Author's note:
I always imagine Hunnigan from the movie "Damnation" when writing her, but especially with this story, because that version of her looks like the colder and more distant officer that I describe her as in this story, whereas the RE4/RE6-Hunnigan seems gentler (I'm beginning to think they're not even the same person because their design is so different :P). So... yeah, imagine the Damnation-Hunnigan for this one if you weren't already (that's the version of her I have in my head 98% of the time I write her).
"Hunnigan, we have to go!" Leon practically yelled, but the intelligence liaison wouldn't have any of it. Come hell or high water, she had a job to do. Leon had to appreciate her dedication, especially when considering she was one of the "desk jockeys" who were anything but used to being the target of an assault. Everyone else had abandoned their posts once the evacuation order had been given.
"Hunnigan!"
"Shut up! I'm trying to fight off multiple breach attempts single-handedly, your yelling is not helping!" she snapped at him, her hands flying over the keyboard as she typed in commands to block the holes someone from the outside was poking into their firewalls. It was turning into an insane game of whack-a-mole.
"Leave it, if the mercs find you here, they'll kill you," Leon said and gripped her shoulder, but she shrugged him off.
"And if I leave, every agent's identity and location, all the data we have gathered, all our intel and every single one of our assets will be compromised! If you understand what that means then you won't want to see that happen!" Hunnigan yelled at him, "Go do your job and let me do mine!" she then added agitatedly, making it clear that she had no intention of leaving.
"Fine, I'll go... but I'm coming back for you," Leon said and began to reluctantly exit, locking the doors behind him as he went, hoping the mercenaries flooding the building wouldn't find their way into its heart and to Hunnigan. She didn't even seem to notice him leaving or the distant gunfire that was audible as he opened and closed doors while moving through them.
With a somewhat heavy heart Hunnigan had to admit that she was fighting a losing battle. Since she couldn't protect the intel from being stolen, she had no other choice but the destroy it. If any of it fell into the wrong hands, it would be a disaster.
Of course the entire infrastructure was backed up, but Hunnigan knew for a fact that there'd been problems with it too. As modern as the agency could be in many ways, they were still in the dark ages with something like this. The higher ups in charge of deciding things regarding budgeting rarely bothered to think how things would turn out in the long run. To them choosing not to pay a few extra bucks for more capacity for the data was the smart way to do things, so the older the data, the higher the odds were that the few copies stored at the HQ were the only copies left of it.
"God damn it..." Hunnigan muttered, typed in the command to destroy the databases and finalized the action by inserting her authorization code.
Are you sure? the computer inquired and she did take a moment to hesitate, her finger hovering over execute. Sighing, she hit the key and the deletion began.
"I told you, Leon. I'm not going anywhere," she mumbled when she heard the door open and close once again. The next thing Hunnigan felt was cold metal pressing against her skull followed by a surprisingly loud click, and then everything turned red.
Director Shepard, Leon and Helena were the only agents left in the building, and also the only bargain chip the mercs had since Hunnigan's actions had led to their mission being more or less a failure. The intention had been to do a simple hit-and-run, leave the premises before anyone had a chance to even react. Most of the mercenaries had managed to escape prior to the building being surrounded, the small group of three left behind having decided their best option was to hold the remaining agents hostage.
"Three against three, we can take them," Helena muttered almost inaudibly and Shepard gave her a sharp look. This was not the time to play hero or do anything stupid.
"No. And that is a direct order," he whispered. At this point it would be in everyone's best interest to stay put and wait it out... or at the very least wait for a better opportunity than the one they had now as they were being held at gunpoint.
"Where's Hunnigan?" Helena asked Leon then.
"She refused to leave her post, that's all I know," he answered. Helena was about to question it again when one of the mercs kicked a trash can into the wall and gripped another merc by the front of his jacket.
"You had one job!" the merc obviously in charge of the operation yelled at the other one who'd emerged from Hunnigan's post empty handed. His job had apparently been to extract the information Hunnigan had worked so hard to protect.
"The bitch wiped the files, what the hell was I supposed to do?" the other merc defended himself and the leader struck the merc's masked head with his elbow.
"Not shoot her, you fucking idiot! Under enough pressure, she probably would've given something that would've helped us recover some of the data, you stupid cunt! Go get the fucking hard drives, maybe we can still salvage something from them at least," he ordered impatiently.
