Chapter One: The Doctor Will See you Now
The tranquility of the waiting room was peaceful as it was intended, after all this was not a place meant for Children. Even with its lone occupant that sat waiting for their turn to see the therapist just beyond the closed door. The one Jack Crawford had sent them to. The office was private and not just for anyone, that at least the patients could appreciate. Within the confines of the next room was another matter all together. Hannibal Lecter in his three piece suit was the lone pristine figure in the room opposite his patient Franklynn. The man sobbed yet again about his hate for being neurotic and again left tissues on his glass table. The edge of Hannibal's eyes tightened just barely as he eyed the action. Rude.
He was happy when the session ended with his patient as he saw Franklynn to the back door entryway reserved for his patients and their privacy. Thinking back to his next interview session, this agent that Crawford had spoken of reminded him of good Will yet she already had ties to meeting a serial killer and killing him, this killer just so happened to be the cannibal known as the Beowulf of New York. Crawford had mentioned that she had always worn a vial that contained a little of the ashes of her parents but when she came back from killing her twin she had put some of his blood in it as well. Going back into his room he put the tissues in the bin and sanitized the table along with his hands before smoothing out his tie as he watched the door. Letting his thoughts settle before going to it and opening the door, a slight smile upon his face to be disarming.
"Ms. Blackston?" He asked softly to the single woman waiting by the window.
Her back was to him but he could tell she was approximately five eight in height, slender but athletic. She dressed differently, she had dress shoes on and slack pants with a red shirt that had a corset vest over it. Her hair was so red it was auburn mixed like fall leaves. Tied up yet down at the same time, her jacket and fedora hat were already upon the coat rack having taken it off the moment she stepped inside, something he being who he was picked up on. Manners were present in that single evidence. She turned to Hannibal and she was very pale, but natural pale, eyes so blue they put summer skies to shame, her features were soft yet sharp. If marble could be flesh and carved it would have been her, bangs slightly streaked, ears pierced. She bore a silver and black tie that was tucked into the corset vest. Hands gloved still. She inclined her head gently before coming to him she had the almost non traceable limp to her step, Crawford had said she had had surgery not too long ago.
"Dr. Lecter." She said softly shaking his hand and when he stepped aside she still stood there until he asked her to come in.
Only then did she cross his threshold and step into the confines of his therapy office. Those extremely blue eyes drinking in all the objects around her, books, statues, drawings. Everything.
"I Suppose Jack told you the reason to why I'm here Dr. Lecter," she said as she kept hands behind her back touching with her eyes but nothing physically.
Hannibal observed her and did find her most interesting, especially when she looked him directly in the eyes, direct eye-contact already set her apart from good Will. He inclined his head in answer gesturing to the seats she took the one opposite him.
"Yes, he expressed the same concerns of you as he had for Agent Will Graham," Hannibal said to her in soft confirmation.
She nodded and settled back against the back of the leather seat barely making a sound.
"Most of my superior officers think I should be just given leave and retire," she mused gently as she crossed her legs and rested her elbows on each arm rest interlacing her fingers to rest her palms on her knee.
Her eyes were on Hannibal the entire time as she spoke and performed that action. He looked at her and he leaned back a little as he tilted his head, he would admit to himself mentally that Rhea was actually quiet pretty but beauty to him came in many forms.
"Do you think you aught to retire then and do as they like?" he mused in return to her.
She turned her head slightly as she watched him for the briefest moment he saw her eyes as green and darkness but before he could catch it, it was gone. Brow arching gently she answered.
"To their standards, yes, to my standards I am who I am."
She said this as she looked back to his books tracing a old copy of Dante's Inferno. Guarded, watching her Hannibal found her very hard to read unlike Will. He hadn't had a patient like this before.
"The mathematics of human behavior…All those ugly variables," She turned to Hannibal.
"I am not a fragile teacup Dr. Lecter, but the way I see things others consider to…dark…"
Her observed her quietly, noticing her features, the striking color of her eyes. He tilted his head a little. He found her still a difficult read. But that made things quite interesting.
"Dark?" he mused. "Define that. What most consider 'dark' others could consider…dim at most."
"Darkness is it's own Variety Dr. Lecter. I knew my brother's tendencies when we were nine. I know he killed both our parents and ate our father's heart." She kept his gaze.
"I watched him do it and felt nothing for them. Death is a cycle in this life we've become complacent, to accept death as it comes, by natural causes, accidents or tragedy. No one hunts as they did in olden days. " She arched her brow again gently.
"We were raised by our Uncle, he taught us the old ways of where we came from. He died under ...unknown...circumstances. Only I had a gift my brother couldn't understand. I can assume your point of view, and another's, become the killer and see his design." She tilted her head slightly.
"Anyone can be a killer, I am, I just have a badge and I hunt those who get caught. " She described the time being her brother's guest.
He wasn't refined as a serial killer and cannibal. Descriptive that he could put himself there, feel the cold, everything. The hairs on the back of his neck on edge but not from fear but from slight excitement. She had secrets. Ones he couldn't manipulate to the surface and if he wasn't careful she might entice him into manipulation to accidentally reveal his own.
He smiled a little. "And you feel nothing for these dark tendencies? You felt nothing knowing you yourself were your brothers murderer?" He mused.
