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Chris Redfield did not think his life would go this way.
Granted, that’s true for most of the people in his circle. Perpetual war against innumerable viruses, parasites, and molds that all turn people into murderous cannibals makes it pretty hard to plan for the future. Most tend to plan from one day to the next with their only long-term thought being on their will.
Chris wasn’t much different a few months ago; he’d leave everything to Claire and if, god forbid she weren’t around to inherit, to Sherry, Jill, and Leon.
Now, however, he has a kid to look out for.
Ever since the Village incident with Miranda and Ethan’s death, someone has had to take care of the daughter he left behind. Chris didn’t think that someone would end up being him, yet Rosemary Winters has effectively wormed her way into his life. It wasn’t a very long process, either. Chris had gone through a mental list of the people Rose was most likely to fall into the care of and struck everyone off until the only one left was, well, him.
Mia Winters was not someone Chris trusted and wasn’t someone the government would allow to keep Rose regardless due to her involvement in the Connections. The government, too, was not someone Chris trusted to raise a child especially after what he’d seen Claire go through with Sherry.
Claire, Leon, and Jill were on his mind, but each got struck for different reasons.
Claire lacked the sway he or the other two had that would stop the government from strong arming Rose away which was a scenario Chris refused to put either through.
Leon was just as if not busier than he was and, while he’d gotten better about his drinking, he was a lot quicker to slip into that bad habit than Chris.
Jill, meanwhile, didn’t have a single motherly bone in her body and kept herself busy to an unhealthy degree. He really needs to check up on her and make sure she’s still seeing her therapist regularly.
Chris shakes the thoughts away and rubs at his eyes. Rose woke him up earlier than usual today and a late night from yesterday left him exhausted. She’s sleeping again now, thankfully, but Chris doesn’t have that luxury; once his brain is on, it stays on. His day, at least, isn’t too busy. He’s already gotten a majority of the reports from his team filed and it’s only…
Noon already?
Chris groans and pushes his laptop away. Mia is scheduled to come over in an hour. Though Chris is Rose’s legal guardian, he agreed to give Mia visitation rights so Rose wouldn’t lack both of her biological parents.
Frankly, Chris can’t stand Mia Winters and believes she must only care about her daughter because she knows about the potential biological weapon hiding inside of her. He’s taken the appropriate precautions when allowing Mia to see Rose, too, and always has either himself or one of his Hounds supervising.
Unfortunately, Mia has proven herself to be a better parent than Chris. It was never a fair comparison given Mia's experience with raising young children while Chris only ever raised Claire from her preteen years onward, but it rubs him the wrong way anyway. He has done his research since then and reluctantly taken some of Mia’s advice, so he’s better now, but he still lacks a lot of the time a toddler desperately needs. Mia helps fill those gaps, as well as Claire whenever he can get her to babysit instead.
Chris pushes himself out of his chair, spine popping a little more than he’d like, and makes his way to the kitchen. He should prepare something for lunch. Breakfast for himself was three cups of coffee and the scrambled egg Rose hadn’t finished seven hours ago. Rose’s was a little more nutritionally balanced with an egg and some yogurt, but it had still been quite a while since either of them ate. She was definitely going to wake up hungry.
Rose is awake and fed by the time Mia comes over. Chris’s mood takes a downwards turn at the knock on his door and he doesn’t bother hiding his displeasure when he goes to open it.
“Mia.”
The woman standing on the other side nods, expression neutral. “Chris.”
Mia’s handlers idle in their car at the end of the driveway, waiting as Chris stares at Mia like he can make her turn back through sheer force of will. Mia, frustratingly, remains as unaffected as if she were standing before a wall.
Eventually, Chris shifts to the side and Mia makes her way unhurriedly to the living room where Rose plays. He meets the driver’s eyes and nods, earning an acknowledgement before the car pulls away. Chris shuts the door and turns to go back to the kitchen table where he’d started working again after making sure Rose was content on her own. Lunch had helped get him some energy back and with Mia here, he’ll have a bit more free time to actually get things done.
He’ll be watching the entire time, of course, and Mia knows it as well as he does since she’s already put her back to the kitchen to avoid looking at him.
“Dada!”
The call has both Chris and Mia freezing. Mia had entered the kitchen to get a snack for Rose only for the girl to very loudly proclaim her first word from the living room. The two adults look at one another, sharing a rare moment of awe, and Chris follows Mia back to the living room to hover by the couch.
“Rose, did you just say your first word?” Mia asks, crouching near where Rose sits on the ground with some plastic blocks scattered around her.
