Wohoo~ time for another update =U= I offer some cute content with plot movement. I hope your week has been going well!

Song Suggestion: Shelter by Porter Robinson & Madeon

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Capcom owns RE and I have nothing to do with the IP I am but a humble fan girl.


Emma paced around the master bedroom while holding her phone to her ear. "Yeah, things have been a bit crazy as of late but, he's doing much better now."

"That's great," Claire replies from the other side of the line. "I still can't believe the BSAA was acting like that, but... I guess it does kind of match their track record. I'm starting to think they put 'lack of communication skills' as a desired trait for their job listings."

Hearing that causes Emma to laugh. "Well, there's a boot for every foot as they say," Emma jokingly replies. "There was one other thing I was hoping to talk to you about if you have the time."

"Always," Claire says with a smile. "Honestly, I'm just glad you felt comfortable talking to me about all of this."

"Thanks," Emma says with a gentle smile while looking at the calendar that showed it was currently August 2nd. "I think Chris is still missing a few memories..." She admits. "The other day he was asking about Pier's name and mentioned it seemed like a strange choice."

"Oh boy," Claire says as she clearly understood where this was going.

"Yeah... I know those aren't exactly happy memories for him," Emma says as she knit her eyebrows together, "I know about what happened vaguely. Even then, I just don't feel like I'm the right person to tell Chris about that."

"That's fair enough..." Claire replies to show she was still listening.

"Do you know of anyone that could talk to him about that?" Emma requests. "From the sounds of it, there weren't many survivors... Part of me was thinking that we could Call Piers' parents since they gave us permission to use the name, but I don't want them to have to relive that either..."

"Yeah, that whole ordeal was mostly a bloodbath," She confirms. "So not many people are around that would be able to explain what happened from experience," She adds before thinking it over a bit more. "The only person coming to mind would be Leon, and that's a bad idea as well after last time."

"Yeah, no offense, but I'd really rather that he doesn't stop by again," Emma admits with a tired sigh.

"None taken," Claire replies. "I- OH! Actually!" She says, and Emma could practically hear Claire smiling. "I just remembered. There was someone else. I'll give them a call and let you know what they say. I think they're retired at this point, so if they say yes, they may be able to stop by pretty quickly."

"That would be perfect, thank you so much," Emma says with an appreciative smile. Claire was always so kind.

"No problem, I'll call them now and text you what I find out," Claire says.

"Thanks again, talk to you then,"

"Talk to you later, Bye,"

Emma ended the call before pocketing the phone and making her way down the stairs. There was still work to be done, she thought with a smile. Her laptop was set up at the dining room table along with some documents in a small temporary home office, so she could work from home for the day. At the other end of the table was a large paper bag with the logo 'PARTY LOBBY' printed in red.

From there, Emma spent the rest of the day juggling between reviewing documents and hanging up decorations. Streamers, signs and balloons were taped to various locations on the walls and ceiling to make the open living space as colorful and festive as possible. A similarly brightly colored cake lay waiting in the fridge, and the now empty paper bag was replaced with a small pile of neatly wrapped gifts and cards.

"This is perfect," She says with a wide grin while looking at her handy work.

"Well, this is perfect," Chris says with a frustrated frown as he closes the locker door. The last locker door. Over the last month, Chris took every opportunity he had to check in every locker he had access to and found, once more, nothing of value. "Damn it all, not again..." He grumbles while making his way back to his own locker and opens it, so he can change out of his uniform. As much as it pissed him of, he was starting to believe he'd fallen hook line and sinker for a red herring.

He didn't have the time for that right now, though. Today was a rather important day for an excited little girl who has had a rough last few months. Once he was back in his civvies, he made his way out of the locker room and down the various winding halls of the BSAA headquarters. Before long, he found himself standing in front of the lab he usually dropped Rose off at and walked inside.

Rose was in the middle of a test it seemed as she was standing alone in a section of the lab that was blocked off by thick reinforced plexiglass. "When you're ready, please move object 4 to position 8 while maintaining control of objects 1,2,3 and 5," The lead scientist requests.

