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Jack froze mid-step in the bullpen, staring at the thing he’d just fished out of Will’s duffel bag.
A collar.
Black leather.
High quality.
And dangling from it, a silver tag engraved in flawless, mocking script:
Property of: Hannibal Lecter
Jack turned it over in his hands, as though a second look might reveal it to be some kind of sick joke.
Nope. Still a collar.
Still warm from being inside Will’s bag.
Still faintly smelling of cedar and… regret.
Wonderful.
After a long, quiet moment of questioning every choice that had led him here, Jack squared his shoulders, marched into Will’s office, and dropped the offending item onto the desk with a sharp clink.
Will, hunched over paperwork, didn’t look up at first.
— This, — Jack began, his tone already halfway to cardiac arrest, — fell out of your bag.
Will’s pen stopped. Hovered mid-word.
His eyes drifted down to the collar. Then up to Jack. Then back to the collar.
Slowly — like a man approaching a bear trap — Will reached out, plucked it off the desk, and slipped it into his jacket pocket.
He cleared his throat.
— Thanks. — The words came out hoarse. — That’s… sentimental.
Jack stared at him.
— Sentimental.
— Yep. Heirloom.
Jack’s jaw tightened visibly.
— Family heirloom.
Will coughed, adjusting the collar of his shirt as though that would somehow make this better.
— Well. Hannibal’s side of the family.
Jack blinked at him. Hard.
— It doesn’t belong to one of your dogs, does it?
That actually got a laugh out of Will — short, humorless, but a laugh all the same.
— No, Jack. It doesn’t.
Jack pressed a hand to the bridge of his nose, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like “I’m too old for this shit.”
— So it’s yours.
Will’s mouth twitched — a little smile, a little grimace.
— Technically… no.
Jack’s eyes narrowed.
— Then whose?
Will just stared at him. Not answering. Not blinking.
Jack exhaled slowly, shook his head, and muttered on his way out:
— I don’t even want to know.
Will let out the breath he’d been holding and quietly replied to no one in particular:
— That’s for the best.