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Hannibal pulled the van up in front of the gate, glancing into the back to see Clarice easing Bella into consciousness. "We're here. How is she doing?"
"She's coming out of it." Clarice breathed before opening up Bella's bag and pulling out a loose top and pants for her. "Do you have anything to give her for the pain?"
"Only stuff that will knock her out. We'll have to wait until we get on the train to give her anymore relief." Hannibal sighed before getting out and hurrying around to the back doors, climbing in next to Clarice. He smiled down at his daughter when her eyes slowly opened. "Good evening, Bella."
Bella frowned up at them before looking around to see the interior of the van. "Where are we? What's going on?" When she tried to sit up, her face contorted into one of agony before a cry ripped from her throat. Hannibal rested his hand on her back, the other over her mouth to muffle the noise, and helped her up. Clarice quickly held out the shirt for Bella, adjusting it once it was over her head so she could cover her bare chest. "Fucking hell. Why does it still feel like I'm being ripped apart?"
Clarice squeezed her hand. "Sorry, baby. We should've protected you better than we did." She placed the pants in her lap. "Your father and I have one thing we need to do before we head to the train station. It should only take a couple of minutes. Just change into these and relax. Your back needs to heal."
Hannibal nodded in agreement and held the shirt still for Bella when she grimaced trying to find the arm holes with the pain coursing through her. "If you take it easy, you'll be dancing to the Nutcracker for us at Christmas." He kissed her forehead. "If I had known this was going to happen, I wouldn't have put you in here to leave with Will."
"I know that." Bella stated, looking between both her parents. "I know you two would've rather been the person on the table to take my place if it meant I would be spared. I don't blame you." She reached back and pulled her hair out of the bun Will had put it in before slicing into her. "What happened to Will anyway?"
"He won't come back to hurt any of us again." Clarice promised.
He groaned as soon as he opened the door and saw Clarice Starling on his doorstep. "They sent you. Really? The agency is afraid the person who killed my son is going to come after me, and they send one of the two people involved."
"I didn't kill your son, Paul." Clarice stated before stepping inside the house. "Is your wife home?"
"No, she was hysterical with grief. I had to admit her into the hospital today." Paul grumbled, turning his back to head for the kitchen. "Why? Did you finally come around to ask for your cunt to be mine."
Clarice followed him slowly, smiling when she saw Hannibal slip in through the side door. "Actually, I came here with my new husband. We just got married, and he wanted to talk to you about some things over dinner."
Paul snorted out a laugh as he filled a glass with scotch. "The last time I was at a dinner table with you ended up with me missing a section of my brain. I'm not sitting down with you for anything." He slid the bottle back into place with a shrug. "But, I never thought you'd find a husband, so congrats I guess."
"Thank you, Paul. I'm so happy you approve." Hannibal's metallic voice rang out from behind Clarice, his hand resting on the small of her back.
Paul jumped, spitting out the little scotch he had just attempted to swallow, before turning to see Hannibal and Clarice. "Dr. Lecter. You're here?"
Hannibal grinned before kissing Clarice's cheek. "I can't just leave my new wife alone on our wedding night. Besides, I wanted to see my daughter's ballet performance. It was good enough reason to come back to America. I figured I'd pop in to say hello."
Paul's eyes widened. "Daughter?! Hannibal's Little Cannibal! I was right all these years. That little bitch is yours." He pointed his finger at Hannibal despite backing away from his advances. "If you were here Friday, you probably killed my son."
Clarice followed behind Hannibal as they cornered Paul into the dining room. "We didn't kill your son, Paul. Hannibal was following Bella Friday night at the party since the Beer Can Killer was after her." She walked to the far side of the dining room table as Paul fell into one of the chairs to avoid Hannibal. "And, you told him all about Bella and I."
"I didn't know Will would go psycho and start murdering girls because of the two of you. I get you two are pains in the asses, but he could've just killed the two of you instead of tracking down all these other girls." Paul defended himself in the best way he knew how. He held up his hands as if in surrender. "I swear."
Hannibal smiled and looked over to Clarice. "What do you feel like, my dear?"
Clarice leaned on the table with a grin, taking a moment. "If I remember your recipes, I always wanted to try your chicken liver pate. I have all of them out in my bag. One of my mementos I stole from evidence."
"Ah, Clarice, you have outdone yourself." Hannibal winked before his harpy blade sprang out.
