"Claire my feet hurt" Sherry complained half heartedly.
"I know sweetie but we have to put as much distance between there and us as possible right now" The older girl replied as kindly as possible. Leon squeezed the young girls hand "we'll be there before you know it".
They tried to keep her talking to keep her mind off of her aching feet when eventually they slowly find themselves approaching a truck that looked like it had been driven into a road sign and abandoned.
"Look maybe we can drive in that!" Sherry exclaimed excitedly. Claire on the other hand wasn't so sure.
"You two stay here while I check its safe" Leon told them, taking Matilda out of her holster. He quickly surveyed the area, checking under the truck, the backseat and the trunk for any sign of life...or unlife as the case may be. "Its clear!".
Sherry climbed into the back while Claire checked for keys in the ignition but found none. She popped the battered hood and checked the engine she had been right. It was totalled. Leon walked round and joined her, hopeful look on his surprisingly innocent face. Hes cute. She thought, and not for the first time. She shook her head, both to clear that thought and to answer him.
"This heap of junk isn't going anywhere" his face falls at her words, he runs his hand through his hair frustrated.
"Nah that would have been to easy. Damnit!" He smacks the hood of the car and then winces in pain. "Let me have a look at that" Claire puts one hand on his chest and gestures for him to sit on the passenger seat, facing outwards towards her. He looks like he wants to protest but doesn't, she leans down and touches the bandages. Leon doesn't take his eyes of her face, the look of concern in her eyes and her feather light touch was making his heart jump. She sees him staring and feels like she should fill the silence.
"You never mentioned how you got this" she says casually, he begins to respond when Sherry appears from around Claire, neither of them having even noticed she had got out the back. "Claire could have protected you! Shes really good at protecting people! She found me after the bad police man took me away AND after my...dad found me" her voice wavered slightly mentioning him and leon quickly tried to distract her.
"I had a Claire looking after me for awhile".
"Where is she?" The little girl said with some hesitance, suspecting the answer. It was his turn for his voice to falter.
"...She didn't make it".
"Oh, Im sorry!" She throws her arms around his neck and hugs him, he gasps quietly as she presses on his bad shoulder but he hugs her back tightly. This little girl is about to melt my damn heart. He thinks fondly.
Sherry looks at him and continues "Your big and strong Leon! I know you will have tried your best!". Yup and there it is. he laughs and flexes his bicep on his good arm.
"Am I as big and strong as Claire?" He winks at Claire cheekily. Sherry giggles and Claire tries to hide a faint blush.
"Boys are silly!" This time it was Claire's turn to laugh, Leon looks at her with fake shock and she holds her hands up in mock surrender.
"When a girl knows, she knows!" She managed to choke out.
He huffs and checks the glovebox for anything useful and finds a map of the area inside. He examines it. "Looks like if we continue down this highway we will eventually come across a motel and gas station".
"How far do you think it is?" Claire asks and he shrugs "hard to say, couple of miles maybe".
Sherry lets out a dramatic sigh "oh man!" Leon laughs.
"Il piggyback you if you want" he says kindly to the little girl but Claire stops him.
"Your injured! Let me" once Sherry is secure on her back she turns to him "Come on then hotshot, lead the way!".
Hotshot huh, two can play that game Miss Redfield. Leon laughs at his own internal monologue.
"Whatever you say Red".
They finally reached the motel late afternoon, luckily there was a ATM and somehow Leon had the foresight of keeping his card on him. After finally getting into their room, Sherry went straight over to a bed and collapsed onto it and in the time it took for Leon and Claire to take off their shoes off their aching feet, the youngest of them was fast asleep. Leon and Claire looked at her sleeping form and then at each other and let out little laughs.
"Shouldn't we get some food in her first?" Leon said, and Claire shrugged.
"Let her have a couple hours, she deserves it".
"I think we all do, but first Id like to at least try and get the smell of sewer off of me" he smelled himself for effect.
"Well I didn't want to say anything but..." She smiles cheekily at him.
"Come give me a hug Claire" he steps towards her with arms outstretched, grinning ridiculously big. She tries to get away around the bed but he grabs her from behind and presses her back to his chest. He realises as he does it that this is oddly intimate and he doesn't realise whats come over him at all, but if he's honest with himself he really likes the feel of her in his arms.
"I surrender I surrender! I smell of sewer too!" She manages to get out between laughs but doesn't make any particular effort to leave his arms.
