Alana." Will stressed it in plainer terms, "Do you understand?"
And then Will saw it, disgust, anger and hatred flashing in her pretty face, and not just for Hannibal, but for him as well. He at least knew she was actually taking him seriously after that, especially as he took a step back and held his phone up so she could see his thumb hovering over the call button before he gestured for her to go ahead.
Thursday – 22 Sep 2022 – 8.39 PM
It took a while, because Alana called three different people, and doing as told, she handled the calls with confidence and as much poise as she could, so as not to raise suspicion, and so the conversations carried on at an unhurried pace.
From what Will could identify of her fluent Italian, the first two calls she made were to local authorities, probably public and private sectors. He listened carefully for any telling words or odd phrases, and especially for the name 'Hannes' or the alphabetical spelling of it, just in case she'd managed to see it on his phone. But by the end of the two calls, she hadn't said anything suspicious or attempted to spell anything and he relaxed again.
The third person she called…was Jack Crawford.
Will narrowed his eyes as he listened to the one-sided conversation, impressed again as Alana spoke with a surprisingly steady voice, sounding only just unsettled,
"Hello, Jack." she paused, "Yes, it's me. I know I don't, no…no we're fine, uh, listen…" she paused again, "…yes, Jack, I promise I'm fine, we're…we're all fine…" she shot Will a hurt look, "…yes, Jack, Jack please…I need you to listen." she swallowed tensely then and blinked a few tears out of her eyes, "I'm calling to tell you…that we're going to disappear for a while."
Will could immediately hear Jack raising his voice on the line and Alana was doing her best to keep it together, "…no, we are, we're fine but…but Jack, it's because, because I think, I think he may have," her voice broke slightly, "I think he may have found us…" Jack asked 'how' and 'have you seen him' so loudly that Will wasn't surprised when Alana winced away from the phone, "….no, I haven't seen him," sniff, "and maybe I'm being paranoid, but I just don't want to take a chance…" she made her tone firmer then, clenching her jaw afterward. She had always enjoyed using that tone on Jack, who was now loudly demanding that she tell him what had happened to make her worry and then he insisted he wanted to see her, asking her where she was.
Will made a point of showing Alana his intent to press the call button when she'd gone too quiet and abruptly, she shut Jack down, "No, I can't, I can't be attached to anyone who ever knew him. I have to cut ties," she said surely, clutching the poor old Nokia painfully tight in her white knuckled grip as she shook her head at whatever Jack was saying to her, "no, no I can't but Jack, if I ever feel like it's safe," her voice shook as she lied quite convincingly, "then I'll contact you again, I swear…but for right now, I have to do this. I'm cutting ties, because I can't- I can't risk…" her voice broke and she shut her eyes, tears sliding over her cheeks.
Jack was saying something and Will left Alana to take a few seconds to recompose herself as she wiped at her face with a shaking hand, waiting with only slight patience for her to end the call. He was somewhat amazed by how unmoved he was by the whole thing, while being far more focused on the fact that Jack hadn't even known where in the world Alana was. Honestly, it kind of seemed like she'd made herself and her family unlikely to ever be found, while also having made them all sitting ducks if they ever were, like right then.
Jack continued to talk, getting louder again, and Alana looked angry and hateful when she bit out,
"…no Jack, you can't help us and I won't risk my son's life to let you try." and that was the truth, both ways. Will immediately noticed that the affection and emotion in her tone was far more intense than it had been when he'd last heard her speak of Morgan. So she'd really grown to love the little boy born of a twisted monster's genes.
That was good…it would work out best for everyone under that circumstance.
The remainder of the conversation was more subdued after that, Alana once again reassuring Jack that she would contact him if she ever needed to and then reassuring him that she, Margot and Morgan would be fine. It was ten minutes in total before she finally hung up and without looking at Will, she held the phone up to him, her expression miserable, angry and sad as she kept her head down.
Will put his own phone away before he stepped forward and reached for the Nokia, and he wasn't even startled when Alana suddenly grabbed his wrist and stared up at him with wet eyes and open desperation,
"Will, you don't have to do this, you don't have to, we can call Jack again…he'll know, Will, the world will know that it's not your fault that you're doing this. He's done it before, Hannibal's used people like this…Miriam and Abigail and Bedelia, Will, he's done it many times before." she was pleading harshly and Will allowed her to say what she needed to, fully aware that Chiyoh was standing out of sight and listening to what Alana was offering him. "Whatever he's done to you, whatever drugs he's used, or whatever he's threatened you with…" she was gaining momentum, voice becoming steadier since he wasn't stopping her, "…M-Molly and Walter, Will, don't you remember your family? Don't you want to go home? What about your dogs, Will?" her knuckles were turning white for how tightly she was holding onto his bruised wrist, the padding of his jacket and shirt barely serving as a buffer.
Will took a deep, patient breath as she went on, exasperated by the fact that Alana would just never get it. He waited until she paused to take a breath before he calmly interrupted her,
"Hannibal is my family." was all he said.
Alana opened her mouth to say something else, but it was cut off when she gasped, the soft snick of the tranquilizer gun having gone off a second before a dart was shot into her arm. Will blinked placidly as Alana turned her stunned blue eyes to look in the direction of the sound of approaching, softly crunching footsteps. She was already going numb, her fingers loosening on Will's wrist and her eyelids becoming heavy as she squinted to see the person who'd shot her. But Chiyoh remained where the high beams would make her unrecognizable, Alana fading too quickly to look any harder and by the ten second count, her fingers went completely lax on Will's wrist and she fell sideways to lie partially on top of her wife.
Will turned his head but didn't properly look at Chiyoh since the lights were too bright,
"How long will they be unconscious for?" he asked, all business, as he reset the safety on his gun and slid it back into his jeans before placing the Nokia into his jacket pocket.
"Long enough, we will be at our destination before they wake up." Chiyoh responded in the same tone.
"Alright, check the Renault to see if they brought anything with them, I'll deal with Alana and Margot." and that time it was an instruction, albeit an unconscious one. Will didn't amend it to a request though, and after a moment in which he was aware of her staring at him, with what he was certain was contempt, she moved to do as he'd said.
Will waited a few seconds, took another deep breath, smirked to himself and then set about fulfilling his own task.
After putting the plasticuffs on the two unconscious women, Will laid them both out on the ground and gave them a cursory police pat down to check if they had anything else on them. When he found nothing that could be used as a weapon, he went ahead and did the heavy lifting, first placing Margot in the passenger seat of the SUV, strapping the seatbelt across her chest and then propping her up so it looked as if she were fast asleep. Next, he proceeded to do the same thing with Alana, except he put her in the Renault, which he would be driving to their next destination.
When he was done and satisfied that they looked as if they were both just asleep, Will walked over to stand where Chiyoh was leaning against the front of the Jeep. The lights of the SUV were no longer on high but were instead set to low beams, providing enough visibility without blinding them. Will pressed his fingers into his eyes as he came over to stand a few feet from her, and when he looked up he glanced from Chiyoh to the spot on the ground where the guns and phones had been lying, but they were gone, which meant Chiyoh had already hidden them in the SUV.
"They had only luggage in the car, but it accounted for everything necessary, clothes, passports, cash, and a few sentimental belongings." Chiyoh said unprompted. She was standing with her hands in the pockets of her zipped up leather jacket as she watched him in that phlegmatic way of hers. Will slipped his hands into his jacket pockets as well and inhaled the chilly air as he nodded with equal indifference and then sighed as he raised his eyebrows and looked at her directly,
"Did you let Hannibal know?"
"Yes."
Will looked up at the slowly moving clouds then as the wind kicked up slightly and unsettled his hair,
"I guess that's it then, we can leave." he decided with a shrug.
"We can." she agreed.
And Will didn't want to linger near Chiyoh any longer than he had to, so he turned away immediately and walked toward the Renault, and he had just pulled open the driver's side door when Chiyoh said his name. He stopped with one foot in the car to look at her, but he couldn't see her properly because she'd move to the driver's side of the SUV,
"What?" he asked shortly, narrowing his eyes against the low lights.
There was a beat of silence before she spoke,
"It means…'I love you'."
Will blinked, his face twitching into a frown,
"What?" he repeated, heart skipping a noticeable beat, because he knew what she was talking about.
Chiyoh didn't answer right away and Will was about to repeat himself when she said just audibly,
"Aš tave myliu…it means 'I love you'." and she punctuated the end of her statement by getting into the Jeep and slamming the door.
