A Bit of Magical Assistance

Azalea Black's motorcycle sputtered to a halt on the desolate side of the road, her heart sinking as raindrops pelted her helmet. The rain was coming down in sheets, creating a wall of water that made it difficult to see. She cursed her luck as she realized that her enchanted bike, which her godfather Sirius Black had given her, had failed her. To make matters worse, they were twenty miles away from the nearest city, stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Despite the protection offered by the fur-lined olive bomber jacket that she had acquired during one of the many shopping sprees her godfather had taken her on, Azalea's dark blue jeans were completely soaked through. She had repeatedly cast a drying charm throughout the ride, but it was a useless endeavor if she couldn't get out of this rain. She shook her head in frustration, knowing it would be a long and cold walk to Raccoon City in her three-inch black heeled boots, even though they were enchanted for comfort.

A wave of relief washed over her as she glanced down at the slumbering infant nestled in the secure sidecar. The little one's body emanated a gentle warmth, indicating that he was still warm and sound asleep. She checked his diaper and was pleased to find it clean and dry despite having fed him an hour previously. The baby's cab was ensorcelled with powerful charms and protective runes, ensuring his safety and security during their journey, and wholly incapable of being moved without her assistance. Azalea reluctantly left the warmth of the sidecar while she went to see what she could do about fixing the bike.

As she walked towards the bike, she couldn't help but glance back at the baby, feeling a sense of protectiveness wash over her. She had found herself surprisingly adept at caring for babies and had taken to caring for her godson like he was her own. She had even taken self-defense classes and learned how to use various weapons, including daggers, swords, extendable staffs, bows and arrows, and guns, to ensure that she could protect him and herself if needed.

Azalea had chosen her favorite boots that morning, a gift from her friend Hermione Granger. The stylish, black-heeled boots were a gag gift to Azalea because she'd been known as a tomboy at Hogwarts. But to her surprise, she had found them comfortable and had taken to wearing them regularly. The boots had also helped her to feel more confident in herself, something that had been difficult given her upbringing with the Dursleys. Sirius had always been supportive of Azalea's decisions, but he had hated the boots because they drew unwanted attention to her full hips and shapely legs. Azalea, however, loved them, especially since they made her feel taller and more confident. As she looked down at her boots, she couldn't help but smile, even with the knowledge that she might be forced to walk the twenty miles to Raccoon City, she couldn't find it in herself to feel regret for choosing to wear them.

A pair of headlights pierced through the darkness and drew her attention from her attempt to figure out what was wrong with her motorcycle. Sirius had made sure to teach her how to care for and fix the bike should she need to if she was going to be making it her main source of transportation, a decision brought on by her inability to properly use magical travel, for a multitude of reasons.

A stranger had pulled his jeep over and didn't even hesitate to get out, his face illuminated by the glow of his headlights.

Despite the late hour and torrential rain, what looked like a 21-year-old man with dirty blonde hair, that was beginning to plaster itself to his head, and piercing ice-blue eyes, approached Azalea with a warm smile.

He extended his hand and introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Leon. Leon S. Kennedy. It's a pleasure to meet you. Can I help in any way?"

His voice was confident yet friendly, and his eyes sparkled with a mixture of determination and kindness.

Azalea couldn't help but feel reassured as she shook his hand, knowing instinctively via her magical sense that she could trust and rely on him.

"Azalea Black. Don't suppose you can give me and my son a ride to the nearest city?"

Leon smiles a bit confusedly, but jerks his head to his jeep, "Come on, let's get you two warm and dry. I was heading to Raccoon City if that's alright with you?"

She smiled in return for his kindness, "That's fine. We were heading that way too. I'm glad I won't be forcing you out of your way too much."

She hurries around to the enclosed cab, opening it as quietly as she can, unsticking and unbuckling the car seat, and after making sure he was completely covered and protected from the downpour as much as she could, she began transferring him to the backseat of Leon's jeep. Leon hovered outside his jeep, and she couldn't help but smile to herself gratefully at his consideration for her peace of mind, as she left her baby in his jeep to run back to her motorcycle for their belongings and to lock up.

She unhooked her rather large travel bag from her bike and grimaced at the thought of leaving her godfather's motorcycle on the side of a random road in America. With Leon here she couldn't shrink it down as she usually would and take it with her, so she subtly pushed a protection and barrier ward through the tattooed runes on her left forearm, through her palm.

These days she couldn't do much traditional magic what with no longer having a wand. Her tattooed runes were her only way to access, use, or focus her magic now. Her wand had been snapped after she had exposed Magical Britain's corruption to the Queen and Magical Britain had been brought to heel. The entire government had been overhauled and a better system had been put in place.

Despite this, her government and peers had determined that she had broken the Statue of Secrecy, and while the Queen wouldn't let them throw her in prison, execute her, bind her magic, or even banish her from the Magical World like they had wanted, Azalea had allowed them to snap her wand as a concession. She wasn't allowed to finish her education at Hogwarts, which meant she would never be able to get a job in the magical world, and they refused to allow her the ability to use any magical form of travel. She didn't believe that she was wrong in what she did, but the concession satisfied them. The rest of it was just them being petty and trying to inconvenience her as much as they could.

Admittedly, snapping someone's wand was supposed to leave them defenseless and unable to use or access their magic, but Azalea had been raised without magic for most of her life, and with her rune tattoos she never felt the need to try jumping through the hoops they no doubt would have set for her to get a new wand. If they didn't just outright reject it in the first place.

If it hadn't been for the fact that she was a Lady of two noble magical families and an Heiress to another, all three extremely wealthy families, then she might have been worried about surviving in the world. As it was, Sirius was more than happy to take care of her until she reached the age of majority in both magical and mundane worlds. In fact, Azalea was pretty sure that Sirius was thrilled to put the wealth of his family behind his need to splurge on his goddaughter and helping her complete her mundane education and provide her with whatever magical books she wanted and even some she didn't want.

As the jeep's engine purrs to life, Leon reaches for the heater controls and turns them on her full blast, "Hopefully that will help dry you off faster."

She reaches up to take her helmet off, placing it on the floorboard between her feet, she sighs in relief. She hates helmets, they're so stifling and suffocating.

"Thanks for this, Leon." She says gratefully, pulling off her black leather gloves, placing them in her lap, and opening her travel bag.

She had to be mindful about what she pulled out of there because while her travel bag was more like a hiking backpack, it had expansion runes sewn into all the pockets and it carried everything she owned outside of her bank. Luckily, she only needed a hairband. Her hair was raven-colored, curly, and reached to her waist. She usually just tucked it into her jacket when she rode and was done with it, but it still ended up a tangled mess. She threw it up into a messy bun as best she could and then sat back and sighed as the warmth traveled through her chilled bones.

"Did you want to try calling a tow service or a friend to pick your bike up?"

She bit her lip; she had a communication mirror but no actual cell phone. Her magic was too powerful for a cell phone to last long around her, so she didn't usually bother to carry one. It irritated her sometimes that Hermione and most of her other friends could carry cell phones without any issues for years, but she ended up killing them within a few weeks.

"I don't carry a cell phone. They break too easily. It'll be fine. I'll just use the hotel phone to make some calls in the morning."

"How old is your son?" Leon asked trying to fill the awkward silence that came from strangers riding together.

She smiled, "Teddy's 6 months and 18 days old."

"Teddy?" Leon glanced at her with a questioning smile.

"Edward Remus Lupin, Teddy for short." She answered easily. The questions were coming. The ones everybody always asked her. Where were his parents? Aren't you a little young to be raising a baby by yourself? Where's your husband? And one rather rude older couple who accused her of having a child out of wedlock, even calling poor Teddy a bastard child (she'd hit them with a temporary bad luck curse as they'd walked away and grinned as the man had been pickpocketed as he walked by an alleyway, completely unknowing).

She offered up the information before he could ask, with a resigned air, "His parents were killed when he was a month old. They were close family friends who had named me their son's godmother. His grandmother couldn't handle the news so shortly after losing her husband. She had a heart attack and didn't make it. It was lucky that his parents had updated their will almost immediately after his birth or I might've lost him to the system."

Leon's hands clenched on the steering wheel, a sympathetic grimace on his face warring with the anger in his eyes, "I'm sorry to hear of your loss. And even sorrier that you've had to face criticism for taking on the responsibility of raising your friend's child."

She hadn't mentioned much, but he seemed to sense or pick up on the reason why she volunteered such personal information without him asking. It was gratifying to see him get angry on her behalf.

"Enough sad talk. What's in Raccoon City for you?" Azalea asked, curiously. His reaction and kindness had her feeling far more comfortable than she normally would around a stranger of twenty minutes.

