'Billy! Look out!' She pulled her gun from her belt, letting off two shots, but it was too late. The creature had already shaken him free.

'BILLY!' she screamed, starting to run again, going back to the elevator room. The Tyrant prototype appeared out of nowhere, but she ran straight for the elevator that would take her down to the eighth basement level. Four levels down and the doors opened, seeming to move too slowly. She ran again before the doors were fully open, and followed the sound of rushing water.

He was there on the ground, somehow managed to get out using the ladder beside him. He had scratches all over his arms and his temple was swollen ad bleeding. It was grotesque – his face was covered I blood, his eyes wide and in pain, his leg at the wrong angle, and he had a deep scratch on his neck, which poured blood onto the floor, drowning his head.

She ran over to him, dropping her weapon and her knees to the ground, her trousers getting soaked in crimson liquid surrounding Billy's head in a crown. She checked for a pulse, but couldn't find one. She started crying, screaming, forgetting all of her training in that one moment. Seeing him like that threw her over the edge, and she knew she was too late.

Through her tears she didn't notice that his handcuff had come off…

Rebecca woke with a start, sweating and screaming. But little after a second, her screaming stopped, realising that it was just another horrible nightmare. She lay there for a moment, trying to get her breath back and her heart rate steady.

She couldn't remember when she fell asleep, but the light was off and the lamp on low. She sat up and looked around, trying to remember what happened before she slept. Her head was hurting, and she rubbed her temple, even though it wouldn't help. She winced as she felt a pain in her right calf and looked down to see a bandage placed a few inches above her ankle, which was covered in both fresh and dried blood. She saw what remained of a nine-millimetre bullet on her table and a set of surgical tweezers from her medical kit beside it. She forgot she still had a medical kit fro, S.T.A.R.S.

How did I end up on the couch? She thought, trying to remember what happened. Then the door opened slightly, and Rebecca saw the face from her nightmare, and that's when she remembered the night's events.

'You okay?' Billy asked, stepping in through the door. His hair was messy, not combed back like usual anymore, and his eyes were red with black sacks underneath them. He looked worried, yet relieved. 'I heard you scream and thought –'

Rebecca hugged him tight, cutting off his words in a heartbeat. After a few moments, things became awkward, and Rebecca pulled away with her cheeks flushing a bright pink in the dim light of the lamp. She felt as if she was seeing Billy for the first time, the real Billy, once he got close to someone, and she felt that he deserved to feel that closeness back. But maybe she had gone too far…

She hadn't. Billy enveloped her in his muscular arms, wrapping her up in a safety blanket, taking away the pain of the nightmare just for a moment. She wrapped her arms back around him, not wanting to let go and not wanting to be alone anymore.

'Billy?' She asked, looking up at him but still not moving. 'Please tell me you get nightmares too.'

'Every time I close my eyes, doll face. Every time…' he whispered.

They stood there for a moment, silent and keeping each other safe in their arms. Rebecca gave out a slight whimper as she tried not to cry, the images from the nightmare coming back and still as fresh as daisies in her mind's eye.

Billy stroked her short, pale brown hair, making slight hushing noises to try and extinguish her fear. She was only 19, and nobody that age should have gone through what she went through, S.T.A.R.S. or not, and they shouldn't be doing what she is just to survive another day out of Umbrella's hands. Her "apartment" was hardly bigger than his prison cell whilst waiting for his sentencing, and all he could really fell for her was pity and empathy. He hadn't needed to go this far off the radar since about five months previously. She was living worse than he ever had.

Rebecca's muffled whimpers became louder, unable to be held back any longer. Billy held her closer and tighter, and then started to move over to the couch. His worrying for the four or five hours before had been for almost nothing, but at least she had someone to look out for her. And, he wasn't the only one who felt love in this relationship either.

All Rebecca needed now was rest, so Billy led them over to the couch and lay there, with her half-on-top-of-him and half-on-the-couch. He continued to stroke her hair and hold her close.

After a few moments, Rebecca fell silent again, too tired to cry anymore and almost too tired to care. She raised her head from Billy's chest and looked up at him, looking into his dark eyes. 'You should get some sleep,' she suggested, still staring at him.

