September 26th, 7:40 a.m., R.P.D. Bell tower, Raccoon City.

Two distinguishable sounds could be heard during the cycle of a beating heart when listened to without a stethoscope.

Lup-dup, lup-dub, lup-dub.

The sounds weren't as crisp without the device, but as she came into the awareness of her next conscious thought, Claire found the sound to be one of the calmest things she could call in living memory.

The sounds were due to the closing of the valves of the heart, and she'd heard enough of them during her training in school with the clinical aspect of her job. For once though, her analytical mind wasn't focusing on the sound as she was considering the man it belonged to.

As Claire woke, her head was pressed to the still-bare form of Leon Kennedy's chest, and her fingers uncurled from his sides before she lifted her head.

He had fallen asleep with his back pressed to the dusty wall of the belltower room beside the only door that led out to the third floor. In sleep, Leon was no less handsome, but there was a certain elegance that his facial muscles provided when they were free of the tense way that seemed to be living on all of the survivor's faces lately.

The atmosphere around them was quiet and when she lifted her eyes to the vent slats near the roof of the tallest tower in the R.P.D., the early morning sun was finally peeking through and highlighting the old bell that had stood long in the building's highest portion.

Leon's watch was still upon his wrist, and it currently blinked out the numbers 7:42 a.m. They had only been asleep for a few hours.

Jill and Carlos hadn't radioed on the situation yet, but they would be steadily reaching the 10:00 a.m. mark to meet up with the military men.

Still, as the seconds ticked on, she was patient while she allowed her eyes to outline the sleeping man before her. When her hand lifted and her fingers pushed back the hair in Leon's face, Claire felt her breath catch in her throat at what truly lay before her.

The relationship between them had continued on at an accelerated rate ever since that near-ticket he probably should have written her back on the Arklay Scenic Route. She knew from a trauma aspect that emotions could become heightened in dire situations, but this felt different—she hoped this was different.

He said he wanted more.

Wanted more as long as they could manage to survive the current events around them, and even with her doubts nipping at her heels, Claire knew she wanted that reality more than anything she had dared to allow herself to hope for in the past.

For years after the death of her mother and father, she had been so hell-bent on finding purpose through her work. An atonement that sacrificed any personal desires she held within the context of relationships outside of her mentor, Briggs, and the professional relationships she maintained throughout the fire stations. Not to mention the somewhat strained way that she and Chris crept around those details.

Where she would have been open to talking about what happened when their home had gone up in flames, Chris still held too much guilt from not being present to ever be able to address it in a healthy way.

Claire would never admit it to her brother, but that strain and inability to confront it had always been a shackle in her heart. Chris would have been one of the only people that could ever understand where she came from, but she wouldn't push him to be that support for her. She couldn't because that wasn't a fair expectation to hold her brother to.

In truth, Claire hoped he could heal from the things he couldn't talk about.

As the years would pass, her understanding for what people held in their history could shape, alter, and contort the way they lived their lives. For her, it had come out as a penance, and through it all it had also brought her to this moment, in the arms of the man she had only met days ago.

Leon had seen her scars—the twisted skin of her back and he hadn't baulked. He didn't baulk, falter, or even grimace like she had seen so many people do in the past.

Like she had in the past.

Briggs hadn't been wrong to push her the way he had; she wouldn't have pursued Leon on her own. Apocalypse or not.

As if sensing her tumultuous thoughts, Leon stirred slowly from her fingers that graced along his cheek. His head lifted slowly before the crisp blue-eyed gaze of her favorite rookie opened. When he blinked once and took her upturned face, his eyes took in the room briefly before they were back on her once more.

And he smiled.

There was no flash of regret, no confusion, nor was there a momentary pause in the decision they made to be together last night. The bloom of his smile and the awareness of her proximity seemed to light his eyes. Hands were sliding up her back before his morning croak reached her ears.

"Hi there," Leon greeted softly when a hand cupped around the back of her neck.

"Morning, Leon," she answered, matching that smile—matching that need that came from his eyes and mirrored itself in her own. "This position can't be comfortable for your back or legs." Her voice didn't shake, and she was thankful for that as that age-old fear of rejection slithered through her now.

"On the contrary," he chuckled after he spoke and leaned his head back against the wall as he watched her. "Never slept better in my life. Could've slept for longer." The other hand slid up to her jaw before he cupped her face too.

