Welcome back~ Let's get into the nitty-gritty ^U^ This one is gonna be an interesting chapter. Plots are getting put into motion =v= fair warning cuteness and drama are abundant in the chapter lmao X'D be prepared with tissues if you're a weeper.
Song Suggestion: Play With Fire by Sam Tinnesz feat. Yacht Money
Disclaimer: I own nothing~ I'm just relaxing and having a grand ole time writing about cool characters that need more BG development X'D
Chris walks down the halls of the BSAA While holding Rose's hand. This was her 3rd trip to the bathroom and the day barely started. Potty training had begun and it was eating away at his time.
"Thank god it's Friday," he grumbles as they walk.
"dank gawd," Rose parrots which causes Chris to wince. Whoops.
"Don't say that," Chris says with a slight frown.
"Otay," she says in return though there was room for debate wither she really understood or not. As they make their way back to his office he finds the director's secretary looking around outside.
"Ah there you are," she says before smiling at rose. "Hi Rose." She cooed.
"Hwello," she replies with a slight wave.
"The director was trying to call you, he said he wanted to talk to you about the request you put in." The secretary explains and Chris nods. Might as well head over then.
"alright," he agrees and follows the woman over to the directors office. "Rose stay out here with the nice lady okay?"
"otay," she says and moves to hold the secretary's hand instead.
"don't cause trouble," he says while pointing at her.
"I didn't," she whined clearly annoyed. She didn't even do anything.
"She'll be fine," the secretary says with a chuckle.
Chris nods and heads inside closing the door behind him.
"Redfield, good to see you," the director replies with a slight smile as Chris only nods and takes a seat. Chris had been much more compliant ever since he got back from the whole Romania fiasco. Made the director's life so much easier, maybe they should have put Chris in charge of a kid sooner.
"What do you want," he Chris asks with an even and calm tone.
"About the request you sent in," the director says as he picks up a file. "Consider it approved." He says with a nod. "I'll admit I'm a bit surprised that you're volunteering for surveillance."
Chris looks away a bit at that. "Not total surveillance," he points out.
"Right, no that would be a waste of resources," the director oddly enough agreed with him. It was a weird day. "Your personal residence will be under 24-hour surveillance while you're on missions so Rose can be left with a care taker in a less stressful environment to avoid agitating her condition. This will be conducted by a small team of 3 that will keep an eye on area she travels to and enters should it be public property." The director says giving more complete details on what he was approving.
"…Thank you," Chris says which causes the director to raise an eyebrow. It really was a cold day in hell.
"At this point, it's just going to be a matter of assigning a team, right now our state side units are already up to their eyes in work," The director says as he puts the file down to fill out a few remaining sections of the paperwork.
Chris thinks it over as a whisper was heard in the back of his mind.
"Nah I haven't really gotten to do much in regard to, high-profile missions or nothing. Mostly just assisting with the recon teams."
Well... Guess it's his lucky day. He remembered. "What about that Gary guy from the Recon team,"
"theres a Gary in recon?" the director asks a bit confused.
"Yeah, apparently he was on the Baker mission. He was asking before about moving to a different section with in the BSAA," Chris relays and the director nods and writes that down.
"I'll look into it. You have a mission coming up in a few weeks. We'll try and get this squared away by then so the unit is available for mobilization when needed," the director says as he closes the folder. Have a team dedicated to watching a trouble maker and for said trouble maker to request it personally was a blessing he was not going to pass up. "That will be all," The director adds and motions that Chris could leave.
Chris got up and closed the door gently behind him to avoid startling Rose. The director gave a content sigh. This was much better.
"Kris!" Rose says excitedly as he came out of the office. she quickly hurried over and took his hand instead then picked up her feet to dangle in the air. He had to quickly adjust his hold to keep from dropping her but managed to do so in time causing the kid to giggle.
"Alright Tiny Terror, use your feet," Chris says and she begrudgingly stands on her feet again. "Thanks for watching her," he adds and the secretary nods.
"Not a problem, have a good day Captain Redfield," The secretary says waving to Rose.
"Buh-byes" Rose replies while waving as she walked away with Chris.
The rest of the day goes pretty well. He got a rather quickly written 'thank you' email from Gary and before long it was time to head home. as he was driving home he quickly Dials Emma's number.
"Hey," he says in greeting.
"Hey what's up?" she asks a bit surprised.
"I'm on my way home, I was thinking pizza sounds pretty good," he admits.
"PIZZA!" Rose cheers from her car seat.
"Actually that would be amazing," Emma agrees. "If I order it can you pick it up?"
"Yeah I can do that," he agrees.
"Okay, half cheese half ultimate but no mushrooms?" Emma says to make sure he was okay with the usual order.
"Sounds good," he agrees with a smile.
"See you soon then... OH!" Emma says as she remembers something. "The amazon package came in."
"Huh, that was fast. I thought it wasn't supposed to arrive until the 24th?" Chris says confused.
"you mean tomorrow?" Emma says amused.
"Ah. Lost track of time," he admits.
"Okay, well it's here now and waiting on the counter for when you get home," she explains.
"Good to know, See you soon," He replies with a slight chuckle.
"See you then," she replies and they both hang up.
Getting home took a bit longer than normal thanks to having to stop along the way but that didn't really bother him. "We're home!" he calls into the house as Rose hurries into the house. "Ah, Rose your shoes," he chides and rose turns around to stop at a little shoe tree and put her shoes away before heading into the house again.
