Old Vendettas

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The BSAA were as swift as ever with their rescue and clean up efforts in the aftermath of the New York attack. People were already being evacuated from the worst affected areas, a precaution they were told, nothing more. It was a chance to sweep the bodies from the streets and remove the charred remains of one Glenn Arias. There were emergency medical units being errected in many buildings. People were thankfully vaccinated, but there were still a great many wounded wandering the streets. Even the heroes themselves had found their way the one of the larger medical units, though one of their number would soon be regretting that decision. 
Chris Redfield would be given little warning before his wife zeroed in on him, lean limbs pushing people aside before she slapped him hard enough to make a sound that echoed. “You force me behind a desk, and this is how I have to find you?!” She hissed, holding up her PDA with a flashing red dot that showed Chris’ current location.
The small nurse who had been treating Chris for superficial wounds stared at the brunette with wide eyes, already quite terrified of this formidable looking woman.

It broke Jill’s heart to hear Leon say that, and that Claire had never actually told him how she felt. “I guess you’re right, better alone than ruining a relationship you thought was stronger than anything.” She breathed, her own troubles showing through for a brief moment.

Aidan nodded, knowing when he was getting the brush off. “I’ll tell you what I told Redfield, take it easy for a while. Not that I expect you to listen to me any more than he did.”

"You still have him you know." Leon said, turning back one moment. "You still have time to get into his head."

Rebecca nodded. "I'm sorry. It's me. I'm just...weird I guess." Rebecca said softly, getting out of the chair and turning to leave.

“I’m not so sure he wants me there anymore.” Jill breathed, looking away to where Chris was laughing with one of the younger agents. “He stuck me behind a desk, forced me to change my entire life... what did he lose in that deal?”

“Weird is good.” Aidan murmured to himself, knowing the feeling of weird all too well. The doctor pushed his fingers through his unruly dark hair and tried to busy himself with work.

"For a long time, he lost you. He went through hell. I think maybe he just doesn't want to do that again." Leon said, disappearing into the alley.

Rebecca shook her head as she walked away. Weird was terrible. It left her with nothing.

Jill found herself sat on the curb, watching the rain swirl under her knees and along the gutter. Everyone loved to remind her about Chris losing her. No one wants to address how hard it was when she lost him to amnesia and the bottle.

“Chambers!” Before Rebecca could react Claire Redfield had come bounding across the street and embracing her friend tightly. Claire hadn’t told Jill she was already in the city, it was intended to be a surprise.

Chris found his wife and knelt in front of her, not caring about the rain water he was now soaked in. "You're so beautiful." He breathed. "I hate it when you look so sad."

"Claire!" Rebecca practically screamed her friends name as she ran to her. "It's been so long!" She threw her arms around the other woman, nearly toppling them both.

Jill’s head shot up when her husband’s voice broke into her melancholy thoughts. She carried so many secrets that pressed down on her, that something as simple as hearing Chris tell her she was beautiful suddenly had her fighting back tears. Jill gently took hold of his bruised face, slender fingers skimming over the superficial cuts he had picked up in the last battle, not yet saying a word. Chris Redfield had stolen her heart from the moment she had walked into the STARS office. How did things get so off course? “I hate that you look good, even covered in blood.” She finally told him with a smile.

The two of them were hugging each other and squealing like sorority sisters. Claire hadn’t had many close female friends in her life, but Rebecca Chambers was certainly one of them. Finally Claire took a step back and looked Rebecca over with a grin. “Someone was just hitting on you!” She declared, proving she had the uncanny ability to read her best friend with creepy precision.

Chris pulled his wife into his arms and kissed her roughly. Even if she hated him, he loved her. He'd never stopped. He wished he could tell her but that wasn't him. He was nothing without her.

"No way." Rebecca wrinkled her nose. "He was just taking my blood after the whole infection thing. I think I'd know. Wouldnt I?"

Jill lived for kisses like these from Chris. He was rough, and stubborn, and the only man she would ever let rule her. Her fingers were still tangled in his wet, dirty hair when someone close by cleared their throat in obvious annoyance. 
“Do I need to make it an order? I told you to go home, Redfield.” A tall man with greying hair remarked thinly. “You are no good to me dead. Or worse.” He added.

Claire laughed, shaking her head. “No, Chambers, you really wouldn’t!” She gasped, finding it all a bit too much. “You would look up at him all innocent, then tell him you have to get back to work.”

Chris pulled his head back but left his arms around Jill. "There's still things to do here, sir. It's my responsibility to make sure they get done. I can't leave yet."

