[Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil or any of its characters, or anything else that might come from it. Other people have the honor of that.
A woman clad in blue cargo pants and a matching blue shirt with the S.T.A.R.S. logo on it moved hastily out the door leading from her two story, relatively small white house with a bagel hanging precariously from her mouth as she shut the sturdy door behind herself and locked it with a key- one of many hanging from a jangling ring. This accomplished she shoved the keys into the pocket of her pants before shifting the folders she held in the crook of the other arm in an attempt to keep from dropping them even as she kept a tight grip on the mug of coffee she carried as well.
She proceed to move towards the white car parked in her driveway- a car that had seen better days- with the sun beating down relentlessly on her raven coloured hair. Moving to the drivers' side of the car, she was forced to take the folders out from under her arm so she could place them on the hood of the car, freeing up one of her hands so she could take the key ring back out of her pocket. The correct key was found and shoved unceremoniously into the lock of the car door, carrying out the job of unlocking the vehicle.
After tugging the door open, she leant in across the drivers' seat, resting her weight on the coffee mug-free hand before placing the cup gently into the cars built in cup holder and relieving herself of the steaming mug. This accomplished she proceeded to shove the same key she had used to unlock the vehicle into the ignition before she ducked out of the car, grabbing the folders that had been on the hood before grabbing the bagel out of her mouth, tearing a chunk off which she began to chew.
The woman slid into the drivers' seat, at last sitting down on it and then placed the stack of folders on the passengers' seat, chewing and swallowing the bite of toasted bagel covered in peanut butter she had taken. Another bite was taken from the bagel and a sip of the steaming liquid held in her blank white mug before she finally turned the vehicle on, throwing it into gear before looking out the rearview mirror as she proceeded to back up, all the while taking bites of the bagel that served as her breakfast until it was completely gone.
It took her about ten minutes to reach the destination she had been heading for so desperately, and when she finally made it to the RPD building where her office was held, she parked her vehicle before scrambling quickly to grab everything she had taken with her. She grabbed the folder off of the seat it had been placed on, glad to see that during her drive none had been pushed to the ground or out of place, and shoved it under the crook of her arm once again. She ripped the keys from the ignition and shoved them into her pocket again before grabbing the mug, which was the only other item she had brought with her and hastened out of the vehicle, shoving the door behind herself shut- after hitting the plastic lock down- before she moved towards the entrance to the building.
Upon finally entering the RPD building she moved as quickly as she could manage through the lobby, trying to avoid everyone she saw, not wanting to be delayed any further until she finally made it out of there and into the hallway leading towards the staircase upwards and the elevator which was nearby. She moved directly towards the stairs, completely ignoring the elevator doors and climbed them two at a time while being careful not to spill any of her coffee- which had grown considerably cooler. When she finally reached the top of the stairs she paused for a moment to adjust the slipping pile of folders before continuing on, one destination in mind.
She had to keep herself from bursting into the set of doors she had been heading towards when she finally reached them, not wanting to make a big scene and make it even more noticeable that she had been missing. She took a deep breath, standing outside the doors in an attempt to collect herself before she slowly turned the handle of the door, cracking it open slowly as she peeked through the ever growing opening in at the meeting room she had been told to report to the previous day as soon as her shift began.
She made it all the way into the room- trying to look as small as possible- and had her back to the room so she could shut the door when she was finally acknowledged, the man at the front of the room standing beside a board speaking in a calm, cool voice. "Valentine, you're late."
Jill winced, turning to face the room and the people occupying it with a sheepish grin before nodding her head. "Yes, I'm sorry Wesker, lost track of time. Won't happen again."
Wesker regarded her silently for a moment before turning back to the board with a marker in hand; resuming the work he had been going at before she had entered. "I should hope not."
With a small sigh- one containing relief at the fact that he hadn't made a bigger deal of it- she moved towards an empty seat, one beside Chris Redfield and took it, moving her attention towards the board Wesker was working on as she set everything down on the table. She gave a small nod in response to Chris' greeting before turning her attention fully to Wesker.
"Now, as I was saying when we go the building to commence with the stakeout, two people will go here," His no nonsense-toned voice filled the room as she continued with the speech he had been making before Jill had entered, and he pointed towards a circle he had made around a labeled box that served as the building he spoke of, moving the black marker between the three circles around and in the building as he explained. "Two here, and two here. We'll be working in partners to secure the area and try to catch the next attack we're expecting to happen. I expect you all to know your roles in this mission, and I expect it to go off without a hitch." He turned away from the board, having finished with the explanation of it and regarded the people in the room. "Are there any questions about what will be happening? Any more clues you've come up with on your own?"
His gaze rested particularly on Jill, disapproval emanating from him though his expression stayed completely blank, revealing no emotion. It was clear he expected questions from her considering she had missed a bit of the meeting, and was waiting for her to ask for an explanation of everything once again. Luckily for Jill they had gone over some of the finer points of the plan the day before and she was pretty sure she was up to speed on everything. She had no questions; however she did have something to offer.
