- Out of Africa -

Whispering Pines

Jill felt the first soft roll before it trickled out onto her cheek and spilled down her chin. Undone, he swept that tear with his thumb. "Jill…Jill. I didn't want to make you cry."

She shook her head now, laughing a little. "Not sad. You idiot. You dumb man. You stupid bastard."

Amused, his smile turned into a big grin. "Some people call me Leon."

She smacked his ass and had him jumping. "Why didn't you try harder to find me? I've been looking for you all my life too. At that part where you came with the redhead? I probably stalked you a little bit. Maybe. Maybe I did that. And I thought about your face alone in my bed that night too...and that hair."

Well shit. That arrowed into him and thrummed. He dropped his head and pressed their faces together. She wrapped her legs around him and her arms and made a slight sound. They shifted until they were merged like two pieces of the same puzzle.

And he answered, softly, muffled against her shoulder, "We're the same there, Jill Valentine. Maybe we just assume we found each other when we were supposed to. Maybe? We just have to trust the universe on what it's doing."

Jill stroked his back and nodded against his neck. "I loved Chris. Loved him. But it was never like this. For either of us. I remember looking at him when he found me in Africa and trying to find that thing on his face."

Leon lifted his face from her shoulder. They held eyes. She stroked a hand up his back and watched his eyes hood and soften. She whispered, "Yeah. That thing. That. It was all over your face when we first started talking in Tall Oaks. Was it all over mine? I felt like I was glowing when I sat there with you."

Jill wanted him to understand about Chris. So, there were no secrets there. "Chris and I didn't look at each other like that for years after Raccoon City. I had this mission after Terragrigia was taken down..."

Leon shifted, scooping her hair from her face to watch her. "I remember it. T-Abyss. I was briefed on it. They tagged me to coordinate with the B.S.A.A. on locating Jessica Sherawat after she went M.I.A."

Jill nodded, surprised. She kept stroking her hands up his back and down over his ass. It was a nice feeling to be petted. "He pushed so hard to save me then. When it was done, and we were back at HQ, I remember looking at him and thinking…who pushes that hard to save their partner? I realized, of course, that he loved me. I loved him too. You can't not love him. He's gruff and a little volatile sometimes. He flies off the rails with his temper and tends to take it too far by being stoic on missions. But he's got this big capacity for loving. He just wants to save the world. He really, really, just wants to save the world."

Leon pressed a kiss to her mouth and stole her breath. She held his eyes and said, "So, we gave it a shot. Why not? Best friends for years, partners, we loved each other. It was good. I won't lie about that. It was good with us. We knew each other so well. The relationship was good."

Amused, he cocked a brow. "The sex was good? You talking about sex with Chris Redfield with me on top of you?"

Jill grinned at him a little and slapped his ass again. "No. I didn't say a word about that, you dirty-minded lech. You did. But that part was good too. We were happy."

He watched her face, soft and patient. "Yeah? I hear the but in there, Jill. What's the but for?"

Oh lord. He'd walked right into it. He laughed even before she said, "For pooping, stupid."

And he loved her. He just loved her. She grinned, wide and happy, and they chuckled together and held on. How did you not love a woman that made butt jokes like a ten-year-old boy?

Finally, she answered him, "But we both knew something was missing. Some level of connection we'd thought to find in each other. We'd talked about ending it before we found out I was pregnant. It complicated things. But we wanted to keep it. Even if we'd had the baby, I don't think it would have lasted, Leon. Chris is…he's the fight. He's the warrior. He can't stop. He won't stop. I would have never been enough for him. When he found me in Africa, he held me, and it didn't cross his mind to kiss me. It didn't even register on his face. And he didn't even…he never asked about the baby."

Another little tear escaped down her cheek. She laughed a little, and he swept it away. "Sorry. I'm killing the mood here. I'm sorry. Great pillow talk, huh?"

And Leon kind of hated and loved Chris Redfield at that moment for her. The moron. The big muscled idiot. He'd never seen her. Not really. Not how she needed him to. Leon mused- thank God for that, as it meant she was here with him. But he was sorry for the pain losing that baby still caused her. He never, ever, wanted her to feel pain like that. Ever. And it was why he was right for her and Chris Redfield? Well, he'd never been right.

