Work Text:
Leon stared at the analogue clock mounted to the wall across from his desk, watching the hands tick by. He wasn’t waiting for any particular time, instead it was as if he was caught in a trance; attempting to decipher what subliminal messages his body was attempting to communicate with him. He hadn’t felt like this in a long time, and was unsure if it was a simple case of over-analysis, or something to truly take seriously. Finally somewhat coming to, he mentally ran through a checklist.
Eyes? Irritated and dry. Cheeks and forehead? Flush and burning up. Arms and legs? Achy as hell.
A part of him didn’t want to admit what he thought it was. Surely after all these years of nonstop work he wouldn’t succumb to some aches and pains. Finally deciding to make a move, Leon rose from his desk and headed toward the break room of the office. Hiding in the cabinets below the small, stainless steel sink, a first aid kit. Pulling the zipper open, he digs for a moment and finds the thermometer. Pointed towards his forehead with bated breath, after a second or two, it lets out a small beep of a completed scan.
99.7°
A low grade fever for sure, but it’s shows he can’t deny it anymore… he’s sick. Damn it. Now, as if leaving the denial behind changed things, everything begins to feel worse. His eyes feel more dry, muscles ache and cry for rest, and his cheeks feel hotter than before. Loathe as he is to do it, he knows he needs to leave as soon as possible.
Slowly making his way back into the main office area, Leon crosses the carpeted room filled with messy desks and working DSO reps to Ingrid Hunnigan’s office. Opening the door with a slight creek, he quietly shuts it behind him.
“Oh, Leon, did you have an update on the Anderson report?” Hunnigan asks, without even needing to look up from her computer. They’ve known each other for so many years, she’s learned his habits, traits, and apparently, even the sound of his footsteps.
“Ah, no, not yet.” Leon replies, attempting to hide the raspiness in his voice, as his throat also begins to betray him to illness. “I have something else I need to ask about”
She finally looks up from the monitor, her hands have ceased typing. With a slight look of shock, she notices how flushed Leon’s face has become.
“Oh god, Leon… you look… horrible…” she seems apprehensive, as if choosing her words all too carefully.
“Yeah… I woke up feeling kinda like shit, but I figured it would go away…” his eyes dart to the floor, attempting to shake the feeling of a child going to ask their mother for permission to leave. “Any chance I could head out early? You can have Sherry check in on the Anderson case. She’s already helped me out a few times and is familiar enough with it.” His voice caught right at the end of his sentence, throwing him into a small coughing fit. God, he felt ridiculous…
“Of course, you need to go home and rest.” She didn’t hesitate to assure him. “I’ll contact Sherry and see if she has any updates.”
“Thanks, Hunnigan…” he’s fully unable to hide the dry and scratchy sound that now clings to his voice like glue. “I’ll let contact you later today if I’ll be out tomorrow as well.” As Leon turned to head out the door of the office, Hunnigan called out to him;
“Oh, and be sure to let your wife know what’s going on. I’m sure she’d appreciate it.”
He doesn’t need to see her to know there is a small pleased smile on her face. Hunnigan is one of the few people within DSO who knows exactly who Leon’s wife is; and loves to tease him about how happy she is for them.
“Of course, will do.” He shakes his head slightly, trying to alleviate the slight increase to the heat in his cheeks from her comment. Why is he embarrassed? They’ve been married since 2015, almost 2 years, and Hunnigan has known the whole time. Hell, she was at the small wedding they had. Leon simply chalked it up to his weakened immune system playing with his emotions, and left to grab his personal items from his desk. After finding his phone, he tapped on the contact named “Honey”, and began writing out a text:
I have a fever now so I’m leaving early.
