Chapter Text
The sun relentlessly beating down on Claire is nothing short of downright unbearable.
Its baking hot heat is scolding the back of her neck and making her sweat bullets as she, Leon and Sherry march onwards and they start putting as much distance as they can between what's left of Raccoon City and themselves.
Claire reckons it’s safe to say all three of them are more than fed up with Raccoon Cities' subpar hospitality.
With Sherry planted up on her back, well and truly passed out from the sheer exhaustion and turmoil she’s been through within the past 48 hours, Claire and Leon walk onwards together in companionable silence, both more than happy to leave the other to their thoughts as fatigue, hunger and thirst plays on them more and more.
Still though, for Claire at least, despite all the shit Raccoon City had to throw at them…she’s at least thankful for the new friend she made in Leon.
Of course, disappointment does also sit in her heart alongside feelings of gratefulness and satisfaction of having made it out of that nightmare alive, and helping an innocent little girl along the way it's just that…well…
To be frank, she had hoped to find out more about her brother's whereabouts than she did.
She had hoped to find him there.
Claire knows it wasn’t a wasted trip, she still got good information and a new lead on her brother's location to follow up on, she just wished she could have reunited with him already and not have to galavanting anywhere else to find him.
No matter though, Chris is her brother and she’ll go to every end of the earth to find him if that’s what it takes.
She just wishes she didn’t have to.
As she thinks about all this she swears everything is getting heavier.
God her legs burn so damn bad.
Why does this highway have to go on for so long!?
Leon keeps walking on, despite feeling and smelling like shit he knew when signed up to become a cop that there’d be days like this and he was trained hard enough in the police academy to keep up with the physical demands of his job.
So despite how much his legs hurt and how badly the bullet wound in his shoulder agonizes him, he keeps walking on, not letting it bother him or slow him down.
The only thing that makes him pause is the lack of a bold, red, leather jacket that’s been in his peripheral vision for the past while.
Turning around he sees Claire with Sherry passed out on her back, giving her a once over it’s clear all this has taken its toll on her, sympathy beats in his heart but Claire shoots him a cool, breezy, reassuring smile and mouths ‘im okay’ to him as she catches up and falls into step beside him once again.
Knowing how steadfast and strong-headed Claire is and knowing just as well how capable she is he bites his tongue and holds back the help he was about to offer out of a lack of wanting to offend her.
So he doesn’t, but what he does do is he stops walking as fast, slowing down so Claire doesn’t have to fall behind again.
They still don’t exchange many, or really, any words as they walk.
They don’t for two reasons, one being the sleeping child on Claire’s back and the second is the silent understanding of each other and their reasons for going - and staying - in Raccoon City for as long as they did.
A mutual respect has been born between them after this whole mess.
A nice friendship that both Claire and Leon hope will stick around even after they get this mess and their next moves sorted out.
.It’s another long while before anything of note happens, the sun is even higher in the sky now, right above their heads is the mid-day sun and the heat it brings with it is even more unbearable and unescapable with the lack of shade they don’t have to take advantage of.
Even Leon for all his training is finding it hard to concentrate given the sheer heat and his uniform feels like it’s cooking him alive, the bullet wound in his shoulder flares with every movement he makes.
And yet it’s still Claire he worries for more.
She’s just a civilian and already she’s lived and been through more than most in the past 24 hours alone.
And as much as he knows how badly she wants to protect Sherry, she’s been carrying the girl for ages…
Claire is starting to lose her balance on her steps, her legs drag more than they walk and her eyes seem to be half closed and she’s fighting to keep them open.
Stopping suddenly catches Claire off-guard as she stumbles slightly before turning around to face him “Leon wh-” “You should let me carry Sherry for a while” he interrupts her.
He sees the protest break out on her face before she even utters a word but he doesn’t let her get it out “Come on, don’t fight me on this you’ve been carrying her for ages while I’ve been slacking off, I’m supposed to be the officer here” he jokes, Claire chuckles slighly but still looks uncertain, he takes that as a victory and steps closer, taking advantage of her exhaustion to not give her a chance to try and argue her way out of it “come on, let me take her off you’re back” the pun has her rolling her eyes but she steps back a step “seriously? Leon, you have a bullet wound in you’re shoulder I’m not going to let you make it worse by taki-” he waves her concern away, that manly macho toughness taking over “ah it’s fine, can barely feel a thing” Claire laughs at him outright this time, and if she had any free arms to use he images she’d have a hand or two on her hipes with the sass that exudes from her “and you think that’s a good thing why exactly? That isn’t something I’d be celebrating if I were you” Leon laughs but Claire's smile quickly morphs into slight annoyance as Leon kneels on the ground arms ready to grab Sherry’s legs in the piggyback position that the young child has been taking up since a little while after they escaped Raccoon City “come on, what’s the worse that could happen?” Claire raises a perfectly arched eyebrow at him with a deadpan expression that just screams ‘Have you and I not lived in the same hell for the past 24 hours?’ Still, she considers what he’s saying for a moment.
She could really use a break, for a while at least.
Sighing she smiles down at Leon “Oh what the hell, if a man’s trying this hard to be chivalrous the least I could do is let him have his delusions” she teases to which Leon scoffs, well used to that particular avenue of teasing from people.
