Disclaimer : Don't own it .Just love me some Hannibal and Clarice. As always I'm broke someone else makes the dollars not me.
Clarice lay in the dark as she considered the man who would soon lie next to her. His deep and even breathing reassuring her nightly as she drifted off to sleep. Except that was not what made her heart beat for him. Instead it was the two dark red pinpoints of light, coming from the darkness; his eyes absorbed the remaining illumination in the room. She opened her arms willing, eagerly as their bodies met.
He loved her heart; the quick strong beat of hers against his .Their bodies moved together, her cries soft, as he pleasured himself with her. Often with the salt of his most recent kill fresh on his lips. It would be his love for her heart that would lead to his capture.
Misha was seven years old when her mother died. Her father returning from hunting to discover her. A pool of bright blood coming from between her legs, she was already growing cold. Her father's howls of rage woke her.
She ran back to her room, hiding in the closet. It had been the raging grief in his eyes that had frightened her not the knife in his hand.
She woke again to the sounds of pots and pans clanging in the kitchen. The common smells of breakfast cooking reassured her .Her father was a wonderful cook.
"Come child, sit so we can eat. "he coaxed. He looked again like the father she loved even as his eyes were red rimmed and tired from grief.
"Mother." She whimpered involuntarily.
"Your mother is gone I'm afraid "he told her gently .He hadn't even known she was expecting a child again .Misha had been the only one she had been able to carry to term. "We cannot change what has happened. We must learn to live without her. "his breath caught at this.
He set the plate in front of her. "Eat all of it now." He was always gentle with her, never harsh. She ate her breakfast with the complacency of an obedient child. He had given her the liver ,the kidneys .The best sweetest parts of her mother.
Except the heart. That he kept for himself .Preparing and consuming it in private, he wept his grief. He took it into himself. It must now beat for both of them.
"That's my good girl. "he smiled. She had eaten every last bite.
It was the heart that was his undoing .He grieved for her eternally, longing to feel their hearts beating together again. He went often to the place he put her. Spread out in the trees as if some angel goddess, her arms out stretched towards him. In the darkness, he imagined he could feel it once more, her beating heart. Except this time she wasn't there. To late he heard the click of the rifle behind him. He closed his eyes, turning wishing to feel the bullet pierce his skull, shattering the palace within.
"Don't move!" the officer shouted. Others appeared like a sudden flock of blackbirds.
"Misha" he whispered. He knew he must live for her, keep her mother's heart beating for her.
Ardellia screamed at him, her hand moving reflexively towards her empty holder. "You killed her you bastard! You killed her .Then you ate her." Furious tears streamed down the woman's cheeks.
"No" he answered, his voice sending chills down her spine." She died." She gasped; the grief was open and plain on his face, convincing her of the truth.
"What about her children?" Ardellia asked. The autopsy had shown evidence of the pregnancy.
"At least one carried to term. "the medical examiner had informed her. It added another layer of horror to it all.
"All lost." he said. Then he felt Clarice's heart beating against his chest. "Except." Carefully he told Ardellia where to find his young daughter.
She sat next to her. Still and patient, as she listened to her fathers crimes. It did not matter to her that he was guilty of each and every one of them. She held in the rooms of her memory palace the kind and patient father she knew. She was there now, absorbing all the knowledge he could give her.
Lecter turned guardianship of his daughter over to Agent Mapp. Yet she could not keep her from him.
"He's not dangerous to his child." The lawyer had argued. He raised her alone for almost a year after her mother's death .Clarice Starling died from a miscarriage, not at Lecter's hand .
"Yes and then he fed her liver and her kidneys to his seven year old child." Ardellia protested as her lawyer shushed her.
"This man is so dangerous he appears in court on video, yet you want to let a little girl into his cell every week?" Her lawyer was incredulous. Inexplicably the judge granted the visitations.
She watched anxiously as Misha Rushed into her father's arms. Precautions had been taken and he again wore his mask. A sniper waited just in the corner of her vision.
He whispered to her as he held her cradled lovingly to his chest. "Do you feel it Misha? "he asked "Listen to your mother's heart. "Their voices were too low to carry over to her, and her ward did not share what they talked about. Ardellia realized she did not want to know and was afraid to ask.
When she was 12 yrs old Misha asked her father why he did not answer at first. She waited at rapt attention,her eyes wide in folded under her .
He went deep into his memory palace to the place where Clarice lived,appearing as he last saw her. He felt her heart's strong beat as he approached her.
"Don't lie to her" Clarice scolded him lovingly. "She knows who you are .She's your daughter."
"I see people who do not deserve their place in time." he answered her carefully .He did not need to explain why he ate them afterwards. The practice of consuming the ones you killed was a fairly ancient practice and well explained.
She knew she had consumed human flesh .By the very mechanism of being a child she took in what was put in front of knew also that her father would have given her the best of had made sure that she was a strong and clever girl.
She was 17 and in her last year of college when she took her first lover,!9 when she met the first person who did not deserve their place in time.
Her father died in his prison headlines screaming their joy at his passing. A premed student dressed in scrubs ,she talked her way into the morgue. She took the parts she needed sewing him up with careful skill after.
She consumed the kidneys and liver,and saving it for last,his heart . For the first time she felt the triple beat of her and her parents hearts with hers.
She moved with them ,eyes shining with happy tears as she showed them the new rooms of her memory palace. Mother and Father and daughter again ,together they made a list of all the people who did not deserve their place in time and she knew joy.