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“What the hell are you doing here?” Claire snarled at the blonde figure stepping into the room. She was in the middle of hacking the computer to disable the activation code. She hadn’t seen him in two years, not since the great chip debacle.
He said nothing, instead; he joined her at the terminal and plugged something in. “What the hell do you think-” The terminal flashed through lines of text too quickly for Claire to process anything before “Activation Code Deactived” popped up in big flashing letters. “What the fuck, Leon?”
“You’re welcome,” he grunted, heading back towards the door.
“Glad to see you’re still an asshole,” she called after him. His response got lost in the blaring alarm sounding overhead, the lights turning an ominous red. “Good job. Your way alerted the entire facility.”
Leon shrugged. “It’s more fun this way.”
X
“Your plan’s already been foiled. We disabled the activation code,” Claire said, her and Leon’s guns leveled at the newest big bad with a virus.
“You sweet girl, you think I wouldn’t have a backup plan?” He pulled out a small square device with a button in the middle. “You may have disabled the employee access point, but I had my own failsafe in place.”
Leon pulled the trigger a hair too late. The man dropped, but chaos erupted around them, guards convulsing and transforming. Claire scooped up the device, tucking it into her pocket before turning to him. “We gotta get out of here now .”
X
“Can’t you drive in a straight fucking line?” Claire yelled, half out the window, shooting at the zombies chasing after them.
“Just worry about shooting!” If he had known she would half climb out the window to shoot at things, he would have let her drive. Since it was too late now, he focused on not hitting anything.
“Leon, watch out!”
“I got it!”
“No, seriously!” She ducked back into the truck as a group of zombies meandered onto the road, the truck barreling through them.
Leon braced himself, trying to stay steady, but the road of bodies forced the truck to veer in one direction and straight into the median.
“God dammit,” Claire groaned, cradling her arm that had braced against the glove compartment. Thankfully, she seemed fine otherwise.
“You okay?”
“Don’t worry about me. Worry about the truck.” Right. Leon turned the keys, and the truck stuttered before failing altogether. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Claire glared at him. “Remind me not to get in a vehicle with you when zombies are involved.”
“Duly noted,” He bit back.
X
“Status update?” Leon asked the pair holed up in a nearby drainage pipe. They’d taken out or outrun most of the horde they just hoped they weren’t smart enough to find them.
Claire looked up at him, her face ashen. She tenderly reached a hand out to his shoulder, and it came back red. “What the...?” He grabbed at his shoulder and he could feel where his shirt ripped, but couldn’t get a good look at the wound. Instead, he searched over Claire and found a clear bite mark on her upper arm.
She followed his gaze, the last remnants of color draining out of her face. “Fuck.”
“Hypothetically, nothing should happen as long as we don’t press the button,” Leon said.
Claire pulled out the offending item. “I’m going to call Chris. Any luck getting ahold of Hunnigan?”
“No, my earpiece broke somewhere in the chaos.”
“Great,” Claire mumbled. “Well, hopefully, the BSAA can help.”
X
Claire woke up to soft light filtering through a window. It was almost pleasant until her memories started flooding in. They’d crashed the truck, gotten out on foot, and retreated into a drainage pipe. But where was she now? She wore soft cotton pants and a tank top. The room was bland, but not a hospital room, so that was a plus. Getting up, she walked towards the door, where she found Leon pacing around a small living room. “Leon?”
His eyes shot to her, relief flooding his features. “Claire? You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. You?”
“Yeah,” he breathed.
“You know where we are?”
“Not a clue.” He handed her a slip of paper. “This was on the fridge. Said to call this number when we woke up.”
Taking the paper, she dialed the number on the phone hanging on the wall. It rang a couple of times before a familiar voice answered. “Claire? Leon?”
“Chris?” Claire asked. Leon raised an eyebrow and came to stand next to her. Pressing his ear against the receiver. “What the hell is going on?”
“We found you guys off the side of the highway,” Chris said. “Somehow alive with minimal injuries.”