Rebecca's face flushed and she shook her head again. "Nope. Never said that." She argued. "I said I had to go. There's a big difference!"

“This mess was caused by you, I think you have done quite enough.” The elder man replied, pausing to push his glasses up his nose. “I want you out of here, and if that means having you dragged out, then so be it.”
“Hold on a minute!” Jill was clearly outraged by this. “Chris was just doing his job, under your orders!”

“Uh huh...” The look on Claire’s face proved she didn’t see it the way Rebecca did. “So how often is it that weeks in the same city? How about I drive you to my hotel, then we go grab some beer... or whatever fruity drink it is you’re going for these days?”

Chris let go of Jill, his balled fists a sign he was about to throw another punch. "We put you in charge, asshole. We made you. That doesn't give you the right to..." Something in the pit of his stomach twitched. An old familiar feeling that made his blood run cold. He turned away from both people and looked down the darkening street. The devil was dead. Right?

Rebecca nodded, feeling the need to be alive. "Why don't we go a few towns over to a club or something. We need to live a little." She laughed softly.

Jill knew that look, and it filled her with dread. “Alright, alright... I’ll take him home.” She breathed, trying to smooth the whole situation over.
The elder man simply looked her over with disdain. Clearly nearly a decade wasn’t long enough for Jill to have completely shaken the stigma of being Wesker’s pet. “You would both do well to remember that the fight belongs to the young now.” He sneered before accepting Jill’s proposal and simply walking away.

Claire grinned and ruffled her shorter friend’s hair. “I was hoping you would say that.” She mused. “Don’t think I don’t know your type... meatheads with tattoos, right?”

As if on cue, Sherry and Jake appeared at the end of the street and Chris was more than a little relieved. He found himself wondering if his gut feeling had come from Jake. 

Again her thoughts turned to Albert Wesker. No one knew. Not even her best friend. It was a secret that would follow her to the grave.
"Yeah. Meatheads. Sure." She answered finally.

Jill inwardly groaned, knowing this was not going to be a quiet night now. “Play nice...” she breathed, patting Chris on the behind as she passed him to approach Sherry with her arms outstretched for a hug.

Claire wasn’t smiling any more as she watched Rebecca. Like her brother, she often got terrible gut feelings, and right then her stomach was in knots as she thought about what Rebecca’s true type actually was.

"what are you doing here, runt?" Chris growled at Jake, his mood turning sour. Sherry rushed past him and into Jills arms. "I'm so glad you came! I haven't seen you guys in forever!" Jill had raised Sherry after Raccoon city. She'd been with them through her agent training. She thought of Jill as a mother. 

"Come on. Let's get changed and give all those guys a run for their money." Rebecca needed to get out and breathe. She wanted to feel alive.

“Cleaning up your mess, old man.” Make replied, squaring up to Chris.
Jill held Sherry impossibly tight, like she never wanted to let her go. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

Claire was desperate to let her hair down too. She had seen everything that had been happening in the news, and then several BSAA hacked surveillance videos, which meant she had seen Leon kicking ass and looking good as he did it. She was oddly quiet in the taxi that was taking them to the club, her thoughts still on Leon, unable to help but wonder if he was even still in the city.

"Same here." Sherry whispered. "I've missed you."
"Mess? You little shit. I don't make messes, I take out the bad guys."

Leon was in the club, keeping to the shadows. He had just wanted to drink but there was no where else to do it. He didn't want to drink alone in his mood.

Jill couldn’t ignore what was happening between Chris and Jake. She gave Sherry one more tight squeeze, then turned away to physically separate the two well built men. “Will you two grow up! We’re on the same side!” She insisted, though her hands lingered against her husband’s chest, needing him to know she wasn’t the enemy either.

Claire had left Rebecca with a strong drink at the table they had found, and was now dancing alone. She had slammed several shots herself the moment they had gotten here, needing to simply chase away thoughts of the one man who stalked her every moment, awake or not. Claire wore a dress that certainly hugged all the right places, but left just enough to the imagination. Her dark hair still maintained its red tones and fell in loose waves down her back. What she never told anyone, was that she kept it long, simply because Leon had once told her how much he loved it that way.
Rebecca wouldn’t be completely alone for long. While her best friend was out there simply losing herself to the primal beat of the music, one set of eyes had instantly fallen upon her, their owner slipping into the seat beside her, though his face remained hidden by shadow. “Well now, this isn’t fair. Why are you left holding the drinks?” He mused, though had to bring his lips directly up to her ear to make himself heard.

