She'd started her research in the library, alternating between spending hours in the microfilm room, trying to figure out what it was that she was looking for to begin with, and wandering the main floor of the building, trying to find any books that she could that might have useful information on leeches. She hadn't been able to find that much, and resorted to going back to her apartment and making calls to people she'd known from college, professors and several entomologists specializing in annelids, in the hope that they might be able to sue the resources they had to find her better information.

She'd gotten letters from some of them, had phone conversations with others and managed to end up on fairly good terms with one of the entomologists, Professor Harry Rice, who was more than willing to answer her questions, even when they got strange. Talking to him was, for the most part pleasant, since he was the sort of professor she'd loved to get in college, one with a real passion for his work and a willingness to talk about the aspects they found fascinating. The one problem was that he had a tendency to ramble, and in the three conversations she'd had with him already, she'd gotten to hear a number of stories about the trouble he and his colleagues got into out in the field, and in the area around the university he was now teaching at. The incident where he and three friends nearly got into a fight with a bunch of bikers at a bar near where they had been collecting samples had been kind of amusing, the story of the misfortune one of those same friends had with a botfly was far less so.

Unfortunately, the approach she was taking meant that a lot of making calls and then waiting for people to call her back. Sitting on the sofa with the blinds drawn and the television on to provide, at least, some light and background noise, so she wouldn't feel quite so alone was hard, especially when she was surrounded by leeches. Today, at least she had something that made the waiting feel productive.

Professor Rice had promised to send her as many old journal articles on leeches as he could find, had come through in a big way. He'd sent her several boxes full of back issues of various scientific journals for her to read through. It was dry reading at best, but it helped her put things in perspective, made it possible for her to pretend that she was working on some assignment for a class in college, rather than killing time and waiting for phone calls to be returned and the weather to break.

She'd learned her lesson well enough, dry weather wasn't good for the leeches, it made them sluggish and uncomfortable, which in turn made things difficult for her. The humidity was too low out that day for her to even bother going to the library, so she was stuck in her apartment, trying to pass the time.

It was tempting to go and take a shower to try and get more comfortable, but she was trying to limit herself to two a day, one in the morning to wake up and one at night to relax, if standing in a bathroom where leeches were crawling on every surface could be considered relaxing.

What she really wanted, was a nice long soak in the bathtub, but she'd found more bones when she was making her bed the previous day.

Her leeches were growing fast. They hadn't gotten anywhere near as large as some of Marcus' had been, but the largest ones were close to two inches long when at their full extension.

She's added the new bones to her collection, hidden away in the closet. Eventually, she'd have to get rid of them or find a better hiding spot.

Sooner or later, the dry spell would pass and she'd be able to go out again, but until then, there was only so much she could do. Sitting around, reading and waiting for phone calls to be returned wasn't terribly interesting, but it was something.

That was what she had to keep telling herself, she was still doing something, even if it felt like nothing.

Reading through the papers she'd been sent helped her put some things in perspective, made the leeches seem a little bit less unnatural, which helped. She still didn't like them, but on some level, she was able to accept that she'd need to learn to live with them if she wanted to be able to accomplish anything. Fumbling through things wasn't going to work, not when there was the risk that eventually she'd make a mistake that would hurt her or someone else. It wasn't directly going to stop Umbrella, but it was still important.

So she kept reading, learning about leeches even though she didn't want to. At the start, she stuck with general information, but soon she started focusing on their senses, trying to determine if the awareness they showed of their surroundings was unusual or not.

She'd found that leeches did have eyes or similar sensory organs, which they used to locate prey, which explained how they were able to get around the apartment so well. She also learned that they seemed particularly sensitive to certain portions of the light spectrum, which explained why direct sunlight bothered them, but indoor lighting wasn't all that bad. They didn't particularly like it, but they could deal with it

The number and positioning of their eyes varied from species to species, which was useful to her. If she was able to figure out what kind of leeches they were, she'd be better able to keep them and herself comfortable.