"Welcome home!" Emma calls from the living room as she moves to get up.
"Pizza!" Rose says as she moves to try and climb into a chair and wait for the food to be placed on the table.
"Careful Rosey it's hot," Emma says as she gets some plates from the cabinets and along with a knife and fork so she could cut up pieces for Rose to pick up. As she walks back to set the table she notices the now open box on the table was already missing a slice that was nowhere to be seen. "Chris," she says amused as she stares at him with a 'Really?' expression.
Rose giggles as Chris Looks away while whistling to himself. Emma shakes her head and chuckles as she finishes setting the table. Chris picks up another topping heavy slice, while Emma pulls a plain slice over onto her plate and starts cutting it up for Rose. While Emma does this he walks over to the counter to check the box that was waiting for him. it was a decent size maybe a foot and a half by two-foot box and the label showed it weighed around 26 lbs.
Chris digs out his pocket knife and holds the box in place with his elbow to slice at the tape and open the box. Inside were two large heavy blankets with neatly designed labels that happily proclaimed 'Weighted Blanket. Sleep better, reduce stress, reduce anxiety, and reduce tiredness through deep touch pressure. Proven to increase Serotonin and Melatonin while decreasing Cortisol.' One was marked as 10 pounds the other was marked as 15 pounds.
It took a while but they did finally get around to doing some research on what could help with his fits. They had luckily seemed to start decreasing in frequency now that he was under a little bit less stress but, it was better to look into preventing them further.
"Hey Em, I'm gonna go set these up," Chris says and takes another bite of pizza.
"Finish your food and wash your hands first, those are hard to wash and we don't need the bed to smell like pizza grease," Emma points out in return as she swaps plates with rose who quickly started picking up pieces and eating them.
"Kay," he says and quickly finishes the rest of the slice before going to wash his hand and takes the box upstairs. it takes him a few minutes but he sets up the larger 15-pound blanket first then puts the smaller 10 pound blanket over it on only his side. The two talked it over and figured this would make it so they each be comfortable and they could still sleep next to each other. without being divided. 25 pounds would be way too much for Emma and 15 was not enough for him based on the charts. It would make it easier to wash too by breaking out the weight like this. He smiled as the bed was set up. Hopefully, this would end up working and at least restrain him enough to not hurt anyone if he started flailing.
'*'*'*'*'
It was hard to say if the blanket was working or not but, he actually felt decently well-rested the next morning. He yawned a bit and stretched from under the weight of the blankets before rolling over to give Emma a peck. "Hey,"
"Morning," She says groggily.
he chuckles a bit at that. "I'm going to try and catch up on a few Emails," he says and she nods. "Mkay, I'll keep an eye on Rose," she says as she moves to give him a peck in return before getting up. She gets out of bed and gets dressed for the day before heading over to Rose's room.
"Rosey," Emma quietly Cooed causing the child to slowly wake up. "Rose it's time for breakfast,"
The child grumbles a bit in response but slowly pushes herself to get up and toddle over. Breakfast on Saturdays meant cartoons. She didn't get to watch those during breakfast during the week since she had to go with Chris to work.
Emma watched over Rose as she ate a bowl of cereal then hurried over to the couch to watch TV. While Rose was preoccupied Emma tried to start cleaning around the house. this lasted for maybe 20 minutes before rose toddled over and tugged on Emma's jeans.
"I can pway?" Rose asks curiously.
"you want to play?" Emma asks back to make sure she understood correctly.
"yeah," Rose confirms.
"what do you want to play?" Rose remained quiet as she seemed very deep in thought. there were so many options. "Do you want to play with your toys?" Emma asks figuring that maybe if she narrowed it down a bit that might help. Rose shook her head no. "do you want to play a game?" Emma asks and Rose nods.
"pwriness?" she asks with big doughy eyes.
"you want to play Princess?" Emma asks amused. This adorable child, dang it all. It had been a little less than a month since they went to the carnival yet, she was growing so fast. she was acting more like a two-and-a-half-year-old now since she was starting to better understand the concept of make-believe games and playing with others.
Rose nods.
"Okay, how do we play?" Emma asks figuring she should try and foster that little imagination of hers and have her make up the game.
Rose pauses and thinks. "Kris Pways too?" she asks curiously.
"you want Chris to play too?" Emma asks and Rose nods again to confirm. He said he wanted to work... "Well. He might play if we make him a costume. Do you want to help me?" Emma asks and Rose nods with an ear-to-ear grin. This would at least keep Rose busy long enough to give Chris time to check his emails.
"Let's go get some supplies," Emma says and leads the way.
"Otay" Rose says as she follows Emma around the house. together they get the abandoned and empty Pizza box, Amazon box, some empty cereal boxes a paper towel roll, a toilet paper roll, some tin foil, string, and a hot glue gun. Emma puts all of that down on the table and rose moves to take a seat as well. Emma comes back with markers for Rose and a pair of scissors for herself.
"Well, first off, a princess should have a princess hat," Emma says and Rose giggles as Emma cuts into a cereal box and uses the thin cardboard to make a cone. before gluing it she hands the flat cardboard to rose. "do you want to draw on your hat?"
"yeah!" Rose says happily as she picks up the markers to start drawing on the cardboard. Emma smiles for a second before getting to work with the rest of the supplies.
She cuts the outer flaps off the amazon box and makes two larger panels from the remaining cardboard then adds two shoulder straps made from the thick twine-like string. she then Glues down some tinfoil to the cardboard to make it look metallic. Not bad-looking armor. Emma adds some string to the sides as well so the panels wouldn't flap around as Chris walked. assuming he even bothers putting on the very cheesy cardboard costume.