“Okay...” Claire said, drawing out the word. “But where are we?”
“The gist is you both got bitten and have traces of the virus in your blood, but you’ve shown no sign of infection. It looks like it requires some sort of activation. Rebecca is looking into it and studying the device you had on you, but until we can assure you aren’t infected, you’re stuck here.”
“Stuck here?” Leon asked.
“I know it’s not ideal, but this is our nicest quarantine zone. I figured you’d rather put up with the nice one together than two shit holes,” Chris said. Claire didn’t trust him for a minute. This felt like entrapment.
“I’d rather take the two shit holes,” Claire said, avoiding Leon’s gaze.
“Of course you would.” She could almost hear Chris’s eye roll. “Look, you’re already in quarantine, so you’re stuck. Rebecca will call this evening when she’s finished her initial analysis to give you more information.”
Claire finished up the conversation with Chris before addressing Leon. “Looks like we’re stuck together.”
“Looks like it.”
X
They avoided each other as much as possible in the tiny apartment. Splitting up living room time and spending the rest of their time in their rooms, but a couple of days in, the cabin fever got to be too much for Claire to ignore. She needed to do something to distract herself other than watching the apartment’s movie collection by herself. Especially since they’d obviously not updated their catalog in years, most of the movies from the 90s. A mix of VHS and DVDs.
Unfortunately, she knew the grudge was hers, and if they called a truce, it would be up to her. So on the third day, she swallowed her pride and asked for a truce.
“Really? You want a truce?”
“A temporary truce,” Claire corrected. “I’m still mad, but who knows how long we’re going to be stuck together? Plus, outside of the whole chip debacle, we do get along, and having somebody to share this with sounds less infuriating than doing it alone.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I said okay.”
X
It got off to a rocky start. They decided to on a 90s movie marathon since they didn’t have much of a say in entertainment, but they spent the first 15 minutes yelling at each other about what they should watch before settling on taking turns. It was the obvious decision, but Claire was pretty sure they needed to yell at each other about something, and which movie to watch was as safe a topic as any.
When popcorn had been made and they found their spots, Leon on the couch and Claire curled up in the chair, the atmosphere settled considerably. 10 Things I Hate About You a hard movie to be mad during.
X
“ Ghost , Leon? Are you serious?” Claire asked. “The sexy pottery movie?”
“That’s literally just one scene in the whole movie, not what it’s about,” Leon argued.
“You’re fucking with me, right? Please tell me you’re fucking with me?” No way this broody government agent was making her sit through Ghost.
“I guess you’ll never know,” Leon grinned.
“You’re really going to make me watch this?”
He put his finger to his lips to shush her. “Shhh, watch the movie.”
“Whatever,” she pouted, focusing on the screen. At least she could look at a young Patrick Swayze for the next two hours.
X
Over the next couple of days, they went through more and more movies ranging from Sleepless in Seattle to American Pie to Pulp Fiction to Silence of the Lambs. They ended their second day of movies with Titanic , deciding that watching anything after a three-hour-long movie was absurd. Leon was also pretty convinced Claire wanted an excuse to fall asleep, an absurdly long movie being one of the best.
When the first tape ended, Leon got up to change them out while Claire complained about their quarantine zone being outdated, wrapped in her blanket cocoon on the couch. He didn’t mind it, the feel of the tape in his hands nostalgic, harking back to a simpler time before zombies, death, and stupid chips.
Returning to the couch, he took a chance and sat a hair closer than he’d been before. She’d moved for this one since they’d been sharing a pizza they’d convinced Chris to get them. He appreciated her being closer instead of across the room.
The movie started back up to the slow sinking of the ship, and Claire shifting to lean against him. He couldn’t focus on much else other than her shoulder resting against his, her foot against his thigh. He’d always wanted something with Claire and from her involvement in their dancing around each other, he was pretty sure she did, too. Unfortunately, life had successfully kept them apart, the stupid chip seemingly hammering in the final nail in the coffin.
