Author's note: This fic is the longest archived story I've had to date. The story had remained unfinished indefinitely but I gave it another go after multiple unsuccessful gos and thank the heavens, I somehow got me a fic with a beginning, middle, and end!

Plot is post-RE4.

Hazards

It was one of those mornings when Leon half wanted to stay sleeping. He felt he deserved R&R. He had rescued the president's daughter from Salazar and all was good. Perhaps if he stopped falling asleep on his living room couch and actually tripped into his bed, his body wouldn't feel so disjointed.

He pushed himself up to a sitting position and rubbed his face with a hand. He glanced across the room to the TV and suppressed a morning expletive at a startle. In front of the TV stood the president's daughter. "This is a dream," he murmured. "Ashley Graham has come out of my TV set."

"No it isn't," the said girl replied, her hands akimbo. Her short blond hair shook from side to side when she added, "I'm real, and I've been calling your name forever. I didn't think you'd wake up. It's not morning anymore. You're like a zombie."

Improve your mood, improve your mood, Leon reminded himself. Disoriented at the unexpected visit in his own home to which Ashley had no key to, he asked, "You have no idea about zombies. And how did you get in here? I could report you for breaking and entering."

"You can't report me because I didn't break anything. Your door was unlocked."

"Unlocked? What?" A congratulatory party in honor of Leon's heroism in saving Ashley had took place the night before. Victory drinks were shared, and while Leon wasn't the type to drink himself into a stupor, his need for relaxation after the mission was, in his opinion, crucial. So, he imbibed the alcohol and discussions rolled off his tongue. Hours later, here he was, feeling way too lousy for the mild number of drinks he had. Apparently, he must've been too oblivious to remember locking his front door when he came inside.

"Your door was op-en," Ashley elucidated, as if he were hard of hearing.

Still in his jeans and a rumpled t-shirt from the previous day, Leon stood and stretched. As he crossed the room, he smirked. "You didn't do anything illicit to me while I was sleeping?" The furious blush his words caused made his morning. His mood was so much better and he didn't care if she answered or not.

She chose to ignore his comment. "My father wants to talk to you. He was going to send over one of the messengers he likes to dispatch to you, but I thought you'd like to see me in the morning instead of a guy you don't know the name of."

"So, you wanted to see me because of my irresistible charm you just had to encounter again?" He raised an eyebrow provocatively. He absolutely lived to watch Ashley flush twenty deeper shades of pink. The grin was still on his lips when he said, "How considerate of you. Continue to be considerate and wait here while I get ready." Leon went to his room and got a change of clothes before heading to the bathroom. One shower later, he came back into the living room. Ashley was pacing around his coffee table. His eyes flicked down at the sound of a light jangle from charms that lined a gold chain looped her waist. Girls and their accessories, he thought amusingly.

"C'mon, c'mon. Let's go." Strangely excited, Ashley hopped and latched onto Leon's arm. She started to drag him when he protested, "Whoa, what's the rush? I need coffee before I meet with your father."

"You caffeine addict. Get it on the way to my place. I'll even buy you a donut to go with it." Ashley kept pulling. Leon managed to slip on his shoes on the way out. In his car, Leon drove them to a coffee shop and placed an order to go. True to her word, Ashley chipped in the cash for his complimentary donut, but not until she told him she wanted one too. Seated in the car, Leon sipped a stinging but blissful hot mouthful of coffee. "Why are you so eager for me to go?"

"My father's got something important to tell you." Ashley, being proper and neat, spread her napkin over her lap to ironically eat the messiest of donuts: the jelly-filled kind.

"That's never concerned you before."

"He won't tell me what it's about."

"Classified information, I see. It must be heartbreaking."

Ashley paused, and Leon looked over curiously. Shyly, she moved a shoulder and stared at her donut. "Well, it's about you. You did save me from Saddler and those other creeps. I want to know what you're getting yourself into next, that's all."

Leon nodded in understanding as he chewed. Inside, he was pleased to hear her say that. Maybe this was the kind of appreciation Luis had meant in their first meeting. The Spaniard had lamented the non-existent thanks cops received when they helped civilians out. Leon never thought about the issue that way, but he knew dissatisfaction wasn't a feeling he associated with being an ex-cop, and now a working agent for the president.

