#maple brooks

Families <333

Recently, @alitan99 made a marvelous post where the daughter of Xavier and Wilson, Maple a little 9 year old girl they adopted gets kidnapped and this prequel was inspired by this.

Wilson belongs to @thatonepersonguy and Xavier and Maple belong to @alitan99 and this little story is posted with their approval and permission. If you love Resident Evil and especially if you love Resident Evil OC’s please check out their work!

Thank you both, for making this wonderful family and for letting my play in your world!

No AI was used in the writing and editing of this and all errors are mine.

Taken

It’s just past lunch time when Xavier gets the call that shatters his world.

He’d been given the day off, recovery, the BSAA insisted, considering he’d been working with field testing of his powers and that always left him drained.

For all his outward gruff demeanor, Chris cared a great deal about the people under his command and now that he’d taken Xavier under his proverbial wing, the Captain had been incredibly conscious of not letting Xavier be pushed too hard.

“I know you’re driven Xavier, and that not a bad thing, but you need to rest, too.” Warm brown eyes and a gentle clap on his shoulder had accompanied Chris’ instructions to take at least a day or two off.

So, Xavier was puttering, tidying idly around the house, smiling a little when he folded the clothes he’d just pulled freshly from the dryer, unable to smother the grin at the three neat stacks.

For someone who’d fallen unexpectedly - but not unwillingly - into fatherhood, it still stunned Xavier how right it all felt.

How good the world was with him, Wilson and Maple as a happy little family.

Maple wasn’t perfect - she constantly left her shoes in obscure places no matter how many times they told her to use the shoe rack, she absolutely hated eating any vegetable that wasn’t mashed potato and when she was being especially petulant, she’d quite happily huff and stomp off, turning invisible in her version of the silent treatment.

But she was a kid, that was just what kids did. It seemed like she was nine going on nineteen sometimes and Leon’s good natured ribbing about “wait until she’s an actual teen!” was always balanced with genuinely good advice and commiseration from the other man.

But none of that made Maple any less easy to love and those moments were far eclipsed by hugs and smiles and the rare times Maple would call him “Papa” and look at him and Wilson with so much love in her eyes, it still made them both tear up.

Every stomped foot and eye roll - Sofia sheepishly took responsibility for that new development - was worth the drawings that now covered their fridge and walls that showed a world full of beauty and joy through Maple’s eyes.

Each night that bedtime was getting harder and harder to negotiate with frowns and impassioned signs - because she wasn’t a baby and she should be able stay up at least half an hour more - was easy to forget when Maple sleepily cuddled between their laps with her favorite blanket and her eyes drooped shut and her breathing grew soft.

She was a good girl, loved and treasured and theirs.

Xavier had still been smiling to himself when his phone trilled - he’d seen Wilson’s name flash on the call ID and quickly swiped to answer.

But his smiled died the second that Wilson’s usually beloved voice choked out his name.

He’d never known so few words could destroy a man, but when he heard his husband speak, his heart started to pound and his stomach hit his feet. Everything froze, horror making his throat tight and his hands tremble.

“Xavier- ” Wilson voice was shaking and hollow, tight with unshed tears. “Xavier, it’s Maple. Someone’s taken Maple.”

****

“Here,” Leon says kindly, his hand squeezing Wilson’s shoulder as he hands him a cup of terrible BSAA cafeteria coffee. Luis is on Wilson’s other side, a solid grounding body while Wilson wait for his husband to arrive.

He’s numb. Completely and utterly. He feels like he’s going to be sick.

He’s managed to pull himself together, a little, at last, but every breath still feels like agony. Wilson feels like someone has scooped his heart out of his chest and is just squeezing tighter and tighter.

Tears are burning, but they won’t fall. He feels too paralyzed to even cry, his mind looping the awful grainy footage of his daughter getting kidnapped.

Limp, drugged and taken - stolen from her school classroom where she should have been safe.

