Winding down on warm sand...for a brief time.

Ok I'm back, guess who caught covid for the second time? Yup, muggins here. Really messed me up, I've worked one day since I began testing negative after it, it's just beaten me that much. Still got crap on my lungs but it'll be gone in a few days. Jeez it was so much worse than last time. My girl had it for the second time too, my husband had it for the first time but the lucky git wasn't affected by it. We're all ok and I'm ok.

But that's not what we're all here for, right? Let's have at the new chapter!

The sun had risen above Florida's east horizon only an hour ago, but Chloe was already feeling itchy. She lathered more sunscreen onto her pale skin, silently cursing her distant Irish genes and their impeccable ability to crisp her up too easily. She squeezed the bottle over one palm, and with eyes squinted shut, she rubbed it into her face and neck. She puffed and sputtered as the lotion intruded on her lips, and she dabbed the taste away with her red bandana. She sat in a loose, fuchsia coloured cropped vest, just slightly too high to cover her navel, and a pair of denim shorts that had once lived in her closet as jeans. Her black sliders lay half buried in the sand by her feet.

She watched the glistening sparkle of the sun on the water's surface and smiled. She had only ever seen one sunrise; it was in Spring this year, and Chris wanted to take herself, her mom and Thor to a well known beauty spot near the city, but that sunrise had absolutely nothing compared to the one she had witnessed this morning. They had stood knee deep in the crystal clear water as the gleaming ball peeked over the vast watery horizon.

She slowly pushed her left heel into the warm sand, and she looked either side of her. Of course the beach was pretty much empty at this time in the morning, save for a group of surfers and a couple of early morning beach walkers. She wasn't entirely clued up on the art of surfing, so she wasn't sure what skill level was suggested for this particular beach. Hell, she didn't even know what beach this was.

Not only did she not know what the beach was called, but Mom and Chris were nowhere to be seen. Claire had told her that they wanted to go for a walk down the beach, but that was easily half an hour ago…half an hour? Chloe glanced at her little red multi banded wrist watch, the little gold charms softly clinked together as she hovered her arm. Yeah, about half an hour ago. Where were they walking to, Alabama?! Chloe scrunched her eyes. No, no. Georgia was north of here, not Alabama, that was northwest from Florida?

But sure, let's leave a freshly turned fifteen year old girl alone on an unfamiliar Florida beach several states away from home, she mulled to herself. A beach with no name in her mind. Mom and uncle of the year, of course! She sighed and draped her red bandana with the little white paisley design over her hair, running her fingers over the French braids that graced either side of her head, and tied the corners at the nape of her neck.

"Psst, hey, Pebble. Come here."

"What is it, Chris?"

"Turn around."

"Er..ok?"

"God your hair is so easy to mess around with when it's damp."

"Wait, are you starting from the top of my head? French braids, Chris?"

"Yup."

"I didn't know you could do French braids."

"Neither did I, but I've been watching tutorial videos."

"So I'm your little guinea pig?"

"Don't be like that, I wanna give it a try!"

"What would Mom say if she knew you were braiding my hair?"

"Who do you think braided her hair when she was your age?"

"No fucking way."

"Yup. Just don't tell her that I did these braids."

"Why not?"

"Didn't you notice on the plane here? And in the airport? And pretty much ever since we got to Florida? She repeatedly interrupted our conversations on the flight, and she would get between us in Departures. She doesn't want us interacting."

"Why?"

"Hell if I know, but for now, let's just keep her happy."

"At the expense of us trying to fix our goddamn relationship?!"

"I don't know what her problem is, but I'm not poking the hornet's nest. Just…if she asks, you did the braids. I don't think she'd appreciate knowing that I did them."

"Ok, then, Chris."

Chris had braided her hair on their first morning since arriving in Florida, and he had secretly been tidying them up for her whilst Claire was either showering or out of the hotel room. Claire on the other hand hadn't even questioned the braids, so Chloe was spared from trying to fabricate stories about them.

