*Sorry for taking so long to update. I'm preparing to have surgery, I'm almost at a crossroads for the direction this story is going to go in, so bear with me as I get through my notes!* (Also shout out to Silex at AO3 for his helpful suggestions! I'm eternally grateful!)

Leon sat across from Claire in a truck just outside the hospital. Jake and Sherry had been gone for a few hours. A detail had been assigned to watch their apartment.

"It had to have been a distraction," Leon muttered. It was just a guess. There was no way to know when Sherry would have her baby. So it couldn't have been the discovery of the clones.

"From what?" Claire was all seriousness. She would have gone back with Sherry but Leon had held her back. One look at Jake had convinced him that Claire was probably the worst thing that could happen to them now. They needed to be alone. As much as they could be.

Leon could only shrug. Most of the infected had been taken care of. There were a lot of survivors. Plenty of people who were going to need therapy. Relatively speaking it had been a small event. Much smaller than anything he'd had to deal with. While there were plenty of casualties, this was a better outcome than most.

"I don't know," Leon admitted. "But it doesn't feel right. It was too easy."

Claire only lifted an eye brow at him.

"Oh please," Leon eyed her. "IF Sherry had not been carrying her newborn...the four of us could have cleared that place. Easy."

"Says the one-man army." Claire rolled her eyes.

Leon sat back. "The clones, this outbreak..."

"None were the first clone we encountered?"

"No...we haven't seen him yet."

"The latest?"

"Still a child..."

"And he's already disappeared?"

Leon sat back and nodded. "Jake was not comfortable with him. I could tell, I wish we'd had a minute to talk about it, but then we got the call and everything happened."

"He's always one step ahead," Claire muttered to herself.

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"I want you to go into hiding while Leon and I figure this out." Jake broached the thought as soon as they were in the door of their apartment. He'd waited because there was an audience outside. Both BSAA and DSO were stationed out there. The argument was bound to be heated.

"What?" Sherry, still carrying Anja, stopped in front of him, he placed his hands on her shoulders to keep from running into her.

"I think..." Jake started again but Sherry turned around and stared up at him. Her anger was evident, red-faced and eyes flashing, any other time he would have been amused as he looked down at her. Not today, not after the hospital.

"No."

"Sherry, this isn't a good time to argue about it."

"Then don't argue with me when I say no." She moved away from him then and laid Anja down on their couch and turned to face him. "I'm an agent."

"What about Anja?" Jake's question made Sherry slow down for a moment. They hadn't figured out if Anja was normal or not. If anything from their respective viruses had carried down to the newborn. The odds were high that she would inherit something from them. That made her a potential target as well. A target that most likely the Wesker clone had noticed by now.

Leaving their baby with anyone would potentially put that person in harm's way. Not to mention that there would be just one more person who knew about Anja.

Sherry sighed. Jake was right and she hated him for it.

"Do you think she has..." She let the sentence drop. Jake was staring at her from across the room. His hands clenching at his sides, his expression answering her question before she finished it.

She dropped her head and he moved swiftly to her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to his chest.

"We both know it's likely she does." He said stroking her hair. He held her for a while, afraid to let her go. He sighed. "Sherry, please do this for me." He dropped to his knee so he could look her in the eye. "I can't... I can't do what I think we'll need to do. I..." He stopped. "I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. I don't want them to use you against me. I won't be able to say no. I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe."

"Fine." Sherry leaned into him. They both knew they weren't going to have a normal life. It didn't matter due to things beyond their control. Right down to their DNA, the Viruses that had altered them, the people who were no longer alive who had started it all. Deep down she knew he was right. And if they wanted anything like normal, it would mean destroying everything their fathers had created. She didn't mention to Jake, that everything their fathers created included the two of them and Anja. The cost was more than she could think about.

Sherry had settled Anja in a small crib next to their bed in their room that night. It was pushed up next to the bed. While Sherry had a baby room next to them in their small two-room apartment the days' events led her to buy a new crib altogether and stick it in their room.

But he was also dreading telling her that he was going out on assignment with Leon sooner rather than later to figure out what the hell was going on.

She looked tired for once as she climbed into bed and he slipped in beside her keeping an eye on her as she turned over and looked at Anja.

"Hey, you ok?" He asked tentatively.

"I'm fine," she said, turning over and staring at his face. Everything he read there said she was not fine. Sherry rarely managed to look tired but right now she was exhausted and worried. "Tell me what happened." 

Jake hesitated and then slowly told her what Leon had said about the hospital attack being a simple distraction. No new outbreaks outside the hospital had been reported and the infected had been dealt with, with no further spread. There were quite a few survivors this time although the hospital was closed for repairs. There was talk of demolishing the building itself.

"A distraction?" She repeated staring at the ceiling.

"Was that like Raccoon City?" He asked.

She turned to face him. "Those infected there...they had those, only it was everyone. Not just...random strangers. People you knew and talked to every day..." Sherry trailed off. "My Father-" Here she did stop to regain her composure and Jake reached down and took her hand.

"We don't have to talk about it," he said, concerned, "I didn't mean to bring it up again."

"It's ok," Sherry said turning back to look him in the face. "Let's just say it was like that and worse. So many more infected...and my parents were helping to create that... I-"

"Don't beat yourself up," Jake said suddenly. "They were helping my Father, remember...which makes this situation here a little ironic." He swung his head in a circle indicating their lives, their new daughter, and the fact that they were together in general. "Besides," he said tilting her chin up to him to look her in the eye. "Someone once told me my Father's actions had nothing to do with me. She was right."

