Chapter 6
Erica’s and Boyd’s wedding turned out amazing with a side blog of mortifying events. Boyd of course ended up asking his own brother to be his best man, a small detail that everyone had forgotten in a bid to be bestowed the honour themselves. Derek and Isaac were the groomsmen and they had a roaring time. Later onward, everyone got drunk to high heavens and bonded beyond reason. Erica has to finally carry Boyd bridal style to the getaway car because he got pulled into a shot war with a blue eyed dude. Turned out, all this time Allison had been dating a hunter named Sam Winchester and he has a badass brother named Dean with a badass partner who was, what exactly, no one could decipher at first. Everyone did agree that he was a boss at drinking, as he single handedly consumed half of the liquor at the wedding reception without any adverse effect.
Allison and Sam turned out to be dating the famed psychologist Alana Bloom, who was an esteemed colleague of Lydia’s and a friend, so the previous threats to Allison about giving her dates a deep grilling fell flat on its face, for Lydia was supposed to lead that charge, and Stiles, well, got distracted. Sam was a hunter of the same calibre of Chris if not better and he was not even mock intimidated by the werewolf posturing that kept on happening around him, particularly from Scott and Isaac. Alana turned every invasive question into a psychological analysis and more than one person admitted to crying because of her later. Allison was equal parts happy and equal parts embarrassed at her friends and partners and just kept looking on fondly at the whole lot.
Considering that they had so few guests, Erica insisted that Dean and Cas stay for the wedding reception when they came in their classic black car, giving a lift to Sam to meet the girls who were coming together. With the promise of fantastic food and booze, it did not take too long or too in-depth declarations to make him and thus his partner stay. It was Stiles who found out that Cas was an angel, an actual blood and flesh, albeit borrowed blood and flesh at that, angel of the lord. That almost short circuited his brain, much to everyone’s amusement and Derek’s amused huff. Stiles asked Cas everything he could think of, obscure part of world history, how fish learned to swim, who was the worst dinosaur at hoarding and the fundamentals of winged flight.
Everyone was awed at learning this, Erica and Scott and Isaac’s jaw hitting the ground at the revelation. Everyone was also incredibly impressed with Dean on getting to bang an actual angel. Scott for some reason kept on going up to Cas in the middle of explain whatever the heck he was explaining to Stiles that time to say cheesy angel centric lines and was very pumped at the weird answers he would receive in return. When later asked, he said he just wanted to have a reference. (A sample: Q. Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? A. Yes, how did you find out?)
After Erica and Boyd finally left, making promises to send pictures of their threesomes and orgies, and the proper guests had departed, everyone remaining gathered together and got progressively drunker and drunker with the exception of Cas and Sam and Derek. A quick friendship blossomed between the three, obviously due to the fact that they had to keep the kids under check, and tended to talk lesser than others. When people started to messily make out, that is when the three officially declared the party over and steered the couples into their respective rooms. Derek offered a room to Dean and Cas as well. Cas declined, and then they disappeared in a flurry of wind, the car disappearing from its parked place too as Derek saw it vanish through the window. Sam just smiled at him and said that they liked to be loud, before leaving with Alana and Allison.
At his next single session, Stiles of course opened with, “Dude, we saw an actual ANGEL!”and the whole hilarious celebration came out and Will was shocked at both finding out that Cas was an angel, a fact that he had been unable to find out till date, and that Alana was dating two hunters, another fact that he was not aware of. He made plans on inviting Alana and her two partners and get to know them, with good food and wine on the menu. He was sure that Hannibal will not mind whipping out some of his best dishes for the occasion. Turned out, Hannibal really did not mind and they had a fantastic dinner party later.
On Will and Hannibal’s therapy session with Lydia, after one month of Erica and Boyd’s wedding, Will brought up the fact that he was seeing Stiles, a fact that Lydia was well aware of. He also told about the fact that Stiles had regaled him and Derek over a few sessions about the wedding, where Lydia had featured in some stories as well. Will of course did not tell what Stiles have told exactly, but he let Lydia know that he was aware of her in the periphery. It was a testament to how small their world of supernatural beings were and also impressed on her the fact that overall some lines may have been crossed and thus letting the ball roll in her court as to whether she wanted to do the session or not.
Lydia took a deep breath and said, “I knew that when I sent Stiles to you, I knew that he would talk about his pack and his friends and have expressively given him the right to do so from my side, because that is how therapy. The supernatural world is small, the beings too few so I don’t see any problem in building friendly relationships between different breed of supernaturals. However, I can assure you completely that I can be perfectly professional. Knowing my friends does not mean that you know me and even before we were peers who knew each other. So if you don’t have any problem with it then let me guarantee you that I don’t have any either,” tacking on a genuine smile at the end of that line.