He grinned, "A job. I was transferred to the Raccoon City Police Department, and I'm supposed to start tomorrow. I was supposed to start last week but I got a call saying my transfer had been delayed until tomorrow. Some paperwork mix-ups I guess."

She smiled, she had never had much faith in the justice system, but Leon seemed kind and eager to help others, "You're a cop?"

"Yeah. Just graduated from the academy." His eyes were lit with pride at his accomplishment, and she found herself smiling at him, gently.

"Congratulations."

It was quiet for a moment, the radio low to keep from waking Teddy – and the consideration was not lost on her, before she spoke up again, her voice soft, "My dad was a cop."

Leon's voice was just as low and gentle when he asked, his eyes glancing over towards her before turning back to the road, "Was?"

She kept her gaze focused in front of her, it was always hard to talk about her parents for a multitude of reasons, "He was just starting out. New wife. Just found out she was pregnant. One of his cases. He stumbled across information regarding a terrorist organization."

Leon hissed through his teeth, grimacing at what he could guess happened next, but he kept quiet, listening as she continued.

"He spent the last eighteen months of his life holed up with his new family in protective isolation before he and my mother were betrayed by one of their friends and killed by the leader of the terrorist organization."

The silence was a little tense for a bit before she smiled at him, "Sorry, that got a little dark."

Leon shook his head, a small smile on his face, "It's fine. I'm sorry for your loss."

She shook her head, "I just barely remember them. All I really have are stories of them but that doesn't make me any less proud of them. Just-"

She paused, unsure if it was her place to say, but unwilling to leave it unsaid, "Be careful out there."

Leon nodded, respectfully, taking the advice for the cautionary warning it was meant to be.

A low whimper from the backseat saved them from an awkward silence. Azalea turned as much as she could in her seat to check on Teddy, who was now awake and wiggling uncomfortably in his car seat. A gentle caress of her hand told her that little Teddy was wet and in need of a diaper change and was more than ready to get out of his car seat.

Leon was quick on the uptake, "There's a gas station about a couple of miles down the road. We can stop there for gas and get the little guy out of his car seat for a quick change."

She gave him a quick grateful smile, before turning her attention back to her fussing son. Caressing his cheek and sending him an acknowledging and comforting nudge through their bond to calm him, she tapped Teddy's nose affectionately before turning to her backpack to grab everything she needed to change him.

They had been traveling mostly without magic so almost all of her baby supplies were nonmagical, with only a few exceptions. So she shouldn't have any issues changing him around a nonmagical.

They pulled off the road and into a Mizoil Gas Station. It was a rundown little place with only four actual gas pumps and very little lighting, but at least the sign said it was open.

"That's odd." She heard Leon mutter to himself, and she turned to look at what had him concerned.

He was looking at the police car in front of them, both front doors open, headlights on, and facing the gas station front doors.

"I'm going to see if everything is alright. Go ahead and change the little guy in the backseat and stay out here." Leon ordered, authority and concern lacing his voice.

Azalea nodded, "Yeah, probably not a good idea to take him in there right now."

She was getting a bad feeling about this place and even Leon seemed to be getting the same feeling. He reached across her lap, opened up the glove compartment, and pulled out a holstered 9mm handgun and a sheathed combat knife, both of which he clipped to his belt.

She watched with concern as he did this, her teeth worrying her bottom lip, "Leon?"

He looked over at her as he was getting out of the jeep. She was pointing at the ground in front of his jeep. He turned to see what had caught her attention and his frown deepened. His headlights were highlighting what looked like large puddles and smears of blood on the pavement.

"Do you have a license to carry, Azalea? Any training?" His voice was low but rushed.

She nodded, hurriedly gathering her things, "Yeah, don't really carry guns though. I do have a couple of boot knives."

Leon nodded, a bit distracted by his worry, "There's another gun in my duffle bag in the backseat, if it would make you feel more comfortable."

"Yeah, thanks, Leon." She got out, closed the door, and quickly got into the back, as Leon headed into the gas station, cautiously.

She unbuckled and pulled Teddy from his car seat, rushing to change his diaper and put him back in his clothes. Vanishing the dirty diaper, as usual with barely a thought. She put him back in his car seat for the moment, as she looked for the duffle bag Leon had mentioned. She found it in the floorboard half under both seats.

Searching through it quickly, she found the gun he mentioned, clipped it to her belt, and then went to pull her fussing son into her arms again when she noticed the first aid kit, extra ammo clips, a second combat knife, and a couple of hip pouches. This duffle bag must have been his personal supplies and equipment for work and training. She zipped it back up, pulled her backpack back on, and pulled Teddy into her arms just in time to hear gunshots and screaming from inside the store.

A loud thud sounded against the jeep, and she nearly screeched in fright when she looked up and found what looked like an inferius, an undead corpse brought to life by a necromancer, and there was more than one of them. There had to be more than five of them headed their way, ambling out of the rain and darkness, covered in injuries and blood.

She cursed herself for not pulling out Teddy's harness. What was the use in arming herself if her arms were full holding Teddy?! The thing bashed itself against the window, cracking it and drawing the attention of others. Teddy started whimpering in her arms and she hurriedly activated a silencing rune, hushing him. She pulled Leon's duffle bag handle over her head and shoulder and rushed to get out of the jeep just in time for that thing to finally crash through the jeep window, screaming and scrambling to crawl in and grab the both of them.

She went to rush inside the gas station but found Leon and another girl in a red leather jacket at the door.

"Get down!" Leon shouted, and whether he was talking to her or not, Azalea immediately crouched low to the ground. The loud crack of a gun going off twice and the thump of two bodies hitting the ground had her looking behind her.

Two of those things, closer than she expected, were lying on the ground. Leon rushed to pull her and Teddy up and behind him protectively. The girl in red boxed her and Teddy in just as protective.

"The police car! Get in!" Leon ordered, pulling Azalea and Teddy along behind him with one hand and shooting with the other.

Azalea gripped Teddy tightly with one hand and scrambled for the backdoor handle with the other, while Leon covered them, refusing to get into the car until they were safely in the back seat.

As soon as they were all in the car, Leon was backing up and peeling out of the gas station parking lot.

The car was full of heavy breathing and Azalea discretely canceled the silencing rune over Teddy, who screeched and cried in distress.

"Shh, shh, Teddy, you're okay. Everything's alright. I know. I know. That was scary, but we're okay. You're okay..." She soothed over and over.

"What the hell is going on?" The girl in red demanded anger and fear coloring her voice.

"I don't know... Hopefully, they'll have some answers at the police station." Leon stated, nervously trying to keep his eyes on the road and check on Azalea and Teddy through the rearview mirror at the same time. She didn't begrudge him his obvious worry for them and in fact was grateful for how much he seemed to care about their safety despite having only known each other for maybe an hour at most.

"Wait... You're a cop?" The girl said, incredulously.

"Yeah." He confirmed, a bit impatiently, probably from having the same conversation earlier with Azalea, "Leon Kennedy. And you are...?"

"Claire. Claire Redfield." The girl stated, turning around in her seat to glance back at Azalea and Teddy, "And is this your family -?"

"Is Teddy alright, Azalea?" Leon asked, not hearing or just ignoring Claire's question.

"Yeah. We're both alright. Just a bit shaken." She answered, shakily, hands trembling from the adrenaline rush and fear for Teddy, "I managed to grab your duffle bag from the jeep before one of those things broke through the window."

He heaved a sigh of relief, "Thank god you two are okay."

She checked Teddy over carefully. No injuries, just wide awake and terrified and clinging to her tightly. She didn't have a car seat for him, so she kept careful hold of him, thankful that Leon had slowed the car down from his initial speed. She carefully took off her backpack, searching through it one-handedly for Teddy's harness and somehow managing to maneuver her way into the harness and doing the same with her wiggling and clinging son, who babbled, "Mama, mama, mama-", repeatedly in distress.

She tightened and secured him to her front as much as she dared to do so, layering as many protection and comforting runes as she could and then zipping her bomber jacket up around him as an extra layer of protection and to keep his delicate limbs from flailing about. She made sure that he could breathe easily and was comfortable enough, his babbling tapering off once his head rested on her heartbeat, the adrenaline made her hands shaky, but she tamped down on that viciously. She would not descend into hysterics. Doing so made you illogical and too vulnerable, and she couldn't afford either of those right now.

With Teddy finally as secure as she could make him, Azalea turned back to Leon's duffle bag and started to pull things out of it. She loaded both the hip pouches with 9mm clips and first aid supplies, before unbuckling her belt and slipping her belt through the pouch loops and then buckling herself back up. She could feel Leon and Claire's gazes on her the entire time.

