Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil.
Feedback:
I love how vocal some people have been in expressing their distaste with Alice's current occupation, it shows that you guys are invested in these characters and you know that Alice deserves better. I chose to make Alice a janitor because I felt it was a good way to illustrate how static she is at this point. The job itself is not so much important as what it represents. Alice has zero ambition and is pretty much coasting through life right now. I would also like to point out that the story is nowhere near being over, so there is still plenty of time for her to get her shit together. I also find it interesting that people are upset about the janitor thing but no one was offended by Claire waiting tables for ten hours a day; does Claire not deserve better? I think she does, so expect her to be switching jobs a lot sooner than Alice.
ForumET: Your review almost broke my face, I was grinning so big. I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story and I'm very sorry you had to wait so long for this update.
ShoujoAiShusekki: Yes! Someone who is with me on the cliches, thank you! And for thinking David Bowie is awesome you are officially my favourite reviewer.
Manya91: I have to admit that I've never played the games before, so I'm reluctant to use characters I'm not familiar with, but thanks for the suggestion. I will keep it in mind if I need any more characters.
TheQueen: WellI'm quite relieved to hear you won't quit reading because we disagree about Alice's occupation. I take your criticism very seriously and your comments have been noted!
A/N: I am so sorry about the delay in update. This chapter required some additional work and I've been trying to get my other story back into regular updates so this story got placed on the back burner. The next update will not be nearly as long a wait, I promise. Also, thank you for your reviews. I read them all and greatly appreciate the notes and comments. You guys are awesome!
A/N2: Chapter title is from Mariana's Trench. (Gotta love Canadian content!)
A/N3: Ok, so I lied. There is one original character, but I don't think anyone will mind too much that we get to meet Mrs. Olivera.
Claire's eyes darted towards the entrance of the diner every few minutes. Alice wasn't expected to show up to tutor K-Mart for another twenty minutes but the redhead was still on edge, waiting to see if the other woman would actually show. It was a thought that had sprung up on her early this morning; she'd been flipping pancakes in the back kitchen when the stray thought occurred to her that maybe the other night would be Alice's breaking point with her and K-Mart. It was one thing to give up your afternoons to help out a fifteen year old with school, but something else entirely to save the pair of them from thugs and get stabbed in the process. Claire knew she certainly wasn't worth all this trouble and ever since this morning had been worried that Alice was going to figure it out at any moment and never see them again. She knew if that happened K-Mart would be heartbroken and if she was honest with herself Claire would admittedly be more than a little disappointedtoo.
The bell above the door jingled and Claire's eyes immediately transfixed on its location. She smiled at the sight of her little sister coming through the door. Despite their weekend ordeal K-Mart had insisted that she was alright to go to school that day and Claire was happy to see her younger sibling sporting her usual cheerful demeanor as she skipped across the diner, waving to Claire as she made her way over to her usual booth. As usual for this time of day the diner was empty so Claire joined her sister at the table as K-Mart pulled her homework out of her backpack.
"Hey K, how was school today?"
Shrugging, K-Mart flipped through her notebook until she came to an empty page. "It was fine, nothing special or anything. Angie asked me what I did this weekend so I had to lie a little bit."
"You're a terrible liar." Claire interjected, worrying K-Mart might have spilled the truth.
"Well it wasn't so much lying as it was leaving out certain details of the truth. Either way, she didn't suspect a thing."
"That's good." Claire slid into the booth across from her sister. She didn't like the idea of K-Mart not being able to be honest with her best friend but Claire was adamant that for both their sakes no one could find out what happened that night. "Listen K, I know we already talked about everything yesterday but I just want to make sure you're alright. I know that sometime the shock of these kinds of events can take time to settle in and I want you to know that if you need to talk about anything, I'm here for you."
"I know Claire, and I'm fine. I promise to tell you if that ever changes, but for now I'd rather just forget the whole thing ever happened. Can we do that?"
"Sure K, we can try."
It was all the redhead wanted too, to put the whole thing behind them and just move forward. Admittedly her time with Alice at the hospital had done a lot to distract her from the less pleasant memories of that particular evening but K-Mart had no such fortune so even though the blonde insisted she was fine Claire was still worried about her little sister.
She was pulled from her thoughts by K-Mart's voice. "Alice is still coming today, right?"
The redhead knew K-Mart was probably harbouring the same trepidations on whether Alice would show up after everything that had happened. "I hope so, but I'll guess we'll find out soon enough." Claire tried to seem nonchalant but she couldn't stop her eyes from gazing at the clock on the wall to see if it was time for Alice to arrive yet and put their concerns to rest. She decided to change the subject. "Do you have a lot of other homework?"
K-Mart shook her head. "Just some math, shouldn't take too long."
The jingling of the bell over the door alerted them to someone else's presence and both Redfield sisters anxiously turned their attention to the door only to be disappointed by an elderly couple entering the diner instead of the injured blonde. Claire sighed loudly and stood up from the booth to serve the customers as K-Mart set to work on her studies.
