69. Leon

"C. Redfield"

The letters on the sign were almost illegible, but there they were. It was evidence that Claire had been there before, in case there were any doubts.

"Seems locked," Claire said. She tried to turn the nob, but it didn't flinch.

Unfortunately, Leon wasn't Jill. He couldn't brag about good lock-picking skills, but he had his own way of opening doors.

"Move back," Leon said.

Claire stepped away from the door. The agent used his body to charge against the door. The wooden panel was sturdier than he had thought, and it took several minutes for it to give away.

The door opened with a crack and some dust.

"Wow, that was very Chris," Claire snickered, patting his back.

"Nah, Chris would have punched it down..."

"True, " Claire nodded. The woman stepped into the room and looked around. "This brings back memories..."

Leon followed her into the room, unsure of what to expect.

It was a small room with just a bed and a nightstand. There was a window that gave a nice view towards the cliffs, but the scene was overshadowed by the presence of steel bars.

The walls were white and sterile. In general, the room gave a feeling of sadness and abandonment. A part of Leon imagined Claire, in her hospital gown, standing in front of the window staring blankly into the distance, and the agent's stomach clenched in anger.

"Oh, they painted the walls," Claire said, placing her hand on the wall. "I had it all scratched and drawn on."

"You did?"

"Yeah," Claire sighed. "Mental notes to keep me conscious. I used to write my name and other things from my life to make sure I wouldn't forget when I woke up. Psychotropics can be harsh, you know?"

"They made you forget stuff?"

"Yeah, if the drugs didn't, I think the viruses did," Claire sighed. "I needed an anchor so that I wouldn't drift.

"And they let you use the walls?"

"I never asked for permission," Claire shrugged. "They would cover it, but I'd redo it over and over again. Either way, that's not why we came here."

Leon looked at her with a frown. Claire dropped to the ground and squeezed under the bed. Leon crouched by her side, holding out his flashlight to lit the space under the bed. Claire smiled at him in thanks and turned back to what she'd been doing.

Leon saw the woman tap on the ground, and then he noticed a wood plank come loose. Claire took it off and put her hand inside the hole. By the time she had pulled out, she was holding a package covered in fabric.

"What is that?" Leon asked, once Claire had come out. The woman dusted off her clothes and tilted her head.

She unwrapped the package revealing a notebook. At least, it was mostly a notebook. There were several loose pages.

"My journal," Claire said.

"You kept a journal? Here?"

"Anchors. The more I had, the better."

Claire pulled out something from the package. It was a medallion that Leon instantly recognized. It wasn't the same one, he knew it, but it looked just like the one they had received in the DSO office, the same one that had triggered a relapse on Claire.

"That..."

"It's a key," Claire said. She took the pendant and fidgeted with it for a while. The locket opened with a click, and a silver key came out from it. "Some of the monsters down there have them. They are keys for safe rooms within the maze."

"Safe rooms?"

"Yeah, sometimes we spent days down there. Safe rooms were, well, safe even if temporarily, and they provided water and food. You were given one as a token from the Asylum. At least, some of us did. This one is mine. I forgot to take it when I got dragged away the last time."

"You say they gave them? When someone changes, they no longer need them. When you get desperate, you can kill them to get their keys. That's what they wanted to do."

Leon looked at the key with some disgust.

"What about this?" Leon asked, looking at the papers.

"Maps," Claire replied. " I tried to map everything down when I could. My memory sometimes failed, but with the others' help, we had a pretty accurate schema."

Leon picked the papers and looked through them. They were not a cartographer's work, but he could recognize Claire's traces and handwriting on some; others seemed different.

"Sectors?"

"Yeah, monster clusters. The higher the number, the stronger the BOWs," Claire nodded.

"Why are they divided?"

"Let me show you."

Claire picked the pieces of paper and spread them over the dusty mattress. The woman placed the one marked as "Clock tower" in the center and then set the remaining ones in a circular spread around it.

"The Clock tower is the root mechanism," Claire said. "Ground zero is underneath it. It's where all the research facilities are. The peripheric sectors rotate, changing layouts every 3 hours, following the clock. From 2 to 3, the distribution is like this."

Claire shuffled the pieces of paper.

"From 3 to 6," Claire added, shuffling again. "Then 6 to 9, and then 9 to 12. It repeats throughout the day. It's tricky because you don't want to end up caught with monsters from sector eight and above."

