"What did you say?"

Jill couldn't get her eyes to close as she stared at Chris in shock, waiting for any sign from him that would confirm he hadn't really said what she'd just believed to hear.

"Friday, July 24th, 1998," Chris repeated his last words. "Or is it Saturday already?"

Not often had she been as speechless as she was now, there in that hospital room in Edonia. Chris had woken up believing they were still in 1998, before they had lost the lives they'd lived until then by running into the Spencer Mansion, and he most probably didn't remember anything of what had occurred to them later either. Eyes narrowed into a grimace, Jill tilted her head, defragmenting the harddrive in her head to reorganize her thoughts.

"Chris, it's…"

She didn't get the chance to tell him what year it actually was as the door was kicked open vehemently and Claire stormed into the room, the phone tightly pressed to her ear as she nearly threw herself onto the bed.

"Chris! I'm so happy you're awake!" She yelped at her confused brother, who was turning pale as snow when his eyes met the grown-up redhead. Jill saw how shocked he was to find that his sister had long peeled off the last hint of teen she'd ever worn, clenching his teeth unwillingly at the sight of the tough, imposing woman underneath. Claire, however, was too busy with someone on the phone to actually pay much attention to the frightened face of her older sibling. "Leon! You rat! Take my fucking call. We have to speak a serious word about your girlfriend! Oh, fuck!" She combed her hair out of her face as she kept storming through the room. It seemed she had already been told about the author of the recent tragedy Chris' Alpha team had fallen victim to. Piers came in just after Claire, preferring to stay close to the door as if he feared the redhead might start to throw things.

"Captain!" He quickly greeted Chris at the first chance he saw when Claire interrupted her phoneterror. His face showed nothing but relief.

"Listen well!" Claire shouted into the phone. "I can leave you a million voice mails if I want. Ada attacked the B.S.A.A. and I swear to god, you're gonna tell me where to find her so I can break her fucking neck with my own hands…"

Chris' hazy look jumped from Claire to Piers and back. His mouth opened and closed in steady moves and Jill could have sworn he had stopped blinking at the image of his adult sister and the stranger. Sure, she herself had changed a lot physically, but her skin was still smooth and firm, while age had left more obvious fingerprints on Claire's beautiful face and features. It was the first time Chris was confronted with the reality of the present, finding that his baby sister wasn't a baby anymore and—Jill's look drifted to Piers—that another man suddenly addressed him as Captain. She intuitively reached for Chris' balled fist and held it, causing her friend to turn to her in seek of an explanation.

"It's okay, I'll explain when Claire hangs up," she whispered. "But you don't have to worry." She spoke those words without really believing them, nor believing that they would actually help ease Chris' concern. However, the older Redfield, as brave as he'd always been, gave her a tortured smile and waited for Claire to end her call.

"Asshole!" the redhead hissed as farewell, tossing the device into her handbag before dropping onto the edge of the bed and reaching for her brother's stiff hand. "Hey," she whispered, her expression soft. "How are you feeling? Does your head hurt?"

Chris just glanced back at the redhead, evidently unaware that she was speaking to him until she called his name for the third time.

"Chris what's wrong? Don't you feel well?"

Jill jumped onto her feet and rang the bell for the nurses to come, considering that she'd waited long enough to get someone to check on Chris. Claire threw her a skeptical glance and Jill turned back to the three people in the room, unsure which of them looked more frightened.

"Listen," she said. "I think Chris has some sort of amnesia."

Pain and pity popped onto Claire's and Piers' faces, while the alluded himself showed astonishment. Jill, in an attempt to control the situation, invited the other two people to have a seat as a friendly thumb flicked over the back of Chris' hand.

"Chris," she said with a serious demeanor. "We're not in 1998."

Her words caused Claire's mouth to drop open and Piers seemed to freeze on the spot. Chris, however, was the one who gave the most intense reaction, as fear and sorrow climbed up his face and his eyes began to jump from Jill to Claire and back.

"And… what year is it?" He asked without looking at anyone once the facial inspection had concluded. Claire swallowed hard and pressed her palms onto the hands she was holding in a tight sandwich grip.