She grabbed the second hip pouch and carefully leaned through the gap between the front seats, half sitting on the middle console, she placed the hip pouch in Leon's lap and only paused long enough to give him a questioning glance before reaching for his belt.

Azalea glanced over her shoulder to check Claire's reaction but found her staring intensely out the window, clearly thinking she needed to give them privacy. They would probably need to clear those assumptions up, but Azalea could care less about dealing with that right now.

Leon lifted his hips to help her as he realized the practicality of her actions, she unbuckled his belt and slid the hip pouch into place before buckling him up again. She was trying to be as mature and efficient as possible about this, but with Claire's assumption racing through her mind and Leon's intense eyes glancing from her to the road, breath shaky at the charged feel of the suddenly intense atmosphere, she found herself trying hard not to blush as her fingers brushed the skin just above his waistband, her breathing stuttering for a moment.

It's not that she's never been attracted to others before, she has, however, she's never acted on any attraction before, and her attention is usually focused on caring for her son. Leon however was very attractive with his wind-swept blond hair dripping from the rain, piercing ice-blue eyes, and lean muscled body. And that's not even mentioning his kindness and concern for Teddy and her safety, his determination to keep them safe.

She frowned in thought for a moment, before ignoring what she'd been told about what was socially acceptable, and kissing his cheek with a quiet, barely audible, "Thank you."

He nodded, firmly, hands tightening on the steering wheel, his cheeks darkening just a bit. He glanced back and forth between her and the road, before lowering his gaze to Teddy, concern once more in his gaze, his voice still low, he asked again, "Are you sure he's okay?"

She cupped her hand against the back of Teddy's head and looked down at him. He currently had a death grip on her bra strap through her shirt beneath her bomber jacket and he was still trembling just a bit, but he was quiet at least and uninjured, so there was that she guessed.

"Yeah, he's as good as he's gonna be for now. He's not injured. Just frightened and a bit tense. He's too young to know what's going on. He'll be clingy for a few days before he'll forget anything even happened in the first place."

Leon nodded, and she sat back in her seat again, pulling her backpack back on and then running her hands softly over her little boy's back again and again.

"My brother is a cop," Claire mentioned a little too casually as if trying to remind them that she was there too.

"Oh...?" Leon asked, his thoughts seemed miles away.

"Yeah. I was looking for him, cause I hadn't heard from him for a while, and I was worried."

"Guess it's a good thing we found each other then. I don't know what to expect any more..." He sent her a small, distracted smile. They were entering Raccoon City now.

"Oh hell..." Azalea breathed.

There were car wrecks, corpses – dead and walking both, and small fires everywhere. It was a scene straight out of an apocalypse horror movie. Leon turned on the radio. Immediately a broadcast on loop informed them that people were advised to take shelter at the police station, where food and medical supplies would be provided to anyone in need.

"God, this is so unreal..." Claire muttered in disbelief and fear.

"The police stations not much farther. They'll know something." Leon responded, determined and hopeful.

"Yeah but... what if we're the only ones? What if there are no survivors-" Claire asked, quiet voice coated in fear and edged in hysteria.

"NO." Leon's voice was strong and determined, "There's survivors. It's a big city...there has to be."

Azalea wasn't as hopeful. She was well aware that people in large groups could be stupid and dangerous. People panicked and became hysterical, killed each other at the slightest hint of danger, distrust, or difference in opinions, and betrayed each other at the drop of a hat.

She was vulnerable and at an extreme disadvantage. Teddy was strapped to her torso, which left her hands and arms free to use weapons, but this type of situation was no place for a baby. It was terrifying and dangerous for an adult, but to have a baby in this situation as well... And that's not even getting into the fact that other less scrupulous people will see her and her child as a liability and dead weight, easily left behind or betrayed.

She vowed to stay as close to Leon as possible. His kindness and overall protective nature were her best bet to keep Teddy and herself safe. She hated the idea of using someone like that, but it was just too dangerous with Teddy here and she couldn't take risks like she used to. She was all Teddy had left. Without her, Teddy was dead, and she couldn't allow that. She supposed that the only good thing about the situation was that Leon seemed more than willing to put himself at risk to keep the two of them safe and seemed to be the exact type of person who would thrive under the pressure of trying to protect them in this type of situation.

Eventually, they came across a blockade they couldn't drive past, and Leon put the car in park, "Looks like we're walking the rest of the way."

Claire murmured, "Perhaps we'd better run.", as she watched a group of those things rip and tear into the body of a corpse.

Leon turned to face Azalea, intending to ask a question, and it was only this that probably saved their lives because turning to face her meant he was able to see the out-of-control semi-truck barreling towards them, "Out of the car, everybody out!"

Azalea didn't bother questioning him or turning to find out why, she just threw open the door as hard as she could, throwing at least two of those things away from her and to the ground as she got out of the car. Leon wasn't far behind her, and he quickly overtook her, snagging her by the waist and full-on hauling Teddy and her behind the closest, most durable protective blockade he could find, and then practically folding his body over the two of them protectively. Moments later a deafening, screeching crash sounded nearby, the semi-truck slamming into the police car and raining glass and debris on them. The police car went up in flames and Azalea felt Leon shifting to look at the damage, no doubt worried whether Claire had managed to get out of the car.

Leon muttered a low curse and then pulled them low to the ground just in time for them to escape most of the concussive blast of the semi-truck exploding into a blazing inferno.

As soon as the initial blast was over, Leon hurriedly pulled Azalea up, and pulled his gun out, his eyes anxiously watching those things - the zombies, slowly get to their feet to amble their way.

"You two good?" Leon hissed through gritted teeth; his eyes watchful.

"Yeah, we're fine." She checked them both over quickly, pulling her own borrowed gun from its holster with one hand and holding Teddy's head closely and carefully to her chest, to keep him from getting whiplash. The baby holster wasn't exactly meant for running, jumping, or any form of high-level activity, so even strapping him in as tight as she safely could, she still had to worry about his head and delicate little neck snapping if she moved too fast or too sharply. And that's not even considering that she also needed to worry about how she landed anytime she fell or was thrown.

She watched carefully as the zombies regained their footing, glancing only briefly at the man behind her, before focusing again. He was fine, he didn't seem to have any injuries. Most likely he was a bit bruised from protecting them, but otherwise he seemed fine and focused.

"CLAIRE! CLAIRE, YOU OK!?" Leon hollered, trying to see over the flames.

He was drawing attention to them; she knew but she was also worried about the redheaded teenager.

"YEAH! I'M ALRIGHT! HOW ABOUT YOU!?" Relief flooded the both of them, but it wasn't for long, their escape routes were beginning to be blocked off by those things.

"WE CAN'T STAY HERE! IT'S NOT SAFE! WE'LL MEET YOU AT THE STATION!" Leon was already turning towards their nearest escape route.

"I'LL BE THERE!" They heard her shout as they ran for the station.

They got lucky in that the station wasn't very far and the zombies' attention was drawn to the loudest noise, which at the moment was the blazing fire of the semi-truck and police car.

The moment they reached the gate, Leon barred and locked it and then turned to do a quick sweep of the courtyard, shooting four zombies in the head, before determining that they were safe enough. He pulled Azalea and Teddy underneath the pavilion of the station, out of the rain.

She expected him to open the door, but instead he turned to them and unzipped her jacket a bit, to examine her baby. His fingers brushed against Teddy's neck, his entire palm covering her boy's back, and then sighing in relief, his whole body relaxing for a moment.

His actions were bold, to touch her child without her permission, assuming he had the right to, but she couldn't find it in herself to admonish him for it. Not when he'd been protecting and helping them since the very moment they'd met. Not when he seemed to take so much comfort from their very presence.

"You okay?" She whispered, the moment feeling very intimate and private.

"Yeah…" Leon whispered back, laughing shakily, "You seem to be handling this far better than me…?"

"I've been in dangerous situations before. Kinda comes with the territory of being the daughter of a cop hero."

She could see the confusion in his eyes, so she explained, "The terrorist leader went underground for a decade after his attack on my family, my parents had injured him rather severely during the attack. He resurfaced when I was eleven. When he heard that the daughter of the cop he'd murdered had started at a prestigious school, he began trying to have me assassinated because he thought that my father had left me information on his terrorist group. He and his people were finally dealt with when I was fifteen."

He was quiet for a moment, taking in the new information, before finally saying, "You must have been very brave to handle that."

She laughed exasperatedly, "I was terrified, paranoid, and moody because nobody would tell me why he wanted me dead for the longest time. They kept saying I was too young, as if age mattered to this guy. I was fourteen when I finally legally gained access to my full inheritance. The money, the business investments, and the properties. It was everything the terrorist leader and his group feared, because he was right to fear what my parents left me. I found everything in our ancestral home. That information changed everything. There were lists of people that they'd confirmed as part of the terrorist organization. People in the force, the government, and even the parents of some of my friends in school. I turned everything in directly to the Queen and her personal task force."