Bella opened her eyes when she heard the back doors of the van open up. The driver's door also opened ahead of her, and she was surprised that Hannibal and Clarice had traded places. Hannibal crawled inside and pulled the doors closed behind him. "How are you doing, my little bird?"
"That tequila is sounding pretty good right now." Bella huffed out, watching him pull out clothes from Clarice's bag and pass them to her in the front seat. She frowned though when she saw the blood covering Hannibal's clothes. "That isn't yours, is it?"
"No, but thank you for your concern." Hannibal smiled before pulling his shirt over his head. He grabbed another from his bag and started on his pants. When he was wearing fresh clothes, he reached ahead and took Clarice's bloody clothes from her and set them with his in a plastic bag. He tossed a wet wipe up front as the van started before wiping down himself with another. "Alright, this is probably going to hurt. I need to check your stitches."
Bella nodded and closed her eyes when she felt Hannibal tug her shirt up her torso, keeping it away from the torn skin of her back even as the van jostled on the road. She pressed her lips into a hard line as he pulled the bandage away. "You kept your promise."
Hannibal, seeing minimal blood on the bandage, carefully taped it back down. "What promise was that?"
Bella felt him smooth her shirt back down, only touching the good side of her back. "You came back for me. Everybody said that you would never risk yourself to save another. You proved them all wrong."
"I want you to know something." Hannibal breathed before laying down on the van floor, resting his head on his hand to be eye level with his daughter. He caressed her cheek, brushing her hair away from her face. "Whether I promised or not or wanted to prove the world wrong, I will save you every chance I get. No matter who stands in my way." He kissed her forehead. "I believe I owe you an apology though. This is my fault."
Bella closed her eyes again, smiling as he started urging them shut. "All things considered, I'm pretty sure this is a victory for us." She reached up and took his hand into hers, squeezing it. "Just take us home, Daddy."
"Speaking of home, how are we getting there?" Clarice asked from the front seat, glimpsing at Hannibal in the rearview. "The train ride to Orlando is eighteen hours. If they don't find Will, they'll still have the tapes from the hotel and Bella's blood confirming she is your daughter. We'll all be wanted by then. They'll be looking for us at the airports."
Hannibal kneeled by the small window in the cage. "Looks like we'll have to find a ride by boat." He glanced back at Bella. "A couple days should leave her ready to get on a plane. We'll just have to monitor her stitches." He reached through and squeezed her shoulder. "We'll make it there."
Delia stormed off the elevator, immediately stopping when she saw the four dead FBI agents on the hallway floor. Their forensic analysts and the coroner stood around them like crows to roadkill. Only one of them had the time to reach for their service weapon by the looks of it, and their blood saturated the carpet to the point where it pooled around everyone's shoes when pressure was applied. The hotel room door to Clarice and Bella's room was wide open, a bullet hole where the doorknob should be. Bloody towels lay on the floor by a small blood stain in the carpet.
"Who's blood is that?" Delia asked, her voice low.
"We are waiting for security camera tapes from the hotel manager, but the hotel door was closed when these four were shot." Another agent stated, pointing to the blood spatter on the door. "Whoever was shot was brought in here. Looks like they were patched up. The first aid kit was out, vodka shot bottle empty, and towels used. No bullet was recovered, so the shooter either took it with him or it was a stab wound."
Delia ran a hand down her face. "Let's face it. We all know who the shooter is." She turned when the elevator rung and another agent came sprinting out with an electronic tablet in his hands. "What's wrong?"
He panted slightly before handing her the device. "Security tapes. Look who was here."
Delia hit the play button and watched one camera showing Will popping out of a janitor's closet and shoving Clarice inside. He walked around the corner and fired off five shots before any of their men could withdraw their guns. The fifth bullet hit Bella's thigh, knocking her to the ground. A second later, before Will could get to her, the hotel room door opened. A hand popped out and grabbed onto Bella before yanking her inside.
"Who is that?" Delia asked, continuing to watch the video as Will shot the door down.
"The last person in the world you would expect." He stated beside her.
Delia rolled her eyes. "If Paul Krendler comes out of that room, I might as well hand in my badge."
The agent paused. "Alright, the second person you would least expect." He saw her eye roll and knew a reprimand was coming, so he reached over and skipped the video ahead a few minutes. "Here."
Delia sighed and looked back down, but all of her annoyance was forgotten when she saw the next few minutes of camera footage between the hotel room door and the elevator. "That's Hannibal Lecter. He's here in Washington."
