Archive of Our Own

Examination Report [DRAFT]

Subject: Leon Scott Kennedy
Sex: Male
Age: 26
Char: 5'10". Blue eyes. Blond.
Notable Features: One outgoing gunshot wound on his [LEFT] shoulder. Traces of Plaga infection.

[COMMENT]
Scarred contusions on body due to old wounds, but overall healthy body.

No visible degradations to flesh or internal organs due to old Plaga infection.

Incredibly well developed neural pathways, and an above average number of neurons confirmed on extracted brain cells.

Extracted Plaga remains are from the non-dominant strain. Inconclusive results as to why the common strain would allow subject's enhanced cognitive behavior for as long as it's rumored. Fuck

Fuckfuckfuckfuck this report aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhdbdowjdbddkwoznwpdnfheiwjdhdbsjsjbxb

Should have taken the offer to Umbrella not the wealthier offer to study parasites

How the fuck am I supposed to know what makes this corpse more special?

Should have cut my losses and run once I heard from Isabel that the people paying us were some lunatics looking to revive Saddler or whatever and his dominant strain of Plaga.

I don't know anything about Las Plagas THAT'S WHY I DECIDED TO COME TO THIS LAB

WHY THE FUCK WOULD THEY GIVE THE ABSOLUTE NEWBIE THE ORDER TO FIGURE THIS CORPSE OUT

I DON'T KNOW

FUCK I JUST LEARNED ABOUT THE PARASITES IN A 30 MINUTE CRASH COURSE A WEEK AGO

What am I supposed to write in the autopsy report?

That I think that the corpse could have had a higher pain tolerance due to the ex-Plaga infection?

That I think that he could probably do the splits and a backflip even when he is around 70 years old thanks to his increased muscle response rate?

That I think he would have been able to do superhero landings without messing up his bones thanks to his pituitary gland that would have pumped him full of hormones during stressful situations that would allow him to superhuman feats without having to resort to the last phase mutation???????

Idk what I'm doing

Isabel said that there was some trouble with the upper brass and that this research division could get completely shutdown and wtf???????

I JUST STARTED WORKING HERE

I DIDN'T EVEN GET PAID YET

Fuck Saddler and fuck the Los Illuminatis or whatever fuck me for accepting this offer without thinking fuck fuck fuck

Should have taken the Umbrella offer

Leon felt lost.

He had been feeling like this for a long time ever since he woke up on a cold medical table with mother staring down at him with a displeased frown on her face.

Or maybe, he had been feeling like this ever since his first (and last) spring hunt, when his sisters had frozen up when he had been grazed by the tree branches. When their eyes started tracking the blood that had welled up in his cheek.

Or perhaps he had been feeling like this ever since he had seen Dmitri's figure fade away into the darkness, silhouetted by the flashes of lightning and thunder.

It was also possible he had been feeling lost ever since he spent the passing years roaming the increasingly desolate castle halls, pretending he wasn't lonely. The place was far too big for the five of them only.

He thought he felt like it when he had found the heartless body of Ethan slumped over the ground.

Maybe the feeling worsened when he hurried back to Ethan with the ripped out heart of a pig, plugging in the mangled organ back into the immobile body hoping it did anything.

Or the lead on his stomach during Ethan's battle with Miranda was the same feeling.

Now that he was in the cozy house with the cream coloured walls, filled with small baby toys and generic flower pictures, Leon was definitely feeling more lost than ever.

Still, he would take the solitude of these new walls than stay another moment with the stoic soldier that had looked utterly, utterly heartbroken as he stared at Leon as he helped drag Ethan away from the growing mold.

It had been two days ever since they had all escaped the village and the fiery explosion, and Leon found himself lost.

Ethan and Rose had been taken away for medical examination, and the temporary house that the BSAA fellows had put Leon in felt... empty.

He ran a distracted hand over the racks of wine glasses by the kitchen, and walked over the box with numbers printed on the surface. He startled and almost hit the thing when it beeped as he touched it. Curious, he pressed on the buttons again, eventually pressing on the coloured pad.

The insides of the machine lit up and started rotating, and the numbers started going down, but apart from the slightest heat, it didn't really seem to be doing anything.

The kitchen was definitely filled with strange machinery.

The lights turning on and off as he opened the refrigerator was definitely appreciated though.

Leon was examining the cupboards filled with plain ceramic plates and cups when his ears caught the sound of a window creaking open. He carefully placed the mug he was inspecting back into the cupboard, and made his way to the bedroom.

The room was empty, still in the exact state he had found it from the very first time he was placed in here. Same pastel coloured bed, cream walls, empty wooden shelves.

The only difference was the single window that was opened, letting in a gust of wind that fluttered the red curtains.

Leon shut the windows, and stilled.

He warned, "I can hear your heart, so you better come out."

Something silver glinted in the reflection of the window, and Leon sidestepped in time to avoid the quick arc of a knife. The assailant was fast, threatening him with kicks and jabs of the weapon that seamlessly flowed from one another, but Leon was faster.

He was always faster.

He got inside the guard of the attacker,
hugging their upper arms to pull them flush against him. With his other hand, he pulled at the back of their plague doctor mask, exposing their throat.

The attacker briefly struggled, and Leon felt the knife being driven in and out of his thigh, but he kept his arms locked. The figure quickly gave up once they realized Leon wouldn't budge.

Leon murmured against their neck, "It would only take me a single bite to stop you."

He bared his fangs, letting it lightly graze their skin. A small droplet of blood welled up, which he licked clean. The sweet tang of blood on his tongue was heavenly, but he reined in his hunger with the years of practice.

"But I won't. Using a knife for close encounters was clever though," he almost reluctantly let them go, momentarily feeling the pang of loss at the empty spot of warmth.

The attacker took a step back, pulling off their bird mask.

It was a woman.

She was beautiful, as all things deadly and dangerous were tempting to the touch.

"I see the people in this house are very welcoming," she purred, putting away the bloodied knife.

Maybe it was the red she was wearing, but Leon felt a stab of familiarity. Had he seen her before, somewhere?

He asked with thinly veiled suspicion, "Who are you?"

Her playful smile didn't change, but he could hear her heartbeat speed up.

She replied in the same teasing tone, "My name, is Ada Wong. I'm an independent contractor working for the government."

"Right. Is coming through windows part of your job?"

Her smile turned coy. "Only when it's necessary. I heard of a possible disturbance in this house. You seen anything out of the ordinary, handsome?"

Technically, everything seemed out of the ordinary for him. The sleeker telephones, the faster, deadlier weapons, the smooth motorcars.

