Chapter Text
It was weird going back to everyday life after everything. She was able to get a week off work, which she mostly used to sleep. She got some flowers for Emily, too, and put them on the table she had.
On the table was a picture of her mom, too. She was going to have a picture of Emily, too, but she didn’t have anything. Soon, Grace would start forgetting Emily’s face just like she did with her mother.
But now one month has passed since…everything, yet nothing has changed.
Grace looked at the time. Almost seven thirty. It was time to go to work. Her work day would be the exact same as the day prior.
She smiled at her neighbors on her way out and drove to work. At work, she made very little small talk with her coworkers, got yelled at for being behind on her reports, ate lunch alone, and worked till midnight.
Leon knew she was at work, yet he always called around seven. At least it gave her a break. He usually called every day, too. She was pretty sure he was worried about her, but she appreciated his effort. She hadn’t really talked to anyone like that in years. He asked a little while where she lived so he could check up on her, but Grace refused. She insisted that a check up wasn’t necessary.
“You finished that report,” Nathan Dempsey said. He was waiting for Grace by her desk.
“I did,” she said, suspecting that there was something more to it.
“Follow me to my office?” Nathan said.
She did as he said and closed the door behind her.
“Look,” he started. “I can’t give you any cases until you finish your reports. You’re almost three weeks behind. I know things have been tough, especially with the Wrenwood case, but you need to start prioritizing getting your work done. You have so much overtime and for what?”
Grace looked down in shame. She felt her face turn red.
“No one else seems to have this problem but you,” Nathan said. “No one else has their desk filled with old case files, either. This is your warning to pull yourself together, or you’ll be let go.”
She nodded quickly. “R-right. I’ll get w-w-working.”
Grace opened the door and started to leave.
“And Grace?” Nathan said.
She turned to look at him.
“Stop making personal phone calls while on the clock.”
“Right.”
Grace left as quickly as she could. Her face burned and something prickled behind her eyes.
No one else seems to have this problem but you.
She couldn’t get his voice out of her head. Part of her just wanted to call Leon. She'd done it before, but Nathan told her no personal phone calls while on the clock.
So she instead tried focusing on her work and nothing but her work. But that didn’t work. No matter what she did, Nathan’s talk ran through her mind, and she just wanted to crawl under her desk and cry.
Someone knocked on her desk cubicle. It was one of her older coworkers, a woman named Mary.
“We ordered a pizza,” Mary said. “Want a slice? It’s in the break room.”
Grace nodded. “S-sure. I’ll be there soon.”
Mary smiled and walked off.
Grace shut off her computer and went to the break room. Most of her coworkers were already there. She didn’t know them super well. They all seemed to have their own little groups, and she wasn’t the best at making friends.
Still, she squeezed past, got two slices and went back to her desk.
Grace worked for a while, finally being able to focus on the reports. By the time she looked up, it was dark.
She got up to stretch her legs and walked around the office. Some of her coworkers were already gone.
“I see you got some reports done.”
Grace screamed, covering her head and bracing her body for impact. When nothing happened, she slowly uncovered her head, looking around.
Nathan Dempsey was right behind her. “Sorry, I should have introduced myself first.”
“N-no, it was an over-over reaction,” Grace stuttered out. Why can’t you be fucking normal about anything?
“Keep up on those reports,” Nathan said before walking off.
Grace internally kicked herself. He must think I'm insane.
She sighed and went back to her desk.
A few minutes later, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw that Leon was calling.
She considered answering it. She could talk to him for ages about how awful today was, but Nathan’s words filled her mind.
Grace put the phone down, hoping Leon would get the message and leave a voicemail.
***
She was the last one to leave the office, just like always. The custodial staff knew her well enough to not bother her as long as she didn’t bother them.
The drive home was boring, as usual. There weren’t many cars out at midnight.
Grace took the elevator to the fifth floor and pulled out the keys to her apartment. But something was off.
When she reached her door, it was slightly ajar. Her heart rate spiked. She pulled her gun out of her backpack and slowly opened the door.
Grace entered the apartment, into the kitchen.
