AN: K-Mart is back in this chapter, as well as more of Chris being an idiot. Enjoy!
Early the next morning K-Mart awoke to the sound of soft knocking on her door. Dragging herself out of bed she pulled on a sweater before yanking open the door. Alice was standing on the other side and greeted the blonde with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry to wake you K."
"It's alright." She yawned. "Are we leaving already?" Then her eyes widened and she became fully alert. "Oh my God! Am I late? Did I oversleep? I'm sorry, I'll be ready in a second."
Alice quickly grabbed K-Mart by the shoulders. "You're not late, calm down. I just want to talk to you about something. I need a favour."
"Oh, okay. Come in." The blonde flipped on the light switch and stepped back, allowing Alice to enter the room before closing the door.
K-Mart had been more than a little surprised at seeing the brunette outside her door. Alice had never been to her room before, and never asked her to do anything that could be considered a favour. Her relationship with Alice could not be more different than the one she had with Claire. It lacked the familiarity and comfort she had built with the redhead over the last several years, and K-Mart often found herself rambling when she and Alice were alone to avoid the possibility of an awkward silence. She watched as Alice surveyed her room and couldn't help but feel a little nervous, not knowing what it was that Alice could possibly need from her.
When Alice turned back to face her, she looked at the brunette expectantly. "So what's up?"
"Do you mind staying behind today?"
K-Mart didn't understand how that would be a favour so she answered the question with a question. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No, it's just Claire and Chris are fighting so if you could distract her with something today that would be great. Otherwise she'll probably be miserable all day, muttering under her breath and pacing."
Understanding what Alice had in mind K-Mart nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I know how she gets when she's upset. Don't worry Alice, I'll take care of it." She crossed the room to sit on her bed and gave the brunette a look of complete seriousness. "Are you going to beat up Chris today?" She asked. Things had been tense between the siblings on the ride back to the ship and the teen didn't want to make things worse by getting involved. But if Alice was keeping Claire and Chris apart and asking her for favours it must be serious.
"Maybe." Alice chuckled. "We'll see how things go today. I don't want to, but Claire gave me permission just in case."
K-Mart laughed. "She must really be angry with him. What's going on with them anyway?"
"They just don't agree about some things." Alice replied hesitantly, not wanting to reveal that it was actually her that was at the centre of the Redfield's squabbling.
The teen looked thoughtful for a moment. "Hmm, I didn't know they needed to be separated because of a little disagreement." She eyed Alice suspiciously. "You know, if you don't want to tell me that's fine. Claire's never afraid to tell me when it's none of my business so it doesn't hurt my feelings anymore."
"Right, I'll keep that in mind. Uh, thanks for your help K, I owe you." And with that Alice slipped out of the room and K-Mart was once again alone.
The blonde laid back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. K-Mart was fairly certain that Claire would fill her in on what was going on, unlike Alice, the redhead didn't keep too many things bottled up inside and frequently vented to the teen when she was angry. K-Mart already had an idea of something that was sure to distract the redhead and was actually looking forward to the day ahead. She and Claire hadn't spent as much time together as of late and K-Mart missed her.
It was still early, but now that she was awake there was no point in trying to go back to sleep so she once again detached herself from the bed and started getting ready for the day.
Alice made sure she was the first one on deck, thinking Chris would easily find an excuse to leave without her if she wasn't present. Hearing approaching footsteps revealed the older Redfield as well as Luther and six other men, only half of which she recognized. Luther greeted her, but Chris walked straight by without acknowledging her presence.
Certain that this was going to be a terrible day before it even started, Alice momentarily entertained the thought of staying behind. But she had made up her mind last night to sort things out with Chris, no matter how uncooperative he might be. Alice allowed the image of Claire to flood her mind, reminding herself that she was doing this for the redhead, before she followed the men into the boat taking a seat next to Luther, ready for the long day to begin.
An hour later, Alice found herself sitting in the passenger seat of the truck amidst the most uncomfortable silence she had ever witnessed. Chris had insisted on driving and she hadn't argued, biding her time for the eventual blowout she was sure was on its way.
