Hey guys~ I'm glad to be back with another chapter. The next chapter is going to be the reader appreciation chapter. I need to do this one first because of plot reasons and boi is it thick with cute content lol. Also as a slight update, I have a Twitter now x'D I'm going to be posting doodles of scenes and other items of potential interest like building blueprints and silly pictures as requested. For my fellow Chris fans, we have Rocker Chris complete with chains, dog collar, and enough lap space for a friend lmao if you wanna check that out its FanNaticWriter
Song Suggestion: A Million Dreams by P!nk
Disclaimer: I own nothing :) Capcom owns resident evil I am just borrowing it to add some extra context to the lore they provided and or the lack thereof X'D fair waiting Chris is going to be explaining some of his PTSD in this and that includes survivors' guilt. You'll probably be able to tell when it is about to start it's pretty blatant. if you'd prefer to skip that then move down to the '*'*'*'*' once you notice him trying to bring up the subject.
Having the addition of Rose to the household took a bit of planning, it was short notice but both Chris and Emma were able to take Monday off to try and give themself a bit of extra time to make a plan and pick up some additional supplies before Tuesday rolled around.
"Okay, you have everything? The day bag?" Emma asks as Chris picks up Rose.
"Yes, I have everything, and the day bag is in the car with the other supplies," he says as he gives a short chuckle.
"Are you sure you'll be okay taking her to work with you every day? we could always trade-off if it gets to be too much..." Emma says as she's clearly a bit nervous about this since it was the first day of dealing with rose and working.
"We went over this, She's still a bio-weapon, and we don't know what that means exactly. She needs to be under BSAA Supervision,"
"She's going to have to be around people outside of the BSAA eventually," Emma points out in return.
"And when she is she'll be supervised," He replies before walking over to give her a quick peck. "I got to head out or I'm going to be late."
"Fine," Emma replies with a slight frown. He wasn't listening at all. Rose wasn't always going to have someone around to watch her, it wasn't realistic... "Travel safely," she says as she returns the peck. "I should head out too."
"Right," he says with a nod. Well, at least she understood. With that he heads out to the car and gets rose set up in her car seat. luckily he had a bit of practice with that infernal contraption over the last few months. "This is gonna be a piece of cake. right?" he asks rose while holding up a hand. she gives it a tiny pat and he smiles "right." see how hard could this be?
Chris drove the two to the BSAA HQ and parked in his usual spot before taking rose out of her seat to get the day bag and supplies from the trunk. Two decently large boxes. He forced a neutral expression as the math didn't add up. he needed at least one hand to hold onto Rose to lead her into the building and the boxes were not going to fit under one arm... he looks from the boxes to rose "this is Karma isn't it..." he asks and the kid just stares at him. He gives a tired sigh as he switches which side the bag was on. at least he only had to figure this out once. it was like that stupid boat puzzle where you had to get 3 animals across a river but they all wanted to eat each other.
He eventually has the day bag on the same arm he was using to hold rose's hand while using the other hand to hold the two large boxes like oversize pizza boxes and balanced them haphazardly on the palm of his free hand. He stared at the open trunk. "Son of a bi-"He looked to rose "ishop..." This was going to be harder than he thought...
A juggling act later of putting the boxes on the ground then closing the truck and then kneeling to try and pick them back up the same way as before had to occur before he was able to try and make his way into the building with a bit of a hustle in his step. he was already running late.
As if on cue, right as he was about to make it to the next obstacle of opening the front door, the boxes toppled over causing the day bag to slide off his shoulder and smack into rose which caused her to start crying. "Shiii-in." He kneels down again to re-shoulder the back as rose quickly clung to him while crying. He was definitely late now. He hushed the child while trying to restack the two boxes with his free hand.
"Captain Redfield, sir?" Says an unfamiliar voice as a man with the beginnings of graying hair walked over. "Did you need a hand?" he asks and Chris nods.
"yeah... actually that would be great." He reluctantly admits as he picks up Rose who was still sniffling and babbling an occasional complaint of ouch or owy.
"Not a problem," he says as he walks over and picks up the deceptively lightboxes. "That's the kid everyone's talking about yeah? the Eveline project 2.0?"
"It's hard to say if she's exactly a second attempt at the project but, yeah her mother worked on the original project," Chris says as he opens the door with his free hand and the two walk into the building and to the elevator.
"Yeah, I remember. er. well, that's to say. I was on the Baker incident before," the man explains as they enter the elevator to head up to the floor that Chris's office was on.
"You were on that mission?" Chris asks with a raised eyebrow which causes the man to give a short laugh.
"Yeah. It was a while ago so, it's cool if you don't really remember. I was kinda still a rookie at the time too so," He says while feeling a bit awkward. "I just kinda. stuck to the background I guess."
"Right," Chris replies with a raised eyebrow. "What was your name again?" He asks as they make their way out of the elevator and to Chris's office.
"Gary, sir." the man replies promptly while following him.
