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hey!! ive been going back thru re4r recently and that scene where ashley is forced to point the gun at leon has been holding me hostage… i wanted to ask if i could request a similar situation between leon and the reader? (with a good ending…. please…..) i absolutely love the way u depict leon’s internal monologue, and i think u could bring something interesting to that kind of scenario! :D

This doesn't follow the exact events of RE4R, but I did use the scene you asked for. Just added more to it! Thanks for your patience, anon <3

Warnings: mind control, guns & deaths, angsty af, Leon uses nicknames sweetheart & my smart girl, happy ending i promise <3

Friendly Fire

The island felt alive in the worst possible way. Not alive like breathing. Alive like rot under floorboards. Like something wet and infected pulsing beneath the concrete walls. Golden light spilled down the corridor in uneven flashes, staining Leon's shirt yellow. The torches on the walls burned hot.

Somewhere deeper in the facility, metal groaned. Then came Ashley's scream. "Leon!"

The sound ripped through the hallway hard enough to make your pulse jump. Leon turned instantly toward it, boots skidding against the grated floor.

"Ashley!" he shouted back.

Static crackled faintly through the comms device in his ear. Nothing coherent. Just noise. He swore under his breath and started forward again, one hand already reaching toward the pistol holstered at his thigh.

Then the headache hit. White-hot agony split behind your eyes so violently your knees nearly buckled. You stumbled into the wall with a sharp gasp, fingers clawing against cold concrete as something foreign slithered through your skull. It felt alive. Moving around. Digging deeper every second.

A man steps out of a doorway at the other end of the room with two others following suit. He carries a staff of what looks like wiggling worms. He's wearing a hooded robe with gold and silver detailing. He has a large gold necklace with a ruby in the middle, which looks like a symbol you've seen here before. Leon instantly unholsters his gun and points it toward him.

"Welcome, my children." The man begins.

His hood is removed by a grey-skinned cultist behind him. You gasped as his head now reflected the light. Its black veins startle you, and the lumps at the back look alive.

"I am Osmund Saddler. The speaker of our Lord." He claims, lightly bowing his head.

"Tell someone who gives a shit," Leon responds.

He instantly fires a bullet straight at Saddler. It pierces his eye, and he stumbles backward. You flinch at the sound of the gun and grab onto Leon's arm.

"Foolish lambs..." he mutters. "Why do you deny grace?"

Saddler begins to stand up straighter. His once closed eyes open, and there's no sign of a bullet wound. The only thing on his face is dripping blood from where the bullet entered.

Did he just... heal himself?

Suddenly, you're both jerked forward. Leon lands on his knees and catches himself on his palms. His gun falls to the floor in front of him. Saddler has his hand outstretched, commanding this to continue. You stumble forward slightly, one hand catching yourself on Leon's back as you straighten, your legs pulling you forward slowly.

"Now, abandon your body!" Saddler commands.

Your body straightens completely. It isn't listening to you anymore. It's been pioneered by whatever this man is saying.

"Obey. Obey the voice of our Lord."

Your body continues to betray your wishes. Leon gets back to his feet, but he's stuck, too. As you move forward, Leon is fighting with everything he can to stop this. He only notices your movements when you make it by him. His eyes follow you forward.

You start to panic as tears stream down your face. Your body resists your pleas to stop. As you start to turn to face Leon, you finally understand what's going to happen.

"No... no, no, no!" You cry as you begin to bend down.

Kill him.

The voice wasn't heard with your ears. It bloomed directly inside your mind, smooth and terrible and absolute. Your breathing hitched. Your fingers twitched uselessly at your sides.

Kill him.

Another pulse of pain tore through your body. Your hand moved before you could stop it. Leon's pistol was in your hand before you could do anything about it. The sound of the gun sliding up off the floor rang out.

It looked wrong in your hands...too heavy. Too violent. The weight of the pistol felt monstrous. Your arms locked straight as the barrel pointed directly at Leon's chest.

