Unforseen
Clarice could swear she heard the bullet zing over her head as she crouched beneath the low wall.
Shit in a brick
A couple more shots rang out from the
other side of the wall.
Clarice was on holiday
OK, she was suspended, but she had so much leave and overtime accumulated that she decided that now was as good a time as any to use some of it. Just why she had booked herself a flight to Florence, she wasn't too sure, and wasn't going to examine to closely.
This morning she had been ambling along, much like she had for the last week, when
she spotted some teenagers slinking across the street with
poorly concealed firearms on their persons.
She hadn't really thought about it, and had confronted them without much though and
was now pinned behind this wall. She couldn't follow the rapid Italian drifting her
way, but she could identify shear mindless panic when she heard it. She needed to get control of the situation, and fast.
A civilian was standing in the doorway opposite her, and she was just about to tell him to not just stand there and phone the police, when she looked up at him properly for the first time. Her mouth fell open and it felt as if the world stopped. How has she not recognised him before? Standing opposite her, looking for all the world as astonished as her, was Dr Hannibal Lecter.
He wore a dark blue tailored suit and a fedora and looked a heck of lot more healthy than when she had seen him last. He recovered before she could.
"Well hello, Clarice. What a lovely surprise"
A few more shots rang out. Clarice whipped her head from Dr Lecter, to the wall and back again
"May, but this is an interesting little situation you have found yourself in"
"Dr Lecter, stay where you are! Hands where I can see them!"
Lecter was curious to note that the gun in her hand had stayed resolutely pointed downward. He folded his arms and leaned nonchalantly against the doorframe.
"Clearly, my dear, you are not here for me. Which I'm trying very hard to not feel slighted about. What has brought you to my fair city on this fine morning hmm?"
Clarice opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by another shot. This one ricochet of the wall opposite and hit her in the abdomen. She looked down in utter disbelief. There was no pain as yet, and very little blood. Only a small little area blossoming on her white blouse. She looked up to see her shock reflected in Dr Lecter. There was the sound of running feet, car doors slamming and then tire screeching, but Clarice paid it no mind. Dr Lecter crossed to Clarice in a few strides. He took her gun from her unresisting fingers and pocketed it before carefully lifting the hem of her blouse. There was still very little blood. Dr Lecter looked into Clarice's eyes and saw a myriad of emotions chase themselves across her features.
Shock, disbelief, fear, pain and finally resignation.
He found to his own surprise how little he cared for those emotions when displayed on her face. He'd seen them often enough, extracted them as it were, and would usually savour them like a fine wine, but they left a bitter taste coming from her.
He deftly scouped her into his arms.
Now there was pain. White how searing pain. And blood. Dark patches swam in front of her vision as he carried her and she grabbed hold of his jacket in a vice-like grip.
"Stay with me now Clarice" His voice seemed to come from a long way off, and the darkness took her
There was a very high-end private hospital on the outskirts of Florence, about a twenty minute drive away. Dr Lecter pulled screeching into their ambulance bay eight minutes later. An orderly came hurrying out of the building just as Dr Lecter was lifting an unconscious Clarice out of the passenger seat. The orderly took one look, and dashed back inside only to re-emerge with a gurney and a nurse in tow. He gently put Clarice on the gurney
"Gunshot wound to the abdomen about ten minutes ago. She lost consciousness not long thereafter" he told the nurse as she lifted Clarice's blouse to inspect the wound. There was considerably more blood than there had been.
From the corner of his eye Dr Lecter saw another lady approach. One with the words 'hospital administrator' written in large on her forehead. Removing his credit card from his bilfold, he wordlessly handed it to her. It was a black card from one of the most exclusive of Swiss banks.
"Welcome to our facility, Dr Ciccone" She read the name embossed om the card "and the young lady
would be..?"
"My wife"
"Of course, doctor. She will be in good hands"
The gurney had been moved of through a set of doors and Dr Lecter had been gently but firmly denied access. He felt superfluous and did not care for the feeling one bit.
Clarice was aware of a deep throbbing pain in her abdomen and her throat felt like she swallowed a cheese grater. She fought to try and open her eyes. The lights were too bright. She tried to swallow but her mouth was too dry.
A hand stroked back some of the hair on her forehead before cupping the back of her head and lifting it slightly.
"Drink some of this. Only a few sips mind. Easy now" a voice, a very familiar voice told her as a straw was put to her lips. She gratefully took a few sips of the cool water, the relief it brought was glorious. The hand lowered her back to the pillow but did not move away, it stayed, running fingers through her hair. It felt comforting and safe and she leaned slightly into it. Frowning at herself for doing so.
