trans_9 | The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls [closed]

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The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls [closed]

Away from the observation deck, Sherry found that the walls of the ship didn't change. It was easier to keep her eyes on the fleshy ground ahead of her (which she was pretending was not fleshy at all, thanks) than look up at the fleshy walls of Stacy. She could be curious about it later, it was just easier to be grossed out now. She filed away how she was getting to the Precinct that Leon and Claire talked about, and after such a long, strange walk from the Observation Deck, they were there. She hadn't spoken much, but then, she didn't talk a whole lot anyway.

Sherry couldn't help the gasp that sneaked out when she finally looked up again. "It's... big," she murmured by way of compliment. It wasn't like the one had been back home, certainly, but, definitely... definitely big.

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Inside, Sherry breathed a sigh of relief. No more fleshy walls? She could live with that ~~and hide in here forever~~. From her little seat, she kept kicking her feet back and forth nervously. Sherry glanced between and schooled her face into something her parents could've been proud of; mannerly and polite, but just a little blank as she gathered her thoughts together.

"I'm ready when you are, Leon."

God, where to begin?

Leon pulled a chair up to sit directly across from Sherry.

"Ok, So, you already know we're in space, so, yeah, as crazy as it sounds-- and I still can't believe I have to say this --we've been kidnapped by aliens." Somehow, saying it out loud only pointed out how insane things really were.

At least he skipped over the time-difference part. But he had a feeling they would need to address that sooner or later.

"No one knows why we've been kidnapped, and Stacy-- the computer who runs the ship-- hasn't been helpful. At least it can't hear us while we're in the City, but everywhere else it can monitor what we say or do.

"Right now, we have a lot of people working on ways to get to the rest of the ship, and hopefully we can find some answers and find a way back home."

Sherry gave him a long look. "Well... I guess..." she paused and tried to put her sentences together. "It's better than monsters and zombies..." Comparatively, of course, she would choose "kidnapped by aliens" to "town infested with flesh-eating monsters" in a heartbeat.

So that meant Stacy was something like a prison guard, except a bigger... meatier... the little girl derailed that train of thought and shook her head. "How long have you and Claire been on the ship?" Had it been a long time? How had she gotten on the ship? "The last time I saw you, Leon, you were telling me that everything would be fine and I would be in good hands." And then some other agents had come in after he left and tried grilling her all about her parents' work and how they'd managed to escape. Sherry blew her bangs out of her face and looked up at him.

"And do we not want Stacy to hear us?" That seemed weird. Stacy liked them, didn't she? That's what it had felt like.

"No one knows how long we've been on the ship. For all we know, we could've been stuck in those snot pods for ages." Truthfully, no one knew for sure, given how everyone came from different places and times to begin with. There was no common through-line.

"I was part of the seventh group of people who got released. Claire showed up about a month or two later as part of the ninth group, and you're a few weeks behind her as part of the tenth."

Leon looked over at Claire. He had mostly avoided the seven year gap, largely because he had no idea how to explain it.

"We... don't completely trust Stacy. In addition to it, there are other people in charge of the ship. We don't know who they are and what they want with us, and Stacy can't tell us.

"In the meantime, while we're here, we do have some food, these... clothes... and a few other things. Stacy will keep crew members from attacking each other, and its my job to make sure nothing else can attack us while we're stuck here. So you're safe, alright?" Stacy be damned, he was not going to let anything happen to her.

Well, that had been fruitless. She wondered if each question was going to lead into more questions. That seemed to be standard for them, didn't it? But, still Leon seemed certain that she would be safe, even if the ship was untrustworthy, or if the people on the ship fought.

It made her think briefly of the people in the precinct, during the incident and was more than enough to make her shudder. "I know I can rely upon the both of you, so I'm not worried. Not anymore."

But... speaking of time differences, "Why are you both so much older now?" She didn't mean it to come out as bluntly as she had, but the little girl had lost something in the way of social cues growing up.

"Uh..."

...yeah, still no idea how to explain that.

He looked over at Claire. Help?

Claire bit her lip at that question, looking back at Leon with a slightly raised eyebrow before taking a deep breath.

"We're...not really sure." So much for collected and informed adults. She shook her head a little, keeping her eyes focused on Sherry. "There's seven years that we can account for after Raccoon, but.. maybe Stacy just snatched you sooner than she did us." That made the most sense, it wasn't like either one of them had seen her since then. It twisted her stomach to think Sherry had been stuck at 12 all these years, in this place, but it wasn't like there was anything she could do about it now.

