It is time. The beginning of the end. [sorta X'D gonna continue the story past RE8 that's still a thing I just wanna be dramatic.]

Song Suggestion: The Hounds by The Protomen

Disclaimer: I own nothing quq/ Resident evil belongs to CapCom. I'm just an extremely stubborn fangirl with way too much time on her hands


Chris sat in a bustling airport by one of the many luggage return carousels with his arms crossed as he impatiently tapped his thumb and listened to the announcements. They should have been here by now.

Boarding call for passengers of flight 09x292 please have your boarding pass ready.

He gave a tired sigh. Nope, still not them.

"Hey Alpha," Canine said as he and Night Howl made their way over to sit with him.

"Anything?" Night Howl asked as he offered Chris a coffee from the convenience store.

"If they were here, you would have seen them," Chris pointed out but accepted the drink in one hand while digging out his phone from his jacket pocket with the other to check the time. Thursday, October 1st, 4:56 pm. They were an hour late...

Now arriving international flight 01x158 from Bucharest at gate 16.

"Is that them?" Canine asked and Chris poked around at his phone to get the details up.

"Yep, that's them," Chris said as he got from his seat. It took a good twenty minutes even after the announcement, but eventually Umber Eye, Lobo, and Tundra came into view.

"HEY! OVER HERE!" Canine called as he raised a hand to wave.

"EY!" Lobo called back as he held up his arms in greeting. He hurried over with the other two to join them. "Papa Alpha came to pick up his kids from the airport." Lobo placed a hand over his heart, pretending to be emotional. "Told myself I wouldn't cry."

Chris rolled his eyes and flipped off Lobo. "You're lucky this is important, or I'd be ditching you here without a ride."

"Yeah, no. As emotional as this reunion is," Tundra said while giving Lobo a side-eye, "we need to talk." She shifted her weight and crossed her arms before looking around.

"Yeah," Chris agreed. "We really need to catch up," he said, though his tone suggests a more serious topic.

"We need somewhere secure. I don't know how freely we can talk at the moment," Umber Eye whispered and the others nodded.

"So, what we go to a random bar? Civilians could overhear us," Canine said with a slight frown.

" And we might be tailed..." Night Howl pointed out. None of them trusted the people around them.

"... I think I know where we can go," Chris said with a nod. "I'll drive. Get your bags."

"Yes sir," Lobo said with a chuckle. "Been a while since I was able to tell you that, huh?" he added as he walked away.

They had to wait in luggage return hell for a while, but the three eventually claim their bags and followed Chris back to his car. They put their bags into the back and Chris motioned that they shouldn't talk. The ride was made in silence for a long painful hour before pulling into a familiar parking garage and parking.

"Leave your bags, phones, and any tech in the car," Chris instructed, and the group nodded.

"Yes sir."

"Rodger that."

"Got it."

"Can do boss."

"On it."

Clicks and plunks of phones and watches being removed and placed into cup holders were heard before doors opened and closed.

"You think your place is secure if they bugged the car?" Lobo pointed out as they walk out of the parking garage.

"They probably only got the bugs in there since I drive it to work," Chris said as they walked into the apartment building. "And I already checked the apartments once I noticed the bugs in the car. They're clean."

"Well, that's a relief," Tundra said as they headed up the stairs behind Chris, who unlocked and opened the door to Emma's apartment.

Upon hearing the door open, Emma smiled to herself. He was earlier than usual. Hopefully, that meant work went well. "Welcome ho—" Emma began as she turned around to see six people walking in. "Oh, mmm... I suppose I should have made more for dinner..." she said, stunned. "It's good to see you all."

"Sorry for not saying anything," Chris said, waiting for the group to enter before closing the door.

Canine gave an excited gasp as he noticed Duke lazing on the couch "You didn't tell me she had a dog. Oh my goodness, hello friend," he said as he quickly walked over to start giving Duke attention and belly rubs. "Who is this good boy?"

"Canine," Chris said, unamused.

"This is important," Canine countered as he continued to pet the now very happy dog whose tail was wagging a mile a minute.

"Oh, sorry I hadn't realized I never mentioned him to you guys. That's Duke," Emma said. She felt bad about that. How had it never come up?

"Duke, such a regal name," Canine said, very much distracted. He was a K-9 handler for a reason. He loved dogs.

"So, what brings you guys here? Is it poker night again?" Emma asked as she mentally started trying to figure out how to turn a meal for two into a meal for seven. Rice. She needed to make a lot of rice.

"We're being monitored," Chris admitted with a slight frown.

"Monitored?" Emma repeated, concerned, as her mental dinner calculations came to a screeching halt. "How so? What's going on?"

"Are you sure we should be saying anything in front of her?" Umber Eye said as he looked at Chris with a slight frown. It would mean getting a civilian involved.

"We don't have much of a choice at this point. We need a secure location indoor location where we can monitor the comings and goings that they won't guess off the bat as a base of operation. There isn't a paper trail that would lead them here. Even if they tracked my GPS location, they'd assume I was going to my own apartment," he explained. Luckily, he was pretty dang quiet about his personal life at work. Even his own squad barely knew anything about it, considering it took a year for them to find out they were seeing each other. With that thought, he looked at Emma.

