Authors Note: I have nothing to say, this is just habit now. Thankyou for the love as always, enjoy!

Cause I remember the rush, when forever was us
Before all of the winds of regret and mistrust
Now we sit in your car and our love is a ghost
Well I guess I should go

- Lorde

In the wake of the abrupt phone call with Chris and Claire Redfield, Leon makes a handful of decisions. The first of which is to return back home. He catches a brief flight from Chicago to Washington D.C and arrives in his expensive new apartment. It still felt a little strange, like he was trespassing somewhere he didn't belong, an imposter – part of him didn't ever want to get used to it either. For all he knew he could be back in the trenches in Nebraska tomorrow.

He unpacks his gear from Spain, which gives him pause. He ends up crouched in front of the damn washing machine, studying the tactical shirt he'd worn through those four days. It was smeared with blood and dirt, and a kind of shimmery green gunk from the parasites. It still hadn't really sunk in that all of that had happened, that he'd made it somehow. The things he'd seen. He absently rubs his hand across his chest, remembering the searing pain and the burning feeling that had come with breathing shortly before removing the parasite. He'd come so close.

He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and brings himself back to the present, then chucks the shirt in the washer. He bundles in the rest of the things and sets the machine. Getting back up, he goes over his guns. Cleaning, checking them over. Generally being a good soldier. When everything's fixed up he takes a shower and then grabs his laptop, lying back on his bed and beginning a search.

It isn't hard to find information on Chris Redfield, when you had the clearance he now had. But he didn't care about the man's medical records or mission reports, all he wanted was his address. He knew he'd have a fight on his hands, maybe he'd even let Redfield get in a punch or two – after all it was the unwritten rule, you didn't put your hands on a friends sister. Not that he and Chris had been close buddies or anything, he barely knew the guy. But the brotherhood of those that fought in this war was a pretty strong one. Leon had broken the code, he knew it, so maybe he deserved a little of what was coming to him.

He had to get Chris to see that he understood, and he wasn't going to abandon his little sister. That her life wasn't over. They'd figure this out, one way or another.

Leon scribbles the Nevada address down on a piece of paper and for a while just sits, considering all of his options. Really, he could just leave this all alone. Let Chris be her protector. Pretend it wasn't his problem. Walk away. But he just wasn't wired that way, he couldn't be that guy. So if he had to take a few punches, so be it. That in mind, he books his flight to Nevada and gets himself a strong drink.

First, he writes up his mission report on Spain and then sleeps off his jetlag. Giving Chris a good 24 hours to simmer down from his initial rage. Then, he heads for the airport. He felt like he spent half of his life in the sky, it was like a second home at this point. Dressed in dark navy jeans and white T shirt and his usual leather jacket, he's armed only with the best intentions as he gets in to a cab and gives them Redfield's address. His stomach is in knots, not because he was worried about a fight, but because he would soon see Claire, for the first time in over a month. It felt like forever since he'd seen her face or held her in his arms. He looked forward to both, he just hoped he would be able to.

"This is it." The cab driver tells him. Leon peers out at the house, Chris had moved himself to the desert, a ranch style place. He spotted the home made shooting range out back from here, typical.

"Thanks." He mutters, paying the driver and getting out. He stands at the foot of the drive for a moment, almost planning what he was going to say. Nevada was hot as hell, the sun beat down on his leather jacket and he's about to take it off when the door suddenly opens and Chris storms out, holding a fucking shotgun.

Was he serious?

Leon considers this for a moment and lifts his hands, taking a step toward him.

"Chris.."

"I told you not to fucking come here." Redfield barks.

"What are you gonna do, shoot me, really?" Leon asks as Chris continues to stalk toward him. "I just wanna talk."

Redfield advances and soon the barrel of the gun is in Leon's face. Fuck this. He swipes his hand out, knocking the gun aside and grasping it, he turns in to Redfields chest and sends an elbow up under his arm, wrenching the gun from his hand. He throws it behind him and Chris instantly swings with a right, catching Leon hard. He staggers sideways and Chris growls angrily, throwing another punch. Leon ducks and drives his shoulder in to Redfields middle, driving him back and into his own truck. Slamming him hard against it. Leon steps back and throws a punch of his own, cracking the other man's jaw. Chris drops and goes with it, taking Leon's legs out. He hits the dirt with a heavy thud that winds him. Instantly Chris is on him, seeing red, he strikes him twice and Leon spits out blood before driving his knee up in to Redfields groin. The other man roars pain and anger and Leon elbows him off of him. Scrambling to his feet.

