I just finished my first week at my new job, and I am so amped up! So here's more content =v= love you guys!
Song Suggestion: Providence by Poor Man's Poison
Disclaimer: I own nothing, RE belongs to CapCom they are lovely I am just a wee lil fan girl do not sue ovq k thanks
Time ticked by, every hour felt ever present in Chris's mind as he continued his efforts to find some form of proof of the mole. A lead, anything... And yet at the same time he felt dread. As much as he wanted proof, there was nothing he wanted more than to be wrong. He didn't want this to lead back to his own team. He didn't want to know one of them had betrayed the others so severely. He didn't want to have to be the one to throw someone he was willing to give his own life for, under the metaphorical bus to face the consequences of their actions.
And yet, here he was standing in the file room yet again in hope of finding proof that would cause so much pain. Despite his dread for what the proof would create, he couldn't turn a blind eye. A tired sigh crossed his lips as he scowled at the latest report he was checking. He went over each mission record they had filed out, and they were accurate. No miscommunication details or odd addendums that took details out.
"Damn it..." He says under his breath before putting the file away. He moved to hide his eyes behind his hand as he thought over what to do now. The records weren't pointing at much. He was looking at this in too broad of a perspective. His hand that was covering his face fell to his side, as he tapped his thumb against his thigh while thinking it over. He had been avoiding directly looking into any one person's activity. It was risky. If the mole was as close as he thought, and they found out, then they might make a move.
He closed up the file cabinet, which made a quiet beep as it locked up again. How was he going to go about doing this... Chris puzzled over this as he walked through the halls to head back to his office with an ever present scowl. He made sure to check that his door was locked still before unlocking it, so he could make his way over to his desk and get to work. His eyes drifted to the date as he opened a blank email to get started. Monday, October 30th 1:12pm. He shook his head at that before returning his attention to his email.
The agent clicked away at the keyboard and hesitantly drafted up an email to IT requesting a record of each team members' file withdrawal history. While he wanted one for the director as well, he didn't have the clearance... Chris shook his head as he pressed his lips together as he reread the email one more time. Hesitation was pushed aside as he clicked the button to send the email.
Chris pushed himself to get back up and leave his office once more after making sure to lock the door again. He still needed to meet up with the team and worth through their daily drills. As of late, he'd started leaving his gym bag in his locker with his phone. He wasn't sure who tried to get into his phone before, but he wasn't going to give them the chance to keep trying.
The trend persisted as Chris went through the motions that the daily routine brought before entering the Gym. "Hound Wolf squad, round up!" Chris shouts to get everyone's attention. Each one did as they were told, even though one of them was ready to stab the rest in the back.
"Sir yes, sir!" they reply in unison.
"Same sets as last time Umber Eye work with Tundra at the range, Canine work with Lobo on laps, Night Howl you're with me on the machines. We rotate on the hour," Chris lists off as he reads over the usual report. "Any questions?"
"No sir," the group responds.
"Alright. You have your orders then," Chris says as he goes to hang up his clipboard. Each member of the team hurries off to their assigned drill, and by the time Chris made it to the machines, he found Night Howl waiting for him.
"Mondays, am I right?" Night Howl asks with a sympathetic laugh.
"Hm?" Chris asks while raising an eyebrow as he got set up at a machine.
"You were later than normal. I just kind of figured it was a case of the Mondays," Night Howl explained.
"Ah, right. Yeah, that's probably it," Chris agreed, even though he knew well enough that wasn't it.
There was a fairly long pause in their conversation as Chris tried to focus more on working out. That only lasted so long before Night Howl spoke up again. "Are you looking forward to tomorrow? Halloween's always been a squad favorite." He asks with an attempt at a smile. "We have the usual bet going so hopefully you have something planned."
"Right, that's tomorrow," He says while thinking that over. "Yeah, Emma's mostly been coordinating that for the family this year."
"Oh. Cool," Night Howl replies with a nod before eventually stopping his set and moving to sit forward as he took his glasses off so he could rub his face. "Look, we are really worry about you. Are you okay?" Night Howl asks with a sad frown. "Lobo said you're just busy with paperwork or something. Usually, you're never late, yet you've been spotty at best lately. You're skipping meals again. You constantly look like you've been through the ringer. What's going on?" He asks as he moves to put his glasses back on. "Whatever it is, you can rely on us. We're your team."
He couldn't though, and that was the worst part. "... It's nothing serious. I'm just a bit antsy. Lots to do, very little time," Chris offers in response. The last thing he wanted to do was lie to any member of his squad, but at the same time, he couldn't tell them the truth until he was sure that they were clean.
"Because of the paperwork, sir?" Night Howl asks, though he didn't seem convinced.
