Part Four

Hope is a desire with an expectation of accomplishment. - Anonymous

Despite the torrent of wind and rain that beat against his body, Osmund Saddler's purple robe embraced him like an elaborate cocoon. Clouds of exhaust fumes smothered the last distant glint of the sun and rendered the sky a dusky orange.

Smiling ghoulishly he watched as his humble servants carried the woman along the walkway towards him and lowered her to the floor. Her crimson dress was surprisingly pristine considering all the damage she had caused to his compound, as well as to him. The scars on his face had already begun to knit together and heal, yet another indication of his astounding power. A power that she and her accomplices desired but had yet to fully comprehend. He had briefly considered sacrificing this nuisance for the entertainment of his brethren or perhaps feeding her to one of his scientist's starving and rancid creations. But those options left him no satisfaction. He wanted the American agent and the girl, and without them this triumph was simply the consolation prize.

The woman moaned, stirring restlessly and her lips expelled a name that rode on the tail end of a sigh, 'Leon.'

'So, she and the American runt are closer than I imagined,' Saddler chuckled, 'Tie her up. Make sure she's visible.'

As his disciples complied with his orders Saddler relished the damp and rotten air of his island paradise. It smelled like victory.

An agent without the gift of observation is like a bird without the gift of wings. Perhaps Ada had her mother to thank for her share of this quality. Being able to sense her mother's current emotional state, as well as the sobriety of her mother's boyfriends, had been a skill she had honed to perfection. It had saved her from bruises then, and it kept her alive till this day. One particular observation, which had always proved true, was that the way a man handled himself in a fight was relative to the way he handled himself during times of peace, and vice versa. Krauser had been egotistical, brutal and had the pride of a dozen military ancestors bred into his bones. And like those poetic stories he had fabricated about his ancestry, his fighting style was powerful, bold but without deep thought, precision or accuracy.

Ada ran her hands over the blinds by the bedroom window and slowly pulled on the cord to expose the view beyond. Warmth from the early evening sun flooded the room and tinted her cheeks with an orange glow. The growing shadows of the trees outside stretched towards the house and the lake was bleached a dusky white by the clouds above. In the fifteen minutes she had been standing there, Ada had seen only two small pickup trucks crawl slowly along the road and perhaps a half a dozen children wandering aimlessly along the edge of the water, kicking up dust and chasing the birds. Casting a glance over her shoulder she saw him stretch indulgently on the bed causing the sheets to gather at his waist. But still he didn't wake up. Ada tilted her head and laced her hands behind her back, denying them their desired journey towards the bed and along his gorgeous body.

Leon. The way a man handled himself in a fight is relative to the way he handled himself during times of passion.

In Spain she had caught the last few moments of Leon's knife fight with Krauser from the platform above. Though Leon had lost in the end, it had still been the sexiest thing she'd seen in a long time. She'd actually been forced to make a quick exit after Krauser's retreat to avoid tackling the government agent to the floor. Of course she had seen videos of Leon's combat training, but a live performance was something else entirely. Precision, passion, stamina, dexterity and irrepressible audacity. Just thinking about how well those qualities had translated into the bedroom, made Ada's heart thump so hard that she could feel her pulse beating in every cell of her body. She could still feel the sheets knotting under her back, the heat from his body and the taste of his skin. She could hear the alien sound of her own voice crying his name in a way she had always been afraid to, even in her darkest dreams. She could still picture the mischievous grin that he had flashed at her as he'd taken turns in denying and indulging her desires. The guilty pleasure of being able to touch him had drugged her into a flurry of behaviour she hadn't even indulged in during her teens. Those kisses that had driven her into a frenzy still danced across her skin even now, making her blush. And when it was over she had awoken from an exquisite stupor to a shower of gentle kisses across her brow and words that had brought tears to her eyes.

I love you Ada.

Her only reply had been to press her cheek to his chest and monitor the rhythm of his breathing till she was sure he was fast asleep. Slipping quietly from the bed, she had thrown on one of his shirts and curled up on the chair in the corner of the room. The distance was necessary. It could have been the cooling sweat on her body that had caused her to shiver, but she had known the real reason. She was happy. She was afraid.

