Chapter Text
The cell was cold and quiet, as it typically was. Across from his dirty mattress, the tap dripped monotonously and followed him into his dreams. He found it odd that he could hear no guards or orderlies. They didn't speak but, typically, their footsteps clicked and their keys jangled as they walked by. The stagnancy was odd. As was the lack of food. By now, there should've been a tray slid through to him with old mush. Something thick and dry he would have to force down his throat. Nothing. And in truth, he almost preferred starving to the food.
It was peaceful, actually. Peaceful enough that Will felt himself drifting off. He dreamt of blood and antlers and all-seeing eyes watching him. He dreamt of needles and lights flashing to the rhythm of drip, drip, drip. In the waking world, he didn't so much as twitch, it looked as if his dream was pleasant. At least, it did to Beverly, who was almost regretful she would have to wake him up.
"Will?" she whispered, hoping to wake him politely. Three times she did this and three times Will pretended he couldn't hear her. Perhaps she would go away if he waited long enough.
CLANG, CLANG
"Come on, Will! Get up!"
Somewhere down the hall, another man groaned at her to shut up. Will was tempted to do the same until he heard the familiar jangle of keys as she went to unlock his cell, at which point he pretended to wake.
"Beverly? What are you doing?" He actually wanted to ask why she was doing it. There was no way that she'd gotten those keys legally. He also noted a lack of a visitors badge on her leather jacket, t-shirt, not even subtly pinned to her trouser pocket. No FBI badge either. The door swung open with a long squeak, grating on the ears. Freedom did not sound sweet.
She dug through a bag she'd brought, and flung Will's clothes at him. "I'm getting you out, hurry up. We have to get back to the others fast. Already took long enough to get Dr. Chilton to give me the keys." She had the courtesy to turn around while he changed clothes, but tapped her foot as she waited.
Will lifted himself to his feet, and the room spun a little. He wouldn't know it but he'd actually missed two meals, the hours swept away in the deep surging waters of his mind. His legs shook, and he tripped over his own trousers as he pulled them up. Every layer Will put on, he found himself standing taller, moving more precise. He was still drowsy but his body felt more like his own again. His glasses were the final piece of the puzzle, slotting him back into place.
"Leaving so soon?" a voice called from the next cell over.
Beverly froze, contemplating something. Will may not know what was going on, but he could read between the lines. No guards, no meals, no one to stop Beverly from setting him free. Whoever else resided in these cages, they were being left behind. Permanently. Will wondered if they knew it, if he was the only one clueless. He ignored Frederick all the time, maybe there'd been an announcement that he'd missed. Surely not, there was nothing humane about leaving prisoners to starve. Even Frederick Chilton couldn't get away with that.
He walked up behind Beverly and spoke low. "Leave the keys with them."
Her head whipped around at his voice, eyes flicking between his. "That's risky," she replied, matching his volume.
"We can't abandon them here." Will hadn't quite convinced her, he reached over and carefully pried the keys from her hands anyway. "Look, give them to me. I'll give the keys to Gideon, he's reasonable enough, he'll behave. Once we're gone, he can free whoever's left."
Her face said she didn't agree but she didn't actually say it which was as good as a yes in this situation. Beverly wandered up the hall alone and waited for Will. She wouldn't say it but she was glad to have the decision taken from her, Will understood the feeling all too well.
"Mr Graham, I suppose this is the last time we'll be seeing each other?" Gideon asked. He looked how Will felt, other than, he didn't look confused.
"With any luck," Will agreed. He almost didn't ask but Beverly was far away enough he thought it wouldn't hurt to whisper, "Abel, did, did Frederick say something about this? Did I miss something important?"
Gideon shook his head. "I imagine Frederick's locked himself up in his castle, waiting on a prince to save him. It doesn't take a fool to realise we've all been left for dead."
"Right." Will chucked the keys through the bars of the cell. "Wait ten minutes, let yourself and everyone else out. Or run off by yourself. I can't stop you, but I have a feeling you'll be better off with company."
With that, Will jogged up to Beverly who was looking more and more anxious by the second. She had that furrow in her brow he recognised from the night at Beth LeBeau's house. He hated it.
Every step up the stairs of the BSCHI had Will fighting for breath but he wanted out of that God forsaken place. They stopped by the front doors while he took a second to recover. Unfortunately, in that time, Frederick Chilton, the damsel in distress himself, came to them in quite a hurry and carrying a heavy bag. His tie sat crooked over his sweat stained shirt, and he hadn't bothered to redo the button on his jacket. Not that it mattered, the whole ensemble was an atrocious amalgamation of blue, brown and a hint of maroon that did not lend itself to the authority and fashion sense Will assumed Chilton was attempting to portray.