A breeze blew gently on her neck but was accompanied by a soft thin cloud of… something, and a strange, pungent smell, causing her to crease her nose and glance behind her. A ridiculously tall, thin man laid a beach towel down several metres behind her, and he looked up to her, smoking a…ok, she wasn't born yesterday, that was no cigarette in his mouth. He shot her a brief wide-eyed look and bowed his head.

"Sorry, love! Whacky backy!" he shouted over to her. She smiled weakly and waved a hand at him. She wasn't precisely sure what he meant, but she figured he meant cannabis.

"It's fine, don't get caught, though!" she shouted back. He held his hand up and pointed at his eyes with his index and middle fingers.

"Nah, love, both eyes open. Oi oi, you don't sound like a Florida gal."

Chloe frowned but smirked. What a weird thing to say. Totally not creepy at all.

"Dude you sound like you stumbled out of a tea and crumpets factory across the pond. You are the last person here to comment on my accent." she remarked, and she rolled on her beach towel to her front, her arms outstretched. The man laughed wildly, and she lifted her head to watch him. He brushed a hand through his wild, sandy curls but did not pursue her response.

"Enjoy your jollies, love, er, I mean holiday, vacation. Yeah."

"Thanks, mister, back at you."

She slowly breathed out, allowing the crawlies to dissolve. She was well aware of the whole stranger danger thing, and certainly being so far from home hadn't helped her, but she'd wager that his British accent had offset her nerves. She always did find the accent amusing to listen to. She knew that she could take care of herself if anything happened, but she still felt that it was so astonishingly irresponsible of Mom and Chris to just fuck off somewhere, leaving her alone.

This was the first time during the entire vacation that she had been left alone, but also the entire time she hadn't been left alone with Chris. He had got himself a ticket for Disneyworld, but he didn't often accompany the pair. This is for you two, he would say, this is your treat, not mine. For their first few days they had stayed in a hotel in the Resort itself, and while Chloe and Claire had failed to cover the entirety of the park, they had made it to most of the parts that they wanted to visit. After that they shifted north to Universal Studios. Chris knew about this and also had tickets for it, but decided to keep this one a secret, and Chloe ate that up so much more than Disney, while her mom preferred the cuter side of everything. Chloe nodded to herself. Maybe after decades of seeing horrors beyond anyone's imagination it wasn't surprising that her mom preferred sniffing flowers and holding kittens. Or Disney. But Chloe would be lying to herself if she said she didn't adore the irresistible and bewitching charm of Disney too.

While Marvel was lacking somewhat in both places (Chris promised Chloe that he'll take her to California for Marvel in a few years, maybe for her eighteenth birthday), she was more than made up with the other franchises that she grew up to love so much.

But those cute Disney plushies thrown into the corner in the hotel room…and Chloe's 360 no scope for that final point to win, though…

"Hey Mom, there's Chris! Chriiiiiiis!"

"Ah leave him, Chloe."

"But I want him to win some plushies for me! Master marksman, remember?!"

"...Chris! Can you win some plushies for us?!"

"What? Ahaha erm…no?"

"Aw Chris!"

"I'm not shooting for fucking cuddly toys, girls, come on, don't make me do it!"

"Why don't you love us, bro?"

"I'm not fucking winning plushies, look at me! I'm a six foot wall of muscle!"

"But Uncle Chris, even a six foot wall of muscle needs soft teddy cuddles!"

"No Chloe, I really don't!"

"Pleeeeaaaase, Chris?"

"Why don't you love us, Chris?!"

"Oh my God, you two…"

"Chriiiiiiis…"

"Are you both Redfields or not? Go ham! Are you telling me that neither of you can shoot? You're both crazy with firearms, do it! If you both wanna continue carrying the Redfield name you gotta earn it!"

Chloe grinned; Chris wasn't expecting them to win a dozen plushies across a couple of galleries, she even gave him a Kerchak plush from Tarzan as a joke.

