Knocking on door interrupted Will's new morning ritual of contemplating where his life had gone so terribly wrong and drinking heavily till noon. It was an irritating persistent knock, the kind that hinted the person on the other side of the door was fucking perky and horribly awake, so Will supposed he had no choice but to answer it. It didn't sound like the knock of someone who was going to go away anytime soon. To Will's chagrin, it turned out not to be one irritating person but three irritating people. An Asian woman and two men, one neatly dressed and the other not so much, were standing on his porch.

"I gave at church." Will told them, moving to shut the door and regretting he had bothered to open it in the first place.

"No you don't. You don't go to church, you charming little heathen." The woman said with a wide grin and sparkling dark eyes, pushing past Will to let herself and the others in.

"Hey, wait…" Will protested, but it was an already losing battle. "You just can't barge in here. He really needed to train up the dogs, most of the pack not even bothering to get from their napping spots to investigate. "The prices for my services are on the side of the house."

"Oh, we're not here for that." the neat as a pin man with a jaunty little cap on his head told him. "Plus, you should reconsider how you say that and to whom."

"Ok, then fuck off." Will was tired of strange people trespassing on his property. He'd had his fill of it with Hannibal. At least the trio didn't look like they were going to steal the rest of his books. The merman had taken quite a few with him.

"Not an option." said the other man wearing the rather tacky Hawaiian shirt and cargo pants, helping himself to a beer from the fridge. "Will Graham, last of your line and keeper of the Blade of Tides…"

"The what?" Will interrupted, arching a brow at the three's wide eyed answering looks of disbelief and open dismay.

"The knife on your hip, dumbass." the beer stealer huffed, rolling his eyes. Will looked back at him blankly, obviously waiting for a proper explanation.

"Oh my wings, how don't you know what it's called? Are you serious, Graham?!" the woman threw her hands up in the air, looking like she wanted to smack Will upside his head.

"We're so fucked." Hawaiian shirt sighed, doing his best to chug his stolen beer as quickly as possible.

"Not helping." Cute cap guy said out of the side of his mouth, endeavoring to keep a pleasant look on his face.

"What's going on here? Quit talking at me. I have no idea what you're rambling on about so try talking to me instead." Will snapped, rescuing his beer from the mooch. Despite recently encountering a rather pompous merman with boundary issues, life had been looking up for Will. Hannibal had gifted the fisherman with gold doubloons in payment for all the food he ruined. For once in his life, Will had a hell of a lot of money in the bank. Even better, he hadn't seen scaled tail or bare butt of the merman ever since.

"Ok, sweetie. Here's the deal with the knife. The Blade of Tides is kind of like a wand…" the woman started to explain to have Will motion for silence.

"I swear to god, if you tell me I'm a wizard…" Will growled, narrowing his eyes. It didn't have the desired effect of them leaving or disintegrating that he wanted.

"No, no, no…" Cap guy started.

"You're more like a warlock. Less flash, more substance." Hawaiian shirt answered instead, trying to get the beer back away from Will. He got kicked in the shins for his troubles.

The trio were met with a flat look, watching as Will walked slowly over to the front door to hold it open from them. "Get out." he ordered.

"Hear us out. I know it sounds like complete bullshit." the woman huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"And you all are? Warlocks too, right?" Will asked, and instantly regretted his sarcasm.

"We are your fairies." he was informed by cap guy with a relieved grin and a flourish.

"I'm straight." Will pointed out to receive a mixture of looks from the gathered fae.

"No. No, you're not." Cap guy said dryly causing Will to deflate a bit.

"Straight-ish." Will tried again. He looked to Winston for support, his most faithful of the pack, to have the canine yawn at him.

"Nope." Hawaiian shirt guy shook his head, finally managing to snag the six pack away from Will.

"It's complicated?" Will sighed, slumping his shoulders in defeat. His dreams of late had been starring a certain very naked merman and a whole lot of awkward boat sex.

"That's better." Beverly patted his cheek.

"But fairies don't exist." Will said, making Hawaiian shirt drop to the floor, his hand clutching his chest over his heart like he was dying. He managed not to hurt the beer in his death throes, which was quite impressive considering how much he was hamming it up.

