Work Text:
2018
Leon stood at the bottom of the steps to the TerraSave building, forcing himself to stand still instead of pacing. With hands in his pockets, he watched person after person leave, the crowd thinning until finally, after nearly 20 minutes, Claire stepped out, radiant as always. Descending the steps, she was the picture-perfect example of a New York professional, her red blouse tucked into her black pencil skirt, and her heels clicking on the concrete.
Claire didn’t notice him at first, almost down the stairs when she stopped short, a blinding smile taking over her face. “Hey, stranger.”
“Hey,” Leon said, suddenly unsure of what he was doing.
She raised an eyebrow. “Whatcha doing here?”
“Had a meeting downtown. Thought I’d steal you for dinner?”
“Steal me, huh?” Claire asked, her smile turning mischievous. Leon considered mentioning that she still owed him one, but luckily she spoke again before he could put his foot in his mouth. “I guess I could make time in my busy schedule.”
“Busy schedule?”
“Yeah, going to have to postpone that hot date of leftover Chinese food,” she said with a wink.
-
Claire spent the walk from the restaurant catching him up on the office gossip from her work, having worked through the important stuff over dinner. It never failed to amaze him how easily they could fall back into place. They’d spent the entire dinner talking and laughing, the bottle of wine between them slowly disappearing. The pair never missed a beat, though it’d been over a year since they’d seen each other.
Leon knew he should focus on what she was saying; instead, he focused on everything else. The alcohol opened her up considerably, her hands moving with her story, her ponytail bouncing between the walking and her movements. Seeing her so happy and bubbly instead of the calculating distance she kept when they ran into each other on the field was refreshing.
“Leon?”
Claire was already up the first couple of steps to her building, looking back at him with a knowing smirk. “I said Moira went on a date with a panda, and you didn’t react.”
Leon fully intended on walking her to her door and leaving, but his feet betrayed him, following her up the first couple of steps. “I don’t find that super surprising. Moira would have weird taste.”
Claire rolled her eyes but didn’t dignify him with a response. “You have a place to stay?”
“Yeah, a hotel a few blocks down.”
“Darn, was going to suggest a slumber party.” Her tone would imply indifference to anybody who knew her less, but Claire Redfield was incapable of indifference. The potential of what hid behind the tone and the wine gave him the courage to take another step closer to her. “Like those days back in the hotels. Could be fun?”
“Just like those days?” Memories of their singular kiss rushed to the forefront of his brain. It’d been the night she left them, almost 20 years ago. The last time there’d been the potential of something more.
The levity of the moment drained, and a seriousness took over her features that he desperately wanted to get rid of. The wheels in her head were nearly visible. Everything around them seemed somehow charged and stilted while he waited to see what she would do next.
After an eternity, she shifted forward, a movement he thought was her leaning in for a kiss, but at the last moment, she tipped forward too much, pushing them both to the ground, the pair landing with a thud. The air was knocked out of him when she landed on top of him, though instead of rolling down the steps like they should have, they were flat against a crappy, carpeted floor.
“What the...?”
“I’m so sorry!” Claire pushed herself up, stopping short of getting up when she realized what was happening, too. “Where...?”
“I think we’re in a hotel?” Leon said, annoyance seeping in now that he needed to focus on the facts at hand instead of Claire literally straddling him. The door beside them opened, the exact setting falling into place, when two heads poked out of the hotel room.
Two very familiar people.
“Who...?”
“What the fuck?!”
X
1998
“I think she’s asleep,” Claire said, plopping down on the old couch beside Leon, her shoulder pressed against his good one. “Now where were we?”
“I believe we were discussing whether or not I should let you drink this,” Leon said, handing her a beer.
“You going to arrest me, officer?” Claire batted her eyes at him, their fingertips brushing as they passed the bottle. She took a long, slow sip from the bottle, her tongue darting across her lips when she pulled it away, and he was pretty sure he was done for.
He’d always been a romantic, something most women liked for a couple of months, but typically tired of quickly. But watching Claire’s mischievous cock to her eyebrow when she caught his gaze, he prayed to every deity out there she didn’t tire so quickly.
“You okay over there, Rookie?”
“Yeah, just thinking.”
“About?”
Taking a drink to stall, he considered how honest he should be. It wasn’t really the time. They didn’t have concrete plans, and a 12-year-old slept on the other side of the room, but if the last couple of days taught him anything, it was that tomorrow wasn’t promised.
