Chapter Text
The house felt strangely hollow without Chris in it.
Leon noticed it the second he stepped through the front door, shrugging off his jacket while rain hammered softly against the windows. The mission had only ended yesterday morning, and Chris had already left for another one twelve hours later. Two more weeks overseas.
Typical.
Usually Leon handled being alone just fine. They’d spent years working around deployments, emergency call-ins, last-minute flights across the world. But this time something felt off, and not just because the house was too quiet without Chris stomping around upstairs or making coffee at ungodly hours in the morning.
Leon was exhausted.
Not regular post-mission exhausted either. This felt heavier somehow, like his body had stopped recovering properly. For almost a week he’d been constantly tired, dizzy at random times, and nauseous often enough that even coffee made his stomach turn now, which honestly felt offensive on a personal level.
At first he blamed stress. Then jet lag. Then maybe whatever disaster-zone food he’d survived overseas.
But when it still hadn’t gone away three days later, Chris had finally gotten irritated enough during one of their phone calls to tell him to stop being stubborn and go see Rebecca.
So now Leon sat in the BSAA medical wing feeling deeply annoyed about the entire situation.
“You look awful,”
Rebecca Chambers told him the second he walked into her office.
Leon dropped into the chair across from her desk with a tired sigh.
“Good morning to you too.”
“I’m serious.”
Rebecca studied him carefully for a moment before setting her tablet down.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Leon admitted.
“I’m just tired all the time. Like stupidly tired. And dizzy sometimes.”
He rubbed one hand over his face before adding reluctantly,
“I’ve been nauseous too.”
Rebecca’s expression shifted slightly at that.
“How long?”
“A week, maybe longer.”
“And you only came in now because…?”
“I thought it’d go away.”
Rebecca gave him a look that screamed of years spent patching him back together after terrible decisions.
Leon pointed at her weakly.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“The disappointed doctor thing.”
“You mean concern?”
“Yes.”
Despite herself, Rebecca smiled faintly before asking him a few more questions. Headaches. Back pain. Appetite changes. Leon answered all of them while growing increasingly uncomfortable under the look she kept giving him.
Finally Rebecca leaned back slightly and asked, carefully,
“Have you missed any suppressant pills recently?”
Leon blinked at her.
Then frowned.
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, Rebecca.”
“Hm.”
Leon straightened immediately.
“What does hm mean?”
“It means I want to run some tests.”
Something cold settled in Leon’s stomach then.
“No,” he said automatically.
Rebecca crossed her arms lightly. “Leon—”
“No way.”
“I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Still, Rebecca ran the tests anyway while Leon sat there trying very hard not to think about what she was implying.
It was ridiculous.
Impossible, actually.
He and Chris were careful.
Leon took the pill regularly.
Neither of them had even discussed children before, mostly because their lives had only recently started feeling stable for the first time in years.
Two years ago they’d built a house together.
Six months ago they’d gotten married.
That alone still felt unreal sometimes.
There was no way this was happening.
Which was why, when Rebecca finally walked back into the office with his results and gently told him he was pregnant, Leon laughed outright.
“No.”
Rebecca’s expression softened immediately.
“Leon—”
“No. Run them again.”
“Leon, the tests are accurate.”
“Run them again.”
And because she was Rebecca, she did.
The second results came back exactly the same.
“You’re pregnant,” she repeated gently.
Leon stared at her in complete disbelief.
“That’s impossible.”
“It’s not.”
“No, seriously, this is…”
He stood abruptly, pacing the small office now because suddenly sitting still felt unbearable.
“This is the worst timing imaginable.”
Rebecca watched him quietly while he dragged both hands through his hair.
“Chris and I just built a house two years ago,”
Leon said, laughing weakly under his breath.
“We got married six months ago. We haven’t even talked about kids.”
“You built a life together,”
Rebecca pointed out softly.
“That’s not the point.”
“Isn’t it?”
Leon stopped pacing long enough to stare at her.
Rebecca’s voice gentled further when she continued.
“Leon, maybe this feels terrifying because it wasn’t planned. But listen to yourself. You and Chris already built the hard part. You already made a home together.”
Maybe she was right.
That somehow made this even scarier.
Leon sank back into the chair slowly, exhaustion hitting him all over again. “He’s not even here,”
he muttered.
“There’s still two weeks before he comes home and I have no idea how the hell I’m supposed to tell him this.”
Rebecca smiled faintly.
“Chris loves you. I think he’ll survive the shock.”
Leon let out a quiet, disbelieving laugh at that.
Maybe.
But as he sat there in the too-bright office with rain tapping softly against the windows outside, all Leon could think about was Chris walking through the front door two weeks from now and how, somehow, everything between them was about to change forever.