A/N: This is the LAST CHAPTER, FINALLY! I did not anticipate this piece to take so long to write. Really, the feedback and popularity were just so unexpected, but I'm super grateful for the support y'all have shown.

I may be going slow, but I promise not to stop! I'm hoping to write a sequel from Claire's perspective. Let me know what y'all think!

Enjoy!

I'm angry Jarod's stuck behind a screen, because otherwise I'd punch him straight in the face. He's laughing, and laughing, and laughing. Each time he stops, he gets a look at my face, and bursts right back into laughter.

"Are you done?!" I shout.

He finally takes a deep breath. "I have to give you major props, Valentine. I didn't think you'd keep it up for this long. Almost a full year, and you didn't catch on. Someone who can't catch onto a false mission really shouldn't be working for BSAA, should they?"

I kick my computer under my desk, wishing so badly it was his shin. "Why did you waste all this time and money on something like this? You let this go on for a whole year to see if I'd 'catch on'? Seriously?"

He leans closer to the webcam. "I knew you weren't BSAA material. The head directors would see that you haven't accomplished anything in a year, and you'd be out the door in no time."

"How is that fair? This is all your fault, not mine!"

He sucks air through his teeth, then shoots me a devilish grin. "It's your fault for not catching on, really. Sucks to be you, Jill." He's crying so hard he's laughing. "Did you really sleep with his sister and her partner? Didn't know you were a freak like that. Maybe I would've had you doing something...else instead." He winks. I nearly puke.

Before I can respond, before I can scream bloody murder at him, I hear a loud smack, followed by a familiar deep voice.

"Fucking asshole."

Jarod stands, rubbing his cheek, where I assume he got slapped. He stands, and I watch as he throws a punch off-screen. He's not successful, though. He gets sucker-punched back, falling down to the floor. Then he gets kicked several times in the groin.

"Stop it! Stop it!" Jarod squeaks. "I'll call the police on you."

I see Chris's face appear in the frame, and my heart jumps. He smirks at Jarod, who's now stuck on the floor. "Call them. I dare you."

After several seconds, Jarod stands. He puffs his chest, trying to level-up to Chris. Unfortunately for Jarod, Chris is a good foot taller, and much more muscular. Jarod realizes it, too, because he dashes off in a panic.

Chris sits in front of the webcam, and his face lights up. Mine does, too.

"Jill!" he shouts.

"Chris! Oh my god, it's really you!" Before I know it, tears stream down my face. "Oh my god, Jarod, he set us up, he, he...I'm going to lose my job...he..." I lose my breath.

Thankfully, Chris quickly chimes in. "I told the board of directors what happened. We're okay. Jarod's on his way out. It's going to be okay."

I try to catch my breath, but I can't. All of the emotions from this entire ordeal come pouring out, and I'm crying so hard I can barely breathe.

"They want you to come to headquarters so they can assign us to a new mission. Seriously, Jill, it's okay. You can stop crying. Everything is fine."

I wipe away at my eyes, but it's useless. Tears still come streaming out, albeit slightly slower.

"Okay, seriously, you have to stop. I don't think I've ever seen you cry before, and it's weird."

I can tell he's being serious. It makes me laugh. I take a few deep breaths and wipe the tears from my cheeks. I can only imagine how red and puffy and ugly my face is. "Yeah, well, I've done a lot of things I haven't done before in the past few months, so you need to expect nothing to make sense anymore."

He darts his eyes away from the camera and chuckles. "Jill, did you really sleep with my sister?"

If my face wasn't already red, it sure is now. I cover my face, similarly avoiding eye contact. "No, Chris, we never made it, um, that far. Believe it or not."

"But you almost did, Billie Easter. Nice cover name, by the way."

"Shut up."

I peer up, and watch as he rubs his face. "But did you fall for them, though? Like, for real?"

I pause, but eventually nod.

"I did."

I realize it's the first time I'm admitting it to myself. Like, really admitting it to myself.

He grimaces. "Are you guys really going to...you know."

"I don't know, Chris!" I shout. "I don't know what's going to happen. It's a lot to process. Why do you think I was crying so hard?"

"Look, don't worry about it right now. The board really needs you to come down to HQ as soon as possible. Bring Carlos, if you can," Chris explains.

I nod and stand up, then briefly pause. "Wait, why do I need to bring Carlos?"

He shrugs. "Don't know. Just do it, ASAP."

—-

I grabbed Carlos off the couch. Even after yelling at him, he hadn't bothered to get up, nor stop eating his stupid potato chips.

"Where are we going?" he asked, his mouth still full.