"I mean, if I can help out in some way, I don't mind," Ashley was saying. "It's the least I can do." She glanced over at him and held up her pastry. "Try my jelly donut?"

"I'm a glazed man." He demonstrated by showing his napkin-wrapped delicacy.

"You need to expand your horizons and experience the joy that is a jelly donut, Leon. Have a bite. I don't offer my treats to just anyone, you know. You should feel honored."

Knowing her stubbornness could keep him from sticking his keys into the ignition ever again, Leon rolled his eyes and complied. The snack was too sweet for his palate and the red goo in the middle did not bode well with his stomach, but he didn't comment. "There ya go." He finished his breakfast and pulled out onto the road.

By the time Ashley opened the door to her place and the two of them breezed inside, Leon was happily awake. Ashley led him to her father's office and they were beckoned in.

"Good morning, sir," Leon greeted the president formally.

Behind a pair of reading spectacles, the president's green eyes crinkled as he smiled up from a document he was reading. "A good morning to you, Leon. I gathered you had an entertaining night at the party yesterday. You were indeed the social butterfly."

"Yes, I did enjoy myself," Leon agreed, thinking of the spectrum of wines and other assorted drinks he sampled.

There was a knowing twinkle in the president's eyes. "The beverages were a delight, were they not? I must've been offered every one, but alas, I could only enjoy a few as I had meetings to attend to this morning." There was a brief pause before he added, "Tell me, Mr. Kennedy, have you grown a fondness for sweets?"

Leon blinked blankly. "Sir?"

"A sweet tooth. Do you have one?"

This unexpected topic of conversation made Leon tilt his head. "Not really." Ashley, who stood next to Leon, began to giggle. His smile broadening, her father gestured to the side of his mouth. Leon's fingers reached up and brushed a spot of sticky jelly residue near his lip. He threw Ashley a warning glare for not saying a word about his appearance and her laughter grew louder.

"Sorry, Leon. I didn't notice it. Really." Obviously lying with the Cheshire Cat grin she wore, she looked away from him.

"Don't worry, my daughter does the same thing to me and my wife," the older man replied good-humoredly.

"I'll keep it in mind." Leon quirked a playful brow at the girl.

The president gazed at his humored daughter. "Ashley, dear, I need to have a word with Leon. Could you wait outside?"

Leon saw the shine of happiness on her face cloud over with disappointment. With no reason to argue, Ashley slowly nodded and went outside. She shut the door behind her. The man behind the desk looked gravely at him. "Leon, a problem has been brought to my attention and I thought you would be able to assist."

"I'll do whatever I can," Leon said dutifully.

"An organization has threatened to release a new virus but I'm not certain if this threat is a hoax or not. There has also been a kidnapping and it seems to be connected with this new group. We found information leading to the site where they supposedly are holding the hostage."

Leon had the feeling there was something more to the statement, but didn't interrupt.

In a muted voice, the man continued. "The person who was kidnapped is a friend of Ashley's. Her name is Raeanne. I'm not certain how she disappeared, but I assumed she was taken off the street while coming home from school. It happened two days ago. Ashley had gotten a call from her friend's parents about their missing daughter." Mr. Graham threaded his fingers on the desktop. "Raeanne and Ashley had been walking home together the day Raeanne disappeared."

Leon's heart dipped at the bad news. "Does Ashley know?"

"No. I don't want to alarm her yet." The president elaborated more about the group, but there wasn't much information he could share. He asked Leon to investigate the group and find out their intentions with the sample, as well as rescue Raeanne.

"Are Ashley and Raeanne close?" Leon suddenly felt the urge to ask.

Mr. Graham thought. "I believe they began spending a lot of time together over the past year. Ashley keeps telling me about places and things they've done."

Leon turned to leave. Just as his hand touched the doorknob, he heard Ashley's father request, "Please don't tell Ashley about her friend. The news would simply shock her and after her recent incident, I don't want to put her through more pain."

He wasn't entirely comfortable with keeping this information secret from Ashley, but Leon told him he would. His rescue mission would start as soon as his foot stepped outside this mansion.