"Yeah," Chris agrees. "That's enough chatter."
"Yes sir," Night Howl says as he gets back to work.
Machines, laps, some time at the range and sparing filled the final hours of Chris' work day before he made his way back to his locker to change. One more day for the books, and it felt like it had already been a week. He grumbled under his breath as he closed the door to his locker once he was finished changing. The tired captain slowly navigated the hallways, deep in thought, until he found himself in front of the door to the lab Rose was usually in. He took a deep breath before walking into the room.
As soon as he walked into the room, the scientists looked over and just as quickly went back to what they were doing before. One of them activated the intercom system that linked the two sections of the lab. "Rose, Captain Redfield is here to pick you up. You're free to go."
Out walked Rose, whose face was about as tired and long as Chris's had been earlier. Seeing this caused the man to pull his head back slightly while his eyebrows knit together. "Hey, are you ready to head home?" He asks with cautious curiosity.
"Yeah," Rose says with a frown while adjusting her book bag.
"... You have all of your workbooks?" Chris asks with continued concern and only got a slight nod in response. "Okay. Let's get going then." Chris walked with Rose through the halls and would occasionally glance over to the silent child. He pressed his lips together as he tried to think over what to do before eventually giving her a playful nudging. "Hey."
"What?" Rose asks, annoyed by the parental figure's shove. Hadn't she been picked on enough?
Well, that had some attitude behind it. "Are you excited for tomorrow?" He asks as his mind drifts to Night Howls attempt to cheer him up earlier.
"I donno..." Rose says with a sigh.
"You get to dress up, eat lots of sweets," Chris lists off reasons for the nearly 10-year-old equivalent little girl to be excited as they made their way to the car. "You might even get to stay up late again," He adds in a hush tone whispered through his teeth as if he was telling a secret.
"Really?" Rose asks, as that seemed to get her attention.
"It's a possibility," Chris replies as they both got into the car. It still felt odd to him that Rose had aged enough to get in and out of the car on her own, and in a few months she wouldn't need her booster seat anymore.
"I am kinda excited," She quietly admits. "... Do you think they're going to do the costume contest again this year?" She asks while cautious hope.
"I think I saw an email about that," Chris admits with a slight chuckle as he notices her smile returning as he looked in the rearview mirror. He focused on backing out the car once they were on the move, he spoke again. "Did you want to try and enter again this year?"
"Can I?" Rose asks as her smile grew.
"Yeah, I don't see why not," He confirmed as he felt himself relax a bit more now that Rose was back to her usual smiling self.
The rest of the ride home was filled with similar idle chatter. Once the car was parked in its usual spot, the two got out and made their way into the house.
"We're home!" Rose shouts with a giggle before hurrying to take her shoes off.
"Welcome home," Emma calls back from the kitchen as she tends to a large boiling pot.
"I'm gonna go try on my costume again!" Rose announces as she hurries over to the stairs and up to her room. The loud thundering of excited footsteps on the stairs causes Duke to howl before lazily nestling back into his place on the couch.
A quiet chuckle crosses Chris's lips before he shuffles his way to the dining room while stretching out his back with a wince. "What a day..."
"Tired?" Emma asks while she continues to monitor the meal she was preparing.
"Yeah," He confirms as cranky whines and grumbles could be heard. Chris looks over to the living room to find a very cranky Piers holding on to the baby gate while trying to push it over by rocking back and forth while he clung to it. Crocodile tears started to form as the child began to scream for attention. "What are you howling about, hm?" Chris asks as he walks over to see Piers stare up at him with a quivering pout while reaching up to show he wanted to be held.
"He wouldn't take a nap today, so he's very opinionated at the moment," Emma replies on the child's behalf as Chris leans over to pick up the infant.
"Oh what a hard life, no nap time," Chris says through a smile as he walks around with a slight bounce in his step to try and calm the little one that was clinging to him.
Pier's continued to angrily babble while rubbing his snot covered face against Chris's shirt. He would have his complaints known that it was so unfair that he was locked into a small safe padded space when there were so many fun, dangerous things he could try and find.
Once the child managed to calm his screaming down to more manageable grumbles, the agent moved to take a seat at the dining room table. He scoots for ward a bit, so he can lean back in the chair, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
Emma looks over before contently smiling at the two for a moment before shifting her attention back to the boiling stew. After a quick taste test, she gets a pot holder and picks up the heavy steel pot to carry over to the table where bowls spoons and glasses of water were already set up. She put the pot down on the holder in the center of the table before leaning to give Chris a peck on the cheek.
A twitch of a smile crosses his face as he peeks an eye open to look at her.
"You're pushing yourself too hard again," Emma says quietly.
"It's nothing," Chris lies.