Will stood frozen, part numb and part shocked and part elated and part dazed, as Chiyoh started the engine of her SUV, pulled away and drove off, passing him and the Renault as she headed for the main road.
But he didn't rush to follow her because he was too busy processing what she'd just told him.
Hannibal had said that to him…'Aš tave myliu', and it meant I love you.
Hannibal had said I love you.
And Will hadn't even fucking known.
He laughed quietly and rubbed his hands over his face, dragging them slowly down and off his chin as a smile stole across his face, crooked and devoted and emotional…and happy.
Will looked at the car then and quickly got in, closing the door and starting up the engine. He abruptly reversed, turning the steering wheel sharply and making a reverse U-turn before he started driving in the same direction as Chiyoh, in the direction that Hannibal was in.
The night would be long, but when it was all over he and Hannibal would go home together to Spain, because the plan had worked. And while it still wasn't flawless, because anything could go wrong in the future, there was the hope that when someone did finally question the introverted Verger family's disappearance, Hannibal's name would not come up.
But they'd cross that bridge when they got to it, for right then, things had gone excellently and in a few hours Hannibal would have fulfilled his promise to Alana, and Will would be just that much closer to getting engaged to Hannibal Lecter.
Friday – 23 Sep 2022 – 12.51 AM
Their final destination in the plan was an abandoned church just outside of Grosseto.
And as Will drove off the main road and down through the overgrown tree lined path toward the old stone church, he found himself creeped the fuck out at how eerie the place was. Seriously, Hannibal really knew how to pick his killing grounds. But Will could easily see how the location made sense, that far off the main road, surrounded by trees, no one in their right mind would come to a place like that at night, and probably not in the daytime either.
It was almost creepier than the Lecter Estate. Almost.
After a slow five minute drive navigating the car through hanging trees and over uneven ground, Will finally saw the old Catholic church in somewhat of a clearing up ahead. It wasn't a big church, or a very nice one and he could see that a large part of the roof was caved in on one side, weeds were overgrown everywhere, windows were shattered and the stones looked moldy. It was terribly dilapidated, neglected and unused and really out of the way, absolutely perfect for what the evening's events would hold.
Will drove into the side yard of the run down building where he parked off on the left side of Hannibal's Mercedes, since Chiyoh's SUV was parked on the right. He killed the engine then and after another glance through the windshield at the yard around the church, which consisted of a broken fence on one side and a cemetery stretching into the near distance from the back area of the church, Will turned to look at Alana in the passenger seat. Her head had lolled forward again so that her chin was on her chest, he'd had to push it back a few times before he passed through the toll gates just so she'd looked like she was asleep comfortably and not stone cold unconscious. Now though, Will wanted her to wake up, because he really didn't want to carry her.
Exhausted from driving all day, he sighed and ran a hand over the side of his face out of habit, before he unclipped his seatbelt, opened his door and got out of the car. He stretched once he was standing, because after driving for so many hours his body felt cramped and stiff, and the stretch reminded him of the larger aches he'd been medicating when they pinched and throbbed all over mildly, making him grimace.
Will shrugged off the dull aches and shut his door before he walked around to the passenger side, opening the door and standing there for a moment looking down at Alana's unconscious form. The last part of the plan that he'd been aware of was that he and Chiyoh had to bring Alana and Margot to Hannibal at the church, and he honestly had no idea what would happen next.
He wondered if waking Alana would be going against whatever Hannibal had planned as he absently chewed the inside of his lip, wincing and stopping when it stung. Irritable and tired, Will just decided for himself that her being conscious wouldn't matter, it didn't matter to him at least, asleep or awake, her fate would be the same. But there was of course the fact that he didn't know if she would even be able to wake up if the drug still hadn't worn off enough. He figured there was a good chance she would though, it'd been a few hours already and having been drugged a good couple of times himself in the past, Will remembered that aside from some minor disorientation, he'd been fine.
He pushed the passenger door open all the way then and crouched down, first reaching across Alana's waist to unclip the seatbelt before he leaned back again and took Alana's bound hands in both of his, patting one of them firmly,
"Hey, Alana…time to wake up." he said quietly, and then wondered why the fuck he was keeping his voice down before he repeated, "Alana." more audibly, and patted the top of her hand a little harder. Her fingers twitched and her eyelids scrunched, but then she relaxed again and nothing else happened. So Will let go of her hands and instead placed his gloved hand on her shoulder, giving her a firm shake.
She twitched again, frowning slightly and Will quickly shook her a second time,
"Alana, hey, wake up." he repeated firmly, and he watched as her eyelids fluttered open and shut a few times, her eyes rolling around as she tried to find focus. Will shook her again and her head just lolled toward him as her eyes settled more or less open but she wasn't seeing anything.
She still wasn't conscious and when her eyes drifted shut again, Will sighed irritably,
"Hey, no, come o-ah fuck it…" he grumbled, because she just groaned softly and closed her eyes anyway.
Will stood up then and leaned over, taking her arm with one hand and pulling her forward so that he could slide his arm around her back to take on her weight. When he'd managed to lift her out of the car, she slumped against him, making quiet confused sobbing sounds.
"Christ." Will muttered, seeing no other options available to him in the end.
So he just picked her up bridal style and carried her limp, light form across the side yard of the church and around to the front entrance. He climbed the single stone step up to the partially open door and after nudging it open more with his foot, Will walked in sideways, careful not to bump Alana's hanging head against anything -out of standard politeness of course- and when he stepped inside the dimly fire lit church, Will saw Hannibal and Chiyoh standing at the front of the church at the same time as they looked at him.
There were several candles lit up on the table and floor around the alter of the small church, votive candles and normal pillar candles of different sizes, and the array of them were just about the only source of light, not doing the best job of illuminating the space. But then, even with the huge hole in the roof, while the skies were marginally clearer there than they had been further north, the moon still wasn't exactly luminous up in the sky either, so the candles had to suffice.
"Alana!" Margot, who Will hadn't even noticed, yelled her wife's name when she turned in her seat and saw Will carrying the still mostly unconscious brunette. Margot was sitting in the front most pew on the right side of the church, where the roof hadn't caved in, and she seemed quite alert considering she'd been just as drugged as Alana was.
"Set her down beside Margot, please, Will." Hannibal spoke then, his voice carrying throughout the small church as he gestured with his hand to where Margot sat. Will came down the center aisle slowly, careful not to trip on any of the wood and stone debris scattered across the creaky floor as he maneuvered himself to the front with Alana's burdening weight. Chiyoh was standing with her pistol in hand but it wasn't aimed at Margot, so she was probably only holding it just in case Margot or Alana tried anything.
When he reached the front, Will set Alana down sitting up on the pew with relative carefulness and tipped her body against Margot's when she reached out and gathered her semi-conscious wife up in her arms, sobbing her name and glancing miserably, desperately, at Will before she pressed her face into Alana's hair.
It surprised Will that she –and Alana- still honestly thought he could help them, or that he even would. He sighed as he stood up straight, stepping away from the pair of women before he turned to look at Hannibal,
"I tried to wake Alana up, but.." he trailed off, shrugging.
Hannibal nodded, calm as ever,
"It's no problem, I shall use a small dose of Romazicon to bring her out of sedation, just as I did for Margot." he informed as he stepped up the two steps, walking to the alter table where the black duffle bag that Chiyoh had given him earlier that day was set open. Will could see that there was a small unfolded drug case set open on the table with several already filled slots, and after Will walked up the steps and moved to stand beside Hannibal, he looked over what was tucked into it.
There were a few syringes with liquid in them as well as a few medicine vials, also there were alcohol pads and sealed needles and a few unlabeled different pill cases. Above the small unfolded drug case was Hannibal's large surgical instrument case, also laid open, and which was filled with shiny, sharp and pristinely kept surgical tools. Among all of the ones Will couldn't identify, he recognized the expected selection of scalpels, an electric bone saw –which he was uncomfortably familiar with-, as well as a manual bone cutter –ouch-, two different clamps, a few different sizes of forceps –for different organ removals-, a needle holder for assistance with fine stitches, three different surgical scissors, surgical needles and of course, sutures.
Will wasn't unfamiliar with Hannibal carrying his tools, after all, he did so for every murder he committed that Will had been witness to, and probably for the ones he hadn't. And that's how Will knew that what was laid out wasn't nearly everything Hannibal had,
"Where's the rest of your stuff?" he asked, leaning against the alter table as the older man slipped out one of the pre-prepared injections for Alana,
"I didn't bring all of it, it wasn't necessary to." he glanced at Will with a small smile.
