So slow to catch on

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Jill gave Leon a little push, then smiled. "Believe me, these things can last days." She assured him. "Besides, I want the chance to grill you myself."
"You doubt my suitability as a mother?" Claire asked thinly, folding her arms across her chest.

Jill let go of Leon to get to her feet and glare up at Chris with a steering anger. "You're lucky you're holding that child, or I would beat you down for talking about her like that!" She hissed. "Claire needs us, and you are just turning your back in her, treating her like some helpless child!"

"For once I'm doing the right thing. I'm forcing her to grow up." Chris said evenly, kneeling before Leon and holding out the baby to him. "If she doesn't, she'll lose more than a child, Jill. Surely you can see that." He added with a whisper, choking up when Leon tenderly took the little girl and held her against his chest. It didn't help when the other man began sobbing all over again.

"I'm sorry, Chris, I'll never agree to that way of thinking." Jill responded sternly. "Which means... We have a problem here, because I will not hide the truth from Claire, no matter what you say."

"We can't just let the baby go..." Leon gasped, beginning to lose his ability to so much as speak. "I can't...this can't be it...isn't there something we can do?"

"Leon... We all suffer great losses in this life." Jill replied, coming across as somewhat cold now. "I'm going to Claire. She needs to see that at least one person in her life won't play her for a fool. I'm sure Ada is still sniffing around here somewhat anyway."

"Fuck you, Jill." Leon hissed, all but foaming at the mouth. "You don't know me. You are only taking a stab in the dark. You're no better than Chris! If anyone is going to Claire, it's me! I will take our daughter to her and I will place the blame firmly where it belongs!" For a long moment his eyes moved from Chris to Jill and back again. And then he was turning away, heading into Claire's room. "On my own shoulders." He finished, closing the door behind him.

Jill didn't believe Leon's words. She had seen the way he looked at them, and knew Leon blamed her and Chris for what had happened. For a long moment she simply stood where she was, then suddenly turned to look at the box that had been left disguarded in the floor when she and Chris had opened it to find the babies inside. Without a word to her partner she was moving over to it, determined to find some clue about its sender. And when she did... There would be hell to pay.

Rebecca Chambers' tiny and neat script was scrawled across the top, indicating where the box was supposed to go. It would be no doubt as to who had sent the twins back.

Leon sat on the edge of Claire's bed, not knowing what to say or do. He held the lifeless baby close to him, still choking on his own breath. He was terrified that this would send her over the edge. He knew that if he lost her, along with his child, it would destroy him too.

Jill's usually calm composure failed her when she saw who's handwriting was on the box. With an angry scream she hurled the box out of her sight, her whole body seeming to shake and convulse as Uroboros gained a foothold in taking her over completely.

Claire's slender wrist was bleeding and raw from where she had tried to free herself from the handcuff restraint one of Leon's fellow agents had placed on her. Her usually bright and curious sapphire eyes were now dull, red rimmed and filled with yet more sorrowful tears. Claire truly had tried to snap herself from her almost catatonic state... And it had gotten her nowhere. If hearing about the death of her daughter wasn't enough alone to push her right over the edge, then coupling it with knowledge that those she loved had all but given up on her certainly would.

"Claire..." Leon leaned closer to her, wanting to at least feel her breath...to know that she was still alive. "I...I wanted you to hold our daughter...she...something happened...I'm so sorry...I failed you...all of you."

Claire's head turned slightly at the soundnof Leon's voice. She hadn't really slept since she had given birth to her children, and it clearly showed. She had merely existed in a sort of limbo between the sleeping and waking world. "She needs a name..." She murmured, as though not really comprehending what Leon was telling her.

Leon shook his head. "I don't know...I can't think of one...I don't..." He could barely contain himself, no matter how hard he was trying. "Claire...I can't face this one alone..."

As best she was able, with one hand still restrained, Claire took the lifeless little girl from Leon's arms and cradled her in her own. "I used to tell Rebecca, if I ever had a little girl, I wanted to name her after my very best friend..." She whispered, staring down into the face of her tiny daughter. "How can I do that... When now I realise that friendship was all a lie?”

Leon nodded slowly, his fingers brushing Claire's as she held their daughter. "I wish I knew something to say to make it all better...but I can't find anything to make any of it make sense."

"Who took her?" Claire demanded, though her voice was a little more than a whisper. "Whoever took her, killed our daughter!"

"I think...she was alive when she was...put in the box." Leon whispered, feeling the warm tears sliding down his cheeks all over again. "I think...whatever happened between there and here...Claire, our baby boy is being checked over in the NICU." He was stuttering now, fighting to keep them both talking.

"I have to see him... He needs to know his sister is gone." Claire breathed, fresh tears of her own spilling free. "Leon, please... I can't stay chained to this bed forever. I couldn't see you when you needed me most... Please don't let the same thing happen with our son."

"Why did they chain you to the bed?" Leon asked, getting a heavy feeling in his stomach as he searched for something release the handcuffs with.

"They said I was interferring." Claire replied quietly. "I just wanted to see you... And when I couldn't, I begged them to let me at least know how you were doing. They said I wasn't you're wife, so they owed me no such courtesy." She added. "That's when I tried to force my way in, and they chained me here."

Leon was frowning deeply at this. "You mean...my guys? The people I work with?" He asked, his forehead creased as he found a fork and began picking at the locks. "I have you listed as my wife...they wouldn't have said that..."

"You do?" Claire asked, her dull eyes brightening ever so slightly as she looked at Leon where he worked to free her. "I know it's too late to say it now... But I'm sorry I said no to marriage."

"You've never been the type to get married." Leon said with a weary smile. "I'm sorry I kept pushing something on you that you didn't want. She's beautiful, isn't she? Just like her mother."

Claire was staring down at their nameless daughter when a fat tear dripped off her chin and onto the little girls forehead. Leon would never propose to her again, that much was clear. That simply meant she needed to try that much harder to be strong for their son. "Where are Chris and Jill?" She asked quietly.

"Out in the hall. Apparently, I gained foot in mouth disease while I was recovering." Leon sighed, now tossing the restraints into the trash. "I think Jill hates me. It's a given that Chris does."

"Jill doesn't hate you." Claire replied, wincing slightly as the metal was removed from her raw and bleeding wrist. "She was always the one telling Chris not to interfere with our relationship."

"Things have changed a bit, Claire." Leon sighed, placing a clean sheet around her shoulders as she moved to stand. "Come on. I think we'd better give Sarah to the doctors now."

Claire hesitated, knowing this would be the last time she got to hold her little girl like this. "Sarah... I think she would have suited it well." She breathed, her voice cracking slightly.

Leon nodded, a weak smile on his lips. "Me too." He whispered, opening the door and allowing the doctors to come in. Once they'd taken the baby he simply stood holding onto Claire, afraid he would lose her too.

Now it was just the two of them, Claire buried her face against Leon and allowed herself to sob as he had done earlier. She was weak and extremely tired, and neither of them had any answers as to who the men keeping her from Leon had been. Of course, we're Jill there, she would have blamed Ada.

A week passed in slow motion for Leon. He and Claire spent all of their time in the hospital, recovering and hovering over the only living twin they now had. Chris and Jill had seemed to disappear, though he knew it was because they'd done the hard part of planning a funeral for their niece.
The night that Claire was to be released found Jill lying in a pool of her own blood in the parking lot. She'd never even had a chance to see her attacker.