Author Note: Another little story about our wonderful couple...but with a little twist! I don't own the characters but I sure wish I did because then I would have oodles of money and wouldn't be writing these little stories!

This takes place during the RE:Extinction...after the fight in Vegas but before their escape in the helicopter :)

Please enjoy :) reviews are always welcome :) but I'm not scolding those who do not *wink*...

BoOkWoRm-gUrL

Truth Takes Time

When Alice left the Hummer she was not sure what exactly was going to take place next. Claire was not acting like herself. She had changed, become more distant and overbearing not only on Alice but, the rest of her convoy as well. It all began after their last run in with Umbrella. The more withdrawn she was becoming the more it worried Alice. Now it was almost at the point where she was almost shutting the convoy that she risked her life for on a daily basis, out.

Alice tried to act loving to her at night when they are along in the Yellow Hummer. It was the only time she was ever able to be alone with Claire since she was their leader, she was the one who was promising these people safe passage to the promise land; Arcadia. However, even in those brief periods of time with one another Claire refused to let her guard down. She would turn away from the one she loved muttered under her breath that she was 'not interested' and then pretend to fall asleep. They barely even made eye contact with one another let alone hold each other as they slept. After about a week of the cold shoulder Alice was beginning to get impatient. She knew their last battle was a hard one, especially for Claire. They lost a lot of good people, including L.J.; one of the few survivors from Raccoon City. The same place that Alice had come from and had been lucky enough to escape almost unscathed. She was attached to those people that helped her lead the survivors to safety, they had been traveling together, across the United States, for fifteen months before Alice happened upon them in the Nevada Dessert. Sadly however, what happened with the mutated zombies in Vegas, that was the world they now lived in. But there was also something else bothering her, something that she was too afraid to admit to anyone including Alice.

"Claire, we need to talk," Alice stated as she roughly grabbed the red head's arm. Both of them were helping round up the rest of the children, putting them back into the rear of the army truck that was now gassed up and ready to being their trek towards Arcadia; Alaska.

Claire turned around, her eyes were hidden by her dark aviator sunglasses but Alice did not need to see the hue to know she was not pleased with being man handled on display. A scowl was on her lips as she snatched her arm out of Alice's grasp. "Can't you see I'm busy?" She snapped at the older blonde turning back to the group, willing to look at anything but Alice's sorrow filled eyes.

Alice was done trying to be nice. She grabbed Claire roughly by the arm once more and before she could squirm away, pulled her away from the group and into a small alcove of the parking garage. "What the hell has gotten into you?" She demanded.

"Nothing, I just want out of Vegas and continue on our way to Alaska."

"It's not nothing Claire." Alice punched the concrete pillar behind Claire, the pain that should have broken bones instead demonstrated what type of monster Umbrella had made her become. Claire looked at Alice seeing the anger seething in her body as her eyes blazed with furry. "You haven't even made damn eye contact with me, what the hell is bothering you?"

"Leave me alone Alice," Claire grumbled as she tried to escape the alcove but Alice was not going to make it that easy., "Please," She breathed as tears fell from behind her glasses and streaked her cheeks.

Alice retreated her stubborn demeanor and felt ashamed for how she was acting. There was a reason that Claire was avoiding her and getting angry, punching walls and yelling was not going to get the truth out of her. She reached out with her left hand to caress Claire's cheek but before she could touch her soft skin Claire turned her face away. Alice huffed, her frustration beginning to rise again. She wanted to help anyway she could, and Claire getting defensive, quite and snappy was not going to push her away, if anything it was going to entice her to dig deeper and figure this out.

"Is it what happened to the convoy? What Umbrella unleashed a few days ago?" Alice pried beginning her long list of questions she could use to get Claire to talk. Is that why you are acting like this?" She pressured.

Claire grunted, "Everybody dies its a fact of life before this and now is an everyday occurrence in this world." She then locked eyes with Alice once again, "Accept for you."

Bingo.

"So that's what this is about then, me?" Alice replied. "That I'm a monster, a robot killing machine controlled by Umbrella. I-I scare you don't I?"

"God! Don't be self absorbed! No! This is not about you, this is about me!" Claire yelled catching the attention K-Mart and Carlos who were taking inventory of what supplies they had left in their dwindling convoy only a few feet away.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Alice screamed back, not caring if she or they were attracting unwanted attention from the rest of the convoy.

"I'm pregnant okay!" Claire confessed pushing past Alice in the small alcove and walking back out into the desert sun before Alice even had a chance to respond.

Alice stood where she was, wide eyed and in shock unsure of how to process what Claire had just told her. Normally she would be angry, pissed that the one she loved had sex with someone else, a man to boot and now as some last act poetic, ironic justice she was carrying their child. However, this time, she was confused more than angry, and hurt more than confused. She thought that Claire loved her, how could she betray her like this? Tears began to build in Alice's eyes, escaping down her cheeks ans she turned from the concrete wall she just punched a few moments ago to see a mortified K-Mart and stock still Carlos staring back at her. When she locked eyes with Carlos she could see the truth hidden in his brown hue.

"You're the father aren't you?" She whispered. At that moment Carlos broke his eyes from Alice's and confirmed the horrid truth without having to utter a single word.

"Alice! Wait! Please!" Carlos called after her as she ran to the ruins of the causeway for the Italian decor Venetian Hotel. That was where Umbrella had set up a post and using their satellites stopped her while fighting and killing their zombie pets.

She needed to be alone, she needed to make sense of all this without Carlos justifications or Claire exploding in anger or tears. Whatever happened between them, should stay between them and more than likely happened before she became apart of this convoy, before Claire had fallen in love with her and after she showed them what type of monster she really was. It was obvious now that Alice had outlasted her welcome and that maybe it was time she to leave this group. She had given them the book that showed them where Arcadia was, that had the transmissions listed in them that they could follow. Even if this was the last probable group of human survivors left in the United States or the world, the pain was not worth the comfort of other living things.

Now would be the best time for her to formulate a plan and exact her revenge upon Umbrella. It was going to be a suicide mission from the start and now that she has nothing else to live for, it would be the perfect ending to this nightmare that has now become her life. She brushed away her stray tears and twirled her swords in her hands, the fresh blood of her last kills sprayed across the concrete bridge. There was no point in emotions getting in the way of her final mission. She would leave under the cover of darkness and without anyone even realizing that she was gone, especially Claire. There would be no need for tough good-byes, or outbreaks of anger, she would leave just as quickly as she arrived. Alice sat at the broken stone bridge overlooking the group watching Claire and Carlos talking with one another. They were too far away for her to overhear their conversation and one of the things Umbrella did not give her was super sonic hearing. She figured the conversation did not end well if Claire was stalking off from Carlos and he had his hands balled in a fist ready to punch. Alice watched as Claire went back to the yellow Hummer and slammed the door shut, it was so loud that even Alice jumped from her spot a hundred yards away. Carlos was throwing a tantrum of his own, kicking sand with his army boot, walking in a circle, his hand on his forehead, looking down at the ground trying to make sense of everything. He then pulled out a cigarette he found from a person's pack they had scavenged through from the parking garage for supplies. He lit it, the flicker of orange flame illuminating the dark night sky for a brief moment.

He saw Alice sitting perched on the ruins. They locked eyes for a moment as neither of them moved knowing the conversation would not end well for either of them. Alice then looked away wondering exactly what the hell she had gotten herself into...

And how exactly she was going to get out of it without getting the rest of them killed...

Okay...i know short and little unexpected...Please R/R if you like or don't like...