So slow to catch on

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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.

"Right, he just decided it was too much hassle to even pick up the phone?" Claire asked, her mood growing fouler by the minute.
Jill was folding laundry in the background, able to hear every word.

"Doesn't he ever have those secret missions?" Chris grumbled, feeling the guilt washing over him in heavy clouds. "What if this was a secret mission that will save the world?"

"He would have told me." Claire insisted. "He would have told me he couldn't tell me why... But he had to leave." She added. "Jill may not have cared about you running off doing god knows what, but Leon loves me, and I love him." She snapped, heaving herself, and her ever expanding belly, up out of the couch.

Chris couldn't respond to this. If he did, Claire would catch on all that much sooner. She already seemed to hate him. Why make it worse?
"He won't be gone long." He whispered after a long moment. At least...he hoped Leon wouldn't be gone long...

"How would you know that?" Claire asked thinly.
"Hey, is anyone hungry?" Jill interjected quickly. "I could make...Uhm... A sandwich?" She suggested, quickly realising Chris had always been the one who did all the cooking.

Chris gave Jill a horrified look and shook his head. "I can cook." He said quickly. When he passed her in his chair he gave her a wink, showing her he was grateful she'd intervened. He knew, however, that Claire wasn't going to just back off.

Chris was right. Claire was currently watching the both of them with narrowed eyes. She knew when she was being lied to, and didn't appreciate it.
"You're welcome." Jill breathed, leaning down to bring her lips close to Chris' ear as he passed her by. "I don't know what I would have down if you had both asked me to make something." She added with a smirk.

"The lower half sucks but the arms still work." Chris grunted. He waved it off when the phone rang and kept going to the kitchen, whistling happily. He had no idea the shit that was currently brewing.

"That had better be you Leon!" Claire barked as she picked the receiver up.
"Anything I can do to help?" Jill asked hopefully, feeling a little lost as she followed Chris to the kitchen.

"Claire? Honey?" Leon's voice sounded a bit distant, as if he were trying to do something while he called. There was a muffled female scream in the background.

"Don't you 'honey' me, Leom Kennedy!" Claire hissed. "You abandoned me at the hospital! Was it too much to even tell me you were going?!"

"Huh?" Leon sounded a bit confused. "Claire..." The muffled scream came again and he grunted. "Can you just put Chris on the phone?"

Claire said nothing else to Leon, and he would find a rather frosty reception if he made it back there in one piece. "Your boyfriend is on the phone." Claire snapped, thrusting the phone at her brother before stamping away.

Chris raised an eyebrow at Jill and answered it. After a moment he was smiling wildly. "Tell her who you are and that she's safe now. We'll see you first thing in the morning." He said after a moment.

"Rebecca?" Jill asked uncertainly as Chris hung up. The elder woman was also worried about her lover's sister. Perhaps they really had handled things wrong, and should have told her Leon was gone because they sent him away.

"Leon said she was disoriented and locked in a bathroom. He thinks she was kidnapped and forced to work for someone. She won't talk." Chris explained. "I guess I'd better tell Claire something...right?"

"How about the truth?" Jill suggested gently. "Rebecca is her friend too." She added, sitting down wearily at the table.

"She's going to be pissed that I didn't send someone else." Chris groaned, moving his chair in search of a phone book. "What am I supposed to tell her? Hey...does pizza sound okay?"

"Chris, the doctors already warned us that Claire is under too muc stress. I think she needs the truth. If she gets mad, she gets mad, we can deal with that." Jill replied, rubbing at her eyes, they were beginning to itch now she was so tired. "Pizza is fine, unless... Your having pineapple on it?"

"Next you'll say no anchovies!" Chris whined loudly. "Claire! Get in here! We need to talk!"

Jill actually seemed to turn a slight shade of green at the very thought of the offending fish.
Claire didn't come right away. She resented Chris commanding her like this was his home, and not her's and Leon's. "What?" She asked when she finally waddled in. "Thoughtnof some other way to rub in how perfect you like to think you and Jill are now?"

"I'm ordering pizza." Chris told her, losing his nerve. He didn't dare look at Jill. "I was wondering what you wanted on yours. Jill's being all...you know...non pinapplly... so we're each getting our own." He was ranting and he knew it. But he'd chickened out. He couldn't tell her the truth.

"I'm not hungry." Claire replied. "If that's all, I'm going back to bed. Thanks for getting me out of it for nothing." she didn't mean to be so angry and bitter, but it was just so painful to have Jill waltz back in here and be a part of something Chris was obviously keep secret from his own sister.

"I'm the one who sent Leon away." Chris shouted after her, closing his eyes in anticipation for her reaction. "I'm the one who told him he couldn't wait until he'd said goodbye."

There was no reply from Claire, but neither was there the sound of her bedroom door closing. She was paused in the hallway, torn between anger and betrayal. "Get out." She whispered at last. "Get out, and take your freak bitch with you!"

Chris kept his eyes closed, the pain that tore through him was something he hadn't expirenced in a while. "Claire...you don't understand. We had reports about Rebecca. Leon is the only one I trust..."

"I said get out!" Claire roared this time. "You knew I needed Leon! He was there for me when you were off chasing ghosts!" She was back in the kitchen and reaching for the phone. "Get out before I phone the cops and have you thrown out!"

"Leon is a lying sack of shit and you can't kick me out! I legally live here!" Chris shouted back. "And don't you dare get pissed off at me after the lies you fed me a few months ago!"

"I lied about who I was living with, I didn't lie about sending the parent of my sibling's baby off to god only knows where!" Claire retorted angrily. "This is classic Chris, always thinking you need to make everyone's decisions for them! That's what pissed you off about losing Jill the most, wasn't it?! That she was the hero, and not you!"

"That's not true and you know it!" Chris shouted back. "I was just paying you back! I wanted you to see how it feels!"