trans_9 | You got some splainin' to do. [closed]

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You got some splainin' to do. [closed]

Thank god for pants.

Chris had a look around the room where his sister had been sleeping for the past year, getting the feeling he'd never quite get used to the whole "alien organs" motif this place had going for it. It seemed nice enough, though, and he was curious to know who all the things on one side of the room belonged to.

"So, I guess it'd be an understatement to say I missed a lot," he said, giving Boon a belly rub on the bed next to him.

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Claire sunk down onto Sherry's bed, facing Chris, and let out a slow breath, nodding her head.

"Yeaah." She rubbed her hands over her legs, pressing her lips together for a moment. "So... Where do you want me to start?"

Chris wasn't sure why Claire was so nervous to talk to him, but he tried to reassure her with a little sideways smirk. There was probably very little his sister could tell him that would actually make him freak out at her, as far as he knew. "We can skip the end of the universe. I think I've got that down about as much as I'm going to."

He thought for a moment. "Here's an easy start. Who's your roommate?"

She glanced down at the bed she was sitting on for a moment, at Sherry's pillow, and gently smoothed her hand out over the pillow.

"Sherry Birkin," she replied, looking back up at Chris. "You remember me telling you about her, right?"

At least it was a girl's name. Chris had his suspicions but was almost relieved to hear it. "Sherry Birkin?" he repeated.

It took him a moment to remember. "That little girl from Raccoon City?"

Claire nodded her head, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. "That's right. Though... we've kind of developed a cover story for her. Leon and I have been raising her as our daughter, to avoid having to explain everything that happened in Raccoon." She bit her lip, grimacing briefly.

"So I kind of need to ask you to just play along with it. She's Sherry Redfield-Kennedy, and as far as the crew is concerned, always has been."

Edited 2010-10-04 23:14 (UTC)

Whoa whoa whoa, going too fast there for a moment, Claire. Chris parsed things a bit slowly. "You and Leon?" he repeated. "Redfield-Kennedy? So the crew thinks you're-"

Wait a second.

"Hang on. Claire, you're way too young to have a daughter in college already." He had to deal with everything wrong with all of this in a certain order, see.

She blinked, clearly confused for a second and straightening up a little.

"Wh- Oh." Right. Claire had gotten so used to Sherry at the age she was, she'd just about forgotten that the little girl was years behind them.

"Time on this ship is weird, like I said earlier. Where it's been a month for you, it's a year for me? In addition to that, a lot of us were pulled from different time periods. Sherry's from 1998. She's still twelve."

Okay, that? Was messed up.

"She's still twelve." Chris paused again. Well, that explained why anybody would buy it. There was something else nagging at him about this whole equation.

"So you're a mom now. And Leon-"

Oh, yeah, there it was. "... You're married?"

Again, Claire looked confused for a moment, before looking a little horrified.

"What? No, no!" she waved her hands in front of her, shaking her head. "I mean, half the crew will probably tell you otherwise but... uh." She now looked sheepish, biting her lip again before clarifying. "We are dating."

Nevermind half the crew probably thinking whatever about his sister. "You're not just dating, you're raising a kid together," he pointed out. "There's kind of a difference there."

She sighed, rubbing her forehead, and averting her eyes from him.

"Okay, it's also kind of serious."

Chris sighed a bit and suddenly looked like his headache was coming back.

"So... This is the Leon I think we're talking about, right?"

She looked back at him, nodding her head again, and dropping her hand.

"Leon Kennedy, yes."

Chris had an odd expression on his face. It was hard to read, but it certainly wasn't elated at this turn of events.

"Goddamn, Claire," he sighed again.

She frowned at him, crossing her arms and leaning back, now a little annoyed.

"Hey, I could've just not told you I was dating him." It was actually kind of a big deal when she did admit to seeing someone, and it rarely "got" serious for her. On average her relationship with Leon was longer than most of her others combined.

He knew he was being a little bit unfair, but the circumstances around this were unfair in and of themselves. Missing out on a whole year of his sister's life, showing up to find her ~~married~~ raising a child with her serious boyfriend?

"It's not that," he insisted. "I just-- this is a lot to find out about my sister in one day, you know?"

She sighed, rolling her head back for a moment before looking at him again.

"I know, but it's not like I can help that. Believe me, I would've been happier if you'd woken up right when I did but... you didn't. So I have to catch you up."

"I know it's not your fault." Wasn't his fault either, really, and that what was so maddening about it. "But this is the kind of thing I'd like to-"

Chris drifted off and gave a frustrated sigh of his own. "I don't know. But what am I supposed to do? I barely even know this guy, and you..."

"I've known him for seven years," she pointed out, uncrossing her arms and leaning forward again. "And you know he's saved my life. In Raccoon, again when he contacted you with the information on my imprisonment. And in Harvardville." She bit her lip, furrowing her brow as she looked at Chris. "You know he's a good man."

"Saving your life doesn't mean he's a good man," Chris pointed out, case in point being Chris himself. At least, that's what he thought. He'd saved plenty of lives, and he wasn't raising children with any of those people.

"Look, I don't doubt he's a good guy, and he's your boyfriend, so it's not even my call to make. I just-" He frowned sharply, the frown of a protective big brother who had slipped in his protection against his will.

"I don't like it."

"Well too bad," she shot back immediately, getting that defiant look on her face that meant she was pretty much going to do whatever she pleased, regardless of what Chris thought. She was very happy her brother was around, but she wasn't going to tell Leon to back off just because her brother was overprotective. The look faded after a moment though, and she sighed, tilting her head and raising her eyebrows.

"I know this is kind of sudden for you, but we've been together almost a year, now. Can you at least try to give him a chance?"

Chris looked a little bit like she'd smacked him, folding his arms over his chest and glaring across the room at nothing in particular. He said nothing until she spoke again.

"I never said I wouldn't give him a chance," he said. "I just don't like being the last to know."

"Well, you should probably take that up with Stacy, then." Claire sighed, shaking her head and looking at the far wall, resting her chin in her hand. It wasn't like she could put off her entire life so that Chris could always be the first notified of everything that changed with her.

He was starting to feel like there was a growing list of things he needed to take up with Stacy.

"Shit, Claire. Maybe you can give me five minutes or so to process all this, huh?" he muttered, reaching up to push his hair out of his face. The last thing he wanted to do was fight with her about this. It really wasn't his call, and it wasn't fair to expect her to put her life on hold for his sake. But still...

"Okay, take all the time you want." Claire, shrugged, falling back on the bed, patting the mattress to signal Boon to come join her. She wasn't going to say anything further until he decided to speak up, again.

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