Sorry this one took longer than I had anticipated it would to get out. hopefully it's worth the wait =v= all the same I'm having a grand old time with all these Cameos so be ready for a few more.
Song Suggestion: Talking to Ourselves by Rise Against
Disclaimer: I own nothing RE belongs to CapCom. Maybe someday they'll announce the theme of the DLC and give me more to work with ovq
The beginning of April marked the third month of amnesia and recovery for Chris. His casts were removed some time ago and physical therapy was a consistent annoying requirement every two weeks. An annoyance that he was currently working through.
"Can you reach your left hand behind your elbow and pull your right arm across your chest," a doctor requests while writing down notes on a clipboard?
Chris did as he was told upon hearing the instructions. It took a while, but he'd learned it was better to just follow the instructions rather than argue since arguing meant he just had to stay longer.
The doctor watched this and notice a slight wince on Chris face as a result of the action. "Lower the arm until the point that the pain lessens, and then hold the position for 30 to 50 seconds."
"Is it 30 seconds or 50?" Chris asks with an annoyed frown as he adjusts his arm, so it didn't hurt as badly.
"Hold it as long as you can but no longer than 50 seconds," The doctor clarified before going back to his note-taking. the 50 seconds pass before the doctor speaks up again" Okay now repeat that with your left and right arms revered." They instruct.
Again Chris followed the instruction. This continued a few more times. Back and forth between arms.
"And that will be our final exercise for today," The doctor replies with a slight nod. "It looks like the soft tissue in your leg has more or less recovered at this point. We'll need to focus on strengthening it now that it's fully healed. If you can try and go on a few walks. Maybe once a day for 10 to 15 minutes if you can manage it and go from there." they explained before messing with their clipboard to look at another page. "Your arm, however, is still showing signs of tissue damage." The doctor says before moving to take a seat on a nearby stool. "Once we get you back into running shape and that arm of yours isn't causing issues I'll be okay with giving you a full bill of health. That will probably take about 3 more months at this rate."
"Three months?" Chris asks annoyed. "What happened to a few months?"
"Well you keep moving around and punching stuff instead of resting," The doctor says with a matter of fact tone. "Part of the process is letting the injuries heal first. It's why physical therapy starts out light and works it way up in difficulty. You're not going to be 'better' just by pushing yourself." they say in a somewhat scolding tone. "If I have to guess, your arm is recovering slower because you're moving around excessively which means using your crutches. Your injury was near your shoulder, so it's agitating the tissue that needs to be given a chance to rest." They explain hoping to make a point. "For now try and move around without them since your leg seems to be doing better. If it starts hurting go back to the crutches and try to rest, so you don't irritate your arm."
"I'll give it a try," Chris says in return. Maybe if he went with 15 to 20 minute walks that would speed up the process, he thought, clearly missing the rest of the doctor's lecture on rest.
"Alright, I'll just need to speak to Emma for a few minutes then if you can call her in," the doctor says as they move the pages of the clipboard back into place.
Chris gets up and nods before making his way over to the door. it was a bit strange carrying the Crutch with him rather than using it. he eventually reached the door on the other side of the small gym like room and walked out to find Emma waiting with Rose and Piers.
"Doc says he wants to talk to you," Chris says in a tired nonchalant tone.
"Alright," Emma says as she gets up, "can you watch Rose?"
"Sure," he replies as he takes the seat Emma was previously sitting in.
Emma nods "I'll be right out," she says hoping that was the truth. talking with the doctors here was frustrating at times. All the same she made sure to close the door behind her and walked into the small gym like room to the small desk where the doctor was sitting.
"Emma good to see you," the doctor says while looking up from his paperwork. ", and child gracious how old is he now?" the doctor asks with mild curiosity.
"He'll be 5 months old on the 15th," Emma replies.
"I see, he's growing quickly then," the doctor says with a slight smile before moving on from the small talk. "I was hoping to check in, how goes the memory recovery?"
"slowly but he's making progress. He's acting more like his old self each day," Emma admits, which made the fact that Chris still didn't remember her all the more difficult.
"That's good, sound like he's doing better in that regard at least," He says with a thoughtful nod. "If he seems stable to you then I'll say it probably a good time to start a very slow and controlled reintroduction to alcohol and nicotine since he's off his medication at this point," The man points out before making a slight face of realization. "If he's not asking for a cigarette maybe don't reintroduce that."
A half-hearted laugh from Emma was heard in return. "Right." While it was a bit frustrating the doctor did make a decent point. it's better to give him a gentle reintroduction rather than just completely letting go of the leash and hoping he doesn't do anything stupid.
"He does however still need to visit for a few more months. Let's see, what day is it?" The doctor asks before checking his phone, "The second so," the doctor clicked his tongue while thinking. "Let's meet again on the 16th, same time if you can."
"The 16th works," Emma agrees.
"Excellent, we'll see you then. As always if you need anything just call," The doctor repeats his usual parting message.
"Thanks," Emma says in return before turning to make her way back out of the room. How on earth was she going to do with without Chris having access to other alcohol. It wasn't exactly easy to but a single beer at the grocery store. Having extra around the house was a great way to get him to go on a scavenger hunt while she was sleeping.
The woman continued to puzzle over the dilemma as they made their way home. Down the highway, off the exit and a few streets later the family made their way to the ever comforting and familiar Cul-de-sac they called home. Emma smiled at the building, home at last. It had been a long day. For now, she put the alcoholic riddle to the back of her mind and helped get the family indoors.
"I'm gonna go play in my room," Rose says as she hurries to take her shoes off.
"Okay, dinner should be ready in an hour or so," Emma says, so the child knew not to get too invested in a game or activity to the point she wouldn't be willing to put it down to eat.
"yes mom," Rose says and hurries on her way over to the stairs.
Hearing that caused Emma to smile as she made her way to the living room alongside Chris, so she could put Piers down on his blanket. "Oh, Chris, can you please help me remember, you have a visitor that should be here tomorrow night?"
"Which one?" Chris asks with a mildly curious expression as he moved to take his usual seat.
"You know I'm not supposed to give you names," Emma says with a short chuckle.
