Private Wars Pt. II

When the Redfield siblings returned from the storage facility with Claire in the Hummer and Chris driving Jill's car, Claire had thought to remind him of some pleasant memories in their childhood that usually involved some mischief on Chris' part toward an authority figure, like Uncle Rod, who'd had a drinking problem, but was surly and arrogant even when sober.  Claire was reminding him of the time when Chris had glued a penny to the kitchen floor before Uncle Rod had come stumbling in.  The bad-tempered drunkard had seen the penny and couldn't resist its glinting, coppery sheen.  From that moment on, terribly uncoordinated, drunken hilarity ensued for twenty minutes that summer afternoon.  Claire had gotten Chris laughing, which had been her aim to get him away from meditating on his guilt about Jill.  In fact, they were laughing when they entered the apartment.
" . . . And then the poor bastard dies of liver failure," came Chris jovially as they came in the door.
"I know!" cried Claire with tears invoked by laughter in her eyes.
Jill quietly appeared in the hallway to greet the Redfield siblings, smiling meekly because she felt too tired to put much strength into it.  "How'd it go?" she asked.
"Jill!" Claire rushed over to Chris' partner to embrace her with a sisterly hug.
"Easy, Claire," warned her brother.
But Claire just ignored him knowing his overprotective tendencies especially now.  "How're you feeling?"
"Better," replied Jill happy to see the other as well.
"I hope Chris is taking good care of you," said Claire adopting a stern tone.  She knew what Jill's answer would be, but she knew her brother needed to hear it.
But Chris' fear wouldn't let Jill answer.  "Damn straight, I am," he quickly asserted before Jill could respond.  He unceremoniously threw his keys into a bowl sitting on a corner table halfway across the room.
Claire could only roll her eyes at her brother's onset of insecurity.  She knew beyond reasonable doubt that he was taking very good care of his partner, and that Jill knew that even better than she did.  If Chris' fear hadn't gotten in his way, Claire was positive that Jill's answer would have bolstered him.
With Chris having answered the question for her, Jill just smiled.  "How's the car?" she asked, trying to make conversation to take attention away from herself.
"Needs a little maintenance," replied Chris, "but nothing I can't handle myself."
"Geez," rejoined Claire facetiously.  "So macho."
"What did you say, little sister?" challenged Chris.
Claire turned from Jill to face her older sibling.  "I called you 'macho', you big ape."
"Is that right?"  He started coming nearer.
"Yeah," asserted the smaller Redfield.  "Why don't you go find a shady spot and scratch yourself!"
"I'll scratch myself in the damn sunshine if I like!" replied Chris in a mock growl, and he threw a big arm around his sister's neck to drag her down to the appropriate height for a noogie.  Claire was struggling, but she hadn't the brute force to fight the arm or the intense friction applied via fist to the top of her head.  She was squealing, laughing, and begging Chris to stop before she just managed to wriggle herself free.
"Ow!" she exclaimed rubbing the top of her head.  "You're such a bully, Chris.  All because you're bigger than everybody else!"
"That doesn't matter," said Jill with a sly smile.  "You just have to know what his weaknesses are."
"What?" came Chris.
Claire couldn't help but note the slight look of alarm that flashed in her brother's eye as Jill turned toward him.  She had suspicion that little Jill Valentine was about to school the large Chris Redfield, and she wanted to see how.
"So you like picking on girls, huh, Redfield?" challenged Jill as she began to advance.
"Wait a minute now," said Chris putting his hands up to try to placate his partner, but she had backed him against a wall, and he had nowhere to go.  To Claire it looked like rabbit cornering a bear.  Jill's deft fingers shot forward and began tickling him in his muscular sides.  He resisted laughing with all his might.  "Jill!"
"You should be nice to your little sister!" she jokingly chided.  "You're so much bigger than she is!"
As Chris tried to grab Jill's hands, they only seemed to dematerialize and rematerialize somewhere else on his body.  No matter how fast he moved, she was even faster.  "C'mon, Jill!"
