Okay we're getting back into the reasonable chapter sizes again haha. This is going to start off with some genuine fluff, no bait and switch this time, I promise. After the first '*'*'*'*' divider gets a bit more emotional, but I have a feeling this is kind of expected at this point. The last chapter was like the embodiment of the 'emotional damage' meme, so this one is like. Summer vacation with Emotional damage LITE on the side. Stress sensitive folks, please keep that in mind.

Song Suggestion: Einstein on the Beach by Counting Crows

Disclaimer: I own nothing~ Resident Evil belongs to CapCom

July began as a blur. The first two days, Chris spent at home while resting from the stressful month he'd just experienced. Monday, July 3rd arrived and to his surprise, Emma's alarm did not go off at its usual time of 6:30 in the morning.

Chris peeked an eye open to look around and saw that it was, in fact, morning and light was starting to seep through the curtains. He lazily reached behind him to get his phone off the nightstand and noticed they were both about 15 minutes late to wake up for work.

"Em, your alarm didn't go off," Chris mumbles as his own internal clock had managed to wake him up because he was expecting the jarring noise.

Emma slowly inhaled as she started to wake up and process what she was told. "It's a holiday... 4-day weekend, we don't have work," She mumbled back while nuzzling her face into her pillow. She maybe should have mentioned that she wanted to sleep in a little before going to bed, but she thought he knew they didn't have work.

"Oh right, It's July... You didn't have to go to New York?" Chris asks while trying to wake up.

"mh-mh..." Emma replies while starting to give up on the idea of sleeping in. "Charlotte's mad at you again, by the way."

"Again?" Chris asks while moving to hold his face in one hand while the other remained around Emma's waist.

"Mhm," Emma says and yawns as she starts actually waking up. "She called some time after you left. Said something about the BSAA stealing her husband... I told her they took you too, so she said not to worry about classes until after we figure out what's going on..." the sleepy woman explained before rolling over, so she could get closer to Chris and use him as a pillow. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

The question got him to stiffen slightly "Well it's, um, a bit complicated," He says while trying to avoid answering the question.

Sure it is, "Mkay, probably a good idea for you not to go with to New York anymore," Emma says in an even tone while continuing to rest. "Pretty sure she'll throw stuff at you if she sees you," She adds in warning.

He wasn't thrilled about that but, it was kind of fair. "Alright," he somewhat begrudgingly agreed. "If we have off for the day, what's the battle plan."

"Tackle chores, and get the kids outside for a bit," the motherly woman replies with a slight smile. "Rose started to learn to swim while you were gone. She loves it so far, so I was thinking we could go to the pool."

"Is she really?" He asks with a smile before a thought came to mind. "How'd you manage to fit that in? You're already working yourself to the bone..." Chris asks as his expression shifted to one of curiosity while he adjusted his position in bed to try and look at the woman resting her head on his chest.

Oh crap. "... Don't be mad?" Emma hesitantly and questioningly requests with a nervous smile.

"Em," He says with a slight frown. Part of him was annoyed that she seemed to know that this was going to annoy him, and she did it anyways, but the other was concerned what happened since she felt she had to ask that.

"I didn't know what else to do, you just disappeared. I couldn't get a hold of you. I definitely was not taking her to the BSAA And I couldn't risk losing my job, I had to think of the kids..." Emma listed off in her defense to start. "So, I signed Rose up for a day camp. I went to a few growing up, and they never asked for medical records, and they're not as strict as daycares, so I found one nearby, explained my husband had to leave for work short notice, and she was in."

"Emma," Chris says with some annoyance as he held his face. He understood why she did it, but it didn't make it any less frustrating. A defeated sigh crossed his lips. "How much longer does she have?" In the end he couldn't blame her for not trusting the BSAA, he didn't trust them either...

"It's a week by week plan, I can call and cancel any time," Emma explained. "I took up Chuck's offer for some freelance work to cover the cost."

"Alright," He says with a slight nod. "I don't like it, and I'd appreciate it if that stopped now that things are normalish again but, I'm not mad at you. I'm made at them for putting you in that situation."

