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Title: Work To Be Done
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Will Graham/Everett Hobbs (Original Character)
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Table: writers_choice
Prompt: #573, Work
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.

***

They couldn't let themselves feel as though they were safe from Hannibal, Everett thought with a frown. He knew only too well that they weren't.

How could they be? He remembered the black look of hatred that Hannibal had given him when they had met; there was no way that anyone could feel safe when someone had stared at them so malevolently.

Hannibal didn't intend to let them feel safe; that was all too obvious. And Everett couldn't help wondering which of them, himself or Will, would be his first target.

He knew that Hannibal would stop at nothing to achieve his objectives.

Of course, he didn't know what those objectives were, but he could guess. First of all, Hannibal would want to get Will back under his sphere of influence, make sure that the young man was firmly under his thumb.

Then, he would want to get Everett out of the picture. The idea made Everett shiver; he knew all too well how deadly Hannibal could be.

He'd seen that with his own eyes, in what had been his own home. He didn't want to go through something like that again; he had lost one person he'd loved to Hannibal's evil, and he didn't intend to lose Will.

He would protect Will, no matter what he had to do. He wasn't going to let the man he'd fallen in love with fall under that monster's spell.

The first order of business was to figure out just what Hannibal was after, why he had provided the evidence that had set Will free after he had worked so hard to have Will imprisoned. Just what game was he playing?

Everett knew that wouldn't be easy to decipher.

Hannibal was far too good at playing games, far too experienced at it. He and Will were the novices, new to dealing with this kind of labyrinth.

But they would defeat Hannibal, Everett vowed, scowling. They would turn the tables on that monster, and surprise him with what he least expected. This time, he wasn't going to be the victor.

Everett refused to believe for even a moment that Hannibal could come out on top in this cat and mouse game. He knew that to think that way meant certain defeat.

One of Hannibal's strengths was his hubris, his absolute certainty that he was above the law and that no one could manage to decipher him. Though Everett knew that such pride could also be Hannibal's downfall.

Sooner or later, that hubris would trip him up, and he would make a fatal mistake. Then they would have him backed into a corner.

Everett could hardly wait for that day to come.

It would come, he told himself firmly. He and Will were on the side of good, and good always triumphed over evil.

Or did it? a little voice in the back of his mind spoke up. Did good always win? He had seen far too many examples of good being vanquished, of people needlessly suffering while evil walked free in the world.

He'd been through that himself, on a personal basis, hadn't he? He knew all too well that no, good did not always win in the end.

But this time, he wasn't going to let evil triumph. He hadn't known what to do when Luke had been killed, and he'd felt stymied and frustrated. No one had believed him, and he'd had no proof of what Hannibal really was.

This time, with Will on his side, they could convince people like Jack Crawford of the fact that Hannibal was indeed a monster, one that should be locked up. They would be able to prove his guilt, once and for all.

It wouldn't be easy, of course; they would have to find a way to make Hannibal expose his evil, and so far, he had been far too cautious to do so.

Sooner or later, he had to. No one could keep committing crimes of the kind of magnitude that Hannibal's were and keep getting away with them. He had been lucky so far, but at some point, his luck would run out.

Everett's lips thinned as a flash of white-hot anger rushed through him. Hannibal had to be stopped, for the good of society.

Somehow, he and Will would find a way to do that.

He didn't know if Jack Crawford was completely on their side yet, but he had a feeling that the man would be. It was just a matter of time.

Crawford would take some convincing, of course. Everett had expected that. He wasn't the kind of man who would simply believe anything he heard. But Everett was sure that he could be convinced once he heard the whole story.

Once Crawford knew of what Hannibal had done in London, and the other crimes that Everett was sure he'd committed, his interest would be piqued.

Everett had a thick folder of crime scene pictures and descriptions that he was sure he could attribute to Lecter, and he intended to show them to Jack Crawford. Their uncanny resemblance to the Chesapeake Ripper's crimes couldn't be denied.

He was sure that once Crawford saw what he had to offer, he would be more than ready to go after Hannibal Lecter.

Then, with the FBI's help, they would have him.

He didn't want revenge just for himself and Luke, Everett reminded himself. He wanted to put Lecter behind bars for the good of society in general, to stop him from hurting other people, which he undoubtedly would do.

And he wanted revenge for Willl, as well. He wanted to pay Lecter back for the hell he had put Will through in the last months.

He had been shaken to find out exactly how that monster had tormented Will, to learn that he had literally given Will a potentially fatal illness, simply to see how Will would react, and hadn't cared whether it had killed Will or not.

How could anyone be so evil? he wondered. How could someone have so little regard for human life? It didn't seem possible.

Yet it certainly was possible. Lecter was proof that a person who had absolutely no qualms about killing could indeed exist, and could walk amongst other wearing the mask of an affable human being over the face of a predator.

He wanted to rid the world of that predator once and for all.

They would do it, he told himself firmly. Between himself, Will, and the FBI, they would put Hannibal behind bars, his evil neutralized.

They would achieve their goal, and have the closure that they needed. Everett was more sure of that than he had ever been; he was confident that with the FBI on their side, their job would be much easier than if they were attempting it alone.

But there was still work to be done, he cautioned himself. He couldn't be too confident. Not yet. The hardest part was still ahead of them.

They would get that work done, and they would succeed.

All they needed at this point was to get Jack Crawford on their side, and Everett was sure that the man was nearly already there.

Then, they would have to put their heads together and figure out the best way to trap the predator that they were after. That wouldn't be the hardest part, though. The most difficult thing would be actually putting that plan into action.

They would manage it, no matter what they had to do, Everett told himself firmly. And the plan would work. It had to. There was no other option.

***