Chapter Text
Returning to sleep seemed like a laughable notion, even after the tv was cranked off and they were all submerged back into darkness. There had been a few minutes where they all remained where they were seated, the air thick with tension; then, Claire had extracted herself from Leon’s side and marched straight for the bathroom, returning moments later with both clean and dirty clothes in hand.
The socks and underwear she had slaved over the sink to bring back to even a semblance of cleanliness were still damp to the touch…but comfort was not a priority as they all set about redressing themselves. Leon had cringed when she had passed him his filthy pants and shirt, his skin gaining goosebumps from the unpleasant texture of the grime that coated them. But there was no other option - aside from going completely nude, and that seemed more likely to draw suspicion than his tattered and bloody threads – so he braced himself and struggled to pull on his pants one leg at a time.
Claire had busied herself helping Sherry slip back on her vest and retie her bow but approached as soon as she saw Leon grab for his shirt. He didn’t protest as she helped him ease it over his busted shoulder, keeping his teeth clamped as the muscles cried out in protest. She left him to lace up his boots on his own and returned before he finished with the remnants of his body armor shoved into the shopping bags leftover from her trip to the minimart the night before.
Sherry dutifully swept all the leftover trash into the bin in the corner as Claire tossed the towels and bathrobe on the back of the bathroom door; as Leon grabbed the room key off the night table and set about reholstering his pistol, he watched discreetly as Claire headed straight for the closet in the corner and grabbed a coat hanger from it, testing it in her hands a moment, before looking satisfied and re-approaching.
“Let’s get moving,” she said before he had a chance to ask for its purpose.
Merely nodding in agreement, he waited for her and Sherry to exit first and did a quick onceover to make sure they had everything accounted for before locking the door behind him. The sky was still dark, the sun just barely tinging the horizon purple as they marched towards the motel office together. There was a distant rumble like approaching thunder that had Leon searching the skies a moment before realization hit; one glance at Claire and he saw her making the same determination, her eyes widening. Their gait came to a complete stop as they stood together and watched the road, listening to the sound growing closer.
The ground practically shook under the treads of the tank that was at the head of the pack, its pace glacial but its appearance still alarming all the same. Several employees from the diner across the street – still clearly in the process of opening for an early morning – abandoned their work to come stick their heads out the front door and stare as well, taking in the military convoy that was making its way down the main road. Aside from the tank, there were several Humvees, cargo trucks, and jeeps following closely behind in formation; yet to be seen were the helicopters patrolling above, blending in fairly well with the darkened skies but still noisily announcing their presence as they took up the rear.
Leon felt his heart hammering in his chest as he watched them all rumble by; some deep seated, irrational fear had him standing as still as a statue, as if he moved a single muscle, they would suddenly halt their progress and zero in on him. They made no such moves – not even pausing to stop in the small town at all. Soon enough, the convoy had motored on through, the noise dying down slowly as it rolled further and further away.
Claire drew in an audible breath and it broke the spell Leon had found himself under; he too was suddenly able to breathe once more and placed a hand over his racing heart, eyes slipping shut. They opened a moment later as he heard Claire take a step closer and found her staring up at him seriously.
“Meet us around back when you’re done,” she commanded, nodding towards the office before beckoning to Sherry and taking her by the hand.
In spite of the confusion and worry that were grappling to take control of his thoughts, he didn’t dare question her; instead, he turned and headed for the original intended destination as Claire and Sherry rounded the corner and disappeared from view. The man at the front desk was the same one to have checked them in the night before; he was asleep, head pressed into his folded arms as Leon approached and tried to rouse him discreetly.
Or appeared asleep…
Leon’s fingers descended towards his holster, slipping the thumb break off noiselessly. If there was anything he’d learned in the last two days, it was to not trust anything by first glance. The military was headed for the remains of Raccoon City, most likely to secure a perimeter and ensure the virus didn’t escape the ruins. But what if they were too late? What if it had spread to the surrounding areas before they chose to deep six the city…?
Eyes flickering to the bell on the counter, Leon looked from it to the other man before reaching out and ringing it sharply. The reaction was instantaneous, the clerk jolting upwards with a garbled cry, eyes wide and alarmed as he looked around wildly. His eyes fell on the cop before him and he seemed to suddenly remember himself and set about straightening his shirt out with several apologies.
