~ Wednesday September 30th, 1998 8:54 PM ~

It was the end of the longest two days of Claire Redfield's life. Her entire body ached. She wasn't even out of her teenage years yet and she felt like she was 80 years old. Of course, there are very few teenagers that have gone through her ordeal, and even fewer are still alive. Right now Claire was safe and sound in a hotel under an assumed name. She was currently standing under the hot pulsating spray in the hotel room's shower. After escaping the area via Umbrella's secret train, Leon, Sherry and herself walked for miles before a family in a van that had been turned around by one of the manned military blockades leading to Raccoon City stopped to give them a lift to the nearest town. After Leon paid for their gas (it was the least they could do for giving them a ride), the trio marched into Walmart and bought two large travel packs, bandages, and disinfectant for Leon. Soap, shampoo, deodorant, enough clothes for several days, and new footwear.

Once that was done they found a nice hotel the trio rented two adjoining rooms and raced to their temporary occupancy. Once inside their rooms, the first order of business was to go about washing the fifth from their bodies. Sherry asked Claire if she could take a long soak in the tub. Claire smiled at Sherry's request and the older woman informed her was welcome to the tub, she would talk to Leon and make use of his shower. Leon was about to enter the bathroom when Claire knocked and made her request. Leon offered her the shower first but Claire declined, stating that he could go first. Leon promised not to be long and went to get cleaned up.

Once Leon was done with his shower, he knocks on the bathroom door to give Claire the heads up that he was about to enter his room. Claire is sitting patiently on the end of his bed watching news reports from the outskirts of Raccoon City. She hits mute and leaves the remote on the bed in case he wishes to watch something else. Claire notes that Leon seems so much more relaxed now that they are out of danger. It reminds her of the first time that they were reunited at the police station. It's hard to believe a simple chainlink fence kept them apart but had they not been separated Claire might not have found Sherry. Leon is clad only in a large towel, wrap precariously around his waist. He steps out and stands aside and motions for Claire to enter the bathroom.

Claire gets up and slowly makes her way to the bathroom. Claire doesn't know why but as she passes Leon she feels herself blush. Claire is clad in a full-length terrycloth robe provided by the hotel that comes down to her mid-calf. "I'll try not to take too long," Claire states not sure what Leon's plans for the rest of the night are.

"Take your time, no rush."

Oh my god... was he checking me out? Claire thinks to herself. She only caught a glance in her peripheral vision but she swore he was looking at her as she passed by. Her heart stopped momentarily and then began beating rapidly.

As soon as she is through the doorway she turns and sees Leon has his back to her. Even his back looks strong and save for the abrasions and the bullet wound that he received saving Ada, he is flawless. Realizing that she is staring, Claire quickly closes the bathroom door. Only when she hears the click does she rest her head against the door and chastises herself for gawking at her companion. Claire exhales the breath she had started holding and straightens up. Turning the shower water on and adjusting it to her desired temperature, Clair unfasten the sash on her robe and allow it to fall to her feet. Claire immediately steps under the water and switches the jet to pulsate once her hair is soaked. "Ahhhh..." Claire moans her approval as the pulsating water massages her scalp. She moves back and turns around and lets the warm water massage her sore shoulders and back.

Taking the bar of soap that Leon left in the holder, Claire begins lathering up her body. The fragrance from the soap seems almost magical after spending hours in an underground sewer. Claire slowly and methodically soaps up her body. She wishes that she had bought the loofah on a stick so that she could wash her own back. Claire let the soap remain on her body for a moment before she began washing away hours of dirt, mud, slime, blood, and god knows what else from Raccoon City.

As she lets the water begin to rinse the soap suds away she gasps as a pair of strong manly hands gently take hold of her shoulders. Her normal response would be to let her hand fall back and either grab the man's testicles or swing her hand back and rack him while he is distracted by her nakedness. However, she suspected that there was only one person who this could be. Still, not wanting to take any chances after the past 36 hours, Claire spun around and found herself looking at a very naked Leon. Claire didn't even get a chance to ask him what his intentions were. He was just as naked as she was.

