Okay. This is my first attempt at a Hannibal Fic. Sort of. (I have 4 others I've been writing, but they aren't ready yet.) So yes. I am a little panicked. Anyway, here's the plan. (That I hopefully don't shoot myself in the foot with.) This story has ten chapters. Once a week from now until New years, I hope to get a new chapter up. That's the plan anyway. If something falls short, I will try and update twice in a week.

Warnings: This story is gay, slash, whatever you call it. It will eventually be Hannibal/Will.

Notes: (X) is pov change and or time jump. Characters are OOC to varying levels.

Tuesday, December 21th

Will stepped out of his classroom and locked the door. As he turned, he wasn't surprised to see snowflakes drifting outside the windows lining the hallway across from him. The weather app on his phone had warned him of the possibility of a few inches before the night was over. Nothing compared to what they usually had at this time of the year, but still something to be wary of. How many times had a prediction of an inch or two turned into a complete lockdown of the city due to extreme snow accumulation?

I need to get more ingredients for dog food. His usual stores had started to run low and the last thing he wanted was to get snowed in at Wolf Trap and risk his dogs going hungry. He sighed at just the thought of having to go into the grocery store, or any store for that matter, with only four days left before Christmas. At least everything he needed to survive he could buy at a gas station.

This had been so much easier when Hannibal had been randomly dropping by his house and classroom, with breakfast or lunch to share. Sometimes both. Stop it. You don't need him. And where food was concerned, that was true. Yes, Hannibal's cooking had made his life easier, and the bonding had been nice, but that part of his life was over. Hannibal and Alana had gotten together over a year ago and Will's existence had trickled down to a mere afterthought, as long as he showed up for his weekly sessions.

Thankfully, Will functioned just as well without food as he did with it, and since he'd never cared about nutrition, slipping back into his old eating habits had been easy. Meaning he was living off coffee, sandwiches, and whatever other quick but tolerable foods he could find. He opened his bag, making sure he had everything, and frowned. Staring up at him was the cursed protein drink he'd forgotten to finish during his workday.

"Will!" Said man jolted as he hurried pushed the flap of his bag over the opening, hiding the protein drink from sight, as two sets of arms, one from either side of him, wrapped around his shoulders. "Just the man we were looking for," Jack said, grinning.

"I drank my protein drink," he said. Or half of it anyway. He'd been so focused on grading term papers that he'd forgotten the cursed thing was sitting on his desk waiting for him to drink, less he wanted a ten-minute lecture from his boss. Jack didn't know that though, and if his boss checked the mini fridge in his office to 'make sure' he'd see that two were gone, because nestled under the half drank one was the second one he was supposed to have had for lunch.

"Ah, good. But that's not why I'm here."

"…So why are you here?" He looked from Jack on his left to Beverly, who was grinning at him on his right. There was no way this was about a case. They looked far too happy for it to be a case. Unless the crime scene was in Hawaii and the bureau was sending them out there, all expenses paid, which he doubted. The killer would have to wipe out most of the people on all the main islands to convince the FBI to send them anywhere past the Midwest, and he was pretty sure they'd have known about something like that long before now if that had happened.

"Let's take a walk," Jack said.

Will allowed himself, for now, to be ushered towards wherever Jack and Beverly seemed to be determined to get him to go. The fact that this didn't seem to have anything for once to do with protein drinks made his compliance much easier. Jack had been the only one to notice his change in diet after Hannibal had decided he wasn't worth his attention. Starving to death had never been an actual possibility. Will ate when he felt hungry. The problem was, he often got so caught up in whatever he was doing that he forgot to take meal breaks. It didn't help that his stomach knew it didn't stand a chance at getting his attention when he got like that either, so it'd long ago stopped trying to remind him even if he'd somehow missed two meals or four. He didn't think he'd gone longer than a day and a half without eating.

Jack's solution to this had been simple. One day, Will had walked into his office and found Jack standing next to his mini fridge. His boss had given him that smile he often wore when he was pretending to be happy about something, but actually wanted to strangle someone. Seconds later, Will found himself at the end of a long, cursing, rant, before Jack had thrown open the fridge door, revealing multiple protein drinks and threats written on sticky notes in fat black marker that he was watching and counting the drinks and there would be hell to pay if Will wasn't drinking at least two a day.

Problem solved. At least when Will remembered to actually drink them. He had a growing number of half drank bottles and a few full ones now sitting in his fridge back home, most of them probably past their expiration dates. I should probably throw those out.

