They Can Smell Your Intentions

THEY CAN SMELL YOUR INTENTIONS
chapter fourteen

The Observatorul Astronomic Amiral Vasile Urseanu in Bucharest is a fascinating building that has been designed to look like a boat sailing through the centre of the city. The fact that its function is to serve as the observation and navigation of the night sky creates a sense of whimsy about the architecture that even a man of limited metaphorical understanding, a man like Adam Raki, can appreciate. He understands that the concept was one of fantasy that was popular in the early 1900's when the building was designed, the idea of sailing a ship through space perhaps influenced by the first moving picture film, 'A Journey To the Moon'. It is a concept meant to spark imagination, and though Adam Raki looks upon the world through a highly literal lens, he is not averse to the comedy this building injects into the realm of his profession. To sail a boat through the far reaches of the universe, how absurd! He couldn't look at the building without choking down laughter.

It had only been a day and a half since Nigel had left him for the shores of the United Main, and Adam thought he would be left to suffer far more than he was, but luckily the job offer at the observatory had kept his mind mostly busy, and he only thought about Nigel on the quarter hour now instead of every minute. This wasn't to say he didn't miss him terribly, for his short absence already caused such an ache within Adam when he was alone in the apartment he had begun pilfering through Nigel's dirty laundry and slept with the sweaty fabrics tucked in a pile beside him, his face buried in pineapple prints on wrinkled rayon. He'd also been feeling strange emotional and unexpected physical effects, where the food he ate didn't taste quite right, and the need to weep had already assailed him a few times when he was journeying out to his interview with the observatory. He had to stop and catch his breath and force down the feelings that rode along his cells and hormones, his thumb tracing the outline of that black obsidian band at his finger as a comforting measure. Nigel had promised he was coming home and he was not a person who made such empty declarations. Adam decided to have full faith in Nigel's assurance, especially since there had never been any evidence to the contrary, and he forced himself not to worry.

Still, he was in a bit of a panic when he came home that evening after filling out a few nagging bits of paperwork for his job at the observatory and discovered that Nigel had sent a Skype message that he had missed. Frantic, he took his cell phone out of his back pocket and much to his dismay discovered he'd turned the volume off a while back since he had found the alerts from news reports and Reddit apps too distressing while he was doing some remedial studying of the Crab Nebula. His attention had been riveted as he studied the details of the remnant that had exploded in the year 1054 AD and was similar in structure to the Vela supernova remnant in that it contained the same veins of energy slipping through it like the cellular structure of a placenta. The comparisons and contrasts were fascinating. The alerts on his cell phone were about continued violence along the United Main's borders, the Mainland and Coastline having serious skirmishes, one of which was the burning down of a small, derelict school not far from the city limits of New Orleans. Several dozen children and their teacher narrowly escaped with their lives, and several of the younger children suffered terrible burns. It was all too frightening, and he'd had to research the veins of the Crab Nebula's placental shape in order to calm himself.

So, after an early evening investigating his new workplace and discussing the parameters of his research position with the observatory and filling out required paperwork, Adam had come home within a couple of hours and opened up his laptop to find a Skype message from Nigel that he had missed and it had put him into an immediate state of anxiety. He instantly replied back and to his great relief the video conference request was answered and Adam gleefully hit 'accept' and carried his laptop with him into the bedroom where he would prop himself up on his usual pillows and get comfortable as he chatted with Nigel, his mate. It was late at night and though he had several errands to run in the morning this connection simply couldn't wait, he would fight his scheduled urge to sleep. He felt a funny sort of giddy at that thought, calling Nigel his mate and not his 'boyfriend' or his 'potential'. He couldn't wait for him to come home to Romania and do all of those things that mates did together, which, the more he thought about it, probably wasn't all that different from when Nigel was his boyfriend. This made Adam incredibly happy.

But Nigel was not the person who showed up on his screen and Adam frowned at the image of the man staring back at him, eyes a rare, deep maroon shade and lined heavily in smudged kohl, his dirty blonde hair cut short and parted sharply to the side, a geometry that was also reflected in his face, delicate lines of high cheekbones and deeply sunk eyes, a mouth that was already smirking and when it grinned revealed tiny shark teeth. He had sinewy movements even though it was clear he was absolutely stoned from a recent knotting, the glassy sheen of his gaze accentuating a forest creature grace that one would find on a well footed deer, his movements slow and calculated.

"You are Dr. Hannibal Lecter," Adam said, frowning at the person displayed on his screen. He chewed his bottom lip and fought the urge to shut his laptop. "Where's Nigel?"