Leon moves in before Claire can say anything and Claire is kissed by the most handsome young man that she has ever known. Her arms quickly come up and around Leon's neck, being careful not to hurt his bullet wound which is still healing. Nothing else is said, the only other sound to be heard is that of the water cascading over two naked bodies and the moans coming from Claire Redfield. Claire suddenly moans her disapproval when Leon breaks their kiss but he is only doing so because he is furthering things along. Claire gasps as Leon spins her about so that she is facing the shower wall and not himself. The Auburn-haired girl's hands landed on the tiled wall in front of her and she groans loudly as Leon's stiff cock, something she only managed to get a glance at, slowly parts her lower lips before entering her body. While the motion is slow, what follows is an even louder groan from Claire as Leon thrusts deep inside her. Claire has never felt anything like this and her moans tell Leon this.

While getting used to her lover's size and girth, Claire feels the rookie policeman slip his hands under her armpits and he pulls her body against his. Claire groans as his lips kiss her recently washed neck. Her eyes shut as he moves his hips so this cock begins to work over her sex. Claire is moaning... groaning... as Leon plows lovingly into her she relishes the feeling of him inside her. As she groans in ecstasy she can't believe how good this feels. After all, she hasn't had sex since... since...

"OWWW..." Claire yells. Leon in all his exuberance bit her... hard. Claire feels Leon pull back at her complaint. Claire waits for a response but none comes, save a harder bite, this time on her shoulder. "OWWW... QUIT IT LEON!"

Leon has stopped thrusting and as she rubs her neck and shoulder feels Leon pull out of her but his hands tighten on her biceps. "Leon... what are you..."

Claire shoves Leon back and turns around. It is only when she can see her partner that she sees not Leon, but a zombie...

"LEON!"

~ Thursday October 1st, 1998 6:32AM ~

Claire Redfield sat up as if someone had just electrocuted her out of her deep sleep. Her right hand, which had been underneath her pillow was now level, and in it was the Ruger Blackhawk Revolver that she had procured from the tunnel in front of the R.P.D. Police Headquarters in Raccoon City. The weapon was loaded and not remembering doing so, Claire had instinctively pulled the hammer back as the weapon is single action and would not fire if she had not done so. The weapon in question was currently pointed at the wall in front of her and nothing else. Claire's body was hot and now that she was awake she was very aware of how sweaty she was and that there was a pounding in her eardrums as she scans the room, always keeping her weapon in the same place where she was looking.

"It was a dream... well... that last part at least," Claire mumbles quietly to herself remembering the events that had led up to her being scared out of her sleep.

Claire really had taken a shower in Leon's room. However, Leon was an absolute gentleman and never even went near the bathroom door (or at least didn't open the door if he did). She could feel how flush her body was after the titillating dream her subconscious had just concocted. As her breathing leveled out Claire felt movement from her right side. Looking over, the college student sees the lith form of Sherry Birkin. The 12-year-old blonde girl rubs the crust from her eyes and sits up beside her auburn-haired guardian angel.

Yawning, the little girl asks, "Claire... wha... what's wrong?" As she looks about the room and doesn't see anything wrong.

"Nothing..." Claire replies lowering the weapon, "Nothing is wrong Sherry. I... I guess I just had a bad dream." Claire replied as the truth was not something she cared to share.

As there was nothing with them in the room, nor was anything wrong, Claire decocks the hammer on the revolver and returns it to its spot under the pillow. Sherry knew that Claire would do anything to protect her, she had done so many times since they first met. She knew if it came to it Claire, and Leon, would draw their weapons and were ready to pull the trigger on an enemy.

As she lets out a loud sigh there is a knock at her door.

"Who is it?" Claire asks not realizing because she was still on edge, that the knock was coming from the adjoining door.

"It's me Claire" The all too familiar voice of Leon Scott Kennedy states from the other side of the wooden door.