No, no, no, no...

Terror surged through you so hard that tears burned your eyes. "Leon—" Your voice broke apart.

Leon had stared down plenty of guns before. Terrorists. Cultists. Monsters wearing human skin. None of it felt like this. None of them had ever looked at him with tears in their eyes. None of them had been the love of his life, against her will, pointing a gun straight at his chest. His pulse slammed hard against his ribs the second your arm lifted. Training kicked in instantly, cruelly efficient. Distance. Angle. Line of fire.

Nine millimeter handgun. Center mass. Can't even move if she pulls the trigger now. Fuck me...

Fear hit him sharply and immediately. Cold sweat prickled instantly at the back of his neck as the barrel settled at his chest. And the worst part wasn't the gun. It was your face. Tear-soaked cheeks and watery eyes held his gaze. You looked terrified, like you were still inside yourself somewhere, pounding helplessly against locked doors while Las Plagas puppeteered your body. Leon could barely stand it. His chest physically ached at the sight of it.

Jesus Christ...

For one horrible second, he imagined what this must feel like for you. A front row seat to your own body turning against him. The thought nearly unraveled him on the spot. He knows you wouldn't do this... knows you won't forgive yourself for this even though it's not your fault.

"Stop! No!" You tried desperately to claw at anything that might get this to stop.

The parasite twisted again. Your finger tightened against the trigger.

"Sweetheart," Leon said carefully.

The nickname nearly shattered you on the spot. Your grip faltered for half a second before the parasite forced your arms rigid again. Leon saw it happen. Saw the hesitation. Saw the tears rolling helplessly down your cheeks while your body held him at gunpoint against your will. And somehow, impossibly, his expression softened.

Keep fighting it, sweetheart.

"Look at me," he said quietly.

Ashley screamed again somewhere nearby, her voice echoing through the facility. "Please! Help!"

Every instinct in his body had to be screaming at him to move. To run toward her. To disarm you. To survive. But he couldn't. Your pulse thundered so loudly you could barely hear yourself breathing.

"Fight it," he murmured.

The parasite seized control harder. Your arms snapped upward, aiming directly between his eyes now.

A sob tore out of your throat. "I can't—"

"Yes, you can." His voice stayed low. Steady. Warm in a place that felt stripped of humanity.

You were close enough now that you could see the sweat dampening the strands of blond hair falling across his forehead. Close enough to see exhaustion carved deep beneath his blue eyes. And still, he looked at you like you were something worth saving.

"There you are," he whispered when another tear slipped down your cheek. "I know you're still in there."

The parasite shrieked through your skull.

Shoot him.

Your finger tightened involuntarily. Leon saw it happen. Still, he couldn't move away. His heartbeat lurched hard enough to hurt. Fear flashed hot through his bloodstream. He did want to live, contrary to the popular belief. You had so much left to do together, so much life left to live together... but beneath that instinct, louder somehow, came another thought.

Don't scare her, Leon.

Because you were already panicking. He could see it in the violent shaking of your hands. The tears spilling down your cheeks. The tiny, broken sounds of your breathing. You wanted to scream at him to run. Wanted to beg him not to stand there looking at you like that while your body became a weapon aimed straight at his heart.

If I look scared, she's gonna spiral.

"Leon," you choked out weakly.

His jaw tightened at the sound of your voice.

"It's okay," he said immediately, like he could hear every terrified thought ricocheting through your head. "It's not your fault, okay?"

You pulled the trigger. The gunshot exploded through the corridor. Your ears rang. The bullet slammed into the head of a cultist behind Leon's right shoulder, and it exploded in a violent spray of matter.

Thank fucking god, we have more time.

"Sweet child, do not resist!" Saddler chanted.

You began to move the gun back toward Leon, hands still shaking. The gun went off again, killing another cultist over Leon's left shoulder. You're sobbing now. The only person left in your line of sight is the man you would do anything to save. The man who brings you peace... the man who risks it all just to see you happy.

