Chapter 25

Quick shoutout to,

Lady Rose Bernstein: Thank you for following and loving the story. I understand Jesse just returned into normal life but honestly, it bores me. So I have another twist in mind before I conclude the story. Please stay tune for more!

Page0fCup5: Thank you for (still) following my story, I'm glad that the story hasn't make you lost interest yet but I felt like I am. Can't wait to end the story! Just... one more twist to go...

Washington DC April 2024 Sherry Birkin's Wedding Day

Sherry Birkin and Jake Muller are getting married in a non disclosed vineyard. Jake is greeting all the guests at the reception.

The Kennedy's have arrived slightly early because Leon is going to walk Sherry down the isle, some preparations need to be made. Jesse is nervous eventho it's not his own wedding, he is anxious about something else.

Eeeeeeergh, today is the day. The woman I killed is getting married, how awkward is this… I haven't apologized yet. He was melting inside but his face didn't sell him out at all. Johnny however being the brother he had spent these few weeks with noticed Jesse's sweat.

'You're sweating like it's summer. Aunt Sherry already knew, based on how she didn't annoy dad yet she probably understood. Don't overthink about it.' Johnny patted Jesse's shoulder.

'Probably.' Jesse shrugged. It's going to be ok Jesse, it's going to be all fine. What can she do? My parents are here, I can just hide behind mom. He gave himself a 'no big deal' squint and laughed inside.

Ada wore an elegant red cocktail dress with a ribbon at her waist, showing off her well toned legs and curves. Leon who was a little hurt from his wife's 'silver fox' comment had his greying hair dyed to look younger. His cleanly shaved matured beach boy face is still very handsome to Ada's standards, despite still being teased by her from time to time for her amusement. Little Lia wore a pink dress with a flower circle as she's going to be the flower girl during the ceremony.

As Leon walked over to join Muller in welcoming the guests, Ada led her children to see the bride. Jesse timidly followed behind his mother and siblings.

'Sherry!' Ada smiled warmly at the bride. 'You look stunning.'

Sherry wore a simple white corset dress which brings out her pale skin even more, a white flower in her hair and the light makeup Helena helped her with, made her looked much prettier.

'Thank you, you look great yourself too.' Sherry greeted Ada happily and gasped at the little girl beside the Asian beauty. 'Lia! I missed you.' The bride pulled Lia towards her and caressed the little girl.

'Aunt Sherry, congratulations.' Johnny grinned happily at the bride-to-be, and dragged his brother behind him.

'Johnny, great to see you. It's been so long!' Sherry shook his hand and looked at the figure behind him. Jesse gave her a nervous smile and waved awkwardly.

'Well well, isn't this the little Leon?' Sherry gave him a smug. 'Come here you.'

Johnny pushed his reluctant brother forward.

'I've heard what happened. God damn, you look so much like your father.' Sherry pulled Jesse forward and held his hand. 'Just have a good time today.'

Jesse nodded reluctantly.

'Jesse and I prepared something for you, to show how sincere he is to deliver his apology.' Johnny smirked at her while nudging his brother.

'I'll be looking forward to it.' Sherry winked at the boys.

After the ring exchanging ceremony.

'Bruh, are you sure?' Jesse asked nervously.

'200%.' Johnny grinned at his brother. 'Put on your goddamn earpiece!'

Ok ok… Jeez. Jesse followed his brother's instructions.

'Ah ah ah, may I have everyone's attention please?' Johnny spoke into the microphone. The guests gradually quiet down. 'My name is John Kennedy. I've known Aunt Sherry for my whole life and it is an absolute honour for me to be entertaining everyone at her wedding today.' *Applause*

'I sincerely congratulate the newlyweds, but more importantly to deliver a message to our dearest bride. This gentleman beside me, will accompany me to be the clowns of today's show. Please sit back and enjoy!' Johnny spoke articulately.

Johnny then sat on a piano with his laptop ready to follow up his music, and nodded at his brother. Jesse grabbed his electric guitar and nodded back. The duo performed 5 songs for the crowd.

Somebody to Love – Queen (1976)
Just the way you are – Bruno Mars (2010)
Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5 (2010)
Sucker – Jonas Brothers (2019)
Perfect – Ed Sheeran (2017)

Their performance started off with the piano introduction of the rock ballad, to the sweet tunes of 'Coz you're amazing, Just the way you are' and brought the crowd to climax with Moves Like Jagger, and a second climax with the perfect harmony of Sucker, and ended with a soft, romantic ballad Perfect.

