6. Chris

Chris didn't remember when was the last time he had spent his nights sitting on an uncomfortable chair from a hospital room, but he was sure it wasn't something he wanted to get used to ever in his life.

He had spent the last three days in Claire's room. Claire had woken up four times more since Chris and his friends arrived in Wales. All of them had been quite violent and, much to Chris's dismay, unable to recognize any of them.

Hiwamura gave her some sedatives to prevent her from waking up in another panic attack and tearing up the stitches from her injured abdomen again. The doctor had seemed adamant to administer another drug to her already doped system, but she wouldn't take the risk of having her patient hurting herself unknowingly. As a result, Claire had remained knocked out for three consecutive days. The good news, however, was that Claire's seemed to be healing fast, maybe a little too quickly for any person.

He had skipped duties for the last few days, something he never did, but due to the circumstances, both Jill and Barry had insisted he stay by Claire's side while they handled the BSAA duties for him. Leon had been around, too. The blonde agent would come in and out of the room at random hours, and he would stand at the foot of the bed staring at Claire's sleeping form silently. They rarely spoke; they just stayed there watching in silence with arms crossed and a deep frown. Both men seemed absorbed in their own thoughts.

Chris looked at Leon in the corner of his eye. They weren't exactly close friends, and they had grown even more distant since Claire's death. Chris and Leon's work had often led them to cross paths; their meetings were often rushed and darkened by the imminent dangers of an upcoming apocalypse; so friendly chit-chatting was never an option. They had different tempers and very different ways of working, and that would often lead them to crash; but despite that, there was mutual respect and understanding between the two.

Although they often had disagreements, they both shared something in common: Claire. Chris hadn't blamed Leon for what had happened to his sister, but he knew, from Jill, that the agent had certainly felt responsible for it. How Jill had found out, Chris didn't know; but now, looking at the blonde in the room, he could see how concerned he was about his sister. The agent's phone beeped, and after checking the screen, the man had excused himself and walked out of the room with slow steps. Chris watched him disappear behind the door and sighed.

Suddenly, a loud beeping-sound interrupted his thoughts, and he looked at Claire's vitals on the screen. Her heartbeat had raised significantly, and he saw that his sister had begun to jolt in her sleep. She seemed to be mumbling something, but the words were so soft that Chris couldn't hear them under the other noises of the room.

"Claire…?" Chris whispered, grabbing her hand and rubbing it with his thumb. She seemed trapped in a nightmare. Judging by what Dr. Hiwamura had told him, having nightmares was a regular thing for Claire.

He'd had his own share of nightmares after all the horrors he had witnessed with the years, and Claire had always lent him a supportive ear whenever he'd needed to vent, but Claire had never told him about her own nightmares. It was a bad habit that she gained as she grew up. It was a habit that was mostly Chris's fault. With all the things he had to handle in his former job in S.T.A.R.S, Claire had always worked hard to worry him as much as she could.

Of course, she had gone through a rebellious stage at once, but it was because she had suddenly gained interest in bikes when she began college. The siblings would often bicker, but like any other siblings, their fights didn't last long, and they would get forgotten almost as fast as they would build up. What were siblings for if they didn't argue every now and then, after all?

However, in general, Claire had been a good girl. She never got herself in trouble. Well, except by those few times he had been called by her school counselor because Claire had beaten up a few of her male classmates. At the time, she had claimed innocence, saying that those boys had earned those punches since the boys have been perverted pigs trying to peek into the girl's changing room after gym class or because they had dared to say an inappropriate comment about her body parts. Chris knew he should have been angry, but at the time, he couldn't stop himself from laughing and feeling proud of his sister's jab punch; the girl had also kept pretty good grades, which earned her the title of Redfield's Little Brain. She had felt so annoyed about that nickname when he had first used it, but eventually, she got used to it.

The memories brought a faint smile to the lone soldier's lips, but then it was soon overshadowed by the fear that she might not remember them.

"...Chris…"

He looked at his sister, surprised. Had he heard right? Was Claire mumbling his name in her sleep?

"CHRIS! HELP ME…"

The woman's eyes snapped open, and she began to trash and wave her hands in a panic. The machines monitoring her vitals started beeping as crazy. Her heartbeat had increased alarmingly fast, and Chris had no idea what to do. There were no nurses nearby, and he feared that if he left now, Claire would hurt herself.

"No! No!"

Claire's voice tore him. There was so much fear and horror in her voice, and the man automatically reached out to her. Claire looked at him with horror, but he caught her in his arms and began soothing her the same way he had done the first time she had woken up.

"C-Chris? I-It's you? I am not hallucinating, am I? You are here," she had whispered with a trembling voice that almost sounded like a sob and made his heartbreak. He rubbed her back gently, trying to calm her trembling body.

He couldn't explain the wave of relief that had washed over him the moment he had heard her.

"Hallucinating? No, it's me. It is really me," he whispered, "I am here...I am really here..."

"You found me; you found me... I hoped you would find me."

"I am sorry I didn't find you sooner. "

"You...always take your damn time anyway…"

"My bad…" Chris couldn't help but smile at her sister's comment. God, how he had missed her sense of humor. "I won't let you out of my sight again."

