Goodbye My Almost Lover, Goodbye My Hopeless Dream

Song is Almost Lover by A Fine Frenzy.

I'm like a broken record, again thank you for the reviews, very kind! XD

Lips crashed together in heated passion. The long suppressed emotions flooding into their bodies, as tongued danced in unison. Clutching desperately to his shirt, her breath became hitched, not only did she want him, she needed him. Breaking momentarily he began work on the tender flesh of her neck, pushing their figures forcefully further against the wall.

She made short work of his shirt, chucking it carelessly across the room. Thin fingers running themselves hungrily along the firmness of his chest, as he continued to work on her neck, sending indescribable shocks along her spine. It was more than mere lust, it was better. It was love.

She pushed her hips steadily against him, applying pressure in just the right places. Earning a gentle sigh from his sweet lips, was enough to place a satisfactory smile across hers. He ran his rough hand along her soft pale thigh, riding her skirt higher along her leg. She released all her inhibitions when he brought his fingers agonisingly slowly towards her most sacred place.

...

Jill flickered her eyes open, letting out an exasperated sigh. It had become so bad; she now had to dream about her own boyfriend.

Delicate hands brushed back the light linen curtains, allowing beams of light to burst into the empty bedroom. Squinting at the sun, Jill let out another deep sigh. Another lonely night. She woke up next to nothing, no body, no warmth, just pale bed sheets next to her. Glancing at the photo of her mother and father on their wedding day, she wondered once more if her ideas of happiness were mere illusions, just unattainable dreams.

Jill dragged herself into the living room, stepping into the September morning sun. The extra light penetrating from gaps in the curtains didn't seem enough to wake the sleeping form on the sofa. Judging by the mess, he must have crashed out. The laptop was still flipped up, and a half filled coffee cup lay on the table. Jill plucked the fluffy blanket sitting on a chair, and drew it up across Chris's sleeping body. She leaned from behind the sofa, and placed a kiss on his peaceful face. Who was she kidding, she still loved him. Always would. That didn't mean she was happy.

Jill turned her gaze away from Chris to the front door after hearing a faint knock. She fumbled to unlock it, and swiftly invited Anna inside.

"You're up early?" Jill exclaimed, adjusting her night dress awkwardly to maintain her decency.

"Yeah, it's the first day back at school, but Chris said to pop around beforehand."

"I see, well..." Jill pointed into the living room. A small laugh appeared from the young girl, after seeing her father fast asleep.

"It's okay; I'll come back after to see him."

"I'm sorry, Anna. His work's busy at the moment." She said solemnly.

The young girl was about to ask why he was sleeping on the sofa, but the puffy eyes surrounded by black rings around Jill's eyes, told her it hadn't been a good night.

"I should probably get going, you have a visitor right?" Anna said, twiddling a loose strand of hair around her fingers.

"No, just me and him. I only woke up; it's a bit early for a visitor." Jill laughed.

"Oh. I just saw a car outside and presumed..." Anna shrugged, "Well it must be a neighbour or something."

"Are they parked on our drive? That drives me insane." Jill said with mock anger.

"Well no, they're parked like on the grass bit of the garden."

Jill let out an annoyed growl, and moved past the younger girl to peek into their front garden. Her stern face melted when there was no trace of a car there.

"Must have moved. Good." She joked.

"Really?" Anna glanced behind her and shrugged. "Well that's weird."

"Yeah well, there's strange folk around. Do you want breakfast, Anna? I can make something." She offered.

"No, it's alright. I should probably get going, wouldn't want to be late for school now, would I?" Jill smiled and nodded.

"I'll tell Chris you came around, and if you want to come back later, be my guest." Anna readjusted her grip on the lever arch in her arm, and walked out the door.

Closing the door behind Anna, Jill returned to her sombre thoughts.

Anna pulled the strap of her bag into a more comfortable position on her shoulder, and continued to walk away from the house. She admired the morning sun, it always seemed to make the grass look greener, the flowers brighter, made everything better.

Being a typical teenager and not focusing on her path, it didn't take long before she had to make an emergency swerve to avoid a woman passing by. Anna clipped into her, dropping her file. The young woman apologised and swiftly picked up the file for her, handing it back.

"I'm sorry, Miss...Redfield?" The woman said, after reading her name on the front of the file. Anna had used Chris's last name in her early childhood years, but after her mother's fears over Umbrella she made Anna take her name. Now after getting to know Chris, she asked him if she may use it again.

"Oh, it's okay." Anna smiled politely, and took back her file.

"Redfield isn't a very common name, you know? I think I might know your family." The young woman tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

"Yeah I guess. Maybe you do..." Anna replied, she hoped to walk away now to save having more embarrassing small talk, but the woman was having none of it.