Alice stepped into the diner at 3:15pm sharp, her injury not having caused her any significant delays. K-Mart was easy to spot in the same booth they had occupied last time and Alice easily made her way over to the teen.
"Hey K-Mart," she greeted as she sat opposite the younger blonde. "How's it going?"
"Alice!" K-Mart squealed in excitement. "I'm so glad you showed up." At Alice's obvious look of confusion the teen elaborated. "Claire and I were a little worried that we'd never see you again after the other night. We weren't sure if it might be too much for you and you'd bail on us."
Both the words and the teens blunt honesty caused Alice to frown deeply. The thought had never even crossed her mind that the other night might be a tipping point for some people. With the serious abandonment issues she had she could never even imagine doing that to another person, even if it was just some teenager she was tutoring. "I would never do that K," she said sternly. "It takes a lot more than a little stab wound to scare me off."
K-Mart seemed relieved at hearing this information. "Good. So, how is you arm doing?"
Alice stared down at the bandage. "It's fine. About that though, I'm afraid I can't stay too late tonight K. Carlos called our mother and told her about my...accident, so she's making me come over for diner tonight so she can make sure I'm alright herself. It's really just an excuse to fuss over my wound and then scold me for getting it in the first place."
The teen nodded in understanding. "That's fine. I think it's really nice that your mom still worries about you at your age."
"I don't think it matters how old you get, parents will always worry. I'm sure Claire will be the same way with you, even when you turn thirty."
"God I hope not!" K-Mart sighed exasperated.
"I heard that!" The redhead took that moment to make her presence known and the teenager shrunk further into her seat as Claire approached the table. "You should be a little more appreciative of the things I do for you K, not everyone is as lucky to have an amazing sister like me." Claire boasted causing K-Mart to scoff loudly.
Alice recognized the good-natured teasing that she often shared with Carlos and she was suddenly looking forward to visiting her adoptive mother that evening, knowing that if it wasn't for Carlos' parents she wouldn't even have a family and she made a mental note to go home for visits more often. She was pulled away from her thoughts when the redhead was called away to another table and K-Mart looked at her expectantly, ready to get to work.
After a couple of hours, and some noticeable improvement on K-Mart's part, Alice was forced to call it a day. With a final wave to the Redfield sisters she left the diner and climbed into her truck and made the twenty minute drive out of the city and into the suburbs.
She pulled into the driveway of the house that had been her home for the majority of her childhood and teenage years. As she hopped out of the truck she spared a glance at the house next door that she had once called home, it looked completely different than from when she had lived there. A nice family had moved in several years ago and had painted the outside and added a new front porch to the place. If the house had been picked up and placed somewhere else she would never recognize it as the embodiment of all the sadness and abandonment she'd experienced as a young child. She shook her head to clear her mind before her thoughts turned any more unpleasant. The blonde let herself in the front door and followed the smell of food until she stood in the kitchen.
Elizabeth Olivera, a kindly looking woman in her early fifties stood at the stove stirring a pot when the sound of footsteps alerted her to the presence of another person in the room. Alice had always thought Carlos looked so much like his mother with dark hair and eyes and friendly disposition. When the older woman turned around and found her only daughter standing in the doorway a huge smile spread across her face, she dropped her wooden spoon onto the stove and was soon wrapping Alice in a tight hug. She was about a full head shorter than the blonde, her full height barely reaching Alice's shoulder but her enthusiasm filled the room with her presence.
"Alice! Honey I'm so glad you could make it. I've missed you."
"I was home two weeks ago Mom." Alice remarked but nevertheless returned the embrace.
"I know, it's just that I miss my children so much. I told Carlos to come with you but he insisted that he had to work late tonight." Elizabeth let Alice go and stepped back, a frown now in place at her son's behaviour.
"He's got that big contract they're working on, I think the deadline is the end of the week." She didn't know why she was defending her brother but she didn't want their mother to think the man was avoiding coming home for visits.
The older woman waved off her son's excuse before ushering the blonde over to the kitchen table and the two sat down facing each other. Elizabeth reached over and pulled Alice's injured arm across the table, closely inspecting it despite the bandage covering the wound. "So, are you going to tell me how exactly this happened?"
"Carlos didn't tell you?"
"He told me it was some thugs but I want to hear the whole story from you. You haven't gotten yourself mixed up in drugs or a gang have you?"
Alice sighed dramatically. "No Mom, I'm not involved with anything illegal."
Elizabeth smiled slightly as she did every time Alice called her 'mom.' It had taken over three years for the blonde to finally stop referring to her as Mrs. Olivera and Alice remembered how the woman had shed tears of joy the first time she let the title slip from her lips. Even thought they weren't biologically related, the Oliveras had always felt like family and they always treated the blonde as if she were one of their own but when Alice started referring to them as her parents it finally became real. Mr. Olivera had died two years ago from cancer so as they sat alone in the kitchen with her mother fussing over her, Alice was happy to still see the joy in the older woman's face at the casual address.