Leon shook his head and dropped his mouth to kiss her. It was smooth and stole her breath again. He lifted his head. "We're getting to know each other, Jill. In a short time, in a terribly shitty set of circumstances…I could listen to you talk all day, every day…about nothing. And it would never be enough. Redfield? He's a fool."

Jill shook her head and made a little sound. "He's not. Don't do that. I don't want to paint him as the bad guy here. He isn't. He's good and patient and loyal. He's my best friend. He is. He just…he was never the love of my life. And I could never figure out why…until that day in Tall Oaks."

Oh. Well shit. There it was again. It thrummed in his chest and filled him up. He dropped their foreheads together. "You calling me the love of your life after three days, Jill Valentine?"

Jill laughed a little. "Maybe. How's that feel?"

"Fucking awesome. And better than some of the names I've been called. Girls have called me lots of things over the years."

"Hmm. Really? Enlighten me."

Amused, he cocked his head and considered, "I threw a spitwad on a girl in the third grade. She called me a nasty little boy. In junior high, I asked out the most popular girl. She called me a dork fish loser in front of the entire gym class."

Delighted, nuts for him, and thrilled to be here, Jill shifted beneath him and never wanted him to get off her. Ever. She wanted him to lie on top of her forever. And ever. And pretty much ever. Grinning, Jill said, "What the fuck is a dork fish?"

Chuckling, Leon kissed her mouth once and shrugged, "Presumably, a complete nerd. The type that plays D&D, writes poetry, and plays the piano."

Jill cocked her head to the side, eyes twinkling, "That's pretty specific parameters, Agent Kennedy."

"It was generalizing."

"Oh, oh oh oh…oh, it was not." Jill stroked her feet down his calves, thrilled, "You were a dork fish! You mentioned glasses before…you keep referencing Jim Henson movies and Dungeons and Dragons..."

He shifted a little and his face. That iconic face of his was set in droll, deadpan lines.

"Oh, Leon Kennedy…you were a nerd!"

That droll look remained, "I like how you shout it like it's a surprise. Or a revelation. It's not an epiphany Jill. I'm still a nerd. I don't hide it."

Jill shook her head, delighted. She just loved it. Every minute of it. "Dork fish…lord. All through high school?"

Leon shrugged a little and nipped at her grinning mouth. "It worked for me. I ran track. I swam. Never got big enough for football, so that dream died out. I got some acne and turned into a string bean, so I had to fight back from puberty pretty hard. Girls started calling me all kinds of things after that."

"Oh, I'm sure. When did Ada Wong start calling you things?"

He scanned her face, looking for something angry. There was nothing—just curiosity.

"Not for years, actually. And just once. We ran into each other when I was on furlough in Austria. She was there…probably for something nefarious. Who are we kidding? I didn't ask." He kept watching her face while he talked. He didn't want to hurt her. What had Ada said, though? She'd said tell her the truth if he wanted to keep her. So he did, "I'd had a thing for her for a long time. We flirted. She was always popping up to lead me around like a puppy, rub on me, and run away…."

He started to shift off her and relieve her from his weight, and she shook her head, looping him closer. "Stay. Keep talking."

Nuts for her, he laughed a little. "So, there she was. And she didn't run. We had some drinks. She pumped me for information…."

He trailed off, and Jill finished it for him, "And you pumped her full of you."

Leon lifted a brow at her. She echoed it. And they both laughed a little. She stroked his back again, smiling at him. "It's ok, Leon. We had lovers. We had lives. We had plenty before this. You don't owe me an apology, and I don't judge you for it. Why would I? I'm not perfect."

He nodded and shifted enough to feel her breasts brush over his chest. They both made little sounds of delight over it. "Mmm. Yeah. So, we had that one night together. It was a couple of years back. It was just once. It was a mistake—a big one. I keep trying to backpedal from it. She keeps throwing it out there. I'm not sure why."

