The Goliath Protocol

Chapter Fifty:

Dog Pile

Silver Lake - Montana

Logan sat beside Jill at the lake. He picked at the grass while she watched a duck bob in the water and shiver, tossing water like pearls in the sun. Water, Jill thought, off a duck's back...it had meaning. She was sure of it. Some people just let it flow right off them.

She envied it.

After a handful of quiet moments, Logan spoke, "Did you love my Dad?"

So, Jill thought, it was going to be this kind of conversation. She turned her head and smiled at him. "I did."

"Do you still?"

Her mouth turned up into a soft smile. "I do."

Curious, Logan tilted his head at her. "So...do you want to marry him?"

Jill tucked a lock of his shaggy hair behind his left ear. It was Chris' face, but it was Leon's hair with her coloring. A curious boy. To somehow take on traits of those who didn't share a genetic legacy with him.

Jill chose her words carefully, "It's not quite that simple, Logan. There's...all kinds of love, I think. Sometimes it lasts forever. Sometimes it's so big, so much...that it crushes you to feel it. Sometimes it comes when you need it...and then it just..."

She trailed off, and Logan finished, "It just fades away?"

She held his eyes, "I don't know that it fades, baby. But it echoes. I know that. It echoes through eternity. You don't ever forget it. You don't regret it. You just remember it fondly..."

"...like the people we've lost?"

Wise, Jill thought, for such a little boy. He was unduly wise. It was a testament to how he was raised. Somehow Wesker had allowed her to be some kind of mother to the boy. Maybe she'd snuck to see him more often when the P-30 was off her. Maybe she'd been an ok mother to a boy locked in hell with her.

Jill confirmed, "Like the people we've lost. They're still with us."

Logan nodded. "You were always with me...even when you were gone."

Her heart shivered a little. She laid her hand on his knee, gave him a shivery smile, and thought about water off a duck's back. This boy, he just might be able to pull it off. The pain would hit him and just fly away - like pearls in the sunlight. "I'm sorry I was gone so much...I'd change it if I could."

Logan shook his head. "It wasn't your fault. Leon told me...it wasn't you. It was the man in the glasses."

Jill nodded a little. "You remember him?"

Logan sighed and scanned the horizon. "He wasn't mean."

Surprised, Jill arched her brows as Logan shrugged, "He wasn't nice either. He was just...bored? He was bored, mostly. He liked to talk. He talked funny...like a robot with big words."

Jill blew out a breath. "I sounded like him sometimes, I bet."

Logan turned his eyes to her and told her, "You did...because of the bug."

She gave him a sad smile. "Like this one?"

He glanced at the thing on her chest and studied it. It was tiny, barely visible among the scars on her chest. If you weren't looking for it, you might not even see it. He shook his head, "No. This one...it's pretty. It's quiet. And when you talk, you sound like you."

Jill flicked her gaze over his face, "What sounds like me?"

"Soft." Logan admitted, "You sound soft. And kind. Until Leon told me, I didn't know that you weren't you with the other one on you. You were never mean, Mama. You were just...lost, I think."

Jill cupped the side of his face, "I may not be me now, Logan. I don't know anymore. I don't think you should trust me."

He didn't smile at her. He just kept his gaze steady and told her, "Sometimes you gotta believe...even when it's impossible, I think. You gotta believe in something."

Jill thought he wasn't Leon's son, but he was somehow more Leon than she or Chris. Softly, Jill wondered, "What do you believe in, Logan?"

And now he smiled, "Love, Mama. I believe in love. Because you can fight it, you can run from it, you can try to kill it...but you can't stop it. And it always wins."

Lord. To be so young. To be so filled with hope even after everything the boy had seen. It gave her some faith that maybe, no matter what, everything would be ok. Somehow. Someway.

It would all work out.

She looped her arm around his shoulders. He leaned against her side. She should go back. She should go dig for answers.

She just kept holding on.

She wasn't in any hurry today.

The horror waiting in the world wasn't going anywhere.

And at this moment, neither was she.

Chris left one morning to track a lead on Miracella. He stood in the rain and glanced down at the boy beside him. "I'll come back."

Logan nodded. "And we'll fight."

Chris snorted. "If you want. You fight like Kennedy?"

Logan grinned a little. "Why...you scared?"

Chris laughed and crouched. He took the boy's arms and held his look. "Stick to your Mama, you hear me? She's lost...you keep trying to find her."

Logan nodded again. "I won't ever stop."

"Good..." Chris scanned his face and remarked, "You look like me."