"They had a moving facility?"

"Walls switch. Opening and closing areas..." Claire nodded. "There are probably many entrances, but I only know two. This one and this one. The last time I was down there, I entered through this one."

Claire pointed at the second entry, and Leon noted that it connected to areas with higher numbers. Those bastards of Mobius had put her with the stronger monsters. That's why she'd been in such a deplorable condition when the BSAA had found her."

"How long were you in there then?" Leon asked, almost as if he wanted another excuse to break down Mobius.

Claire pondered his question.

"Honestly, I am not sure. It is hard to keep up with the time when you are down there," Claire sighed. "Maybe about a week?"

A week? Mobius had left her to her luck in a monster-infested dungeon for a week? He would tear them to pieces.

"I guess we need to discuss this with Chris. We need to go in smartly."

And smartly, they would go.

It didn't take long for the group to agree on the strategy. All that was left was to wait for the right time. Chris and the rest of the BSAA agents used this time to talk with Liam and Julie, who kindly explained how the maze worked.

Helena, Rebecca, and Claire were with Henry. Checking what they had available for the quest. The agent was watching them silently from afar when he felt a tug on his shirt.

The blonde girl named Lily was staring at him curiously. She was around 12 or 13, but her attitude made her look younger. The girl was holding on to a rag doll that, the agent noted, she'd never let go off until now.

"Hey," Leon said, crouching in front of her. The girl stepped back, visibly nervous."You are Lily, right?"

"Yes," the girl answered shyly. "This is Princess Claire."

"Princess Claire," Leon said, surprised. The girl had named the doll after the real Claire, or it was a coincidence.

"Ahuh, doesn't she look a lot like Claire?"

"Well, I guess she does a little," Leon admitted. "Did you name the doll after my Claire?"

"Your Claire?"

"Yes, she's my wife, so I can call her my Claire, right?" Leon said. "

Lily reflected on his words and nodded.

"That might be right!"

"Well, we both have Claires. That means we have something in common."

"So now we are friends!"

"Yeah, we are friends."

"Do you have to go back there?" Lily asked, tilting her head. "There are monsters out there, but the bad ones are inside."

"Unfortunately, we need to go. It is important."

"But people who cross the second door won't come back. I don't want you not to come back."

"Don't worry," Leon replied. "We will come back."

The girl seemed to believe him. Leon was not good when it came to dealing with kids. Children were Claire's area, but he was doing what he could.

"Do you like Claire?"

Leon snorted.

"Of course."

"Will you keep her safe? Monsters like her, too. But they are mean..." Lily said, "and when they are mean, she comes out, and when she comes out, it is scary."

"What do you mean?"

Lily didn't answer as her face suddenly brightened, and the girl ran off to hug Claire, who was approaching them. Leon rose and looked at her. The woman ruffled the girl's head and smiled, and Leon had a flashback from 19 years before. It was like watching Claire and Sherry again.

"Hey, what are you doing, Lily?"

"Oh, you know. I was talking to your husband," Lily chirped.

"My husband?" Claire said with wide eyes. "What are you telling her, Leon?"

"Just the truth. We are married."

"Does that make him your prince?"

"I don't know about that, Lily," Claire said, shaking her head. "Look, Henry is looking for you. You should go."

"Okay, I will do that."

Leon saw the girl smile at Claire before running over to where the old man was sitting with Rebecca and Helena. Claire looked at her with a motherly smile.

"Another of your many surrogate daughters?" Leon asked, placing his hand on her waist.

"That would make me Liam's mother, and I am not that old," Claire snorted. "And you might lose that hand if Chris sees you."

"He has to find out sooner or later," Leon said.

"Yeah, I think I prefer to have Chris focused on the mission rather than trying to kill you."

"Reasonable," Leon shrugged. "She's a sweet girl and reminds me of Sherry."

"Yeah, I thought that, too, the first time we met," Claire said, crossing her arms. "That's weird, though. I am surprised she approached you. She doesn't talk to men she doesn't know."

"She seems healthy," Leon said, "Why was she here?"

"Androphobia," Claire answered. "Her father abused her when she was younger. Her brother, Liam, ended up here after beating their father after the man tried to rape his sister. Intermittent explosive disorder, according to Blackwell medics."

