Yelling could be heard from Chief Irons office as Cass walked past. Feeling a twinge of guilt, she ignored it to continue walking toward the S.T.A.R.S. office. No need to earn the ire of the chief. She had enough problems; her partner Jack had gone missing from the hospital. Alpha Team had been dispatched to look for him, but Cass couldn't help but feel like something was very wrong. He'd been in intensive care for about a week when he suddenly started becoming aggressive. The hospital had put him in quarantine, but he'd still managed to escape.

Cass opened the door to the office and was surprised to see the Vice-Captain standing in the office. Marini greeted her with a nod of his head, which Cass pretended she didn't see. She continued to Wesker's office and put the neatly organized files on his desk. While she didn't think Marini was a bad person, she'd seen the suspicious glances he'd thrown in Chris and Barry's direction, and it irked her.

"Hello, Miss Walker. How are you today?" Marini asked with slight irritation at being ignored.

"Better than the chief's secretary, I'm sure," Cass said and began checking over the files to make sure they were correct.

"Ah, so he's still going at it then. Poor man."

Cass nodded her head and continued to sort the files when she blurted out, "Why are you acting so different to Barry and Chris? Have they done something I'm not aware of? Or is it just because of what Chris said about Barry being the most experienced member? He didn't mean to upset you, and neither of them are planning to steal your job."

Maini stared at her in shocked silence before he suddenly grew serious and asked, "And how would you know that? I'm not upset by what Chris said. That's a fact. I just can't help but wonder why neither of them have applied for a higher position."

"Maybe because you're in that higher position. Barry doesn't seem to even want that much responsibility, and if you're worried about Chris, you really shouldn't be. He's not the kind of person to hide his intentions. I don't think he even has the ability for that kind of thing. If he wanted to take your position from you, he would announce it to your face, and it wouldn't be because he just wanted the power of the position. It would be because you failed, and he thought that he could do a better job."

"You seem to hold Chris in high esteem," Marini said thoughtfully, carefully regarding her words.

"Because I know him. And you won't find a more straightforward, reliable, and trustworthy person anywhere. That's not bias. Just a fact."

"Sounds like bias. Do you really think you can be unbiased when talking about a childhood friend?"

"Oh, I never said he's not a giant pain in my ass from time to time. I don't believe in putting people on a pedestal. I could go on for days about how annoying he can be, but that has nothing to do with your insecurities. You can go on believing that they're planning an insidious coup, but the only person you're sabotaging is yourself."

Marini didn't say anything when Cass walked past him to the door. She opened it to find Captain Wesker and Kevin Ryman waiting outside and froze in embarrassment. The amused looks on the captain and Kevin's faces told Cass that they'd heard at least some of that.

"Uh… just how much of that did you hear?"

"Everything!" Kevin blurted out with a laugh, earning an irritated look from the captain. "We didn't want to interrupt, and I thought you had the situation covered."

"But was I wrong?" Cass asked as she could feel her face flush.

"No," Marini said surprising Cass. "You weren't wrong. Thank you. Too bad you're so set on being on Alpha Team… though with Kevin taking the test again maybe I'll get another new recruit."

Cass looked from Marini to Captain Wesker in confusion, and Captain Wesker explained, "Kevin has asked to reapply to the S.T.A.R.S. Team. We decided to wait until your shoulder heals and test you both together. That will give us plenty of time to get everything set up. Especially since it's been so eventful lately… Alpha Team is still searching for Jack. Unfortunately, there's been no sign of him, but we'll keep searching."

Cass looked down and nodded. With a sigh, she looked up at Captain Wesker with a sad smile and said, "I know. Chris isn't one to leave a man behind. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take my break now."

Captain Wesker nodded and gently pat her shoulder before walking into the office. Kevin looked like he had something he wanted to say, so she quickly walked past him. She really couldn't deal with him right now. Realizing that she'd left her lunch in the S.T.A.R.S. office, she walked down the stairs. She hadn't been feeling hungry anyway. Plus she could always go and visit the dogs. With a smile on her face, she walked to the RCPD dog kennel. Tony had told her that he'd gotten a couple of puppies to train and said that she could play with them. He was likely feeling sorry for her, but if that got her the chance to play with puppies, then it was okay with her.

She excitedly opened the door to the kennels to see Tony with a couple of German Shepherd puppies. Cass let out a small squeak of excitement, and Tony laughed. Raccoon City usually used Dobermans as their police dogs, but Tony had requested German Shepherds. Tony put the puppies on the floor. The puppies happily galloped on the floor, and when she sat on the floor, they jumped and tried to lick Cass' face in excitement.

"Would you mind watching them while I go and grab my lunch?" Tony asked with a smile.

"Of course not!" Cass replied.

She played with the puppies on the ground using her good hand. They yipped happily and jumped around her, playfully biting at her shirt. Normally she would have corrected their behavior, but they had a lifetime of following commands. Letting them just be puppies was good for now.

The door opened, and Cass quickly blocked them from running toward the door and asked, "Did you forget something?"

"No, but you did," Kevin said and closed the door behind him. "Your lunch, ma'am."

Kevin lifted up her lunch bag with a smile.

"Thank you," Cass said as the puppies ran toward him.

"Hey, little guys!"

Kevin played with them for a moment before they ran back to Cass and snuggled into her lap. He got onto the floor beside her and gently pet the puppies with a warm smile.

"How'd you know I was here?" Cass asked as she passed one of the puppies to him.

"Tony told me that he'd gotten some puppies. I just connected the dots," Kevin explained and gently reassured the puppy.

Cass looked at him for a moment before asking, "Why are you so nice to me? I'm not nice to you."

"But you were the first day we met," Kevin said, smiling at her look of confusion. "About four years ago… I was at Jack's bar. One of the girls was worried since her drink had moved. I offered to drink it and buy her another one to make sure. Honestly, I just assumed that she had moved it and was too drunk to remember. Turns out she was right. I passed out on a street corner about a block from my house."

Cass' eyes widened, and she asked, "That was you?"

Kevin laughed and said, "I forgive you for not recognizing me. I was… a bit of a mess at the time. You somehow muscled a six-foot man with little support all the way to the hospital. I don't remember much, but I remember you."

"It's no problem," Cass murmured, pointedly not looking at him. "Why didn't you say something before?"

"Well, I was a bit embarrassed to be honest. To have such a cute girl see me in such a bad state… truly embarrassing."

Cass gave him a glare, which he laughed at, and she knew that her heart wasn't really in it. Kevin looked at her in silence for a moment, and she asked tentatively, "What? Is something wrong?"

"Just wondering why you're so… distrustful. Particularly of me. You've had Chris as a friend since you were a kid. You'd think that would make you more trusting of people."

"It doesn't mean that Chris is the only person I've met… You remind me of someone I was friends with. Or that I thought I was friends with. He was charming and friendly at first, but after the semester was over, I saw him in the hallway. He saw me, and when I waved, he looked away. I guess he only needed me to pass Algebra…"

"So, what I've learned is… that you think I'm charming," Kevin replied with a smile then a laugh when Cass narrowed her eyes. "I just want to be friends with my hero; is that not a good enough reason?"

"No… it's good enough… I suppose," Cass said and looked away. She didn't want to see that smug smile, and she didn't want him to see her embarrassed one.