Chapter 2: Gone

Leon had never cared for hospitals much. As a small child they had been a strange and foreign place to him, just a word he had heard his parents or the other kids at school throw around from time to time. He knew little of them then, just that they were a place where you went if you got sick or had a bad fall. While this still did not give him an incredibly clear idea of what exactly a hospital was he knew that he certainly did not like getting sick or having a bad fall and thus, would not care a great deal for these hospitals either. When he turned ten he proved himself right.

After breaking his leg, not from a bad fall but from a game of street hockey that got a little rough, he had been forced to spend a week re-couperating in a hospital bed. It was then that he confirmed his suspicions about what horridly dreadful places hospitals were. All night long there were people moaning and groaning and asking for doctors. The fumes from the sanitizers they used gave him a headache. The mattress he was forced to lay on had more lumps than an unpaved road and the food tasted like cardboard.

'This isn't about you though, dummy.' Leon's mind told him as he sat out in the hall next to room 104, the chart hanging on the door read Christopher Redfield. 'It's not about you so you're going to need to suck it up and keep your head straight. Claire needs you now and you're going to look pretty pathetic freaking out about some childhood phobia.'

The officer felt eyes on him and turned to his right. Claire was starring – not at him but at the room that held her brother – her hands gripping the arm rests of her chair with white knuckles. He smiled at her, mainly because he was at a loss as to what he was supposed to say and touched her hand lightly. To Leon's surprise the younger Redfield grabbed hold of his fingers and squeezed tight, sending a small jolt of pain up through his arm and into his shoulder where it mutated into full blown, hot agony. He tried to hide stifle the grimace he felt building but the girl had learned to read him too well over the years and the small twinge in his eyes was enough to bring up questions from the twenty-five year old.

"What's the matter?" She asked, her voice breaking for a moment before the smallest of grins crossed her lips. "A little girl like me didn't hurt you now, did I?"
"Ha! You? Hurt a macho guy like me? No way, Big Red. Just the old sports injury acting up." He lifted his shoulder then immediately wished he hadn't as a fresh wave of pain cut through him like a knife. "Damn. I've got to learn to use my left hand more."

Claire smiled at him, only the slightest of grins, then gave his hand a pat before going back to fidgeting with her skirt as she gazed anxiously at the door. The young woman was not alone in this, as Jill Valentine, another of the ex-S.T.A.R.S. who had joined in the crusade against Umbrella Inc. sat eyeing the door to Chris Redfield's room with just as much fear and anxiety in her blue eyes. Slender fingers twisting a small gold band around her finger as she sat starring at the door, paying little attention to the pair of new arrivals. The most they had gotten out of the woman since setting foot inside Saint Jude's had been a hasty "Hey, thanks for coming. Barry and Rebecca should be here soon too." That was it. It was as if the former thief had become stricken with a catatonic condition in the last few minutes.

Despite his early self-criticism, Leon couldn't shake the feelings of loathing and apprehension he had for the hallway in which he now sat. The incessant hum of the fluorescent lights, buzzing like giant insects overhead, the stench of cleansers making his head swim and the constant patrol of figures dressed in lab coats made Saint Jude's look shockingly like the German Umbrella Head Quarters. Memories of his broken leg came back to Leon, of all those pathetic voices moaning for relief. Memories of John and David, dropping dead beside him in the corridor. The air suddenly seemed too close together, the officer felt his chest tightening and absently loosened his tie.

'Great,' he thought, 'cracking up already. Nice work, Officer Kennedy.'

"Leon, are you feeling alright?" Claire asked beside him, raising an eyebrow, those tired gray eyes full of genuine concern.

'Her brother's in the hospital, dying, and she's worried about my dumb ass. Go figure.' He thought, giving her a reassuring grin and a hasty thumbs up. 'That heart is half-gold and half-stone I'm telling you.'

"Yeah, I'm hanging in there." He replied, finally managing to tug the cumbersome tie looser around his throat. "Just was never one to tolerate the smell of Pinesol for very long and it smells like they kicked over a bucket of it here."