"Wait, Chloe, isn't this guy from Tarzan?"

"You're both alike!"

"You calling me a gorilla?"

"Yes! What's your new name? Gori? Goris? Or just Gorilla?"

"Worst nicknames ever, try harder! Anyway, Kerchak died, he gets shot and dies in the movie, I'm still ticking!"

"It's just a big hairy gorilla reference, Chris, I'm not foreshadowing anything!"

"Good, don't fucking jinx me, girl! I've not got this far to end up with a bullet in my ass!"

"You won't, you'll end up incontinent and senile, I'm sure of it!"

"Oh gee, Chloe, thanks!"

"You are most welcome, Uncle Gorilla!"

"Ugh…"

For the final third of the vacation they had hit the east coast, but Chloe had fallen asleep in the rental car and didn't see exactly where they had come to. Miami? It might be Miami, but it seemed a bit quiet. It was probably further north, maybe east of Orlando.

She suddenly felt an ice cold sensation on the small of her back and she yelped, rolling herself over rapidly and staring up to…

Of course. Chris. With a clear cup of ice cubes in his hand.

"Really, Chris?" said her mom. He turned and smiled at Claire, before slipping an ice cube down her tube top between her cleavage, making her too yelp. He ducked below a slap and ran comically away from his sister and niece, his cup clattering with the ice cubes.

Chloe watched him run with a smile, but her view of her fleeing uncle was soon obscured by Claire's legs, then body. She brought herself up to a sitting position, and pointed at her mom's leg, just above her knee.

"Didn't even rub your sunscreen in properly, Mom." Chloe chided softly.

Claire frowned and twisted her legs side to side, and her eyes flickered with fear at an off-white smudge of sunscreen.

"Y-yeah…wow, I missed a bit, huh? I need to reapply anyway." Claire mumbled jumpily, a quiver hung in her voice, Chloe noted, and she watched her pull a pack of wipes from her bag. She wiped her limbs down, took another wipe and smoothed it over her face. Chloe watched her mother go to stand; it was slow, like she was pained. The heat was probably affecting the plates in her leg; as the vacation had gone on Chloe had noticed that her mom had begun to walk with a slight limp. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the British guy hurriedly bundle his towel and bag together and took a nervous glance at Claire, then Chloe. He gave her a brief nod, and disappeared between the beach huts at the sand's edge.

"Mom? Can I ask something?" Chloe piped up. Claire cracked open the sunscreen and smeared it liberally over her own pale skin.

"Sure."

"Why am I not allowed to spend time with Chris?"

"What kind of question is that?!" Claire snapped. Her expression suddenly changed, and it scared Chloe. It happened rarely, but it was almost like she was, verbally and even physically, a totally different person.

"I-well, it's just that-"

"We're here because we're here as a family, not just two of us at any given time!"

"But whenever I-"

"You're being very ungrateful! Chris brought us on vacation but now you're being selfish and asking stupid questions?!"

Chloe just sat there, stunned and speechless. How was that a stupid question and how was she selfish?!

"He's treating us, not himself! We're the ones meant to be spending time together!"

"But Mom, you and Chris literally went on a walk together just now and-"

"Don't answer back!"

"You left me here alone! I'm fifteen years old, Mom!"

"You can look after yourself!"

"Just because you could at fifteen doesn't mean I-"

At that moment, Chris returned with crispy wafer cones of soft, whippy ice cream; two small cones in one hand, and a double cone with far too much chocolate sauce and crushed nuts on the other.

"Your niece, Christopher, is being ungrateful about this vacation!" Claire snarled with snide.

"What?! No I'm not! I want to know why I can't spend time with my uncle! You kept talking about how you wanted us to talk again, so why are we not allowed to interact?!"

"Fine. You want to spend time with him? FINE." With that Claire turned, shoulder barged Chris in a pathetic, petty manner, and paced briskly towards the water, but she raised one hand up in the air, middle finger to the sky, "Trash daughter! And cover yourself up, slut!"

