Chapter 62: Coping Mechanisms

Leon said to Rick while looking away. It was understandable, Rick was sprawled on the ground like a starfish, his manly part right there in the open. Angela, a deep red blush on her face was also turned away but she couldn’t help herself and gave a few side glances.

Rick started to chuckle in a very tired fashion. His chest was rising and falling in waves. Sitting up, he sighed deeply. G was gone; dealt with. The outbreak of the G-virus was over but not the whole ordeal.

“We need to catch Downing.” He grunted as he got to his feet. A knee first, on which he put his whole weight, then the other.

“Downing?” Angela asked, confused.

Leon explained everything to her. “He’s the one behind everything. Your brother turning to terrorism, getting the T-virus… The G-virus release is still up in the air but he is the mastermind.”

Rick cracked his neck and stretched himself to shade the soreness in his muscles away. “Step one: Get out of here. Step two: Find myself some pants.”

“Amen to that.” Leon replied while Angela was surprisingly subdued as if she didn’t want Rick to put some pants on.

“Step three: Find the bastard.”

With nothing more to say, Rick took point and walked toward one of the exits. Now that the purge protocol was over and that no viral threat was detected by the systems, the door had been opened and the trio was free to get out of there.

Leon’s pace quickened up and overcame Rick leading the way. He had enough of seeing his friend naked for a lifetime and certainly won’t walk behind him with a view of his bare ass. Unsurprisingly, Angela didn’t move from her position and was unknowingly more than happy to close the march.

After everything she had been through today, having an unrestricted look at Rick’s bare ass felt like a reward or at least a very small consolation prize. It also took her mind away from how she was feeling regarding her brother. Both his death and his crimes.

Staring at Rick’s ass was simply a very good distraction she welcomed with open arms. She didn’t have to focus on her pain or loss. Just stare.

Once they got inside the outer buildings, Rick went to take the elevator to go up some floors. When asked why, his answer was that there might be dead scientists he could pilfer a lab coat from.

“I may not look like it but I’m feeling cold.”

There was no sexual joke or innuendo behind his words. It was around one in the morning in late November. The temperature at this time of the year and the day was around 38°F.

When the door of the elevator opened it revealed a tear faced Claire. It was so unexpected that Rick froze on the spot. So did she. The difference was that Claire came back to her senses faster and decked Rick right in the jaw.

“YOU FUCKING JERK!”

Massaging the hurt area with one hand, Rick blocked another punch with his free hand. “What the fuck?!”

Claire wasn’t done. She was clearly on a roll and punched again and again. Rick deviated her hands to the sides or blocked again every blow of her assault.

She shouted in his face. “I thought you died!” She wasn’t relenting and the more she didn’t hit him, the angrier she got. That resulted in more aggression.

“So did I! I’m not hitting you for it!” The usual cold and controlled demeanor Rick was known to have was nowhere to be seen. After two outbreaks, nearly dying four times and fighting G, his patience was shot to all hell.

Claire continued to yell and punch, making unreasonable arguments. It fueled Rick’s own anger and prompted him to argue back. To the side Leon and Angela were looking with a different attitude.

“Eh… Shouldn’t we stop them?”

Leon smirked. “Oh, I’m not getting in the middle of a couple’s dispute, especially those two.”

It shocked Angela. “They’re dating?!” From what she had seen of Claire and Rick interacting together, they didn’t look like they were an item.

“They used to. Right after escaping Raccoon City. Then they broke up. I supposed after years of not seeing each other the old flame was fanned.” His amusement never wavered at his friends’ fight.

It all ended when Claire kneed Rick in the balls. The mountain of a man went down on the spot, his hands reaching for the bruised area. Credit was due where it was due, he didn’t scream and instead let out a painful groan and began to breathe heavily. Leon’s ass clenched and his legs got closer, letting a hiss of pain. Seeing the hit was enough to make him feel it too in a PTSD manner. Even Angela winced and felt sorry for Rick who was now retching on his knees.

“I’m sorry!”

Claire was in total panic. She hadn’t meant to do that. It had been her heart talking. It had needed to vent all the negative emotions it had felt from the moment she saw Rick disappeared on the camera. The grief, the pain, the heartbreak, then followed by joy when the monitors showed him alive but butt naked. Everything happening afterward had been a rollercoaster of emotions. One moment her heart was in seventh heaven and the next in the deepest hell.

