Chapter XVIII
Sherry
The drive to Leon and Claire's home passed uneventfully for Sherry. She found herself constantly dazing to thoughts of Jake and Leon couldn't help but also wonder what the hothead was doing without Sherry at his side. He imagined that Jake Muller was sitting somewhere drinking himself into a coma.
Sherry on the other hand couldn't help but question herself. She wondered if leaving him was truly helping at all or just letting him wallow in his own anger issues. She hoped he was not hurting himself further, she cared far too much about his health. But she knew that in his anger he became ignorant of himself.
"We're here." Leon told Sherry when he pulled up in front of his home. Sherry looked up, surprised and nodded quietly before getting out of the car. Leon led her into his apartment, the one he shared with Claire, and she was more than surprised to see that it was much more extravagant than she ever imagined.
When he led her into the building the first thing she noticed was that they had a security guard by the door. He high fived Leon and cast an appreciative glance at Sherry as she passed by him. Leon led her to an elevator that was paneled with wood and then led her up to the thirty-first floor.
When they stepped out they made their way down a white hallway, it was squeaky clean, and then to a black door at the end of the hall. When they entered the apartment she was immediately involved in a wonderfully large space.
"Wow, this is… incredible Leon!"
The ceiling seemed to literally be made out of marble; the color was a strange warm beige that glistened above them. Windows lined the walls farthest from them from left to right, top to bottom in a panoramic style. The apartment was shaped like a circle almost, a very large irregular rotund shape, and there was a long couch opposite of the windows with a square table in the center. The couch could at least fit fifteen people. It wrapped around so that everyone had a perfect view of the glass windows that led to a balcony overlooking the city. Then there was a small dining table with about six chair, also near the windows.
"Claire pitched in, we both own it. She picked out all these colors."
Sherry swallowed painfully; this place was too magnificent to be real!
"Why have I never been here?" She asked as Leon set down the cats in their crates and opened the little doors. Timidly Edgar and Alastair stepped out of their confines.
"Because we're always working," he smirked and led her to the kitchen, it was just as magnificent as the rest of the place, it was a bit more complex than other kitchens she had been in. Most people didn't own things like this. But simply there was a black table with silver stools, there was a stove inside of a wood paneled type of room divider in the center of the kitchen and behind this wall there was a fridge and shelves with plates and glass.
"Unbelievable," she whispered.
The panoramic design of the windows was everywhere in the apartment. When Sherry made her way to Leon's bedroom she found his bed was beside the windows. It had the same beige tone was the rest of the home and there was a white rug on the floor that felt amazing beneath her toes.
"This is beautiful." She murmured. He shrugged gently, modest and shy.
"So where is Claire?" She asked him when he led her to the living room, she noticed that there was no television.
"Claire's out food shopping for you, she says you like pop-tarts?" Leon noticed Sherry's blush, "that stuff is so bad for you."
"I know, I know!" She laughed and watched him get a laptop. "So are you going to fill me in on the whole situation that you and I are going to be getting ourselves into?"
"Sure," he smiled.
Jake
"Oh Jakey," his mother sighed as she watched her sons stony face, "I'm sorry that this is happening to you."
"It's not your fault mom," he murmured, holding her hand in his gently and swallowing thickly, "I guess Albert Wesker's blood just makes me naturally detestable. I mean, from everything I've been told he also had major issues and he just came off as this cold freak. Maybe that's why he was that way, because it was just easier to feel nothing, it's better for men like him and I to be apathetic then to show our emotions because apparently – we're just machines of rage and-
"Jake do not speak like that." She admonished him softly, "your father… your father-
"What did you see in him?" Jake asked with confusion as his mother watched him with sad eyes from the bed, "everything that I know about him, which isn't a lot, tells me that he wasn't a good man mom. So what was it that you liked about him?"
She shrugged easily and moved her gaze to the ceiling, she could picture Albert Wesker's handsome face as if he was really there, she could see his perfectly sculpted cheeks and she could remember the first time he had spoken, that beautifully velvet voice that had made her shiver, "your father was a good man to me, you understand Jake?" Her voice became feeble, "I fell in love with him." The woman could also feel his lips on hers just at the thought of him, she could remember how stony and forceful they were, how she melted in his embrace and how she yearned for him to never release her. "He treated me differently." She gently told her son who stared at her with anger.
"He was nothing but a liar mom-
"He loved me." She defended the man's image valiantly, "You do not know Jake, and I am sorry for that, but he was a good man to me."
She could remember the first time he had kissed her. They had been out on a date that night, and there was nothing more nerve wrecking than feeling his gaze on her that entire night. The way he had stared at her from across the dinner table with no expression, she couldn't tell what he was thinking. The sunglasses were a bit much, she had thought, but she liked that he was so mysterious, it kept her interested,
"Are you enjoying yourself?" Albert had asked her in his deep rolling voice, she had blushed under his gaze, he took notice of this and she noticed that he smirked. He then lowered his gaze to his plate and picked up the fork and stabbed it into a piece of meat, eating quietly.