"You, er, you want this ice cream or not, Claire?" Chris shouted over to her, holding the smaller cones aloft.

"Shove it up your ass! You like that!" she shrieked behind her.

"Bit too cold, really." Chris grumbled.

Chloe though. Her crawlies invaded every inch of her skin, her chest seized up, and her breathing became frantic, her lips numb. The world spun and she was so sure that she was going to vomit. Chris made a noise, and he twisted about with the ice cream cones in his hands before sitting down, the cones still grasped.

"Chloe. Chloe, you know that you need to calm down. Breathe. You cannot let yourself get bad. Breathe, Pebble. Ssssh, it's ok, just breathe, slowly. In. And Out."

Chloe never knew why everyone kept telling her that she "couldn't get bad." But something inside her core told her to listen to those people. She slowly sucked in air between a cascade of tears and sobs, held it for a few seconds, and exhaled slower than the inhale.

"Sssh, that's it. In, and out. Good girl."

Her whole body shook, the crawlies had become inappreciably painful, and the tickling of little legs had briefly felt like large earthworms slithering sporadically under her skin, but Chris' voice and guidance had helped subside it.

"Why, Chris?"

"Why what?"

"Why everything?"

Chris sighed, and he stared at the three cones in his hands. His eyes darted back and forth to them, but mainly on the huge cone with chocolate sauce and crushed nuts. He sighed again, and offered it to Chloe. Peering at it through bloodshot eyes, she choked on a laugh lodged firmly in her throat.

"That's yours, right?" she asked.

"Not anymore."

Chloe's bottom lip trembled, and she sheepishly accepted the huge cone as Chris tucked into the smaller ones.

"You're not selfish, Pebble. Or ungrateful. Or even a slut. Those shorts and your vest are fine. If I'm saying as an adult male relative saying they're fine, then they're fine. It's hot weather, why should you have to wear more? She's just picking at things to complain about, that's all."

Chloe tugged at her vest; she was never self conscious of her body, not this whole time; in fact she was quite proud of her body, she exercised regularly, lots of running, karate, the high intensity training that she would occasionally do with Chris, she mostly ate well, with junk food in moderation as a treat, but now suddenly she felt very exposed, she felt sluttish, even ugly, and she bunched her knees to her chest in an attempt to cover her revealed skin.

"You're right though, Chloe. She hasn't let us talk or spend time together this entire time. If anyone is screwing this vacation, it's her. Right now."

"Are you mad with me, Chris?"

"What? Why would I be mad at you?! I saved up for a few years to pull together enough money for this, and she goes and throws a fit because you asked a legitimate question? And she had the audacity to call you a slut?! She's wearing less fucking fabric than you!"

"Her face almost changes when she gets like that." Chloe uttered, a sob becoming lodged in her throat again like a burning ball of blades. She licked at the ice cream and rolled the flavours around her mouth.

"I've noticed that too." Chris nodded.

"Am I a trash daughter?"

"Of course not." There wasn't the slightest pause after Chloe's question.

"Mom says I am." Chloe began to weep silently, the crawlies creeped ever so slightly back, but a thumb brushed on her cheek startled the crawlies back into their dark abyss.

"Trust me. You are not a trash daughter. Not in the slightest."

"But only Mom can say that."

Chris filled his mouth with the whippy cream off one of the cones.

"I feel at some point, something is going to have to be said." Chris began, "I feel that Claire is fabricating tales about us, and feeding them to either one of us. Making us hostile. For the last month we have tried to fix our relationship after she told us that she wanted us to, but she becomes a tough hurdle to jump over every time things begin to improve. Does she want us to reconcile or not, you know?"

"Like when she tells me you hate me?"

"Or when she tells me you get picked up by the cops on a regular basis?"

"Wait, what?" stammered Chloe, "The fuck?"