"In the atrium with Judith, my baby," Dr. Lecter replied, and gave Adam a softer smile that he found easier to relate to. "I have wished to meet you, Mr. Raki. As you know, I am mated to your cousin, Will Graham, though he has been sadly remiss in informing me about you. I hear you are the one responsible for sending him Old Spice every Christmas..."

"I am," Adam said. "He never sends me anything back."

"A shockingly rude omission that he will have to rectify. As a member of our family you have special status within our circle of social connections. I am so pleased to have caught you. You look rather flushed, Mr. Raki, as though you are feverish. Are you well?"

"I'm okay," Adam said, still frowning. Where was Nigel? "My stomach has been a bit upset, but that's because Nigel isn't here and I'm worried about him. It's very dangerous where you are."

"Yes, my dear Mr. Raki, it is. But you are not to worry, I have made it a point to ensure his personal safety." Lecter smiled again, sighing slightly into it. "You are experiencing stomach pains? How unfortunate. I hope you are eating properly, one mustn't let the stresses of one's life make one weak. I can already see why Nigel is so enamoured with you, you are exceptionally lovely, there are hints of my William in your genes, strong ones, I may add. Your clan knows how to bewitch, Mr. Raki, I have already surmised that Nigel is pining very much for you, and I do admit if I was in your situation I would be doing the same for my dear Will."

Adam shrugged, confused at this. "I have no supernatural powers, those are cultural conjectures and are not based in fact. I miss sleeping with Nigel, it was very difficult to rest."

Lecter pouted at this, his voice descending into a tone of maternal worry. "I am very sorry to hear that. And an upset stomach at that, how very unpleasant. Warmed milk will help settle you and aid in sleep, it reminds our bodies of our infant pleasures and offers the same, comforting lull. How I wish I could be there, Adam, to help you through this difficulty. I hope you are not overextending yourself through too much activity to fill in the void of your mate's absence."

Adam thought about his busy, early morning and equally busy afternoon and that he was forcing himself to only think about Nigel on the quarter hour, a limit he was breaking during this conversation. "I think I may be, but it's only been a day and a half. It feels like a very long time, though the reality is that it has been just over twenty-four hours, I shall have to calculate it. I have taken new employment at the observatory here in Bucharest and will be starting my work with them on Monday. Nigel has assured me he will be home by then. Is he in a nearby room? Can you tell him to come and see me? It has been exactly thirty-two hours and forty-seven seconds since Nigel has left Bucharest."

Dr. Lecter continued to give him that motherly, doe-like smile, and he sat back in his chair, his hand pressed against a bared section of flesh that held his heart behind it. "You are very precious, Mr. Adam Raki. Is he good to you? I imagine he is a wonderful mate, and is kind and patient towards your many needs. I fully understand your life is not an easy one, though it seems overly simplistic to others who are neurotypical. It's never an easy thing to constantly be the smartest person in the room."

"I'm not the smartest, there's a lot of information I don't know and I struggle with social interaction and that takes a great amount of emotional intelligence, which I do not possess in abundance, though Nigel does. He is very good to me, he never interrupts me when I talk about space, and he rescued me from traffickers and offered me a place to stay, which was in his apartment with him, he tells me he loves me which is an abstract concept I do have trouble understanding, but I think it means he likes to be with me, and touch me and cares for me."

"I imagine so," Lecter said, and though there was something else being implied, Adam didn't catch it.

"Nigel took things slowly, that's when you don't have sex right away. That has never been the prime focus of our relationship, I find that confusing in one respect but enhancing in another. He is a good man. Even though he got drunk one night and punched the face of the rector of the University of Bucharest, he did that out of love for me, so even though in that moment that did tip his scale away from goodness and towards being bad, I did forgive it and he's back to being a good person again." Adam caught Lecter's thoughtful look at what he'd told him and added, "He has never hurt me, I would never fear such a thing from Nigel. His first instinct is to protect me, because I am his Omega. It's why I don't understand these traffickers, they are Alphas, how can they deny their biology and cause such harm? I don't like it when people are hurt. Has he found the Omegas, are they alive and well like he hoped? He's very sad, all the time, and before he left he was having terrible dreams. Is he still sad? Can I talk to Nigel now?"

But Lecter wasn't about to let go of his conversation with Adam just yet. "You may, but first I wanted to get to know you better. I don't know any of Will's relations, so this is a unique opportunity that I am loathe to surrender. It is interesting to me to meet someone who shares his DNA."

"We are extremely different people who have no connection save genetics," Adam flatly reminded him.

"So it seems, but you do share some traits. Pragmatism, for one. I have overheard your theorizing on space with Nigel as he drifted off into sleep. He tells me you are an astrophysicist."

