Means to an End

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Parker smiled at Chris slightly, patting him on the shoulder. "For what it's worth... I'm sorry too. I was so obsessed with finding Alex... I didn't stop to see the signs. I should have found out Jill was pregnant... Had I known that..." He paused and ran his fingers through his hair. "I do blame myself for what happened to her."

Chris never responded to this. As soon as they were inside the building he muttered something about needing to get Parker certified and left the other man to navigate the holding cells alone.
Jessica, it seemed, had been waiting all day and half the night for him. She visibly brightened when he was let into her cell. "Parker!" She gushed, leaping to her feet to throw her arms around him. "I knew you wouldn't let me down!"

"Why?" Alex asked, glancing over his shoulder at Jill. "The big monster is dead and the rest don't seem to want to get near your Violet there." He muttered, kicking at an abandoned coffee cup with the toe of his shoe.

Jill frowned as she glanced from Alex over to Violet. "Still, Chris needs some place he can rest. That wound won't heal itself." She replied, not certain what it meant that no monster would go near her daughter, and the little didn't seem to have even a single scratch on her.

Alex hated the hotel that his family and Violet's had chosen to stay in while the group recovered. He found the space entirely too close for comfort. Every where he turned there was someone he wasn't talking to.
The rooms were connected and the doors left open for Rebecca to move back and forth as she needed to. This made for awkward moments where he was forced to be alone with Parker. Though he longed to say something to him, he didn't dare.

Violet had finally left her father's side, knowing he needed save to breathe, just as much as he needed time to rest. The small girl had crept away, laying down in the bath tub with a soft white towel pulled over her. The room still had the faint scent of bleach to it, though it probably wasn't recognisable to any normal person. It was that kind of sterile smell that was familiar to her.

Parker was lying down, simply staring up at the ceiling. Though everyone was safe now. He still felt he had lst so much. He glanced at Alex every now and then, unable to shake the memory of their conversation in the hallway.

"Violet?" Rebecca found the little girl in the bathroom and sat on the floor beside her. "Are you okay? It's been a week and I don't think you've said a thing since we got here."

Alex sat on the opposite bed, staring hard at the baseball game on the television. He was doing his best to pay attention. There had to be something there that would catch him. Anything to keep him from talking to Parker.

"I'm fine." Violet replied bluntly from where she was hidden under a mound of towels, reading a book with the light from a cellphone she had taken from one of the adults.

"I never understood the fascination with that game." Parker confessed after some minutes of watching the screen too.

"What are you reading?" Rebecca asked, adding the light from her cell phone to the one Violet was using. "I used to read Wuthering Heights. That and Jane Eyre were my favorites."

"It's not a fascination, dad." Alex snorted, keeping his eyes on the tv. "It's an art. It's about motion and speed. All these guys working toward one goal. It's alot like war with a disappointing amount of blood missing."

"Frankenstein." Violet replied without lifting her gaze from her book, not wishing to tell Rebecca she identified with the monster in that book, more than her heroines of Rebecca own favourite stories.

Parker's chest constricted painfully when Alex called him dead. "Nothing should ever be like war, kiddo." He breathed. "And you should never have to see it."

"Good one." Rebecca said, leaning back against the tub. "I haven't read it since before Alex was born though. The doctor kind of scared me but I always wondered if maybe it's because I'm alot like him."

"Such a party pooper." Alex snorted. "I like war."

"Maybe." Violet replied. "But you haven't tried to create a monster, have you? Don't you put people back together who were... You know... Still alive?"

"Why would you like something that takes away the people you love?" Parker asked sadly.

Rebecca laughed at this. "I've spent some time creating monsters. All in the name of finding out how the other guys did it, of course. But yes. I mainly put people together that are alive."

"I guess that's not much of a problem for me, is it?" Alex asked, glancing over at his father before turning back to the screen. "My real dad says that war is necessary to weed out the weak. After the whole bit with the hospital, I can see that he was right. All those zombies were just people who couldn't cut it."

"Then I guess you can't ever fix me." Violet replied, finally looking up at Rebecca. Her ees were still the coal black they had been that day they all left te hospital.

"And what about Chris? Do you think he is weak?" Parker asked. "Or that Violet deserves to lose her father?"

