Note that at this point I'm writing without knowledge of RE8 DLC or RE9 because they are not out as of the time of writing this. probably gonna mess stuff up.

Oh boy has it been a minute lmao. two weeks without writing a single Chris chapter felt kinda weird but here we are once more. Well, I figure I should start with the poll results. Option C won by a landslide so the story will be including a ChrisxOC child along with raising/adopting Rose. between the Poll, comments on AO3 and Reviews on we have 13 votes for both, 3 votes for ChrisxOC baby only, and 2 for Raise rose only.

Song Suggestion: King and Lion Heart by of monsters and men

Disclaimer: I own nothing~ Particularly now that I am going well off the canon script x'D

be-be-be-beep be-be-be-beep... be-be-be-beep be-be-be-beep

Chris rolled over to try and turn off his alarm to find that it didn't work. he grumbled a bit as Emma turned off her alarm instead.

March 1st, 5:30 AM

"It's too early," He mumbles as he shifts to hold her to try and get her to stay. needless to say, he was feeling a little bit clingy after the scare from less than 24 hours ago that he'd never see her again.

"We have to get up early because you have to go to work, and you don't have a car. Remember?" Emma says with a partial smile. This was early even for her, but it would be necessary until they got things back to normal...

Right... he rubbed at his face as she got out of bed to get ready for the day. "What time do you think you'll be off work?" he says since she'd have to pick him up as well.

"Not sure," she admits "should be around 5 but I don't know what traffic will be like to get to you," Emma explains as she collects her outfit for the day. "Were you able to figure out where they put your car?"

"I'll look in the system once I get there," he says with a tired sigh as he pushed himself to get up. As much as he wanted to just, flip off the BSAA and move on with his life, He made a promise to Ethan and he wouldn't be able to keep that promise if the BSAA had Rose and he wasn't there.

"alright, text me if you find it?" Emma requests as she looks over at him from the doorway.

"yeah," he replies as he was simply sitting there on the side of the bed.

Emma frowned slightly as she walked over to stand next to him and give him a gentle peck. "Hey. Things are going to work out. alright? We'll figure this out. Worst case scenario, we have to wake up early for a few days and find a different car for you."

"It's more money to worry about," he points out.

"Then it's a good thing we're moving in together and saving some funds." She points out. "We just have to take this, one step at a time." she offers and he nods in return.

"One step at a time," he agrees before giving her a peck in return. he wasn't really sure if life was going to let them take that approach, but the idea was comforting in its own right.

With the morning morale boost out of the way, the two prepared for a very long day. Emma dropped Chris off at the first gate of the BSAA Headquarters and he had to walk the rest of the way to work since she didn't have clearance to get closer to the building.

It was like his first day of work all over again, just, 15 years later and he wasn't excited about it in the slightest. He went through the motions of filling out paperwork, safety training, and drills. getting his uniform, patches and locker reassigned, getting the keys to his office back. it was pretty much an all-day affair. he had just made it to his desk and sat down to try and look for information on where his car went when there was a knock at the door.

For the love of all that was holy. "Come in..." he says with some irritation in his tone.

The door opened showing the director's secretary, "The director would like to speak with you," She says with some hesitation.

the director could kiss his a- "I'll be right there," he replied cutting the thought short.

"Yes sir," She says and closes the door before quickly hurrying away.

Chris took a moment to mentally prepare himself before getting up once more to head over to the door that gave him more headaches than anything else and knocked on it.

"Come in," The director says from the other side. a deep breath later, Chris opened the door and walked in. "Redfield, have a seat." the director says in an attempt at a greeting. he would say welcome back or good to see you but both would be bald-faced lies after the events of the hearing.

"You needed something?" Chris asks as he was just as interested in cutting to the chase.

"Unfortunately," the director replies. "The European branch is well and ready to be done with all of this. They're shipping over Mia and Rose as soon as possible." He explains before looking over to his computer to start typing. "The council believed you would be the best suited to keep their case due to your 'diligent monitoring' that lead to all of this in the first place." The director avoided rolling his eyes at that while focusing on his screen. "This is a bit of a problem since we've had less than a day to look into finding a safe house for them and Mia is refusing to stay in the barracks while we find suitable accommodations."

Chris nods, "So you want me to look after them?"

"Bingo," The director replies. If she was going to make his life hell by rejecting the barracks she was getting the next worst option. torment two pains in the ass for the price of one.

Any other time he'd reject the request but, once more the words of Ethan's request rang in his ear. "Fine, I'll be moving into a new place soon anyways. I'll have the space."

"Excellent, they'll be here in two days." The director adds which causes' Chris's shoulders to drop.

"Two days?" Chris says shocked. he would have thought it would be at least a week or two, they still had an entire house to pack up and there were matters of grieving.

"Is that a problem?" the director asks with a raised eyebrow.

