Rookie Life

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“God Chris, of course I’ll be alright. No... I know it’s all new... I can handle it, seriously! Don’t make me come all the way out there and kick your ass. Yeah, yeah... love you too old man.” Claire hung up the phone, still grinning to herself. “So over protective.” She chuckled, standing in front of the mirror in the tiny apartment she had rented, looking at her reflection of her first time wearing the R.P.D uniform. “I got this.” She told herself, exhaling the breath she had unknowingly been holding. It wasn’t her first day on the force that had her nervous... it was what her big brother, STARS hero, self proclaimed ladies man Chris Redfield was going to do once she set foot in the precinct. Maybe he wouldn’t notice... maybe STARS never even paid attention to lowly grunts with big ideas. Claire had kept her secret for this long throughout all her training, what was a few more weeks?

“A touching sentiment, really.” Wesker snorted. “One that Spencer would beat out of him, if he heard it.” He was staring at the computer screen with the results of the test Annette had just run now, rubbing at his chin in thought. Rebecca had seen this without any of the equipment... he needed to test her further. “Either way, William will not be pleased by this.”

“Wow, you look like shit.” Claire commented bluntly. “That why you’re here, and not in work like you should be?”

"How did you find this?" Annette asked. It was her belief that Spencer had Wesker stretched entirely too thin to do any research on his own. 
She too was thinking about William. He would pout and generally make life miserable for the simple thought that he had failed at anything.

"It's my day off." Chris muttered. He put down his gun parts and reached for his cigarettes. "You seen my lighter? I've been using one I bought at a gas station and I hate it." He showed it to her and then lit it, scowling as if to prove his point. "What are you doing here anyway? Jill said you wouldn't be home for another month."

“Multi tasking.” Wesker replied simply. “Tell William you found it, if you must.” He added, knowing how childlike his counterpart was. “I don’t care how he figures it out, but the error must be addressed.”

“Jill isn’t the oracle or everything, you know.” Claire replied, avoiding looking at the lighter, as she was well aware his was currently sitting in her back pocket. “Barry is trying to reach you, something is going down at the station.” She added, glancing around for any sign of Jill. “I’d dropped by to see you, but Barry said both you and Jill weren’t even in the building.”

Rebecca didn't make it past Barry. Before she knew it she was being pulled into the briefing room where Enrico was telling a group of officers about finding a group of hikers that had been mauled to death. The coroner's finding were strange to say the least. 

"Oh I'm sure Jill and Wesker are together somewhere. Totally saving the town." Chris said. His tone was much louder and angrier than he'd meant it to be. "I'll call Barry later. I'm sure they've got it under control." He patted the seat beside him. "Want to grill a steak and watch old horror movies?"

“Mauled? How far off the track did they find these hikers?” Joseph asked, clearly worries something was getting a little too close to town for it to simply fall on the RPD to manage.

“Chris... it looked pretty serious. From what I saw before Barry caught me and sent me packing, some guys with guns were raiding files, and all they had handling it were a bunch of rookies.” Claire pressed, physically having to bite her tongue to keep from asking about Wesker and Njll, that was something she knew they didn’t have time to hash out.

"Unfortunately, it was well into the Arklay mountains." Enrico said, tapping on a map he'd put down on the table. "I've put a call in to Wesker and Irons to see what they feel should be done. But I wouldn't be surprised if we're sent out. Both STARS teams need to be on the ready just in case. Go home and get a few hours rest. I'll let you know when I hear something."

"It's probably a rookie raize or something. It's okay, Claire. You're too much like me. You're overthinking things." Chris reached over and ruffled her hair. "You know if things were really bad Jill would be there in the middle of it. She loves the RPD and everyone in it." He leaned back on the couch and put his feet on the coffee table, something Jill hated. "How about we order pizza with anchovies?"

Joseph saw Rebecca studying the map and documents laid out on the table and patted her shoulder gently. “Don’t worry, rookie, this is a walk in the park.” He assured her with a smile. “Do as boss man there says. And get some rest. These kind of missions usually get drawn out.”

Claire was scowling, her arms folded across her chest. “Chris, Barry wasn’t kidding around. You need to be there, like an hour ago!” She insisted. “But you know what, fine! If you’re going to sit around her and sulk about something Jill has obviously done to piss you off... I’ll help them out myself!”

Rebecca leaned back, photos of the torn apart hikers in her hand. "I don't like the look of these wounds. These aren't from animals. Those are teeth marks..." She hadn't heard a word he'd said.

"Jill and I broke up." Chris said softly. "She came and got all of her things yesterday. Wesker and Barry helped her. "She's probably setting up her new place. Just...chill. Ok?" He waved a hand at his sister, taking a long drag of his cigarette.

