Checkmate

"Day one hundred and twenty...seven." Jill let out a heavy sigh as she checked the date off on the calendar. It was a sickeningly adorable kitten calendar Claire had given her, as though baby animals made her unofficial imprisonment any better. Since returning from Africa Jill had been under what was basically house arrest. She was driven to her shrink and doctors appointments, then brought right back home again with an agent stationed in an all too conspicuous car on the street outside. Her apartment was beginning to feel tiny, like the walls closed in another inch each time she managed to sleep. Sleep... that was yet another punishment. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Wesker's face sneering down at her, taunting her that she would never see her precious partner again. That she was the weak link in the pathetic operation. The only time she truly slept was when she took the pills the doctor had given her. He had promised it would be a dreamless sleep... he couldn't have been more wrong.

"Jill..." There was a soft tap at her window and Chris' deep voice. "Valentine...are you awake? It's freezing out here..." Chris Redfield had lost everything when he'd lost one of the only things he cared about. 
He'd fought through hell to get her back. Now that she was so close, being unable to touch her or see her smile was killing him. They wouldn't even tell him if she was truly alright. 
He wasn't going to wait any longer.

The window slid open and Jill's head poked out. Grey blue eyes betrayed just how pleased she was to see him. "Red..." She breathed her pet name for him, her breath clouding in the cold air between them before disappearing. All the things she had wanted to say the first time she saw him again, and right then every single one escaped her. Jill could try and blame it on PTSD, but it had always been this way; Every moment around Chris Redfield and she felt like a teenager again.

Chris grinned widely and pressed his lips to hers. He couldn't help it. He had missed her. Even after all the time that had passed nothing had changed. At least...not for him. "Hey Valentine..." He breathed. "You look amazing. I...I missed you." He confessed. "I was getting close to streaking past your window." He laughed. "Claire said if I tried she would throw rocks at me." 

Rebecca Chambers flopped down on her bed, gasping for breath. She'd gone for a run, trying to clear her head. She had so much on her plate now. There was what was left of Wesker's virus. Both Weskers. There was Spencer's frail remains. There was her own health after being attacked by that man who had forced her into a wedding dress. And then there were the vaccinations she needed to fix. 
All she really wanted to do was go on vacation. A real one. Was that too much to ask?

Jill dragged Chris' large frame through the window before her watcher outside saw him. Only once the window was closed and the curtain drawn did she kiss him again. "You idiot!" She suddenly declared. "Do you have any idea the trouble you will be in if they find you here?" She added, though was still grinning, slender fingers idly dancing across the front of his shirt. He still looked good, she had to give him that. Two years was a long time, and she hadn't expected him to just wait around for her. 

"Rebeccaaaaa!" Claire was wailing her best friend's name and pounding on the front door at the same time. "Come on, I need to pee!" She declared. Claire had been drinking, that much was clear. She often showed up like this, having again gotten herself worked up over something she couldn't change.

"Would it be more if we were naked?" Chris asked, giving her his widest devil may care grin. "All this Jill is infected..." He shook his head. "I thought we showed them that we fixed that? I got the device off, right?" He sat down on the edge of her bed and pulled her into his lap. "What more does this clown show need?" He purred, pressing kisses to her neck and following down to the valley of her breasts. 

Rebecca sighed. She was half tempted not to open the door. She'd been planning to shower then go to bed with her computer in her lap. The boring round of study the virus sounded like a great Friday night to her. How could she miss out on that?
"Hold on. I'm coming," She said finally, getting up and opening the door to let the person on the other side inside.

Jill dared to let her eyes flutter closed, fingers in his hair as Chris traced his lips down to the edge of her white tank top. “I was always infected… they just never knew it…” She murmured. “I scare them… I feel it every time they have me talk to that damn doctor…”

“Come ooon!” Claire wailed, shouting a fleeting hello before dashing for the bathroom as soon as Rebecca had the door open. Once she had relieved herself she seemed a little calmer. “It’s Friday night, why aren’t you ready?” She asked with an overly cheerful grin that didn’t even come close to reaching her once twinkling sapphire eyes.

"Who?" Chris lifted his head up, his blue eyes flaming with jealousy. "It's not Becky...you wouldn't say that..." He was going to kill the man if he hurt Jill. There was simply nothing more to it. "Next time you have to go I'm going with you."

