Chapter 4: Drowning Myself

As Claire stepped into the house she heard footsteps rushing towards her. "Claire!" Kathy embraced the poor girl tightly, "Oh my God, Claire!" The older woman was in tears. "Barry called and told me what happened and I was so scared." Kathy pulled away from her now looking her over. "Why didn't you go to the hospital?" A flurry of questions were coming out now, "Does anything hurt? Did any of those bastards touch you? Did you see any of their faces?" Claire was shaking her head until the last question came up. "I only saw their faces after Captain Wesker ordered them all to remove their masks."

Kathy took a deep breath as she closed her eyes trying desperately to calm her nerves. "Kathy?"

"Yes, Dear?"

"I really just want to soak in the tub if I could."

"Of course! You go run a nice hot bath and take all the time you need!"

"Can I take the hand held with me?"

"Whatever for, Dear?"

"Ashley said she wanted to call me and I told her if you weren't expecting any important calls I would just keep the hand held with me." Kathy had opened her eyes now and was nodding her head. "Of course go ahead." She picked up the phone from a nearby table and handed it to Claire. "Thank you, Kathy." Claire then turned and started to head up the stairs.

"Jesus, lord almighty." Kathy prayed closing her eyes again. "Please watch over poor Rebecca in her dire situation and help my Claire and her friends to heal." Now while Claire wasn't particularly religious she did listen to the older woman from the top of the stairs before heading into the bathroom and closing the door. 'Does praying actually help with anything?' She wondered as she started to draw herself a bath. Claire couldn't be happier for the tub, it was an old fashioned claw-foot. Nice and deep, perfect for soaking all of your worries away.

She rummaged for bath salts and poured some into the water and their sweet lavender scent filled the air. "Lavender for stress and to help you sleep." She mumbled to herself as she started to undress. It seemed like it had only been moments ago that she had just put her clothes back on. Glancing into the full body mirror she looked at her back. A very large, deathly looking bruise had started to form. It was spreading from the middle of her back and up to her left shoulder. 'Lovely that'll take forever to go away.' She groaned but kept looking at herself in the mirror now turning around to face it.

"His hands..." She whispered to herself as she gently slid her hands over her shoulders and down her sides. "They've touched every part of me by now." Claire closed her eyes and opened the flood gates in her mind, allowing herself to get lost in the sensual memories. Slowly turning around she turned off the water, the tub nearly full as she started to slip into the steaming water. Once in she laid her head back against the tub and closed her eyes once again.

"Comfortable, Dear Heart?"

Claire's eyes shot open and she sat up all the way covering her chest with her arms as she looked around. No one was with her in the bathroom though, she was alone. Claire sighed cupping her hands and filling them with water to splash on her face. 'It's like he's everywhere now.' She thought. Not that the thought of the S.T.A.R.S Captain being in the steaming tub of water with her was bad.

'Yes, it is Claire and you know it!'

'No, it's not!'

'Yes, it is!' She mentally argued back and forth with herself. If she were on television and people were watching her they'd probably start to compare her to Pepper Ann. That kids show that came on early Saturday morning about the redheaded girl who had conversations with her own reflection? I know that you know what I'm talking about!

Claire slid further into the tub as she rubbed her face with some more hot water. Where was the harm in imagining him there with her? She closed her eyes and let her mind wander off again. The back of the tub became his firm body, his legs spread to either side with herself between them as she leaned against him. His hands slid over her submerged arms and back up to her shoulders, rubbing them gently to help her relax more.

She sighed with a happy smile sliding down into the tub more while raising her arms up behind her head. Sadly though Claire was ripped away from her comforting fantasy when the phone started to ring and she groaned. "Oh Ashley, you have such terrible timing." Claire reached for the phone and answered. "Hello?"

- . - . - . -

Kathy was down in the kitchen making dinner when Barry walked through the front door. "Welcome home, Dear." The older woman greeted walking to him quickly then wrapping her arms around his neck as he seemed to sink into her embrace, wrapping his own arms around her waist. "The poor children." Kathy lightly sighed. "I know," Barry hugged his wife a little tighter. "They'll be mentally scarred for the rest of their lives now, no doubt about it." Kathy sighed again gently pulling away from her husband to return to the kitchen with him following after her.

"How is Claire since she got back?" Barry asked standing at the island counter as his wife flipped the knobs on the stove with her back to him.