"I don't wanna fight with you man." He pants, swiping his mouth.

Chris snarls, getting up. Leon holds his hands up like he's surrendering.

"I love her." He admits.

Chris laughs and swings. Leon ducks and kicks in return. An all out brawl on the dusty ground.

"STOP IT!" Claire yells at them, running out of the house. She'd been napping on the couch and woken to the commotion. Coming to the door she saw her brother and her boyfriend in an all out battle in the front yard.

She reaches them, grabbing Chris by the back of his shirt and pulling at him. "Chris stop it!" She yanks at him. Moving him only a fraction. She physically inserts herself between them and the two men come to a stop, both of them breathing hard and glaring at each other. "Stop." She demands, looking between them. "This is ridiculous."

"I told him not to come here, Claire." Chris warns.

"Did you even ask what I want?" Claire looks at him.

"If he gave a shit, he'd never have left."

"Like I can say no to the President." Leon hisses, swiping blood from his mouth.

"And what will the next excuse be, huh, hot shot?" Chris glowers at him over Claire's shoulder.

"You have no fucking idea what was going on.." Leon laughs at him. "And I didn't even know she was pregnant until I was overseas."

"Will you STOP!" Claire shouts, looking between them again. "It doesn't matter! Can we please just deal with now?"

Chris pulls himself away from her and puts his hands on his hips, spitting on the ground and eyeing Leon. "I'm just looking out for you."

"And I appreciate that." Claire nods. "But none of this helps. Beating on him, doesn't help."

"Makes me feel better." Chris admits, cracking his knuckles.

Leon snorts, rolling his eyes. "Look, I know I broke the code, the unwritten rules. Whatever. But she's right, it doesn't matter now. What matters is her." He nods to Claire.

"Yeah, you did. And because of you she has to put her whole life on hold." Chris snaps.

"Chris, I was there too." Claire reminds. "We both made a bad, drunk decision one night and here we are. If you're going to be angry at him be angry at me too."

"I am angry at you. I can't believe you'd be so stupid."

"Like you've never made a mistake." Claire chastises him.

"Not one that fucks up my future, no."

"Well aren't you perfect." Leon can't help himself.

Chris scoops up his shotgun and brandishes it. "What do you even see in him?" He asks his sister.

Claire shakes her head. "That is really none of your business."

Chris grumbles. "I think it is, if I'm the one that's going to be picking up the pieces and taking care of you."

"I'll take care of her." Leon cuts him off.

"How if you're always overseas? Being the Presidents errand boy?"

"I don't need taking care of. God." Claire snaps angrily, "you two are as bad as each other. I didn't come here because I need taking care of, Chris. I came here because I just wanted someone to talk to so I could figure this out. On my own."

Leon frowns. "You don't have to do it on your own."

"Yes, I do." She looks at him and his frown deepens. She turns to Chris. "Can you give us a minute."

Chris eyes her, then reluctantly nods. "If you need me.."

"I know." She gestures for him to go. Chris gives Leon one last glare and turns his back, heading toward the house.

"What do you mean you have to do this on your own?" Leon asks as Chris disappears inside.

Claire sighs, looking back to him. "Don't I?"

"No."

"You live in Washington."

"So come and live with me."

She laughs a little. "I need to stay in Chicago. I can keep going with college right up until a week or so before my due date."

He swallows a dryness in his throat. "But I'll never see you."

"I can't drop this. Not now. I've worked too hard. I can stay in college, I'll only miss about a month and they can give me extra classes to catch up." She looks at him sadly.

"Claire.."

"It's what I've decided, Leon." She says quietly, but firmly. "I'm not ditching years of work. I'm not starting over."

He looks down at the dirt. He'd miss everything if it played out like this. "I don't wanna miss the birth of my kid." He looks to her cautiously.

