Hello hello~ who's ready for another chapter U/ I had a bit of a fun idea that I wanted to run by you guys. I just did a 'Reader appreciation' chapter over with the Heisenberg/OC story and I kinda wanna try and do the same thing here. The way that worked was I went through reader comments and tried to work in as many suggestions in one chapter. So if you have an idea that you'd like to have included for the chapter feel free to let me know and I'll add it to the list.
For those that want to participate but aren't sure what to suggest, here is a prompt. I think Chris and Emma have earned a vacation X'D What should they do to relax?
Song Suggestion: Rockabye by Clean Bandit feat. Sean Paul & Anne-Marie
Disclaimer: I own nothing, RE is owned by CapCom. This chapter will contain Some mention of Failure of Parental Duties, to put it nicely. Again if you made it through RE 7 and 8 you're probably going to be fine but for those that might not sit well with you probably know what's going to happen, see you next chapter.
It took the full week, but Chris and Emma eventually got the house set up, including some additional security cameras, before moving Mia and Rose over. It wasn't a great feeling, knowing that they were quietly keeping an eye on Mia like this when there wasn't a ton of concrete evidence against her. The poor woman had it hard enough, but something just wasn't right.
Emma gave a quiet sigh as she thought about this while rinsing off the dishes to put them in the dishwasher. It had been two months now since Mia moved in with them. Hopefully, Chris would have some news when he got home about Mia getting her own place...
"Em, Emem," Rose babbled while toddling over and hugging her leg to regain her balance.
"Rosey," Emma cooed, which caused the child to giggle. She was only 9 months old, but she had developed to the physical and mental capacity of maybe a one-and-a-half-year-old. It was strange, but Chris had already explained that Rose was special since she was a Bioweapon.
"Eh!" Rose grumbled with a frustrated expression while pulling on Emma's pant leg.
"Use your words, Rosey," Emma said with a chuckle.
Rose let a few more sounds of frustration before eventually speaking. "Ehup! Up!" she said, holding her hands up and making a gripping motion.
Emma smiled at this. She really needed to get the sink cleaned out though. hm. She moved to pick up the child and helped her sit on the counter. "Bubbles?" Emma said, which got Rose's attention quickly.
Emma smiled before picking up the dish soap container, flipping it upside down and back upright quickly before opening the cap and gently squeezing the plastic container. The air in the container pressed out hundreds of tiny little bubbles that floated around. Rose jolted from surprise at first before squealing and openly laughing and clapping.
"Rose? Where did you go?" Mia said as she walked back into the room to see Rose sitting on the counter and clapping at the bubbles floating around. "There you are," Mia said as she walked over and picked up the child. "Why was she on the counter? That's dangerous." Mia scowled.
Yikes. "Sorry, she just seemed like she wanted to play is all," Emma explained as Rose continues to try to grab the bubbles as her mom held her.
"Well, she's not YOUR kid, so next time you want to do something like that you need to ask me first," Mia said with a frustrated frown before walking away with Rose to head back up the stairs to the room they were staying in.
Emma sighed and got back to cleaning. She was just about done when she heard the garage door open. Oh, thank heavens, she thought with a tired smile.
"I'm home," Chris called after closing the door behind him.
"Welcome home," Emma shouted back to help him know where she was.
"You had dinner without me?" he asked, confused.
"Sorry, Rose was getting cranky, so we decided to go ahead and eat," Emma explained in return. Chris frowned slightly but nodded and went to put his plate together. "How was work?" Emma asked with an unsure expression.
Chris forced a frown before tapping on his ear to point out Mia might hear them before taking out his phone. "It was work," he said while poking at his phone. Emma diug her phone out of her pocket.
Monday, May 3rd, 7:21 PM
[Chris] Brought in the food samples. The lab said it would take a week.
Emma nodded and put the phone away. "Well, hopefully, you had a good day all the same," she replied before giving him a peck on the cheek.
'*'*'*'*'
The wait for the lab results felt like torture. Tuesday rolled by and Chris took Mia and Rose with him to work for their monthly check-up with the doctors. Wednesday passed uneventfully and Thursday was about the same.
Emma was out walking Duke around the neighborhood for the afternoon when she passed one of the neighboring houses and a woman older than Emma waved.
