Prologue

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Our life is controlled by hours, which is made of thousands of seconds. And although a second may seem harmless or even meaningless before a lifetime, sometimes it is just a matter of second untill everything can change. Sometimes decisions can be done in a second, decisions that can change a whole life. It happens so fast and so natural that we hardly realize it. Like when we choose to wait or to go on a yellow traffic light, where it is just a mater of second to define if we'll meet the car who was going to stop beside us. Or when we choose to turn the corner in a supermarket and go back to the yogurt shelf, when we can run into someone we would never expect. In these decisions we may be escaping natural course, or maybe we may be following the natural course. Who knows? We often don't think about these small decisions made in seconds that seem so inoffensive, but we surely think about the big ones. And one thing is truth, we always wonder how it would have been if we had made a different choice.

We think about our choices about school classmates, about our decisions on the subjects we studied, on the career we followed and specially on the relationships we left behind. We wonder if it would have been different if we had given the person another chance, if we had set things we needed to change, if we have lived in a different place or maybe even if we had changed ourselves to fit the person better. But although we never know how these changes would really affect our love stories, one thing will always be true, if it makes us suffer, it's never love. And if it's not love, it doesn't matter the big or small changes you try to make to fix it, it'll never work.

Maybe that's why we suffer so much when we're younger, because we give in on things we shouldn't and we give up on things we'll regret later. So how can we be sure it is the right time to persist or let go? We really can't. We can only live, choose, fail, restart and go on. A little more hurt, a little wiser, a little stronger.

And it is funny how we are sure about things that will never happen, and we doubt things that will really come to be. As if life wanted to tell us that we are not in control of anything, which can seem as a bad thing, but turn to be the best thing at the end.

Truth to be told, we never know when the wheel of time will spin and bring us what we dropped, what we left behind, what we forgot and even what we wanted at some point, but never knew it was possible to achieve.

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Raccoon Police Department

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Raccoon City, October 1998. - That was one of those moments in which Leon would ratter skip. Physical practice was not a bad thing, but when they were being evaluated, it could have a negative consequence at some point. He knew he was good and he had another experience with that the previous week that showed how better he was than the other rookies. And as the newest guy in there, from a different city and with no friends, to beat everyone again could mean no new friends at all.

He had just some seconds before his turn, seconds to decide if he would fight with all he had or if he would go slow for the first time, to let the other guys see him as an equal rookie.

In that first weeks in the Raccoon Police Department, Leon had little time to know everybody better, but enough to realize how the cops liked to compete. It seemed so different when he met groups of members from the S.T.A.R.S., they seemed so close. Leon didn't know all their names yet, but almost, by running into them almost every day he now knew where almost everybody was from.

Leon knew about S.T.A.R.S., but he never really considered entering it. He had his goals for his career as a cop and it was to follow his father's footstep, to make a difference as a cop. That was his chance to make his hero as proud as he deserved to be.

Leon had his thoughts interrupted by the sergeant, giving him an order to go. He didn't have time to think anymore, so he decided to follow one of his father's advise; "Do the right thing, whatever the cost is."

And after some turns, Leon's ended it just like the other times, with the best evaluation in that group. He tried to avoid his coworkers' gaze, specially because he felt they kind of annoyed by the result in the previous week. After all, Leon was the new guy in there.

The sergeant asked Ryman, his assistant in that evaluation, to take the reports to his room and release the group.

Leon had nowhere to go for a good chat in that city, and although he knew he would drink alone, he decided to go to J's bar. After that experience in the department, he was sure he would hear his coworkers drink, talk and laugh on the table behind him the whole night. But it was still better than face that dead flat by himself.

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Leaning on the counter, Leon was in the middle of his scotch when he heard the guys screaming excitedly behind him.

"Hey, Ryman!" one of the guys said.

"Coming for a depression session?" another one asked.

"Hard to say. I must confess I'd rather be depressed in that girl's arms."

The guys were behind Leon and although he couldn't see where Ryman was looking at, he deducted he was talking about the beautiful blond waitress.

"C'mon Ryman. This chick is cute, but she's not as hot as that..."

"Watch your mouth, Stuart. I won't allow you to use pejorative terms for my future wife."

"No, man. I'd just say the beautiful S.T.A.R.S. officer."

"Anyway, I'm gonna get her back soon..."

