Behind Enemy Lines

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”Valentine!” 
There was an audible, somewhat annoyed sigh, before the owner of the name allowed her cobalt eyes to leave the window she was staring out of. “What?” Was her clipped response. 
“I said, some of the guys from floor six are grabbing a beer, thought you might want to come?” Though he knew what her answer would be, it didn’t mean Noah stopped trying. He had spent these last six months watching her rapidly turn from someone who lit up any room she entered, to nothing more than a mindless drone, only there to get the job done. Jill Valentine seemed like she had truly lost a part of herself when her partner, in both senses of the word, dumped her like week old pizza. It was so bad, that no one dared even breathe the name Chris Redfield within earshot of her.
“Oh... no.” Jill breathed, her voice softening slightly. “I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on.”
Noah glanced to her desk, noting her computer wasn’t even turned on. “Alright, but... if you change your mind, you know where to find us. We miss you, Valentine.” He offered her a smile then left her office. 
Jill waited until the door swung shut and simply slumped down in her chair, staring at her darkened reflection in the computer screen. What had she missed? What had gone so wrong that Chris had found it so easy to simply walk away from everything they had? After everything they had been through, she had thought they were bulletproof.

“Wesker was a traitor, nothing more.” The blonde told Chris curtly. “But you are partially right, he is the cause of this. He got greedy. End of.”

“Then why isn’t he here?! Why was it so damn easy for him to choose the job over me?!” Claire demanded in a rare burst of anger as she slammed a palm down on the table. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve had to dig bullets out of his skin, or stitch up wounds, just for him to be gone the next day? What he does is killing him, and he doesn’t even care!”

Chris barely heard what she said. A rat had burst out of the slime and landed on his pants. He shouted words that would make a sailor blush and stumbled backward, landing hard in another layer of the sludge, some of it creeping into his mouth.

"He does care, Claire. He thinks he's saving the world for you. Just like your brother." Rebecca said quietly.

Chris’ partner had turned with her gun drawn, ready to face what she assumed was one of the left over biomonsters. What she saw instead soon had her leaning forward with her hands on her knees and snorting with laughter.

Claire simply didn’t accept that. “If that were true, why was it so easy for both of them to walk out on me?” She asked sadly. “Chris didn’t just leave Jill... he broke her. She’s barely even a person any more thanks to him. They were the one thing I thought was certain in this world, if they couldn’t stick together... what hope did I ever really have with Leon?”

"This is so not funny." Chris grunted, shoving to his feet and spitting on the ground. "I hate you."

"If you're basing your life on love then we're all screwed." Rebecca grunted. "Look, I'm going to get drunk and forget my trouble. You can go or you can stay here and worry about Chris and Jill. Screw them, by the way."

This only caused her to laugh even harder, much like Jill had often done when they had both still been fresh faced STARS members. “Oh please! Like you can scare me covered in all that goo!” She howled.

Claire didn’t need much convincing. “So... drunk and picking up cute guys it is then.” She told her friend as she pushed herself to her feet once more.

Chris got lost in the moment, charging toward her and wiping his face in her hair. "What did you say, Mel? I don't scare you?!" He roared.

Rebecca gave her friend a relieved smile and got to her feet, glad to be leaving the lab. It was rare for her to get drunk but she needed it. She needed to fight the darkness and the reminder of love.

“Eeeew!” The blonde was shrieking and trying to scramble away. “Not my hair!” She wailed, moments before she too slipped into the goo, bringing Chris down with her.

Claire was glad they had gotten out of the lab too. Talk of love had left her feeling even more empty. Leon had taken a piece of her from the moment he burst through the door and told her to get down all those years ago in a city that no longer even existed. There was no replacing that missing piece.

Chris fell to the ground beside his new partner, laughing openly. It had been a long time since he'd done that. Jill had been so broken when he'd last spoken to her. There had been nothing to laugh about.

Rebecca was drunk. She couldnt remember the last time she had been that way. The dance floor was spinning, even if she was not. She was not happy with this at all.

“Oh sure, now the big guy knows how to laugh!” Mel wailed, seeming very much out of her comfort zone covered in all this filth. “I’m going to be showering for days!”