Leon was shaking now, too. He swallowed hard, keeping his eyes glued to yours. There were black veins showing under your eyes and down your arms. He no doubt had the same thing.

"Keep fighting," Leon said. "We're going to be okay."

His voice was shaky, but it was all he could muster. He knew he had to keep talking to you, and he was doing everything he could. You were looking at him like you were drowning.

Every pull of the trigger looked like it hurt you. Your breathing turned ragged. Tears streaked helplessly down your cheeks while your hands trembled harder around the pistol. Your eyes met his then, wet with panic and pleading so raw it shattered his heart where he was stuck.

Don't make her do this.

You could see every tiny tremor running through his hands, too. He could only be strong so long before he knew it was the last time. You were fighting the parasite with everything you had left.

The gun fired, but the sound was wrong. It clicked. You fired again, and it clicked again. For one disbelieving second, nobody moved. The gun was jammed. Leon stared at the pistol in stunned silence before realization crashed through him all at once.

Your grip... your resistance did that. I knew you could do it.

A broken sound escaped your throat immediately afterward, halfway between a sob and a gasp. Saddler dropped his hand. Finally, you slowly felt control come back to you. Your hand went limp, and the gun fell back to the floor in front of you with a sharp metallic clatter. Still shaking, you kept your eyes locked on Leon.

"Pray, forgive these wicked sinners," Saddler said. "My faithful disciple shall deliver to you your... penance."

Leon's entire focus stayed locked on you. On the tears running helplessly down your face. On the way your free hand shook like you were trying to physically stop your own body from moving.

For one fractured second, the entire chamber fell silent except for your ragged breathing. Saddler's pleasant expression had finally cracked. Only slightly. But Leon saw it. Saw the irritation tightening around his mouth as his gaze dropped briefly toward the jammed handgun at your feet. Around you, the remaining cultists shifted uneasily, their robes whispering against the floor as the torches flickered overhead.

You were still shaking. Not the parasite now. Exhaustion. Pain. Resistance. Leon's chest ached violently at the sight of it.

She stopped it.

Not luck. Not faulty ammunition. You. Somehow, through all of Saddler's control, all that agony splitting through your skull, you'd fought hard enough to save him anyway. And Leon couldn't do a damn thing except stand there trapped inside his own body, fingers twitching uselessly against the parasite's grip.

Saddler stepped toward you slowly. Disappointed.

"Such devotion," he mused softly. "Even now."

Your body went rigid again instantly. Leon's stomach dropped.

No.

Saddler's fingers curled slightly in the air, and pain tore visibly across your face as the parasite obeyed him again. A broken gasp escaped your throat. Your hands clenched at your sides hard enough to tremble, though it looked like you were reaching for something.

Your own weapon sat holstered just inside your jacket at your waist.

Saddler wouldn't have seen that... my smart girl.

You turned, not toward Leon this time, toward the cultists. Your hands slowly moved to your gun.

"You don't look like such a fighter..." Saddler teased.

Leon would laugh at that if he could.

Little does he know...

You moved as quickly as you could. Gunfire erupted. The nearest ganado dropped instantly, blood spraying across the stone wall behind him. Another shot. A second cultist collapsed with a wet choking sound. The room exploded into chaos.

Leon stared at you in shock. Not because you were attacking. Because he could see what you were doing. You weren't obeying correctly anymore. Saddler wanted control restored. Submission. Punishment. Instead, you were fighting like your body couldn't decide who it belonged to.

Every movement looked wrong. Jagged. Violent. Like the parasite was forcing one command while you twisted it into another at the last possible second. Another cultist lunged toward you. You shot him point-blank.

Saddler's voice sharpened suddenly. "Enough."

You flinched hard. One hand flew to your head as agony ripped visibly through your body again. The pistol nearly slipped from your fingers.

Leon's pulse hammered painfully against his ribs.

Move... MOVE...

