“It terrifies you when you think about losing me. That you don’t have me wrapped around your fingers like you wanted.” Observations came to him on a daily basis about people but it was never as personal as when he visited Dr. Whitly. Blue eyes took in every micro expression on the doctor’s face, every held breath and shift of his gaze. Malcolm still had questions, always with the questions. Despite it seeing unlikely his father would be any more forthcoming than he’d been up to this point. 

“When you look up at a bright, blue sky and you may notice tiny dots of moving light. It’s called the blue field entoptic phenomenon. They are created by your own white blood cells flowing through your eyes. R e a l l y  it’s just your brain adjusting so you don’t just see shadows or dark spots. Our brain wants us to see light when there is dark. It’s strangely beautiful.” He cast a tired glance over to the detective. “Don’t you think?” God he needed sleep. 

“Sure. Go right ahead,” Malcolm quipped, knowing full well he wasn’t going to eat it anyways. He definitely wasn’t feeling hot tomato sauce and cheese sitting in his stomach right now. He might nibble on a few strawberries though if they were put in front of him. “Lemme guess, you’re one of those people who like pineapple on pizza? I knew it.” 

“You know, I really think I get the fascination with photography in general,” Bright commented over his shoulder after he’d picked up one of the hefty cameras in the lab. Honestly it was pretty impressive and if he knew anything about cameras other than how to avoid them, he’d probably comment on the specs or the lens or something. Bringing the eye piece up to a striking blue eye, Bright turned to aim towards Zeller. “It’s much more fun being behind the camera than in front of. I’ve never had much luck on the receiving end of it. Capturing stills of the life around you. People. Places. -- Well in this line of work I suppose it’s less pretty but still -- Neat.”

There were some uncomfortable comparisons to be made between his father and Lecter. Charming, affluent men in the medical community, fooling everyone for years behind lies and false smiles. Now locked up in hospitals for the criminally insane. This wasn’t even Bright’s office. Home was New York but he was using up some stacked up vacation days for this visit. Maybe finding answers in other cases would help him find some of his own. 

“You should know, that knife of yours is a lot less threatening a week into this. These days the scariest thing you can muster is whether or not I get any water. The human body can survive weeks without food. But water? Well, we’re just not made for going over a week without it.” He still had his pluck. His unnecessary rambling off of facts. Malcolm Bright was very much not beaten yet. 

“Actually. I might know how that got there.”

“I’m – I’m sorry I woke you, dad.” Why he was apologizing, he wasn’t really sure. It was just something kids did when they were embarassed. He wiped at his eyes, other hand gripping at his dad’s shirt.