"Alright," Emma agrees in return.

"... She did well with it?" Chris asks with some curiosity.

Hearing the question caused her to smile as she shifted to position herself over him in a rather lazy attempt at a pin. "She did great," Emma says with a proud tone before giving Chris a peck on the cheek. "I'm surprised she hasn't told you all about it yet. She had so many stories to tell me whenever I picked her up if she wasn't about to pass out from running around all day."

Chris mumbled a halfhearted excuse for why that might be, but it was ultimately inaudible.

"Maybe ask her about it," Emma suggests as she moves to get up once she hears her phone alarm finally go off. "Come on, it's time to wake up."

And so, the family's day began. A bit rocky to start, but it worked out in the end. Emma and Chris went through their usual routine, which was warmly welcomed. Chores were completed as the kids played. Piers was still figuring out how to crawl, while rose was now learning she needed to more actively keep her toys away from him if she didn't want to share.

Hanging on the fridge was a flyer with colorful Clip art pictures of pool themed items.

Community Pool Summer Fundraiser

Join us for a fun evening of barbecue and fun with activities for everyone.

Support the local pool by renting time at the grills for a picnic dinner.

Fundraiser events start at 5:30PM through 8:30PM [sunset]

Stick around for the 9pm Firework display sponsored by ABC Auto

The flyer listed fees and expenses for attending the fundraiser as well, $10 per adult and $5 per child, with free admission for children under 3 years old. There was even a small section off to the side that promoted a $20 Grill rental fee to have a picnic by the pool, but it was also sure to mention that food could be purchases at their snack bar. If it was like any other public pool though, it was likely over prices for very low quality.

To say Rose was excited was an understatement. The nearly 9-year-old equivalent child was ecstatic from the moment she saw the flyer added to the fridge over a week ago. She'd get to show her family how good she was getting at swimming, and it sounded like there would be yummy food and fire works too. Everything from buying food for the grill to picking out pool toys leading up to the day just made it feel like she won the lottery.

"Is it time to go yet?" Rose asked for the 5th time that day.

A tired sigh escaped her tired fatherly guardian as he closed his book. "What time is it?"

Rose looked around for a clock. "4:30" she answers happily.

Huh... it actually was time to start getting ready. "Do you have your swimsuit on under your clothes?"

The child nods happily in return.

Of course she was already ready. "Alright," Chris says as he moves to get up. "You can help me pack up the car then."

"Wohoo!" Rose happily cheers and hurries off to the kitchen, figuring that would be their first stop.

Chris weakly smiles at this... She was a pretty resilient kid for everything she'd been through. With that thought, he pushed himself to get up and made his way over to the kitchen as well. Ice was poured into a cooler to keep drinks and ground beef patties stored in plastic baggies cold. Rose helped supervise the whole process more so than she helped with packing, but it was at least keeping the child busy.

"Hey Em, the car's packed up," Chris calls up the stairs of the house.

"Oh! Perfect, thank you," Emma says as she makes her way down the stairs carrying the baby and a freshly packed diaper bag of potential pool necessities. Towels and sun block padded extra space alongside bottles and diapers. "There was a pool float for Piers on the counter, did you pack that too?"

"Yep," Chris confirms as Emma works on balancing, so she could slip on her flip-flops. "Did you want me to drive?"

"Oh that's right, you can do that again," She says, having forgotten that. "Yeah, if you could do that, that would be great."

Chris nods and leads the way for the family over to the car, so they could all get packed into the car and start making their way across town.

Rose happily hummed along to the radio while swaying excitedly in her car seat. It felt like it had been forever since they did something together out of the house.

Before long, the pool came into view. A crowded parking lot of cars was a testament to how busy the pool was. Even then, Rose could not be bothered and remained happy for her long awaited, family approved, adventure. She impatiently paced around as her guardians worked on getting everything out of the car. Once heavily laden arms were full of supplies and a child, Rose led the way to the pool entrance with some additional directions of where to go thanks to posted signs.