Her fingers were on the warmth of his shoulder, and she found herself smiling before she turned her head to look up into his eyes fully.

With a shift of his legs beneath her, Leon began to pull his knees up and the action caused Claire's straddling form to slide further into him. A small sound escaped her throat when she braced her hands on his chest to catch herself.

A warm chuckle graced against the side of her face and into her ear when her chest pressed securely into his.

"Much better," Leon stated before his arms secured themselves around her back and his lips graced the corner of her mouth.

His mouth was hovering over hers when he looked up into her eyes and waited.

"You know, Leon," her throaty voice betrayed the level of sass she was attempting to give him while she withheld the kiss he was waiting for. "You're way too young to be as smooth as you are."

"Now that's a compliment." The top of his lip caught slightly on one of his incisors, and the wolfish smile he gave her was one that had her already jackhammering heart picking up in pace.

Still, she kept herself back from closing the last half inch to his mouth.

"You're shaking, Claire," he stated softly before the back of his hand slowly ran a smooth line slowly up the flat of her stomach.

"You don't regret last night?" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, and she jerked her head back at the stupidity of it.

Shame creased her eyes when she went to pull back further.

"Hey." Leon's voice had changed and when Claire looked up, real concern creased his own features before both hands were cupping her face. "No, Claire, hey—look at me." His voice was so soft under the command that when she fully lifted her face, she saw sorrow replace the concern.

"I don't regret a single moment of it." His fingers sunk into her hair while his eyes traveled back and forth between hers. "I would relive these nights a hundred times if it meant you were mine at the end of it."

"I—" Her breath caught from the intensity of his stare and his words. "I just didn't want you to feel like you had to—"

"You don't realize how important you are, do you?" he interrupted before she could finish.

"I don't have a lot of experience being that important to anyone, Leon," she admitted.

When Leon's forehead touched hers, his hands slid down to her shoulders and he slowly pulled her forward again into his chest.

"I don't think that's true," he said as he held her. "But even if it was, you won't have to feel that way anymore."

"Promise me," she began before she tipped her head back. "Promise me this isn't just some passing thing."

Leon's stare seemed to zone out for a moment before he chuckled once more and tilted his head at her. The hand at her shoulder pulled her forward and he didn't wait this time as he pressed his mouth against hers in an exploratory action.

The clinking of the machines and the slight creak of wood bounced around them as their mouths moved against one another's.

"You know what draws me to you, Claire?" he said in between pulls he made at her mouth. "In the last few days, I have seen you almost sacrifice your life for others, lose the father-figure you chose, guard and protect children with your life, and still, you don't notice it when you look at me."

"Notice what?" she asked before she gasped at the teeth that nipped at her neck now.

"Your existence in me," he said in a breath. "I am utterly captivated by you, Ms. Redfield. It's not a passing thing. It's not a fling I decided to have in the apocalypse. No, Claire, when I look at you, I feel like I'm coming home for the first time since I was nine."

Her gasp was loud when his hand fisted in her hair and gently tilted her face back before he could continue to devour her mouth at an angle.

Words were lost between them both while Leon continued to not let her pull away or from his grasp. The fearful thoughts were fading into her mind when his hands slid across different portions of her skin.

As if she was the most important thing in the world.

Claire wasn't aware of the time anymore, but she could feel it when Leon became hard beneath her once more. His length pushed at her stomach from her position atop his lap and when she braced her knees on the ground and lifted her hips, Leon let out a rasping moan when he reached down to situate himself at her center.

When she sunk forward in the first few inches, Leon's hand gripped her hair tighter as his breathing became ragged.

Fully seating herself on his cock, Claire tilted her head to let out a moan at the delicious way her hair yanked in his grasp when she lifted her hips once more.

The iron grasp Leon made at her hips next tore a small sound from her throat when he lifted her with easy strength and slammed her back home atop him. His mouth sealed against hers as he continued the action. His thumbs hooked onto her jutting hip bones while he used hips to repeatedly thrust up into the push and pull of her warm heat.

"Leon." She was trying to be quiet, and she knew they needed to be, but the way he looked up at her while he encouraged her movements would be the searing gaze she knew she wouldn't be able to go on without after this.

If he let her, she'd ask to keep him until the years grew long and their memories were longer.