"it's been 3 months who else is left to remember?" Chris asks with genuine curiosity. He seemed to know a decent number of people considering how many 'visitors' he already had.
Um oh I don't know how about your own wife and child, Emma thought as her annoyance remained. part of her was kicking herself for just giving Chris her name right off the bat. She didn't realize it at the time but, having him say a person's name was a pretty good indicator for if he remembered them and she threw her own indicator right out the window in the first 5 seconds of seeing him. Granted she had hoped her name would be enough but that proved to be in vain.
"I think you have 2 more visitors after this. one more later this month and one next month," Emma answered instead.
Chris bobs his head upon hearing that. That wasn't so bad. "Good to know." maybe he could figure out who they are if he dug though his library of books a bit more.
Emma made her way over to the kitchen and got a pot of water started on the stove and set the oven to preheat. What was she going to make tomorrow... Emma leaned back against the counter as she used her phone to flip through recipes wait Leon visited before for dinner. what did she make then? Emma wracked her mind for the memory. she went to Ms. Russo that day to check on her and found out about Mr. Russo's passing... they made Semifreddo with cranberries and almonds for dessert together. Um... Slow roast! That's right!
She didn't have a roast though and if she was going to make that she'd need to leave it in the crock pot while she was at work... With that thought Emma closed her recipe book app and moved to a grocery delivery app instead. She could order what she needs and waits for it to show up while she cooked.
Into the digital shopping cart went a roast, and the various trimming she'd need to recreate the meal. hopefully the shopper knew how to pick out a decent chunk of meat. As she went through various 'isles' of the digital store a section for Alcohol caught Emma's attention. Maybe... She poked around at various options and web pages for advice as she continued to wait for the water to boil. Before long she'd settled on a solution and smiled as some ginger beer was added to the cart.
While Emma was working on her latest meal-based attempt at getting Chris to remember her, Chris had made his way down to the basement, selected a new book and made his way back up to take his seat on the couch. This one looked promising, a book that went over the history of the BSAA. It helped that he was gaining a better understanding of what to look for on the various shelves of bound pages.
As he moved to get comfortable in his seat the nonsensical chatter of the infant got his attention causing him to look over at the baby boy.
"Bababa baba," the infant frustratedly babbled while batting at toys that were too far away to reach from his place on the blanket.
Chris watched with a raised eyebrow as the child pushed himself up onto their elbows and knees and wobbly rocked back and forward while making quiet grunts and grumbles that were somewhere between frustrated and concentrated. The child rather intensely stared at his goal, the beginning remnants of eyebrows showed an almost scowling intensity in his concentration.
One more wobbly rocking motion was made, and the child moved backwards instead of forwards before flopping over in a failed attempt to crawl. Oh the devastation of it all! He was now even further away from the toys. Frustrated whining and pouting warned of incoming crocodile tears as the infant chewed on their own hand in an attempt to sooth himself.
Hearing this caused Emma to look up from her phone. "What's the matter?" she cooed as she moved to start making her way over.
"I got it," Chris says as he put down his book and pushed himself to get up. He had somehow become the official baby flipper whenever Piers rolled over so, might as well keep doing that.
By the time Chris got up, Emma was already at the blanket and picking up the cranky child. Chris was already standing though, no point in wasting the effort, so he slowly made his way over as well.
"What happened? did you roll over again?" Emma continued to coo while gently rocking and bouncing the child in her arms to try and get him to calm down.
"He took a bit of a tumble," Chris answered on the child's behalf. "He was rocking around a bit on his knees and elbows. You might want to check his shoulder to make sure he didn't bang it up."
"Really?" Emma asks surprised. Was he trying to crawl already? It felt so soon. It was hard to believe that, by the end of the year the infant would likely be trying to walk. "let's take a look at your shoulder then. Which one was it?" She says to Piers at first before looking at Chris for an answer.
"Left shoulder," Chris says in response.
Emma unbuttons the child's onesie enough to move the cloth away from the shoulder. "I'm not seeing any bruising but, I'll keep an eye on it."
Chris nods and waits as the onesie was closed back up and Emma nuzzled the child before peppering them with kisses causing the infant to squeal and giggle while trying to grab her face. Seeing this caused a gentle smile to cross his face. She was a good mother. The thought caused an annoying question to return. Where the actual hell was the father? This was getting ridiculous. They were missing everything. Honestly, whoever this asshat was they didn't deserve to call themself a father. They didn't deserve this family if they were going to abandon it. They didn't deserve E-.
"Chris?" Emma voice broke his frustrated line of thought.
"Hm?" he replied somewhat confused but sure enough She had already put down the much calmer happier child and was now looking at Chris with a concerned expression. He was spacing out again. "Sorry, I zoned out a bit for a second. what were you saying?"
"I could tell... I just wanted to make sure you're okay," Emma admits. "Were you remembering something?" she asks while trying not to sound too hopeful.
Chris shook his head no. "Nothing in particular. I'm just a bit worn out from the Physical Therapy I guess."
Dang it... "Not a problem, get some rest, dinner should be ready in 45 minutes or so," Emma says before moving to leave and got back to work.
Noodles were boiled, sauce was prepared along with some garlic bread and green beans. As Emma was moving the various parts of the meal into serving dishes a knock could be heard at the door. Emma smiled as Chris curiously leaned back in his seat. He thought she said this new visitor wouldn't be here until tomorrow.
He watched as she brought a few bags back into the kitchen with her. That made more sense. she ordered some groceries. it's kinda bullshit that his card still didn't work, and he wasn't allowed to order anything but hey. it was a very cushy house arrest, and he wasn't going to complain too much. to her. anyone else was fair game though.
Emma smiled as she hurried to put everything away and to her surprise the ginger beer was still somewhat cold. she took one out of the cardboard case and put the bottle next to Chris's plate before putting the remaining 3 into the fridge along with the rest of the ingredients she ordered.
Once the last-minute groceries were put away Emma finished moving the last of the meal she prepared to the table. "Chris dinner's ready," she says before making her way over to the stairs to get Rose from her room.
While Emma did this Chris got up and made his way over to the table a confused and curious expression formed as he noticed the dark brown bottle next to his glass of water. "hello," he says quietly as he makes his way over and took a seat, so he could pick up the bottle and inspect it. It's still sort of cold too.