Claire's face crinkled into a smile then quickly fell once more. "Do...do you think they'll let us see him soon?"

"I'm not sure." Leon answered truthfully, glancing back at the room where Chris' physician, Doctor Burke, along with a pair of nurses in blue scrubs had been for the past twenty minutes. "I guess the doctor just wants to be thorough."

"This is taking forever!" Jill exclaimed, jumping out of her chair and pacing furiously, her sneakers squeaking across the polished floor. "Why can't they just let us see him already and where the hell are Barry and Rebecca?"

"They'll be here, Jill." Claire said soothingly, probably to keep her own nerves in check, adjusting in her seat. "Just give them a couple more minutes."

As if on cue the aforementioned duo suddenly materialized around the corner. Barry came striding ahead of the short haired girl at his right, his black parka flapping wildly as he tore down the corridor at a near run. Leon thought that Rebecca could almost have passed for one of the hospital's scrubs, dressed in cream-colored sneakers, loose blue pants and a long-sleeved blue shirt. Her slim fingers were wrapped around one of Barry's thick arms, as if trying to hold the big man back.

"Barry, slow down! You're going to break your neck racing around like this!" Rebecca's light voice drifted down to where the trio sat.

"I'm in a hospital," he growled back at the young girl, "if I slip and break anything you'll just have to go fetch a nurse!"

The former-S.T.A.R.S. medic threw her hands in the air and gave an exasperated grunt before urging her bearded comrade to slow his pace once more. Ignoring her warning the hulking figure of Barry Burton refused to slow an itch until he reached the area where Jill, Leon and Claire were seated outside of Chris' room. Upon his arrival he stopped, sucked in a deep breath that made his barrel chest tremble, blew it out and gathered Jill's lithe form in a crushing bear hug.

"How is he?" Leon heard the big man mumble in her ear, his voice cracking like a dry twig.

"Wish I knew." Jill replied, squirming in Barry's crushing embrace. "Doctor Burke and his lackeys haven't let us in to see him yet. Barry...don't take this the wrong way or anything but could you let go of me? I think I'm going to be the one needing a doctor in a minute."

Surprise flashed in the bearded man's eyes for a moment before looking down at the young woman and realizing how tightly he held her. Giving his friend an embarrassed smile he gracefully relinquished his hold on her and turned to Claire. His face immediately lit up again, charging forward he pulled another victim into one of his overzealous hugs.

"God, Claire, I'm sorry." He mumbled and Leon raised an eyebrow when he saw tears rolling down Barry's round, amiable face into the thick mass of red hair that coated his jaw line. "How are you holding up?"

"As well as can be expected I guess." She replied, even managing a small laugh.

Leon stood up beside her as Barry squeezed tighter, forcing the girl to stand on her tiptoes. Absently, the officer reached up to scratch his own scraggly, unkempt beard, feeling strangely that he shouldn't be there. He knew that was a stupid notion to entertain, he had just as much right as any of the others to be standing in that hallway and Claire had asked him to come but still, he couldn't help feeling out of place.

'You've felt that way a lot.' His mind reminded him as Rebecca managed to pull up alongside Barry at last, huffing and puffing for breath. 'Ever since you got on that plane with David and the others you felt that you didn't belong there, with them. You were worried about following Claire around like some kind of schoolboy pining over the head cheerleader. Looks like you're back to your old tricks, eh Kennedy?'

Leon immediately told himself to shut up, giving his scruffy beard a sharp tug to make sure the message sank in. Claire had needed a ride and he'd given it to her, he wasn't following her anywhere. Chris Redfield may never have been particularly warm to the young officer in the time the two had known each other (Leon discovered quickly that the man became suspicious of anyone who had spent any length of time alone with his little sister) but that didn't change the fact that Leon still owed the man his life. Besides, he wasn't about to just leave Claire and his other friends out to dry. Reassuring himself that he was not, in fact, out of place Leon turned his head to the left slightly, realizing that Rebecca was laughing at him.

