trans_9 | What if I bleed, What if I break; [Open to anyone in Medbay]

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What if I bleed, What if I break; [Open to anyone in Medbay]

Claire had somehow managed to sleep through quite a lot in the last day and a half. Maybe she would've woken up sooner if she'd had any idea of what was going on around her, but whether it was the drugs or overall fatigue from blood loss and the energy it had taken to keep awake until shed been put under, she slept through the night and most of the day. She came close to waking up a few times, stirring in her sleep or voices pulling her up from her dreams, but she'd slip under again before fully waking.

After a while, she just couldn't sleep anymore, however. She wasn't particularly quick in the waking aspect, of course. She was aware first that she wasn't in her "bed" in the precinct almost immediately. Her stomach felt oddly numb, and slowly she blinked her eyes open, staring up at the ceiling above her, a look of slightly disoriented confusion passing over her face. One hand moved to her stomach, and she felt the bandage there, remembering.

I got shot. The thought was a little disturbingly calm. She briefly considered sitting up to get a better look around her, but there was a dull ache underneath the numbness, and she decided she was pretty good in the position she was currently in, for the moment. She did turn her head, though, when she caught movement in her peripheral vision.

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"Sometime today?" she prodded, arching her eyebrows at him. "I don't want to hear from Sherry later you passed out in the middle of a hallway somewhere."

Leon made a 'pfft' noise. "I'm not in danger from passing out unless I've been up at least eighty hours straight." Don't ask how he actually knows that.

"I'll try to catch a nap, though. If it'll make you feel better," he teased.

"That would make me feel much better," she replied, grinning a little in spite of herself. She squeezed his hand, dropping the other back down to her stomach. She knew she probably wasn't going to get anything closer to a promise than that, unless she asked him to pull up one of the empty beds so she could monitor him and make sure he was sleeping. And something about that thought was a little awkward for her, so she changed the subject.

"How's Sherry doing?"

He looked down when she squeezed his hand, almost as if he just realized he had been holding it all that time. He was still somewhat reluctant to let it go, but eased up some if she wanted to pull away, she could.

"She's worried about you, but she's hanging in there. She's a lot tougher than most people realize."

Claire was content to hold onto his hand for the moment, so she made no move to pull her hand from his. There was just something comforting to her in the small gesture, and while she wouldn't say it out loud it was nice to have that comfort right now.

"She survived Raccoon," Claire said quietly. "I know she's tough."

He was glad she didn't let go. She wasn't the only one who found a bit of comfort in that small gesture.

"Yeah..." He looked at Claire a little curiously as a thought hit him, then his lips settled into a smile. "I think she gets it from her mother."

She laughed a little at that, running a hand back over her hair and seemingly for the first time realizing someone had unbound her hair while she'd been asleep. She started arbitrarily working her fingers through her hair, in an attempt to work out any tangles that might've presented themselves while she slept in addition to giving her something to do while she returned Leon's smile.

"Probably. Although I guess her Dad's pretty tough, too."

He watched her run her fingers through her hair and his brain kind of stopped for a moment. It took him a few seconds to realize that she had even answered him. Maybe he did need some rest.

"Uh... yeah."

Smooth, Leon. Smooth.

"We've gotten good at this parenting thing, haven't we?"

Claire noticed the somewhat distracted answer Leon gave her, if only because she was looking right at him and she'd expected a slightly more egotistical answer out of him, so she gave him a funny look, trying to parse out what had suddenly derailed him. She would've asked, but his recovery distracted her, and she smiled a little, the funny look melting away.

"Yeah. It was kind of weird at first, and we're hardly a conventional family, but I think she's happy." She didn't have much to compare it to, in regards to Sherry's past with her own family, but it had been fairly obvious that Annette and William had never been the most attentive parents.

He knew he had gotten caught, just by the look on her face, and gave her a small sheepish grin in return. But if she wasn't going to say anything about it, he wouldn't. Not that he could entirely explain what just happened.