Leon had wrapped his arms around the two of them sometime during her rant and when she seemed to finish, he told her firmly, "Being brave doesn't mean you're not scared. Being brave means doing what's right even when you're scared. And I think you're doing amazing staying calm right now."

She gave him a small smile, "I think you're doing great too. You've been so great at protecting us, that I've barely had to do a damn thing."

"And that's exactly what I need you to do, alright Azalea?" He said, eyes intense as he drew back from the both of them, idly caressing Teddy's head, before zipping her jacket back up, "You worry about Teddy and yourself. I'll protect the both of you to the best of my abilities and don't you dare take point in any of this. If you feel like you need to do something, stick to medical and support, and anything long distance. Can you do that for me, Azalea?"

This was the reason he'd stopped them there before going into the police station. He was making his expectations of her very clear and vowing to protect them both at the same time. Clearing her of any guilt from using him for his protection by giving her other priorities to focus on. He was either very observant or incredibly perceptive of where her thoughts had been. It was at this point that she realized that it was going to be very hard not to fall in love with this man.

"Yeah, I can do that."

"Good. Good." He nodded, taking a deep breath and cautiously opening the door. They entered quietly and carefully. At first glance, she could barely believe this place was supposed to be a police station. The main hall was enormous, there were three levels, and the ceiling was three stories high. The first floor had at least three possible exits, outside of the front door, two of which were closed off with shutter gates and two grand staircases on either side of the main hall that led up to the second floor. It looked like it was meant to be a museum rather than a police station and she immediately knew they were going to have problems not getting lost.

The entire main hall looked completely empty of people despite the gurneys, iv racks, scattered papers, ammo, and weaponry trunks, large puddles of water and blood littered the floors and walls, but at least there were lights on, which made it a good safe area.

He led her up behind the reception desk, "Stay here for me. I'm going to set up a quick barricade around the desk to give you two some protection. See if you can find any supplies or anything that can tell you what's going on."

She nodded and started looking through drawers, cabinets, and computers. She found another hip pouch - this one had three First Aid Sprays, bandages and a suture kit- thrown in a giant storage chest, a case of shotgun shells lying on the counter in the open, a flashlight in one of the drawers, and a nightstick with a stun gun function in a lower cabinet. She quickly slipped the hip pouch through her belt loops and turned to see if she could access the computers without short circuiting them.

Leon came back just as she managed to get the laptop on, and he took over working on the computer with far more ease than she. She glanced around the desk; he'd enclosed the open sides with large heavy trunks and had even managed to find a chair she could use as a step ladder if she needed a quick getaway.

"Not good." Leon mutters and she turns to find he's managed to access the cameras in the building somehow.

There's one camera that shows a zombie ambling down a hallway. He switches to another camera, this one showing a cop running down a hallway, something in his hand and held up to the camera and yelling, "David! Marvin! You there!? I found a way out! It's in here! Send reinforcements! East Hallway!"

"Ok…I gotta find that guy. Jesus fuck, Azalea will you be fine here?!" Leon's in a rush, but he still goes to make sure she's okay with him leaving them there.

"Yeah, we'll bunker down beneath the reception desk with the cameras until you get back." She assured him as he rushed for the east hall shutter gate.

She watched him through the cameras, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth nervously. He was probably making more noise than he should, but it couldn't be helped when he was trying to run to someone's rescue. He shot any zombies in his way, shooting out their kneecaps when he couldn't make a head shot. She watched him make it to the east hallway and try to pull the guy from under the shutter gate, but it was a useless endeavor when the poor guy was being pulled and torn apart from the other side of the gate.

She watched terrified as he grabbed whatever had been in the cop's hand and headed back towards the main hall, slipping, shooting and struggling through the many zombies that had come through the broken windows, attracted by the noise he had made trying to reach the guy in the first place.

She shoved the laptop aside, crawled out from under the desk, used the chair to climb over the reception desk, and made a break for the east hall shutter gate, which was only open maybe a foot high.

Leon was trying to struggle through the low gate, but the floor was covered in water and blood, and he was slipping and couldn't get a proper hold on anything in order to pull himself under the gate.

She grabbed on to his left wrist and started trying to pull him through, just in time for a zombie to grab onto his ankle and try to pull him back under the gate. Azalea was in no way strong enough to pull him through on her own, so she was thankful when someone helped her pull Leon through and then slammed the shutter down on a zombie trying to crawl after them, busting its head open with the force.

"Got it! You're safe…for now."

Leon allows Azalea to pull him closer to them, his arm wrapping around her waist both to comfort himself and to comfort her, he pants, breathlessly, "Thanks…"

They both look up to find a dark-skinned cop leaning heavily against the shutter gate, his hand holding an obvious debilitating wound. He'd been bitten.

"Marvin Branagh." He introduced, leaning down to pull Leon to his feet.

Leon went easily, pulling Azalea up with him as he went, panting an explanation, "There was another officer…I-I couldn't…I couldn't…"

His voice was shaky and a bit distraught, finally showing that fear and trauma she hadn't quite seen him show just yet. It was a reminder that while he was very protective of them and determined to do what was right, he was still a rookie cop, who hadn't even had his first day on the job. There was no training in the world that could prepare anybody for the literal zombie apocalypse they were facing right now.

She had to keep herself from clinging to him and trying to comfort him. Were they alone she wouldn't have cared but she didn't know how he would react if she did so in front of what was supposed to have been his coworkers.

"I'm sure you did what you could, Leon." Marvin said distractedly, stumbling up towards the second level and sitting down on a leather couch.

Leon hands him the small notebook that he'd taken from the fallen officer, "The officer said that he'd found a way out and that the answer was in this book."

"Officer Elliot Edward. Yeah. This station used to be a museum. There were rumors there was a hidden passage out of the station. He was checking to see if it was possible the rumors were true." Marvin said, gritting his teeth. He seems to have given up on escape for himself, but his determined gaze roamed over Leon and Azalea.

Azalea swallowed, nervously, "Sir, I have first aid training and supplies, if you would allow me?"

Marvin shook his head, "Don't bother. Once you're bitten, you turn into one of them once you die."

"So, it's like a type of poison or infection?" Azalea asked for clarification, "How long ago were you bitten?"

"Less than fifteen minutes ago." He didn't respond any further. He had resigned himself to death.

"There should be some clean uniforms in the weapons locker room, Leon. Maybe go grab a few for you and the lady."

Azalea was becoming irritated; she didn't understand this fatalistic attitude and she was tired of tiptoeing around her ability to help.

"Hey Leon?"

"Yeah?" He asked, turning his attention away from his inspection of their blood covered clothes.

"Do you trust me?" She demanded to know.

"What?" The sudden question obviously confused him, but he answered nonetheless, "Yeah, why?"

"Good." Azalea stated firmly, before slapping a hand down on Marvin's shoulder and activating a sleep rune.

Immediately, Officer Branagh slumped over unconscious, and Leon yelped and rushed to ease him down on the couch.

"What was that?" Leon demanded to know, checking the officer's heartbeat.

"Officer Branagh is injured and needs to be tended to. The problem is that he seems to have given up on surviving. I knocked him out so that I could tend to his injuries. We do not have time to be arguing with him." Azalea said matter of factly, "What I'm about to do, you can never tell another soul, do you understand, Leon?"

"You think you can help him? Despite the bite?" Leon asked warily hopeful.

"Yeah, but I'm not supposed to show that I have these abilities. Not in front of normals, it's illegal and I could get in a lot of trouble. I'm trusting you to keep your silence on this issue, Leon." She said, hurriedly pulling up the man's shirt to expose the injury.

"You have my word then." Leon swore, watching her carefully.

Without a wand this was far more difficult and exhausting but in no way impossible. She gathered her magic and cleaned the wound with a charm so she could see what she was doing. She began to draw the infection out of the man's body like she would the poison of a snake and when she was done, she tossed the mass of blood and fluid onto a spare rag and then immediately lit it on fire.

"Whatever that virus was, he's free of it now, but he's lost a lot of blood and he's going to continue to lose more if we don't stitch him up." She pulled out the suture kit and began stitching him up, "I can give him something to encourage his body to produce more blood, but he's still going to be weak and exhausted."

"Better that than dead or turned." Leon encouraged, fascinated with her abilities, "Are your abilities focused on healing?"

Azalea smiled at him, relieved at how easily he was taking to them, "Not necessarily. My abilities are what my people call magic and most of my people use wands in order to even control their abilities. I no longer have a wand though, so I'm limited in what I can do now."