"That's not all." He skipped the video ahead another few minutes to show Hannibal coming back up and retrieving Clarice. The camera showed them rushing back to the elevator, and Clarice kissing him before they got on. "Looks like the rumors about her and Hannibal were true after all."
"Collect the blood in the hotel room for rush DNA testing. I want to know once and for all if Hannibal Lecter is Bella Starling's father." Delia demanded before shoving the tablet back into the agent's chest. "Keep Dr. Lecter's arrival within the agency. If it gets out, someone is going to be without a job in the morning. I want everyone on the lookout for Clarice and Bella. They are our number one priority right now. Airports, bus stations, the works. I want to know where they are now. Will Graham had his gun pointed to Dr. Lecter the entire time. They aren't working together, and Will obviously isn't working with us anymore. Move!"
Hannibal moved Bella towards the back doors of the van, along with their bags, when Clarice came back from the train station with a wheel chair in tow. She locked the wheels in place before holding out her arms. "Alright, baby, nice and easy."
Bella bit her lip as Hannibal helped her onto the ground with as much ease as possible. She gripped onto her mother though when pain shot up her leg and to the bullet hole in her thigh. "Fuck me."
"Swear once we get into our cabin on the train." Clarice reminded her before lowering her gently into the chair. Taking one of the pillows from Will's mattress, she used it to cushion Bella's back as much as possible.
Hannibal hopped out of the van and slid Bella's bag over his shoulder, taking out their new ID cards. "Just in case we need them." He handed Bella both her and Clarice's cards before picking up the other two bags and closing the van doors. "Remember, under the radar."
Delia sat in her car staring blankly ahead.
The image of Clarice leaning over to kiss Hannibal was burned into her mind. The image hadn't been the best quality, but it was clear. She wasn't forced. Knowing the doctor, it could've been manipulation of some kind, but Clarice knew him inside and out. Apparently, that was also literal.
Clenching her eyes shut, she screamed at the steering wheel, pounding her fists against the dashboard. How could she have been so blind? Everything she needed to know was right there in front of her. It would have been so easy to take a DNA swap from Bella during one of their sleepovers or when she babysat. But, she wanted to believe her friend hadn't willingly fucked a cannibalistic serial killer after watching him dissect and cook a colleague's brain in front of her. Every other person in the agency had their theories, she stood up for Clarice even though she never knew who Bella's father was.
The anger continued to build when she realized how angry Clarice got over her ideas about Hannibal the Cannibal. No wonder she was adamant that he wasn't the Beer Can Killer. Delia may not have studied the psychiatrist, but she knew that he had some sort of bond with Clarice that prevented him from killing her. Now, she knew why. Killing his daughter and the mother of his child would be the ultimate betrayal of his self being. He wouldn't be just a killer who took out those he saw as people beneath him, not superior to him.
He saw Clarice as his equal.
It made sense now why Will wanted to kill Clarice and Bella. Other than Hannibal, they were his last connections. Clarice gave birth to his heir. Will's trauma and state of mind had gone downhill since his last encounter with Hannibal, and something caused him to snap now and become one of the worst serial killers the city had seen.
When her chest felt like it couldn't take another wail, she collapsed back in her seat and opened her eyes. In the sun vizor, a picture of Clarice, Bella, and herself was stashed. It was older, back when Bella's age didn't need a third hand to count. She saw it - the resemblance to Hannibal. There were small characteristics, nothing that could point her out of a line up, but they were there.
"How long did Hannibal know about you, Bella?"
Her train of thought blew off the tracks when an agent knocked on her window. She quickly rolled it down, about to ask what more there could possibly be, but he spoke before she could. "Clarice and Bella's phones just turned back on. They're at Paul Krendler's house."
"You are just four doors down." The ticket taker smiled at them, gesturing down the narrow hallway with his white gloved hand. "The cabin has a queen and a bunk above, and you requested the cabin with the bathroom. I can see you've ridden a train before." He scanned all their tickets quickly. "Breakfast ends at ten in the dining cart. If you have any questions, I or one of my colleagues will be walking through the carts or the staff in the dining cart can help."
"Thank you." Hannibal smiled politely before turning to Clarice and allowing her to go ahead of him. "Ladies first."
Clarice smiled and pushed Bella forward until they were into their cabin, stepping aside so Hannibal could enter and set their bags down. She closed the door and turned to see Hannibal already laying out the queen bed. "What do you need?"