"That's what Wesker said before he shot Enrico and Rebecca. Oh and made sure the rest of us died horrible deaths." Chris snapped, glaring at Jake over Jill's head. 
Sherry was quick to stand at her lover's side, her fingers sliding through his. She knew that the reminder of his father hurt him but she also knew he could fight his own battle when it came to that.

Leon couldn't keep his eyes off Claire. It took everything in him not to go to her. He had to remind himself that she didn't belong to him and never would. She'd made it a point to tell him so. 
Still his body ached just to be near her, that was something no other woman would ever be able to help him forget.

Rebecca sighed softly, her slender finger tracing the glass until it sang. "I'm not much of a dancer." She admitted. 
She was tipsy and she knew it. Her body was warm and she was not as tightly wound as usual. She smiled ever so slightly. "Someone once told me I had two left feet. It might have been because I stepped on his..." She stopped herself. This was why she didn't drink. It made her admit things. It made her remember. 
Like right now. She was giving a voice to a man who would never speak again. This poor man now sitting at the table had no idea what he was being compared to...

“You think I don’t have reason to hate Wesker more than anyone?” Jill shot back. “But you can’t blame the child for the sins of the father!” She added.
Make was squeezing Sherry’s hand tightly, though his gaze never left Chris. He understood how much these two meant to Sherry, but he didn’t think he could ever forgive a man who robbed him of the chance to either know his father, or take his own revenge on him.

Claire had her eyes closed as she danced, though there was a familiar tingle to her skin that usually only came from knowing just one person was near by. It stabbed at her deep in the chest, thinking about all the times she had had to simply leave him sleeping as she disappeared. Claire Redfield didn’t fool herself into thinking she would ever have what her brother and Jill did. Three dead boyfriends more than proved that to her, which was exactly why she couldn’t be near the only man she had ever loved.

“Only because you never had the right partner.” The man breathed, unseen eyes glancing down to where she ran her finger along the edge of her glass. “But this place... it isn’t you. It’s a place for animals with only one thing on their mind.”

"That's why I'm never having children. So they won't have to shoulder the burden I do." Chris muttered. He yanked his hand out of Jill's and would have punched Jake if Sherry was not between them, her lips pressed firmly to Jake's. 

Leon was in front of Claire now. He couldn't stay away. His fingers rested on her shoulders for a short moment before he pulled he against him and kissed her deeply.

"I'm here with a friend." Rebecca said absently, watching the scene on the dance floor. People were cheering and cat calling. This man was right, she hated every moment of it.

Jill hadn’t felt this crushed in a very long time. She had always assumed their family would come... one day. Chris had never told her he felt this way. Jill was watching Sherry and Jake, wishing they could have a better future than the one that had been forced on them by their parents. “You say you hate people for something their father did, yet here you are, trapped in a marriage to a thief’s daughter!” She hissed, shoving him roughly. Jill’s emotions were all over the place, it seemed.
Jake let his hands settle on Sherry’s hips and grinned down at her. “I know what you’re trying to do, blondie.” He chuckled.

Claire didn’t need to open her eyes to instantly recognise that kiss. It was this alone that saved Leon from a knee to the privates and an uppercut to the chin. Her fingers were instantly curled into the front of his shirt as she returned his kiss with a hunger all of her own. She didn’t question why he was there, or who he may have been with. This was the brief few moments when she could imagine he truly was her’s, even the shouts and whistles from people around them were mute to her.

The eyes followed Rebecca’s to where two people were pressed against each other amid the people around them who were cheering. He snorted, clearly repulsed by it. “Your friend seems to be having a good time without you.” He pointed out, though was filing the scene in his own mental archive. Baby Redfield and Kennedy. Interesting, and useful. “Will she even notice if I take you somewhere... a little more refined?” He asked, proving he didn’t belong in a place like this.

"What the fuck do you want from me? I can't please you, can I?" Chris roared, throwing up his arms 
Sherry laughed, "You caught me." She breathed, her fingers sliding through his hair. 

Leon wanted to confess how he felt for her but he couldn't. All he could do was pull her as impossibly close as he could. These moments were fleeting. 

Rebecca glanced at the man enveloped in shadow and then again at Claire. Now that Leon had shown up she might as well not exist. 
"When do we leave?" She asked, not knowing this decision was going to change her life.

Jill simply watched Chris snarl at her in anger, then walked away. It had been like this for too long. One of them would get angry, scream at the other, then a few days later they would beg for forgiveness. She loved him more than anything, but for some time had thought getting married was the worst thing they had ever done. 
“It needs cutting, right?” Jake asked with a grin as Sherry slid her fingers through his hair. He had been well aware of the scene happening behind them, but simply didn’t care enough right then.

