Chapter Text
“Come on, come on!” Leon urged, pushing his shoulder harder against the door to bust it in. He looked back to see the machine overloading and the pods releasing the cloned zombies. The lickers from the previous room were still jumping up and down the walls, going frantic from the whirring sound that came from inside the laboratory.
The door wouldn't budge, and now both his shoulders were bruised from pushing. The door had indents from his relentless kicking, but since the card was missing he had no way out. He looked at the lickers and sighed. His last bullets had ended up in one of their heads, but that was it.
The clones got closer, so Leon started dodging them and landing kicks every now and then. His hamstrings ached, but he kept trying to outlive the clones.
He thought of Ada, his caregiver. He felt his eyes welling up, but did his best to keep his vision clear. Leon's heart really ached for her. She was on a mission, too, but far away, in London.
A clone put a white and nasty hand on Leon's shoulder, ready to bring him closer to his wicked smile. Leon was about to move away when the whirring sound worsened and white light filled the room.
Leon landed on dried leaves with a thud. He was unconscious and his hair and clothes were scorched. His face was a bit inflamed from the explosion, too. But the problem was the metal lever that was coming out of his side, hear his left hip bone. The explosion had sent it flying somewhere, and that somewhere was Leon's flesh.
Other things had teleported, too, like two of the clones and parts of the machine. The clones were dead and charred because they had stood way too close to the chamber that originated the explosion.
….
The Princess signaled for the expedition group to stop walking. Lydia peeked over Juanita's shoulder and saw a man laying down, next to weird devices and two smoking walkers.
“We should go help” Lydia said, ready to run towards him.
“Yeah”, Juanita nodded and resumed walking, a bit skeptical. “Looks like he's passed out” She told Lydia and the other kids. “Be careful, though”
They gathered up around the man and a boy nudged his foot against the man’s.
“He's hurt” Said Lydia, pointing at the metal lever that emerged from his side and drew blood. “We have to get him to Dr. Tomichi.”
“How do we know he's not an asshole?” A blonde girl asked, warily.
The Princess shrugged. “There's only one way to know” She said, and then she crouched down right next to him. She retrieved a bottle of alcohol from her kit and opened the lid to put it under the man's nostrils.
He gasped and coughed, soon holding his injured side. He didn't know how he had ended up in the forest, near people. He backed up against a tree, still on the ground.
“Hey! Easy” Juanita said, stretching one arm as she put the alcohol bottle back in her backpack. “We won't hurt you”
Leon winced and eyed them fiercely. “Who are you?”
“I'm Princess, and these are my apprentices. We have a community.” She said, and held out a hand for him to take.
He got up on his own, still wary of them. It looked like standing was nearly impossible for him given his status.
“Where are you from?” Lydia asked. “Are these things yours?” She pointed to the parts of the machine that were scattered around the place.
The man shook his head. “I’m from Raccoon City” He answered, holding his side and taking a few steps forward. “And no, these things came from the explosion.”
The group looked confused. “What explosion?”
His heart skipped a beat. “You didn't see it?!”
The Princess mumbled that they hadn't. “Anyway, you should get that pulled out. Let's get going” She leaned forward for him to hold onto her, and urged the tallest boy to hold the man's right side.
He wasn't arguing, which was surprising.
A groan came from behind the trees, and a walker emerged, gnarling at them.
Lydia put a knife through its skull and let it drop dead.
“How did it die so easily?” The man grunted, taking short steps.
Lydia shrugged “It's a walker”.
“Did your community get a virus, too?” He sounded… hopeless.
The Princess side-eyed him. “It's everywhere, we all have it” She laughed. “Where have you been?”
The man gagged and leaned forward to throw up.
“Hey, hey, it's okay” Juanita held him tighter, always trying to avoid touching his hurt side. She rubbed his back until he started taking short steps again. “What's it like where you're from?”
The man cleaned the sides of his mouth with the back of his hand. “My city was nuked to get rid of the virus. Everywhere else is… weird. Sometimes, a new virus gets released and I'm… there.”
Lydia looked pale. “New virus? But, labs are gone… have been for over 14 years”
The man squinted. “No way… I've been seeing infected people for 28 years, but labs are fine”
The blonde girl eyed him skeptically. “It’s impossible” She hissed. “28 years?!”
The man shrugged. The girl's high-pitched voice made him flinch.
The Princess nodded at his reaction and pointed at two walkers approaching them for the kids to put them down.
