Chapter VIII

Jake

He waited outside while Sherry spoke to her mission coordinator. Jake wanted nothing more than to have his head at the end of his leg right now but he knew that for Sherry's sake he would have to control himself. While standing outside Jeff had passed quite a bit, Jake tried as hard as he could to not make eye contact with the guy, but he couldn't help but shoot a glare in his direction.

"Mr. Muller, you may go inside now," The mission coordinator – whose blonde hair was tied tightly back and made his forehead look like rubber bands stretched too tightly - informed him. He nodded in her direction and headed inside, eagerly, but not too quickly.

Inside Sherry had changed her clothing, she wore black sweats and furry black slacks with a blue long sleeved shirt, simple and flattering. "How are you feeling?" He asked her, carefully approaching her as she attempted to settle back in her bed.

"I feel like crap," she smiled softly back, there were shadows under her eyes to prove her statement, "my head is killing me, my muscles ache, and to top it all off the shit they gave me has a debilitating effect on my healing ability. I won't be able to heal for approximately a week. So I'll just have to wait this one out."

"You'll be fine," he assured her and pulled the blanket carefully over her body as she nestled deeply into the hospital bed. Or as deeply as she could go, "I'll be here when you wake up and when you go to sleep."

The entire week past by ridiculously slowly. It was on the seventh day of Sherry's stay that the hospital really started driving her crazy.

Jake had come in from a night at his apartment to visit Sherry. Outside the door to Sherry's hospital room he could hear Jeff saying, "Sherry please-

"No, I want out." She stated sharply.

Jake assumed this was probably some silly spat that they were having and should have some privacy. But upon rudely, and happily, pushing the door open he found instead Sherry pacing back and forth in her room with Jeff trying to calm her down. IV's were attached to her arm still and she was clutching the railing of the bed so hard that her knuckles were bright against her skin.

"Get me out of here." She hissed at no one in particular it seemed. Jeff's eyes skated towards Jake who frowned and set down his cup of hot chocolate down and carefully approached.

"Sherry, what's goin' on?" He asked as she looked up at him for the first time. Her eyes looked strange to him, almost hateful.

"I don't want to be here anymore!" She yelled angrily, "This place is driving me crazy! All night! So much noise in the hallways! I can't sleep-

"Sherry relax-

"Don't tell me to relax Jeff!" She spit at him, "I need out of here. Get me out of here I can't sleep. They're always coming in to check on my machines and my papers and my vitals and my IV'S. The medication is always going off. I haven't slept in two days. I want to go home. Right now!"

Jake stared, mildly shocked but mostly confused. "Sherry you haven't slept and I get that, but you need to relax. It's not good for you to –

"Don't tell me what's good for me!" Sherry exploded. Her eyes widened and Jeff's did too. "I was kept in a fucking hospital for years I can't be here anymore."

"I'm going to get you some medication to sleep, okay sweetheart?" Jeff approached her and took her face in his hands, Jake glared. "You'll sleep tonight I swear it. I understand that the noise is driving you crazy and the sleep deprivation doesn't help much."

"I don't need to be doped up. I need them to stop coming in here every ten seconds."

Jeff left to get the medicine and Sherry just paced without looking at Jake who watched her with growing humor. "Do you want to take a short walk with me?" She asked in a snappy tone. Amused Jake nodded and took her arm in his and gently walked her outside of her room.

They took five steps before she decided that she was tired and wanted to go back to her room, to which he chuckled and led her back. She's probably on so many different meds that she doesn't know which way is up.

Jake took her to her bed and lay her down carefully, Sherry frowned like a grumpy child the entire time.

"You haven't slept…" he told her.

"No. I haven't slept. They keep checking on me, Jake." Her voice sounded shaky, "it reminds me of when I was in the lab. The way they'd be so vigilant. They never let me sleep and now I can't sleep again. I hate this, I need to get out of this place."

"Sherry you need to stay – I understand that you're angry and sleep deprived, I get it, I do, but you're staying here. They're the only ones that can help you. Do you understand that?"