And Claire knows it too, the devil, Leon swears her grin glints in the sunlight.
Jostling Sherry stirring the little girl from her sleep makes a pang of guilt strike Claire, but she shakes it off knowing the girl can go back to sleep in a couple of minutes.
Sherry unwraps her arms from around Claire’s neck to rub the sleep out of her eyes as she yawns “Claire, what’re doing?” she sleepily mumbles which has Claire smiling “Nothing to worry about Sher, just handing you over to Leon before I develop back problems” she jokes to which Sherry giggles tiredly “hey, I’m not heavy” she protests and Claire just grins “easy for you to say you haven’t had to carry you for the past 4 or 5 hours” Sherry giggles again and sticks her tongue out at Claire, who as a responsible adult, sticks hers right back at Sherry.
Leon shakes his head, looks like he’s babysitting two children instead of one “Now ladies, don’t be rude” he interjects and is met with a resounding ‘shut up Leon’ from both girls.
Leon is a hard man to make laugh, but that drags a chuckle out of him.
A couple of minutes later they’re back on the road again with Sherry now wide awake and yapping Leon and Claire’s ears off about anything and everything.
Claire and Leon happily indulge the child, answering her thousand questions, about themselves, about what they saw in the City, about what they were doing before this, where Leon was before Raccoon City and where was Claire searching for her brother before reaching Raccoon City.
As they listen to Sherry and what she’s talking about now, the sound of a rumbling engine and the whooshing of car tires on the tarmac quickly captures the trio's attention.
Looking at each other and then back at the road in the distance they see a truck coming.
After spending all this time, alone, just the three of them, seeing a large semi truck with a human driver that’s alive is nothing short of a miracle.
After all this time it feels like salvation is finally at hand.
With hope reinvigorated in Leon and Claire, they ignore their injuries and tired limbs in favour of running as quickly as they can towards that truck, stranger danger being the last thing on they’re minds as they race towards it.
The truck is travelling fast so it takes no time at all to get into the driver's line of sight, Leon has put Sherry down and the three of them jump around the road, making themselves as visible as possible while making as much noise as possible, trying their hardest to flag down the driver.
It works.
Once the truck sees them it comes to a screeching halt a few feet from our travelling trio and Leon wastes no time racing around to the side of the truck, opening the passenger side door and asking the driver to step out of the vehicle so they can talk.
Stepping down from the driver's seat, the driver, a man in his early 40s adjusts his baseball cap as he thinks to himself that today just got a whole lot more interesting.
As if travelling down a completely derelict highway wasn’t weird enough.
Now he’s been flagged down by a lone cop with a wounded shoulder and covered head to toe in grime and dirt accompanied by a woman in a black ripped tank top and jeans that were once blue covered in just as much muck with her fair share of visible nicks and scrapes.
With a kid beside them holding a red leather jacket that’s seen better days that’s clearly several sizes too big for her and yet she looks like she’s been through the wringer just as much as the two adults have been.
The question he’s dying to ask is what the hell did they just escape from?
And why are they walking away from the place he’s supposed to be delivering ‘emergency relief packages’?
This whole situation and hell, this whole day, has been one weird event happening after another.
He should consider retiring before it’s too late.
Claire and Leon tell him of everything that went down in Raccoon City and provided some evidence which they were happy to give, if they were in this driver's shoes they wouldn’t have believed it either.
You’d have to have lived through it to believe, which is why there is hardly anyone left who can testify to the very real danger to be encountered in beautiful Raccoon City.
They leave out some of the…finer details, mainly about Umbrella and they’re involvement in that whole mess.
And about the fact that the virus that created the undead was originally meant to be sold as a bioweapon.
Leon told her all about it, and for now, they’ve both decided the best course of action is to hold on to that little piece of information and the evidence they got to back it up until the perfect moment to strike pops up.
Because there is no way they're letting this go.
No, for Marvin, for Annette, for all those people who lost their lives and the few survivors.
Bringing this to light is how they honour them.
Even if it costs them their lives.
It takes some convincing but after being able to prove to the nice and rather shaken truck driver that what happened in Raccoon City was far too real, he agrees to give them a lift back to the nearest small town, anywhere close that has at least a diner and some sort of overnight accommodation be it a B&B, a Motel or a Hotel, a friend’s apartment, anything at all.
Settled in the cab of the truck, the supplies being brought back to where they came from with the news that there were no survivors, Claire, Leon and Sherry eat some of the MREs and water that were included in the care packages bound for Raccoon City.
It’s not like there is anyone left there to appreciate them anyways.
After a while Claire and Sherry fall asleep, the former of the two whose head slipped off the headrest and onto Leon's shoulder who doesn’t complain and doesn’t dare disturb her, despite the fact he can slowly start to feel his arm going dead.
He’s brave, not suicidal.
Leon is in the middle seat next to the driver, with Claire beside him and Sherry squeezed against the doorframe, just in case they run into trouble.
In the unlikely event that that does happen, at least Sherry and Claire have a good chance of making it away alive.
Silence rings on for another while, the only sounds filling the silence being the sound of the engine and the soft snores coming from the two sleeping beauties in the passenger seats.
It’s a lulling silence to be sure…but Leon doesn’t let himself sleep, not quite convinced they aren’t out of danger yet.
