Three chapters in one day, well. I am trying to make up for my absence. Please enjoy.

32. Claire

The kiss was something that Claire had not seen coming. Never, ever in her wildest dreams, she would have imagined herself kissing Leon; but there she was, sharing a kiss that, to her surprise, held more feelings than she would have ever suspected.

She and Leon had spent the rest of the evening in the living room, comfortably cuddled on the couch together. For a pair of longtime friends that had just happened to confess their feelings to each other, Claire and Leon's interaction was as it usually was, perhaps a little more tender at times, but relaxed and much less awkward than Claire could have ever imagined. It was almost as if it was natural, like if a sudden change between buddies to potential lovers was nothing in their relationship, and it almost felt unreal.

Claire pressed her back against the closed door and shut her eyes. What if it was? Maybe she was dreaming all this? Was her daily life long with Leon causing old feelings to resurface unconsciously to haunt her?

It is something you wanted, no?

Claire opened her eyes. Her younger self stood in the corner of her room with her arms crossed over her chest. The girl's cerulean eyes stared at her curiously.

We wanted this.

Claire saw her doppelgänger step forward and pace in front of the bookshelf.

It has been long.

The barricade that she had kept for nearly 19 years came down crumbling with only one simple kiss. All the barriers and mechanisms that she had built to bury the feelings she had for the agent began to fall apart. For years Claire had assumed that the agent was madly in love with a certain Chinese spy, and as a result, she resigned herself to the fact that any feelings she might have for Leon would have no future.

"But is it real?"

Is it? You tell me.

"I don't know."

Do you trust him?

"With my life…"

Sometimes you need to take the jump, even if it means falling and hurting yourself.

Yes, hurting yourself. Claire had suffered enough heartbreaks in her life, and even if not all of them were romantic, she wasn't sure if she was up to the idea of getting her heart crushed once again because of an illusion.

The line between indifference and love, when it came to Leon, was getting thinner with each passing day that she spent living with him. The man was a real charmer, and despite his beliefs of Claire being immune to him, the younger Redfield knew that she wasn't.

Leon wasn't exactly the first guy she had crushed over. She had dated a couple of times, and she had biased men before, but those were different. Human emotions were complex, but if Claire had to say the truth- as corny as it'd sound- Leon was her first serious crush.

Dhriti would say he was Claire's first love and that first loves were the ones you would never quite let go of, but Claire couldn't call it love when she wasn't even sure what the feeling was. However, Dhriti was right at something. It seemed that did what she did, or passed what passed, Claire's crush for Leon would stay with her. Was it love, then?

"What does it have to be so complicated…" She sighed.

Love is always complicated. It doesn't matter what kind of love that is.

Claire had only slept a couple of hours that night, as usual. At least the cause of her insomnia hadn't been nightmares of shadowy creatures and cold, gloved hands, but confusing thoughts about a certain blonde.

Claire busied herself with the mechanical task of cracking eggs into the frying pan and buttering some bread slices that would soon go into the oven. Her hands moved on automatically while her mind kept juggling the thoughts that had stolen her dreams the past few hours.

"Never thought I'd see someone preparing breakfast as it was some kind of mission, Claire…" Leon chuckled bemusedly.

Claire nearly dropped the butter knife as her thoughts had suddenly summoned the subject of her dreams. Luckily, she had managed to recover herself on time. The auburn-headed turned on her heels; Leon was standing, arms crossed with his shoulder leaning against the wall. His green eyes were looking at her with a mix of amusement, curiosity, and ...fondness?

"Jesus...Leon, do you have to be so silent?" she cried out, and she saw the man snort.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," Leon replied, walking to her, " But I am surprised. You're not one to let your guard down that easily…"

"I was a little distracted…" Claire shrugged.

Thinking about you, she thought.

"I see…" Leon said; he stretched his hand to brush off a lock of hair from her face, and she shuddered, "You look like you could use a little more sleep…"

"Well...sleep is a sneaky partner these days…" Claire sighed, "guess I'm not getting enough beauty sleep...huh?"

"You're as pretty as you usually are, but you are looking tired, too. Are you okay?"

