-A Place Where all Stories End-

Boulder, Colorado

Things weren't supposed to be this way. At twenty-six years old, Eva Jane Wesker hoped to be married with a family. She only managed to get part of that right. Her straight blonde hair had grown long, cascading down over her shoulders, and gradually she allowed her outfits to change from more than just black and zero other color. She still wasn't very good with variety but she didn't feel she needed to be. Like at the moment, she was wearing a typical outfit of hers which included a black leather jacket that reached to her knees. Other than the jacket, everything else was anything but black. She wore a white tank top with thin straps under the jacket, tan pants, and blue and white sneakers. Oh, and her necklace.

A hand moved up to clasp the diamond choker around her neck. The item was expensive, priceless really, an heirloom of his deceased mother. Blue eyes glistened with tears which she fought desperately to hold back. So much time passed and she wasn't nearly over it. "It" being the death of one Chris Redfield, the giver of her necklace. The man had given it to her, despite her protests against receiving such a beautiful object, after the first time they were intimate with one another, the first time they made love. A spur of the moment happening and yet he had the item on him. He'd been carrying it and Eva realized then he had been thinking about her all the time they were apart as she had been thinking of him.

Age hadn't seemed to matter any longer. Not after they discovered and felt the deep connection between them after all the years spent apart. It was like they had always been meant to be together. She wasn't sure if she believed in that kind of thing, "soulmates", but Eva couldn't deny the intense closeness she felt to Chris. Had felt, past tense. He was gone now. He'd been gone for a long time. In three months it would be six years.

Her fingers reached forward and traced the date of birth and the date of death carved in the stone slab she knelt before. The date of death was what stood out for her. "August 15, 2012." If anyone saw the grave with the years 1973 to 2012, they would have figured he'd lived to the age of thirty-nine. No one would ever suspect Chris Redfield ceased aging any longer at the age of thirty-five after becoming infected with a virus.

The R-Virus or Regenerative virus had halted his physical aging and allowed him to heal from non-mortal wounds faster than any normal human. He had been invincible from death, too, until his run-in with a machine which passed him continuously through time. When he finally landed back in his proper time he was considerably weakened, and by complete accident, learned he could die now like any other human being. The man retained his healing capabilities and lack of aging but was mortal in the sense he could be killed. If Eva hoped that would deter the man from getting himself involved in dangerous situations, she had been massively mistaken. And really, she should have known better.

She'd gotten to know him over a span of four months in the year 2009 and learned of his past during that time. Chris had always been throwing himself into danger in order to save lives and protect the world. Why she thought he would change when he was technically tougher with his ability to say, heal a broken arm in a matter of hours, she didn't know. Eva blamed that belief on her still strong desire to live a normal life. She had hoped when she turned her life into something safer, he would follow. Even though it had been the preferable option, she hadn't held it against him when he told her he planned to continue his vendetta against bio-weapons. He told her this during the five weeks she'd gotten with him when she returned after three years apart. Five weeks, it wasn't nearly enough time.

Tears leaked out from the corners of glassy eyes and she let her hand drop back to her side. She didn't know why she came here. It wasn't like Chris was actually buried in the earth beneath her. There had been no body to bury. But the blood, oh god, the blood. She had reviewed the crime scene photographs over and over, and the blood had been everywhere. It was like someone drained him of pints and pints of blood, letting him bleed painstakingly slow to his eventual death. Eva's right hand clenched tight into a fist. If she had any idea, even a hint of who had done this to her love, she would have made it her life's mission to see them dead in turn.

"Eva, hey."

She wiped the fallen tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand quickly and turned to look over her shoulder. Claire Redfield was standing just a yard away, smiling gently down at her. Next to her was Leon S. Kennedy with the generic "I'm uncomfortable but here for you" type expression on his face. He hadn't known Chris very well but knew how much the man had meant to the significant other in his life, Claire, and of course how close Eva had been to him. Despite his discomfort with the grieving women around him, he came every year with Claire. The decision made to come to his gravestone each year on the anniversary, it was a ritual they'd established pretty much automatically.

