Denver, Christmas 2009. Present day.

Cerulean eyes scanned the entrance hall from between the poles at the top of the first floor stairs like a hawk, no errors could be afforded this morning. The hall was empty, cool, and enveloped with a soft, blue light from the far away sun. It seemed easy enough to get to the front door. Not much that could go wrong Claire figured. Everyone would still be asleep, the weekly staff didn't arrive until eight, and the dogs were put out for the night. Claire had given a sigh of relief, getting out of her bedroom had been tough enough. Leon stirred every single time she made a move, usually he was a heavy sleeper. It would've been worse had it been Jill she was sleeping beside. Jill, thankfully, had said she felt fine enough to sleep on her own, a Christmas miracle she said. Walking past Chris' room had also been difficult, the floorboards creaked at her every step. Though she didn't worry much since his constant snoring could be heard through his door. The second floor stairs would've been no better, but thankfully the rail made no sound as Claire slid down it. When she stalked around the corner to the first floor hall, she almost had a heart attack. One of the doors opened and Billy walked out, half dressed and half asleep. He wasn't paying much attention as he walked across the hall to the restroom, but Claire still hid in the corner like she was a criminal.

This was not how Christmas was supposed to go.

She wrapped her old and tattered Raccoon High scarf tighter around herself and began her descent down the stairs. Her heart was racing, and her head was pounding. She didn't know why she was even going. Fear? Curiosity?

"Curiosity killed the cat, y'know?" Voiced her inner-reasoning.

Good thing I'm not a cat.

Claire reached the front door and made sure she had her keys since, in her fit of rage the other night, she had broken the chain to them. That now became her alibi if she was caught sneaking out.

Sneaking out of my own home to go see a psycho, great. She yawned into her hand and quietly shut the door behind her, silently thanking Billy for fixing the horrible creak the door hinges used to have.

It was chilly out, but then again, it was the early morning and the sun was still about an hour or two away from rising. Who the hell asks someone to meet them at 5 in the morning? Oh right, a psychopath! With a scoff, Claire trekked over to the garage and contemplated on what to take. She decided on taking her car instead of her bike. The bike would make too much noise starting up. Plus, it was pretty damn cold and her car would provide much more warmth. She unlocked white Jaguar XF, another 'gift' from the government, manually rather than hear it beep open. One can never be too cautious, she reasoned.

Sighing, she got in the car.

And she sat there.

And sat that.

And she sat some there some more.

Her hand never once reached up to put the key in the ignition.

She let out a frustrated cry and put her forehead to the steering wheel, fighting with herself. What if it's a trap? Then again… it's not like he couldn't find some other way to trap me. She didn't have much choice in the matter of going or not it seemed.

Tears of frustration welled at her eyes and the redhead quickly tried to compose herself. She failed miserably as the tears flowed freely down her face. Look at me.. She scoffed and sniffled, as if she could suck up all the pride that she just lost.

To Hell with it.

With a loud sound that seemed to be a mix of a yawn and a sigh, she started the car, and drove off.

To meet with the devil himself.


Raccoon City, Christmas, 1997

"You know, if my brother catches us, he'll kil-," The redhead never got to finish her sentence, for she was pushed harder against the wall and silenced by the lips of the man in front of her.

She didn't mind.

His gloved hands explored every inch of her slowly becoming unclothed body, lips only leaving hers once to growl out, "You say that as if I care." He chuckled darkly when she slid her hand from his back to tug on his hair. He bit down on her lip, eliciting a groan from the woman. "Don't test me." His threat was fully meant. It always was.

But who would Claire Redfield be if she followed the rules?


The park was empty, except for maybe a few of the early morning joggers. They're crazy, it's freezing out here. Plus, it's Christmas! Claire thought bitterly. She had never really been to the park long enough to know where everything was, she had only passed by it a few times while driving by.

The note hadn't specified where to meet, so Claire figured that if he wanted to meet with her so badly, he could find her. It's not like he can't just sniff me out like a bloodhound... That psycho. She walked along a snow-laden path, head turning left and right to see if she could find him, even though she'd be perfectly okay with never finding him.

Instead of Wesker, she spotted a swing set. Oh what the heck.. With what almost looked like a smile on her face she walked over to the swing and sat on it, memories of her with her brother playing through her head. She remembered telling him to push her higher and higher until she could 'reach heaven'. One memory made her laugh. Her brother had decided that he wanted to jump off, and he completely missed the pile of leaves that had been set up for him. That night she spent over an hour cleaning off his hands and knees and used up their whole supply of bandages.