"What about Julie? She seems pretty healthy," Leon said.

"Bipolar disorder," Claire replied. "She was usually under heavy drugs, so she was out of it most of the time; this is the first time I see her so lucid."

"And Henry?"

"War veteran," Claire replied. "PTSD. His family died during a terrorist attack."

"You seem to know all of their stories."

"Yeah, but I don't know how much of it is real," Claire sighed. "They know what the medics of Blackwell told them. And they told me Chris had died on a failed operative in Scotland, and I was the only survivor of the attack. Obviously, it was a lie. "

"What about you?"

Claire didn't answer, but Leon didn't need her to. Helena had already told him what she and the other ladies had found in Claire's file. Dissociative Identity Disorder. It was ridiculous.

Claire rubbed the back of her neck and sighed.

"Did you have your injection?" Leon asked.

"Uhm, yeah. Rebecca made sure I wouldn't miss it," Claire shrugged. "I'm just anxious. It will get dark soon."

"We'll be fine."

If Chris hadn't been around, Leon would have pulled her into a hug and kissed her, but right now, he had to put on his agent mask.

Jill had no difficulties opening the door, and Leon now knew why people called her the Master of Unlocking. When they walked through the door, Leon's first thought was that it was like he was entering Claire's labs. The first thing they found was a long, sterile-looking pail that led to an elevator. The elevator naturally led them into a room with an air curtain and ultraviolet light that ended in an automatic glass door. Beyond that, there was nothing to be seen but darkness. Above the door, there was a plate with an inscription:

Keep your run along a course between those constellations. I leave the rest to Fortune: may she help and guide you better than you do yourself.

Ironic that it spoke of Fortune when these doors could as well bet the gates of hell. Leon looked at Claire. Her clear eyes read the words with a blank expression, but they softened when he reached for her hand.

"Beyond here," Liam said. "Ye better keep quiet. One wrong noise and ye chaps get chopped, so if ye got something to say, now it is a good time."

Chris nodded. He turned to his men and, with a grave look, made his speech.

"We got the most silent gear we could get," Chris said, "but don't shoot unless it is an emergency. If we need to kill something, we do it fast, and we move quickly. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

Chris nodded and then turned to Leon. If the older Redfield had noticed Claire's and his hands, he said nothing.

"Leon?"

"We know. Don't worry."

"Alright," Chris sighed. "Good luck, everyone."

The inside of the maze was worse than Leon could have imagined. There were BOWs everywhere. In some parts, the paths were so narrow that walking without betraying their presence was difficult. Fortunately, both Claire, Liam, and Julie seemed to know what they were doing. The trio saved them from being discovered several times, and in the cases that warranted it, they signaled to them which BOWs they could kill and which were better to avoid.

The place was unsettling. The darkness was so dense that it made everyone anxious about what might be lurking around them. The air was difficult to breathe and sometimes came accompanied by a smell of death. Despite everything, the journey seemed to be going well. Too well, so when things took a turn, Leon was already expecting it.

Claire stopped in her tracks. Her expression was barely visible under the light of the flashlight, but the woman was frowning with alertness. He knew that expression; something was wrong.

"Claire..." he mouthed silently.

The woman didn't answer. Instead, she seemed to be listening to something. Chris's group, who were moving ahead of them, stopped and turned to look at them questioningly.

Then it happened. A roar broke the deathly silence of the tunnel, and a creature the size of an elephant emerged from the shadows, splitting the group. same

The creature's pale skin was so pale that it seemed to glow in the darkness. Like other creatures they had met, the BOW had no eyes on its face. However, unlike other monsters they had encountered, this one had still had the basic form of a human face. It looked more like a pale, chalky mask, with patches of dark hair that fell over it, but it looked human. The monster's hunched back was covered in polyps that moved and palpitated. It walked, or most likely crawled, using its long bony arms to propel itself, since it had no legs.

The agent pushed Claire behind him, and suddenly, Leon smelled something. It seemed out of place, yet it felt familiar, and then he lurched. The agent was suddenly feeling dizzy. He felt someone grab him by his arm, but his eyes were blurring, and he couldn't see anything.

There were gunshots and screeches, and then tremors. Leon wasn't sure what was happening, but he felt himself fading away.

"Run! Get out here!" he heard Claire's voice screaming.