The woman frowns at this before shaking her head and moving to take a ladle full of the stew and put that in the bowl in front of Chris. "You have bags under your eyes, and they only show up when you're so stressed you're not sleeping well..." She points out in return, earning a few quiet grumbles in response. "Try and get some rest. You're going to need it for tomorrow."
"Yeah," He agrees through a breath as Emma put the ladle back into the pot, then leaves to go and get Rose.
Chris picks at the bowl of food, taking a few bites while waiting for the others to join him. Thundering footsteps returned as Rose raced down the stairs to see how fast she could go. The blond child hurried over to her seat with her hair now messily pulled into a bun while wearing a ragged green dress and Thin fairy wings made of stretched nylon.
"Hey now Tinkerbell try to be careful with dinner okay? You don't want to get your costume dirty before tomorrow," Emma warns as she walks back into the room to see Rose leaning forward as she kneeled on her seat to try and get to the pot in the middle of the table.
"I'll be careful," Rose replies as she tries to get a ladle full of the thick, hearty stew into her bowl. "I gotta look my best for the contest tomorrow."
Upon hearing that, Emma looks over at Chris while she takes her seat. "Are they doing that again this year?"
"It's a yearly thing," Chris explains with a slight shrug.
"Can we make moon bread again?" Rose asks excitedly.
"Oh um. No," Emma replies with a nervous laugh. "We don't have enough time for that, maybe if we started over the weekend..." She explains with an attempt at a smile as she served herself. Frankly, she didn't feel particularly inclined to make anything for anyone at the BSAA. "We can make something else though if you want."
Rose grumbles a bit at that but thinks it over. "What can we make?" she asks with a slight frown. She didn't want to show up empty-handed.
"Well," Emma thought it over. "What about pumpkin cookies?" she offers in return. There would probably be five other plates of the same thing, but that was fine considering the short notice.
"Can they be pumpkin shaped?" Rose asks as her smile returns. Little pumpkin shaped pumpkin cookies would be so cute.
"We can try?" Emma replies with a slight wince. "Let's see what we have in the way of cookie cutters."
"Okay," Rose agrees with a happy, chipper tone.
"You'll need to finish your dinner and change out of your costume before we bake, though, okay?" Emma adds as her smile became more genuine thanks to the child's enthusiasm.
"Fiiiine," She reluctantly agreed, though her smile remained. Sweets fixed everything. The little girl daydreamed her scheme as she ate her meal.
The meal continued with quiet chatter and soft clinking of silverware announced empty bowls. Once she had her fill, Rose hurried back upstairs to change into her pajamas then just as quickly made her way back down the stairs to find Chris taking care of feeding Piers while Emma was digging though the cabinets to gather supplies for the seasonal treat.
Unlike the last time the two made their Halloween treat for the BSAA, Rose did not need the assistance of a chair to reach the counters.
"Do you want to add two and a half cups of flour to the bowl for me?" Emma asks as she nudges the measuring cups and flour over to Rose.
"Okay," Rose says with a determined smile. A soft fwoomp could be heard as the flour was dropped into the bowl after being measured, creating a dusty cloud in the process.
"Careful," Emma warns as Rose giggles and makes another flour cloud by adding another cup to the mix. Emma chuckles as well. "Make sure you get the flour in the bowl or the cookies won't turn out right."
A quiet gasp could be heard in response before Rose adamantly nods. The last bit of flour was added with the utmost care. Emma smiles as she watched Rose follow each step with intent focus. That amusement compounded as she watched the child very gingerly try and crack an egg.
"Rose, it's okay if it's a little messy," Emma corrects as the child was barely making progress with getting the egg open.
"Nooo. It's gotta be perfect," Rose says with continued determination.
"Do you want some help with the egg?" The motherly figure offers.
Rose made no progress as she continued to gently tap the fracturing but not broken eggshell. "...Fine," she says with a defeated sigh as she hands the egg over to Emma.
"When cracking an egg, you don't want to be too gentle. Just one quick solid tap like this and" she explained and cracked the egg on the side of the bowl. "Then you pry it open from there."
Rose nods and goes back to carefully adding the last of the ingredients. By the time the cookie dough was formed, the oven was warm and ready for use. The dough was rolled out, and each cookie was carefully stamped out using the cookie cutter shaped like a jack-o-lantern. 3 trays of cookies took their turn in the oven to bake, and by the time they were done, the house smelled of warm cinnamon and nutmeg.
The little girl proudly smiled at the plate of cookies as she watched Emma cover it with plastic wrap to keep them fresh overnight, aside from one that was left out on a paper towel on the counter. Rose was promptly sent to bed after getting to eat one of the cookies she helped make. While her excitement made it difficult to fall asleep, once she did, her dreams were filled with sweets and dancing animal friends.
