A/N: Thanks for all the views and visit and my heartfelt thanks to vintage87 and Shirahane Aikawa for their reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil or any of its character, Capcom does.

Chapter 11

Leon, Kathleen and Claire made their way to the Barry's house and Claire seemed to be more excited than before, which only made Leon and Kathleen exchange a few confused gazes. Claire rang the door and as if he was waiting for them Barry opened the door for them. They all greeted each other as they entered the house. The four of them walked to the living, where most of their friends were present and were having breakfast, they all became quiet seeing them and then in another instant greeted them and they took seat wherever they could find it.

"So what was the reason I am up so early on Saturday", Leon asked as Kathy served him and Kathleen breakfast.
"First you tell me what do you think about marriage", Barry asked.
"Why the sudden question", Leon asked taking a sip of his coffee.
"You do know you're engaged right", Jill said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"So what it has to do with my view about marriage", Leon said with laugh of confusion.

"Because we're thinking it's about time you two get married", Kathy said, dropping the bomb.
"What?!"Leon spat out the coffee, he just drank and looked at the Kathleen who was sitting next to him, she had the same expression of astonishment.
"Look Leon we know that Kathleen would be ready for it, the main reason we've been waiting is that we wanted to make sure that you two haven't made a hasty decision of getting married but she's different from your other girlfriends and we all think she's the one for you", Chris said speaking everyone's mind.
"Yeah no matter what you say now, we've decided that you guys are getting married 12th of this month", Claire said clapping enthusiastically.

"But that's one week from now, how're we supposed to get all the preparations", Kathleen asked.
"You guys don't worry about it, all the girls and I've been doing necessary preparations and we even booked the church, all we have to do is get you guys wedding dress and a suit", Kathy said authoritatively.
"And one more thing Kathleen won't be staying with you anymore, till the wedding she would be staying here. And you can't meet her till then but you have the liberty to talk to her but its okay for today", Claire informed Leon.
"And why is that Redfield", Leon asked not happy with the idea.
"Don't you know groom doesn't see bride before their marriage it's a bad omen", Claire said.
"I think you don't know it, it brings bad luck if the couple see each other in wedding dresses before the wedding", Leon reminded her.
"It's also because it'll be fun", Claire said giving him a Cheshire grin.
"What kind of old tradition are we following here?", Leon protested.
"Come on Kennedy, it's only for a week", Chris said casually, "Let the women do what they want, you can't win with them anyway", and Leon sighed in defeat.

After that they all went shopping for different things, all girls went for Kathleen's bridal dress and accessories while they divided the men and asked them to get different things for the wedding. Leon along with Barry, John and Chris was told to get himself a suit for the wedding. And all the men were giving him hard time Leon thought they were worse than girls. Whenever he tagged along for shopping with his girlfriends they would no doubt roam and the markets as if there was no tomorrow but getting a suit for his unexpected wedding was totally making him go nuts. He wanted to talk to Kathleen in person and that too alone but he didn't get the chance as she was shopping god knows where. When all the men agreed for a extremely well looking black suit in which Leon looked good they bought it. Leon was so happy to get back to Barry's house, that now he could have a chance to talk to Kathleen but to his disappointment the women weren't there yet.

They arrived late that evening, all tired and exhausted. Everybody dragged their feet to the living room and flopped on the couch. Leon searched for Kathleen but she was nowhere.
"I am so tired", Claire said removing her shoes.
"So sis what took you guys so long", Chris asked her.
"Where's Kathleen?", Leon asked before Claire could answer.
"John, took her to get her stuff from your place", Kathy answered, "She'll be back soon."
With that they heard John's car and Kathleen stepped out with him and Leon rushed to open the door. He saw John carry her two suitcases and she was carrying the last one.
"Kid help me", John said and Leon took one suitcase from him and tried to take the one which Kathleen was holding but she didn't give it to him saying that she can manage.
"Come this way the room is ready", Kathy showed them the way and once left the luggage, they joined everybody in the living room.

"I am so tired", Claire repeated.
"I would like something you know", Jill said eyeing her husband.
"What! I can't cook", Chris said.
"I'll get everybody coffee or something", Kathleen said getting up and walking to the kitchen, being a regular visitor she knew what was kept where.
"Do you want me to help you?", Kathy said started to get up.
"No, you relax, I'll manage", Kathleen said to her.
"Such a sweet girl!", Kathy said in admiration.