"...I know."

"It's a great face." Chris made the boy smile and finally said, "You listen to Leon. Learn from him. What he can teach you...it'll keep you alive."

Logan held those matching eyes. "I will."

"...good boy." He rose and cast a glance back at the house. Things were still so tense with him and Kennedy, but nothing else could be done about it. He had a right to his distrust. It was misplaced, but he had a right to it. "Protect Claire."

Logan gave him a thumbs up. "Protect the girls."

"You bet. All the girls. And that includes Kevin and Leon."

Logan giggled a little. Chris crossed to the truck in the driveway and said in farewell, "There's a car coming. I think it'll help."

Logan narrowed his eyes, "Is it a gift?"

"...it's an apology."

He lifted a hand in farewell.

Jill echoed it on the porch.

He climbed into the truck. It revved up and roared down the driveway. Logan watched it go and murmured, "Bye...Dad."

Ten minutes later, a little sedan slid around a curve in the road. Claire climbed out and waved with a bag under her arm. The car's back door opened, and a whoop lit the air.

Logan shouted, "EVA!"

He barreled down the drive. They were laughing as he scooped up the smaller girl and swung her around.

On the balcony, Leon breathed, "...Redfield...always a punch in the face."

The little girl shot off toward the porch. She whooped and threw herself into Jill's arms, where she sat forlornly in the rocker. Jill oofed. She caught her.

And she laughed.

The first real one she'd let out since she'd come back.

And just like that...there was no more room for tears.

As Logan stood beside him on the overhang to look into the living room where people laughed and danced, the boy remarked, "...your house isn't so empty now, I think."

Leon felt a hitch around his heart. "You're right. What do you think about it?"

"...I think...a man learns who's there for him when the world falls apart sometimes."

Jesus.

Leon glanced down at him, "How'd you get so goddamn smart?"

Logan shrugged, "I listened. I learned. People forget kids are there sometimes. When you showed up that first time, I was ready for you. I knew you'd come."

Leon felt that shiver in his bones as he demanded, "How?"

Logan smiled up at him, "I believed."

His left hand slid over his mouth as Leon rubbed his jaw. For years and years, he'd chased the battle, the blood, and the esteem. He'd stood on mountains and felt the winter wind blow over a man who grew harder, tougher, darker - alone...he'd tried like hell to change the world.

And it had fallen down around his ears anyway.

But from that rubble, what remained, could only be what was true.

And what was true?

He wasn't alone anymore.

From now on...he wasn't alone.

Because he'd had a dream about a woman he'd never met and a death he'd maybe find. But when it came for him, and it would come, he could feel it breathing down his neck like a demon hungering for his soul...he wouldn't be alone.

He wouldn't die empty and abandoned and lost.

He'd somehow found his way to what drove a man to fight.

A woman with nothing to offer but herself and a boy without his blood who somehow had his heart. A little girl who couldn't be his but would always be his, laughing and swirling in a room filled with people who wouldn't go - wouldn't stay away - and wouldn't ever give up.

Maybe...that's what you died for...maybe you died for family.

And you made that family out of whoever rose from the ashes and kept on holding on.

He knew, at this moment, what he was fighting for. Quietly, he told Logan, "Whatever happens...never stop believing. You hear me?"

The boy nodded, holding his eyes as he turned them down to the boy. Two shades of blue - two shades of determination and strength. Logan met his look and demanded, "You either. Because I think...even when we die...we live on. We have to, right? Because we're never really gone."

Softly, Leon stated, "...we just live in the stars."

Logan nodded like he'd taught a child something important. "What do you believe, Leon?"

What did he believe? There was no real wrong answer here. Just that truth he'd been chasing all his life. "I believe you learn who's there for you, Logan when everything else is gone. Whatever is lost...whatever I lost...I got so much more."

When the boy nodded to encourage him, Leon felt a shiver of amusement that he could be taught something about life from a boy barely old enough to start losing teeth. "Why?" Logan smiled, "What did you get?"

"You." He smiled, and the boy echoed it, glowing with pleasure. "I got you...and your Mama...and this."

The laughter echoed through the rafters in answer. Logan nodded sagely and told him, "So maybe...you stop chasing what you think you want...and you just...accept it."

Leon twitched a smile at him, "Just like that, huh?"

"Just like that," Logan shrugged, "You go home, and you be happy."

Could he? What if he just...stopped? What if he just handed over the rest of the battle to Redfield and the rest of those in it and just walked away? Could he? Would he?...should he?