Jill took his face, scanning it, looking for the truth there. He was serious. He didn't get it. The man was trained to detect lies and sniff out information. And he couldn't see what was right there. Shaking her head with a laugh, convinced all men were missing the ability to understand women, she said, "She's got feelings for you. Big ones. She played me like a jealous bitch, Leon. You saw that, right? She's jealous of me. And she wanted me to know about the two of you. Why? My guess? She's hoping it drives me away."

Oh, he looked so confused. She was insane for him—the dork fish.

He shook his head, laughing a little. "No way. She's not like that. She doesn't care about that shit. I'm not sure she really cares about anything. She's impossible to know."

"How often do you think she lets the enemy bounce around on top of her, Leon? She's fucking brilliant. She's unstoppable. She's probably smarter than both of us combined. She let you fuck her." There. Crude. Maybe crude would get the point across. "But she really fucked herself. Because she cares about you now. Maybe she always has. Maybe she's been chasing you all these years, Leon. Did you ever think about that?"

He blinked, head tilted. She could see him processing that. And he finally shook his head again, "Doesn't wash for me. Maybe she cares about me. Maybe. Even that feels false to me. It's all games with Ada. All results. She has fifteen fingers in forty different pies. I don't think she meant to sleep with me. I believe that part. It just happened for both of us. But now that it did? I think she uses it to manipulate me. I think she wanted me to tell you about her to get rid of you, though. That's probably true. She can't manipulate me with you in her way."

Jill watched his face and stroked it, loving him. "Oh, baby, you can't be that blind. Can you? That genius IQ of yours…does it fail you when it's about women? I believe she wants me gone—no doubt about that. But I don't think it has anything to do with some game. It's just you. She's had you all this time in her eyes. Who the hell am I to step in there and take you away? It wouldn't have been more obvious if she'd pissed on you when she first showed up."

Amused, Leon tried to picture Ada Wong hiking one delicate leg and pissing on his pants like a dog marking him. He chuckled. "She can pee all over me if she wants, Jill. It won't change anything. Because I'll still be peeing all over you."

They both held gazes. They both twitched their mouths. And finally laughed together.

"Yep," Jill mused, "We both just pictured Ada Wong pissing all over you. And you peeing on me."

"Yep. Horrifying. I probably meant it to be more romantic than it sounded. It didn't sound so terrible in my head."

Oh, she loved him. She did. He was wonderful. "I would imagine it didn't. That mouth of yours, does it have a filter?"

"Seemingly. I think I lost it somewhere. Maybe Ada peed on it, and it fell off."

Her eyes twinkled. She shifted a little. "Leon?"

He was watching her breasts peak as he brushed his chest over them. Beautiful, he thought, just beautiful. And he'd once stood on the top of the Silverback Mountains and seen the sunrise. He'd once trekked across the world's edge to see where sea and sky merged and become one. And he'd never seen anything more beautiful than Jill Valentine.

He lifted his head to look at her. She drew him down to her and pressed her mouth to his. "No more talking. That phone of yours is gonna ring. Any minute. No more talking."

They pressed foreheads and shook, shuddered, and died together in that bed. She didn't want to let go of him. If she let go, she'd lose him. He made no move to shift away. They octopus held each other on the bed with legs and arms, and bodies looped together like twine.

The dork fish and the thief.

The hardest part came when it was done, and it was time to dress.

He wasn't a dork fish now, she mused. He wore Prada like some men wore jeans. He slipped a blue collared shirt over his body, and she sat on the bed to watch him. It was like watching a knight donning his armor. The leather vest, the shoulder holster, and the pants black. The shoes? Black…and Zanotti. She would be running around China with a man in nine hundred dollar boots.

He went to button up the shirt beneath the vest, and she shook her head. She shifted to help him. She snapped latches on the vest and packed magazines in their respective pockets. Jesus Christ, he thought, was there anything better than a beautiful woman in a thong dressing him?

Objectively, yes, because she could be undressing him…which would be so much better.

But this? This was pretty fucking great.

She tucked his Magnum into his shoulder holster. The bag in the closet had been full of all kinds of goodies. She poked a 9mm Glock into the spare piece holster on his thigh. His belt was full of extra ammo. He was a walking advertisement for death when they were done strapping him with shit.

