Hello again you lovely readers it's time to find out who the final visitor is =u= also, as an unrelated side note, remember that plot point I mentioned a while back of Emma Vs the BSAA. Buckle up, this is the chapter I was talking about lol. Kind of a bit of next chapter too lol.
Song Suggestion: All This And Heaven Too by Florence And The Machine
Disclaimer: I own nothing~ Capcom owns Resident Evil and all of its characters. I'm just trying to fill the void between games :') Also fair warning, There's some FanNatic grade spice in this chapter. Nothing excessive but it's there.
"Chris? Chris, I'm heading out to the Grocery store. Do you need anything?" Emma asks as she calls down to the basement.
upon hearing this the man moved to stop punching the punching bag and looked over at the stairs. Oh gracious what did he need from the store... "I think I'm good."
"Final answer?" Emma asks to be sure.
Chris thought on it a bit longer. "OH! Um yeah actually I think I'm out of shaving cream."
That's what she figured. "Okay I'll pick some up. Same brand as last time?"
"Yeah," Chris confirmed before moving to pick up his water bottle. "Oh, we're out of Gatorade too."
Emma rolled her eyes at that as an amused smile crossed her face. This is why she always double-checked.
Rose could hear her guardians' rather loud conversation as they shouted from the top and bottom of the basement stairs. Upon hearing that a shopping trip was about to occur she hurried down from her room to the main floor of the house to find Emma. "Can I go too!" Rose asks happily. She had allowance to spend and the Walmart had toys and groceries so they could do both.
"Are you sure? It's boring," Emma points out since the child would have to probably wait almost 2 hours before she'd get to run around the toy isles.
Rose nods enthusiastically.
"Okay, go put your shoes and jacket on," Emma agrees.
"Yey~" Rose cheered before hurrying off to get ready.
Emma gathered Pier's and put on his jacket and tiny shoes while waiting for Rose to get ready and before long the 3 of them were packed into the car and on their way to the giant warehouse like building that had a little bit of everything but not enough of any one thing to consider it the store's strength or specialty.
The rattling of a loose wheel announced Emma's movement through the Isles of the grocery store starting with the personal care Isles. Food and frozen goods were generally the last stop to keep them from thawing as much as possible.
"Let's see, I think we're okay on toothpaste for now," Emma muttered to herself while looking at the shelves as she walked past. Piers was sitting in the cart's baby seat while Rose followed behind Emma. "Right, you need shampoo," Emma says while looking back a Rose.
Rose nods in return. Her hair was starting to get pretty long, so she had to use more and more soap to keep it clean. Not that she minded it was fun to make lots of bubbles. The little girl started to mess with her hair since she was thinking about it.
I'm not sure how to break it to you, but that one definitely doesn't look like you're the father.
Chris had brown hair, Rose thought before glancing at the woman in front of her. So did Emma... She didn't really look like her family. Even Piers was starting to grow a short brown mop of hair. Maybe that's why the words of the silver haired man started to resurface. It felt silly to worry about but the older she was getting the more self-conscious she was starting to feel about these differences.
Rose continued to follow Emma down another isle, this one housed various shapes sizes and colors of bottles on its shelves and the area around it held a potent floral fragrance. On the opposite wall of shelves there were wracks holding brushes, hair ties and accessories, and shelves with boxes that showed the same woman with different hair colors on each box and small samples of faux hair displayed in a tight loop.
"Okay Rose, which soap do you want this time?" Emma asked as she looks back to the child. Maybe Rose was still a bit young to make that kind of choice but, it felt like a decent gesture to let Rose have some level of independence and choice since she had a pretty restrictive lifestyle. Letting her practice making small choices on her own would hopefully make being independent easier once she was older.
Rose looked between the shelves before walking over to one of the displays and picked up a box where the woman had brown hair. "I want this one."
"Rosie that's not hair soap, that's hair dye," Emma explains with a slight smile. "It makes your hair a different color, it doesn't clean it."
"Yeah," Rose confirms with a nod to show she understood. "I want it."
Emma's expression turned from a mild amusement to surprised confusion. "You want hair dye?"
Rose nods again while continuing to hold the box. "Can I have it, please? I'll use my allowance." The child requests while trying to convince her guardian.
Emma paused to think about this. It wasn't a completely unusual request, even she had a phase where she liked bleaching and dying her hair. Rose seemed a bit young for that though. Her own 'hair dye' phase didn't happen until she was around 16 and Rose was probably closer to 8 and a half...
"Why do you want it?" Emma asks curiously. She didn't want to completely dismiss the request but, a sound decision required sound understanding.
Rose looked at the box in her hands and tried to avoid eye contact. "... My hair is almost white... and you guys have brown hair... I wanna look like you guys."
Oh dear... that didn't make this any easier if anything it made it more difficult. Emma picked up Piers from the cart so she could walk over to Rose and kneel a bit so they were at eye level. "Rosie, I love you no matter what color your hair is, okay?" Emma says as she moves to gently hold the side of the child's face to make sure Rose was looking at her when she said that. "You could have rainbow polka dot hair and green skin and you would still be my little Rosemary."
"Can I have rainbow polka dot hair?" Rose asks very clearly missing the point as the mental image of such a thing seemed beyond cool.
Emma chuckled at this "If that's what you want then that's your choice," Emma confirms as she moves to brush a bit of hair out of Rose's face. "If you want hair dye and you're willing to buy it I'll help you dye your hair. Just know that it doesn't change the fact that you're loved." The motherly figure explains, while it was difficult, she was starting to get a bit better and handling Rose's moments of insecurity and hopefully that meant she was recognizing them quicker before they got as bad. "My only rule will be that it has to be the kind that washes out over time. That way you can wash it out if you don't like it. Okay?" Emma offers as a slight compromise. It didn't seem like the best idea to just let Rose permanently dye her hair right off the bat. If she ends up enjoying a color that she picks and she wants to keep it, sure but for a first try, it shouldn't be permanent.
"Okay," Rose says with a nod. "Which one is rainbow polka dot?" Rose asks as she goes back to looking at the boxes.
