A/N: Thanks guys for sparing time to read this piece, I hope you enjoy it. I'd like to mention Mercenary Nemesis and Shirahane Aikawa for reviewing the last chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil or any of its characters; they all belong to Capcom.

Chapter 18

(Leon's POV)

"She's fine, nothing to worry about. They did stress her but she fainted because she was malnourished", Rebecca said sighing in relief.
"English", John said confused a little.
"Uh… she fainted because her glucose level is low", she replied and we still didn't get anything.
"Normal person's English Rebecca", John said.
"She fainted because of weakness", Rebecca said.
"She is not in coma or anything right?", I asked her looking at Kate from the corridor through the glass door.
"No chance", Rebecca smiled and looked at Kate's unconscious form as well, "She's just sleeping for the moment", Just then Shadow whined, "She'd be up soon", Rebecca said to him.
"So can we just sit by her", Claire asked as she joined us with Sherry.
"Sure just don't wake her up", Rebecca said, "I'll just go and inform David and others, who are doing the formalities, and then we will join you guys."

I pushed opened the door and Shadow ran and jumped up on the bed and sat by Kate's side and managed to stick his head under Kate's hand, "I always wondered how you taught him that?", John asked as he sat on the couch.
"I never taught him anything", I told them the truth, all I did was spoil him badly like Henry said. I kept Kate's cat on the bed and it walked over to Shadow, and finally after hours curled itself and slept by his side. I looked at Kate, these animals really loved her.
"She really looks cute sleeping like this", Sherry said looking at Kate in awe.
"Yeah she really does", I agreed with her. It was for the first time that I had seen her sleeping so peacefully and care freely. Every night when she made me hold and hug her to sleep, I thought she slept so peacefully but seeing her now made me realize that she was on her guard even then, possibly a sub-conscious thing she retained of old self.

"Done staring at her?" John teased me.
"Want to take over", I quipped back and we laughed and Claire hushed us.
"Rebecca said she needs sleep", she reminded us frowning.

"Guys", Percy came in yelling and we all looked up at him infuriated. It seemed he ran all his way, "You should look at this", he opened his note book and pushed some buttons, "This is the online news…", he said and moved away from the screen.

"… this all happened today morning when during an interrogation of the prime suspect of the bizarre murders happening all over the city when one of the Agents, we won't be disclosing his name, barged in the room and told the agents present there that he would go on with the interrogation when in all actuality he attempted to take the suspected murderer out. But when he was stopped by other Agents and the Head Chief himself, the Special Division, which had recently formed and were looking over the case stood against the Agency and managed to bail out the criminal.

Our sources tell us that they purposely let the murderer roam freely even after her being the suspect and ignoring another Agent's reasons just because she was a rookie. The Chief of the Department is here with us… over to our correspondent Malcom Steinberg."

"Thank you Kelly", the correspondent said, "So Chief, we like to know where is the suspected murderer right now?"
"Maybe killing someone, who knows", Feisher said.
"This is rubbish", John said.
"So what will happen to the Special Division now?", the correspondent.
"If it were in my hand, I would totally have disbanded them. If I even doubted anyone being the murderer they would be certainly behind bars", he replied.
"The Special Division is actually formed by a group of agents from various divisions acting as one, so how are you dealing with the Agents under you and do you have any idea what would be happening to the BSAA agents present when it all happened", the reporter asked.
"I don't know about the BSAA agents but if the woman came out to be murder, which she eventually would, I would definitely fire the Agent under me and he would probably be sent to jail for busting out a criminal; maybe the whole Special Division will be in jail soon", he replied.

"What if the suspected murderer is not the actual murderer", the reporter asked.
"It's impossible, every bit of clue and evidence is against her, she is the murderer", Feisher said smugly.
"What if she's not", he asked again.
"Then I'll resign and ask the President to take the Chief of Special Division as my replacement", he said laughing lightly and too much confidently.
"I hope you are right Chief", the reporter said, "Back to you Kelly."

