When they pull up to their apartment building, the dashboard clock reads 11:54. It's a nice area of town, so no one is around lurking. Hannibal sees no one as he strips off both his shirts, balls them inside one another, and tucks them behind the car seat.
His nose is still bloody, there's coagulation across his ear and hair, but at least without a red-splotched shirt he stands out slightly less. Shirtless, bloody pants still visible, he goes into the lobby and calls the elevator.
Their door is still forced open, unlocked. Hannibal stashes all the cash from his room and Neph's into Neph's bug-out bag. He finds Will's backpack and shoves clothes in there. He changes into the softest pants he owns and a casual shirt of Will's.
He methodically wipes down every non-porous surface with alcohol, though he thinks it might be too late to worry about anti-mutant groups finding their prints.
Fifteen minutes after he went in, Hannibal is coming down their stairs with three bags. He leaves the door locked. They may want to come back, eventually, before their lease ends.
The motel is one he selects based on the fact that it has its own doors directly to the outside, so Will and Neph won't set anyone's suspicions raising by being dragged through hallways. Hannibal pays, acting sleepy and anxious to rest after a long day of road-tripping to the front desk help - a teenager probably not much older than himself, who probably didn't even need the act as an excuse for this.
Will's woken up a bit, by the time Hannibal is back to the car.
"Are we okay?" Is what he says when Hannibal hooks him by the armpits and begins dragging him out of the car. And then "Shit, my leg!" He grabs for it and Hannibal simply holds more of his weight, then all of it, as Will flounders against him.
"We have an audience. Please." Hannibal whispers, and Will goes quiet.
"...A hotel." Will says wonderingly once they're inside, and Hannibal decides not to correct him that it's a motel. "Good thing you're fucking rich."
The shower is going to look like one of those murders actually took place here by the time everyone's gone through it, but at least they'll all be able to get clean. At least Neph and Will can convalesce somewhere safe.
"You okay?" Will asks. Hannibal doesn't want to ask what expression he was wearing to warrant the way Will watches him.
"Yes. I'm going to get you a glass of water, and then I'm going to bring Neph in here as well. Then I am going to leave. There's only one key to this room. I will leave it with you in case you need it. I'll pick the lock to come back in, if you're not awake."
Will stares at him, face waxen and pale. He looks even worse in here, in the yellow lighting from the terrible bedside lamp, than he did in the car while Hannibal drove them under scattered street lights.
"What?" Hannibal breaks the silence. He can't leave the room with Will's stare on him like that, without an explanation.
Will shifts on the bed, starts laying down. "Felt like meeting your doppelganger, earlier. Now I can see that it's all you."
Hannibal doesn't ask again. Will rolls over towards the back wall, and Hannibal leaves.
Hannibal never got to carry Mischa's dead body while it still had flesh on it. He imagines it might have felt like picking Neph out of the car, a boneless neck and a mouth that hangs open with gravity, eyes closed only because she'd been exhausted when she lost consciousness. He places her on the same bed as Will without explanation and Will doesn't ask him why, just shifts a hand over to feel for Neph's pulse at the wrist.
Hannibal thinks about pressing dry lips to Will's hair, to Neph's, and does neither. He leaves with just the taste of blood in his mouth, heading to the teaching hospital.
*
He comes back in two hours and with more than he left their apartment with. He needs two trips to bring everything into the room, and he has to pick the lock to get in, although Will wakes up during his final trip inside and Hannibal ends up having to help him back onto the bed, startled and aggressive in confused exhaustion.
"It's just you," Will says on a ragged sigh, while Hannibal props his leg up on the pillows from the second, unused bed. "Thought it was someone breaking in."
"Both of the things you just said are correct." Hannibal allows, and Will snorts.
Will doesn't respond much to Hannibal dressing his leg. He watches with dull eyes when Hannibal cleans off his arm with iodine. He only appears to register what's about to happen when Hannibal unfolds the IV stand and sets it up next to him. A bag of blood and a bag of fluids gets hung, Will's eyes wide on it.
"I'm very good with needles." Hannibal says, earnestly. "You may not feel anything at all, and I doubt you will bruise."
"I can't believe you're a real person." Is all Will says for the next ten minutes. His face barely winces when Hannibal pricks him for his blood transfusion, although he hisses in pain at the one on the back of his palm for the fluids.
Will is asleep by the time Hannibal is working on Neph. She has no reaction to anything, and Hannibal has the IV in her good hand when he wonders if he should just set all of her bones now. Should he move her to the other bed so Will won't wake up if the bed bounces with the pressure needed?
In the end, Hannibal piles all of their belongings next to the small dresser in the room, takes a shower, ices his nose with one of the instant cold packs stolen from the hospital, and then crawls into bed between them.
*
The next morning, he wakes up first and, in the half-light through closed curtains, he feels like his family has passed through some liminal barrier, coming out the other side as something more or less than human. He thinks of the Mart, of having to crane his neck to look Neph in the eye, and now - now he presses a dry kiss to her hairline, touches her wrist to check for a pulse.