"True or no?" Chris quizzed, raising his eyebrows as he began on the second ice cream.

"Cops have brought me home after I've been attacked by kids from school in the park or in the street, not because I've been breaking the law!"

"Mmhm, I thought as much. I'm sorry if I ever jumped to conclusions."

"Why did you come home in a cop car, Chloe?!"

"Your niece got arrested, that's why!"

"What, no! No Mom I wasn't arrested!"

"Arrested?! Chloe, what the hell did you do?!"

"Nothing Chris, I swear!"

"She probably set fire to something or was caught with drugs, they all do in her school!"

"No Mom!"

"I used to be a cop, Chloe, this isn't going to fly!"

"But Chris, I swear I did nothing wrong!"

"I'm grounding you, Chloe, for getting arrested and then lying to us."

"Mom no please, listen!"

"Room, now!"

"Mom please, Chris help!"

"Listen to her, Chloe."

"No, please! Please listen!"

"Room, now, or so help me I will drag you to your room, Chloe May Redfield!"

The memory of her being escorted home by the cops after Stacey and her friends chased her through the park, with planks of wood broken off a bench, gave her goosebumps, but there was no point in trying to put out the truth now; Chris had asked an old friend only a few weeks ago to find her criminal record, of which there was none. She had never been arrested, nor did she ever intend to be, regardless of what her mom made herself believe.

"Did you ever say that you want me to start using my own pocket money to pay for things?"

"Erm, no?"

"Really? Mom keeps telling me that you've said that."

"No, never. Why would I want you to fund yourself? Of course, it's good to get a good head on finances, but hell no, I don't want you paying for things you want. If you got a weekend job then maybe I'd suggest setting money aside, but for now?" He shovelled the second ice cream cone into his mouth, and brushed the wafer crumbs off his chest, "Just enjoy your childhood. You have the opportunity to, unlike your mom. Embrace being a kid, Chloe. It doesn't last forever."

The pair gazed to the ocean, and faintly they could make out the figure of Claire floundering about in the glistening water. What's happening, Mom, Chloe wondered sadly, why are you being like this? Chris' phone began to ring, and he slipped it out of his shorts pocket, squinting at the screen for the sun's glare.

"I have to take this, I'll be as quick as I can." He stood up and disappeared from Chloe's peripheral vision.

There's so many things that need to be addressed. Was Chris saying things truthfully about Chloe? Was Mom saying things truthfully about Chloe? What has happened over the last few years for shit to be like this? Why was Mom being like this?

"Are you certain?" came Chris' far off voice. Chloe turned her head to the side, and strained her ears. Sure, it was rude, but certainly not as rude as mother dearest had been earlier!

"Ok…Hmm…Yeah…Alright, we'll action it…No, Claire doesn't need to know, just get it over and done with…No, I just said she doesn't need to know…Yes, but I think I'll be the one to decide if she should find out…I already know she'll kill me if she finds out that I'm the one that will give the go-ahead…Alright, but you'll have to action it at night, a daylight operation will only cause uproar, especially if Claire gets word of it…In a few days, maybe?"

Chloe frowned and lay back on her towel, trying not to make it obvious that she was listening in.

"Alright, make it clean, no dramas, just get in, do it, and leave. Make it look professional, no sloppy jobs, you hear me?...Yes. Email me the papers and I'll electronically sign it to begin the mission…no one tells Chloe, either, got it? Neither Claire or Chloe will know about this."

Chloe frowned harder. What kind of mission was he being informed of?

"Sorry, Chloe." Chris said, sitting back down on the sand by Chloe's side.

"Missions, again?" Chloe asked, half curious and half concerned at what she just heard.

"Yeah."

"It's the only phone calls I know you get," Chloe half lied, "so I just assumed. I thought you retired?"

"I still advise, I just don't physically go out there myself anymore."

"Do you miss it? Being on the field, I mean?" Chloe leaned forward and rested her elbow on her knee, eyeing her uncle. He lit up a cigarette, and enjoyed that first puff before speaking.

