Wow! I hadn't realised that my last update was in June! It's been so busy at work and I haven't had my usual buffer chapter completed to post that it's taken a long time for me to release a new one!

Unfortunately it'll probably be a while again before I can post again because it's so busy! Well, too busy for my liking! And then I'm away for a month in October…So, I'll try my best to release another chapter soon, because this one is quite a bit shorter than what I usually do (and actually planned on doing) but I wanted to post something so you know I'm doing my best to try and provide you with some semi-regular reading material. Also apologies if it doesn't flow that well or has errors – I'm just eager to post otherwise it will probably be weeks of me re-writing to get things 'perfect'. Hope you enjoy and sorry about how short it it.

Chapter 12 – Ignorant cats and irritated lions

Leon was glad that he had the chance to spend a bit of time with Angela before having to follow up with his investigations. It meant that he could watch over her until Melissa would be able to take over. Angela had been fortunate in escaping both death and brain damage, but she had contracted pneumonia and would probably be out of action for at least three weeks. She would need a lot of rest and someone there to look after her as she would be too weak to do anything herself. He knew he probably wouldn't be able to look after her for longer than a few days before having to continue with his work and so he took the opportunity to speak to Melissa, who was also at the hospital being treated for a bullet wound.

"Now then lover-boy, are you going to be staying to help fix this mess?" Melissa quipped when she saw him approach her hospital bed.

"Melissa-" Leon had started to say before she interrupted him.

"Hey I'm not holding you responsible Leon, but I am thinking that things would have turned out different if you had stayed that night. Well things would have turned out a lot worse if you hadn't been there at all that night or last night either. I've lost comrades before Leon, but…I think she's my best friend and I haven't had one since I was 13. So thank you for saving my best friend, but what you're doing to her -and yourself - is almost as painful for me as losing her because it hurts me that I can't help her. And it's this vicious cycle where she feels terrible and responsible for the way I feel and I feel bad that I'm making her feel worse and when you both want the same things… isn't it better to have loved and lost than to dwell on what could have been?"

Leon froze for a bit. He wasn't expecting the impassioned pep-talk from Melissa. It was probably fuelled by painkillers, but it showed how much she cared for her and it reinforced the fact that he knew she would be there for Angela when he had to leave… temporarily of course, "Melissa…I need you to look after Angela until I return. I've probably got two days if I'm lucky that I can spend with her, but she has pneumonia and I need to know that she's going to have someone there to look after her until I can come back. I don't want to ask this of you when you're injured, but even though you're the only friend of hers I know, I know that you'll be able to give her the care she needs...until I come back." Leon added the last part in case she hadn't realised that he was only leaving for a short period of time.

"Err….yeah, you don't even need to ask, course I'll be there. I get out today and have some paperwork to sort, but then I have time off cause of my leg…" she looked a bit sheepish as she replied.

"Thanks Melissa…and for the pep-talk too. I think both Angela and I are aware of…the way we feel, but external factors make things a bit difficult…so we'll just have to see how it all plays out. I'm glad to see that you're okay though. See you in a few days, look after yourself."

Leon had had a day and a half with Angela before he'd had a call from Hunnigans; it turned out he wouldn't be exempt from the bureaucracy this time unfortunately. Some fat cat had apparently heard about the mission and wasn't happy because he felt that Leon had abandoned his duties when he had rushed to the dock to assist the S.R.T. members conducting their own separate operation and save one of their members. It was ridiculous because the mission had been a success considering he was working solo and was therefore only able to secure two trucks before the others had been taken away. And once he had accomplished that he had known there wasn't any other evidence in the area…apart from the men at the dock. Of course, the S.R.T. had detained the living members that had attacked them and done an excellent job of ensuring that there were at least a few of them alive and well to interrogate. So, ignoring the fact that he already had a relationship with Angela, saving one of their talented and experienced members would mean that he could leverage off of that good will to convince them to partner with him to achieve the best outcome possible. It's almost as if the idiot politician didn't know how to multi-task. However, all this still meant that he had to go waste his time listening to some idiot who didn't know jack lecture him about duty when he needed to be here looking after Angela.

His thoughts swirled around in a flurry of annoyance with having to leave her and anxiety about how she would be while he was gone. Melissa would be arriving in 20 minutes, but he needed to leave now in order to reach the meeting location in time. It was difficult leaving her side when she was so ill. It didn't help that he hadn't been in this sort of situation for quite a while and didn't know how to deal with his emotions. His time since joining the Racoon Police Department all those years ago were punctuated with losing companions and friends to violent ends, not watching them suffer while he could do nothing about it. As he left the building, he decided the sooner he got it over and done with the sooner he could return to her side to make sure she was okay.

Leon returned to Angela's apartment a few days later; the meeting had been frustrating because it was a well-intentioned, but ignorant self-righteous politician thinking that he would be helping Leon complete his mission by telling him that he wasn't doing his job well enough. After Leon had very bluntly told him that perhaps if he'd been given the mandate to include the local authorities they'd have far exceeded their expectations for the mission, it having already been a success. He was on the cusp of calling the man an ignoramus before he'd been told to involve whoever he needed to, to get the job done. At that point Leon was still tempted to call him an ignoramus because it seemed like all the man had wanted to do was appear as though he was in charge and directly contributing to the success of Leon's mission. Of course, after his long-winded meeting with that frustrating fat cat, he'd been roped into debriefing and getting stuck in related, but useless meetings.

All in all, it meant that it had taken this long to get back to her and Leon sighed as he leaned back in his chair after wiping some of the sweat that had appeared on her brow and neck. The slightly cool cloth seemed to help with some of the discomfort she seemed to be experiencing, but her breathing was still laboured. There wasn't much else he could do at this point and as he hadn't slept well the entire time he'd been away, he figured it was best to get a bit of rest. It felt like he had just closed his eyes when he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. It was Hunnigans calling him again and while he knew he shouldn't shoot the messenger, he was pretty darn tempted to at the moment. He'd only slept for about 2 hours and he got up groggily to answer the phone in the other room.

"What do you have for me Hunnigans? Have you got the containers open?"

"No hello Leon? You're normally a bit more polite than this. Then again from what I heard of your meeting the other day with Mr Brady you haven't been in a very good mood. Then again, he does have that effect on people."

"Hunnigans…it's 4 in the morning and I went to sleep at 2."

"Sorry Leon. I was hoping I'd be able to cheer you up. I've got good news for you…but it's going to mean that you're not going to get much rest."