Palatial Intimacy

XII - The Calls

April 17, 2030

"Fuck it," Will hissed to himself, fumbling with his phone. He had many voicemails from Molly, and he resisted the urge to listen to them right now. He needed to run out of here now, before Hannibal could wake up and speak to him. He didn't want to face that man right now.

But he didn't have enough time. Hannibal was already stirring, and by the time Will got up and ran through the back door he would already be wide awake. It wasn't worth the struggle, and it wasn't worth making Hannibal angry by rudely running away.

He sank back into the cushions, defeated, and began to look through the messages on his phone. Nearly all of the twelve calls had accompanying voicemails, and he didn't want to listen to them out loud for fear of Hannibal eavesdropping. It felt like an open invitation into his personal life, which he didn't want Hannibal to have.

The thing that scared him the most was the one missed call from Jack Crawford. Molly must have contacted him, and that meant that Will's story had completely fallen apart. To both of them, Will was missing, and he'd lied about where he was going. That didn't look good on his part.

"Will?" He heard Hannibal say groggily, shedding his helmet. "What's the matter? You left rather quickly."

"I can't...I have to go. I'm very sorry, Hannibal, but I have to go." Will stood up. His legs shook as he walked over to the coat rack by the back door. "I forgot about something I had going on at home. A roommate of mine is going through a lot of troubles, and he might have just gotten himself into something way worse. I just...I have to go."

"You've been found out, haven't you?"

Will froze. "What do you mean?"

"I don't think you have roommates, Will. You're a professor and an inspector at the FBI, not a college student. You're in your forties." He reached down, taking Will's hand like he had the day before. "And, I'm sorry to call you out like this, dear Will, but you had a wedding band on when we met. You may have removed it now, but you had it only earlier this month."

Will looked down. "Fuck."

"You're married, aren't you? And you wished to hide it. That, or something severe happened to your marriage right after we met, which is unlikely." Hannibal didn't seem angry. As always, he had that neutral curiosity that was almost infuriating. Will would have rather seen him get mad. "I don't like to be lied to, Will."

"I'm married." He sighed. "I have a wife. And she just found out that I lied about where I was going tonight." He held up his phone. "So I need to go home."

"And what are you going to tell her?"

"I don't know. I told her I was going to dinner with Jack Crawford, and she must have called him. He obviously blew my cover."

"Will you tell her where you've really been? Or will you lie again?"

"I don't know."

"If you tell her, then this," he gestured between the two of them, "will have to stop. Jack will probably find out about the missing LOOM, and you could get into a lot of trouble then."

"I'm more concerned about how you'll behave if this stops." Will glared at him. "I can't ensure that you'll keep your end of the deal."

"So long as I remain safely away from the eye of suspicion, then you are safe," Hannibal said. "You have always been safe, though. You intrigue me too much for anything to happen to you."

Will felt dread slowly twisting up in his stomach. "And my family hasn't been safe?"

"They mean nothing to me."