A/N: So, I love the triangle, clearly, it's my thing. I had this brain fart the other night on how this weirdo tale ends. The nachos I was eating inspired Absolution, Haunting Ground, Obscurity, Not a Hero, and somehow my newest story. Thems were some good nachos.
I know how this story ends. After our weird trip to the castle (additionally, originally the concept for Resident Evil 4 involved Leon and his team emerging into a castle run by Albert Wesker (the Spencer Estate we come to find the end of our sweet Jilly in Lost in Nightmares) and a female with B.O.W. dog. How is this NOT Haunting Ground!? And it is ENTIRELY the basis for this story coupled with Haunting Ground itself.) In case we're curious, that does, indeed, mean Jilly gets a dog when we get to the castle. Probably Bob the Pug who makes an appearance in my other stories occasionally (and is named after my pug, Bob).
….
DISCLAIMER: RESIDENT EVIL IS SOLELY OWNED BY CAPCOM. ALL CHARACTERS USED HERE DO NOT RESEMBLE ANYONE LIVING, DEAD, OR UNDEAD. *cough*
Part One: The Ghosts That Haunt
Chapter Eight: In Which We Find A Missing Ex, A Little Sex, and a Scary Foreshadowing
The cold seeped into the bones. Jill couldn't believe the temperature drop. The summer heat was gone. It was lost beneath a swirling burst of fog that brought a chill with that infiltrated the bones.
When you breathed, your breath was a condensed cloud of white.
Jill could hear something snuffling like a pig at the base of the tree. Alyssa's screams were long past.
Occasionally, the thing at the base of the tree would grunt and possibility speak. Not a pig. A human?
That might have been a stretch too.
Jill could see Leon in the encroaching dark, watching her. She whispered, softly, "What the hell is it?"
"I don't know. I can't see anything down there."
"Is it waiting for us?!"
"Maybe. You want to climb down?"
"You kidding? No. EVER."
They were in agreement there.
They were also, apparently, trapped up the tree in the cold dark. It was a helluva place to be.
Chris was eating nachos. They were crunchy and charmingly covered in gunky cheese and pimentos, jalapenos, black beans and rice, bacon, sour cream, guacamole, Texas Pete, sriracha, and two kinds of salsa. He was munching away, waiting for his ass to erupt fire onto Brad who was machine gun typing behind him at his desk, when the call came in.
Barry winced and glanced over, "Red?"
"Yeah, sup?"
"...your cholesterol, first off. But besides that? Your girlfriend is missing."
Chris paused with the chip near his mouth. He stared blankly. "What did you say?"
"A balloon went missing from the festival. Early reports put your girlfriend in it...with the rookie." Barry looked a little afraid of the answer he was going to get.
Chris licked his teeth. He had lost his appetite.
He'd LOST HIS APPETITE. His nachos? Wasted.
"You saying my woman is in a basket in the air with the world's stupidest recruit?"
Joseph shifted over, grinning, "I think he's saying your woman is in Leon Kennedy's basket guy."
Brad patted him on the shoulder, roughly. "It's ok, Redfield. It is. I heard he's the type to fuck 'em and forget 'em. So, she'll get the D, and be yesterdays news. Worst case? You get sloppy seconds. But it's better than nothing right?"
To emphasize his point, Brad was kind enough to lay some ass on Chris and cut one loose. It smelled like rotten eggs and old cheese. He laid, like cloud of stench and ruin, right on Chris' nachos.
Chris, without batting an eye, kicked him square in the ass for it. Brad hit Jill's desk, flipped over it, and face planted on the floor. Joseph was roaring with laughter.
Barry was snickering.
And Chris said, "Get the mother fucking chopper. We're on a rescue mission."
"Who are we saving her from?" Queried Brad from the floor.
"The former fat kid who keeps putting his hands on what's mine. Clearly, he doesn't understand the rules."
Barry was amused, rising to follow them to the helipad, "What's the rules?"
"Jill's "basket"? That's STARS only, man. No fucking rookies allowed."