The crowd enjoyed their music a lot, and some of the people danced wildly. Sherry was clapping happily at the music because they are all of her favourite songs.

Everyone including their own family was surprised by their performance.

'Never thought Jesse could sing so well.' Leon whispered to his wife.

'I bet Johnny suggested it is a nice thing to do for Jesse to ease his guilt.' Ada smiled back. 'God, he's so handsome.' She purred and looked back at her husband.

'Women.' Leon shook his head in defeat.

The wedding is almost over. The guests started to mingle and chatting around catching up. Jill Valentine walked over to the Kennedy's table (with the DSO staffs) with Chris Redfield. Jesse became uneasy as the sight of Chris approached. As his parents were greeting Jill and Chris, Jesse secretly observed Chris from a side.

He seems to be recovered from that injury already.

Leon introduced Jill and Chris to his sons. Jill seemed surprised to see Jesse with his hair grew out now. Her last memory of the teenager was still the bald soldier who worked for Umbrella and defected last minute. She held out her and shook Jesse's.

'Hi, I've heard about you and you do look more like Leon with hair.' Jill poked fun at him. Chris also offered his hand to the young man.

'Hi, Jesse Kennedy.' Jesse managed to force out the words.

'Chris Redfield.' Luckily Chris didn't say much after and Jesse got away from the awkward conversation to join his brother at the DJ booth.

Jesse noticed his mother is getting bored from the conversation Leon was engaged in with his friends at the BSAA. He decided to bring some fun and walked over to Ada.

'Mom, dance with me?' Jesse smirked at her.

Ada smiled and nodded, followed him to the dance floor holding her son's hand.

'Dad has gone boring huh?' Jesse laughed.

'No, they were just bugging him with work. I bet your father was annoyed too, but he was too nice to remind them it's not his work day.' Ada sighed.

Jesse danced with his mother's lead who is a much better dancer. Ada was delighted to see her son's pace in catching up to her steps and soon they were both dancing gracefully among others in no time.

Suddenly, Jesse noticed a man among the crowd who is sipping his drinks caught his attention. The man was leaning against a railing with a glass of champagne in his hands, just quietly enjoying his drink and looking at people with a cigarette in his another hand. The man has red curvy hair, and his gaze is cold and mysterious.

'What are you looking at, any girls who caught your attention?' Ada grinned at her son's lack of focus in their dance.

'No…' Jesse answered half heartedly and looked back at his mother. 'On the contrary, it's a man. My 10 o'clock, your…. 4 o'clock. Red hair, green eyes. I'll do a spin so you can catch a glimpse.' Jesse then made a swift turn with his mother in his arms.

'Do you know him?' Jesse asked.

'He's BSAA, well he's not a soldier but a dissolved FBC's operative. I don't remember his name, maybe your father knows.' Ada answered lightly. 'Why?'

'Strange, I saw him in one of the facilities before. He doesn't work with Umbrella, but one of the days I've seen him walking around the office talking with some people and he's injured.' Jesse shrugged. 'I only saw him ONE day.'

'How can you be so sure it's him?' Ada asked.

'That gaze is colder than North Pole.' Jesse said sarcastically.

Ada nodded and didn't ask anymore questions, but Jesse's words have made her have a doubt or two about the man. She decided to put these thoughts behind her back just enjoy the party and investigate about that man at work.

'Chris Redfield… Do they know I shot him?' Jesse asked his mother nervously.

'What?' Ada was surprised what her son just said. 'You were the one who shot Chris?'

'Yeah. Before attack of Falklands base, I was actually on duty in one of the overground posts. But on the day of attack the BSAA took 3 of us out, I was scared and I ran back into the base.' Jesse whispered.

Ada remembered what Jill was saying in her earpiece on the day of Falklands siege.

'We took out 3 ground snipers and one escaped back into the facility.' Never thought that soldier is Jesse.

'I assume other BSAA members that was taken out along with Chris were…'

'Yep, I shot Chris and 2 others.' Jesse said nervously. 'Which has made me thinking about… my future.' Jesse continued. 'Do you think BSAA will take me in? But the sight of Chris's face reminds me of my mistakes. I felt like I owed them but I cannot imagine myself in BSAA. DSO is much better.'

