Chapter Text
“Leon? That had better be you and you better not be dying!” Chris demands as soon as he picks up the phone. Every word is laced with worry, his husband's tone closer to panic than Leon has ever heard. But the sound of that beloved voice still makes him smile helplessly.
“It's me, babe. I'm coming home,” the agent tells him. “And I know you're probably furious, but I promise that I'm fine.”
“I'm not angry, sweetheart. You just had me terrified,” the other man says with a sigh. “You were supposed to stay safe until we could fix your illness, not run headfirst into danger. Couldn't you have waited for backup just this once?”
The soft exasperation cuts worse than any anger and a twinge of guilt stabs Leon through the chest. Over the last ten years, he's tried to curb his more reckless tendencies. He knows his husband loves him and he hates to make him worry. No one in his family should ever feel like this. But Leon also couldn't have abandoned Grace, couldn't have let Zeno claim an actual superweapon, simply to ensure that he survived.
“I'm sorry. I did have Sherry call for help. There just wasn't time.”
“I know, Leon. That's why I'm not angry,” Chris tells him quietly. “You wouldn't be the man I love if you could walk away. But I swear, only you would run into this kind of nonsense on a routine investigation and manage to uncover a thirty-year conspiracy.”
“Just my luck, huh?” the agent chuckles. Sometimes with the life he leads, it's either laugh or cry. “Still, it turned out for the best. I'm cured, love, and there's enough of Elpis left to save everyone.”
“That's good to hear,” his husband replies, relief clear in his voice. “When all of you got sick, I didn't know what to do. I can't punch an infection into submission and losing you would have destroyed me. Why do you think I fought so hard to find an answer? I had to save my family.”
This isn't helping Leon's guilt. Yet looking back, the agent can't think of a single thing that he'd do differently. There were too many close calls, too many chances for Grace to die if he'd arrived a second later. The benefit of hindsight only tells him just how lucky they had been. So Leon can't promise Chris that he'll be more careful next time. Saying that would be a lie. He'll simply have to hold his husband close as soon as he sees him – hug him tight and ease his worry with the fact that he's alive.
Though Leon should probably mention one thing before he sees Chris again. While the other man has always been good at rolling with his husband's oddities, there's no reason to blindside him unnecessarily.
“Speaking of family, how do you feel about grandchildren?” he asks. “I may have picked up a kid who picked up a kid along the way.”
Leon isn't exactly nervous. Chris has never been jealous over his marks and if gaining a new one could change his husband's feelings, they would have broken up years ago. But a daughter is different than a friend and he can't quite stop his shoulders from hunching while he waits for a reply. Though they drop again when he hears Chris start to laugh.
“Of course you did, baby. I can't even be surprised,” the other man chuckles in his ear. “You'll have to tell me all about them later. I still need to coordinate with the DSO and BSAA about clean up and distribution, but that shouldn't take too long. Once we've got a plan in place, Sherry and my Wolves can handle things from there. We'll get samples to the labs and have Rebecca start churning out more Elpis as soon as possible. Meet you at home when I'm done? You've more than earned another damn vacation after this.”
“That sounds good to me. You know I won't be able to relax completely until everyone is cured, but I want to see you and I could use a nap,” Leon says, already imagining how nice their bed will feel. Though if Chris is the one running cleanup, he also has to ask, “Hey, babe. I found a BSAA motorcycle here in Raccoon City. Do you think they'll let me keep it? That thing went off-road like a dream. And maybe you could send someone to pick up my car too?”
“Sure, sweetheart. I'll see what I can do,” his husband says with another laugh. “At least you didn't crash this time around.”
“Hey, I hit Arias on purpose and the planes don't count,” the agent snarks back. “Besides, I dodged rockets and zombie dogs on that bike just fine. I only left it at the RPD because it ran out of gas and my car is on the outskirts because the road was out.”
“Whatever you say, Leon,” Chris snorts, which really isn't fair. Crash one, okay two, airplanes and you never live it down. “Now, I've got to go. But I love you and I'll see you soon.”
“Love you too,” Leon replies before hanging up the call. Then he walks over to the DSO pilot who has been waiting for him by her chopper very patiently.
“Are you ready to leave, sir?” the woman asks. “I have orders to fly you to the nearest DSO facility for a full medical and then take you wherever you'd like afterward.”
“Perfect. Let's get out of here.”
Leon climbs into the helicopter and settles himself in the back seat. Through the window, he can see Grace talking to Wolf Leader before she climbs into the other chopper and straps in. The agent hopes she doesn't panic given her crash earlier, but the young woman has proven to be resilient and Chris' team will take good care of her.
Better this than sharing. Leon promised to give her space to process all that's happened and decide how she really feels. Being trapped in the same helicopter for several hours would be the exact opposite. DSO Midwest is far enough from Raccoon City to be annoying but close enough that faster transport can't be justified.