"Yoo hoo," said the woman.
"Hm?" Emma stopped and signals for Duke to do the same. She supposed she should meet the neighbors.
"Hi, so nice to meet you," said the woman as she took off her gardening gloves and offered a hand. "You just moved in a few doors down, right?"
"Yeah, moved in a few weeks ago. Sorry I didn't introduce myself sooner," Emma said, accepting the offered hand.
"Right of course. Just wanted to stop you since, well"—she forced a wincing smile—"couldn't help but notice that you guys haven't taken your trash cans back in yet. As leader of the community watch, we generally put that out at 6 pm on Wednesday since pick up is on Thursday and have those back in by 6 pm as well."
Oh god, she's one of those neighbors. "Right," Emma said with a nod. "Cool, yeah, no… we'll start doing that then." She forced a smile in return. She had planned to do that as soon as she got back from her walk with Duke and it was barely after 6. "Sorry I don't think I caught your name."
"Whoopsie, klutzy me," she said as she puts a hand over her heart. "Karen Blight," the woman answered with a more genuine smile. it honestly didn't look much different from the forced one.
Of course, it was. "Great to meet you Karen, I'm Emma Swanson," Emma said, and luckily the woman seemed to buy it. No wonder the previous owner was so interested in keeping the sale even with the hiccups. Every house had a catch...
"Emma, such a pleasure," said the woman before she looked around. "Now I don't mean to pry but, what exactly is the living situation with your, um… the community you've moved in with?"
"Pardon?" Emma asked, confused.
"Well, I've already met Mia and her little girl, Lily."
"Rose," Emma corrected with a slight frown. I guess that makes sense. She and Chris would go to work, and Mia would stay home with Rose, so Mia would have more opportunities to meet the neighbors.
"Right, Rose," Karen said accepting the correction. "Well, Mia was saying she's married to the gentleman of the house."
Um excuse me? What? Emma was stunned to silence.
"So, you're... what? The live-in nanny, or…?" Karen made a rolling motion with her hands to suggest she was looking for Emma to fill in the blank. "Again, not to pry but I have happened to notice you kissing the mister a few times while on my morning constitutional and we generally try to avoid drama here, so…" Karen explained, though that was a blatant lie as she seemed invested enough to ask for more details on the subject.
Emma gave a nervous laugh as she tried to process what she had just heard. "That… WOW, um—" She pushed back some of her hair. "Where to start with that. Uh, no." That was probably a good place to start. "I'm not a live-in nanny. I think there was a little bit of a miscommunication. Mia's husband passed away a few months ago. Chris and I are the couple of the house," Emma explained. "Her husband was a friend of Chris', so we're helping her until she can find a place to stay," Emma explained, trying to assume the best here. Maybe the subject of being married came up and the neighbor assumed she meant Chris. Mia did still wear her wedding band after all, and reasonably so.
"Well, that's odd... that's not what she said at all," Karen replied, confused. "I hope you don't mind my asking, it's an unusual situation to see two women, a baby, and one man sharing a house. People have been talking and their imaginations tend to get the better of them."
Oh good lord. Is that what the neighbors thought? That Mia was the baby mama and she's the side hoe? "Not at all. It's been a very, enlightening conversation," Emma said. She just wanted to go home now. "I should go and take care of those trash cans."
"Right, of course, and remember, 6 o'clock," Karen said as she puts her gardening gloves back on to get back to work.
"6 o'clock," Emma parroted back in parting with a wave, then headed back to the house. She took in the trash cans to avoid any further discourse with Karen. Emma let Duke into the house first, after taking his leash off and hanging it up by the front door. She ran a hand through her hair. How did she go about bringing this up? She was mad. She knew that wasn't rational, but frankly she was half-ready to go slap someone. Breathe. Relax. Nope, that wasn't working. The rage was still there, dang it all.
Just wait until Chris gets home. Talk to him first. Maybe he can calm me down, she thought as she went over to wash her hands and start cooking. She was not a nanny. She grumbled as she looked through a recipe book. Maybe a casserole. She was not in the mood to cook anything difficult. She shook her head and put in her earbuds to listen to some music. Maybe that would help.