When the pair pulled up to Ballouville, nothing had changed since the day before. The town was still eerily silent and the church still stood as an ominous presence at the end of the street. Exiting the truck, Alice stood in front of the vehicle waiting for Chris. He appeared a moment later and if not for Alice's quick reflexes she would have been hit by the canister he threw in her direction.
"We're going to torch the building, obviously." He ordered sarcastically, shaking his own tank for emphasis.
"Ok." Alice replied calmly, and followed him up the street.
"You should have done this yesterday." Chris muttered under his breath.
"I know, but Claire was really upset so I wanted to get her out of here as fast as possible." She narrowed her eyes at Chris. "I suppose I could have left her in the car but I didn't think she wanted to watch it burn. I mean, there's a reason she didn't want to come back here today you know."
Chris came to an abrupt halt and turned on the brunette. "Don't talk to me like you know what's best for my sister!"
Alice didn't stop, rather ignoring his outburst and continued up the street.
Chris grumbled but didn't speak again. Alice stood outside the church as Chris went in to see for himself what had taken place and began hurling gasoline onto the building. When Chris reappeared with his empty canister they set the building on fire and moved upwind a safe distance to watch it burn.
After the first hour of silence, Alice had finally had enough with Chris ignoring her and was determined to have it out.
"So, I'm really interested to hear why you hate me so much all of a sudden." She began casually, watching the rising smoke from the blaze.
"I don't hate you."
"So it's a trust thing is it? Hmm, well can I ask what it is I've done that's given you a reason not to trust me?" She probed.
"I'm just not certain that you always have Claire's best interest in mind." He answered defiantly.
Alice could feel her blood boiling at his accusation. She didn't know why his words were affecting her so much when Claire had told her all this the night before. Alice had to take a couple of deep breaths to keep her anger in check before speaking again.
"I disagree."
Chris faced her, greeting Alice with a look of complete disbelief. "You disagree? That's your defence? What do you expect me to do now? Am I just suppose to accept that? Maybe give you a hug and say 'well as long as you disagree I guess that makes everything ok.' I don't think so." He was about to continue his tirade but Alice interrupted him.
"First of all, I don't feel the need to explain myself to you. But since you're being such a dick who won't let it drop I guess I'm forced to." She said, poking him in the chest causing Chris to take a few steps back. "I know your type Chris, military trained, battle tested, I bet you think you've seen it all. Well I have some news for you, nothing you've ever experienced can compete with me, and the wrath I can exhibit when someone or something tries to fuck with me."
"I'm not scared of you." Chris said, standing up straighter to his full height though it wasn't enough to tower over Alice.
Alice for her part, narrowed her eyes and glared at Chris intensely. "You should be," she warned. "But more importantly, you should be scared for if a time ever comes when I'm not around to make sure Claire is safe. Because know this, there is nothing I wouldn't do to protect her. But you know what? She doesn't need me to keep her safe, she can take care of herself. I sent her on a helicopter to a place that didn't exist and somehow she managed to stay alive. And did you know she saved my life? In the prison shower block, that...thing, it would have had me if not for her."
Chris was stunned into silence, but that was fine with Alice cause she wasn't finished.
"But it's more than that, she saves my life everyday just by being a part of it. When I met Claire all I cared about was revenge and it didn't really matter if I died in the process. She changed that, she changed me. And if that's not enough to convince you that I have her best interest at heart, after all she's done for me than I really don't know what to tell you." And with that Alice headed back to the truck without a backward glance.
"So this is just a rough map I drew of the town, the numbers on the houses indicate how many people could potentially live in each home." Claire listened to K-Mart explain as the pair sat in the control room. "Based on the number of people we have we shouldn't be too crowded. I got most of the housing requests after last nights meeting, so when I put the two together it should work out pretty well. I should be able to make just about everyone happy."
Claire knew K-Mart was doing. The teenager had cornered her early that morning at breakfast and had been dragging her around the ship all day, saying they were overdue for some bonding time. And while that was true, Claire also knew K-Mart was trying to distract her from thinking about her fight with Chris and how he and Alice were getting along today. And though Claire didn't want to admit it, the blonde was doing a pretty good job. Not having a free moment to herself all day meant not having the time to be angry.
