Author's Note: Hehe! Thanks for the reviews! It spurs me to write more and I really did with this chapter. It might be a tad humorous around the end, but it was much more interesting than doing it the way I intended when I started this chapter. Hope you guys like it and let me know your thoughts! :)

***November 14, 1984***

William glanced over at the clock perched on top a stack of thick manila folders that needed to be filed away.

11:36.. It's a bit early for me to stop, but I've already been up 48 hours straight.

With a exaggerated yawn, he stretched out his arms into the air to get his ebbing energy stirring. He took note of Annette's organized desk. She tend to leave around 10pm on most nights or until she had caught up with both his and Wesker's needs. Perfect. Her in-box is empty, but I won't put these files in there. It would be a rude awakening at the start of the day.

As usual, Wesker was still jotting another set of numbers into a graph while glancing over at another chart for reference. After finishing the third row, he placed his pen into its holder, seeming to snap into action the same time as him. William knew when Wesker was done when he'd rub his eyes under his dark glasses languidly.

He always works twice as hard than anyone I've known while working the same long stretches I tend to do. William's mind wandered as he managed to stand.

Wesker reorganized the data into a neat pile on his desk in preparation for his eventual return. He tilted his head to the left as William started to pass by to reach the door. "You did remember, correct?"

"Remember?" William stopped in his tracks, drawing a huge blank as his tired thoughts failed to produce anything of any value. I have a feeling that I'm missing something...

Wesker tapped silently on his desktop calendar: November 15th. William furrowed his brow, his eyes concentrating on the '15', trying to recall. "She will not be pleased tomorrow if you continue to wander in a fog."

William blinked as he thought about Annette. Everything started to flood back. "Oh. No." He sighed hopelessly as he pinched the bridge of his nose. How could this slip by me? I think she even gave me a small reminder today and it went right over my head.

Wesker shook his head, smirking at the dumbfounded expression. "You did promise, after all." That only served to make William groan miserably.

"Nothing is going to be open this time of night. I guess I'll have to go first thing in the morning. If Annette asks where I am, just say I had an early meeting. Better yet, tell her to take the rest of the day off."

Wesker smirked even wider. "Shame on you, Birkin. She requested that day off in advance." He's enjoying this way too much. Arrogant bastard.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. Humor at my expense again." William sighed out. "I suppose you've been entertained by this all day."

"Not particularly." Wesker stood, sliding his chair back by his desk. "I would never forget in the first place."

William opened the door slowly. "I suppose you don't have a plan of your own."

"I am always prepared." Wesker spoke in a low tone as he strolled through the door.

I wonder if he's being serious or continuing to yank my chain? I can never tell sometimes. William thought as he dimmed the lights before closing the door behind him.

***November 15th, 1984***

The first snow of the season fell today, blanketing Arklay in a soothing sheet of pure white. Annette took in a deep breath, exhaling with a contented sigh. It felt like an age since the last time she actually ventured out of the labs. It felt good to be amongst the trees, sun and the chilled wind. The view from this small hill overlooking the city was quite breathtaking. Pulling her pack from her shoulder, she quickly opened it to bring out her most prized possession, her old black zoom-len camera. If biology had never been the greatest interest in her life, photography likely would've been her chosen profession. Not that she excelled at it, but she could take pretty good shots without her fingers getting in the way.

She brought the camera up to view through the lens, taking a couple of shots of the city below. She turned a bit, viewing the woodland area leading up to the mansion. She took a few more shots of the trees basking in the light snowfall. Lowering the camera, she scanned the surrounding area for a better vantage point. The hill over there looks perfect.

Annette ascended up to the solitary tree on the hill, running her bared fingers along the bark as she turned to lean against it. She zoomed her lens out a bit, taking a few more shots of the city to use up the rest of the film. Two left - better make it good. Swiveling around, she tried to find something different to take a shot of.

She felt a slight tug on her long braid, turning her camera behind her quickly to get a quick look. William smiled awkwardly, holding his hands up in mock surrender. "Don't shoot! I'm unarmed." Snap.

"Ooh. That'll be a good one." Annette chuckled, letting the camera dangle from the strap around her neck.

"Ha. Ha. Humor at my expense yet again."

"Now I have a nice picture of you. I think it's a win-win situation." She smiled broadly as he chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. A habit she had noticed anytime she would say or do something unexpected. They had only started to see each other recently, so a lot of things would still catch him off-guard.

"I thought you were busy today? Albert mentioned a meeting in passing." She inquired.

"Like you've told me a few times that maybe I should get out more. So I did."

"By stalking me out here? How sweet." She couldn't resist.

William chuckled, his breath visible for a short moment. "Exactly. You've found me out."

Annette grinned, removing the camera strap from her neck as she moved her pack to put her camera away. In one quick motion, William placed his hand on hers. His hand.

