Silence No Longer by Deoceres (Becky) Rating: PG Story: Ardelia gets a phone call. Set a few months after SOTL, goes off canon. Ardelia Mapp stretched out on the sofa, aimlessly channel surfing at three-thirty in the morning. She had resigned herself to not being able to sleep that night, after tossing and turning for hours, and had decided to see what was on tv. Apparently nothing, at this time in the morning. A shrill ringing dragged her attention from the old comedy re-run on the screen. Who the hell would be calling at this time? She quickly snatched up the phone from the coffee table, so the ringing wouldn't wake Clarice, who was asleep upstairs. "...Hello?" "Hello, Agent Mapp." Ardelia sat up straighter on the sofa, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand. "Who is this?" "Simply an old friend of your room mate, Agent Starling. I assume she is already asleep at this hour." Mapp sighed. "Yeah, she is...look, who is this?" The person ignored her. "Tell me, Agent Mapp, are you always awake at this ungodly hour? It isn't healthy, you know." "What makes you assume you didn't wake me up?" "I've been watching you watch that poor excuse for entertainment for the past hour." That caught her off-guard. It suddenly clicked. An 'old friend' of Clarice....? She was fully awake now. "....Lecter?" "I believe Doctor Lecter is more appropriate, Agent Mapp." She sprang off the sofa and rushed to the window, drawing the curtain back and looking around the darkened street for some sign of him. No unfamiliar cars, no shadowy figures, no knife wielding maniacs. Nothing. She turned away from the window. "You're bullshitting me. You're in another country by now, you wouldn't be so stupid to stay where the government are looking all over for you." She tried to force strength into her voice, but it still carried a sense of uncertainty. Suddenly nervous, she peeked out from behind the curtains again. "Not so certain of that, are you, Agent Mapp?" She hated how he said her name. The mocking tone in which he uttered her title -Agent. He continued. "I just thought I would pay Clarice a visit. It seems polite, after not speaking to her for over 6 months, don't you think?" A sudden rush of panic made her dash to the small desk in the lounge Clarice and her shared, and quickly pick up the gun hidden in the second drawer. She hissed into the phone. "You're not getting into this house. You even try to get in, and I blow a hole straight through your head. Now just give yourself up...." Her last few words were accompanied by the rich chuckle from down the line. "Oh, Agent Mapp...what makes you assume I'm o u t s i d e...?" Ardelia dropped the phone, hands shaking violently. Her primal instinct told her to run, but she refused to leave Clarice. Her heart pounded against her chest as she quickly made her way across to Starling's side of the duplex, gun held up in front of her, swinging from one side to the other as she checked her surroundings. She shouted; her voice hoarse as she took shallow, panicked breaths. "CLARICE!!!!!" No sign of him. Yet. "WAKE UP, CLARICE!!!" She took one step onto the stairs, when a strong arm around her waist pulled her backwards, then pushed her against the wall. Ardelia let out a cry of pain as the arm holding the gun was wrenched up her back, until her grip loosened, and he took the weapon from her. She knew screaming would be foolish, would be the thing that got her killed, but that didn't stop the shrill screech that escaped her lips; a last, desperate attempt to warn Clarice. His hand clamped over her mouth, and she felt a small sting in her arm, as everything began to fade to blackness. As she slipped into unconsciousness, she heard him murmur. "Now, we can't have you waking Clarice up over a little thing like this, can we?" Two minutes later, a dark shape slipped into Clarice Starling's bedroom, and moved silently over to the bed. His head tilted to the side as he listened to the quick, irregular breathing coming from the sleeping form wrapped up in the covers, obviously affected by nightmares. He gently brushed a stray strand of hair off her face, trailing his hand down her cheek slowly and deliberately. He watched as her troubled expression seemed to vanish, replaced by a peaceful half-smile. After leaving an expensive piece of paper beside her on the pillow, the figure slowly backed away from the bed, seemingly melting into the liquid blackness of the shadows. When Clarice awoke, she would find a very confused Ardelia waking up at the bottom of the stairs, and a note leading to a new chapter of her life. Fin