Leon kept asking himself if Ryman was talking about Valentine or Chambers. He deduced he was probably talking about Chambers, since Valentine seemed to have a thing with officer Redfield, they were always together.

Leon believed he would never consider dating a coworker, even if they were from a different group, like S.T.A.R.S., but he had to assume it, they were beautiful girls. Chambers was sweet and nice, they exchanged some words some days ago. But there was something about Valentine. He never had the chance to talk to her, she seemed so serious and quiet. Leon could say she had always her mind somewhere, maybe busy. There was something about her voice and how calm she sounded on the few times he heard her voice. Maybe it was only his mind, but she seemed puzzling.

"Kennedy?"

Leon turned to his left to meet Ryman sitting next to him. He nodded in response.

"So it seems you're facing the best new cop's fate, alone in the bar. I've been there.. Soon they'll be tired of ignoring you."

"I'm not worried..." Leon tried to sound funny, but he really meant that. If there was a good point to sit with them and have someone to talk to, there was also a bad point to be part of all the conversations; the stupid subjects Leon could hear they talk about before.

"I know what you mean... By the way Kennedy, I don't usually pay attention to the guys' complete names, but when officer Branagh got the reports from the sergeant and asked me to take yours to the S.T.A.R.S. captain because of your score, I couldn't help but realize you are a Scott Kennedy and it seems I heard that before..."

"My father... his picture's on the Memorial Book..."

"Oh, I remember now... Colonel Kennedy. C'mon man!" Kevin patted Leon's shoulder "If your scores bring you to another level in RPD, this brings you to another level with me. We're friends now."

Leon faked a smile. He tried to seem polite with his new coworker but the truth was, he didn't believe they were friends now. Kevin seemed a nice guy, but for Leon it would be necessary much more than just a name to define someone as friends.

Kevin got his bottle of beer and walked to the other guys, forcing Leon to turn to their side before.

"Hey guys..." Kevin said loudly "He is Colonel Kennedy's son, he deserves our respect, not to be seen as a threat."

"Wait till he enters the S.T.A.R.S. before you, Ryman. Let's see if you'll keep that in mind."

All the guys started laughing out loud, out of control. Ryman's eyes got red, but he didn't look at Leon, he kept looking at Stuart, who couldn't stop laughing.

That situation seemed so awkward and embarrassing that Leon turned to the counter and went back to his scotch. The truth is that he was not anxious to be accepted in that group, because he didn't want to impress the other cops. He wanted to get Irons' attention, because his goal was to improve fast, but not to compete with anyone, just to prove himself he could keep his promise to his father.

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Jill was sitting by the RPD entrance door reading a book by the lunch time. She was used to do it when she decided not to go out to eat something, which was happening sometimes, due to Jill's lack of appetite lately.

She was so tense and could barely sleep those days. It didn't matter Dick failed a lot, he was her father and would always be. After she discovered her father was sick, Jill was so worried she could not think of anything else, it was even difficult to focus on the words in that book, she had to go back to the top of the page many times to read it again.

Jill closed the book and looked up, yawning, at the same time she saw some cops walking towards her, so she checked the hours and saw lunch time was over. She recognized one of them, Kevin. All of the guys looked at her before entering the double door and she looked down to the book to avoid Kevin's gaze, she was not in a good day and it was better if he thought she was still mad at him.

When the guys closed the door, she took a deep breath in relief, then she looked up again, she saw a rookie walking to the door and looking at her. It was not the first time she saw that guy, but he was looking at her so deeply this time that she got blushing, which made her smile and nod.

The blond boy kept his eyes on her and smiled back which made him trip on the small steps in the big front door. Jill held on the laughter and he turned to the door, probably very embarrassed.

When he closed the door, she allowed herself to laugh a little, at least she could escape the worries for some seconds. Then she got her book and opened it, ready to fight with her concentration again.

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Heyyyyyyyyyy guys!

Sooooo nice to be back! How are you?

Here it comes a new journey with you. Young Leon... Well...We can realize that although he was not sarcastic and funny in re2, he was always fearless, since the beginning. So only a fearless rookie would stare at Jill like that, and that guy would be Leon. hahaha

Of course he is only curious about her, but that's how I see things, she would surely got his attention since the beginning, not only because of her gorgeous face, but because of her misterious personality.

Well, I hope you guys liked this introdution. We'll have one more chapter back in 1998, but then we'll come to 2010, where the story takes place.

Keep up with us till the end and thank you very much for coming.

Xoxo