A/N: I drew a little inspiration from Iron Fist in this one, and I hope you'll enjoy this update.


Claire's team burst in the hotel guns drawn a moment before Claire entered, an untamable fire in her emerald eyes as she sought out the woman in charge. It didn't take much time for her to find Mary and the sounds quickly attracted the hotel's survivors as well; they grouped at the bottom of the staircase, weapons in hand but seeming unwilling to use any of them.

Mary smiled as she stared into Claire's angry eyes. "I see Abigail made it to Arcadia, the little rat she is." Her smile turned into a snarl rather quickly.

"She did, and she told me what you were doing with these people. We're here to take them somewhere safe." Dare to stop me, I'll put one right between your eyes.

Mary remained calm, much to Claire's annoyance, and rose a challenging brow at her, "and what exactly do you think I've been doing all these years?"

"Making people do your dirty work when the threat of death hangs over their head every day isn't offering them safety!" She was way past furious now, you could put a cigarette against her temple and it would probably light up instantly.

"I have provided everyone here with a bed, food and a chance to survive."

"Bullshit!" Claire took a step forward, their bodies inches apart. "They're humans, not cattle up for slaughter!" She growled as she stared the woman down like a hungry lion - fiery mane and everything.

"You have no idea what you're dealing with, you're in way over your head," Mary tsked as if scolding a child.

Claire snarled but took a step back, it wouldn't do anyone good if she knocked the bitch out even if she wanted to wipe that damn smirk off her face. She took a deep breath and turned to the Hotel's survivors, who had all been watching her intently.

Her voice was soft for their sake: "We're here to offer you a safe haven, a real home. We're not going to force anyone to come with us and if you wish to go your own way you're completely free to do so, but before you make a decision let our doctor examine you. We'll give you food and water to take with you."

Claire stared into their hopeful eyes and saw the hurt and mistrust Mary had created and she wanted nothing more than to mend that, "take the time you need to pack your things, we'll be waiting outside by our trucks." She smiled when most of them scattered up the stairs to their rooms.

Mary moved directly in front of Claire as she was about to leave, the redhead cocked her head and snarled at the elderly woman, "what?"

Mary didn't say a word, however, she simply moved out of Claire's way with a smile and chuckled when the woman bumped into her on her way outside. "You just went and dug your own grave, Claire Redfield," she whispered sardonically.

The humid air did nothing to calm her, but Claire knew one thing that did. She met Alice behind one of the Lorry's, the doctor was unpacking a small medical kit while Jill was signaling the second Lorry's driver who was slowly backing up closer to the Hotel's glass doors.

"Bring it in Tommy, don't be shy come on! Back that ass up!" Jill glanced over her shoulder and brought her hand up, "that's good!" She joined Claire and Alice and probably interrupted their eye-fucking but it made everyone nauseous so really she did everyone a huge favor.

"Doc," Jill nodded at her and turned to her friend. "Thought you'd come out of there with her body trailing behind you."

"You give me too much credit," Claire chuckled and Alice rose a brow at her.

"Did you decide what we're going to do with her?"

"Nothing," Claire hopped up into the Lorry's cargo and started moving their ammunition crates towards the back so the survivors would have a place to sit. "Leaving her alone is worse than killing her."

Jill joined their leader and helped her move the larger crates to the very back, damn that's fucking heavy. "You sure that's wise, though? If she's playing house with Doctor Frankenstein then she'll run to him."

"Exactly," Claire moved towards the edge of the cargo, and Alice had gallantly offered her hand. Claire took it without hesitation as she jumped down.

Alice smiled softly at her, "let him attack us first, see how they fight - Smart."

Disgusting. Did you see that? She freaking took her hand. What kind of earth shattering sex are they fucking having? Fuck. Jill rolled her eyes when Alice offered her hand as well, which she took because, a) she was curious to see what her hands felt like and b) she thinks chivalry should be more prominent nowadays.

Jill gave Alice a half-assed curtsey once her feet touched the ground and the doctor replied by tipping an invisible hat at her. Okay, I get it Red, she's charming as fuck. Jill turned to Claire with a smirk on her lips, "that's our girl, balls the size of Mount Everest."

Claire laughed and shook her head, "like I said, you give me too much credit."

