Disclaimer: I don't own any of the RE characters. My little friend Joe likes to think he does though.
Chapter 2Jill sat in the comfortable recliner which was in the rather cozy living room. Sometimes she wondered where her aunt went off to, but knowing her family she wouldn't be back for a long time. The group had shown up eight months earlier and found that Rachel had gone, leaving the place stocked full of food, and the water and electricity paid in full for three years. A propane tank sat in the backyard, which supplied them with heat and hot water.
Jill sighed and sat up in her chair. The group was also running out of money which meant when the food ran out they would have to find funds somewhere. Well, if worse comes to worse someone could get a job.
She huffed aloud; the thought of Chris asking "Do you want fries with that?" was just too funny.
"What's so funny?" Rebecca asked from her spot on the couch. She shifted her weight so she was lying on her side with her head in her hand, facing Jill.
Jill had almost forgotten Rebecca was lying there. "Oh, nothing," she smiled.
Rebecca returned the smile before she went back to watching T.V.
Looking at Rebecca made her think of old times, which in turn made her think about Barry. Good ol' reliable Barry. When he left, so did their source of money. He still sent almost 200 dollars a month, but that was little compared to what he brought to the group when he was with them.
She could understand why he left; being with his wife and children was the first priority in his life. Jill had talked with him over the phone a few months ago. They mused over Carlos and Rebecca, and how they would not stop talking about sex.
They also talked about Chris. Chris… She loved Chris. After everything they'd been through how could she not love him? After London the two had silently confessed their love for each other on the plane ride home. She huffed again. What had Carlos called it? The Mile High Club?
"Okay, now you have to tell me what you're thinking about." Rebecca smiled again as she tore her eyes from the television. Her short brown hair bounced when she turned her head.
Jill returned the smile. "Just Chris."
Rebecca let out a small giggle. "Yeah," she started. She sat up on the couch to face Jill directly. "I know what you mean, Carlos does this weird thing where I lay on my back and—
"How do you know?!" Claire yelled from somewhere upstairs; cutting off Rebecca in mid-sentence.
Great, just what we need… Her mind sighed.
"Because he died Claire." Chris's quieter voice carried downstairs. He used that voice whenever he was trying to be the 'big brother'.
"You saw him too, Chris!" Claire's voice was closer this time, which meant she was probably on her way out.
"Claire, I— Chris stammered through his words.
"I don't want to hear it!" Claire yelled as she ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Her face was bright red when she passed by the two in the living room, and Jill could tell that she was either crying, or had been. Her short hair bounced as she ran through the living room and slammed the front door on her way out.
Chris was only trying to help, which was something he wasn't too good at – at the emotional level at least. Jill and Rebecca looked up at Chris, who wore a look of worry. He sighed and sulked his way down the stairs.
Wesker watched one of the small monitors carefully. Claire was leaving in a hurry, by herself. He smiled to himself as he picked up the phone sitting on the console.
"Yes Sir?" The shaky voice came through the receiver.
"02 is leaving, alone and unarmed. Follow her." He spat into the phone.
"Yes Sir, right away Sir." The voice became more nervous.
His smile faded when he remembered the last botched attempt at capture. "Smith?"
"Yes Sir?"
"Don't screw this one up."
Claire walked towards a small library on the edge of the small residential area where they lived. The autumn leaves crunched under her feet and the cool air bit at the bare skin on her arms, but she didn't care. Her tears had stopped about a black back, but she still felt horrible.
She'd told Chris that she thought their pursuer from earlier was Leon. He admitted the person behind the wheel of the blue Shelby did look a little like him, but it was probably just a coincidence. He even went so far as to say that even if it was Leon, that he obviously wasn't on their side anymore.
The tears started again as she plopped herself down on a bench. Why couldn't you just have come with us Leon? She kept asking herself that same question over and over for months now. Woodrow would have died in the explosion anyway; there wasn't a need for him to stay behind.
Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. That car… She's seen it somewhere before. Yes, now she remembered.
Two months ago she was in her room thinking about something when she saw that same car parked outside. The man behind the wheel matched their pursuer's profile to a T. She stood there watching him for what felt like hours. The man never looked at her, but it was like he knew she was there.