I know who this is. Why do I know that he is on my side?
It was a novel feeling, normally her side consisted of herself.
The room started to become clearer around her, but the pain in her abdomen was near all encompassing. She closed her eyes again to try and will the pain away. A small remote was pressed into her hand
"This is a morphine pump. Press the button here when you need to" the same voice told her "Don't fight it"
Clarice hesitated for a moment more before pressing the button and sinking back into black oblivion.
Dr Lecter watched the pain leave Clarice's face as the morphine took effect and breathed easier himself. He kept stroking her hair, and had no illusions that it was more for his comfort than hers.
He had left while she had been in surgery to change and to collect her belongings from her hotel. Her hotel keycard had been in her purse and it didn't take particularly long to find the small three-star hotel, checking out on her behalf. He was pleased to have been present when she woke-up for the first time, and settled himself in to wait.
When Clarice woke again, it was to find herself in the same unfamiliar room she vaguely remembers from before. Her side was still one big painful mess but it no longer occupied her whole existence. a nurse was being over her, taking her blood pressure. That was probably what had woken her, she thought.
Early dawn light filtered through the open window.
"Good morning, Mrs Ciccone" the nurse told her with an open smile "It's good to see you awake. You've had your husband really worried there. He has hardly left your side"
Mrs Ciccone? Husband? What the fuck is she talking about
Someone else was in the room. She met the eyes of Dr Hannibal Lecter standing a bit back from her bed. He wore different closes from the ones she remembered. She couldn't really read the emotions in his face. He stood with a relaxed nonchalance. Apparently ready to accept however she would choose to play the situation. The nurse was saying something else but Clarice wasn't really listening to her.
"I'll let your doctor know that you have woken up" she said as she left.
I think he already know
That left her alone with Dr Lecter
"Husband?"
He nodded, but offered no other explanation. The doctor must have been just outside the door as he swept in after the nurse had barely left.
"Good morning. How are you feeling? How is the pain?" The doctor asked as he came up to her bed and without preamble lifted her hospital gown and inspected the bandages, not caring much that he was exposing a lot of her chest to the room.
Clarice felt herself blush and her eyes flicked to Dr Lecter's, but he had his eyes trained on her face. Apparently satisfied with what he was seeing, the doctor lowered her gown again and tucked the bed linen back around her.
"Right" he said removing a pen from his jacket pocket and picking up her chart "Do you remember what happened?"
Clarice tried to refocus on the doctor addressing her and not the one watching her from across the room.
"I was shot. I suppose it was yesterday?"
"Yes. You were shot in the abdomen yesterday morning and your husband brought you straight here. Good thing he did as the bullet had fragmented and lacerated part of your spleen. I've had to remove a small portion but you shouldn't even be aware that it is gone. Another piece lodged in your left kidney, but I was able to remove the piece and suture the organ. We will keep a close eye on the function of that kidney" the doctor said indicating the catheter and urine collection bag hanging from her bed "but I believe it should be OK. You were very fortunate; the bullet had lost a lot of its momentum by the time it hit you, or the damage would have been considerably worse"
Clarice listened but felt strangely detached, as if the doctor was explaining about a surgery on someone other than her. She's seen the devastation gunshot wounds to the gut usually result in and felt that she should feel grateful, even if she wasn't at the moment.
"Your husband did an excellent job getting you to us so quickly, though I am told it was all the staff could do to keep him out of the OR" the doctor teased good naturedly.
"When can I get rid of that?" she asked, indicating the urine bag and by implication the catheter.
The doctor gave her a sympathetic smile
"Everyone always asks that first. All going well, hopefully in a day or so" he says, replacing her chart "I'll check on you again later" he gave a polite nod to Dr Lecter before taking his leave, closing the door behind him.
"You brought me here?" Clarice addressed Dr Lecter when they were alone "why?"
"I could hardly have left you bleeding out on the pavement now, could I?"
"You could have actually. But OK. Yet you're still here. Why? You could have left at any time"
Dr Lecter pulls the chair next to her bed closer again before sitting. He casually takes her hand in his, as if he had done so many times, and she supposed probably had in the last few hours.
"Because the world is still a more interesting place with you in it"
Clarice left her hand in his. It felt easy and natural.
"I could tell them who you are"
"Yes, you could"
He stroked her hand with his free one.
"But you are still here"
"Yes"
She looked into his eyes. They were the deep maroon she remembered, but they carried a gentleness she did not.
"Why are you in Florence, Clarice?"
Now she looked away, but did not take her hand out of his.
