The bonds of family

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Claire Redfield was sat at her desk, chewing on her pen as she stared at the faded photo in a battered frame. She had just gotten back from Rio on business and she had already thrown herself into another case. The photo she kept safe was taken such a long time ago, Sherry was still just a little girl in it, and Leon... Well he was no different. They had all been so happy when they made it out of Raccoon City, despite everything that had happened. It was years later and Claire still sometimes woke with nightmares of that place, and her time spent at Rockfort Island. She had barely spoken of it to Leon when she had made it home, but she figured Chris probably told him everything anyway. That was when she had drifted apart from the people she called family. They all seemed to have their mission and she had always just been 'Chris Redfield's baby sister'. Claire was much like her brother, in the aspect that she just wanted to help people. A shame Chris thought she was still that nineteen year old student. They still spoke on the phone often, had dinner together at the holidays, but pinning big brother down long enough for anything more seemed harder work than finding all traces of Umbrella and making them disappear for good. The young woman shook her head to try and clear the melancholy away, then pushed the dark red hair from her eyes. "Come on Claire..." She scolded herself, laughing quietly when she thought of the fun her friends had made in the past when she talked to herself.

"Claire was kidnapped, Chris. Six months ago. But I guess you would've known that, if you hadn't been getting drunk every night!" Jill shot back, for some reason unable to be the one to hang up. "You and Leon would apparently love nothing more than for Claire to die thinking no one cared!"

"Lose him? You make it sound like you love him." Wesker sneered. "The girl ended up just like the damn Redfields; with a hero complex."

It was Chris that hung up. He believed that Jill was lying, that she was saying it just to hurt him. He took a potshot at Jake, missing him by mere inches. 

"Of course I love him, he's my son!" Ramona snapped, instantly wishing she had thought this through. Though Jake had grown up with another woman and called her mother, he knew who Ramona was and knew why she'd been unable to keep him. She'd been too young. At least that was all that he knew about the story.

Jill stared at her phone after Chris hung up, whispering that she loved him. Part of her was thinking the same thing he had been; that she didn't want to survive this mission.

"Son? That's impossible!" Wesker insisted, trying to even begin to wrap his thoughts around this. "How could no one have noticed you were pregnant!" He didn't want to think about the thought that for Jake to be Ramona's son, then he would have needed to be conceived around the time Wesker himself had been involved with Ramona.

The trip to China happened in a blur And before Chris knew it they were following Jake and sherry there. He was still seriously considering shooting Jake. After all, the Apple didn't fall far from the tree...

"I didnt start showing until I was seven months. By then I'd told Spencer I was taking a class trip and he just...let me go...you were busy with STARS. I just left and never said anything. No one cared." Ramona whispered. " I nearly died having him and...no one cared..."

Barry had wanted to join Jill and Claire, but he needed to take care of his own family right then. The two women didn't even rest before boarding a flight to China when they heard what was happening there. They said little to each other, worry keeping them silent and fear holding sleep at bay.

"How could I care if you never even told me?!" Wesker hissed, giving Ramona another shake, and already convincing himself Jake was his son. "You had no right to do this!"

Chris hated Leon for having feelings for Ada. that was the reason punching him in the face hadn't been so bad. Shooting Ada wouldn't be so bad either.  He planned to do that one fairly quickly. 

"I had every right." Ramona whispered. "Spencer would have turned him into a guinea pig all for the sake of his immortality. I did the best thing for him. I have kept him safe. Until Maria died everything was fine. Now get your hands off me and don't pretend you would have done anything but called me stupid for having gotten knocked up like a whore."

Claire and Jill had stumbled into the situation just in time to see the two men fighting it out seconds before 'Ada' dropped a flashbang and disappeared from the warehouse. "Halfway across the world and this is what you still resort to?!" Jill hissed as she holstered her gun.

"Who is the father?" Wesker asked firmly, needing to hear Ramona say the words out loud. "Tell me who the father is!"

"Oh look, girl power. Aren't we in for a treat?" Chris snorted, though he was secretly overjoyed to see both of them. Leon on the other holstered his gun and turned to Jill and Claire, grinning like a fool. 

Ramona shook her head. There was no way she was admitting to anything if he was going to call her a whore. "He is mine." She said firmly. "Now let go of me." She was beginning to feel light headed, the color darkening further on her bracelet.