She was definitely at a loss for words. What in the actual heck was going on that he wanted her to be around for what sounded like a work conversation? It took her a moment but she eventually nodded. "How can I help?"

"We just need a place to talk where we won't have to worry," Chris said, and she nodded again.

"Well, my home is yours," she agreed and went back to trying to figure out how to stretch the meal she made. With permission given, the six sat at the table to talk. Duke followed Canine over to the table and lay at his feet.

The group was silent at first until Chris decided to just go ahead and say it. "The BSAA is up to something."

"Yeah, I'll say. They didn't even let me take the chopper back to the states," Lobo said, crossing his arms. "Had us fly commercial. That's weird, since we finished our stint there. Hell, even if we didn't, why wouldn't they want the equipment returned to the proper HQ?"

"It gets worse," Tundra admitted, shaking her head. "I tried sending in a report for a tip I got and that report just disappeared." Irritation was evident in her tone. "I was trying to get it back to you as quickly as I could. We've got a major security breach for the Winters' case."

"You're kidding," Chris said, annoyed now as well. "I tried bringing a security issue to the director's attention for the Winters' case just the other week and he completely blew it off."

"It's not just you, I heard Tiger Orca tried reporting a security breach but the report got covered up," Umber Eye said as he leaned forward on his elbows and clapped his hands together.

"What was the tip you were trying to send me?" Chris asked, looking at Tundra.

"I overheard that there was an infiltration plan. Some woman by the name of Miranda is after the kid. From what I understand she's after the kid because of her connection to the Baker incident in Louisiana."

"The kid of two stabilized infected individuals? Her blood would sell like hot cakes on the market," Lobo said with a sneer. "Fuckin' disgusting. She's just a baby."

"When did you get the tip?" Night Howl asked, concerned.

"About two weeks ago," Tundra said. "From what I was told she's laying low for now, but we need to make a plan."

"Did your tip come with a location where we can track this Miranda person?" Chris asked and Tundra nodded.

"Yeah, still in Romania. Probably a three-hour drive from the safe house." Tundra frowned. "We need to start gathering supplies to prepare for a stakeout. It doesn't sound like she's particularly active yet, but she is a known threat that the BSAA doesn't want on record apparently."

"We need supplies for the stakeout and a new secure location for the family outside of the BSAA's knowledge," Canine said. "That's a tall order. It could take months."

"We better get started then," Chris said and the others nodded.

"We should tell Ethan," Umber Eye said, but Chris cut that short.

"No," Chris said in a low authoritative tone. "Absolutely not, he can barely keep up with his training."

"I mean, it is his kid," Night Howl pointed out.

"Exactly my point. He's going to want to get involved. He's a civilian, regardless of how much training we give him. He's not ready for this kind of fieldwork," Chris said in return. "He's not to know and that's final."

"Yes sir," Lobo said, though his tone suggested he disagreed with the decision.

"Not to rain on everyone's parade, but how are we going to get enough gear for six people for what? Three weeks' worth of Recon and potential armed contact without raising a few alarms at the BSAA? If they think we're up to something they might move the Winters without telling us," Tundra pointed out. "And even if we gather it over time, where are we going to put it? That's a lot of gear."

"Store it here," Emma finally said, which got the group's attention. Everyone suddenly staring at her made her self-conscious, but—"You said it yourself, they wouldn't really look here because it would just look like Chris is going home for the day on a GPS. So assuming the bugs are sound and location only, if you put a few pieces of gear in his car each day for the next few months, you'll have more than enough for three weeks."

"Are you sure you want to get that involved?" Umber Eye said with a slight frown. "Storing weapons isn't something you can plead ignorance to if the BSAA catches us before we can get over there."

Emma shrugged. "Seems to be a theme with the apartment... the last guy was storing stuff here for a gang," she said with a half-hearted chuckle. "I could rent out a storage unit, but that's not much better, all things considered. That would be considered a paper trail, right?"

"Yeah..." Tundra confirmed, but shook her head. "I don't think we have much a better choice."

Chris thought it over more "What about Mrs. Russo's old apartment?" he suggested.

"That's right. It's still empty..." she affirmed. "Maybe we could talk to Mr. Jacobs? If we tell him that we're planning on moving in together and we need some extra space to store a few items that we're buying in advance, he might be okay with an over the table deal to let us use the empty apartment for storage while he's trying to rent it out?" she said, trying to follow Chris' line of thought. The other five slowly looked at Chris with slight grins as he remained quiet.

"That's... true that could work," he agreed and silently confirmed that was something the two were planning on doing to the rest of the squad.

"Better hope he doesn't do any walkthroughs of the place then," Canine pointed out, "and here you'll find our heavy munitions room standard in our newly renovated two bed one bath apartments," the K-9 handler added while Lobo snickered and leaned back in his chair.

