Chapter Text
….Leon….
…Leon?...
…
“Leon!”
Leon came to abruptly, sitting up from where he was slouching over his desk. When had he fallen asleep? What was he even dreaming about. He faintly remembers a girl crying but who he can’t quite place. He rubs his eyes and stretches his arms above his head, although his back didn’t pop the way it usually did.
“Finally decided to join the land of the living then, Rookie? If you’re such a lightweight, you could have just drunk the sodas, no need to get wasted on our account.” A voice said, jovially. Leon felt a firm pat to his shoulder and he looked up to see… Marvin?
“Lieutenant Branagh? What is this?” Leon stood up so quickly his chair fell over behind him. He looked around only to see the other RPD police officers, all looking at him with massive smiles on their faces, the banner above with “Welcome Leon” hanging loosely but pristine. Pizza was adorning every desk, beer and soda cans alike scattered across the room as if this gathering had been going on for a while.
“Wow, rookie, you are really out of it aren’t you?” Said one of the other police officers. “This is your welcoming party since its your first day on the force. You completed your first assignment and we celebrated by drinking some beers and you went a bit overboard and conked out at your desk. I have to say though, you unlocked your desk pretty quickly. You obviously have a knack for puzzles.”
“No David, you’re just bad at puzzles.” Said another police officer, while clapping who apparently was David on the back.
“Nuh-uh Elliot. Just because you are obsessed with the puzzles in this place doesn’t mean puzzle solving is a regular skill. Also, I’m not that bad at puzzles.”
Leon felt like his head was underwater. He tried to remember what he was doing before he fell asleep but it was trapped behind a dense fog in his brain. He faintly remembers entering the RPD but with who and when, he can’t quite place. He tried to dig into a memory but it was like trying to swim through mud.
“Hey, Leon? You alright there?” Marvin asked, taking a few steps towards him and placing a firm hand on his shoulder. “Maybe you have had too much, you look like you’re about to -” He didn’t get to finish that sentence as Leon swirled around quickly and grabbed the nearest bin he could find, retching into it.
“Man, what a lightweight,” David remarked, sipping his beer, before Elliot turned to him and slapped him on the back of his head. “Shut up Dave”.
…
“Hey, hey, earth to Chris! Anyone home?”
Chris sat up from his desk, bleary-eyed. When had he dozed off? When had he been at the desk. Last he remembered he was… what was he doing?
“There you are, Chris. If you keep sleeping on the job, the Captain’s gonna dock your salary.” Jill said sitting back down on her seat after rousing him. She was leaning back on her chair, arms crossed and a smirk plastered across her face.
“Captain?” Chris asked, still in the process of waking up. “Aren’t I the Captain?” He distinctly remembers someone shouting Captain Redfield before he dozed off, unless that was a dream.
“You? Captain of S.T.A.R.S? Yeah, I’d like to see that. Don’t think Wesker would be too happy about that though.” She chuckled. That got his attention. “Wesker? Wesker’s here? How?” He grabbed her by the shoulders. That seemed to unnerve her a little. She grabbed his hands and took them off her, giving him a concerned look.
“Here, right now? No. He’s on a coffee run and it seems you need it. Are you alright, Chris. I know you said Claire was keeping you up late to help her with college assignments but I didn’t think she was keeping you up all night.” She gave him a comforting pat on the back and got up to get him a donut from the desk. “Here,” she said, offering it to him “you look like you could do with a donut.”
Chris took a look around him. He was in the S.T.A.R.S office in the RPD. Never had something so familiar feel so foreign to him. He felt as if he hadn’t been here in 30 years. The last time he was here, he was told he was going to investigate, what was it again? A house? A manor? It was right there in his head if he could just think past the fog that seemed to have taken residence in his thoughts. He tool the donut offered to him and took a bite. God. This is a shit donut.
“Yeah, sorry” Jill chuckled upon seeing the look of displeasure on his face. “Barry bought them from that crappy gas station on his way in. In his words, if the rest of the RPD is getting pizza for their new starter, we might as well get something. He does know he can just grab some of the pizza from Marvin right? It’s not like we’re not RPD. Anyway, before I forget, Bravo team reported back. Apparently the activity going on in that mansion were just some feral Dobermans. It’s all sorted now and the Arklay mountains are back to being a hiker’s paradise.”
Chris remembers something about Dobermans and the mountains. Flashes of him and Rebecca and Wesker struck him but never for long enough for him to really comprehend what exactly he was remembering. As he tried to dig through this brain fog, he heard the door open behind him.
“Ah, there you are, Albert!” Jill greeted with a smile, getting up and walking away from the desk. “I was just saying to Chris that he is some urgent need of some coffee. You didn’t hear it from me but it seems he just woke up from the mother of all snoozes and he's still a bit out of it.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Chris,” Chris turned around in his seat and saw none other than Albert Wesker in his S.T.A.R.S uniform and carrying two cup carriers worth of coffee. “I’m gone for what? Seven minutes, and here you are wasting time sleeping on the job. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought you’d slipped into the Rookie party downstairs and took some of Dave’s beers” He had a smile on his face and an unusually relaxed posture but it was definitely Wesker. Chris felt his blood turn to ice. “Well, well, it’s a good thing I remembered your favourite. Black iced americano, wasn’t it.” He placed the drink on Chris’s desk before handing out the rest of the drinks.
Chris abruptly stood up and started marching towards the door. He couldn’t recall why but something about Wesker was sending of all the alarm bells in his head. “Sorry but, yeah Jill must have been right. I’m feeling out of sorts. I think I’m gonna head outside for some fresh air.” And without another word, he left the room. Wesker and Jill looked at each other confused, before Jill just shrugged. “It’s been a quiet week and you know what a workaholic he is. Probably going stir-crazy since he hasn’t got much to do.” Before grabbing a donut and taking a bite, wincing as she chewed. “Jesus, Barry, next time at least pick an actual donut place.”
Chris burst through the front doors of the RPD and bent over, hands on his knees hyperventilating. It felt like his heart was trying to beat right out his chest. After a few deep breaths, he had calmed himself down enough to stand up and think. What was the last thing he remembered? He was in some kind of building, there was a lot of dust and there were some other people with him. S.T.A.R.S? No, it was something different. What was it. Before he had a chance to dig deeper into the memory, he felt someone run into the back of him, nearly toppling them over.
“Oh, God, sorry. I didn’t see you there. Are you alri-…” The words died on the man’s tongue as the man he bumped into turned around. “…Chris?”
“… Leon?”