Emma made her way back to the dining area and smiled as she noticed Chris examining the bottle.
The agent looked over at her confused. "Beer?" not that he was against it but, last he remembered she was very against him having anything of the sort.
"Sort of. It's ginger beer, it's very weak," She admits, it wasn't like she had any intentions of lying about it in the first place though.
And now he was sad. "so, a light beer?" he asks, hopefully.
"More like you'd need 10 of them to get close to being the same as a light beer," Emma says in return, rather proud of her quick research. "Legally, it's defined as a soda."
"... And how many are in the fridge?" he asks with an attempt at a not suspicious smile. Please say there are 9 more of these...
"There are 3 more in the fridge,"
Damn it.
"And if you can't be responsible with those, then you don't get more," Emma explains as he wasn't particularly subtle with is line of thought.
Well, at least it was something... A defeated sigh crossed his lips before nodding and making a 'cheers' motion with the bottle in his hand before opening it. At least it was progress.
'*'*'*'*'
The next day came without much fanfare. Emma woke up and got ready. To her relief all 3 bottles were still in the fridge. Chris seemed to be taking his 'probation drink' seriously and didn't down the rest in the night. And to Chris's annoyance Emma set up a roast in the slow cooker before leaving which meant he had to smell the thing cooking. All. Day. That should be considered a form of torture because he knew if he even tried to snitch the tiiiniest bite, she would know.
Instead, he pushed himself to endure the scent. It would be a nice reward for navigating whatever hell-scape this latest visitor caused him to remember. It might even make a decent 'left over sandwich' if there was anything left over. That was the only dilemma left for him to worry about for the day. Did he focus on self-control, so there would be leftovers or did he want to enjoy as much of the meal as possible when it was fresh? This was a pretty decent life if that was the worst of his concerns.
Chris smiled a bit at that thought while reading over the history of the BSAA. Apparently, he had a lot to do with its existence, and it wasn't a hospital. That was just the medical wing of the headquarters. Go figure.
The garage door could be heard opening and closing some time after. "I'm home," Emma says as she walks into the house.
"Welcome home!" Rose happily says as she hurries over to Greet Emma and cling to her legs. "Can we eat dinner now, I'm starving." she says with a dramatic tone while leaning back to pull on the woman's leg.
"Careful, Rosie I don't want to fall over," Emma says while staying in place to avoid dropping Piers.
"Dinner, dinner~" the child cheers while giggling at her own silly antics.
"Soon, I still need to work on it," Emma replies, and the child eventually let go. "If you want dinner done quicker you can help me by watching Piers."
"Okay!" Rose agrees before hurrying over to the blanket where the child would rest and play.
Seeing this causes Emma to smile, and she makes her way over as well where she notices Chris reading in his usual seat. "Hey, you're pretty quiet, how was your day," Emma asks as she puts down the baby.
"Hm?" Chris looks up from the book that felt almost like an autobiography. "Oh, um. It was good," He says in return. For some reason, it was getting harder to talk to Emma. The more he talked to her and relaxed around her, the more difficult it was to keep his thoughts in check. Frankly, the number of times he'd imagine the two sharing a bed or cozied up together was sad. These fantasies of his felt so real though, which just made it all the more embarrassingly pathetic. Just get over it she's not into you.
"Cool, glad you had a good day," Emma says in return. his answers just kept getting shorter... did he hate her or something? "Your visitor should be here in an hour or so." She adds in another attempt at a conversation.
"Thanks," Chris says and goes back to reading.
And another rejected conversation starter, awesome. Thanks. "Not a problem," Emma says before leaving to get to work on the latest family meal.
Honestly, at this point she didn't want to tell him who she was out of sheer stubbornness. She wanted HIM to remember because this was getting to where it was borderline insulting. Sure She was the first person he met after waking up so maybe his memories of her are a tiny bit scrambled but, come ON! She was so sure that spam trick would have worked... maybe she should have tried putting googly eyes on everything in the fridge... oh well... 20-20 hindsight.
Emma continued to try and think over various plans and ideas to try and get Chris to remember her by going over her own memories of him as she cooked. Maybe she could try and get Hound Wolf Squad to visit for a poker night some time... it was hard to reach them though since she didn't have their numbers and Chris's phone didn't survive the trip. Maybe she could ask the doctor next time they were at the BSAA...
The meal was almost ready when the sound of the doorbell echoed through the house causing Duke to quickly jump down from his place on the couch and hurry over to the door while barking.
Right, Leon doesn't really do well with dogs. "One second!" Emma says as she hurries to wipe off her hands and made her way to the door. "duke upstairs. bedtime," she says and tries to lead the dog up the stairs only for Duke to dodge and weave out of the way. he did not want to go to bed there was a person at the door!
Emma grabbed the dog's collar instead and lead duke to the back door to let him outside instead and turned on the porch light for the pooch. "Sorry bud just give me a few minutes okay?" Emma says under her breath before making her way back to the front door, so she could open it.
"Leon, hey, it's good to see you," Emma says quietly as she let the man in.
"Hey," He says in greeting.
Once she closed the door behind him, she held out a hand. "Weapons." she says while making a 'hand them over' motion. She did not trust him that much after last time.
Leon raised an eyebrow at this before eventually relenting and handing over the pistol he had hidden in his jacket.
"Knife too," Emma says knowing well enough at this point. She heard an annoyed sigh in response, but the knife was handed over. "Thank you, He's waiting in the living room." Emma instructs.
"I'm going to be honest, I'm not sure how much help I'll be. We didn't really know each other that well." Leon admits with a hesitant frown.
Emma nods upon hearing this. "Thank you for at least trying. It means a lot." She says as she moves to lock the weapons in the closet for now. "If you need anything while you're here just let me know, and I'll do what I can."
"I'll keep that in mind," Leon says though he didn't really have any intention of taking her up on that offer. he was only really here because Claire talk him into it.
All the same he followed Emma into the main living area where the two parted ways. Emma went back to preparing dinner and Leon made his way past Rose and Piers to take a seat on the other side of the couch Chris was sitting on.
"Hey man, I heard you're having some memory issues," Leon says as he's not really sure what to do he wasn't as well-prepared as the others.
