The next day, Joseph approaches her before anyone else enters the office, eyes focused as he reaches her. Despite this, for a solid minute he says nothing, even when met with her raise brows and question of, "Can I help you?"
Finally, he takes in a deep breath, "I… I'm a dick."
"Yes." She nods, an agreement passes between them as he holds out the coffee in his hand to her. "What's this?"
"Caramel macchiato extra sugar light ice. Chris says it's your favorite." He shoves his hands in his pockets. "I know a coffee isn't going to fix what I did but uh… yeah."
"Never mention it again and we're even." She says, totally not freaking out that Chris knows her damn coffee order.
"Noted." He gives her a little salute before heading to his desk.
The rest of the day and the next few weeks are only marked by the increased heat in the city. June sneaks up on the STARS team and before they know it, the office is swamped with case work bleeding in from the overwhelmed RPD. Jill and Chris have somehow simultaneously spent far too much time together and not enough, over the course of their partnership. Jill resents the way her heart practically palpitates in her chest at the idea of being partners with Chris. What is she, twelve?
One day, smack dab in the middle of the month as she and Chris are going over their assignment for the day, a fiery red head bounces into the office with ease.
"Chris! Holy shit, do you know how hard it is to find this office? It's a goddamn maze in here." She laughs while approaching the pair.
"What are you doing here, little bit?" He asks with a laugh.
"Would you believe I got bored?" She gives him an innocent look.
"What do you want?"
"Anna wants to go to lake for a week so… can I go?"
"You came all this way to ask if you could go out this weekend?"
"Um…" She pushes back the fly-a-ways of her ponytail nervously.
"Oh, I see, you're leaving now." He chuckles giving her, what Jill can only assume, is a playful glare. "Leave the number and address you'll be staying at. Call me the second you get there."
"Thanks Chris!" She beams at him, "I'll be back by Sunday night, pinky promise." She holds out her little finger and waits for him to oblige her.
Jill can't help herself and bursts out laughing at Chris locking pinkies with this girl.
"What? Are pinky promises not manly?" Chris asks, nudging Jill with his elbow.
"Let me guess, Jill Valentine?" The girl asks, a mischievous glint in her eye.
"What gave it away? Being the only woman here?" Jill chuckles holding out her hand to the girl.
"Oh, I've heard enough about you to pick you out of a line up." She laughs.
"Claire." Chris has a warning edge to his tone.
"I should have guessed you were the little sister. It's nice to meet you, Claire." Jill smirks.
"And it's nice to finally meet you too! I was beginning to think you weren't real."
"That's enough, Claire. You can get going now." Chris interrupts her.
Biting back a grin, Claire gives one last, "Glad to have a face to the name! See you around." Before turning around and exiting the RPD.
"She's a real whirlwind, huh?" Jill chuckles noticing the pink embarrassment kissing Chris's features.
"You should see her when she's hungry." Chris smirks, causing Jill to shake her head.
"So now that you're a free man for the week, drinks after work?" Forest asks.
"Sure." Chris nods.
"Jill, you in?"
"Yeah, I guess." She agrees nonchalantly, "Are we going to get going?"
Chris nods to her and part of her swears she feels the ghost of his hand on the small of her back; but she brushes it off as a figment of her imagination, and she's been doing a lot of imagining when it comes to Chris Redfield recently. Not that she'd ever admit the fantasies she's had about his hands… and lips… and well just about every part of him.
But they're friends who go hiking every Saturday morning, take coffee breaks together, and finish each other's sentences. It's just because they're partners – not like that – and they spend a lot of time together because they have to the whole having-each-other's-backs thing.
Fuck it, Jill's fallen so hard for the dumbass she still hasn't picked her face up off the ground. There's no use in denying it to herself, her therapist would call that 'unhealthy' or 'repression' terms she's not comfortable with. So sure, she's… god can she even call it a crush? Crushes are for high schoolers, not twenty-two-year-old war veterans.
But if there's one thing she's kept up it's that she refuses to be distracted by him; Jill Valentine doesn't get distracted by men. Damn, does he make it hard though. Mostly because she's not stupid enough to think he's not interested back, because of course he's interested in her… who wouldn't?