"Aww, you kept it." She crooned, clapping her hands together. "Cute."

"Wha?" The officer replied, perplexed.

"The beard, kid." Barry said, his red face breaking out into a grin as he stroked his own. "Looks just like mine...when I was sixteen that is."

Leon was shocked when the others broke out in laughter. The atmosphere certainly didn't warrant a particularly humorous situation and Barry's joke wasn't exactly side splitting but it took him only a moment to realize why they found his facial hair so funny. They were reaching, reaching for anything that would relieve some of the tension...even if it would only be temporary. A man they respected and love was about to leave the mortal realm and they didn't quite know how to deal with that yet, so they were reaching for something to keep them from thinking about it. Something that would let them smile and laugh and pretend everything was all right.

"Eh." Leon shrugged casually. "I thought it made me look tough and rugged. No perp is going to want to mess with an officer who just plain out looks as tough and rugged as a Hell's Angel right?"

"Woah!" Becca smiled, throwing her hands up in protest. "Someone has a high opinion of themselves."

"I don't like it." Claire said giving Leon a mock frown as she pulled on a clump of scraggly red hair. "It makes you look like you should be walking around the streets with a cup harassing law abiding citizens with phrases like 'Hey buddy, got a quarter?'"

Leon laughed, slapping the girl's hand away gently. "I get no respect! I try to be creative and original and this is what I get!"

"Original?" Claire taunted. "Show me one man who can't grow some kind of a beard and I'll..."

The youngest Redfield trailed off as the door to her brother's room swung open and the familiar face of Doctor Daniel Burke stepped into the hallway, accompanied by two middle-aged women in scrubs. Burke was a wise, sagely looking man with a crown of white hair atop his head and a pair of thin spectacles resting on the edge of his hawk-like nose. He had his hands tucked into the pockets of his pristine white lab coat as he fixed the group with what Leon thought of as the Doctor Smile. It was the smile physicians used when they had to tell you something terrible but wanted to seem nice about it.

"Oh my, I didn't expect so many of you." Burke said in his soft, whispery tone. "Your husband is resting comfortably." The doctor fixed Jill with that tragic smile of his and new tears welled up in her eyes. "I think he can tolerate some visitors now but..."

"But what?" Claire interjected eagerly, grabbing Burke's arm and sinking her nails in.

"Well, Ms. Redfield," the doctor replied, gently prying Claire's fingers from around his arm, "your brother's condition has worsened a great deal. He's been weakened by the treatments we have tried to impose and it seems that his body is simply giving up the fight against the cancer, which is allowing it to advance more rapidly. He...he may not have very much time left. I'm sorry."

Claire lowered her arm back to her side and with it her head fell. Leon watched sadly as the girl shook her head, drops of water rolling over her red cheeks and down her face, dripping onto the floor. Her small hands balling up into fists. The officer made a move to reach for her but then she regarded Doctor Burke with a look that contained such fire and resolve it could only have come from a Redfield. The look gave Leon pause and he quickly dropped his hand.

"I want to see my brother." She said to the doctor, her voice flat and there was no doubt that a refusal to her statement would be cause enough for all that rage and fire in her gray eyes to erupt.

"B-by all means." Burke stuttered, Claire's gaze catching him off guard. For such a fragile looking girl she was capable of summoning up a surprising deal of emotion. "G-go ahead."

With that Doctor Burke retreated up the corridor as if fleeing a burning building. Claire straighten her back, took in a deep breath, and pulled the wooden door open, leading the procession into the room that held Chris Redfield. Behind him, Leon could hear a great deal of choking as the other three tried to hold back their sobs. For a moment, the officer wondered why he wasn't doing the same.

'Because you didn't know him, you dink.' He thought as he stepped into the darkened area that smelled just as heavily of the harsh sanitizers that gave him such a headache. 'Barry's his best friend. He worked alongside him for more years than you could count on one hand. Chris saved Rebecca's bacon more than once in the Spencer Estate if even half of what you heard about that nuthouse is true and you know that it is. Jill married the guy for Pete's sake. He's Claire's brother, she's known him her whole life. She traveled half way across the world just to find the guy and that was on a hunch! What kind of relationship do you even have with the guy, Kennedy?'

