Archive of Our Own ^beta

After Will Graham made the phone call to Hannibal Lecter, informing him that Jack Crawford ‘knows’ and is about to pay him a visit, he knew he had to visit him as well.

It was pouring rain when he got there. While he was getting out of the taxi that he had to take to get to Lecter’s home, he noticed Alana Bloom lying in front of the open door leading to the entrance of Hannibal’s home. Blood was flowing from her wounds and she seemed unconscious. As Will got closer to her, it couldn’t go unnoticed that she was lying among glass shards. He took off his coat and covered her with it before calling an ambulance. At that moment, Alana gasped. “Jack is inside,” she said. Then, “Go.”

He pulled his gun out and headed inside, his shirt now soaking wet.

He carefully walked in, looking around for anyone else who was inside. But the last person he expected to see was his surrogate daughter, Abigail, who he considered to be dead up until this point.

She was sobbing. And she was alive.

“Abigail?” he asked softly, mostly to himself. He needed to make sure this was really happening.

“I didn’t know what else to do, so I just did what he told me,” she replied. She seemed so terrified and Will wasn’t sure if he was relieved that Abigail was not, in fact, dead, or if he was afraid of what could happen. Of what would happen once he saw Hannibal.

“Where is he?” Will asked. He wanted to see him so badly. Even though he had a feeling this wouldn’t end well. He just needed to see his face and know that he’s alive too.

He saw Abigail quickly glance somewhere behind his back.

“Y-you were supposed… to leave,” he whispered before even seeing Hannibal, the feeling of the man waiting behind him suffocating his senses.

Will slowly turned around to find Hannibal standing in front of him, his eyes dark and shirt stained burgundy. He seemed more hurt and devastated than ever.

“We couldn’t leave without you,” said Lecter. And in that moment, Will Graham realized what a fatal mistake he had made.

He had betrayed Hannibal because of his fear. His fear of being known. His fear of accepting his dark side. His fear of his own feelings for the man standing right in front of himself.

He couldn’t stop himself from staring at Hannibal’s face. Looking deep into his eyes, eyeing the fresh injuries on his perfectly-sculpted face and sharp cheekbones.

He realized that he regretted everything when he saw the way Hannibal was looking at him. The way his eyes held more love and heartbreak than any other person’s possibly could.

He felt Hannibal’s hands come up slowly, and then he was holding and caressing his face.

However, he didn’t notice the small, sharp and curved knife in Lecter’s hand, dangerously close to his belly.

Abigail screamed as Will's gun dropped to the floor and his hands went to his belly.

Will couldn’t resist the whine that left his mouth as he felt the knife slicing his gut. He felt the first point of the blade pressing into his stomach and took a step forward, forcing the knife deeper into himself so that he could get closer to the other man.

The next thing he knew, he was kissing Hannibal Lecter. He completely forgot that Abigail was watching. His hands came up to Hannibal’s shoulders and held tight onto him, as though he was afraid he would disappear once he let go. Lecter continued slicing through Will’s stomach and began kissing Graham back.

It was so desperate and painful. Not only because his gut was being cut, but because the kiss was filled with longing and hurt from both of them.

Will kept groaning into the kiss as he opened his mouth and felt Hannibal’s tongue slide inside, testing. His free hand was cradling the back of Will’s head, almost gently.

Will allowed the kiss to deepen. He was crying out in pain into Hannibal’s mouth as more blood poured onto the floor beneath.

He knew that he should have agreed to run away. Mostly because that’s all he ever wanted to do since falling in love with Hannibal, but also because he now knew that Abigail would be coming too. They could’ve been a family.

Every brush of Hannibal’s tongue against Will’s own was met with the burn of the blade cutting Will deeper.

After a few moments Hannibal pulled back slightly, still close enough to feel Will’s quick breath mixing with his own.

“Time did reverse,” he murmured. “The teacup that I shattered has come together”.

