Boundless Abyss:
II.
Deliverance
Jill held the Omega, turned it on Leon, and hit the trigger while he listened to Quint ramble. It lit up, beeping happily, and let her know he was in supreme physical shape. His resting heart rate was sixty-six beats a minute. He was hungry, so his metabolism was primed for eating. His lungs were excellent, his heart in great shape, and his muscle tone put him at a svelte eight percent body fat. He had good bone density. The Omega beeped twice, locating the residual plagas infection on his spinal cord and sternum.
Jill studied it with a practiced eye. She didn't see anything extra since their time in Alaska. But she wasn't fooled. She knew something had happened to him in that cave. Something he'd done to make a deal, avert an outbreak, something.
But whatever it was, it was cleverly hidden.
It flashed pictures of him from his recent medical clearance. It showed his torso and back in full display. It showed a bundle of old scars on his shoulder and a curve of them along his left side. It stated he was six foot tall and a honed one-hundred and eighty-six pounds. It beeped to let her know he was fertile too.
Amused, Jill blinked. The machine informed her he was physically able to reproduce. But, of course, she knew that since he had a daughter. She turned the Omega on herself, and it beeped. It told her she was five foot five, was one hundred and twenty-four pounds, and was at fourteen percent body fat herself, but that was typical. Women generally were higher in fat.
With a chuckle, Jill muttered, "Damn boobs."
And Quint remarked, "I like boobs."
Jill lowered the Omega as Leon laughed, "And you thought we'd have nothing in common."
Quint heehawed and slapped his thigh. Leon glanced at Jill, flicked a look at her boobs in her top, and had her rolling her eyes. He grinned. She grinned. And she was reminded again why she liked him.
When given the option, he just went with good humor.
Leon considered her as Quint highlighted the importance of GPS signal strength on the Omega. She looked good out of uniform and dressed down. The lavender top she wore was satiny beneath a denim jacket and tossed over khaki pants. Her dark hair was loose, curly, and careless in a way he liked, and tumbled freely around her back and shoulders as she used the Omega around the room like a kid with a new toy.
He'd specifically scouted out her meeting with Quint. He'd known it was today. He could pretend it was just a coincidence he was in the building, but why bother?
As others wandered up to see the wonder of the Omega, Leon stepped to the side so Quint could demonstrate the workings of his device to a broader audience. He put his hands in his back pockets and rocked on his heels, watching the girls from the Bureau exclaim with excitement and let Quint show them how it worked. He was a techie nerd, no lie there, but if he had a single clue about women - he'd be taking one of those girls home tonight. Leon studied him, curious, and Jill joined him at his side.
"Agent Kennedy."
He grinned and glanced down at her. "It's Special Agent, actually."
Jill chuckled, "Hmm. I heard that somewhere. Fancy meeting you here."
He glanced back at the wall and shook his head, "I couldn't miss this...if you were half right about the report you submitted on this guy, I had to see it for myself," he studied the wall and laughed, "goddamn, Jill, this is the money shot right here."
She nodded happily, "I know. It'll change how we handle outbreaks and give us what we need to circumvent large-scale spread."
"Yeah," Leon laughed again, and it was so happy it made her happy to hear it, "Jesus. Where was this a few years ago?"
"Kept under lock and key within the B.S.A.A."
He glanced at her, "Yeah, my fault," he sighed, "We could've stopped Terragrigia with something like this."
Jill shook her head, "No. Not entirely. Terragrigia...it was too sudden. There was no forewarning. Veltro..." She blew out a breath, "there was no way to know what they'd do."
Leon shifted where he stood. "Terragrigia was too coordinated. It was too out of nowhere. There's no way they could have gotten through the entire might of the EU and the US like that to get to the island. It was an inside job."
Jill inhaled sharply, "We've always suspected that. We just-"
"-couldn't find proof," Leon concluded and nodded, "yeah, me either. And I looked. Somebody knew what they were doing on that day."
