Cora had decided to accquaint herself with Cassandra if she was to be babysitting her on missions. So the two were sitting in a cozy Thai resturant at a booth near a window. Cora was chewing on a chilli pepper absent mindedly.

"So..." she said around a mouthful of the spicy food. Her younger companion merely picked at her rice, humming underneath her breath.

"Catherine said that she was with that other young man." Cassandra finally said. "You know."

"Hojo?"

"That's the one." Cassandra finally took a bite of her food, and smiled. "Hey, this isn't that spicy ..." she trailed off, then drained her fruit juice.

"So, why do you want to join Team Biohazard?"

"I'm *tired* of treating this as if it was a lesson in class. We're there to help people, right?"

"Yeah, I guess we are."

"So I want to know what happens when I screw up. I don't want to think that I can do whatever the hell I want in the lab, or that I even have to be in the lab in order to help people."

"That's really very noble."

"Not really." Cassandra shook her head. "More like smart."

"How do you figure?"

"*Noble* is doing shit like taking a bullet or yelling at a lion "EAT ME OKAY?!" She took another bite, grimacing. "Smart is making sure that you don't screw up, covering your tracks, that sorta stuff."

"Oh." Cora found herself wondering what sort of childhood this woman had had. "Weren't you ... disturbed when you found out?"

"About what?" Cassandra asked before biting into a bun.

"The zombies. The expieriments."
"Oh those? That's nothing." Cassandra waved a hand. "I mean, look at it this way Phoenix." She held up the bun with the bite in it. "This is Joe Below Average. He's not too bright, if he has a family they don't make much and they're struggling along."

"Right."

"So, we talk to him. We go, 'excuse me Mr. Smith, but we have a job offer for you.' This is mana from heaven for this guy, so he most likely accepts."

She was so cold hearted, so oblivious to the pain she had caused. In fact, she began to laugh out loud.

"I remember once this one guy dragged along six police officers. He thought we were scamming him, trying to get his credit card number. So he and the officers come in here. It was really awkward, we had the gurney and the syringes ready and everything."

"So what did you do?" Cora asked.

/Oh God, I'm feeling interested. I shouldn't be. It's a stupid, stupid story. Just because I'm a soldier doesn't mean that I'm as stupid as the scientists. They think that humans are just ... just something that you can put on the budget between 'scapels' and 'latex gloves'.

"So we say to the police officers that we were just doing a drug test. A drug test! And they believed us! So we ask them to wait in the next room, and we'll give them a snack for their troubles."

"Mm." Cora made a neutral sound.

"But we really put sedatives in the coffee. I think one of the police officers actually had the potential to become a Tyrant, but I had to go and work on a couple of Hunters so I didn't get to see the mutation."

Cora laughed politely.

"You often kill people?"

"It's not *killing* them." Cass said pointedly. "It's *helping* them. They're doing so much better work for science then they could ever do in their job as ... as a tax accountant or whatever."

/I'm eating dinner with a psychopath./ Cora thought sadly. /And th sad part is, I think I'm starting to like her./ *

The tall man sighed, swiping a hand hurridly though brown hair. He was blocky, and the scowl on his face made passer bys suddenly fascinated with the side walk beneath their feet. His sister was less intimidating, but just as dangerous. She was a pretty girl, with a slender frame and a strong presence.

"What sort of ice cream do you want, Chris?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"Ice cream. You know... the cold, creamy stuff that people eat on hot days?"

"Oh, shut up, Claire. I was just thinking." Chris ruffled his sister's hair. "Vanilla."

"I was thinking that you'd want something like strawberry with chopped nuts - you're the adventurous type."

"Actually, that sounds pretty good." Chris gave his sister a fiver. "Go pay."

He flopped down at a plastic table underneath a wide red and white umbrella. He hated eating here, just because of those umbrellas.

/Claire is right. You are being stupid about this. Move on with your life already!/

He scowled as his sister came back with two paper containors. She rose an eyebrow.

"Sulking?" she asked.

"No. Just thinking."

"I could tell by the smoke coming out of your ears." she said jokingly.

"It's good camoflague from Umbrella."

"And an environmental hazard."

They both half-heartedly laughed and dug into their ice cream. Claire was homesick for America - Europe was a lovely place, but the all American Redfields felt out of place among the different culture of Europe. And they were pretty soon it would get worse once they were in Paris.
That was the plan for the two - meet up with the others in Paris. Chris sighed and stabbed a scoop of ice cream moodily. If the others were in Paris. They had to move ahead of Umbrella.

"Claire?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sure we'll find Steve some day."

"Thanks." Claire gave a smile that seemed almost like the four year old's smile from so long ago, after she had managed to get into the cookie jar on the highest shelf. "And we will find the others. I know we will."

Chris smiled at his sister. They could do this, they just had to keep out from Umbrella's eye.

*

"Take me home right now, you ruffian!"

"But, Miss Spencer!" Hojo was backed up against the wall. "I didn't do anything!"

Catherine tossed her black curls over her shoulder and glared. Hojo topped her by a few inches, and he could easily kill her if he wanted, but he flinched at her glare.

"So you just had to take my arm to escort me into the resturant?"

"Uh..." Hojo seemed flustered. He ran a hand through his short reddish hair. "I'm ... sorry?"

Catherine sniffed.

"Let's get this little thing over with then?'

"Um, right, Miss Spencer." Hojo said, holding the door open for her. She sniffed again, but before long she was calmly slicing her lamb and eyeing Hojo as though she had never seen anything quite like him before and she was considering whether she liked it or not.

/Make conversation!/

"So." he said. "Did you see the hockey game last night?"

"I don't watch sports." Catherine said haughtily.

/Shit./

"Well, it's a lovely night."

"It is, I suppose."

/I should have chosen Cassandra to escort. Just concentrate and try not to make a fool of yourself./

"I wish I was in the labs."

"What's so great about the labs? Just wait until you try field work." Hojo enthusiastically sliced at his steak. "You never know what's gonna happen until BAM a monster comes around the corner."

"So unpredictable. So unreliable." she gave a smile, and a light of passion came into her eyes. "Not like the labs. Everything is just right, everything is so precise. Move something and you have the desired effect. Not like messy field work."

"So why are you joining Team Biohazard?"

"It'll be fascinating to do some hands on work. And since *I* am the Team Medic, I'll be able to see how infection works. I never have before. I mean, direct infections through a needle are so much different than the type that Raccoon civilians went through. A drop of blood transfered can take days to infect the system." Her eyes shone.

"Wow." Hojo said.

"And I want to know how long it takes and whether it can be stopped. Oh, we have antidotes, sure, but they break down. They don't always work. We lose so many people, but what if we could slow or speed up the virus?"

"I don't know any of this, I'm just a tactics expert." Hojo shook his head and took a piece of garlic bread.

The euphoria had not faded from Catherine's face.

"You have to learn about the virus." she insisted. "It's fascinating.

"It's a date." Hojo said with a grin, then the grin faded at the look on Catherine's face. "Or, um, okay then."