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!"

"Your mother was crying because they told her she couldn't have any more children, Miss Know it all." Chris growled, taking a long drag and blowing it into the air. "I don't give a rat's ass about her strength. I love your mother and it's killing me that I can't give her everything she wants."

"How am I the ungrateful one?!" Alex shouted back, surging to his feet and glaring at Parker. "You never even said thank you when I took out that monster for you!"

"So you leave her alone in there with a guy who will want to do nothing but talk about how happy he is his wife is pregnant?" Violet snorted. "Oh yeah, I can see how much you love her, putting her in hell like that!"

"You shouldn't have been there at all!" Parker growled. "In fact..." Suddenly he narrowed his eyes at Jill. "Your daughter is the reason Alex was in any danger at all!"

"Alex is still in there." Chris pointed out, looking Violet over as if he no longer understood her. "That kid could ruin a wet dream before it even got started. I'm not worried about Parker shooting his mouth off."

"That's bullshit!" Alex shouted back, glaring at Parker. "You're the one who dumped me like I was a fucking bad dog! You're the one who basically set me down in Wesker's lap. You have no one to blame for this but yourself! And I hate you!"

"Alex doesn't want a baby brother or sister." Violet told her father as she folded her arms across her chest. "He agrees with me, it's too dangerous to bring a child into either of our families right now!" She didn't explain to her father that she and Alex had agreed upon this matter without having even said a word.

"That girl's blood is the thing that stated this!" Parker howled. "She is putting Rebecca, and our child in danger every moment she is even close." He suddenly glared at Jill. "I don't want her anywhere near my wife, are we clear?"
Jill had aapparently had enough of this and rose to her feet. "Don't threaten me, Parker. We were partners, you know how I respond to people who threaten me, or my family." She added, pointedly setting her gun down on the table.

"Uh-huh. And how did you two figure this out?" Chris snorted, taking another long drag. "You two can't stand the sight of each other. Forget speaking to one another. Don't expect me to believe any of that, kiddo."

"Don't you threaten my dad!" Alex roared. Instead of a gun he slammed his fists on the table. The wood groaned from the pressure. "Parker..." He turned his eyes on the elder man. "Shut up about Violet. You don't know shit. I'm ashamed of how single minded you've become."

Violet's gaze was off somewhere in the distance now, daydreaming about how different things would have been if she and Alex had gone through with their childhood fantasy of running away to their own island together. "It's okay, I get it now... You have just as much trust in anything I say as everyone else around here." She whisperedm finally turning her back to walk away.

"Not single minded, boy. I know what I saw, and every damn one of those monsters either steered clear of that girl, or copied right on up to her!" Parker shot back. "She's a liability, and Jill knows that. Don't you?" He was looking at the dark haired woman again. "That's why you kept her here, isn't it?
"I kept her here, because she is my daughter and I love her!" Jill shot back.

"violet stop it." Chris barked. "stop trying to push me away like you do everyone else. I've told you before I'm not going anywhere. No matter what you do to me."

"Parker stop it!" Alex hissed feeling overwhelmed and angry. "stop trying to make others hurt just because you are. You never did that before...."

"You say that so blindly." Violet replied darkly. The young girl knew that the older she got, the more likely it was that she would lose control of the monster Wesker had put inside of her. "You should go to mom. Stop being such a fucking chicken shit." She added, proving that like Alex, she too had a rather foul mouth at times.

"I am doing what is best for my family." Parker replied. "Of course, had Jill done that all those years ago, she would never have lost her daughter in the first place!"
Jill didn't say anything to this. The slender woman simply picked her gun back up and holstered it before she punched Parker harder than she probably should have. That done, she stalked out of the dining room.

Chris turned to do just that and nearly collided with Jill as she came out of the restaurant. "You okay?" He asked her, pulling her to a stop before she could get past him. "Talk to me, babe."

"Dad..." Alex was kneeling beside the elder man, his voice gentler than before. He dabbed a cool rag on the side of his eye and grimaced. "Wow...She can sure pack a punch, can't she?"

Jill was avoiding Chris' gaze, knowing the moment she looked into his blue eyes, she would confess all and dissolve into a sobbing mess. "Am I a bad person?" She whispered simply, missing the silent figure of her daughter as the young girl slipped away.

Parker grimaced slightly and popped himself up again. "That's why I have to keep your mother, you, and your baby brother or sister safe from her... From all of them." he breathed.

"If anyone is, I am." Chris whispered, pulling her tightly against him. "I'm the one who left you in there alone."

"I don't understand you anymore." Alex sighed. "You were never this hateful before we came back from Italy. You're letting Wesker win by acting this way, you know that right?"

Jill buried her face against Chris' chest, though didn't deny that he had indeed hurt her by walking out. "I punched Parker." She finally breathed.

"It doesn't matter, Wesker is dead." Parker replied, proving that he, like Chris and Rebecca, did believe the other man dead and gone.

"Jack ass probably deserved it." Chris snorted, kissing the top of Jill's head. "Come on. Let's go get something real to eat, like a burger or something."

Alex laughed at this. He hadn't meant to but there was no stopping it now. Wesker had been right about those he loved, they were all naive.

"Where's Violet?" Jill asked, finally tipping her head back to look up at Chris. "Was t she out here with you?"

"I don't find anything funny about this!" Parker growled. "I'm going to find your mother. Those damn Redfield's have ruined her big dinner!"

"You know her." Chris sighed, rubbing his forehead as he stepped back from his lover and closed his eyes. "She can't stay anywhere for very long. I'm sorry, Jill. I fuck up everything, don't I?"

"Parker, stop." Alex growled. "This isn't you. This isn't the Parker mom loves. And honestly...I'm not sure I like him either."