Picking up one of the larger leeches, she began to examine its front end, counting pairs of eyes. It made things easier by rearing up, giving the impression that it was examining her as she examined it. Watching the little thing, trying to count eyes as it swayed made her dizzy, her eyes going in and out of focus as shadows moved back and forth across her field of vision, until she had to put it down and close her eyes.

She was fairly sure that she'd counted five pairs, which would hopefully come in handy when she got around to trying to identify them.

Shadows and flashes of color continued to waver before her eyes, looking almost like distorted images.

Her leeches could see and they could see more than just shadows. What they saw they could share with each other.

And her.

The leech had been watching her and what it was seeing had started to overlay with what she was seeing.

It was something that might come in handy at some point, if she could figure out how to put it to use.

Filing that idea away for later, she resumed her reading, picking an article that was more of an overview of the use of leeches as a model organism. She skimmed it, very little of it actually useful to her, since it was more about the use of leeches in research than anything else, but some of the articles it referenced might be of use. It was a fairly narrow field, meaning that the same names showed up again and again. She was familiar enough with most of them at this point, even called or sent letters to a few of them, just to test the waters and expand her network of contacts.

The only interesting part, was a few short paragraphs about how research was being done on group behavior in leeches, since the females of some species, to some extent, cared for their young, but it was generally considered that the only interactions leeches had with others of their own kind was that, mating and cannibalism. She'd wished that there was more, because her leeches certainly interacted with each other and if there was anyone studying that sort of thing, talking with them might prove useful, give her a better understanding of exactly how the leeches were passing information to each other, because if she could figure that out, she might be able to finally train them to stop going into the walls and hunting mice.

Not expecting much, she checked the references list from the article, to see exactly what the single paper cited in the bit about group behavior was.

The name, The Mechanics Behind Schooling and Group Behavior in Hirudo medicinalis, was expectedly bland yet descriptive, far more promising than she'd expected. As luck would have it, the names of two of the three researchers listed as authors were ones she didn't recognize.

The third was James Marcus.

It was listed as Marcus, J., because that was the format for that sort of thing, but it had to be. The date the article was written lined up, two unknown names and then Marcus. It had to be.

Marcus had done more than write notes about leeches, he'd published some of his research, before he'd started his experiments with Umbrella judging by the publishing date. It was possible that somewhere in his research there would be some clue, some hint of what he'd been working on, or at least with. Knowing what the leeches had started as would be a huge step forward, and enough for her to be done with her researching them.

There was even the possibility that if she were able to get in touch with someone who worked with him, she might find out something about Umbrella that she could use. He had to have talked with his coworkers, maybe voiced concerns to them about Umbrella if he'd kept in touch with them. If she could find a way to contact one of them, let them know that she knew what he'd been working on before he was murdered, she might be able to get something done. Marcus and his leeches might be what she needed for everything to fall into place.

She'd made progress in the most unexpected way, now she just had to figure out what to do about it, how to best follow through.

Turning off the television, she stood up and started to the apartment. First things first, she needed to feed the leeches. They were getting hungry again, which her research told her was strange. Normal leeches only needed to eat every month or so, but tended to eat until they couldn't move. Hers ate more frequently, and in smaller amounts, but they were also growing at an impossible rate. It had to be the Tyrant virus, she'd seen how large other creatures infected with it grew, so it made sense that the leeches were the same way. The difference in their feeding behavior also made some degree of sense considering that they were active predators.

Active trouble too. They'd managed to get into the cabinets, and were passing bits of cereal up to the sink to soak and soften enough for them to eat. Then again, there was worse trouble that they could be getting into so she left them alone. Better to let them stay busy than to open the cabinet and have cereal pour out all over the place, because she was sure that they'd gotten in and either tipped the box over or torn it apart, and she didn't feel like cleaning up after them. It wasn't like she had to worry about mice or bugs anyway, the leeches would see to that.

Grabbing a can of dog food, she poured it into a bowl and brought it into the bathroom.

