A/N: I am highly grateful to all the lovely people reading this story, thanks a bunch! I'd like to specially mention GrayFox786 and Shirahane Aikawa, for reviewing the last chapter.

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

Chapter 39

(Kate's POV)

I tried to sleep but past memories occupied my mind and I couldn't get myself to sleep. I turned to look at Leon, he was sleeping peacefully. I lifted my hand to run it through his hair but my gaze fell on the ring I had around my finger and it made pulled my hand away from him. I remembered the incident at the jewelry store, the incident with Hunnigan and the one with my friends. All of a sudden, I felt suffocating as if someone was choking me. I got up and slid the balcony door open to get some fresh air.

'Why Dad, if you had only waited until we fell in love', I thought closing my eyes as the pain in the heart ran down my cheek in form of tears.

"You okay?", Leon asked covering me from the shower of bullets. I couldn't help but be impressed by this feat. All the time he talked to me he was on his guard and it made me feel really inferior to him, since I, unlike him, was just worried about this pretend wedding.
"I am fine", I told him as he helped me up.
"Run with the girl", Dad said trying to make it seem that I was the General's daughter.

Both me and Leon ran out not thinking about it much, "This is as far as you go", one of the men who was here to kill General's daughter, in this case me, said. Leon took out his gun and shot him in the head, it was too fast for a rookie like him and me, there was definitely some skill or previous experience involved.

Leon held my hand tight again in his hand and we made a run for the car, that was already parked so we could escape in it, so that the enemies would follow us out to the preset place, which not only was miles away from the actual wedding venue but also a team of officers to capture these terrorists.

"Wait", I said stopping throwing my veil down, "Leon, help me out", I sort of whined.
"What?", he asked confused shooting down an enemy and looked back at me briefly.
"The dress", I said to him pulling my hair up.
"Oh", he immediately understood and kneeled down and tore it with sheer muscular force, so it just reached down till my mid thighs. A wolf whistle escaped his lips as he looked at my legs and I pulled him up by his collar feeling complimented by that.
"I'd like to borrow this, I forgot mine", I said seductively withdrawing his other handgun from his holster and shot the men behind him.

It was all good and we shot enemies, and were finally able to reach to the car. It was then that I let my guard down, like always, and one of the enemies jumped at me . And it made me drop my gun but Leon reacted fast and held the gunmen at his gun point, "Please save me", I said it to the man holding me hostage and both him and Leon were confused. I made up stories, with a bunch of lies, trying to seduce him to give Leon an opening and I was successful as the man pulled me to himself but before he could actually drop his guard Leon attacked him, pulling me away from him throwing a hard punch at him taking a bullet in the process.

"Leon what are you doing?", I yelled to him as he moved to beat the crap out of him and then out of nowhere more men came and for a moment I thought both me and Leon were dead. It was then that I saw his other face, his blind temper, the anger that ruined everything. He had already developed those special agent qualities that it didn't really show on his face that he was angry but the fact that he single handedly fought and saved me was more than the proof enough. His anger was so destructive that he didn't even care about himself. I should have been grateful to him but I was scared, scared of this face. I feared that he'd hurt me too, "let go off me, Leon", I said to him but the words were louder than what I meant to be.

Leon looked back at me angrily, "What were you thinking?", he shouted at me throwing his right arm in the air and he groaned in pain due to the injury in his arm.
"You… you are injured", I said not taking my eyes off his bleeding arm, "Let me…"
He raised his hand just to stop me and took out his handkerchief and tied around his arm tightly, "Let's go", he said and pulled me harshly to the car.
"Stop it", I yelled shaking his hand off my arm, "You let go of me, I can take care of myself."
"That I saw", he said smiling mockingly.
"If you hadn't interfered it would all have been perfect and nobody would have gotten hurt", I said shaking with a mix of emotions.
"You should be thankful to me for saving you", he screamed.
"Thankful?", I yelled, "You almost got us killed, marching in recklessly like that."

I closed my eyes to our angry voices of the past ringing loud in my head, swallowing an imaginary painful lump in my throat and feeling a searing pain in my heart. It was our very first fight and how well I remembered it. It was maybe the last day when things were normal between us, since after that things went down the drain.