Emma smiles as she moves to stand again "Well you'd need a box for each color polka dot you want... and each box is $10." While the desired style was silly, part of her knew that being supportive of the silly example she gave would help reinforce that she meant what she said.
"but I only have $15..." Rose says with a frown.
"True. well, For now maybe start with one color and go from there, Making polka dots will take some practice working with hair dye," Emma points out.
Rose nods. as she looks at the box in her hands. It wouldn't really help with the polka-dotted dream but, brown would be nice... just to see what it's like? "I'll just get this one for now," Rose says as she moves to take her box over to the cart and drops it in.
"Okay," Emma says as she moves to go back to the cart as well. Hopefully she was doing the right thing and wasn't making this worse... Rose seemed happy though so hopefully that was a good indicator.
Rose smiled the whole way through the store while thinking about the exciting new experience she got to pick for herself. She didn't even mind that she wouldn't get to buy a toy.
Emma made sure to keep an eye on Rose in case she seemed to change her mind as they walked through the store. Necessities were added to the cart. dog food was stowed under the basket along with a large pack of paper towels and diapers.
Food slowly started to fill the basket as Piers tried to gnaw on an orange that he pulled out of the plastic bag Emma placed next to him since the cart was getting full.
"Aaahhh baba bah" Piers babbled while trying to teeth on the orange. His poor little gums were sore and it hurt and biting made it feel better.
"That's an Orange," Emma cooed. hopefully the cashier wouldn't notice that piers chewed on the orange before she bought it so long as she put it back in the bag when she made the purchase... He was getting older... he'd be 6 months old in a few days. Half a year old... it was wild to think about. "Can you say mama?" Emma says while pushing the cart. His normal babbling was sorta close to that anyways so maybe he'd be able to figure it out.
"Say Rosie!" Rose chimed in with a giggle. "Ro-see~" she tried braking down the phonetics for the baby who just giggled in response.
"Ahh-eeee," Piers attempted to mimic the sound with very little success. he'd really only figured out vowels and b, so far even if he did understand hearing certain words like bottle, and play and his own name.
Emma smiled at the two as Rose tried to squeeze her way between Emma and the cart so she could play with her little brother while they walked. "Rosie please stay next to the cart, it's hard to move it when you're standing there," Emma requests. "You can play with Piers when we get home."
Rose pouts a bit at that but moves away as she's told. she didn't want her hair dye to get put away because she misbehaved in the store.
The two made their way down an isle of snack foods. While they were tasty treats, they were not exactly necessities so the more of them were ignored. It wasn't until she got to a section of microwave popcorn that she stopped pushing the cart.
I was just wondering if you'd want to watch a movie. Sometime. After the kids are asleep... together
Emma smiled at that thought. Maybe she'd bring up that request of his. With that, she grabbed a small box of popcorn and added the price to her calculator to keep track of the expense. She was actually a little under budget so far. She made her way through a few more Isles and as an additional change, instead of picking up the usual Ginger beer she looked over some other options near it and picked up a small box that showed a simple artistic rendition of a beach. the packaging subtly listed that it held 6 cans of beer with less than 0.5% alcohol. It was still 10 times the amount of the ginger beer but that was probably the next smallest amount she could reasonably find without special ordering it. He can have a slightly higher content and a few more of them to prove he can handle regulating his own intake.
Emma nods and puts that into the cart as well before continuing on her way. The groceries were purchased along with Rose's box of hair dye which Emma separated out from the groceries so the child could practice making a purchase on her own.
Rose held her plastic shopping bag the whole way home. It was hard to be patient when she was so excited! "Can we dye my hair once we get home?"
"Once I finish putting the groceries away," Emma confirms.
"I'll help," Rose offers, hoping that might make the process go a tiny bit faster.
It was hard not to catch the child's infectious excitement and Emma chuckled. "Alright, thanks for the help."
before long the three made it home and true to her word Rose quickly wiggled her way out of her car seat to try and gather as many bags as she could carry from the trunk.
"Careful Rose, don't hurt yourself," Emma says while she works on getting Piers out of his seat so she could head inside where she found Chris sitting on the couch with another book. This time about different types of planes and the control systems. It was a nice refresher course on the subject for him.
"Hey Chris could you watch Piers for a bit?" Emma requests as she walks over while trying to keep an eye on the child who was carrying 5 bags at the same time by dragging them along the floor. "Rose two bags at a time okay? 5 is too many," Emma says giving a more clear definition of what was too much.
"I can do it," Rose rebuttals as she leaves the pile of plastic bags on the floor by the fridge to go and get more.
Oh boy. "Yeah I can watch him," Chris agrees since it was pretty clear to see Emma had her hands full keeping an eye on Rose.
"Thanks," Emma says as she hands over the squirming infant. "By the way, about that offer from before," Emma starts. "Would you want to watch a movie tonight?"
Really? "Uh, yeah. Sure," Chris says while trying and failing to fight back his surprise. He kinda figured he'd have to be the one to initiate that.
"Cool, you can pic-Rose I said only two," Emma says as she quickly grows distracted by the child that was now dragging a collection of 7 bags in protest.
"Hurry uuup," Rose whines.
"Sorry," Emma says to Chris, "We'll talk later?" She says with an apologetic smile before hurrying off.
"Yeah," Chris replies while trying not to be too obvious that he was watching her leave.
Chris continued to hold the wiggling child with his good arm while he held the book he was reading with the other. The crinkling a plastic bags eventually stopped and the door to the garage was closed before Emma and Rose went upstairs. Not that he really minded, Piers wasn't too heavy yet and he was distracted with his reading.
"Bawah baba aaah," Piers babbled while looking around before chomping down on Chris's arm.
"Ah!" Chris says as an instinctive response to being bitten, causing the child to giggle as he quickly moved to put down the book and hold piers so the baby wasn't able to bite his arm anymore. "Don't 'tehe' at me, no biting." Chris says after moving to hold the child a bit closer to his face to make sure they could see his upset expression clearly.
