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DISCOVERY
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8 years later…
For the Lecters, the following 8 years had gone by very fast and, unlike many other couples, the love between Hannibal Lecter and Will Lecter-Graham hadn't diminished. In fact, it had only grown in intensity. They still loved each other like they were a pair of teenagers experiencing their first love. And the same love they felt for each other, they felt it too for their only daughter. Their little Abigail.
It didn't matter that Abigail was already a beautiful young girl of 16, for them she was still that gorgeous baby they had met and adopted so long ago and who they had always tried to protect to the best of their abilities, even when she felt mature enough to take care of herself.
Unfortunately for Hannibal, she had always been an extremely pretty girl, but now she could simply be described as stunning. And to Hannibal's displeasure, many boys had already started noticing her and the bravest of them were already following her around and asking her out on dates. Will, of course, only seemed highly entertained by that fact; angering his husband and making him want to kill those stupid little creatures for even daring to speak to his baby. However, what Hannibal didn't know was that despite all the attention she received, Abigail wasn't interested at all in those boys. After all, her interest was centered on a more obscure subject.
She was interested in homicides.
It wasn't a current interest of hers. Actually it was one that she had had ever since she was around 10 and had finally understood exactly what her fathers did for a living. In her daddy's case, she became intrigued in knowing everything about his work as an FBI agent, especially since he had explained about his empathic abilities and what his peculiar gift meant for his career. And in her dad's case, she wasn't interested only in his current career path as a psychiatrist, but also in his past careers as a surgeon and later as an architect. It amazed her how her dad could have changed his work so many times and how he had excelled in all of them.
But for her, the most fascinating research topics were the cases that her dads investigated now and had investigated together since they met.
Because they were of serial killings.
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It had all started with what she had always considered as the most important case.
The Minnesota Shrike case.
When she had been younger, she had never really questioned the details involved in her conception and birth, simply assuming that her daddy had carried her inside of his body. It wasn't until she was a little older, when she was already enrolled in school, that she was taught where babies came from. And when she was finally faced with the harsh reality, she had suffered. Oh, how she had suffered.
After school, she returned home in tears and even though she wanted to be comforted by her fathers, she didn't allow herself that desire. On the contrary, when both men tried to get close to her, the only thing she could do was scream that she knew she wasn't their daughter and that she hated them. It had been an extremely hard day in the Lecter household and it would have continued if not for Hannibal.
The man had simply entered his daughter's room, where she had been hiding for hours and taken her with him to his study. There, he sat in his favourite armchair and sat her in his lap before explaining her everything about her real parents and later clarifying that even though she wasn't their biological daughter, they still adored her as if she had been their own flesh and blood. She had calmed down enough to stop crying and just laid there against her dad, but she still felt devastated and betrayed.
It had taken her several days to process all the new information, finally deciding not to dwell on it. She had decided this when she had looked at her daddy. He looked absolutely miserable. He still took care of her, but he was mostly silent and now he never stayed with her until she fell asleep. One night, she had even heard him crying in her dad's arms and she had felt like the worst daughter in the world by inflicting such pain on him. It had been the last straw for her.
"Daddy, don't cry!" – she entered the room, crying and running to sit on the man's lap.
"Abigail…"
"I'm sorry, daddy… I'm sorry…"
"Shhh… don't cry, baby." – the man left his pain aside, only wanting to calm his daughter.
"I love you, daddy." – said the girl, hiding her little face in his neck, repeating she loved him over and over again.
"I know, sweetie. I love you too. We both love you… so much. So much." – Will reassured him, hugging her tighter against him while being hugged by his husband.
That night and for the next couple of weeks the three of them slept in Hannibal and Will's bed, which ended up irritating the psychiatrist. He was aware that his husband and daughter needed to reconnect, but he too was desperate to spend time alone with his partner. However, he didn't dare to voice his discontent, knowing that Will would be offended and would even have the guts to move out of the master bedroom.
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That had happened years ago, but that memory had never left her mind. Especially because even when her dads had given her certain information about her real family, they had never told her any details concerning them, having already agreed that she would never know the macabre scenes of her past. That lack of information, of course, had only made her more curious to find out the whole truth.
And found out she did.
It had taken her several years to investigate and gather information about the Hobbs case, all because her dads had prohibited her from reading about crimes. They had always wanted to shield her from that part of their lives; they didn't want anything to taint her. She realized what they meant when everything was revealed to her and it horrified her, making her thank a deity she didn't believe in that her dads had been the ones that had raised her and not that monster.
After that investigation, she decided she didn't need to know anything else. But, as sometimes happens, unexpected things occur in people's lives.
Little by little, she grew interested in reading about other serial killings from around that time, finding many of them in which her dads had been part of the investigation team. And that investigation obviously resulted on her learning about the Chesapeake Ripper case.
Just what she needed. Another cannibal.
Like her real father.
She read about how the killer had eluded and continued eluding the police, no matter how many teams had been organized within the FBI. That man simply seemed to be one step ahead of all of them, all the time. At least until he had just disappeared, never to be heard again. According to the many news reports she had gathered, many people thought he had died, while others believed he had relocated and was keeping a low profile somewhere else, even changing his killing methods.
In addition to the articles, she had been able to find reporter Freddie Lound's webpage, finding there all the horrific images from crime scenes. There were hundreds and hundreds of them, of people murdered by the Chesapeake Ripper, which at the beginning had practically disturbed her.
She admitted that only happened at the beginning, because the ironic part was that later on she became fascinated by the way the bodies were presented. She just couldn't help but forget the murder itself and see beyond it, see the art, see the way the bodies were presented, as if telling a story understandable only for the killer and whoever he wanted it to read them.
And she desperately wanted to read them.
Mainly when she saw a picture that was dated 8 years ago. A picture of a man sliced open from neck to waist.
'No way!' Abigail Lecter thought, recognizing the man in the picture.
It was the man she had seen when she was little. The man in her basement.
The man, who she now understood, had been dead and covered in blood.
'Covered in blood.' She thought. 'Just like her dads when they had been cutting him.'
A/N: Hope you liked it. Sorry if there are any mistakes, English is not my native language :)