It had been too much and when she saw Rick, all reason flew out the window and her heart took command of her body. Now crouching down, she had a hand on his back massaging it gently to offer comfort while feeling immense guilt.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t meant to—”

Rick raised one finger in front of her face to shut her up. Slowing his breathing down and doing his very best to ignore the raw pulse of pain he felt, he clenched his jaw to not let out a single sound. When the pain was at a manageable level, which for normal people would still be pretty high because of his pain tolerance, he put a hand on the edge of the elevator’s frame and pulled himself up with difficulty.

Claire tried to help him but her arms were batted away by his free hand. Understanding that we wanted some space, she went back inside the elevator to pick up the lab coat she had taken from a dead zombie for him and put it around his shoulders.

“Down… Downing.” Rick finally spoke with difficulty. “We need to find… Downing.”

“Striker.” Claire corrected and Rick finally looked at her, confused. “Annette texted you back. His real name is Adam Striker. He did work in Nest and disappeared a few days before Umbrella attacked the complex.”

She pulled his phone from her jeans’ pocket and showed him the message. Rick read it twice just to be sure.

Leon decided that now was the right time to be part of the conversation. “He must not be very far. The bomb blew up less than an hour ago.”

“He’s driving a Chrysler 300.” Rick cut in. “Top speed: 131 mph. There are only two roads for him to take. One leads back to Harvardville and the interstate, the other to the countryside.”

Claire chimed in. “He can’t go to Harvardville, the whole town is locked down because of the outbreak. Nothing leaves.”

“But he can hole up there.” Angela remarked.

Rick put his arms inside the sleeves of the lab coat and buttoned it up to hide his nudity. “We split up.”

With no more words he walked towards the exit. It was a simple plan that everybody silently agreed with. Once outside the sound of a helicopter caught their attention. As the flying vehicle came down, the logo of the US Military could be seen on its side.

Out of it came two rangers and Senator Davis. Before the man could say a single thing, Rick was in front of him. He flicked the fat man’s forehead and knocked him out. Immediately, the soldiers aimed their guns at him. They soon found themselves knocked out too in a similar fashion.

“I’m too tired to deal with this bullshit.” He grunted, picked the sidearm of one of the rangers and looked at the pilot who looked terrified. “Who’s taking the chopper? I’m taking a car.”

Claire and Leon answered ‘car’ at the same time which left Angela as the one getting on the helicopter. The situation couldn’t be more silly.

Leon gave clear order to the pilot and filled him in on the situation as Angela took a seat at the back. She was to check the road leading to Harvardville just in case. Claire had found a suv in the parking lot and broke the window of the passenger seat to get inside and open the doors for everyone else. Rick sat at the back in the middle seat and Leon behind the wheel where he started the car by playing with the wires under it.

On the road to the countryside, Claire broke the silence by asking a question. “You guys have been doing this for years now… How do you cope with all this?”

The answers she got were fused on the spot. Neither Leon nor Rick thought about it.

“Alcohol.” / “Sex.” They answered respectively.

Leon hummed in agreement with Rick and Claire’s jaw went slack before she shouted her disbelief, turning around to look at her ex boyfriend. “Seriously?!”

Rick simply shrugged, non-plussed. “Try trying to cope when your body doesn’t allow you to get drunk. I’d choose it if I could. Less complicated. Not like I have much time to go into a bar and find someone to begin with. Do you?” He looked at Leon through the rear mirror.

“Nope. Hence why I drink.”

“You guys are unbelievable.” She turned back in her seat with a huff.

Rick immediately called her out for her hypocrisy. “Look who’s talking.”

“I seemed to remember you coping a lot in the quarantine camp and there was no alcohol.” Leon could barely contain the smirk on his lips as he said that. “Pretty much everywhe—”

The embarrassment wasn’t just worn on her face but also carried in her voice. Claire shouted defensively despite knowing she was caught. “THAT WAS DIFFERENT!”

“Was it? Just like tonight, I was naked and you played with my ba—”

Claire turned around, gun drawn, and aimed at Rick’s face. “SHUT UP!”

Both men laughed at her expense. Unable to do anything but regret asking the question in the first place, she fumed in silence for the rest of the way. At least it was what it looked like in appearance. Inwardly, Claire was trying to calm herself down.

After everything she went through today, Rick being naked and the memories of her and Rick fucking everywhere and on every surface they could in the quarantine camp had lit a fire inside of her. Had Leon not been present, she didn’t think she would have had the fortitude to hold herself back from pushing the man she loved down and mount him like no tomorrow.

The simple image of him naked accentuated the frustration she had accumulated over the past seven years from bad dates and bad sex. Not like they never had been good ones but Rick’s ghost was always there and the comparisons with the men she was with was far from being in their favor. Once, she had entertained the idea that Rick had ruined other men for her and now that she had seen him again as an adult man and not just a teenage boy, the idea had come back with violence and vengeance.

