A/N: Hi everyone, after receiving some good constructive criticism I have gone back and edited chapter 1 so now here is chapter 2 for you. Hopefully it won't take me as long to write chapter 3! Please read and review, thanks so much!
Jill Valentine slowly opened her eyes, all she could see was white and she couldn't focus, her eyelids heavy from a deep sleep. She went to rub the sleep from her eyes but could not move her hands. Panicking, she tried to move the rest of her body but to no success. Now fully awake, she looked around at her surroundings. It looked like some kind of hospital but this was like no hospital that she had ever been in. She looked down and found that her wrists and ankles were chained to the bed that she lay upon and all that she had was a blanket to cover her modesty. The last thing that she could remember was jumping out of that window at the Spencer estate.
"Chris!" Jill shouted but to no response. Why was she in chains? She had miraculously survived the fall but no regular hospital would tie down a patient.
"Ahh, you're alive. I was beginning to think you would never wake up." She heard a familiar voice from behind her. As the man came into her eyesight she recognised him instantly.
"Wesker!" she said. The anger was all over her face. "Where's Chris? What have you done with him?"
"Chris? For years all I wanted was the satisfaction of killing him. But this is a much better idea." His mouth curled into a smile and he rubbed his gloved, black hands together.
"Why?" She hissed. "What are you going to do to me?"
"I should have thought of this sooner. Getting the perfect revenge through his precious 'Jillybean.'" The name Jillybean was a pet name affectionately given to Jill by her family and later used by all of her colleagues at S.T.A.R.S after Jill had mentioned it.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Jill said, her words shaking as she tried to save hers and Chris' skin. "I mean nothing to him!"
"Oh, Jill!" Wesker raised his voice. "You think I didn't know that the two of you were sneaking around in S.T.A.R.S? And since the mansion incident you've been inseparable!"
"We were just working together! There was nothing else to it." Jill lied.
"Then what is this?" Wesker lifted the blanket, revealing the bare skin on the side of her hip and the letter 'C' tattooed on it. Chris and Jill both got matching tattoos done a few months before, after they had finished a mission in New Zealand. Chris' tattoo was of course a 'J' and sat on the side of his torso. In their situation, they were unable to get married but they had joked about getting tattoos as it was also permanent like marriage, and on an impulse they had got the tattoos done.
With Jill's bare skin still visible, Wesker pulled out a syringe from an inside pocket of his jacket and moved it towards her. "No!" she screamed and tried to resist. "What is that?" she fought within the chains and then felt the sharp pain and the syringe pierced her skin.
Jill woke up, her breathing heavy and her skin drenched in a cold sweat, tears running down her face. It was just a dream - a flashback. With Chris' arm wrapped around her waist, she sleepily rolled over so that they were now facing each other, their faces mere inches apart. The had gone on to make love a further three times through the night as they could barely take their hands off each other. She gently traced her fingers along his jaw; this sleeping man who lay next to her looked so different to the warrior who had rescued her from her brainwashed state a few days before.
She was just about to go back to sleep when the phone rang on their bedside table. It was on Chris' side of the bed and Jill tried to reach over him to grab the phone. He then woke up and rubbed his eyes. "Babe, ignore it." he said.
"What if it's work?" Jill said. Chris lay there for a few seconds and then sighed and picked up the phone.
"Hello Chris it's Brian from HQ, you obviously got home okay?" The man asked on the other end of the phone. "Is Miss Valentine there too?"
"Yes we are both here." Chris said.
"Well we are giving you four weeks recovery after your hard work in Africa. Well done. Can I speak to Miss Valentine?" Chris passed the phone over to Jill.
"Jill, it's so good to have you back! How are you feeling?" He asked.
"I'm great actually. A bit tired but I'm fine, considering." Jill spoke happily down the phone.
"That's good. Well HQ have decided to give you three months recovery to let you heal up, physically and mentally."
"No I'm coming back with Chris in four weeks." Jill argued. "I appreciate your concern but there's no need."
After a long pause, the man on the other end of the phone spoke again. "Well if that's what you want then we can't force you to take recovery. Just take it easy and look after yourself."
