The adults all belong to TH, I only own Adam, and he doesn't "do much".
Thanks to the wonderful readers who are taking the time to read this fiction.
I love you all.
Chapter 10
The Calm Before the Storm
After breakfast they took a tour of the house, they already knew the bedrooms were huge, each with its own fireplace, and the kitchen splendid, but they were happy to discover that the living room was large beyond the doctors expectations, maybe around 40 by 20 feet and dinning room tasteful, Dr Lecter knew there was a piano in the living room, because, whenever possible, that was one of his prerequisites when choosing a rental; they both liked the "family room", huge and yet cozy with several sofas arranged facing a large TV.
They were both thrilled with the terrace, patio and deck which they agreed they would enjoy.
In short, they had put behind them the ordeal of the night before and enjoying the moment. They were happy. The Doctor called the Realtor to report their arrival, then they unpacked their few possessions, readied their baby and set out for their first leisure outing as a family.
Before they left the house, the Doctor gave Clarice an Oregon Driver's license and a debit card; the license featured her photo and was under the name of Claire Sommer, married, age 33 from some address in Medford, Oregon. The credit card was under the name of Dr. Joseph Sommer and the Lecter asked her to sign the back with her new name to make it valid.
"Claire Sommer?" his inventiveness to anticipate every possible detail never ceased to amaze her.
"It is in line with the identity I used to rent the house. The driver's license will stand up to a normal background check, and the debit card backed up by a hefty account and legal. We have other, such documentation to match the identity of the each rental, and finally a complete set of documents for the long term identity, complete with a valid passports that we'll use to leave the country, and a fall back identity, to use abroad, just in case."
"Were you reasonably certain I would come with you?" to her surprise, she found the likelihood of his assumption more amusing than irritating.
"I am hopeful, Clarice"
"All good things to those who wait..." her eyes were moist, and her tone thick with reminiscence.
Just as they were approaching a long awaited Kodak moment, the phone rang.
The doctor made an almost imperceptible gesture of annoyance and reached in his pocket.
"Hello..."
"I wanted to verify that you are fine." The familiar voice of Margo Verger sounded stressed. "My source has been tragically affected by the events related to the cloning Project, and I wanted to make sure that you are aware of the danger surrounding everything related to the program."
"We are fine,thank you Margot. As you probably are aware by now, this initiative is not aimed at my capture, but that of my present company, or, more likely at their possible extermination." His voice was softer and more formal when he continued. "I'm sorry to hear about your source, Margo, is he dead?"
"No, he is not, but someone close to him is.
I suspect just who are the members of your present company, and you can be certain that is not just their capture what they are after. These people mean business and take no hostages, yet is possible they want their experimental subject back alive."
"We are safe for the time being but I'm grateful for your concern, Margo. Yet, we don't want you to do anything that would place you, or Janet or the baby at risk." He paused for just an instant. "How are Janet and the baby?"
"Oh, we are fine. The baby is very cute, a joy for all, that is for sure."
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During their outing, they opened a joint box at the UPS Store, then stopped at the local mall, where Clarice ran inside and got what she referred to as "stuff she needed", while the Doctor and Adam waited in the car.
On the way back they made a stop by the local drugstore and this time Clarice waited in the Expedition with Adam while the Doctor went inside. He returned carrying several boxes of ready made formula.
"Are you planning to change his formula?" Clarice asked when she noticed the label on the boxes.
"Not just yet, but Adam has both low immunity and low birth weight. Is very possible that he might develop some allergy to the type of formula we are presently feeding him. I purchased a formula for babies with low immunity and high predisposition to allergies; especially protein allergies, which is common with milk based and soy based formulas. His stool was rather loose this morning and I don't want to take any chances."
"He has diarrhea?" Clarice had read all about the sometimes deadly results of pediatric diarrhea, and sounded alarmed.
"No, just a lose stool, he is a newborn, his body still adjusting to digestion. I don't want to change his formula if he does well. Yet, if his next stool is still loose, we don't want to wait for things to deteriorate further, and we'll just change his formula; is good to have it handy, just in case, that's all."
She sighed with relief, and leaned back on her seat.
"We had a lovely day, and I'm certain we will have a lovely evening. Life could be wonderful, don't you think?"
"We are almost there, Clarice."
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Once they got home and removed everything from the car, Clarice went right to her room and unpacked her "goodies". She had purchased three silk pajamas and a silk nightgown, ivory in color with a peignoir to match. The general effect of every item was of understated elegance casual and yet extremely sexy, clinging to her forms.