Chris looked at the time 6:41 pm he actually made it back at a decent time. Thursday usually was their training day, and it would be nice to have time together. That and they'd get to use those new mats they got for the basement. Sure, they didn't have the money to put up walls and move water lines, but they could afford that much.
"I'm home," he said as he walked into the house through the garage door. No answer. He frowns at that but closes the door behind him. "Em?" he called. Still no answer. Huh...
He walked around to find her pacing around the kitchen with earbuds in. That explained it. He shook his head with a chuckle. She always did have a hard time hearing anything else when she had those things in. He had promised that he wouldn't scare her again, so he shook his head and took out his phone to send her a text letting her know he was home. If the phone scared her, that was not his fault. He, at least, hadn't jump scared her.
Emma noticed the phone going off and checked it.
[Chris] Your music is loud. I'm home.
A smile crossed her face as she took the earbuds out and put them down on the counter with her phone and looked around. Upon seeing him, she motioned for him to come over. Unaware of the conversation to follow, Chris headed over and Emma motioned that they needed to talk quietly, which caused him to raise an eyebrow.
"So." Yeah this was not a comfortable conversation to have. "I think Mia is telling the neighbors you're her husband."
"What?" he asked, confused.
"Yeah, cause one of them stopped me on my walk with Duke and asked if I was the live-in nanny, mentioned Mia told them you were her husband, and warned me not to cause trouble because they thought you were having an affair."
"What?" he repeated, having a similar reaction of needing time to process that. He moved to hold his forehead. He could feel a headache forming. He knew Mia wasn't exactly the most honest person. She'd lied to Ethan until the day he died, first that she was in Europe babysitting when she was actually working on the Eveline project with a group of bioterrorists. Second, that she wasn't involved in that at all, and third that she was the one that insisted on the European safe house and to be in protective services so long as she promised to cooperate with the BSAA regarding the connection... Hell, she lied to everyone, since she somehow knew about Ethan being made of mold when even Ethan didn't seem to know.
Actually, the more he thought about it the more this tracked. She lied more than she told the truth.
"Hey," Mia said casually as she walks in carrying an upset Rose. "Is dinner ready? Rose is getting cranky."
Emma and Chris stared at her, which pretty quickly made her uncomfortable.
"Mia," Chris said with slight annoyance, "why did you tell the neighbors we're married?"
"I didn't," she said nervously, avoiding eye contact and focusing on putting Rose in her highchair.
Chris simply stared her down with a frown while crossing his arms. "Okay, let's all head down the road to the neighbor and ask," he suggested. One of them was lying and he was willing to place a bet on which one it was.
"Fine!" she said, annoyed that she got caught. "That woman was just so frustrating!" she exclaimed while pacing around. "Who are you? Who is that? I love your ring, how long have you been married? What does your husband do? Just… she wouldn't leave me alone," Mia said, while still avoiding eye contact due to her guilt. "It's still so difficult, processing that he's gone. I just want things to go back to how they were. I didn't want to have to say he's... so I lied, okay? You have no idea what it's like." Mia stormed off up the stairs to her room.
"Please tell me they found her a place?" Emma asked quietly.
"They're working on it," Chris replied, shaking his head. What a mess. And they only just moved in. It sucked that his mistake was taking more of a toll on Emma than it was on him. "Shouldn't be much longer..."
Great then the neighbors can make rumors that he kicked out his 'wife and child' for the 'nanny.' Emma frowned at this thought before a defeated sigh escaped her lips. She got dinner out of the oven. As much as she wanted to absolutely slap the woman, Emma also had meet Karen. It kind of made sense that Mia wouldn't want to admit to being a single mother if Karen was putting the same amount of judgmental pressure on her and wouldn't leave her alone. Emma kept repeating that in her head to try and get herself to believe it.
"I'll take a plate up to her in a few minutes," Emma said as she walked it over to the table.
"She can handle coming down here and getting her own food," Chris replied. "For now, let's just try and—" he tried to say something, but was cut off by Rose's grumbles complaints turning into wailing cries.
Right, Mia ran off because she was upset... Emma hurried over to the pantry to get a container of baby food and headed back to the table. "Rosey, Rosey baby, why are you crying?" Emma cooed while trying to get the small glass container open.