'Nah. I think I'll just watch you sleep for a while,' Billy said, forcing a smile. Rebecca could see his eyes shining and that he wanted to have some time to himself, and if she was honest with herself, so did she. But neither of them wanted to leave each other, and that was something they couldn't solve.

'I've been drugged up for the past few hours. You look like you haven't slept in days!' Rebecca had a slight glint in her eyes, which was sort of playful and also serious.

'Fair point.' Billy's eyelids started to close. As he started to fall asleep, Rebecca lay there in thought.

But her mind was still foggy, full of the drug the man had put into her. It was a sedative, and a strong one – her breathing was shallow and her pulse was slow, along with the usual symptoms of sedation like feeling groggy and having heavy limbs.

Rebecca sighed, actually and already wanting to wake Billy up and see what he had been doing, how he had been running for so long. He probably went through worse than she had, considering he was an escaped death-row felon.

The drug had started to take affect again, causing Rebecca to become drowsy again. Her eyes started to close, her eyelids fluttering shut in her attempt to stay awake. After a few moments, she gave in, unable to fight the drug and the fogginess in her mind for any longer. And just as her mind slipped, she felt Billy kiss her cheek.

Billy woke a few hours later, seeing Rebecca still asleep in his arms. She wasn't moving, nor talking or whimpering in her sleep like she had before. Billy had been up when she first fell asleep due to the drugs out of worry, and as he sat in the constricting corridor, he heard her whimpers, her moving around and her cries from the nightmare she had.

He usually had nightmares – from the train, the training facility, the treatment plant. But, the thing that plagued his dreams the most was the village. The women, children, elderly and not a single soldier in sight. The blood of those innocent people on the team's hands, on the ground, seeping from every wound and bullet hole in the bodies falling to the floor. The smell from it – the blood, the dirt, the forest and the fear – haunted him there too, the noises also as loud and as potent; screams of the many, cries of the helpless and the children calling for their parents. For their parents to stay, to come back…

A small, soft and smooth hand and gently wiped the tears that had fallen onto Billy's cheeks. He smiled slightly, looking down with tear-filled eyes and seeing Rebecca's eyes straight back into his. The pain was clear, but the concern and love she felt for Billy shone through those grey eyes. However, Billy couldn't help but notice the dark pits beneath them and came to the conclusion that the drug still hadn't worn off.

'It's okay Billy. It's the past now,' she whispered to him, lightly tracing the intricate, interlocking lines and patterns on his right arm, somehow able to clearly enough in the dim light of the lamp.

Billy saw something glint around Rebecca's neck. He picked up the silver ball chain that sat at her neck, noticing her flinch slightly, but she didn't remove her hand from his arm. He pulled the chain from under her t-shirt, seeing the shimmer of a rectangular shaped pendent. He lifted it closer to his eyes, not able to make out what it said in the light. As he put it closer to his face, he finally made out what it said.

Lieutenant William Coen, 2nd regiment

Billy gave Rebecca a solemn smile, the bittersweet memory of her leaving him to go onto another horror-show of a mission, to leave him to go free – or to live another day, at least – coming back to him.

Rebecca looked up at him, a small blush on her cheeks. Her eyes looked tired and heavy again, the drugs taking effect once again.

'Did I ever thank you for that night?' Billy asked, looking at her with his slightly cocky smile. Rebecca realised that the Billy she met on that train all those months ago wasn't the real Billy; the Billy she saved from the water was. She had had her doubts about whether Billy was just being nice to her and saved her ass just so that she could help him get out, or that was just what he followed as a Lieutenant. But, why wouldn't he have just left her to die if she worked for the law? – Because she was just a kid.

Now, she knew that it was because he liked her. When they said goodbye, for what would be the last time eleven months ago, it showed.

'I don't think you did,' Rebecca said, yawning.

Billy kissed her on the lips just before she fell back to sleep, feeling her kiss him back a little. But she fell asleep, and she pulled back, smiling to himself as he looked back at his old dog tag still around her neck.

'Thank you, Rebecca,' he whispered, before he too fell asleep.