CHAPTER 1

Chris Redfield sat at his desk, rubbing his temples. Man did he hate desk duty. He'd much rather be on the field fighting the infected. For some reason fighting for his life made him feel somewhat more alive. Thinking about it, as much as he disliked the humidity in Africa he'd much rather be there than where he currently sat at the moment, which was at the BSAA North American branch in Los Angeles. A slight frown appeared on his face as he thought about Jill and her current predicament. She was under constant surveillance and monitoring through out the day all day. His thoughts then drifted to his latest partner, Sheva Alomar. He wondered how she was doing, after they last parted back in Africa 2 years ago, he'd heard nothing about her. He didn't know how she was doing or if she was even alive or not, which for some reason didn't sit too well with him. He cared about his partners whether they were partners for 11 years or a week. A partner is a partner in his eyes. A series of slamming doors interrupted his thoughts. Through a window of his office he watched a woman of average height wearing a dark pantsuit pick her way through the maze of cubicles with two security guards at her heels. Moments later, his office door flew open and there stood his partner, Sheva Alomar.

"Sheva, what a pleasant surprise." He briefly smiled, standing up from his chair and extending his hand towards her. Ignoring the offered hand she walked right up to him and jabbed an accusing finger into his shoulder looking up at him. "I don't appreciate being followed like a child Chris, so call them off" she said looking over her shoulder gesturing at the two security guards standing at the now closed door. "Mr. Redfield, this crazy woman insisted that you know her and that it was of great importance that she see you immediately." One of the guards had said pathetically. It was difficult for Chris not to laugh out loud or at least grin; this situation was hilarious to him. As if summoning Sheva with his thoughts, she was now standing in front of him, jabbing repeatedly at his shoulder as the two puny guards watched on as if he needed their protection. He knew very well that she could hold her own and that she was highly skilled and dangerous especially since she survived that incident in Africa. Catching her hand in his much larger one, he called out to the guards "If I catch you disrespecting my partner again, I'll personally see to it that you'll be removed from this facility immediately! Now get out." Not needing to be told twice the puny guards fled the office closing the door behind them.

Freeing her wrist from Chris and his iron grip, Sheva launched herself at him and he caught her. "Oh Chris it's so good to see you again, how are you?" she asked giving him a kiss on his cheek. This time Chris did laugh, he set her down and rumpled her hair the same way an older brother would do to a younger sister. "I'm great Shev thanks, how are you? You're still practicing what I taught you right?" he asked amused. Sheva hadn't changed in the last 2 years, she filled out more, but she hadn't mentally changed at all. She was still silly and care free, at least this job hadn't taken that away from her! She did a pirouette in front of him, "Well Chris, as you can see I'm exceptionally well and yes I have been practicing thank you very much. You're probably wondering why I'm here and how I knew where to find you" she paused and waited, Chris motioned for her to continue. "Well apparently my work in Africa is basically done, I've trained many new recruits and I guess the BSAA wanted me to move onto bigger and bolder things or maybe not" she pulled out a flash drive from her pocket "I snuck into some top secret files and this next thing that they are trying to keep under wraps is about to really hit the fan. And I figured you might want in on some of the action hence the reason why I'm here, oh and because I got transferred to the North American Branch," She finished without missing a beat, pulling out her new ID card. Chris took the card and looked at it briefly before looking back at her seriously before. "Shev, this is definitely against the rules and we'd both be risking our careers" he paused and a slight frown formed on her face "but I'm curious as to where this could take us and don't use the computers in this building they are all bugged. We'll meet at my place later on and look at the files there, now get out of here before they send more useless security guards" he said chuckling. "Copy that" she said arching an eyebrow, pocketing the flash drive and her ID card.

