Chapter One: Shameless Introduction

/December 15 1997/

Alpha team sat idled in their chairs the bitter cold kept them inside to do meaningless tasks. Jill's eyes were glued on her monitor. Back turned to her partner, Chris, who bussed him self with filling various paper forms and folders; the tedious work was about as irritating as someone dragging their nails across a black board-faster it was done with the better. Jill on the other hand was In the mist of playing a riveting game of solitaire. It was her first real winter in the sleepy mid-west. When she was interviewed for S.T.A.R.S the recruitment agent raved how wonderful the dry summer months were. Little did Jill know that the picturesque mountain range surrounding the growing town had a devastating effect during winter. It snowed-a lot. By the end of October there was already two inches of snow, now being mid December that snow level raised from two inches to five and climbing.

The master of unlocking was going to need more then a card game to lift her spirits out of the winter blues. Jill turned around to her partner Chris his broad back was hunched over his cluttered desk. "Isn't that new member coming this week? Captain Wesker hasn't said much about her." Jill said in a hushed voice. Their captain only mentioned the essentials during their last briefing, nothing more, nothing less.

Chris simply shrugged his shoulders muttering "Beats me" Alphas marks man wasn't interested in gossip returning to his stack of paper work soon after.

There had been more then a few rumors flying around the R.P.D about Bravos new addition. Raccoon was classified as a small city but held on to it's close knit community mentality everyone had some sort of gossip on everyone. Jill did her best to take it in with a grain of salt. With how boring things were in the sleepy town; it was hard not to give in every now and again to a steamy rumour, or two off the grape vine.

Joseph stopped at Jill's desk on his way to deliver a file to her, setting it on top. Frost was a spry young man with a sunny disposition. More often then not his short curly blond hair was hidden underneath a vivid red bandanna, earning him all sorts of Rambo quips. Not that Joseph minded the comparison all that much. He leaned in "You could just ask Wesker you know." He said jerking his chin towards the desk at the head of the office. There sat their leader, a big mural of their organization's logo behind him. Wesker like everyone else was busy with work of his own to attend to.

"Forget it..."Jill said fallowing with a heavy sigh. There was a foreboding aura that surrounded her captain making it difficult to approach. She looked up at Joseph with her crystal blue eyes she couldn't help but ask "unless you know something?"

Joseph was the social butterfly of the office, and had been working in the prescient longer then herself. Joseph nonchalantly leaned up against the desk "Well, word has it our new 'friend' transferred from the same precinct as our fearless leader." He said in a low whisper his eyes shifted in Wesker's direction.

"Yeah, so? A lot of us here knew each other from somewhere else." Jill said in response. "Barry and Enrico were part of the same S.W.A.T team before it was replaced by S.T.A.R.S. for example"

"I know that." Joseph cut in "What makes it juicy is well, do you ever see Wesker around any friends?" He added in.

Jill pondered momentarily on that thought "Some people keep their professional and personal lives separate." Valentine answered gazing past the plucky blond towards Wesker. She could hear the groan of his leather chair as he stood with his shoulders drawn back their captain strut out the door; his foot falls barely making a sound across the dingy tiled floor. "Speaking of professional lives, I have a thirty page report with my name on it."

With a subtle nod of his head "Yeh' I hear ya', later." Joseph said giving a slight wave of his hand. Jill watched his back as he walked over to his desk across their office. The white cotton T-shirt hung loosely off his toned shoulders. Jill looked down to the folder left on her desk a faded ring of coffee stained the brown paper. Picking the folder up she flipped it open scanning through the pages before reading. A soft knock at the door distracted Jill for a moment, hoping it wasn't Irons subjecting them to another insufferable inspection. The beady eyed police chief's standards were well beyond the possible; no matter what anyone did it just was never enough to please the man. Barry rose from his desk, and in their captains absents went to answer the door. Jill kept her fingers crossed and bit back her breath as the door opened. Just the sound of Chief Irons oily voice was enough to send shivers of loathing throughout her entire person. Relief washed over her once she realized it was not Police chief Irons darking their doorway. Her shoulders loosened up a bit. Past Barry stood a dark haired women her pale pink lips parted into a soft smile, allowing a peek of pearly white to show through. Jill couldn't hear the words exchanged between the young women and Barry; but from the expression on his gruff face had Jill jump to the conclusion there was no need to wounder about their new medic.

The dark haired women stepped inside ill at ease with her new surroundings. Her shadowy eyes wandering about the cluttered office, Jill took the moment to study her for a moment. All but the shaggy blackish fringes were kept tightly pinned back and off her sleek face. Behind the thick oval frames of her glasses her low lidded eyes keenly searched around the room. The dark haired women had a straight up and down type of figure; from what Jill could guess through the tunic. Soft Indigo fleece loosely clung off her body rounding out her lanky figure. Thick jet black leggings shielded her waspy legs from the elements. Suede leather boots stopped around mid calf completed her outfit. Her wool worst jacket draped over her forearm. Barry pointed the young women in the direction of the visitors seat; she nodded her head respectful making the razor straight strands fall in front of her face.