Claire smiled and clapped the teen on the back. "This is good work K, I knew I could trust you with this."
"Thanks. Most of the houses are in good condition, but a few will need some work so we should start with those." She indicated which houses needed the most work on her map. "Oh, and this one," she said pointing. "This one is ours."
Claire raised an eyebrow. "And who are you including when you say ours?" If K-Mart expected her to share a house with Luther or have Chris and Alice living under the same roof and have everyone live as one big happy family she had another thing coming.
"Just you me and Alice of course. Chris, Luther and Seth are taking the small one on the edge of town." She replied. "Chris said that for 'security' reasons they should be on the perimeter."
"Of course he did. Whatever, at least he and Luther will be away form me. So why this specific house for us? Is it pink? Or did you choose it for some other ridiculous reason?" She teased.
"Seth picked it out. I uh, told him the other day that I'd always wanted a house with a large front porch and he found one." Her cheeks flushed as she explained. "If you see it and don't like it, I don't mind living somewhere else. Whatever you want to do Claire."
Even back in the desert the redhead had been hard-pressed to deny K-Mart anything so if the blonde wanted a front porch that's what she would get. "I'm sure it's great K. If you checked it out and you like it, that's good enough for me." She watched the blonde smile excitedly at her approval and couldn't help but return the grin. "And uh, thanks for today K. I know that Alice probably asked you to do this, but you always find a way to make me feel better."
K-Mart stood up and approached Claire to wrap her arms around her in a tight embrace. "You're my big sister, and my best friend Claire. So if I have to protect you from yourself or someone you're pissed at, then that's what I'm going to do." She said letting go to stand back.
"Protect me from myself? You sound like Alice." Claire muttered.
"Good," K-Mart replied. "She's much smarter than you." Then she ducked to avoid Claire's swinging arm.
"You should mention that to Chris. He's under the impression that Alice can't be trusted to keep us out of danger."
"That's just stupid. She's saved all our lives," K-Mart stated then added as an afterthought, "multiple times."
"Exactly. And if it wasn't for Alice, he would probably still be locked away in that prison."
"Maybe they'll have it all worked out when they get back." The blonde offered optimistically, though Claire thought maybe the teen was being a little naive. She knew what Chris could be like when he thought he was right. And she knew what Alice would do when confronted with a challenge. If Claire was honest with herself, she expected the pair to return to the ship looking worse for wear.
Shrugging off the unpleasant thought, Claire returned her attention to the teen. "Sit down K, and let's get this finished." The two returned to the table and K-Mart's map to continue sorting out the housing assignments.
Alice sat alone on the hood of the vehicle for a long time. And it was only when the flames of the burning church finally started to die down that she saw Chris hesitantly heading in her direction. He stopped maybe ten feet away, almost as if he were scared to get too close. Alice watched him curiously, but didn't give him an opening. After all the trouble he'd cause she was forcing him to make the first move.
He cleared his throat before speaking. "I may have been quick to judge your actions and it was wrong of me to doubt your intentions. It's just that Claire, she's all I have left. I'm terrified of losing her."
Alice hopped down from her perch and took a few steps towards the visibly distraught man before her. "On that last point we can both agree. And I suppose I can forgive you for being such an ass if an apology is what you're offering."
"It is. It's not easy for me but I am sorry." He held out his hand, and Alice without hesitation reached out to shake it. "I know my sister isn't stupid, and if she trusts you so much, than I guess I should too."
Alice squeezed his hand tighter before dropping it. "I hope you have a better apology than that for when you talk to Claire."
He chuckled. "Don't worry, I know exactly what to do to guarantee that all will be forgiven." At Alice's quirked eyebrow he reached into his pocket and pulled out an object that made the brunette chuckle as well.
"Where did you get cigarettes?"
"I went through a couple of these houses while waiting for the fire to die down. There wasn't much that we could use, but at least I found these. Even Claire, no matter how upset with me she's been, has never been able to deny cigarettes as a peace offering." He shrugged nonchalant, re-pocketing the pack. "So, you want to head back and join the others?"
Alice nodded. "We'd better. We've probably left Luther in charge for too long as it is. God only knows what he has those guys doing over there."