That excitement continued on into the next day, as she woke up wide-eyed and ready for the holiday to commence. After a quick breakfast Rose made her way back to her room So she could put on her costume. After she finished putting her hair up into an attempt at a bun, she used her powers to pick up her favorite doll and bring it over to her. Today was the day!
The child giggled before pulling her chin back to try and talk in a deeper voice. "Oh wow, these cookies are so good!" Rose quietly exclaimed with her altered voice while causing the doll to lightly bounce in the air in an attempt to make it look like it was speaking.
"Well, thank you mister scientist," Rose replies to the doll. "I'm glad you like them."
Once more, the doll bounces around in the air, and she attempts to speak in a deeper voice. "They're sooo yummy. I'll make sure to call you Rosemary from now on."
"Yey~" Rose happily cheered in response before moving to pluck the doll from the air and give it a hug.
"Rose! It's time to go, are you dressed?" She could hear Emma calling up to her from the stairs.
"Yeah!" She calls back before using her powers to put her doll back over on the night stand. "Bye Angie, I'll be back soon to tell you all about it." Rose whispers before quickly hurrying down the stairs to join the rest of her family. Emma was waiting at the bottom of the stairs wearing a light blue dress while her hair had been styled into neat, meticulous curls and pulled back by a matching blue bow. To match her mother Wendy costume, Piers was dressed in a fluffy animal onesie to be a lost boy.
"There you are, come on. We don't want to be late," Chris says while waiting by the door to the garage. Sticking to the theme, the man was dressed as peter pan, dawning a leafy green tunic similar to Rose's. Complete with a feathered cap, darker green leggings. "Don't for get your treat for the table." he adds as he moves to put on his coat over his costume.
"I won't," Rose says and hurries into the kitchen, past Duke who was wearing a blue bonnet on his head, and grabbed the plate to take with them.
Chris gave Emma a quick peck on the cheek before heading out with Tinkerbell Rose. The drive felt like it was going to take forever thanks to her excitement, but before long the two made it to the office for the day and for the first time in a long time, she was happy to be there.
The two checked in for the costume contest at the front desk on their way in. After that Rose happily walked through the halls alongside Chris as she carried the plate of cookies with reverent care. Maybe if she brought the scientists some of the cookies she made, they would like them so much that they'll be really happy, and then they'll stop calling her Eveline.
As they made their way into the break room, Rose walked away to drop off the plate with the other treats. While she did this, Chris made his way over to the rest of Hound Wolf who were waiting for them, decked out in costumes as well. Lobo was dressed as Ghost Rider, complete with skeletal face paint. Canine was dressed as Legolas, Umber eye was dressed as a pirate, while Night howl was wearing a classical Van Helsing costume and in typical tundra fashion she was dressed as a pumpkin which was likely a last-minute purchase on her way to work.
Upon seeing Chris, Lobo spit his coffee back into his cup. "Oh god, you managed to find something worse than the short shorts," He muttered under his breath just loud enough for Chris to hear as he approached.
"This is certainly an interesting choice," Umber eyes says while trying to keep his opinion to himself. The others, however, were not on the same boat.
"What the hell are you doing in tights? Are you trying to kill someone?" Canine asks with confused concern as he held the side of his head.
"Well, it was this or hook so," Chris replies with a shrug. "If I did that, then one of us would have had to change." Chris mentioned before motioning to Umber eye.
"You could have been hook, and you chose to be the jolly green giant instead?" Lobo asks with an incredulous stare.
"Just do us all a favor and avoid bending over for today, okay?" Tundra requests while cracking up.
"If we're doing laps today, this is good motivation to not fall behind at least," Night Howl adds while trying to catch his breath.
Rose made her way over to rejoin the group.
"Aww now that's cute," Umber eye says with a gentle smile.
"Very nice costume Rose," night howl chimed in as well. The other 3 agreed in turn, causing the child to happily giggle.
"Thanks" She says with a wide grin. "I like your costumes too."
Chris waits for the 5 to respond with their quick thank-yous before speaking up. "Alright, let's get going," Chris says as he gives Rose a gentle nudge in the direction of the door. "You have some studying to do."
"Okay," She agrees with a slight nod before looking at the squad. "Bye guys!" Rose says and waves goodbye before following Chris.
The agent dropped off Rose before making his way back to his office, where he locked the door and took a seat at his desk. The patterned renewed yet again. Silly costumes or otherwise, he had work to do. He opened up his laptop and started sorting through emails. some were irrelevant garbage where he got tagged in an email chain for a conversation he had no say in. Others were more genuine, which had reports and attachments for him to review. As he dug through to find his work for the day, one email stood out.