Fees were paid, $25 to get in and $20 for the grill, as they were given waxy paper wristbands and a ticket to hand over to staff at a section of the picnic pavilion. Next to the Pavilion, half a dozen or so out door park grills were available for use. Meanwhile, a large hill was covered in blankets and bags which were set up in an unspoken reservation system to watch the fireworks later.

As the family made their way over to the Hill to pick out a space, a few speakers did their best to play music that was ultimately lost in the droning sound of chatter. It took a few minutes to find a good available space. The flyer was not joking on that first come, first serve comment... All the same they managed and the collection of towels were laid out. Shirts and shorts were stored away in the large diaper bag as the family dressed down to their swimsuits and put on sunblock.

Naturally Rose was the first one done, even though there were still white smudges of lotion showing, she was a bit too eager to really care if she rubbed in her sunscreen properly. "Come ooon," Rose says while impatiently dancing around.

Emma chuckles a bit at this. "Chris, why don't you go ahead. I still need to blow up Pier's floaty."

"Are you sure?" Chris asks a bit surprised. Emma seemed kind of excited about this too.

"Yes~ let's go!" Rose says excitedly, as she took that as permission to start making her way to the pool.

Emma makes a gesture with her head for Chris to go and follow Rose. "Go ahead, and Chris. Talk to her? She needs to spend time with you."

Chris nods in response before turning to follow the child, who was already halfway to the crowded pool. "Rose, don't run by the pool."

"I'm not!" Rose calls back. She was.

Chris rolls his eyes at this as he watches the child quickly leap into the water, allowing herself to sink to the bottom before surfacing. It took him a bit longer as he walked the rest of the way over and, with much less fanfare, simply walked of the edge and landed in the water with a plop.

Rose Giggled as Chris had to push the extra air bubbles out of his shorts because of this, creating bubbles in the pool. "You farted." she says with an amused grin while doggy-paddling to keep her feet off the floor of the pool.

"Don't say that," Chris says while trying not to laugh. Kids.

Rose continued to doggy-paddle around in a small circle "Look at what I can do now." she says with a proud tone though there was still some sense of struggling in her expression as she was straining to keep her face above water.

She definitely wasn't good at it yet but, she was swimming. kind of. More like effectively flailing but hey. "Not bad, when did you learn that?" Chris asks as he remembered Emma's request.

"I got to go to summer camp while you were gone!" Rose says happily while continuing to try and show off her synchronized splashing. "I got to do crafts and I made friends and I gotta see horses and learn about plant," She listed off excitedly. "And they're teachin' me how to swim."

"I see," he replies as he moves to squat down in the shallow water, partially to cool off and partially to keep his still somewhat fresh puncture wound scars from being visible. "And you're having fun with that?"

"Yeah," Rose chirps back as her little circles started to slow down, she was still building those muscles and was easily tired out by the resistance of the water. "There's a buncha other kids like me there, and they're fun to talk to."

While he was happy to hear that, part of him understood that he was going to have to be the one to tell her that she wasn't allowed to continue going... "Well, I'm glad you had fun with that. Are you ready to go back to school?" He asks in return.

"I have to go back?" Rose asks disappointed. She wanted to go to the fun camp place instead. "Can't I just go to camp forever?"

"Unfortunately no," Chris says, trying to offer some sympathy. "This is going to be your last week."

Rose audibly complained about this, even though no words were spoken. She continued to swim around with a frustrated expression while making bubbles by exhaling into the chlorinated water. It took a few seconds but an idea eventually came to mind and her face lit up.

Oh dear. Chris knew that face well enough.

Rose swam over to Chris and paddled in place. "My birthday is coming up, right?"

"... yes," He answered hesitantly with a slight warning tone. He wasn't sure if he liked where this was going.

"Can I have a phone?" Rose asks, excitement returned to her face as she felt she found a solution.

"Why on earth do you need a phone," Chris asks bewildered. Frankly, why should he let her have one after she stole his to run away from home!

"All my camp friends have phones," She offers as her reasoning with a slight pout.

And we've entered the age of they have it, so I need it too... great. Chris thought with a deadpan expression.

