"What are they going to do to her Frank?"
"Chris, you know I can't say…"
"Goddammit… When will I get to see her!?"
"I promise you… as soon as she wakes up you'll be the first person I call."
"When do we call Chris?" Frank Roberts asked, looking over at his boss, and BSAA representative Clive O'Brian. The two sat in his office. Cluttered with paper, with a small picture of a happy little family on the corner, Clive's desk separated the two gentlemen. Clive looked at Frank with a blank expression.
"We need to keep her in a little longer." He said. He then opened up the side of his desk and pulled out a thick portfolio, slamming it on the desk. Frank jumped.
"Sir… I'm sorry…" he said. Clive put his hand up as he opened the profile, his face turning red.
"I'm not mad at you. I understand you want to help your friend, but it's not good for him to see her this way," He said picking up the first paper "How the hell did this happen!?" he asked reading the paper.
"It could be many things Mr. O'Brian. It could have been the medication we used, the coma she was in, that was a couple of months… could have been from before all that…" he started. Clive looked up at him from the paper.
"Africa you mean?" he asked. Frank nodded.
"We did some research on the small amount of the virus we found in Jill, "Frank began, lifting up a folder from his lap. He reached in and handed Clive another paper, this one blue. "There was an odd fungus in it, creating plaque on the brain…"
"Roberts…" Clive dropped both papers on his desk, "Alzheimer's?"
"Yes and no." Frank answered, handing Clive another paper. "It's causing more of an amnesia effect with her memories, and her motor skills are way off. We've tried just about everything to get her to remember. She remembers her name, she knows vocabulary, just forgot how to speak, and…" Frank chuckled, "She remembers Chris. That's all she keeps saying to me. Chris, Chris, Chris."
Clive looked at the papers on his desk, then rubbed his temples.
"I don't want to do this to him. I know how much he cares for her... This will kill him." He said. After a couple of seconds, he sighed and gave Frank back his papers. "Call Chris, let him know EVERYTHING that's happened. Everything we've done, and tried. If he wants to see her still, I would like to be there for the reunion. Okay?"
Frank nodded standing up with a smile.
"Yes of course. Thank you Mr. O'Brian, his hand already in pocket, reaching or his cellphone.
"If you wanted the baby, why didn't you keep it?"
"Between work, and the hostility I am constantly surrounded by, I just couldn't bring a precious child into a life like that."
"I understand, but there were other options, like adoption."
"…I don't think he would've wanted the baby either…"
Chris and Claire stared at each other from either side of the reddish wood table in Claire's Asian themed kitchen. Both exhausted from their 5 hour red eye flight.
"So, what happens now?" Chris asked, breaking the silence that took over after they sat down, a cup of tea in their hands.
Claire pushed towards him packets of sugar and a carton of milk. "We're just going to be roommates for a while. It's better if I'm around to watch you. I'd like to know where you're going, where you are, and if anything happens-" Chris' face fell, looking annoyed. "It's for your safety Chris" Claire explained.
Chris chuckled sarcastically. "Almost 40-years-old and I need a babysitter." He mixed in his sugar and milk. "Not embarrassing at all… Hey, are you babysitting Leon too? Are we having a playdate?"
Claire sighed, standing up. "Go ahead, be a dick. I'm just trying to help you." She pushed in her chair roughly. "When you're lost somewhere, don't call me. You can obviously take care of yourself right?" she snapped back.
This was of course sarcasm. Back at Chris' in Florida, after Claire's phone call with Leon, Claire had to go out and find him. It had been hours since he went out for a simple visit with Dr. Dole. She found him quickly thankfully, he was lost in his own neighborhood, and couldn't remember where his apartment building was.
After slamming her chair, she started to walk out the room, past Chris, but he let out his arm pulling her towards him, and into a hug. She looked down at him hugging her stomach from the chair. He was shaking.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled, and looked up at her, tears in his eyes "I'm just… scared Claire. You know how much I need you right now." Claire's mouth went dried, as a tears swelled up in her eyes.
"It's okay. It's okay to be scared. This is a very scary thing, for everyone. The BSAA is worried, I'm worried…" Claire ran a hand through Chris' hair "When she wakes up, she's going to be insanely worried about you…" she whispered with a smile "You know how she gets." Chris buried his face into Claire, sobbing. Claire didn't know what to do, she still wasn't use to her brother crying, especially hard crying.
It had been hard for Chris the last couple of months. After returning from Africa with his partner, and best friend Jill Valentine, he was diagnosed with a mild case of amnesia. This was very surprising to everyone since it was out of the blue that Chris had an attack in his office. Attacking all his co-workers because he didn't know where, or who anyone was.
Just when it looked like Chris would be 100% okay, Jill collapsed during her "Welcome Home" party, and was quickly rushed to BSAA's care unit. She fell into a coma, and ever since then Chris' condition got worse. Claire tried her best to solve the distance issue. She hired nurses to check on Chris every day, and she would come down every other weekend, but it wasn't enough. Chris was a little over 6 feet tall and 220 pounds of pure muscle. All the nurses would run out the apartment calling their boss 'I can't do this anymore!' due to the fact that when Chris was confused, he was angry, and when he was angry he got loud. He'd smash anything in sight, and once even threatened one of the nurses with his gun.