Leon turned towards her, trying to gauge her feelings, but the words dried in his throat at the sight of her looking up at him, her eyes sincere and patient while he worked through his thoughts. “You sure you’re okay?” she asked, resting a hand on his arm, drawing her closer.
“Never better.”
Claire searched his eyes, making him feel exposed, but while the situation was fucked and his shoulder wouldn’t quite let him forget the pain, at this moment, he wouldn’t ask for anything else.
Leon wasn’t sure who moved first, but his nose bumped hers and there was no turning back. Leon gathered his courage to close the distance, testing the waters at first, his lips pressing briefly against hers. But after that, the dam burst. Claire moved her hands to the nape of his neck, pulling him closer, his own finding purchase on her waist. Electricity coursed through him, the fog of the last couple of days clearing, everything ahead of them seeming doable as long as they stuck together.
When they came up for air, he expected to see the same sentiment echoed in Claire but found only wide, panicked eyes.
Leon scrambled for something to say while Claire put distance between them, sitting further back on the couch, shifting away from him. Before he could get his head on straight, a large thud sounded from the hallway, both their eyes on the door in an instant.
“We should probably see what’s going on,” Claire said, on her feet in record time, grabbing her gun from the rickety coffee table.
“Right...” Leon said, grabbing his own gun and following her to the door. They shared a look, back to full alert mode, the ease and clarity of a moment ago vanishing. “Ready?” Claire nodded, and he opened the door, finding two people on the ground in a precarious position. He was relieved that it wasn’t a threat, just two people too impatient to make it to their hotel room, until he looked closer at the couple, the pair looking up at them. “Who?”
Claire glanced around his shoulder. “What the fuck?!”
The woman scrambled off the man, standing up and helping him off the ground. Leon’s brain struggled to comprehend what the hell he was looking at, and when he glanced back at Claire, she wore a similar bewildered expression.
“We going to stand out here all day?” The man asked, breaking the silence. The voice was off-putting, rough, and slightly deeper than he was used to, but undeniably his voice.
“Yeah, probably best to get inside before anybody walks in on this,” the woman said, her voice sharper, an edge to it that was new, but helped solidify in his brain that this was their future selves.
“Come on in, I guess?” Leon offered, not comfortable with the idea, but unsure how to proceed without letting them in.
By the grip on his arm, Claire wasn’t a fan of the idea, either. “How do we know we can trust you?”
The man, his brain refused to name him still, looked directly at her, a flicker of pain rippling across his features before the stoic expression snapped back into place. The flicker was enough for Leon to trust him, though he couldn’t imagine ever being that good at schooling his emotions, and the idea of a life that forced him to learn didn’t sit right. “You don’t.”
Future-Claire rolled her eyes at the comment and focused on Claire beside him. Unlike his counterpart, she seemed unwilling to look at him. Leon wasn’t sure which hurt more. “We don’t know what’s going on any more than you do, but we won’t figure anything out here in the hall.”
“Fine,” Claire bit out, stepping aside for them. “Come in.”
When they stepped into the room, it was impossible to miss the way the pair’s eyes instantly found Sherry, still asleep through the commotion, soft expressions taking over their faces. Their eyes met, and the smiles held for a moment then faded into something Leon couldn’t quite read. They seemed to have a conversation with their eyes, future-Claire’s eyes darting towards them occasionally while his counterpart’s eyebrows and occasional head tilt held his end of the conversation.
“So you’re sure you don’t know how you got here?” Claire asked, returning their attention to them.
“We’re sure.” Future-Claire shifted slightly, her heels digging into the cheap hotel carpet. “I’m tempted to blame the bottle of wine, but I’ve never had this dream.”
“That would be a weird shared dream, for sure.”
“You expect us to believe you magically showed up out of nowhere?” Leon asked.
His counterpart shrugged. “Believe what you want. It’s the truth.”
“Zombies are one thing, but time travel? That’s absurd,” Claire said. Something seemed to click in her head, and she stood up straighter, her eyes narrowing. “You must be some weird Umbrella trick.”
Leon grimaced. “Or we’ve finally lost it.”
“What trick would that even be? What would be the point?” Future-Claire asked.
“And how do you expect us to prove we aren’t a weird trick?”