Rebecca couldn't help but laugh. Her moment of confusion was gone as she nodded her head. She knew what Claire was doing. "Ok. But you're responsible for me. You remember the last time when I got on the table and started that terrible rendition of my will heart go on. Then poured one out for the homies on that guy at the next table after I'd taken my shirt off." She was already blushing deeply as she passed her best friend, giving her a teasing push.

"You know they won't let you." Jill breathed, avoiding Chris' gaze as she traced her fingers along his jaw and took a great interest in his hair. "I asked them can you not be my bodyguard, instead of the stiff they have parked outside... apparently you wouldn't be able to put me down, if the need arose..." Clearly whoever was overseeing her rehab wasn't convinced that Jill was as free from control as Chris wished her to be. 

"Oh stop it, you loved every moment of all that attention!" Claire exclaimed with a grin. "I was just happy I got it all on record, see..." She pulled her phone out, trying to prove it to Rebecca, but all the other woman would see was that Claire's lock screen still had a photo of her and Leon on.

Chris shook his head. "We'll never have to worry about that." He breathed, resting his head against her. He closed her eyes, once again imagining the fight that had happened between the two of them. He had been willing to let her kill him. Just so he wouldn't hurt her. The BSAA knew it.  
"Why don't we go out?" He asked after a long moment of simply holding her. "Your handler is sleeping. He'll never know. But if you'd like..." He purred. "I'll beg."

"Claire!" Rebecca wailed, diving for the phone. She landed on the floor with the phone in her hand, staring at the lock screen. "Claire...are you ever...going to get over him?" She asked, rolling into her side.

Jill smiled, her fingers continuing to stroke through Chris' dark hair. "I didn't think you remembered how?" She teased. "All that time in the gym... made you forget me and fall in love with your own reflection." She added, her shoulders beginning to shake as she tried to contain her laughter. 

Claire kept her eyes closed for a long moment, trying to control the feelings that always swirled so close to the surface when it came to Leon. "What's to get over? Getting over would imply mutual respect, not an asshole treating me like a little kid." She too rolled over, nose to nose with her best friend now. "He left and never looked back, why should I?" Despite her words, a fat tear rolled from one eye and across the bridge of her nose before landing on her other cheek.

"Yeah." Chris said, dumping her to the floor as he stood and yanked off his shirt. "I am pretty hot." He purred, walking over to the mirror and flexing. "I did punch a bolder after all." He kissed his left bicep. "God I'm sexy."

"You need to get laid." Rebecca said, handing the phone back. 
Soon enough the two of them were stepping into a dimly lit club. "I mean it, Claire." Rebecca hissed. "Do not let me drink!" She had a hold of her friends elbow, hoping she would keep her in line.

Jill smirked and rolled her eyes. "A boulder doesn't fight back, I could still kick your ass, Red." She teased, behind him in the mirror now, both arms circling around him as she lightly raked her nails over the muscle of his abdomen. "Are you trying to tell me that being with me made you soft?" She added.

Claire snorted in disagreement. "Becca, drinking is exactly why we're here, how else do you think 
I forget?" She asked, already leading them to the bar and ordering two shots of something in a sickly green colour.

A few hours before morning Jill would wake to find herself alone and her guard sleeping just outside the door of her room. 
Chris had left the window open and it was blowing in cold air and rain. When she looked close she would see that he'd left her a bundle of tropical flowers with a lighter on top. A letter and a ice blue ring was attached to it. It read, "burn the bad shit. Keep the good. See you soon. Love, Chris."

By the time the bar was closing Rebecca couldn't remember if she'd stayed off the tables. She couldn't find Claire either. The bartender was telling her to leave but she was having trouble finding the door. He refused to listen to her plea for help with her car keys or her friend. All he kept saying was that he'd seen her come in a cab and alone.

Jill stretched out, only opening her eyes when she found the bed beside her cold. She didn’t know how long he had stayed, but it had helped. For the first time in weeks, Jill hadn’t had a nightmare. She scooted to the edge of the bed and grabbed the BSAA t shirt that was lying on a chair, then got up to close the window. It was on her way to the bathroom that she saw the gift Chris had left. “Still getting it right, Red.” She breathed, a tender smile tugging at her lips as she picked the lighter up and turned it over in her fingers. She knew how much it meant to him. Chris had so few possessions from his childhood, it meant the world that he trusted her with this one.

