Disclaimer: This story takes place after the time of Hannibal, and contains extreme violence and an instance of lesbian slash. Otherwise, all the usual disclaimers apply.
Clarice Starling shifted uncomfortably in her bright orange prison uniform, the shackles chafing her skin as she was escorted to the conference room. Once there, the guards made her sit in the first chair, then stood watch over her to keep her from escaping.
"Y'all wouldn't let a girl get a beer, wouldja?" she asked, feeling no need to mask her drawl now.
"Very funny, Starling," the first guard hissed. "After what you done to Krendler, you got a lotta nerve..."
"But I didn't---!"
"Shut up! Don't say no more 'til the prosecutors get here, understand?"
"Yeah, whatever."
Given her past history, the guards knew by her tone of voice that she didn't need to be pissed off. But not even she was prepared when she saw her onetime roommate and friend, Ardelia Mapp, with the prosecuting attorneys.
"Hey, Ardie, I wasn't expecting to see you," Clarice grinned, happy to see a friendly face. But Ardelia's demeanor was anything but.
"Cut the crap, Clarice, I'm not making a social visit," she replied. "We've come to offer you a deal."
"Have you now? I take it you're not on my side, then."
"What we've come to offer, Ms. Starling, is a plea bargain," replied the head of the prosecution team, Ardelia's Justice Dept. boss Ken McDaniel. "If you'll confess to killing Deputy Asst. Attorney General Krendler, you'll be eligible for parole in ten years..."
"And if I don't 'fess up?" Clarice asked challengingly. "Which I don't intend to do?"
"You'll spend the rest of your life behind bars," Ardelia now said. "No parole, no nothing."
"So what else is new?"
"Clarice, I'm serious. You were at the scene when Krendler was found dead. Krendler was trying to discredit you for the past decade---you're the only one with a motive for killing him. And don't forget, your prints were all over the place. Not to mention all over the gun that killed Dr. Doemling and all over Mason Verger's wheelchair grips when you shoved him into the pigbin.."
"Big deal. I didn't kill them, Ardelia, and you know it..."
"If you didn't, who did?"
At that point Clarice fell silent, save for a Cheshire cat grin and an evil glint in her steel-blue eyes. That told Ardelia that she had no intention of saying anymore.
Sara Gascom and Kellie Vaughn were opening their Key West, FL coffeeshop for the day when they encountered an old friend at their doorstep.
"Honey, what's wrong?" Sara asked, unlocking the door and welcoming the man inside.
"I was wondering if I could talk to you both before you opened," the gentleman asked, his normally steely voice tinged with sorrow. "If you wouldn't mind..."
"Are you kidding? For you, anything," Kellie chimed in, bringing him his favorite cappucino as he sat down at the bar. "We heard about your friend..."
"That's what I want to talk to you girls about," the man whispered, pausing to take a sip of cappucino. "Marvelous coffee, by the way..."
Later that evening, Hannibal Lecter made the lonely walk to Key West Harbor, to the speed yacht he was currently renting under the name Jason LeMay.
He knew he wouldn't bring harm to Kellie and Sara to silence them, nor would they sell him out the way Ardelia Mapp had done to Clarice.
His Clarice, who was now sitting in a maximum-security jail in the nation's Capitol because of him.
Because he had listened when she told him to leave without her. God, why did she have to be so stubborn?
It's my fault she's in jail, Hannibal wept in his mind, the silent, bitter tears beginning to pour from his eyes. I should have made her go with me, whether she wanted to or not! I shouldn't have left her!
As these thoughts swam in his head, he remembered the Martins, Senator Ruth and her daughter Catherine...Clarice had saved Catherine years ago, when she was kidnapped by Jame Gumb. He had given Clarice the information, during their chats in Baltimore and Memphis, by way of riddles and clues, and had encouraged Clarice to think for herself, to go with her instincts.
That advice saved Catherine's life and sent Jame Gumb to Hell, but had also, inadvertently, derailed Clarice's career afterward.
He remembered Barney Jackson, the former orderly at the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane and Mason Verger's former business associate. Barney's ties to Verger, his inadvertent role in Hannibal being kidnapped, would be more than enough leverage for him to assist Clarice.
Her trial would be in a couple of weeks. But Hannibal wouldn't find the waiting easy.
After brewing some of the heady chai Sara and Kellie had turned him onto, Hannibal went into the main stateroom, kicked back on the bed, and picked up the remote to watch TV.
All he got was one depressing news item after another about Clarice's murder trial, and it made him angrier and sadder by the minute. Disgusted, he turned off the TV and threw the remote at the far wall. Then he turned on the radio to relax.
For some reason, his channel-surfing put him on an alternative-rock station out of Miami. "We're gonna play a little Joseph Arthur right now, from his new CD Come To Where I'm From," the sexy-voiced female DJ, Midajah Murphy, cooed over the radio. "Here it is..."
I picture you in the sun
Wonderin'... what went wrong...