"No, that was the position at the University of Bucharest that I decided was not in my best interests. I'm working now as an astronomer for the observatory."

"Of course. But still, you do understand certain realms of physics that are beyond the scope of others. Myself, I dabble lightly, and am particularly enamoured with the concept of reversal. That a smashed teacup could reform itself should the correct cause and effect be enacted, to push the universe beyond its boundary of acceptance until it pushes back. I sometimes smash a teacup on purpose, and wait to see if it will come back together again, and I am perpetually disappointed that it never does. One day, I fully expect it will."

Smashing teacups did not seem like a logical thing for an intelligent person to do, even if one was testing out a theory, but a proper lab setting would be required, as well as highly specific equipment to properly measure the phenomenon. Adam shook his head at Dr. Lecter's folly. "No. The past is a fixed place that cannot be changed, it is only the future that can be journeyed into because it is still an open stream of possibility. The universe can only expand outward and cannot reverse itself because the nature of the universe is infinite. Therefore, the concept of time reversing is wrong. As there is solely evidence of time moving in a forward motion, that is the only methodology by which it happens. Should we be able to travel through time, it can only be through the realms of variant possibility. Thus, we can only go into the future."

Lecter chuckled at this. "So you are saying I am wrong in my assumption that the past can one day be reversed and all ills rectified? I must disagree, Mr. Raki."

"You're wrecking teacups for no reason. Some of them are pretty and very expensive, and they are fragile and some are antiques, you can't replace them once they are gone. I think you should be more careful."

Dr. Lecter's smile faltered, and his eyes misted with tears, his fingers dancing along the patch of skin above his heart, a fluttering motion that seemed to suggest to Adam distress. He wanted to apologize, but Lecter gave him a broken, frangible smile in return and his voice was slightly hitched. "How very right you are, Mr. Raki. Now is not the time to test such theories, not when the universe has made an exception to its rules for you alone. How very special you are. I do wish we get to know one another better, Adam. I feel a very close connection to you, like a mother to her daughter. In some other world you may have been a child I cherished, one I snatched back from being stolen."

Adam didn't understand why Lecter was talking this way, and his words made little sense to him. He still seemed upset. "The many worlds theory is completely different from the universe reversing itself. It is more an example of its limitless expansion. Why would you want me to be your daughter? Do you mean in the Omega sense? I think you are only halfway there, as a male Omega, I am your son, too."

Dr. Lecter choked on a small cry at this, and he forced a smile at Adam that was definitely not genuine and he didn't understand Lecter's need to lie with his body language like this. It was hard enough figuring out what was going on when people were blatantly angry or sad and this kind of puzzle, with Lecter fighting the urge to cry and yet still smiling, it raised Adam's anxiety levels and he fought the urge to wring his hands. "I know you are upset, but I don't know why. I don't know what I've said to make you that way. I'm very sorry, what should I do?"

"I am very happy, Adam," Lecter said, though the threat of tears didn't suggest this, and Adam continued to remain confused. "My son and my daughter, my darling precious, it is no wonder Nigel calls you his angel."

The tender mood was broken, however, by the intrusive sounds of others milling about the house, and Adam could hear Nigel's voice in the near distance, his body so attuned to it he could feel his cells ache. But the sounds of his mate drifted off and it was his cousin who came to the forefront of the crowd, his voice boisterous and pushy with Alpha might and full of knotted hormones that made his voice slur as though he was drunk. "Hannibal, do you need any help? Should I peel potatoes? How many are coming for dinner, isn't Chilton going to be here soon? I'm getting sick of how he's showing up later every time, we're going to have reschedule our knotting trysts if he keeps this up. You should see Inspector Ionescu with Judith, she's absolutely in love with him." Loud steps and a rushed figure crept up behind Dr. Lecter, and Adam was surprised to see his cousin, Will Graham, nuzzling into Lecter's neck and stealing highly erotic little bites from along the already bruised flesh. He didn't look that much different from the last time Adam had seen him, he still had that mess of dark curls over an angry face, though the roughly hewn beard was new.

Will kissed his mate's lips but there was a warning being transferred onto Lecter's tongue. "I don't like the way you look at him, if you're hungry I'm the one you come to. And you did, several times, just to remind you. I don't care if you have this weird crush, I told you plenty of times he's just a man like any other, nothing special at all. He smokes and he's rude and he has terrible taste in clothes."

"You have two out of three," Dr. Lecter said.

