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.

Alex simply nodded innocently, though a strange smile played along his thin lips as Jill turned on the monitor and then closed the door to the room.
"Wow, you got played." Chris laughed, yawning as he found a comfortable spot on the carpet.

"It wasn't in this room." Rebecca said, her own smile growing. "And you were totally naked and begging me for more."

"Shut up." Jill growled, tossing the blankets at Chris where they landed over his head. "Rebecca will be back with Parker tomorrow, get some sleep." She added as she flopped down on the couch. The dark haired woman was filled with utter confusion as she lay there in the dark, trying to make sense of what had happened with Chris outside the bathroom.

Parker couldn't help but laugh. "I feel a little dirty, maybe you should give me another one?" He replied with a grin. It was good to see Rebecca laugh for once. She was usually locked away in her lab, avoiding every one but Chris, Jill and her son.

"You think Parker is alive?" Chris asked, finding it was much harder to sleep than he'd hoped. "Rebecca sure rushed out of there. What was Alex crying about anyway?" He was firing off questions, anything to keep his mind from wandering.

As soon as the rare smile appeared it was gone and Rebecca was again peering at him from a medical standpoint. "You're running a fever." She muttered, pulling her hand away from him. "Must be infection...you lay back down...I'm going to get your blood work checked."

"I'll consider Parker alive until I stand by his grave." Jill swore, never knowing that a grave would eventually be dug for her, though no body rested in it. "We wouldn't have made it out of there without Parker, we owe him enough to hold off on the memorial service, right?"

Parker groaned loudly and threw an arm over his eyes. "Enough!" He growled. "It is a bullet wound, nothing I have not survived before!" The well built man insisted. "I need to get back to the BSAA, I need to see Chris and Jill."

"Jill, we both saw what he was falling into. Nobody survives that. We've been through this before. Unless he's a freak like Wesker was. We're looking at putting pieces in a grave. Not a man."

"They're fine. You're not." Rebecca snapped, her cold exterior having returned with a vengeance. "You'll be lucky if you can even walk. With that fall Chris told me about...and the fact that your scans show cracks. It will a month at least before you're up and going again."

"And what if I was the one who did what Parker did? Would you instantly give me up for dead too?" Jill asked, turning her head slightly to look at Chris in the dim light of the living room.

"A month could spend helping Chris and Jill!" Parker insisted angrily. "I can't just lie here in this hospital, I don't even know where I am!"

"No way!" Chris' words were passionate and truthful. "I wouldn't have left you behind either. I would have died trying to find you." He admitted. "But then I think we've been down that road before. Not even Wesker or some ugly monster could keep me from you, Jill Valentine."

"As soon as I get your fever down we'll be back in the medical ward at home!" Rebecca shot back, her hands on her hips. "But until you're well enough to at least make that journey we are stuck in the middle of nowhere!"

Jill didn't respond right away, a sad smile pulling at her lips as Chris' words sank into her. They were so heartfelt and passionate... And would no doubt come to scar her in time, given how confused her feelings for her partner had become lately. "Maybe that's the problem?" She breathed at last. "We were partners for so long Chris... Maybe we got too dependant on each other? That's why I was made to work with Parker, and you Jessica."

"I am not som sickly little woman!" Parker whined. "I am perfectly able to sit on a plane, just as well as I am sitting here right now! Besides, you being here is keeping you from your son. That isn't a burden I want."

"So you're saying we should call it off?" Chris asked, feeling as if a work partnership wasn't exactly what was being discussed her. "You want me to leave or something?"

"It's my job, Parker." Rebecca muttered, turning her back on him to pretend she was looking through the supply cabinet. "And you are not well enough to sit. So just...lay down and be quiet. Okay?"

"I guess... What I'm saying is... Jessica duped both of us. How did we not see it coming?" Jill asked, not entirely sure what is was she had been trying to say when this conversation had started. "What if we took for granted that we can trust whoever our partner is, simply because we trust each other?"

"And Alex is your son." Peraker replied firmly. "No job should come before your son, especially not when you refuse to let anyone even get close to him! The boy is lonely, Rebecca! To not see that..." He shook his head sadly. "It wouldn't surprise me if the boy started calling Jill mother soon, for all the time she spends with him, and you don't!"