"It'll just be easier if you laugh, Redfield!" she said laughing.
"Get 'im, Jill!" cried Claire from the stands.  Although she was enjoying this immensely, she could still make the observation that Chris was being very careful not to hurt his longtime companion where she knew he would not be nearly so cautious with her.
Jill's fingers were finding places that Chris didn't even know were ticklish.  He found that even he was getting tired trying to tense up which ever area she flew to next to keep her from getting the edge.  He knew that if he laughed, it would be all over.  But finally, he spotted his opportunity.  Before Valentine could react, Chris wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, pinning her arms to her sides and her up against him.  "C'mon, Jill," he said softly.  "I don't want you to get hurt."
Claire's eyes grew wide as the scene clicked something in her brain, and she suddenly began to feel like an interloper.  With the gentle but firm way her brother held onto Jill and the tender look in his eyes when speaking to her, the picture looked wrong and too perfect at the same time.  
Jill didn't notice what Claire did and was still laughing as she looked up at her captor.  "You're hardly a threat to me, Chris Redfield," she said catching her breath.
Claire knew that Jill had misinterpreting Chris' words, but she was afraid to say anything as it had nearly seemed like they forgot she was there.  She watched Chris as he slowly, and what almost looked reluctantly, let go of Jill.  With the words her brother had said to her earlier still swimming in her subconscious, the younger Redfield knew her older sibling well enough to realize that Chris had no idea of what the unconscious and perhaps repressed promptings of his own mind and body had intimated to her.
"Well, I'm famished!" exclaimed Claire needing to break the tension only she recognized for her brother's sake.  She was afraid of what it would do to him if he ever found out what he was really thinking.  It was then Claire felt sorry for him, realizing that her poor, stupid man of a brother had spent the last three years to a decade lying to himself and believing it unconditionally because the truth would have destroyed something almost as precious.
"Hey, I got a nutty idea," said Chris with a complete change in tone.  He turned to Jill.  "You feel well enough to go out for some Chinese?"
The other lit up at the mention of the Eastern cuisine, not just because she liked it, but also because of the implications that only meant something between the two of them.  "I would love to go out for Chinese, Chris!"
"Who wouldn't with my brother's cooking," came Claire dryly and unfortunately unaware of the meaning behind Chris' question.
"You've never taken her?" asked Jill with slight disbelief.
"Not until now," said Chris.
"Taken me where?"
"I'm going to put some clothes on," said Jill, who was still wearing pajamas having needed to stay in bed most of the day.  She disappeared back into her bedroom to change.
"For Chinese," stated Chris.
Claire was confused.

Moments later, after Jill had gotten changed, the two Redfields accompanied by a Valentine were getting into Chris' Hummer with Chris sternly enforcing to Claire that Jill had to ride shotgun and Claire, who was well aware of the rules, sticking her tongue out at her brother.  Claire had figured that Chris would be driving them to some Chinese restaurant that held some significance to the two partners; however, she had no idea that this particular restaurant could possibly be the China 8 Buffet.
China 8 Buffet looked to be potentially a whole-in-wall place sandwiched between a barbershop and a beauty supply store in a low profile strip mall.  The story behind its significance was such that years ago, Chris and Jill had been parked for some forgotten reason within the strip mall's parking lot when Chris asked Jill who in their wildest dreams would name a restaurant "China 8 Buffet".  He pointed out that most Chinese restaurants were named "Something Garden", "Something Wind," or even classically "Panda Something Something".  Hell, he'd even said, naming the place "Panda Wind" would have made more sense than "China 8 Buffet" albeit not very appetizing.  Jill had agreed with these statements and even pointed out that if there was a China 8 Buffet, then where were the seven other China Buffets?  And if there weren't any, then why start with the eighth one?  Chris said he didn't know, and for several moments they stared at the place until Chris determined that they absolutely had to eat there just once to try to solve the mystery, and from that day forward they were glad they did for although the China 8 Buffet had the strangest name amongst all its counterparts, it was the best Chinese food Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine had ever had.  Over the next several years, they had patronized the place often, and even became acquainted with the family who owned it, the Leungs.