Chris’ voice is the soundtrack to the images, terse and miserable as he was forced to deliver the news, urgently calling Wilson away from the on-site lab he’d been working in.

“Wilson, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry- ”

It had been a small team that had taken her. Three men - elite, prepared, tactical. Clearly professionals. Dressed in black and masked. Drugs piped through the air vents so there wasn’t any alarm, no struggle.

In through the second story window, then out with Maple and into and innocuous grey van with fake plates and tinted windows, driving at a controlled speed away from where the school’s security cameras could capture.

Three men, in and out, a targeted strike to take one little girl.

His little girl.

That no other children or Maple’s teacher had been harmed was cold comfort to Wilson.

He was a failure.

He’d promised he’d take care of Maple, that he’d protect her. He’d sworn to himself that he’d look after her. He’d sworn to her he’d keep her safe.

And now, she’d been taken.

There’s so much they don’t know yet; who took her, where they took her, what they want.

Chris is already assembling a response team - its why he’s not there with Wilson now - the ink barely drying on the requisition papers before the Captain had thundered off to get the necessary approvals the instant he’d left Wilson in the care of Luis and Leon.

“We’ll find her, I swear we will,” Chris had promised, not Chris, but Captain Redfield, righteous and resolute and furious that one of his people was hurting and determined to do something about it.

If Wilson had been able to speak through the cold static, he would’ve thanked the man.

He’s in shock and he knows it; the clinical, detached part of Wilson’s brain can identify all the symptoms.

But knowing doesn’t change how impossible it is to get his mind to cooperate.

Wilson takes a mechanical sip of coffee because it’s what he should do, and he feels Luis squeeze his arm again.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he’s grateful that Leon and Luis are there. That he’s not alone.

He distantly feels a little bad he’s more grateful for Leon than Luis in the moment considering he knows Luis much better, but Leon’s there as DSO agent, Leon S. Kennedy and for all that Wilson respects Chris, Leon’s far smarter, much shrewder and able to operate in ways the BSAA simply can’t.

Luis is his friend and Leon is too, but Leon’s here in another capacity; he isn’t BSAA, but Chris had called Leon in the second the BSAA’s security system had pinged that Maple’s school had been targeted.

Leon had been the one to recognize the M.O. of the drugs through the vents and he’d already gotten ‘his people’ onto tapping traffic feeds and satellite imaging to track the van.

Maybe it’s also comforting to realize Leon’s rescued a kidnapped girl before, even though the situations are leagues apart.

Or maybe is because Leon’s a father and he knows exactly what’s at stake in a way that Chris, for all his good intentions, never could.

Whatever the reason, it’s a tiny flicker of hope, a little guttering candle of light in the dark behind Wilson’s eyes right now.

“Hey.”

Leon’s voice cuts through the buzz in Wilson’s head and after a sluggish second, Wilson forces himself to look up into resolute blue eyes.

“We will get her back.”

Leon sounds so sure and so, so angry on Wilson’s behalf.

Wilson still vividly remembers when Maple had first met Leon. Xavier had been the one to introduce them, a little apologetic at how Maple recoiled, but Leon hadn’t been offended. Wilson had been hovering, talking to Luis but watching intently as Maple curled into her Papa’s arms, head buried in his shoulder.

Maple had been so shy, unsure and understandably so when her world had undergone such a fundamental shift, but Leon had just smiled, said she was cute and told Maple it was nice to meet her, then given her space.

It was stupid to be surprised that Leon was good with kids - he had two of his own for Christ sake - but watching one of the most ruthless monster killers in the world lower his voice to be soft to a traumatized child had made Wilson see the man in a new light.

That afternoon had been special. Seeing Leon smile fondly as Maple followed Sofia around with stars in her eyes like a little duckling had been beautiful, and the gentle advice Leon had given him and Xavier both had felt so much less condescending than the hundreds of things they’d been told by the well meaning people from Child Services.