"I wasn't in the panic," Jill said softly, "I missed it by eight hours."
Leon glanced at her face again with sympathy, "I know. I was ahead of you by what? A day? We were on that island hours before it went to hell."
She took his arm and guided him away from all the people. He let her and moved until they were in the quiet corner of the lobby near the burbling fountain in the shape of a bald eagle, "You said once that you didn't know anything about the panic."
Leon held her eyes and returned, "I didn't. I was in Bolivia. I was ass deep in a botched retrieval mission. I didn't know anything about it until I got back."
Jill nodded sadly, "I was on a plane over Spain fixing to jump out. I just remember Chris and his rage. It was so bad. They wouldn't let anyone in to help. They blocked everyone. He put a call into USSTRATCOM and got no answer."
Leon sighed, "I know. In fairness, the FBC had autonomous control of bioterror events outside US borders. There was nothing that could be done on my end anyway."
She held his eyes as he told her, "But I would have tried, Jill. If I could have done a damn thing, I'd have tried."
"I know," She touched his arm and smiled sadly, "I know that."
Leon glanced back at the wall again. "This will help. Having something like this, it'll help. That and the promise of the vaccine for T. It's the right direction."
Jill smiled a little. "It is. It really is...I'm really glad to help."
She blew out a breath, "I thought I'd be sadder to leave behind the B.S.A.A., but I can do so much more here. Working together, it's the right thing."
"I agree," Leon glanced down at her hand on his arm as she reverently watched Quint demonstrate more features of the Omega. His eyes tracked back to her face. He started to ask her out, and a shout from the balcony had them both lifting their eyes.
Claire waved down at them and reported, "We're about done. You guys are on in a few minutes."
Right. Business. Because it never stopped. Because it was time to do the job and take a conference. Because it just wasn't his luck to be able to have a life where he took a beautiful woman to dinner just because he could.
Jill sighed and stepped away, "No rest for the weary."
Leon studied her face. "Seems that way."
"See you in there." She smiled a little and hurried away. It was time to get dressed like agents and play the bioterror game.
He let the niggle of regret workaround in his guts. Because he'd rather be working her. Sadly, duty called. With a sigh of regret, he lamented, "story of my life..."
And he went to slip on his agent suit.
After the revelry ended, the work began. The conferences, the dialogue, and the coordination happened in conference rooms and behind closed doors. A table filled with familiar and unfamiliar faces played host to so many people in positions of power in the bioterror world that it was a like who's-who of branches of the fight.
Chris was sitting across from Jill during one particular meeting. He held her steady look with his own. He looked tired, run-down, and hung over. It was an everyday look for him these days. He'd declined since Alaska. There was no getting around it; something deeper was haunting the former sniper of Alpha Team.
Jill tapped her pen on the table while Clive O'Brien spoke urgently with Morgan Lansdale. They kept pointing at stuff on the board beside them and shouting. When Shenmei entered the room, the shouting stopped momentarily as she eased around, sat beside Chris, and smiled at Jill, "Agent Valentine."
Jill smiled dryly at Shenmei, "It's Special Agent now, Shenmei. But you know that."
"Hmm," Shenmei smiled sweetly, "I'd heard. Welcome aboard."
"Oh," Jill laughed dryly, "We're not even close to the same board."
Chris glanced at Leon and declared, "Shit, you aren't even fucking kidding."
Amused, Leon leaned back in his chair and snorted. The suit he was almost wearing was made for him. It was navy and tailored, and the baby blue shirt he wore beneath the unbuttoned jacket and matching vest were complimented by a blood-red tie that did wonders for his blonde hair. He certainly made a drastic image distinction between himself and Chris, who wore the BSAA uniform in pea green and looked rumpled and tired.
Jill and Shenmei wore various versions of a woman's power suit in black. The color was made for Shenmei, being a traitorous, lying, black-hearted bitch. Amused at the thought, Jill chuckled.
Shenmei tilted her head, "Something funny?"
