Nothing Seems To Turn Out Right

Title is from Let It Be Me, by Ray LaMontagne... Thank you reviewers!

A broad genuine smile grew rapidly across Chris's face. He felt an indescribable wave of joy wash over him, just the smile of his daughter was able to bring this upon him so easily. Although he knew she would be alright, he still wished to see her and talk to her. Because his love for Anna was stronger than he believed possible. That was the effect a child had on Chris Redfield's life.

"How are you feeling?"

"Okay..." Anna croaked out, throat still dry. Chris squeezed her small hand lightly, and handed over the glass of water sitting on the bedside table. Claire brought her hand up to stroke her niece's hair out of her eyes. She too was amazed and overjoyed that both Anna and her brother were alright. It was just a shame she couldn't take her mind off Steve. "Is Luke okay?"

"Yeah, he woke up about an hour ago." Chris said, Anna's lips twitched into a smile. She was relieved to say the least.

"But how? Did you bring him in?"

"No, someone else must have been looking out for him." Chris replied, taking the cup from Anna and placing it back.

"I hate to bring it up so soon, Anna. But who was Alex?" Chris asked, regretting the fact he couldn't even have proper time to check his daughter over. Against his wishes, his work always came first, the BSAA needed to know who was behind this as soon as possible.

"She was the one organising it I think. I only saw her once..." Anna whispered as her father noticed new tears were close to forming.

"She?" As sexist as it may seem, Chris was shocked Alex was a woman. He always just presumed it would be a man.

"I don't know anything about her. But Luke said...She must have known Wesker or something." A tear began to trickle down her cheeks, Chris wasted no time to wipe the stray ones away. "...I'm scared."

"Why? Anna you're safe. I won't let anything happen to you again, I promise." Chris gave a comforting smile.

"He always sticks to his promises," Claire piped up, attempting to lighten the mood.

"You're not safe. Luke said she wanted to kill you. You have to be careful dad, please." Anna whimpered, while Chris rubbed her arms caringly.

"Anna, it'll be okay. I'll be fine; I can hold my own you know." Chris chuckled. "We'll catch her, we'll get the people who did this to you."

Anna nodded reluctantly, fear still overcoming her. Chris could gather who this Alex woman was, it all made sense. He had just never saw it coming before, he never expected her to be female. In fact, remembering the notes in the Spencer Estate, it never even dawned on him Alex could be still alive. He knew mentioning to Anna that Alex was a Wesker sibling would just scare her even more. In order to protect his daughter, Chris sealed his lips and wondered what Alex's intentions truly were.

"Chris I'm just going to go out for a minute, okay?" Claire said to Chris. He could see she was still recovering from the news he had delivered. But now wasn't the time for him to elaborate on what his words meant, Claire knew this. Besides Chris knew very little about Steve, the research facility told him little.

"Alright." Claire stood and turned for the door, "Claire. I don't know much. If you want more information, I suggest you visit a man called Luke Johnson. He was a lab worker at the facility."

Claire attempted to raise a smile and left Chris to watch over his daughter.

After a couple of minutes of arguing with nurses and misplaced rooms, Claire was finally directed to Mr Johnson's room. She wasn't sure if she wanted to go in. Firstly, the man had just been shot; she wasn't sure how he would react to a stranger walking in. And secondly, if he gave her the information on Steve she wished for, she didn't know how she would take it. After years of wondering, years of uncertainty, it seemed now she could get her answers.

Claire took a deep breath, and brushed a strand piece of auburn hair back into the pony tail. After knocking gently, she cautiously opened the door.

"Hi, I'm really sorry to interrupt, I'm Chris Redfield's sister. My name's Claire." Claire said awkwardly. She walked to the bed, raised her hand, but after noticing his arm and shoulder was bandaged in a sling, quickly retracted the hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Claire. I'm Luke." He flashed a toothy grin. Through the years of hell he had to endure, and even though his arm was throbbing with pain, he was happy. He was finally free. "Please, take a seat...How is Anna?"

"She's awake. She was asking after you." Claire said, sitting rigidly on the chair next to his bed.

"She's a good kid, I'm glad she's alright." Claire smiled slightly at his accent, she always hated to admit it, but she was one of the many woman attracted to uncommon accents.

"You're not from these parts, are you?" She asked jokily.

"Edinburgh born and raised." Luke smiled, which she returned readily. "...So what are you here for Claire? Pretty woman don't just come and visit me for no reason you know."

A small blush spread over Claire's face, against her wishes. She didn't want to blush; she didn't want to give him any satisfaction from his cheesy comment. But she couldn't help it. To her, he was attractive. He had the geeky look to him, the look she hated to love.

"I don't know. Apparently there was information on a boy that I knew. Chris said you might know something," Claire's smile faded, as her tone became more serious as she talked about Steve. "I'm sorry for pestering you. I mean you don't even know me... I just really need to know."

"It's okay..." Luke's face softened as he saw her pained expression. It was a change from the semi confident woman who walked in a few minutes ago, she now looked on the verge of tears. "Who is it?"

"Steve Burnside." Luke nodded. It made sense, from what he knew he was a couple of years older than Steve, and Claire looked as though she was in that age range too.

