Return of the Lambs

After

Dr Lecter is sat at a table on the veranda, smoking a cigarette and staring out across the Vltava in silence.

He has not desired a woman in so long and never has a woman touched him sexually and lived to sleep beside him. He has human urges still, but rarely.

The taste of Starling's flesh still lingers on the tongue which has darted out to touch his top lip like a snake scenting its surroundings. The taste is not marred by leather, as it had been when he licked the steering wheel, this taste is fresh.

He has no desire to eat her flesh, not in his usual sense.

He lifts the cup of coffee to his lips and his eyes move to the covered food he kept for himself and Starling.

He remembers the day she arrived to rescue him, telling him to shut up. Had she been anyone else, he would have plunged the knife into her the second he was free.

Instead, he had felt amusement.

He remembers the first time he held in her in his arms, her brief return to consciousness before she lost it again, her head falling on his arm and staying there as the pigs swarmed around them...

For a moment, he had been tempted to leave her, but staring at her prone body in the dirt stirred emotions in him that he had barely registered at the time...

She appears at the glass doors, still wrapped in the robe she wore last night.

"Good morning, Clarice."

She tilts her head and smiles hesitantly.

"Dr Lecter."

---

He took a long drag of his cigarette as he watched her, to the point where she became self-conscious, bowing her head and smiling. It reminded him of their first meeting when he smiled and winked at her over those test papers that he had no intention of even glancing at.

It was she, the student of Jack Crawford's, who had captured his attention.

"I believe, Clarice, that it would benefit us both if you would call me Hannibal. We have, after all, become equals in the sense of the flesh."

She tested the name in her mouth, her hesitation and then,

"Hannibal."

It sounded strange, hearing her say it - for both of them. Something incredibly intimate, despite what they had done the night before.

"I prefer Dr Lecter, but it remains your choice." He decided after a moment, "Now, come enjoy the food."

She sat opposite him and waited patiently for him to lift the lid of the food, knowing that he would not approve of a guest taking the food. He did so and filled her plate, handing it over to her and watching in complete silence as she placed the napkin on her lap and began to eat.

He put the cigarette out in the ashtray and steepled his fingers.

"Any other lovers?" He said the word with a bite.

She glanced up at him with a closed expression, Agent Starling once more, all traces of the vulnerable woman who'd laid beside him gone, hidden behind those carefully constructed walls.

"A few. Nothing serious."

His jaw clenched and nothing more, but it was enough.

"Yourself?"

"Ah, quid pro quo. It brings us back to those days of being in that cage, does it not? Not so much, I have other tastes."

She paused.

"Are you angry with me, Dr Lecter?"

He looked away and then looked at her with burning maroon eyes that made her shiver, the last eyes his victims ever saw. His blood-stained hands had moved over her skin last night and she had felt nothing but desire as if he were a normal man.

He did not like the thought of others being allowed the same pleasure.

"Yes. Tell me, Clarice, did they give you pleasure?"

She laid down her fork.

"Some, enough. Do you feel pleasure, killing others?"

"Immense pleasure." He replied slowly, "I kill those who deserve it. There is no better feeling than that of justice. Don't you agree, Clarice? Or perhaps no longer, seeing how the bureau cast you aside like a piece of garbage, an agent to be scored from the records until your recent redemption. Tell me, why was Agent Garrett following you?"

"They think I am connected to you." She answered after a moment of consideration, "Crawford once asked me if I thought you desired me. What did you do to Garrett, Dr Lecter? Will he bother me again?"

"Two questions, Clarice."

"You asked me two," she countered, "quid pro quo, doctor."

"Indeed I did, yet you only answered one. No, he will not bother you again."

"I used to believe in justice until I realised that those who were dealing it were no better than those we were arresting. We're all just creatures trying to get higher and higher up the ladder. I don't...feel as I used to."

Dr Lecter looked over the river and smiled as two children in the street below ran by. It reminded him of the lake outside Lecter Castle, of protecting Mischa from the black swans on the water.

'Annibal, 'Annibal.'

"The finer details aren't appropriate discussion at the table, Clarice. What shall we do today? I could show you the wonders of the city, or perhaps we could travel elsewhere."

"I only have a few days left in Prague, doctor."

He laughed softly, though his eyes were stormy.

"Oh, my dear Clarice. Surely you must understand that I simply cannot allow you to return. Perhaps you are looking for a promotion, I may go out for a walk along the Vltava one morning and find myself surrounded by FBI agents. It won't do."

Starling leapt up.

"What are you plannin' to do t' me, doctor?"

Dr Lecter gestured for her to sit and leant back in his chair.

"A great many things, Clarice. Last night was only the beginning. I intend for our...partnership to be beneficial for the both of us. I have waited a long time, Clarice, and I intend to make the most of it."

She jumped slightly when there was a knock on the door, lost in his eyes.

Dr Lecter checked his watch and nodded.

"Ah, excellent."