Jill shook her head, and her long hair shimmered around her, "This is all funny to me. A big cosmic joke, clearly."
Chris muttered, "It would be. The idea of you and him on the opposite side of me."
Quietly, Jill stated, "Same side, Redfield, you goddamn moron. Same side."
"Whatever." He looked away and out the window, "Keep following dumb blondes, Jill. It's your style. You're even starting to become one yourself."
Jill started to retort, and Leon laid a hand on her arm to stop her. The attention returned to the front as the fighting subsided and the lecturing continued. After an hour or so of dialogue, the room dispersed.
Chris barreled his way out the door like the brute he was. He shoulder-bumped Leon so hard on his way past that the smaller man careened into the wall and unsettled a table with coffee. It rattled; Jill grabbed the back of Chris' vest, circled him out of the way of people leaving the conference room, and half threw him against the wall behind a big potted tree in the hallway.
"You're finished," She warned in a tone that sparkled with barely concealed anger, "You wanna pick a fight with Kennedy or with me, you do it somewhere else - anywhere else. But not here. Not where it matters."
"Why? You worried people will talk?" He snorted at her, "You worried your reputation will take a hit? Sorry, Valentine, but it's too late for that. Everybody already knows what you are."
Jill held his look, "And what's that?"
"Damaged goods," Chris gave her a sneer, "You switched teams, kiddo. To the dark side. You're goddamn Darth Vader in the right circles."
"That's rich coming from an ass clown," Jill shoved his chest and had his nostrils flaring, "I might be a deserter, but you? You're a joke. The only problem here? No one is laughing."
"They would if they saw you out there simping so hard for that disgrace you're shadowing."
Jill tilted her head and just laughed without humor, "Grow up, Chris. The only disgrace I'm seeing? He's standing right here."
She turned away and hurried toward the elevator. As she leaped on, her heart pounding with pent-up hurt and anger, her hands lifted to pull her hair sharply. He'd been her best friend for so long. What had happened? He'd turned on her so fast it was like having a loyal dog go from protecting you to trying to rip your limbs off.
Aching with his loss, Jill took herself off in her suit to the closest bar.
She ordered a vodka tonic and sat brooding at the bar while people laughed and milled around her. Most organizations had enjoyed the party and taken off when the meetings began. Those that remained were there for interagency strategic cooperation.
The stool beside her swiveled, and Jill muttered, "I'm not interested."
"Shame. I'm pretty good in bed."
Jill turned her face to Leon and sighed, "I'm sorry. It's not really you. It's me. I don't know what his fucking damage is."
Leon studied her suffering face, "He's jealous."
Jill shook her head, "It was never like that."
"For you, maybe," Leon tilted his head and smiled sadly, "For him? It was more than that."
Jill denied that again with another head shake, "He's not usually petty. Not about shit like that. We were friends. Best friends. Partners. He never once did anything to make me think otherwise."
"Hmm," Leon shifted on his stool, "Maybe he just assumed you always knew."
"He would," Jill sighed, "The idiot. The goddamn rock. He just lays there like a lump and lets the world roll on around him."
"He hates me for a good reason, Jill."
She met his eyes and laughed with ire, "Why? Because you did the right thing a few years ago?" She scoffed now, "That's just stupid, Leon. It's over. It's done. You handled it the way he would have. He's just pissed because you did it, and he can't play in your sandbox anymore. It's territorial."
"And it's about you."
Jill shook her head, "If it is, that's his problem. And that's territorial too. He never made a sound about wanting me, Leon. He just doesn't want anyone else to have me."
Curious, Leon wondered, "Do you want him?"
Jill laughed again, "Maybe I did, once. But that's been over for a long time. Just about the time he took off after Raccoon, I knew where I stood. Friends, yes, but not more than that. Never. It was a line he'd never cross. And one I knew was trouble if I did myself."
"He never touched you?"
Jill scoffed, "Have you met him? No. He fucks when he wants, but not women he works with," she glanced at Leon and added, "Maybe you have that in common."
