A big THANK YOU to those of you who encouraged me with your comments and to all the kind readers who are following the action.
All the characters here, aside from Adam, belong to Thomas Harris, whom he can thank enough for his inspired work.

Chapter 8
Advice from Beyond

The Doctor poured the wine in two of his new glasses, handed one to Clarice, then set the table with his new place mats, dishes and silver, and finally sat across from her.
"If you allow me, I'd like to take care of Adam tonight, so you have a chance to catch up with your sleep."

"Thank you Doctor, I can use a good night sleep" she smiled tiredly. " Do you suppose that you could examine him tomorrow, check him out and make sure that he is coming along well. Check his navel, and verify that I'm handling it right?"

"I'm glad you brought that up, Clarice. Yes, I planned to suggest that I did"

She nodded.

"We haven't talk about Adam yet, and maybe tomorrow we should. In the meantime, I want to assure you that your welfare is my highest priority and that as far as I'm concerned Adam is as much your responsibility as he is mine."

He looked at Clarice intently while he spoke, then leaned close to her and whispered.

"Why did you take him Clarice, what prompted you give up your career to take care of a child such as this one?"

"A child such as this one, indeed!" She enunciated the words very slowly for further emphasis. "The way they referred to him, you'd think they didn't consider him human!"

Her tone carried a sad note of bitter sarcasm, clearly not addressed at the doctor but at the circumstances.

She went on "How could I have refused him? They wanted to do away with him. They would have aborted him if I didn't adopt him."

"Did they tell you that, Clarice"

"Oh yes they did. They said they preferred that I took him and cared for him, which surprised me. When I asked why, Thunberry admitted it was just because it was the politically correct approach to the issue. Frankly that also gave me the creeps, but I thought I'll handle things as we go along. The main thing was to take him away from them. Far and away. I was not going to stay in that house a minute longer than I had to." The distress in her voice was unmistakable.

"I have no experience organizing disappearances, Doctor, but I would have done it."

The expression in his eyes remained inscrutable.

"Did you ever wonder if he would be born with my memories Clarice, my thoughts, my line of reasoning, my motivation, so to speak? Did you ever ask yourself if he might be predetermined to become a monster, just like me?"

"That is total crap, and you know it Doctor." She chucked both indignant and amused.
"You know perfectly well that while he is a genetic replica of you, he'd have his own basic nature, develop his own unique personality and his OWN memories and reach his own conclusions. He is Adam, the first of his kind, made you your image, that's true, but like the first Adam, he too is endowed with his own free will."

"She''ll never cease to surprise me." thought the Doctor, not bothering to disguise the admiration in his eyes.

Clarice went on, passionately.

"I hope he turns out to be like you in many ways, Doctor Lecter, I hope he has your integrity and honesty, your willingness to own up to your actions, your intelligence and cunning, your dependability…many things…." She trailed off, and looked away, a little embarrasses at her own tirade.

The Doctor got up in silence and left the room, to come back just second later with a portable crib that he set adjacent to the kitchen table. Then picked up the infant seat and set it inside the crib.

He pointed to the sling across Clarice's chest. "You don't want to keep Adam in there while we eat Clarice, he might end up with a piece of hot quiche on his face," he chuckled and reached out for the baby.

She nodded in agreement.

"He is awake, you know? " he commented as he lifted Adam carefully from the sling, placed him in the baby seat and strapped him in.

"He is very quiet. At times he seems…observant"

Dr Hannibal Lecter turned back to Clarice and chucked,
"Observant indeed, he is only three days old, Clarice. Clinically he can't yet be observant yet" his tone was easy and had a slight tease to it.

She looked at the baby and then at Lecter.
"Look at him, Hannibal" it was the first time she called him by his given name.

He made a hard pause, almost frozen in midair, then turned to her,
"I never thought I see the day!" he commented in way of acknowledgement.

Clarice reached out for him and run a finger up and down his cheek stroking his neatly trimmed beard.
"Look at him, see what he does when you are near, then let him touch your beard, he seems intrigued with textures."

Lecter turned to look at the baby then; the infant was stared back intently, his head slightly tilted to one side and his tiny mouth open ever so slightly in a manner that was familiar to both the Dr. and Clarice. He seemed fascinated observing the doctor, while his huge eyes followed his every move.
"I'll be dammed!" the doctor said in the most uncharacteristic fashion. "How long has he been doing that?"

