Chapter 4: Relax
A/N: Hello! We're back with another chapter!
Rachel is having second thoughts on her thesis and worried it's not good enough. How is a girl supposed to relax?
Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil; I just own my characters.
Enjoy!
/
After a long, sleepless weekend Rachel managed to get her thesis done. She might have gone back a thousand times changing a couple of things because she kept second guessing her knowledge, but that was beside the point. A good doctor always looks for different outcomes, right?
"Will you take your eyes away from that stupid paper for one minute? It's not going to run away" Isabella said.
Rachel waved her off and checked to make sure she didn't spell anything wrong.
"You know how our instructor is. And since I'm on my last leg with him I want this to be perfect" she said.
Isabella saw the bags under her friend's eyes. It worried her how her friend pushed herself too far. One of these days she was going to make herself sick. Like Rachel she wanted to be a successful surgeon, but she knew that being under constant stress did more harm than good. That's why med students always suffered a lot than other college students.
"You're not going to score brownie points for passing out in class" she said.
"I have to do good in this class, Issy" Rachel said.
"I know I can do better than this, I just need to push myself harder and show them what I'm capable of."
Isabella flinched when she heard her best friend say that. The motto 'Do Better' was forbidden. Growing up with Rachel since they were kids, she saw how that phrase tore her best friend apart. She could still hear the scolding Rachel's mother would give her.
"Why can't you be better?!"
Springing up from her seat, she rushed over to her best friend and grabbed her face.
"Now you listen to me, Rach. You are at the top of our classes and you're a walking encyclopedia when it comes to medicine. Hell, even our instructor gave you a pass on his strict no tardy policy because he sees the potential in you. You do NOT have to prove to anyone that you can do better. You are fine just the way that you are. Don't let that bitch get into your head again, you hear me?"
Rachel bit her lip to stop herself from trembling. Isabella had a point. She couldn't let that voice in her head tell her what she had to be. Everyone around her knew she was doing good…but why was in hard to tell herself that?
Isabella pushed the paper away and gave her friend a weak smile.
"How about we go out and enjoy the day? It's so nice out and it'd be a shame spending it being couped up in here all day" she offered.
Rachel numbly nodded.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea" she said.
She changed out of her pajamas into something for outside and decided to go on a little adventure with her best friend.
/
"Should we go see a movie?"
"Hell no, because every time someone gets injured on screen you go on a tirade of how it wasn't accurate and that if this really happened the person would die. That's why I won't watch medical dramas with you" Isabella said.
"Hey, if they are going to add scenes that focus on an injury, they could at least do their homework" Rachel retorted.
"It's drama, Rach. They exaggerate on purpose so people will come see it. If they made things real, it would be super boring. Like anyone would believe that a doctor would discover a mysterious illness no one has heard of in one day!"
"I'm just saying…" Rachel pouted.
"And for the record you did the same thing when we watched 'Alien' and they tried to dissect the creature that was lodged in that scientists body."
She was rewarded with a slap on the arm.
"No movies" Isabella warned.
"We're supposed to enjoy outside, remember?"
"Yeah, yeah" Rachel sighed.
The two of them walked towards the park that was close to their campus. With it being Sunday, a lot of people wanted to enjoy the nice weather before they had to go back to either work or school. Parents took their kids for a picnic while some of the frat boys were off playing a game.
"It's nice to finally take a breather after all that studying" Isabella sighed.
"Yeah" Rachel said quietly.
Isabella looked at her friend out of the corner of her eye.
"You're not thinking about that paper and class, are you?" she warned.
Rachel quickly shook her head.
"N-no, I'm just thinking about what's going to happen tomorrow" she said.
"So, you are thinking about class" Isabella stated.
She stopped walking and faced Rachel.
"You need to stop worrying about it. I know you want to do amazing things in this class but stressing over it everyday and on your days off isn't going to do you any good. Nothing bad is going to happen, ok? And if the off chance that you don't do good on your paper don't see it as a fail but as a new learning curve. You're not going to know everything right away; it takes time and practice"
Rachel let out a shaky breath. She heard what Isabella said but at the same time she didn't. She wasn't in the same boat as she was. She wasn't headstrong and confident, she wasn't outgoing, she wasn't tough enough to tell creepy college guys to leave her alone. She wasn't anything like that.
She knew her best friend meant well but sometimes her words did more harm than good.
The sound of someone's phone ringing broke their silence. Isabella pulled her phone out and went to see who it was.
"What...Are you fucking serious? Again?! If you keep losing it our Landlord is going to kick us out! Ugh fine, I'll be there."
She cursed in Spanish as she put her phone away.
"I'll be right back. My stupid roommate forgot her fucking keys again. And that bitch wants to be a neurosurgeon."
"I'll find us a spot to relax" Rachel said.
Isabella jogged out of the park to hurry back to her apartment. Now by herself, Rachel didn't really know what to do. She didn't plan on coming to the park, so she didn't know how to spend her day here. She did need to take her mind off of her paper otherwise she would have rushed back home to check it over.