“It looks like she’s doing great,” Leon had said, casually thinly cutting apple slices at lightning speed, then arranging them on a colorful plate.

“You both clearly adore her and you’re giving her everything she needs. I’ll tell you something I wish someone had told me: sometimes, you’re going to be so frustrated you’ll wonder how you can simultaneously love your kid so much but also want to strangle them, but that means you’re doing things right because she’ll feel safe enough to show her personality. Love, security and autonomy are what kids really need. Everything else, well, you’ll figure that out along the way.”

Another comforting squeeze to his arm from Luis resurfaces Wilson from the memory.

“Leon’s the best there is,” Luis says, utterly and devotedly confident in his husband and his abilities. “These bastards don’t know what’s coming.”

Wilson just nods, takes another sip of tepid coffee that doesn’t help his roiling stomach, and waits.

Waits for Xavier, waits for news, waits for the world to make sense.

But he knows it won’t, not until Maple is back in his arms again and the people that hurt her can never hurt her again.

Her nerd dad is teaching her how to play

Wilson really is the glue of that household 😭 also featuring Maple using her invisibility ^^

I can’t 😭 she’s too cute 🥰

She knows when something is wrong with her daddy and papa, and the fact that she’s barely seen her daddy in the last few days and that her papa is constantly looking worried and sad isn’t something she could miss.

It doesn’t make any sense, and Maple can’t help but wonder why things had changed so suddenly.

For months, it was bed time kisses and meals together and now, her daddy is gone when she wakes up for school, and he’s not home until way after her bedtime.

She hates it, and she knows her papa is trying but when she asks him where her daddy is, he just looks even sadder than before.

She got mad about it this morning and she feels guilty about that, but she just wants to understand. She’s not some dumb kid!

Her papa had been tense, and he’d said he was sorry even though it had been Maple that had knocked her juice all over the breakfast table. The car ride to school had been quiet and he’d still told Maple he loved her and to have a good day at school when he’d kissed her goodbye but there was a horrible, sour feeling in Maple’s tummy that had been sitting there all day.

The sour feeling only got worse when her teacher came up and told her that she’d be being picked up by her uncle Leon, which usually meant staying with her cousins.

Normally she loved the sleepovers and staying at the Kennedy-Navarro house. Her Uncles were funny and Jose was the best to play with and Sofia was so cool, but today, the idea sent a cold spike of dread through her.

First her daddy didn’t want to see her, and now…her papa too?

Maple feels sick, she feels her hands start to shake and her eyes well with tears and she almost begs her teacher to let her go wait in the nurse’s office while they call Leon so he can come and pick her up now.

She can feel the fizzy kind of feeling of her powers fritzing under her skin, but she holds it down, holds it in, because she promised her papa she wouldn’t use her powers unless it was really urgent.

But it hurts, it hurts her heart, so much.

Because she doesn’t know what’s happening and she doesn’t why and worst of all, she doesn’t know what to do about it all.

****

Leon’s tired.

He’s just gotten back from a DSO intel mission in Prague and he’d barely hit the tarmac before a text from Xavier had asked him if he was free to pick up Maple from school since she wasn’t feeling well.

That in itself was odd, since he knew both Xavier and Wilson were still in country, and there hadn’t been any urgent pings of incidents across either the BSAA or DSO’s network that would mean either of the men couldn’t get her themselves. Leon knew from Luis that there was some urgent samples that had arrived at BSAA HQ and some new hot-shot geneticist that had started there, but an emergency with their kids would have surely trumped all that?

Luis would call it paranoia but it twigged something in Leon instantly, and he’d frowned as he typed out his reply.

“Can do, but is everything okay?”

Xavier hadn’t replied in over half an hour.

So, tiredness aside, Leon goes, and when he gets to Maple’s school, his senses go from mildly ‘twigged’ to blaring off the scale with one look at the little girl’s face. His dad senses are screaming at him because Jesus, the last time he’d seen her looking so miserable was when she’d been in Wilson’s arms after being rescued from her kidnapping.