The man in the driver's seat looks between Leon and the radio nervously “You want to put on some tunes buddy?” Leon is shaken away from his thoughts by the mans words, but after registering what he was asking he just smiles politely and shakes his head “Uh, no I’m all good here but if you want them on, knock yourself out, it is you’re truck after all” the man laughs nervously, rubbing the back of his head “uh, nah it’s okay, I’m good if you’re good, nothing but crap on that damn thing nowadays anyways” he brushes off, it does make Leon chuckle though, lightening the atmosphere in the cab for the two of them “uh right, right, can’t say I disagree, most I hear on it is the usual top 40 pop songs, the same ones teenagers are always screaming about” Leon says to which the driver nods and briefly takes his eyes of the road to make brief eye contact for a couple of seconds, chuckling as well “too right my friend, seems that’s the marketing strategy for these celebrities nowaday, whatever appeals to the masses” nodding in agreement the driver doesn’t say anymore but a tension that was in the air before is lessened significantly, Leon knows he deosn’t have to keep talking to the man but…
Seriously, what else is he going to do? According to the man, the nearest stop is about 49 kilometres back the way the man came.
He’s doing them a huge favour by giving them a lift, he didn’t have to at the end of the day.
It’s not like he owed them anything, and if Leon was in the driver's shoes, dropping a bunch of strangers, one of them being a cop, at some town in the middle of nowhere after finding out that his destination might as well not exist anymore with badly it’s been overrun by the undead.
So he doesn’t let the conversation die with a comment about the teenagers of today’s taste in music “I forgot to mention it before but, thanks, for doing this for us, you….really got us out of a bind, not sure how much longer we could have held out in that heat” the man sighs and rubs his eyes, the man has been on the road for a while but he still answers Leon with a smile “no worries kid, hell I have to go back this way anyways, report in with the higher ups in charge, figure out what the hell they want me to do with his crap after everything you guys have showed me good god…and you don’t know what started it all” gratitude turns into slight unease as the conversation shifts to what they left out but he’s a cop, undercover work is part of the training he recieved so lies come easily off his tonge and nothing in his body language would dare suggest otherwise “yeah, no, we have no idea how the hell that nightmare started, the officer in charge of the station I was meant to be assigned too…a good man who went by the name of Marvin Brennan, he had his theories but he was in the dark, he had a feeling the Chief of police would know more, according to him they had eyes and ears everywhere in that city but….there wasn’t any evidence, and no one was really worrying about how it started they were just…trying….and failing, to survive” the man breathes a heavy breathe “jesus christ…what a mess” he says in shock and Leon looks towards Sherry “yeah…what a mess is right” the man looks to the radio again and says “fuck this, shitty music is better than hearing about all this dire crap” laughing again as the man puts on the radio, Justin Bieber’s ‘Sorry’ starts playing with the man frantically turning the volumn down as to not wake the slumbering passengers, making Leon laugh.
Silence reigns on for another couple of minutes before Leon breaks it again, feeling oddly chatty for someone who usually considers himself an introvert “I never caught your name by the way? Figured I should at least get the name of the man whose saving our sorry skins” the man chuckles at the…attempt, let's call it, at humour “name’s David, David Hugh” Leon nods “well thanks again David, as thanks I won’t charge you for having your number plates slightly obstructed” he jokes, which catches David off guard who lets out a good hearty laugh at the joke “hah! And here I thought cops didn’t have a sense of humour” as both they’re laughter trails off into a peaceful the silence, the man has one final thing to say.
That baseball cap David’s been fiddling with this whole time is taken off his head, a very obvious nervous tick of his, a serious but kind look on his face, he turns to Leon.
He looks straight into Leon’s eyes, not worried about traffic given the derelict state of the highway there “listen, Leon, I uh…look whatever went down in Raccoon City must have been awful, I don’t doubt you’ll have plenty of nightmares and scars to remember you’re time thereby, but um…I’m glad you, and you’re family, managed to make it out alive.”
Leon nearly chokes on his spit.
He wants nothing more than to correct David…but it’s such a heartfelt moment he just…can’t.
Leon smiles and nods at the man “Thank you, David, that…means a lot” while he thinks to himself ‘why can’t I be heartless and cruel like everyone else in this damn world.’
He looks down at the woman using his shoulder as a pillow and corrects himself ‘Almost everyone.’
The drive takes another two hours to reach their destination, a small town that goes by the name of Maxtion, it’s a cosy place, not very big but sizable enough to have a B&B.
At their destination the truck has stopped just outside the entrance to the B&B, Claire and Sherry stand off to the side already having thanked David for his hospitality and generous transport, Leon is standing with David near the driver's side door “and again tha-” David waves Leon off with a chuckle “kid, you don’t have to keep thanking me, you’re welcome, and like I said it was no trouble I was heading back this way anyways, at least with you three I got some company for a while” Leon chuckles along with him, looks between the B&B and Claire and Sherry, knowing that they were going to make for a interesting sight.
Nodding to David he pats the man on the shoulder “Well, this is our stop….we uh, better start heading in, take care of yourself David” David tips his hat to Leon in response.
But just as he turns around to leave Claire comes jogging over to them.