RE: File Request
Chris opened the email from IT and found that 5 files were attached, each one was labeled with the name of a member of his team. The conflict of hopes began anew. he hoped he'd find something, so he had a lead, and he'd be able to finally relax again. Yet, he hoped he found nothing, so he could move on to search elsewhere.
By the time Noon rolled around, he managed to rather thoroughly review the first file. for each document drawn, he pulled up the same file to see the contents and mark down if there was anything unusual about when and what was reviewed. He breathed a sigh of relief. Umber eye was clean at this point, short of pulling up his contact history and checking who he's been talking to. that was a bridge too far for right now, though. He needed Probable cause to do something like that.
Chris checked his email once more and found that the results for the contest were in... Shit he for got to vote. Oh well. He didn't want to spoil the fun of checking with Rose, so he closed the laptop for now and locked up his office. By the time he made it to the break room, there were 6 impatient faces looking at him.
"Hurry," Rose from her seat next to Lobo.
"I'm too old for this. I can't handle a buff peter pan," Umber eye quietly says under his breath, causing the other squad members to snicker while they waited for Chris to get his lunch from the fridge and take the other seat next to Rose.
Rose was patient for all of 5 seconds. "who won," she asks with hopeful eyes.
"Give me a second," Chris replies as he pats at the tunic to try and find the hidden pocket to retrieve his phone.
"Second," Rose replies with a grin.
Little shit. He rolled his eyes at that but took his phone out all the same, so he could pull up the email. "First place goes to the back alley merchant costume," Chris announces to get that heart break out of the way for Rose. he kind of figured she wouldn't win two years in a row.
Rose pouted all the same and gave a dramatic sad sigh before taking another bite of her PB&J sandwich.
"Second place goes to some guy on the Silver Colt squad that dressed up as the headless horsemen," Chris says before scrolling down a bit more. "and third goes to the voodoo bride."
"So none of us placed huh?" Canine says while shaking his head. "Honestly I thought Night Howl had a good chance."
"It might have been a bit too on the nose and got the curse of the zombie costume," Night Howl admits with a shrug. "So how'd we do vote wise?"
Chris Scrolled down. "looks like they're in order from most to least... Pirate Captain you're in the lead with 13 votes."
"13? rough crowd this year," Lobo says and shakes his head. "Congrats on the win though,"
"Ghost rider got 11, Pumpkin, 7 votes," Chirs says with a surprised expression before his expression soured and he looked at lobo. "you talked to the receptionist didn't you?"
Lobo put another bite of food in his mouth while avoiding eye contact.
"Jolly green giant. 5 votes," He announces all the same with a deadpan expression. "same for Legolas, 5 votes,"
"I'll take it," Canine says with a nod.
"3 votes for Van Helsing," Chris reads off.
"yep, zombie curse. should have known," Night howl says while shaking his head.
as each person's score was read and the number of votes kept getting lower and lower, Rose's heart sank that much more. "What about me?" Rose meekly asks as she nudges her way over so she could see the phone too. Maybe he was saving the best for last?
Chris looked at the list with a frown. he scrolled back to the top and down once more. There was no mention of the tiny Tinkerbell. "They must have put us down as a team this year. so 5 votes." Chris says, hoping that would be enough.
The answer didn't help though. Rose's frown remained, and she sadly poked at her food. She knew well enough that's not what happened. They took separate pictures this year, so that couldn't have been it... She didn't get any votes? not one?
The rest of the team pretty quickly picked up on this. Lobo and Canine got up and gathered sweets from the shared table for the child, while Umber Eye went to get water and tissues, just in case. The sweets, water and tissues were all put to good use. While Rose didn't openly sob and throw a fit, the tears from broken expectations were abundant.
Chris would occasionally have Rose stop shoving some sort of cookie or cake into her mouth to give enough time to have her wipe her face. The water works eventually slowed to a stop and were replaced with an occasional hiccup or whimper while leaning into the one armed hug of her fatherly figure.
As much as it hurt, she couldn't give up now. she still had her plan things could get better, she just had to give the scientists some cookies and the day would get better. maybe she'd do better next year too. Hopeful thoughts and plenty of sugar helped patched up the disappointment for now.
"We have drills after this, right?" Night howl asks while sparing a sympathetic glance for the child who was calming down.
"Are you going to be okay?" Chris asks Rose who weakly nods. "Yeah, we still have drills," He confirms.
"Alright, I'm going to go get ready then, No offense, but I don't really want to run around as a pumpkin," Tundra admits.
"Eh fair enough, Halloween has never really been your thing," Lobo says with a shrug.
"Yeah, it's still fun for the sake of being excited with you guys," She says with a slight laugh as she gets up. "Pumpkin out."