That didn't seem to matter to the child who continued to switch between giggling and a frustrated growling sound while reaching out to try to pat and grab at Chris's face. "Bahbabah, bahda, dada," the baby says while smiling and grabbing at Chris's face. "dahdah." he figured out another new letter, wohoo!
Hearing that caused Chris to freeze up. Haha, you know if he didn't know any better, that sounded like the kid just tried to say dad... Cue the internal screaming! Stop. He was overthinking this. The kid is 6 months old and, to the best of Chris's knowledge, never met his father of course he's just calling anyone dad right? Right. There are possibly thousands of videos of children calling every person they meet mom or dad because they don't understand the concept of titles. And again he's 6 months old, babies don't gain a concept of speaking for like 3 more months? which honestly isn't a long time but it is for a baby so. Yeah.
Chris got up and moved to put the infant down on his blanket. That was enough of that, Chris thought as he went back to his seat and picked up his book again.
Time continued to pass as he tried to focus on reading and not on over thinking. It took another 20 minutes or so before he heard excited footsteps followed by calmer more spaced out steps behind them. Rose and Emma were back it seemed.
"Well hello there cutie," He hears Emma say causing him to look at her with a confused expression, only to realize she was walking over to Piers. "How did you get over here?" Emma asks as she picked up the child who had managed to move a few feet away from his blanket.
"I put him on his blanket," Chris says while mentally reviewing what happened. He was sure he put the kid on the blanket.
"I see," Emma says before smiling at Chris and looking back to Piers. "There's a great big world out there and you want to explore huh?"
The infant giggled at this before trying to grab at Emma's hair.
"Chris! lookie lookie~" Rose says as she hurries over to Chris with her freshly dyed, washed and dried hair that was now a very dark brown that was boarder line black.
"What happened to your hair?" The agent asks with a stunned expression before noticing Emma staring at him with a disapproving frown. "It looks nice," Chris corrected quickly with a nervous expression upon realizing the change was a mother approved one. Seeing her with dark hair caused flashes of memories. They weren't memories of Rose though. He remembered labs and computers and underground mines filled with various dangerous supplies. a mad man operating death traps. Why was he remembering this?
He remembered pictures of a woman with light-brown hair standing next to a group of scientists in lab coats along with a small child, a little older than Rose, but only just barely. The girl dressed in dark clothes and had long dark hair, sort of like rose's now. For some reason, the memory of that child... It scared him.
Eveline.
Even the color of their eyes were nearly identical. He allowed himself to talk a calming breath. Don't freak out. Whatever you do, don't freak out.
"Isn't it pretty," Rose asks happily as she looked for further praise from the fatherly guardian.
"Looks like you had a fun time," Chris replies instead of a direct yes or no.
Rose accepts the answer with a giggle before giving Chris a hug and hurrying on her way.
Emma smiled as she watched how happy Rose was. It was nice seeing her so energetic. "She's been a ball of pep and energy since she picked up that box at the store. I would have told you sooner so it wasn't a surprise but she was so excited I couldn't get her to slow down once we got home," Emma says quietly to avoid being overheard. In its own way it was flattering that Rose wanted to look like her.
That kinda lined up with what he remembered from earlier... "Well, she looks like a completely different person," Chris says as he keeps his reservations to himself.
Emma nods, "It will take a bit of getting used to but she seems happy," she agrees not realizing that wasn't exactly what Chris meant. "Although, speaking of surprises. I have one for you too," Emma adds with a light-hearted tone.
Chris's expression shifted to one of slight curiosity. "Oh?"
"Yep, I think you'll like it," Emma says with a playful smile as she thought about the beer she picked up. "You can have it after we start our movie tonight," The woman remarks while hoping she can somehow keep him away from the fridge for the rest of the day so it remains a surprise.
Don't read into it, don't read into it, don't read into it. "I'll look forward to it then," Chris says as he tried to focus on his book again while continuing his mental chanting.
Time crawled forward while simultaneously feeling as if it was no time at all. Before he knew it Lunch had been served, games were played by Emma and the kids, he got in a few walks with Duke, Dinner was shared and before he knew it bedtime was announced for the children.
Emma's promise of a 'surprise' that had to wait until the kids were asleep, felt more like a taunt at this point as he mentally prepared himself to be disappointed.
"Did you pick a movie?" Emma asks curiously after making her way back to the living room.
"Me?" Chris asks with a confused expression.
"yeah, I said you could pick before," Emma says with a raised eyebrow. She did say that right?
He didn't remember that..." Right, um. got a bit distracted I'll go and check the cabinet," Chris says and moves to get up to do so.
"Okay, no rush, I'll make some popcorn while you do that," Emma replies as she heads over to the kitchen to do just that.
Chris could hear rustling of cardboard and plastic from the kitchen while he looked at thin glossy cases, taking them out one at a time to look them over before putting them back. One of them caused him to jolt slightly upon seeing the decaying face of a lion that was missing an eye. Blood-red text read 'Zoombies' with a smaller font under it proclaiming 'it's the Jurassic World of the undead'.
The agent quickly put that one back. Why did she even have that movie? Did she not know zombies were real? Oh lord... A tired sigh crossed his lips before digging through for a different movie. Part of him was tempted to try that Top Gun movie again but, last time she feel asleep during it. He didn't want to pick something that boring for her but he kinda didn't want her to be completely invested in the movie either since that would make it difficult to get her attention...
"So, find anything interesting?" Emma asks causing Chris to jolt once more. He didn't hear the microwave go off at all as he thought over his movie selecting process a bit too much.
"Yeah, what about this one?" he says as he just picks a random box from the shelf to offer to Emma.
Emma accepts it and looks it over. "Titanic huh? Nice this one's a classic," She says with a smile. "I'll get it set up. Here you go," The woman adds while offering Chris the bag of pop corn.
Chris accepts the bag and goes to take a seat as Emma gets the movie set up for them. Hopefully this was actually a good movie. He didn't even have a chance to read the back...