"He had a big fight with Jack over the Omegas, we may need to start our plan earlier than we thought. For now, you should be staying in bed with me. I checked on Judith, she's doing just fine with Nigel in the atrium. Hard to believe such a Neanderthal could be so good with kids. Don't look at me like that when I'm telling you the truth. Hey, what's going on with you, mon cher? Tears, again. Really, Hannibal, you are such an emotional mess when I knot you, it drives me insane seeing you so naked." Will's mouth was half open as he licked and tasted at Lecter's willing flesh, only to halt in embarrassment when he saw that someone else was looking on.

"Is that my cousin Adam Raki on the laptop screen?"

"It is."

"Aha. Why are you talking to him?"

"Adam and I were having a lovely discussion about time and space," Lecter said, wiping the moisture from his eyes with his long, elegant fingers, smudging his kohl further as he leaned back into his mate's embrace. He was dishevelled under Will's hands, his cousin barely offering Adam a nod in greeting. "Your cousin Adam has informed me he has not been eating properly. How I wish I could do something for you, my precious child! If I was there I would make sure you were never hungry."

"Macaroni and cheese is my favourite," Adam suggested, though he wasn't sure if this was the proper thing to say. Why was Dr. Lecter calling him his 'child'? "Hello, Will. You look a lot different without the braces and retainer headgear."

Will choked at this as Dr. Lecter sniggered. He glared at his mate. "I was ten, and I had an overbite."

"An anteroposterior discrepancy," Adam helpfully added. "He wore it for two years. The elastics used to get caught in tree branches when he went fishing with his dad. My father used to tell him to stand beside the TV to get better reception because he looked like a radio antennae. It never did work, human beings don't make good radio wave conduits no matter how much metal is on them. I want to speak to Nigel."

Dr. Lecter's eyes flashed in interest at this, and though Will tried to reach out and close the laptop, he took it in hand and dove away from him, keeping Adam in sight. "Such fascinating information! Will has been quite remiss in discussing his past, and I admit my curiosity is piqued. Tell me about your interactions with him when you were children."

Will protested this. "There were hardly any, he was mute and he'd curl in a ball every time he visited, he wasn't chatty like he is now." Will growled and aimed for the laptop again, and Adam was becoming increasingly frustrated over how they had forgotten that this was Nigel's laptop and he was supposed to be talking to him.

"Will had a fire truck that had very loud alarms. I find loud noises highly distressing. He knew this and he used to blast it on purpose just to watch me curl into a ball and try to block it out. It was quite a mean thing to do."

"Such a terrible brat," Dr. Lecter sagely agreed.

"At Christmas my father and I would drive to Louisiana and his grandmother, my great aunt, would give us dark fruit cake soaked in rum. Will knew where she hid the rum and he doused mine with more until it was dripping. His grandmother insisted I eat it and my father said I had to be polite, so I did. I got sick at the dinner table as a result. I don't like fruit cake. Or rum. Or turkey, gravy, potatoes, carrots, stuffing, the usual fixings of Christmas dinners make my stomach heave, I could never go to office Christmas parties and especially not holiday potlucks. I can't even eat turkey in a sandwich and the smell of cranberries gives me panic attacks. Please, is Nigel there?"

Dr. Lecter was mock furious as he turned on his mate. "Such a vicious, monstrous child! As if this innocent little thing could have done something terrible to you to deserve that! My dear Will, how disappointed I am in you!"

"I was *ten*," Will reminded him.

"Old enough to know better than to torture a sweet little five year old..."

"He was six at the time, and he was annoying, he kept messing with stuff in my room, and my grandmother always gave him cookies and he wouldn't give me any."

"Because you were an evil little brat! I wouldn't give you any either!"

"I never told on you about the cake," Adam quietly added. "My dad said you'd lost your mom and I remembered how sad I was when I'd lost my favourite pen, the one with stars on it. I said mean things to my dad and was really angry and crying and I thought that maybe that was how you felt too, because that's how people feel when they lose things. So I never told on you. I now know, of course, that your mother had died and there's hardly a comparison. A person is worth infinitely more than a favourite pen. But I know now, that hollow feeling, knowing that they aren't coming back. I don't think it's right to say they are lost, that implies they will come back if they can find their way, and that's not what death is. Death is forever. People who die, like your mom and my dad, they aren't lost, they just aren't there. That absence is very lonely and painful."

Will was sheepish as he looked through the small camera at the top of the laptop. "I'm sorry to hear about your dad. I did like Uncle Raki, and I was nasty and you were just a little kid. I should have sent you a card or, I don't know, just something. I didn't know he'd died until last year, and he was gone for three years by then." Will broke free of Adam's intense searching of him and grimaced. "Sorry, Adam, I'm a sad excuse for a relative, and I should have kept in touch more. I got so caught up in my own angry, miserable crap I pushed away everything of value out of my life."

