Author's Note: After a too long wait

Summary: And the house of embarrassment expands.

Rating: T

Some Things Never Change

Chapter Two: ChaChaChanges

By: TheMazzieDonut

Leon was in the living room/kitchen combination when Sherry slowly came out of her room. The hotel room was cramped as all hell, but Leon didn't want to take any chances in using his credits cards and what not so soon. After all, he and Sherry were supposed to be dead. He'd made a few calls to his mother, but that was it. Who knows what Umbrella would do if it knew that Birkin's offspring lived? Leon didn't want to think about it.

Sherry sunk heavily into the couch and groaned. Leon looked up at her from his spot at the shabby table. He was looking over maps. They had to keep moving. He didn't feel good staying in one place for too long. Sherry shifted uncomfortably and sighed, turning on the television.

She started that about two days ago; looking really uncomfortable. It made Leon nervous. After that bra-shopping scene, it seemed that wounded cop and the jaded little girl had found a happy medium.

But now, it would appear as though everything irritated her and was his fault. The light in the hall left on, his fault; she trips, his fault; she leaves a wet towel in the bathroom, his fault. She was whining a lot, too. Holding her stomach constantly. And that's what worried Leon the most.

Back on the train-thingy – whatever the hell it was – Claire had forced a blue liquid down Sherry's throat when she wasn't responding. Later, only a few hours before her unwelcome departure as a matter of fact, Claire hastily tried to explain to him about the embryo – she called it a slug – that Birkin had forced into Sherry and the liquid was the "vaccine" to kill it.

Which, quite frankly, blew Leon away. He believed Claire because Sherry was okay again, but he had a hard time wrapping his head around the statement "I was able to make the vaccine for her". I'm sorry, what? Claire made the vaccine? How do you just make… It was an inner battle Leon had been fighting for the last few days before deciding it wasn't worth thinking about. The fact was, whatever Claire gave Sherry, Leon seriously doubted he could get his hands on.

Sherry shifted again. "Sherry? You, ah, hungry?"

She shot him an evil glare before answering flatly "No" and returning to the Television. She winced again.

It was Leon's turn to shift uncomfortably. What if whatever was in Sherry isn't dead? What if Claire only suppressed it? Leon would've loved to ask Claire if this was how Sherry was before the "vaccine". But he couldn't. Stupid Claire –

His childish inner rant on Claire Redfield was put on hold when Sherry gasped. Leon was out of his chair and half way across the room when she cried out and bolted for the bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind her.

As Leon rounded the couch, he froze. Blood. There was blood on the couch. "OhmiGod" Leon breathed. "The slug… it's trying to get out!"

xXx

Sherry sat on the toilet, shorts and panties around her ankles, cursing all her luck. Of all the times, this was not the best to start her period. How could her body let this happen? Stupid internal clock…

The bathroom was tiny, and only had the barest of necessities; the bathtub, shower combination was so tiny, that even her four eleven self couldn't stretch her legs out all the way when she sat down in it. The curtain was a strange peach-yellow mixture, but it was unevenly spread, making Sherry suspect that it might've been white to start out with. The sink had no counter, just stuck out of the wall. It, too, shared the shower curtains uneven bizarre colouring. The medicine cabinet had a surprisingly not cracked mirror on the front, but was missing a shelf. The toilet on which she sat was just kitty corner to the sink, but had somehow remained white, avoiding all stain. In short, it was cramped and sucked.

Forget everything up to this point; she needed Claire NOW more than ever. All the lower pains were cramps. Claire would've known that. All the mood swings were most likely PMS. Claire would've known that, too. She needed pads…

"Oh, God" she groaned.

She slumped forward, her elbows on her knees, hands pulling at her hair. How in the heck was she going to get pads! She couldn't go to the store. She had no money, and she wasn't going anywhere with bloody clothes. She knew she couldn't ask Leon. She'd die. But what else could she do? She couldn't just sit on the can until she was through.

Someone knocked on the door and she twitched. "Sherry?" It was Leon. Surprise, Surprise. "Sherry, listen, it's… okay"

Oh really? She thought bitterly. I beg to differ.

"Look, Claire explained it to me. Well, not all of it, but enough so that I know what's going on."

She lifted her head a bit, hands still tangled in her hair, feeling colour rush to her cheeks. "R-really?"

"Yeah, but you gotta understand, this isn't my department"

She laughed nervously. "No kidding." She leaned back, covering her face with her hands, laughing again. Nervously, this time. Leon knew she was on her period. How embarrassing was that! After the bra shopping disaster she made a promise to herself to keep all her feminine issues away from Leon to the best of her abilities. When she'd told Leon that, she didn't think she'd ever seen someone so relieved. But now this… Well, what do you know? Claire might be gone, but she left her wisdom behind. She really was looking out for Sherry. Or in this case, really saved her ass.

