Chapter Text
When Will Graham at the age of eight was discovered to be a guide it was much to the disappointment of his father who had vehemently prayed for a sentinel. His mother had been one which greatly increased the odds, but it seemed mistress luck forever had a grievance with the Graham family.
Even if Will had turned out to be augmented with only one enhanced sense, Isaac Graham could have basked in the knowledge of the high end college scholarships and jobs which would have easily opened their doors for his son when older, or at least Will would have been able to help with the more delicate work on the boat engines at the shipyard. The fact that Will had registered as having the highest score in empathy since the registry was founded mattered little. They were dirt poor and couldn’t afford much more than the basic health and safety course legally required for all newly registered guides.
Due to the world population total of sentinels and guides teetering merely at around 9%, training was considered a luxury only the wealthy or talented could afford, and with low scores in both projection and psychometry there wasn’t much use for Will as a guide in a professional capacity and most scholarships refused him.
Not that there was much use for Will as a guide, period.
His high empathy score, while impressive (making its round in local and even national newspapers), just wasn’t practical. His first attempt at bringing a sentinel out of a zone as only a young teenager ended in him essentially zoning himself, so in in tune with what they were experiencing that he was no longer able to differentiate his own thoughts from theirs. Will took the incident poorly, let down that he wasn’t able to perform the single task he knew he should be born to be able to.
It was this knowledge of him being a failed guide that drove Will to hide his slowly increasing projection and psychometric abilities. He learnt control by trial and error, forcing himself further into his role as an outcast as interaction with people became gradually more and more overwhelming and painful. He subconsciously retreated from even the label of ‘guide’, avoiding any and all stereotypes that came with it. Instead of a career in a caring profession as most guides tended to gravitate towards, Will elected instead to follow one within the police. Despite this being an occupation which was standard among sentinels, who greatly outpaced most of everyone else, Will still managed to do well for himself, gaining a position as a homicide detective.
It was during this time that Will tentatively created his first sentinel-guide bond with his partner. Lewis Taylor was a kind, bright sort of person with a good sense of humour who people instinctively felt drawn to and whose presence was one of the few Will didn’t find grating. Their slow friendship naturally led to the formation of the bond between them, Will comfortable with this due to Taylor’s weak touch enhancement never having led him to zone. The bond helped secure them both in the present moment without being drawn as deeply into their different senses, and for a short time Will was content. Until he hesitated with his finger on the trigger and a suspect shot their bond to pieces, along with the majority of Taylor’s chest.
A bond broken so suddenly, especially in such a fashion, required the help of both a trained guide and psychiatrist in order to fully recover, but Will refused both. He retired from his position as a detective, instead taking on a teaching post, his self-critical thoughts and whispers of his being ‘weak-willed’ with guides being ‘unsuitable’ for such work forcing him to step down.
Though his ‘retirement’ was short lived as he was soon hunted by Jack Crawford to consult on his crime scenes, Will’s legacy as the most empathetic guide in the country coming back to firmly bite him in the ass.
He tried to maintain a distance from the first case he consulted on, but the infamous Graham luck had other ideas and he soon wound up face to face with a serial killer.
Needless to say, he didn’t hesitate to shoot this time.