"Let me take a picture of you real quick. It looks like there's only one left. As they say, saving the best for last."

"I suppose I can't argue with that too much." She noted with a half-shrug, moving away from William and towards the edge of the hill.

"Hey."

"What?" She half-turned. Snap.

"Ooh, that was underhanded. I bet I'll have an odd expression with my eyes half-closed." She huffed.

William moved towards her, holding out her camera with both hands which she quickly puts into her pack. Adjusting her navy blue peacoat, she noticed William wasn't dressed very warmly with only a grey knit sweater with matching slacks, black shoes, green scarf and labcoat as his only protection from the cold.

"Did you forget your jacket?"

"Oh, right.." He murmured, taking a look down at his attire.

Annette moved a step closer, holding out her gloved hands. "If you insist on standing here, I can at least keep your hands warm."

Only a fool would refuse such an offer. William was not that fool. He slided his cool fingers into warmed palms, smiling as her fingers tried to cover his as much as possible.

She stared down at their interlinked hands, relaxing in these few stolen moments.

"Annette?" Her gaze lifted up to his face attentively.

"Ye..."

Removing his hands from her gentle grasp, William slid them along her rosy cheeks gently. His blue eyes meeting hers directly without wavering. The stare felt like it would last forever. Slowly, he lowered his head, his lips finally touching hers for the first time.

So soft. Much warmer. Annette closed her eyes to drink in the sensation as the kiss deepened. She pressed herself to him as his arms moved to encircle her tightly. Her arms slid around his neck to pull herself closer while his held firmly to the small of her back.

Annette couldn't remember the last time she had felt this way. Sure, she had one or two boyfriends before, but it just never felt as good as this felt right now. With just a simple kiss... Her mind reeled.

A gust of wind came upon them like a cold shove, hugging each other as the kiss was finally broken.

William exhaled sharply, his eyes reflecting his desire before his senses seemed to kick into gear. "I..I'm sorry. I didn..." Her index finger silenced his lips, her expression jubilant.

"No apologies. You were right to follow your feelings."

At that moment, a light snowfall started to slowly descend upon them. Annette rubbed her cold nose, wearing a true smile to her face as she looked upon him. Her hand took hold of his chin, standing on tiptoe as she kissed the snowflake that landed on his nose.

"Lets go before I have to kiss the rest of the snowflakes off you." She winked and started to walk without giving him the chance to answer.

William rubbed at his chin, his cheeks on fire from both the cold and her as he stood dumbfounded. After a moment, he felt her hand slid into his again. "Come on... Lets get back inside before you catch a cold."

They walked along together, hand in hand as the snow fell around them.

William held her hand as they moved slowly towards the mansion, the other tracing patterns on the small wrapped gift in his labcoat. Everything is prepared. I'm surprised by my good luck. He smiled, squeezing her gloved hand in double meaning.

Annette still wore a faint blush, her eyes twinkling. "It still seems a bit early for dinner. Did you want to do some work before we go out later?"

"I think Wesker can manage without me for a while." He stopped, feeling his other coat pocket. He sighed as he pulled the protected floppy disk free. "Damn it. I forgot all about giving this to him this morning."

She smiled as they entered through the double doors. "Perhaps we'll bump into him along the way."

Stepping through the mansion with familiar ease, they waited before the elevator as it climbed up to their current floor.

Annette removed her gloves, tucking them away. "William?"

"Yes?" His attention snapped from the elevator light to Annette. I should've slept more. I feel like I'm in bit of a daze.

"You didn't...?" She asked cautiously.

William managed a broad smile, sliding the small gift from his pocket. He held it out to her in his palm. "Happy Birthday, Annette."

Annette blushed in excitement, giggling under her breath despite trying to remain collected. "The dinner tonight will be more than enough, William. I do appreciate that you did get me a present though." She traced a finger over the small green bow.

He placed the small gift box into her hands, closing them together with his. "It was no trouble at all."

At that moment, the elevator doors slid open slowly to reveal John Mills. The lead researcher caught sight of William, moving up to him quickly. "Pardon me, Dr. Birkin. There's a meeting we need to attend and I wasn't able to find you earlier."

William wore a pensive stare. "Right now? Will it be quick? I do have plans tonight."

John gave an unknowing shrug. "Considering it's the quarterly meeting, it will last a few hours at most." He offered Annette a friendly nod.

William raked a hand through his hair with noticeable frustration. "I guess it can't be pushed off until tomorrow." John shook his head warily. "You know how hard it is to get everyone together at one time. It's about to start in 15 minutes. We should head over there as soon as possible." With that, John continued on his way to the conference room.

"It's alright, William." Annette offered. "There's always tomorrow. Besides, you gave me a few nice gifts today already." She added with a knowing smile.

The tension in William's shoulders eased. "But I planned such a nice night..."

