trans_9 | left me a beautiful disaster; [opeeeeeeen]

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left me a beautiful disaster; [opeeeeeeen]

After everything had been sorted out with Steve, there had been a small matter of Claire's injuries. Which turned out to not be so small, when the possibility that she could be infected since she'd been burned by Steve's blood cropped up. So she'd been cleaned up, patched up, poked, and then stuck in a bubble in Contagion for observation.

She hated being down here, but it was an entirely different experience when you were stuck on the other side of the bubble. At least it gave her a lot of time to think about what had happened, and quietly guilt herself about all the people injured and the few that had been potentially infected, like her.

Not to say that she wouldn't talk to anyone else, were they to show up and talk to her.

[ooc: obvs open to anyone who got locked up in contagion too, or visitors, or if people want to visit other ~~lab rats~~ detainees and ignore claire, that's cool too, just leave a note so i know what's up :Db]

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Chris was quiet for a moment, mulling over what she said. "Sometimes there's no right decision," he said. "Even if things work out, you keep on wondering if you could have done better if only you did something different."

"But you were in a tough spot. It's impossible for anybody else to judge you on that one."

Claire wasn't really concerned with what other people were thinking of her. She was truly only concerned with how she felt on the matter. And while she was extremely happy that she had saved Steve for good, she also felt guilty that people were hurt. That Leon was hurt.

She didn't say that, though, and sighed after a long stretch of silence nodding her head.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

"Try not to blame yourself, okay?" he offered. He'd been there many times before, and he was terrible at taking his own advice, but Jill and even Sheva had repeated it to him so often he knew it had to be right.

"People got hurt, but... nobody got killed. If you hadn't stepped in, there might have been a full-scale outbreak. And if you hadn't stepped in at all, I know at least one person who'd be dead now."

She was absolutely going to blame herself and no one could convince her to stop. However, she just nodded again at Chris's words, even smiling a little as she finally looked up at him.

"Yeah, I know. And I'm making it out worse than it is, I'm sure. I didn't really get a good headcount on everyone who got hurt, I got dragged in here pretty quickly." She sighed, shaking her head and absently running her fingers through her bangs. "I should just be happy that things turned out relatively well, considering the circumstances."

"I can think of a lot of ways things could have gone worse." They had once, after all. It still tore Chris up to remember how haunted Claire had been in the months after Antarctica.

"Anyway," he said, "You saved a lot of lives, and I think you did the right thing. I'm proud of you."

Claire had a feeling that no matter what she did, Chris would always be proud of her. Still, it was kind of nice to hear.

"Thank you, Chris. I really appreciate that." It made whatever consequences her actions had a little bit easier to consider, knowing her brother, at least, was on her side.

"Of course," he said. "I'm here for you no matter what you need. Even if it's just bringing you things to keep you from dying of boredom."

She smiled, finally reaching to open the bag and see what Chris had brought down for her. She looked relieved to see the book she'd been picking through during her bouts of insomnia, as well as her video player.

"Well, definitely appreciated. Being forced to sit still for two days is going to kill me as it is."

"Don't worry, I know exactly how it is," he laughed, leaning forward on his knees to watch her dig through the bag. "Just give me a call if you think of anything else you want. And I'll come down and visit whenever I have a chance to."

"Just think about what a waste it'd be if you let a little boredom take you out after all you've been through."

She chuckled, fishing out a bouncy ball from the bottom of the bag and nodded.

"It'd be pretty lame. But probably exactly what's needed to take anyone who leads an exciting life out." Which was at least half the reason why she always harassed Chris about his smoking.

Chris had faced down mutated horrors several times the size of semi trucks and won. The prospect of lung cancer was not nearly as scary.

"I don't know about you, but I could go for a little less excitement for a while. Doesn't seem to be in the cards, though."

He paused.

"You think we could manage to play cards with you in there?"

She furrowed her brow briefly before smirking and tilting her head to the side.

"Probably not without one of us cheating."

"How's that any different than normal?" he teased, raising an eyebrow.

His smile faded a little bit a moment later, and he seemed hesitant to ask the next question. "How's Leon? I heard he got thrown around a bit too."

Claire's smile faded at that too and she shook her head a little, looking down again.

"He's tough. He'll be fine."

"You're not blaming yourself for that too, are you?" he asked, a bit suspiciously. "Boneheads like us get ourselves hurt no matter what."

"That bonehead wouldn't have gotten hurt if he hadn't been trying to protect me." So yes, Chris, she is blaming herself for that one too.

"That was his choice, not yours," Chris reminded her. "And you're not blaming him for your injuries."

"That's because this was pretty much all me," she replied, gesturing at herself, before shrugging one shoulder. "I got in the way so that Steve wouldn't flatten Leon like a pancake. Then he had to go and mess it up by getting flattened anyway." She knew Leon had probably saved her life, but that didn't stop her from being irrationally annoyed he had to go and do stupid things like jump on a Tyrant's back.

"So you also saved his life," he pointed out. Talking with or arguing with Chris was sometimes a lot like arguing with a brick wall, or a kindergartner, in terms of stubbornness.

"Only to have him in turn get hurt. If Miku and Luke hadn't arrived when they did..." She trailed off, shaking her head and reaching up to rub her face with one hand. "We got lucky."

"You did." Chris couldn't argue that one. Some things were only good luck, and the fact that Leon and Claire hadn't both been crushed under a monster's foot was pure and simple luck.

He offered her an awkward little corner of a smile. "You can at least be glad about that?"

She sighed, smiling a little and dropping her hand.

"Yeah, I am glad about that. But I can't help but feel like I messed things up."

He nodded, and wished there was something he could say to change her mind about blaming herself. But the Redfields were a very stubborn people, and he knew well enough there wasn't any kind of magical thread of logic to go by.

"Give it some time," he offered. "Take it easy for a few days and it'll be all right."

She just kind of looked at him for a second, before smiling a little and shaking her head.

"Well it's not like I can do anything in here besides take it easy."

"And knowing you, that's probably a good thing," he pointed out.

left me a beautiful disaster; [opeeeeeeen]

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