Smiling brightly having finally gotten some rest she grins at the two men before giving David her full attention “Thanks again, here” she hands the now surprised-looking man a $20 note “It won’t do much but it might buy you a few beers for yourself” she says with a smile.
David laughs and pockets the twenty looking grateful “I don’t require payment for doing this, it was my pleasure but I appreciate it, hell after hearing about what went down…well, I reckon we could all use a drink” Claire and Leon nod in agreement, more than agreeing with that sentiment “Can I have a drink too?” Sherry pipes up, startling the hell out of Claire and making David and Leon burst into laughter “Atta girl!” David cries and Leon grins after his fit and says “Not unless you want to be brought into the station for underage drinking missy” Sherry just giggles, happy she made these nice people laugh.
As Sherry runs off Claire and Leon turn back to David saying their goodbyes and are about to start walking towards the entrance when the man calls them back.
With a whistle he captures Leon’s attention, his fast reflexes catch the jacket the man throws into his hands “I know it’s hot out today but I reckon you don’t wanna have to explain that to the poor receptionist,” he explains jokingly, to which Leon chuckles and raises the jacket “I appreciate it!” David nods and starts climbing up to the driver's seat.
Turning away Leon catches back up with Claire and Sherry while he slips on the jacket, the latter of the two jumping around impatiently.
Claire raises an eyebrow at him in question but the smile on her face remains friendly, Leon clarifies “David reckoned I should probably hide the bullet wound in my shoulder.”
Claire nods in understanding and they start walking on together “Don’t worry we’ll get that shoulder of yours properly patched up in a bit” Leon is about to protest when Claire cuts him off “And don’t even try and play it off, we’re taking a look at it, end of discussion, you’re only other option is finding a hospital and going to it” the protest dies on his tongue, he also decides he likes the first option a lot better “I’ll take option 1 please” Claire grins at him “thought as much” before they make it in the door of the B&B.
The way heads turn their way with their noses scrunched isn’t exactly a surprise but it sure is embarrassing.
Ignoring them, Claire takes point and heads to the desk, she wants to applaud the woman’s strong will as she manages to keep on a polite smile and not scrunch up her nose at the smell that sure emites of the two adults of the group.
Smiling tiredly Claire greets the woman “It’s been a long day, one with an even longer story that I swear explains why we smell the way we do, got any rooms available?”
The door to a room opens and Claire, Leon and Sherry step inside single file through the narrow doorway until they flutter out into the space as it opens up.
Sherry sprints ahead of Leon and Claire, bouncing around the open space, With a big smile on her face and glee in her eyes she runs “This so big!” she yells.
Shaking her head and smiling at one of the two beds she flops on it and groans in pleasure “Oh bed, sweet, sweet, bed, oh how I’ve missed you.”
Leon smiles at her from his spot leaning against the wall beside the bed “You’d swear you haven’t seen one before” he jokes to which she scoffs “It sure as hell feels like it’s been forever since I’ve seen one, I’m sure you can relate” he pushes against the wall and walks around to the side of the bed Claire doesn’t occupy and collapses on it as she had “oh yeah…I can relate” he sighs a blissful sigh and closes his eyes…
Only to open them again as he feels someone watching him.
Turning his head he looks into Claire's eyes who doesn’t say a word, and he doesn’t either.
They just stare and smile, and enjoy the first true moment of quiet they’ve gotten.
The kind of calm, serenity that can only come after the eye of the storm has passed on.
A moment thats shattered by a mini-missile of blond hair landing right on top of them, shattering the moment and the peace that came with it
Well, it was nice while it lasted.
The bolt of white pain that shoots through his shoulder when she lands is hot and blinding, the cry of pain that leaves his mouth is out before he can stifle it and stop the consequence of the smile disappearing from Sherry’s face and being replaced with a combination of guilt, sorrow and fear “I’m so sorry!” she yelps, Leon sucks in a sharp breath and holds it for a long while, biting back the onslaught of curses that he almost lets loose.
As Leon composes himself Claire takes back control of the situation, putting her hand on Sherry’s shoulder to get the girl's attention “Why don’t you grab me the first aid kit and go order us some food?” she suggests in a kind but firm tone.
One that sounds like a question but is definitely not a question, Sherry’s been told what to do and even Sherry is smart enough not to get on her bad side.
As she scampers off to get what she was told to receive Claire puts her hand on Leon’s good shoulder “You alright?” she asks.
His first instinct is to say ‘no’ that he’s tired, sore and his shoulders in agony but he settles for a “seen better days but I’ll live” with a tired smile on his face, Claire nods in understanding and as Sherry comes back in with the med kit Leon smiles at her, trying to put as much energy and sincereness behind it, which seems to the work as the kid smiles back before taking Claire's phone and going off down the small hall leading into the room.
In the meantime, Claire gets off the bed and grabs a chair out from beneath the desk sitting against the wall to the right of the big window in the room past the two beds and drags it over to the bed and sits down on it and pulling out some of the contents and organising them.
Not needing to ask what she’s doing, it’s with gratitude in his eyes that he sits up, swinging his legs to the left of Claires and re-positioning himself so that each of his knees and legs is spread outside of Claire’s closed ones, giving her the room she’ll need to move around.
