A/n: Still with me? You perseverance is to be applauded. Again DarkElegantGothGirl22 a huge thank you for reviewing. It's probably not going to get any lighter. I'm trying to get it all out before the inspiration deserts me, and I can't see their story ending anyway but tragically.
Revising. Sorry.
Advice from a Caterpillar
You aren't the same as you were before...
You've lost your muchness.
- Mad Hatter
Fingers fly across the keys, the melody bouncing and light. Dancing. Gypsy music.
"Your fingers are quick little one. Be quick and careful and they will always serve you well my grandaughter." Gran's voice is raspy, accented. From the Old Country. Her hands are gnarled but quick and clever. Too quick and clever Mamma says.
Mamma doesn't like some of the things Gran teaches her. Secrets. Doesn't understand why Gran feels Jill needs to know how to unlock, lie, steal, and play the piano. Mamma wants her to be out playing and dreaming of ponies. Not spending hours learning to pick pockets. Mamma had thrown things that day.
"You are Romani Jill Valentine. Never forget where you come from, who you are. Promise me you will not forget." Gran's grey eyes get very sharp and sad when she says it. She says it often.
Mamma gets nervous when Gran looks at her like that. Silly superstitions of an old hag and a different time. But Gran is old and her time is short, she can be humored. The old ways must be humored.
"I promise Gran! Cross my heart and hope to die!" Jill always promises. The sad never quite leaves Gran's face.
"I don't have much time left little one." The rattling cough hasn't left in months, and Gran trusts what the cards tell her. The deck with all the strange intricate pictures. She will not read the cards for Jill. Once she laid them out, went pale and hurriedly put them away. Only once.
Only Gran touches the deck. Mamma says the cards are cursed. The sadness in those grey eyes is pronounced today.
"Your fate will be hard little one. Listen to your dreams. The women of our family are dreamers. Never forget. Promise me."
Gran dies a week later. Jill is seven. She forgets.
She remembers.
I am Jill Valentine. Or I was.
Blue windows with a different soul.
I dream of falling and dying.
"Stand up." Glowing eyes haunting her waking moments.
Another flicker. Another shard.
Her hands will never stop bleeding.
"You're so lucky Jill." Rebecca Chambers is 18, green and nervous. Joe Frost was promoted to Alpha squad today. By the Captain. Rebecca feels small.
"They respect you." She picks the polish from her nails. Jill laughs, spoon scraping tuna into a small bowl. Gran had called her Prikasa growing up. Very bad luck.
Or omen.
" I landed on the Captain my first day. He hasn't killed me yet. Just give it time, you've just gotta grow into the team." Jill's first day is famous at the station, along with her cooking skills. Gran taught her well. Barry has never had a better sandwich. Rebecca shudders, cold coffee cup forgotten on the counter.
"I would've died. Your Captain looks scary enough when nothing pisses him off." All of Alpha squad wouldn't disagree. Jill doesn't mention how she walks on eggshells around the Captain. Sometimes she thinks she can feel his gaze from behind the dark lenses he's never without. It feels like someone is walking over her grave. She tells herself he watches her because she talks to Al so much and of course its his name too.
Rebecca doesn't need to know that. Al meows impatiently.
"Won't argue with you there." She keeps it light. Rookies need comforting. Jill isn't the best at it. Having a uterus doesn't necessarily make emotional shit her thing despite what Irons seems to think. "There you go Al. You're such a pretty boy." The tuna bowl touches the floor as she croons.
"Why do you feed the cat so often?"
"For all the mice he catches. Its a reward."
"Uh Jill he leaves those mice on the Captain's desk. I don't think you should be rewarding him..."
"He's trying to teach him to hunt, like he would a kitten. He can't help it if Wesker doesn't eat mice!" Both girls are laughing, Rebecca is relaxing. Jill sends her back to Bravo with some final wisdom.
"Don't worry about luck. Do your best with what you've got Becs. My Gran used to say all luck runs out eventually. Even bad luck."
The younger woman disappears down the hallway.
"All luck runs out?" Sibilant voice from behind her. The Captain is refilling his coffee mug.
Jill doesn't remember him entering the breakroom. Nervous butterflies escape their chrysalises in her stomach.
"She also said to always carry a coin to pay the Ferryman. I figured I'd leave that part out."
He watches her go, thoughtful.
She falls trying to stand, limbs going too fast and too far. He does not move to help her.
"Slowly. You are faster now, super human. Hopefully your small human mind will be able to handle it all."
White teeth in a perfect smile.
"Now stand."
She doesn't want to. Twisting in her chest. Strings on her heart.
Dance puppet dance.
She stands.
"What have you done to me?"
"Improvements. Now walk."
I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir,
because I'm not myself you see.
- Alice
A/N - Review? Please?
Not all gypsies are thieves and fortune tellers. That's my disclaimer.