"Your vacation starts tomorrow, yeah?" Beverly asked. Will snapped back into his current reality and bobbed his head up and down. Her grin widened. "Perfect."

That didn't sound good. "Why—"

"You see Will," Jack started. They'd arrived in front of Jack's office. The door was closed, but the man made no move to open it. Instead, he turned his back to it and gave Will his full attention. "Unlike you, we're full-time investigators. Our vacations don't start until the 23rd. And even then, we're still on call."

Will made a face. "Okay?" He had no idea where this was going. Did they want him to substitute for one of them? He didn't exactly have the credentials or degrees to do something like that. Maybe they needed—.

"So, we're having a Christmas party once work is over on Thursday night," Beverly said. "And you're invited."

"No." Will's answer was out of his mouth before he could even think.

Beverly removed her arm from around his shoulder and nudged his arm gently. "But you're going to come, anyway. It's just going to be us. Tell him what we're doing, Jack."

Will shifted his gaze to Jack, eyebrow raised.

"Nothing special, but it's going to be great. The five of us are going to order some takeout, bring desserts, and watch movies on the projector in your classroom."

Excuse me? He opened his mouth to protest, but Beverly pushed on before he could say anything.

"And we're going to play Secret Santa," she said, as if that made everything else worth putting up with.

"Right. And we're doing Secret Santa."

Okay. He really didn't want to do this. Not that he had any plans beyond staying home and playing with his dogs in the snow. There had to be other things he needed to do over his holiday vacation. He just couldn't think of them now because they'd ambushed him. Plenty of things he had planned…. Like reading that book he'd bought back in October, that he'd completely forgotten existed until a second ago. And he definitely had to make his dogs some food… by tomorrow or they'd starve and eat him, which meant he needed to come up with two more days of plans to avoid this thing. Didn't he have an appointment with Hannibal before Christmas eve? Or was that after Christmas? Hannibal usually texted him a reminder at the start of the week, and so far, he hadn't received one.

Oh gods. He didn't have enough excuses.

Beverly nudged him again. "Come on. You'll have fun. And then you won't have to see any of us until next year."

"I…" He was going to say he had to grade papers, but they all knew he didn't risk taking anything home in case he became distracted and his dogs became destructive. He tried to think of any other lie that might get him out of this and realized soon enough he couldn't think of a single one. The defeat must have shown in his eyes, because the other two agents suddenly looked like he'd told them they were getting two weeks' paid vacation. It's not like I don't like them. And this was probably the closest thing he'd get to human interaction between now and when he had his next session with Hannibal whenever that was. "No one else is coming?"

"I asked Alana and Dr. Hannibal, but they both had plans already," Jack said. "So, it'll just be us BAU grunts."

Will sighed. They both looked like they wanted him to come and honestly, if they didn't, they wouldn't have tracked him down in the first place to mention a party he'd have never known about otherwise. Damnit. "Fine, but if my Secret Santa gets me a pair of socks, they had been be the real thick ones I can wear when I'm out fishing or hiking with my dogs."

Beverely punched the air. "Yes! Gift noted!"

"No socks," Jack said. "Or gift cards."

Beverly scrunched up her face. "Ugh. Right? I still have five of those from last year."

Will tilted his head slightly. "I take it everyone got each other gift cards last year?"

"Last year, Secret Santa was done between departments, which is totally unfair. We have four, now five, consistent people working in this department. Everyone else has, like, thirty minimum. Anyway, the mailing department pulled the BAU. They obliviously don't really know us and no one took the time to find out, so all of them bought us gift cards for the coffee shop down the street. Brian and Jimmy hate that place, so they gave me all of theirs."

"That's a lot of gift cards," Will laughed.

"So, this year, we agreed to do our own thing. No socks, unless it's the ones you just asked for, because that's a crappy gift," she said, smiling at him. "And no gift cards."

Will knew he wasn't going to get out of this one way or the other, and it might even be a little fun. It wasn't like they were strangers and all of them were used to each other's quirks, so he wouldn't have to pretend to be polite or any different at all from his usual self. "Fine."

"Glad you could see it our way." Jack opened the door to his office and shoved Will in. Inside, Jimmy and Brian were lounging in the leather chairs in front of Jack's desk.

"You got him to agree?" Jimmy asked, looking surprised.

"He wouldn't be here if they didn't," Brain said, rolling his eyes.

"Will is here of his own free will, aren't you?" Jack asked, moving to the other side of his desk.

