Pale hands reached behind and unclasped the necklace around her ivory throat. The rose necklace was placed over the dresser delicately with a soft sigh.
Golden curls were released from her curling iron and she fluffed her hair a little. She started to apply make-up to her face. First mascara and then applied black eyeliner, but lightly. She slicked on a soft pink rose lipstick on her kissable lips.
Elizabeth sighed while looking at herself in the mirror. She really didn't want to go, but Alana was making her go.
It had been a week since her breakup with Hannibal and she had purposely been keeping herself lately. Actually, she had been working hard on the cases of The Ripper, reading each one over and over again. She felt like she had missed something in these reports that was right in front of her. She even tried the Copycat's, but alas, there was nothing.
Elizabeth retraced Meredith's steps too, but all that got her was a dead end at some ice cream shop where Chilton and Meredith went there on their first date because they had miss their reservations at some fancy French restaurant and because Meredith took too long to get ready.
The memory made her smile a little bit, but not for long since she remembered that Meredith wasn't there anymore.
Elizabeth had decided not to stay at her house and at Will's, fixing the place up for him when he came back. All of his dogs came with her as well, guarding her day and night.
She couldn't stay at her house because it was right next to hers and she just kept on seeing him popping in and out of the house. It was all too painful to remember his words forming inside of her head like a spider hatching its eggs. They kept on multiplying it seemed.
Tomorrow was when she would see all of them again, seeing as how it was the start of Will's trial and she was testing on his behalf, but she had this feeling that her testimony of him would be disregarded since he was her brother who she loved dearly.
Elizabeth slipped on a business-like dress that the top was a dark red with sleeves up to her elbows and a black skirt held by a black belt. The dress was flattering as it wrapped its fabrics around her body like a hug. She had gotten a haircut last afternoon and it was short. Its length just above her shoulders. She needed a new look and she thought that she should look more professional since she was an FBI agent. She actually liked the way to looked on her hair and didn't really care now for her long hair.
It's hair…it'll grow back, she thought to herself.
Elizabeth sighed to herself once again as she grabbed her things and headed out the door and to her brother's trial…where she was already late.
Elizabeth paced back and forth before she was called into the room.
"Your Honor, I would like to call up to the stand, Agent Elizabeth Graham," Leonard Brauer said suddenly.
The crowd as quiet as the doors opened for her and she walked down the aisle and to the seat where she placed her hand upon the bible and repeated the oath she took.
Right after she sat down, her eyes caught Hannibal's for a moment before she quickly looked to her brother's lawyer, Mr. Brauer.
"Now, Agent Graham, what can you tell us about Will Graham?" he asked her.
"Will is my older brother-well, half-brother, but still family," she told him. "I always looked up to him where we were children. He was always there for me as the protective brother that he was. He is still the same man that I knew then now. He's not guilty."
"Now, he's your brother so of course you think that, but why isn't he guilty like most would think from the evidence that was collected at the scene," Mr. Brauer asked curiously.
"I've been through the Copycat cases hundreds of times and everything pointed to Will-everything single little thing. One would assume that it has to be Will. They found human remains out in the open so carelessly, he was coincidentally at every crime scene, there are apparently forty pieces of evidence, he had blackouts, and the fact that he's not always there so this makes the story believable. It has to be Will Graham. The Copycat framed Will because he was there and he would look guilty, he was the one who could be framed so easily and he was. He was right in the end," she explained.
Mr. Brauer turned to the jury and said, "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, she may be his sister, but according to her peers, she's good at what she does which is being a detective like her brother. I mean she caught The Bayard Butcher. Now Miss Vega told you all that Will Graham is the most intelligent person in this room right now at this very second. He's even an intelligent psychopath, but if he is so intelligent then don't you think that before he called Hannibal Lecter after finding Abigail Hobbs' ear in his throat, he would've at least hid his fish hooks better which were of human remains from all of his supposed victims? No, instead like Agent Graham said, they were carelessly out in the open and put where anyone could've easily seen them. No further questions, your honor."
Miss Vega stood up immediately and walked over to her, saying, "Agent Graham, would you tell the jury of the events that took place on June 6th, 1999?"
Elizabeth stiffened in her seat. "I'm sorry. Could you specify on that date exactly?"
"Oh, well, I'm talking about the day where your own brother tried to kill you," Miss Vega said causally and there were gasps in the crowd. "Sorry, not you, but your boyfriend at the time, Trent Thomas."
"He was trying to protect me-"
"By attempting to murder your boyfriend?" She questioned in amusement.
