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Title: On the Wings of Love
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Will Graham/Lee Fallon
Fandom: Hannibal/The Big C
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 Will Graham or Lee Fallon, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Lee had never thought that he could love anyone this much.

How was such love possible? he asked himself as he looked down at the young man slumbering by his side. Will looked happy; his lips were curved into a slight smile, and the small lines on his face had smoothed out when he slept, making him look even younger.

It was still hard for him to believe that he'd found Will, that such an incredible man could have fallen in love with him. But somehow, it had happened.

This kind of happiness didn't seem real, Lee felt as though he was living in a dream, a dream that couldn't possibly last. Sooner or later, he would wake up alone, and discover that none of this was real, that Will was only a figment of his imagination.

No, he told himself firmly, that wasn't going to happen. This was real, this was his life, and his life had become a very good place to be.

The clinical trials seemed to be going well so far. Two weeks in, and the medication was working for him. It still remained to be seen if it would keep working, though; it usually took six to eight weeks to know for sure whether it was having a beneficial effect.

So what would he do when it all fell apart?

Lee tried to push that thought away from him, but it stuck in his head, like a black cloud determined to rain on his parade of happiness.

If the trials didn't work for him, then he would simply find one that did. Now that he had Will, he wasn't going to sit back and be complacent, just hope that one trial would work and then halfheartedly go on to the next when it didn't, as he'd done for the past two years.

He'd gotten tired of fighting, tired of trying to be optimistic. But before Will, he hadn't had a reason for any optimism. Now, he had every reason to want to live.

Love had given him that reason, he thought as he looked down at the sleeping man by his side. He had never expected to be swept away on the wings of love, but now that he had, he would do anything he had to do to keep that love in his life.

And to keep his life, he told himself. He had to live. For Will. He couldn't just abandon the man who had given his heart, body and soul to him. It wouldn't be right.

Will needed him. And he needed Will.

Will deserved to be loved; Lee was appalled that he'd had so little love in his life before now. And he was determined to stick around and give Will that love.

He deserved someone who was going to be around for the rest of his life, that little dark voice in the back of Lee's mind whispered. Will deserved better than a man who was slowly dying of cancer, a man who couldn't give him any assurances of a secure future.

Lee pushed that voice away, closing his eyes and refusing to hear it. That wasn't true. He was going to beat this. He would have a future with Will.

Nothing was going to take him away from Will, including this damned cancer. They were going to have a life together, a long and happy one.

He had found Will on the wings of love, and now that love had swept him away, he fully intended to hold on to it. He was going to fight every step of the way for the life he was building for himself, fighting to stay with Will and to love him for years to come.

Failure wasn't an option, Lee told himself firmly. And this time, if he was lucky, he had fate on his side. He certainly had love on his side.

Those wings of love would wrap around him, and keep him with Will.

That might be a silly thought to some people, but it was one that kept him going. He wouldn't give up. Not this time. He had too much to live for.

What if he only had a short time here with the man he loved? That worry tore at him; sometimes it hit him like a ton of bricks. The last thing he wanted was to linger on such depressing thoughts, but he couldn't keep them out of his mind.

Those thoughts usually attacked him when he was at his most vulnerable. Not when he was lying here beside Will after they'd made love and Will had drifted off to sleep.

He wanted to push them away, but they were burrowing into his head, refusing to let him sleep. Worries of the future, worries that things wouldn't work out the way he wanted them to. Worries about what Will would do without him, about how he would cope.

Will would find someone else, Lee told himself sadly. He was young and beautiful; there would always be people out there who wanted him.

But would they love him as Lee did? He didn't think so.

They'd been brought together on the wings of love, and something like that happened once in a lifetime, if ever. Lee was positive that if the trials didn't work, that if his life was cut short, Will would spend the rest of his life mourning what they had lost.

Which meant that he had to live, Lee told himself, his inner voice firm and strong. He had more of a reason to embrace life now than he'd ever had before.

These trials had to work. If they didn't, it wouldn't be easy to find another one -- and if he did, it might take him across the country again, away from Will. That was the last thing he wanted. He didn't want to leave his boyfriend while he was dealing with this.

He couldn't go through another clinical trial alone. This would have been the last one he'd have tried, if he hadn't met Will. He would have simply let himself go.

But he wasn't alone now, Lee told himself, feeling his heart lift as he raised a hand to gently stroke Will's hair. He would never have to be alone again. This trial would work for him. He could feel it in his bones, in his heart and soul. This would be the one.

And then, they would have the rest of their lives to fly on the wings of love.

***