Hannibal set Charlie up with a cup of tea in the armchair in the corner of his kitchen, and even put extra milk and sugar in when she requested some. Will was across the street, Jack was watching from the entrance to the kitchen as he finished up making sure Charlie was comfortable. Hannibal replaced the fruit bowl with the tray containing the teapot as well as a little jug of milk and the sugar bowl, telling her to help herself. Jack had gone through a mix of emotions at breakneck speed when first seeing Charlie. Suspicion to sympathy, and some in-between.
Now Jack Crawford had settled somewhere in the family of pity. They both knew she was too old to really be a child, but she was not old enough to really be an adult either. She was the muddy middle ground no one wanted to tread. Hannibal would be sure to express his willingness to tread such ground to whichever of her guilted relatives eventually showed up to try and claim her. Some social worker somewhere around here was granting him temporary custody of her to keep her out of a foster home, eventually he'd have to sign something. Close family friend he and Charlie had said in the same breath. The man didn't seem to care beyond the fact that he wouldn't have to make a bunch of calls to get her into a house tonight. There was another person off trying to inform Charlie's grandmother about the death of Heath and Lily. Somehow, he doubted the first thing out of the woman would be "Who's watching Charlie" from how Charlie had reacted to her grandmother even just watching her for the weekend. Someone else was probably looking for a will to see if someone had been appointed as her guardian. Heath and Lily probably hadn't thought that far ahead though.
"What did she have to say about the victims?" Jack asked once they were in the hall, far enough that low voices wouldn't carry.
"The students bullied her to varying degrees. The girl tried to spread a rumor about her, but Charlie flies so low under the radar that no one really cared. The boys who lived next to her, would bump into her in the halls, slam her locker shut just after she got it open. The other boys were much the same. She said the wrestler grabbed her inappropriately once. She doesn't understand why her math teacher is dead, she liked him. I think it might have been because math isn't something she's very proficient at and Lane thought she was being treated unfairly," Hannibal ran through the first murders.
"A man is dead because she was bad at math?" Jack asked as he brushed his hand over his head.
That thought had sent Charlie into another bought of sobbing in the car when Will had asked about Mr. Fuller. Taking a breath Hannibal added, "Charlie said he told her she was perfect, and it probably got to him that her favorite teacher was someone who openly admitted otherwise."
"It probably killed him that she gave Fuller a gift," Jack sighed. "So, he took it."
"Me and Will think so, he probably just didn't notice her other painting in the office afterward or he would have taken that one too," Hannibal nodded. "She loves her parents though. She can't think of a reason that he'd call them bad parents."
"Can you?" Jack asked crossing his arms over his chest and shifting his weight to his other foot. He was wondering how bad of a life this kid had behind the nice front door of her large house.
"Perhaps because of me," Hannibal admitted. "Charlie was coming to talk to me two nights a week for a month, but we were just testing the waters to appease her mother. I didn't charge them anything because it was just a favor, if Charlie decided she wanted to seriously go to therapy I was going to offer my suggestions to her parents. I couldn't be her therapist living right across the street." It would hopefully give Jack a reason to not ask Charlie about her therapy. Here he was openly admitting that's not what it was.
"Her parents are dead because they were seeing if she needed help…" Jack let his arms fall.
"Possibly. They were leaving for a week, I was going to check in on Charlie while they were gone. Lily invited me to the ballet because she wanted someone to sit with Charlie because Heath couldn't make it," Hannibal listed off the other reasons her parents were probably dead. They were also the reasons he might be next. Jack was looking at him hard now, and Hannibal knew it was clicking into place.
"You could be next," Jack said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Especially with her in your house now."
"I'm aware," Hannibal agreed. Unfortunately, now the man couldn't just disappear. Too many people would be looking for him, someone could draw the lines too easily. Charlie would be here now. She wasn't ready to cover for him like that. Jail would have to be the answer. An unsatisfying answer, but an answer just the same.
"We're already going to have the twenty-four-hour protective detail, but perhaps you should close your practice for a few days…" Jack suggested. "If someone claims her I'll make sure you both have one."