“Is everything alright, sir?” he asked, seemingly oblivious to the gun Leon had loosened from its holster and held primed at his side.
“…fine,” the cop replied after several moments, slipping his pistol back as discreetly as he could. “Ready to check out.”
The clerk merely blinked up at him in surprise.
“So soon?”
“Busy day ahead,” he supplied lamely before dropping the key on the counter and sliding it over towards the man. “Is that all?”
The clerk had barely answered with “yes” before Leon turned to head back out the door, leaving him in the midst of bidding farewell and a safe journey. Circling the building, his eyes spotted Sherry by the distinctive red leather jacket swamping her small frame and made his way to her by the far side of the parking lot. She was standing a few feet away from Claire near a small compact car, watching the young woman as she finished reshaping the coat hanger in her hands into a hook. Leon came to stand beside her and they both looked on as Claire slid her creation effortlessly between the car frame and driver side window, popping the lock manually. Standing in stunned silence for a moment, he only regained his tongue as she opened the door and dropped down to pull at the wiring beneath the wheel.
“We’re stealing this?” he asked aloud.
“Technically I’m stealing it.”
Her face reappeared a moment later, eyes shining with humor for the first time in hours.
“You gonna arrest me, Officer?”
Leon couldn’t help but let out an incredulous laugh, shaking his head as she disappeared back under the dashboard and resumed her tampering. A moment later, the engine came to life with a roar and his unease returned in full force.
“Claire, this isn’t…”
“We can’t stay here, Leon,” she insisted as she reemerged from beneath the wheel, having lost all traces of her playfulness from moments before. “We’ll go so far and ditch it when we can, but we have to go. Now.”
He didn’t have it in him to argue with her – not when her paranoia and fear were so evident. They aligned so closely with his own frantic emotions, spurned by the tv broadcast from earlier and amplified by the sight of the military rolling through town only minutes before. Instead, he merely nodded and watched as she lost some of the steel in her gaze; she waited for him to round the car to the passenger side and for Sherry to load into the backseat before she slid behind the wheel.
They were cruising out of the parking lot a few moments later, headed in the opposite direction of Raccoon City. Leon’s eyes were darting every which way, waiting for someone to notice the stolen car they were taking out of town or for the military to suddenly turn back around and come back their way, tipped off to their existence.
There was no such resistance to be found. They coasted past the diner, the auto body shop, and the few storefronts that dotted the roadside before returning to largely empty highway as they’d seen the day before coming from the opposite direction. The only difference was that instead of being utterly barren, houses just off the beaten path and private roads popped up every now and then to show signs of life.
“South,” Leon noted after they were finally a few dozen miles out.
Claire exhaled deeply, as if she’d been holding in all her breath since she got behind the wheel and put her foot to the gas.
“I want to get as far away from Raccoon as I can. Then I’ll come up with something,” she answered.
Leon merely nodded, understanding just how she felt. The further they drove, the more he seemed to be able to think coherently. Raccoon’s sinister cloud of doom cleared the further they put themselves from the epicenter of the disaster. He could only hope that with distance also came some sense of closure, as he couldn’t quite shake the sensation of impending dread that had settled in the pit of his stomach…
He hadn’t slept at all during the several hours that followed, but the oppressive silence had lingered. Sherry had passed out across the back seat at some point during the journey and remained asleep; Leon envied her for it, feeling absolutely exhausted but too wired to do anything beyond rest his head against the glass of the passenger side window and look out at the road whizzing by.
If he was feeling that drained, he could only imagine what Claire was experiencing. She’d remained alert behind the wheel the whole time, eyes never once straying over to him. Her face seemed less drawn than it had been at the start of the morning, however, and he felt assured that she had worked something out in her mind during the interim…though she had neglected to share any of her thoughts just yet.
“Where are we going?” he asked finally.
“To my dorm,” she answered, eyes still not leaving the road. “We’ll freshen up and plan our next move from there.”
He wasn’t sure if that was the wisest decision…but he had no alternatives to offer up. Besides, he trusted her instincts more than his own. It was easy to forget that she was just a college student that had rolled into town in search of her brother: she had no formal training outside of whatever Chris taught her, no background in law or military, limited knowledge of the city…she arrived equipped with only her wits and guile and survived.