"I see," Sherry thumbed her lip, and looked thoughtfully down at her knees. In that case, if she'd already been stuck in a goopy pod for seven years, she couldn't be very upset with Claire for not finding her. Or for not coming back.

She straightened her shoulders and took a steadying breath. "What did you do in the mean time? I don't mean here, I mean..." Sherry waved her hand, "After everyone left." It was okay if she didn't think about everything at once. She could take the gist now and concentrate on the details, later.

Leon ran a hand through his hair, all of which fell perfectly back into place when he was done. He thought he had left her somewhere she would be safe, only for her to end up here.

He shook that off for the moment, and flashed Sherry a little smile before answering her question.

"Well, I'm still a cop, more or less. Only instead of working for a city, I work for the Federal Government. They taught me a few new tricks, and I got to meet the President and his family, so that's kinda cool."

That was the simplest way of describing things, while leaving out zombie outbreaks in airports and crazy Spaniards.

Claire smirked a little at Leon's description of his job before rolling her shoulders back and planting her hands behind her on the desk.

"I found my brother." That had been the initial reason she'd left them, so that was probably fairly good news to report. Although it wasn't like she'd seen much of Chris in the months before she'd ended up in this place, but he'd been busy with the BSAA. "And I joined a Non-Government Organization called TerraSave. We sort've specialize in helping the families of victims of bioterrorism." And she also carefully omitted her own problems with the shambling undead.

Sherry smiled, happy for Claire. It was good news that she had managed to find the person she'd been looking for.

"So, does that mean there aren't any more zombies?" What a relief. It would be easier to sleep at night with that in mind. It might even mean that she wouldn't have as horrifying nightmares anymore. "It looks like you were both doing very well! I'm glad!" But now they were all here again, and she at least had an idea of what they were doing. "While we're here, is there any place you don't want me to wander to?" It was a cursory question. Even her parents had given her limits.

Did that make Claire and Leon her de facto parents? The thought made her grin a little.

"You don't have to worry about any more zombies." At the least there was a t-virus vaccine now, so further outbreaks could be contained and prevented.

Despite Stacy's size, the crew was limited to onl a few areas of the ship, most of which weren't terribly dangerous.

"There are a few parts of the City that are blocked off, so stay away from those. Everywhere else is safe, but you still need to let me or Claire know where you're going."

That whole 'safe' thing could change at any moment around here.

Claire nodded along with what Leon said. While she hadn't scoped every inch of the ship, there were enough people around that she wasn't too concerned that Sherry could get into much trouble. It was one of the reasons she didn't try to keep all the other kids under her watch at all times, because there were others keeping an eye out too.

Still, she had a lot more personal investment in Sherry, so she'd be happier knowing where the girl was at all times.

"There are quite a few other kids around your age, so you won't have to hang around nothing but grown ups."

"I don't mind grown-ups," Sherry protested. Really, she liked them better than people her own age. Was that weird? She wasn't sure, but she didn't really care. So long as they didn't talk down to her, like she was someone incapable of caring for herself, she liked adults just fine. It was her own age group that seemed unnaturally vicious.

Leon only smiled a little at her protest. Sherry was rather mature for her age. At times, anyway.

After a moment, Leon looked over at Claire.

"At some point, we're going to have to explain how we know her. Unless you want to stick with 'Found her in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.'"

Claire frowned a little, looking over at Leon.

"What else are we supposed to say?" It wasn't like there was a variety of alternative options that immediately sprung to Claire's mind, but then again, zombie apocalypse was unfortunately one of the primary ways she met new people.

"You could say I'm your family." Sherry suggested seriously.

"Uh..."

He had to consider that one for a moment. He turned that idea over in his mind, finding it to be a not bad idea. He looked over at Claire, trying to gauge her reaction.

"Well..."

"What like... siblings?" She looked from Leon to Sherry and back again, not really sure that that would work. For one, several people were aware Claire and Leon were friends, had different surnames, and had never really given anyone an impression they might be related. Then Sherry...

"Sherry is probably too young, I mean I know some people have kids late in life, but..."

Sherry tugged a lock of hair, thinking. "Well, not exactly..." Hopefully the adults would get the hint. But probably not; Claire looked fit to explode from confusion. Leon looked unsure, but he might get the idea faster than Claire, she decided. Physically, she looked close enough to their coloring; thank God that her father had similar enough hair to Leon.

Leon slowly leaned forward and casually placed his hand over his mouth and chin. He looked at Sherry, and she could probably see that his eyes, at least, were smiling.

~~No, Claire, Leon was definitely not laughing at you right now.~~

"I think what she means is," he started after he was able to collect himself, "not that we tell people she's our kid sister... but that we tell people she's our kid."