Curious, Leon wondered, "...how?"

Like an eleven-year-old boy would have the answer to that. To his surprise, the boy told him, "You just do it. In the lab, we did it one night at a time. We lived each night like it was the last one...because sometimes it was. For some of us, it was over before the sun came up."

The rage for that kind of life ate along Leon's heart and left holes filled with vengeance. There must have been something on his face because the boy told him, "It's ok, Leon. We never took it for granted. And then...you came. Because we believed...and you came. Don't be mad about it. Don't. Just...be happy now. Because tomorrow you might not be here anymore."

Logan patted his forearm and said, "So, come down and have fun. Like it might be the last one. And that's how you be happy."

More intelligent than all of them, Leon thought somehow this boy, raised in captivity like an animal, was more intelligent than the rest of them. He understood how precious each moment was. He'd seen the worst, the horror, and the terror...and he still believed.

Leon turned his eyes to Jill lingering at the edge of the laughter and the games. She didn't join. She still stood apart. Trying like hell to be a part of it without risking anyone by getting too close.

Softly, like reading his mind, Logan told him, "She wants to believe...but she's so scared."

Leon looked at his face, and the boy nodded, "You gotta believe for her, Leon, because she doesn't know how anymore. You gotta give her hope."

A little afraid of it, Leon demanded, "...how?"

His favorite word for this wise, wise, wise boy with all the answers. Logan simply smiled, "The same way you found me."

Brow furrowed, Leon shook his head, "...I don't know what that means."

Logan gestured to Eva, who was laughing as Claire spun her in a circle. When the little girl hit the floor, she barreled at Jill, who had no choice but to pick her up. The moment she did, Jill's face transformed with pleasure. She laughed. She tossed Eva in the air, and the little girl giggled loudly and declared, "I is a EAGLE!"

Logan nodded, "Like a rollercoaster, I think. First, you get real scared, right? And then you just...let go. And you hold hands as you rush down...and it's awesome."

Awesome, Leon thought, awesome to just let go.

Maybe it had always been as simple as that.

Logan and Eva were running through the field with Kevin shooting them with Nerf Guns. When Claire shot him in the ass, he shouted, "Dirty pool, Red!"

He tackled her, and she squealed as he took her into the flowers to fight.

Eva declared, "I is fwee! FWEED FROM A FAT HOBO!"

She probably meant a fat ogre, but Leon couldn't be exactly sure. With that long hair and his raggedy jeans and t-shirts, Kevin was as close to a hobo as one could get in civilized company.

Claire warned, "Run! Run, kids! Run for your lives! I will hold him here!"

Kevin pinned her into the flowers and shouted, "Never! This redheaded demon sacrifice is for nothing! I will suck her soul and leave a husk behind!"

Eva squealed, "Noooo! Logan! Saves Cwaire! SAVES THE PWINCESS!"

On the ground, Claire decided, "...I make a good princess."

To which Kevin murmured, "...you do, Red. I'd save you."

She gave him a brilliant smile that he echoed...right before Logan tackled him in the side worthy of Chris Redfield and sent him rolling through the weeds. Claire laughed high and loud, declaring, "My hero!"

Eva commanded, "Goooood! Now FISHSTICK him!"

She probably meant finish him. And, Leon mused, there was way too much Mortal Kombat happening in this house when little girls were demanding a finishing combo.

Jill was wandering away into the trees again. Leon and Rebecca watched her go, and she murmured, "How far does she go?"

Softly, Leon remarked, "About sixteen years into the past."

"You got a time machine to find her?"

"Nope...just gonna wing it and hope for the best...unless you can use that big brain and build me a DeLorean?"

Rebecca snorted and leaned on the railing, watching the battle brewing in the flowers. Eva plopped on Kevin's back as Logan pulled a Leon and dropped to the ground to sweep at his legs with a sweet toss of the leg. Kevin, overembellishing, roared, "Noooo!"

And Eva yelled, "Look out! THERE HE GOES!"

And down he went.

Claire looked down at the mountain of kids on the back of a fallen hero and mused, "I like my men defeated."

Kevin laughed. He gave her the finger under the dog pile, and she joined it, making him grunt for his efforts.

On the porch, Rebecca thought - this is what science missed out on - love. Sometimes it wasn't at all what you thought it would look like. Sometimes it was just...there. And it didn't make sense at all.

But that didn't stop it from being the only thing in the world worth making a dog pile.

The laughter echoed as the children got ready for Halloween.

