Claire sits in a flimsy folding chair as she stares at the black, marble memorial. It's nothing too original, just a tall slab that has the words "In memory of Leon S. Kennedy, a hero the world never knew" carved into it. The president stands to the side of it, giving a speech about bravery, honor, and service. Claire isn't listening, mostly because she knows it'll just sound empty.
Ashley's sitting beside him, her face red with tears but she holds her head high. She's not shying away from the faces of strangers. Instead, she sits like she belongs here because out of everyone who showed, she's one of the few who actually knew Leon personally.
There are guards, so many guards, as well as other famous agents who Claire would've loved to talk to on any other occasion, but today, she's too drained to even look. She has enough to worry about with how Sherry clings to her side, her heavy sobs barely staying muffled in the red jacket. It was so hard, telling Sherry about what happened. Leon was never granted permission to see her after they were separated and Claire knows he promised they'd all go out to ice cream once they could. But now, Sherry had to face the reality that she'll never see him again. That she's lost another person whom she trusted and she wasn't even there to see it. Though, Claire's glad for that last bit. Sherry didn't have to see the way Leon acted when he was infected.
Claire still can't get the initial reaction out of her head, though. The absolute horror on Sherry's face when everything started to sink in. She cried for hours after that, her voice going rough with just how much she screamed and mourned. Claire can't say she didn't cry too.
The president finishes his speech and then the audience goes silent as a single agent stands up and drapes an American flag over the top of the memorial. She wears a dark pencil skirt, glasses and has her hair tied up in a bun. She sits down afterward and now, the ceremony's over. Claire doesn't have it in her to stand up just yet, so she stays sitting as others move around her. Barry comes over to sit next to her, his hand grabbing her shoulders and pulling her close. She lets him give her an awkward hug because the warmth of a friend's comfort is worth everything right now.
"I'm sorry, you two." His voice is soft, riddled with understanding pain. She can tell he's grieving as well despite not knowing Leon as well as they did. They met a few times, though, usually through Claire. Both Barry and Jill got along well enough with Leon. They'd often talk about the RPD and more specifically, Marvin Branagh.
Claire forgets to answer him, but Barry doesn't seem to mind as he pulls both her and Sherry into a real hug this time, squeezing them tight in an attempt to help chase away the cold. It helps for Claire at least and she can only hope it does the same for Sherry.
Eventually, Claire pulls away enough to run a hand through Sherry's bangs. She's not sobbing anymore but silent tears still run down her cheeks every so often. When she looks up, Claire manages a little smile. "Are you ready to start heading out?" She doesn't want to hand Sherry back to her legal parents just yet, but they can't wait here forever. It's looking like it'll rain soon and the last thing they need is for Sherry to get sick.
Sherry starts to sit up, a hand rising to wipe at her face as she nods. "Y-yeah." She croaks out between sniffles. Claire gives her one more hug before they all stand up. She meets eyes with Barry, offering him a thankful smile, before the two of them head off. She spots Jill and Chris talking to each other from across the yard. She's not sure what they're saying, but it doesn't matter at the moment anyway. Maybe she'll ask when they meet up at her place later.
But Claire can't bring herself to leave just yet when she sees Ashley slowly stand up, her bodyguards waiting for her to move at her own pace. Making a quick decision, Claire walks the two of them to Ashley, Sherry still tucked by her side. Ashley sees them quickly and she waits until they've arrived. The bodyguards move to get between them, but the girl pushes them away.
"Hey, Claire." Ashley gives her a small smile. She's still got that cut on her cheek from Krauser, but it's starting to heal over. If she's lucky, it'll go away completely and if not, then maybe she'll get a cool scar out of it. Claire's got a couple herself.
"How're you holding up, Ashley?" She knows that asking if the girl's okay is pointless, -none of them are okay- but this seems like a better wording.
Ashley takes in a deep breath as she looks back at the memorial. "It'll take a little while, but I'm better than I was before all of this. I have you to thank for that." And before Claire can argue, Ashley's adding on. "I mean it. You were my pillar through the whole experience and without you, I wouldn't be who I am now. Thanks for changing me, Claire."