His muscles strained violently beneath the parasite's restraint. Across the room, you staggered sideways, breathing in shattered little gasps while Saddler advanced toward you again.

And then your eyes lifted toward Leon, just for a second, but he saw it. Fear. Apology. And underneath both of them, something desperate and determined. You were still fighting... but you were telling him something else, too. I'm sorry if I don't make it, but I'm going to save you.

That realization hit Leon like a lightning strike straight through his chest. The parasite wanted obedience. But emotions complicated things. Luis had said as much. Strong enough willpower could interfere with control. And right now? You were tearing yourself apart trying to protect him.

Leon forced his hand to move. Pain shot violently through his arm. But this time, his fingers actually twitched upward. Saddler noticed immediately. His expression darkened.

"You continue to resist," he said coldly.

The pressure inside Leon's skull intensified instantly, sharp enough to blur his vision. Across the room, you cried out weakly and doubled over. Then another cultist grabbed your arm from behind. The knife at your thigh flashed free before Leon even processed the movement. You drove it backward into the cultist's throat with brutal force. Warm blood splattered across your sleeve. The body collapsed at your feet.

Saddler's patience finally snapped. The building trembled violently as alarms suddenly began blaring somewhere deeper in the island facility. An explosion boomed in the distance. For the first time, uncertainty crossed Saddler's face. Not fear. Annoyance.

The island was destabilizing faster than expected. Ashley was still secured elsewhere. And now both infected hosts were becoming unpredictable. Saddler stepped backward toward the massive metal doors.

"You delay the inevitable," he said calmly, though irritation still sharpened the edges of his voice.

You raised the pistol again instantly. This time, directly at him. Leon's breath caught. Saddler smiled faintly. Then the heavy metal doors began sliding shut between you. You fired. The bullet sparked violently against the narrowing gap just as the doors slammed closed with a deafening boom.

Silence crashed into the room afterward. The second Saddler disappeared from sight, the pressure inside Leon's skull vanished. Completely. Leon staggered hard, catching himself against a nearby pillar as his body suddenly became his own again.

Across the room, you dropped the pistol. It hit the floor a second before your knees did. Leon moved instantly. By the time you hit the ground, he was already there. His hands caught you hard against his chest while you shook violently in his arms, breaths breaking apart into panicked gasps.

"Hey," he breathed immediately.

One hand cradled the back of your head. The other tightened around you like he thought you might disappear if he loosened his grip.

"You're okay."

Your fingers twisted desperately into the front of his shirt.

"I couldn't stop it, Leon," you whispered brokenly. "I'm so sorry."

Leon's chest physically hurt hearing that. "You did. You did that."

His voice came out rougher than intended. He pulled back just enough to look at you properly, his hands framing your face again despite the blood smeared across your cheeks.

"You fought him the whole time," he said firmly. "You hear me?"

Your eyes filled instantly. Leon swallowed hard. God. Seeing you cry now, fully yourself again, nearly undid him worse than the gun ever had.

"Hey," he breathed. "I'm so proud of you."

The softness in his voice hurt worse than the parasite did. Your vision blurred. His forehead nearly touched yours now, his breathing uneven from adrenaline he was trying very hard not to show.

"You with me, sweetheart?"

Another sob broke loose from your chest. This time, when you looked at him, you were really looking at him. Recognition flickered across Leon's face so fast it almost looked painful.

"There you are," he whispered again.

Leon didn't let go of your face right away. His hands stayed cupped around your cheeks like he was afraid the second he moved, something would take you from him again. The torches on the wall pulsed across his features in uneven flashes, painting exhaustion into the lines of his face. Up close, you could see how hard he was breathing now. How tightly wound every muscle in his body had become. Not fear for himself. Fear for you.

"Talk to me," he said softly.

Your throat felt scraped raw. "I'm here."

Relief flickered across his expression so quickly it almost hurt to look at. Then Ashley screamed again. The sound snapped both of you back into reality.

"Leon!"

