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.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I have to go now. I'll call again...maybe next year on my birthday...Did you know that I am nine this year? Wow. I never thought I would...I have to go." Alex's voice was slow and even. A month had changed him. The line went dead, leaving Parker with nothing else to say.

"Jill." Chris dropped his gun and pulled his fiancee hard against him, burying his face in her hair. "I'm sorry. With everything going on...with what happened to Rebecca...I'm so scared something will happen to you. I love you. Tell me you know that."

"Alex? Alex!" Parker was shouting now, no doubt waking Rebecca. Something was wrong, it had to be. Why else would their son choose not to come home?

Jill gently ran her fingers over Chris' hair as her held her close, forever trying to be the strong one of the partnership. "Of course I do, why else do you think I had to be the one to come on this mission?" She breathed. "I love you, and I don't trust anyone else to keep you and bring you back to me."

Rebecca grabbed for Parker's waist as she went tumbling toward the edge of the bed. "What?" She cried, wincing when the suddeness of her own voice shot through her throat. "Alex? Where?"

Chris laughed inspite of himself. "Yeah." He whispered. "I know. That nasty Jessica nearly screwed everything up, didn't she?" He teased, kissing her forehead. "All right. This time. The last time and then you hold out until after the baby is born. Agreed?"

"He called, just now." Parker breathed, gently setting Rebecca down on the bed once he had gotten to his feet. "I have to see if the tech guys can locate the number he used to call me."

Jill merely smiled, not promising one way or the other. "Parker told me how bad Jessica had it for you." She mused. "What honestly stopped you?"

The techs were quick to get the answers back to Parker and Rebecca. The two were now seated in the briefing room, waiting for word to be sent to Chris and Jill.
"Wesker's coordinates are close too." Rebecca whispered, her head bent over her computer as she kept up with the others in the room. "Parker...I should be the one going...he's my son...I can handle this." She'd been trying to talk to him for nearly an hour now. She was really starting to suspect he was ignoring her.

"What did she have for me?" Chris asked. He truly didn't know. Jessica could have stripped right in front of him and he wouldn't have understood why.
The question was never answered as a messenger was sent to fetch the two of them. Soon enough, Chris and Jill were suiting up to head into the briefing room to find out where they were heading.

"Why? So wesker can finish what he started the last time you saw him?" Parker asked thinly. He wasn't angry with Rebecca, far from it. He was simply so very upset. He'd nearly lost her... The same night he did lose Alex. Their son had chosen to leave them, with no explanation why.

Jill said little as she entered the briefing room. She had learned her lesson well the last time she had tried to talkl to Parker about the search. He had pulled his gun on her, and asked how it would feel if he shot her in the chest right now? Because without Alex... That was exactly how he felt.

Rebecca didn't look up when Chris and Jill entered. She didn't want them to see her watery eyes and red nose. It didn't help that Parker was so cold to her. But she certainly didn't need or want anyone to worry she wasn't feeling well and send her back to the medical ward.

Chris sat down beside Parker and looked over the sheets the tech had handed him. "Another Spencer mansion." He muttered, glaring at the photos that came next. "That's great."

The only thing holding Parker together was keeping everything about business. Treating Alex's rescue like a paid mission was the focus he needed not to fall apart, which was why he seemed so cold.

"Well... If the old mans past pattern is anything to go by, the lay out should be pretty similar." Jill commented as she too flicked through the photographs.

Chris nodded at this. "This should be a piece of cake." He said distractedly. "Any signs of undead? Anything to be concerned with?"
"The satalites aren't picking up anything at all." Rebecca said, closing her laptop with a sigh. "But I think we know full well that it doesn't mean anything."

"It could be the old man thinks he's safe here." Jill remarked, though she refused to look up at any of them. "If he took Alex there, he may think its location untraceable."

"He's not that stupid." Chris countered, closing the file that was in front of him. "Maybe it's a set up for someone else. Maybe he's hoping someone will try to get in. I don't know...it just seems too easy."
"Then maybe I should go alone." Rebecca said, knowing full well her suggestion would be ignored. "I mean...who's going to notice someone like me sneaking in?"

"Your son?" Jill replied bluntly. "We'll be in and out before the old man and his security can notice a thing." She added, already back on her feet and heading for the door.
Parker was watching Chris closely, knowing the frown the other man wore was not due to this mission, it was something else.

Chris rubbed a calloused hand over his face and sighed deeply, his shoulders slumping heavily. "We're the best at this stuff, Becky." He said softly, getting to his feet. He paused next to Parker and rested a hand on the other man's shoulder. "We'll all be good to go in no time."

"Thanks." Parker breathed. "I mean it... I don't know what we would have done without you, Chris."
Jill was already at the equipment locker, checking out a different gun than her standard issue weapon. There was a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she simply couldn't explain it.

Rebecca buried her head in her arms, unknowingly feeling the same way Jill was. Later that night she would blame herself for not standing up and going in their place. But right now all she had to go on was the heavy feeling that was all but pressing her to the table.

Chris wrapped his arms around Jill's mid-section and pulled her close to him. "Babe, you can still back out." He whispered. "You can stay here and let me take care of it. That way you don't have to look so sad."

Parker sat down beside Rebecca, lightly resting his hand on the back of her head. "They'll bring him back. I know they will."

