This is the sequel/follow up to Thoughts and Feelings. It's going to be a much longer fic, I have several chapters done of them just need fine tuning and proof reading. I need a beta reader like woah so if anyone wants to volunteer... *Can be totally shameless.* I want to thank everyone who left such wonderful reviews for Thoughts and Feelings and told me how much they enjoyed it. I hope you'll enjoy this one just as much. I'm gonna try and explore a little more in depth with the characters, so be patient with it. As always I live and breath for reviews, they make my day so let me know what you think, good or bad. But hopefully not flaming.
Also has a quick note before I forget, I have not played RE5 yet. I do not currently have an Xbox and I haven't gotten around to spoiling myself on the story. So if I end up contradicting something in the game, my humblest apologies.
Leon walked into his office, nursing his third, or was it fourth? cup of coffee for the day. The recent spat of restless nights was starting to take a toll. Leon had become good friends with his coffee maker lately, he'd even been willing to let Starbucks rob him of his hard earned money for some coffee. He still wasn't sure if he'd gotten a large or a vente, or if they were the same thing. He supposed it didn't matter what size it was, with the amount they had charged him he almost expected his Styrofoam cup to be gold-plated.
Shaking his head he sat down as his desk, starting up the incredibly advanced computer and leaning back. Lacking in sleep made his mind wander, and he couldn't really have that. There might not have been any new action for him to see in the past month and a half since Harvardville, but that didn't mean there weren't things to be done. After what had happened he'd renewed his search for Umbrella employees, especially those that had been in the ridiculously large research department. There was simply no way that Fredric Downing was the only Umbrella researcher to walk off with a sample of some of the viruses, or even worse some of the B.O.W.s that had been created.
Leon sighed and sipped his coffee, staring in an almost meditative fashion at his slowly booting computer screen. It had all been so simple in the beginning, the campaign to bring down Umbrella, to stop them from creating more super bio-weapons. They had succeeded, but sometimes it seemed like their success had only created more problems. There was no Umbrella now, but the collapse of the company had left a power vacuum that people and corporations were trying desperately to fill. Then of course there were the multitude of bio weapons that had been created and the fact that there were many, many employees who had had access and might have decided to take it with them in the hopes of creating some quick money and a little terror. On his more eloquent, or morose days, Leon would find himself thinking that Umbrella itself had become a kind of virus, something that took over your life and continued to spread with no way to stop it.
A knock at the door made Leon blink and look up, nodding when he saw Hunnigan standing there. "Good morning Hunnigan. What's going on?" The two had met in person, but not very often. Generally Leon was out in the field and Hunnigan was locked in what Leon privately referred to as her Ivory Closet. So when Hunnigan left the Ivory Closet it meant there was something important he needed to know, or somewhere he needed to go. And Hunnigan rarely disappointed.
"I'm sure you've heard about the murder of Senator Ron Davis." Hunnigan said, stepping inside and setting some files on his desk.
Leon raised an eyebrow, moving the precious coffee cup before it could get spilled. "I'm aware of it, though I can't say I'm mourning his loss."
Leon saw a faint smile cross Hunnigan's lips before she went back to being all business. "Be that as it may, we're going to be investigating the Senator's death." Hunnigan said, crossing her arms.
Leon raised an eyebrow at that, sipping his coffee. "Why? I thought the Secret Service was taking of that?" Investigating things was not typically something their agency did. They were better at creating mysteries than actually solving them.
"You're right, and they still are, but it seems that the entire hard drive on Senator Davis' computer was erased shortly after he was killed. Given his connections to WilPharma, and possible connections to Umbrella, it set up a lot of red flags. Our goal is to find out who killed Senator Davis, erased those files and why. I have some of the computer techs working on seeing if they can retrieve any of the lost data. You've been given the assignment due to your recent involvement with Senator Davis, as well as your connections with the Anti-Umbrella underground. I shouldn't have to tell you that the President doesn't want any more surprises showing up in America courtesy of the former Umbrella Corporation or its employees."