It's become a game between the two of them, a test to see who will crack first. Who will break the game they've got going and turn it into… well who knows what it would become? Could Jill really date Chris Redfield?
The end of the day comes quickly and soon she finds herself in a booth at a local sports bar. Kenneth, Forest, Edward, Chris, Richard, Joseph, and her all squished together, bitching about the work day. Jill does her best to keep breathing despite Chris's leg touching her own and she hates herself for the way her heart won't let her forget the contact.
"I swear, Wesker's a robot, I have proof!" Edward laughs, "My girlfriend and I have a chart going. I mark down every time he uses the same phrases. I'm telling you he's a learning robot, like Terminator, except not nearly as cool as Terminator."
"You're nuts man." Forest chuckles.
"I can't believe you roped your girlfriend into helping with your fucking crazy conspiracy theory. Wesker's just an asshole, plain and simple." Joseph comments.
"First of all, I said I have proof. Also I'm glad you brought up my girlfriend, because…" Edward slaps a little black box on the table.
"Oh my god, Edward, you?" Jill asks eyebrows raised in shock.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asks with a good-natured laugh.
"I didn't think you were the type to settle down." She responds.
"Neither did I, but I've found the one. I can't let her realize she deserves better and leave me." He laughs again, this time opening the box to show her the ring, he really seems to want her opinion on it.
"She'll love it, I'm sure." Jill assures him, chuckling as he looks back at the box lovingly. "When are you gonna ask her?"
"Fuck it, I'm doing it tonight. Element of surprise, right?" He asks, already climbing out of the booth and over Kenneth.
"Can I finish your beer?" Chris asks before Edward is completely gone.
"Shit yeah, I'm about to become Leah's fiancé!" He throws both arms in the air before running out of the bar.
"If she says yes." Forest mutters clinking beers with a chortling Joseph.
"Ah young love." Kenneth chuckles downing the last of his drink, "I'm gonna head out here too, see you guys."
"Bye?" Jill chuckles, watching Chris down Edward's drink.
"What a time to be alive." Richard jokes as he's standing up from Jill and Chris's booth to sit beside Forest and Joseph, Chris scooches over just a bit. Jill wishes he hadn't, more than that though, she wishes she didn't care.
"Yeah it is." Jill wipes away the sweating droplets that have formed on the outside of her beer.
"You ever thought about getting married?" Forest asks generally, but the question has to be directed to Richard, the only taken man at the table.
"I've thought about it, but I've only been dating Masie for six months now. I mean, I know she's the one, I just don't want to be a creep about it." Richard answers.
"Oh my god, my ex-girlfriend almost made me propose to her." Chris laughs. Jill fights off the sudden anger she feels in her throat at his statement.
"How does that happen?" Joseph asks.
"I almost did it for the benefits too." Chris snorts, only adding to the tightening of anger in Jill's throat, "She told me that we'd been together for a year and that if I didn't propose to her, I didn't love her. So, I told her I didn't love her and moved halfway across the country."
Jill snorts at that along with Richard who manages to say, "That's cold."
"Claire didn't like her either, I trust Claire's judgement." Chris chuckles, clearly caught up in a memory of this other girl.
Jill decides to speak up, "Yeah, my ex-boyfriend gave me a hell of a time. I told him he was fun to date, but that it wasn't going anywhere. He got all defensive and was convinced that I was his – I kid you not – 'forever girl'… I laughed in his face."
"I would have too." Forest snorts, "He definitely just wanted to trap you."
"I agree." Jill tips her beer to him.
"You'll know when you know. It's different for everyone, but I swear to you I knew Masie was my soulmate the second I saw her." Richard has a smirk on his face and she wonders if it's the memory that's caught him or the fact that she feels Chris's gaze on her.
"Just don't call her your 'forever girl' and I think you'll be good." Jill tells him.
"I think you'd like her, Jill, she scares the shit out of me every damn day…" Richard looks down, "I think I miss her right now and I know she's in our apartment."
"You're cute Richard. If you want to go, go be with your girlfriend." Jill laughs.
"I think I'll take you up on that." He finishes his beer and says a quick goodbye.
"Fuck this, I'm going to Jack's bar to see if Ryman is playing darts." Forest gets up from the table followed by Joseph who downs the remainder of their drinks before leaving Jill and Chris alone.
