Resident Evil: Don't mention it. Ever.

Chapter 3

Chris entered the entrance of the R.P.D. Never had he seen it so crowded with policemen, but that just made it harder for him to see Jill in the crowd. Chris narrowed his eyes and tried to see if he could find any trace of either Joseph or Jill, while walking into the crowd. Chris grew frustrated and decided just to head for the small office in the middle of the entrance.

"Can I help you?" A secretary asked him as he approached the little office.

"Yeah. Did a woman with the name Jill Valentine come here to retrieve her key?" He asked and leaned his elbows against the desk.

"No" She answered and began looking for a key. "It's still here, sir." She continued while showing him the key. Chris removed his elbows from the desk. "Well thank you anyway." He said and left.

Chris felt that further frustration was coming to him. He was getting angry, feeling that this wouldn't be the first time that he had to look for Jill. Without worrying about her further, he chose to return to the S.T.A.R.S office to finish his paperwork and then get off duty for the rest of the day. Inside the office, Barry was sitting by his desk doing said paperwork.

"Hey, Barry." Chris said as he entered, Barry nodded, keeping his attention to his paperwork. Chris couldn't see Wesker anywhere. "Where's Wesker?" He asked.

"Not sure. He said he had to talk to Enrico about something." Barry answered him.

Chris chuckled to himself and sat down by his own desk, looking at his paperwork imagining what Wesker was talking to Enrico about. He was probably annoyed by Joseph's promotion. Enrico and Wesker were what you'd call the odd couple. Enrico was serious about everything and rarely in a good mood and so was Wesker. You would believe that they could get along, but they have never been able to agree with each other when it came to the S.T.A.R.S. They were both captains of the teams of the S.T.A.R.S unit, but as always, Wesker wanted to interfere with the Bravo team and Enrico didn't want any interference from Wesker.

Chris took his paperwork and started going through it.

With a sigh, Chris began to read the papers, occasionally rubbing his temples. Chris got bored after a couple of minutes and halfway through his work, his eyes started to drift around his desk. They stopped at the picture of him and a younger woman.

Chris took the picture, smiling at the memory of the moments with his sister before she started attending college. Now that she was a college student, Claire rarely had time to visit him, and honestly, Chris missed having to take care of his sister. Claire always got into trouble because of her impulsive nature and her carefree attitude and Chris was the one who had to get her out of it.

She occasionally rang to Chris and told him how she was doing, but it just didn't feel like the same.

Chris put the picture back and returned to his paper work. At that very moment, Barry rose from his seat and Chris' attention was brought to him.

"You're already finished?" He asked him. "No, not yet." Barry answered while walking to the door. "I'm getting something to drink. Do you want me to bring you something?" He asked him as he turned around to look at Chris.

"Just a bottle of water." He answered and returned to his paperwork. Barry nodded and went out the door, closing it behind him.

Barry went down the stairs to the first floor again and into the entrance. Like Chris, Barry was tired and worn out. Maybe it was the age, he thought, but his job at S.T.A.R.S was also exhausting. Both the S.T.A.R.S and the police of the R.P.D usually didn't get their vacation when a lot of work had to be done, but they all had their right to get vacation when they needed to, the only problem was that they only had a certain amount of vacation days to use per year and should be used wisely. Barry always waited to use these days of vacation for Christmas eve and then again during the summer. He didn't spend much time with his family. He wanted to, but something always came in the way when he had planned something with his daughters and wife. Right now, all he thought was to do his work and get home in the arms of his family.

"Hey, Barry, right?" he heard someone say and got out of his deep thoughts. Behind him stood Jill and Joseph and Barry greeted them.

"Yeah. Hey. Have you found your lockers?" He asked, shaking their hands.

"Yeah. I chose to show her some of the R.P.D while we were at it." Joseph answered. "Ah." Barry said and looked at Jill, who was just listening to the conversation.

