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Hannibal sat on the building across the street from the stack of apartments the presumably dead Liam H. L. Graw resided in up until the FBI claimed it as a crime scene yesterday. There were still officials entering and leaving the building with evidence, most of it files. Clarice was right when she said the apartment had tons of files. Will Graham was doing his research on something, maybe something bigger than the Beer Can Killer case. If Ardelia Mapp, or whatever her married name was, had mentioned to Will that she suspected himself of being the Beer Can Killer, Will would certainly be ready to dig back into the good doctor's files.

Arriving with the wish to look at the apartment himself, Hannibal found the task too risky today. With the FBI keeping close eyes on it and agents parading in and out, his own assessment of the scene would have to wait.

He turned his back to the edge of the building and returned to the small perch that just reached his waist height. Cords wired through to the internet connection of this building allowed him to view his other priorities on the protected laptop he had 'borrowed' as well. There were multiple screens showing the halls and classrooms of the school, and it allowed him to view Bella travel from class to class and participate in the material that he was sure she was already well versed in.

Today, she wore a burgundy sweatshirt, plastered with Mount Vernon. The bulge of the walkman sat in the front pocket, accessible for both hands to reach it. She wore dark jeans, faded at the knees, and jeweled on the back pockets in a design he couldn't quite make out. On her feet, a pair of black boots that he had found to be steel-toed when he snooped around her room while she was sleeping. If you knew they were there, you could see the black cord of her earbuds reach up from underneath the neckline of her sweatshirt, hiding in her long brown hair.

His little bird seemed to walk on air through the hallways and among her peers. Unlike the others who flocked to their friends, she held her head high, not needing a friend to accompany her into the bathroom or to her locker. Much like the red-tailed hawk that hunted in the forest surrounding his bed and breakfast, she was a solitary animal. The interactions most teens would claim they would die without were of no concern to her, and it gave him another string of hope that his daughter was more like him than he originally thought.

The cameras were a good idea.

And, they weren't just used to spy on his little bird.

Much to his surprise, the young Krendler wasn't the sitting duck he had assumed he would be. Lucky for him he didn't take after his father in that respect. He did gather in a pack though. The jocks that qualified as his friends during glory days seemed to work with him, like a pack. Much like Harris's Hawk. The bird of prey hunted in packs, enabling for bigger animals to fall victim to them. With his end goal being Bella, the lettermen jackets spread through the hallways and waited for the ambush.

They didn't get far, and Hannibal didn't think Bella would use his advice this quickly.

The first jock that stepped in front of was just as surprised.

The other jocks that had started to move in, including Chet, all froze when Bella wrapped her hand around the back of the first guy's neck and pulled him down to her lips. She pulled him with such force that it caused her to lean back slightly. Even with the working pixels of the cheap security cameras, Hannibal could see the working of her jaw.

As sudden as the kiss was, it ended just the same. The ambush was averted, and Bella walked by as if nothing had happened at all. Her act caused the young boys to turn on each other. Chet held up his first to the poor bastard that Bella had kissed.

She may not have used her teeth, but she certainly used her tongue.


Clarice dug through her old Dr. Hannibal Lecter file boxes in her office closet. The boxes were permanently checked out to her since the Bureau knew that Hannibal was less likely to kill her compared to their other agents. The remains of her work station, Hannibal's House, were all there, and she knew that another agent could eventually catch up to them again with everything she collected. She spent months infiltrating his mind, his tastes, and eventually came to the conclusion then that he had a taste in her. At the time, it could've been for a number of things, the same said for her attraction to him, but both their memory palaces made up for the things lost in their pasts.

No one could ever truly know the depths of his memory palace. She was still exploring herself as he was hers, but a lot of this evidence could lead right to their front door - physical and mental. She would have to be careful of what she took with her and what she disposed of. These files would most likely go back to storage until they caught a whiff of what they assumed was Hannibal, but she couldn't be too careful.

They would all eventually find out the truth, but she wasn't just going to give it to them. Enough had been sacrificed between the two of them.