No need to over explain. She already knew from this morning that he was somewhat under the weather. He didn’t need to wait for her to respond and so, he began making his way down the to parking garage. No one seemed to bat an eye at his departure, they must be assuming Hunnigan is sending him out on some assignment. After he arrived to his parked car, a small blip came out of his phone. His wife had responded:
Alright…
Oh Ada… always such a woman of few words. Leon let out a small, breathy laugh from is nose, and started the car. You’d expect most to be concerned hearing their husband is leaving work early feeling sick; but Ada’s response leaves him with her hidden message of: “I told you it would have been better to stay home today”. Accompanied by the adorable way she would have raised her eyebrows at him to prove a point.
He’s more thankful than ever their apartment is within 20 minutes of his office, he can feel his constitution deteriorating quickly. All he wants is to lay on the couch, head resting on Ada’s lap while she gently strokes his hair. However, that won’t be happening anytime soon while she’s also at work. Lately, she’d been working very closely with the B.S.A.A., on some case involving a bioweapon in Luisiana. It was part of their deal after everything that happened in 2013. Ada wanted her freedom, and Chris wanted her intelligence and network; so they struck up an accord. Thankfully this case has kept her stateside for most of the time, almost spoiling Leon to get used to her being home a majority of the time with him. The chances of Chris letting her leave early today were slim, but the chances of Ada even bringing up such a request were even more slim. The last thing they both needed was the B.S.A.A. finding another reason to be suspicious of her once more. Resigning himself to resting on the couch alone, at least until his beloved wife returned to him, he pulled into the garage.
The walk to the elevator and arriving at their front door felt like a blur, the fever was really taking its effect on him. Before his consciousness could even register what is happening, he finds himself flopped onto the couch, not even having removed his jacket. He knows he should get up and take an ibuprofen or something, he knows he should also probably be drinking water, yet cannot find the strength within himself to move an inch. His eyes burning, legs feeling as heavy a steel beams… every part of his body was screaming at him to rest. Leon figured he could simply sleep until Ada returned home. It was around 2pm, and she’d be home around 6pm, so sleeping for a few hours would probably do him some good. Yet, when he tried, his body stubbornly refused to allow him sleep. All he could hear was the ticking of the wooden clock on the wall, the seconds creeping by filled with nothing but silence and an aching body. One would figure, all the years of missions and assignments fighting B.O.Ws would have him immune to common pain and fatigue. However sickness proves him wrong every time, no matter how occasionally it occurred.
After laying there for what felt like hours, he heard the lock on the door click behind him. Had he even locked it when he entered? The answer eluded him. Ada wouldn’t be home for hours, and his guard was down. There was a chance someone had followed him home, yet he was too weak to even take care to look up.
The door shut once more, and footsteps followed. He felt no desire to potentially fend off any sort of adversary, and seemed to simply resign himself to whatever fate awaited him. It wasn’t until he felt a gentle hand on his forehead, her sterling silver ring leaving a cool touch in its wake, that he began to stir to life once more.
“Hun, you’re burning up…” Ada’s soft but stern voice reached his ears, forcing his eyes open.
“Ada..?” His voice was beginning to be barely audible. “You’re already off work..?”
Ada sighed, “No, of course not. Chris allowed me to leave early on account of you. We both knew you probably wouldn’t be taking proper care of yourself.”
Leon gently laughed at the thought of Chris and Ada sternly looking at his text message, both agreeing in unison that he shouldn’t be left to his own devices right now.
Ada made her way around the back of the couch, sitting on the ottoman in front of him. In her hand she already had a thermometer, a glass of water, and pain killers for him to take. Good lord he really had been out of it… she went to grab all that and he barely even registered her presence. Managing to adjust himself to sit a bit more upright on the couch, he received and gently place the thermometer under his tongue. After a moment, it beeped, the temperature reading 100.3°. Either his temperature had gone up, or they really needed to buy a new thermometer for the office.
“I was worried about that…” Ada mumbled to herself, seemingly aware of how out of it her husband was. She proceeded to hand him the pain killers and water, “take these, now.”
The pills went down roughly, the dryness of his throat making it feel as though he was eating a cactus.
“How do you feel, other than the fever?” Ada asks, looking over him as though he’s back from an assignment and may be wounded.
