the light in the darkest of nights | part one
SERIES SYNOPSIS: While you've worked for the DSO as an office rat and occasional liaison for random agents for a handful of years, you never had the pleasure to meet Leon Kennedy, the DSO's greatest, and your closest friend's pseudo brother. That is, until a phone call from Sherry in the middle of the night pleaded for you to fill in for her as she gets called out to the field while Leon is on a mission of his own. The more time you spend as his eagle eye, the more things start to make sense as you begin to understand the myth of the man. But what you don't understand, are the feelings that you begin to develop for him, despite only talking to him through a headset. And while you struggle with the morality of having feelings for a man old enough to be your father, you make the unfortunate mistake of stumbling across something dark and hidden in the DSO chain of command, causing the balance of your life to fall apart.
WARNINGS: re!9, older leon, older man/younger woman, angst, strangers to friends to lovers, dsoagent!reader, hurt/comfort, leon is bad at feelings, sherry is the best wing woman, swearing, canon typical violence, other tags tba
WORD COUNT: 2,082
MINORS & AGE-LESS BLOGS DO NOT INTERACT. YOU WILL BE BLOCKED. YOUR AGE MUST BE SOMEWHERE IN YOUR BIO OR YOUR BYF.
SERIES MATERLIST | NEXT CHAPTER | READ ON AO3
The shrill ring of your phone startled you out of a deep sleep. Your heart raced violently in your chest as you flailed in the darkness for the bright white screen. You could barely make out the bright white letters of Sherry’s name, making you groan. It didn’t matter what the reason was for her calling you in the middle of the night; you were going to kill her.
You sighed and slid the green icon over, bringing the phone up to your ear.
“Sherry, what the fuck is your problem? Do you have any idea what time it is?”
“I know, I’m sorry, but it’s an emergency. I’m getting sent out to the field, and Hunnigan is still out on medical leave. I need you to fill in for me as Leon’s liaison while I’m away.”
Now you were awake. Without thinking, you jolted up and ripped your sheets off of you, throwing yourself out of bed. You stumbled in the dark as you reached for your closet door.
“Jesus, fuck,” you swore as you nearly twisted your ankle, “now? Like this second? Where is he?”
“He’s still en route to his destination, thank, God, but I can’t leave my desk until you get here.”
You rummaged through your closet, squinting in the dark as you tried to grab something acceptable to wear to the office. Miraculously, you were able to find your black v-neck and a pair of dark wash jeans. You threw Sherry onto speaker phone while you got changed, shucking off your sleep shorts and shirt.
“How fast do I need to be there? Do I at least have time to stop and get some caffeine? You know I won’t be any use of Leon if I’m going through caffein withdrawals.”
“Actually, Renee just left to get you breakfast, so don’t worry about that. Just get here as soon as you can.”
You could cry with joy. Renee was absolutely getting a wet kiss from you.
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be there in twenty.”
“Make it fifteen.”
The line went dead.
You were practically sweating as you raced through your room, hobbling as you tried to slip on your black pumps. Thankfully, your travel toiletry bag was still stocked, so you made sure to grab that along with your gray blazer, purse, and keys before rushing out of your apartment like your ass was on fire.
The only good thing about driving to work at two in the morning was that there was no traffic to fight with like you normally had to in the mornings, so you did in fact make it in fifteen minutes.
The most you could do for your looks at this hour was to try and wipe away the grease with your hand and tie your hair back. Granted, it wasn’t like you were going to be leaving Sherry’s enclosed office once you got there, but still. You were just glad you thought to bring your toiletry bag.
Renee was already waiting for you in the lobby as you stepped off the elevator, and you couldn’t help but smile to yourself at seeing her dressed casually. She was usually dressed in some sort of pencil skirt and blazer duo, so seeing her in something comfortable made her more human to you.
But alas, she had a Red Bull and a breakfast sandwich in hand. She even put it in your hard covered koozie that you leave in your desk.
“Renee, I could kiss you right now.”
She raised a black brow at you. “Please don’t. Just a thank you is enough. Besides, you’re the one doing us a favor. You were the only one that Sherry vouched for to come in at this hour, and you didn’t disappoint.”
Your heart swelled a bit at hearing that Sherry trusted you to take this on. While you would still kill her for calling you at that ungodly hour, you would still do whatever she needed of you, just like she did for you. Just like the two of you have always done.
“Of course. I’ll help wherever I can.”
Your manager gave you a slight smile and handed off your breakfast to you before turning down the hallway towards Sherry’s office. It was a bit odd seeing the office so dark and empty. It felt like you were still dreaming.
“Kennedy is on his way to a small town outside of Redding where we’ve received intel on none other than Imperfina experimenting to create bioweapons,” Renee explained. “His objective is to neutralize the lab and report back on any other findings he may come across. You’re not green to providing field agents support, but Agent Kennedy’s style is a bit unorthodox. I’m not sure what all Sherry has provided, but he can be quite the lone wolf when it comes to his ops.”
While Sherry had spoken about Leon occasionally, she never went into detail about how their ops together went. You were aware that they’d run into issues with the DSO being infiltrated before, but you never took it to heart that she didn’t confide in you about any details in their interactions during his missions. You had a vague idea of how they knew each other, privy to only that they were both survivors of the Raccoon City Incident, as the government had dubbed it. You never pushed on trying to find out more, keeping any questions to yourself when a haunted look would pass over Sherry’s face.