Jill said goodbye and ended the call. "Are you crazy?" Chris said. "You can't go back to work yet? You need time to rest."
"Chris, I can't sit in this house for three months and relive the memories. I need something to help me forget what happened." She climbed out of bed and pulled on her pyjamas.
As she typed up the document on her laptop, Claire sat at the dining table, taking sips of her freshly made coffee. She had got up early to get a head start on this report before another day working for Terra Save.
Chris and Jill walked into the kitchen, wearing their pyjamas from the night before. "Good morning!" Claire said cheerfully. "Did you both sleep okay?"
"Yeah great thanks! Like a log!" Jill replied and smiled seductively at Chris, knowing that they had only had a good few hours sleep between them. She began pouring two cups of coffee for herself and Chris.
Chris smiled at his sister. "Another day in the office?" he asked as he noticed her clothing - she was wearing a white button down shirt and black pencil skirt.
"Yeah." She sighed. Claire disliked spending her days in the offices as she much preferred working in the field helping others. She suddenly remembered the conversation that the three of them had had the night before. "So Jill, I called your dad this morning and arranged for me and Chris' to have dinner with the family tonight." Dick Valentine was the head of the Valentine family and was more than capable of getting the rest of the family together. "Chris, I also called Rebecca, Leon, and the Burton family and told them that you just flew back into the US yesterday - they're all excited to see you!" Claire said excitedly. "Dinner's at 8. What's the plan?"
Jill slowly took a sip of her coffee and leant back against the counter. "You two go. Get the conversation flowing. I will then walk in and surprise them. I can't wait to see everyone's faces!" she laughed.
Claire sat in the passenger seat of the Range Rover and applied some gloss to her lips while looking in her compact mirror. Her long hair was wavy and flowing down past her chest. She wore her favourite little black dress and red pumps to match her handbag. Chris sat in the drivers seat and simply wore a black button down shirt with black jeans. They were on their way to meet their friends and the Valentine family for dinner.
"Chris, I need to ask you something." Claire said, her voice somewhere between a whisper and a murmur.
"Go ahead." Chris replied, still keeping his focus on the road.
"You remember when Jill first disappeared?" Claire swallowed the lump in her throat. Nervous to continue. "You told me that you were going to propose that night, after you arrested Spencer. You had it all planned out - everything that you were going to say. Does that still stand?" She smiled. Her brother was so tense at times, slightly cold due to everything that had happened to him over the years. But it was incredible that the same man was capable of loving somebody as much as he loved Jill. But Chris had been through so much in his life, at the age of 16 both his parents died in a car crash, Claire was only 10 when it happened. He tried to hold it together for his little sister's sake but at the age of 17 he sent Claire to live with their grandparents and joined the US Air Force, after failing at school. Now that Jill was back and Wesker was dead maybe it with his time to be happy.
Chris paused for a few seconds. "Of course I want to marry Jill. And now that Wesker's history there couldn't be a better time. But she's only just come home. I don't want to overwhelm her. Give it a few more weeks for us to get into a routine and I'll see what I can come up with." He looked over at Claire and smiled.
The Valentine family sat at their reserved dinner table along with Leon Kennedy and Barry Burton and his wife Kathy. Their two daughters Moira and Polly were now both in college. Rebecca Chambers walked into the restaurant and after locating the table she smiled, waved and quickly approached her friends. "Hi everyone!" she said excitedly, taking a seat next to Layla Oliveira. Jill's sister and Carlos' wife.
"You managed to find a babysitter then?" Rebecca asked, noticing the absence of their two children.
"Yeah, the neighbour's teenage daughter is looking after them tonight." Layla replied, Carlos sat on the other side of her.
After a few minutes of catching up from everybody at the table, Chris and Claire walked in to everyone at the table clapping and cheering. The two siblings walked up to everyone individually and hugged and kissed them on the cheek. Chris then sat down next to Rebecca and Claire sat on the opposite side next to Leon. "You look good." he said after Claire sat down.
"You look handsome yourself!" Claire replied, winking at her friend. The two had a very complicated friendship. They were very close but they did have a little flirt from time to time.