Sherry looked at him with watery eyes, "yeah."

"Good," he nodded at her.

A few minutes later Sherry was staring off into space, dozing off. Jake's eyes widened, anticipating the moment when they'd close and just then Jeff walked in disturbing her and snapping her eyes open again.

"Here, take this." He gave her pills which he informed her would relax her and put her to sleep. She took them and he kissed her check before leaving and promising that he'd come only if it was extremely necessary. Jake was grateful for this and when he was out of sight he carefully moved Sherry's body to make room for his own.

"What are you doing?" She slurred grumpily.

"I'm going to put you to sleep.: He paused. "That didn't come out right." He muttered and pulled her closely towards him.

"I'm no dog." She humphed.

"Shh, close your eyes." Jake waited patiently until he felt her eyelashes flutter against his neck and he gently started singing his favorite song to her, hoping to coax her into a deeper dream: "Color me once, color me twice, everythin's gonna' turn out nice. Everlasting arms, you gotta' keep me from these false alarms.

"Alarm, alarm, I see you sad. Maybe I see you I'm glad, maybe, maybe I'm the fire – of her desire." He paused as she adjusted herself and he pulled the blanket over Sherry's petite form. "'Patience, patience' said the man. Patience, patience, I can't understand. Patience like a man and a wife, I got patience on my neck like a cold, cold, knife.

"I say Jack be nimble, Jack fall dead. Jack bend over and give Jilly head. Ohh, ohhh, you gotta' help my body to heal my soul." He hummed softly, imagining the wailing guitar and the petite at his side swaying to it before he continued, "Dead men working – a sinner, a saint. Mixing up a pail of paint, painted the house, black as night.

"When the sun came up the house was white." The petite's arms winded around his waist, carefully and hardly moving Jake stroked her hair, "gotta go on, gotta on, we gotta go on, you gotta' go on. You gotta' go on. Try and live life, like I couldn't."

The next morning Sherry woke up to find Jake wasn't at her side. Her limbs felt sore but her sleep wish had been fulfilled and for this she was thankful. When she looked around she found Jake was slumped on a chair glaring at a book in his hands.

"Of Mice and Men?" She questioned, noticing the cover and the author.

"Yeah, Lenny… well I won't spoil it for you."

She smirked and stretched.

Not long after that Jeff came in and brought her pills for her fever.

The next of the days passed by easily and finally her day to leave came. Sherry said goodbye to Jeff and told him she'd call him, Jake took her by the arm and carefully led her out of the hospital. The entire drive home she grinned and told him of how happy she was that he had been there.

When they reached the apartment Jake opened and was instantly greeted by the weird cats at the door who rubbed up against him and meowed incessantly.

"My babies!" Sherry shrieked and resumed to pet them and carry them, kissing them and hugging them all at once.

Sherry

That night Sherry layup with Jake on her couch, they watched movies and kept themselves at an arms distance away from each other. It was like an unspoken agreement that they both couldn't be trusted to not start kissing each other.

But that's not what occupied Sherry's thoughts, what did occupy Sherry's thoughts were the memories of the lab's that she had been kept in. As she watched the film, which name escaped her, she could only see doctors in lab coats plugging her with IV's.

"Got sometihn' on your mind?" His usual husky tone interrupted her thoughts. He always sounded just a little bored, but his eyes were always narrowed and interested – demanding answers for whatever he dared to ask.

Sherry looked at him with a bit of sadness, she could remember the way he had stared at her after she had freaked out about losing all of his data on the mission from Edonia. She could remember the way he had glared at her after she opened the door and let a ton of snow in, it was amusing now, but it had been scary before, she had chosen to sit quietly. And then he sat beside her and spoke to her. He had questioned her and that had been the first time that she had thought about her ability, truly thought about it – in a long time.

"I'll take that as a yes." He sighed.

And then she had been captured, Jake too, in the damned white lab. They'd tested on her and she thought that she would never escape. But alas Jake freed her. She laughed.