Leon was about to shake his head, when Ada approached him determined steps. "Look, whatever information you have, you have to tell me. I've gotten conflicting reports of a possible cult and bio organic weapons eating away at the lives of the townspeople. Lives could be at stake."

He swallowed at the intensity of her stare. Leon struggled to look away. The feeling of familiarity was so, so close to bubbling to the surface, yet Leon had never met her. Had never seen her.

Mother Miranda would have never let a woman like her escape her clutches either.

"The Black God," he started. "It was growing out of control in the village."

"The Megamycete," Ada confirmed. "So it was in this area after all. Anything else?"

"It was going to consume everything." He could still hear he monstruous black branches and Miranda's unworldly form clawing the earth. "It had to be stopped."

"And then?"

"Then nothing. We blew it up."

Her lips twitched, and Leon found his gaze tracing the smile. "It seems the possible disturbance was taken care of before my help," she said airily.

Still wary, he asked, "If the government was aware how dangerous Mother Miranda was, why didn't they send help before?"

Dmitri. Magda. Lorna. All the maids and workers and the villagers and the children that lived under the watchful eye of Mother Miranda. All of them that could have been saved. All of the Mordecai that had been roaming the halls, their names and families forgotten.

She didn't seem bothered by Leon's slightly bitter tone.

"We only became aware of unusual activity in the vicinity a few months ago. Didn't the BSAA arrive to neutralize the threat?"

They had. And they did.

Without the BSAA's bomb, Leon and Ethan wouldn't have managed to escape unscathed.

At his telling silence, she only shrugged elegantly, her mysterious smile still in place. "Then that's one more thing that we don't have to worry about, then. Did the BSAA tell you what they were going to do?"

Leon shook his head. The only thing the well organized, military group told him was that Ethan would be safe, that Rose would be safe, and that Leon would be protected, this time.

Whatever that meant.

She sashayed towards the window, and gave him one last look. "A word of advice? If I were you, I would start learning friend from foe. The BSAA might mean well, but there are always moles."

Leon frowned. "And what about you?"

She gave him a teasing look. "What do you think?"

He didn't have an answer. But somehow, he was certain she didn't mean him harm.

He knew he could trust her, just as he could trust the grizzled man that had gotten them away from the village, and just as he could trust Ethan.

When he looked up with a reply prepared, the room was already empty.

Then the wound on his thigh decided to make itself known as it healed, and Leon muttered, "...Ow."

His baby was fine. Rose was fine.

He wasn't dead either.

Ethan couldn't believe the sheer, dumb luck, but somehow he had managed to find his daughter intact, had managed to not die in the process, and also had managed to put a stop to the crazy bitch Miranda and her mold.

It was unbelievable.

He let out a sigh of relief for the fifth time as his eyes caught sight of Rose sleeping peacefully inside the crib, health monitors beeping steadily around her.

She was fine. She was fine.

Chris Redfield entered the room, gaze snapping at Ethan and Rose and relaxing just a fraction. "Your daughter is fine, Ethan. And congratulations, you seem slightly dehydrated but you don't have any major health complications either."

He handed Ethan the paper for his health eval, but Ethan wasn't really reading any of the letters. His gaze kept moving towards the monitoring room with Rose sleeping peacefully.

Chris cleared his throat, and Ethan startled. The soldier said, "I owe you and your family and apology. There was a leak in BSAA that led to Miranda discovering your family's whereabouts. We dealt with the mole, but I'm afraid we put your family at a great risk. And I'm really sorry for that. You shouldn't have to have gone through all that alone."

He really did look regretful.

Before, Ethan would have snapped. Only if Chris and the BSAA had just taken five minutes to stop and explain what was going on, he wouldn't have been high strung to just start his frankly underplanned, underprepared, reckless journey into the village with the only goal of rescuing Rose. If BSAA hadn't excluded Ethan out of the very personal matter of his own wife having been replaced by a shape-shifting maniac that was trying to revive her dead daughter through Rose, then Ethan might have considered listening to the BSAA.

But now that Rose was back safe with him, Ethan felt exhausted. He did feel the low simmer of indignation, but at the same time, it felt like nothing else mattered anymore.

Rose was back with him.

It was water under the bridge, at this point.

Ethan replied evenly, "Yeah, I shouldn't have. But I wasn't alone. And I am grateful for the work you did for us, Chris." He looked towards Rose again and briefly closed his eyes. "Just...don't let it happen again."

Chris nodded. "I promise to do my best." He hesitated, and Ethan looked back at the man, waiting for him to finish gathering his thoughts. Eventually, Chris said, "Listen, regarding your companion–"

"Leon?"

The soldier looked pained. "Yeah, Leon. Has he displayed any sort of violence towards you or Rose?"

Ethan frowned. Leon? Ethan had been more aggressive and snappy towards the vampire than Leon had been with him throughout the entire journey.

"No? He was helpful."

With suspicion, he asked, "Why?"

"He is... most likely a BOW, like the rest of the Dimitrescu. Did he say anything about where he came from, his familial ties to them? To Miranda?"

Nothing that he learned personally from Leon. And the castle keeper's diary. But that wasn't his story to tell. Right, he should return the notebook to Leon once he got a chance to speak to him.

"Why don't you go ask him yourself? Now that I think about it, where is he?"

If the BSAA had locked him up just because he was a BOW, Ethan was going to have words with Chris.

The soldier looked alarmed at Ethan's tone. "Before you start going ballistics, he's fine. You and Rose were the priority so we had him stay put in one of the safehouses while we had you checked over." He prodded again, "Are you sure he didn't act violently?"

"No, he didn't." Ethan ran a hand over his face, slightly aggrieved. "He was wounded too. Why didn't you check him?"

Chris winced. "BOW. Remember? He looks and acts human enough that I could pull some strings to have the people look the other way when we were patching you up. If I have him suddenly healing in front of the medics, then that's another shitstorm."

Ethan felt the familiar bubble of annoyance stirring in him. "BOW this, BOW that, at this point, why don't you just say that I am one too? I died, Chris."

The man flinched now. Ethan continued, "If it wasn't for Leon, I wouldn't be standing here. So why don't you pull your head out of your ass for a second? What is it?"

Chris finally relented.

He sounded exhausted when he said, "I've lost a lot of people to the infections, Ethan. Most of them turned into monsters that lost their humanity. Some ended their lives before they could turn."

Ethan snapped his mouth shut. Chris continued, "And Leon? He looks just like a dear friend of my sister if he hadn't aged a year. His name was Leon S. Kennedy, and he was one of the survivors of Raccoon City."

