The bonds of family

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Claire stared down at her ring, and realised she didn't want to contact Leon. She wanted him far away from Alex and any harm she could do him. "The last thing I remember is being put under for surgery. I don't know how i ended up here, or even how long I've been here." She confessed. Her secret fear, was that Leon would believe her dead.

Parker shook his head and rose to his feet. "I don't the help of some lovesick children!" He sneered. "I'll find Rebecca myself!"

Claire hadn't even given Neil a thought since briefly seeing him in the hallway here. She was letting Steve lead them now, losing herself in memories and 'what ifs' as they moved.

Parker tossed all of the weapons he carried to the ground as he looked at Rebecca. It was clear he wasn't going to agree with her.
Wesker heard Ramona's cry, and that was what had him now snarling at his son. "What did they do to her?!" He demanded.
"The mouse injected her. She'll be your newest Nemesis if you don't act quick." Jake replied.

Steve could sense the fight happening between the two men but he wasn't about to alert Claire to this fact
 He could taste blood in the air that was stirring up all sorts of monsters. Neil was giving Leon what for. 

Rebecca fell to her knees, sobbing openly. "Parker...you have to go...I love you too much to let Wesker kill you."
Ramona turned on her stomach and began to throw up, her blood staining the floor. "He will rip off the fat boy's head." She snarled. "He'll make what happened to your Marine look like a plaything..."

"You ever wonder... where we would be if Alexia hadn't woken up?" Claire asked out of the blue after some time of walking in silence.

"And I love you too much to leave you here." Parker replied simply. He knelt down in front of Rebecca and pulled her into his arms. "We can stay here and argue about it all you like." He got little chance to say much more before Ramona spewed her venomous words at them.

"All the time." Steve confessed. "I used to dream about us having a family, living somewhere warm and beautiful. And clean." He laughed softly. "I thought of Christmas where me, you, and a little red haired you would go visit your brother and his girl. He'd be happy to see us..." he whispered,  his voice dream like.

Rebecca burst into tears, too exhausted to argue further. "Come on. We can argue this on the way home." She whispered, almost happy to hear Ramona scream out Wesker's name again. "He's gong to hate you." She hissed at the elder woman. He's going to think you weak and worthless."
Ramona laughed, though the sound was more like a bitter sob. "That's nothing new...run little piggies...run while you can..." she ground out.

Claire smiled, seeing exactly what Steve was describing. "It sounds wonderful." She agreed. "I don't think I've seen Chris for all that many holidays as it is." She confessed. "He works away a lot. I mean... He did." She added the last part with a heavy sigh. "Where would we live? I'll bet we had a dog, or four too, huh?" She added, feeling even more guilty when she began thinking of what he life with Leon would have been like had she not screwed everything up.

Parker never for a second thought that Jake had betrayed them all for the sake of the woman he loved. He would have carried arebevca, had Ramona not crushed and broken his arm.

"I was thinking on a beach." Steve said with a grin. "I can imagine taking our little girl to the ocean everyday and letting her play. Building sand castles with her...We can still have that life you know. When we get out of here everything will be perfect." A roar of pain sounded not too far away and he ignored it completely, knowing where it came from. "I was thinking a cat. Or four. I'm not much on dogs." 

They made it to the plane, Rebecca actually believed that they were going to survive. She was giddy as she started that engines. She was already thinking of the warm bath she would take when she got home and the warm sunshine she would get to see afterwards. She truly believed they would be okay.

Claire heard the roar, and instantly recognised it. "Leon!" She breathed, already running in the direction the sound had come from.

"This is your thank you?" Jake sneered from the back of the plane. "Sherry damn near dies helping you, and you were just going to leave us here?"

"As I said," Steve muttered. "Im not much on dogs." He growled, following her.

Rebecca turned her head, stuttering. "You...you were gone...I'm sorry..."

Claire wasn't even armed, but that didn't seem to stop her from charging after Leon. He would do the same, she told herself.

"Bet you looked real hard, huh?" Jake sneered at Parker.
"You disappeared, how did we know you were even still alive?" Parker replied, placing himself between Rebecca and Jake.

Leon was on the floor in the center of a dark room. With a single light in the center, it screamed set up. Steve's senses reeled and he snarled, able to smell Neil before he ever saw him. "Claire...wait." he hissed, making a grab for her before she got too far.

"Where is she now, if you're so worried about escape?" Rebecca countered, frowning deeply.

"I know, but he's hurt!" Claire insisted, assuring Steve she knew it was a trap. "Leon can get you out of here, I can't."

"Your fat ass boyfriend there shot her. She's in surgery right now." Jake replied, knowing he didn't need to say who was operating. "You almost got away too." He added, shaking his head before he shot several bullets into the controls of the plane. "You created a nemesis, Rebecca. You killed my mother."

"I don't care about him!" Steve snarled, his eyes flashing red. "It's you I can't lose! I won't let it happen!" 

"Your mother is insane and so are you!" Rebecca screamed. Parker was the only thing keeping her from getting herself killed as she launched herself at the younger man.

"You can't control me, Steve." Claire warned, seeming to have forgotten what happened the last time she pissed him off.

Parker was only just able to hold Rebecca back with his one good arm as she lunged forward.
"It doesn't matter now. I told Sherry I'd do anything for her." Jake warned, though his tone lacked the self sure mocking it usually held; he was genuinely in turmoil over what he was about to do. "You got to see her one last time." He breathed before shooting Parker in the head.

"You don't know what's in there." Steve growled at her, baring his teeth. "You can't fight all the monsters in the world,Claire."

Rebecca's anguished scream echoed of the buildings around them. She dropped to her knees with Parker'so lifeless body, unable to control her sobs. "Why?" She asked Jake, rocking with the man she loved. "Why?"