It was a good thing Claire was mostly sitting on the desk and had her hands braced, because she probably would've fallen over if she wasn't stably planted. As it was the look on her face went blank for a long moment as she struggled to not say the very first thing that came to mind.

Once her brain had a chance to reboot she stared hard at Sherry, trying to decide if she would actually be passable as their child.

"...Do you think people will buy that?"

"Maybe," Sherry shrugged. Genetics were as they were. "My hair is close enough to Leon's, isn't it? And our eyes are blue... People see what they want to see anyway, don't they? If you tell them, they'll probably take it at face value and not look too deeply into it." It made sense to her; Sherry worried her lower lip between her teeth nervously.

"What do you think...?"

He again had to not laugh at the look on Claire's face. It was a good thing he had all that secret agent training.

"I don't think anyone will run DNA tests on us anytime soon." Well, except Dox. He was the only one in the science crew who seemed skeevy enough to do something like that.

"If it makes you more comfortable, we can also say she's simply my daughter..." he told Claire. He was willing to give her an out in case she thought it implied something about her or their relationship that she didn't want anyone thinking. "...or yours."

Claire didn't really think she was going to be completely comfortable with this right off the bat no matter what, since doing a quick mental count that would mean she'd have to have been fourteen when she had Sherry, but she appreciated Leon trying to make things a little less weird.

"No, it's fine." No matter what, it would be weird. But people were going to think what they'd think no matter what, so she'd just roll with it in the most straightforward way possible. "If we're both her parents that'll be less questions about the missing parent we'll have to make up answers for."

Sherry did not have Leon's Special Agent training to fall back on, so she ducked her head and felt her lips split into a goofy, endlessly pleased, grin.

"And we'd still take care of her anyway." This was still a lot to go with, but it made a certain amount of sense. And Sherry obviously liked the idea.

"So we're all in agreement?" Last chance to back out, Redfield.

Claire was put a little more at ease at the large smile on Sherry's face. This could absolutely backfire, but for now it seemed like the best course of action.

"Just one thing," she glanced over at Leon, raising her index finger into the air. "Last name?"

Sherry looked up and tried to think of a suitable name. Redfield? Kennedy? Redfennedy? She wasn't sure how it was supposed to work, exactly. Her parents had been married long before she arrived, and no one in her school had been the product of a single-parent home.

"Umm...Redfield..?" she suggested uncertainly.

Leon shrugged a little. It didn't make too much of a difference to him. "If that's the one you want."

Claire nodded, finally smirking a little as she looked between Leon and Sherry. "Well considering I'd have been an unwed teenage mother, Redfield would make the most sense"

Sherry let the name work over in her mind; ideally, Leon would have to have responsibility, too. Right? Maybe.

"Redfield-Kennedy," she said finally. "Is that okay with the both of you?"

Leon was the responsible type, if anything. And on some other level that he wasn't quite sure he wanted to think about, he did like the shared last name.

"It sounds good to me, sweetheart."

"Me too." This all still felt the slightest bit off center to Claire, but she wasn't going to give it much thought. Sherry was happy with the arrangement, and it wasn't really like Claire needed to adjust to being a mother-figure. She'd just have to adjust to being an actual mother. Okay that was probably what was off center.

Shaking her head very slightly, she smiled. "Okay, now I think we're settled."

Sherry nodded. It was kind of nice to go from orphan to not-orphaned, even if it wasn't exactly the truth. She couldn't help the smile that pulled her lips upwards. So while today started out horrible, perhaps now it could be the Worst Quarter Day Ever. Yes, she liked this idea.

"So, with that all settled, what do we do now?" Could she go wander? Did she want to? Initial horror aside, Sherry found herself curious of the people on the spaceship. She'd have to get used to that thought, I am on a spaceship.

Congrats, Leon, you're a dad now!

Hn...

"It's a girl," he said absently, mostly talking to himself.

He snapped himself out of his thoughts at Sherry's question. What do they do now?

"I guess we can show you around the rest of the ship; introduce you to a few other people."

"It's a good idea to get you a little bit more acquainted with the area," Claire added on, choosing to ignore the corny comment Leon made before.

"Even if there are a lot of areas blocked off, there's still tons to explore."

"I'd really like that." After all, she didn't exactly remember how they got here. Sherry stood up and rocked back on her heels, fidgeting now that they had to go back out there. She'd be on her very best behavior; no screaming in terror and fleeing, no hiding in vents.

For now, anyway. "Ready, Cl- Mom and Dad."

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The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls [closed]

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