RE: Inclination

A/N: Begin the second part. This is two months after the first section.

May 2006

The overcast sky seemed to be taunting her. Claire had managed to push aside her memories of the airport in Washington while she was otherwise occupied, but now… Now that she was back in Newark and returning to the part of her life that could be considered 'personal'… now she couldn't think of anything else. It was a trait that she'd picked up years ago… oh, how many years ago? Raccoon City, probably. She didn't stop caring about things, not really, instead it was more like she prioritized and once she completed one thing the feelings she needed to sort came back.

It started to drizzle as she climbed out of the car. Robert's words from the airport came back to her, and hit her like a two by four to the chest. Maybe Chris was right. Claire slammed the cab door, hating Chris for various reasons, loving him for the same ones. Over their dinner, the very one that had pushed things to a head with her ex-boyfriend, the siblings had a long conversation about various things. It had culminated in Christ telling her to end things with Robert. She hadn't argued, but had told him that she could handle her own life, thank you. And what about his life? He wouldn't comment. Not that it mattered. Robert had taken Chris's advice anyway, and at the airport as they checked their bags he took a deep breath and announced in a heavy tone, "We're done."

The words had surprised her, but at the same time, she had been expecting them. It wasn't something that she could have not seen coming, the whole time in Washington he had been surly and withdrawn. When she tried to talk to him, he had snapped or grunted. He was unhappy, and Robert didn't deal with unhappy very well. Claire didn't deal with the even more zombie-like responses, and she knew that towards the end of the week she'd gotten hostile in return. Really, relationships were a mess. And then after she'd come back so late from dinner with Leon…

There hadn't really been time to process what happened with Robert. She was busy thinking about what had gone on with Leon… and then she hadn't the time to think about anything but work. San Francisco was bright enough to forestall any of her own flashbacks, but there were signs of the cleanup after the outbreak everywhere. Scorch marks on buildings, power washing where other stains had been forcibly removed. The people were thinner, and… there were more children than parents to manage them.

It was the children that Claire was assigned to. And after the weeks of beginning the very careful conversations with several of them, she felt exhausted. Glad to know that they would all most likely be able to recover, children were the best at that, really, and with more therapists… ones that were trained in that sort of thing, they would have little problem.

Then from San Francisco she'd been sent to another on-location job. The two-week absence from her daily life had turned into two months, a blissful two months that had nothing to do with thinking about her damn ex, but when she'd got in to the airport, she'd run across someone who looked remarkably like Robert… and that had brought a rush of emotion back to her that she hadn't originally felt.

The taxi ride to the apartment building had taken her through the rainy turnpikes. She leaned her head on the window and let tears pour out of her eyes. They weren't necessarily for Robert. She wasn't angry at Robert, but rather for all the things that she was too horrible at figuring out on her own. All the failed relationships, even the ones that had ended too soon…

She wondered if Leon had anything to do with the delay in the tumult of emotions that she felt. Even if only in retrospect, the pain was just as real as though it were in the present. She felt weak, and… She wanted Leon. Like a child wanting a teddy bear, she wanted him. He made it all feel so much better.

He was something she didn't fail at. And it was reassuring to think that something like that could still exist.

The rain splattered her, dampening her jacket and hair, but she was glad of the unhappy weather. It suited her. She was angry, and it needed a place to unleash itself. How many more times, she asked herself, would she be disappointed? Either the guy was nuts, she couldn't help but think that Steve hadn't been the most stable of people, given his actions, or the guy was cold, she had to admit despite his supportiveness she wouldn't call Leon warm on average, or they were just less than admirably manly.

Robert was the latter.

And after a time, he'd been worn down by the fact that she was a survivor type. Or that she was usually surrounded by para-military friends of hers. Oh, or that her brother was a big, hulking, over-protective, gun wielding asshole. She leaned heavily against the cab, tipping her chin up to the overcast sky. The raindrops hit her face, cooling warm cheeks, and she took in a deep breath, trying to calm down.

Nah, Claire reasoned with herself, it couldn't possibly be that her brother was the best at being intimidating when he felt like it, even by proxy if he had to, and even from an unknown distance. She wasn't sure how he managed that. Or… exactly why. It must have been after Antarctica that his brotherly impulse had been rekindled. Maybe, like Leon had suggested to her after the Raccoon City incident, he hadn't wanted to give her nightmares, and couldn't relate to her before he knew that she knew about what Umbrella did.

Claire leaned in to pay the cab driver for the trip, and then straightened up more resolutely. She sighed, putting a hand to her temple. No, Chris wasn't overprotective, unless it was with guys like Robert. He was actually fairly good about men in her life, just… sometimes a little too over-protective about people he deemed would likely get her killed. So there was Chris, and then after Harvardville… seeing Leon again…

She pushed the thoughts from her mind. There was no reason to think about it. No reason to think about him, about his care, his camaraderie. She had to remember to think of Leon for what he was. A handsome, attractive guard dog. He was good at guarding things, he was good at fighting, at protecting, at listening…

No!