He feels slightly guilty for getting her to do this but it’s not like he can clean his own shoulder on his own.
Especially because he has a sinking suspicion the bullet he got shot with is still in there.
Not having a lot of options in the way of tools Claire is forced to…improvise, she has a pair of tweezers in a tiny purse along with her money, not nearly big enough to get a bullet out, even if it’s only a 9milimeter, so grabbing the tweezers she wipes them thoroughly on the disinfectant wipes found in the first aid kit before she calls Sherry back over for a favour once she hears the little girl get off the phone “Sherry! Come here for a minute I need you to do something for me here!” she calls.
Not even full seconds later she comes into sight, looking between Leon and Claire oddly before addressing Claire “Yes?” she asks, and the woman takes her head away from the kit in her lap and smiles “Hey, you see that whiskey on the dresser there? Can you bring it over to me with a glass please?” Sherry’s eyes widen and look as if she’s about to question it when Leon and his sass beat her to it “Woah Claire, bit early in the evening for that, don’t you think?” which has Sherry laughing and Claire sticking her tongue out at him “oh haha, Mr Comedian if you’re such a wise guy why don’t you clean that bullet wound in your shoulder yourself huh?” she shoots right back at him quickly shutting the man up, Sherry thoroughly enjoying the back and forth as she retrieves the booze Claire asked for.
Claire immediately pours a glass of it and dips both blades of the tweezers inside it, sterilizing the blades, and killing off any unwanted germs and bacteria that you definitely don’t want inside someone’s bloodstream.
Especially not you’re cop buddy who walked through hell right alongside you.
Finally, after getting everything she needs ready, Claire is ready to begin, after wiping off the blades on a piece of tissue retrieved for her by Sherry, she starts.
Tweezers in hand she leans forward and looks at Leon who has taken his shirt and the ruined bandage he’s had on for the past few days was also removed “Ready?” she asks, knowing this is going to be painful and it’s not like they have a lot of access to painkillers.
Leon nods firmly, bracing himself for what is sure to be not a fun time for him.
And boy if he was ever right about something he was right about that.
As gentle as Claire is, as the tweezes enter his wound and scrape against the edges sending so many signals of pain to his brain he grits his teeth hard as Claire roots around inside, feeling her way around and shining a torch into the wound, held in place in her mouth as she examines the damage done by the bullet.
After a few minutes, she retracts the tweezers and takes the flashlight out of her mouth and winces in sympathy for the man, not having good news for him at all.
Clearing her throat she bites the bullet….and cringes at her own colourful and irony-filled choice of words “So uh…good news or the bad news first?” she asks and Leon groans both in pain and annoyance knowing nothing ever good comes whenever someone asks that the good rarely outweighs the bad in his experience “bad news first, lay it on me” Claire nods and elaborates “so I’ve had a look inside and unfortunately…the bullet isn’t in one piece, looks like it fragmented on impact, this makes removing it exceptionally more complicated, I can still do it, the net effect is that it’ll take longer, and I’m only 86. Like 4 per cent certain where each fragment is inside the wound, it spilt into three pieces, two of them are mostly intact and have wedged themselves into the right and left wall of the wound but the third piece suffered a further break and spilt off into god knows how many other even smaller pieces which are either too small to see or have wedged themselves way deeper into you” she explains thoroughly and Leon just stares at her, a mixture of surprise and dread on his face before he collapses backwards and sighs “great…just…great” he says sarcastically, he gives Claire his attention back when she keeps going “as I said, Leon…I can do it, but it would be far more pleasant on you’re end if you went to a hospital, where they have high quality, extremely strong painkillers, the good shit if you will, and access to medical professionals and more importantly, anaesthesia, if need be, not to mention a hospital is far cleaner than thi-” Leon feels the need to stop her there and so he does “Claire, with all due respect we talked about this, the nearest hospital is probably a hell of a long ways away from here, not to mention we don’t have the time or the money for it even if we had transport to get there, I trust you, you definitely sound like you know what you’re doing…” he trails off at the end, not sure if its a subject she wants to discuss, and he’s not certain if asking about it would be rude but at first glance, he’d never have guessed she was this medically….smart sounding.
Of course, it could all be a front and in reality, she could have no idea what she’s on about but what she’s saying matches up with her movements when she was examining him and her insistence on him going to a hospital gives him faith in her, someone trying to sound more confident than they are would likely be giving less information and far more assurances and likely quoting false college degrees and doctorial thesis projects.
Claire ignores the lingering question for now and continues discussing with Leon “The good news is that while it’s unfortunate the wound didn’t go through and through, because it wouldn’t have caused as much damage as this one has, the bullet hasn’t actually hit anything vital, you got hella lucky for that one” she explains then looks at him waiting for him to say something, anything.
Leon sighs and rubs a hand down his face, not looking forward to this at all “any chance we can just…put a new bandage on and leave it alone?” he asks jokingly only half serious.
But Claire isn’t laughing.
Sitting back down in front of him she’s dead serious when she says “No Leon, we really can’t, we have to get those bullet pieces out, if we don’t the wound will get infected, or worse if you leave it too long, scared tissue will grow back over the hole in you’re shoulder, sealing those fragmented pieces inside along with any harmful bacteria, it’ll cause you nothing but ongoing pain and a lot of problems down the line, I don’t blame you for not wanting to do it but we don’t have much of a choice if you’re not going to at least try and get to a damn hospital” she speaks in an urgent tone, this is no laughing matter.