She spotted a food stand that was selling snacks and beverages. When she saw that it served beer, her face perked up. Nothing helped a person unwind like a nice cold beer.
A little way off a certain agent was sitting on one of the benches. Hunnigan was debriefing him on a new mission that was to take place soon.
"There have been reports of the T-virus being sold to a private business in Chicago. While nothing serious has happened it's best that we nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand" Ingrid said over the phone.
Leon wanted to groan but forced himself not to. He just got back from taking care of that stint in the Slav Republic. Didn't the bad guys take vacations too? He was too burnt out right now. How much longer did the D.S.O think he could do this?
"If it's something small, why am I getting involved?" he asked.
"We know you just got back from your last mission, but all of our other agents are all over the globe right now" Hunnigan said.
"I wouldn't ask you to do this if I didn't have to."
Leon was about to make a remark but stopped when a familiar face walked past him. Rachel carried a couple cans of beer in her hands with a drained look on her face. Looks like she wasn't having a good day either.
"Leon?" Hunnigan said.
Leon snapped out of it and remembered he was still on the phone. He needed to give an answer to this mission, but he wanted to know what was going on with Rachel.
"I'll call you back. Something came up."
He hung up and stood from the bench he was on. What was going on with college girl?
/
Flopping down on a bench, Rachel sighed and cracked open her can of beer. No one would have expected the quiet, timid girl to drink but she could knock out a couple of cans if she wanted to. She only drank when she was at a family gathering or was under a lot of stress and right now, she was dealing with the latter.
Isabella was right that she shouldn't be stressing over this paper. She was still learning so if she made a mistake then she would learn from it. But then again at the same time if she didn't know what she was doing it would lead to a lot of problems down the road when she became an actual doctor. Patients weren't very forgiving if you let a loved one die because you didn't know what you were doing.
"Just one more year of this and I'll be free" she said to herself.
She took a swig of her beer, enjoying the familiar taste it left on her tongue.
"So, you won't drink over the top cocktails at a bar but you'll drink cheap beer at a park?"
Rachel almost spat out her beer when she heard Leon's voice. Leon watched in amusement as she coughed while making sure her drink didn't spill. The med student gave him a weak glare when she could breathe again.
"Do you make it a habit of sneaking up on people?" she asked.
"Part of my job actually" Leon teased.
"Do you make it a habit of getting drunk in public instead of a bar?"
Rachel scoffed.
"What are you, a cop?"
"I used to be" Leon said.
Rachel gulped a little when she saw that he was telling the truth. Leon sat next to her on the bench and looked at her.
"Didn't you have to research something for one of your classes? You were more concerned about your library card being stolen over your other cards"
Rachel sighed and took a swig of her beer.
"Oh I finished my paperwork already. I'm just stressed out about having to present it to my class tomorrow. I know the human body like the back of my hand but my professor always seems to find even the tiniest flaws in your work and marks you down for that. If you don't know what you're doing then you shouldn't be dealing with human lives as he would say"
Leon raised an eyebrow.
"You're a med student?"
Rachel nodded.
"Yeah. I'm studying to be a doctor. I just have one more year of studying and I can start my residency. But depending on what mood my professor is in tomorrow who knows if that'll happen. He's super cutthroat on his students and has no problem failing them because they're running late to class by even one minute. Doesn't matter that they know how different sections of the brain work or how the heart functions, no one wants a doctor running late"
"…Don't they usually run late when they're dealing with patients?. It always seems like you're waiting when you're at the doctor's office" Leon said.
"And you wonder why I'm drinking at the park" Rachel said dryly.
She went to take another drink from her beer when Leon snatched it from her hand. He knew he shouldn't be annoyed that this girl was stress drinking. Hell, thanks to this job he was surprised he didn't die from alcohol poisoning. But seeing someone who still had their life ahead of them doing something reckless bothered him greatly. There were more serious things to worry about than failing a class.
"So let me get this straight-you're stressing out over a class that you're passing but you're worried that you're not. And if you fail this one class then you can't graduate next year?"
"Pretty much yeah"
Leon threw his hand up in the air in frustration.
"So, then you retake the class. Problem solved" he said.
"I get it, no one wants to fail their classes but if you really want to get your degree you won't have a problem doing it. It's not going to make you look bad that you had to redo a class, it'll show that you actually want to learn. And considering that you're in med school it's not a shocker to have to redo a few classes. No one wants a dumb doctor"
Rachel looked at Leon with a tired look. She knew it wouldn't be a big deal if she had to redo a class, but that voice in her head would say she was a failure. He made it sound easy, but he wasn't walking in her shoes.
"You make it sound like it's easy" she sighed.
Leon knew she wasn't trying to be rude. How was she supposed to know that he spent his life fighting the undead and making sure the world was safe? She still didn't know how stressful the real world was.
"There are more horrible things out there than failing a class, sunshine" he said.
"You may think it's horrible to do bad in school but from personal experience I can tell you the world isn't going to care about your academics or judge you on your grades. It's going to judge you on how you handle what life throws at you."