"We should probably pack up too," Canine adds as he moves to get up as well. The others nod in agreement and start collecting their empty plates containers and lunch bags. Rose does the same and quickly packs up what was left of her lunch.
"I'll see you in a few hours," Chris says as the little girl gets up and start walking away.
"Okay bye," Rose says in return. She put her lunch bag back into the fridge before walking over to the table and gathering a paper plate to put as many of her pumpkin cookies as she took about half of what was left and walked away.
Chris shook his head as he watched this. The kid was turning into a sugar addict. "I'll just let Emma know to give her an extra scoop of vegetables at dinner," he mutters under his breath while gathering his empty lunch containers. His lunch box was put into the fridge alongside Rose's before he made his way to the locker rooms. He'd at least have enough mercy on his team to put on gym shorts over the tights.
Sure enough as he walked in with his modified costume there was a notable sense of relief among the team. "Hound Wolf squad, round up," Chris calls while collecting his usual clipboard from the wall. The group stands at attention and once Chris made it over, Tundra spoke up.
"How's the kid doing?" she asks and ends up getting a hard stare from Chris. While the question was well-meaning enough, he called for attention, that meant silence until permission to speak was given. "Sorry Captain."
Chris nods and goes back to reviewing the sheet. "It's the holidays, so we'll go a bit easy for today." Chris announces. "We'll be working as a full unit today. Laps, machines, then the range. he lists off," The leader explains the plan for the day before pausing. "And for the final hour, go home." He announces. "Understood?"
"Sir yes sir," the squad replies in unison.
"Alright, at ease and lets go," Chris replies as he starts to lead the way. "And Tundra, she'll be okay. She's just going to have to learn not to expect to get everything she wants all the time. Thanks for asking though."
"Yeah true but... it's weird she wasn't on the Email. She was on the poll. I voted for her," Lobo admits.
"Same. The costumes were kinda weak this year, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to have her win again," Canine agrees with a slight nod as the group made their way to the indoor track.
The rest of Hound Wolf voiced similar stories which caused Chris to frown. While he'd initially figured he'd use that extra hour for extra research, maybe He and Rose should head home early today... "Well, Email issues happen," He offers as a possible explanation. "There were a lot of entries, and they're bound to miss one or two sometimes. If she takes it this hard every time she ends up disappointed, she's going to have a rough life."
"True," Umber eye agrees, though his frown still held some sympathy.
The team eventually made their way to the track and from there the conversation was put to rest. Running for an hour was followed by time in the gym and some accuracy practice. Despite the usual dip in performance that would normally come with the holiday season, Hound Wolf squad seemed to be holding strong for now. Rose's time in the lab, however, was not going as smoothly.
The little girl had walked in with her plate of cookies and a smile on her face, which classed with her puffy red eyes that were still somewhat swollen from tears. "I brought everyone cookies," Rose announces as she moves to put the paper plate down on the table closest to the most scientists. "I made them."
"That's nice," one says while continuing to click away at their computer as they hardly spared the plate a passing glance. They knew better after all. Eveline had the Baker's spread the mold through food and infect people that way. She'd take over their minds. They weren't going to fall for some childish trick.
"How did that make it past security," another asks with more open concern, which caused Rose's shoulders to drop.
"You guys are being ridiculous," a third one says and move to pick up one of the cookies that pretty quickly gets slapped out of their hand.
"Are you stupid? Don't eat that," the first says as Rose sadly stares at the broken cookie with a smiling face on the table.
The one that picked up the cookie shook their head. it wasn't worth arguing over. Instead, they turned to look at Rose. "Why don't you go ahead and get started on your tests for today," They offer as a new subject.
Rose quietly walks into the cut-off section of the lab and does as she's told, while holding back the urge to cry again. The tests proceeded and the hours ticked by, as each task was completed, Rose's defeated expression remained. It wasn't fair, she tried being nice, and they were still being mean. Did everyone hate her now? Her mind drifted back and forth between paying attention to her exercises and past memories that fought to her attention all that the same time.
.
"People are scared of us, they don't like us,"
"What a Fuckin' hypocrite,"
"We're different. and different is scary,"
"Can't work with a bioweapon. Nooo. He's gotta make sure I'm good and dead. Then he turns around and raises one?"
"You can do what they say, endure the tests and poking and prodding but the second you do one tiiiny thing they don't like then suddenly you're a monster,"
"Restrain her for now. Secure the bioweapon."
"So, what's the play, huh? Keep her like a pet whiles she's cute and little, then lead her to slaughter once she's older?"
"That's what I wanted too, and look what they did to ME!"
.