He couldn’t have imagined getting infected would be the thing to bring them back together, but it’d been a nice couple of days. Watching moves and enjoying each other’s company. There wasn’t much talking about anything big or small, but still, they’d fallen into an easy rhythm.
A small snore brought him out of his thoughts, Claire’s head falling on his shoulder. He’d already been struggling to focus on Jack and Rose wading through the sinking ship, but now it was impossible, her face peaceful, no scowl or bitter smile to throw his way. He’d gotten a few genuine smiles that day, but they were few and far between. He missed the days when she greeted him with enthusiasm and happiness instead of disdain and sarcasm.
X
The first thing Claire was aware of was a horrible static humming noise. She forced her eyes open, only to be met with the ungodly bright blue light coming from the TV. After her senses adjusted to the nuisances, she realized she was lying across Leon, her head on his chest. Leon was slumped over, his head at an awkward angle on the back of the couch cushion, his left leg dangling off the couch while his right foot sat flat on the ground.
Despite the awkward angle, she felt oddly well-rested, a feeling of safety and warmth instead of the panic and fear she typically woke up in. If Leon’s position didn’t look so painful, or the tape hadn’t been so annoying, she’d settle back in, but she couldn’t do that to him or her sanity.
“Leon,” she murmured, sitting up and searching for the remote.
“Hmmm?” He shifted, his head moving to a slightly less awkward angle.
“Leon,” she said again, finally shutting off the damn TV. “You don’t look comfortable.”
“Mmm, fine,” he mumbled, eyes still shut.
“Come on, let’s get you to bed,” she pushed on his shoulder.
Leon’s eyes blinked open, confusion settling in before his features smoothed back out. His eyes fell closed again. “We fall asleep?”
“Looks like it,” Claire said. “And if you stay like that, you’re going to feel it in the morning. You’re too old to sleep like a pretzel.”
He peaked an eye open at her. “I’m only 31.”
“Yup, old,” she said, climbing over his legs to get off the couch. She held out a hand to him. “Let’s get you to bed.”
“If you say so, Mom,” Leon said, groaning as he accepted her help to get off the couch. “Though you may be onto something there.”
“I’m always on to something,” she said, pushing him towards his room.
Once inside, Leon sat down on the foot of his bed with a yawn while Claire hovered in the doorway. She didn’t know why she still stood there; he was a grown man fully capable of putting himself to bed, but the thought of going back to her room, alone, was suffocating.
Leon looked up at her, his bangs disheveled and pushed up at an awkward angle, allowing her to actually see both eyes; eyes that were studying her. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Claire breathed. “I should probably get back to my room. Goodnight, Leon.”
“Wait.” Claire waited, not having found the strength to turn around, anyway. “You could stay. If you wanted.”
“Yeah?” she asked, her heart beating faster than it had a few seconds ago.
“Yeah. We don’t have to do anything. It would be nice not to be alone,” he said, an unusual vulnerability in his voice.
God, not being alone for once sounded nice. “Okay.”
Without discussing it, she turned off the light, and the pair slipped into the bed. They hesitated at first, watching the other until Leon put an arm around her waist. She moved closer, curling up in his arms. Claire felt 19 again, flashing back to the two of them, and sometimes the three of them depending on how many beds they could find, curled up together, soaking up all the human connection they could get after the horrors they’d been through.
Since then, they’d been through a lot more horrors, and outside of a few short-lived relationships and one-night stands to fill her bed with somebody, she’d spent most of her nights alone. Even when she was with somebody, nothing had ever quite replicated the comfort of those nights in crappy motels.
Leon relaxed, and she’d been sure he’d fallen asleep until he placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head. She wasn’t sure if he was awake or not, but the kiss loosened something up in her. The last of her ability to stay mad dissolved as she fell asleep in his arms.
X
They spent the next morning cuddled up on the couch, letting the TV play whatever was on, shifting from morning talk shows to game shows to soap operas. They didn’t talk about the night before, but there was a lightness that hadn’t been there before.