While Rebecca had managed to stay off the tables, it didn’t mean she went unseen. She had purposefully been separated from her friend. Claire had been pushed into a taxi and dropped off at the nearest hotel, with a room booked in a false name until the following night. There would be no clue as to who had done it, but she was safe, at least. That had left Rebecca alone and without the Redfield influence. “Your cab, miss Chambers.” A car pulled up, it was sleek and black, clearly not a taxi. The driver got out and opened the door for her. “2am, as you requested.”

"Hey, Valentine." It wasn't long before her handler was knocking roughly at the door. "Time to see the doctor again. We can't be late again. Unless you want him to drop you in the zombie cage?"

Rebecca looked around, thinking the man was speaking to someone else. Things like this never happened to her. When she saw there was no one else and he was clearly waving her inside, she sighed softly and got in.

Jill scowled at the door and shoved the lighter into the pocket of her jeans once she was dressed. “How about you try it, and see what happens to you.” She sneered, shoving him away from her door before letting it swing shut behind her. Chris could never know what they did to her at these appointments. It would kill him.

Inside the car a man was already waiting. “Good evening, or should that be morning? I hope you have come down from your buzz, Dr Chambers.” His steel coloured eyes didn’t reflect the smile the stretched across his lips in that moment.

Chris was in a meeting across  the compound in that moment. He was blissfully unaware what they were doing to anyone. Just like any well meaning company, darkness had slipped through the cracks.

Rebecca didn't return the man's smile. She simply smoothed her skirt down and crossed her ankles. She'd been here before. "Listen, just spit it out. What do you want? A cure to cancer? A virus? And no, I haven't come off my  buzz. I was taking a vacation."

As always, Jill was thrust into the gauntlet with no more than a knife to defend herself. At least Wesker had the decency to arm STARS when he tested them…
Today she was being pitted against the T-phobus creations; a painful reminder of one of her last missions with Chris.

“You’re new unit are finally through advanced training.” The director informed Chris, her time as cool and clipped as always. “You will be shipping out to Europe on Wednesday.” She added, waiting to see his reaction. The director made it her business to know everything, snd Chris wasn’t as discreet as he believed.

The man chuckled quietly and poured her a glass of something amber coloured from the fridge beneath the seat, not that he expected her to take it. “What if I simply asked for you to free someone imprisoned?”

"You seem to forget that you can't just ship me off." Chris muttered. He wasn't ready to go not since having Jill home again. "I'm a founder. I have a say so."

Rebecca's throat was dry. Later she would chastise herself for the drink but right then... She drank deeply. "Okay, I'll bite. Rescue someone? Who?" The liquid burned the back of her throat but she refused to so much as cough. "You realize I'm a medic not a solider, right?"

“You’re a founder who refused a title.” The director pointed out. “You chose field work, this is the price.” She added, rising from her desk to turn and look out the window that had a view of the entire city. “Don’t worry… Valentine won’t even know you’re gone.”

“That’s why I am asked you, and not some jarhead with half a brain.” The man replied. “There is someone with… shall we say untapped potential, being used as a mere lab rat. I want them free. But don’t worry, if you think it too much… we can simply part ways. Say yes, however… and the price is yours to name.”

Chris sighed. He didn't trust anyone else to look after Jill. Except maybe Claire. He'd call her before they left. 
"Fine. But if one hair on her head is out of place..." He threatened, picking up his paperwork and heading out the door.

Rebecca suddenly felt very out of place. Like she was flying. "I'll do it." She breathed. "For no...price. Everything I wanted...is gone.." her eyes closed and she slumped in her seat.

Red lips curled into a smile in the reflection of the glass. Sometimes, it was simply too easy. She needed him out of the way while she ran her tests on Valentine, after all… there was no assurance she would survive what was planned.

