It had only taken a few hours to get the first message.

Where are you?

By all rights, Claire knew she should have responded right then and there. Chris rarely texted since his job with the BSAA could put him anywhere on the planet at any given time. It became a hassle, and even though he made enough money, he always complained about roaming fees. It was even a rarer occurrence, however, for Chris to use punctuation.

"He must have heard about the airport." Claire whispered to herself. Her current companion and driver, Frederic Downing, either did not hear her or did not bother to inquire about her seemingly random statement. She was about to respond when she noted the timestamp on the message itself. She had received it at 5pm. That was almost three hours ago! Claire cursed at herself and started to type a response. As she did so, another popped up. Again, it was from her brother.

Claire are you ok?

Yes, it seemed he'd gotten the information about the Harvardville Airport after all. The last time they'd talked she had told him that she would be taking a flight in to investigate the growing WilPharma issues and he, wherever he was, must have gotten the news on the terrorist attack. If he wasn't calling her directly that meant he was in a mission, or about to embark on one. The fact that he had his phone on him at all and was messaging her desperately told her he was worried. Clare immediately flipped the keyboard on.

I'm so sorry Chris. I'm fine.
Leon was there. We got out
ok.

She clicked send.

Nothing happened. Much to Claire's frustration, she found that there was no signal. Her phone had suddenly lost all of its purpose. Naturally Claire was a little uneasy about this. She was about to look up and inquire about their ETA, but as she did she witnessed the WilPharma building rising up into eyesight. Downing took a right into the facility and rolled down his window.

"That's odd, it won't accept my card."

"Has that happened before?"

The message to Chris would have to remain unsent for the time being.

x-x-x-x

10 Hours Later…

Leon chuckled somewhere behind her. Claire didn't look up. If it was worth sharing she figured he would tell her.

A few footsteps later lead to Leon standing in her direct light source. She'd been checking the wound on her leg as discreetly as possible while making it look as though she had simply dropped the pen she had been using for her paperwork. Leon gave her a "caught you" look, followed up by a very characteristic half smile.

"What's up?" she asked, brushing off her embarrassment.

"Where's your phone?"

The question caught her off guard for a moment. Habit lead her to reach to her back left pocket – but then she realized that her phone wasn't there. The last time she'd had it was –

"Shit."

Leon's grin widened as much as she assumed it could.

"Is it gone?"

"Yeah. It was destroyed in the explosion."

"Did you need to call someone?"

Claire blinked, her mind drawing a complete blank, not only at the question, but the tone in which it was presented. Without wasting another moment Leon shoved something very large and rectangular under her nose. Claire blinked again, this time slightly disoriented as the bright screen flashed up into her eyes. She made out the name of a person who had only just recently sent Leon a text message and reached up to take the overlarge phone from Leon's gloved hand. The sender was her brother, Chris.

"Oh shit!" she spat uncharacteristically. This brought about another chuckle from Leon as he took a seat near the edge of Claire's makeshift desk.

"I just realized, but he's been messaging me non-stop." Claire ripped her gaze momentarily away from a picture of Chris' face to look up at Leon's, his stoic countenance split once again by that strange smile that managed to show none of his teeth but all of his eyes. "He never sends messages."

"No, he doesn't." Claire concurred, her gaze slipping back to the long list of messages that had been sent to Leon over the past several hours.

Are you in Harvardville?

Have you seen Claire?

Leon please respond,
I'm worried. Claire isn't
picking up her phone.

I know you've been dispatched
to Harvardville. What's going on?
Do you know where Claire is?

Christ Leon this isn't funny.

I can't get out there.
Please tell me what's
happening.

"Jesus…" she whispered. The list continued on from there, each sounding more panicked and angry as she delved deeper into the 'sent' folder. Part of her was embarrassed that her brother would go to such lengths, but she knew better than to be surprised. Were the situation reversed, Claire would have done the exact same thing.

"He's also called three times," Leon added. "Since your phone is gone, I guess it would be okay if you used mine."

Claire smiled and looked up at Leon who was now leaning toward her.

"Are you sure it's ok?" But even as she asked she was already dialing. Leon smiled and leaned back, his head resting in his hands.

