The Fight Inside Is Breaking Me Again

Title is from Nothing And Everything, by Red. Thank you reviewers I'm glad you liked it. Jane as always, you're lovely to me, and I hope you enjoy this story as much as the last. And of course the same goes to , you're reviews really mean so much to me. I hope all of you like it.

"Here, waffles. The perfect cure." Claire Redfield placed the delight before Jill on the table, attempting to raise some emotion from the older woman. Since meeting through Chris, Claire and Jill had hit it off and continued to be good friends, much to the annoyance of Chris who accused the two of conspiring against him.

Claire wasn't the best with words, she was an emotional train wreck herself, so she could hardly help herself let alone others. But she hoped to help with a peaceful offering of food. To an outside waffles are nothing special, but for Claire they were always her comfort. During exams, or first day back at school, her parents would always make them waffles for breakfast. And after their parents' unexpected death, Chris made waffles in a vain attempt to comfort his dearest sister. Since then it became Redfield tradition, waffles were there to help. It turned out waffles were the only thing the Redfield siblings could make successfully.

Jill gave the slightest of nods, had Claire have blinked she would have undoubtedly missed it. No smile came to Jill's face. Claire let out a light sigh and took a seat next to her at the table, studying the other woman as she began to pick with her food.

Jill looked like she hadn't slept all week, her eyes were puffy, hair greasy, and skin the palest Claire had ever seen it. Perhaps even more pale than when she returned from Wesker's grasps. Claire couldn't blame her for looking like that, but she did nothing other than worry about her friend.

"Are you feeling any better?"

"I'm fine."

Jill continued to fiddle with the food on her fork, never actually eating, nor raising her eyes to look at Claire.

Claire had immense admiration for her strength in such a hopeless time, but it did worry her. Jill didn't seem to show any emotion at all, she would never raise a smile, or laugh. And perhaps most worryingly of all, she never cried. That's what worried Claire the most. She just wished Jill would stop bottling up everything that had happened. After a week she hoped Jill would be ready to talk. Claire did try to get her to open up, however any time she did, Claire ended up being the one blubbering her eyes out and needing the comfort.

"It's been over a week, Jill."

"I know."

…

"So, do you want to talk about what happened? Maybe going over it, you might remember who did this…" Claire babbled, she didn't believe what she said. Jill didn't know who was behind the kidnapping, and unfortunately neither did the police. She just asked, hoping to find some way to get Jill to speak.

"I don't want to talk about it." Jill didn't raise her voice or show any sort of emotion. She didn't feel pain, she felt numb. The most important thing she had was stolen from her. She couldn't comprehend that. Jill stood silently, setting her plate to the sink, and swiftly leaving the room.

Claire let out an exasperated sigh, bowing her head to say a silent prayer for her friend and nephew. She knew only one man would have any hope at getting Jill to talk.

"Are you leaving so soon?" Piers' asked hastily stepping into the military tent. Chris didn't bother to turn to him, just continued his packing, throwing any clothes lying around into the large bag lying on the camp bed.

"Soon? I should have left a fucking week ago!" He spoke through gritted teeth, carelessly chucking another pair of trousers into the bag.

"We were in a mission. The objective would have been disrupted if you found out immediately when it happened…" Piers kept his voice low, trying to calm his infuriated Captain. He took a step right into the tent, closing over the flap so not to disturb the rest of the camp, nor let them hear the shouts of Chris.

"Don't defend them!" Chris pummelled his fist against the tent wall, trying to relieve some of the pain he felt. The BSAA had held off on telling Chris the news until after his mission, something which evidently didn't go down well with him once he found out.

"I'm not defending them, Chris, alright? They should have told you, I agree. But it was a tough situation, we were in a mission and telling you would have taken your mind off it..." Piers gently sat on the edge of the bed, trying not to appear confrontational so to keep the older man calm.

"Oh yeah, on a mission, right? And tell me Piers, how successful was this mission, huh?" Piers bowed his head, Chris had a point. Their mission was to look for any evidence of who started the outbreak in Borislav or at least any information regarding the new strain of virus being used. As they had suspected, they found nothing. Whoever was behind the outbreaks, certainly knew how to cover up their tracks.

Although his Captain was just as upset as ever, Piers was slightly more relaxed as Chris's voice had lowered and he seemed to be coming down from his furious state.

"Not successful…" Piers' voice was little over a whisper.

"Yeah so while I wasted my time looking for something which was never there to be found in the first place, he was being taken from me!" Piers winced as the shout echoed through the tent. It saddened him that Chris was still unable to speak the boy's name aloud. It was evident although he showed anger outwardly, on the inside the man was being torn apart.

"There is still hope Chris…" He gently placed his hand upon the shoulder of his superior and friend.

"No… No. There isn't okay, do you hear me? …There is no hope left."

"We're almost there now…" Helena spoke, briefly taking her focus off her driving to look towards her partner.

"Lovely neighbourhood, isn't it?" Leon glanced around the surrounding area, the flats were dull, each wall covered in obscene graffiti, and the streets littered. With the help of Leon's aid, Hunnigan, they had retrieved an address of a suspected bio-weapon dealer. With meeting him, they hoped to gain names of those behind these outbreaks, or at least some information involving it.

Helena stopped the car, and gave a nod to her partner. Although they hadn't known each other for long, the two got a long as if they had known each other for years. Trust didn't seem to be an issue, and already they could act without words, knowing what the other would be thinking. With Leon's experience and initiative, and her level-headedness and intelligence, they made a perfect team.

The two made their way up a flight of dingy stairs that hadn't looked to be cleaned in weeks. Arriving at the third floor on the block of flats, they found themselves at the door of the supposed dealer.

