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Hannibal laid Bella down on her bed softly, seeing as the alcohol was starting to make her drowsy. But, she was still spitting out whatever she thought, and it was tearing him apart. From the look on Clarice's face, the effect was quite the same. She kneeled down beside the bed and stroked Bella's hair. "Bella, honey, why did you do this? What if something happened to you? I'd never forgive myself. I promised to always protect you."

"Dr. Lecter wouldn't let that happen." Bella mumbled, twisting on her bed. "You said we're the most important people to him. He would never let anyone hurt us."

"That's true, but what you did was very stupid. I'm a wanted person here. I can't protect you all the time." Hannibal explained, sitting down at the foot of the bed and resting a hand on her leg, rubbing circles on her jeans with his thumb. "I can understand why you wouldn't be thrilled with me as a father."

Bella giggled, her eyes closing as she got comfortable. "That's the thing. I'm happy about it." Her words grew quieter as sleep finally claimed her.

Hannibal reached out and took Clarice's arm in his hand, pulling her up from her knees to sit on his lap. He kissed her should before looking back at Bella. "I was not expecting to hear that."

"Me either." Clarice whispered. She let her head press against his, relaxing into his chest. "She's never done this. I don't know what to do."

"Neither do I. I guess we'll just have to weather through this together." Hannibal sighed before glancing at the clock on the nightstand. "It's late. We should get some rest. It could be a rather loud morning if tonight's antics repeat." He moved to stand, but found Clarice motionless. "Darling, you need sleep."

Clarice shook her head. "I don't want to leave her. What if she gets up in the middle of the night and decides to run off again? I can't risk it."

Hannibal glanced around the room and smiled seeing a roll of ribbon, most likely used in Bella's hair for different ballet performances. "Let me remedy that." He stood, practically lifted Clarice onto her feet before guiding them both out of the room with the ribbon roll in his hand. He quickly turned off the light and closed the door before biting off a long piece of ribbon. He turned to Clarice with the roll. "Would you hold onto that for me, please?"

Clarice took the roll and watched as he wrapped one end of the ribbon around Bella's doorknob and the other around the safety railing overlooking the main floor. He tested the knots and made sure the ribbon was tight before turning back to her. "There. If she decides she wants to leave, she'll find that she's trapped in her room. No worries, love. We won't be losing her tonight."


Clarice emerged from the bathroom to find Hannibal standing by her bedroom window overlooking the postage stamp of a backyard attached to her house. "Are you staying?" She asked crawling into her bed, the one they shared just that morning.

"Only if you'd like me to." Hannibal turned to her, seemingly preoccupied with his own thoughts until she caught his attention.

"Get in the bed, Hannibal." Clarice smiled, pulling the covers back for him. She waited until he slid in beside her and settled before turning out the light. "What's on your mind? You seemed to be in deep thought just now."

Hannibal smirked. His lamb always as observant as he. "I was just pondering the idea of what it would've been like if you had run away with me. I had forgone the idea of being a father long before I met you, and I guess I hadn't really thought about the notion when I asked you to run away with me. I don't know if I would've been the best father, but I'm curious as to how it would've played out."

Clarice caressed his cheek. "You are a good father. You just found out today that you have a seventeen year old, and you've already managed to get her to cook lamb and save her from danger in her drunken state. It wasn't exactly fun, but you did good today, Hannibal." She leaned back against her headboard and sighed. "I've wondered that many times over the years though. What it would have been like to run away and raise Bella? To not do it alone. I did try to think of you though when raising her, even through my pregnancy."

"Give me an example." Hannibal smirked, leaning back as well and letting their shoulders touch.

"Well," Clarice grinned, biting her bottom lip, "I only listened to classical music when I was pregnant. The music I knew you used to listen to. I took her to the theater, ballet, opera. She's knows the Kennedy Center better than the public library a few blocks over." She relaxed somewhat when she heard Hannibal chuckle in response. "Even her name. I wanted it to mean something. . .something that was special."

Hannibal smiled. "Bella means beauty. That certainly describes her."

Clarice nodded with a hum. "That's just her nickname. Her full name is Bellona Darion Starling, since it couldn't be Lecter for obvious reasons."

Hannibal turned onto his side, propping his head onto his hand as he stared up at her. "Well, Bellona carries a lot of meaning. The name itself means fighter, but I know that you would not just settle for a name meaning that any other person with a baby name book would pick out." He could tell Clarice was finding his rambling amusing. "It couldn't be the ancient Roman goddess of war, Bellona."

"Of war. Of destruction. Of conquest. And, of bloodlust." Clarice whispered as she sunk down on the mattress. She turned over onto her stomach before propping her head on her own hand to peer at him. "The myth says that the priests that worshiped her would wound their own arms and legs just to sacrifice their blood for her."

"Inspired by me it sounds." Hannibal concluded.

Clarice smiled. "Not only of you." She ran a hand through her hair, focusing on the pillow under his arm instead of meeting his eyes. "I had only known I was pregnant for a couple weeks. I hadn't told anybody yet. I was just trying to figure things out. One night, I was still at the office. The bosses wanted me there almost all the time to help track you down. I had ordered some more case files on you. The idiot who brought it down to me cut the whole side of his hand with the paper inside the files." She met his eyes, a shy smile gracing her features. "He got a little too close, and I could smell him. I could smell his blood."

Hannibal rested his hand on her back, caressing her spine just to touch her. He could feel the arousal brewing in his belly, knowing where this was going. "You craved blood during your pregnancy."

"We could call it a yearning. It wasn't chocolate or ice cream or peanut butter." Clarice whispered, her eyes dilating. "Crime scenes were the worst. There was one, a fresh body laying out like it was on display, nearly made me lose it. I had to excuse myself from the scene and told my boss it was a pregnancy thing, and I was getting sick."

Hannibal grinned before leaning forward and kissing her shoulder. "Tell me, Clarice. Did you sate this cra-yearning for human blood?" He continued his kisses to her neck before she turned onto her back. He crawled over, his lips leaving invisible trails along her skin. "Did you allow your teeth to sink into human flesh?"

Clarice bit her lip as his lips moved down further. His hands moved to her bare thighs, her body only covered in an oversized t-shirt and boy shorts. He quickly discarded the latter. "I wanted to, but I wanted to see your face when I tasted it for the first time." She felt her heart beating in her ears as his lips pressed into her inner thighs. She gasped when he nipped just shy of where she needed him most. "The craving scared the shit out of me, but I wanted her more than anything else."

"With her existence, with my child in you, you craved blood, but you wanted her. You wanted our child. Why is that?" Hannibal asked, his hot breath spreading goosebumps on her thighs and stomach. She quivered meeting his piercing eyes even in the darkness of her bedroom.

"Darion can mean gift and quiet, silence." Clarice confessed. "The moment I heard her heartbeat, the screaming went away. She was the one life, my lamb, that I could save. My gift of silence."

Hannibal's grin could probably be seen in space as he crawled back over her and captured her lips with his. She moaned into his mouth, clinging onto him. Her teeth tugged at his bottom lip before he made his way back down her body. "I will find a way to allow you that experience, to discover why I love it as much as I hope you will. In the meantime, I want to experience you like I haven't before."

Clarice threw her head back when he tossed her legs over his shoulders and dove into her depths with his tongue. "Hannibal!"

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