"2012," she whispered and gave him a warm, frightened glance. "Almost 2013, actually."

Chris inhaled through wide nostrils, his chest growing under the deep breath he was taking, and shook his head in disbelief.

"That can't be," he said huffing out a laugh. "It was 1998 just yesterday."

In that moment the door opened and the doctor from before entered with the English-speaking male nurse in tow. The medic gave the three of them signs to leave the room for a minute as the nurse began to speak comforting words to Chris. While Jill and Piers walked out at the first petition, Claire was reluctant to leave her brother alone with two people who were strangers to him. Once pulled out of the room by Jill, she propped her head against the wall.

"1998?" she whispered and looked at Jill out of the corner of her eyes. "But… when in 1998?"

Jill sighed. Arms crossed in front of her chest, she leaned against the wall next to her friend.

"He said July."

Claire's eyes widened in shock at the revelation, as July could only mean before July 24th or, at least, before the night of July 24th. She knew her brother too well to simply believe he would sit down and rest in a hospital bed if he already knew zombies existed and that their Captain had sold them to Umbrella.

She huffed and licked over her lips before analyzing the situation. "So, he thinks he's still twenty-five, that he still lives in Raccoon City and works as S.T.A.R.S. officer?"

Jill pushed herself away from the wall and walked across the corridor to the row of old plastic chairs that the hospital offered lovelessly to visitors.

"I guess so, yes." A concerned look drove to Claire, who had turned around and was now pressing her back against the wall. "That also means that…"

"That he doesn't know about Umbrella." Claire completed Jill's sentence.

Piers huffed out a laugh and could barely keep himself from kicking the leg of the closest chair. This was simply ridiculous. His Captain had taught him everything he knew about B.O.W.s; how to fight them and how not to go crazy over it; and now he didn't even remember anything about the origins of their main goal. Claire had a similar idea, it seemed.

"This is the first time I actually feel like the older Redfield," she muttered in forced amusement, trying to fathom the new situation.

The door opened again and the two men came out, the doctor still jotting down words onto the papers he had attached to the clipboard.

"Miss Wetfeeld," the nurse turned to Claire, who gave him a nod.

"That would be me," she replied with a sad smirk. "How is he?"

The nurse smiled, not excessively concerned about the subject. The doctor began to speak in the slav language and the young man translated.

"Yur brosser is still confoosed," he said shrugging and Claire nodded eagerly. Yes, they had already noticed that and neither Jill nor herself had gone to med school.

"He says he believes he's… he doesn't remember the last years of his life," she said in a dark tone. Jill stepped to her side and took her hand in hers; a touch for which Claire was extremely grateful as the ground seemed to move and she was about to collapse.

The nurse translated and the doctor nodded, speaking more Slav nonsense.

"We wont to do more tests," the nurse stuttered out his translation and as Claire asked if they could see him again, he said, "yes, but dis situashon is difficult. If he has PTA, he needs you to speak to him. Show him pickuchurs. And have paishans."

Claire nodded as she slowly assimilated what they were telling her. People with Post-traumatic amnesia often reacted fearfully and overly emotional, it seemed, and they had trouble storing new memories even after waking up. It would get better over time, the nurse said, but it was hard to tell when that would occur, or what he would remember first. They would need to have patience.

"And fais," the nurse said, and it took Claire a couple of attempts to understand that he meant faith. She laughed in response. She had stopped having faith the day she'd run into her first zombie and she used the words Oh my God too often in a very godless manner.

Once the men had walked away, Jill put a hand onto Claire's shoulder.

"Why don't you go back inside? I'll stay here, maybe it's best if you go alone. He needs you now." She turned to Piers, who looked fragile and afraid. The young soldier seemed a bit out of place now that he was the only one Chris wasn't remembering.

"And you, Piers, you should get some rest," she suggested and the young man sighed regretfully.

"I don't know if I can."


Claire pushed the door open with care and stepped into the room, immediately bursting into tears as she saw that Chris, the solid and independent man who had always taken care of her, was crying.

"Chris," she whispered as she stepped closer to the bed and took a seat next to it. "Hey. It's me, Claire."

