trans_9 | Tough Choices [Bendytimed to end of Shore Leave], [Closed?]

Luis could be found leaning on his usual desk, looking like he had a headache. He looked even more sleep-deprived than usual-- though this time, it likely wasn't because he had been busy working all this time.

"He's out like a light and hasn't been awake yet," he said wearily, reaching up to rub his eyes behind his glasses. There was a sealed tube of blood on the table before him. "Luke Skywalker put him out when they got him in here. I secured things --he's locked in the quarantine-- did a biohazard sweep --everything's clean-- and took a blood sample."

He went on, sounding like he was reciting from memory. "Stage two physical mutations, highly elevated white blood cell count and stage three Veronica virus reaction. He hasn't flared up this badly before-- but he's stable."

Leon would take pity on his probably-hungover friend, but there was business that needed to be attended to. Leon wasn't one to drag out life and death decisions.

"Can you drive the virus back into remission?"

"We've done it before," Luis reminded him. "But I'm not gonna lie, it's... pretty nasty this time around."

He rubbed his forehead and then stood up, catching a glance at the extremely large weapon Leon was packing. It noticeably distracted him from his train of thought.

"So, uh... theoretically, yes. But I don't know how long it'll take," he said, once he had re-gathered his wits.

He turned his head towards Steve's holding area. "Theoretically," Leon echoed, though his tone seemed to indicate that wasn't a good enough answer.

He decided to head over to take a closer look at Steve for himself.

Luis followed him over to the quarantine bubble, which had been programmed to dim in order to block too-curious people from peeking in there. He punched in a code on the control panel, which thinned out the membrane and provided a look inside.

The kid looked pretty pathetic back there, out cold on the fleshy cot. From the distance it was easy to spot the burns and greenish patches of skin running up his arm and the side of his face-- and if you squinted, there was something concealed under what was left of his shirt.

"Typical skin discoloration, 45%," Luis recited, skimming through the panel's display. "Discolored irises and misshapen pupils. Stage two physical mutations-- slight skeletal deformation in the extremities. Also, development of small, insectoid extra," he paused for a moment to clear his throat, "limbs."

There was a small thoughtful noise from Leon.

"If he gets much worse, this place won't be able to hold him for long."

He glanced at Leon sidelong, frowning. "You really think so?" he asked. "I was under the impression this place could hold just about anything."

"Veronica isn't like 'just about anything,'" he pointed out. He dropped the launcher off of his shoulder, though still kept it powered down and pointed at the floor.

"You said theoretically you can save him. Realistically, what are the odds on that?" Because from where he was standing, those numbers didn't look so good.

"This virus is an unpredictable pain in the ass. Just about every kind of stimulus can trigger it, just about anything can go wrong when it does-- all this, and the damn thing can be reversed, too."

Luis sighed and looked to be doing some figures in his head. "I don't know. We're 85% on a solid cure, running low on breakthroughs and the symptoms keep getting worse. But the kid can control it half the time. It's a shot in the dark."

Leon really didn't like those odds. He turned those numbers over in his head for a moment, then finally looked at Luis.

"You look like shit," he informed his friend. "You should go take a nap, or something."

Luis sighed a little bit and managed a half a smile. "I've been worse. I just hit the Zokez II party scene a little hard."

Then he crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall behind him. "Besides, I'd... kind of like to know what you're planning to do with that thing."

"He better not do anything with it," Claire snapped as she came around the corner, already shifting into defensive mode for Steve's sake. She'd hoped to get up here before Leon, but that hadn't happened. Still, she was here now.

Claire...

Granted, he knew he would have to deal with her where Steve was concerned, but he had been hoping that would be later. But, since she was there...

He looked over at Luis. "Go take that nap," he basically ordered. Leon was going to need a moment alone to get into a really huge argument.

Like Luis had any desire to get in the middle of this argument.

"I'll be in the back if you need me," he announced, then turned on his heels and headed back for the depths of the lab.

She crossed her arms and watched Luis retreat, before turning back on Leon, a frown on her face.

"What are you doing with the Linear Launcher, Leon?" She cocked her head to the side, holding her gaze on him a moment longer before looking over at the quarantine bubble holding Steve. She could see he was... pretty messed up, but he wasn't beyond help yet. "He's still aware."

Don't frown at him, Claire. It makes it a lot harder for him to do the stoic, impassive secret agent thing.

"But for how much longer?" Right now, the odds that this would all go to hell were a lot higher than Steve pulling through. He needed to be prepared for that possibility.

"For as long as he needs until they've got a cure!" She exhaled loudly, pacing over to the bubble and leaning against it. "He's been fighting this as hard as he can, and he'd be fine right now if someone hadn't messed with him!" She still needed to find out who had felt the need to do something so utterly despicable as to attack an innocent teenage boy.

"Except he's not fine right now," he pointed out. Not to be cold, but to be clear. "He already started mutating and he's being kept under to keep his symptoms from advancing further.

"As hard as he's fighting it, it might not be enough anymore." And she is going to have to deal with that soon.

Claire stared hard at Leon for a moment, a muscle in her jaw twitching before she turned around and stared into the bubble again, not saying anything. She stood like that for a minute, before speaking, her eyes on Steve's still form.