Brad quipped, grinning, "I think they'll be plenty of "fucking" by that rookie in her basket, alright."
Without missing a beat, Chris shoved Brad into the coffee cart in the second floor walk up. Brad hit it, tripped, and brought it with him to the floor in a clatter of noise. The creamer spilled all over his face and uniform and Joseph mused, chortling, "That's not the first time Brad's got a face full of cream, my friends."
Chris shouted over the banister to the bull pen, "YO! FORREST!"
Forrest Speyer looked up, all skinny elbows and greasy hair in a ponytail. Probably the ugliest dude on the force, and maybe Chris' best pal. "REDFIELLLLD! SUP!?"
"Get your mother fucking sniper rifle and meet me on deck!"
Barry was laughing, so hard. "You gonna shoot the rookie!?"
"Nope. Forrest is."
It was fixing to be a bad night for Leon Kennedy.
Something was sniffling in the dirt down there. They knew that. They were ready for it. It would, eventually, scent them up in their tree.
Jill whispered, "I hate you a little."
Leon eyed her in the dark, "How so?"
"You and this damn balloon. I could be in my pajamas watching American Idol."
Amused, Leon smirked, "I'm insulted. You prefer bad British judges over me?"
"I prefer my pajams over sitting in a tree in the cold while a snarfling pig monster waits to eat us." She stared at him, "We got your wife killed."
Leon shifted, "Jury's out on that, Jill. She might be ok."
"She's dead. We know it. Say it. She's dead. We got her killed."
Her eyes were too wide. He scooted forward and took her face. His gloved hands were warm. Her skin was freezing. "We don't know that, Jill. Stop saying it."
She was shaking a little, "Leon...what the hell is down there?"
In the home, she'd been so strong. She was the ass kicker. The nametaker. The bitch on wheels. Here, in the forest, she was a scared girl looking for reassurance. And it was his turn to be the tough one.
"Nothing we can't handle. Nothing. You hear me? I won't let it take you, whatever it is. I won't let it touch you, I swear to god."
He scooted a little closer. She moved in and curled against his chest, breathing. In one hand, it was nice and warm against him. In the other, she felt like a nightmare was beginning she couldn't even understand.
She wanted that bitch out of the picture, no lie there. Not like this. Humiliated in public? You bet. But not dead. Not dead.
Not dead.
Jill's fingers curled into his uniform. "Leon?"
"Hmm?" She smelled like apples and corndog. It was a good smell. He shifted his nose a little behind her ear.
And he wanted to be sorry if Alyssa was dead. He did. But he had nothing left in him for her. That bitch was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. Dead was awful. It was sick to think it. But he felt NOTHING thinking of it.
He was, officially, an asshole.
"Chris will come find us."
Leon blinked in the dark. "What?"
"He'll come find us. The thing about him? He never lets you down."
Shit.
Leon licked his teeth, gnashing them a little. Redfield. Mr. Reliable. Mr. Hateful Asshat with Bad Hair. Leon had a very visceral image of punching him in his stupid face and watching him spit teeth on the ground.
"We can't rely on that, Jill. We have to move eventually here. We have to decide what to do."
She breathed, "You can rely on Chris. You don't have to like him. It's ok. It is. But he will never fail me."
SHIT.
What was in her voice? What was that?
Leon had to ask it. He had to ask. It needed said, "Jill...are you in love with him?"
Jill lifted her head. They held eyes in the moonlight. And she whispered, "I don't know. Maybe. I love him. I loved him the second I met him. You have to love him. He just...he sticks. And he doesn't push. He just rolls with it. I don't know what else there is."
Leon studied her face. He tilted her up to him. She made a small sound and he kissed her, soft, smooth. Her fingers gripped his vest. She breathed and melted, shaking.
He let her go, earnest now, "There's that. There's THAT, Jill. Tell me you don't feel that."
"Leon..." She felt it. She just didn't know what it meant.
"Do you feel that when you're with him?"