“I don’t know...” She visibly racked her brain before speaking again, clearly not confident in her plan. “We’ll separate you. Compare your stories.”
“Sure why not?”
X
Claire stood in the bathroom with her younger counterpart, the 19-year-old, studying her intently, but Claire wasn’t sure what clues she hoped to find. “If you just showed up here, why aren’t you more concerned?”
“Weird things happen all the time,” Claire shrugged. “This might be the weirdest, but frankly, I think I’ve run out of shock.” She left out that weird shit always happened when she was with Leon, the two of them so incapable of having a normal night that the universe decided it’d switch things up this time.
She hummed, still thinking through everything. Watching her was eerie; the expression she made was one Claire made often but had never seen. The 19-year-old looked Claire over again, but this time, the gears disappeared, replaced with disdain.
“What?”
“What are you wearing?”
“What am I wearing?” Claire gaped, looking down at her work clothes that were considerably nicer than they’d once been. The unfortunate side effect of being promoted. “I didn’t have time to change after work. Is that seriously what you’re focused on?”
The girl shrugged, a small grin forming, giving her the sense she had more important questions in mind. At least she seemed to believe her. “Now, what’s the question you really want to ask?”
Her face fell, the anxiety and stress of the last couple of days no longer hidden behind a mask. While it was 20 years ago, these days were burned into Claire’s brain: the feelings of debilitating fear, too much weight on her shoulders, and the impossible choices ahead of her.
“Did you leave?”
It was the obvious question, the only thing on her mind at this moment and for years to come. Claire just wished she had any actual comfort to offer her. “Yes.”
The 19-year-old braced herself against the counter, glancing at Claire from the side instead of head on. “And...? Was it the right choice?”
“I don’t know.” She didn’t. Even now, she couldn’t determine if she’d made the wrong choice. Sure, Chris hadn’t needed her, but would her presence have helped or made things worse for Leon and Sherry? Would they’ve run away together, and forged a new life, only for the government to find and kill them a few years down the road? Or would the government find them, decide two people were too many and kill her and Leon, letting them have Sherry unchecked?
“You...you don’t know? How can you not know?!” Her grip on the counter tightened, a cut across her knuckles widening under the pressure. “Is Chris okay?”
“Chris is fine.” The tension drained from her shoulders, but her grip was still tight. “He was always fine.” Claire did her best to keep the bitterness from leaking out, not wanting her younger self to think anything negative of her relationship with Chris. They were still close, but Raccoon City would always be a stain on their otherwise good relationship.
She met Claire’s eyes in the mirror. “But you’re not sure I should stay?”
“I only know what happens if you leave. I have no clue what happens if you stay.” She wasn’t sure if this was even the same universe. Maybe everything was different no matter what, and Claire’s insight meant nothing. Maybe her Chris was in danger. “I know in my universe Chris would have been fine without me, but I don’t know what effects my staying would have had on Leon and Sherry’s safety.”
Sherry’s name struck a chord, the fierce need to protect her clear as day. “Is Sherry okay?”
It was a loaded question. Was Sherry physically okay? Yes, she had literal superpowers. Was Sherry mentally okay? Well, she was getting there. Claire pushed through her answer, picking her words carefully. “Sherry’s... alive. She’s technically okay, though the road ahead of her isn’t easy.”
“That’s vague as fuck.” Despite the vulgarity, she eased up. Not happy, but content with Sherry’s safety.
“I know. Trust me, I know.” Claire sighed, thinking of the years of letters and later emails, the occasional phone calls, and even rarer visits, usually restricted to Simmon’s living room or the occasional lunch. It wasn’t much of life, but it was one, and while she’d do anything to have given her better, she’d do even more to make sure she at least got that. Anything worse was unthinkable.
“I’m not sure how much I should tell you with time travel rules and all, but the way things turned out might have happened with or without me. I don’t know how it plays out with the three of us.”
“So you’re saying...” She looked at Claire directly, her shoulders sagging. “That if I stay, Sherry might be happy, but if I leave, Sherry will be okay, or at least safe.”
There it was. The inevitable. Claire refused to sway her, not wanting the weight of making that decision twice, but seeing everything laid out differently and the outcome remaining the same hurt. It felt like fate. Fucked up fate, that she’d tear them apart time and time again, no matter the variables. “Assuming everything plays out the same in our universe, yes.”