She does the same thing to the Paper towel roll and glues tinfoil to that. using some of the leftover amazon boxes she cuts out a circle and glues the tinfoil-covered tube to one end and the toilet paper tube to the other to make a sword. The clean half of the Pizza box was fashioned into a shield using long strips of cereal box cardboard as the straps.
"There we go," Emma says and looks over to find Rose had sufficiently scribbled all over the cardboard and the table. "What a pretty hat!" she says happily which causes Rose to giggle. Emma takes the cardboard and glues it to make sure it would hold its shape before adding string to that as well as a chin strap to hold it on Rose's head. there we go" she says as she puts that down on the table for now. "we need to let that cool for a moment. do you want to go ask Chris to play?" Emma suggests.
"Yes~" Rose says as she quickly gets up and hurries over to the stairs to go up and find her Kris. Emma follows along behind her with the arm full of cardboard props to find rose jumping to try and reach the doorknob for the study. She pouts as she realizes she can't reach before looking over to Emma.
"I wanna gib it," Rose says as she makes grabby hands for the pile of cardboard.
"it's a bit big for you to hold..." Emma says and watches the child pout. what harm could it do. it's cardboard. "Okay, hold your hands up over your head," Emma says and rose does so. Emma places the cardboard in her hands.. "hold on to it, I'll open the door." Rose does as she is told and the second the door is open all the way she hurries into the room.
"Kris pway pwease?" Rose asks as she tries to look up at him which causes the sword to roll back and off the pile of cardboard.
"Play?" he asks a bit confused as he looks to Emma who was trying not to laugh.
"Hewre" Rose says as she nudges him with the cardboard pieces. "Kris pway too." she insisted.
"She wants you to play princess with her," Emma explains and gestures to the costume she'd rather quickly thrown together over the course of what was maybe an hour to an hour and a half.
Chris's shoulders dropped slightly. That. sounded like torture to be honest. "Uh. I dont know."
"PWEEEAAASE" Rose says loudly while pouting and nudging him again with the cardboard.
He internally winced and gives a defeated sigh. "Fine, I'll be right down." he says and Emma smiles approvingly.
"YEY!" Rose cheers as she moves to leave the cardboard pile on his lap and hurry out of the room to go downstairs and wait.
"Try not to take too long," Emma says as she follows Rose downstairs.
Chris looks at the pile. a shield, a sword, and some tinfoil armor. he put on the costume before making his way down the stairs to find rose happily running around wearing her very colorful hat and giggling.
"So what are you suppose to be?" He asks as he raises an eyebrow and looks at Emma who was costumeless.
"Hmm." Emma paused and thought it over before heading over to the living room and picking up a blanket to drape over her shoulders. "I do believe I'm a big scary dragon." she says with a laugh "and I'm going to gobble up the princess up," she says while making a silly voice and hurrying after rose who squealed and laughed while toddling to getaway.
Chris watched the two, a bit confused about what he was supposed to do at this point. Emma eventually catches up with Rose and scooped her up. Rose was getting a bit too heavy for this but, one time wouldn't hurt. Emma spun around while holding the child which caused her to giggle and laugh before peppering the little girl with kisses on the cheek, nose, and forehead.
"Oh nooo," Rose says through laughs. "Kris Hewp!"
Emma chuckles, "What are you going to do Mr. Knight?" she asks with a playful smile.
Chris shakes his head and walks over to lightly bop Emma on the head with the 'sword'. The echoing bonk sound from the paper towel roll caused Rose to laugh again.
"uGH, I've been vanquished," Emma says dramatically while slowly moving to sit on the ground with Rose, then let go of her as she laid on the ground to 'play dead'.
Now that she was free, Rose hurried over to him. "yey Kris!" Rose says as she hugs his leg.
A slight chuckle crosses his lips. the game continued on for a bit longer. Emma would come back as a "different dragon" and chase Rose around only to swoop her up and give her cuddles before Chris would walk over and bop the 'dragon' to defeat it and free rose. Another round had started. Emma scooped up Rose once more and nuzzled the child.
Chris smiles as he watches the two laugh. This was what he wanted. He was about to open his mouth to continue their little game when his phone cut him off.
Saturday, July 24th, 10:11 AM
[Incoming call - BSAA HQ]
He exhales slightly. Great... He answers the phone. "Chris speaking," he says as Emma walks away with Rose to sit on the couch and play patty cakes while they wait for him to finish his phone call.
"Hey Alpha," Says one of the many workers of the BSAA. "Good news, We got a hit on your BOLO," the voice says before continuing. "Kinda."
"How do you kinda get a lead?" Chris asks confused.
"We looked into that Charlotte Mayweather that you were asking about but didn't find anything. Tundra mentioned that it was the person that sent in the original tip regarding the village? It took a bit of digging around since the tip wasn't filed properly but we were eventually able to get the info. It was a paper document mailed in with no return address but there was a phone number attached to it."
shit that's right, there was a phone number. He'd forgotten about that since it was mostly unused. the line was never on when they did call it and he only used it once to confirm the tipster's identity. He moves to hold his face as he felt scatterbrained for not thinking of that sooner. "Okay, so you did a reverse lookup?"
