"Nurse, call for the doctor! The patient's life signs are spiking"

She could hear monitors, feel plastic pressing against her face as oxygen was sent into her lungs. Her eyes opened weakly, seeing the blue scrubs of nurses as they flurried around her. Was she a hospital again? What had Hannibal done to her after she'd blacked out? the heart rate of the monitor beside her began to spike with panic at the thought as one of the nurses came into view, speaking reassuringly.

"Miss Shepherd, there's no need to panic, you're safe now. You've been in a coma for just short of two weeks"

Two weeks? She forced her mouth to open slightly, voice dry and croaked from apparent lack of use as she tried to focus on the nurse's face.

"...How?"

"You were in a severe collision with a lorry. The vehicle drove into the driver's side of your car. You were lucky to survive with the injuries you sustained"

She could feel tears rolling from her eyes in relief at those words. She was home, she'd awoken from the nightmare of living with Hannibal. The only question now was: where was Sera and when could she go see her?

"Where... Where is my friend? Sera was in the car with me"

The nurse held a look of concern on her face as she sent confused looks towards her colleges. Felicity could feel the panic rising once more as the monitor began beeping erratically and a strange scent began to fill her senses. Cinnamon and star anise, warm and comforting as it began to envelope around her. Hannibal's scent.

"Miss Shepherd, there was no one else in the car with you"

The fear spiked as she began to thrash within her bed, feeling the arms of the nurses try to hold her down, one bringing his face closer as he spoke, only causing her to thrash harder.

"Shhhh beloved, be calm"

Hannibal's voice. She could feel more tears rolling down her cheeks as she wracked her brain for anything to get out of the grips the hands had on her before focusing all her strength into sitting up, startling the nurses and ramming her own skull into that of the nurse that had spoken to her with Hannibal's voice before falling back once more into the abyss of unconsciousness.


Hannibal sighed as he looked upon the face of his sleeping Omega, taking those precious moments to simply study her at peace before she awoke and continued her vendetta against him. It was like they had gone back in time to their first few weeks of courting, the brash language and hostile behaviour. But Hannibal knew Felicia better than she would believe, knew that her behaviour was only a defence mechanism, an attempt to keep people away.

He had been sat by Felicia's bed, monitoring her for when she awoke but she had begun to shake slightly as small whimpers passed her lips, an Omegan sign of distress to alert their mate of any suffering. He could smell the fear and panic rolling from her flesh as tears began to fall from her closed eyes.

" Where... My friend... Sera?"

The words were distorted with her sleep but clear as day to Hannibal as he felt a pang of jealousy hit him like a brick. Why did it always have to be Sera that Felicia called for first in times of trouble. It had always been like that, even before the accident. He was her mate and yet she had always refused him the right to protect her as he should have been entitled too. Their coming together as mates may not have been in the conventional way, but that did not mean he loved her any less for it. If anything he loved her more for it, his unconventional Omega that had played him at his own game and proven to be a match. But what if her choosing to mate with him had been mere for convenience, a strong Alpha to protect her and nothing more.

His jealous musings were broken as he felt movement on the mattress, his mate beginning to thrash violently within her sleep as the tears began to fall heavier from her eyes. The scent of fear was beginning to grow thicker within the room as he took hold of her arms and attempted to keep her still, not wishing for her to injure herself further with the thrashing, he could feel her body trembling as he pressed his own weight down slightly to add to the restraint. Usually he would have enjoyed the scent of a person's fear, how the scent of the emotion would marinade into the meat or organ that he took from his victims and give it a flavour unique to that one victim, that one particular swine of his chosen sounder.

But this was different, Felicia's fear made his instincts run rampant, the beast within gnashing its teeth and demanding to find the cause of her fear, letting a gentle wave of his scent caress over her in an attempt to calm her down. The feel of her body pressed beneath his brought many memories back to his mind. The first time they had mated was his favourite, the throes of her heat bringing her own monster out to play as they fought for control upon his dining room floor until he had gotten the upper hand. Sadly, with the scent of fear clinging to her, it also reminded him of the first time he had witnessed her having a nightmare, the sight of her attempting to fight against phantom threats, screaming in pain as memories of a belt hitting her skin were repeated in her mind. He truly hated her foster father for the hell he had placed both Felicia and Sera through, and couldn't find fault with the actions they had taken to remove the Alpha from their lives. He had deserved every ounce of pain the fire had inflicted upon him.