Emma took a seat next to him as the movie started showing an upper-class woman in a loveless relationship, boarding a large ship with her widowed mother and future husband. Chris watched with a concerned expression as the young woman made plans to jump from the ship to avoid a life and marriage she didn't want. To his relief this was thwarted as a young man from the 3rd class cabins talked her out of jumping. A classic trope ensued where the young man slips and lands on top of the woman and only then do others end up going to that section of the boat including the future fiancé whose fury was stayed by the young woman who made up a story where the young man actually saved her because she was leaning to far over the banister to look at the turbine of the boat.
There was something about seeing the inside of the cruise ship that just felt... off. Claustrophobic and isolated. Before he could think on it too much, movement to his left caught his attention. Emma moved forward to get up from her place on the couch.
"I almost forgot your surprise," She admits, how silly of her, at least they didn't get too far into the movie. "Close your eyes okay?"
And cue the return of the over thinking, definitely reading into this, nerves. "... Sure," Chris hesitantly replies and does as he's told. He could hear a bit of shuffling around, why did it sound like she was getting into the fridge? It took a moment but he could feel the couch shift as she took her seat once more.
"Okay, you can open your eyes now," Emma says with a smile. He's been trying to get an actual beer for months, he'll be so excited, she happily thought.
Chris cautiously opened an eye before relaxing, Emma was sitting next to him but she now had two cans with her one in each hand and she was offering one to him. See, it was nothing just be disappointed and move on, he thought while accepted the offered drink so he could look over the can... wait. "Beer?" he asks with a raised eyebrow. this one actually had an alcohol count on the can too.
"Yep, it's a baby step up but it's still stronger than the ginger beer," Emma says before cracking her can open, she was curious to see if these tasted any good too.
Chris smiles a bit at that. "You know, If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're trying to get me drunk," He jokes before opening the can with a quiet click and a hiss as air escaped the pressurized can.
Emma rolled her eyes with a playful smile before gentle nudging him.
The action caused Chris to chuckle to himself before remembering their little game during karaoke a few months ago, and gave her a slight nudge in return before going back to watching the movie and sipping at the can in his hand. This was nice, he thought while smiling to himself.
As he watched the star crossed lovers go dancing he barely noticed that he'd subconsciously put his arm over the back of the couch. It wouldn't be that hard to just, slip a bit and have his arm over her shoulders right? Good lord stop, that's completely inappropriate he corrected himself and his arm stayed where it was.
The movie showed the pair's evolving flirtations as they end up going back to the girl's room and the young man is paid to draw her in the nude which escalates further as the two end up hurrying off to hid in the back seat of a car in the cargo hold of the ship where they started getting frisky. The movie was not particularly shy on details either which made it all the more difficult to ignore the little demon on his shoulder that was filling his head with ideas, but as quickly as the scene took a more risqué turn it shifted just as quickly to disaster and the ship hit an Iceberg and started to sink.
The claustrophobic and isolated feeling returned as Chris watched the main characters and antagonists play a game of musical lifeboats as they switch between being on the sinking ship and on a lifeboat a few times each. Flashes of memories started to play as he saw different portions of the sinking ship... it was on a ship like this once... for a mission.
the memories became clearer as he watched the Fiancé grabs his assistant's pistol and chases the star-crossed couple into the flooding first-class dining saloon. Images of his own sprint through a doomed Cruise ship along with Jill played in tandem with the movie. In some ways, he could see himself in the movie on screen as the boat began to sink. He saw himself trying to stay afloat and wait for rescue in the cold unforgiving sea as a storm raged on around him.
His heart sank further as he noticed only one of the two survived. The woman and her pathetic excuse for a fiancé, even if they didn't end up together.
"What a shitty ending, the guy dies?" Chris says stunned. What did he just watch?
Hearing the exclamation caused Emma to laugh.
"That's not funny that's messed up," Chris says with an embarrassed frown. "What was the point of the whole story if they don't end up together?"
"I guess the point is, that life doesn't always work out how you think it's going to, and bad things happen to good people," Emma offers as a thoughtful answer as they wait for the credits to start to roll. "Sometimes bad people get away with it, but in the end, we have to find the motivation to keep moving on."
Chris frowns at that as he looks at her... "Yeah... I guess it doesn't always work out," He says as he moves his arm away from her and shifts to get up. He collects his empty beer can from the coffee table. "I should probably put this in the recycling bin. Thanks for the movie," Chris says as he looks for an excuse to leave.
'*'*'*'*'
Two days had passes since then and Emma looked around the house to make sure it was clean as she made her way to the basement and opened the door. She could hear the soft sounds of impact created by hitting the punching bag.
"Chris?" Emma calls down into the basement, and sure enough the sound stopped.
"Yeah?" She heard in response.
"You're not using the punching bag again are you..." Emma asks with an attempt at a frown.
there was a hesitant pause before she heard a reply. "Just a bit."
"You're not using your injured arm, right?" Emma asks as she shifts to stand in a more comfortable stance while crossing her arms.
Chris looks between his balled up fists and the punching bag... Shit... "Yeah well, I mean I don't want to end up lopsided by only using one arm."
Then you shouldn't be using either, Emma thought as she shook her head. "Okay," she says as she'd well since given up on actually getting Chris to rest and more so just gave him a hard time so she could tell the doctors that she was doing what she was told.
Phew, she let it go this time. Chris thought as he moved to go and pick up his water bottle to take a drink.
"Your next visitor is going to be here in an hour and a half," Emma points out which causes Chris to do a spit take.
Shiiiit he forgot.
"She went through a lot of trouble to get here. Do what you will with that information," Emma points out before closing the door and mentally started counting down from 5 as she walked away from the door.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
The door quickly opened as Chris made his way up the stairs to the main bathroom that was nestled between Rose's room and the nursery. Chris hopped into the shower, turned the water on, soaked, turned the water off. Soaped and lathered, then turned the water on again to rinse off and turn the water back off.
Emma smiled to herself as she hummed a quiet tune and continued to check the house to make sure it was ready for guests by putting away stray toys, cleaning dusty surfaces and generally tidying up. She'd just thrown away a paper towel that was used for dusting when she heard quiet babbling from the living room.
