Please review!

"Are you going to be here when I wake up?" Bella asked as she peered up at Hannibal. After enjoying a bowl of the soup he made and light talk, Hannibal had insisted that she get some more rest. She couldn't exactly deny that she was tired. As they talked, it wasn't until the third jerk of her drowsing body that made Hannibal chuckle and stand with her blanket.

Now, he stood over her, tucking her back into the burrito as if performing surgery. Every move was precise. If she was protected beneath the warmth of her blanket, nothing could penetrate to harm her in her sleep. But, she was fighting off the sandman, even with the nighttime medication now draining down into her stomach. She had requested it, but she didn't want to sleep if it meant Hannibal leaving.

"Probably not." Hannibal stated, sitting down on the coffee table behind him carefully. "I fear I am still a danger to you and your mother. My staying here is not safe, but I will stay until your mother arrives back from work."

"Why do you have to go?" Bella asked with a whine. The medication was kicking in and reducing the barrier between her thoughts and her words. "You just got here, and you didn't say goodbye the last time." She turned on her side to meet his eyes despite her drooping eyelids. "I don't want you to go. If the killer shows up, couldn't you just kill him? I know you know how to do that."

Hannibal smiled and caressed her cheek soothingly. "I do. But, I would prefer to handle him while you are out of his reach. Remember? It is my worst fear to see any harm come to you or your mother. Quid pro quo, darling? What is it you fear the most, my little bird?"

Bella sighed as she felt Hannibal readjusting the blanket with her new position on the couch. "Being lonely my entire life."

"You have your mother and I. You will never be alone." Hannibal reassured her.

"No," Bella shook her head, "I don't mind being alone. I don't want to be lonely." She shoved her hand out of the blanket and reached for Hannibal's, feeling the scar on the back of his hand from his surgery long before she was conceived. "I go to school, to the mall. There could be dozens, hundreds, of people around and I'm lonely. I don't have to hide from you or Mom. I don't have to pretend to be a normal person of society."

Hannibal leaned down and kissed her forehead. "I promise you. You will never have to hide again. Run maybe, but never hide."

Bella smiled softly as her eyes closed. "I never had to hide from Joe either."

"Joe?" Hannibal's brows furrowed together hearing the name of a man in his daughter's life that he didn't know about. "Who is that?"

"My ex-boyfriend." Bella admitted, her words quieter now as the sandman forced his will over her. "I loved him, but he went to college up in New York. I didn't want him to regret me in twenty years when he looked back and realized he didn't have the full college experience, including the girls." She squeezed his fingers with her own, lacing them together. "I never had to hide from him either."

Hannibal listened as Bella's breathing evened out. He kept their fingers intertwined together as his other hand reached back for the stuffed hawk. He set the animal down on the couch in front of Bella, and her other arm hugged the toy to her chest like a toddler would to their blanket.

He watched her sleep even when Clarice walked in. He listened as she tossed aside her FBI credentials and weapons, kicked off her shoes, and hung up her jacket before sitting on the coffee table beside him. Her head came to rest on his shoulder as they both stared at their sleeping daughter. "Long day?"

"Very." Clarice confirmed before looking up at him and receiving a soft kiss on the lips. "I think my friendship with Delia has ended."

"What happened to cause that?" Hannibal asked. He had known of her friendship with the other agent since Starling was just a student in training. The only major relationship outside of him and Bella ending was something he expected to happen over years of her with him, not suddenly weeks before she was due to disappear.

Clarice sighed and welcomed his arm wrapped around her in an embrace. "She brought up all the old rumors about our love affair and Bella being yours. She said that if Bella was really yours the man that stabbed me should've aimed better. How could she say that? She'd rather Bella be dead than have your DNA."

Hannibal kissed her temple. "She will never understand. The world will never understand until they are forced to. They are stuck in their bubbles where people like me are categorized as monsters and children like Bella are considered pawns. They would dictate you a traitor despite your many years of loyal service and setbacks from male dominance and arrogance in the field. You may want her to be on your side in this, but we are already targets in her future endeavors."

"I told her that Bella and I are dead to her." Clarice stated. "Disappearing wouldn't seem that out of the blue now."

Hannibal hummed in agreement. "Don't worry, Clarice. We will show the world what they need to understand about us someday." He rubbed his thumb over the back of Bella's hand. "Who is Joe?"