"Shhhh beloved, be calm"

His words had been meant to sooth her, calm her and remind her that he was with her, but they only seemed to make things worse as she upped the efforts of her thrashing and continued to whine and keen in distress. He felt a moment of doubt, a rare thing for him, easing the pressure of his restraints upon her. Why could he not seem to do anything right with her now that she was awake and out of the hospital? At first he had aimed to rile her up, believing that it would speed up the remembrance of her life with him, but it did nothing of the sort and only seemed to drive a wedge even further between them as she continued to view him with mistrust that bordered upon hatred.

He gave a grunt of shock as, with a sudden surge of energy, her body seemed to jolt upwards, bashing their skulls together and forcing him to let go of her completely as he moved a hand up to nurse the throbbing pain that began to ring within his own skull. What on earth had caused that?

"Hanni... Hannibal?"

Her voice was choked, most likely from crying and from her sleep combined. Hannibal turned to face her completely once more, still clutching his head as she tried, and failed, to pull herself up on the bed. Her face was blank but Hannibal had learned to look into her eyes over the time they had known each other if wanted to truly understand how she was feeling. She may have been good at hiding behind her masks of indifference or anger but, as they said, the eyes were the windows to a person's soul.

There was confusion behind those stormy blue orbs, sadness as she looked around the room and gave a small sigh of grief before turning back to Hannibal and rebuilding her act of defiance.

"The hell happened? I don't remember anything after falling off the table, where am I and why are you clutching your head?"

Felicia just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry more. She'd been back home, even for only a few moments, but it had been all wrong. She knew that Sera had been in a car crash with her, so why had the nurses said that there had been only herself and the lorry driver in the accident. The events made her feel sick with worry, what was going on?

"After you passed out, I brought you up to my bedroom so that I could attend to the cut you sustained when you fell... I am clutching my head because, whilst you were unconscious, you seemed to be having a nightmare. During your thrashing, you head butted me"

She stared at him in disbelief for a moment, the nurse she'd head butted in the other world had been Hannibal in this? Her lips began to twitch slightly as the image of Hannibal in nurse scrubs flashed in her mind, before letting a bark of laughter and slapping her hand over her mouth to cover the noise. She was probably in enough hot water without adding laughing at the man to the list. But why was he still here if he'd already fixed up her injury she thought as her eyes grew suspicious and she attempted to roll to the other side of the bed, groaning when her muscles seemed to ache in protest of the movement.

"I would try not to move if I were you, your body will have been pushed to its endurance limit during our altercation and will therefore be rather sore for the next few days"

He moved towards her, noticing the slight flinch she gave and the gleam of mistrust in her eyes as he hooked his arm behind her back and helped her to sit up against the bed frame before moving back and putting distance between them. Since she had awoken and returned to him, he had done nothing but rile her up and push every button in her mind. It had been wrong of him he realised, unfair of him and rude. He just hoped that he could get them both on the right track.

"You stayed with me the entire time?"

"Yes... Even if it were not for my duties as a doctor, I would have stayed by your side for even the smallest of injuries"

A blush crept up her face at his words as she searched his face for any sign of a lie. Nothing, not even a small lie was evident as she found nothing short of pure honesty within his sanguine eyes. She gave a weary sigh, rubbing a hand along her face as a wave of exhaustion hit her. She felt tired beyond belief, utterly worn from her run-ins with Hannibal and seriously starting to question why she was bothering. Clearly she wouldn't be going home anytime soon and, unless she could actually find a way to play nice with the good doctor, it was going to be a very rough ride.

"Would you care to speak about the nightmare that you were having? You were in quite a high level of distress"

She gave a slight scoff, of course she would have been distressed. She'd been home, back where she belonged but it had been like some twisted sick parody where Sera didn't exist. Sera did exist! She was with Will and had spoken to him before on the phone.

"It's nothing. It only lasted for a few moments so nothing to worry about... How long was I out for?"

