Ada Wong had been standing on that hill for a long time, watching the blades of the American evac chopper hum in the distance. It had been an hour or so since they parted ways and Leon didn't seem all that happy about it.

And it wasn't because he misses your pretty face, Ada...

She let a sigh whistle through her teeth. Pushing that button was damn hard, but if Wesker didn't see the explosion he ordered on his fancy-schmancy satellite, she would have much more to worry about than two dead blondes. First and foremost, she needed to maintain the trust Wesker has in her and make sure that things stayed that way. If there was ever a living ice statue, Albert Wesker was it: cold, stiff, emotionless, and impossible to read. Well, almost impossible to read. After staring at those two black lenses every day for the past six years Ada had learned to see through them, and as of their last transmission Wesker seemed slightly disappointed. Whether it was because he underestimated Mr. Kennedy's abilities or overestimated her loyalty she didn't know, but she sure hoped it wasn't the latter.

However she couldn't help but smile at herself. Why maintain her good relations with Wesker at all? Whatever thin thread of trust existed between her and Wesker was going to be frayed very soon; the ice statue will melt with rage when he realizes he doesn't have the sample...

... or maybe when he discovers that you shot his best pilot in the temple.

Ada looked over her shoulder and glanced at her own evac chopper sitting silently inland, the limp, bleeding body of its pilot propped against its skids. If he had only not seen her throw that key to Leon everything would have been much prettier. Unfortunately for him, he thought it was necessary to question her actions and threaten to report her. Fatally unfortunate as it were. She stared at his lifeless body as it lay there and tried to feel some remorse for his lost soul. He was just doing his job after all. Maybe he had a family to support, children to raise… and everything else her life was missing for that matter.

She slowly turned away, once again looking at the helicopter Ashley and Leon were bound for. That poor pilot reminded her of the life she could have had. What if she had escaped from Raccoon City with Leon and started a life with him? What if she had thrown away her life of secrecy and lies and begun one with the one man who had ever cared for her; what would it be like to finally live with someone as her true, honest self?

Yeah, sure… honesty, just tell Leon your whole life story - the uncut, unrated version. Tell him how your father was an abusive prick that beat your mother senseless every night after he got back from the bar. Tell him how you and your mother finally ran away in hopes of avoiding his intoxicated wrath, only to see him at your doorstep five years later, gun in hand, intent on revenge. The glass shattering, your mother's screams, and your father's sadistic laughter, tell him how you heard it all from the upstairs bathroom while your heart grew black with hatred. And don't forget to say that the next thing you remember was seeing your father's limp body saturated in the fresh blood spurting from his head… and a smoking .45 burning in your hands.

Honestly, you don't give a shit if people die - especially if they come between you and your paycheck. So what if you have to torture someone into talking? Morals are overrated anyway. Having God on your side is all right, but a 50-caliber sniper rifle is a whole lot better. Deception, fraud - hell, even sex if that's what they want - the ends always justify the means.

But it's not as if you feel that this is wrong; everyone else was like that - everyone else that accomplished anything in their life at least. Your colleagues at training and all those high level executives you work for, none of them give a rat's ass about morals either and they are all living it large. The only person you knew who ever cared to be good and put others before themselves was your mother and look at how her life turned out. She was living on the poverty line, working three jobs, and constantly running away from her abusive husband all so that you could live a good life, Ada.

Whole lot of good that did…

Face it, you gave up being altruistic the day you shot your father and no one person or thing has convinced you to act otherwise. It's not that you don't respect all the law-abiding goodie-toe-shoes in the world… props to them for resisting the seductive, money-filled life of the fraudulent. But when the rent's on the line you gotta make choices, and your penthouse on the Lakefront is really nice.

So there's a little corruption in the world, why not take advantage of it? John wanted you to be his girlfriend, it got you all that T-Virus data you needed, didn't it? And Mr. Bertolucci would have died a lot sooner too had Leon not been constantly following you around. Hell, if Leon weren't there everything would have been different: you would have found the G-Virus, you wouldn't have been stuck in this game of cat and mouse with Wesker, and you wouldn't have -

- so why didn't you just kill him too, Little-Miss-Heartless?

Leon Scott Kennedy… so maybe there was a righteous soul out there that hadn't yet reached the Pearly Gates. In fact, he was one of the few whose honorable character was his saving grace. Would he have escaped the city had he not been so obsessed with keeping you safe? Would he have found the passage through the sewers out had you not been there?

