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.

"You don't give her nearly enough credit." Jill warned when they were alone again. "She's a survivor, just like you."

Claire was still slumped on the couch, the look on her face betraying how angry she still was.

"That's why I don't want her to go through with this again." Chris admitted, finally giving Jill a look that admitted just how tired he really was. "Especially not if she's carrying a baby. It would kill me if something happened to my niece or nephew...and you know I'd blame myself."

Leon knelt before Claire and rested his head in her lap. He sighed heavily, his broad shoulders all but shaking with the effort. "We need to talk."

"You're forgetting just how much like you Claire really is. She's always going to want to help people, especially ones that she knows mean a lot to you." Jill replied, squeezing Chris' hand again.

Claire gently ran her fingers through Leon's hair, but didn't say anything right away. She hated his job more than anything. He wasn't aloud to tell what it was he did exactly, so all she knew was it took him away from her for weeks at a time.

"Then we'll have to go in there and convince her not to go. She already hates me. It shouldn't be that hard to make it worse." Chris sighed, pushing himself out of the car yet again. He went around to her side and opened the door. "You know, I'm tempted to try the same thing with you but...I don't want to be hit in the nose."

"A BSAA lab has exploded." Leon began. He closed his eyes, Claire's gentle fingers in his hair a great comfort. "They tell me it's the one where Rebecca Chambers lived. So far as they know there's nothing left but bio-monsters now. I...wondered if you might want to go with me this time...I know you and Rebecca were friends."

"And you think Claire wouldn't hit you?" Jill asked, though didn't get out of the car. "She wants to keep you safe, Chris, can you really hold that against her? And as for the pregnant thing... You don't know for certain that she really is. If she was... I'm sure Leon would tie her down, to keep her from getting into danger."

Claire's fingers had halted upon the mention of Rebecca's name. The two women had gotten close over the years, though lately Rebecca had always been too busy to even have coffee with her so called friend. "When do we leave?" She asked, her voice shaking slightly.

"Leon's a single minded entity." Chris snorted, shaking his head. "I doubt he even understands the word pregnant. Hell, if Claire wasn't so self-sufficient, he probably wouldn't know what to do with her." Again he motioned her out of the car, seeming to be rather frustrated with the whole thing.

"As soon as you can get packed." Leon told her, lifting his head with another sigh. This one, however, was filled with relief. "Of course, we'll be dealing with your brother."

"Maybe that's why they work so well together?" Jill told Chris with a purposeful glance as she finally got out of the car again. "I can't imagine who it is Leon reminds me of..." She added sarcastically.

Claire groaned loudly loudly with hearing this news. "You know he's going to do everything he can to try and make me stay behind, don't you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chris grunted, shoving open Leon's front door without bothering to knock.
"Guess we'll have to face that one together, huh?" Leon asked with a smile. The skin around the younger man's eyes was turning a light blue. By nightfall they would both be completely black. Not to mention his nose...

"Come on Chris, your bad boy past aside, you and Leon just love to play hero in just the same way." Jill told her partner as she followed behind him.
Claire's cool fingers gentlytraced the bruising skin around Leon's eyes and she smiled sadly. "Promise you won't leave me behind, no matter what?"

Leon laughed at his girlfriend, shaking his head. "I seem to remember the last time we were together it was you who left me behind. Hell, I think it happened both times actually."
Chris nodded at these words, grunting. "She shouldn't have bothered coming back for you either. Too bad she did."

"That was then, and you had eyes for someone else." Claire told Leon gently, before turning her head to glare at her big brother. "You have some nerve coming in here after the way you just acted!" She shouted. "If it wasn't for Rebecca... I'd your ass out of here myself!"

"Rebecca is probably dead and you're pregnant." Chris hissed coldly, glaring at his sister all over again. "You're not going anywhere."
Leon shook his head. "If Claire was pregnant I would know. Seeing as I don't, I think you need to get over yourself and your out of control imagination and either help us or go somewhere else to whine!" He added, his voice rising to just below a roar.

Claire reached for Leon's hand, though her own angry gaze never left her brother's face. "This is Leon's home, a place where I feel safe... And wanted. Don't you dare come in here acting like you know more about our lives than we do!"
Behind Chris, Jill was groaning quietly. This was certainly not the way to getting things moving along swiftly.

