Hello everyone! Once again, it's been a while, hasn't it? I've gotten used to saying that around here, which is kind of sad now that I think about it.. bUT, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things here and decided to hold off on the revamp of my other stories, and instead post up a FF of a rather big storyline that a friend and I have developed between Barry and Moira Burton! I don't see anything about them around here, which is fucking surprising seeing as dad and daughter relationships, ESPECIALLY repaired ones, tend to be loved and kept near and dear to the hearts of many people on this site. People just don't seem to pay attention to the fact that the two patched up their relationship after the island, so I'm here to fix that shit- but not with this story, this one IS going to be about them, but it's NOT going to have many light-hearted moments.

I will warn, after this chapter there will be a lot of sad moments, as well as gore and other things. There may be some disturbing scenes as well. This story has been in development for about a year and a half, and it's inspired by quite a few things but to hint at what kind of story it will be.. Think TLOU.. yeah, it's gonna be a little brutal, so I'm hoping you guys will enjoy it.

Oh and, you will notice that I have Moira in the BSAA and specializing in survival tactics, that is because I think she'd look towards them after Terra Save was left in shambles and her fear of firearms has been conquered. I'll write more about it in separate things in the future. You can imagine how much Barry fussed at that one, eh?

BTW, cover photo belongs to me, you can even see so on Devart: MoiraBurtz

Piling stones to guide the seas,
All to say we stopped the tide, but we..
 We never did.. Did we?

Tick-tock.. tick-tock.. tick-tock..

To Moira, the loudest noise in the entire room was the ticking of the clock's hands. It drowned out every other sound that attempted to boom over it, becoming the only thing she could really focus on while her mind raced through a thousand thoughts. To her, this happened to be a normal thing she did before any sort of mission. She would focus on the most irrelevant yet somewhat peaceful sound, then let her mind go through the dreadfully nagging thoughts that ate away at her nerves. All to try to soothe them while waiting for the time to go.

This line of work- no, this life had never been easy on her or her family, and this mission only proves that fact. As a sudden virus started to infect the city, her mother Kathy and her sister Polly were one of the first few to be infected. Lucky for them, it was a slow strain that could be treated and (with time) cured if people managed to catch on early. Then after the virus has been cleaned out, they could return to their families and the safety of their homes. The only problem is they were both sent to separate facilities to be quarantined, both in the more ravenous areas of infection that were harder to reach. An evacuation would have to take place if anything went south.

And as far as Moira knew..

Things went as south as they could possibly go.

Just an hour beforehand, calls for rescues and evacuations from both sites were made. Accidents had taken place, patient conditions rapidly declined, incidents started to occur one by one until the situation began spiraling out of control. So this meant teams needed to be sent out for rescue, and of course, Barry demanded that he would be a part of the teams sent to the areas of his family. Chris objected to his demands at first, saying he needed the man to stay where he was and that he had to wait to do anything. After the old man started threatening to abandon his own post to go out there himself, however, they finally changed their minds. Knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to get to both of them in time, Moira soon joined in on those demands. She offered to help the team sent to Polly's quarantine zone while Barry would go to Kathy's. It would be a better idea for the two to split up, find the other two family members, and join back up as soon as they could.

This decision didn't sit well with the older Burton at all, but they didn't have much of a choice, time was running out and they couldn't afford to waste any of it. Besides..

I can do this.. right?

That thought echoed, repeating itself as it weighed heavy in her mind. She's nervous, though as stubborn as she is, she'll never admit to being so. She didn't think of it until then, but she knew that if she made even the slightest mistake, they may never see her sister again. Her eyes widened at that sudden realization, but before she could dive further into her fearsome imagination, a hand patted at her shoulder to bring her back from her train of thought. She immediately stood from her seat when she glanced up to see Barry standing there, looking just as ready to go as she was.