"What are you doing?"

A glance over her shoulder to Bella. After picking her up from school, they had snuck back into the building and to her office without gaining Delia's attention. Bella had been fully focused on her homework, nearly done with a couple of her classes, when she noticed Clarice's absence from her desk. When she looked into the closet, she found a case file memorial to her father. Boxes upon boxes with cases numbers and his pictures. The treasure trove of everything Lecter. Everything but his mask that was.

Clarice continued to pick through the files. "Determining what could lead Delia back to us once we're gone with your father." She grinned pulling out the ridiculous questionnaire that Jack Crawford had given to her all those years ago to slide into Hannibal's cell with the metal food tray. Not a single question was filled out, but Hannibal did draw a small rough sketch of a Starling where his name should've gone. She handed it to Bella. "Here. See if you can draw like him."

Bella took the packet, sitting down at her mother's desk so she could still see Clarice in the closet. "Do you think he liked you way back then?"

"Probably not the way he does now, but he had enough respect not to humiliate me outright. Miggs had already done that for both of us." Clarice shivered from the memory, still regretting the small glance into Miggs's cell. Although, things could have turned out differently between her and Hannibal if she hadn't. "He wanted to help me, and that's further than anybody else ever got with him. He probably sensed our stars aligned long before he ever mentioned it to me."

"If you take away the whole fear of being eaten and the prison glass, it's kind of romantic." Bella smiled with a small chuckle. "Everybody believes he's incapable of love."

Clarice pulled out another file and retrieved a few pages that weren't marked in Crawford's original reports, pages that she had added only months before Bella was conceived. "Nobody understands him like we do, baby. You know he adores you, right?"

Bella shrugged with a smirk. "I am pretty amazing." She laughed with Clarice freely before continuing her drawing. "I know he does. Looks like my Christmas wish will finally come true this year. I'll have my dad this year."


Clarice stretched out her legs standing at the entrance to the national forest, her phone pressed to her ear. "Alright, don't open the door for anyone. I should be back by seven." She glanced around the trees, now bare of their dying leaves. "Nobody should be bothering you with Winnie there. If you need anything-"

"I know. I know. Call you. I should be the one saying that. Are you sure it's a good idea for you to be running alone? You may have hand to hand combat training, but I don't think it's wise to risk it." Bella stated, worried about her mother running alone. It may be her favorite spot, far from the known parks of the Beer Can Killer, in a place her mother knew best. But, she was still alone.

"I may have come out here alone, but you know as well as I do that your father would never let me. He has gone halfway around the world just to watch me run." Clarice smirked. She couldn't feel his presence now, but she knew it wouldn't be long. "I'll text you when I leave to come home." With a quick goodbye, she ended the call and slipped the phone into her athletic jacket, zipping the pocket closed to ensure she wouldn't lose it along the trails. Leaving the safety of her car, she took off in a sprint as her ponytail swung and bounced behind her.

The leaves covering the trails crunched under her feet and the birds that hadn't left for the winter chirped in the branches above. With fall coming to a close in just a month, the brisk air felt good on her heated skin and filled her lungs in a way that sent a shiver down her spine. The same kind of shiver that always invaded her when she felt Hannibal's eyes on her, raking over her. She felt it again when she was a considerable distance from her car.

He was watching.

The smile spread across her lips, and she didn't need to turn to know he was moving from tree to tree as if on the hunt for her. Like a wolf stalking its prey. The thought of him hunting her used to frighten her when she first heard of his escape from Memphis. However as the years went by, it sent an ache between her legs and an addictive throb through her body. The point where her fear turned to arousal could never really be pinpointed, just like her disgust over her arousal towards him turning to craving. The world discarded him, and he was hers now. That thought sent another shiver down her spine before she heard the leaves move to her right.