That surprised Will, he'd expected Hannibal would have wanted to torture Alana, but apparently not, since he'd only brought his 'if there is an emergency' utensils and a few fun pieces here and there. Hannibal was particularly fond of his electric bone saw, which he'd let Will use on a few victims in the past three years, his reasoning being that Will should overcome his fear of the instrument.
It'd mostly worked.
Hannibal descended the steps once he'd uncapped and prepared the injection, and Will watched dispassionately as he walked over and stuck the needle none too gently into Alana's already bared neck, her head leaning on Margot's shoulder. Margot herself looked disheveled and stressed, wide eyed and afraid as she watched the liquid disappear into her wife's vein.
Chiyoh looked about the same as Will, but then, she always looked like that.
Alana came around very quickly once the Romazicon was in her blood stream, her eyelids fluttering open and eyes rolling into focus as Hannibal positioned her to sit upright, before he took her head into his hands and dipped his own head so that he could look into her face. Seemingly satisfied with her consciousness when she focused on him and groaned weakly, Margot breathing out her name softly, Hannibal let Alana's head fall back onto Margot's shoulder before he stood up straight and returned to the alter table where he carefully disposed of the needle, placing it into a compact sharps container.
Will was curiously watching the dazed brunette as she gradually came around properly, her breathing was increasing and she was frowning as she started to look around, trembling lightly as Margot continued to say her name while petting her face and hair, the younger woman grabbing Alana's lax bound hands with her own and squeezing as she quietly informed her of where they were…
Hannibal distracted Will from watching when he spoke,
"How are you feeling?" he asked very quietly, so that Will doubted even Chiyoh heard it.
Will turned to face him where he was still leaning against the alter table and he inhaled deeply, taking mental stock of himself as he slipped his fingers into his jeans pockets and raised his eyebrows,
"I'm fine. Tired…but fine." he responded just as quietly with a facial shrug.
Hannibal regarded him sidelong for a moment and then nodded, carrying on with arranging something in his medicine case and Will decided to ask then, since after a glance around the chilly, broken down church he didn't see Morgan,
"Where's the boy?"
Hannibal glanced at him and then looked behind them, to where Margot was crying softly as Alana finally came around, asking if Margot was okay with hushed, sobbed words.
His eyes drifted back to the table then,
"He's in the sacristy."
Will blinked, nodded and then glanced at the closed door off to the side of the alter before he frowned,
"Is he still unconscious?" he asked, because surely it had been too long.
"He woke…briefly." Hannibal supplied, eyes focused downward on what he was doing.
"You drugged him again?" Will asked softly with a slight grimace.
Hannibal finished what he was doing then and turned to face Will, wetting his lips before speaking,
"Would you rather he be awake?" he tipped his head in the direction of the distraught Verger couple.
Will was already shaking his head in response and he –unconsciously- stepped closer to Hannibal, an urge given into out of habit as he sought Hannibal's familiar and comfortable closeness,
"N-no, obviously, I just…" he took a breath and looked into Hannibal's face, only a hands distance from his own, their bodies close…and Will found he was wholly uninterested in the fact that they weren't alone right then, having long since overcome such shyness. "Did he ask anything when he woke up, did you at least attempt to placate him?" he asked quietly.
Hannibal watched him intently, probably hyperaware of their close proximity with Alana and Margot sitting nearby, and Will figured the older man was still concerned about him being able to back up his claim of being physically abused and coerced with Alana and Margot witnessing the way he was behaving toward Hannibal. He was technically putting holes in his own story with every inch closer that he moved.
But honestly, Will was no longer worried, as far as he was concerned they were in the clear, so there was no reason for him to play the victim anymore.
"I didn't allow him a moment of lucidity." Hannibal eventually answered, swallowing lightly and Will pursed his lips, his eyes tracking down over Hannibal's face to his slightly parted mouth, watching as Hannibal quietly said,
"Will…" in a tone of reminding, a tone that said 'don't forget our company, just wait a while longer'.
And Will could appreciate that Hannibal was so concerned for his wellbeing, for being paranoid on his behalf, but Will knew they would be fine because he had seen defeat in Alana earlier, before she'd been tranquillized, and he knew they had her in checkmate. It was game over for her.
"Where the hell is Morgan?" Alana's voice interrupted Will's consideration of whether or not to kiss Hannibal and the older man unhurriedly slid his eyes away from Will to look at her,
"Hello, Alana." he greeted politely, "I am aware that rudeness is often a side effect of fear, but I had thought you and I at least had a mutual appreciation for civility, so I'm disappointed to find your manners lacking." he said without a hint of a smile, his voice smooth, his tone cold and his pupils black and lightless in the shadowy church.
"Fuck you, Hannibal." Alana said, crisply annunciating every word as her blue eyes burned with hatred, "Where is my son?" she asked through clenched teeth, her words only just slurred as her anger brought forth ugly lines in her face. Margot swallowed audibly but stayed quiet, and Will had to wonder if she'd even said a word to Hannibal since being woken up. He remembered that Margot had been chatty enough when she'd needed to be in the past, but she'd also always known when to keep quiet. It was probably due to self-conditioning from having lived with an abusive, twisted fucker of a brother.
Will knew that Hannibal wouldn't be impressed with Alana's behavior though, and when he looked at the older man to gauge his reaction, Will saw that his features were like stone. And his proximity to Hannibal right then actually gave him pause as his empathy elucidated the older man's present state of feeling. Hannibal looked neither amused nor bothered, in fact, his countenance was disturbingly impassive…but only on the surface. Because Will could practically taste the older man's ire, it was like ash and metal on his tongue…and it felt like asphyxiation…violent, black and toxic.
Will lowered his eyes to the ground as the effect of Hannibal's violent anger –the likes of which Will had never even experienced when looking at the Ripper's victims- made him feel more than a little confused, because the presence of it both aroused and frightened him. He hadn't even known that Hannibal could still put fear into him…and he definitely hadn't expected to be turned on by it.
When Hannibal didn't answer her, Alana made a derisive sound and then turned her attention to Will,
"Will, where is he?" her tone wasn't much nicer for him, but it wasn't quite as hostile as it had been toward Hannibal, it made Will want to snort at how confused her survival instincts were. But he just raised his eyes to look at her and then glanced at Hannibal, considering whether to answer or just ignore her, but he didn't get a chance to decide because she gasped, "Oh my G-…Will, your neck…a-and your, oh God, your m-mouth…are those teeth marks?" she sounded horrified.
Will had a moment of wondering how in the fuck she could even see his bruises when it was so dark in the church, but then he realized he was standing at the alter where most of the lit candles were situated, and so it made his skin glow yellow-brown and probably made his bruises look like blackish blots stark against his skin.
"What the hell has he-…Hannibal, what have you been doing to him!?" she yelled, her voice breaking, blue eyes bright with disgust and tears. And Margot just sat quietly, frowning as she stared at Will in between glances at Hannibal, "Why are there bite marks on his mouth!?" Alana spat, "God…has he been, oh God, Will…" she sounded deeply distressed now, while Margot looked -surprisingly- the opposite.
Will glanced at Chiyoh, to find that she looked very pissed off now, instead of stoic, and he instantly knew it was because she didn't like the conclusions Alana and Margot were probably drawing, even though that had been the point.
"Will." Hannibal said, completely ignoring Alana as she breathed heavily and fumed, glaring at him with disgust. Will immediately turned to him, eyebrows raised in question. The older man reached into the black bag on the table and took out a small material trifold case, "Take Margot out to the cemetery behind the church, I leave the decision of how you end her life in your hands," he said plainly and Alana made a sound somewhere between a shout and sob while Margot remained quiet, "but in here are two possible options." he held the small case out to Will.
Will took it from him and peeled the velcro strap back before opening the folds and looking over the full syringe and the SOG knife tucked inside, his options for Margot being either a quick and painless death, or a slow and painful one. He closed the case again then and glanced at Margot, who looked tense but resigned, and really, she always had been quick to accept her fate as dictated by others rather easily, hadn't she?
It was a little sad actually.
Alana on the other hand was in full fight mode, and panicking for Margot, she stood up abruptly, looking as though she was going to come at Hannibal and himself. But when the click of a gun being made ready to fire cut through the silence, Alana barely took one step and stopped, turning to glare at Chiyoh as said woman leveled the weapon directly at the angry brunette,
"Sit down." Chiyoh said evenly.
