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Sherry was rarely thankful that her parents treated her like a kid. It felt unfair; she was nearly thirteen, why couldn’t they just grasp that she was going to grow up sooner or later? But, on days like today, when she and her father had gone to the Observation Deck and saw Big Zero strung up like some sort of awkward scarecrow, she’d been so glad to be told to leave. Her father’s brook-no-arguments tone had been more than welcome.

So, she’d gone off to the sensoriums, where she would be safe from screaming, or horror, and conjured up East Raccoon Elementary’s playground. She didn’t want new fodder for her regularly-occurring nightmares, anyway, Sherry told herself stubbornly.

The little girl sat on the swings, toeing the soft sand with her sneaker to make her move back and forth. Eventually, that... Punishment would be over, and she could go looking for Leon, who should be resting regardless of what was going on out there.

But, boy, did she ever hate just waiting.

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Chris had seen enough torment and torture in his long career so far. He had absolutely no desire to sit and watch it happen, no matter if a sentient ship told him to do so. In fact, just using his imagination brought to mind a few too many awful memories, and he had the sudden desire to do what he always did to cope-- shove it to the back of his mind and try to forget about it.

So there was a bit of a surprise for him when he found himself in the familiar skyline of Raccoon City, and spotted his "niece" sitting on the swing.

"Looking for a getaway too?" he asked, stepping up and leaning on the swingset's pole.

Sherry looked up and blinked owlishly at Chris. She hadn't been paying much attention when he'd come across the playground. "Yes, sort of. Daddy---" Sherry paused and corrected herself. She wanted to sound adult, after all. "Dad said I shouldn't stay and watch it. So I hid in here."

The little girl sighed and let her swing come to a squeaky stop. "It's probably better for me."

Chris trailed over behind her and had a seat on the next swing over. The seat was probably too small for a full grown man (particularly of Chris' stature) but "It's probably better for me, too," he said confidentially.

"Awful things happen. Sometimes it's better if you don't try to be there when they do."

Sherry leaned her head against the plastic-covered chain of the swing. If anything, the children who had attended the school with her had been well protected from the usual bumps and owies regular children contended with. "I don't like it, though. Dad shouldn't have stayed, either."

She chewed her lower lip nervously, "He's supposed to be resting, anyway." Sherry glanced at the man who was playing the role of her "uncle." Sizing him up as she was wont to since he'd been (trying) to keep an eye on her. "Were you here when the monsters came, too? Well. Not here, but..."

"I had heard he was a workaholic," he replied. Thankfully, Claire had not expressly given Chris the job of making sure Leon stayed resting. He was a tough guy, but not a miracle worker. And now that she was out of quarantine she could do it herself.

He looked a bit thoughtful at her question. "I was a police officer, actually," he said. "Did you ever hear of S.T.A.R.S.? I investigated one of the laboratories where the whole thing began. Nobody believed us about what was going on, so... by the time the real monsters came, I was out of the country doing an investigation of my own."

"He is, but, I'm used to that in my fathers, I guess." Sherry smiled just slightly and shrugged. Fathers, what could you do with them?

"I hid in your office for a few minutes," the little girl said thoughtfully. It was kind of like digging through a haze; there were things she just didn't want to remember about those nights hidden in the police station. "But then I heard something moaning in the hallway, and I climbed in a vent." She frowned a little, "It was a really dusty vent. I wanted to sneeze, but if I did, I would have probably gotten eaten."

The office. Chris had some good memories of that place. There were some memories of endless hours of paperwork and legal hoops, and there were a lot of others of bags of candy and playing the guitar when Wesker was out and generally shooting the shit with the other guys. And Jill.

Though it had been Brad's job to call maintenance about that damn dusty vent, so Chris wasn't surprised it never got done.

"You're a pretty resourceful kid," he complimented. "Did you find the candy in my desk?"

"No, but the nice policeman that was trying to keep everyone calm in the beginning gave me chips from the vending machine." He'd been such a nice man, before the monsters got him. "I didn't want to snoop. My parents said it was something 'common' people did, and rude, besides."

"But I hid in the vents, and when I couldn't get through the vents I had to avoid the monsters. I didn't like that part." Sherry shuddered.

"I bet. You're brave on top of everything else. I don't know if I would have had the guts to do that when I was your age." Granted, Chris probably would have started trying to fight the monsters when he was her age, and he didn't have any false ideas about how that would have gone.

"I'm glad you met up with Claire. She's got a good head for situations like that," he said. "Did you feel better when she caught up with you?"

"She had to catch me, first, but... yes. I was happy she found me." She hadn't said as much then, not until later, but that initial relief... "But then the... monster," because, no matter what, it couldn't have been her father, "that had been chasing me around was really close. So I ran away again."