"That sounds like something someone who's blackmailing someone else would say," Brain said.

"I'm not blackmailing anyone." Jack opened a drawer and removed a small, colorful box decorated with Christmas cartoon characters that looked way too happy to be out in a snowscape, while only wearing hats, gloves, and scarves. "Let's draw names!" Grinning, Jack held the small box up. "Who wants to go first?"

"Will, before he can change his mind," Beverly said.

Will sighed. This was already dumb. They weren't children. On the other hand, it was kind of nice to be involved in something like this. He'd never been invited to a Christmas party before, unless you counted the ones at his elementary school. The teachers couldn't deny anyone attendance unless they did something wrong, so they'd had no choice but to tolerate Will being there. He walked up to Jack's desk and placed his fingers into the slit on top of the box. Inside, he felt five pieces of folded up paper. "How did you know I was going to agree to do this?"

"If you turned us down, we were going to blackmail you into coming."

"…And how did you plan on doing that?"

"We were going to hold your dogs hostage," Beverly said simply. "Now pull. And if you pull your own name, put it back and draw again."

"I'm beginning to see why the other departments don't want to get to know any of you." He selected a piece of paper and pulled it out.

"Shut it," Beverly said. "Now see who it is without letting anyone else see."

They're taking this way too seriously. But a small part of him was beginning to feel their excitement, despite his attempts at keeping it out. Do I actually want to do this? He realized for the first time in quite a while; he was having fun with other humans. Will took a few steps back from the desk and unfolded the piece of paper in his hand so no one could see it. Shit. In large black letters written with the sharpie marker as all the sticky notes in his mini fridge was the name 'Jack.' I could tell them I pulled my own name and try again. But that meant he might pull Beverly's name, which would be even worse. He at least had a vague idea about Jack's interests. I shouldn't have agreed to this.

"Okay," Beverly said, moving towards the box and plucking out a piece of paper. "Just remember, if you pulled my name, I have enough gift cards to last me until the New Year, and my favorite color is red. Oh, and I could really use a new Kindle."

"The price limit is $30," Jack said.

"He didn't know that until you said something." She opened her piece of paper and sighed. "I don't want this one."

"Is it your name?" Jack asked.

"No, but I still don't want this one." She slipped the piece of paper into her pocket. "Guess I'll keep it in the spirit of the game. If anyone pulls Will, though, he already told me what he wants. If you want to know what it is, it'll cost you twenty bucks."

Jack rolled his eyes and pulled next, followed by Brian, then Jimmy. "Alright everyone has their assignments. Go out there and get those gifts! Oh, and Will. Since you're on vacation after tomorrow, could you pick up the food on your way here Thursday?"

I knew he had an ulterior motive. "Am I paying for it too?"

"Nope. We actually have a small budget for a Christmas party."

"Alright."

The others started talking amongst themselves about other things not related to the Christmas party, and Will decided it was time to leave. He waited until he was sure no one would notice and slipped out the door, taking a deep breath once the door clicked closed behind him. As much as he was used to dealing with this group at crime scenes, they were still a bit much in day-to-day life. Which meant not dealing with them more than necessary right now, so he had enough tolerance stockpiled to handle them during the party.

He allowed himself a second to breathe and get himself under control before he headed down the hall towards the building's exit. The snow was coming down a little faster than it had been before his kidnapping, but still nothing to worry about.

(X)

Okay. Time to figure out what to get Jack.

Will had left work with the thought that he'd only be stuck in a grocery store for maybe twenty minutes, in order to get the necessary items he needed, only for it to take a full hour due to long lines and too few cashiers.

His initial plan had been to let them play while he made their food, but after seeing how much fun they were having, he'd decided to join in. After running and wrestling in the snow until all of them were lying on their backs breathing heavy, Will grudgingly got up and went back inside to cook. He made the dogs their dinners for the next few days while throwing a TV dinner of chicken and gravy into the microwave for his own meal. When it was finished cooking, he snapped a photo of it with his phone and sent it to Jack, that way he wouldn't receive twenty text messages asking him if he'd eaten and to prove it while he tried to come up with some sort of idea about what the buy the man for Christmas, besides a life so he could leave Will alone.

Jack responded with a thumbs up.

Will would never admit it, but he was actually grateful for Jack's sudden interest in his life. It was probably more that Jack needed him in top form for when they went out to catch bad guys, but it was nice that there was one person who still cared enough to check in on him, even if it was for their own means. Jack would never go as far as Hannibal had.

