Striding In

Author's Note: I did my best to try and keep these two in character, but pardon any slips as I don't have massive back history with Resident Evil. I could go on about how and why I love Leon/Ada so much, but I'm sure no one wants to hear that. Rating may (read: will almost definitely) go up later.

The painkillers were starting to wear off. Leon withheld a groan, willing the burning agony in his shoulder to die. He really wished he had that nerve block still. With a grit of his teeth, he shifted in his seat in the passenger side of his teammate's car. The other man glanced at him, a worried expression on his face.

"You okay there, Kennedy?"

The young agent let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "I'm fine, Mike. Just get me home."

The other man nodded, turning his eyes back to the road. Leon continued to shift uncomfortably in the seat next to him, but there was little he could do to ease the young man's suffering. At the next light, he glanced over to check the bandages for any blood. He doubted that anything was amiss; if the doctors had been concerned, they wouldn't have discharged Leon. It was better safe than sorry though.

Leon let out a sigh of relief when Mike pulled up to the door of his apartment building. He was suddenly glad that the government insisted on him living close, which entailed him staying at a rather upscale apartment complex. A doorman rushed out to open his door and took the keys to park the car as Mike came around and wrapped an arm around his waist to keep him steady. It galled Leon a bit, seeing how weak he had become. It's all part of the recovery process, he reminded himself. One does not simply walk out of minor surgery and expect to be in peak condition.

The trip to his ninth floor apartment was too long, in Leon's opinion. It was longer than he remembered. Up the elevator, lingering in the cramped space for what seemed like an hour before giving in to his weakness and leaning his weight into Mike, forcing the man to essentially drag him down two hallways to get to his door.

Leon had no faith in his ability to work the lock, so he passed the key to Mike. The man fumbled with it, finding it somewhat difficult to unlock the door with one hand while the other held the Leon upright. After a faltering with the lock a few times, the door clicked and they continued to stumble their way through the apartment. Mike had tried to deposit him on the couch by the kitchen so he could get the young man a drink, but Leon shook his head.

"Take me to the bedroom, I'm going right to sleep."

Mike grunted, adjusting his grip on Leon. "Sure thing, buddy. Just hang on a little longer."

The grating pain in his shoulder had reached beyond agony and Leon could hardly concentrate on keeping his feet straight, much less moving them. More often than not, he would feel Mike's fingers dig into the flesh under his armpit to keep him on his feet. Perhaps if they had taken their time to move carefully, he would have walked better, but as it was, Leon was eager to get into his bed and start sleeping the surgery off.

When they stumbled over to his bed, Leon attempted to push away from Mike and collapse, but the other man had enough sense to keep a firm hold of him and prevent any reckless moves. Mike made sure Leon sat on the edge of the bed first, then helped the young agent take his shoes off and get his feet up, and finally he helped ease Leon back into his pillows. The young man let out a sound somewhere between a groan of pain and sigh of relief.

Mike watched Leon's face for a moment, noting the way the young man's eyes twitched behind closed eyelids. "Stay right there, I'm going to get you a glass of water and then you're going to take another dose of pills. Don't. Move."

The tone of Mike's voice would have made Leon laugh on another day. A small sound of amusement escaped him, but the movement jostled his shoulder and he grimaced in pain. The last dose of pills might have been lingering in his system, Leon thought, or his sleeplessness at the hospital had caught up. His head was swimming and even behind closed eyelids, he felt like the world was tilting.

"Just sleep it off." He chanted to himself. The next few days were going to be a bitch, he knew, but if he could sleep off the worst of it, the better for him. Through a lot of favors and string pulling, somehow he had managed to keep his position as a secret service agent. Thankfully, it was just an injured rotator cuff that had slowed him down. He would recover. If he had been shot though, Leon had a feeling his days as an agent would have been numbered. The worrying thought that if he did not recover well, he might still lose his badge popped into his head.

While Mike clanked around in the kitchen, getting his water, Leon went over his plan for recovery. Out of necessity, he would be out of commission for several months. The first few weeks he would have limited mobility; the arm would need to be in a sling. The injury would put him almost completely off of his training and exercise regiments. Leon sighed mentally. He hated being idle, but this was one instance where he needed to force himself to sit still. Recovery would take time, patience, and obedience of the doctor's orders. With little else to do, why not sleep the worst of the pain off?

The cold glass of water was gently touched to his chest to rouse him from his dozing. Leon blinked his bleary eyes, gathering his thoughts. Mike held onto the glass until his shaky fingers took it from him, then the man rattled a bottle of pills at him.

Leon forced himself up a little so he could drink. When Mike extended the pill bottle, he shook his head. "I took pills at the hospital."

"Five hours ago." Mike pointed out, unscrewing the bottle cap. "Trust me, pal, you don't want this shit to wear off. You think you're in pain now, you'll be trying to bite your arm off if you start to feel the real pain."

The man had a point, Leon admitted. "Alright. Just help me sit up; I probably shouldn't be lying down anyways."

Mike moved to help him. "Yeah, keep it elevated. Good idea."