The laptop was back on the surface of the kitchen counter, and Dr. Lecter had his chin perched on Will's shoulder, looking over it and seeming to supervise the apology and finding it adequate. Adam didn't see the point of one at all, he'd already long had his revenge.

"I broke your fire truck," Adam said, and he couldn't stop the feeling of pride this confession gave him. He liked seeing Will Graham frown, the old hurt cured. "I used a screwdriver and jammed it into the sound mechanism and crushed the alarm."

"What?"

"You kept trying to get it to screech all afternoon and your dad blamed its sudden silence on dead batteries. It wasn't the batteries, it was me."

Will was crushed. "You bastard! I loved that fire truck!"

"You were a jerk. You didn't deserve to have it."

"Hannibal, are you hearing this!"

"Yes, dear Will, I am hearing Adam just fine," Dr. Lecter replied and Adam felt he was getting something wrong in the tone of his voice because Dr. Lecter sounded *wistful*.

But their conversation was interrupted as the house erupted into a flurry of activity as someone knocked on the front door, and Adam could hear a baby crying, which spurred Dr. Lecter into action, and Will Graham left and then appeared again, an angry look on his face (which, frankly, was permanent, he had it when he was ten, too) and the refrigerator door was opened and closed, and there was an exclamation from a voice Adam didn't recognize shouting: "Are you doing this *every* time we're set to have a counselling session? You're high enough to straddle the damned moon!" Which Adam didn't think was all that plausible, hallucinatory states were imaginary, and besides, the moon was too big to wrap one's legs around. And suddenly, there was Nigel! But he wasn't alone, there was a happy baby in his arms (Judith, Dr. Lecter had called her) and he opened the refrigerator door and took out a bottle of milk and was nearly out of range and Adam shouted, his lungs aching from the effort: "Nigel! I'm here!"

Nigel paused, and, with a shocked expression, he turned towards the laptop and stared back at his grinning spaceman, at one Adam Raki, who was very, very happy to have his Alpha finally in his sights. Nigel pulled up a chair, warily glancing back out to the front foyer where the Lecter-Grahams were still arguing with that unknown fourth man, their voices becoming heated.

"Who were you talking to?" Nigel demanded, and Adam was taken aback by his anger. "Were you talking to Lecter?"

"Yes. He called me his child, I don't know why he would say that. And then he cried. Will is still a jerk. Are you ready to come home soon? Did you save the Omegas?"

The baby in Nigel's arms gurgled and Adam was momentarily distracted by the wave of her pudgy hands towards the screen. He had never seen Nigel in such a care giving role before, and it was clear he was quite adept at it, far more than Adam himself felt confidence in.

"My darling angel, now is not a good time for me to talk to you." Nigel held onto the baby with a strong arm around her round waist and plucked a cigarette from his side pocket with his free hand. The unlit cigarette dangled from his bottom lip as he spoke.

"You are not to smoke around a baby," Adam harshly admonished him.

"I am sorry, my darling, I will talk to you later, my sweet spaceman. Te iubesc," Nigel said, barely looking at him before he closed the laptop lid, killing the connection.

Adam sat on Nigel's comfortable bed, pillows surrounding him, the apartment pin-drop quiet and full of shifting, unpleasant shadows that crept along the walls, reflections from the headlights of cars driving past on the street below. He put the laptop to one side and curled his knees up to his chest, wishing Nigel was there to gentle him, to whisper to him promises that he was coming home. He felt like he had done something wrong. The feeling was amplified by the wish for Nigel's arms, the memory morphed into what he imagined was the strangely maternal touch of Dr. Lecter that crept along his shoulders, the sultry, foreign voice stroking his hair and calling him his child. The intrusive thought interfered with his processing of the conversation. Adam couldn't understand why the thought of Dr. Lecter gentling him as a parent would made him feel both comforted and frightened.

~*~

Fuck, he felt terrible cutting his darling angel off like that, but there was so much chaos happening in the house he knew Adam would have difficulty communicating above it. Besides, he didn't know what Lecter had said to him, and the thought of the Chesapeake Ripper having any kind of influence over his little angel spaceman was enough to make him want to bomb the estate to oblivion, send that fucking harpsichord to the moon and make sure that fucking monster Dr. Lecter had a proper strigoi burial.