Percy closed his laptop as Claire said, "I should congratulate David, now that Feisher will be resigning aoon and he'll be made Chief of Secret Services."
"Yeah never liked that guy", John said keeping both of his hands behind his head relaxing.
"He's so losing this job", Sherry said.
"That will only happen if we're able to prove that Kate is innocent otherwise we will be behind bars and my career will be ruined", Percy yelled nervously.
"Relax, nothing's going to happen", I said keeping my calm, "But we have to find who is behind all this real fast."
"Isn't that what I am saying", Percy said panicking a little, as always.
"Chill, David is thinking something about it", Claire said, "I heard him talking to Jill and Chris, to be on guard since Kate is here, so the murderer is definitely going to strike here but he still doesn't know what the murderer has got with Kate."
"Yeah it never occurred to me all this time", John admitted closing his eyes possibly to think.

I also never thought it that way. I mean Kate, more precisely Kathleen, can be considered literally cut off from the normal world as if she didn't exist for past, at least 10 years, and now suddenly someone is trying to frame her, that too in murders involving BOW, that didn't make any sense. The murderer not only wanted Kate behind bars, they wanted her dead. I looked at Kate and just then Shadow lifted up his head and whined loudly.

"Sshh… boy she needs sleep", I said to him so that he stops that but he whined louder and Kate opened her eyes to look at all of us. Shadow barked once so that she could look at him and her cat woke up, and walked over to her.
"I am okay Shadow", she said weakly and he licked her face and her cat mewed, "I didn't forget you", she said and stroked the cat once.
"So how are you feeling right now?", Claire asked her concerned.
"I am fine", she said, "Just a bit hungry, I guess", she smiled weakly.
"I'll get you something to eat", Claire said.
"I'll come with you when you buy food, I'll get her drinks", Sherry said following Claire.
"Guess I have to call Becky then", John said casually getting up, "C'mon geek boy, let's try to hook you up with one of the hot nurses around here", he dragged Percy along with him.

Shadow, who was constantly being stroked by Kate, jumped down from the bed and barked once and Kate's cat got up again stretched its feet and they both trotted out, 'Now where are they going?', I thought to myself, looking them walk out of the door. I turned to look back at Kate, there were many things I wanted to say to her but I didn't know where to start from, maybe I should apologize for not walking in earlier, maybe I should ask her how's she feeling or does she want anything, maybe I should comfort her or maybe I should just wait for her to speak first.

But she didn't say anything, just closed her eyes and relaxed tilting her head to one side. I couldn't help but notice the faint slap mark that was still visible on her cheek, "Does it hurt?", I asked touching that mark and she looked at me.
"No", she replied softly that it was barely audible. I moved close to her.
"So you need something?", I asked in almost a whisper, "Anything?"
"No", she said closing her eyes keeping her hand on mine, since I hadn't withdrawn it from her cheek, "I am sorry", she sighed.
"No, I am sorry sweetheart", I said to her, the last word just slipped out of my mouth.

I withdrew my hand as she tried to sit up and I helped her to sit. She held both of my arms and I just lifted her with my hand on her back while I adjusted the pillow so she could be comfortable. We looked at each other and again I found losing myself in those blue eyes. I don't know when I leaned in to kiss her on lips, but thank god I came to my senses when somebody called my name.

"Leon!", I looked back it was John and I couldn't believe he let a chance for teasing me my whole life, get away, "There's something really important matter to discuss, come quickly."
I looked at Kate as she looked at me from John, worried a bit, "Don't worry, I'll be back in a moment", I said to her kissing her hand and hurried out to John and found Shadow sitting outside the door with Kate's cat, "Shadow stay with Kate", I commanded him and he raised up his head and walked inside, as John led me somewhere.

