2018: Sorry, long A/N but my house got robbed and I've been finding it hard dealing with the fact that my laptop and hard drive were taken - because I had only backed up my stories on my external hard drive. Not to mention loads of memories, photos that I can never get back.
In terms of this fic...I've been working on it for the last 8 years (no doubt to the bane of some of you lol), but all the work I've put into it: 30+ pages of plans for upcoming chapters or sequels; curated playlist to get me into my writing space; key scenes I had already written out...Also I'm at a stage in my life where my work takes up a lot of time (adulting is hard) and I find it harder to make time for writing. I feel lost when I think about what's been taken and I'm afraid that I won't be able to complete the fic now.
I was especially invested in the ideas I had and had written and saved for later - I had all the inspiration I needed to finish this fic plus many many others I had been working on (that I wanted to post after finishing this). I didn't realise how much I relied on my thoughts being there for when I moved to the next chapter, and the next (whether I referred to it or not). So many little sparks to help me explore and create. Writing this fic (and the others) was a mental sanctuary and it makes me feel anxious and fearful that I've lost all my good ideas from the last 8 years.
But I don't want to let this get the better of me and I have always been committed to finishing this no matter how long it took me (even if it was a chapter every 6 months at best haha….sorry). So I'm going to continue this the best I can and hopefully in the process make it a better fic than I had ever planned it to be.
Thanks again if you've been with me for many many years! I truly appreciate your patience with me and the reviews. Knowing that others out there enjoy my writing is the only reason that I am still continuing this story even though I've lost my work.
Michael Jackson - Break of Dawn; The Horrors - Still Life; Beyond the Wall - Vexille OST
Chapter 15 - New Light
Two things struck Leon in the slowly brightening room: he was craving pancakes, preferably with blueberries...and maybe maple syrup and whipped cream. And second, his breakfast craving had nothing on the craving he had for the woman in his arms right now. He'd woken to find Angela - her warm, soft body pressed against him - and his brain went quiet except for the yearning to pull her closer into him. While they had obviously moved during the night, they had still ended up tucked together. Her face was just a few inches away from his and he could make out all the features and contours of her face in the morning light.
He noticed her dark chestnut lashes against her skin - slightly rough from her ailment and lightly freckled from her time in the sun; the faint lines between her brows that had been prominent when she was angry and had confronted him because she realised her teammate could have been saved. His eyes moved to trace the way some strands of hair had gotten loose from her braid and sat softly on her brow. Her body, while soft held the underlying truth of her strength beneath. Firm muscles, softened by her female form, strong nonetheless. Being able to drink her in and experience her so unshielded, was an indulgence that...he had never had before. He knew he needed to get up soon, but the same part of his brain that had so enthusiastically offered up the breakfast suggestion also made him stay where he was. He wanted to make sure he remembered this moment - raw and real...exquisite details that her face and body told him without any words.
Angela stretched leisurely and sighed in satisfaction. She still felt tired, but that didn't disturb the contentedness she felt when she had woken up. It had been...a long time since she could remember feeling...peaceful and light as she did now. Raccoon City may have been a long time ago, nearly a decade, but Harvardville hadn't been; it had not only resurfaced feelings she thought she'd conquered, but had added to them. While the fresh virus activity made her think that things were only going to keep getting worse, but she quickly pushed those unpleasant thoughts from her mind, finding it easier this morning to do so. For a moment...all she wanted was to bask in this peace, the warm morning sunlight filtering through and warming her skin...and the scent of another person in her bed that she was coming to recognise and appreciate as Leon's, as she drifted back to sleep again.
Leon walked through cold corridors, lit with artificial white light. Angela's words the night before had provided instantaneous relief to his tortured mind and the night in each other's arms had brought peace. But it was her face in the morning light that had brought him clarity. He wanted to be able to look her in the eyes and not hide what truth she might find there - she was the only mirror that he needed and she would reflect the truth back no matter what he told himself. With that in mind, he strode through the ajar office door to find a thinly built middle-aged man poring over several documents.
"Trying to catch a worm, Parrish? You're in pretty early."
"And yet, you're standing there as if you were expecting me to be here, Mr Kennedy," he offered back, his mouth twisted into a wry smile. "I'm surprised that you're here at this time. You know we're not starting until 10 today?"
Leon moved closer to the desk and closed the door behind him. "We need to discuss the current situation and our government's chosen approach."
Mr Parrish furrowed his brows gently in mild confusion, but waited for Leon to speak further. There was no need for him to speak, at least, not until he knew what game the younger man was playing at.
"Nobody understands the threat we face greater than me, but at the end of the day we're not going to get anything from those soldiers and we'll be wasting time we don't have for disputable information. Those men are trained to withstand immeasurable pain before they were artificially enhanced by a deranged scientist. We have no idea what influence he exerted on them and bottomline - I wouldn't trust any information they gave up under these conditions."
Mr Parrish was not a man to speak hastily, not even if he agreed with Leon. Well to a degree. "I will agree, Mr Kennedy, that the...enhanced interrogation techniques haven't been particularly successful so far, but I have been in this profession a long time. There will always be some method, some harsher than others, that will give us what we want. It's just a matter of finding the weak link and finding the right kind of pressure to break it... and I have no doubt we can find an approach that will be within the boundaries of your principles."
Mr Parrish's expert eye picked up the brief surprise that the younger man quickly disguised. He understood why Leon chose to focus on the reliability of the results, but he knew the bigger motivation was the ethics behind it. He had quickly picked up on the agent's growing discomfort with the methods they employed over the past several days and he couldn't say he blamed him. He really had been in this profession a long time...but the bitterness never ceased to disappear. It was far too often nowadays that he hoped for easy information extractions, or that they didn't push for more extreme methods. He always did find the subtle interrogations, the occasions where they unwittingly divulge valuable information the most satisfying. That's when a man of his talents truly shined...and where he hoped he would prevail once again.
"I have to thank you Mr Kennedy. I've been looking at their files - it is very, very fortuitous that you were able to retrieve these. I now have enough background to formulate a more appropriate extraction plan - rather than the heavy-handed one favoured by the director. And, after 72 hours, it will be their own minds that they fall prey to, and in the process give us what we need."
Leon was surprised by how short the conversation had been - it seemed as though Mr Parrish had been waiting for him and he got the impression that he had wanted someone else to support his plan. Either way it they both got we they wanted and he left the older man with his thanks. In the meantime Leon pondered on what to do. He felt momentarily lost - his work didn't often give him downtime while he was carrying out a mission, but given the unknown factors in play it was all they could do to see where their investigations took them.
So he touched base with Hunnigans to find that she didn't have any updates for him. Leon then briefly entertained the thought of dropping by the S.R.T. office, but the fear of paperwork had him navigating the quickest route back to Angela's apartment. After all, if there was anything important Hunnigans would either provide an update, or Angela could relay the information to him from her team. Because there was no way he was going to let himself get wrangled into doing a mountain of paperwork by Angela's Commander again.