"Do you remember when I first saw you, after we were in the lab after Edonia and you just coughed and turned your head away?"

"'Course I remember," how could he forget? She had looked incredible in that outfit. And then she dropped it and he struggled to take his eyes away from her.

And then that was the first time that he had asked about Wesker. It had been angering to watch Jake speak, "And here I thought dear old dad was just a deadbeat who skipped out on us – no, no, no… he was actually a freakin' nut job who almost destroyed the world!"

Sherry's thoughts immediately went to her own father, she was not the thing he had become, and whatever evils he had committed were not her own, his logic process annoyed Sherry, insulted her. "Your father's actions have nothing to do with you. "

"Yeah but his blood does! It's the whole reason why we're even here. I mean, come on! You really think that crazy doesn't run in the family? That nothing of who my father was didn't somehow get passed on to me." Sherry had glared at him as the next words came out of his mouth. "You of all people should know that's true." He paused, "I'm just sayin'… the man I am, the things I've done- at least it makes a little bit more sense now."

When Sherry shut the locker door it wasn't in anger, instead disappointment and insult. She just looked at him, sadly.

"What?" he asked when he raised his eyes to her, noticing the look.

"You can blame your father all you want, but at some point you have to take responsibility for your own actions."

That was when Jake realized that he had insulted her when she walked away, bumping into his shoulder antagonistically and leaving him there.

"That trip was odd, too many people I met." Jake said, interrupting the memory.

"Leon, Chris…"

Jake remembered meeting Leon first because he thought his hair was stupid; the guy looked like a Pantene model. And then the way Leon had made a move at Sherry as if to grab her. That had sent Jake over the edge and he had no choice but to shove him away from her.

"How are you feelin'?" Jake asked.

"I'm good." Sherry looked at him, "I'm going to sleep, so I'll wake up in a few minutes, that okay with you?"

"Yeah go ahead." He watched her snuggle up against the arm of her couch and then she drifted while Jake continued remembering events after Edonia.

He could remember with the utmost clarity the moment when they had seen Chris Redfield and the BSAA man had come clean.

"Chris!" Sherry shouted, running towards the man whose sister was more like a mother to Sherry. Sherry had told Jake once, "he's basically an uncle."

"Glad to see you're ok." Chris' gruff tone sounded relieved but Jake still didn't like the guy much.

"Wait, was that you who just freed us?"

Jake was jealous upon hearing that. He didn't like that Sherry really thought it was all just them, it wasn't. "Looks like you guys saved the day again."

No one missed the tone, Chris turned to look at him, "I can see your father in you." Chris said when Jake had turned his back to him, that made Jake pause.

"How did you know where-

"Wait, hold on a second." Jake interrupted Sherry, annoyed. "So you knew him?"
"Yeah, I did." He paused, "I'm the one who killed him."

Jake heart stilled and he looked to Sherry. She had known, there was no way she hadn't known, that's why she had tried to get Chris Redfield off the subject. She avoided his stare and looked away… uncomfortable.

Jake shot for his gun; Redfield didn't flinch as the barrel stared him right in the eye.

"It was you?"

"That's right." Redfield answered.

"Chris." The tense tone of the lap dog partner Redfield had annoyed Chris, what was his name? Peats? Pears?

"You better put a leash on that puppy." Jake would blow a hole through his forehead too.

"This is between me and him," Chris said, stepping forward. "Go ahead, shoot, you have every right to." Refield stepped forwards some more, he seemed to want this, Jake chuckled, who the hell was this guy to tell him what to do? He cocked the gun, he'd gladly do it. "Just promise me you'll survive. The world depends on it."

Jake exploded. "Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?!" His throat burned as he yelled. His temperature shot and his vision became hazy from rage.

"Stop it!" He was scaring Sherry.

"Put your gun down! Now!" And enraging the guy to his right.

"Tell me, were you just…" he shrugged, "following orders, or was it personal?"