"Piers~" Emma cooed in return earning a giggling happy response. Emma quietly walked over while crouching down to hide behind the couch. It took a second to shuffle over but she quickly peeked around the corner of the couch. "Peek-a-boo," she says which causes the child to laugh more while reaching for her.
Wait, he could do this, The child pushed himself onto his hand and knees and started to rock in place in attempt to move forward. He wanted to play too.
Emma proudly watched the child as he managed to slowly move forward. it took a few minutes and quite a few fumbles, but the child managed to crawl over to her before his arms gave out. "you did it~" she cooed happily before moving to pick up her baby and nuzzle him. "You did so good, look at you crawling around," she praised, while she knew the child wouldn't understand her words, babies were pretty good at understanding tone and she wanted him to know she was happy with his growth and encourage him to keep trying.
The next hour and a half consisted of more quiet time for the family. Chris made his way back downstairs after changing into the clean outfit he'd brought up with him and took his usual place on the couch with a new book this time about various plants and their healing properties. Emma would put piers on his blanket or sit him up in his boppy pillow so he could practice sitting up right and play with the child who was very interested in the idea of exploring on his own. Meanwhile, Rose was contently playing in her room with her toys. it was more fun to play there since she could use her powers without getting caught.
Right on time there was a knock at the door and Duke was the first to hurry over and announce that someone was there by barking and scratching at the door. Chris got up this time and shooed the dog away so he could answer the door, while Emma moved to find something else to do so Chris and the guest could have the living room.
Upon opening the door he found a woman on the other side, the cool tones of a light purple shirt complimented the warm amber glow of her skin and gentle earthy brown eyes and hair which was pulled back into a neat ponytail. Her presence and smile were as radiant as the golden fire of dawn.
"Chris, It's good to see you're well," The woman says, seemingly surprised but, happily so that he was the one to answer the door.
"It's good to see you too," Chris says as he moves aside, "Come in." he adds and waits for the woman to enter the house. Once she does so he closes the door behind her.
"It's good to see me, so, you remember who I am?" She asks with a curious expression.
Chris winced upon hearing that. "Unfortunately no..." he admits before gesturing for her to follow him.
"I suppose that's fair enough. I wasn't able to visit you the last time you lost your memories either... hopefully they're not completely gone..." She admits with a quiet sigh and follows Chris further into the home. She smiles as she noticed the small child sitting on a blanket, batting at toys that rattled and jingled. She had been made aware of the situation and knew what was and was not allowed. It was unfortunate that Chris didn't remember but, it was good to see his son was well and healthy too.
She and Chris took a seat on the couch as Duke walked into the room and curled up next to the baby who decided the dog was the most interesting new toy and started to reach to try and grab at his long fur.
"I'm not sure if this will help but I have something for you," The woman says as she starts digging through a book bag like purse she brought with her. "Hold out your hand please." she requests and Chris does so, offering the woman his open hand. Shortly after a smooth brown egg was placed in his hand.
Chris looked between the woman and the egg in his hand with a confused expression. Why on earth did she hand him an egg? He looked it over to see if there was anything significant about it but it seemed like a normal brown chicken egg. Slowly but surely the memories returned. He was sent to Africa for a mission, not too surprising since he traveled a lot. And yet again he was sent somewhere that he didn't know the language or area well enough to be able to survive on his own... She... Sheva? Right, Sheva. She agreed to go with him. The work was difficult and unsurprisingly at this point horrifying images flooded his mind of mutated people and creatures. Even then, a small smile crossed his face as he remembered multiple times when either one or both of them were being chased down and attacked by perfectly normal but aggressive chickens. Of all the things to have to worry about, that was the jump scare he was not expecting. He remembered how supplies were sparse and they needed to get a bit creative for solutions. Which lead to revenge on the aggressive chickens by using their eggs as a tossable projectile or as a quick snack... okay actually yeah it kinda made sense now why the chickens kept attacking them.
Chris chuckles at this as he looked at Sheva, "Hopefully you didn't have to fight any poultry to get this one," He says with a joking tone.
"What can I say? I'm an expert at it now," She jokingly replies. "I picked that one up at the grocery store on the way here though. Figured it would be a nicer way to ease into those memories..." The woman admits.
"It's good to see you again Sheva, It's been too long..." Chris says as he continues to remember the mission they worked through and her trust in him considering she'd more or less let him throw her. Though there was still a question left as his smile remained, and another short laugh could be heard as he gestured to the Egg. "What am I supposed to do with this now?"
"You'll figure something out," Sheva says while overjoyed to see he did remember her. "I still don't understand how you'd eat those raw."
"It's a good source of protein, and it saves time," Chris says with a shrug. "Though you'll probably be happy to hear I do actually eat a cooked breakfast now."
"Small miracles do happen then," She jokingly says as Chris just puts the egg down on the coffee table for now. "Do you remember the mission we were assigned?"
Chris slowly nods as they got back to the more difficult subject. "I think so... We were assigned to get information on Uroboros." Chris says while looking down at his now clasped hands and Sheva patiently nods and waits as he continues. "We got the information but the informant. didn't make it... There were files, information that pointed to Jill being alive... you wanted to retreat." Chris remembered before looking at her once more. "I'm sorry... I was so blinded by my own desires. I should have listened to you... I was putting you in a dangerous situation you didn't want to be in." how many times did he have to do that before he learned... apparently too many since Ethan died...
"No, it's okay," Sheva confirms. "After hearing your determination, I wanted to help... It was a bit frightening going against orders but, in the end I think it was the right choice." She says though the apology did hold meaning to her. He was growing still. He was always good and making quick decisions but a real leader, listens. She was proud of him.
Chris remembered Finding the Empty pod Jill should have been in. being contacted by her. Doing everything he could to find her. Only for Wesker to be there at the root of it. again. He remembered the anguish and pain of having to fight Jill, the relief that she was okay after getting that device off her. He remembered fighting tooth and nail to try and end this once and for all, and- He paused. "Did I punch a bolder?" Chris asks with a bewildered expression which caused Sheva to laugh.
"Probably not one of your more brilliant moments but, It worked," Sheva says with an amused smile.