Yeah he didn't remember this guy at all... maybe he was on a different squad? Cause his team for the Lucas incident was a near-total wash. "You weren't on the Lucas mission right?"
"Oh god no, that, I heard that was a blood bath," Gary admits shaking his head. "Nah I haven't really gotten to do much in regard to, high-profile missions or nothing. Mostly just assisting with the recon teams."
phew okay, "Sounds like good honest work," Chris replies as they make their way into the office and Chris puts down Rose in his chair and the day bag on his desk so he could take the boxes from Gary. "Thanks for the hand," he says, and gray nods.
"Hey when there's a crying child you do what you can," Gary says before swallowing the lump in his throat, "Actually um, you know I was wondering. I've been interested in trying to have a more, active role, within the BSAA." Gary says as he tried shooting his shot. "Nothing crazy like jumping from an assistant to some high-profile end of the world stuff like the advanced op teams but. if you know anyone that's looking for an extra set of hands around here. I wouldn't mind moving around a bit."
oh boy. "I'll keep that in mind," he was probably going to forget in 3 days.
"Thanks," Gary says with a smile before moving to leave, "have a good day." he says before quickly heading out as he became nervous once more.
"You too," Chris says to the empty doorway before shaking his head. He wasn't Human Resources, he didn't have control over what department hired who.
"You stop a few apocalypses and everyone thinks you run the place," Chris says under his breath as he moves to start opening the first of the boxes and took out parts for a thick plastic kid's activity table that looked more like a multi-color desk. He frowns as a package of screws fell out of the box as well.
some assembly required.
He moves to hold his face. he thought it would just, fit together not that he needed a tool kit. it's a Kid's table for heaven's sake. he dug through his pocket for his knife before sitting down with the parts and started putting the table together that way by using the flat of his pocket knife as a screwdriver. Chris had barely put the first leg on when he heard Rose giggling and the sound of fluttering pages.
"Nope!" he quickly closed the knife and pockets it before getting up and hurrying over to find that rose had gotten out of the chair and opened his desk drawer where he stored his paperwork. To pass the time she decided to try and 'reorganize' and by that she just, threw everything she could grab and giggled as it slowly floated down to the ground.
He gave a quiet groan as he pinched the brow of his nose. this was going to take forever to clean up. "Come on tiny terror, that's enough of that," he says as he picks her up.
Rose loudly complains as she was taken away from the fun draw and starts to cry again as he closed it with his foot.
Chris struggles to keep ahold of the child that was switching between flailing her arms and legs and playing dead weight while leaning back to get away from him while wailing to make sure it was known she was not happy. He put her back down on the chair and uses his knee to make sure that the drawer stays shut while digging out his keys since Rose quickly slides out of the chair and started pulling on the drawer.
"Rose, no," He chides and she frowns and continues to cry as he locks the other side of the desk. He sat back down on the floor by the kid's table parts and went back to work on putting that together. There was a screaming child in his office, which was now a mess, and he was putting together a jigsaw puzzle from hell... This was his life now. How did this happen? by this time last week, he would have been halfway through his emails by now after dropping off his lu-
He forgot lunch.
He moves to rest his head against the wall behind him. Takes a deep breath and sighs. He did not have this. Sure he raised Claire for a bit but she was a teenager at the time and his sister. This was different.
"What did I get myself into," he mumbles to himself as he takes a moment to recollect before getting back to work. It took a good 40 minutes but he eventually was able to get the table set up and went over to the day bag to dig out some of the toys and such that they packed for rose. He blinks a few times from confusion as he noticed an extra bag inside. his lunch bag.
He moves to hold his face while chuckling before he opens it to see if whatever was in there was still good to eat. it had his usual Tupperware, a container of baby food, an ice pack that was doing its job, and a sticky note that was half falling apart because of the water from the cold pack.
have a good first day.
He closed up the bag with a bit of a smile as he relaxed slightly. Chris dug out the toys and activity books for Rose who was still giving an occasional angry grumble from her pouting place under Chris's desk. "Rose, do you want to play with your toys?"
"NO," she replies from under the desk. He frowns while grumbling. he needed to get to work he was already an hour behind schedule. He walks around to take his seat while sitting a fair way away from his desk since Rose was under it and starts digging through his emails. one, in particular, caught his attention.
Upcoming Away Mission
"Oh no..." He opens the email to read it over. He would need to leave early on Friday, June 4th. Okay so he had a mission in 4 days. wait. no 3 days because it's Tuesday not Monday. ... I mean. it was kinda 2 days since he had to leave early on Friday and he wouldn't really have time to prep for this until he got home later today so. They only had the kid for 3 days and this was already turning into a pretty big problem. How was he going to watch Rose while going on missions? With the reappearance of Heisenberg, he'd have at least one week away a month for the foreseeable future.