“Well… my arms and legs feel like they have bricks instead of bones, my throat is as dry as a desert, and I can’t stop sweating and shivering at the same time.” He says, “I’m feeling like a million bucks.” Smirking slightly, with as much strength as he can muster.
Ada lightly and gently smacks his arm at that last comment, “So in other words, you feel like hell.”
“Basically.” He says as yet another coughing fit begins.
“Well, still wearing your coat isn’t exactly helping your case with sweating…” she says, looking to the black leather jacket he wore, one of the few she’s gifted him. “Let me help you.”
Ada reaches out and begins to help Leon carefully remove his jacket, it gently rests over her forearm once gone from his person. He lays his head back against the couch, finally, potentially, feeling the pain killers kick in and the aching subsiding ever so slightly. Taking a deep breath, he somewhat begins to relax. It definitely helps that she’s with him, back home, in their home.
“Is there anything that sounds nice? Maybe a bath?” Ada asks while looking at him, some concern still lingering in her eyes.
“Huh, maybe I should get sick more often… I really like the doctor I have…” he quietly retorts, a playful, gentle tone in his voice.
“Well I clearly don’t have to worry about you dying, if you still feel good enough for quips like that” Ada smiles and rises to step away. As she does, Leon gently reaches out to take her hand in his. Ada turns to him, as if expecting him to say something, but all he does is stare at their joined hands as he slowly caresses her knuckles.
“Hun…” she smiles gently, “it’s gonna be hard for me to help you if I’m tied down to the living room.”
Another round of shivers hits Leon, suddenly going from overheating to freezing in seconds. Ada reaches over him and grabs a knit blanket draped over the top of the couch, placing it over him up to his neck. Tucking the blanket slightly, she leans in to place a light kiss on his forehead, and says,
“I’ll go get the bath ready for you. You better not move an inch” she says while taking a step back to head to their bathroom.
Leon wants to respond, say something endearing, or witty, to feel somewhat normal, but nothing comes out. He simply leans further back into the couch and closes his eyes, hoping rest will take away the symptoms that plague him.
After about 10 minutes, though it felt like an eternity to Leon, Ada returns and grabs his hands to guide him to the bath. Having abandoned the blanket on the couch, another wave of shivers hits his body. Upon entering their bathroom, the steam hits Leon’s face with a comforting touch. He slowly begins to undress while Ada prepares towels to have on standby when he’s done. Once in the water, the warmth floods his system like a hug, relaxing every aching muscle. Even after only a few minutes, his eyes become increasingly heavier, sleep threatening to take over.
“You gotta stay awake a bit longer, Hun.” Ada whispers while sitting on the edge of the tub, and she begins to lather and gently scrub his hair.
The main issue being that only made sleep feel more enticing. A warmth bath, the gentle white noise of the vent fan in the ceiling, and his wife gently massaging his head… it became harder and harder to resist the enticing lull of rest.
…
“Leon… hun, you can wake up now.” Ada said looking down at him with a small smile.
After some time, he finally comes to, and feels all sense of awareness and concept of time long gone.
“Did I actually fall asleep?” He said, his voice now a bit smoother from the steam lingering above the water.
“Yes, you did actually. Only for about five minutes, but it felt like an impossible task to get you to stay awake.” She replied, smiling down at him. “Do you want to get out? I think there are better places to sleep than our bathroom.”
“Yeah, that’s probably for the best” he said, a bit sheepishly.
As he began to dry off, Ada grabbed clean clothes off the counter for him. Long cotton pajama pants, and one of his old T-shirts, with a small DSO logo on the left breast pocket. Normally Leon wouldn’t be wearing lounge wear, let alone his pajamas, at 3 in the afternoon, but the idea of sleep was so enticing he didn’t bat an eye.
“I felt like you deserved to wear something comfortable” Ada said with an approving look while he put on the shirt, noticing his slight look of confusion turn into contentment.
Leon hummed in agreement, and quietly shuffled a few feet over to Ada; gently wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head on her shoulder.