Alana didn't sit –defiance burning in her eyes-, but she also didn't move from where she stood, instead she turned to look at Will and Hannibal again, and then Will specifically,
"Will." he was already looking at her so he didn't understand why she said his name, maybe because she needed to remind herself it was him? Or maybe because she thought he needed reminding? "Will." she said again, and he blinked twice before realizing she was trying to share some sort of meaningful eye contact with him, wordlessly asking him for help, to help Margot, maybe Morgan…something…something that he didn't care enough to try and properly interpret.
So he turned smoothly away from her, to look at Hannibal,
"The body?" he asked plainly and reveled just a little in the shocked gasping sound Alana made.
"Bury it, Chiyoh will bring the shovel to you." Hannibal answered, all traces of black anger gone as he tracked his eyes fondly over Will's face, he was clearly pleased.
"Two graves?"
"No, I will dig the other."
"No, I can do it." Will insisted lightly.
"Will-…" Hannibal's voice lowered, concerned.
"I'm fine." Will reassured just as quietly.
"It's a strenuous task." Hannibal persisted, apparently having forgotten Will was supposed to be his 'lackey'. Seriously, Will could practically hear Chiyoh rolling her eyes at their uselessly hushed conversation.
"I can dig two holes, Hannibal." Will was all too happy to drop the act though, because it meant he could stop holding his tongue and just speak normally, "How are you going to kill, Alana?" he let his mask slip completely and felt much better at being able to reach out with his free hand to slide it idly down from Hannibal's chest to his abdomen, over the smooth texture of his shirt.
It was an intimate touch that Will wanted Alana to witness, because she needed a fucking reality check.
And Hannibal gave in like a man starved, taking Will's hand in his own and bringing it to his mouth, where he pressed a firm kiss to Will's knuckles, his mouth curving into a dangerous smile afterward,
"Alana and I are going to have a talk first, and depending on how that goes, I will determine what I think is fitting." he sounded amused and Will raised an eyebrow before smiling at him,
"Right…well, have fun with that." he encouraged, glancing at Hannibal's layout of tools and meds and needles. And then, as casually as if it were any other day in their home in Spain, he leaned in and kissed Hannibal's mouth, once, twice and Hannibal leaned in properly for the third one, the couple sharing a deeper kiss with a visible sliver of tongue just before they drew back. Still smiling, Will licked his lips and then turned to look at Margot as he stepped down from the alter and walked over to her.
Alana was still standing, now staring wide eyed, looking repulsed and disbelieving at Will as he extended his gloved hand to Margot, who blinked her large, wet eyes unevenly at him. There was a tense beat where she just stared at his offered hand, but eventually she raised her bound hands to settle one into Will's upturned palm. With dignity, she allowed him to help her to her high heeled feet and when she was standing she took in an unsteady breath, blinking a few tears from her eyes while remaining composed and calm.
Alana though, was in the opposite state and she grabbed the younger woman's upper arm,
"Margot, wha-…?" but she fell silent when Margot looked at her sharply, making Alana tear up anew before Margot's face softened and the two women took a moment to wordlessly come to some kind of agreement.
Margot then surprised everyone when next, she looked up to the alter at Hannibal,
"Doctor Lecter…" she breathed out, because she'd never called him by his first name, and her voice was raw with stress, raspy and strained. Will looked at Hannibal then too, seeing the monster –his monster- standing against a backdrop of a damaged crucifix and glowing candles, his dark clothes indefinable, making his lean body appear as one long lithe, male form absorbed and bleeding into the flickering shadows, and his eyes too were shadowed from the light behind him as he looked down at them. The sight made Will regret that he couldn't paint or draw, or he could have recreated the image in order to show Hannibal exactly how he looked in that moment.
Nightmarish and demonic…and breathtaking.
"Yes, Margot?" Hannibal responded politely, his voice low and smooth.
Margot sniffed and looked up at him as she always had, not trusting, never trusting, but believing that he would be honest with her if she asked him to,
"You said…that you wouldn't hurt Morgan, you said…if we cooperate, he'll live, he'll be…fine?" she asked quietly, her voice wavy, eyes shining. There was a beat of silence before Hannibal answered,
"Yes."
"Do you p-promise?" she stuttered around a short shaken breath.
"Yes, Margot, I promise no harm will come to the boy so long as you and Alana have done nothing against what I instructed." he said sincerely, almost comfortingly, and Will felt relieved himself at hearing it again.
Margot nodded then and after taking another deep breath, she turned to look at Alana again, and for a few seconds they just stared at one another, Alana looking more distressed with each passing moment in the silent church. The candles snapped softly, the wind whistled sharply in through the narrow splits in the wood, the floors creaked and by the time Margot leaned in and kissed Alana, they were both crying in earnest.
Their kiss was the opposite of what Will's and Hannibal's had been. Margot's and Alana's was a sad, goodbye, I love you kiss, whereas his and Hannibal's had been a victorious, here's to us, I love you kiss.
And Will allowed them their parting intimacy, seeing no reason to deny them such a thing, and their kisses and whispered apologies –from Alana- and goodbyes –from Margot- lasted half a minute before they finally separated, Margot being the one to step away from Alana. They were both a mess, sniffing, hiccupping, their lipsticks faded, mascara running, eyes and cheeks puffy and wet…it was really tragic.
But Will remained unmoved, the darkness in him easily reducing the Verger couple to nothing more than meat in his mind, and after giving Margot another few seconds to gather herself so she could walk steadily on her shaking legs, he placed his hand around her upper arm and tugged very lightly so she knew he was going to take her away and that she needed to walk with him.
She didn't hesitate or fuss, she simply turned away from Alana, her long elaborately curled and styled hair falling in a mess around her face as Will moved her to walk just ahead of him down the aisle. They were halfway to the doors when Will heard a third set of footsteps, and he glanced back, unsurprised to find Chiyoh following.
Behind her, Hannibal and Alana stood watching one another.
Will could only imagine how their conversation would end for Alana…and it made his heart race to do so.
Will walked slowly enough to accommodate Margot's high-heeled and shaken wobble over the uneven ground of the church yard. Chiyoh had gone in a different direction once they'd exited the church, likely to fetch the shovel for Will and he and Margot walked in silence for a minute, until just after they'd passed the cars parked in the side yard, that was when Margot turned back to briefly glance at him,
"I can't decide…whether to be sickened by you, or…to be in awe." she rasped out between sniffles, her tone quite neutral, if a bit sad.
Will looked at the back of her head impassively, watching her hair shift with the wind and bounce as she walked,
"Oh?" he decided to humor her, because like Hannibal, he didn't have anything against Margot, not really anyway.
They walked further, nearing the church's backyard, before she spoke again,
"When I first met…doctor Lecter," she sniffed, "I, as I'd assume of most women who ever came across him, thought that he was," she sighed mock-wistfully, "well, the closest thing to the perfect man." she was speaking in her usual unhurried manner, watching the ground as she walked carefully ahead of him. "A good-looking, thoroughbred European man, intelligent, sophisticated…accomplished, wealthy," she sniffed again and Will thought he heard a note of amusement in her voice, "I mean, yes, he's a little on the old side," she quipped, glancing back at him with a raised eyebrow before looking forward again, "but who would care when he's six feet tall and has that sexy accent, right? And to add to it, he's a man who knows his way around fine clothing and food, refine-…"
"Is there a point to this?" Will cut her off curtly, becoming annoyed, and she had the gall to laugh softly at him,
"…a man worth being jealous over," she glanced back at him, still sad, but knowingly amused, "but don't worry, I don't judge you…" she sounded honest enough, "I mean, the serial killer, cannibal thing aside, Hannibal Lecter is a hell of a man."
Will frowned, had that been her point? To let him know that she knew he was with Hannibal by choice?
Margot sniffed and said nothing for a while and Will didn't try to fill the silence either.
When they entered the cemetery, she spoke again,
"I suppose…that I should be sickened because of what he really is..." she said almost drolly, "…but then, when I saw how he looked at you in there," she glanced back at the church, Will, and then looked forward again, "I couldn't help thinking…that whatever it is that you have with him…is probably more genuine than what Alana and I have." she confessed with a sudden well of emotion in her tone.
And obviously Will agreed, she was absolutely right, but he wasn't going to be smug about it.
