"Dr. Lecter?"

Hannibal excused himself from the group he was standing with to move off to the side with the very concerned looking woman. Lily was a neighbor, she and her family lived across the street from him. While her husband had seemed to be enjoying himself, talking about his next book, bragging how one of his wife's students was to play the lead in the Nutcracker this season, and about their daughter's ability with the violin, Lily had spent the night looking all but distraught in-between the forced smiles of a supposed to be delighted wife.

"Is something the matter?" Hannibal asked, mindful to keep his voice down. Lily constantly worried about nearly everything, no reason to exacerbate it by letting others get involved. If he thought she'd take the advice he'd suggest therapy… with anyone but him. Lily had the potential to be worse than Franklyn, but thankfully he wasn't sure because she was not his patient.

"It's Charlie… Charlotte…"

"Your daughter," Hannibal supplied when she seemed flustered.

She nodded, insisting, "Charlie hasn't been acting right. Heath doesn't think it's serious, that she's just being a moody teen, but it's not… it's not the same. I know those students from her school were murdered, but I don't think that's the problem, she doesn't seem like she's grieving… I don't know how to explain it, but she's acting differently."

Someone was hunting uncomfortably close to his home, but Hannibal let it go as the victims were teenagers. Teens were not often on his radar, let alone his menu. There were some exceptions… "I've only met Charlotte a few brief times, but she already seemed like a quiet girl, Lily," Hannibal tried to console her, just not well. Making her feel better wasn't his intention, so he said something that just wasn't quite helpful enough.

Since the death of the Hobbs girl over a month ago, he'd noticed the teen living across the street more and more. He'd met her before, and she seemed well mannered. As such he politely acknowledged her when necessary, but largely left her be. If he was ever outside in the morning when she started her trek to school she'd nod at him, or give the smallest of waves. Now he made a point to leave for work around the time she left for school more often. Sometimes he thought after reasons to walk across the street and talk to her instead of her parents. However, when he came up with this party, deciding to invite her parents in person, she had not been the one to answer the door. Instead, he'd been able to hear Ode to Joy coming from somewhere else in the house, and well, her father had reason to boast.

"She is, but there's a difference between being soft spoken and not talking at all. I don't think I've heard more than ten sentences from her in two weeks. She won't tell me what's wrong, she just shrugs it off saying that she's fine," Lily explained. "Know I'm being generous by saying I'm fine is a sentence. I'm joining Heath on a short book tour after my student's first performance soon, and we won't be back until Christmas Eve. I don't think I can leave her, with how she's been acting."

Hannibal frowned, but he wanted to grin. Lily would just hand over her daughter for inspection it seemed. Better there was potentially time he could meet her without her parents meddling "I can get my appointment book, find a time that's good for both of us," Hannibal offered gently.

"She… she refused when I suggested she see you," Lily explained carefully, as though she were afraid to offend him. "I thought maybe she'd be okay with it at first, when she didn't disappear into the house when you came to talk to us about the symphony two weeks ago. She seems to like you, but she froze when I talked about setting up an appointment."

"Perhaps a more subtle approach," Hannibal suggested as he tried to think of how to help Lily along. There was no graceful way to suggest he spend time alone with her daughter outside of his office. If Lily had managed to get Charlotte into therapy, he was sure that she'd still be in the waiting room the entire time. In all honesty, Hannibal was surprised that Lily let the girl walk to school on her own. Was surprised the girl wasn't a dancer so she'd be under mommy's watchful eye even while the woman was at work

Lily frowned for a moment, before an idea lit up her eyes. "Perhaps, if it's not too much trouble, you could drive her to school for a bit. It's a short ride, but maybe you could warm her up to the idea of seeing you for therapy. I'd pay you for your time still."

Hannibal smiled. It'd do for now. Still, best not to seem too eager. "It's not too much trouble, but I don't think that Charlie would accept a ride from me if I just offered one morning, even if I do live across the street." It was a good thing she was wary, he just didn't want her to be wary of him.

Lily waved her hand dismissively, "I'll tell her it's because I don't want her walking to school anymore, there is a murderer on the loose, and I really don't want her to walk by herself, but she's so stubborn. She actually woke up a half hour early just to slip out of the house before I woke up when I told her I'd drive her. If I told her you'd be waiting for her though, she'd be too afraid you would think her rude to stand you up."

Hannibal nodded. "Then I'll drive her to school all next week," he paused thinking about it. He didn't want to push her too far, "If after that she's still against it, you'll need to find a different way, if you don't want to force her." That was the other option, making her. He'd be able to work with it either way. After all he wouldn't be the one dragging her into his office.

oOo

Hannibal walked out the door when he was told that Charlotte would be there. He was almost surprised to see her already moving across the street towards him. When she looked back from down the road to find him she moved a little faster. They stopped near his car and she immediately told him, "I-I'm sorry that my mom got you to do this, I can walk to school. You really don't have to do this."

The smile that quirked his lips up almost took him by surprise. She stood there holding her violin case to her chest, obviously hiding behind it. Her backpack hung more precariously on one shoulder. She was definitely a Charlie with her thick dark blonde curls and waves, and murky blue eyes that bordered on green. Shaking his head, he said, careful to be gentle, but firm enough to imply she didn't have a say in the matter, "I would like to do this for you."

"But you don't have to," Charlie tried to dissuade him, taking a step back as though to walk away.