"Headquarters, apparently," I replied.

I fill him on everything as we drive the forty-five minutes to the base. I made him swear up and down that he had no idea Jarod had set me up, and I believed him. He had a lot of choice words for Jarod, too, and then told me he was thankful that he hadn't been placed on a major mission just yet.

We pull up to the front of the building, which, at first appearance, looks like nothing more than an old, decrepit office building.

I scan my badge, and we both hop inside the elevator. Most of the headquarters are underground, lest someone find our "secret lair" or whatever. The receptionist seems to be expecting us, as she gestures to a hallway on our right without even saying a word. We move past several offices until I find the one Chris was sitting in.

"Hey!" he shouts. We both run to each other and embrace, like a bad airport reunion scene. He's got a strong grip. I pull away before my innards get squeezed out of me. I'd already spent the last several hours feeling like I was going to shit my pants.

"Chris! It's really you! After all this time!" I shout. "What happened? After the mansion? After the virus? Did you make it out okay?"

He raises his eyebrows. "I could ask you the same thing. You went back to Raccoon City?"

Before we can finish our conversation, a rather stoic man that I had only vaguely seen before enters the room. To my surprise, behind him is Leon.

Leon looks shocked, too. We both shoot each other a confused look as the man gestures the four of us to sit down. I sit, then Carlos sits to my left, then Chris awkwardly leaves the chair to my right empty. So Leon could sit there, naturally. I feel my body freeze up as Leon takes a seat, gently brushing up against my leg.

"I need to start by offering my sincerest apology to Chris and Jill for all the madness you've been put through over the past year. Had we known what was going on, we would've put a stop to it." I ook at the man's badge. Noah Akins. I recognize the name; he's one of the top directors.

"You're gonna fire Jarod, right?" Carlos blurts.

Mr. Akins exhales. "Yes, we're looking into disciplinary action. But that's not why we gathered you four. We have something in mind for you guys."

The four of us shoot confused looks at each other.

Mr. Akins smiles, however briefly, before returning to his cold, indifferent expression. "As much as we wish you had been working on a more, um, productive project this past year, the board also feels that you can use some of these skills you've developed towards a new assignment."

He doesn't give us time to be confused. Instead, he pulls out a giant map that had been so heavily annotated that you could barely tell what it was for. He jabs his finger on a spot on the top right.

"We have reasonable suspicion that a very small percentage of the population is immune to the effects of the T-virus. We found records of about thirty-five Raccoon City denizens relocating to Earl Creek, Texas. It's a tiny town with a population of five-hundred and two, just outside of Tyler."

"Who's Tyler?" Carlos asks. He's incapable of keeping his mouth shut.

Mr. Akins shuts his eyes for a moment, collecting himself before continuing. "Tyler is a city in East Texas. We're not worried about Tyler. We're worried about why thirty-five non-related people from Raccoon City would want to move to Earl Creek. We have reason to believe the thirty-five likely had immunity to the T-virus. Our suspicion is that somebody has set up some sort of secretive operation. We don't know their motives or their intent, but anything involving the T-virus is bad news."

"So you're thinking they moved across the country to escape suspicion," Chris chimes in. "What's our next move?"

I make brief eye contact with Leon, only to realize he'd made brief eye contact with me. He smiles, and so did I.

To my surprise, he takes my hand under the table and gently squeezes it. I squeeze it back.

"This is where you come in," Mr. Akins continues. "Jill and Leon, you both showed incredible undercover skills, even if they weren't being put to good use. Chris, you were quick on your feet to get into Jill's mind to develop an action plan."

"What about me?" Carlos asks.

"Well..." Mr. Akins trailed off. "If I'm being honest, in your case, we don't have you assigned to a major project yet, and we don't really want to have to keep paying rent on your apartment."

This is the part where I would've blurted something about having to pack up and move. I can't fully concentrate. Like, I know big changes are happening, but I'm too fixated on Leon's hand in mine to fully process it.

"You want all of us to relocate?" Leon asks quietly.

"For the duration of the assignment, yes," Mr. Akins replies. "The four of you will be undercover, pretending to have been offered a job at a fictional company headquartered there. Chris, Carlos, Jill, you will be pretending to be new college graduates. You know, playing up the whole 'take what job you can get' angle. You'll be responsible for trying to infiltrate the young blue-collar workers there. Many of them tend to take odd jobs, and one of them may be inadvertently involved with the enemy."

I look to Chris, then to Carlos. Both of them are rugged and aged and muscular. I didn't think they could really pass as young twenty-somethings, but I guess that didn't matter to the board.