"She's been in the bathroom for a long time, I just keep telling myself that she needs to get clean but I'm worried yet I don't want to disturb her either."

Barry nodded his head turning to leave the kitchen, "I'll go check on her."

"Just knock on the door and if she answers leave her be."

"I will." It was more a matter that the couple was worried if Claire was alright physically. It wasn't odd for some teenagers to react to a situation like the one they had experienced earlier in a very negative way. Barry was knocking on the door now, "Claire?" He knocked again when there was no answer. "Claire are you alright?" Still no answer so he stood and waited for a moment before knocking once more. "Claire?" Barry raised his voice then tried to turn the knob but found it locked. 'Shit! Shit! Shit!' He started to worry. 'Calm down it's alright.' He thought.

"Barry what's wrong?" Kathy called up the stairs.

"The doors locked and she's not answering!"

"Oh God no!" Kathy was rummaging through drawers in the kitchen now, searching for the skeleton key that would open the old door's lock. Grabbing several she raced up the stairs. "Barry!" He took the keys from her and started to insert them into the keyhole, sometimes flipping through them so fast he would drop them and have to start over. "Barry!" Kathy cried again covering her mouth with her hands. Barry dropped the keys and started to kick at the door til it flew open and they both rushed inside of the bathroom. "Claire!" Kathy shrieked falling to her knees as Barry pulled the girl from the tub. "Kathy call an ambulance!" He laid her on the floor, grabbing a towel to cover her with. Struggling to her feet, Kathy snatched up the hand held that Claire had taken in with her and with shaking hands she dialed 911.

"Claire, dammit!" Barry was trying to perform CPR as his wife cried on the phone, trying to calm her voice so that the dispatcher could understand her better. "Please!" Kathy started to cry, "Hurry and send an ambulance!"

- . - . - . -

"How is she, Doctor?"Jill asked as an older man with graying hair stepped out of a room. He then turned to look at the young woman and said, "She's very sick, bruised and going to be in some pain for a while. Her right arm is fractured due to the force of how it was twisted behind her back but other than that she'll heal up just fine." After the doctor's assessment Jill nodded her head before asking, "Do you think I could go in and talk to her now?" The Doctor looked down at his papers for a moment then nodded his head once before looking back up at Jill. "So long as her parents are alright with it I don't see why not." He then left. "Have a good day officer."

"You too, Sir." Jill said as she walked over to the door and knocked on it. "Come in." A woman's voice called from inside the room. "Those bastards!" Jill heard a man now as she opened the door and stepped in slowly, closing the door behind herself. Rebecca lay in the bed, her arm wrapped up and her cheek bruised. The poor girls eyes were so red from all of the tears she had shed earlier. The woman now turned to look at Jill as she entered the room. "Hunny, settle down, one of the officers is here." Rebecca's mother spoke quietly to her husband making him spin around. "Oh that's just great!" He scoffed walking over to Jill now. "What the hell were you people doing?"

"I'm sorry, Sir."

"Don't say you're sorry!" He yelled pointing a finger in Jill's face. "My daughter is destroyed, laying in a hospital bed!"

"Stop it!" His wife hissed jumping up from her chair and grabbing her husband's arm. "Sir, if we had been able to get there sooner-"

"What the hell was stopping you?" He kept yelling as he yanked his arm out of his wife's grasp. "You damn police officers can never do your damn job and people always get hurt or worse!"

Jill took a step back frowning, feeling terrible as if the whole situation had been her own fault. 'He's just really upset right now, Jill.' She tried to tell herself, 'You did what you and your team could.'

"Go outside and have a smoke, Hunny." How was Mrs. Chambers so calm? The woman started to usher her husband out the door, closing it behind him though he grumbled and spat about the officers being a group of 'pigs who could never do anything right'. The other woman turned around and took a deep breath stepping back over to the hospital bed where her daughter lay. Rebecca had been watching and listening but stayed quiet. "Mrs. Chambers I am so sorry."

"Don't be it's not your fault." Jill was a bit surprised but followed her to the bed. "Mrs. Chambers, I'm afraid I have to ask your daughter some questions. They're for our reports about the incident that occurred today."

"No, no I understand." Rebecca's mother grabbed a tissue and held her daughter's hand in her own. "But I'm not leaving, Ma'am. I refuse."