She strapped his big knife to the vest, and he caught her face. His tactical glove was smooth, soft, buttery leather on her skin. His other arm looped around her to drag her into him. And he kneaded her sweet little butt as he kissed her.

She made a sound of need, he considered how long it might take to get out of all the damn gear they'd just strapped on him to throw her down again, and his phone rang.

Jill froze. She fisted his vest in her hands. They held eyes.

She whispered, "You could not answer it."

And now he smiled, sadly, "Could I really?"

"No. It has to go this way. We both know that. I don't want to lose you."

Jesus. What a thing to say. He directed the call to his ear and blocked visual. "Hunnigan."

"Leon," She sounded out of breath, "What a day for me. Jesus. It's like playing cat and mouse to cover my tracks here. I have a plane for you—courtesy of the B.S.A.A. You can thank Barry Burton for it. I couldn't locate Chris Redfield like you wanted. But I got Burton easily enough. The moment I mentioned Jill, he pulled strings for you. I didn't go into details on the why. He didn't ask. He sounded too busy to care, honestly. He's neck-deep himself in something it sounded like. My guess would be dealing with the mess that's happening right now in China."

Leon watched Jill move. She was covering up that tiny white thong she was wearing…and it broke his heart to watch it because he didn't want to fight bad guys. Not now. Now? Now he wanted to throw her down and sink his teeth into that perfect ass to watch her come apart for him.

Damnit.

"Simmons is already there?"

"Oh, he's there. And there's a mess happening. The B.S.A.A. has boots on the ground. It's a disaster."

He walked toward the room where Ben slept while Hunnigan briefed him on the situation. She laid out the details of the plane and sent maps and coordinates to his phone. When they clicked off, he stepped into the bedroom to find Ben sitting on the bed with his jacket.

He was wiping it with a washcloth. His face was teary. Concerned, Leon moved toward him to crouch beside him on the floor. "What's wrong, buddy? What's happening?"

"I can't get it clean." He was whispering. He looked so heartbroken. He hiccupped out a sob. "It's so dirty. I can't get it clean!"

Lean gathered his hands up and turned him into his body. The little boy just…fell apart. He just started sobbing against his chest. "I can't get it clean…I can't get the blood off. It's so dirty."

There was movement in the doorway, and Jill was there. She wore that green tank top over gray camouflage cargo fatigues tucked into thick black combat boots. A shoulder holster in black nylon was tucked into a belt lined with ammo pouches. She had a piece strapped to her thigh, a knife strapped to her ankle, and another piece tucked into that shoulder holster. Her hair was scooped up in a bun behind her head with just some wispy bangs floating around the face beneath the dark gray ball cap she wore.

She glanced at his distressed face and moved over to encircle Ben from behind. He just kept crying about the jacket. It was so much more than the jacket. Of course, it was. Jill cupped Leon's face with one gloved hand and shook her head at the panic on him.

Jill soothed, "Benny…Ben…look here. Look at me."

He did, hiccupping. Jill stroked his wet cheek. "We'll get it clean, ok? It'll be ok. And you know what? When we get where we're going…when it's done, and we're back home…Leon will get you one that fits you perfectly. So, you'll have two."

Leon watched her face as she spoke to him. She was so fucking perfect. Even her bad girl look was perfect. Not a drop of makeup, and that face was gorgeous. The love on it for that little boy between them was the most beautiful part about it.

Ben sniffled, "Two? Two jackets?"

Leon kissed the top of his head. "Two jackets. You know something? Jill picked that jacket out for me."

"Really?" He glanced at Jill, who nodded.

"She did. She's got good taste in clothes, huh?"

Ben nodded, petting the dirty coat on the bed beside him. "Yeah. It's like a cape."

And so that was the answer. It was a hero's cape to the little boy. How did the hero fly again if the cape didn't come clean? Jill and Leon held gazes over his sweet head. Such a brave boy…he wanted to be a hero.

Leon said, "Ben…how about when this is done, we get you two jackets…and two people to live with?"

Ben lifted his eyes to him. Jill felt herself shake a little. They caught gloved palms and held. "Two?"

