Hello hello~ who's ready for another chapter U/ I had a bit of a fun idea that I wanted to run by you guys. I just did a 'Reader appreciation' chapter over with the Heisenberg/OC story and I kinda wanna try and do the same thing here. The way that worked was I went through reader comments and tried to work in as many suggestions in one chapter. So if you have an idea that you'd like to have included for the chapter feel free to let me know and I'll add it to the list.

For those that want to participate but aren't sure what to suggest, here is a prompt. I think Chris and Emma have earned a vacation X'D What should they do to relax?

Song Suggestion: Rockabye by Clean Bandit feat. Sean Paul & Anne-Marie

Disclaimer: I own nothing, RE is owned by CapCom. This chapter will contain Some mention of Failure of Parental Duties, to put it nicely. Again if you made it through RE 7 and 8 you're probably going to be fine but for those that might not sit well with you probably know what's going to happen, see you next chapter.

It took the full week but Chris and Emma eventually got the house set up, including some additional security cameras, before moving Mia and Rose over. It wasn't a great feeling, knowing that they were quietly keeping an eye on Mia like this when there wasn't a ton of concrete evidence against her. The poor woman had it hard enough but something just wasn't right.

Emma gives a quiet sigh as she thinks about this while rinsing off the dishes to put them in the dishwasher. It had been two months now since Mia moved in with them, hopefully Chris would have some news when he got home about Mia getting her own place...

"Em emem," Rose babbles while toddling over and hugs her leg to regain her balance.

"Rosey~" Emma cooed which causes the child to giggle. she was only 9 months old but she had developed to the physical and mental capacity of maybe a one and a half year old. It was a bit strange but Chris had already explained that rose was a bit special since she was a bioweapon.

"eh!"Rose grumbled with a frustrated expression while pulling on Emma's pant leg.

"use your words Rosey," Emma says with a chuckle.

Rose gives a few more sounds of frustration before eventually speaking "ehup! up!" she says while holding her hands up and making a gripping motion.

Emma smiled at this, she really needed to get the sink cleaned out though. hm. She moves to pick up the child and helps her sit on the counter. "Bubbles?" Emma says which gets Rose's attention quickly.

Emma smiles before picking up the dish soap container flipping it upside down and back upright quickly before opening the cap and gently squeezing the plastic container. the air in the container pressed out hundreds of tiny little bubbles that floated around. Rose jolted from surprise at first before squealing and openly laughing and clapping.

"Rose? where did you go?" Mia says as she walks back into the room to see Rose sitting on the counter and clapping at the bubbles floating around. "There you are," Mia says as she walks over and picks up the child. "Why was she on the counter that's dangerous," Mia says with a scowl.

Yikes. "Sorry, she just seemed like she wanted to play is all," Emma explains as Rose continues to try and grab the bubbles as her mom holds her.

"Well, she's not YOUR kid so next time you want to do something like that you need to ask me first," Mia says with a frustrated frown before walking away with rose to head back up the stairs to the room they were staying in.

She gives a tired sigh and goes back to cleaning. Emma was just about done when she heard the garage door open. Oh thank heavens. She thought with a tired smile.

"I'm Home," Chris calls after closing the door behind him.

"Welcome home," Emma calls back to help him know where she is. and chuckles.

"You had dinner without me?" He says a bit confused.

"Sorry, Rose was getting cranky so we decided to go ahead and eat," Emma explained in return. Chris frowned slightly but nods and goes to put his plate together. "How was work?" Emma asks with an unsure expression. Chris forces a frown before tapping on his ear to point out Mia might hear them before taking out his phone.

"It was work," He says while poking at his phone. Emma digs her phone out of her pocket.

Monday, May 3rd, 7:21 PM

[Chris] Brought in the food samples. The Lab said it would take a week.

Emma nods and puts the phone away. "Well, hopefully, you had a good day all the same," she replies before giving him a peck on the cheek.

'*'*'*'*'

The wait for the lab results felt like torture. Tuesday rolled by and Chris took Mia and Rose with him to work for their monthly check-up with the doctors., Wednesday passed uneventfully and Thursday was about the same.