After about 20 nurses complaining, the hospital stopped sending them, resulting in Chris spending weeks alone. As soon as Claire couldn't get a hold of Chris through phone, she would have to call Dr. Dole to go out and look for him. "Claire, why don't you come down here for a while?" he'd always ask. Claire would always start crying, and soon enough Dr. Dole stopped asking. She would love to come down and help her big brother out, but her job needed her also. The only option that was left was Chris moving to New York City with her.
Hours after the incident in the kitchen, Claire curled up into the bright blue arm chair in the corner of the guest room. She had given each room in her house a theme, even the bathroom, since everything just looked so plain and boring. She wanted some excitement and creativity to bring up her mood when she came home from her job.
The guest room's theme was the ocean. Her favorite piece was the ship in the bottle her brother made about 2 months before his trip to Africa. She remembered how peaceful he looked trying to get the pieces together, and how bright his face got when he was finished. He jumped from the kitchen table in Florida, clapped his hands together, and screamed "Look… at… this!" At that time everyone assumed Jill was dead, and it was great to see such a smile on his face.
She looked over at Chris, who was sound asleep in bed. His body twitched and his face curled up in disgust. He'll be up soon again, from a night terror. He'll Jump from the bed, face red, eyes bugged out looking for the danger. He'll reach under his pillow for his gun, but find nothing. He'll look around franticly for another weapon only to find nothing of use, but he'll see his small, scared, and tired sister, curled up in the bright blue arm chair in the corner of the guest room, sobbing.
"You tried so hard to make it work with the both of them, and you always failed. Angela was always jealous."
"She never understood why I was so close to Claire. We both survived Raccoon City, we took care of little girl together, we're best friends, we're-"
"In love?"
"Love? No. Claire doesn't love anyone who isn't her brother."
"You don't think she loved Steve Burnside?"
"That wasn't love. It was pity. Guilt."
"You sound upset."
"Because I did so much for her. I wanted her to love me. I wanted to be with her. Start a family with her, but she never wanted that. She just wanted to be friends, even after what happened during New Year's… after WilPharma!"
Leon looked out the window of his cab. He was never a fan of New York. Riding around in Brooklyn in a small car that smelt like cat pee and air freshener was very different from his rides in Washington. A long stretch limo with wine, and snacks along the sides. He understood though why Claire loved it here. She was always amazed by urban neighborhoods. The people, the houses, the history, the graffiti. It was about an hour and a half drive to her job at Terrasave in Jersey, and she was 5 train stops away from the city.
He'd only been to New York a hand full of times. Mostly because of work and he was usually upstate, but one time he did come to see Claire, after their bitter sweet reunion at Hardvardville. Leon's face fell blocking the memory from his head. He knew a lot about New York through phone calls with Claire. She always sounded so happy and enthusiastic to share with him where he could find some amazing graffiti, or a little piece of history. She always sent him picture messages of the sculptures she'd see on her way to do errands, or pictures of the oddest people she encountered as she rode the subway. He had to admit, she was very cute.
Angela though wasn't a fan. She'd sigh whenever Leon's phone chimed, knowing it was from work, but Claire had a different text tone that made Angela's face fall and look almost green with disgust whenever she heard it. She first met Claire after the WilPharama incident when Angela had been interviewed at Terrasave about the events, and ever since then has hated Claire. Leon couldn't understand why. He listened to the interview tape, and Claire was kind, patient, and understanding, knowing well enough that Curtis Miller was Angela's brother.
When asked, Angela always claims that she just got a bad vibe from Claire, but how could she? Claire was smart, beautiful, kind, and just perfect. Who wouldn't love Claire? Leon turned in his seat looking at the Bunny his daughter made him, laid out on top of his suitcase. Abby would love her...
"What's the number on the building?" the cab driver asked with a very heavy Spanish accent.
"324." Leon answered taking out his wallet.
The driver turned a corner, and stopped directly in front of the apartment building. Leon reached into his wallet handing the driver a $20 bill. "Keep the change" he muttered, grabbing his things, and getting out.
He placed his things on the sidewalk, and looked up at the 10 story- red brick building. Not a lot changed. The front garden seemed to be a little dead, but that was probably because it was the start of autumn. Leon sighed. His nerves kicked in full force. He was here for emotion support. To see his very close friends, and help out anyway he can, but he'd be lying if he said that was all he wanted to accomplish. All of a sudden, the front doors of the building flung opened and out came Claire Redfield, eyes red, tears falling from her eyes. Through the tears she was still beautiful. Her arms were crossed hugging herself to keep warm. She had on just a red tank top and long black sweatpants, her hair fell down in waves past her shoulders.
Leon opened his dry mouth, "Claire?" Her face lit up, and a smile formed on her face.
"Great timing Kennedy. The BSAA just called me and…" She wiped away from tears from her face. "Jill is awake." She said. Leon dropped everything, and quickly took off his jacket, also smiling.
"Holy shit that's great!" He said walking over, handing Claire the jacket, and hugging her tightly. Claire hugged back just as tight.
"It's also great timing because," She mumbled into his shoulder. "I can't find Chris."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hi everyone! Happy to see some positive responses to my story so far :] I am in the middle of chapter 3 at the moment, and hope to put it up sometime within the next 3 days! Thank you guys!