"I don't think I'm really all that brave; I'm just really good at running away from things." And how!

"You know, you'd be surprised," he said. "Running away is a smart thing to do a lot of times." Of course, Chris himself seemed incapable of following that advice. "A lot of people just freeze up when they're scared. Being able to keep a cool head is important."

Boy, batting a thousand today, aren't we, Mr. Redfield?

He offered Sherry an awkward little smile. "And you know, considering all you've been through, you're a strong person. You'd put a lot of adults I know to shame."

Funny, neither did her mother.

"Mom and Dad never run away from things." Ever. She remembered the outbreak several months ago, and how they'd shoved her into the emergency medical room inside the cathedral with Dr. Sera and the other children while they went off to the front lines. "But they're good at that, I guess."

"Yeah, well..." Chris chuckled a bit. "I think your mom and I both have that problem. We can be a little bit boneheaded when people we care about are in trouble."

In other news, China was "crowded" and the universe was "big."

"That doesn't make you less brave, though. If anything it makes you smarter."

Sherry raised her eyebrows at Chris in an almost perfect mockery of Claire's own look. Really, no one could say she was unadaptive. "I know. It's why Mom does stupid things sometimes. But I forgive her for those." Mostly.

"I'm not sure if you should be telling me I'm smarter, though." She already knew that, thank you very much. "But thank you, Uncle Chris."

"Maybe you're right. You're the type who'll throw it in my face if we're arguing later, aren't you?"

He smirked at her and pushed his foot against the ground to make himself swing a little.

Sherry flushed and looked away, "No!" Which, ostensibly, probably meant she would. "Well... unless you did something really stupid."

But really, how stupid could her uncle be?

"I don't know. Give me a little time and I guess we'll see what I get up to."

Chris reached off to the side and ruffled Sherry's hair-- the dreaded, dreaded hair ruffle.

She flailed, "No! My hair!"

The look she gave him was one of EPIC BETRAYAL!

Well, as much epic betrayal as a little girl could muster, anyway. She pursed her lips at Chris and sighed. "I said don't do that!"

"Oh. Sorry." Chris put his hand up defensively. "See, it only took me five seconds to do something stupid."

Sherry puffed her cheeks out, a sign of irritation Chris was probably getting used to. She pulled off her headband and put it in her lap, fixing her long hair as best as she could. "You promised you wouldn't!"

Though she was used to Leon saying he wouldn't either, and part of her knew it would be wrong to let her father get away with it and not her uncle. They were family now, right? Right.

But boy, did it ever annoy her! "Just don't do it again."

Before heading to his room Alex headed to the sensoriums.

He didn't often bring up places from his home, but he wanted to see Mikel. Even a fake Mikel's smile would make him feel a little more relaxed.

Instead he stumbled upon a playground, and a little girl with a small inanimate shadow around her. Nothing to worry about at least.

He considered turning around and leaving, but instead he walked a bit closer and then began digging his toe into the dirt as he asked, "I-if you'd l-like, I c-could push you..."

Sherry looked up at the stranger, and her absent sort of expression turned into one of total annoyance. "No." The word dripped with a finality that was typical to the Captain's daughter. Who did this person think she was? An elementary schooler?

Her little fingers closed around the plastic-wrapped chains a little tighter as she calculated where in the playground would be the best to run to.

He was surprised by the tone enough that he took a step back. "Er... O-okay..."

Well, this was awkward.

'I-I'm Alex, b-by the way." He grabbed one elbow with his other hand as his toe worked on drilling a hole into the ground.

"Sherry," she replied coolly and turned her attention back to the bit of sand she'd been staring a hole through while she waited on her father. "Why are you stuttering? It's annoying." And only seemed to agitate her further. Sherry kicked a little bit of the sand that had piled before her sneaker.

Why was her father taking so long?

Alex winced a bit at the sand getting kicked. "I d-dunno. I jus' always have." It was a little better now that he was trying to not stutter, but his speech also slowed on the words that he tried to force smooth.

But it was a little worth it, because he hated that the shadow swelled with every stutter he made.

"Well, stop it," she snapped. Her list of things she disliked seemed to be growing with every person she heard talking to themselves or being stupid. Sherry looked back towards where the entrance of the room was. No sign of her father yet.

Sherry pushed herself off the swing and started towards the jungle gym. Climbing wasn't her forte, not really, but at least it meant she could watch the door better. ~~She was more of a faller, truth be told.~~ She scrambled up inside the steel bar castle and sat on top.

Alex flinched at her sharp words. He sighed at himself, feeling pretty stupid that even a little girl could make him flinch. After Sherry was out of the way Alex took a seat on the swing. "I-Is there something wrong?"

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