"So, here's the plan." His voice became a little harder, more serious. Sherry didn't think much of it. She just sat back, not enjoying the cold, wet, basically clammy feeling that made it's way to her skin, fighting slowly through her shirt from the back of the toilet. Small, trembling hands still on her face, she waited. "You listening, Sherry?" She nodded, realized he couldn't see it, and made a small noise.

"Now, it might hurt, but –" Might hurt? What might hurt? Did he have tampons? Her mouth twitched. She supposed she could learn how to use a tampon pretty quickly, if she was careful. She did see those tapes in health class last month"- you need to let it out."

Let it out. Let what out? There was nothing to let out. "When it is, I'll shoot it, okay?"

Sherry spread apart her middle and ring fingers on both hands, revealing her eyes. Big, blue, bulging eyes of surprise. "Wh, wait - what?"

xXx

Leon was pretty proud of himself. He thought that Sherry was handling this pretty well, too. And, they had a perfect understand of the situation. It was amazing that even though Sherry was totally aware that slug was trying to crawl out of her, she seemed darn fine with it. Strange, but, meh. That would make it all the easier.

"You okay, Sherry?" he asked softly. He didn't want to rush her. Any unnecessary stress could seriously hurt her while the… slug was…exiting her… Leon felt sick, and swallowed back what was trying to come up. If it was anything like what had erupted from that reporter's chest, that thick, bloated, slime covered slug, tiny tentacle spasming, fish-like mouth gasping for air around the gunk that in cased it – Ohmygod, stop!

He rested his forehead against the cool, more-than-likely fake wooden door for a moment, trying not to imagine the thing with an eye on it's arm shoving what came out of Ben down Sherry's throat. That particular mental picture wasn't going to help anything but his breakfast come up.

"Sherry?" She hadn't responded before. In fact, he hadn't heard anything for a whole minute. It bothered him. "Sherry?"

xXx

"Yh-yeah, I'm here…" she managed. She was basically wheezing. What she couldn't manage was understanding what Leon had told her through the door. He's going to shoot it. What the hell is "it"? Her ovaries? That didn't seem very helpful. She was just about to ask him to elaborate when a sudden and sharp pain pulled at her lower abdomen.

"AH!" She yelped. That had been one of the more violent cramps yet. Like she'd just been socked in the side.

Suddenly, she heard a loud crash from outside the bathroom door.

When Sherry cried out, Leon bolted into the kitchen and knocked over everything that was on the table to retrieve the loyal 9mm beneath it all. The Desert Eagle was tucked against the small of his back, but he thought its slugs were over kill. Not to mention, the sound would bring serious attention to them. At least the three-bullet burst of the customized handgun could be confused with something else.

He dashed back into the small hallway, nearly clipping his injured shoulder on the flaking corner, stopping in front of the bathroom. "Sherry!"

"What!" she called back, sounding surprised. "Are you okay? What was that noise?"

"Don't worry," he said, trying to sound gentle. It was completely forced and completely obvious. Sherry was a big girl, she knew when someone was patronizing her. He decided to just tell it to her without sugar coating his tone. "I got something that's going to help."

xXx

"…"

Sherry didn't know what he had. It was pretty obvious at this point that they were on different wavelengths. Planets, even. So, she didn't answer. This just wasn't good. This was all kinds of not good. Her body was not helping.

Another wave of cramps waved over her lower body and she groaned, holding her stomach, leaning forward. The pain was awful, like someone had grabbed her lower innards and began squeezing and tugging at them.

"Sherry!" Leon sounded half panicked. It didn't help her. "Sherry, open the door!"

She winced, trying to breath, digging her hands into her lower abdomend, kneading at the sore area. This must've been those bad days her mother used to complain about. "I… can't."

"Shit…!" There was a pause, and Sherry wondered what was going on. "Don't let it get away!" Another pause. "You know what, I'll just break the door down."

"HUH?" She sat up straight, forcing more pain. She groaned again. She could hardly breath without causing pain, there was no yelling at Leon to stop. In short… she was screwed.

There was a brief pause of silence, there was a loud thud against the door. The wood whined, and the doorframe groaned, the force of Leon's boot forcing it to bend at an unnatural angle. All Sherry could think was, Claire!

Author's Note: So… that took too long to put up. Sorry about that. Also, sorry about the review… thing. We forgot the anonymous review blocker was on. Our bad. Ahahaha. Ha. For those who are still lost, the conclusion will be up next chapter. Poor Leon. He tries so hard, and yet...

R&R Please