"I know," he replied and nodded as the redhead made an attempt to touch him, asking for permission. They held hands in silence until he seemed to find the words he wanted to say. "I don't usually cry… do I?"

Claire smirked sadly and shook her head.

"I haven't seen you cry in years, but it's okay. This must be hard for you," she assured with a steady expression. "How are you feeling?"

He shrugged.

"I don… I don't..." he stuttered. "I don't know. Sad. Empty."

He forced a warm smile, as if he tried to avoid hurting her. He hadn't looked at her like that in a very long time and Claire couldn't have loved him more for it.

"You will soon remember. Don't worry," she said in a loving voice. "Does your head hurt?"

He narrowed his eyes as if it helped him analyze his pain, and nodded eventually.

"My whole body hurts, to be honest," he admitted and let his eyes fall shut.

Claire watched him, concerned about his state.

"Why don't you try to sleep a bit?"

The well-meant suggestions just caused her brother to shake his head eagerly, an act that seemed to hurt more than he had expected and he held his head for a while before he opened his eyes again.

"It's okay," the redhead whispered. "Just take it easy. You'll soon be better, I promise!"

Chris took her comforting hand and held it until the pain seemed to desist, and Claire felt tears stinging in her eyes. Her big brother needed her now, and no matter what had been before, she would be there with him until the next time he'd send her away. Forgotten were all the fights they had caused with their family-typical stubbornness. He opened his eyes again and looked at her, examining the round curve of her lips, the deep look in her eyes and those wild, reddish-brown locks that framed her face. Everything was still where he remembered it, but everything was different.

"What a mess, huh? Look at you!" he exclaimed eventually. "You've become a woman and I don't even remember it."

"You'll remember. Don't worry." She spoke to him in the most gentle voice she could manage to bring out.

"So, tell me," Chris suddenly said and pointed towards the door. "That man… Is he your boyfriend?"

Claire coughed up the initial shock as her hand searched for support. Who would have expected Chris would be more worried about who his sister was dating than about his own well-being? Once gathered her composure, she laughed a little shyly at her brother.

"Who, Piers? No! No, he's-" she giggled at the confusion. No one in the whole fucking world would ever mistake Piers Nivans for her boyfriend, as there lay more than just a couple of years between them, and not even Chris could believe that she would get herself such a young lover. "He works with you. He was with you when you hit your head and he took you out. I mean, he's a good kid but definitely not my boyfriend."

Chris sighed in relief and gave his sister a sly smirk before he added, "that's good. He's too old for you, young lady."

He pouted a bit and it made Claire laugh like she hadn't laughed in a very long time.

"He's like ten years younger than me," she said and shook her head, shrugging the subject off. "I'm not… I'm focusing on work."

Chris huffed in disappointment as his eyes rolled.

"Do you mean you're not married?" he asked and received a head shake from his sister. "Children?" And another one.

Claire eventually laughed, wishing her brother would drop the eternal, distressing subject.

"I haven't found the right man yet, I guess," she said, shrugging sadly. "No one seems good enough for me, and I blame you for my pickiness about guys."

Her brother laughed proudly.

"That's good," he exclaimed. "Although I didn't teach you pickiness, but caution."

Claire smiled warmly as she leaned forward to caress his forearm and Chris' look dropped to his biceps. He hummed interestedly, certainly impressed by what he saw.

"Wow, that's…" He used his left hand to feel the hard muscle underneath the skin and furrowed his brow. "Am I doing roids?"

Claire shrugged a shoulder, the corner of her mouth shifting into a devilish grin.

"Honestly, I believe you do, but you're hiding the evidence very well," she said with a laugh.


"Yes, besides that, he seems fine," Jill sighed into the phone as she rubbed her temple. "I don't know what happened exactly, but you can expect Lieutenant Nivan's report soon, I assume. Yes. I sent him back to the front, but… Fuck, Barry because he wanted to go!"

She had taken over the contact with home base so Piers could focus on the remains of the battle. The call to Barry Burton wasn't exactly essential, as their old friend only acted as an advisor to the B.S.A.A., but, of course, he requested regular updates about his comrade's state.

