Although I am Ill, and running a fever-I shall start chapter seven.  Why? Because I feel the need to, it's therapeutic-its like…like-something I just can't think of.  Anyway-we returns to the old Wesker/Nemmy Birkin/Misc. Ghosts. Format.  And yes, this chapter has sex in it-BUT NOT ADULTFANFIC.NET sex.

Btw-since Ada Kensington is the only one who entered-she wins the contest! Yay for her! ^_^

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"Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry."
-Sir Winston Churchill, November 11, 1937

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Paris France-

5:20

I may as well admit it. Wesker slumped lower in his seat; I can't deny it any longer.  I, Albert Jefferson Wesker-am in a stripper bar.

"Volia! Madamoiselle-BUNNY!"

A woman in a skimpy rabbit outfit skipped out onto the stage and began to take off her clothes.  Her eyes darted towards him-and he shook his head.

            "Lady." He said, calmly over the din, "I'm only here for the beer."

She shook her breasts at him-and muttered something that sounded vaguely like American pig, before strutting off into the smoky darkness.

"You come here often sailor?"

            Wesker turned about-sans sunglasses-the room still seemed darker then normal.

"Who would you be?"

A woman leaned out of the darkness, carefully running a pale finger along the top of a frosty glass of-coke.  She was drinking a coke.  A sexy, young woman was drinking a coke in a stripper bar.

            "What kind of woman walks into a place like this? In a town like this?"

"If you say, "Of all the gin joints in all the towns she had to walk into mine." I'll punch you." The woman sipped her coke, "Come on! Don't tell me you don't remember me!"

Wesker tried to get his eyes to focus, failed, and shook his head.

The woman sighed.

"Its Me Al! Kate McGraw!"

Albert Wesker rubbed his eyes.

            "Kate…McGraw?"

The woman, now called Kate, slumped back into her seat.  Around them, flesh was bathed in buttery exotic yellow glow.  The meat market. Wesker watched the dancers quietly, They're being put on display-for show.

            "I'm investigating the disappearance of some people." Kate smiled, "The parents-oddly enough-all happen to be Umbrella corporation employees."

"If I don't remember you-" A piece of meat danced closer to them, wiggling her hips like some Chou Chou dancer from the 1930s, "Why are you telling me all this?"

            "Think carefully." Kate lit a cigarette, " Way back at the executive training academy-"
"Oh. My. Fucking. God."

            This couldn't be the same pimply, freckle faced Kate McGraw who had trailed after Annette Birkin like an undeserving shadow.  The reason why she looked so unfamiliar stared him in the face.

He hadn't seen her since the wedding.

            "Jesus…Kate…"

"Save it." Kate held up a hand, "I'm seeing someone."

            Wesker balked, "Who?"

A slow, Cheshire cat smile spread across her face.

            "Nobody in particular." All at once she snapped back to business, "Look, Wesker-I need your help-I have a sneaking suspicion that we're looking for the same-um-thing."

"And what would that be?"

Kate responded by opening a bag seemingly pulled from nowhere.  She tossed cutout employee files at him, watching them spread across the table like cheap card tricks.

"Five teenagers-"

            "Shit!"

Kate blinked, "What?"

            "Well, I mean-are they all American?" His mind went back to the teenagers that had gone roaring around the bend the other day.  If they were all American-then this case was already wrapped up-and he could continue trying to find the monster they'd lost.

"Felix DeCrew is French, her parents in fact "run" here Kate held up fingers in quotation marks, "The Paris Faculty-although they answer exclusively to Lord Spencer-"

            "Lord Spencer?"

"Oh…" Kate stopped along with the music, "Shit…Wesker, I'm sorry-"

"Continue."

            "Um-Right." She coughed again, "Charlie Robertson's dad is in processing-no big deal there." She continued to flip through notes; "Bobby Baxter's mother and father both work on Chemical Research in New York- Andi Takahashi's parents work over at the Just-up-and coming branch-"

For some reason, people in Asia had problems with Umbrella putting up research faculties in China, and Japan.  They seemed to have reached a unanimous decision that no Ganjin Foreigners were going to peddle their patent medicine on their sacred soil, and damn the self-gracious bastard who dared to interfere with that process.

"And then there's Sam."

            "What about him?"

"Her." Kate held up a picture of an 18-year-old girl with bright purple hair, and strange-almost yellow eyes, "Samantha Davenport."

            "Oh god."

The buttery yellow meat display slowed again as Wesker's eyes fell upon the image, and the name-that was burned into his mind as if written in blood within the book of Lucifer…

            "Her Aunt works for HCF…"

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Raccoon City Hospital

5:29

"I'm sorry," Dr. Katie stood up, "But I can no longer answer your questions."

            "See, that's just it." Alyssa rose to her feet, " I have a feeling you can answer my questions-you just won't.  See, there's a war going on-and I'm going to get to the bottom of it."

"Oh no you're not." Katie bit back the retort in her mouth, "Shit."

            "See, now you've just confessed to something."

"No I haven't!"

"Yes, you have."

"NO! I haven't!"

"Yes, you have."

            "SECURITY!" Katie scrambled backward for the phone in a panic.  Alyssa smirked, and reflected on how poorly prepared these people who were secretly pawns of greater organizations were when it came to dealing with exposure.

"You called?"

Daniela stood in the doorway-JD behind her.

            "GET HER OUT OF HERE!" Katie pointed and screeched-as if staring at a gigantic disproportionate mouse.

"Well-"

"NOW!"

"I'm going." Alyssa smiled at all involved-her eyes studying JD's solid frame, "Relax Doctor, relax."

