Angels Show Up In the Strangest of Places

Title is from Looking for Angels by Skillet.

Again, thank you so much for the reviews, it really does mean so much to moi! Also big thank you to Angelica Burrows who, as always, has helped me! Enjoy! XD

The slightest shuffle in the seemingly empty room was enough to stir the young government agent from his slumber. Groggily, Leon lifted his head and blinked, attempting to adjust his eyes to the dim moonlight entering his bedroom. Catching sight of the slender silhouette seated at his window sill, he unsuccessfully tried to sit up.

"Handcuffs? Really?" Leon choked the words out, voice still dry from his sleep. He rattled the chains attaching his hands to the wood of the bed frame, and eventually sighed and gave up.

"I just found them, thought it'd be fun. Have to make life interesting, keep you on your toes." The sweet voice of the shadow whispered, a sly smile forming.

"I think your late night visits do that quite successfully, Ada." The moonlight lit up her strikingly red trench coat, as she moved from the window closer to the bed.

"What can I say, the darkness is my companion."

...

Leon glanced to his half naked form, a slight insignificant blush appearing on his boyish features. Ada had seen it all before, but she had such confidence, Leon would be lying if he said it didn't intimidate him.

"Please tell me you didn't touch me when I was asleep." He asked, half jokingly.

"Please, in those pyjama bottoms? Hell no. You look like a twelve year old, that'd just be wrong." She replied smoothly. He glanced down to his Super Mario bottoms,

"...They're comfortable." Leon said defending his manliness. A faint laugh played off Ada's lips. "Why the visit, Ada?"

"I like to check up on you. I watch over you, someone has to make sure you're alright. You know people are always watching, and not always for a good reason like I do..." She placed herself as elegantly as ever on the edge of his bed next to him.

"Who? Whose being watched and who the hell's doing the watching?" Leon demanded, shaking a little against his restraints.

"You know I can't give it all away. I have to protect my own back. They have tabs on all of us, you and your friends." She said calmly, placing a delicate finger over his lips.

"Why are you still doing this, Ada? Wesker's dead, stop with the secrecy. Who do you even work for? I mean why can't you live a normal life, I can't even contact you."

"I work for you Leon..." She smiled. Leon clenched his fists, infuriated by her roundabout ways of answering his questions. "And you don't need to contact me. Whenever you need me, I'll be there, Just like I was when Jill was presumed dead."

She made a fair point, anytime Leon needed a help, there she was. She told Leon in advance that there was a slight possibility Jill was still alive, and he in turn persuaded Chris to go to Africa. Her information was never flawed; she was his guardian angel. There when he needed her most.

"As for Wesker, he may be dead, but the worst is yet to come. One more piece and their plan is basically set. As I said, they're watching all of us, so I would tell your friends to watch their backs." She warned him, but continued to play her fingers along his bare chest.

"Ada, this vague information is not in the slightest bit useful. You won't give me names, you won't give me location, hell I don't even know what we're talking about." Leon writhed under her touch; the lack of control drove him to the brink of insanity.

"That's why I have this." She said waving a red butterfly patterned memory stick in front of him. "It's not much, but if I were you, I would give it to your little friends at the BSAA."

"...Thank you." Leon said, gazing into her bright emerald eyes. He longed to tell her how he felt. That he missed her, possibly even loved her. But he couldn't, his pride forbade him to do such a thing.

"You're welcome, handsome. Remember my warnings..." Ada whispered. She hoped off the bed and walked towards the open window.

"Ada, wait!" He called, frantically pulling against the cuffs. Ada giggled at his discomfort, and pulled a key attached to a teddy bear key ring, waving and taunting him with it.

"See you around..." She set it down, and swooped out the window,

"There's a front door, you know!" Leon yelled after her. He sighed glancing to the key sitting on his wardrobe, seemed miles away from him. He'd have fun explaining to Claire how he got in this situation.

"Is it bad that I'm nervous?" Chris asked his daughter walking in front of him. He had introduced Anna to the family and friends, and she fitted in perfectly. Although she had only bonded with them for three months, it seemed like she had known them forever. She spent a lot of time now at Chris and Jill's, so she felt it was time for Chris to meet her grandparents, who had looked after her since her mother's death.