Instead he indulged her with his opinion,
"You and Alana are two of Hannibal's many shattered teacups…" he said quietly, realizing after he said it that Margot wouldn't know what he was talking about. But she wasn't stupid, and she seemed to more or less understand the metaphor, because she laughed softly again,
"And oh, how we tried to put one another back together…but you know…" she glanced at him again with lazily raised eyebrows and a red nose, "...missing pieces, cracked pieces, too much glue in some places…not enough glue in others…"
And yeah, Will understood what she was saying; she and Alana didn't completely understand each other, didn't totally confide in one another, they overcompensated in the wrong ways and were deficient where it really counted. She didn't need to actually say it for Will to hear it. He didn't have anything to say to her about that though, so he focused instead on the grass and rocks and the broken headstones he had to step past and around and over as they walked, also monitoring Margot's steps to make sure she wouldn't fall either.
"She killed for me…" Margot breathed out, sounding emotional again, and Will stopped when she did. Apparently she was done walking, since she moved to sit down on the crosspiece of a low cross headstone, sniffing with tears in her eyes as she looked at him, "…she killed my brother for me, and I love her." the corners of her mouth turned down slightly as she fought to control her emotions, "So why…why doesn't it feel as genuine…as real as it should?" she stared imploringly at him, as if she believed he knew the answer.
And the thing was, Will did. But he didn't think it was something she really needed to hear right before she died.
"We've always been honest with each other," she said, and when he raised an eyebrow at her she managed a watery, sheepish smile, "well, except for that one time…but, to be fair," she tilted her head and rasped out, "I was in a really bad place." but it was said as a sort of apology, and Will could tell that she was truly sorry, after all, that little baby stunt had backfired on her something terrible.
She continued to stare at him then, both of them completely aware of the fact that Will was going to kill her, and she was fully conscious of her reality now, and no longer in doubt about who he was. She saw him clearly because he no longer walked around in a shroud of pretense and introversion, because she'd seen him stand proudly and comfortably at Hannibal's side. Yes, she could see him now.
When she didn't seem like she would say anything else, Will kept his eyes on her and reopened the case Hannibal had given him, peeling the velcro back noisily before he unfolded the flaps and tilted the case so that the contents inside were visible to her. Margot only barely glanced at it before looking at his face again, swallowing tensely,
"Like he said," she cocked an eyebrow at him "it's your choice." she shrugged tiredly.
Raising his own eyebrows in a facial shrug, Will wet his lips -tasted Hannibal there- and then he trailed his fingers over the two items in the case. It wasn't all that difficult to make a choice though, and so without much preamble, he'd made his decision.
The next decision he made was a bit harder, deciding that he'd answer Margot's weighted question even though it would be something she probably would be better off never having to hear. But Will personally felt that dying with clarity was far better, especially for some people who valued the truth and sometimes needed it to be at peace. Will was one of those people…and maybe Margot was too. Why else would she have asked?
He walked up to her then and sat down on the other end of the crosspiece, their shoulders touching as they both just about fitted on the headstone cross. Will had been going to speak, but Margot beat him to it,
"I didn't know…about Hannibal's promise to her…" she said with a sad smile, staring into the distance, "…she only told me that night after she killed Mason."
"She killed Mason?" Will asked with raised eyebrows and glanced at her, surprised by that piece of information.
"More than I did." Margot blinked sedately and she and Will shared a queer smile, hers strained and Will's amused. He joined her in looking out over the dark landscape,
"And you still married her, Margot…even knowing that she was on Hannibal's shit list?" he asked quietly.
Margot just sighed,
"In for a penny…and all that…" she said lamely and shrugged again. Will pursed his lips and huffed out a laugh through his nose,
"Well, you did need a surrogate mother that you could trust to carry your Verger baby." he knew that there had always been an agenda, Margot's agenda, Alana's agenda, everyone had always had a fucking agenda in the past. And, really, saying it out loud should have been cruel, but Margot just nodded slowly and hiked an eyebrow,
"Poor Margot, always someone's dependent." she sniffed and then looked down at the pack in Will's hands, "Not anymore though." she said quietly, almost in a whisper.
Will glanced down at the pack and then looked across the cemetery to the church, and that's when he saw Chiyoh approaching. Margot looked as well, and if she was curious about who Chiyoh was, she didn't show it, instead she just sighed again and wiped at her nose with her lightly shaking bound hands, looking at Will afterward,
"I think you're lucky, Will…" she sounded sincere, even as her eyes drifted to his bruised mouth and then his neck, "…after all, even the best relationships have problems, right? So, of course, the complicated ones should too…" she tilted her head and looked at him, her sad forest green eyes locking with his unreadable sea green, "I mean, if you can forgive doctor Lecter for…whatever he does to you, then I can forgive Alana for doing this to us." she sounded pensive about it.
Chiyoh had come up to them by that point and she openly glared at Will when she heard what Margot had said. And Will just barely managed to catch the shovel by the bar when she tossed it at him abruptly, narrowing her eyes sharply in anger before turning on her heel and walking away again.
Margot noticed the obvious tension between them and raised a curious eyebrow at Will.
Pointedly ignoring her look, Will stood up and walked a few steps away to another headstone, where he leaned the shovel against it and after he'd slipped his choice of murder weapon out of the pack, he folding it closed again and placed it on the headstone. He was hyperaware of Margot's presence all the while, but she made no move to run or attack, even with his back to her. Clever girl, she knew it would be futile.
Will was ready to put her out of her misery then, but he decided to clear one thing up first,
"Hannibal doesn't do anything to me." he felt like he needed to set the record straight on that.
Margot sniffed behind him,
"Oh? So the sex is just…that rough?" she sounded sleepy, exhausted probably.
Will turned to face her and ignored her question, choosing to explain as simply as he could,
"These marks were made only as a precaution." he said evenly, approaching her and showing her what he had in his hand so she could prepare herself. And after she looked at it and swallowed tensely, she smiled shakily,
"You mean…in case we brought the police and you got caught?" she raised an eyebrow just slightly as she started to tremble anew.
"Yes." Will stopped just in front of her, toe to toe, looking down at her. She raised her eyebrows while staring at his stomach,
"Wow…so he would…he would let you tell the world that he was…raping you, all these years," her eyes were watering, "just so that you could claim to be his…victim?" she asked in a strained voice, trying to ascertain whether she understood correctly.
Will knew that it was the teeth marks on his mouth that raised the assumption of rape for her, as it had for Alana. Strangulation marks were one thing, but the rather specific bruising on his mouth implied a whole other thing. Of course, Margot and Alana had no idea just how far he and Hannibal had actually gone to make it look real…and he was glad they never would.
"Yes." he answered plainly, a touch of a smile on his bruised lips.
Margot blinked a few tears out of her eyes, her eyebrows rising before her expression settled on misery,
"Awe." she whispered and slowly licked her dry lips. Will frowned slightly, waiting for elaboration and she took a shaky breath before explaining, "I've decided that I'm…in awe. You've made a masterpiece into a mess…just for you…" she trailed off as she weakly clapped her bounds hands.
Will gave her words a brief moment of thought, and decided that yes, Hannibal was a mess for him. But it was an entirely mutual situation, so rather than calling it a mess, Will thought of their relationship as more of a…flawed work of art.
He stared at the tears sliding over her pale cheeks and when she glanced up at him, he decided to ask,
"Do you still want to know the difference…" he offered and she looked up at him properly, "…the reason why what I have with Hannibal is real?" it was up to her, he wouldn't say anything if she'd rather die without knowing.
Margot swallowed audibly, her hair shifting with the cool breeze that passed over them as she nodded.
Will looked straight into her watery green eyes when he explained it to her,
"It's because Alana was broken, she had nothing concrete left, and you gave her everything, but in the end, she still has power over you, while you don't have any over her." he said quietly, reaching a hand up to gently move Margot's hair away from her shoulder and neck, "But Hannibal…" he smiled crookedly, "…after I endured everything he put me through, Hannibal gave up everything for me, and while he has power over me, I have just as much over him…we're equals Margot, Hannibal and I, and that's the difference." and after what he'd felt and sensed in Hannibal the previous morning, Will knewhe was right. He knew Hannibal would die for him if it ever came to that, and Will himself knew that he would rather face death than turn on Hannibal.
And Will was perfectly happy with that, he knew that he would always –over and over again and forever- want to be tied up in the blood soaked, silken bounds of Hannibal's version of love, more than content to just stay that way, to just stay with Hannibal, to be Hannibal's everything, to be safe and dry in the eye of the storm that was Hannibal Lecter.
Margot cried fresh tears as Will's words sunk in, and he blinked placidly down at her as he raised the needle and removed the cap, her eyes tracking his movements,
"Alana chose you because you were vulnerable, and then she used you, Margot. But Hannibal chose me…because he wanted to see my true colors and now, now he needs me." he added quietly, watching her cry some more.
