[A/N] - So close to finishing season 1! o(〃^▽^〃)o
Honestly, I cannot wait for season 2 and allow Rana to come closer with Hannibal and Will become more independent and then...well, you know where that season will lead ^_^. Anyway, because I have something special planned for after the season finale and because I want to reach the good parts of the finale; I will move on to the other episodes in parts.
Meaning that it will be mostly a faint recap and short scenes of what took place before the big twist plot (you know which one I am talking about). I will try to do it so the flow is consistent, that you are not lost and of course; keep the most important ones in. This episode will be a little more about Rana and a summary, with a little more of Hannibal towards the end of this arc.
Please bear with me, vote and comment what you think and what you suspect will happen towards the finale. I cannot wait to hear all of your thoughts ╰(*°▽°*)╯
Rana stood in front of Hannibal's grand window in his bedroom, her body bare but a thin red velvet bed sheet wrapped faintly around her. Her gaze was distant, staring ahead at the endless bare trees and the thick snow blanket that had covered the land. Her lips parted faintly and her hands held the bed sheets in front of her chest, although they had faintly fallen and exposed her shoulders in the process.
Her dirty blond hair was let loose, slightly messy and the faintest of eye-bags could be seen on her face. Clearly, she had not been sleeping well, if not at all and this could be seen. Yet again, after the events that took place in a matter of two weeks, one could not truly blame her.
Just a few days ago, she had barged into Hannibal's office with Jack; only to see Will having the said doctor at gunpoint. Just a few days ago, she had to shoot Will's arm to save Hannibal and then stand aside and watch as Jack put handcuffs around Will's wrist.
Just a few days ago...Abigail Hobbs was alive and well.
The life she had learnt to become more accustomed to, that seemed to slowly stabilize itself only ended up spiralling down towards disaster. Worse was the fact that she felt directly guilty and responsible for what had started it all.
She should have seen the signs, she should have acted before the worst happened...but she didn't. She didn't and she knew she would regret it for the rest of her day.
A pair of warm big arms wrapped around her body above the bed sheets, hands resting on her stomach while her body was gently pushed back just a step. A broad chest was pressed against her back, effectively keeping her trapped as a chin rested on her shoulder.
Hannibal's familiar scent reached her nose, the warmth of his naked body and of his presence fighting to overpower that mental storm that had been weighing her down the past few days.
"You should return to bed, get some rest" Hannibal voiced, his lips inches away from her ear; whispering like the devil that tried to push someone into the pit of sins.
"I can't rest...I just can't help but wonder...what exactly went wrong back then?" she questioned out loud, involuntarily thinking back to the events that had taken place in the past two weeks,
First, it was Gideon's escape from the Psychiatric Facility. He was supposed to be taken to a trial but he had managed to escape, kill the two guards stationed with him in the armoured van and then escape; but not before he had left them all a little gift.
Rana was inspecting the scene, unaffected by the bloody and dismembered corpses of the two guards. Her senses were on alert, her face dead serious as she focused on the task at hand. She needed to find Gideon, and see where he went; all while Will was doing his thing, trying to get into his mind.
Yet, one thing was certain about everything. Gideon had chosen to send a message but not to them, to the Reaper. Whether a message or a gift, that was left to be decided but the evidence was there; the organs of the two guards hanged by a dead branch in a sick comparison to those of Christmas ornaments.
Eventually, Rana's senses picked a scent trail. The cold weather did not always help with maintaining scents, the snow often helped disguise a lot of things but also helped expose at the same time.
The female Wolfskin bent one knee upon spotting a few footprints, her mind trying to calculate the size and the weight of the individual based on them.
"Found something, Rana?" she heard Jack call her name, after spotting her standing still in front of something like a hound that had picked up the scent of its prey.
Slowly, she stood up and wiped some of the snow from her pants. Despite the low temperatures, she did not seem to mind the cold and it was evident by the rather light coat she had chosen to wear; compared to most people around her.
"Yes," she said as he approached her, Beverly hot in his tracks to take pictures. "This foot trail is leading out of the woods and the boot soles match. It must be Gideon"
Jack frowned faintly and glanced from the prints to his former protégé. "How fresh are the tracks?"
"Two to three hours old. It matches his escape but this is not what worries me, it's the direction they are heading for" she explained as she stared right ahead. "This path leads back to Baltimore"
For two days they had searched for him, gathering evidence and spreading their men as thin as it could be with one as dangerous as Gideon. One thing had been clear, so far, was the fact that Dr. Chiton had messed with his brain and now Gideon was a far more dangerous man than he used to be; because he was still searching for his real identity.