"Don't sell yourself short, Red, you did all of this. All of these people, Arcadia, they're safe because of you."

"I thought our friendship was based on insults, why would you break my trust and compliment me like that?" Claire deflected with a joke, but in truth, she was truly proud of what she had accomplished - what they all accomplished together.

Alice laughed and moved her gaze away from the two friends to the survivors who seemed to eye her cautiously. "Right here," she waved at them, "my name is Alice, I'm Arcadia's physician. I'll be examining you to make sure you're all alright. Make a line right here," she demonstrated with her hand, "and I'll make it as quick as possible," she finished with a brilliant smile. Works every time, she thought as they obeyed her command with a little less reluctance.

Claire watched Alice make the scared survivors feel at ease, cracking jokes and soon their hearts too; she recognized that look in their eyes, they were falling for her already.

When their eyes met, Claire couldn't help but feel like she had been a lucky winner in the apocalypse lottery and when the doctor sent a wink her way Claire was positive that she had never been happier.

She heard Jill gag and when she turned towards her friend with a frown, the woman was simply pretending to throw up; she had definitely seen their interaction. Claire rolled her eyes and pushed her friend's shoulder roughly, "stop dicking around and give me a hand with their luggage."

Jill stood at attention and saluted Claire like they've been trained to do so many years ago, "sir, yes, sir!"

Asshole, Claire thought with a smile.


Claire chugged some water as she took her eyes off of the prison's outside walls for a moment before she rested her cheek against her TRG's stock. She had found a nice spot on the second floor of a semi-demolished building. Claire then set up some tarps to completely close off one the left corner of the building that hadn't been completely destroyed and used it as her very own sniper camp. She would have used a tent but Arcadia was well over capacity and they needed all the tents they had.

She had a chair set up by the only window that was still standing, water and food stacked in one of the corners and a sleeping bag rolled up beside an oil lamp. It wasn't luxury, but it was what it was. During her time in the military as a marksman, she had to camp a spot for 72 hours without rest or a shift change. Now I don't need to explain that the conditions were less than optimal, and sometimes literally shitty so really this was actually pretty nice in retrospect.

Claire had also installed some homemade traps around the building, but somehow Alice had been able to sneak past them all and give her a damn heart attack the first day she had slept there. Claire was on her third day scouting the prison and truthfully she hadn't seen much action and she was thankful for Alice's pleasant nightly visits. She had even left Kratos with her explaining to Claire that he was really great company.

The dog would lay beside her as she'd watch the prison, they would take turns eating chips and other things Alice would probably get angry at Claire for feeding her Doberman. Animal treats were hard to find and he was already living off the meat they had in Arcadia, what could a potato chip really do?

Claire frowned as she noticed the chip in front of her had suddenly vanished. She moved her gaze from the rifle's scope and narrowed her eyes at Kratos, who cocked his head at her, big brown eyes wide and innocent. "Stealing my chips like your master steals hearts, so unfair."

She thought Kratos seemed puzzled by her reply and wondered if he was being scolded or not (he chose the latter).

"Red, you awake?" Her earpiece buzzed to life.

A smile graced her lips, "been awake before you were born, what's your point?"

"Ah-ah, the lone wolf life's really degrading your humor."

"Pissing in a bowl will do that to someone," Claire remarked.

"If you're quite done crying about your piss bowl, I just wanted to inform you, sir, that Alice and I are close by."

"Doing...?"

"Each other, what else?" Jill replied like it was the most natural thing to say.

Claire chuckled as she happily munched on a chip, then threw one at Kratos. She winked at him as she moved her scope towards one of the streets to her left, then the one over, and then the one further down where she spotted one of their Lorry's by the side of the road. Quietly, she surveyed the stores and saw some movement in one of the desolate building. Her scope moved over the store's banner but it had been completely destroyed and thus rendered illegible.

Claire then spotted her friend's familiar face, who was holding a piece of clothing up for her in the store's dirty window. Claire laughed when she saw what it was, "assless chaps - quality stuff, Jill."

"Alice thinks so too," Jill continued the good-natured teasing.

She saw Alice pop her head behind Jill, she could clearly saw the eye-roll all the way from here. "Don't listen to her, she dragged me into this...adult store and threw a plastic dick at me. I'm scarred for life."