Rose hesitantly looked over the various floating objects she was controlling, some were metal others were not. Once she remembered which was object 4 she moved that around to one of the 12 cones set up around her like a clock.

"She's gaining better control over her abilities," One of the scientists mutter while taking notes.

"We should consider capping her exams here, we don't want her getting out of hand..." another suggests with hesitant concern evident in their tone.

"We need to know what she's capable o-"

"Hey," Chris says with a frown to try and let them know he was here and could hear them.

"Captain Redfield, Sir," One of them reply as they fumble to keep a hold of their clipboard while they turn to face him. "It's rare to see you here this time of day."

"Yeah... maybe that will have to change," Chris says while giving them a hard stare. "I'm here to pick up Rose, We're heading home."

"Yes sir," the head scientist says before turning on the intercom again. "Rose, Captain Redfield is here. You're free to leave."

"Huh?" Rose quietly asks as she allows the objects to gently lower to the floor while she turns to look through the glass barrier. Sure enough, there was Chris waiting for her, ready to leave. Seeing him caused her to smile as she hurried over to the door to enter the other half of the room. "Hey, you're early," she points out as she joined him by the main door of the lab.

"Yeah, last I heard, today was someone's birthday," Chris says in return before glancing off to the side with a thinking expression. "Maybe I'm wrong though," he adds while trying not to laugh.

Hearing the mention of her special day caused a wide grin to cross her face as she giggled. "Do you think mom made Tacos?"

"Did you tell her that's what you wanted for dinner?" Chris asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," Rose responds with an emphatic nod, still just as happy as before.

"There's a good chance she did then," Chris replies with a laugh. His smile faded as he noticed the scientists whispering among themselves. "Come on, let's get you home," He adds as he places a gentle hand on her back to lead her out of the room.

"Woohoo!" the child cheered while throwing her hands in the air as they left. Goodbye lab! It was only Wednesday, so she'd have to come back in the morning, but for now, that wasn't what mattered.

Chris's smile returned in part as he saw how excited she was and walked with her through the halls of the BSAA, out to the parking lot and into the car to make the trek home.

Rose watched through the car window as the comforting sight of their home came into view. She waited for the car to come to a complete stop and for the engine to grow silent before quickly throwing off her seat belt, so she could open the door of the car.

"Careful with the door," Chris chides as he heard the metallic clank of the door slamming into the end of its hinge.

"Sorry!" Rose calls as she made her way over to the garage door, which was opened a bit more carefully but with the same level of enthusiasm. "I'm home!" She shouts into the house as she hurried to take her shoes off.

"Welcome home!" Emma calls back while she worked on putting the last finishing touches on the table.

After quickly putting her shoes away on the shelf, Rose rounded the corner to find the house had been decorated in richly saturated colored streamers and balloons. The table had been set, and each plate had a decorative party hat on it, while the center of the table was crowded with a pile of gifts and the fixings for tacos.

The child happily gasped in delight at the sight and danced around while giggling before hurrying over to her chair.

"Someone's excited," Emma says with a laugh as Rose put on her party hat.

"Yeah!" Rose says and nods so dramatically that the hat flies right off again, causing her to laugh.

Chris smiled at this as he made his way over to the dining room table to stand next to Emma and gives her a peck on the cheek.

"Let me get Piers, and we can have dinner," Emma says while contently smiling before she walks over to the living room to find the child had crawled away from his blanket and was pulling on the couch to try and stand up, so he could get to Duke. "Someone is turning into a little troublemaker," Emma jokey says in a coddling tone as she picks up the child to keep him from grabbing the tired old dog's tail.

Piers giggles, as he instinctively moves to curl up and grab his feet as he was hoisted into the air. His wide smile showed a few teeth that were starting to peek through.

Emma carried the happy baby over to his high chair and finagled with it to get him to sit in it properly, so the celebratory family meal could start. "Rose, are you only putting Cheese in your taco?" Emma asks with a slight smile and raised eyebrow.

"Yes," Rose says with a smug grin.

That's not a taco... "Okay," Emma says and shakes her head. It was her birthday meal, if she just wanted taco shells with cheese she could have it.