The merc's words had barely registered and the realization that Hunnigan had been killed had barely formed when Leon saw movement in the corner of his eye.
Holy hell, he thought at what he was seeing. It was Hunnigan, emerging from behind the cubicle in the back of the room, her appearance making Leon think of some kind of a goddess of destruction or retribution. She was covered in blood, the generous stream of it originating from her head, some of it caked into her hair, the rest gliding along her neck and chest, soaking into the fabric of her shirt. She raised her arm, doing her best to steady the gun as it shook a little in her hand, and pulled the trigger.
The merc who'd shot Hunnigan earlier collapsed onto the floor, his throat a torn, bloody mess after the bullet had made its way through. He squirmed and held his hand over his neck, taking ragged and desperate breaths before bleeding out.
Shepard and Leon leapt into action, quickly incapacitating the two remaining mercs while Helena rushed over to Hunnigan who was leaning against the wall, slowly sliding down to sit on the floor, the gun resting limply in her lap.
"Hang on, just... hang on, it's gonna be okay... We need some fucking EMTs here now!"
"Hey, Superwoman!" Leon greeted happily as he entered the hospital room. He didn't even bother scolding Hunnigan when he saw she had a laptop with her and that she was busily working on something despite the thick bandages wrapped around her head. The world didn't stop turning just because she'd gotten shot.
"Did you bring my spare glasses?" she asked, without even raising her gaze from the computer. She could've managed without them if she had to, but the price of that would've been a hell of a headache, and frankly, her head hurt enough as it was.
"Yes, ma'am!" he saluted and handed the glasses over to Hunnigan who, without even trying them on first, began to wipe them clean with the edge of the blanket, already knowing the lenses were bound to have at least one of Leon's fingerprints on them. She'd been right.
"Thank you, I need them to hide my superhero identity," Hunnigan smiled at him and he chuckled.
"It's not working."
"It worked for Clark Kent for years! What do his glasses have that mine don't?" Hunnigan pouted as she put the glasses on.
"Thicker rims?" Leon shrugged.
"Ha, thick rims are the last thing I need with this damn Skrillex-haircut," she laughed.
She'd gotten lucky, the bullet hadn't broken her skull; instead it had gotten stuck between the scalp and the bone. The scalp had a lot of small veins which had resulted in a lot of blood, making it look a lot worse than it actually was. Right now, Hunnigan was convinced that having had the side of her head shaven so that the doctors had been able to remove the bullet and close the wound cleanly was the worst part of it... and frankly, the terrible haircut was ultimately a small disaster she could easily manage.
"Do we know anything about who was behind the attack? I mean, clearly, they knew what they were doing, their attack was well coordinated, they must've had an inside source... or some means of doing some pretty extensive investigation beforehand," Hunnigan mumbled, almost as if talking to herself as she was beginning to get lost in thought.
"The mercs didn't say much, not even after Shepard let Helena go at them with all of her CIA interrogation techniques," Leon smirked.
"...well, makes sense, they're just hired hands, probably paid by an agent of an agent of an agent... and they were probably only told what little they needed to know in case this would happen, so they won't be able to say anything even if they'd want to."
"Could be what's left of The Family, there's no telling how deep and far they actually reach. I mean, considering the amount of shit they stirred just hide what happened in Raccoon city back in 1998... It wouldn't surprise me if they were behind this as well, trying to cover up Tall Oaks."
"I'm inclined to agree with that theory," Hunnigan nodded.
"We'll figure it out in time, but for now... you should be resting," Leon said sternly and reached to push the laptop shut. She was about to swat his hands away when he took the computer from her completely and held up a finger as if scolding a child.
"Well, I'm just sitting here, what the hell else am I supposed to do with my time?" Hunnigan protested.
"Anything but this."
"I don't have the time to-" Hunnigan began to argue, but was interrupted by a soft knock on the door.
"Enter," she called out and Helena came into the room. She was visibly surprised to see Leon and he smiled at her, informing the women he was just about to leave and that he'd be taking Hunnigan's computer with him.
"You watch too much porn, I'm confiscating this," he taunted.
"It's just a couple of little fetish films!" Hunnigan played along and Leon laughed before waving a goodbye and leaving.
