The following month was Leon's birthday and Helena and Sherry were trying to plan something for him since he had never been able to celebrate his birthday in the past.
"Oh, I know what we can do! There's a restaurant that Leon loves that has a private room for special occasions so we can do that. This way no one has to come here who doesn't know where you guys are staying, and no one has to cook and make a huge mess." Sherry says, finally coming to a solution of a place that they could all go.
"Alright we can do that. Who all is invited?"
"Well, you and Aliya obviously, me, Jake, Jill, Chris, their daughter, Hunnigan. Only those of us that are close. Oh, I have to invite Claire! You'll love her. The two of you are kind of similar in a way."
"Claire is his friend who was also in Raccoon City, right?"
"Yeah, she also saved me. You're going to love her, and I'll see about Saturday," Sherry says as Leon came in from work.
"What about Saturday?" he asks, giving Helena a peck on the lips.
"Oh nothing!" Sherry says quickly, shrugging him off as she grabbed her stuff and left, making sure to close the door behind her.
"What was that about?"
"Oh, you know how Sherry is. Anyway, do you have plans on Saturday night?"
Leon thought for a minute, "uh no I don't think so, why?"
Helena shrugged, "well it's your birthday and I thought that maybe we can go out to dinner."
Leon nodded, "yeah we can do that."
Helena smiled and gave him another kiss as the dog came over and jumped on them, pawing at the two as if to ask for attention.
"Hey Sylvie," she says, reaching down and picking the Corgi up, who licked her face. Helena had quickly become a dog person in the month since they got the puppy for Aliya. She had tried not to grow attached to the animal, but soon she found the two of them cuddling on the couch together while waiting for Leon to get home and until it was time to pick Aliya up from school. She quickly became the parent bonding with the pet they didn't want.
Leon chuckled and gave the Corgi a scratch behind the ears before Helena put her down to go play. The two spent the rest of the night together watching TV before it was time to turn in for the night.
Nothing much happened for the rest of the week except for the fact that Aliya was beginning to run on fumes again and that one dose of medicine from Ada was all they had, and Leon had been contemplating asking Ada if she could get anymore, but he knew he'd be in the doghouse with Helena, and he wanted to keep his promise about limiting contact with Ada.
"Alright guys, ready to go?" Helena asks, dragging him out of his thoughts as she and Aliya entered the kitchen.
"Yeah and…wow you two look great," he says noticing that Helena was wearing a dress for the first time since they met. The dress was a short sleeved black one made of cotton material that went to just above her knees and Aliya wore a similar one except that it was purple with thin spaghetti straps with white cardigan and tights, her dark hair pulled back into two braids.
"Well, you don't look so bad yourself," she says, noticing Leon's dark blue dress shirt and dress pants and gave him a kiss as she grabbed her keys from the kitchen island, the three of them heading to the car.
"So what restaurant are we going to again?"
"It's a surprise. You'll see."
Leon looked at her, confused as she drove them to the restaurant and watched the scenery go by. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he saw the restaurant when she parked.,
"How did you get a reservation at this place? They're usually booked months out," he says, getting out of the car and the three began making their way inside.
"Not me. Sherry pulled some strings," she says, quickly giving the waitress their fake last name and being led to where the special occasion room was, which confused Leon even more until they opened the doors.
"SURPRISE!" Everyone shouted as they entered the room, almost scaring Leon at the aggressiveness of it all.
"You guys didn't have to plan anything."
"It was all Sherry and Helena who planned it," Jill says, handing Leon a drink as their young daughter, Elizabeth, ran to hug him.
"Yeah, all we had to do was show up." Jake says as Leon picked Elizabeth up with his free arm while Jake put an arm around Sherry.
"Yep! There's still one guest that we're waiting on but she's running late."
Leon turned and looked between Sherry and Helena, noticing that they were giving each other a look.
"You two really didn't have to do this."
"Well, they wanted to so just accept it." Chris says, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder and then taking Elizabeth from him.
Helena chuckled, watching as Aliya went to try and mingle but even though she had met everyone at some point, she was painfully shy suddenly and didn't know what to talk about.
"Chris, any luck replicating the serum?"
Chris shook his head, "unfortunately not. We have Rebecca at our lab seeing if she can do something but no luck yet."
"She's just starting to go down hill again," he frowned, looking over to where Aliya was attempting to talk to Hunnigan, wringing her hands together nervously.
"I know, just try not to worry about it. We will tell Rebecca to put a rush on it and if she can't, we will figure something out." Jill says, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Try not to worry. Try to enjoy the night." Helena says gently as the two BSAA agents walk away.
"I know, she's just getting sick again and I_" He starts, cutting himself off when Claire walked through the door, "no way. Claire?" he asks, rushing over to her and giving her a hug, Helena awkwardly standing back, making sure to give them space.
"Hey, so sorry I'm a little late," Claire says as she stepped back when Sherry came over.
"You should be. Do you have any idea how much planning this took?" Sherry asks jokingly, hugging her friend who rolled her eyes.
"Oh, there's someone I want you to meet," Leon says, grabbing Claire's hand and bringing her over to Helena, who was now joined by Aliya.
