Another short chapter I'm afraid that we're heading to some beasty thick chapter territory I promise X'D for those that may be interested I did end up starting up on a Heisenburg fic that I'm kinda jumping back and forth on working on between updates on this story.

Song Suggestion: Way Less Sad by AJR

Disclaimer: I own nothing =v=/ capcom please don't sue

The summer season was coming to a close and with that, house hunting was picking up steam. Chris and Emma had started a new habit of spending a bit of extra time together on the weekends to do a bit of research and work over a plan. Currently, the two were sitting horizontally on the couch with Chris leaning against the arm of the couch and a pillow while Emma sat between his legs to lean her back against him. One arm held her waist while the other held his phone which he occasionally tapped at to look at various listings. She hummed quietly to herself as she tapped a pen against a notepad that was resting in her lap before taking a bite of an apple she had been holding in her other hand.

As she looked over the list she was making Chris let go of her waist to reach up to tap on the shoulder connected to the hand holding the apple. Emma continued focusing on her list as she lifted her hand to offer the apple to Chris. He places his free hand over hers to take a bite of the offered fruit before returning to holding her waist. Emma returns to her original position as well before taking another bite.

"What about this one?" Chris says and lowers the phone for Emma to see.

"Hmm," she hums again and scrolls through the pictures. "It does look nice," she admits before stopping and pinching to cause the picture to zoom in a bit, "Uhoh. This one has mold in the basement. That would be a pain to fix."

"Where?" he asks as he leans a bit to get a better look at the picture.

"There. see? In the corners and around the egress window," Emma says as she zooms in a bit more. "Gotta check the basement windows, mold means water leaks in when it rains."

"hmm, it's certainly something," he admits with a slight frown. "As long as it's not black mold it should be an easy enough fix."

"True," Emma says while bobbing her head before going back to scrolling through the pictures. "I do like it if you want to see if we can do a walk-through."

"Commute is nice too." He says as he watches her focus with a gentle smile.

"Is it?" She asks as she scrolls a bit to check. "Oh. that is nice," she admits.

"Told you," he says with a short chuckle as he moves his arm back. "How goes the list?"

"Goes well. So far the list of additional expenses isn't too bad," she says while flipping to a different page. "between the two apartments we're pretty set on furniture. The big hitters are the storage unit since my lease ends on the last day of May and yours ends on the last day of July. Depending on what you end up going with, potentially appliances if the seller doesn't include them and a lawnmower which could be eh or ugh based on the size of the yard..."

"Ugh. Lawn mowing." he kinda forgot that part. "is it too late to look at apartments?" Chris asks jokingly.

"Don't 'Ugh lawn mowing' me. You're gone for weeks on end. I'll probably be the one handling that," She points out with an amused chuckle. "Though that does bring up another point."

"hm?" He hums to show he was listening while clicking around at another listing.

"Bills," Emma says with a slight frown. a universally hated word regardless of what language it was in.

"Ah," he says with a nod.

"Do you want me to take care of that?" She offers "I know the plan is that you're going to worry about the mortgage and signing chaos and I'm just gonna venmo over my fair share each month but do you want me to take care of that portion?" Emma suggests while fiddling with the pen in her hand. "We could just go with having you set up automatic billing for utilities and I'll increase the monthly fair share to cover for that but that's a lot of money to put through an app every month."

"hm, good point," he says and bobs his head. "So you cover utilities and take it out of what you'd transfer over?"

"Yep," Emma nods in response to his suggestion.

"Seems fair," he admits with a nod, he honestly wasn't really worried about the fair share thing. That was more Emma being nervous about, how did she put it again. 'being a freeloader' since he'd insisted on just letting him worry about the home purchase rather than mixing credit scores and all the chaos that comes with adding an extra person to the deal.

"I can take care of that and groceries since I cook anyways and it would be easier to just have you send me a list," Emma says before flipping to a different page to write down a note about the bills.

"I do know how to cook. You know that, right?" Chris asks amused. "I did have to take care of my own meals before you showed up."

"Mhm," Emma says with playful sarcastic disbelief.

"Sure, that works" he agrees with a short chuckle before offering the phone to her again. "This one?"

Emma chuckles at that "honestly as long as it doesn't have window units for air-conditioning and enough space for a bed, I'm a happy camper."