As the day went on, they worked through the apartment’s small stack of board games. Typical games like Monopoly, Sorry!, and a couple of decks of cards. It was boring but kind of nice. Honestly, she rarely had time to be bored. Having the space to be bored and relax without stress was a refreshing change of pace.
Though her gaze did occasionally drift to the bite mark on her upper arm, the only thing looming over their weird little break. It was healing surprisingly well with the medical supplies Rebecca left for them, but it didn’t change the fact that they weren’t fully in the clear yet, even if the odds were in their favor.
X
“I think I’m ready for bed,” Leon yawned after an episode of Grey’s Anatomy .
“Me too. I don’t know how much more TV I can take.” Claire was pretty sure she’d watched more TV in the last 12 hours than she had in the last month.
They turned the TV off and cleaned up their mess from dinner, putting all the dishes in the dishwasher. She could feel Leon’s eyes on her as they worked but avoided making eye contact. Rebecca had called during dinner to tell them she was close to finding a solution, and while it should have been a relief, instead it forced her back into reality.
When they were finished, Leon hovered by his bedroom door while Claire turned the lights off. It was tempting, extremely tempting, but she knew she needed to be strong. Keep in mind that no matter what happened here, she was going home alone. Taking things further would do nothing but hurt them both.
“Goodnight, Leon,” Claire said, nodding at him and heading towards her room. She caught a glimpse of his crestfallen face but pushed herself forward.
“Night, Claire.”
X
A loud booming sound woke Leon up in a panic. He tried to assess the danger but found the room as empty and harmless as when he’d gone to bed.
The booming sound rang again, causing Leon to flinch, but he forced himself to relax. It was only thunder. He took a few deep breaths, focusing on the pitter-patter of rain hitting the window. You’re okay. It’s just rain.
Grabbing the empty glass on his nightstand, he went out towards the living room for water, only to find Claire curled up in her blanket cocoon on the couch with a mug in hand. “Claire?”
Her eyes darted towards him, alert and on edge. Clear signs, she was in the same boat as him. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“No, you neither?”
“Nope.” She paused, watching him like a hawk. “There’s more tea in the kitchen if you want any.”
“I’m okay. Just getting some water,” he said but made no motion toward the kitchen.
She sat her mug down on the end table and raised one of her blanketed arms. Leon accepted the invitation, wrapping the blanket around his shoulder and an arm around her to keep them both in the blanket. “I used to love thunderstorms,” Claire spoke up, gazing out the window. “When I was a kid, I woke up scared from a thunderstorm and Chris told me there was nothing to worry about. That it was Bigfoot and his family playing Patty Cake.”
“That’s absurd,” Leon chuckled, having a hard time picturing the big burly man making up children’s stories about Bigfoot.
“It was,” Claire laughed, only flinching slightly as another, smaller clap rang out. “But it was so absurd it was hard to be scared anymore.”
“I’ll have to keep that one in my back pocket.”
They settled into a peaceful silence, watching the rain come down through the window. While he could do without the PTSD-inducing thunder, he had to admit it was nice and was thankful she let him do it at all. He couldn’t get a read on her throughout the day. Lighter, but somehow more distressed, Rebecca’s phone call tipping her into full shutdown mode.
A streak of lightning shot across the sky, and though he saw it coming, Leon still flinched a few seconds later when thunder shook the apartment, Claire shaking in his arms too. He wrapped his arm around her tighter, her arms going around his stomach to hold on to him.
“You’re okay,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head.
Claire sat up to look at him, one arm still across him, their faces close in the dark room, illuminated only by the clock on the cable box, and the occasional streak of lighting. Leon cupped her cheek with his hand, the smallest glance at his lips giving him the courage to pull her closer. Close enough, his intentions were clear, but he didn’t make the move. He needed it to be her decision; her call.