They were a little early this year in their visitation because Leon had an upcoming obligation to a new assignment, the details confidential. But he'd wanted to be here. Ever since Chris died, Claire and Leon had taken their relationship seriously it would seem. Instead of being on and off like Eva knew they usually were, when Claire's brother died, the two of them had been together ever since. It was a nice thought, a death uniting two people obviously perfect for one another, but she couldn't stop the bitterness that came with the thought either. Claire and Leon got to be together for over five years straight now, and Eva had barely gotten five weeks with Chris before he died. It wasn't fair.

"Hi Claire, Leon."

"Hi Eva," the government agent said to her. "How are you holding up?"

"I am and that has to be enough."

Leon followed her gaze to where it wandered over to a pair of forms sitting in the grass a good three yards behind the grave marker, then he was looking at her again.

"How often have you been coming here, Eva?"

"Does it matter?"

He pushed. "It does."

"Once a month at least."

Eva felt, rather than saw, him come to crouch down beside her. Her gaze was now back on the lettering written across the stone. "Chris Redfield. Eternally fighting for a better world." She liked the ring to it. Made it seem as though his fight was not over yet and continued on in the afterlife.

"You've gotta stop this. You've got to stop coming here so much."

"Don't tell me what to do."

"It's been nearly six years, Eva. He's gone."

Anger flared through her and she shot up onto her feet, fast, spinning around to face him.

"Don't you think I know that? I know. The only man I've ever loved is dead. I know! And I am living the best way I know how!"

She stopped her furious rant abruptly when her gaze momentarily swept past Leon's shoulder. Claire was crying. Silent tears were streaming down her face unrestrained. She ignored them both and walked over to the grave, taking the place Eva only recently abandoned in favor of releasing pent up frustration and grief. Eva stepped more out of her way and lowered her eyes, feeling ashamed for the outburst in such a place as a cemetery.

Her eyes lifted slightly to watch Claire place a bouquet of flowers in front of the grave, next to Eva's own bunch. Eva always went out of her way to find the flowers she brought to him each visit. She felt she could give him nothing less than blue orchids and so there they lay, fresh with color greatly contrasting the dreary gray of the stone it rested against. Without meaning to, she found herself talking out loud what she'd been thinking about after Leon's words to her.

"Every time I come here, I tell myself I won't come again. But I always find myself here in about four weeks. The longest I've ever gone between visits is six weeks. I feel drawn to this place. I don't know why. It's silly, I know that."

"It's not silly, Eva. You're sad and that's perfectly natural. I'm still sad, too."

"Yeah but Leon's right. It has been so long since he died and I can't seem to get past it. I can't seem to accept that he's dead even though I know it's the truth. I know it and yet I feel like he's out there. Like he'll come walking through the door at home at any moment."

"Oh Eva..." Claire trailed off, sympathy evident in her expression.

She quickly switched the subject. "Wesker's been calling me."

"Your dad?" Claire appeared surprised, her big eyes squinting as her forehead creased in a deep frown. "What did he want?"

"I don't know, said something about wanting to talk. I hung up. I don't want to talk to that man and I made it clear for six years that I didn't want to see him. He's always abided by my wishes. Never once has he come around."

Her father, Albert Wesker, had reverted back to his old ways, experimenting on the innocent and working towards the eventual goal of a forced evolution unto mankind. Even while she'd been with him those years ago, fighting to rid the world of Umbrella and then fighting to stop Darius Greene's spiral into insanity that would destroy the world, he'd been working on his plotting already. Eva never wanted people to change from anything than what they were, but she refused to believe Wesker could be truly evil. There had to be some good in him and there had to be a way to make it come out, permanently. The answer to it escaped her right now though. So as of the first time she learned what he was up to about seven years ago, she'd stopped speaking to him much and never told him anything personal. After all, her own father stood for everything the man she loved stood against.

"Okay...?"

Eva could tell the other woman didn't seem sure where she was going with this. She wasn't sure herself so she shook off that train of thinking and just kept talking.

"He's never called me so often though. Maybe he has something important to say, I don't see how... I don't know why I brought it up. Never mind, just forget I said anything."

