Connections

by Corrupting A Moron

Is Crawford really such a bad guy? What life experiences and thoughts does Clarice have that result in her turning to Lecter? Predominantly post Silence of the Lambs. Starts off as a series of partially connected vignettes before highlighting the final days between Crawford and Starling. Follows book canon.

1. Chapter 1

"Look, we have no other option. If you have any ideas, you better use them; Behavioral Science is useless to the FBI if it can't catch psychos. Use Lecter if you have to. It helped catch Dolarhyde last time"

Jack Crawford sighed heavily. "Will came out of that looking like a Picasso. There is no chance in hell he will ever work for me or the FBI again."

"Send someone else in. You go in."

"He won't talk to me. He won't talk to Bloom. He hasn't spoken to Chilton for years. There's no one he'll talk to."

Crawford's agitation was apparent; his voice had gotten slightly louder at the start of each statement.

"You had better think long and hard about who he WILL talk to, or think of some other way to solve this case, otherwise you won't be head of Behavioral Science anymore."

"Sir, without me, Behavioural Science will cease to exist..."

"I'm glad we're on the same page then."

Crawford knew Will Graham wouldn't speak to Lecter ever again; it was currently looking like Will wouldn't speak to him ever again, either. There was a slight chance Lecter would speak to a student; from what Chilton and Bloom had told him, Lecter always responded to serious correspondence from psychiatric students in fields unrelated to his case. It was possible that Lecter could be goaded into assisting in the Buffalo Bill case if he was allowed to take the lead. Crawford ignored the small voice in his head telling him that enlisting help from the student body was a bad idea.