"Seriously, how many of them are left? Three? Alpha team is no more, Barry."

Barry's reaction caused her to roll her eyes in exhaustion. "Yes, I know they can be replaced, but you know as well as I do that Chris would kick your ass for speaking like this about his men."

As she turned, Jill caught sight of Claire, who was sneaking out of the room and glancing towards her. With a bright smile dressing her lips, she walked across the corridor and waited for Jill to end the call.

"It's okay Barry, I know you mean well, in your old, retarded way." She giggled, gaining Claire's approval on her word choice in the shape of a satisfied smirk of her lips and a lifted thumb. "Barry, I have to hang up, but I'll keep you updated, okay?"

Once the call was cut and Claire had all of her attention, the redhead began to speak.

"He wants to see you," she explained and fidgeted on her feet. Pulling Jill closer, she lowered her voice. "He's asking a lot of questions; about work, about his personal life, and so on."

Jill nodded, eyes wide open.

"I expected that," she replied with a happy laugh.

It was good to hear that Chris hadn't forgotten his restless spirit that tried to understand his surroundings the best he could, and as the surroundings were currently he himself and his own past and present, questions were a good sign. Amnesic patients often acted out of character,it seemed, but Chris Redfield rarely acted like the average guy anyway.

Claire snickered and coughed up in distress, peeking down the hallway as though she feared to give away too many secrets if she spoke too loudly.

"I couldn't tell him about the B.O.W.s," she muttered, attempting to sound rational. "You know, so it wouldn't be too traumatic."

Jill nodded, pursing her lips in accordance. It was best to introduce him to the thorny subject little by little so as not to cause any harm.

"I told him that-" Claire swallowed. "I told him that you are fighting bioterrorism anyway."

Jill's eyes shot to the redhead, her eyebrows nearly touching her hairline. Claire quickly justified her acts.

"I mean, it's just half of the truth, but if you tell him you just pursue bioweapon dealers instead of actively fighting infected, it's believable, isn't it?"

Claire's expression was so innocent that it nearly made her laugh. So, she was supposed to tell Chris how they brought down terror groups that spread things like Anthrax and smallpox among the world's population. Jill sighed. Anyway, it was still bioterrorism, and they had studied several kinds of more traditional viruses and toxins, too.

"Fine," she mumbled. "What else have you told him?"

"Nothing. I leave the details to you," Claire added with a wink, at which Jill rolled her eyes. Claire smiled warmly.

"He seems quite stable to me," the redhead explained. "I hadn't expected him to be so calm in this situation."

The blonde gave her a silent nod. It was good to know that Chris was in such good shape after his tragic accident. She licked her lips and proceeded to enter the room, carefully pushing the door open in order not to startle her friend. The curtains were half-closed and a gloomy shadow hung in the air, leaving Chris with enough darkness to successfully find some rest. However, his eyes fluttered open quickly as he heard her enter and the smile that surfaced on his lips cradled Jill in relief.

"Hey you," she whispered as she walked towards the bed. "How are you feeling?"

The hint of a nod he drew gave her hope. He patted the side of the mattress to invite her to sit next to him, and Jill obeyed with a smile on her lips.

"This is all surreal," he said and laughed. "I swear, yesterday we were just in S.T.A.R.S. and now… wow!" He smirked proudly. "Counter-bioterrorism? How did we get into that?"

Jill laughed nervously and felt her shoulders twitch into a shrug. How was she going to tell him what had happened without revealing what had happened exactly?

"We had some bad experiences when we were at S.T.A.R.S.," she whispered as she lowered herself onto the mattress next to him. "The terror groups have become bigger and more dangerous over the years and we saw the need to intervene. That's when we created the B.S.A.A."

Chris grimaced as if his head hurt and Jill sucked in a breath.

"I'm sorry," she exhaled. "Maybe that was too much information. You shouldn't think about that now and focus on your recovery."

"Yeah," he said. "Maybe you're right. So, how are the others? How is Barry? And Kenneth? Did he marry that cute girl he was dating? How about Speyer?"

