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."

Chris was too busy rubbing his shoulder to answer. He was pouting openly. "You're going to say that after she was the one who pushed you out the window?"
Sherry sighed deeply. "Chris...please...I'm telling the truth. You have to believe me. I would never hurt Ark."

"That was over half a year ago!" Jill replied in exasperation. "It's like me staying mad at you because you screwed around with that secretary at the RPD!" She added, once again recalling another memory in anger.

"We were broke up then and that's different!" Chris protested, glancing toward Sherry as if he were considering what to do next.
"Maybe he's right." Sherry whispered, pulling herself away from Ark. "I am exactly what Umbrella and my father wanted me to be. There's no point in hiding it. I should just go back to being a monster. Besides...Ruby thought I was stupid when I got excited over a cell phone. I can't make it in this world..."

"Oh I get it, the moment you considered yourself free, you just had to go prove that fact by making me look like an ass to everyone else!" Jill hissed. "You couldn't even keep what you did a secret!"
Ark reached out and caught Sherry's hand before she could get too far from him. "You were never a monster, and besides... If Ruby thought you were stupid, was she truly your friend?"

"Oh we are not going to go through this one again!" Chris roared, abandoning Sherry to turn fully toward Jill. It seemed even when she didn't quite remember, she knew exactly how to distract her partner. "You said I disgusted you. You told me never to speak to you again! I was drunk! She was rebound and you're not being fair!"
In the past Sherry would have run a mile at the simple touch. But now she just looked at the strong fingers that encircled her own. "I forgot she wasn't caged like me. She saw the world. She could adapt. It would be better if she was here instead of me."

"Well obviously you did something to make me say that in the first place!" Jill shot back, squaring up to her much larger partner. "And being drunk excuses nothing!"
"If she were here... I would be out there looking for you." Ark breathed. "She was the monster, Sherry, not you. Anyone who can make you feel this way about yourself is a monster. She will never have someone love her as much as I do you."

"She got me drunk!" Chris added, getting louder than before. "She practically raped me and you never even tried to believe me!"
"You don't even remember me most of the time." Sherry sighed. "Even when I'm not his pet he's found a way to hurt me."

"Oh I'm sure you put up a fight." Jill added sarcastically. "I'm not an idiot, Chris. I know you were never really with me for the long haul, I mean come on... If we were together as long as you say we were... Why did we never get married? Obviously there was something wrong with me!"
Ark couldn't stop himself as his fingers slid away from Sherry, her words deeply wounding him. "I never asked to be sick, Sherry." He whispered. "You think I enjoy not knowing what I'm going to remember each time I fall asleep?"

"Obviously I can't hold anything together!" Chris shouted, a rare moment of hurt breaking through. "I can't even keep my sister from running out on her family. Never mind trying to keep myself from fucking up with the only thing that ever mattered to me!"
Sherry simply turned away. There was nothing she could say. At least not at the moment. She was almost glad when a siren sounded somewhere down the street and she was able to flee back to her safe space in the attic.

"How am I supposed to help you, or understand you, if you keep the past from me?!" Jill countered, though her voice had softened considerably when she saw the hurt in Chris' eyes. "I love you, and that's only from knowing you for a few months. It just... Feels like I'm missing out on so much more by not sharing in the memories you have of us."
Ark rubbed at his temples, Chris and Jill's argument gnawing at his last nerve. "Why are you two even here? You just make things worse!" He growled, then stalled after Sherry.

"I've shared all the good ones." Chris sighed heavily, already wishing he were elsewhere in that moment. "I don't want to tell you the rest of it, all right?"

"Why do you get to decide what I should, and shouldn't remember?" Jill asked quietly, then left through the door. The dark haired woman sat out on the beach once she left, staring hard at the ocean as it edged in, and then out again. Having no memory was the kind of torture she knew could never understand.

Chris left Ark's house as if the devil himself were chasing him. He ran as hard and as fast as he could, trying to escape something he never would. Instead he would soon find himself deep in the middle of something that went even further than Jill's loss of memory.

As Jill sat staring out at the nighttime waters, her mind began to wander. Chris had said his sister had walked out on her family, but something about that just didn't sit right with her.

Chris was staring at Dave Johnson as if he'd never seen the other man before. It didn't help that he was holding onto a young woman who looked oddly familiar. That part terrified him.
"So...you're Ruby?" He asked gently, not sure what he was supposed to do with this information.

Ruby's bright sapphire eyes looked Chris over before she replied. "Who's asking?" She asked, a hard edge to her voice that hadn't been there when she and Sherry had parted ways.

"Listen, this guy Dave...you're sleeping with him right?" Chris asked, feeling as if he was completely out of his element. "He thinks that me and my partner can help you. He says we can hide you from Wesker but...if you're going to shut off like this..." He paused, pushing his fingers through his sweat soaked hair. "I can't help if you won't let me."

"It's none of your damn business what I'm doing!" Ruby shot back, ever the hot headed Redfield. "And I can take care of myself, thank you." She added, pausing to glare up at Dave. "But for the record, no. I am not sleeping with him." Though Ruby was need still untouched in that manner, it by no means meant she did not think of Dave in that way.

"Uh-huh." Chris snorted, making it clear he didn't believe her. "Okay then, if you don't need anything then why does your...uhm...friend over there think you do?"

"Good question." Ruby replied thinly, her gaze narrowing at Dave over her shoulder. "Anyway, I've done perfectly fine without the help of some old guy and his partner for the past five months, so I don't need anything from you."

"What? Old guy?" Chris spluttered, clearly hurt by what she was saying. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means stay away from me, grandpa." Ruby replied, speaking to Chris as though he were the child. While she knew he didn't exactly look old, anyone older than herself, was simply old as far as Ruby was concerned.

"Look, Dave Johnson is a friend of mine." Chris said, trying to gentle his voice. "I'm helping you because he wants me to. Now why don't you two come back to our base camp and we'll all talk this over."

Ruby looked somewhat confused as she looked between Chris and her rescuer. Though made no mention of his name. "How do you know Dave Johnson?" She asked, proving to have her mother's suspicious nature.

"Worked with him back in Africa." Chris explained. "Surely he told you a little bit about that?"

"Why would he?" Ruby asked bluntly. If Chris wished to take her back with him, Ruby would certainly make him work for it. "What did you do in Africa?"

"Fought Albert Wesker." Chris said, fingering his side at the mere thought. He wanted to kick himself for not wearing a gun. He knew better than that.

"You lost." Ruby replied. "He still lives, and clearly you failed in your task." She added, her sapphire eyes cold. "Knowing this, why would you think you can now protect me from him?"

"He's weak now." Dave said gruffly. "Between Ruby and I he's been rendered all but human. It won't be as hard as it used to be."
Chris couldn't help but smile at this. The very idea that Wesker was all but useless was doing more than making his day.

"So, as you can see, I hardly need your help." Ruby sniffed primly. "Dave and I can take care of anything, I assure you."