3. The Past Two Years

"I suppose that you know what I want to ask you," Claire assumed. Chris sat up and wiped his face with his hand.

"I was hoping you wouldn't know I was awake," Chris smiled at Claire; his head was pounding…Chris's smile turned into a grimace. He felt sharp rhythmic pains pumping in his skull. Chris closed his eyes and put his hand on his head. Claire frowned and put a hand on her brother's shoulder and sighed. "You need some aspirin?" Claire asked worriedly.

"No, it's fine… Actually, do you have any ibuprofen?" Chris groaned, slowly opening his lids to the light. Shielding his eyes from the white light searing into his eyes, he forced a weak smile for Claire.

Claire got up and went to the bedroom to search through her bag for anything that might help Chris's obviously painful headache. She was being partially selfish about the situation, though. She wanted Chris's headache to go away so that he could answer the question that she so dreadfully needed the answer to. What happened since I've last seen you in Antarctica?

She knew there was probably a lot to tell, but she was his sister, she was allowed to know, right? Right! Claire was always one to be cheery, but… Antarctica… Steve… Wait! What am I thinking?! He died a great, brave person there, and besides, I'm with Leon right now. I shouldn't be thinking about other guys. Geez, Claire, get a hold of yourself. That was then and this is now.

"Claire? You alright, back there?" Chris called from the living room.

"Oh. Uh, yeah, I'm fine. I found the ibuprofen, so just sit tight," Claire grabbed a white plastic bottle out of her suitcase and walked back into the living room and laughed when she saw that Chris was fast asleep again, drool running out of the corner of his mouth.

"Huh- what?" Chris woke suddenly with a jolt.

"Wakey, wakey, Sleeping Beauty," Claire mused, poking Chris's cheek playfully.

"Oh, ha ha! Whatever," Chris rolled his eyes and wiped the saliva off his face with his arm. Claire handed Chris two ibuprofen and a glass of water. Chris took them, annoyed and threw the pills into his mouth and then took a huge gulp of water, halfway emptying the glass.

"Geez, Chris. How did you learn to drink that much water at once?" Claire asked, examining the glass and beginning finishing off the rest of the water.

"Training," Chris made a face at his little sister and her feeble attempts to recreate what he had just done. Claire drained the glass and put it in the sink in the kitchen. A wave of pain overcame Claire and she braced herself on the sink. Steve… why did he have to die out there? It should have been me… if Alexia hadn't injected him with that virus… he's still be here… It should have been me…Suddenly, Claire burst into tears. She let the inexorable sobs flow out of her chest.

Chris made it over to Claire in no time flat.

"Hey. Hey, what's wrong? Claire? Are you alright?" Chris spun Claire around and she fell right into his chest, blowing the air out of him. Chris hugged his little sister, letting her soak his shirt.

"It should have been me. Steve shouldn't have died that day. It should have been me who was injected with that virus. I should have been the one who died," Claire sobbed into Chris's chest.

"Whoa. Where did that come from?!" Chris squeezed Claire, trying to cheer her up. "Steve died nobly, Claire. Would you rather have had him having you die in his arms? He wouldn't have been able to live with himself. Would you rather have him live with that giant regret, Claire?"

"N-no…" Claire cried. Chris could feel Claire's hot tears on his chest, now. Poor Claire. She doesn't need this pain. Chris was always softened when he saw girls cry, especially when it was his sister. "What time is it?" Claire whimpered, her sobs coming less frequently, now.

Chris checked his watch. "Uh, 1:45 pm."

"Oh my gosh! I have to call Stephanie!" Claire pronounced in shock. She loosened out of Chris's embrace and wiped her eyes. Claire walked back into the living room and pulled out her cell phone. She dialed a couple of numbers and then put the phone to her ear.

"Pick up. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up. Pick- Oh! Hey Steph, I just wanted to tell you that I'm kind of tied up right now. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah, I found my brother sitting alone in the cold outside of a bar. Yup. Yeah," Claire suddenly burst into laughter. Chris sneered and held his head in his hands; he was sitting on the couch again. "Sure, Steph. Yeah. Okay. Talk to you later. Bye." Claire snapped her tiny silver cell phone shut.

Claire's face suddenly became serious and strained. Chris looked up at her and he jumped back at the intensity of her stare.

"I assume I'm in trouble?" Chris asked innocently.

"No. Not trouble. I just want to know where the heck you've been for the past two years."

"Fine, I'll tell you, but first we have to get something to eat."