She nodded, taking a shaky breath. “And Leon?”
Claire let out a humorless chuckle, ‘and Leon’ being the thing she still didn’t have an answer for. She wouldn’t tell her about Leon becoming a government agent. Wouldn’t tell her how he sold his soul to the government for her and Sherry. She doubted it changed her decision, and it would be a weight she’d bear for the rest of her life. Might as well give her a little longer without it.
“Leon’s Leon,” Claire said, earning her a raised eyebrow from the girl. Her expression softened, understanding settling over her. She’d always been perceptive, studying everybody around her, but having it turned against her was unsettling.
“That makes sense,” she said, unable to hide her disappointment.
“Yeah...” Years of missed chances and fateful run-ins. Years spent not talking at all after that afternoon on the White House steps. They’d only recently started re-building their friendship. “I know... I know this hasn’t been the most helpful, but I have one piece of advice.”
“I’m listening.”
“Don’t leave without saying goodbye.” The girl looked instantly guilty, which was unnecessary. Claire understood the fear that was paralyzing her. “I know it’s hard, and I’m sure it will hurt like hell, but you will regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t. Trust me.”
Understanding passed between them, Claire desperately trying to correct the one wrong she could. She wasn’t naïve, leaving would hurt and strain her relationship with both of them no matter what, but leaving in the middle of the night made it so much worse.
“I’ll-I’ll try,” she said. It would have to be enough.
X
“Sooo?” the Rookie said, looking extremely uncomfortable with the situation.
“So? Aren’t you supposed to be interrogating me?” Leon asked. It felt weird looking at the kid, being face to face with the person he’d spent his entire adult life squashing under his boot. Unlike some people, he didn’t have any malice or ill will against the kid and envied him most days, but he didn’t have any chance of survival in his current life.
The Rookie looked exhausted, the heaviness clear, but he was still much lighter than Leon could ever remember feeling. A stark reminder that Raccoon City didn’t break him, the US Government did.
“Right. Um...” the Rookie paused, thinking through what to ask him, his shoulder sagging. “I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to ask. There’s not exactly a ‘how to make your future self prove they’re you’ handbook.”
“You could ask a question only you know? Or you can believe me, but that seems dumb.”
The kid grimaced. “Damn, I grew up to be an asshole, huh?” Leon shrugged. “Fine, when I was six, I broke my leg falling off my bike. Which leg did I break?”
“Trick question,” Leon grinned, weirdly proud of the question. “I broke my left arm falling off my bike.”
They eyed each other for a moment; Leon was slightly worried this universe was different enough that he was wrong until the kid grinned. “Yeah, that’s correct.”
An awkward silence filled the space; the kid clearly wanted to ask a question but was trying to work up the courage. Leon had a pretty solid idea of what the question would be and dreaded having to answer it. “Come on, spit out whatever you want to ask.” Might as well rip the band-aid off.
He shifted, his gaze glued to the ground. “It’s stupid. There are more important things at stake here.”
“Fine by me, but this is your only chance. Really want to miss the opportunity to ask your future self a question?”
The kid chewed the inside of his lips, still debating until he blurted out, “What happens with Claire?”
“Nothing.”
While the truth, it hurt. It always hurt, but he and Claire had always been nothing. 20 messy years of missed chances, caused by his fear and her stubbornness, leading to a whole lot of nothing. The Rookie’s face fell, and Leon felt guilty for breaking his heart. But it’d be broken by morning either way. “She leaves to go find Chris.”
“I figured, but doesn’t she come back?”
“Not really,” Leon said, trying not to think of the days that followed this one. The days of worry and concern. Days of emails and finding Chris with time to spare. Days of awkward reunions and guilt and blame thrown around them, neither quite capable of taking responsibility for their actions, too young and dumb and caught up in the pain the world caused them. “By the time she found him, it was too late. The moment passed. It just wasn’t in the cards.”
“But what about tonight?”
Leon cocked an eyebrow. “What about tonight?”
“She mentioned a bottle of wine at dinner. You were both dressed up. Was that not a date?”
“Not a date.” Leon pictured Claire’s disappointed face when he mentioned having a hotel room, her offering a “slumber party”, neither of them ever willing to show their hand. The Rookie’s expression was skeptical, and he suddenly realized why people found him infuriating. “Just old friends catching up after work.”
“Do you work together?”
