Chapter 10: Dinner

"Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones." – Thich Nhat Hanh

Chris tore his vision away from the sunset to look back at Piers, who was now deeply lost in thought on the couch. Chris smiled to himself as he watched Piers' lips open and close of their own accord, almost like he was trying to say something to himself, but no sound was escaping his lips at all. Chris moved a little deeper into their home, grabbing some food from the kitchen and feeding Hope, who barked appreciatively and began wolfing down her food like there was no tomorrow.

After feeding Hope, Chris moved over to Piers and sat down next to him on their couch. Piers looked at Chris and gave him a lazy, unconvincing smile. Chris smiled back, happiness being much more convincing on his features than what they were on Piers. Chris reached around and grabbed Piers' mutated shoulder, earning a contented sigh from the younger man, and pulled him into a warm embrace.

Piers melted into the contact quickly, giving off a second sigh and almost falling asleep at the warmth. Chris stroked Piers' shoulder, hearing more and more contented sounds the more comforting the feeling got for Piers. Slowly, Piers drifted off to sleep and Chris was left to trace his fingers up and down the slimy green appendage, earning himself nothing more than a trailing feeling of shocks. Chris heard Piers mutter something under his breath that he couldn't make out, but made no move to disturb the younger man's much deserved rest.

Chris slowly drifted off to sleep himself, the sound of Piers' slow breathing seeming like music to his ears and comforting his worried soul. Drifting off, Chris absently remembered that they hadn't told Piers' parents where they were or been told how long it would take for them to get to the house.

Chris was suddenly awoken during the night. It was dark outside and Chris could hear a loud rumbling thunder in the distance. Hope was quickly and incessantly poking Chris in the face. Chris carefully nudged her away from his face and looked at the clock. It was two twenty three in the morning. Chris rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully, and stood up shakily, almost stumbling over himself on the first try. Then he heard the sound, someone was monotonously knocking at the door. Chris walked over and looked through the eyehole; he saw V standing there and he looked almost as tired as Chris was. Chris opened the door and V almost fell inside at the sudden removal of the object from his path.

Chris chuckled at how groggy V seemed to be. V grunted slightly and stumbled for a moment but righted himself just as quickly. Chris looked at him for a moment, watching V rub the sleep out of his eyes and pretty soon Hope was at attention right next to Chris.

"Hey." Was V's only greeting, eyes still bleary and speech slightly slurred.

"Hey, need something?" Chris responded while raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"Uh yeah, is Piers still here? My monitoring equipment said the battery was running low in the goggles and I thought I would show you guys how to change it." V was slowly getting a bit more of a normal look back on his tired face.

"Uh yeah, I think he is…"

Chris frowned, looking back behind himself. He seemed to notice for the first time that someone had been missing when he woke up. Chris and V started searching the house, trying to find Piers. They had no such luck, Piers was nowhere to be found and Chris noticed Hope was still sitting by the door, head tilted to the side slightly while she watched both of them. Chris walked over to her and noticed how she was trying not to run out of the front door.

Chris motioned to V and they both walked over to the door. Chris looked outside in any place he could find, vision being slightly impaired by the darkness creeping around him. There still was no sign of Piers around the house, and Chris' vehicle was still there, so he obviously hadn't driven away in the night. Suddenly, V had an idea and asked Chris a puzzling question.

"Hey Chris, does he have his rifle with him or is it still here?" V was now searching the house for the case he had made to contain all of the parts for Piers' rifle.

Chris raised a quizzical eyebrow and started searching for it as well. Chris' search led him to the back room that Piers and him shared together. They found the case open and missing the rifle, along with most of the parts, except for the trigger that was made for a normal human's hand. Under the case V found a note and handed it to Chris who read it aloud.