She doesn't know what to say, so she turns her attention to Sherry instead. "Ashley, this is Sherry. She was with me and Leon in Raccoon City." Claire can't recall how much she mentioned about Sherry during the whole adventure, but it must've been enough because Ashley nods with understanding as she offers a hand.
"It's nice to meet you, Sherry." And to her credit, Sherry takes the offered hand. She's still crying, but she does manage to give a friendly smile as well. It fades quickly, but it's enough. Ashley looks between them for a moment before glancing back to her father, who's waiting patiently at their limo. "I should let you two get back to your own schedule, but just know that I expect to hear from you again." And with that, Ashley's walking away from them.
Claire pulls away and walks the two of them to Sherry's foster father, Derek Simmons. As they walk, Sherry looks back for a moment. "She seems ni-nice." Her breath hiccups at the end. Claire just nods as they get closer. They slow in pace for a second, wanting just a few more moments together before she has to send Sherry off again.
"She is. A good leader and very strong-willed when she wants to be. She just needed a little push to give her confidence." Simmons gives Claire a look but she ignores it. This is her time with Sherry and it's his damn fault she wasn't able to see Leon as well. It's his fault her last memory of him was seven years ago. "She kind of reminds me of you." It's more of an afterthought. Both she and Ashley never deserved what happened to them.
Eventually, they run out of time and Sherry pulls away from Claire's side to be with Simmons, who wraps his arms around the girl protectively. Despite Claire's grievances against him, he's still a good enough father to her. Leon would've been a better one, even if the man was only twenty-one at the time, but still. He just had that kind of skill. It was wasted on the numbing work he was sent into.
Something else that falls onto Simmons' shoulders.
"Thank you for caring for her. We'll make sure she gets the rest she needs." Claire can't quite tell if he's being honest or not, but she hopes so. He loves her, even if he allows the government to do their experiments. Even if he allows her nightmare to continue because she was unlucky enough to get infected and have side effects.
Claire ignores Simmons' words in favor of catching Sherry's eyes again. "Take care, okay? I'll stop by whenever I can, but please don't hesitate to ask for help. You're not the only one going through this." All she gets is a head nod, but it has to do for now, because Simmons is turning away with her and soon enough, Sherry's out of sight.
With nothing left to do, Claire goes home. The ride back isn't too long but she does curse Chris for parking in her spot. Now she'll have to move her motorcycle once he's gone. Maybe she can ruin his fitness diet as payback. But even that feels like too much effort, so she just shrugs it off. It's not really that big a deal anyway.
When she gets inside, she spots Chris with a pile of fast food in his lap. Fries, hamburger, nuggets, and a soda drink to go with it, as well as various sauces. Looks like he's already ruined his diet. No need for revenge, then.
"I sent that device Ada gave us to HQ. They're looking over it now, but if we act fast then we should still be able to catch Wesker before he realizes we've got him. Or we can find something related to Umbrella, at least. Either way, it's a start." Chris rambles as he chews on a bite from his burger. He's watching something but Claire isn't sure what it is, so she ignores that too.
Honestly, all she can really do is fall onto the couch like the world is pushing her down. Her head hurts and her chest feels heavy. Maybe she should take some painkillers. But the thought of getting up again hurts more than the aches, so she leaves it.
"I'm still not sure about leaving Ada with that Spanish guy, though. He doesn't seem like someone who's good at avoiding manipulation and if Ada's anything like you said, then he could be in danger taking her in, even if she's severely injured. We should've just taken her into custody when we-" Chris stops his rambling when he looks at her. Claire's not sure what he sees, because all she can think about is how much her head hurts from the tears she's holding back. It's like the water is building up inside of her skull but she can't let them out because-
"Claire?" His voice is soft now and she has to bite her lip to avoid letting it out. She looks at him and his face is blurry. "Hey, now." He shoves all of the food back into its bag and pulls her into his side. She really has to bite her lip now. It reminds her so much of how he acted after their parents died. How he tried so hard to be gentle and caring. "It's okay, Claire."