"Sometimes. I originally wanted to step down as the Special Ops Captain after my amnesia episode, after my mission in Lanshiang, but after Piers Nivans sacrificed his life to save mine, I realised my real mission was far from over."

"And what was your real mission? To put an end to bioterrorism?"

"Yeah. But it just keeps going. It doesn't end." Chris stared up to the blue sky, and Chloe watched his ageing facial features soften considerably, as if some deep rooted emotions were sprouting and flourishing.

"I don't think bioterrorism will end. Or wars. Or any kind of conflict. You can keep fighting and fighting but I don't think it will ever truly disappear." Chloe expressed. It was a glum outlook, but a realistic one.

"I don't think it will either. I used to think it would. But, well," Chris nodded towards the sea, towards Claire, "your mom got infected, a few years before you were born. It was the t-Phobos virus. A virus that activates when it senses the host is in great fear. She saw a lot of her colleagues succumb to it, and she was on regular medication for a long time to keep it at bay. Eventually TerraSave manufactured a single dose vaccine, and while she no longer has to worry about being in intense fear or stress and activating the virus, I think in a way it's still in her system."

Chloe too looked over to her mother's tiny figure in the waves. She felt no compassion or empathy for her at this moment, and she felt terrible for it.

"Thirty years," Chris continued, "Thirty years at the end of this month since I fell into this world, this bioterrorism bullshit. Since S.T.A.R.S were hit hard by our own captain. Wesker. That name will stay with me to the grave. Thirty years since I foolishly didn't tell your mom where I was at, and she almost died herself in Raccoon City."

"I remember the stories you both told me." Chloe acknowledged.

"My parents' deaths, your grandparents, I thought that that would be the hardest thing I would have to endure. I thought that raising a twelve year old girl would be hard. I wasn't wrong, but it wasn't the hardest thing I've had to do."

Silence fell once again, and two young children, a boy and a younger girl, ran jovially by the pair, giggling and squealing as they kicked up sand. The little girl tripped and fell, but the boy turned and helped her up. They stared at each other, the girl unsure whether to cry, the boy unsure of his words to speak, and they both laughed, continuing on towards the water. A man and a woman followed, hand in hand, all smiles.

"That."

Chloe looked at Chris, and he curled his lip.

"That's how it used to be. We were a happy family. Me, Claire, Mom and Dad. We weren't perfect people, but to us we were the perfect family in our own little way. We were close, all of us. And one little trip out, one car journey took it all away from us. From me."

He laughed and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, that kind of went off on a tangent. I mean that transitioning my life to deal with bioterrorism was far harder than two big deaths in the family. Claire was a handful, you pale in comparison, you're a goddamn angel, really!"

Chloe blushed, but Mom had told her several times previously that she was worse than her. Was this now another lie? And whose lie was it?

"My life may never have been the same after they died, but I coped, Claire coped, and we fought through it. We could make things normal. But once the Arklay Incident happened, there was no going back. That all became the new normal to us."

"But you could've chosen not to fight bioterrorism. After Raccoon City, and after you saved Mom from Antarctica which, by the way, was fucking epic, you both could've carried on as if nothing had happened, right?"

"We could've, but it wasn't so simple. We had seen things that no one would even thought possible…I thought I had it rough with half a dozen zombies coming at me, your Mom had so many more than that. Grown men infected to become known as Tyrants, some of them with a fuckload of eyeballs and rapidly increasing size, he was the guy who made the G-virus."

"Sherry Birkin's dad?"

"Yeah. Then you had what else Claire saw; a father turned into a bioweapon called Nosferatu, his daughter became a gross ant queen bitch. I've dealt with Uroboros, Wesker, your Mom did in the other Wesker. Anyway I'm just rambling now, long story short, we've seen some shit."

He glanced at Chloe, she could see that, but she didn't look at him, she was too embarrassed after he called her an angel. She could make out his eyes studying her face.