Roses wailing turned into babbled crying and angry complaints.
"Aww that sounds so difficult for a little one," she replied even though nothing was really said. "Tell me all about it."
The babbling and angered cries continued which would be met with 'Mhms,' 'oh reallys', and 'my goodnesses' until the container was able to be opened. The waterworks continued while she was fed but she quietly ate with a pouting frown. Being a nine-month-old one-and-a-half-year-old was a hard life.
Chris gave a tired sigh and took a seat whiles Emma hurried off to get the baby food. She had that under control, so there was no need for both of them to worry about this. While he was grateful the crying stopped it brought up a new issue. "You know she's going to get cranky that you're feeding Rose..." he pointed out whiles dishing up a plate for each of them since Emma was busy.
"What am I supposed to do? Let the child go hungry? She can go ahead and be cranky. She shouldn't have run off like that when she knew her child needed food," Emma replied in return. The amount of sympathy she could feel for Mia was rather quickly diminishing. The baby food at least seemed safe since the safety seal wasn't cracked.
'*'*'*'*'
"Ethan," Chris said, amused. " I gotta say, I'm surprised you made it this far." The guy never did pay attention during training. The fact he still had 8 fingers and all his toes was a miracle in and of itself. "It'd be a shame if something happened to you now."
"Sure Chris, why not? You killed Mia!" Ethan accused. "Now do me and finish the job!"
Chris frowned at that. If this guy kept getting in the way, he just might have to. He wordlessly pushed himself to stand up from his leaning position against the house in the reservoir and started walking over to Ethan.
"Hey Cap, I'm getting some serious motion readings out here, We should move on," said Night Howl, which caused Chris to stop and look at the man behind him.
"What kind of readings? What's moving?" Chris asked, electing to ignore Ethan.
Get out of there!
"Unknown, but my guess is we've been here too long, and Miranda knows it," Night Howl admitted with a frown behind his gear.
"Hey. Hey did you say Miranda?" Ethan asked. "How are you involved?"
Chris turns his attention back to Ethan and pointed at him. "Leave it alone Ethan. You are out of your depth."
STOP! Just tell him the truth!
"What about the sample analysis?" Chris asked as he turned his attention back to Night Howl.
"It's definitely related to the mold."
Ethan finally pushed himself to stand. As Chris walked over to investigate an unusual sound as a large creature popped out of the water for a split second.
Get out of there MOVE!
Night Howl walked around the outside of the house as Chris headed over to Ethan, pointing once more. "You stay out of our business, Ethan," he said in an accusing tone.
"What business? I don't—"
"God! Watch out!" Chris shoved Ethan, hoping to get him out of the way of the charging creature, only to get thrown back through a wall, flailing to try and keep his balance.
Thwack
Emma yelped in pain as she was awoken by a flailing arm smacking into her gut, which knocked the wind out of her. OW, ow ouch. That one hurt. She rolled over and held her stomach as she moved to get out of the bed. Usually, this wasn't an issue. Maybe once every few months, but lately, this was happening more frequently. She frowned as she looked over to Chris, who was in the middle of a night terror. It would be dangerous to wake him up. There was no telling how he'd end up reacting...
Whatever happened at that village really messed him up... That thought caused a sad frown to cross Emma's face. They needed to do something about that. For now, she could only wait for the episode to pass.
Chris continued to jerk around in his sleep as he tried to get out of the water and failed.
"It's your fault we're dead, it's your fault we're dead." Familiar voices chanted as he found himself surrounded by the people he'd lost throughout his different missions. Eventually, a hand grabbed him and pulled him out of the water.
Chris shouted as he woke up and quickly sat up to look around, panicking in a cold sweat. He jolted as he was not expecting to see Emma standing off to the side. "Jesus," he said under his breath as he pushed back his fight or flight instinct and started coming back to his senses and remembering where he was. "Emma?"
"Hey, you were having another episode," she whispered. "Are you okay?" she asked, though the question was more so, 'Is it okay if I get back in bed, or are you still panicking?'
"Yeah," he said as he held his face and laid back down. Not again...
Emma walked back over and got back into bed to lay next to him. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Chris shook his head no.