"What happened?", I asked him, reading his tensed expression.
"We have a bad news", he said seriously.
"Again", I almost sounded whining. There was too much happening in so little time that I couldn't believe it all coming at once.
"Finally on my footsteps Kennedy", he said joking again.
"Anyways what is it this time?", I asked as he pushed open the door to the monitor room of the hospital.
"I don't know", he said shrugging and I glared, "I mean they said it so seriously it must be a bad news."

I saw everyone was there, Percy was doing something on his notebook, "Yes it is really a bad news". David confirmed it, once he spotted us, "Remember the BOW that was found to be dead by you?", he began to brief the situation to us.
"Yes", I answered remembering, it was still a mystery who killed him.
"He was to be examined by a team of scientists working for BSAA yesterday", David continued.
"So?", I interrupted in between.
"Did they found something interesting", John asked curiously.
"I am afraid they are not alive to tell us if they found anything or not", David answered sounding a little tense.
"The head just told us now, the murderer not only killed every scientist but also took away the body of the BOW. We're suspecting other pharmaceuticals working on bio-weapon", Jill told us, speaking a very serious tone.
"So why didn't he inform you guys earlier?", John asked.
"Well he thought he could handle things himself", Chris said rolling his eyes, "Forgot that we are more experienced than him in these stuff."

"David I found it", Percy yelled.
"Found what?", I asked.
"I managed to get the recording of the camera that was placed in the room in spite of it being damaged really badly", he said praising himself.
"Stop boasting yourself", John said slapping him up his head and he glared back at him, rubbing the place where he had been hit as he pushed the button to make us see the recording.

"There was supposed to be five people, there are six", Rebecca pointed out, "I was given their information before they were asked to study the body", she clarified.
"Can you point who is the extra one?", David asked.
"Umm… this woman here", she said and Percy froze the tape.
"Anyone recognizes her?", David asked us collectively.
"No", we all said together, studying the features of the young woman. From what her looks she didn't look that old, probably around Jill's age.

We watched the tape and then there was some sort of explosion and there was smoke everywhere, "Smoke bomb", somebody said.
"Probably to hide their identity", David said from my side.
"Or maybe they cared too much about our Chiefs", John joked.
"This is the main part", Percy said as he played the taped in slow motion. We watched a man coming out of nowhere and even though the video was in slow motion, his motion was still a blur at the edges. He smiled before knocking the camera out.

"There were two intruders?!", Jill said shocked.
"Where did he come from?", Chris said in puzzlement.
"Maybe the smoke covered for him", Claire said in suggestion.
But I was too much speechless to say anything as I kept staring at the screen, looking at the frozen picture of the man, "Anyone…", David began.
"I know him", I said finally finding my voice.
"An agent", John concluded.
"No, it's the same BOW that's body has been stolen", I told them surprised at seeing the BOW alive.
"Can't be… ", Chris said, "He looked so ugly."
"Well I told you he looked like human when he fought me. He might have reverted to his BOW form when you found him but he looked exactly like this in his human form", I told them pointing at the screen that was showing his blurred face.
"You mean he just came back to life", Jill asked me shocked.
"I don't get it myself", I said shaking my head a little.
"Maybe it's a clone or something", Rebecca said, "Twin brother maybe, you know both have similar genetic make-up so both will give similar results to any sort of mutation", she explained.
"That's explains the murders, maybe this guy is the one who framed Kate", Claire said thinking.

"But why would he do that? I mean the last one came to take her and…", I thought on it for a while, "Maybe that night he tried to get her again too but… those two agents saw him and put up a fight and in between their fight the alarm of the car went off and everybody came running and it had to flee since winning against too many skilled agent is difficult. And about the knife, I don't know, maybe he tried to get his hands on Kate at home but since she was in party, so he must have picked the knife and used it as a weapon against the men", I put my theory, "And right now if I were him, I would go straight to… Kate", I almost mumbled the last part, "I have to go."

A/N: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the story. I apologize for any typos or mistakes in the context that might have caused an inconvenience. Feel free to share your views about the story.