Swallowing the pills was difficult; his throat felt thick and closed. The last one refused to go down and, frustrated and exhausted, Leon chewed it into small pieces until he could work it down his throat. With that monumental task done, Leon collapsed back into the pillows Mike had propped up for him. His senses were swimming again. Leon was sure he had fallen asleep when Mike gave him a careful nudge on the leg. He cracked open an eye to look at the man.

"You need anything else?"

Leon shook his head softly.

There was a pause of silence before Mike sighed. "I don't like the idea of leaving you here alone to fend for yourself. You just got out of surgery, man."

A small laugh escaped Leon. "Don't worry, I've been through worse. I'm just going to sleep this off."

The man growled unhappily. "Alright. I'm going to put your phone on the bed stand. If you need anything or start feeling weird, call me. Do you hear me?"

Leon tried to nod.

"I'm going to be calling you, so make sure you pick up the phone."

"Come on, Mike, just go away. I want to sleep."

The other man huffed at being dismissed. Before he left, he reiterated the importance of calling if Leon needed anything and reminded the young man that he would be checking up often. All the energy Leon could muster was put into a vague wave of his hand. He waited until he heard the apartment door close before allowing himself to let go of the last thread of consciousness he had been clinging to. Sleep had never sounded like a better idea.

The phone was ringing. Leon groaned unhappily, having been dragged from a pleasantly numb slumber. The pain in his shoulder was slowly bleeding into his consciousness and he wondered where Mike had put that bottle of pills. A glance at the clock confirmed that he was in need of another dose.

It was an epic struggle just to get the phone off the bed stand. Leon prayed that Mike had left the top to the pill bottle off or he would need to phone the front desk for help. Wouldn't that be humiliating.

He mumbled something into the phone.

"Ready to eat?" Mike's voice came from the other end of the line.

Leon sighed; the man had made good on his word. "Yeah, I'll get a snack after I take some pills and then I'm going back to sleep."

"Need me to come over with anything?"

"No." Leon groaned, trying to get to his feet. Every little movement seemed to jostle his shoulder just enough to send sparks of pain shooting through his arm. "I'll be okay, I have plenty of food here that doesn't require effort to make. Just tell me where you put the pills."

"I put them back in the bathroom, so you wouldn't knock them over when you reached for the phone."

"Thanks, Mike."

Before he hung up, Mike had reminded him that he would be calling again that night. Leon almost wished the man wouldn't, with the mood he was in. Pain was making him irritable. Mike was just being a good friend, he told himself as he trudged to the bathroom. More painkillers and another nap might improve his mood.

That was seeming like a less likely plan however as he entered the bathroom and failed to find the bottle of pills. Leon frowned at his bathroom counter then checked inside his medicine cabinet. A check of all the labels revealed nothing.

"Damn it."

Leon slammed the cabinet door shut, rattling a few things from the force of the swing. His sour mood had gone to full foul. What was he going to do without the painkillers? There was a bottle of motrin in there; that was a fairly strong painkiller. Not strong enough, he told himself as another twinge of agony threatened to take him to his knees.

Maybe Mike had left it on the bed stand and only thought he left it in the bathroom, Leon thought hopefully, stumbling back into the bedroom. There was nothing. He looked on his desk, in every drawer in the room, even ridiculously unlikely places like his clothes drawer. If the bottle was not on the bed stand then maybe it was in the kitchen. The other man knew that he would have to eat, so maybe Mike had put it by the refrigerator and forgotten that was where he left them. That was a terribly unlikely idea, but Leon clung to the hope that he would find the pills and not need to put in a new order and wait until he was gnawing his arm off, like Mike had said, before he could take another dose.

He was already thinking of where he had put his doctor's number so he could call in the order when he spotted the open container on the kitchen counter. Seeing it, Leon froze for a second down the hall before hastily going over and spilling the contents out. He did not waste time getting water to swallow the pills; the pain had become grating and constant and every second felt worse than the one before.

Having swallowed two pills, Leon shut his eyes and took a moment to gather his breath and try to relax. Being tense would not help his healing shoulder. Letting out a long breath, he opened his eyes and looked at the mess he had made on the counter. It would not do to have his saviors scattered on the counter where he might drop them.

"How did you even get out here?" Leon asked the little bottle, setting the orange container upright.

He reached out to pluck up the first of the pills, but ended up dropping them a second later when a silky voice wafted from the other room,

"Why don't you let me take care of that while you sit and eat, handsome?"

Leon blinked, the pain in his shoulder fading into the back of his mind as he stared in open disbelief at the woman sauntering into the kitchen. She flashed him a soft, coy smile, before gently pushing him out of the way and sweeping the small pile of pills into her hand.

He continued to stare at her, unsure whether he was having some sort of vivid hallucination or whether the woman was truly there. When she had finished putting the pills back into their container, she turned to him and waved a hand towards the sofa in the other room.

"I brought you a sandwich and some soup. You need to keep your strength up right now, don't you agree, Leon?"

Slowly, he nodded his head.

He could not help himself, he had to ask, no matter how stupid it made him sound. "Ada?"

She nodded her head at him, amused.

He laughed suddenly and the woman canted her head at him. "I must be dreaming if it's you here and not Mike."