Probably not.

Honesty… face it, he changed you didn't he? He changed you even if it was just a little bit. Before him you didn't think there was someone out there that would risk everything to save you. He nursed you back to health after you were knocked unconscious when he could have just as easily escaped. He took a bullet for you…

…and he even forgave you for leaving him as he lay there bleeding to chase down Birkin, so you could get the G-Virus and get paid. His heart never hardened like yours; he continued to care for you despite your asinine behavior and he didn't care if you were a secret agent. You lied to him and abandoned him, and still he held you in his arms as you straddled the brink of death, begging you to live on so that you could escape… escape together. Despite all the fraud and the corruption, his virtuous heart still burned with a passion to bring good to this world.

And yours? Yours grew heavy and turned into ice…

… Red ice.

Perhaps that was why she couldn't muster up enough emotion to feel sorry for that goddamn pilot. He had a happy life, an honest life... and he was about to report her for saving the single happy, honest thing that remained in hers.

That, or now she had to dispose of his body, stage a helicopter crash, find another way back to the states, and think of one damn good excuse to explain how she lived unscathed. But it wasn't all bad. This way she could take a little detour to see Leon off after all, little did you know how long you'd be waiting for them to appear.

The sun was now shining full force and Ada watched its rays flicker off the chopper's spinning blades. When she had arrived the sun had barely broke the horizon and it was currently hovering well over the Spanish hills.

Jesus Leon, that Jet-ski is faster than this...

Finally a little white, gray, and orange blob appeared, skipping across the vast body of water separating it from the Spanish shore; Leon and Ashley had made it out. Relieved, she stood there and continued to watch them until they reached the shore and hastily climbed into the chopper. She waited there until the aircraft hovered over the horizon; she wanted the moment to last just a little while longer. If only all her missions ended this well: she had the sample, Leon was still alive, and she finally got her chance to seriously piss off Wesker. Life was good.

And it would be even better if you weren't stranded here with the lovely pilot and his soon-to-be-destroyed aircraft...

The portable videophone lodged in her gun holster began to chime. Hopefully it's not Wesker; her cover-up story of a helicopter crash would be no good without the smoke and flames. Sighing inwardly and wishing that someone just dialed the wrong number, Ada released the phone from its holster and clicked on the screen.

"Hey sexy! How was the trip?"

Jesus… it was only Jerry.

Jerry White, one of the many communications specialists employed by the organization and the first person Ada was supposed to report to once she finished a mission. Why she didn't simply report to the big cheese himself was beyond her, but this was protocol and she wasn't paid to rewrite the organization's policies.

"So, you got out alright I see. I assume you have the sample, 'cause you'd be in pretty deep shit if it was still on the island after the lovely number you did on it." Jerry was all right, but Ada was convinced that the day he stopped joking hell would freeze over.

"Unlike you Jerry, I take my work seriously."

"Ok, ok! I get the idea. Sample retrieved. So, what are you doing on the beach?"

"I had to shoot the pilot."

Suddenly Jerry was laughing so hard she thought he would choke. Apparently she wasn't the only one in the organization who didn't feel remorse for the murdered. "Oh Ada. Didn't your mother tell you that violence isn't the answer?"

She was really getting irritated now. Maybe Jerry had forgotten, but Ada hated to work overtime, and listening to his bullshit after one sleepless night of dealing with deranged religious fundamentalists and a blonde, black-clad psychopath in sunglasses was a more than enough to demand a bonus by her book.

"Oh look at you, Little-Miss-Pouty-Face. I can take a hint. So, you gonna need a new way outta there then?"

"That would be nice."

"I'll send someone right over. Anything else?"

"Yes… two orders of those new type nine explosives and one damn good survival story."

Ada jammed down on the power button and Jerry's face zapped off the screen. Once again she looked past the horizon and let her thoughts drift to the helicopter that just hovered over it. Once again Leon did well for himself and despite his righteous ideology, she had an innate feeling that he wouldn't be dying any time soon. He has skills and he knows how to use them: a survivor of Raccoon City, a witness of the los Illuminados atrocities…

… and the only person who can melt red ice.

She just hoped he didn't know how to break it as well.

Well, there it is, my first fanfic! I hope you enjoyed it and if so, please let me know. I love the LeonxAda paring and I want to work with them again, so your suggestions are well appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Edit Notes: I mainly cleaned up some typos that were bothering me. Very little change to the actual text – smoothed over a few rough transitions