Chris scowled as he watched Leon squeeze Claire's hand in reassurance. "Fine. Fine. You go. But if you lose that baby I don't want to hear a goddamn word about it. Do we understand each other?" He hissed.
Leon groaned. "I'm going to get my weapons. Claire...would you mind packing us something to eat? I'll have a chopper here in an hour...Jill you might need something better to wear. I think Claire has a thing or two that might fit..." Leon was already into his management mode. He often got this way when he was about to go on a mission. Claire was probably used to it by now. "Chris..." He went on, "Come with me. I bet I've got a gun or two you might like." Probably to everyone's surprise, Chris followed without another word.

Claire and Jill were both oddly silent as they stood in the kitchen, preparing food that was suitable for travel. It seeming neither woman knew what to say to the other, and so the awkward silence drew on until Claire was the one to break it. "Why does Chris think I'm pregnant?" She asked without looking up.
Jill paused, a knife hovering over the cucumber she was slicing. "Chris... Is just being Chris. He assumes you and Leon don't practice safe sex." She replied bluntly, not mentioning that it was her who had put the thought inn his head to begin with.

"Jill! You have to see this!" Chris was shouting at his partner, the anger in his voice completely gone. "I've never seen anything like this!"

Jill shot Claire a puzzled expression, then wiped her hands to follow the sound of her partner's excited shouts. She was self consciously pulling at the t shirt Claire had loaned her, which was somewhat tight, given Jill was rather more developed than Chris' slender sister.

Chris was beaming like a tiny kid at Christmas as he looked around Leon's secret room. It was floor to ceiling weapons of every kind. "Some of these came from Spain." Leon told the other man, patting an older shotgun fondly. "Some guy in a black cape get up sold them to me."

Jill rolled her eyes as she entered the room. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to talk to strangers?" She asked Leon as she looked the weapons over.

"You can't tell me it was a bad decision." Leon chuckled, showing Jill Claire's favorite weapon. "This Tommy gun got me laid." He added before he'd thought better of it.

Jill smirked, almost able to taste how much Chris probably hated hearing that remark. "Really? See, I told you not all women fell for a desert eagle." She remarked, casting a teasing glance in Chris' direction.

"Wesker was the one with the desert eagle." Chris muttered, yanking a shot gun off the wall and pointing it at Leon's back.

Jill huffed quietly when Chris began to sulk. "Well excuse me if I don't remember which gun my gun obsessed boyfriend prefers." She muttered, slamming down the gun she had been holding before stomping from the room. Again she was reminded that Chris would never understand just how lost she had been these past three years.
Claire had been coming to find them when Jill went stomping by. "What did you do now?" She asked thinly.

"I just said something stupid." Chris groaned, putting down the gun to follow Jill. "Not a word, Claire." He muttered as he passed her.
Leon couldn't help but smirk at his girlfriend. "He popped off something about Wesker." He explained.

Jill was angrily throwing any pebbles she could find into the trees at the back of Leon's house. All the while she was cursing Chris' name, growling that he was the one with his head up Wesker's ass, not her.
"Oh no..." Claire exhaled loudly and slipped her arms around Leon. "That guy just never learns. Jill told me it was wesker had held her captive all these years... And Chris was stupid enough to mention him?"

"Babe...it was a gun. Not the guy." Chris whispered from where he stood on the back porch though he wasn't quite sure what else to say.

"What happened to her was worse than what she's telling. I can see it in her eyes." Leon confirmed.

"Not the way you insinuated it, it wasn't!" Jill shot back, though didn't turn to look at Chris.

Claire nodded in agreement and buried her face against Leon's shoulder. "I don't think she's even told Chris how bad it really was."

"Well you did date him for a while there." Chris muttered, obviously having suddenly caught foot in mouth disease.

"And your brother is playing it off because he doesn't want to face it." Leon agreed. "Come on. You'd better save your brother before he makes things worse."

Jill's arm had been poised, ready to throw another pebble, when Chris' words slammed into her. Slowly she turned around, her pale blue eyes filled with a violent anger. "We did not date!" She roared, her fist connecting with Chris' nose before he could stop her. " We went out for ONE drink, which is more than you did before pouncing on me!"

"I imagine it's already too late." Claire muttered, hugging Leon a little tighter. "Jill needs time to recover... She shouldn't be running off to save people like she's doing right now."

Leon heard the thud of Chris' body slamming into the back door and he groaned. "I hate to say this, honey. But maybe you should stay behind and take care of them both of them. It's obvious they both need someone."