Part 1
Hannibal Lecter walked into his office early Monday morning. He looked impeccable as always but to the trained eye, was still a bit bleary-eyed and before he could even call for his protégé she was there with a cup of steaming, hot coffee brewed just the way he liked it. How great was that? Most assistants (which is what she was written in the books as despite being so much more in reality) wouldn't even go for coffee these days and Alana made him a fresh cup every day. She truly was one in a million and he reminded himself that he was damned lucky to have her.
"Morning Hannibal"
Alana smiled at him as he sat behind his large oak desk in his large, new chair. Both were recent acquisitions a gift from himself to himself, when he bought his new office space. He looked up at Alana and smiled back at her.
"Good morning yourself"
He said to the young, attractive brunette as he put his feet up on the desk, something he only did when he was either alone with family or with Alana.
"So, how was your weekend?"
Alana asked him as she sat down across from him and sipped her own coffee. No matter how hectic their day was going to be, they always shared coffee at the start of it. It was a ritual that had been going on for almost the entire 10 years they knew each other.
She had been one of his students when he was teaching at John's Hopkins and he had taken her under his wing, first at the university and later on to work with him when she got her degree in Psychology and he opened his own practice.
"Didn't you have that big date with whatshername? How did that go?"
She questioned him.
"Jessica. No Jennifer? It was okay, I guess. She was pleasant enough company and she had an interesting…"
Flavor
"Personality. Yeah, she was pretty..."
"Here comes the but ..."
Alana said with a knowing smirk. Hannibal could find a flaw in a saint.
"...BUT she had a big ugly tattoo above her backbone"
Hannibal told Alana. That same backside was now smoked, grilled and pressed between two thin slices of French bread for their lunch and the tattoo stretched on canvas and would be framed on the wall of one of his guest rooms.
"Why do all these women do things like that? I thought she might be the perfect girl and then we get into bed and she has this ... this ugly tramp stamp on her body!"
Hannibal complained.
"You have to stop looking for perfection, Hannibal"
Alana cautioned him with real concern. Hannibal knew she meant every word; she had always looked out for his well being. They were close despite her lack of knowledge of his more intimate hobbies.
"You know you're never going to find it."
"Why can't I? My parents did, my sister did. What's wrong with wanting to find that perfect someone to spend the rest of your life with?"
Hannibal asked Alana with honestly coloring his voice. His parents had been married for nearly 60 years and his younger sister, Bedelia, had been with Freddie for 6 years and the two had adopted twin girls two years back.
Hannibal had looked for years to find that someone he clicked with and not succeeded. A few near misses and yet, they might have been as far away as Mars. Alana put away their coffee mugs and shook her head.
"I think you're seeking an ideal and maybe you've built her up too much in your mind"
Alana said, almost lecturing him as if she were the older one in their lengthy relationship.
"Hannibal, you're 35 and you've been with several beautiful women and I know you haven't been a monk. You slept with Jennifer, didn't you?"
Hannibal nodded not ashamed at all to talk with Alana about sex.
"See? Why can't you look past the imperfections and just find someone to share your life with?"
"I don't know"
Hannibal admitted honestly.
"Girls like her are fun to date, but for the long term, I just want something more. Not someone who has had their nose done or their breasts made bigger. Not someone who has a lot of piercing or a tattoo here, there, everywhere. Someone real and sexy and sweet and with substance. Someone who doesn't care about how many cars we have or how big a house we have. I want someone who is supportive of me and who I can support. I admit it, there's nothing wrong with a good sex life, but at the old fossil age of 35 ..."
Alana rolled her eyes and tuned him out as he went on with his rant. Who knew the normally collected and cool as a cucumber Hannibal Lecter could bitch like a girl?
"... I want more than sex. I want romance, is that too much to ask?"
"Aww, that's so sweet"
Alana smiled and gave him a quick little hug.
"No, I guess when you put it that way; it isn't too much to ask. I just hate to see you so frustrated; you've been looking ever since I first met you"
"She's out there, I know she is"
Hannibal told her.
"How was your weekend? What did you do?"
"Went out with some girlfriends, had a few drinks, danced a bit, rented some videos, nothing special"
Alana shrugged. Hannibal looked at her and shook his head.
"I will never understand why you aren't with someone special either. You're bright, funny, pretty, you're sassy and you make a nice living"
Hannibal said.
"I hear you can even cook"
He teased her. Alana loved to cook as much as he did and she was often his sous chef when he threw dinner parties. Sometimes they even cooked together for fun. He could always tell when her dates were unpleasant because she'd beat her frustrations in anything and everything containing chocolate.
It was a horrible thought but he was always pleased to see fresh baked goodies on her desk after the weekend and not once had they been anything less than excellent. She always seemed so pleased when he praised her efforts. She had been almost as responsible for Hannibal's Psychiatry practice as he was himself and he knew it.
Straight out of university, Hannibal had left behind his mother-land and went to the States to go to medical school where he became a surgeon and engage his flesh eating proclivities in peace. Only a few years later he'd become too fat to even like himself and had turned in his resignation while could still fit through the doors.
Back to the university he went for a new degree and onwards to teaching seminars thin once again. On the first one he taught, there Alana was and that's when magic happened.
They were both fumbling their way through ad when he opened his own practice, under the watchful eye of his sister, Bedelia, who had been practicing for years, he took Alana with him. Hannibal had an eye for underlying insanity, Alana had an eye for family issues and details. She caught the things he missed.
They had different clientele but they always went over patient files together. Hannibal saw older, more or less mentally unstable clients that he would never let Alana or even Bedelia alone with and Alana saw children and families, two things that Hannibal would never want around him. From their initial pairing, they were a perfect team. Alana was a perfectionist and highly supportive of her friend. Hannibal made sure to compliment her as much as he could and take an interest in her life. He encouraged her to be more outgoing and he believed it was working.
However he disliked her latest on-again of-again amore and the fact that they worked with the man wasn't the reason. His patient, her friend and sometimes boyfriend Will had issues and no one with mental issues was good enough for Alana's heart in Hannibal's books