He couldn't just leave rose with Emma, that was strictly out of the question. Rose was still being targeted, if the connection found out that Emma was the only thing standing between Rose and them, she'd be a goner there was no doubt in his mind. And he couldn't just leave Rose at the HQ for weeks on end either. the last bioweapon fiasco had him doing mini sprints for 4 months straight. The director already said the place was not equipped to be a daycare.
Chris read over the email again before clicking around through files. It had to be in here somewhere. it took a good 20 minutes to find the file he was looking for. during this time Rose finally decided to leave her pouting place and explore a bit more around the enclosed space. Whiles she does this Chris takes out his cellphone and quickly dials up the number he found before placing it to his ear and waiting for an answer.
"Hello," says a man's voice from the other side of the phone.
"Hey Barry," Chris says with a slight pause, it had been a while since they talked but he was the only person Chris could think to go to. "It's Chris. I could use your help."
"Chris I'm retired, I can't go off on some crazy mission around the world." He replies with a tired tone.
"No that's not it, this time," Chris says with a slight frown as he realized his thought about how people don't talk to him unless there was a mission, kinda applied to him too. Barry had always been there for him back when he first got started and this was the first time he was reaching out in years. "I need your help." he says putting a bit more emphasis on the word 'I' to show it wasn't about work. Kinda.
"Huh... Well okay, fire away." Barry asks with some level of concern. This was the first he heard from the kid in years and it was a call for help.
"My friend died, his wife got arrested and now I'm raising their kid," Chris lists off "And I have no idea what I'm doing," he admits as Rose starts climbing her way onto his lap. so she can hold out a toy to him.
"Wow that's a lot," Barry replies as he moves to run a hand through his thinning hair. "Shit kid, when did all this happen? I mean I heard about the trial but."
Chris groans as he leans to rest his head on the back of his chair. "You heard about that?"
"Yeah, anyone who is anyone in the BSAA knew about that," Barry says and gives a slight pause. "That and Jill called because at least one of you actually has the decency to call and check on their squad dad every once in a while."
"Sorry," Chris says with a slight frown.
"Yeah sure," Barry says amused as sympathy returns to his tone. "So, how can I help?"
He finally sits back up and accepts the toy that Rose offered him. "The kid is a bioweapon... and I have to leave on a mission on Friday. I can't leave her with the BSAA, They're not equipped for that with such short notice and I can't just leave her with Emma, it's too risky."
"Mhm," Barry says with a nod. "There's an Emma in this equation?" he asks with mild curiosity.
"It's a long story but, yeah," he says with a slight nod as he notices rose reaching for the toy she just gave him so he gives it back. "She is a lot better at this, kids stuff, than I am... If Rose wasn't a target and dangerous in her own regard this would be fine, but we don't know what she's capable of yet and there's no telling how much the organization that's after her knows about her location."
"Yeah... that is the hard part of this line of work, having to leave," Barry replies with a short sigh. he knew that well enough, he had to run off and leave his wife and kids a few times. and a few more times than he really ever should have.
Rose watches Chris before holding the toy to the side of her head to imitate him which causes him to chuckle for a moment.
"Yeah... Look I know it's short notice... but could you keep an eye on the two of them while I'm gone. Just this once while I work out a better plan... I was only just given custody of Rose a few days ago and I haven't had the time to put a plan together for this...
"Alright, I'll run it by the misses and see what she says and get back to you," Barry agrees, it was a bit much but the guy sounded like he could really use the extra piece of mind.
"Thanks," Chris replies as he watches Rose walk around his office while holding her toy to her ear.
'*'*'*'*'
The day went on for a while after that and the next day wasn't any easier. Rose was proving to be a curious one and with that, she was adept at getting into trouble. "We're home" Chris says as he puts Rose down so she can hurry into the house.
"Welcome home," Emma replies while setting the table. "How did today go?"
"She found the trashcan very interesting..." Chris replies while following the child into the living room to make sure she didn't get into something again. "and Crayons were maybe not our best idea." he adds after, He was about to sit down when he noticed Rose starting to hurry out of the living room. great. He stopped mid-motion to continue following her.
"Oh no... she didn't draw on the walls did she?" Emma asks concerned while trying not to laugh. it wasn't funny, he was stressed... it was kinda funny.
"oh no she didn't draw on them, she destroyed them. I don't think that's ever coming out..." He explained while leaning on the back of the couch and watching as rose ran around with a See 'n Say that she grabbed from a basket of toys in the living room.
"I think there's some chemical that you can use to get it out." she offers with a sympathetic frown.
as they talked Rose ditched the See 'n say in favor of hurrying over to pick up one of duke's dog toys. she was half a second from putting it in her mouth when Chris hurried over and picked it from her hands. "Nope," He says while taking it which causes Rose to grumble and go back to her other toy. "and I tried that... they're going to repaint with a more kid-resistant paint..."
Emma nods while continuing to watch the two. Rose would hurry around and Chris wasn't far behind her. "Oh my gosh," She says as a realization came to mind and a smile started to form on her face.