Hannibal moved to Bella and did his best not to cause her pain by lifting her to stand. "Damp wash cloth with warm water. I want to clean her stitches and test her sense of feel before I give her anymore drugs."
"I vote drugs." Bella groaned before Hannibal eased her onto the mattress, closer to the edge. She relaxed once on it, letting Hannibal move her shirt and arms the way he wanted them for him to check her back. "After the night I've had, I think I deserve it."
Hannibal got out his medical bag and prepared another shot of anesthetic. "You deserve a tray of drugs. I'd like to get you on some antibiotics, but it's too dangerous right now to visit a pharmacist." He glanced back up at her head, seeing the stitches the doctor had done while she was at the hospital. "Did you get any today after your visit to the doctor?"
Bella heard Clarice walk out of the bathroom with a wet washcloth. "Mom would know if we did."
"Mom would know what?" Clarice asked, resting her hands on her hips.
Hannibal gestured to Bella's scalp. "Did she get any antibiotics today?"
Clarice nodded and grabbed her bag. "Yes, I grabbed those along with your birth control. I'd rather not risk your night with Joe leading to me being a grandmother already." She pulled out the bottle and read the side. "Take one pill every twelve hours for ten days."
"Splendid." Hannibal smiled before removing the bandage from Bella's back. "We're going to have to replace the bandage. You're going to need to keep one on for the next forty-eight hours unless it starts bleeding." He grabbed the washcloth. "Now, I'm going to test out your back to see if you've lost feeling anywhere. If you feeling the washcloth, tap your fingers against the bed."
Bella nodded and closed her eyes, waiting until she felt the washcloth and tapping each time. Other than the annoyance at the pain she was in, the warm water was helping soothe her sore muscles from her stress. After a couple minutes, Hannibal's hand came over hers. "Are we done?"
Hannibal set the washcloth down on his leg. "Yes, I'll give you the drugs now."
Clarice sat down beside Hannibal and took Bella's hand into hers as Hannibal got ready with the needle. "Just squeeze my hand, baby."
"Have her take the antibiotic first." Hannibal breathed before grabbing the bottle from her bag. He handed her one of the bottled waters that were put in the cabin before they arrived. Once Bella took the pill and water and swallowed them down, Hannibal pushed the needle into her bloodstream and let the contents flow in. He noticed that Bella had only squeezed Clarice's hand slightly and wondered how much pain his daughter was in if his needle in her torn skin only caused that.
He didn't want to linger on the thought for too long.
Stroking the good side of her back, he pushed the drugs around her system a little faster and listened until her breathing evened out. She would be happy until morning at least, and the drugs would prevent any nightmares. A jolt in the night could damage her back even further. As he replaced the bandage with a fresh one, he glanced up at Clarice. "Hell of a wedding night, huh?"
Clarice chuckled and took his hand into hers, leaning back against the booth seat with him. "One could argue our wedding night was the night she was conceived." She laid her head on his shoulder. "Stop beating yourself up. Despite her injuries, she's healthy and somewhat happy. She knows that you didn't want to put her in that van tonight with Will. I know that you would've taken her right back out and killed Will in the parking ramp if given the chance." She brought his hand to her lips, kissing his knuckles. "She didn't even lose her sarcasm."
Hannibal let out a small chuckle, rubbing his eyes with his fingers. "That she did not." He rested his head on Clarice's, looking at Will's handiwork carved onto his daughter's back. "My enemies will learn about the two of you. Will wasn't the only one."
"You are better at hiding than anybody else I know." Clarice breathed. "I'm good at tracking people down. Once Bella heals up, we'll teach her. How to run, how to track, how to survive. She knows how to use a gun."
"I'll get her a harpy for Christmas." Hannibal whispered with a small bob of his head. "We need to prepare her."
Clarice rubbed his arm. "We will. The question is, can you stop creating enemies?" She sat up, turning towards him. "I know that your killing of those people was to rid your social circles of the rude and inadequate, and they became meals to host lavish dinner parties. But, you're not alone in this world anymore. Hannibal, you have a family now. Your own family. I mean, are your skills as a serial killer going to only be used when necessary or should we install a drain in the basement for your meal preparation?"
Hannibal squeezed her hand. "I'm not sure. The last time I had a family, I was still an innocent child." He pulled her back to him, wrapping his arm around her. "I will keep us safe though. I will try to adapt and only use force under the utmost duress." He kissed her forehead, happy when she laid her head back down on his shoulder. "For our family."
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