41. Leon

The fire alarm had begun to sound so suddenly that it took everyone by surprise. The sound of the alarm bell was as annoying to them as it was to the monsters, with the only difference that the sound seemed to leave them in a kind of trance.

The creatures had frozen in place, making them look like horrible and monstrous statues. Leon scanned his surroundings; his trained eyes soon located all his teammates. The baby's wife was not in sight, and Leon could only hope that she had found some hiding place; Sherry was at his side, with her handgun raised. It didn't take long to locate Claire; the woman was sneaking quickly between the creatures to help Helena, who was cornered against a wall holding her leg.

Claire looked at him, and Leon understood her message instantly.

Run.

The group made a run hoping that the creatures did not decide to start moving. After a few minutes of tension, the group took refuge in a department store where they reunited with the woman and her baby. After apologizing for reasons that were not at all her fault, the woman withdrew to be with her baby.

Leon took the opportunity to check Helena's leg. The medical knowledge he had was very elementary, but after palpating and observing Helena's leg, the agent concluded that it seemed fractured. Helena should not move until it got evaluated by a doctor, but at least they could try to relieve her discomfort a little.

"I can do it…we just need some things." Claire offered.

He hadn't thought about it, but Claire probably knew more about medical treatments than he did. She had worked for years in a humanitarian organization, which meant she'd been on the frontlines trying to help any affected person. She knew first aid procedures for cases like this one.

"There is a drugstore here. I can go grab them, "offered Sherry," what do we need? "

Claire seemed to ponder. The woman's face was looking pale under the faint illumination of the emergency lights. He wasn't sure whether it was just a trick of the light or not, but something felt wrong.

"Bandages, something to sanitize… Alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, or iodine... whatever you find. Antibiotics ..." Claire replied, "And…"

Leon never got to hear what Claire was going to say. At that moment, the woman lost her balance, and her body swayed, falling sideways. His automatic reflex was to extend his arms and catch her before he touched the ground, but the instant his hands had contact with her, Leon noticed the thick and warm substance that began to stain his shirt.

His heart began to melt, and panic started to take possession of him as he carefully lifted the woman's blouse. What I found caused a lump to form in his throat: a portion of Claire's lower back had been uncovered and was bleeding heavily. The first thing Leon could do -after sending Sherry to bring everything he could from the pharmacy- was to put pressure on the wound in hopes that it would stop the bleeding a little.

"Hang on in there…" Leon whispered, "Stay with me, Claire. Stay with me..."

But Claire was quickly fading away, and there was nothing he could do to stop her body going limp, and if it hadn't been for the weak movement of her chest, Leon would have thought he had lost again.

Leon lost all sense of time as he sat there, clutching Claire's unconscious body against his chest while still trying to stop the bleeding. Sherry returned with everything she could carry and that she thought would be useful, but nothing in there could prevent Claire from losing more blood. She needed a hospital, and there could be hours until help could reach them, minutes felt like centuries.

"Leon!" Sherry said, "Look...I think it's stopped bleeding…"

Leon looked at the wound pressed under his hand. Sherry was right, it wasn't bleeding anymore, and it seemed like some small clots had begun to form.

"I think we should try cleaning it and covering it with bandages…" Helena suggested, "I wouldn't want that to get infected."

Helena was right. Now that the blood had stopped, the injury itself needed tending. Such an open wound could easily get infected. With Sherry's help, Leon managed to clean and bandage Claire's wound. The injury looked even worse after cleaning it; the damage was deep and whoever had done it had been savage.

"I think it was one of those things…" Helena said, looking at the injury with the same sense of pain as Leon did, "maybe when she went to activate the alarm…"

Of course. Claire would have thrown herself to the monsters if it meant saving them. Why did she have to be so much like Chris? He loved that independent, no damsel in distress, attitude of hers, but sometimes he wished she could just step back and let others protect her.

"Her temperature is dropping," Leon said, taking off his jacket and wrapping it around Claire.

"There should be pillows and blankets in Home & Decor. I'll bring some…" Sherry said, running out.

Leon brought Claire closer to his chest. The weak breathing against his chest was his only comfort and proof that she was still alive.

"You really love her, huh?" Helena said, crawling closer to them.

"I lost her once...I don't think I could do it again…"

Helena nodded quietly. She was probably one of the few people who had seen him during the dark days when Claire had been thought dead. Leon hadn't known his feelings back then, but now that he had other reasons besides his friendship to protect her, things had taken another turn.