Leon frowned, reaching over and grabbing the top report, which turned out to be the full autopsy report of one Ronald Davis, complete with graphics. And Leon had thought the man had been an ugly penguin when alive... "I'll get started on it then." He said, skimming the report, listening to the retreating sound of Hunnigan's heels as she walked down the hall. "Cause of death given as a broken neck." He murmured, sipping his coffee. He inwardly wondered at the fact that Senator Davis even had a neck left under all the jowls, he certainly didn't look like he did. Leon read over the report, making sure to take special notice of the toxicology run that had been done. There was nothing unusual reported, and the Senator's blood work had been done by two independent labs so there was hopefully little chance of getting a falsified report. Whoever had pulled off the hit was good, the site was completely clean, no evidence of any kind. Not even trace forensic evidence.
Leon spent most of his morning reading the various reports that Hunnigan had left for him. Besides the autopsy and medical reports he had the police report from the scene, along with all of the information the Secret Service and CIA had gathered. On top of that, there was also a report on the Senator's computer and how a rather large portion of the data had been erased and how they were currently working to retrieve what information they could. But even that had been handled expertly and the tone of the report was not very hopeful.
Finally he just threw down the papers in disgust, reaching up to massage the bridge of his nose. All of the technical terms in the report were starting to bleed together and give him a headache. The whole gist was that the Senator was connected to WilPharma and more than likely had at some point been connected with Umbrella as well. Someone had killed him in a very professional manner and removed a lot of information from the Senator's computer after doing so.
Leon was about to go back to the reports when his phone began to beep. He picked it up, surprised to see Claire's number staring back at him. He hadn't really heard from her in two weeks, since that call she'd given him at 3:30 in the morning. He quickly hit accept, smiling a bit. "Kennedy."
"Hi Leon, hope I'm not interrupting your secret agent work." She said, and he could hear the smile in her voice, and it made him smile as well. He could already feel his headache lessening.
"Not at all, in fact I wouldn't mind and interruption right about now. How are the Philippines?" He asked, turning his chair around.
"It's nice, but we're done here. I'm actually flying back tonight... well today, I mean soon." She let out a sigh. "My plane leaves in two hours. I'm actually taking some vacation time and my flight actually ends at DC. Thought you might have figured a more normal place to bump into each other at."
Leon straightened at that, glancing at his calender. "How long is the flight?" It was a Thursday now and it would be quite a flight so she should arrive sometime Friday morning. Which was soon confirmed by Claire herself.
"It's about a seventeen hour flight. So once I get there, get checked into a hotel, and maybe sleep off my jet lag, we can meet up." Leon heard the sound of luggage being zipped up in the background as Claire spoke.
"You don't have to stay in a hotel Claire, you're welcome to stay at my place." It was a slightly impulsive action on his part, but he imagined Claire had to be tired of staying in hotels. An maybe he was just a closet masochist, inviting the very attractive Claire Redfield to stay in his apartment while she was in town on vacation.
"I couldn't bother you like that Leon, it's not a big thing really." Claire said, and he could hear creaking in the background.
"It's not an inconvenience Claire. We're friends after all, and I have a large apartment with more than enough space and a very comfortable and expensive couch that doesn't get used enough." He heard Claire laugh and knew instantly that he'd convinced her. "Tell me when your flight is supposed to come in and I'll pick you up at the airport." When he hung up with her he leaned back in his chair, looking at his calender again. He knew he'd just been given a new assignment, but it could wait at least one more day, because he was going to take Friday off. Claire was actually going to be staying with him, so he wanted to be able to spend time with her without having to worry about the office. And it wasn't like he couldn't take his work home with him. Besides, they had told him to use his Anti-Umbrella connections, and a big one of those was the Redfield siblings.