*Hey Chris. I didn't want to wake you up. Call Quentin when you find this*

-Piers

Chris sighed with relief, finally knowing that Piers was OK. V was still groggy and rubbed some more of the sleep out of his eyes. Chris grabbed his keys and soon they were on the road. There was only one place Piers would go and Chris didn't need to call Quentin to find out where that place would be. They rolled into the base's parking lot after about twenty minutes; all signs of their lack of sleep were finally gone.

Chris knew the exact building he needed to go to, and practically sprinted over to it, leaving V in his dust. Chris got to the door and almost pulled it off the hinges trying to get inside. He found Quentin in a chair, head on a table and Piers standing nearby with his rifle in hand shooting at some targets. Chris saw they both had on noise cancelling headphones and Quentin was fast asleep with his phone under his head.

Chris went over and tapped Quentin on his shoulder, receiving a light groan after hearing another rifle round go off from Piers. V came running in before Quentin looked up, stopping with his hands on his knees, while he panted from being out of breath.

"J-Jesus Chris… what the h-heck are you in such a… hurry for?"

Chris looked over at V with a questioning eyebrow.

V was trying not to laugh at him. "You just freaking sprinted damn near a mile in like two minutes."

Chris turned around and looked out the door. V was right, Chris could barely see their vehicle that was about three fourths of a mile away from the building. Just then, Quentin groaned again, finally looking up at Chris, eyes widening in surprise.

Quentin looked from his phone to Chris and back again while trying to stammer out a response. "S-sir I-I uh… um…"

Chris chuckled while he watched Quentin trying not to stumble over himself. Chris put a finger to his lips to motion for Quentin to be quiet. When he did he also motioned for him to take off the headphones, which Quentin apparently had not yet realized he was still wearing. Chris stared at him for a moment with a look of annoyance before he spoke.

Another rifle round went off. "So why exactly did you decide NOT to tell me about this Quentin?"

Quentin chewed his bottom lip for a moment before he spoke. "Well… he called and asked me to come pick him up. I mean, I was tired as hell so I didn't really think about it but then I got here and realized you were still sleeping. I asked him why he didn't ask you and he told me to…"

Chris raised an eyebrow at Quentin's sudden reluctant. "Out with it Quentin, what did Piers tell you?"

Quentin swallowed nervously. "He uh… told me to let his *bear hibernate*."

Chris smiled and laughed at Piers' choice for words. "That's all he said? Well let me go talk to him then."

Chris left V and Quentin where they were and walked over to Piers. Chris stood there and watched for a moment. He was seeing what Piers used to be like before China happened. Jaw set, eyes focused, everything that made him the Ace of alpha was standing right in front of Chris, but yet, still seemingly out of reach. Chris observed him even more, noting the way his brow furrowed whenever he was extremely concentrated. The goggles were still on his face, but the blue light seemed to be weaker, almost dimmer than what it was before. Chris also noted the trigger that was made for his claw, how he was still able to use it almost as well as a normal arm.

Chris moved forward and put a hand on Piers' shoulder, and unintentionally chose a bad time to do it. When his hand landed on Piers the sudden contact surprised him so much his rifle went up and a round went through the roof. Chris jumped back and winced, glad that he hadn't whirled around when the round went off. Piers slowly turned around and Chris could see beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Chris stood there and waited, when Piers finally turned around relief washed across is face as well as a wave of nervousness. Piers slowly chewed at his bottom lip, not wanting to meet Chris' gaze.

Chris looked Piers over from head to toe, everything Chris had just seen and wanted back more than anything in the world, his Ace, was now gone. It had been replaced with whatever shell Piers had grown around himself in the time they had been separated. Chris took a slight step forward and Piers took one back, but quickly took another step forward hoping to not be noticed. Chris saw the sway in his movements but decided against himself to say anything about it. Before moving any closer or trying to say anything to him, Chris put a hand on the rifle Piers was holding, slowly pushing it towards a shelf near the two men. Piers offered a little resistance at first, but then he relented his control as he realized Chris wouldn't do anything until it was gone.