Blinking streams of tears from her eyes, Margot tilted her head to the side…and it was as simple as that. Will brought the syringe up to her neck and held her jaw lightly with his other hand, taking a moment to squint through the moderate dark before he pricked her skin with the needle and aspirated the syringe, seeing wispy tendrils of her blood slipping into the clear liquid and then injecting and watching the drug disappear into her vein.
When he removed the needle, Margot croaked out,
"What is it?" but it was more of a sob when she asked, "Poison?" and touched the side of her neck with shaking fingers. Will walked away from her to the other headstone, where he recapped the needle and slid it back into the case, knowing Hannibal would dispose of it later, and he only answered her when he'd folded the case up,
"I doubt it, it's more likely an overdose of some barbiturate…so you won't feel anything." he turned to face her then, and noticed that she actually looked relieved, even though she was swallowing convulsively and breathing a little tensely, probably already feeling the effects of the drug.
He folded his arms over his chest as he walked over to her, stopping to stand a foot away and considering her as her breathing became deeper and shorter and she was starting to frown as her eyelids became heavier. Will knew it was because she could feel unconsciousness rushing up on her and she knew that once she went under, she would never wake up again.
"Lo-…look…after…Mor-gan, Will." she said unexpectedly, her speech slow and breathy as she weakly tried to reach out to him with her bound hands, and Will saw that she was going to fall even before she could realize it. So he stepped forward quickly and caught her, slowly lowering her to the ground and getting onto his knees at her side as he laid her down on the cold grass and soil. Will saw more and more tears running from her glossy and drooping eyes as her breathing became more stilted, "…ple-ease…" she barely managed to say.
Will didn't say anything to reassure her as he stared down at her, because within the next few seconds she slipped into a coma, which he knew would only last for a short while before her heart would stop completely. So it didn't matter what he said at that point because she wouldn't hear it. And anyway, he couldn't reassure her of that, because he had no idea where Morgan would end up when Hannibal was done with him. It was out of his hands.
He knew Hannibal would keep the boy for a while in order to tamper with his memory, but aside from that, Will really had no clue what plans Hannibal had for Morgan. Perhaps he'd just give the responsibility of dealing with the boy to Chiyoh? Will swallowed sorely as he thought about it, but he had to remind himself again that Morgan was not his responsibility, was not his to care about…or it'd just be Abigail and Walter all over again.
He couldn't get attached. He wouldn't.
Will clenched his jaw a few times as he knelt there and gave Margot time to die, pushing thoughts of a dead surrogate daughter and a nearly dead step-son out of his mind with ease after so many years, and after a few minutes he leaned over Margot, putting his ear near her mouth and nose to listen and feel for breath.
But there wasn't either. She was gone.
He stood up then and dusted off his knees before he glanced at the shovel, knowing he was in for some hard work. Will had never dug a grave before –obviously-, but he could guess it wasn't easy. So just to be on the safe side, he extracted the container of Tramadol from his jeans pocket and after dry swallowing two pills, he removed his leather jacket and tossed it over the headstone where the folded case was, and choosing to keep his leather gloves on, he then picked up the shovel.
It took him a minute to find a good, relatively soft spot to dig, and once he did, Will set into it.
Friday – 23 Sep 2022 – 3.42 AM
Will was fucking exhausted. Hannibal had not been bullshitting when he'd said digging a grave was strenuous. In fact, it was a hell of an understatement. Will had just about hollowed out the grave he'd been digging to an estimated six feet deep, as well as it being more or less long enough to accommodate Margot's height, and so that was good. But the problem was that he absolutely could fucking not dig another one.
As it was, he was hurting in places he hadn't wanted to remember were hurt in the first damn place, and he'd already taken an additional two pills for the pain and was feeling quite nauseous and dehydrated. The worst part was knowing that what he felt right then was nothing compared to what he'd be feeling after he'd slept off the exhaustion. It was always worse the next day.
Presently, he was sitting at the side of the grave he'd just dug when he noticed lights coming on in the distance, and he immediately looked across the cemetery yard to see that one of the cars headlights were on and that it was being driven away from the church site. He frowned in curiosity, but honestly wasn't concerned, and with the cool breeze catching the sweat on his neck and face and ruffling his damp hair, Will pushed himself to his feet. His first few steps around the hole in the ground were unsteady since his legs were stiff, but as he walked over to Margot's body his gait eventually evened out.
Will had identified the headlights as belonging to the Renault, and he could guess it was Chiyoh who'd left, probably to go and do something Hannibal had told her to. But whatever, he didn't care, Chiyoh being gone was a good thing, seeing as how she was just an additional pain to what he was already feeling in his ass.
Sighing irritably, Will leaned over at Margot's feet and grabbed her ankles before he started dragging her body over to the open grave. And he didn't feel bad about it, not even when he'd lined her up with the hole and unceremoniously rolled her over the edge so that she fell into the dark pit, where he could just about see her at the bottom. Because she was dead, just another corpse like the hundreds he'd seen in his lifetime. He was well past the point of caring.
He stood for a moment then, catching his breath with his leather gloved hands on his hips and his shirt clinging to his upper body everywhere because of his damp skin underneath. He was considering the idea of just throwing Alana's body in on top of Margot's, because why not? That place was in the middle of fucking nowhere, abandoned and creepy as shit, the graveyard was run down and falling apart, so no one would come by anytime soon to visit. Surely one grave would be sufficient?
Will certainly thought so, and he decided it might almost be kind to bury them together.
The smirk on his face was one of amusement and it lingered as he pulled the dirty leather gloves off his sweaty hands before he walked over to the headstone, grabbed his jacket and the folded pack and then started to make his way back to the church. He knew he more than likely had some dirt on his face since he had a fair amount on his clothes, and there was definitely soil caked into the soles of his boots, but there was nothing he could do about all that. He just really couldn't wait to take a shower.
'Soon enough…it's almost over.' he reminded himself as he trudged out of the cemetery.
Will walked through the side yard and stopped at the Mercedes, pulling the back door open so he could toss his jacket in, followed by the folded pack. The gloves he tucked into his back pocket, because he figured he'd need them when the time came to shovel and pack the dirt over Alana and Margot's bodies. He shut the door again then and as he walked around to the front of the church, he slipped his cellphone out and checked his messages, seeing a text from Isa which he'd received a little after 8PM the previous evening. He read it quickly and then put his phone away as he walked up the steps to the door, deciding to answer it later.
The church doors were closed that time, so he opened one and pushed it in without hesitation, stepping inside and closing it behind him while casting a glance around the dark interior. It was even less lit in the church with the candles burning down and as Will walked down the debris cluttered aisle, his eyes fell on Alana, and he raised his eyebrows at the fact that she was still alive and moreover, she didn't appear to be wounded in any way.
She was, however, completely naked and shivering like a leaf where she sat on the steps of the alter, just below the lectern. Will slowed his pace as he neared the front of the church, looking more closely over her huddled form, and from what he could make out of her, she was in fact unharmed.
She was just sitting there and shaking, with her head bowed as she sobbed and clutched at…something.
Will could tell it was a piece of clothing she was holding on to, and he thought maybe she was using it to cover up her nudity, but he wasn't sure. He wanted to scrutinize the scene better, but it was difficult to see and he was more interested in where Hannibal was and why Alana wasn't dead yet. It was really fucking late –or early rather- and Will just wanted to be done so they could go home.
He glanced around the church again and called out loudly,
"Hannibal?"
"Will!" Alana's head snapped up immediately, and when Will looked at her again, he took a step back in slight alarm when he saw her face, his breath catching and his heart rate picking up a few paces at the unsettling sight of her hollow eye sockets and the bloody drip stains over her cheeks and smeared on her neck.
It came to Will almost absently, his empathy providing him with the reasoning behind what he was seeing as he took in the disturbing scene; Hannibal removed her eyes to make her blind, as he'd once worked so hard to do in order to spare her his wrath, but she hadn't appreciated it, instead she'd chosen to go against him, sealing her fate.
He took a few deep breaths and calmed down fairly quickly, his initial shock having been about the same as when he'd discovered Mason Verger sitting in his living room feeding cuts of his face to his dogs. It really was about the same, in fact, Alana's condition was less disturbing to look at.
"Will…WillWillWill…" Alana was muttering brokenly, rocking back and forth in between staring up at a point to the side of where he stood and back to whatever clothing she was clutching to her chest.