"Well, no matter. Not feeling anything doesn't mean you can't be productive." He kept her under his gaze.
"And aside from monologue...what do you want to do?" he said in a gentle tone.
"What is it you want to do from here? You're in my office to make sure you clarify for your work, but do you want to even continue? Or are you here to satisfy what others want of you?"
"A bit of both." She mused finally smirking softly.
"You aren't like others are you Dr. Lecter." She kept his gaze in return voice softer.
She studied him in such a relaxed way not afraid to keep eye contact with him and try to 'see' him in ways Jack Crawford didn't or Will Graham.
"Peeking behind the curtain looking for the Devil in the details. Tell me what is your opinion on Cannibalism. Jack hates mine." She mused finally as a smile crept upon her lips.
He smirked a little. He leaned back a little and grinned. "The Devil is in everything my friend." He smirked. "And what opinion is that?" he softly deflected her question back upon her.
"That it isn't disgusting or Evil. It is a facet of human nature none explore unless under dire circumstances. We judge killers who eat other people yet when a tragedy comes along such as an avalanche and no choice is available then murder and eating of the person is a taboo but necessary. In early cultures eating of another was common, Aztecs ate their fallen warriors so that they might possess a sliver of that warriors skill and soul. African tribes who believed a witch was among them causing vampirism would stay up all night the 'witch' having been up all night would tire and fall asleep so they killed the first one to fall asleep and ate them to break the spell. We are predators. We just need excuses to hunt another for consumption. We are all meat, we all return to clay and ash and dust. We are just smarter then animals yet we only use 10% to 15% of our brains at one time. Those who often cannibalize used up to 20% and more then one part of the brain at a time. Yet it is 'evil." She smirked.
That smirk faded as a serious came over her as she kept his gaze, a flicker of darkness in those blue orbs.
"There is no such thing as good and evil, there is just Nature. That is my opinion Dr. Lecter." She said it softer and she meant it.
He looked at her and smirked a little. His dark eyes intent upon her as he studied his patient, there were secrets under that surface of the Agent, secrets no one knew.
"Have you eaten people?" he asked after a moment of thought.
She watched him for a long moment before answering as she judged how to put what she wanted to say.
"Now that would be Tale full wouldn't it? Yes. My brother was the cause of one such incident. " She said watching him her eyes boring into his.
Calculation playing in those blue eyes, studying him just as intensely perhaps it was like a mental chess game, to outsiders there moment in this room was palpable, the silence uncomfortable but to them.
"Have you?" She asked as she watched him her voice soft, testing the water.
She had eaten more then once, he could feel it but she wasn't going to outright say such a thing which meant she had deeper secrets. Yet he could not delve without risk of revealing his own hand too soon, after all their game had just begun. Perhaps she had another life like his own. Maybe. There was no certainties or she could be truthful and only had it once when her brother fed it to her and might be trying to get him to make his own confessions. He raised a brow in bemusement.
He shrugged. "The scenario has never crossed my mind really."
A smooth lie. But not an unbelievable one. He kept his eyes on her.
"Besides, this isn't really about me, is it?" He asked as smoothly as he lied.
Already he had a growing interest in her as he had with Will when he first met the man, yet Rhea was closer to the door then Will. She didn't need a direct push of sorts to become what she had the potential to become. There was control in her unmeasured, if she had any madness it was leashed and hidden until the proper time to be shown. He only hoped he got to see it soon.
"No but by profession we both Psychoanalyze. Just this time I find a person of interest." She gestured to his clock stating the time though it was behind her able to name off the seconds by the sound.
Sound so low it shouldn't have really been noticeable, yet as she said it her eyes were on his he almost felt a sense of predator in the agent. She got up casually to tilt her head a bit.
"I am cooking dinner for Jack and his wife Bella at my home tonight..." She looked at him.
"Perhaps you could join us Dr. Lecter, off the clock." She extended her hand to him.
His new Secretary had opened the door with her Fedora and coat in hand to inform him of his next patient to blink seeing them already finishing. He smirked a little in his more charming way.
"Glad to be of interest." He murmured.
He tilted his head a little in thought. He considered her invitation as their eyes still stared down each other.
"I believe that wouldn't be out of the question."
She nodded to him finally hand out looking finally away giving her card to his secretary before putting on her Fedora and jacket as she walked out of the room to the back. Stopping to turn to Hannibal.
"Until then, good day…Dr. Lecter." She said he caught it finally that dark green flash to her blue eyes.
Hannibal felt a strange tingle in his fingers he never got unless he wanted to draw, a true smile playing about his lips a bit as he watched her go.
"Same to you, my friend." He leaned against the door frame for a moment as that small smile stayed with him, intrigued.
Going back inside he took the card from his secretary and gently slipped it in his pocket blinking when his secretary handed him a paper. One from Rhea before their appointment. The drawing was of shadows akin to one of the hells of Dante's inferno yet the singular woman in it was looking in a mirror only to be seven woman. Seven devils all around her. The detail was almost as good as his own. He went to his table and found one of his boards not occupied by a sketch and put it down and covered it slowly as he took in one last look of the detail.
"What are you hiding I truly wonder," he said softly to himself.