The leeches in the tub moved as a wave, schooling together, climbing on top of each other and reaching up towards her. She knew what they wanted, not from any communication between them and her, but because it was obvious. They weren't going to get it though, there was no way she was going to feed them in the tub and let them make a bigger mess than they already were. Placing the bowl on the floor, she left before the leeches started to pour over the edge of the tub.

It seemed like there were more of them every day, and maybe there were, but not because there were actually more of them, another thing that she'd garnered from her research. They were still juveniles, nowhere near the point where they'd start reproducing, she'd have noticed if they were, because she was pretty sure that was the sort of thing that'd be hard to miss. What was happening, was that they were growing so fast that more and more of them, were free to roam the apartment as fewer and fewer were needed to make her. It presented an interesting dilemma, since she knew that it took a certain amount to make her herself, versus just a bunch of leeches. What would happen when the number that made her fell below that threshold? Marcus had managed, but he'd also been breeding the leeches for who knew how long. For all she knew, he was made up entirely of juveniles to keep maintain the numbers needed to make himself. Would she die? Would she turn into a mindless, shambling monster? Was there a difference?

All the more reason for her to make progress and fast. At the rate the leeches were growing, there was no telling how long she'd have.

Walking back to the kitchen, she decided to fix herself a meal as well. It was easier and less distracting than letting leeches trade places as they took turns eating.

During her last shopping trip, she'd gotten herself some TV dinners and she took one out of the freezer, put it in the microwave and went back to pacing.

She needed to find where the people Marcus had worked with were, and to do that, she'd need help. Going to the local university and doing what she could through the interlibrary loan system was one option, but that presented problems of its own, such as explaining why she needed to find a copy of that particular article, and as many others as could be found by the same researchers in the hope that one of them might contain some hint of where those scientists were now. In her experience, getting anything through interlibrary loan had been like pulling teeth due to the work it took. Since she wasn't a student or an actual researcher herself, there was an additional layer of difficulty to be overcome.

The microwave beeped, letting her know her meal was done. Looking at the neatly compartmentalized mess of chicken in cream sauce, buttered vegetables and seasoned rice she couldn't help wondering if the leeches might be the ones getting the better meal. It wasn't like she could taste any of it and the ones passing bits of cereal up into the sink certainly were enthusiastic about what they were up to.

It wasn't fair if they could taste what they ate and she couldn't, not with everything else they shared with her.

Maybe, she'd have to look into reading some articles about how leeches found what they ate, not because she was going to start eating what they did, but because it might help her figure out if they had a sense of taste or not, and what flavors she might be able to pick up.

Or she could stop procrastinating and get back to work.

Heading back to the living room, she made up her mind.

It was time for another call to Professor Rice, who, thanks to his botfly story, made her think of maggots. And his name was rice, which just happened to look like a plate of maggots. All of it, combined with her reason for calling him, worked to give her a very unpleasant mental image. Shuddering, she put the TV dinner down on the floor by the sofa for the leeches to finish. It wasn't like she could taste it anyway.

She'd been wanting to call him for a number of reasons, but had been putting it off, then just minutes ago, she'd discovered something that gave her very good reason to stop procrastinating.

As the leeches began to finish her lunch for her, she dialed his number and waited.

The phone rang, and rang, and just when she was about to give up, the professor answered.

"Hello, sorry, I just got in the door, Harry Rice speaking."

Rebecca couldn't help but smile at his greeting. If not for his area of expertise, she had the feeling she probably would have liked attending one of his classes.

"Hi, Professor, it's Rebecca Chambers again, I was just wondering –"

"Oh," he cut her off, "I still haven't found where I put that term paper you sent me. Like I said before, it was excellent and as soon as I find it I'll get it back to you. Wait, no, I'm sorry again, you said Rebecca, not Ronda, didn't you?"

"That's right. I'm sorry if you're busy, I can always call you back later if you'd like," her smile faltered as she began having second thoughts, wondering if she even wanted to even know the answer to the question she was about to ask.

