Work Text:
April 30, 2027
7:00 PM
“Sher, can you help cut the onions?” Leon yelled across the kitchen, Sherry rinsing some lettuce and other vegetables for a salad she was prepping with Emily, who helped toss some to rinse out.
“Sure, Leon, one sec! Here, Emily, put them over by the counter, okay? Auntie will take care of it afterwards. Hey Jake!” Sherry yelled out to her husband, who was by the main dining room table, laptop in hand, typing away some reports. His ears perked like a cat, and he looked away, glasses on his eyes to block the light.
“What?” He yelled back.
“Don't think you're getting yourself out of helping by writing that report! We could use another set of hands chopping some of the extra garnishes!
“Alright, alright, Hun, I'm coming.” Jake joked, closing the laptop and putting his glasses away. “Better do want your Aunt Sherry says before she gets mad.” He rubbed Emily's hair into a mess, which she looked back at in a teasing manner, eyes staring down at him before she laughed.
"Yeah better go do as she says Uncle Jake." Emily squinted her eyes in a cunning manner and Jake tried to get the girl before he laughed and then made way to the kitchen.
“Say, where's Miss Redfield and Ashcroft, hmm?” Jake saw that two more people were missing from the scene of the kitchen, which Leon, with a black apron with a little pin of the DSO logo pinched on the side, looked back to reply.
“They're in the backyard. Seems like Grace wanted to talk to Claire about something. Between them.” Leon replied, moving around some chicken and broccoli in a saucepan.
“Don't ask me,” Sherry chuckled.
Jake scratched the back of his head for a moment, but shrugged it off, helping out Leon and Sherry.
As the three were busy cooking and prepping for dinner, Claire and Grace were out back, sitting by the porch that had a view of a fun backyard with a grill on the far side. It was a perfect place for Emily and Jake to mess around, seeing that Emily had a liking for Jake for being similar in their own ways.
Grace wondered if she was going to adopt too many of his mannerisms, but considering she was about ten years of age and had a high level of intelligence, she didn't question it much.
Emily was in good hands.
“Leon sure is working hard for dinner tonight.” Grace chuckled, looking out at the scene inside.
“Yeah, he and Sherry hadn't had bonding time outside of missions for a while, and the two, out of boredom, found some recipes to try out for dinner.” Claire laughed, so admiring the scene, seeing her husband happy, truly happy ever since Elpis had been released.
Leon's smile had never had such a charm to it since the last time she saw it as such, being the moment they saw each other for the first time before the nightmares of Raccoon City.
Since Elpis and the recognition of the reality of Raccoon City, it felt like peace had finally arrived. Leon's work is not as tiresome; the plaguing threats of potential zombies were non-existent thanks to the potency of Elpis, and the dismantling of the Connections was in hot pursuit.
Everyone in the Kennedy household knew that and worked feverishly to put it to an end.
“So Grace Ashcroft,” Claire looked into Grace's eyes, her blue eyes just as calm as Leon's. Grace chuckled nervously for a moment at noticing how intimate Claire's eyes were and understood why Leon married the woman as well. It was caring, warm, and filled with light.
“Yes?” Grace asked.
“You said on the phone before coming to visit that you wanted a private conversation with me, so here I am.” Claire placed her hands on her knees, eyes twinkling like stars, curiosity eagerly waiting.
“Oh…oh right! I do, haha. I…um…” Grace didn't speak for a second as she was chuckling nervously and wavering off, as if she was trying to distract herself.
“Grace?” Claire brought her back to the present.
“Sorry! It's just that…Emily's school has this thing coming up that's like a special event for Mother's Day…”
“Yeah?” Claire was leaning on her.
“And Emily asked me to be a part of it since I'm her guardian.”
“How nice. So what's the problem?” Grace knew Claire could see right through the underlying issues when it came to people.
It was why she worked for TerraSave and not the DSO, for that intelligence agency had less to deal with people in their day-to-day operations. It suited for Leon who preferred the lack of social contact at work before recharging his batteries fully once he got back home.
“T-there is no problem really." Grace took a moment to compose herself, the stutter naturally occurring. "The thing is that they also extended the event to be generational, you know? Like all moms…and that also means...uh...grandmas too.”
“Ah.” Claire leaned back a little, no longer teasing Grace as she looked at the backyard, some squirrels running around the field, playfully chasing after each other. “Let me guess: Emily wants me there too?”
“She always wants you somewhere to be honest.” Grace laughed for a moment, easing herself from the tension. “But no, she didn't ask this time. Actually,” Grace paused to interlock her fingers in nervousness. She hesitated, but then decided to finish her sentence. “I'm the one who's…asking you to be there.”
“Oh.” Claire looked back at Grace, eyes now in their motherly tone, one where both the gentleness of her personality and the seriousness of the conversation were mixed beautifully in the expression of her face, now learning what the conversation was all about.
Claire never considered herself a mother to Grace, at least not in the same vein as Leon considers himself a dad to Grace. The same was with Sherry growing up, though Sherry has occasionally slipped the “Mom” and “Dad” to Leon, purely because she was too focused on school work and the like growing up, which Simmons laughed at Leon and Claire whenever they heard it within earshot.
