After discussing the mission for several hours, everyone but Rebecca (and Billy, of course) left Wesker's house. Athena felt obligated to stop Brian and Demetrius to inform them of a possible change in their plans. "Hey, Brian," she called as Brian and Demetrius climbed into Demetrius' truck.
Brian stopped and looked to her. "Yeah?"
"I want to warn you that Rebecca will more than likely be accompanying you on the actual mission. She is probably having it out with dad right now." She smiled at him. "You are going to have your hands full, Lieutenant."
"I fear you're right." He saluted and got into the truck. She watched them drive off with a smirk. She was glad the team was getting tastes of what it was like to be in charge. Though she missed being the superior, she knew that one day they would not have her anymore. They needed to get a taste of the responsibility while she was still around to critique their performance.
She turned back to her friend as they stopped by Ramla's car. "Ramla, where are you staying?"
"I got a room at the hotel where the others are staying." She hugged Athena before walking to her SUV. "Take care." She waved farewell and drove off, too. Athena shook her head. The other woman never said goodbye. Ramla believed they would always see each other again.
Athena sighed as the smile died on her lips. "Let's go, Chris. I'm tired."
He saw that she needed a refuge, a place no one could just barge into. "You want to go to my place tonight?" He opened her door. She rolled her eyes. As tired as she was, there was still life in her eyes.
"Would you stop doing that!" She got inside. "We have to stop by Rebecca's first. Then we can. Last night in town for a while." She did not tell him she feared it the last night they'll ever have in Raccoon. All her senses screamed that something terrible was going to happen after they left. If only I knew what! I can't just tell everyone that something is going to happen if I don't know when or what. They would think I'm crazy. She damned her sense of foreboding as it was never wrong.
Rebecca was not happy with the pacing man. Wesker was likewise not pleased with her. He paced back and forth, getting more upset each time one of his feet hit the floor. Her glaring was not helping matters any, either. He was about to blow a fuse, and he was afraid it would be too much for their fragile new relationship.
Finally, it was Rebecca that grew restless and spoke first. "Albert, it is my right to go along on this mission." He stopped and leveled a steely gaze on her. She was almost tempted to back off, but she was not going to give him the satisfaction. "Dammit, why are you being so difficult? You had no problem nearly killing me out at the Spenser Estate, on the train, or at the Training Facility!" She was on her feet, hands on her hips.
Wesker was stunned by that. He knew that the events of that night could very well come to haunt him, perhaps repeatedly. However, he had not foreseen Rebecca being the one to bring it up first and in such a way. "That was then and this is now! I had nothing to do with the t-virus getting out and you know it. Marcus's queen did that!"
"He didn't let loose the Hunters or the Meshmonkeys though, did he? I guess a couple weeks makes all the difference in the type of man you are!" She exclaimed sarcastically. Her arms moved to cross across her chest. If she could, her eye would have probably been twitching, too.
"A day can change a person. A mere second can!" He stomped forward. "A mere second can take a life, could take yours. I would not be able to stop it! Do you know what that thought does to me? How it makes me feel to know one second you could be dead and I could do nothing to prevent it?" He fell to his knees before her, looking up with a sadness she never would have dreamed to have found in his eyes. "I cannot stand the thought of you no longer being here for me to see, touch, hear, smell, taste, feel." He rested his head against her abdomen. "I don't want to lose you, Rebecca. I never want to lose you. May the gods help me, but I have never felt this way before, not this strongly."
Rebecca was beyond words. She had never, in her wildest thoughts, imagined she would ever see S.T.A.R.S Captain Albert Wesker on his knees and practically begging, pleading. "Al, get up." She pulled at the arms he had wound around her waist, trying to get him to stand. She could not handle seeing him on his knees. He was too strong and proud. "Stand up. I can't take you being down there like that. It's not right."
"I'll get up when you promise not to fight to go on this mission." She shoved away from him and walked across the room.
"Dammit, Albert! I am not a child!" Fine, he could stay on his knees. He was not going to play on her sympathy to get his way.
"Yes, you are!" He stood and stalked toward her. "You are only eighteen years old!"
"That didn't seem to matter when you were taking my virginity!" She screamed in his face. He stepped back at that but soon dove right back in.
"Age doesn't matter in that context, had nothing to do with it! Besides, you weren't exactly arguing when I did! Goddammit, Rebecca, I'm in love with you, don't you get that?" He threw up his hands and stomped away. She stood there in shock.
He loves me? He really loves me? He admits he loves me? But… What do I do? She watched him begin to pace again. "Al…" She stood there at a loss. What was she to do? "Al, I understand how you feel. I feel the same way at the thought of you going to Ohio and thinking you are not taking care of yourself." She walked toward him slowly. He stopped and watched her, closely. "I want to be there so I have every possible second with you that I can. I don't want to lose you either." She came to stand before him. She looked up with much the same expression he had looked up at her with.