"hm? what's wrong?" Chris asks as he looks over curiously.
At this point, Emma was failing as she tried to hold back laughter. "You're a helicopter parent," She says with an ear-to-ear grin.
it took Chris a second as he stared at her. "Really?"
"Get it? Cause you fly helicopters," Emma says amused "and you're hoveri-oh shot" As she was explaining Chris was already on his way over.
"No get back over here," Chris says as he follows after the laughing woman and he was now trying not to laugh as well. It wasn't funny dang it. "We have not been watching the kid long enough for parent puns to start cropping up."
"It's too late, it's happening," Emma jokes as he manages to catch her waist with an arm and hold her back against his chest as they both chuckled. "I am doomed to the life of puns like my father before me."
Chris shakes his head as he gives her a peck. Emma smiles as she leans against him enough to be able to return the peck. A peck turned to a kiss, then another that grew more passionate between each pause for air. How long had it been now? Months? At least. They haven't really had time alo-
"The elephant says Toot!" says the speak and spell before trumpeting like an elephant.
Right... they both stopped and looked over to see Rose happily playing with her toy. Chris grumbles a quiet curse. They probably weren't going to have time to themselves for a while. Usually by the time Rose was asleep they were both exhausted.
"Maybe later?" Emma says with an attempt at a smile as she seemed to come to the same realization.
"yeah," he says shaking his head. He helps Emma with getting dinner on the table and the two enjoy their meal. Emma swaps between taking a bite of her own food and feeding Rose to keep the child appeased while they talk.
"By the way, I have a mission coming up," Chris says as he finally heard back from barry earlier that day.
"Oh," Emma says with a slight frown. "how long are you going to be gone?"
"A week tops, it's a short trip but there's a few days of quarantine," Chris replies as he gets up to start clearing the table.
"When do you head out?" she asks curiously as she gets up to let rose out of her chair and Rose quickly hurries off to go find a toy to play with.
"Friday morning," Chris says as he puts the dishes in the sink and starts cleaning them.
"That soon?" Emma says surprised as she gathers the last of the dishes and works on putting the leftovers away. "Okay um. we'll figure this out. I can talk to my boss about it in the morning."
"I have it taken care of," Chris replies with a frown as he remembered her boss from the corporate picnic from last year. "An old Friend of mine is going to be keeping an eye on her. He's a Retired BSAA agent so he should be okay."
"Oh, uh. when is he going to be here then?" Emma asks a bit surprised. This was all very short notice but at least he was kind of telling her about it ahead of time instead of just showing up at the door and explaining at the same time like usual.
"Sometime late tomorrow," Chris replies in return.
"Huh here I thought you were going to say he was already at the door," Emma says with a laugh and nudges Chris Who chuckles at that.
"Luckily no," Chris replies before drying off his hands on the hand towel now that the clean-up process was done.
"I'll see if I can get home early tomorrow and get everything set up for a guest," She says in return as she closes up the fridge.
"Thanks," Chris says in return before walking with her to the living room. Emma set up the baby gate to keep Rose in the living room with them so they could keep an eye on her while they relaxed. It had been a while since they were able to just exist in the same room without worrying about something or working on another. They were finally going to be able to slow back down and breathe.
The two lay on the couch together to watch a movie. Once comfortably resting and enjoying the movie the tiny tot walked over to the couch with a plush monkey in hand.
"Up!"Rose says while trying to climb onto the couch with them but it was difficult to do while holding her toy.
Emma Chuckles at this as she and Chris help her onto the couch. Emma shifts so that she could hold Rose without digging her hip into Chris. Even Duke got in on the cuddling as he climbed onto the couch and curled up at their feet. While Chris had hoped maybe he and Emma could pick up where they left off after Rose went to bed, that didn't seem like it was going to happen since after a good 20 minutes he noticed that they had both fallen asleep.
He chuckles for a moment. This was kinda nice. The thought crossed his mind that maybe he should let Claire know that the two, now three, of them were adjusting well enough to their new living situation. He would have dug out his own phone but it was in his pocket and that would definitely wake them up if he tried to dig it out. Instead, he kept on arm around the two, to keep them from falling off of him as he shifts to reach over and grab Emma's phone from the coffee table. After taking a quick picture of the newly formed family to send to claire he smiled a bit at the image before flicking over to messages and opened the one for Clarie only to stare at the last message confused. his smile fell to a more neutral expression...
[Emma] I just hope he doesn't forget about me...
What?
He scrolls up a bit to try and figure out what that was about. It was kinda snooping but, it was a concerning message to see all the same.
Friday, May 7th, 2021 9:48 AM
[Emma] Chris Report: His Night Terrors are getting worse.
[Claire] That's not good... He's going to talk to someone about it right? a doctor?
[Emma] I don't think he's going to no... We're going to try and look up some home remedies once he gets home.
.
That's right... he forgot about that in the hurry to get everything taken care of with the Mia situation, then he had a mission right after, and it just. fell to the wayside. he kept scrolling.