Sherry seems to like you two as her parents! Makes no sense to have me as her appointed guardian if that's the case.
Despite the man being evil in the end, he did share a heart of gold when it came to Sherry and relinquished a lot for Claire and Leon to visit and be a part of her life, most of it being hush-hush between all three because of how much care the Refield and Kennedy had for the young girl.
And while Claire did take the usual “mother-daughter” stuff with Sherry, like going to her school orientations and even her sweet sixteen along with Leon, the three of them doing a mother-daughter and a father-daughter dance, it wasn't the same with Grace, whose mother already took care of her throughout all her formative and adolescent years.
Alyssa Ashcroft was a woman of great valor, and Claire felt like she was still behind that spotlight in her own endeavors, despite the accomplishments she's made over the course of her life. Yet it was one thing to have the title of Co-President of TerraSave.
Another was taking on the mantle of someone else.
To become a mother to Grace would feel as if she's replacing Alyssa, and that leaves a sour taste in Claire's mouth each time she even thinks about it.
You’re not replacing her, Claire. You’re…filling her role. Continuing where she left off.
That’s the same as replacing her, Leon.
No, it’s not. It's different in a- oh okay, fine, say it is. What if Grace actually wants that from you?
Then I want her to let me know and tell me. Trust me.
Claire’s mind reminisced on a discussion she had with Leon a few months back, when Claire’s first doubts about being a mother figure for Grace kicked in.
“Are you sure?” Claire asked Grace carefully as she walked into a minefield.
Grace played around with her thumbs for a bit and looked down at her feet, house slippers dangling. Was she sure? For the longest time, she's been close to Claire and Leon, and has been a part of their lives for half a year now.
Leon was a mentor to her, a father in every respect, and she was okay with that. Sherry was a big sister to Grace and the best thing that ever happened to Emily, same with Claire. Jake was a release for a lot of Emily’s childish energy that was ramping up during her years of captivity, but Grace saw Claire as someone more than whatever she denoted the others to be.
It was the one person she felt she wanted to impress in some way, or at the very least close the gap she had made between them, because Grace didn't want to forget about Alyssa. She felt that if she opened her heart completely to Grace, she would have to say goodbye to Alyssa forever…
Yet Grace understood better.
“I am sure.” Grace looked back up, and her eyes spoke a sense of truth that took Claire back to when she first met Leon, when they left Raccoon City. Standing firm in her decision in all respects of it.
“I am sure. I know you will never replace Mom, and I'm sorry for keeping you a little at a distance compared to Leon, Sherry, and everyone else. And I know Emily really likes calling you Grandma.” Claire and Grace laughed for a bit about that last piece.
“But for me, I need this. I need to close the gap and say that it's okay to see you as a…as a…” Grace couldn't finish the sentence because at that moment, Claire went straight to give Grace a warm hug, almost smothering her in the process.
Grace never got a hug from Claire before, partly because of the mental gap between them, but as she caught the smell of her reddish-brown hair, the soft strawberries, and her crimson short sleeve, she let go. She welcomed the hug, clutching her shirt like a daughter asking for her mother.
Claire truly was a guardian angel.
In every respect of the phrase.
“Sweetheart,” the way Claire said it reminded Grace of Alyssa, and she kept her face buried in her arms. “I know I'm not Alyssa, but I will never stop treating you like you're my own, okay?”
Grace’s lips almost quivered, nodding her head in agreement. “I know you’re not my Mom, but I will never stop seeing you as one, trying her best to be for me like you did for Sherry.”
Claire’s eyes began to water for a bit, and she continued to hold Grace in her arms. A part of her really wanted this moment to last for a lifetime, the innocence of the young and accomplished woman shining alongside the angelic nature that was always Claire Redfield. In some way between the two, they could have sworn that Alyssa Ashcroft herself had joined in the hug, putting the two women together as a final parting gift for Grace.
“So will you come with Emily and me to the event, Claire?”
“I'd be delighted.”
As the two then released from their grasp, they continued to chat, exchanging ideas and moments at work they thought were hilarious, as well as about Emily, the common denominator of it all. Grace even spoke about how she thinks a guy was crushing on her at work and doesn’t know how to reciprocate, which Claire giggled and wanted to learn more about the mysterious man.
While they continued to stay outside in the backyard, the sun slowly ended its course, and the night stars gazed up, the lights of the yard now instantaneously lit, Leon saw Grace and Claire from afar, smiling to himself as he was putting away his apron, not long before he felt a tug on his left side.
“Hey, Grandpa, when are we eating?” Emily asked in a somewhat whiny tone.
“In a few minutes, Emily. Gotta get your Mom and Grandma from outside first.”
‘Orr…I can ask Uncle Jake for some of those snacks he has in his pocket.” Emily teased.
“Try convincing your Aunt Sherry first.”
Emily sighed in defeat and went towards Sherry and Jake, who were now finishing up his report while the TV played in the background, a sports game of some kind.
Sherry saw Emily coming over to them and patted her hand in an empty spot on the couch, inviting her to watch Jake and the game before dinner started, asking her about school. It was a welcoming feeling, the air filled with a homely scent in the air.
As the whole scene played out, both Claire and Leon knew of one thing, and one thing only:
Grace gave them peace at last.