Jill's voice stuck in her throat like an unchewed piece of raw meat. Forest Speyer and Chris had been rivals, if though friends, all through their time in S.T.A.R.S.; they had hung out together many nights after their shift and Speyer had somehow become Chris' best pal right after Barry.

He always said he'd never forget that he'd shot his face when his friend had tried to eat him; and now he had forgotten.

"Barry is fine," she said. At least there was one of the mentioned comrades she could tell good things about. "He lives with Kathy and Polly in Canada. Moira just moved to New York, though. She works with Claire."

"Canada? That's nice," Chris replied with a smile, waiting for her to continue her tale.

Jill shrugged.

"Unfortunately, we lost contact with the others." At Chris' sad expression she decided to explain how their friendship had broken. "You know, Irons' policy got on our nerves and most of us left Raccoon behind."

His eyes widened at the news.

"Really? Wesker too?" he asked. "He seemed okay with Irons as long as he just left him alone doing whatever creepy businesses he was involved in."

Jill had to blink before considering what she was going to respond and a short laugh preceded her reply.

"Wesker… yeah. I heard he moved to a place somewhere warmer... in the South."

Chris laughed along with her and suddenly grabbed her hand.

"I'm glad that you're here, Jill," he whispered and thumbed over the back of her hand as his look dropped to her fingers. "I see I didn't ask you to marry me."

Jill couldn't hold back a loud laugh when he spat out the ridiculous idea. Marry him? They had both dedicated their lives to the fight against bioterrorism. Sure, Chris didn't know how deeply in shit they were usually crawling, but it was still a stupid idea to believe they could have become anything beyond partners. When she caught her breath again, her eyes shot to his face, meeting his behind a haze of confusion.

"Oh, Chris, we…" She shook her head. "We don't have time for that."

A little saddened, he smirked at her as he kept holding her hand in his. He was squeezing her too harshly, obviously unaware of how strong he had grown over time.

"But we tried, didn't we?" A tender expression of purity blossomed on his face and Jill wondered what he meant. With a shrug, she snickered.

"Not that I know."

Now it was Chris' turn to laugh.

"Come on! I was about to ask you out! It was summer festival in Oakville!" The spark of excitement in his eyes was almost magical and Jill recognized indeed the tireless young man she had always admired in her old comrade. "I was going to take you there on Friday! Don't tell me you turned me down!"

The shocking words nearly knocked her off her feet when she assimilated what Friday he was talking about. A rush of blood heated up her cheeks. Chris Redfield would have asked her out hadn't they been called to rescue Bravo team from the Arklay mountains.

"Chris…" Their eyes met in a doubtful glance. "I assume we worked that night. You didn't ask me."

Neither Chris nor Jill said anything else as disappointment made itself visible on their faces and they stared at each other in a consuming silence until Jill believed to hear the ticking of an inexistent clock. With their fingers entwined, the two longtime partners tried to find a way to end this uncomfortable conversation about the possibility of becoming more than just that.

"I see."


The damn lighter was as dirty and old as the gas station where she'd bought it and even after twenty attempts Claire hadn't yet gotten to light the fucking cigarette. The shitty, windy weather of the Edonian mountainside wasn't making it any easier either, and so, she stood in front of that decayed grey hospital in the very centre of the country, fighting with her own addiction.

"This is the universe telling you to quit!" She hissed, about to throw the smoke away in defeat. She reconsidered it, though, and tried it one more time.

"Here," a familiar voice said as quite a decent flame lit up next to her face.

Claire turned her head a little and found the male nurse from before standing next to her in the cold. He wore a thick, knee-long grey leather coat with a furry hood and was carrying a cup of coffee in one hand, the lighter and a cigarette in the other one.

"Thanks," Claire mouthed as she took a long drag to light her smoke.

"You're welcome" he said and was rewarded with a tired smirk. "Your brossa will be alwight."