She shrugs. "So, figure it out. I'll get you the due date, maybe you can get some time off. Come stay until he or she arrives."

Leon narrows his eyes, nodding slowly. Then he draws a breath. "Why does this feel like the end?"

She folds her arms around herself. "Isn't it?"

"Not for me."

"I don't see how this works for us, I'm sorry." She sighs. "You have your life. I have mine. They're just going different places."

"You're having my baby. I'd say that puts us in the same place." He says with a sad laugh.

"It doesn't change much at all, actually." She sounded like her mind was made up. "I raised myself. I can raise a child."

"Claire.. I'm standing here offering you whatever you want. You don't have to do this alone. I don't want you to."

"You said you weren't ready to be a father. Is that true?" she asks.

He considers this. "Yes. But it doesn't mean I won't step up. If its what you want, then I will."

"See? What I want. Not what you want. Which means you'll resent me."

He bows his head, scratching the back of his neck. "You can't know how I'm going to feel. I don't even know it. All I know is I spent four days fighting for my life and all I could think was I had to get home to you." He gestures a little to her tummy, "to be there."

Claire bites her lip, an attempt to keep emotion from welling up and swaying her decisions.

"Didn't stop you sleeping with someone else though, did it." She murmurs.

He flinches, blinking and staring at her. "I didn't." He lies.

"Then what's that?" she asks, gesturing to the love bite on his neck.

"What's what?" He genuinely hadn't noticed it.

She grabs her phone from her pocket and snaps a picture, turning it to him.

"That's just.. a bruise.." he stammers. "I got lots of em over there."

"You're such a bad liar." She laughs bitterly. "I know what a love bite looks like, you've left enough on me. And the way you reacted when I said that? You gave it away."

He runs his hand through his hair and lets out a frustrated growl. "I knew the 'break' wouldn't mean shit."

"Forgive me but I kinda thought me telling you I'm pregnant would have changed something."

"You gotta let me know when the rules change, Claire. I'm not fucking psychic." He was angry now.

"Who was she?"

He laughs. "I'm not playing this game."

"Fine. Go home, Leon." She tells him.

He grabs her arm as she goes to turn away. "Don't do this. I love you."

She shakes her head. "Not enough."

It's like a blow to the heart, his hand tightens around her arm. "I want to be there. For you, for the baby."

"Then we will work things out, like grown ups. I'll let you know dates for things, you can make it or not."

"Why are you being like this?" he asks.

"Because I have to be. I can't uproot my life for you, and you won't do it for me. So this is how it needs to be."

"All or nothing? That's such crap."

"No, it's smart. Because anything else hurts like hell." She takes his hand, removing it from her. "I'm glad you want to be a part of this baby's life. We'll work on that. But we need to move on."

He couldn't believe what she was saying. Or how cold she was being. It was like an entirely different Claire. He'd imagined turning up here and arguing – yes. But he'd also pictured them working it out. He'd pictured her in his arms by the end of the day, where she belonged. He'd never imagined she'd break it off with him. That wasn't how this was supposed to go.

"What about the original plan? When you're done with college? You were going to come to Washington." He says quietly.

She nods, "maybe. We'll see." Smiling sadly at him, she nods to the road. "You should go."

"I fought through hell to get here, Claire." He mutters.

She bows her head for a moment, then gives him a small smile. "I'm glad you're okay." She says quietly, then she turns away. Heading back to the house. Leon watches her go, speechless.

"You gonna make him walk back to the city?" Chris asks her as she comes back in to the house. "Its a thousand degrees out there."

Claire says nothing. She just bursts into tears, moving in to her brothers arms for comfort.

Leon meanwhile, sits on the edge of the road and pulls out his phone, calling another cab. His hands trembled a little, but he crushes down all thought of showing that emotion. He got through hell, he'd get through Claire.

Returning to the city, he takes a Las Vegas stripper back to his hotel that night and loses himself in her.

He'd returned to his place in D.C the next day, hungover, nursing even more war wounds and most of all, trying to glue back together a broken heart. He hadn't pictured it playing out like that, he hadn't counted on how hurt or angry she would be. Some part of him understood it, he'd let her down when she needed him the most. He'd given her a rotten answer to a life changing question and put his job before her. He'd handled it badly – and in life, you reap what you sow. It's a rough lesson to learn.