Fuck. He heard about that incident. Ethan also had friends who never recovered the remains of their acquantances that lived in the city.

"After one last contact about how he was going on vacation, he completely disappeared."

When it was clear Ethan didn't follow, Chris added, "You don't go off the grid in my line of work. If someone goes into blackout it's because it's because of catastrophic reasons."

Chris exhaled forcefully, running a hand over his eyes. "It has been twenty years. And now the same man that went missing pops back out wearing the same face as before as a Dimitrescu in one of the biggest Mold hotspots? That is the reason why I'm concerned, Ethan. You don't just turn into one of them and miraculously keep your sanity and humanity intact."

The soldier looked directly at Ethan, daring to contradict him. He added, "So I'm sorry if it looks like I'm being a hardass, but I need to know. Did I make the wrong choice by not putting the BOW down at first contact?"

The water dispenser chose that moment to let out a gurgle of air. Ethan swallowed.

"Leon is as much of a BOW as I am, Chris," Ethan explained haltingly, hoping to convince him. "Yes, he is abnormal for human standards, but I can reattach limbs and not die even if I get severed into different pieces. He and I are just..." Ethan grimaced. "Slightly more powered up humans?"

At Chris' unaffected expression, Ethan sighed. "I don't know what to tell you, Chris. If you are looking for your friend in him, I think you are asking the wrong person. He told me he lived as a Dimitrescu for twenty years. I refused to accept help but he was the one that kept following me and warning me away from his crazy adopted family."

Chris remained stoic. Ethan tried one more time, "Just... try giving him a chance? If he is your disappeared friend, then he was robbed of his memories. I like to think that a bad guy wouldn't put his life at risk just to help a dad looking for his daughter in the middle of nowhere."

At that, Chris narrowed his eyes. After a tense moment of silence, he finally turned away making his way to the door. Haggard, he only murmured, "For your sake and mine, I hope you are right."

He left, plunging the room into silence again.

The water dispenser bubbled merrily.

[MESSAGE ENCRYPTION IN PROGRESS...]

[MESSAGE ENCRYPTED]

From: W
To: K

That one favor you owe me? I'm cashing it now. I think you will like this one as well.

Go check out the address below. Who knows? If you escape with a friend during the commotion, the BSAA won't notice until it's too late.

Chris debated between just knocking and entering the house, and ringing the bell and waiting in front of the door.

He had tossed and turned throughout the night, coming back to the conversation he had with Ethan.

He had his heart broken many times over the years everytime he lost a squad, a friend, a family to the endless infection that reared its ugly head over and over again, and Leon was just another one of the heartbreaks he had to learn to move on.

More than Chris, Claire had taken the news of Leon's disappearance the hardest. Leon had been her friend, her confidante, and Chris suspected, sometimes more, and they had cracked open the 25 year old whiskey that they were saving for each other's birthday if one of them managed to reach 50 without dying.

And now Ethan was telling him that the BOW wearing Leon's face was to be trusted?

He had hoped and lost Piers like this too.

He couldn't get his heart broken again after hoping. Not this time.

So he wasted a perfectly good day pretending to liaison necessary communications between his Hound Wolf squad members–no unpleasant news–, he checked and cleaned all of his weapons–all green–, he checked on the medic monitoring Rose and Ethan–healthy, no complications–, and when he ran out of things to do at sixteen hudred hours, he decided to bite the bullet.

The safehouse was an isolated cabin placed on a forest area 20 minute drive distance from the first major town.

He brought his handgun just in case.

The exterior of the house was just as they had left it–no signs of destruction, forceful entry, holes left by sudden mutations laying waste to the building– and now Chris was stuck in front of the doormat, gripped by uncertainty.

This wasn't his first rodeo dealing with people with memory loss. He had Jill, who had gone to therapy for three years before she said she started feeling like herself again. Heck, he even had himself as an example.

Maybe Leon could remember who he used to be.

He rang the doorbell with his heart beating fast, feeling like the first time he had stared down at a shambling zombie in the Arklay mountains.

He rang it again when there was no response.

What would he say? Leon didn't seem to recognize Chris at all when the soldier helped haul Ethan away from the Megamycete.

Jill hadn't recognized him at all when she had been under Wesker's clutches.

It was fine.

He huffed when he didn't hear any footsteps approaching the door. He rang the buzzer one last time impatiently.

He had explicitly ordered the BOW to stay put back when he had dumped the Dimitrescu in the house. Why wasn't he answering?

A sliver of denial and suspicion rose in him, and he unholstered his gun.

"Leon, I know you are in there. If you are not opening when I count to three, I'm going to bust the door open."

Silence.

He raised his voice. "You hear me? If you don't open the door now, I'm going in!"

No answer.

Fine.

"One!"

He put some distance from the door to shoot at the lock.

"Two!"

He undid the safety and aimed.

"Three!"

Someone murmured right behind him, "I thought you had a key. Why are you pointing your gun at the door?"

His adrenaline spiked, and Chris tempered down the instinctive twitch of his finger on the trigger. He whirled to where the voice had come from, raising his gun.

Leon was standing there, looking ridiculous with his silver hair, simple white t-shirt that had a bright purple "HALLO" printed in the midriff, and his historical brocaded pants.

The was a suspicious stain on his left thigh that looked like blood, but the BOW seemed completely fine otherwise.

Chris snapped, "What are you doing outside? We ordered you to stay here!"

Leon held up two dead rabbits. "I didn't eat for three days and got hungry. Would you like some? You can have the meat."

Chris ran a cursory check at the rest of the house just in case.

None of the alarms had been tripped, nothing was caught in the cameras, and none of the items in the house had been disturbed, except for the closet that was missing the shirt that Leon was currently wearing and the opened bedroom window that was letting the wind in.

Leon's voice floated in, "Are you done checking everything? The soup is done."

Chris wasn't 100% satisfied but he relented. He put away his gun and closed the window shut, feeling slightly annoyed when the thing refused to close completely and just opened again.

He gave up after a few more tries, and stomped to the kitchen.

Leon had prepared his caught rabbits into a soup, and was serving it into bowls.

There were two set of utensils on the table.

"If you are done suspiciously glaring at the fork, sit down," Leon drawled. "Food is ready."

Chris picked the seat that was closer to the door. If things went south, he would pull the pin on his grenade that he had hidden on his pocket, not look back, and tell Ethan the BOW was a lost cause.

"Here," Dimitrescu said placing the piping bowl in front of Chris. He set his own bowl of food down across the soldier.