“Very good. I shall have the information sent to your apartment.” He didn’t ask the address, and the car came to a halt. “And for the record, accepting drinks from strangers in cars is a risk you really shouldn’t be taking.” He pointed out, almost at the exact moment the drunk in her drink took effect.
“Take her home. She will wake in her own bed unaware of if this truly transpired.” He instructed his driver, the got out of the car to enter the grand building they had stopped in front of.

Chris headed by Jill's room, surprised to find it empty. He had her schedule. It wasn't supposed to leave room for change. At least not until the director felt comfortable with her. He paced in the hallway for what seemed like hours but no one came. What was worse, Claire wasn't answering her phone. 

Rebecca woke up with a roaring headache. She got up and grabbed aspirin from her bag and that was when the papers fell out.

"Redfield? Aren't you supposed to be vetting your new team?" A small redhead was approaching Chris in the hallway, smirking when she saw which room he was standing outside of. "I hear the director is just waiting for you to fail." She added, sounding rather hopeful that would indeed happen. 

On the first page was a photo of Jill, recent enough that her blonde hair now had dark roots. Underneath was a rather details description of the tests she had been subjected too. All the viral monsters she had been pitted against, how quickly, or slowly, she defeated them. However, so far they hadn't put her up against the one thing they knew would slow her down; Nemesis. All these tests results were stamped and signed by the director of the BSAA...

Chris' shoulders and chest stiffened and he cocked his head. "I never fail." He hissed. They were all waiting for it. The entire group wanted to take over the BSAA and his dreams. He refused to let them. They reminded him of his childhood and the army and Wesker. All of them believing he couldn't be anything. 
He turned to the small woman and bellied up against her. "I wasn't kidding about Jill. You'd better not let anything happen to her. I will ruin this place." 

Rebecca Chambers passed the security doors with ease, waving and smiling at everyone she passed. She'd read over the file several times and it worried her. She'd signed off on Jill. This should have been over. The Nemesis...it should never have even been a thing at their facility. She needed to get the other woman out of here.

The redhead was much smaller than Chris, though didn’t seem daunted in the least. She pushed black rimmed glasses back up her pert nose and smiled. “What makes you think I have control over her responses?” She asked simply, giving nothing else away. The name tag on her crisp lab coat identified the young woman as ‘Dr. Delilah Pendergast , Vaccine research’. Of course, Chris wasn’t to to know vaccine research really meant viral.

Jill was tired. When she had woken that morning, she ached in all the right places, but now… she didn’t know how much longer she could keep going. Today’s test had gone on forever, wave after wave of creatures. Each time it was taking her longer, and so was not certain the doctor would end the test before she simply expended all her energy. But Chris couldn’t know. He couldn’t lose faith in the company he cared so much for.

Chris' bright blue eyes swept over the woman's face and then down to her tag. Pendergast. He seemed to remember that name. Something about it made his neck hurt all the way down his spine. "You don't. No one controls Jill Valentine. She'll prove that if you make her." He said firmly, giving the woman a gentle shove against the wall. "I don't know who hired you, but you're not going to last around here being a bitch like that." He added darkly. He turned and headed out the front door, slamming it hard enough to break the glass. 

"Good afternoon, Ms. Valentine." A soft voice spoke from the darkness. "Your test is over for today." Rebecca stepped into the test room, a clip board to her chest. She didn't look at the other woman. "It's time to return to your room until tomorrow." She motioned her toward the door, trying her best to keep her heart rate and her breathing steady. One change and the monitors would sense that she had done something wrong.

Delilah continued to smile, glad she had managed to get under the skin of the great Chris Redfield. She pulled out her phone and typed out a quick message to the director; everything was on schedule. Chris and Jill would both be pushed to their limits for the sake of research. 

Jill's blue-grey eyes looked Rebecca over, but her own expression also remained neutral. Something was changing. Rebecca suddenly being here didn't feel like the lucky break it should have been. She wiped the blood that was dripping from her lip and simply nodded.

Rebecca had decided that even if it was all true, she was not going to hand over Jill. Not after everything she'd read in the files. 
The two of them would pass an entire lab of passed out officers, workers, and doctors. She had taken no chances. Wesker would have been proud. 
She said nothing until they were in her car and headed toward a mountain cabin she sometimes rented when she truly wanted to get lost. 
"You should have called me." She whispered, handing Jill a bag she'd packed. "What they were doing. It wasn't right..."