When he gets through the door of his apartment, he settles in to a four day long binge of alcohol and feeling sorry for himself. Of course, he gets drunk and he sends her messages. They start out amicable enough, but it soon dissolves in to another argument. He ends up throwing his phone across the room and ending up face down on his couch. He'd always turned to alcohol to fix his troubles, but this is the first time he really drinks for oblivion.

Spain echoed in his brain. He woke up in cold sweats as the Verdugo jumps out of the shadows at him, striking with its tail. He'd hear the voices of those villagers hollering at him while he was wide awake, he'd be in the middle of something and then it'd ring in his ear and he'd turn ready to fight. He was beginning to think he was losing his mind. It was just stress, misery and a lot of alcohol talking. He almost welcomes the first round of therapy as it comes. He's sent to a kindly woman in her 50's, with a New Jersey accent and a soothing smile. Normally he'd flinch away from the idea of needing help, but this time he admitted he needed it. He wasn't coping all that well.

He tells her about Spain. He tells her about Claire and the baby. It actually felt good to talk to someone. He usually talked to Claire – but who would he turn to now?

"Maybe she just needs time." His therapist says softly, "pregnancy especially early on is an emotional time for a woman. She's dealing with a lot of things, changes in her body, new hormones and an uncertain future. Try gently reminding her you're there for her, in time, once she sees you mean it. I'm sure she'll come around."

He nods slowly, thoughtful. "Hard to promise her I'll be there when work is always sending me away."

"She understands your job, and you can still be there for her on the road." She reminds. "Just be present. Don't turn her away."

He sighs, "guess its all on me, huh."

More pressure. Just what he needed. But she was right, it was all he could really do.

They end the session with a few breathing exercises he could do for when he woke up in a cold sweat or panic. Apparently they could give him medications to help deal with his 'PTSD'. He turns them down, for now. Preferring to stick to his alcoholic method of coping – of course, he doesn't tell her that.

He hits the gym and works off some tension, then returns home. Spaghetti and vodka, dinner of champions. He eats in front of the TV, with his feet up on the coffee table. It's mid way through an episode of Bear Grylls showing you how to survive in the desert by carving out the carcass of a camel that his phone rings. An unknown number. He was always a little hesitant with those, but he puts his plate aside and answers.

"Kennedy."

"How formal." A familiar voice purrs on the other side. He frowns.

"Ada?"

"There was me thinking you'd have forgotten all about me."

"How.. how did you get my number?" He asks, sitting up and putting his feet down on the floor.

"You were going to give it to me anyway."

"But I didn't."

"Always so hung up on the details." She laughs a little.

"What do you want?" he asks.

"I need your help." She says bluntly.

He frowns deeper, looking across his apartment as though she was standing right there. "You need my help?"

"That's what I said."

"With what?" He couldn't say he wasn't curious.

"How much more leave do you have? I assume you're still on it."

"Another week." He answers.

"Would you be able to come to London?"

He closes his eyes for a second. What the fuck was happening. "What am I signing up for here?"

"I'll explain it all when you get here."

"No, explain now. Cause if this is something that's going to get me.."

"It's not going to get you in trouble. If anything, they'll be thanking you. But nobody has to even find out." She says in that sultry and oh so convincing tone of hers.

"Ada.."

"It's a two person job, and there's nobody I'd trust more. Come to London, I'll explain everything when you arrive and if you're still against it, I'll pay for your flight home." She actually sounded like she needed him.

There was nothing in the rule books that said he couldn't take an outside job if he wasn't on duty. It would just depend what it was. For all he knew, she could be looking to assassinate the Queen of England or something. He sighs heavily, gazing around his large and empty apartment. His other option was to sit and sulk here for another week – getting ignored by Claire.

"Alright." He says eventually.

April 27th, 2004

London, England

"You look like shit."

"Thankyou." Leon snorts as Ada greets him in the lobby of The Savoy hotel in London. The place oozed money, and he'd never felt less like he belonged in all his life. "You look expensive."

