Kate: Virginia (Leon's House)

I woke up to the sound of pencil on paper. I sat up and saw Steve bent over a notebook, writing furiously, at the desk. I saw three cans of Dr. Pepper on the ground and one next to him.

His brown hair hung in front of his eyes. He didn't seem to know that I was awake, or, at the very least, acknowledge that he knew I was. He just continued writing and writing, flipping pages and starting filling blank pages over and over.

I slowly got up, walking over to Steve, and reached out to touch his shoulder. He visibly jumped and looked at me. He smiled, instantly relaxing.

"Good morning, Kate," he said to me.

"Good morning, Steve," I said in return.

"Sorry if I woke you up, I was…" he gestured to the notebook, "I was doing this."

I knew that Steve wrote when he was frustrated. It was just something that he'd always done, and was most likely never going to change. It was a rather endearing quality—after all he'd been through, one might have expected him to go into a rampage when angry, but all he did was grab a notebook and a pen and he'd retreat to his room, rather than have a verbal or physical confrontation.

"It's fine," I told him. "What's this story about?" I asked.

He blushed. "It's nothing, really, just a few blurbs thrown together."

I took the notebook out from under him and started reading out loud. "And there she was, blonde hair cascading down her back. She was more beautiful than any other person he'd ever seen, but to complicate matters, she wasn't the woman he was betrothed to."

I raised an eyebrow.

"That's Sherry. She's actually the betrothed, but the prince doesn't know that because she was taken in by her godfather, the king, and when he asked her who her parents were, she had told him that her father was an alchemist," Steve quickly explained.

"That's quite the analogy," I teased, causing him to turn a brighter red. I smiled as I returned the notebook and then went to retrieve some clothes. "I'm going to take a shower, will you be alright?"

The young brown haired man nodded at me, shooing me off. I gave him a friendly kiss on the forehead before I left the room.

I practically hopped in and out of the shower, brushed my teeth, did my hair, and got dressed into clothes that would soon have to be replaced by maternity clothes—I cringed at the thought of that expense.

I went back into my room to find Steve still hunched over the journal. He stopped, put down his pen, and got up. He came over to me and gave me a tight hug, pressing his face against my shoulder.

"I hate her," he told me, though I had no idea who he was talking about. When he said 'hate' and 'her' in the same sentence, it used to refer to Claire. Now I was getting the vibe that it could also mean Sherry. "Do you hate her; Sherry?"

"Our relationship is complicated," I told him, avoiding an outright answer. Did I hate her? Did I have any reason to hate her?

Steve looked at me, his grey eyes boring into me. He leaned forward slightly…

I didn't realize until his lips were against mine that he was kissing me, or had any intention to do so. I was four years older than him, but that didn't seem to matter as the kiss deepened.

Or the tiny fact that I was carrying Kollin's baby.

He had me against the wall; not forcefully, just against it.

"Steve," I said as he pulled away from my lips and started kissing down my neck. "Steve, you should stop," I told him.

He did, looking at me in slight confusion.

"You don't hate Sherry," I reminded him. "You love her, and you're only doing this because you're angry that she wants Wesker to be with her."

He stepped back, looking down. "I don't love her. I thought I loved her, but I don't. Kate, why don't you believe me? I don't love Sherry."

"Then who do you love, because it sure as hell ain't me!" I responded, probably a little bit too loud.

"Claire!" he yelled back.

I felt my mouth open, my eyes widen. "But…"

"But what? I've spent the last three and a half years telling everybody I hated her? Kate, I can't hate her. I tried, and it just doesn't work." He sighed and rubbed his temples as he sat down on the bed. "I really tried. I thought about all of her 'bad' qualities, and I realized I found them endearing. I tried to listen to Wesker's endless rants about Chris, and I found that I couldn't apply any of that to Claire. I finally settled on the fact she seemed to not care about what happened to me. So I finally told myself I didn't love her anymore. But when I saw her at the hospital… All of it came rushing back. Now she's with Aaron though, and he's good for her; better than I could ever be.

"I tried to tell myself I loved Sherry when I saw Claire as I walked in. But there's nothing there, Kate, I can't do it," he finished.

I sat down and put my arms around him. "It's alright," I told him. "Nobody's perfect, but that's what makes love interesting."

He got up. "I'm…Kate, I'm gonna head out for a while. Do you need anything?"

"I'll just go with you," I told him. He smiled at me as I reached for my coat and we went downstairs.

Leon had already been up and left a note on the fridge for taking care of Amber. He'd already fed her and took her out, but she'd need to walked again in about an hour. Said dog was nowhere to be seen, so we assumed she was in with Claire and Aaron because she seemed to despise Wesker.

I wrote a note of my own, just telling those still in the house that the two of us were just out to the store and to call my cell if they needed us.

When outside, I found myself in a predicament. Wesker's car was blocking mine in, since we had both had to park on one side of the driveway so Leon could get out of the garage.

Steve smiled, pulling a set of keys out of his pocket. My eyes widened as I realized they were for the Mustang.

"We shouldn't," I started to say, but Steve was already in the car. I trudged forward, sitting in the passenger seat. "He's going to kill us," I told him, sounding like a worried teenager.

"He won't lay a hand on you," he assured me as he backed out of the driveway. I was surprised that Wesker had rushed out of the house and the sound of his car starting, but, seeing as he hadn't, I forced myself to relax against the seats as Steve drove to Target.

Once at the store, we both got Starbucks before walking around. I wasn't sure if there were groceries that needed to be bought or if I should already being buying things for the baby…

Sipping on my hot chocolate, I watched Steve went over to the CD's. He picked up an album, smiling. "This band is awesome, Kate, you should listen to them," he told me, coming over to me and placing the CD in my hands.

"Panic at the Disco?" I asked him.

"Don't judge a band by its name," he told me. "Seriously, get it! It's only ten dollars."

"'It's only ten dollars,'" I teasingly mocked.

He rolled his eyes.

I held onto the CD as we walked through the store. We were about to check out with the few things we got when I heard my naming being called. I felt like a deer in headlights as I turned around and saw Stacey.

"I heard about you being in the hospital," she said, frowning. "Are you alright?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Steve tense. It was brought to my attention that he might not know her.

"I'm definitely better," I said.

"I heard that Chris left; he went to Rebecca's house," Stacey told me.

"Oh, I…" was at a loss for words. I had, of course, known Chris was gone, but I had had no idea where'd he gone off to. I guess knowing this was better than knowing nothing.

"But Billy told me that Chris went to California," Stacey added.

Not that surprising—he had lived there.

"And now Jill is in Maryland," Stacey also said.

"That's, um, nice, I suppose. I've heard it's very beautiful," I said, feeling awkward. I glanced at Steve and saw his eyebrows arched, as if to say That's the best you can come up with? "We really have to check out and go home; I'll see you later, alright?"

Stacey smiled. "Definitely; see you later, Kate!"

I was relieved as she turned around and walked away

When I turned around, Steve had a specific smirk on his face.

"You're not going to tell Wesker about Jill, are you?" he asked me.

"I wasn't planning to; were you?" I asked back. "I mean, I want to stay as far away from that relationship as I possibly can."

"I agree. It's none of our business, and if Jill really wants to talk to Wesker, she will," Steve told me. "She is, apparently at least, a very capable woman."

"Agreed," I said as I handed the cashier my credit card.

Author's Note:

Hello! It's been an awfully long time for this fic, hasn't it? I apologize greatly; I've been working on my real writing, but I'm working myself back into fanfiction!

Please review!

~HolleringHawk65