He cursed under his breath and finally pulled away, though one hand lingered briefly at your shoulder like he needed the reassurance that you were still standing there. Still yourself.

"You okay to move?"

You nodded too fast. The motion made the room sway unpleasantly. The parasite still writhed somewhere deep inside your skull, quieter now but not gone. Waiting. Watching. Leon noticed immediately.

His brow furrowed. "Hey." His voice dropped again, gentler this time. "Don't push yourself."

A shaky laugh escaped you before you could stop it. "Little late for that, don't you think?"

For the first time since this nightmare started, the corner of his mouth twitched upward. Tiny. Brief. Fragile as paper. Then another distant crash echoed through the facility, and the moment shattered.

Leon grabbed the pistol from the floor, quickly clearing the jam with practiced hands before reholstering it. His movements were efficient, automatic, but you noticed the way his fingers trembled afterward. Barely noticeable. The kind of thing most people wouldn't catch. You caught it. His eyes met yours for half a second. Neither of you mentioned it.

"C'mon," he said, already moving toward Ashley's voice. "Stay close to me."

The corridors twisted endlessly through the island facility, all cold steel and flickering lights. Somewhere overhead, alarms blared in uneven bursts. The entire structure felt unstable now, like the island itself knew it was dying.

You stayed at Leon's side while the parasite clawed at the edges of your thoughts the entire way. Sometimes it was only whispers. Sometimes it was worse.

A cultist lunged from a side hallway, screeching in Spanish as he swung a rusted pipe toward Leon's head. Leon dropped him with a single shot before you could even react, the gunfire deafening in the narrow corridor. The body hit the ground hard. Your stomach twisted violently. Not from the blood. From the sudden pulse of hunger that wasn't yours.

Your face must've betrayed something because his expression sharpened with concern. "You still with me?"

You swallowed hard and nodded once. "Yeah."

It wasn't a complete lie. He studied you for another second before offering his hand. Not because you couldn't walk alone. Just because. You took it, and somehow that made it easier to breathe.

By the time you found Ashley, the facility was falling apart around you. The deeper levels groaned like a sinking ship, stone walls shuddering at distant explosions that sent pale gray curtains of dust raining from the ceiling. Emergency sirens wailed overhead in harsh, uneven bursts.

Leon moved fast through it all. Even exhausted, even infected, he cut through the collapsing facility with relentless focus. One hand stayed near his pistol while the other kept brushing against your arm, your shoulder, the small of your back. Quick grounding touches. Little silent checks to make sure you were still there. Still yourself. Every time the parasite stirred inside your head, those touches became anchors.

Ashley's voice echoed somewhere ahead. "Leon!"

Relief flashed across his face so suddenly it almost looked painful.

"There," he said, already breaking into a run.

You followed close behind him through another narrow corridor before the hallway opened into a security checkpoint lined with overturned equipment and flickering monitors. Sparks showered from exposed wiring near the ceiling, filling the air with the sharp smell of burning metal.

Ashley stood behind a heavy security gate at the far end of the room. The second she saw Leon, she stumbled toward the bars. "Leon!"

"I'm here." The words left him instantly, firm and reassuring despite the exhaustion grinding through his voice.

Ashley gripped the metal bars so tightly her knuckles turned white. Her blond hair was disheveled, strands stuck to her damp cheeks, and her breathing came too fast. Fear still clung to her visibly. Then her eyes found you standing beside him. The relief on her face faltered. Not because she was afraid of you. Because she recognized the look in your eyes.

"Oh no," she whispered.

You knew exactly what she saw. The lingering haze. The exhaustion. The terrible awareness of something foreign moving beneath your thoughts like a parasite swimming under skin. The black veins that had taken over your face.

Ashley's expression softened immediately. "You too?"

You nodded once. A distant explosion shook the room hard enough to rattle the bars between you.

Leon was already moving toward the nearby control panel, scanning it quickly. "Lock's electronic," he muttered. "Give me a second." His fingers flew over the damaged keypad while sparks hissed overhead.