Chris stared suspiciously at the BOW, then to the bowl, and back to the silver haired creature.

The Dimitrescu took a small sip. He gave Chris a wry grin. "I didn't poison it, if that's what you are worried about. Ethan said it was edible."

Ethan could slurp mud juice and say it was edible if he thought it would help him get to his family.

Chris didn't trust Ethan's palate at all.

He took the spoon and whirled it around the food. The meat looked cooked. He could even spy some winter roots in there too. When had the BOW gone out shopping?

Chris frowned. "Did you go out to get all this?"

"Well, after you dumped me here and took Ethan and Rose away, I did my best to not move. There were no edible foods except for seasonings so I went hunting today."

Oh.

Chris took a deep breath to calm his tension at the BOW's casual usage of the word 'hunting'. It didn't have to mean hunting humans. It didn't.

He hoped he managed to not sound too aggressive as he ground out, "There should have been rations and non-perishable food stocked. Next time, don't go out by yourself without a BSAA member with you. Miranda and the Megamycete are gone, but we don't know if there are cultists still around." He swallowed the words And I thought you were creating mayhem somewhere else.

The Dimitrescu munched on the winter root with a pensive expression. "I can't eat preserved food, unfortunately."

Chris couldn't hide the note of surprise. "You can't?"

The BOW smiled, and Chris was hit with a wave of familiarity at the dimpled expression.

"I can taste things as long as they are alive. Well. Freshly killed."

The feeling of familiarity died.

Chris did his best to not grimace. "So you drink blood like the rest of your family."

"When I can, yes. If not, I can eat things as long as they are fresh."

Right. Despite the familiar face, this was still a BOW that was created by Miranda and her deranged experiments. Chris shouldn't have expected otherwise.

"And the shirt?" Chris asked, doing his best to steer the conversation into some other topic that wasn't the unnatural diet of the BOW.

Ethan asked Chris to give the BOW a chance. This was him, putting his big man pants on and giving a chance to the BOW to not pump him full of lead.

"The one I was wearing was bloody, and I couldn't figure out the washing machine. I thought it would make the townspeople more comfortable if I came across them if I wasn't wearing my own blood."

Oh good. The BOW had manners. That was new.

Something the Dimitrescu said struck him as odd. "Everything in this house should have been in working condition. Did the washer not work?"

The pale man snorted. "You forget, that we had manual washers in the castle. I don't know how to operate a modern washing machine, Chris."

Oh.

Oh.

Fuck, right. Chris had forgotten.

He had a BOW that lived in a feudalistic castle system for years.

He didn't know how to operate a washing machine.

Chris felt a tangle of emotions constricting his chest–he wasn't sure if it was sympathy for the Dimitrescu that openly admitted not knowing the most basic of modern knowhows, or pity for realizing the BOW here would be yet another case that would need extensive therapy and rehab if he wasn't put down first. He knew there were still anti-technology doomsday cultists that indoctrinated their followers to be cut off from technology.

He could treat Dimitrescu like a cult survivor.

Baby steps Chris Redfield, he told himself.

He did his best to pretend he was fine. He cleared his throat. "Well, I'm sure Ethan can show you around once Rose gets the all clear."

The Dimitrescu's gaze fell on him. He looked hopeful. "So they are fine?"

Chris nodded. "Yeah. Both Rose and Ethan are fine."

The BOW seemed so relieved that Chris had to lower his gaze to his uneaten bowl of soup to stop finding traces of Leon in him.

The soup looked lukewarm now.

"I heard from Ethan that you helped him get Rose back," Chris said, still unable to keep his eyes for too long on Leon's face. Still, he put as much sincerity as he could. "Thank you for keeping him safe. You shouldn't have had to."

The Dimitrescu gave him a warm smile that reached his eyes. "He was the one that kept crawling into the castle despite my warnings. Not his fault his daughter got taken." He took another sip of the soup and added as an afterthought, "I did have to throw him out of the window once or twice though."

Chris huffed in laughter. He could imagine it.

The pale man's smile turned teasing. "Hey, that's the first time you smiled. You should smile more. You don't look your age."

"Oh yeah? How old do you think I am?"

"Aren't you seventy?"

"Hey."

Leon laughed.

Chris had never seen Leon laugh before. Smiles, smirks, grins, yes. Laughter? Never. Maybe Claire had seen Leon laugh, once. Years and years ago. Maybe when he was the rookie cop still bright eyed about the world, before everything had gone to hell.

His throat constricted painfully. Was this what Leon would have looked like if he had never been strongarmed into the U.S government's service?

Maybe the Leon before the events of Raccoon City could have laughed like this, once.

Chris forcefully shoved a spoonful into his bowl and chewed on the meat, doing his best to ignore his thoughts.

Leon gave him the now familiar smirk. "I told you the soup wasn't poisoned."

Chris hid a budding smile behind the spoon.

The soup was alright.

[OPERATION FUNHOUSE]

THREAT ASSESSMENT AND RETRIEVAL OF THE ASSET 'LEON S. KENNEDY'.

LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED IF ASSET DEEMED TOO DANGEROUS TO CONTROL.

ASSIGNED AGENT: [PENDING]

PENDING APPROVAL: SECRETARY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE [DEREK C. SIMMONS]

Finally Rose had been cleared to be out of the hospital. Chris had graciously given Ethan the key to the temporary safehouse and Ethan had busied himself checking around the house for anything suspicious.

At this point, it was more paranoia making him check on the electrical wires of a safehouse.

Everything was fine. It was fine.

He went back to the car to get the baby crib with Rose still sleeping peacefully, and he felt his face break into a fond smile. She was going to grow up healthy and safe. Rose would have a normal childhood and Ethan would get to watch her grow.

He was incredibly lucky.

Ethan rocked the crib for a little bit when it looked like Rose was waking up. The BSAA had given them supplies to last them a week–weather appropriate clothing, toiletries, some baby formula–but it wouldn't be enough.

He was already low on baby formula. Would it be worth it going to the only market in the sleepy town at this hour? Chris had even asked to send him a quick alert if he was going to move around, but Ethan was only going to get baby food.

He did his best to maneuver the crib to one arm, while trying to open the trunk of the car with the other. Crud, only if he had three hands–

The front door rattled for a bit, and Leon poked out from the house, his face breaking into a pleased grin when his gaze landed on him.

"Ethan! You look better," Leon immediately crossed the distance between them and stopped right before the crib. His expression softened. "And is Rose all right, then?"

Ethan stared at his baby as well. He couldn't help how his voice had softened. "Yeah. She's fine."