"You cut it in half, I'm the one who should be scarred!"

Claire snorted and rolled her eyes, "play nice kids, and maybe focus on actually scavenging useful things."

"Yes mom," Jill replied in a childish tone.

"So, how's the prison looking?" Alice asked as she pulled Jill out of the store and dragged her towards what used to be a convenience store.

"Deserted, mostly. I saw some people pull up in a vehicle last night. Jade made her round - thanks for planting that wire on her by the way."

"My pleasure," Jill replied with a grin.

Yeah, not gonna ask. She heard some mumbling before Alice's voice came through.

"When you said useful things, did you mean a pack of cigarettes?"

"You better not be fucking around with me," the woman growled; she had been itching for a nicotine since the last time she had one: a fucking month ago.

"Dead serious," Alice's joke was received poorly by Jill, who snorted at her choice of words then rose a brow at her as if asking 'really?'. Alice shrugged as she slipped the pack of Marlboro into one of the tactical vests' pouches.

"I fucking love you," Claire breathed before her brain could actually make her realize what she had just said - though she didn't feel like she needed to take it back at all.

"You can show me tonight," Alice proposed in a lowered voice though it was perceived as a demand by the woman it was directed to.

Claire grimaced at the loud shuffling she heard in her ear, "what the hell happened?"

Alice chuckled, "Jill took out her earpiece."

Claire shook her head and turned her scope back onto the prison. She saw a man, dressed in the barbaric clothes and armor that resembled what their kidnappers had on.

She turned one of the scope's wheel to zoom in on him: his horse was painted red, probably with some good old cornstarch and coloring, Claire figured. He seemed tall, at least from this distance, and his hair was blond and slicked back onto his head. Claire followed him until he disappeared behind one of the side doors.

"Claire, are you still there?"

"Yeah, this douchebag was riding around on a red horse before he went into the prison."

"Red you say?"

Claire mumbled a distracted 'mhm' as she moved her sight to every barred window to attempt to see if she could spot him moving around inside.

"The Red Horseman," Alice guessed correctly, "they're really taking this metaphor seriously."

Claire sighed as she moved her scope back to Alice who leaned against the building they had just scavenged. The blonde lit up a smoke, unaware of the threat that lurked behind her.

Quickly, Claire moved her scope in a few inches above the undead's head and pulled the trigger, she pushed her shoulder forward and expertly absorbed the riffle's violent kickback.

She watched its head explode and spray Alice with crimson liquid, who clumsily dropped the cigarette on the floor as she jumped back in shock from the loud noise.

"Jesus Claire, maybe warn me next time?" Alice growled as she picked up the cigarette and angrily wiped away the dirt off of it before she plopped it back into her mouth.

"Sorry," Claire apologized as she pulled on the bolt-action lever to release the empty cartridge out of the chamber; she always loved the satisfying sound it made as it hit the ground.

"Uh, and," Alice swallowed as she awkwardly fumbled with her words, still shook, "thanks...for that." Though the loud ringing in her ear had slowly subsided. One more reason to hate automatic weapons, she thought, they were unnecessarily loud - though she would take a headache over being bitten anytime.

"No problem sweetheart," Claire said softly, and smiled when she heard Jill say to Alice 'why the hell are you smiling like that? We're done here, move that ass'.

Claire felt Kratos' wet nose nudge her forearm and when she turned to him she asked: "what, don't tell me you're scared of my rifle too?" When he cuddled closer to her she laughed.

Claire watched the packed Lorry pull away so she moved her rifle back onto the prison and was so completely not ecstatic about the long and boring day that awaited her.


When Alice woke up she gently untangled herself from the redhead that was sleeping half on top of her and quietly slipped out of bed. Instead of dressing in her usual clothes, the doctor rummaged through her personal belongings - which had almost all been transferred in Claire's tent. She slipped on a sleeveless black shirt and a pair of dark jogging pants; both items loosely fitted around her body.

Quite a few things have happened since her arrival in Arcadia and Alice had nearly no time to herself to take a step back and reflect; in fact, she had completely lost touch with her emotions which could become dangerous, especially in battle.

Alice had traveled to Northern China and lived there for three months during her school semester has a med student. Though it seemed like a lifetime away, she had not forgotten all that she had learned during her time there.

