- - - Please note, read A prelude to a lifetime before you read on - - -

Washington D.C

Friday September 17th 2004

18:00

Leon Kennedy un-holstered his 9mm Blacktail and laid it down on the table in front of him.

Next came the magnum, but he paused to admire the craftsmanship before he handed it over. With a rue smile to himself, he realised that he hadn't used it that much after all and had practically wasted the money it took upgrading the thing. "Couldn't resist..." He muttered to himself. Once the semi-automatic rifle was also on the table, along with the TMP and all the add-ons, he decided to pay attention to the de-briefing at last.

The general stood before the rescue team, which Leon noticed was mostly comprised of the military. 'Funny…all I saw was Mike. Where the hell did these jokers come in?' Leon thought, keeping his words to himself. The bitterness about losing his unexpected comrade caused Kennedy to develop a certain level of disrespect for the men in the room. The officer in charge that had met he and Ashley on the shore hadn't even reacted when Leon informed him about the pilot's death. They were all numbers in retrospect, just a figure of 'lives lost'.

Leon scoffed at the thought and earned himself an awkward moment of silence as nearly all eyes turned on him. With a sheepish smile he nodded to the room and cleared his throat in an attempt to lighten the tension. After a sharp sigh of irritation, the general carried on as Leon busied himself lining up the grenades he still had left on his belt.

But the agent's full attention was suddenly earned when the general made a side comment to his subordinate.

"Any news on the S.T.A.R.S operative?"

Leon's head was up in a split second.

"No Sir."

"Ah…then inform the other members of their loss as soon as we are done with the de-brief."

"What operative?" A panicked voice demanded from the back of the room.

The general blinked in confusion at such an outburst and took a moment to mull over Leon's request for information.

"Redfield..." The general said quickly, then paused to look through the early field report sheets for the rest of the name, but Leon already knew who it was.

"Ah yes, A Miss –"

"Claire..." Leon almost whispered in disbelief.

The general narrowed his eyes. "Agent Kennedy, did you come into contact with the – "

"No! What the hell did you bring Claire into this for?" He was on his feet now, his mind racing with thoughts of the woman he hadn't seen in six years. The bittersweet goodbye at the station back then was hardly enough for a final meeting. If only he'd known he would never see her again maybe he would have –

"It became apparent that this mission involved a cult of activists. S.T.A.R.S seemed the most suitable to request for assistance, as their members consisted of survivors from incidents such as Racoon City, and they had collective experience on similar matters to the Los Illuminados. It seemed our best option to hire their aid. Their knowledge of Umbrella is un-matched also, which would have greatly assisted our inquiries. Redfield was the voluntary member that was sent to us, we did not select her Agent Kennedy. And she insisted she were sent in with your recovery team." Leon stood there in stunned silence. It only made it worse that the general was talking in past tense as if Claire was already gone. "We originally intended for her to go with the research teams once you and Ashley were returned." Leon just kept shaking his head, unable to comprehend Claire's motivation. He couldn't accept that he himself was her reasoning for all of this. There must be more to it, he told himself.

"Then where is she?" Leon's voice was cracking under the strain of apprehension and guilt. All kinds of thoughts were rushing through his mind, images of the vibrant girl from years passed filled him with a feeling of loss before he even heard the answer.

The general swallowed to buy him a moment of time.

"Agent Redfield was diploid in the helicopter."

Leon choked. "Wh – but…" His burning eyes were hit with the image of the helicopter blowing up before him. "I saw it get shot down…Mike…it…she – that means –"

"No Kennedy, she was sent in the first helicopter we despatched to collect you and Miss Graham."

A spark of hope weakly ignited in Leon's aching chest. But it almost died out when he remembered it too had been – "Shot down. That's what Hunnigan said. And I…I didn't even think anything of it, shit I even complained!" Slamming his open palm on the table in front of him, Leon fixed his piercing eyes on the general. "Why didn't you tell me she was there? I would have – "

"Exactly."

Leon panted in panic and just stared at the ground in confusion.

"You had one mission and one mission only. That was to collect Miss Graham and return her to us unharmed. You would have endangered her if you had pursued outside courses."

"You bastard." Leon hissed, clenching a fist tightly after a moment of silence.

The whole room was watching him with held breath. Hunnigan bit her lip nervously. She had never thought somebody as forward and smart talking as Leon would react so drastically to a single woman. Especially one she had never heard him or anyone mention before. Swallowing a lump in her throat she cautiously took a step forward toward him.

"Leon…?"

The Agent's head shot up. "Fuck you Hunnigan".

"Agent Kennedy!" The general warned, but it went unheard.

"You knew she was in that helicopter, you didn't give a shit any more than I did about it going down at the time, but you knew she was in there!" Hunnigan clamped her mouth shut and nervously ran a hand through her now unkempt hair. She had no right to say anything to him now, even though she hadn't been aware of his connection with the S.T.A.R.S operative.

"I am willing to excuse this behaviour in light of your success on this mission Kennedy, but let me warn you that I – " The general's older voice began.

"Do whatever you want to. I'm going to find Claire."