It had to be Leon, who else could it be? A smile curled across her lips when she realized he was alive and well. That smile faded though when she saw a large black van screech to a halt in front of the bench that she was sitting on. The side door opened to reveal two masked men.
"Who are you?!" She yelled, bolting up from her seat. No gun, no knife… She was unarmed, which meant she would have to think of something fast.
The men remained silent as they hopped out of the van and ran up to her. One of them tried to grab her arm, but he was met with a swift punch to the face, which brought him reeling back.
Everything was happening so fast she almost didn't hear tires squealing somewhere to her left. When she found time to look she expected to see another black van, not the blue Shelby. It straightened itself from the sharp turn and accelerated towards the back of the van.
She was no longer thinking of the men trying to kidnap her; instead a million questions went through her head. Why did you leave? Why didn't you come back? Why did you chase us? Time seemed to stand still; at that very moment she cared little about anything but Leon.
The Shelby didn't waver in the slightest as Leon leaned out of the drivers' side window with his gun in hand; his long hair flapping in the wind. She heard as well as saw the Desert Eagle fire twice, the loud fifty-caliber filling the autumn air. Each bullet hit its intended target; the two men in front of her, who were as dumbfounded as she was, fell to the pavement in a small splatter of blood.
The Shelby came to a screeching halt behind the large van and Claire ran for the passenger side door. She opened it to find Leon smiling at her, his dark sunglasses gleaming in the dusk light. She hopped in and slammed the door shut.
"You're late." She smiled back at him as she put on her seatbelt.
He looked straight ahead at the van and kept the grin on his face. "Better late than never. Keep your head down." He popped the clutch and put the car in reverse. He waited a few seconds before stomping on the accelerator, lurching Claire forward in her seat. The car stopped about ten feet away from the van.
She put her head below the dashboard, still grinning like an idiot. She couldn't believe he was here, now, with her. The vans' tires squealed loudly, and the larger engine revved up as it took off. You're not getting away…
"I think we need to ask him a few questions, what do you say?" He still stared at the now fleeing van.
"I'll do the talking." She sat up a little in her seat.
"I thought you'd say that." He shifted into first and the car took off. The tires screamed in protest, but it jumped to at least sixty if four seconds. In no time at all they were beside the van, and Claire could tell the man behind the wheel was scared out of his mind. His hair was plastered to his face and his eyes were practically bugging out of his head.
They'd now entered the downtown area; storefronts whizzed by, and almost made the scenery look like an ongoing roller coaster. Leon kept his eyes on the van, but began talking. "He's not going to stop. Could you…?" He asked as he pulled out his Desert Eagle and handed it to her. She noticed how fluid his motions where.
Before Claire could even lean out the window to take the shot though, Leon and van both took a sharp right, leaving the Shelby about a cars' length behind. The van swerved heavily to one side as the driver leaned out of the window with a gun in his hand. She leaned below the dash again just as the gun went off. Small pellets of glass bounced off both Claire's head and the dashboard.
When she straightened herself out she saw a hole in the windshield, several cracks spidered out across the width of it. She turned to talk to Leon when she saw a bloody hole in his shoulder; he wore an angry face. "Leon, you're—
"Pissed." He gritted his teeth and gripped down on the steering wheel. The engine revved up as he stomped the pedal to the floor and shifted through two gears.
Claire was amazed that he wasn't in tears. The fact that he'd been shot there was bad enough, but that was the same shoulder that he'd injured in Raccoon. And he didn't even flinch.
He turned to her and smiled. She quickly returned the smile and leaned out of the window; gun in hand. Her short hair whipped in the wind as she held the heavy thing with both hands, aimed and fired. The gun jumped in her hands, and she had some trouble holding onto it.
The van slowed to a crawl before stopping in some dried grass on the shoulder of the road. They were almost on the edge of town; a few miles down the road were just wheat fields.
Leon got out of the car, as did Claire. The driver of the van jumped out and began to run down the road. Leon dashed over before he could get away though, and grabbed him by his hair.
"Where do you think you're going?" Leon asked as he slammed the man's head up against the van. He held out his hand and Claire gave him his magnum.
Claire had never seen Leon be this aggressive before, it was almost as if something inside him changed over the past nine months.