"If you want to open one of your presents early, you need to put something other than cheese on there," Chris says before taking a bite of his own meal.

Rose stares at her culinary masterpiece with a conflicted frown for a few moments before her face lit up. She reached over and grabbed a single piece of shredded lettuce and put that on top of her cheese piled tortilla. "There," she says with a proud tone. She was so smart.

Chris winces while shrugging. "Okay, guess you have to wait until after dessert and that's going to be at least another hour," He points out as he continued to pretend that it was none of his business. This darn kid was eating more than cheese for the love of all that was holy. Emma did not make all of this just for the more of it to be ignored.

"What?" Rose asks with a pouting, defeated frown.

"It's true, I have to wash the dishes after this then cake," Emma adds in to try and support Chris's push for Rose to eat a bit better.

"How much more do I have to add," Rose whined. This wasn't fair.

Chris looked over the taco before bobbing his head, then reached out and added a bit more of the shredded lettuce to it. At least she'd have some form of vegetable this way, even if it was empty calories. "That much, and you have to finish it."

Rose inaudible continued to whine while staring at the green leaves on top of her otherwise beautiful and perfect meal. The pile of presents taunted her. She'd have to wait a whole hour... She picked up the taco and begrudgingly started to eat.

That was better. Maybe next time, she won't ask for a meal she isn't actually going to eat. Chris gave a short nod of approval before making another taco for himself, while Emma focused on feeding Piers a mushy meal of sweet potato turkey baby food between bites of her own meal.

It took some fussing and grumbling, but after a few minutes the lettuce and Cheese taco was finished. "I did it," Rose says and tilts her plate to show that it was empty while opening her mouth wide to show she wasn't hiding any food.

Emma and Chris look at each other and after a silent wordless conversation, Emma nods. "Alright, you can pick one," she confirms.

Rose smiles and happily reached for the largest box, only to stop when she heard Chris clearing his throat. She stopped mid-motion and looked over to see him shake is head ever so slightly. Weird... She tried going for the next largest, but again the same thing happened before he pointed at a box she'd mostly ignored. The smallest one. She wanted to open the big one, why would she open the little one... Rose debated going against Chris's unspoken suggested, but ultimately picks up the smallest box of the pile with an attempt at a smile.

"Are you done?" Emma asks with an amused smile while staring at Chris.

"Yep. Just had something caught in my throat is all," Chris says with a cheeky smile.

Rose cautiously opens the gift before a soft excited gasp could be heard. She knew what this was! She quickly ripped away the rest of the paper and moved to get out of her chair, so she could excitedly dance around while holding the box over her head. "It's a phone~" she cheered happily. "Is it charged? Can I use it?" she asks as a dozen other questions came to mind as well.

"Be careful with it, don't drop it but Yes and Yes, "Chris replies while starting to regret that he didn't put the phone in a case right off the bat.

"Wohoo!" She cheered as she hurried to open the box and get the phone out. It only took her a matter of moments to figure out how to turn the device on and with that, she was off to the races.

Chris and Emma watched as Rose started to hurry around the house, so she could start taking pictures of everything. "You remembered to turn on the parent safety settings, right?" Emma quietly whispers so rose wouldn't overhear her.

"Yep," Chris says with a content grin.

"Cool," Emma says with a chuckle, before the two gave each other a quiet knuckle bump to celebrate the successfully surprised child. Hopefully, the gift was worth the wait and the taco with lettuce on it.

Chris glanced over to Emma before chuckling to himself. "So, what are you doing this weekend?" He asks with a slight smirk.

"I'll be in New York, Why?" Emma asks in return with a curious tone.

Shit that's right... Well, there went that. "Ah, right..." He says while thinking over whether he should say anything or not. " I was thinking I might try and pick up a wedding band for myself over the weekend. I figured maybe we could make a date out of it? I'm still kicking myself for not getting one sooner. That would have made things a bit easier before..."

"Ah... Well, any other time I can go," Emma offers in return. That sounded like a nice evening out. "Maybe after work tomorrow if you want to do that before I head out?"