And truthfully, Leon and Sherry were only alive because of her resilience too. He had to wonder how differently things could have gone if they hadn’t been separated during their arrival into Raccoon City. There was no shaking the feeling that she would have sniffed out Ada’s ruse long before he had…
“Y’know…even after everything I’ve seen you do, I would have never thought carjacking was one of your hidden talents,” he offered up, hoping to keep the conversation going.
Claire was silent for some time and he immediately regretted opening his mouth. As he turned to offer up an apology, he found her eyes upon him, brimming with remorse.
“My parents have been dead a long time,” she said quietly, turning her eyes back on the road. “Chris got custody as soon as he could and tried raising me on his own…”
She fell silent again and Leon respectfully averted his gaze, his stomach tightening at the course her story was taking.
“He’d just joined the Air Force and was working all the time. There was a time I barely got to see him. And we had so little money…”
Claire shook her head, smiling bitterly to herself.
“None of it was his fault – none of it. But still…I was so angry, feeling like I was losing him too. I was young and stupid and hurting something awful – and it all came out as rebellion and rage. I hung out with a rough crowd for a time – the kind of kids that had carjacking as hidden talents and taught it to me – I stopped putting in time at school, started skipping class…just doing what I wanted.”
Leon watched her hands clench around the steering wheel, working the leather beneath them.
“But I didn’t really want any of that. I wanted my parents back, I wanted my old life back…and none of that was ever going to be returned to me. But my brother, he was still there, working so hard just to keep a roof over our heads and to keep us together. When he heard about the things I was doing – the people I was running around with – he tried to sit me down at home and it just all came spilling out. We both cried, probably one of the last times I let myself cry in front of my brother…”
She released some of the tension in her hands, fingers dancing across the wheel as she re-centered herself.
“I made a promise to be better. I turned my grades around, stopped hanging around with those kids, stayed out of trouble. Well, major trouble…when I got my first college acceptance letter, Chris was so proud. Neither of our parents graduated from college, he was so certain I was going to be the first in our family to manage it…”
Claire merely shook her head, lips twisting downward in a frown.
“I don’t even know anymore,” she admitted, readjusting her grip on the wheel. “How do I go back to calculus and biology lectures after all this? How do I go back to a normal life?”
He wished he had an answer for her – he truly did. It was the exact question that had been cycling through his brain since the night before. They had survived the worst, yes, but what came next? How did they go on with everyday monotony when they had experienced hell on earth?
“Anyway,” she spoke up after a while, leaning against the driver side door. “That’s how I learned to lift and hotwire cars.”
The awkward silence that followed was excruciating. Leon glanced over at Claire but she was steadfastly ignoring his gaze, head angled so that she didn’t risk catching sight of him.
“I’m not terribly close to my family,” he spoke up again as he turned away from her.
He felt rather than saw the glance Claire sent his way as he kept his eyes on the winding road in front of them.
“I do have living relatives – some aunts and uncles, cousins, my parents, my sisters – but I’m not really on the best terms with any of them.”
“Leon,” Claire cut in gently, “You don’t have to-”
“You shared an uncomfortable truth,” he countered quickly, silencing her. “Only fair I level the playing field.”
He caught sight of the corner of her mouth twitch upwards before she turned to hide it; he merely smiled to himself as he let his gaze fall back into his lap.
“Had a decent enough childhood. My family had money so I was never went a day without. Everyone expected I’d go into a career in something substantial, like medicine or law. Law enforcement was not what they had in mind.”
It was hard not to let out a bitter laugh, even now after so much time had passed.
“Had a huge falling out with my parents….can’t remember the last time I spoke with them. I packed my bags and went off to the police academy with just the money I had saved in my account. Found a job to tide me over while I attended classes, got an apartment…things were really supposed to fall together for me once I took up my post in Raccoon City…”
The irony there was not lost upon him…but he couldn’t see any real humor in it now. It was far too soon – he just felt drained the more he dwelled on it.
“I don’t think my family even knew I graduated from the academy. No one would know to look for me in Raccoon.”
He chanced a sideways glance at Claire before continuing.
“No one would come searching for me like you did for your brother.”
Claire turned towards him, eyes fierce.
“I’d come looking for you now, you know. You’re not alone, Leon.”
It’d be a lie to say those words didn’t spark something inside his chest: warm, pleasant, and reassuring. Still, he worked to hide his pleasure and cast his gaze out the passenger side window.