“No, I had a meeting in the city, and we met up for dinner.” Leon doesn’t mention surprising her at work. He knows the kids in front of him. Knows he’s a hopeless romantic, worst of all, a hopeless romantic head over heels for the girl in the other room. Leon’s pretty successfully squashed him, but the gesture came from the small piece of the Rookie that wasn’t dead and gone. A piece reserved for Claire and Sherry.
“So Claire leaves.” The words come out like his throat was full of glass, deeper with the pain seeping through. “What happens to us?”
Leon glanced at the somehow still sleeping Sherry, unable to contain his soft smile. Nothing that happened was good, but she was the reason he’d done everything. He hated everything he couldn’t stop from happening and blamed himself most of the time, but she was a strong, capable, funny young woman with a life. Not one he wanted for her, but one she’d filled with love and joy despite it all.
When he glanced back to the Rookie, he found a small smile on his face and felt guilty for instilling him with false hope. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what he should say, but fuck it. The time travel gods that sent them should have given them a manual if they didn’t want them fucking everything up.
“You’re picked up by the US Government.” Leon tried to keep his voice neutral. While he didn’t want to give the kid too much hope, he also didn’t want him worried about the future he couldn’t control. Leon’s lifelong spiral because of his hopeless future would only be worse if he knew from the beginning. “Sherry grows up in less than ideal conditions, but better than they could have been, and you get enlisted.”
“Enlisted?” He gawked. “Enlisted into what?”
“You become an agent for the US Government, fighting BOWs.”
“That’s it? Surely we have other options? I mean, you can tell me where they found you, help me avoid them. We can figure something out.” The kid panicked, the thoughts Leon fretted over for the last 15 years hitting him in an instant.
“You need medical help.” Leon’s hand instinctively reached for his own shoulder. It’s not the worst injury he’s had, but it was the first, scarring his brain more than his shoulder. “You’ll die without medical help, and while there’s a chance you could find a doctor that won’t turn you in, most likely any of them will turn you in.”
“Turn me in?”
“I’m not sure who knows about you, if there’s any public announcement of people looking for you, or if the government happened across us, but either way you have an infected gunshot wound and a 12-year-old girl with you. Any doctor, nurse, or receptionist worth their skin is going to call the police. Your big brother story will only get you so far.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.” The government found them. He’d never made it to the hospital, those fears keeping him from getting help, but when he’d finally gotten help, they’d chastised him for letting it go for so long. They told him it was already turning septic, and a few more days and he might have died. “I won’t tell you what to do. I’ll even tell you how to avoid the government, but don’t be stupid.”
X
They spend the next couple of hours splitting a six-pack, talking some, but mostly sitting in silence. Leon leaned against her, having kept some sort of contact with her since they’d gotten back from their separate conversations like she’d slip away if he didn’t. Claire glanced up from her spot on the ground, at the older versions of themselves, wondering how much he’d been told.
The pair sat several inches apart on the grimy couch, her counterpart taking overly measured sips of her beer, presumably making sure she always had something to keep her occupied, while the older Leon was glaring into his bottle like he wished for something stronger.
The tension was palpable, and she wondered if all time travel scenarios were this awkward. Not that she’d considered meeting her future self for real, but she wouldn’t have pictured it including the boy she’d known for 48 hours, nor it being this stilted. Granted, a lot of things occurred that she’d never have pictured. This was just another for the pile.
The sound of Sherry moving around came from behind her, and they turned to see her stirring, not awake, but on her way there, the thin gauzy curtains letting through the first light of morning. Her counterpart spoke up, setting a hand on the older Leon’s arm, “I think that’s our cue.”
A pleading look crossed his features, a look that actually reminded her of the boy beside her, the boy who’d spent the last couple of hours casting her forlorn looks that reminded her of the man in front of them. Her counterpart gave him a sympathetic smile, but shook her head. Another one of those silent conversations passed between them, proof that for all the calculated distance, they clearly knew each other inside and out.
“You aren’t staying? Where are you going to go?” Leon asked.
“We don’t want to confuse her. She’s had a weird enough couple of days as is,” her counterpart said, her eyes meeting Claire’s. “Besides, I think our time is pretty much up.” The message was clear, the memory of their conversation slamming into her. It didn’t help that Leon clearly knew something. How much, she wasn’t sure, but she couldn’t leave without addressing it.