"That's reasonable…" Helena sighed. She looked at Claire's sleeping form and bit her lip. She picked up her mobile phone and began tampering with it.

"Damn it…the signal is jammed…"

"I tried a couple of times before...it didn't work either."

"So we are trapped and uncommunicated…" Helena sighed, "It's fine for me. I can survive until help comes, but what about her?"

"I...I don't know. I mean, I don't even know how long she was hurt. God. I can't...just imagine how much blood she has lost until now. Shit. I was supposed to keep her safe."

Helena looked at him, apologetically.

" It's not your fault, Leon. " she whispered, "You know...she came for me."

"For...you?"

"During that battle. I got hurt, and the monsters cornered me. She came all the way to help me out of there. She was probably already injured then,…" she continued, "but she came and helped. She must have been in so much pain…"

"That's Claire…" Leon said, caressing her sleeping face, " Everyone else comes up first…"

"Has she always been so annoyingly noble?"

"It's a Redfield trait…"

"If you decide to settle down with her...just make sure your kids won't inherit it…"

Leon snorted at the idea. Not that he disliked the idea of having a family with her. He knew no other woman in the world that could be a better mother than Claire. It was in her nature. What he found amusing, however, was the idea of tiny versions of Claire or himself running around and calling him dad. It wasn't an unwelcome idea.

"Is she looking any better?"

" I don't know. The bleeding stopped, so that should be an improvement, but her temperature keeps going down, and she's not woken up…"

"Well, you're keeping her warm with the way you hug her, and honestly...she must be exhausted."

"Maybe..." he sighed, "I don't know…"

Helena opened her mouth to say something, but her words got drowned by Claire's sudden coughs. She had woken up. Her cerulean eyes seemed a little disoriented as she looked around her, and Leon could see the panic hidden in them. It'd happened a couple of times before. Claire would wake up thinking she was somewhere else, a place where she'd probably suffered a lot. She would wake up fearful and wary of her surroundings.

"Hey….shhh…" he whispered soothingly, caressing her face," shhh...it's alright, I'm here…."

"L-Leon…?" Claire replied; her eyes softened in the realization of where she was.

"Yeah...It's me," he replied with a soft smile, "How are you feeling?"

"Uhg...strange? I don't know. "

"You don't remember what happened? " Leon asked.

" We…

"We were shopping for dresses…"

"Yeah, and the place got attacked by bioterrorists. You got hurt and lost a lot of blood, so you passed out…."

"How long…?"

"A couple of hours…" Helena replied in his place. He had been too worried to pay attention to the clock, " are you in pain?"

Claire seemed disoriented, but it didn't look like she was in too much pain. With a wound like the one she had, he'd expected her to be much more in pain, but sometimes severe injuries hurt less than minor ones.

" No…" Claire replied, "I feel… a little sick, but I don't feel pain. What happened to me? "

"We are not sure. You might have been attacked by one of those BOWs out there…"

"Snatchers…" Claire mumbled.

"What?"

"That's how we called them. Snatchers," Claire said softly, " because they snatched people away from the darkness…"

"We?" Helena asked, looking at Leon, "Who are we?"

The agent frowned. Claire rubbed her temple with her eyes closed. Her breathing was agitated, and he felt even more concerned.

"Claire, did you remember something?"

"Uh…I..." she said, trying to get up, but Leon kept her down.

Even if she said she didn't feel pain, it didn't mean she wasn't hurt. The best thing to do was to keep her movements to a minimum. He feared that any sudden movement could cause her injury to start bleeding. Claire didn't fight back, perhaps she could sense the reasons behind his insistence, or she was just too weak to fight him.

"I didn't remember everything...but I think some bits are coming back slowly…"

"But why?" Helena asked.

"Body memory, I think…."Claire replied, "I've been like this before…"

"Yeah, well...I'm sure Leon loves holding you in against his chest…" Helena chuckled teasingly, "Sorry, it was too tempting…"

Leon rolled his eyes and looked at Claire. To his surprise, Claire seemed to have found that amusing.

"If only it were that. Perhaps, that memory would have been a pleasant one," Claire mumbled, "no, I mean that...I've been attacked by Snatchers before…just like now."

