A/N: I am very grateful to all the readers for always encouraging me to write. Sorry for a long chapter but I couldn't cut it short.

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

Chapter 28

(Leon's POV)

I drove towards the hospital full speed and it wasn't much of a trouble since the streets were almost deserted, it being around 1:00 AM. I had no intention of making a trip to hospital when I started from work to head home, but on my way I saw a guy lying in the middle of a road in a bloody mess, much like the time when I entered Raccoon city. I got out of my car and was very much relieved that he was still alive, breathing and not a zombie. But the next moment the supposedly badly injured man was pointing his gun at me, looked like it was one of those ways to rob people. More people came and demanded money and valuables of me, including my car but unfortunately for them I wasn't really in a generous and cooperating mood, so I got into a fight and they were no trouble but during the fight I got a pretty nasty cut on my upper right arm, which did need medical attention and hence I had to take a detour to the hospital.

I parked my car in the parking, leaving Shadow in the car as usual and scaled the steps of the hospital, keeping a pressure on my arm, so at least I don't bleed to death. I walked to the reception area, there was a guy at the reception desk for change, totally absorbed in the magazine he was reading, with his legs up on the table, "How may I help you?", he said in a sing along manner without even looking at me.

"Well I need a doctor to take a look at this", I answered him in a monotone and he lazily looked at me.
"Oh that looks wicked man!", he said rushing with energy all of a sudden, noticing the cut on my arm, "I'd call those doctors and nurses right away."
"Thanks!", I could only say as he dialed a number and called for the doctor.
"They are on their way", he informed me, "I bet it was bar brawl, wasn't it?", he made an assumption acting like a professional physician grinning widely.
"Close", I said sarcastically but still in a monotone.
"You better head to the ER room, the doctor told you to wait there", he told me.
"Where is that?", I asked him for directions. I definitely been to ER a lot times in this hospital but none of those times I was conscious or attentive.
"Hey Sylvia take this guy to the ER room", he yelled to the nurse who was passing by and the nurse hurried to me immediately.

"This way Mr. Kennedy", she smiled at me widely and I knew this wasn't really a good sign when you were half bleeding to death, especially coming from the nurse and what else she knew me but I couldn't recognize her, "It seems you don't recognize me, I was the nurse when you came that night with a bullet wound and Dr. Cornor treated you."

Hearing her name made me freeze for a while and I couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic as I was led into the very same room where Kate took out the bullet from my arm. It had been a long, long time since I had seen Kate, almost 4 months but I hadn't forgotten about her. My work and schedules weren't enough to keep Kate out of my mind; her memories would always find a way, like now as I sat waiting for the doctor to show up. I couldn't help but remember Kate.

My thoughts were broken by the clattering of the tray as the nurse set some equipment, for a change she wasn't as ditzy as the last time. And I felt relieved to see a male doctor enter the room, "Good Evening Sir, I am Dr. Michael Vaughn", he said walking in the room and looked at me expecting something.
"Leon S. Kennedy", I only said as an introduction.
"Oh that looks like a nasty cut", he said noticing the cut and taking a seat in front of me, "How did it happen?"
"Got in the fight with some thugs", I replied while he inspected the wound.
"Thugs?! Right, right!", he said slightly shaking his head in disbelief possibly thinking that it was lie, "Well it's a little deep cut, I have to clean and stitch it up", he informed me, "Nurse prepare the equipment."
"Already done, doctor", she smiled at the doctor and he smiled flirtatiously back at her.

I watched him putting on gloves and getting ready to tend to the wound but just as he was about to dab the blood with cotton, "Is Dr. Cornor here?", I was asking it before I knew it. The male doctor froze and looked up at me with a blank expression and I thought there might be more than one Dr. Cornor here, so I made it more clear, "Is Dr. Kathleen Cornor here?", I asked even though I knew she wouldn't be here. I guess the only time she did a graveyard shift was the night she tended me and after that Chris probably didn't allow her to do it anymore.

"No, she's not here", the doctor tried to say it with a smile but he barely managed it, guess I hurt his ego a bit, "Should I do the stitches then?", he asked.
"Yeah", I replied I didn't have any other choice anyways.
"She's your regular doctor?", he asked a little thoughtful and contemplative about something, as he dabbed the wound with cotton.
"No, she's my friend and I trust her with such stuff", I told him in a monotone.
"Oh I see but she's not here. She's on leave you see", he told me cocking both of his brows looking up at me, "But of course, you must already know why?"
"No I don't", I kept my reply short and hoped she was doing fine.
"Well you see her sister-in-law gave birth to a baby boy, 3 months ago and she's home celebrating his 3 month birthday", the doctor replied as he began sewing the wound and it hurt like hell and he didn't even try to be considerate but since I was used to this kind of pain, my expressions were more or less neutral.
"I see", I just said in response to the information.
"Yeah she's been on leave for about a week now but she's joining work day after tomorrow so you can go and consult her if you like", he said finishing up the stitching, "Sylvia, wrap a bandage around the cut and administer an injection for tetanus", he said to the nurse, "anything else Mr. Kennedy?", and I shook my head in reply and he left without a word.