Wesker sighed and closed his eyes. "You aren't going to let this rest, are you? You'll do something stupid like follow me if I continue to say no, won't you?"
"Yes, I care too much for you to go off and get hurt when I can't be there to help you." She wrapped her arms around him and held on, tightly.
"You can't always save me, Rebecca. One of these days something will happen…" She cut him off with a kiss.
"Shhhhh. I can't think about that. I want you here and now. It could be my last chance." She glanced down sadly. He picked her chin up and kissed her cheek softly.
"You'll have me then." He swung her up into his arms and kissed her soundly. She ran a hand into his hair as the other gripped his neck. He walked them to his room, missing Coen watching from down the hall. Billy shook his head and went back to his room. He could not understand what Rebecca saw in Wesker but they seemed happy.
Wesker carried Rebecca to the bed and put her gently down. He ran his fingers down her body with a light tickling sensation. She mewled and squirmed. He smirked down at her before pulling her shirt over her head. He then proceeded to remove her bra. His fingers danced over her flesh, bring goose pimples to the skin and moans to her lips. She wriggled around as his fingers continued to make barely there contact with her body. "Al, please," she begged. He kept his smirk as his tongue followed his fingers, tickling her body as he tasted her flesh. She moaned more as he came to her naval, bathing it gently. Her breathing hitched as he unfastened her pants and slid them and her underwear from her body.
Rebecca was in pure bliss. She felt so alive as he worshipped her body. She wanted to return the favor. He fought her hands off. "I want you to enjoy this as much as possible. I want both of us to." He sucked her clit into his mouth, nipped at it with his teeth. She buck against him, cried out. She wanted more stimulation, more Wesker. "I need you. I want you inside me. Please," she begged. He chuckled against her thigh as his tongue traveled farther south. He sucked her toes, nibbled on them. She jerked and wreathed. He was torturing her with his tongue.
Finally, deciding to give her some relief, he rose up her body and settled between her legs. The rough material of his jeans made her grind against him. Her legs wrapped around him as she bucked, hard, into his hidden hardness. He moaned and buried his face in her neck, licking and suckling at her. She rocked against him more. He finally had suffered too much himself. He jerked off his clothes and seated himself inside her. She cried out. Her legs locked around him once again. She met him thrust for thrust.
Wesker was losing it quickly. He drove harder, faster, deeper. He needed to make her his, forever. Little did he know what that impulse was doing to his system. How he was actually making her his. They soon rocked to completion, crying out as the came together. Rebecca kissed him all over in pleasure. She was happy, beyond happy. She was his, in more ways than she could ever imagine at the time.
"Are you alright?" Chris asked Athena for the nth time. She rolled her eyes and nodded. He frowned. She was lying, he was certain. Something about Kyna Marsden upset her, and it had nothing to do with William Birkin. He wished he could find out what. He was becoming very worried about her. Something was truly wrong.
"Chris, what are you so worried about? I am fine. Would you stop fretting about it!" She leaned back in the seat of the truck agitated that he would not let the subject drop. They had already stopped by Rebecca's and were on their way to his house. She had only been there once before but felt relieved to be going somewhere they could be together and not have to worry about anyone else. They would be uninterrupted, she hoped. All Chris had to do was let her mood go, forget about Kyna Marsden for the night so she could.
"I worry about you. I know we haven't know each other very long, and we have progressed our relationship drastically in that time. I don't think… no, I know I cannot let you go now. I have you, have come to care greatly for you. Hell, I am pretty fucking certain I'm in love with you. If that means I have to drive you crazy by worrying about you, and my child, then so be it. I'm gonna worry not matter how aggravating you find me doing so."
Athena leaned over and kissed his cheek before laying her head on his shoulder. If that's the way he wanted to play it, their was little she could do to dissuade him. "I know. I feel the same way. I just hate having someone so close… well not close… I hate the feeling of losing my independence. I like having you around, love it actually. I'm just not used to having to worry if the decisions I make are the right ones because of a relationship. I'm a leader, have the responsibility for my team, but that is nothing like this, like us." She hugged his arm. "Though, the time it took for us to get here is rather short. I wonder if we moved too fast, way too fast. I worry that in doing so, we will make life hard on our child farther down the road."
"I've worried about that, too, but I think we are the future against Umbrella. That common goal and our fates are all we need to be together. We are here, now, doing this for a reason. We were supposed to meet, make a family." He looked down at her then back at the road.
"You believe in fate, destiny?" She nuzzled against his arm. He pulled into his driveway and shut off the engine. She did not move. The mood would be broken.