[Claire] Okay, let me know how that goes. Luckily he didn't get amnesia again...
[Emma] Again? what do you mean again?
[Claire] Crap, kinda figured he would have mentioned that. um. He got PTSD-induced Amnesia a few years back. I think it was 2012? the BSAA lost track of him in Edonia for 6 months.
[Emma] They LOST him? how do you misplace an entire person?
[Claire] I only heard bits and pieces through phone calls. They ended up finding him at some bar somewhere in Eastern Europe. Losing his memories took its toll I guess. The BSAA isn't really great at monitoring mental health. they just picked him up with amnesia and threw him back into the field. he got his memories back eventually though. At least most of them I think.
[Emma] That's horrible...
[Claire] You should talk to him about it. he'll know more about it than me.
[Emma] Yeah... I don't know I mean I do what to know more but it's not for me to force him to relive that... He'll talk to me about it when he's ready... god well, That explains why he wakes up from his night terrors so confused.
[Claire] That could be it. yeah. it was never properly treated...
[Emma] I just hope he doesn't forget about me...
.
Chris looks over the messages with a frown. Damn it, Claire. He clicked at the keyboard to send a message to claire from Emma's phone.
[Emma] [Photo of Chris holding a sleeping Emma and Rose who were resting on him]
[Emma] Chris report: We're doing okay. -Chris
He puts the phone back before nudging Emma to get her to wake up... he should talk to her.
"Hmm?" she grumbles as she slowly wakes up. "Hm. Sorry. I fell asleep," she said though that was kinda obvious.
"Yeah, Rose passed out too, we should put her to bed while she's out," Chris whispers... how to bring this up... Emma nods before carefully sitting up while shifting her hold on the child so she could get up and carry the little girl While Chris followed behind the two.
Emma tucks the little one in before quietly leaving the room and closing the door behind her as gently as possible to avoid waking her up. "There we go, sound asleep and tucked in," she whispers with a tired smile. "Suppose we should get some rest too, we have a long day ahead of us."
"Probably a good idea," he agrees as they go through their own nighttime routines of caring for Duke, brushing their teeth, and such. He continued to wonder how to breach the subject as they got ready to settle in for the night. The two got into bed and He finally finds the will to speak. "Hey Em?"
"mhm?" she replies sleepily with a yawn as she snuggles up to him, ready to go back to sleep.
maybe now wasn't the right time... but still. a quiet half-hearted single laugh passed his lips. "you're pretty tired, huh? You and Rose passed out pretty quickly down there."
Emma chuckled a bit at that. "I'm surprised you didn't," she offers in return "it was pretty cozy"
"Hm true, if I did who would have sent Claire a Chris report though," He says as he chuckles at her comment. Okay, this was going well so far.
"You sent your sister a Chris report?" Emma asks with tired amusement. "Wait did you actually call it that too?" she teased though she keeps her eyes shut.
"Yep," he admits which causes her to chuckle again more genuinely. Okay, ease into the subject. "I hope it's okay I borrowed your phone, I didn't want to risk waking you guys."
"Yeah that's fine," she says as it didn't click that he would have seen her messages to Claire.
"Okay," come on, you can do this. "While I was doing that, I did end up seeing a few messages of yours to Claire... about the Amnesia." He admits.
That woke her up. her eyes instantly opened but she stayed in place. "oh..."
"Do you mind if I talk a bit?" he asks quietly and tries to figure out how to reply.
"I don't mind," Emma replies and waits. "You know you don't have to though right."
"I know," he replies as he keeps an arm around her waist. "It's definitely not easy to talk about... but You know now so I think it's important to explain."
Emma nods and waits as he thinks over his words.
"I can't really go into detail but, I was in charge of a team of 5 others. one of them, Finn. He'd only just joined the BSAA earlier that year. I got cut off from him and 3 others. I had to watch them and turn into these creatures... It was a trap the whole time. I should have been in there with them..." He says quietly as he still felt some guilt for the incident. "The cage opened, the 4 mutants got out and... I hesitated. I don't really remember much of what happened after getting knocked out but... There was only one other person there so I have to assume that the last remaining member, Piers Nivans, dragged me out of there. I owe him my life. twice over." he says with a frown, he was getting a bit ahead of himself.
"That's where things start getting a bit fuzzy though... I don't know how long I was out but, I woke up in a hospital somewhere in eastern Europe. I remember being, confused." he explained, "I didn't know who I was, Where I was, or why I was there but there was this overwhelming sense of guilt. That the fact I was alive was wrong for some reason... Any time I tried to figure out why I felt that way all I'd see was blood, death, and decay as the feeling got worse."
