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Rosemary is staring at the mirror while her mother ties her hair up into a single braid, wrapping it around itself on the low back of her head and threading decorative pins on top. Chris sits beside the both of them, taking time to steam Rose’s graduation gown while Leon himself works with Claire to finish the decorations she wanted on the cap.
Mia turns Rose around, her eyes red from already crying. “Oh, look at you. You’ve grown up so fast, Rose.”
Chris chuckles, pausing his chore to hand Mia a tissue. They’ve all already gone through one box, and they haven’t even gotten in the car yet to go to her graduation.
“She’s right. I remember when you were just a bean, you know. Now look at you, all grown up.” Chris reaches to tuck a strand of Rose’s blonde hair behind her ear.
Rose smiles to herself, trying to not show her embarrassment. Chris holds up her gown, and she stands so he can put it on for her. The dark green is sadly part of her school uniform, and it clashes a bit badly with the light blue dress she wears under to her eyes, but her whole family says otherwise. She’s well aware that the color makes her eye twitch, an eerie reminder to the one that Chris recovered for them that now hangs in her closet, the furthermost inner side of it.
She looks towards her mother. “..Is it okay if I grab dad’s jacket? For today?”
Mia’s smile falters, and she looks down in thought. Rosemary looks at the rest of her family. Chris doesn’t look away, but he’s looking towards Mia with a frown. Claire avoids her look by finishing the remains of her cap. It’s Leon that still looks at her, and he gives her a small smile of encouragement.
Rose clears her throat. “I want..my whole family there, mom. I know it hurts a lot, and it hurts me too, but I want dad to be there, somehow. Is that going to be okay with you?”
Her mom nods, sniffling as she tries to contain herself. She sees Chris grab another tissue for her, and Mia snatches it quickly to wipe her face again. Mia nods, tiny at first, and then eagerly.
“Okay, okay okay. Ethan, your father, he deserves to be here today. You can take the jacket, Rose. I won’t be upset, okay? I want him to be here for you as much as I imagine he would want to be.” Mia reaches to hug Rosemary tightly. Rose stands still initially, and then slowly wraps her arms around her mom. It’s still awkward to hug her even after all these years, with how adverse she is to physical contact.
“Right. I’ll go fetch it, just give me a sec,” Rose heads over to the stairs of Chris’s home, looking back at Claire. “I’ll also grab the pearls I wanted on top of the little flowers, so don’t put the hot glue away!”
“Gotcha, Rosey! Trust me, you’ll have the best grad cap out of all the other losers you’re graduating with,” Claire shouts back, loud enough for Rose to hear from upstairs. She sighs fondly, before looking at Mia, who still stares down at the ground. “Mia, you going to be okay?”
“..Yeah, yeah. It’s just..even after all these years, it’s so hard,” Mia sniffles. “She looks just like him with the hair and eyes and now it’s like, even her jokes sound like his and he’s not even here and it’s like..”
“Like you feel haunted,” Leon finishes for her. “Caring for a kid whose parent is gone, and trying to fill in the role, but you see them in her?”
Chris looks up at Leon, who approaches Mia and himself, and he feels a bit guilty. Even after all these years, the moment Ethan Winters comes to conversation, it’s like he can’t speak. In a way he’s muted with the same vision he’s had of taking Rosemary away from his arms, despite dragging the man and begging him to not give up.
“It was like that with Sherry,” Leon rests a hand behind Mia’s back, rubbing back and forth. “It won’t ever change, the feeling. I heard a lot of good things about Ethan over the years, and I’m sure despite it all there’s some happiness in seeing he isn’t completely gone, with the daughter you both had.”
Mia sighs, looking up at them all. “I’m so happy to have had you all through these years. Without your support and..everything with the governments, I wouldn’t imagine living as good of a life with Rosemary.”
Chris shakes his head. “It’s thanks to you too, Mia. You’re her mother, after all. You could’ve chosen an easy life after Romania, turning her in to the government. You’ve risked your life just for having her and fought your rights to keep her. Never forget that either.”
