Years from now, when Chris and Jill were much older and their hair was turning grey, they would be asked how much the Mansion Incident changed their personalities. Jill would laugh and play with the white gold bands on her left hand subconciously and say with a sad smile that it changed them both a lot.
"The main thing was, though, that we stayed friends. We're still the best of friends today, nothing has ever changed that. But a darkness and thrill to prove ourselves crept in, wanting to both protect the ones we loved and the rest of the world, and to exact revenge on Wesker for what he'd done. It affected Chris the most. He was, so changed, he was moody and reserved, and he never laughed unless it was alone with me"
Chris would then laugh drily and comment on how the fact everyone was against them, there wasn't much need to smile and laugh at that time. Most of the people they'd worked with for years had turned against them, the whole town called them murderers and they had to hide from the press. Then when Umbrella targeted them for assasination they realised more action would need to be taken.
"But let's not talk about the dark times" Jill would conclude "I missed those times before the Arklay disaster, when we would have movie nights, popcorn fights, and go out to Emmy's for food. The simple times in life, when everything was pointing in one direction"
And that would lead to this short retelling of one rainy night in March, before everything became dark for Valentine and Redfield.

"I fucking love thunderstorms" Jill said with far too much enthusiasm. Chris rolled his eyes as he turned the windshield wipers up.
"You have a terrible tongue, worse than the guys in the Air Force, you know? You're going to be a bad influence on me"
"Stuff it Redfield" Jill replied absently, she was only half listening. The lightning outside was exhiliratingly distracting. Chris mumbled something in response, and flicked the indicator to the right, pulling into the parking lot for Jill's small apartment block. The rain was intense, but Jill leapt out of the car laughing madly like a child at Christmas. She jumped in a ton of puddles, soaking her entire work uniform and not giving a care in the world. Chris shouted in response as he got out the car, trying to keep the groceries dry.
"Are you going to help me or just keep looking like a total idiot in the middle of the street?"
"I can't hear you Chris! I'm having too much fun being an idiot!" She grinned. Chris couldn't help but smile back, her happiness was infectious to him. If the rest of STARS could see her this outgoing and loud they would rub their eyes in disbelief. The quiet, strict and blunt Jill Valentine jumping in puddles? No chance.
Yet, here she was, ankle deep in a river of rainwater, laughing like there was no tomorrow.
"Well I'll be inside putting your groceries away, in your apartment, with your keys and using your kettle to have a cup of your coffee-"
"Alright Redfield I get it, I'm coming!" She sprinted over to the staircase and carefully jogged up to the top, leaving Chris to lock his car and bring the three bags of food up. Jill was unlocking the door as he reached her, her hair soaked, her clothes dripping and her breathing heavy and rapid. A slight look of mania on her face as she opened the door, letting Chris past first. Chris walked in quickly and put the food bags down and then rushed to get a handful of towels. Jill was removing her boots at the entrance as he returned, laying down a bunch and holding one out for her hair.
"Anyone would think you lived here, Chris"
"I should, if it'll stop you getting pneumonia"
"You couldn't live here, where would you sleep every night?" She laughed, drying her hair with a fluffy blue towel. It stuck up at funny angles, apparantly prone to humidity.
"I'm sure there's enough space in your bed, V"
"Excuse me!" She said with mock suprise. Chris smirked at her.
"The rest of the team think we're doing each other anyway, might as well just do what they think" Although his tone was joking, and he knew she was faking her polite suprise, he wished he could just say it and mean it.

Barry was still on his case to make a relationship with her, insisting that 'You only get one chance with your soul mate'. Of course Chris had feelings for Jill, but to risk both his job and friendship with her, it was painfully clear she didn't feel the same. It wasn't a price he was willing to pay for a few nights of sex.
"Is is worth it if it's not just sex, though?" Barry asked. Chris gave him a withering look and asked if he meant did he love her. Barry didn't nod, he just said "I know you do, it's written all over your face" Chris didn't reply.
"I don't know anything about being in love with someone, so I can't tell you if I am"