Leon nodded a little, and he was nervous. She watched it all over him. The great Leon Kennedy was nervous around a little boy. "Yeah. Jill…and me. Maybe you could live with both of us for a while. If you wanted."

Ben considered this sagely. He poked at one of the ammo pouches on Leon's vest and twisted his lips around. "Forever?"

Jesus. Leon took a slow breath to make sure his voice didn't crack when he spoke. "Yeah. I think forever is ok. What do you think?"

Ben studied his face, watching him like God at the Gates of St. Peter, awaiting his final judgment. He finally said, wisely, "Can we get a dog?"

And Leon felt his face crack into a huge smile. Jill watched his eyes mist up and wanted to die loving him. It was that simple. She wanted to grab both of them and run away while it was good. While it was safe. While it was loving.

Leon answered, tongue in cheek, "I think we can get a dog. A big one?"

Ben nodded, wiping his cheeks. "Yeah. A big dog. Shaggy. Maybe like a sheeping dog."

Leon grabbed Jill's face above the little boy that clung to him. He pulled her over to press their foreheads together. And he whispered, "Yeah. Maybe like a sheeping dog. I think that would be ok."

Ben nodded a little, holding on. "Then I think that forever is good."

"Yeah," Leon answered gruffly. His voice broke and killed her where she sat. Jill cupped his face over Ben's head, and she kissed his nose and his mouth. And she cried a little since she knew he wouldn't. "I think so too."

Ben glanced up at them above him. He touched Jill's face, and she turned her eyes down to him. "It's ok. Don't cry, Jill. You can have a dog too."

Jill laughed a little, wetly. She kissed his sweet tiny mouth and hugged him. Her head slid over to rest on Leon's shoulder. "Thank you, Ben. But I think I'd just like to have a son for a while. I can't have any children of my own. Maybe you'll be my son."

Ben squeezed her, sniffling. "I think that would be ok too."

Jill tilted her head, and Leon lowered his mouth to kiss her. A wonderful, shining, beautiful moment. Her heart seized, squeezed, and froze as his communicator beeped again.

He rose from the bed to pace away. Gruffly, he answered it, "Hunnigan."

"Leon, the plane is ready. The car is there to get you. And, officially, you're dead. We're off the grid now, Leon. The official word is you died, Helena died, and Jill Valentine died for the second time." She laughed a little as she said it. "It's a tragic road for her."

Leon chuckled a little. "You're right about that. We're headed out now. Thank you, Ingrid. I mean it."

"Leon, your thanks are wasted. Adam was…he would have wanted it this way. Avenge him. Get the proof. Let's put that son of a bitch in a cage and watch him rot until they open his veins for the lethal injection."

Ingrid Hunnigan: Vengeful goddess.

Leon made a sound of assent. "It's my greatest priority. Do we have a safe house for Ben?"

On the bed, Ben jerked in Jill's arms. She soothed him, stroking his hair.

"Absolutely, Barry Burton offered to pick him up when you put boots on the ground in Jiating. It's outside of Tatchi. And away from Lanshiang, where the outbreak is happening. I'm sending you the coordinates of the three biggest cities on the coast there. All are about six to eight hours outside of Beijing. But I think they're likely targets for Simmons to set up a safe house potentially. A good raid might turn him up and end it quickly."

Leon nodded a little, "Ok. Ingrid, shoot me Burton's contact information and get me anything on the terrain you've got in those cities. I'll review anything we have on the plane ride and see if we can narrow down where he might hole up."

"Good. I'm on it. Be careful."

She clicked off, and Leon turned back to them. Ben, in a red t-shirt and jeans, was shaking his head. "I won't go."

"Ben…it's the best plan. I can't drag you into a hot zone filled with hostiles. I can't."

Ben glanced at Jill, looking for an ally. She brushed his curly hair off his forehead, "It's not safe, Benny. It's not. We can't protect you like that. But Barry Burton? He had two little daughters. He's a good man. He'll keep you safe while we finish this and put the bad man away in jail."

Ben slid off the bed. He clutched the jacket against his chest. He shook his head. "I won't go. You promised you wouldn't leave me. I won't go."

And he ran from the room.