Disclaimer: Capcom owns all, I'm just playing with them.
A/N: My response to the "lack" of angst. Plus I was feeling sad so. Read at your own risk, you have been warned.
Gigantic thank you to SeveredWing, this fic would not have been without you.
Butterfly.
"If you think I'm just going to walk out of here and leave you here you alone, then you don't know me at all." Anger.
"Please just leave. Will you do as I ask just this once?" Frustration.
"No, I'm not leaving you. You're coming with me or we both stay." Determination.
"You can't stay! Just… go." Pleading now.
"No." Stand fast.
"This isn't the time-"
"Then when will it be, if not now? I'm not leaving this place without you and there's nothing you can say or do to make me." A pause. "You're going to be fine. We're going to walk out of here together like we always do. You and me. Together. We promised." Faith.
"I take it back." Desperation.
"Like hell you do! Give it up. I'm not leaving you here," She got up and took another quick look outside the room before returning to sit with him. "I think it's calming down out there. You ready to go?"
"I already told you I'm not leaving." When had they come to this?
"And I said you will." The fighting was useless. Both knew the other would not budge, but he was desperate to get her to leave.
"Claire, listen to me. I'm not going to make it. And I don't want you here when it happens, I'm not going to let it happen. So you need to go. Please just go. "The look he was giving her almost broke her heart.
"Are you telling me you're… you're giving up?" Tears had begun to gather in her eyes.
He smiled a sad smile. "We both know what will happen. Nothing we can do, it's inevitable, it always is."
Tears were now gently sliding down her face. She didn't even notice them, but he did. "There's still a chance. It could work. It will work. We're getting out of here."
He was just softly shaking his head. "You don't understand, I don't think I want you to. I can feel it, inside me. Eating it's way through me, destroying what makes me me. I…" A sigh. "I just don't want you to be here. I don't want you to see this."
"But the cure –"
"It's not working. Slowed things down, but it didn't stop it... I'm sorry. "A sob escaped her now, how could he think it was his fault?
"Oh Claire, please don't cry. I hate to see you cry. And now… now I can't even hold you." That just made her cry harder. How could this happen to them? Had they not been through enough already? But at the sound of the sorrow and longing in his voice, she somehow managed to push back the tears. To pull all the fear back into herself, back where it could not cripple her. There would be time for crying later. Taking a deep breath, desperately ignoring the smell of acrid smoke in the air, she let the action itself soothe her. Then she was ready to glance up at him. Eyes locking, she felt something begin to tear inside her. He had truly given up. It was clear as the sky on a sunny spring day to her now.
She would have to leave this place alone.
She would have to go back into the real world alone.
She would have to endure all the sorrow alone.
She would have to love alone.
She would have to raise their unborn child alone.
A child they had just found out about a week ago. A child whose life they had been planning and dreaming about just a few days ago. And then this had happened to them. Again. A wave of seething anger passed through her. Umbrella. They would take everything from her. And she could do nothing to them. Even now, eight years later, they had somehow managed to destroy everything again. She could feel the hatred growing in her, it's darkness filling her soul.
But the anger and hatred vanished with the simplest touch on her hand. She fell back from her mind and looked at their now joined hands. "Claire?" Sadness filled his voice, even if he was trying to keep it from showing. His hand felt cold now. Blood loss. He was dying, twice, and yet some part of her still refused to give up hope. "You need to focus." He was trying to get her to leave again, to make her see what he thought was the only solution.
"All I need to focus on is getting you out of here. You're not leaving me. You promised me forever, remember?" He smiled that sad smile again.
"And I want that forever with you. I want us together, living that dream we had. The one with the 2.4 kids and a dog and a white picket fence. I want you. It was always just you, even if I did fumble about it at first. So much wasted time, when it was always you. You and me. Everything else was just a bonus." The longing and sadness would have broken a lesser man, but not him. She could see him accepting the loss, dealing with it and pushing it away. He raised his head to look at her again, then shook his head. This was not happening.
"And you have me, and we can have that dream. We can, Leon. You just have to keep fighting it, okay? You're going to be fine." Somehow, just somehow, she needed for him to understand that it wasn't over yet. He was still alive! There was still hope, for him, for them.
"Why can't you just accept the truth? I'm not leaving this place alive. Even if you managed to get this thing off of me, I'm still dead."
"Just cos you're bleeding a little you think you won't make it. I thought you were supposed to be tough, Kennedy." He laughed at her words, then paid for it as he coughed up fresh blood. "Shh. Try not to move yet. Save your strength."