"I'm willing to try if you are." Rebecca told her, not seeming to be afraid of the color as she rested her hands on Violet's shoulders.

"I think he showed a great deal of weakness that day, yes." Alex said, running his fingers through his hair. "And so did you. You know that, right?"

Violet shrank away, as she did every time anyone tried to touch her. " Don't touch me..." She whispered. "People who touch me... Get hurt."

"No. I don't." Parker replied firmly. "I was fighting to save the people I love, the people my best friend loves. I dont think that is weak at all."

"I've been hurt enough to last a lifetime." Rebecca said softly, resting her hands in her lap. "Nothing else can bother me. But Violet...can we...talk about your mother?"

"I do!" Alex shouted, turning his head to fix his adopted father with an angry glare. "Your bullshit love nearly got you killed!"

"What About her?" Violet asked, her gaze again fixed on her book, though this time she wasn't really reading it.

"You don't love your mom?" Parker asked sadly. "When you get older, you'll understand why I did what I did, all for her. There will be someone you would risk your life, and more, for."

"She needs you as much as you need her." Rebecca said softly. "Why won't you talk to her?"

"I don't think so." Alex muttered, again staring at the screen. "I saw what it did to you and I know now that Wesker was right. "Putting myself out there is a death sentence. It will be for you too, you know."

Violet shrugged her slender shoulders. "I dunno... I guess... If she really is my mom, why didn't she recognise me when we were both at Wesker's facility?"

"What a sad way of thinking." Parker clucked. "How can you deny yourself love when you are still too young to understand it?" He asked, daring to sit right by Alex now. "I wouldn't change the way I feel about your mom for anything in the world."

Four months changed many things for Chris. It wasn't that he minded it, but it all seemed to be a balancing act. He was still recovering from his wounds and had been placed behind a desk at the BSAA. This did not make him happy. It didn't help that he couldn't find his sister, not even a trace of her and the government people weren't making things easier. His wife and daughter seemed to have nothing to say to one another, no matter how hard he tried to change that.

Things weren't much better for the Luciani family in that respect. Parker had little luck speaking to Alex. The boy went out of his way to avoid him, and even Rebecca. And he certainly didn't speak to Violet. Though the two children were taught in the same setting, they refused to so much as acknowledge one another.
It would have been all bad, except for Parker's blooming relationship with Rebecca. Things were going very well for them in every way.

Rebecca couldn't wait any longer. She'd set up a dinner party for her family as well as Jill's. She told them she had some exciting news but she wanted to wait until they were all together. She hoped that maybe this might coax them all out of their terrible moods.
"Well..." She said nervously, glancing toward Parker as she spoke. "It's official..." She paused again, and swallowed hard.
Alex snorted, his gaze on his mother. "Yes, it's official. Parker and my mother are stupid enough to have created a child together." He muttered, shoving out of his chair and heading for the door. "Stupid reason to bring everyone together, mom. Like the Redfield's really care about your mistake."

Four months had been tough on Jill too. She was finally cleared for active duty, thanks in no small part to help from Rebecca in convincing the higher powers that Jill was still simply herself. Of course, being a field agent while Chris was stuck behind a desk meant a world of trouble for the Redfield clan.
Violet noticed the tense way her father tried to be happy his partner was back doing the job she loved. He had even officially made sure everyone knew that he and Jill would eventually get married the way any normal person did. Despite all this, Violet herself still wasn't the happy child everyone wanted her to be. Even her lessons with Alex were torture for her. Her dreams had recently forced her to focus on her first kiss. Her first kiss with the very boy who could no longer even look at her.
Parker didn't seem to notice, or perhaps he didn't care, that thse around him didn't share the happiness he felt each day. Life with Rebecca simply got better and better. She no long buried herself in her work, and he no longer had to walk on eggshells when telling her how he felt. Even now, at the dinner his wife had arranged, he was beaming proudly. He was truly going to be a father, and no one, not even Alex, could spoil that.
As Rebecca announced her good news, Jill's hand reached for Chris' beneath the table. It was only last month that a visit to a doctor other than Rebecca had confirmed that Jill herself would never be able to conceive. It had been a hard thing to hear, given that the one child she had conceived... Hated her, and already seemed to have grown into a sullen and argumentative teenager.
"Congratulations." Violet commented, though it was put of nothing more than false manners that she said this. Like Alex, the dark haired girl believed there was no place in either family for another baby right then.