Then they all started talking about the plans they had for the wedding and discussed what's already taken care of and what more needs to be done. The women started suggesting thing as if it were their own wedding but luckily they didn't get Leon involved or asked his opinion on stuff, which gave him a chance to quietly slip out of the living room. He straight away headed for the kitchen because he had to talk to Kathleen in private. He entered the kitchen and saw that she was pouring hot coffee in the cups. She was facing the door and noticed when he got in and she smiled at him, Leon smiled too.

"I was just bringing the coffee", Kathleen told him.
"I am not here for the coffee", Leon told her shaking his head.
"So I guess you are here 'cause of our marriage", she said setting the kettle down on the counter.
"Yes, I wanted to know if you're okay with it?", he asked her, for him it was all too sudden.
"I think I am. At first I thought the opposite but it was your grandma's last wish that we get married and it's both pointless as well as foolish to roam around wearing engagement rings, if we don't want to get married. We have to marry eventually so it's better to get married now cause we aren't getting younger, right?", she said putting the cups on the tray.
"Yeah you're right but it's no play thing it's a lifetime commitment, are you sure you want to spend your whole life with me", Leon asked the very question he wanted to ask and didn't want to ask at the same time.
"Yes it's a lifetime commitment but you can always get out of through a divorce, can't you?", she said smiling weakly.
"Hey I have had enough screwed up relationships and I don't want to add a screwed up marriage to the list", Leon tried to joke.

"Hey where's our coffee and Leon what are you doing here?", John said entering the kitchen, interrupting their chat.
"Here's your coffee", Kathleen said holding the tray up to him so he could take the coffee, "I should better get these or everybody will get mad", Kathleen walked out of kitchen.
"Yeah they were getting a little cranky already", John said following her.

Leon tried to talk to Kathleen again, but it was getting more difficult because his friends came rushing in when he tried to say something important. It was like they were doing it on purpose and didn't want Leon to have too much private time with Kathleen. At last Leon gave up because it was getting a little frustrated for him to try and get Kathleen to somewhere, where he could talk privately. So, he decided to talk to her over phone since it seemed near impossible to talk to her in person without the risk of being overheard.

They all decided to order pizza for dinner, since the women were too tired to cook and it just gave them more time to discuss more stuff. They all had their dinner together a big huge family laughing, joking, and teasing each other that didn't realize when it was the time to leave.

"God look at the time", Barry said looking at his watch, "I think we better rest it for today."
"Yeah let's go home, come on Jill and Claire pack your bags", Chris said getting up and stretching.

Soon they were all out saying goodbyes and goodnight. Leon walked to his car after saying his goodbyes and seeing off everybody and feeling a bit lonely.
"Leon", Leon turned around and saw Kathleen walking towards him.
"Hey I thought you went inside", Leon said as he had not noticed her before.
"No, I was here all the time, you didn't notice", she said with a weak smile.

Leon looked around and saw nobody was there, this was the perfect moment to talk to her but the words didn't make it out of his mouth. It was the last time that he was seeing her, since after that he won't be able to see her for a whole week. Suddenly the fact that he wouldn't be seeing her the entire week was a far greater issue than anything else. He wanted to just keep looking at her beautiful face as long as he could; he wanted to hold her like he had never before.

"Kathleen, what are you doing out there?", Leon snapped out of his trance to see Kathy standing on the porch and yelling at them.
"I'll be just there in a minute", Kathleen said yelling back at her and then turned to Leon, "here I had the house keys", she said holding the keys to him. Leon took it and she said, "Goodbye and take care."
"You too", Leon said faking a smile and Kathleen walked away and when she was out of earshot Leon mumbled involuntary, "I'll miss you."

Leon watched her as she walked away to Kathy who was still standing at the porch. When Kathleen reached Kathy's side, she walked inside and Kathleen turned to look at him. She waved him goodbye and he didn't know if she was smiling because he couldn't make it. He too waved at her but she turned to look inside as if someone was calling and she disappeared before he knew.

A/N: Thanks for taking out time to read. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I tried my best to eliminate the mistakes and typos but even if even then had some trouble because of it, then I sincerely apologize.

Next Chapter

The mere thought of Ada was painful for him, he never mentioned her to anybody not now but she has been popping in his mind ever since he met Kathleen. Speaking of which she also doesn't know that he loved a mysterious woman in red.