“Hey kiddo,” Leon says gently, getting down to one knee so he can look at Maple properly. “You not feeling good?”

Maple shakes her head, clutching her arms around herself and the urge to hug her makes Leon feel like he’s going to vibrate out of his skin, but he offers her his hand instead.

“Then let’s get you home and to bed, okay?”

Maple nods, just once, then casts her eyes back down and takes Leons’ hand.

Leon’s tempted to try call Xavier, but Leon’s text reply is worryingly still sitting on ‘read’ and he checks the various bulletins just once more in case, not sure if he’s relived or not when everything is still clear.

He doesn’t get any answer until he’s tucking Maple into the bed in their guest room.

She’s showered and changed into one of the sets of spare clothes that she has at their house.

Leon had tried to coax some food into her, but she’d refused and Leon hadn’t pushed. He helps her up onto the spare bed then fluffs the pillows and he gives her an encouraging smile once she’s beneath the blankets.

“C’mon May, how about a nap? Things always feel better after a sleep.”

For once, she doesn’t smile back.

“Uncle Leon, if my daddy and papa don’t want me anymore, can I come and live with you?”

Maple curls into herself, knees up and head buried in her crossed arms as she tries not to cry. She starts to phase out a little, her invisibility kicking in from her distress, a defence mechanism made manifest.

What?

Leon feels his heart drop into his stomach, absolutely shatter, cutting open the wounds of his own repressed trauma around being an unwanted child in foster care, but he pushes it down because Maple’s situation is so vastly different.

Because Maple is cherished and adored and loved so deeply by her fathers, Leon’s genuinely bewildered by the question and he wonders what the fuck has gone so wrong in the space of the week-and-change he’s been away that could even make Maple ask such a thing.

“Maple,” he says carefully, having to clear his aching throat before he can speak properly. “Can I hug you?”

Her little whispered “yeah” is all Leon needs before he’s practically launched himself across the bed to bundle Maple into strong arms and tuck her head against his shoulder as she starts to cry in earnest and shifts back into solidity.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay sweetie. You’re okay. Let it out,” he rocks her gently and promises, “You’re okay.”

Little fingers dig almost painfully into Leon’s neck but he doesn’t dare let her go as she sniffles wetly against his skin.

“Maple, honey, you’re always welcome here and we love you so much, but your daddy and papa love you even more than we do. And there isn’t any universe where they don’t want you.”

“But-“

“Buts are what you sit on kiddo,” that gets a tiny giggle, “and there’s no ‘buts’ here, not about this. Never about this.”

He shifts Maple back but still keeps her in his lap so he can look at her tear-stained face to try and implore her to understand. “I know you’re sad and I’m not sure what’s happening, but we’re gonna get this all worked out, I promise. I know your daddy and papa love you and we’re gonna talk to them and get this all straightened out, okay?”

Maple’s lower lip wobbles again, but she nods.

“Okay.”

******

Leon’s just let out an exhausted sigh, finally having gotten Maple to sleep after her crying jag and emotionally exhausted himself from dealings with his kid’s questions if Maple’s okay when he hears the chirp of the security system disengaging and the scrape-and-thunk of the front door deadbolt and lock being opened.

Luis steps in, all excitement at his husband being home and none the wiser to the turmoil.

“Hola Leon, your prince is finally -”

Leon’s on his feet instantly and he feels terrible for how quickly Luis’ happy expression has dropped in the face of Leon’s absolutely thunderous ‘do not fuck with me’ mission face but fact is, he is on mission and he wastes no time when he asks, “Luis, what the hell is going on with Wilson and Xavier?

~~~~~~~~

The Spread part 6

Written by @kittygoatgruff

Art by me

I had to draw Maple with her other father too 😭😭😭😩😩😩🥺🥺🥺

He can’t help that his husband is so hot🤷‍♀️