"I never saw him. But from what I've been told, he was always deceased." Luke's words confirmed what Claire already knew. "I'm sorry."

Claire nodded confidently, but her blue azures began to overfill with water. She knew deep in her heart Steve wouldn't be alive. She saw it with her own eyes, but after all, Chris saw Jill 'die' before him. And three years later they were reunited. It had always put false hope into the young Redfield's heart. Never did she know Steve's true fate until now. Although her heart ached with the truth she knew all along, maybe now she could finally move on.

"His body was kept; they've been using it for tests to modify the viruses. But there was no need for him to be alive." Luke continued.

"But it's been years..." Claire sniffed. What upset her more was he couldn't have peace. It angered her to know his body hadn't even had the burial he deserved after all this time.

"It takes years to make successful viruses." Claire sobbed, her quiet tears now becoming louder against her will. Luke gave her a comforting look. He didn't know her or Steve, but he could see how utterly devastated the poor woman was. "I am so sorry. I don't know any more..."

Claire nodded and wiped under her eyes to remove traces of tears. She let out a humourless laugh, embarrassed by her tears in front of a man she didn't know. She found it difficult to fully understand where her tears were coming from. It had been over ten years, but it seemed she just couldn't forgive herself for Steve's death. It wasn't so much tears of sadness, but tears of comfort and of peace, she was happy all the doubts over him had now been removed.

"Thank you, Luke. I needed to know."

"I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you."

"It's okay. You must have gone through a lot too." Claire asked, her voice riddling with concern.

"I was working for Alex for a long time, yeah. It isn't the highlight of my career. But the world's a dangerous place, we've all seen things we wish we hadn't, right?" Luke replied.

"Yeah, unfortunately..." She trailed off, not wishing to even think about Raccoon again. "I should get going, it was a pleasure to meet you, Luke."

"Are you sure you're alright? You need to talk about it, don't bottle your hurt up." Luke said seriously. If it was any other stranger, Claire would feel awkward having such a serious conversation, but it was just so easy to talk to Luke. She didn't believe in love at first sight, thought it was a pile of bull in fact, but she couldn't deny she felt attracted to him. She thought that maybe with time, she could finally get the break she was looking for. After all, love wasn't a friend of Claire Redfield's. As always, Claire's immature hopes were shattered when she noticed the very obvious wedding ring firmly on his finger. "I know what it's like to lose someone you love..."

Love? It wasn't love between Claire and Steve, it couldn't have been. She knew him for a mere couple of days. Love couldn't have been part of it. This realisation made Claire feel even more aggravated at herself, she had been so strung up for years, it stopped her from finding the true love she deserved.

Claire gave him a smile and the two continued to converse with one another.

Of course, Anna could go home by now. Chris had given her the clothes he brought for her, and while he waited for her to get her stuff together, he headed off to the bathroom. Chris inwardly cursed when he got to the bathroom, realising there was only one at this end of the ward. And by the looks of it, it was occupied.

He sighed, and leaned against the wall. He hadn't seen Jill since she wandered off, of course he was concerned. But he knew she would just get even angrier if he came for her again. Maybe his protectiveness over people was a curse. But then again, Jill left due to him neglecting her. All he knew, was he could never win. And for him, things went from perfect to God-awful so quickly with Jill, he found it hard to understand. As much as it broke his heart, each day he began to believe more and more that perhaps they just weren't meant to be.

After a couple of minutes, he moved closer to the door. Chris's stomach turned slightly, as he could hear someone be obviously pretty violently sick on the other side of the door. Chris glanced around him, unsure of what to do. But it was a hospital; he couldn't leave whoever was in there.

"Are you okay?" Chris asked through the door, knocking upon it as he did so.

...

"...Chris?" The lock of the door clicked. He recognised that voice.

"Jill? Jill, are you alright?" She opened the door so the two could see each other. She thought the sickness had ended now, so began to clean out her mouth at the tap, trying her best to remove the sour taste.

"Yeah, I'm fine thanks. I probably shouldn't have eaten so soon after the mission. You know I don't have the strongest stomach." She joked lightly.

"Well, we're going home. Anna included. Are you going to come with us?" Chris asked. Her words still stung him. And by the looks of it, pride wouldn't let her apologise. On top of that, he didn't know if she was still angry with him.

"Yeah, please." Well at least she was taking civilly to him. She scooped up her tangled hair into a loose pony tail. She still looked pretty rough; nothing a good sleep couldn't help.

"I'll drop you off at Rebecca's?" He wasn't fully sure where Jill was staying now, all he knew was she wasn't where she belonged, with him.

"Carlos's actually. He said he wanted to meet up..." Chris's face turned into a scowl. There was no denying; Chris was growing to despise Carlos. Since he arrived, things had gone from bad to worse with him and Jill. Undoubtedly, Carlos would still be the reason behind the animosity between the two lovers.

Again, pretty boring chapter and it probably isn't going to change any time soon. My apologies. I warn you, things aren't going to get much better between Chris and Jill anytime soon... And Alex is still floating around somewhere, don't you worry.

Artichoke,

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