"No, it's normal. But they're nice, and introductions aren't necessary. Like me, they know about you. Mom didn't hide your identity from them either." Anna said happily. She reached over into the grandparent's garden and plucked a violet tulip from the ground. The house was moderately sized detached on the outskirts of the city, opposite end to Chris's.

"I hope they don't think I'm a pedo..." Chris whispered his inner worry, receiving a look of disgust from his daughter.

"Ew. I don't think that's the first thing that's going to go through a 60 something year olds mind."

Anna hopped up on the doorstep, knocked and then let herself in.

"Gram Gram!" Anna embraced her grandmother, and tucked the tulip between strands of white hair. "Where's Gramps?"

"Here." A stooped over grey haired man steeped into the hall, pushed up his glasses to gaze at Chris.

"This is Chris Redfield, my dad." Anna proudly introduced, tugging on Chris's arm to bring him into the house.

"It's nice to meet both of you." He smiled, and shook the hands of her grandparents.

"You too, son. We heard a lot from Laura, and this little one." Anna's grandfather said happily. "I'm Frank, and this is my wife Maria."

Maria set them down in the living room, and offered tea.

"You know, she's done nothing but sing your praises since she found you." She exclaimed.

"Grandma!" Anna complained and covered her face.

"Sorry are we ruining your...street cred." Frank's remark gained a cringe from both father and daughter.

"...So what are you doing with your life now, Chris?" He asked.

"I'm part of the BSAA."

"Pretty hectic job, I'm sure?" Maria asked surprised.

"Yeah, it's pretty demanding when it wants to be. Hard to make plans, you don't know what's going to happen." Chris said.

"Well, so long as you keep Anna away from it all, it'll be okay." Frank said, patting his granddaughter slightly patronisingly on her head.

"I'll try my best." Chris smiled. His phone began to vibrate within his pocket, bringing it out, he saw it was work.

"Speaking of the BSAA, I'm very sorry, but excuse me for a minute." Chris steeped out of the room and answered his call.

"We've got some info you probably going to want to see, Chris." Jake said on the other end of the call. Jake wasn't the hands on, front line BSAA agent, he was more into the research side of things. He helped organise the missions and dig up information before hand. Chris liked the guy, he did his job well, and he may not have been a physical fighter but he knew his stuff on bio weapons.

"Can it wait? I'm a little busy, Jake." Chris asked.

"Well yeah, obviously it can wait. It's not a bomb." He replied sarcastically, "But I really think you're going to want to see this as soon as possible. You've missed a lot of the action being off with Jill."

"...Alright. I'll get there as soon as I can." Chris agreed reluctantly, and hung up the phone. He had to sacrifice his daughter for his job; unfortunately the work always came first. He quickly texted Claire to make amends.

Chris stepped back into the room,

"I'm so sorry, but something has come up in work. I have to go, I'm really sorry. It was lovely to meet you two." Chris said. The grandparents smiled apologetically towards him, and nodded in understanding.

"Anna, I know we had plans, and I hate to blow you off. But Claire's going to come instead, is that okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it." Anna smiled, but inside she was slighty hurt he had to just pack up and leave with such short notice.

"I'm sorry. Claire will look after you."

"Bye, Chris." She said, and waved him off.

Jill made herself a cup of coffee and sat at the table, skimming over the newspaper. The house was empty, as always.

She had really grown to love Anna; she was like a friend to her, a little sister. But Jill couldn't deny her relationship with Chris had suffered. Over the months since Anna appeared, the two barely had time for each other. Chris was either out with Anna or Claire, and whenever he was at home he was too tired to even look at Jill. She wasn't a selfish woman, she understood Chris had to be with Anna, but it began to seem she was falling out of love with him. She still loved him dearly, but they were just like two friends sharing a house. There was no intimacy or affection, something she missed terribly.

Her inability to conceive just made matters worse. She couldn't talk to Chris about it; she didn't want to reveal all her insecurities. Besides, there was no hope in even thinking about having a child, when Chris was so absent all the time. The most she would get would be a kiss goodnight on the forehead.

