I don't own Resident Evil or any of its characters but if Jake and Sherry don't hook up I'll riot. Even if they do a romance cgi movie. C'mon people! Even Leon hooks up in Degeneration lol.

So this is what Sherry was up to while Jake is in the Middle East. As usual it's a stand alone. I didn't reference anything from my story in this one, just the time frame and his distress message. Originally it was meant to be more of a poem but its definitely a reflection on love and longing.

Ties into my "At the end of a long escape" series. One shot. Will not be continued. Read main title :)

Snowflakes on the Wind

Sherry Birkin was enjoying her first vacation since her parents had died. The first vacation since she gained her freedom, working as an agent for the DSO. The first time she couldn't accept that she was alone. Here in Alaska, surrounded by starry skies and nothing but cottages and snow, the northern lights dancing above. Something drew her outside like a calling. She didn't know why she couldn't go somewhere sunny and warm. She couldn't even stay in the warm cabin at this ski resort with all the happy couples with bubbling social lives. No, this was not a night she could enjoy. Even her own cabin was too familiar. It reminded her too much of the first night since her parents had died that she wasn't alone for Christmas. She was unintentionally given the best gifts of all that night. The gifts of understanding, acceptance, loyalty, friendship from the place she least expected. The beat gift of all was the one neither could accept given their lifestyles. The gift of love.

Here she was, outside in the cold, snuggled in a sleeping bag on the deck of her one room cabin, poking at a fire pit, sipping hot apple cider. She watched every snow flake as it fell, glittering in the moonlight. Each fleck sparkling a pretty blue before fading onto the white hills below. Sherry didn't know if it was day or night anymore or how long she was out in the freezing night air. All she could feel was the feeling emptiness growing in her heart without him here tonight. Her snowman. Her mercenary. Her only love. Jake Muller. Every snowflake recalled a time with him. He wasn't just a shared near death experience. He wasn't just another case, another person to rescue, her first rescue, her first case. Not to her. He was her first and only love, a love she could not have, a love she could not explore.

She hugged herself tightly, the numbness of the frost biting at her flesh couldn't take away the touch of his gloved palm on her skin. Time could not take away their long escape. Their moments of anger, defiance, friendship, comradely, the realizations of how they changed each other's lives, how they felt for each other, the knowledge they shared of each other's true self, the unspoken truth that it could never be more than the moment they held hands, it was all too much right now. Sherry cried out in rage as she threw her cup at the fire. She controlled herself all too well, always responsible for her own actions and yet she finally found something, no, someone who could break her. The warmth and smell of apple and smoke reminded her of him even more.

She watched the snow fall just to melt in the fire, just like her heart melted for the cold mercenary with the soul of a gentleman. He held her protectively so many times, always holding onto her a moment too long with those strong arms as he helped her to her feet, staring into her blue eyes with his own, his shining like crystallized ice as the light caught them, always so sincere and concerned but only for her. He had been so loyal and protective when she was to have been protecting him. He was the most cunning of thieves and got away with her heart and $50 instead of fifty million dollars.

Sherry put her palm out to catch the snowflakes but they melted away. Jake was once a snowflake, drifting on the wind, falling deeper and deeper, anonymous and lost, a stranger to this world fading among the crowd. His only high was the adrenaline rush of the battle, the ups and downs of his decline with the disguise of greed. Sherry smiled as she closed her hand and snuggled herself before the fire. She met a snowflake but now that she helped Jake gather meaning and hope for his own existence like a child gathers snow into a ball, she had left behind a snowman, one that couldn't melt away and would never be forgotten.

Sherry startled awake by the sound of her cellphone buzzing. She had fallen asleep in her sleeping bag. The fire died out long ago and she found herself covered in snow. She shook it off before pulling out her phone to read a text message from Jake. Her heart pounded and then sank. It was a distress call. Wherever he was, whatever he needed, Sherry determined to be there no matter what. In Just over two months from now it would be Christmas and if she could help save him one more time she promised herself she'd never give up on being with him, no matter the odds.

Ties into "At the end of a long escape" from here