Coming and Going [for Will Graham]

[live_growstronger]

Methos held the ticket in his hand as he stood in the center of train station, eyeing the electronic board that listed the various trains coming and going. His train seemed to be on time, but he still had a few hours before it would leave.

He'd head to Canada first. There were a few places he'd stored a few items- passports, forms, etc, for identities he could assume. Adam Pierson would be no more.

Then he'd head to the Caribbean, figure out his next move there while he had himself a nice vacation and cleared his head.

Hannibal. He cared for the man, if he could be considered that, but this was for the best. He wasn't safe with him.

Comments

[hard2lookaway]

As a train comes in, a young-seeming man steps off. He shoulders his bag closer to his body and looks both ways with eyes that seem entirely too old for his face. Scars litter his body and he occasionally walks with a limp.

If his eyes land on anyone, they do not stay there. He has one purpose anymore. He's lost everything else, after all. He just needs to find Hannibal. Finally end it. That is all.

He starts toward the station and the exits and streets beyond, brushing close to the man looking up at the board.

[live_growstronger]

If he couldn't feel another Immortal's presence he might have mistaken the look in the man's eye for that of one of his own kind. But as he could, he knew that this man was human.

An injured one at that.

Methos frowned as he considered the man, finding his eyes following him from the moment he'd approached and onward until he was moving passed him.

He found his mouth opening to speak to him, for Methos' curiosity found itself tugged to do so, "You look like you could use a drink."

[hard2lookaway]

Startling at being spoken to, Will goes still amidst all the people walking around. "You're asking me?"

It feels as if he has been living in some kind of fugue state: maybe he has.

Regardless, he finds himself nodding. "I could use a drink, yes."

[live_growstronger]

Methos watched him even closer then. There was definitely something about him, he was sure of it. He was jumpy, possibly from whatever injury he might have sustained?

He smiled, hoping it looked friendly enough that the man would agree to what he offered next, "Perhaps you might have one with me then? My train isn't leaving for another three hours and I find myself in need of something to do. Unless... you've pressing business? I don't want to interrupt."

[hard2lookaway]

Any moment, Hannibal Lecter could disappear. But Will will simply find him.

It's probably a bad idea to drink, but he still nods. "Yes, all right."

[live_growstronger]

Huh. He'd somewhat suspected the man might not agree. But he was pleased to be wrong in this case. "There's a pub, just across the street." he noted, "I'll buy, since I'm dragging you along. It's only fair."

"I'm Adam, by the way."

[hard2lookaway]

"Will," he replies. He takes another deep breath and looks around for the exit. "Where are you headed?" he asks, his voice low; he's making small talk but it's a noticeable effort.

[live_growstronger]

"Albany, New York." Methos answered, seeing no point in lying about his destination, although he'd lie about his reasons for the trip, "Then I'm headed to Canada."

"You?" he headed toward the exist, showing Will the direction.

[hard2lookaway]

"I am ... hunting," Will says with a dry-as-a-bone irony. "Here. It's a kind of wild hog."

[live_growstronger]

He felt a chill up his spine that he couldn't quite explain with the way in which Will said those words. Methos felt a frown threaten at his brow, but he fought it back. Clearly he was just worrying over nothing, yes?

Granted his vicious paranoia had always served him well. Plus the mention of hogs had him wondering all the more.

"Oh?" Methos managed, "I wasn't aware this was a place popular for it's hunting. But then I'm not much of a hunter."

[hard2lookaway]

"I was taught by the best," Will says, the words coming out brittle.

He cannot shake Hannibal off that easily.

AT the bar, he sits heavily on a stool.

[live_growstronger]

Each word this man speaks leads Methos to suspect him all the more. Perhaps he too would not shake off Hannibal Lecter so easily as he'd planned.

Or he's imagining things. It was a possibility.

For now, he ordered himself a whisky, looking to Will expectantly for his order.

"Mmm. I used to go hunting. But I decided it wasn't for me." He shook his head, nose wrinkled.

[hard2lookaway]

"Tequila with a water," Will says, then looks over at Adam. "I used to be more of a fisherman," he adds. "But ... that requires more peace than I have."

[live_growstronger]

"So something changed?" Methos surmised, leaning back in his chair. He looked a lot more comfortable seated there than he actually was. "Because presumably you used to have the 'peace' for it."

[hard2lookaway]

"I did."

Then Hannibal Lecter happened. Will takes the newly delivered shot and looks down into it. "I am talking too much, I suppose." And perhaps he's too tired to care.

[live_growstronger]

"That's okay. I like to listen." Methos waved off the concern, looking up to thank the waiter when he brought their drinks. "But I also like to talk-" he laughed. Granted when he talked he wound up not saying much at all that was true.

"I fish sometimes, but only on shore. I don't like being out on the water."

[hard2lookaway]

If Will tries, he can still feel the water around his legs, fishing even with Abigail. "Why not?" he asks, curious.

[live_growstronger]

"I nearly drowned once. I don't care to relive the experience." Except he hadn't nearly. He had drowned, multiple times in the freezing water of the Atlantic before washing up on the shores of Iceland. Damn Irish monks and their idiotic idea to row across the ocean.

[hard2lookaway]

Ah. Will nods, then tosses back his shot. As he hisses, he says, "Fear changes how our minds work. It changes how we react and act and even how we think."

[live_growstronger]

"Mmm, that is does." Fear more or less shaped the majority of his actions. Fear of death kept him from so much. It was why he was leaving now.

"For the better or the worse, do you think?"

[hard2lookaway]

"Many circumstances dictate that," Will says, rubbing at his forehead, feeling that buzz of the tequila already, all of his training coming back to him, all the studies he read about fear and trauma.

"It can make someone stronger, or it can destroy them."

[live_growstronger]

He sipped his whisky watching Will over the glass, smirking a bit, "Would have been easier to just say... 'depends'."

[hard2lookaway]

"It does depend," Will says, almost smiling for a moment. "But that overly simplifies it, doesn't it? Humans are ... very complex creatures who can't be just 'depends.'"

[live_growstronger]

"This is true." he agreed, a touch meaningfully but still smiling. "We're both more than just two simple humans getting off and onto a train."

"For example, you're a hunter who apparently knows something about human psychology." Which was very interesting.

[hard2lookaway]

Will wags a finger in Adam's direction, smiling dryly. "It makes it better to hunt. Understanding how it works."

Of course, Will has had other chances to take Hannibal down and he hasn't. He cannot hesitate any more.