The nurse diligently wrapped the bandage on the wound, either she was trying to focus more on work or she was proving to me that she was very professional but I couldn't care less about it. Once she was done with bandaging my arm, I walked to the reception and cleared the bill before heading home.

Once I got home all that was left for me to do was to get in the bed and sleep. But sleep wasn't really easy to come by these past days, there have always been nightmares and for past 4 months thoughts about Kate always haunted me, whenever I had enough time to ponder on it which was usually the time before sleep. There wasn't a single day or night when I didn't think about her. I don't know when was the last time I was hung over a girl this long and almost every night I told myself that, 'sooner or later I'd forget her', with that thought I closed my eyes to get some sleep.

(Kate's POV)

"Aww… he's so cute", I said as Claire and I played with Jill and Chris's baby.
"Of course he's my son after all", Chris said proudly.
"He's cute because he took after Jill", I said bursting his bubble and teasing him.
"Hey I used to be cute as a kid", he said to me offended.
"Yeah right!", Claire said sarcastically joining in the teasing, "we've seen your baby pictures and you were nowhere cute, you had a permanent frown since you were a kid."
"I totally agree", I said supporting Claire.
"Jill, a little support here", he called on her for help.
"Yeah, thank god my baby doesn't take after you", she said and both Claire and I burst out laughing as Chris's face shrunk in disappointment.
"Aww… we are just kidding", I said handing the baby back to Jill, "You're cute too bro!", I said hugging him.
"Yeah even though you were a cry baby, mom said you were cute", Claire said following the suite.
"But my baby is cuter", Jill said and that again made us laugh but Chris didn't mind it much.

Our morning went by playing with Chris and Jill's baby, Sam. He was a happy baby and we rarely saw him crying maybe only when he was hungry or sleepy. It had been very long since we had been this way, all of us together as a family. And we all had been so busy with life that this quality family time was due for so long. Claire had been busy with her married life and work, often finding it difficult to balance both but she always made time to make a visit to check on us. Chris had lost a couple of pounds maybe because he was busy with his work but he never missed to make time for Jill and their baby. And I was exceptionally busy for past 4 months that I didn't realize how they flew past me.

I was doing double shifts at the hospital, looking after Jill and the baby in Chris's absence, went shopping with her and helped her during the delicate moments of her pregnancy. I was there all the time but it was all clockwork for me, I didn't realize it at all until very recently when Jill asked me to take a break from this busy schedule of mine so I could be with them like the old times. It was then that I realized what I've been missing, and immediately I applied for a leave. The Dean had been noticing my 'hard work', and he let me take off on a short notice though with a warning that he wouldn't tolerate anything like this in future.

And so for the past week I was helping Jill and Chris prepare and plan for their baby's 3rd month birthday, Claire was visiting almost daily and Chris was finishing his work early to be home early. This house finally felt like the home we all used to know and today it being weekend with everyone of us having an off as well as Sam's 3 month birth anniversary, we decided to have a grand family celebration/reunion by having lunch together. Claire's husband, Eric will also be joining us and so somewhere around 11:00AM both Claire and I headed to kitchen to prep up for lunch, and also Sam was tired by then, so Jill took him to sleep.

Claire and I, talked, chatted and gossiped like the old times, with her telling me all about her married life experiences and life with Eric, "Are you girls even doing something?", Chris asked as we were finished with making lunch, "All I could hear was laugh and giggle, giggle and laugh."
"We are already done with lunch", Claire said pointing to the lunch.
"I am impressed", Chris said sounding impressed, "I thought that, now that you two are on with your gossip, we won't be getting any lunch today", and both Claire and I gave him a furious glare, "Anyways Eric is coming right, it's almost 1:00PM?"
"Yeah he is", Claire told him happily and just then the door bell rang, "it must be him", she said excitedly.
"I'd get him, you two set the table", Chris almost ordered, "Finally a male for a company, I am done with you girls."
"He can be a jerk sometimes", Claire said and we started to set the table and Jill joined us in few.

