So slow to catch on

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"I did. But not you." Chris breathed, the grief of it all taking hold of him as it hadn't done in some time. "Wesker uses you to get to me. He's always hated me. One day...I'm going to have to stop being a coward and face him head on... No one should have to suffer for me."

"Long story." Chris sighed, resting his fingers on the small of Jill's back. "Maybe I should try to reason with Sherry this time?"

"I told her to get out and she snuck around to the roof." Sherry muttered. "Ark, I'm worried about you. Won't you let me take you to the hospital?"

Jill was quick to curl her fingers in on themselves when she saw the blood that had transferred from the back of her head. Even now, she didn't want to burden Chris with e worry of something happening to her. "Good luck... The brat is a monster."

"Why did you tell her to get out?" Ark asked as he sat up. "They came here for a reason, didn't they?"

Chris didn't knock on the door. Instead he simply kicked it open. "Ark!" He roared, stomping towards the stairs. "Sherry! I've had enough of your shit, little lady!"

Sherry's head shot up as she heard her name. "Ark...Jill scares me." She whispered, though she got to get her feet and moved towards the door.

"Chris, wait!" Jill was failing after her partner, having not gotten to tell him of the horror she had seen in Sherry's eyes.

"Sherry, you have to understand, her every action is driven only by her blind love for Chris!" Ark shouted after Sherry, worried that that very fact was what was going to get the blonde hurt.

"What?" The tone in Jill's voice worried him. "What's the matter?" He looked back at her and then the stairs, not sure where to go next.

"I don't like her. She's...she's a monster just like I am." Sherry muttered.

Jill's eyes pleaded with Chris not to go up the stairs alone as she caught up with him. "Sherry... Is dangerous." She whispered, as though afraid for the blonde girl to hear her. "It's like... She isn't even human."

"Then shouldn't you feel better with her around?" Ark asked gently. "You know, someone who understands what you've been through? I know you miss that other girl, Ruby..."

"I know." Chris confirmed, nodding his head. "You should remember too but...I know you don't. It's okay, babe. She won't do anything."

Sherry didn't look back at Ark as she heard Ruby's name. "Don't talk about her." She breathed. "Fine. I'll let them in."

Jill's eyes darkened slightly, Chris words cutting her, even if he hadn't intended them to. "And pushing me out a window, that was her not doing anything?"

"Ruby was a bad seed, Sherry. But Jill is different, she could help you, if you let her." Ark replied, though he may have chosen different words, had he known who Ruby truly was.

Chris sighed heavily. "Jill, just...let me handle this for once." He said finally, rubbing at his temples.

"What about you? Are you going to let them help you?" Sherry asked worriedly.

Jill took a step back, a silent gesture to tell Chris she wouldn't be going up those stairs with him. She felt he mistrusted her... No, that wasn't it. It was more like... He was hiding something from her.

"What do you mean? Sherry, I'm just tired." Ark replied, though even he didn't believe those words.

"Ark?" Chris stepped into the doorway, all but shoving Sherry aside. "What's going on? Why do you have your pet monster here trying to keep us from seeing you?"

"I don't have anyone doing anything." Ark told Chris wearily. "And if you really do want to be welcome here, you won't call Sherry a monster, not when you're the one in love with one."

"Now that was completely unfair." Chris snapped, already reaching for his phone. He could see what Sherry saw. Nothing was right about Ark.

"How is it unfair? Jill can't, or perhaps, won't, die. Tell me, was she as aggressive as she is now when you were taking your fill of her back in the day?" He added coldly, which seemed very out of character for him.

"Ark..." Sherry frowned at the man she truly cared for. This wasn't him and that scared her.
"I'm calling an ambulance." Chris said, as if the other man hadn't said anything at all.

"You'll explain to me what makes your love for a monster any different than mine!" Ark growled before he could help himself.

"You're feverish and infected." Chris said as if he were a doctor. "Though it won't kill you or anything...you know...since you had the antibodies...it'll make you really sick. Might even have you biting people. Must mean your monster is contagious."

"I told you not to call her that!" Ark snarled, his temper flaring at the slightest thing. "Sherry has infected me with nothing! Unlike your whore! You know she screwed around with wesker, probably did that Mexican she constantly tells you she owes her life to aswell."

Sherry somehow caught a hold of Chris before he could fly off the handle. With effort she managed to yank him into the hall.
"That was stupid!" He roared at her. "Giving him cough medicine when you know full well he needs a doctor! Jill! I need your help!" He was steaming. One more word and he would probably lose it completely.

"I thought you were 'taking care of things'?" Jill asked coolly from where she was seated halfway up the stairs, her back to Chris and Sherry. She had heard the entire conversation between Chris and Ark.

Chris pointed childishly back toward Ark's room. "He was saying stupid things." He spluttered. "And besides, he's infected."

"And me? Am I infected? Is that why he called me a monster? Why I broke my arm when Sherry pushed me out the window, but it's fine now?" Jill asked quietly without even turning to glance as Chris over her shoulder,

"Monster isn't the right word." Chris muttered, glad he could hear the ambulance screaming down the street. "Jill, I need you to stay with..." He looked around for the tiny blonde, surprised to find her gone. "Sherry?"

Jill didn't reply this time. Her pale blue eyes stared at the hallway below. It was beginning to feel like Chris was going out of his way to make sure she didn't regain all her memories.

Chris was gone with Ark in no more than a few moments later, leaving Jill alone in the house with Sherry. The young woman was hiding beneath Ark's bed and it was clear she was absolutely terrified.

Jill didn't move from the staircase, not sure whether she should even stay at all. Suddenly, she felt so much more lost than she had been when she woke in that morgue. Memories were dancing in front of her, and instead of helping her reach them, Chris seemed to be snatching them from her grasp. It was leaving Jill with the terrifying thought that maybe he wasn't the nice guy she thought he was... Maybe there was a dark secret he was doing his best to keep from her.

"If you don't remember all the terrible things..." Sherry whispered, peering out from under the bed skirt at Jill. "Maybe that's for the best. Some things are better when they're forgotten."

"How am I supposed to know how good the truly good things are, if I can't compare them to the bad?" Jill asked quietly.

"Who says there's anything good?" Sherry breathed.
For the next five months, Sherry Birkin all but avoided everyone in the house. Twice she'd made an attempt to simply leave, only to be dragged back by Chris.
Chris wasn't doing this out of kindness, of course. He was doing it to keep an eye on her. He was certain she was the reason his old friend had been so very sick.
He didn't provide Jill with much more information than he had before, though he did lavish her with gifts and sultry nights alone on the beach. It was clear that he worshiped her, just not enough to tell her the truth.

Ark didn't seem to be getting much better, though thankfully he didn't get any worse either. There were of course good days and bad days. On a bad day he even forgot who everyone was, insisting that he was needed on an assignment in some remote location.
Despite the gifts and affection Chris showered her with, Jill was becoming more and more distant. There were times when she disappeared for days at a time, following ghosts she thought would lead her back into her past. they always followed through to dead ends, of course. It frustrated her that Chris didn't understand just how heartbreaking it was to have lost a lifetime of memories.