Chris chuckled at that answer. the memories drew to an end as they managed to finally kill Wesker by throwing him into a volcano and shooting him with multiple RPGs. The agent shook his head. "What have you been up to since then?"
"I've been busy," She admits with a more gentle smile as she thought over her own time. "Plenty of missions to do, I'm sure you have the same problem." The woman admits while thinking it over. "When I'm not working thought, I've been. Well. Working." She says with a slight laugh. "I'm making progress restoring my hometown. Umbrella did a number on it, and progress has been slow. But it's starting to recover, we're all determined to restore what was taken from us." Sheva explains with a content and peaceful tone while thinking about it. "It's hard work but rewarding."
She was about to continue speaking when she heard and felt a soft thump which got her attention causing her to look in the direction of the noise. Sure enough the infant she saw before had started crawling over towards the two while they talked and managed to make it to her feet. While initially he wanted to be around people he was quickly distracted by the interesting dangling laces of the boot and tried to grab them, only to fall over.
Sheva smiled as she moved to pick up the child. "Something tells me, you understand what I mean," she says to Chris as the child bashfully smiles holds his own hands and tries to put them in his mouth while happily kicking his legs in the air.
'*'*'*'*'
Chris opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness... Where was he? The basement? It didn't feel like it... It was cold and dark. He pushed himself to get up and felt small pieces of gravel under his hand. Where was he? As he got up he quickly found a wall, then another after turning around. The space wasn't cramped but it wasn't huge either... He tried another direction this time and finally found open space, a path of some kind. Maybe a hall?
"Hello?!" He called, and his voice echoed down the empty space. "Is anyone here?!"
No response.
Cautious steps were audible with the shuffling of gravel beneath his feet. He made his way down the dark hall like space as he held a hand in front of him to try and feel for anything he might run into. As he continued to walk he slowly started to relax he was making progress, or at least it felt like he was. He just needed to find away out of here. Wherever here was.
This thought was cut short as his foot snagged on something that was stuck to the ground. Luckily he managed to catch himself so he didn't fall but it was the first time he noticed anything aside from the small rocks and stone walls. He used his foot to feel around and find whatever it was again only to hear a metallic clank of his boot running into something along his left side.
"What the hell is that?" Even after all this time, his eye had not adjusted to the dark so he couldn't see. He gave it a light kick and whatever it was stayed firmly in place. Weird. all the same he continued moving forward. It felt like an hour had passed before he felt a breeze and saw a small white light in the distance.
A way out? he thought as he could feel himself smile and he started to hurry towards it. only to stop as he noticed the light was growing bigger a bit too quickly. it was barely a pin prick before but in the few seconds he'd been running it grew to the size of a quarter. He stopped moving... and to his horror it continued to grow.
The ground began to shake as a dull red light flickered on allowed him to see better. Caution tape was plastered to the walls with various warning signs branded with the Umbrella corporation logo. DANGER. DANGER. DANGER. the signs warned too late. His breathing labored as he could feel panic set in as the trembling ground shook more violently the larger the light got.
He looked around trying to find a way out only to see a light in the direction he walked away from that wasn't growing or shrinking. An exit! He thought as he tried to turn back and run the other way. As he took a step to try and turn back undead hands reached forward from the ground and held on to his feet and legs Pulling on him and clawing their way up his torso and pulling him down making it near impossible to move. he was barely able to take a few steps.
He reached out for the exit that felt like it was just out of his grasp only to feel his hand touch a solid surface and the 'light' disappeared under his hand. He moved his hand away and the light returned... It wasn't real? It was painted on a wall. But how?! He'd been walking for hours before and he only just turned around. He could barely move how was this possible. He could see his silhouette start to form on the wall as the light grew brighter. He looked over his shoulder and saw the light was only a few feet away now as he braced himself for impact.
Chris rocketed forward as he woke up in a cold sweat. He looked around to find he was in his room in the basement. He was safe. It was just a dream. with that thought, he moved to fall back to land on his bed and held his face. That felt too real. He got stick in some tunnel and almost got hit by a train... something happened after that but he couldn't remember what it was as the dream had already started to fade from his memory. He was too tired to deal with this... What time was it?
He sleepily reached over for his phone to check the time.
5:45AM Wednesday, May 31st, 2023
Great... his alarm was going to go off in 45 minutes and he was too anxious to fall back asleep. Frustrated with this he put his phone back and laid there staring at the ceiling... What a weird dream. the silence was grating and ate away at him. Again he checked his phone. 5:48 AM. He pushed himself to get up once more and start the day in a pretty garbage mood.
His mood remained sour too as the usual routine kicked into gear all the same. Emma woke up, took care of duke, took a shower, woke up the kids, made breakfast and got ready for work. She was gone most of the day with Piers while he was left with Rose at home. He was so tired that reading seemed impossible and he didn't want to take a nap since last time the little brat ran away. The last thing he needed was a repeat of that.
So instead he grumpily stared into the void and waited for the cursed day to pass by. Rose did her homework and had him review it. He barely looked at it but did pretend to read it while nodding. Luckily she was focusing on her English assignments today so he could fake his way through this one. He gave the essays a thumbs up of approval and she went off to play with her toys.
After spending a little while longer staring into nothingness, the day started to draw to a close. Emma made her way home from work and put Piers down on his blanket so she could get to work on dinner. It smelled pretty good too. At least the day wasn't so cursed that he had to eat spam again, that was at least a slight bright side.
Emma had just finished setting the Table and put Piers into his high chair when an unexpected interruption to the routine occurred.
Ding Dong~ rang the doorbell causing Duke to bark and hurry over while Chris remained uninterested. Emma would probably take care of it if she was expecting someone. maybe she ordered groceries again, he thought and that was enough to put his mind at ease.
Emma looked over at the door confused. Weird, she wasn't expecting anyone, it would be a bit early for Charlotte to make another unannounced visit. though she supposed that's part of the unannounced part, they're hard to predict.
