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.

Claire nodded, wishing she didn't agree with Leon entirely. "Even if the mission isn't dangerous... He's going to find someone to piss off, just so they'll shoot at him." She replied. "I just wish I knew what Jill was thinking!"

Leon sighed. "All I can figure is that she's afraid of letting him get to close. Because if he does, she knows she'll tell him everything that happened to her just because she loves him. Now let's get that sandwich stuff and get going. I'll bet the chopper is already waiting for us."

Claire shook her head. "I'm not really hungry anymore..." She breathed, rubbing at her temples as they began to throb with the beginnings of a headache. "We can't stall any longer any way."

"You could stay home." Leon reminded her, though he knew full well it was a statement made in passing than anything else. Claire wasn't going anywhere but with him.

"So could you." Claire countered. "in fact... I should probably insist on it. I mean who knows... There may be more presidential daughters there to ask you out for coffee." She added with a smirk.

"Claire that is not even amusing." Leon groaned, all but slamming his head against the steering wheel. "Thank god you managed to change our phone number last month."

"That doesn't mean she won't find you again." Claire teased, tweaking Leon's cheek playfully.

"Hopefully my girlfriend will take care of it for me." Leon chuckled.
Hours later they were stepping off the helicopter and staring at what remained of the lab Rebecca Chambers had once loved.

Claire simply couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her initial reaction was right; no one could have survived this. "How could this have happened? Aren't there failsafes to keep the lab from going critical like this?"

Leon nodded. "Yes. Which makes this one a complete mystery. The self-destruct mechanism was triggered ten minutes before the initial explosion. Which...is strange to me. Why would Rebecca place a system like that in her lab. She wasn't hiding something, was she?"

Claire moved forward, picking at the rubble that was nearby. "I don't know what she was thinking recently... She was so distant, ever since she got involved with that Peter guy..."

"I don't trust anyone from Tricell." Leon told her as he pulled a gun from the back of his pants and aimed it at a undead man that was trying his best to crawl out of the concrete pile that was once an outer wall. "Least of all Peter Grimes." He added, the zombie tumbling back down with one shot.

Claire nodded in agreement. "Something about him just isn't right... You think he was in here too?" She asked, still trying to convince herself that for some reason... Rebecca hadn't been in her lab.

"Let's hope so." Leon muttered, his thoughts now lost on exactly how they were going to make sure this shattered lab was going to be monster free before they left. "But...how do you think all these things got here?" He asked, gesturing to the undead dog that was sniffing around some yards from them. "I thought Rebecca was making a vaccine not creating them."

"I guess none of us really knew what she was doing. I mean... Did we ever ask?" Claire replied, keeping a mindful eye on the dog. "Or were we too busy with our own lives?"

"Rebecca always did seem like a loner." Leon said, shrugging his shoulders. "She always looked so miserable to me. Like she was permanently mourning someone."

"Maybe she was." Claire replied, just catching herself as she stumbled over a seemingly lifeless body. "That marine guy... Billy? She never heard a peep from him, maybe she assumed him dead?"

"Billy's not dead but..." Leon didn't get to finish as the seemingly dead body suddenly seemed to snap awake and make a grab for Claire's ankle. It dragged her down into the rubble with it.

Claire had opened her mouth to grill Leon on this issue when she was suddenly pulled down, so could manage nothing more than a startled yelp. As it was, she hit the back of her head fairly hard, stunning her for a brief moment.

Leon was too busy trying to follow her down that he missed the sound of the ringing phone that clattered from Claire's waistband and tumbled away from her.

Claire missed the sound too, her ears ringing from the bump to the head instead. "Why do these things always do that..." She grumbled.

"I hate it." Leon groaned a moment or so later when he'd landed beside her. "Never time to...prepare." He grunted as he pushed to his feet and stomped on the creature's head.

Claire wrinkled her pert nose when the head exploded beneath the pressure of Leon's boot. "We should get a clean up team in here... This is too big a job for just the two of us." In all truth, her mind simply wasn't on the task at hand; She was worried about her brother, and about Jill.

"Do you really want anyone else finding Chris when he's in this state?" Leon asked, helping Claire to her feet. "It's like you said, he'll piss someone off just so they'll shoot him."

Claire sighed heavily, not sure why she was suddenly feeling so tired. "You're right... It could be even worse if Jill thinks she needs to put a stop to any outbreak threat too..." She murmured, her smooth brow dreading slightly. "God... It's how I imagine people try to deal with divorced parents who won't speak to each other!"

Leon laughed at this and nodded his head. "Maybe a suicidal divorced couple." He teased her. "If it makes you feel any better, I had some really good new for you. Not that it matters now."

"Had?" Claire asked uncertainly, chewing nervously on her thumb nail. "As in... You don't anymore?"

Leon grinned, poking his tongue out at her. "Perhaps I still do but...you know with all this drama it might take some coaxing to get it out of me."

"Leon!" Claire pouted, pushing him playfully. "That's not fair! Tell me, or I'll let loose my dumb blond jokes on you!" She warned.

"What are those going to do? I'm a guy, nothing offends me." Leon pretended to snort. "Besides, there's way too much to do to worry about some silly old news of mine."