Will took a step closer and looked at her again, seeing that she was pale to the point of being unwell. And being naked, he could see the scars on her legs, some of them standing out starkly against her pallid flesh, but the thing he took most notice of was that her eyes had been surgically removed, not gouged out. And also, she didn't seem to be in any pain at all, and since Will hadn't heard screaming when he'd been out in the yard, he had to assume Hannibal had given her something really strong for the pain before he'd removed her eyes, because she seemed completely unfazed by her blindness, discounting the fact that she was generally quite distraught.
And upon closer inspection, he realized that she held no concern for the fact that she was naked either, because even while she was holding the piece of clothing to her chest, she wasn't actually concealing anything.
Will stepped back then and glanced around again,
"Hannibal?!" he said louder than before.
Alana had been muttering and blubbering about something the entire time, but when she heard Will's voice again she yelled his name a second time and moved to stand up, her dark painted toes pressing into the floor as she tried to navigate the few steps down to him. But she tripped and stumbled down, and Will flinched when she fell hard on her knees and then her elbows, hitting her cheek on the wooden floor since she refused to let go of the clothing she held, and so hadn't really done much to catch her fall.
And Will wouldn't help her...because he really just couldn't. It was all part of Hannibal's punishment for her, her being naked and stumbling and crying and being pathetic was part of Hannibal's design; she deserves indignity, but only so that Will could see, just as Will had witnessed Hannibal in his cell, like an animal locked in a bare cage, where Alana had lorded her power over him. Now she would crawl, reduced to nothing by Hannibal's doing…and Will would see her at her lowest.
Alana didn't give up though, and sobbing loudly, trembling violently, she got up on one hand and her bruised knees and she knelt where she was, just feet from him as she held out the clothing she'd been clutching all along. And the words that would make Will's blood run cold, fell from her mouth in a scream,
"He killed Morgan! Will, he killed my son!" her voice rung out through the church, hoarse and devastated.
And Will felt the rawness of it as a deep, deep ache in his chest that made his head spin and his heart clench.
Had he heard her right?
He dropped his eyes from her red mouth, smeared with tears, blood and lipstick, to look at her hand and the piece of clothing she was holding out to him in a white knuckled grip.
It was a jacket…a little boy's school jacket…and there was blood on it, a lot of blood…but there were no wounds on Alana's hands…blood on her chest…but no wounds there either…just blood all over the jacket…
The sacristy door to Will's left opened then and –trembling ever so slightly- he tore his eyes away from the bloody jacket to look at Hannibal, who looked to be the picture of composure. There was not a speck of visible blood on him and calmly, so calmly, he closed the door behind him and set his shark-like black eyes on Will's wide, confused and stunned pair.
Will heard Alana hysterically mutter something about cutting and Morgan's throat…and that Hannibal was a liar and a monster. Morgan's name was repeated several times in between more sobs and accusations. Every word broken and drenched in her pain as she mumbled about devils and sickness and promises…and the words stuck in Will's throat as if he'd swallowed glass, almost as if he was the one speaking them and they were tearing up his throat. And all the while he couldn't breathe properly and Alana sobbed desperately and half incoherently...
….but Will understood her broken cries with crystal clarity.
Hannibal had killed Morgan, he'd slit the boy's throat.
There was a nauseating, distressing and abysmal mixture of feelings gathering inside Will right then as he stared at Hannibal and his lips parted, even as he could find no words to say to the older man. His breathing was too strained, his face twitching between confusion and anger and hurt, his eyes burning with tears…his throat closing up…he felt sick…and sore…so fucking sore…
…Morgan had only been five years old. Just five.
"He killed…my…baby…Will…" Alana was practically mumbling now, her voice almost gone as she continued rocking and sobbing and shivering…but in there somewhere in her muttering, at length as he stood staring at Hannibal's dark, lithe figure, he heard Alana breath out the words kill him Will, he killed Morgan, just like he killed Abigail.
Will swallowed sorely, his vision swimming and fists clenching.
God…what was he supposed to do?
Hannibal had heard her too, and his eyes remained fixed on Will, his voice even and smooth as he said,
"What happened to Morgan, had to happen. There was no other way." and he said it slowly and calmly, as if those few words explained everything somehow, as if they explained away the death…the cold, callous murder of an innocent little boy.
"Ha…Han…" Will tried, but was unable to even say the man's name, the name of the man he loved so, so much, the man who'd lied to him, who'd just killed Morgan when it had been all Will had asked him not to do.
And Will didn't understand why? Even his empathy failed him right then…he just couldn't understand why Hannibal would do it…
And had Chiyoh known? Is that why'd she'd left? Because she hadn't wanted to see…to hear…to know…?
It just didn't make sense, it didn't fit…but then, Hannibal had had Morgan for the better part of the day, and Hannibal had known how long it'd take to dig a grave, and Hannibal had told Will that Morgan was in the sacristy, but had claimed to be keeping him drugged…so maybe…maybe, maybe he'd said that so that Will wouldn't look…
"Will…" Hannibal's intimate tone further arrested Will's ability to breath and he had to remember to choke one in sorely, his entire body flashing between hot and cold and rigid and weak as Hannibal approached him, stopping just two feet away, "…there's something I've been wanting to ask you."
What? What…what?
Will frowned deeply, shaking more and more with every passing second and he started to shake his head then, as it dawned on him, as Hannibal slowly…gracefully, got down onto one knee before him. And Will clenched his teeth together so tightly it hurt as he started to cry earnestly, his face contorting into so many kinds of pain and anger and love and elation.
It wasn't right…but what wasn't right? That in that moment he felt horrible, or that he felt happy?
Hannibal raised his hand then, holding the ring box…that damnable red cherry wood box with its reflective exterior and oh Jesus fuck, it looked so fucking perfect perched and offered to Will at the fingertips of Hannibal's slender, elegant hand. And it looked even better as Hannibal brought his other hand up and carefully opened the lid, revealing the ring kept inside that Will already knew fit his finger perfectly…
…and it glinted just barely, but still alluringly, in the dim light.
"H-Hannibal…" Will choked out, confused, hurt…and painfully in love.
"Will…" Alana sobbed, confused and desperate and blind.
"…marry me, Will…?" and so came the question Will had been waiting so anticipatorily for –followed by Alana's shocked, strangled gasp. And Hannibal's tone when he asked was perfectly sentimental and desperately hopeful and he swallowed nervously as he looked up at Will lovingly. It was almost everything Will had wanted it to be, with Hannibal down on one knee, reverent and vulnerable and at Will's mercy…the Hannibal Lecter, at Will's mercy…but still, it was only almost perfect, because there was never meant to have been a dead five year old in the picture.
Will watched through watery eyes as Hannibal's adams apple bobbed, another nervous swallow that he could see even through the dim light, and as the moment dragged on without an answer from Will, he saw something else much clearer settle into Hannibal's face…and it was that fucking doubt.
After everything, after all that Will had suffered in the past and accepted and lost and forgiven and shared in and partook of that night, after all of it, Hannibal still doubted him.
It was so fucked up. That night was supposed to have alleviated that doubt in Hannibal, finally killing Margot and Alana was supposed to have closed the mistrustful chapter of their relationship. But instead Will stood unable to make a decision, while Hannibal was down on one knee asking for his hand in marriage and was not getting an answer for his trouble.
'Why did he…what do…I…?' Will swallowed sorely, frowning sadly and clenching his teeth as he tried to understand, tried to figure out why Hannibal would kill Morgan and then ask to marry him right after…wh-…wait…wait…fuck…fuck…it was a test.
A stream of desperate no's didn't make it past Will's lips, but ran through his mind and caused tears to slip from his eyes when he realized that Hannibal had killed Morgan to test whether Will would still choose him. He nearly shook his head again in disbelief, his stomach roiling with nausea, but he caught himself before he did…because if he shook his head, then he'd be saying no to Hannibal.
And he couldn't say no, because he loved Hannibal. But how could he say yes when he was sick to his stomach?
Could he ask for some time?
Will's mouth fell open, his breath coming out shaken and for a few seconds he stared down at Hannibal without blinking, his mouth slowly closing again as he looked at the man…at the monster, that he'd fallen in love with, with his eyes as wide open as they'd ever be.
Hannibal was looking colder and more distant for every second that went by that Will didn't answer him…
"Will…Will, are…are you still here?" Alana asked, her voice tremulous and raw.
Hannibal's eyes lowered then, his jaw clenching as he clutched his hand tightly around the box.