Claire slips out of bed, and pads over to the door. She looks through the peephole on the door and seeing the rookie police officer is alone unfastens the locks on the door and opens it for him. Leon is standing before her in a pair of grey cargo shorts and a white compression t-shirt. Claire can't help but notice the small padded bulge from his left shoulder covering the bullet wound he received trying to protect Ada. Until recently Claire had not known how fit Leon was under his clothing/uniform. After her shower, Claire returned to her room and put on a pair of black lace panties and a matching bra. Normally she would have gone with something a bit more practical (as she tended to ride a motorcycle), but Sherry asked her to buy a romper (as she had selected one for herself). Claire picked a red and black romper and as Leon was looking on she decided to get something more "girlie" as opposed to practical. Sure she had plenty of lace underwear at home... but she wasn't back home yet. Covering her sexy-ish underwear was a plain long red sleeveless sleepshirt. The hem of her shirt stopped mid-thigh. Claire makes sure the bottom isn't bunched up so Leon doesn't catch a glimpse of her panties and makes her way to her companion.

"Is everything ok Leon?" Claire asks. She's perplexed as to why he's up so early. As she looks at his face with her now focused eyes she can tell something is weighing heavily on his mind.

"No... not even remotely ok." Leon makes his way over to the television. "You'd better sit down."

Claire returns to the bed and sees that Sherry is still awake and sitting with a perplexed expression in the middle of the queen-sized bed. Claire slides beside her and Leon, once the tv is on and set to the news channel moves beside the young girl. The trio watches the newscaster report what Leon has already witnessed. Claire and Sherry watch a replay of a missile flying through the air above Raccoon City. It then curves down and the aerial view of the missile strikes the center of the midwestern town and then vaporizes everything in the area.

Leon is still stunned by the incident. He knows there had to be people in the city, uninfected people who had somehow managed to survive the week. Even with the town filled with monsters and zombies, the smart, the resilient, and the crafty were still holed up in the city. At least they were until the Pentagon decided to take them and their city off the board.

Claire was at a loss for words. She had the small piece of mind to know that her brother was not in the city. But how many other people's brothers were there? The still silence was finally shattered by little Sherry Birkin. The little orphan didn't ever think that it would come to this. In one unilateral decision, the U.S. Government had wiped her hometown off of the map.

"It... it's gone... it's all... gone!" Sherry mutters in between sobs.

"I'm so sorry Sherry," Claire says hugging the little girl. Leon leans in and hugs her as well.

"No... it's not just that they wiped out my home..." The distraught young girl starts to explain. "My life... my whole life was in that city. There is nothing in the world to prove to anyone that Sherry Birkin ever existed."

Sherry stops her explanation and just cries. Not knowing exactly what Sherry means, Claire and Leon just remain by her side. Sherry stays there, sandwiched between the two affectionate adults. Despite how traumatic the last 72 hours have been for her, as her tears stop falling Sherry just savors the love that she feels right at this moment. It's one thing to know your parents loved you, but it's another thing entirely to feel unconditional love... especially from two people that until recently were total strangers. Claire and Leon had no reason to show her any concern or affection. Yet they were more concerned, loving, and affectionate than either of her parents ever were. Claire had Leon turn off the tv and once the room was dark again, the small makeshift family fell back against the pillows and with arms wrapped around one another, dozed off until the hotel rang them an hour before checkout time.

~ Friday, October 2nd, 1998 1:27 PM ~

The breaks of the large Greyhound passenger bus make a loud squealing sound as the bus comes to a stop at the large bus depot. The driver opens the door and stepping off the bus makes his way to the luggage area to begin offloading the bags of the riders that are departing. The Kennedys step off the bus, Leon first, followed by Claire who was holding Sierra's hand. After she was all cried out the day before, Sherry explained that due to the nature of the work her parents were doing, they decided when she was born to conceal this from the world so that no one would seek to use her against her parents. The Birkin house was isolated and as Annette was busy helping William with his research they hired a nanny to raise Sherry. When she was old enough they let the nanny go (supposedly) and hired private teachers to instruct their daughter. Sherry realized the irony that her parents would probably do away with her teachers had it not been for the viral outbreak that did the work for them.