"Don't stop looking at me like that," he ordered in a harsh whisper as he picked up speed.

Leon's mouth was open as he panted, and Claire could feel his thighs beginning to shake from the release he was approaching.

His right hand gripped her hip harder to keep her steady as he let go with his left. Still, she didn't look away or close her eyes when he gathered the slick buildup of her arousal. With his thumb now wet, he traced from where they were joined to the bundle of nerves between her thighs, and she almost screamed from the streaking sensation it lit from her core.

She held his eyes while he began to make tight circles with his thumb and continued to bring her back and forth across his length.

Even with his panting countenance, Leon gave a pleased grin when her body began to shake, and the breathy moan he released when she came forced her to keep her eyes on his. He allowed her to ride the high of her orgasm for a few more moments before the left hand was back on her hip, and the true strength behind his thrusts drove powerfully up into her.

"I'll never regret this," Leon panted as he sat up from the wall. "Never regret opening my eyes to you every morning." His fingers would leave bruises on her skin, but she couldn't find herself caring as she rode the last of his endurance with him. "I want this every day—want you—every day."

His mouth sealed itself back over hers when a long moan rumbled from his chest and vibrated against hers. Not caring for her barking and bruised rib, Claire lifted and lowered herself and pushed his hands away when he tried to pull out.

"F-fuck," he stammered against her mouth when he came inside of her.

When she finally came to rest on his lap once more, Leon wasn't allowing any space left between them when he pressed her against his chest and huffed around her slow kisses to his mouth.

"I want you every day too, Leon," she murmured before she laid her head on the left side of his chest.

Lup-dup, lup-dub, lup-dub.

Claire didn't need a stethoscope to tell her what the sounds meant then.

For the next twenty minutes, Claire let out soft giggles as she and Leon attempted to get dressed before one would interrupt the other. It wasn't the time or the place to be as dumb-struck as she felt, but there had been enough horror in the last 72 hours that she found herself wanting to be a little selfish for what she found in the rookie cop's stare.

"It's probably not my biggest concern right now," Leon said quietly, attempting to still be mindful of the sleeping children above them. "But I—"

"I'm on birth control, Leon," she answered, knowing that somewhat panicked look in his eye.

"Right." He nodded. "I mean, I figured, but well…"

"Not looking to be a dad any time soon?" She finished hooking her belt through the buckle and gave him a coy smile when she lifted her head.

"Not sure if you've noticed, sweetheart, but you already have made me one." His eyes raised above them. Toward the sleeping children they both knew they were in charge of now.

Her jacket was the last thing to be zipped up when she nodded and said, "In all honesty, if we make it out of this, I'm not sure how any of it will work, but I won't leave them to fend for themselves." Her hands fell away from the zipper before she too looked up. "I won't leave them to fight for their lives in the system. They're going to have trauma that maybe no one else will understand. At least, Sherry will."

Leon caught her attention once more when he stepped back up to her, dressed again, and drew her eyes to his.

"You trying to convince the orphan officer why you don't want two abandoned children to feel alone?" he asked before his hand reached out for hers. "You remember that perfect coffee combination we talked about?"

"Are you going to turn me into a coffee order again, Kennedy?" she tilted her face up to his with a slow smile.

"Desert, actually." He winked.

BOOM!

Claire and Leon both jumped from the impact they felt as much as they heard in the next moment.

Something heavy had crashed against what sounded like the roof in the distance, and the entire western side of the building shuttered with the strength of it.

Above, Liam began to cry.

"What was that?" Claire whispered as she and Leon moved toward the belltower door to the third floor.

"Whatever it was," Leon began as he reached for the gun at his side. "It was heavy. That monster, perhaps?" He glanced at her.

"Claire? Leon?" the groggy voice of Sherry floated down to them from above.

"Right here, sweetie," Claire called before she leaned out to catch the little girl's eye.

"What was that?" Sherry was working to secure Liam in the sling that Claire had created down in the boiler room area previously.

The distant sound of gunfire reached all of their ears next, and Claire turned back toward Leon with a question in her eyes.

Who was left in the building?

"Might be Ada," Leon said when he lifted his gaze from the shotgun in his hands.

Or, Claire realized, it might be Sebastian.

"What do you want to do?" Leon asked when Sherry finally joined them from the wooden set of stairs.