She truly was.

They took a moment to just stare at the bundled baby sleeping soundly. Suddenly, Ethan realized that he had missed Leon during the few days he had been put under the doctor's care. He quickly glanced at the vampire, especially his midriff where he had been slashed by Miranda's nails, but he seemed fine.

Leon noticed him staring and gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm good. You and Rose had it worse."

Ethan smiled back. Leon's solid presence was comforting, after everything that was said and done. He was one of the very, very few people left in this world that Ethan would trust Rose with.

And the realization startled him.

Huh.

He didn't know until now how deep the realization ran in him.

He wished he could tell Leon how sincere he was when he said, "Thanks, Leon. For everything." For sticking with me, for helping get Rose back, for being steadfast during all the terrible things happening in the village–

Probably not realizing how much Ethan meant, Leon only gave him a lopsided smile.

"Anytime."

After a few rough nights, things kind of settled into a rhythm for Leon, Ethan, and Rose.

Leon had given the bigger master bedroom to Ethan and Rose, knowing that Ethan would want to be close to his daughter, but after the first two nights ending with Ethan bolting from the bed from the faintest of snuffles from Rose and spending the rest of the day in a half shambling daze, Leon had offered help.

It didn't matter that for Leon, he offered because nothing terrified him more than the gentle rasps of breath and the thudding heartbeats speeding up.

Who knew if he would find Ethan or Rose dead by the next morning just because he wasn't paying attention?

If he found himself much more comforted by the physical presence of Ethan and Rose by the crib–where he could actually see– then it was his own secret.

Ethan had been grateful for any kind of help, and after that... it had slowly changed into a routine.

Ethan would be up whenever Rose put up a fuss at night, making soft cooing noises and doing his best to calm her down.

Leon would try to calm Ethan down whenever he thrashed over his own nightmares.

He could hear Rose's steady heartbeat, and he could gently squeeze Ethan's arm to break him out of his own imaginary enemies.

Leon didn't need to sleep as often as Rose or Ethan, but being nearby other live people made something in him relax.

Also, it was amusing to see Ethan's bed dragged hair in the mornings as he shuffled around the kitchen pantry looking for coffee.

"You know, if it's not hard I could make coffee for you," Leon offered one morning, when he saw Ethan futilely squint into the buttons of the brewing machine for two minutes straight.

Ethan startled, almost knocking the mug away as he raised his hands in defence. He lowered it with a huff when he noticed Leon reading in the living room, across the kitchen island.

"Jesus, say something, would you? And um. It's okay. Thanks." He gave Leon a smile, and after clicking a few buttons on the machine he scooted over to the sofa where Leon was sitting. "Is that a tablet?"

Leon nodded, as he swiped the news article. "Yeah, Chris dropped it off when he came by a few days ago. It's kind of amazing how far technology has come. I still don't know why it does this sometimes though. I wish I could read it lying down."

He turned the tablet and waited until the screen flipped upright again. He turned it once more and huffed in annoyance when the displayed article flipped again.

Ethan sat down next to Leon with his hands outstreched, and Leon passed the device without much complaint. Ethan blinked blearily at the screen for a few seconds and said, "There should be a screen lock option somewhere in the menu," he turned the device around to examine it, and eventually fiddled around the screen until a new screen popped up. "There we go! See this? That's the screen lock button. If you don't want the app–uh, the screens that you tap to flip around when you move it, just press this."

He demonstrated a few more times rotating the tablet around, and gave the tablet back.

Leon tried it himself a few times, before grinning in satisfaction. "You are a lifesaver. Thanks, Ethan."

Ethan mumbled something unintelligible and gave him a thumbs up. He shambled over the kitchen again in a very good impersonation of the Moroaica to get himself the coffee under the trilling machine. He took a sip first. He sighed. He took another sip.

He looked a bit more alert after the third sip.

Leon watched him with good humor. "Back to the land of the living?"

"Yeah. I feel alive now for sure. Sorry, what did you say before?"

"I said you were a lifesaver. And then I thanked you."

Ethan muttered good-naturedly, "Don't remember that," before shrugging. "I'm going to make myself some ration bar breakfast. Want some?"

Leon shook his head. "No thanks. I hunted some rabbits."

Ethan narrowed his eyes at him to see he was joking, but Leon didn't bother explain further.

He did hunt.

Not this morning, but a few days ago when Chris had come by. And he had gone for longer without drinking when he was hiding from mother anyways.

From Chris' reaction, he really didn't want to impress further that he wouldn't be eating normal food.

Ethan asked, "Are you sure you are okay with just drinking blood?"

Leon blinked, startled by the unexpected turn of the question. Ethan didn't look judgemental, just truly curious.

"Yeah. I can keep hunting for small animals around the house."

At the frown starting to tug down on Ethan's face, Leon hurriedly reassured, "If you are worried about the smell or the carcasses, I know how to be discreet. I swear I won't do anything that would harm you or Rose when I feed."

Ethan took a sip of his coffee, still frowning. "I meant more along the lines of if blood would be enough. How do you even get enough nutrients from blood?" He shook his head, his displeased tilt of eyebrows smoothening into his neutral expression. "Anyway, if you are good with just animals, then that's good."

He smiled, and Leon felt something wound tight in him slightly relax.

It was fine. Ethan wasn't asking about his otherness.

Ethan rummaged through the pantry, taking out a plain looking granola bar and munched on it with a distracted expression.

Leon got himself comfortable on the sofa and turned on the tablet again. After scrolling for a bit, he said, "Oh, that reminds me, the local government paid us a visit."

Ethan took another swig of his coffee. "Really? That's fast. I didn't think the BSAA and Chris filled out our residence papers already."

"Uh huh. She came a day before Chris visited. She only asked a few questions and left through the window."

The sharp sound of a mug hitting the counter made Leon look up from the device. Ethan was starting to go pale.

Immediately concerned, Leon stood up warily. "Ethan? What's wrong?"

"The agent. She came through the window?"

"Yes? She only asked me about the Black God and Mother Miranda and left again."

Given how Mother Miranda only ever used the windows to fly inside the Dimitrescu castle for ceremonies, he hadn't thought deeper about the oddness of Ada using windows. But from Ethan's paling face, he should have.

He should have.

Ethan immediately ran to the bedroom where Rose was sleeping, and picked her up, gently depositing her into her mobile crib.

Hurriedly, he started opening and dumping food and clothing into the travel bag that the BSAA had given them, each movement more jerky and desperate.

