Fleeing

Will stayed in the kitchen all night. He wasn't even sure why; he knew he was being unreasonable. After Josh went to bed, he fetched his pistol and set it on the table in front of him, just out of reach. He did not want to spook and do anything regrettable. As soon as it was light, he went outside. In the grey pre-dawn light, before the sun tipped over the horizon and spilled all the color back into the world, he checked over the boat thoroughly; there was no place a person could be hidden or stowed away on it.

When he went back inside, he started packing food, getting together some things they might need. Molly joined him. "Will?" she asked. She was still more worried about him than the family.

"It's going to be okay, Molly. I just need to…think. If I can get out on the open water for awhile, I think…I think that will be good."

She nodded, and started putting food in the cooler. She was as beautiful as ever, with rumpled hair…but so sad and tired. She frowned when she saw that the gun was coming with them, but said nothing. He did not know how she bore her own scars with such strength. She called out of work for the next couple of days, claiming family emergency, and then went upstairs to wake Josh while Will went out to feed the dogs and check the boat again.

Josh was surly from being woken up entirely too early; lack of sleep and dread did little for his mood. But still, he complacently went along with his mother's request, stuffing some clothes in a bag and responding to her question of whether he wanted mustard on his sandwiches in a monotone.

Once they were underway, Will relinquished control of the boat to Josh, lay down in the sun, and went to sleep. Molly murmured to her son, "We'll talk about it when he wakes up." Josh thought she looked suddenly old and…unlovely from lack of sleep and worry. For the first time, guilt twinged through the dread and uneasiness that had made him almost refuse the eggs she'd made for breakfast. He knew he made her worry sometimes, but this wasn't his fault…was it? Something had happened…right?

Will woke up from his nap several hours later with a violent twitch; it wasn't quite noon yet. Wordlessly, Molly offered him a cold drink, and he mutely accepted. He stared off at the water for a bit, but the weight of the silent presence behind him was distracting.

"There's never going to be a good time to say this," he finally said when his drink was finished. He turned back towards the boat, and faced Josh. "I'm sorry I've kept you waiting, but I have bad news. It's…a heavy burden, and I wish I didn't have to tell you at all."

"I'm not a kid anymore," Josh said. "Just tell me." The wait was killing him.

"No, you're not." Will took a deep breath, and let out a sigh. "Last night, Dr. Hannibal Lecter escaped from jail."

"No…no way!" Josh said. Whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't that. "How the hell did that happen?" He winced after, not liking to curse in front of his mother. She said nothing, though.

"He was transferred to Memphis, because of the Buffalo Bill case and the Senator's daughter. There must have been a mistake with security; he got away in an ambulance."

Josh digested this news, and wrapped an arm around his chest, holding his other arm. "That's just…wrong."

"I know. And I am very sorry about all of this."

"I wish you shot him, like Mom shot Dolarhyde." Josh never used the Dragon nickname, the few times he brought it up.

"I wish so, too," Will said, knowing that Molly wouldn't want to hear that, "but it didn't happen that way." When he had first seen Lecter in court, it was hard to think of anything else. It had surprised him; as cut up as he was over having to shoot Hobbs, he felt intensely disappointed he had not taken out Dr. Lecter. Especially knowing how unlikely it would be for Maryland to enact the death penalty in a case where the criminal can claim insanity so tidily. He watched Josh now, taking this information in, watching the dread transform into fear, and hating himself, yet again, for bringing this evil into his family. If only…if only the past weren't so real.

"So what…what happens now?" Josh asked.

"For now, we stay out here on the water so I can think," Will said. "After that? I'm not sure. We have to discuss it." He would not tell the boy they were moving until he was sure Molly was okay with that decision. After all, she had not opted to move after the attack five years ago.

He turned and looked back at the water. He wanted to be out here alone, but he knew that he could not have the peace he needed if he could not see them alive and breathing. He did not trust what his imagination would do when his eyes were closed. And in truth, he was terrified that if he went off alone, he would return to find them gone, as if these difficulties would be too much, and overwhelm his fragile family, scattering them.