"Ever since he opened his eyes." Her tone was matter of fact.
"Get close, talk to him, and move about a bit as you talk. Not so close that your breath will blow on his face and take his breath away, if you do that he'll just wiggle and blink."

The Doctor followed her instruction, and the child, calm and placid, followed the doctor's movements with his eyes; unblinking in a typical Lecter fashion. Then, when the Doctor leaned closer still, Adam extended his tiny hand and touched his beard, then promptly drew back his hand, as if surprised by the new texture, then tentatively tried again, this time fearlessly exploring the new surface with this minute hand.

"This is not the typical behavior of a three day old." Dr. Lecter commented, clearly mystified

"Of course is not" Clarice said easily. "And there are no records of your early childhood to compare. He is YOU," she concluded, shaking her head in wonderment. "Gosh, he is just too adorable!"

Hannibal Lecter gave her a curious look and turned around to remove the quiche from the oven, set it on a trivet and went back to the counter to cut some tomatoes for the salad. In a few minutes the whole meal was on the table.

"This is excellent," Clarice commented, after the first bite "luscious actually. May I have some more wine?"

He nodded, and poured another glass.
"Tonight we can use the ready made 4 ounce bottles" the Doctor announced as if he had spent the past six month feeding newborns around the clock. "I already sterilized the nipples and rings, so we are all set for tonight feedings."

"He's not hungry yet," Clarice declared, you'll know when he is hungry because he will whimper a bit, just enough to let you know. He never fuzzes."

"I'm a very light sleeper, Clarice, if that concerns you. I'm sure I'll hear him."

"What concerns me, is that I haven't yet parted from him, and…" she paused as if unsure that she could freely say what was in her mind.

"Are you afraid I'd steal him from you while you are asleep, Clarice?" there was not a hint of the old sarcasm in his voice, just plain concern.

"No" she said firmly "oh no!, of all the people in the world you are the only one I feel I can trust"

"That is a big statement, Clarice"

"Is the truth, though. You are the only person who ever took any real chances for me." she paused, ever so briefly and then, enchanted him, once more, with her frankness.
"What I would like to know, is, who did you come back for; Adam, me or both of us?"

It was the fist time that she acknowledged his feelings for her.

The Doctor knew he could have toyed with that question, keep her dangling with a riddle or just disregard the question altogether, instead, he decided to play it straight.

"I felt a responsibility for him, and it gave me a good excuse to come back for you."

Clarice sighed "Is such a relief to get a straight answer!"...she finished her wine, and looked at him with clear wide eyes, like those of a child. "I'm exhausted…afraid I'm not too articulate at this point. But I feel I owe it to A. Benning to open her envelope now. We really have to know what she had to say."

She left the room and came back holding the envelope, sat back and opened it using the knife that the Doctor handed her for that purpose and after carefully unfolding the two pieces of paper, began to read out loud

"Dear Starling,

Both Janice Duncan and I feel we are all in great danger. The Director might want wipe out all evidence of his wrongdoings. This time he went too far and is in too deep.

I don't have time to elaborate now. Just be aware that you and the baby are in great danger. The baby is the most incriminating evidence of the whole fiasco, and in a different way we are too.

CALL LECTER!…I know it sounds weird but he's been straight with you, in fact saved you from the massacre at Verger's and patched you up to boot. With his experience avoiding the FBI and his intriguing feelings for you, he is probably your best chance; maybe your only chance.

Regarding the baby, the pediatrician will tell you that he will have no congenital immunity, but this is not entirely true. He might have less immunity than other babies, but, Jan and I have been supplying him with immunity agents mixed with the rest of his nutriments in an attempt to better prepare him for the outside word. When Jan presented the original fetal feeding Protocol, they told her the immunity elements would no be necessary so she removed them from the official Protocol. Then, she added them in to the local Protocol, the one for internal use here at the lab. We did it because we wanted to give him a better chance of survival. Janice is certain we have provided him with some immunity for the first 90 days after birth. Yet these elements will not alter the rate of his immunization regime after birth.

If you have a chance, and manage to get out of the house, call my cell from a public phone. Your land phone might be under surveillance. I know mine is.

SAVE YOURSELF…seek Lecter.

Good Luck

A. Benning

There was a phone number scrawled at the bottom of the page.

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That's it for now. When I finished the revisions for this chapter it turned out much to long to post as it was, so I split it in half. I'll be publishing the next half sometime on Friday.

Let me know how you like it. YOU KNOW comments are always welcome.

C