"Chris, are you okay?" Jill asked, with concern, and he realised he'd spaced out. "I just offered to have sex with you and you didn't even respond, I must say I am a little worried"
"Huh? Sorry Jill, I didn't mean to, I just thought about something"
"Well think about making me a drink while I get changed?" Jill winked at him and walked into her bedroom. He sighed heavily and walked to her kitchen to, indeed, make her a drink.
The rain was increasingly getting more powerful, rapping away against the window with furious strokes. Lightning swept across the sky, alighting the apartment and thunder cracked overhead, rattling the windows. It was already 6pm at night, and it would have to ease up a lot before Chris would feel much better about driving home. Jill came out of her bedroom wearing one of Chris' older ts-shirts and a long pair of lounge pants. Her hair was a bit frizzy, and she had no makeup on but he thought she looked adorable, staring out of the window at the vengeful storm outside, her eyes wide as lightning illuminated her features.
He set down both cups of coffee and she turned around with a smile on her face, and went to switch a lamp on in the corner of the room.
"You'll have to stay the night by the looks of things" she said without looking at him, without considering the weight of the words that would normally apply in this situation. She plopped down onto the sofa next to Chris without any grace and leaned against his shoulder, staring out the window happily.
"Does the offer stand to stay in your bed?" Chris asked playfully and he recieved a punch on the arm as a reply. "That doesn't mean no!" he laughed heartily as he recieved a cushion to the face.
"This is me saying no" Jill said, arming herself with a second cushion and ducking as Chris flew the first at her, it swiftly flew over her head and hit the front door with a loud thump.