"Yes, I do. I also believe that love is part of that. That is why we are together creating a family after knowing each other only a little over two weeks. When it's right, it just happens. You can't fight unless you want pain, and I don't want pain." He kissed her head. "You ready to go inside?" She nodded and sat up slowly. He smiled and got out to get her stuff while she got out as well. "Let me get the lock."
She smiled and followed him to the door. He was such a sweet man, a gentleman, but she new what was underneath that if he was upset, too. She loved the way he fussed over her no matter how annoying it was, how much she fought him about it. Perhaps he was right. Maybe they were meant to be where there were, together expecting a child. But, were they ready? She was worried about that and her mother, if her mother was still alive. Could her father kill her if he had to?
AN: Some events will happen sooner in this story than they actually did in the original timeline while others will occur at a later point. Raccoon will be destroyed earlier and before Caliban Cove, should I decide to include it, though at this point that seems unlikely.
Two days later:
Everyone had left to set up a small base camp in Hillsboro, OH. They had not been able to convince Jill to come along. She claimed she had some things to take care of first. They had tried to persuade her that she had to get out of Raccoon, but she would not listen. Athena had given her a warning, "Time is short for the life of this town. Fire will rain down. Nothing will be left but a big hole in the ground." Jill had found the warning corny. Hell, it rhymed. What else was she suppose to think about it? However, the look Athena had on her face when she told Jill scared the older woman. Athena had almost seemed to be seeing something horrific. Her eyes had shown fear, sorrow as they stared into nothing, unfocused. The warning chilled Jill now that she thought over it. Athena knew something, or sensed it at least, but had said no more.
Jill had not been raised by a fool, nor had she ever acted as one. She listened to her instincts. They screamed that she should have listened, gone with the others. She could not do anything about it now though, they had left the day before. Wesker was probably tearing into Umbrella as she thought about them. Still, she was feeling antsy, nervous. Something bad was going to happen. She just had no idea what, yet. Her answer lay in the upcoming night. All would be revealed to her and then some.
Wesker rechecked his gear yet again. Rebecca rolled her eyes and blew some hair from her face. He was still upset she was coming along to Stonelick and his gruff actions and barking comments revealed as much. Brian and Demetrius had both threw their hands up and claimed no part of the dispute. Brian had told them, however, it would be over the moment they left Hillsboro. He would have no more of it until then. Rebecca was Wesker's woman, let him deal with her. Athena had double and triple checked everything. She had a radio connection with Brian and Wesker so she could keep tabs on what was happening. She worried her father would turn the radio off. He would think of it as a potential cover threat. She agreed and had done the same many times. She also gave him a cell phone with a vibrator ringer. He had lifted a brow but pocketed it without complaint. Nonetheless, if she called him too often, he was tossing the damn thing.
Chris hovered near Athena, as did Patrick and Ramla. She had chased the latter two off many times so they could access the bacteria that had attacked her father's system. Elizabeth, Isaiah, Terrell, and Gunn all twittered about doing odds and ends she ordered them to do. Gunn was still distant but growing more confident as time passed. Terrell continually glared at them all if they crossed his path, though his death glares were reserved for Chris. Isaiah was busy listening to Brian go over the audio equipment though he could run it in his sleep. Elizabeth just watched, bemused at how they always reacted the same way to all missions, especially ones that put members in different roles.
"Alright. Let's get out of here before something comes up to delay us further." Wesker ushered the others out the door and toward his Jeep. Rebecca rode shotgun while the other two went over their final plan in the back seat. Wesker was silent, deep in thought and planning. He knew exactly what he was going to do, blow the fucking place to Hell where it belonged.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Athena told the others. "Something we are not privy to has been added to the equation." She and the others sat in one of the rooms they had rented at a local B&B.
"This have anything to do with your fire raining down on Raccoon?" Terrell asked. She glanced sharply in his direction. He had been unusually unpleasant and difficult. She was going to have to sit him down for a talk.
"No. This has everything to do with Stonelick."
"What was that about, that rhyme you fed Jill?" Gunn asked. He was finding his place again. He was not forgiven but they were all moving on, despite the growls and glares from Wesker.
"I don't know. I honestly never had anything happen to me like that." She looked at her hands as if they seemed foreign. She was experiencing it again. {{Zombies. Everywhere she looked she saw zombies. No one was alive. Her eyes caught the sight of a RPD cruiser before she saw it coming. Something from the sky. Then, nothing. I big smoking whole in the ground. Raccoon was gone.}}
"Athena?" Chris placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and shook her head.
"I'm fine. It hasn't changed. Raccoon will be no more." She rested her head against the back of the chair. "I fear for Miss Valentine. Time is growing short."
The others looked on in concern. Elizabeth had grown closer to Jill than the others. Chris had known her for some time. Athena hoped, for not just Jill's sake, that the S.T.A.R.S officer made it out of Raccoon City alive, and that no one else any of them knew or cared for was lost as well.