The Universe's Mixer

Lestat sat in the hallway, head down, focused on the newspaper in his hand, acting like he was reading it. He listened intently to Dr. James Wilson's voice, eyes never leaving the paper.

Dr. Wilson was talking to a patient with terminal cancer about how her treatment was going. He was telling her she would die, and she was thankful.

It really had only been a matter of time before Lestat came calling here; Hannibal was here, and despite his promise to River Tam not to turn the boy, he was for damn sure not going to leave him alone. Walking the hallways here was interesting, too-- not a single person here knew what they were looking at when they saw him. It was like a game of catch-me-if-you-can, but he was the only one who knew it was going on.

When the woman left Wilson's office, Lestat rose slowly and silkily, and sidled through the door, sitting in the chair.

He'd met House. He remembered House. And Lestat figured that he and Wilson might get along quite well, all things considered.

Lestat missed David. Wilson missed House. He didn't see a problem here.

The vampire cleared his throat and waited for Wilson to look up, picking up a small stuffed bear from the edge of the desk and smacking the paper down on top of it.

River's feet made their way down the path lined with flowers faster than her heart was beating. They knew where they were going, exactly where to lead her.

She spent a fair amount of time in the park; besides her apartment and the theater, she was here often. And on this particular day, it was significant to be here.

She was meeting Hannibal here.

The City had made sure to keep them apart for a while. River didn't remember much about being infected, but she knew she had been, and she knew Hannibal had been. After that, it had taken her some time to adjust and get back to dancing. She was in rehearsals now, as were all dancers with the ballet, for a production of 'Romeo and Juliet.'

River was going to be Juliet.

She rounded a corner, boots kicking up a little bit of dry dirt at the edge of a daisy bed, and smiled when she saw Hannibal.

There was a large blanket laid out in the midst of the field, nicely nestled between two flower beds, and on it was a basket. This looked to River like a full-fledged picnic... or, what she'd read picnics were supposed to be. You didn't get many of those in the black.

"I've never attended a picnic before," she said.