Not a good one. That was for sure. While not being outright hostile to the young policeman Claire's brother had not been particularly warm either. Leon suspected that this was in part because of his close friendship to the younger Redfield sibling. No matter how much they had insisted there was nothing between them it didn't seem to reassure Chris anymore. In fact, Leon was fairly convinced the nicest thing Chris Redfield had ever said to him was "Good morning, pass me the coffee pot."

'So what the hell are you doing here, Kennedy?' Leon tried to force the unpleasant voice out of his head but it seemed to have good footing and would not be uprooted easily. 'You aren't needed here. There's enough support and emotion here directed at Chris Redfield to raise the Titanic with. Not like the guy was your friend or anything. Just slip out the back, Kennedy, no one will miss you.'

Once again, Leon told himself to shut up. It wasn't like that. He had to stay.

Before his mind had time to go on another unpleasant rant Leon focused his energy on surveying the room in which he now stood. It was small, hospital rooms always seemed too small to him, too condensed. On the right wall there was a wide, plate glass window, letting the sun's golden rays spill into the white tiled room. Beside the bed was a small oak table where a crystal vase containing an assortment of wild flowers rested. Next to the clear vase was a copy of Auto Trader; Chris had always liked to flip through the publication and circle the cars he'd like to buy if he ever got enough money to do so.

'Too bad he's going to die now that he does.' Leon shook his head absently. 'Shut up!'

The bed was the most frightening sight of all. Steel rails ran around its perimeter to keep the patient from falling onto the floor in his sleep. An assortment of machines and tubes and tanks were all set up around the bed as well, beeping or hissing or pumping incessantly. The tubes and cables all ran into one common connector: Chris Redfield. Leon felt his breath catch when he looked at the man he hadn't seen in over a year.

'No way, no way is that the same guy. No way, can't be.' He thought looking at the pathetic form splayed out on the bed, looking to weak to even be able to raise his head.

It was as if the Chris Redfield he knew had transformed into an entirely different person. The figure on the bed must have shed at least one hundred pounds and the formerly thick mass of chestnut hair had been cut down to a few loose strands hanging absently over his ears. The man's skin was as pale as a sheet of paper, the blue veins running beneath the surface clearly evident. An oxygen mask covered the rest of the eldest Redfield's face but his blue eyes were still sharp and full of vitality. It was Chris Redfield all right; Leon could see the vibrant spirit inside the destroyed shell.

"Hey," Jill said sweetly, tenderly, taking her husband's bony hand in her own as she took a seat in the chair pulled up at his bedside. "How are you feeling, sweetheart?"

With what must have taken a great deal of strength Chris reached up and removed the mask from his face, revealing pale, blue lips that stretched into the faintest of smiles at his wife's shining face. "Been...better. The food...here...really...sucks." He coughed weakly.

Jill managed a weak laugh, eyes welling up with new tears. "Well don't worry. Doctor Burke...Doctor Burke said that we'd be able to take you home real soon. Isn't that good news?"

It was Chris' turn to laugh but it quickly deteriorated into a short fit of coughing. "You know...what I love the most about you Jill?" He said, smiling timidly. "You...only ever lie when you...want me to feel better." She didn't say anything, only smiled and so he went on. "I'm tired...Jill. Really tired. I don't think I'll be able to...come home...this time. I'm...sorry for everything."

Leon looked around at the other faces in the room. Rebecca was frantically wiping her eyes on her sleeve, her small form shaking with each new sob that overtook her. Barry stood, looking like a lumberjack in his plaid shirt and jeans, his face beet red and tears flowing freely into his beard then dripping down his chin onto the floor. Claire though, Claire was eerily composed. Her face a mask of stone set and composed but Leon could see the water in her eyes. No matter how hard she tried to hold those tears back, damn them up, he knew they would come out soon.