The thought that Claire might have gotten hurt this way before, left a sour taste in Leon's mouth. To think that the woman could have died without them knowing about it made the agent feel a wave of anger against her kidnappers.

"We can discuss it when we get out of here, Claire. You need to rest…"

"And probably something to eat too…" Helena agreed, "Where did Sherry go?"

Helena's question was soon answered by the sound of voices and steps that, to Leon's relief, were exhilaratingly familiar.

After a few minutes, Sherry arrived, followed by a familiar face.

"Chris…" Claire said, getting up before Leon could even attempt to stop her. The woman did not even stagger, despite the injury on her side. She moved as if there was nothing wrong with her.

"Claire…" the man said, relieved. The siblings hugged each other, and this time Leon was truly convinced that Claire wasn't bothered by the wound at all. She didn't flinch when the older Redfield had wrapped his arms around her frail body, and it made him confused.

"Are you ok? Birkin said you were hurt…"

"Small scratch…" Claire smiled at him, "Not a big deal. Helena is worse than I am…"

That was a big lie, and both Helena and he exchanged looks, but Claire wasn't acting like a gravely injured person and, to someone who hadn't seen the wound with his own eyes, it'd be hard to think Claire was lying.

"Fractured leg…" Jill said, looking at Helena, "I'll need help carrying her out of here. She needs some X-rays to be sure."

"I think everyone in here needs a damn doctor by now. Kennedy is covered in blood for Christ's sake…" Barry said, pointing his flashlight at him.

Leon was going to say the blood wasn't his, but Claire stopped him by pulling his sleeve.

"Yeah, guess you could use a rest. It must have been rough on you all. Come on. I'll get you all out of here…" Chris said, releasing his sister and leading the way out of their hiding place.

BSAA forces had taken the building, and judging by the tumuli of charred mass scattered at the corridor, the soldiers had managed to defeat the devilish creatures. Leon noticed that a group of soldiers had drawn a perimeter in a corner, and he instantly asked Chris about it.

"It's one of them. It was already dead by the time we arrived, so the tissue was intact. It might come in handy for our science team…" Chris said, pointing at Claire with his head.

"Already...dead? How?" Leon asked.

"I was hoping you would clear that out for me…" Chris replied, "I assumed you would have been the ones to have done it…"

Leon was as clueless as Chris was about how the thing could have died. When they had escaped the creatures, the monsters were all alive.

"So it wasn't any of you ?" Chris asked, surprised.

"Not that I am aware of…" Leon said, shaking his head.

"Huh..." Chris said, "I guess we'll have to figure out what killed that thing…"

"I can take a look…" Claire offered.

Leon couldn't help but have a strange feeling of seeing Claire walk and talk as if nothing had happened. The wound on his side was serious, and it would have been natural for the woman to present some indication of discomfort. He felt some relief from seeing her well, but at the same time, it was a bit strange.

"Yeah, I think that was the plan. Either you or Rebecca, but maybe you should take a break first. You've had quite a day…"

"Duty comes first. You taught me that…"

Chris snorted.

"From all things to learn, you learned that?" Barry laughed, "Damn...you should have taught her to relax…"

"I don't think he's the kind of person who would relax…" Leon said.

"Oh, he was much more relaxed years ago…" Barry said, "Too bad you didn't get the chance to meet him in his good old days…"

"He was close too." Claire said, tilting her head, "If the Racoon City disaster hadn't happened, Leon would have been part of the RPD, and eventually, he'd have met Chris."

The three men pondered Claire's words and admitted that it would have made sense. Leon had to admit that he would never be able to picture a Chris that was different from the one he knew now.

"Enough of the random chit chat," Chris said, shaking his head, "You two need a medical check-up and then a good rest back at home. We can leave the discussion for later."

Leon stood at the side of the bed while the medical team examined Claire. BSAA's duties had prevented Chris from being present, and, considering that Claire was currently Clara, it made more sense than Leon, being her husband, was the one who was present during her check-up.

Everything seemed to be alright until the doctor cut the bandage around the woman's torso, and Leon's eyes widened in surprise and shock. The wound was nothing more than a small laceration that went down from the last rib to the base of the hip.

"Well, agent Kennedy...luckily the cut was superficial…" the doctor said, examining it, "I don't think it needs stitches, but I will clean it up and prescribe some antibiotics to prevent any infection."