"Okay," she replied with a yawn. "I know you're nervous about telling the BSAA about this, but we need to try something... They're getting worse..."
He gave a tired sigh but nodded and moved to hold her. "All right. I didn't get you, did I?"
"Just a gut check, it will heal up quick enough," she replied.
Chris frowned. If he was anyone else, sure, but he punched boulders for heaven's sakes. That wasn't an 'oh whatever, it will heal when it heals.'
"What do you think will help?" he asked quietly to avoid accidentally shouting in her ear. As much as he really didn't want the BSAA to know about this, if he was getting worse, he needed to do something.
"We can try and look up home remedies over the weekend..." Emma offered with another yawn. "For now, you're here, and you're safe. Try to get some sleep," she suggested before trying to fall back asleep. They had work in the morning. While Emma was able to eventually drift off again, Chris was not. He frowned as he flicked through his phone and turned it to dull lighting to avoid waking Emma up.
Friday, May 7th, 3:23 AM.
Hopefully, he'd actually sleep well tomorrow... It wasn't that he wasn't tired, he just couldn't fall back to sleep. While he was poking around work emails, a soft crying was heard from down the hall. Guess Rose woke up. Rather than becoming quieter, it grew more agitated and upset. What on earth? Maybe Mia was just trying the 'sleep through it' method now. Great.
Curiosity got the best of him, and he flicked through the apps to the security camera to see what the ruckus was about. His eyes widened as he stared in shock to find Mia Sitting at her desk fully awake and holding Rose in one arm as she worked on writing down a report with a crystal baby arm sitting on the desk as well.
"What the hell?" he said as he slowly sat up to avoid waking Emma.
Once Mia finishes writing down her notes, she picked up the limb from her desk, put it back into place, and the arm reattached to form back together as if nothing had happened. Mia smiled and went back to her notes.
His expression hardened as he heard a soft ringing from down the hall. Mia put down her pen to stand up and start walking around while bouncing the baby to get her to stop crying. Then she answered the phone.
"Damn it," Chris muttered under his breath before quietly getting out of bed, flipping his phone to a recording mode, and sneaking down the hall.
"The results are looking promising. She has full reconnective functions," Mia whispered quietly. "The advanced aging isn't as bad as Eveline's, but it's still an issue."
Chris continued to quietly listen. That snake, even after all this time she was still working with the Connection.
"The extraction with Miranda didn't go to plan. Once I'm not under surveillance we can try again," Mia whispered into the phone. "I should be available for the next Saturday drop-off. Try and bring a two-month supply. I don't know how much longer this is going to be. It's bad enough she's advanced as far as she has, if she keeps this up people are going to notice..."
Yeah, they already did, Chris thought with a sneer. As much as he wanted to rush in and take her phone to figure out who she was talking to, he didn't want to tip off the Connection that their line was compromised. If he brought Mia into work then found out where she was meeting for this drop off, they might get a better lead than what was most likely the number for a burner phone.
He stopped recording and slowly went back to his room where he sent the security footage and audio recording to several people within the BSAA to make sure that it wouldn't get swept under the rug. He mentioned he'd be bringing in Mia for questioning and Rose for her own protection.
He was exhausted by the morning, but he couldn't just fall asleep. He continued keeping an eye on the Mia and Rose to make sure nothing else happened and to be ready to jump in if he was at risk of losing the lead.
By 6, he took a shower, then went downstairs to wait there with a cup of coffee. Emma joined him almost an hour later as she got ready for Duke's morning walk. "Hey, you're up early. Did you get any sleep?" she asked, concerned.
"Not a wink," he replied as the bags under his eyes would have given away any lie he attempted to tell.
"Maybe we can look into those sleep remedies after work instead then," Emma offered.
He nodded. "Is Mia up?" he asked and Emma shook her head no.
"Nah, but she's not usually up for a little while longer," Emma said. His clock must be off from the rough night. "I'll be back in a few minutes if you want a warm breakfast."
He shook his head. "I can take care of it. Just worry about Duke."
"If you're sure…" She was kind of worried he'd end up burning anything he made because of how tired he was, but he was free to try.
A quick jog around the block later and Emma made it back to find that, Chris had actually ended up making food for everyone. Scrambled eggs and toast. She chuckled at that. Hopefully, he wasn't doing this because he felt bad about the night terror. Honestly, she was fine. It just knocked the wind out of her.