Chris paused to take a breath. "I started taking work as a bodyguard to pay for rent, I didn't really care about my own safety, I started smoking, drinking excessively. anything that could either kill me faster or numb the constant waking nightmares," he admitted quietly. "I kept getting these flashbacks. of moments in my life where I had to watch people I knew and cared about die because of me... at least, it always felt like it was my fault. if I had just been there a bit sooner, moved a bit quicker, choose a slightly different path maybe they would have lived. I lost every happy memory, any good feeling, or kindness shown to me in my life and all that was coming back were the worst, lowest points in my life." Chris continued to confess. As much as it was difficult to talk about, in a weird way he felt a bit lighter. "Without those, the good memories... I was left with only the worst parts of myself... I became someone I never wanted to be. A moody, violent bumbling drunkard with no path in life except hoping that one more drink would make it so I could forget... and I would. the memories would go away... but not the guilt."
"Piers Snapped me out of it, enough to get me back in line and working even without my memories," Chris admits and Emma nods. "Eventually I got my memories back. Once I was me again, things started going back to normal. I just never quite kicked the smoking habit."
"Is that who's stopping by tomorrow then?" she asks since Chris only mentioned that a friend would be stopping by.
"No," Chris replies with a tired sigh, "No Piers died shortly after that. We ended up in China. he willingly infected himself so we could take down... a person of interest," he says censoring the story a bit. "I had hoped, maybe he could be saved I tried to bring him back with me but. he ultimately forced me into the escape pod while he stayed behind and I can't say for sure but, There was an attack on my pod and I'm pretty sure he was the one that helped me get away..."
Emma nods quietly... she didn't know what to say.
I just hope he doesn't forget about me...
The message repeated in his mind as he moved to hold her a bit closer. "I can't promise that will never happen again. I know better than to make that kind of promise," He admits before continuing, "But, even if it did happen again. I'm pretty sure if you told me to cut my crap and that it was time to go home... I'd be willing to bet I'd listen."
Emma nods before giving him a peck on the cheek. "okay... just know If that doesn't work, and you genuinely forget me, I will kick your butt."
"You're going to kick my butt?" He asks amused as he accepts her attempt to lighten the subject a bit.
"Absolutely, and any further questioning will be seen as a challenge," Emma replies with a tired chuckle.
he chuckles a bit at that, and shakes his head "okay," He relents quietly before yawning. "When I get back. remind me, we need to look at remedies..."
"Okay," she agrees and they settle in for the night to sleep.
'*'*'*'*'
The next day went on as usual. Chris was starting to get into a routine. Emma would wake up first, get ready for the day, and pack the day bag including his lunch bag with food for the two of them. Chris would head to work with Rose in tow and try to keep up with everything while keeping her out of trouble. It didn't help that he was suddenly getting more and more visitors throughout the day who all just, conveniently needed to stop by and forgot why.
Because he knew that Barry would be arriving he made sure to clock out and head home early to help Emma get the place set up properly. By 6:15 there was a knock at the door causing Duke to start to bark.
"I got it," Chris says as he hurries down the steps to the door and opens it to find an older, definitely retired Barry Burton on the other side of the door.
"Long time no see," Barry says as he walks in. "I'm impressed, it's not an apartment." he jokes with a slight smirk.
"Yeah, we're still getting settled in but, it's comfortable," Chris replies as he closes the door
"AaaaAAAaaAAAaAa" Rose called as her bouncing footsteps caused her voice to warble. the second she noticed that there was an unfamiliar face she made a wide U-turn and booked it back towards the dining room where she remembered seeing Emma last and continued her extended call.
"That's the kid?" Barry asks amused and Chris nods.
"Yep, That's Rosemary Winters," Chris says in return before eventually, Emma walks over with Rose cautiously trailing behind her.
"Ah, and this is the misses I take it?" Barry says while offering a hand for Emma to shake.
Emma accepts the offered hand. "Emma Swanson, It's good to meet you," she says with a smile. "Thanks for helping out on such short notice." She adds, figuring she should share in the gratitude for the man's help. taking care of rose on her own definitely wouldn't have been easy even if she felt like she could probably handle it.
Ah okay not the misses then, a lady friend, domestic partner whatever kids called it these days. "Pleasure to meet you as well," he says before looking to the child who was peaking from behind Emma's Leg. "Now I know they say that you're supposed to get your lady roses to show you care but I don't think this was exactly what they had in mind when they came up with that saying," Barry says with a chuckle.
Emma laughs at this while Chris moves to hold his face snd mutter under his breath. "Well, let's not crowd you in the doorway, Have you had Dinner? I was just about to set the table." She offers while Chris goes to pick up Barry's bag for him and take it upstairs.
"I'll eat if you're offering, that's very kind of you," Barry agrees and follows Emma into the house.
"Of course, It's not always much but I usually try and make something. if you need anything while you're here just let me know," She says while trying to be a good host. Chris never really invited people over outside of Hound Wolf Squad so she was curious and wanted to make a good impression. She walked over to start gathering plates and silverware to set the table.
"Why don't I help with the glasses then," he offers as he had roughly 40 years of being married as training to not leave the lady of the house to have to do everything herself.