That was the last thing Leon heard as he lost consciousness.

It was an odd sensation. Leon was supposed to be in a cave surrounded by monsters, but he felt soft and comfortable. That made no sense, and it made even less sense when he opened his eyes.

The agent had expected to wake up in a dark cave with rocks and surrounded by darkness, but instead, he was in a bedroom. The walls were bone-white, there was a large window with silk curtains, and he could see a tree outside. The bed had a cream mattress, two side tables with a lamp each, and the half-open closet revealed woman clothes inside.

"What the..." Leon said, getting up. His head pulsed, and he felt nauseous.

Where was he? This wasn't the maze, was it? Where were Claire and the others?

A bunch of questions popped into his mind, but they only made his head spin faster.

"C-Claire?" Leon said, getting up.

He was in an unknown house. He didn't recognize anything as he walked down the stairs and into what seemed like the kitchen. He could hear the sound of pots and the hissing of food being cooked; if that wasn't enough, he could smell it in the air. Someone, a female, was humming as she worked.

"Oh, look who's up," a familiar voice said. "Good morning, hero."

It was Claire. However, she looked different: gorgeous as she was, but something about her appearance felt a little off. Her hair was up in her usual ponytail, and she wore a loose white shirt over blue trousers. She looked bright as he'd never seen her before.

"You should get back to bed," Claire said, turning to stir something in the pan. "Chris said you hit your head hard yesterday. You're lucky you just got a concussion."

"What? Chris?"

"Yeah, he dragged you home after Rebecca checked you," Claire replied, tilting her head. "Marvin called. You don't have to show up for work today. He's giving you the day off."

Chris? Marvin? What was going on?

"What?"

Claire put down the spatula and shook her head.

"Well, concussions are tricky, huh? I guess you're confused. Do you remember what happened?"

Yes, he did. He was in a cave, tracking a terrorist group when a monster came out of nowhere. But that didn't match this context, so he was confused.

"You had the graveyard shift last night. You and Kevin saw a group acting weird and went to check. They got violent, so STARS went as a backup. You two handled it pretty well, but you got hit on the head in the struggle. You really don't remember?"

Not remembering wasn't the issue. The whole story made no sense.

"You hit your head harder than I thought," Claire sighed when Leon didn't answer. "You should get back to bed. Rest, don't worry about anything. I'll drop the kids at school on my way to the lab..."

Wait, kids?

As if answering Leon's mental question, a girl with blonde hair and a boy with a darker blond ran into the kitchen. They were around 5 or 6, Leon guessed, and he didn't need to think it too hard to tell they were supposed to be his children.

"Morning, mom. Morning dad!" the boy said.

"Is Dad's head doing better?" the girl asked.

"He's doing fine, but his thoughts are a little out of place," Claire said, winking at Leon. "Let's let dad rest, okay? You're going to school with me today. I have to work today anyway."

Leon was even more confused now. He had kids? Since when?

ISN'T THIS WHAT YOU WISHED?

"What do you mean work?" Leon asked.

"Oh, come on, Leon," Claire said, rolling her eyes. She rested her hand over her belly and smirked. "I'm pregnant, not disabled. Besides, this is a huge project for Umbrella, and they need me there..."

Leon wasn't sure what was more shocking? That Claire had said she was pregnant with apparently his kid, or that she'd said she was working for Umbrella. Something was definitely off.

THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

"Where are we?"

"Raccoon city!" the girl chirped excitedly.

Raccoon city? No, this was definitely wrong, and Leon was starting to panic. What had happened? How had this turned out like this?

ISN'T THIS WHAT YOU WANTED? A NORMAL LIFE?

"Leon?"

The agent tried to say something, but a wave of dizziness accompanied by pain got him, and he fell to his knees.

DON'T FIGHT IT.

TAKE IT...TAKE IT...

"Oh my god..." he heard Claire's voice say. "Leon?"

It was wrong. Leon had no idea of what was happening, but whatever it was, he had to break it.

GIVE IN...GIVE IN...

"Daddy?"

The voices began to sound distorted, and he felt like he was going to throw up. Everything around him seemed to spin into a wild blur of colors. The voice became mixed up, and their words intelligible, but it felt like something piercing through his skull.

