Still Alive

Day 3 (Cont.)

Not long after Claire sat down, she saw his red 2009 Toyota Corolla roll to a stop in front of her small home. "Took ya long enough!" she joked, pulling him into a hug. The two went inside and Chris took his usual seat at her table as she pulled out the burgers she was keeping warm in the oven.

"I like what you've done with the place since I've last been over." Chris stated as he looked around at the many changes and unfamiliarities that sat amongst him.

"Thanks, a lot changes when you disappear for six months." Claire replied flatly.

An uncomfortable silence fell upon the pair before Chris spoke up to defend himself, "Claire, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go all MIA, especially on you, but it wasn't so black and white! M-my head wasn't right, I had memory loss and I watched almost my whole team die on what was my mission at the time."

Claire sat in a shocked silence for a moment, having fully expected Chris to brush it off with a short apology. She tried to reply but Chris cut her off and continued with his explanation.

"During the mission before I went," he hesitated before saying, "missing... I was given a simple job. My whole team was prepared for the fights ahead and were ready to give it their all, especially Piers. It wasn't even a year ago but, god he looked at me so differently then, like a god among men. I wish I could've lived up to his expectations but instead I failed my team and Piers and I were forced to watch as the rest of the team was injected by a virus that killed them. It killed them quick, but not quick enough for it to be painless. I shouldn't be telling you so much about a classified case but, dammit Claire, you deserve to know." He took a moment before continuing, finally thinking about how his drunken amnesia fueled vacation had affected his only family member, the caring sister he had raised. "My team was killed by someone, who, at the time, I thought was Ada Wong. It was like all the loss I had gone through just caught to me all at once. All my mistakes, all my pain, all of my life just crashed down on me after that mission. So I took the coward's way out and I ran from my problems and I let myself forget. I just let it wash over me like a cold shower and spent all my time bar hopping from then until Piers found me."

"Chris, I thought you were dead." Claire let out in a hushed whisper. "When you didn't come back at the day you promised I called your branch of the BSAA hoping that they'd tell me they extended your mission time, and when they didn't I-" Claire cut herself off for a moment not wanting to cry before continuing on saying, "Piers showed up at my house looking for you not long after and when I saw him at the door part of me hoped if he didn't say you were alive that he'd at least say they found your body because then at least you'd be coming home to me. But instead it would be five aganizing more months of me waiting for a call from you, from anyone, before I'd find out if you were okay. And to top it all off, I didn't even get that call from you, I got it from an email from Piers!" Claire was pissed but not at Chris no, she was pissed at herself for feeling so obsolete and small in her older brother's life. She of course knew that wasn't true but it didn't change how she felt, crying at the dinner table across from her stone faced brother. Without another word Chris got up and walked to the other side of the table embracing the rosy nosed girl, who at that moment looked like the same little girl that he had raised.

"I will never do that to you again Claire. I mean it, I never meant to isolate you like that." Chris said with so much regret in his voice it almost didn't sound like him.

"I know you big dummy." Claire said playfully. "Now go take a shower, you reek!" She wiped her eyes and began cleaning the dishes as Chris headed off to the shower.

Chris let the cold water of the shower wash away the emotions that had spilled out at dinner for what felt like hours but was really only about ten minutes. As he finished letting the water rinse out his shampoo, he found his mind drifting to Piers. He wondered what the younger man was doing right now, if he was sleeping, or eating dinner, or maybe even thinking about Chris. He quickly shook away the thoughts and began to wrap up his shower. After putting his clothes back on he made his way to the couch he would be staying the night on and layed down to sleep. He was out as soon as he hit the soft cushions, his body yearning for the sleepy comfort it had been deprived of the past few nights.