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“I didn’t know you had a child,” Alyssa’s friend, Jill Valentine, said when the two of them got together. Their friendship hadn’t been easy, not for Jill at least. Alyssa, well, she was how reporters should be. She wanted to get the scoop and she would do what she had to.
Jill had eventually grown partial to her. The two of them had similar goals after all. And they were both fighters and survivors.
So they related to each other.
But this was the first time Alyssa brought her Grace with her.
“So this is Grace?” Jill asked, beaming at the little girl. She looked at her trying to see some resemblance to Alyssa and she did have similar hair and eyes, but she also some features Alyssa certainly didn’t.
Grace beamed when she saw Jill’s baby boy Dante. “He’s so cute, Miss Valentine.”
“Miss Valentine?” Jill asked. She smiled. “You don’t have to call me that, Grace.”
“I didn’t tell her to,” Alyssa said. “She’s more respectful than me. Not as pushy.” Alyssa smiled slightly.
Alyssa had pushed and pushed Jill for a story… well, at first. Eventually she had wanted to be her friend. They were both Raccoon City survivors. More than just that. They were survivors in general.
But Alyssa got her story.
Jill did think it was for the best. The world should know what happened in Raccoon City. She knew that some people including Leon Kennedy didn’t think that was a good idea but Jill knew it would be.
People should know the truth.
Eventually she and Alyssa had become friends.
“Your baby is so cute,” Grace said as she looked at Jill’s son, Dante. Dante was the love of Jill’s life. She hadn’t thought she would have a child after everything that happened in Africa but sometimes things you didn’t plan for happened.
She hadn’t even thought she’d fall in love.
“I love her curls,” Grace said as she reached out and touched Dante’s curls that he had gotten from his dad. Jill certainly didn’t have those.
“She’s a he,” Jill said. She smiled at her to let her know that it wasn’t a big deal. People often thought Dante was a girl because he was just so cute with his dark curly hair. He looked just like his dad looked like when he was a baby. He had showed Jill pictures and he had been just as adorable. “But yes, he has great curls. He got them from his papa.”
Grace’s eyes widened and she looked at Alyssa and then Jill with panic in her blue eyes.
“I… I didn’t mean… I’m sorry that I… I….” Grace stuttered, taking a step back.
“It’s fine,” Jill said with a small chuckle. She reached out and touched Grace’s arm. She looked so much like Alyssa in some ways even though her hair was a different shade of blond. She had the same spark in her eyes that her mother did even at this young age though.
“I just I didn’t mean to say he was a girl when he is a boy,” Grace said. “I didn’t mean to do that. He’s just so…”
“He’s so cute,” Jill said. “I know he is. He takes after his father.” Jill touched one of her son’s curls. He giggled when she did and looked up at her with his warm brown eyes. He really was his father’s twin. “He’s all his dad.”
“I don’t know about that, Jill,” Alyssa said with a smirk. “I think he’s going to take after you. He has the same look in his eyes as you.”
Jill looked in Dante’s eyes and she didn’t see it, but Alyssa was a reporter so maybe she saw things that Jill didn’t.
“It’s fine if he’s like his dad also,” Jill said. She just hoped her son would be a good and strong person. “But you know, maybe you’re right. He does love puzzles.”
Jill’s dad had told her that she had been obsessed with puzzles as a child. It was like unlocking things. Something to be solved.
Jill smiled and ruffled Dante’s hair.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—” Grace tried to say as she twisted her small hands together. Her eyes were large. It was hard seeing such a little girl so upset. So nervous.
“Grace, Jill isn’t upset with you,” Alyssa said. “She doesn’t care if you thought Dante was a girl.”
Grace looked at Jill as if she was trying to figure out if that was true.
“I don’t,” Jill said. “Lots of people think that when they first see him.” It wasn’t as if it mattered when he was such a little baby. Dante certainly didn’t care.
“Can I hold him?” Grace asked.
Now it was Jill’s turn to look at Alyssa. Grace was older than Dante, but she was still a child.
“She’s responsible,” Alyssa said. “You could even let her go out on your swing set with Dante. She won’t let anything happen to him.”
“I won’t,” Grace said. “I promise I won’t let him get hurt.”
Jill nodded but she and Alyssa went outside with them. Jill still wanted to make sure that Dante would be okay. But Grace took him over to the swing and soon she was pushing him softly which caused Dante to let out happy cries.
“Grace seems like a sweet girl,” Jill said as she watched the two of them. Dante wasn’t always this friendly with everyone.
“She is,” Alyssa said with a sigh as she watched them.
Jill gave her a look.
“I’m worried she’s too timid,” Alyssa said. “She’s nothing like I was at that age.”
Jill could imagine how Alyssa must have been. She was probably a bold child who had been insisted in finding out the truth even when it was none of her business. That was something that made her a good reporter now.
“She might become less timid when she gets older,” Jill said.
“Were you timid when you were her age?” Alyssa asked, raising an eyebrow.
No, Jill had never been timid. But she had always had to fight to survive. Her childhood… well, it was easier than most of her adulthood had been but it hadn’t been ideal. Her mother had died when she was young and her father had been in and out of prison which led to her being in foster care sometimes.
“No, but she still might,” Jill said.
“I just worry,” Alyssa said. “She’s such a smart and special girl but… this world is so cruel and tough.”
“It is but she’s probably stronger than you think,” Jill said. “And she’ll have you with her anyway.”
Alyssa wouldn’t let anyone mess with her daughter. Jill knew that.
“Yes, but I won’t live forever,” Alyssa said with a sigh.
“Hopefully you’ll have a long life,” Jill said. “Hopefully we both will.”
Both of them got involved in dangerous business, but she was trying to be more optimistic about the future.
“I hope so,” Alyssa said. “I really hope so.”
Jill did too. She really did.