Emma was actually out walking Duke around the neighborhood for the afternoon. as she passed one of the neighboring houses a woman a bit older than Emma waves.

"youhou," says the woman.

"Hm?" Emma stops and signals for Duke to do the same. Suppose she should meet the neighbors.

"Hi, so nice to meet you," says the woman as she takes off her gardening gloves and offers a hand. "you just moved in a few doors down right?"

"Yeah, moved in a few weeks ago. Sorry I haven't introduced myself sooner." Emma says as she accepts the offered hand.

"Right of course. Just wanted to stop you since. well," she forced a wincing smile "couldn't help but notice that you guys haven't taken your trashcans back in yet as leader of the community watch, we generally put that out at 6 PM on Wednesday since pick up is on Thursday and have those back in by 6PM as well."

oh god, she was one of those neighbors. "Right," Emma says with a nod. "cool, yeah no, we'll start doing that then." She adds before forcing a smile in return. She was going to do that as soon as she got back from her walk with Duke and it was barely after 6. "Sorry I don't think I caught your name."

"Whoopsy. klutzy me," she says as she puts a hand over her heart. "Karen Blight," the woman answered with a more genuine smile. it honestly didn't look any different from the forced one.

Of course it was. "Great to meet you Karen, I'm Emma Swanson," Emma says and luckily the woman seemed to buy it. No wonder the previous owner was so interested in keeping the sale even with the hiccups. Every house had a catch...

"Emma, such a pleasure," says the woman before looking around a bit "Now I don't mean to pry but, what exactly is the living situation with your um. the community you've moved in with?"

"Pardon?"Emma asks confused.

"Well I've already met Mia and her little girl Lily"

"Rose" Emma corrects with a slight frown. I guess that makes sense. She and Chris would go to work and Mia would stay home with Rose, so Mia would have more opportunities to meet the neighbors.

"Right Rose," Karen says accepting the correction. "Well Mia was saying she's married to the gentleman of the house" Um excuse her? what? Emma was stunned to silence. "so you're... what. the live-in nanny or?" Karen asks while making a rolling motion with her hands to suggest she was looking for Emma to fill in the blank. "Again not to pry but I have happened to notice you kissing the mister a few times while on my morning constitutional and We generally try to avoid drama here so" Karen explained though that was a blatant lie as she seemed invested enough to ask for more details on the subject.

Emma gives a nervous laugh as she tried to process what she just heard. "That. WOW um, "She pushes back some of her hair. "Where to start with that. uh, No." that was probably a good place to start. "I'm not a live-in nanny. I think there was a little bit of a miscommunication. Mia's husband passes away a few months ago. Chris and I arethe couple of the house," Emma explains. "Her husband was a friend of Chris's so we're helping her until she can find a place to stay," Emma explains trying to assume the best here. Maybe the subject of being married came up and the neighbor assumed she meant Chris. Mia does still wear her wedding band after all and reasonably so.

"Well that's odd... that's not what she said at all," Karen replies confused. "I hope you don't mind my asking, it's an unusual situation to see two women a baby and one man share a house. People have been talking and their imaginations tend to get the better of them."

oh good lord. is that what the neighbors thought? that Mia was the baby mama and she's the side hoe? "Not at all, it's been a very, enlightening conversation..." Emma says as she just wanted to go home now. "I should go and take care of those trash cans."

"Right, of course, and remember, 6 o'clock," Karen says as she puts her gardening gloves back on to get back to work.

"6 o clock" Emma parrots back in parting with a wave and heads back to the house. she does take in the trashcans to avoid any further discourse with Karen. Emma let Duke into the house first after taking his leash off and hung it up by the front door before running a hand through her hair. how did she go about bringing this up? She was mad. she knew that she wasn't rational but frankly she was half ready to go slap someone. Breath. Relax. Nope, that wasn't working. The rage was still there, dang it all.

Just wait until Chris gets home, talk to him first. maybe he can calm me down, she thought as she goes over to wash her hands and start cooking. She was not a nanny. She grumbled a bit as she looked through a recipe book. Maybe a casserole. She was not in the mood to cook anything difficult. She shook her head and put in her earbuds to listen to some music. maybe that would help.