This was, similarly, an expression Rose knew well. Her plea was not convincing enough. "If I have a phone, then I can talk to my camp friends without going to camp. And I'll be really good, I promise I won't break it." the child lists off as additional reasons. "Pleeeeaaaasssseee," she adds, as if extending how long it took to say the word would make it more sincere.

"Rose," Chris says before Emma's words once more come to mind. Arguing now could close off communication for the rest of the day... "I'll think about it."

"Wohoo!" the child cheered happily as she finally stopped her attempt at swimming to stand in the water. Unlike chris, this shallow water was still deep enough that it was barely noticeable that she shifted to standing.

"That's not a yes," He warns so she didn't get her hopes up. He'd at least bring it up with Emma.

"I know, I know," Rose says in return before attempting to stay above water while crossing her legs and focused on using her arms to stay above water. That didn't work so great, and ever so slowly, she started to sink despite her best attempts.

Chris reached out to hold her up above the water. Spend time with her... hm. "Do you want to go fast around the pool?" Chris asks with a raised eyebrow. That would work, right?

"I'm not supposed to go in the deep water yet. I only got a yellow swim card..." Rose explains with a sense of defeat.

He did not know what a swim card was... "That's okay. Here. Hold on like it's a piggyback ride." he instructs, and the child does as she's told. "Ready?"

Rose nods, and with that Chris was off swimming around the pool. Unsurprisingly, he was much better at that than Rose, and as such he was able to swim in a way that would keep the child above water while moving much quicker than she could.

Rose laughed and smiled as they darted around the crowded pool. As they did so she eventually saw Emma with Piers who was happily trying to splash around in the water from the safety of his floating baby seat. "Hi mom!" Rose shouts and waves with one hand as they continued their little parade around the pool.

Emma chuckles at the sight and waves back. It was good to see them spending time together.

Time flew by after that, and the family enjoyed some much-needed time together and away from the house. By 6:30 Emma and Piers got out of the water and the motherly woman started to prepare their late 7pm Dinner. Rose and Chris spent a bit more time in the pool and by night fall everyone regrouped at the collection of towels. Emma was holding a tuckered out Baby while Chris held a Sleeping Rose who was wrapped up in a towel for warmth.

Emma yawned as well as she moved to rest her head on Chris's shoulder while they waited for the fireworks to start. "This was nice." She says with a peaceful content tone.

The action causes an equally content smile to cross Chris's face. "Yeah," he quietly agrees to avoid waking up either child before gently kissing the top of her head. This certainly wasn't a perfect child raising process, frankly it was rather messy at best, but they were doing pretty okay with the cards they'd been dealt in his book. It was worth the struggle of working with the BSAA if it meant protecting moments like these. Hopefully, one day Rose would grow to understand the choices he had to make and why he chose what he did...

'*'*'*'*'

The 3rd day of July came to a close and so did the 4th soon after and with that Chris went back to work, and as promised Rose would get to enjoy one last week at summer camp before she'd have to go back to the BSAA with him. His old routine was renewed from there. He'd stop in the break room to drop off his lunch, spend the morning and part of the afternoon on bureaucratic paperwork which he hated with a passion before making his way to the gym to train with the rest of his team.

"Hound wolf squad, round up," Chris calls while reviewing a list of notes on a clipboard that only partial made sense to him since it had been so long.

"Sir yes sir," the squad replied in unison.

"Umber eye. Lead distance training for Tundra and Canine. Lobo, Night howl, you're with me on the machines. we'll switch courses in an hour and a half." Chris lists off the instructions. "Any questions?"

"No sir," the five reply in unison once more.

"Alright then, at ease and get to work," Chris instructs, and they all break off to start exercising.

"Any Idea when we're heading out again?" Lobo asks after a few minutes of silence as the 3 used machines that were set up near each other.

"I haven't heard anything yet," Chris admits in return. "I think they're still trying to cover up 'paying' for Heisenberg's help with the victims families."

"What the hell does he need a dozen hearts for anyways? That's fucking disgusting," Lobo pointedly says with a huff as he put a bit more effort into his workout.