"Among other things, yeah," Chris admits since that kind of greeting was becoming more and more annoying the more he heard it.
"Yeah," Leon hesitantly agrees. Chris said it, not him. "You've always been pretty good at crashing my vacations. Do you have anything to drink around here?" the younger man asks. maybe that would jog his memories?
Instead, Chris stared at Leon with a mixture of confusion and concern. "Yeah no, unless you want ginger beer, in which case be my guess."
That didn't work... The two sat there for a few moments longer in awkward silence as Leon tried to think over what to do. Instead, he drew a big fat blank. A defeated sigh crossed his lips as he partially hung his head. "This is pointless, what did Claire expect me to do..."
God was this guy only able to communicate through complaining? Chris thought with an annoyed frown upon over hearing this. Oddly enough, that thought felt familiar.
Are you just going to sit here and feel sorry for yourself?!
Wait. He said that. a while ago. He was on a mission. He was trying to ask whoever this was for help, but he just kept complaining. Flashes of images and scenes started to play in his mind of the New York mission. Civilian casualties were numerous, something both of them usually tried to avoid. there was a woman with them too. Who was she?
He couldn't remember. it felt like he was watching the memory in reverse. as it played back he remembered that He and whoever the woman was, they went to Leon because they knew he could help. He met Leon before this. His sister introduced them at some conference about bioweapons.
This guy knew his sister?
That's right... She was really excited for the two of them to meet each other... He remembered Claire calling him a few times after that, these weren't usually happy memories thought. Chris starts to nod as the memories became clearer. "You know, I think I'm starting to remember you now," Chris admits while keeping a neutral expression. "Leon, right?" he asks.
huh, well, that wasn't so hard. "Yep." Leon admits with mild surprise.
"Yeah no I remember you now. you kinda came in clutch with that New York mission, you distracted those the steroid super dog things..."Chris says as he mentions the memory he got back first.
"The Glenn Aris Mess. Yeah, that was not a fun mission, I was supposed to be on vacation then too," Leon says with a half-hearted laugh. While it wasn't a great memory, it was one he was somewhat fond of since it did help him in its own weird ways.
"you know I'm remembering something else too. There's something I've been meaning to give you," Chris admits as he moves to get up.
"Really?" Leon asks as confused disbelief spread across his face.
"Yep," He says as he starts walking over and motions for Leon to get up.
While it was a bit of an odd request Leon did what he was told and moved to stand up and the second he did Chris decked him in the face. The impact sound was enough to get Emma's attention and see Leon stumble back a few steps.
"That's for cheating on my sister you no good son of a bit-," Chris started only for Leon to get up and tackle him in retaliation.
Rose yelps upon seeing this and quickly moves to pick up her now crying baby brother to get out of the way of the fighting adults.
Oh gosh, not okay. this is bad, Emma thought as she quickly moved to try and intervene. "Both of you knock it off," Emma shouts from the kitchen while trying to think of what to do. While part of her was tempted to just open the back door and let duke in to get Leon to move away, there was the chance that Leon would lash out at the dog instead.
In the end she grabbed a chip clip from the counter and hurried over to where the boys were wrestling. Chris's hair was too short to grab, so instead she attached the Chip clip to his ear as a distraction before scruffing the back of Leon's hair and pulling to get the two away from each other.
"I said that's enough!" Emma says as she moves to get in between the two of them as they stood up. "Seriously what is wrong with both of you, there are children around," Emma says with a scowl as she scolds both of them.
"He fucking started it," Leon points out as a black eye was starting to form.
"And I'm ending it, get out," Emma says in return. "You're no longer welcome here," Was she probably being a bit harsh, yes, Leon went out of his way to stop by and try and help Chris, but it was beyond frustrating that even after shaking the guy down for any sort of weapons they still ended up fighting!
"Of course you're taking his side, goddamn bi-"
"Hey!" Chris moved forward to try and shove Leon only to stop as Emma stayed in the way to block his path.
"You are not helping," Emma says with an annoyed frown before looking back at Leon. "Go."
"Gladly, just give my shit back, and I'll leave," Leon says with an irritated scowl.
"I am not handing a gun over to someone who was just in a fight, I will mail it to you, and you're going to deal with that, or I'm calling Claire," Emma says while trying to maintain control of the situation.
The stare down continued as if he was trying to determine if continuing to fight was worth it and ultimately a decision was made. "Whatever," Leon says as he turns to head back to the door. "Fuck you Redfield," he says while walking away.
"Get bent, Kennedy!" Chris says in response while Emma made sure to stay in the way.
"Your sister already does that," he shouts from the doorway as he leaves.
Upon hearing that Emma puts her hands up and steps back as Chris immediately chases after the quickly retreating man. If Leon had a death wish that was on him.
Instead, Emma went over to the stairs where rose was sitting with a still crying baby Piers. "Hey sweetie, are you okay?"
"They were really loud and mean to each other," Rose says in response as Emma took piers.
"They were," Emma agrees in a calm quiet voice. "I think today is a dessert first day for you and me and no dessert for Chris for being mean. What do you think?"
Rose nods in return. She didn't get dessert after running away so that seemed fair.
"Yeah? Okay, let's go get dessert first then, and I'll set my laptop in your room, so you can watch a movie too. Does that sound good?" Emma offers as well, she was definitely going to be having a talk with a certain someone after this.
"Swan princess?" Rose asks hopefully.
"Absolutely, let's go get that set up," the motherly figure agrees before leading Rose into the kitchen, gathering a plate with the light Italian dessert she prepared along with a few extra cookies for good measure and helped Rose set up the laptop to watch the requested movie. Rose was more than content with her reward for keeping her brother safe, and it wasn't until Emma put Piers down in his crib that she heard the front door open and closed again.
Time for round two. With both of the kids in their rooms and distracted Emma made her way back downstairs and found Chris in his usual seat now with an extra bruise or two starting to form. Strangely Duke was back in the house too and once more resting on the other couch by the window.
"bastard got away," Chris grumbled under his breath as he recognized Emma's footsteps. "The second duke ran around the side of the house he bolted for his bike and left."