(Leon's POV)

I was woken up again by a nightmare and like always I was glad to be staring at the ceiling. I ran my hands on my face to wipe the sweat of my face and turned to my side to check on Kate but she wasn't there. I sat bolt right up fearing the worse. But fortunately when I looked around I found sitting by the balcony door and felt more than glad to see her there. Her long hair blew with the cold wind rushing in through the open door.

"Kate, you scared me", I talked to her and she didn't even flinch a bit, "I thought you disappeared", I said getting off the bed and close to her but the cold winds replied instead of her, "Kate, you listening?", I asked kneeling down by her side, "Kate?", I put my hand on her shoulder to grab her attention, "God… you're so cold", I said touching her face and arms simultaneously, feeling her temperature; her body had gotten really cold. I rushed to get the blanket and cover her with it.

"I… I should have read those papers", she said, looking at me. At first I didn't understand what she was saying but I got everything when she continued, "Shouldn't have believed Dad blindly. You…"

I looked at Kate; she was enveloped by the past memories, painful memories regarding us. I couldn't help but wonder what poked her wounds and triggered those memories, which she tried to suppress almost every day. I couldn't help but blame myself as I realized that I was yet again unintentionally responsible for her current condition. If only I had made her talk to Hunnigan, then Hunnigan wouldn't have visited us to check the marriage certificate and she wouldn't have been reminded how her father managed to get our signatures on it. I wrapped the blanket around her as the past came flooding in my mind too.

Our first mission together and we ended up fighting with each other. I thought she was thoughtless and she thought I was reckless. Those men made my anger run high and I took it out on Kate, got her mad at me. We fought all the way as I drove to the place where we were supposed to lure the enemy pointing out each other's flaws.

"Great work, you two", the Chief said congratulating us on mission's success.
"Could have been better", I had replied angrily, my anger directed at Kate and she shot an angry look at me as well.
"Yeah a lot better actually", she said to the Chief.
"But still you managed to finish it, so go home take rest", the Chief said and we both turned our back on each other and I was about to walk away when I heard her Dad call her name.
"Kate, need you to sign these papers, it's very important official papers", he said and I turned to see Kate scribbling her signature on the document and then she glared at me and stormed off.
"You too Kennedy", her father said giving me the papers and I without question signed them and slammed the papers in his hands before walking away.

"I shouldn't have signed them", Kate said and it snapped me back to the present.
"I signed them too", I said to her feeling her temperature but just pulling a blanket over her wasn't helping too much.
"Dad ruined everything", she said and I realized she had to put effort to speak.
"Stop talking Kate", I said to her, "Get up now", I tried to pull her up but she didn't want to move, it was as if she was punishing herself.
"He not only ruined everything for me but he messed up your life too", she cried while I just tried to make her budge from the spot.
"Kate, for god sake don't speak", I literally pleaded to her.
"Not once he told me about it", she didn't heed me and continued to speak with her falling breaths, "at least he must have asked for your permission?"
"Kate…", I didn't know what to say to her to make her stop saying things like that.
"Look what he has done to us", she literally screamed panting.
"Kate please for your sake, please… please stop talking and get up", I said again kneeling down in front of her trying to convince her just to move away from the place.
"Look at me, look what I have become", she cried still panting.

"Kate, relax!", I said and lifted her in my arms and she didn't struggle, even a bit, because she didn't have that much strength left in her. She was practically trying to kill herself, "Everything is okay."
"No, it's not", she said to me as I set her on bed, "I am… I am nothing but a burden to you."
"You're not burden to me", I told her getting in the blanket with her holding her close just to keep her warm, "You are my wife, you're not a burden", I said and kissed her head. She opened her mouth to say something, "Don't say anything Kate, for your sake, please I request you not to make things worse for you. Please, please… take rest and try to sleep because everything you are thinking doesn't matter anymore. The only thing that matters is that we are together."
"Hmm…", she just hummed and didn't say anything and I waited for her to fall asleep before I could drift off to sleep myself.

(Kate's POV)

I was awakened by the sun as its rays hit my face. The first thing I noticed after that was that Leon still had his arms on me. I tried to block all the questions that started to flood my mind. Even though he said I wasn't a burden to him but he couldn't change the fact that I felt like I was a burden to him, useless and unwanted in his life. I am thankful to him for being there with me last night when I was feeling down but from now on I'll try even harder to not be a burden on him.

