By now everyone knows that the main characters belong to Thomas Harris, I'm not making money from these fictions.

Many thanks to the wonderful folks who are following this story. I hope I don't disappoint you.
I believe this is the chapter that many of you had been expecting. Enjoy!

Chapter 12
Closer…

The Doctor resisted the urgency hold her like a child and comfort her. So overcome was her with chagrin.
"To think that my colleagues, the people whom I worked with all these years, wouldn't hesitate to orchestrate my demise it is rather overwhelming."

"Not all of them, Clarice, I don't think. I would bet that both Pearsall and Noonan objected to it, with the obvious result."

"You think that Mr Pea sell and Mr. Noonan were killed because they objected to my death?"
"I suspect that they joined forces and took a stand against it; they might have made some veiled threats even…they probably felt, correctly, that if you were so easily disposable, they could be next.…Naturally they were right; the proof is they were both eliminated."

Without skipping a beat, he pointing at Adam:
"….He finished the bottle, Clarice, he is sucking on an empty shell" he grinned and reached out to take him from her.

"Ah?,…oh, I'm so sorry… I guess I got too…oh Adam, I'm so sorry" she handed him over and reached out for his little hand, still within her reach, while the doctor held him over his arm trying to burp him.

"Your feelings about the treatment you received from the bureau and the death of your former bosses is an issue that would be interesting for us to discuss, I would be happy to help you, if you wish, when you are ready.

She rested one hand on his forearm.

"Thank you, I certainly can use you help, I do have a mixture of conflicting feelings, and the sooner I come to terms with them, the better."

He was silent then ever so briefly as if using the silence to set the ground for his next point, the meaning of which he wanted her to capture fully
"On the other hand, it would be unethical for me to help on issues regarding your feeling for me. Those, you will have to resolve on your own."

He proceeded to lay Adam on his stomach over his right knee, while he rubbed the boy's little back in an effort to bring up the elusive burp.

Clarice walked until she stood behind the couch and place one hand over each of Lecter's shoulders, leaned over his head and whispered,
"I'm almost there, Doctor, just need the courage to take the leap." Then leaned further and kissed him softly on the top of the heard, near his bald spot. "I'm going to take a bath and slip in my pajamas. I'm exhausted."

"Isn't it interesting, Clarice, that you only chose to get close when I'm tied up with Adam?"
But she was no longer in the room.
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Clarice soaked at length in the tub, the water softly scented by one of the exquisite bath oils provided by the doctor. When she felt her joints turn into butter she got off the tub, dried thoroughly and slipped into one of her new camisole pajamas and topped it with the small matching kimono, finished drying her hair and let it hang lose around her face, creating a relaxed, intimate look. She checked the whole effect; the pajama covered everything, yet, the silk clung to her skin revealing every nook and cranny it concealed.

Thus satisfied with her appearance she made her way, silently, to the doctors' bedroom; once there, she leaned against the doorway, watching while he talked soothingly to the baby in the bassinet. As she approached, she caught his last words,

" … she would look at me the way she looks at you. You lucky fellow!..."
Clarice knew he could smell her and walked toward him quietly on her bare feet. She reached then for his hand and entwined her fingers with his.
"I love Adam very much, how could I not?" she turned so he could stare in her eyes. " But it doesn't compare to the way I love you, Hannibal. I'm in love with you."

For one interminable second he appeared totally immobilized, frozen in time and space –actually recording the moment in his memory palace.

When he spoke, his voice was hoarse and his eyes moist,

"I…please… say that again, Clarice…I'm afraid…"
"I love you Hannibal, I guess I have for years." Clarice lifted her face to him, took a deep breath, and blinked slowly before she let out her breath again.

Very slowly Hannibal Lecter placed one hand on each of her shoulders and brought her to him until their faces were only a couple of inches apart.
"How about my past, can you live with the memory of my past?"
"To hell with your past!... Is your future I want, every minute of it. If you love me then stay with me… forever."

His lips were practically on hers when she murmured. "Don't ever leave me Hannibal...Promise…"

As their lips met, she could feel his forming the word promise, then, nothing else mattered.
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Hannibal Lecter had never liked being touched, then, after enduring endless manhandling during his years at the Asylum, he positively detested it.

Yet, he thrived on Clarice's touch. Even during the heat of passion, her touch revealed the intensity of her love for him, and the feeling he derived, transcended anything he had ever felt before; and enveloped him like a warm liquid that reached and filled every crevice of his soul, soothing and comforting, changing him. For the first time since he was a very young child he felt complete and in a state of total peace.

Clarice woke to the sound of Adam's fidgety squeaking; Dr. Hannibal Lecter was leaning above her, propped on one elbow looking at her intently. His eyes on her face as soft as velvet.
"Clarice…" he whispered and she reached out and caressed his face, run her hand over his cheeks, following the contour of his cheekbones, and down the side of his jaw, then up to his lips, he captured her hand then , and kissed the palm. She could have sworn that his lips on her hand murmured "I love you", and while the words were not meant to be heard, they felt tickly and wonderful.