"No idea, but I know we're keeping an eye on him because of it," Chris says with a similarly unhappy frown. If Heisenberg was up to something, they were going to figure out what it was.

Night howl carefully stopped his machine before speaking, "I heard the director has us on lockdown. No missions for the foreseeable future," Night Howl says while taking his glasses off to clean them on the edge of his shirt.

"What?" Chris asks with a mixture of confusion and annoyance. That prick couldn't let him rest, but all of a sudden, now that he was back and ready to work, Director Romanov's saying there's no work for them to do? "What a bunch of bullshit."

"It's not the worst thing, really," Lobo says with a half-hearted shrug. "Gives us time to dig around for the mole."

Right, that was a thing... "True," Chris says while quietly thinking it over. He did still have that key. He might be able to look through some of the lockers each day to try and find clues. A much as he wanted to believe his own team was above suspicion, he was starting to question that. In his mind, everyone was a suspect. The director was at the top of his list of suspects to be sure, but something just wasn't adding up and he wasn't sure why.

If the director was trying to keep them from digging, which he has done in the past. Then why would he bench them and put them on desk duty... If the director was the mole. Why give him a key that opens all the lockers... The director was a meticulous guy who was hiding under-the-table deals for years. This wasn't an accident.

"Keep an ear out, if you hear anything let me know," Chris says all the same. he certainly wouldn't turn away a lead if it was offered to him, but for now, he was going to investigate on his own...

For the next 3 days Chris did just that. He'd go in to the office a bit early each morning, not enough to be noticeable or seen as unusual, but enough to give him a few extra minutes in the locker room. Each day he'd search two or three lockers for anything suspicious before giving up to avoid getting caught, and he'd go on with his day. It was a slower method, but he didn't have the luxury of creating a scene. Not with his current situation.

These First 3 days of searching were, unsurprisingly, a bust. He found nothing. This just made him all the more anxious over the weekend. if the mole caught on, they'd have time to move any evidence out of their locker. but if he made it too obvious he was looking for them, the same thing would happen. It was an obnoxious game of cat and mouse that was going to drive him nuts.

The weekend passed without much fanfare, aside from a discussion with Emma about Rose's birthday. Rose was lucky Emma was a bit more articulated and made a stronger case. While Chris was going to be on desk duties for a while, that wouldn't last forever. Chris was often gone and Emma would need a way to communicate with Rose if Chris was going to insist on dropping the child off at the BSAA each day instead of a day camp or something similar. On top of that, it was hard to deny that he had saved up a fair bit more money since he hadn't been helping with the household expenses for the last 6 months outside the monthly car and house payments. So, a phone was purchased and stashed away in the master bedroom to give to the child later. She was still technically a bit young, but she did have a need for it and she did age quicker, so in a few months she'd be around the right age for her first phone anyways.

It was weird for Chris to think about, but Rose was getting older.

Monday arrived, and that thought was still lingering in the back of his mind as he looked in the rearview mirror to see the growing child that just 3 years ago was in an infant seat. While he was technically around for the last 6 months the amnesia made it feel like he hadn't actually been there and because of Rose's aging situation that short period of time translated to missing almost 2 years of her growth. All of this was making him feel old. He missed his own birthday, and his first anniversary. He was 50 years old now. Rose was going to be officially 3 years old soon, He'd been married for a year, and he had a son who would be turning one in a few months too.

His silent midlife crisis inducing drive to work was filled with similar thoughts as Rose quietly watched the scenery pass her by as they made their way to the BSAA. Why was Chris always so mean? She wanted to go to camp not the BSAA. Camp had other kids like her, the BSAA was just filled with adults that talk about boring stuff. She was allowed to spend time with other kids when he wasn't around. While they had a good time before at the pool, that wasn't right now and while she was developing emotionally and her mood swings were occurring less frequently, the world was still pretty black and white for her. Either she was happy or she was not, and right now, she was not.

Rose's own internal monologue continued as she was led into the building down the halls through familiar corridors and to her, usual door where Chris would drop her off for the day.