“Right,” Leon muttered, standing up first, offering his hands to help Claire up, wincing when she took them.
“Stop doing that,” she teased him. It wasn’t the first time he’d offered her or Sherry help, only for all of them to have forgotten he shouldn’t be helping anybody.
His hand rubbed at his shoulder, a sheepish grin on his face. “Sorry, it’s instinct.”
“We’ll get it re-patched after...” She glanced behind him at their older selves hovering near the door, both of them keeping an eye between them and Sherry, a small whimper escaping her, signaling she was waking up from a nightmare.
“We oughta...”
“Yeah, I know,” Claire said, cutting herself off. “I’m not sure what you’re supposed to say in this situation.”
“Everything is going to suck, but don’t blow your heads off? It’s not worth it,” the older Leon said. Her older self sighed, but Claire chuckled despite herself. “See, you used to think I was funny.”
Her counterpart shot him a teasing grin. “You used to be funny.”
“Claire...?” Sherry’s sleepy voice called from the bed.
They all tensed, the older two opening the door to sneak out. “We’re over here. I’ll be right there; just stay there,” Claire called back.
“Okay...” The voice drifted and she assumed she’d fallen back asleep once she knew Claire was there.
“Okay, I guess this is bye for real, um, take care?” Leon said.
“You too, kid,” the older Leon said. “Both of you.”
“Yeah, take care,” her counterpart said, sparing a glance at Leon, the same pained expression that crossed her features the few times she’d looked directly at him, flashing again. An expression Claire wished she didn’t have to have, an expression she wasn’t looking forward to understanding. She turned to Claire next with a stern look, like Claire somehow missed the other signs and looks beforehand.
Claire nodded, sparing a glance at the older Leon, both of them sharing a nod before they closed the door. They sat in the silent room for a moment, sharing befuddled glances. “Did that really just happen?” Leon asked first.
“I-I think so.” Doubt was already settling in now that they were gone. Maybe they were the ones with the shared hallucination; their guilt and fears manifested into a physical form. “We-we should get your wound looked at. Let me go check on Sherry, and I’ll meet you in the bathroom?”
“Yeah-yeah, that works.”
Leon headed into the bathroom while she headed to Sherry’s side, her eyes already closed again. “Sherry?”
“Hmmm?” Sherry’s eyes blinked open.
“Just checking on you. You sounded like you were having a bad dream a minute ago. You okay?”
“Mhm,” Sherry mumbled, snuggling further into the blankets. “I had a bad dream, but I’m okay now that you’re here.”
“Good,” Claire said, brushing hair off her forehead. “I’m going to go wrap Leon’s shoulder again, but we will be in the bathroom if you need us, and there are pop-tarts over by the TV.”
“Mmkay.”
Claire lingered for a moment by Sherry’s side, taking in the moment and her sweet sleeping face. She thought of the conversation with her older self, a clear picture of Sherry’s future never quite given, but obviously nothing good. The urge to change her mind was strong. The future in that direction was unclear. Maybe if they stayed together, they would be okay. Maybe they would be happy?
Maybe they would all die horrible deaths and Sherry would never get a chance to have any life, let alone a good one.
Claire kissed the top of the girl’s head, her resolute stronger, as was her despair. “I love you, kiddo,” she whispered, standing up. Sherry didn’t respond, her breathing even, already back asleep.
Shaking off the last of her nerves, Claire headed to the bathroom, the other elephant in the room waiting for her. Once inside, she found Leon shirtless, trying his best to unwrap his shoulder; the needed supplies on the bathroom counter.
“Here, let me,” Claire said, placing a hand over his on the end of the wrap.
“I can-”
“Leon.” She gave him a hard look before he could finish his argument.
He sighed. “Fine.”
The room was silent while Claire removed the wrapping, not quite ready to meet his gaze. She struggled to think of words strong enough to express her feelings, but nothing seemed right. It was already an impossible conversation without the added addition of their consequences hitting them in the face.
Once the wrapping was off, she moved him to sit on the closed toilet, the only seat available to them, and started working on cleaning it up, the wound turning green around the edges and hot to the touch. It needed real help, and soon. “Leon-”
“You know,” Leon started, cutting off her lecture. “I’m not an expert on time travel, but it doesn’t have to turn out the same. Maybe this was the ghost of the apocalypse future, and we can make different choices.”
