A/N: I just got done reading The Silence Of The Lambs, and Sammie was the one who replaced Miggs after Miggs's suicide. This is based on the book. This is a one-shot or possibly a two-shot. If it was a two-shot it would be Hannibal actually recieving the note. Let me know if I should make this a two-shot. Enjoy the story!
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Barney kept his car quiet on the drive to the asylum. He usually had the radio on low. It was going to feel odd without Dr. Lecter at the end of the hall. But he wasn't thinking about that, no, he was thinking about what to say to Sammie when he came to himself. He had no doubt that Sammie would be coherent sometime during his shift.
Barney sighed as he clocked in for his shift. He still didn't know what to say to Sammie. He went down through the numerous gates to the high-security section of the asylum to where his post was. He sat down at his desk, grabbing a pen and a piece of paper. He wrote out several good-byes that Dr. Lecter might have said, but scratched them out as soon as he finished them, some before he even got halfway through them.
Barney counted himself lucky that Sammie was still vacant when lunch time rolled around. He pushed each of the inmates' trays through on food carries identical to the one in Dr. Lecter's now vacant cell. Barney was strangely lonely without the sociopathic psychiatrist. He was the only one Barney could talk to durring his long shift.
Sammie didn't move or speak when Barney pushed his lunch through on the food carrier. He just stared at the blank wall like he usually did, his eyes dull and vacant. Thoughts were going through his head, they were just going far too fast for the schizophrenic to make anything out of them. So he just sat with his forehead against the bars, waiting for his thoughts to slow down a bit. He wanted to write to the nice man in the cell next to his again. He concentraited, or at least tried to, until finally his thoughts slowed down enough for him to take command of his limbs. He grabbed a peice of pink construction paper and a blue crayon. With his tongue between his lips, Sammie began to write.
Barney didn't notice that Sammie had moved for he was standing in front of Dr. Lecter's old cell. He had been given his books and drawings back shortly before being transfered to Memphis. Most of the drawings were very good. One of the drawings caught the orderly's eye and he quickly opened the cell to inspect it. It was a drawing of a younger version of Officer Starling, patting a large horse on the nose, a smile on her face. It was by far the Doctor's best work. Barney smiled slightly to himself, leaving the drawing where it was, for he had a feeling that Officer Starling would be back.
Later that evening when Barney was giving the inmates their dinner, he noticed a folded peice of construction paper in Sammie's hand. When he got to Sammie's cell, he saw his eyes were bright and clear. Sammie was coherrent.
"What's that Sammie?" Barney asked gently, as though he were asking a small child. He hoped that Sammie would stay coherrent long enough to tell him that Dr. Lecter had said good-bye.
"For the nice man." 'Nice man' was what Sammie called Dr. Lecter. And Dr. Lecter had been nice to Sammie, but no one knew why. But he was a psychiatrist, and he had taken an interest in Sammie.
Barney inhaled deeply. Now was the time to tell Sammie that Dr. Lecter was gone, and had wanted him to say good-bye in his place. "Sammie... Dr. Lecter left earlier today. He wanted me to tell you good-bye for him." He felt sorry for Sammie. He had had a chance at a small recovery because of Dr. Lecter, but that chance was gone now. Sammie had only become coherrent to talk to Dr. Lecter, and write him that poem, and now this note.
"He's... gone?" To Jessa?" Sammie had to fight to keep his thoughts from racing. It was getting harder, but he perservered, because this was important. He hoped that the nice man hadn't gone to Jesus yet.
"No Sammie. He went to a different city, but not to Jesus, not yet." Barney stared at the note in Sammie's hand. "If you want, I'll find a way to get that to the nice man." He would indeed make sure that Dr. Lecter got the letter, even if he had to hand deliver it.
Sammie was reluctant to hand the note to the big man, but he had been nice too. After only a few seconds hesitation, Sammie handed the note to the big man. "Why?"
"Because Dr. Chilton is a bad man, not like the nice man at all, and moved the nice man to show off." Barney didn't know how to explain it any simpler than that, and he wasn't sure if Sammie could understand a more complicated explination. He might have though. He had understood the basics of what Dr. Lecter had said to him, and Dr. Lecter had talked to Sammie like he would talk to anyone else.
"Oh," was all Sammie said before leaning his head against the bars, and fading back to vacancy. He never became coherrent while in that asylum again.
After Barney got back to his post, he unfolded the peice of pink construction paper. He wanted to see Sammie's last note to Dr. Lecter. What he saw surprised him, and not just because it was spelled correctly. The only two words written on the paper were "Thank you."