The lights in the apartment were on. Everything looked normal. But it didn’t feel normal.
A large figure turned the corner from the hallway.
She didn’t even think, she just shot blindly. Nothing came out.
“Holy shit,” the figure said, dodging to the side.
“Fuck!” Grace said. “I could’ve shot you.”
“Only if you remember to reload your gun,” Leon said. He took the gun from her and reloaded it himself before giving it back.
“H-how did you find out where I l-live?” Grace asked. She placed her backpack on the kitchen island.
“I had Sherry find it,” Leon said. “Why didn’t you answer my phone call?”
“I was at work,” Grace said.
“That hasn’t stopped you before,” Leon pointed out.
“Yeah, my boss doesn’t like that,” Grace said. She began searching the kitchen cabinets looking for something to eat.
“I already made mac n’ cheese,” Leon said. He opened the fridge and took out tupperware filled with mac n’ cheese. “It’ll need to be reheated.”
As Leon put the tupperware in the microwave, Grace went to the couch and collapsed onto it. “You break into my house and eat my food?”
“I brought the ingredients,” Leon said. “Good thing, too. You hardly have anything here. You’re lucky I didn’t bring more.”
Grace groaned. “I haven’t had time to go to the store.”
“But you have time to stay at work till midnight,” Leon said. “Do you do that every day?”
She hoped silence was the right answer. Apparently it was not.
“You told me that after our phone calls, you go home.” Leon took the mac n’ cheese out of the microwave and stirred it around before putting it back in.
“I-I didn’t think you’d approve of my working habits,” Grace admitted sheepishly.
“I don’t.” Leon grabbed bowls for both of them. “Don’t approve of the lying, either. Or the sleeping habits. That’s too many sleeping pills. You’re gonna overdose by accident.”
“I’m sorry, ok?” Grace said quietly. “But I’ve got it handled.”
Leon took the mac n’ cheese out of the microwave and poured it into the bowls. “Doesn’t look like it.”
“Thanks,” Grace said as she took the bowl from Leon. “You made this?”
“Not my recipe, but yeah,” Leon said.
“Who’s recipe, then?” Grace asked.
“Belongs to my sister-in-law,” Leon said.
“You’re married?” Grace almost choked on her mac n’ cheese.
Leon chuckled to himself. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, kiddo.”
“Does Sherry know?”
“Yes.”
“And she didn’t tell me?”
“Her husband and my husband do not get along,” Leon said. ‘You should’ve been there for Christmas.”
Grace went quiet thinking about Christmas. She hadn’t really celebrated Christmas since, well, her mom died.
Leon sighed. “Look, I’m gonna go out tomorrow and buy you groceries. You’ll be home from work before dinner, and I’ll teach you another one of my sister-in-law’s recipes.”
Grace opened her mouth to protest, but Leon interrupted.
“And you’ll watch how many sleeping pills you take, alright?” Leon said. He put his fist out.
“Is-is that a fistbump?” Grace asked. “Or are you just holding your fist out?”
“Yes, it’s a fistbump.”
Grace bumped her fist against Leon’s. He moved his hand back, twisting his fingers to mock an explosion.
She giggled and put the mac n’ cheese down. “See you tomorrow, then.”
Leon nodded and stood up. “See you, kiddo.”
***
Grace struggled to sleep that night. She didn’t take as many sleeping pills as usual, thinking of what Leon said.
So she woke up the next morning tired and angry.
Maybe things will be better at work. Grace hoped.
“Grace!” Nathan Dempsey said as soon as he saw Grace going to her desk. “I know I said no more cases…”
Grace’s heart sank.
“But…a situation has formed,” Nathan explained. “Some of your coworkers are dealing with it, so they don’t have time for their reports. Some of their active cases are being sent to you. Don’t worry, you won’t have to do any investigating, and they all have notes for you to fill in the reports.”
“But I’m still behind on my own stuff,” Grace protested. “A-a-a-and how many more cases?”
“I’m gonna give you some more grace with your cases,” Nathan said. “Just focus on other people’s work first. It’ll only be five or six cases. I figure with all that overtime, you’ll finish it up in no time.”
