trans_9 | Bursting Through [Closed]

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Bursting Through [Closed]

A couple of days had passed since Sherry had been forcibly dragged to the medbay by Roxie and been proven wrong about her state of self. She briefly remembered petting a big, golden dog, but not before she had sat down outside her father's room and fallen asleep. It hadn't been her intention, exactly; she had thought of an excellent plan to get him to lie down and nap as per her mother's wishes. But, her eyelids had won out against her, and she'd woken up in her room.

That was embarrassing. She really needed to stop falling asleep in weird places. The windows outside her room were dark, which meant she needed to stop closing her eyes every time they opened for more sleep. Who knew how badly she'd thrown off her up-at-seven-in-bed-by-nine schedule? Sherry looked up at ceiling and patted the approximate place the thing in her was. Lots of questions swam around in her mind, the foremost being, "How did this happen?" followed closely by, "What is it?"

Hoping that her parents would be awake, and that it wasn't nearly as late as she thought it was, Sherry rolled off her couch and stood up. She finger-combed her hair straight and put her ever-present headband on. Now, she just had to get the courage to go outside and track down her parents. After a few more long minutes of staring at the door, Sherry opened it and peeked down the hallway, closing it behind her quietly and stood there for a few moments. A quick decision had her skulking down the hall towards her father's office.

It wasn't her intention to skulk either, but Sherry supposed the sneaking was reflexive now when she was alone and quietly wandering around by herself. Thanks, monsters, she thought with a huffy little breath. She hurried to Leon's office and paused just before the door. Sherry poked head around the corner and checked to see if he was busy, or there at all.

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Claire wasn't moving much faster than a turtle at this point, but she was moving. After getting out of the med bay on good behavior she was trying not to overdo it once back in the precinct, but it was hard for her to sit down and not do anything for long periods of time. So she'd taken a walk in the direction of Leon's office, and was surprised to see Sherry peeking around the corner to the office. She'd thought the little girl was in bed. Moving slowly up behind her, she leaned around the corner above Sherry, while simultaneously asking in a stage whisper;

"What are we looking for?"

Sherry jumped away from the corner, and made a noise somewhere between a shout and a garbled squeak. "M-M-Mom!" she whispered harshly and felt her face color.

"I. I was. I. Nothing." she lied. "Just going to bed, so, um. Goodnight." One of these days, she was going to learn to lie effectively.

Claire watched Sherry scramble for an excuse with a look of amusement, before arching an eyebrow.

"Uh-huh. So what are you really doing?"

"Thinking." Sherry replied after a minute or so to collect her thoughts. Claire already knew that something was up, her own reaction had given her mother that much to work with. And she wasn't sure how digging a bigger hole for herself would work.

Better to come clean then "About some things. And... I... Was sort-of-looking for Dad. Well, and you. But Dad first."

She looked down at Sherry curiously, tilting her head to the side. She'd discovered that Sherry was quite the serious little girl when she wanted to be, which was most of the time, but there was obviously something going on.

"Okay. You want me to help you find him, then?"

Point in Sherry's favor, Claire hadn't immediately started questioning her. The little girl straightened up and gave her mother a sheepish smile. "You don't have to, I'd just thought he'd be in his office first... I can bring him to you, once I find him."

The last thing she wanted to to have Claire moving around when she didn't need to be.

Claire knew that Sherry was looking out for her health, but it was mildly annoying for her. Still, she brushed it aside, smiling at the little girl.

"Well, if he's not in his office then he's probably in his room. And since his room is right by mine, it's on the way back anyway. If he's anywhere other than that, you can fly solo to find him, okay?" Even if she felt fine to be walking around. She was trying to behave herself marginally.

"Well... alright," Sherry agreed. At least then Claire wouldn't get the Look from Leon about being up and about when she shouldn't be, too. Sherry took Claire's hand and walked with her to Leon's office.

Empty. It figured. Sherry sighed and looked up at her mother with a long-suffering glance. She shouldn't have built herself up to be brave and she knows that. Now she'll have the long walk to her father's room to get it up again. "We need to put a bell on him, Mom."

She just smiled down at Sherry. Curious as to what the little girl needed, but she could wait until they got to Leon, if she wanted to talk to both of them.

"Somehow I think he'd get out of it," she replied, smirking a little and turning back the way they'd come. "Come on, to his room."

Leon actually was in his room. And for once he was getting some rest. Or trying to. More like he was laying down, going over something on his omnicomm.

"Maybe, but, I think we could keep it on him for a little while," Sherry agreed and continued to walk slowly. She didn't remember the way back to where her parents slept to be so far away, but decided that maybe it was just her nerves. She was silent most of the way there, and when they finally stopped in front of Leon's room, she squared her shoulders and let go of Claire's hand to squish her cheeks, rather than slap them.

"Okay," she murmured to herself and looked up at Claire. "Will you knock?"

Fortunately for Sherry, Claire needed to focus while she was walking to keep from twisting oddly and hurting herself, so any questions that might've risen to the surface were pushed aside by the excersize. It felt really stupid to her that she was pretty much feeling done for the day after a little walk to and from Leon's office, but, no pain, no gain.