Being a young student ripe for learning, Alice devoured everything she could about medicine and took interest in the Chinese alternative methods of healing. She had settled in the culture easily and learned enough of Mandarin to get around without a guide.

One day, her ventures in Chen Jia Gou village brought her to the well-known Chen Xiao Xing's school of Tai Chi. She fell in love with the sport instantly but found it difficult to accommodate to the slow movements when she was used to Krav Maga's quick and vicious strikes.

The young doctor to be's patience was greatly tested and she was often brought to her limits, but in the end, Alice found Tai Chi taught her essential skills to remain calm and helped her completely push down her anxiety. It taught her to fight with a calm mind and logic as opposed to simply relying on instincts which were often linked to emotions.

Though, since coming to Arcadia she hadn't practiced at all. Everything happened so fast, the survivors came to the clinic for advice sometimes medical and sometimes personal - she was a doctor in every sense of the word. She then took a special interest in Claire, romantic from the start. Having placed all her effort into taking care of others had quickly drained all of her of her energy, both physical and mental.

Alice hadn't dealt with whatever emotions their kidnapping had brought on and even though Claire's confident presence eased her mind, her anxiety would resurface at the worst possible times; she needed to let go of her emotions before they got the better of her. Her Tai Chi sensei had explained how someone's Chi became dark and heavy when grief and anger weren't dealt with quickly.

If he had been here with her, Alice imagined how he would have narrowed his eyes at her, scolding, and she could almost hear him say 'darkness dwells within you, why do you let it?' and she would reply, with a really bad American accent, 'there is darkness in us all, sensei'.

Alice took in a deep, calming breath as moved her legs apart and bent down onto her knees slightly. She then lifted both of her arms in front of her and moved them together in perfect unison as she crouched lower to the ground and rested all her her weight on her right leg as she extended her left leg out.

All her movements were deliberate and she closed her eyes as muscle memory took over. She slowed down her breathing to where most people would probably fall asleep, but with her training, it gave Alice the focus she needed to clear her thought-heavy mind; she was finally alone.

She could feel all the aches in her body as she moved, she knew her right knee hurt from a year back when it came out of its socket and never really got better. Her shoulder hurt from the shit quality of the mattress she slept on and her back burned, though that problem wasn't musculoskeletal in nature. That's all Claire's fault, Alice thought with a content smile.

Claire slowly opened her eyes, disappointed Alice wasn't there with her. Even if she knew spending a slow morning doing nothing but stay in bed was a luxury they couldn't afford, she loved waking up with Alice's fingers playing in her hair or tracing patterns on her back. She was happy to be back in her tent after four days of scouting that told them absolutely shit all about their enemies.

She sat up in bed, and as she started making sense of the mess of hair that was on her head, her eyes caught something. She wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed Alice in the far corner of the tent doing...something. Alice had her back to her, but she could hear the deep and even breaths coming from her.

Quietly, Claire stood up from the bed, mirth danced in her eyes and she snuck up on the blonde - or so she thought.

"Good morning," Alice spoke softly but continued her movements.

With a pout, Claire pressed her naked body against Alice's back and slipped both of her hands around her waist as she let them roam over the dark cotton shirt.

Alice grabbed Claire's hands and she moved them to follow her movements.

Claire chuckled as she pressed her nose into Alice's neck and left a soft kiss on the skin below, "didn't know you were a kung fu master."

"Kung Fu is practiced by Shaolin Monks. What I'm doing - what we're doing," Alice smiled as she pulled Claire's hands with her own, "is Tai Chi."

Claire smiled and went along with it, letting Alice guide her gently. "When did you learn this?" she asked with peaked interest.

"I went to China to learn about alternative medicine, I stayed there for three months."

Claire chuckled softly, "you're just full of surprises aren't you?"

"You don't know the half of it," Alice teased. She stopped her movements, brought her body in an upright position then lifted both of her hands together in front of her chest, along with Claire's. She kissed the woman's hand before she turned around, the corner of her lips twitching upwards when her eyes took in Claire's naked body.

Claire stared into cobalt eyes and she was used to Alice's calmness, but she seemed better this morning; she seemed well. "Is that why you're always so calm?"

