Chapter 14

Slowly but surely her vision was starting to swim back around to focus, instead of everything being a giant blur, things were starting to take shape. She saw the box-like objects morph into what she deemed to be metal cabinets, or drawers. The dark objects were certainly defining themselves to be people although she still could make out the faces just arms, legs, and a head. She was still trying to communicate with them but was still coming up short on the speech, her voice just wasn't strong enough to get out of her throat as more than a squeak. It seemed that they were trying to communicate with her, she could hear that they were speaking but she must've had alot of fluid in her ears because whatever it was that they were saying sounded muffled.

"Sherry how are you doing?" Leon asked her moving toward her slowly, trying not to look to threatening.

The fair-haired stocky looking one was moving towards her and she slowly backed away from him, feeling a bit scared since she had no idea who on earth these two were. She was still trying to speak, although it still wasn't translatable she was making more sound than just squeaks.

"It's ok Sherry, we're here to help you." Ada said in a slow monotonous tone to try and convey their intentions to her.

Sherry understood what the woman had said although it was still quite muffled. She didn't back away from them anymore and her vision was progressing more rapidly now she could make out the faces of the two would-be rescuers. The woman had raven colored hair and the most lovely colored and sympathetic eyes she'd seen in a long time. But as her vision moved to the gentleman that accompanied the woman, she froze, she didn't know whether or not to believe her eyes. It couldn't be him, she thought he had forgotten about her. He said so long ago that he would keep her safe and never let anything happen to her. Although she had seen the look in his eyes when she had been taken from him, his eyes were pleading to her, apologizing to her and asking for her forgiveness. For so long she hadn't held him accountable for what happened, but she thought that he had just went on with his life, but here he was freeing her from her prison. She manage to mouth his name 'Leon' and her eyes lit up like the fourth of July.

"You...she...did you hear...err see that Ada?" Leon stumbled over his words "She said my name, she remembers me."

"I sure did Leon and that's a good sign, I think." Ada replied to him cracking a smile. What she saw next she didn't quite know what to make of it. It stirred an emotion in her that she didn't remember ever having felt.

Leon went to Sherry and she flew into his arms before he could make it all the way over to her, she nearly crushed his neck she squeezed so hard. "It's..aach." she really was crushing his neck, he was struggling to break her stranglehold on him but she was far stronger than she looked. He looked over to Ada pleading with her, his face turn a nice shade of rose.

"Sherry, you have to let him go he can't breathe." Ada told her walking up behind Leon so Sherry could see her.

"I'm sorry." she said letting out a low whisper. "Hey, I can talk." it was barely audible but it was there.

As Leon grasped his knees trying to catch his breath, he coughed heavily "It's ok I'll be fine. I'm just glad your ok, I finally found you Sherry." he took a knee. The emotion catching up with him finally, he nearly broke down, "Sherry I don't know where to start. I tried for the longest time to find you and every time I made any progress I hit a brick wall. I thought..." he started to weep "I thought you were dead. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to find you. Is there any way you can find it in your heart to forgive me?" he asked as a few streaks made their way down his cheeks.

She walked over to him and kneeled before him, grasping his shoulders, raising his head with her hand under his chin. She whispered to him as much as she could "It's ok Leon, somehow while I was in there I knew you were looking for me. Don't ask how but I knew. I don't blame you for anything." she finished giving him a big smile.

"Thank you Sherry. I'm just...I don't know how to put it. Relieved I guess that I finally know that your alright." he grabbed her up in his arms and gave her as much of a bear hug as his aching ribs would allow.

Ada just stood there smiling all the while, that feeling making it's way into the pit of her stomach. She had no idea why she was feeling like this, she should be happy for them both, Leon had finally rescued the long lost Sherry and she had finally been set free from Wesker's filthy hands. But for some reason she still didn't feel right. "Leon we need to get out of here." she finally said breaking up their reunion.

"Yeah...sure let's go." he said never taking his eyes from Sherry. He was making for damn sure she didn't get out of his sight this time. He cut a small length of wire from one of the machines and tied one end to his ammo belt and handed the other end to Sherry. "Whatever you do, don't let go of this." she nodded her acknowledgement. "Ada can you take point?" he asked her.

