A House Divided [Epilogue]

[governmentninja]

The fighting had finally ended, but not before a lot of damage had been done. A number of people had been injured, but they were being treated now. Winchester had been subdued, but not before he saw the Yeerk dead. The rest of his group had also been taken down and cuffed, with two exceptions. The first being the mysterious redheaded fellow, who had disappeared during the melee. No one could locate him as of yet. The other was Katara, who because of both her age and her healing ability was allowed to helped the wounded, but under close supervision. They of the group were all sat at the edge of the area where the wounded were being treated, under a rather armed (and not at all happy) guard.

He had been informed about what happened to Claire, and while he was dying to rush down to the medbay to see her, he needed to see this through to the end. The fighting had stopped, the insurrectionists had been captured, but there was still one more thing he needed to do to finish this all off.

The doctors didn't need him in the way anyway.

He had sent out a message to get that last part kicked off, though, so that final part would be taken care of soon. Until then, Security was instructed to keep watch over Winchester's group until it was time to move them, and help patch up the walking wounded so the medbay could concentrate only on the more serious cases. He himself simply waited quietly, slightly away from everyone else, holding the pieces of the smashed Yeerkball.

Comments

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

"Hi Dad," Sherry looked up when she heard him coming, and her face went from relieved to confused to worried in the space of time it took to stop in front of her. "Wha.. What happened? I heard there was fighting... I... are you really okay? Where's Mom?"

Claire, she decided, must've been helping people down in the city. That's just what her mother did, wasn't it? Helped people?

[governmentninja]

Well, rumors did spread fast on this ship. He crouched down until he was about eye-level with her.

"I'm fine, just a little banged up. Your Mom... she's currently in the medbay. She'll be fine," he added quickly, not wanting her to panic, "you know how tough your mother hit. But she took a pretty bad hit, and she'll be there for a few days."

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry looked away from Leon and down at their feet as she bit the inside of her lip. At first, it doesn't compute: Claire Redfield shoots things, but things don't shoot Claire (well, people don't shoot Claire). But, she's a smart girl, and Sherry reminded herself that things like this happened. They shouldn't - not to Claire, not to anyone - but they have.

She just didn't have to like it. It made a lump form in her throat, one that was swallowed down hard before she spoke up in a surprisingly calm, if a bit shellshocked, voice. "But she'll definitely be okay? Can we go see her?" Sherry paused and put her hand on Leon's shoulder gingerly, her expression serious and worried. "You're being honest, right? You're really fine? Well, mostly fine?"

[governmentninja]

"Dr. Grey wouldn't let me walk around if I wasn't." Or she would've at least made more of a concerted effort to stop him. He smartly didn't tell her that he had suffered worse injuries, that she had seen him suffer worse. It likely wouldn't help right now.

"Your mother will be fine. She'll be cursing me out in a few days, and back to running around and causing trouble in a couple of weeks. She just needs to rest until then, is all."

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry gave Leon a small, relieved smile. "Okay. I'll try not to worry too much, then." It was a fairly honest assessment, and thanks to Leon, she could be still. However, there was still a question of how Claire had been hurt in the first place.

"At least this time your bandages aren't on funny." Sherry took a breath and straightened her shoulders. "So... the people that started the fight... what's going to happen to them?" Why, no, Dad, she hasn't made a conscious decision to talk about what happened to her this afternoon at

[governmentninja]

"Yeah, there's that," he stated, looking at the bandage on his forearm.

He shook his head a little, then pulled Sherry a little closer and gave her a kiss on the forehead. He stood up and motioned towards the corridor leading towards the hub, so he could take her to see Claire.

"I'm not sure what'll happen to them. They're going to be put in the brig for now, and Captain Picard and the others will decide later." And with that, he wasn't terribly interested in discussing this further much.

"So what did you do up here all day?"

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry followed just slightly behind Leon, more out of habit and length of legs than anything else. "Oh..." Well, he'd hear about it sometime, probably straight from Kon's mouth if she were unlucky. "We made a ball pit, the French countryside before Waterloo," she made a face behind his back, "A hedge maze." She hesitated a little bit before finishing. "A... er... tour of Stacy's ventilation systems. A very, very short tour." Stupid Kon and his stupid cheating. "You know, Dad, the usual..."

[governmentninja]

Leon looked at Sherry curiously. "A tour of the ventilation systems?"

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry, to her credit, kept a straight face. "Yessir. Vega and I took a side trip. With Kon."

[governmentninja]

Daddy has taught her well. And he was giving her the same straight face right back.

"Go on."

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

"Well, there isn't much to tell, exactly." Sherry replied, and looked at the hall in front of them, and consciously avoiding looking directly at Leon. "We were in a vent... and then Kon pulled us out of the vent."

[governmentninja]

"And why were you and Vega in a vent to begin with?" If she has suddenly discovered boys...

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

"Because we were running away from Kon and Mr. Waterloo," she told him as if that was the only logical reason she'd go into a vent with another person. Really, Dad, you're going to give yourself a heart attack... "And after we were out of the vent, a raptor came." Sherry bit the inside of her cheek and tried to tell herself it wasn't as crazy as it sounded.

Truth was stranger than fiction, after all.

[governmentninja]

"Mr. W-- nevermind." He stopped walking and looked at Sherry. Apparently he was going to blink first in this little contest of theirs.

"Sweetheart? I've had a really rough day today. Go easy on me, alright? Don't make me ask you a thousand questions just to get the whole story out of you."

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Well, when he put it that way... and besides, it wasn't as if she was without sympathy for her poor, maligned father.

"Okay, okay... Well," how could she arrange the story so that it would get her in the least amount of trouble? Hm. "What had happened was we had all wanted to see what the big fuss was about. So, Vega and I used the distraction caused by Roxie and Yuri to get out of the sensoriums.

"And... and it worked, too! We were nearly to that," she pointed to the hub. "When Mr Waterloo and Kon caught up with us. Kon lectured, and I got Vega's attention, so we pretended to give up and go back to the sensoriums." She paused and took a breath. "But then we ran off and I dragged Vega into the vent. And then Kon cheated and made the vent way bigger than it should've been and pulled us out." She ended, finally and sucked in a breath.

[governmentninja]

Ok, she had apparently still not discovered boys. This was good news. The rest, though...

Leon let out a sigh, not entirely certain if he should be proud or dismayed by that story. But he'll decide that at another time.

"C'mon, let's go see your mother," he told her, and again headed for the hub. But he wasn't about to let Sherry off the hook so easily. "We will discuss this later, though."

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Well, that wasn't the worst that could've come from this. And he hadn't lectured her. Sherry decided this was a good sign. "Yessir."

She wondered briefly, however, how much trouble she was in on a scale of one to ten. Sherry peeked up at Leon's face. "Don't be mad at Vega, though, okay?"

[governmentninja]

"Don't push it, sweetheart." You're closer to a ten on the trouble scale than you are to a one.

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't planning to, Dad." Well, seven-point-five, then, on the trouble scale, it looked like. She'd have to tell Vega to avoid Leon, and hope that the boy would listen. "Really!"

He probably wouldn't. It seemed to be a feature of the male species. Sherry resolved to take her punishment with as little sighing as possible.

What's the worst he could do? Really? Put a bell on her? Sherry mulled over the various punishments in her mind as she stepped into the hub. Her thoughts turned to Claire.