Leon nodded to himself before turning back to his reports. He didn't really notice that he was still smiling a bit as he sat there making notes on things to check out further. Only twenty minutes had passed before her heard his phone beeping again. He answered it without looking at the number. "Kennedy." He said, still looking over crime scene photos from the Senator's office.
"You almost sound like you're someone important Rookie." Chris Redfield's voice came over the line, sounding incredible amused. Leon sighed, knowing that to Chris he would always be a rookie, no matter what he did or what new bio-terror incidents he survived. Leon could only imagine how he'd be if he started dating Claire. That thought made Leon pause for a minute, and then he decided not to follow that thought right now because he had no idea where it had even come from or where it was going.
"Nice to hear from you too Redfield. What can I help you with?" Leon asked, tapping his pen on the desk.
"Hey, you're the one who asked me to see about helping your friend get into B.S.A.A. Well I have a date you can bring her by. Bring her to the Arlington training grounds next Thursday around ten o'clock. I'll put her through the paces and see what she's made of. No promises though Kennedy, I'm going to treat her like I treat everyone else I do evaluations for." Chris said, making his voice sound stern, like he thought Leon was really expecting him to give Angela special treatment.
"I wouldn't expect anything less from you Redfield and she would probably be really pissed off if she thought she was getting special treatment." Leon said, glancing at his calender again. Since Claire would be visiting then he could get the two of them together and tell them what information he had. Once he confirmed with Hunnigan that he did in fact have authorization to release information. "Once the test is done though, I need to talk with you about some things that have recently come up."
He could almost hear Chris frowning. "That doesn't sound good Kennedy. This have anything to do with that WilPharma incident you got Claire involved in?" Leon rolled his eyes at how Chris immediately gave him the blame for Claire's involvement, completely ignoring the fact that Claire was more than capable of getting herself in trouble. "Sort of, I'll tell you more when I see you." Leon said, disconnecting the call.
Two calls from the Redfields in one day, Leon was beginning to wonder if maybe he should buy a lotto ticket, since he was breaking all kinds of records today. Leon looked at his coffee cup, sighing when he saw it was empty. If this was really his lucky day, it would magically refill itself without him having to get out of his chair. After three minutes of staring at it he sighed again and stood up, walking out of his office and moving towards the office coffeepot. Which, of course, was bone dry. Oddly enough, even as it annoyed him it made him feel better too. After all the things that happened in his life, he got nervous when things started going too well. There always had to be a catch somewhere. Leon went about making a new pot of coffee, and as he sat there waiting for the coffee to finish he heard his phone beep again.
Leon sighed, glancing at the still brewing coffee before picking up his phone. This time he did check the number and almost didn't answer it. He really wasn't in the right frame of mind to speak with Angela, but he did need to tell her that what date she could expect to try and impress Chris Redfield. "Hello Angela." He said quickly. "I was going to call you." Sort of, in a few hours when he thought she wouldn't be there to answer and he could just get away with leaving a message. "I just got done speaking with my contact in B.S.A.A. He wants you to come to their Arlington training grounds next Thursday and he's going to give you an evaluation."
He could pick up the sound of a pen scratching over paper as Angela wrote down the date. "Thanks a lot Leon, I really appreciate it. How do I get there?" Leon frowned at the odd note in her voice as she spoke to him. It sound kind of... cooing, or maybe simpering. Maybe he just really needed more coffee before he tried to deal with figuring out Angela's tone of voice.
Leon massaged the bridge of his nose, feeling his headache coming back. "Come down to D.C. and I'll drive you over to the grounds. I need to speak with him about some things afterwords as it is." He glanced at the coffee, relieved to see that it was finally done. "I need to go Angela, let me know when you expect to come in." He waited for her confirmation then closed the call, grabbing up the coffee pot and refilling his cup. Stirring it slightly it occurred to him that he had rather rushed Angela off the phone, and he idly wondered if maybe it was time to invest in decaf.