Chapter Text
As Jill stepped off one of the BSAA’s company airplanes, she couldn’t help but notice even the sun felt different here in the Midwestern US. In Africa, the sun and its heat always felt present there. Sometimes like a friend and other times like an enemy you couldn’t escape. Here it felt like although sun was here was it was more like an acquittance who pretended not to notice you. Jill wasn’t sure which was worse.
“Are you okay?” Chris asked as he also got off. This had to be like the tenth time he had asked this in the last hour. When they had been on the plane, he kept staring at her as if he was worried that somehow she would break.
“I’m fine, Chris,” Jill said with a sigh.
“But—”
“Seriously, I’m fine.” She rubbed her arms which were cold. It was going to take awhile to get used to this weather.
It had been months since she had been rescued and Wesker had been stopped. But it wasn’t like the BSAA had just allowed her to go back to work or even go back home. No, she found out soon after that. The BSAA had to make sure that she wasn’t contagious, even when she told them that she never had Uroboros. They still wanted to be sure. She couldn’t blame them.
And she wanted to know if everything was okay too. Not just with Uroboros. Weaker had been able to control her. Yes, he was dead and the device was gone but what if the P30 was still in her blood? What if there was still a way it could make her hurt people?
But after about a week it had been completely out of her blood. Still she worried.
And the BSAA had done testing for months after months. Because of Uroboros mostly and because of her immunity to it.
The BSAA had countless debriefings about what happened when she was in Africa and events at the Spencer Estate. She tried to tell them everything that happened when she was in Africa, but many events were foggy in her memory.
Eventually the testing happened less and less and soon they stopped interrogating her. They finally said that she could go back home. Not that she even had a home now. Everyone thought she was dead so there was little to no reason to keep her old place around.
None that mattered though. Now that she was finally leaving.
“Jill?” Chris asked as they walked away from the plane. She half expected for him to ask again if she was okay and she just couldn’t take it. That was all Chris and pretty much anyone asked her when they had visited. Not that many had been allowed to. Mostly just Chris and a couple times her dad.
“Yes.” They walked over to his car. It was the same car as before. Nice to see that some things didn’t change, even if everything else did.
“It’s… are you sure you want to see Claire today?” Chris asked. Not what she was expecting. Jill had talked to Claire over the phone a few times and she was going to be staying with her for awhile.
Jill had always liked Claire but it wasn’t like they were as close as she and Chris were. She was surprised Claire would offer this and she had initially wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to.
“Why wouldn’t I want to see Claire?” It was going to be strange to see her but not more than anyone else. If anything seeing her would be easier than most people since she had spoken to her on the phone. Still, seeing her in person… It was going to be interesting.
But she still didn’t get why Chris had such a strange expression on his face… one that almost looked… guilty.
“You two have something planned, don’t you?” she asked, leaning back in her the passenger seat. She was hoping that he would deny it. Seeing a lot of people… well, it didn’t sound like her idea of fun right now. Yes, she eventually did want to see everyone, but did it have to be right now when she jetlagged and well…
She just hadn’t been around this many people since before.
“Claire and Barry and Barry’s family have something planned. A—“
“A party,” Jill said. The words sounded foreign to her. She had told Barry in a letter that she was looking forward to having a party, but now…
“It’s not really a party,” Chris said, but then he sighed. “Yeah, it’s probably sort of a party, but we don’t have to go.”
There was a part of Jill that wanted to tell him no. A party just seemed so foreign to her. It reminded her of the Jill before Raccoon. She remembered when she had been a teen and would sneak out to go to parties with her friends. She remembered the ones Chris had invited her to when she was new to the city.
All of that seemed like an eternity ago.
But she wanted to make her friends happy. These were the people who she had dreamed of seeing back in Africa. Back then she didn’t think it would happen and even if it did that they wouldn’t forgive her.
Her stomach twisted.
“Jill, are you—”
“You don’t need to always ask me if I’m okay, Chris,” Jill snapped, feeling bad as soon as it came out. “I mean, I’m fine. I can go to the party. I want to see Barry, Claire, and everyone.”
“You sure? There will be other times you can see them,” Chris said. He finally turned the car on.
“No, it’s fine,” Jill said again. It would be better to just let this go. It would be nice to see everyone again. Maybe now was earlier than she thought, but it would be fine.
And luckily Chris finally dropped it. They didn’t say much on the car ride there. The silence was… awkward. She and Chris used to be able to talk about anything. She had spent more time with him than pretty much anyone else.
But things weren’t the same.
Eventually Jill turned the radio on. It filled the silence and she could hear some of the songs that had come out when she had been gone. She tried to get lost in the songs or to just not get anxious.
So many new songs had been released during the time she was gone. Such a trivial thing, but she couldn’t help but think about it. Finally a song she recognized came on. For a moment, she couldn’t help but smile when she remembered a young Rebecca who had loved this song and wanted to play it in the STARS office.
Her face had lit up and Jill had thought she might sing the words, but Rebecca was too shy for that. Wesker had told her to turn it off.
The memory of him was enough to ruin the rest of it. Still Jill just listened to it without saying anything.