The rest of the day for Chris passed by without much incident. He would never admit this to anyone but he was elated that Sheva was still alive and here in the good ole U.S.A. It meant that he could totally keep an eye on her, in a protective way. Oh who was he kidding, during the time chasing down Irving he begun to look at her differently. Not so much in a protective way but something else, he didn't have much time to ponder on it while in Africa because he had been thinking of Jill. But now that she was safe and Wesker was dead, he was finally able to close that chapter in his life, especially when she recently had made it blatantly clear that she had no romantic interest in him at all. Talk about a bucket of ice water being thrown on him. When he asked who the lucky man was, she feigned ignorance and had eluded him ever since. Chris has stopped inviting her for a drinks or out to dinner, and strictly called to see how she was doing after that whole mind control ordeal. Her wounds had healed, but she would have to live with the scars both physically and mentally. The last time he called to see how she was doing, she had let it out that she was seeing Carlos Oliveira and had been seeing him even before they tracked Spencer. She had obviously moved on with her life so now it was time for him to move on with his. How naïve of him to think that because they had been partners for over 10 years that it automatically guaranteed that they would be together. His thoughts drifted back to Sheva and a smile appeared on his face. Though their time together had been brief, she made him feel well he couldn't describe it, but whatever it was Sheva was the only one who made him feel it. He wondered absent mindedly if her au cafe skin had anything to do with that. Thinking about the top secret files Sheva had hacked into was going to be major trouble, and he couldn't deny that he wanted in on that action. 'That action' he thought to himself. Talk about double meaning, but who was he kidding he was a normal man and couldn't deny the fact that he found Sheva extremely attractive. But that's where he would draw the line. Opening the door to his condo, Chris looked around and a sudden thought occurred to him, Sheva didn't have any contacts in the US, so she'd probably stay with him till she got an apartment. And if that was the case he might as well tidy up a bit. Taking off his jacket and rolling up his sleeves Chris began straightening up his condo.

Sheva couldn't wait till the meeting was over. After she left Chris, she went to report to her new superiors. They were all boring to her, and it was quite difficult not to yawn out of boredom during her briefing. She was happy when the meeting was finally dismissed, the next day she had to report to work would be the following Monday, giving her 6 full days to find a place to live and settle in so to speak. At least this was Redfield's turf; he'd point her in the right direction as far as finding as place. Speaking of Redfield, what were those instructions he gave her about how to get to his place? She hailed a taxi and was on her way to meet him.

Chris was just about done cleaning up his condo when he heard a knock at his door. He knew it was Sheva and truth be told he actually was really excited to see her. He opened the door, "come on in" he said and she walked in, kicking off her shoes the minute he closed the door. "Would you like something to drink?" he asked. "Um yeah water please" she replied. Chris went to the kitchen and retrieved 2 bottles of water; he grabbed his laptop and carried everything towards Sheva. She took both bottles of water from him and he set up the laptop, she retrieved the flash drive and plugged it in. "it appears that after the Africa incident, Intel has some leads that there are still remnants of TriCell and their B.O.W. experimentation. They need more evidence before they move in for sure." She paused. "That's bullshit, so basically they want to wait until it's almost too late? Not on my watch," Chris had said with a slightly raised voice full of agitation. "Intel has a coordinate we could possibly check out, but they had to terminate the surveillance to avoid detection. So I was thinking you and I could check this lead out and if it is a hoax at least we will know for sure either way. Monday is the first day that I have to report, they're giving me 6 days to settle in so to speak" Sheva finished, taking a sip from the bottle of water. "I'll take the 6 days off as part of my vacation time, and we'll check it out together. In the meantime, don't worry about finding a place, you can stay here, there's an extra bedroom and bathroom" he said also taking a sip of water. "By the way when is your stuff arriving?" he asked not surprised that she knew where he stayed. The doorbell rang. "Now" she said smiling. Chris put the laptop down and got up to answer the door. A UPS guy with 5 huge boxes on his cart extended a pad for Chris to sign on. Chris took the pad and signed it; the UPS guy unloaded the cart then left. Chris picked up a box and carried inside. Sheva put down the bottle of water and began helping.