Leon was speechless. He had seen the wound when they were still in the mall, and he was sure that the injury seemed grave, at least a lot more grave than how it looked now. Just thinking about it made his hair bristle with horror, but now, as if by magic, the wound had become a simple superficial cut. Leon just couldn't explain it.

"Agent Kennedy?"

"Ah...sorry…what?" Leon said, coming out from his shock.

The doctor let out a soft laugh.

"Mrs. Kennedy will be fine...she needs some rest and probably a good meal. She's a little anemic. "

"Are you sure? I mean the injury, it was bleeding very much…"

"Ah, yes. I suppose that's what was making you worry. Yeah, superficial injuries tend to bleed a lot more due to the capillaries, but it usually looks worse than what it is. You can rest assured…"

"Oh… that's ...that's great news. Thank you."

Leon and Claire thanked the doctor and headed back home.

The trip in the car was silent. Neither of them spoke for a long time. Both were very absorbed in their own thoughts to articulate a conversation.

Leon couldn't stop thinking about Claire's miraculous recovery. He did not understand how it had happened, and it gave him mixed feelings. On one hand, he was relieved that the wound had not caused Claire much harm, but on the other, he did not know if that could have more dire consequences. Leon feared that this miraculous healing had something to do with the virus that was inside Claire and that it could imply something dangerous for her. He stole a couple of glances of Claire and found the woman lost in her thoughts.

They reached the parking lot, and Leon turned off the engine, but none of them made any attempt to leave the vehicle. He looked at Claire without knowing what to say and found her cerulean eyes staring at him.

"I know what you are thinking…" she said softly, " and I...can't explain it either."

"I didn't expect you to…" Leon replied. Of course, he didn't expect Claire to have an explanation for what had just happened. How could she?

"But… Do you know if it has happened before?"

"I...can't remember, but I don't think so. Quick healing was not a trait I got from the virus. I mean, I do heal a little faster than usual, but not like this. Don't forget how long it took me to heal back in Wales…"

Claire had made a good point. It had taken several weeks for Claire to be well enough to leave her bed, but regeneration wasn't supposed to be part of the virus's effects on her. Why did it happen?

"Do you have any idea of what it means?"

There was a tense silence before she finally answered. Claire let out a sigh and pondered her answer. She seemed to be choosing her words.

"...It could mean my virus is mutating…"

His heart shrank; that was just what Leon was so afraid to hear. Mutation. It had created so many monstrous creatures that he had been forced to face during his years of service, beings like the ones they had seen today. The simple idea that something like that could happen to Claire...

Leon didn't know what to say. His mind - and heart- were a mess.

"I've been...thinking about the possibility for a while. You know, since the PRP treatment began to fail suddenly... I thought something might have changed, but I didn't want to say anything until I was sure…"

"Are you sure now?"

"I...don't know. The results of the test I was running wouldn't be ready until tomorrow, so…" Claire sighed, "I'm sorry…"

Leon looked at her. He didn't blame her for what was happening to her. He couldn't, and nobody would. If someone ever tried to accuse or blame her for the situation, Leon was more than willing to beat some sense into that person. Suddenly, he realized how much like Chris he had sounded.

"Why are you apologizing? This situation is not your fault…"

"Sometimes it feels like it is…" she replied, "like I'm making it harder for everyone…"

Claire had always been a sensitive person. She always was the one who cared about the feelings of others before her own. Like all good Redfields, she always put the wellness of others above her own. That was something he loved about her even before he realized his feelings; it had always been like that since he'd met her about 18 years ago.

Leon could tell that the idea of worrying them was torture for her. For many years, Claire had tried not to disturb those she considered her family with her problems to the point of keeping her health issues a secret. However, her caring and loving instincts were always ready to listen to other's predicaments and support them the best she could.

After the events of Tall Oaks and China, she had turned into some emotional support to him. She would call him now and then just to have a random conversation about anything not work-related to distract him. Those talks were therapeutic, and it helped him cope with a lot of things. The six months she had been missing had been a nightmare for him, especially during the New York incident where he had felt her absence more than ever.

You're always there to lift everyone, Claire, but who's there to lift you when you need it?

Leon sighed. Claire, like Chris, if not worse, was the kind of person to swallow her troubles and as long as it meant taking off the burden from others, but this time he would make sure she didn't. He was willing to take her weight as his own. Leon took her hand and stared at it for a brief moment before leaning in to kiss her.

Whatever happened, she wouldn't have to face it alone this time.