"Maybe," she shrugged with a teasing wink as she wrapped both of her arms around Claire's taught waist.

"When you first got here, the night you save K-mart," Claire's words died in her mouth when Alice slowly ran her thumb over her healed scar - she had almost forgotten that it was there. "I-I never saw someone move like you do," she spoke softly, remembering how Alice had taken them out with ease.

Alice knew where this was going.

"Teach me?" Claire asked, hopeful. She had mastered the military style of combat pretty well, but it always felt like she lacked something and she figured Alice could teach her what that thing was.

Alice smiled as she kissed the side of Claire's head, "put on some clothes first," she said before taking a step back from her.

"Why? Afraid you'll be distracted?" Claire bit her lip teasingly and as she sneaked her hands under Alice's shirt and backed her up into the worn dresser.

Alice didn't bother lying, "yes."

Claire wanted to tease her until she relented, but she was serious about learning how to fight better so, reluctantly, she backed away and dressed as requested. She slipped on her usual gym attire: fitted jogging pants that showed off the muscles in her legs and her a gray t-shirt that had the word 'Army' written on it in big, bold lettering.

Alice decided that having her naked was probably less distracting, but she took training very seriously and if Claire wanted to learn then she would teach her to the best of her ability. She sat down, cross-legged and slowly deposited her hands onto her thighs as she motioned for Claire to do the same.

Although a little reluctant, Claire mirrored Alice's position, with some difficulty in the mobility department. She stared the woman who had closed her eyes - though there was an easy smile on her lips. After a moment of silence, Claire sighed, already feeling restless "what are we doing?"

"Focusing our energy, clearing our minds."

"And how do you do that exactly?"

Alice opened one eye as she sensed her partner's frustration, "you'll know." she said vaguely and closed her eye once more. She blindly reached out to grab Claire's hands and held them, "close your eyes," she commanded softly as she felt Claire's gaze on her.

After a few minutes, she heard Claire's breathing even so she let her hands go - she needed to learn to focus on her own. When Alice opened her eyes a few minutes later, with a tranquil mind, she instantly noticed the tension in Claire's shoulder as dissipated. Even though her position was sloppy and slouched because she wasn't keeping her core tight it was a good start, she thought, happy to see Claire had felt the benefits of this quick meditation

"Alright," Alice stood up and brought her fist against her palm as she bowed at the woman in front of her. She hadn't spared with Claire yet and she needed to do so in order to assess what needed correction. "Come at me," she wasn't surprised when she was met with an uncertain stare. "Don't think about it, just attack me."

Alice easily dodged the punch aimed at her face, she used her right arm to block the blow while she sidestepped and held on to Claire's wrist with her left arm. "Your strength comes from your anger and it works, most of the time," she dodged another hit and flipped Claire onto her back with ease. "Force needs to come within," she demonstrated by placing a finger on Claire's stomach.

Claire growled as she kicked herself up onto her feet and blindly charged Alice with her shoulder. Seconds later, her back came in contact with the wood underneath her feet once more as Alice had swiftly kicked her feet from underneath her and controlled her fall with a hand pressed to her sternum.

"Fuck!" Claire yelled and stood up again, her nostrils flared in frustration. Why can't I touch her? She shifted her weight and sent a heavy combination of a high elbow, low knee and right hook that was blocked by the doctor.

"Don't think about what you're doing, watch what your opponent is doing and retaliate." Alice could clearly see what the problem was: she relied on brute force to take her down in one hit, but it left her completely open if her opponent blocked. She let her anger rule her and she had no defense, not to mention her mobility was lacking.

Alice stopped the sparring session because she had seen enough to know what to do with her. She watched as Claire snuffed out her anger, her hands clenched at her sides and her chest heaving - there was a feral look in her eyes as her pupils had been fully dilated.

Claire ran a shaky hand through her hair, "I'm sorry, Alice, I-"

"Don't be, we all learn from failure. Every time you feel angry, find somewhere quiet to meditate. It'll help you act less on impulsion and teach you to rely on what you know instead." When Claire nodded in agreement she continued: "Meditate for a bit and I'll show you a few things."

When she closed her eyes, Claire wasn't sure where all her anger was coming from, but she could feel she had a lot of it bottled inside. Perhaps this would be good for her. After ten silent and peaceful minutes passed, the redhead opened her eyes and stood up, ready for more.