After the fiasco at the Chesapeake, Clarice had finally admitted not only to her love for him but also recognized that he, in turn, loved her enough to chose to mutilate himself rather than hurt her, even after she seemingly rejected him with her most stubborn and defiant behavior .
During the month that followed, while she never believed that he had died during his escape from the Chesapeake, she feared that he was gone from her life forever, that he had given up on her. Clarice, filled with despair and self recrimination, had sworn that if he ever walked back in her life again, she would never let him go. She would just admit to him that she loved him and let the chips fall as they may.
Now the time had come to "walk the walk."
When she got back downstairs the Doctor presented her with a freshly changed Adam already in his clean tiny pajamas.
"We won't change his formula yet, he is doing fine, so far."
"Good, I'll go fetch one of the original the ready to feed bottle."
"All right, I'll begin to prepare dinner while you feed him."
The doctor watched her leave the room, he was happy with the way things were turning out. He felt that they could easily continue to avoid their pursuers and deal with Adam's immunity issue and was hopeful that Clarice would come to term with the feelings he always suspected she had for him.
After their dinner, they rolled the bassinet into the family room, and settled there for after dinner liqueur and coffee, the whole atmosphere was pleasant; they were relaxed and slightly tired.
"If you don't mind, Clarice, I'll keep Adam in my bedroom again tonight, I would rather keep an eye on him. One can't be too careful with infants."
Clarice smiled; she was more than pleased by the doctor's general attitude toward the baby.
"On the contrary, I'm glad that you care for him."
"It would be difficult not to get attached to him, Clarice, he is a very endearing little boy on his own right."
"I just hope you get a chance to rest, you must be exhausted!"
"Nothing that a few hours sleep won't cure".
Adam made little noises and the Doctor immediately went to check him.
"You are a very wet baby," he cooed, while he picked up Adam and placed him on the crock of his left arm, the tiny head cradled against his chest, and expertly flipped the changing table fixture over the frame of the bassinet with his right hand, and placed the baby on it.
"Did he have another lose stool?" Clarice tried to repress her anxiety.
"Nope! He is just wet"
Clarice stood up, walked toward the bassinet and stood a few feet away, observing the interaction between the two versions of Hannibal Lecter.
Adam stared at the Doctor in that impassible Lecter fashion and Clarice laughed at the sight, she came closer and wrapped one daring arm around the doctor and leaned on the changing table with the other while she bent over the baby, and with a mischievous grin addressed both versions of Lecter,
"I'll have you both know, that neither of you intimidate me with your impenetrable stare," she teased while she leaned further still, to kiss the Adam's forehead "Let me get out of here and heat up your bottle, young man, before I jump way ahead of myself."
When she came back with the bottle, the Doctor handed over the baby. Clarice sat down and began to feed him. The doctor sat across from her
"I forgot to ask you, Clarice, where are they supposed to mail you the Adam's birth certificate?"
"I already have it, they made it in advance and gave it to me when I picked him up."
"Is that so?" a bit of sarcasm was creeping in the doctor's voice.
"Is still in my bag, why don't you go and get it, the bag is in my bedroom, on the small chair by the window."
He gave her a curious look
"You don't mind my looking in your bag?"
"No, why should I? I have no secrets..." she shrugged easily, smiling at him.
As the doctor had suspected, the birth certificate was bogus.
He came back, holding the item from a corner, shaking it ahead of him as he would a small reptile.
"This is a fake, Clarice, it has no raised seal, and the paper is all wrong, a bad reproduction too. They must have been in a hurry to present you with such and obvious fake, and probably expected that you wouldn't notice, as a result of being overwhelmed by the whole birth scene and the idea of taking home an infant less than two hours old."
Clarice stared at him open mouthed while he placed the Birth Certificate in front of her
"Read here Clarice, what does it say under : father?
"Father unknown." She read out loud and stared at him, a confused look in her face
"What they want the real birth certificate to read is "Hannibal Lecter", implying that I raped you at the Chesapeake and Adam is our child, then if and when you die, the child is orphaned for all practical purposes, and in account of his paternity, not a candidate for adoption either. So the government steps in, and kindly create a special team to raise the potential little monster....In other words, they get to keep their guinea pig with no one to get on the way of their experiments."
He shook his head, as if in disbelief of the extent of the corruption implied in every new discovery.
"They are not trying to kill Adam;they are trying to kill you Clarice. They were ordered to get rid of the child and they figured a fail proof, round about way to make it appear as if they did, and still manage to keep him."
She raised her face to look at him, her eyes welled with tears.
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I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know, it always helps.
C