Feeling out of place that he seemed to be the only one in the room not overcome with emotion Leon quickly sank into a chair up against the wall by the foot of the bed. He buried his face in his hands, hoping that would shield him from the view of anyone who might be watching and wondering why he didn't feel as strongly for this man as they did. Instead, he felt a warm hand lay across his back and he didn't have to look up to know it was Claire's. He knew her touch, light and warm and calming.

'Jeez.' He thought, not daring to look up at her with dry eyes. 'She probably thinks I'm broken up about Chris too and that I'm trying to act macho and not let anyone see me cry. Half-stone and half-gold I'd bet on it, Claire you're too good for anyone.'

"Sorry?" He heard Jill say. "You don't have anything to be sorry for."

"Yes...I do." Came the strained, wheezing voice that broke off in a fit of coughing before coming back weaker than before. "For Umbrella...for getting sick." Leon raised his head just enough to see the cancer stricken Redfield stroke Jill's hand lightly with his thumb. "For us. I'm...sorry that I couldn't be...the man you deserve. I'm sorry."

"Quiet." She scolded, her voice distorted as sobs tried to break through her words. "None of that matters now, you're the only man that I wanted. That I needed. Just rest, you'll get better in no time."

"I...love you Jill." He said, voice thin and strained. "I always have...always will. If you...hear anything rattling around...in your house at night...it's just me. I...never could navigate that staircase in the dark."

"Chris, I love you too." Jill's words were more of desperate plea than a statement, an urging to make the man stay, to hang on to life for a little while longer. The woman broke down, sobbing against her husband's shoulder. Leon watched as Barry walked over and placed one of his massive paws on her back.

"Hey buddy." Barry said, giving Chris a small smile, his voice the rumble of a giant bee. "This place must get pretty boring huh? I'll have to stop by with some beer next time."

"Only...Coors, man." Chris replied, fixing his friend with a lopsided grin. "Nothing but the Silver Bullet...for me. Barry...I need you...to do me a favor."

"Just name it." Came the big man's reply.

"I need you...to look after my girls." Chris coughed then nodded to Jill and Claire vaguely. "Keep them out of trouble...will you? You might find them...a little more difficult then...Moira and Poly but I...think you'll be able...to handle it." He coughed again. So weak.

"Sure bud," Barry said, giving his partner a light slap on the leg. "You just hang in there. Poly and Moira are in there teens now and that's almost more than I can handle so just think of me as a caretaker in the meantime. It's only temporary all right? You're going to have to stay alive long enough to come back and take them off my hands again, you hear?"

"Sorry Barry." Chris said with a shake of his head. Just a subtle back and forth motion. "I can't promise...anything." At that, Becca let out a might sniff and Chris' eyes, so full of life even as it left his body. "Becky?"

"Y-yeah. I'm here." She said, her voice somehow weaker than his as she moved to the other side of the bed and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Some child prodigy I am huh?" She smiled. "I'm supposed to be some scientific whiz kid and I can't even fix up one of my friends when they get sick. Pretty sad huh?"

"Nah," Chris replied, shaking his head again and touching her hand lightly. "You're still...smarter than me. You'll probably...invent a car that...runs on air or something...and win the Nobel Prize. You're...you're a good kid, Becky. A good woman. You have...to promise me...something too." Another cough, a deep phlegmy rasp.

"O-okay." The former medic said, that elfish grin of hers appearing back on a face stained by falling tears. "What is it?"

"Promise me," Chris's lips parted in a smile. His lips were so pale. "That you'll...never...grow your hair...long. It...wouldn't suit you. Promise?"

Rebecca chortled then stifled a sob as she nodded acquiescence. "Okay, promise."

For a moment, a terribly long moment, there was silence. The only sounds were Jill's ragged sobs and Rebecca's soft sniffling. Not a word was spoken and the solemn air of it all hit Leon hard. It was like a tomb, it was like the man lying in the bed was already dead and they had come to mourn him. Then, Chris spoke again and Leon was shocked to hear him speak his name. The young cop had been ignored for so long he was almost certain that he had somehow turned invisible.

