Thicker than Water

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Alex Chambers stood on the helicopter landing pad his fingers pressed to his forehead to block out the morning sun. He was dancing from one foot to the other, unable to hide his excitement.
"I see them!" He shouted back to his mother, who was standing near the entrance with a medical team. None of them knew what kind of shape their heroes would return to them in but Alex didn't seem to care. Already he was hopping up and down waving at the chopper as it drew closer. He cheered when Chris Redfield waved to him and repeated the action when Jill Valentine did the same. But as the helicopter touched down his smile began to fade. Not everyone he'd hoped to see was stepping out.
"What happened?" Rebecca Chambers soon came to stand beside her son, her lips set in a thin line as she looked from Chris to Jill. "Where is Parker?" She'd done her best to keep herself from saying this man's name first but she couldn't seem to help herself. "Where's Jessica?" She added, hoping this would make for a decent cover up.

Chris was sitting outside the door, staring at his phone. He wanted to call Jill. He wanted to tell her that he was not sorry for the kiss and that he wanted to do again. Many times. But instead he couldn't force himself to dial the phone he was afraid she was going to tell him she hated him.

"It has nothing to do with being smart!" Rebecca hissed, knowing that her yelling would only cause more trouble. Instead of saying anything else she leaned across the space between them and pressed her lips to his.

Chris' phone would ring as he was staring down at it. It was Jill's number. As Alex slept, she had been given far too much time alone with her thoughts. She had to know; was it a mistake when he kissed her? Did he just want thing to stay the way they were... Or did he want something more?

Parker's arms slid around Rebecca, afraid to let her go, and also not quite sure if this was just something the antidote was making him see. He returned her kiss with a hunger he had been suffering since he first laid eyes on her.

"Now you're the one missing everything." Chris said as he answered the phone, glancing up to see Rebecca and Parker in a heated embrace. "Everything all right, babe?"

Rebecca deepened the kiss, having felt the same way. Then all at once she was pushing away and fleeing the room. The door was slammed shut and locked from the other side.

There was a pause as Jill told herself that Chris had called her babe a thousand times or more. "I was going to ask you the same thing." She breathed after a moment. "Is Parker doing okay? Rebecca wasn't exactly... Forthcoming."

There was a roar of frustration from inside Parker's room as Rebecca ran out. He didn't know how Chris could have done that, kissed a woman he clearly loved... And then done nothing further.

"Better than okay. I just saw him and Rebecca kissing." Chris chuckled, wincing when he heard Parker's roar and Rebecca's sudden escape. "Well...sort of. But you. Are you okay? I mean...the whole kiss...You didn't feel like I was coming on to you or anything, did you?"

There was silence again on Jill's end. The fingers of her hand that didn't hold the phone were screwed up into a fist so tight her nails were biting into her palms. "You were drunk, why would I think it was anything other than a really bad kiss?" She asked, venom in her every word, that was how deeply Chris' words had hurt her.

"Was it that bad?" Chris whispered. "Geez and I wasn't even drunk." He finished, admitting he'd been lying to her all along. "We'll be home in about twelve hours, Jill. Does that sound good?"

Twelve hours turned out to be a very long time. In a plane with a group of extremely grumpy people there was nothing but painful silence.

Once she was off the plane, Rebecca followed the stretcher that held the sleeping Parker. Somehow it was agreed that they would all go to Jill's house first.
For a moment she paused, an odd feeling forcing her to look up at the terminal above. There was a man standing there that seemed very familiar to her. It very nearly sent her running. She looked for Parker, feeling safe just knowing he was near and when she looked back up, the man was gone.

Jill would never admit it to anyone, but when she hung up the phone after speaking to Chris, tears had been rolling down her cheeks. Of course it hadn't meant anything to him, and it hadnt been a bad kiss. In fact... It had quite taken her breath away. No one would be able to contact Jill on her cellphone, given that she had tossed it against the wall after speaking with her partner.

While Alex had been sleeping, Jill had had some groceries delivered so she could at last make him something to eat, rather than relying on take out. Again. It was all she could do to take her mind off her conversation with Chris. Rebecca had told Parker that Alex had needed Jill. In truth... The dark haired woman actually needed the little boy.