It was heartwarming to see how a complete stranger was trying to make her feel confident about the situation and Claire allowed herself to smile gratefully. When her head turned to the horizon, though, all the positivism faded away, just like the colors of the afternoon sky graded into the orange fire of the nearby battlefront. The loud rumble of bombs and gunshots reached them and Claire felt a more intense hint of cold run down her back. The nurse next to her wasn't as surprised as her by the sudden bomb fall, she realized, as the young man remained almost apathetic in the halo of destruction.

"The bombs again. It's de same stowy every night." He took one last drag before tossing the remaining cigarette onto the humid soil. "Sings aw getting uckly Miss Wetfeeld. We can't take care of your brossa here," he said as he turned back to the door. "My suppavisor will kill me if he hears me, but, if you want my attvice, leave the countwy as soon as you can."

Claire stared speechlessly at the burning aureola over the few remaining buildings of the Edonian skyline. The Civil War in the tiny country had been keeping all of the counter-bioterror organizations on alert in the previous weeks, and as soon as the European branch of the B.S.A.A. had found B.O.W.s in the zone, all of them had been flown in—Terra Save, too. Claire herself was part of another operation and had been working on different projects, but now that she was there, she couldn't just leave, could she?

Throwing away the cigarette stub, she launched forward through the main gate of the hospital yard, willing to get to the battlefront and see where she could help. Dashing aimlessly towards the fire, she didn't see the man in uniform coming and bounced brutally against his chest.

"Oh, fuck!"

"Claire!" When her eyes shot up, she found the face of Piers Nivans staring down at her. "Where are you going?"

A little shocked, she took a deep breath.

"I thought… I could help there…" she mouthed, trying to pull her arm free of the soldier's sudden grip on hers.

"Claire, don't!" he pleaded, forcing her to look at him. "The B.O.W.s have been eliminated. Alpha to Charlie teams are retreating and only Delta teams stay."

She shook her head in disbelief. "What?"

"Yes," he said, still baffled by the news he himself was bringing. "The rebels must have run out of the virus. Intelligence is investigating what could have happened and who their supplier was."

Claire blinked at him before her view drifted back to the burning horizon.

"And the bombs?" The veil of concern hung heavily in her voice. "Are you telling me that…?"

"The ones left are the rebel groups and the troops sent by the monarch," he said, squeezing her arm a little harder when he realized she wasn't yet willing to give up. "The B.S.A.A. and Terra Save are combatting bioterrorism, Claire. This not not our fight anymore."

She knew he was right—she really knew—but the fact that there were people dying and that they might be missing her two hands to save another life was upsetting her. Piers was obviously aware of her unease.

"Claire," he whispered. "Chris needs you now."

The inferno down in the city could not compare to the fire in the redhead's eyes, and Piers had to admit that he admired her for her inexhaustible will to help. He also prayed that she would finally listen and stay with him.

"The Captain will kill me if I let you go back there and anything happens to you, you know?" That statement caused her eyebrow to jump up into a sarcastic expression.

"You kidding me?" she asked. "I have been killing B.O.W.s when you were still sucking your thumb."

Laughing off the annoyment, she eventually ripped her arm free and began to dig in her handbag for the phone. The nurse wouldn't have warned her if there was no real reason to be afraid, and she couldn't risk leaving Chris so close to the war zone much longer.

"Barry? It's me, Claire."


They hadn't spoken a word since the bombs had begun to fall, both busy with their own private thoughts. Chris seemed shocked; Jill, fearful. Was it a good idea to tell him that they had been present in the Edonian Civil War?

"Where are we?" Chris asked quietly and Jill sighed in response.

"In Edonia." As Chris didn't respond immediately, she remembered that her partner hadn't actually started caring about geography until he'd been told that Umbrella had their headquarters in France. "Eastern-Europe."

He nodded shortly and smirked.

"Thanks."

Luckily, before he could ask more questions, the door was pushed open and Claire came back in, closely followed by Nivans.

"Grab everything important. Chris? Jill? We're leaving."


Thanks a bunch for reading, my friends. I hope you're enjoying this crazy little tale of mine :D Suggestions and impressions can be shared in reviews or PM. I'll be happy to get your feedback ^.^ Remember that this hasn't been checked by anyone, so this piece is probably full of mistakes. I hope it's still readable and that you enjoy it :D