You leaned heavily against a nearby desk, suddenly dizzy again. The parasite twisted sharply inside your skull. Pain lanced behind your eyes. Your breath caught.

Not now. Please not now.

You squeezed your eyes shut hard enough to see bursts of white across your vision. The whispers started immediately afterward, slithering through your thoughts in a voice that wasn't a voice at all.

He cannot save you.

Your stomach turned violently. Across the room, Leon glanced back instantly. The gate unlocked with a loud metallic clunk at the exact same moment Ashley pushed through it.

"Hey," Leon said sharply, abandoning the control panel the second he saw your expression. "Talk to me."

You tried, but nothing came out except a weak gasp. Ashley reached you first. Her hands caught your arms gently before your knees could give out completely. "It's okay," she said quickly, though her own voice shook. "I know. I know."

Leon crouched in front of you a second later. The concern in his eyes hit harder than the pain did. "Look at me, sweetheart."

The parasite writhed furiously at the sound of his voice. You forced yourself to focus on him anyway. On the familiar scrape of stubble along his jaw. The loose strand of blond hair falling over his forehead. The steady warmth of his hands gripping your shoulders. Reality.

You clung to it desperately. "I'm okay," you lied weakly.

Leon looked unconvinced in the most Leon Kennedy way possible. Quietly. Intensely. Like he was cataloging every tiny fracture in your expression and deciding which ones scared him most.

Before he could answer, the facility lurched violently again. The shake of the walls blew out a few of the torches. For one fleeting second, the softer light made Leon look less like a government agent and more like a tired man being asked to carry far too much.

"Okay," he said, standing quickly. "We move now."

None of you argued. The three of you pushed deeper into the facility together, weaving through collapsing corridors and abandoned houses while the island crumbled around you piece by piece. Ganados still wandered the halls in scattered groups, their movements jerky and violent under the parasite's control.

Every encounter felt uglier now. More desperate. Leon protected both of you almost mechanically at this point. A knife buried into a cultist's throat before they could grab Ashley. A quick gunshot to another's knee when it lunged toward you from the shadows. Every motion efficient. Precise. And it killed you that you couldn't help like before.

But exhaustion was catching up to him. You noticed it in the slight delay before he lowered his gun after each fight. The heavier rise and fall of his chest. The way his left hand occasionally pressed against the wall for balance when he thought neither of you were looking. The parasite inside him was getting worse, too. Nobody said it aloud. Nobody needed to.

By the time you finally reached the laboratory, all three of you looked half-dead. The surgical room waiting beyond the steel doors looked cold and inhuman beneath fluorescent lighting. Metal instruments gleamed from nearby trays. Wires coiled across the floor like nests of snakes.

Ashley stopped short beside you. "This place..." she whispered.

Leon stared toward the operating machine at the center of the room. Then he looked back at both of you. For the first time since this nightmare began, real uncertainty crossed his face. Not fear. Something quieter.

"You don't have to do this alone," you said softly.

His eyes snapped to yours. Something shifted there immediately. Something fragile, exhausted, and deeply human. Then Ashley stepped forward too, swallowing hard before forcing a nervous little smile.

"We'll get through it together," she said.

Leon looked at both of you for a long moment. Then he exhaled quietly through his nose, almost like he was letting himself believe that for the first time.

"Yeah," he murmured.

The operating room smelled sterile, yet couldn't quite hide the rot beneath. Bleach. Burned wires. Old blood. The machine at the center of the lab loomed beneath dim lights, all metal restraints and mechanical arms, humming softly with dormant power. It looked less like medical equipment and more like something built to interrogate people until they stopped being human.

Ashley stared at it with open dread. Leon stared at it like he was already calculating survival odds. A low tremor rolled through the facility again, rattling trays of surgical instruments hard enough to make them clatter against one another. Somewhere far above, another explosion boomed through the island. Time was running out.