Emma freed Duke from his leash before feeding him then joined Chris at the table. "Looks tasty," she said as she heard shuffling feet coming down the steps.
"Morning," said a very tired Mia who walked over to the fridge to get a container of apple sauce and spoon some out into a bowl.
"Morning," Chris greeted as Mia walked over with the bowl before putting Rose in the highchair and starting to feed her. "Anyone have plans for the weekend?"
"I have those swim lessons with Rose on Saturday," Mia said, unaware that Chris overheard her phone call. "I'm going to need to borrow a car."
"Mmkay. You can use mine," Emma offered as usual.
So that's how she was meeting with the Connection without him noticing... Goddamn it. "Ah, almost forgot. I got an email earlier. The BSAA lost your test samples from Tuesday. They need you to come back in for a re-examination."
Mia frowned at that. "Really? How incompetent can one organization be?"
"Don't shoot the messenger," Chris said, raising his hands.
"Considering you shot me multiple times in front of Ethan that might not the best saying to go with," she pointed out, glaring daggers at him.
Yeah, that one was kind of fair. "Look, I'll drop you off at the house again during lunch, so you don't have to stay the whole day, okay?" he offered. "They said to bring you in for today. It won't be a full re-examination, just the samples."
"Fine," Mia grumbled before shifting her focus from feeding Rose to eating her own breakfast.
Phew, this just might work. "Thanks," Chris replied. He ate his own meal and grabbed his lunch from the fridge while Mia packed a day bag. Chris gave Emma a peck on the side of the head. "I might be late tonight."
"Don't worry about it, it happens," she replied with a forced smile. It wasn't great that he worked late so often, but if he was going to be dropping Mia off at home during lunch it was probably going to mess with his work schedule, so it made sense.
Chris eventually made his way to his car with Mia and Rose. From there, he escorted the two to the BSAA HQ, where he hoped everything was ready for them. He followed the usual protocol for bringing her in for a medical check-up, and left Mia in one of the patient rooms before going to check on that.
Once he had the green light that an investigation was approved and a room was set up for questioning, Chris gave the signal for the doctor to lead Mia to the questioning room.
"Rose? What the hell? Give me back my baby! What are you doing with her?"
"Funny, I feel like I should be asking you that," Chris said as he put down not only the lab report that confirmed that she was putting something in Rose's food, and a photo of the security recording where Rose's crystalized arm was left on her desk.
"I think I'd like to talk to a lawyer," Mia said quietly.
"You're gonna need a damn good one," Chris told her as he got up and walked out of the room.
"Well?" the director, who was waiting outside, asked.
"She wants a lawyer," Chris said with a frown.
"Of course, she does," the director replied, scowling.
Chris hesitated but eventually spoke. "What's going to happen to the kid?" he asked.
The director shook his head. "She's government property, at this point. She's obviously not going back to her mother after the evidence you brought in and her mother's history of using children for scientific experiments. Can't hand her off to a next of kin. She's a Bioweapon. And can't really put her into the foster care system for the same reason."
Oh goddamn it all. "What about me?" Chris asked before really thinking about it. Emma was going to kill him for not talking to her about this first...
"What about you?" the director asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Someone is going to need to look after her," Chris pointed out.
It took the director a moment but he eventually spoke. "You want the kid?" he asked in disbelief.
"I promised I'd look after her," Chris replied, which caused the director to shake his head. "Look, I'm already trained to work with Bioweapons. I know what she is. I've already spent the last few months watching over her, and she's going to need constant monitoring if the Connection is after her."
"All right, Redfield. You made your point," the director said with a tired sigh. "Technically, yes, you would be able to apply since you have proper clearance, should Mia be deemed unfit to be a mother. At this point, it's really just a matter of hours before that call is made. We have two counts of child endangerment and a recording of her admitting to assisting with her own daughter's kidnapping with plans to do so again in the future. She's not coming back from this one."
"I'll fill out the papers then," Chris said and the director nodded.