Lightly pushing off the ground she went back and let herself swing forward. The soft creak of the metal was oddly comforting in the cold, winter, morning. It wasn't as dark as it had been when she left, but the sun still wasn't close to rising. Claire decided that if Wesker didn't show up before five-oh-one, she was leaving. He's the one who wanted to meet. He doesn't get to be late.

She let her head fall back, limp, as she tried to work out how she was going to explain everything to her brother. Some part of her didn't even want to. Some part of her wished that she was just going crazy, that Wesker really was dead and gone inside a volcano, that the note was a figment of her imagination. She was fooling herself though, a bigger part of her actually wished he was alive, just to prove that she wasn't crazy and wasn't hallucinating.

She just wanted all of it to go away.

Slowly, Claire stopped swinging and just sat there with her head back, deep in thought.

Albert Wesker looked down curiously at Claire Redfield from behind and, for a moment, even thought she was asleep. He cleared his throat, but the redhead was too deep in thought to hear him. He even tried calling her name, still he earned no response. Seeing no other option, he raised a gloved hand to push her bangs away from her eyes. The moment the leather of his glove hit her forehead she shot up and smacked his hand away. The sound of the swings aged creak and her labored breaths cut through the air.

"Hello, dear heart." Wesker tilted his head in acknowledgement and smirked. Oh, how Claire wished she could just smack that look right off his smug face. She looked him up and down, over and over, focusing on his face. Her eyes searched for some explanation, something that would tell her he wasn't real, that she was just imagining him. He lifted a brow, waiting for an explanation to her staring.

"You're really alive.." Came her late response.

"Yes, it would appear so," he drawled out. His smirk widened and he leant against one of the swing posts.

"Chris and Sheva killed you though.." Claire grew rigid at the thought of her brother.

Her idiot brother.. Her brother who was home fast asleep beside his fiancé on Christmas morning while his sister was chatting with his worst enemy, clueless.

Always clueless..


Racoon City 1997

"Hey, Claire."

"Claire?"

"Claire~"

"CLAIRE!"

"Huh?" Claire put the book she had been staring into down and turned to her brother.

"You've been spaced out all day." Her brother raised his brows and came over to her. He put the back of his hand against her forehead and feigned horror. "You sure you're okay?"

Claire gave a shaky laugh while she pushed his hand away and stood up. "Yeah, of course, doofus." Chris laughed and gave her a small shove.

"Anyway, I asked if you were gonna come to the diner with us."

"Oh.. Um, who's gonna be there?" Claire desperately hoped that Chris' Captain wasn't on the list of people going to be there. After the other night when he forced himself upon her, she didn't really have such happy thoughts towards him. She bet that he didn't either after she had kneed him where it hurt most.

Chris gave her a look. "Why? Are you afraid to be seen in public with the po-po?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "Yeah, totally. You guys are scaring away my potential deals." She playfully shoved her brother out of her way and went to go upstairs. "Yeah, I'll go, just let me change."

Sally's was a popular diner in Raccoon City. It had a great atmosphere, was located in a populated part of the city, and had some of the best burgers. It was one of the biggest hangouts for the RPD. Officers could be seen there everyday. Including RPD's very own STARS team.

"Over here!" Claire's head turned to the familiar voice and saw Jill Valentine waving her hand. Chris smiled and walked towards the group. Claire followed, her eyes squinting and surveying who was at the booth they were walking to. No sign of Wesker. She was relieved at that. Very relieved.

"Hey Jill." Chris nodded to his partner and promptly pushed her over so he could sit in the booth, causing her and Frost to voice their annoyance. Claire, on the other hand, waited for Brad and Barry to scoot over, giving her a place to sit.

The strawberry shake Claire had ordered made her more than glad she had decided to join her brother.

All was going well.

Until…

"Hey Cap!" Cut her brother's voice over Barry and Brad argument about last night's football game.

"Hey Cap'n!" Barry bellowed while Claire tried to sink deeper into the booth. Her mind was racing. She needed to get out of there, fast."Excuse me." She said hastily as she almost fell out of the booth and quickly walked off to the restroom, but not before brushing shoulders with the reason for her departure.