Turning back to the window, Ada rubbed her thumb against the cool metal on her left hand and watched as the wedding ring span slowly around her finger and reflected the light.

'Ada?'

Leon's voice was hoarse as he woke and shifted in the bed, his hands hitting only cold sheets in search of her. His hair was ruffled and stuck up in various random directions.

'Hey, can't sleep?' he asked eyeing her thoughtfully.

Smiling ruefully at him, she wondered if it was even possible to sleep within a dream.

'No.'

He returned her smile, his heavy lidded eyes keenly travelling along her body with such open excitement that she could almost imagine the buttons of the shirt slipping through the fabric and unfastening from the power of his will alone.

Ada toyed with the material of the shirt causing it to rise several inches across her naked thighs. He blushed. Even in a dream he was fun to play with.

'So tell me,' her voice was molten honey, 'Was the reality as good as the dreams?'

He grinned, 'The dreams were amazing, but the reality was perfect. Always is.'

But that was where they differed. Her reality was far from perfect; this dream was no prelude of things to come. And that had never saddened her, until now.

Leon held out his hand to her and she hesitated. Lying in his arms, in that bed, it felt too intimate somehow. It felt too real.

Ada slowly circled the bed just out of touching distance, keeping her eyes locked onto his. Her fingers pulled at the buttons of the shirt till the garment came loose and revealed a pale slice of skin along the length of her body. The moment she reached his side of the bed she averted her eyes and turned away. When this inevitably ended, perhaps she'd keep these moments, lock them inside her heart under the growing file of memories labelled 'Leon', and only bring them out again on the darkest of rainy days. Rolling her shoulders and letting the shirt fall to pool at her heels, she strutted confidently to the en-suite bathroom to take a shower.

When she reached the bathroom door, she paused and looked back at him saucily, 'Wash my back, handsome?'

Rubbing her bare feet as she reclined on the porch swing, Ada silently observed Mei Li playing in front yard. The young girl was imagining a private adventure a thousand miles from home, but still remained in the safety of her parent's line of sight. She had been driven home less than an hour before, voracious for the attention and love of her family, which had been granted to her and then returned by her in spades. When she had settled down, Leon had left the girl in Ada's care while he had rustled up a simple evening meal. Since their early evening sojourn to the shower, and then back to the bed for another round, Ada had barely spoken more than a few words to either of them, answering Leon's questions with a calm and direct tone, and Mei Li's chatter with a patient smile. Leon had tried to coax her out of her sombre mood, but for both their sakes he had taken a far subtler route than before. But he'd had the same sort of result.

'Mommy, look!'

Ada waved at the little girl and smiled. Mei was pointing to the thick shrubbery that lined the yard and the large, pink butterfly that was flapping around it. The girl bounced towards it and began to chase it across the grass; her fingers outstretched pursuing the elusive and delicate creature.

The view of the lake was certainly a pleasurable sight, the sun was low and a cool balm infused the air with the smell of damp grass giving early birth to dew. The front porch of the house was lined with wooden decking that held the three-seater swing, a table and four chairs. A set of stairs then led to a carpet of green grass, gravel and a fence that separated the yard from the narrow road and the woodlands beyond. Ada had had to change into a red summer dress, since the blouse she had been wearing earlier was now missing several buttons. She could hear the faint sounds of Leon putting the dishes away in kitchen and a deep caress of satisfaction brushed over her. It felt like home. She tucked her knees under her body half expecting the tranquillity to implode around her.

Fear was an irrational emotion and Ada had always known that. Though she had always keenly felt that natural impulse of all living beings to stay alive and avoid danger where possible, she had always embraced fearlessness. It drove her missions, her lifestyle, that impulse to move and never stop. She had had nothing to lose. But the moment she had woken up under Leon's gaze, after that monster Burkin had attacked her, she was submerged in dread and apprehension. It was partly why she had asked him leave without her. He terrified her more than the monsters did, because she knew that if he died trying to save her or if she were forced to kill him to complete her mission then it would matter, it would hurt and she wouldn't be able to shake off that loss like she had shaken off so many others. Ada Wong had never liked to lose.

