Tainted | Hannibal Lecter

7. The doctor

As Hannibal stops the car, Madison admires the outside of his office. It was a tall building, quite intimidating. He took her hand and lead her to the entrance. They passed the waiting room and went straight through to his room. As soon as Madison saw the inside she was speechless. It was beautiful. She gazed at the hundreds of books, begging to read them.

"It's beautiful"

Hannibal closed the door behind her and removed her coat for her, hanging it on a hook afterwards.

"Thank you."

She walked slowly to the middle of the room and stared up at the second level, full of even more books.

"Take a seat"
He gestures to one of the black leather chairs

She does as he says, sitting down on one of the chairs. He sits on the identical one opposite her. He crosses one leg over the other and places a note pad on his lap.

"Do you feel any better?"

"Yes. I think it was just becoming quite overwhelming, being surrounded by people at all times."

"I can imagine how that could be detrimental."

She looks down at her fingers. She had always felt slightly nervous around Hannibal, but more so now she was in his office.

"Did you intend on telling me why you weren't going to show up for your appointment?"

"I... i had planned on making an excuse next time i saw you."
She was caught off guard, she didn't expect him to ask her such a straightforward question so quickly.

"Hm."

Her heartbeat quickened.

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
She said with her head still down

"I do not mind that you felt the need to miss it, I'm only disappointed that you felt you couldn't come to me and explain your worries."

She hated that word.
Disappointed.
If he was disappointed, doesn't that make her a disappointment?

"I don't want to burden you with my issues, Hannibal"

He hated that word.
Burden.
She could never be a burden to him, how could she not see that?

"As your psychiatrist, it is my job to help you. If you think you are burdening me with your problems, then i am failing my job."

Hannibal had only ever showed her the perfectly tailored version of himself, so Madison pitied this man, who had only ever tried to help her.
She felt so guilty for making him feel as if he was bad at his job. She thought it was her fault, and that's exactly what Hannibal wanted.

"In order for our relationship to work, we need to communicate."
He obviously meant she needs to communicate, but decided to use the collective pronoun in order to soften his request.

"I will do better, i promise"

He smiled at her, she returned the smile.

"The doctor of yours... Are they good at their job?"
The question was random, but the thought had been swimming in his mind for a while.

"Yeah, she's great! I think sh-"

"No, the male one."
He interrupted quickly

She looked confused
"Oh, i haven't spoken to him much. Why do you ask?"

Of course Hannibal couldn't reveal to her why he really asked so instead he said
"No reason, just curious about the staff."

He had seen the way a few of the girls reacted when they saw him in the hallways. His first thought was Madison, did she react this way? Did she find him attractive? Have they spoken?