The hallway to the bathroom was small and cramped, making Claire wonder how a person was even supposed to be able to walk through there comfortably. She pushed the women's bathroom door open and listened for the sound of anyone else. When she made sure no one else was in the room she locked the door and slumped against it. Her thoughts were going a mile a minute. Of course he had to show up. Of freaking course. Claire looked around the bathroom, there was a window, a relatively small window, but a window nonetheless. Maybe she could climb out it and phone her brother that she felt ill and had to go home. There was one flaw -actually a few- in that plan though Sally's was five miles away from her Chris's house and she drove with him there. Her head thumped against the door and she let out a sigh.

"Damn.."

It had been at least ten minutes and everyone was probably wondering what the hell she was doing. She had turned away three women who had knocked on the door to use the restroom and she figured it was high time to leave and face the problem. What she didn't figure was a replay of what happened at Barry's house when she opened the door. Once again, she bumped into the man she had been trying to avoid and he caught her by the hips.

"Are we going to make a habit of this?" asked Wesker with a smirk, his face far too close for Claire's comfort."I sure hope not." Claire said bitterly. She casually pushed his hands off her and made her way past him. Or at least tried to. The small hallway and the fact that he left no room for her to move past was a problem.

"Would you be so kind as to move?" When he gave no response, she tried to push her way past him, only to find that he was like a boulder. "Officer, I swear I will get you fired. This is ha-" Claire let out a gasp and a groan as the result of being shoved into the wall. His lips were on hers, his hands pinning her wrists to her sides, and his legs blocking her from leaving. "What the hell is wrong with you?" The heated redhead whispered as she pushed him away after he released her, she didn't get that far from him as he once again backed her into a wall, trapping her."Dear heart, I can assure you there is nothing wrong with me."

Claire put on her bravest face and replied, "Obviously there's something, cause you don't get what 'no' means." A small thud was heard as Wesker leaned forward, causing the Redfield to smack her head against the wall while trying to avoid him. His face was directly in front of hers, only an inch separating them. Blue met blue as Wesker's glasses slid down his nose. Claire couldn't help but stare into the dull. ice blue orbs. They seemed to bore a hole into her skull, she felt trapped in his gaze.

"I don't ever recall you saying no." were his last words before he stole her lips once more.


"How did you survive?" Claire asked after what seemed like ages of silence.

Wesker gave her a queer look and started to walk towards her, shrugging. "You see, I do not recall what I have apparently 'survived'.." He stopped just a foot away from her and began to fondle with the chain of the swing, finding it to be the most interesting thing in the world. "I woke near a crashed aircraft next to a volcano, naked, and covered in this oily black substance. Then next thing I knew I was surrounded and being bombarded with questions by armed soldiers. They also asked me how I 'survived'. They asked a whole plethora of questions, none of which I knew the answer to. None of which I know the answer to now. You see, I do not recall anything."

Claire scoffed. "You're joking." Of all the shit he could pull, she thought. This was the lowest. Faking to be amnesic, yeah right. "So you're telling me you don't remember anything?"

"No. I am telling you I don't remember anything, but you."


Hah... Hello. It's been a while.. uh, so... Look a cliffhanger! Whoa, what will happen? Even I don't know! Seriously.. I don't.. BUT! I have an idea. Okay so I just got so bummed out I couldn't write. First the Doctor Who season finale, then the Warehouse 13 finale! Good lord, too many emotions. Well, okay, back to my story. So I would hope that all of you get the gist of the story right now.

Wesker: No, we don't, because your third grade writing has confused us all. One, what am I doing talking to a Redfield in a park. Two, why would you get rid of memory? That's far beyond predictable. Do you think your readers at that stu-

Me: Shut your face before my "third grade writing" turns you into a stripper.

Anyway.. Claire and Wesker had a "past" in Raccoon City, albeit not so pleasant at first. But then it turns into a more physical one, not a romantic one, no. I'll go more into that transition next chapter.

Claire: No, I want out of that park! You're gonna write what the fuck he wants, then you're gonna write me going home and going to sleep in the comforting arms of my boyfriend!

Hah, yeah no. Wrong story chicka, you don't get your way in this.

LIKE I WAS SAYING... Next chapter expect:

Insight on how Claire and Wesker got together, more S.T.A.R.S crazy dinners, what happened when Wesker woke up, If Chris got the fuzzy bunny slippers he asked santa for, and more!