“How do you kill them?” She asked the man, given his surprise when the walkers went down easily.
“Ones like those…” He winced when they had to climb up to get on the road. The Princess and the boy held him tight and tried to carry him through the few more steps they needed to take to set foot on the asphalt. “Maybe four shots to the head, or two and a good kick. The lickers are harder, though. They require shotgun”
Lydia's wide-open eyes met everyone else's. “Lickers?”
He scoffed. “Yeah, the ones with no skin. Shit” He grabbed his side and tried to press on it without making his wound worse.
The Princess grabbed her walkie talkie. “Mercer”
The man was visibly weaker than before. The other boy offered to take Juanita's place and held the man while she called her boyfriend.
“What's wrong? Over” Mercer’s voice came from the speaker.
“We have a guest. He's wounded --not a bite, though” She said. “Can you get us a car? We're next to the old bridge. Over.” The man looked around and did see a bridge that went over the road. It was old and filthy, but definitely a good spot to be picked up from.
“Gotcha. Ten minutes. Love you. Over”
She smiled and put the walkie talkie away. “Let's sit down, huh?” She told him, and held her arm out for the man to take and take a seat. He grunted, but managed to sit down. “Just ten minutes, you can make it.”
“I know” He hissed, feeling the blood gushing out.
“What's your name?” She brought the bottle of alcohol back out of her backpack and gave it to him to smell and avoid passing out. He looked dizzy.
“Leon” He answered softly. Leon smelled the alcohol for a few seconds, hoping his head would stop spinning.
“You're doing a good job, Leon” Juanita told him, smiling. He could see she was worried, though.
“So, you were telling us about your community…” The blonde girl approached him, her arms crossed over her chest.
Leon shook his head. “I don't have one. I'm a cop”
“Bullshit. That's not a thing anymore. No one survives alone” She talked back. Leon sighed deeply. He hadn't just survived years of infection for this.
“Hey, leave him alone” Lydia told her, nudging her back to the other kids. But she stayed. “I think you've come from far, far away. Maybe it had something to do with the explosion.” She said, to which Leon nodded slightly. “What was that machine?”
He shrugged. “I don't know… Umbrella has been trying to make all kinds of weapons, not just biological, it seems”
“What is Umbrella?” Lydia asked.
Leon felt dizzy again. There couldn't be anyone from America who didn't know Umbrella, it was everywhere.
Mercer arrived. Leon saw the man's gear and thanked life to be on his same side, because fighting against someone that big and with such good equipment in his state would have been insane.
“I'll get him, go open the door.” He told Juanita, and knelt down next to Leon. Mercer quite easily picked Leon up bridal style and carried him to the Jeep, laying him down on the backseat. Lydia sat next to him and had him put his head on her lap. Mercer eyed her with care, suspecting her lack of wariness.
Leon drifted from consciousness to unconsciousness like five times before arriving at the hospital in Commonwealth. He could barely see anything when they put him on a stretcher and took him to the operating room. He felt a quick pain in his arm and everything went black.
…..
“Daryl, if you want to go to the park you have to put on a jacket. It's way too cold for a shirt, honey” Carol told him, holding his jacket with both hands and blocking the door so her little wouldn't try to sneak out.
“Seriously, listen to Mommy or you'll have to stay with me to wash the curtains.” Ezekiel said, walking by to get the detergent. Daryl made a face. Ezekiel gave his padded butt a tiny pat.
“Good job” Carol said, doing the zipper of Daryl's jacket. “Give Daddy a kiss and we're good to go”
“Bye, Daddy” Daryl kissed Ezekiel's cheek, hugged his neck and quickly went to the front door to exit with Carol.
Carol took Daryl to the square and sat down on a wooden bench to watch him play. He usually liked to build sandcastles and then squish them with his hands or feet.
“Look, Mommy!” He still blushed when he was outside and called either of his caregivers. Daryl pointed to his castle, which had a leaf and a stick on top.
Carol approached him. “That's very pretty, pumpkin” She gave him a kiss on the forehead. Carol's beeper went off. “Honey?” She called Daryl, who was already looking at her very disappointed. “I have to go. There's too many patients today.”
Daryl stood up, shook the sand off his pants and glared at Carol. “It wasn't even five minutes” He complained.
Carol hugged him and rubbed his arms. “I know, baby. I'll ask Rick if he can watch you until I can go home, alright?” She knew he was likely to lighten up if he could stay with Rick. “And we'll come back tomorrow after lunch. I promise” She kissed his cold nose.