"Alright, you know where to find me when you're done for the day right?" Chris asks curiously.

"Yep," Rose replies with a nod.

"you have your lunch sack?" Chris asks as well, and Rose holds up the insulated cloth container in confirmation. "Alright, have a good day." he says, and with that, he starts making his way to the locker rooms to do yet another locker check.

Rose watches Chris leave before making her way into the small lab.

"Oh hey, If it isn't Eveline, It's been a while," One of the scientists say upon seeing Rose walk in.

Rose looked at them confused as the one who spoke was jabbed in the rib by another scientist who was glaring at them.

"But... My name's Rosemary?" Rose says with a confused tone. Did they forget her already? She had been gone for a while.

"Of course it is dear, come on, we have some tests to catch up on now that you're back." Says the scientist who jabbed the other in the rib. "Come with me." they add and motion for Rose to follow them.

Rose was still confused by this. what did they mean, 'of course it is dear'. Her name is Rosemary. That wasn't up for debate. She was already irritated the whole way here, and now she was confused. This was the worst.

What was even weirder was that it kept happening. Some of the scientists still called her Rose, but she'd hear others mutter that other name. Eveline.

This is just like Eveline's charts from the autopsy.

Eveline could do this. Eveline couldn't do that. Wow she really does look like Eveline. Why did they keep bringing up that name! As much as she tried to ignore it, it was getting hurtful at this point.

"Eveline was able to-"

"My name, Is Rosemary," Rose corrects again with a clearly pissed off expression.

"I know dear," the scientists replies before continuing on as if they didn't make a mistake.

Rose continued throughout the day trying to ignore the name. It wasn't just that they were using this other name as some sort of benchmark for what she should be able to do. There were times when they genuinely would call her Eveline and she could tell that it's being used as an insult. It made her feel bad. Part of her wanted to lash out and scream at them and another wanted to run away and tell Chris that they were being mean to her... but at the same time, she didn't want to tell Chris. He works with these people, so what if he starts doing the same thing?

The end of the day couldn't come quick enough for the distraught child, who quickly left the lab to make her way to the gym. Just as the old routine dictated, Chris was there with the rest of hound wolf squad.

"Hey Chris," Rose says to get his attention. "I wanna go home," She meekly requests.

"Alright, let me finish up here, and we'll head out." Chris says while trying to hide his concern. It was pretty obvious that the child was upset about something. "How was your day?"

"It was okay, I guess," She says in return while avoiding eye contact.

That didn't help... "Okay, well, can you go and get my bag? We can head out a bit quicker that way."

"Okay," she says with the same tired and sad tone.

Chris watched with cautious concern while puzzling over the behavior. She was pretty mopey on the way to the office too... maybe she was just missing her friends? All the same, he continued to keep an eye on her. She was just as quiet during the car ride home. she was barely talking during dinner and went to her room early. The agent looked over to Emma who had a matching worried expression.

Upstairs in her room, Rose got ready for bed before snuggling in between the sheets with her angie doll and closed her eyes. If she couldn't talk to her house dad she could always talk to dream space dad. Hopefully.

It took an hour or so but the child eventually fell asleep. the darkness of her eyelids slowly shifted. it took a bit of extra effort, as if she was walking through quick sand but eventually that darkness gave way to the blinding white light of the void. To her surprise, the 4 from before were back now. Where they were constantly bickering before their absence, now they were completely silent and seemed to be avoiding each other as much as possible. The strange little girl was here as usual and so was her dreamspace dad.

"Dad!" Rose says happily and hurries over to hug Ethan.

He was a bit confused to see a small brunette child appear and call him dad, but he pretty quickly figured out who it was. He'd ask her about that later. "Hey Kiddo," he says with a weak smile. He looked tired. Ethan yawned confirming as much. "How are you doing?"

"Okay I guess..." Rose says with a pout.

"You guess?" Ethan asks confused. "You didn't leave the house on your own again, did you?"

Rose shook her head no. "No, I was good. I stayed home," Rose confirms.

Ethan breathed a sigh of relief. "Good," he says before smiling once more.