Her red lips curl in to a smile and she nods. "Thankyou." She was wearing a black pant suit with red details and red shoes. She really did look like she'd just stepped off a high end catwalk. "You also look like you haven't slept since I last saw you."

"I probably haven't." He nods, following her toward the elevators. Very aware he was the only person in this place wearing a leather jacket.

"Still suffering the Spanish hangover?" She asks, pressing a button to take them up.

"Something like that." He sighs, leaning against the shiny, mirrored wall. "I feel like I'd need to sell both my kidneys to stay here."

"The wonders of a business account." She flashes him a look. He was a strange one, he walked the walk and talked the talk, but didn't seem to understand yet how to play the game. He'd learn, in time.

"So what am I doing here?" he asks as they enter her room a short while later. She had a huge suite, and he really wondered who her employers were.

"All you ever want to do is talk about work." She says breezily, throwing the accusation at him again with a good natured smile.

"Kinda why I'm here, isn't it" He drops his bag down and watches her cross the room. She picks up a folder and brings it to him, dropping it down on to the desk beside them. He looks at it and opens it up, scouring the pages as she stands so close to him he could smell her perfume. Strangely, that's not his main concern, as he reads what's in the file. His face falling, turning to one of disgust. "Jesus."

"I highly doubt he's involved." She sighs.

"They're experimenting on kids.."

"Which is why it needs shutting down."

"But why not just get the British authorities to step in?" He asks, looking at her.

"Why do you think?" She looks back at him.

His jaw tenses. "Because they're being paid off?"

"Nothing talks louder than money. A few thousand in the back pockets of the right people, you can get away with anything." She says sadly.

"How did you even find out about this?"

"Lets just say I have connections." She looks him in the eye and he holds her gaze for a moment. Something there, something in her eyes that told a bigger story than she was offering.

"Did they do something to you?" he asks quietly. It was perhaps the first time he'd ever been able to read a small part of her.

She closes her eyes and looks away from him, back down to the file. "The bottom line is nobody will care if this is shut down. We save some children, we destroy their 'research', we eliminate some filth from the face of the earth. Even those that took the silence money won't care – they have their money and they no longer have to deal with their conscience. It's a win for everybody."

He looks back down at the images on the file, his stomach turning a little. "These kids are gonna need help."

"We'll get it for them."

He nods. "Alright. I'm in."

She turns a small smile to him. "Thankyou. It's a two person job to enter their building, double keycard – which I already have."

"Of course you do." He laughs softly.

"There's people there around the clock, so, tomorrow evening. We pay them a surprise visit."

"Shut this shit down." He finishes. "Feel like I need a Batman cape."

"Ready to add vigilante to your resume, Mr Kennedy?" She asks with a sultry smile.

He holds her gaze. "What do we do until tomorrow evening?"

"I can think of a couple of things." She purrs her words, leveling him with her eyes.

He lifts his hand carefully, tucking it into her hair and tracing his thumb over the delicate curve of her cheek. After a moment, she leans in and meets his kiss.

He ends up sat in an ornate armchair that likely cost more than his entire apartment, with this beautiful creature naked in his lap. Buried inside her, jeans around his ankles. He sits up, his arms wrapped around her as she rides him, working herself on him, clutching his shoulder and the back of his head. They're sweating and panting and desperate for release and when she finally finds hers, it triggers his. The way she tightens around him too much to bear, he finishes in her with a growl of relief between her breasts, then they still. Breathing hard, getting their bearings. After a little while in recovery he lifts his head, looking at her. Really taking her in. "You are so beautiful." He murmurs.

For a glimmer, he sees a reaction there. A softness. A girl taking a compliment. Then it goes and she gently pats his shoulder, easing off of him. "Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Get attached." She says over her shoulder as she heads to the bathroom. Repeating what she told him in Paris.

He sits there with his pants around his ankles, considering her for a while. She remained a mystery. A dangerous, enticing mystery. He wanted to know everything – and the fact that she withheld it all just spurred him on.

He gets up and pulls up his jeans, following her to the bathroom and in to the shower.