Leon frowned, "It certainly seems powerful enough…?"

Azalea blushed, "Yeah. The thing about modern day magicals is that they're mostly lazy and ill informed. The magical government needed a way to control the magical people and so all schools teach that a wand is necessary in order to use your abilities. I've ended up without my wand in so many dangerous situations that I've had to find other ways of using my abilities."

"Because of the assassination attempts?" Leon guessed, nodding in understanding.

She nodded, as she tied off another suture, "Yeah, when magical cops arrest you the very first thing they do is take your wand as evidence and if you are convicted, they snap your wand. Most magicals, you take their wand, and they can't do a thing, they're so dependent on them. I grew up with normals after my parent's death, so I never grew up with the mentality that I was helpless without a magic wooden stick. Wands are merely a focal point. Admittedly any type of obvious magic without a wand is going to be a bit exhausting, like pulling that virus out was rather difficult and a bit tiring but it won't take too much out of me, especially since it wasn't in long enough to bond to his cells."

She tied off the last suture and then looked through her backpack for her first aid potions, pulled out a small vial of red liquid.

"What's that?" Leon asked, taking over wrapping bandages around Marvin's injury.

"Blood Replenisher. It's a potion to encourage his body to produce more blood." She tipped the small dosage into the man's mouth and massaged his throat to get him to swallow it.

"So, what are we going to tell him when he wakes up?" Leon wondered.

Azalea shrugged, eyeing Leon pointedly, "We could always tell him I used a pressure point in order to knock him out so that I could treat his injuries. I don't mind him knowing what I'm willing to do if people don't let me treat injuries when they need to be treated."

Leon jerked both his hands up in amusement, conceding the point to her and taking the warning at face value, "What about his belief that he's infected from a bite?"

She shrugged, again, "Gaslight him? He'll start feeling a lot better after a nap and once we get some food in him, he'll be fine. With his injury stitched up it doesn't even look like a bite wound. I could use some compulsion charms, but I've never been fond of those, and I would prefer not to use them."

"Now we just wait for him to wake up on his own." She sighed heavily, sitting on the ground and leaning back on the couch.

"Let's get the both of you back behind the reception desk. I'm going to go see if I can find the weapons locker room. It's probably not a good idea to be covered in what could be infected blood." Leon picked her up bridal style, carrying her over to the reception desk and placing her on top of it.

She didn't bother arguing with him about carrying her. She still felt unsettled from the last time he'd left her. Not for Teddy and her safety, Leon had made sure their little area behind the desk was perfectly safe and well barricaded, but she worried for him. He was putting himself in danger wandering around an unknown building with the power out in places and zombies wandering the building.

Teddy wiggled against her in irritation, drawing both of their attention. She unzipped her jacket a bit to cup the back of his head, a filling of hunger spiked through their bond and Azalea giggled, "I guess it is time to feed you, precious boy."

Leon smiled at the two, grateful for a soft, sweet normal moment. It was things like these precious moments that made everything worth fighting for.

"Do you have everything you need for him?"

She nodded with a sweet smile, "Yeah, my backpack has expansion and stasis runes sewn into them. So, it's bigger on the inside and anything you put in it will automatically fall into a type of stasis that keeps anything fresh."

His eyebrows shot up a bit and he sounded impressed, "That's certainly useful. Is that something that you can sew into anything?"

She nodded, "Yeah, I'll sew the runes into my hip pouches, activate the runes, and it'll take me maybe fifteen, twenty minutes. By the time you get changed, they should be ready, and we can trade pouches, and I'll work on those."

Leon agreed, "Sounds like a plan then. Get Teddy fed first of course. We can spare a few minutes for something as useful and important as this. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Please be careful, Leon. I doubt Officer Branagh will be particularly thrilled with me when he wakes up and I doubt he was aware enough to notice Teddy, bleeding out as he was." Azalea implored, worriedly.

"I'll be more careful from now on. I've got a basic idea of how bad the situation is now, and I won't let myself be caught off guard like that again." Leon comforted, as he headed towards where the map had said the weapons locker room was.

Azalea bunkered down beneath the reception desk with the laptop again, unclipping the baby holster to give Teddy room to feed. She pulled a preprepared bottle of milk from her backpack and gave it to Teddy to feed himself, while she watched Leon over the cameras. He was making steady work of killing any zombies that crossed his path and boarding up broken windows as he went. It took him a good twenty minutes just to reach the weapons locker room and temporarily secure the room and by that time, Teddy had finished his meal, been burped, resecured back in his baby holster, and she had zipped her jacket back up.

She pulled off her two hip pouches, her rune sewing kit, and got started on her new project. She watched as he broke into all the lockers using a handy crowbar. She couldn't make out everything that he acquired but she did see at least two more hip pouches, what looked like a shotgun and probably more ammo. When he started taking off his clothes, she blushed and did her best to concentrate on her project rather than watch him change.

By the time he started heading back her way, she had emptied both her hip pouches, finished the runes on one hip pouch and was examining it for mistakes before she activated the runes. She had just started on the second hip pouch when he made it back to the main hall. He checked on Officer Branagh, before jumping over the railing above her little safe haven and joining her on the floor.

"See? No problems." He grinned at her, and she rolled her eyes with a smile.

She handed him the finished hip pouch, "I'd separate your equipment and make one pouch for each specific item, because I don't think you can use these the exact same way I do. My backpack isn't organized in anyway because I can just direct my magic to find and give me exactly what I need. You won't have that ability. That pouch has all the first aid supplies I've acquired. I'm working on the one with the 9mm ammo."

He was wearing the RPD uniform, or at least the armored version of it with the knee and elbow pads, combat boots, fingerless gloves, bulletproof vest, and he had a radio strapped to his right shoulder. He looked good. Actually, he looked absolutely amazing.

She blushed, keeping her eyes on her work as she tried to casually compliment, "The uniform looks good on you."

He grinned roguishly at her, "Thanks, also grabbed you one and the Lieutenant some body protection. Not sure why they weren't wearing these anyway."

"It may not have occurred to them to break into the lockers the way you did." She snickered, quietly.

"Ahhaha, you saw that did you?" He asked, a blush developing on his cheeks.

She smirked at him in amusement, "Don't worry, I didn't watch you strip down and change."

She finished with the second hip pouch and after quickly examining it for mistakes she activated the rune and then handed it over. He took off his three hip pouches and handed them to her, face a bit red at the reminder that he had forgotten she would be watching the cameras.

It took her thirty minutes in total to sew the runes into the last three hip pouches, charge the runes and be done with them.

A deep groan from above the reception desk had Leon jumping to his feet to check out what made that noise, turned out Officer Branagh was waking up. Leon told her to stay where she was, while he broke the ice with the Lieutenant.

She couldn't hear what was being said from her position and she figured it was best to leave it to Leon, so she decided now was a good time to get changed into the more protected uniform Leon had acquired for her. She took off her jacket, made a little cradle out of it, before unstrapping her sleeping baby from her torso and placing him in the makeshift bed. She changed quickly, using magic to help resize the pants and combat boots. She was just about to put on the bulletproof vest when an idea came to mind. The Gemini Spell. A duplication spell, it wasn't very useful on magical items because the spell faded pretty fast but using it on a normal thing like a bulletproof vest, it wouldn't even fade. She quickly set about casting the spell on every item of the uniform he had brought her, resizing a few and then hurriedly shoving some of them into the giant storage chest and the others into her backpack before going back to putting on protection. She also decided to resize one of the many vests they now had and maneuver her son into one. He looked absolutely adorable, and she decided that when she got a chance, she was going to resize an entire uniform just for him.

She strapped a sleeping Teddy back to her torso, put her bomber jacket back on and zipped it back up to keep Teddy warm and protected.

"Miss?" Officer Branagh's voice called from the railing above her.

She looked up to find him leaning over the railing with a sheepish smile on his face, "Officer?"

"Thanks for saving my life. Leon told me that when you examined the wound it wasn't a bite…? So, thank you for taking matters into your own hands. You were correct in your assumption that I wouldn't let you treat my injury when I figured I would be dying anyway."

She smiled up at him, "You're welcome and I'm glad I was able to help. We got lucky that it wasn't a bite. I'm not sure if Leon warned you, but you lost a lot of blood, so you'll feel weak for a while until we get some food in you, and you get some proper sleep."

Officer Branagh nodded, "Understood. I guess with everything I've lost over the last few days, I gave up and resigned myself to dying here."