"Transports are almost ready, everyone's suited up." Barry uttered, then signaled for her to follow him back the way he came. "This is supposed to be quick; run through the building, grab any survivors left that you can find, then get to the rooftop. Evac will be there waiting." He gave a short explanation while they walked side by side, to which Moira nodded in response. She knew the drill by now, having been in the survival tactics side of things. The process of rescuing survivors was very familiar to the younger Burton, and the older knew that, but being as nervous as Moira was at the current moment, Barry couldn't stop himself from repeating it in wording.

The small explanation was soon followed by a tense silence, both Burtons clearly anxious about being able to succeed in the task of finding their loved ones. Moira a little more-so than Barry. Sure, she had experience in search and rescue, but this is her first time rescuing a family member. Her sister to be exact, along with a countless number of lives on top of that. And then there's Barry, having to go out to find his wife, the woman who stood by him through thick and thin and always managed to make the best of a bad situation.

Both of them couldn't bare the thought of possibly failing in this task, they'd never be able to forgive themselves if they let that happen. Hell, Moira wouldn't even allow herself to show her face around her loved ones if she failed.

"..Are you sure you're ready for this?" Once the two stood in front of the doors of the helipad, Barry stopped her from opening the door. "I can always get Rebecca to go instead, or I could go on my own, you know I'm still built like a tank. You don't have to go through with this." He offered, though he knew the answer to the question. As tempting as it was to sit this one out, no matter how anxious she could be, she wasn't going to back down. She'd do anything for her little sister, even if that meant running through a completely infested hospital to find her.

"It's tempting, but no." She spoke with a suddenly stern tone of voice. "I'm not gonna fucking sit back and relax while you're out there looking for them. They're my family too, dad." She gave the exact response he expected her to give. He should've known not to expect anything less than pure determination from a fellow Burton. You don't make a Burton back down once they've decided upon something, they're all as stubborn as a mule, and Moira was no exception to that rule, and that fact made him beam with pride.

"It's not like we haven't had to do this shit before, right?" What she said then shouldn't have been said, but it was the sad truth. From Raccoon City to the island incident that happened just over a year ago, this sort of thing has become rather normal for the family. They could never truly catch a break.

"When you put it like that, our life sounds just goddamn thrilling." He couldn't stop himself from making that comment, but it managed to get a single chuckle out of his daughter anyway. "But okay, you remember the floor Polly's room was on?"

"Sixth floor, room 243." She replied along with another simple nod, she already memorized those little details a week ago when she went with her father to see how Polly was doing at the facility. "How could I forget? You were saying the number over and over like a fucking broken record when we visited."

"Yeah yeah, I know. Just wait until you have kids, then you'll know how I feel when you two get in trouble."

"Oh, that'll be the fucking day, huh? Maybe I'll start trying on fancy dresses and shit like that too, mom did always try to make me be more girly." This caused them both to let out a much needed laugh.

Their laughter stopped, however, when they heard a knock on the door in front of them. The two teams were finally ready to go and a teammate was informing them that they needed to leave in a few minutes. Moira proceeded to walk through the door after acknowledging that fact, soon followed by Barry. The winds from the helicopters hit them as soon as they walked outside, but only the young woman raised a hand to shield her eyes from it. Barry had gotten used to the feeling of the strong winds a long time ago, and needed only to squint his eyes and bent his head down as they drew closer to the helipad. Years of being in the air force will get a person used to such a feeling.

"You better get back in one piece, baby!" He shouted over the noise of the helicopter blades when they reached the two helipads. "-And get my other baby home and safe, do you hear me?"

"I heard you loud and clear. I promise." Despite being so nervous about her response, she granted him a single promise, to get Polly home safe and sound. She'll be as determined as ever to keep that small promise, so long as it means her family would be back together. "You know I will as long as you promise the same."

"Good girl, see you when we meet back up."

And with a short hug and a small kiss to the top of Moira's head, they left each other's side to join their respective teams, unprepared for the new hell that waited for them when they would return.

I may have rushed the ending a little, but I'm still getting used to this fanfic thing, been in the RP game way too long! I hope you enjoyed the prologue, because we're getting right into some shit in the next chapter. Until next time! -Lily