“Sherry…”
Blinking in surprise, Leon glanced back at Claire. Her brow was furrowed with worry and her fingers clenched the steering wheel so tightly it left her knuckles white.
“She doesn’t have anyone else. The only people she still knows after leaving that city is you and me.”
Some of the glow from her earlier words evaporated as he absorbed what she was telling him now.
“What do we do, then?”
“…I don’t know.”
They lapsed back into silence and Leon felt his worry and doubts resurfacing. All the silence before had given him plenty of time to start to think over their course of actions…and doubt the wisdom in it all. They’d run from the military and police that were securing the area – shouldn’t they have spoken to them as soon as possible? In a way, they were priority witnesses to a crime…though it seemed more than just a crime at this point. They’d walked away from a massacre – an absolute atrocity of science and corruption tied closely together.
More and more he was starting to think they should have waited for the law to sweep into that little neighboring town and come forward with their testimonies first thing…
“We can’t go to the authorities.”
Leon blinked in surprise, wondering how her thoughts had lined up so precisely with his own. When he turned to face her, her face was marred with worry.
“Sherry…aside from her parents being two top ranking Umbrella scientists directly involved with what happened in the city…”
Claire looked like she was fighting with herself, lips working furiously as no words came out.
“…she was also infected with the G-Virus.”
Leon couldn’t stop himself from jolting up in his seat. He whirled back around to look once more at Sherry - still slumbering peacefully in the back - and could only stare in horror. How had he been so blind? How had he not thought to check the two of them over more carefully-???
Claire placed a steadying hand on his bicep, the only thing that could have torn his eyes away from the little girl in their charge.
“She’s cured. Annette helped administer an antiviral agent that saved Sherry’s life.”
He exhaled a shaking breath, feeling relief come crashing down on him in waves. Claire’s fingers curled around his arm in growing despair, however, and he felt his breath catching as he waited for her to continue.
“But what would the government do with her if they found out about that? No way they’d just let her walk away…they’d probably lock her away in some lab, testing and experimenting on her like she was some kind of animal…”
She shook her head violently from side to side, as if to shatter the image she’d conjured in her mind. Turning her gaze back towards Leon, her eyes held nothing but fierce resolve.
“I won’t let anything else happen to her. I don’t care what it takes – I’m gonna give her the life she deserves. Let her be a child for once, not worrying about anything beyond what new joy each day will bring.”
Leon could only stare at Claire, even as she turned her gaze back towards the road. He took in the sight of her furrowed brow, of the unwavering tenacity behind the set of her jaw, and knew she meant every word she’d said…and was waiting for his response with thinly veiled wariness.
“Alright.”
Claire blinked at him owlishly, clearly surprised by a lack of a rebuttal.
“You’re probably right about what they’ll do to Sherry if they found out,” he conceded. “Even without having come in contact with the G Virus…just based on who her parents were, she wouldn’t be treated kindly. We can’t let them know about her.”
Leon let his eyes wander towards the winding road ahead of them and let out a deep sigh, trying not to let his thoughts run wild with apprehension.
“I don’t know how to go about doing anything that could help hide her from anyone looking for her,” he conceded.
“Neither do I,” Claire supplied after a moment.
His eyes drifted back to her at the light touch she placed on his shoulder. The warmth in her eyes was enough to remove some of the trepidation sitting in the pit of his stomach.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” she said softly. “We’re still together and safe. That’s all that matters for now.”
It really was all that mattered to him. He didn’t want to lose either of them…going to the authorities right now might end in disaster, just as Claire feared. The more he thought on her words, the more certain they’d all be separated – not just Sherry being taken from them, but Leon and Claire being forced apart as well. When would they ever see each other again…would they ever see each other again?
There had to be another solution, another way to get themselves back on track and remain together. Leon still didn’t have a clue as to what that course of action was or how to even get there, but they’d manage. They had to.
Still, for a brief moment, things didn’t seem so bleak when Claire was giving him quick looks of warmth and fondness. She had quickly become a source of strength for him…and he’d be damned if he couldn’t at least try and be the same for her, even if she didn’t need it.
“Oh my god, CLAIRE!” Michelle cried as she lunged forward to snatch her into an embrace.