The doorbell rang, and Jill glanced at the clock to see if she was expecting someone. She prayed it wasn't another of Chris's long lost offspring.

Opening the door, a medium height familiar Latino man stood before her,

"Carlos!" Jill automatically threw her arms around the man and he didn't hesitate to return the embrace. She grasped onto his collar a little bit tighter than perhaps a taken woman should have. Carlos placed a gentle peck on her cheek, and received an annoyed snort from the older woman.

"I still don't have a chance with you?" He joked.

"Nope. No kisses."

"Hugs?"

"Of course." Jill exclaimed, pulling him towards her once more. The two broke their hug, and he quickly fixed his relatively long brunette hair.

"I've missed my foxy lady." She giggled at his words. Since returning from Africa, Carlos hadn't got the chance to see her. He had moved to work in the South American branch of the BSAA. The two kept in contact briefly with emails, but his visit was a complete surprise.

"I missed you too. How is everything?" Jill asked while ushering him to the sofa.

"Good, everything's good. Being in the BSAA, you get a lot of other foxy ladies let me tell you." He winked. "But how are you keeping? You know I was devastated when we thought you were gone..."

"I know." Jill was in slight shock of his serious side. She'd never seen it before; perhaps age had made him more mature. "And I'm okay, I guess."

Carlos noticed slight hesitation in her voice, his heart went out to her. He always had a soft spot for her, even though he knew her heart always lay with Chris.

"Chris has a daughter from years ago, apparently."

"Wow. I was not expecting that. It must be hard for you." He said, sympathetically.

"Yeah, well she's nice and all anyway." Jill gave a soft smile, which faltered when she laid her eyes upon a photo of her and Chris, situated behind Carlos.

"What else is wrong, chica? We used to be able to talk about near enough anything...Apart from your creepy lady problems." He shuddered.

"I just... I don't know. I'm confused. I love Chris, but I'm not happy." She ran her fingers nervously through her scruffy brown locks, "...Don't get me wrong, I'm not sad either. I'm content."

"What's making you unhappy?" Jill refused to make eye contact with him, she didn't need to make the situation even more awkward than it already was. She'd never opened up to someone like this before, except Chris.

"I just can't talk to him anymore. We've been growing apart since Anna came, and he just doesn't seem to pay any attention to me anymore." She admitted. "I don't think he loves me like he used too..."

"You, more than anyone, deserve to be happy." Carlos placed his hand above hers comfortingly. "You deserve more than this."

Jill nodded, but quickly retracted her hand from his grasp.

"You shouldn't just be content, Jill. You should be over the moon, ecstatic everyday. Life's too short... And if Chris can't see that, then maybe he isn't righ-"

"I'm not going to give up on Chris." She said sternly, interrupting him mid word.

"I'm not saying too. But he needs to understand how you're feeling. I think you need to take a long look at your life, if you're happy with Chris, then great. If not, you need to sort it out, or as hard as it sounds, leave for something better than this."

Carlos's words were harsh, but he spoke nothing but the truth, and unfortunately Jill knew this already. She had contemplated her choices previously, but could never bring herself to accept the ultimatum of leaving Chris.

"You know, maybe it's me? He could be thinking the exact same thing. To be fair, I haven't been that affectionate to him either." Jill said, but she didn't believe her words.

"This better be good, Jake." Chris threatened, stepping into his office at the BSAA. The young man swivelled his chair towards him, adjusting the collar of his shirt.

"When do I ever disappoint?" Jake replied smoothly, running hands through his dishevelled blonde hair.

"In the sack, most likely." Chris said coyly, a cheeky smile playing over his lips.

"And how, may I ask, would you know about my performance in the bedroom? Please tell me you weren't the transvestite I took home last week." He joked.

"...You had sex with a transvestite?"

"That's a story for another day..." Jake replied, making Chris chuckle. The two always had banter, Jake had a light hearted sense of humour. At times he reminded Chris of the late Joseph Frost.

"Anyway, we got an anonymous tip off. Well when I say tip off, we got information in a memory stick..." Jake said, pushing up his black rimmed glasses, and turning the computer screen towards Chris.