"I think she is," he agreed.

"I never thought I'd actually be good at this whole fatherhood thing," he confessed.

"Really?" she arched her eyebrows at that, smiling a little and tilting her head to the side.

"I kind of always figured if you had your own kids you'd be a natural." Probably an awkward thing to admit she'd thought about, but it was out of her mouth before she could really stop it. "I mean, some of my friends I am really glad they've never reproduced because I think I'd be worried for the kid's well-being, but you're... you're good at knowing what's important."

In all honesty, he was surprised by that by that. And it showed on his face.

"Really? I-- uh" He really didn't know what to say. "...thanks."

Claire had to fight to keep the grin off her face, although she didn't completely succeed.

"Is it weird that I think you're a responsible adult?" Way more responsible than Claire could be sometimes, at least.

He only rolled his eyes a little at her grin.

"No. Just with my job, kids were never something I considered to be in my immediate future."

But now he has a daughter. With Claire.

"Same, really," Claire replied, exhaling a little and rolling her shoulders back against the pillow. She kind of wanted to sit up, but at the same time the idea was making her stomach hurt.

"I always figured if the right guy came along I'd settle down, but the job always ended up coming first." She usually ended up letting it come first, but it had always been important to her.

He watched her, a small grin playing at his lips.

"Does that make me the right guy?" he asked her teasingly.

Edited 2009-09-21 04:15 (UTC)

It was Claire's turn for brain malfunctioning, and she stared at him for a moment, obviously not sure how to respond to that.

"Uh," she frowned, glancing away from his face briefly before looking back. "Technically? I guess? I don't really count this-" she gestured with her free hand a little uselessly "-as "settling down," though."

He tried not to laugh at her reaction, but he couldn't help it and chuckled. Her hand that he was still holding, he kissed the back of it.

"I'll take it. Though-- and don't take this the wrong way-- I could never really see you settling down."

She couldn't fight the color that rose to her cheeks as she watched him kiss her hand, but she just pretended like there was nothing weird going on here and hoped she was pale enough from blood loss that he wouldn't notice. She smiled a little weakly at his comment, tilting her head to the side.

"Neither can I."

Leon did notice. He was good with details, but always paid particular attention to Claire. He just smiled at her.

"God help the man who tries to rein you in."

Claire laughed at that, finally regaining control of herself after the sudden derailing of her usual frame of mind.

"Never gonna happen." She tried very hard to steer clear of the controlling types, and she wasn't always the one getting dumped because the relationship wasn't going anywhere.

He had to laugh a little right with her. He had learned a long time ago that you don't control Claire Redfield. You just hang on for dear life. ~~Which often made him wonder what the sex would be like.~~

"Yeah, I know."

For some reason he couldn't articulate at the moment, he let his free hand smooth out some of her hair. For a moment, he looked thoughtful, but shook off whatever he was thinking about with a smile.

"I'm gonna let you get some rest. I should also fin Sherry, let her know you're awake..."

She reflexively leaned her head a little to his touch, blinking her eyes very slowly and only just stopping herself from closing them completely. Blinking a few more times a bit more rapidly she nodded her head minutely.

"Yeah I think whatever they used to knock me out isn't totally out of my system yet," she replied, smiling a little. "Still feeling a bit loopy." Which was absolutely the complete reason for any and all strange behavior just now, really. "I'd like to see Sherry, though."

Still smiling, he nodded back at her. "Alright. I'll go get her."

He still lingered there for a moment, but managed to eventually pull himself away. That he really didn't want to let go was something he chalked up to them being friends. Nothing more.

"I'll come see you again soon," he told her as he started to back away.

Claire had her own reluctance in letting go, which she mostly decided was because without the company this place was going to get boring fast. She got off one last friendly squeeze to his hand before he let go, and settled back against the pillows, sighing quietly.

"You better," she replied, giving him an overly serious look which was split a second later by a smile.

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governmentninja - 2009-09-21 23:56 (UTC) - Expand

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