Claire had laughed weakly, and suddenly he saw the tears in her cerulean eyes. Claire's shoulders had begun shaking as she broke into tears. He hadn't seen Claire cry in years. The last time had been in an old broken laboratory in Antarctica when her friend had died in the hands of a crazy woman infected with a bioengineered virus. Chris had never been good at dealing with crying women, and his sister's crying was definitely his weakness. It'd been that way since they were young when she would give him that sad puppy look whenever she wanted something.

The man looked around, trying to come out with something to say.

"You have no idea how glad I am that you remember me." he said, " I thought…"

"Yeah...it's been like this for a while…" she replied, cleaning away her tears and looking at him with a watered-down version of her teasing look, "It comes and goes at times…my memories, I mean…"

"What?" Chris said, pushing her back a little to look at her, " What do you mean?"

"It's...complicated. I will explain it. Eventually."

Claire's face had turned pale, and she shuddered. Did she remember something about the past few months? What could have happened to her during that time that would bring such a bitter look from her?

"Chris?"

Her voice had interrupted his thoughts. He looked at her and smiled.

"Yeah?" "Chris...there's something you must know. There's a virus…"

It was so much like Claire to prioritize viruses and their impact on the fate of the world. There she was. She had just woken up from three days of an induced coma and talking about them.

"Virus? Yeah. There's always one..." Chris sighed.

"It is a new virus…"

It always was a new one, but for the first time in his life, he felt that he didn't want to think or worry about viruses and terrorists. His dead sister had just come back from her tomb. He was in no mood for bioterrorist crap.

"It's alright, Claire. We can talk about that later. You just woke and probably need a little more rest..."

"No…"

Chris was surprised by Claire's sudden seriousness. He knew that look well. It was the one she would get whenever she was about to drop bad news on him.

"No, Chris. You must know. The new virus," Claire said, coughing, "I...I have it."

The last bit had come out in such a whisper that he had -hoped- he'd heard wrong.

"What?"

"Chris…"

"Sorry… I think I heard wrong…"

" No, Chris. I am infected..."

Chris could feel his heart dropping to the ground when the words left her lips. Infected, those damn bastards had infected Claire with a new, unknown virus. After eight painful months thinking she was dead, he had found her alive only to discover that she might be in a race against time from becoming one of the monsters he'd vowed to destroy.

Fuck. Why does life have to treat us this way?

"What are you saying, Claire?" he whispered, hoping that he had heard wrong.

Claire looked at him with a heartbroken, miserable, and sorry look.

"I am infected, Chris. They infected me with the new strain…"

"No…" he could feel the fury starting to build up inside him, "No, no way. Those bastards! Those fucking bastards! I'm going to kill them!"

He had jumped on his feet and was about to burst out of the room, but Claire had quickly grabbed his arm.

"No...wait….Chris, please…." she said in a rush, "It's… I am not… I didn't mutate and look at me. I am still me, barely, but I am more or less myself..."

"It doesn't make it any less bad, Claire. Those sons of bitch will pay…"

"Chris...you're missing my point…"

"Your point?"

"Chris...I've been infected by months...do you know what that means?"

Chris stared at his sister pondering her words, and it suddenly dawned on him.

"You are immune…"

"I...don't think I am. There are some irregularities, but, overall, I don't think the virus has changed me," Claire had begun to stroke her temple and mumbled something he could quite understand. " I just need some time to think this over…"

"Are you alright? Is your head hurting?"

"It's nothing...I can take it…"

"I'm not eating that up. I'm calling Hiwamura…"

"Wait...Saya is here? Where am I?"

"Cardigan Bay. Hiwamura came along since your condition required her specifically…"

He saw Claire's guilty look. He would need to have a word with her about all the little secrets she'd been keeping from him, but that'd have to wait. Chris pulled out his mobile and dialed Dr. Hiwamura. The doctor answered after the second tune, and after listening to him for a few seconds, she replied with a hasty, "I'm heading there…"

Chris pushed the phone back into his pocket and looked back at his sister. She was sitting at the edge of the bed now, staring at her scarred and bruised legs.

"And people ask why I avoid skirts, huh?" she mumbled, "That's fine, though. They're not exactly the best outfit when you need to run for your life anyway…"

Chris looked at her. The scars and bruises on her legs were the remains of the injuries she had when she'd first arrived. Wherever she'd been, it certainly hadn't been paradise.

"Claire, can I ask you something?"

"I know what you're going to ask…" she sighed, "some of my memories are still messy. I think I can remember most things compared to other occasions, but some things are too confusing. I don't know where I was. I have some flashes from places and events, but they're mostly random. I don't think I can't make much sense of them for now…"

"That's fine. We will find those bastards, one way or another…"

"Yeah...or they'll find us…" she sighed, "Chris, I need a favor."

"Whatever you need…"

"Can you get me something to write in?"

That was a strange request, but he dug into his utility belt and took out a small notepad and pen, and passed it to her.

"You keep this on your utility belt?" Claire asked with a frown, "How do you use it? Ninja origami stars when you run out of grenades or knife-pen stabbing when you're out of ammo?"

Well, her sense of humor was the same.

"Very funny…" he said, faking offense. In reality, he felt so happy to hear his sister teasing him.

Claire tilted her head and smiled lightly.

"Thanks, Chris…" she said in a softer voice, and then she began writing.