Claire snaked her bare arms around Leon as he held her close, breathing him in as deeply as she could. Nothing could ever smell as good as he did, even if he was covered in zombie guts. Ultimately, she knew she would have to break the silence of this moment they were sharing. “I saw you on tv... you looked good.” She mused.

“Finish your drink, then we can leave.” Rebecca’s ‘date’ replied, his arm simply resting along the back of the seat behind her. The Redfield’S were so predictable. Easily manipulated. Easily bent. It was simply taking longer than he had anticipated to break them.

Sherry winced when she heard Jill's footsteps and Chris' heavy sigh. Marriage was the worst thing that ever happened to those two...no, Albert Wesker had been. Chris' extreme fear of losing Jill again was ruining everything. 
She couldn't even answer her lover's question. She was still lost in her thoughts. So much so that she pulled away from him, chewing on her lip. She herself was terrified of marriage. Her own parents had been less that ideal examples. And now Chris and Jill, two people she idolized. If they failed what hope was there for anyone else?

"You were watching me?" Leon asked with a husky laugh. "I'm afraid to ask what I was doing. Maybe having all the women falling at my feet? Or was that monster guts?" He teased, offering her a smile. "I've missed you." He admitted. Jill's words about telling Claire how he felt had hit home. He was going to say them, no matter what the outcome was. 

Rebecca thought it odd that the man wanted her to finish her drink but pushed the warning aside. It was her turn to make a bad decision for once. She deserved to be bad, she told herself as she downed the drink in one swallow.

Jill made it back to her car before she broke down. Even now, as she leaned her head on the wheel and sobbed she didn’t know what was wrong with her. She went from blissfully happy to suicidal four times before breakfast. She didn’t blame. His for hating her, but there was also a large part of her that simply couldn’t forgive him for pulling her from active duty.
“Peaches, you okay?” Jake asked, a large hand reading against the small of his lover’s back. “Don’t let them upset you, you know how old people are...” he added with a smirk, hoping to make her smile.

Claire grinned and reached up, gently sliding her fingers through Leon’s silken hair. “Hard to miss when you help destroy half a city.” She teased. “But now that you mention it... you do seem to make women weak at the knees.” She added with a smirk.

It was almost too easy. He was watching her as she downed the liquid from a glass that wasn’t the one that Claire had given her minutes earlier. “I know this perfect little place, you’ll love it. No animals with nothing but formication on their mind.” He breathed as he helped Rebecca to her feet, casting only the briefest of glances to where Claire was so utterly wrapped up in her boyscoutn that she didn’t even notice her friend had had company.

Chris took a long walk, trying to gather his thoughts. He couldn't fight things anymore. Jill was unhappy. He had to let her go. There was no other choice.
Sherry took in a shaky breath, her mood effectively darkened. She slid her arms around Jake's waist and rested her head on his chest. "Why are monsters the easy part of life?"

"You make me that way." Leon breathed, his lips brushing hers. "Let's get out of here." He wasn't too far from begging.

Rebecca was feeling a little woozy. She tipped up her head to the man who was leading her out, giving him a watery smile. She had no idea there was something else going on. She was just happy someone noticed her for her and not her title.

Jill had no idea of her husband’s own dark thoughts in that moment. She drove home without really remembering the journey. She took a bath, then began to make dinner. It was a running joke that she couldn’t cook for shit, but she tried anyway.
“Hey, don’t like the old people bring you down, peaches.” Jake breathed, dropping a kiss on the top of Sherry’s head. “Why don’t we try and fix their mess, then go see what we can scrounge for dinner, huh?”

Claire mumbled something incoherent the second his lips brushed her’s. “Becky... I...” she was trying to keep her focus, but all she could think about was how there was too much clothing between them.

Rebecca was feeling good he effects of the drug, and so probably didn’t notice the snake like eyes looking down at her as their own scooped her up into his arms and carried her into his waiting car.

Chris didn't come home that night. He stayed and worked with the clean up crew. He ignored the silver haired man who kept ordering him to go home. Who was he to tell the man that he was beginning a path he could not turn away from. 

Leon didn't know how they got to it but once again the woman he worshipped was lying beneath him. He claimed his love for her but wasn't sure she either heard him or believed it.

Rebecca's head lolled on the man's broad shoulders. She was feeling extremely sleep though she wasn't about to admit to it.