Well, that answered that. Emma made her way to the fridge and found a cold slab of meat that she had pre-cut and put into a plastic bag. with that collected, she made her way back over to Chris and put that against the bruise on his face.
"You know you probably just setback your Physical Therapy by another month at least because of that stunt," She starts off.
"Worth it," Chris says as he moves to nudge Emma's hand, so he could take the bag and hold it himself.
"Wrong answer," Emma says with a more noticeably cross tone.
"You heard what he said," Chris points out with an annoyed frown, he was not the villain here, he was protecting his sister.
"Yeah and you also started it by decking him," Emma points out as she crossed her arms. "It's one thing for you not to like your sister's Ex, but She's the one that asked him to be here. She set up the more of these visitations for you, not me." Emma admits. Granted she asked Claire to set them up, but Claire did the heavy lifting. "He's still important to her, and frankly I'm pissed you started a fight near the kids. What if they got hurt?" Emma points out which did get Chris to shut up and not argue like he was originally going to. "Could you have at the least just, went out back first? Or just open the back door have Duke startle him, so he runs off or anything that wasn't that?" Emma asks rhetorically. "I'm just lucky Rose had enough fore thought to move Piers out of the way. You don't even have the excuse of the two of you being drunk this time, that was just 100% certified organic stupid!" While she didn't like being mad at Chris, Amnesia or not there was no way she was letting him off the hook without at least a lecture after that.
"So, here's what's going to happen. First off, You are going to go apologize to Rose for scaring the daylight out of her. Second, you are going to be calling your sister and telling her what happened. And third I'm not buying you any more probation alcohol for 3 weeks so you better make those last 2 bottles count," Emma lists off the consequences that were much more fitting in her mind than just one night without dessert.
Chris listened, and his annoyed frown remained, did she just ground him? Seriously who did she think she was? his mother? He wanted to argue, but the reason for her anger was hard to ignore since she was pretty blatant about it. She wasn't really upset about the fighting, as much as she was upset that He could have hurt the kids. In an attempt to protect one person he put others in danger. That definitely made him feel like garbage.
The agent pushed past the aching pain of forming bruises to stand up, so he could face Emma who was glaring daggers back at him, still ready for a fight thanks to adrenaline. "... I'm sorry for not thinking that through completely, and for putting the kids in a bad spot," he says as he adjusts Emma's list of demands slightly by apologizing to her first. He definitely was not sorry for beating the crap out of Leon, but, he was sorry about that.
The glaring stare faded into a softer disappointment. "Fine," Emma says She'd accept that apology if... once he remembered who she was. "Go talk to Rose. she's in her room."
"Right..." Chris says with a slight nod and moved to go and do so.
'*'*'*'*'
Roughly two weeks had passed since then and peace returned to the home. True to Emma's word Chris was expected to call his sister and got a similar lecture from Claire for being irresponsible and how punching things wasn't always going to solve his problems. Emma kept her word as well and refused to buy any further probation alcohol making the two bottles in the fridge a treasured asset. While he'd already downed one of the bottles the other was left in reserve for a particularly deserving occasion be that a bad day or a good one.
While Emma was tempted to cancel this latest visit, that seemed a bit too far since the visits were actually helping Chris remember, and part of her was hoping that this one in particular just might help Chris remember her too. All the same Emma happily hummed along to the radio as she cleaned up around the kitchen while waiting for Bastion and Travis to arrive. This was the one visit that she scheduled, and she was pretty excited to see her friends as well.
As she worked on washing off the surface of the kitchen island her face contorted to a confused expression while slightly tilting her head. "Hold on, did the song just speed up?" She wasn't the only one that heard that right?
Chris had not been paying too much attention to the background noise though as he was re-reading that book about the BSAA, it was the most useful resource he'd found so far. "hm?" he offered to at least acknowledge he heard her speaking.
"The song on the radio. The tempo's off," Emma says as she folds up and put down the rag on the counter for a moment, so she could go over to the tiny old fashion radio styled phone dock and check on it. maybe the kids got to it? that wouldn't make sense though, it changed in the middle of the song...
The agent listens a bit more critically before moving to get up. maybe it was a proximity thing? He made his way over to the kitchen but he didn't notice anything particularly off about the song. "It sounds fine to me."
There was definitely something off... The dock didn't seem broken. Emma put the dock back down on the counter, "What station is this?" she quietly asked under her breath while checking the display. 108.3 She knew a guy who worked there well enough. With that thought, she picked her phone up off the dock, turned down the volume of the radio and started tapping at the screen.
"you're not calling the station are you?" Chris asks concerned. good lord she's gone insane.
"Just calling an old friend," Emma says as she set the phone to speaker mode while making a gentle motion for Chris to be quiet.
"Hey-llo?" the phone says, producing a curious and jovial male voice.
"Hey Chuck it's Emma," Emma says in return with a slight smile.
"Well well well, if it isn't the queen behind the kings," the voice says with a short laugh. "Do you have another hit for me? It's been a while," the man asks with playful curiosity.
I'm sorry what? Chris thought confused as he looked between Emma and the phone.
Emma chuckles in response "Nah, I wouldn't know about that, Just a quick call to talk to an old friend is all," she says in response.
"Ah well, can't be helped. They were good, I'd hate to see them end up as a one-hit wonder, do you know where they ended up?" Chuck asks with genuine curiosity as he seemed content to chat and catch up.
"Sadly no," Emma admits, "I'm not in that business anymore, so I lost track of them."
"It's a shame really. About both you and the kings." Chuck says with a sympathetic tone. "Let me know if you end up getting into freelance. I got a few people I could throw your name to if you end up getting the itch,"
Chris remained quiet and continued to watch in confusion. what was all this about being in the business and kings, and he was not sure how he felt about some random guy calling Emma a queen? Seriously? He spent the last 3 months quietly accepting she's married and this guy just has no shame whatsoever. It wasn't fair.
"Aw, thanks." Emma says with a touched smile, that was really sweet of chuck to offer. "I was actually calling about your equipment," Emma admits with another chuckle.
" 'scues me?" Chuck asks as Emma could practically hear the man raise his eyebrow in confusion.
"One of your interns bumped into the sound deck. That or they're messing with it for a bet." Emma offered as an explanation. "The playback speed is off by .05 at least," She further explained with a confident smile.