When the taxi pulled up in front of Jill's apartment it was late afternoon. Alex was playing on the gated swing set out front, doing his best to get the swing as high as it would go and then jump off. He was performing stunts that would have gotten other children broken into pieces.
"Alex Chambers, get your ass down!" Rebecca shouted, all but throwing herself out of the taxi before it had stopped.
The young boy very nearly got himself staked on the fence. But at the last moment he twisted and landed face first in the gravel.
"Goddamn it!" Rebecca roared, all but yanking at the gate as Chris jogged up to help her. "Where's Jill?!"

Jill had made the foolish promise to Alex that she would bake him some cookies while he was playing. Not a wise move for a woman who usually managed to burn scrambled egg. She was on her third attempt when she glanced out the window to check on Alex, just in time to hear Rebecca demanding to know where she was. Jill came running out side, an odd sight to see the soldier wearing an apron that was smeared with cookie dough, flour dusting the tip of her nose slightly.

Rebecca was picking her son up out the gravel, frowning at a scrape that marred his chin. Chris looked up and snickered then burst out laughing. He wasn't making fun of Jill. He had simply never imagined her looking like that.
"Parker?" Alex had caught a glimpse of the other man still seated in the taxi. All at once he was one his feet and running across the parking lot toward him.
All this was well and good until the black car sped through the parking lot, not even bothering to stop once it had hit the little boy.

Jill didn't have time to be angry with Chris, she was the first to reach Alex's side, expecting to blood everywhere and broken bones protruding through flesh. "Alex... Oh god... Can you hear me?"

Alex rolled over and then pushed to his feet, shaking his fist at the retreating car. "Hey, jerk! Watch where you're going!"
Rebecca and Chris glanced at one another and then pretended to be as shocked as Jill was. His mother pulled the boy into her arms and held him close, whispering something into his hair. "Mommy, stop. I'm okay. I want to see Parker now!" He wailed, trying to wiggle out of her arms.

Jill couldn't accept what she was seeing. She pulled Alex away from his mother and gave him the once over. "Alex! You must have more live than a cat!" She declared once he seemed okay, hugging him as tightly as Rebecca had done. Of course, once the boy went running off to Parker, she would have questions for Rebecca, and for Chris.

"It didn't even hit me!" Alex wailed, wiggling out of her arms with the help of the flour and sprinting the rest of the way to the taxi. "Wow! I've never been in one of these!" He cried, sliding on the seat until he was next to Parker. "Was it fun?"

Rebecca pretended to be completely interested in Alex and Parker and tried to make a break for it. Knowing that he was about to face a firing squad, Chris grabbed the back of her shirt. "No way, Becky. Not alone." He growled.

"Hey, squirt!" Parker remarked, pulling Alex into a giant hug. "You know how much I missed you?" He asked, still not letting go, as though this really was the final time Rebecca would let little boy and man meet.

"Explain." Jill hissed, her arms folded across her ample chest as she glared at both Chris and Rebecca, though Chris was taking the brunt of it. "I saw that car hit him! How is there not even a scratch?!"

"As much as I missed you?" Alex asked, resting his head against Parker's chest and hugging just as tightly. "I was so scared when I didn't see you come home. Don't leave me again."

"You didn't see anything." Rebecca snorted, trying to play it off. She'd gotten good at lying over the past seven years. "That car almost hit him."
"I should chase them down and get the license." Chris muttered. "Too bad I don't have my truck here."

"So... Did you have fun staying with Jill?" Parker asked, simply so he didn't have to lie about never leaving again.

Jill knew when she was being fobbed off, and it was entirely too convenient that both Chris and Rebecca were lying about that car hitting Alex. "You got what you came for." She informed them, then turned her back in them both. "Tell Alex I'll have some cookies next time I see him." She added. So much for the trust Chris claimed he had in her. He couldn't even confide whatever secret it was he was hiding about the little boy she loved dearly.

"Will you be my daddy?" Alex asked, lifting his head to meet Parker's eyes. "You would be perfect for my mother. I have done all the calculations and it all works out. It makes sense. Plus...you're not boring. One boring and one fun equals perfect for Alex." He said with a grin. "Please? What about pretty please? Will that one work?"

Rebecca was simply glad that Parker hadn't seen it. That was an even bigger minefield than Jill. Sadly enough, she had no idea her son was creating a minefield all his own for Parker.

"Come on, babe." Chris groaned, following after Jill. "There's no reason to be mad at me. I didn't do anything. Alex is okay. You saw it. That car probably wasn't going as fast as it seemed. He's all right. We could take him back to headquarters to check if that would make you feel better." He felt like he would get better results from the brick wall next to him. "Jill, stop. Please?"