"Why not?!" Claire shot back without really thinking. "If I don't do it, then who will?!"

"Why did you kill my mother, twice?" Jake asked simply.

"What do I look like," Steve asked her, trying to sound offended. "Geez, Claire"

"She's not dead, you idiot!" Rebecca screamed, her voice tearing her throat raw.

"You know what I mean, you deserve better than this." Claire breathed. "You deserve to leave it all behind.

"She may as well be thanks to what you did to her!" Jake hissed.

"Claire." Steve turned her to face him. "I will not lose you again. Don't make me. Please?" His eyes were filled with desperation as he looked down at her. "I love you."
In the center of the room, Leon was getting to his feet, holding his side. He had yet to notice Claire and Steve. He was too focused on the monster Neil.

"You would have done the same if she was hurting Sherry!" Rebecca sobbed. "You're no hero...sherry said you were a hero. You're no better than your father!"

"I love you too." Claire finally admitted, which only caused a fat tear to roll down her cheek. "But I love Leon, I owe him my life. The first time we met, he was saving me from a zombie. I wont be arrogant enough to believe my life is worth more than his... He is a much better person than I am. He would never have let you die, for one thing."

"I told blondie I was no hero." Jake replied coldly. "Told her that a lot, actually. Ain't my fault if she thought I had a shot at change."

Steve stood where he was, his eyes darkening as he looked down at her. 
"Claire!" Leon voice sounded overjoyed and extremely relieved. He dodged an attack from Neil to run toward her, his lips set in a wide smile. At least they were until Alex started playing the footage. ..

"Go to hell!" Rebecca screamed at him, still rocking with Parker in her arms. "Go. Run to daddy so he can save you...you stupid little boy!" She sobbed.

The sound from the footage was played all too loudly, or so it seemed to Claire. It was deafening her as she felt her entire body turn ice cold. The young woman knew she had screwed up, it wasn't fair on Leon or Steve. Claire couldn't help but find the cruel irony in the thought that she had hadn't had a single lasting relationship since she was a teenager, and now here she was, ruining the lives of both the men she loved.

Jake smiled at Rebecca, though it seemed out of place. "You gave my mother cancer, then you withheld the cure from her as she lay dying. Who is the real monster here, lady?"

Leons face was unreadable. It remained that way at least until Neil hit him across the head and sent him sprawling. It had allowed him a moment to see Steve, however, grinning like a fool. 

"You're naive if you have to wonder why." Rebecca whispered, secretly hoping he'd turn the gun on her then. "Stupid kid. No wonder your parents dumped you at the neighbors. I hope her death as a Nemesis is worse than the other one. And I hope you get to watch."

Claire could feel the hot tears running down her face now as she ran the distance between herself and Leon. She had little regard for her own life at all, or the fact that she was running straight into Neil's path.

Jake's smile was so much like his father's in that moment as he shook his head at Rebecca. "You think I'm just going to let your dumbass boyfriend off with death after he shot Sherry?" He growled, his own grief making him so much more of a monster than he should have been.

Steve felt more than a little betrayed by this action. It was because of this that he didn't step in to stop Neil. He simply turned his back. 

"You shot him in the head, moron!" Rebecca shouted. "And he was my husband. Something that will never happen to you. You really think your father will help Sherry?" She snorted with laughter. "You do know he's the reason her father screwed her in that dirty sewer don't you?"

As Steve didn't stop Neil, there was no one to keep the large monster from striking Claire. The young woman hit the ground from one blow to the head, landing no more than a few feet away from Leon. She wasn't moving.

Jake's ice coloured eyes filled with fresh rage. "Be careful, mouse." He snarled. "Accusations like that are what get you joining your husband as a nemesis!"

It was Leon who fired shots into the monster and ran to Claire's side. It was he who tore off his shirt and began dabbing at the blood that was gushing out of the wound. "Claire...baby...wake up...I didn't come this far to lose you now..." he pleaded with her.

"I know what I saw, little boy. He's the one who gave Birkin the idea that mating with his daughter was the only way to preserve the virus. I was there!" Rebecca shouted, beginning to shake.

Claire's lashes fluttered slightly, her eyes opening just enough to look up at Leon before she fell into darkness again. The young woman had taken several blows to the head recently, it seemed they had finally caught up to her; she had no idea who Leon was, or even Steve. In fact, Claire would have no memory of anything after she first set out to find her big brother as a nineteen year old college student.

"And you didn't do anything?!" Jake snarled. "You knew it would happen, to some little kid, and you didn't stop them?!"

Claire would next wake to find herself in a hospital room, her brother snoring loudly in cot beside her bed. Leon Kennedy was awake, seated near through window and working on a computer in the heavy silence. 

"It was her father for god sake! I didn't think he'd actually go through with it!" Rebecca snapped. "I felt horrible at the time. Her screams...you could hear them through the whole facility and your dad just laughed."

Though the drugs were helping, Claire still felt like her skull was split in two as she woke up. She lifted a hand to rub at her sleepy eyes, and noticed the IV drip in the back of it. The young woman stared at it for a moment, then glanced around the room. She saw, or more likely heard, her brother sleeping close by, and then her gaze fell on the stranger by the window. It set her pulse racing to realise she had no memory of how she had gotten here, or even why she was in the hospital at all.

"Sure, at the time." Jake sneered. "But you forgot all about it real quick!" He growled, moving forward now and dragging Rebecca away from Parker's body.

Leon was drifting off. He barely caught himself before his forehead connected with the window. he hadn't slept in days. In fact it was the first time Chris had allowed himself to sleep. 

"I'm not sorry!" Rebecca howled, hitting Jakes wrists. "And neither was your father! Let go of me! " she struggled like a cat being carried to water.