"So, what's going on?" He asks as he motions that the two of them should sit down.

Rose does this and waits as Ethan gingerly does the same. Maybe he had aches too? "Well..." Rose started while thinking it over. "Today was the worst ever..."

"Sounds pretty bad," Ethan offers to show he was listening.

"Yeah," Rose agrees as she moves to hug her legs. "Everyone's being really mean to me," she says with a sniffle. "Why do they hate me all of a sudden?"

"Mean how?" Ethan asks as concern builds. She was getting older, was she already starting to have to deal with bullies? maybe thats why she dyed her hair. Kids could be so vicious sometimes...

Rose bobbed her head as she tried to determine where to start. "Well... there were a bunch of people in black... they broke into the house and they tried making me go away but Chris went with them instead and they left," Rose explained the best of her understanding.

I'm sorry, what?! "Are you okay?" Ethan asks while trying to process this.

"Yeah... It was really scary, but mo-Emma made me pancakes and gave me lots of hugs when I got scared again, and we watched funny movies," Rose explained before thinking on it a few seconds longer. "I think she was scared too, so I gave her hugs to help her feel better."

"And that happened recently?" Ethan asks, as his interest in figuring out how to come back as a vengeful ghost renewed. He had a few people to go find now it seemed.

"No, that was like a month ago," Rose explains before continuing her story, "but because Chris had to go away. I got to go to day camp and that was really fun," Rose explained with a happier tone. "I liked day camp. I got to play with kids like me and do fun things, and I started learning to swim,"

"but," Ethan says, as he had a feeling that wasn't the end of it. This was more what he was expecting, child drama for a kid. Day camp wasn't as fun as she thought it was.

"But then Chris came back, and now I'm not allowed to go anymore," Rose says as her pout turned to a more defined frown. "I tried asking for a phone for my birthday, and he said no. He always says no," Rose explains as her story turned more into whining. "Sometimes he's fun but other times he's really mean."

Ethan winced a bit at that, As an adult, he understood Chris's choices here a bit better. He's not being mean, she'll get over that. If anything, Ethan kind of agreed with Chris saying no, she was too young for that. "Well, I'm sure he has his reasons."

"Yeah, but I don't wanna go to the BSAA. I wanna go to day camp," Rose says as she shifts slightly to get a better hold on her legs to curl up a bit tighter. "We went back today, and it was the worst. Everyone kept making fun of me."

Maybe this was another misunderstanding. The BSAA was a professional organization. They're adults, why would they pick on a child? "Making fun of you how?" Ethan asks to try and better understand.

"They kept calling me Eveline and saying that I look like Eveline." Rose answers, which causes Ethan's expression to turn to shock. "Who even is that?"

"Me" Says a sinister yet somehow gleeful voice and in that instant, all at once the blinding white of the void was replaced with a dreary mountain side, the others in the void disappeared the little girl she'd see in the distance before was standing right in front of her. Rose tried to scoot back a bit to move away from the other child and oddly enough, now that Rose could see her more clearly, they did look kind of similar.

"Poor scared little Rose," the tired-looking little girl says in a condescending tone, be for giggling. "You're just like me." The girls says and she almost seemed happy. "People are scared of us, they don't like us," Eveline says and confirms what Rose was saying before. "We're different. and different is scary," Eveline says as she takes a few steps forward. "You can do what they say, endure the tests and poking and prodding but the second you do one tiiiny thing they don't like then suddenly you're a monster," Eveline taunts as she stops to stand in front of Rose again who stays still. "They always get in the way. They never let you have what you want. When you try and get what you want yourself, they just take it away."

Rose pushed herself to stand up and once more moved away from Eveline.

Seeing this causes Eveline to frown for a moment but the smile returned as she offered Rose her hand. "I can help you get everything you ever wanted," Eveline says with another smile. "I can teach you. I was able to get everything I wanted before they took it away from me."

"Really?" Rose asks, a bit surprised. Initially, her thoughts were of more superficial things, toys, a phone, getting to go to camp but, ultimately, what she wanted was to feel loved, she didn't like that people were being mean to her. She wanted to feel like she belonged.