The general's words died in his mouth. "…But Leon," The older man's voice seemed strangely concerned. "The helicopter went down. We heard no word from the crew in the aftermath. They are all presumed de-"

"She's alive!" The agent countered, pointing threateningly at the general. "You don't know her." He turned his finger on himself. "I do. I survived Racoon with her, and she was only a college student then for Christ sake! Now she is a trained S.T.A.R.S member by the sound of it, I know she would have survived something as simple as a crash. I'm going for her, and you'll let me because I brought Ashley home." It wasn't a request.

Without another word, Leon began re-equipping his weaponry.

Nobody dared to intervene, all heads in the room turned to look back and forth between the silent General and the Agent with no word. Leon simply stood up, turned around and walked out. The door slammed behind him.

- - -

Standing alone in the quiet hallway, Leon Kennedy was in a state of complete shock. He could already hear the general putting a call through to the President in the room behind him, and that Leon would be sent for in due course. But for now he allowed himself a moment's contemplation.

He hadn't seen anything of Claire Redfield in six whole years, not since he had given her a slip of simple paper that he asked her to dispose of anyway. He could still remember how Claire's blue eyes had lit up when she read it, and with real hope for the first time since he had known her.

Sherry Birkin. That was another name he had never said, yet never forgotten since Racoon. He didn't know how or where she was either but he had signed a deal for her safety that also meant he kept away. Although that particular deal hadn't stopped him from finding Claire, he never had done.

And now he felt like he had failed her too.

Rubbing his forehead with a sweaty palm, Leon tried to straighten out his thoughts. He needed to find her, and thinking he had failed before he even began would do him no good. It had taken him two years to shake off such a defeatist attitude after he had witnessed Ada Wong's seeming death.

Since then, he had found her again. Alive and well – and still working against him.

The women in his life had never given him an easy time.

Forcing his feet forward, Leon tried to get himself mentally prepared for what lie ahead. He was going back to the horror of Pueblo first and foremost, and he had to get himself geared up for that before anything else. Only then could he be of any help to Claire.

If she was still alive…

Suddenly, Leon turned and slammed his fist into the wall, his voice yelling out in frustration at himself over and over again as he continued to pound the wall with that same fist. He had been through enough in the past twenty-four hours, nearly losing his life countless times, coming face to face with a woman he thought dead only to have her taunt him along with an old comrade who had turned against him. To add to this, Leon had been panicking almost constantly about the safety of an innocent girl. To now hear Claire Redfield had been struggling on her own during all of that – how could he have missed that? He hadn't seen her, not once. Or perhaps he had and hadn't paid attention. The latter made him slam new dents in the wall.

Only when various doors opened in curiosity along the corridor did he let up.

But then guilt was all that was left, his anger subsided and worn out. He stood there breathing heavily until a hand touched his shoulder. Turning his head round in surprise, Leon came face to face with Hunnigan, concern practically written on her face.

Leon took a moment to register her face, coming unnervingly close to seeing Claire for a split second. Sighing, he eventually nodded to Hunnigan before pushing himself up from the wall and walking in the direction of the President's office, the place she had come to send him to no doubt.

And she watched him go with the sympathetic eyes he hated to see. He saw that look on everyone who got to know him, because nobody could possibly empathise with what he had been through. Nobody's eyes held that comfort.

Not since Claire.

Leon pushed the loose strands of his hair out of his eyes and took a deep breath. Having reached his destination, he was about to knock on the white door in front when a knowing voice startled him.

"Come in Leon."

Author's Notes : With this story I want to focus on a realistic bond between Claire and Leon. I'm a realist first of all, so I won't be creating any fairytale ending where all is forgiven and accepted. Not going to happen with them is it? Really now. So, instead I want to build up their eventual meeting with the scenes in Resident Evil Four that I could see Claire in whilst I was playing the game. But I am writing this in a way that Leon never saw Claire - so keep that in mind. Just like Ada's 'seperate ways' bit, most of it happened unknown to Leon. Think of this story as Claire's version of the sub-game. Anyway, a few things - the weapons list Leon has at the beginning of this story was what I completed the game with. There is a little trivia for you! And I couldn't believe Capcom picked the Blacktail for Ada's separate ways thing either, I am not an Ada fan. She's an unrealistic result of testosterone - for instance, where in that impossible dress can she fit her shotgun? Come ON! But I respect her own bond with Leon, so I shall honour that in this story. Like with Final Fantasy - you simply can't have a Cloud Tifa pairing with no mention of Aeris. Doesn't work. Anyway enough rant, next comes Claire Redfield's introduction.

Side Note: Look up 'Resident Evil Extinction Claire' in Google images. Look for the screenshot of a longhaired Claire Redfield in combat gear - that's the slant I'm taking for her. And just so you all know, I don't condone Resident Evil films. I still refuse to watch the one with Jill in - what were they thinking! She looks rubbish. Oh and I made the date up as September that this all took place. This is because Ashley's photograph looks like it was taken in late summer, (and she's dressed half for warm weather, half for cold) and she was taken from her college campus so it must have been through term-time, and it is six years since Racoon as Leon says at the game start so I figured it must take place near or after September for that reason, yet before autumn started changing the colour of leaves. Sorry, just guessing because I couldn't find the real date - if anybody knows, please tell!

Xx Jessie xX