The impulse to shake another person's hand while meeting their eyes was something for other people, not for Peter. It didn't come naturally to him, and it more than likely showed in the way he only loosely gripped Max's hand with his free one before pulling it back. Very unlike Max's firmer, more commanding grip, which likely spoke of the way he conducted himself as an agent. Peter found himself thinking he would expect nothing less from the head of the Behavioral Sciences unit, despite this being the first one he'd come into close contact with. It wasn't Will's.
While he met the other man's eyes because it would have been rude not to, Peter only did so with great difficulty. He'd always been this way. Meeting another person's gaze was just something so distinctly intimate that it'd always made Peter deeply uncomfortable, unless the nature of the relationship was already something approaching intimate. Like a wife, for example, though for Peter that was already a distant memory.
Max Ward looked every inch the sort of man you would expect of an FBI agent, let alone the the head of an entire department. Peter had been prepared for that, and considering his previous consultations with people in various branches of law enforcement, he wasn't unaccustomed to interactions with the sort of personality types that tended to frequent those positions of power. But this was already very different from every other situation he'd found himself in, for one reason only. Will Graham.
Entering the halls of the FBI was enough to send Peter's mind reeling, but walking into Special Agent Max Ward's office, he was not expecting it to look almost identical to that of the person Will had known who'd once held the same position. It was so much like how Jack Crawford had kept his that even Peter, who had deliberately never seen an episode of the show Hannibal, was briefly unable to separate imagination from memory. For a moment his heart pounded like it was aware of a predator that Peter was not as Will's memories flooded to the front of his mind and Peter saw Max Ward's office like he was seeing Jack's. This part of reincarnation he would never get used to.
Shaking it off as best he could, Peter returned Max Ward's professional smile with what could only be described as a polite grimace, like a friendly baring of teeth. Not that Peter never smiled, but the impulse became even more foreign to him when he was anxious, and he was suddenly very anxious. It probably said something about him that he was more uncomfortable sitting in an office that reminded him of someone he'd never met than it made him to sit in an office discussing a murder. Luckily, Peter had never really been one for any real, deep self-reflection.
"Thank you," Peter replied automatically, the word 'finally' settling in his chest strangely. Not what he expected from a well respected and decorated FBI agent who Peter had honestly assumed would have rejected his request for an interview outright. "I'm a little surprised I didn't get more trouble from your office so I appreciate your time."
Taking the other man's lead and moving to the sitting area, Peter's eyes were everywhere, but they lingered most heavily on the family portrait that caught his attention as he lowered himself to the small sofa available. A first glimpse at something personal, something Peter couldn't have seen in the news or any case files. Widowed and with an adult daughter, Max Ward gave the appearance of a family man as much as he did an agent. Despite having siblings and at least one functional parent, Peter found he couldn't really relate to the concept of traditional family anymore than Will. His loneliness as a child had followed him into adulthood, and was still there following his divorce.
But he was there to talk about Max's family, not his. More specifically, the case of Mark Andrew Brackett, convicted serial killer who among other things had been responsible for the horrific death of Max Ward's late wife, Jenny Ward. He'd already spent months researching the case but Peter had hit a wall in his research, and he knew why. He was missing an important perspective, and he was hoping that as the surviving spouse, Max would be able to give it to him. "I won't take up too much of it."