Angel's Sojourn: Hannibal x Reader x Will

Chapter 6. Vichyssoise

When you'd first met Jack Crawford as a trainee, young and bright as a brand new penny, you had been eager to earn his approval, and all but certain that you would never receive it. You were immensely surprised however when he approached you directly to offer you his congratulations at having made the program. He wished to see great things from you. He had smiled warmly, and it hadn't quite reached his eyes. His hands were also warm and rough, and they shook slightly when he spoke. You had thought that maybe he'd been visiting his friends in the fridge a little too often, a habit you're glad he's now seemed to have broken.

Since then you had known Jack Crawford as a callous, two faced, single minded, autocratic son-of-a-bitch. Part of you does of course consider this overall opinion of him to be rather harsh, the part of you that was eager to think of him as a surrogate father who's attentions you would senselessly strive to hold. The other part of you has since come to recognize that the "peculiar cleverness" he possesses has become quite tiring, having always been at the expense of others younger, and more vulnerable.

When you were a trainee you'd shared a dorm with a nice girl named Miriam Lass. You had only known her for a short time, but even so you came to appreciate her as family. She'd wash your laundry sometimes without ever asking, and fold it too. She was a first rate study buddy, and perhaps one of your favorite qualities out of the many you found in her; she was almost entirely unnoticeable.

You didn't know if it was her size or demeanor, or perhaps a combination of the two, that made her so inconspicious. She was simply quiet as a mouse and just as vigilant. She was always presenting you with new bits of gossip that you just ate up together. Something she'd heard in the laundry or the locker room, just simply standing in a corner somewhere. Something like; "Did you hear Jimmy Price is GAY?" or "Guess who Johnny Beers has been hooking up with?" She could never fail to make you laugh out loud. She was also the best trainee you knew, a fact that certainly never escaped Crawford's notice, who recognized her talent for good old fashioned espionage as soon as her file found its way to his desk.

He soon put her on the Chesapeake Ripper case after viewing her test scores and hearing nothing but good things from her instructors. Initially you had been jealous of her assignment, as everyone had been, but that soon gave way to swelling pride and a sense of justice. If anyone deserved to be Jack Crawford's prodigy, it was Miriam.

However over the next couple of weeks she took a major turn in a downward direction, losing an immeasurable amount of sleep and rationality. Her grades started dropping, and her instructors began to warn her with threats of being recycled, but she never stopped chasing after The Ripper. You were sure that she couldn't carry on for much longer, and suddenly, she didn't have to. Nobody knew what happened to Miriam Lass after her disappearance, and still don't, but one thing was for certain; You placed most of the blame on Jack fucking Crawford.

Once you knew Jack's game, it was easier to hate him. For a while at least. Until he brought you in to Behavioral Science to talk with him about Miriam, as any intimate knowledge of your missing roommate would be of great import in finding her, he had told you. And all at once, you forgave him. Forgave him of his illusions of superiority, or of mentorship. Forgave him of his borrowed wisdom and empty words of appreciation. You forgave him of Miriam, and of yourself, who lost more than a roommate the day she disappeared.  Simply put, you would have done anything for him. You would have killed for him.

You feel bad for not being completely honest with Will about your relationship with Jack. The fact is, it had been Crawford who had recommended Dr. Lecter to you when you were recycled from Quantico, a referral you had wholeheartedly rejected at the time. You had told yourself therapy was for crazy people, and you were not crazy. You know now the gesture was meant to be a beacon of hope for you, a message that said your recycling was merely temporary, if you so choose. That Jack hadn't given up on you yet, and he hoped you'd get help and come back again fresh and ready to work for him once more.