Luis's notes were scattered across a nearby workstation, pages covered in frantic handwriting and half-finished diagrams. Leon moved toward them immediately, scanning through the information with narrowed eyes while Ashley hovered anxiously beside him.

You stayed near the doorway for a moment, one hand pressed against the wall to steady yourself as another pulse of nausea rolled through your body. The parasite was angry. You could feel it, like it knew what was coming.

Leon flipped through another page before speaking quietly. "The machine uses focused radiation to kill Las Plagas."

Ashley swallowed hard. "Radiation?"

"It's our only shot," he said. "And we need it before she... kills me."

You noticed the hesitation there. The uncertainty. None of this came with guarantees. It made you feel awful, but he wasn't wrong. Any minute, that parasite, Saddler, could make you do something unspeakable.

Leon looked back toward you then, and the guarded expression on his face softened immediately when he noticed how pale you'd gotten. "We need to hurry."

You nodded weakly. "I'm dizzy."

That wasn't the truth, exactly. The truth was that it felt like something inside your skull was clawing desperately to survive. Every thought hurt. Your heartbeat felt wrong. Your skin burned with fever one second and chilled the next. And underneath all of it lived the horrible fear that maybe you were already losing too much of yourself.

Leon crossed the room before you could drift any further into the thought. His hand settled carefully against the back of your neck. Warm. Steady.

"Hey," he murmured. "Stay with me."

The softness in his voice nearly undid you.

You looked up at him, exhausted enough now that it hurt to keep pretending you weren't terrified. "What if it doesn't work?"

The question came out smaller than you intended. Ashley looked down immediately, her expression tightening. Leon didn't.

His thumb brushed lightly against your neck once before falling away. "It will."

You searched his face for even a shred of doubt. Found none. Maybe he was lying. Maybe he believed it because he needed to. Either way, you held onto the certainty in his voice like a lifeline. Another violent tremor shook the room. Dust sifted from the ceiling.

Leon straightened immediately, survival instincts snapping back into place. "Ashley goes first."

"What?" she said quickly. "No, you should."

"Ashley." His tone ended the argument before it could start.

Reluctantly, she climbed onto the machine. The process was awful to watch. The mechanical arms locked into place around her while harsh light flooded the chamber, forcing Ashley to bite back cries of pain as the parasite fought violently inside her body. Leon stayed beside the controls the entire time, jaw tight, eyes fixed on her with unwavering focus. And when it was finally over, Ashley nearly collapsed stepping off the platform.

Leon caught her immediately. "You okay?"

Ashley laughed weakly through exhausted tears. "I think so."

Relief flickered across his face. Real relief this time. One down. Then his attention shifted toward you. The room suddenly felt colder. You stared at the machine while dread pooled heavily in your stomach. Leon noticed. Of course he did.

"Sweetheart."

Your eyes lifted toward him.

"It's gonna hurt," he admitted quietly. "But I need you to trust me, okay?"

God. Even now, he asked instead of demanded.

You nodded slowly. "I trust you."

Something moved across his expression at that. Quick and almost wounded. Then he helped you onto the platform. His hands stayed on your arms longer than necessary while he adjusted the restraints carefully, like he hated every second of this already.

"You ready?" he asked softly.

No. Not even close.

But you looked at him anyway and whispered, "Yeah."

The machine roared to life. Pain hit instantly. A scream tore from your throat before you could stop it. Every nerve in your body ignited at once as the parasite fought desperately to survive, thrashing violently inside your skull like something drowning. Your vision blurred white-hot. You could hear yourself crying out somewhere far away.

And through all of it, you heard Leon's voice. "You're okay."

Another surge of agony ripped through you.

"C'mon, sweetheart."

Your hands strained uselessly against the restraints.

"It's almost over."

The parasite shrieked inside your head. Then suddenly, horribly, wonderfully... Silence. Its absence nearly hurt more. The machine powered down slowly. Your body went limp instantly afterward, trembling violently from exhaustion.

"Easy," Leon said quickly.