Claire winced under the bone crushing pressure but felt waves of warmth and relief wash over her as her best friend shook against her. It seemed so long ago that she had said goodbye to her and departed from this very room for Raccoon City. In actuality, it had been less than a week ago…the events of the last few days - paired with the exhaustion from the half day’s drive she’d just undertook - made it seem like a lifetime ago.
“When the news about Raccoon City broke, I thought…I thought…,” Michelle sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Shelley, I’m so sorry,” Claire said earnestly, stomach twisting with regret. “I wish I could have let you know sooner…”
Michelle pulled back to smile at her and squeeze her arms tightly, as if to reaffirm she was actually standing there before her.
“You’re safe. You’re here now. That’s all that matters,” she insisted, taking back a hand to wipe at her eyes.
Her roommate’s relief quickly morphed into concern, gaze finally taking in the sight of the bruises and cuts adorning her arms and face.
“Jesus, Claire,” she whispered. “You look like hell…”
Claire smiled weakly, amused by her choice of words despite herself.
“Feel like hell,” she replied simply.
Before she let herself get wrapped up in the hundreds of questions she was certain her friend had for her, she stepped back to look out the door and gesture to the pair in the hallway. Leon and Sherry approached silently, both looking anxious as they entered Michelle’s view. Claire turned back to her quickly, taking in the expression on her face before speaking up.
“We all made it out of the city together…we won’t stay long, but we need a place to clean up and rest before moving on.”
Michelle’s brow furrowed, equal parts confusion and concern.
“Move on? Where? What do you mean?”
“The less you know, the better,” Claire assured her in a serious tone. “I don’t want you getting in any trouble because of me.”
That earned an incredulous look in return.
“It’s never stopped you before,” Michelle teased with a smile.
“I’m serious, Shell,” Claire insisted. “Things in Raccoon were worse than you can imagine. There’s probably already a cover up in place. I just want you safe…and it’s easier for that to happen if you don’t know anything.”
Michelle’s eyes widened as Claire took a step back and reached for Sherry and Leon.
“We’re gonna need some clothes. Do you think Peter is about Leon’s size? Would any of his stuff fit?”
Her roommate’s nose wrinkled.
“Maybe, but he’s a total scrooge. He won’t want to give anything up.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment before moving towards the open door.
“Drew might be. Or even Kevin. I’ll go ask around.”
“Thanks, Shelley,” Claire said as she watched her step past Leon and Sherry and pull the door shut behind her.
The room was silent aside from the soft hum of music from the stereo on one of the desks. Turning back towards Leon and Sherry, Claire beckoned them forward awkwardly.
“C’mon, come in! Welcome to Casa de Claire!” she joked.
There was no greater reminder of just how small and cramped her dorm room was until multiple people inhabited it. Sherry looked around in wonder before approaching Claire’s desk and inspecting it thoroughly. Leon merely stood off to the side, looking frazzled as he shifted his weight from one leg to the other.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked quietly as Claire stepped closer.
“I trust her,” she answered, just as hushed. “We’re here for just the night and then tomorrow we can grab more cash and figure something out.”
Leon merely nodded at that, looking slightly appeased. Sherry had already leafed through the CD collection on display and was poking around elsewhere for stimulation.
“Claire, is this you?” she asked suddenly as she reached back towards the wall and pulled forth a battered frame.
There was no need to examine the photograph the young girl was stretching out to show her – Claire had it practically memorized.
“Yeah. That’s me and my brother, Chris,” she said, pointing towards the taller figure.
It was from a few years back, before he’d accepted the job offer in Raccoon City and before she’d graduated high school. The dusty jeep they leaned upon still belonged to Chris – or maybe didn’t, depending on where he left it before setting off to parts unknown – and showed the mud and dust they’d accumulated over a day of driving off-road. It had been so long since they’d been camping together…their parents had still been alive the last time they’d gone off into the wilderness for a weekend retreat.
Chris had insisted they do something fun together during her summer break and had hastily thrown together an impromptu trip to the nearby mountains. They hadn’t packed a tent, merely grabbed some sleeping bags and threw them in the back of the car with some fishing poles and hit the road. She couldn’t remember a time she’d laughed more – Chris trying to get back in the habit of fishing after so long away had some hysterical results. But he’d always been good and he hadn’t gone completely rusty; they had fresh fish every night for dinner before stargazing from the shelter and comfort of the open hatchback of the car.