So the agent uses that time to start writing his mission reports on his phone, stripping down hours of fear, exhaustion, and pure desperate hope into something clinical. Leon makes sure to note that Grace Ashcroft is completely normal with no abilities to speak of and that Emily won't be a threat once she's been cured. He's had a lot of practice at making what he cares about sound uninteresting. Information has a way of spreading where it shouldn't and this is his chance to shape the truth.
That's also why Leon reports that Elpis is an antiviral not a superweapon and Hound Wolf Squad will distribute samples to the DSO and BSAA. His superiors may not be holding his daughters hostage any longer, but that doesn't mean he trusts them to do what's best for everyone. The DSO should know that there's no point in trying to monopolize the cure and the conspirators behind this mess need to understand that it's too late to shove Elpis back into the box. The antiviral can't be hidden now.
Leon still has time to spare when he finishes his drafts, so he does one last pass over each report to perfect his tone. A word change here and there helps remove all emotion – helps make his mission boring – before he submits the reports to the DSO.
While the agent isn't required to send them in this quickly, he prefers to knock out his paperwork as soon as he has time. This is still leagues better than the days when the DSO would debrief him for hours after he returned, asking questions about his mission over and over and over until the words turned meaningless. Their current agreement of reports within three days and one follow-up debriefing is so much more civilized. I should thank Hunnigan for that change again.
Once the reports are done, Leon allows himself to doze until the pilot informs him that they're about to land. DSO Midwest is a fairly large facility, busy enough that post mission protocols are run efficiently. The agent is through decontamination and into medical within ten minutes, complete with a fresh set of clothes to wear. Still not an actual shower, but it will do for now.
The doctors look him over just as quickly, drawing Leon's blood to check for new infections and patching up his injuries. Other than some deep bruising, he actually came through this mission fairly well, only a few minor scrapes and cuts still needing bandages. Everything else the man already healed along the way. Leon is left with a few new scars for his collection and a few new close calls for his nightmares – flaming chainsaws will be making an appearance guaranteed. But that's for him to deal with later on.
The DSO's doctors are only here to clear him physically and the agent can't complain about their work. While they don't have Rebecca's brilliance or the quiet care that earned her mark a place down Leon's side, they're still fast and competent. Once the blood test comes back clean, the doctors sign off on his bill of health and send him on his way. They just give him the usual warnings about coming back immediately if he starts to feel strange.
If Leon's medical file actually mentioned his former T-Virus infection, there probably would have been more fuss. However, the DSO hadn't known the source of his illness and that part of his report would take time to trickle down. For now, Elpis isn't something that their tests would flag and unspecified medical leave is much less interesting.
Which means the agent is able to collect his belongings – his guns, his gear and Chris' jacket – and return to the tarmac no more than an hour after he arrived. The helicopter pilot is waiting like she'd promised, her chopper already refueled and prepared to fly again.
So Leon tells her to take him home to Wichita and several hours later, he's finally walking through his front door. Still the same house Chris had owned when they started dating, but the last ten years have left their mark. The agent's shoes are by the door, his jackets on the coat rack and photos of their family hold pride of place along the walls. There's the book he was reading before this mission started, laid carelessly on the table next to a pair of Chris' gloves.
Everywhere he looks are signs of the life they've built together, now without the shadow of his illness looming over them. This is their sanctuary – their hard-won peace – and Leon feels himself breathe easy for the first time in weeks.
The house itself is quiet, nothing but silence answering his greeting, which means the agent must have beaten his husband home. While he's a little disappointed, it's not a huge surprise given how much there was to coordinate and this gives him time to settle in.
So Leon slips off his boots and hangs his keys on the hook by the door. Big guns to the cabinet, small guns to the safes, new weapons mixed in with old favorites that he picked up through the years. The man sets both axes on the table to resharpen, along with Chris' Made in Heaven jacket to surprise his husband with. Then Leon heads upstairs to take that shower he's been longing for.
Dirt and blood run down the drain when he lathers up his hair, scrubbing the filth out thoroughly. The DSO's decontamination process may kill off any viruses but it never gets him clean. Only once that's finished does Leon move on to conditioner, treating his hair carefully before washing off his skin. While the bandages are waterproof, he's gentle on his bruises before digging bits of blood from beneath his fingernails. One last rinse and the water finally runs clear. Leon finally feels clean again.
So the agent leans against the shower wall with a heavy sigh, letting the spray wash over him. The water is still hot despite the time he's taken and the heat melts away his lingering aches and pains. Remodeling the bathroom was worth every penny that we paid.
The man is comfortable enough that he doesn't want to leave the shower but if he waits too much longer, he might fall asleep right here. His rush of adrenaline from being cured has worn off completely and now he's crashing hard. So Leon forces himself to shut off the water and grabs a towel to dry off, thankful that Chris always insists on buying the fluffiest ones available. It seemed frivolous at first but the agent has been grateful for the comfort more than once.
Then Leon heads into the bedroom, slips on a pair of sweatpants and collapses down onto the bed. He barely has the energy left to curl up beneath the blankets before sleep is claiming him.