That evening, she shows him some of London. He jokes about her being his tour guide. It's another beautiful, historic city full of culture that felt beyond him. Of castles and towers and old streets that had been through two world wars. They have dinner overlooking the city, and when they return to her room she pours them drinks and they discuss strategy. Going over the blueprints of the building that of course she had, planning their route, planning the way out. Planning the anonymous tip to child services and the authorities. All going well, this should wrap up in a neat little package – and they would have injected some good in to the world.

Not only did she have blueprints and keycards, she had an arsenal of weaponry also. Most importantly, his favorite make of sniper rifle. It's the first to come in handy as they arrive at the industrial location. It masqueraded as some kind of packing plant. Underneath? Laboratories for a group trying their hand at getting in to the Bio Terror business, via the usage of children. Street kids. The unwanted. Vulnerable. Fuck these people.

He takes aim at the security camera, a tiny dot on the horizon from where they are. He hits it with ease and Ada's suitably impressed. Watching him as he takes out each of them with swift precision and eventually sits back on his heels, lifting the rifle.

"You're good at that." She comments quietly.

"I think I had a distance record for a while." He shrugs a shoulder, "I don't know. I don't keep track."

"So humble." She muses.

He throws her a wink with a little click of his tongue and he packs the rifle away. Switching guns. "Lets get this done."

She nods and they swiftly exit their little hiding place, moving like ghosts toward the building. She'd definitely had military training of some kind, she moved with the same precise poise. He can't help but watch her a little as they go, it was the first time he'd ever seen her all in black.

They reach the doors and the card panels were a fair distance from each other. She holds up a hand, three fingers. Counting down without a word. On her mark, they swipe at the same time. The little light switches from red to green and with a small buzz, the doors open. They crouch, Leon peers around the corner and finds the camera, taking it out. They move in a perfect tandem down the corridor, guns drawn. Ready for resistance.

They find it swiftly, and two broken necks later they're moving on. Cameras go out, security go down. They sweep through like they'd been working together for years. The only gunfight they encounter is in the first of the labs, two men waiting for them. Someone had obviously been alerted. They take brief cover behind an upturned metal table, then dart out from it together. Ada jumps on to a desk and directly on to the shoulders of one of them, Leon shoots out his knee and Ada drives him skull first in to the ground. Leon takes out the next by smashing his head in to a glass cabinet and letting him fall. A swift, clean shot to the head.

Ada stops by a computer and Leon guards the door while she works. Typing, inserting a memory card, downloading data. That done she switches to a disc.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

"Making sure they can't do this again." She says, hitting a key and uploading a nasty virus to their system.

Three guards arrive and Leon handles them while she works. Then she gathers all the things up and they hurry down the corridor. The next lab, they find the children. Leon momentarily feels his stomach turn, then they set to setting them free. Six kids, no more than young teenagers, dazed and confused. As more resistance arrives he leaves Ada to handle the kids and takes out the scum responsible. A new rage set in him, they meet violent ends at his hand. He never usually liked the part where he had to kill humans. Humans were tough, he always thought about their homes and their families. It wasn't like killing the already undead or parasite infested freaks. It was different, it did something to you each time. But this time? People that could use children? Fuck them.

He hurls a knife and it embeds in the last ones skull, as Ada hurries the kids out in to the hall.

"Don't look that way." She tells them, guarding them from Leon's bloodbath. "Here." She hands one of them a keycard. "Go all he way to the double doors, use this. Run."

"We should go with them. They'll need someone." Leon speaks up.

"We have one thing left to do. They'll be fine." She looks over her shoulder at him, then back to the kids. "Keep running until you see a little cafe. Go inside, tell them to call the police. They'll be expecting the call."

Leon frowns a little. That wasn't what they'd discussed.

"GO!" she shouts at the children, and they run.

"Ada.." he looks at her as she turns back to him.

"We need them out of here."

"Why?"

She holds up an explosive charge and he grits his teeth. "You never said anything about levelling the place."

"We don't have much time."

"What is this, really?" He demands as they begin a jog toward the next corridor.

"Exactly what I told you." She promises.

He lets out a small growl of annoyance but follows her. Eventually reaching another closed door. She swipes a card and enters a code, they enter with their weapons drawn. It's Ada's turn to sound angry. "Dammit, they moved him already." She snaps to herself, making Leon look over at her.

"Who?"