"I am, thank you. And yourself?" Her deeply accented voice had always embarrassed her, but Albert never said anything about it so she tried to not let it get to her.
"I am enjoying myself thoroughly." He told her.
They had continued to eat and make very small talk, it had always made her uncomfortable to know just how intelligent Albert Wesker was and how well spoken he was compared to her, yet he never made a show of it and conversed with her easily, and when she didn't understand something he explained it simply and thoroughly. It made her feel like he was not judging her, even though she was certain he was. And the silence, whenever it did come, was never uncomfortable, she would catch him staring at her and she would simply blush and look away. The silences were almost more revealing then when they spoke.
It was when he brought her to her humble apartment that he had kissed her.
"Let me walk you upstairs," he told her, not asking as much as demanding.
"Albert you know you do not have to. I don't want you know waste your time."
His gaze fell to her silently; his expressionless voice rang out again. "Do I look like the type of man that would waste my own time?" He said simply. And that was that.
She led him up the stairs with a racing heart, he followed her quietly and then she reached her door. She was embarrassed by where she lived, and she knew Albert could tell, he could always see her feelings on her face better than anyone else could. He understood her perfectly, more than her mother, or her father and they had known her her entire life!
That was what had attracted her to him first; it was knowing that all her years of misery were real because he acknowledged them. Her mother and father always believed her sadness was invented, that she had no true reason to feel so lonely. But then he had simply looked at her and he had understood, without words or even knowing her name, he knew that she was unhappy. He had silently validated her emotions instead of ignoring them.
"Goodnight Albert, thank you for the dinner." She said, looking anywhere but his sunglasses, her gaze fell on his neck. But then he was stepped forward, his towering height making her shrink. She was unsure of why he was drawing so closely to her, and then he reached up with his gloved hands and she swore she saw hesitation there but now – was certain she had imagined it. He grasped her face firmly and tilted it up.
She knew what was coming, and she shivered against her will under his gaze. "Do not move," he had said quietly, almost in a deep purr. And then his mouth came down on hers.
Ms. Muller remembered gasping quietly as he hands wrapped into her hair and his lips slid across her easily. Her hands had gripped his lean hips and she had submitted under his mouth willingly and happily as the man parted her mouth coaxingly and wordlessly.
"He took care of me," she told her son gently, "when I came here I was doing nothing. I went into all the offices I could find, hoping that someone might give me a place to work. I went into a restaurant one day, to apply for waitressing and he had been eating there. That was how we met."
"The fact that he took care of you means nothing," he told her simply, "he left us."
"He didn't want to endanger us," she defended softly, kissing her sons hand, "imagine how dangerous it might have been for me if his enemies found out that I was with him? Can you imagine that?"
"But he didn't know you were pregnant, so you can't say that he did it to protect us."
"No, but I was with him and that was enough. He did not want to hurt me, and I believe that to be the reason why he left… a man as cold as Albert couldn't have been with me if not for love."
Jake said nothing to his mother about this and only nodded, stroking her hair gently as she drifted into sleep, yet again he was left alone with thoughts of Sherry.
Sherry
In the hour Sherry had been informed that the man Leon was hunting was named Richard Kruspe. He was a German bioterrorist who had a main laboratory on the main Auckland Islands. Leon suspected that the man was selling BOW's, and experimenting on people.
"But why do you want to be the one to uncover him?" Sherry asked with confusion, "I mean why not just expose what you think this is to someone who might send an entire army to ensure that this isn't what's really going on?"
"Because I've tried that and they just ignore it that's why I am pretty sure that something really is going on. They don't want to get involved," he explained, "I think they want to let him keep doing what he's doing because they're afraid to have a full scale war against him on their hands." Sherry nodded, understanding. "I want to go in there, get what I need and get out. I just need enough evidence to expose him and his dirty little scheme and then I'll be gone. I've asked Chris to see what he can do for us in terms of weapons."
"That's good." Sherry nodded. "What can you tell me about the island itself? I need to know what type of clothing to wear, that type of stuff." Leon informed her that he didn't think they'd have to worry about that so much because he believed he knew exactly where the location of the laboratory was and if he was right that meant they would keep the laboratory cold, so he advised her to dress warmly.
"And when will we be leaving?"
"In three days. Chris should be coming with what he can get us; he will be flying us over there." Leon looked at Sherry with a wary glance, "if you don't want to do this you don't have to, I can always find someone else."
"Don't worry, I want to do this." She smiled gently and leaned back, "I just haven't done something like this in a while."
Soon Sherry departed from her room, telling Leon she'd come out when Claire got back, she wanted some time to herself to think, naturally Leon agreed and retreated to his bedroom.
Sherry had mistakenly drifted into a light nap, she dreamed of zombies and monster coming out her and tearing her apart, she found no will to wake herself up and it wasn't until a disturbing vibration came that she was able to snap out of her dream. When she looked at her phone she was surprised to see Jake's name there. Hesitantly she grabbed the phone, she didn't know what to expect and it made her heart throb as she realized that this could be Jake calling to call her names, or this could be Jake calling to tell her that she was right and that he needed time away from her. She wasn't sure that the latter would have made her feel better about the situation.