"Oh no, I was out to lunch. I've got plenty of time. You're calling about your leeches, aren't you?"

Her leeches.

She supposed they were.

Bracing herself, Rebecca began, "That one journal you sent me, the really old one with the article…" she trailed off, double checking the title, "Leeches as a Model Organism in Neurological and Behavioral Research. It referenced an article I'd love to get my hands on. It was 'The Mechanics Behind Schooling and Group Behavior in Hirudo medicinalis'. I'd love to find out if the researchers who wrote it wrote anything similar, especially James Marcus."

"Interesting," Professor Rice spoke slowly. She could imagine that he was jotting down what she'd just said, "I remember you expressing an interest in that subject when you first called me, asking if I'd ever heard of eusocial leeches."

She was surprised that he'd remembered as much, but glad. It made things easier, since she was making things up as she went, "That's right. It got me thinking, that since Marcus worked near where I live that maybe the leeches I found are the same as the ones he studied. Maybe, he was working with them when he wrote one of his papers."

"You still think your leeches work together?" he sounded amused at the idea, "More than just females carrying their newly hatched young to prey?"

She watched as the leeches ate, passing food to each other. Her leeches, she tried the thought just to see how it made her feel. Not too great. There was no denying that they were working together though. If Professor Rice saw that, what they were capable of, even without context he'd be shocked, it was something that leeches simply didn't do, "Yes, I've watched them work together to protect…themselves and hunt."

Technically, they hadn't been protecting themselves or hunting with the zombies, but there was no doubt that they'd been working together.

"So, you've been watching them in the field, that's always fun, isn't it?" he laughed, "Did I ever tell you about the first and only time I managed to run a three minute mile? It was back when I was a grad student, collecting night crawlers for a lab. I was out in a cow pasture, or at least I thought it was a cow pasture. Turned out, it was where the farmer was keeping a bull. Son-of-a-gun nearly got me, the farmer, not the bull. I made it out of the field fine, but the farmer had heard all the commotion and came out of his house with a shotgun."

She could beat that story, easy, but she doubted that Professor Rice would believe any of it.

'Oh, you think your grad school days were wild, but let me tell you about what happened to me after I got out of college. Right away, I got picked up by an elite police team, secretly working for a huge biomedical conglomerate, not that I knew it at the time. Turns out, they were making living biological weapons. Sounds crazy, I know, but I ended up getting attacked by zombies, would have been killed if not for an escaped war criminal coming to my rescue. The two of us ended up getting chased by all sorts of monsters, until I managed to escape and meet up with another team, who was having just as much luck as I was. We got out alright, but not before having to fight Frankenstein's monster and would you believe that all this happened in a mansion, that according to the local police chief, is haunted? If you think that's crazy, you haven't heard anything yet. Do you want to know the real reason I'm so interested in leeches? It starts with this scientist who was murdered, but he came back for revenge…'

Instead, she managed a laugh that she hoped was polite rather than cynical, "I haven't had any adventures like that, but I've watched the leeches work together to take down much larger prey. It's not coincidence or parents and offspring either. They're same age siblings, actually working together like ants. I've also seen them cluster together, possibly for warmth."

"You're still young, you've got plenty of time for adventures," Professor Rice said kindly, "I'll see about doing what I can to find those papers for you. Until then, keep up what you're doing and maybe see about getting some pictures of those leeches of yours. You certainly do a good job of making them sound interesting, and I'm curious about what species they might be. I've got some theories of my own, but I don't want to jump to conclusions or discourage you, not when you're clearly having such a fun time studying them on your own. What school are you going to by the way? I can see about getting in touch with the biology department there to give you a hand when the semester starts."

"I already graduated," she sighed, wishing that she could take him up on his offer, but afraid of what would happen if he contacted anyone locally. If Umbrella was watching the police station, they were bound to be watching the university to scout for local talent. The last thing she wanted to do was draw attention to herself that way.

"Oh, you sound very young."

"I am," she watched as the leeches finished what was supposed to have been her meal.

Her leeches.

She still didn't like it.