Claire

Her vision wavered for a bit. She saw a man, large and fat, rambling about the same child that didn't exist. She watched him slice his own throat. If there had been anything in her stomach, she would have thrown up. But she was so tired, so weak. She was fading fast. Chris, she needed Chris…

Was she still seeing things? Still hallucinating? She watched her longest friend standing in front of her. Leon. Blackness dripping from his eyes. Now she could see the light, bright like the Sun-breaking through the haze of her vision. For the moment, he wasn't looking at her, just darkness. Blackness fell from his blue eyes. Not light and airy but heavy and wet.

Tears…so many tears.

_

Claire
Claire coughed up blood, and flinched at the familiar red substance that now stained her clothing. She hadn't been bitten. That's all that mattered right now. She was alive, and there was a chance that she could live and never turn into one of those monsters, that ruined so many lives. She could hear the grunts and the slow heavy footsteps behind the other side of the door getting louder and louder.

Leon
Leon was sitting next to her. He looked at her, how she was laying there, covered by a blue blanket. She was still sleeping, her body needed to rest. He wasn't one hundred percent prepared or sure he should be the one to deliver such bad news to Claire.

He buried his face in his hands and suppressed the urge to cry. Yes, he wanted to cry. He felt helpless and somehow responsible for what happened even though he couldn't have known someone wanted to take Claire...but...after all these years he couldn't help but feel guilty.

With a sigh Leon stood up and went to the window, trying to distract himself but that obviously didn't work at all. Just as he decided that some fresh air - even for at least five minutes outside - would make him clear his head, he heard a scratchy voice behind him.

"Fuck"

"Hey, Red." Leon couldn't help but sigh at the relief of hearing her voice. He stepped to her bed, placing his hand on her arm that wasn't bandaged and sat down on the chair again. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've had my skull cracked open", she answered and made a painful face. "The last time I had a headache like this was in my teens... and I had just tried weed"

Leon froze. How could he tell her now?

"Could you ... could you pass me a glass of water please?", she asked quietly, and he could hear that she was still waking up. She wasn't ready yet for any serious information.

He filled the glass with water and wanted to give it to her but as he turned around, he saw her facial expression which scared him somehow. Still holding the glass of water in his hand, he just looked at her, trying to figure out what her face seemed to think, seemed to say.

"Claire-?"

"Uh, maybe I'm just ... well, I ... ", she tried to sit up a little but failed helplessly.

"Leon, why can't I move my legs?"

He didn't know how to start. That was not how he wanted to tell her about her injuries. Deep down he actually wished Claire would get to know it from someone else. He wished the doctor would tell it to her.

"Leon??", she kept asking, the fear in her voice was clear to hear, but he absolutely didn't know how to start.

"When we found you...you had been hit on the head multiple times, and your left arm broken and...", he stopped. He didn't want to put the rest into words, and so he just looked down.

"And what? My head and my arm have nothing to do with my..."

Her voice broke as well. Tears were filling her eyes, and she tried to stay calm. She tried - but failed. Her breath got faster, and she kept staring at the agent, silently begging for an answer.

"... they injected you with something...", was all he was able to say and looked up to her again.

Claire gasped and nodded. She tried to handle it as a fact even though she didn't really know the facts. Covering her mouth with her hand, she suppressed the tears and looked to the window. As if the world outside would give her the answers she needed.

Just At this moment, somebody knocked at the door and a woman - probably in her fifties - entered the room. Leon recognized her as the doctor he spoke to a few hours ago.

"Ah, Miss Redfield. How good to see you awake", she said with a friendly smile and stayed standing next to the bed.

Seeing Claire's terrified face, she looked from her to young blond man who nodded a little, and she understood.

"Well, Miss Redfield", the doctor started again, "I have good and bad news. I assume you already heard all the bad ones..."

"I can't move my legs" Claire whispered, as tears made its way down her face.

"Yes, I'm sure you would like to get all the details", she said calmly, trying to focus on her job and got another nod from Leon.

"We will talk about everything, but for now I don't want you to be scared. The good news are that you will be able to walk again. Of course, I can't promise you it will be smooth."

Hearing this - hearing that there was hope - made a final tear find it's way out of Claire's eyes and down her cheek. She wiped it away but Leon already saw it. While the doctor sat down on the chair next to Claire's bed, explaining what happened, Leon didn't listen at all.

He didn't understand a word and his thoughts were miles away. All he was thinking about was, how Claire didn't even know the half of it.

Leon went into the hallway to give Claire some privacy with the doctor. He was glad she knew some of it now, he also felt relief as well knowing she would walk again. He was shaken from his thoughts when he turned to face an extremely pissed off Chris.

"Kennedy!"