"Claire, this is my girlfriend, Helena."
"Hi Helena, I have heard so much about you," Claire says, shaking Helena's hand.
"All good things I hope."
"Oh of course. Leon hasn't said a single bad thing about you."
"Oh, and Claire, this is Aliya. Me and Helena are tasked with keeping her safe."
"Oh yeah, Leon told me about you as well. You're the uh…" She starts, struggling to come up with the correct word for it.
"You can say it. Lab experiment, orphan, freak show, I've heard it all." Aliya says, finally excusing herself to get some fresh air.
"I'll go talk to her. You guys just catch up." Sherry says, following the girl out because if anyone knew exactly how she felt, it was Sherry.
Sherry went outside, frantically trying to look for the teen and started to panic when she didn't immediately find her. She finally saw Aliya sitting on the curb by the parking meter with her knees pulled up to her chest.
"Want to tell me what that was about?" Sherry asks, sitting next to her on the curb.
"I know it was rude and inappropriate. Save me the lecture."
", that isn't what I was going to say. You were dealt some shitty cards in your short life, and you were resentful."
Aliya looked at her, "wow you really do know how I feel."
Sherry chuckle, "I was your age when I was implanted with the G embryo and, like you, I was also experimented on."
"Oh, I had no idea."
Sherry shrugged, "its not really something that I like to talk about."
"You know I fell and cut my knee yesterday and within seconds it healed on its own?"
"Yep, that happens to me too."
"I was just sitting there thinking, 'what kind of freak am I?' and how I just wanted to be normal. I wanted to break my arm and get a cast for people to sign, I wanted a mom and dad who love me unconditionally. Last month was the first birthday that I celebrated. I longed for that my whole life." Aliya says, starting to cry as Sherry put a comforting arm around her.
"You know, normal is overrated and in a few years, you're going to be grateful for the fast healing. And Leon and Helena care about you like you're their own. Family isn't about blood, you know."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks Sherry." she asks, starting to feel better already.
"And your real mom doesn't deserve such an awesome kid like you," she says, poking Aliya's side and making her giggle and squirm.
"Okay you're right."
"I always am. Now let's go inside." Sherry says, standing and helping Aliya stand, the two going inside where Leon, Helena, and Claire were laughing.
"So, you only survived Raccoon City because you were hungover after drinking when your girlfriend broke up with you?"
"Oh yeah, I woke up in a hotel with a hangover super late for my first day on the job. I got there hours after everything started going down." He says with a laugh, taking a sip of his beer.
"You are just something else, Leon Kennedy." Helena says, shaking her head in disbelief and finally noticing that Sherry and Aliya had come back.
"Hey everything okay?" She asks as Sherry got the girl a soda from the refreshments table.
"Yeah, I was upset but I'm okay now."
Helena nodded, "I'm glad you're okay now."
Aliya smiled nervously as Sherry came back and handed the soda to her, Helena going to grab a drink for herself while Aliya went to sit down at the table.
"Claire, I need a favor."
"Alright Leon, what's your favor?" Claire asks, leaning against the red painted wall and crossing her arms.
"I need you to see if you can get in touch with Ada. Tell her I need something for Aliya. She'll know what I mean."
"And why can't you do this yourself?"
"Helena doesn't like Ada because she killed her sister and I promised that I'd limit contact with her."
Claire clicked her tongue, "wow it must be serious if you're willing to cut Ada out. You didn't do that for me."
"Please don't start."
"What? It's just an observation. Do you think if I was still mad about how we ended things I'd still be your friend?"
Leon sighed, "well can you please see if you can get in touch with her?"
"Alright, I'll see what I can do." She says, walking over to where Helena had gotten herself and Aliya a plate of food, sitting down at the table. Claire grabbed herself a plate of food and took a seat next to Helena.
"Helena, I'm going to be very transparent about this so that there are no surprises. Me and Leon used to date."
Helena looked at Claire, wondering why she was telling her this, but she also wasn't surprised that Leon and Claire had dated at one point.
"Okay? If there aren't still feelings there, then it's fine."
Claire was surprised, half expecting a jealous outburst. She hadn't been expecting this reaction, considering how much Helena hated Ada and she was sure that part of that was jealousy all the same.
"No, we just kind of drifted apart. It was also partly because of Ada. I did not like her either at first and Leon being young and stupid at the time, would not cut her off so we ended things and we decided we were better off as friends. You're not jealous?"
Helena shook her head, "no I don't really get jealous. I take it you've met many jealous girlfriends?"
"You have no idea," she laughs, "but he really is a great guy. He told me that he limits contact with Ada for you. He didn't cut Ada out for any girlfriends."
"Yeah, I know. He was smart to do that. He is an idiot in other aspects though."
The two women laughed, talking, and getting to know each other throughout the evening and Leon was glad that the two women he cared about were getting along so well, but he also knew they would since they were different but at the same time so similar. Eventually it was time for everyone to head home and Helena and Claire exchanged numbers with a plan to get together for drinks. Everyone said goodnight and Leon, Helena, and Aliya went to their car, unaware they were being watched.
"We have sights on them. Please advise."
"Follow them and find out where they live; but don't do anything yet. We need to be patient."