"No, that was in self-defense seeing as how Trent was trying to rape me," Elizabeth replied coldly. "I came home from cheerleading practice and had this bad feeling in my stomach that something bad was going to happen today, but I quickly brushed it off as nothing. I go upstairs to my bedroom and find Trent sitting on my bed. I was barely even sixteen and he was a senior so of course I didn't care about how he got into my bedroom. I was young and in love with him at the time. I had broken up with him though because I found out that he was cheating on me with Meredith Hopkins who I later became friends with after since she never knew that he had a girlfriend. I tell him to get out since I never wanted to see him again and he didn't answer me…he just sat there watching me silently. Eventually I yelled at him to get out and then turned around to storm out of the bedroom since I really didn't want to see him. Then he grabbed my hair and shoved me onto my bed, pinning me down. I loved Trent and screamed at him to stop, but he kept on telling me crude things like how I wanted it and that I was…t-that I was being a tease to him with my cheerleading uniform and how I let the guys at our school look at me. Trent then started to tear off all of my clothes as I cried for him to stop, screaming at the top of lungs until he slapped me four times to shut me up. Will came in before Trent could do anything and nearly beat him to death. I tried to stop Will, but he accidentally and in blind rage had pushed me out the door to where I slammed into the wall and went falling down the stairs. Yes, I almost died, but at the same time, Will was protecting me from a rapist."
The room was silent as everyone stared at her and the jury had this pitiful look on their faces as did the judge almost. Elizabeth hastily wiped a tear from her eyes before it could reach her cheeks.
Elizabeth stared impassively at the ear placed in the middle of the table.
"Are you fucking kidding me," She muttered to them.
They stopped talking and looked at her incredulously as Jimmy questioned, "What?"
"This shit has to stop. We all know that it's not Will, seeing as how this ear was cut before the trial he even started and he was already in jail."
"Well, it could be from an admirer," Brian suggested to which they had nodded in agreement to.
Elizabeth's hands rolled into fists as fury appeared in her eyes. "Why are you all quick to think of the worse and to judge, huh? Katz thinks Will is obliviously guilty enough to where she's actually disgusted by the sight of him and annoyed as well. Jack feels and yet somehow doesn't feel guilty about what happened to Will. Alana is pushing him away and making sure that he pleads to being fucking crazy. Jimmy and Brian are mutual in this entire thing-"
"I can see that," Jimmy agreed as Brian looked at him like he was crazy. Jimmy shrugged. "What, Brian? We are."
Brian shook his head in exasperation and rubbed his temples in frustration. On any other day, that would've made her laugh…but definitely not today.
Elizabeth instead rolled her eyes and continued, "And Hannibal, he's trying to be his friend especially when he knows that he Will hates him and that I don't want him anywhere near him because Will thinks that he's doing all of this."
"Well," Hannibal spoke out. "You can't tell me what to do anymore since we're not dating anymore, Elizabeth."
She glared at him. "You're really gonna bring this up? Right now?"
Hannibal thought about it for a moment mockingly before answering, "Yes. I am."
"Oh, wow, you're such a grown-up," she said sarcastically. "It's not my fault that you can't respect someone's wishes. I have every right that is to be angry at you."
"No, you don't! You chose Will over me," he snapped. "You chose your brother over someone who loves you and wants to spend the rest of their life with you and for what? Just so you wouldn't hurt his feelings at wanting to be happy for once in your life?"
"He's my fucking brother," she shouted at him. "I would and will choose him over you any day and any time because that is what family does for each other. He's all I have left and I don't plan to lose him now over a guy."
"So that's all I am to you?! Just some man?! We lived together and told each other everything!"
She scoffed. "Oh please even I know that you don't tell me everything and that's okay because you have your secrets and I have mine, Hannibal! We'll always have secrets!"
"Ugh!" He groaned in rage. "He's turned you against me! I knew it! I knew he would."
"You're being ridiculous," Elizabeth sighed heavily. "You're being paranoid just like Will. You know what?! I'm done with you! This is stupid!"
Elizabeth turned around and started to walk away as Hannibal called out to her," Yeah, walk away just like you always do. You always run away whenever things get hard for you."
"Go fuck yourself," she called back to him sarcastically.
What an asshole, she mentally screamed in frustration mentally inside of her head.
TBC…
THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS, FOLLOWS, AND FAVORITES! Aw, Elizabeth and Hannibal are definitely on the outs with each other right now. I hoped you all liked this chapter.
REVIEW. FOLLOW. FAVORITE. Until next time...