Claire finally met his eyes, everything he was laid bare in them. Her throat constricted, threatening to suffocate her, everything from the last few hours, from the last few days stacking on top of her. She pictured the other Leon while she watched him, so closed off, even when his words seemed open, his face was passive, giving nothing away. Was this the last time she’d see it this open?
She closed her eyes, trying to muster up a different picture. The potential life of them running away. Maybe they’d get new identities and settle down in some European country, raising Sherry. “I hope you’re right.”
The warmth under her hand, the hiss from his lips when the rubbing alcohol hit the wound slammed her back into reality. He needs help. “Leon-”
“I know,” he sighed, running his other hand through his hair. “You’re still leaving.”
“That’s not what I was going to say,” Claire said, partially stalling, though it was the truth. “You need medical attention.”
“But you’re still leaving, right?” This boy was actively hurtling towards his death, surviving zombies only to die from an infected gunshot wound, and this was all he could focus on.
Claire ducked her head, pouring her focus back into the wound that needed to be re-wrapped, saying a barely audible, “Yes.”
Leon stayed quiet while she finished, and she wondered if that was the end of the conversation. What else was there to say? She felt slightly better having gotten the words out, but the anticipation killed her. “Okay, you’re all set.”
“Thanks,” he murmured, standing up, but he didn’t move towards the door. She reached a hand out to him, tentatively resting it on his arm, and he met her eyes again, a stray tear threatening to spill from his cheekbone.
“I’m sorry,” Claire swiped the tear with her thumb, her eyes wanting to join in on the waterworks. “I’m so sorry.”
His eyes searched hers, making her feel incredibly vulnerable, like he was seeing all the way through her. Claire wasn’t sure what he searched for, or if he found it, but something seemed to click, and he pulled her in for a bone-crushing kiss.
She grasped at him, her hand on his cheek going to behind his neck, using it to pull herself closer to him, his tongue prodding open her mouth. All the tension in the room faded, and when he pulled away, she felt lighter, like she could breathe for the first time in days. “You certainly know how to make a girl not want to leave, huh?”
Leon chuckled, resting his forehead against hers. “Did it work?” She offered him an apologetic smile. “Worth a shot.”
Claire wrapped her arms back around his neck, pulling him into a hug and burying her face in the crook of his neck, careful of his shoulder. “I’m going to miss you.”
“Miss you too,” Leon murmured, his arms securing around her waist. “So much.”
X
“What happens now?” Leon asked, leaning beside her against the wall outside the hotel room.
Claire pressed her ear against the wall, curious about what was happening on the other side. “How the hell am I supposed to know?”
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to hear what’s happening. I always wondered what happened after...” her words trailed off.
“Oh. I wouldn’t know.” Leon shrugged, the movement too casual, too practiced. Simple words, scrawled on a piece of paper 20 years ago, hung between them.
I have to go find Chris. I’m so sorry - Claire.
“Leon I-”
The door opened beside them, her younger counterpart leaving with a bag slung over her shoulder. Her eyes widened when she saw them, clearly not expecting them to still be out there. “Oh, sorry. I was just...”
“It’s okay,” Claire reassured her. The want to ask if she was okay on the tip of her tongue, but she knew the answer.
The girl nodded, biting her lip and adjusting the strap on her shoulder. She glanced over at Leon and back at Claire. “I should get going.”
“Hey,” Leon called after her when she was halfway to the elevator. She turned back around, confused. “He’ll be okay.”
A strange expression crossed her features, not quite a smile, not quite sad, almost wistful, which was an odd expression on such a young person. After a moment, she chuckled, shaking her head. “You’re a terrible liar.”
Claire watched him, watch her walk away, catching a glimpse of what that morning must have been like when he woke up to her gone. Once the elevator closed, he met her eye again, and for the first time in maybe ever, she considered their relationship as it stood, instead of what it could have been. They weren’t perfect, that much she knew for sure, but it wasn’t that simple.
Sure, they’d never gotten a second kiss, or a first date, or any of those other relationship benchmarks. But they’d been through hell together, and they’d been pulled together time and time again. Despite some major hiccups, she trusted him more than anybody in the world, besides maybe Chris. They worked well together and meshed in a way she’d never accomplished with anybody else. No matter what, he was her closest confidant, her best friend, her family.