And Will felt as if it was his heart being strangled in Hannibal's hand as he breathed out,
"…yes…" his voice quiet and strained, his body shaking like it hadn't in years.
Alana looked relieved.
And Hannibal exhaled slowly as he went to snap the box shut, but before he could, Will sobbed,
"…yes, I'll m-marry you, Han-Hannibal…" he sobbed again, as hurt as he was happy by that point.
It just wasn't fair…it wasn't fair that a little boy had to die for Will to prove his love.
'Jesus christ…how am I going to live with myself?!' his mind screamed at him at the same time as Hannibal looked up at him with wide black eyes and Alana breathed out a distressed sound of disgust.
Hannibal smiled then, a sweet and real little thing and Will honestly couldn't help smiling back even as tears slipped from his eyes. He raised his left hand when Hannibal removed the engagement ring from the box, and after placing the box on the floor beside his knee, Hannibal took Will's trembling hand, steadied it in his firm, warm grip, and brushed his thumb over Will's ring finger before he brought the ring to Will's hand with his other…and carefully, and so tenderly, he slid it on.
Will sobbed again as the cool metal settled against his skin. He doubted he'd ever sleep peacefully again…but at least…at least…he had Hannibal. Hannibal who kissed the ring and then Will's knuckles and fingers, Hannibal who was smiling the smile of a man in love, a happy man adoringly caressing Will's hand with his own.
Hannibal who stood up then and took Will's face in his hands and kissed his mouth, once and twice and again, despite Will's sobs and the saltiness of his tears clinging to his lips…Hannibal…
"…oh God…Jesus…Christ…help-help me…help me!" Alana suddenly began to scream, possibly because she'd heard the soft smacks of their kisses. And it was a pitiful, hoarse sound that tore from her throat as she started to crawl away from them, back towards the alter…still clutching Morgan's jacket.
Hannibal slowly drew back from the sweet lip to lip kisses he'd been pressing to Will's mouth and his features turned from adoring, worshipping, to deadly and vicious the second he slid his eyes to Alana's crawling figure.
Will barely even registered Hannibal walking away from him, barely registered the tiny little weight of engagement and commitment on his finger, barely registered Alana's frightened cries of 'no' and 'let me go', didn't even look when he heard the quick snap and click of her neck being broken or the fump of her body falling limp on the wooden floor.
He just let out a soft wheezing sound and stood numb, staring at the sacristy door.
Somewhere in his mind he heard 'Will Graham of Old' whisper to him, asking him if he was happy now.
And he shook his head numbly and breathed out a quiet,
"…n-no."
"Will?" Hannibal's voice made him blink but he didn't look at the other man, instead he just choked out,
"Why…wh-why…Hannibal…you said…" his voice was strained, shaken and it hurt to speak with all of the pain like glass cutting up his throat, "…y-you said th-that you wouldn't, n-not the boy…not him…" he felt fresh tears leave his eyes, the sacristy door becoming a shadowy blur.
And he was so, so tired, and he just wanted to lie down and curl up…just curl up and maybe…maybe die…
At least he'd die engaged to Hannibal.
"Will…?" Hannibal repeated his name as a question, coming closer.
Will heard his footsteps and then felt the warmth of his presence when Hannibal stepped in front of him, standing close. And Will could smell his cologne and feel his breaths and he wanted to lean into the older man, to be held and kissed and comforted…but his stomach was twisting itself into knots and Hannibal was frowning at him, "…Will, what-…"
"Why…?" Will cut Hannibal off and finally looked at him, directly into his face, his green-blue eyes alight with betrayal and shining with tears, and this time there was anger too, because Morgan had been innocent, where Abigail had not, "…why did you kill him, Hannibal?"
Hannibal's gaze intensified then as the older man stared at him, his eyes still black in the shadowy church but there was the dawning of shock in his face, shock that slowly morphed into stark disbelief,
"Neįmanomas..." (Impossible...) he breathed out, and Will gave him an irritable look,
"What? Speak English…dammit…" he grit out, glaring at Hannibal.
"You said…yes." Hannibal breathed out, sounding as astonished as if Will had just proved to him that magic was real and Will was a genie. He seriously sounded like he was experiencing some kind of wonderment or life changing epiphany, and Will couldn't fucking understand what reason the man had to be so damn excited while he was just hurting all over.
Frustrated and emotionally drained, Will tried to shove Hannibal away to put some distance between them, but Hannibal reached out and grabbed him, sliding his arms around Will's back and pulling him closer. Hannibal gathered him up as if he were invaluably precious as the older man pressed a reverent, soft kiss to his mouth and then buried his face into Will's sweaty hair, enclosing his arms around Will and clutching him tightly and close, almost desperately.
Will broke down then and cried…because that was exactly where he wanted to be, right there in Hannibal's arms, even though the man had killed a little boy…because of him.
"Will…always…always...you will amaze me…" Hannibal breathed out against his hair, his tone still laced with wonderment. Will just gave in to the feeling of Hannibal's closeness and the adoring sound of his voice, and he slid his arms around the older man, clinging to him and crying into his neck.
And Will was content to stay right there, tucked in the older man's arms, but Hannibal pulled back and despite Will's groan, Hannibal took his face into his hands and pulled him back so that they could look at one another, Hannibal holding Will's face gently as he initiated and held eye contact.
Will made himself look into those black eyes, and Hannibal's gaze was adoring while Will's was devastated.
"My love…" Hannibal said in crisp, accented English and Will sobbed because it made his stomach flutter pleasantly to hear it, the sensation contending with his nausea, "…Morgan is alive." Hannibal whispered, so softly, so sweetly.
And for a moment everything around Will, besides Hannibal, seemed to fall away…and he didn't understand.
He shook his head as much as he could with Hannibal holding his face,
"N-no…you-you sa-said…he…" Will tried to get the rest of his denial out but his head was starting to spin again and his breathing was elevating with shaken anxiety. He swallowed sorely then and frowned, looking with desperate confusion into Hannibal's-…into his fiancés, face as he recalled Hannibal's words.
What happened to Morgan, had to happen. There was no other way.
He'd said that, Hannibal had said…
'What happened to…' Will frowned deeper, his hands clutching at Hannibal's shirt as it dawned on him that those words were familiar, that Hannibal had said them to him before, '…what happened to…what…happened to…Morgan-…no, no…what happened to…to Abigail…' Will exhaled harshly with shock and relief, his eyes tearing anew as he searched Hannibal's expression desperately and only saw truth and love and promises kept, '…what happened to Abigail, had to happen. There was no other way.'
Hannibal had said almost those exact words to him before, so many years ago when they'd been sitting in his office in Baltimore, discussing Margot's pregnancy and Mischa, and when Will had asked why Hannibal had killed Abigail, he'd said those words as his answer…but Abigail…Abigail hadn't been dead.
And so Morgan…he wasn't dead either.
Hannibal had had to fake Morgan's death, just as he'd had to fake Abigail's.
But why?
Hannibal had faked Abigail's death to make Will see himself, to force the awakening of anger and wrath and darkness in him. But with Morgan…Hannibal seemed surprised that Will even thought that he was dead in the first place, and moreover, he seemed amazed that Will had said yes to marrying him while believing the boy was dead.
And well…Will was amazed with himself about that too.
But he couldn't puzzle it out right then, the finer details, the deeper reasoning, because he was too tired and too emotionally rung out. Especially as he felt all of his tension, his nausea, his hurt, his fear, his misery…all of it, just drain away, to be replaced with all of the elation and bliss that he'd wanted to feel when Hannibal had proposed.
Will felt it then though, now that he knew Morgan was alive.
And his mouth stretched into a genuinely happy smile, and he felt his chest warm with affection and joy, his lungs expanding as he took in a deep and shaky but relieved breath. His tears lingered, but the new wetness was caused by the excitement and happiness he felt, and he laughed once, a soft and watery sound, before he leaned in and kissed Hannibal.
Just their lips at first and briefly, before their mouths parted, their tongues immediately touching and Will moaned softly when Hannibal quickly deepened the kiss, the older man inhaling through his nose as he slid his tongue into Will's mouth deftly and possessively. And Will did likewise, sliding his tongue across the space of their parted mouths and lapping against Hannibal's tongue eagerly and wetly, both of them enjoying the taste of one another as they had so many times before…and would continue to, for the rest of their lives.
Til' death did them part.
Thanks for reading. In the next chapter Will gets a little fluff and stuff.
Please leave your thoughts :)