"If these pictures are real, it looks like there's another research lab." Chris looked at the photos, it showed people in the cryogenic tubes, similar to the holdings used in Africa. "Seems to be human testing again, whatever happened to the humble lab rat?"

"What are they testing?" Chris asked.

"Well again, we can't be sure if the information is correct. But it seems, whoever is doing the research has been doing it for a while. From what I can tell, they're adapting Uroboros into something more powerful, more successful."

"Hmmm, has there been any evidence of the virus being released?" He asked.

"No, not that we can find. So either, this information is a pile of shit, or whoever is conducting this research is doing it very sneakily and slowly."Jake said. He handed Chris another memory stick with all the same details on it.

"I'll see what I can dig up. You should have a closer look too." He added. Chris smiled and pulled up a seat next to his friend.

Anna took a slurp of her chocolate milkshake, opposite the younger Redfield who did the exact same.

"Thanks for taking me here Claire." She said.

"You kidding me? We're in a diner, it's nothing special."Claire laughed, playing with the straw of her milkshake.

"So is there a possible uncle for me?" Claire spat her mouthful out.

"You've no fear kid?" Claire exclaimed and Anna shook her head while giggling. "But no, no there isn't."

"But you're close to Leon, right?" Anna began to push her boundaries.

"Just as friends, nothing more."

"Sure?"

"Don't push it girlie." Claire threatened. "I don't have anyone at the moment."

"Well you're certainly getting attention. That guy over there has done nothing but stare all night." Anna said. Claire turned on her seat to look at the tall, dark handsome man staring back at her.

"No, not my type of guy." Claire never liked the overly confident ones. Surprisingly, she was a secret geek lover.

"I see, well I'm only young, but I'm not even sure if true love really exists." Anna said.

"Yeah but look at your dad and Jill. After everything they've been through, they stuck it out." She argued.

"Are they...happy?" Anna asked quietly.

"Yeah, I think so. Chris has never mentioned anything, but it'd hard to squeeze things out of him anyway." She laughed. "Why?"

"I don't know, I'm just scared I'm getting in between them. A while back, I mean ages ago, I found Jill crying but I didn't say anything." Anna sounded terribly concerned.

"Relax, it was a while ago. Besides she was probably PMS-ing or just had a little fight with Chris. As long as it isn't a progressive sadness, there's nothing to worry about." Claire said, letting out a light chuckle.

"Yeah I hope so..." She said, unconvinced.

Chris slipped silently into the dark bedroom. Jill lay with her back to him, barely making a sound. He leaned over a placed a gentle kiss on her cheek, and sneaked back out of the room. Another tear trickled down Jill's features, joining the salty puddle which had formed on her pillow.

She stood up and adjusted her baby blue night gown, removing evidence of her tears on her way down to the living room.

She leaned herself against the doorway, watching Chris type furiously on the computer.

"You're home late." She whispered. He glanced around to her, and gave a slight smile.

"Yeah, sorry. Some evidence has come up, have to do some work on it." He said, turning back to the screen.

"Come to bed Chris." Jill walked up to his back, and threw her arms around his neck, breathing in the sweet scent she had missed. She planted a peck on his unshaven face. "It can wait till morning."

"Jill..." He sighed.

"Come on, please." She said in a low whisper into his ear, sending a thousand chills along his spine. After all this time, she still had the same effect on him. "Please."

Chris found it near impossible to deny her pleads. She turned his head, and wasted no time to caress her lips against his. Her tongue teased his thin lips, and attempted to delve further, until he turned away.

"I'm sorry, Jill. But I have to do this. You should go to bed." He said apologetically. Nothing could hide the disappointment in Jill's face.

"...Oh, okay." She whispered. Tears began to well; she removed her hands from him, and headed back to the bedroom.

...

"I love you, you know that?" Chris said to her as she left.

"Yeah..." Jill whispered. She doubted his words.

Claire dropped Anna at her grandparent's house. A dark black car loomed under a nearby tree. As Ada had warned, people were watching...

Done and done, and I mean done! I'll try and shove the next chapter out as soon as! Hope you enjoyed.

Artichoke,

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