“I know. It’s just..being a single parent would have been a nightmare with her. I mean, we were all these on her fourth birthday when she started sprouting those glowing mold bulbs on the ceiling because she wanted the sticky glow-in-the-dark stars.” Mia laughs wetly, trying to lift the mood herself.
Leon laughs first after her. “It freaked me out so much. I thought I was hallucinating and that the cake was tampered with. Sherry thought her own blood was mutating or something with how drunk she was.”
Claire smiles. “I remember having to scrap it all off because Rosemary couldn’t figure out how to get them to go away. I never wore so much homemade hazmat gear in my life, a bunch of trash bags ripped by Leon and Sherry to cover my hair and a coughing mask. I’m pretty sure if it was actually harmful we all would’ve been dead meat.”
Chris thinks to himself. “You know, this one time, during her emo phase that pretty much mimicked Leon’s own back in the Glenn Arias mission—”
“Hey!”
“—And I remembered showing Rose a photo of Leon from then, trying to discourage her from going on the same path as her dear beloved uncle, I kid you not this girl thought Leon was the coolest guy ever. The next day, she somehow got hair dye in her hands and had to deal with the black hair for months.”
Claire shakes her head. “I showed Mia a photo so long ago, really Leon. I’m not sure how you honestly still wooed Chris with that. You still looked hot, no doubt but..”
Leon throws his hands up. “It wasn’t that bad. I was depressed! I had reasons to change my style up.”
Mia stands up, fixing her hair as she continues laughing, eventually stopping to take a breath. She walks over to Claire, looking over to see the graduation cap. It has several pink roses adorning the edges, with gold glitter on the edges and little stars painted on the inside.
“It looks lovely. Just like the stars in her rooms, huh?” Mia hugs Claire, who quickly hugs back.
“Of course. Don’t forget, we need to get you ready too, Mia. We can handle things down here, go upstairs and finish up and maybe have a moment with Rose. I’m sure she’ll want to talk more about Ethan with you.” Claire encourages. She herself has been ready, a black deep chest plunge jumpsuit with her red leather jacket worn, her hair nicely tied into a ponytail.
Mia nods, watching the entire group give her an encouraging smile. “Make sure to give Sherry and her husband the gifts on the island for them if I’m still up there.”
Claire nods, ushering her upstairs before returning to her brother and Leon. Leon wears a dark blue button-up, dark pinstripe slacks with dress shoes. He has his ring proudly on his ring finger, and a silver bracelet that was a gift from his and Chris’s last anniversary. The cuffs on his dress shirt sleeves are one-sided wings to try to match with the Redfields and their jackets. Something himself and Jill designed, except hers is a brooch.
“So, how long until Sherry arrives?” Chris asks them both.
“Ten minutes,” They both reply. Claire flicks Leon’s ear, and he sighs, not willing to fight against her. He sometimes has the right to act like an old man.
“Sherry’s picked up Grace and Emily with her. Grace gave me an update on how Jake is playing something on the iPad with her. She promised it was an educational game.” He scrolls through his texts.
Chris nods. “And Jill is arriving with Helena to act as the ‘agents’ required for Rose?”
“Mhm. Got their own car and everything. We’ll be driving with Claire, Mia, and Rose.”
Leon walks over to Chris, leaning himself over the bigger man with a tired sigh. “Right. You sure you want to drive, baby?”
Chris snorts. “I always want to drive if it’s between you and me. Your skills are extraordinary, but you behind any vehicle is like a bad omen to the most ridiculous crashes airborne and on ground.”
He feels Leon pout against his neck. “Always making fun of my driving, and yet whose vehicle here lasted the longest so far? My Porsche..”
Claire scoffs. “Hey! My fault that a college kid needed to turn right so bad that he ruined my left driver’s side.”
Chris draws Leon’s lips to his own, teasing his bottom lip with a swipe of his tongue before pulling away. “Why would I need a reliable car when I have you to ride?”
Leon blushes, taking a step away from Chris. “Not today, today is an important day. I won’t let you distract me, Redfield-Kennedy.”