Joseph sighed quietly, knowing what Rebecca was like once she started something. “Right, lay it out for me then.” He told her, sitting back down and making it clear she had his undivided attention. “The captain is awol with Jill somewhere, so looks like it’s down to us to solve this, right?” He added with a grin.

Claire stared at Chris for a long moment then shook her head. “Right, and I gave birth to a purple terodactyl on my way here.” She replied, making it clear she didn’t think he and Jill has broken up at all. “She’s probably out there punching a wall somewhere imagining it’s your face... Jill is scary when she’s mad.”

Rebecca laughed softly and nodded, chewing on her lip. "It looks like...those old zombie movies Claire likes..." She looked up and frowned. "Have you ever seen them?"

"Yeah. I know." Chris muttered, rubbing his chin. "Claire, it's fine. Let her cool off. Just trust me. Ok?" He sighed softly.

Joseph started to laugh, until he realised Rebecca wasn’t. “Come on... zombies?” He asked, though was looming over the photos again. “Someone would have seen them...”

Claire shook her head. “They need help in the precinct. You sit here in your little pity party.” She huffed, already turning back for the door. “Everyone at the RPD thinks you’re a hero... especially Jill.” She breathed.

Rebecca shook her head. "Not if they were let out on purpose and then...I need to see the bodies." 
"Their families already claimed them." Chief Irons said as he lumbered into the room. "You two need to go home and wait for your Captain to contact you." He snapped, jerking the photos out of Rebecca's hands. "Get out. Everyone out!"

Chris reached across the couch and picked up his phone. He dialed Jill's number and waited. He didn't for a moment expect her to answer.

Joseph instinctively put himself in front of Rebecca, he didn’t like the way Irons often looked at her... or women in general. “Sir, we were just getting a head start on whatever the captain may ask of us.”

“Going to yell at me some more?” Jill asked, her tone entirely too defeated.

"Good for you." Irons snarled. "But these photos are not useful to you. If you persist in this path it will lead to termination. Goodbye!" He roared, practically shoving the young man toward the door.
 Enrico was quick to grab the two of them and all but haul them into the hallway. "Let's call Wesker from the team's office. I don't like the look of this."

"I thought I'd start with hello." Chris breathed. "I should have thanked you for kicking my ass in the bar the other night." He glanced at Claire, sure she already knew. "I...I'm sorry." It was not something he was good at saying but he was hoping that it would help.

Joseph nodded in agreement, though was casting a worried glance back to the briefing room. He knew Irons was unstable, but that was a. It extreme. “Has anyone seen the Captain? Or even Chris and Jill? They’ve all been missing since yesterday.”

Jill screwed her eyes shut, knowing how hard it was for Chris to ever apologise. “You deserved it.” She whispered. “The thing you accused me of...” Her voice trailed off, clearly still hurting. “You know I’d never do that to you. Ever. Not with him, not with anyone.”

Rebecca sat indian style in the middle of her apartment surrounded by pages she'd taken from Wesker's office. She was matching them up to the ones she'd taken from the meeting about the hikers that morning. This she'd been pouring over it for hours. 
She was pinning things to the wall as she matched them together, every once in a while taking something down and tossing it aside. Finally she stopped and shook her head. "This isn't the same virus as the one I saw..." She muttered, turning to go back through Wesker's files.

"He's better for you." Chris breathed. "More stable. "You deserve that." He couldn't do anything but stare at the floor.

“That’s considered stealing, you know.” Wesker was standing there when she turned back to the files. There was no explanation as to how he had gained entry, but there he was looking down at her her with... amusement?

“You think I want stable?” Jill breathed. “We had fireworks, Chris. Giant, explosive, can’t get enough of each other fireworks. What did I do to make you turn away from that? Unless...” She didn’t want to truly believe it. “You found someone else, didn’t you? I get it... this is your get out clause. Blame me and act the wounded party!”

"Oh god!" Rebecca shouted, papers fluttering wildly around them both as she threw them into the air. "Captain, don't do that! You know I hate it!" For the moment she didn't think about the fact that she had quite a bit of his paperwork all over her apartment. There was no way to lie herself out of it. 

"What? Jill...no. I love you." Chris breathed. "Listen...Barry said there's shit going on at work. Do you know anything about it?" Change the subject. Anything to keep the knife from twisting harder in his chest.

Wesker caught one of the fluttering papers and cast a brief glance over it. “This could be considered insubordination, Officer Chambers.” He remarked, seeing that this particular paper identified Annette by name. “Sever punishment would be in order...”

Jill knew Chris well, too well it felt like at times like this. Changing the subject meant he had something pretty huge he was trying to find the courage to talk about. “Why don’t you get off your ass and go find out yourself?” She snapped.