"Peachy..." Claire winked at him. She was tired as hell, but even if she tried to sleep, she'd just wake up to be tired again, "Really, I am okay. You should know better than treating me like a damsel in distress."

"I know that, but that doesn't make me worry less, though…."Leon laughed.

"Less worry, more eating, Kennedy," she said teasingly.

Claire was glad that he didn't seem to change his usual behavior despite his confession from last night. She wasn't sure if she could handle a lovey-dovey Leon, and as a matter of fact, she had no idea if Leon was that kind of boyfriend? Were they a couple now?

"It is an office day today, should take it easy…"

" I am a Redfield...taking it easy is something I don't know how to do."

"Guess I should blame Chris on that one…"

"He was the one that raised me to be who I am…" Claire laughed, "So I take that as a yes. What are you doing today? I doubt you'll be following me around the DSO, will you?"

"Who said I wouldn't?"

Claire looked at Leon with a raised eyebrow, and the man simply smiled. He extended his arm to her and stroked her face gently, and Claire could feel her face heat up.

"You'll get bored…" she warned him, "Science usually follows me around…"

"You know. Maybe I am starting to like science after all…"

"Are you trying to win me over, Leon?"

"Do I need to?"

Claire opened her mouth to say something but closed it instead and then laughed softly. She took the hand that was holding her cheek and looked at the agent affectionately. The doubts she felt were still there. However, for now, she would only cling to what she felt. If mh

"If you needed to, I would have kicked your ass after kissing me so randomly last night…" she replied, "You're lucky I actually like you too much already…"

"Well, does it help if I say I enjoyed that kiss and that I absolutely don't regret what I did?"

"Sure it helps, gallant. As I said, you are lucky I liked you too much, already," Claire said, poking his chest teasingly, " but I can't speak for Chris…"

Claire chuckled at Leon's mortified look while she stood up picking the, now empty, plates and brought them to the sink. She couldn't help but smile as she washed and placed the dishes aside to dry. Suddenly, Claire felt a pair of arms around her waist and found Leon's chin resting on her right shoulder. The gesture took her by surprise, but surprisingly, she found the gesture quite comforting and enjoyable.

"What are you doing, huh?"

"Enjoying this...what else?"

"Oh really…"

Claire turned on her heels until she was face to face with the agent. Leon's arms were still around her waist, and Claire smiled when their lips locked in a modest kiss. Kissing Leon would be something she'll have to get used to, but it sure was something that she didn't mind getting used to since she found this newfound closeness warm and comforting. She hated the fact that she'll have to be the one to stop it.

"As much as I am enjoying this…" she whispered, "We are going to be late…."

"Damn responsibilities, huh?" Leon smirked, "That's fine. I'll get my chance later…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't forget that you're still my wife…" he replied, giving her a quick kiss "don't blame me if I take the "act" more real now…"

"Idiot…." Claire laughed, "Let's go, honey. We'll really be late, otherwise..."

The small teasing and furtive kisses and caresses followed them down to the parking lot, and for the first time in years, Claire felt normal. She forgot about Mobius, forgot that she was Leon's fake wife and that she was in a race to figure out a way to destroy a dangerous virus; she even forgot that her body was restraining her and making her feel ill now and then. Between the jokes and the affectionate gestures, she felt happy, and she wondered if the blonde agent felt the same way.

"Good morning to you two…" Helena greeted them. The woman was standing in front of Leon's door with a cup of coffee and a file, "You are later than usual today..."

"Good morning, Helena…" Claire smiled, "Sorry, we got delayed. You can blame that on Leon since he was fooling around…"

"I had my reasons to fool around for a while…"

"That's not an excuse…"

"Okay…" Helena said with a frown, "Did I miss something?"

"Not really…" Claire chuckled as she followed Leon into the office with Helena.

Helena was a sharp woman, it would not take her long to realize that something was strange between the pair, but Claire wasn't going to be the one revealing the news on her relationship status for the time being.

"Brother- in -law checking up…" Leon said with a smirk as he passed his phone to Claire.

The auburn-headed rolled her eyes as she picked up the phone and looked at the message.

"Brother-in-law?" Helena asked with a frown.

