@alphasou asked : ❝ it’s okay to be afraid, you know. ❞
hospitals make her skin crawl now, her last experience in one being all but comfortable due to the circumstances that led her there in the first place. but since coming back from the island claire's been making an effort to be more present in her loved one's lives - counting her blessings for always having luck on her side and what not, it's all part of her supposed healing journey anyway.
knuckles knock against door lightly, "hope you're decent in here." she jokes, as if the poor guy was in the situation to do anything else beside pace around like a ghost. she's tempted to crack another one, an half apology for being the wrong redfield, but truth is that there wouldn't be any other person for claire to trust more with her brother - one way or another this visit was due. idle chatting follows, telling each other they're alright even though they're clearly going through their own personal shit, but claire doesn't insist preferring instead to change the subject - the irony of piers' new look is not lost on her for starters. "last time i saw you i left you looking like a scruffy kid and now you're on some futuristic shit." she observes, tone amused as if her heart wasn't hurting for the way this fight is slowly throwing all of them under the bus, just in more creative different ways.
then piers speaks, goes on a ramble about fear and it makes claire chuckle under her breath, glad that dark shades are hiding the look in her eyes. she knows all about fear. tried to stay above of it for the sake a kid when she was nineteen, laughed in the face of it when she was twenty-seven and almost dying in a pit of acid for a country that doesn't care about her; didn't get any better at thirty-two either, but that's the final nail in the coffin that claire loves to pretend oh so much it actually didn't matter at all. "is that supposed to reassure me or you?" she inquires then, genuinely curious about his answer. humans are peculiar creatures, that much she's known for a while... yet it never fails to surprise her.
"they're treating you well in here, right? nothing weird we should know of..." there's no point hiding the hint of concern in her tone - she knows all too well how these things go, so many people she cared about had been in this situation before and all taken away when least expected; better be safe than sorry at this point. "you know chris and i can arrange something else, it's not a problem."