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Title: Out of the Picture
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Will Graham/Everett Hobbs (Original Character)
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Table: Holiday Non-Bingo, tv_universe
Prompt: 20, Photograph
Author's Note: Everett's face is Benedict Cumberbatch.
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.

***

Hannibal looked down at the photograph in his hand, anger suffusing his features.

He wanted Everett Hobbs out of the way. Out of the picture completely, and out of Will's life for good. He'd had enough of Hobbs' interference.

If it weren't for that man, then Will would still be behind bars, where Hannibal would be free to study him -- and to taunt him and view his physical and emotional reactions.

Will had been trying to hide those reactions from him, it was true, but his paranoia became more obviously every day. He had been heading towards a complete breakdown, and Hannibal had wanted to facilitate that before he finally brought out the evidence that would lead to Will's exoneration.

When Will had been released from prison, then Hannibal would have taken the young man under his wing, and drawn him into the darkness that Hannibal lived and breathed.

He had wanted to fashion Will in his own image, to turn him into a carbon copy of himself. But Hobbs had come along and spoiled his plans, rescuing Will from his intended dark future.

Hobbs had to go. He had to be gotten rid of, obliterated from the scene.

The worst thing about the man's appearance was that it seemed Will was falling for him in the romantic sense. It was obvious to Hannibal that a relationship was developing.

He had never hated anyone as much as he hated Everett Hobbs. This man was destroying everything that he had so carefully planned, destroying the future he wanted for Will.

He couldn't be allowed to keep doing so, Hannibal decided, his eyes narrowing as he studied the handsome features of the man in the photograph. Will had to be made to see that his association with Hobbs could come to no good, that this man was all wrong for him.

But how was he to do that? Hobbs had quite effectively turned Will against him; he didn't doubt that the young man who was his obsession wanted nothing to do with him now.

And he couldn't get close enough to Will for any length of time to be able to pour poison into his mind about Hobbs and how wrong the man was for him, either.

He was no longer Will's psychiatrist; now that Will had an inkling that he was the reason for that incarceration, he had stopped coming for his sessions. Hannibal knew that they would never take place again; he had forfeited having Will as a patient. It was one of the sacrifices he'd had to make.

Will wasn't going to come back to him, either as a patient or as a friend. So he had to find some way to get to Will, to be able to coax him away from the new man in his life.

How was he going to do that? He would have to formulate a plan, and put it into action very carefully. He couldn't let Will know what he was attempting to accomplish.

Perhaps he could get some help from Jack Crawford on this score.

Yes, that might be the way to go with this. He had always been able to easily convince Jack of his good intentions; it shouldn't be hard to enlist his help.

He would be able to blacken Hobbs' name, as well, caution Jack that this man meant WIll no good. And if he knew Jack Crawford, he would step in to try and help Will.

With any luck, Hobbs could be sent back to his home overseas, and be separated from Will. That would give Hannibal the opportunity to do some more character assassination, and he would be able to convince Will that his assocation with Hobbs would have been no good for him.

Yes, that was the way to go, he told himself with a satisfied nod. Much better than the messy end that he had originally planned for the man who was now the fly in his ointment.

It would be far too unpalatable to make the man a substantial part of his next dinner party, Hannibal thought, wrinkling his nose. He had too much of a distaste for Hobbs, in more ways than one.

No, better to simply send him away, out of Will's life.

If he had to take care of the man permanently, he could do so at a later date. It wasn't necessary at the moment; that would take too much time away from his primary goal.

And his primary goal was to have Will back under his aegis, to make sure that the object of his obsession was completely under his control.

If the time eventually came when he had to remove Hobbs from the picture permanently, then he wouldn't hesitate to do so. In fact, he would take great pleasure in it, especially now that he had remembered just where he knew the other man from, and why he had looked vaguely familiar.

He would dispatch Hobbs in the same way that he'd done the man's fiancé, and he would take great pleasure in doing so. He would have no regrets about what he did.

In a way, Hannibal hoped that he would need to take Everett Hobbs out of the picture. It would give him a chance to work off a bit of the rage he felt at the man.

But for the moment, he had to be careful. Hobbs couldn't meet his end. Not yet.

His mind was already working at a way to get rid of Everett as he put the photograph away in a file he had in the bottom drawer of his desk, a file that was growing fairly thick.

Soon, he thought, a smile curving his lips. Soon, Will would be back under his wing, where he belonged. And Everett Hobbs would no longer be a thorn in his side.

***