Several weeks after killing Wesker and eradicating Weiss' labs of the Web Spinners, Ryan, Katie and Alice had been enjoying a day to themselves after their schedules had lined up. Ryan had been assigned a job at the hydroelectric dam, monitoring and even providing power to the city whenever it needed it. Unknown to anyone else though, he was also there as an early T-Virus detection failsafe, since the river that lead to the dam was the main weakspot of Sanctuary's hefty defences. Ryan had authorized the installation of several barriers and protective fencing along the width and sides of the river after one lucky discovery of a zombie floating down the river.
Alice however, had been ordered by Michelle to supervise all activity inside of the labs with Weiss at her side. They were working on finding an actual cure to the T-Virus, the idea for which had been brought forward by Weiss herself. She was also given Michelle's personal approval to set up a solar power array from a cache of such devices she'd found hidden inside a storage warehouse inside the bowels of the lower labs. She had been supervising their enplacement since they had been found the previous week.
Finally, Katie had been informed that due to her age, she was to attend the elementary school that was located on the other side of town from their apartments. Much to her protesting, even Ryan agreed to the descision. Alice had simply gave a firm 'yes' and ended the argument stone cold. So, during the week, Katie was in classes for a majority of the day, but after school ended, she would be often found in the company of K-Mart (who also had an argument with her guardian about classes. Sadly, her guardian was still Claire, so her attempts had been doomed from the very start.) and Taylor as well, who had revealed her age to Katie, which was also fourteen. K-Mart was the oldest of the three at seventeen, but the three of them got along equally.
Every now and again though, Michelle would seek out Ryan, Alice or Katie to send them out with a scavenging team when there was something they couldn't provide for themselves, such as certain medicines, scrap metal, even something such as the official currency of Sanctuary; Bottlecaps.
The last time that Michelle wanted them to go on what she called a 'money run', she had sent Ryan and Alice together with a team of scavengers. Thankfully the specified location was within a few miles, so they hiked to a very small town that had once supported a population of a few hundred.
While the scavengers raided the remnants of an old bar, Ryan and Alice had wandered into a pharmacy next door in the off chance that there was any possible type of bottlecaps they could find. Even the plastic ones from soda pop bottles had value, but the more coveted ones were the metal ones from vintage glass soda pop bottles, or beer bottles. Other than those, and the plastic ones, there was nothing else that they really bothered to use as money. Anything else that they found while on the trip was just bonus loot.
So, while Ryan strolled along the bare shelves that used to hold a majority of medical supplies, he spotted Alice a few aisles over, scanning the other shelves until she found something and stared at it with her eyebrow raised. Ryan noticed and asked her Telepathically. "Find something useful?"
"No, it's empty. But you won't believe how many condoms are still here." She laughed and beckoned him over to see it for himself. He smiled and came around the shelves to see an untouched display rack of condoms. It was as if the display had never been touched before the outbreak had even happened, it was completely stocked!
"Why am I not surprised?" Ryan laughed as he turned to wander towards the back of the pharmacy. "I think I found a vintage soda pop machine back here. Can you give me a hand to get it opened?"
Alice gave an 'uh-huh' sound and followed him to the back of the store, where there was indeed not one, not two, but three untouched old school soda pop machines in a row against the back wall. "Holy shit! I'll get them open, just give me a second."
Ryan smiled at the possibly supply of money they'd find inside the machines. He waited for Alice's Telekinesis to break the machines open, and he was greeted by the sight of three nearly full caches of classic glass bottles, complete with the metal caps they were looking for.
"Let's get started with dumping these out. I'm surprised the liquid is even inside them." Alice pointed to a bathroom door at the very back of the store. "You get them out of the machines, I'll empty them and collect the caps."
Ryan nodded and began to pull the bottles out of the first machine while Alice grabbed the equivalant of an armful with her Telekinesis and went into the bathroom.
A minute or two later, she opened the door slightly and collected the next batch of bottles, and Ryan saw that she had piled the empty ones on the floor behind her. He continued emptying the machines, and when he was finished, he gathered the last armful and carried them to the door. "Alice, this is the last of them. I'll leave them outside the door, I just want to check in on the others. I'll be right back."
Setting the bottles down, Ryan left the pharmacy and went into the bar. The moment that his footsteps had faded away, Alice let out a sigh of relief as she stared at the pregnancy test in her hand, which clearly showed that she was indeed pregnant. She had found it beside the condom display, the last one in its box. She had hidden it in her sleeve when Ryan had come around to see the display rack, and she had waited until now to use it.
"We did it... Itoshii. We actually did it..." Alice mumbled to herself as her eyes filled with tears. She quickly wiped them away and collected the final batch of bottles.
When Ryan returned a minute or so later, he was met by Alice and a floating cloud of bottle caps following her across the pharmacy annd towards the door. "I think we're finished here. Time to head back to Sanctuary." Alice smiled at him, leading him back outside to the bar, where she was met with the scent of booze and several of the scavengers who had clearly drank the contents of the sealed beer bottles instead of just dumping them out like she did.