"Leon! Leon, come on," someone called him. This voice was clear and firm. It felt like it was pulling him. "Leon! I need you to wake up, Leon. Come on..."

Leon opened his eyes slowly. His headache, and he wanted to vomit, a sensation he did not like at all. It took the agent a few minutes to process his surroundings. Leon was sitting against a stone wall, and he wasn't sure, but he thought he smelled something strange. It wasn't an unpleasant scent. Actually, it reminded him of one of those scented incense that Sanaya used to put in the offices.

He looked around. It seemed that they had come to a small "room" lit by oil lamps. Helena was lying on the opposite side, with Rebecca looming over her with a concerned look. Chris and none of his team members were on sight, which made him frown in concern, but that made his head hurt.

"Leon, can you hear me?" Claire asked, taking his face and making him look at her. Her clear eyes locked with his, and he knew this was his Claire. The real one. She wasn't as radiant as the one he saw in that dream or vision, or whatever, but she was the one he knew and liked.

Claire was oblivious to the thoughts running through the agent's head. She was busy, examining his eyes, and sighed with relief.

"Well, I guess you're sturdier than I thought," Claire said. "Here, drink some water. It will help you get rid of the toxin faster..."

Leon took the water from Claire and drank it in a gulp.

"What happened?"

"We got attacked by an Atë," Claire sighed. "Sorry, I didn't notice until it was too late. We managed to defeat it, but the timer was up, and the maze switched. We got separated from the others, but don't worry. We contacted them, and they are fine. "

That sounded like good news.

"Where are we?" Leon said, pinching the bridge of his nose, wishing the dizziness would go away.

"A safe room," Claire replied. "The Atë dropped a key when it died."

Now, that was lucky.

"What about Helena?"

Leon looked at his partner, lying a few steps from them.

"Same as you," Claire answered. "She came out of it earlier, and Rebecca is taking care of her while the toxin effect goes away."

Well, at least she was alright. Leon stared at Claire. Her hair was a mess. Droplets of mud and blood covered her pale skin; a long scratch came down her left cheek. It was recent and most likely deep if she had not healed up yet.

"What toxin?"

Claire sighed. She gave him more water and used a damp cloth to clean up his face.

"Atë releases a hallucinogenic toxin. It isn't deathly, but it causes severe hallucinations and delusions. Did you see anything funny while knocked out? That's just how it works. Victims get trapped in a fictional world within their minds, oblivious that they are getting devoured outside of it. Compared to others, I guess it might be one of the best ways you can die down here. "

Leon didn't answer. So that's what that had been: an illusion, a dream of an ideal world in which there were no zombies, viruses, nor terrorists. Though, he was surprised that Claire was part of that delusion. If it hadn't been for the Raccoon City incident, he wouldn't have met her.

Or maybe not. Chris was part of STARS. Maybe Leon would have met her even if the outbreak had not happened.

"You didn't get affected?" Leon asked, looking at Claire working on something on her lap.

Claire sighed.

"You were in the front, so most of the full load fell on you and Helena. Rebecca was behind, so she didn't get exposed to it that long."

"What about you?"

Claire had deliberately omitted herself or maybe she had forgotten, but he was worried about her.

"It's been a while," Claire sighed. "but it isn't the first time I have dealt with the toxin. I'm pretty much immune to it by now."

The woman took the damp piece of cloth and cleaned the agent's sweaty forehead, and Leon's thoughts unconsciously went to the odd dream, if that was a dream he'd had.

"Dizzy?" Claire asked, seeing that he was staring blankly at her. " It will pass soon. That's just the toxin going out of your system."

Leon nodded. He dug into his pocket, trying to find his phone. He hadn't checked in on Hunnigan in a while, and the woman would be stressed; but to his surprise, his pocket was empty.

"Oh, I have your phone," Claire said. "I used it to contact Chris."

"That's fine," Leon sighed. "You were digging into my pockets?"

"I didn't think you'll mind," Claire shrugged. "and I didn't find anything compromising if that's what you are worried about."

"No, and it isn't like you haven't touched more private things before."

"Leon!" Claire admonished him, and he snorted. "Gees, I can tell you're feeling better now. We'll venture out once you and Helena are back up. We are on the closest side, so we have time before we have to rendezvous with the others."

"Who killed it?"