"I do appreciate it, William. Don't be too hard on yourself. We'll go out tomorrow and have twice as much fun." She pointed out, trying to ease his guilty conscience.

William took her hands into his tenderly, kissing the top of each in turn. "I promise."

Annette's cheeks flushed again. "I-I look forward to it!"

I'll definitely make it up tomorrow! William disengaged from Annette's hands slowly, not wanting to leave until the last possible moment.

Before he turned to head for the conference room, William pulled the floppy from his pocket again. "Annette, could you give this to Wesker? He might be in the lab. If not, he might still be sleeping off the last long shift."

Annette accepted the disk, putting it into her pocket for safekeeping. "Sure. I'll go check the lab first. I've never asked where his room is located. Not that I ever had a reason to ask."

"If he's not in the lab, it can wait until tomorrow." William reassured.

Annette placed her hands on her hips. "Just give me some simple directions. I can find my way to quickly drop this off to his room."

"Do you think Wesker would be pleased that you know where his room is?" He fired back.

She smirked. "Knowing him, he knows where everyone's room is. It must be a side hobby for him."

"Alright. Alright." William sighed, taking a piece of scrap paper and pen out to quickly jot down a quick set of directions. I'm giving her directions to Wesker's quarters. Just great.

He handed her the piece of paper. "Also, I wrote directions to mine as well. Just in case." He added with a wink. So suave, Will.

Annette smiled broadly. "I'll make sure to keep it handy." She slid closer to William, planting a soft kiss on his cheek. "You better get going before you get paged."

"R-right. I'll see you tomorrow." William stammered as Annette gave him a gentle push in the right direction.

Annette leaned against the back wall of the elevator as it descended. "Oh. Be still, my beating heart..." She murmured as closed her eyes for a moment to collect herself. What a day! Too bad he got called away, but didn't he go to a meeting this morning too?

Her hands went into her pockets, realizing she hadn't opened William's gift yet. She pulled it free to examine it more closely.

At that moment, the elevator opened to the labs. "Damn. I'll save it for later." She murmured to herself as she stepped towards her workplace. Once she peeked her head into their lab station, she noticed the lights were dimmed and Wesker wasn't there. Damn. Back up the elevator.

Just as she pushed the button to return to the first floor dedicated to living quarters, Annette took the gift from her pocket quickly. It was wrapped with shiny blue paper with a small green bow attached by a green ribbon wrapping around the small rectangular box. Quick! Quick! Quick!

Annette tried to carefully remove the ribbon and paper to reveal a red felt jewelry box. Without wasting a second, her thumbs opened the lid gently. Inside is a sterling silver necklace with a small topaz butterfly charm. She gasped as her fingers felt over the precious necklace. Thank you, William! It's so beautiful.

Quickly, Annette slipped the necklace free as she slipped the box and wrapping into her pocket again. In a few moments, she had it clasped around her neck, straightening the chain and charm while admiring the design. I'm not big on jewelry, but I really do like this a lot.

The elevator halted and opened once again to the living quarters. Stepping out, she paused as she collected the note from her pocket. Which way.. Right, straight, then left - second door on the right - 503? Nice directions, William. She thought sarcastically.

Annette grinned as she stepped along the corridor slowly, trying to follow them to the best of her ability. Upon reaching the door designated by the note, she let out a sigh of relief as the door sign stated '503 - Wesker, Albert'. As she raised her knuckles to knock, she paused as her thoughts spoke up. Oh hell, what am I going to say? 'I'm stalking you, Albert, and here's your disk?' I'm sure I won't escape without a sarcastic remark. Well, lets knock and get this over with. With that, she knocked firmly on the door and waited.

And waited while waiting some more. After a few minutes, she sighed, gathering the nerve to knock on the door again with a little more strength. This time there was a muffled sound.

The door swung open slowly as a voice issued forth. "Birkin, do you have that disk I have been waiting on?"

Despite having a decent poker face, Annette gaped ever-so-slightly as Albert stood in the doorway.

The only attire he wore were a pair of black flannel pajama pants and a black towel covering his head. Due to the towel, his vision was blocked from noticing that it wasn't William at his door. The smell of soap and aftershave filled her senses almost immediately.

Oh my lord. I shouldn't be staring... I should really stop staring now... Now? This isn't fair. I need to stop staring or he'll never let me live this down. She closed her eyes tightly.

"Well?" Albert stated again impatiently, sliding the towel off his head to rest along his neck and shoulders. His hair had been semi-combed back, but the towel had kept it from his usual perfection. Without his glasses, he squinted as the glare of the hall lights hit him like a wave.

"I-I'm sorry, Albert. I came t-to deliver this floppy from William since he's stuck in a meeting." She fretted.

"Anne?" He took a step back into his room so the light wasn't directly on him. "What are you doing here?"