“I don’t deserve you…” he whispers against her. “You take too good care of me…”
Ada reaches up, her hands resting against his shoulder blades.
“I just wish you’d take better care of yourself…” she whispers back, “I know we both struggle with that, but we have to do better. It’s okay to not work, especially when it’s just one day.”
He laughs slightly, “Says the woman who would continue to work even when she just had a metal rod stuck in her thigh…”
“Then you completely understand my point.” She smiles, and pulls him in tighter.
They rest against each other for a few moments, the smell of soap lingering in the air. Leon sighs ever so slightly and whispers,
“Man I really want to kiss you…”
Ada laughs and rubs her hands against his back, “Yeah, not right now, that’s for sure. Once you aren’t feverish, Hun, then we’ll see...”
She steps back separating the two of them ever so slightly, and runs a hand up to his cheek.
“You should go rest now, I’ll clean up in here.” The gentle look on her face brings a small smile to Leon’s. The side of her only he gets to see… oh how spoiled he truly is.
Making his way back out the living room, he finally starts to feel some tiny semblance of normal. The fever is less intense, if not close to breaking, and the warm water helped his muscles finally relax. Looking at the couch, he tried to figure out the best way to nest into the sectional, grabbing extra pillows from their room for more comfort.
Leon can’t truly remember the last time he had been sick like this, it was probably sometime back in 2008 or 2009 after a grueling assignment. Back then, he was alone. The Redfield siblings always had a way to reach out him, and made as much of an effort as they could to stay connected with him. However, both busy agents in their own right, that’s not exactly the type of people he felt comfortable calling on for something as simple as being sick. At that time, the most he could do was lay in bed and wish the time away as symptoms wracked his body, hoping for some form of escape. He thinks back to how dark of a period that time in his life was.
But, it’s different now.
She found him once more, albeit as a broken, beaten down form of the man she’d last seen in China, but he was still there. It was thanks to her, Chris, Sherry, Rebecca… all of them that he even went to rehab in the first place. His hope had returned, hope that the future was going to be better.
Slowly, his thoughts began to meld away into silence as sleep overcame his body. Somehow, no feverish dreams plagued him, no nightmares fueled by fragments of the past enhanced by his heightened immune system. Just peaceful rest.
At some point, he began to come to once more, finding his head more elevated than before. Ada was sitting with him now, having propped his pillow and head onto her lap. She was reading and gently playing with his hair… exactly what he wished for earlier.
“Are you a mind reader, honey?” He asks, the grogginess of sleep in his voice.
“What?” Ada says, looking down at him with a playful smirk. “If you think I don’t know exactly what you would love the most at a time like this… then don’t know anything about me.”
He reaches a hand up and gently brushes a stray section of hair behind her ear.
“True… we’ve always understood each other on an intrinsic level.” He says quietly, voice still sounding a bit scratchy and dry.
Ada sets her book down and gently places her hand on his forehead once more, “It seems your fever is finally gone for now… good.”
It’s true. He’s no longer feeling flush, and the dryness has left his eyes. Suddenly, a thought enters Leon’s mind.
“So… can I now?” He asks, a hopeful gleam in his eyes.
It takes Ada a second to understand what he means, but the realization dawns on her quickly. From an hour or two ago, a half promise for when his fever was gone.
“I swear, Leon Kennedy, if I get sick from a single kiss you will never hear the end of it.” She says, somewhat exasperated, yet smiling nonetheless.
“That’s fine by me” he laughs lightly.
He begins to slowly sit up, while Ada leans down to meet him, placing a hand on his cheek. Meeting in the middle, they share a soft, sweet kiss. She parts from him sooner than he’d like, but being able to kiss his wife still fills him with happiness.
“There. Now, you should try and get some more sleep before dinner.” She says, her hand still lingering on his face.
“If you’re here… I’ll rest as much as you demand” he says, eyes already starting to feel heavy, sleep beginning to take over his mind once more.
Knowing Ada is with him and by his side, now and forever, peace is a comfort he has finally gotten accustomed to.