Crossing Paths
Chapter 1-Intense Pain
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.
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The pain was intense. It had been this way for a least a month now. Clarice Starling was sitting on her couch regretting the decision she had made that night at the boat house, just like everyday. She hated herself for letting her stupid grasps of wrong and right, her morals, and her ethics win that night. She let those stupid things speak up louder than her heart that night. The words haunted her everyday of her now empty life. "Would you ever say to me stop? If you loved me you'd stop?" But her answer was what haunted her the most. Not his question. Her answer had been. "Not in a thousand years." And how she wished she could take it back. She couldn't sleep. He was waiting for her in her dreams. She saw his eyes, his face, she heard his voice, and she felt his touch. It wouldn't be so bad if she knew she hadn't let him down. Yes, a week after he had fled for his freedom again she had quit the FBI. She was sure that he would be pleased by that. Of course she still followed his case the best she could on her own. She could never drop it. It was a part of her; HE was a part of her. A part of her that was now gone because of her stupid mistake. Her emotions were on the verge of going numb. She knew she couldn't stay like this much longer. That was when she made a choice. She…Clarice Starling was going to find him…Dr. Hannibal Lector.
She grabbed what little files and other things she had left on Dr. Lector. She paged through them for hours. She listened to the tapes of their conversations in the asylum desperately, looking for anything…anything that could help her locate him now. She knew Italy wasn't a possibility after the Pazzi incident. He had talked about London some. It was possible he might be there, or Paris, or even…who was she kidding, she was rambling, she had no clue. Well…she did have London. At least he had talked about that one some. It was a long shot, but it was a shot; it was a chance, but it was a chance she would have to take.
Surprisingly, she managed to get a plane ticket fast, and even for today's plane flying out a seven tonight. It was five now. She hurriedly packed her things, and then walked around for a good fifteen minutes making sure she hadn't forgotten anything. She walked to her closet. She had forgotten one thing. She leaned down a grabbed something from a box in the bottom of her closet. She leaned back up with a gun in her hand. No, she would not need this gun to use on Dr. Lector. He wouldn't hurt her, and besides she was going after him to tell him she had made the biggest mistake of her life; not to arrest him or shoot him down. The only reason she was even taking the gun was because you never knew if danger was waiting for you or not. Clarice wondered if he knew she had quit her job. He probably did. Unfortunately, it had been all over the papers, and Clarice knew him. She knew he would still have some way of getting American news. And if he was in London the news had surely gotten there. She sighed, thinking. She knew he would be satisfied with her quitting the Bureau because all this time he had been right and she was either too stupid or to blind to see it. The Bureau resented her because she was not like them. If only she would have seen it sooner she would probably be with him right now, but she wasn't living for probably; she was living for finding him. Just like she always had before, but now she had a completely different reason to find him. No, this time she wasn't trying to arrest him to receive some great honor from the FBI. This time she was trying to catch him to receive the great honor of his love.
She was brought out of her thoughts by the honking of a car horn. She had completely forgotten she had arranged for a cab to pick her up. She quickly grabbed her things. She hurried out of the house locking the door behind her. She crawled into the cab with the very little amount of luggage that she had and told the cab driver to take her to the airport.
She boarded the plane soon after. She was relieved to see that she had the row by the window to herself. She settled herself into one of the chairs and took an old tape player out. She put the headphones on her head and pushed the play button. Anyone who would have guessed would have guessed that she was listening to music, and maybe to her it was. She was actually listening to the good doctor's voice. Once again she was listening to there conversations at the asylum. She couldn't even begin to count how many times she had listened to these tapes. But she wasn't listening to them to pick out little bits of information she might have missed earlier. She was listening to them just to hear the sound of his voice. So yes, maybe it was like her music.
Clarice opened her eyes and sat up groggily. She must have drifted off sometime last night. It was the first good night's sleep she had had in over a month and she wasn't ready to wake up. She knew she had to though. She took the headphones that were still on her head off, and asked the flight attendant for a cup of coffee. The flight attendant got it there quickly and Clarice started sipping on it as soon as the flight attendant had walked off. The hot liquid did its job. She found it easier to hold her eyelids open now. The plane was going to land soon. Clarice couldn't wait either. Not only did she want to hurry on to trying to find Dr. Lector, she also needed fresh air. She needed to breathe in the air and let it clear her mind. A short time later the plane had officially landed. Clarice hurried through getting her luggage and quickly stepped outside the airport. She took a deep breath and let the air clear her mind. She got a cab and rode closer into the city. She got out around the very first building she saw. She wanted to walk the rest of the way. She got out of the cab and stood on the sidewalk breathing the air once again. She closed her eyes and then opened them again. It was rarely ever sunny in London but today was one of those rare days where the sun was shiny and she was happy for that. She blinked once and then continued walking into the heart of the city.