Claire stood up and started pacing as the phone rang. What was she going to say? Chris was probably near hysterics right now, and God only knew where he was and what he was doing. She hoped wherever he was he wasn't doing anything stupid.

Once…twice…three times the phone rang.

Click.

"Leon?" Immediately waves of relief lifted from her shoulders upon hearing Chris' voice. He didn't wait for a reply. "Christ, Leon where the hell have you been? I've been calling you all damn day! Have you heard anything from Claire? She still isn't picking up her phone, I'm fucking scared to death over here - "

"Hi Chris."

The sudden silence told Claire that her brother had not expected to hear a female voice answer Leon's phone. A few more seconds and he must have successfully identified the voice as his little sister.

"Claire?"

"Hi," her voice was diminutive and hesitant, like a child who knew they were about to get yelled at for doing something they knew was wrong. But thankfully the yelling never came, and she immediately wondered why she had even expected it.

"Jesus Christ! Claire where the hell have you been? Are you okay?"

His voice was going in and out. Claire could hear him, but only just barely. He must have been moving around, or the phone was being shuffled in his hands, she wasn't sure. Guilt began to flood her heart as she listened to her brother on the other side of the phone, on the other side of the world, pouring out his anger and relief all at once.

"I'm fine, Chris. I'm sorry. My phone got destroyed at some point in this whole mess and that's why I never answered. I'm really sorry."

A few more seconds of silence as it sounded like her brother caught his breath.

"Are you alright?" he asked again.

"Yes, I'm fine. Some cuts and bruises but nothing I haven't had before."

Another small bout of silence. He must have been trying to compose himself. That was it.

He really had been worried.

"Where are you right now?"

Claire blinked suddenly and looked around as if hoping to find a better clue to describe exactly what here was.

"Um…"

She heard an indiscriminate chuckle on Chris' side of the world.

"Leon is here," she decided to add in, hoping that would validate her safety for the time being.

"Yeah? Hit that ass hole in the head for me."

That statement took her for a loop.

"Do what now?"

"That idiot texted me hours ago saying that you were at the WilPharma Air dome in Harvardville and that he had suddenly lost contact with you. I never heard a goddamn word after that."

"Is that so?" Claire sent a mock-scathing look in Leon's direction, but his eyes were closed as he relaxed in his makeshift recliner and therefore took no notice of her expression. "He failed to mention that."

"As if I wasn't worried enough after hearing about the airport, after I got that message one of our brigade commanders informed us that the same Air dome had been nearly razed to the ground. You can't imagine how much of an ass I looked like demanding to be allowed to get to the site, Claire."

"I'm sorry Chris," was all Claire could manage. She could hear the emotion building up in her big brother's voice again and knew that he truly had been terrified over these past fourteen hours. She felt terrible. "You know I wouldn't intentionally make you worry."

He sighed on the other end of the phone…on the other end of the world. She'd never wanted to hug Chris more than she did right now. He sounded so tired.

"I know, Claire. You know I only get like this because I..." he trailed off. It didn't matter, of course. Claire could have easily finished the million potential endings of that sentence that he had going on in his undoubtedly sleep deprived mind.

"I know," she said. "I love you too, Chris."

He laughed.

"You're going to let me know when you get your new phone, right?"

"First thing tomorrow. And you'll be the first person that I call, of course."

"Better be."

They both laughed simultaneously.

"I had best go, I'm going to rack up a fortune on Leon's phone."

"Well that's what he gets," Chris jabbed. Claire laughed it off.

"I'll be seeing you soon, right?"

"If all goes well here."

"Good. Goodnight Chris and…I'm sorry again."

There was a pause, a sigh, and a laugh somehow, it seemed all at the same time.

"I love you, Claire. You know that, right?"

She smiled to herself.

"Yeah. I love you too, Chris."

"I'll be coming home soon. Be careful, alright?"

"Ditto."

He hung up.

Claire turned to hand the awkward phone back to Leon, but he was snoozing lightly in his chair which was still tipping tediously on its two hind legs. Normally Claire would have marveled at such an accomplishment, but instead she only sat the phone down on the desk next to him and cleared up her paperwork. The report could wait, and who knew when the next time either of them would be able to catch a decent amount of sleep again.