He took the gun gently from Claire and practically slammed it into the side of the man's head. There he was, holding a man's head, whom Claire didn't even know, against a big black van with a gun to his head. Claire hoped no cops happened to drive by at that particular moment.
"Umbrella? HCF? ISP?" Leon bombarded the man with questions. Claire didn't even know what ISP was…
"H…HCF." The man stammered out. He looked like he was going to shit himself, and Claire couldn't blame him.
"Who sent you?" Claire asked in a firm voice. She wanted some goddamned answers; she was sick and tired of being kidnapped.
"He'll kill me!" The man yelled. It looked as though he was going to start crying at any moment now.
"And who says I won't?" Leon grinned. "Start talking." He shoved the gun harder against the man's skull and pulled the hammer back.
He shut his eyes tight. "Wesker." He said slowly.
Claire eyes widened. If Wesker knew… The house! Her mind screamed. "We have to get back to the house!" She rested her hand on Leon's uninjured shoulder.
He smirked. "Hold on a second." He pointed the gun directly at the man's right shoulder and pulled the trigger, then let go of him. The man screamed in pain and fell to the grass. "We can go now." He turned towards the car and started walking.
They both hopped into the Shelby and took off in the direction of the house. Claire looked over at Leon, who was focused on the road. "Doesn't that hurt?" She asked as she pointed to the bloody gunshot wound on his shoulder.
"Not really." He smiled, his hair hung over his dark sunglasses. "After a while you get used to it."
Claire only nodded at him. She was sure he had some stories to tell the group, and would explain his absence for the past nine months, but for right now, she was just enjoying his company.
"I see your hair is still short." He finally looked at her head on.
"Yeah," she smiled back. "I kind of like it…" Her voice trailed off.
"Me too." He looked back to the road and shifted into fourth.
Claire reached over and placed her hand over Leon's. She was worried about everyone in the house, but all that really mattered at that moment was him, and she wanted to enjoy it.
After Chris finished explaining the argument he and Claire had, Jill wanted to hug him and punch him at the same time. On one hand Chris shot down any hopes of Leon being alive. Jill knew he probably wasn't, but they were love for crying-out-loud, maybe Claire would feel better thinking he was still out there somewhere.
And on the other hand, Chris was just being Chris. He is her big brother, and he hated seeing her like that.
Rebecca, Jill and Chris were silent for a few minutes. The sound of leaves blowing in the fall wind was almost peaceful until the sound of a loud engine interrupted it all.
"What's…?" Rebecca trailed off. Chris was already ahead of her though; he was up and peeking through the blinds before she finished talking. Jill knew something was wrong when his jaw dropped.
She jumped up from the couch and joined Chris at the window, looking through the shades. That's… It was really dark, but there was no mistaking him. Leon walked beside Claire to the front door. It looked as though he was sniffing the air before mouthing 'okay'.
"What's the matter guys?" Rebecca called from her spot on the couch.
Jill turned around and patted Chris on the back before heading back to her seat. "Claire's back."
"Oh good," she turned to the television once again. "Chris can apologize now."
Chris looked at his feet. "And tell her how wrong I was."
"What?"
But before anyone could answer, Claire walked through the front door with Leon right behind her.
Everyone remained silent for a moment. The fact that Leon was there and not dead wasn't something a person just ignored.
Leon opened him mouth to say something, but before he could speak, Rebecca burst out into laughter. She was laughing so hard she practically fell out of her seat.
Leon wore a puzzled look. "What's she—
"Nevermind," Chris said quickly. "Have a seat, make yourself at home." He grinned.
Leon and Claire took a seat next to Rebecca, who was still laughing her ass off.
"So," Chris paused as he sat in a chair. "Where have you been?"
Leon sighed and finally took off his sunglasses. His left eye was now a lighter blue than before. "It's a long story." He leaned back on the couch.
"We've got all night." Rebecca smirked.
WELL. I just couldn't keep this away from you for a week =P Wasn't that a doozy? I figured I'd get the whole 'Leon being alive' thing out of the way. I've got lots planned, and little written, so I'm open to some suggestions. But I've got the synopsis of the story in my head, so don't go asking me to change something drastic, or killing anyone off. There'll be a few original characters introduced in later chapters, and when I update again it'll be in the Rated R section. Look for it in about a week…I'm serious this time =)