Nigel snuck out of the kitchen as Will Graham opened the front door, allowing a flustered, dark haired man in an immaculate dark navy suit into their home. He had an air of pompous might that instantly made Nigel want to dismiss every word he said, a flash of judgement that was confirmed when the man took one look at Nigel's mouth, which was still clamped on the unlit cigarette, and the baby in his arms and exclaimed, "So. I see you've found a nanny. Of course, the two of you, high enough to hitch a ride on a comet and this one is taking care of Judith while he taps ashes into her formula. Excellent parenting, I must say. That should be a chapter in a child rearing book--How To Enjoy Hallucinatory Altered States Of Consciousness Whilst Leaving One's Baby In The Arms Of A Chain Smoking Gypsy. Ah, Hannibal, eye-liner again. Every single time I come here, you're knot stoned and playing the flapper Japanese geisha. You keep saying it's for Will, but I'm seriously doubting that at this point, you're the one wearing it and I know Will could care less about your eyes when all he can see are your tits. Bravo, you have discovered your Orlando, brushing up on your Omega literature, I see. And your neck is flushed, bruised and bare, of course, it's not like I could show up for your appointment without a flash of flesh to signal your latent arousal. Well, how fortunate it is that your gypsy nanny is here warding off my evil eye, I won't be the babysitter of your *child* for once. For God's sake, stop pawing each other, the two of you make me sick."

Dr. Lecter playfully staggered against Will before gesturing with theatrical grace at Nigel. "Dr. Chilton, this is Inspector Nigel Ionescu of the Politia Romana. He is here on special assignment and as he is mated to Will's cousin, Adam Raki, we felt it would be a kind thing to house family." Lecter grinned widely as Will embraced him, copping a sneaky feel that Lecter harshly slapped away, leaving a red welt on the back of Will's hand along with a sharp curse in Lithuanian. "Fred, you are staying for dinner, I will not hear you say no. Venison stew, with crusty ciabbata and truffle tapenade on the side. It's such a lovely treat for the palate to occasionally get a taste of something wild."

Chilton sighed loudly, not agreeing to the invitation, though it was clear that he was trapped and had no choice but to accept. He held out his hand to Nigel, who took his clammy grip with reluctance. "Dr. Chilton. I am the head psychiatrist at the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Don't let him fool you, I am here for an appointment, not a social call. Due to his gender subterfuge, I have taken on Hannibal's outpatient counselling instead of the GSF, a favour I've yet to be thanked for and one that is becoming more thankless by the minute. You're bonded to Will Graham's cousin? I never knew there were so many people in this world who found that kind of twitching, angry misery attractive."

Dr. Lecter pounced immediately onto Chilton's words, not allowing Nigel the chance to defend his mate. "You will not say such things of that darling little creature, how base and unpleasant of you, Fred, I was expecting better. Adam is a delightful little Omega, such an unlimited intelligence! He is an astrophysicist, the concerns of our little Earth hardly worthy of his intellect. Such a jewel he is, Fred, you simply must meet him."

"He's an astronomer," Will corrected, and Lecter ignored him. "He has Asperger's and he's been obsessed with space since he was five. Hannibal, why are you latching onto him like this? You talked to him for less than an hour."

Lecter cast Will a heavily glassy, unfocused glare. "He is home and alone right now, his Alpha has abandoned him." Nigel felt the jibe right down into the marrow of his still bruised ribs and smarted at it. "How very cruel. He needs someone to take care of him, and chase away all the encroaching dark dreams that will inevitably harm his sleep. He told me he isn't eating properly, and his stomach is upset. I don't like that flush on his cheeks, Fred, I am worried for him like I worry for a child. For my child." Lecter leaned closer to Chilton's ear, but his whispering was loud and harsh enough for Nigel to easily overhear him. "I told him of my teacups and he was so very precious, he told me I was wrong. But I feel so very connected to him, the immediacy of it startles me, as though he is a key that unlocks a hidden door within that vast palace within my depths, beneath the water in one of my mossy stone caverns that I usually only let Will into. He tends to slip and fall, but I am increasingly sure footed in that place. Do you believe that life can spring spontaneously for another, Fred, that time and destiny can take an equal misstep and occasionally slip? Adam is my child, I can feel it, the sensation has more power than fact. That which I thought I'd lost but he's now here, he was just born a decade earlier, that's why I lost that which was stolen, he was already born. He is alive, Fred, and so very beautiful, just as I knew my child would be." He caged his burgeoning, grin with his long, elegant fingers, his manic joy wandering carelessly over any fact or doubt. "Do you think he will like his sister?"

Nigel held the cooing infant in his arms close, not sure how to deal with the sudden change in mood in the front foyer of the house, the mention of past tragedy adding long lines of despairing shadows that were etched deep in Dr. Chilton's understanding. He placed a hand on a still ecstatic Dr. Lecter's shoulder, a patience for his altered state of consciousness one that Chilton had revisited many times before. Will Graham was sober now, watching his mate carefully as Chilton led Lecter through the kitchen and then into the atrium, assurances that they would talk about this new development at length. He waited until the doors of the atrium were closed before taking a deep breath and scooping baby Judith out of Nigel's arms. She cuddled into her father, eager to hear his heartbeat.