Whatever it was they were going to do, it wasn't just their lives at stake now. Any wrong decision they made would impact the young wards they both seemed to agree were theirs now.

But as Claire looked toward the door again, she knew if it was Sebastian or anyone else that needed help, they simply couldn't do nothing.

Shaking hands were reaching for the pouch at her hip when the loud noise caused her to jerk defensively from her leaning position in the first-floor bathrooms. The sound was distant from above, but she wasn't foolish enough to think it would be a one-off.

Umbrella was on a schedule and even more so as the days had ticked on.

Ada Wong hadn't meant to overstay her welcome, but the week leading up to the full-scale outbreak had proven to be more disastrous than even she could have expected.

Arklay County had the air of a crumbling empire even before the T-Virus had been leaked.

For just over a year now, she had been in and out of the county lines as her contracts extended further and further around the conglomerate, Umbrella Inc.

Still not as difficult as the pig farm, her mind casually bid out as she stared up toward the ceiling where the noise had echoed out from.

Early last year, she had been assigned the mission of infiltrating the Arklay Laboratory. With the fake credentials, she was able to gain employment and soon developed a romantic relationship with Dr. John Clemens, the facility's chief researcher, as a means of obtaining classified information.

Dr. Clemens had been one of her easier marks, but lonely men always were.

Not one to depend on luck, she half-wondered if she had finally met her match of bad days.

Yuánfèn, as her family spoke of it in the years she was brought up before their deaths, was harder to explain in the English language and it was also something she didn't try too hard to think about. However, the older she got, the more she remembered those memories of home and the teachings used to rear children.

Similar to, but also wholly different, karma could be considered close enough to its explanation. Yuánfèn was the fate or chance that brings two or more people together, a predestined affinity with a person or a place.

With the chitin bandage slapping over the gunshot wound in her side, Ada grimaced slightly while she thought of the cycles she had created throughout the populace here.

Bioweapons had been developing for years now, but it was just recently that the world had begun to notice Umbrella.

The more contracts she took, the more she found herself in relation to them.

And it was going to cost her, she realized as the blood flow began to clot.

The woman—Jill Valentine—hadn't been someone she wanted to run into that night. The possibility of the officer's survival was higher than most Ada had documented in her surveillance, but the odds of running into her in this tarnished city…

Officer Valentine had seen right through that fake badge and as a result, Ada held a deeper respect for the woman's profile. Officer Valentine was listed as gallant and foolhardy when it came to the enormous endeavor she faced but Ada wouldn't have called her stupid.

Move, the stern voice in her head commanded as her thoughts lingered.

The bandage she secured around her torso would hold for now, but it would slightly hinder her ability to move quickly, and Ada found her lips tightening in a slight expression.

The U.B.C.S. had made it into the city less than a day ago. Most of their platoons had succumbed to the infected in the streets and the many other surprises that came along with Umbrella's work. It was her best guess that most of those men and women knew very little of what they were being assigned to.

Ignorance was a soldier's best asset according to command.

The previous Spetsnaz Special Forces operator, Nicholai Ginovaef, was someone she knew enough about. His induction into Umbrella's paramilitary forces was something her previous employers had kept an eye on.

Running into him had been the misfortune she was certain she deserved, but his ability to land a shot curled around the swollen pride she kept locked away behind her aloof nature.

She had been distracted and it would cost her now.

A liaison she was supposed to meet at the Apple Inn had…expired early. When he hadn't made the necessary contact prior to the next portion of her descent into obtaining the sample, Ada had needed to reassess her plan.

She'd been standing over his body when she'd heard the noise through the open window in the room of the Apple Inn. The distant movement of a figure on a balcony had her moving just in time, but the bullet had scraped her side. White hair flashed from the position out the window and she knew who hunted her now.

Let him try, Ada thought as she finally moved from her position in the precinct bathroom.

If her intelligence was correct, Nicholai and the other Watch Dogs would have their own missions to complete.

With her feet carrying her once again toward the garage of the R.P.D., her sights were set on escaping to the street to make her way toward the sewers when she heard the thumping steps ahead of her. Or was it behind? The precinct's acoustics sometimes made it hard to discern.

When the door behind her crashed open and the B.O.W. known as a tyrant stepped through, Ada Wong knew what she was going to be in for next.

The gun in her holster was out in a twirl of her fingertips and one of her two shots hit the eye of the beast in the trench coat.