"yeah, the number doesn't belong to a Charlotte Mayweather though. It appears to be a New York Number it's assigned to a Charlotte Wiltse and the building address it's tied to is some business high rise in the city." the worker explains. "We don't really have any evidence to point to her being in Louisianna though other than your request to check on her." The worker says while there is a clicking sound in the background, they were likely at a computer. "The only thing that seems kinda odd after digging around in her data was that she made a couple of thousand dollar purchase at a suit store a few months ago. maybe a week or so after the Louisanna break-in."
It had to be her. There was no one else that would have known about the Lords and Louisianna. The fact that she was alive in and of itself was suspicious to him. How did she survive the blast, she ran off before she could be taken back to the states for questioning too... "You're sure we have nothing?" He asks annoyed.
"Well for right now yeah we only just got her name and location a few hours ago." the worker says in return. "It's going to take a while to get permission to dig any further than her own info for the BOLO even then it was a struggle to get what we already have since we don't have any supporting evidence that she was on location."
"What about the car, we found footage at the dock that they put him in a car and drove off," that had to link back.
"yeah we tried that, the license wasn't picking up properly in any of the footage we found of it. we tailed it through security cameras onto the highway and after that, we lost track of it." The worker explains. "and before you ask yes we checked going backwards in time as well. same results. can't place it." the worker says. "There was that other person on the docks but he's not much help. The best he was able to give us was a name, Marieanne, but the guy said he was drunk at the time and doesn't remember what the person looked like. They did confirm that the person was a woman though." The worker says while still clicking away at their computer. "Whoever this was, they're smart. Covered their tracks pretty damn well."
Chris pinched the brow of his nose. God damn it... He frowned before he looks over to Rose and Emma. He paused and thought it over. "I want to be on the first flight out Monday morning."
Emma smiles upon hearing that. He chose to stay with her and Rose a bit longer and keep work during workdays. That was a first.
"Kinda figured you'd say as much," The worker says. "Ran it by the Director just in case and he approved the trip. Asked me to pass along the message 'Try not to cause too much trouble but if you find anything call it in immediately, your request is set to go first thing on Monday,' " the worker says and Chris nods. "Oh he also said to try and be back by Tuesday since he can only supply a one-person team right now. whatever that means."
"Got it," Chris replies. "Well, thanks for the update."
"Not a problem, over and out," The worker says before hanging up.
Emma gets up and walks over as Chris puts his phone away. "Work?" she asks though she knew the answer.
"Yeah, we got a lead," He says in return. "I'll be gone until Tuesday, Will you be okay on your own with Rose?"
Emma chuckles a bit at this. He was starting to trust her? She stands on her toes to give him a quick kiss. "Go kick their ass," she says with a smile.
"I'll do what I can," he says amused by her vote of confidence.
'*'*'*'*'
Chris frowns a bit as he looks up at a large skyscraper near the middle of New York City. From what the intel said, this should be where he could find her. Why her phone was tied to an office building instead of a residence was beyond him. Chris walks in and over to a receptionist's desk. He attempts to wait for the woman to address him but she seemed quite content ignoring him.
"Hey," he says to get her attention only for the woman to hold up a finger as she continued typing with her other hand. it takes another moment but she eventually stops.
"How can I help you?" the receptionist asks.
"I'm looking for a Charlotte Wiltse." Chris says in return. The receptionist gives a short laugh as if he told a joke.
"Okay," she says amused while looking at him with an expression of 'And who are you?'. "Do you have an appointment?"
"No," he replies a bit confused. Who the hell was she...
"My apologies sir, I'm sure whatever business venture you'd like to get funded is absolutely stellar but the director has a very busy schedule, she can't just meet with people who walk in." She explains as she seemed used to dealing with starry-eyed dreamers that barely did any research on who they'd actually need to talk to. "Now I can get you scheduled for a funding review with the correct department for a future date if you'd like."
Chris frowns as he takes out his badge and shows that. he should have just led with that. "She can make time." Fucking rich people, how did this always lead back to them.
The receptionist seemed a bit stunned. "Right away sir," she says as she did not get paid enough to do much more than what she already did. If he was a problem the police could deal with him. She gets up and walks over to the elevator and presses her finger against a sensor to get it to activate.
Chris follows the Receptionist onto the elevator and watches as she selects one of the upper floors of the building. Eventually, the elevator stops again and the doors open.
"Follow me," She says and leads Chris through various halls to an office with glass walls that looked out over the city. The receptionist opens the office for him and motions for him to take a seat. "I'll let Miss Wiltse know you're here. It might take a few minutes. I believe she's currently in a meeting with HR."
"Let her know it's urgent," he says as he walks over and takes a seat. He wanted answers.
"Yes sir," The receptionist says and walks away leaving him to wait for a good ten or so minutes.
Eventually, Chris hears the door open and a voice from behind him. "Mr. Redfield was it?" the effeminate voice says in greeting. He turned slightly with a scowl on his face so he could see her, and found a well-dressed businesswoman who was roughly in her mid-thirties. Ever relaxed, rather than go straight to her desk she stopped at the drink cabinet to the side of the office and was in the middle of messing with a stemless wine glass and a bottle.
"Mayweather." He says in return. "Or do you prefer Wiltse," he adds with a more upset and accusing tone.
"Well I don't see why I wouldn't prefer my own name," The woman, presumably named Charlotte, replied in return as she pours herself a half glass of white wine. "Can I get you anything?"
"Yeah, I want answers," Chris says shortly, this bitch had some nerve being this relaxed.