She really needed to get him out from under that beam, but again logic told her it might get even worse if she did. God how she wanted to hold him again. To hold him and laugh with him, make love to him and argue about what color they would chose to paint the nursery. He wanted pink for the girl he insisted they would have and she wanted blue, since girls liked blue too. She wanted the life they were going to have. To have this nightmare return, it could not be possible. This simply couldn't be where their story ended. They were supposed to get old together, not die here. Or even worse, die but still live. She shuddered at the thought. Leon would not become one of those things. Not now, not ever.
"I need you to live, both of you. All that's left of me." Determination again.
"Don't start that again!" The anger was back in her, fueled by his surrender.
"No, I need to say this. I-I want you to tell my mom and my sister that I love them, and that I'm sorry. They'll take care of you, both of you." He struggled a moment to reach his left hand, useless now, before removing the simple gold band from his ring finger. "I want you to take this. Don't you argue with me about this, I want you to keep it safe for me."
"Fine, but just until we get out of here. We will make it."
He didn't even bother to say anything about her comment, just continued. "And…and I want you to move on. No listen! I-I want that kid of ours to have a dad. And I want you to be happy."
"I am happy and it already has a dad. Stop being silly already."
"Just please promise me. Promise me you will be happy. All I want is for you to be happy." He was getting sad again.
"I'm happy now. Or, well, I will be once we get out of here." At the look he was giving her she added "Fine. I promise. Okay, you happy? Now it's up to you to help me keep that promise." He just smiled.
Someone was screaming her name. Her fingers twitched slightly on the trigger. She was almost sure she had heard someone calling to her.
There it was again! Slightly confused, she lowered the gun from her temple. Who could it be? Two voices calling for her now. She knew those voices. It was… Chris? Chris and - - Jill? Impossible, her mind cried out. She had seen them disappear. It must be the grief playing tricks on her. But then why could she hear the voices come closer? Chris and Jill? Weren't they dead?
There, outside the door now. Something inside her flickered slightly, and in a voice filled with disbelief she called back. "Chris?" It was a question. It simply could not be her dead brother. She was sure she had seen him die as those cold dead hands dragged him away from her earlier.
Footsteps that had passed by the door now returned, and then something began to kick at the door, still calling out her name. After a few moments the door went flying inward. She shook a bit, then years of survival took over and she raised the gun, pointing it at the door.
Immediately the two figures in the door came to a halt.
"Wow sis, it's just us. Put down the gun, okay?"
She tilted her head to the side and thought about it for a moment. It looked like him, and it sounded like him too. And the woman beside him? There was no denying it was Jill. Still unsure, she questioned it aloud. "Chris?"
Chris was taken aback by the hesitant, heartbroken whisper from his sister. Something was obviously very wrong. "Yeah, it's me, I'm here. Jill is too." They watched as she slowly lowered the gun.
"Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Chris watched as she just shook her head slowly. With slow movements he made his way to her and sat down beside her, still very aware of the gun she had a death grip on. "Claire?" he said gently, trying to get to her. It worried him greatly that she was so unresponsive. Hearing Jill's shocked gasp he looked over to where she was standing on the other side of the room. She was bent down to look at something, and when she looked up at him, he saw that there were tears in her eyes. "Leon," she said softly. At the name, Claire cringed. Understanding started to dawn on him.
"Did he…?" He left the question unfinished but she knew what he was asking. Had he turned? She could only nod her head, the truth still too much to say out loud. He looked at her with sadness and understanding, then hugged her, the blood on her now seeping into his clothing as well. "Jill, will you…" Again the question was unfinished, but Jill knew what to do. They all knew. Claire's heart hurt then. She wanted Leon to have a proper funeral, to be buried beside his father and brother. Not to be burnt and left here to haunt this place.
"Come on Claire, let's get going." Chris helped her up and she stood on shaky feet. He pulled her close so she could lean on him, and they began to make their way out of the room. At the doorway, Claire stopped.
"Wait. I want to…" He simply nodded and turned around with her. They watched as Jill made the preparations and then, with a nod of consent from Claire, lit the fire. Claire didn't cry as she watched her husband's body burn. She simply clutched his ring tighter in her hand. She would live, for him. She would live for him and for their child. They stood there watching for a moment before they turned and began making their way out of the complex.
Forever yours, my beautiful butterfly. Both rings together now, the sentence within them complete.
The End.
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