"So a shed with no air conditioning?" he says with joking sarcasm to point out that it didn't really help that much for her to be that unopinionated on the subject.

"You know what I meant," Emma says shaking her head before scrolling through the pictures. "Oh, I like the hardwood." she comments with a tone of surprise. the flooring looked nice.

He was a mature responsible adult. He was a mature responsible adult. Chris repeated the thought in his mind though A small snort managed to escape him as he pressed his lips shut to keep from chuckling at the innuendo.

Emma shifted to look back at him "Do you wanna go?" she asks while pointing at him and trying to force a frown as she realized her mistake.

He was about to continue joking around with her when he noticed a new message pop up on his phone. Huh, another message from Ethan. Chris thought and shrugs as he opens it since it was his personal phone. it shouldn't be an issue if Emma sees it.

Ethan [Picture of him Rose and Mia walking on the beach]

He smiles a bit at that, it was good to see they had some time to relax. They'd been pretty stressed about everything and requested to be allowed to take a vacation on their own. The BSAA approved on the condition that they went to a private location where the BSAA could check the area for security ahead of time. Naturally, however, They still kept an eye on them the whole time anyways and they were ordered to be out of sight at all times for the illusion of privacy.

"Aw what a cute picture," Emma says with a chuckle.

"Yeah, it's the same friend as before the one that just had the kid," Chris says with a short chuckle. "He mentioned they were going to a private beach. Looks like they're all healthy."

"Oh... does he have two children?" Emma asks confused as she stares at the picture.

"No, that was his firstborn," Chris replies with a raised eyebrow.

"That. They're only two months old at best. A two-month-old wouldn't be able to support the weight of their own head that well. That doesn't happen until closer to 6 months. he shouldn't be able to hold her on his shoulders like that at all," Emma says with evident concern.

Chris raised an eyebrow that's an odd fact to know so confidently, "Have you been looking that up recently or something?" He asks in return as a scapegoat. He did not expect her to have an eye for that kind of detail, and the BSAA certainly didn't know yet how the child of two infected civilians would be affected...

Quick make up an excuse, "I have three nieces," She says shaking her head before looking back at the photo and starts looking at it more critically. "you're sure it was a private beach?" Emma asks a bit confused.

"That's what I was told," Chris replies, he couldn't explain why he was sure since it was work-related.

She leans a bit to look at Chris with a slightly concerned expression, "Then who took the picture?" Emma asks. None of this made sense.

Chris stared at the picture again. "Shit," he says before quickly getting up to head over to the door to put on his coat and shoes. "I'll be late, don't wait up."

"Stay safe," Emma says concerned as she watches him quickly grab his keys and hurry out the door and down the stairs.

Chris quickly made his way to the BSAA Headquarters. It was a Saturday but after that extra info, he was willing to put in the overtime. Hound Squad would be back in a week but that might not be soon enough. he quickly started digging around in files from some of the newer Winters reports starting with the reports from the area sweep.

Mission report: Area Sweep

Synopsis

The beach perimeter was combed for 2 miles from the target destination to confirm the area is secure and vacated. No threats found in the vicinity.

Tiger Orca Squad will continue to monitor the location perimeter to make sure no one else enters until T plus 4 hours after target departure to assure target security.

.

Okay so it was one of the European teams that did the sweep... why was it one of the European teams he should have been called in for this... Chris dug through the rest of the reports and none of them mentioned any sort of issue with securing the area. If you want something right you have to do it yourself apparently... what about rose then there has to be something going on if she's experiencing accelerated growth like what Emma pointed out. it would mean she's developing at three times a normal human rate. That's not quite Eveline tier age acceleration but that was something to be aware of. With that he dug through what was available for Rosemary's file.

Name: Rosemary Winters

DOB: 02/08/2020

He started at that for a second. February 8th? It took him a second to remember it was a scan of a European report so the date was set up differently. August 2nd. that made more sense. and it was currently September 26th so yeah, Emma was right she's barely at the 2-month age range.

Height: 62.3cm (24.53 in)

Weight: 6.57kg (14.48lbs)

Screenings (hearing Vission touch reflex test):

All results show no issues. Patient is in good health.

