Hannibal's untold story (Hannibal X Grace)

(15) sweater weather

___________________________________
Saturday 6:20
2005

Grace was slicing some vegetables to add to her tea. Maria had injured her knee on their daily walk and for the rest of the day, she used it as an excuse to lay in bed all day. Grace had cleaned the entire house, fed and watered her mum and now making a homemade meal for her 'ill' mother. She didn't mind doing all the house work, it kept her mind of everything that has happened at school last week. The teacher was always breathing down Grace's neck and students were either too nice or too mean to her, she didn't like it so she usually had to eat alone at lunch time or go to the really nice people. She liked people who would be honest and people who would treat her like everybody else, but them sort of people were too hard to find.
"GRACE! IM STARVING!" Maria screamed, it startled Grace because she never screamed that loud recently because she had a soar throat for a few weeks and Grace enjoyed that. She started to rush at cutting the vegetables. She finished cutting the potato's and she put them in boiling water, then she started cutting at the carrots. They had a rather small stove so she had to stack the potatoes and the carrots, it was a rather smart idea to cook them. She had a lid on the carrots, that was on top, and the condensation would soften the carrots. She finished cutting the carrots and she let them cook.

She washed her hands, that were cut free, and she put on her shoes and had a walk around the block. It was an extremely hot day and children of her age were doing water fights. Her two neighbours, who were angels, were play fighting together. "Grace! Come play!" One screamed. They had a bucket full of water balloons and they were in swimming costumes that were pink and Disney type.
"I'm okay! I can't stay out long anyway!" grace shouted back. She didn't enjoy being soaked so She stayed away from pools and stuff, but she grew to adore the rain.
"Awww PLEASEEE!" Cried the other girl. Grace didn't like this when people begged her, made her feel like she was the bad one in this situation.
"I..will throw one?" Grace was okay with negotiating, she learned this skill off Mark who was always negotiating in work, that Grace saw when Mark often took her to work.
"Yay!" The girls cried, their high pitched screams rattled Grace's ears as she walked over. One of the girls ran over, cautiously since they had nothing on their feet.
"Here! Throw it at me or Clarice!" The girl held out the bucket full of water balloons. Grace leaned in on the idea of water fights. She took the bucket out of her hands and placed it beside her. She threw the water balloons at the girls and they both shrieked and cried of laughter. Grace was also smiling and laughing as she tried to soak the screaming girls. The water balloons ran out fast and Grace decided to leave before they got a re fill.
"Thank you for letting me play! I have go to though" grace waved and walked across the street before they could beg her again.

She had her hands in her pockets as she was walking by.
"Oi, weirdo!" Grace heard from behind, she turned around to see the bullies. They were THE bullies, the ones destined to end up in prison and destined to have a fight once a week once their all in high school.
"What?" Grace shouted back, acting like she's the one in power. Nothing really scared Grace, Maria was much more terrifying than all these little boys on bikes.
"Get the ammo out!" Ordered one of the boys. Grace watched in curiosity, they were carrying around water balloons in One of their backpacks. Grace saw the water balloons they had, the boys handed them out to each other like sweets on Halloween.
"STEADY.... FIRE!" Screamed one of the boys. Grace knew she couldn't out run them since their on bikes. She dashed into the alleyway, she jumped on the garbage to hop over the fence, once she was over, she watched the boys slam on their brakes as they saw she was behind a fence. Although they were trouble makers, they still were at that age of being scared of their mothers and scared of being shouted at for losing their bikes. They tried to throw the water balloons over and Grace saw they had red food colouring in the water. Once they were out of balloons, they had to retreat for more. She heard them laugh and scream slurs at her. Once she saw them gone, she felt something cold drip down her leg and onto her shoe. She looked at her finger and saw it was basically hanging off. She still had the adrenaline and it didn't hurt, she just stared at her injury, she was curious what the white stuff was in her finger and took a de route to get get home. She walked in and Maria was serving out the vegetables, because Grace was late home.
"I am your mother, Grace. Not your slave" sighed Maria.
"Sorry" grace walked over, cupping her finger that now started to throb.
"What're you doing?" Said Maria, who saw Grace hold her bloody finger.
"It's just stupid school boys!" Cried Grace. Maria stopped what she was doing to check on her finger. Grace slowly revealed her finger. Maria went pale white at the sight of it.
"We need to go to hospital!" Maria grabbed her shirt to pull her out the front door.
"NO NO NO NO NO" cried Grace who managed to get out Maria's grip.
"We can get a plaster! We don't need to go to the hospital" Grace broke down and it made Maria tear a bit at the sight of Grace. Grace sat on the floor, crying and holding her finger. She couldn't tell if she was crying about the hospital or if she crying at the god awful pain of her finger.
"Okay, okay sweetie." Maria got down to Graces height and moved Grace's hair away from her face.
"Okay, sweetie, we will get someone to come here" Maria jumped up and called 911 to ask for a doctor to come see Grace.

The doctor begged for Grace to go back to hospital with him but as stubborn as she was, she refused. She wasn't aware of the dangers of her sliced finger, instead she was eating her tea with her free Hand.
"I can't treat her here, there's a number of reasons why" sighed the doctor. Maria was sat in kitchen, that had a view of the dining table (where the doctor and Grace were located) and she was smoking, while shaking, scared for her little girl.
"Just do it here!" Grace said. The doctor looked at Maria who was also clueless on what to do.
"I can do it here..." the doctor gave in and he went to his car and got the supplies he needed.

While stitching Grace's hand, she didn't seem too bothered. Maria was holding Grace in case she moved and she sometimes twitched but overall, she sat there, eating. The doctor was shocked at how well Grace took it. He assumed it was because of the numbing cream AND numbing injections he gave Grace. He finished up by bandaging and told Maria how to clean and look after it.
"Thank you so so so so much" said Maria, shaking the hand of the doctor fast.
"It's okay. I'm glad your daughter is okay too" they both looked at Grace who was putting her plate in the sink.
"She's a brave girl, doctor" smiled Maria, who gave the credit to herself but it was all Grace who formed her out as she is.
"I see" the doctor packed his supplies up and said goodbye, shutting the door behind himself.