"It's a bit short notice to find a sitter," Chris reluctantly admits with a slight frown. "Maybe next weekend, then. I can check with Hound Wolf squad and see if anyone can watch the kids..."

"Sounds like a date to me," Emma agrees while smiling before giving Chris a peck on the cheek.

Before long, Rose made her way back to eat another cheese only taco with a happy smile. Dinner was finished, dishes were cleared away and cake was served and only then was Rose allowed to open the rest of her presents. She got a few movies and toys that she wanted, and the large box that she'd wanted to open first held a huge kit for STEM activities, which she grew an interest in during her time at camp. Rose contently admired her pile of presents.

It was an awesome birthday. Even if she had to eat lettuce.

'*'*'*'*'

The weekend came and went and by Monday he'd talked to his team who quickly agreed to help after finding out the last time they went out together was 2 years ago when they last offered to watch Rose. Needless to say, he got an ear full for that before. When the evening of August 12th finally arrived, there were some complaints from Piers, who was not thrilled to see both mom and dad leave at the same time. However, after a tearful tantrum from the small 9-month-old infant and reassurance from Rose that she was going to watch the baby and Hound Wolf squad, the parents finally were free to leave.

"Hopefully this goes a bit smoother than last time," Emma comments with a chuckle as the two drove away from the home.

"Yeah. Luckily, Rose knows better than to get into the pantry and throw food around now," Chris points out with a slight smile.

"Yeah... and I don't think Piers can reach anything particularly messy at this point," Emma chimes in while thinking over past events. "I'm still not sure how they managed to use 12 full paper towel rolls..."

"It's probably best to leave that as a mystery," Chris suggests with an amused laugh.

"Maybe," Emma agrees with a weak smile.

The silence that followed caused Chris to glance over to check on her. "The kids will be fine," He offers in an attempt to reassure her. "Try and relax, okay?"

"Okay," Emma agrees with a more sincere smile.

The agent waited until they got to a red light and leans over to give Emma a quick peck. While it was a seemingly small gesture, it made her happy. He remembered the silly little game. This was further confirmed when the car stopped at the next light and the gesture was repeated and continued to be repeated until they made it to their first destination.

They pulled into the parking lot of a small single story building with large glass panel windows sported a fancy sign that read 'Le Marquise Jeweler'.

"Looks like a nice place," Emma says with a slight nod.

"It's where I picked up your ring, so I figured they might have some decent options," Chris explains with a slight shrug and pink tinted cheeks.

"Is it? That's a good idea," Emma replies as she follows Chris's lead and moves to get out of the car, so they can head inside.

It was a rather typical jewelry store, well-placed lighting made every piece sparkle even from their protective housing inside one of the plethora of display cases that lined the walls and center of the open floor building. The store had 3 employees on staff at the moment. a manager sitting at their desk doing paper work. A sale's associate that was already busy with another customer and another who was more than happy to approach Chris and Emma.

"Hi, how can I help you?" the worker asks with a smile as they could smell the commission money. It was always a good sign when a couple walked in to a jewelry store.

"Yeah, we were hoping to pick out a band," Chris explained, which was exactly what the worker wanted to hear.

"For her?" The worker hopefully asks in return, but Emma shakes her head no.

"For him," Emma confirms.

Oh... Well, that commission just drastically shrank... "Of course. Right this way," The worker says with a smile all the same and lead the two over to a selection of wedding bands. "If you see anything you'd like to try on, just let me know. I'll be over there," the worker adds to excuse themselves. They certainly didn't mind helping, but they wanted to be available if a bigger fish walked in.

Chris could feel himself relax a bit as the worker walked away. Shopping was easier if you weren't being watched like a hawk. "Well... I'm sensing a theme," he says while looking at the bands.

"Gold or black or both?" Emma asks to see if she was noticing the same thing.

"Yup," He says with a quiet laugh. The store had some crazy acoustics that made everything carry.

"If you don't like anything here, we can always try the store I went to with Travis. They had a few interesting ones," Emma suggests with a hesitant smile as she remembered the experience. "I'm still trying to figure out how they made a ring out of dinosaur fossils..."