Is that a hat? She found herself wondering as she ran and dove through the door to the second-floor reception room.

The creature was wearing a hat.

A fedora at that.

Tasteless.

The sound of a helicopter reached her ears as she made her way toward the door at the end of the hall that would take her to the fire escape. When it got progressively louder, her heeled feet came to a stop in the middle of the hallway.

Thumping steps were rising over the noise, and she knew the beast would be upon her shortly.

With a flash of light, something zipped past the windows before it crashed into the side of the upper hallway. The force of it had her steading herself on the wall with a hand lifting from the heat that had suddenly dispersed in the corridor.

From the smell of it, fire had broken out in the conjoined hallway. With the fuel from what she assumed as the helicopter she'd heard, it would continue to burn if not treated.

Worse yet, it had completely collapsed the wall in front of her.

Turning back toward the way she came; Ada came to a pause when the tyrant stepped out from the reception room. Malicious black eyes were settling on her when she realized the creature was healing from the gunshot wound she had inflicted previously.

With a flick of her delicate hand, a flash bang dropped to the ground and the bright light of it flickered past her closed eyelids as she turned away. When it was safe to do so, she opened her eyes to begin her escape but stopped short as she watched the lumbering creature lower the hand it had lifted to cover its eyes.

Higher level of intelligence?

This series was different from the one she had read about previously. Feeling short on her research, Ada set her brow as she backed up a step from the creature. Her handgun lifted once more before she squared her shoulders.

"Hey," a voice called out behind it. "Ugly!"

The shotgun blast to the turning tyrant's head knocked it sideways until its large form was slumping into the wall.

"Move, move!" Ada could see a hand waving from around the creature in the narrow hall and she didn't hesitate to follow the command as she quickly moved forward with it momentarily stunned.

Blue eyes beneath a stylish haircut greeted her once more that night, and the hand he wrapped around hers to tug her past the monster was warm.

Leon Kennedy. Officer Kennedy. Not a name she was familiar with when he had first introduced himself. Officer Valentine had called him rookie a few times, and the information had stuck.

"Keep moving," Leon continued beside her. "We're going to have to hide."

Despite Jill Valentine's warning to him, he was still willing to help her.

Her plan had been to avoid the rookie cop and the senior officer but seeing as how everything else she planned was falling short of her expectations, Ada found herself allowing him to continue to lead her through the hall while she remained silent for the moment.

When they reached the third floor, her eyes glanced over at him before she decided she needed to assess his character a little further.

Not entirely disingenuous, she paused and let go of his hand while she made to wince at her bandaged side.

"Hey," the rookie officer said as he turned toward her. His hand reached out and hovered near her shoulder but didn't touch it. "You alright? I see you found some bandages."

"Yes," she said smoothly before she lifted her chin up toward him. "Seems I also owe you twice for finding me."

"Wouldn't count the first one," he responded, meeting her stare with a tilt of his head. "You weren't exactly looking for help then."

Despite herself, she couldn't help the slight smile she gave him.

"A fate without destiny," an old voice in her memory whispered across her senses as she stared at him then. "Fated to come together, but not destined to stay."

There it was again.

Yuánfèn

The man before her radiated with the meaning and the silence stretched on as they stared at one another.

Ada Wong felt an emotion she hadn't felt in a long-time slither through her chest and even as she knew better, she embraced it while she stared at the man who would end up haunting her for the rest of her years.

The trek through the morning-lit streets wasn't as difficult as Jill thought it would be while she, Carlos, and Roy made their way to where the railcar lay in wait. It wouldn't take them long to reach their destination, but the constant run they maintained seemed to take more from her than she was willing to admit.

When Carlos whistled, she paused in her jog to observe him attempting to get around a large group of the infected.

She'd almost left him behind.

Roy, who stood at her side let out a small whine, and Jill glanced down at the animal before she moved for one of the cars on the right side of the road. The butt of her gun tapping against the hood of the car drew the attention of more than half of the infected, and Carlos' face lit in a grin as he dove through and jogged his way over to her.

"Better ways to get rid of me, you know?" he said before they both began to jog once more, side by side.

"Sorry," she expelled with a genuine note in her tired voice. "Lost in thought."

She could see when his head turned toward hers as they continued down Central Street.