"I just worry about you honey, that's my job. So tell me what happened and don't leave anything out."
"Okay, so the other night I went out to get some pizza and while I was stopped in the street I heard some screaming and got out to investigate."
"Alice you could have been killed! I know your first instinct is to help but that's what the police are for."
"There wasn't any time for the police, I only just got there in time to save her." Alice visibly shuddered at the memory of running into the alley and seeing Claire forced against the wall, held at knife point. "I've been tutoring this teenager in history, her name is K-Mart" Alice added a 'don't ask' when Elizabeth looked about to question the strangeness of the name, "and it was her and her older sister Claire who these thugs were messing with. K-Mart managed to get away but she said Claire was still trapped so I had to go help her. This little knife wound I have is nothing compared to what they could have done to her if I hadn't shown up."
"Did the police catch these thugs?"
"No, and I doubt they're going to look too much into it either. We didn't get a very good look at the guys and since no one was critically injured it's not a priority case." Alice sat back in her chair after finishing the story and waited for her mother's reaction.
After a long moment Elizabeth sighed loudly. "Well you always liked playing the hero in those little games you and Carlos used to play so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that you'd go headfirst into a potentially deadly situation. But I guess I'll go easy on you since you saved some poor girl's life."
"Thanks Mom." Alice replied sarcastically and watched her mother stand up from the table and return to the stove, stirring the pot one last time before turning off the burner. A few minutes later a delicious looking bowl of pasta was placed before her on the table and Alice remembered what she missed most about living at home.
"So, this girl you saved–"
"Claire," Alice corrected automatically.
"Yes, is she going to be alright?"
"Yeah, she's fine. She was a little shook up but who wouldn't be? It's a lot to deal with."
Elizabeth nodded slowly before a smirked worked its way across her face. "And this Claire, is she pretty?"
Alice dropped her fork and it hit the table with a loud clatter. "Is she what?"
"Pretty. Come on Alice, you can tell your old mother."
"You're not that old."
"Don't change the subject, just answer the question."
The blonde sighed, she should have known her mother had heard more from Carlos than she let on. "Yeah Mom, she's pretty."
"Just pretty?"
Alice didn't even have to think about it to know that pretty did not even come close to describing the redhead. "No, a lot more than pretty." Alice didn't offer anything further and the older woman didn't press for details.
"And does she like you?" For the first time since she arrived Alice regretted coming over tonight. She should have expected these types of questions knowing full well Carlos' nosiness was a trait inherited from their mother. Alice moved the remaining pasta around the edges of her bowl, aware of the eyes burning a hole into her skull with their gaze. But there was no escaping once her mother got into inquisition mode so Alice was forced to answer.
"I don't know. I think so? I don't know how she could though, the only things she knows about me is my job and my art."
"Then let her get to know you. I guarantee that once she does she'll be falling head over heels." Elizabeth smiled widely and looked at Alice expectantly. "Well, what about you? Do you like her?"
The blonde shrugged. "You know dating isn't my thing."
Elizabeth sighed in a combination of frustration and concern. "Alice you can't let one bad experience ruin your ability to have relationships. If you did we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. You could have held on to the pain the Abernathys left you with;" Elizabeth never referred to them as Alice's parents because as far as she was concerned she and her husband were the only real parents the blonde had ever known. "But you didn't. You let yourself be open to having a new family and we've all been the better because of it. Now I know that girl really hurt you but it's been four years Alice; you can't let it dictate the rest of your life. If you and this Claire girl like each other than you need to open yourself up to the possibilities, otherwise you might miss out on something truly great and I would hate for that to happen to you."
Alice remained quiet for a long time, having a lot to think about. Her mother was right, it had been a long time since her last relationship but that didn't make the idea of starting to date again any less terrifying. The only consolation she felt was that there really was no rush. It wasn't like Claire was hounding her to go out, hell, she still was on the fence about whether the redhead was even into her. Claire said they were friends, but that kiss had felt a little more than platonic. But even if Claire was interested Alice wasn't going to put herself out there only to have a repeat of her last relationship, she was going to take her mother's advice and let the redhead get to know her. She still wanted to wait until her heroic actions of the other night had blown over so this was the perfect excuse not to rush into things.
Alice failed to notice that during her musings her mother had silently left the table and had started washing the dishes. The blonde joined her at the sink and took a clean bowl from her hands, setting it in the dish drainer. Alice leaned over and pressed a kiss to the shorter woman's cheek. "Thanks Mom, you give the best advice."
Elizabeth smiled at her daughter. "I try." She motioned her hand towards a towel. "Now help me clean up this mess."
Alice nodded without hesitation and allowed herself to focus on the task at hand and set aside her feelings of confusion for later.