"Well that was climactic." She says with a laugh, "You ready to go? I kind of wanted to stay out a bit longer but-"
"There isn't anything else I'd rather be doing." He says quickly.
"You want to move to the bar then? Free up the table for a bigger group?"
"Sure." He says and the two of them take up barstools in front of the soccer game. With fresh beers in hand, they talk about how stupid in love Richard and Edward are.
"Must be nice to have that kind of stability in your life." She chuckles, "Someone to keep you sane in this world."
"I'm hurt you don't think that's our dynamic." He laughs.
She rolls her eyes, "Poor Richard, he definitely wants to be married right this second."
"Yeah, I can feel that."
"Oh?" She quirks a brow at him.
He nearly spits out his drink, "I uh… back in my air force days, really wanted to get out of the barracks."
"Uhuh. Not because you've been in love then." Just as he starts sweating bullets she gasps, "Oh my god."
"What?" Chris asks suddenly at attention.
"Don't turn around, act natural."
"What? Why?"
She lets out a half chuckle, "I think I see Wesker walking in right now – I said don't look!" She grabs his shoulder as Wesker comes into view, "Oh. My. God. He's in jeans."
"He owns jeans?" Chris half whispers.
"I guess so." She lets out a loud cackle as their boss walks into the bar. At least he's still got those fucking sunglasses on.
"Jill, Chris." He says their names as he notices them, approaching with purpose.
"Wesker, what are you doing here?" Jill asks while Chris finally gets to see their boss.
"Personal matters… and you?"
"Just got a drink with some of the guys after hours." She says calmly despite the laughter bubbling inside of her.
He nods, patting a hand on Jill's back, "I'll see you tomorrow then."
As he walks away, Chris's face turns from stoic to slack jawed awe, "What the ever-living fuck?"
"I know." Jill finally lets out her laughter.
"Don't turn around, I'm looking to see who he's with."
"I can't believe this. The others are truly missing out. This is the best thing that's happened all day." She covers her mouth as Chris's eyes nearly pop out of his skull.
"Don't look, but he's with a woman – oh my god, he's making out with her."
"I guess that puts the nail in the coffin of Edward's theory." Jill finally manages to get her laughter down to mere chuckles.
"I fucking hate this. I want to leave."
"We can go as soon as my drink is done. I need to know how this goes."
Chris's gaze suddenly snaps to her, "We're talking."
"Yeah I know. Are you okay?" She laughs just as Wesker takes the woman she assumes he had made out with out of the bar, hand directly on her ass. "Gag me."
"Maybe later." Chris says as the two burst into laughter once again.
"God." Jill shakes her head, "God."
"Oh man, I think I hated just about every second of the last ten minutes." Chris drinks the rest of his beer.
"Just about?" She smirks.
"Well, it would have been worse if you weren't here." He says with a liquid smooth smile.
"Yeah, okay." She rolls her eyes, "Let's get out of here, I have to go process this."
"Alright." Chris relents, following her out to the parking lot.
"Work will be interesting tomorrow."
"Oh, definitely." He chuckles.
"You saw Wesker's hand on her ass too, right?"
"No!"
Jill grabs his arm without a second thought, "Full ass grab, like… ack!"
His hand is on her waist now and she likes it a little too much. "I almost don't believe you, but I can't not believe you."
She shakes her head, "What a night."
"Yeah." He agrees lamely.
"See you tomorrow?"
"Of course." They both hesitate to move, but eventually go their separate ways.
That next morning is the first time she's ever seen Chris wide awake for a shift as they anxiously await Edward's arrival. Around 8:30 he bursts into the office, arms raised in the air.
"She said yes!" He shouts, pumping his fist in the air.
Jill bounces out of her seat to hug him as the others inform those who missed the previous night's festivities of the context.
"I'm getting fucking married!" He laughs as if even he doesn't believe it.
"Congrats man." Chris says hugging him. When enough of the office has calmed down, Chris can't help himself, "You weren't the only one getting some action last night."
"Oh?" Edward raises his brows, directing his gaze to Jill.
"Yeah, Wesker sure seemed to be having fun." Chris can barely contain the gossip any longer.
"What!?"