"Then I guess it's a good thing Leon and I are here. Our minds and bodies aren't quite so weighed down by exhaustion, lack of food, tragedy, and horror like yours must be." She said brightly, reaching into the storage chest, pulling out a fresh new protected uniform and handing it up to him, "Here you go. Some fresh new clothes will certainly make you feel a bit better. Leon brought back a bunch of uniforms. I'm Azalea, by the way, and this little bundle of joy here is Edward, Teddy for short."

Officer Branagh smiled as he accepted the bundle of clothes, relief in his voice, "I'm glad to see there are more survivors than we'd previously thought."

Movement over one of the cameras drew her attention, and she went over to check it out, "Leon!"

Rushed footsteps and a thud signaled that Leon had once again jumped over the railing to check out what she wanted to show him.

"Yes! She made it." Leon crowed in delight.

"What is it?" Officer Branagh asked, from behind a screen, very obviously changing with very little care about who saw.

"One of the people we came into town with. Claire Redfield. We were separated by debris earlier and made plans to meet up here. Looks like she's locked out by a gate in a courtyard." Leon was quick to explain.

"I know the courtyard you're talking about. You can get there from the east hall, second floor. We don't have the keys to it though, Chief Irons has them and he's MIA right now." Officer Branagh's voice was far lighter at the news of another survivor, "Wait, Redfield…? You're not talking bout Chris Redfield's little sister, are you? What's she doing here?"

"Yeah, she mentioned she was looking for her brother. Said he was a cop." Leon enlarged the video that Claire was in.

"Chris is a S.T.A.R.S Agent. Last I heard he was on vacation in England." Officer Branagh remarked.

Something in the video caught Azalea's eye though and she swore under her breathe.

Leon focused back on the screen, trying to see what had caused her to swear, "What is it, Azalea?"

"She's holding a child. And it looks like she's found a few more survivors; a man, woman, and a further two more kids."

"Fuck!" Leon grimaced, "On one hand it's great that there are more survivors but…"

"My thoughts exactly." She frowned at the thought. Kids in a situation like this were a drain on resources and required constant protection and attention. It was a horrible thought but not something that they could really ignore. It was hard to protect oneself in a situation like this, but when young children outnumbered the adults, it made the situation so much worse. Still, it meant there was still good in the world.

Trying to shake the thought from her head, she offered, "I can try picking the lock."

Leon frowned down at her, already shaking his head, "The east wing is too dangerous for Teddy."

Officer Branagh spoke up then, "I can watch him. I'm not in any condition to be doing much physical activity."

He started climbing over the railing down into their little base of operations, and Azalea reluctantly unzipped her jacket and pulled Teddy out of his harness, handing him to Officer Branagh carefully, and taking off her backpack.

Leon helped ease the officer down beneath the desk, setting the laptop close to him, before climbing over the desk after Azalea, who was already heading for the east hall shutter doors.

"You good for this Azalea?" Leon asked quietly.

She nodded firmly, "Yeah, a little jittery from not having Teddy close but you're right Teddy shouldn't be down here, and you need me to get that door open without a key. I can handle it."

Leon nodded, "Alright then, I'll mow anything moving down with the shotgun, you shoot them in the head or kneecaps."

"Got it." Azalea confirmed, pulling out her borrowed gun.

And that's exactly how they did it. They even took the extra time to board up any broken windows they found, knowing they'd be bringing three more children through here. It took them a good fifteen minutes to reach the necessary area, and then there was a loud crash and the building shook with the force of it. They opened the door to go outside and found that a helicopter had crashed into the building.

"LEON?!" Claire's voice called from below.

Leon and Azalea looked over the railing before rushing down the stairs to the gate, "Hold on, Claire! We'll be right there!"

Azalea shoves her hand into one of her hip pouches and does a quick short time transfiguration on the closest thing and kneels down at the gate door, going through the motions of picking the lock for a brief period before spelling an unlocking spell through the lock.

"That's certainly a handy skill to have." Claire comments, but Azalea ignores her as she examines the child in her arms, hand automatically placing the lockpicks back in her hip pouch. It's a little girl, short curly blond hair plastered to her head from the rain and light blue eyes. She's a bit bigger than Teddy, so maybe a few months older.

The man standing next to her is towering over Leon, with his sun-kissed skin reflecting his time spent working outdoors. His neatly cropped jet-black hair frames his rugged, chiseled features, and his dark brown eyes exude warmth and kindness. The hint of stubble on his square jaw adds to his rugged charm, complementing the broad expanse of his chest and shoulders. He wears a construction worker's tool belt around his waist, a testament to his hardworking nature. In one hand, he firmly grips a blood-splattered axe, while his other hand is intertwined with that of an eight-year-old boy, unmistakably his son. Standing alongside him is a woman with short, tousled blond hair and warm, inviting brown eyes, cradling a baby boy close to her heart. The ring on her finger suggests they are married.

"I'm told this is Emilia," Claire says, handing the baby over easily enough, the quickness with which she does so shows how uncomfortable she is with young children. Azalea wrangles the wiggling baby into Teddy's holster. "Where's Teddy?"

"Officer Branagh is currently watching him. He's injured, so he's grounded and on babysitting duty at the moment. They're in the main hall, and we should head back that way ourselves," Azalea said shortly. She didn't feel like now was a time for pleasantries.

Despite this, she listens to Leon introduce himself to the other man and woman, learning that their names are Henrick and Erika. The older boy is Adrian, and the baby boy is Damien, who is apparently fourteen months old.

"Wait! There's an orphanage just down the block with survivors!" Claire calls out to them, stopping them in their tracks.

Azalea looked up at Leon, who looked just as worried as she felt, but she continued on, "That's great then, Claire, we should be able to head over there after we report back to base. We can get you some protective gear and then I'll head back out with you."

Whoosh…The crashed helicopter exploded and went up in flames.

Leon's protective instinct kicked in as he quickly covered Azalea and little Emilia, shielding them as he led them back up the stairs. With genuine concern, he gently asked Azalea, "Are you sure you can handle that?"

It was a good question, Azalea wondered with a grimace. She hated the idea of leaving Teddy for so long with strangers, but there wasn't really any other choice. An orphanage meant children survivors and her conscience wouldn't allow her to leave children behind in this type of situation.

"I'll manage." Azalea muttered with a grimace.

Henrick spoke up behind them, his voice gruff but kind, "I'll go with them to the orphanage."

Azalea shook her head, "You'd be more helpful staying behind to protect our base of operations. My baby is there right now with an injured man as protection. He's a good man, but..."

"Not much use in a physical fight right now." Leon finished her sentence for her. He glanced over his shoulder up at Henrick, "Azalea is right. I could use your help here more. If at the very least to keep her mind at ease."

"Dinnertime." Claire muttered to herself, as she rushed after them, covering their retreat through the East Wing, trying to ignore the fire alarm going off around them.

Erika spoke up, "Then I'll go."

"Claire and I can handle it. You'd be best served managing the children at base. My son is six months old, and I doubt Emilia is much older. That's three babies under the age of eighteen months and a kid who's not even ten yet. Officer Branagh only has two hands, so he could use an extra pair of hands if they need to move the children quickly. Don't worry, Claire and I'll manage." Azalea was quick to redirect Erika's attention to the children.

Luckily, they were able to make the trip back to the main hall fast and easily enough with the broken windows still boarded up, though probably not for long considering the loud noise of the helicopter going up in flames was sure to draw their attention.

Leon carefully lifted her over the desk again and she dropped down next to a still sleeping Teddy and Officer Branagh, while Henrick helped Erika and Damien, and Claire helped with Adrian.

Adrian immediately went to his mother's side, watching little Damien closely. The boy hadn't spoken a word just yet and she hoped he wouldn't be too traumatized from this night.

"So good news, bad news, Lieutenant." Leon started, "Good news, Claire found some survivors on her way here holed up in the orphanage. Bad news, they're most likely kids and a helicopter just crashed and exploded over in the East Wing, so the building is now on fire and the east wing is attracting a lot of hungry attention."

"Then we need three teams. One to rescue the survivors from the orphanage and lead them here; Azalea and Claire can handle that. Another to get the keys from the statues around the building and bring them back here to place them in the Goddess Statue. Elliot's notes state that there should be a hidden exit beneath the Statue. I can guide you through the building over the radio, Leon. The last team would be best suited to defending and holding down the fort. Henrick, Erika, will you be alright doing that?"

Henrick and Erika agreed easily enough, clearly more comfortable listening to the orders of a more senior officer.

Azalea let the little girl out of the harness, setting her down with Teddy, before asking, "How old are the survivors, Claire? And how many are there?"

"There's five more. 2 four-year-old girls - twins, a seven-year-old boy, an eleven-year-old girl, and a thirteen-year-old boy. I told them I'd bring back help." Claire explained, as she accepted the protective gear from Leon, who raised an eyebrow at the extra uniforms in the storage chest, but didn't comment.