"He's just teasing me...like he usually does. Don't mind him…" Claire said, glaring at Leon, but her glare was softer than usual, and she knew Leon had noticed that small detail when he caressed her hand surreptitiously when she returned his phone.

" Jokes aside; Chris seems to be onto something here…" Leon said, hanging up his jacket on the back of his chair " his worries about the improved resistance of the new BOW's are valid. It is sure a problem that we'll need to address…"

"I haven't faced one myself, but for what I read in your report, those things are a pain in the ass, huh?" Helena said, sipping her coffee, "Any ideas from the BSAA…"

"They're caught up with the mess of losing one of their settlements." Claire replied, "That's probably what Mobius wanted by messing up with the Welsh Branch…"

"Then maybe we should try something…" Helena suggested, " Isn't there a department focused on weaponry research?"

"DSO has a department dedicated to weaponry?" Claire asked with a raised eyebrow, "There I thought it was all a rumor…"

"It's not a big deal, but it was an addition to the organization after Hopkins took over. It has links to the BSAA, too…" Leon explained, "Most of the armament used to counter bioterrorist attacks these days are developed by BSAA, but the DSO has one or two things credited for, out there. Their workshop is a floor below us..."

"Huh? Maybe I should go and say hi…"

"You're a weapon designer now? That's a side I didn't know…" Leon asked, bemused.

"No, unfortunately, I am not...but perhaps I'll stumble with something useful…" Claire said, tilting her head at him with a smile, "You know the kind of weapons I like. Those that pretty much make everything blow up, but seriously now, so far, the only two kinds of BOWs have been dropped on us. You can be sure that the list goes longer than two types, and if my running tests are anyhow correct, all of them will be a pain in the ass to kill with normal equipment…"

"Sounds like we'll have to use the heavy arms…" Helena said, shaking her head "that sure is gonna make everything more destructive…"

"Yes, and even then, there's a high chance that it won't work. The rate of regeneration in cellular cultures is already alarmingly fast. In real tissue, it could be double. If the damage done isn't as destructive or fast enough to overpass the regeneration rate, it might not work…"

"They must have a weakness…."Leon sighed.

"They do...access isn't that easy. Even with a sniper rifle, it'd be too hard to hit."

"Right...so even if we shot them an RPG, there's a 50-50 that it'd do nothing to them…." Helena groaned, "That's reassuring…"

"UV radiation is the safest bet. The mutation causes the BOWs to be melanin inhibited, so they have no protection against the UV damage…"

"Well...that's a lead, but I don't think we can try to kill BOWs with a blacklight…"

"That doesn't sound practical at all…" Claire replied, shaking her head, "The issue here is that using UV to damage them could be dangerous to normal people as well, so...it isn't like we can use a UV grenade or something alike…"

"That sure would be useful…"

"Yeah, and cause cancer to half of the exposed people…" Claire sighed, "maybe flash grenades could cause some harm though; burning up magnesium is supposed to generate some amount of UV radiation…"

"Don't beat yourself too much about it…" Leon said, looking at her and resting his hand on her shoulder, "We'll come up with something…"

Claire looked at him and smiled.

"I know...haven't we always?" she said, patting his hand, " I might visit that weapon development department, though…"

"Want me to take you?" Leon offered.

"Nah, go do your super-secret agent business. I doubt anything can happen to me here…."

"No one ever expected something to happen in Terra Save either…" Leon replied, "The whole point of this is for you to be…"

"Safe...yeah. I know that. " Claire said, looking at him reassuringly, "It's a floor below. I'll be fine…"

Claire and Leon looked at each other for a couple of minutes without saying anything. But the exchange of glances was clear between the two. Claire knew that Leon was still mortified by what happened eight months ago at Terra Save. His guilt rivaled Chris's on that issue, and they had nothing to do with their recent change of status.

"Okay, seriously, what happened between you two?" Helena said, looking at them.

"Nothing..." Leon shrugged, pulling his hand back.

"He's a little goofy today. Don't mind him. Chris has been fidgeting too much into his mind..."

Leon looked at her with raised eyebrow, and Claire just smiled at him with one of those smiles that contained a small hidden message. It was evident that Leon was still hesitating whether or not to agree to let her go on her own.