It was a constant amusement that the little boy insisted on being Leon for Halloween. He wore a tightened shoulder holster and a tight black shirt. When Leon arched a brow, the boy told him, "I asked Kevin for pictures of you...when you fought the bad guys."

Kevin gave Leon a narrow look as he stated, "I let the kid read the Kennedy report."

Leon laughed a little, "It wasn't nearly as heroic as it sounds."

Logan told him, "You fought a thousand bad guys!?"

Eva gave them wide eyes, "At one times!?"

Leon waved his hands, "Not at once. No. It was over the course of a day, actually. And again, it wasn't as awesome as it sounds."

"In one days!?" Eva demanded, "...you is like..."

Quietly, Logan whispered, "...Wolverine."

Leon laughed; Kevin snorted and stated, "He wishes."

Rebecca wore her old medic uniform from S.T.A.R.S. as she declared, "Still fits!"

Kevin remarked, "A little snug around the boobs there, Chambers."

She gave him a flirty look and teased, "You flirt! What a wonderful thing to say!"

She danced away, and Kevin mused, "Was that flirting? I was just making an observation."

Claire came down the stairs dressed as a zombie. She groaned. She lumbered. She made the kids run around laughing. Kevin decided, "You look gross as hell...but I'd still smash."

She laughed. She slapped him upside the back of the head and had him chortling.

Jill came down the stairs in the foyer and had Rebecca laughing. "We think alike!"

Kevin whistled, "I knew that skirt was still around!"

The short hair, the tight blue top, the miniskirt, and boots - the top wasn't a tube anymore, it carefully covered her chest and circled the back of her neck, but Leon was betting it was pretty close to the original. She had a Nerf Gun in a holster along her left side.

He met her at the bottom of the stairs and mused, "...you tryin to give me a heart attack?"

She smiled a little, "Rebecca and I decided to give an homage to Claire's zombie."

Claire decided, "I'm the only one not looking either nostalgic or porn star hot here; maybe I should change."

Kevin looked at her ripped jeans and decided, "Nope. Leave em. And bend over...I think you dropped something over there."

Claire snorted and winked at him.

Eva declared in her princess dress and crown, "We all is peety good."

Leon and Kevin, ruining the spirit by wearing jeans and jackets, respectively, agreed. Leon unearthed the old coat he'd worn in Spain to finish the outfit for Logan. He tucked it around the boy and had him grinning. "Does it fit?"

Softly, Leon told him, "It will."

Logan tossed his shaggy hair, saying, "...let's do this thing."

He strode toward the door, and Claire called, "Hold on, tough guy, who said you could lead the way?"

To which Logan simply returned, "...following a ladies lead just isn't my style, Claire."

She laughed. Leon looked pensive. Kevin remarked, "Nailed it."

Jill gave Leon a shimmering look, and he put a hand on the small of her back to lead her to the door as he told her, "I think this is your fault."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

Eva shouted, "You go behinds the pwincess, Logan. Sheesh. You is duh bodyfart."

She probably meant bodyguard. Logan rolled his eyes and decided, "...girls."

Everyone laughed.

They trick-or-treated. They went through the little town and enjoyed the cool fall breeze. Jill kept glancing at his face as they walked until Leon mused, "...what?"

She simply told him, "You're working."

He arched his brows, and she accused, "Oh, yeah. I can see it happening. What are you thinking about?"

Amused, Leon licked his lips and laughed a little, "...the town's layout."

"Oh?"

Kevin surprised them by adding, "It's a six-kilometer run from here to the closest point of continuous cover - the liquor store. From there, you can defend against attack. The addition of the liquor is risky, sure, but it also gives you the added bonus of being able to convert products into weapons. - think Molotov cocktails."

When Leon said nothing, Kevin glanced at his face, and the former rookie spread his hands, "Keep going."

Kevin shrugged and continued, "If you get overrun at the liquor store, the back entrance opens into the alley. You hit the alley, head West, and end up at the bend in the road leading into the stables there. Odds are that a quick trek up that ladder in the barn there will give you a window facing the woods. You jump out, hop down, and head into the foliage. Once in there, you figure out it's due North to the ranch, and you use the cover of the trees to pick your way to safety."

When Claire kept looking at him, Kevin finished sheepishly, "If that fails, you hit the alley and head West again, loop around behind the Pharmacy, take the fire escape to the roof, and from there, you can make a small jump to the Welcome Center. The Welcome Center has an emergency exit in the lobby that opens to the hiking trails that run along the town. You hit the trail, get to the woods, and decide if you want to head for the ranch or lead the attackers toward the edge of the mountains."