Will immediately felt better, having aired his reservations and them being met with seriously. Lydia is an excellent therapist, and while she excels in providing therapy to non-human beings, she did take on a few human cases, which had intrigued her or in cases where she wanted to provide help. When it came to Will, she had openly declared that Will by itself made a unique breed with his deep empathy that makes him capable of understanding anybody and see the viewpoint and logic of any discussion. Such in depth knowledge and ability to catch on was very, very, rare. This declaration made Will like her more as it felt like she was being open with him as much as she wanted him to be open with her.
Will mostly did one on one sessions with Lydia, but a few times, no more than 3-4 times a year, he would ask permission to bring Hannibal along and Lydia would let him. This was going to such a joint couple session, not that Hannibal ever said much, preferring to talk through his problems with Will in private, but he always came when Will asked and gave his steady support whenever and however he needed it. Right now, Will held one of his hand in his hands and the weight and presence of his existence near him, reminding him that Hannibal is right there with him.
Lydia and Will had been recently talking about how he seems to be losing his patience with some of the clients and this is making him worry. Lydia has addressed his problems and probed thoroughly as to why only some of the clients made him lose his patience and whether it was a reaction directly related to his clients, or a reaction he himself was forming with regards to some particular kinds of clients. Given that he couldn’t exactly talk about his clients and their problems directly, they had to circumnavigate the whole conversation for his emotions to finally make sense when he talked about them.
Will says “With him, now that I remember it, I actually ended up terminating the session early, unable to continue the discussion we were having. I had never done that. And his story is not that unique as well, I still have him as my client and even now I feel a flare of impatience when he is talking during some particular moments. Which is puzzling, as I actually find him pleasant. It has not escalated to the degree that I would consider referring the client to someone else entirely, since he has come quite a long way and is comfortable with me as I am with him. So I just don’t understand...”
Lydia asks, making quick notes in her copy, “Is there any particular topic that make an appearance during the moments when you feel like you are losing your patience?”
“I, ah, no, nothing really comes to mind. He has come from an abusive situation, where his father mentally, verbally and physically abused him and ignored him in turns and even abandoned him a few times, and he internalised things a lot. He also has a low self esteem problem and tends to redirect fault to himself. He could be paranoid at times and needs repeated reassurance for his value to be recognised. Which is a classic abused child situation, and that does not make sense to my problem, I mean my father never abused me or anything,” Will says with his brows furrowed.
“But he did ignore you,” Lydia interjects quickly.
“No, No... He didn’t ignore me, not intentionally. I have another client in the same situation, his mother passed away and his father had to work very hard to make sure that he had food and shelter and the necessities of life and yes it is the same as me, but it was not same as being ignored. He, I, we both felt lonely as we did not have any close family or any siblings and found it extremely hard to make friends. But again, I must say my father did not ignore me, and I would know, if not then, then at least now,” Will says, while he holds tighter onto Hannibal’s hand. Hannibal in response leans more into his body and puts his arm around him.
Lydia then says in a kind voice, “Then perhaps it is not so much an ‘ignoring’ issue as much as ‘loneliness’ issue? Your first client, you have not mentioned another parent or family or even a sibling and on top of that he was abused, so he must have felt quite lonely too. The same with your second client. His father had to work hard to look after his son without any other family support and he must have been lonely too, and perhaps that is what you are reacting against?”
Hannibal, who has Will almost plastered to his chest now says with a frown, “But he is not lonely now. He has me.”
Lydia immediately returns, “Yes of course he has now, but childhood issues can have a deep and lasting impression and until it is resolved can continue to harm and even retract an individual’s development. Will may not be lonely now, but he used to be and perhaps...”
“Yes. Yes, I, I used to feel very lonely. I would try to make friends and failed at every turn, my empathy making me a freak in the eyes of my peers when I was younger. And my father was there, but he would be at work or just gone for so long, and that I eventually used to get angry at myself whenever I felt lonely. I was supposed to be a self sufficient individual, perfectly OK on my own, and yet I would try for social and emotional connections. It was in college that I made friends for the first time, me amusing them at first but I did manage to make friends. And then, then, I found Hannibal and I have never been lonely since,” Will says, pulling himself back from Hannibal’s hold and looks in his eyes with half wonder and half love.
“Neither have I,” Hannibal says in return.
Lydia smiles faintly at that. It will take some time and a few tries to purge Will of his bad and repressed memories, but with someone like Hannibal on his side and friends flanking him at every turn, she did not see why he could not learn to be happy again. After all, finding out that you can be happy and actually deserve to be happy, isn’t that we live on for?