I looked back at him and slowly slipped out from his grip, I didn't want to wake him up knowing that he must have been up late last night too. I quietly took a pair of my clothes and moved to take a shower, shutting the useless thinking and concentrating on the day ahead. I stepped in the shower and thought about what pending work I have to finish and all the things that needs to be done around the house, once I return from work.

I turned off the shower when the bathroom door opened but unlike every day I didn't say a thing. I dried myself and pulled on my clothes and stepped out of the shower and saw Leon was shaving. He looked at me through the mirror but I just couldn't meet his eyes. I just wanted to get out as fast as I could from there so I walked fast to get out but Leon grabbed my hand.

"Won't you say anything to me today?", he asked me and I didn't even turn to look at him, "for barging in like that."
"I am used to it I guess", I tried to avoid any sort or conversation, argument or interaction but he still didn't let go of me, "I need to make breakfast."
"And I need to see that frown that you have when we argue", he said turning me to face him, "Or that smug smile that tells me I am wrong and you were right", the tears that have been welled up in my eyes, streamed down my face, "I don't want to see these early in the morning or ever", he said wiping them and bumping his head against mine and I closed my eyes as he pulled me in a comforting hug.

"Leon, I…", I began pulling away from him but he stopped me from speaking.
"Ssshh… I know what you'll say", he said keeping his finger on my lips, "Tell me sweetheart am I a burden to you?"
"No", I said shaking my head vigorously looking up at him as more tears made their way down my face.
"Even after you do everything for me, you don't consider me a burden. So, tell me how can I feel you a burden on me", he said smiling again getting rid of the tears, "You're my beautiful wife", he leaned closer to kiss me.

(Leon's POV)

Kate smiled and stopped me from capturing her plumb red lips, "We're getting late", she said and pushed me a bit away.
"Now that is the smile I was talking about", I called after her as she got out of the bathroom and she looked back to give me a this-is-no-time-for-joke look, "and that's the same frown I wanted to see", she rolled her eyes and left the bedroom probably to get the breakfast ready.

I just smiled and got in the shower to have a bath. I could never really understand why it bothered me when she was not happy and why I loved to see her smile. I smiled once again as I remembered her smile and turned off the shower, wrapped a towel around my waist. I went in the bedroom and started pulling on clothes and midway between pulling my pants my phone buzzed as usual.

"That must be Hunnigan", I muttered pulling my pants first and then moving to get my phone, "Hello?"
"Leon, where the hell are you?", Hunnigan asked me.
"At home of course", I replied casually trying to pull on my shirt with one hand.
"What?! Do you even remember you had to report by now", Hunnigan asked sounding a little frantic.
At these words I tried to remember my schedule for today and couldn't help but slap my head, "I'll be there in half an hour, I promise."
"You better be Kennedy", she growled on the phone.
"Yeah I'll be", I said and disconnected and hurriedly got myself ready and rushed downstairs.

"You're ahead than usual", Kate said when she spotted me as she served twins breakfast.
"Because I am late", I told her getting into my usual seat as twins wished me morning and I did the same.
"Well we better hurry up then", she said and set two plates while I poured coffee for both of us. She completed her breakfast before me and told me to take care of dishes and take Shadow for a walk while she changed into her work clothes.
"I have only fifteen minutes", I told her.
"I am hurrying", she replied back, "I think you guys need to take bus today", she added to the twins.
"No problem", they chorused to her cheerfully, "We'll call one of our friends to pick us up."

Once I was done with breakfast I left to take Shadow for a walk as twins headed out to their school with one of their friends. When I returned after a few minutes I saw Kate rushing towards the car holding her handbag, "What took you so long?", I asked her, "I've been walking Shadow for a whole 10 minutes!"
"I was changing, Leon", she said in an obvious tone.
"I forgot my car keys", I told her checking my pockets.
"Here", she tossed me those and I unlocked the car and got in, "C'mon I haven't got all day, I am late."
"I forgot something", she looked back at the house.
"You didn't forget anything, just get in the car", I said to her. She looked at me and then rounded off to get in the car and we didn't talk much since I had to drive fast and all my concentration was in driving.
"Thanks", she said getting out, "see you later."
"Yeah babe", I replied and drove to work full speed and even after that I was 15 minutes late because I had a habit of dropping Kate to work no matter what.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you all enjoyed it. I apologize for any mistakes or typos that caused an inconvenience. See you all next week!