"That's perfectly fine you're welcome to stay." Mrs. Chambers nodded her head looking at her daughter. "I don't really know what to tell you officer." Rebecca said as Jill stood at the foot of the bed. "Anything at all that you can remember. I know it's gonna be hard but anything at all would help us out so much." She had pulled out a notepad and pen now, ready to start writing everything down. With a sigh Rebecca closed her eyes. "I don't want to go back there!" She sniffed covering her face in her hands. She then felt her mother's hand on her shoulder giving it a gentle squeeze and the poor girl lowered her hands back down. "Please, Rebecca. Try so they have more to make sure this man can never touch you or another girl again!" Rebecca nodded her head swallowing. "I'll try."

"Anything at all, Rebecca." Jill offered a warm smile. "And we can stop whenever you want and take a break." The teenager nodded her head and took a breath. She had to dive back into the events of the day at the mall and replay them over again and she was dreading every moment of it.

- . - . - . -

Chris slammed his pen down, feeling defeated. "Ahhhh! The Captain was right!" He cried out spinning in his chair and standing up to pace the S.T.A.R.S office. Barry had finished his papers then talked to the Chief about leaving early to get home to his wife and Claire. The only reason the Chief allowed it was because of what poor Claire had witnessed and been through. "Just try to relax, Chris. You'll be able to finish the report." Brad said looking up from his own paperwork.

The door opened and in walked Captain Wesker. Pausing mid stride he looked from Brad to Chris. "Is something the matter, Chris?"

"Sir!" Chris stopped pacing and swallowed nervously.

"I do hope you're not having any trouble with your report." Wesker then glanced over at Chris' desk spying the open folder with barely a second paragraph started. "Well, you see... Sir."

"I told you this report needed to be done."

"Yes, Sir but I've been worried about my sister and her friends and it's a terrible distraction I admit."

The door burst open just then and a rather short man staggered into the S.T.A.R.S office a bit out of breath. "I'm not in the best of shape..." He muttered to himself trying to breath. The trio of guys turned to look at the newcomer. "Can we help you, Don?" Wesker said coolly turning to look at the short man as he took deep breaths. "Yes, Sir! Captain, Sir!" The man known as Don stood up straight giving a salute and Wesker just tilted his head. "What is it then?"

"Mr. Redfield, Sir!" Don was still saluting as he turned to Chris now. "Uh... Yeah?"

"I have come to inform you that your sister was just admitted into the hospital."

"What?" Chris asked rather loudly, shocked at the news. "What the hell happened to her?"

"I don't know the details but we received a call about a 16 year old girl needing immediate medical assistance at the Burton household."

"16?" Brad echoed.

'Did he just say 16 year old?' Wesker furrowed his brows. He still hadn't done research on the girl nor was he going to simply walk up to Chris and ask how old his sister was. That would lead to questions. Questions would then possibly lead to suspicions. Suspicions would then most likely lead to an assumption and then he'd be exposed. The girl's image would be different, why should he be concerned about that? But his own self image? Now that would leave cause for concern considering who he was and his standing not only in the RPD but if word would be to get back to William at the facility, he'd never hear the end of it.

"Oh no. Captain, please!"

"Go, Chris." Wesker said, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Tend to your sister."

"Thank you, Captain!" And Chris was out the door in a flash with Don on his heels.

After a few moments of silence Brad finally spoke up as he and Joseph closed their folders with their finished reports inside. "Wow, when she came by the other day I didn't think she was that young. Did you?" Joseph shook his head, "Not at all I mean, she's a really pretty young woman but didn't quite give off that kind of vibe at all."

Wesker sat at his desk and flipped open his own folder now as the other two men approached him with theirs. "Here you are, Sir." They each laid their reports down on his desk and Wesker waved his hand at them both. "Go take lunch." Wesker told them and the men smiled with a high five and were soon out the door leaving their leader to brood over the information he had just received. He began to fill out his own report as he thought, 'Well at least she was untouched when I had her.' A small smile appeared on his face at the thought. 'Such a good girl she was until I came along.' He scrawled along the lines of his paper a very detailed report of the invents from earlier despite where his train of thought often went. Wesker than stopped and sat up looking out over the office and his smile grew. 'Perhaps she can stay that way as well.'

Wesker had a plan and intended to go as far as he could with it. But just how far exactly did he dare to push his luck with this? Only time would tell.

A/N: Another one! I'm so into writing this I just keep pooping out the ideas! Yes, yes I meant pooping, not popping but pooping.

Someday970: I appreciate your reviews! Danke! o3o