While the trio sat waiting at the almost deserted isolated bus stop for their ride, they decided that they would all travel under Leon's last name. After all, it was a far more common last name as opposed to Redfield and Birkin. The story that they concocted, if anyone were to ask, was that Leon was Sierra's father (despite the fact that he was only 9 years older than her, Leon carried himself with a maturity that seemed to age him). She had lived with her mother in Raccoon City all her life and Leon had just moved to Raccoon City to be with his family.

Sherry informed Claire and Leon that because of her parents' position in Umbrella, they didn't file her birth certificate. She exists, but the record of her birth to the Birkins no longer does. As such (and because the record of what happened to Sherry is in Umbrella's computer records) Leon and Claire convinced Sherry to leave her old name behind with her old life. As far as anyone is concerned, Sherry died in the lab below Raccoon City. When they departed the first hotel before climbing onto the bus, Sherry Birkin was gone and Sierra Kennedy took her place. The clothes they bought the day before were normal kid clothes, but in styles and colors, Sherry had never worn before.

After Leon found a place to live, he would find a way to get his daughter a new birth certificate that he would have properly filed. Leon and Sierra headed inside the bus depot to grab some food for themselves before they figured out what their next course of action would be. Claire stated that she was going to check in with her surrogate family (her best friend's family) and let them know that she was ok. Walking over to the payphone, Claire fishes out change from the last stop and once she hears the tone that it has been accepted she dials the phone number. With the receiver by her ear, Claire barely hears two rings before the call is connected.

"Ellen, is that you?" The matronly voice of Paula Bernstein asks. Claire is immediately caught off guard. Ellen was her mother and Paula knows very well her mother has been dead for several years.

"Paula... are you feeling well?" Claire immediately asks before correcting the woman.

"Ellen... it's so good to hear your voice. I'm very glad you caught me and that the phone connection is good. We've been having phone trouble as of late," The woman states in almost rapid succession before finally pausing to make sure her intention is received.

Claire is about to correct Paula as to her identity when the words of her surrogate mother finally register. The phone line... it's tapped. realizing someone might be triangulating her location in case whoever knows who she really is. Claire quickly replies, "I'm sorry to hear that Paula. I've had a hectic few days but the kids and I are all right." Claire says playing along.

"Well, things have been interesting here. Janice would have loved to say hello to you but she had to go meet her best friend at that campground that they went to a few years back. Remember the one?"

"Yes, I remember," Claire answers. "Well, I'm very sorry that I missed her and I'm very sorry to hear about your phone troubles. I have to get going now. I just wanted to touch base before we got back on the road for our trip to Canada. Take care, bye!"

"Take care."

Claire quickly hands up the handset. Sherry chose that opportune time to walk up to Claire with a bottle of water. Claire has the little girl give her the napkins and opening the water bottle, pours water on the napkins and wipes off the hand unit and number keys.

"What are you doing?" Sherry asks puzzled by the older woman's actions.

"Safety precaution... just in case." Carefully returning the phone to its holder, Claire takes the little girl's hand and leads her back to their companion so that she can tell him about the change to their plans.

~ 5:45 PM ~

Several hours later, Leon, Claire, and Sierra are pulling into the campgrounds driving a new Gulfstream Tourmaster. Claire had programmed the onboard GPS with their destination and after several hours Leon is pulling into the campground where Claire and Janice Bernstein spent many summers camping with their girl scouts. Paula Bernstein's clue as to where Janice was waiting for her best friend would be harder for anyone not in the girl's immediate peer group to figure out as they were two active kids all the way up until they graduated high school and had to part ways for college. As it was fall it was technically off-season for camping in this area. People with campers or the occasional scout trip still made use of the beautiful area but it wasn't as busy as the springtime or summer.

Leon pulls the RV that he and Claire purchased with their procured funds into the designated area where RVs can park. Once the RV is parked Leon deploys the sides to make it look like he and his companions are there for the weekend. Extending the awnings, Leon departs first and has Claire lock up their mobile home until he makes contact with Janice.

The Kennedys knew that they would need money, specifically cash to stay under the radar for as long as possible. While they had Leon's bank and credit cards (as well as a card from Annette with a pincode only Sherry knew), they didn't want to risk using the cards in case Umbrella had informants watching for those transactions.