"I saw you coming from that house, its Chris Redfield's right?" Anna nodded, slighty irritated by the woman's constant questions.

"Oh, so is he your dad? Do you live with your parents?"

"Umm, yeah. I live with them." Anna lied. She couldn't be bothered to go into the sob story of how her mother died, never knew her father etcetera. Besides she didn't know the woman, so she played along as if they just were her parents. Besides she had thought she'd grown closer to Jill too.

"I knew his sister. It's great that he and Jill have you. You know, you look a lot like her." The woman exclaimed. Anna tried to hide a slight giggle; again she didn't see the point in correcting her.

"...Yeah well, I should get going, I'll be late for school. It was nice to meet you." Anna smiled politely.

"You too. I might see you again sometime..." The woman said, watching as Anna walked away.

Chris took a sip from his freshly brewed coffee. He woke up mid afternoon, and only spoke to Jill briefly. She said she was leaving to do shopping, and refused to let him join her. She was uptight around him, cautious almost. He didn't like it, in fact he hated it. She didn't seem comfortable in his presence, and for the first time he feared the stability of his relationship with her.

Chris loved her with all her heart and he now began to see how it was he who had neglected her. All the times she showed affection, he cut her down, but in his defence work had piled up and Anna was a serious, yet pleasant surprise. It wasn't that he had grown apart from her, he just didn't seem to have the time to show or say his emotions.

Chris answered the knock at the door, bemused to find Carlos standing before him.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting you." He said. The two got along well enough, but he wasn't at the top of Chris's favourite list. The man did hit on his girlfriend every opportunity he got.

"It's nice to see you too Chris." Carlos said sarcastically, pushing past Chris to let himself into the house.

"Jill isn't here unfortunately, no chica for you." Chris joked, leading him into the kitchen.

"I actually came for you, Chris, believe it or not."

"You've turned homosexual now?"

"You're funny." Carlos stated not amused.

"I thought you were working at the South American BSAA? Shouldn't you be there?" Chris asked, leaning against the black granite bench top.

"Yeah I am, but I've got a little break. So I thought I'd pop in to have a word with you, after already seeing Jill and all." Carlos stated.

"You've already seen Jill?" Chris asked surprised. It hadn't occurred to him till now, that he hadn't spoken to Jill properly in days.

"Perhaps if you talked to her every once in a while you would know." He said, rolling his eyes.

"Excuse me?" Chris stood more upright, angered by Carlos's words. He himself knew it was none of his business, but Jill was a friend of Carlos's, he wouldn't let anyone mistreat her.

"You heard what I said. You know she actually talks to me. So I know what angers or upsets her, and at the top of that list at the moment is you." He spat at Chris.

"I'm not going to have this conversation with you. With all due respect Carlos, this is none of your business." He replied, attempting to remain calm. He still didn't fully understand the circumstance, after years Carlos reappears and starts criticising his relationship.

"If it's to do with Jill, then it's to do with me! And from what I've heard, you might want to listen to me before you lose everything." Carlos warned.

"We're just going through a tricky situation, we'll get over it, we always do. So why don't you back off."

"This is all your own making Chris. You're taking her for granted!" Carlos defended getting closer to Chris. The Redfield anger began to flare up at Carlos's accusations.

"You wouldn't know. Now, get the hell out of my house." He warned.

"...She deserves more than you." Carlos spat in his face. Chris's face twisted into fury.

"What? Someone like you? Stay the hell out of this!" Chris yelled, pushing Carlos slightly further away from him.

...

"At least, she would have someone to love her..." Carlos had pushed the boundary. Within a fraction of a second, Chris had slammed his fist against the man's face, sending him backwards onto the ground. He immediately regretted doing it, but of all the things to do, Carlos had questioned Chris's love for Jill. Something anyone with sense, would never do.

"Carlos?" Jill appeared at the doorway, and quickly rushed to the aid of her friend on the floor. He sat up clutching at his face, while she attempted to look at the cheek to see if the skin was broken.

"I'm alright, chica." He said, standing upright, a small bruise appearing on his cheekbone.

"Chris! What the hell are you doing?" Jill screeched at him, thumping him on the shoulder.

"I should get going. I'm sorry for coming Jill. And it was pleasant to see you again Chris." Carlos stated, and left holding his cheek.

"I am so angry, Chris! I can't believe you just did that, you are such a...idiot!" She yelled, clenching her fists together in anger.

"Jill? I'm sorry, I shouldn't hav- "

"You're damn right you shouldn't have! What is with you, Chris? What happened to the guy I fell in love with?" As always, Jill's anger moulded into sadness, and automatically she was on the brink of tears.

"Please, Jill. I'm sorry." He pleaded with her for forgiveness. She sighed and sat at the table, swiftly followed by Chris. "Please don't be angry with me."