Hannibal frowned slightly at her dismissal of his question, not liking that she seemed so unwilling to share her troubles with him before pulling out his pocket watch and gaining the time for her.

"You were unconscious for approximately three hours. The time scale within dreams though holds vast differences to that of the real world, what feels like only three minutes may actually have been three hours or vice versa"

Felicia felt a lump form in her throat as she let his words sink into her mind. She couldn't have been out cold for three hours, she'd been home for only five minutes at best... But then, if that had been home then why had Sera not been there? Hell, she hadn't even existed if the nurses were anything to go by. The realisation hit her like a freight train as she looked at Hannibal with horrified eyes, fresh tears filling the brim as she clutched her head.

Sera hadn't been there because Sera was still conscious and going about her day with Will. She didn't exist within that world because she had already been removed from it and placed back into the world of the living... The world that was their actual home and had been all along.

"Oh god, it's not a dream... It's all real"

The pair stared at each other for a moment, Hannibal confused by what she had said as Felicia looked at him in horrified amazement before extending a hand out to trace her finger tips along his jaw line. This was too much she thought, giving a hysteric laugh before covering her face with her hands.

"I think I understand the six month conundrum now... I can't remember beyond six months because both myself and Sera were in a coma and the world we thought was real is nothing more than a safe haven that our minds built for itself... But then, if that was all just a lie, who the hell am I?"

Hannibal smiled slightly as he took her hand gently, finding some small joy in the lack of resistance she gave to his action, choosing to simply stare at him in shock as he spoke. It was a lot for one person to take in one day but it was a start in the right direction so he would not complain.

"Your name Is Felicia Shepherd and you are twenty-eight years old. You were a psychiatrist up until the day we became mated. You were in a abusive foster home with Sera before circumstances saw you both removed from the Alpha's care. Beyond that I can tell you no more, simply wait for you to remember in your own time and offer my support"

She nodded, finding nothing new in anything he had said. Those were the memories that she had already retrieved. But what about the rest? And more importantly, how the hell was she meant to break this news to Sera. She groaned , laughing once more slightly and shaking her head, Sera would probably have her sectioned for even suggesting any of this was real. Only one thing could make this seem any better now.

"I feel like my head is about to explode. Could you help me up so that I can get a coffee whilst I think things through?"

"I'm afraid there will be no coffee my dear... As punishment for your earlier stunt, I have disposed of both the coffee and the tea"

Her face must have looked a picture as her eyes went wide and her skin a shade paler. He had to be joking, she couldn't go without her caffeine. The coffee was bad enough but the tea as well?

"Tell me you're messing with me. You wouldn't do that to me, you're meant to be my mate and therefore you must know that I can't function like a normal human being without some form of caffeine in my system"

"I am well aware of this, but you must know that I do not take kindly to having my office rearranged or my I-pad encoded to play only what laymen's would consider music. Robin Thicke's 'Blurred lines' is not what I would consider worthy of my time. My deal is simple, take the encryption from my I-pad and I shall return your coffee to you"

She scowled angrily at his words. That son of a bitch! He'd taken her weakness hostage and was now using it against her. And here she thought they had been making some progress in getting along. He'd looked after her and seemed to be being so nice. Lying bastard.

"You're a bad man, Hannibal Lecter, do you realise that?"

"In all the best ways dearest and if only you could remember"

Felicia could feel her eye twitching at his comment. Oh she could remember alright, his little hobby of cannibalism was the only thing stopping her now from punching him in the face. She returned his smile, noting that she hadn't sworn at or threatened him once during the entire discussion. As Sera would say, it's the calm before the storm that you really need to worry about.

He'd changed the rules of their game. But then, Felicia had never been one to play fair either, especially if she could get Sera on her side.


I just wanted to give a quick thank you to everybody who has reviewed and favourite/followed the story in recent chapters and I hope that you will all continue to enjoy as it progresses. Comments are always appreciated so please let me know what you thought so that I can continue to improve on my skills.

The next chapter will be focused on Sera as she takes a trip to the lab with Will. With memories laid out on the table with evidence of a copycat killer on the loose, perhaps some memories are better left forgotten as Sera begins to struggle with her own concept of what is real and what is fake. And, more importantly, who are the Alabama Arsonist's?