"I was suspended. I felt I just had to get away"
"Tell me" he prompted, and, to her surprise, she did. It all came spilling out of her, her resentment at being passed over for promotion, again and again, how it wasn't even her mistake that had led to the death of a fellow agent, yet she was still the one getting suspended, being hounded and propositioned by Paul Krendler. Dr Lecter listened and didn't interrupt apart from asking her to clarify a point here or there.
"Then you shouldn't go back" he said when she had talked herself out. He was still holding her hand, and almost absentmindedly drawing patterns on the back of her hand.
She gives a snort of dissent and immediately regretted it as pain throbbed in her side.
"The lambs have returned have they not?" he asks her gently when it was obvious she had the pain under control once again. The glare she gives him is answer enough.
"Do you think catching enough monsters will take them away completely? I'm quite sure you know that it won't work"
"And I suppose you know what would" she snaps a bit more sharply than she intended.
"Yes, I do. Working through it. It is the only way"
Clarice was saved from answering as the nurse entered with her meds and an afternoon meal. Glancing at it#, her stomach rebels
"I'm not really hungry" Clarice tells the nurse as she puts an unappealing plate of oatmeal and yogurt on the tray "I'm feeling a bit nauseous to be honest"
Dr Lecter frowned and picked up her chart, flipping through it.
"The morphine can make you feel a bit nauseous. Can you please fetch her
something for it nurse?"
"Sure. I'll just check with the doctor what he would like to give" She replied, turning to
leave.
Dr Lecter took Clarice's wrist in his hand again and using his thumb and forefinger, pressed quite hard near the inside of the wrist.
"And now?" Clarice asked him, a bit bemused.
"Pressure on this point has been showed to relieve mild nausea" he smiles down at her.
Clarice was going to reply when she realized, to her great astonishment that she did indeed feel a bit better. Dr Lecter quirked an eyebrow at her and winked. She could feel herself blushing and was grateful when the nurse brought her a tablet not long thereafter. The nausea did abate somewhat but she couldn't bring herself to face the food though.
Her abdomen was also starting to pain her more and more. She kept having to press the button on the pump more but felt very little relief from it.
"Are you in pain?" Dr Lecter asked, and she thought she detected just the slight hint of worry in his tone.
"A bit, yeah" she admitted.
Lecter pressed to call button for the nurse and she entered not long after.
"My wife is experiencing an unexpected increase in her pain levels. I want you to draw blood to check her CRP levels and then let her surgeon know. I am also concerned that she seems paler that she did a couple of hours ago"
The nurse looked a bit taken aback by the instructions, but nevertheless she nodded and left to fetch the blood collections vials.
"I was shot in the gut. Of course, it's going to hurt" Clarice admonished him "don't bully the staff"
"A sudden increase in pain is never a good sign post-operatively, my dear. And I'm not bullying anyone"
Clarice wanted to argue, but honestly, she felt too sore and too tired.
Maybe he's right
It wasn't long after the nurse drew her blood that the surgeon entered again. He looked at her chart and talked to Dr Lecter, but the conversation seemed to happen a long way off.
"I appreciate your concern, Dr Ciccone, but in this instance, you are here in the capacity as her husband, not her physician. Leave the medical decisions to me"
I sincerely hope he's not talking to Dr Lecter like that, or he might loose a limb Clarice thought to herself, but she felt very detached from the situation.
His hand was back, stroking her hair. She'd have to remember to tell him how nice it felt, she thought before she drifted off.
Dr Lecter became even more concerned as she fell asleep. He knew Clarice to have a high pain threshold and this wasn't normal. The surgeon had seemed dismissive but he did put a rush on her blood tests. They should have the result within a few hours and Dr Lecter settled down to wait. He kept a close eye on her pulse and blood pressure.
Three-quarters of an hour later, the nurse entered again, dropping off Clarice's blood results in her chart. From her expression, Dr Lecter was quite sure what the result would be, and indeed it showed a marked increase from when she was admitted. A definite indication that something was wrong.
Glancing down, Dr Lecter felt his own blood run cold as he saw the fresh blood collecting in the urinary catheter bag. Resolving to have some strong words with the surgeon as he once again pressed the call button for the nurse. The nurse had taken one look at the bag and summoned the surgeon, who had in turn taken one look and wheeled Clarice back into the operating room.
Ten minutes later, he approached Dr Lecter, anxiously pacing in the waiting area
"Dr Ciccone, your wife' left kidney had started to bleed again. I'm very sorry but I'm afraid I'll need to remove the whole organ but cannot do so without consent. Can I continue?"
Dr Lecter agreed without hesitating. This was a decision Clarice should really make herself, but she wasn't in a position to do so, so he will make the decision without her and feel no compunction to do so without her.