Chris looked at the time 6:41 PM he actually made it back at a decent time. Thursday usually was their training day, and it would be nice to have a bit of time together. That and they'd get to use those new mats they got for the basement. Sure they didn't have the money for putting up walls and moving water lines but, they could afford that much.

"I'm home," he says as he walks into the house through the garage door. no answer. He frowns a bit at that but closes the door behind him. "Em?" he calls and no answer. huh...

He walks around a bit to find her pacing around the kitchen with earbuds in. That explained it. He shook his head with a short chuckle. she always did have a hard time hearing anything else when she had those things in. He did promise that he wouldn't scare her again. He shakes his head and takes out his phone to send her a text letting her know he was home. If the phone scared her that was not his fault. he at least didn't jump scare her.

Emma notices the phone go off and checks it.

[Chris] You're music is a bit loud. I'm home.

a slight smile crosses her face as she takes the earbuds out and puts them down on the counter with her phone to look around. Upon seeing him she motions for him to come over. Unaware of the conversation to follow Chris heads over and Emma motions that they need to talk quietly which causes him to raise an eyebrow.

"So." Yeah this was not a comfortable conversation to have "I think Mia is telling the neighbors you're her husband."

"What?" he asks confused.

"Yeah cause one of them stopped me on my walk with Duke and asked if I was the live-in nanny, mentioned Mia told them you were her husband and warned me not to cause trouble because they thought you were having an affair."

"What?" he repeats having a similar reaction of needing time to process that. he moves to hold his forehead. he could feel a headache forming. He knew Mia wasn't exactly the most honest person, she lied to Ethan until the day he died, first that she was in Europe babysitting when she was actually working on the Evaline project with a group of bio-terrorists. Second that she wasn't involved in that at all and third that she was the one that insisted on the European safe house and to be in protective services so long as she promised to cooperate with the BSAA regarding the connection... Hell, she lied to everyone since she somehow knew about Ethan being made of mold when even Ethan didn't seem to know.

Actually, the more he thought about it the more this tracked... She lied more than she told the truth.

"Hey," Mia says casually as she walks in carrying an upset Rose. "Is dinner ready? Rose is getting cranky," she asks and the two look at her which pretty quickly makes her uncomfortable.

"Mia," Chris says with slight annoyance. "Why did you tell the neighbors we're married?"

"I didn't," she said nervously while avoiding eye contact and focuses on putting Rose in her high chair.

Chris simply stared her down with a frown while crossing his arms. "Okay, let's all head down the road to the neighbor and ask," he suggests. one of them was lying and he was willing to place a bet on which one it was.

"Fine!" she says annoyed that she got caught. "That woman was just so. frustrating!" she says while pacing around. "Who are you, who is that, I love your ring how long have you been married, what does your husband do. just. she wouldn't leave me alone," Mia says while still avoiding eye contact due to guilt. "It's still so difficult, processing that he's gone. I just want things to go back to how they were. I didn't want to have to say he's... so I lied okay?" She admits. "You have no idea what it's like," Mia says before storming off back up the stairs to her room.

"Please tell me they found her a place?" Emma asks quietly.

"They're working on it," Chris replies shaking his head. what a mess. and they only just moved in... It sucked that his mistake was taking more of a toll on her than it was on him. "Shouldn't be much longer..."

Great then the neighbors can make rumors that he kicked out his 'wife and child' for the 'nanny'. She frowned at this thought before a defeated sigh crossed her lips as she got dinner out of the oven. As much as she wanted to absolutely slap the woman, Emma also did meet Karen. It kinda made sense that Mia wouldn't want to admit to being a single mother if Karen was putting the same amount of judgemental pressure on her and wouldn't leave her alone. Emma kept repeating that in her head to try and get herself to believe that.

"I'll take a plate up to her in a few minutes," Emma says as she walks it over to the table.

"She can handle coming down here and getting her own food," Chris replies in return. "For now let's just try and-" he tried to say but was cut off by Rose's grumbles complaints turning into wailing cries.

Right, Mia ran off because she was upset... Emma hurries over to the pantry to get a container of baby food and heads back to the table. "Rosey, Rosey baby why are you crying," Emma cooed while trying to get the small glass container open.

Roses wailing turned into babbled crying and angry complaints.