"... no." He replies with a slight frown. Well, this was going to be a great phone call to have with Emma. Hey, remember how you said one step at a time? Turns out I just added 5 more problems to the list of issues to deal with...

"Very well. you're dismissed." the director says and motions that Chris could leave.

Chris gets up to do so and pauses. "You wouldn't happen to know what they did with my car, do you?"

The director gave a tired sigh "check impounds. if it's not there it was sent to a scrapyard." along with my hopes and dreams of retiring before I die of stress, the director thought as he pinched at the bridge of his nose.

Chris nods at that and heads out to check that first before he went and called Emma. to his relief, his car was in fact, not scrapped but there was an impound fee. He worked out getting the car and keys back before heading to his office, locking the door to avoid any further interruptions and took his seat with a tired flop.

He waits a few minutes before digging his phone out of his pocket and dialing up her number.

"Hey, good timing," Emma says as she picked up the phone. "I was meaning to talk to you."

"Oh um," he says surprised.

"Why don't you go first," they both say at the same time.

Emma chuckled. "if you have good news, you should go first." she hesitantly insists.

That didn't sound good. "bit of both..." he admits "good news, I have a car and you don't need to pick me up."

"Good, good um" Emma paused "because I have to pick up your sister from the airport..."

"What?" he asks surprised before giving a tired sigh and leaning back in his chair.

"She just called that she was on her way," Emma explains.

"Is she staying long?" He asks as his voice shows he was pretty clearly warn out.

"She didn't say exactly. Probably a few days," she explained.

"Suppose I'll have to one-up your news," Chris replies as he rests a hand over his eyes to block out the light and tend to a building headache.

"Really?" she asks hesitantly.

"sorry." He replies as guilt returns to his mind. He was asking a lot of her as of late.

"no. it's okay... what is it?" she asks trying to keep pushing on. this would be fine.

"... We're going to have some extra roommates for a bit... well. That is. is it okay if I offer that guest room of yours?" Chris asks hesitantly. if she said no he'd just let them use his apartment as their own and try and figure out how to bring up the idea that they'd have to stay in the house with them for a bit...

"how long?" Emma asks with a quiet neutral tone.

"it's probably going to be a while... remember that friend of mine I mentioned that asked me to keep an eye on his wife and kid... they don't have a place to stay at the moment... they'll be here in two days," Chris explains while waiting for her to chew him out for this.

Emma relaxed in her chair a bit. She knew how guilty he felt about all this and how much he blamed himself for what happened. "Alright..." She agrees, it would probably be a few weeks. maybe a few months. it wasn't forever. "I'm ordering take-out. what are you in the mood for?" there was no way she was cooking tonight. Sorry, Claire.

"What about that one place down the street. They're pretty cheap." Chris suggests. They were going to be cutting it a bit tight for the next while until they recovered from. All of this.

"got it, I'll order the usual." Emma agrees with a soft chuckle. it was cheap but it was good comfort food and she could tell they kinda needed that.

"Sounds good," he hears a soft beeping in his ear that causes him to look at the phone. "I'm getting another call."

"Hm. Alright. good luck." She replies "I'll see you at home."

"See you soon." he replies and switches lines. "Hello?"

"Hi Is this Christopher Redfield?" asks a way too chipper voice.

"speaking" Chris replies as he leans forward to rest his elbows on his desk.

"This is Daisy Mae with the Realtor foundation how are you doing today?" She asks in the same chipper tone.

he winced at this while saying a silent pray. "Fine."

"Good, good. So it's come to our attention that there's been a bit of a blip in your employment history recently and some potential legal issues?" She says with some hesitation though it's not like that hesitation mattered she asked all the same.

"That's already been handled and acquitted," Chris replies hoping that would be the end of it.

"Oh well that's wonderful to hear." the realtor says with a smile. "I'm afraid that we will still need to re-run a few reports and this is going to end up delaying the closing until mid-April and it may end up affecting your interest rates. The seller is willing to offer the extension on the closing date if you're still interested in making the purchase, though I would like to remind you that your earnest deposit is non-refundable at this point."

WHAT ELSE! "That's," He gave his fifth tired sigh that hour. "Fine. Mid-April works." good lord what else could go wrong... they just needed a little room to breathe.

"Okay excellent, I'll let the seller know. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to hear that everything will be moving forward." the realtor says as they return to their chipper customer service voice."

"Thanks..." he replied though he really just wanted to flip them off. it wasn't their fault but could they not wait until tomorrow. this was a lot for one day after just finding out he wasn't going to go to jail. He and Emma really just needed a little time to themselves and they were not going to get it until probably may at this rate.

"Have a nice day Mr. Redfield," the realtor replied before hanging up.

He resisted the urge to throw his phone and pocketed it instead. the last thing they needed was to deal with a broken phone on top of his sister's sudden visit, two sudden roommates, the car expenses, and now the chaos that was going to come from the extended closing on the house.