"I've seen him hit the breaking point. And I've seen him come back from it," her voice was quiet, but firm. She turned her head like she was going to look back at Leon, but her bangs fell in her face and obscured it.

"He's not done, yet."

"I know that," he stated simply. "If he was, I would've already used this and we'd be having an entirely different conversation." Likely one in which she'd swear a blood feud against him.

For a moment, he looked at her curiously, as if to say what kind of man do you think I am? He knew she was worried about Steve, but still...

"But the reality of the situation is that things aren't looking good. He needs to know that, and he needs to know what's going to happen to him if things get worse."

"You don't think he already knows?" She let out a short laugh, although it was entirely humorless. She finally turned back around, throwing her arms out at her sides.

"He fully expected you to come down here and put a bullet in him. He knows what's at stake, and he knows he's running out of time." She sighed, looking back over her shoulder at Steve again briefly.

"But I made a promise. And God willing I'm going to keep it."

"He also thinks I blame him for losing control of the virus. And probably for being infected to begin with." Leon looked over at Steve and let out a quiet sigh through his nose. Stupid kid.

"Regardless of what he thinks, there are certain facts I'll need to make clear to him, even if only so we're on the same page.

"I have a job to do." And God dammit all.

"He's already scared enough of you, Leon." Claire looked back at him, her brow creased. She crossed her arms again, tilting her head to the side a little.

"I know it's your job to take care of the crew, but actually coming down here with the launcher? It's kinda overkill." She knew he was trying to cover bases, but she was kind of upset about the whole thing, at the moment.

"We've both seen what Veronica can do, first hand, and how quickly it can work." Coupled with how little control Steve had over it for the moment, and Claire should be grateful that Leon didn't have the weapon hot and aimed at the kid, looking for the slightest twitch.

In fact, he actually set the thing down on a table, then sat against it. He folded his arms across his chest, and decided to drop the pretense of professionalism, for the moment.

"None of us are thrilled about the situation here. But coddling the kid isn't going to help."

"I'm not-" her argument died in her throat because she knew she had been trying to shelter Steve. Of course, she didn't admit that, and just turned around again, staring back into the bubble, angry she couldn't come up with a better comeback immediately.

"It should be me in there," it wasn't really in line with their current argument, not entirely, but it was at least part of why she was so defensive on the subject of Steve. "He doesn't deserve to be treated like some freak show."

That caught him off-guard. His face briefly went from surprised to a sad frown as he looked at her. Did she really think that?

"No, he doesn't," he conceded. "But neither do you." Why would she even say something like that?

She pulled her arms a little tighter around herself, still staring at Steve. She was focused on the burns and discoloration, and whatever it was obscured from view by his shirt.

"If he hadn't been with me when the plane crashed in Antarctica, Alexia would never have touched him. It would have been me." She tilted her head slightly, shaking it. "I let him die once, I can't do it again. Not when it's my fault."

He let out a soft sigh, and shook his head a bit. He knew she had beat herself up over what happened in Antarctica, but he never realized that she had been carrying around that much guilt the entire time.

His heart bled for her, and he couldn't hide that.

"Claire..." He pushed himself off the table and walked over to her, leaving the launcher behind. "Claire, this isn't your fault." And in all honesty, it wasn't.

"You didn't make that plane go to Antarctica. You didn't make the virus. And you didn't put it in his system."

He put a hand on her shoulder, and tried to turn her a bit so that she was facing him.

"You didn't do any of this to him.

"And the sad truth is, if anything, without you, he would've died alone on Rockfort Island." Which wouldn't have been a better fate.

Claire didn't fight when Leon turned her to face him, but she didn't look directly at him at first. Her eyes focused somewhere around his shoulder for a long moment, before they flicked up to his face.

"You don't know that." As far as Claire was concerned, if she hadn't gotten Steve to trust and stick with her, he would've likely escaped unhindered by Alfred's little games. She looked away from him again, shaking her head. "It's not like it matters, though."

"Perhaps," he conceded. Though he took hold of her chin with his thumb and index finger, and made her face him again.

"But what I do know is that you did everything you could. And I know that's why it hurts so much."

It wasn't often that Claire let her typical brave face give way, but right now she was cracking. She furrowed her brow, giving Leon a miserable look.

"I should have been able to save him."

He looked at her sadly for a moment, then drew her closer.

"You were nineteen," he told her. "None of this was your fault."

As upset with him as she still was that he'd brought the linear launcher she couldn't really ignore him trying to comfort her, and she appreciated it, although it didn't really help that much. She let him pull her closer, and after hesitating a moment she leaned forward, resting her forehead against his shoulder, although she kept her arms crossed around herself.

"It doesn't feel that way."

"I know," he told her softly. "I know." He held her quietly for a moment, circling his arms around her just a little bit tighter. He did know how she felt, though, better than she likely thought.

"Luis died," he finally confessed, after a moment. "Back on Earth," he clarified. He had told her how he knew Luis, but he had left out that little detail.

