When the music faded, Clarice blinked and stepped back.  Lecter tilted his head quizzically.  "You look lost, little Starling."

She smiled.  "Funny.  I was just thinking I had been found."

"By more than one person," he said, nodding his head off behind her.  She went to turn.  "Not so fast.  Slowly," he cautioned.  She nodded and obeyed, casually turning and laughing, as though embarrassed by something he had said.  When she turned back however, her face was much different.  Her lips were tense and her eyes wide.  Lecter smiled.  "Once again, I do not believe he was on your guest list, either."

Clarice's eyes were darting.  She needed an exit.  She needed to get away.  Escape.  And then she felt something seize on her hand like steel, stopping her rapidly beating heart in an instant.  And she realized this was not the first time this scene had played out.  This had happened before, with the actors in different parts, with a pair of handcuffs locking their hands together, instead of his vice-like grip.

I came halfway around the world to watch you run, Clarice. Let me run, eh?

She knew from past experience she couldn't win against him in a physical fight.  She also knew there would be no way of releasing herself from his grip unless he permitted her to.  If she struggled, she would cause a scene, and nothing calls the sharks like turbulent waters.  But if she stood still and waited it out, it was only a matter of time until Will recognized one or both of them.  Any way she looked at it, Clarice was trapped by Hannibal Lecter, more now than ever when she was caught in the refrigerator door.

She did the only thing she could think of.  Grabbing Lecter by the lapels, she pulled him to her and brought her cheek against his, burying her face in his shoulder and pushing his down into hers.  She hoped it would stave Will off for a few more minutes.

The sudden level of intimacy Clarice was putting between them shocked Lecter at first, but then he realized it was all business. He relaxed his grip on her wrist and put it around her waist.  "This will only prevent Will from finding us for a few minutes.  What do you propose to do, Clarice?  Claim you caught me, saved all the world all by yourself?"

"And get a medal?  No, Dr. Lecter.  All I ever needed to remind me of my courage and incorruptibility was a mirror.  But the only mirror I ever found that didn't lie was in your eyes."  They said nothing for a long moment, and Will's eyes continuously swept the floor, certain that his information was good.  Certain that the light of all Paris would be here, as the concierge said.

  Clarice pulled her eyes from Will and locked them with Hannibal Lecter's charged gaze.  "You told me once," she said, "that you came half way around the world to watch me run."  She put her lips right next to his ear.  "Now let me run."

It was sudden and violent.  Like every passion Hannibal Lecter had.  From absolute stillness to blinding action, was only a second, but Clarice found herself once again pressed into his lips and she didn't resist this time, didn't back away, though no refrigerator prevented her from doing so.  Her hands moved upwards, ran over the little tickling hairs on the back of his head and pressed him closer, her mouth opening to welcome him, and then he stepped away and turned his back, just like another moment in time when he dismissed her.

"You fly back to school now little Starling… fly… fly…"

Clarice felt a cold burning emptiness in her stomach.  Will Graham was still scanning the crowds, more and more uncertainly.  Charles and Stella were staring at her like she was some kind of circus freak.  Clarice took one last look at Dr. Hannibal Lecter's receding back and then she flew.