"Aww that sounds so difficult for a little one," she replies even though nothing was really said. "Tell me all about it."

The babbling and angered cries continued which would be met with Mhms, oh really's, and My goodness 's until the container was able to be opened. The waterworks continued as she was fed but she quietly ate with a pouting frown. being an 9-month-old, one-and-a-half-year-old was a hard life.

Chris gives a tired sigh and takes a seat whiles Emma hurried off to get the baby food. She had that under control, so there was no need for both of them to worry about this. While he was grateful the crying stopped it brought up a new issue. "you know she's going to get cranky that you're feeding Rose..." he points out whiles dishing up a plate for each of them since Emma was busy.

"What am I supposed to do? Let the child go hungry? She can go ahead and be cranky, she shouldn't have run off like that when she knew her child needed food," Emma replies in return. The amount of sympathy she could feel for Mia was rather quickly diminishing. The baby food at least seemed safe since the safety seal wasn't cracked.

'*'*'*'*'

"Ethan," Chris says amused. " I gotta say, I'm surprised you made it this far." He admits. The guy never did pay attention during training. the fact he still had 8 fingers and all his toes was a miracle in and of itself. "It'd be a shame if something happened to you now."

"Sure Chris, Why not? you killed Mia!" Ethan accused. "Now do me and finish the job!"

Chris frowned at that. If this guy kept getting in the way he just might have to. He wordlessly pushed himself to stand up from his leaning position against the house in the reservoir and starts walking over to Ethan.

"Hey Cap, I'm getting some serious motion readings out here, We should move on." says Night Howl which causes Chris to stop and look at the man behind him.

"What kind of readings? what's moving?" Chris asks as he elects to ignore Ethan.

*GET OUT OF THERE

"Unknown, but my guess is we've been here too long, and Miranda knows it," Night Howl admits with a frown behind his gear.

"Hey, Hey did you say Miranda?" Ethan asks "How are you involved?"

Chris turns his attention back to Ethan and points at him "Leave it alone Ethan. You are out of your depth."

*STOP! JUST TELL HIM THE TRUTH

"What about the sample analysis?" Chris asks as he turns his attention back to Night howl.

"It's definitely related to the mold."

Ethan finally pushes himself to stand as Chris walks over to investigate an unusual sound as a large creature pops out of the water for a split second.

*GET OUT OF THERE MOVE!

Night howl walks around the outside of the house as Chris heads over to Ethan, pointing once more. "You stay out of our business, Ethan," he says in an accusing tone

"What business? I don't-"

"God! Watch out!" Chris shoves Ethan hoping to get him out of the way of the charging creature. only to get thrown back through a wall while flailing to try and keep his balance.

THWACK.

Emma yelped in pain as she was awoken by a flailing arm smacking into her gut, which knocked the wind out of her. OW, ow ouch. that one hurt. She rolled over a bit and held her stomach as she moved to get out of the bed. Usually, this wasn't an issue. Maybe once every few months but lately this was happening more frequently, she thought with a frown as she looked over to Chris who was in the middle of a night terror. It would be dangerous to wake him up, there was no telling how he'd end up reacting...

Whatever happened at that village really messed him up... That thought caused a sad frown to cross her face. They needed to do something about that. For now she waited for the episode to pass.

Chris continued to jerk around in his sleep as he tried to get out of the water and failed.

"It's your fault we're dead, it's your fault we're dead." Familiar voices chanted as he found himself surrounded by the people he'd lost throughout his different missions. Eventually, a hand grabbed him and pulled him out of the water.

Chris shouts as he wakes up and quickly sits up to look around panicking in a cold sweat. He jolts as he was not expecting to see Emma standing off to the side."Jesus" he says under his breath as he pushes back his fight or flight instinct and starts coming back to his senses and remembering where he was. "Emma?"

"Hey, You were having another episode," She whispers. "Are you okay?" she asks though the question was more so, 'Is it okay if I get back in bed, or are you still panicking?'

"Yeah," he says as he moves to hold his face and lay back down. Not again...

Emma walks back over and gets back into bed to lay next to him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

he shakes his head no.