They stood facing one another, Nigel still toying with the cigarette at his lips and Will eyeing the neglected kitchen, the concept of dinner as chaotic as their descent from their bedroom. He was still a creep as far as Nigel was concerned, but Will did seem genuinely worried about his mate, his glances towards the closed atrium doors furtive, his mood anxious.

"What happened to those Omegas last week, the ones in Romania, affected him pretty bad," Will confessed to Nigel. "Hannibal's been a little...off...ever since. Overly emotional, making strange attachments." He glanced sidelong at Nigel at this before resting his chin on the top of Judith's soft head, in the tender depression of her fontanel. "You need to understand, he feels directly responsible for the deaths of those Omegas, he took the loss very personally. He howled and broke apart an entire room upstairs in an animal rage, he cried for two days, I couldn't pull him out of it. He becomes fragile and dangerous all at the same time, he's impossible. I..." Will glanced at the atrium doors to make sure they were still shut before bringing Nigel into his confidence. "I sometimes use sex to calm him down. He told me he likes it when I fondle him while he's unconscious and it's weird, I know, but I'll do anything for him to make him feel better. I don't like seeing him like this. The state he's been in lately, it troubles me."

The sincere worry Will had for his mate was a feeling Nigel could relate to, and at least he had some explanation as to the perverted nature of their lovemaking, though it didn't explain all of it. He had to wonder just how much did Will Graham know, and this little confession he'd been offered was as much a digging expedition as it was an information session. Nigel fingered the packet of matches in his jeans pocket, sifting through his knowledge for that little morsel Will would hungrily feed on and surrender more in return. "One of the Omegas, a survivor by the name of Darlene--She knows who your Chesapeake Ripper is."

Will didn't react to this, instead kissing the top of his baby's head and offering his finger for her to wrap her grip tight around it. "That's interesting. She must do a lot of online reading, the Ripper murders were hardly a thing of interest in the Eastern Union Regions."

"I'm thinking chat rooms. Maybe she joined a newsgroup or two. The internet, full of open communication, a big wide open, fucking pool that everyone is pissing in together. She said she was his daughter. That they all were." Nigel crossed his arms and stood closer to Will, choosing every motion he made with careful stealth lest the wiry little man lash out. At least with the baby occupying his arms he would be forced to reconsider it.

Will's head shook in that usual, nervous tic that Nigel was beginning to understand was a sign of picking at a nasty bone he didn't want exposed. "Just how big of a family does the Chesapeake Ripper have, Mr. Graham?"

Will wouldn't look at him, and Nigel knew he'd hit on that one nerve that the angry little Alpha couldn't shake off or dull, and he fully intended to pick at it. But Will knew how to strike back and he did with a force that made Nigel's gut drop, his insides twisted as though a fucking knife had been sent to slowly cut through his organs.

"Hannibal has taken a great liking to Adam."

Nigel's eye twitched at this. "My angel is not so easily influenced. He happens to have an excellent guardian."

"I'm sure that's why. He knew about you before you came here, there was an incident in Romania last year where a similar rescue was implemented for trafficked Omegas and you had casualties then, too. There's a picture of you, collapsed near one of the bodies."

Oh yes, this fucker really did know how to hit below the belt. Fuck, he needed a smoke.

He needed a fucking plane ticket. As every second ticked he was opening a mass grave.

"That was a really bad fucking day."

"You rescued ten Omegas, only one of them died."

"One is too fucking many."

Will was quiet for a long moment at this, Judith jiggling sweetly in his arms and cooing at his tension. "The news report said you gave her CPR for over an hour. You couldn't give up, even after she was long dead." Will caught his eye and let the connection drop, a gesture weirdly similar to Adam's.

"You lost eight when it happened again."

"Some bad days just don't want to fucking go away."

Will raised a brow in understanding at this.  "Hannibal was fascinated with you after seeing that picture of you. He has one of his leather bound patient notebooks dedicated to you, make no mistake he is full on obsessed." Will worked his jaw, clearly disturbed by that fact. "Even though we are bonded he still has a hard time equating an Alpha as someone who would offer that kind of rescue, or care, without a selfish agenda in mind. I'm not entirely sure he sees you as a human being, he puts you on this pedestal and when it happened again and so many Omegas died and, again, it was you who rescued the survivors...Explaining this is impossible, I can only give you framework, and it's a twisted one that no work of art can fit into properly. He hasn't had it easy here, you need to understand this, he hid his gender for most of his life and that denial of self has created caverns of locked doors deep within that inward ocean of his and it's very easy to get drowned down there. You've been on our shores long enough to know and no doubt Adam has been very clear about what goes on in the United Main, especially the Coastline. He's been hurt by Alphas in the past, very badly, and it has affected him in highly monstrous ways."