When they arrived at Leon's door Claire watched Sherry, the curiosity bubbling up again while the little girl seemingly steeled herself for something. Smiling a little when Sherry turned to her to knock, she nodded her head.

"Sure thing." Without hesitation she turned to the door and knocked. "Leon? You in there?"

Leon looked at his door with a smirk. "No, I'm not! Shouldn't you be in bed anyway?"

Claire rolled her eyes and gave Sherry a wink, reaching for the doorknob.

"I'm just having an out of body experience. And my body decided to come along for the walk." Without waiting for further invite she opened the door, pushing it open somewhat awkwardly when she couldn't stretch out her arm to hold it for Sherry, due to needing to lean a little for that.

"Also our daughter wants to talk to us about something." At this, she gives Leon a slightly clueless look over Sherry's head, since she has no idea.

Sherry nibbled at the inside of her cheek as she walked in and held the door for her mother. At least she hadn't run off to her room and barricaded the door, even if her higher instincts told her over and over that everything was going to be fine. It wasn't like she was announcing the end of the world or anything of that sort.

Well, maybe she was. She just wasn't sure yet. Her face was pure seriousness and her tiny body seemed to scream about her nerves. Sherry was just glad she wasn't hyperventilating.

It's not the end of the world. It's just a thing... in my stomach... where it shouldn't be. "It won't take long," she promised. "And then we can all go back to sleep."

Leon raised his eyebrows at Claire. He didn't have a clue either, and just shrugged and waved them in.

He'd offer to help Claire, but odds are it would just lead to them arguing for five minutes.

Good thinking there, Leon. Claire made her own way into the room, but she was quick to sit down next to Leon, trying not to look too relieved for the rest. Her eyes found Sherry a moment later and she smiled.

"We're all ears, sweetie."

"Hm," Sherry answered and closed the door. She didn't sit, and instead chose to stand before both of them and closer to the door. She had it all planned out. If they started freaking out, she would run away until they cooled off. It wasn't hard to be faster than Claire at the moment, and Sherry was certain she could outrun Leon.

It wasn't as if she hadn't done that before, after all. Sherry took a breath and began without preamble, "So... a few days ago? After I visited you, Mom? I went to the Media Library and ran into Roxie." Well, not exactly, but she was going to give them the cliffnotes version before she lost her nerve and just said Nevermind, goodnight! "Roxie said there was something wrong with me, and after chasing me around half of the fifth level, she finally made me go to medbay. And they... the doctor there, she found something..." Sherry touched the approximate place on her abdomen, and looked stuck between panicked and concerned.

"So that's what I wanted to say: There's something in me and I don't know what it is and I wanted to know if you knew anything. Maybe."

"Oh god..." Leon had no idea what to expect, but that hadn't been it. The surprise showed on his face, and he hoped that what they found wasn't what he thought it might be.

He looked over at Claire for a moment, and took a deep breath before looking back at Sherry.

"We might know something..."

The color drained from Claire's face the second what it might be occurred to her, and she returned Leon's look, her own slightly panicked, although she tried to keep it limited to her eyes so as not to freak out Sherry. The thought had occurred to her fleetingly when Sherry and Steve had first appeared, but falling into the role of mother and protector had overrode any minute concerns she had that the vaccine she'd issued might not have completely done its job.

Now, though, when she looked back at Sherry and struggled to keep her face calm, all that came bubbling back. She glanced quickly at Leon again, hoping he'd field most of this conversation, because while she'd been the one to synthesize the vaccine and administer it, she wasn't really feeling prepared to tell Sherry what might be inside her.

Well, that was better then the both of them jumping up to run her over. But only slightly, and did little to soothe Sherry's hope that they hadn't known anything. The little girl wrung her hands together like a woman many times her age.

"So.. you do know something?" she asked in a small voice.

"Yeah..." Leon admitted. Now he just had to figure out a way to explain it all to her.

"Um... C'mere," he waved her over, wanting her to come closer. "Remember in Raccoon City, when you got sick?"

Sherry gave Leon a distinctly suspicious look, which would have been funny if it had been another circumstance, and came a little closer. She calculated her chances of escape, and found that they dropped by fifteen every foot closer she got to him.

Still, she knew he'd probably get annoyed if she didn't get closer to him. Sherry stopped before the two of them and continued to wring her hands. "I don't think I could forget that if I tried," she responded honestly. "Why?"

He took another breath.

"What happened to you was... one of the monsters got to you. And it implanted something in you. Your mother-- Annette," he felt the need to specify that. His brain now defined Claire as 'her mother', "--she told Claire where to find the medicine, a vaccine, that would save you.

"We got it to you in time, thank god, and once you woke up and were all better, we had figured it was all over.

"...apparently we were wrong."

Sherry stopped listening after the word 'implanted' as her brain attempted to bring up proof of Leon's words. Yes, she'd been ill, she remembered she'd been sick a lot of that night right after....

All the color in her face drained as she remembered exactly when she'd started feeling ill. It had been right after Claire had found her, after she'd fallen through something in the sewers. Her memory was fairly spotty after that, but that was the starting point. "Oh," she mouthed, unable to find a suitable reaction otherwise.

"Oh."

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