"If that's what you want," said Claire, looking slightly perturbed.

She hadn't really known why she'd said anything at all. On the days when she came to visit Chris's grave, she was always more vulnerable and open to talking. Otherwise, she was the picture perfect image of closed off and quiet. There were a few people where she worked that she talked to, but steadily Eva had been growing apart from them. It was easier to immerse herself in her work rather than try and pretend she could go to dinner or for a drink with co-workers that could never possibly understand the truth if they ever found it out. And since she'd lost Chris, she had also been taking part in some fieldwork. Fieldwork which her co-workers thought she was crazy for doing. They much preferred the comfort and safety of the lab where they all worked. She couldn't blame them for not understanding, the work outside of the lab kept her busier and her mind more occupied. It was a temporary salvation from her grief.

A powerful cough racked her body, startling even her after coming on so suddenly, and Claire stood to clap a hand against her back.

"Are you okay?"

Eva smothered down the coughs and swallowed, lifting her head back up from where it had come to rest against her chest.

"Yeah, fine. Just a bit of a cold. It's been bothering me for a while. No big deal."

Claire nodded and glanced away before astonishment took over her face. "Leon! Wha-what are you doing?"

The forty-year-old man had moved away from the grave and was now down on one knee, facing Claire. He looked terribly nervous for one who was usually so calm and composed, having faced down numerous horrors during the course of his life. Oh yeah, and the guy held carefully in his hands, a small black box that was opened to reveal a ring. It was an engagement ring. Holy crap, Leon was proposing! The obvious fact rang through Eva's head as she gaped open-mouthed at the man.

Leon was babbling now. "I know, I know, this might seem morbid asking you here in a cemetery of all places, beside your brother's grave no less..."

The much younger of the other two looked on as big blue eyes locked onto Leon's own blue, the pair so obviously in love, lost in one another for a time. She knew what they were both thinking in that moment. They couldn't believe how incredibly lucky they were to have found one another and to be with that person. They were thinking there was no place else in the world they would rather be. Eva had had that once, with Chris. One whole glorious month and a week together. And it had been like they were in their own world the entire time, no distractions, only each other. That was over now and a new love had taken its place. The love, so distinct and powerful, between Claire and Leon.

She watched in amazement as Leon continued on in his proposal speech to Claire, who appeared incapable of removing her gaze from the symbol of a potential permanent future with her significant other.

"But morbid though it may be, it seemed fitting..somehow. Claire, your brother, him dying so suddenly, it just got me thinking. There is a lot of danger in this world, you and I know this better than most. And something could happen at any time. So I don't want to waste another minute not knowing whether we'll end up together or apart. I want to settle this once and for all because I know what I want it to be. I love you, Claire Redfield, and I want to be with you the rest of my life. I'm done being so uncertain of myself and I am ready to..settle down or however it means when... Ugh, what I'm trying to say is that I know I've taken my job before everything else, but not anymore."

"Leon..." breathed Claire, eyes shining with tears of joy instead of sorrow which had occupied her so fully not long ago.

"I want to put you first."

"Do you mean that?"

Claire sounded like she wanted to believe.

"Job be damned," Leon declared.

This brought out a laugh from the light-hearted girl. "Well you already know my answer, Leon."

"Yes?"

"There never was any other answer."

"So it's a yes? Please, I need to hear you say it for my own, let's say, peace of mind."

She laughed again and Eva had to stifle her own smile at Leon's suffering over the lack of a definitive response. But she wasn't one to inflict negative feelings on anybody so she soon granted Leon reprieve.

"Yes, of course, yes. I love you, Leon Scott Kennedy. I always have."

He grinned, and instead of waiting to do the regulatory ring on the girl's finger bit, he jumped up and pulled her into his arms. They kissed long and hard, passion evident throughout, causing Eva to flash back to the last time she kissed someone. Chris was that someone. Naturally it was Chris. There never had been anyone else for her. She'd known it then and she still knew it now. She loved him. More than the world itself she sometimes thought. But she'd held on to herself as an individual and remained in this life for two reasons, two very huge, important, and meaningful reasons.