The gnawing, clawing, crazy fear of the night before had dissipated. He could hold it at arm's length and look at it…out here. It was waiting for him though, as soon as he set foot on shore again. But here, with the sun shining and the water stretching out to the horizon and the shore safely distant, his world was just this little boat with his family on it. Lecter had no part of that. He knew the danger was not imminent; he could be calm and rational, if he had to be.

Though even when he was calm and rational, he was not always in what everyone else would call his right mind. When he'd woken up in the hospital after the attack by Dolarhyde, one of the first things they'd told him had been that he'd lost his spleen. Somewhere, in all the drifting in and out of drug-induced sleep, he'd had the thought, "Well, Lecter can't eat that now." It had seemed reasonable at the time.

Once he woke up for real, he wondered if people even ate spleens. He'd never heard of it, but then – people ate a lot of strange things. He'd certainly never had any inclination to write to Lecter to find out if he'd be interested in human spleen. Lecter. The charming sociopath – the monster. Crawford seemed to think that Lecter would value freedom more than revenge, but Will was not lulled by that. Soon or late, Lecter would turn his eyes to the Graham family. It was Will's job to be prepared, to protect them.

For a moment, he envied Lecter his fearlessness. He did not know why it was, but he knew that Lecter was not afraid of other people, nor was he troubled or conflicted; he was perfectly comfortable within his own situation, whatever that might be. He knew that Lecter did not dream as he did. But that was one of those thoughts that should be damped down as soon as it appears – no one should be comfortable inside Lecter's skin. Whatever it was that made Will uncomfortable in his own was a part of his humanity he was in no hurry to sacrifice.

But what he wouldn't give to get rid of this fear.

He looked up to see Molly watching him. She smiled tentatively, not hurriedly looking away. He must be doing better; less scary now. He returned her smile, weakly. She was holding up so well; she was not likely to forget what it meant to have a killer call at the house, and yet here she was, standing by him. They would face the threat together this time. His eyes strayed to the cooler, and she suggested food. Josh seemed less eager than usual; on a normal day, he would eat whatever was placed in front of him and always ask for more. Molly had brought oranges along, so Will peeled one and ate it slowly. It was time to talk again.

"We have to make some decisions. Important ones. I want to make them together, so there will be less opportunity for recrimination later." Josh usually wasn't included in his and Molly's discussion of their plans, but Will saw no reason to leave him out this time. "Dr. Lecter has known for years that we can be found near Marathon, Florida. There can't be that many Grahams in the Keys, and it would not be difficult to get directions out here. Now, it is possible he will be caught quickly by the Memphis police, and we'd have nothing to worry about. But – "

"But there's also a good chance he'll just get away," Josh finished.

"Yes. If he does, we will likely have no hints of his whereabouts for some time. There would always be the chance that sometime in the future, he will think to drop by and…visit us." Will swallowed those words uneasily. Sick, sick, sick – it made him sick to say them. How he wished some Memphis cop would put a bullet in Lecter's brain before they got back!

"Then we can't stay here." It was Josh who said it. So matter-of-factly willing to move on from this life and start a new one. Will's own father had uprooted his family several times, and he was not so eager to do that now. But given the alternative, he seemed to have little choice. If only it didn't feel so much like running away....

Will took a deep breath. "If we do that, we would have to sever ties cleanly. No one here could know where we are moving to. We might have to consider using a different name. We can have mail forwarded through the FBI and sell the house by proxy. That sort of thing. It would not just be a matter of simply moving away. Is that…is that something you'd be willing to do?"

He asked Josh, but looked at Molly. Josh glanced at his mother, and let her answer first.

"I am not willing to sit here and wait for a visit from Dr. Lecter," Molly said evenly. "Maybe, if he is caught or killed, we can come back some day." She loved this place; the Keys were her home. But it was not Will who had had to shoot an invader in the face the last time.

"I think…I think it would be too…too strange to stay. It would be like…an invitation. I don't want to just sit here and wait for him to come find us," Josh said.

Will nodded. "I do not want to do that either. It wouldn't be feasible to set up a perpetual surveillance operation here in the hope that he might show up. Besides, I do not want to live under permanent guard, and I can't say I'd be comfortable asking you to, either."

"So…where are we going to move to?" Josh asked.

Will smiled at him. "Where would you like to go?"

This is all I have written so far, but I'd like to do at least one more chapter.