"Quick! Clap your hands!" Cap guy said, mimicking the action to receive a very unimpressed look from Will and an eye roll from the woman.

"Why?" Will toed the deceased fairy who swatted his foot away with renewed vigor. He couldn't continue to play dead much longer as too many cold, wet noses prodded him, the dogs taking an interest cause technically anything on the floor was theirs.

"Because it saves fairies. Read a book." Cap guy huffed, gently shooing away the pack who huffed at him before wandering off to resuming napping.

"No. Why would I want to save him?" Will clarified as he retrieved his beer.

"Wow, fuck you too, man. That's cold." Hawaiian shirt bitched at him, picking himself up off of the floor to made a valiant attempt at getting all the dog hair off of him without a lint roller.

"Ice cold." said cap guy, shaking his head.

"You guys are idiots. I'm Beverly, Beverly Katz, by the way." The woman sighed, pointing about as she made introductions. "That's Jimmy Price in the hat, and Brian Zeller whose trying to channel Hawaii Five-O."

"What's wrong with my shirt?" Zeller demanded, looking down at his brightly flowered shirt.

"You mean besides everything?" Price countered, giving the attire a pointed look.

"Those are some very fairy sounding names there." Will said, popping open a beer for himself. His sarcasm was not lost on the fairies.

"C'mon, do you really call a grown ass man Bluebell? Or Bumblebee?" Zeller pointed it. "We could give you our fae names, but that's what is on our drivers licenses so deal with it."

"What's wrong with Bumblebee?" Price muttered, glaring over at Zeller.

"Nothing. I'm just saying." Zeller said, having the look of someone who had just stepped in it and deep.

"I like bees." Price grumped, making Beverly snicker as Zeller tried to backpedal.

"So, warlock?" Will prompted. He had a feeling that tangents were threatening to lead this conversation awry, and he really didn't have the patience or enough booze in his system for it at the moment.

"Yes, a warlock of storm." Beverly said grandly, giving Will that grin again, like Will was going to solve all her problems. The fisherman wished he could have smidge of her confidence.

"More like a stormlock." Zeller added, making Beverly look like she was going to throw a dog at him to make him shut up.

"Nice." said Price, Zeller apparently back in his good graces.

"And you are all fairies?" Will asked, attempting to get some answers. His simple life of fixing boat motors and generally ignoring everything that wasn't a dog had suddenly gotten very complicated. It really didn't seem fair.

"Yup." Beverly said a little too enthusiastically for continuity of his normalcy. Will placed a mental bet with himself that she had been the one knocking on the door as he watched Beverly plant her feet, the fairy obviously on a mission. "You are going to need our help."

"Where were you when I would have given a damn about this? Aren't things like this supposed to happen when you're a teenager? For fuck's sake, I'm almost in my forties! You can't spring shit like this on me now." Will grumbled and snapped. Confusion was quickly becoming a close friend of his, followed by resentment. Will wanted to become better strangers with both, but that meant facing the world at large. The idea of that was a little daunting considering Will had gotten so good at hiding from it all in his little house on the beach.

"Well, we weren't planning to, but then you had and go catch a merman." Zeller said defensively like the idea was as distasteful to him as it was to Will. "Nice going there, champ."

"Damn it." Because of course this all went back to Hannibal. "That isn't everything though, is it?" Will could just tell there was more. There was always more. The fairies were wearing the look of 'important shit' he would need to know.

"Well…" Price hemmed and hawed for the fairies who looked distressed.

"There's more." Will sighed, walking off with a 'why the fuck me' face to put the rest of the beer away. He exchanged it for a bottle of whiskey and a very big glass.

"There might be this sea witch…" Beverly admitted as she studied Will's ceiling like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

"A sea witch. Yeah, that sounds about right." Will nodded, pouring himself one shot, two shots.

"…Who's looking for the Blade of Tides, the knife…" Zeller continued.

Three shots, four shots hit the glass.

"…And wants to murder you for it so she can rule the seven seas unopposed." Price finished for them, having the grace to wince.