Annette patted her coat pocket, sliding her jittery fingers to obtain the floppy. "I'm delivering the disk William said you needed. He wasn't able to since he had to attend an urgent meeting."

"Ah. Thank you." He held out his hand expectantly. She started to hand over the floppy, trying not to appear shaky. Settle down. He doesn't seem angry. Yet.

Albert managed to find his dark glasses, sliding them quickly. "It appears you are the one stalking me now."

"What? I did not!" As her mind froze for a split second, the floppy slipped between her fingertips, falling to the floor.

With one quick movement, Albert knelt down to retrieve the disk. Unfortunately, so did Annette resulting in bumping heads together. CRACK!

"Ow.." She winced, rubbing at her forehead as she tried to stand back up. Crunch. She didn't want to uncover her eyes. Never in her life had she ever been this clumsy.

Annette turned her gaze downwards, her heart dropping as she noticed her foot had come down on a pair of dark glasses. Oh hell! Ever so slowly, her eyes inched towards Albert.

There was a red mark on Albert's forehead with an obvious glare to match. His blue eyes held an icy rage reserved just for her, the floppy safely held in his grasp. "Those were my favorite."

"I... I... I'll make you a better pair!" She spoke before thinking. "For your birthday!" She dropped to one knee, trying to brush together the pieces into the wrapping paper she plucked from her pocket.

"Ahh. So you are stalking me and I lose my glasses in the process. That pair does not look repairable." He crossed his arms over his bare chest, his tone displeased.

Annette's heart sank further as she resumed standing, cradling the mess she had created. "I swear to make this up to you."

"Oh really? How do you propose to do that?" Albert questioned, standing inside his doorway again to avoid most of the direct light.

"I don't know. Is there anything I can do to make this up to you?" She folded the paper with care to keep all the broken pieces together.

"Anything, you say?" His eyes focused on the wrapping paper for a moment.

Annette frowned, clearly not in the mood for the word games. "Look. Whatever. I'll owe you a favor in the future."

The notion of a favor made Albert's eyebrows rise while a sly smile cracked the armor of his usually inexpressive face. "What would this favor entail?"

Annette poked a stern finger in the middle of Albert's chest, her own anger getting the best of her. "Within reason. Nothing that will get me in trouble."

He glanced down at the finger poking another red mark into his skin, meeting her gaze with his own. "I am not a fool. A favor is a very valuable commodity."

Annette returned the steely gaze, managing to find her composure after such a stunt. She took two steps backward into the hallway. "Knowing you, I can imagine you staying up for the rest of the night, creating a spreadsheet with all the possibilities of how to use a favor."

"I have better things to do than that." He tilted his head, his blue eyes still focused on hers. "Do you have anything else or are you here for a different reason?"

Her lips formed a tight line. He's baiting me. "That is all, Albert. Please don't mention this in front of William. I will make sure that I repay you when you decide to use that favor."

For the first time Annette ever noticed, Albert wore a broad smile, his white teeth flashing. "Or what?"

Annette really wanted to punch something at that moment, sighing in exasperation. "I'll see you later, Albert. I can spend the rest of my birthday in much better company."

"By yourself?" He added. Even if he doesn't know, that still stings more than I'd like it to.

"That's none of your concern. Have a good night, Albert." She turned on her heels, stalking away back in the direction of the elevator. Taking a glance over her shoulder, his door had already closed.

On her way back to her own living quarters, she brooded angrily the entire way as she reached her own door. As she searched for her keys, her eyes noticed something tucked into the crook at the bottom of her door.

A small white box without any form of identification or markings. She bent down to pick it up, having to use both hands as it weighed more than it looked. Tucking it into one arm, she managed to open her door and step inside.

Her living quarters were quite plain as she hadn't had a lot of spare time to redecorate it beyond necessary comforts. Most units were uniform with a small living room, even small kitchen area with one modest bedroom and accompanying bathroom.

Annette stepped over to her desk which she kept in the living room. She placed down the white box before shrugging out of her jacket, hanging on the hook by the door. Her eyes turned back to the mystery package. I wonder if someone else left me a gift? Perhaps John? Maybe Steve?

Her curiosity couldn't be held at bay long, her fingers moved to open the top fold of the box with noticeable care. An earthly smell hit her nose, easing one hand into the box to pull whatever it was out. Gripping it tight, a small potted plant came into view as it exited the box with a small envelope tied loosely from the stem.

A new plant for my place! How thoughtful. I should give it a little bit of water. She carried the terra cotta pot with her into the kitchen, switching the light on as she stopped by the sink. With better lighting, she cut off the small note with a pair of scissors kept nearby.

She opened the envelope, sliding out the small card to read the short messgae: 'Ask and you shall receive.' Her eyes turned back to the plant, armed with closer scrutiny as her fingers gently touched the leaves. At that moment, she noticed a small rosebud just starting to bloom.

It was blue.