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.

"You wouldn't even let me tell anyone about us!" Jill added angrily. "What was I, just your dirty little bit on the side? The one who you called after you got drunk with the guys and found yourself with an itch you couldn't get rid of with some bar hopping slut?!"
Claire heard every word Jill was yelling, and closed her eyes, as ough it would take her someplace else. "Leon... Trust me when I say a city full of zombies is preferable to those two when they argue like this."

"Like you were shouting my name off the rooftops!" Chris roared back, tasting blood running down from his nose to his mouth. "You were ashamed of me. Embarrassed. That's what Barry told me!"

"Maybe we should give them a few minutes to fight this one out?" Leon suggested, not sure he wanted either option.

"How the fuck would Barry know what I felt?!" Jill hissed. "People warned me against you, but I didn't care! I fell for you the moment we met... And apparently that just wasn't enough for golden boy Chris Redfield!"

Claire nodded in agreement. "You don't think I was ashamed of you... Do you?" She asked uncertainly, worried that Leon may have thought that was why she had kept their relationship a secret from her brother.

"You're one to talk, Ms. Obsessed about everything!" Chris shot back. "You are always the one who was so sure bad things were happening. You were so worried about it all that I'm surprised you bothered to pull your pants down so I could fuck you!"

Leon shrugged. He wasn't going to dwell on it at the moment. There were other...nastier things happening right outside his backdoor.

"And that's all it ever was, wasn't it? Fucking? So long as you got yourself off, to hell with everything else!" Jill shouted, throwing the pebble she had been holding at Chris. "You're a pig! An arrogant, self obsessed PIG!"

Claire groaned when she heard the two former STARS members start dragging up their past. "We didn't have mustard... I can't have a sandwich without mustard... We should probably go buy some." She stammered, already reaching for her car keys.

"And you're a self righteous bitch who thinks she can handle everything on her own! You won't even let me in! What the hell am I supposed to do?!"

"I thought you hated mustard." Leon asked as he followed her, sure that for the moment this was the best option.

"Try!" Jill's traitorous lips shot back before she could bite her Tongue. "I've had no choice but to handle things on my own!" She added quickly. "if you had wanted in so bad, you would have found a way!"

"No... I've always liked it." Claire lied, her gaze avoiding Leon's. Chris had chosen the worst possible time to show up and start shouting about her being pregnant. Claire hadn't actually taken the test yet, but she was already a week late. She was never late.

"And break you in the process?" Chris asked, his voice no longer a thunderous roar. "What do you think? I am not him, Jill. I can't and I won't hurt you. No matter what the cost is."

Leon frowned at this and scratched his head. "Yeah. You're right." He admitted, grinning at her as he slyly took the keys from her fingers. "You've always liked that evil yellow soury stuff."

"And what if hurt is all I know now?" Jill asked, her own voice little more than a trembling whisper. "I'm already broken, Chris... You just choose not to see it."

Claire pouted prettily when she realised Leon had taken the keys. "Sometimes it's brown." She replied, poking her Tongue out as she climbed into the passenger seat.

"I chose to try and fix it instead of make it worse." Chris snapped. "You can't see that though. You never could. You want me to be the bad guy don't you?"

"You said brown looked like cooked shit." Leon reminded her, slipping into the driver's seat and revving the engine.

Jill could feel tears burning at her eyes and turned away, hating for Chris to see her cry. "Just get out of here, Chris. We can't be together, not anymore." She told him quietly, the words ripping at her insides. Chris could never know the hell she had, and Jill knew the only way to keep him from becoming as broken as she was, was to send him away.

Claire shook her head. "No, now you're just confusing mustard and marmite." She replied coolly. "I have always loved mustard, especially when smothered over bananas."

Chris looked as Wesker had just revealed yet another side of Jill. He was sure it was an inside joke. Maybe this had been the plan all along. "You...really mean that?" He breathed.

"Oh my god! Now I know you're pregnant!" Leon laughed, grinning at her as he backed out of the driveway. "Seriously, wouldn't that be awesome? Me and you having a baby?"