Rebecca was most certainly not spinning as firm hands came down against her hips, their owner standing behind her. “You don’t belong here.” A calm voice breathed against her ear, barely audible against the thump of the music.
Claire missed the attention her friend was receiving in that moment, having returned to the bar and was downing both the shots she had just ordered. “Fuck Leon...” She muttered as the strong liquid burned all the way down to her stomach.

"Well then..." Chris grabbed another handful of the goo and into her light blonde hair. This hair didn't make him think of Weaker. It didn't remind him of that Chris himself was the reason for the color and the pain.

A slow warmth came over Rebecca and she closed her eyes. "Why not?" She asked. "Is it because I'm not as beautiful as the other girls? "

His partner’s arms flailed out , smacking the handful of goo Chris had hold of and sending it up into the air, before it splattered down onto the both of them. 

“Why would you think that?” The owner of the voice breathed, his hands smoothing slowly across Rebecca’s smooth abdomen. “Who told you that? Do I need to make someone see stars?”

Chris groaned, rolling onto his side. "For shit sake, Mel! That was all yours! I didn't need anymore!" He wailed.

That line was so very familiar it made her chest hurt. "Please... Don't say that." She breathed, trying to push the Man's hands away. "I have to find my friend. I... Need to go... "

Mel was back on her feet and at least attempting to wipe herself off. “Hey, I can’t help it if you throw like a girl.” She replied with a smirk.

“You should stay away. Wouldn’t want to end up just another Valentine, would you?” He laughed slightly, but if Rebecca turned around she would find him gone, like he was never even there. 
At the bar Claire was trying to focus on her phone. A message had just come through, but her vision was blurred. She thought it looked like Jill’s name, but was struggling to focus.

Chris sighed. That line was classic Jill. It made him miss her all over again. He didn't know that a familiar scource was having the same thoughts about someone they loved. "I need a drink." He sighed.

Rebecca stayed where she was for a long while, her vision steadying. Albert Wesker would never know how much he had been loved. Or how much he was missed. 
Rebecca wrapped her arms around herself, greiving so deeply she no longer heard the music.

“Well, the sooner we retrieve the files from the ship, the sooner you can hit the bottle, tough guy.” Mel replied, still trying to clean the goo from her face. The slender blonde was well liked amongst her peers, and in many ways was indeed like the young Jill Valentine who had stolen Chris’ heart all those years ago. 

Claire was fighting her way back to Rebecca, a drink in each hand. Whatever the message was, it would have to wait until morning. “Hey, what happened to all these cute guys you promised me?” She asked, though Rebecca would most likely know her friend was over compensating and only acting cheerful.

Chris was on the bottle as soon as he was able. By dawn he was extremely drunk and sleeping it off in the van that had been supplied for the work crew. He hadn't even bothered to shower.

"I want to go." Rebecca said, giving her friend a very dark look. "I hate these places. I don't know why I ever bother."

“Hey, Redfield.” Mel was hovering over her partner, poking him in the chest with a slender finger. “We’re not paying you for this, we gotta go.” She added, pausing to tuck some blonde hair behind her ear. 
Outside the van, raised voices could be heard. One was distinctly female.

Claire seemed somewhat wounded by the look Rebecca had just given her, but nodded anyway. “Yeah... you’re right.” She agreed, not before downing the two shots she had been holding, even if one of them had actually been for Rebecca. Even inebriated, Claire couldn’t forget the person she desperately wished to.

Chris heard nothing. He wasn't even trying to. He was lost in his own sorrows. "I always let my crew celebrate." He hiccuped. "Lighten up, Mel."

Rebecca timidly paused by the bar and asked the bartender if there was a concoction he had to help her forget. Like Claire she was having trouble with that.

“They’re not your crew.” Mel pointed out, poking a slender fingers against Chris’ cheek when he refused to even lift his head to look at her.

“Hey, what’re you ladies drinking?” A voice called as two men approached the somber lair at the bar.
Claire sighed quietly, finding herself torn between needing to forget, and feeling like anything she did was too much like cheating on Leon.