"So, looking forward to work with us, Jill?" He asked. Jill lightened up a bit. "Yeah. I'm really looking forward to training with you guys." She answered.

Barry found Jill to be very kind and nice and knew that they would get along just fine. "Well, a person from the Delta force will do just fine in our unit. It really amazes me how a young woman like you had made it to the force. How old are you?" he asked her.

Jill scratched her chin a little. Many asked her that question and it was usually because they doubted her. She thought about it for a while and chose to answer him anyway. "I'm 22." She simply answered him.

Barry had a hard time believing it, but didn't think she would lie. "That's really impressive, Jill." He said and padded her on the shoulder. "I would love to talk a little more, but I promised Chris I would get something to drink. He may start to wonder where I am. He's not the patient type." He said while laughing.

"Chris?" Jill asked.

"Yeah, we've known each other before S.T.A.R.S, so you could say we are good friends." He answered and waved at them. "I'll talk to you later, I need to get Chris his water." He said and by that, he left.

Joseph and Jill looked at each other. "You know Chris, Joseph?" she asked him and Joseph shrugged.

"Not quiet. I've talked to him a bit. He seems as a really nice guy." He answered. "You don't know who he is, do you?" He asked.

Jill nodded. "We talked a bit, but I only got his name. He did seem nice, but you guys probably know him better than I do…" she trailed off and started mumbling a bit. Joseph laughed at her.

"What? Something's wrong?" He asked. Jill shook her head. "No, no. It's just since I'm new. I guess I want to fit in with the team."

Joseph padded her arm lightly and grinned. "Well, you'll get your chance tomorrow at training." Jill nodded. "Well, I got to go. I still serve as a Bravo team member for the rest of the day. I got to move the rest of my stuff." He continued.

"Ok. I think I'll go get familiar with the office. I'm not officially working on the team before tomorrow, so I'll just go fix some things and head home." She said. "But hey, thanks a lot for showing me around. It was really nice of you." She said and they shook hands. "No problem, Jill." Joseph said and released her hand. They both said their goodbyes and left to do what they needed to.

Jill headed for the staircase leading to the second floor, thinking about her new team-mates. She was lucky to be accepted despite her age and actually, she didn't think it was so bad. Joseph, Chris and Brad weren't much older than her and Barry was a kind man, used to his younger co-workers. Jill was a very cheerful person and decided that she would try and mingle with the team tomorrow at training. As she got to the door leading to the S.T.A.R.S office, she opened it and looked around to get an impression of how her new office looked like. She stopped thinking about it when she saw Chris still working. Jill was a bit annoyed that Chris hadn't noticed her get in and decided to get his attention.

"Bored, huh?" She said and Chris saw who it was, moving his attention to his team member.

"Huh? No, not at all." He said and went back to his paperwork. "Actually, I was looking for you earlier." He continued.

Jill looked a little confused and actually, she was. "You have?" she asked.

"Yeah. Uhm, you can take a seat, Jill." He said and pointed at the chair beside the door, wondering why she acted like some shy school girl. Jill looked beside her and saw the chair he was pointing at. She realised that she just stood there in the entrance, looking like she had nothing better to do. Jill chose to take the chair and sat down beside Chris' desk, hiding her embarrassment.

"Why do I have the feeling that you won't stop embarrassing me for a while?" She asked him and Chris smiled at the comment.

Chris didn't want to answer that question and chose to talk about something else. "As I was saying, I looked for you to kind of making up for the bad impression I must have given earlier." He said and Jill couldn't hide the wide smile she got on her lips, remembering his pathetic attempts of giving a good impression.

"It's ok. I know you're a nice guy, but if that's what you want, how about we start all over?" She asked him. Chris reached his hand out to her. Jill was a little confused and just shook his hand.

"I'm Chris Redfield." He said. Jill realised what he was trying to do and went along with his weird way of starting over. "Nice to meet you. I'm Jill. Jill Valentine."