Piers let loose a sigh of relief when Chris took another step back after the rifle was down but eyed him warily.

"Do you uh… need something, Captain?"

Chris hastily told Piers to just call him Chris and then scratched at his chin for a moment, trying to figure out how else to respond to him. "Yeah… I want to know why you are here instead of at home it's not even four in the morning Piers."

Piers sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and gave Chris a wry smile. "Well I have felt so… restricted, and this is the one place I can feel… alive again, like none of this ever happened."

Chris chuckled, once a soldier always a soldier. "Ok… so why exactly did you get Quentin to bring you instead of me?"

Piers pinched the bridge of his nose again and snapped back a response. "Chris, I woke up Quentin like three hours ago. I wanted to give you the chance to sleep because I know my dad is probably going to give me hell when they get here. Why are you so damn worried anyway Chris? Stop treating me like a damn cripple!"

Chris wanted to snap back a response about why he cared but stopped himself. Now was definitely NOT the time to start arguing with Piers. Chris didn't say another word, just looked down at the floor and left. Piers stood there in shock, he had expected Chris to yell at him, not walk out of the building. Piers looked to the other two soldiers for help, both of whom tried unsuccessfully to look as if they hadn't heard anything.

V quickly said something to Quentin who nodded and looked at Piers while V left sprinting out the doors. Piers walked over to him nervously, chewing his bottom lip. He stopped when he reached the table Quentin was sitting at.

"I fucked up big didn't I?"

Quentin shrugged. "I don't know man. You know Chris, I don't. What I can tell you is that there was definitely something Chris wanted to say to you but left instead of doing so."

Pier sighed and mentally scolded himself. "Yep, I probably just fucked everything up."

Quentin smiled and put a hand on Piers' shoulder. "Don't worry I'm sure everything will be fine. V's going to go talk to him and by the way, he said he needs to see those goggles in the next day or two."

Piers sighed again, this time from weariness. "Alright, I hope I didn't piss Chris off too badly…"

oOoOoOoOo

V quickly said something to Quentin and did so quietly, so Piers couldn't hear him and then bolted out through the door after Chris. "Captain Redfield, wait up!"

It didn't take V too long to catch up to Chris. He must have run some of the distance at least, but now he was just walking, trying to avoid speaking to V even though he had stopped to wait for him. As soon as V got to him Chris didn't even wait, he started walking away immediately.

"Captain Redfield, hold on Sir, calm down and talk to me!"

V grabbed his shoulder but Chris threw his and off and kept storming away. "Ca-"

Chris whirled around, angrier than before. "God shut the fuck up already! Can't you see I don't want to talk right now?! Stop being so fucking pushy and either leave me alone or just shut up!"

V didn't even have a chance to respond as Chris whirled back around and began storming away, again. V decided to just stay silent for now and followed Chris. They walked in silence for a few more minutes and reached Chris' truck. He pulled out his keys, but V quickly snatched them away. Chris scowled into his hand and then directed a venomous glare at V.

"Punch me all you want later Captain Redfield, but you are NOT driving home like this."

Chris scowled into his hand again but relented because of how quickly V had gotten into the truck. Chris sighed and climbed into the passenger seat, not feeling eager to duke it out with someone over who got to drive.

Chris didn't say anything at first, just sat inside and laid his head down on the dashboard and groaned. V sat in the driver's seat silently as they went on down the darkening roads, which Chris was thankful for. Then the music started to play and Chris almost broke inside.

*I want to be Somebody's Chelsea…

Somebody's World…

Somebody's Day and Night, one and only girl…*

Chris sighed and tried to drop his head even further. "V…"

"Yes, Captain Redfield?" V didn't look over but nodded slightly.

"Am I really that fucking terrible?"

V looked over and raised a questioning eyebrow before turning his eyes back to the road. "What do you mean?"

Chris sighed, this time out of frustration with himself. "I mean, am I really that bad? I was trying to show Piers how much I cared but it backfired so hard and now I don't know what the hell I should do."