A sharp cry seized her attention and Ada looked up to see Mei Li on her knees on the gravel path. Her pink palms were now brown from the dirt and silent sobbing wracked her tiny frame.

Oh hell.

Heart twisting in her chest, Ada jumped up from her seat, ran quickly down the stairs and knelt at the girl's side barely feeling the sharp gravel grazing her feet. Mei had obviously fallen over during her mad dash around the yard. Hot tears dripped off her cheeks and her knee was badly scratched and bruised. Ada's hands flew to Mei's knee to assess the damage. Nothing seemed to be broken, but judging by the girl's whimpers and the amount of blood, it had to hurt.

'Mommy, it hurts.'

'Don't worry. Just stay still okay?' Ada tried to ignore the fact that her own voice was shaking, 'I'm here Little One.'

Ada lifted her into her arms and carried her to the porch swing, lowering her down gently. Calling for Leon, she held Mei Li to her and rocked her slowly on the swing. The girl's hands clutched at Ada's leg as she buried her face in her mother's side.

'Leon!' she called again, more urgently this time.

Leon appeared at the door seconds later, 'What happened?' he asked. But the moment he set eyes on Mei he seemed to understand and compassion replaced confusion in his eyes, 'I'll get the first aid kit.'

Ada heaved Mei Li onto her lap the moment Leon went back inside, and cuddled her to her chest. Mei had stopped crying and was now biting her lip and swallowing her hiccups.

Oh, we have a proud one here.

Smiling shakily, Ada brushed the dirt from the girl's hands and straightened her dress.

'Had another fall, Peanut?' Leon reappeared with a first aid box in his hands and set about expertly tending to his daughter's cut leg whilst keeping her distracted with meaningless prattle. Ada watched on with concern. Soon the girl had stopped crying altogether and was sitting on the swing with a cool drink in her hand like nothing had happened. In her arms she held that beige teddy bear with the blue ribbon around its neck and her legs dangled off the seat.

'I'm sorry; I should have been keeping an eye on her. I got distracted,' Ada sighed running her fingers roughly through her ebony hair.

Leon laughed, 'She's a kid. Kid's fall over.'

'And that's exactly why I should have been watching,' she retorted urgently.

'Don't beat yourself up about it. She's fine.'

Ada shrugged and reached over to Mei, stroking her hair. Somewhere, between her bright chatter and hyperactivity, this little girl had become almost real. Watching her cry had felt awful.

'Are you alright, Little One?' she asked her.

'Yep,' Mei smiled, her eyes bright but still swollen, 'It didn't hurt too much.'

Ada smirked, 'You're very brave.'

'And it's lucky you didn't lose another tooth,' Leon knelt beside them, 'You'd end up exhausting the tooth fairy.'

Mei Li looked up at Ada with an impish grin remembering their earlier pact. Her lips quivered and she failed to smother her giggles. Ada laughed, gathered the girl onto her lap and pressed her mouth against her hair, inhaling the now familiar scent.

'What'd I say?' Leon frowned in confusion at the pair.

'Secret,' Mei replied brightly, 'Can I go play again?'

'Sure.'

Ada shook her head as she watched the girl slip off her lap and skip back to the yard. She wearily flopped back onto the swing and closed her eyes. Moments later, she felt Leon sit down next to her and heard him sigh deeply, the weight of his body causing the swing to rock in a controlled, lethargic arc.

'Has she ever sat down for more than a few minutes at a time?' Ada asked.

He laughed, 'You should have seen her yesterday, she practically climbing the walls. Though it was my fault. I shouldn't have let her eat ice-cream so close to bedtime.'

She smiled and kept her eyes firmly shut, 'She's got you wrapped around her little finger hasn't she?'

'Yeah, I don't know where she inherited that trait from.'

Ada opened her eyes to find him staring suspiciously at her and she laughed sharply. She lightly smacked his forearm. Her grin soon fell from her face and they stared at each other in a warm and comfortable silence. Leon leaned forward and kissed her gently on the nose, then her cheek and then her mouth. She accepted the kiss with a sigh and reached up to fondle his hair.