Chris rests his arm on the top of his own chair, not commenting on Leon’s redness reaching down his neck and up his ears. The more Leon stares at Chris, who is wearing a black turtleneck with maroon pinstripe slacks to match Leon’s, a dark brown leather jacket over himself to match Claire, the less he feels angry at the teasing. Damn it, Chris.
“Stop acting innocent. Let’s get the camera ready for when Rose comes down with Mia. I’m sure we’ll be printing many photos after today.” Leon ushers Chris to stand up, hearing the footsteps from the stairs first before the rest of them.
Mia comes down the stairs, dressed in a nice dark green dress with pearls on her neck and a small bag to carry by hand. “Rose and I chatted for a bit. Everything’s okay.”
Claire claps her hands together. “Alright. Let’s have everything cleaned up, Chris, hold the gown for Rose to wear it easily.”
Chris does so, schooling his expression. He can see why Rose wouldn’t be too fond of this green, all things considered. Now that he’s holding it up, that color with the blonde would even mess with his head a bit. He doesn’t want to make a face when it comes to the jacket.
Rose finally comes down, the green jacket tucked into her arms along with a bag of pearls for her cap. Claire takes them, gluing them onto the flowers quickly before placing the cap onto Rose’s head, cooing as she steps back to take a look.
“Oh, Chris, put the gown on her! It’s going to look so cute!” She urges her brother, who motions Rose over. He carefully drapes the graduation gown over Rose, letting her shuffle her arms through it and still holding onto Ethan’s jacket. Chris feels himself sniffle at the sight, turning away to cough loudly.
Rose chooses to ignore Chris out of respect, feeling herself tear up as she holds her dad’s jacket. “Hey, Leon? Uh, which side is the tassel supposed to be?”
Leon adjusts it himself first before responding, flipping it onto her right side. “Right side of the cap. When they say you’re graduated, you flip it onto your left.”
She nods. “Right. Okay. Uhh, do I have to wear the ribbons and other tassels?”
“Of course, sweetheart,” Mia reaches for them on the counter, placing them on herself. “You worked very hard at school considering everything. You deserve to show off your academic achievements, and your extracurricular too.”
There’s a light knock on the door, and Claire opens it to greet Sherry first. Jake follows her after, leading Emily with Grace following them last.
Leon picks up Emily. “Look how big you got. Next thing I expect you to be stronger than me, kid.”
Emily giggles, being placed back down and gives Rose a hug first before the others. They’ve been having a soft spot with each other, especially with what they both went through. Grace follows with her own hug for Rose, giving a quiet congratulations.
They all briefly chatter for a moment, before they all finally settle together to pose for a family photo. Mia settles next to Rose, Chris and Leon on the parallel side with Claire following Mia and having an arm around Sherry. Jake stands behind them both, and Emily and Grace stand together on Leon’s side. Claire’s set the camera to take the photo after ten seconds, and once it flashes, they repeat with several different alternating members. At one point, where Helena and Jill showed up together, they took photos with Rose along with Carlos as their plus-one, who bought a bouquet of pink roses as congratulations, encouraging her to toss it at the faces of the classmates that doubted her.
The final photo is with Rosemary and the jacket, and Chris sets the camera up again. Leon gives her a thumbs up for support, while the rest of her family smile. Mia still looks down, but Rosemary sees that despite how she can’t look at the jacket, she still smiles seeing that Ethan is somehow included still.
“Ready, kiddo?” Chris asks.
Rosemary nods, folding the jacket nicely to rest on both her hands to clearly show off to the camera. She gives off a bright smile, fighting the urge to cry seeing all of their support.
Chris takes the photo, a flash covering the living room. Leon takes a look at it, along with the others, all agreeing that it looks good. Leon takes the camera, showing it to Rosemary.
“What do you think, Rose?”
Rosemary looks at the photo. Her blonde hair really is like her father’s. She smiles at it, finally having tears flow down her cheeks. “It’s perfect. My dad would’ve loved it.”
She tugs Leon into a hug, and Mia and Chris follow. “Thank you guys. Thank you for everything.”
Mia pets her hair. “Of course. Now, let’s go get that diploma.”