The next day, Jack and Rana went to pick up Will. They had a lead about the cabin where Jacob Hobbs killed his victims. Jack expected Will to maybe find more evidence and help him understand it better, maybe something that would lead to the copycat.

Rana, as per usual had joined him. When Will entered the car, he could already see that the duo had some intense talking and he could sense the tension in the air. However, they came to a halt when he entered and picked it up once he fell asleep.

However, this time their tone was less intense and loud. Jack, needless to say, was not fully happy with how things turned out to be. He didn't want Will to get that deep already, considering he had never taken a life before.

The board requested Will to take a psyche evaluation and Rana argued that Alana would not be able to provide unbiased facts. Then, Jack suggested Hannibal and that made his former protégé hesitate. On one hand, Hannibal was like them and he could truly understand and help Will. On the other hand, she did not feel comfortable with him going inside Will's head, especially after the promise she gave him last night.

She weighed her options, considering that Will had taken a life for the first time, while she had taken plenty. In her report, she had lied to Jack and had said that she arrived a second after Will started shooting and that she only got his arm to make him drop the weapon.

Will was not the best at reports and gave quite vague answers, with Jack not pressing much. That left Hannibal, who according to Jack, was not present until after Jacob Hobbs was on the ground and did not know, who shot first. This was, indeed true, but Hannibal had seen those yellow eyes and he suspected.

He hadn't approached her yet, for which she was thankful. She never hesitated before and she shouldn't have. She made a mental promise to ensure she wouldn't freeze again, even when facing one of their own. She had in the past, but she knew and expected it. However, back then...at the cabin...she didn't realise what he was until it was too late.

"You are making that face again," Jack said, snapping her from her thoughts, She turned her head to look at him, feeling her jaw slightly numb from how tense it was and for so long.

"What face?" she asked him.

"The one where you glare at the road ahead as if you are about to punch a hole through it," he said, making her roll her eyes faintly.

Liking it or not, Jack knew her more than most people even suspected. Their past was something fully hidden from everyone but that did not mean it made something easy. "I was just thinking something...about the incident at the Hobbs's house" she admitted.

Jack kept driving. "Don't. It's over now and you did what you had. I was the one, who told you to give Will a gun. I still think it was for the best, although I will sleep better after the psyche evaluation"

The rest of the trip was silent until they arrived in a rustic hunting cabin in Minnesota. A cold wind whipped dead leaves around the eerie animal-skull-covered cabin where Garret Jacob Hobbs committed his murders. Jack and Rana stepped out, the female zipping up her brown leather jacket while her former teacher knocked on the door window to wake up Will.

Inside, there are dozens of deer antlers decorating the walls, while everything else visible was covered in FBI evidence bags, which did little job in covering the animal trophies. The centrepiece of this macabre façade was the massive rack of a mature stag. Chalky-white branches contrasted against crown tines purpled by dry blood.

Will was the first one to enter, looking around in horrified silence. Jack and Rana followed suit, feeling uncomfortable at the sight.

"I never understood hunting," Jack said, glancing at his former protégé, that occasionally went for hunting trips.

"This is different Jack. This is trophy collecting, not just hunting" she corrected him.

She hunted herself but she killed rarely, always focusing on an older or an injured animal and always paying respect to it. She would never hunt for sport, killing to such an extent and decorating walls with bodies and carcases as trophies.

"Could be a permanent installation in your Evil Minds museum." Will suddenly commented, amusing Rana.

"What we learn from Garret Jacob Hobbs will help us catch the next Garret Jacob Hobbs. There are still seven bodies unaccounted for." Jack reminded him.

"Because he ate them," Will spoke back.

"Had to be parts he didn't eat."

Rana decided to interfere. "Not necessarily. Cannibalism doesn't truly focus on a few body parts. Anything can be eaten if one knows the way" she explained, staring at the antlers and making the two males look at her oddly. Feeling their gaze, she turned her head halfway to look back at them. "What? I did some research on the topic you know. The geeky trio is not the only one with knowledge" she added, feeling slightly offended.

