The Universe's Mixer

Dean didn't know how he'd gotten to the Hospital after going man-to-vampire and losing, but he didn't stay long. He felt well enough to go home, even if he had to get a cab and use one of his remaining stolen credit cards to do it. He checked himself out, stopped by a pharmacy to fill the painkiller prescription, got some liquid courage, and crawled up to the apartment to finish his convalescence.

The first few nights and days had been...different:

1. take the pills
2. go to sleep
3. sleep the sleep of the dead
4. wake up
5. check mouth for fangs
6. avoid people to keep from eating them
7. drink and eat
( 8. return to no. 1 )

Hannibal was not often apprised of new doctors coming to the hospital, he just didn't really have the time to bother with it. Especially considering how often they rotated right back out. But since the disappearance of Simon, he'd been keeping his ears open, hoping that the doctor would return. He felt as if he wasn't quite finished with the project that he'd started there. Things would be easier with River, of course, without the meddling and concern of her brother, but there was unfinished business. Simon had had in him a darkness that Hannibal had wanted to cultivate. He was holding out hope that Doctor Tam would reappear, though he knew it wasn't likely to happen, nor was it likely that if Simon did show back up, it would be the same man.

So it happened that he was made aware of another young doctor, apparently also brilliant, who was now working on staff. The more that Hannibal heard of him, the more curious he became. He had not encountered many others who held his youth in the profession, and he wanted to. He wanted to meet a mind that could rival his own without the years of training that most doctors had. He was informed through gossip that the new doctor, a Henry McCoy, was only 18. The age that Hannibal had been when he'd arrived in The City. Four years ago, now.

He listened for more, but there didn't seem to be anything else outside of the brilliance and the age. Nobody knew anything particularly personal, which was obnoxious. Hannibal thought that if there was going to be gossip in the hospital, it should at least be well informed. He caught brief mentions having something to do with size, but he couldn't get anybody to be straightforward about it when he asked outright.

So it was with this scant information that Hannibal Lecter sought out Henry McCoy on the lower floors of The City Hospital.

The City didn't let Fred go straight home. She felt sick at heart, and all she wanted to do was hide in her apartment, trying to get a grip on whatever had come over her. She knew that talking the way she had with Hannibal Lecter might come back to bite her in the rear later, or she guessed it; but, she did have some pretty strong opinions. They were conflicting odd opinions, and she was going to have to sort them out. Especially this whole vampiric manipulation issue that wasn't settling like the rest.

As the day was coming to a close, the sky turning to the colorful medley of dusk, Fred who'd hadn't had that much trouble with the night was very much wanting to be in her home. She started to walk faster, not wanting to be out at night. How had she gone so quickly from Ms. Confident Fred to Ms. Must Be At Home Before Dark Fred? She'd probably get a cat and start dressing it up soon.

The bits and pieces of her conversation with Hannibal replayed in her head, yet it always came back to "You're awfully fixated on vampires." She'd heard the compliments, if that's what they were, and she'd have blushed if her mind hadn't done exactly what Hannibal had said. Fixated on vampires. She could rationalize it, that she knew one, or knew of a few. She could tell herself that it was just part of the conversation, but something inside bothered her, just like the coming night bothered her.

Just as the sun was settling down for the night, Fred saw the doors to Angel Investigations, right beside Harry's office. Maybe Harry would be around. Maybe she'd let herself call Sam or Dean, or even Dinah. Lorne possibly. Or even...Buffy. She doubted she allow herself those moments of weakness; she had to deal with the world on her own because that was really all she had. She really couldn't leave herself, could she?

"Just get inside. It'll be better when you get inside." Fred Burkle started for the waiting solace of her home. All she had to do was get across the street and inside after all.