Strong hands caught you before you could fall off the platform entirely. For a second, all you could do was breathe. No whispers. No pressure behind your eyes. No foreign thing twisting your thoughts into knots.

"It's gone," you whispered hoarsely.

Ashley laughed somewhere nearby, sounding half on the verge of tears herself. Leon didn't answer right away. You looked up just in time to catch the expression on his face. More relief. Pure, overwhelming relief. Like he'd been holding his breath this entire time.

His forehead dipped briefly against yours before he seemed to realize he was doing it. "You scared the hell outta me," he murmured.

The confession slipped out so quietly it almost sounded accidental.

Your chest tightened painfully. "I'm sorry, Lee."

His brows pulled together immediately. "Don't do that."

"What?"

"Apologizing."

His hand rose to your face again automatically, thumb brushing beneath your eye where tears had dried against your skin.

"You fought it," he said softly. "I know you did."

"Your turn." Ashley pointed at Leon.

You squeezed his arm before he lay down on the table. He took a few deep breaths before the machine did its job. Leon bit back a yell for fear of startling you and Ashley. When it was over, he sat up and looked between you.

"Let's get the hell outta here."

The escape from the island blurred together afterward in flashes of chaos. Collapsing walkways. Smoke choking the air. The roar of distant explosions shook the cliffs beneath your feet, while Leon kept all three of you moving forward through sheer stubbornness alone.

By the time you finally reached the shoreline, dawn had started bleeding slowly across the horizon. The sky over the water glowed soft blue and pale gold, the first real sunlight any of you had seen in what felt like years.

Ashley collapsed into the boat first with a groan. "I am never coming to Europe again."

Leon snorted quietly as he helped you in after her. The engine sputtered to life beneath his hands. Then the island began collapsing behind you for real. Fire climbed into the morning sky in massive waves while the distant facility crumbled inward piece by piece, swallowed by smoke and ocean spray. Nobody spoke for a while. There wasn't anything left to say.

The cold wind coming off the water tangled through Leon's hair while he guided the boat forward across the open sea. Exhaustion sat heavily across his features now that adrenaline was finally fading. Still, every few seconds, his eyes drifted toward you. Checking you out. Making sure you were still there with him.

Eventually, Ashley fell asleep curled against the side of the boat, worn out beyond consciousness. The engine hummed steadily beneath the silence afterward. You shifted slightly closer to Leon without really thinking about it. His gaze flickered toward you immediately.

"You okay?"

You smiled faintly despite yourself. "You ask that a lot."

"Pretty sure that's in both job descriptions somewhere," he murmured.

You smiled faintly. "Yeah?"

A small, crooked smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Federal agent and boyfriend."

The tiny joke sounded rough around the edges from everything you'd just been through. There was another long stretch where neither of you spoke. Then Leon finally exhaled quietly and leaned back in his seat, eyes drifting toward the horizon.

The sunrise painted gold across the ocean around you. It was peaceful, almost impossible after everything that had happened just hours before. He looked handsome... the light hit his face so beautifully.

"You know," he said softly, "when you pointed that gun at me..."

Your stomach twisted instantly.

Leon noticed and shook his head before you could say anything. "I wasn't scared of you."

The words settled heavily into the space between you. "I knew you were fighting it."

Emotion clogged painfully in your throat. "You could've died. I could've... I could've killed you."

"Yeah." A tired little smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Wouldn't be my first bad day."

You let out a weak laugh that turned suspiciously emotional halfway through. Leon's expression softened immediately. Then, very gently, he reached over, took your hand, and pulled it to his mouth. Just a gentle kiss to the back of your hand, full of warmth. His thumb brushed slowly across your knuckles while the boat carried all three of you farther away from the nightmare behind you.

Safe. Finally safe. Leon looked at you for a long, quiet moment beneath the growing morning light. Then he smiled. Small. Real. And devastating enough to make your chest ache.

"Told you we'd make it," he murmured.

-

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