Bouncing Back

Narration

"Talking"

Jill's thoughts

First Time Back

Jill stood leaned against the jeep she'd driven to the rendezvous with her latest partner, outside an old office building. As she waited, the now blond agent thought somewhat bitterly about the briefing with her department chief for her first mission since being rescued from Wesker.

"You'll won't be paired with an official agent for this job," the chief had said.

"Excuse me?"

"Your partner's name is Gideon Starling, he's a...freelancer, of sorts." the chief explained, likely sensing her aggravation.

"Freelance?" Jill had snapped back, Shouldn't have lost my temper.

"He's not officially a member of the BSAA, or any other agency for that matter, but as near as we can tell this Starling guy has been dealing with BOWs at least since Raccoon City." The chief had reasoned.

"This is bullshit." Jill had muttered. It had been close to six months since Chris and Sheva had rescued her from Wesker, and the transition had been less then pleasant. So much had changed in Jill's absence she now felt like a stranger around people she'd known for years. Chris had been assigned Sheva as his new partner seven months after Jill's apparent death and the two where now more intimate then regulations normally allowed. Jill didn't blame her former partner/friend-with-benefits/lover(?), two years was a long time to wait, especially for a woman everyone believed dead. Claire and Leon were now together; Jill thought the redhead deserved better, but the blond fed made her happy. There were half a dozen other massive changes, but the worst part of Jill's return was the kid gloves everyone had been treating her with.

Throughout her recovery and subsequent training to get back into shape, everyone she knew had been treating Jill very delicately. While she was loath to admit it, she had needed this in the early stages; Sheva and the Redfield's doting support, Rebecca gently nursing her back to health, that therapist she just couldn't get a rise out of. But I've moved past that, dammit! I haven't had a nightmare in almost a week.

Jill shook her head to clear the angry thoughts, Just do the job, show everyone you don't need anyone to hold your hand...and where is this guy? Jill looked up and down the empty street, but aside from a blond girl with a duffle bag, there was no one to be seen.

As the girl approached, Jill got a progressively better look at her. She was very young, nineteen at most, and was dressed in what appeared to be a cheerleader uniform. Her hair was done up into a pair of ponytails, and she was sucking on a lollipop.

Jill cast another impatient look in the other direction when she heard a voice ask, "Excuse me, are you from the BSAA?"

Jill turned to see the girl, lollipop in hand, looking at her expectantly. Jill could now see that the girl's uniform red 'San Romero Knights.' It sounded somehow familiar. Jill snapped out of her stupor and answered, "Uh, yeah."

The girl switched the treat to her left hand, and held her right out to Jill, "I'm Juliet Starling! My dad couldn't make it, so he sent me instead." she introduced cheerfully.

"...what?"

The girl, Juliet, lowered her hand and explained, "Well, the BSAA had a deal with my dad, but he had some 'important business' he had to attend to. You ask me he was just looking for an excuse," Juliet rolled her blue eyes, "He never got over when the CIA wouldn't give him credit for the Roswell thing, so he totally hates working with big agencies. Anyway, he asked me to come in his place, even though my little sister Rosalind really wanted to come, and-"

"Wait!" Jill held up her hand for silence, "YOU are my partner for this mission? Is this some kind of joke?"

Juliet put her free hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes indigently, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What does it mean? I get sent on some wild goose chase mission, I'm told I'll be partnered with a 'freelancer,', and know you're telling me I've got to work a kid-"

"Hey! I turned eighteen two months ago!"

"Wonderful." Jill muttered pinching the bridge of her nose, "This crap just keeps getting better and better."

"You know, I came here to kill some zombies, not to be disrespected." Juliet said before popping her lollipop back in her mouth.

"Kill some zombies?" Jill had had about enough, "Have you ever even seen a zombie? A majini? A licker?"

"Yeah, I've been a zombie hunter my whole life! I'm the one that saved San Romero!" Saved San Romero? Suddenly Jill remembered where she'd heard of the city before. There had been a huge outbreak of something resembling the infamous T-Virus there two months before. "Just gimme a chance!"

If she lived through something like that, she might have some skills after all. Rebecca was only eighteen during the Mansion Incident. "Okay, girl, we'll do this, but you stay close to me and do what I say." Jill explained calmly.

"Sounds like Cordelia," Juliet muttered, "Okay, deal. You know you never gave me your name."

"Jill Valentine." Jill said, holding out her hand. Juliet shook it and the agent continued, "C'mon, we've got work to do."

As the two women headed toward the building, Juliet turned to Jill and asked, "So you think this building's full of zombies?"

"Potentially," Jill answered, "Intel says there was a deal gone bad in here, our job is to see if any BOWs have been left milling around as a result."

"We should secure the bottom floor first, then work our way up," Juliet suggested, "That way, the zombies can't slip past us."

Not bad.

A cautious search of the bottom floor found it to be free of undead or any of Umbrella's other little pets. There was a great deal of dried blood splattered across several walls, Jill found an extra magazine for her pistol (she'd long ago stopped questioning where it came from), and a visit to the security room had ended in disappointment as the only camera still working was the one in the security room.

With the bottom floor secure and the elevator out of service, the pair headed up the stairs. Scanning the hallway they exited into, Jill's well-honed survival instincts began to kick in. She turned to Juliet and the cheerleader also seemed to be more on alert. "Hope whatever you've got in that bag is useful."

"Oh, it is," Juliet reassured, "You'll see."

They rounded a corner and a faint moaning could be heard. Creeping up to the door the sound was coming from, Jill opened it just a crack and, sure enough, there were five zombies shuffling around inside. Jill felt a familiar chill run down her spine, and took a deep breath, Calm down, Jill. You've dealt with these things dozens of times. "Let's get 'em!" Juliet exclaimed, only to held back by Jill.

"N-no," Jill cleared her throat, "No, we radio it in, probably call for backup."

"Aw, c'mon, we can handle this. There's only five of them." Jill ignored the girl and pulled out her radio. She was just about to call her superiors when Juliet shoved past her. "Like I said, I came here to kill some zombies!"

Before Jill could do anything, Juliet kicked the door open and rushed in. The zombies turned toward the noise, whereupon Juliet grinned and finally opened her duffle bag. Standing frozen in the door way, Jill watched as Juliet triumphantly pulled the literal last thing the agent expected; a brightly colored chainsaw.

Juliet revved the weapon up and did a spinning jump toward the closest zombie to her, taking the creature's head off in midair. Even more baffling, the chainsaw's blade seemed to be glowing and it left a trail of rainbows and hearts in its wake. Juliet landed and dropped into a split, positioning her chainsaw between another zombie's legs and gracefully rose back to her feet, slicing the zombie neatly in half on the way up.

As Juliet dispatched the remaining undead, Jill watched, still trying to comprehend what she was seeing. A...magic...chainsaw...?

...

...

...

...Know, what? Sure, why not? With all the weird crap I've seen in my life, why can't this girl have a magical weapon?

Juliet sliced the arms off the last zombie, then swung her chainsaw sending its head flying across the room. The cheerleader spun on her heel, creating a ring of rainbow around herself, and finally stopped facing Jill, chainsaw rested on her shoulder. "Told you we could handle it."

Jill stood looking at the carnage Juliet had wrought for several long moments. Do the job, show everyone you don't need anyone to hold your hand. She put her radio away and drew her pistol. "Let's get the rest."