"Oh, um sure thank you," Emma replies surprised. "they're in the cabinet over there," she says and gestures to the right cabinet. Barry fills 3 glasses with water and Ice while Emma set the table and moved the food over. by the time it was ready Chris joined them as well and Rose was put into her chair.
"If you don't mind my asking, How did you meet Chris?" Emma asks as she finally voices some of her curiosity.
Barry laughs a bit at this "Well I can guess why he wouldn't have told you. I've know Chris since he was a teenager," Barry admits which surprised Emma. Barry gives Chris's arm a slight nudge. "This young new recruit fresh out of high school showed up with a mullet after watching Top Gun one too many times thinking he was going to be the next Maverick of the Air Force," Barry says with a laugh as they ate.
"It was not a mullet," Chris counters as his face turned a bit red.
"Yeah no and they didn't shave your head in front of the other young guns to make an example out of you either right?" Barry snickers as he digs through his coat. "where did I put those,"
"Oh no..." Chris's expression dropped to a paled stare of horror as Barry takes out a good size aging paper envelope meant for photo prints.
"You didn't think I got rid of these did you?" Barry asks amused as he moves his hand away from Chris's attempt to snatch the pictures. "Pretty sure I told you back in Racoon City that the second you caused trouble I'd show these to every person that would see them and I think an emergency disciplinary meeting more than counts."
"That was twenty-five years ago," Chris counters with an embarrassed frown.
"Yeah, and you still managed not to learn a single thing," Barry teased. "See back in the day, Chris thought he was all that and a bag of chips, He had the attitude to match it too," Barry explained as he knew well enough about Chris's family situation and he was more than happy to fill the role of Chris's surrogate father and embarrass him in front of Emma. "And to his credit, He's a smart cookie when he applies himself... the issue is getting him to apply himself. He'd go around causing all sorts of trouble. I had only just left the Air Force to Join the STARS team in Racoon City only to find out he managed to get himself kicked out a few months after I left," He adds as Chris seems to have given up at this point and silently started eating his meal while his face was a nice shade of pink. "Found him bouncing between a few jobs flipping burgers and delivering newspapers. seemed like a waste of talent so I got him recruited into STARS too... only for him to be a pain in my neck there too," he says with a laugh before handing over the pack of pictures to Emma.
"I'd get complaints from the Captain and Chief about his rebellious attitude all the time," Barry admits while Chris just wanted to find a rock to hid under. "Again, to his credit, without his help I wouldn't have solved a few cases back then so. it was hard to give up on the kid," the retired veteran admits. "So instead of just firing him, I used to threaten to leak pictures of him from back when he was in the airforce when he was being particularly difficult. I threw in a few extras over time as well just for good measure too." He explained as Emma flipped through a few of them.
"Aw, you looked so different back then," Emma says with a smile as she looked over the pictures. Chris saw her punk rock phase picture so this seemed only fair to her. "your hair looks so stiff though, how much Gel where you using," she says with a teasing smile.
"It was the 90's," he says while pinching the brow of his nose. "I was 17 at the youngest and if those are stars pictures, maybe 24, 25 years old."
"Well, Miss Swanson those are my housewarming gift to you. Use them how you see fit," Barry says as he goes back to his meal. to his surprise, Emma finishes looking through the pictures, puts them away, and hands the bundle to Chris. Barry smiles at this as Chris quickly gets up to go and lock the pictures away in his study where they'd never see the light of day if he had anything to say about it.
Barry chuckles to himself. He was happy for Chris.
'*'*'*'*'
Chris left the next morning to make his way to Louisiana and assist with gathering more evidence. It wasn't until the 3rd and final day of the trip that he was called into a small lab that was set up safely away from the mold but close enough to get samples if needed.
The whole of Hound Wolf squad enters the tent to find a few scientists hard at work. "Hound Wolf, good to see you," says one of the scientists. "We've made a bit of an interesting discovery, it's not much but," the woman says bobbing her head. "It's still something so we wanted to run it by you to consider during your search for the day."
Umber eye nods. "fair enough,"
"What do you got," Chris asks, at this point anything would be better than nothing.
"Well, I was going through some of the original data again and I noticed something odd." the woman starts as she goes to her laptop and clicks a few buttons to get a picture of the imprint of the shoe print that they found onsite almost 2 months ago "It's easy to miss but. look at where the pressure is being applied for the print," the woman says as she picks up a laser pointer and circles the area where there most pressures was applied. "it's more towards the middle of the boot print. see how the toe of the print is practically non-existent? Normally this would be written off as a partial print but that pressure is towards the bridge of the foot where there should be the least pressure for that shoe size." the woman explained. "In short. Whoever the figure was, they were wearing a shoe size that didn't fit them properly, they're actually much smaller. I don't think we're looking for a teenage boy at all." she explains with a smile "I think we should extend our search to include an adult woman."
"you think this was a chick?" Lobo asks a bit surprised. It was a bit of a leap of logic but it did still make sense based on what was explained.
