Leon was wheeled along by Claire despite his endless protestations that he could do it himself. Claire was adamant however that he wasn't ready for that yet. He said he was strong enough, Claire sternly pointed out that he had had about eighteen plus blood transfusions and was not ready for physical exercise just yet. Jill walked, arm linked with Chris, her injured hand hanging in a sling that was secured in a knot over her shoulder. Leon had gone over the instructions from Dr. Stevens quite exhaustively. He was aware a physiotherapist would be coming to his house every three days to give him physical lessons? Yes. He was also aware that a trauma therapist would be coming to discuss the mental effects of the disabilities with him every week? Yes. He'd gone over them constantly and it all went past him like a blur. The reception doors yawned open with a sigh, and Leon breathed in his first satisfying breath of air in a long time; no more over-tropical hospital gardens, no more feeling like he was a physically useless invalid. There was certain finality to those doors, the knowledge he was finally going home.

His heart sank however as he thought of his home. It wasn't a house for the disabled, things weren't in easy reach, he didn't have a stairlift or any other kind of implement to help him get upstairs…how the hell could he do it himself?

"Looking forward to getting back?" Claire asked, as she pushed him out into the forecourt.

"Uh." Leon mumbled, staring down at his legs. He hated the sight of them already.

Claire patted his shoulder as she pushed him out onto the smooth concrete of the pavement, hitting the brake as Chris left Jill for a moment to get the car.

"Don't worry, I'll stay with you for a few days until you get used to it"

Leon looked up at her and smiled.

"You'd do that?" he said.

She smiled back, pinking slightly at the cheeks.

"Of course I would."

Jill smiled for the first time in a very long time despite her current mood.

"I think he just wants you around because he likes seeing a pretty girl in his house everyday"

"Watch it you" Claire said, nudging Jill.

Jill sighed, staring at her hand again. She'd grown into the habit of staring at the numb limb, something she'd been told she shouldn't do by the nurses if for sheer psychological purposes. It wasn't like she could help it however; she thought darkly, the nurse wasn't the one who'd lost use of her hand after all.

The car growled up alongside them. Claire opened the rear door.

"Come on you wounded soldier, let's get you in"

She reached underneath his legs, and with surprising strength that Leon wouldn't have quite believed Claire had, helped him into the back seat. Jill quickly nabbed the front seat next to Chris, eliciting a smirk from Claire that was along the lines of 'look who's talking'. She folded up the wheelchair and pushed it into the trunk before climbing into the car next to Leon.

Leon turned to look at her; he was stunned by just how beautiful she was. Which again preyed on his mind; was she only helping him out of sympathy? Would she go and not come back once she felt he'd adjusted? It was a horrible question to which there was only one answer, but one that he wouldn't know yet.

Chris gunned the engine, and the car pulled away from the hospital; Chris snuck a glance at Jill, who looked out of the window with that detached expression he'd seen her wear so much lately. It wasn't like her at all. This was not the Jill Valentine he quite knew, even though it was still the one he…well…loved, he supposed was the best term for it. He hadn't told her naturally, being quite shy despite the bravura he exuded quite openly. Chris knew a lot about Jill too, and knew that she had a sense of pride - he could tell she'd taken a heavy shelling in that department regarding her disability. This did worry him. As much as he had told her, and Claire had told Leon the same thing with further vehemence that the STARS would not neglect them, the STARS were not perfect as a group. Human prejudice ran rife particularly amongst the elites. He didn't want to be the one to express this concern, but there was a deep-seated fear of his that Leon and Jill would be ostracized for perceived as being 'cripples'; useless in every department essentially. The physically and militarily elite did not take kindly to men in wheelchairs or women with dead hands.

Oh, he and Claire were highly respected, Barry and Rebecca of course would be as understanding as ever…but they were not the only members. There were a lot of STARS, and some of them didn't even like Leon or Jill, maybe even capitalizing on their disability. Chris could talk up their roles as best as he could, and he'd even see to it that they weren't thrown bottom rung jobs, but relegation to routine work seemed an ever likely situation.

Something that would send Leon and Jill over the edge into despair, more than likely. He gripped the steering wheel with determination; he wasn't prepared to let that happen, particularly to his dearest Jill. He simply wouldn't.

"Hey, look who's home!" Barry smirked in that typically big-hearted way of his, hugging both Jill and Leon in turn as if they hadn't received so much as a glancing blow, making both feel a lot more at home than they felt he had needed to – but this was Barry here. Barry was always on hand for such gestures.

Rebecca had not seen Leon out of his hospital bed, so for just a moment her face blanched with shock at seeing a man on whom she'd had quite a vast crush once now seated in his wheelchair. He smiled at her, a smile that was a little superficial as he noticed that moment of uncertainty and shock in her face; then she relaxed and warmed up.

"It's so good to see you guys again!" Rebecca said with characteristic perkiness, hugging both Jill and Leon. Jill rolled her eyes at Rebecca's enthusiastic embrace, but drew her arm with the dead hand back so that Rebecca didn't crush it. She looked down at Jill's hand.

"Is that…?" she indicated the hand.

Jill nodded, and hobbled forward. She was still fully limping at the moment, something Rebecca tried not to notice.

"I'd prefer it if you didn't point at it" Jill replied quietly.