Alarmed, Leon also dropped the tablet and ran to help Ethan. "Ethan, what–"

Ethan snapped, "We don't have time! Whoever came through the window was definitely not a government agent," he continued to mutter to himself as he placed one packed bag over the floor, "God, I should have known that the BSAA wouldn't have been able to completely clean out their spy situation."

Ethan hauled the second travel bag out of the closet. "Leon, grab as many foods you can and contact Chris. Tell him that the house the BSAA gave us has already been leaked. And that–"

He almost tripped over the bag on the floor and quickly glanced at the crib where Rose was still napping. "Fuc– fudge. Fudge."

"You okay?"

Ethan flapped his hands in a hurried motion. "Yeah, yeah. Just get started on the food and call Chris. I'll finish packing."

Leon dashed out, opening the cupboards and starting to stack the dried powders and granola bars.

Chris had said the tablet had a direct call option set up. He pressed on the button, and he almost dropped the thing in his haste when Chris' face appeard.

"Leon? Is something wrong?"

Leon kept a sharp eye over his shoulder just to catch the end of a muffled grumble from Ethan. "The house has been leaked. Ethan and I are packing right now."

Chris looked increasingly alarmed until his face slammed into a cool facade of professionalism. "Stay put. I'll send the closest unit to your location. On the meantime, tell me how you came to be with the information."

Leon almost dropped a box of canned food. "Two days after you gave us the house, a woman came and asked questions."

"A woman?"

"Yeah, she said her name was Ada Wong and that she was a government contractor," he tensed when he heard a muffled thump from Ethan's room, but relaxed when he realized he probably had just dropped something. He looked around and decided that the curtains would do a good job of holding all the boxes together, and ripped off the drapes from the living room in a quick motion. "She asked about the mycete? And Mother Miranda, and once I told her we blew it up to pieces, she just left again."

Leon stopped wrapping the curtains around the rations of food when he realized Chris was uncharacteristically silent.

"Chris?"

Chris' expression was alternating between looking pissed off and resigned in equal measures. Wary, Leon tried again, "Chris? Is something wrong?"

The man looked like an angry bull with the veins popping in his skin, but he visibly reigned his temper in. "Leon, go call Ethan. Both of you need to hear this, but you might not be completely in danger yet."

Leon quickly ushered Ethan out of the room–that was increasingly looking like a ransacked house– and closed the door. Rose was sleeping–how she hadn't waken up yet was a mystery, but he wouldn't interrupt her sleep– and set the tablet between the boxes of rations that he had been piling up over the island counter.

Ethan looked visibly jumpy and angered when he only said, "What."

Chris looked at them both, and once satisfied they didn't have any external injuries, he said, "Ada Wong is a mercenary and a spy. She's... not evil like Miranda, but she follows her own agenda."

Ethan crossed his arms. Rose's monkey doll he was packing let out a dying wheeze as Ethan gripped it harder, and Leon winced at the loud sound.

Leon asked, "So you know her?"

Chris muttered, "I know of her. From the non existent chatter from the BSAA grapevine anyway." His eyes flicked towards Leon and Chris looked away, as if he didn't mean to.

Leon connected the dots.

"So you mean my old self knew her too, and he used to tell you about her, until he didn't anymore."

Chris looked uncomfortable.

Ethan looked between Chris and Leon, looking aggrieved. "Then does that mean we are good? We literally got a visit from a spy not even a week into this house. Are you sure we are safe, Chris?"

Leon added, "And would Ada Wong visit us just as a social call? Were we close?"

Chris' expression soured. "Ethan, we'll move you again just in case. And Leon, I'm not really sure if I can be a good judge of character since she works outside the law. But you did trust her."

Leon frowned, and Ethan let out a sigh, worry and concern draining from him. "I'm really putting a lot of trust on you and the BSAA, Chris. Last time the organization had a leak, you got my wife killed."

Leon's eyebrow shot up in alarm and surprise, and Chris' face twitched in something akin to dawning horror and guilt.

"You killed Ethan's wife?"

"No! No. Never. We killed Miranda disguised as Mia."

Ethan looked down, shoulders tense with worry despite Chris' reassurance. He muttered somewhat bitterly, "Still I lost my wife. God, I need to get into contact with my lawyer and arrange the funeral–"

Leon hesitantly reached out a hand to squeeze Ethan's shoulder as a silent gesture of comfort, and Ethan just curled onto himself.

Chris' voice was firm when he called, "Ethan."

"What?"

Chris definitely looked conflicted. At his telling expression, Ethan narrowed his eyes. Ethan said, "What is it, Chris? If you tell me you have my wife's remains as a crystallized mold to study, I swear to god that–"

"Mia isn't... dead," Chris winced, realizing how bad that sounded. At Ethan's flabbergasted expression, Chris added, "The BSAA has been interrogating her because of her ties with a... dangerous organization."

"What."

"We had her in our custody after we found her in the village. She claimed she was experimented on by Miranda, but there were too many things that didn't line up and we dug deeper," Chris paused to take a long breath tinged with tiredness. "Ethan... you should have a long talk with her once you see her again. We expect we can release her within a day or two once our investigation wraps up."

Ethan's voice was flat. "And you didn't tell me my wife was held in custody?"

"She was safe, unlike you and Rose. Your satefy was our priority and we couldn't trust her to not sell out your information to her organization once she learned of both of your conditions."

Ethan's hand on the monkey doll turned white.

"She's my wife."

Ethan shrugged Leon's comforting hand away. Chris gazed away, the proud line of his back slumped in weariness.

Eventually Chris said, "Yes, she is. And I'm sorry my choices end up keeping you in the dark about your own family. But Mia's involvement with the organization is something you seriously need to talk to her about. We don't know how much information Mia Winters shared regarding your status, but we suspect she had ties with it as far as back as the Louisiana Incident."

Ethan's jaw locked. After a beat or two, he let out a harsh exhale through his nose. "Yeah. I guess I have to."

Chris turned his tired eyes back onto them. "The BSAA will prepare the next safehouse for you. On the meantime stay put in there for a little longer. We will move you together once Mia gets released."

After the phone call filled with surprising revelations, Leon did his best to help clean up around the house, but he couldn't pull Ethan out of his strange mood.

So he focused more on taking care of Rose, hunting a few more rabbits for himself, and making himself scarse for the eventuality Mia arrived.

While he was happy for Ethan that Mia wasn't dead as he first assumed, Ethan seemed conflicted at the idea that he didn't quite know his wife he had been married for years. Leon found Ethan gazing outside, fiddling with the ring on his finger more than once.

Mia arrived two days later as Chris promised, looking haggard but unscathed.