Carlos, obviously, has the same idea. "College grads? Seriously?"

"You'll need to, you know, clean it up a bit." Mr. Akins gestures to Carlos's roughed-up hair and overgrown face. "Anyways, Leon, you'll be bringing your family and pretend you just got a job as their supervisor. You're going to play the part of a wholesome family man, complete with a fake sob story on how you got Sherry that we'll draft up for you. You're going to appeal to the older crowd there. Find the businessmen, see if they're involved with anything shady."

Carlos leans forward. "Barbie Doll Boy isn't playing a college student, but we are? Nah, that's ridiculous."

Chris looks to Carlos, then shoots me a confused look. "This is the guy that rescued you out of Raccoon City?"

I kick Carlos under the table, then roll my eyes. "It was a joint effort, thank you very much."

Mr. Akins slams his hands on the table. "Can you focus?"

The four of us nod.

"We're going to give you a couple of weeks to rest and recharge. I know emotions are probably running a little high after everything that's been going on. We're going to move you out there on the first of next month. We'll have movers sent out, so start packing your stuff."

With that, he was gone. Chris stands, and before he waltzes out the door, he pats me on the shoulder.

"Get my number from Claire and call me later. Clearly, we have a lot to catch up on."

Carlos is next to stand. He shoots me one of those looks. "Jill, why don't you let me take the car and you go with Leon?"

I glance over to Leon, who nods along. My heart starts pounding. Nonetheless, I grab my keys from my pocket and hand them over.

"Good luck," Carlos whispers.

Leon and I both sit in awkward silence for what feels like an eternity. Neither of us can make eye contact. Neither of us know what to say.

"Let's, uh, do you want to come back to our place, and, you know, talk it out? All of it?"

I nod, and we both leave.

The car ride is dead silent. I keep my eyes peeled out the window. I can't process what's happening. My mind goes totally, inescapably numb.

Finally, as Leon puts the car in park, he pats my leg. "Hey. Are you okay, Jill?"

I can't help but snicker. "Honestly? Just as I was getting used to the madness with you and Claire, things get crazy again. It never gets easier."

He half-smiles, in his usual adorable and charming way. "It's not supposed to be easy. That's why they hired you. You're a badass. You can handle crazy."

—-

The news had clearly been delivered before we'd arrived, because the first thing we heard when we walked through the front door was Sherry screaming at the top of her lungs.

"We have to move?! Are you serious right now?!"

We both race into the living room, where Sherry was throwing a fit, as Claire tries desperately to calm her down.

"It's going to be okay! It'll be a great adventure for all of us!" Claire attempts to pat her on the back, but Sherry shoves her hand away. She sighs, making eye contact with Leon. "Chris called a few minutes ago to delivery the news."

"I don't want to go to Texas! That sounds so gross!" Sherry shouts. She stands, folding her arms. "I hate both of you!" With that, she storms off, slamming her door shut.

Leon and I both awkwardly plop down on the couch. Claire rubs her face, groaning. "Are we seriously relocating? Do you have any idea how long it took to get this house? No way we'll find something half as nice down there."

"Surely it's just for a few months. It'll be okay," Leon replies, grabbing Claire's hand.

Claire locks eyes with me, as if she hadn't noticed I was there. "Um. Are you going, too?"

I nod.

She bites her lip. "Well, shit. This sucks for all of us, doesn't it?"

We sit in silence for a couple of minutes. Then, all three of us burst out laughing. The weight of everything came crashing down. The useless goose chase. The fake relationship. The real feelings that came with it. And the move to some godawful town none of us want to live in.

It almost doesn't feel real.

"I guess we'll all have to stick together," Leon mutters. "It might be the only thing that keeps us sane. That is…um, if you still like us."

An idea hits me.

"You're right. So why don't we all just start over? You know, get to know each other now that we don't have weird secrets hanging over our heads."

"I'd love that," Leon replies.

Claire reaches over, grabbing my hand with her other hand. "Do you still want to be, um, do you want to, you know...be together?"

I hesitate, even though deep down I already knew the answer.

"Yeah. I think I do. Do you guys?"

They both nod.

Leon sighs. "Well. Good. That's good. So, uh, where do we get started now that we're starting over?"

I glance to their bedroom door. It's time.

"We start where we should've started in the first place," I reply in the most fake-confident voice I can muster.

We laugh, carrying each other into the bedroom, making sure to lock the door behind us.

What happens next? Well, that just might be up to your imagination.

Final Note: Earl Creek is not a real Texas town. Yet, anyways.