“A place has been made once more in the world for Abigail. Do you understand?” he asked more persistently now.

Will shook his head a little against Hannibal’s lips.

“The place was made for all of us. Together,” the man continued explaining, his ache evident in his tone.

“I wanted to surprise you,” Hannibal whispered into Will’s mouth, “and you… wanted to surprise me”.

Will couldn’t hold onto Hannibal any longer as his wound was tearing open and blood kept spilling quicker. Lecter let go.

Abigail watched in horror as Will staggered and fell against the wall. She tried to move towards Will slightly but stopped herself.

Will looked down, sputtering and gasping, to see blood spilling from a wide cut across his abdomen, his hands pressing against the wound in a desperate attempt to slow the bleeding.

“I let you know me. See me,” Hannibal hissed.

“I gave you a rare gift. But you didn’t want it,” Hannibal stated.

“Didn’t I?” Will asked rhetorically because deep inside they both knew the answer to that question.

He did.

“You would deny me my life.”

“N-no, not your life, no…”

“My freedom then, you would take that from me,” Hannibal continued, his voice raising slightly, “confine me to a prison cell”.

Abigail looked between the two of them.

Then Hannibal asked,

“Do you believe you could change me, the way I’ve changed you?”

“I already did,” Will answered confidently.

Something in Hannibal’s eyes changed for a moment, probably realizing that Will is right.

They both changed each other.

Lecter’s earlier question was probably referring to the torture and manipulation that he put Graham through before framing him for his own murders. But Will was able to change Hannibal Lecter without making him suffer in any way. At least not physically.

“Fate and circumstance have returned us to this moment, when the teacup shatters,” Hannibal muttered. “I forgive you, Will”.

Will started shaking violently as Hannibal stood next to their named daughter, terrified of what he might do.

“Will you forgive me?” Hannibal asked.

“Oh d-don’t… n-no, don’t,” Will begged as Hannibal reached out his hand to the girl, tears streaming down her face.

“Abigail, come to me,” Lecter commanded.

Abigail took his hand, and in that moment she realized that she had made a bargain with the devil.

She stood in front of the man obediently, shaking slightly.

Hannibal brought the knife up to the soft skin of her throat.

Will watched the absolutely horrified expression on Abigail’s face as he began sobbing violently.

“N-no, no, no, no!” he kept screaming and wailing. He was haunted by the ghost of Abigail’s father ever since killing him, the guilt of orphaning the girl eating him alive.

He grew attached to her, especially since Hannibal announced that they were now her ‘fathers’. It was a sick but comforting way of feeling closer to Lecter. Abigail was their daughter.

Blood began to pour from the wound as Hannibal slit her throat in a single, sleek motion, right across the scar where her father once did the same.

Abigail gasped and choked on her blood, as it sprayed across Will’s face, hot and violent.

She started falling down to the floor next to Will, Lecter letting her go roughly.

Now both Will and Abigail were sobbing and whimpering in pain.

The girl clutched at her throat to stop the bleeding, but it poured from between her fingers. Her eyes were now closed and mouth hanging open, trying to keep breathing.

Hannibal leaned over Will while he screamed in horror and pain.

“You can make it all go away,” he said, his face, unlike him, showing too much emotion for a man like Hannibal Lecter, his ‘person suit’ slipping and letting his hurt show on his expression. “Put your head back. Close your eyes. Wade into the quiet of the stream,” he told him.

Lecter stood up.

They shared a look full of longing and heartbreak before Will crawled up to Abigail and Hannibal disappeared into the darkness.

He covered her neck with his own hands now, holding her close.

Now they were both lying in a puddle of blood, the life draining from Abigail’s body.

At that same time Hannibal stood outside in the pouring rain, letting it wash over his face. He glanced at Alana’s body and recognized the coat covering her as Will’s. He draped it around his shoulders before leaving.

Will saw the stag lying across the kitchen floor, gasping and dying. His eyes fixed on the black stag as its breath slowed and finally stopped.