As the memories played out her control over the objects and ability to complete the requested tasks faltered. It was shortly after 4 PM when Chris walked to pick up Rose, only to watch her struggling in quiet concern. How hard were they pushing her with these tests? He hadn't seen her struggle like this before when he'd pick her up.
The scientists were to busy focusing on collecting the data to notice that he'd walked in. "Okay Eveline could you-,"
"NOOO!" Rose shouts as she moves to hold the sides of her head while the objects from the test were violently thrown around the room, breaking glass as electric currents could be seen arching from some of the metal pieces.
"Holy shi- Someone get her under control now!" Another scientist shouts as they quickly move to duck behind a desk.
Chris could feel his chest sink as he watched the tantrum start, but in a matter of seconds he sprang into action and speedily walked past one of the scientists, pushing them out of his way in doing so.
"Captain Redfield, sir, the bioweapon-" a third scientist started to speak only to get cut off.
"I've got this handled," Chris says as he walked past broken glass into the previously cut off section of the lab.
Upon hearing Chris's voice, the child quickly opened her eyes as fear plagued her face. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry," She repeats as the objects quickly drop to the ground and lose their electric charge.
Her pleading seemed to fall on deaf ears as he picked her up and puts her over his shoulder.
"Captain," the scientist tried once more as Chris walked back towards the door, causing the man to stop and sharply turn his neck to look at them.
"I said I've got this handled," Chris said with a sneer before continuing out of the lab. Peter pan walked through the halls with a sobbing Tinkerbell on his shoulder. Only putting her down once they were safely in his office.
"I'm sorry," Rose says again through her tears. she didn't want to be in trouble, it was scary, she hated this.
Chris could feel his heartbreaking in his chest. "... How long have they been calling you that?"
The little girl remained silent as she rubbed at her face to try and soak up the tears.
The agent shifts and pulls her into a hug to try and comfort her. As the child clung to him, he shifted to sit on the floor, so he could hold her. He waited quietly for the tears to stop once more.
"They're really mean," Rose says through a stuttered deep breath in her attempt to calm down, but only cries more. "I didn't mean to be scary."
Chris pressed his lips together to keep himself from speaking his mind. He needed to be the rational one right now. He continued to wait for the crying to calm to quiet hiccups before speaking again. "I get it, but acting out like that is going to get you in trouble I can't get you out of," Chris admits. He'd probably be able to find a way around it this time, but she can't afford to lash out like this around the BSAA. "Next time that happens, just use me as a threat, okay?" He offers while he continued to speak in a calm, even tone even though his own anger had him ready to storm back in there and throw a few desks around.
Rose looked up at Chris confused. He wasn't mad? "Really?"
"Yeah," Chris confirms with a slight nod. "Tell them if they have a problem with you, they can talk to me about it and see how well that goes. Okay?"
Rose nods slowly in response.
"You're a good kid, if they can't see that, then that's their fault. Not yours," Chris says while making a note to have a conversation with her 'handlers' first thing in the morning. For now, he just needed to get Rose home. "Are you ready to go home?"
Rose nods again and rubs her eyes once more to wipe away the last of the tears.
"Do you still want to go trick or treating?" Chris asks as he moves to help her get up. Rose thought it over for a second before shaking her head no.
"Alright," Chris says in return before getting up as well and heading over to his laptop. "I just need to print out a few reports, then we can go. Do you want to stay here?"
Rose nods.
"I'll be right back," Chris confirms as he takes the laptop with him to get the last 4 reports printed.
Once the reports were printed and stashed away in separate manila envelopes, Chris stopped by the break room to get the two lunch bags from the fridge and made his way back to his office, where Rose was waiting for him. Her down cast expression remained as she idly poked at a paperweight on his desk. "Let's get going," Chris announces to get Rose's attention.
Gears started to whirl in the back of his mind. There wasn't a way to fix any of this, not truly, but there had to be something he could do to make this somewhat less of a horrible day for the child. The whole point of the holiday is for kids to have fun. He continued to puzzle over this as they made their way to his car and down the roads to head home.
It wasn't much, but an idea did come to mind and with that, their route was adjusted. After a few changes and turns, Rose stared in confusion as Chris parked the car in the lot of the local grocery store she'd go to with Emma sometimes.
"Come on," Chris says and gets out of the car.
Rose watched confused at first, but she does what she's told and followed alongside Chris into the crowded store. the two made their way to the far back corner where seasonal good were stored and into an isle that held giant bags of candy in even larger boxes.
"If you're not going trick or treating, we can get your candy a different way," Chris finally explains. "What kind do you want?"
Rose looked at Chris with wide eyes before looking at the shelves of candy that felt like they stretched on for miles.
He knew that face well enough, she was already trying to think of how she can get away with more. "You can pick two small bag only. Okay? One for chocolate and one for sugar candies."