Chris didn't know why but Jill's words hurt him more than he wanted to admit. For some reason it was bad enough that his chest began to hurt. "What does that mean?" He whispered. "Are you saying you can't trust me? After everything we've been through?"

"It's none of your goddamn business!" Rebecca shouted. A glass vial shattered against the wall, inches away from his head. "You know nothing! You understand nothing! Don't you dare try to pretend you do!"

"No, I'm saying the opposite." Jill whispered. "I'm saying whatever trust you have in me... You may have given Jessica that amount of trust too, and that's why she fooled you." in truth, Jill had been more than jealous when Chris had been assigned Jessica as his new partner.

"Then go home. Be with your son, Rebecca." Parker replied gently, picking at the shards of glass that had landed in his hair.

"I gave Jessica nothing." Chris growled, his teeth clenched so hard that his jaw hurt. "I don't trust anyone like I trust you, Jill. But being who we are and doing what we do every day, we have to trust. Otherwise we're dead before the bad guys like Wesker even fire the first shot."

"Geez, Parker." Rebecca snorted, yanking a blood draw kit out of the cabinet and stalking back to his bedside. "It's not like we're going to be here forever. Once I give you some Motrin to bring the fever down, we'll both be going home. Stop trying to throw your weight around."

"Well Jessica sure tried to give you something." Jill growled before she thought better of it. "But you're right, I don't trust anyone like I trust you, and I think someone else saw that too. Someone who is still inside the BSAA."

"In all fairness, I have far more wright to throw around than your, pipsqueak." Parker replied, trying not to groan as he pushed himself into a more upright position.

Chris sat up and turned on the lap, blinking as the light flooded the dark room. "What do you mean?" He asked, turning his head to look at her.
"MOMMY!" Alex's terrified scream echoed through the apartment. "MOMMY!"

"I could take you." Rebecca said, pausing to brandish the needle she was about to stick him with. "You don't scare me, Parker. I've stared Death in the face before. After that everything else seems like a a fluffy bunny."

Jill was already on her feet and sprinting down the hall as Chris turned the lamp on. "Alex?! What is it?" She burst through the door, ready to dive for her gun. A life time of living in constant danger hadn't left her thinking that maybe it was something as simple as a bad dream.

"A fluffy bunny you may wish to... Stroke?" Parker asked with a playful grin, despite Rebecca waving a needle at him.

Alex was under the covers completely, but it wasn't hard to see just how violently he was shaking. "Mommy, mommy, mommy." He kept calling for his mother, rocking back and forth as he did.
Chris was moments behind Jill, his gun already out and ready. When he saw the state of Alex he lowered it slightly. "I'll call her." He muttered, leaving the comforting to Jill.

Rebecca rolled her eyes and jabbed the needle into his vein, hitting the spot the first time. "Such a pervert. No wonder Jessica was your partner." She snorted.

"Alex, sweetie? It's Jill..." Jill carefully crawled across the bed to the shaking little boy, e,bracing him without pulling the covers back. "Chris is calling your mom right now. You want to tell me what happened?"

Parker snorted at this and shook his head. "Only until she set her sights on Chris. Even if she hadn't been a double agent, she would have gotten herself partnered with him anyway."

"No." Alex's voice was barely above a whisper now. "I don't want to talk about it. I want Mommy." He added, though his tiny fingers found their way out of the covers and slid into hers. "She's probably scared without me."

"So you did sleep with her." Rebecca said bitterly. "You're just jealous. Why am I not surprised?" She yanked the needle away and applied pressure to the prick.
"Doctor Chambers?" A nurse poked her head in uncertainly. "You have a phone call. I'm transferring."

"Your mommy is with Parker, remember? She's safe, and will be bringing him home just for you." Jill breathed, pushing the covers back just enough to lightly kiss the top of Alex's head. "And you have nothing to be scared of, Chris and I are right here to keep you safe." She added, gently lifting Alex into her lap.