"You mean the atë? I did," Claire sighed. "I'm just glad we had a safe room nearby and that Chris and the others were on the other side of the wall. With all the noise I made, we had some company. I heard them outside the safe room."

"Sorry, you had to deal with that alone."

"Don't," Claire sighed. "Atë aren't usually aggressive. They only attack under provocation, and I saw it was already hurt when it showed up. I didn't have time to look at it carefully, but it looked like gunshots."

"Ada?"

"Possibly."

Claire's expression faltered. It was quick, but Leon had seen it under the flicking firelight. She, however, seemed to recover soon and busied herself with her pouch.

"I don't know how she's moving around," Claire said softly. "but I guess she's surviving."

"Ada knows her deal. If she had not been a spy, she would have been a valuable ally."

"Yeah, probably," Claire sighed. "I'm gonna check on Helena, stay still..."

Claire moved to get up, but Leon stopped her, taking her by the arm and pulling her back. The gesture caught Claire by surprise, who looked at him disconcerted.

"It won't change things. You know that, right?"

"What?"

"Ada..."

The mention of the name seemed to hit the target. Claire looked aside silently. The agent remembered Helena advising him, some time ago, that if he were going in seriously with Claire, he would have to be careful regarding Ada. Claire was, in no way, below Ada, physically nor professionally, so he didn't see why the woman seemed to get insecure whenever the Asian spy came up in a conversation.

"I know. You two have your thing, and I'm okay. Don't worry about it," Claire said, but something about her smile didn't click well with Leon.

The agent pulled her closer and kissed her before Claire could even react or sneak away. He had to admit something was satisfying about kissing her, and maybe it was a toxin's side effect, but it just felt right.

"Don't worry about Ada," he whispered. "You're my priority now..."

Leon saw, with some satisfaction, that Claire's face was bright red. She nodded silently and made her way to Helena. The agent brushed back his hair and pressed Hunnigan's quick dial.

"Leon, how are you feeling?"

Hunnigan's greeting surprised Leon.

"No hellos?"

"Well, Claire said you got knocked out," Hunnigan replied. "I was just worried..."

So Claire had checked in for him.

"I'm fine. I feel sick, but Claire says it should pass soon," Leon replied. He saw Claire talking to Rebecca and Helena.

The woman had something in her hands. It looked like a branch or something alike, but whatever it was, Claire took it and burned it. The fragrant scent filled up the air, and Leon realized that the odd smell came from there.

"So, how are things doing overall? Hopkins is worried," Hunnigan asked.

"Slow, but steady," Leon replied. "Ada Wong is here."

"Yes, Claire told me," Hunnigan nodded. "She didn't seem very excited about that."

"Yeah, I guess she doesn't quite get along with Ada."

"And whose fault do you think that is?" Hunnigan asked, slightly amused. "Your chasing game history with Wong hasn't helped her feel confident, has it?"

"Are you lecturing me, Hunnigan?"

"No, I'm just giving you my feedback," Hunnigan replied. "Claire is a good woman. From what I know so far, she's willing to let go of things as long as she feels it is the right thing."

"You don't say," Leon said. "I know that. I am not going after Ada. Claire is my main concern now."

"Well, that's a change," Hunnigan smiled. "Marriage has done you good, huh?"

"Maybe more than I thought it would."

Hunnigan didn't say anything, but she smiled.

"Chris Redfield wanted me to tell them they are okay. They have stopped in a Safe Room, too. When the time comes they will regroup with you."

"We got lucky we had some guides, huh?"

"You got a good one yourself," Hunnigan snorted. "She even brought the antitoxin."

"She...did?"

Leon looked at Claire again, and his eyes widened in realization. The herb she'd been burning.

"How did you know?"

"Redfield. It seems the two people with them carried the plant, too," Hunnigan replied. "Claire's suggestion before you entered the maze."

"She didn't tell us," Leon commented.

"No, probably you wouldn't have known how to use it, right?"

Right. Leon had no experience within these tunnels. He wouldn't have known what they needed to take, why or how to use it, but Claire did, and the woman exceeded at using her resources. That, however, raised a lot of questions. Starting on how many mistakes she'd done first to come to this point?

"Alright, Leon," Hunnigan said. "I'll let Hopkins know you are okay."

"Yeah, thanks."

The call ended, and Leon's eyes wandered to Claire. Just how much she had endured only to be with them now?