She kicks a metal chair and it clatters against a cabinet. She doesn't answer him. Back on a computer, she scans through files. Leon arrives behind her, looking over her shoulder, catching a glimpse of what she was looking at.

"Who is that? Why are we here?"

And just like that, she turns a gun on him. "Back off."

His eyebrows shoot up and he stares at her. "Ada.."

"Let me work."

"What is this?!" He demands, gun to his chest or not. She wouldn't shoot him, he felt it.

"I have to stop them."

"Stop who? From doing what?"

She angrily holsters her gun, going back to the computer. "From ruining more lives." She mutters.

He stares at the back of her head, studying her. "Like they ruined yours?" He asks quietly.

She doesn't answer. She doesn't need to. He hears more footsteps and draws his gun. "I'll handle it."

He does as promised, wiping out the security that threatened to shut her down. She sets her charges and they leave via the planned escape route. By the time they're safely clear of the building they can already see flashing blue lights of the police, gathered around the cafe in the small village from their spot further up a hill. Ada lifts her hand and detonates the devices. Blowing whatever that lab had really been to pieces. Leon studies her as she does it, her face, the fire reflecting in her eyes. In the darkness, lit by the golden glow of the flames, he'd never seen her look more beautiful.

"Whatever it is, is it over?" he asks.

She shakes her head. "Not until he's dead."

"Who?"

She looks at him with the first emotion he'd ever seen in her. "My father."

He blinks and she turns, making her way back toward where they'd left a car. For a moment he doesn't follow, he just watches her. It was like the more he got to know about her, the less he knew. The more questions were raised. With a small shake of his head he jogs to catch up to her. They make their way briskly across fields to the country road bridge they'd left the car under, the sound of sirens and fire far away now. Reaching it, he gently takes her arm before they get in.

"You can trust me, you know that?" He asks her.

She doesn't answer. Instead, she grabs his face and pulls him in to a kiss. its instantly fierce and passionate, needy. He turns them, pressing her up against the car, tugging at the fastenings on her leather pants and dipping his hand inside. She moans in to his mouth as his fingers find her. She grabs at his leather coat, urgent and wanting. He strips her of those pants and she yanks at his belt, drawing him out, he grabs the back of her thighs and lifts her. Pinning her to the car, she guides him and he drives himself in to her, making them both hiss and gasp. In a dark, shady place – by the light of the moon and the sound of sirens, they fuck away whatever was chasing her. Whatever was chasing both of them. Seemed like the past was never all that far behind, not when you lived in their world.

When they're sated, they stay where they are. Ada pinned to the car, her legs wrapped around his waist, still impaled on him. Their foreheads rest together, one another's breaths hot on their cheeks.

"Thankyou." She whispers.

He chuckles. "For the orgasm.. or?"

She laughs a little with him. "Both."

"You're welcome." He murmurs.

Back at the hotel a couple of hours later, he takes a shower while Ada goes through a few of the files she'd salvaged from the lab. A sad grimace on her face as she goes through them. She hadn't told Leon the whole truth, of course she hadn't. You couldn't give everything away. But she also hadn't lied to him. This wouldn't get him in trouble, it would likely never even be brought up. People like her adoptive Father weren't talked about, not if you wanted to stay alive.

She didn't know her real parents. She had no idea who they were. She had no idea where she was born. All she knew was she was adopted by an English man and had grown up in Florida.

She hadn't had a childhood.

The room phone rings and she looks up and toward the bathroom. The shower was still going. So she gets up to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hi.. uh... who's this?"

She frowns. "I would have thought you would know?"

"Maybe I was put through to the wrong room." The female voice sighs. "My boyfri.. my ex.. boyfriend. Gave me the hotel number if I needed anything."

Ada glances toward the bathroom, folding her arm around herself. "This is Ada Wong. Who are you looking for?"

There's a stammering. "Um.. Leon. Leon Kennedy."

"Is this Claire?" Ada asks curiously.

"How do you.. right.. Raccoon City." She sounded like she was going to gag on her words.

"He's in the shower. I can get him for you?" Ada purrs.

"No. It's.. no. I'll.. just tell him my first trimester scan is in two weeks. Bye."

With that, Claire Redfield hangs up.