"Have you put any thought into what you want to do? Career choices?"

Chloe was taken aback by the question, and she twisted her lips in her cute little way. She hummed to herself as Chris straightened one of her braids.

"Not really, but I suppose I should avoid being around death if yours and Mom's stories are anything to go by," Chloe mused, "I don't know, though. I keep changing my mind."

"Your piano skills are good."

"Sure, so good that I can't even play Für Elise!" pouted Chloe.

"You'll get there, don't worry. It's a tricky song towards the end. I didn't learn to play the guitar overnight, it took me a few years to get decent, but you'll make it. Not just instruments either. Everything, everything that life throws at you. Never give up. If there is one thing that a Redfield doesn't do, it's give up."

"Erm…Chris? Didn't you try to commit suicide years ago? Didn't Mom try too?"

Chris gulped, but carried on fairly quickly.

"Chloe…I hope and pray that you will never feel that you need to take your own life. No matter how bad you feel things get, never give up, you'll always be worth more than you feel at your lowest point. There will always be someone there, to offer help and to listen. For as long as I breathe, and Claire too for that matter, we will help you, no matter what. Because that's what families do."

He leaned into Chloe and wrapped a big arm around her, kissing her on her temple through the fabric of her bandana, and she shifted against his torso, not entirely uncomfortably, but getting used to being close to her uncle after a few long years was becoming increasingly easier for her. And her heart hummed and swelled with warmth. Things were getting better between them.

"I hope that you live a life free of the sights we've seen, Chloe. A normal life."

Chloe stared at the sand between her toes, digesting his words as Chris rested his head on her own.

"I hope I do too, Uncle Chris."

"No, Chloe. Listen. What I kept wanting to tell you was that-"

"We go home tonight, remember, don't fall asleep on the beach!" Claire's voice travelled along the wind, and Chris groaned, "Don't don't fucking hug like that, you look like a pervert, Chris!"

"Are you-what the fuck, Claire, am I not allowed to hug my da-"

"No! You're not allowed to hug your damned niece!" Claire cut in. She didn't even pass a glance as she grabbed her bag and stormed off the beach. Chloe shook her head slowly.

"What's happening to her?" asked Chloe quietly, and Chris, defying Claire's order, pulled her harder against his chest.

"I don't know, but I'm worried. Genuinely worried. She's gotten so much worse recently." he mumbled.

"I finally begin to fix things with you, but now she's always mad with me, is there no balance?"

"Oh, Pebble, she's not mad with you."

"She sounds like it. Feels like it too."

"Well, she's not. It's not you, it's me."

Chloe looked over Chris' shoulder and saw that British guy watching Claire with a frown, before making eye contact with Chloe. He flicked his eyes to Chris, back to Chloe, and lifted a hand in farewell before disappearing again.

"What did you want to say to me, Chris?" Chloe asked. Chris bit his lip before shaking his head. He stood up and held a hand out for Chloe to pull herself up to her feet, and she accepted it. He wrapped both of his muscular arms around her, kissing her on her head once more. He pulled away from the embrace and thumbed her three jewelled heart pendant around her neck. Chloe observed him; for a fifty-something old, he was still ripped, but age was showing in his new facial wrinkles and white hairs that the sun brought out. His aviators sat perched on the end of his nose, but she could see his eyes. She watched his stoic face as he slowly fumbled with her pendant; was that…sorrow? Like he had done so many times, not just today but in the past, he sighed, and he brought his eyes up to meet hers.

"...Nothing, Chloe. Forget it."

The song for this chapter is Reflection by Lea Salonga (from Mulan).

Look, I wanted to wiggle a Disney song in somewhere, ok? And given Chloe's brief thought processes in this I thought it was ok XD

Brace yourselves for several tasty treats in next chapter!

(Also I'm waiting for the Claire fans to tear into me for how I wrote her just now XD please be gentle!)