After Claire finished changing Leon's bandages and freshened up herself they both agreed they needed to get some food in themselves fast. Waking up their little companion proved to be the hard part.

"Sherry sweetie we need to go get food" Claire said softly while giving the girl a light nudge, it didn't seem to work much as the younger girl mumbled something unintelligible and turned away from Claire's voice. Not to be defeated though, she gave Leon a look that suggested she had a cheeky idea.

"Hey Leon, you mentioned that you wanted some donuts right?" She said in one of those loud voices everybody does when they want you to play along.

"Oh...oh yeah! Ive...got a real craving for some" it wasn't admittedly his best or most convincing performance but he gave it a go. It worked though as Sherry turned over and opened her eyes and said in a tired voice.

"Can we...maybe get some too Claire?" Her hesitant but hopeful little voice made the older girl smile.

"Sure! but we will have to be quick to beat Leon, you know how much cops like donuts right?!" She told her in a purposefully loud whisper. Leon spluttered indignantly but his protests were drowned out by Sherry leaping up "Im up Im up! Lets goooo!" She grabbed Claire's hand and drags her towards the door.

Claire laughs as she's pulled along and turns back to Leon and shrugs as she's pulled out the door. He just shakes his head "Huh, women." He mutters to himself with a small smile as he follows behind and locks the door behind him. The girls are already browsing the shelves of the gas station store by the time he gets there, little Sherry carrying a basket and everything. Claire turns him.

"What took you so long rookie?" She says cheekily. He grins.

"The last time I entered a gas station after you we ended up fighting for our lives" she laughs and moves closer to him and whispers.

"I could shout don't shoot if that would help?" something about their proximity and the way she whispered gave him goosebumps. He whispers back.

"Only if you let me shout get down and then let me save your ass" he grins cockily thinking he won this one, but as usual she's one step ahead.

"There is no way I will be letting you drive the getaway vehicle again Mr Kennedy" she pats his cheek sarcastically and walks off laughing and he can do nothing but shout after her.

"Hey that was not my fault!" She waves her hand dismissively, they both know she got him good. Damn this girl is something else.

He follows along behind them till he notices Sherry struggling with the basket.

"Want me to take over there little lady?" Her little face lit up at what he just called her and nodded shyly, she hands him the basket and he examines the contents.

"This has to be the unhealthiest basket of food I've ever seen" he teases her and ruffles her hair, she giggles and swats it away.

"Claire said the best medicine for a bad day was fatty foods!" She told him. He nodded.

"Claire is a very wise woman, but we are all gonna be a little fatter tomorrow" Ironically just as he says this Claire throws a bag of Cheetos in the basket.

"We can always take a run after if you're worried" she tells him. He pretends to consider it and turns to Sherry.

"Watcha think Sherry?" the young girl grabs his hand and shakes her head.

"No! My feet will drop off!" All three of them burst out laughing. They pay for their shopping and leave.

The sun is just setting as they make their way across the road back to their room. As they climb the steps Claire looks back towards the gas station and pauses, almost twenty-four hours ago she was pulling up at a gas station exactly like it, clueless about what was about to happen or how much everything was about to change. She had spent a lot of time in Raccoon City, practically lived there when it was summer break from college. She knew quite a few of Chris' friends and co-workers, well the STARS team anyway. Now it was all gone, and she was no longer the person she was yesterday. College girl biker chick Claire was gone with it.

"Claire, you okay?" His soft voice breaking her out of her thoughts, he looked like he knew exactly what she had been thinking. She nodded.

"Yeah...yeah just give me a few minutes" he nodded back and took Sherry inside. Claire sat on the steps and pulled the silver badge she had found in the STARS office out from the RPD side pouch she had been using, she flipped the switch turning it into the dongle she knew it to be. She hadn't had time to examine the files on it when she was in the station, but she was sure some of the answers she was looking for were on it. Footsteps behind her let her know he was coming before he sat down next to her. She looked at him and he gave her a soft smile.

"Put some crappy cartoon on and let her open the cheetos, she's happy as can be" he chuckled and noticed what she had in her hands "What you got there?" He asked, she passed it to him and he examined it, tracing his fingers across the STARS logo.