Master Leung had brought his family with him to the states from China to give his family something better than communism.  At that time, his daughter had been a teenager, and only about a decade or so later, she had gotten married and had children of her own who were now young adults.  Nearly everyone in the Leung family now worked in Master Leung's restaurant.  The children of his daughter, Bobbie and Sam, generally waited tables while Mrs. Leung and her daughter, Jing-Wei, ran the register.  Master Leung, who was in his seventies now, was rarely ever seen.
Upon entering the China 8 Buffet, it was Jing-Wei who found the Redfields and Ms. Valentine, and she was very happy to see them.
"Oh, Mr. Redfield!" cried Jing-Wei reaching up to place her hands momentarily on his face.  "It's been so long since you've been in to see us!"
At the mention of Chris, Bobbie, a spritely, sixteen year old girl, bounced up behind her mother to make sure she'd heard the news right.  "Hi, Chris!  Where's Jill?"
"Right here," said Jill, who was in fact standing next to Chris.
"Oh Jill!  We didn't recognize you," replied Jing-Wei.  "Did you dye your hair?"
For a split moment, being in familiar surroundings, Jill had forgotten the past three years and the liberties they had taken with her appearance.  She smiled bravely although tears stung the back of her eyes.  "Yeah . . . I did."
Claire noticed Chris' hand come up behind Jill and place itself on the small of her back.  She was glad that her brother was responsive to his partner's feelings, but then again, she really couldn't have expected less from the bond they shared.
"And this is my sister, Claire," said Chris partially turning behind him to gesture to her.
"Hi there," she replied waving from behind her brother and Jill.
"Nice to meet you," said Jing-Wei happily, and she motioned for them to follow her to their booth.
"Chris never told us he had a sister," stated Bobbie as they passed her.
"I'm not surprised," said Claire with a devious smile, looking back at the girl.
The patrons sat down in their seats with Claire on one side of the table and Jill and Chris on the other with Jill sitting on the inside.  Chris apparently needed to spread out as he placed his inside arm on the top of the back of the booth over Jill.  Even this action didn't escape Claire, but she tried not to think too much about it other than it was possibly more of this mounting evidence she was beginning to collate.
Bobbie came up to take their orders.  "Let me guess," she said pointing at Jill with her pencil, "Chicken and broccoli."  Jill nodded as Bobbie wrote it down.  "And for Chris," she said still writing, "the kung pao chicken."
"Yep."
"How spicy do you want that?"
"Who's cooking today?" asked Chris.
"Sam," she answered.
"Better make it medium, then."
Bobbie took down the information on her order slip and then turned to Claire.  "And for Chris' sister?"
"Sweet and sour chicken," replied the other.
Bobbie wrote this down and then took the menus.  "I'll be back soon with your order," she said smiling brightly.
"Wow," said Claire.  "You guys must come here a lot."
"Definitely enough," said Chris.
"I wonder if the Master is in today," said Jill.
Chris took his arm down from over Jill and began to fiddle with his chopsticks almost nervously.  "I wonder if he's still alive."
Nearly no sooner had Chris finished his statement when the uncompromising Master Leung made his way over to the party of three.  Although he was slightly hunched over along with being small in stature, walked with a mild limp from arthritis, and spoke in broken English, he was a man to be reckoned with when in his own establishment as seemingly illustrated by the impressively ornate dragon head that topped his walking stick.
"Chris Redfield!" came the master with a stern tone.  "Do you know how long it has been since you walked into my restaurant?"
"Uh . . ."
"Three years two months and three weeks!" informed Master Leung impertinently.  "Why you no come for so long?  My food not good?"