The agent attempted to focus on working for the remainder of the day but ultimately didn't get much else done. He trudged out to his car, picked up a pack of cigarettes on the way home and tried to relax as he made his way to the parking garage next to the apartment complex. After finding his usual parking spot he gave himself an extra 5 minutes to decompress before getting out and heading into the building, up the stairs, and through Emma's door.

"Chris, there you are!" Says Claire who hurries over to hug him.

"Hey," He replies with a soft attempt at a smile. "...good to see you." Was it inconvenient that she didn't really give them a heads up? yeah. But she was worried about him, and he wanted to try and be better about being available for the people that mattered.

"I came as soon as I could," She says with a nod.

"I see," He says with a chuckle "Let's get a bit to eat then and catch up."

the response surprised Claire. she fully expected a tired 'how long will you be here' as usual. She smiles a bit and nods "yeah, We picked up dinner on the way."

"Smells good." he says as he walks over to the table to sit next to Emma and gives her a peck. "How was work?"

"surprisingly not so bad. and yours?" Emma says as she returns the affection.

"It was a day, it's good to be back," Chris replied. he didn't really want to bring up the house issue with claire listening. She'd just end up worrying more.

The three casually talked and caught up regarding the various events that happened since their last get-together and Claire mentioned that she'd be heading back tomorrow morning and she was just going to take an Uber to the airport but Chris rejected that and offered to take her.

Once everyone was set for the night Chris joined Emma in bed. "Well today was a day," Emma says with a yawn as she snuggled up next to him.

"Yeah..." he looked over at the clock 10:32 PM... "There might be one more thing that came up..."

Emma frowned but nodded. "Let's rip the band-aid off then. deal with it all today so tomorrow is a fresh start." She says though she wasnt sure if that would actually work...

"The closing got moved to next month..." Chris says which caused Emma to sit up and look at him.

"You're joking," she says concerned and he shakes his head no, signaling he was serious. She lays back down. "What are we going to do?" She asked quietly. she'd tried to stay optimistic but this was a pretty solid kick to the teeth. "Chris I signed an amendment to terminate my lease at the end of the month."

"I know. mine expires at the end of the month too..." he says with a slight frown.

"I'll take tomorrow off... maybe I can talk to the landlord. see if I can undo the termination. that would put my lease back to the original terms." She says before shifting to rest a hand on her face.

"He's going to charge you an arm and a leg for that..." Chris points out.

"I don't think we have much of a choice... it just means we'll have to hold off on a few of the fixes around the house for a few extra months. it's better than a month in a hotel." Emma says while trying to figure out how they were going to manage 4 people sharing an apartment for a month. even if the closing was in the middle of the month they needed time to fix the place up a little and move in furniture. get comfortable and all that. "I'll let my boss know I need to move the PTO that I scheduled for the move."

he nods and waits a bit, "Hey," he whispers to see if she had fallen asleep or not.

"hm?" Emma replied sleepily.

"We got the car back," he says quietly which causes an amused smile to cross Emma's face even if she didn't open her eyes.

"Thank god we got the car back," Emma replies with a short chuckle. it was a small victory but it was a much-needed one.

The next morning Chris drove Claire to the airport before heading to work. He was given a few extra files on Mia and Rose, but other than that the day was uneventful. It was a much-needed breath of air before the day to come.

"Miss Winters, it's good to have you back in the states," says the director as the woman sits in his office with a rather permanent scowl etched on her face as she clearly did not want to be here. "Per your request, we'll have one of our top agents taking care of you and your child while we look for a suitable safe home for you to stay in."

"How long will that take?" she asks while gently bouncing the child in her arms to keep her calm.

"we're not quite sure, we'll need to purchase a home. at best a month. though since we're still looking we can try to accommodate any requests." the director explains hoping that extra tidbit of information would reduce some of the complaining he'd have to listen to.

"fine." she agrees while avoiding eye contact.

"Glad you find that agreeable," he says before a knock was heard at the door. "Ah, that should be your bodyguard now. Come in," he says and sure enough, Chris walks in.

Mia could feel her eye twitch slightly. "No. NO. absolutely not. Find someone else."

"Miss winters I assure you, Mr. Redfield, is one of our top operatives. the council insisted in fact." the director says with a smile. this was well worth the headache.

"He practically shot me in the head! in front of my now deceased husband, and stole my child!" Mia points out.

"But it wasn't you," the director says "And that's apparently all the council is worried about. If you have any complaints on the matter I can provide you with the paperwork but that will take a few weeks to get processed."

"This is absolutely ridiculous," She says still fuming from the situation.

"It's this or the barracks. your choice." the director says and Mia stands up and looks between the two before grumbling to herself and looking at Chris.