"They what?" Chris asks with a concerned expression before shaking his head. "Simple is fine. I think I just want something matte. If it's reflective, it could be a hazard during missions..."

"That's a good point. maybe one of the tungsten bands then," Emma suggests while gesturing to the half of the display that held darker black rings.

"That's about what I was thinking too," he admits, before his expression switched to one of confusion when he felt his phone go off in his pocket. He let out a long breath before taking out the device to check it and found a new text.

[Rose] Hi! The baby stopped crying -poorly framed picture of Piers-

"Looks like we got an update," Chris says with a half-hearted chuckle before showing Emma the message.

"Hopefully she's not tormenting them with her phone," Emma says, as she could easily imagine the young girl showing the device to each person and having to explain how it works and why it's awesome even though they already know.

"Yeah, she seemed pretty excited about it," Okay, he could do this, deep breath in. "You know I was looking over expenses and such when picking that out for her," Chris says in an attempt to lead the subject.

"That's right. How's that looking?" Emma asks with a slight wince.

"Good, Good. It turns out, I actually do have a pretty decent chuck of change in savings now."

"Oh?" Emma asks with a raised eyebrow... Okay, what did he buy.

"Yeah, it turns out not having access to my account for over 6 months lead to a decent nest egg," Chris quietly explains to avoid being overheard by the staff. The last thing he needed was for the sales person to push overpriced nonsense at them. Simple was fine.

"Mhm," She replies, though her concern was replaced with curiosity.

Why was this so difficult? He's already married. Just say it. "So, I was thinking we could, maybe, use that for the wedding we didn't get to have." He offers with a hesitant smile. They never really brought up what they were going to do about that, and even after recovering and things moving smoother, that topic wasn't coming up. While he was fine if they were content not doing anything, he didn't want this to be one more place where his own failure to act led to missing out on something important. "I mean. it's not a lot, but we could do something small."

Hearing this causes Emma to smile. "I'd like that," She admits with a soft, infatuated chuckle. "It's not much but, The freelance gigs I've been working on have been adding up a bit too so, yeah. Maybe that's something we can work together on?"

Chris breathes a sigh of relief at her response. It's not like he expected her to react poorly to the question, but seeing that she was still excited about something like that was comforting. "I guess we have some planning to do."

"True," Emma agrees while continuing to look at the display. "Although, we already have cute options for a ring bearer and flower girl," She adds as her smile grows to a laughing grin. "By the time we're able to actually host anything, Piers will probably be able to walk."

"He's growing so fast," Chris says with a slight frown. If the kid could slow down a bit and stay a baby a bit longer, that would be appreciated.

"I think he's just stubborn, like you," Emma suggests with a teasing tone.

Hearing that caused Chris to laugh and the frown to fade as he nudged her. "And I'm pretty sure he got an equal portion of that from you," Chris counters. " Seriously. Who sees the leader of an international military organization at their door and tells them to fuck off?" He jokingly asks and shakes his head.

"I've had some practice," Emma says with a shrug.

His smile took a saddened turn but remained all the same. She shouldn't have had any experience with that at all... "I think I like that one," Chris says, while trying to go back to focusing on their initial goal. He nods, then taps on the glass to point at a matte black tungsten ring. there were no engravings or gems or really any other fan fair too it aside from being a ring. "Yeah, I think I'll just get that one."

"Are you sure? You can try a few on," Emma offers, feeling a bit surprised by the decision that came without holding or checking the ring. what if he didn't like the width or the weight of it?

"I really hate shopping," He explained in return with an attempt at a smile. his logic has always been go in, get item, get out. browsing was more of a hassle than a pleasure.

Hearing that causes Emma to chuckle. "Alright, let's get checked out then. The restaurant we picked out will probably seat us even if we're a few minutes early."