"Well, no," stuttered Chris.  "I had a lot of business to attend to."
"For three years?!" rejoined Leung incredulously.
Chris couldn't bring himself to tell the old master the truth.  When Jill had gone missing and presumed dead, it had been too hard for Chris to even order out from the China 8 Buffet.  Explaining everything that had happened since he and Jill had last stepped into the place would be too emotionally taxing.
"Well –" stammered Chris, but Master Leung cut him off.
"I have more bone to pick with you!  You marry Jill yet?"
"No, Master Leung –"
"Why not?  It been three years two months and three weeks, and you still not marry her?!"
"She's my partner.  We work together.  We're not –"
But again Master Leung would not let him finish.  "You need to make an honest woman out of her!  Why you keep her waiting so long?"
"We're partners, not–"
"I no want to hear excuses, Mr. Redfield!  You take her to justice of the peace and marry Jill now!"
Chris looked down at the table and relented realizing that he was not going to win this onslaught from so tenacious a foe.  Ever since he and Jill had began coming to the China 8 Buffet, Master Leung had made it his mission in life to heckle Chris Redfield into becoming a respectable member of society and make Jill Valentine his wife.  For years it did Chris no good every time he tried explaining in every way possible that Jill was his partner, not his girlfriend.  Even Jing-Wei, Bobbie, and Mrs. Leung had tried to help him in explaining it, but to no avail.  "All right, Master Leung.  I'll marry her."
"Promise me!"
"I promise," came the BSAA agent who destroyed Albert Wesker but just could not defeat an aged Chinese man.
"Good!  When's the date?  You wait too long already."
"Two and a half weeks," he replied with the first increment of time that came into his head.
"Good," said Master Leung with finality.  "Congratulations."  And the old master left having finally broken some sense into his longtime customer as well as achieving order where there was once chaos.
"Thanks," said Chris putting his head down on the table.
"That was awesome!" said Claire who had thoroughly enjoyed the whole spectacle immensely.
Bobbie came springing up to the table, wide-eyed and very excited.  "Oh my gosh.  I didn't know you two were engaged!"
Chris moaned.
"What's wrong?" asked the young girl.
Jill nonchalantly wrapped an arm around Chris' and with the arm closest to him, placed a hand on his back and began to rub it comfortingly.  "He's just so relieved that I said 'yes'," she said with a facetious smile.
Claire broke into laughter.

The rest of the evening was spent back at the apartment with a fair share of pleasant reminiscing about the good times where there were some.  No one liked to admit that how much over the past ten years happy moments were just that and fleeting.  However, they allowed themselves the liberty to reminisce because of the hope for the future with one of the biggest threats to humanity having been neutralized.  This topic though, while known, was not discussed.  But of the things that were, much laughter was present.  Claire didn't say it, but it had been about three years since she'd seen her brother laugh or smile.
Eventually Claire went home and Jill said she was very tired so she went to bed, yet as Chris cleaned the kitchen from coffee mugs and the like, Jill did not go to sleep for quite a while.  Somehow, the day with all that was good about it, increased her depression.  Going to the China 8 Buffet and talking about the past reminded her of all the things that had changed her in the last three years.  The last time she had gone out with Chris for Chinese food, or the last time she had done many of the things talked of that night, she had been a more innocent Jill Valentine.  Since those things had happened, she couldn't help but remind herself of all the atrocities she committed on innocent people.  Things she could not have fathomed committing for any reason.  True, she had to recognize that she hadn't done these things of her own volition, and it wasn't as though she hadn't tried to fight the mind control either, however, these facts did little to console her.  In her prayers, amidst a multitude of tears, she begged to be worthy of some forgiveness from the victims she made.  Jill couldn't know for how long she cried, but she wouldn't remember the tears stopping before sleep found her that night.
And just as the night before, Chris Redfield slept on the couch not only in case Jill needed anything, but also for reasons he couldn't consciously know.