Jill took a step aside to let Leon be a little closer to Claire. She wanted to throw her arms around Chris and hug him tightly, but his cutting remark stopped her. "I'm surprised you're still alive." She told Chris thinly.
Claire smiled at Leon, looking just as weary as she felt. Getting out of one hell hole had been bad enough.

Weaker refused to just give up. "What, so he's the new messiah, no father?" He snorted.

"Unfortunate isn't it?" Chris muttered. "If you'll give me a few more hours I'll try to fix that, babe." He gestured toward Pierce. "This is the great Valentine I told you about, kid. Careful, she bites."

Leon cringed at Chris' words and looked at Claire. "I have a feeling things didn't end well..." he said softly, shaking his head. 

"I'm not a whore." Ramona breathed. "There was only you. Only that once." her skin was hot to the touch and she'd begun to sweat. "Please...let go...youll only call me stupid again."

Jill continued to scowl at Chris, hating how much her heart still pounded just being near him. "Yeah, well... Forgive me if I don't give a rats ass what a drunken playboy with a death wish thinks." She snapped.
Pierce was glancing between Chris and Jill uncertainly. He'd listened to Chris' stories about the woman he loved so deeply, and had never expected such a venomous meeting.

It wounded Claire to hear both of them saying these things. She had always been so jealous of what Jill and her brother had, but only in the sense that it was the kind of relationship she wished she had for herself. "Jill asked him to choose her or the job." She told Leon softly.

Wesker was shaking his head, scooping Ramona up into his arms before she could protest. The bracelet was too close to red for his liking. "Shut up. We can talk about this when you're not in danger of turning into something else."

"You come here to show off your tits for the young guys? Because I already ordered a stripper." Chris growled. "I heard you'd already moved on. Why don't you go make him feel like shit. You're good at that." 
Leon made a face. "Sorry to hear it. Chris told me you were kidnapped. Are you okay now? Jill save you?"

"Jake is yours." Ramona whispered, resting her head on his shoulder. "We'really wasting time...he needs help..."

Jill wasn't quite quick enough to guard the hurt in her eyes when Chris said that to her. "I regret every day that you didn't just let me die in Africa." She lied, the ponytail of her once again brown hair swinging out behind her as she turned to walk away.
"Sir..." Pierce was frowning as he looked at Chris. "Don't do this." He breathed. "We could use her help. You could use her help, if she's even half as good as you claimed."

Claire's own expression was rather wounded when Leon asked if Jill had rescued her. "Jill gave me a ride off of the island, that was all."

"You're no good to him dead." Wesker breathed. "I heard an interesting rumour that your best friend Claire was infected with the same virus... She's somehow still alive."

"You want her help, you kiss her ass, kid." Chris growled. "She'll love it. She only works when she feels the righteous indignation to do so. Good luck there." He patted the younger man's shoulder and turned his eyes on Claire. "Come to gang up on me? It doesn't work anymore."

"I heard a rumor you had something to do with that." Ramona said lightening up a little. "I saw survillence footage. You looked good in that biosoldier uniform."

Claire was already exhausted, and it showed in her every movement. Even now, as she looked up at her big brother, she was too tired to hide her disappointment. "We came because Jill was worried about you, that you were going to do something stupid. I don't know why, but even when you turned your back on her, she still loves you." She breathed, glad the elder woman had left already, she knew Jill would kick her ass if she knew she had just told Chris that.
"Glad I'm not the only sane person who saw that." Piers snorted quietly.

"See... uniform junkie." Wesker chuckled, trying to keep Ramona talking in the hopes that her bracelet would turn green again.

"Neither one of you is even slightly sane." Chris growled, glaring at Leon lest he should think he was dodging an insult. "Jill made it clear what she thinks of me and don't you dare bring live into it. I don't believe in that shit."
Leon was groaning and shaking his head. Maybe being a bachelor wasn't so bad after all.

"It really was nicely done. Even if you ruined my party to get to her."Ramona said ashamed at how comfortable she was in her former lover'so arms. "at least it won't look like Terrasave had anything to do with it.

"If you don't believe in it, why are you so fucking pissed that she's here?!" Claire demanded. "If you didn't care, you would just get over it!"
Piers didn't know who Leon was in all of this, but even he could see Chris disliked him beyond the confrontation they'd just had with Ada's doppleganger.

"And yet, the little cockroach is still alive." Wesker snorted. "Too much like her brother for her own good."