Leon made a hmm sound as Jill finished, "I'm not worth the risk, I guess. Just worth kicking to the curb when I don't live up to his expectations. It's ok. I'm used to being disposable."
"You think you're disposable?"
Jill sipped her drink and snorted, "I think I'm not worth fighting over. I can promise you that. Besides, do I look like the type of woman worth risking your career for? I'm not that fucking special."
She made a pfft sound and threw back the rest of her drink. She slid off her stool and muttered, "Sorry. I'm being a whining asshole. I'll get it together. Give me a minute."
She slid into the bathroom. The door thumped closed, and Jill leaned on the sink, palms flat, studying her face. She watched her reflection, looking back at her, sad, hurt, looking for answers. She wasn't built like a man. She didn't know how to just turn off her feelings.
And Chris abandoning her had hurt her feelings.
He'd been her family, and now he was almost her enemy. He hated her. And she didn't know why. She couldn't figure out where things had gone so horribly wrong. What had been a choice, the right one, had somehow struck him as a betrayal. She couldn't recover from it. He'd thrown her on the sword to save himself, and she'd walked away.
It wasn't like him. He was, if nothing else, loyal. When had that stopped applying to her?
When had she stopped being his family? When had he stopped trusting her? Or had he never believed in her, to begin with?
He'd kicked her out, and now she had no one. She had nothing. She was just trying to find her way through the mess that had become her life. She was lost in the dark without a flashlight. She didn't quite know how to finish becoming whoever she was meant to be now.
If she wasn't the right hand to Chris' left...what was she?
She looked at herself in the mirror and declared, "Nothing."
That felt horrible to say it out loud. It felt worse to almost believe it. She was nothing. She had to be. He wouldn't have cut her out of his life without flinching if she wasn't. Even if Leon was right and Chris had feelings for her, he'd cut her off without so much as a backward glance. She wasn't worth believing in. She wasn't worth fighting for.
She wasn't worth dropping his shields to love.
She was nothing.
She'd let him make her nothing.
The door opened, and Leon came through with a glance around to be sure they were alone. "You, ok?"
Jill shook her head. She was Jill Valentine - survivor, warrior, woman. She wasn't something you just tossed aside like a broken toy when it failed you. And he didn't deserve her loyalty. Not if he could throw her aside when she chose a different path than him.
She was done being nothing.
Quietly, she answered, "Do you want me?"
He looked up from her lips to her eyes. Voice gruff, he avowed, "I always want you."
"Then take me."
Jesus. It was an echo of what he'd thought during that hug. Take her. He wanted to take her. Maybe he was wrong about what was in him. Maybe it was her in him making him feel this way.
Her hands wrapped around the shoulders of Leon's vest, and she jerked. He surged against her and jerked at her skirt. It hiked, as much as it was able, just high enough on her hips to expose the tops of her sheer thigh highs and the tops of her garters. He wasn't gentle. He was rough.
She barely got out the start of a laugh before he thrust his tongue in her mouth. The kiss was so wet it might as well have happened underwater. He pressed her against the wall, feeding off her mouth like a vampire. Jill tried to get so close it was like she'd split his skin and sink inside. The world shifted out of focus, and his hands slid down her outer thighs like he'd hike her around him.
It made her breath wheeze and catch a second before he pushed her panties to the side and thrust his fingers into her. She wasn't entirely ready for it. It was crude. It worked. The second he did it, she damped and clamped around those digits.
Her hands grabbed at his face, and she cried, "...oh my god..." even as she creamed with acceptance at the invasion.
His hand slid over her mouth to muffle her as she held onto his face like it might keep her from falling. His thumb slid between her folds, it brushed against the top of her engorged passage, and those fingers mercilessly drilled into her body. Curled fingers, retreat, curled fingers, retreat. And that thumb, circling, almost lazily. Circle. Circle.
Circle.