Other Notes:

Results for additional Fungal pathogen tests will be provided by BSAA

-Applefeld Memorial Hospital

.

Chris gave a tired sigh as he continued digging around through the files. Where were those pathogen tests? he dug out his phone and looked over the picture again. before heading out of the file room with the two folders he had been digging through. Down the hall, around a corner, and up to the director's door to open it.

The director looked over from his computer. "Redfield, working over the weekend?" he asks a bit surprised.

"just got a bit of info that isn't sitting well with me. Have you heard anything from Tiger Orca regarding the winters case?" He asks curiously as he closes the door behind him

"how do you," he stopped and looks at the files unamused. "that's not your concern. the situation is well attended."

"Yeah except it's not," Chris says as he puts his phone down to show the director the picture.

"A picture of a happy family on vacation. hardly a reason for alarm" the director says shaking his head before going to take a sip from his coffee. he was going to need the caffeine, he already had a headache.

"Who took the picture?" Chris asks which causes the director to give a quiet sigh.

"perhaps one of the agents," the director offered as a potential answer to play along with the question.

"Their orders were to stay out of sight, and that's not a posed photo. yet Ethan sent it to me from his phone and he's in the picture." Chris points out.

The director puts down the mug of coffee as he relaxes into his chair. he had a feeling they'd be here for a while. "I'll concede. tell me. Who took the picture?"

"I don't know either. That's the problem" Chris points out "no one else was supposed to be there."

"then call him and ask so you stop worrying," he replies before looking at the clock "it's what, 6:30 pm over there? maybe 7:30."

Chris gives a short tired huff before poking at the phone to call Ethan and motions for the director to be quiet while he puts it on speakerphone.

"Hey Chris, whats up?" Ethan asks as clicks and clanks of silverware against plates could be heard in the background.

"Not much. just saw the picture you sent. how's the vacation going?" Chris asks casually figuring he should beat around the bush a bit to avoid raising any alarm with Ethan.

"it's going great, we're back at the beach house now. Honestly, this is just what we needed. a bit of fresh air away from the house." Ethan says with a relaxed and content tone.

"Glad to hear it." Chris says and tries to lead back into the subject, "although speaking of that picture. How did you manage to get all 3 of you in the photo like that?"

"oh! there was some plant and wildlife photographer in the area." Ethan says with a short chuckle, "She saw us walking by and took the photo. she came over to us after to show it to us and sent us the file," Ethan says unaware that the perimeter of the beach had been completely closed off. he was just told there would be a sweep, not constant monitoring.

Chris shoots the director a look of 'see, security breach. why wasn't that reported' "That's great, happy to hear you're doing well. just thought I'd give you a call and check in."

"oh, well thank you. good to hear from you. are we going to see you guys again in a few weeks?" Ethan asks curiously as Mia can be heard in the background asking who Ethan was talking to and to get off the phone since they were eating dinner.

"Yeah you'll see us soon" Chris confirms.

"Okay, see you then. bye" Ethan replies as he tries to comply with Mia's request.

"Seeya," Chris says before ending the call and looking to the director once more. "See," Chris says with an annoyed tone. "Someone got past the perimeter this should be room for concern."

"A wildlife photographer isn't a threat and if they were then they would have done something when they approached the family while they were already alone and undetected," The director says trying to put Chris's mind at ease. "If you want I can call the European HQ and have them reach out to Tiger Orca to have them comb the area again for anyone that got past the perimeter."

"Definitely do that," Chris confirms as he puts his phone away. "Where are the Pathogen reports for Rosemary winter?"

"You'll have them when the reports are in they only just took the samples before the kid went on vacation" the director replies with a tired frown.

"good," With that Chris heads out of the director's office and back to the file room. He needed to do a lot more digging before Hound squad got back.

"Would a please or a thank you kill the guy" the director grumbles to himself after Chris leaves and he reaches over to make the phone calls.

Who's ready for the return of hound wolf squad~ ;)

Review Responses:

Starrat - always happy to hear that you enjoyed the latest chapter ^v^/

Guest1995 - Chris is the best XD he protecc, he attacc, and he also a snacc lmao XD

Tanya - I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter XD It was fun to write the awkward confrontation X'D part of me wanted to have Chris actually deck the guy but i couldn't think of a good way to get that to work lol