"Hm, answers. Well, suppose that would require questions first wouldn't it," Charlotte asks while bobbing her head slightly. "I'm a bit surprised you'd travel so far to see me, I'm flattered really." She says as she finally walks over to take her seat at her desk and crosses her leg and get comfortable in her chair. "If it's a matter of apologizing this really could have been an email. The extra effort is appreciated though so I'll hear you out."
"If anyone should be apologizing it's you," He says with a note of disgust, though his response only seemed to amuse her.
"Oh, a no your response. Hardly clever but that's alright I'll blame it on the jet lag. I can imagine that the flight back from Romania was difficult for you with the weight of a guilty conscience," She replies before taking a sip of her drink.
He had to hold himself back from reaching out to just grab her and throw her, this attitude from the woman that aided in Ethan's death. "Your bad information killed an innocent man," He venomously accused.
"And your incompetence killed hundreds," Charlotte quipped back as he managed to strike a nerve in return and her playful amusement was quickly replaced with anger as her posture became more ridged.
"I sent that tip about the village looking for help. There were, Hundreds, of innocent people that needed you," Charlotte accused in return. "And you left us. You knew we were there. I told you everything I knew and that wasn't enough for you to care." She says pointedly.
Chris rolled his jaw a bit as he bit his tongue. He didn't have a choice. he wasn't prepared for that large of an evacuation. He had to focus on his mission. She cleared her throat. "So. Forgive me if I'm hardly sympathetic for your loss from one lie I told to protect the only person I had left. It shouldn't surprise me that your priorities are skewed to only care about yourself and what impacts you." She says before looking down at the glass in her hand.
"That's rich coming from you," He says with a frown. "What were you doing in Louisianna... How did you get past our defenses."
She takes a moment and puts her glass down on the desk before looking at him again. "Hm. I'll grant you this, That is an interesting question... However, I'm afraid I can't help you with it." Charlotte says as she returns to her original toying, condescending tone. "Though do humor me. What reason would I have to be in the middle of bum fuck nowhere after escaping a death cult I was trapped in for two years?"
"Cut the shit, I know it was you," He accuses as he moves to stand up and puts the pictures down on the table of the intruder and Heisenberg. She had a soft spot for the metal lord. He knew that much, she tried to convince him that they should work together. She was able to get him into the factory. It would be difficult to say it was her from the photos alone but if he made her think he knew it was her maybe she'd confess.
She paused as she looked at the photos before looking back to him. "Well, that's an odd way to ask for my help. If you're so sure. Then why are you here?" She points out as she calls his bluff. "If you're so sure." She leans forward a bit. "Then get a warrant." she quietly before sitting properly once more.
Chris only stared her down in seething anger. He knew it was her he just needed her to break. She was the reason Ethan was dead, she told him that stupid tank was immune to Heisenberg's control. The rest of her information proved correct, she saved him from drowning when Moreau knocked him out, and got him into the factory. He thought he could trust her. Rose was an orphan because of HER. If she didn't lie to him then he wouldn't have had the confidence to send Ethan out there like that and he wouldn't have been murdered by Miranda.
"Now then I believe that marks this conversation, finished," Charlotte says as she folds her hands. "There are two ways you can leave my office, on your own two feet or escorted out." She replies in a bored tone though she stared him down with similar anger in her eyes. "Your choice Mr. Redfield."
He continued to stare down at her with a glaring scowl and picks up the photos. "This isn't over."
Charlotte stares back at him with a dead expression before a tired sigh escapes her. "Would it make you feel better if I pretended to be intimidated?"
Chris forces a neutral expression as he turns to leave, throwing the door open as he storms out of the glass-walled office. He would be back and with a warrant and she was going to pay for what she did.
'*'*'*'*'
Having to watch Rose for a day was unusual but luckily everyone at work seemed okay with it. Rose mostly stayed out of trouble and she was often left to doodle in a coloring book, play with her toys or wandered off to bother the receptionist for a piece of candy.
"Okay, thanks again you guys," Emma says while waving goodbye to her co-workers. "Ready to go?" Emma asks and Rose nods as she takes Emma's hand and follows her to the car. Emma gets Rose into her car seat before getting in as well. "We need to make a quick stop at the grocery store okay?"
"otay," Rose says in return. "Cwookies?"
Emma chuckles. "If you're really good." she says in return.
"am good" she confirms. Emma chuckles and starts making her way to the grocery store... that. was odd. She thought as she checks the rear view mirror. That car had been following them since they left the office... She could feel fear start to set in as the car followed them into the grocery store parking lot as well.
relax. breath. it's okay. it's just a coincidence. She coached herself as she got rose out of the car and walked her over to a cart so she could hoist rose into the basket seat.
Emma wanted to try and forget about the weird car that followed them. but. As she went through different isles she continued to notice the sense that she was being followed. The same man with graying hair, wearing sunglasses and a suit, was on each isle no matter what. It was really starting to freak her out. Maybe Chris had been right to worry about leaving her and Rose alone... She'd talk to him about it when she got back. for now she needed a plan.
she made her way down another isle, this one held an assortment of soaps, trash bags, paper products and cleaning supplies. As she walked slowly she looked for anything heavy she could use to fend off whoever this was that was following them. She picked up a broom from the wall and looked that over. it was cheap and didnt look like much but what could she expect from a grocery Isle broom.
Rose was starting to pick up on the fact that Emma was nervous and grew upset as well causing her to whine as a tell that she was about to cry.
"Sssh. What's wrong Rosey?" Emma asks concerned, unaware that the child picked up on her fear.
