Disclaimer: I don't own RE

Sorry if the update's late, shit's been hectic. Anyways, here 'tis :)

Claire had never been one to condemn someone for doing something stupid. It would make her a hypocrite, because lord knew how many times she'd done something reckless, but Alice was trying even her deep reserves of patience. She swore silently to herself that if Alice ever did anything even remotely life-threatening again she was going to lock her in a padded room and wear the only key around her neck.

She walked straight into the first aid room and to the bed the girl was still lying in; her eyes were open this time. Her parents remained by her side the mother clutching her hand.

'Hey there.' Claire spoke softly; there was something about the room that encouraged one to speak in a whisper, 'How you doing kid?' the girl seemed too shy to speak though so Claire turned to the parents.

'The doctor said she's going to be just fine. Apart from a bit of shock and slight hypothermia she's doing great.' The man answered, he then lifted his hand to Claire, 'Ethan Walker by the way and this is Carly,' he motioned to the woman, 'and Kaity of course.' Claire shook his hand and nodded.

'That's great to hear about her recovery.' She mentioned politely. She paused a few seconds but before the silence became awkward she made her excuse, 'Well, I'd best get back to the watch. I'll leave you guys to it.' she had reached the door when someone touched her arm. She turned to find the woman, Carly, behind her.

'Could you thank the woman, Alice I think it was, for us? She has no idea how grateful we are to her. Without her, Kaity could have . . .' she lost control for a moment and the tears welled in her eyes, 'just, thanks.' Then she turned and hurried back to her daughter. Claire stared after her for a moment then she turned and walked away.

He'd heard about the little girl going overboard. The whole ship, it seemed, was in an uproar. No one noticed as he watched from the back of the crowd, they were all talking animatedly. No one gave him a second glance. He smiled. Now was the time to put his plan into action. In the confusion, no one would notice if she didn't turn up for a while, and he could have hidden himself long before anyone noticed her absence. He turned around and headed for the exit. He had left his knife in his cabin. But he would use it tonight. Tonight he would begin the eradication of all those Umbrella operatives; the ones masquerading as their leaders.

She had planned on returning to her cabin, and the woman who was hopefully still in there, but she decided a detour on the way couldn't hurt; she wanted to catch up with K-mart and get her thoughts on the morale of the crew. K-mart had an almost unnatural ability in understanding people and their reactions; it was one of the reasons Claire kept her around. She found her still in the cafeteria. The centre of a small knot of people. Claire squeezed her way through and managed to drag her out of the group.

'Hey Claire,' K-mart laughed, 'You wanna join in? I feel a celebration brewing.' She looked back at the group. They were all smiling and laughing.

'What are they celebrating?'

'Well, the rescue of course; that little ray of hope has set off a whole tidal wave of excitement. I think they've found a bit of optimism, and with land only a few days away they're having a little fun.' K-mart spread her arms wide, 'We've got to think positive Claire; all work and no play makes the world's only known survivor's, dull survivors.' With a parting laugh she ran off to join the revellers again. Claire watched them for a moment and decided that, tonight at least, there would be no more depressing thoughts from the passengers.

As she was walking through the corridors she felt the prickle of someone watching her. She shrugged her shoulders unconsciously. It wasn't the familiar gaze of Alice watching out for her; whoever was following her was hostile. Her hand brushed at her hip but when she didn't feel her guns there she mentally cursed herself. Too many months of relative safety had made her complicit. She could see them, in her minds eye, hanging in their holster beside her bed; the same bed that Alice was probably still sitting on.

'Damn' she lowered her head and tried to peek behind herself but she couldn't see anything. She looked forward and saw a corner up ahead. She could round it then wait. If anyone came around after her she would act first and ask questions later. Taking deep breathes she turned the corner as calmly as possible then silently came to a stop. She pressed up against the wall, her body relaxed. Now she would wait.

It didn't take long before Alice became restless. In her defence she had waited at least five minutes after Claire left to seriously consider leaving. She knew what she needed to do. There was an unknown threat waiting for her in the last habitable level of the ship and she planned on dealing with it tonight. The moment she made up her mind she got up from the bed and left; without hesitation.

She ghosted through the hallways, taking an indirect route so that she would be able to see if anything was out of the ordinary as she went. Her route took her close to the first aid room. As she passed the door she heard footsteps approaching from the other side. She quickened her pace so she would round the next corner before the door opened. Before the wall blocked her view she saw Claire step out then turn as someone stopped her. Alice waited to hear what was said. When the words of the other woman drifted down to her, she smiled. She didn't show it often but she loved the feeling helping others gave her.

She waited until she was sure Claire was heading in the opposite direction before she continued on her way. When she reached the last level she began counting the doors until she was only metres from the one which held the threat behind it.

It was at that moment that she heard the lever turning; whoever lived there seemed to be going for a walk. She quickly opened the door she was standing beside and ducked in, closing it silently behind her. She listened at the cold metal until she heard footsteps pass her. After counting to twenty she left the dusty room and followed in the person's wake. She caught up to him but held back at a safe distance.

