Chapter 3. Out of the Darkness and Into the Light
The days passed painfully slow for Rebecca and Michael, but especially so for Billy who had to deal with the painful side effects of the A.W. that was still in his system. Taking shifts day and night, Rebecca and Michael kept watch over Billy as he slowly recovered. After three long, grueling days, the worst seemed to be over as far as the detoxing was concerned. Now, Rebecca could focus in on Billy's other pressing issues as he continued to recover from his ordeal.
…..
His face contorted in pain as another coughing fit laid hold of him. All he was aware of was the blinding pain that shot through him, making his lung burn and his chest ache. Every breath was torture as he fell into the vicious cycle of desperately gasping for breath and not wanting to breathe at all because of the pain. Shifting he tried to get into a better position to ease the pain. His head was pounding from the pain and the lack of oxygen and he felt everything start to spin. Just as his vision, already impaired thanks to the nasty shiner he had, started to go black around the edges he was aware of hands helping him sit more upright.
"Breathe, Billy… Breathe" he heard someone say, though they sounded far away and very distant as his ears started to ring.
With the last conscious thought he had, Billy fought back against the pain and took a long deep breath, desperate to get enough oxygen into his lungs. His chest burned as he continued to force himself to breathe. Slowly the coughing fit subsided and his vision started to return to normal.
"God… that hurts…" he groaned as he took another ragged breath and clutched his sides.
"Understandable, considering you have cracked ribs as well as a bad case of pneumonia" Michael said with a grimace as he picked up the oxygen mask. He pressed it into Billy's hand as he reached beside the bed and flipped the machine on once again.
Billy gave a shudder as he breathed out, trying to focus on his breathing rather than the pain. Turning his head, he looked at Michael and gave a sigh.
"Oh, is that all?" he muttered as he held the mask over his nose and mouth and took as slow and deep a breath as he could.
Michael was about to say something when Rebecca came to the bed. Propping Billy up so he was more upright she reached beside the bed and adjusted the machine, watching him closely as he struggled to take a deep breath. Eventually, his breathing started to grow easier, and Billy felt his chest finally relax slightly as the oxygen started running through his lungs easier.
"Just breathe" she said gently as she checked the IV in the back of Billy's hand. "You've put your lungs through the ringer. It's no wonder they're protesting anything and everything right now."
"That bad huh?" Billy asked as he pulled the mask away for a moment.
"Well, let's just say you had four fractured ribs and two broken ribs when we found you. Thanks to your violent fits during the A.W. detox over the last two days…. the xrays I took last night show you now have five fractures ribs and four broken ribs. You ended up breaking several of the fractured ribs and managed to fracture new ones during your withdraw fits. And on top of that, you have a rather nasty case of pneumonia too, which isn't helping the breathing or the ribs any."
"Tell me about it…" Billy moaned as he tried to fight back a cough and held the oxygen mask in place once again.
"Well now that you are finally over the worst of the A.W. effects we can start treating everything else" Rebecca said as she hung up a new IV bag and punched a few buttons on the machine. "I've got you on some antibiotics and fluids for the pneumonia and infection, but unfortunately other than rest and pain management, there's not much we can do for the ribs. They are just going to have to heal on their own. The bandage is going to have to come off now. I only wrapped them so you wouldn't do more damage than you managed to do up to now… but they can't stay wrapped for much longer. You need to be able to breathe as easily as you can."
"You just can't get enough of seeing me shirtless" Billy said with a smirk as he lowered the mask and laid it on the bed. "You can be honest doll-face."
Rebecca sighed and shook her head as she smiled. She turned off the oxygen machine for the moment and turned back to Billy.
"Well, glad to see you are getting back to your old cheeky self" she said as she motioned for Michael to join them. "Guess this as good a time as any then to get these off" she said pointing to the bandages wrapped around Billy's waist and chest.
With Michael's help, Billy sat upright, and Rebecca began removing the long strips of cloth. Billy's breath caught in his chest for a moment as he winced as the pain flared with the movement, biting his lip against the pain of his protesting ribs.
"Sorry" Rebecca muttered "It won't take too long."
"No… problem…" Billy muttered, his fits gripping the sheets as he tried to slow his breathing as Rebecca finished up.
"So, Billy" Michael said, trying to help distract the man somewhat. "What exactly did happen to you? From what we read in your notes it seemed like you were in pretty good with Wesker. Yet we found you in pretty rough shape. So what happened?"
"Wesker and I had a bit of a…. falling out you could say" Billy said as Rebecca finished and he laid back slowly. "Somehow he got it in his head…. that I was stealing A.W. from him. I denied it of course…but Wesker is super paranoid and I've seen him off his own guys for less than that. So he decided to deal with me and some fun with his drug testing at the same time."