Reasons that made her aware she couldn't afford to be hell-bent on revenge, against the one or ones who had taken her love away. Her eyes moved off of the happy couple still enveloped into each other, and found the young pair waiting patiently on the grass a few yards behind Chris's gravestone. They were so quiet and respectful, and at such a very young age. A boy and a girl, each of them five years old. Fraternal twins, her twins, her children.

Far more intelligent than what was normal, even Eva, inexperienced in motherhood as she was, could tell this. The superior intelligence could easily have been inherited from her, but their very demeanor was so peculiar and hard to believe. The only way she could think to put it was that they were wise, seeming to know things she didn't think children could usually acknowledge and understand. But they did and one of those things was these common visits to the cemetery. Each time she came here she told them they could go and play for a while but every time they instead sat quietly beside one another, waiting until she concluded her visit.

Two children, keeping Chris alive by being alive themselves. Children of a man who never got the chance to be a father. He never even had the chance to know he was going to be a father. Eva walked over to Claire and Leon, hugging the now betrothed woman to show she was happy for her new happiness. Then after a little awkward should they or shouldn't they kind of shuffle, she embraced Leon.

"You two are going to be so happy together. This is a good thing. This is a really good thing," Eva told them with a smile after taking a step back from the two.

Then she went to be with her children and hugged them each in turn for no reason whatsoever that they could probably foresee. But it didn't matter. She wanted to do it because she could. They were real and tangible and she wanted to feel she could touch them to confirm they remained present and existing. They both accepted the show of affection and it was as though they knew why she needed it.

Her oldest, born three minutes before the other, raised hazel eyes up to regard her. "It's okay, Mommy."

She startled a bit at the words and looked down at her son. "Of course it is, D. Of course everything is okay. Everything is okay."

Eva repeated the phrase, knowing it was more for herself than for either of her children. She chose that moment to regard them both. Her oldest, the male of the family, was the first her eyes lingered over. His name was Donovan Christopher Redfield. The surname had always been of particular liking to her and she couldn't bear to ever use Chris's name on a regular basis so she'd given it to her son as a middle name instead. Not that that had helped much. As the years went by and Donovan got older, more and more he grew to look like the man he would have known as his father. The boy was only five years old but he had the same brown hair and the same brown-green eyes as Chris had. Add to those physical attributes, his expressions resembled Chris's as well, down to the frowning glare whenever he got concerned or upset, that had really become trademark to the deceased father of her children.

But she loved him anyway and eventually learned to look past how much he reminded her of Chris in order to see him by his own identity, as the whole other person he was entirely. He was given the nickname of D from his sister. The two virtually spent all of their time together and one day came to Eva, announcing they were now to be referred to as D and Al. D for Donovan and Al for Aly, her daughter. Her full name was Aly Jane Redfield, named after both of her parents. Of course they hadn't made the nickname request in such a proper and mature manner, the fraternal twins having been four years old at the time. The request had come as a surprise nevertheless but Eva was actually glad to abide by it since that way their real names weren't exposed as much, out in public to anyone who could be watching them without their best interests in mind. She doubted anyone bothered to keep an eye on her. No one probably knew she existed really, not after Umbrella had faded into the past and to obscurity.

An arm reached out and wrapped around her legs in a sort of tender hold, a soft head coming to rest against her side. Eva lowered her eyes to find her daughter clinging to her and looking with an unsure smile. Aly had dark brown hair identical to her brother, barely reaching over thin shoulders. The child had received her mother's eyes though, blue, plus the green of the virus courtesy of her father. Eva continued looking down at her, contemplating how the virus would work in her two children considering so far they had aged normally. Her daughter saw she had attention and chose the moment to say something.

"Time to go home?"

Eva smiled at her, taking her little hand and enclosing it into her own as she fought to push back threatening tears caused by knowing she would once again be leaving without the man she loved by her side. She spent years in denial of his death and several more trying to accept he was gone forever. Staring down at her daughter's young and innocent face, she knew then Leon was right. Her children were in the here and now and it was time to let Chris go. There was no sense in lingering on the hope of a future that could never be.