It's not until they're out of sight from the strange visitors that Hannibal feels the weight of the unexpected mask he's been wearing. He thought he'd only need to have a strong outlook for a child, at the end of this - if he found her alive, they'd still be alone. He hadn't expected to be observed when reuniting, to have to talk about this incident with someone with more powers of deduction than an eight year old girl.

As he pads after her in the dim hallway, he lets the full extent of his relief really hit him. While no one can see, he stands alone outside of Triss's room, eyes closed, and lets the little spiderwebbing cracks open up.

He'd considered the possibility of her being kidnapped before, even though she'd been publicly confirmed as a non-mutant. Most assumed her parents were merely delusional, but not all haters of the preternatural were easily dissuaded. There was always a risk, more specific and more vengeful than the normal fear of child abduction. But calmly planning for such an event had, in the end, done very little to help him cope with the reality. It's not a result he'd ever have predicted.

And then comes a small shard of a voice, and Hannibal smelts that mask back into something cohesive and containing. He turns to her and then gets on one knee. All of their emotional conversations have ended up with their lines of sight level, either from him sitting or from Patricia perching on a tabletop. "You don't need to speak with them if you don't want to. And I cannot reasonably demand that you stay in my sight from now on forever, regardless of how much losing you may have frightened me this morning." He speaks with the same calm, even keel he always uses with her, although there are still fractures in that mask. He isn't concerned about hiding from Patricia the way he's concerned about hiding from other adults.

"Once you've changed, I'd like to look at where you've been hurt, to make sure you're alright. Afterwards, you may stay up here if you like."