"I'm not sad." Jill replied, though didn't out much effort into making Chris believe that. She continued to try and check her equipment, even with Chris' strong arms circled around her. "It's my fault Alex got taken in the first place... I owe them."

"You were right about me all along." Rebecca muttered, ignoring the pain in her neck. "I am a horrible mother. I don't blame him for running away."

"We don't have to do this." Chris said again, his hands now resting over Jill's, forcing her to stop. He turned her to face him, his eyes meeting hers. "I know we both feel like it's our place but...we can back out if you want to, babe. It's not a sin to let someone else handle this for once."

"I never meant that, and you know it." Parker breathed. "You are a wonderful mother, and Alex didn't just run away... He thought you were dead. He blamed himself, when in all reality... Jill is the one to blame."

"They trusted me, Chris." Jill breathed. "Alex got taken while I was supposed to be watching him. How can I do anything but go and claim him back myself?"

"Don't." Rebecca held up a hand though she didn't lift her head. "It's not anyone's fault, Parker. Except Wesker's. He knew about the party. He was setting us up all along. Alex...his discovery of his son...it was an added bonus for him. And now that he knows...he's going to stop at nothing to get him. I just don't understand how Spencer fits into all this."

"And what if Alex didn't get taken? What if he went on his own?" Chris asked, not sure why he was having this thought. "What if we get there and he doesn't want to come back?"

"Knowing those two... They'll hog tie the old man and drag him back here, so we can ask him that ourselves." Parker replied, gently trying to pry Rebecca's arms away from her face.

"Then we drag him back." Jill replied, checking the clip in her gun and snapping it back into place wi an odd kind of finality.

Rebecca's eyes were red rimmed and her nose was a violent shade of crimson. "I just...I want my baby back. I miss him so much, Parker. I can't do this anymore. Everything was going so well and then...then it was all gone..."

Chris nodded at this, pushing the feeling away that something very bad was about to happen. "I love you, Jill Valentine." He breathed, pressing his lips to hers. "You don't ever forget that. Okay?"

"I want him back too. I need our family to be whole again." Parker agreed, a rough thumb gently rubbing Rebecca's cheek. "Once he's home... I think it would be good for all of us if we got away from the BSAA for a while."

"Only if we get rid of the Valentine once we have Alex home." Jill breathed against her partner's lips.

Rebecca didn't know what to say. She only knew that she wanted things she would never have and it seemed that one of them was Parker. "I..." She pushed away from him and left the room. This was a very heavy burden that she didn't want to carry anymore.

"We could do that before we leave?" Chris suggested hopefully, his hands tightening on Jill's hips. "Parker and Becky used the chaplain. Why can't we?"

There would be a loud thud after Rebecca left, as Parker slammed his fist into the wall. Why did Chris and Jill get to be happy, while he and Rebecca suffered? Parker would loathe himself for that thought by the time morning came.

The darkness that had haunted Jill's eyes since Alex had been taken lifted slightly, a smile tugging at her lips. "I would love that, but..." She paused and reached up to stroke Chris' cheek lightly. "How about when we get back? Call it... An incentive for a quick success?"

Alex was standing near his elderly grandfather when the disturbance began in the main part of the mansion. Spencer was quick to have the boy hidden where he could see but not be detected right away. He hoped to have all of it over before it came to that. Unfortunately for the old man, Wesker made quick work of him.
The boy was crouched on the top of the bookcases when Chris and Jill burst in. His father turned to see who had disturbed his search and he smiled. Not only because he'd seen the couple, but because he'd seen the boy. Alex knew it without so much as having to guess.
And then...as if everything had happened in a single blink, Jill and Wesker were gone and Chris was left howling her name.
It was Alex who made the call to the BSAA, not Chris. He was already leaving the mansion and running for the rocks below.

It's was still dark when wesker came too on a shore nearby. He knew he hadn't been out for long, and actually started laughing. Of the two of them, he had always thought Chris the rash hothead, not Jill. His laughter ceased when he saw the female body a few feet away, battered and broken... But still breathing. This night hadn't been a total loss. He had finally out the old man out of his misery, and yes, he had failed to claim his son, but this... This was even better.
By the time a search team would arrive, wesker had already taken Jill's body and left.

Rebecca was among those searching through the icy cold waters. She hadn't let Parker keep her from coming this time. He had agreed only if she would take it easy. They both knew that wasn't going to happen, which was part of the reason he'd come with her.
Chris was still in a blind panic. He'd been standing in the waters for nearly four hours, screaming his fiancee's name until his throat was raw. No one else had been able to stop him. No one had really even dared to try since he'd drawn his gun on one of them.

"We can't let him go on like this..." Parker breathed as first light began to peek over the horizon. "Can't you sedate him, or something?"

Rebecca was shivering violently. She didn't know how he was standing there still. She'd been in the water for little over an hour and she could barely feel her toes. Never mind that he'd been in there for three times that. "I can't get near him. The state he's in he'll kill me without even meaning to. We could try a dart gun or something but it's risky." She sniffed, her eyes burning. There was no facing this right now. It didn't help that Alex was nowhere to be found either.

Parker scooped Rebecca up into his arms when he saw her shivering. "Maybe a cattle prod would be better?" He teased, carrying Rebecca away from the water now. "I'm not saying we give up on Jill, it's just... The current of these waters could have carried her anywhere."