"Might as well put this stuff in the empty bedroom, eh partner?" Chris suggested. "Copy that" she said and they both began moving the boxes to the bedroom. 10 minutes later the boxes were in the bedroom aligned perfectly against a wall. "Is pizza alright with you Shev?" Chris asked. "Never had it, but I'm willing to try it" she answered back shrugging her shoulders. Chris exited the room and pulled out his phone and placed an order for pepperoni and jalapeno pizza, he rattled off his address and phone number and hung up. "The pizza guy said they would be here within the hour." "Roger that" she replied back and pulled out a knife to open the boxes with its many layers of tape. Chris retreated back towards the kitchen to get more water. He basically had an hour to kill and he wasn't going sit around and do nothing while Sheva was unpacking, so it was the least he could do to help her unpack. "Need a hand?" he asked as he entered the room. "Perfect I thought you'd never ask" she smiled up at him. The doorbell had rang shortly after the two began unpacking. Thinking it was the pizza guy already, Chris stood up and retrieved his wallet from his back pocket "I got it" he said, "no Chris I got it, it's the least I could do since you're letting me stay here till I get my bearings" she answered reaching for her own wallet, "No Sheva really its okay" "I insist Chris" "never" "race ya" "you're on" the doorbell rang again. They bolted towards the bedroom door and down the hall; Sheva sidestepped the coffee table, while Chris hopped over the couch. Sheva beat him to the door but before she could unlock it, he snaked an arm around her waist pulling her to him, he took her wallet and held it over his head. Sheva instantly reached for the wallet not even realizing that she was inadvertently pushing her breasts up against him. "You lose Shev and I win" he started chuckling, she started pouting at first but then ended up laughing with him as well. Neither of them had realized that he still had an arm around her waist and that her breasts were still against his chest, they also didn't realize that the lock had turned and in the doorway now stood Jill.

Jill stood there all bug eyed looking at Chris and Sheva. She hadn't seen him like this since they were both in their mid 20's. Maybe Sheva was just what Chris needed. She cleared her throat and they both immediately froze. Chris released Sheva was the first to come to, "Jill? What are you doing here?" He asked totally surprised, putting Sheva's wallet on the coffee table. When he turned around to face Jill he noticed the ring on her left hand immediately. "Chris I'm leaving, I'm moving on with my life, you know have kids get married, white picket fence the American Dream," she held up her hand "Carlos proposed to me, and I accepted, he wants us both to retire from this type of life style and I couldn't agree with him more". "Really Jill?" was all Chris could say, narrowing his eyes. Sheva just stood there frozen and wide eyed. She knew who Jill Valentine was and how much she meant to Chris and she yet was just standing here crushing his heart.

Talk about an awkward situation, Sheva was totally the outsider looking in and this was embarrassing for her, even though it had nothing to do with her. She spoke up "Um Chris I'm going to explore the city and leave you two alone" she then looked at Jill, "Jill it was nice seeing you again, you're looking well and congratulations on the engagement." Sheva moved to get her wallet, but Chris stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder. "Sheva you don't have to do that because Jill was just getting ready to leave, isn't that right Jill Valentine soon to be Jill Oliveira?" he asked sarcastically, shooting daggers with his eyes at Jill. He basically spat the words out full of disgust, he couldn't help it, he spent 11 years of his life loving her and for her to come to his place and basically throw everything away that they had established and built together had hurt him deeply. Then for her to basically throw in his face that she was tired of waiting for him to get down on one knee, almost made him laugh out loud. Almost. "Chris don't do this we've been through too much for you to be like this now" Jill pleaded, she was now getting teary eyed. "Don't do what Jill? Pretend not to give a damn about you, even though I spent the last 11 years loving you. You've obviously moved on with your life and its time for me to do the same," again his words laced with disgust and sorrow. Sheva had forgotten about the hand on her shoulder which was now getting warmer. Was it just her or was it getting tighter as she tried to free herself from his grip? "Chris please" Jill was now in tears. "Get out Jill now!" he almost shouted. Chris used his free hand and dug in his pocket, taking the key to her place off his key ring it and handing it out to her. Jill didn't say anything else as this was truly it, she took Chris's key off her key ring and they exchanged keys. She looked at him one last time before she turned around quickly, colliding into the pizza delivery boy. The door hadn't been closed and no one knew how long he stood there, he probably saw the whole thing. Chris and Sheva watched Jill leave in silence. "Pizza time pizza delivery for Chris and Sheva Redfield" the boy said. Sheva looked at him sharply, and Chris cleared his throat "yes that's us" he said to the boy looking at Sheva. The hand was still on her shoulder. He fetched a $20 from his pocket handed it to the boy and took the pizza. "Thanks man" the boy said, "keep the change", the boy left and Chris shut the door with his foot.