'How did you feel?' Ada breathed against his lips, pulling back from his kiss.

'About what?'

'When Mei was born.'

Leon sat up straight and frowned, 'Well you were there…'

'Humour me. I want to hear you say it.'

He paused, turned away for a moment and watched the girl playing contently in the yard, an expression Ada had never seen before playing across his features. A fusion of pride, wonder and love.

'Terrified,' he began quietly, 'When you told me you were pregnant…I was stunned. We both were.'

He looked back at her, 'We barely talked about it, which was insane, especially when you began to put on weight and send me out to buy banana milkshakes in the middle of the night. But we'd only just got engaged and a baby was this big, scary elephant in the room. We didn't know what we were doing.'

Ada nodded, 'I know what you mean.'

'But now, I can't imagine a single day without her. And the birth went pretty well. You only tried to strangle me twice while you were in labour after all,' he grinned, 'Remember how tiny she was?'

No. I don't. Because this never really happened. And yet I envy you so much.

'She's a beautiful little girl,' Ada replied looking out over the yard. Two ducks from the nearby woods had circumnavigated the road and were wandering around the lawn making loud honking noises. Mei Li was giggling as she tried to feed one of them a clump of dandelions she had ripped from the ground. She seemed to love the attention no matter the source.

'Mei, don't get too close, okay honey?' Leon called after her.

Daintily stretching, Ada sat up and swung her legs onto Leon's lap. He smiled down at her and began to rub her bare legs, his fingers tenderly circling the bumps of her knees.

'Joan and Mike have invited us to play Paintball next weekend. Adults only,' he said.

Next week? Ada doubted that there'd even be a next week in this fantasyland.

'Oh. What did you say?'

'I said "maybe",' Leon smiled, 'Thought I'd ask you first.'

'I…well…'

'Come on. Unless you're afraid I'll outshine you. I am the better shot after all.'

She gave him an incredulous look, 'Well now I have a dilemma. Either I ignore your shameless attempt at reverse psychology, or I agree and get the chance to wipe that grin off your face once and for all.'

'Then I guess we're on,' he replied teasing her with a smirk.

Ada felt warmth fill her body as she watched him and that familiar ache returned to her chest, 'About before…the way I've been since this morning,'

'Listen, you don't have to explain.'

'Yes I do,' she sighed, lifting her feet off his lap. She straightened and gently placed some distance between them. It'd make things easier for her at least.

'I was angry with you,' she didn't look back at him, 'I've felt that way about you, on some level at least, since the day we met. You came waltzing into my life and changed it all. You changed me. And I hated you for showing me how happy I could be, reducing everything I had before to nothing by comparison. It may be natural for you, but for me it's damn near terrifying to find a part of my life…a part of myself that I don't consider expendable and that I couldn't bare to lose.'

Leon shuffled along the swing to sit right by her side, but kept his hands knotted together on his lap, 'Ada, why didn't you tell me all this before?'

'It's easier to run,' she sighed, 'I don't know if I can put you or myself through that. Old habits die hard.'

He was silent for a moment before finally taking her hand in a loose hold and expelling the deep breath he had been holding, 'I knew who you were when I married you, and vice versa. Love doesn't make all this go away. I can't pretend we'll never piss each other off or get scared. In fact, I can promise that it will happen in the future, several times. But I also know that each time it does, I'll travel right along with you till you decide to stop running and come home.'

Gripping his hand in hers till her knuckles shone white, Ada swallowed hard, 'Are you sure? Because I can run pretty fast.'

'I'll keep up,' he whispered.

Ada let out a shaky breath and leaned back, confident that she'd find his body behind hers to support her. And for an instant she was back with him in the police station, the sewers and the laboratory, then the village, the castle and the island. Despite the little time they had spent together, despite the horror (or maybe because of it), every second had counted. For those moments she had come to life, so much so that she had been tempted to run away with that feeling, to grasp at it and hold it close. She knew for sure that she could live without Leon S. Kennedy, but she had never felt truly alive without him.