“Dada!” Rose repeats happily, hitting her little hand against one of the blocks and sending it flying a few inches away.
“Where did you learn th-” Mia goes to ask only for her to look down and gasp.
“What is it?” Chris moves over now, on the alert for whatever might have startled the woman.
Mia regains her composure and shakes her head, pushing the blocks away from her daughter’s feet. It’s not before Chris can get a glimpse of them over her shoulder, though, and he’s almost certain the three laid out in front of Rose spelled “DAD”.
“She can spell?” He asks skeptically. That shouldn’t be possible yet; Chris knows that much even without the parenting books he still hasn’t returned to the library.
“No, it must have been a coincidence.” Mia denies it almost immediately and suspicion begins to creep in.
“You expect me to believe Rose said and spelled her first word on the same day?” Mia doesn’t respond nor so much as look at him, seeming to believe he might disappear if she refuses to acknowledge him. “That’s a hell of a coincidence, Mia.”
“That’s all it can be.” She’s defensive and he can’t quite tell why. Does she think it’s related to Rose’s potential for developing powers?
“You know something.”
“I don’t.”
“Don’t lie to me. If you suspect something is going on with Rose…”
The threat weighs the air down. Rose seems to have sensed the tension between her guardians and has gone quiet, attention shifting anxiously between the two of them. It lingers for a long moment with Chris drilling holes in the back of Mia’s head all while she stares staunchly at the scattered blocks on the floor.
Rose fidgets and Chris’s attention shifts to her. She looks his way with glistening eyes and Chris sighs.
“We’re on the same side regarding Rose.” He says quietly, “You know about her weekly tests. If she’s developing something I need to hide, I can’t without knowing what it is.”
Mia exhales through her nose and raises her head, looking pained to be cooperating with the likes of him. “I don’t have evidence of anything.”
“Give me your hunch then.”
Quiet again, this one lasting longer. Rose shifts uncomfortably and Mia gathers her in her arms vacantly, murmuring platitudes.
Chris waits.
He is not a patient man, but he can tell the difference between the type of person who folds under pressure and the type who shuts down completely. Mia is the latter, and the fact that she cares about her daughter is what Chris is banking on breaking her. Whether her care is the love of a mother or the interest of a scientist, Chris doesn’t know, and he doesn’t want to find out.
“Do you have your phone?” Mia finally asks, moving to put her back against the couch. It causes her to be turned towards him in profile, though she keeps her attention riveted firmly to her daughter.
“It’s upstairs.”
Mia nods and strokes Rose’s hair. “When Ethan and I had Rose, I wasn’t sure if she would have any connection to Eveline, but I never discounted it as a possibility. I still can’t say how strong that connection is, but after Miranda…” She trails off and closes her eyes, inhaling.
Mia shakes her head on the exhale and continues quietly. “Rose is intertwined with the mold just like Ethan was. And… it holds memories. When I cared for Eveline, she could almost read your mind even without having full control over you. She’d bring up memories you’d forgotten, recite them like she was there. I-I think Rose might have that same ability. That Ethan might still exist, in some way, to her.”
It’s a lot to wrap his head around. Everyone involved in the Village incident expected Rose to have a connection to everything in some way, but Chris hadn’t considered… this.
“So she’s seeing memories.” He reiterates, earning a shallow nod. Chris frowns and chews on his lip. “Is that dangerous?”
Mia shakes her head. “No. No, I don’t think so. I can only assume that what she might be experiencing are latent memories the mold absorbed. She hasn’t shown any signs that she’s actively infiltrating minds.”
“And if she does?” Chris asks gravely.
Mia looks at him for the first time throughout the entire conversation. Her eyes alone speak a thousand words, but she says, “That won’t be up to me.”
Chris purses his lips. “How will we know if she does?”
He doesn’t know if he'd be able to hide it from the people who are so interested in Rose’s development. They wouldn’t neutralize her, not without first determining how much use they can wring out of her. Even Chris might not hold the sway to stop that without going off grid.
Mia looks back at Rose. “You’ll know. She’ll start to appear in your dreams and bring up memories she shouldn’t know about. You’ll start to see her even when you’re not sleeping. You’ll give everything to protect her.”
Chris mentally notes it all, but discards the last. It wouldn’t be obvious in him, but he could watch his men who interact with Rose when he’s not around to supervise Mia’s visits.
“Alright.” He says after chewing over everything.
He isn’t thrilled about the prospect of Rose’s developing powers, but he’ll deal with it as it comes. If he could raise Claire, he can raise Rose. He’ll keep the memories quiet and if Rose’s examiners don’t figure it out before she’s older, he’ll coach her on what to keep private before they can.