"Coming," Emma calls as she hears the doorbell go off once more. "Duke, go get your stuffy," She quietly instructs and the dog hurries off to do so. She unlocked and opened the door to find an older man wearing a militant dress uniform looking back at her with an unamused expression.
Oh god it was him... what was his name again? The doctor said it before. Right! "Director Romanov" Emma says while trying and failing to hide her surprised tone. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"I'm here to speak to Chris, He's needed," He replies, simultaneously answering and ignoring the question at the same time while waiting to be let in to the house.
"Pardon?" Emma asks with a mixture of horror and confusion.
"He's been gone long enough, there's work to do," the director says more plainly. "step aside."
"Work? He's still recovering he needs rest," Emma openly protests, "The doctors said he wouldn't be healthy enough to go back to work for 2 more mo-"
"And sometimes necessity out weighs good intentions, Where is he," The director says with more evident agitation in his tone. He did not have to explain himself, his word was law.
"He's resting," Emma says with an unmoving frown. It wasn't lost on her that Chris wasn't doing well today. "He'll return to work when the doctors deem him well enough to do so."
"And as the Director I am saying he is well enough, We need him to lead Hound Wolf Squad," the director says once more, "They've seen this thing before he's in the best position of anyone to fight it."
"Then need someone else," Emma says, raising her voice as she realized that the director's intention was to send Chris to fight the thing that already almost killed him once.
"That is not your call, I've tried being reasonable but I'm only going to ask once more, step aside," the director says as his own irritation continued to grow.
"No," Emma says shortly. "You might be in charge of the BSAA but you are not in charge of my home, Good night," She says and moves to close the door.
Chris had heard Emma's raised voice at this point. she was arguing with someone? What was that about... Duke made his way into the room with a stuffed animal in his mouth. It was difficult but all the same, the pooch managed to growl while carrying the toy and his fur had begun to bristle as he paced around. Something was wrong.
That was all the more evident as sounds of a struggle came to ear causing Chris to quickly get up and hurry over to the door to find Emma pressing her back against it in an attempt to close it while someone on the other side was pushing to keep it open.
"What the hell is going on?!" Chris says as he walks over and put's his hand on the door as well, allowing it to open enough to see who it was and to be ready to fight them if necessary.
"I never thought I'd say this but, Finally, someone with common sense," The director says with a prideful sense of victory as he managed to get what he wanted anyways. "Redfield, you're expected back at HQ for a mission briefing with Hound wolf squad ime-"
"And I'm pretty sure she told you to get lost," Chris say cutting off the man's explanation. This guy had some nerve trying to force his way in then tell him what to do.
"This is a matter of international security, you have a duty to act,"
"and it's not just mine," Chris says as he takes Emma's side, "If it's this important then it's your job to send well-equipped and healthy soldiers," Chris says in return. "I'll focus on recovering quicker but until I'm medically deemed fit for combat I'm not the best resource you have..."
Good lord why did he think he'd get a rational conversation from a Redfield? Fine. "Well, it seems your mind is made up then," The director says with an annoyed frown. "Good night Mr. and Mrs. Redfield," he says before haughtily turning to leave with sharp irritated steps. They forced his hand at this point. He would get what he wanted but it would just mean being the bad guy another day.
What? Chris looked at the retreating man then to Emma and back. What did he just say?
A frustrated frown was plastered on Emma's face at this point as she moved to close the door. That god-damn asshole couldn't just respect the simplest requests from his own medical staff. She knew this guy knew as well as anyone else about Chris's memory problems and he just- GAH! In her frustration she turned to try and leave. "Piers is still in his high chair," she says quietly as an excuse to run away. Almost 5 months of patience, trying to let Chris remember on his own and it was just wasted.
"Hold on," Chris says as he reaches out and catches Emma's wrist causing her to stop though she avoided eye contact. Something about that felt familiar... He remembered the two of them in her apartment. It was around Christmas... They were dressed really nicely for some reason, and... huh...
While Chris was working over his thoughts Emma was struggling with her own. For him to hear that from someone else... He probably thought she was lying to him. If anyone was going to just give him that information it should have been her. she worked. SO. hard. to try and let him recover it wasn't fair.
Chris quietly looked at Emma who was avoiding his gaze as he started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. "You're... I'm the no good dead beat absent husband?" That didn't make sense. He was married to Emma? ... OH MY GOD HE HAD KIDS?! Wait, hold up, "You said your husband was at work."
Emma felt another pang of guilt. "The doctor told me not to tell you... He told everyone to let you remember on your own. It would be healthier for you," Emma explained quietly. "I thought, that would work as an answer until you remembered because, in a way, without your memories... you didn't come back." She felt awful saying that but, at the time that was her logic. "I figured, If I waited long enough. If I was patient, you'd remember me but," She said while keeping her head lowered.
Holy hell, why didn't the doctor ask what he wanted, huh? To tell that many people to lie to him for this long about something as important as this. That was just... Who thought that was a good idea?! "Emma," Chris says as he continued to keep a hold on her wrist in one hand and uses the other to gently hold the side of her face in an attempt to get her to look at him as he thought over the memory again. "... May I kiss you?"
The request was surprising to say the least but Emma nods in response. Upon seeing the gesture of permission Chris leaned forward to gentle press his lips against hers. He could feel himself fighting back a smile as the two embraced and the kiss deepened. Those fanciful daydreams of his, the ones that would play through his mind when he spent time with her, those were memories. those were real, they happened. She loved him.
"Ewwww!" Rose says from the top of the stairs while covering her face. She was hoping to see if it was dinner time yet but Mom and dad were being gross again! Don't they know about cooties?
Whoops, the kids were still awake, Emma thought as the two moved away from each other by half a step and Chris cleared his throat. "Did you need something Rosie?" Emma asks while trying to ignore the grossed out expression of the child.
Adults were so WEIRD she was going to be a kid forever, that's that, Rose thought with a nod. "Is it dinner time yet?" Rose asks.
"Dinner's on the table I was just about to go and get you if you're hungry," Emma says since, she was actually about to do that before the director showed up.