Her skin tightened, her body seizing around his assault, and the pressure in her chest built up to a scream muffled by his controlling hand. She humped like a whore against him, thighs quaking, body wet and ready now. When her scrambling hands slapped his face and fisted in his hair to jerk on him, he slid his hand away from her mouth to let her claim his. The kiss was slick, hot, and almost as exciting as her body doing the same for him.
He'd known that she would be wild in bed the first night he'd met her. He had no idea. She wasn't just wild; she was untapped madness. She bled it out of him even as she fed it back to him with teeth and tongues and untamed greed.
They put aside everything else, anything else, to dissolve into each other.
He was simultaneously pissed and almost glad he was wearing clothes. Without them, he'd have plowed her already. And he wasn't going to use her like that. Not now. Not like this. So, he gave her what she needed. He made it all about her and watching her come apart, and that made it all about him.
She rode his hand. She was slick and needy. It was quick—a fast, nearly desperate coupling. No ghosts. No evil. Just greed for the pleasure that spread between them.
Jill whimpered, "...we should-you need...just give me a-"
He shook his head, denying what he knew was offering. Instead, he caught the back of her neck again as he crudely drove his fingers into her body. He spitted her like a butterfly on a pin and didn't let her grab for his groin. If she did, if she touched him, he'd lose the last tether of decency that held him down.
She clenched. She came, calling for god as she creamed around him. Her body milked and mated without rhythm, and he held her down to answer it.
Everything in this room, maybe for the first time, was the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Nobody was lying. Nobody was faking anything. It was just raw, honest, almost painfully consuming lust.
He grunted. He cursed. His fist hit the wall an inch to the left of her head at being denied completion inside her.
But just because he was an asshole didn't mean he was a fucking one.
She grabbed for his crotch, and he stopped her. He stopped her. Because he wouldn't fuck her like that. Not here. Not now. In a goddamn bathroom in a bar on the beach. But his commonsense center was swirling so far out of control he couldn't stop touching her.
He poured pleasure over her until she went half blind as he pinned her arms over her head to keep her from touching him.
Jill whimpered as the first hard rush of orgasm faded and let her head fall back to answer his slow, lazy, languid tongue in her mouth.
He fingered her almost absently, his mouth sliding down to sample her neck. Her thighs twitched, snapping together around his invading his hand as she practically begged into his mouth, "...d-don't...oh, god...don't...you'll get me going again."
In answer, he simply swirled his tongue in her mouth and rolled his thumb over her clit.
She was too swollen, too sensitive, and too close. When his tongue retreated from her mouth, she jerked on his restraining hand and warned, "...I can't..."
But she did.
She went, clenching around his fingers that played passively in her slick, engorged, beautifully begging body. She whined, she humped against his hand, her thighs quaked weakly, and he watched her face to praise, "...beautiful...Jesus..."
Her eyes fluttered open to meet his, and he reiterated, "You're fucking beautiful."
She felt it.
At that moment, looking at his face, she believed it.
He kept his fingers in her until she stopped spasming and clenching around them. He wanted to keep touching her to see how many times she'd cum before she begged him to stop. Her flushed face, her dilated eyes, her sweaty skin, and hooded lids and lashes - she was like an addiction. He'd known she'd be beautiful when she surrendered to him. He'd known it five seconds after he'd met her. He was wrong.
He'd been wrong.
She wasn't just beautiful; she was perfect.
When she could breathe around the retreating orgasm, Jill let loose one last cry and shook on the wall before him. She'd used him to forget her own pain. She knew that. She felt the tears well up as she held his eyes in the dimly lit bathroom and said again, "...I'm sorry."
Leon's brow furrowed as he scooped her messy hair back from her face, "...why?"
His tone was a little hoarse, gruff, and grumbling. And then? She proved she was as beautiful inside as outside as she confessed, "...I used you."
He blinked. Her face crumbled as she added, "I used you to get off."
Trying not to let the trickle of amusement show on his face, Leon answered in a teasing tone, "...you bitch."
