The rest of the week went by without anything else happening. Helena and Leon had let Aliya stay home from school for the rest of the week since she was the one that was having the hardest time adjusting to the fact that someone had tried to kill them. Throughout the whole week, she had started to have debilitating migraines and increased sensitivity to loud sounds, and she felt like a dog with how sensitive her hearing was lately.
Aliya looked up as Helena knocked on the entry way to her bedroom.
"Okay, me and Leon are leaving for dinner. We'll be back in a couple hours and remember_"
"I know. No answering the door."
Helena nodded and turned to go down the stairs where Leon was waiting for her.
"Hey, ready to go?" He asks, opening the front door to go out to the car.
"So, where are we going?"
"You know that Italian place in town?" He asks, opening the passenger side door for her.
"Oh fancy."
Leon chuckled as he walked around to get in on his side, pushing his worry about Aliya being left alone to the back of his mind.
Aliya spent most of the time reading in her bedroom, grateful to have the house to herself for a change. She would get the occasional text from Leon and Helena making sure that she was okay, but other than that she had peace and quiet.
Aliya looked up from her book when she heard a knock on the door. Her stomach churned as she remembered the last visit they got when Leon and Helena weren't home. The young girl went downstairs and looked through the peep hole to see Trevor standing on the other side with a folder. Aliya opened the door, knowing that her friend wasn't a threat.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
"Hey uh you weren't in school all week, so I brought the assignments to you. Maybe I can help you with them?" He asks, peering behind her and not seeing Leon or Helena anywhere, "where are your parents?"
"Oh, they're on a date night. Dad's bringing mom out for their anniversary." She says, stepping aside and closing the door behind them as he entered.
"Oh, that's nice that they celebrate. My parents work so much that their idea of celebrating is getting some takeout."
Aliya laughed, "hey there's nothing wrong with that."
Trevor shrugged as they went into the kitchen and started working on the missing assignments that she had due, sprawling the various papers over the table. At some point they got sidetracked and started playing a game of would you rather.
"Okay, would you rather bathe in nothing but mayonnaise for a month straight, or not shower for a month straight?"
"What kind of question is that?" She asks, laughing at how ridiculous the question was.
"Oh, just answer it!"
"Well, let's see…if I don't shower for a month straight, then I smell until I'm finally able to shower. If I bathe in mayonnaise for a month straight, I just smell like mayonnaise."
Trevor rolled his eyes, "just tell me your answer."
"I'll take the not showering."
"What? Why?"
Aliya laughed, "for one, I hate mayonnaise. Two, if I don't shower for the whole month then I can at least wear perfume and deodorant and all that stuff to kind of smell pleasant."
"Fair enough. Your turn."
"Okay, would you rather_" She starts, only to be cut off by hearing the knob on the back door rattling as if someone was trying to force it open.
Aliya got up and went over to the backdoor, looking through the side window and seeing the other person on the other side and screamed. Aliya grabbed a chair to barricade the door to buy them some time.
"What's going on?" Trevor asks as she backed away from the door, hearing the man banging on the door trying to get in.
"Someone's trying to break in!"
"What? Well call the cops!"
Aliya shook her head and grabbed Trevor by the hand, pushing him up the stairs ahead of her and taking out her phone to call Leon.
"Aliya? Is everything okay?" Leon asks, picking the phone up on the first ring as he and Helena left the restaurant.
"Daddy, there are people here! Please hurry!" She says frantically as the man kicked the door open, which Leon had heard. Aliya didn't wait for Leon to respond as she hung up.
Leon looked at Helena, "we need to hurry!" He says, the two running to the car, sending an SOS to Chris and Jill on the way.
Aliya went into Leon and Helena's room, opening Leon's drawer in the nightstand and grabbing his spare gun. She didn't really know how to use it, but she was about to learn tonight.
"Woah do you even know how to use that thing?" Trevor asks as he saw the weapon.
"We're about to find out!" She says, pushing him out of the room and the two began running to Aliya's room, the man shooting at them from downstairs as he saw them run across, just barely missing Aliya. Aliya ran into her room behind Trevor, closing and locking the door.
"What is going on!?" Trevor asks frantically as Aliya paced, not sure of what else to do until she got an idea.
"I'll explain later. Give me your shoes."
Trevor gave her a weird look but complied to her request. Aliya took his shoes and ran over to her bedroom window and opened it, dropping them to the ground below and then doing the same with her own shoes.
The raven-haired girl shoved Trevor into her closet with her and closing the door just as the man kicked her bedroom door open.
"Subject 11025, I know you're in here. There's no where for you to run."
Trevor looked over and mouthed something that she couldn't quite make out as the man walked by the closet and looked out the open window.
"They seem to have gone out the window."
"Oh no, they are there alright. Keep looking." The voice on the other end of his earpiece said.
Aliya's heart was beating a mile a minute as the man walked around the room and she scrambled for her phone as it started vibrating against the hard floor, alerting him to where they were hiding. Aliya quickly pressed the end call button, mentally kicking herself as she readied the gun, the man slowly opening the door.