'You can join the military, if that makes you feel better. Your skillset should be qualified.' Ada comforted her son. Despite unwilling to send any of her children into any jobs that would harm their lives like being a soldier or a spy, Ada is well aware that her children are already way beyond living normally especially after Jesse's encounter with Umbrella. She rather encourage them to do what they want to do than hindering their future and let them go into depression especially when Jesse's case where he wasn't in school, not going into college… Besides the jobs that do not need credentials like herself as a spy, he can at least go into military school and get his credentials there. Because they don't need your highschool diploma, as long as you are a citizen you can be accepted.

Jesse thought for a bit, and spun Ada for another round.

'Good idea.' The blonde teenager smiled.

Throughout the evening, Jesse danced with his little sister Lia, as well as the bride which he made sure he delivered his words of apology personally into her ears which earned him some glares from the groom. Jesse just shrugged and smirked back. He also enjoyed seeing his parents dancing together, occasionally exchanging whispers and learning on each other. Jesse grins warmly from the atmosphere of this joyful occasion.

'Why do you think round scales are stronger than squares and triangles?' Jesse argued.

'Well the distribution of forces will be more scattered and hence smaller impact.' Johnny shrugged.

'You're out of your mind. When the forces are more scattered that makes the fabric weaker! We need a strong fabric which the forces will be distributed evenly and withstand it. It's HEXAGON.' Jesse is now angry.

'I can't believe you're an MIT student and your common sense is total bullocks.' Jesse crossed his arms.

'I'm a computer major, minor in programming and computer engineering.' Johnny sighed. 'Physics is just something that I read for fun.'

'You read and don't use brains?' Jesse mocked his brother.

'Don't be so dramatic. Alright, we'll go with hexagon. Cheesus.' Johnny gave up. 'Oh yeah before I forget, I remade our family's PDA and… this watch is for you.' Johnny said while pulling a PDA from his drawer and a box. He opened the box, an analogue watch with leather strap.

'This watch, is something I'm quite proud of. The strap is metal, it's just wrapped with leather. It might look like a neat, fancy analogue watch. Press this button, it will turn into a smart watch.' Johnny smiled and pushed a tiny button, the watch's glasses turned into a black screen. 'It can be linked with your PDA, your phone or any compatible devices. It is also an independent watch, in built with compass, geological probe, weather forecast from humidity, sunlight exposure and radioactive meter. The last part was difficult to install but I did it.' Johnny grinned with pride while showing his brother his new watch.

Over the week, Jesse has been hiding in the lab of their new house with his brother developing new toys and gears from the robotic knowledge they have recently obtained. Strangely they aren't making robots but trying to synthesize a new kind of bulletproof fabric made from carbon polymer and metal alloy. They utilized the 3D printing technology, nanotech laser cutting, sewing and finally created a navy coloured skin tight inner shirt (onesie).

'Shoot me.' Jesse passed his brother a pistol while wearing his new onesie.

'Are you nuts?' Johnny raised an eyebrow.

'I have dormant viruses inside me, I won't die. Come on, grow some balls.' Jesse urged.

Johnny frowned and aimed the gun at his brother's forearm which is the least lethal part if damaged. He pulled the trigger.

'Ow.' Jesse exclaimed and put his hand on his 'wound'. 'Oh, just a bruise. It worked! Hmm, that means it's the same strength with normal Kevlar but it still gives me bruises and pain. What can we do to make the pain least, even less bruise or to no bruise at all, with the thickness of a normal shirt?'

'Tensile strength is stronger if the size of the hexagon distribution is in a much smaller size, but it's hard to make with the equipment we have now. This is the smallest we can go, for now.' Johnny explained.

'Hmm, not too bad. How about I combine this shirt, with a normal Kevlar. See if a sniper round can go through?' Jesse suggested while putting on a Kevlar.

'I don't know how to use a sniper, can't you just put those clothes on a dummy?' Johnny's tone got angrier. That sentence kind of become a slap on Jesse's mind.

'Oh yeah. I'm dumb, why do I never thought of that?' Jesse laughed and mocked himself.

The brother tested the strength of the nanotech suit again and again with various types of bullets and penetration strength. Satisfied with their prototype, the brothers kept the suit in a sealed chest and went for dinner.

Thank you for reading!

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