A long and uncomfortable silence followed as Rebecca sheepishly backed off, mouth clamped firmly shut just in case she said something else stupid. Claire looked down at Leon, rubbing his shoulder tenderly just in case he took offence to Rebecca's comment…but he didn't seem fazed, or surprised for that matter.

"You guys looking forward to getting back to work?" Barry said, cheerfully.

"Well, I suppose it's something to look forward to" Leon replied, Claire spotting the double-edged meaning of the comment. Barry apparently did too.

"Don't worry, I know it won't be quite the same thing but I promise you that I'm making sure you don't get desk jobs."

Leon nodded, and smiled slightly to show he wasn't intending the comment as spiteful.

"I know you'll try your best, you always do."

Barry nodded back with a smile.

"Hey, it's me."

Leon was in the kitchen. Rebecca was grabbing things out of the top cupboard as he sat paralysed in his wheelchair, busy opening a can of baked beans for their supper. Rebecca was looking at him anxiously, as if she were terrified of making another terrific gaffe. She didn't know how to talk to somebody whose livelihood had fallen away. How did you talk to someone whom you knew was going to go to work and find a desk job waiting for them when they got there? You couldn't. As much as Barry had tried, she had learned, the police department were keen on making them an example of their equal opportunities program – basically an approach that looked good in public relations but to the individuals involved was excruciatingly condescending. Rebecca remembered her grandfather had lost his leg in a vicious plane crash in Midway when he'd fought during the last world war. He'd hated the way people simpered over him on a constant basis, and usually responded in his typically rough but to-the-point way that it was 'just a leg, damnit!'

She wondered if Leon felt similarly. On the other hand, maybe he didn't want to discuss it. At this point, she realised she'd made another gaffe – she'd been staring at Leon the whole time, and he'd noticed her stare. His expression soured.

"Is there a problem?" he asked, not without a faint trace of acid.

"I'm just wondering how to tread the line between careless and patronising" she replied, fairly honestly.

Leon sagged, and leaned on his arm. He was getting used to the numbness, but it was still a foreign emotion; knowing that you couldn't feel the muscle because it had no functioning nerves attached. No pain, no sting, no tingle. Nothing. Just a void.

"I'm sorry" he said, sighing in defeat "I'm just trying to work out how the hell to deal with this."

He reached up and put the tin on the sideboard. Rebecca smiled.

"Well, you can still use your hands, right?"

Leon nodded, barely comforted. He pushed the wheelchair forwards, it hit the sideboard and the tin wobbled, teetering on the edge before falling directly onto the floor, orange sauce and beans spilling over the floor like a bad make-up effect from a horror movie. Rebecca smiled slightly and bent over to pick it up. As she was bent over, she heard Leon's breathing change. Then, she heard the sobs. Rebecca stood up quickly to find Leon's shoulders shaking as the tears streamed down his face. She placed a hand sympathetically on his shoulder as his red-rimmed eyes turned to meet hers.

"Hey. Its okay." She said, soothingly.

"No it fucking well isn't!" he snapped, voice sticky with emotion "I'm a cripple! I'm wheel-chair bound, I'm a fucking physical wreck! I can't walk anymore! I have no feeling in my legs because there's no nerves that fucking work there anymore!"

Rebecca didn't think she'd ever seen Leon so vulnerable. As tenderly as she could manage, she said

"Leon…I'm sorry. I really am."

He looked at her, face red and angry.

"Tell the man who ripped my spine to shreds with his automatic rifle to apologise. Then I'll be happy."

With that, he spun around and wheeled himself out, Rebecca watching him helplessly.

Claire was sat in her room, staring at the wall, staring at everything, staring at nothing. She was wracking her mind as to what she could do to make things better for Leon; it was nearly impossible. Leon's livelihood had been taken away and she had to cope with it. Claire had dedicated herself to helping Leon claw back some of the dignity he had lost, but she was having severe trouble. How on earth could she convince him that life was worth living? He was so immersed in misery that he seemed almost cut-off. He only spoke really to Claire…and Jill. Jill was still in the house; she too was retreating inside herself, not something Claire had expected the usually perky and cheerful lock-picker to ever go through. However, like Leon, her greatest ability was now redundant.

She clenched her fist. What was needed was some tough love. Leon had to learn to respect himself as he was, as did Jill. Self-pity was not something Claire liked and seeing Leon drowning in it made her desperate to save him. Leon was one of the strongest men she knew; but right now he was sinking under the weight of the cross he believed he had to bear. A cross that Jill seemed determined to carry too.

Rebecca walked glumly into the room, and flopped down on the bed next to Claire. She lay back, sinking into the covers as Claire turned to look at the frustrated expression on the young medic.

"How is he?" Claire asked, quietly.

"Worse. He went to pieces after he knocked a tin of beans on the floor. He burst into tears and went into the garden. Jill's spent most of the afternoon sitting in the lounge not saying anything, though Chris is with her holding her hand."

She sighed, and massaged her temples with her fingers.

"Things aren't getting any better."

Claire bowed her head slightly.

"We have to convince them that they can't give up. They're determined to believe that they're useless. We have to convinced them otherwise."

"But how?" Rebecca asked irritably "Leon just snaps at me all the time."

"Give him time to cool off. After that, I'm going to take him into my personal care."

She turned to Rebecca, eyes fiery and determined.

"I am not giving up on Leon. I'm just not."

I'll never give up on him she thought and I refuse to let him give up on himself.