Perhaps they had stayed that way, in each other's arms, for hours or simply seconds that had seemed to spread almost infinitely due to the constant balmy haze of the setting sun and the soft and steady rumble of his heartbeat under her cheek. But his voice eventually woke her from her half-slumber.

'Looks like I have another rescue mission,' Leon murmured against her hair.

'Hmm?' she opened her eyes to see that Mei Li was now surrounded by at least a dozen ducks that had sauntered up from the lake.

Leon slipped out from under her and jogged down to the yard to shoo them away.

'Your girl's quite the social butterfly isn't she?' a voice whispered.

Ada turned and met the gaze of the old woman who had appeared once more. This time she was seated on one of the porch chairs, 'You're back again?'

'Just checking up on you.'

'Touching,' she replied, her eyes wandering to the yard. She caught sight of Leon lifting Mei up above his head whilst the little girl shrieked with delight. She sighed and wrapped her arms tightly around her waist, suddenly feeling a chill and the tingling sensation of moisture tickle her skin.

The old woman was now clad in a long, dark orange dress that brushed her ankles even though she was sitting down. Her expression was composed as always, but her eyes were dark and sombre.

'I'm glad you decided to stay,' the woman muttered softly.

Ada nodded once, 'So am I. You weren't…watching us were you? Before I mean.'

The woman laughed, her thin lips stretching into a smile, 'No. I thought you'd need the privacy.'

'Well thanks,' she softened her sarcasm with a weary smile.

A mild breeze picked up around them causing Ada's hair to ruffle. The branches of the nearby trees bowed under the force of the wind and were cloaked in shadow, as the sun lay down to sleep nestled in a bed of cloud.

'I know why I was brought here,' Ada tucked a wayward lock of hair behind her ear.

The old woman was silent, regarding her with a look of amusement.

'But this makes no real difference,' she continued, 'This world, this life. It's not possible. I can't let it distract me. I have too much at stake, my freedom, my life.'

Shifting in her seat, the woman shook her head, 'Are you saying that love just makes people weak? It once gave you the strength to make the ultimate sacrifice. And it's feeding you now, helping you. All this was to show you that the future is not yet written. The lake, the house, the girl. They're all possibilities. Possibilities that your heart holds onto no matter what you've been through and are still set to go through. Whether your future is to be alone, or with this man, or with another, that choice will be yours alone. I just don't want you running away from that choice. You're at the eve of a great battle now Ada. Ever since that young man took a bullet for you six years ago you've been searching for the side of yourself that he thought was worthy of saving.'

Ada gave a short and bitter laugh, 'Please. Leon would save almost anyone. What if this woman…this side of me doesn't really exist? What if she doesn't deserve him after everything she's done?'

'Love isn't something you earn, Ada. It just is what it is.'

The old woman leaned over, her dress creasing into amber waves. She pressed a cool, hard hand to Ada's cheek, 'You just need to have faith in what you're capable of. You're Ada Wong after all. And Ada Wong always walks away with the prize, whatever that prize turns out to be.'

'Ada, come on!'

The sound of Leon's voice caught her ear and she looked down at the yard to find him waving at her, holding Mei in his arms. The girl was grinning up at her and her arms were slung tightly around her father's shoulders. He was mouthing something to her but she couldn't hear, the growing evening breeze was slowly suffocating the sound of his plea. Ada gazed longingly at the sight and stood to follow them down the porch steps. But the old woman's voice made her pause mid-step.

'It's time to go Ada,' the old woman whispered softly.

Ada turned to her sharply, her eyes wide, 'Now? But I…'

Before she could finish, a great chill drenched her body, the sound of a rushing gale filled the yard and her head began to swim, light ebbing away in her consciousness. She closed her eyes against the onslaught and grabbed the side of her head in an effort to steady her spinning vision. She could have sworn she had heard Leon calling her name again, but this time the sound was bursting deep in the recesses of her mind. Her muscles began to stretch and throb under an invisible strain. Screaming was impossible, only her sharp breaths could answer the overlapping wails echoing in her ears. And suddenly she was falling and her knees collided with the deck. The floor dissolved beneath her and swallowed her whole.