Azalea nodded, taking her jacket off, laying it on the floor as a bed for Teddy and Emilia, both of which she had spelled asleep and quiet for now. She didn't like using spells on children, but it was for the best in this situation. She would prefer to spare them the nightmares of this night. She added a life tag spell to Emilia, Adrian and little Damien, creating a small bond that would help her monitor them as she usually did Teddy. She didn't think it appropriate to do so with the adults, and she probably shouldn't do so with Adrian and Damien since they weren't really her responsibility, but she found she couldn't really help doing so in this situation. She took off the baby harness, pulled a second harness out of her backpack, set them next to her jacket, and pulled her backpack on again.

"I've got some spare vests in here that we can hand out to the kids; they're adjustable, so they should fit. I'll leave these harnesses just in case you need to make a quick getaway. Strap them to your front, not your back." Azalea demanded, trying to prepare herself to leave two babies, one of which was hers, in the care of someone who was not her or Leon.

Leon helped her over the desk again, pulling her into his arms as he did, and quietly asking, in a voice low enough that nobody else could hear them, even if the other adults didn't turn away from them to politely give them a moment, "Do you speak Italian?"

She grinned happily into his chest, responding in Italian, "Yes, French as well. My godfather's family traditions made those two languages mandatory."

Leon sighed in relief before continuing their conversation in Italian, keeping his voice low just in-case anyone else in their group could speak the language as well.

"That duplication trick of yours, can you do that with ammo as well?"

She nodded against his chest and breathed, "So long as you have one left, I can duplicate it however much you need me to. I can't do it to technology, medicine, or food, but any type of ammo, knives, grenades, simple things like that, and I can do it."

"Okay, then I'm going to give you a spare of everything I got right now. When you come back, I'm probably going to need more, but this should be as discrete as we can be with them around." Leon handed her a grenade, a flashbang, a clip of magnum rounds, a box of shotgun shells, a few acid rounds, a few flame rounds, and a fucking grenade launcher. Slipping everything in either her pockets or her hip pouches, his head dipping down close to hers in what could have looked very intimate to the others, and she was sure Leon did it on purpose to mislead the others. She couldn't say she had an issue with that. Pretending to be a couple and being affectionate with each other kept people from looking too closely due to how uncomfortable it was to watch others be intimate with each other. It was a good way to hide and talk about secrets.

She tried to protest the grenade launcher, but he refused to take it back. "It'll look odd for me to give you the rounds without the grenade launcher. Use your duplication trick on the rounds and use it to protect yourself and the kids. Split off from Claire at some point and say you found some more rounds if you need to."

She hated that it made sense.

"Be careful out there, Azalea." Leon implored, releasing her with a lingering kiss to her temple.

She tried not to blush, but she wasn't sure if she succeeded, considering Leon's smug mischievous grin. She wasn't quite sure if he was playing it up for the other survivors, who all seemed to think they were a couple or if he was just that physically affectionate type of person. Something she was going to have to sort out later.

"Worry about yourself, Leon." Azalea grinned cheekily at him, allowing one of her hands, which were around his waist, to grab a rather firm ass cheek. "I'll be back before you know it."

Leon laughed, in delighted surprise, "Then I guess I better hustle if I'm going to catch up with you."

She turned away from him and headed for the east wing again, calling behind her teasingly, "You know it, babe!"

The babe thing and grabbing his ass might have been a bit much, but she felt more at ease leaving on a teasing note rather than a somber note, and he totally deserved it after the temple kiss. She refused to be the only one left confused about their relationship.

"You two are a cute couple." Claire commented lightly, her face tinged a bit red and Azalea suspected she'd caught a glimpse of Azalea getting a handful.

Azalea hmmed noncommittedly as she focused her attention on following his suggestions about duplicating the ammo he'd given her. She was wearing two hip pouches, one with ammo and the other with first aid supplies.

"What language was that?" Claire asked curiously.

"Italian." Azalea said honestly, "Do you speak it?"

"No. I did take Spanish in high school though and I was pretty decent at it."

Once they reached the east wing courtyard, Azalea told her, "I'll follow you."

Claire nodded, and they took off at a fast clip down the block, doing their best to avoid making much noise. The police station was making more than enough noise to draw attention, and they would have an issue with that on the way back. Hopefully, Leon could thin them out while he was working on finding them a way out of the station and city.

Claire led her through the orphanage front yard and straight up to the front door, which thankfully was unlocked, "I had them barricade themselves in the nursery upstairs until I could get back."

So Azalea followed her upstairs to the nursery door and waited patiently as Claire tapped out a rhythmic code on the door, "Hey everyone, it's just Claire. I brought back up."

There were a couple of heavy thuds as something cleared away from the door before the door slowly opened to show a raven-haired boy with bluish-gray eyes only about half a foot smaller than Azalea's current height.

"Hey, Garrett. This is Azalea. She's gonna help us get you and the others to the station. There are a couple of cops there looking for a way out beneath the city that won't be as dangerous as traveling through the city. There's a few more survivors helping them out there as well." Claire rushed to explain to the boy.

Azalea started pulling out vests, "I brought some protection for the trip. Let's get these on you guys, and then we'll go."

Garrett nodded and finally let them in. She handed him a vest as she walked in, and he hurried to put it on with Claire's assistance when it looked like he was having trouble. Azalea put four of the vests on the ground and then looked up at the gathering of kids from her kneeling position.

"All right, so who's first?" She demanded gently, trying to urge them into movement.

The oldest girl shuffled forward. She had raven hair that fell to her shoulder blades and light brown eyes. She stood at maybe 4'2". She grabbed a vest and began yanking it over her head. She introduced herself as Talia. Azalea helped her readjust it so that it fit a bit better and then moved on to help the next kid. And the next. And the next.

The seven-year-old boy was dark-skinned, with dark brown short curly hair and light brown eyes. As she helped him adjust his vest to his form, he told her his name was Derick.

The two four-year-old girls refused to speak, but Talia told her their names were Myla and Faye. Myla had bright red shoulder-length hair braided into two messy pigtails, and Faye's red hair was loose from having fallen out of a low ponytail. They both had light green eyes. It was like looking at younger versions of her mother and it made her heartache a bit.

"OK, we're all good. Is everybody ready to go?" Azalea received a round of nods and turned to Claire. "Do you want point or rear?"

"You've got the grenade launcher, so you should take point. I can carry Myla or Faye. Garrett, can you carry the other?"

An affirmative answer had Azalea smiling at the boy, "That's a big help, Garrett. I think the little ones are too small to keep up with us."

"Okay, everyone, stay close to each other," Claire warned as they went downstairs.

The trip back to the station was slow going, and oddly, there were only a few zombies ambling around compared to the ones they had to fight through on their way to the orphanage.

The longer they were gone, the more antsy and irritated Azalea became. She didn't like being separated from Teddy and Leon for so long in this situation.

Going through the east hallway was difficult for the kids and she felt very guilty putting them through the horror of it but they really didn't know the station well enough to be trying to find an alternate route that wouldn't traumatize the older kids.

There were more bodies than they left the last time they went through here, so Leon must have had to come through here.

Repeated gunfire was coming from the main hall, which was worrying. The main entrance was where they needed to be because it was supposed to be the safest area.

"Claire, stay here with the kids. I'm going to go check out the situation." Azalea whispered lowly.

She waited for her confirmation before heading into the main hall. What she found was Leon shooting at a monstrous nearly eight foot tall man in a trench coat in front of the stations

She fired off an acid round and then immediately loaded a flame round and shot that off. She hurried to Leon's side, "What the hell's going on? Who's this guy?"

"Not a fucking clue; all I know is he's trying to kill any and all survivors. I sent the others into the hidden room; I opened under the Goddess Statue with the babies. Turns out the door closes after sixty seconds, so they're safe, and this thing doesn't know where they are." He accepted the clips of magnum ammo from her and a few grenades before continuing, "This thing's been chasing me all around this damn place. He's not exactly intelligent. He's pretty fast when he sees you, but if you can down him, you can lose him. When he's down, it's like he's rebooting, so as long as you're not anywhere near him when he gets back up, it's like he completely forgets you exist. I've downed him at least four times; he just tanks the shots and recovers. We'll need something far stronger than what we've got to kill that thing."

"Got it. We take it down, and as soon as it's down, we move the other survivors into the hidden room. We'll repeat that one by one if we need to. You up for it, Leon?" Azalea demanded, loading another acid round and immediately firing it off at the giant.