'*'*'*'*'

Two weeks had passed since then, and that time had been pretty happy for the small family. Rose was contently distracted by her gifts, mostly her phone, but the STEM kit did not go untouched. She would happily make new 'inventions' in her room and on occasions when Chris and Emma weren't watching, she'd make super inventions by amping up the project with her powers. Piers continued to explore away from his blanket to see the rest of the house on his own terms, climbing anything he could find to try and stand, which often ended in tears from falling over. Meanwhile, Emma was busy maintaining their home, and working on preparation for their latest visitor who should be arriving any minute.

While Chris could usually be found sitting on the couch with a book, that was not the case for today. Instead, he was sitting on the living room floor with Rose and Emma while holding up Piers, so the infant could stand.

"You know he's still too young to walk right?" Emma says with a raised eyebrow as she watches the child bounce in place with Chris's support.

"Well, he's not going to figure it out if he doesn't practice," Chris points out in return.

"Come over here~" Rose cheers in an attempt to get her little brother's attention, who was currently trying to fit both of his hands in his mouth.

"Just be ready to catch him," Emma warns instead, Piers has shown some interest in trying to walk with all the climbing he's been doing, but he just didn't have the muscle for it yet.

"I got him," Chris confirms with a slight nod. "Ready champ?"

He received a reply of happily inaudible baby gurgles. "baba baba."

Emma contently smiled to herself and waited for the inevitable result where the child fell face forward because he's top-heavy and started to cry. A result which didn't have the time to play out, as the doorbell was heard. Rather than run to the door, Duke howled loudly from his place on the couch, where he was contently curled up.

"That's probably them, I'll go get it," Emma says as she moves to get up and Rose scoots over to take her place.

"Come here Piers, you can do it," Rose coached while motioning for her brother to walk over to her.

As Emma predicted, the child managed to stay upright for all of half a second before falling forward. However, Chris was close enough that he was able to catch the child before he hurt himself. "We're going to need to work on that..." Chris quietly says, which causes Rose to giggle to herself.

After a minute or so, Emma walked back in with two people behind her. A young woman in her late 30s with blond hair that reached her chin, icy blue eyes contrasted with ivory skin. She was accompanied by a young man who was in his rough early 30s, but it was hard to tell due to the scars on his face, his sunken facial features and nearly bald, close shaven hair cut.

"Okay Rosie, we're going to go upstairs for a bit with your brother," Emma says as she takes Piers from Chris. She learned her lesson after the last fight with Leon. Babies do not stay in the area during these visits. She stops by the two on her way by "If you need anything let me know, I'll just be upstairs." she adds.

"We'll be fine. It's just a quick formality," The man says in return, earning a nudge from the woman next to him.

"Thank you, we'll keep that in mind," she corrects before Emma walks away.

"Hey Chris, Good to see you," the woman says with a smile as made her way over as he stood up.

"It's good to see you too," Chris replies and accepts it and offers both a handshake, though only the woman accepted. Chris went to take a seat by duke, so the guests could sit next to each other on the other couch. It wasn't his usual place, but hey, a break from the routine could be nice. It was weird, though, he didn't know who they were... but he figured he'd remember in a few minutes if the past was anything to go by.

"So I heard you're having memory issues again," The woman says with an attempt at a smile.

"I was yeah, I've mostly recovered at this point," Chris admits in return. While he wanted to say he completely recovered, he didn't feel like he could now.

"That's good," She says with a nod. "Can you tell me what you remember about these?" She requests and hands over a small stack of ID cards.

Chris accepted the Cards and looked them over.

"Each and every one of you may be ready to die for our cause,"

His words echoed through his mind as he shuffled through the stack and slowly looked over each card.

"But it's my job to make sure we all get through this alive."

He stopped as a card that read Finn McCauley and showed the face of a young BSAA soldier.

"I know you're nervous, Finn, but the team's got your back. Okay?"

He remembered the sound of scraping metal as thick iron bars fell in place. a Woman in blue and red and the sounds of pained screaming as people, the faces on these cards, calcified in front of him and turned into something unspeakable. Everything after that was blurry aside from the memories of cigarettes, hard alcohol and hangovers. he remembered that feeling. When he just woke up a few months ago, the desire to forget everything... He tried to before. He could hear a sharp ringing in his ears as images flashed through his minds. Someone dragged him out of it... got him back to work...