"In that case would you like to go first?" he asks. His breath brushing her ear and making her heart beat faster.
He's such a gentlemen. And almost unbearably gorgeous. Claire blushes at her thought track.
"No you go first, I just need to go grab something from the reception" he nods at her and heads to the bathroom. He splashes some water on his face and looks at his reflection in the mirror. His face came out mostly unscathed, apart from the dark circles under his eyes he looked okay. It was his eyes themselves that gave him away, eyes that had seen more horrors than any human should. He suddenly felt like he had matured over the course of one night. Before all of this his biggest worry was trying to impress his fellow officers, work his way up the chain too detective or maybe even a member of STARS. Now, there was two people out there that had been through the same hell as he had, the three of them needed each other. He was sure of it.
He managed to get his tactical vest off and with great difficultly wriggled out of his undershirt, gasping in pain every so often. Little spots of red started appearing on his already ruined bandages. He cursed under his breath until there was a soft knock on the door.
"Leon, can I come in?" Claires voice sounded concerned, he must have been making such a noise he got her worried. He made his way over to the door and opened it for her, he was met with her expressive eyes full of worry for him and he suddenly felt butterflies in his stomach.
"Im okay I swear"
She held up a first aid kit in response. "You will be once Im done".
"Claire, you dont have to-" she quickly cuts him off.
"I want too, you saved my life twice. Let me look after you" Shes so determined that he shuts his mouth and sits on the toilet seat. She slowly unwraps the old bandages and throws them away and examines the injury.
"Well the good news is that bullet must have gone straight through, the bad is that this is gonna sting like a bitch" she dabs a cloth with disinfectant and gently places it on the wound, Leon hisses through his teeth but stays still after a few dabs the pain begins to fade. He watches Claire as she works, the concentration and care reflecting from her eyes, the softness of her skin and the strong line of her mouth as she treats him, theres a cut on her mouth and a bruise forming on her jaw, he made a mental note to ask her about it later. Shes still beautiful he cant help but think.
Claire is struggling with her own thoughts too, from the moment he had opened the door she had tried her hardest not too look at his toned, muscly body. I survived a zombie apocalypse with the most breathtaking guy Ive ever laid eyes on. She got the sense of deja vu again when she realised they had both been quietly staring at each other for awhile and she felt like she should say something.
"You got this protecting her right?" He looked at her with mild surprise, she continued "the woman you mentioned earlier?" He nods.
"How did you know?"
"When you spoke about her you sounded... like her loss hurt you. You cared about her?".
The barest hint of something entered her voice, Leon didn't quite know what to make of it, he just started babbling, hoping somehow she would understand.
"Its complicated. I thought she was one of the good guys. She saved my life and told me she was fbi and I thought, heres my chance to help. To make a difference, but she was playing me " He paused for a second, trying to pull himself together.
"She fed me this story about how we were fighting the good fight and we could stop anything like this from every happening again. I took a bullet for her, I was so convinced." The more he spoke the more Claire could tell he was hurting. Oh Leon.
"She was attractive and she knew it. On the way to the lab she kissed me and convinced me to get the virus sample for her and I just fell for all of it. Annette was the one who told me the truth. That Ada was nothing more than a mercenary hoping to sell the virus to the highest bidder." He hoped Claire didn't judge him to harshly.
"Then what happened?" She asked softly, she had the feeling he needed to tell this story. That he wouldn't be able to let go until he did.
"I think deep down I always knew something was off, I confronted her and she pulled her gun on me. But the walkway collapsed and she fell. I grabbed her hand...despite everything I still wanted to save her, I mean thats ridiculous right? But... She told me to survive and let go. And now I just feel so...so stupid! Stupid for falling for it, stupid for missing her." He looked into Claires eyes, expecting her to be judging him, but all he saw was kindness and understanding. He isn't quite sure who hugs who first, but all he knows is that Claire has her arms around his neck and his around her back and they are hugging, he buries his face in her neck and it feels like home. Like this is something he could get used too really quickly.
"I don't think you're stupid at all Leon. You have a good heart and that can never be a bad thing. You are everything that she wasn't, good and selfless. You saved me at the gas station and you saved me and Sherry on the train...we owe you our lives" she kisses his cheek and Leon swears that he will be feeling it on his skin forever.
Im gonna look after you Claire, I promise.
So that's chapter 1! Leon is so sweet I just cant! comments are both appreciated and encouraged!