Jack, calculated her feedback as a new question popped into his mind. "What if Hobbs wasn't eating alone?" this made the duo look at him. "A lot of work. Disappearing these girls, butchering them and then worse. All without leaving a shred of anything outside of this room."

Rana connected the dots. "Someone he hunted with? A fellow serial killer hunting buddy?" this made her frown. "It's not uncommon, but still not truly known when it comes to such guys"

"Unless, it's someone else, closer to him. Someone in a coma. Who happens to also be someone he hunted with."

"Abigail Hobbs is a suspect?" Will asked, making her look at Rana with a look of curiosity and a small betrayal, for not being informed about it.

Rana knew about it, obviously but she did not tell Will yet. She did not believe the girl was behind it and she was already tasked with ensuring the kid would be alright. Especially considering that she could be far more than what others think.

"We've been conducting house-to-house interviews around the Hobbs residence and this property," Jack explained.

"What's the gossip?"

"Hobbs and his daughter spent a lot of time together. They spent a lot of time together here. She would be the ideal bait, wouldn't she?"

"Hobbs killed alone."

Jack noticed his defensive tone but didn't comment on it. He glanced at Rana, who had walked deeper into the cabin. Will seemed to be doing the same and he looked at them, slightly puzzled.

Unknown to him, Rana's nostrils were flaring as a familiar scent was picked up. Her muscles suddenly tensed, eyes faintly glowing red before turning back to normal. Will noticed and wondered why, but the trail of smell led him to something new.

He used the tweezers in his pocket to tweeze something off an evidence bag, holding up a long, red hair in the tweezers. "Someone else was here."


It has been hours since the Cabin. Rana already knew who was n the cabin before them and Jack quickly connected the dots. However, there were other more important things that they needed to focus on.

Will had to return to his lecture and Jack arranged that Will would go to Hannibal for evaluation. This, left Rana with time to visit Abigail Hobbs since she had time to spare. Unknown to most, she would come when no one else was there and she would sit by the girl.

By her side, holding her frail hand into hers and talking to the little girl in a hushed voice. During one of those visits, she was busy staring at the sleeping girl and did not expect someone to visit. She had made sure to calculate her visits and use her FBI position to know, who came and when.

She picked up a scent and let out a sigh, not really in the mood to socialise with that particular person in general. However, fate did not seem to listen to her as Hannibal entered the room, holding a bouquet.

"You shouldn't be here. Don't you have an appointment with Will?" she asked, eyes never leaving the girl's sleeping face.

Hannibal, not surprised by her tone, noticed quickly her body posture and the tone in her voice. Yet, he would not give her that pleasure. "It is nice seeing you again, Rana" he started, remembering his manners. "I was on my way when I saw those flowers and thought Abigail would appreciate them," he noticed a fresh bouquet already on the table. "Although, it seems you have beaten me to it"

Rana looked from Abigail to Hannibal, her face stone cold and despite how hard she tried, she did not hide what she thought and felt. Hannibal picked up on every single thing and felt this inner satisfaction with the chance to study her again, in a different situation.

He placed the flowers on the table and took off his coat before he sat on the chair on the other side of the bed. Rana followed him with her eyes, not saying anything else. Her calloused hands held Abigail's pale hand into a secure embrace.

"I promise I won't take long. I simply want to check on you. Didn't have the chance after the incident at the Hobbs house" he explained and Rana looked at the girl again.

"I don't think we should discuss this here," she said, her voice softening slightly.

Hannibal quickly picked up. "Do you believe she hears us as we speak? Is this why you keep talking to her?" she looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "You seem to forget that you are not the only one with sensitive hearing"

She scoffed faintly and decided to answer him. "I do believe and I also find it wrong, talk about it as if she is not present. She might not talk, but that doesn't mean she doesn't understand"

Rana had been at the hospital many times, mostly to take statements from injured witnesses to a crime. Occasionally, she had been for her sustained injuries and once for Jack, during a dangerous mission. She didn't truly like it, but she paid the proper respects to anyone in the Hospital.

"I have noticed that you also have taken an interest in Abigail. It looks like Will is not the only one with an inner reason for coming" he said, earning her full attention.

