Ophelia Lecter. | Hannibal

Chapter 7 - Dad...?

Hannibal didn't know what to expect when he got the text. He didn't particularly want to move but it seemed important so he pushed his sorrow aside and got dressed. The drive felt long, longer than usual, but eventually he got to the large hospital and walked in. He saw Jack standing by the front desk, waiting.

"What is it, Jack? He asked, frowning.

"We need you to identity someone." Jack replied, a strange look behind his eyes.

Hannibal felt something strange swarm his chest. He couldn't mean..

He followed Jack down some hallways, through some doors until they reached the old wooden door of a room.

"Before we enter, she's not awake so we have no way of confirming. I don't want you getting your hopes up in case.." Jack warned and, with a nod from Hannibal, opened the door.

Ophelia felt something soft underneath her. A stark difference from the cold floor she remembered, but also different from the cold wind in the woods. 'Maybe I'm dead..' She thought, she couldn't feel any pain so it seemed like the most logical explanation. It wasn't until she heard a loud sob and felt someone sit beside her that she thought maybe she wasn't dead yet. Whoever it was was speaking in Lithuanian, swearing and muttering. She recognised the voice from somewhere deep within her memories. From before she was kidnapped.

"This was in her pocket." She could hear someone say, then some rustling and some more crying.

"Its her." Was all the other man said, crying some more. Ophelia heard footsteps leaving and a door closing.

Hannibal couldn't stop crying. When he had first entered the room, he didn't want to believe that it was her. Yes, they had the same face, the same hair, but she was older. She wasn't the twelve year old daughter Hannibal remembered. It wasn't until he told himself she really would've been that old that he realised it truly was her. They ran some DNA tests whilst she was unconscious.
It was a match.
The girl was Ophelia Juliet Lecter.

Ophelia didn't wake up for another week. But one day, whilst Hannibal was watching over her, her left pinkie finger twitched. Soon, it was her whole hand, then it consumed her body.

"Nurse! Nurse!" Hannibal yelled, panicking. He knew what a seizure looked like, and it scared him to no end. He was quickly pushed out of the room and left outside it for a further two days, refusing to leave. On the third day, he was awoken by a gentle tap on the shoulder. By now, Ophelia had been in the hospital for a month and Hannibal had only left her side for mere hours. What he didn't know, however, was that Ophelia was due to go home the next day due to her waking up shortly after her seizure.

"Sir?" A doctor said, standing in front of Hannibal, "Your daughters awake and asking for you."

That was all it took for Hannibal to leap out of his seat and into the room. There she was. Blonde hair tied back revealing her brilliant green eyes and cute freckles. Her round glasses sat on the end of her nose as she sipped from a juice box. The moment she layed eyes on him, however, the juice box was long forgotten and instead she covered her face with her sleeves and cried.

"Opehlia...?" Hannibal gently asked, pulling her hands away from her face, "Is it truly you?"

She cried some more, then nodded. That was all Hannibal needed. He scooped her off the bed and into his lap, cradling her close to his chest and crying.

She was home.