Clarice Starling was exhausted when she left the Baltimore State Hospital. She had shed a single tear inside her old Pinto. She cried, yelled and hit her steering wheel in a wave of pure aggression. It was for her a way to lose all frustration.
As Clarice drove home, she thought about Lecter's 'Valentine's gift': Raspail. Clarice remembered. As far as the young woman knew, he was a former patient of Dr. Lecter and one of his victims. It would be past midnight when Clarice was back at her apartment. There was no chance there would be any sleep tonight, she had to start working on her report about Lecter. She had time but ambitious as Clarice was, she wanted to finish is at soon as possible.
Benjamin Raspail was a 46 year-old flutist in the Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra. He was registered as a patient of Dr. Lecter. Four years ago he didn't show up for a rehearsal, three days later he was found on a bench in front of a church. Dead. Autopsies showed he was missing several organs. The homicide department of Baltimore was convinced that these organs were served at one of Dr. Lecter's fancy dinner parties.
Clarice her report was ready the next morning. She almost fell asleep on the chair she was sitting on when her roommate Ardelia Mapp walked in. She noticed the dark circles under Clarice's eyes.
"What have you been up to, girl?" she asked her. Delia always asked questions as if the responses weren't important.
"Fumbled around with a crazy guy until he ejaculated in my face," Clarice teased. Well, it was true after all.
"Oh you lucky girl, I wished I had your life," Ardelia started laughing. Her laugh made Clarice smile even though she felt dead inside. Delia saw it and hugged her before Clarice's maniacal laughter changed into loud sobbing.
Will Graham walked into Jack Crawford's office, it was 9 AM. Jack looked tired and not in good mood, Will had learned quite fast that he better remained silent when Jack was in a mood like this. Graham was looking at the board with all the pictures and information they knew.
After a minute Will spoke up, "Anything new?"
"Nothing new, no clue, nothing Will," Jack sighed. Will was curious about Clarice, the trainee that went to see Hannibal.
Jack was almost reading his mind, "He talked." Will's heart skipped a beat. Offcourse he did, I know him.
Clarice had delivered her report to Jack Crawford. All she could do was wait for his response. Clarice wanted to get some rest before she'd collapse on the floor. After a few hours of sleep, Clarice woke up to the sound of her ringing phone. Disoriented as she was, she almost tripped while getting it.
"Hello," her voice was hoarse. She didn't recognise the number on the screen.
"Starling, I got your report," his voice was very loud. She felt more awake when she realised who was on the phone.
"I need you in my office right now," Jack Crawford stated.
"Yes, sir. I'll be there right away." Clarice worry started to grow.
"Good," with that single word he hung up on her. Her words worried her, was the report not good enough? He sounded quite mad at the phone. She panicked.
Clarice rushed over to put on some decent clothes before heading to the BSU at the FBI Academy. There seemed to be more people at the BSU wing than yesterday morning. She heard arguing when she knocked on the door of Jack Crawford's office.
"Come in," she heard Crawford yell.
Jack was standing behind his desk with his fists on the edge of it. Will Graham was standing on his left side, looking out of the window. He didn't look up when she entered. Fuck, I'm in big shit trouble, Clarice's first thought was. Jack looked angry, it was obvious that he had an argument with Will, who 'didn't want to get involved'. She stood a few feet away from Jack's desk, hoping he wasn't going to yell at her.
"Starling, I got your report," he started. He seemed to calm down a bit. Professor Graham was still looking outside, like a stubborn four-year-old. She nodded. "It's good, it is exactly what we wanted," Jack said. Graham turned his head a little.
"This job wasn't all about reopening old cases right. It was about Buffalo Bill, right?" she knew because Lecter had told her. Will sighed.
"We had to lie to you because he'd known instantly if we had sent you out there with a real mission," Jack admitted. Clarice hid her disappointment, she hated lies.
"Well, he knew," she said softly.
"Hannibal mentioned Raspail?" Will asked her. He finally looked at her, not really at her but in her direction. His name on his lips seemed so unnatural to Clarice. Clarice nodded.
"You think it was a hint, him playing around with all this Valentine crap?" Crawford asked her.
"I don't think he was playing around at all, sir," Clarice said while looking at Jack and then Will.
Crawford looked at Will. It looked like that was the subject they were arguing about earlier on. Will sighed again and looked away.
"I want you to sort this thing out from the bottom. Off the record," Jack said to Clarice before facing the man behind him, "and you're going to work with her, Will. I need you back in the field. Please."
The disturbed FBI profiler looked at the wall with the pictures of Buffalo Bill's victims and looked at Clarice. "I don't have a choice, do I?" he asked.
"No you don't," Jack had no mercy for Will.
"I'll do it," he said with a sad tone. Jack looked pleased. Clarice wondered if Jack could sleep at night knowing that he had ruined Will's life and was still continuing that process.
"This is a great opportunity, Starling. Treat is as such. You handled yesterday perfectly, I'm expecting you to continue that standard," Jack said, obviously excited with the last change of plans.
"Yes. Thank you, sir." Clarice said, confused inside about what was going to happen from now on. Will Graham didn't seem to be very eager to work with her. Crawford's cell phone started ringing, he looked at her before he walked out of his office, leaving Will & Clarice alone. There was an awkwardness between them, like one of these awful blind dates Ardelia had arranged for her.
Will was staring out of the window again, looking very disturbed, lost in thought. He looked so desperate, like a wounded animal.
"Are you okay?" Clarice asked him when she stepped closer to the wall with the pictures of Buffalo Bill's victims.
"Uh yeah," he stammered when he walked towards her until he stood right beside her.
Will could hear her soft breathing next to her. He had so many questions for her, she'd seen Hannibal. He knew that he couldn't ask her, but he felt a weird connection with Hannibal through the young woman. The man didn't want to get involved in the Buffalo Bill case but he knew that he'd get this kind of treatment when he started teaching again.
Being social was very hard for Will, even before he had met Hannibal Lecter. Clarice was one of his students, that was also disturbing. He didn't doubt her skills or knowledge or the fact that she was a trainee, he was afraid that he'd like her for the same reasons that made Hannibal talk to her.