Jill let out a wet laugh and put a hand over her face. "...you'll joke us both to death. I'm a big whore. I didn't want to think about anything but myself. Don't make this easier on me."
He tugged her hand down and commanded, "Look at me."
She opened her eyes, and Leon confided, "I look like a guy who didn't know what was happening?"
She twisted her lips as her eyes filled with tears. "I just wanted you. I wanted you...and I didn't want to hurt anymore."
Touched, Leon returned, "Me too. You hearing me? Me too. Don't apologize to me for what we both wanted. I'm not sorry...well...maybe I'm a little sorry."
"...why?"
"I forgot to turn off the camera on my communicator. It's possible Washington just saw the whole thing."
She covered her face with her hands and charmed him half to death. "Lord...why didn't you let me touch you?"
Keeping things light, he told her, "Because this was all about you, sweetheart. Watching you, that's what I wanted."
She eyed him between her fingers. "...you're the weirdest man I've ever met."
With a chuckle, Leon bowed his head. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. That silver tongue that keeps me coming back, Valentine, just sayin."
A tear slid down Jill's cheek as she laughed lightly. "...god...what are we doing here, Leon?"
He shifted slightly and replied, "In a few minutes, we might be sticking together...since you soaked my groin...of course, it might have been me. Not entirely sure I didn't cum in my pants like a horny teenager."
He hadn't. She could feel pressed hard and ready against her hip. He didn't even seem bothered by it.
Jill laughed again and cupped his biceps. "Thank you."
Brows arched, he wondered, "For what?"
"For not making a big deal out of this."
He narrowed his eyes, "I'd like to think it's at least a good size...maybe not big, but-"
Jill kissed his smirking mouth to silence him. "This is probably going to end badly for us."
He eyed her and decided, "Maybe. But right now? I don't give a shit."
He pulled his hand from inside her with some regret as she keened sweetly and clung to him. Face red, she whispered, "...I...I don't think I can walk."
And that? That was a sign of a job well done. Almost arrogant about it, he offered, "I could carry you. I do tend to be a white knight."
Jill smacked his chest lightly as she stumbled into a stall to clean herself up. Amused, he listened to mutter as she wiped away the signs of her surrender. He hadn't fucked her. He'd stopped himself. It was proof he could, when he wanted, control himself.
But he wanted to fuck her.
He just wanted to do it someplace that wasn't a public pooper.
He wasn't a hero; he just wasn't a teenager anymore, either. He turned to wash his hands and waited for her to finish cleaning up.
When Jill emerged from the stall, flushed and looking almost nervous, Leon teased, "You ok there, killer?"
Jill laughed and started to say something cute, and his phone rang. He curled an arm around her waist as she began to retreat, tugging her back to his front, pinning her against him, and pressing a kiss to the back of her neck that had her shivering and surrendering against him as he answered, "Kennedy."
His lips slid along the nape of her neck, and she tilted her head to the side to give him better access.
His kissing stopped just below her left ear as his body language changed. He went still. Jill did, too, listening, alert now. His agent's voice was on as he remarked, "Track the signal. Give me thirty minutes."
He flipped the phone closed and let go of her. Jill turned and demanded, "What is it?"
Holding her eyes, Leon said, "I'm sorry. I gotta move quickly here," he volleyed his gaze over her face and announced, "...and I can't tell you why."
Jill gave him eyes of complete understanding. Neither moved until she nodded, "Ok. Go."
He moved. He reached the door, paused, glanced back at her, and said, "Nice to see you, Jill."
"Maybe next time you stay long enough to get dinner."
Leon studied her. He tilted his head. Get a life, they'd said. Was this how it started?
"It's a date," he declared, winking playfully, "m'lady."
He bowed his way through the door.
She barely kept her face straight as she nodded. He echoed it. The door swung shut behind him.
And she just laughed.
She couldn't feel anything but him anymore, which was entirely his fault.