They got to the Burtons’ place about fifteen minutes later. It looked pretty much the same. It was the perfect suburban house with white picket fences from before. The only difference she could see was that Polly’s bike wasn’t in front of it like it always had been before. Before Polly, Barry’s youngest daughter, had been obsessed with it. Now she was a teenager and had probably moved on or at least gotten a new bike.
Jill had barely gotten out of the car when Claire appeared out of no where and ran toward her. She pulled her into a hug that only Claire could give. Jill couldn’t help but hug her back. The same old Claire?
“I missed you,” Claire said, finally pulling away for a moment before hugging her back. “Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re actually real. I wanted to believe it all these years. I should have believed it. I’m so sorry, Jill!”
“You… you don’t have any reason to be sorry.” And she didn’t. Jill knew everyone thought she was dead. When she had been in Africa, it had hurt a lot at first. She used to believe somehow the BSAA would find her. Or maybe just Chris without the BSAA’s help. Maybe Carlos. She used to have dreams of escaping.
Eventually those dreams had faded away and as she was forced to do things for Wesker, she started to believe that she didn’t deserve to get rescued.
“Claire, give Jill a chance to breathe,” Chris said with a sigh.
Claire pulled away and titled her head to the side. “Are you okay?”
Jill forced herself to smile. “Don’t start that. Your brother has been asking me that constantly. I don’t want you to be the same way. I’m good. Glad to be back.”
Claire smiled for a moment even though a look of concern was in her eyes. For a moment, Jill thought she might try and hug her again. She didn’t.
“Chris told me you weren’t sure about this.” Claire put her hands behind her back for a moment before letting them fall at her side. “I’m sorry. It’s not going to be big and—”
“It’s fine,” Jill said. She paused and then touched Claire’s shoulder for a second. “I’m glad to be here.” She had a feeling that she would be telling people that a lot tonight. She needed to make sure that it looked convincing.
Claire managed to smile and looked at her brother. Even though Claire’s hair was back to the red color, Jill noticed like she often did how similar the siblings looked like each other. It was just the obvious things either, the two had the same smile and sometimes their eyes lit up the same way.
Jill followed the two siblings into the Burtons’ house where she saw the Burtons standing there as if they had been waiting for her, which obviously they had. They paused, but then Jill went over to Barry and hugged him.
She had exchanged emails with Barry when she was still being tested by the BSAA but it was entirely different to see him now.
“I’m glad you’re back,” Barry said. He let go of Jill and smiled. “We’ve been missing our master of unlocking things. Things aren’t the same without you here.”
“God, Dad, do you have to say something like that even now?” Moira said, rolling her eyes.
After that things were easier for awhile. They all went into the living room and sat on the couches and the chairs. Thankfully it was just Jill, the Redfields, and the Burtons here. Talking to the rest of the Burtons wasn’t too hard either, even though Polly and Moira kept giving her weird looks at times.
Really everyone gave her weird looks at times so she should get used to it. Moira and Barry ended up getting in a fight about something stupid. Pizza toppings, believe it or not. All Jill could do was stare at them. Barry’s wife, Kathy, got them to stop. Still Jill couldn’t believe it. She knew that Moira and Barry weren’t getting along, but she didn’t think they would fight about something so stupid.
And as the night went on, they had small little arguments about more things.
“You think you know everything, Barry,” Moira said, saying his name as if she said something disgusting. “But you don’t.”
“I didn’t say I knew everything. I just think that the---”
“You two,” Kathy said with a nervous laugh. “You really should stop fighting. Jill doesn’t want to hear this.”
“No one wants to hear this,” Claire said, even though Moira shot her a look and Barry sighed. Chris and Jill exchanged looks. “They argue all the time.”
Even if this was true, Jill probably wouldn’t have said it, but Claire was different. After the Rockford Island incident, Barry had become like a father to Claire. Chris had told Jill before how he was grateful for it. Claire deserved to have a father figure after all she had gone through. Even before those incidents, she had still gone through a lot. She had lost her parents when she had still been a minor, and even with Chris she must have felt alone at times.
Polly sighed and looked down. She had always been the shyer of the Burton sisters.
“It’s not my fault,” Moira said with a sigh. She looked at Claire and then at Jill. “Jill, you’re staying with Claire for awhile, right?”
“Yeah, she’s going to for awhile,” Chris answered for Jill for some reason.
“Probably not too long through,” Jill said. She wanted to have her own space for things to go back to normal. Or closer to normal. She knew that things would never be exactly the same. They hadn’t been after Raccoon and they wouldn’t now.
And this… well at least with Raccoon, she hadn’t done horrible things. Even if she couldn’t control herself, it didn’t change things. People were dead. Her stomach twisted painfully.
“Jill?” Chris asked.
“Fine, I’m fine,” Jill said.
Chris had raised an eyebrow and he raised his arm as if he was going to put his hand on her shoulder or something, but then he let it drop.
“Seriously,” Jill said. “I’m great.”
“When you leave, I want to move in with Claire,” Moira said, which gave Jill a break. “Wouldn’t that be great, Claire? We could be like sisters? It would be awesome.”