"Leon?" Chris said, voice cracking in mid-sentence so it came out more like "Le-on?"

"Uh...uh yeah?" The younger man said, jumping to his feet awkwardly and walking to the side of the bed where Rebecca stood. She moved aside to give him more room. "Yeah, what is it Chris?"

At first Leon was wary of what the dying man would say to him. He was convinced it would be something along the lines of: "Don't touch my sister," or "If you so much as lay a hand on her I'll come back from the dead and slice your balls off," but once again the youthful officer was surprised. Chris leaned forward, eyes hard with determination as if the simple act of shifting in the bed required all his strength, and grabbed a handful of Leon's uniform.

"You...you have to...promise me something too." He said, voice hardly more than a whisper. The others looked on with surprised expressions crossing their faces.

"Uhm," Leon said stupidly, "uh, s-sure. What? What do you need me to do?"

Chris leaned forward again so that his face was flush with the side of Leon's head. He whispered into his ear, his voice so strained, so deflated from the one the younger man had grown accustomed to. The words that the ill man spoke nearly made the young officer leap out of his skin. Eyes wide, Leon paused a moment at the end of Chris' sentence and nodded hesitantly. The older man spoke once more and once again Leon nodded with hesitation. After the cop's final nod of agreement the eldest Redfield sighed, as if a great weight had been lifted from his chest, and rolled back to rest his head against a sweaty pillow.

"Everyone..." He said hoarsely, looking at Claire who was biting her lower lip, no doubt to keep from crying. "I...I love you all. Now...please...I want to talk to my sister. Alone. Just for a minute...or two."

No one had the guts or the audacity to deny the wishes of a dying man and the assembled group only nodded before slowly filing out of the hospital room. Leon promptly fell into the same chair he had been sitting in before and pressed his fist to the side of his head, thinking deeply. His world reeled and spun wildly as the full weight of Chris Redfield's words began to sink in.

'Shit.' He thought silently as the others, save for Jill who paced anxiously up and down the hallway, took seats of their own. 'Man, just when you think you're life is back on track and things are looking up Fate tosses you a curveball. How could he ask me to that? How could he ask me to do that for her? Jeez. How was that even Chris? That wasn't the same guy who I saw running around the halls of the Germany complex with an M-4 in his hands, shouting orders and firing like some kind of action hero. That wasn't the same guy I saw pouring over maps and documents while everyone else was sleeping. No way, couldn't be.'

What was it that Doctor Burke had said? His body was giving up the fight? The Chris Redfield he knew didn't know the meaning of the words give up. He had fought through a mansion infested with all sorts of Umbrella's playthings and survived. He'd gone rushing off to Rockfort Island and then Antarctica when his sister had gone missing, braving death and worse to save his only remaining family and he had survived. The man had fought against the biggest multinational corporation in the world and he had survived. Now they were saying that he was giving up against some cells that had gone bad inside him? How could a man like Chris Redfield survive all that just to die from some disease, from some stupid habit he had? There was no justice in that.

Leon was unaware of how long he sat in the corridor of Saint Jude's waiting, mulling over the things Claire's brother had whispered into his ear but he was stirred from his thoughts, from the orders given to him by Chris, when the door to the man's room opened and out stepped Claire. Actually, stumbled would have been a more appropriate word than stepped. Her athletic figure shook with a violent sob, her eyes constricting tightly as she grabbed the doorframe for support. Leon was on his feet in an instant, quickly followed by the others, grasping the girl around the waist and pulling her up.

"Le-on," she said when as he pulled her up, giving him a frightening sense of déjà vu. When he had pulled her back to a standing position she looked him in the eyes only a moment, her own clouded with unshed tears, and flung her arms about his neck. Burying her face in his neck the tears broke through and her body shook as the damn she had set up against them came crumbling down. "He's dead. Gone. Oh God, he's gone!"

Author's Note: Here you are, my Readers. Look for another chapter fairly soon as well as an update of Three Days In A Nightmare within a week. I hope you enjoy.