Fortunately, while they were trying to decide on their next course of action, Leon chance to spot a drug dealer working out of his pimped-out SUV. The SUV in question was a red 1998 Chevrolet Blazer with flashy rims and a loud sound system. It probably had other features but that wasn't important. The windows were tinted so as to conceal how many passengers were in the vehicle. Leon and Claire have Sierra remain in the bus depot's food court, while her parents go into the public washrooms with their carry bags.

In the bags each has a jacket to help conceal the weapons they will be walking out with.

Claire's bag contained the Mac 11 SMG with suppressor and M79 grenade launcher that she had acquired. Before boarding the bus she had broken the launcher down to its original configuration to better conceal it. She still had the stock should she want to restore it but for now it was easier to carry with the pistol grip. She loaded the special round that Leon had told her would probably be more useful out in the real world (as opposed to the city of the dead they just escaped). Like the M79, she broke her Mac 11 down and stowed it in its component pieces in the bag. Claire slung the Mac 11 strap over her right shoulder while placing the launcher under her left. Putting the jacket on, both of her weapons were concealed so as not to draw attention to herself.

Leon has the MP5A2 that he acquired as well as the Remington 870 shotgun. To better conceal the shotgun, he removed the stock and re-installed the pistol grip. Before fleeing the R.P.D. headquarters Leon grabbed and stowed everything he thought they might need in the future. While Claire had a few grenade rounds left, Leon had grabbed one teargas round. While he didn't expect that it would harm most of the creatures that they would encounter, there was always the chance it could come in handy at a later date. Leon had his weapon stowed in a bag, ready to pull it out when needed. He had his badge in a wallet and placed it on a chain to use (even though he was well out of his jurisdiction by now). The bag also contained cable ties and extra magazines. Leon was waiting for Clair outside the restrooms and the younger Redfield. Once ready the two walk over and leave their bags with Sierra.

They step out of the station and see the car is still parked and a small group of kids are making a deal. Claire starts to move but Leon stops her. "I don't like it any more than you do but we can't risk them getting caught in the crossfire. Let them finish and as soon as the coast is clear we move."

Claire grinds her teeth but knows that Leon is right.

Claire and Leon move out of sight of the car but keep the car in their sight. Once the kids have left and five minutes have gone by Leon gives Claire the signal. While they were waiting Claire gave Leon her launcher as she convinced him that it was better if she was the distraction and Leon was the breacher. It's now or never and the two make their way over to the vehicle. The dealers barely knew what hit them. Leon went around the building they were parked beside. Claire leaned into the window, her shirt unbuttoned and the pushup bra she had on was enhancing her 34B cup breasts. While the four guys were distracted (Claire hand signaled 4 to Leon), Leon loads the teargas round into the launcher. The four druggies didn't even know what was happening until a fist size hole was punched through the passenger side window. The shell flies in and hits the driver-side passenger in the chest. While he is convulsing after having a large shell hit him dead center in his chest, the canister rolls on the floor and begins spewing painful gas. The four thugs begin choking and tearing up until they are panicking to get out of the car.

Finally managing to get the driver-side doors opening, the four fall out of the vehicle only to come face to face with a Mac 11 and MP5 aimed at them. The four put their hands up in the air and soon find themselves twist-tied to one another while the driver is twist-tied to his tire rim. Leon leaves the drugs in the car while Claire dials 9-1-1 and reports the drug activity. Leon, his face covered by a bandana, reaches in and secures the money bag from the quartet. Looking in he finds several large stacks of bills. Taking one of the stacks he finds they are in increments of 100 dollar bills. Letting out a wolf whistle, he shows Claire the contents of the bag.

"Wow!" Claire exclaims.

"You... you're dead." The driver tells the pair. "You don't know who you're messing with!"

"Well... since you don't know who we are... I guess we're even." Leon and Claire, hearing the police sirens make a hasty retreat. Their little blonde companion meets them behind the next building with their bags. Claire and Leon ditch their coats and quickly toss their weapons in the bags. The trio then calmly walks away inconspicuously while the police attend to the biggest drug bust that this area has ever seen.

To Be Continued