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The dark blue memory stick spun around and around in Grace’s hands as she fidgeted with it, watching Emily playing on the swings. She kept a close eye on the girl, but let her play. After everything, she deserved that chance.
Emily’s thrilled giggles rang out over the sound of the other children playing, and Grace’s lips twitched into a small smile, despite her preoccupation with the simple piece of technology she couldn’t stop handling.
“Hey.”
The voice and sudden presence of someone sitting down beside her had Grace somehow going rigid and relaxing all at once - her instincts set off even as a part of her recognized the person instantly.
“G-geez, Leon,” Grace said, putting a hand over her heart, and smiling over to him a little shakily. “Give a girl some warning. What are you doing here? I thought you had a mission. That thing in the Midwest you couldn’t say much about?”
“Sorry,” he said, quirking an apologetic smile at her as he settled into the bench as well. “Wrapped up early. Had to miss Emily’s open house at the school, even though she invited me to come, so I figured I’d stop and hang out with you here, if that’s fine. You mentioned she was looking forward to the weather being good enough to come here again, finally.”
“Well, when she notices you’re here, she’s going to be excited,” Grace smiled, glancing back at her new… ward? They were still figuring out terminology with each other. “I swear, some days it seems like she likes you more than me.”
“That’s just because she knows she has me wrapped around her clever little fingers,” he snorted, though the pleased smile on his face betrayed his real opinion on that. “She’s adorable and she uses it for evil.”
Grace laughed a little, having been on the receiving end of Emily’s pleading eyes multiple times herself by now. Somewhere along the way, the young girl had figured out she was cute, and had since started using it to her advantage on occasion.
So far, Grace hadn’t had the heart to curb the behavior yet - especially because Emily had only been using it for simple things. An extra book, dessert before dinner, an extra ten minutes of TV.
It was easy enough to bend her own rules for that, sometimes.
“You seemed preoccupied,” Leon said quietly, watching her from the corner of his eye, the majority of his attention focused on Emily. “Dollar for your thoughts?”
“A whole dollar?” Grace smiled over at him, a little amused but mostly perplexed. His eyes cut to her, amused. “What happened to a penny?”
“What can I say? Inflation’s a b- er, witch, these days,” he said, catching himself awkwardly, and casting a glance towards the kids running around.
“You do know Emily has heard swear words, right?” she asked, leaning against the back of the bench, entertained. “I’m not exactly a saint about it myself, and even the scientists at Rhodes sometimes slipped, according to her.”
“I have to make sure I don’t get banned from the park,” Leon said seriously. “How else will I be able to tell you your kid is eating a worm?”
“What?” Grace spun around, alarmed, only to see Emily at the top of a slide, waiting her turn. She turned back to see Leon grinning mischievously at her, and she whacked him with the back of her hand. He began silently laughing at her, shoulders shaking. “You - you are a dick.”
“And you were avoiding the question,” he said, laughter fading a bit as something more sincere took over. Grace fell silent too, knowing he was telling the truth. “C’mon, Ashcroft. What’s eating you?”
Grace heaved a sigh, debating about how much she really wanted to get into this now. As usual, though, Leon’s steady demeanor and sincerity managed to get her talking again before long.
“I turned my mother’s MO disk over to the DSO, and let them take scans of her journal, after Rhodes,” she said, after a pause. Leon nodded, clearly remembering that, and waited patiently for her to continue. “I still have the bag she stored them both in. Last week, I noticed I’d missed something else inside of it.”
She opened her hand, letting him see the flashdrive, without holding it up. Some of the paranoia about being watched never really went away, after seeing that pile of photos of her in the Wrenwood. Given everything, she didn’t exactly want to highlight the flashdrive’s existence, even if she felt mostly fine holding it out in the open still.
“You see what’s on it yet?”
“Yeah.” Grace spun it around a few more times, then offered it to him. Leon took hold of it carefully after a moment, tucking it into the pocket of his coat and out of sight while keeping his eyes on her. Her shoulders relaxed, seeing it hidden again. “You should probably have it anyway - I trust you. You can show it to whoever you think can be trusted with it. If that turns out to be nobody then… I also trust you can either destroy it or store it safely, depending on which is best.”
“Alright,” Leon promised, a hint of a concerned frown pinching his brow. “Can I ask what’s on it?”
Grace sighed again, knowing he did deserve an answer about that - especially given the promise he’d made so readily, just because she’d asked him to. He also was going to see the contents of it soon regardless, so may as well tell him now.
She ran a hand over her face, tired.
“Stuff about Elpis,” she said wearily, glancing over again. Leon’s attention perked, even if his body language remained steady. “And me. As usual, apparently. Turns out Spencer was still a little more morally-grey than I’d hoped, at the end.”
“How so?”
“Well, he apparently lied to my mom about me being an experiment,” she said wryly, catching the instant her sentence registered for him as his eyes darted across her, clearly looking for signs of infection. “I was apparently just… part of a different line of research.”
“Elpis,” Leon said, looking a little relieved, putting the pieces together quickly.
“Elpis,” she confirmed with a sigh. “I was the first - and apparently only - success for the trials. I’m immune to all viruses in the family Umbrella worked with, it seems.”
“Well - shit. That’s… handy.”
“I suppose. Explains why none of the zombies that got me infected me, at least.”
“Why did Spencer lie about that then?” Leon asked, frowning. “Alyssa already knew the rest, what could he gain?”