“I…I guess…” Claire looked at Barry as if she was worried about what he thought about this. “But you know, I mean it must be nice to live with your parents.”
“Yes, you’re still young, Moira. You’re not even eighteen yet,” Kathy said. “Lots of people like to stay with their families for awhile to save money on rent. It’s smart.”
“I’ll be eighteen then and graduated.” She looked at Jill. “I’m going to work for TerraSave like Claire is.”
“She’s going to be great at it,” Claire said, her eyes lightening up. She then looked at her brother and grinned. “And it’s much better than working at the BSAA.”
“Sure, sis,” Chris said with a smirk.
“You don’t know for sure you can work there,” Barry said, his face blank.
“Yes, I do. Claire’s going to get me a job. Aren’t you, Claire?”
“I think I can,” Claire said. “Why wouldn’t they want you?”
“And TerraSave loves you. You’ve been a member since the beginning, right?”
Claire nodded. Jill remembered when she had joined. It had only been a few months after the Rockford Island incident. Claire had been devastated after the Rockford Island incident. Jill could still remember how Chris would tell Jill how he was really worried about Claire and how she would wake up screaming and in tears from the nightmares that haunted her dreams. Claire had been quiet after that and always seemed to be staring off into space. Chris said that wasn’t normal and now that Claire was better, Jill knew it was true.
Once Claire had said that The Rockford Island incident emotionally hurt her more than Raccoon City one did. Jill still didn’t know too much about what happened there, but she did know an ally Claire made there had died in her arms.
She also knew Wesker had been there.
Jill was glad Wesker hadn’t kidnapped Claire. It had been devastating for Jill, but Claire… Claire didn’t deserve to go through something like that. Not now and not then when she had only been nineteen.
“Jill! Jill!” Moira said, bringing her out of her trance. She waved her hand in front of her face for a moment, but then Kathy put her hand over hers to make her stop.
“I’m sorry,” Jill said, annoyed with herself.
“Can I ask you something?” Moira picked at her nails. She looked at the coffee table.
Barry shot her a look. What was he thinking? Then again it seemed like Barry and Moira couldn’t get along, at least not tonight, but judging by some of the emails he had sent her, it had been going on for awhile.
“It’s… I don’t have to,” Moira said. “I really don’t. Maybe it’s not a good idea.”
Now Jill wanted to know. Maybe she shouldn’t, but she did.
“No, tell me. What do you want to know?”
“I just… your hair is so different now. Blond.”
“Yeah. Yeah, it is.” Jill touched a strand of her blond hair, which was so much thinner than it used to be too. She missed her brown hair that she had her whole life. Maybe it was silly to care about something as trivial as hair, but she couldn’t help it.
“How did it happen? Did you… did he… Did he like make you dye it because of some weird…”
For a second Jill didn’t even get what Moira was asking and then it hit her. She felt like she was going to be sick. She might actually be sick.
“No, no it… It wasn’t…” The world was spinning. Jesus. “I’m going to get some air.” She didn’t wait for any of them to say anything. She just left. She could hear Chris yelling about something. God. Normally she would have told him to stop it. That Moira didn’t mean harm and was just…
But she couldn’t.
The air was cold and refreshing, but it didn’t do anything to help. She should have known that people would think this. She was sure they were thinking Wesker had done a lot more to her too as if forcing her to spread the virus and experimenting on her wasn’t enough.
She should get out of here. Chris would be out here soon or maybe even Barry or Claire. They would want to comfort her and she just didn’t want that. So she needed to get out of here. Just for awhile. It wasn’t the same as running away. She just needed to think. To breathe. But she didn’t have a car anymore. She was sure that it had been sold years ago. She didn’t have Chris’s car keys either but if she did she would be tempted.
Hell, if Polly’s old bike had been here, she would have been tempted to take that even though it would have been too small.
She would have to walk.
Or at least that was what she thought. Then a car pulled up. It was some kind of Jeep. Jill almost didn’t care who it was. Had Chris said someone else might show up? Maybe this was supposed to be some kind of surprise. Maybe it was Rebecca.
She went over to the passenger door and without thinking about it, opened it and went in. It wasn’t Rebecca, but instead was Carlos. At first the two of them just stared at each other. He was the same Carlos. Okay maybe not the exact same. He had some lines on his face that hadn’t been there before, but he was still Carlos. The same Carlos who had survived Raccoon with her. The same Carlos who had been her friend for years.
Why hadn’t Chris told her that Carlos might come? She would have liked to know that. It just… She would have wanted to emotionally prepare for it. Carlos… well…
“Supercop. Jill, it’s really you?” Carlos’s voice had a strain to it that she couldn’t remember it even having when they had been in Raccoon. “I thought… Damn—“
“Let’s get out of here,” Jill said. “Let’s go for a drive.”
“A drive, but the Burtons and Redfields—”
“We’ll come back soon,” Jill said. “Come on, Carlos. Please. I need to get out of here for awhile.”
He looked at her and nodded. “If that’s what you want, Supercop.”
Jill breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in the seat.