Clarice glanced to their sleeping daughter before looking up at Hannibal. "Her first real love. Joseph Mackenzie. They dated for a little over a year before Bella decided to end things when it turned long distance. He was a good one. Smart. Handy. I think he's going to school for architecture. Something like that Bella said. She was alive around him." She saw the confliction in his eyes. "Why did she mention him?"

"She said her worst fear in the world was being lonely. Other than you and myself, she said that she could be herself around a boy named Joe. She didn't want to live in a world where she had to pretend to be someone else." Hannibal confessed. "She's ready to leave."

"She is." Clarice confirmed before kissing his cheek. "Are you afraid that she'll look back at this moment as her teacup that won't ever come back together?"

Hannibal nodded once. "The chances of her finding a love that will not turn us in are slim if possible at all. The best outcome for her would involve us being in her life on a limited basis, and she would be forced to pretend to someone she should be able to share her life with. Her worst fear would become her reality. I don't know if she sees that in her future yet."

Clarice took his free hand into hers and squeezed gently. "I'm sure you thought of that and already have a plan to remind her."

"I do." Hannibal nodded before kissing Clarice's forehead. "As much as I would like to stay, I need to go before our killer finds out I'm here." He could hear the teacup shatter in his mind as Bella's hand slipped from his grasp. He just hoped that after she was reminded of what her future could hold that he wouldn't be forced to let go of her hand again after the weekend.


"Bella, Bella, Bella. I look forward to the days where I can call your name through the hallways of our future home, where we can all be a family. As it should be."

"In the last tape I gave you, I asked you some questions that probably had you reflecting on your life as much as I have been reflecting on mine. My outlook on the world has changed many times in my life. It has changed since I learned of your existence. I thought for many years that the desire to protect another would only rest with Mischa. Then, I met your mother. After just our first meeting, I killed a man who disrespected her. When it comes to you, the urge to protect is stronger if not the same."

Bella let the words take over her thoughts, still lost in her dream scape sleeping on the couch.

"I have wondered what would be of our lives now if Clarice had run away with me, if I had come back to check on my lamb to discover you, my little bird. Your mother told me that she found the smell of blood enticing while she carried you. To watch her grow swollen with you while consuming one of my more decadent meals is rather enticing. I imagine what it would've been like to know you growing up."

"I can hear the pitter pat of tiny feet smacking on the hardwood floors of my study and picture a giggling, brown-haired little girl whirling about as I play the piano."

Bella's dreams swirled as Hannibal's words invaded them. She could see the little girl dancing about without a care in the world around Hannibal seated at the piano. She could also see Clarice standing in the doorway, smiling as the scene unfolded.

"I would have loved to expose you and your mother to the brilliant museums I have attended over the years. Carry you on my hip or hold your hand while I pointed to my favorite paintings and you two point to yours."

The little girl morphed into one a little older, clinging to both Hannibal and Clarice's hands as they swung her up in front of the museum entrance. Touring the museum listening to the stories behind the art from her father. Curling up onto her mother's shoulder, held in her arms, as Hannibal inquired of any new exhibits or pieces being added. The little girl was exhausted by the end of the tour and was carried home, struggling to stay awake.

"What do you imagine of me? Something more traditional like teaching you to ride a bike or catch a ball?"

No. She imagined sitting on the kitchen countertop and assisting Hannibal in creating delicious dinners and desserts. Taking her into the study to teach her to play the piano. Maybe he would draw her playing as a child with the wings of a hawk the way he drew her mother as the lioness or of her holding the lamb. She could imagine him and Clarice playing a smarter version of hide and seek in a large backyard, improving her skills in both areas. The face he probably made before biting into his victims made the little girl giggle as she found him hiding in the branches of a tree. With mouth agape and teeth bared, he wound pounce down into the grass and sweep her off of her feet into his arms with praise for finding him.

"I must tell you. I'm sure I wouldn't have been the traditional father most of your friends probably grew up with."


Bella smiled softly as her eyes opened. She was still on the couch. Instead of Hannibal, Clarice was sitting in the armchair by her feet with her attention focused on the TV. The walkman was resting on the coffee table, the cords to her earphones dangling over as the buds rested in her ears.

Clarice's eyes moved to her daughter when she started moving, taking the small devices out of her ears. "Hey, baby. How are you feeling?"

"Better." Bella breathed before turning off the walkman. She smiled at her, chuckling softly thinking of her dream. "He definitely isn't the traditional father."

Clarice laughed and shook her head. "No, he is not."

Please review!