"Thank you for coming today, Doctor."

"My pleasure. You said that you considered my offer?"

"Yes. You had specified that you wanted an older child if you were to consider adoption, correct?" The woman asked in her sickeningly sweet voice.

"I did."

"Well, a girl has been living here for a while and she's just healed enough or it to be acceptable to ask someone to adopt her. We were wondering if you would like to see her."

"Tell me about her, if you would."

"She's 16, about 5'5", and too skinny for her own good, but healthy otherwise."

"I mean about her past." The doctor corrected patiently.

"Well... she doesn't know. We sent her through a lie detector, but she has no idea. She was obviously traumatized by whoever was caring for her before. She has no name, just "girl." Besides that, we don't know anything. We're just trying to get them out of here. There are too many."

"I see. So I am allowed to see her before I consider?"

"Of, course, Doctor Lecter."

Ms. Darine Darley led Lecter down a hall with children in small rooms with glass panes so they could be seen. It reminded him of the horrible prisons he had seen as a child. Now 25, he was far beyond what he had been then. He looked at the children with pity, nothing more, until he and Darley stopped in front of one of the rooms. There was a young girl with long, thick black hair, porcelain skin, and piercing blue-green eyes. She was dressed in a white blouse, black blazer, and black skirt. She was sitting in front of a typewriter on a rosewood desk, paying no attention to the people passing by.

"This is Girl. We talked to her about you visiting, so she's expecting you if you'd like to talk to her." She said.

"If she would like, I would be pleased to oblige." the doctor replied. Then, Darley spoke to the girl.

"Girl, you know the drill. Dr. Lecter will be coming in in a moment."

Girl nodded barely, acknowledging Darley's words, but she was too absorbed in her writing to do much more. After obviously finishing a sentence, Girl stood and walked over to the bed. She sat on her hands and nodded again before Dr. Lecter was let in.

"Good day, Doctor." She said, her voice sounding scripted and unenthusiastic, though her voice was a mellow soprano.

"Good day." The man replied, putting out his hand. Girl just stared.

"I expect they didn't tell you, did they? I'm not allowed to do that. I've hurt too many people doing that."

"How so?"

"Again, I'm not allowed to do that. If you should adopt me, I may tell you. Or you could ask Darley. She may not tell you, though. Heaven forbid this place look bad."

"Of course. So, you truly remember nothing?"

"Only that there was nothing worth remembering." Girl said shortly.

"I don't believe you."

"I never said you had to. I'm just telling you what I know." The man thought for a moment.

"If I adopt you, will you run away again?"

"What makes you think I ran away?"

"What teenager honestly gets dumped on their own? Not at your age. You're old enough to fight back."

"That doesn't mean I was running away."

"So what were you running to, then?"

"Why are you acting like this is an inquiry?"

"Because I need to know if it's worth my time."

"If what is?"

"You." He replied. "I need to know if it's worth the trouble to adopt you."

"Just leave me here for the next two years and I'll be out anyway. Either way, I expect to get dumped off by the time I'm eighteen." The girl said with a straight face.

"You're rather morbid for someone your age."

"Not morbid. I just see the realities instead of living in the delusional bubble Darley sets up for us."

"Yes... I think you'll do well."

Girl never saw it coming. The doctor, who introduced himself as Hannibal or Hann rather than "father," called Darley in and told her that he wanted to adopt. Darley looked a bit shocked, but recovered and led him out to do paperwork. In less than twenty minutes, Hannibal was back and he whisked Girl away to the car. She had a case for her typewriter and a picnic basket of her belongings that was smaller than her typewriter case.

In the car, Hannibal got a chance to study Girl further since she fell asleep half way to his house. She was lanky and strong. Her hands showed ware as though she had worked on a farm of some kind. Her left arm was covered in thin white scars that had begun to tan over, but it was obvious that she had used a type of pin or other small, non-knife object to cut herself. There was a faint shadow on her neck of where a violent hickey had been months before. The gold watch she wore was at least five years old, beaten up, and needed a new battery. She had a drawn expression on her face as she slept and twitched every once in a while, her brow furrowing.

Hannibal smiled. She was beautiful in a traumatized way. She was a predator who had been overtaken and was mad about it. Her attitude, her scars; everything pointed that way.

When they pulled up to his house, Hannibal carried Girl into the house and set her on the one bed in the house. She was surprisingly light. Thankfully, Darley hadn't asked about sleeping space, and he had known that her choice would be to share a bed or to sleep on the couch or floor. For now, though, he decided not to wake her. Waking up in a different place would be scary enough, he wouldn't add to her discomfort.

He brought her things in and set op a chair next to the bed. He silently thanked himself or keeping the comfortable chair he had picked up on the side of a road, for he would otherwise have had to sleep on the old love-seat in the living room.

It then occurred to him that Girl wold need a real name. Instead of looking through names and trying to find one that fit her, he looked for a name that just rolled off his tongue when he saw her.

"Lolita." he said to himself.

More to come! I promise, I'll update when I can. Thanks for reading! --