She cupped his face. His hands slid over hers and held. What was the right answer here? She went with the truth, because it was the whole core of who they were to each other. "...oh, Leon...I'm so sorry. I do. I do. It's not that simple anymore. He matters, Leon. He matters. He's good to me. I can't say goodbye to him because of what I feel for you. I can't. It's not that easy."
Jesus.
His heart. It felt like being kicked in the chest by a buffalo. Leon touched his forehead to hers. "I know that. I know it. I'm still here, Jill. I'm still here. But I'll back off. I'll stop fighting. If that's what you want..."
Oh.
Oh god. She didn't know if she wanted that either. She didn't know. She knew she loved him. She knew she loved Chris. She knew it was hard to stand between them and let one go. But she'd made her choice. She'd chosen.
She wouldn't hurt Chris to go with Leon. She couldn't. She wasn't ready for that either.
And so she whispered, "Be my friend. Be my friend, Leon. Please. That's all I can offer you right now."
So it was the on deck position for him. And it was worse somehow. Because he knew now that Redfield? That mother fucker mattered to her. He was something more than a stupid alpha dog with a nacho obsession who liked to haze the shit outta rookies.
He mattered.
And that hurt worse than anything Leon had ever felt in his life.
"I'm here, Jill. That doesn't change. I'll move on. And we'll be ok, I promise."
Oh.
Her heart.
It felt like she was being ripped in half. She hated it. She hated this. She curled her arms around him and clung. "I'm so sorry."
"Jill...don't look back. What does looking back get us?"
She shook her head and couldn't find the words. Because she wanted to keep holding on a little longer.
She fell asleep in his arms. He sat with his back against the tree staring into the dark.
So that was how it went. It was the fat friend versus the most popular dude in STARS. How did you win that fight?
How?
His brain said: You know how to win. You know the answer. You get her to stop looking at Redfield. You get her to start looking at you.
The best way to do that?
Good, old fashioned...jealousy.
He put his face in her neck where she was leaning back against his chest. He breathed her in. She shifted and murmured, snuggling.
He could let her go. He could. It was the right thing to do. A good guy would let her go.
He'd stopped being a good guy years ago. He only knew one way to go down: swinging.
Or? On Jill Valentine.
The lights woke them. It was the lights from the chopper. It hovered so close. The wind tossed the trees and their hair and their clothes.
Jill came awake, squinting. She laughed and waved her arms. "HERE! HERE! CHRIS!"
It was Chris alright, he wasn't piloting the chopper though. That was Brad. Chris?
He was kneeling in the doorway with Forrest's sniper rifle. She blinked. Forrest was whooping like an Indian.
And she shouted, "DON'T YOU DARE!"
Leon figured, that was one way to lose, blown away by an angry ogre stuck up a tree like a pussy.
The rifle went off. Jill shouted and threw herself over him like she'd take the bullet.
And something down below them screamed. It screamed in rage. It smashed into their tree and had them grabbing to hold on. And they heard it run.
They heard it rip through the trees toward the castle.
Jill felt the thunder of her heart. He hadn't shot Leon. He'd shot the thing threatening their life. In the pitch dark. In the wind. From god knows how far away.
Why?
Because he was just that fucking good. And he never failed you.
The ladder came down. Jill went up first.
She reached the top and Chris pulled her in. His face. She didn't like it. He was looking at her with something she'd never seen before. What?
Leon climbed in.
It would have been ok. Maybe. But Forrest opened his big mouth, "Dude - you got a lotta nerve scammin on my main dog's goodies."
Leon laughed, unflappable, "Jesus. How can she say no to someone who refers to her as goodies?"
He turned. And he really should have seen it coming.
Chris punched him clean in the face.
Jill shouted and shoved him away. Leon went down like he'd been hit in the face by a hammer. Forrest hooted and whooped with laughter.
And Barry shouted, "CHRIS! Enough of that shit, you hotheaded dumbass! You kidding me!?"
Chris said nothing. He gave Jill a long look.
She shook her head and shoved him again. And she knelt by Leon. "Oh, my god, are you alright?"