"Charlie." Hannibal chided her firmly, getting her to freeze where she stood. "I told your mother I would drive you to school." He left it unsaid that it was happening. Her shoulder's slumped and she nodded quickly. When he motioned to the car she walked around to the passenger seat on her own.

Good girl.

It wasn't until they were almost there that she admitted, "I don't want you to be my therapist, or psychologist… or whatever the proper term is."

Hannibal glanced over at Charlie to see her worrying her lip as she regarded him. Looking back out at the road he asked, "Why not?"

Charlie ran her fingers over the metal seam of her violin case that sat between her legs on the floor as she thought on how to answer. Looking back over to Hannibal she tried to reason, "My mother is just overreacting. My father is right, being a moody teenager is not a reason to need therapy."

"You are right," Hannibal conceded to her point. Another glance in her direction told him that wasn't something she got to hear often as she looked at him with wide eyes. "Unless your age has nothing to do with why you won't talk to anyone."

"I'm talking to you…" Charlie mumbled at him. She knew why she was, she couldn't even pretend. She needed her mom to lay off. She needed to not be forced into this man's office for the rest of forever. Maybe if she talked to him now she wouldn't have to later.

Hannibal nodded as he pulled to a stop at the red light before the school "You are, so is it that you're upset with your parents?" Blunt was going to have to be the tactic of the day. She was responding to it at least, and they were running out of time before she'd be able to flee the car for school.

"I'm not upset with them, they haven't done anything," Charlie shrugged as she leaned back into the seat. She kept her eyes forward on the car in front of them.

Perhaps that was the problem, but he didn't want her to feel like she was already in his office, so he kept the thought to himself. "Your mother is just worried about you," Hannibal said as he glanced at her for a second when they started moving again.

"She's always worried," Charlie sighed with a shake of her head as they got closer to the school. She turned her eyes back down onto her case when they hit the morning traffic in front of the school. Sometimes Charlie felt like her mom enjoyed worrying about everything. That in some way it made her happy to drag others into her worrying.

Hannibal made an agreeable noise. He knew Lily worried worse than any mother hen. In all reality, he knew it was the mother that needed the therapy, but it was the daughter that held his interest. He much rather spend an hour listening to Charlie even if it turned out she wasn't what he was looking for. So, in the spirit of spending more than five minutes a day with her an idea surged to the forefront of his mind. She might say no, but it was worth a try. A last-ditch effort as he pulled to a stop along the curb with countless other people dropping off students. "What if you came to therapy, just to ease her worries? Two nights a week for a month. After that I'll tell her you are indeed just a normal teenager, that moodiness is a part of growing up, and therapy isn't really any use to you."

Charlie paused before she could take her seatbelt off, her eyes flying up to him. She frowned a bit. Was it a bad idea to go along with him? There were things she wanted to keep to herself. What if he got her to talk to him more than this? What if he backed out on the deal and told her mom she really did need therapy? Just not responding to him didn't seem like an option as he watched her expectantly. It wasn't like with her parents where she could pawn them off on a few indistinct noises as answers. She decided to steer him from the idea saying, "I don't think I have eight hours' worth of things to say."

"I'm sure we'll find something to hold our interest," Hannibal chuckled even as she unbuckled her seatbelt, and retrieved her backpack from the back seat. "So, what do you say? Do we have a deal?"

Charlie clutched at her bag for a moment looking at the object like it had the answers. It didn't though. "Two nights a week for a month?" Charlie asked peeking at him again. She supposed it wouldn't be so bad to spend time with him as long as he stuck with the deal.

"I think it'll benefit us both. Your mother will be secure in the knowledge that she has a normal teen and stop pestering you, and she'll stop trying to conspire with me to get you in my office. After a month, unless you feel you'd like to keep going, you can stop," Hannibal nodded. "If you feel like it isn't helping I'll keep it to myself about the agreed upon time limit and tell your mother what I said I would."

"Even if it's a lie?" Charlie prodded, fully looking at him now. She needed to know if she could trust him.

"We won't lie to each other," Hannibal told her seriously, making sure he'd caught her eye. "If you feel like it's helping, but don't want your mother poking around we'll arrange something else."

Charlie felt her heart race a bit as they sat there looking at each other. To hide how nervous she felt, she nodded, "Deal. Two nights a week for a month and then you tell her there's nothing wrong with me… are you still going to drive me to school all week?"

"I already told your mother I would," Hannibal told her with a grin.

Hi all! Alrighty, so I did want to give you all a heads up, though it might not be super clear right this second, but this is a rewrite of a story I wrote on another account on this site called My Beginning. I ended up taking it down because I wrote myself into a corner. (Sometimes the downside of showing things as you write them, you can't just go "pretend this happened instead" so you can keep writing from where you are.) I did change the girl's name from Billie to Charlie, but later in the story things will sort of collide and people who read the other story will all start having a vague since of deja vu and I wanted tell everyone before that happened.

For everyone else who has no clue what I'm talking about at all HI AGAIN! The plot bunnies crawled their way from their pushed aside folder and this happened! This takes place somewhere in the first season, of course after the death of Abigail Hobbs, or well in the show it was her near death, in this fic she actually died. There's some other markers in the story that show where we are relative to the show, but some things will be changed while others are kept the same. I'm not out to just add a character into the show and then start rewriting the episodes word for word. Of course some things will happen in this story that happened in the show, but you'll see. Hopefully it'll all be entertaining.

I'm always leery of writing things that change the base material, but we'll see how this goes, no?

Let me know what you think!