"You know it, babe!" Leon shot her words from earlier back at her, making her bark out a laugh, and she jumped into the fight with a huge grin on her face. Her tension from earlier when heading back from the orphanage with the kids drained away despite the fact that she was in a life-or-death fight against a heavy-hitting monster like this. It was safe to say she was developing feelings for Leon. Any man who could make her feel safe in the middle of a battle during the zombie apocalypse was more than worthy of her attention.

It took them at least three more rounds of acid and flame rounds and an entire clip of magnum bullets to down the fucker, and the moment he was down, Azalea rushed for the east hall door.

"Now, Claire!" Azalea shouted, lunging into the east hall to snatch up Derick, grab Talia's hand, and start hauling them toward the Goddess Statue that Leon was messing with.

Luckily, the hidden room was fully opened by the time they all reached the room.

"Go on, go ahead." Azalea rushed the children, hanging back with Leon despite wanting to check on Teddy and Emilia.

She checked on the monstrous giant to see that it was slowly returning to its feet, "Leon, our friend, is reviving. Let's lead him away from here and down him again before joining the others. Claire, you should stay with the children and the others. Try to find a way out. Give us maybe half an hour before you move on without us."

Leon frowned at the giant, getting to his feet just in time for the passageway to hide itself again. He took a potshot at the bastard before dragging Azalea up the west stairs to the library. Loud thumping footsteps followed them.

"We can get to some high ground in the library and prepare for another assault," Leon explained as they ran.

"Have you found any more weapons? Ammo?" She asked, panting from the adrenaline rush and the exertion of the last ten minutes.

"There's an armory up in the S.T.A.R.S office that I can't get into. And the Chief's office is completely locked down for some reason. I doubt there's anything too useful in the Chief's office, but there has to be something useful in the armory." Leon directed her to a built-in pipe ladder, and she rushed to climb up it, Leon hot on her heels.

"The armory is on the second floor, through the door by the staircase. We'll down this bastard, run to the armory, and there's a staircase we can take down to the first floor, through the west office, and back to the main hall again." Leon explained as he readied his magnum.

"M'Kay, excuse me," Azalea said as she searched his hip pouches for his ammo, finding his magnum clips, 9mm clips, and steel boys for his shotgun.

Leon smirked, his focus still on the library door despite the feel of her hands roaming around his waist and thighs, where his pockets and pouches were, "I knew you had another reason for getting me alone."

Azalea giggled, amused despite herself at his innuendo, "There's no more cameras on us right?"

Leon shook his head, "Nah, Marvin had to grab the kids and hide quickly. He saved your jacket, however. Last I checked, the babies were still asleep."

"Mm, yeah, I spelled them asleep. They won't wake for another hour and a half. I didn't think it was a good idea for them to be traumatized by tonight. Don't worry; the spell is perfectly safe enough for them." Azalea said absentmindedly, focusing her magic on duplicating his ammo clips.

"Have I mentioned you're amazing yet?" Leon asked as the library door opened to the giant man in a trench coat and immediately opened fire.

"Oh, I'm sure you've said something along those lines." She teased, getting into a rhythm of loading and firing acid and flame rounds over and over again.

It took five rounds this time and another magnum clip to down him. After this, Azalea followed Leon to the S.T.A.R.S. armory.

"Now, whatever you're going to do, do it fast, 'cause he can hear anything loud, and he'll start heading this way," Leon said as he guarded the door.

"My method should be far quieter than your way of breaking into things," Azalea smirked teasingly at him, waving her hand against the handle and frying the electronics in the door.

A quiet beep sounded, and the door slid open. Azalea and Leon rushed inside to see what they could find: another grenade launcher, three shotguns, five more magnum guns, two high-powered sniper rifles with scopes, at least seven handguns, a whole host of ammo, and about nine more hip pouches that she wouldn't have the time or privacy to alter. If they wanted to use any of this, though, they couldn't be hidden away like the ammo could. Azalea dug up a couple duffle bags that looked like they were the overnight bags of a couple S.T.A.R.S. Agents.

The rifles came in two separate cases, making them easy to carry.

The magnum guns were in thigh holsters, which Leon strapped to his right thigh and then helped her strap the other one to her right thigh. She worried about it slipping down her thigh until he showed her the extra strap that held it up her thigh by looping through her belt.

They found a couple of double holster shoulder harnesses, and Leon hurriedly put one on and rushed to adjust her harness. After that, they tucked the extra handguns into the harnesses.

The shotgun had a sling attached so they could shoulder it, but the grenade launcher didn't, so Leon holstered his magnum and decided to carry only the grenade launcher.

Anything they couldn't holster, they packed up in the two duffle bags with as much ammo as they could fit and what couldn't fit they shoved into their own altered hip pouches.

"That thing is going to be up and roaming around again. The main hall is a central point. We need to find a way to draw its attention away from the main hall so we can get into the hidden room." Azalea murmured to Leon as they made their way through the shower room and down the staircase to the first floor.

"We can down him again and then make a break for it?" Leon suggested, worried about leading that thing back to a room full of kids and barely armed survivors.

Azalea cocked her head in thought, "Actually, I might try tagging it. If I know where it is, we can judge how safe it is to open the passageway."

Leon's eyebrows raised again as he led her through the west office, trying to ignore the 'Welcome Leon' sign, "I'm going to guess this is like a magical version of a tracking device, right?"

Azalea nodded, eyes closed as she tried to use her magic to find out where that monster was.

"Third floor, above the S.T.A.R.S office." She finally deduced, opening her eyes and taking in the sign and Leon's tense shoulders. She squeezed his hand in comfort as he took a deep breath and finally opened the West office door to the main hall.

"Then we're good to go." He said firmly, pulling her along closely.

He put the combination in, and within less than a minute, they were in the hidden room beneath the goddess statue, and it was a tense moment before the passage closed up again.

Finally, they could relax for a moment; they sighed in relief and turned to face the others in the room.

Seven-year-old Derick had curled up against Marvin, who still had Emilia and Teddy strapped to his chest side by side. Faye was crouched by one of the bookshelves and poking at the books; Myla was standing next to her with an amused, if exasperated, look on her face as she watched her twin sister. Talia and Garret stood next to Claire, keeping a close eye on the younger children.

Azalea shouldered the shotgun and put the sniper rifle case and the duffle bag on the only desk in the room. Claire immediately came over to investigate the case, while Azalea went to unharness Teddy and Emilia from Marvin. She cuddled them both close and went over to the only open space on the floor for some level of privacy. She sank to the floor carefully with some assistance from Leon, who was now hovering over her and the babies, sans rifle case, duffle bag, and grenade launcher, which Marvin was now holding.

Azalea canceled the sleeping charm on the two babies, and almost immediately, the two were babbling and trying to crawl around. Emilia crawled right to Leon's boots, and he went to his knees obligingly to take her into his arms.

Azalea smiled at the two. Leon was staring at the little girl with a rather adoring look on his face, "She's adorable, isn't she?"

Leon looked at her rather sheepishly, easing himself to sit close to her, giving themselves a bit of privacy, "Her blonde curls remind me of my Nonna, Rosaria."

Azalea bit her bottom lip, trying to hold back a smitten smile. She adored children and found the image of Leon holding the precious little girl really endearing. As if she needed another reason to fall in love with the man beside her.

"Her eyes are as blue as yours." She couldn't help but voice her observation.

Leon looked over at her with a smile, "Yeah but she's still young, I don't think baby's eyes turn their natural color until they're at least a year old."

Azalea giggled, as Emilia began trying to crawl around over their laps, "Babies are usually born with blue eyes that slowly turn their natural color over the course of their first year of life, that's true, but Emilia looks like she's probably nine months old. If they're still such a bright blue, then they'll most likely stay this color."

"You think so?" Leon asked lowly, a considering tone to his voice. He looked down at her with a smirk, "I'm not sure I'd manage quite as well as you do in being a young parent. For all that I do adore them."

Azalea smiled and leaned against him, affectionately pressing a kiss into the shoulder she was leaning against, "I think you'll manage just fine with a little help."

Leon grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles, grinning at the blush that bloomed on her cheeks. "Yeah, are you planning on sticking around to give me a hand, lovely Azalea?"

"If you'll have me?" Azalea asked sheepishly, realizing the boldness of the comments she'd been making, but determined to at least let him know that she was actually interested in something real between them rather than the misconceptions of others.

Leon rolled his eyes in incredulous amusement, "Like I'd let you get away after you gave me the slightest hint that you were interested."

Azalea giggled, relieved at his answer and amused at his possessiveness. Her hand absentmindedly trailed through Emilia's curls in consideration, "Rosaria? Maybe for a middle name?"

He snorted in amusement, "Emilia Rosaria Kennedy, it is. My Nonna would've been tickled pink to find out I'd named one of my children after her."

She looked up at him then, biting her lip and trying to look serious, despite the