"Can't a man be drunk and dramatic alone?!" Chris wailed, trying to wave her away. "Why can't I celebrate cleaning up?"

"Nothing too heavy." Rebecca lied, glancing at Claire. "We're okay. Thanks."

Mel rolled her eyes and poked Chris again. “Did Jill really stand for this?” She asked.

Claire smiled up at the man beside her and nodded. “Tequila it is then.” She informed him and nodded at the bartender.

"Not for a minute." Chris said, opening his eyes and grinning. "She'd have broken my nose by now. You're really letting me off easy, babe. " He teased Mel. 

Rebecca left the two men and Claire after little more than half an hour. Wesker and the others had often teased her about being a light weight and little had changed when it came to that. She was very drunk.

Mel folded her arms across her chest and watched Chris with a raised brow. “I could still kick your ass, old man.” She replied. “I’m guessing you’re real slow, carrying all that muscle around.”

Claire was sat somewhere a little quieter with one of the men. He was talking to her, she knew that much, but she wasn’t listening. Her eyes were watching his face, noting each thing she would change. He was a good looking guy, but each change she made... simply made him look more and more like the man she still called ‘asshole’, and dumped her when she asked him for more.
Outside Rebecca would be an easy target for any sexual predator on the dark street. A rather small woman, barely able to put one foot in front of the other...

"Don't you wish." Chris sat up and grinned at her. "I pulled my shirt off and you'd fall to the floor drooling. You'd be putty in my hands." He purred.

Rebecca never thought of things like that. She never considered real danger. Her only concern were undead monsters and the viruses they carried.

Mel was clearly entertaining the thought as she allowed her green eyes to give Chris the once over. “Right, and you’ve not been staring at my ass every chance you got.” She retorted after a moment. “I think all the grunt work has given you brain damage.” She added with a snort.

It happened so quickly that Rebecca wouldn’t even be given chance to scream. She had been dragged into a dirty looking alley, a hand clamping over her mouth as she was shoved roughly to the wall. “Finally, a cute one...” A gruff voice sneered as her attacker's free hand began tearing at her clothing.

"I have a wife." Chris said, his tone suddenly soft and heavy. "I think you know that."

Rebecca drunkenly shoved the man away, her vision swimming. "Leave me alone!" She shouted in a slur. "I don't need you! "

“Right. A wife you abandoned to come work for Umbrella.” Mel replied, a faint note of regret in her voice.  “You can lie to yourself, Redfield, but please don’t treat me like an idiot.”

The man had laughed, his lips parting as though he were about to sneer something in reply, but nothing came. His eyes flicked downwards slightly to where a hand now protruded out of his chest. He made no more sound once the hand retracted and he slumped to the ground.
“I thought I taught you better than this, office chambers.”

"She was pregnant. I didn't have time for that." Chris snorted, shoving to his feet. His stomach lurched and he lost what he had been holding in on the ground. "Is... Pregnant." He corrected after a long painful moment. "She's due in two months." 

Rebecca's mind swam as she looked at the gloved hand in the man's chest and then at the dark glasses behind his head. "Captain..." She whispered. Why did he only appear when she couldn't remember herself? "Wesker..."

Mel shook her head as she watched Chris. He was a hot mess, and she still didn’t trust he was on their side. “You’re asking me to believe the mighty hero Chris Redfield left his wife, because he didn’t want to be a father?” She asked with a frown. 

Wesker kicked the body aside and scooped Rebecca up, smearing her legs with the blood of the man he had just killed as he did so. He didn’t speak to her as he carried her back out onto the street and into his waiting car. Claire would have no idea her best friend hadn’t made it home that night.

"How could she do that to me?" Chris spat. "She knew I didn't want a baby. I'm trying to save the world and she goes and gets pregnant. On purpose! Is this the kind of world for a child? I mean seriously? Everyone is turning into monsters and she is having a girl! Fucking nuts if you ask me." He roared.

Rebecca didn't know she hadn't gone home until she'd opened her eyes in a strange room. She couldn't do anything about it right away. The headache she'd woken up with was bad enough to ruin rational thought.