So slow to catch on

First topic message reminder :

Jill gave Leon a little push, then smiled. "Believe me, these things can last days." She assured him. "Besides, I want the chance to grill you myself."
"You doubt my suitability as a mother?" Claire asked thinly, folding her arms across her chest.

As Jill Chris closed his eyes, Jill had silently lowered herself into the couch next to his chair. "I think it pissed him off more that we acted like nothing was going on between us." She added with a soft laugh of her own.

"He used to beat the crap out of me when I wouldn't admit to anything." Chris snorted. "I used to tell him that I would admit to it whenever he did. We all knew he had some chick on the side too. Pot calling the kettle black, wasn't it? Remember that time he was gone for a three day weekend?"

Jill laughed quietly, though she didn't really smile. "Of course he did, though what woman would go away for the weekend with him... That's part is beyond me." She confessed, again thinking back to their past. "You know... I always thought it was you Rebecca had the crush on, but the more I think about it... She always kind of held a flame for wesker, didn't she?"

"Isn't that sad." Chris snorted. "I guess we should be glad he was too much of a stuffed shirt and she was too shy. It's a shame about her. Isn't it? I can't believe she's gone too."

Jill lifted her head to turn and watch Chris. "She had that girl, Sherry, all along, didn't she? She watched Claire blame herself for the kids death, all along knowing she was still alive." She sighed heavily, wondering if perhaps she now had more in common with the traitorous Rebecca... Then she did the good guys like Leon and Chris.

"It scares me sometimes to think of how little we really know about others. I didn't think Rebecca would do something like that but hell...we saw zombies in there. I don't see how she kept all that hidden from me." Chris sighed.

"She's scary smart." Jill replied softly. "We always were the soldiers, Rebecca never was. She..." She stopped herself there with a heavy sigh. "Chris... I want you to get better. You still have so much good to do in this world."

"I don't think she's dead." Chris said after a long moment. He purposefully avoided Jill's words. "I think I need to send Leon to find her. She'll have something...she'll know something..."

"Chris... Claire is about ready to pop, you can't send Leon away right now." Jill replied, almost pleading with Chris not to send Leon. "I'll go." She added quickly. "That way, it doesn't matter if something bad happens."

"Leon has to go." Chris said simply. "You're not family. You are the one who said you didn't want that. And Claire has a few more months. She'll be okay."

"Chris, Claire isn't going to squeeze that kid out nine months to the day, anything could happen between now and then." Jill replied sternly. "God, even like this you're still pig headed and blind! I'm not family, because you never made me family." She added, on her feet and pacing, having not intended to get so emotional. "I'll find Rebecca, or die trying. That's all there is to it, that and Leon being right here to take care of Claire."

"That's not all there is to it!" Chris shouted, finally opening his eyes. "Don't come here trying to pretend you give a shit about us. I'm not your fool this time. Do you hear me?"

"When will you see I was doing you a favour?!" Jill shot back. "I'm bad news, Chris! I always was, and you knew it! Don't you think there is a reason I have no family?!" Black flecks were appearing in Jill's sapphire eyes as she fought to control the monster within her. "I came back because I love you, all of you! And I won't see your lives destroyed by something I can prevent!"

"What's there to prevent?" Chris snapped, turning his head so that he wasn't forced to look at her anymore. "It's all a pile of shit. There's only one way things will get better for her. Fucking Sherry..."

"Sherry said something to me after she shot you." Jill whispered, again watching Chris, now he refused to even look at her. "She said... You wanted it, that you asked her for it."

Chris cringed, having thought Sherry could keep that secret. "She fucked up." He admitted finally. "She was supposed to kill me. Not make things worse."

Jill screwed her eyes shut, until now she had simply thought Sherry a psychotic liar. Without much warning Jill pulled a knife from it's place in her boot and was leaning over Chris, the blade pressed to his throat. "That's really what you want? You're so fucking weak you wish for death?!" She hissed, her face inches from his own.

Chris' eyes met her own and he simply looked at her for what seemed like several long minutes. "I wish for you. But since I can't have you...I don't know what else to do."

"I tried to do the right thing... And I managed to fuck even that up." Jill whispered, a tear sliding down her cheek as she pressed her lips to Chris' in a stolen kiss that she knew he would hate her for. But if hatred for her helped him heal, then so be it.

A tear slid past their lips, mingling their kiss with the taste of salt. "Babe...come home..." Chris all but pleaded. "I'll walk again. Just wait and see.."

"Chris... I don't care if you never walk again." Jill breathed, the knife tumbling from her shaking fingers as she brushed her former lover's cheek gently."I gave Claire my blood because I saw how miserable being in this chair made you." She whispered, a fresh tear rolling down her cheek. "I wanted you to be happy again, and no matter how much it killed me... I thought that that would be with someone who wasn't... Me."

"Jill...babe...since the first day I met you there has never been anyone else. My sun rises and sets around you. You have no idea what hearing you say you can't stand being near me has done to me." Chris whispered back.

Those words broke Jill. Tears were streaming freely down her cheeks now and dripped off her chin in quick succession. Suddenly she wished wesker had just left her dead, that was far preferable to hearing this tone in Chris' voice now. Silently she sank down to her knees, her head simply resting in Chris' lap as she sobbed.

Shakily, Chris laid his hands on Jill's head. "I like the hair." He breathed, trying to keep himself from thinking of the fact that he could barely feel her weight against him. "You were never much of a blonde."

"it was a side effect." She whispered, though didn't lift her head. The feel of Chris' fingers was a simple pleasure she wasn't sure how often she would get the chance to enjoy like this.

"I thought so. I just...wanted to give you time to tell me everything." Chris whispered, leaning forward until his chin touched the top of her head.

"You shouldn't have to know the things he did to me, Chris." Jill whispered, feeling herself breaking all over again when his chin touched the top of her head, knowing what a struggle that must have been for him. "I would never wish that knowledge upon anyone."

"Not even the man that worships the ground you walk on?" Chris whispered. "Jill, I want to share the burden with you. As the one who belongs to you...it's my job. It's what I want."

Jill lifted her head again, looking up at Chris with eyes that were pure coal black now as she took his hands gently between her own. "But what if that Jill is dead?" She whispered. "can you bring yourself to love a monster?"

"If that Jill was dead, you wouldn't be here right now." Chris said, his fingers shaking as he placed them on either side of her face and pressed his lips to hers. "You are my Jill. That bastard didn't change that. And nothing ever will."