"It's a girl." Rebecca breathed, making a quick exit. She barely missed colliding with Alex as she escaped the room and certainly didn't keep the door from slamming.
Alex locked eyes with Violet, silently asking her if she felt the same way he did. Having a baby was far more dangerous because Wesker was still alive and they seemed to be the only ones who were grasping this.
Chris didn't allow his fingers to lock with Jill's. Instead, he got up as well and went out the other way, his disappointment like a tangible thing.

Violet nodded her head in a gesture anyone but Alex would have missed as her black flecked cerulean eyes continued to hold his gaze. A baby was the perfect way for Wesker to get to Chris through the people he loved and cared about.
As Chris left, Jill was left staring across the table at Parker. it had hurt that Chris had left so suddenly, unable to even offer her any kind of consolation. "You must be so happy." She finally breathed with a smile that felt like it was shattering her face into a million tiny pieces.

Oddly enough the unborn child seemed to be the point that would get the two children talking again. Though, not at the moment. Alex returned to the table and sat beside Parker, waiting to hear his adopted father's answer.

Jill was the only member of the Redfield clan left, as Violet had gone chasing after her father. "Why do you care so much?" She asked him when she found him outside. so what if Rebecca and Parker are stupid enough to bring another kid into this cruel world?"

"Of course I'm happy." Parker told Jill firmly. "Now you can't bitch and moan about me not understanding how hard it is to raise a child that shares my blood!"
Jill was obviously taken aback by that comment, not thinking she had ever made such an implication. "Parker... You know Chris and I are happy for you, it's just..." She sighed heavily and stopped there. "Forget it."

Chris had fished a cigarette from his pocket, thinking of the time that he'd actually tried to hide them from Jill. "You're just a kid." He said gruffly. "You wouldn't understand."

"It's just the fact that Jill is smarter than you." Alex snorted, stabbing at the meat on his plate. "Baby vegetables on a plate. How crass." He added.

"Right, like I don't understand that you don't love mom any more?" Violet asked bluntly, having seen how quick he had been to leave Jill alone with Parker. "Or that you hate her excuse she's a genetic freak like me?"

"Alex..." There was obvious disappointment in Jill's blue eyed gaze as it fell on the young boy. "You shouldn't say things like that to your father, and I don't think I'm smarter than Parker. I just... Don't want you and Rebecca rushing into anything that may get you both hurt." She breathed, looking back at Parker.

"Neither of you are freaks." Chris muttered, rubbing his forehead with his free hand before he managed to light the fag. "I had to leave, Violet. I just...I wanted to have a family so bad...and now...Rebecca didn't even want one. How is that fair?!"

"Is that what you call it...what they've been doing every night?" Alex asked darkly. "Do you call it rushing? I thought it was called pity fucking."

"I'm not your family?" Violet asked, staring down at the shoes her mother had bought her, probably hoping to buy her affection.

"Alex!" Parker finally barked. "You will not use words like that!" He added sternly. "And you are far too young to even know what you are talking about!"
Jill didn't think Alex was too young, and that was what bothered her. She didn't think anyone else had noticed that Alex and Violet seemed to be growing far quicker than normal children, and seemingly at the same rate as each other.

"You're the one who won't even speak to your mother." Chris whispered, taking out his lighter and making a show of lighting his cigarette. "I'm thinking you don't want to be a family at all..."

"I don't think you know me at all." Alex muttered, glancing at Jill as if he could read her thoughts. He nodded as if confirming them. "If haven't fucked your brains out then maybe you should tell my mother just how stupid bringing a child into this shit will be. Or is it too late for that, dad?"

Violet's small fists balled up at her sides as she stared hard at her father's back. "How can we be a family, when you hate mom for being stronger than you!" She shouted, for the first time taking her mother's side on something. "You think I don't hear you two? You're the only one to ever make her cry... And she's too stupid to just find someone to replace you!" apparently both children were in the mood to make their parents lives miserable that evening.

"I won't tell her that, because I know it will make her happy to have a child who isn't an ungrateful little shit!" Parker snapped. "Do you have any idea the hell your mom, and everyone else, has been through just for you?!"