There was something about the man that had Alice frowning. It wasn't until they reached a t-intersection in the hallways that it clicked. Down one way she could distinctly hear voices laughing and talking loudly. The man stopped when he heard them and leaned as casually as possible against one wall until the sounds faded. He was acting exactly like she did when she was prowling the corridors at night. She wished his motives may be so innocent but she highly doubted it.

She waited till he rounded a corner before coming out of her own. His path seemed to have some sort of pattern to it. He stopped at the busiest areas, like the cafeteria, first; standing at the back and scanning the crowd unobtrusively. Before making his way around the ship eventually closing in on the corridor that Alice knew best; she walked down it every time she went to her cabin. His actions changed, it was almost as though he was following someone himself. He stopped looking behind himself every now and then, and instead ducked into shadowed corners and pressed himself into door frames; just as Alice had been doing moments ago as she followed him. As they came closer to her cabin she became more certain on who he was stalking. The knowledge made her blood boil and the adrenaline began pumping itself quickly into her system. It came so quickly her head swam and with the strength it gave to her she knew that when she caught him she'd find it very difficult not to kill him.

With one corner to go she made her move. She broke cover and sprinted at him. He turned as she was almost on him and she had to quickly leap out of the way of the blade that he now held in his hand. She had been too close though and she felt the sting as the tip of the knife gouged a deep cut across her forearm. She barely felt the pain though; the adrenaline was taking care of that. He swung at her wildly but she was ready now and dodged easily. He slashed again but he was scared and not thinking straight, whereas she had been in this situation many times before. She grinned when she realised that she was going to be able to kill the fuckhead who thought he could kill Claire.

To the man, that smile had him shaking harder than ever before in his life. He readjusted his grip on the knife and went for a final desperate stab. She sidestepped the ploy then quickly moved forward, slamming him into the wall. He tried to cut her again but she had a hold of his arm now. She used the leverage to throw him to the floor than she brought her foot down on his wrist, using as much force as she could. She felt the satisfactory sound of bones breaking and the knife fell from his grasp. He curled up into a ball at her feet, clutching his arm. She bent slowly and picked up the knife. She held the blade up and watched the play of light across the surface. The edge hadn't been sharpened in a while but it was still effective; the cut on her arm was testament. She looked from the blade to the man at her feet and back again. She knelt down and pushed him so he was flat on his back then she held the point to his chest.

Claire had been ready for whoever was following her but she wasn't ready for the sound of the fight that broke out from around the corner. She cautiously peeked around the wall, and what she saw made her gasp.

There was Alice in all her glory. Watching her, Claire could understand exactly how she had survived all those years on her own. She practically danced around the man as he struck out wildly at her and when she had an opening she attacked with vicious ferocity. It wasn't until Claire saw the expression on the brunette's face as she looked from the knife to the man, that she realised how much of a killing machine Alice was. The complete absence of expression as she knelt was so unnerving that Claire didn't realise what she was about to do until it was almost too late.

'Alice!' She leaped forward and tackled her. They rolled and ended with Alice pinning Claire down with that blank expression still on her face, 'Alice it's me, it's Claire.' She held her hands up and her eyes flicked to the blade that Alice still gripped. Alice's own gaze followed and when she saw the knife poised the mask finally cracked. She dropped the weapon and pushed herself away from Claire, scrambling back until she hit the wall.

'Oh god, Claire what are you doing. I almost . . . oh shit.' She lowered her head into shaky hands. Claire pulled herself over and touched her arm softly, then gripped it when Alice tried to pull away.

'Alice, get over it.' Claire met her shocked expression calmly, 'When you first came to Alaska I almost killed you remember? Now we're even.'

'You didn't know who I was.' she replied incredulously.

'Did you know it was me just before?' Claire asked reasonably.

'That's different; I should have known it was you.' Alice argued back

'That's bullshit and you know it. We're even and that's final. Now are we going to stop that man from getting away or are we going to argue over trivial facts about whom almost killed whom.' They both looked to the man who had managed to drag himself a few metres away.

Alice silently stood and walked to the stalker, 'We'd best get you out of here buddy.' She grabbed him roughly and hauled him to his feet. The movement jolted his arm and he screamed loudly. Claire grabbed an arm and together they half carried, half dragged him to the control room. They didn't meet anyone in the corridors. It was late and even those who had stayed up to celebrate Kaity's rescue had probably gone to bed. Alice could barely believe that it was the same night. So much had happened that her impromptu dip in the ocean seemed to have happened days ago.

Hope you like it. Sorry if there are grammatical errors, or errors of any description. I'm a bit of a hypocrite in that sense. If I find bad grammar in another story I'm just like "BURN THEM!" But when it comes to mine own stories, it's more like "meh" . . . so yeah, sorry.

-B