"I can already hear that shit eating grin of yours. Alright, I'll go check but if it's anything less than that you owe me lunch got it?" Chuck replies, offering the friendly bet on the matter if he was going to have to go through the effort of finding out what was wrong.
"Okay, but you're going to be missing lunch," Emma playfully replies, it was nice getting to talk to the guy after kind of abruptly not doing that.
a short laugh could be heard before a long pause as the radio worker goes to check. "huh. would you look at that..." the worker says breaking the long pause and causing Emma to look over at Chris with a smile that pretty clearly read 'I told you so.'
"Point, zero four eights. You're off," Chuck says with an amused tone.
Emma's mouth opened in annoyed disbelief, "Oh come on that rounds up." she counters.
"You owe me lunch is what that rounds up to," Chuck says with a laugh.
Emma clicked her tongue but relented "Fine, it just has to be over the weekend okay? I can't just run off I have kids to think about," The woman says with a content smile all the same. It would be nice to have time to catch up with an old friend, and she did promise herself that she was going to do better about giving herself time to relax on her own.
"Hold the phone since when? bring uhm with I wanna meet the little munchkin," Chuck offers.
Emma openly laughs "You're robbing me Chuck. Lunch for four?" she points out as the meal quickly doubled in price.
"Two of them?! Jesus you've been busy," Chuck replies clearly stunned by that.
This only caused Emma to laughs more "What can I say, I know how to live," she replies while sparing a quick glance and smile at Chris.
"Clearly," Chuck says in return. "Well thanks for the check in, We'll have to schedule that lunch another time. I have to be ready to start my part of the show in an hour and the manager is giving me a stare."
"Alright, it was good talking to you," Emma says with an understanding smile.
"Good talking to you too, bye," The radio host says in parting.
"bye," Emma turned to look over at Chris once more. "Told you so," she says with a smile.
"Yeah I guess so, what was that?" Chris asks finally verbalizing his surprise. "Were you in a band or."
"Nah, I was just the marketing manager for a small-time record label, it's a bit of a long story," Emma says with an hint of amusement while thinking over her current job. "It would probably take about 20 chapters to tell. maybe a bit more." Emma adds as she moved to pick up her wash rag once more and got back to wiping off the counter.
Chris was about to talk when Duke started barking and scratching at the back door.
"Moooom I can't find my Angie!" Rose shouts from upstairs and the loud noises startled the baby which caused him to start crying.
A tired sigh escaped Emma. Okay, she can figure this out. Pick up the baby first she thought, but the thought was cut off as she noticed Chris walking away to get Duke's Leash.
"I'll take care of Duke," Chris offers. He was supposed to be taking walks anyways, might as well make them a bit more useful.
"Thank you for the help, I Appreciate it," Emma says as she moved to pick up Piers and gently bounce the child to try and calm him.
"Mooooooom," Rose shouts from the top of the stairs again since she didn't get a response.
"Seriously where the hell is this husband of yours it's been almost 4 months?" Chris asks with a slight scowl as he finally decided to verbalize his concern. "I get that he's away for work, but this is getting ridiculous. It's one thing to be away for work, but it's another to never come home at all, He should be helping you with this."
"I think you're being a bit too hard on him," Emma says while trying to push back her amusement.
"And I think I'm being too gentle because I don't want to hurt your feelings, He's an absentee prick that's not carrying his own weight," Chris says freely at this point. It was somewhat terrifying, but he wanted to tell her how he felt.
"He does more than you think," Emma says with a gentle smile. Even without knowing he was married, or a father Chris still helped out around the house, he watched Rose and helped her with her homework. He'd check on Piers when she was busy with cooking or cleaning. He helped with Duke when she was busy with the kids, and he'd clean when she was away. "He's a pretty great guy, and sure I get mad at him sometimes because he'll do something particularly stupid but, I love him dearly."
Well, that sucked. "Fine," Chris says with an annoyed frown as he hooked up Duke's Leash. Any interest in expressing his 'feelings' quickly diminished and he needed to burn off some steam. This asshole did absolutely nothing to deserve this kind of loyalty. He abandoned her, and it pissed him off to hear her praise this guy when he didn't deserve it.
Emma watched as Chris left with a slight frown. Hopefully Bastion would be able to help.
Piers Eventually settled down and Emma was able to help a very annoyed rose find her Angie doll. Chris was still away when a knocking was heard at the front door. It was strange to hear that and not hear barking right after but all the same Emma made her way down the stairs to go and answer the door.
"Hey!" Bastion says happily upon seeing Emma and the baby. "Oh my gosh he's gotten so big! Look at you, little mister," Bastion says in cooing babying tone.
"Good to see you too," Emma says amused before looking to Travis. "Hey Travis."
the quieter man gave a slight wave. "good to see you."
"Come in, Chris is out walking Duke at the moment, but he should be back in a few minutes," Emma explains as she lets the two into the house and closes the door behind them.
"Perfect, so, any luck with his memories?" Travis asks curiously while bastion was busy playing Peekaboo with Piers.
"None," Emma admits with a slight frown. "I don't get it, I thought he'd remember me by now, but he's pretty solidly convinced I'm married to someone else and that he's just renting out the basement."
"Have you corrected that?" Bastion asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Well... No, not really. I'm not supposed to. the doctor said I'm supposed to let him remember on his own and only answer questions if he asks. Don't just hand it to him because it can cause more problems than it solves,"
"I did not work so hard getting both of you together only for it to be undone like this," Bastion says with a slight frown as he crossed his arms.
"Well, luckily we packed the 'wake up Chris' special. you said he's staying in the basement now?" Travis adds with a sympathetic chuckle while holding up a small tote bag.
"Yeah," Emma confirms while curiously eyeing the bag.
"We'll wait for him down there then, just send him down once he's home okay?" Bastion requests.
"You're the boss, I'll let him know," Emma agrees with a nod. "Piers and I will just be in the living room. If you need anything just shout,"
"That's the plan," Bastion replies with a mischievous smile while He and Travis made their way to the basement.