And that's it. She breaks. A whimper slips past her lips as tears fall and she lets herself curl up against him. "It's not okay! Nothing's okay, Chris! Ashley's stuck in the white house again and Sherry's heartbroken and Simmons probably won't let me see her for a while and Ada's probably going to run away by the end of the month and-"
A hand reaches out. Rough fingers wipe away the salty streams from her cheeks and she sobs because he's being so gentle but it hurts to break down like this. "When's the last time you focused on yourself, Claire?" She's not sure how to respond at first. She hasn't been pushing herself. At least she doesn't think so. But then more tears come and when she tries to speak, nothing comes out. Chris rephrases. "When will you let other people's burdens go for a moment and just let yourself feel? You've been working your ass off to save Leon for the past six months and I know how you get when that happens. You ignore your feelings about things in favor of taking care of someone else. First, it was Ashley, and now it's Sherry. Claire, you have to let yourself grieve too."
This time, she doesn't try to say anything. She just wraps her arms around him and cries into his side. He's so big that she almost can't reach around him fully, but she doesn't have the mental capacity to find it funny.
"I..." Her throat closes for a moment but she swallows it away. "I miss him so much." The pressure in her head hasn't released, but she can barely think about that when memories flood in. Memories she shared with Leon.
She recalls every single moment they spent together. The times they were scared, sad, happy, upset, tipsy, and even just silent. She remembers every dinner they spent together. Every late-night conversation about anything and everything. Every time he came to her, stressed out of his mind because of work. Every time she tried getting government secrets out of him even though she knew it was a dick move. Claire remembers it all because it defines who he was to her and now, she'll never make another memory like that. She's lost him for good.
"Chris!" She gasps into her brother's side, not caring how her nails might scratch him as she grabs at his shirt. "I don't know i-if I can live without him!" Her words stutter at the end, but she can't control them. She can't control the hiccups in her breathing or the way her vision blurs out completely until she just closes her eyes. "I miss him! I miss him, Chris!"
Strong arms hold her tightly, like a frightened child and she feels like just that. She wants to run away from the pain in her chest. She wants to escape it, but there's nowhere she can turn to. There's nowhere left that still has Leon.
"I know." Chris's voice rings in her ears. She thinks she feels him shake in her arms, but it could just be her. Yeah, it's probably her. "I'm sorry, Claire. He didn't deserve to go like that, but he knew what was going to happen."
"But it still hurts!" She argues. It doesn't matter if Leon expected his own death or if he even warned them about it. She still wasn't prepared to live without him. "It hurts so bad..."
Chris shushes her until his voice is the only thing she can focus on. Memories still slip in here and there, making her heart twist with fresh pain, but she's able to breathe a little easier now.
"It's gonna be hard, Claire. It's gonna hurt and you'll remember him in everything you do, but you'll learn that it's okay after a while. You'll still miss him, but a little bit less. And that's okay, because we're all here for you. He didn't leave you alone."
And it takes all of Claire's effort, but she eventually agrees. It'll hurt, but Chris is right. Eventually, she won't be in so much pain.
She just has to push through it.
There's a lot to say about this fic, but I'll keep it shorter. First off, thank you all for reading through this! You have no idea how much every single supporter helped me to get through this! I've been struggling with motivation to write for a while now and many times, I felt like giving up on this, but you kept me going! Thank you!
I apologize for leaving what happened with Luis and Ada a little open ended, but I could find a way to fit it in without changing the whole ending. I hope it doesn't feel too weird. Also, yes. The agent who put up the flag was Hannigan. I wanted to include her but if Claire doesn't know her, then she'll just look like another government operative.
This entire fic was inspired off of the song Pitiful Children from the musical Be More Chill. I got the mental image of Leon as a strong and arrogant king and ran with it. There were many scenes with him acting like one that were eventually scrapped, but I feel like it was for the best, story wise.
Lastly, I will go through and do a last edit of every chapter. I may change a few conversations and hopefully some spelling errors. If I still miss any, I do apologize. I wanted to treated this like I would a real novel and it's been a rough ride with some major ups and downs, but I'm so happy with how it turned out. Once again, thank you for your support of this and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!