"I'll get started on calling my patients," Hannibal nodded. He'd take the week to see if this could be settled quickly.
Hannibal's front door opened then and Zeller yelled back, "Will is done! He asked for Dr. Lecter!"
Then the social worker pushed passed Zeller insisting, "Hey buddy, I got all the paper work for the kid. I just need some initials and signatures."
Hannibal slowly blinked filing away the want to find the social worker later. "Tell Will I'll be a moment," Hannibal said as he waved the social worker further into the house.
oOo
"He burned all the presents for her parents… He took hers…" Will said when Hannibal and Jack walked up next to him as he looked over the Christmas tree. "It's likely that he took some of her clothes, he went in her room… perhaps some other things she'd notice missing, but not me. Maybe have the photographers take pictures of her room to see so we don't have to bring her in here."
Hannibal took in the horror that was the living room as he asked, "Is her violin here somewhere?" There was blood everywhere. The bodies were only now being covered since Will was finished looking around. It didn't stop Hannibal from seeing that Lily was cut almost in half across her stomach before the man put down the sheet. He could tell by the positioning that Heath's head was detached from his body. The blood staining the carpet suggested there was more damage under the sheets.
Will looked towards the room, no doubt picturing it in his mind. "It wasn't in her room," Will shook his head after a moment. "He went in there after. There are footprints everywhere. Like a map." One he didn't need, but he didn't say that. "He's ready to show her everything. He's ready to take her."
"Hannibal, why don't you have a look around and tell us if you notice anything," Jack sighed as he moved away from the Christmas tree and looked around the rest of the room. "Let's go see her room." He called after one of the photographers to finish up and get up to the bedroom to take pictures for Charlie to tell them what was gone.
"Alright," Hannibal nodded. He walked up the stairs avoiding the footprints bled into the carpet. Followed Will and Jack as he took in the walls. There was a handprint smeared near the top that someone was trying to lift fingerprints from. Once in her room he took in the red and black bedding, and furniture. The glass desk, the black music stand. Her violin was missing, case and all. There were posters on the wall from movies and comics. Disney pictures. A worn black bear was on the ground next to the bed. He looked around again before saying, "Unless it's in the car her backpack is missing, along with her violin like Will said." He walked over to the desk, some textbooks and a binder were piled on it, probably to make room in her backpack. There was a little vase with pens in it. He noticed some fine-liners. "I've never been in Charlie's room before this, but I know she enjoys art, only I don't see any art supplies."
Maybe he'd let her redecorate the room he gave her. This was a good precursor to what he should expect from her when he gave her the room. He could live with it. Maybe introduce her to a finer example of wall décor, but otherwise the room was acceptable. He would replace her violin, and art supplies so she'd have something to open on Christmas. While Hannibal didn't usually participate in Christmas passed gifting a few people with a bottle of wine, he'd make an exception for Charlie.
"He took things that would make her comfortable," Jack nodded. "Things to keep her busy. Calm."
"He didn't take pictures though, doesn't look like he took any knickknacks, or her stuffed animal," Hannibal said looking around closer at the shelves and walls to make sure he wasn't missing an empty spot. Her room wasn't tossed around, or made a mess of. It'd be obvious if something was gone that had a fixed spot.
"He wants her to be comfortable, but he wants to be the only one to comfort her," Will explained, as he looked down at the bear on the floor. "He doesn't want her to be able to comfort herself with a bear or a picture. He wants to make her feel better."
"So, she'll bond with him," Hannibal nodded, "Somewhere she can't run away, like she could at school."
Jack looked around too, saying, "Well wherever that was, it wasn't his apartment. It's empty. We got someone looking into any other places he or his family owns."
Hannibal frowned. Things couldn't be that easy that he'd just go back to his own apartment. Things were never that easy.
"He'll come for her," Will said it first.
"He might come for Hannibal first," Jack frowned, letting Will in on what they figured out. "He was going to go to the ballet with Charlie at the request of her mother. She was seeing him every week. He's probably twisted that."
Hannibal didn't mention Charlie liking him. Wouldn't do that to her.