"You can't hide from your past Chris, no matter where you go, no matter what you do,"

He looked through the cards a bit quicker now. Andy Walker, Carl Alfonso, Ben Airhart. He said he'd protect them...

"You owe it to them to remember, Chris. If you walk away now, then this was all for nothing!"

He ran his thumb over a scar on his cheek as the memories played through his mind. "You tried to shoot me," Chris states with an annoyed expression as he looked at Jake. Why did that seem to be a recurring issue? At least Sherry tried to stop him.

Yep," Jake casually replies as he moves to get more comfortable in his seat. "To be fair, you told me to."

Why the hell did he do something that stupid, did he think he was invincible, or did he just want to die? "I'm surprised you agreed to be here," Chris admits with a cautious frown as he continued to watch Jake from the corner of his eye.

"She bribed me," Jake says with a flat tone.

Chris gave a slight nod. "Ah," That made sense. A mercenary through and through. He was about to speak, probably say something sarcastic, when he shuffled to a new card that held the name of his infant child and showed a photo of a young man. Piers Nivans. M. DOB 6/12/1987. 5'10'' "What the hell..." He quietly says under his breath. That couldn't be right... Again he winced as the ringing in his ear got worse. He remembered the taste of salt water and metal corridors. He remembered blood and screaming as Piers lost his arm and...

He moved to hold his face as the cards clattered to the floor. "God damn it..." He says while fighting back tears.

"... I'm sorry," Sherry says quietly with a sullen expression.

"I'm sorry... Captain,"

"Don't," Chris replies as he tries to regain his composure by clearing his throat before moving his hands away from his face. "Don't apologize... not to me," Chris managed to replies before a sad broken laugh escaped him "I owe it to him to remember," He says, though the words stung his tongue. "Thank you."

"No problem..." Sherry replies with a sympathetic tone.

"If you actually mean that, then don't forget again," Jake chimes in while avoiding looking at Chris. "It's a pain in the ass."

"Jake," Sherry sharply says while glaring at him.

"What, it is," He remarks with a shrug.

"It's fine," Chris says while motioning for Sherry to let it go. "How have you two been?" He asks, hoping to think about anything else.

"Well enough. I'm still working with the BSAA," Sherry says with a shrug. "Jake's... been busy with work, we got married a few years ago."

Wait, what? "Oh. Wow, Congratulations," Chris replies with a stunned expression. Was this really the same little girl his sister rescued all those years ago?

"Thanks," Sherry replies with a more content and genuine smile. "What about you? I'd say a lot's changes since we last talked ten years ago."

"Has it been that long?" Jake asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Almost to the day," Sherry confirmed while nodding slightly. "I was talking with Claire before this... the little girl who was in the room before... She's infected too?"

"Yeah," Chris quietly confirms.

"I guess they haven't really changed the protocol on infected children," Sherry says with a remorseful sorrow. "She seems happier than I was, so that's good."

"We certainly try but," The agent admits but pauses to think about how to say what was on his mind. "The only difference is she doesn't know any better... Ignorance is bliss," Chris quietly replies to avoid being heard by the child that was in the room above them.

"Do you think they'll give her the same offer they gave me?" Sherry hesitantly asks with gentle curiousity.

"Maybe. It's hard to tell. Your infection was more maintainable. Rose's is highly active with multiple side effects we can't seem to control yet," Chris answered to the best of his ability. "Rebecca's been keeping me updated on progress for something to help her." but they're running out of time...

"If she ever needs someone to talk to, call me? It can be hard going through that as a kid," Sherry offers, which causes Jake to scoff. "Things are only going to get better if we provide a way for them to be better," she adds while staring him down.

Jake rolls his eyes at that before shaking his head. "It's a nice dream."

'*'*'*'*'

It took the more of the weekend for Chris to process what he'd remembered, he was grateful that the mourning process went quicker and smoother a second time around. By Monday, he was back in the office. Spending time with Jake and Sherry, and remembering what Piers died for, lit a flame under him. There had to be more that he could do to figure out who the mole was. Piers didn't die believing in the BSAA for it to turn rotten like this. He'd flush out the whole god-damn organization if he had to.

