Colliding worlds (Hannibal x OC)

Butting hearts

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Silence settled for a while, the mood gradually shifting from this merry reminiscence to something darker. Hannibal's gentle massage eventually settled, blood seeping through his bandage. A Lithuanian word passed his lips and Frances almost fell out of bed. In spite of everything, she had never heard him swear. Her wide eyes searched his face, and when she found the pain, her face twisted. Sadness washed over her... regret, slowly but surely calling rightful anger.

— "Are we going to speak about the fact that you have been lying to me ? And probably coercing Will into lying to me as well ?"

Hannibal winced again. Yeah, she was mightily pissed, and he would get an earful because he had no way to escape that bed.

— "I didn't, I just avoided voicing my concerns."

— "Lying by omission, husband, much much better", she hissed.

— "Aren't you practicing every day ?"

The psychiatrist cringed at his own low blow. Yes, she was lying by omission to Will every single day, and suffered from it. All of it for his sake, but she needed to understand that it was for hers just as well. Needed to take the responsibility so that it didn't rest solely on his shoulders. Yes, she was protecting a serial killer, and the justice would see her as an accomplice.

Frances stuttered then, hit full force by the horrible truth of this statement. Trust Hannibal to break her heart in a thousand pieces at the worst of moments. He knew her buttons, like the master manipulator he was. He knew how to put her on her knees, how to call the guilt and show her how irrational she was.

— "We do strange things for love", she spat.

Then she removed the IV and let it leak on the floor.

— "Frances..."

Jaw clenched, she tore the wires away from her chest – a habit – and stood on her uninjured leg. He could see the moment the world started spinning for her, and worry replaced annoyance. Yes, he'd only stated the truth, but now was hardly the moment to rub her nose into those inconsistencies. How heartless he could be... The machine started yelling about the absence of heartrate, but Frances ignored it entirely. Pure anger shone in her eyes, radiating off her like a tsunami.

— "I hate you, Hannibal"

The she hopped away on one leg, holding to the walls to keep upright.

— "I know. As much as you love me", he whispered.

She turned around just before passing the door, giving him one last look. Wondering, maybe, how he knew it.

— "I see it in your eyes, sometimes", he explained.

The dam broke then, and sadness replaced anger as tears leaked from her eyes. He watched as her chest heaved to contain the sobs. Then she left, leaving the door clanging behind her. Nurses and doctors irrupted in a flurry of panick barely ten seconds later. Hannibal settled on his back, telling them that his wife had left. How they had not been able to catch her in the corridor was a wonder; those people definitely couldn't be trusted with Frances' life.

An hour passed, then two and Hannibal started to worry for good. How did she fare, his little wife ? Would she sell him in her anger ? Call Jack Crawford and tell him about the Chesapeake Ripper ? No, she never would. Funny how his life hung by a thread; she held his future in her hands, and he wasn't even worried for himself. She had protected him with her life, and he had lashed out. Residual fear, he guessed, for seeing her at the bottom of that pool to save him.