Her eyes narrowed faintly for a moment. "You also do. I know you have been spending a lot of time here"

Hannibal smirked faintly, not surprised that she picked up already or that she had been keeping tabs on the visitors. After all, wanting to be in control of almost everything was part of her. It was clear from the moment at the motel, to even during the moment at the Hobbs residency. She needed to be in control, it was in her blood, and he already knew ways he could use that.

"Indeed, although my reasonings, I believe, are different than yours" they never broke eye contact and as he expected, Rana picked up fast what he meant. "If you wish for us to talk" he handed her a card of his before he stood up. "We can arrange a proper appointment. It doesn't have to be anything official, but we will have our chance to speak with better privacy"

Rana used one hand to take the card, the other still holding Abigail's hand. She looked up from it to Hannibal. "Will see" was all she said but that was more than enough for the intelligent doctor, who had accomplished far more than he expected.

And he was about to get more when he would meet Will. This day was simply getting better, and he found a new interest in his daily routine, to keep him entertained for the moment.


Back at the FBI HQ, Jack had a new case and he needed Will. For that, he tasked Rana with finding him, something that was easy enough. His scent was strong, and she simply let it lead her to the place Will currently was...the Shooting Range.

From afar she could hear the loud sound of a gun firing bullets at a target, one very familiar to her by now after all her adventures, training, and cases.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

She enters the range just as Will lets his gun down and brings his target forward, not hiding how displeased he was with his aim. He put on a new target sheet when back Rana's scent and presence covered his senses.

He lowered the gun and turned his head, acknowledging her arrival. She offered him a faint comforting smile, trying to show she was not there to judge or scold...she was not Jack.

"It took me ten shots to drop Hobbs." He said, explaining why he was at the range and why he was not pleased with his aim.

"Yet you got him in the end. You could have missed and hit Abigail but you didn't. This says more than you think" she explained as she leaned on the isle next to his. Will did not seem that comforted by her words as he simply sent the new target back and discarded the old one, which had bullet holes all over. "You know, Zeller wanted to give you the bullets he pulled out of Hobbs in an acrylic case, but I told him you wouldn't think it was funny."

Will kept looking at her, not keen on the discussion and not truly understanding where that was heading. After their talk last night, things between them were less tense but still felt odd to him. Rana tried her best to keep it as normal as possible.

"Probably not." Finally, Will replied.

"Katz suggested he turn them into a Newton's Cradle, one of those clacking swinging ball things."

This faintly amused Will. "Now that would have been funny." He said and focused on the target, fired one round but missed.

Rana, realising something, decided to try something else. She wanted to help Will and also ensure that if he would have her back again, he wouldn't be affected to that degree next time. Perhaps, this was the only true way she could protect him, by teaching him how to protect himself. For it was clear Will did not do well being pampered by others or being treated like a fragile China doll. That was actually what they had a lot in common but he had yet to realise. "Are you a Weaver or isosceles guy?" she finally asked him.

"I have a rotator-cuff issue, so I have to use the Weaver stance." He explained to her and assumed the position, demonstrating.

Rana studied him quietly for a moment before approaching him more. She put one hand on his right shoulder, pressing down gently. "You are tight." She noticed.

Will usually would feel uncomfortable under such closure with someone else, but Rana's presence eased his tense nerves and muscles faintly, as he felt that inner trust radiating from her in strong waves, that subconsciously were influencing him.

"I got stabbed when I was a cop." He admitted.

This amused him. "Lost count of how many times I have been stabbed. The first time I was a kid, got stabbed by an arrow, and came right through the other end" she shared her own story, making sure to hide any unnecessary and private information from him. She reached around and flared out his left elbow instead. "See if that helps with the recoil."

She said and gently removed her hands from him, but remained by his side. Her breathing was calm and she was silently studying him as he exhaled and then shot... 4 rounds were drilled into the target in a much tighter cluster.

Rana smirked and pressed the button for the target to come closer, so he could witness and take some pride in his already much improvement. She felt proud of him.

"It's better. You come down here to teach me how to shoot?" he asked her, turning to look at her but keeping his look a little lower than the normal eye level.

Rana noticed but did not comment on it. " No, Jack sent me down here to find out what you know about gardening. We have a new interesting case"