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Despite the news that she never expected to be dropped on her, Bella devoured the meal she and Dr. Lecter had made. She kept her head down, only looking at her plate as she ate. She could feel the eyes of both her mother and. . .dare she think it, her father. It was awkward to say the least. The only noise heard between the three was the clicks and taps of silverware hitting plates. She was nearly finished with her last lamb medallion when Clarice finally broke the silence.

"Hannibal, I think you would be very happy to know that Bella has the lead in her school's ballet performance next Friday. What ballet are you performing again, Bella?" Clarice asked, hoping to ease the two back into the comfortable uneasiness that had been before the truth came out.

Hannibal saw the blush fill Bella's cheeks, but she didn't speak. He cleared his throat. "Actually, I attended her practice yesterday. I have so say, Bella, you would captivate the eyes of New York's elite with the way you performed. I was thoroughly impressed. I believe the ballet is Sleeping Beauty, is it not?" He waited for a response, but Bella wasn't budging. Her eyes had moved towards his plate, but she hadn't moved her head from its downward position. "I saw the spawn that verbally assaulted you yesterday. Paul Krendler's child, I presume. If you'd like, I can take care of him for you."

"Can you?" Bella mumbled, earning a gasp from her mother. She finally looked up with a shrug. "What? It's not like I haven't thought about doing it before."

"We aren't killing anybody." Clarice stated firmly. She turned her glare to Hannibal. "We aren't offering either."

Bella dropped back in her chair, letting her fork clatter onto the table. "Why? It's only natural. Daughter of a serial killer wants to take care of her problems by killing them. It makes so much sense now. The desirable need to see him suffer. The fact that I've thought a normal man was never capable of being my father. My God! I can't believe I didn't see it sooner."

Clarice saw the cracks breaking down her daughter's walls faster than she had built them up. "Bella, honey, it's okay."

"It's not okay!" Bella snapped. "None of this is okay, and the fact that I'm not more freaked out about how fucked up this is actually freaks me out more. He's a cannibal! And, he's my father! You slept with him knowing he was a cannibal! You fell in love with him knowing he was a cannibal! And, it's not even about him being a killer. It's the fact that you didn't trust me enough to tell me until he showed up in our house. If I hadn't come by today and interrupted whatever this is, would you have even told me?"

Clarice felt her composure waving. The cotton ball lodged in her throat prevented her from speaking as strongly as she would have liked. "Of course. I was going to explain everything tomorrow when I picked you up from Ardelia's. I was planning on this all happening tomorrow night."

Bella chuckled despite her anger as she stood from the table. "I've begged for years to know little pieces of information about my father. You really expect me to believe you were going to tell me everything tomorrow, just like that. I really doubt this is the first time Dr. Lecter has been here to visit you." She turned her teary-eyed glare to Hannibal. "Is it?"

"I've been to the states multiple times to check up on your mother. This is the first time we've actually spoken since we shared our feelings eighteen years ago." Hannibal explained before wiping his chin. "I understand that this hard for you to understand, but your mother only has kept this secret to protect you. That deserves some respect from you."

Bella scoffed. "Respect? I respect my mother, but it's hard to see her side when she ships me off for the night to avoid telling me the truth." She tossed her napkin onto the table and glanced at Clarice before leaving the table. "Complete bullshit."

Hannibal and Clarice both stood from the table to follow her. "Bella, come back here. We aren't done yet." Clarice felt her stomach drop seeing Bella gathering her wallet and phone out of her messenger bag. "You aren't going anywhere."

"Now, you suddenly want me here?" Bella was enraged, seeing red as she haphazardly put herself together. "I'm going to give you the night alone that you wanted in the first place. You win. If you're mad at me, fine. I can't be here right now."

Clarice stepped forward when Bella opened the door. "Bella, stop this."

"I'm going out." Bella stated, ignoring her mother's plea. "Send your lover to find me if you need me. I'm sure he can smell me."

Hannibal frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, eat me. I read your file. I know exactly what you're capable of." Bella glowered at Dr. Lecter. She quickly wiped under her eyes, ridding them of tears, before launching herself out the front door.

Hannibal felt helpless. He wanted to comfort his daughter. She was obviously in pain. But, he couldn't exist outside the townhouse until darkness. He watched as Clarice fled to stop her. "Bella, be mad at me. Scream at me. I understand that this is a lot, and I could have handled it better. But, please, don't go."

Bella ran across the street, narrowly missing a car driving through, before climbing into Winnie's car. "Go."

Winnie nervously looked back at Clarice who was now standing on the curb with tears running down her face and calling out for Bella to return. "Uh, Bella, she's-"

"Go!" Bella shouted, her voice cracking as her emotions began to catch up with her. She curled up in the passenger seat and looked out the window as the floodgates opened. She hated crying in front of anyone outside of her mother, but she welcomed the sobs that wracked her body. It was something to distract her from the news flash that was spiraling into her life.


Clarice nervously paced the living room with her phone pressed to her ear. She had been dialing Bella and Winnie's numbers for an hour. She tried Ardelia to see if Bella had escaped there. She even called Winnie's parents to check on them. She didn't want to alert them knowing that Winnie was just as lost as she was. When her daughter's voicemail sounded again, she chucked her phone into the couch cushions and grunted.

Hannibal stood in the kitchen, palms pressed firmly against the countertop. He seemed to be in an entirely different world, but she knew it had the same center. He had been antagonizing himself over what he could've done differently, but she tried to reassure him. Despite his guilt, she knew that he had already pushed the limits of his boundaries with Bella. She knew what her life had been like before all of this, and she wouldn't just let Hannibal step in to play dad because they shared blood.