"Well for right now they'll be in the same house," Will said as he looked over at Hannibal. Jack nodded, but before they could continue someone in the hall called him out to deal with something or another. Once they were alone he asked, "Are you going to tell Charlie?"
"No," Hannibal shook his head, "She probably knows deep down, but I won't confront her with it. That would only make her feel worse." She was anxious enough. She'd looked like he was abandoning her when he told her the officer would be watching her.
Will looked uncomfortable for a moment before looked around saying, "She's a good kid, it's a shame this happened to her."
Hannibal held back a smile, and instead merely nodded. He'd find a way to give Will the chance to see Charlie on occasion. It'd be interesting to see them interact when there wasn't murder involved. Before they could continue the photographer came in.
oOo
"Charlie…" Hannibal called out to her softly as he opened the door to his den. It'd taken a while to get back. He kept getting pulled into conversations about the killer, asked questions about the victims, and the photographer took his sweet time. Things were winding down over there though, and he'd be able to call it a night as soon as she told them what was missing from her room. The photographer put the pictures of her room onto one of their laptops, so she wouldn't accidently stumble across a picture of her parents' bodies.
Charlie looked up at him for a moment, before looking back down at her lap as she mumbled, "He just kept staring at me. I couldn't sit there anymore after he asked me for the fourth time if I was okay."
Hannibal sighed as he sat the laptop down on his desk. Of course, she wasn't alright, her parents had just been murdered. Hannibal pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment before he walked over and kneeled in front of her. He gripped her knee as he said, "It's okay, you're allowed to be in here. I need you to look at some pictures of your room though."
Charlie bit her lip at that before asking, "What's wrong with it?"
"We think there are some things missing from your room, and we need you to tell us what they are," Hannibal said standing back up. "You might see some bloody footprints on the carpet, but nothing happened in your room."
Struggling to count to ten, to keep calm, Charlie stared at her hands for a long time. After she got to ten she nodded and stood up. Nothing happened in my room, Charlie repeated to herself in her head forcing herself not to imagine how much blood was needed to leave behind footprints all the way up to her room. She could look at her room if nothing happened in there. She was vaguely aware of Hannibal leading her around his desk. He sat her down, and opened the laptop pulling up the folder with the pictures of her room.
"Just use the arrows," Hannibal said as he pulled out a pad of paper, and a pen. "Tell me anything that's different, or missing."
Charlie frowned as she looked at the first picture, it was just a picture from the doorway, it was hard to tell if something was different. The walls looked the same, her bed. She went to the next photo, but it was just of her bed… "Was there a black bear?"
"It fell on the floor, perhaps it's in another picture," Hannibal frowned.
Charlie shook her head, even though she felt really foolish. "That's my favorite… you know childhood stuffed animal. He was in the middle of the bed. H-it didn't just fall off… I took care of that bear, I didn't even take him out of the house 'cause I was afraid to lose him…"
Hannibal wrote down that the bear was moved, decided he'd tell Katz to try and get it back to Charlie as soon as she could. He could understand wanting to keep certain things from childhood…
She clicked passed the next page because it did show her bear on the floor. The next picture was her book shelf. "There's a stack of books missing… I keep the ones I haven't read on top…"
Hannibal wrote it down and watched her click through the pictures of her walls, the space in front of the window. Another shelf with figures and pictures on it.
Then it was her music stand, "My violin was sitting on the floor. There was a music book on the stand…"
Hannibal nodded, wrote what she said was missing, but kept an eye on her face. She was misty eyed, and kept swiping at her cheeks. Charlie kept going though, and he didn't stop her.
"Those books and folders were in my bag," Charlie mumbled when she got to her desk. "My laptop is missing… my sketchbooks and a pencil bag that had some colored pencils in it… and a hard black pencil box with pens are all gone…"
Hannibal wrote quickly what she was missing, also keeping a mental note of what he'd need to buy her.