With that motivation rekindled, he made his way to the evidence lockers. If there was a mole, they had to have been here at some point. Something had to be out of place. He stopped in front of the locker for the Village incident when his expression shifted to hesitant curiosity as he stared at the lock pad. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small plastic key that opened the lockers and placed that on the pad. After a few seconds, a chime was heard as the pad turned green and the file drawer opened.

It worked.

The key, it wasn't just for the changing room locker. Curiosity got the better of Chris as he closed the evidence locker and made his way out of the room. Down the hall to a room even he didn't have clearance for. He put the key on the lock pad and sure enough the same chime could be heard as the pad turned green and the server room door was unlocked. This was a total master key... he had access to every inch of the BSAA headquarters. When something seems too good to be true. It usually is. This didn't make sense.

Chris closed the server room door once more and started down the hall once more to a familiar office. The agent opened the door and slammed it shut behind him to announce his arrival.

"Redfield, I almost didn't hear you stomping over from a mile away," The director comments without looking up to even check.

"What the hell sort of game are you playing?" Chris asks with an irritated scowl.

"You know I'm not fond of moronic questions, and I'm even less a fan of games," The director says while rolling their eyes, but they remained contently focused on their work.

"And you know damn well what I'm talking about, the day you dragged me back here. Why did you give me that key?" Chris asks as his scowl remained.

"So you could open your locker and get dressed. Tell me you're not upset about being clothed," The director scoffs while every continuing to ignore Chris.

"Two of them were for my locker, but the 3rd isn't. Why did you give me that 3rd key?" Chris asks more directly.

The director lazily looked up from his paperwork to glare at Chris for a moment before focusing on his work once more. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Bull shit, the third key. The key you gave me. The one that opens any door in this god-damn buildi-"

The director stood up and clamped his handover Chris's mouth to get him to stop talking. "Will you shut up," He quietly hisses. "The walls have ears."

Chris remains silent, and the director removes his hand to sit back down.

"I have no idea what you're going on about," he repeats once more. "But assuming I did give you something as stupidly irresponsible as what you're suggesting. I'd say it was probably for a reason, and that you have a job to do."

"A job?" Chris asks annoyed. For someone who just said he doesn't like games, he was playing a fool rather convincingly.

"Yes now, let's get one thing perfectly straight. While my moral compass may not always point due north, I have some self-respect," The director says while staring down Chris. "It's my duty to protect and serve. To make sure that the people of this country, and of this planet, are safe from threats like bioweapons. I will make sure that is done by any means necessary," The director explains while maintaining eye contact before shifting his attention to get a piece of paper and pen. "As such, I don't take kindly to those that would defy that duty. In such a time, as obnoxious, argent and blatantly moronic as some may be, my only option would be to rely on those who show the same diligence to the people they swore to protect." As he says this he writes and when he's done, he hands over the paper to Chris who hesitantly accepts it.

Trust No One... Whoever it is. They're close. It's either my secretary or a member of your team. Someone with access to all the documents that wouldn't raise an alarm and can pass by unseen... Follow that lead first until you're perfectly sure they're clean...

"Do I make my self clear?" The director asks while watching Chris.

"... Crystal," Chris responds with a sunken feeling in his chest. While the suggestion that a member of his team might be behind this was enraging, He was not going to turn his back on his goal now. He would uproot every last weed from this place. Starting with the mole and director if he had anything to say about it.


Tadah~ Rose got her phone and Chris is making progress on the mole hunt. =v= next chapter is going to be a fun one ufufu Just as a heads-up, if you see the Word count change and jump around without an update, that's because I've put my editing hat back on. A lot of the fixes I made got zapped somehow. So, I started over from the beginning for scrubbing out typos and grammar errors. It's a labor of love ovq I've gotten about 25 chapters cleaned up so far out of 76 (now 77). I've added two smol scenes in doing so. I took a break to write this, so I'll be going back to editing. I'm hopeful to have everything scrubbed by the end of February.