Sherry picked up the phone with a trembling hand and rubbed her eyes to clear her blurry vision. "Hello?"
There was silence on the other line, and she looked back at the phone to ensure he hadn't hung up, he hadn't, she pressed the phone back to her ear. "Hey," his voice came seriously and almost emptily. She sighed, it made her feel comforted, even though she didn't want it to have that effect on her.
Sherry didn't know what to say, Hey? How are you, feeling good? Yeah, me too! That wouldn't work, so she opted for a simple, "what's up?"
"Nothing much, been with my mom for the past few hours. You?" Jake sounded breathless, I bet he didn't even think I'd pick up and is now shocked that I did.
"I've been at Leon's place, just… hanging out, waiting for Claire. How's your mom?"
"Terrible." Jake said bleakly.
She didn't know what to say to that. So she sighed and whispered gently, "I'm sorry to hear that."
There was more awkward silence on the other end and for a moment she considered lying to him and saying that she had to get off the phone but as she opened her mouth he spoke, "I wanted to apologize." Jake took a deep breath. "I know that you're right. I do need to see someone about my issues, and my anger, I… I snapped at you and that was wrong of me, you didn't deserve that, any of it."
She smiled the slightest bit, "Thanks, I appreciate it. I forgive you."
"And I am sorry that you had to see what you saw when you walked into my apartment. That was unfair to you." The reminder made her shut her eyes, but then she opened them again, she could see him there so clearly laying on the bed with the woman around him, "I want you to know that I'm really sorry about that."
"I know." Her voice was smaller than she would have liked, and as she imagined Jake in her head she could see him leaning against a wall and running his fingers through his cropped hair almost as if he were frustrated about something as he spoke to her.
"I need to see you."
"That's not going to happen." The seriousness of her tone made her flinch as it came out, "I need to have space, and you need space. We're not together anymore Jake-
"I understand that but we can at least talk."
"We are talking. Face to face it's not going to happen. I'm leaving soon anyway."
She could almost hear him stiffen over the phone, she swore she heard a crack and hoped it wasn't him squeezing the phone, "Where are you going?"
"Confidential." She spoke with a squeak.
"A mission. " He guessed correctly, "You're running away from us to go to a mission?"
"I'm not running away from anything," she informed him, standing up now, "this is exactly why you and I are not seeing each other face to face. You seem to be blinded to everything you've done Jake."
"Fine. If you want to go on this mission, fine. Just be careful." He snapped, "Can you at least do me that favor?" His tone was frustrated; she could hear the accent lacing through his words.
"Yes."
"Thank you."
She hesitated, "and what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to find something to distract myself with, something therapeutic."
"Like what?"
"Confidential." He quipped easily, "And when you come back… I will be here."
"You don't know that I'm going to really come back." Her voice became frightened. So many things could go wrong; she could be stabbed, shot, infected, and taken hostage, so many things. "A mission involves a lot of dangerous things Jake. For all you know I won't even return to New York City."
"Don't say things you don't mean." He retorted with a chuckle that made her smile, "you are coming back here Sherry. You left things too unfinished between you and I, and I know how much you need to have your closure."
Sherry sighed, "Well, yes I'll be returning to New York but you don't know when, and you don't know if that means that I will see you so stop being so cocky."
"I'm just being honest, Cherie," he purred at her. She rolled her eyes, irritated. "Goodnight Sherry, I will call you tomorrow, I can hear you ragin' over the phone."
"Goodnight ass." She grinned and snapped the phone shut before he had time to hear his chuckle.
It was just too bad that she would be leaving so soon and she wouldn't hear that sound for quite some time.
Jake
"What's the mission?" Jake asked with a bored tone as he kicked his legs up on the table rudely and glared at the stoic figure on the other side. The man glared at Jake Muller with annoyance.
"Get your feet off the desk."
"Fine, fine," Jake rolled his eyes and set them down to the floor.
"I need soldiers to patrol the area," the stoic man turned his blue gaze to the map laid out between himself and the young man before him, "you'll be briefed more when you actually get there. As far as I am aware you are to be a sort of security guard with other people on the force. You will shoot any trespassers, or arrest them – it depends on what they tell you. I am only here to hire men that are capable of doing this."
"How much money are oyu payin' me?" Jake's voice darkened, "this isn't goin' to be easy, my health is at risk here. I expect payment."
"Depending on your stay the payment fluctuates. The longer you say the more money you get, but for the first two weeks you will get 25,000 dollars. This increases every two weeks. By the fourth week you'll have 50,000."
"Not bad," Jake Muller mused. "And where exactly is this place again?" He questioned with interest.
The man sighed and folded up the map, "the Auckland Islands."
Uh oh, looks like we're going to have a bit of an awkward situation here.
Oh well, we'll see what happens! Review and tell me how you think that this will go - or how you want Sherry and Jake to meet, I have some ideas but I am welcome to twists :)
Question of the day: Have YOU ever been in a relationship where you were still in love with the person but you were the one to break it off?
REVIEW :)