"So Chris, what was it like working in Africa?" Barry asked. After the fall of Umbrella, Barry had got a job at the local police department so that he didn't have to be away from his family.
Chris shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say? It was just like any other mission." He lied, glancing over at the end of the table where Barry sat with his wife; Jill's parents, Dick and Evelyn Valentine sat opposite the Burtons along with their other two daughters, Scarlett and Alexandra. Jill was definitely the black sheep of the family, or at least since she left behind her life of crime.
In the corner of the restaurant, Chris noticed Jill walk in. He thought she looked absolutely stunning, wearing a navy blue one shoulder dress, matching heels and silver jewellery. She had even put on some makeup and curled her hair for the occasion. As she started to walk towards the table, she discreetly smiled over at Chris, not wanting to draw attention. Rebecca was the first to make eye contact, facing in that direction. "That woman!" she exclaimed, pointing at Jill with one hand and covering her mouth with the other. Everyone looked over at Jill and a loud gasp could be heard from everybody at the table. All too scared to believe it was really her. Three whole years ago they had attended her funeral, they mourned her death.
"Jill!" Evelyn cried, getting up from her seat to hug her eldest daughter, her eyes watering and her voice hoarse.
"Hi Momma." Jill said, reaching her arms out for her mother and holding her tight. Dick also got out of his seat and held her.
"Jillybean is that you?" He asked, his arms wrapped around her. Layla, Scarlett and Alexandra then got up and joined the hug, crying for their now found sister.
"Of course it's me!" Jill laughed. "Chris found me and brought me home."
The evening had come to an end and Chris, Jill and Claire were on their way home. The night had been full of tears, happiness and laughter and Jill couldn't believe how lucky she was to be home and safe let alone out having a good time with her soul mate and friends and family.
"Everyone has changed so much!" Jill said. It was true - her father had been released from prison due to good behaviour, Rebecca now owned her own independent health clinic, her baby sister had grown up so much, now aged 16 and she was now an auntie for the second time to a baby girl who had just turned one from Layla and Carlos.
"You were missed." Chris said. "Everyone talked about you all the time. Nobody forgot about you. We couldn't."
"Thank you." Jill whispered. As she leaned back into the passenger seat she felt a wave of relief; it had been 28 hours since her and Chris stepped off the plane and she was totally exhausted but the time she had spent with her family and friends and being intimate with her partner was completely worth it. Jill Valentine was high on life.
Jill collapsed on top of Chris, her head resting on his shoulder, both of them panting for breath and they could feel each others heartbeats as their chests were pressed against each other. After a minute or two like this, she got off of him and lay on her side next to him, an arm wrapped around him and a leg entwined with his. "God, you're amazing Valentine!" Chris gasped. She smiled and held him tighter. "You mean the world to me. After you disappeared I couldn't live without you."
"Well I'm back now, and I don't want to hear anymore of that talk!" Jill laughed. Chris pulled away and rolled onto his other side, reaching down the side of the bed. "Chris, what are you doing?" when he turned around to face her, he held this small box. "Oh my god!"
"I wanted to give this to you after we arrested Spencer, and when you returned I wanted to leave it a while as I didn't want to overwhelm you but I can't wait any longer." Chris said, still holding the box, he opened it and inside was the most beautiful ring that Jill had ever seen, a silver band with a blue heart shaped diamond. She placed a hand over her mouth. "I know we always used to joke about one day getting married and maybe now it's a time. Jill Valentine will you marry me?"
Jill's entire body was shaking all over. "Yes! Yes of course I will marry you!" She stuttered and struggled to get her words out. Chris took the ring out of the box, took hold of her shaking hand and slowly put the ring on her finger.
"Do you like it?" Chris asked. "Because if you don't we can exchange it."
"No, it's beautiful I love it!" Jill exclaimed. "I love you so much Chris!"
"I love you too." Chris leant forwards and embraced her in a passionate kiss. He then pulled away and brushed his hand across he cheek. "Jill Redfeld sounds pretty good don't you think?"