"You need a soldier's nap," he offered as they met a barricade.

The other side was clear of cluttered bodies and Jill was half-listening as she considered the obstacle in front of them.

A screech reached her ears and Jill turned her attention back towards the way they came. The fast-crawling form of a humanoid creature on four legs caught her attention in the growing light and Jill was grabbing for Carlos' arm as she moved them silently toward the lowest portion of the barricade.

Remembering she only had nine bullets left in her handgun, her respiratory system ramped up as she thought of the long-tongued creatures that would definitely have an advantage towards their current speedy deadline.

Below them, Roy sat near her feet as his focus remained on the enemies behind.

"Carry him," Jill ordered in a whisper as she touched Carlos' arm to get his attention and direct it down to Roy.

The creature was getting closer when it was joined by a second on the street. A few of the infected had noticed them already and were getting closer as well.

"You know how to shoot?" Carlos asked with a sliver of taunting humor in his voice.

Jill scoffed in response before he tossed her the M4.

"Protect us, super cop," he ordered with a wink before patting his chest.

She was just about to open her mouth to suggest that Roy may not know that command, but the dog proved her wrong by immediately jumping into his arms. Carlos caught him easily, the muscles in his arms flexing before he turned his attention back to her.

"It's a guys thing," he explained with a growing grin. "And are you smiling at me or the dog?"

"Definitely the dog," she countered with a huff.

"Keep telling yourself that." He turned toward the barricade and easily hauled himself and Roy through.

"I usually don't share ammunition on the first date," he continued when he reached out for her arm to help pull her over.

They hadn't alerted the Lickers yet.

"You also don't talk to pretty girls with bad attitudes," she reminded him before she set his gun back in his hands and pulled out her handgun.

"No," he agreed as he surveyed the new area. "But I also don't usually give lip service to my commanding officer."

With her eyebrow lifted, she turned her head toward him as they began to move once more.

"You need to sleep," he explained. "Even if it's just for 20 minutes. Exhaustion will get you killed faster than anything else."

"Yeah," she agreed as she blinked hard and glanced down at her watch. As much as she didn't want to stop, they should for at least a half an hour. "You're right."

The next few hours were going to be fast paced and full of careful planning.

"Wow," he said before waving her over to a two-story flower shop that was dark inside. "That went better than expected." He pushed the door open and swept the area in front of her. "Clear."

Between the two of them, they quickly moved one of the desks against the front door while Roy began to sniff around the door to the stairs.

Carlos immediately set for the door to the stairs and kept his M4 at the ready while he climbed. Jill gave Roy the command to stay before she followed up behind the mercenary. When the top floor was cleared, she turned toward him and found his gaze already assessing her.

"I'm not unreasonable," she said quietly, finally answering his previous statement.

"Nah, I get it," he responded with a simple nod before he called Roy up the stairs quietly. When the animal was within the room, he closed the door.

The upstairs portion of the flower shop was a studio apartment much like Jill's very own. A kitchenette sat off to the far right, and something sour was wafting out from a pot still on the stove. Whomever lived there had been interrupted before they could even serve themselves food.

A rumpled bed sat in the corner with a rickety looking bookshelf full of cookbooks and various knick knacks that cluttered the free space.

Ignoring the bed, she passed Carlos and slid down the wall before she crossed her ankles to get comfortable. When Carlos moved to slide into a similar position on the corner wall next to her she tilted her head his way.

"Not taking the bed?" she asked.

"Listen," he said before bending a knee and setting a forearm against it. "Even someone like me has boundaries, okay?"

"Someone like you?" she parroted before she patted her leg and called Roy over.

Their stay would be too short to take off his vest, but she made a note to find Roy bottled water in the next few hours. When Roy laid down beside her and rested his head against her leg, she couldn't help the smile that graced her features.

"Yeah," Carlos answered simply but didn't elaborate on that thought. He watched her and Roy for a few moments before he opened up a new line of curiosity. "Pretty good survival skills for just a cop."

With a chuckle, Jill set her head back against the wall and said, "I'm a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran."

Carlos let out a low whistle and situated himself into a more comfortable position against the wall.

"Remind me not to get into any more arguments with you," he said with an easy look.

"I fully expect..." Her head rolled toward him. "That you'll disappoint me in this regard."