He manages not to wake Will up while moving Neph over to the other bed, and starts the process of setting her mutilated arm in complete silence.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2017-08-18 01:31 pm (UTC)His nose is still bloody, there's coagulation across his ear and hair, but at least without a red-splotched shirt he stands out slightly less. Shirtless, bloody pants still visible, he goes into the lobby and calls the elevator.
Their door is still forced open, unlocked. Hannibal stashes all the cash from his room and Neph's into Neph's bug-out bag. He finds Will's backpack and shoves clothes in there. He changes into the softest pants he owns and a casual shirt of Will's.
He methodically wipes down every non-porous surface with alcohol, though he thinks it might be too late to worry about anti-mutant groups finding their prints.
Fifteen minutes after he went in, Hannibal is coming down their stairs with three bags. He leaves the door locked. They may want to come back, eventually, before their lease ends.
The motel is one he selects based on the fact that it has its own doors directly to the outside, so Will and Neph won't set anyone's suspicions raising by being dragged through hallways. Hannibal pays, acting sleepy and anxious to rest after a long day of road-tripping to the front desk help - a teenager probably not much older than himself, who probably didn't even need the act as an excuse for this.
Will's woken up a bit, by the time Hannibal is back to the car.
"Are we okay?" Is what he says when Hannibal hooks him by the armpits and begins dragging him out of the car. And then "Shit, my leg!" He grabs for it and Hannibal simply holds more of his weight, then all of it, as Will flounders against him.
"We have an audience. Please." Hannibal whispers, and Will goes quiet.
"...A hotel." Will says wonderingly once they're inside, and Hannibal decides not to correct him that it's a motel. "Good thing you're fucking rich."
The shower is going to look like one of those murders actually took place here by the time everyone's gone through it, but at least they'll all be able to get clean. At least Neph and Will can convalesce somewhere safe.
"You okay?" Will asks. Hannibal doesn't want to ask what expression he was wearing to warrant the way Will watches him.
"Yes. I'm going to get you a glass of water, and then I'm going to bring Neph in here as well. Then I am going to leave. There's only one key to this room. I will leave it with you in case you need it. I'll pick the lock to come back in, if you're not awake."
Will stares at him, face waxen and pale. He looks even worse in here, in the yellow lighting from the terrible bedside lamp, than he did in the car while Hannibal drove them under scattered street lights.
"What?" Hannibal breaks the silence. He can't leave the room with Will's stare on him like that, without an explanation.
Will shifts on the bed, starts laying down. "Felt like meeting your doppelganger, earlier. Now I can see that it's all you."
Hannibal doesn't ask again. Will rolls over towards the back wall, and Hannibal leaves.
Hannibal never got to carry Mischa's dead body while it still had flesh on it. He imagines it might have felt like picking Neph out of the car, a boneless neck and a mouth that hangs open with gravity, eyes closed only because she'd been exhausted when she lost consciousness. He places her on the same bed as Will without explanation and Will doesn't ask him why, just shifts a hand over to feel for Neph's pulse at the wrist.
Hannibal thinks about pressing dry lips to Will's hair, to Neph's, and does neither. He leaves with just the taste of blood in his mouth, heading to the teaching hospital.
*
He comes back in two hours and with more than he left their apartment with. He needs two trips to bring everything into the room, and he has to pick the lock to get in, although Will wakes up during his final trip inside and Hannibal ends up having to help him back onto the bed, startled and aggressive in confused exhaustion.
"It's just you," Will says on a ragged sigh, while Hannibal props his leg up on the pillows from the second, unused bed. "Thought it was someone breaking in."
"Both of the things you just said are correct." Hannibal allows, and Will snorts.
Will doesn't respond much to Hannibal dressing his leg. He watches with dull eyes when Hannibal cleans off his arm with iodine. He only appears to register what's about to happen when Hannibal unfolds the IV stand and sets it up next to him. A bag of blood and a bag of fluids gets hung, Will's eyes wide on it.
"I'm very good with needles." Hannibal says, earnestly. "You may not feel anything at all, and I doubt you will bruise."
"I can't believe you're a real person." Is all Will says for the next ten minutes. His face barely winces when Hannibal pricks him for his blood transfusion, although he hisses in pain at the one on the back of his palm for the fluids.
Will is asleep by the time Hannibal is working on Neph. She has no reaction to anything, and Hannibal has the IV in her good hand when he wonders if he should just set all of her bones now. Should he move her to the other bed so Will won't wake up if the bed bounces with the pressure needed?
In the end, Hannibal piles all of their belongings next to the small dresser in the room, takes a shower, ices his nose with one of the instant cold packs stolen from the hospital, and then crawls into bed between them.
*
The next morning, he wakes up first and, in the half-light through closed curtains, he feels like his family has passed through some liminal barrier, coming out the other side as something more or less than human. He thinks of the Mart, of having to crane his neck to look Neph in the eye, and now - now he presses a dry kiss to her hairline, touches her wrist to check for a pulse.
He manages not to wake Will up while moving Neph over to the other bed, and starts the process of setting her mutilated arm in complete silence.