A/N: I am thankful to all the readers and the reviewers Mercenary Nemesis and Shirahane Aikawa for their reviews and support.

Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil or any of its characters appearing in this story. They are property of Capcom.

Chapter 8

(Leon's POV)

"I know you're busy, but you can call us sometimes", Liana said hugging me at the airport as they were leaving and we were seeing them off.
"Kate is the only one calling, a few more years and Zach will even forget who the husband of his aunt Kate is", Jeremy tried to joke.
"I'll try", I said looking at Kate who was seeing off my parents, "Do give us a call when you get my second nephew or niece", I tried to change the topic.
"Yeah sure", Liana said smiling.
"Uncle Leon", Zach said tugging on my pants, "When we reach home, you can sleep in my room."
"I…", I tried to tell the kid that I am not going with him.
"Aunt Kate will sleep with us too", he said happily.
"Zach", his father turned to let him face him, "Uncle Leon and Aunt Kate are not going with us", and the kid looked at me for confirmation. I nodded in agreement with what his father said; feeling a little sad and he began crying.

"Hey stop crying, we'll call you", I said to him as his father tried to comfort him.
"No", he cried, "Daddy I want Uncle Leon and Aunt Kate to go with us", he sobbed.
"No sweetie, their home is here", his mom said lifting him in his arms.
"No", he cried more.
"What happened?", Kate asked concerned.
"Nothing he's just upset about leaving you two behind", Liana told her with a smile.
"Oh sweetie we'll talk on phone", she said rubbing his back.
"No", he said stubbornly, "I am not gonna talk to you."

We spent a few more minutes trying to persuade Zach that we cannot come with him but he was too stubborn and kept crying and right now he was holding his mum not looking at us, angry with me and Kate. Then the flight announcement was made, "C'mon say goodbye to Uncle and Aunt", Liana said and he buried his head on her shoulder, "Zach, bad manners…"
"It's okay… he really wanted to take us along", I said and the announcement were made once again.
"That's our call Zach, don't you wanna say goodbye", Jeremy said and he didn't look at us even now.

"Okay don't say goodbye but at least give me a goodbye kiss", Kate moved to kiss him on cheek but he moved away, "No? Okay", she smiled just gave him a flying kiss and he began crying again and then Kate took him from Liana, "No don't cry, we'll come and meet you sometime okay?", she wiped his tears, "Be a good boy."
"Promise", he sobbed.
"I promise that I'll bring Aunt Kate to you and then you have to keep us in your room", I said to him and then both me and Kate moved to kiss him on either of his cheeks.
She wiped his tears once more saying, "Don't cry", she smiled and Zach smiled too.

(Kate's POV)

"Now that's like a good boy", Leon said and gave Zach a chocolate and then I gave Zach to Liana as the flight announcement were made again.
"Have a safe journey", I called after them.
"See you son", Leon's Dad said shaking his hand while his mother hugged me.
"Yeah you too Dad", Leon said, "take care of mum."
"And you take care of Kate", his father said.
"Yeah Dad", he said.
"Don't trouble her too much", Mom said.
"Yeah Mom", he replied.
"Yeah mom", she mocked him, "Take care", with these last words they left for their flight too.

We stood there looking at them for a bit but then I turned to look at Leon and there was this far away look in his eyes, it was clear he wanted them to stay, even if it meant that he had to pretend being happy with me for more days he wanted them to stay. He turned from his other side and said, "Let's go", and we walked side by side back to car without exchanging any words, got in and drove for home.

(Leon's POV)

I spared Kate a look, she was as always staring out of her window; she never talked to me when we were alone and never without a reason. The life we lived past week was nothing more than an illusion that we made to fool our families, the truth was much harsher than what everybody thought.

(Kate's POV)

Leon stopped car at front of the house and I looked at him, "I've to go to work", he said not looking at me and that was all I needed to hear as I stepped out of the car and walked towards house but I turned once I heard his car leave. I watched it till it disappeared around the corner and I got in the house and began tidy up the place and cleaning guest rooms and locking them up until next time.

(Leon's POV)

"Hey boy", I said getting in the house, it was late, lights were out and Kate was sleeping probably. I walked to the kitchen to get myself dinner, I never admitted but Kate was really a good cook. I walked to the refrigerator and there was a note sticking to its door.

Don't try to make anything, dinner's in the white pots, heat it. Wake me up but don't ruin my kitchen.

The note made me smile as I crumbled and put it in my pocket. I felt someone's presence and turned to spot Kate walking in with an empty water jug that sat on her side, end table. She turned on the lights and it pierced my eyes cause they had adjusted to the darkness, "How many times do I have to tell you to warn me before you do that", I said to her.

"I didn't know you were here, I can't see in darkness", she said moving towards me actually refrigerator but she just stood in front of me and crossed her arms while I just stared at her, "Will you just move", she pushed me aside as I was in her way. She pulled open the refrigerator door open and got a bottle of water and emptied it in the jug. Then filled the bottle and put it back in the fridge.

"So are there tomatoes in the fridge?", I asked, trying to play a trick on her,
"Why are you asking?", she asked back, sounding a little confused.
"Well I do have to get myself dinner, don't I?", I replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I made dinner for you, didn't you read the note", she said getting two bowls from the fridge.
"What note?", I asked her, acting totally oblivious to what she was saying.
"The one I put here", she said flipping the door close pointing to the spot where she had put the note.
"I see no note", I said shrugging.

(Kate's POV)

"I put it here", I said running a hand where I stuck the note with tape. I very well remembered I put it here, the first thing I did after making dinner was put a note here. I looked at Leon suspiciously and moved to trash bin and opened the lid to see inside.
"If you leave your notes there, nobody is gonna get them", Leon said and I glared at him.
"I was just checking if you threw that here", I said to him, "You have a habit of troubling me", I walked to get a plate for him and served him dinner, thinking did I forget to put the note or did it flew somewhere; this time the second option seemed right. 'But what if I forgot but I never forget', I thought looking him eat his dinner.
"Don't stare at my food, get your own", Leon said.

"Idiot", I said to him and walked out of the kitchen and headed upstairs. I set down the jug of water by my bed side, although I filled it every day but he was the one emptying it. In early years of marriage he would shot up from nightmare soaking in sweat panting and drank the whole jug of water in one go but later on he would just wake up and never try to sleep and only at break of dawn he gets his sleep due to exhaustion. When he returned from Spain his situation worsened and he didn't sleep and he never told me but it seemed he was in some kind of pain, occasionally I would find him spilling his guts over at work and rarely I found stains of what looked like blood in the sink and when I asked him about it, he said he knew nothing about it.

As I was thinking all this Leon entered the room and went in the bathroom to take a shower and emerged slowly after in nothing but his track pants, his usual attire when he goes to sleep, women would kill for a man with a body like him but he was never proud of it, he was one of the most modest persons, that sometimes it irritated me. He got on the bed and for a change I was facing towards him, since past week Zach usually slept between us so I was a bit used to sleeping facing his side and to my surprise he faced me as if it was the usual thing he does every day, maybe he does sleep facing me but I never saw it since I had my back towards him. I pretended to be asleep and didn't have the slightest idea what he was doing and that was the last thought before I went deep into sleep.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I apologize for any inconvenience you had whilst reading.