"Hey. I wanted to check in on you... and to get you something, so here's some chocolate covered popcorn... and a lousy romance novel which you probably won't like, but it was the only book left in the gift shop," Helena said, offering a lopsided grin and Hunnigan chuckled as she accepted the items from Helena.
"You didn't need to get me anything, but thank you, I appreciate it."
Helena was about to comment as she dragged a chair to the side of the bed, but she was cut off by Hunnigan's phone ringing.
"Sorry. No rest for the wicked," Hunnigan apologized as she reached to answer.
"It's fine. Do you want me to..?" Helena inquired and gestured toward the door.
"Nah, it's fine, this shouldn't take long," Hunnigan shook her head and answered the call. Helena sat down and picked up the book she'd brought, thumbing through the pages and pausing to silently chuckle at the ridiculousness of the terms used and the piss-poor dialogue, wondering how had it ever gotten published in the first place.
Oh, now, that's offensive, she then mused when she discovered the main character was named Helena too.
"...yes, I know it's late, but it's because I'm stuck in the hospital. I was shot in the head. Well, why the hell would I make that up? I've got witnesses if you don't believe me," Hunnigan scoffed. Helena raised her hand and gave a thumbsup, silently letting Hunnigan know she was willing to testify if need be, then went back to browsing through the book, trying to look like she wasn't listening in on the phone call... even though she was getting curious about it.
"Tomorrow, I hope. All right, fine! I'll sort it out. Oh, and I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking," Hunnigan ended the call in agitated sarcasm and sighed deeply, running a hand over her face tiredly and tossed her phone back onto the side desk.
"...everything okay?" Helena asked tentatively and Hunnigan blew out a breath.
"Yeah, it's just my ex whining about the alimony check being late," Hunnigan dismissed with an eyeroll.
"You've been married?" Helena's eyebrows rose and she felt a bit embarrassed when Hunnigan chuckled at how genuinely surprised Helena seemed by that fact.
"For about three out of the ten or so years we were together, until Alexis decided we should go our separate ways about a year ago," Hunnigan shrugged.
"Well, for what it's worth, it's clearly his loss."
"Hers, actually," Hunnigan corrected.
"Oh, sorry. I just assumed... Sorry," Helena muttered, feeling embarrassed again, despite not really knowing why, Alexis was kind of a gender neutral name, and frankly, Hunnigan wasn't on the top of Helena's list of people who set off her gaydar. She did occasionally come across as a lesbian, but at the same time, something about her contradicted that. Helena wasn't sure if it was something real or just something she imagined because Hunnigan didn't completely fit the stereotypical mental image Helena had formed of "suit lesbians". She had to admit it was kind of silly of her. She of all people should be against the idea of labeling people and finding a suitable little box for everyone; she herself certainly didn't think she belonged in a single box, neatly categorized away based on which gender she preferred to be sexually involved with, or based on any other preference for that matter.
"It's okay," Hunnigan assured, "So, was there anything you needed?" she changed the subject.
"No, I just came to see how you were. I was worried, it looked pretty bad."
"External injuries, I'll be fine."
"You were pretty fuckin' badass back there, I gotta say," Helena then complimented and Hunnigan laughed softly.
"Thanks."
"I'm really glad you're okay. When that merc said you'd been shot, I..." Helena began but swallowed the rest.
She'd felt devastated. Heart-broken. Desperately wanting to deny it. All those emotions and a few she couldn't even name washing over her again now that she thought back on that moment.
"I was terrified. I don't want to lose you," she said seriously before jokingly adding, "Never know what kind of a screw up I'd end up having to trust my life with if you weren't around!"
"As long as I'm above ground, I promise to do my best to look out for you," Hunnigan chuckled.
"Good! Okay, but seriously, it's not even about that," Helena shook her head a little, "A month ago when everything went down at Tall Oaks... you and Leon believed in me when I know no one else would've. I'd be in jail if you hadn't fought for me, and I can never repay you for-"
"That wasn't a favor, it was justice, you're innocent. All you did was send out a false alarm, and you did it because you were coerced. And even after doing that, you tried to warn everyone, but they didn't listen. I've seen the Secret Service's reports, you were not responsible for what happened. You deserve your freedom."
"Regardless, I wouldn't be here without you, so... thank you."
Author's note 2:
If you read the first chapter, you are obligated to read the entire story, or pay a fifty dollar cancellation fee if you wanna quit in the middle. ;)