"Sure, come on." she said walking out of the room. Walking past the headless Tyrant and the impaled Wesker her lips twisted into a smile. "See you in hell." she whispered to his corpse as she passed by.

"Did you say something Ada?" Leon inquired walking past Weskers lifeless corpse.

"Hmm. No I didn't say anything." she lied.

They slowly wound their way back through the complex meeting minimal resistance along the way. The few contacts they had were disposed of with little effort. As they walked Sherry slowly began to regain her senses fully and she noticed that Leon hadn't changed very much since she had seen him last in Raccoon City. He had gained a little weight but she saw that it wasn't in the wrong places, he looked absolutely wonderful to her eyes. That is with the exception of all the bumps and bruises he carried right now. She walked right next to him most of the time unless he asked her to back up, which she was grateful that he hadn't asked to many times. She was transfixed with him, almost to the point that she couldn't take her eyes off him, she almost tripped a few times because she was to busy looking at him.

Leon had noticed Sherry was looking at him for quite a long time he had just kept it to himself, chalking it up to her still being used to living life in an aquarium. Possibly using him as an anchor to keep her from going insane from the change of environment, slowly bringing her back to the reality of being free. Ada is being awful quiet up there, wonder what her take on all this is? he thought to himself. "Ada you ok up there?" he asked her.

She had taken the point and advanced ahead of them about five yards or so quite awhile back. She wanted to make sure that if anything did get a jump on them she would be far enough ahead that it wouldn't put their charge in danger of being hurt. She was so entranced on keeping her senses keen, listening for a silent enemy, so focused on the path ahead of them she almost didn't hear Leon talking to her. "Wha-" she started to ask "Me? Oh..yeah I'm good." she wasn't as good as she was letting on though. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but something kept nagging at the back of her mind, just kind of lingered, hanging around like the friend that never got the hint when it was time to leave. The path to Sherry wasn't easy by any means, but she thought for a second that it wasn't hard enough. Almost like they were allowed to get in and get out with their objective and their lives intact. Maybe it was because she was so focused on Leon's safety until they reached their destination, but the facility seemed a bit understaffed. Albeit the inhabitants of the building had been turned into flesh-eating zombies, it still seemed like there weren't as many people in here as there should be. Something was definitely not right here.

They made it out of the complex unscathed, making their way back up the cliffs. Sherry had slipped a few times on the face of the cliff due to having nothing but a lab coat on, they couldn't find any clothes for her to wear anywhere in the complex during their retreat. So she had a couple of scrapes and bruises when they finally reached the SUV parked on the other side of the small mountain. Leon grabbed the medkit in the back of the truck and proceeded to treat the small cuts with some hydrogen peroxide and pasted a few band-aids on the few larger ones. All the while Sherry's eyes remained locked on Leon as he slowly and gently tended to her abrasions, her stomach had a twist in it and her breathing was rapid and heavy.

While Leon was taking care of Sherry's minor cuts Ada sat for a moment and watched the two out of the corner of her eye. She had taken note that Sherry for some reason or another had her complete and full attention fixed on Leon for the entire trip after they had gotten out of the facility. She was betting that it had been the same way while they were in there too, she just couldn't see it. "Leon we need to get you to a medical facility right now you still have a big problem on your hands." Ada told him, she turned the key to start the vehicle. She knew that the pain reliever she had given him earlier would be wearing off pretty soon and then he would be in a world of hurt.

"I feel fine Ada." he replied "Just give me a second." he finished pasting the last bandage on the worst of Sherry's cuts and lifted her legs into the back of the truck and shut the door. He climbed in the front after removing his kevlar vest and throwing it in the back seat. He groaned a little at the pain it caused him but he figured he had gone this long dealing with it he could go just a bit longer. He shot Ada a smile and said "Ok let's blow this pop stand."

