Chapter Text
SILVER DAGGER OPERATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
[redacted], London, United Kingdom
May 08th, 2019
It’s Thursday. Chris is making a pot of coffee. He doesn’t actually drink coffee which is impressive considering how long he’s been in the game and who he’s surrounded by. It’s always run dank and bitter on his tongue and he's has always held that you might as well go straight for the alcohol at that point. But he’s making a fresh pot because he’s going to need it after the packet he just dropped on Ranger’s desk.
Sure enough, speak of the devil and they'll come. She’s rounding a corner, sights fixed right on him. The coffee machine dings. Black liquid is pouring to the awaiting mug. Everything is perfectly on time.
“Redfield-”
“You always call me that when I’m in trouble.”
Ranger doesn’t raise an eyebrow. She should, but she hasn’t the emotional bandwidth for it even after making up with Leon. If she were anyone else, her brow would be twitching in irritation. She's not, but the irritation is rolling off her in arctic-cold waves. Any other person might be fearing for their life – surely if it were Jake here, the kid would be pressing himself into the wall to be as small as possible. To be less of a target. Chris smiles. He knows what this is about and he can’t bring himself to feel bad enough to stop finding it amusing.
“Hound Wolf,” she says getting right to the meat of the issue, the words rolling off her tongue as if they are insulting. “Really?”
“It fits us, don’t you think?” When Ranger doesn’t respond, he appends, “Wild dogs, running around without a master, looking for a fight. It fits us.”
The last part is said a bit forcefully, like Chris doesn’t actually believe it to be true. But, well, it’s a bit late for that because the ink has dried. Before Ranger has a chance to poke holes in his logic, Chris puts the coffee mug firmly in her hands.
*
One cup of coffee later, Ranger is setting the mug down on the table. It reads “WORLD’S BEST CAPTAIN” and Chris doesn’t think Ranger knows it was a gift from Piers – or maybe she does and Leon’s just a magic healing balm that suddenly makes all trauma disappear. Sounds a bit suspicious, but he isn’t going to question it when the status-quo is deeply in his favor. Ranger’s thinking. He knows because she’s staring blankly into the dregs of the coffee and also, he isn't dead yet.
She looks up.
“Is this revenge for the time I loaned you to Umbrella?”
“No,” Chris swears, “no, of course not.”
“Hm,” Ranger responds, which goes for the both of them.
Chris has never been good at hiding his emotions, that’s not who he is. So instead of pretending he doesn’t find this riotously funny, he just laughs so loud the entire office can hear.
*
Later, in an Osprey that is both theirs and technically stolen, Ranger says: “I’m really going to have to divorce him this time.”
Chris barely survived the last divorce so he is entirely 100% authentic when he says, “Please do not.”
“Technically,” Jake says, from the other side safely ensconced from potential retaliation, “Leon never signed the last one, so if you go through with it this will be the first divorce.”