"Sam's asleep?", I asked her and she replied by yawning.
"I am sorry", she said with another yawn, "yeah he's asleep."
"And you need some sleep too", I said to her, "Why don't you eat and take a nap while Sam's asleep."
"I might just as well do that", Jill said taking a seat.

"What happened to you?", Claire asked and I looked back to see Chris with one of his grumpiest expression.
"It was this guy", he pointed over his shoulder to the guy following him.
"Hey, sorry I was late", it was Mike, "this is for you, Congratulations once again!", he handed Jill a bouquet, "and for you..", leaned in to kiss me but Chris clearing his throat made him stop.
"Take a seat", I said pushing him away a bit and we all sat down to have lunch.

"Geez your brother is scary!", Mike muttered to me in an undertone, "it's been already a month since we started dating and he still doesn't like me", he complained as we sat next to each other.
"You shouldn't worry about it, he's over protective about me and Claire, get used to it already", I told him in a low voice.
"What are you two whispering about?", Chris asked us and Mike almost flinched.
"Don't worry he hasn't proposed to me yet", I tried to joke but it didn't ease up the tension between Chris and him.
Then there was another doorbell and Claire hurried to get that muttering, "it better be Eric!"

And within minutes Claire showed up with Eric, who was better at eliminating the tensed up atmosphere between Chris and Mike as we lunched together. Chris didn't make any direct conversations and acted a little on guard with Mike. I looked at them as Claire and I cleaned up after lunch, Mike was trying really hard and Chris too was getting more accepting of him. I clearly remembered the time when I broke the news to Chris that Mike's my boyfriend, he almost threw a punch at him and got really mad. He avoided being around Mike for some time after that but now he was less bothered of Mike's presence and it was really a huge progress from where I see it.

"They're getting along well aren't they?", Claire said noticing me.
"Yeah I hope Chris warms up to Mike soon", I spoke out my concern sighing.
"Well he never took our dating guys very well, did he?", Claire said as we moved the dirty dishes to the kitchen.
"Yeah that's true", I agreed with her, "I still remember him breaking my first boyfriend's nose, which made him break up with me and I cried for days over that", I told her laughing over the incident.
"Yeah, he chased mine to his home with a baseball bat", Claire laughed remembering as well.
"But they both turned out to be jerks in the end", I said more seriously this time with a smile.
"Yeah, it seems he knew better about our boyfriends", Claire agreed still laughing a bit.
"Which is a kind of creepy", I added to it and we both ended up laughing.

"Hey", we turned to see Mike standing at the kitchen door, "Eric is calling you", he said to Claire.
"He's calling me or are you shooing me away?", Claire asked teasing him.
"You catch on quick", he said smiling at her.
"But I'll still check on Eric, just in case", Claire said leaving the two of us alone.

"Ah finally", Mike said and I looked at him, "some alone time with my love", he wrapped an arm around my waist leaning in for a kiss but I reflexively turned my face to receive that kiss on my cheek.
"You'd be in trouble if Chris walked in here", I said pushing him back.
"You're so cold sometimes", Mike complained, "And your brother is busy with some call."
"I just don't want any trouble now", I said to him in a matter-of-fact tone, "So anyways how's work?", I asked him changing topic as I cleaned the kitchen counters.
"It's good, busy of course with all the patients coming in an all", he told me taking a seat on one of the kitchen chairs, "but a funny thing happened last night."
"What funny thing?", I asked him smiling, sparing him a look.
"This annoying guy showed up with huge cut, said thugs got him but to me it looked like a bar brawl or something like that", he replied playing with an apple.
"That's the funny part?", I asked him confused in a plain tone, not really amused of his joke.
"No, he requested for you", Mike said and gave me a piercing look.
"Me?!", I couldn't help but say in surprise, "Who was he?"

"Ah some Sean… no wait Tom… I am bad with names", Mike said pretending to think and I knew that he had the name at the end of his tongue, "Ah yeah Leon… Leon S. Kennedy?", I froze for a moment listening to the name, "You know him?", it seemed he wanted to know this the moment he entered the house.
"Yeah", I replied nodding, "he's a good friend."
"So he wasn't lying huh?", he questioned.
"No, he wasn't. We are really good friends", I told him and felt my lips curl up in a smile as I remembered all my good friendly moments with Leon.
"Oh really?!", Mike said almost shocked, "Or was he more than a friend?", and I looked at his judging face.
"Hey, are you doubting me or something?", I asked him with a playful smile, "if so, you are free to break up with me, you know", I said acting indifferent.
"Hey relax! I am not breaking up with you for such stupid thing", Mike said defensively not getting my joke, "but I'd like to know if you and him were more than friends."
"No, we were and still are just very good friends", I assured Mike because he tends to be a little insecure about the relationship.