“Looking that thing over? I don’t think it was a complete lie. I think he genuinely wanted a kid for whatever reason,” Grace shrugged, not sure exactly how she felt about that still. “Maybe Elpis happened because he wanted to keep whatever kid he took in safe from what he created - that whole thing about only caring about impacts when it becomes personal, kind of thing. Then he ended up taking in the kid that survived the trials. Maybe he was also hoping for either me or Elpis to be a backup plan, in case his creations caught up with him and he got infected himself. Who knows, now.”
They sat there in silence for a long moment, as Leon absorbed that information. Emily had now moved on to the monkey bars with another little girl who was showing her how to do them.
Something in Grace settled at the sight, seeing Emily learning how to be a kid again after everything. Perhaps settling because if she could find some form of normal after everything, maybe they could too.
“Do you want to look into it further?” Leon finally asked, looking over. “I could call some people. Do some digging. Or we can just leave it as it is.”
Grace took the time to consider the question seriously. She’d already been thinking it over, after all. Ever since she’d found out about the flashdrive, she’d been thinking some variation of that exact question. She let out a slow breath.
“I think… I think for now I’m willing to let it be,” she said slowly, glancing over to meet his gaze. “It is what it is. I’m immune regardless, and Spencer is dead. Whatever reasons he had, they’re hopefully dead with him. And my mom - my m-mom can’t tell me anything she knew. I don’t think any answers we dig up at this point will be worth the shit we might get covered in, getting them.”
Leon searched her gaze for a moment, then nodded, settling back against the bench again. That same calm he always seemed to have seeped into Grace even further by proxy, and she found some level of tension in her own frame unraveling at his easy acceptance of both the information and her decision about it.
“Besides, this means the DSO is less likely to find out about it too,” she added, tone going flat with annoyance. Leon snorted.
“They’ve really been interested in you,” he agreed. “Likely because Umbrella and the Connections were so obsessed. Must have figured they wouldn’t have used so many resources on something they would have considered pointless. Someone higher up might even assume they did some confirmation test or something, to make sure they had the right person.”
“And now we find out they’re right. Just not in the direction anyone expected.” The irony wasn’t lost on either of them. “Still, they’ve been leaving me alone for now. I think they’ve finally gotten the hint, even if I’m not stupid enough to think they’ve left me entirely unmonitored. But, I don’t think it’s a good idea to give them the kind of confirmation that flashdrive would, which is why I don’t think I should keep it anymore.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Leon assured, and Grace didn’t doubt that for a second. “And if the higher ups start getting too pushy again, call either me or Sherry. We’ll help.”
“I know,” Grace said simply, flashing him a smile. “Thanks.”
“Leon!” A blur of ash-blonde hair streaked towards them, colliding with Leon heavily and almost knocking the wind out of him entirely. “You’re here!”
“Hey, Emily,” he said, hugging her back carefully after a moment where his hands hovered over her awkwardly, the smile on his face widening a bit at the sight of her. “Heard I missed that open house of yours you invited me to, so thought I’d make it up with an ice cream day.”
His eyes flashed to Grace at the announcement, the expression somewhere between teasing and something she’d have called almost puppy-eyed if he hadn’t been more than twice her age. She rolled her eyes but nodded with a smile.
He’d be paying, of course, given that it was his idea.
Leon shot her a thumbs up behind Emily’s back. Dork.
“I saved some things for you from the open house,” Emily informed Leon seriously, bracing her hands on his legs with the casual carelessness only children had.
Grace had the fortune to see his expression melt a little bit, the lines around his eyes softening and the quirk of his lips smooth to something a little gentler. She covered her mouth with her hand, hiding the smile that formed, seeing him already tangled back up in Emily’s fingers.
“Yeah? Like what?”
“We had to write some poems after reading a book, I made a poster on the history of Braille, and we had to make a model of something cool for science and art so I made a model of a human heart,” she told him eagerly. Grace could see the way Leon flicked his gaze up to her, a little baffled by that last one. “I had Grace save them for you to see.”
“Her model was very impressive,” Grace said, voice serious in a way that was hiding a wry amusement. “Her teacher pulled me aside - told me she was very… skilled for her age and asked if she was interested in medicine.”
“I - see,” Leon said carefully, in a way that showed he understood that it was a rather unsettlingly detailed, rather accurate model, but didn’t want to dampen Emily’s enthusiasm at all. “Well, I can’t wait to see it, Emily, thanks for saving it for me.”
“Sure! You didn’t get a chance to see it yet. You needed to see it!”
“Well, how about that ice cream now?” Grace derailed the conversation effectively, standing up. Leon cast her a grateful look before standing as well.
“Yes!” Emily then whirled to Leon, giving him a pleading look that had him freezing in place. “Can I be tall today? Please?”
Leon wavered for a moment, before crumpling like a soggy paper bag.
“Sure thing, kid.” He lifted her up carefully and bent down, setting her on his shoulders as he straightened. “Just be careful with my left arm, okay? Don’t kick it.”
“Injury?” Grace asked, scanning him briefly as they began walking.
“Strained it - just sore,” he said, shaking his head. Grace nodded, deciding not to ask further, given that his last mission had been so classified he couldn’t even mention what state it was in.
Emily chattered away at them as they walked, telling Leon all the fun facts she’d learned about hearts during her project, much to his slightly strained encouragement. Leon’s hands were careful but secure around her legs, ready to catch her if her enthusiasm sent her sliding.
He wouldn’t let her fall.
Grace’s eyes drifted to his coat pocket one last time, before putting the flash drive within it out of her mind, and letting her paranoia about it slowly slip away.
He wouldn’t let that fall into the wrong hands either.