"Yesterday we decided that the women attacked didn't seem to have anything vital in common however… upon further checking over of the files, I noticed that they were all women who at some point in their lives had, had money troubles. I investigated this further, thinking there might be something there and saw that they all got loans from a certain loan 'business'." Jill cleared her throat, glancing down at the closed folders in front of herself for a minute before looking back up at Wesker and continuing on. "I found that they still owed money back and it seems they were late on their payments, some of them even tried to skip town and avoid paying the money back. I think maybe this could be the motive behind the killings."
Wesker looked at her, face as always revealing nothing though he gave off an air of thoughtfulness as he considered her idea. "Very good Jill. I think just maybe you might have come across something. We were focusing too much on the connection they had in their jobs, and didn't think of investigating any further angles to find a connection. It seems maybe it didn't have just to do with the fact that the four women were in the drug dealers or prostitutes with a record." He turned to write on the board, drawing a bubble with motive in the middle before drawing a line and writing down loan.
"Alright, get back to your desks until I call you all back again so we can head out and get done whatever else you need to. I expect you all to be armed and ready to go after your lunch breaks because we'll be heading out at 5 o'clock to start the stakeout. Its 8:30 now people, more than enough time to finish up the paperwork from last weeks case and to get together everything else. I'll start getting the vehicles ready to go and Barry, you can come with me to put together the weapons supply. Brad, Joseph, Chris, Jill, you're all dismissed."
Those told to leave stood up from their seats and gathered together everything they had carried with them to the meeting, filing one by one out the door to head down the hallway to their offices while Barry and Wesker stayed behind to discuss everything they needed to get ready for the mission.
Jill walked alongside Chris as they headed back towards the S.T.A.R.S. offices. The two of them shared one as they were considered partners when there was a need for pairings on missions- such as the one they were going to embark on later in the day. All of the offices were in the same area of the hall, either separated by a wall or across the hall from the others.
As Joseph and Brad turned to the left towards a door- the office they shared- Jill and Chris turned right, directly across the hall from the two of them and stepped into their shared office, making their ways towards their separate desks, one in each corner of the room in the corners closest to the far wall. The two of them were unfortunate enough not to have a window in their relatively small- at least for two people to share- office, getting their only light from the bulb hanging above.
Jill sat down at her own desk, placing the folders in one corner of it and the now completely stone cold coffee in front of herself and out of the way before she rested her back against the uncomfortable wooden chair the S.T.A.R.S. members were blessed with. Luckily for them, even though the chairs weren't the most comfortable, they usually didn't have to suffer too much time spent in them.
Glancing across the room she noted that Chris had taken his seat as well and had proceeded to prop his feet upwards on his desk, leaning back in the chair. He grinned across at her, seeing her looking and finally broke the silence that had engulfed the two of them. "Good job finding the lead Jill. I think you managed to get yourself off of Wesker's black list, at least for today."
Jill grinned in answer to his words, shaking her head with a small sigh. "Yeah, well I'm glad for that at least. So you ready for the action we'll be getting tonight?"
Chris gave her an odd look- it seemed he was barely managing to contain a grin and laughter before he finally managed to compose himself, shrugging his shoulders lightly. "Ahh, I don't have much to do. I'll get around to it eventually. For now I think I'll just take a break." With that said he propped his arms behind his head, closing his eyes as if he was going to take a nap.
Jill rolled her eyes, unable to contain a grin before she went about grabbing a few papers that had been sitting on her desk when she came in. She read them over silently- they had to do with the mission they had been working on the previous week- one they had accomplished successfully- before she picked up a pen and began finishing up the report all of the members involved were expected to do.
She heard rustling from across the room and looked up to see Chris shifting his position once again, apparently deciding to get down to work. He shrugged out of his green Kevlar vest before taking his boot clad feet from off of his desk, swiping a hand without thinking across his cargo pants as he smoothed them out upon taking a normal position in his seat. A slight baggy- though not so baggy as to hide the muscular body beneath the outfit- shirt was revealed upon his taking the vest off, one that was blue and like Jill's had the S.T.A.R.S. insignia on the arm of it.
Jill started slightly as he began writing away on a sheet of paper, realizing she had been staring at him like an idiot the whole time and quickly ducked her head down to work away at her report, berating herself for gawping. She had no idea why she had lost focus completely just because he was removing one small article of clothing. She had no time to waste if she wanted to be ready for the mission later that day, meaning she had no time to wonder about this.
She wondered if she was just tired, after all she had spent a good part of the night going over the folders so she would be ready for the next day. However, a part of her didn't accept this as the full reasoning. A part of her wondered if there wasn't something more to the lapse in focus.