"you have a car seat right?" Mia asks and Chris looks to the director confused. yeah, his car had like 7 seats. "for the baby." she says as she recognized the confused stare.

"Oh. Um." Chris paused. In all the stress and panicking of the last two days he. Kinda didn't think about that. they didn't exactly have to worry about that in the helicopters so. kinda slipped his mind.

Mia rolls her eyes at that before moving to put Rose in her carrier. "If I'm going with you, you'll need to pick one up."

"Right..."Chris winced slightly. more expenses. great.

Getting back to the apartment took longer than expected because of this, Chris had to run to the store, buy what he hoped was the right thing. get it into the car. find out it didn't fit, take it back into the store, switch it out for a different one that did fit. get that into the car, got back to the BSAA headquarters, and THEN. and only then. was he able to get Mia to go with him and go back to the apartment.

"I'm home," Chris announces per usual as he walks in alongside Mia who was still very protectively holding Rose.

"Hey, welcome back," Emma says from the living room as duke could be heard barking from her room. As a cautionary measure, she made sure the pup would be out of reach to keep him from jumping and scaring the new guest and the baby. Emma got up and walks over and offers a hand to Mia. "It's nice to meet you."

"It's not nice to meet you, I don't want to be here," Mia says with an annoyed expression.

"Mia," Chris says with some level of sympathy. she did JUST lose her husband.

"Don't 'Mia' me," She says as she turns her Ire to him instead. "You're the last person that should be even SPEAKING to me." She says as her anger grows as she reaches out a hand to push Chris who takes a few steps back in response "YOU killed my husband." She accused as the emotional wound reopened from having to be around him. "If you had just left us alone none of this would have even happened. Everything was FINE." She further accused before Emma managed to step between the two.

It was odd seeing Chris so quiet and just taking that kind of abuse. "None of us are thrilled about this but screaming about it isn't gone to change any of that," Emma says trying to intervene though, not terribly successfully.

"Easy enough for you to say. Your's came back alive." Mia points out as rose starts to softly cry. "I got a coat and a bent-up ring. because of him," she says which causes Chris to wince and look away.

"That's enough," Emma says sternly. Chris might have a guilt complex about this but she sure didn't and there were going to be some ground rules in her apartment. "This is not a competition to see who has the biggest scar from what happened. No one is trying to say you weren't wronged in this. We're just trying to help." Emma says with a frown. "So either I can show you your room or you can go back to the BSAA. It's your choice."

Mia threw her free arm up into the air and stormed off back to the guest room and slammed the door shut. Luckily she guessed the right room.

Emma gave a tired sigh as she heard crying from behind the door. That. had not been her more masterfully handled situations... it had been a really long last few weeks and her nerves were unfortunately at their wit's end so being introduced to a woman that instantly started screaming at her and chris. That was never going to end well.

Chris looked between the door and Emma. it was probably better to give Mia some space... he walked forward a bit to hold Emma from behind as she moved to hold her forehead.

"Sorry," She says quietly. she'd apologize to Mia later. hopefully. They were going to have to figure out how to live with each other for at least a month...

"It's okay... she's just. it's. a lot." Chris replies quietly before leaning forward to giving Emma a peck "One step at a time,"

Emma nods. "Yeah," she replies and returns the peck. Heaven give her strength.

Hnnn Mia is probably the single most difficult character to write for. I probably when way too hard into the cranky crazy lady factor but please know I tried my best X'D next chapter will be cute again I promise but this one needed to introduce some conflict and consequences from the last chapter Lol

Review Responses:

starrat - glad you enjoyed it :) thanks for waiting so patiently for the story to continue.

Fsweet36 - It's not a problem, thanks for commenting all the same! I'm so glad that you've enjoyed the story so much. option C was certainly popular haha hopefully if you're interested in continuing to read you'll enjoy their lack of sleep X'D

Guest1995 - They are free of being punished but sadly they still have to work there. well. not have to but they got their jobs back. Chris HAS to work there to keep an eye on rose so he's still kinda stuck in that regard. I'm glad you liked the Jill cameo :) it was a treat to get to include her again. it was actually a last-minute addition so I'm really glad that it turned out the way it did. as for how many chapters. if I had to give a rough guess. maybe 24 more? that would give two years of Rose shenanigans and maybe enough time to intro baby piers? the longest I think I'll do is maybe 36 more chapters to cover 3 years. that would put Rose at an advanced age of 12 and i'd really need to stop or I'll be in RE9 territory.

SugarGlazed - ahh I'm not sure if you'll see this any time soon but it's been a treat to read your comments as you read U I've been reading along with you in a way by checking out the chapter as I get your comment.

xLunaxNightingalexDuskx - aw yey I'm so glad you enjoyed the story 3 3 ahh I'll have to see if I can work that idea in U that's such a cute scene. have them talk about it but be like. later. oh yeah no definitely later. then boop. it's now X'D