"Guaranteed," he promised with a chuckle. "Get some sleep, Supercop. I got an alarm set for 30 minutes." He lifted the arm with a watch that was glowing on his wrist.

Jill didn't need much more encouragement than that, and even with the sparse time to rest, the dreams never left her.

When Carlos eventually shook her awake again, the sweat on her forehead caused a cool sensation to flitter through her body.

"Bad dreams again?" Carlos asked as he kneeled beside her.

"Noticed you took my gun away before you woke me up," Jill observed in a groggy voice. The Beretta lay a few feet away alongside the grenade launcher she had set down upon entry to the room. "Least you're smart and pretty."

"Only took me nearly dying a few times for you to notice." His hand lifted to gesture in a circle around his face.

"No, I noticed; I just didn't care." She tilted her head with a smirk.

"My God," he said slowly. "Are you…are you seriously bantering with me right now, supercop?"

"Could be," Jill sniffed, crossing her arms. "They don't pay me to make jokes though."

"Who's getting paid right now?"

"Fair," she supplied before she ran a hand down her face and glanced at his nearness. The way he watched her now made her wonder if she spoke in her sleep. "So, you and Umbrella. You said you didn't have a choice?"

Carlos sighed and chose to scoot up against the wall alongside her. "Yeah, I was fighting a war back home."

"In Bolivia?" she asked, indicating her memory of what he'd told her about himself previously.

"Correct," Carlos hesitated for a moment before he spoke and when she turned to give him an encouraging look, he continued, "Real shitty circumstance, but we were getting results. Joined after some cartels killed my brothers. Politicians were corrupt and the smaller communities didn't have a defense against that. So, the people revolutionized—we revolutionized." He glanced at her and wet his lips. "Got caught though. Held in a camp for a week before some asshole in a suit, in the middle of the heat, strolls in. He offered me death or work."

Carlos laughed and dropped his head for a moment.

"So, you chose work," Jill concluded.

"Yes and no," he said after a pause. "I actually chose death, but then they dragged my little brother, Alonzo, into the camp. Said they'd kill him too if I didn't take the offer."

Jill's brows furrowed. "Why did Umbrella want you that badly?"

"Ah." Carlos didn't meet her eyes when he began to fiddle with something around his neck. "I was good at what I did, and I knew how to lead."

"And what were you good at?"

He finally swung his eyes back to hers before he said, "Killing people, Jill. They'd tell you I'm great at that, but that's not what it was—why I did that."

"Then what was it?" she pressed with an understanding growing behind her eyes.

"I was protecting my people." He leaned his head back on the wall once more. "Until they find a cure for human nature, a man has to stand with his people, and they were killing mine. So, I got better at it."

With a hand on his forearm, Jill watched his eyes drop at the touch.

"I understand," she said quietly. "When this is over, I'll help you get home."

She nearly jumped when his other hand covered hers.

"You got enough you need to worry about but…I appreciate that. One crisis at a time," Carlos replied gently.

"So, what happened to your platoon?" she asked after clearing her throat and pulling her hand back.

"Nothing that I don't think you couldn't put together yourself. Survived the initial drop into the city with my platoon leader and a few other men. Many of them were killed while we tried to find the rest of our units. They didn't tell us what was happening here, Jill." Carlos shook his head and laughed. "Then, when it was just my platoon leader and I, someone took shots at us from the rooftop. Mikhail, the platoon leader, got hit in the gut. We got separated after that…then I found you sleeping next to me when I woke up in that building."

With a silent nod, Jill studied him for a moment. Her distrust of him had been lessening over the past day they had been working together, and if he was telling the truth, she'd owe him an apology if they survived this.

He'd been a servant to Umbrella; a forced hand under the operation of good for his family.

It was just another fire that burned in her chest when she considered the corporation.

"They're going to pay for what they did," she spoke now without thinking, her tone strengthening into a death warrant.

"You know, Jill," Carlos said as he watched her. "I don't know you well yet, but I'd reason that knowing you is something else when you're not fighting for your life."

Shaking the emotion from her thoughts, she refocused on the mercenary and considered him for a moment.

"You still trying to get me to adopt you along with the dog?" she lifted a hand to Roy who lay on the floor beside her still. The joke that Leon made previously was still fresh between them.

"I might be," he answered, and they both shared a smile that she allowed him to see this time.

"If you're a good boy, I'll think about it," she said while she watched him reach for the pack he had beside him.