Chris continued his walk with the golden furred pooch around the quiet neighborhood. He paid little mind to the cars that drove by as he stewed over the frankly infuriating conversation he just had. Honestly, what was he expecting though? some glitter ridden starry eyed display of admiration just because he offered to walk the dog?
"You agree with me, right?" Chris asks while looking over to Duke who sneezes in response. "... and now I'm talking to the dog," he says with a frustrated sigh.
It took a good 10 minutes to walk the dog around the street but he at least got his daily walk in, so hopefully the doctor would get off his case for the next visit. As he approached the house he noticed a new car parked outside. That would be his luck that he bad-mouthed her husband and he'd show up right after...
Chris braced himself as he made his way back into the house through the front door and unhooked Duke's leash, giving the pooch the freedom to hurry back to his place on the couch by the window.
The tapping of paws against hard wood caught Emma's attention. "Chris?" Emma calls to see if he was in the house.
Chris hesitated but eventually spoke up. "yeah?"
oh good, "Your visitors are here, they're in the basement." Emma says while she continued to focus on cleaning.
Hearing this caused him to raise an eyebrow. that was unusual. normally they'd just meet him in the living room... "Alright then I'll head down then," He says and cautiously made his way down into the basement. As he rounded the corning into his portion of the basement he found two people waiting for him.
"There you are, we've been expecting you," Bastion says with a smile.
Hearing this causes Chris's confused expression to deepen. "Pretty sure I'm supposed to be the one saying that..."
"And yet, you're the one who's late. Per usual I suppose," Bastion retorts as his mischievous smile returned. "Anyways I have something for you." Bastion says before heading over to Travis and digging through the bag that they brought. producing a white Corset like piece of cloth that closed with several plastic buckles.
Bastion offered the fabric to Chris who accepts it and looks it over. "... Was I a stripper or something?" Chris asks as he was unsure what to make of the unusual gift.
The question was amusing at the least as it caused his guests to laugh. "Put it on, and maybe you'll remember," Bastion says and makes a shooing motion for Chris to do as he said. "If that doesn't work I have a few other items that might be of interest. Photos and such."
A quiet huff of air passed his lips as he looked over the fabric again. This was one of those moments where he wasn't sure if he wanted to remember. However, the promise of photos should he comply with the request made it harder to reject. This would be a first for a visitor to provide pictures. Usually, it was just objects, words or songs.
"Fine," Chris eventually relents and gets to work putting the militant styled corset on over his shirt. Unfortunately for him, the corset did not get any wider since the last time he wore it, and he did not get any thinner. "It's a bit tight," He wheezed out while trying to take shallow breaths.
"Oh darn, well, I guess you'll just need to take it off then, sorry that didn't work," bastion says with a rather poor attempt at pretending to be disappointed.
Chris fumbled with the claps that refused to budge. this felt familiar... "It's stuck," he says through another shallow breath.
"One second~" Bastion says while walking away and making his way up the stairs and towards the kitchen. "Emma~ Emma we need your help could you be a dear and grab a butter knife and come with me," Bastion says with a smug, cat like grin.
"I, what?" Emma asks confused as she put down the Rag once more.
"Action now, questions later it is somewhat urgent," Bastion replies and motions for Emma to move quickly.
Emma does as she's told and grabs a butter knife from the silverware drawer before following Bastion back into the basement where she found Chris, still fumbling with the clasps of the cursed corset in an attempt to free himself.
"Oh for the love of god, not again," Emma says with a deadpan stare. "Bastion you know he doesn't fit in that!" She chides the coyly smiling nail tech.
"Sorry~ I forgot," He lied.
Emma rolled her eyes before making her way over to Chris. "Move your hands," she says as she nudged Chris's hands out of the way, so she could rather unceremoniously jab the butter knife into the buckle and force it to release.
Pop, Click, Clunk. The remaining buckets received the same treatment and Chris was freed from the restrictive fabric.
"There, that's much better," Emma says as she looks up at Chris with a gentle smile.
Chris smiled back as he remembered that this was pretty familiar too. This happened before. It was Halloween. He loved Halloween. Dressing up and goofing off for a day was fun but, he wasn't always great with the creative aspect of it. he usually got help from one of the neighbors with his costumes. Bastion? Right. Bastion would help him with his costumes. It was shortly after Emma moved in, and he got stuck in one. Bastion wasn't able to get him out either, and they had to go to Emma.
Bastion watched with a content expression as well as he noticed Chris was looking back at Emma with the same relaxed and content smile that he did all those years before. Yep, he was still in there. His own content smile quickly turned to a nervous avoiding glance as Emma quickly turned to glare at him.
"Don't do that again, You're going to irritate his injuries. They only just barely healed," Emma chides further.
"Sorry, sorry," Bastion says while holding up his hands. "Thanks for the save."
Emma did not seem convinced and remained in place.
"I'll keep an eye on them," Travis says hoping to help appease the unhappy woman.
"... fine, I'm leaving the butter knife here though." she says as she moves to put that down on the bedside table before heading back upstairs.
Bastion waited for Emma to be out of ear shot before speaking. "I think that went well." he admits as his smile returned. "So, what did you remember?"
"I remembered you have a knack for getting me into trouble," Chris says while trying to suppress a smile.
"mayhaps," Bastion says with a laugh. "alright well you did put on the corset so, as promised you can have the rest of the bag," Bastion adds.
"It's not much but, hopefully, it helps," Travis says while handing the canvas tote bag to Chris.
Chris accepts it and moves to take a seat on his bed, so he could start pulling out different scraps of paper. At first, the more of them were pictures of Him in various costumes for Halloween. A few pictures of him with Bastion. Then the grouping grew to include a picture of Him, Bastion and Emma dressed in some sort of harlequin costume set. A picture of the 3 of them with a few others and duke at a picnic. Chris smiled at the pictures before a larger flyer caught his attention. One for some sort of Halloween festival that loudly proclaimed that it had some top tier haunted house along with family-friendly attractions.
"... We went to this," Chris says while reading over the flyer.
"Yes we did, do you remember why?" Bastion asks while crossing his arms.
Chris shook his head no.
"Figures..." Bastion says with a tired sigh.
"The three of us, we're friends?" Chris asks curiously as he held up the picture of himself, Bastion and Emma in their matching Halloween costumes.
