Title: Altering in the Rain

Author: OpheliacAngel

Pairings: Alice/Rain, past Alice/Spence

Genres: Friendship/Romance

Rating: Teen

Summary: Alice knows that she's taking advantage of Rain, but maybe they're both changing.

A/N: Written for femslashficlets for prompt #048 metamorphosis.

Soundtrack: Katatonia's 'In the White'

~Are you in or are you out?

The words are stones in my mouth

Hush little baby don't you cry

Truth comes down

Strikes me in the eye~

Rain's curled in on herself as she hacks up a lung, and Alice tries to ignore how rapidly this T-Virus is spreading, how Rain has started to cough more harshly in the past twenty minutes, face pale and pinched. Her hand covers her mouth to hide what's going on in her system, as if the cough is a result of some bug that's not slowly but surely killing her, but when she pulls her hand away and wipes it off on her shirt Alice can see the blood staining her lips as clear as day, can see how Rain is even too exhausted to lick her lips. The other woman straightens up for a moment before no doubt wondering what the point of it is and folds into herself again.

Matt's been taking most of her weight for the last hour and Alice falls back, leaving Spence in the lead. She slips off the jacket he gave her earlier in the night and pulls it across Rain's shoulders, sharing a worried look with Matt at Rain's high-pitched 'I'm fine.'

Not that Alice should be thinking about this right now, not when the clock's ticking down and they have to find the cure and somehow get the fuck out of here, but she wonders if she knew she was bisexual before the memory loss. Sure, her marriage to Spence was Umbrella's carefully fabricated lie, but she recognizes the attraction there and not only in her visions. If there was love there at all, she sure doesn't feel it now, but Spence isn't the worst guy in the world she could have been married to. Still married, Alice tells herself, as much as it matters now.

And Alice's gut tells her that something's up with the guy and that she needs to stay wary, but honestly she'd be surprised if Spence was anything but on their side. She smiles back at his curious expression to convince him that everything's fine, and then she focuses on her other problem.

The fact that she is ridiculously attracted to Rain even while the other woman is covered in blood and sweat and is dying just until Alice fixes the problem, because she is going to fix Rain. Because Rain's become more than a friend over the course of one night, and Alice is determined for Rain to be bossing them all around again.

"I can take her," Alice tells Matt, already wrapping an arm around Rain's trembling back and taking half of her weight.

Matt seems to notice she's made up her mind but asks anyway. "You sure?"

Spence smirks back at them. "Let the two girls gossip while they still can."

Rain gives him a face and Alice laughs, but the good-natured comment does the trick and Matt shrugs and joins Spence. Alice proceeds to take the majority of the other woman's weight, but her stubbornness has Alice only supporting half, which she knows she's lucky enough to get.

The dark-haired Rain stifles a cough, her throat convulsing. "Gonna tell me this is all gonna be over real soon?" Yet Alice knows Rain is not so far gone yet that she doesn't have any hope left, all Alice has been trying to do is coax it out of her, to convince her that until Rain's not breathing anymore there is always hope, no matter the odds stacked against them.

She considers whether she was always this optimistic.

"You know," Alice points out. "I think we would've been good friends if we met before all this." Despite not knowing that at all.

Surprisingly, Rain sags against her a little bit more and Alice compensates easily. "I think so too." Alice thinks she knows Rain, enough to know that Rain would have never wasted any time being her friend before tonight, enough to know that Rain definitely doesn't swing for girls and if she wasn't taking advantage of Rain right now and if Rain was as she should be, then Rain would be brushing her off or even flat out rejecting her. But as it is, Alice is practically carrying her and she currently has everything Rain needs: hope, friendship, admiration, love, and she feels changed and maybe Rain does too.

And then Rain says something entirely unexpected. "If I survive this, I'm taking you out for a drink."

Alice recoils and imagines that she's fallen asleep, but Rain's crooked smile is brighter than the fluorescent lights currently dangling from the low ceiling. She brushes a strand of hair out of Rain's sweaty face and plants a brief kiss on her bloodied lips. "I'm holding you to that."

FIN

~So I had a green light

I was lost in city lights

Not far from a try

This is not our last goodbye~