Okay, after all the delays, here's the next chapter. This one is for you Steel, to meet your story requirement. The next chapter, I'm afraid, will be really slow in coming, since I'm going to be gone and offline for the rest of the week. Graduations for my brother and two cousins, which translates into Road Trip! LOL I'll work on the chapter while I'm gone, so hopefully this trip will prove fruitful. Tootles and take care, dear ones!

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If I knew you and you knew me,

If both of us could clearly see,

And with an inner sight divine,

The meaning of your heart and mine,

I'm sure that we would differ less,

And clasp our hands in friendliness;

Our thoughts would pleasantly agree

If I knew you and you knew me.

-Nixon Waterman

*****

Clarice stood in the parking lot outside of the Hampton Inn, watching the traffic pass on the interstate and the construction crews that were laboring far into the night. Her room had become suddenly too small and stuffy for her to stand much longer, so she now stood in the night, trying to think. Lindsey was probably still fuming about this afternoon, if Clarice knew anything about the young woman. She had made her opinion loudly known when Clarice had released Petra, not charging her with anything at all. Clarice had explained her reasoning, that Petra was the only one who might possibly know where Dr. Lecter would go next. With that possible knowledge, they could follow Petra and find the doctor. Lindsey grudgingly accepted the explanation, but remained unhappy with Petra getting off practically scot-free.

So now she stood in the half light as the sun sank behind the mountains, leaving the sky fading slowly to a dusky pink. She looked at the few clouds that hung over the mountains and wondered what the last time she had stopped to watch a sunset had been. Not in quite some time, as life no longer afforded her those simple pleasures. Feeling the need to move, to get some fresh air into her body, perhaps clear her mind a bit, Clarice walked across the parking lot. There was a path up the street a little ways, and she reached within a few minutes, finding herself in an almost deserted parking lot. Sticking her hands in her pockets she began walking along the gravel path, alone with her thoughts and the coming night.

It was nice to walk, and leave her problems behind for a little while. Her life had lost something when she no longer indulged in these simple pleasures. She was some ways down the path when she paused to look at her watch and then gaze at the sky. The moon above was a thin, waxing crescent, just coming up out of the eastern sky. She knew she had no flashlight and that she shouldn't be out on a path alone in the darkness. She turned and began her walk back to the parking lot, breathing in the cooling air. It was a fresh smell, although the proximity to a main road and the interstate did mix in some gasoline and diesel scents, it wasn't really that noticeable. Clarice listened to the crickets as she walked, and at one point watched as a fox slipped across the path ahead of her.

Her gaze drifted up to the sky once more, seeking out constellations her father had taught her in her youth. Dark indigo sky reflected in the depths of her pupils, scattered with pinpricks of starlight. The moon no more than a sliver at the edge of the pool in her eyes, as she looked heavenward. Her steps slowed on the path as she stared upward, entranced by the simplicity of looking, the complexity of what she was seeing. One step, foot settling back to the gravel, two steps, and her feet caught beneath her, gravity inexorably pulling her downward as she lost her balance. View of sky swiftly shifting through the darkness around her and then to peach colored gravel hard on her cheek. She lay there for a moment, taking in a deep breath of dust clouded air.

"Are you okay?" she felt a warm hand snaking around her arm, gently assisting her to her feet. She brushed the peach colored dust from her pants as she rose. The hand remained firm on her upper arm, and she didn't seem to mind it at the moment. Tossing her hair back out of her face she turned to look at her Good Samaritan.

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you. Just a little…" Clarice's words died in her throat and her eyes widened like saucers as she came to a full realization of her Samaritan's identity. Her first instinct was to run as she saw his face in the pale moonlight, his unearthly eyes as he stared at her. There was the faintest smile on his lips, just enough to make any grown man paranoid. His name left her in a rush, as she took a step backwards.

"Dr. Lecter."

"Very good, Special Agent Starling. Or should I address you as Clarice, seeing that you currently are not on duty?" his voice cut above the crickets, chilled her to the bone as she stood there in the night with him. She could not formulate a reply, doing nothing more than try to stop gaping at him.

"We'll stay with Clarice." he smiled gently, head titled and the faintest sheen of the slicked hair in the light of the waxing moon. He clasped his hands behind his back, taking a pose not unlike a lecturer. "Lovely evening, isn't it?"

"Yes." Clarice managed, seeing him look to her for an answer. her mouth felt as if it had been stuffed with cotton. Idle chit-chat with a convicted murderer, a true sociopath, and a man some people would claim she loved. Right. She should be taking him down right now, not talking to him. Take him down with what, Starling? Just a bit weaponless at the moment, girl.