"More than I have ever meant anything." Jill lied, her back still to Chris. "Just go Chris... You're embarrassing yourself." Jill could feel the tears rolling down her cheeks as though they were molten metal.

"You really think so?" Claire asked, surprised by how happy Leon seemed at the thought. "What if I'm a terrible mother? It's not like I have much basis for comparison..."

Chris didn't know that words could hurt so badly. He scrambled to his feet and simply ran, leaving her the car and everything else. He had to lose himself before this new hell set in.

"You had Jill." Leon said with a wink. "No really, I think you'd do great at it. You were always good with Sherry. Besides, I know my Claire. She can do anything."

Jill sank to her knees once she was certain Chris was gone, and simply sobbed. Jill felt it had to be this way, Chris had to be free of her, and all the baggage she now carried with her. After all, Chris had told her his dream of a family, and the home in Montana... She hadn't the heart to tell him wesker had robbed her of the chance to ever be a mother.

"Oh really? Should I be jealous of this Claire you know?" Claire replied with a smile that was forever and always Leon's.

"Oh yes. She's hot and brave and hot." Leon added with a grin. "Plus she jumps my bones every time I bring out my Tommy gun." He teased.

"I still haven't heard anything I didn't already know..." Claire teased, laughing quietly as she leaned over and kissed Leon's cheek. "I think... Chris and Jill probably need at least an hour alone back there..." She breathed, slender fingers sliding slowly up her lover's leg, even as he drove.

Leon smiled though it became a little strained. "You know we don't have that much time. As it is...I really should go on this one alone. Chris and Jill need you."

Claire leaned back into her own seat and huffed. "Oh yeah, that's gonna go down well... Me trying to babysit the both of them." She snorted.

Leon wasn't sure he liked that statement when they returned on saw on Jill sitting on the porch. "What happened?" He asked when he got out and moved around to hold Claire's door. "Chris try to beat me to the hero punch?"

"We're through." Jill replied simply, her eyes still red rimmed and puffy as she Rose to her feet. "I just figured I should tell you in person before I take off." She added, her voice hoarse, and almost painful sounding.

"Who's idea was it?" Leon asked suspiciously, sitting down in front of her so she wouldn't have a chance to escape them before they'd sorted this out. "And where did Chris go?"

"Mine, and I don't know." Jill replied, purposefully keeping her answer short as she Laredo at where Leon had barred her way.

"Why would you do something like that?" Leon pressed, clearly not believing her. "I would have to be a total idiot not to see how much you love him."

"Well you really must be as much of an idiot as Chris said you were." Jill replied coldly. "Because I don't love him, I never did. He was convenient, that was all, and he got the job done."

Leon glanced warily at Claire, not sure what she was going to do about this. He could see her reacting rather badly. "That's a lie and we both know it." He said softly.

"Like I care what you choose to believe." Jill replied, keeping her frosty demeanour as she pushed her way past Leon.
"You're lying, you have to be!" Claire shouted suddenly. "I saw you... I saw the way you looked at my brother! How can you do this to him now? After the he'll he went through not knowing if you were alive or dead?!"
Jill turned to Claire and slapped her hard enough to knock her to the ground. "Does that make my point any clearer?" She spat. Jill hadn't been lying to Chris when she had said all she knew was pain now. They all needed to stay far away from her, and this was the only way she could make certain of that.

"There was no point in that." Leon snarled, now standing in front of Claire and glaring at Jill "You're right. You should probably just go." That said he turned his back on her and helped Claire to her feet, leading her into the house.

Jill whispered a goodbye that neither Leon nor Claire would hear, then got into the car Chris had left behind. "It's better this way..." She needed to tell herself this over and over, it was her way of accepting what wesker had done to her.
"That wasn't Jill!" Claire all but sobbed once she and Leon were indoors. "It can't be! I know her... She loves my brother more than anything in the world!"

Leon simply shook his head. "We'd better get going." He said softly. "You and I both know your brother is going to try and beat us to that lab. I'm willing to bet he'll be making it a suicide mission."