She couldn't remember that about him. She couldn't think about him like that. They'd been through too much together for her to kill his happiness by being selfish. When was it that they'd spoken and he'd mentioned Angela in passing, wistfully? She wouldn't say anything to him that would damage him reaching out for something normal. God knew he never did that to her. He listened when he had no reason to.

That begged the question, what exactly was that in D.C.? Why the sudden swoop in to remove all her stressful baggage? It was a little pre-emptive, really. She hadn't even been properly broken up with Robert at the time. But she had wanted, desperately, Leon to be with her. That was surprising, but… the more she'd been thinking about it, the more it felt right.

Straightening up, she headed for the apartment building, reaching into her purse for her keys. She was startled when her cell phone rang, but she gripped it and answered. "H… hello?"

"You sound so surprised when I call you sometimes, I wonder if you check the number at all."

"Leon," she said softly, shaking her head as she successfully retrieved her keys from her bag. "I… why should I have… thought you'd call so soon?" Damp hair wasn't helping her search for the appropriate access to her apartment building. She reached the front entrance and flipped through the keys on her ring.

"Are you alright, Claire?"

"There's no reason for me not to be alright," Claire replied.

"Breakup," Leon surmised.

It was annoying how he could tell that sort of thing. She hated it. She hung up the phone. Of course, Leon didn't truly deserve such treatment, but he wouldn't fault her too much for the attitude. Or at least he wouldn't if she apologized, and she knew she would do that before long.

Aside from Chris, Leon was the closest thing she had to a confident about her nightmares. And as she wasn't too inclined to talk to Chris at the moment…

Punching the button on the elevator, she leaned against the back of the car and redialed Leon. It rang a few times, and then he picked up. "You know Claire, I admire you, but you're a real piece of work sometimes."

"You admire me being a piece of work?"

"You could say that, if you want." There was silence a moment on the line. "Of course, it doesn't mean you don't have to apologize."

More silence on the line. Claire contemplated her door keys as the elevator doors opened.

"Claire."

"I'm sorry," she admitted finally, speaking softly. She headed out into the appropriate hallway.

"I can't quite hear you clearly, Claire."

"Look, I'm sorry," Claire said, blowing her bangs from her face. She reached her door and pushed the key into the lock. "I just…"

"I know," Leon's voice was reassuring, despite the fact that she was annoyed with how well he sometimes seemed to know her.

It annoyed her worse to think that he sometimes knew her so well, but never seemed to get that she might want more from him than his uncanny ability to trust her and read her moves.

Claire blinked at herself.

Since when had she wanted to put the moves on Leon?

"Can I get to the reason I called now?"

'You mean it's not to lord over me the supermodel paratrooper you're sleeping with?' she asked herself. It was unkind. "O… of course, Leon." She shut the door behind herself.

"I'd like to see you."

"Angela unavailable?" The words were out of her mouth before she realized that she was saying them. She didn't have any right to be jealous of whomever Leon chose to sleep with! She winced in response and fumbled with the lock to make up for her awkward silence.

"Dumped me," Leon said, a touch of bitter remorse evident to her in the tone he used as he said that. Poor Leon. "You know how it goes. You're the only girl who doesn't get turned off when I disappear on my anti-Umbrella black op missions."

Poor Leon, she mused to herself, all the girls he's attracted to die or dump him. "Nice to know you really care. But I've been on them myself, I try not to be a hypocrite most of the time."

There was a pause. A longer pause than Claire was used to from her stoic friend. His answers were almost always readily available. A quip for whatever she queried, a laugh for whatever she quipped back.

"I care, Claire."

"Well then," she licked her lips. "It's only been two weeks, I can only imagine how much you must really miss me. What did you have in mind, Leon?"

"Well first, it's been two months. And other than that… well, it depends."

Claire blinked. Had it really been two months? It never felt as long, when they were speaking again, as it really was between the times they spoke. "On?"

"Are you going to spend the whole time angry? Because if that's the case, I'll take you somewhere as cold as the mood."

That brought a laugh, unbidden, to Claire's lips, and she didn't bother covering it up. Leon seemed to be chuckling with her. "And if I'm not?"

"Then a little tropical R&R isn't out of the question, I'd say. Some place slightly more normal than our last lengthy face to face encounter."

"And what's wrong with Utah?" Claire asked.

Leon chuckled. "Plenty."

Looking out the window at the rainy day that greeted her, Claire crossed to flop onto her couch. It suited her mood, the rain. She was surprised at her phone. Usually in weather like this, it behaved much more poorly. She made a face at it. Even her phone liked Leon. So horrible.

"If you'll be nice, I will," Claire said to him.

"I'm always nice."

"Too nice," she said softly. It didn't really matter when she'd started wanting to put the moves on him, because it was true. Claire wanted to put the moves on Leon. She wanted to touch someone who wouldn't take it personal when she pulled away in her sleep during a nightmare, she wanted to relax knowing that she didn't have to be on her guard all the time.

The thought that came to her was very strange. She wanted someone who would be normal with the way that she was. It wouldn't be a normal situation, but Leon would definitely suit. "I'd be happy to get out of here for a while, Leon."

"Is tomorrow too soon?"