"Alright, let's go."

~*~

They sat across from each other at a table in a café, Crimson Lights. Chris had ordered water; he didn't exactly feel like drinking anything strange when talking about such a sensitive subject. Claire had gotten a steaming cup of Earl Grey tea, the only hot drink that she would drink nowadays.

"After we said goodbye at the airport that afternoon that we came back to the U.S. from Antarctica, where did you go?" Claire asked, sipping her tea.

"Back to Raccoon City, of course; that's where S.T.A.R.S. is based. I got to the police station and Jill, Rebecca, Brad, Barry, and Kevin were there."

"So what happened after that?"

"Will you just let me finish?" Chris laughed.

"Sure," Claire rolled her eyes.

"We got together all of our information from the first two mansion incidents and the train; we had no clue about any train until Rebecca informed us on her first mission. We decided that since Dr. James Marcus is dead, now, we had to find his apprentice, Spencer. Spencer and Wesker worked together under Marcus, so to speak. Umbrella hired them as apprentices for Marcus. So we assumed that wherever Spencer was, he knew where Wesker was."

"Didn't Wesker lure your S.T.A.R.S. team into the second mansion?"

"Yes, that was why we were after him in the first place. Second, he was with Umbrella, which we were trying to take down. We later found out that the Spencer Estate was located in Europe, so Jill and I went there to see if Spencer knew where Wesker was. We got to Europe and we found Spencer's Estate; it was on top of a cliff, a cliff that stretched out into the ocean. Jill and I went through the mansion looking for Spencer. There weren't any zombies or infected animals. Not even any B.O.W's. We finally got to some double doors that led into a library facing the ocean, right on the cliff. We went into the room and Wesker was standing in front of the window, his hand dripping. Next to him was an empty wheelchair. Spencer's dead body was lying on the floor; his face was frozen in a state of shock and pain," Chris put his hands on his forehead and stared into the table as he barely choked out the rest. "Wesker was different somehow, but still the same. He was much faster and way stronger than he was in Antarctica. Jill and I tried to fight him, but we were no match for him."

The flashback went through his mind as he told Claire the rest of the story…

Wesker was stalking towards Chris when he noticed Jill coming from behind him, gun in hand. He threw her against a glass bookcase, shattering the clear window across the floor. Jill knelt on the floor trying to catch her breath. Wesker took Chris by his neck and dragged him across a table, now stained with blood. He held Chris by the throat and spoke the words "let's finish this" and drew back his free arm.

"No!" Jill screamed as she ran over to Wesker, forcing him out of the chokehold he had on Chris. Jill kept pushing and then locked her arms around Wesker's gut and charged out the window. They fell inexorably towards the ocean. Chris ran to the window and reached down to the black, icy water covered by a bank of clouds.

"Jill!!!!" Chris screamed into the silence. He ran as fast as he could out of the house and down to the harbor, hi-jacked a boat and went out to the ocean…

"Jill's body was never found. She was presumed dead," Chris continued, tears stinging in the back of his eyes.

Claire was crying silently, staring at Chris.

"I came back to the U.S. and tried to live a normal life. When the time for Jill's funeral came around, I arrived after everybody else left. It was getting harder to make it through days, hours even. It came to where every second was like another piece of me getting ripped away. I got fired from my job because I punched a co-worker in the face for asking me to write a report on Jill's death. So I bought a house in Chicago where I thought I could start over. Eventually, it got so bad to where I spent all of my money in that god forsaken bar; I even lost my house due to lack of payment. I think that the only way that I still get through my life is knowing that Jill died the way that she wanted to, helping people. She died that night, but Wesker did, too. And for that, I'm grateful."

Chris looked up and saw Claire crying, so he put a five on the table. He got Claire's phone once they got outside and called Leon. It took two rings for him to answer.

"Hello?" Leon's voice was gruff, as though he had just gotten up.

"Hey, Leon. It's Chris."

"Oh, hey Chris, what's going on? And how come you called from my sister's phone?"

"We… ran into each other in Chicago. I just called to tell you that we're coming. Meet you at the airport in two hours, alright?"

"Sounds good."

"See you then."

"Alright."

"Bye," Chris spoke as he shut the phone and returned it back to Claire; she wasn't crying anymore.

~*~

Once the taxi pulled up to the curb, Chris loaded Claire into the cab and got in, telling the driver to take them to the nearest airport.

They arrived at the airport ten minutes later, nearly dead on their feet.