"Thank Goodness you're still here, I thought you might've left without me."
"I didn't realise we were leaving with you," Will retorted, turning to Beverly.
"He has nowhere else to go, Will, plus he agreed to let you out. Was I supposed to say no?" She started tapping her foot again and started to say more but apparently decided against it.
Will didn't have an answer for that. It is what it is, he thought.
The streets were deserted, other than a red car parked out front of the building, Beverly's. Nothing to block the chilly autumn breeze blowing against Will's sensitive skin and through his grown out hair. The sky was cloudy but even so, Will had to squint against the sunlight. Freedom required some time to adjust, he supposed.
Chilton wasted no time getting in the passenger side of the car, throwing his bag in the back seats where Will would have to sit. The inside was mostly black and grey, clean besides an old water bottle and some empty wrappers tucked in the side of the door.
"Don't get used to all the tranquility," Beverly told him, "It's fine here but some of Baltimore is absolute hell."
Chilton butted in, twisting to look in the backseat, "Don't I know it! I was terrified to leave my hospital, it was only a few hours ago this entire street was completely overrun. The traffic looked horrendous!"
Will struggled to take the whole situation seriously. There must have been some sort of catastrophe. He wasn't much of a conspiracy theorist but his imagination did have a tendency to wander. A meteor, terrorists, war, plague, aliens, zombies? Public hysteria could happen over anything, Frederick's own personal hysteria over much less. But even Beverly seemed concerned and he generally considered her to be level-headed.
He took a moment to worry about his dogs.
"What's actually happening? Where are we going?" Will's stomach growled. "Will there be time for me to eat or should I give up on the concept of food altogether?"
"Oh crap, right, here." Beverly popped the glove box open and pulled out some store-bought sandwiches.
They were a little stale but compared to what Will had been eating, they were delicious. He scoffed them down, trying not to get crumbs on the car seat but failing. He bit off so much at once it was painful to swallow. Then Beverly passed back a bottle of water, he chugged that down too, some dribbling on his chin. He hadn't even realised he'd been thirsty. His stomach still grumbled but not so much.
Long, quiet streets passed them by. One or two cars passed them occasionally, going too fast. A few were parked up on the roadside. One in particular caught Will's eye. Old and scratched up with the back essentially destroyed, crushing the people inside. A man was flopped over the bonnet. His head and shoulders sagged down into the front seats where he must've smashed through the windshield, shards of glass poked out of his torso. Will couldn't see much of the actual carnage, the man being face down and obscured by his own blood, but he saw enough.
"Beverly, what's going on?" he demanded. Both she and Frederick flinched, Will even saw a bead of sweat roll down the latter's neck. It served as a good reminder for him, actually. They didn't trust him. Beverly didn't want to be alone in a car with him, that's why she let Chilton come. In all the confusion, Will had almost forgotten what he'd allegedly done. "You're going to have to tell me at some point… At least tell me where we're going."
Beverly swallowed, flitting her eyes between him and the road a few times before answering, "Dr. Lecter's office."
"What?" both Will and Frederick exclaimed.
"That's where everyone else is right now, the sooner we're all grouped up again, the better. And then we can discuss whatever you want to," Beverly placated.
"But why his office? Surely it would make more sense to go to Quantico, there's space for whoever 'everyone else' is and it's probably safer." Will couldn't even begin to comprehend why she'd take him there of all places, why Dr Lecter was part of this group she kept talking about. If he had any more answers, he would've probably demanded to be let out of the car right then.
"Jack, Brian, Jimmy and I were at work, Jack wanted to go get his wife who was having an appointment with Dr. Lecter at the time. Dr. Bloom is there too." She glanced up in the mirror, saw Will's displeased expression and sighed. "Look, Will, this strange obsession you've got with hating Hannibal Lecter has got to go, at least for now. I doubt this'll change your mind at all but it was his idea to come get you in the first place."
Will's jaw nearly came off its hinges, he almost didn't believe her. Although, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Of course Dr Lecter would suggest that, what a waste if Will died rotting in a cell. Plus, imagine the conflict having an alleged serial killer among them would cause. How thrilling.
(Later in the car ride, Will would worry who was watching after his dogs if Dr Bloom was at Dr Lecter's office, if maybe he would get to see them again soon.)
Frederick chimed in then, "That's rather kind of him, all things considered." Will shut him up with a stern glare.