Aliya didn't hesitate as she blindly shot the gun, not once, not twice, but three times. She heard the downstairs door get kicked open as the man fell to the ground, dead. Aliya still held the gun close to her as she heard Chris and Jill calling out for her downstairs.
Aliya snapped out of it and grabbed Trevor, forcing him to get up even though he was paralyzed in fear, pushing him out of the closet.
"Trevor, I'll explain to you on Monday. Leave now before they find you up here."
"What? Are you_"
Aliya cut him off, "just fucking go!"
Trevor quickly nodded and went out the open window as Aliya got up on shaky legs and went over to the body laying in the middle of the floor. The girl fell to her knees, still clutching the gun to her chest, blood seeping from the body to where she was kneeling. She could feel the warm blood as it covered her legs.
Jill and Chris had come into the house as they heard the gun shots from Aliya's room, their weapons drawn as they rushed up to her room. They cautiously entered Aliya's room to see the body on the ground and Aliya covered in blood, clutching Leon's gun to her as she stared at the body in complete shock, looking absolutely petrified.
"Hey, it's okay hon. You're okay." Jill says, putting her gun down and approaching Aliya while Chris examined the body. Aliya started shaking, still holding the gun like it was her lifeline. Aliya only dropped the weapon when she saw Leon and Helena enter the room, getting up and rushing over to them, hugging them both.
"Hey it's okay. Are you okay!? You're covered in blood!" Helena says, worried that the girl had gotten hurt.
"It's not hers." Chris says as he called it in to have some of his BSAA agents come take the body away, looking out the window as some D.S.O agents and Hunnigan had arrived as well to canvas the area.
"I-I knew him." Aliya says shakily, looking up at Leon, "his name is Rob. He… He was assigned to watch over me at the lab…and I killed him." She adds, letting out a strangled sob.
"Hey, you did what you had to do, okay? It was you or him, always remember that." He says gently, kneeling in front of her as Hunnigan entered the room.
"Is everyone alright?" She asks worriedly as she looked at them.
"Yeah, we're fine."
Hunnigan nodded, "we need to move you three. Now."
"Move us where?" Helena asks as Aliya clung to her.
"I'll get another safe house in the area set up for you, but in the meantime, go back to Leon's apartment and stay there for the rest of the weekend. And do not let Aliya out of your sight."
"How did they even get past you guys?" Leon asks, looking at Chris and Jill, trying not to sound accusatory.
"Hunnigan, we found the back door kicked open. It seems like they went around the back to avoid being detected." Sherry says as she came into the bedroom after looking at the different points of entry.
Chris looked at Leon, "there's your answer." He says as Jill picked up the gun by the body and handed it to Leon.
She shouldn't have had to use it. He thought to himself, hanging his head down as he put the weapon in his holster.
"Right, well pack some clothes and get out of here." Hunnigan says, gesturing for the two agents and child to leave.
Helena and Leon went down the hall to their room, grabbing their bags and throwing clothes into them quickly while Aliya did the same in her own bedroom. The three were out of the house within ten minutes and Aliya went with Leon in his car while Helena was by herself in hers, driving to Leon's place.
"Hey, Hunnigan, someone else was here with Aliya." Jake says, coming into the bedroom with a pair of shoes.
Hunnigan sighed, "great. I'll bring it to Leon and Helena's attention tomorrow."
Leon, Helena, and Aliya got to Leon's place within twenty minutes and Leon went to the grab blankets and pillows to set up the couch for himself to sleep so that Helena and Aliya could have the bed. Helena ushered Aliya to the bathroom to get her cleaned up. The woman ran the hot water for Aliya and grabbed a towel, getting it wet and starting to wipe the blood off her.
"I'm sorry." Aliya says softly, speaking for the first time since leaving the house.
"Why are you sorry?" Helena asks, briefly looking up at her curiously.
"For using the gun."
"Hey, you did the right thing, okay? You called one of us and you did what you needed to protect yourself." Helena says, brushing a strand of hair out of the pre-teens face, "now let's get to bed."
Aliya nodded as Helena finished cleaning her up and handed her the pajamas to change into, giving her the privacy to get changed and deciding to head out to the living room to talk with Leon.
Leon was sitting on the couch, staring at his gun that was now on the coffee table.
"She shouldn't have had to use it. She's just a kid." He says, reaching over and taking the magazine out of the gun before placing both on the coffee table again.
"I know, but she's going to get through it. She'll bounce back from this."
Leon sighed, "I know, but still."
Helena sat next to him on the couch and wrapped her arms around him in a hug, not sure of what she could say to make him feel better or make the situation any better. All she could really offer was a hug as her way of telling him that everything would be okay.
"Why don't we get some sleep? And I'm not quite comfortable just kicking you out of your room so, since this is still a mission, let's go and have some…family cuddling I guess?" She asks awkwardly, unsure of how to word it.
Leon got up and followed her to the bedroom where the two saw Aliya had already made herself comfortable and was sound asleep, exhausted from the events of the evening.
The two smiled sadly as they both climbed into bed for the night.
A/N: Let me know what y'all think! Please review