Daryl nodded, pouting. He took Carol's hand and they headed towards Rick's apartment.
Carol put on her light blue scrubs and went to Dr. Tomichi’s office. He was waiting for her with a clipboard ready to be read.
“Sorry Cars. I sent most nurses to work on regular cases to save you the weirdest one.” He said, to which she raised an eyebrow. “A guy came out of nowhere, injured and very confused. Princess and Lydia found him. They told us he claimed to be a cop from somewhere without walkers”
Carol rolled her eyes. “He's injured, he must have a fever.” She set the clipboard back on his desk.
“Come on, just go check on him. Five minutes and you're done if you want to.”
Carol hummed and left his office.
She entered Leon's room nonchalantly, ready to go home. He looked at her in a way that made her know she wasn't going home that soon.
“Hi, I'm Carol. You're Leon, right?” She checked the file again, just in case. He nodded. “What happened, Leon?”
He cleared his throat. “I was on a mission. A machine went off at the lab. I tried to stop it and it exploded. And then, I was out there, in the woods”
Carol pursed her lips. “What kind of mission was it?”
Leon felt lost. He knew everyone there wouldn't take him seriously. “I needed to stop Umbrella. They were making a machine to send a new virus abroad”
“Alright, thank you. How are you feeling?”
He shrugged. “The drugs worked.”
Carol smiled. She left the room and went to get Timothy.
“Tim, Leon from room 217 needs a psychiatric evaluation ASAP. I believe he is delusional”
…
Dr. Timothy Vega talked to Leon for over an hour, and came out of the room very pleased and holding a handful of papers with his notes. He went to get Carol from another patient's room for a few minutes.
“He's not delusional. He does show signs of confusion, but it sounds like he knows reality and isn't making anything up.” He told Carol, relieved. “Also, he's a Little.”
Carol was surprised. “Did he tell you? Doesn't seem the type…”
“He mentioned his caregiver and I asked him about her in case she was a psychiatrist or a counselor. But no, she takes care of him the way you care for your Little.” He patted her shoulder. “He's afraid, even if he doesn't show it.”
Carol finished working on her patient and went to see Leon for a few minutes.
“Hi…” He said, as drops of sweat ran down his face. He was quite pale, too. Carol rushed outside.
“I'll get you some antibiotics, don't move” She said, already out of the room.
She came back shortly, holding two pills and a glass of water. He drank clumsily and left the glass on the nightstand.
“Thanks”
She smiled. “I talked to Dr. Vega.”
Leon looked down. “He told you?” He hated people knowing that he was a Little.
Carol nodded. “He did. But don't worry, we only care about that information because Littles require extra care, not because we're judgy”
Leon was still uncomfortable. He shifted, physically uncomfortable, too.
“What can I do for you?” Carol asked gently. Leon looked quite vulnerable.
“Can you call Ada?” He asked softly, pointing at the phone he had on the nightstand.
Carol pursed her lips, unsure.
“Please?” His eyes were a bit glossy. “She's… she's my Mommy”
Carol held back the tears before they even showed up. Her eyes were tingling already. She nodded and grabbed the phone, ready to, at least, give it a try.
He unlocked the phone and gave it to her. Carol went through his contacts and found her. “She's so pretty”. Carol dialed, but the call obviously didn't connect. She tried again, because Leon was eyeing the device impatiently, but nothing changed.
“I'm sorry, darling. The call doesn't connect. We don't have a working signal here” She rubbed his shoulder and couldn't let go of him soon enough to avoid feeling the sobs that shook his body. “Is there any chance she uses a radio?”
Leon shook his head, tears and sweat running down his face. “No, ‘s just that she's in London. I don't know when she's coming back” He bawled.
Carol knew she shouldn't have, but she gave him a hug and rubbed his back soothingly. “I get it, this is frustrating”
“I need to go find her” Leon broke the hug and tried to stand up.
Carol laid him back down. “Don’t, you'll pop your stitches!”
Leon whined and tried to move away from Carol. His side started hurting a lot, but he couldn't give up.
“Leon, if you don't stay still I will have you restrained” She admonished him. Leon stopped thrashing to breathe. His side burned. He knew he had just popped his stitches. Soon enough, blood stained the bedsheets. “Look at you, your wound is open again.” She huffed and went to find her kit.
He reminded her SO much of Daryl.