Tentative Plans

That evening, they made a fire on a small shoal. Will wanted to test his ability to deal with land and darkness, and both held up rather admirably. But then…no one knew where they were, and no one could reach this small spit of land he was on without a boat. But fear was never reasonable. Fear made your heart pound even when there was nothing there. He was sleeping on the boat tonight.

"How about Buffalo?" Josh asked. He had found his school planner in the bottom of his gym bag, and was looking at a small map of the United States. He called out random city names and gauged his parents' reactions. This was an improvement over his withdrawal for most of the afternoon; but that did not mean he was really dealing with this as well as he was pretending to.

Will shook his head. "Miserable winters. I don't think you and your mother would like the cold very much."

"Can we move to Hawaii, then?"

Will looked at Molly. "It's rather expensive there, I think."

"We wouldn't know anyone, or be able to visit the States," she said. To her, Hawaii was as exotic as a foreign country.

"Savannah?" Josh asked. He had never been there, but he liked the name.

"That's enough for now," Will said. Molly was putting on a brave face, but with every suggestion, her body language clearly said, 'I want to keep living here in Florida, damn it!' The firelight exaggerated the creases on her face.

"I don't really mind where we go, just so long as the people there aren't weird," Josh said.

"Weird? What do you mean weird?" Molly asked.

"I dunno. Just…the people here make sense, but the people on the news are always so strange. I'd rather not live somewhere where people will always be so…so weird." Josh was not a particularly articulate teenager, but he could hardly explain something he didn't understand himself. Home was safe and familiar, and the rest of the world was strange.

"We're definitely not moving to a city, so you don't have to worry about that," Will said. He suspected that Josh had an inaccurate impression of how many people out there were disturbed serial killers, but then, he couldn't blame him – he'd seen one and known of others secondhand. How many eleven year old boys had had someone try to kill them? Molly seemed a bit relieved; city life didn't suit her.

"We'll talk to people we know, see if someone wants to put us up for awhile, and then we'll see about where we can move to," Molly said.

"Will we go to my grandparents?" Josh asked. They always spoiled him and showered him with attention – which made him uncomfortable these days.

Molly glanced at Will. "Maybe," he said. "We haven't talked to them yet." He knew they wouldn't say no, but he was not comfortable with accepting their hospitality, either. He was grateful to Molly for not bringing this up last night.

"I'll miss the water," she said suddenly.

"There's a lot of coastline in this state alone," Will said. "We don't have to give that up when we move."

"Yeah, I mean, no one's going to pay you to fix boat motors in Kansas!" Josh said, and they all laughed.

"We'll see. Maybe it's time for me to consider another line of work." He wasn't sure yet, but he'd been turning it over in his head all day. He did not miss police work, and he certainly didn't miss the FBI. But…maybe the best way to deal with being hunted was to get back into hunting. He thought that if he didn't, he might end up sitting at home and drinking all day. Molly and Josh would not stick around to watch that happen, and he wouldn't want them to see it either. It was hard, though. He wasn't sure he could handle it. He felt like a burned out mess, and going back would just expose that truth for everyone else to see. Every time someone did a double-take on seeing his face, he would doubt himself.

Josh didn't think much of his remark, but Molly knew which direction his thoughts were headed in, and her brow creased with worry. She knew he wasn't thinking about becoming a car mechanic.

"We'll see," he repeated quietly, trying to reassure her. Damn Jack. The man could manipulate marionettes in his sleep. What had prompted him to offer Will not only relocation, but a job? He wasn't fooling anyone, though – he couldn't do that any more. He'd lose himself if he tried to get into one more twisted killer's head, he was sure of it. They'd have to use their own resources to catch Buffalo Bill. He kept his victims alive for awhile; Will couldn't look at the file and keep thinking.

But he already was thoroughly familiar with Lecter's file…. He shook his head. No. He was not ready for that.

The night was chilly, and the next day they all decided they had run away for long enough. It was kinda funny to see how they came to that consensus separately, silently. There was a lot of awkward looking away from each other before they ate lunch, til Will finally realized that no one was going to say anything – this outing had been his idea, so he had to be the one to call it off. Once he announced that staying out another night would be unnecessary, things were more relaxed. They almost enjoyed the afternoon.

But when they got back to the dock, Will insisted that the others stay with the boat while he cleared the house. "There is no one here," he said apologetically, "but also no harm in having you wait a few minutes." It had been two days; Lecter could have gotten here while they were away. He took the gun with him; Molly realized that the rest of her life would be like this, and finally, something inside her broke. She started crying as soon as he was out of sight. Josh pretended not to notice.