"During the incident in Spain, he went off to find some medicine that would slow the infection in me. He was already cured by then, he knew the terrain far better than I did, and my mission had nothing to do with him. He could've gotten out of there-- he probably should've; he might have been better off if he had." He paused for a moment, looking towards the back of the lab where Luis went off to. "But he decided to help me, and he died for it."

He sighed for a moment, then shook his head. "Six years of of elite combat training, above and beyond what even Special Forces get, and I didn't see it coming. I was armed to the teeth, I was right there, not even ten feet away from him, and all I could do was just... stand there while some monstrosity punched a hole through his torso the size of a football."

He decided to pause there, to give her a moment to absorb all of that.

"I know."

She was surprised to hear that. She'd initially questioned why Leon trusted the somewhat dodgy doctor the way he did, but his assistance with Steve had proved him useful. This, however, definitely explained things.

She pulled her head back so she could look up at Leon, her arms finally loosening as her eyes scanned his face.

"I had no idea."

"It's not exactly something I care to broadcast." Though that was more out of respect for Luis' privacy than anything else.

"Ironic, though." That the guy he couldn't save was the best hope for the boy she couldn't save. And neither he nor Claire could still do much of anything to help their friends.

"Yeah..." Claire looked away from him again at that, swallowing silently and looking over in Steve's direction again. She shook her head, looking back at Leon again.

"Look, I don't want to fight with you about this." She sighed, smoothing her hands over his shoulders. "But I don't want you dealing with it. It's my mess, and if it comes to it... I owe him enough to end his suffering myself."

"Do you really think you can handle it?" That was the part that worried him the most, and likely the main reason why he still proceeded as he did, knowing full well their relationship might end up on the line. Normally he wouldn't doubt her, but...

"I watched you beat yourself up over what happened to him for years. And when he showed up again on the ship, its like every one of those old wounds got torn right open again. If it comes down to it, if you're the one to do it, I...

"I don't want to see you go through that again." He didn't want to see the vibrant, fiery soul of the woman he was so in love with be swallowed up by guilt and grief. Not when there was something he could do to prevent that, even if that meant she would hate him instead of hating herself.

"This is what I do," he told her, making an offer. "You don't have to do this. Let me do my job."

Claire shook her head quickly.

"No." She sighed, smiling a little sadly and reaching up to rest her palm against his cheek. "It's sweet you want to protect me, but..." her eyes flickered away from his face briefly, before she could keep eye contact again.

"If it ever comes down to having to kill Steve before he kills someone else, I don't want to see his death every time I look at you." She still wasn't sure if she could do it or not, granted. But she knew she didn't want the responsibility on anyone else's shoulders. She pressed her lips together for a moment, tilting her head down. "I need you. And if I have to kill Steve, I'll need you even more. I love Chris and Sherry but they can't take your place." This was certainly not the fight Claire had been expecting when she'd arrived, but it was still kind of exhausting. She fell silent for a moment, her eyes staring over Leon's shoulder, before she could continue.

"I'm not willing to lose you just to save my own sanity."

He studied her for a moment, then eventually let out a breath and nodded his head. He didn't like it, at all, but if she needed him in some other capacity, then he wasn't about to let her down.

"Alright."

Besides, he made his offer as clear as day, and she made her decision on it. At this point, more arguing would be futile. He knew how stubborn she was, after all.

"But if you change your mind..."

Claire actually managed to let out a slight laugh at that, closing her eyes briefly.

"I won't." She opened her eyes again, looking like she'd probably been closer to tears than she generally allowed herself, before leaning up and kissing him lightly. "Thank you, though."

If he ever stopped to think about it, he'd probably marvel at how he could actually offer to kill a friend of hers, and it would be considered sweet of him.

Only them.

He reached up, giving her a sad smile as he let his fingers brush her bangs off to the side. "That's what I'm here for."

He looked over at Steve for a moment, letting out a breath through his nose, before focusing back on her. "Want me to leave you two alone?"

She looked over in Steve's direction too, letting out a long breath and nodding her head.

"Yeah." She looked back at Leon, tilting her head to the side a little, sliding her hand down his arm a little and patting gently. "I'll come find you later."

Edited 2010-06-26 07:01 (UTC)

He nodded his head a bit, then pulled her closer, and leaned in to give her a gently kiss.

"I won't be far."

Claire leaned into the kiss, mentally starting to put herself back together. She'd need to have her wits about her to talk to Steve about this, after all. She didn't know what had happened, but she'd get to the bottom of it.

"Okay," she responded quietly, nodding her head, before glancing over at the Linear Launcher. "Mind taking the hardware with you?"

He looked back at the launcher for a moment, then faced her again.

"I'll leave it just outside." He wanted it to be nearby. Just in case.

She gave him a bit of a withering look, but nodded her head, sighing.

"All right." As far as she was concerned she'd pretty much won this one. And if the gun being nearby would give him peace of mind, she'd allow it. Not that she expected to use it.

He finally let her go, and left the room, taking the launcher with him so he can find a safe place to keep it. He sincerely hoped she wouldn't have to use it. But he'd much rather she have the gun and never need it, than need it and not have it.

Tough Choices [Bendytimed to end of Shore Leave], [Closed?]

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