"Probably the key to understanding some of this mess, plus it opened the armory in the STARS office. Without it I'd never have seen the letter that told me Chris was in Europe" Leon gave her a funny look as she said that, and started digging round in his side pack, finally pulling out a piece of paper that was crumpled and folded a bunch of times. He handed it to her.

"You mean this letter?" She unfolded it and read it, it was the exact one. She looked at him in amazement.

"I regretted not taking it with me! What made you keep it?" He looked at her sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck before saying.

"I didn't know if you'd seen it and I kinda was banking on...well, hoping Id run into you at some point in the station to give it to you, I kinda...liked the idea of being the one to solve the mystery for you" Claire was so unbelievably moved by the gesture, knowing he had been thinking of her she felt tears welling up in her eyes that she desperately tried to fight back.

"Thank you. That means a-lot to me." She gives him an attempt at a smile and he nods and returns it. He can't decide if he should comfort her or not, she turns away and reads the letter again. They sit quietly a few moments when he decides to fill the silence.

"So Chris is either a-bit of a dick...or he's talking in code, right" she gives a half-hearted laugh at this.

"Chris definitely does NOT speak like this. He would never say in a letter to Jill about getting it on with another girl, he's had a crush on Jill since the moment he met her and-" she pauses, it suddenly dawning on her "This letter was sent to Jill! Chris was sure she would still be in the city!" Guilt washed over her like a cold wave.

"Jill must have been in the station at some point! What if she needed help? I should have looked for her, I should have-" Leon put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him, trying his best to calm her before she became hysterical.

"Just breath okay? Jill's STARS. They are the best of the best, if we survived, there's every chance she could have" he rubbed soothingly on her arm and she rested her head on his shoulder and he rested his head on top of hers. Come on Claire, You're better than this. You've never been a sit and cry kinda girl. She berated herself mentally.

"Sorry, I was being stupid. Im usually the tough tomboy girl...I don't feel so tough at the moment"

"Hey don't apologise, you're like the toughest person I've ever met. You got yourself and a young girl out of there with a couple of scrapes and bruises. You're a badass Claire" she chuckled softly at his words and looked up at him, his eyes shined with such sincerity, such belief in her that it made her breathless. I wanna kiss him. She knew for sure in that moment she was beginning to fall for Leon Kennedy. But after what he told me about that Ada... she looked away from him. What she didn't see was a brief flash of disappointment on his face. He was sooo sure they were having a moment.

"Claire?"

"Mhm?"

"What happens now? What do we do next?"

"Well we need to get Sherry somewhere safe and far away from here and then...I need to go find my brother."

"Il come with you. I want to help."

"I can't ask you to do that Leon, and someone will need to look after Sherry?"

"We'll figure something out. I cant...I won't let you do this on your own. We're a team now" It was the most determined she had ever heard him speak. She didn't want to argue with him, especially when what he was saying was so sweet that it made her heart pound.

"Well we don't need to think about that right now. Sherry is the priority at the moment and I don't even know where to begin looking for Chris anyway, Europe's a big place if he's even still there."

She gets up and offers her hand to help him up "come on we better get back before she eats all my cheetos" he laughs and takes her outstretched hand.

They sat and ate their crappy foods and laughed and teased each other. After her momentary emotional collapse earlier, this was exactly what Claire needed. She looked at her two companions with renewed eyes. One little girl she felt an overwhelming urge to protect, and one gorgeous, sweet guy who was slowly becoming her shoulder to lean on. Could I leave them behind to go searching the world for Chris? Maybe as little as a couple of hours earlier the answer to that was much easier. Chris was her family and she would do anything for him but... I could see Leon and Sherry as my family too. She felt a hand squeeze hers and followed it to its owners eyes, Leon's eyes.

"Your in your head again" he smiled softly, there was an unspoken are you okay? behind it.

"I was just thinking, I think everything's going to be o-"

"Claire-" the little voice sounded so broken and on the edge of tears both their attentions immediately focused on the young girl. She had the remote in her hand and was staring at the tv screen, Claire turned and saw the news on the screen.

Breaking News: President orders missile strike on Raccoon City.

These 3 just kill me ughhh! Hope you enjoyed this chapter please leave comments it means the world to me! :)