Chris pulled out a cigarette and lit it, blowing the smoke skyward. "I don't have time to play games here, Claire. You're a grown woman. So go be one. I'm working." he now dull blue eyes turned on Leon. "This is about Ada and what she did to my guys. Your relationship with my sister doesn't matter anymore. We don't have time for a goddamn teaparty. I'm going after her. You play with those two and Simmons too. I won't do it anymore. I got bit too many times."

"Did you learn anything from it?" Ramona asked unable to help being curious."How did you manage to do all that right under Alex's nose?" Ever so slightly her bracelet color was lightening.

Claire looked up at Leon with what could only be panic in her own dull sapphire eyes. "That's it? You're here for revenge, to hell with everything else?!" She shouted once her gaze was back in her brother.
"Captain, please..." Piers was shaking his head, not sure who this angry and irrational man was now. "We can find Ada, we will make her pay for what she did, but we can't do it with your head like this!"

Weaker smiled, and then chuckled quietly. "She was far too concerned with her own immortality to notice her sweet brother." He snorted. "She shot herself, did you know that?"

"My head is fine, boy." Chris said firmly, choosing to ignore his sister completely. "We'd better head out. She's had enough of a head start as it is." 
Leon sighed deeply and turned to Claire, come on. I'll fill you two in." he said gently as Chris walked away. "Did you know Albert Wesker's son is here with Sherry?"

"Good." Ramona growled, the color brightening again. "After making Neil steal Uroburos...thank god I had more samples. Neil...what happened to him?" She snarled.

Piers hesitated, then followed after his captain. He didn't understand what was happening, but they still had a job to do at the end of the day. "You still think we can take Ada in alone?"

Claire sighed quietly and nodded at Leon. "We need to find Jill first. She's going to want to shoot pretty much anything after what just happened..."

"Dead." Weaker replied bluntly, clearly taking some sort of joy in that fact. "Alex injected him and forced a mutation."

Leon sighed. His head was hurting. This was not how he foresaw this ending up. "I can't believe this is happening. Those two were madly in lI've when we parted ways. Which...we need to talk about by the way."

Ramona closed her eyes and sighed. "That's not what I wanted to hear. How much damage did he to to Terrasav? How many of my secrets are in other hands?"

"About them being in love?" Claire asked, though she had known exactly what Leon had meant. 

"Why should any of them be? Alex is dead, and Sonia any research she may have taken." Weaker replied simply.

"About what happened at the hotel that night." Leon said firmly watching Chris toss his cigarette aside and cock his gun. He was sure it was no accident the he was aiming it at him. 

"Damn it. I cant handle this." Ramona sighed. "There's so much to do...it never stops." Her color wasn't changing, something drastic would have to be done.

"It's fine... I guess you had somewhere else you needed to be... for six months." Claire breathed, avoiding Leon's gaze now.

Wesker had reached his own bedroom and laid Ramona down. He leaned over her a moment later and kissed her without another word.

"You don't understand. I thought you had left. If I had known you were still there I never would have left." Leon said gently. "I meant what I said that night, Claire. That hasn't changed."

Ramona returned the kiss, surprised that Wesker was acting this way. She'd convinced herself years ago that he couldn't stand her.

Claire had been to hell and back only a few days earlier, and it was showing in her expression, such as now as she seemed to be trying to keep up with what Leon was confessing to her. "Why would I have left without a word?" She finally asked softly.

The moment Ramona returned the kiss, Wesker's rough fingers began removing her clothing. He was doing what he thought was needed to take the dark haired woman's mind off the fear and panic she had been feeling that had caused the virus in her blood to kick into overdrive.

Leon shrugged, "It's my luck. Why wouldn't you? All the women in my life leave me. I didn't blame you for doing the same thing." 

Ramona helped him get his clothing off as well, her lips barely leaving his. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" she asked him, pausing for a moment as she reached up to remove his dark glasses.

Claire took a step back, that statement like a slap in the face. "You were the one who left! You must have looked real hard to miss me just sitting there on the balcony!"

Wesker's eyes were still an all too human shade of blue as they looked down at Ramona. "Why did you really not breathe a word about Jake to me?" He asked, finding that thoughts of his son were gnawing away at his every conscious thought.

"I'm sorry. What else do you want me to say?" Leon asked, shoving his fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry. Please, I never wanted to hurt you."

"I was afraid Spencer would get his hands on him. I saw what he did to other babies. I wasn't going to let him do that to my...our son. Ramona said softly, dropping her own green eyes. "I was trying to protect him."