In The Shadows

[bsaa_ace]

It had been a busy day, or at least as busy as Chris could make it. Between his own regimen of physical therapy, talking with his sister, and contacting this Luke Skywalker guy that had been looking after Steve, Chris was actually struggling to find things to keep him from doing the one thing he didn't want to do too much of: thinking

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[pickin_locks]

Jill was out, her last check up to ensure that her ribs had recovered from the ordeal with the zombies. It seemed, from the reactions of others, that such events were commonplace enough to let people move on quickly.

Some things should not be so easy to shake off, but at least this time she was part of a massive force and not a lone agent or small team trying to fight through. Miraculously there hadn't been casualties in her team, though there had been losses across the ship. Secretly Jill harbored a guilty pleasure that Chris had survived with as little damage as he had.

Of course things had been a bit awkward off and on since he returned. They had unresolved issues between them, and that was something they had to deal with. As late Chris had taken to crashing in her quarters, so much so that it had more or less become their quarters. Jill didn't mind, it gave her a chance to keep an eye on him.

She was not surprised to find him sprawled on her bed. A small smile curled the corners of her mouth, rather than disturb him, Jill sat gently and slid up along side Redfield. She snuggled up a bit, her head on his shoulder and let her overly tired eyes droop just a bit. Not sleeping, merely relaxing to the soft regular sound of his breathing.

[bsaa_ace]

Chris smiled softly, repositioning his arm so that Jill could snuggle a bit closer while still being comfortable for both of them. Not to mention that now he could let his fingers wander lazily in her hair. Of course he had been worried about Jill once he heard about her injuries, but knew that she would be okay. Not like she had been foolish enough to shoot herself in the leg, at point blank, with a high powered magnum.

Regardless, they were both back to normal, for the most part at least, and things were starting to calm down. Yea, there were things between them that needed to be addressed, but that was the last thing on Chris' mind right now. Now, he was just savoring the moment. The closeness.

"Long day?" he said softly after a long moment of simply stroking her hair.

[pickin_locks]

"Hey." She smiled and curled up a bit more to him. "I didn't mean to wake you." But apparently he was still somewhat awake and she had to laugh softly at his question. "Is that like how was you're day at the office, dear?"

An arm wrapped around his waist and she smiled a moment longer. "Yeah, long day. But the docs say I'm going to be fine, the ribs are healing up really well. No long term damage from the bomb, so thank goodness foe small favors. How about you?"

[bsaa_ace]

He chuckled a bit. "I wasn't asleep. Besides, can't say I'd mind waking up like this though." He was glad to hear she was doing good, and even gave him enough courage to hold her a bit tighter.

"To be honest? I'm surprised my doctor - who has quite possibly the coolest name ever - hasn't come looking for me. I was going stir crazy in Med Bay, so I snuck out, and haven't looked back. I've even given up the crutch."

[pickin_locks]

"Good to hear." On both counts actually, his arm pulled her more snugly to his side and Jill let a hand drift up to stroke his cheek and jaw.

"Oh? Who is you doctor?" The fact that he went AWOL from the medbay was not even a surprise, Chris hated to be waiting around for permission to do things. "You need someone make you take recovery seriously, it's not like you get a reset button you know."

[bsaa_ace]

Chris couldn't help but chuckle slightly as he remembered his doctor's name and Jill stroked his jaw. "Said his name was Doctor McNinja." He rolled his eyes slightly as his own hand drifted down to run a fingertip along Jill's spine.

"Hey, I've been shot enough times to know how physical therapy works. I am taking it serious. I sure wasn't going to get better just laying around, after all."

[pickin_locks]

"Doctor..McNinja...." The disbelief was obvious in her tone. "Are you sure you don't have a head wound?" Still it was laugh worthy and it felt good to be able to laugh. Something normal in the face of all else.

Jill propped herself up on one elbow to smile down to the bulky redhead. "You should know by now. You've been torn up enough, I'd like to see less of it in the future if you don't mind."

[bsaa_ace]

"At first, I thought I was hallucinating. Until he stitched me up with one hand." It certainly was good good to hear her laugh to say the least.

"Trust me, I'm not exactly crazy about getting the crap beat out of me on a regular basis, and I'm trying to avoid it... but I'm not going to sit on the sidelines either."

He normally wasn't an impulsive person - save when bullets are flying - and most certainly didn't have much experience in the romance department either. However, after taking a moment to just gaze into Jill's eyes, he reached forward, grabbing a shoulder gently and pulling her into a brief kiss.

[pickin_locks]

"As if you could sit back and let things happen around you?" She chuckled and shook her head. Chris was too much a hero to let bad things happen to good people...well even sometimes the not so good ones.

There weren't many things Chris could do to shock her, but when he pulled her to him and pressed his lips to her own she did gasp softly. Unprepared for the romantic gesture Jill tightened her body a moment before she returned the kiss. Brief but heartfelt, her mouth captured his and eased back only after a sweet moment. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled at her partner, perhaps in a new sense of the word.

"So there are things about you that can still surprise me."

[bsaa_ace]

To be honest, Chris was as surprised as Jill at the gesture, and instantly he had almost wished he hadn't. Almost. When Jill did pull back, Chris wore a sheepish looking grin, blushing profusely.

"Y-yea... ah... heh... s-sorry... I... I don't know what came over me...."

He did not, however, make any move to let Jill move. If anything, he just held her closer.

[pickin_locks]

Jill grinned, leaning a tiny bit to playfully draw the tip of her nose along his.

"I didn't say it was a bad thing, Chris. I like that we can know each other well enough to fight side by side without thinking. But this," She drew a hand up to gesture between them. "You and me, this is all new. It's a good separation between what we had as partners and what we have now. For the record, I wouldn't change it for the world."

[bsaa_ace]

Chris was all kinds of nervous, and it showed. He'd never really had a serious relationship before. He'd always been either tied up in his work, or taking care of Claire to ever really have an interest in that sort of thing.

"I'm glad," he said, his voice shaking slightly. "I wouldn't change it for the world either... I mean... I'm sorry if I'm being too forward but... it sorta seems... natural, y'know?"

[pickin_locks]

"Maybe it's because we worked together so long, or the sort of things we went through..or maybe we're just good together. But yeah, it feels natural. I like it."

The back of her hand stroked down his cheek again, trying to calm his nerves with a gentle touch and a smile.

[bsaa_ace]

"Y'knnow... I'm not sure I really care why just so long as we're together." He smiled, though there was something other than nervousness creeping into his face as he ran his hand up and down Jill's back. He blinked a few times, trying to push the images of the blond version of Jill shooting at him out of his mind.