When I awoke it was from one final nightmare, but at least now was a more reasonable time to be up. At ten thirty I drug myself out of bed and tried to once more assume some kind of "normal life." I wandered around the house for a while trying to decide what to do with myself before giving up and collapsing on the couch with a box of cereal. Dried sugar coated marshmallows would certainly make me a bit happier if nothing else, right?

After around half an hour of mindless television, I took it upon myself to call Claire to see if her offer was still valid. She wanted me to call anyway, and it wasn't so early I thought she'd still be asleep. Functionally immortal and all that shit. Just as before, she seemed happy enough to hear me, though I barely understood why anymore. How I didn't annoy her at this point was beyond me. I was annoying myself by now. She reassured me she'd be over as soon as I wanted her, and I tried to explain that I'd like to spend the entire day with her if she had the time.

The plan was to do it in the least awkward way possible.

"You know I really, really miss you and-"

It failed.

I saw my mom walk in from outside once I finished my call. The door opening noise startled me, and I was glad no one saw me flinch; realizing who it was offered some comfort I guess. We at least mostly got a long through it all, as much as teenage girls could get along with their mothers. I was an adult now, technically, so that excuse was no longer valid. Still, she'd been deathly afraid when I was away. She almost lost one daughter years ago, and now she'd almost lost the other. What's a poor woman to do?

"Hey uh...mom?"

"Yes, Moira?"

"I'm gonna go hang out with Claire today. That okay?"

The look on my mother's face was an indication that about fifteen red flags had been set off in her head, prompting her to want to say something to the effect of absolutely not, that is not okay and never will be okay again. Not even if you pay me will it be okay. "With Claire?"

"Yeah. We talked last night and she said we could like get pizza and watch movies or something? It'd just be at her place probably I guess."

While Claire Redfield was a perfectly fine human being in every sense of the word, My mother had developed a distinct and clear mistrust of her. If not for the fact association with her had caused me to get kidnapped, then for the fact a thirty-four year old woman saw it fit to invite her twenty-two year old friend over for what was essentially a date probably caused a few alarm bells to go off in my mother's head regardless. The fact we'd known each other since before I was of legal age as well did little to help Claire's case, even though she had never made a stance one way or another on our relationship.

"Oh yeah? Does your dad know?"

"Not yet. I doubt he'll care though! I mean he knows her, he knows she's cool." And that Claire completely and utterly saved my ass but we weren't ready to talk about any of that yet. Probably not ever.

"And if he does care?"

"I'm sure he won't... Claire can kick ass. I'm just as safe with her as I am at home."

"Just be careful alright? And you aren't going anywhere 'til you talk with your dad!"

"Fine, fine, fine. I know. He wouldn't let me out of this house without asking anyway. He'd have an entire fucking swat team on my ass if I disappeared again I think..." In the daylight it was much easier to pretend to be okay as there were fewer shadows for mutant freaks to hide in. I liked it much better this way.

Barry would arrive sometime later, and when he did, Natalia was sure to be jogging at his heels. He had taken it upon himself to father her as well, which had surprised no one. Mom was unsure how she felt on the idea at first, though her maternal instinct was as easily convincible as Barry's paternal. Polly found herself at least somewhat amused at the prospect of being an older sister, and finally being able to pick on someone younger than her, though Barry greatly disapproved of the idea.

Eventually, Polly had wandered downstairs, and flopped onto the couch next to me. Normally, the intent would be to pick on me, but given recent events she was (slightly) less inclined to do that. We sat in silence for a while, just staring blankly at the television together.

"So..." Polly eventually broke the silence. "Anything good on?"

"Nope, never is."

"Figured."

"Hmph."

"Someone's in a bad mood."

"Always am."

"Always?" Polly frowned, reaching over to push me, but only slightly. "Nu uh. You were in a good mood last time you-know-who came over to check up on you."

"Nope, don't know who."

"The biker chick!"

I felt my face turn red, but I chose to ignore it. "Yeah what about her? Look she's one of dad's friends, not mine. We just...ended up in a really shitty place together, that's all. Doesn't make us friends."

"You two were literally friends before this. You joined that dorky group over her because you were so in love with her."