That was one more bag than she thought she was going to get. Rose nods adamantly and starts looking around at the bags. she picked up one with an assortment of mini chocolate bars and another that had a fun mixture of fruit and gummies candies.
Chris rubbed the back of his neck as he stared down at the smiling face that contrasted with puffy, swollen eyes... She was going to get a cavity from this. "Final answer?" He asks the child.
"Yeah," she replies, finally speaking for the first time since they left the office.
All that was left was to wait through the check-out lines and get home, Which unsurprisingly took forever. He was questioning his resolve after 20 minutes of waiting in line, but the candy was purchase. Chris could barely get the bags away from Rose long enough to pay for them. Having them bagged was out of the question as she wanted to carry them herself. $25 and the sugar rush to follow was a small price to pay to give Rose something else to be excited about, given she'd likely gone through days like this for some time without a single peep about how difficult it had been for her.
The two made their way out of the store and back to the car. Their trip home continued from there and just like in the store, Rose refused to let either bag out of her sight. That made it a bit difficult to get back out of the car too once they parked in the garage. She juggled between holding the candy and trying to get her seatbelt off, which ultimately ended up with her getting the seat belt off, but both bags were dropped in the process.
Chris opened the car door for her since her struggling with the candy gave him enough time to do so, and he closed it for her as well to avoid a repeat of the same juggling act. The two walked in to the house and Rose quietly moved to take her shoes off.
"We're home," Chris called in to the house.
Hearing Chris first caught Emma's attention. "Welcome home," she replied as she put down the knife she'd been using to cut up vegetables for their dinner. She wiped off her hands as she made her way out of the kitchen to check on them. Her expression became perplexed as she watched Rose carry two decent size bags of Halloween candy into the living room before taking a seat on the couch next to Duke.
"Chris we already have candy for the trick or treaters," Emma says while trying to figure out why he looked upset. What happened.
"I know, We're not going out tonight," Chris answers while trying to figure out how we wanted to go about this.
"What? why? What happened?" Emma asks while trying to process this.
He paused a bit longer before moving so he could quietly whisper what happened in Emma's ear to avoid any renewed waterworks from Rose.
A sharp gasp could be heard as Emma's expression turned to rage, "Nope! no, nah-uh," She started to move towards the door. No one treats her baby like that, no sir!
Chris caught her waist and picked her up enough to put her down in front of him again. "I'm going to take care of this."
"Good," Emma replies with a single solid nod. "Okay. So we're staying in. That's fine. I'll make sure the porch light is off, so we don't get trick or treaters," She agrees with a nod before looking over to the living room. "Rosie, do you want to watch a movie after dinner?"
"Can I?" Rose asks with a hopeful tone.
"Yeah. We have the costumes, do you want to watch peter pan?" Emma asks and Rose nods. "Okay, we'll do that then."
And so, that's what the family did. Dinner was made and eaten, and the 4 sat together on the couch to watch the movie. Tinkerbell Rosemary, was happily nestled between a buff Peter Pan and a motherly Wendy, who was holding their little lost boy, While Nana Duke was resting at their feet.
While their home was happy and peaceful a phone call far away from them was anything but that. The main source of light in the room continued to be a single computer monitor. Ring laden sausage like fingers were laced together and resting on the desk. as a screen showed a blank icon.
"The investigations are getting too close," says a voice that was heavily distorted by a filter. "They're going to find me if I don't do something soon."
"My dear friend, you worry too much," replies the large figure who was hidden by shadows. "All will be taken care of in time. you set up that wire like I asked correct?"
"Yeah..." the voice hesitantly agrees. "That's how I know they're getting too close. You said they wouldn't figure it out," the distorted voice replies with evident irritation despite the filters.
"They won't," the figure replies with continued confidence. "And if they do, they won't be around long enough to tell anyone. Just hold out for a few more days."
"You said no one would get hurt," they continued to argue.
"No one important, it's too late to grow a conscious now. It's either you or them. They're hunting you," The figure points out with a calm smile. The line remained silent before there was a quiet click and the call ended. The icon from before closed out, leaving the screen to show Chris's report once more. "You've played admirably. Truly a worthy adversary is what I'd like to say but, Oh well. I suppose it's my move now isn't it..."
ovo lets see if I can make this a double chapter week lets GOOOO I need the next chapter something fierce hahaha. If anyone guesses what happens, I will give you an internet cookie.
I'm also going to open up the question of what should Pier's first word be? I'd love to have the feedback =v=
Review Response:
Starrat- Oh my gosh I am so sorry OTL you've posted comments on the last few chapters but in my eagerness to post another one I kept forgetting to do a review response section. thanks so much for your patience and for your continued support of my work it means the world to me =v=