"Hey," says a voice from behind her, Emma turns to find the gray-haired man and yelped as she quickly moves to bean them in the head with the broom cracks it over the back of their head as they lean forward to hold their nose. She smacks them once more to try and push them away to keep some distance between whoever this was and Rose.
"Stay the hell away from us," Emma hisses while holding the broom defensively and looking around to make sure no one else was moving in.
"Fucking hell I think you just broke my nose," the guys says while holding his face in one hand and digging through his pocket with the other to pull out a badge that read BSAA.
Her expression dropped from Fear and anger to confusion. "Wait..." she started processing this and moved to hold her face "God damn it Chris," He didn't trust her...
"Gawd dawmit Kris" Rose parrots.
Oh gosh. "Rosey, don't repeat what I said okay?" Emma says as she realizes that the kid overheard.
"Otay" Rose agrees. she'd probably repeat it anyways.
"You're with the BSAA?" Emma asks as her confusion shifts to annoyance.
"Yeah, Gary Barnes. Surveillance team Gamma Fox," He says while still holding his face.
"Sorry about that Gary," Emma says as she put the broom in the cart, she was going to have to buy it now, it was bent. "I didn't realize I was on Surveillance," she admits still annoyed. She was going to be talking to Chris about this once he was home. Emma takes a second before moving to help the guy. "here, let me take a look at it," she requests and waits as he moves his hand out of the way to find that his nose was starting to bruise and his nose was definitely bleeding. Emma winces.
"Yeah, that looks pretty bad. Okay, here's the plan, since I know you're here now, walk with us and let's see if they have a first aid kit at the front desk." Emma says as her shoulders relax a bit now that she knew they weren't in danger.
Gary nods in return and follows the two to the front customer service desk where the employees quickly provide a first aid kit.
"So how long has this been going on?" Emma asks as she opens the first aid kit and gray moves to take a seat on the bench by the front desk.
"First day," he admits.
Oh good, well that's kind of a relief. "Rough first day then," she says as she gets a cleaning swap ready. "This might sting a bit" she warns before cleaning up the injury a bit. Gary winced at first but the sting wears off. Once it was cleaned up she puts a bandage over the bruise to cover it a bit. "There we go, Good news, I don't think it's broken just bruised. you should still get it checked though... I can't really see if there's any damage from the other hit... are you going to be okay to drive?" She asks with a slight frown.
"I'll be fine," Gary says with a hint of embarrassment that Emma managed to get the drop on him enough to beat the crap out of his face.
"Okay," She says with a tired sigh. "I still need to finish shopping. can you walk with me instead of following behind me please?"
Gary did as Emma requested. She finished up shopping, went home, and even brought out a plate of food to the car for dinner as an olive branch for smacking him in the face. it wasn't his fault that Chris, hopefully, just forgot to tell her.
'*'*'*'*'
Chris made it back to the BSAA HQ on Tuesday as scheduled, put in his shift before heading back home for the evening.
"I'm home," he says as he walks in.
"kris!" rose says happily and hurries over to see him.
"Welcome home," Emma says though her voice seemed a bit off.
"Is everything okay?" he asks with a raised eyebrow, He reaches down and ruffles Rose's hair a bit as she clings to his leg while he walks over. It made walking difficult but he was learning how to managed to move around while the toddler clung to him.
"Yeah no everything's fine," Emma says with a forced neutral expression. " I met your Co-worker. Gary Barnes." Emma says hoping maybe that would be enough to confirm if he forgot or just didn't know.
"Gary-oh." It was at this moment he knew. He fucked up.
"Yeah, great guy, really sweet. Ended up beaning him in the head three times with a broom, in the middle of a grocery store," Emma says annoyed.
"You beat him with a broom?" Chris asks amused as he puts his bag down by the kitchen counter. "Well, he wasn't doing his job very well if he got close enough for you to hit him."
"That's not funny I thought someone was trying to kidnap us," Emma says annoyed.
"Right, sorry," Chris replies with a bit more humility.
"You knew?" she asks as what Chris said registered.
He winced a bit at that, He knew that tone, Emma was ready to throw down and fight with him. "Hey Rose?" He says looking at the toddler that was still clinging to him.
"hmm?" she replied looking up to him confused.
"Can you go play in your room for a bit?" Chris asks and she nods in response.
"Otay," she says as she lets go and wanders off.
Once he was sure she was out of ear-shot he spoke again. "Look, part of surveillance is that you're not supposed to know they're there. I figured if I told you it would freak you out more."
"I'm kinda freaking out now," she replies still frustrated as she crossed her arms to hold herself. "Why are we on surveillance?"
"It's just when I'm gone," Chris offers trying to appease her frustration but that didn't work.
"That's not better," Emma points out. "Why didn't you tell me if you knew?"
"I had to do something, part of the reason I was allowed to keep her was because I would be watching her. If I'm gone someone else from the BSAA has to monitor her. Those are the rules, I didn't make them," Chris replies with a vague gesture before allowing he had to fall to his side with a slight pat to his leg. "I thought this would be the less disruptive option."
Emma shifted to hold her face with one hand while resting her other on her hip. she thinks about it for a second before walking over and poking a knuckle against his ribs. "That's not an apology."
"I said I was sorry," Chris says a bit surprised.
"You said you were sorry about laughing, not for hiding this from me," She points out while leaving her knuckle in place. "There are things you can't tell me and I get that, but should not have been one of them. It directly involved me."