"These are terrible, Captain. We need to take these to the Chief." Rebecca protested trying to grab the papers back from Wesker's hand. "The virus on these isn't the same. It's smaller more like a zombie type...this is crazy stuff...Wesker...we have to tell someone."

Chris hung up. Her biting tone made it very clear she had moved on from him. He turned his head to his sister, his jaw tight as he ground his teeth together. He would fight off emotions until he could drink them away. "It's my day off." He hissed. "I'm having a beer and grilling a steak. You in?"

Wesker looked Rebecca over for a few moments, clearly assessing her. “And do what? Do you have a sample of this magical virus? Pieces of paper are not proof, little girl.”

The look on Claire’s face made it clear she didn’t like where that phone all had headed, but she nodded anyway. “Looks like you’re out of beer...” Sje commented, glancing to the empty cans near by. “How about you fire up the grill, and I do a beer run?”

"It can be remade..." Rebecca's voice was shaking. "I can remake it. The core ingredients aren't that hard to get my hands on." She was already backing away, gathering the papers as quickly as she could. Wesker was acting strange all of a sudden.

Chris nodded. While she was gone he'd bang his head on the wall a few times, place the gun against his temple, curse his name. He'd spend a good deal of time hating himself.

“Oh, you’re that confident?” Wesker asked curiously, taking several steps closer. “You can tell that... just from a few pieces of paper!”
He added, now towering over the small woman.

While she was out Claire called Barry. Chris was in no frame of mind to help anyone right then, least of all a room full of rookie cops... one of whom she was personally worried about.

Rebecca shook her head as she held the paper against her chest. "No. I was just kidding, sir. I wouldn't know something like that. I'm just a rookie. A little girl. Remember?" She breathed, praying the horrible squeak in her voice didn't betray how afraid she truly was. This tryst she was having needed to end and now. 

"Things have settled down." Barry said. "Some lady came in with a group of soldiers and started barking orders. Everything is back to normal. You take the day off and take care of Chrisy boy. I'll tell Rookie to call you." Barry added, his tone painfully cheerfully. He was faking the entire thing.

Wesker stared down at Rebecca for some time longer, well aware how uncomfortable it made people. “Right... a rookie out of her depth while shooting for STARS, perhaps?” He finally asked coolly. “Perhaps faith in you was misplaced, you would fare better within the mediocre ranks of the RPD.” He made it sound very much like a threat, and far from a question.

Claire was frowning, wishing everyone close to her would stop treating her like a child. “What lady?” She asked thinly, not liking the sound of that. “What authority would she have that STARS don’t?”

Rebecca had no idea that she'd been played so easily. She handed him the papers. "You know the cat and mouse game is what you like best about me." She purred. When she was sure she had his attention she pulled her shirt over her head, a smile on her lips. Distraction. There was only one way out of this. 

"Government. Didn't you hear me? There's soldiers here. We aren't soldiers. Not anymore. She's way over ours heads. Though...Wesker is going to be pissed." Barry said simply. "I'm not treating you like a child. I'm just...saying. Ok?"

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Wesker had grown tired of their game. WIt had been a pleasant distraction when he first cornered her in his office, but now? There was very little fun in it for him. “I’m sorry, little mouse, you are no longer my type.” He purred, though he did place his hands on her upper arms and slam her into the wall behind her. “You still cling to that sweet, girl next door persona... I like a woman who...” he paused and smiled thinly, cool fingers idly tracing along the side of one of her pert breasts. “Bite back.”

“It’s what you’re NOT saying that says other wise.” Claire growled. “You need to get Jill down there if I’m babysitting Chris. She... needs a distraction.” She added, purposefully avoiding the real issue.

Rebecca did her best to push him away. "Don't touch me." She hissed. "Get out. You're not welcome here anymore." She tried to shove his head away but with his fingers still holding her against the wall it wasn't possible. 

"No problem." Barry said, his cheerful tone returning. "Listen...I have to go. I'll get Jill. I have to go." He hung up.

Weaker grinned, allowing Rebecca to shove him away. “I know where you sleep, girl.” He purred, then simply turned away. “I would be careful, without my protection, you have no idea what predators are out there...” Woth that warning, she was again left all alone.

“Fuck...” Claire growled at the are in front of her, feeling things had just gotten a whole lot worse. It didn’t sit well with her that the military were now involved.

Rebecca was back at the STARS office before Wesker got there. She put all of the papers back and returned to her desk while everything was still dark. She burned with shame. It was to the point where she wanted to simply walk away from it all. 

When Claire got back to her brothers apartment he was already gone. He left a note and an iou for a steak. He'd let the worry for his team eat away at him and had gone to check on them.