            "I'm not going to relax until EVERYBODY leaves!" Katie shook her hands nervously, "I-" She breathed deep, "Am expecting a very VERY important phone call. GET THE FUCK OUT!"

They scurried-and Katie collapsed into her chair-her wide eyes falling on the blinking red button signifying that she had a phone call.

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"Should we have told her?" JD and Daniela continued their conversation.  Daniela's eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep-and JD no longer looked like anything human.

            "Told her about what?"

"NO!"

The world exploded in screaming.

            Annette Birkin, Scientist, wife, and soon to be mother-stood in the middle of a hallway surrounded by curious onlookers-patients, and security guards alike.  JD slapped his forehead as she brandished the scalpel at the two of them.

"GET BACK!"

            "Listen…Mrs. Birkin…"

"I'M NOT YOUR DOLL!" She was holding a small stuffed thing in her arms, "I'm not…I'm not…"

            She dropped the scalpel and stared at Daniela with wide, dilated eyes.

"Help…me…"

"Somebody grab her!"

"Careful! She's pregnant!"

            Daniela and JD watched as two security guards gently lifted the woman's body into the air, and carried into her room.

"Its funny." Daniela watched the crowd disperse.  The hospital was small enough that gatherings like this were easy to break up, "I thought that-"

            "You thought that what-"

JD's voice was interrupted in Daniela's thoughts.  She focused on a point entirely out of her vision-away in the distance, silhouetted against the window was the figure of a small child with short blond hair and large-almost myopic green eyes.  In her hand, she clutched a small ragged thing-similar to what Annette Birkin had just been holding.

She spoke.

            "Shit!" Daniela backed up and landed directly on JD.  The two of them went sprawling to the floor in an amusing, almost quaint sexual position.

"Hi."

"Um…Hi."

They kissed-briefly-before JD pushed himself up and darted away down the hallway, leaving Daniela alone with the ghosts.

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Raccoon City Police Station

"State your name for the Record."

"William Alexander Birkin."

"Date of Birth?"

"August 27th 1962"

            The desk sergeant sighed, "Do you object to being held for a particular period?"

Gee…I don't know you stupid woman.  Do you think I would object?

"My wife is at the hospital." He said slowly, "She is gravely ill, I need…to go to her soon."

"That will be up to Chief Irons sir." The desk clerk continued automatically, "He has many concerns."

William leaned back against the concrete wall, and sighed.  If the chief did not hurry, one of his concerns would be having a very angry, annoyed, and royally pissed off William Birkin on his hands.

Like that matters.

            He sighed and curled into a tight fetal position.  Night was deepening outside, and with it his cares and fears were darkening as well.

The should and shouldn't.

The could and couldn't.

Those kids weren't much help at all. He laid his head against the cool concrete and sighed.  He shouldn't have gone to see them, if he hadn't, then he would be by his wife's side-right now.

"Could you stop sighing?" a voice said, " I'd like to try to sleep."

            "Hey pal," Birkin's voice was sharp, "Why don't you mind your own fucking business?"

"Sorry." A light lit itself, revealing a pair of perfectly poised lips, "I got pulled over for a recent traffic violation." The lips took a long drag, puffing out and making William cough, "You?"

            "I'm not really sure."

"Hey!" The lips stood up.  Dimly outlined against the rising pale moon, William could see the body of a woman, "You should sue! They can't arrest you without a good reason!"

            He did not bother to explain that any reason would be null and void once he spoke with Chief Irons.  Irons was a rock hard, almost- Here William laughed to himself-Iron man when it came to Umbrella policies and ideals.  That didn't mean he wasn't a first rate prick-William would kill him if opportunity arose-but he was useful.

Very useful

            "Ah…" He turned to face the dark figure, "I'll have to think about that." He said evasively, "In the mean time-what do they mean to do with us?"

"LIGHTS OUT!"

"There's your answer." The figure curled away from him, "Opposite corner you'll find a cot and a blanket-or at least," The figure examined a thin sheet of cotton that resembled a badly ripped screen, "What passes for one."

            William stood slowly, "Who are you?"

"Go to sleep."

"The name is William."

"Go to sleep William."

            The guard rapped his knuckles on the concrete in silence.  His eyes passed over the two figures who lay in their opposite corners, before turning the key in the lock to the county jail-and wandering off into his own endless night.

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Paris-

A few miles outside of town

"Sam…"

            Samantha Davenport peered over at Felix.

"Yes?"

            "Why, did you lead us," She raised herself off the seat and gestured at their sleeping compatriots, "All the way to Paris to chase a monster?" Alex groaned, and the others stirred listlessly.  Sam had wasted all of her money in buying the tickets to the city; they were forced to live like hobos in Alex's car.

"Well…" Sam spoke softly and looked out into the night.  The day was just beginning to break, soft clouds over the horizon looked like fluffy puffs of breath from some great and benevolent goddess.

            That was complicated.

Mostly, it involved getting back at her Aunt, Kate Sunderburg-for simply being a royal bitch because she hated Umbrella so much.  Sam disliked the idea of secret corporations as a whole-if it didn't end now how far would it go?

The US had anti-trust laws for a reason.

So, if she could find pictures of the monster, sell them to the government-

            Aunt Katie would flip! Sam giggled gleefully, Would be worth it for that alone.

She peered over, realizing that Felix had fallen asleep-draped across two of their mutual friends.  She smiled softly, turning back around in the driver's seat to face the morning sun, which spread along the ridge like wildfire.

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A/N- The last reference is slightly filled with poetic justice.  I write this in the middle of the California Fire Crisis.  Yay for us.