"Both." Chris said.

"Jake please stop!"

"I'll put a bullet in your head."

"Just put your gun down!" Sherry pleaded, "Don't do this!" She begged.

Jake released a hard yell; he hated this guy so much, so he pulled the trigger.

There was silence and Chris hardly flinched as the bullet scraped his cheek. "There are more important things at stake then you and me." The growl escaped Jake.

"We gotta' go!" The laptop stated as there was suddenly a quaking.

"Jake!" Sherry again.

"I know!" He yelled at her.

Jake had fallen asleep a few minutes after the memory. His eyes closed and the beer in his hand fell to the table with a soft clunk perfectly. He did not stir and everything was still in the air for a long moment, his dreams stirring him.

"Stop it." He hissed out. Someone was attacking Jake Muller, not physically but mentally. Assaulting his dreams, he saw the dozens of people he had obliterated with his hands, crushing their chest against his fist and ending their lives with bullets. One was approaching him with a teary gaze and wide arms, blood pouring from the man's cracked teeth.

"Get away from me." Jake yelled at him, raising his hands. He realized the gun he usually carried wasn't there, instead there was just his bloody hands and his bloody knuckles. The man kept approaching Jake, speaking, without moving his mouth.

You did this to us.

Jake rushed at him punching him in the face and knocking him to the ground. He stood over the man as he lay still beneath him. But he continued to speak without speaking.

Your guilt must be killing you.

Jake stomped at him, crushing his face violently with his boot. The mans face caved like a watermelon and his breath wheezed out of him as Jake stomped at him. His cracked teeth twisted in his gums.

How does this make you feel better? You are a murderer, you kill men for money, you kill for causes you don't even believe n. You take lives or money – it makes you worse then anyone else because you put material needs before human lives. You are nothing but a coward, afraid of hearing the truth. You are ignorant to your reality, to yourself and the things you do. Just like your father – you are selfish.

"Shut the fuck up!" Jake growled. The figure sprung up and wrapped its rotting fingers around his neck. Suddenly all the power left Jake's limbs. His eyes stretched in horror and his lips tightened against his gums as he struggled to get a breath and choked on the black air.

Sherry. Where was Sherry. He tried to call for her but couldn't get the breath to do it. His chest tightened and his veins seemed to pop against his skin. Everything felt inflated and tight. Above him the man grunted as he applied more force. When had Jake fallen to the ground?

Sherry

"Jake…" She moaned out of her dream as she felt the couch shaking. Her eyes stretched to their wide length as she straightened up on the couch.

Beside her Jake gripped the couch tightly and stirred, his eyes closed tightly and there was a harsh sweat popping forth from his forehead.

"Jake? Hey, wake up."

"Stop it!" He growled viciously. She jumped up and walked towards him, her eyes were confused and scared. She shook him lightly.

"Hey! Wake up!" She shook him angrily now, trying to get him up. "Jake get up!"

"Get away from me!" Jake roared at the air and grabbed at Sherry blindly. She squealed as he grunted and pulled her towards him, finally opening his eyes with a shock and breathing heavily as she rested awkwardly on him. His chest heaved against her cheek. He smelled like cologne and a bit of alcohol. He smelled like fall and cold airy nights.

There was an awkward silence as he saw her awkward position, resting against him, trembling as he did and her frightened gaze. He held it for a long time, the proximity was breathtaking. She looked so frail against him.

She gulped, noticing how he was trying to close the proximity. His mouth was right there, oh God.

No. Not now. No, I have Jeff. I can't!

She forced herself away from him. Her body shook and trembled. He eyed her warily. The nightmare had been happening for a while now. He had hoped it wouldn't happen in front of her, ever. She sat beside him awkwardly, her eyes fixed on the television.

"Bad dream?" She peeped, her hands in between her thighs, breathing deeply and trying to steady her heart.

"Somethin' like that." He muttered awkwardly back.

Very stressful week so my apoligies for the late chapter. :)

Love you all .