"So you came to get me because he asked you to?" Will couldn't quite hide the shake in his voice.
"Yes. No one else even knew until right before I left, they're not all totally happy about it so you've got to play nice."
Will nodded, grinding his teeth and looking back out the window. No one else had thought about him then, not Jack, not even Alana. Or maybe they had and just decided he wasn't worth the trouble. He didn't want to understand, but he did.
They came up on a red light and Beverly drove straight through it.
There were a lot of cars parked outside the office when they got there, Will didn't see Alana's but the other two didn't look worried so he followed them inside. It felt so unrecognisable, he didn't think he'd ever walk into Hannibal's office again, except to maybe punch him in the face, or worse. Yet there he was and a strange pain welled up in his chest, choked him. His throat scratched. Dr Lecter was not his friend and he didn't miss him, but he missed the friendship he thought they had and that might've been worse.
In the waiting room, he could already hear voices murmuring and got the sick sense that he wouldn't like to walk through the next door. He wasn't sure he could face the people on the other side, not all at once. Nonetheless, he went, and kept his head held high.
"Beverly, you're back safe. Thank God," Jack immediately cheered, "And you brought Dr. Chilton."
Five pairs of eyes landed on him, Jack, Price, Zeller, Dr Lecter and Mrs Crawford. No Alana. So no dogs either. Were Will's questions welcome, he would've asked where she was. Instead, he wandered in slowly (pointedly not in Dr Lecter's direction) assessing the space as if he'd never seen it before. It didn't look at all different, besides the bags piled up by the door and how crowded it was. Will preferred when it was just the two of them in session, easier to think. Of course, a lot had changed since then and he didn't think that would be so preferable anymore.
Chilton dumped his bag with the rest and went to socialise (or rather, complain about how horrible everything was), Beverly gave Will a quick glance before going to report to Jack. No one tried to speak to Will and he didn't try to speak to them. He went to the fireplace, it wasn't lit but it was something to look at. At some point he would have to ask to be brought home, or at least to wherever his stuff was being kept. He had nothing, no clothes, no food, no friends, no answers, no dogs. Again, that choking pain in his chest, he was glad no one was with him to see the damp in his eyes.
He felt Dr Lecter before he saw him. His presence looming behind as it so often did in the confines of Will's mind. There was no chance in hell Will would address him first.
"Hello, Will. I'm glad to see you got here safely,"
"Of course you are. You sent Beverly for me?" Will glanced at him over his shoulder but refused to face Dr Lecter directly. He was in a fully blue suit, checkered, with a paisley tie. The shirt was white but had pinstripes, which upon close inspection were also different shades of blue. The only thing not patterned was his pocket square. The whole thing was utterly audacious.
"Yes, no one else was going to suggest it, so I did." If he thought that was at all a subtle dig, he was wrong. It made Will flinch all the same.
"Right, and you made her do your dirty work. Couldn't just come yourself. Did you want to put her at risk?" Will made eye contact over the tops of his glasses.
"Would you have listened if I had come to get you?" Dr Lecter retorted, and, to be fair, he made a decent enough point.
"Put me in and get me out, what a painful irony this is," Will pondered aloud, admiring the decor along the top of the fireplace. It did occur to him at that moment that if anyone was going to answer his questions, it would be Dr Lecter. Putting on his best sad, lost and lonely face, Will met him head on and asked quite possibly the least important question, "Where's Alana?"
"After she heard where Miss Katz was going, she suggested someone go collect some of your things." He gave Will a moment to take that in. "And your dogs."
Will put every other insignificant worry and frustration down right then and there. "My dogs? She's bringing them here?" He tried to fight the smile on his face but he was about to be reunited with his family, not much else seemed important. Other than the definite fact that Hannibal's office was about to be smothered in dog hair, that felt like justice.
"Yes, she could hardly leave them behind."
For a blink, for a small second where Will was looking at Hannibal and Hannibal was looking at him, Will genuinely felt happy to be there. All the upset fell away and all he wanted was to sit down and talk like they used to, like Hannibal had never let him down, betrayed him and lied about it. So he took a breath to recalibrate, to remind himself things had changed, they'd both changed. Or at least Will had, Dr Lecter had always been the same. Still, people were wary of Will, he had to play nice.
"Well, I am grateful, to her, for not leaving my dogs behind. For getting them when no one else would."
When they came crashing through the door, Will wasted no time before running over and letting himself get absolutely covered in dog saliva. The tail wagging, the barking, the yapping took over the entire room. Will may have put people on edge but it was hard to resist the appeal of seven happy dogs running around, and the office quickly became a petting zoo.