"Your friend? He left a few hours ago. I have no intention of needing him to be called." He stared at her, curious, and she couldn't help but smile at his confusion. "You aren't dreaming, Leon."

"But why are you here?"

"To take care of you." She said simply.

"Take care of me?" He looked at her inquiringly, not having expected that response.

She shrugged her thin shoulders and Leon couldn't help but feel envious of the movement. "You sound surprised. I know when you need help."

"You keep tabs on me."

"Naturally."

Leon puzzled over the situation. This was unlike Ada. Normally he would have to chase the woman and drill her for answers. Not to mention that when they typically met it was in the middle of dire circumstances, where they were fighting for their lives. Yet here she was, dressed in jeans and a red blouse, retrieving a bag of food she had left in the other room. It felt oddly domestic; he half expected corpse to amble out of the other room, just to keep things normal. Somehow, he was not entirely surprised that she kept an eye on him. If he had it in his resources, he would probably keep tabs on her too.

He decided not to wonder too much on it that moment; his brain was still foggy. As it was, Ada was standing by the sofa, having laid his meal out on the table there. She folded her arms over her chest and smiled at him, waiting.

Why not, he asked himself, walking stiffly over to the sofa and sitting down slowly. He was aware of her eyes trained on him, watching every movement he made. She was cataloging him, he realized, and wondered what she had found. He still wasn't lucid enough to really do a check himself. He knew his shoulder hurt like a bitch and that was all that he could focus on.

Eating was going to be a hassle, Leon realized as pieces of his sandwich fell from between the slices of bread. He sighed, ignoring it for the moment. When he was done, he had a small pile of lettuce and meat sitting in his lap that he tried to brush into a napkin. Next to him, Ada laughed softly. She reached over suddenly and swept his lap clean then moved the soup in front of him.

Leon glanced at his injured arm, bound to his chest with the sling. "I don't think I can eat that."

"I'll help you, if you need."

He shot her a sour look. "I don't need to be infantilized, thank you."

"But you need to eat."

He glanced at the soup. It was his favorite. The war with his pride was going downhill. Ada was staring at him with her usual passive expression, waiting for his answer. Finally, he gave a single, firm nod. She reached out and picked up the small cup of soup and extended the plastic spoon to him.

"So you won't be completely infantilized." She explained with a teasing grin. "I'll hold the cup for you. I think you're still capable of feeding yourself."

"I am." He retorted, doing his best to twist the spoon get it to his mouth without spilling any. It wasn't a completely successful mission, but he was pleased with the results, considering his condition.

Ada said nothing as he ate, only moved the cup closer when he needed and passed him a napkin when he lost control of the spoon. When he was done eating, she did her best to clean up the crumbs and spills before tossing the waste into the trash. Leon reclined in his seat, feeling better after taking the pills and getting a decent meal in his belly. He hoped the lingering anesthetic wouldn't make him vomit everything up later.

"Not there."

Leon peeled his eyes open; he had nearly fallen asleep again. Ada was standing in front of him, hands on her hips. He made a soft sound of inquiry.

His pathetic noise made her laugh and shake her head. "Get back into bed. That's the place for you to rest."

He nodded, using his good arm to force himself to his feet. Surprisingly, Ada did not offer to help. She stood back, allowing him to get up on his own and hobble back to his room without aid. She was not going to injure his pride more than necessary, he realized. He was thankful to her for that gift.

Getting into bed was much easier than it had been when Mike had first brought him home. Ada came to stand next to the bed, watching as he got comfortable. She looked at the clock.

"I'll wake you up when you need your next dose."

Leon turned to her, astonished. "That's in a few hours."

She nodded, uncertain as to why he pointed that out.

He looked at her steadily then dared to ask, "Will you still be here?" Ada never stayed. The last time he had fallen asleep with her in his company, he had woken to a cold, empty bed.

When she realized what Leon had been driving at, Ada couldn't contain a small chuckle. "Yes, I'll still be here. I'm going to stay until you're capable of making it on your own."

"I could probably manage."

"Possibly." She admitted. "But you'd likely do a lot of damage to yourself. I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen." She saw him open his mouth to ask more question, so she leaned over and pulled a blanket over his legs. "Shh. I'll be here when you wake up."

That was Ada's polite way of saying shut up, Leon thought. It was probably best if he didn't ask questions anyways. The more he knew, the less happy he might be. Anyone else would have questioned his comfort and trust in Ada, given her questionable background, but Leon had no qualms shutting his eyes and drifting to sleep. No matter who she worked for, no matter what her orders were, he knew Ada would protect him. He would trust her; she had never given him reason not to. The only worry he had with Ada was whether or not he could keep his feelings in check to spare them from getting hurt. If he woke and Ada was still there, he knew he would be in for a difficult time on that regard.

He would have to face that struggle, Leon thought briefly before he succumbed to sleep. There had been times before when Ada had said she would stay and he had woken to find her gone. Those had been frivolous times though, nothing of importance. Injured as he was and in need of help, he knew she would stay. Since that was the case, his final thought led him to wonder just what cat and mouse games the two of them would play this time.

TBC