Leon tilted his head, "Why the mountains?"

Kevin, feeling like he was under the eye of Sauron or something, cleared his throat, "There's an old train yard there. It's good cover and forces your attackers to weave between rotted cars while crossing rocky terrain. The noise lets you know they're coming."

Impressed, Logan decided, "Because their boots crunch."

Kevin muttered, "...logically."

Leon quizzed, "And if they're aerial?"

"Then you use the interior cover of the train cars to pick them off without risking direct exposure and attack."

"And if you take the route through the barn, what about the kids? The jump could break their legs."

Kevin simply replied, "So, I make a distraction - light a few fires in those burn barrels at the corner there, give you the opportunity to get to the Pharmacy with the kids. When I'm sure you're clear, I head to the barn and pick up the original plan."

"If I go down?"

Eva shouted, "I will saves you!"

Claire snickered. Eva added, "I do C3PO on you until you come back to lives."

Leon chuckled, "I can't fight that."

Kevin simply said, "If you go down, I take your weapon and head for the Pharmacy anyway."

Logan whispered quietly, "You just leave him?"

Without missing a beat, Leon told him, "Dead, he can't help anyone, Logan. If I go down, you go on. That's how it works."

Logan remained quiet, looking at the shivering trees in the distance. He didn't like that answer. Jill put her arm around the boy and told him, "I wouldn't leave him."

Logan smiled softly, "You'd die trying to save him."

She nodded, "I would. But sometimes you do what you gotta do."

Eva whispered, "It's oks. I has a grenade in my pwurse!"

Jill arched her brows. Claire glanced at the little girl and was a little worried as she queried, "Can I see it?"

Eva glanced around to be sure Kevin and Leon weren't close enough to see and pulled a Nerf Grenade from her purse. It was covered in glitter and sparkly jewels. "I diskited it."

She probably meant disguised it. She'd even put google eyes on it to make it look harmless as she added, "I will frow it...we will run...if they get close, I will do fifty sixteen fwips and fight dem. It will be ok."

Claire gave her a nod of chic solidarity, "Wise girl. Maybe you toss the candy too to distract them."

Eva gave her a narrow look, "...ne'vah. Dis is mine."

Claire chuckled, "Can I have some?"

Eva considered her for a long moment before she answered, "Oks...but you have to dance fwirst."

It seemed a fair trade.

Trailing behind them, Leon asked Kevin, "Where's your weapon?"

Kevin cleared his throat, "Small of the back, under the hoodie. Yours?"

Leon shrugged and flashed his holster under his jacket. Amused, Kevin wondered, "You got a shotgun in your pants this time?"

Leon laughed lightly. "No. But they're close by."

Jill arched her brows, "You leave weapons lying around this town?"

"With permission of the locals, absolutely."

Jill shook her head, Claire laughed, and Rebecca mused, "Man...they say I'm the smart one."

Claire wondered, "When'd you get so smart, Kevin?"

He chuckled, "You work with this guy, learn, or fuck off."

Leon studied him in the low light of the exciting porches where goblins, wizards, and monsters roamed. Kevin met the look equally until the other man stated, "I'm glad you're here."

He kept walking. Kevin paused, brows flying, and Jill gave him an amused look. "...did I hear that right?"

She shrugged. Claire laughed lightly. "It was like a hug for boys, right?"

"It was something."

Jill watched Leon linger too long at the edge of the town, protecting it -always watching. A rancher, Chris had said, but he would never be just a rancher. What he knew, what he'd been trained to do, was too deeply embedded in his bones. Even if he gave it up, he'd never give it up.

He couldn't. He might stop fighting, but he'd never stop being what he was.

He was a man bred and born for battle. He was training the man beside him to do the same and grooming Kevin, clearly. For what?

But she knew. Even as she watched him, she knew what he was doing. He was getting ready to pass the torch. He was getting ready to step down. For her? Is that what he thought she wanted?

She didn't want that. Did she?

If he lopped off a part of who he was, would she still want him? If one day, he turned to her filled with resentment for what he'd left behind - could she live with herself?

Could she?

She could, she thought quietly. She could live with it.

As long as he was alive. She could live with the ghost of what he'd been.

She'd been living with ghosts all her life.

Eva declared, "I has all duh candy! You is all now my pwisoners!"

Maybe they were, Jill thought, but at this moment? She felt safer than she'd felt in a long time.

Even with no one having a shotgun in their pants.

And each day they shared feeling a little like it just might be their last.