Will patted the bottom of the bottle to get out the last few drops. "Oh, is that all? That's…that's just perfect." Will grumbled as he poured all his whiskey down the kitchen sink. He had a very bad feeling he was going to need to be very sober for this next part.

OoOoO

All in all, Franklin was pleased with the vacation his therapist suggested for him. Well, his former therapist, having received yet another referral before his departure. Franklin reminded himself to look for another one as soon as he got back. Bedelia, though he had been never allowed to call her that, Dr. Du Maurier had been so beautiful, all poise and cool confidence, but so frigid to his overtures of friendship.

Exhaling heavy sadness, Franklin just knew that they could have been such good friends, if only Dr. Du Maurier had let herself see it. He could have melted that icy fortress of her soul, the one she hid behind to protect her tender heart. She would always have a special place in his own heart, along with his eight other therapists, forever his winter queen of lost love.

"Better to have lost and loved." Franklin lamented dramatically as he tossed white roses into the sea at sunset of course, because that was what sophisticated people did when they were in mourning.

"You're misquoting that." said a voice, deep and low and so eloquent it made Franklin tremble. That voice was the very embodiment of self-assurance, and it was coming from somewhere below the docks Franklin stood upon. Peering over the wooden railing, Franklin spotted a man staring up at him. He was floating in the water so Franklin did the first thing that came to mind.

"I'll save you!" Franklin yelled, kicking off his sandals before attempting to climb over the dock's railing with some difficulty.

"Wait, that is quite…" Franklin heard the man say as he managed to get himself on the other side, and leapt off. In his mind, Franklin gracefully dove through the air with all the skill of an Olympic diver. That image was shattered when he belly flopped into the ocean, making the merman wince from the painful sound of it.

"…unnecessary." Hannibal sighed, waiting to see if the human resurfaced or not. He needed a guide of sorts if he were to live up on land, especially if he wanted to see Will again. Much had changed since the last time he had done so, human continuously inventing things and changing the world around them. He couldn't afford to have his true nature to be found out. As mercurial as the human world was, the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. There were still hunters, people who would seek him out to either capture him or kill him for profit or sport, both bringing an abrupt end to his freedom.

To avoid suspicion, Hannibal knew he needed a human stupid enough to manipulate yet still intelligent enough to be able to obtain everything he needed. This human had fit the bill up to this point, though Hannibal reasoned if the idiot drowned he could always eat him.

"You're a mermaid!" were the first words out Franklin's mouth when he resurfaced to flounder about in the water. The statement was met with equal amounts of amusement and disappointment.

"You are partially correct in that assessment," Hannibal said, resisting the urge to point out the complete absence of breasts on his chest. He needed this human on his side, and pointing out that the man was a complete idiot might not be the best way of obtaining his loyalties. "Though my sister would argue with you on the maid part."

"You're real!" Franklin gasped out. Doggie paddling was harder than it looked.

Hannibal had read that air deprivation had adverse side effects on the human brain, but he was positive that Franklin really hadn't been under that long. "Indeed." the merman decided was safe to say.

"Have you fallen in love with me!?" Franklin said, bubbles of excitement making him giddy.

"…" Hannibal was drawing a very rare blank about how to respond to that. The merman stared back in confusion at the human who was staring at him with besotted puppy dogs eye filled with hope, foolish love, and a daunting amount of clinginess. "…What?"

"You don't have to turn into sea foam for me! I'll break your curse!" Franklin managed to cry out before slipping under the water's surface, his legs and arms cramping from overexertion.

Hannibal briefly considered letting the fool drown, the merman weighing the pros and cons of showing himself to another human. It was always fraught with peril, and he couldn't risk drawing certain attention down upon himself or Will, at least not yet.

With a heavy sigh, Hannibal dove after Franklin. If the human had even an iota of intelligence, he could spit out the ocean and breathe on his own. Hannibal would rather make out with a ravenous tiger shark than give that man mouth to mouth.

OoOoO

"Hello, Mr. Graham. I'm Jack Crawford and this is my partner Miriam Lass. We're with the FBI, the Abnormal Sciences division."