"I can help you with all of that," Eveline says with a giggle.

"What?" Rose asks confused since she didn't say anything.

"Your mind is like an open book," Eveline says. "Everyone's is. That's the best part. We can see them. and we can re-write them too." Eveline explains as her tone to a more sinister tone once more. "All I had to do was cause a tiiiiny accident and rewrite a few books. Sure a few people died, but that's what people do. It's what they wanted me to do. It's why mommy made me."

"That's awful!" Rose says horrified. She didn't want to do any of that. "I just want a family!" she just wanted to be loved.

Hearing that causes Eveline to sneer, "That's what I wanted too, and look what they did to ME!"

"Well I'm not YOU!" Rose argues back.

Eveline remained silent as her sneering frown remained. "Fine." Eveline says with a frown, "If you're not going to be my sister then you can go away," She says and holds out her had before making a gripping motion. As she did this, dark thick vines sprang out of the ground and trapped Rose into a small tightly-knit ball and started pulling her into the ground.

"No, nonono," Rose says while trying and failing to get out.

As she screamed, she jolted forward and woke up. She was in her room, she was at home. Sniffles announced the beginning of tears as she quickly got out of bed, left her room and hurried down the hall to her guardian's room. It looked like they had just started waking up and were trying to process what was going on when she hurried into the room since they were both sitting up already.

"Rose? what's wrong? Did you just scream?" Emma asks concerned as she watched the child hurry over and cling to the bed.

Rose hesitantly nods to confirm that was her.

"What happened?" Chris asks as he was still trying to assess if there was a threat in the house.

Rose thought it over. "Can I sleep with you guys?" She asks, feeling somewhat embarrassed by the request, but that freaked her out pretty badly. "I had a bad dream and I don't want to be alone..."

Chris and Emma look at each other. She'd been acting strange all day... They hesitate a bit since she's getting older but nod to each other in agreement.

"Alright," Chris says as he shifts a bit, so she can more easily climb into bed and lay between them.

One Rose was settled in Emma gently ran her hand through Rose's hair in an attempt to comfort the crying child. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asks quietly.

Rose remained quiet at first as she tried to think about what to say. "There was a mean clown, and they were chasing me," She lies. "They were saying mean things to me." she adds, as she unwittingly was actually admitting what was wrong in a subconscious way. Even then, she was worried if they knew she has a way to contact this Eveline person that she'll get taken away again.

"That does sound scary." Emma affirms once it seemed like Rose was done talking. Emma looked at Chris with evident concern, which his expression mirrored. While she wanted to understand better, part of her felt like asking the child to verbalize the insults would potentially be more damaging. "Well, if the scary clown is being mean, I'll just have to tell you all the wonderful things about you." Emma says instead as she once more looks to Chris to try and silently signal he should do the same. "You're so creative and funny, you give the best hugs, and you're so thoughtful," Emma lists off trying to help the child feel better.

Right what to say um. "You're determined, and always try your best, even when it's difficult so, just keep at it," Chris offers as an addition.

"Thanks..." Rose says with a weak smile as the attempt did help her feel better. She had a family. She was loved even if sometimes they didn't agree. All the same, the image of Eveline standing in front of her felt like it was haunting her. They really did look similar... "Hey mom?" Roses asks to see if she was paying attention.

"Yes Rose?" Emma replies to show she was.

"I think I want to wash out the hair dye please... I don't like it anymore..." Rose admits with some level of defeat in her tone. She wanted to fit in with her family, but she really didn't want to look anything like Eveline. They weren't the same, and she was going to make sure everyone knew that.

It's definitely interesting writing out Emma and Chris's parenting styles with Rose. Emma is definitely in team expression while Chris is more on team discipline, which makes sense and neither of them are completely in the wrong. also, as a fun tidbit, I tried to have Rose's dialog with Ethan mimic his conversation with Eveline towards the end of RE 7 when he was confronting her with the serum. Eveline's line "why does everyone hate me" sort of stood out, and I wanted to add that extra parallel that they're both just kids.