The long journey back to the safe house was pretty much uneventful. Leon had slowly but surely slipped back into groaning and cringing at any bump they ran across, the painkiller finally wearing off fully. "Try to get some rest handsome, I'll wake you when we get to the house." Ada smiled brushing his hair out of his face. "Why don't you lay your seat back, it'll help with the pain some." he did as she asked and closed his eyes, almost immediately falling into a deep slumber.

Sherry had moved to the middle of the back seat so Leon could lay his seat down, and she ran her fingers through his hair as Ada had done. Except she continued to do it, somewhat like petting him. "So how long have you know Leon?" she mumbled to the raven-haired driver.

"Well, off an on for around ten years. Just about the same amount of time as you." Ada replied to her looking up in the rear view mirror, seeing that she still had not taken her eyes off of him. She was starting to get just a little creeped out by the focus this girl had on Leon. "So do you know what went on while you were in there all these years?"

"Just bits and pieces really. They would take me out sometimes and run all sorts of tests on me, take blood samples, give me injections of some kind or another." she said without any sort of emotion.

"Hmm." Ada's eyes narrowed. "So how was it that you remembered Leon so well after all these years?" she asked fishing for something.

"He was the only thing that kept me sane while I was there." her voice perked up alittle "All I could ever think about was when he was going to come and rescue me. And he finally did."

The way her voice changed with her last statement made Ada worry. She had seen this kind of behavior before, after being rescued from a harrowing experience people tended to get attached to their rescuers in one way or another. Sometimes so attached it became dangerous, bordering on obsession. She hoped Sherry wasn't becoming obsessed with him. Ada sighed with relief as the house was coming into view down the streets, finally coming out of the desert she turned on to the street and towards the house. She grabbed Leon's leg to let him know that they were there. She looked up in the mirror and saw Sherry gazing at her oddly. "Leon, hey wake up sleepyhead."

"I thought we needed to go to the hospital." he said rubbing his eyes and stretching for a yawn. "Hey wait a minute." he stopped and stretched again "Why don't I feel like my ribs are broken anymore, bruised maybe but not broken?" he asked turning to Ada.

"I gave you a concentrate of the herbal mixture, and it sped up your healing process." she said not turning to face him "I just wanted to get you to a hospital to make sure that everything went ok, but from the way you sound it went better than ok." she finished pulling into the small driveway. She got out and grabbed her gear from the rear hatch and walked into the house. There was a fire slowly building in the pit of her stomach but she needed to get into a shower and try to put it out while washing away the grime, blood and stench of the day. She went straight for the bathroom dropping things along the way, silently fuming.

"Come on Sherry." Leon opened the back door and grabbed her hand as she exited the truck. "Let's see if we can get you cleaned up and in some real clothes." he smiled at her.

After finishing her shower, Ada emerged from the ceramic enclosed space refreshed. She passed into the bedroom and chose a pair of shorts and a tank top to wear for the evening. Walking out into the small living room she declared "I'm finished." then looked between Leon and Sherry "Who's next?"

"Sherry, why don't you go ahead." Leon nudged her.

"Ok, why not I haven't had a real shower in years." she said to the pair of shocked looks.

"Let me know when your finished, I'll help you pick out some clothes." Ada offered as Sherry walked into the bedroom.

Leon waited for the sound of the shower and then grabbed up Ada around the waist, twirling in circles "I've been wanting to hold you for the last two days." he said letting her down, kissing on her neck.

"Eww, back off, you are a certifiable smelly, bloody, yucky person right now." she said swatting at him with the towel. "Get cleaned up first then maybe, just maybe, I'll let you put your paws on me."

"Jeez, what does a guy have to do to get some affection around here, save the world?" he said throwing his hands in the air.

"Hmm. I think you've been getting quite enough affection since we left that place." Ada shot a glare at him.

"Huh." was all Leon could manage.

He swirled in darkness for what seemed like an eternity, endlessly falling into a never ending pit of blackness. There was nothingness, it was apparent that he had finally been sent to his oblivion. Then, all of a sudden, there was a light coming ever closer, hovering in the middle of the void like a beacon in the night. He fell straight into the light and he was awake. And not very happy.

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