cook_the_rude | (no subject)

(no subject)

"Going my way?"

Hannibal had turned the car around, opened the door and dropped the body of their police escort as he'd never drop that much litter. He still wore his grey uniform from the State Hospital, but his smile was utterly free.

The car smelled of gunshots and blood, but it would do.

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"And now me." It's said softly, mostly to himself. Jack missed many things. Including how far from being his man Will had become.

"He thought you his useful tool," Hannibal says, starting to walk around the house. "He thought he could dump you into a peaceful life and pick you up whenever he wanted to. I do have to blame him for not realising you'd break. He lost his former edge since Bella's death."

Will doesn't follow. He stays where he can see the ocean. Where he can hear the regular beat of the waves.

"It wasn't Bella. It was you. And me."

"Because he fell for my traps, and underestimated you?" Hannibal says. "Ah, but do you think he would have if Bella had still been with him? She saw through me much sooner."

"We weakened his sense of infallibility. At a time he couldn't control life and death, he thought he could control other things. Us."

"And then, one of us had to be the very monster he was hunting," Hannibal answers. "What a blow. Then, he first got the wrong one, and when he finally got the right one, you failed to drop back into the line as if nothing had happened, just a small regrettable mistake."

Pause.

"What a surprise."

"How many times did he believe he has the Chesapeake Ripper?Abel Gideon, Chilton, me, you. And even once he had you-" he gestures around. To their freedom. However temporary.

"He didn't manage to hold on to me," Hannibal nods. "He never realised I only stayed for your sake."

"No. No, he didn't." He walks closer to the edge, feeling the salt on his skin. "I doubt Alana knew."

"She was too scared to think straight," Hannibal says. "Which is why I threatened her and her family, now."

"Will you? Hurt them?" his tone is neutral but Will keeps his back to Hannibal now, eyes only for the waves.

"If we survive the Dragon," Hannibal says, "do you think I'd waste resources on making her unhappy, just because?"

Pause.

"If she had been thinking straight, she'd have realised I don't usually threaten people. As long as she's running in the opposite direction, she can't get in the way again."

"You don't usually break promises either."

He turns his head then. "I need a shower. Do you think we have time?"

Hannibal steps up behind him, and smiles at him.

"She is on borrowed time," he says. "We all are, and cannot run from it. Even the earth crumbles underneath our feet."

Standing beside Will, he peers down at the roiling sea in its narrow bowl between the cliffs, white waves foaming up at the bluff, eating at it, while the middle stays dark.

"The bluff is eroding," Hannibal says, conversationally. "There was more land when I was here with Abigail; more land still when I was here with Miriam Lass."

"Now you're here with me." He reflects, turning to look at Hannibal.

Hannibal is still looking into the abyss.

"And the bluff is still eroding," he says. "You and I are suspended over the roiling Atlantic. Soon, all this will be lost to the sea."

He catches Will's eyes then, and smiles minutely before turning towards the house.

"And yes, showers are definitely on offer. I don't want to risk dying in this unperson suit."

Will followed him inside, touched the frame as he entered.

Chairs covered by cloths, thick carpet.

And Abigail's ghost, hanging in the air. The life they could have had here. He talked from room to room, looking for hers. And he knew it, as soon as he opened the door. Her scent lingering.

"Is this where we would have come, if I'd gone with you?"

"As a first stop, yes," Hannibal says. "For a breather. Then, on to the airport before Jack or Alana recovered enough to speak."

"Everything that can happen happens. Has to end well, and it has to end badly. Has to end every way it can. This is the way it ended for us." He takes a slow breath. "I told her that once. After you killed her."

He doesn't wait for Hannibal to reply. "Which way to the bathroom. I assume you have spare clothes in my size."

"Of course I do," Hannibal says. "And some toiletries that might suit you, even without the ship on the bottle."

Pause.

"Even if salty is your usual state of being, it doesn't have to be from sweating, or from the sea."

Another pause.

"The room beside hers.

Will huffs darkly and turns away, heading into that room and closing the door.

The sun has set by the time he comes out, clean and dressed as he leans against the window, looking out at the sea.

"He won't be long now," Hannibal says.

He emerges from another door, smelling of steam and oud, wearing neutral colours now, his hair still badly cut, but damp and free.

Will looks over, looks him up and down. Then looks back at the window. "At least you'll die looking like you."

"If I have to die," Hannibal says. "We may yet come out of this alive. Once the Dragon is here, the outcome is fully open."

He runs a hand through his hair.

"But yes, this may be a last moment for me to be myself."

"What does that make me? My becoming? If you cease to be you." He looks around to Hannibal, eyes dark. "Do either of us survive separation."