Hannibal's office, Saturday

[sharp_as_knives]

At least staying at the hotel and meeting in his office meant that it was a short (and pleasant, if cold) walk to work, rather than a drive in Baltimore traffic. Which was especially welcome as his morning routine took a little longer as a woman.

Hannibal chased off the squirrels with a rum bribe and a forbidding look, turned the heat up to a comfortable range, and set out water, then sat at his desk to read a bit while he waited for Derek.



[OOC: NFB because therapy!]

Comments

[sharp_as_knives]

"So I'm told," Hannibal answered wryly. "It does a lot of things, it seems. What else has it been up to lately?"

[justlurkinghere]

"I heard a conversation I had with my mother yesterday." It wasn't nice to hear her voice in that instance.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal frowned, parsing that. While he wasn't ruling out Derek's mother back from the dead, he doubt he'd have phrased it that way, so - "Like an auditory hallucination, or a very vivid memory?"

Just because the island was insane didn't mean the people on it couldn't be, too.

[justlurkinghere]

"Like the other person in the room heard it too," Derek replied. "It was a conversation we had when I was fifteen."

[sharp_as_knives]

Likely still the island, then. Hannibal nodded.

"Shortly before she died?"

[justlurkinghere]

Derek looked down. "Yes."

[sharp_as_knives]

"What were you talking about?"

[justlurkinghere]

"The aftermath of someone I was close to's death." And his magical bullshit eye color change that made no sense in canon.

As you do.

[sharp_as_knives]

"The friend you mentioned in our last session?" Hannibal asked.

Because even he couldn't help with bullshit canon; you were on your own for that one, Derek.

[justlurkinghere]

"Yes. Her."

Why can't he be from a canon with cannibalistic serial killers?

[sharp_as_knives]

"Did it hurt more for the reminder of a time when your mother was there for you, or for the reminder of the person you lost?"

Because only the coolest people were.

...although you never knew; just give it time.

[justlurkinghere]

"I... I really don't know."

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "Good memories and bad can both be painful; they remind us of what we have lost."

He watched Derek carefully. "Will you tell me about your friend who died?"

[justlurkinghere]

He had to, didn't he?

"We were close. Stupid kids," he said with a shrug.

[sharp_as_knives]

It would help, yes.

"What was her name?"

[justlurkinghere]

"Paige."

And it was just a pointless backstory.

[sharp_as_knives]

"How close were you?"

It couldn't be pointless. There was so much sulking to do about it!

[justlurkinghere]

Well, okay. Needlessly dramatic and traumatizing.

"Very close." Sigh. "I found her. Dying."

THANKS, PETER.

[sharp_as_knives]

"What had happened?"

[justlurkinghere]

"She'd been attacked." By a werewolf. "And I didn't know what to do. She was dying. She smelled so sick form it..."

He'd rethink that phrase later.

[sharp_as_knives]

To be fair, Hannibal could smell sickness, too. And there were enough other people on the island with extraordinary abilities that he just set it aside and made note of it.

"What did you do?"

[justlurkinghere]

"I panicked. There wasn't anything that could fix her."

Because of werewolf bites.

[sharp_as_knives]

How he had known that was another thing filed away for later. "And then what?"

[justlurkinghere]

"She was in so much pain and I couldn't help her enough." Derek, think about what you're saying. Think about it. "It wasn't enough to help her. So, I took her somewhere safe. I'd hidden there before when--"

When people are attempting to gun him down for being alive and inhuman.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal would have to start an entire mental cabinet for "things to ask you later", Derek.

"And was this place still safe?" He was beginning to get a picture here.