Sherry’s door was open as you and Renee walked up to it, and you could see her flitting around the room, packing a bag. She was dressed in a worn pair of jeans, a gray hoodie, and a brown jacket over it. The clicking of your heels tipped her off to your arrival, her head snapping up. She smiled and sat her bag down in her chair.
“Told you that you’d make it in fifteen.”
“Evidently you’re clairvoyant,” you threw back as you entered her office. “How long do you think you’ll be away?”
“If all goes well, shouldn’t be more than a couple of days, but we know our luck.”
“So, I’ll be stuck in this office for a month. Got it.”
Sherry rolled her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips. “You’re so dramatic. It’s just a retrieval op. In and out, so it shouldn’t be so bad.”
“Whatever you say, Birkin. I’ll hold down the fort while you’re gone. Leon’s in safe hands.”
Sherry smiled and pulled you in for a brief hug.
“I know he is,” she said before pulling back and grabbing her backpack. “I’ll see you later. Good luck.”
You stepped to the side to let her through. “You too.”
Sherry gave a small smile before walking out of the room, leaving just you and Renee.
Your manager turned to you now. “No one should bother you while you’re here. Leon has been made aware of the change, and should still be en route right now, so please feel free to use the showers to freshen up before you can’t.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll do that. Thanks.”
“No problem. Now, I’m going to go home and sleep for a bit longer, but if you need something, text me if it’s not urgent and it can wait until later and call me if it’s dire. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
Renee gave a slight wave before disappearing down the hallway, leaving you in Sherry’s golden-lit office. She had a small lamp lit in the corner of her desk, and various potted plants situated around the room. Warm, but not too much to crowd the smaller room.
You dropped your bag on the ground near the door and pulled out your laptop along with your toiletry bag and set the laptop on the desk before heading to the showers.
After a quick shower and clean up, you settled into Sherry’s chair and plugged your laptop into the dock, powering it on. You made quick work of unlocking it and logging in to the VPN, all the while cracking open your Red Bull and starting to munch down on your breakfast sandwich. The first sip always made you feel like a real human again, and you sighed, a smile on your face. You couldn’t help but hum while you pulled the headset on. It might be only two in the morning, but with a little caffeine and greasy food, you might be able to tolerate it.
The DSO insignia lit up the screen as you loaded the program to communicate with Leon, waiting as the link attempted to connect. The loading screen completed with opening Leon’s tracker, messages, and any notes and logs from previous ops. You looked at his tracker first, noting that he was already in northern Cali and en route to his final destination.
You reached to enabled voice communication but hesitated. It was hitting you that were acting eagle eye for the Leon Kennedy, the golden DSO veteran and living legend. Did Sherry make the right choice calling you in for this? What if something went wrong? You didn’t think you could look at yourself in the mirror if you let Sherry down, let Leon down.
You dropped your hand, taking in a shaky breath, the weight of the situation finally coming down on you. What if you said the wrong thing or sounded stupid? Not that you ever said the wrong thing to a field agent as their acting liaison, but this is Leon we’re talking about. He’d been through and seen everything, and with Sherry as his go-to, he would absolutely have a specific and preferred process, but none of that was specified to you before she left.
But he made that decision for you.
“Sierra-Zero to base.”
You jumped in your seat, hands flailing through the air as you were caught completely off guard at the gruff voice that came through the headset, nearly whispering into your ears. You enabled your comms before you could think any longer on it.
“Base to Sierra-Zero. Status check.”
“Base, five minutes to destination,” he answered after a few seconds, but you didn’t say anything right after, like you suddenly couldn’t even think about what you should be asking him next. But you guessed that maybe he could catch you up to speed since that was not done for you before Sherry and Renee left.
“Copy. Where are we headed?”
“I’m scheduled to meet with our informant at a diner on the edge of town. We’ll reconvene from there.”
Short and to the point. Expected.
“Heard. I’m assuming we vetted the contact before arranging the meet?”
“You haven’t worked many high-profile ops, have you?”
The question caught you off guard, and you could practically feel your brain rebooting to try and answer it.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Leon huffed, but it was so quiet that you were sure you weren’t supposed to hear it.
“In my line, there is no vetting. There’s only do it or lose it.”
“But what if it’s a set up?”
“That’s why they give me hazard pay.”
You couldn’t help but snort at that. “Fair enough. Dumb question.”
“Not dumb. You just didn’t know. No harm in asking.”
Why did that make something stir in your chest and your cheeks flush? It was ridiculous, you were being ridiculous. Get a grip.
“Right, uh, I have the camera feeds of the diner pulled up. Any indication of what the informant looks like?”
“They stated that they would be in booth near the back corner of the building with their back to the door. No indication of age, race, nor gender.”
You scanned the restaurant through the CCTV’s grainy feed, spotting a middle-aged woman.
“Located. Middle Eastern woman, mid-thirties to late forties with her hair tied back in a low bun. She’s wearing a brown trench coat and black shades, sitting in the southwest corner.”
Leon hummed in acknowledgement. “That was quick.”
“I may not as experienced with being a liaison as Sherry, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing,” you defended with a smile, eyes skimming over the rest of the diner.
Leon chuckled, making your heart stutter. “Didn’t say you didn’t. But I’m pulling into the parking lot now. Sierra-Zero, out.”
His line went silent, and you leaned back in your chair, wiping your hand down your face.
You didn’t know it quite yet, but you had a feeling already that you were fucked.