Chapter Two
Cliché Cousins
Please review or there will be no other chapter, I own very little in my life and this world and I would appreciate it if the lawyers didn't try to take it away. Thus said, please enjoy the story because though I own Ingrid, the other characters, mostly, are not mine! DFP
Ingrid rushed from the room to find her cousin Clarice who was pacing back and forth in the living room. Clarice looked up a worried expression trailing over her face.
"We need to talk." Was all Ingrid said as she grabbed Clarice's arm and hauled her up the stairs to one of the guest rooms.
"Is everything okay? What is going on?" Clarice exclaimed as Ingrid pushed her into the room and locked the door behind them.
"No, nothing is okay!" Ingrid practically yelled frustration evident on her face.
"Well, what is it? For crying out loud, tell me already." Clarice begged.
"Hannibal, I mean, Doctor Lecter he… kissed me." Ingrid murmured quietly sitting down on the bed.
"What?" Clarice questioned hoping she'd heard her wrong.
"I said he kissed me." Ingrid said a little louder not looking up from the floor.
Clarice slowly walked over to her cousin and sat down heavily on the bed next to her. Ingrid didn't look at her, to afraid to see the look on her face. Then the most unlikely thing happened; Clarice laughed.
"He kissed you? You sure know how to pick them!" Clarice laughed holding her side moments later.
Ingrid glared at her cousin. "You hated me. Hated me so much that you wished my family were dead. They died and I refused to talk to you afterwards. It was the plague of course, but that didn't ruin the sentiment Clarice. Now, after all those years, I've forgiven you and now all you can do is laugh while I fumble for reasoning? You're impossible!" Ingrid growled standing up and pacing the room.
"Ingrid, what's wrong? Why does he kissing you make you so upset?" Clarice asked trying to hide the smile on her face.
"Because, he's a cannibal. News flash, Clarice, he EATS people!" Ingrid emphasized running a hand through her black hair.
"Yes, and I'm suppose to be arresting him, but I'm not." Clarice shrugged.
"No, you aren't arresting him because you're on a leave of absence which could prove permanent if you aren't careful." Ingrid informed pointing her finger at Clarice accusingly.
"That may be somewhat true." Clarice nodded.
"It is and there's no point in denying it. Back to the original problem, you don't think it's disturbing for him to kiss me?" Ingrid questioned.
"Not at all. Hannibal is, if nothing else, a true gentleman. He probably kissed you to take the pain away or something like that." Clarice explained offhandedly.
Ingrid paused the comment she was about to say caught in her throat at the truth in her cousin's words. "He took the bullets out." Ingrid sighed sitting back down on the bed.
"That's good." Clarice nodded.
"What's it mean?" Ingrid asked slowly rubbing her eyes tiredly.
"He tried to make it comfortable for you." Clarice shrugged.
Ingrid slowly looked at her cousin. "What am I suppose to do?" She asked trying to remain calm.
"Whatever your heart tells you to." Clarice stated with a smile as she left the room to go back downstairs.
"How cliché, how terribly horribly cliché." Ingrid groaned as she squeezed the bridge of her nose to relieve pressure.
Your heart always tells you what you never want to hear, the truth. Your mind tries to rationalize it and push it into a dark corner so you won't have to be bothered by the annoying facts. Love is just one of those things that gets caught in the gray area in between known and unknown. Ingrid had almost totally cut off communication with her heart and had been prospering from it ever since. However, this meant that the one kiss had caused her system to completely shut down. No love, no pain, no feeling and to Ingrid that meant no problem. However, now that wasn't to be the case. There had been passion in that kiss and that had almost been more confusing than the actual kiss. It would have been one thing if it'd only been meant as a distraction; but she didn't believe it to be. With a sigh, Ingrid rose from the bed and walked out of the room. Feelings were complicated and it seemed that Ingrid had gotten herself caught up in them again. She just hoped that doctor wasn't playing mind games with her, because she wasn't going to play nicely when it was her heart that was on the line.