She placed a hand on his arm, prepared to try talking again, but before she could get his name fully out, she tripped forward, the odd falling feeling from before taking over as they snapped back into their reality, Claire stumbling into his arms from the step above him as if no time had passed.
“Sorry,” Claire said, flushing as she braced herself on his shoulders, one of his arms going around her waist to catch her.
“Don’t mention it.”
They stayed there for a moment, the emotions of the night swirling between them until Claire finally pulled away, Leon’s arms dropping to his side. She sat down on the steps, not ready to head inside, but tired of standing around. Leon sat on the step below her, and she leaned forward, her forearm touching his shoulder. “What a night, huh?”
“You can say that again.” Leon leaned back, looking straight ahead. “Bet you’ll miss having the Rookie back.”
“Are you... jealous of yourself?” Claire laughed, the idea so absurd that it broke free some of the tension, for her at least. Leon still looked equally grumpy.
“Am not.”
“Are too!”
“Okay, let’s just drop it,” Leon said. Claire would’ve kept pressing, but the tension in his jaw proved he wasn’t ready to joke about it. Instead, she genuinely considered the question.
“I won’t lie and say that I don’t sometimes miss that Rookie,” Claire admitted, Leon deflating beside her. Sometimes when she was dealing with the brooding, the anger, and the alcoholism, she desperately missed the old Leon, before he’d been beaten down over and over again. Seeing the Rookie hurt, seeing the original piece she played her part in breaking, was excruciating, but in a way, it helped her appreciate the parts of him that remained and the ways they’d changed. “But, after seeing him tonight, I realized how much I respect and admire the man he grew into more.”
Leon looked up at her, his hair falling into his face. Some things never changed. “Yeah.”
“Yeah,” Claire breathed, resting her hand on his face, appreciating the roughness of the stubble on her palm. “What about you? Do you wish I was still that girl?”
“The girl who broke my heart, leaving us with nothing but a note?” Leon asked, with a raised eyebrow. The words stung though she deserved every bit of them. “No, definitely not.”
“Fair enough,” Claire murmured, letting her hand fall from his cheek. She searched for words to explain herself, to make it better, but as they had for the last 20 years, words fell flat.
“I do have one question.”
“Shoot.”
“Why didn’t you tell her to stay?” he asked, his eyes boring into her soul. “You know Chris is okay.”
“I couldn’t make that decision for her, but I told her all the facts.”
“And yet she still left. Why?”
“Because the only things I knew were what happened if she left. I couldn’t make any promises about what would happen if she stayed. Couldn’t ensure anybody’s safety.”
Their eyes met for a moment, before Leon looked ahead again, nodding.
“We should probably head inside. Can’t stay out here all night.”
“We?” Leon asked.
“You can’t expect me to want to be alone after everything that’s happened,” Claire said, standing up and dusting off her skirt. “I thought you’d reconsider the sleepover idea?”
“Sleepover, huh? Not a slumber party?” Leon teased, getting to his feet, still a step below her, but closer with the height difference.
“Is there a difference?” she asked, feigning innocence.
Leon stepped up, crowding her space on the landing to her apartment, her hands grasping his waist to keep from falling. “You were real careful to say slumber party earlier. Figured it made a difference.”
“I don’t know what you could possibly mean.”
Leon cupped her face in his hands and leaned closer, his lips ghosting against hers as he spoke. “Sure you don’t.”
Patience for the game was gone as they met in a steamy kiss. 20 years of longing and anticipation melting into a perfect kiss, one well worth the wait even if she wished it hadn’t taken so long. Leon took another couple of steps forward, pushing her further up the landing, until her back pressed against the door. His lips were soft, his grip firm as his hands moved from her face to explore.
“I guess that’s a yes to the sleepover?” Claire managed to get out when she finally needed to gasp for air.
“All you ever needed to do was ask,” he said sincerely. “Which, what are we waiting for?”
“You got to let me go so I can open the door,” Claire said, not quite ready to unpack everything his words implied. That could be saved for later.
“Well, get on with it,” Leon said, letting her out of his grasp, and kissing her neck while she unlocked the door.
“You’re insatiable.”
“You love it.”
Successfully unlocking and opening the door, she turned back around in his arms, linking hers behind his neck and pulling herself up to his eye level. “Yeah, I do.” She resumed their kissing, the pair stumbling into her building, unwilling to part now that they were together.