Stop. If he went down that road, he'd never get any sleep tonight. Hannibal is your psychiatrist and on and off coworker. He is not your friend. He let out a slow breath as he repeated the words again and again in his mind.

Once he managed to regain what little sanity he had, he showered, dressed for bed and headed into the main room. With everything else done, he could try to find something that resembled a semi thoughtful gift for Jack.

He sat down in his chair and powered up his computer. A few minutes later, he really needed to get his computer cleaned up, he clicked on a search engine. First, he typed in 'What do you get a boss you only kind of like and have no idea what their interests are for Christmas?' This brought no results, at least none that had to do with getting gifts for your boss.

Next he tried 'What to buy your boss for Christmas?' This resulted in a great deal of results, mostly the kind with titles that read, 'Top 10 gifts for your boss!' or 'The 25 gifts you can give your boss and get a promotion!' Will didn't want a promotion, though. Hell, he didn't want to be the part time, which honestly seemed to be turning into full time, profiler position that he already had. At the rate he was going, he would need to hire a teaching assistant to run his classroom while he was out solving crimes.

Will ran a hand through his hair, going through one of the many lists, anyway. None of them struck him as anything Jack would want. At least he didn't think Jack, or anyone else for that matter, would want any of this crap. But just to be sure, he grabbed his phone, swiped it open, and tapped on Beverly's name.

'Do you think anyone in the BAU would want a portable expression machine?' He hit the send bottom and continued reading the list. Why would anyone want a snow globe that can tell you what the weather outside is like? There were plenty of more practical ways to find that out, the main one being, look out the damn window. Most of the other suggestions were candles, candle related, or portable cell phone chargers. At least the last item was useful.

Will's phone vibrated, and he picked it up.

'Way to show you have no idea what any of us like,' followed by a smiley face with its tongue sticking out. The three dots that showed she was responding were already there by the time he'd finished reading her message. 'But no, I wouldn't. We'd probably fight over who gets the first cup and end up burning ourselves. Then we'd taste it and find out it's awful, and we'd have to murder you.'

Well then. No portable expresso machine. 'Thanks.'

'No problem. Keep trying! Maybe look at your person's Facebook?'

Will made a face at that and set his phone back down. He didn't even have a Facebook. Could he look at other people's Facebook pages if he didn't have one? He pulled up the site and typed in 'Jack Craford' in the search bar. A second later, he was looking at a list of Jack Crawfords from Maryland. There were only four, and picking his boss out of the lineup was easy, because three of them had video game characters as their icons and Jack was using a photo of himself and Bella.

He stared at it a moment, wondering if Jack hadn't logged onto his Facebook page in the year since Bella had died. He hoped not. Will clicked on the name and was relieved to see the newest post on Jack's timeline was, in fact, a mere few hours old. The newest post read, 'The Crawford Christmas is coming along! I can't wait to see everyone!' And right before that was, 'FINALLY! ALL OUR TEAM MEMBERS ARE IN!' When Will looked at the time, he smiled. Jack had been posting this while he'd been sneaking out of his office.

"Okay guys. Come help me out." Most of his dogs were stretched out on the floor near the fireplace, half asleep. At the sound of his voice, Buster and Winston both looked up at him, but neither bothered to get up. Toenails scratching across the floor was the only warning Will got before the newest addition to his family came bounding towards him from wherever he'd been, no doubt running circles around the kitchen, hoping to find a piece of uneaten food. Will watched in amusement as the pup slid across his floor before managing to regain his footing and charge towards him. "You don't ever calm down, do you?"

As if to prove Will right, the puppy slammed into his leg, trying to stop again. It looked up at him, tongue out, tail wagging, and Will couldn't help but give the pup a pat on the head. Will saw the other dogs roll their eyes and lie back down, leaving him to deal with the ball of fluffed up energy that was Adam.

He'd found the poor thing about two months ago, abandoned by a dumpster, far too skinny, and with barely any fur. Originally judging by his looks, he thought Adam was a Pitbull mix. And he probably was, but the traits from the rest of his genealogy had taken over once he'd started feeding him. The color pattern was, without doubt, a German Shepherd, and when he caught a glimpse of him barreling towards something from certain angles, he thought maybe he had some Rhodesia Ridgeback as well. The vet agreed with him on the Pitbull aspect, so he hadn't bothered trying to get Adam adopted out, even though he was, without doubt, adorable.

Adam looked like he was going to jump into Will's lap, stopped at the last second, and sat down on his behind, letting out a small whimper.