"I haven't seen him around, you know, and you haven't mentioned him once", Mike said countering whatever I said.
"Yeah Leon's a busy bee and we don't meet that often", I told him the truth in a casual tone, "About not telling you about him, I guess the topic never came up."
"Yeah true", he said relaxing on the chair but still thinking something.
"Who the hell left you two alone?", Chris said annoyed entering the kitchen and Mike gave up on relaxing.
"Calm down bro, we are just talking", I said to him, "give him a break, for god's sake!"
"I'd rather break his bones", Chris muttered under his breath and I gave him a look of disbelief as we all walked back to the living area, where Claire and Eric were collecting their stuff.

"You guys are already leaving?", I asked them.
"I am sorry Kiddo, Bro!", Claire said sounding really apologetic, "But some really important work came up."
"Oh its fine we understand", I said to her.
"But Jill will be mad", Chris said almost pouting and Claire moved to hug him.
"We already told her, she's fine. I promise I'll come see you guys as often as I could", She said to him, "Take care of her and Sam."
"Kiddo, it's really great to catch up with you after so long", she gave me a tight hug, "Let's go on shopping together some time."
"Yeah sure!", I said smiling to her.
"Take care of my sister", Claire said slapping Mike's arm, "otherwise I can be a little worse than Chris", she smiled at him and he looked at me nervously. I shook my head telling him he doesn't have to think too much on it, even though Claire was capable of beating the hell out of him.
"We are so sorry about this man", Eric said shaking hands with Chris.
"Its fine, no worries about it", Chris said to him with a slight smile.

We all moved outside to see them off, we waved them goodbye and watched their car disappear round the corner, "Well I should be going too then", Mike said more to me than to Chris.
"Yeah", I said giving him a smile, it was for better now that Eric wasn't here; I guess Mike would feel more intimidated.
"So see you tomorrow?", he asked and I nodded, "Should I pick you up? We can go to work together", he suggested as he and I walked to his car.
"No, don't bother, your house is in the opposite direction", I declined his offer.
"It's no bother, you're my girlfriend", he said and leaned to kiss me but stopped and I turned back to see Chris was giving him a death glare from over my shoulder.
"I'll manage, don't worry", I said and placed a kiss on his cheek and I could feel Chris was totally revolted by it because I could almost feel his wrath, behind my back.
"See you later Mr. Redfield", Mike said to Chris, "thanks for having me."
"Yeah", Chris responded with a nod.
"Take care babe", he said getting in the car.
"Yeah you too", I wished him back with smile and he drove off.

(Chris's POV)

I looked at Kate as her fake smile faded the moment her so-called boyfriend drove away and I have to admit she was getting really good at smiling like this, "Why do you put up with him, when you don't like him?", Kate looked me a little surprised, as I asked her this question.
"I like him", she replied and started to move inside.
"Doesn't really look like it", I said following her.
"You are saying this because you don't really like him", she said in a casual tone, "but slowly you'd get used to him."
"I'll get used to him once you get used to him", I said to her in a serious tone, "the moment you're okay with him, so will be I."
"What are you trying say? It's not making any sense", she looked at me and gave me confused look.

"You have changed a lot Kiddo", I said to her and she smiled.
"No, I haven't", she said with a wide smile, something she was doing a lot lately when she wanted to hide something, "Why are you saying that?"
"Because I miss the real you", I said to her, "I don't know what happened and why you are like that but everything, including dating this guy, it's all related to Kennedy, isn't it?"
Kate's smile faded and her eyes fogged with tears, "So you knew?", she asked me seriously this time.
"Not since the beginning but I caught on quick when he didn't show up anymore and you didn't talk about him either", I told her; "I mean you two were very close."

Kate moved and wrapped her arms around me letting out a deep sigh, "It's not like I didn't want to tell you, but I didn't want any trouble between you and Leon. And dating Mike has nothing to do with Leon."
"So you're not dating this guy because you broke up with Leon?", I asked her in confirmation.
"We never went down that road, like I said we are just good friends", she told me and it came as a bit of surprise to me, "Leon probably didn't want people to get the wrong idea about us and honestly I felt it was annoying too, so we stopped seeing each other so much. And since he's so busy, I didn't want to be a bother to him either and waste his time."
"I think there is some misunderstanding", I said to her and she pulled away and it was not really a good scene, seeing tears stream down her face.
"No, it was a misunderstanding and now it's all cleared", she said to me, "He doesn't love me and just thinks of me as a good friend, he said it himself", and before I could say anything she wiped her tears, "But you have to promise me, you won't go and 'talk' to him either. He's my friend and I don't want to see my brother and friend fight."