"Okay," she replies with a yawn. "I know you're nervous about telling the BSAA about this but we need to try something... they're getting worse..."

Chris gives a tired sigh but nods and moves to hold her. "Alright. I didn't get you did I?"

"Just a gut check, it will heal up quick enough," She replies which causes him to frown. If he was anyone else, sure, but he punched boulders for heaven's sake. that wasn't an oh whatever it will heal when it heals. That's.

"What do you think will help?" He asks quietly to avoid accidentally shouting in her ear. As much as he really didn't want the BSAA to know about this. If he was getting worse he needed to do something.

"We can try and look up home remedies over the weekend..." Emma offers with a yawn. "For now, you're here, and you're safe. Try and get some sleep." She replies before trying to fall back asleep. They had work in the morning anyways. While Emma was able to eventually fall back asleep, Chris was not. He frowns at this as he flicks through his phone and turns it to dull lighting to avoid waking Emma up.

Friday, May 7th, 3:23 AM

Hopefully, he'd actually sleep well tomorrow... It's not that he wasn't tired he just couldn't fall back asleep. While he was poking around work emails a soft crying was heard from down the hall. Guess Rose woke up. Rather than becoming quieter, it grew more agitated and upset. What on earth. maybe Mia was just trying the 'sleep through it' method now. great.

Curiosity got the best of him and he flicked through the apps to the Security camera app to see what the ruckus was about. His eyes widened as he stared in shock to find Mia Sitting at her desk fully awake and holding Rose in one arm as she worked on writing down a report with a crystal baby arm sitting on the desk as well.

"what the hell," he says as he slowly moves to sit up to avoid waking Emma.

Once Mia finishes writing down her notes she picks up the limb from her desk puts it back into place and the arm reattaches to form back together as if nothing had happened. Mia smiles and goes back to her notes.

His expression hardened as he heard a soft ringing from down the hall. Mia put down her pen to stand up and start walking around while bouncing the baby to get her to stop crying and answers the phone.

"damn it," Chris mutters under his breath before quietly getting out of bed and flipping his phone to a recording mode, and sneaks down the hall.

"The results are looking promising. she has full reconnective functions," Mia whispers quietly. "The advanced aging isn't as bad as Evaline's but it's still an issue."

Chris continues to quietly listen. That snake, even after all this time she was still working with the connection.

"The extraction with Miranda didn't go to plan. Once I'm not under surveillance we can try again," Mia whispers to the phone. "I should be available for the next Saturday drop-off, try and bring a two month supply, I don't know how much longer this is going to be. It's bad enough she's advanced as far as she has, if she keeps this up people are going to notice..."

Yeah, they already did, Chris thought with a sneer. as much as he wanted to rush in and take her phone to figure out who she was talking to, he didn't want to tip off the connection that their line was compromised. if he brought Mia into work then found out where she was meeting for this drop off they might get a better lead than what was most likely the number for a burner phone.

He stopped recording and slowly went back to his room where he sent the security footage and audio recording to several people within the BSAA to make sure that it wouldn't get swept under the rug and mentioned he'd be bringing in Mia for questioning and Rose for her own protection.

He was exhausted by the morning but he couldn't just fall asleep. he continued keeping an eye on the two to make sure nothing else happened and to be ready to jump in if he had to risk losing the lead.

By 6 he went to go and take a shower. and went downstairs to wait there with a cup of coffee. Emma Joined him almost an hour later as she got ready to walk duke for the morning. "hey, you're up early. did you get any sleep?" she asks concerned.

"not a wink," he replied as the bags under his eyes would have given away any lie he attempted to tell.

"maybe we can look into those sleep remedies after work instead then." Emma offers and he nods.

"is Mia up?" he asks and she shakes her head no.

"Nah, but she's not usually up for a little while longer," Emma says, his clock must be off from the rough night. "I'll be back in a few minutes if you want a warm breakfast."

He shakes his head. "I can take care of it, just worry about Duke."

"If your sure," she was kinda worried he'd end up burning anything he made because of how tired he was but he was more than free to try. A quick jog around the block later and Emma made it back to find that, Chris actually did end up making food for everyone. Scrambled eggs and toast. She chuckled a bit at that, hopefully, he wasn't doing this because he felt bad about the night terror. Honestly, she was fine it just knocked the wind out of her.