The doorbell rang and Ethan was the one who answered with a downwards tilt of his lips. Mia looked stunned to see Ethan for a second, before she moved in to hug Ethan as hard as he could.

Ethan hesitated for a second before he returned the hug equally fiercely.

"Oh Ethan, thank god you are alive, you don't know how worried I was!"

Ethan was subdued when he replied, "Yeah, me too Mia. Are you hurt anywhere?"

They separated, cataloguing each other.

Mia said, "No, I'm fine. How about you? The BSAA didn't tell me anything but I heard you got hurt?"

"I'm in one piece," he raised his hands to show them to Mia. At her sympathetic wince at some of his missing fingers, he hurried to add in a joking tone, "Well, for the most part. But it doesn't even hurt."

She reached out to take his left hand, running her thumb across his knuckles in a careful manner. "I really wish you didn't have to suffer because of the greed of others."

Ethan carefully extracted his hands from hers, and moved to let her further inside the house. Mia took a quick glance at the living room, furrowing her eyebrows at the destroyed curtains, and rounded towards Ethan. She asked anxiously, "And Rose?"

"Before that, I need to talk to you," At her clouding expression, Ethan quickly added, "Rose is fine! She's sleeping. But I feel we haven't really had the time to process anything that happened to us so far."

Mia wrung her hands and bit her lips as her nervous habit but nodded, eyes glancing at the closed doors. "Of course, love. Anything you want. You sure Rose is safe?"

Ethan nodded. "As safe as she can be. Should I brew us some coffee? Tea?"

"Water should be enough. Thanks, honey." She sat down on the sofa, still warily looking at the closed rooms, tension still not completely gone from her shoulders.

He quickly prepared two glasses and came back to where she was, fumbling with his water when his three fingered hand failed to get a grip. She helped him set the glass down.

"Crud– thanks Mia." He sat down across her after dragging the kitchen island stool. When it was clear she wouldn't breach the subject first, Ethan began,"I heard from Chris that... you have been taken by Miranda. And that you were experimented on. Are you all right?"

"Yeah. She didn't do anything to me." She took a cushion and hugged it to her chest. "Are you really okay, Ethan? I only heard the bare bones but I heard you were caught in the crossfire between the BSAA and Miranda."

Her gaze lingered on his left hand, and Ethan quickly made a fist to hide the missing fingers. "They are healed. And as you see, I'm mostly in one piece." He grinned to reassure her, but the effort fell flat.

"I'm glad to hear that," Mia murmured, her eyes furtively sweeping over Ethan and over to the locked doors behind him.

Ethan pulled himself closer to the edge of his seat to take Mia's hands. "Mia, look. I'll be frank. The BSAA told me you were held captive because you were working with a dangerous organization. Are you still in danger?"

Her eyes widened, and she hastily pulled her hand away. "What? No! Ethan, I swear I would have told you if I was going to do anything remotely dangerous. You know I wouldn't do that to you or our baby."

Ethan only frowned. "Mia, it's really okay if you tell me the truth. I promise I won't freak out. You know I would go through hell for you, and if you were to tell me you moon nighted as a cool spy or something like that, I swear I won't look at you differently." He paused, when it was clear she wasn't convinced. "Just... just tell me this. Are you CIA?"

Mia curled onto herself, playing with the cushion on her lap. "No. Not CIA."

Ethan was relieved that he wouldn't find Mia someplace remote because of the government's orders. "Okay. That's, that's good." He ran a hand over his hair. "Are you still in danger?"

Mia shook her head.

At her reticence he pleaded, "Come on, Mia. We've been married for years now. If you aren't working for the government, you can at least trust me enough to tell me if your side job will be harmful to you."

Mia bit her lower lip. She looked like she was about to cry, and his heart lurched.

She said raggedly, "I'm sorry, Ethan. No matter what the BSAA told you, I swear I'm good. I'm no longer part of the organization and I swear that I left my past behind me. This whole thing is stressing me out too and I get it, but can we stop talking about this? I'd rather not dredge up painful memories."

"I just– I wish you just told me," Ethan tried haplessly. "We could have been in this together. I could have helped you!"

Mia wiped the tears gathering at the edge of her eyes. "No, Ethan. That's my own responsibility. I didn't want to drag you into all of my past."

Ethan was subdued when he said, "But here we are. The Baker house. That was part of your dangerous job, wasn't it?"

"No! Ethan, I swear–"

"Mia, please tell me the truth about this at least. I went to hell and back to get you out of that crazy family, I at least deserve the truth."

She gazed away, her hand fisting on the cushion.

Eventually, she said in a trembling voice, "Yes. It was. Which is why I realized I couldn't continue like this, not when it meant you would get hurt because of me."

She met his eyes, glimmering with unshed tears. "I really, really swear to god, Ethan. I'm done with that side of the job. Especially after Rose was born."

Ethan kept his gaze on Mia, and nodded resolutely. "Okay. Okay," he exhaled. Sincerely, he added, "Thank you for telling me this. I know it was a hard time for both of us, but I promise you I'll do my best to help out. We can do this."

Mia gave her a watery smile. "Thanks, Ethan."

Ethan took a deep breath. "Okay. My turn. Please promise me you won't freak out."

She nodded.

"When you were switched out by Miranda, the BSAA just gunned her down in our house. Now I know why they did what they did but at the time I thought they just murdered you in cold blood. Then Rose got taken by Miranda. I was in a really bad place. I thought I couldn't trust anybody, I couldn't trust myself for letting you and Rose just get taken, I couldn't put faith in the BSAA or Chris at all."

Mia reached out to take his left hand in comfort, and Ethan squeezed it gently. "I was literally planning to go fight Miranda herself with nothing. Even if I lost you, I was dead set I would get Rose back. I was an idiot."

"No, Ethan. You weren't. You did what anybody in your shoes would have."

Ethan let out a self deprecating snort. "Well, you do have to admit it was dumb. Anyway, I would have been killed for sure, if not for the help I got along the way. I met a guy."

"BSAA?"

Ethan shook his head. "No. He was actually a villager. And I would like to introduce him to you."

Mia tentatively smiled back at his hopeful expression. "Of course, honey. Any friend of yours is my friend. Just don't tell me he's like Greg."

Ethan snorted. "No, nothing like Greg. I know how much you didn't like him."

He pulled back to call, "Leon? If you are okay, you can come out and say hi."

One of the doors opened and a silver haired man walked out, footsteps silent on the wood. He even closed the door with no sound.
Ethan's back was still turned towards Mia, so he missed how she shot up in alarm at the figure that walked out.