Alice taught her a few techniques that required disarming an opponent and taking them down. Every time she ended up on the floor Claire replayed the sequence in her mind to figure out what she did wrong. Once she corrected something, another error was brought to her attention, and after a few dozen failed attempts hearing Alice coaxing her to go faster each time, she finally understood what she needed to do.

Claire watched the empty gun lifted towards her and she stepped forward, using the momentum she created to twist the weapon out of Alice's hand and then pulled the hammer out as well as mag in the same movement and finally she kicked Alice's feet from underneath her to land on top of the woman moments later.

She threw her hands up in victory and laughed heartily, "how was that?" she asked, breathless.

"Good, you're a fast learner," Alice replied as she sat up and leaned back onto her hands, enjoying the view of Claire comfortably sitting in her lap; her hair wild just like her gleaming emerald eyes.

Claire moved both of her hands onto Alice's upper chest to balance herself as she craned her head down and brought their lips together in a slow and intimate kiss. She moved one of her hands around the woman's shoulders while the other gripped the back of Alice's head as she deepened the embrace.

Their tongues slid around each other in the warmth of Claire's mouth and both of them groaned at the contact.

Claire pushed her hips upwards to sit up on her knees and towered over Alice. She pulled Alice's head backward gently as she opened her mouth to swallow Alice's moans, as well as her tongue, and sucked on it eagerly.

Alice didn't know why she pulled back, but when she took a deep breath and her lungs burned from the lack of oxygen she remembered that this had to be the reason. "Does that mean you want another lesson?"

Claire nodded as she bit her lip and grabbed onto Alice's right hand to moved it between their bodies. "Right now I want another kind of lesson," she drawled out in a not-so-decent tone.

"Is this extra credits?" Alice asked as she gladly caved to Claire's unabashed demand. Sometimes she missed the quiet, but when Claire hissed loudly and groaned as her hand moved under the redhead's pants, Alice completely forgot why exactly.


K-mart desperately tried to shake away the thoughts in her head - she wanted to ask Claire about the new girl, but when she neared her tent she heard sounds she really wasn't too keen on hearing again - like ever.

Probably scarred for life, K-mart was searching for a distraction and she found said distraction sitting alone on the staircase that led to the clinic. She figured the girl had slept there last night as she overheard Claire saying the barracks were full.

"Hi, I'm K-mart," the teen greeted as she took a seat next to her, but on the step below.

The girl chuckled and arched an unbelieving eyebrow at her, "really now?"

Wow, that accent, K-mart figured out she probably had a thing for accents when she first heard Hayley speak, but this one confirmed it. "W-what's your name?"

"Abigail, but everyone calls me Abby," she couldn't help the smirk that spread on her lips. She wasn't sure if the blonde knew just how cute she looked just then, and she was going to say something, but K-mart beat her to it.

"It's nice to meet you," K-mart said, suddenly timid under Abby's stare.

Abby played with her fingers and even though she drank two water bottles, she felt like she could drain a whole damn lake. "So, what's your real name?"

K-mart shrugged and looked down at the girl's hands and noticed the faded tattoos on her fingers. Instantly she wondered what they meant, why she got them and if it hurt. "Is it really that important?"

"I guess not," the brunette agreed with a brilliant smile.

How are her lips so...soft-looking? "Everyone calls me K," K-mart lied; the only person that called her that was Claire, but she didn't mind Abby calling her that as well.

"What do you do here, K?"

"Freeload," she joked, "I help Claire with fixing stuff. Sometimes LJ lets me help him take care of the vegetables but he's always so nervous when I'm there." K-mart sighed but gave Abby a hopeful smile, "Claire says when I'm old enough she'll let me come on supply runs with them."

"How old are you?" That concept seemed so pre-outbreak, Abby didn't think anyone tried to protect children from the horrors outside anymore. Her blonde friend really had it good here, she thought sadly.

"Sixteen, you?" She asked, suddenly nervous again.

"Eighteen."

K-mart nodded and somehow that answer just made her heart beat faster. What the heck is wrong with me? She thought she could probably see Alice about it today, but not right now - ew, ew, ew, I thought about it again. Why do adults have to be so gross?