"You're probably going to weigh more than me by next year. You can't make this a habit."

The puppy barked, giving him one of his most pitiful looks.

"Fine," he sighed. "I did ask for help." He pushed his chair back and gave a single pat to his leg. Will barely had the chair moved before the puppy launched itself onto his lap and started rubbing up against him and licking his chin. "H, hey! I need help finding a gift, not taking a bath." Adam did not seem to care. He continued to rub his cold nose against Will's neck until he seemed satisfied. With a yawn, Adam settled down, lying against Will's chest, and stared at the computer screen with a look that said, 'What in the hell is this?'

"Spoiled brat," Will muttered. He started rubbing one of Adam's ears while scrolling through Jack's Facebook page. Most of it was Jack adding random updates about things, no one, but the people directly involved with the situation, would understand. 'The bees are under control!' Followed by, 'Even I fear certain zealots.' There was even a post back in October that said, 'Coworker rescued Adam from the streets! Ugly thing, but they can't all be cute.'

Will blinked. You make it sound like I found a kid. He clicked on the post. Once it loaded, a full image of Adam sitting on a steel table for his first vet visit hours after Will had found him stared back from the computer. Adam made a small groan. "That's you," Will said, looking down at the puppy. "Before your fur started to grow."

Adam didn't seem to care and buried his face into Will's shirt.

"Uncle Jack knows you're adorable now."

The puppy yapped.

"And he's the one I need to find a gift for."

Adam pulled his head out of Will's shirt, giving the computer another weary look before jumping off Will and running for the nearest dog. Unluckily for Adam, it was Max. The larger dog gave the puppy a gentle whack to the back before holding him down with his arm. Adam whined and tried to escape, but Max was a good hundred pounds and soon enough, the pup gave up and started to nap.

"Thanks, Max." Will turned his attention back to the computer. He scrolled through more of Jack's stuff. More family gatherings. A college reunion. A few of Hannibal's dinners that Will had managed to avoid. More cryptic status updates about cases that no doubt had most of Jack's friends and family thinking the man needed a trip to the insane asylum.

Eventually, he made it to February of last year. A photo of Jack standing in his kitchen next to a table made him pause. "You're joking." He knew Jack had a few different scarves, but he hadn't realized it'd been this many. A photo showed his boss grinning and lying out beside him were fifteen different winter scarves. The title read, 'Halfway to having a different one for every day of the month!'

Well. That solved what to get Jack. Now he had to decide what kind to get him. None of the scarves in the photo looked particularly interesting. Most of them were solid colors, gray, dark blue, blue, red. Two of them had alternating blocks of colors, one gray and black, the other blue and red.

How does he not have a solid black one? At least that would be the easiest color to find. He brought up Amazon and typed in 'solid black winter scarf.' The website award with him twenty pages. He scanned the first page. None of them looked as long as the ones Jack had. Another five were fashion scarves. As he scrolled down, none of the others were black.

He clicked on the next page. Nothing. It was the same for the next five pages. When he made it to the eighth page, halfway down the screen, he found the one he wanted. He canned the material and dimensions of the scarf just to make sure the photo wasn't leading him. All of it looked good. He clicked on the 'add to cart' button, went to check out, and stopped short on hitting confirm. The website was warning him this particular scarf would not arrive until after the New year. Shit. He backed out and had to wade through three more pages before finding anything else remotely decent. When he got to his cart, the same red warning was displayed across the page that told him if this was a present, it wasn't going to arrive until after the holidays.

Will let out a frustrated sigh. This time, all his dogs looked at him. "I'm fine," he muttered. He tried another three scarves he had no intentions of purchasing and three times the warning of failure to deliver before the holidays showed up.

Where do you even go to buy something like this in person? This wasn't a Walmart or even a Target scarf. The scarves Jack owned were of much better quality. He'd probably gotten them from places Hannibal had suggested. Will's gaze fell onto his phone. Don't even think about it. While asking Hannibal or even Alana would make things easier, he'd promised himself not to message either one of them unless he needed a dog sitter or Hannibal's input on a killer. Think. Only there was no guarantee that Jack had purchased the scarves in person. He might have ordered them offline. Hannibal doesn't order clothes offline. So somewhere within driving distance, there was a place Will could buy a somewhat expensive scarf. But where…?

"Shit!" He shoved his chair away from the computer in one harsh movement. Buster and Winston both got up and approached him slowly as he brought his hands up to cover his face. I'm going to have to go to the fuckin' mall.

(TBC)