"See, now that's an objective I can manage with tact." He slid her an MRE that she grimaced at but took anyway.

Lifting her eyebrows at his words, she was tempted for a moment, but Carlos was a tangible presence at her side, slurping something wet from his MRE like a man whose bus was late.

"Carlos," she said with her mirth reaching odd levels. "I suspect you only have tact when you want to shoot something or fuck it."

The wet food that was tipped at Carlos' mouth exploded backwards from his lips at his exhale, and a few droplets of it rained down onto his pants.

Beside her, Roy lifted his head.

Carlos' laughter was muffled by his hand, but Jill felt it like a victory in her chest.

"Tell me I'm wrong," she challenged.

His laughter didn't stop and despite herself and the city she failed; Jill Valentine found herself laughing alongside him before they both pushed their leftover food towards a happy-looking Roy.

When they managed to finish up bathroom breaks before their departure, Jill assisted him in looking over the small number of weapons between them. Their looks toward one another seemed easier now, and she found herself giving the mercenary small pieces of her personality that she hadn't allowed out in years.

As they ran along the streets once more, he placed his hand at her back while they snuck around toward Mission Street. Jill allowed the touch and trotted ahead first, her boots clattering against the wooden boards in the back alley.

In no time, they reached the rail car just before 8 a.m. when Jill understood that they would be cutting their timeline short. It had taken a slight diversion to lead the current group of infected away from the access point to the rail runner's engine slat, but Carlos had done so easily and returned quickly after his loop around a building.

As he ran toward her now, he gave a slight gesture for her to enter the rail car.

Knowing time was short, she did so with a careful push of the sliding door's mechanism. The car was silent inside as she took the first few steps up toward the conductor's seat.

A snick of metal sounded out beside her head, and Jill froze.

"Hands up," a thickly accented Russian voice said beside her.

Following the order, she did so slowly while her eyes slid to the side to see an older man in a similar looking uniform as Carlos.

"My name is—" she began.

"Unimportant, yes," the man cut her off with amusement lining his tone. "Who you are matters very little to me. What you're doing here is about to change as well."

Jill couldn't hear Carlos behind her, nor the jingle of Roy's vest.

Had he set her up? Had this been the plan all along?

With her teeth gritting, she turned her head to take the man in fully.

"Not many living people left in this city," she explored while she took in the weapons he had strapped to his legs. A similar looking M4 was trained on her from his hands. "I'd advise we work this out in a different manner."

"I had the same thought." The man's grin grew. "Unfortunately, I don't have time for simple pleasures. No, I think—"

A snarl sounded out behind him and before the man could spin fully, teeth were flashing with the morning sun that filtered through the rail car's windows as Roy bounded forth and sunk his teeth into the man's arm.

Behind him, in the aisle, stood Carlos with his own gun trained on the man.

"Nicholai," Carlos called with a voice that was far colder than she'd heard from him yet. "Good to see you." His tone suggested it was anything but. "Drop the weapon."

With her gun trained on the man now, Jill ordered, "Roy, halt! Come!"

Immediately, the K9 unit dog obeyed, and the man was snarling out with a kick toward the animal when it bounded past. A small yelp sounded out in the small space of the rail car from Roy at the kick to his hindquarters.

The shot that Jill dispatched into Nicholai's leg found its mark and all without her guilt following. She ignored the look from Carlos when she stepped forward toward Nicolai's now kneeling form and placed her boot on his shoulder before she shoved him down toward the ground with her gun held steadily above him.

"The punishment for aggravated assault on a police officer is a third-degree felony," Jill thundered with her boot pressing into his back. "But you'll forgive me if the justice system is moving a little slower today. Move and I'll make sure you'll be wheelchair bound for the rest of your life."

"I think there's been a misunderstanding," Nicholai said when his face turned to the side, and he looked up toward Jill. "Someone has been shooting my people and I took no chances."

With a sneer, Jill found Carlos' eyes as if to validate the trustworthiness of the man below.

When Carlos shook his head, understanding her look well enough, the options were racing through her head when a sound interrupted them all.

"S.T.A.R.S."

A/N: This story has been steadily getting more love and I just want to thank you guys for reading, supporting, and chatting with me back and forth about this series and pairings that we all seem to love. I appreciate every comment more than you guys could know.