Agent Kennedy and a Baby

Chapter Two

The rain was pounding heavily on the windows of Claire's office as she stared blankly at the report that was due by the day after tomorrow, maybe she should try and get some more sleep. A lot of nights had got away from her with Claire staring at her monitor, finishing up reports or listening to the heartbreaking testimony of a refugee who had fled from the sight of a bioterrorist attack.

They faced a lot of discrimination due to some stupid people who had done maybe half an hour of research online and read an article or two that said viruses used for bio-weapon development could lay dormant in the system of the person for years, even decades, before waking back up again and possibly infecting others. TerraSave had run an information campaign to try and do what they could to combat that misinformation.

But sometimes stupidity couldn't be won against, certainly when it was reinforced with fear and ignorance. Claire had to sigh and reached for her cup of coffee, taking a deep sip from it and then blanching when she realized that the coffee was stone cold and thick on her tongue. She glanced at her clock and wasn't really that surprised to see that it was past midnight.

Screw it, she had done enough for the night. She turned the computer off and stood from her chair and set out to gather her coat and her bag when suddenly her phone had started to ring, her caller ID dutifully informing her that it was Leon calling her. Claire picked up her phone, hit the accept call button and held it up to her ear. "Sup manwhore?"

When Leon spoke any amusement she felt drained away. "Claire, I need you to come to my apartment and I need you to come right now please. I don't know what to do here, please you have to come right now, please hurry." Before Claire was able to say anything else Leon was gone and she was left completely confused and completely worried.

Leon had sounded...she had never heard him sound like that before, even back in Raccoon City he had always seemed strong, whatever he was feeling at the time he had kept it behind a mask. He had been a cop and she had been a civilian and it had been his duty to keep her safe, to serve and protect, at least that was how he had explained it to her later down the line.

But on the phone Leon had sounded like he was on the edge of a breakdown so Claire didn't waste any time, she threw on her coat and grabbed her bag and ran out into the corridors and towards the elevator, taking it all the way down to the underground parking garage.

Soon enough Claire was in her car and peeled out of the garage and drove as fast as she could go without breaking the speed limit and without getting into an accident, though she had to admit it would be deliciously ironic if she actually got into a car crash when going to help Leon of all people. She had once gotten coffee with Leon's support agent, Hunnigan, and apparently he had racked up quite a bill when it came to vehicles needing to be repaired.

Sooner rather than later she had arrived at Leon's apartment building, and not for the first time she wondered how anyone was able to afford to live in such a place considering that her pay from Terrasave meant she was living in what could basically be considered a shoebox, and ran into the lobby, signing in as a guest, and taking the stairs, cursing the apparent design choice for the building to not have an elevator.

She had been to Leon's place before so it didn't take her that long at all to find herself in front of his door but before she was going to knock on the door she heard it, a wail of absolute misery. Claire's eyes widened and she quickly hurried through the door without thinking and soon found herself starring at something she never thought she would ever see in her life. Leon Scott Kennedy looking entirely helpless.

He did look awfully pathetic at that moment, in truth he looked like he was moments away from breaking down in tears and the baby who currently looked like it was moments away from wails turning into screams was certainly not helping anything. Leon was moving back and forth, moving the baby in his arms to try and sooth it but that clearly was not working and considering how violent the movements were, was probably only making it worse.

Leon's head shot up when she burst in and for a moment she thought that Leon was going to drop the baby but thankfully while he might not be good at soothing, he was quick with his reflexes and he caught his balance and Claire cursed herself for being stupid, there was an unspoken rule among the survivors and that was to never just burst into a room, you always had to knock.

But Leon didn't look like he was going to hold it against him, right now he looked desperate for any help she could off. "Help me, or kill me. Right now, I would really take one or the other. Surprise me."

Right then, babysitter Claire to the rescue. She strode over to Leon and took the baby from his arms and proceeded to gently rock him back and forth and cooed all over the baby, that she could now see was a boy. He was such a cute little thing and, not for the first time, Claire remembered why she had always loved kids.