They’d passed a group of older college kids doing the same towards the end of their trip and one of the boys had offered to take their picture for them. Chris had two developed after they came home and gave her one of the pair; his had been in his apartment in Raccoon City the last time she’d visited and hers had traveled to college to reside in her dorm.
A knot of worry formed in her stomach once more as her thoughts were drawn back to Chris. Where was he? What was he doing? There was probably no way for him to know about Raccoon City just yet…would that even deter him from whatever he was doing overseas? She still had no way of knowing just what exactly had him sent him racing over to another continent, but if her gut suspicion that it had something to do with Umbrella and Raccoon instead of an uncharacteristic burst of wanderlust…it more than likely meant he was in terrible danger.
“Claire?”
She blinked and looked towards Sherry, taking in the concern on the little girl’s face.
“Are you alright?”
Forcing a convincing smile on her face, she shook herself free of all thoughts of Chris as best she could.
“Yeah, fine! Just tired, that’s all.”
Placing the picture frame back on the desk, she quickly stepped towards the dresser in the corner and pulled open a drawer.
“How about you find something you like?” she said as Sherry bounced up to her side. “We’ll work on shoes and socks later.”
As the little girl dug through the pile of t-shirts before her, Claire turned back towards Leon and took in the sight of him staring at the adjacent wall.
“Hey. How you holding up?” she asked gingerly.
He surprised her by shooting an amused smile her way before redirecting his gaze back to the wall. She followed his eyes and took in the Pearl Jam poster he was observing.
“Grunge, huh?” he teased lightly.
Nose scrunching in faux-annoyance, she gave him a light swat to the arm, a smile breaking across her face.
“That honestly surprises you?” she asked.
“No, it really doesn’t,” he replied with a small chuckle.
“Well, I guess maybe I need a degree of predictability given my ‘hidden talents’,” she said as she pivoted to stand across from him.
His expression was confused but amused as she visibly scrutinized him.
“Let me guess…you listen to Third Eye Blind?”
She had to bite her lip to keep from smiling at the sheepish look that appeared on Leon’s face.
“Maybe I need to work on being more unpredictable…,” he said.
“I like knowing where things stand with you,” she said, finally letting her smile shine through. “Besides, they’re a good band – I like them too.”
She meant every word she said – mostly about how she felt with him. There was something so comforting about Leon’s honesty and integrity; no matter how short of a time she’d known him, she already trusted him implicitly. There was no guessing with him, no angles to be worked out…he was a good guy just for the sake of being one. The respect she held for him was unparalleled to just about anyone other than Chris and Jill.
The door reopened and they jolted away from one another. Leon’s hand slipped down towards his holster out of reflex and Claire was quick to step back into his side and catch his wrist. Michelle poked her head in, taking sight of them so close together and raising her eyebrows in question. Once Leon’s hand strayed away from his pistol, Claire let go of him, looking to Michelle expectantly.
“Any luck?”
The proffered clothes brought a grateful smile to her face; she reached out and accepted the bundle from her roommate’s hands before Leon had a chance. As she passed them off to him, she watched as Michelle crossed the room to grab a pillow off her bed and head back towards the door.
“You’re leaving?”
“I figure if you’re all staying, you can use both beds. I’m bunking with Stacy and Laura,” Michelle replied.
Claire took a step forward, feeling unease welling up from deep in her stomach.
“Did you tell them anything? Do they-”
“Easy! They know you’re back and have guests, but I assured them you never even made it into the city before it got wiped out,” her roommate assuaged her.
Breathing a sigh of relief, it took effort not to place a hand over her decelerating heart.
“Thank you.”
Michelle gave her a pointed look as she stood in the door’s threshold.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“I won’t leave without saying goodbye,” Claire promised.
Satisfied with such a response, Michelle grabbed the door and pulled it shut behind her.
“Have a good night,” she said in parting.
When they were alone once more, Claire allowed herself to look back towards Leon, taking in how much slower he was to relax his guard.
“We’ll shower and then sleep. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.”
After a moment, she placed a gentle hand on his arm, finally drawing his gaze back to her.
“Hey,” she said with a soft smile. “We’re alright.”