Chris lingers for a moment, but the conversation is effectively over. He has even more on his plate now which is exhausting to think about in and of itself.
Rose fusses when he turns away, so he goes to grab the apple slices and milk Mia had taken out for the girl while Mia stands and leaves for the bathroom to change her. She knows where everything is in Chris’s house by now and moves throughout the place like she’s always lived here.
It’s a strange dynamic they have; not so unlike his own parents in the year before they died.
Chris had seen the love dying out between them, seen his mother and father interacting cordially, but no longer affectionately. They did it for him and Claire. Chris knew it, but Claire was too young to understand. He never told her about their parents’ marital issues in depth, but she was a smart kid and had asked him about it years later.
Rose will probably pick up on the same things between him and Mia, even if it’s more complicated. There’s not much he can do about it.
He plans on giving Rose the most normal childhood he can, but Rose is not a normal child and Chris is not a normal guardian. They will face difficulties, but when hasn’t his life been difficult? He’s managed to get through it all so far, and now he has even more of a reason to keep going.
Chris’s thoughts continue to turn over in his mind as he warms the milk in the microwave.
The clock on the stove reads 4:00 pm. Mia will be picked up by 6 and will raid his pantry to make dinner for her and Rose by 5. He’ll wait until she’s gone to get something for himself that amounts to nothing more than whatever leftovers are in the fridge. Then he’ll spend another hour or two with Rose and try to get them both to bed early.
When Mia returns from the bathroom with Rose, Chris meets her eye and wordlessly slides the apple and milk across the center island. She nods a silent thanks and moves closer to bring them to the table. Rose, in her arms, watches Chris with all the intensity of a baby who knows nothing about social cues.
Her mouth works like she’s trying to tell him something in secret before, loudly, she says “Mama!”
Mia jolts, nearly tipping the milk cup over, and looks at her daughter with wide eyes. Chris’s eyebrows have shot up and they both stare at the girl who looks back at him and giggles, repeating, “mama, mama!” She wriggles in Mia’s grasp as she does so, intent on some new mission the adults in her life are apparently holding her back from.
“Rose-” Mia tries, but Rose continues to fidget enough that her mother has to hold her with both arms to stop from dropping her. “You don’t want to eat?” She asks, bouncing the girl and turning away from Chris.
Chris, for his part, has no idea how to react. Two words in one day is a pretty big occasion, he thinks, but they’ll have to work on Rose’s word association. He’s certainly not the one that taught her “mama”, and if Mia had, he doesn’t know why Rose is so intent on looking at him while she says it.
Unfortunately for Mia, Rose is not giving up in her mission of squirming away, and has increased her efforts even more now that her view of Chris is blocked. Exasperated, Mia turns back around and closes the distance between them in two quick strides.
“She wants to see you, mom.”
It’s the first time Chris has heard Mia speak with much emotion at all, and right now, it’s sarcastic annoyance. She holds Rose out to him and he takes her on autopilot. Rose settles down almost immediately and Mia is already returning to the island by the time Chris’s brain starts to catch up to what just happened.
Why mama?
If anything, he’d thought Rose might associate him with “dad” and that he’d have to break that habit so he didn’t take Ethan’s place.
Mom, however, he hadn’t even accounted for. Mia is here and alive and sees Rose regularly. She must be the one who was teaching her to say “mama” to begin with. How did she start to associate that word with him? Is it his fault for not teaching her a simple word to refer to him as, so she just took what she’d already heard and gave it to him?
Mia sets the apple and milk on the table and meets his eyes before flicking hers to the snacks. Rose has made herself comfortable against his chest and watches her mother curiously.
Maybe it’s as simple as her wanting to be held by someone else. She has grown particularly clingy in the past few months, and Chris is usually the one to hold her when she’s looking for it. Her new vocabulary is probably just a way to get what she wants quicker. And now that both him and Mia have reacted to her calling him “mama”, it’s going to be an even harder habit to break.
Chris moves over to the table and quickly realizes Rose isn’t interested in sitting in her high chair when she grabs his shirt and refuses to let go when he tries to set her inside. Acquiescing, Chris takes a seat instead and situates Rose on his lap, pulling the apples closer to let her pick off the plate. Mia doesn’t say a word as she goes off to start raiding his pantry an hour early.
All Chris can think about as he eats an apple slice with Rose is that he will never live down being called “mom”. That, and the strange swell of gratification he felt at realizing she was talking to him.