"They must've turned off their phones. They aren't even ringing." Clarice breathed, her voice desperate. "Hannibal, I don't know what to do. She doesn't know anybody. We don't have anybody other than Ardelia. Where would she go?"

"I'm sure she's fine. She's a bright girl." Hannibal said more for himself than for Clarice. He shook his head. "Once it gets dark, I can go out. She wasn't wrong about my ability to track her."

Clarice shook her head. "I can't wait for that." She quickly moved to the coat rack by the front door and pulled off a baseball cap. "Wear that. People aren't going to expect to see you in a car driving around D.C."


Clarice got back in the car after quickly checking around her office building. It was the only other place she could think of. "She's not here. Hannibal, what are we going to do? I can't find her!"

"Let's calm down." Hannibal said, sensing her near episode of frantic behavior. She was almost hyperventilating next to him in the driver's seat. "Alright, let's just take a breath. Don't lose yourself thinking this over. There has to be someplace else that she could go and feel safe."

Clarice closed her eyes, dropping her head back against the seat. "Hannibal, we literally have nobody. What friends she has are ones that she wouldn't trust enough to just invite herself in."

Hannibal cocked his head to the side. "Clarice, we just dropped the biggest bombshell into her life that she will probably ever receive. I don't think we can rule out anything here. She's confused. She's hurt. She wants someplace familiar."

"That's me." Clarice cried. "And, I can't be that for her right now. I can't be her familiar place, because I'm not that person anymore. In her eyes, I might as well be Ted Bundy circling around her. I've always been the person she could trust. No matter what the problem was, I was her number one. I made her my number one to take care of, but I never thought about telling her everything. I didn't even consider it. I wanted her to remain. . ."

Hannibal stroked her hair, trying to calm down her breathing. "Innocent. I know."

They both jumped when Clarice's phone chirped to life in one of the cup holders between them. She quickly grabbed it and glanced at the screen. "It's Winnie!" She shouted before taking the call. "Winnie, please, tell me you have Bella with you."

Hannibal's ears jerked when the speaker was loud enough for him to hear Winnie's guilty conscience giving up Bella over the phone. "I'm so sorry, Ms. Starling. She just texted me saying that she wanted to do something tonight. I didn't know you two were fighting. She was just so adamant about leaving and forgetting-"

"Winnie, answer my question. Is Bella with you?" Clarice interrupted the manic teen.

Winnie's voice seemed to get smaller. "Yes, she's with me. We're in the middle of the park by your house. I snuck a bottle of my dad's tequila out of the house, and she downed the whole bottle. We drove around for a while before she said we should go to the park. I'm trying to get her to go home, but she keeps mumbling something about the serial killer on the loose. The Beer Can Killer. She said that she wants to see if her daddy will protect her or join in the fun of killing her. I'm so sorry."

"Winnie, listen to me very carefully." Clarice's voice shook as more tears collected in her ears. Hannibal felt as if his own insides were crumbling. His daughter was wandering drunk around a park waiting to be killed over the knowledge that he was her father. "Stay with her, but be careful. I'm going to come and get her. Are you sober?"

"Bella had every last drop. I didn't even have the chance." Winnie sighed, more thankful or relieved.

Clarice sighed as she started jerking her car around to speed back to the park. "Good. I'll meet you there. Just keep texting me where you are and what Bella is doing. Once I get there, I want you to go home. I'll take care of Bella."


Clarice pulled up onto the curb and froze when Hannibal started climbing out of the car. "What are you doing?"

"Our daughter is drunk and pissed off at both of us. I think we both need to help her here." Hannibal stated. "I'll be careful. You just distract her friend long enough for me to grab Bella."

Clarice huffed out a breath, but knew that things would go faster and easier if she had another set of hands to get Bella back home. She quickly ran through the park with Hannibal behind her. When they saw Winnie, Hannibal darted into the bushes to the kids area behind her. Bella was stumbling around the jungle gym, obviously drunk and equally angry. "Winnie, thank you! I'm glad you called."

Winnie welcomed the hug from Bella's mother. "I wanted to call sooner, but Bella wouldn't let me have my phone back. I finally got it off of her when we got here."

"She's had a rough day." Clarice tried to explain before patting the girl's shoulder. "Go home. I will keep you updated on Bella, alright?" She watched Winnie nod and hurry off as if staying any longer would make the night worse. It probably would. Slowly, Clarice walked towards Bella, keeping a distance as Hannibal was approaching from the other side. "Bella?"

Bella stumbled on the wood chips, but caught herself on the playground equipment. Tear stains marred her face and it looked like she had been through a car wreck. "What do you want?"

"I want to take you home. You aren't well." Clarice stated, moving closer. She stepped back when Bella whipped around to face her. "You're drunk in a park in the middle of the night. Winnie said that you wanted the serial killer to come and get you."

Bella smirked and hiccuped. "Good test for a serial killer father, right? Save the daughter or kill for the thrill." She tapped her knuckles to her head before stumbling back again. "Always thinking." She nearly fell to the ground before Hannibal's arms wound around her waist and picked her up, tossing her over his shoulder. "Oh, look at that. He passed."

"Let's get you home, my little drunken bird." Hannibal sighed before he and Clarice left the park with Bella mumbling incoherent thoughts all the way.

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