Abby regarded K-mart with an amused smile, "you alright?"

"Yeah, I just thought about something," she waved off then quickly continued: "Claire told me the place you were at before was pretty bad, what happened?"

"We didn't have someone like her taking care of us, Mary made us work for everything. Our food, our clothes, and even the privilege to sleep in a bed."

K-mart's mouth hung open in shock, "what?"

"She forced us to hurt people and steal from them," there was shame in her words, but there was a part of her that didn't regret what she had to do to survive. Besides, she was in Arcadia now, and Abby had a feeling her luck was going to change.

"I'm so sorry Abby, I-"

"It's over now," Abby cut her off, not in the mood for more pity. Somehow, she was skeptical about her own words; It was never over with Mary. Right now, though, she didn't want to think about it. "So, you said you fix things right?"

K-mart nodded.

"What kind of things?"

K-mart's eyes lit up again, "wanna see?"

"Show me the way," Abby was taken off guard when K-mart's gloved hand slid into hers as the blonde enthusiastically pulled her up and lead her to towards large garage. She stared at their joined hands for most of the way, a frown creased her forehead as she wondered what the hell the feeling in her gut was.

Am I getting a cold?


Alice observed Claire with a frown as she seemed to be intently watching something out of one of the Clinic's window. "Claire?"

"Look at them," she whispered without taking her gaze off of the two individuals.

"Look at who?" Alice asked, as she came up behind the redhead and peeked outside over Claire's shoulder.

"K-mart and the new girl," she answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Abby," Alice offered with an amused grin, she could guess what Claire was worked up about.

"Look at how close they're sitting," Claire said like she was about ready to pull out a bottle of holy water and chuck it at them.

"Claire?" Alice placed both of her hands on the woman's stiff shoulders to grasp her attention as she rubbed her hands up and down the bare shoulders soothingly.

"What?" Claire asked, a little annoyed by the doctor's scolding tone as she turned around, but stared down at her boots instead of the amused look in Alice's eyes she was almost certain would be there.

"Are you worried about K-mart having a crush?"

Claire shrugged, "I don't know anything about that girl."

"So we're in here because..."

"I want to see her file," Claire asked, as she finally met cobalt eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I can't do that, Doctor-patient confidentiality."

Are you fucking- relax, Redfield. Take a deep breath. " Seriously, Alice?" Even if she had calmed herself down, there were still traces of anger in her voice.

"Why don't you try talking to her," the doctor proposed something a little more logical than playing detective in the girl's personal file. Alice sighed when Claire didn't say anything and simply kept staring at her blankly, "You can protect her from a lot of things, Claire, but you can't protect her from heart breaks. We all lived through them, many times over - it's part of life and it's part of this life too."

Claire sighed as she hit her forehead against Alice's shoulder and kept her arms crossed over her chest.

"I'm sure you were the little heart breaker back then," Alice said as she attempted to lighten the mood - it didn't exactly work like she wanted it to, though.

"More like I was on the receiving end of it, a lot," Claire confessed as she pressed her nose into the crook of Alice's neck. Her shoulders deflated as she took a deep breath - she loved the doctor's subtle and calming scent.

"People actually broke up with you?" She wasn't just trying to make her feel better, Alice was actually surprised.

"Yep, every single relationship I've ever had."

Alice shook her head, "their loss." It must have been the right thing to say, she thought, as Claire's arms went around her waist and pulled her in closer. Claire cuddled in closer as Alice peeked through the window once more and watched as Abby clumsily flirted with the young blonde.

This world has taken their innocence, and Alice believed it shouldn't have to mean it had to take their hearts as well. Feelings are what reminds them that they're still human during times when they couldn't even remember if killing every day used to be normal or not.

Love would keep their hearts going, and as Claire had told her a few days ago, it's what fueled their fight. Perhaps they would have to do questionable things to keep each other alive in the future, and perhaps they already did but in the moment they justified it as logical because it kept one of their loved ones alive.

Alice closed her eyes as she felt Claire's lips graze her collarbone and thought she was prepared to do anything to keep the ones she grew to love alive and well, even if that would ultimately lead to her demise. She relaxed into Claire's body and nuzzled the side of her head.

Love was the most powerful weapon any of them had.