Leon opened the office door to leave and came faced with golden auburn eyes that belonged to an anticipating Ashley. Leon stepped around her and headed to the weapons storeroom where he normally stocked up on supplies. Ten minutes of alone time went by and he was shoving a bullet cartridge into a handgun when rapid footsteps rushed up to the door.

"Hey, hey, my father said you're leaving," Ashley said breathlessly from in the doorway. A backpack was haphazardly slung over her shoulders.

"That's right." Leon put the gun in his holster. He fetched several items around the room. Either it was his superb organizational skills or his case had mysteriously grown larger, but he seemed to be able to fit more things inside than before.

"Can I come?" she asked even if she knew she didn't stand a chance of accompanying him.

"Sorry, too many weapons to carry today," Leon answered as if she could come next time.

Ashley folded her arms. "Why pack like you're going off to war?"

"It's standard procedure. You know that." Leon checked the inventory in his attach case and satisfied, he shut it.

No one spoke until he arrived at his car. Ashley piped up. "Let me come."

Leon sighed in annoyance while opening the driver side door. Did being a president's daughter imbue her with too much headstrong persistence? "No, there's no point. You'll get hurt." If he involved her, events might snowball into another kidnapping, or worse. Leon wasn't going to allow that to happen. When he looked at Ashley, her face noticeably fell at his solemn expression. His attach case held at his side in one hand, Leon stayed his other hand briefly on her shoulder in assurance. "Don't worry so much."

Ashley looked down in dejection for a moment, then raised her gaze to his. "I won't," she answered with a lilt in her tone that said otherwise.

An indefinite number of long hours later, Leon heavily dropped into a chair. Back from his mission and in the Graham mansion, he tried to compose his thoughts before heading to the President's office.

The new virus really was a hoax. A couple of punk kids with way too much time and imagination had kidnapped Raeanne as a means to make the threat of a virus as real as could be. Who would take an announcement seriously if there were nobody to ransom?

Then the virus. There was a vial all right, filled with nasty sludge which was little more than mixed goo, but it wasn't anything biohazardous. With the boys prone to the slightest excitement, it took Leon minutes to get that much information out of them.

Along with the woman, they also possessed high-caliber weapons. Upon noticing Leon's professional arsenal, they whooped and jumped around with rowdy fervor. Raeanne was bound in a chair in the middle of their flock, terrified as one would expect with gun-waving maniacs in the same room. She seemed unharmed from the quick visual assessment Leon gave her. She wasn't gagged, but she wasn't screaming her lungs out for help, either.

Leon had to talk, had to calm them down enough for them to drop their pistols. Conversation did not go both ways as the boys only cawed and spun around madly, shaking their arms. But sometimes they responded to Leon's questions which was progress.

Then one of their pistols carelessly fired off in direct line of Raeanne's chest. Leon couldn't tell which one did it. He only saw the spread of blood on her shirt and the dazed expression on her face.

It took this idiotic act for the youngsters to finally cease everything they did. They fell silent. They stopped moving. They turned their wide eyes towards him and dropped their weapons at Leon's behest. They did exactly as Leon ordered them to do, but it was too late.

He rushed over to Raeanne's side. She barely mouthed a thank you to him before passing on.

Now, as Leon tried to keep his brain from splitting open with the inevitability of Ashley discovering the gruesome news, he had to report to her father first.

President Graham didn't want to hear the news as much as Leon dreaded to announce it.

"Your efforts are duly appreciated," Ashley's father told Leon with restraint. The man behind the desk had the same unbelieving look Leon must have had before walking into the office. He was probably thinking how devastated his daughter will be.

Leon didn't know what else to say for such a failure, so he asked, "Should I break it to her, sir?"

Mr. Graham shook his head. "No. You've done enough for today. I can't ask you to do this. I'll... tell my daughter what happened. It's been a trying day and you must be tired. We can go over today's events in details tomorrow."

"Of course, sir. If you require anything..." Leon offered before turning to leave for home.

"Yes, I'll let you know. Thank you."

Thank you. The words Leon couldn't stand hearing tonight as it reminded him of another grateful soul who he could do nothing for.