Silence engulfs him as he processes what she’s saying and sighs as he realises that there’s no getting out of this, not that he should want to.
He nods at her “Alright, let's get this over with” Claire breathes a sigh of relief that she doesn’t have to argue with him anymore over this.
Quickly sits back down and gets everything she needs before he changes his mind “Right” she says.
Grabbing the two tweezers blades again she gets to work on cleaning the bullet pieces out of his shoulder.
It’s a long and tedious process that takes a long while to be fully removed.
As Claire works Leon sweats and grunts and downright almost screams at some points the pain is so intense, it’s disorientating and hot as coals, and the tweezers scrape against the insides of his flesh and the bullet fragments she removes piece by piece are sharp and jagged, they poke and cut as they come out adding to his increasingly painful time in doctor Claire’s care.
After nearly an hour and a half of pain, curses, grit teeth, groans, and muffled screams, Claire removes the last visible piece of bullet fragments.
The clinking sound it makes as it lands on the small metal serving tray rings with a finality to it. Leon nearly laughs in glee about it, feeling more than tired and exhausted as sweat cascades down his body.
Claire sets the tweezers down and holds up one of the bigger bullet pieces and shakes her head sighing “Can’t believe these tiny things were causing so much bother…” she says almost amazed, she sets the piece back down in the tray and gets up while Leon lays back on the bed, his eyes closed, the sound of Claire rummaging about the place quietly almost makes him fall asleep.
But Claire comes back and sets down the supplies she gather including wet rags, bandages, pads and medical tape, she gently shakes Leon’s good side to make sure he stays awake “Hey, cmon Leon, we’re almost done, you can sleep in a few minutes, just let me dress this wound of yours properly or we’ll have to go through this all over again” she says which quickly has Leon complying with her orders, not wanting to have to experience that kind of pain all over again.
Sitting up with a wince and a groan the smile Claire awards him with makes it all worth it “Good. As I said, we’re almost done” She grabs the wet rags and starts cleaning away both the dried and fresh blood that’s smeared around the wound and falling down his front near his abs.
Leon watches her as she works, still curious about where she learned to do all this.
Despite the pain he was just in, he’s already starting to feel better, the wound still hurts his shoulder but now there’s nothing in it causing him more agony every time he moves moving those pieces with it.
Mostly cleaned up, Claire grab the medical supplies she gathered starting with the pad and holding it in place over the wound with her hand while she gets the medical tape and uses four pieces of it on the corners of the bandage before she wraps the bandages around his shoulder and under his arm before secures the bandage and reinforces it with the tape, everything is tight enough to keep it all in place not painfully tight that it causes any excess pain or cuts of circulation, something Claire knows as she keeps an eye on the visible skin while she cleans up around them, watching but not finding any signs of the skin turning purple.
It’s not perfect but like she said before, it’s better than nothing.
Claire looks at Leon and smiles as the man’s eyes keep drooping down and snapping them back open trying and failing to stay awake.
Snapping his eyes back open after they almost shut closes yet again Claire grabs his attention and Leon looks up at her, his hair ruffled and a sleepy smile on his face she shakes her head, finding the scene in front of her adorable and having a harder and harder time thinking of him as a hardened, stoic cop “go to sleep Leon, we’re all done here, I’ll let you know when the food arrives” she promises.
Leon wants to say something, thank her, ask her about where she learned all this but he’s so damn tired he doesn’t last another minute as he downright collapses backwards thoroughly knocked out.
Sighing, Claire stretches out, the bones in her back, arms, knees, knuckles, elbows and god knows where else all crack as she does so and she sighs in bliss as she works the stiffness out of them after having spent the better part of two hours in the same position.
It was worth it though, it…feels good to help the man who's been helping her all this time.
It’s nice to help out a friend.
She starts gathering up what she took out to help Leon, starting with the metal tray containing what’s left of the bullet that got shot into him.
She takes it over to the sink and removes the bullet fragments one by one, cleaning the blood off them and putting them into a small glass jar that held salt a few moments ago.
Sherry comes bouncing over to her, a bored look on her face after having already explored the entire space, including some of the nooks and crannies and memorizing the names for every product and trying to come up with reasons as to why they were named the way they were.
Why did she do this? Because she’s stuck in a room with two adults too busy star-gazing into each other’s eyes to entertain her outside of their obvious interest in each other.
Seriously, she’s a kid and even she can tell, why haven’t they said anything to each other?
Claire smiles down at the little girl while she washes her hand “Sorry we haven’t been very talkative Sher, we just have a lot to sort out, you ordered the food right?” Sherry giggles and grins a grin of pure mischief “Oh you were very talkative alright just not with me…” she trails off cheekily.
Narrowing her eyes playfully at the little girl Claire indulges her hinting “Oh, and what exactly are you implying?” With a devious smile on her face and an even more devious idea in her head she runs away from the counter and in a sing-song tone sings “Leon and Claire sitting in a tree! K.I.S.S.I.N AHHH!”