She watched his eyes gradually soften, taking some of the rigidness out of his shoulders with it. Slowly, he offered a small smile back, already looking less pensive. She tapped him lightly on the bicep of his injured side, stepping back quickly in search of her towels and shower caddy.
“C’mon. Shower quickly and we can put on fresh bandages tonight instead of in the morning.”
The movement woke her before the sounds did.
Claire felt the rapid shifting beside her and felt her eyes forcing themselves open, clean hair obscuring her gaze as it fell in her face. Her heart leapt into her throat with fear as her brain rapidly supplied several horrifying options for the commotion: zombies, mutant dogs, Lickers, the Tyrant-!
Only the soft whimpers reaching her ears drew her out of the panic induced haze she found herself momentarily trapped in. Her eyes fell down to Sherry at her side, caught in a tangled mess of blankets as she thrashed about in her sleep. There were almost words escaping the young girl’s lips as she fought or tried to flee from some unknown terror.
“..n…n-no!.....s….st…!”
“Sherry!” Claire whispered, giving her a gentle shake. “Sherry!”
She knew Leon was awake without even having to look in his direction: his gaze was heavy on her from the adjacent bed. Trying once more, she gave Sherry a more forceful nudge. She was unprepared for the girl to jolt upwards with a strangled gasp, her sounds morphing into a terrified cry.
“Shhhhhhh! Shhhhhh! Sherry, it’s okay!” Claire assured her, placing reassuring hands on her shoulders. “It’s alright!”
Large blue eyes swung around the room before settling on her, tears shining in their corners.
“C-Claire!”
“I’m here. It’s okay,” Claire assured her as Sherry lunged and wrapped her arms around her middle.
Her whole body shook with violent shivers and Claire felt her heart tear at the obvious fear coursing through her. Shushing her again, she wrapped her arms around her in return and patted her back gently.
“You’re fine. You’re safe. It was just a bad dream…”
“I-…I was back in Raccoon….and I…I couldn’t get away-!”
Her gasps turned into dry heaves and Claire rubbed her back reassuringly.
“It’s okay to be scared,” she told her quietly. “And those kinds of dreams are going to be normal for a while.”
Probably a long time, truth be told. She didn’t need a degree in psychology to know that the things Sherry had seen and endured had probably traumatized her. They probably all were – Sherry, Leon, and even Claire herself – but for now, Sherry’s state of being mattered most. Whatever Claire was feeling was buried deep for now, waiting to be unboxed at a later date. She tried not to think too much on the night before in the motel shower, when Leon had been forced to help sweep up the shattered remains of her confident persona…
“You’re safe,” she said again. “I’m here – and so is Leon. We won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
Sherry seemed assuaged, her breathing settling as she tried to calm herself. Claire smoothed her loose hair down and helped pull the tangled covers back up over her.
“Try and get some more sleep?” she asked quietly. “I’ll be right here with you all night.”
That was all it took for Sherry to burrow closely into her side; Claire held her tightly, running her fingers through her hair reassuringly as she murmured sweet nothings. After a minute, silence began to fall back upon the tiny room and Claire swallowed thickly.
“…Leon?”
“Yeah?”
His voice was still husky from sleep and she felt her heart hammer faster in her chest.
“Will you come here?”
There was no response but she could hear him throwing back the covers and slipping out of Michelle’s bed. Claire scooted herself and Sherry closer to the wall, leaving space for Leon to squish in beside them. It was probably laughable, the three of them all trying to share the same twin sized bed, but Claire could feel nothing but relief as Leon pressed up against her tightly from behind. Her fingers reached back to grab his hand and pull his arm around her; he offered no resistance, fingers threading through hers just as quickly.
Sherry’s shivers started to subside little by little. Claire couldn’t be absolutely certain just when she fell back asleep, but her even breathing helped settle her own nerves. She kept her hand around Leon’s taking comfort in the soft press of his skin against hers. His thumb was tracing small circles against the outside of her palm and she found herself focusing solely on the movements as her own eyes started to feel heavy and slip shut…
By the time Michelle popped her head in the door the next morning, Claire and Leon were already dressed and seated on opposite sides of the map laid out between them on the bed. They’d quickly started taking stock of what they’d need for another road trip, knowing this one would have to be a long one, wherever it took them. There was still no real destination in mind…all they knew was that it had to be “away” and that they needed to leave sooner rather than later.
