"Ashley, drive!" Leon shouted. He pulled out his gun and began shooting the men who were running after us before tossing me some ammo.

"Salazar took our guns!"

"Then use this," he said, handing me his Blacktail. I smiled; it felt so nice having that gun back in my hands.

We were keeping the freaks down fine, until another truck came barreling towards us, it's horn blaring.

"What do we do, Leon?!" I asked in a panic, but he had already pulled out his TMP and had begun shooting the trucks engine. In about three seconds, the truck had erupted in flames and had crashed right in front of us.

I caught my breath and smiled at the man. "That was close."

"Too close." He nodded.

"And kind of amazing…" I admitted, not looking him in the eyes.

He grinned with his eyebrows raised at me, turning my face red. Then, the truck stopped and another shutter fell down behind us, so we couldn't go back. "Leon, up there!" Ashley pointed to a lever up on a floor above us.

"Alright, I'm gonna go up there and pull that lever, Emily, you stay and shoot anyone who jumps down, and Ashley…" She looked up hopefully. "Just sit there until I get back." Her look suddenly fell, and I shrugged when she looked at me.

Leon hopped off the back of the truck and climbed up a ladder to our left. We heard him fight a few guys up there, and some even jumped down onto the truck, but I shot them like Leon told me too. After about two minutes he was back aboard the truck, and the lift was rising, taking us to our next destination.

Suddenly we stopped and doors in front of us opened and Ashley was driving again. There were a lot more people who ambushed us this time. Too many people for Leon and I to handle, even with his trusty TMP, so he pulled out Ye Olden Striker, and there were body parts flying everywhere.

Just then another truck blared its horn and Ashley shouted. "It's coming right at us!"

Leon did everything he could, but the truck wouldn't stop barreling towards us. At the last second though, Ashley twisted the wheel hard to the left, and we crashed into the building next to us.

There was dust and rubble everywhere. I heard the sound of grunting immediately followed by "Are you girls okay?"

"Yeah…" Ashley grunted stepping off the truck.

"Em?" Leon called out.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine… Ah-!" I screamed in shock and pain. My hair had been caught under one of the rocks. Leon was immediately at my side.

"What's wrong? Where are you hurt?" He was flooding me with questions again.

"It's my hair…" I said. I knew putting my hair in a ponytail would eventually cause some kind of harm. Well, not really, I just didn't want to admit to myself that after all we had been through, my hair would be the thing to hurt me.

"Hold on, I'll get it." Leon quickly lifted the rock that was pinning me and I was free.

"Thanks." I said with a small smile.

"No problem. You ready?"

I nodded sheepishly and we all walked forward.

After opening the door to the next room, we saw there were multiple chairs and tables in front of us, but the main thing I noticed was the blue torch in the back of the room. I didn't run up to him yet, because Leon wanted to loot the room first, even though I had assured him we wouldn't find anything. If there was something valuable, the Merchant probably would have taken it. But he didn't listen and kept searching.

"Leon," said man looked at me. "If you could have anything you wanted right now, what would it be?"

He thought for a second. "Anything I want?" I nodded and he continued. "Hmm… that's a tough one. But if I had to choose, I guess I'd want three one-way tickets back home."

I thought about that for a moment, and then he said, "What about you?"

"What?" I looked up at him, not understanding what he was talking about. My mind was elsewhere at the moment.

"What would you want?"

I knew what I wanted, and it was hard just saying it. "M-my parents… duh."

"Well… that's a given. Anything other than that."

You. I want you and I want you like I've never wanted anything else, parents aside.

"Uh…" Please don't say 'You.' Please don't say 'You.'

Thankfully, I didn't; I said the second thing that came to my mind. "Cheesecake."

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. "Cheesecake, huh?" I nodded. "Yeah, that does sound pretty good."

"What about you, Ash?"

"Huh?" She snapped her head up. She'd obviously been deep in thought about something.

"If you could have anything in the world right now, what would it be?"

"Oh uh… Chinese food." She said with a large, toothy smile.

"Oh, I LOVE Chinese food!" I quickly agreed.

The man beside us just chuckled and finally walked up the Merchant.

I was mentally arguing with myself while he exchanged jewels and such with the masked man. I was going insane. Leon was ten years older than me, why was I wasting my time thinking about him so much, when I knew there was virtually no chance of me ever having a shot with him? I mean, he was gorgeous; he could have any woman he wanted, what made me think he would even want to look at me twice?

Whatever it was, it was driving me forward. I hated to admit it, but I was head over heels in love with him, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

"You ready to go?" Leon asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I know I've mentioned it before, but just that one look, the one where there's just a glint of something in his eyes, and only a half-smile on his face. That one. It made my heart race and my face turn a deep shade of red.

"Y-yeah…" I said, walking past him, trying to hide my face.

The second I saw what was behind those doors I gasped rather loudly. The room was empty except for a table that stood up on the floor above some stairs, but that's not what scared me; Saddler was standing there, holding his freaky pole, and giving us a glare that could cut through steel.