She sighed.

...

"I'm not angry, Chris. I'm tired. I'm fed up. I can't keep doing this. I haven't been happy in a very long time." She admitted, nibbling onto her bottom lip as the tears began to flow.

Chris had seen Jill sad before, she did this quite often. She would bottle up emotions and then eventually they would flood out before him. But this time was different. For the first time he was the cause of her sadness and frustration.

He didn't know what to do, all he could do was apologise and that just angered her more. He gently reached out for her face, and turned it towards his. Her blue eyes had dulled, and he probably would have noticed this sooner had he have actually looked at them. The passion and fire that once lay behind them had gone, she was a shell of her former self, and he was to blame.

Cupping one cheek, he brought his face slowly to hers, and placed a slightly hesitant, yet soothing kiss upon her lips. He hoped to dissolve her sadness and pent up anger, like he was once able too. The touch of his skin made her heart melt, but regrettably she pulled away. She sighed heavily, but kept her face in close proximity to his.

"I've really messed things up this time, haven't I?" He whispered, running his thumb to wipe away her lonely tears.

"I'm sorry..." She said, retracting her face from his grasp. "I just can't do this. I don't know, I'm stressed, I'm not in the right mind set I guess."

Chris nodded slowly.

"I'm sorry about Anna, Jill. It must be so hard for you." He said, in an attempt to apologise for what he believed was creating her distress.

"It's not that, Chris. It's everything." She shook her head, and looked deep into the eyes she had grown to love, "Yeah, a part of it is Anna. But I like her, you know. But I'm still recovering from everything in Africa."

She quickly retracted her gaze from his eyes.

"...And I can't get pregnant, Chris." She admitted her true reasoning.

"You don't know that. We just got to keep trying."

"We're not going to be trying for a while, Chris." She let out a gentle humourless laugh. His heart sunk, as the realisation kicked in. "We've become two friends sharing a house. There's no intimacy, or affection. Hell, I can't even talk to you anymore."

"...I'm sorry." It was all he could say, he wasn't the type of person to start gushing random statements at her in attempt to change her mind. He agreed with her, he fully understood. And as much as it pained him, he knew he couldn't prevent what was to come.

...

"You're leaving, aren't you?" He asked softly.

"...Yeah, just for a while. I need to think things through." Her voice cracked and she immediately regretted her decision, even though deep down it was most likely the correct one.

"Where will you stay?" He whispered. Even in a situation like this, he still remained gentlemanly; he had to ensure she would be okay. Because to Chris, that was the most important thing, so long as Jill was okay, everything else would fit into place after.

"I'm going to crash at Rebecca's for a bit. She said it was okay."

"You'd already planned this?"He asked.

"Sort of, I'm so sorry things aren't working out, Chris." She reached over a placed one last longing kiss upon his awaiting lips, "I do love you."

"I love you too." He choked out and watched as she silently left his life. The minute the door closed, the man's eyes beamed with moisture as he buried his face in his palms.

A womanly figure walked into a dim lighted room, arms placed at the small of her back.

"Turns out our plans might not be so hard to do as we thought." The woman drawled, running long fingers through her blonde locks.

"Huh? How do you figure?" A smooth reply came from a figure crouched over various pages.

"Well, I think I found out some interesting stuff today. You see I meet a girl. You know, Jill Valentine isn't the only one with the antibodies." A smile played on the young woman's lips, proud of her findings.

"What are you insinuating? That she has a child?" The silhouette tilted their head, intrigued by the woman's information.

"Apparently so, a daughter as we thought. The girl we've been tracking, well from what she said, she's the child of Chris and Jill. Anna Redfield."

The figure nodded slowly, unsure of the validity of the information.

"How would we not know of this sooner? That girl is a teenager." They asked.

"Think realistically, mistakes happen, and of course we wouldn't know of it in the height of all their shenanigans with Umbrella. They would have had to keep her secret. She could have lived with a different family member." The young woman attempted to justify her knowledge.

The silhouette remained silent.

"For all we know, it could be Jill's child from another relationship."

"Hmm..." The person hummed, still unconvinced.

"It's worth a shot. Without the stability of those antibodies, the virus is going nowhere. We've worked too hard to give up now." She said, with a hint of urgency.

"She'll be easier to take than Jill. A child goes missing, boohoo for a month. A BSAA agent goes missing...again, and all hell breaks loose. This could work, it's all we've got." A devilish smirk appeared on the lips of the figure, "Good work, Sherry."

Sorry for constantly mentioning Rebecca and then never showing her, I don't know her enough to write her in, haha! Had trouble writing so sorry if it seems rushed or is just a pile of bollocks. XD

Artichoke,

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