Emma free's Duke from his leash before taking care of feeding him then joins Chris at the table. "Looks tasty," she says as she hears shuffling feet coming down the steps.

"Morning" says a very tired mia who walks over to the fridge to get out a container of apple sauce and spoons some of that out into a bowl.

"Morning" Chris greets as mia walks over with the bowl before putting Rose in the high chair and starts feeding her. "Anyone have plans for the weekend?"

"I have those swim lessons with Rose on Saturday," Mia says unaware that Chris overheard her phone call. "I'm going to need to borrow a car."

"Mkay, you can use mine," Emma offers as usual.

So that's how she was meeting with the connection without him noticing... God damn it. "Ah, almost forgot. I got an email earlier. the BSAA lost your test samples from Tuesday. they need you to come back in for a re-examination."

Mia frowned at that. "Really? How incompetent can one organization be."

"Don't shoot the messenger," he says raising his hands.

"Considering you shot me multiple times in front of Ethan that maybe wasn't the best saying to go with," She points out while glaring daggers at him.

Yeah, that one was kinda fair. "Look, I'll drop you off at the house again during lunch so you don't have to stay the whole day okay?" he offers, "they said to bring you in for today, it won't be a full re-examination, just the samples."

"Fine," Mia says before shifting her focus from feeding Rose, to eating her own breakfast.

phew, this just might work. "Thanks," Chris replies and eats his own meal before grabbing his lunch from the fridge while Mia packed a day bag. Chris gives Emma a peck on the side of the head. "I might be a bit late tonight."

"Don't worry about it, it happens," she replied with a forced smile. it wasn't great that he worked late so often but, if he was going to be dropping Mia off at home during lunch it was probably going to mess with his work schedule so it made sense.

Chris eventually makes his way to his car with Mia and Rose and from there he escorts the two to the BSAA HQ where he hoped everything was ready for them. He followed the usual protocol for bringing her in for a medical check-up and left her in one of the patient rooms before going to check on that.

Once he had the green light that an investigation was approved and a room was set up for questioning, Chris gives the signal for the doctor to lead Mia to the questioning room.

"Rose? what the hell, give me back my baby, what are you doing with her."

"Funny I feel like I should be asking you that," Chris says as he puts down not only the lab report that confirmed that she was putting something in Rose's food but a photo of the security recording where Rose's crystalized arm was left on her desk.

"... I think I'd like to talk to a lawyer," Mia says quietly.

"You're gonna need a damn good one," Chris says as he gets up and walks out of the room.

"Well." the director asks as he was waiting outside.

"She wants a lawyer," Chris says with a frown.

"Of course she does," The director replies with a frown.

Chris hesitates but eventually speaks, "What's going to happen to the kid," he asks and the director shakes his head.

"She's Government property at this point. She's not exactly going back to her mother after the evidence you brought in and her mother's history with using children for scientific experiments. Can't hand her off to a next of kin, she's a Bioweapon. and can't really put her into the foster care system for the same reason."

Oh god damn it all. "What about me?" Chris asks before he could really think about it. Emma was going to kill him for not talking to her about this first...

"What about you?" the director asks confused with a raised eyebrow.

"Someone is going to need to look after her." Chris points out.

it takes the director a moment but he eventually speaks. "You want the kid," He asks with disbelief.

"I promised I'd look after her," Chris replies, which causes the director to shake his head. "Look, I'm already trained to work with Bio-weapons, I know what she is, I've already spent the last few months watching over her and she's going to need constant monitoring if the connection is after her."

"Alright Redfield, you made your point," the director says with a tired sigh. "Technically, yes. you would be able to apply since you have proper clearance, should Mia be deemed unfit to be a mother. which at this point. It's really just a matter of hours before that call is made. We have two counts of child endangerment and a recording of her admitting to assisting with her own daughter's kidnapping with plans to do so again in the future. She's not coming back from this one."

"I'll fill out the papers then," Chris says and the director nods.

"I'll have my secretary send them over once the call is made," the director agrees. He was an asshole and a jerk but even he didn't think the kid deserved this. If Chris was willing to watch over her permanently so be it. It's not exactly like the BSAA headquarters was equipped with a full-time nursery.