Alana stood on the edge of it all, grinning from ear to ear as she watched Will with his dogs. She'd taken good care of them but Will was their master and they'd missed him fiercely. They were friendly with everyone, getting as much love and affection as was humanly (dogly) possible. It was a good pick-me-up for the whole group.
When Will stood up again, Alana greeted him with a hug, her shoulders bunched and body stiff. She was one of the few who wholeheartedly believed Will wasn't secretly a murderous psychopath, but she was still nervous. He could live with that, she'd brought his dogs.
"Thank you. Thank you for looking after them, they seem happy," he laughed, Winston nosing at his leg.
Alana laughed back, "Happy to see you again. I brought you some of your clothes, figured you'd need them."
"Yeah, uh," Will started, scratching at his stubble. "What do I need them for?"
For a second, Alana stared at him like she didn't know what he was asking. Her eyebrows furrowed and she bent down to slowly stroke the dog pawing at her side.
"No one's told you?"
"I've made some inferences, but no." Will tended to smile when he was anxious, an awkward grin and laugh that made people uncomfortable. He was quite dashingly sporting said smile then.
Strutting off with a look of determination on her face, Alana went straight to Jack.
The dogs settled down around the room and like Will had predicted, got dog fur on everything. A couple piled around his feet where he sat in Dr Lecter's desk chair. The people were not so calm. Price and Zeller were rummaging through bags, making sure no one packed any unnecessary items. Chilton insisted to them that the things he'd brought absolutely were completely and entirely necessary. Beverly sat with Mrs Crawford, they were looking at maps, Will overheard something to do with pharmacies and medications. Alana dragged Jack over to where Will sat— Dr Lecter in tow— insisting he explain what was happening.
"Look, Will, there's no easy way to explain this," Jack began.
"Clearly, given that no one's actually done so yet." Will couldn't have hidden the snark if he tried, which he did not.
"Last week there was an incident, an attack right here in Baltimore. No one thought anything of it at first beyond a damaged man gone wild on a killing spree. He was apprehended fast but even when cuffed, he didn't stop fighting."
Will didn't have to ask the fate of said man. It was almost as if Jack himself didn't believe what he was saying or he didn't want to. He kept looking between Alana and Dr Lecter who nodded along seriously as he spoke.
"He bit at least four people before the police got to him, and bit two officers after. It took a while before reports came up of similar incidents in other parts of the country and soon after, other parts of the world."
Dr Lecter took over from Jack, "The bites were treated, of course. However, no one could figure out why or how these people were acting uncoordinated and yet near simultaneously. Some believed it was an act of God. The more rational believed it to be some sort of infection."
"Right, but they tried looking into where the infection was coming from. Shared food source, work environment, cleaning products, anything they could think of, but they found nothing," Jack continued, "Then this morning, it was like an explosion. Suddenly all those people who were bitten, even some of the dead ones started attacking. One of those police officers killed his whole family early this morning."
"…Zombies," Will said.
"Yep."
If he didn't know any better, Will would've thought he was still sick and hallucinating or that this was all just one insane dream. He wondered when antlers would start sprouting out the walls. "Seems pretty tame outside for zombies," he suggested, sitting back and swivelling in his chair.
Shaking her head, Alana contested, "Not everywhere, you must've gotten lucky on the drive over. Most of the problem is just people trying to rush off home to their families, I saw far too many crashes on my way here."
Jack added, "There aren't many of them right now as far as we're aware but they are everywhere and it's hard to tell when they're actually dead. Especially when some of them keep coming back. And they're vicious too, fast, strong. Not much more than you or me but they're ruthless. Just one of them killed fifteen people this morning and if they can they will bite."
They all stood silently, watching Will take all the new information in. At some point, everyone else stopped what they were doing to listen too, not that they needed to. Every person in that room had experienced the chaos for themselves, except for Will. Although, he did see that man cut open on his own windshield, that had to count for something.
"So what now?" he asked.
Jack, their de facto leader, sighed and scratched the back of his head. "We're not sure. We've got clothes and food that'll last, cars. But we still don't know much. We'll stick together as a group and find somewhere safe enough to hide out until we know more." He didn't sound hopeful.
It would probably be a bad idea to stick to areas with lots of buildings or people. They'd want somewhere quiet, private but liveable. Presumably, if the zombies were as vicious as Jack said then they'd want to be able to keep an eye out for them too. This thought process was what had Will reluctantly suggesting his house in Wolf Trap. To his dismay, everyone agreed it was a good idea.