Sherry snickered suddenly remembering the dressing down she had given Jake after he'd complained about being like his father when they were on the run. "True." She smiled at him in the dim light. "I think I need a little distraction myself..."

He frowned. "Are you sure, I mean I just literally caught our daughter today...and..."

Sherry grabbed his pants in a strong grip suddenly, "Jake I swear if you say another word and don't kiss me, I may kill you in your sleep tonight."

Jake wisely stopped talking and leaned over and kissed her. Her healing ability did have some benefits.

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Jake and Leon were sitting in the kitchen of Leon's house. The decorations were Spartan as Leon rarely spent time there.

Leon gave Jake a hard look. "Look, I've been doing this for a long time. Believe me, this can always get worse." He was thinking of his time in the Eastern Slave Republic. It wasn't that far from Edonia, where Jake had been born. Both countries had been torn apart by civil war and the heavy use of B.O.W.s by one side or the ESR had been a nightmare. Not that anything after that had been easy, his friend the president having been killed, the subsequent battle with Simmons, crash landing in China. But Leon knew the technology they were dealing with was quite extensive. In the ESR he'd seen the B.O.W.s being controlled like dogs. They'd even been used to rescue him more than once. He thought of the man there who had saved him. The guy was wheelchair-bound now, but in the end, they'd gotten what the rebels had wanted. That man was teaching now.

"Imagine lickers, strelats, napads," he said stumbling a little over the Serbian words.

Jake picked up the Serbian readily as it was fairly close to his own mother tongue, Edonian.

"Strelats, Napads, lickers, oh my!" He paused. "So?"

"So, they aren't even close to the worst thing ever."

"I've seen HAOS," Jake replied. "I know they can make things much worse."

"HAOS? Nah, that was a piece of cake," Leon shrugged going for a coffee mug and then pouring whiskey into it. He turned back, a serious look on his face. "Don't tell Chris I ever said that."

Jake only shrugged. It was not like he and Chris Redfield were best friends. Besides he had seen and battled plenty of monsters.

Leon continued. "They've got weapons and then they've got the ability to control the B.O.W.s How do you think they managed to control so many J'Avo? Almost Instantly?"

Jake shrugged. He wanted to ask why it didn't work on him, but that would be acknowledging that he'd been injected by Neo-Umbrella, twice. He hadn't talked about it, not even with Sherry, the one person he trusted more than anyone else. He wasn't ready to admit anything.

"They have the technology for that kind of control. I'm sure that Carla Radames was using it." Leon continued. His experiences with the nightmarish Plaga parasites were fresh on his mind. There were plenty of things they could be playing with now.

"She was an experiment herself, wasn't she?" Jake asked. Sherry had briefly given him a rundown on other events that happened in China. The woman who had given him the C-Virus shot in the first place. The one who had also told him who his father had been. He shuddered.

"Leon nodded. "Trust me," said Leon. "The Ustanak is just the beginning of their arsenal. And they never learn that the B.O.W.s are a bad idea."

Jake stared grimly ahead. Both thrilled and horrified with what they were about to face. He loved his job. But this was different, they were the target. He understood B.O.W.S. His unit had been completely turned into J'Avo almost a year ago, he'd faced the Ustanak on several occasions, and by some miracle, he was still breathing. Hell, he'd even been given a dose of the C-virus and due to his unfortunate inherited genetics from his father, he'd been enhanced. It was the only helpful gift Wesker had left him.

He wasn't about to explain that to Leon either.

Nor was he going to admit his own fears. That he was no longer human, that if injured he could possibly turn into a monster. Some men would kill to have the abilities that Jake did. Jake just wanted to make sure he was still human. If it wasn't for Sherry Jake would have been reckless, possibly not worrying about whether he would come back. But in the back of his mind, he always wanted to return for her sake. Because he knew already the arguments she would make and how much she passionately believed in them. And he loved her for it.

Speaking of Sherry. "She's packing up with Claire's help," He said changing the subject.

"Going into hiding?" Leon was surprised. He should have suggested it himself but the last time anyone had brought it up was when Sherry had been targeted by a kidnapping before. She'd refused to hide and ended up killing an Ustanak before it was all over.

"The baby changes things," Jake followed Leon's thoughts and shrugged. Leaving her even to come to see Leon and go over plans with him had been hard.

"I'm just surprised you are not going with her." Leon had mostly thought them inseparable until Sherry's pregnancy had caught up with her. On missions, Jake was moody when they weren't working. Always eager to get back home. Leon hadn't blamed him.

"She wasn't happy about it," Jake continued. "But she doesn't trust the government to hide them, and after what happened before I don't blame her."

"So where is she going?"

"She'll take a flight with Chris."

"Chris? He's got enough contacts worldwide," muttered Leon.

"Yeah well, apparently, the Boy Scouts believe she's still wanted," Jake said. "Sherry was the liaison between the BSAA and the DOS because she knows everyone. But she knew they were all just babysitting her. Waiting for something to happen."

Leon nodded, his fingers drummed against the table. It made sense. "So, she's going to them?"

"She trusts the boy scout." Jake did too. But he wasn't going to admit it out loud. He crossed his arms and stretched his legs.

"And we'll find that clone in the meantime," Leon leaned forward. "Jake, are you sure? That you want to come with me, I mean? You don't want to be protecting Sherry?"

Jake hesitated but he nodded. He stood taking in Leon's spartan house decor again. "That's the plan. I'm heading out to see her off."

"I'll come to if anything to get Claire out of the way for a little bit."

Jake grinned. "I appreciate that."