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Title: Unexpected Connections
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Hannibal Lecter or Will Graham, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Will hadn't known of some of the connections Hannibal had.

How was it that this man had known so many influential people? he asked himself, shaking his head as he closed the file he was reading. It hardly seemed possible.

If these powerful people had known what Hannibal really was behind that urbane facade he presented to the world, Will doubted that they would have been so friendly with him. In fact, they probably would have run away in horror, fearing that they would be his next victims.

Or would Hannibal have done them in? Will had to wonder about that. Hannibal might have let them live, simply because he could always use friends in high places.

Still, there was no way for him to be sure about that.

Hannibal certainly wouldn't tell him, he thought, a sour smile twisting his lips. Hannibal wouldn't talk to him now, except to speak in riddles.

Of course, he was sure that Hannibal now regarded him as an enemy. Though if the absolute truth were told, Will thought that they had always been enemies at heart.

Friends didn't do the things that Hannibal had done to him. Friends didnt put the ones they cared about through such horrors. And friends certainly didn't try to take each other's lives. The fact that they'd both tried to do so was proof that they had never truly been friends.

Will shuddered at that last thought; he didn't want to remember how many times he had come close to losing his life because of Hannibal's evil machinations.

Well, his enemy was behind bars where he belonged, and he could take some satisfaction in that. At least there was no way for Hannibal to harm any more innocent people.

At least he had accomplished that much.

He could be proud of himself for being the person to bring Hannibal to justice. He had stopped that monster from committing even more crimes.

But at what cost to himself? Will thought with a soft sigh. He knew that he would never be the same again, not after all the havoc that Hannibal had wreaked on his life.

Knowing Hannibal had changed him, and in some ways, those changes hadn't been for the better. He wondered if he could ever get back the faith that he'd had in the human race, his innate belief that most people were good, despite the fact that everyone had a dark side.

Hannibal had made him focus exclusively on the dark sides of everyone he came into contact with, and that wasn't a good thing, considering that he already had social issues.

His experiences with Hannibal had made him even more pessimistic, making him view the world as an even darker place. And that definitely didn't help his outlook on life.

Beyond that, knowing Hannibal had made him face the darker side of his own soul -- and he hadn't liked what he had found there. He didn't like looking into that dark mirror and knowing that it would be so easy to turn towards that darkness and allow himself to embrace it fully.

But he never would, Will told himself fiercely. He might feel a connection to that darkness within himself, but that was mainly because of the work he did.

And because of his empathic abilities, he thought with a sigh. They would always be an unexpected connection to that darkness, one that tethered him to that black void.

It was a connection that he sincerely wished he didn't have.

That connection wasn't unexpected, really; Will had always been in touch with his dark side in some ways, but he hadn't brought it out as often as he did now.

It was one of the things that he truly disliked about what he did for a living; having to delve into that darkness so often was starting to wear on him.

Hannibal had brought that darkness front and center, shown him just how seductive it could be whenever he allowed it to beckon to him. But he had managed to turn away from that siren song; the last thing he wanted was to become the kind of monster that Hannibal Lecter was.

He wouldn't let himself fall into that trap, Will vowed. He would die first. He wasn't a monster. He never had been. He was one of the good guys.

If he became like Hannibal, if he let that darkness overtake him, if he let that connection overpower him, then he was no better than the criminals he chased after.

He wouldn't let himself give in to that darkness, no matter how hard he was pushed.

He knew that he was connected to that dark side of his soul; everyone was. No light could exist without darkness as its counterpart. He had always known that.

But he also knew that the light could overpower the darkness. He himself was living proof of that fact. How many times had he gazed into that abyss when he was inside a killer's mind, doing his job, and not let himself fall into that darkness and be swallowed whole?

He had the strength to keep himself in the light. And what was more, he could pull away from that dark side and only use it to aid in the pursuit of darkness.

He'd gotten pretty good at doing that, hadn't he?

That was the only thing he would ever access that darkness within his soul for, Will promised himself. He might have to use it to catch killers, but not for anything else.

He didn't want to strengthen his connection to that darkness. It wasn't something that he wanted to nurture, or to let grow to outsized proportions. Hannibal had done that -- and Will had seen what kind of monster he had become. He wouldn't let himself go that route.

No, he would never do that. If he did, then he might as well end himself. Being like Hannibal would be a fate worse than death -- and one that he didn't want to suffer.

Will's hands shook slightly as he reached for the next file.

There was still so much that they didn't know about Hannibal, and they weren't going to find it in files. They'd do better to get the information from the man himself.

That information wasn't forthcoming, though, which Will knew all too well. If they wanted Hannibal to talk about himself, they would have to send in an agent who he would actually speak to.

Will winced, knowing that it would have to be him. Hannibal wouldn't talk to anyone else; he was sure of that. He wasn't even sure, at this point, that Hannibal would deign to speak to him. After all, he was the one responsible for Hannibal being in prison.

Would it even be worth a try? Will wasn't sure about that. He didn't know if Hannibal would even tell him the truth if the two of them spoke.

Still .... if they did, maybe he could accomplish something. Maybe they could find more of Hannibal's victims, and bring their families some much-needed closure.

Will knew all too well how it felt to be left hanging, to still have hope.

He slammed a door in his mind on that thought, refusing to let it break through again. He didn't want to think of Abigail, of those months when he hadn't known what had happened to her.

If he could spare some of the families of Hannibal's victims that kind of pain, then he could do what he could to bring them the closure they needed. And maybe, if he was very lucky, he might uncover some hitherto unexpected connections between Hannibal's crimes and others.

He might be able to ferret out some connections between Hannibal's victims and some unsolved crimes, and thus enable them to close more cases.

If he could accomplish any of that, he'd have to give it a shot.

Now that he had made up his mind that he needed to talk to Hannibal, he wanted to get it over with before he started having second thoughts.

Will took a deep breath and stood up, picking up the small stack of files to take them to Jack's office. He'd have to ask for clearance to see Hannibal, and there was no time like the present.

***