Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, except for the ones I've made up myself.

Family Blood

Chapter 9: Unwilling Alliances

"I really don't like this," Jadis repeated for the umpteenth time that day.

Clarice sighed, "Neither do we, but what choice do we have?"

Dr. Lecter and the two women were in a heavily guarded hotel room. Pearsall had told them that they were going to get started the next day and suggested that they could use some sleep. The whole floor of a hotel had been closed off, both for their safety and the safety of the other visitors. Jadis had her own room while Dr. Lecter and Clarice shared one together. At the moment, however, Jadis was in there room as well. There were some things that they needed to talk about amongst themselves. Luckily the guards stayed out in the hallway, granting them some privacy.

Jadis grumbled something underneath her breath to herself in grudging acceptance.

Dr. Lecter took the opportunity to speak up. "I'm just as skeptical of this offer as you two are, but at least we have a chance at getting away from this with our freedom and our lives. The trickiest party of this whole situation, in my humble opinion, will be trying to slip away without someone from the FBI or the press on our tail."

He was right. No sooner had they been captured had the press been all over them and the FBI. Now someone found out that the trio had agreed to help the FBI in exchange for freedom. The press ate it up instantly. 'Cannibal Allowed to Roam Free' was the headline on every news station that night. To make matters worse, just about every reporter from the state and surrounding states had been hounding the hotel and Quantico, following every move made by the small group of fugitives. In all, it was like the Superbowl of the press, everyone pushing and desperate for that elusive prize.

Clarice started to paced back and forth. "There's no way in hell the Bureau would just let us go. Trust them to make a bullshit promise like that." Clarice shook her head. "Manipulative bastards," she muttered more to herself than anyone else in the room.

Jadis rubbed her temple with her index and middle fingers, trying to sooth a slowly growing headache from the whole situation. Dr. Lecter's face remained emotionless, but there was a slight hint of frustration playing in his eyes. Clarice continued pacing, deep in thought. The next few days were promising to be very long for all three of them.

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"Welcome to your first day on the job," greeted an unusually perky Elaine Parker. The three had just arrived at Quantico that morning, obviously not looking forward to today. At the moment they were in Pearsall's office awaiting the briefing that Elaine and Pearsall were supposed to give them prior to getting to work. The two agents had told the guards to go back to their normal duties around Quantico. Someone else was going to take over their positions.

Pearsall pressed a button on his phone and spoke into the receiver, "Yeah, send them in Carl," he said to his assistant on the other end. Looking back at the trio, he said, "Alright you guys, meet you new guards."

No sooner had he said this when the door to his office opened and four people walked in. Clarice blinked at the sight of one particular woman. "Ardelia?!" she almost whispered.

Clarice's former roommate, Ardelia Mapp, looked over at her old friend. "Starling," she simply said in greeting, emotionless.

Jadis nodded in small greeting to one of the men. "Good to see you again Matthew," she said, half mockingly.

Matthew tried hard not to meet eyes with the young woman that he had just met the day before in the dungeons of Baltimore.

Pearsall cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. "I see some of you already know each other, so hopefully that'll make it easier for all of us. Special Agent Ardelia Mapp is going to be Starling's personal guard for the duration of your stay here. Special Agent Matthew Krendler, you'll be Jadis Lecter's guard. Dr. Lecter," Pearsall turned his full attention to him. "Considering that we're the most concerned about you, we've assigned Agents Nikki Vermont and Jason Lawrence to both be your guards. I hope that you'll understand Doctor."

Dr. Lecter nodded. "I fully understand, Agent Pearsall," he simply said.

Nikki and Jason looked at each other, both a little nervous at their new assignment. Nikki had shoulder length blond hair, hazel eyes, and was fairly muscular. Jason had short light brown hair and brown eyes and stood about an inch higher than Nikki. In all, the two looked like they could hold themselves in a fight.

Dr. Lecter looked over at the two agents. "Pleasure to meet your acquaintances," he greeted the young agents. They simply replied with a slight nod.

Pearsall continued on. "As well as them, for all three of you Section Chief Elaine Parker will be personally assisting you in this investigation. If there are any questions or problems, please let either me or Agent Parker know. Are there any questions at the moment for either of us?"

When the three didn't respond, Pearsall decided to go on. "Okay then, if you all will please follow me, I'll show you where you'll be working."

The group made their way down the hallways of Quantico, passing a few curious glances of employees along the way. Everyone generally kept their distance from the group, mostly out of fear of the cannibal that walked among them. Clarice and Jadis noticed a few familiar faces and occasionally nodded a small hello at a couple of their former colleagues as they passed.

Pearsall finally got them to a halt when they had reached their final destination. Clarice immediately recognized it as her old office, although it had long been almost totally stripped bare, save for the desk and a few other pieces of furniture. "Never thought I'd be back in here again," Clarice silently commented.

Pearsall either didn't hear Clarice's comment or just didn't pay any attention to it. "Welcome back to your old office Starling. This is where you guys will be working. All the information that you'll need are in the file cabinet back there." He reached into his pocket and set three packages onto the desk. "Those are some stuff that you'll need around here. ID cards, cell phones, the works." He hesitated slightly before continuing. "Starling and Lecter," he addressed the two women. "You two are now temporarily reinstated into the FBI. Doctor, it took some doing but I managed to nab you a temporary status as an Agent as well. All of you are going to need this status to have all the access that you'll need in this investigation."  

As he was saying this, the trio were looking over their temporary IDs. Clarice was reminded of the ID that Jack Crawford had given her all those years ago when they were working on the Buffalo Bill case.

Jadis let out a small amused chuckle. "Special Agent Jadis R. Lecter." She shook her head. "Never thought I'd see that title in my lifetime." Observing the picture, she noticed that they had used the same picture on this one as they did on her old one when she was still under the alias of Jadis Monroe. Looking over at Clarice's, she noticed that they did the same thing with hers too.

Dr. Lecter raised an eyebrow. "The Bureau couldn't find a better photo Agent Pearsall?" he commented. His photo was the same as the one that was one the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.

Pearsall shrugged. "We didn't have access to a better one Doctor," he replied. Addressing the whole group once again, he asked, "Are there any questions?"

Not getting a reply, he motioned to Elaine to come with him. "Alright then," he said to the group, "let's get to work. Good luck."

******************************

When out of earshot of the group, Pearsall talked to Elaine in the hallway. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?" he asked her. "What if they found out about our plan, they're already getting suspicious I'd say."

Elaine gave him a reassuring look and said, "Don't worry Agent Pearsall. Like I told you before, it will work. Once they help us catch Silversted, we'll just haul them away to jail, no questions asked."

Pearsall shook his head. "I just have a really bad feeling about this Parker. Promise me that you'll keep a constant eye on them. If they even shed a hair I want to know about it. Got it?"

Elaine nodded. "You have my word on it sir. I won't let them out of sight, I promise."

Giving up, Pearsall walked back to his office. "I still have a really bad feeling about this," he muttered to himself as he went.

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(A/N: Kay, I know that it might be going a little slow at this point, but I promise that it'll pick up in the next couple of chapters. Anyways, thanks for all the wonderful reviews!)

-SP