After their somewhat childish fight, several hours later, the two were sat cosied up with a bowl of chips between them, watching some tv show when the power went out.
"Ugh!" Jill complained "The only thing about thunderstorms that I don't like!" as she stood up and walked to a cupboard, rummaging for candles. Chris put the bowl down and looked at the rain outside. Although the lightning had calmed a little, the rain had not, and it was still raging against the glass.
"Do you have a lighter?" Jill asked, her arms full of different shapes of candles. Chris dug his hand in his pocket, retrieving his silver lighter. "I thought you'd given up smoking?" she narrowed her eyes at him.
"I have, but you never know when you'll need a lighter! Good job I have one, right?"
Jill pursed her lips slightly with her disapproval, but said nothing. She had been working hard on making Chris drop the filthy habit. He told her if she stopped swearing then he would stop smoking, to which she flew off the handle, shouting about health problems. That was their first argument, a proper one anyway. Jill ended it by begging him to understand how much she cared about him, looking up at him with her wide eyes, and he couldn't help but say he would try.
Jill silently lit the candles, remembering the fight. It was almost like an argument between lovers, lots of pointing and shouting. It was an awkward topic between the two, as friends didn't normally stay friends after such an argument. Things had gone back to normal, though.
It was undeniable, however, that they had a bond that wouldn't be broken so easily.
Soon the apartment was romantically lit with over 20 candles, the biggest of them all a fuschia coloured one which smelled of strawberries sitting in the middle of the coffee table, illuminating the various magazines, junk mail and their old coffee cups in a gentle glow. The pair sat in silence, a comfortable one, as rain kept drumming against the windows. It was dark, so Chris stood up to close the blinds, but Jill asked him quietly not to do it.
"The rain relaxes me. The smell, the sound, the feel, it's so relaxing for me," she confessed gently. "I love watching it, it's just hypnotising"
"Hmm, is that so? That's the opposite of me, it keeps me awake. It seems so full of life that I couldn't possibly sleep when it's raining"
They sat in continued amiable silence, listening to the rain. Jill stood up suddenly and reached into a drawer for a pack of paper. It was perfectly square, and was printed with flowery designs.
"Origami!" she said joyfully
"Oriwhatty?"
"The Japanese art of paper folding - have you never tried it? It's another thing I find very relaxing" she smiled at him, handing him a sheet. It was thin and only a few inches long with a pattern of herons in blue and cream. Chris peered at it in the candlelight, and watched as Jill removed a piece of paper herself and folded it rapidly, making a flower shape.
"This is a very common one, called a lily" she said, not looking up as she flipped and folded the paper neatly, as though she had done this many times. Now he came to think about it, there were often little birds or animals made of paper on her desk at work - is that what this was called?
She took a pen from the coffee table and twisted the petals to curl the final piece and held it by the base up to the light, showing Chris. He gave her a genuine gesture of being impressed.
"I bet I can do it though!" He said, although he was well aware his large hands could probably never fold anything so delicate.
"I'll show you how to do a crane" she said, taking another sheet, and gesturing him to the table to imitate her movements. They folded together, although Chris' were very lumpy and fuzzy in contrast to Jill's crisp and neat edges, they ended up with a small crane each.
"They say if you make a hundred of these, you are granted a wish," she said, looking up at him. His eyes were very dark in this light, you could not tell what colour they were, and she found herself admiring his features, his stubble that he'd kept on her request and his perfectly shaped wavy brown hair. "What would you wish for?"
"That would be telling, but I can say it would be far too soppy for your ice heart to handle" Chris said after a moment's consideration.
"I would wish for a certain future. I just want to know I'll always be secure, I'm not too fond of my future being shrouded in uncertainty. Suprising for a cop, I know, but it's not the work I'm talking about, as long as I'll always have a job, I'll be happy." It was almost like she'd said this to herself many times before. She looked right into his eyes "And of course, find myself a loving husband"
Chris' heart gave a jolt, her gaze was piercing him, it was like she was telling him she wanted to be his wife. "Jill, I-"
"Yes?" Was her face getting closer? Was it getting warmer in here?
"You're right, the origami is much more relaxing" he said with no smile on his face, but he didn't break eye contact once. Jill searched his face, then dropped her gaze.
"I'm off to bed" she said - was that disappointment in her voice? - and stood up slowly, placing the crane on the table, facing Chris's wonky one.
Chris grabbed her arm and stood up, in one fluid motion he grabbed her face and kissed her.
It was so unexpected, that Jill almost pushed him away. But it was over before she could think what was happening.
"What the hell was that Chris?!" she said incredulously. Shit, that sounded worse than it was intended to. Hurt flashed across his face, that was his risk, his chance and she'd made it clear how she felt.
"Well, I don't know I guess I'm just...I'm confused about things and...and it won't happen again!" he said, anger filling his tone.
"Confused about what?" Jill asked, thoroughly confused herself.
"About what I want in life, I just, I'm sorry" he resolved sheepishly. "I'll go home now"
"No you wont! It's pouring down! You're staying here!" she replied hotly, kiss or not she was not sending him out in this weather. He pouted childishly, looking away from her. "Let me get the bedding" and she shuffled off awkwardly to her room, and returned with the familiar bag of bedding Chris used when sleeping at hers. They set up the bed in silence, tucking sheets into the sofa with ease.
"I am sorry" Chris said quietly as he sat down. He looked directly at her, showing his honesty. "I guess I just don't really understand emotions properly yet"
"How do you feel about me Chris?"
He smirked and sighed, mentioning he might as well be honest with her seeing as he owed her that much.
"I find you very attractive, but I'm not prepared to risk our friendship for something that might go wrong. That's why I'm sorry for kissing you, I shouldn't have even thought about it"
Jill remained quiet. She never expected this from him, not ever. But she wasn't going to speak about her feelings towards her partner, which she pushed down every time she saw him. It was true she liked him, but she was scared of it going too far. So, she would naturally deny everything. She would deny it until it was nearly too late.
"I'm sorry Chris, but I just...I'm not relationship ready right now anyway" she said, looking away, her abilities to lie strong. She felt awful at lying, but what was the point of talking about something that would and could never happen? Risk her career for a few nights of passion? Ridiculous.
"Are we...okay?" he asked tentatively.
"Of course! We're best friends, Chris, and absolutely nothing will ever change that" she said, smiling with as much honesty as she could summon. She gave his hand a squeeze as she left him, and he lay down, feeling relieved as the last of the candles was blown out.
"Sleep well, Chris" she said, remembering his inability to sleep during rain.
And he did, unlike Jill, who was kept awake for hours, uncomfortable with her dishonesty towards her closest friend.

And that was their third kiss to date, but as the other two had been acted out, for the rest of their life they would refer to this as their first kiss. Although the reactions between the two were less than expected, they smiled back on them when they were old. It wasn't the last one, either.

As it turns out, Jill would come to hate thunderstorms, but not for many, many years, when she would sacrifice her life to save Chris.
And no matter how many origami cranes Chris made during that dark time, at first his wish would never appear to come true, but he never gave up.
But that's a story for another chapter.

A/N WOO I'm not dead. I promise. This fic has started to change, and you can tell by the name change. I have decided to take a new approach with it. The name 'The Missing Files' refers to what I feel is missing from the human side of our favourite characters. Capcom will never make RE a romance story, and so it's up to us to tell our views of it.
So, my fic will not include any of the game events such as the mansion. I was stuck for the longest time, but now I feel that I should focus on my own headcanons for it. With this approach I'll be able to get the fic on the right track~
Hope this wasn't too mushy! It's been a long time since an update, and this is a filler for now.