The evidence they had gathered from the bodies and the crime scene was processed thoroughly by the Forensics Trio while Rana had taken the lead in creating groups and sending them on patrols, all while keeping a tab on what they did and did not find.
She did, though, escort Jack into the Morgue that day; to see what more they could find that would help them find this madman.
"Gideon didn't leave a manifesto. We confiscated all correspondences he got from outside admirers. We're going through everything now." Beverly said as they all stood around the two dead bodies of the police officers as they lay on the cold morgue drawers.
"Any secret communiqués or coded messages written in bodily fluids or anything else, we'll find them," Jimmy added next, seeing that their news so far had not helped with the mood.
Will shook his head faintly, clearly disagreeing. "You won't find anything. Whatever Gideon's up to is all in his head." He said as the drawers were pushed to a close.
Yet, just as this happened, Will started to notice a trickle of water streaming coming from the drawer. It did concern him, reminding him of his most recent dream that he was drowning and could not escape the wet tomb that was expecting him at the bottom of this watery black abyss.
While he stared more into it, wondering if anyone else was seeing that, Brian was busy sorting through the organs that had been placed in sterile bags. "Not much left in these heads. All the organ removals were postmortem. Including transorbital lobotomies."
"It wasn't technically a lobotomy. Didn't remove any of the brains, just scrambled them." Beverly corrected him, making Rana lift an eyebrow.
She was focused on the discussion and the new information she was getting from them, but she had not failed to notice the very distant look Will had. Everyone else seemed to be clueless but not her, whose concern for his well-being had started to rise again.
Gently, she let her fingers brush with his in an attempt to gently bring him back into the present without scaring him. It seemed to work and the only reaction Will had, was a sudden quick double blinking along with a sharp breath intake.
Rana did not have to say anything to him, for when he looked at her, her concern was visible as if mentally asking him 'Are you okay?'. He didn't respond, for he did not have an answer to that.
He had been having more and more trouble with his thoughts and his hallucinations, second thoughts about his actions and his memories often keeping him awake at night. A part of him wished to tell her all of this, hoping she would help but he knew she wouldn't be able to.
She would only worry herself more and she already had too many things on her plate. She didn't need to have his problems as well in her mind. That was something that Hannibal and him had discussed during one of the sessions they had.
'Rana has a lot on her mind, Will. She worries about you and that affects her job, increasing the risk of her getting hurt during the next mission. Allow me to help you as much as I can, and if you worry about her; I will talk to her about any concerns she might have' Hannibal had told him, his words always sincere and sounding so truthful.
He had followed his advice and after that, he did not say or ask Rana anything that would make her be more concerned. Not to mention that if Rana picked up on anything, she could pull him off the cases and then he would not be able to help innocent victims anymore.
Hannibal had also pointed that out and it had put Will into deep thought that day. It was true and only then did he realize how careful he had to be. After that, he simply dismissed her concerns like he had been doing with everyone that had asked about his well-being; except for Hannibal.
He trusted him as he opened up and exposed his darkest thoughts and questions. For at that moment, Will truly felt only he would not judge him and instead try to help him; as much as he could be helped by that point.
Choosing not to answer or make her concern worse, Will focused on the conversation around him and he found just the right time to interfere and comment; clearly taking the topic back to what truly mattered and not himself.
"He messed with their brains the same way they had messed with him" he pointed out, making everyone exchange a look of worry. "Dr. Chilton and every psychiatrist and Ph.D. Candidate who attempted any kind of therapy. Poked and prodded. Gave him tests. Told him who he was, who he wasn't".
Jack immediately turned to Rana. "I want a list of every doctor, every therapist, anybody in any kind of psychiatric field who ever had a conversation with Gideon." She nodded like a good soldier but before she could walk away, something clicked in her mind.
"Jack, Alana's name will be on that list" she pointed out, remembering that the female psychiatrist had also tried her best to work with Gideon at the beginning of his imprisonment.
This made Will pale, his concern rising at the idea that Alana could get hurt. Now, he was more determined than ever to stop him before it was too late.
Rana sat in one of the chairs at Jack's office, dozens of folders having been spread on her lap and on the office. Both she and her former mentor were sitting and were busy browsing through the many potential future victims of Gideon, all while assigning men to each one of them for their own protection.
Rana let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment. She closed her eyes momentarily before an idea flashed into her mind. She opened them and glanced at Jack, seeing him staring a little too intensely through some of the folders.