Despite her core flaming up without stopping, she hated it. Hated that fact and she had been reminded of it every moment a lustful thought about him crossed her mind tonight. Something that happened enough that she stopped counting, which angered her even more.

The rest of the drive was done in silence. Claire radiated so much hostility that the guys didn’t bother starting a new conversation. Thankfully it lasted only for fifteen minutes. They caught up with Downing because the man had parked to the side of the road to make a phone call.

Thanks to the headlights blinding him he didn’t realize who was in the car. For the relaxed attitude he had, Rick understood that he had been waiting for someone else. Something to keep in mind for the interrogation later. Getting out of the car, Leon dropped the masquerade by turning off the headlights and everyone pulled out a gun.

There was a stark difference between the trio and Downing however. The latter was panicking. His plan was up in flames as no one should have survived a confrontation with G. It was pure bad luck that the three people who ever faced and killed one had been involved.

“It’s over, Downing.” Leon called out.

Rick chimed in. “Or is it Striker?” The evil and savage grin on Rick’s lip had more effect than Downing’s real identity being discovered.

“How do you know that?!” His panic had increased ten fold with the revelation. “No matter! I have the last of the vaccine and all the development data!” He pointed at a briefcase on the top of his car. "That's all that remains in the entire world! One wrong move and—”

“And what?” Claire challenged. She wasn’t afraid of the vaccine and the data being lost. The odds of that were way too small.

“The world needs this! You know this better than anyone! You wouldn’t—”

“I’m giving you one chance.” Rick interrupted the erratic man. “Drop the gun and get on your knees or I’ll disarm you myself.”

Without looking away from Downing, Claire spoke up. “You mean taking his gun away or his arm?”

“Yes.”

Deciding he was done with the situation at hand, Rick pulled the trigger thrice. One bullet ended in one of Downing’s knees and the two others went to the joint of a shoulder. From the shock and pain, the British man lost his grip on the gun and fell forward with a loud scream.

Claire frowned disapprovingly. “Was that really necessary?”

“People are still waiting for a vaccine,” He minded her while Leon put his gun away and went to take care of Downing. “It cut the conversation short.”

She took a deep breath and exhaled through her nose. It was her fault for expecting her ex to act like a normal person and try to talk things out. Results were results however and he was right. There were people still in need of a vaccine and they needed to produce more. They had no time to waste.

The sound of a helicopter getting closer was carrying in the air. Soon enough a bright light coming from a projector landed on Leon and Downing. Looking up, they saw Angela at the door frame, ready to act as soon as her transport landed.

“You two should go.” Leon said. “I’ll take care of this.” He pointed at downing while the briefcase with the data and the vaccine was in his hand.

Rick called out as Claire went to the driver seat. “Don’t forget to say the BSAA helped with the investigation."

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. USSTRATCOM officially doesn’t exist so the credit has to go to someone else.”

Angela got down from the chopper and helped Leon load Downing into it. Quickly she began to give the criminal first aid, making a tourniquet for each of his wounds so he wouldn’t bleed to death.

As Rick watched in silence the helicopter fly away, his attention was caught by Claire honking. “You’re getting on or what?”

Sighing, he told himself he loved the woman and that strangling her wasn’t an option. Rick walked back to the car in silence and rode shotgun. As soon as the door was closed, Claire began to drive in the direction of Harvardville.

He was looking outside the window, already making a mental list of things he needed to do as a BSAA agent regarding the whole attack, not paying any mind to anything else. It was only when he felt the tremor of the engine stop that he realized they had not been moving for a few minutes.

Frowning he turned to Claire to ask what she was doing only to be sneaked upon by a kiss square on his lips. It took him a second to understand what was happening before he kissed her back with as much passion as she had. Like a dog trained. He had dreamed of this for the past seven years and he would not let that moment go.

Claire ripped open his lab coat and began to explore his chest with her hands. She moved from her seat to straddle his lap, her covered mound settling on his rock hard, naked dick.

“I’m just coping.” She lied between moans when Rick broke the kiss and began to attack her neck.

His hands found themselves under her burgundy turtle neck and he explored her skin for a moment while Claire’s fingers went through his hair and pushed it down. An invitation to not only continue what he was doing to her but to do it more.

When it wasn’t enough for her, she pushed him back and removed her top. Getting out of his lap she went to the back seat, Rick’s eyes following her ass with rapt attention. It was only when Claire flung her bra to his face that he moved to join her.

It was his opportunity to get back the woman he loved and he wouldn’t miss it.