"Afraid I am going to hurt his pretty face", I tried to joke with her and she let out a hearty laugh.
"No, I think you two are evenly matched but still I don't want to see any of you get hurt because of me", she said to me, "So promise me!", she added seriously holding out a hand to me.
"I promise", I promised her even though I wasn't planning to do anything what she expected me to do.
"Thank you!", she gave me a weak but a genuine smile, "I have to prepare for a few stuff for tomorrow, so please excuse me."
"Alright", I replied nodding.

I watched Kate almost run up the stairs and I walked to the living room wondering what might be the possible reasons, that Kennedy said something like she was just a friend to him. From where I saw it they were more than friends, they were almost a couple, were we really reading too much into it because I know it could really get annoying if he didn't have such feelings for Kate. Another reason could have been maybe he was intimidated by me, I really had a bad fame when it came to my sisters' boyfriends but Kennedy wasn't the guy who would care about it, if he loved Kate he wouldn't mind to jump in and have a fight with me, so does that mean he didn't really love her? No matter how much I thought over it, I couldn't get to a single reason that would explain why Kennedy did what he did, only he knew the reason that made him pull away from Kate.

(Jill's POV)

I woke to the sounds my baby crying and I reached to turn off the baby monitoring device that was sitting on the bedside table. It had been straight away 6 days that Sam had woke me up, but I guess sleepless nights comes as a bonus with the motherhood, "You sleep I'd check on the baby", Chris said patting my shoulder and I couldn't believe my ears but then I felt a weight shift by my side as I turned to look at Chris getting off the bed. For a moment the thought of getting back to sleep was very tempting but I knew that something was bothering Chris, so much so that he stayed up late at night thinking over it, because there was no way in hell that he'd wake up from the cries of the baby. One of the things that I had learned about Chris Redfield was that he was a heavy sleeper and he slept like a log, nothing so far, as much as in my knowledge, was able to wake this bear up from his slumber. His sleep was so deep that sometimes I wondered if he'd even sleep through a nuclear war and now that he's awake I knew he must be having something on his mind.

I pulled the blanket away and pulled on the robe over my nightdress and walked to the adjacent door to the baby's room and saw Chris struggling to change his diaper but I was impressed that he was almost halfway through, "I'll help", I said to him and he moved aside to give me space. I put on the diaper within a few seconds, being an expert at it now, "So, what's keeping you awake?", I asked him lifting up Sam in my arms, who stopped crying the moment he was in my arms.

"About Kate", he said and didn't hide the concern in his tone.
"What about her?", I asked him casually rocking the baby.
"I am not that dense as you think I am", Chris said to me, "I know something happened between her and Kennedy."
I sighed, "Did you talk to her?", I asked him and he nodded, "So you know right that there's nothing we could do?"
"Don't you think it's some sort of misunderstanding?", he asked me concerned.
"I do! Even Claire does but there is not so much we can do about it", I said to him reasonably, "We have promised Kate we won't confront Kennedy about it and even if we do, we won't know if he's lying because of that poker face of his. I know you really like the idea of her staying just a few blocks away but we don't know if it would work out that way or that far, if they started dating. As far as Kennedy's fame goes it might not."
"I don't deny that I'd like her to stay a few blocks away but what I want most is that she stays happy, it doesn't matter if she's a few blocks away or a few states", Chris said seriously and I couldn't help but smile at him, maybe this was reason that I fell for him. I put the baby down in the crib and moved to hug him in attempts to comfort him and he too wrapped his arms around me.
"We can't really do anything for them", I told him the truth, "And it's more twisted now that she has a boyfriend."

I don't know how long we held each other but I could understand Chris's worry about Kate. I didn't approve of Mike as well but if Kate liked him we really had no option but to accept him. Mike wasn't a bad guy, but compared to Leon he didn't stand a chance, because Kate was Kate when she was with Leon but with Mike, she's a different person, a person that we didn't really like to see. I just hoped and prayed that things played out themselves because it was the only thing we could do now; to leave everything on fate so it plays out itself to get the things and people where they truly belong.

A/N: Thanks for reading; I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I am extremely regretful if any of the typos or grammatical mistakes caused an inconvenience for you in understanding the context. I request you to check out my collaborative story with Shirahane Aikawa, it's been renamed Undercover, previously it was called The Evil Within, and let us know how that is.