She brought his hand to her face then, and nuzzled against it.
"I never felt like this before, as if I'm finally complete, as if…" words failed her and he volunteered his own

"As if you just found the piece that was missing from your soul, and now you are whole."

"That's it, that is exactly how I feel. Is wonderful how you always interpret me, even before I do myself."
"I was just describing mine, Clarice, and hoping that yours were similar."
She let go of his hand and threw her arm around his neck, pulled him to her, and they engaged in a long, lazy, sensuous, probing kiss.

Uncharacteristically, Adam began to wail, a loud piercing wail at that, one that they were not used to. They both reacted to it with alarmed urgency.

Hannibal slipped back into his pajama pants and Clarice just threw on her kimono, by the time she tied it Hannibal was already with the baby. He picked him up and soothed him cooing softly while Clarice echoed. At the sound of their voices Adam's cry faded down to a soft yet persistent squeal. The doctor checked the alarm clock beside his bed, and turned to Clarice

"Why don't you get his bottle while I change him?"
"He never cried like this before, Hannibal, what is wrong with him?" she put on her pajama bottoms.
He winked and chuckled, … "we missed his midnight feeding, and he's protesting …Better get that bottle before he starts again…"
She headed for the kitchen muttering, "Poor baby, we are neglecting him already…"

Still on his pajama bottoms, the doctor sat across from Clarice, in the family room, while she feed Adam. He stared at her almost in awe, intimately still flabbergasted to have finally won her.
Clarice lifted her eyes from the baby and looked at him while switched over to the couch, sat next to hear and put one arm around her shoulders. She leaned her head on his chest.
"This is as close to perfect happiness as I've ever been."
"uh hmm," agreed her monster and pulled her closer softly nibbling at her shoulder. A thought that would have curled the blood of many.

"I feel really bad for Mr. Pearsall," she burst, apropos of nothing "Now, in hindsight it seems as if the last time I saw him, right after he gave me the "Sparbuch" and the number of the other account, he tried to warm me that something was not right. He seemed disillusioned, especially when he suggested that I pick up the baby and disappear. I wonder if in the end they got to him too."
"Do you feel he had a reason to be disillusioned, Clarice?"

"Oh yes! How could he not be?...But was not free to just up and switch job, he had three children!"
"Three children that are now fatherless," the doctor said in a toneless voice that spoke volumes, "Is it possible, do you think that toward the end, he became more outspoken regarding the issues of corruption within the institution?"

"I don't know. After Krendler's wrongdoings became public…it was all over. I can't imagine any decent man not seeing the forest from the tree."

"Why don't you describe for me, what, exactly was all over, Clarice." His speech was soft, and carried neither the harsh edge nor the meticulous formality of the exchanges at the dungeon.
Clarice acknowledged his question with a nod and did as he asked.
"The credibility on the integrity of the Bureau, even those who were not personally affected had to see the bigotry, the immorality, the all around corruption…That was the end of the line."

"Was that the turning point for you too, Clarice"

"No!" she shook her head, and a tender smile lightened up her face at the memories, while she turned her head to look at him, as if to empathize her words "my turning point was in the Dungeon, when we met and you saw ME; for years I lived with the memories or our conversations, your voice forever inside my head, questioning me, taunting me, highlighting every bigotry perpetuated by those supposed to uphold the law. Making me reach out with my mind as far as it could take me. It was wonderful and scary at the same time.
All the while I glimpsed at the man behind the m… myth and was attracted to you and repelled by what was documented on your file."

"The monster," her corrected, "you saw the man behind the monster. Is OK to say it Clarice, I know I'm labeled a monster. However non clinical the label might be."

She let it go, and continued where she had left.

"I kept fighting my feelings, embracing them with one hand and rejecting them with the other…. And for what?...for all I knew you had forgotten that I existed."
"You really thought I could forget you, just like that" he swept his hand across and over his head.
She looked down at the baby's head and blushed.

"You want to hand him over, I'll burp him.?"
She did, hanging on to the baby's hand while Hannibal placed him over his shoulder, balcony style.

They began to make their way upstairs.
"What do you want to do next?"
"Go back to bed," she reached for his hand.
"All right," he smiled, and then addressed the baby. "Adam, if we miss your feeding you must remind us…Try it, say daaaa, daaa…"
To his surprise the baby aped him turning out an "aaaaa daaa" and a big grin.

"That has to be a reflex" declared the Doctor…."just a coincidence, I guess"
But Clarice didn't buy it.
"Go ahead Adam, show him what a genius baby can do." She stood in front of the baby and slowly vocalized,
"Daaaaaaa, daaaaaa…. DAD"
"daaaaadad" aped Adam…reaching out with one hand as if to grab her hair –heck she was close enough….
"No reflex, Hannibal, just an outrageously smart kid….He's not even a week old and he is already talking!!!!"

"Not talking….yet, but I'll admit that he picks up sounds" then uncharacteristically added, "I'll be dam!"
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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know many of you wanted to see them finally taking "the step", and under the circumstances I wanted it to be really romantic.
Let me know if this is what you had in mind.
Love

Clariz