"Well...I know someone down there, and I am actually without anything to do. How about I tag along with you?" Helena offered, "That way, it'll be a less awkward meeting, and Leon can be at ease."

Claire let out a sigh. At least that would be better than nothing.

"Guess that's fine. You okay with that, Mr. Overprotective?"

"I am perfectly fine with that arrangement, Mrs. Careless…"

Claire couldn't help but laugh. A couple of days ago, she'd probably found his overprotectiveness annoying, but now it kind of felt alluring to have him worrying about stupid things like this. She patted his back and walked out of the office with Helena following after her with a suspicious look.

"Something is strange between you two…" Helena said as they entered the elevator.

"Like what?"

"I don't know. It's something about the way you two were talking…"

"You should already be used to the way Leon and I joke around, Helena. He's a flirt by nature…"

Helena didn't look convinced, but showed no intention of continuing to dig for answers; however, Claire knew that it would be a matter of time before she hit the nail on the head. Until then, though, she would keep playing the fool.

"So you know someone in that department?"

"Yeah, and old friend of highschool. Her name is Marie Pineda, nanomaterials engineer, or should I say, a fellow nerd?"

"I'm a biologist. That's certainly very different from nanomaterials.."

"It's pretty much the same for me…" Helena shrugged. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure…"

"Why virology?"

Claire let out a soft laugh; if she was given a dollar for every time she got asked that question, he or she would be a millionaire now.

"I originally thought of studying biotechnology…" she admitted, "then I got caught up with the Raccoon City mess. Since then, I ended up falling in the way of bioterrorism without even trying to. One day someone told me that unlike himself, who only knew how to fight, I could work to change something in the world without causing destruction, and then I just was masochist enough to decided to take a Ph.D. in virology…"

"That someone wouldn't happen to be Leon, would it?"

"You're way too sharp, Helena. Yeah, it was Leon. It was a long time ago…" Claire laughed, "Now I feel old…"

"You two sure are close, huh?"

"We are...yeah. He can be a flirt and fool now and then, but he's an honest man with his heart and his head in the right place, most of the time."

"So you like him, huh?"

"Aren't I married to him?"

"You know what I mean…"

Claire laughed. She could see what stunt Helena was trying to put on her. It was one that Saya usually used whenever she wanted to have Claire admit something.

"So do you…" Claire winked at her as she stepped out of the elevator.

Helena led Claire through the narrow corridor until they reached a section somewhat apart from the rest of the officers. The place was a kind of combination between a laboratory and a workshop. The center of the room was occupied by a steel table covered with tools and samples of materials of all kinds. The walls were covered by shelves with equipment Claire could have recognized only half of. At the back of the room, there were two computers with a large screen, and sitting in front of one of them was a small woman with long black hair and glasses. The woman's features were slightly Latin American .and she seemed to be friendly.

"Knock knock…." Helena said, announcing their presence.

The woman spun on her chair and turned to face them. The surprise was evident in her look as she jumped up from her chair and rushed to greet them.

"Helena! What a surprise…" she smiled, "What brings you down here?"

"Hey, Marie. It's been a while. Sorry that I haven't come to say hi in a while…"

"Oh, don't worry about that. You're a field agent. I know you're jumping back and forth around the world all the time. I'm glad you came today, welcome...welcome…"

"Thanks, Marie. Actually, a friend was curious about the workshop, so I thought I could bring her to take a look."

"A friend? Well, a friend of yours is always welcome…"

Helena stepped aside, letting Claire go into the room. To the young Redfield's surprise, the dark-haired woman with glasses let out a moan of surprise and looked at her with wide eyes.

"Oh...hi. I'm …"

"Mrs. Kennedy, yes...Clara, right?"

"Ah...yeah? You...know me?" Claire asked. surprised.

"Oh, of course. Everyone in DSO knows you. You are the wife of the most coveted bachelor in the whole secret service…"

Claire let out a nervous giggle. There it went her hopes of being able to negotiate a cooperative work; the woman was probably one of Leon's fans, one of the many who were making an evil eye behind her.

"Great...talk about not wanting attention…" Claire sighed.