Helena brought her hand up and knocked harshly upon the grubby door. A slight rustle was heard from the other side, confirming to them that indeed someone was home.

"Who is it?"

"We're government agents; we just need to ask you some questions Mr Bates…" Helena spoke, stepping closer to the door ensuring she would be heard. Both hoped with the female voice, the man would feel less threatened and perhaps more likely to open the door.

"Just a second..."

…

After a short time, neither agent heard any noise, sparking concern in both. Helena learned forward pressing her ear to the door. With no sign of movement, Leon quickly dropped down, and lifted up the letterbox to look within the house. He could just about see a person in the kitchen, fiddling with the window.

"…He's making a run for it." Leon's voice was riddled with anger. He gently pushed Helena back from the door. "Stand back."

Taking a step back, Leon then lunged forward bringing his foot to smash open the door.

"Impressive…"

Once down, Leon ran past the door and sprinted straight into the small kitchen, yanking the man by the collar from the window, and roughly chucking him to the ground.

Helena glanced into the tiny living room. The room was very bare, nothing more than a television, sofa and of course a large collection of marijuana plants. She made her way to search in the man's bedroom.

The man cowered away from Leon, remaining on the ground. He tried to compose himself, fixing the collar of his t-shirt and running a nervous hand across his shaved head.

"Let's cut the chitchat shall we? Considering you ran from us, that isn't screaming innocence at us." Leon said through gritted teeth, as the man stood from his position, still keeping distance from the much bigger built man. "We know you're involved in Bio-weaponry. Tell us what you know."

"I don't know anything." He replied without hesitation.

Leon brought his fist up to collide forcefully against the other man's face, sending him back to the floor.

"Hey, you can't do that, you're police!"

"I'm not police." Leon shrugged, "Now do you want to talk or continue aggravating me?"

He stepped up from the floor once more, nursing his bruises cheek. He let out a defeated sigh.

"Look I don't know anything. I know why you're here, all these outbreaks across the world. It's nothing to do with me, I swear. I wouldn't want any of this… I need the money man, I get the weapons and I sell them on." Leon let out an exasperated sigh. Unfortunately, he could tell Mr Bates was telling the truth.

"Part of the deal is I haven't a clue who the people are, or what the viruses are used for. It's better that way, for both of us. I'm as scared shitless as the next guy with these outbreaks, the last thing I want to know is I'm the one causing it. I just need the money…"

"Do you know anything?" Leon pleaded. "Any names? Any pictures? …Anything?"

"The names used are fake, even I know that... There is something though, I have a picture of one of the women who came recently…" He quickly poked in the pocket of jeans, bringing out his phone. He began to search through to show said picture. "Granted it's not great quality…"

"How'd you get the picture?" As Leon asked, the man's face beamed slightly.

"She was pretty… Funny enough I don't get much action…" Leon just shook his head, with closed eyes, a small smirk appearing on his feature.

"That's a little creepy…"

The man shrugged off Leon's comment and passed the phone to him showing the picture. Helena had finished searching the room, and met up with the two in the kitchen. She moved over to peer over Leon's shoulder as they looked.

Leon tried to hide the shock which washed over his face. Even with a bad photograph, Leon never would forget who those piercing green eyes belonged too.

"She's pretty, wasn't expecting that…" Helena said as she looked at the Asian woman, giving a slight worried look to her partner as he seemed somewhat shocked.

"This is great, we'll be taking this." Leon said waving the phone, much to the protest of the man.

"Oh and we'll be taking this too," Helena chirped in, lifting up the laptop being held in her arm, a smile playing over her face.

"Thank you for your help Andrew," Leon said walking towards the door. Andrew followed closely, hoping they weren't actually going to take his belongings.

"Expect to hear from the police…. Oh, and I'd advise you to hide those," Helena pointed to the plants in the living room and gave a smile before both agents left.

…

"Hey, are you alright?" Helena's voice broke the unusual silence which had fallen between the two partners. Leon had been staring out the window the whole journey, no snide comments or jokes, he seemed very subdued.

"Yeah I'm fine; just wish we got something a little more useful…"

"Well a picture is pretty useful. If we get a name, then all we have to do is track her down and get some answers."

The coloured drained from Leon's face. He was in a tough situation, he always knew what Ada did, but she was never evil, surely she couldn't be the one behind the outbreaks. Obviously he recognised the woman, but he couldn't decide to compromise his job and keep his mouth closed about her identity, or admit who she is and snitch the woman he truly cared about. For the mean time at least, something held Leon back from revealing her identity.

"Hey, you sure you're alright. You look like you've seen a ghost…."

Steeping into the house, Chris took in the very familiar surroundings of his house. He threw his bag onto the stairs and made his way to the living room. Unlike most times he returned, the house didn't feel like home. It looked the same, everything was in place. But something was missing. The house was empty, eerily quiet.

Opening the door, Chris's eyes meet those of his beautiful wife's. Neither spoke a word, just looked deeply into the other's eyes. Both looking for comfort, for some sort of solace. Although her eyes never left his, no smile came to her face. Her bright blue eyes looked dull, empty.

In an instant, Jill left her seated position, and walked over to Chris, immediately throwing her arms around his neck. Gripping his shirt tightly, she held her body close to his. He wasted no time to wrap his arms around her waist, savouring her smell. Burying his head into her neck, tears fell from his eyes. Worryingly none fell from hers.

Sorry for the delay, realised I had all these ideas for the story and unfortunately have been too busy to actually write it! Hope you enjoyed.

Artichoke,

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