"Mia, meet Leon–"

"That's a BOW!"

Both Ethan and Leon flinched at the harshness in her tone. Ethan stood up as well, trying to calm her down.

"Yes but no, Mia you promised you wouldn't freak–"

She pointed a finger towards Leon who was clearly doing his best to not aggravate her further. She hissed, "You put a Dimitrescu with our baby?!"

Ethan said, "Yes, but he's trustworthy I swear–"

She whirled towards him, still keeping a wary eye towards Leon who had backstepped until he was right in front of the door he came out of. She fumbled with her pockets until she pulled out a small BSAA issued panic button and held it threateningly up.

Leon tried, "Ethan, maybe it's best if I just go–"

"Leon, I want you to take Rose and take a walk around the neighborhood. You wanted to see the town, right? Take Rose with you."

Mia screamed, "Ethan, that's my daughter too! You can't make a decision regarding her safety without telling me! Why are you keeping a BOW in our home?" She whirled towards Leon, fire burning in her eyes. "I don't know who you are, but don't you dare lay your hands on Rose!"

"I–"

Ethan got between Mia and Leon. He looked back at the vampire and pleaded, "Leon, please. Just take Rose. I'll handle this."

Leon was about to ask if he was sure, but one resolute look from the man made him only nod.

Mia sputtered, "Ethan! You can't just–"

Leon quickly grabbed Rose's monkey doll and took the baby in his arms from her crib in her room, and slipped out of the house. As the door closed behind him, he could still hear snippets of the heated argument between the pair.

"You would trust a stranger over me–"

"I trust him more than my life! And he has been completely forthcoming with me unlike a lot of people so far–"

"Don't you dare turn this into my issue! I apologized already!"

"–Is your name even Mia?"

"Of course! How could you ask me that, we've been married for five years–"

"I feel like I don't really know you at all–"

"Yes you do! You do–"

Leon looked down at Rose that fussed sleepily at him. "I guess we are taking a walk. Hope you like thrill rides."

The baby blinked at him.

He smiled sardonically, hugging the baby closer to his chest. "Right. Hope you are ready."

He hoped Ethan managed to reconcile with his wife. From the details he managed to gather during their downtime in the village, it sounded like Ethan would be willing to walk through hell to find her.

He didn't really want to intrude or come between them.

Helping Ethan find Rose was something he did because it would have been the right thing to do. He enjoyed Ethan's presence and his ridiculous, bad sense of humor, and he knew that it wouldn't last long.

Nothing lasted long for him.

Rose gurgled, and Leon slowly rocked her in his arms, feet taking him to the paved road. Chris had said that the nearby town was 20 minutes by car.

He guessed he and Rose could take a long walk.

The air was cold and damp with fog, the green forest rustled in the wind and the occasional white of the car lights that drove by.

He didn't find or see any other living soul.

The baby fussed again, and Leon held up the monkey doll in front of Rose, shaking the thing hoping it made her feel better.

It didn't.

She started bubbling and scrunching her face, and Leon felt a stab of worry. "What's wrong? Do you need to eat? Are you thirsty?"

He gently rocked her, but Rose started bawling.

"Oh, no, please don't cry–"

He didn't know anything about babies. He could take care of children, since some of the castle maids he smuggled out sometimes had children with them, but he never had taken care of a human baby.

Leon made shushing sounds, eyes frantically tracking the forest and the road for anything that could help. Maybe he could try running all the way to town? What had Ethan done to calm Rose down? He had rocked her, made cooing noises and silly faces towards her, he sometimes fed her.

Two out of the three options weren't working.

Rose's cries intensified, and Leon hugged the baby closer to his chest, bouncing her in what he hoped was a soothing manner.

Fuck it, he was going to run.

He was saved from deciding between jumping over trees to cut across the forest or dashing through the road to keep his direction by the car that had slowed down next to him.

The windows of the beat up machine rolled down, and a young woman peeked out. "You need help?"

Leon nodded, lowering his arms just a bit to show Rose that was still bawling. "Do you know where I could find a handmaiden? Or a nurse?"

Her brown eyes widened at the sight of Rose, and she leaned back on her seat to talk frantically with whoever was driving. After a few agonizing seconds, she gestured at the back of the car. She said, "I'm taking my mother to the hospital too. We can take you. Get in."

Leon felt his face breaking out into a grateful smile. "Thanks."

He rocked and shushed Rose, but her crying continued. Oh no, what if she was sick and he had done the wrong thing by taking her? Maybe he should have listened to Mia–

The door opened, and a scraggly old woman glared at him. He quickly hopped in closing the door, frantically rocking the baby on one hand.

He said, "I'm really sorry for this–"

The woman that had offered the ride gave him a reassuring smile. "No worries. We can help."

The driver was a bespectacled man with a neatly trimmed beard. He said something in a language Leon didn't understand, but from the crinkle of his eyes and the smile he could tell that it was something placating too.

The woman introduced herself, "I'm Gina. This is my husband Marius, and this is my mother Ioana."

He gave her an apologetic smile. He introduced himself, "I'm Leon. This is Rose."

The old woman sitting next to him gave him a thorough once over, and clicked her tongue. She frowned, murmuring something, and the woman in front translated, "She wants to know if that's your baby."

Leon did a double take. "What? No, she's not mine."

Rose snuffled, and Leon shaked the monkey doll in front of her in vain. He really hoped Rose wasn't sick. He had seen children go from laughing actively to just suddenly dying the next day, and he didn't think he could take one more life dying in front of him.

Oh no, Ethan had just gotten Rose back, what could he tell the man? Sorry that you went to hell and back to get your daughter. That one time you left me with her? I did nothing as she suddenly cried and died.

Ioana grumbled, and then Gina said, "She doesn't believe that."

Leon gave the old woman a forced smile. "Well, she's not mine, but a friend's. I'm just looking after her."

Gina translated what he said in a quick, lilting manner, and the old woman nodded. She extended her arms towards Leon.

"She wants you to give her the baby." At his wary glance, she gave him a comforting grin. "She used to be a nursemaid. Don't worry, she knows what to do."

Leon reluctantly handed Rose to her, and the old woman made some clucking sounds, fondly looking down at the baby.

Rose immediately fell quiet.

At Leon's astonishment, Ioana grinned. Gina translated, "You were holding her too tightly. She just needed some room to breathe."

Ioana's sharp grey eyes narrowed, saying something. Gina translated, "And you seem to need one too. You are too tense with worry. What are you so afraid of?"

Oh.

Oh.