"Man shut the fuck up. I don't want to talk about this. Like, at all. I'm going over to her place today just to get away from you, you obnoxious little brat." While the interaction did make me uncomfortable, on some level it did qualify as normal. I did not appreciate being relentlessly teased, but Polly had always mocked me before things had happened. Making fun of me now helped to remind me that things at home didn't need to be dramatically different; things could go back to how they were. Did I even want that? Claire seemed to go between guns blazing and casual chilling at home in a matter of seconds if she needed to. That wasn't actually something a sane person did was it?

The front door opening startled me again, but this time it was Barry who stepped inside, half a dozen bags hanging off of his arms. Behind him, the young dark haired girl smiled with glee. Someone was certainly the new favorite, weren't they?

I watched them for a moment as Natalia skipped over to the couch, sitting between myself and Polly. Sometimes she seemed like a normal little girl, other times, not so much. I wasn't sure how to take all of this, but me and Barry kept most of Natalia's past in the dark from the rest of the family.

"Barry took me out shopping." She said rather proudly. Maybe she'd stop being weird once she started to adjust to normal family life? I had my doubts she'd ever be totally normal, but hell we could dream. "Said they already gave away all of Polly's clothes so nothing around here would fit me."

Polly frowned, crossing her arms. "To who? I don't remember that happening."

"Geez why does it even matter? What are you like fifteen now?" I chimed in.

"Uh, no I'm nineteen you dork! And you knew that!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Standing up from the couch, I gave Natalia a half hearted pat on the head before heading off to find where Barry had gone. By now, he'd set down his bags on the kitchen table, proudly showing off what he'd gathered for the newest edition to the family.

"Hey, uh, dad?" It'd been a long, long time since I'd called him that, but now, after everything that had happened, it felt weirder not to.

"Yes, Moira?" Concerned as always. It was nice, but damn it he needed to stop at some point soon.

"Can I...go hang out with Claire today?"

"Her idea or yours?"

"Hers."

"I don't see why not, then."

Standing by the counter, Kathy bristled, I bolted back to the living room to avoid a lecture on "safety". Was the prospect of hanging out with an older woman really so bad? It wasn't like she was creepy. In fact she was the opposite of creepy in my mind. She was strong, protective, chill...beautiful. The last one had always bothered me to think of, but it was fairly undeniable. Even with short hair she just looked so damn good. I was fairly, fairly certain that I wasn't into girls, but that didn't mean I couldn't appreciate a good looking one.

Alright, maybe that idea was utterly bullshit. Polly seemed to think it was anyway, and I could recall a time before all of this happened when I'd decided I might be very happy with Claire as a partner. I was young then, though. I tried to remind myself of this whenever the thoughts returned, young and stupid. Every teenager wanted to fuck every hot person they met regardless of gender, that was normal.

Claire wasn't just "hot" though. Even when we met I thought more of her than just "hot", though that part had been utterly undeniable. I had been sixteen the first time we consciously met. Claire had made claims to have known me before, even providing photographic evidence for her case. I assumed said photos were doctored at the time given they showed me smiling with Barry. Polly was there too, smiling much the same.

There had been something about her though. Behind that dorky biker jacket and generally friendly to the point of looking stupid demeanor, I saw something I was attracted to. Of course I, at the time, felt ridiculous for how I saw her, but the attraction had refused to leave.

Our first real meeting had been a massive disaster, one I would be socially haunted by for the rest of my life. Polly had taunted me into kissing Claire, but only after I'd thoroughly freaked Claire out by watching a zombie-themed horror flic with her. At the time, I had no idea any of that bio-terror-bullshit was real, but if I had been aware, I would have never subjected Claire to a film version of it. Claire had attributed the marks on her arms to natural disaster, to accidents on her bike, to anything not to do with zombies of all things.

"You're fantasizing about your girlfriend again." Polly joked, noticing that I seemed to be gazing wistfully outside. "She'll be here in a minute ,I bet, to sweep you off your feet."

"She's not-…" I scowled, nodding my head. "I hope so. I called her. Mom still hates her."

"She's basically a sex-predator. I mean...in fairness."

"No she's not shut up!" I snapped, shoving Polly with one hand. "She's super not. I'm over eighteen!"

"Okay but like...you weren't before sooo..."

"That was your idea!"

"Whatever~."