It twisted at Parker's heart to hear Alex begging this from him. "Alex... It's not that simple." He breathed sadly. "Nothing in the world would make me happier than being your daddy, and spending the rest of my life with your mother." He sighed heavily and glanced out the window to Rebecca. "But it isn't up to me."

Jill did pause, but only once they were out of sight of Rebecca. "Why? So you can make an even bigger fool of me?" She hissed. It had genuinely wounded Jill when Chris had all but told her he hadn't really meant to kiss her, but that paled to the thought that he was keeping secrets about Alex from her too.

As if she knew she was being talked about Rebecca slid into the taxi on the other side of Parker. She gave a weary sigh and rubbed her knees. "Parker...I think it would be best if you came and stayed at my apartment on the base while you heal." She whispered. "That way I can keep a close eye on you..."
"That's a great idea!" Alex cried, all but bouncing up and down. "It'll be like a slumber party!"

"Jill, this whole thing is...You know what, damn you. I am not sorry I kissed you. I don't care what you think. But I won't take it back and if I could I would do it again!" Chris roared, turning Jill around to face him. "Be pissed off about that if you want to!"

Parker didn't even try to hide his grin. "Yeah, and we can play video games, watch movies... It'll be great!" He declared, dropping an arm around each, Rebecca and Alex's shoulders.

"I'll be pissed off about everything if I want to!" Jill shot back, shoving Chris, though it didn't little to move him. "You told me not to think you were coming onto me, so what exactly is it I'm supposed to be thinking when you kiss me, then run for your life?!"

"You'll be taking it easy." Rebecca said softly, though she didn't quite move his arm away from her. At least not right away.
"Can you walk?" Alex asked suddenly. "I forgot I made you a welcome home present."

"I meant I wasn't trying to push you." Chris muttered, gritting his teeth. "And I did not run! I never run! Parker was infected. I went to give him the antidote. You know how protective Rebecca is about it. You're the one who was making excuses anyway!"

"My doctor is a real meanie about my walking..." Parker told Alex in a stage whisper. "But... For you I think could endure her wrath."

Jill held her hand up, signalling and end to the conversation, though also revealing the fingernail shaped cuts across her palm. "You couldn't even look at me, Chris! We're through here. There's nothing left to say."

"As long as you accept help." Rebecca said thinly, shaking her head. "Let me go talk to Jill first though. She didn't seem to want us back in her apartment."
Alex frowned at this but began pulling Parker out of the taxi. "I'll help you." He said trying to smile.

"That's why I reacted so badly to it!" Chris all but wailed. "A stupid loss of thought and I'm going to lose my partner over it!"

Parker made an effort to let Alex think he was the one all but carrying the large man out of the taxi. "Wow, what's Jill bee feeding you?" He teased.

"It isn't the kiss that lost me... It was keeping secrets about Alex." Jill replied darkly, making it seem a real danger that Chris would never have her back as his partner again.

"Ice cream and pizza." Alex said. Rebecca cringed at this as she made her way to Parker's other side and forced him to rely on her. Even if it was only a little it would relieve some of the effort.

"Jill, I can't." Chris whispered. "This is too much. It's better that you don't know. Why isn't that enough for you?" His rough fingers moved forward and slid along her cheeks. "Don't you trust me?"

"Wow, maybe we should both go live with Jill, huh?" Parker chuckled. "I can't see my doctor letting me eat pizza..."

Jill reached her hand ups as though she was simply going to rest it over Chris' at her cheek. Instead she pulled his fingers away from her. "No... Not any more." She whispered, those words stabbing her deeply even as she spoke them.

"You said you didn't want me to be your doctor." Rebecca reminded him, patting his stomach to prove his words correct.
"What?!" Alex lifted his head from his believed struggle to fix Parker with a disapproving look. "My mom is the best doctor ever. Don't you forget it!"

"Fine. Then there's nothing else to be said." Chris said thinly, dropping his hands to his sides and turning his back on her. "Call me when you get over this stupid idea that you have to know everything."

Parker chuckled again. "I know... But she shouts at me!" He added, pretending to be deep,y upset by this.

"No, Chris... You call me. You're the one with the trust issue... Clearly you didn't trust me enough to tell me the truth, whatever it was." Jill told her partner's back.