Rose makes her way down the stairs while keeping a suspicious eye on her guardians to make sure they didn't do anything weird again then hurried over to her chair so she could sit down and start putting food onto her plate.
"So, there isn't someone else?" Chris asks as he was still trying to process that pretty much his entire understanding of his relationship with Emma was wrong. "We're married?"
"m-hm," Emma confirms with another nod.
"That might be a bit of a problem," Chris hesitantly says which immediately causes a concerned expression to wash over Emma's face.
What did he mean? why was that a problem? Oh no.
"because I promised myself I'd stay long enough to knock your husband's lights out for not being around more often," Chris admits with a slight smile. "and I'm not sure how to go about punching myself."
you little shit. "Please don't you've been beat up enough," Emma says while laughing from relief. Here she thought he was going to be like 'oh hey actually I want a divorce' or something. "I said it before and I meant it, You're a pretty great guy, and sure I get mad at you sometimes but, I love you dearly."
She loved him. Hearing her say that felt surreal.
Emma took his hand and gave it a gentle tug. "Come on, dinner's ready."
Chris nods and follows with. Somehow this managed to go from the worst day to the best one in all of 15 minutes. Nightmare what? Director who? None of that was a concern in the slightest. Dinner was tasty and dessert was a treat even if it was a few cookies from a plastic sleeve.
He continued to try and process this new revelation as the day drew to a close and even went downstairs to his study to try and find any more clue that could lead to more memories. It was weird but he just couldn't find anything. He was surprised that He didn't keep a journal at all if he'd already lost his memories once before. It didn't make sense. He picked up another book on Survival medical treatments before heading back upstairs to read for the evening. He had a pretty good life.
He contently sat in his usual spot as the comfortable routine of the home continued despite the earlier interruption.
Emma had just finished tucking Rose into bed and put Piers in his crib when she made her way downstairs once more to find Chris smiling to himself while reading. "Hey Chris," She says to get his attention.
"I'm going to get ready for bed," She says, and he nods.
She did usually wake up pretty early, that was normal. "Alright, sounds good. I'll probably do the same," he admits as he moves to close his book.
"Okay," Emma says with a smile and turns to head upstairs so she could get changed and gets into bed. She waits a few minutes. then a few minutes more... and a few more. Still no Chris... She cautiously got back out of bed and made her way over to the door to peek out of her room. nope, not in the hallway. Should she just, wait a bit longer? she looked back at the clock by the bed. it had been 20 minutes already... She didn't want to seem pushy but, maybe she should check on him.
With that thought Emma made her way back down the stairs. the lights were out for the main floor. weird. She tiptoed over to the basement and opened the door. the lights were out there too... "Chris?" Emma quietly calls down to the basement.
"Hm?" she hears in response.
She was relieved to hear an answer but pushed back a laughing smile. "Are you coming to bed?" She asks with a gentle curious tone.
What was she talking about he was in b-OH. Right. Um. "Sure, one second." He says as he moved to get out of the basement's spare bed and make his way over to the stairs and up to the main floor where Emma was waiting for him. He walked with her up to the second floor of the home, down the hall and into the master bedroom where he closed the door behind him and watched Emma crawl into bed. It was still kind of difficult to process.
Holy shit this was actually happening huh? There was something about all of this that still felt Taboo to him. Probably because he spent so long telling himself that it was. It felt like he convinced his wife to cheat on him, with himself? Which made absolutely no sense. All the same he hesitantly followed Emma's lead and got into the bed as well, laying there about as stiff as a board.
Even with the lights out it wasn't difficult for Emma to see Chris's nervous, near constipated expression. "You know, you don't have to share a bed if you don't feel comfortable with it," Emma points out while staying on her side and giving him space. She'd been patient for almost 5 months already. she could be patient a little longer.
"No, no that's not it, I'm just, still, kinda, processing this... It's okay really," Chris says to try and ease any concerns. This was more or less what he'd wanted for some time. He wanted her to love him, he wanted to be able to hold her. He wanted, her. but getting past the surreal feeling was going to take a little longer... But. Even if this ended up being some hyperrealistic dream, would it really be so bad to indulge in it just a bit to make up for the absolute nightmare he had earlier, right? Right.
It took him a moment, but he hesitantly moves a bit closer, so he could hold the side of her face once more in one hand while the other moved to hold her waist closer to him so they could pick up where they left off before. It felt new but familiar foreign but dear. This was someone he coveted yet her heart had always been his.
These thoughts fueled the hunger he'd been trying so hard to deny and ignore. Fabric was pulled and tugged at until it was removed and unceremoniously discarded. Where it went he didn't care so long as it wasn't in his way. Curious hands wandered and explored soft skin where friction felt like the soft static of electricity in his palm. His breathing grew heavier as he fell into a paradox where the more he took, the more he wanted.
He didn't care how long it would take, he would know ever inch of her again.
Tadah~ hopefully it was worth the wait for Chris to [more or less] remember. =v= Special thanks to Anonymously_Famous for giving me the extra determination to write out Chris and Emma's Movie date =v= and another special thanks to Henny8hell whose comment inspired the scene with Piers calling Chris dada at the beginning of the chapter. As additional credit, the Dream sequence from that last section was inspired by 'Underground by Cody Fry' because I can't stop listening to his music.
This should Hopefully be the last 10k+ chapter for a while, but I already said that before and that turned out to be a lie lmao. It might just end up being a 10k sorta 'year' for Chris and Emma. Hopefully that's okay. I know it's kind of a lot to read. Speaking of a lot, Holy Sheet this story is officially 400,000+ words long [not including author's notes] That's longer than the entire chronicles of Narnia series. or probably a bit better of a comparison it's almost as long as the first 4 Harry Potter books combine. I'm just going to congratulate you readers on your dedication to reading this story because it is not a small feat.
side note: Zoombies is a real movie. it's Sharknado level of 'it's so bad it's good'. If you like Resident Evil you'll probably like that movie. There's a scene with a zombie giraffe that's literally a hand puppet, and you can see the person's arm in the shot. There's also a gorilla that is literally just a guy in a party city costume. It's right up there with The Velocipastor: A man of the claw.