Chris did end up staying late as he waited for the paperwork to be available. He filled it out, sent it in, and with that made his way home. He walked in through the garage door and closed it behind him. it took him a second but he spoke. "I'm home."

"Welcome home," She replies as always. He walked into the house to find that she was on the couch with Duke. Emma put her laptop down on the coffee table before looking around a bit curiously. why was he staying in the hallway? Wait... "Where are Mia and Rose? I thought you were dropping them off at lunch? are they not with you?" oh no, what if someone kidnapped them again?

"They're still at the BSAA," He replies. She was relieved in a way but still concerned.

"What happened? are they sick?" she asks since the last she knew, they were going in for a medical checkup.

"No, no they're not sick," Chris replies. He knew he wasn't really supposed to tell her but, she was involved at this point and she probably won't accept 'it was work' as an answer. "The results came back for the samples. She was putting an unknown substance in. They're still trying to determine what it was exactly, but it does appear to be a similar compound to the medication we found in Louisianna that Evaline was taking. I found evidence on the security cameras that she was likely experimenting on Rose as well while we were sleeping."

She didn't need much more of an explanation than that, Chris mentioned most of this Louisiana stuff back when he told her about what happened in the village. "Well, now I wish I decked her before, god damn it," Emma grumbled with a harsh frown. "If I see her again I am going to punch her."

"Emma," Chris says in a slight warning tone.

"I said it and I meant it," Emma doubled down with a frustrated frown. 'Emma' her when there was some jerk experimenting on a baby under their nose. "...What about Rose?"

Chris rubbed at the back of his neck. how did he bring this up?

"Chris," Emma says with a concerned tone.

Come on just rip off the band-aid. you're adopting your dead friend's orphaned child and didn't ask about it first. see easy enough to say... maybe he should lead into that a bit more gently... "Normally, in this case, she'd be considered government proper-"

"Absolutely not," Emma says horrified. "Nope, no. She is not bouncing around in foster homes, I won't hear it. I know we said the whole family thing is not a 'now' scenario but"

"Let me finish," Chris says cutting her off in return while trying not to laugh from relief. That actually just made this conversation much easier. He walked over at this point and took a seat next to her as he spoke. "Normally she'd be considered government property because her parents are both out of the picture and she has no next of kin since her parent's families are not in the picture and can not get involved due to the fact she's a bioweapon," Chris explains while Emma frowned. "However, I sent in an application to be considered as a potential legal guardian for her since I have proper security clearance and already know about her existence."

"Oh thank god," Emma says as she relaxes and rests her elbows on her knees so she can hold her face. "She's gone through enough, she doesn't deserve that..."

"Yeah..." Chris places a hand on Emma's back and gently rubs his thumb along her spine in an attempt to help her relax, to assure her he was there.

"When do you find out?" Emma asks.

"It might be a few weeks. It depends on how quickly things go with Mia's case," Chris replies and Emma nods.

'*'*'*'*'

Just like Chris said, it did end up taking a few weeks. Mia refused to give up her contact location in time and with that, the connection slipped away once more. By the 28th he came home with a slightly older Rose clinging to him for dear life since he was the first familiar face she'd seen in 3 weeks. He walked into the house and closed the door behind him. "... We're home" he calls while gently placing Rose down who quickly toddled forward around the welcomingly familiar space.

"Em ememem," she babbled and hurried into the house.

Hearing the tiny voice caused Emma to quietly gasp and quickly drop what she was doing. She hurried over and pick up Rose to coddle her while crying from joy knowing that the child was safe now. She would never be used as a weapon or experiment again. They would make sure of it.

Rose has officially joined the family. Tis bittersweet, she's safe and will be well cared for but it's still an unfortunate situation so it feels a bit weird to be like 'wohoo this horrible thing happens isn't that great'. but yeah Emma and Chris are now Legal Guardians.

Review Responses:

Fsweet36: Mia is being Mia OTL

Wildcat717: So glad you're enjoying the story ^U^ I hope the chapter was worth the wait

Starrat: glass as always to hear you're enjoying the story ^U^ thanks for the support!