"I'm not buying whatever you're selling." Will said in greeting back to the heavy set man and the slim blonde woman standing on his porch, shielding his eyes from the bright Floridian afternoon sun. He didn't bother waiting for a reply or an explanation, slamming the door in their faces. There was more than enough on his plate on the moment without getting some obscure division of the government involved. The fairies had just left after giving him a tome of spells and history to memorize. His life depended on it.

"Sir, open the door. We're federal agents, and we are armed." Miriam Lass called through the door.

"Open it yourself then. It's about to fall off the hinges anyway." Will yelled, covering up the noise of him shoving the spell book under the filthiest, largest dog bed on his living room. He motioned Winston to sit on top of it and stay there, the dog chuffing out grumbling noises as it obeyed.

"Not fond of people are you?" Agent Crawford mused as he let Miriam and himself in, just as Will untucked his ratty t-shirt in time to cover up the knife. The agents looked around, though Will had no idea what they were looking at or for. He didn't have much and the little he did have wasn't worth the effort, the only thing noteworthy and of any value either strapped to his hip or under a dog's fluffy behind.

"Was it the lack of a welcome mat that gave it away? I can see why you're FBI." Will snorted, wandering into his kitchen to retrieve one of his surviving beers. He decided it was best to keep up the appearance of being the tiny beach town's drunk though Zeller had done his damnedest to try and drink all his alcohol. Mooching fairy fuck.

"At least you're honest. I can work with honest." Agent Crawford said, looking very pleased with himself. It set all the warning bells off in Will's head. "Tell me, Mr. Graham, how do you feel about merfolk?"

"Oh fuck." Will's gift of observation and empathy kicked in, whispering to him. "This one is looking for something. Something specific. The other one is his hound. Her eyes will be quick and her mind quicker."

"Act drunk." His second thoughts murmured. "Be useless. Make them lose interest."

"It's not even noon." First thoughts were the responsible ones here.

"Even better. If they've been talking at all to the neighbors, this will only confirm that he was a waste of skin and not worth their time." Second thoughts were cruel, but the truth always was. Will told his head to shut up, doing this silent musing all while keeping a carefully blank face of boredom.

"I would say you've been out in the sun a little too long, Agent Crawford. My opinion on the matter would be to keep hydrated, and good luck with that kind of investigation. The gossips here haven't had any new material in ages." Will made himself shrug his shoulders in a lazy roll, walking back over to the front door to open it. He attempted to wave the agents out. It worked about as well as it had on the fairies.

"Sir, this is a serious matter. We know you've had contact with a mermaid, merman, or a sea creature of some perceived mythical variety." Agent Lass stated firmly, making Will wonder if the pair were intentionally playing 'good cop, bad cop' with him. Agent Crawford was still all smiles and softly spoken words, an air of amusement hanging about the man. It was an illusion, Will seeing past the farce of it. There lay a hard man underneath it all, one who would be willing to do anything to find what he was looking for. Agent Lass wasn't his equal, she was his weapon, and he was looking to find another for his arsenal. He currently had his sights set on Will, the focus making his skin itch.

"How?" Will wasn't even trying to be a smartass this time. He was genuinely curious to know how that had been managed by the agents.

"That kind of information if on a 'need to know' basis." Agent Lass said in a voice of finality.

"And I don't need to know." Will snorted. He should have guessed. This was a game and everyone here was bluffing.

"Got it in one." Agent Crawford smirked. "I had a feeling that you would be smart."

"Cute. Get the fuck out." Will thumbed his final verdict out the door. He had faith in their abilities as FBI agents to figure out the clue. "Unless you got a warrant or some other piece of paper that says I have to talk to you, get the hell off of my property."

"This isn't over, Mr. Graham. We also didn't have this conversation." Agent Lass said, moving to leave only after receiving a nod from Agent Crawford.

"Already forgotten, ma'am." Will mock saluted her.

"We'll be in touch. We will also be keeping as eye on you, Mr. Graham." Agent Crawford smiled, the unspoken threat cradled neatly between his word.