"He dosed you up again didn't he?" Rebecca asked as she sat on the edge of the bed beside Billy. She looked at him sadly, hating that he had been suffering so much the last five years. She forced her hand to not reach out brush back the strands of hair that had fallen into his face.
"Yeah, me and about three other of his goons too…and like normal he sat and watched the show."
"This Wesker dude sounds like one of the terrible emperors of Rome" Michael said with a grimace.
"You have no idea" Billy said, shaking his head as he brushed the hair back out of his face. "The dude gets high off power and his favorite past time is reveling in the suffering of others. If he has the power to make both happen, he is all the more dangerous. But yeah, the last thing I really remember was the A.W. effects kicking in and there being three other guys closing in on me. Woke up however later it was and was in the alleyway, barely able to move and feeling like I was dying."
"You were pretty close" Rebecca said softly as she put a hand on Billy's arm and looked at him. "I was afraid when we found you, that we were too late."
"Sorry to have worried you…" Billy said softly as he looked up at her and laid a hand on hers "I'm going to be ok now though, thanks to you Becca. And you too Michael" he said with a sincere nod. "I owe you both big time."
"What matters is you are here now and that you got insider info we can use to take Wesker down" Michael said, giving Becca a knowing look.
"So… Becca. Be straight with me" Billy said, his voice and expression suddenly getting very serious. "How bad am I?"
"Well, you are better now than you were three days ago when we found you, that's for sure. But…" Rebecca adverted her eyes for a moment, looking down at their hands that were still holding onto each other, and then looked back at him. "You are still in for a long recovery, Billy. Your ribs will take 4-6 weeks minimum before you are going to be able to do much of anything and it will be a lot longer before you are fully recovered. And the pneumonia is pretty bad too. You must have been laying in that alley way for a couple days before we found you. It was likely a combination of the injuries you sustained and being out in the cold for a few days that brought it on this badly. You will most likely be find now… but its still going to be a long road to recovery. And you, won't be leaving here anytime soon I'm afraid."
"Well… not like I can just wander wherever I want around Racoon City" Billy said. "I'm still a wanted man with a death sentence hanging over my head" he said with a sad chuckle. "Whether here or in Wesker's den… I'm still a wanted man."
Rebecca was about to say something when Michael spoke up.
"Speaking of being a wanted man…. That reminds me. Bec, a new report was sent out to the precinct. Latest update on the gang activity."
Rebecca took the folder from Michael, the gold and black emblem reading Strategic Taskforce And Rehabilitation Services embossed on the cover. Opening it she looked through the few pages and then looked over at Billy.
"Even though you may be stuck here for the foreseeable future, you can still do a lot to help us fight Wesker and finally bring him to justice. Your notes and firsthand experience can give us valuable insight into what he's doing and what his plans might be."
"Here to do whatever I can to help," Billy said with a nod.
"But Bec, what are you going to tell the chief about our source for this new intel? We can't exactly tell him about Billy."
"No we can't…. but he doesn't have to know about Billy. We find bodies from the gangs all the time. Easy enough to say we found the pages on one of the bodies."
"Not that far of a stretch either if I was in as bad a shape as you say" Billy said. "Would have been just another corpse without you guys. Whatever I can do to help, you know I am in. Wesker can't be allowed to keep going. And heaven help us if A.W. gets any more powerful or gets out onto the streets more than it already is. Racoon City alone can't contain this much longer."
"Speaking of containing, I'm going to head out and check in with the team back at HQ," Michael said as he stood and grabbed his jacket. "You checked in with the chief yesterday right, Bec?"
"Yeah, told him I was following a lead and would report back or send you in with an update for the team in a few days."
"Alright, good. I'll check back in a couple days. Contact me if you need me sooner."
"You do the same, Michael" Rebecca said as she watched her partner leave.
"Take care of yourself Billy" he said as he stopped in the doorway and looked back at them. "And you take care of Bec for me too ok?"
Billy nodded silently and looked up at Rebecca. He could have sworn he saw her cheeks flush slightly as she smiled at him slightly and then looked away. The click of the door echoed in the room as they fell silent for a moment.
After what seemed like an eternity, the only sound being the beeping of the various machines that were still running, Billy reached over and took Rebecca's hand into his once more, this time giving it a gently squeeze. Looking down into those piercing dark eyes, Rebecca felt her cheeks flush again as Billy met her gaze.
"Becca… thank you. You saved my life again."
"Nothing to thank me for" she whispered softly. "Now hush and rest. You still got a long road ahead of you. We all do."
Billy nodded as he leaned back and closed his eyes, still holding her hand as he slowly drifted off and fell into a light sleep.
Rebecca lost track of how long she sat there, watching him sleep, as she thought about all that had happened in the last few days and how much things had changed and wondered about how much more change was ahead for them. With a soft sigh she stood and leaned over, placing a light kiss on Billy's forehead then picked up the notebook from the bed and walked over to the desk on the far side of the room and sat down.