Sherry doesn’t get the chance to finish that tease, as Claire quickly puts down what she’s holding and gives chase.
A couple laps around the room later and Claire has Sherry right where she wants her…
Writhing beneath her as she pins the girl down and tickles her senselessly “Come on Sher! Tell me how the rest of the rhyme goes why dontcha!?”.
After a while she stops when Sherry has gone red in the face from not being able to breathe from laughing too hard, letting go she laughs along with the girl as the kid catches her breath “So you wanna get cheeky again ya little rascal?” Sherry vehemently shakes her head no, giggling all the while.
Stinking of sweat on top of shit Claire’s hair is matted and the tips of it stick to her neck.
She thinks it’s about time for a shower.
Getting up, she goes over to the tv that’s located in the room and switches it on, browsing through the channel until she finds one that’s showing cartoons.
Hopefully, they’ll be enough to keep the girl distracted enough to keep her out of trouble.
Somehow she doubts it though.
Grabbing towels she desperately wishes she had another change of clothes to change into so she could have the ones that stink washed before she has to go back out into public.
With everything she needs for her shower gotten, she comes out of the small on-suit bathroom to address a calmed down Sherry before going in.
Hand against the doorframe she calls for the girl's attention who looks up from her spot on the bed engrossed in Tom & Jerry “I’m going for a shower now Sher, okay? I won’t be long if the food arrives while I’m in there I’m leaving the cash for it on the table, there’s a bit extra beside it as a tip for whoever is delivering it, don’t get into trouble while I’m in there got it?” she explains with her eyebrow arching up at the end showing she means it.
Sherry nods and grins “Have fun, Claire! You really need it…” she says cheekily and Claire grabs a cushion that’s sitting on a chair to her right and chucks it at the little shit.
Shaking her head and goes back inside the bathroom, locks the door, strips herself of her clothes and turns on the water, letting it heat up until the room is steamed before she steps inside, letting the hot water rolls over her aching muscles and wash away the stress of this nightmare.
The shower feels even better than Claire dreamed it would.
About 15 minutes later she hears Sherry talking to someone at the door, and Claire can’t help but keep an ear out just in case….
After the Chief of Police turned out to be an asshole who snatches kids Claire can’t help but be a little paranoid over the recently found need to protect that kid.
Because for some reason, the kids an absolute trouble magnet….
Her friends would probably say that she and she have that in common.
About an hour and ten minutes later Claire finally decides to drag herself out, her hair washed, the sweat and grime rinsed away from her body.
And it feels fucking glorious.
She isn’t too thrilled to be changed back into dirty, shit-smelling clothes but beggars can’t be choosy.
Coming back out into the room Sherry has managed to somehow carry the food over to the bed, it's a non-sorted mess but it’s one less thing Claire has to do so she isn’t complaining.
Grabbing plates from the cabinet above the small kitchen area she sets them out on the bed as well, coming around to see the genius in Sherry’s plan.
Everything is set out and ready to go so she goes to wake up Leon.
Who looks even more like a golden retriever when he’s asleep….
Shaking Leon a couple of times he sleeps like the dead (a poor joke considering everything) so it takes a long time to wake him up but in the end, she manages.
Still in pain and dreary from sleep, Leon doesn’t say much but he does smile in thanks when his assortment of food is handed to him, after that they sit and watch tv, Claire and Sherry talk about anything and everything they see come on either in programs or in ad breaks and Leon pipes up every now and again, either joking around with them or adding his two cents in on a couple of topics that come up.
After dinner is eaten and the washing is done they discover where the board games are stored and thus as the sun sets into nightfall they play long into the night until one little girl’s eyes get droopy and close as sleep takes her after her excitement-filled day.
Feeling tired again, Claire and Leon decide to call it quits on the game they were playing and hit the hay.
Tidying up in silence together feels a little awkward, both are very aware of the fact that there are only two beds and Sherry is fully sprawled over one of them and neither has the heart to want to risk waking her up.
This means the two of them are sharing a single double bed…
It’s only for one night though right? They can tough it out and handle the situation like adults, it’s just a bed…one that they have to share with people who aren’t bad looking at all…
Standing at the foot of the bed they kinda just…stare at it, standing awkwardly next to each other, both of them feeling silly and neither of them trying and talk about the elephant in the room at this point.
Until Leon pipes up at long last.
He clears his throat, after having taken a shower himself and changed his bandages “Um…w-what side of the bed do you want o-” Claire shakes herself out of her thoughts and smiles nervously “Uh…either is fine with me what side do you want” he chuckles and rubs the back of his neck “ah, either is fine with me, honestly I’d appreciate if you choose, make up my mind for me I’m horrible with decisions like these” looking at each other, knowing they are both being silly they laugh together and Claire sucks up the nerve to choose for the both of them “alright then…um..I’ll take the right if you’re okay with taking the left?” you can get into the bed from both the right and left sides so it’s not like it takes away access to the bed for whatever reason.
Laying face up in the dark staring at the ceiling side by side neither is feeling very sleepy, both acutely aware of how close they are to one another.
The only sound filling the space and driving them mad is the sound of the clock ticking and each other’s breathing.
Sick and tired of feeling her stomach roll with nervousness like some angsty teenager she decides to fill the horrible silence with a conversation because for all the talking they’ve done she doesn’t actually know all that much about Leon.