Leon rushed out and stepped in front of Ashley and me.

"I can feel them growing ever so strongly inside you…" Saddler said in his creepy voice.

"Saddler!" Leon shouted. He began sprinting forward, towards the robed man, but suddenly Saddlers hand shot up and Leon stopped dead in his tracks, clutching his chest. He was screaming and grunting in pain.

"Leon!" I screamed. Ashley looked almost in tears.

"Perhaps you can resist… but you cannot disobey." I hated that man. He was the reason so many people I cared about were dead. My mom, my dad, Luis… I didn't know if I could make it out of there if he took Leon from me, too.

With Leon still grunting in pain on his hands and knees, I began rushing forward. I didn't know what I would do once I got to Saddler, but I was running. Not for long, though. Suddenly there was an overwhelming pain in my chest. I couldn't process what was happening and collapsed to the floor as I felt the pain as strong as a hundred daggers digging themselves straight into my torso. I was screaming so loudly and was shocked at how much sound could find its way out of my throat. My screams sounded desperate, and were filled with so much agony it scared me. My eyes were watery with the sheer pain and my breathing came out in sharp, shallow rasps. Sweat dripped down the side of my face and covered my forehead in a thin sheen. Eventually, my screams were reduced to loud grunts and sharp intakes of breath. I didn't know how much more I could take. That's when I heard Saddler scoff and move his hand towards Ashley.

"Now, come to me… Ashley."

I could hear her gasp, and a few seconds later, I saw her muddy brown boots walk their way across the room to the man standing there.

"Ash…ley…" Leon managed to grunt out. I knew he was still in pain, and not being able to do anything about it hurt. So I had the very physical stabbing pain in my chest, and emotional pain gnawing at my heart-strings.

I squeezed my eyes shut tight. I wanted the pain to go away, for everything to go away. It was all too much for me. I would need serious therapy after everything ended, but that's if it did.

To my utter disbelief, the pain in my chest slowly began fading, and I sat up clutching my chest.

"You okay?" I heard Leon ask and he crouched down in front of me. I felt the need to cry and hug him at the same time. I looked up into his eyes, and I swear I don't know what came over me, but I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his.

His mouth lay dry, unmoving, but still the sweetest thing I'd ever tasted in my life. I moved my tentative lips over his. I didn't really expect him to respond in anyway, but when I felt his bottom lip make the slightest of movements, I reached up and placed my hands on either sides of his face. It wasn't like it was in the movies; it was so much better. One of his hands was resting on me neck, guiding me to his lips. My heart was racing and my hands slowly made their way down, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, one of my hands tangling itself in his hair. I could tell he was very tentative about everything, but it was obvious a small part, no matter how deep down, wanted it too; he kissed me back with almost the same amount of force. It was right after I gently brushed my tongue against his bottom lip when he finally pulled away.

"Emily, wait."

I ignored him and kissed him quickly one more time. I was falling apart, and he was the only one who could put me back together. I needed him.

When I pulled away again, his eyes had taken on a harder glow.

He stood up slowly, putting some distance between us so he could speak. "I don't think that's the best thing that could have happened…" I refused to look him in the eye. "I…" He sighed. "You're confused, and you don't know what you're doing. Yes, it's normal for a young woman to develop feelings for their rescuer, if you could even call me that, but it doesn't necessarily mean you should act on those feelings."

"Hey, you kissed me back." I retorted. I was trying my best not to let the pain in my voice show through.

He sighed again. "I know, that was wrong of me. It won't happen again."

I stared up at him. "Leon, I—"

"You don't know what you're doing." He interrupted. "Think about things like that before you do them."

I finally stood up, too. "That's the thing, Leon. I have thought about it. I've been thinking about it!"

"You're seventeen!"

"Well that obviously didn't matter a second ago!"

I had hit a nerve, I knew it. "I just…" I took a few steps forward so that I was inches away from him. I could feel the heat radiating from his body and I had to fight the urge to kiss him again. I rested my forehead and my hands on his broad chest, afraid to say anything else.

I felt his chest rise and fall before he finally said, "I think… it would be best if we acted like this didn't happen for a while."

I nodded slightly. I'm not going to lie, that hurt. But I also knew that neither of us needed for me to start crying again. That would just freak him out more, and we needed to find Ashley.

There. That's a good place to stop right? ;D Sorry for spamming your inboxes with chapters, I just really felt like I should make up for the time I was gone. So how'd you like the chapters? Reading them yesterday I couldn't help but fangirl all over again. It's not weird fangirling over your own work, is it? Nahh.

Anyways, like I said before should I start a new series, maybe an AU or something similar, or write another fic for Leon and Emily. I could go either way on that. I'd be fine leaving their story how I did in IOJB, but I could also make something interesting. Very interesting. Muahaha.

Ahem. Yeah. So new story all together or another branch off of this series? I would really appreciate your help on this. After all, you gotta give the people what they want, right? Right. Again thanks, and I promise to have a few more chapters up tomorrow. See you then 3