Her roommate blearily stared at them a moment before shuffling towards her bed and digging around underneath it for her shower caddy; she passed Sherry, seated on the floor near Claire’s stereo, headphones over her ears and readily distracted with the stack of CDs she’d taken from the desk earlier. Claire felt Leon’s eyes following the gesture and she discreetly placed her hand on his wrist, her eyes never once leaving the paper in front of them. His gaze fell onto her and she let their eyes connect; she watched some of the wariness leave his face and he gave a small nod.
The phone ringing broke the illusion of calm, as both Claire and Leon jolted with the sudden noise. Sherry remained oblivious - music playing too loudly – but Michelle also reacted, muffled curse words trapped under the bed as she smacked her head on one of the base boards.
Claire didn’t receive too many phone calls – she took a steadying breath and tried to smooth out the map while her best friend forced herself back up onto her feet and headed for the phone on the nightstand. Meeting eyes with Leon, she gestured back towards the map, finger pointing back towards Mexico with a questioning raise of her eyebrows. It was drastic…but it might be the best shot at staying far from the reaches of Umbrella or the government, should either of them catch wind of their presence in Raccoon City a few nights prior…
“Claire,” Michelle said to her a second later.
“Hmm?”
“It’s for you.”
For a single, wild moment, her heart soared.
“Chris?” she asked excitedly as she whirled around.
“No,” Michelle said, making an apologetic expression. “I don’t know who it is.”
Trying to shelve her annoyance at her roommate not screening the call, Claire reached for the phone with a sigh. If it was some scammer this early in the morning, so help her God…
“Hello?”
“Claire! So good to hear from you!”
She blinked in surprise, utterly unprepared for Barry Burton’s voice to boom in her ear. Beyond that, he was speaking so…animatedly. They’d met a handful of times over the last year and a half when she’d stopped in to visit Chris and while he’d always been friendly, he hadn’t ever been like this. He was warm and inviting, not…pushy and fake like he sounded now.
…Something was up. It didn’t take more than a moment to figure that out and she felt some of her hair stand on end.
“I’m so sorry to have missed your calls,” he continued as she sat there, rigid with apprehension. “Things have been a little hectic around here…”
“…yeah,” she managed to reply faintly.
Leon gingerly placed a hand on her shoulder and she shakily brought her fingers up to brush against his. The gesture gave her a small resurgence of strength and she tried to swallow down as much of her unease as she could as she listened to Barry speak.
“Gosh, you’re how old now?”
“…nineteen-“
“NINETEEN. My how time flies. NINETEEN. Years old.”
Claire felt her mouth drop open, sheer confusion stupefying her to silence.
“Seems like just yesterday we met. You, me, and Chris…he made a whopping score of ZERO at darts, haha.”
That wasn’t true – Chris had been exceedingly good at darts, especially that night as he’d worked to one up Barry in front of her and Jill…
“I can’t remember…was it just TWO of the other guys from the squad there? Or all FOUR?”
The final drawn out number finally got her the gears in her head turning and she felt the pieces fall into place, eyes widening.
Shooting out of bed, she struggled to kick her feet free of the sheets as she made for the desk. The phone lurched with her, almost yanking straight out of the wall and she had to jolt back to correct herself and save the call. By that time, Leon was already halfway out of bed and where she had intended to go, looking towards her questioningly. Miming a pen scribbling, she kept replaying what Barry was saying in her head over and over as Leon scrambled to find her something to write with.
The second she had paper and pen in hand, she pressed them to the wall and started jotting down numbers. 1, 9….0….2, 4….
She saw Leon trying to get her attention out of the corner of her eye and she juggled the phone to give him a pleading gesture as she continued scratching down numbers as Barry dropped them.
“-we’ll be heading out of town on the seventh. We have a lot of packing left to do, I should get back to that now. Talk again soon, okay? Take care.”
The line was dead before she even had a chance to take the receiver from her ear. She listened to the humming tone for a few heartbeats before slowly placing the phone back in its cradle.
“What’s going on?” Leon demanded after a moment.
Claire stared at her handwriting on the paper before her and felt her brow furrow.
“Barry worked with my brother in STARS. I think…I think he just slipped me a code…”
- 6, 8, 10 numbers…
She turned to face him fully.
“We need to find a payphone.”