Nigel had a flashback to his basement viewing of Mason's VHS tapes and he fought the urge to shudder. "Are you giving him excuses?"

"I am giving him a reason."

Will shifted Judith's tender weight to his other hip, the baby's presence calming the taut standoff between the two Alphas, leaving Nigel wondering at the vulnerability that Hannibal subjected his mate to. Will kept casting darting glances at the closed doors, a worried frown pinching him, his thoughts on his mate causing actual pain. "I love him, and I'm worried about what he's up to, what's going on in his head...You know the consequences, I'm sure."

"I got an inkling he's all about burning down Rome."

"There's that." Will spoke through a grimace. "He's brilliant and beautiful and so very dangerous, I will admit that. I'm warning you, Nigel, I don't know what to do about this thing he's got now with Adam. He won't be able to let it go, he gets this kind of an idea in his head and he's wrapped it up in belief now, he's broken it all up into pieces of teacups. He won't budge from his theory no matter how much evidence you give him. It's his type of madness. I'm sorry, Nigel, both you and Adam have been pulled into it. You won't be able to escape."

An echo crept across dark, soft earth, and Nigel was swallowed into its cold maw:

"I'm looking forward to meeting your acquaintance..."

Nigel shook the ill feeling that stung along his injured bones off and dared to slip past Will, giving little Judith a tickle on her cheek before heading for the atrium doors. He pulled them open, interrupting the farce of a therapy session happening behind them, revealing Dr. Chilton scribbling madly in his notebook as he sat on the large green couch while Lecter waxed poetic over Will's skills at the harpsichord. Chilton seemed oblivious to the fact that Lecter was deflecting him with idle chatter, a ruse Nigel quickly saw through. Chilton was too kind hearted to be a proper interrogator, which was what Dr. Lecter required. He was calm, now, slender fingers toying with the ivory keys, a soft smile greeting Nigel as he entered the overly warm room. The atrium was a suffocating space of fiercely reigned in passion and hope, his grip so tight on it Lecter was at risk of choking it out of existence.

Dr. Lecter was not the poised, perfectly delicate creature he had met earlier, he was a mess of smeared kohl and red cheeks, wrinkles in his brocade robe that was tied tightly closed this time, a sensation of exhaustion hovering around him that suggested his knot high had suddenly crashed. He nodded at Nigel's presence with what felt, to him, was a grotesque submission. "Will has Judith?"

"Yes."

Lecter was content at this. His fingers spread across the keys in such a ghost of a touch they didn't dare send out a wayward note. "He is an excellent father, Nigel. As will you be, when given that opportunity. There is great power to be had in guidance and love, especially when a father cherishes their children."

Dr. Chilton immediately pounced on this. "Do you wish to talk about your father, Hannibal? We've never discussed him before."

Lecter coyly tilted his head and gave Nigel a look that suggested he was well aware of how manipulative he was being, the flirtation still holding that same disconcerting level of awe Chilton was thankfully unaware of. Being a Beta he wouldn't grasp the finer subtleties of that erotic dance between Alphas and Omegas. The comedown from his high had left Lecter more exposed than ever to a person who knew how to fucking look, and he was nakedly fragile, Nigel saw, the need in him making Nigel's Alpha instincts rise to the fore, puffing up the dominant aura around him until even Chilton raised a brow in note of it. Will had said Lecter had a patient file on him, a fairly thick one he was sure, and the very idea repulsed Nigel. Just great, the Chesapeake Ripper was his fucking stalker, a notebook full of newspaper clippings and pseudo-psychiatric theorizing, and he had to give it to him, the crazy bitch sure knew how to make a complicated situation worse.

So why was he standing here, beside this insane, falsely meek monster and feeling nothing but wave after wave of protective pity?

"Perhaps we can discuss my father next time, Fred. I do need to get a start on dinner."

"Venison stew," Chilton said, slamming his notebook shut and sighing in tired resignation.

"Are you fond of forests, Nigel?" Lecter's eyes flashed red, though they were dancing, not filled with ire. "I admit the occasional pull towards nature. It gives us comfort when all else becomes unrecognizable. We can step carefully over branches and journey towards crystal clear, still lakes, bodies of water devoid of conflict. I believe you are there quite often, Nigel. A force of life against the surrounding decay."