Will waved them back in, and they carted the things they'd taken with them back to the house. They were still subdued and awkward, but this was home; it was familiar. It was hard to see this place as dangerous, even though dangerous things had happened here in the past. Josh disappeared upstairs as soon as he'd fed the dogs; Molly pulled out food to start dinner.

Will picked up the phone and dialed immediately, without looking up any numbers. He always did that; he hadn't needed to look up Crawford's number last night, either. Will had decided to come back because he had to make a few phone calls. Molly watched him from the sink as if she'd never seen him make a phone call before.

"Stewart, please," he said, and then waited on hold for awhile. "It's Will Graham. Yeah, I heard the news. They didn't catch him, did they? Well, no, not really. I've been away the past couple of days. Yeah." He listened for a moment. "Oh, really? Well, that's good then." He smiled quickly at Molly. "I'm thinking about it. No, nothing drastic. Uh-huh. I saw him once after court. On the Dolarhyde case. Yeah, they called me in for that." A longer pause. "He did, but I didn't say anything. He knew you'd left the force, but that's all." Another pause. "Crawford thinks he's going to be drunk on freedom for awhile, too busy hiding out to go after anyone. I wouldn't worry…yeah, I know he's a fucking monster and I don't trust him either. Yeah. Well, hey, let me give you my number and you can call if you need to, okay? Yeah, I'll be here at least another couple of days, I think. Yeah. No, I have to move – the family…. Yeah. Hang in there, you hear?" He gave him the number and hung up, then turned to face Molly.

"They found Buffalo Bill."

"That's…that's great."

"Still no news on Lecter, though. That was Stewart, he worked the Lecter case. He's the one who cleared the basement."

"Where is he now?" Molly asked, trying to see why that was relevant, only half-way focused on chopping vegetables.

"He's still in Baltimore, but not a cop any more. He's managing a motel out on Route 40." She was looking at him expectantly still. "I just wanted to touch base with him, see what he was up to." He sighed. "I have to do this, Molly."

"Do what?" she asked.

"Hunt the bastard down. It's the only way we're ever going to have peace. If I just take us and run away and hide, you know…you know that's gonna be a mess. I don't want…I don't want to drag you through this, but…"

"We're in it, now," Molly finished for him, none too happy. "You have to do what you have to do, Will, but don't let him take over your life. It's bad enough that we already have to change everything, lose everything, just because of him. Don't let him take more than you have to."

"I won't." He hoped he could keep that promise. He got out the phone book and flipped through the yellow pages to find a realtor. "Where we go first is up to you, though." If he was going to drag her back to Maryland eventually, he had to at least start somewhere more friendly to her.

"I guess I should call my cousin once this is in the oven," she said. They were still taking turns making calls when Josh came down and asked to borrow the car.

"After dinner," they said in unison, and he rolled his eyes.

"You'll want to see the news tonight," Will promised.

In the end, Josh stayed for dinner, but did not want to watch the news with his parents. He wanted to see his friends. He agreed to be back by midnight, and the look on his mother's face said that he had better keep to his word. He knew they'd be worried sick if he were late, so he told himself he'd keep an eye on the time. Just because there was no school tomorrow did not make this a good time to challenge a curfew.

As Will had suspected, the unmasking of Buffalo Bill and the rescue of the Senator's daughter was the primary news story. They'd had a day to gather background information and talk to everyone involved; the Senator was grateful, and claimed her daughter was recovering. Will had to smile darkly at that; the victims were often marked for life, if they lived. A 12-year-old photo of the killer was the best they could do so far; apparently he didn't keep recent photos of himself. They managed to find the families of previous victims, and got them to say that they wished the killer had been apprehended sooner. They replayed the footage of the night before, the glimpses of the basement and the breathless reporting of the horrors found there by police. "Why can't they ever be obsessed with transformation into something truly beautiful?" Will muttered to himself. Molly just shuddered. They managed to get a comment out of Alan Bloom, probably totally out of context from an earlier interview.

But then it switched back to the 'rescue' footage, Catherine Martin being led to an ambulance, and Clarice Starling of the FBI. Will looked at the way she was carrying herself and said, "She shot him."

"Yes," Molly agreed, "I think she did." She had that look about her.

The newscasters confirmed their intuition a moment later, giving Special Agent Starling credit for tracking down and killing the monster. There was little new information after that, but Will did not turn off the TV until they switched to a different news story. Lecter was still at large. He stared into space for awhile.

"I love you, kid," Molly said suddenly, and he held her on the couch. He always sat on her left, so his good side was towards her. He sometimes was surprised she was still here, especially after the last few years. Maybe they would get through this, assuming Dr. Lecter didn't come for them. They both had more scars than most people.

Well, this story isn't over yet. I'm as surprised by that as any of you. It is very strange to tell a story that insists on more chapters like this......