"That's a fair point... Again, I don't mind if you use my place," Emma offered while going back to poking at the meal having shredded the two chicken breasts and added them to a now warming pot of tomato sauce, beans, garlic, diced onion and pepper and some additional spices while waiting for the rice to finish cooking.

Chris shook his head at that. "We'll just use mine for storage, I don't want you getting in trouble for this. Meeting at your place has deniability, but this is going to be subordination at best."

"What are they going to do, fire me? I don't work for them," Emma pointed out with a slight chuckle.

"Jail time for illegal possession of firearms," Umber Eye replied in turn.

"Oh... right," she said with a wince. This was a pickle...

The group spent a good fifteen minutes spit-balling ideas for how to store the equipment before Lobo decided to speak up. it's not like they were actually getting anywhere aside from running in circles. "Well, you two could just rush the move-in plan. There's deniability that way," Lobo said with a teasing smile.

"Lobo," Chris said in a warning tone as Emma worked on plating up the meal by putting some of the chicken chili over a bed of rice. Bless rice for being a good plate filler.

"I know this is an important mission but rushing to buy a house doesn't seem like the best long-term plan." Emma walked over and started putting plates down in front of the group.

Lobo stopped leaning back in the chair in favor of leaning forward to rest his elbow on the table and his cheek against his hand to look at Chris with a cheeky grin. "An excellent point. Anything else we missed while we were gone for the year?" he asked, highly amused by the night and day contrast of Chris and Emma when it came to their willingness to share details about their plans. Yeah, yeah, the thing with the kid was serious and all, but he could still appreciate a good laugh.

"Thank you," Umber Eye said quietly as Emma returned with another round of plates.

"No problem. Deniability and all that," she said as she walked back for another set of plates. "It's always good to have friends over for dinner after they were away for so long," she said to subtly suggest that could be used as an excuse going forward.

With the meals set and glasses of water placed, the conversation shifted back to the matter at hand.

"So, it's agreed then? We'll use Emma's as a base of operation for conversation and storage of the gear with the backup plan that if we hear about any suspicion of our activity, the gear will be moved to Chris' apartment." Umber Eye said and the group nodded.

"We'll Use one of the BSAA choppers to head over to Romania on the last week of January. by then we should have enough supplies," Chris said with a sigh. "In the meantime, Wolf Squad will continue to monitor the Winters during the monthly checkups to make sure there isn't any unusual movement," he listed and the others nodded. "Tundra will try to establish a link to Tiger Orca Squad for further tips in case something happens when we're not there. If we hear anything odd, then we move in right away."

"Agreed."

"Sounds good."

"Let's get cracking."

"They won't see what hit them."

"Let's go squaaad!"

They had roughly four months to get this in motion. It wasn't ideal to hold off like this but if the BSAA was trying to bury this they needed to be careful and figure out why.

"Let's get going then," Chris said as he rose and picked up his plate. The others got up as well and started moving for the door. "Hey"—the team stopped—"Dishes in the sink," he said with a mixture of annoyance and confusion.

The squad looked at him, surprised. He didn't usually make them do that when they visited him, but all the same, each person went back, got their plate, and washed it before putting it in the dish drainer by the sink. Emma moved to cover her mouth knowing she was failing to suppress a grin. He wasn't always comfortable with being publicly affectionate so little moments like that were cute and appreciated.

With the table cleared, the group once more moved to head out. Emma walked with them over to the door to make sure she'd be able to close up after they left. Chris stopped as he was about to walk past and gave her a quick peck of a kiss. "It's probably going to take a while to drop everyone off so make sure you lock up."

She blinked a few times while trying to process that. "Yeah, I'll make sure to take care of that. travel safely," she happily said in return.

"Love you," he said, waving over his shoulder while walking away.

Holy frickin' heck, she was going to have whiplash if he kept this up. Who are you and what did you do with Chris? "Love you too," she replied while smiling like a derp before closing the door behind them. It was a simple gesture but one that made her feel over the moon. Hound Wolf Squad was practically family to him, and he was actually communicating with her about a pretty serious choice of going behind the BSAA's back, and why he felt it was necessary, before it happened. That was leaps and bounds of progress with communication. That with the simple gestures of affection meant that much more to her. Neither of them was perfect, but they were growing together.


The wheels have begun to turn ufufu and still managed to work in a bit of cute fluff too X'D next chapter is going to be interesting because I have no idea what to do for November. that was the one month I didn't have a plan for... Thanksgiving anyone? maybe house hunting with a side of supply stashing. we'll see what my fingers end up typing.

Response reviews:

Guest1995 - When in double, blame the director lol. Ah you caught that. I mean. yeah, it was kinda insinuating something but nothing that extreme. there's not really a way to dance around this question without making it worse X'D She was actually looking up baby facts like Chris suggested. One of Emma's life goals is to have a family. that was on the written list which was why she was worried/embarrassed about Chris seeing it. she wasn't ready for that conversation because she's worried about how it will go. All the same after seeing tiny baby rose, it had her going awwww nope not ready for that conversation. I will just look at baby pictures and articles instead... so in her mind, she got caught doing that. That topic is not dead and done though so look forward to more shenanigans in the near future.