“I-I can’t do that today,” Grace said. “I’ve got p-p-plans.”
“You have to cancel them, then,” Nathan said. “This is an emergency.”
Grace nodded slowly, and Nathan walked away.
Fuck.
***
Grace could barely focus on the new cases. Nathan said there were notes, but they were awful. They seemed to only make sense to whoever wrote them, but she couldn’t ask them what the notes meant because they were too busy with that emergency.
Plus the added stress of trying to figure out how to tell Leon that she was busy…
She was so distracted by her work that she didn’t even notice when lunch passed.
Grace mentally kicked herself. How could I be so forgetful?
She looked around to see if anyone would see. No one was nearby. She pulled out her phone and dialed Leon's number. He picked up after two rings.
“Leon here,” he said.
“I-I-I-I’m really sorry, but I can’t make dinner tonight,” Grace said quickly. “There’s some sort of emergency they’re working out so I got some of the extra case reports to do, and my boss wants me to do overtime to get them done.”
“It’s ok, Grace,” Leon said. “We can make dinner another time.”
“GRACE!”
She jumped and looked to see who yelled. It was her boss.
“Oh shit,” Grace whispered. “Gotta go.”
She hung up before Leon could talk.
“My office, now!” Nathan said.
Grace looked around wildly as she went to the office. How many people saw that? How many people were staring?
Nathan came in behind her and closed the door. “I told you, no personal phone calls while on the clock. What are you doing?”
“I w-was cancelling my plans,” Grace explained.
“Look, making up excuses won’t do you any good.” Nathan sighed. “You’ve got the talent, if you’d just apply yourself, you could go far here.”
“It’s not an excuse,” Grace said. “I did have plans.”
“You’re on your second warning, Ashcroft,” Nathan crossed his arms. “One more, and I’ll have to let you go.”
Grace swallowed a lump in her throat. “Understood, sir. Won’t happen again.”
“You may go,” Nathan said.
***
Grace went home at midnight again. When she got home, the door was locked, the lights were off, and everything was just as she left it except for the food in the kitchen. Like Leon said he would, he bought groceries for her.
Her eyes welled up. A note was left on the fridge. It read:
Grace,
Thought I’d stop by with groceries anyway. There’s some pasta in the fridge. I did the dishes, too, but you’ll have to put those away.
How’s tomorrow for our dinner? Maybe text me next time if plans have to change.
See ya,
Leon
It was stupid to cry. Nothing happened. Leon was just being Leon.
She opened the fridge and found the pasta. She reheated it in the microwave and took it to her couch to eat.
It was good pasta. Grace had no idea Leon was such a good chef. She thought about the chef in the care center.
She’d taken him down with one of the injectors. She wasn’t sure it would. But when he did finally die, it was such a relief. She wouldn’t have to run around hiding from him.
When she finished eating the pasta, she just put the plate in the sink. She remembered Leon’s note about putting the dishes away, but she could do that later.
Like the night before, Grace couldn’t sleep. She didn’t want to take so many sleeping pills again.
***
Miraculously, Grace was able to focus on her work the next day. She got most of the other reports done, and spent some time on hers as well, though her work mostly consisted of jumping from case to case instead of actually sitting with one.
Nathan Dempsey tried talking to her at six when she was going home, but she told him she was leaving and therefore off the clock.
Leon was waiting outside her door when she got home.
“I thought you would’ve broken in again,” Grace said as she unlocked the door.
“What am I, a common burgular?” Leon joked.
“Considering the groceries you left, quite the opposite,” Grace said. “What are we making?”
“Chicken alfredo,” Leon said.
Leon did most of the cooking. They soon found that Grace was not good in the kitchen when she dropped the sauce twice.
“How have you been living if you can’t cook?” Leon asked as he put the meal on the stove.
“Microwavable food and stuff that just goes in an oven for thirty minutes,” Grace admitted. “And raw vegetables.”
Leon sighed and rubbed his forehead. “No one taught you to cook?”
Grace shook her head. “Schools don’t care about teaching life lessons these days. Is this…the only reason y-you came?”
“No.”