"Jack" she called out his name, earning his attention. "What if we are looking at only half the people that wronged him?" she questioned, making him blink slowly for a moment while trying to understand her thought processing. "I mean, those doctors did mess with his brain but they did not wrong him directly. Others, though did. The judge that sentenced him, the police that imprisoned him...a certain reporter who took his latest nurse killing and did not give him full acclaim"
By the time Rana had stopped talking, Jack felt the need to just stand up and leave. Sometimes this work was becoming too complicated for its own good and he felt that it was aging him faster than it should.
With a defeated sigh, he rubbed his temples. "You think he will go after Lounds?" he questioned.
She shrugged her shoulders. "Perhaps, although I do not see anything bad coming from that scenario" she joked but it was clear that he did not share her humour. "Want me to assign two men to stand watch under her motel room?"
Jack glanced at the list of the available men and women he commanded and let yet another heavy sigh. "Hard to find any, we had spread everyone for his search and to protect the most key of potential victims" he explained as he wondered whom else he could send.
Rana let out a small 'Tch' sound that echoed in the silent dark office, illuminated only by a few lamps spread across the room. "I can go" she suggested, although the mere idea felt foul just by leaving her tongue. Jack did not seem to approve either but she beat him to it. "Just for a few hours, ensure she is not dead yet. Then I can change guard with those protecting Alana if it makes you feel better"
Defeated, Jack approved of the idea although his guts turned nastily at the same time. They were warning him of something and he was not sure of what back then but he would eventually find out.
The female Wolfskin had driven her car in the middle of the cold night, as faint flakes of snow kept falling. The sky above her was dark due to the late hour but also from the clouds that had taken temporary residency above the city of Baltimore.
She was not in the best mood at looking after Lounds, considering their past but there were certain positive things that could come out of it. For starters, if Gideon did try to ambush or kill her; she would stop him and this manhunt would end one hour earlier.
In addition, perhaps she could spy on Freddie with the excuse that she was simply doing it in search of Gideon sending her any messages. Spying on her would give her a better insight into any idea she might have that day that would include Abigail, Will or Hannibal.
Yet, she was never truly prepared for what would come next.
She had stayed under her apartment for a while now, the light in the room shining but there had been no movement so far. Time had passed quickly for Rana, whose thoughts quickly went back to Will and his latest secrecy.
He had been avoiding her questions, often dismissing her concerns and he seemed to try too hard and lie to her face. Rana had started to get tired of this game and wondered what secrets he could be hiding from her. She could force him to tell her but she restrained herself.
She respected Will and the last thing she ever wanted, was to push him away from her by trying to force him to open up and putting more strain on his already hard-working mind. Yet, waiting for him to approach her was simply testing her patience and she was not always known to be the best at it.
Getting tired of waiting, Rana chose to leave her car and head to the side of the motel. The fire escapes would prove a great tool for her in order to climb up and spy through the window, without having to raise any suspicions or pass through the main front door of the motel.
Freddie did not know she was being watched and it was better not to know, in order to ensure Gideon wouldn't either.
She walked into the darkness of the little alley but came to a halt upon sensing something. Her nose had been faint red from the sudden temperature change but she could still pick up different scents.
A few steps deeper into the alley she picked up a familiar scent; one that was rather fresh.
Gideon, she thought as her eyes turned red momentarily.
He had been there, he had been watching Lounds most likely and maybe he had even spotted her. Rana did not know but she could tell that he had taken a step ahead of them or at least her. She narrowed her eyes, now back to normal and her hand went to her gun that was placed by her waist.
She waited as she listened, faintly glaring at the dark corners of the narrow alley. There were a few dumpsters ahead of her that could prove quite the cover for someone and she knew, for she had been in a similar situation before.
She carefully stepped towards them, slowly and silently pulling her gun out and removing the safety. Her breath came in silent puffs, visible due to the low temperature around her as the world seemed to have gone silent for a moment.
Memories and dejavu flashed into her mind, where she was slowly creeping around stone walls while her boots kicked up the yellow sand that occupied the place.
Focusing on the present, she had now approached one of the two dumpsters and with a quick sharp turn, she pointed her gun at the side of it only to find it empty. Despite its big size, there was no one there and she was simply pointing her gun at thin air.
She narrowed her eyes, the scent trail being still present but faint. Something was masking it but she could not tell what, not until it was too late.
In the next few seconds, as she slowly lowered her gun, the black trash bags leaning on the wall behind her moved. In the next few seconds, Gideon emerged from his hiding place and stabbed a big needle at the side of her neck.
By reflex, Rana turned and shot just as her world started to spin and her vision to blur. The smell of blood reached her nose and she knew she had wounded him but she could not see anything else as her vision turned dark.
All she could remember was the muffled sound of curses coming from Gideon and the sharp pain coming from her head as it hit the concrete below.