"Hey hey hey, four, thank you," Travis cuts in. "I know I'm a late addition to the squad but I at least made it to movie night every month."
"I don't really remember that," Chris admits with a slight frown.
"Well, I have a good idea of how you can remember," Bastion says as a new idea forms since the pictures and corset were not completely working as planned. "Start watching movies with Emma. You two started the whole movie night thing anyways so if you pick it up again then maybe you'll remember more." the nail tech explained. Yeah, sure he wasn't supposed to just give Chris information, but he wasn't great at following the rules. Chris always did need an extra nudge, so he was going to get it.
"I'm not so sure if that's a great idea," Chris says in return.
"And pray us tell, why is that?" Bastion asked with an annoyed tone while trying to keep his eye from twitching. he forgot how difficult this block head could be.
"We kinda, had a bit of a spat... a few of them actually," Chris hesitantly admits. "I might have started a fight with the last guest, and I kinda, might have sort of started bad-mouthing her husband a bit less than an hour ago... not to mention I lost Rose the other month so... yeah I don't really think she'd want anything to do with me right now none the less, spend time with me, alone."
Oh for the love of, "Christopher Redfield do you want your memories back or not?" Bastion asks with an annoyed frown.
"I don't feel like I'm missing any at this point," Chris says with an equally annoyed tone in response.
"Trust me. you are. A lot of them, important ones too," Bastion counters in return.
"He's kind of right," Travis says to back up Bastion's claim.
He wasn't supposed to directly tell Chris anything but this guy was beyond impossible. "You and Emma would spend a lot of time together, so, you're going to need to continue to spend time with her to get memories back," Bastion says, hoping that eventually he could get Chris to figure out 2+2 does not equal fish.
"In the meantime, did you have any questions about the photos or anything you're starting to remember?" Travis asks as he moves to lean against the nearest wall. "It's nice to catch up." While his selective memory was a bit frustrating, Travis was the calmer of the two and figured that pushing a square peg through a round hole wasn't going to fix the problem. In the end, it had to be Chris's choice.
"Actually. Yeah. I have a few if you don't mind," Chris admits with a slight nod.
And so, the three spent the next few hours talking about memories, answering questions and clarifying details in the hopes that it would clear up the fog around Chris's time in the apartment building. Dinner was served before the guests parted ways and much to Emma's relief there were no further issues with breathing and no black eyes this time. What lovely progress.
Emma shook her head at that thought while she worked on washing the dishes from the latest shared meal. As she did this Chris Mentally paced around the living room while thinking about the advice that Bastion had given him. It was annoying but it did make sense. If he did spend as much time with Emma as they suggested, if he wants those memories back, they're going to come from her. and that would require spending time with just her... That came with some other benefits too, that were admittedly tempting.
It took him a minute, but he eventually got himself to stand up and make his way over to the kitchen. The sink was rather loud though so it didn't seem like she noticed him approach. great.
"Hey Em-"there was a slight pause before he realized he didn't say the rest of her name, "-ma. I mean Emma. Sorry." Good gosh what was wrong with him? did he like making a fool of himself because it was starting to feel like he did. It took every ounce of his self-control to not, turn around and immediately retreat.
The quiet question quickly got her attention. Wait. Did the visit actually work? He only started calling her Em well after they started dating. "Em is fine," she replies as she hesitantly allows for hope to return.
"Oh... Really?" He asked with surprised confusion.
"Yeah, you used to call me that, before," Emma further confirmed as the hope was short-lived.
he did? "Oh, um good to know," he says with an awkward and nervous expression.
Oh come on. Emma thought annoyed as Charlotte's advice echoed in the back of her mind.
If you want him to remember romance, then romance him.
"Yep, if I remember correctly you had a nickname you were rather fond of too," Emma says with a slight smile. This wouldn't count as just give Chris information at this point right? Right. it was getting difficult to be patient even with the additional fuel of stubbornness.
"I did?" He asks as his confusion returned.
"Mhm," Emma says with a nod. "Alpha," she adds with a wink. It felt weird flirting with him when he didn't know who she was, but she had to try something.
A rather confusing mixture of images resulted from the nickname. Most of them were recent memories and the more of them were coworkers and people he recognized as some sort of team he worked with but for some reason that was annoyingly pushed aside by a rather distracting fantasy of the two in his old apartment, in their underwear, he was holding her close while the two were joking about the nickname.
He could feel his face growing warm. That's not fair, it was like she was trying to do this to him on purpose! "Good to know?" he says with the same awkward and nervous expression from before.
I AM DOING THIS ON PURPOSE AND NOTHING IS WORKING! Emma mentally shouted as he didn't seem to react at all to the nickname. "Yep... sorry, you needed something right?" She asks as she decides to shelf the failed attempt.
"Right. Yeah, I was just wondering if you'd want to watch a movie. Sometime. After the kids are asleep... together," Chris hesitantly requested as the rather distracting thought from before was continuing to tug at his attention. "It's just, while talking to bastion he mentioned that the 4 of use used to get together and watch movies, and I just kind of figured it would be a haste to have him and Travis stop by all the time so, maybe it would help me remember a bit more?" He wasn't asking her on a date it was strictly Platonic. Totally only about getting his memories back and not about getting time alone with her while hoping that she dumps her husband. Yep. Definitely, 100% honorable and not just making sure he was ready to catch a rebound that was probably never going to happen considering she just told him off for bad-mouthing the guy and openly proclaimed her loyalty...
The request was a bit surprising, but it caused a soft smile to form as she heard Chris over explain his reasoning. "I'd like that."
Wait, really? "Cool," Chris says while fighting back some level of shock that she actually agreed to it. Quick, retreat before you say anything else stupid! "Um I'll just go for now then. See you in the morning," he says before giving a slight wave in parting as he turned to leave.
"See you in the morning," Emma replies, watching and waiting as he went down to the basement. "He'll figure it out eventually... I hope," She says under her breath once she was sure he was out of ear shot.
Well guys there is only one more visit left. who do you think it might be =v= 3 I have a feeling everyone is going to really enjoy next chapter. ufufu patience is a virtue all of you have in spades by making it this far in the story X'D