Turning just in time, she caught Hannibal by surprise. Her lips crushed against his passionately as his body pinned her to the large trunk of a nearby tree. His arm kept her from falling to the ground before he used the tree to stabilize her on her feet, and his hands were tugging at the fabric of her yoga pants. Obviously the hunt for her had turned him on as much as it did her. She gasped against his lips when he thrust two fingers inside of her. "Took you long enough to get here. I was half expecting you to scout the trail beforehand."

Hannibal laid open-mouthed kisses along her neck and jaw, his small white teeth grazing her skin. "I had to stop by the house to retrieve something. I came, didn't I?"

"I hope you're planning for both senses of the word 'came.'" Clarice admitted, gripping onto his shoulder and upper arm. The muscles of his arm worked under her hand, using them to manipulate his fingers curling inside her.

"That would be a rather crude assumption of me, Clarice." Hannibal's words sent another wave through Clarice, and she bucked her hips against his hand.

She pulled his hand from her and sucked off the digits, moaning as his eyes darkened even more as he gazed at her. "I'm not looking for you to be polite right now, Doctor. We've been doing polite since you showed up in my house. I want you raw and unguarded and performing every scenario you ever fantasized about." She bit the tip of his finger, grating her teeth gently along his flesh. "Did you ever visualize scenarios, exchanges, fucking me?"

Hannibal's smile was one of pride and menace. He leaned down to her ear and inhaled her scent once before the deep voice reserved for her flooded her senses. "Turn around." He licked his lips as she turned around and placed her palms on the trunk of the tree. With nimble fingers, he pulled her pants and panties down further before revealing his erection and thrusting inside of her.

The gasp that flew from her was one of surprise as her back arched. He grabbed her right shoulder with one hand while the other went to her hip, allowing him complete leverage over her body. He gathered his composure for a second before letting it drain from him, leaving only the possessive man who wanted nothing more than to tear her apart from the inside out. Leaving nothing but her bones and a satisfied smile.

His thrusts were rough and Clarice grinned with each whimper. She wasn't expecting an answer to her question, but it was his turn to surprise her as he fucked her from behind. "I imagined fucking you against the glass of my prison cell. I'd only allow your back to be pressed against it to preserve your honor, but I longed to see who dare try to come near as I claimed you as my own. Many never dared to get too close to the glass, and anyone who did would run when I snarled at them. I imagined what it would've been like to snarl at anyone who dare come close to what was mine, because you are mine, Clarice. I hope you know that."

"As much as you are mine, Hannibal. I know it." Clarice panted. She grunted when his hips smacked into hers harder, and the sound echoed off the trees around them. "Show me. Show me what you would've done if someone got too close."

The hand on her shoulder pulled her back before his face came into her peripheral. She didn't have the chance to turn her head when his teeth sunk into the flesh between her neck and shoulder, encouraging a cry to rip from her throat. He snarled into her skin, just like he promised, and his thrusts didn't falter. The hand that dug into her hip moved to seatbelt her against him, his hand cupping the breast she had promised to him. Her hands, no longer in reach of the tree, flew over her head behind her, grasping onto any part of Hannibal she could reach.

His hand fell from her shoulder and moved between her legs, seeking out her clit. He pressed against it firmly before she blew apart in his arms, suppressing another cry by biting her lip. Her walls clamped around him like a vice, and he growled as he fell over the edge with her.

Clarice shivered in the aftershocks and the feel of Hannibal's tongue running over the bite on her sensitive skin. His nose skimmed her neck and behind her ear with each pass, and she moaned softly turning her head towards him. "I love you, Hannibal."

"And I you, Clarice." Hannibal smiled before withdrawing from her. They both readjusted their clothes, readjusting each other's clothes, before he held out his hand to her. "I shall walk you back to your car."

"Polite as always." Clarice smirked before taking his hand and walking with him along the trail back to her car. "I enjoy both sides of you. I do hope I can see more of both when we leave this place."

Hannibal chuckled with his fingers intertwined with hers. "I have a feeling you will bring it out of me when you deem the time is right." He leaned over and kissed her head, content with walking and holding her hand in this moment. "And, I look forward to those surprises."

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