He paused a bit at that and nods. "Alright," he moves to hold her and gives her a peck on the forehead. "I'm sorry,"
"for," she says still a bit irritated.
"I'm sorry I didn't communicate properly on what was going to be required for us to keep rose and that the surveillance thing ended up freaking you out," He adds while holding back any extra remarks of ' I was doing what I had to' and 'I just wanted to make sure you were safe,'. Even if it was true, it was better to keep the peace.
Emma's frown lessens slightly and she moves to give him a peck in return as she removes the knuckle from his side. She was still a bit mad at him but she'd accept the apology and move on.
so you're... what. the live-in nanny or?
... It was certainly starting to feel like she was... Emma shook off the thought and went back to the pan she was working with before. "Rose's birthday is coming up," Emma says figuring she could use this time to bring that up. Since the child was upstairs and out of hearing range.
"Right. that's in a few days... Monday right?" He says as he moves to sit at the kitchen island and looks at the little metal hut that hadn't been used in some time. It was still a nice decoration at least.
"Yep," Emma says while focusing on her cooking.
"We'll have to see what we can do about getting her some gifts over the weekend."
Emma smiled at that. We. that sounded nice. "I was thinking it might be nice to invite Chelsea and the girls over,"
"Absolutely not," Chris says with a frown.
"Chris," Emma says with some level of annoyance at how quickly he shut that down.
"We've gone over this," He says with a tired expression. Why did this keep coming up?
"And you're not listening to me," she points out in return. "Kids need to socialize. It's how they develop, you're worried about her not being able to integrate into society but you won't let her live in it."
"She's a bioweapon," He starts once more but Emma cuts him off to correct him.
"She is a CHILD," Emma says as she vents her frustration. "You are being so stubborn about this." Did he really not get that he wasn't just isolating Rose by acting like this?
"Because I have to be,"
"You don't though!" Emma counters "You are doing this, You're the one making these extra rules that she can't be around people unless you approve it. The BSAA just wants to make sure someone is watching not that she's isolated. It's horrible!" She shouts back as her patience with this argument was very well spent after so many months of being forced to isolate as well. Just when she thought things were going to go back to normal... "I will not be forced to be the Madame Tremaine of this Cinderella story because you can't figure out how to handle this!"
"What exactly are we supposed to tell people? She ages too quickly for anyone to not notice," Chris says annoyed at how combative she's being. He was already in a crap mood after how his mission went.
"They're going to notice anyways," Emma says annoyed. God that whole apology before was just lip service wasn't it! He didn't care that he wasn't communicating with her about this. "The Neighbors are already watching do you think they're just going to turn a blind eye and not ask questions?" Emma points out.
"Then I guess we'll just have to move somewhere else," he says in return as a quick off-the-cuff solution.
"Seriously?" Emma says further frustrated by this. "Why are you digging your heels in on this I'm just saying she should be allowed to have friends. To meet people and build up social skills so she knows how to control whatever powers she gets when she's inevitable alone. We're not always going to be able to protect her."
"This isn't up for debate, I said no. She's not your responsibility," He said and regretted the words as they passed his lips as he noticed her hurt expression.
Emma shook her head and rolled her jaw before turning on her heels to go back to her pan again. She really was just the nanny... "Fine." No it wasn't.
Chris moves to sit again with a tired sigh. He didn't even realize he stood back up. Real smooth. "What's for dinner, it smells good," he says as he tries to change the subject to anything else.
It was not the best subject to pick. Emma already felt like the 'Nanny' and that just added to it. She quietly moved to get a plate from the table and put enough on there for Rose and herself to share before taking the pan to the trash and dumping the rest. "Whatever you end up making for yourself," She says as she puts the pan down on the stove and turns it off. She picks up the plate of food along with a fork and spoon before walking away, up to Rose's room. They could eat up there.
Chris moves to rest his elbows on the table while holding his face. Well, this was a fine mess he made for himself... It took him a few minutes but he eventually gets up and starts clean up around the house for a bit. Washing up the dishes from whatever meal it was that he didn't get and put them away before getting a protein bar from the cabinets and eating that.
He kept waiting for her to come back downstairs and she never did. He looks over to the small worry hut and goes to dig around the cabinets. when did they run out of paper for this thing? he settles on ripping off a portion of a sticky note and writing on that. placing the note in the house before lighting it on fire.
I REALLY messed up this time...
He watched the flames burn away the message. He said he wanted to be better. but that was difficult. He was still making mistakes... He didn't know what he was doing. He knew how to deal with Bioweapons, She understood how to raise kids but what do they do when this kid is both? This wasn't like watching summer for a weekend. If the wrong people found out about Rose, they weren't just going to lovingly move Emma out of the way to get to Rose. They would kill her.
Once the flames died out he went upstairs and got ready for bed. laying down with a book to wait there instead. She'd eventually have to join him.
Emma put Rose to bed and gave the child a peck on the head. "Good night," she says as she gets up and walks over to the dresser where she left the plate and silverware.
"Ni'night" Rose replies as she snuggles into her bed.
Emma turns off the light and walks out and takes a breath as she heads downstairs. Oh thank god, he wasn't down here. She walked over to the kitchen to start collecting up the dishes she left only to find that they were gone. Confused she looks around and even the dishwasher was emptied out. She put the dirty dishes into the washer and shakes her head. Why did she smell smoke... she looked around to find fresh ashes under the little worry hut on the counter. Serves him right...