Her eyes fell shut, but she didn’t move at first. He selfishly worried she wouldn’t follow through, talk herself out of it, but was pleasantly surprised when she bridged the gap, her soft lips pressing to his gently. She tried to pull away, but he pulled her back, needing more now that he’d had a taste. Ready to back off if she wanted, but thankfully she kissed him back full force.
“Leon,” Claire whispered, pulling away, breathing heavily. “We shouldn’t...”
His heart dropped at those words, the unfinished sentence left hanging, but clear. “What? Why?”
She looked away from him; her gaze locked on the wall behind them. “This isn’t real. It’s just a fucked up vacation.”
“Isn’t real?” Leon asked, putting a finger under her chin to force her to look at him. She didn’t get to say it wasn’t real without having to face it head-on.
“This isn’t something that can keep happening once we leave here. Getting used to it’s dangerous.” She held his gaze, and he knew she believed what she was saying. Hell, he had a hard time convincing himself she wasn’t right, but having her there in his arms was the closest to Leon he’d felt in ages. So used to being the Agent with everybody around him, he’d almost forgotten who that guy was.
“Who says it can’t keep happening?”
“Leon.”
“Claire.” He waited. She stared back. “Even if it is temporary, shouldn’t we take advantage of the opportunity while we have it?”
“I don’t know...”
“I don’t want this to be a just here thing, but if it is, it’s going to hurt like hell either way,” Leon argued, pretty sure leaving without taking advantage of the moment would hurt worse. He understood the ‘if we don’t know what we’re missing, it can’t hurt as bad’ argument, but he knew it was bullshit. He already knew what they were missing and had been hurting over it for the last decade.
Another clap of thunder rang out, and Claire flinched, squeezing her eyes shut at the sound. He put his hand back on her cheek, and she leaned forward, resting her forehead against his. He stroked his thumb across her cheekbone, and when her blue eyes opened to meet his, he knew she’d given in before her lips touched his. “We don’t have to...”
She smothered his words with her lips, straddling him so she was at a less awkward angle. Pulling away, she searched his face before saying, “Let’s go to bed.”
X
The next morning, Rebecca, Jill, and Chris ruined their perfect morning with an antidote. After an anti-climatic round of shots and blood tests, they sat in Chris’s office working through a pile of paperwork.
“Sorry for all of this. Bureaucratic nonsense,” Chris said, working on the last couple of pages. “But I just have to finish up these forms for the government and TerraSave, saying you guys are cleared to return to work, and then you two can go back to hating each other.”
“Good,” Claire said, but Leon could tell her heart wasn’t in it. The weird look Chris shot her confirming it.
“Actually, would you mind postdating that a few days out?” Leon asked.
“Oh! Mine too,” Claire chimed in, trying not to sound too overly eager.
Chris raised an eyebrow at the pair before returning to the documents. “Didn’t picture either of you as the type to lie to get a few days off, especially after nearly a week stuck in quarantine, but sure.”
“Quarantine’s not exactly a break. A few more days off in the real world would be nice,” Leon pointed out, adding another signed document to his pile.
“Especially not with this one. Need a vacation after spending a week with him,” Claire said, keeping the anti-Leon jabs going.
“Whatever you say,” Chris said, handing the last of the papers with the postdated documents. “I really don’t care what you do with your time.”
They didn’t press their luck, signing the last of the papers, before saying their goodbyes to Chris. Claire felt kind of bad not staying longer, but Leon or no Leon, she would kill to sleep in her own bed.
“Sooo...” Leon started, hands in his pocket as they stood on the steps of the North American BSAA headquarters, squinting some in the bright sunlight.
“So?” Claire asked, using her hand to block the sun.
“Your place or mine?” Leon asked.
“Our truce was temporary, you know?” Claire pointed out, with no actual weight behind her words.
Leon took a step towards her, crowding her, but not making any move to touch her, calling her bluff. “That’s okay. I’ll take advantage of the time off by myself. I have some stuff I can take care of anyway.”
“Mine, your apartment sucks.”
“Yours it is,” Leon grinned.