"I'm not here to hurt you, Clarice. I would never hurt you willingly." Her stare hardened as she looked at him. Was he psychic or something, or was she just that transparent?

"Very reassuring." she muttered. Having finally gotten over her surprise she turned to walk away. She had no way to bring him in right now, and she would feel safer back in her stuffy room rather than out in a field with Hannibal Lecter.

"How's the case going, Clarice? Any closer to finding your man?" Dr. Lecter queried her back as she walked away. She didn't react. "I can help you find him." his words rang soft in the July night, and he received just the reaction he was wanting. His Clarice stopped in the midst of the path, paused for a moment, then turned to him, head turning to sight him first as her body followed.

"I don't need your help, Dr. Lecter." she spoke in a tone that carried steel in it, cold and hard.

"Really, now, Clarice. How many more will die before you catch this man? How many more lambs will be led to the slaughter before you stop him? Hmmmm?" She was within a step of him now, and he could see the anger sparking in her eyes.

"Stop it."

"Afraid, Clarice? Come now, I'm sure Lindsey isn't afraid." he paused, watching her reaction, watching the indignant look in her eyes.

"You don't know the first thing about Lindsey." she bit out, glaring at him, preparing to turn away.

"She looks so much like you Clarice. She has the same intensity in her eyes." she was stepping away again, and he was the patient fisherman. He let her run the line out again, than pulled back on it. "She doesn't smell like you though." the red lips curled into a self satisfied smile as he watched the chill visibly run through Clarice's body.

"Lecter…"

"On the hill, Clarice. You were distracted by your cell phone, but she was interested in the crime scene. Within arm's reach, and she didn't even know who she was talking too."

Clarice stood stock still, thinking back on Lindsey's description in the car afterwards. Why hadn't she seen it then? Why hadn't Lindsey? The last question was said aloud without her knowledge, and it surprised her when Dr. Lecter responded.

"She wasn't looking for me, Clarice. When you don't go out of your way to draw attention people don't go out of their way to notice you."

"I recognized you." Clarice protested, although her voice was not as firm as she would have wished it to be.

He smiled at her, and his calm was maddening. "You and I are intimately acquainted, dear Clarice. I should think that you would recognize me anywhere if you were looking."

"But your voice, she should have recognized your voice."

Lecter shook his head, bowing it slightly as he spoke. "You forget again, Clarice, that she is not as intimately acquainted with me as you are. Surely the fellows in your basement would recognize me without a moments hesitation, but they have been listening to me for years now. Lindsey, has not."

Clarice felt her hands bunch into fists as he spoke. "Dammnit, Dr. Lecter." She didn't know what to do. So close, yet so far away. As she stood there, seething in her own mind, Lecter closed the small distance between them.

"So what are you going to do, Clarice?" He was inches away, and she hadn't been this close to him since the fateful night on Chesapeake. She could do nothing as her head and heart warred it out as she watched him. "Are you going to take my life from me?"

A croaked "No." came in reply, as Clarice was suddenly aware that she was holding her breath.

"Ah. My freedom then? Place me back in a cage for the rest of my God-given days? Perhaps another cell in a dungeon somewhere else, without a window and nothing more than a closet door and a wall to look at?"

"Dr. Lecter…" You're a murderer and you deserve to be in prison, but I would rather you be in bed with me. Yeah, that was just what needed to be said. She gulped, feeling his warm breath on her face, those eyes delving into her depths. He knew her as well as she knew herself, and there was no escaping that. She was not prepared, as his maroon gaze held hers, for what happened next. Something she had not thought about feeling since the moments after she had snapped the cuffs on him, taking his mouth from her breast, banishing any notion of trust from their relationship.

His lips were warm and soft on hers, gentle and insistent. Nice lips. Lindsey's all-too-correct comment flitted through her mind as he kissed her. And yet, she could do nothing more than stand there, unmoving, even with her heart and soul screaming for her to react. He pulled back all too soon, after brushing his nose against her cheek. He met her eyes and watched the conflicting tumult of emotions he had not seen in so long chase across her features.

"Clarice?"

The breath in her voice was shaky as she replied, a single tear once more betraying her and sliding down her cheek. A diamond caught in the moonlight, another image of his cub caught forever in his mind and placed with reverence in her room in the palace.

"Not in a thousand years, Hannibal."

*****