Rachel didn't know what to say to that. He had a point-life wasn't going to care about how good she did in school. Whether she did well or not, it wouldn't care because it was going to see how she lived and what she did when things were thrown at her. The same could be said about being a doctor. Hospitals wouldn't care if she was at the top of her classes, they were going to care about how she treated patients and how many lives she would save when things got chaotic.
She needed to know how to deal with a bad situation and morph it into something good.
"So, you going to give me back my beer?" she finally asked after a while.
Leon smirked and kept the can away.
"No can do, sunshine. I can't have you drinking and driving."
"I walked here so you don't have to worry about me hitting any pedestrians."
"All the more reason not to give it to you. What if some shady looking guy tries to take advantage of you because you were stumbling around the park drunk?"
"Oh, for fuck's sake it's only one can!" Rachel snapped.
She reached for it, but Leon held it away. If anyone was watching them, they would have seen the comical scene of a med student trying to steal a beer from an older man.
"Give it back, you're making me waste good beer" she said.
"You bought a two dollar can from the park. How is this considered good?" Leon asked.
"What do you know what good beer is? You were drinking shitty whisky at a college bar the other night!"
"First of all, that wasn't a college bar, second of all why would someone your age know what good whiskey is?" Leon asked.
"I'm not that young! I'm 24!"
"You're still a kid."
"Oh, and what are you? 50?"
"I'm 35, brat"
Rachel huffed and crossed her arms. Leon didn't want to admit it, but she looked kinda cute when she was annoyed.
"My name is not brat and it's not sunshine either" she said.
"Well, you never gave me your name. And I do recall that you said if we ever ran into each other again you would tell me your name" Leon pointed out.
Rachel's cheeks turned pink when she remembered yesterday. God damnit, why did she have bad luck?
"W-well, don't you know that if you want to know someone's name the polite thing to do is introduce yourself first?" she asked.
Leon chuckled a little.
"Fair enough" he said.
"My name is Leon. Leon. S. Kennedy"
Rachel blinked then opened her mouth.
"I'm not related to the Kennedy's; I just happen to have the same last name" Leon sighed.
Rachel closed her mouth at that. Seemed like he was asked that question a lot.
"Well, I told you my name, so now it's your turn, Sunshine."
Rachel made a face at the nickname.
"I'm Rachel. Rachel Wi- "
"Sorry I'm late, Rach!"
Both turned to see Isabella jogging over to them.
"I had to tear my apartment apart looking for those stupid keys. Turns out she had them all along and they were in her jacket! I swear if she ever graduates, I'm telling patients to either go to a different hospital or just say their final goodbyes to their loved ones."
"That's a great mindset to have" Leon deadpanned.
Isabella noticed Leon sitting next to Rachel holding the can of beer and panicked.
"Get the fuck away from her, you drunk!"
She grabbed Rachel and pulled her away from Leon.
"There are a million benches in this park, and you decided to pick the one that a young woman is sitting at? You sick pervert"
Leon glared at the woman. Now he was many things, but a pervert was not one of them. Rachel panicked and covered Isabella's mouth.
"Issy! He wasn't bothering me or trying to do anything!" she insisted.
"Remember that guy who helped me get out of doing Jeremy's dare the other night?"
"The same night you got so shit faced that she had to drag you out of the bar" Leon had to add.
Rachel motioned for him to stay quiet as she looked at her friend.
"He's the one who helped me. And that's my beer he's holding. He saw me and he was worried, so he was just checking up on me"
Isabella raised an eyebrow as she looked back and forth between the two of them. She found the story odd, but she knew Rachel long enough to know she wouldn't make up a story like this.
"Ok, so he's not a pervert. But it's a weird coincidence."
"Well maybe if you hadn't left your friend in these awkward situations, we wouldn't have this problem" Leon said sarcastically.
Isabella glared at him.
"No one was talking to you!"
She got behind Rachel and started pushing her away.
"Alright, missy. I think you had enough fresh air for one day. We're going to have a long talk about all of this. And how many times have I told you to not buy 2-dollar alcohol?! You think you're getting a bargain but you're not! I thought my dad taught you better than that?"
Rachel looked over her shoulder to give Leon an apologetic look.
'Sorry!' she mouthed to him.
Leon gave her a lazy wave as she was pushed away.
What a weird weekend this was. He didn't expect to run into a girl he met by chance three days in a row. But at least he finally learned her name.
"Rachel, huh?" he thought.
He never did get her last name, but he doubted he would see her again.
Remembering he was still holding her can of beer, he saw there was still a tiny bit let. Taking a sip, he shrugged when he found that it didn't taste that bad.
"Hm, maybe she was right" he muttered.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. Pulling it out he saw that it was Hunnigan again. Looks like she really needed someone for that mission. Sighing in frustration he answered it.
Like he told Rachel, there were other things to worry about besides failing a class.
Having work ruin your vacation time was one of them.
/
A/N: So, Leon and Rachel finally introduced themselves to each other. Well, we didn't find out what Rachel's last name was but there's always next time.
I'm sure Isabella sounds like an overbearing friend but she means well. She's just trying to look out for her best friend.
Please review and tell me what you think!
Take care!