Derisively, he laughed from the floor where he lay. "You know...it has NOT been the best day for me. I must have seriously pissed off someone in another life to keep paying the price in this one."
Jill shook her head, touching his swollen face, "I'm so sorry."
"No sorry, Jill. That's not our way either. You guy over there? He's just pissing on you and marking his territory."
She glanced at Chris. He was staring out into the dark, avoiding her.
Her heart. It just kept right on ripping in half.
They circled and circled and circled, looking for Alyssa. But she was gone. She was just gone. In the dark, they were limited on how long and how far they could search. How got out of their chopper in the dark forest and went searching in the dead of the night with weird things loose in the shadows? (*cough*)
And there was way too much silence on the short flight back to the RPD.
At the apartment, she heard him head to his room. He closed the door swiftly with a snap.
Jill jumped and winced.
She breathed out. She breathed in.
She went down the hallway.
The door wasn't locked, so that was the good news.
He was kicking off his boots, shirtless, and throwing his uniform in the closet. His room was an utter mess, as always, and somewhat startling to see the piles of clothes, magazines, plates and cups and crap that littered all available surfaces like butterflies marking the line of death.
He turned to her in the low light from the desk. "Just do it."
"What?"
"End it. It's what you're here for right? To end it. To dump me. Do it. So I can get drunk and pass out already."
Jill shook her head. She moved into the room. He shifted, watching her. Her arm hooked around his waist and dragged him to her. She went up on tiptoe and slapped his face.
Surprised, he let it ring.
It was pretty loud.
"Shut up, you stupid man. Shut up."
His hands grabbed her face. He pulled her up until she was on point.
And he licked her mouth.
Jill shivered, hands gripping into his back. "Shut up, Redfield. And don't say that shit to me again, do you hear me?"
He said nothing, watching her eyes.
He kissed her, nipping at her mouth. It sank into her toes. She said again, softly, "You gonna make a fight here, now?"
His arm looped around her and lifted her against his front. She grabbed his ears and jerked, hard. And he hissed, "Don't break my heart, Jill. I'll feed that idiot my boot via his asshole, I swear to god."
Amused, Jill kissed him and had him grunting. "A swift kick in the ass?"
"More than. I'll break my foot off in it. You're mine."
Oh. A weird feeling, that possessiveness.
He said it again, gruff, "Mine, Jill. Don't test me."
She wasn't sure she liked this side of him. He bit at her mouth again and it made her shake in his arms.
So, maybe she liked it a little.
A little.
"Don't threaten me, Redfield. Nobody owns me."
"Yeah?"
"Oh, yeah."
She waited for him to throw her down and prove it. She THROBBED, waiting for it. But he didn't do that at all.
He softened, he spilled, and he kissed her long and wet. She made a small sound and curled around him, her legs lifting to loop at his waist.
He set her down on the dresser. He guided her face up to him. His hand scooped her hair back, spilling her beret to the floor. She gripped his biceps, watching him in the dark
And he breathed, "I love you, Jill. Not a little. A lot. Too much. I won't share you with him. Now, ever. All in, that was the deal."
Scary.
And very real.
She breathed, hoarsely, "All in. That was the deal."
He kissed her, sinking instead of stealing. She moaned softly and opened for him.
He leaned back, watching her eyes. "In or out, Jill. In or out."
And she whispered, no hesitation, "In, you idiot. All in. That was the deal."
Afraid of it, she felt the shift of him. She felt the change. She felt the spill of it. It scared her more than being in the tree in the dark. It scared her.
Because all in meant no escape.
It meant he had all of her.
They spilled back on the bed and it was needy now, and desperate. It was warm and tingling. It was stroking hands and smearing kisses and moonlight on mating hips.
He didn't just take her. He took away her resistance. He laid claim to a part of her he'd never touched before.
He went after her heart.
It was so hard to know that there was only half of it left in there for him to claim.
And she curled around him, gasping, rising - as he plunged between her thighs - and made love to her in the silvery dark.