V chuckled but Chris sighed at him. "What the hell's so funny?"

V cleared his throat. "Nothing Captain, you just need to realize how much Piers wants to be independent. Treating someone differently just because something happens, doing that will only make them want to stray away from you. I should know this by now…"

Chris raised an eyebrow but sighed, deciding not to push that anywhere. V was right, hewas treating Piers differently, but it was only because he cared. Suddenly Chris felt a buzzing in his pocket and took his phone out. He had a text from Piers' parents that they would be there tonight. The next one he got not even five seconds after he finished reading the last one. The message was from Piers, asking if Chris was ok, but he just decided to ignore it for now.

oOoOoOoOo

They'd both been home for at least three hours now, Chris just a little bit more than Piers had been. V had dropped him off and gone back to his place. Piers had shown up and hour or two later while Chris was cleaning up the house. Piers asked what was going and when Chris responded that his parents would be there for dinner Piers' face paled where Chris couldn't see, and then he rushed off to their room. Piers shut the door quietly enough that Chris couldn't hear and locked the door.

Piers stayed in their room until his parents got there. When the doorbell rang Hope sat behind the door waiting quietly. Chris saw Piers come out with one of Chris' hoodies and it looked like he was trying to hide his arm.

Chris opened the door and let the Nivans into the house. Mrs. Nivans smiled and greeted Chris warmly. Mr. Nivans himself just gave Chris a gruff *hello* and shook his hand. Mr. Nivans smiled when he saw Piers, but then his eyes went wide with shock for a moment when he saw the oversized right arm barely hidden under the hoodie.

Chris took their bags while he directed them to the table for dinner. Chris made pasta again tonight and poured everyone a small glass of wine. They all sat down, Chris at the head with Mrs. Nivans directly across. Piers and his father then sat across from each other in an awkward silence.

Dinner started off extremely awkward, more so than when Mr. Nivans had first looked at Piers. Chris had expected this though, although he had expected Mrs. Nivans to be more frightened than the Mr. but that wasn't the case at all. Chris watched as Mr. Nivans' eyes never seemed to leave his son's arm.

*Probably expects him to go on a killing spree.* Chris thought to himself.

Chris grabbed his glass for a sip and then things took a bad turn. Mr. Nivans' frustration seemed to get the best of him but Chris promised himself he wouldn't do anything to fuck up Piers' relationship with his parents even more.

"Why?" The sudden word startled Chris from his thoughts and Piers looked up from his plate.

"W-what?"

His father's words intensified while Chris' grip on his glass did so as well.

"I said, why, Son."

Piers swallowed nervously. "W-why what?"

"Don't give me that crap! What the hell happened to you?! Why did you leave, the U.S. military could have given you something better than… that!"

Chris scowled into his food and Mrs. Nivans caught it but said nothing. She wanted a few answers from Piers herself but didn't want to ruin this reunion. Although it was obvious her husband has a few different ideas.

Piers snapped back an annoyed response. "Because the U.S. was too slow to act! The B.S.A.A. was and is trying to protect the whole damn world!"

His father bit back some of his response that almost threw Chris over the edge.

"Well at least we don't leave our men behind to die! You almost gave your life and look what happened; you turned into one of those damned things!"

Chris heard a shattering sound and the room was suddenly deadly silent. Hope moved over from her bowl and nuzzled Chris' thigh. He looked down at her confused, and then he looked to the other three people sitting with him. They all had a wide eyed look of shock on their faces, and Piers' parents even looked afraid.

Chris then followed their gazes and realized they were looking at him. Chris looked down at his hand and it was a bloody mess. His hand was still enclosed around the shattered wine glass. Bits and pieces were on the table while quite a number of shards still remained in his hand. Chris looked at his hand in shock; he excused himself quickly and lumbered off to the bathroom to clean his wounds. That left the rest of them to follow his movements with a hint of fear.