A tired sigh escapes her as she walks over and looks through the drawers for paper and finds half of a sticky note. She looks at it a bit and puts it back. She wasn't okay with just burning this one away and pretending it wasn't a problem. with the paper abandoned she heads upstairs and finds that she wasn't able to completely avoid him as she found Chris reading a book while laying on his side of the bed.
Say something. ask to talk. He thought though he remained mute as she gave him half of a glance before heading over to her closet to gather her clothes and a pillow from the bed and started heading for the door.
"Are you going somewhere?" he asks a bit confused.
"I thought socializing is not allowed, Alpha," She says though there is spite evident in the way she used his nickname before walking out and closing the door behind her.
That went well. he thought annoyed as he closed his book and gave himself a moment. How was he going to fix this... It took a minute but he eventually got out of bed and went to go and check on her. As he made his way into the living room he found her Laying on the couch under a few throw blankets.
"What are you doing..." He asks to let her know he was there.
Emma picks up her head to see him a bit better. "I'm trying to sleep." She replies before making a shooing gesture with her hand. "shoo."
"Really?" He asks as he tries to push down being annoyed by her attitude.
"Yep. You made your point loud and clear. We're not equals and I don't get a say," She replies "I'm not going to tell you where to sleep but I can still pick where I do," she says before moving to lay back down and roll over to face the back of the couch.
Chris pinches the bridge of his nose, "That's not what I meant."
Seriously? Emma shifted to sit up enough to look over her shoulder to glare at him with a clear silent message of 'yes it is and you know it' before moving to lay down again.
A tired sigh escapes him. He really messed this up... He walks over to the pile of throw blankets and grabs a few to lay on the floor next to the couch before settling in.
Good lord, just leave her alone. She rolled back over to find Chris laying on the ground next to the couch. "What are you doing," She asks irritated.
"Sleeping," he says in return.
"...Chris you don't have to sleep on the floor just because I'm mad at you. Go to bed," She says as her irritation lessens and is left with just, tiredness.
"Can we talk about this?" He asks in return.
Oh, now he wants to talk? "I thought it wasn't up for debate," She quietly replied while fighting with herself. Talking is what she wanted. To be heard, why was she acting like this?
She really wasn't going to budge an inch. he moves to cover his eyes with one hand. as he spoke. "Look, I get it, I messed up. I said some really stupid shit," he admits as he just, talks, hoping maybe she's listening. "I just. I don't know how to do this and protect you..." he says hesitantly as he speaks the words he forbade before. "I get that she's a kid, but she is a bioweapon too and one that people are willing to go great lengths to get their hands on," He says as he tries to put together his thoughts from before. trying to show he listed but, provide his own concerns too. they both needed to listen. "I can't leave you to be the only person standing in the way. They're not going to care that you're a civilian. they'll kill you." the agent adds and waits a second. "I don't know where the balance is. and it's hard to want to test that even slightly when one misstep means I'll lose everything."
He waited and heard no reply except a slight shuffling next to him before a lightweight was felt on his chest. He allowed himself to check and found that Emma had moved to lay on the floor next to him and rest her head on his chest. "Can we at least try and trust the people we already know?" She asks in return. "I can't keep avoiding them. We've been here for three months now." She requests.
"I knew the risk even when I told you to go and bring her home... And I was okay with that so long as we were doing this together..." Emma says quietly. "Chel has been asking to see the house and I keep having to turn down seeing the girls. Bastion wanted to stop by too. I haven't been able to tell my family anything... I keep avoiding the neighbors because I don't know what to say to them about Rose because we haven't agreed on what to say if anyone asks about her... you're not just isolating her. You still have Hound Wolf... I can't do this alone..."
He listened this time and took the time to hear her.
She takes a breath and shifts a bit to get comfortable. well. as comfortable as possible on the floor. "You want to protect us, and that's okay, but right now you're kinda strangling both of us, not shielding us. We want her to be a person, right?"
"...Right," He agrees.
"People have the chance to do what we're doing. talking. knowing and messing up and growing. It's so important," Emma says once more and he nods.
"We can't just let her loose in public when we don't know what her powers are, it's not just about protecting her..." Chris says quietly, not upset, just, wanting to be heard.
"if she even ends up having any," Emma points out.
Again he nods... "We can call Chelsea and Jack in the morning... If they're okay with letting the girls around Rose. when they know the risk. Then maybe it's okay if they stop by and meet Rose."
Emma nods. "That seems fair to me."
Chris nods as he shifts to hold her a bit closer to him so he could kiss her, which she returned. "Emma," he says quietly.
"hm?" she replied now just exhausted from being upset for so long.
"I am sorry about what I said..." he says with more humility than his initial frustrated confession. She gives him another quick peck in return to accept the apology. The two continued their gentle loving exchange as soft steps could be heard. The two start to laugh as Duke flops over to lay across them both and join their cuddle pile of blankets on the floor.
The crossover has officially begun~ and with that so does the hunt for Heisenberg =v= who will find who first. I'm not sure what will happen first at this rate, Capcom releasing any form of detail about the DLC or Me writing 16 more chapters. Place your bets XD
Also X'D because it's probably not the clearest cameo, Gary is my attempt at adding that guy from the end scene when teen Rose was visiting Ethan's grave. He doesn't have a canon name [yet] so I've decided to name him Gary.
Review Responses:
starrat - always happy to hear it ^v^ next one should be a cute one
xLunaxNightingalexDuskx - Rose is a beast X'D the power of cuteness can end even the strongest of enemies lolol