Right. Grace bit the inside of her mouth.
“The DSO wants to interrogate you about everything that happened,” Leon said. “But they’re letting me talk to you, and if you can tell me your side, they won’t take you in. And I won’t tell them anything you don’t want them to know.”
“Y-y-you promise?” Grace’s voice shook. Flashbacks of her mother’s death filled her mind. The last time she’d been interrogated for her side of the story was when her mom died. It was…unpleasant.
“I promise,” Leon said.
Grace nodded. “Um, w-what do they wanna know?”
“Let’s sit down for this,” Leon gestured to the living room couch.
Grace sat on the right side with her feet up, hugging her knees while Leon sat on the other side.
“Just start from the beginning,” Leon said. “I’m gonna be honest with you, the DSO can’t be trusted. We can work together to omit information from them.”
“Th-they can’t be trusted?” Grace questioned. Why would Leon be working for people he doesn’t trust?
“Most agencies these days can’t be trusted,” Leon explained. “My job is to protect people like you.”
“Um, okay,” Grace swallowed a lump in her throat. “S-so start from the b-beginning.”
Grace explained everything from the strange phone call and power outage at the Wrenwood Hotel, to first being kidnapped by Elpis. She explained what happened after she was separated from Leon, everything about Emily, even her first suspicions about the girl. She told Leon exactly what Victor Gideon told her in that office through the Girl coming back and taking Emily, including her guilt about her death.
They stopped to finish making the chicken alfredo. Leon was quiet, but Grace could see the gears turning in his head. He was planning what to tell the DSO.
The two of them got settled again and Grace told him about the basement, defeating the Girl, and how she ended up going with Victor Gideon and Zeno to Raccoon City.
“I’m really not sure why Zeno went to RPD other than to mess with you,” Grace said. “I think he and Gideon knew you would follow us, and he thought maybe taking you back there would throw you off.”
Leon didn’t say anything, so Grace continued talking. She talked about seeing the room where Elpis was for the first time and what Zeno wanted from her, and the relief when Leon showed up.
She almost wanted to skip over the part about Oswell E. Spencer, but something told her not to.
“I’m a clone just like Emily, I think.” Grace swallowed a lump in her throat. “And I probably would’ve ended up like the rest of them if Oswell E. Spencer hadn’t taken me in.”
Leon’s head perked up.
“My mom interviewed him,” Grace explained. “He talked about Elpis and his change of heart. He seemed remorseful about all his Umbrella experiments. Or maybe it was one last fuck you to everyone. Either way, he took me in to make amends. And when he died, his will said I’d go to my mom.”
“Why you?” Leon asked.
“I think he just picked some random clone,” Grace said. “I don’t know who I’m a clone of. Knowing Umbrella, they probably mixed a bunch of DNA together hoping for the best combination.”
Grace put her empty plate down and cleared her throat. “A-a-anyways, Victor Gideon and Zeno thought I was s-special because Spencer took me in. He'd been trying to transfer memories for a while, and I-I-I think they thought Spencer succeeded with me, which is why they thought I had the password. They thought I had his memories, w-which I don’t.”
“All over a simple misunderstanding,” Leon murmured to himself.
“After I found that, I found you, and you know the rest,” Grace finished.
Leon sat in silence for a few moments. “We can’t tell the DSO anything about Spencer or memory transfer.”
“Why?”
“They’ll wanna make sure you don’t have his memories,” Leon said.
“So what’ll we tell them?” Grace asked.
“I’ll tell them that you were a clone rescued by an unknown employee,” Leon said. “You were then adopted by Alyssa Ashcroft. Gideon and Zeno thought the employee rescued you because they knew their experiments succeeded. I told the DSO that you made a guess about the password and that there’s nothing special about you. I’ll tell them that maybe the employee just felt bad and wanted to help or something.”
“Never been so happy to not be special,” Grace joked.
“Grace, if you tell anyone about what truly happened, they will not believe that there is nothing special about you,” Leon said. His eyes were filled with concern. “You can’t tell anyone ever.”
She nodded once. “I won’t.”
“You promise?” Leon asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I promise,” Grace said.