Part 6: Chaotic Aftermath

[Midnight]

Will let out a loud, ragged scream as he clutched Hannibal's body tightly, rocking back and forth. The FBI could hear him keening as it echoed through the woods and up to the house.

It took only a few minutes before I heard it myself. It pushed back the fog of heavy sleep and I sat upright in bed, looking around to find the source.

I slid to the side of the bed and held my head, fighting a sudden nauseous feeling. "Hannibal?" I stood up, unsteady at first, and took a few steps towards the window. "Hannibal?"

There were footsteps on the stairs outside Hannibal's bedroom and I turned to face the door when it opened, expecting Hannibal. It wasn't. It was Crawford and he was staring at me in shock as I stood naked in front of him. "Midnight…"

I gasped and hurried back over to the bed, pulling the sheet off of the bed and wrapping it around my body. "What the hell are you doing here, Crawford? Where is Hannibal? Where… where is Will?"

Crawford took a step further into the room and closed the door behind him. "Midnight…" I watched as Crawford walked over to Hannibal's desk and sat down on top of it. He buried his face in the palm of his hands and sighed. "Hannibal is dead."

I swayed slightly and reached out for the bed post to steady myself. "You're lying. He was with me earlier."

Crawford allowed his hands to drop to his lap and he looked straight at me. "Were you sleeping with him, Midnight?"

"Maybe."

He sighed again. "Did you know he was the cannibal we were looking for?"

I swallowed the lump of fear in my throat and tried to stand as tall as I could, fighting my body's urge to fall to the floor. "Yes."

Crawford slowly stood up and walked over to me. He stopped a few feet away and I could see the disappointment in his eyes. "Why, Midnight? Why, when he was a man just like the one who kidnapped you for four years and tortured you?"

I looked down at the floor and studied the pattern of the wood. "He wasn't like that. He didn't hurt me."

"Midnight." He took the remaining steps forward and lifted my chin up, trying to force me to look at him. I closed my eyes like a child. "He used you."

"He loved me." I jerked away from him and walked over to the window, throwing it open. The sirens had died down but I could still hear someone crying brokenly. It took my breath away because I knew… I knew who it was. "Is… he… Is he really dead?"

I didn't need Crawford to answer my question though. As I looked down below I watched as Will and a bunch of other FBI agents rolled along a gurney with a bloody white sheet covering a body.

My knees gave out as Will looked up at me with so much guilt and pain in his eyes. "No! No, no, no, no, no!" Crawford hurried over to me and tried to touch me but I screamed. I smacked at him and screamed.

Will heard me screaming and took off running into the house.

"No, no, no, no!" I screamed, and screamed, and screamed. I clutched my head and pulled my hair. "No, no, no, no, no, no, nooo!"

The bedroom door slammed open as Will and a couple of paramedics ran in. Crawford backed away from me as Will knelt down in front of me. "Shhh, Midnight. Please, don't scream."

I opened my eyes and stared up at Will. I looked at the blood on his pants; the blood on his shirt; the blood on his face and his hands. Tears burned down my cheeks and I knew what Will had done. I turned away from him without a word and buried my face in my hands, whispering, "No," over and over again, rocking back and forth, back and forth.

Will reached out and touched my arm but flinched away when I curled myself up into a ball and slid all the way down to the floor, wrapping the sheets that Hannibal and I had made love on around my body.

I faintly heard Will, Crawford, and the paramedics talking but I ignored them. I ignored everything, everyone.

The paramedics moved in close to me and one of them grabbed my arm, gently sliding a needle into my skin and pumping a sedative into my veins. I ignored them and allowed the world to slip away from me. I didn't feel warmth and I didn't feel comfort. I felt nothing.

When I stopped moving the paramedics slid me onto the body board they'd carried up the stairs and tucked the sheet around me, buckling and tightening the straps so that I wouldn't slip off.

Will stayed behind with Crawford as they carried me downstairs. Will walked over to the bed where I had been with Hannibal. Crawford spoke up, his voice a little rough with emotions. "I'm sorry it was you who had to shoot him, Will."

Will turned slowly to face Crawford. "I'm sorry it was me who had to shoot him too, Crawford." Will brushed past Crawford and headed out of the bedroom, not bothering to look back. "I think I'm done with the Bureau, Crawford."

Crawford called after Will. "You can't just quit like that, Will. I need you!"

Will stopped at the top of the stairs. "No, you don't need me, Crawford. You need my mind and I'm sorry to tell you but shooting…" Will choked on his words for a second. "Shooting the man I loved broke my mind, Crawford. Expect my resignation letter on your desk tomorrow."

Will walked down the stairs, past the FBI agents mingling around Hannibal's house, and into the kitchen where he'd seen my purse sitting on the counter. He picked it up and tucked it under his arm before leaving the house, hitching a ride with the ambulance holding me.

I didn't know it was Will when he took my hand but he did and he sat as close to me as possible. Tears ran freely down his cheeks. "I'm sorry, Midnight. I know I can never be forgiven but I promise to you that I will hold firm to the promise I made him before he died. I'll take care of you, Midnight, even if you hate me for the rest of my life."

~The Times Newspaper~

London, England, UK

-September 22-

[Front page reads as follows:] The same day mass murdering cannibal Hannibal Lecter was killed by Special Agent William Graham, his body disappears on the way to the morgue. The morgue van was found abandoned on the highway just outside of London yesterday evening; Lecter's body, the driver, and assistant have all disappeared without a trace. Where have they gone? Are there body snatchers among us? More information to be provided at a later date.

[One Month Later]

Will was beside me as I took my first step out of the hospital since my breakdown. It seemed like months but it had only been one. For four weeks I had been drugged and strapped to the bed to protect myself.

Crawford had questioned me over and over until he was frustrated enough to leave me alone. The same thing happened with Will.

And as promised, the day after Will had killed Hannibal, he'd submitted his resignation from the FBI and the BAU.

Here and now, he was just a normal civilian.

We both were, because even though I would be watched by the FBI for the rest of my life to make sure I don't turn into a murderer, like the Collector or Hannibal Lecter, I would never work with them again. I would rather die.

As Will helped me slid into the passenger side of my car, I clutched at the purse that held a few of the things Hannibal had left me.

As Hannibal's legal wife, I now owned the house here in London and the house in Lithuania. I had more money than I knew what to do with, even though I wanted none of it.

There was also one more thing Hannibal had left me with…

The only reason I was being released a month after Hannibal's death was that they'd found out I was pregnant. They couldn't keep a pregnant woman drugged up and locked away so they released me.

We wouldn't be able to tell whose baby it was, since I'd slept with both Hannibal and Will, but in a few months I would be able to find out. Not that it mattered. I had loved Hannibal, and, even though I was angry with Will, I still loved him as well.

Now the only thing left for me to do was sell the house in London and move to the one in Lithuania with Will. I wanted a place where the both of us could peacefully raise our baby.

As Will slid into the driver's seat and started the car, he reached over and took one of my hands. I turned my head and stared into his beautiful, sorrow-filled eyes and smiled. He was hurting just as much as I was. "Are you ready, Mrs. Lecter?"

I brought his hand up to my lips and laid a gentle, warm kiss against his knuckles. "I am, Mr. Graham."