Over by the desk Joseph shared with Brad, he watched the rookie S.T.A.R.S member make her way to the plastic visitor chairs. She snagged a seat crossing her legs taking the time to brush the lint off her knees. He could tell she was enthralled by the room, her dark glossy eyes were wide intensively taking in all the little details. The STARS office unlike most of the station had a sort of casual personality. Over by Chris's desk where a leather biker jacket hung, just below a guitar laid strings yearning to be strung. Disks were kept in anarchistic order on top of his desk. Unlike Chris; Jill's was the tidier of the two, just a run of the mill white ceramic mug and her navy coloured brette.

Because space was limited desks were shared between most of S.T.A.R.S and offered little other then a docking station for paper work. The only other desks that stood out were Barry's with a model of a hand gun beside a picture of his family. Enrico too had a photograph of his family. That left Wesker who sat at the head of the room in front of the mural. Their captains desk was polished not even a paper clip was without its own proper place. He neither kept photos of family nor personal effects in his working environment.

Something always felt off about their squad leader to Joseph; Wesker was in his mid thirties, never married kept to him self other then the rare outing to their local bar. It wasn't as if the alpha caption was hard on the eyes; he kept in good shape, oozed with suave sensuality that made women week in the knees with just a look. It wasn't only the women he kept at an arms length either. Something about the way he looked past someone made one feel cold, as if they soaked head to toe in frigid water.

/Wesker isn't here though/ thought Joseph stroking his long hairless chin. Eager to become acquainted with his new team mate. He'd been curious about her for a while and a score of questions were buzzing in his head. "Hey Vickers, did you want to go up and introduce our selves to the newbie?" he asked slightly leaning over keeping the seated women in his peripherals as to not alert her to his starring.

Brad fidgeted with his sheets tapping them against the table "Naw why don't you go ahead I kinda, um, I'm almost done with my daily quota, ya' know." Brad replied softly prompting a roll of the eyes from Joseph.

"She's not going to bite you man. She's S.T.A.R.S, just like us." Joseph said trying to pursue the shy pilot to go up with him. Brad only shook his head 'no' "Why not?" Joseph pried further.

"Because, I don't think she want's to be bothered right now." He answered.

"Nooo~ it's because you put women up on a pedestal. Now lets go." He said egging his partner on as he began standing up from his chair, tugging on Brads arm.

Brad sharply pulled his arm away "I said no dammit." Brad hissed under his breath cheeks turning a light shade of pink.

Joseph shrugged his shoulders knitting his eyebrows close together "Whatever man, you're friggen my hero." he said voice full of bitter sarcasm. Joseph walked off with out a further word he strutted over to where the rookie sat. He could see she was staring over at the dart board hung on the generic off white drywall. Pulling up a chair beside her flipping it around before sitting, arms limply resting across the back of the chair. Her head turned looking him up and down "Hey there, welcome to the team. I'm Joseph Frost-Bravo's /better/ mechanic and omni-man." he said while getting a closer look at the rookie's face. Her face was a creamy shade of pale. Like the rest of body her facial structure was sleek; with high cheek bones and a long narrow nose that turned up at the end. "I think your name was Lilly, right?" Joseph asked.

"Yeah, it is." She answered her voice was surly and slightly deeper then either Jill or Rebbecca's. Flicking a strand of hair of her shoulder, and crossed her arms over her chest.

Joseph moved on to his next question "So do you live near by, or did you end up moving down to this Podunk town?" he smirked flashing some teeth snickering under his breath.

Lilly stared at Joseph intently unsure of the intention behind their conversation. Her lips tugged into a thin awkward smile. "I moved shortly before transferring here."

He steadily raised a eye brow "Now the big ticket question. What's the word on you and Wesker? I heard you two used to work in the same police station." Joseph asked on the edge of his seat in anticipation.

Lilly blinked a few times unsure of how to answer "Umm..What do you mean exactly?" she bit the insides of her cheeks her back pressed flat against the chair.

Joseph laughed "oh there's some rumor you and Captain Wesker were, or are romantically involved." He answered trying to be respectful if it turned out to be true. Lilly shuddered her lips twisting up into a positivity sour expression.

"No and no I could never-he's way too old. We are and forever will be coworker's." Lilly clarified her arms tightened around her chest. "Why dose it matter to you anyways? Even if he and I were as they said a item; it wouldn't be any of your business." Her eyes hardened on Joseph staring him down making him shrink into his chair.

"Geeze I'm sorry, no need to bite my head off, damn." he said raising his hands up defensively "So that's a no then?" He asked bouncing back to his cheery disposition even lightheartedly jabbing her on the shoulder. He caught a slight smile peak through her crabby expression for a second.

"Your going to be a pain in my ass aren't you?" Lilly asked smugly, lifting a single pencil thin eyebrow towards Joseph.

"You bet your ass rookie." Joseph playfully replied with a subtle wink.