Turning over on her side to face Leon she props her head up against the pillows with her hand and nudges Leon with the other “So, how looking forward are you to going home?” Leon looks at her but doesn’t move from the position he laid down in facing the ceiling, he pretends to think about her question and quickly answers “I don’t think there was ever a time I missed home more than I’m missing it right now” he jokes sincerely, Claire laughs quietly to her “Yeah I know how you feel, but wow Leon, I’m hurt, I know I’m not the best company to keep but jeez, didn’t think I’d scare you off that easily” grinning Leon shrugs “you’re not the worse company I’ve ever kept, not unbearable at least but on the other hand…none attract trouble the same way you do” he teases back.
Shaking her head Claire takes a sip of the glass of water she has on the nightstand beside the bed before answering “Everyone keeps saying that and warning me not to get into trouble I don’t know what any of you are talking about, I’m perfectly able of staying away from trouble” Leon chuckles with a sceptical expression on his face “uh-huh, sure, I believe you, but how do you explain managing to stumble into the one place on this planet that’s collapsed into a zombie invested nightmare” he can barely keep the laugh out of his voice but Claire’s response sends him over the edge “I call it keeping things interesting” laughing, but keeping it down as to not wake up the sleeping Sherry he responds “sure, sure, I believe you, and how often do you find yourself ‘keeping things interesting’ in you’re life?” “According to my friends….a lot more than I should” Soft chuckles fill the air trailing off into silence shortly after they start…
They go back and forth like that for a while afterwards until they start treading into slightly more personal waters, starting, shockingly, with a question from Leon “What happens next for you Claire? Now that you know where your brother is?” Sighing Claire just shrugs, or well, tries to, it’s a bit hard in her current position “Well…He’s in Europe…somewhere, now I just gotta figure out where exactly in Europe he is, make sure he’s okay and then kick his ass for leaving me high and dry, for not calling, or texting, hell I’d have even taken a letter, sure I would have given him shit about it but that’s what little siblings for” she says.
Leon nods and while Claire takes another sip of her water he continues with the questionnaire “What about a job?” he asks “What about a job?” she asks back and Leon elaborates “Well d-do you have an um…place of work to get back too or?...” chuckling Claire pats him on the good shoulder as she turns over to face him again “no job yet, I’m a college student, well I go to a university, I took time off to go find Chris stating it was a family emergency…which isn’t even a lie, I still haven’t found him and given Chris’s line of work and our mutual horrible luck it probably means he’s gone and gotten himself into trouble….there’s no other explanation for why he’d suddenly go all cold turkey on me..” she trails off a little bit of hurt colours her tone now, her eyes downcast as she thinks of her brother and the now familiar twinge of loneliness that accompanies her thoughts of him.
She really misses her brother.
When she finished talking Leon nodded in understanding knowing what it’s like to miss someone so hard it causes physical pain to think about them, he grabs her hand and holds it in his, trying to offer Claire some semblance of comfort “I’m sure he’s alright Claire, S.T.A.R.S were a top unit, I’ve read all about them, they were hardy motherfuckers, if anyone could survive impossible odds it’d be them, I think you’ll find him, and when you do he’ll either need considerable help with something or wish he did after you get your hands on him” he jokes towards the end, and for all his social awkwardness, the laugh it gets out Claire is music to his ears, so bright and filled with the sweetest melody that he swears it lights up the whole room.
After that Leon asks some more questions about the two, he learns about Claire’s parents, and how Chris and Claire had only ever had each other to rely on their whole lives.
He learns about all the trouble the two got themselves into over the years, how they drive each other stark raving mad at times.
And he learns from Claire how nice it’d be to have a sibling.
And feels slight jealously at the fact that he’s an only child.
After having talked about Chris for ages he starts asking about her, her hobbies, interests, what’s she studying and what she thinks she wants to do with her life.
Claire jokes that it hopefully won’t involve chasing her idiot of a brother all over the globe.
She tells him all about her course and what she’s thinking of doing once she finishes.
But by far the most surprising thing he learns about her is her passion for motorcycle customization.
As soon as that tidbit of information is brought up in conversation that’s it, game over, all it takes is Leon’s curiosity getting the better of him for one question and…
She hasn’t stopped talking about it since.
It isn’t all about her though, she asks just as many personal questions of him, about his family, the small one he has, what his interests are, and where his desire to protect people came from.
She learned about Leon’s dad, and how the man-shaped Leon into the morally righteous person he was, how the man served in the military and was branded a traitor after he refuses orders to ignore civilian collateral damage while on a covert mission in a classified location in a foreign nation, the name of the nation also being classified, but the man always did everything he could to help the people around him, even those who had hurt him before, even when he got nothing out of it, even protected those who arguably didn't deserve protecting.
The man who taught Leon what it meant to be a good person.
The man who taught Leon what it means to be a just person.
And Claire finds herself even more entranced with the man than she had been before.
They talk like this long into the night, laughing, talking, sometimes even just…sitting in silence together, just enjoying each other’s company.
But after a while…even they can’t ignore their own bodies' need for sleep after everything.
They sleep well, and after getting acquainted with each other, they now have no qualms about being in each other’s space and both sleep soundly.