Jill frowned and shook her head. "Chris, no e of this is your fault. If anything... I'm to blame for the way she is." She told him gently. "She has every right to hate me... I should have been stronger, I should have fought Wesker's control harder, I should have saved her!" She was well aware that 'should' would not change their current situation.

Parker shook his head, rubbing at his broken nose. "The old Parker was the reason your mom always got hurt!" He growled as he stomped from the room.

"It's not like you could help anything." Chris muttered, shoving his fingers through his hair. "Come on. Let's find her and get some pizza. There's this movie I've been wanting you guys to see with me."

Rebecca was seated in their car, her head resting against the back of the seat. She'd just wanted everyone to be happy for a while. Why did it always have to blow up in her face?

Jill did say much of anything as they tried to track their wayward daughter down. It had been months, but Jill still couldn't shake the feeling that Chris resented her for remaining a field agent while he was a desk jockey.

"Becca, babe?" Parker was tapping lightly on the window. "Will you unlock the door?" He added when he tried it, only to find it securely shut.

"Violet, come on, kiddo." Chris groaned. His stomach was beginning to hurt but he wasn't about to tell anyone that. He'd hear the 'you need to sit down' speech and he was tired of it.

Rebecca shook her head. "Leave me alone!" She shouted, her eyes closed. "I don't want to talk about it right now!"

Violet didn't answer. If there was one thing her parents should have known by now, it was that their daughter was all too apt at hiding.
"Chris... Maybe it's best you look for her alone?" Jill asked quietly. "It's probably me she doesn't want to see, not you."

"Then we don't have to talk about it." Parker replied. "Just let me in. It's cold out here you know." He added with the ghost of a smile.

"You know...I never thought things would be this way. Nevermind, that I never thought I'd live this long... But...I once had an idea of a family...of a daughter that loved us both and a wife that needed me. I'm wrong about everything, aren't I?" Chris muttered, waving himself away from Jill to stomp off alone.

Rebecca sighed deeply and unlocked the driver's side door before returning to her position. She didn't say anything as Parker got in. There really wasn't anything to be said.

Jill stared at Chris' back as he stomped away, feeling she truly couldn't do anything right. She was cleared for duty with a physical bill of health, but no one seemed to have question if she was mentally able to carry on. Silently she leaned back against the outside wall and slid down it until she could bury her face against her arms. Jill was so very jealous of Chris, and of Violet. They were the real family... She was just the outsider who kept trying to squeeze her way in. Most of the time when she left in assignment for weeks at a time... It was simply so she didn't have to see the resentment in Chris' eyes when he looked at her.

Parker sat in the car for some minutes in silence, simply staring out the window, just as Rebecca was doing. Alex's words were running round and round in his head. The boy was right, Parker was different. But wasn't this how he had to be? He had watched Chris and Jill's lives fall apart after everything that had happened to them, to their daughter. He couldnt just sit back and let the same happen to him and Rebecca.

Chris made it around the corner before he too stopped and slid down the wall. It felt like he was standing in a glass house and it was shattering. Every piece that fell past him sliced his skin. All he had to do was move but...there was no where to go.

"Alex scares me." Rebecca confessed, watching her son as he paced near the rear of the building. "Every day he gets more and more like...like him."

"I told you you were jealous of her." Violet told her father, proving Jill right that the young girl wouldn't come out while her mother was around. "I heard what you said... You don't think she needs you."

Parker nodded his head, also watching their son. "I see it too. Except... When you're giving the kids their lessons. Rebecca... I think we need to move, somewhere else." He suddenly confessed. "I think it's Violet... Something about her just isn't right. Did you ever notice her and Alex just staring at each other, no expressions on their faces? It's creepy... Like they're having some silent conversation no one else can hear..."

"I don't think any body needs me." Chris confessed. "Violet, I don't understand why you're avoiding your mother. You've been doing it all along and I don't understand why."

"Parker, we can't just pick up and leave. Besides, I don't think it matters any more. And...Violet needs us. If I weren't giving her that serum...things would be very bad."

Violet glanced away slightly, clearly hiding something from her father. "I saw what Wesker did to her." She whispered at last. "But I was too young then... I didn't understand what it was. I saw him rape and violate her, dad... How can I look her in the face... Knowing I had been powerless to stop him? To help her?"

"Does Chris know yet?" Parker asked, discretly reaching beside him to gently take hold of Rebecca's hand. "Does even Jill know how close to a monster Violet really is? She looks like a teenager... And she's only, what... Three? Four years old?"

"She doesn't feel much different than you do." Chris said softly, wincing at his daughter's words. "She feels that she is the one who let you down. Maybe...you two need to talk."

"Jill isn't that much better." Rebecca whispered, closing her fingers around his. "Her virus is better maintained. Not so... volatile. You know?"

Violet shook her head, the waves of her ebony hair falling over her slender shoulders with the motion. "It's better this way..." The young girl suddenly sucked in a gasping breath. "It's not like I'll live long anyway... Wesker planned it that way. Why do you think I grow so fast? So he can breed me, then carry on with his sick experiments!"

Parker was staring down at Rebecca's hand, feeling he was in way over his head. "The BSAA don't know she's still infected, do they?" He asked quietly.

"Wesker is dead, Violet!" Chris shouted back. "You don't have to worry about him anymore! Do you hear me?!"

"No one but the few of us do." Rebecca whispered, closing her eyes. "Parker, don't tell just because you think it will make us safer. That won't do anyone any good."

"You're wrong! And you're an idiot if you believe what Wesker himself has been spoon feeding you!" Violet shrieked. "He's alive, and he won't ever stop until he gets his stupid, perfect world!"

"I'm sorry, Rebecca... But if it comes down to telling the truth about Jill, or keeping you and our baby safe... I'm always going to pick you." Parker replied honestly.