"My backpack was under the desk…" Charlie continued as she clicked to the next picture. She was silent though a few more. Nothing out of place in them. Then it came to her closet… She worked her canine against her lower lip, "Some of the clothes that were on the empty hangers are missing. We just did laundry, I had to take my hangers downstairs, there weren't any empty ones in there. My dress for the ballet tomorrow is gone… it was red, with a sweetheart neck… came to just above my knees… mom bugged me and bugged me to pick it… and it was your favorite color so I did… It was hanging on the inside edge of the closet, not in with the other clothes…"
Hannibal frowned as he noticed how hard she was biting herself. He went to stop her but she yelped, her hands flying to her mouth. He moved her back from the desk with the use of the wheels on the bottom of the chair and moved her hands, his fingers closing around her wrists. Blood trickled down her chin and he snatched the pocket square from his jacket to catch the blood before it got to her clothes. "Hold this to your lip," Hannibal insisted as he jotted down that some clothes were gone and a red formal dress was missing. He glanced at the number of pictures 49/50. "One more picture and then I'll get you cleaned up…" Hannibal said looking towards her.
Charlie nodded as she held the soft material to her lips. He hit the arrow button, glancing at Charlie as it showed the bottom of her closet. He could see her staring hard, but at first not at the contents of the closet. Instead her eyes were on the red foot prints on the ground in front of it. Hannibal touched her shoulder and she refocused. Moving the square away Charlie muttered, "Some black boots are missing, they were going to go with the dress…"
Hannibal wrote it down before he stood her up and led her from the room. He motioned to the photographer to get the things, "The computer is there, and take the list next to it. That's everything she could see missing."
The man looked like he wanted to ask if everything was alright, but Hannibal didn't really give him a chance. He led Charlie to the kitchen where he kept a small first aid kit in case of kitchen accidents. When he had dinner parties other people helped him prepare food, and things happened. It was easier to have things on hand down here than to trudge upstairs for the better one he kept in his bathroom.
Charlie followed to the back of the kitchen where a larger sink with one of those faucets you could pull down was. She stood next to him as he pulled out a kit from under the sink, still holding the fabric to her mouth like he instructed. She couldn't help but notice it smelled like him… Like spice and something deep… Her thoughts cut off as he lifted her up onto the counter next to the sink. She gasped, not expecting it. Hannibal smiled at her, before washing his hands.
When he took the fabric from her Charlie apologized, "I'm sorry I'm ruining everything you're wearing today."
"Don't worry Charlie, cooking comes with some deal of mess. I've become quite adept at removing blood from my clothing," Hannibal explained as he took an alcohol wipe from the container, opening it. "Open your mouth a bit," Hannibal instructed before he cleaned the area. "Try not to lick your lips." He opened another one and cleaned her lip again as well as her chin before he opened a pad of gauze and had her hold that to her lip instead. "It's still bleeding a bit, hold that there."
"Hannibal?!" Will called out as he walked towards the kitchen.
"Yes Will?" Hannibal asked as he turned to find Will moving into the kitchen, his body leaning this way and that to see Charlie.
"What's wrong here?" Will asked as found Charlie holding gauze to her lip.
"I'm fine!" she squeaked out, embarrassed of herself.
Will looked at Hannibal significantly less sure then Charlie was trying to seem.
"She'll be okay, she bit into her lip a little is all," Hannibal said as he looked to Charlie who looked a bit ashamed. "We'll have to discuss better ways of dealing with stress."
"I… well as long as everything's alright, Jack wanted me to let you know we're all wrapping up over there, and heading out," Will said as he rubbed the back of his head. "There's a squad car across the street," Will said fishing a card out of his pocket, "Here's the number to get officers in the car, if for some reason there's trouble they don't notice."
Hannibal took the card nodding, "Thank you Will."
"No problem," Will nodded back.
"Jack told me to stop my practice for a bit, but you're welcome to stop by here if you need to talk. Give me some notice and I'll set you a place at the dinner table," Hannibal offered as he watched the other man.
"Thank you, Hannibal," Will nodded, "I'll give you a call this week." Then after a moment he hummed "I'll see you both later."
"Will," Hannibal nodded.