The scientist nods. "Yeah, potentially, I mean it could technically be a younger teenage boy that hadn't grown into their shoes yet, but there's a point where we have to consider how well this was planned out. We're probably not working with a child, this is much more likely to be an adult. so based on that with the fact that the pressure layout suggests they were trying to hide their shoe size, it's increasingly likely that this was a woman."
A woman who knows about the Louisianna mold, the village, and Heisenberg in particular... "God damn it," Chris grumbles under his breath. "Put a BOLO out for a Charlotte Mayweather. I want to know if she made it back to the state, when and where she's been. If she so much as sneezed I want to know about it."
"The woman from the village?" Tundra says a bit confused, "Suppose it's possible our tipster was actually a rat..."
"I'm not ruling anything out," Chris replies with a frown. "Her information was only so reliable, and she disappeared by the time we got back to the helicopter. She let us know about the village but then lied about the tank I had Ethan use to fight Heisenberg, and she tried to convince me to work with the guy instead. She was connected somehow so she has motive if she's alive."
"Rodger that sir, we'll extend the BOLO and search information to include a Charlotte Mayweather," says the scientist.
'*'*'*'*'
With the addition of the new information, Chris finished up his final day of searching. Even with the addition of the new name, nothing came up, it was like she didn't exist. or at least what they could find didn't match the person that they met. The trip came to an end with little in the way of progress before the team made their way to the BSAA headquarters to quarantine for 3 days.
Chris walked out of the quarantine facility and checks his phone.
Thursday, June 10, 2021 5:55 pm
The phone displayed a few random app notifications a few texts and missed calls from scam bots but nothing major. He gave a quiet sigh before pocketing the device again and making his way home and had a smoke on the way back. It had been a while and all of this was bringing up unpleasant memories he'd rather forget.
He eventually walks into the house through the garage door. "I'm home."
"Welcome home," called two voices. Barry and Emma. He smiled at that before making his way to the living room where Barry was picking up an already packed bag and had his jacket on and ready to go.
"Wish I could stay longer but I'll be calling it close with my flight," Barry says as he heads over and offers Chris a handshake.
"Thanks again for helping with such a sudden request," Chris says and accepts the offered hand.
"This one's free," Barry says jokingly, "you got another month or so to figure out a plan, you guys can handle this." he offers as a vote of confidence. "Though before I head out, What does a guy have to do to get added to that Holiday letter mailing list of yours?" he asks jokingly. "I heard from Jill you started actually sending out cards."
"I've been trying to write back lately, yeah," chris admits and Barry moves to give Chris a pat on the back.
"Good, now add me to the list, and we're even," Barry says with a laugh. "Oh. and one last thing," he says which piqued Chris's curiosity. "I know you're not really keen on getting people involved but if you're worried about the kid being a bio-weapon. Maybe reach out to Rebecca. She's good at all that science stuff. If anyone can figure out what is going on, it's her."
Chris bobbed his head slightly, Barry did have a point but last he heard she wasn't with the BSAA anymore and preferred it that way... "I'll see what I can find out."
Barry nods, he was at least considering the option so that was good. "Alright well. It's been lovely to meet you Emma, Rose" he says as he looks back to the girls before looking to Chris "and good catching up, call more often." he says nudging Chris slightly. "With that, I'll be heading out, see you both eventually I hope."
"Yeah, See you around," Chris agrees as Emma and Rose wave goodbye.
Phew that was a long one XD lots to go over in a single month but it was their first month with rose so. it was bound to have a lot going on lmao. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. I'll be working on the reader appreciation chapter next so if you have any suggestions you're still more than free to leave them in the comments.
Review Responses:
Guest 1995 - Hey~ sorry I missed your review back for chap 48. to answer your question we are getting close to the introduction of Baby piers that timer will probably start counting down in 4 or 5 chapters. one the count down starts it will be 9 chapters because, wohoo biology X'D... it's still going to be a while but there's plenty of cuteness to be had in the meantime. and drama X'D I am so glad that you appreciate the lovely nudge that is Karen Blight's name. you definitely caught my clue that she was going to be a pain in the butt haha
xLunaxNightingalexDuskx - Yeah vnv Mia testing on rose isn't something I think is 100% canon possible but I needed something pretty extreme to justify having Rose taken away from Mia. glad that you enjoy the story U i hope I can continue to earn your support and praise.
starrat - Glad you enjoyed the chapter U /
Fsweet36 - lmao X'D I am so glad that amuses you too because I was cackling when I wrote that whole thing. That is a good question, which Chris seems to want to avoid for now lol Emma is definitely asking the same thing but Chris is still in the mindset that Rose will not be interacting with people outside of the BSAA. That will be changing and at that point, they'll have to think of an answer lol
Fandomenforcer- aww quq your comment made my day I'm so glad you like them as a Lil family. hopefully the fluff of this chapter helped solidify that family unit even more for you