"I was drunk, she was a whore. It isn't something I'm proud of." Parker replied honestly. "Any way, it's not like she would have gotten anywhere with Chris, even I can see just who it is he has eyes for."

Alex let go of Jill's fingers only to slide his arms around her midsection and squeeze her tightly. "Mommy is always the one under the covers." He admitted. "I'm always having to get her out. She's always talking about him." He added. "I don't know who he is. It scares me."

Rebecca waved a hand in his direction as the phone rang. She barely got out a hello before she was frowning. "Let me talk to him."

This worried Jill more than she could confess to. "Well its just a dream, there's no need to worry about her." She breathed, gently smoothing her fingers over the boys pure blond hair.

Parker was frowning, straining to hear even parts of the conversation that was going on not too far away.

Chris came in with the phone, holding it out to Alex. The boy took it, looking at Chris uncertainly. He knew this man would never hurt him. It was just the way he looked at him. "Mommy...I want to talk to Parker." He told the phone. "I have to know."
Shocked and a little hurt, Rebecca handed the phone out to the man in question.

Jill gently set Alex down on her bed to get to her feet now that he was speaking to his mother. Silently she motioned Chris out into the hall. "We have a problem." She told him in a hushed whisper. "Rebecca isn't as over Wesker as she has had us believe all this time."

Parker frowned slightly when Rebecca held the phone out to him. "Hello?" He asked uncertainly, not quite sure who to expect on the other end.

The line's in Chris' for head went extremely deep as he frowned. "What?!" He hissed, trying to keep his voice down. "She said she was fine! She told me a month ago she doesn't even think of him anymore!"

"It is you!" Alex's excited voice all but echoed in the room. "Jill told me you were...and then Mommy came running down the hall saying she was going to...and then Chris said you were coming back in pieces...then Jill said Mommy went to bring you home! Say something in Italian. Just so I know it really is you." He sped on, all but bouncing on the bed with joy.

"Shhh!" Jill hissed, reaching up and pressing her fingers to Chris' lips without thinking about what she was doing. "We have to find a way to help her without her knowing."

Parker laughed heartily as Alex gabbled on at him. "Well, you know Chris... Everyone is in pieces if they aren't Jill." He told the bot with a chuckle. "I hear you're staying with Jill, I hope she's not filling you full of junk food!"

Chris couldn't help himself as he put his hands on Jill's hips and all but yanked her against him. The moment he was in control of himself he gave her a sheepish laugh. "Sorry. Got carried away." He muttered. "So...how do you figure we help her without her knowing?"

"No!" Alex whined. "She won't even let me play on the computer until I fall asleep. I've been talking to this guy online. He's really smart. He's old but he keeps talking about all this lineage stuff and being a god. It's kind of cool."

For a painfully long moment Jill could barely speak. Chris' hands were still on her shapely hips, keeping her body pressed to his own. "Uhm..." That was the best response she could muster until she had her true thoughts right then in check.

Alarm bells were ringing in Parker's head, but not for the same reason they would have if Rebecca or Chris had heard this. "Alex, you have to be careful." He told the little boy gently. "There are a lot of bad men out there."

Chris lowered his head, his lips now so close to her own. He'd dreamed of this moment. "Uhm?" He breathed, his lips brushing her own before he could pull his head back.

"I know! Jill told me you guys fought a bunch of them!" Alex went on. All at once there was silence on his end of the phone. And then... "Ewww!" He shouted, "Chris and Jill are kissing!"
"What?!" Rebecca hissed, all but in Parker's lap as she fought to listen to what her son was saying.

Jill didn't push Chris away this time. Her better judgement was pushed aside as she returned Chris' gentle kiss. Of course, that was until Alex's voice broke into her thoughts, declaring down the phone line just what it was that had just happened between herself and Chris. Jill's smooth cheeks turned a violent shade of red as she peeled herself away from Chris, not sure what she could really say to Alex.

Parker was grinning like a fool when Alex shouted that Chris and Jill were kissing. Of course, this was made better by the fact Rebecca was now sat so close to him. He leaned closer to her, holding the phone between them so she could hear what was going on. "You sure about that, kiddo? That doesn't seem like something they would do..." He added with a barely concealed chuckle.