An' fallin' down on your knees
Askin' for...sympathy...
An' bein' caught in between
All you wish for
An' all you've seen
An' tryin' to find anything
You can feel...
That you can believe in...
At that moment, Clarice flashed in his mind...the haunting steel eyes...the aching drawl...
May God's love be with you...
Always...
May God's love be with you...
I know I would apologize
If I could...see your eyes...
'Cause when you showed me myself
You know...
I became...someone else...
But I was caught in between
All you wish for
An' all you need
I picture you fast asleep...
A nightmare comes
You can't keep awake...
Now Hannibal became aware of the tears flowing from his eyes...the apology he owed Clarice for leaving her to the wolves...
He also found himself singing to Joseph Arthur's heartwrenching lyrics...
May God's love be with you...
Always...
May God's love be with you...
Always...
May God's love be with you...
Always...
May God's love be with you...
'Cause if I find...
If I find my own way
How much will I find?
If I find...
If I find my own way
How much will I find?
If I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find?
You...you...
I'll find you...
You...
I don't know anymore...
What it's for
I'm not even sure...
If there is anyone
Who is in the sun
Would you help me to understand?
'Cause I've been caught in between
All I wish for
And all I need
Oh, maybe you're not even sure
What it's for
Anymore than me...
May God's love be with you...
Always...
May God's love be with you...
Always...
May God's love be with you...
Always...
May God's love be with you...
Now Hannibal was sobbing, crying the very tears he swore he'd never shed again...
'Cause if I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find?
If I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find?
If I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find?
If I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find?
You...you...
I'll find you...
You...
I'll find you...
You...
I'll find you...
You...
"I'll find you, Clarice," he sobbed, his heart breaking into millions of pieces. "I'll find you, and I'll make everything up to you..."
He was sobbing as he fell asleep, not even bothering to control his tears. But being Hannibal Lecter, he would keep his promise.
Sara and Kellie drove home, happy with a good day's work, but worried about Hannibal. Especially after the talk they'd had three days ago.
"We really owe HL a lot," Sara said gently, gripping Kellie's hand as they pulled into their Duval Street home. "If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be here."
"Yeah, coffeehouse and all," Kellie cooed, kissing Sara's cheek. "And in a way, we've got Paul Krendler being such an asshole to you in Washington to thank, too."
"God, don't remind me. I'd have cut his throat myself if it would clear Clarice."
Sara shuddered at the memory of Krendler's sexual harassment years ago, when she was a White House intern. Her family had known Hannibal since she was a child, and had continued that friendship even after he was incarcerated.
It was Hannibal who had urged her to confront her sexual orientation, to be true to herself no matter what, much as he had for Mason Verger's long-dead sister Margot. It was also Hannibal who urged her to go public with Krendler's harassment, which had included his attempt to rape her in one of the East Wing bathrooms for continually rejecting his advances. It had cost him his job in Senator Ruth Martin's office, as well as the nearly $1 million settlement he had to pay Sara to stay out of court. But unfortunately, it had made him more venomous, more evil...worse, he knew of Hannibal's ties to Clarice Starling, the one woman Krendler hated above all others.
He blamed Clarice for every one of his problems, and in fact had been furious with her ever since the Jame Gumb case, when she---not her more experienced colleagues---had rescued the Senator's daughter from the madman known as "Buffalo Bill."
When she and Hannibal had escaped from Muskrat Farm, when Mason Verger's attempt at revenge led to Verger's death and, later, his own, Krendler took no chances. In exchange for heavy backing to go to Congress the following term, he had taken out a contract on Clarice's life. He knew that Hannibal was virtually unstoppable, but he didn't give a damn about that.
All he had wanted, all he was obsessed with, was Clarice's destruction. And if he couldn't ruin her career-wise, he would have her killed.
He had Ardelia, his mistress for the past eight years, leave these instructions to his friends in Washington, hours before his fatal meeting with Hannibal Lecter:
"In the event of my disappearance and/or death, I don't care what you do or how you do it. My wish is for Clarice Starling to die...if she's gunned down, stabbed, whatever, she has to die. If she's raped and tortured, so much the better. But the bitch has to die."
Furthering the scheme, he'd arranged for Clarice to be framed for Mason's murder, blackmailing Dr. Cordell Doemling---who had actually shoved Mason into the pigbin, but who'd wanted to implicate Hannibal---into signing a statement saying Clarice had done the deed.
After Cordell had given in to the blackmail, Krendler had killed him with Clarice's revolver, remembering to wear surgical gloves so it would appear she had killed him, too.
What he forgot was that Sara and Kellie had remained in contact with Hannibal Lecter for the last twelve years, and that they still had friends in Washington.
Friends who were privy to the contract on Clarice, and who wasted no time getting the word to Hannibal himself.
Lyrics from In The Sun by Joseph Arthur.
I've Been Caught In Between...
...all I wish for...
...and all I need...