"I'll have my secretary send them over once the call is made," the director agreed. He was an asshole and a jerk, but even he didn't think the kid deserved this. If Chris was willing to watch over her permanently so, be it. It wasn't like the BSAA headquarters was equipped with a full-time nursery.
Chris ended up staying late as he waited for the paperwork to be available. He filled it out, sent it in, and with that, made his way home. He walked in through the garage door and closed it behind him. "I'm home."
"Welcome home," Emma replied as always. He walked into the house to find that she was on the couch with Duke. Emma put her laptop down on the coffee table before looking around curiously. Why was he staying in the hallway? Wait... "Where are Mia and Rose? I thought you were dropping them off at lunch? Are they not with you?" Oh no, what if someone kidnapped them again?
"They're still at the BSAA," he replied.
She was relieved in a way but still concerned. "What happened? Are they sick?" she asked since the last she knew they were going in for a medical checkup.
"No, no. They're not sick," Chris replied. He knew he wasn't really supposed to tell her, but she was involved at this point, and she probably wouldn't accept 'it was work' as an answer. "The results came back for the food samples. She was putting an unknown substance in it. They're still trying to determine what it was exactly, but it does appear to be a similar compound to the medication we found in Louisiana that Eveline was taking. I found evidence on the security cameras that she was likely experimenting on Rose while we were sleeping as well."
Emma didn't need much more of an explanation than that. Chris had mentioned most of this Louisiana stuff back when he told her about what happened in the village. "Well, now I wish I decked her before, goddamn it," Emma grumbled with a harsh frown. "If I see her again, I am going to punch her."
"Emma," Chris said in a slight warning tone.
"I said it and I meant it," Emma doubled down with a frustrated glare. He couldn't 'Emma' her when there was some jerk experimenting on a baby under their nose. "What about Rose?"
Chris rubbed at the back of his neck. How did he bring this up?
"Chris," Emma said with a concerned tone.
Come on, just rip off the band-aid. You're adopting your dead friend's orphaned child and didn't ask about it first. See easy enough to say... maybe I should lead into that more gently... "Normally, in this case, she'd be considered government proper—"
"Absolutely not," Emma said, horrified. "Nope, no. She is not bouncing around in foster homes, I won't hear it. I know we said the whole family thing is not a 'now' scenario but—"
"Let me finish," Chris said, cutting her off in return while trying not to laugh from relief. That had just made this conversation much easier. He walked over and took a seat next to her as he spoke. "Normally she'd be considered government property because her parents are both out of the picture and she has no next of kin since her parent's families cannot get involved due to the fact that she's a Bioweapon," Chris explained while Emma frowned. "However, I sent in an application to be considered as a potential legal guardian for her since I have proper security clearance and already know about her existence."
"Oh, thank god," Emma said as she relaxed and rested her elbows on her knees so she could hold her face. "She's gone through enough… She doesn't deserve that..."
"Yeah." Chris placed a hand on Emma's back and gently rubbed his thumb along her spine to help her relax and assure her he was there.
"When do you find out?" Emma asked.
"It might be a few weeks. It depends on how quickly things go with Mia's case," Chris replied and Emma nodded.
'*'*'*'*'
Just like Chris said, it ended up taking a few weeks. Mia refused to give up her contact's location, and with that, the Connection slipped away once more. On the 28th, Chris came home with a slightly older Rose clinging to him for dear life since he was the first familiar face she'd seen in three weeks. He walked into the house and closed the door behind him. "We're home," he called, gently placing Rose down. She toddled around the welcomingly familiar space.
"Em. Ememem," she babbled and hurried into the house.
Hearing the tiny voice caused Emma to quietly gasp and quickly drop what she was doing. She hurried over and pick up Rose and coddle her while crying with joy, knowing the child was safe now. She would never be used as a weapon or an experiment again. They would make sure of it.
Rose has officially joined the family. Tis bittersweet, she's safe and will be well cared for but it's still an unfortunate situation so it feels a bit weird to be like 'wohoo this horrible thing happens isn't that great'. but yeah Emma and Chris are now Legal Guardians.
Review Responses:
Fsweet36: Mia is being Mia OTL
Wildcat717: So glad you're enjoying the story ^U^ I hope the chapter was worth the wait
Starrat: glass as always to hear you're enjoying the story ^U^ thanks for the support!