"I hope you enjoy wasting your time and taxpayer's dollars then. My busy schedule of fishing, drinking, and occasionally fixing something can be daunting to follow." Will rolled his eyes at the agents' backs as they waded through the sand in their inappropriate dress shoes.

When he was confident that they were gone and not coming back, Will retrieved his tome from under the dog bed and Winston. He had a lot to learn and not nearly enough time to do so.

OoOoO

When someone came knocking on his door that evening, Will wasn't even surprised. He considered not opening it, but the door gave up the ghost, doing the thing it had been threatening to do all damn day by falling off its hinges.

"Charming. Do you this hole 'rustic' or 'beachy'?" asked the red headed woman wearing too much animal print to be considered fashionable or classy.

"I've been incredibly popular today. Who or what are you? Animal, vegetable, mineral? FBI, Loch Ness monster, lost tourist, or other?" Will grumbled more to himself than at her, not bothering to extract himself from the pile of dogs who slept on top of him. It was cool enough in the evening for some pack cuddling.

"May I come in?" The tacky woman with the crimson curls and a saccharine smile asked.

"Door's on the floor. What's stopping you?" Will pointed out. Not that having a door had stopping anyone today. He considered leaving it there on the floor. It just might discourage future 'guests'. The woman made no move to enter though, giving herself away by doing so.

"Oh…you can't. That's interesting." Will smiled, though it was not out of good humor. After the agents' departure, Will had spent a good hour or so working on decorating the house's ins and outs with an array of symbols. "I'll put you down as 'other'."

"Don't make this more difficult than is has to be. Just give me the knife, and I'll be on my way." the Other told him with a smile of her own that was all needle sharp teeth.

"So do I call you Sea Witch or make something up for you?" Will named his enemy.

"I use Freddie Lounds when I'm topside." the sea witch said, leaning in as close as she dared to have the ancient protections spells spark all around her like ethereal fireworks. She stepped back quickly to keep herself from being incinerated on the spot.

"You're that trashy blogger? You really are evil." Will snorted. He had to go to the supermarket in town sometimes if he wanted to eat something other than fish. He had seen her byline being mocked or quoted by other more legit news sources before.

"I can make your life a whole lot easier. I can also make it incredibly difficult, which is saying something considering the state of this place. So be a good boy, and quit wasting my time." Freddie cooed, her words sweet and sharp as rock sugar.

"But you didn't say the magic word." Will mimicked her tones, his own smile poisoned honey. "I know a few now though."

Freddie Lounds, one of the most feared sea witches of the seven seas, didn't even have time to scream before a violent wind carried her far, far away from Will Graham's door.

OoOoO

"Knock, knock."

It was late that night when Will noticed a pudgy man standing on his porch, studying his fallen door with a puzzled look. Will hadn't bothered to put it back up yet if at all. He ignored the man in favor of finishing off his last beer.

"Mr. Graham, I can see you." the rolly polly man huffed, pointed at Will where he stood in his kitchen, leaning up against the counter. The dogs went over investigate the latest intruder, woofing at the man when he tried to shoo them off.

"How the hell does everyone know who I am and where I live?" Will asked the universe at large. He had gone from a hermit no one with any sense would bother with to someone of supposed value that everyone wanted to use, bother, manipulate, steal from, and/or kill. It was very disconcerting.

"And you!? Who the hell are you!? What do you want? What are you?" Will demanded, turning his attention back to man fussing about the dog hair on his overpriced clothing.

"Um, I'm Franklin Froideveaux. I am here on my master's behalf who wishes to extend this invitation to you." Franklin sniffed, his opinion on the matter crystal clear. Will was too busy smothering his chuckling into his beer to give a damn about Franklin's distain. The fuckwit either took his job way too seriously or his employer was a complete ass for making him say 'master' in this day and age.

"I have an invitation." Franklin fussed, holding a large card out for Will to take who accepted it with a shrug. The invite was made from heavy cardstock that felt expensive. Inside was matching stationary embellished with silver around its crisp edges, its space filled with elegant copperplate calligraphy, the writing artistically loopy.

***You are cordially invited to dine with Hannibal…***

OoOoO

TBC