"Bye Mr. Graham," Charlie called out the best she could while still following directions and keeping the gauze to her lip.
oOo
The distraction of hurting herself ran its course once her and Hannibal found themselves in front of his TV. He had it in a compartment behind a bookshelf for the rare times he chose to use it. Sometimes films were worth it, it was always handy to have a few basic news stations. With smart TVs it was easier to get only the things he wanted so he'd bought one a while ago. She signed in with her own amazon account and Hannibal found himself indulging her as she watched an anime about a wizard in a moving castle.
It was tollerable.
Unfortunately, he found Charlie crying only ten minutes in. She was sitting stiffly next to him, even though she was trying to hide it by pressing against the armrest, trying not to make too much noise. He wasn't highly invested in the movie, though if she wanted he would continue watching it with her, so he pulled her against his side. He gently wrapped an arm around her, and let her lean into him.
Charlie was thankful that Hannibal had excused himself to put on a sweater in place of his button-up and jacket no matter how many times he told her she wasn't ruining his clothes. He told her he'd find her something to wear when she was ready to go to sleep, and tomorrow they'd buy her some things. She knew she was crying for her parents again, but she wished she could stop. She hated crying. It was making her feel horrible and Hannibal was being nice enough to watch this movie with her, even though she got the strict impression that he didn't spend his spare time watching TV let alone movies, and she was ruining that too. She just wanted to stop being a bother.
After a while longer, Charlie trying to seek shelter more fully against his side, Hannibal captured her legs pulling them across his lap. She settled some more and eventually she relaxed back into the movie. He drew swirling patterns against her shins with one hand. The other was securely wrapped around her shoulders.
oOo
Hannibal glanced down at Charlie just as the movie ended to see that she had fallen asleep. She'd been dozing off and on, but she kept jerking herself back awake. He had to hold her tighter when she'd wake up, her heartbeat would quicken, and she'd try to pull away. The first time Charlie had almost fallen from his lap onto the floor. Now he let his fingers play along her arm as he watched her face. She was whimpering softly, and squirming around. "Charlie," he coaxed gently. "Charlie wake up…"
Charlie gasped as she woke up, wrapping her arms around herself. She held her breath trying not cry out again. Hannibal brushed his fingers into her hair, getting her to look at him, but she couldn't say anything. Only when he went to speak she whimpered, "Please don't make me go upstairs…" The last time she'd jerked herself awake Hannibal had tried to suggest she go upstairs to bed.
"You need to get some real sleep," Hannibal told her as he let her crawl from his lap. As though that would stop him from taking her upstairs.
"I don't want to go to sleep," Charlie insisted as she rubbed at her face. Every time she fell asleep something horrible happened. To her parents, to her, to Hannibal.
Hannibal sighed as he stood up, holding a hand out for her, "Let's get some tea," Hannibal offered, "We'll discuss this further." He really didn't want to have to drug her, just in case something happened. He didn't want her to be too gone to run away, but he'd think about it. After a moment she took his hand, standing up. If he had to he'd set her up with another movie and get her to lay down and watch it. Something to get her to calm down and sleep...
She needed to rest before something happened. Something was bound to happen. It was just a matter of when.
Here we go! Fun things to come! It'll be awesome.
REVIEW REPLIES:
city bookworm: Oh no I'm good with these long reviews, they make me happy. And If I could stay up all night I would, but alas I work all week so late posts are a weekend luxury when I don't have to get up the next day. I meant to reply to you sooner this time, but I kept getting sidetracked. If you want to send me a private message with your email, or something along those lines I'll send you the chapters I was going to use as attachments, there were a few. If you're not comfortable with that I can send them to you in a couple messages I suppose.
As for ending the parents, yeah. It really came down to Will knowing what was really going on. He's not allowed to know yet, so I made it so he doesn't. They're still lying about when she told him, and her having to tell Will that she forgot to tell him the picture was there last chapter probably helped that along.
I hope to give Charlie a little more depth as this goes on, have her interact with Hannibal more. She hadn't intended to talk to him, but they started the game and she knew it wasn't an option to stop playing. She knew she wasn't allowed to lie. Even if she didn't know exactly what would happen should she have done something like that. Now she's attached to him, and I'm glad you think it's realistic at least to some degree. Her family life outside of her parents will come to light, and it might explain more about Charlie...