With a sigh, she found a brown paper bag nearby and directed her cloud of caps inside of it, which barely reached the top of the bag. She then collected the caps that had been collected by the others, and filled the bag to the very top. She picked it up and with a smirk, then began to levitate the drunk scavengers out the door one by one.
Back at the present, Ryan and Alice were enjoying a quiet moment out on the balcony of their apartment after a quick trip down to the marketplace to get food. Ryan was polishing his metal armour with a rag, while Alice was staring off into the distance, lost in thought. Katie was in her bedroom with Taylor, K-Mart had been there earlier, but Claire had come knocking in search of her, so she had left a short time earlier.
Alice suddenly spoke up, breaking their comfortable silence. "Remember what you said about the sight of me on the balcony? Backlit by the city and the stars... the full moon overhead..."
"Yes, I do. I would never forget something that perfect." Ryan replied Telepathically, pausing his polishing to give her a brief glance.
"What did I look like in that image? What was I wearing? Was I happy... sad... describe it to me, please." Alice continued in a quiet voice.
Ryan actually stopped what he was doing entirely to consider the image he had seen that day to describe what he'd felt. He was silent for several seconds before he replied. "You were happy, smiling... You had a little bird sitting in your hand, you were wearing a long flowing red dress, with gorgeous jewelery. Your hair was... it was breathtaking. Curly, and you had a tiara on your head." Ryan paused for a moment, a frown on his face. Unlike how he usually dressed, he was not wearing his hood, mask or even his vest. Al he had on was his wrist blades, his shoulder pouches, and his Beretta was safely hidden in the back of his waistband, as always. So Alice noticed the frown on his face.
"What is it?" Alice asked, still speaking very quietly.
"You were also pregnant."
Alice turned away at that, her expression changing from curiosity to a small smile. She hadn't revealed the fact she was pregnant to him yet.
"Remember that promise I made with you originally to teach me Japanese?" Alice reminded him of the moment in the campgrounds with the freshwater spring.
"Yes. 'I want you to promise to trust me, never doubt me, no matter what. There are no secrets between us.' That is what you said before you added. 'I want to be more than just your wife.'" Ryan replied, setting the metal armour aside and tossing the rag on top of it.
"Well, I guess I'd better reveal it to you." Alice slowly turned around, a tiny songbird perched on her finger as she switched to speaking vocally. "Ryan... I'm pregnant. You're going to be a father for real."
The sight of most of the balcony image he'd just described to her was one thing... but the revelation that Alice was indeed pregnant made him completely stunned for words. They did it. They were going to be parents... Parents that both bonded with the T-Virus, something that had never before been possible, let alone attempted.
"Daisuki Itoshii." Ryan slowly rose to his feet, and placed his hand on her stomach, his expression full of joy and pride. However, he spoke vocally, without his usual hissing rasp. He had been practicing speaking with the assistance of Weiss behind Alice's back. Mostly at night when Alice had fallen asleep, but sometimes when he wasn't needed at the dam, he would go to the labs for a short break and practice.
"Daisuki Itoshii." Alice repeated, giving him a kiss. "I love you too."
They stayed together for several long seconds until they both heard the sound of Katie screaming loudly. Ryan instantly vanished from sight as Alice hurried into the hall, just as Ryan materialized ahead of her. He opened the door and froze in his tracks. Alice looked over his shoulder to see what had happened, and she realized that Katie and Taylor had been having sex together on Katie's bed.
Grabbing Ryan by the back of his collar, Alice smirked and winked at Katie, who was turning a very bright cherry red in the face after being caught by her brother and mother having sex with her best friend. Alice closed the bedroom door with her Telekinesis as she dragged Ryan back into the living room.
"Smart girl. I didn't hear a thing until she screamed." Alice chuckled to herself as Ryan gave a laugh. "At least we can confirm that Claire was right about her after all... She's definitly a lesbian."
Ryan gave her a confused look. How did she know about that conversation?
"Don't give me that look. K-Mart finally spilled the beans on Claire the last time she came to pick up Katie for school. You were at the dam, so you missed it, but she told me everything about that little conversation." Alice chuckled to herself as Taylor opened Katie's door - wearing one of Katie's shirts - and hurried out of the apartment with rosy cheeks, holding something in her hand at her throat. "I knew I should've gotten a camera when I had my chance. Oh well, looks like the cat's out of the bag!" Alice teased over her shoulder as Katie closed her bedroom door loudly, completely and utterly embarrassed by the unexpected results of her pent up screaming.
"Should we tell her eventually?" Ryan asked Telepathically, smiling as widely as his throat's scar.
Alice considered the priceless expression on Katie's face when Ryan had opened the door. She wouldn't waste such a golden oppurtunity to tease the two girls, that was absolutely certain.
"We will..." Alice gave a small nod, but she smiled delilishly as she added. "...Eventually."