"Oh, hehe. Guess that can't be helped, but seriously, you're way prettier than they give you credit for…"

"Oh, really? Did they say I had a third eye or witch's nose…? Oh, even better. They probably said I crooked eyes, right?" Claire sighed.

"Haha...she has a wonderful sense of humor…" the woman laughed, "I am Marie Pineda, a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Kennedy."

"The pleasure is mine, but please, call me Clara. Honestly, I still can't get used to the Mrs. Kennedy thing…"

"It's tough, right?" Marie said, "It took months to get used to being called Mrs. Cavani…"

"Wait...huh?"

"Oh….don't tell me …."Marie giggled, "You thought I was one of the girls bad mouthing you for marrying agent Kennedy?"

"Actually...I did...aren't you?"

"Me? Oh, no. I mean, I think he's quite hot, but no. I'm happily married to my David." Marie replied, showing her the band on her finger, "But seriously, the girls bad-mouthing you either need glasses, or they haven't seen you. All the things they've been saying are just too inaccurate…"

"Yeah, I really don't care about that. Let them talk if that makes them happy…" Claire sighed in relief.

"So, you were curious about my work?"

"Yeah, I was actually talking about something that could be used against certain new BOWs that appeared recently, and Helena mentioned you, so...I came to see if you could maybe help us?"

"Oh, well...sure. Though the ones doing all that are usually the guys in the BSAA…"

"Yeah, I know that, but the BSAA is having some extra work on their hands now, so I thought we could try here…"

"Oh...well, sure…" Marie said, surprised, "I guess I'll help if I can. What exactly did you have in mind?"

"Well, this new type of BOW is quite resistant to normal firearms. Their only confirmed weakness is light, mostly because of UV radiation since they show a type of albinism. However, I'm sure you can see the problem there…"

"Yeah, I think I do. How to avoid roasting the rest of the world, right."

"Yeah, pretty much that."

"Well, okay…." Marie said, thinking, "Ehm...have you tried flash grenades? The filler consists of a pyrotechnic metal-oxidant mix of magnesium or aluminum and an oxidizer such as potassium perchlorate or potassium nitrate. The light generated by the burn of magnesium should release enough UV radiation…"

"Yeah, I thought about that, too. The problem here is that I'm not sure if the intensity of the radiation would be enough to cause enough harm."

"Uhmm...I see. So you were thinking of a "safer" range of radiation? By safer, I mean that it'd kill the thing in one go…"

"Yeah, I was thinking about UV-C radiation. "

"Ah, yeah….that should be quite destructive...in both ways."

"I know. I was thinking that maybe there was a way to, I don't know, encapsulate it or use it as a sort of incendiary rounds so that the radiation could be released only on impact with the target…"

Marie rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she walked around the lab and rummaged through different folders and other documents that had been placed on the tables and shelves.

"Actually...that might be possible…" Marie said, "I think ...we could try to work out something by using the basic structure of incendiary ammunition, but instead of using phosphorus….we could use deuterium…"

"Huh….the heat of the impact should cause the deuterium to fire up and release UV radiation…" Claire realized, "Yeah, that could work."

"Of course, we would need to check on the stability, but sure...I might have a couple of old designs that could work with this. I just need to, well, try them."

"That surely would be great…." Claire said enthusiastically, "believe me. It'd make a difference when it comes to fighting those new BOWs."

"Okay, then how about you give me a couple of days to think about it, and I'll let you know."

"That'd be great, but wait...I'm not getting in the way with your work, do I?"

"Me? Oh no….don't worry. I wasn't working on anything right now, and actually, this project has started to pump me up…"

"Oh...that's great, I guess..."

"Yeah...So I'll work it out. and I'll give Helena a call when I have something concrete."

"You're awfully happy about this, Marie…"

"Well, I love challenges, and this one sure is," Marie replied enthusiastically. "Clara, you're welcome to come by whenever you feel like it…"

"That's kind of you. Thank you…"

Claire smiled slightly. If the plan worked and they managed to create those munitions, destroying the new BOWs would be a thousand times easier to achieve and would involve saving the lives of many soldiers and innocents in the process. She could only pray that they could do it.