Soon the screaming had returned to wailing and the wailing soon died down to whimpering with the occasional hiccup with a few tears at the corner of his eyes and Claire gently wiped them away before she looked up at Leon who was starring at her like she had done something complicated. "You know, you really shouldn't be this surprised you know. The amount of sleeping around you do, this was bound to happen sooner or later."

Aw, he looked like a kicked puppy and Claire felt bad about it. She smiled gently and walked over to him, gently patting his shoulder. "I'm only fooling around, I'm sorry. But I mean, I have to assume he is yours right? Why else would anyone walk up all those stairs, seriously why do you live in a building without an elevator? Did they make the apartments to big and forgot to put it in, and leave a baby on your doorstep."

Leon didn't say anything to that, seriously was he in shock or something, instead turning and walking over to his kitchen counter and picking up a letter and bringing it back over to Claire for her to read who did so. Once she was done she let out a sigh, tilted her head back and counted to ten before speaking again. "Ada Wong, why am I not at all surprised at this? When was the last time that you saw her?"

"Nine months ago, on a mission in Mexico." Leon supplied that information willingly enough but Claire had to gesture for him to carry on, which he did after a heavy sigh. "I was tracking down a drug cartel that was looking to expand themselves into bio-weapon's dealing, they found an Umbrella scientist that had been hiding out down there since the fall and they made a new virus for them. I tracked them down and so did she, apparently whoever she's working for heard about the virus and wanted a sample of it for themselves so they sent her in to go and get it."

"It was...it was a hard mission, the scientist had not taken kindly to basically being taken captive and he did not look forward to being taken in so he released the virus and the cartel was infected." Leon stopped and got a far away look on his face and Claire gently touched his shoulder and Leon came back. "Uh, we handled it and the cartel got wiped out and I took the scientist in and Ada got her sample."

"But it was...it was hard for both of us. I think we both needed to feel something, to know we were still alive and we were so caught up with one another that..." He looked at the baby and frowned. "We forgot to be careful."

Claire frowned slightly but nodded her understanding before looking down at the baby who seemed to have been so tired out from his fit that he had fallen into slumber and Claire could not help herself and pressed a kiss to his forehead and took a deep inhale of that new baby smell, god, why couldn't they always smell this perfect?

Wait a sec. Claire looked up at Leon. "Where is Ada?"

"I-I don't know." Leon admitted and he crossed his arms over his chest. "He was just on the doorstep when I opened the door and he was with that letter, she didn't come in to say hey, she just left him and ran off. I didn't even catch a glance of her."

"Leon, this kid is a newborn. He's so small and, I mean I can't be sure, but given what we know of Ada can we be sure she actually went to a hospital for the delivery?" Claire didn't consider herself an Ada Wong fan, she did steal bio-weapons and give them to someone, how many people were dead because of her, but she had saved Leon's life plenty of times and she couldn't help but be worried about her right now.

If she hadn't gone to a hospital and had gone through labor alone then what if she had torn and was bleeding? What if she had an infection? What if the placenta wasn't complete? There were so many things that could go wrong and she opened her mouth to tell Leon that he had to go and find her and make sure that she was alright.

But then a foul smell filled the air and they had a more immediate problem. Claire sighed and smiled down at the baby who was starting to whimper once again. "Don't suppose you have any fresh diapers, do you?" The blank look she got for that question was the only answer she needed.

"Go to the store, go and get some diapers and be sure to get all sizes cause I am not sure what size he's going to need, probably go on the side of smaller I guess and get some baby formula as well." Orders it seemed were what Leon needed and he quickly ran out of the apartment and Claire had to sigh as she looked back down at the fidgety baby.

"Don't worry sweetie, Daddy's kind of an idiot but your cool Auntie Claire is here and she'll help to look after you." She glanced around the apartment and saw a laptop with Leon's phone next to it and an idea popped into her head. "And in the meantime, let's see if we can track down your Mama."

End of Chapter Two

Claire Redfield remains one of my absolute favorite characters in the entire series, she's part of the reason why 2, Code Veronica and Rev 2 are some of my favorite ever games in the series.

I hope you enjoyed, please consider leaving a review, a favorite and a follow. Tons of love,

DiscordantSymphony