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Resident Evil: Autonomy

Summary:

Ethan Winters decides to attend a group counseling session for grieving people a year after his wife Mia embarks on a work trip that she never returned from. This choice sets in motion a series of events that brings him in contact with Sophie Garner, a young woman in group grief counseling to deal with the loss of her younger sister.
Nothing brings people together like grief, something Ethan and Sophie will come to discover.

Notes:

I just want to give Ethan Winters a chance to be happy. Is that okay?

Chapter 1: "Nice car, by the way."

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The blond man sat alone. 

Sophie considered him from her own chair, which was positioned in the small circle formed by the group. His head was ducked down, his arms crossed over his chest. He appeared disconnected from what was happening just inches away from where he’d pulled his chair out of the circle a bit, and Sophie had to assume that was his intention. She wondered what he could be doing at the meeting, if he didn’t plan to participate. His presence had to have been required by a therapist. She wondered how long it had been, for him. 

Rachel had finished talking about her father, and the leader of the group, Ross, who didn’t like to be called ‘leader,’ preferring the term ‘facilitator,’ turned to her. 

“Sophie.” She sat up a bit straighter, trying her best to pull her attention away from the blond man. Ross offered her a kind smile. “How is your family doing? It’s almost been six months now, hasn’t it?” 

“Yes.” She folded her hands in her lap. “I, uh… yeah. Almost. We’re… we’re doing a bit better, I suppose. My mom still hasn’t… hasn’t convinced herself to go into Kate’s room to clean it out. I honestly don’t want to do it, either, but I know we need to, at some point. She hadn’t even lived there since she was eighteen, but the idea of it is...” Sophie lifted her shoulders a little. “It’s hard.” 

“It is,” Ross agreed, looking around to address the whole circle. “You never want to feel as though, by taking steps to help with the grieving process, which can include packing the belongings of a loved one away, that you’re moving too quickly, or that you’re packing them away.” He gestured with one hand. “Which is why groups like ours are good, because we can talk to one another about it, about how we feel about those different steps, and give one another advice on how to… process them a bit easier, because we’re all at different places in our own grief.” 

Sophie glanced at the blond man, to see if he’d reacted to this. She felt no surprise when she saw his head was still bowed, his arms still crossed. 

“When we had to clean out Kevin’s room,” the older woman named Janice began, “we… we brought over several friends and family members to help us.” She offered Sophie a small smile. “It made it a bit easier, knowing we didn’t have to do it all on our own.” 

“That’s not a bad idea,” Ross said, looking at Sophie as well. “What do you think?” 

She managed a smile of her own, and a nod. “I’ll mention it to my mom.” 

Ross moved on, and her gaze drifted back over to the blond man. She wondered if he knew she was looking at him. She had to assume not, considering he hadn’t so much as shifted in his chair since she’d first noticed he sat apart from the rest of the group. Was he even listening to what everyone had to say? Who had he lost? 

“Ethan?” 

The man’s head lifted, and Sophie saw his eyes were light brown. She’d expected them to be blue. Ross and the others had all turned their attention to him. Ross seemed especially sympathetic. “I understand that you’re new, so if you don’t have anything you’d like to share, you don’t have to. Maybe you can just start by introducing yourself?” 

The blond man - Ethan, Sophie cemented in her mind - sat up a little straighter. He didn’t uncross his arms; he was dressed rather nicely, she thought, in a button-up and slacks. He looked like he did office work, somewhere. Maybe a businessman of some kind. 

“I’m Ethan,” he said, his voice low, disused. “Ah… I’m not… I’m not exactly here because I want to be. I had people tell me it might be a good idea.” He cleared his throat, and continued on; doing so had strengthened his voice a little: “I - my wife, Mia… I lost her, and it’s… it’s taken me longer than it should have to accept that she was gone, so I’m - maybe this’ll help, a little.” 

Sophie’s eyebrows had drawn together throughout this, and she found herself unable to look away from Ethan, even as Ross sensed that it was best to keep the group moving, to talk about something else, perhaps so no one would be prompted to ask Ethan questions. He’d had reason to believe his wife might have still been alive, for some time. What could have happened to her, and why had it taken Ethan so long to accept that whatever it had been had resulted in her death? Sophie knew that these questions weren’t ones that he’d want to answer, and she knew she’d need to be careful about not asking them. 

After all, she’d dealt with plenty of those questions herself, after her sister’s suicide: Did you know she was going to do it? Why do you think she did it? Do you think you could have stopped her? 

She swallowed, and forced herself to look away from Ethan again. He didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to have to interact with any of them more than necessary. She could respect that, and respect his privacy as well. There were simply some things that you didn’t share with others, and especially not the strangers in a group grief counseling session. 

The meeting didn’t last for much longer after that. As he usually did, Ross invited everyone back for the meeting next week, same place, same time, and then they were free to move out of the circle they’d formed. Janice and Rachel went over to clean up the table that held the coffee maker and the snacks a few of them had brought. Sophie set about folding up the chairs to carry them over to the rack on the wall, the way she had been doing after each meeting she’d attended for the last four months. 

She glanced over her shoulder as she put away the first two chairs she’d grabbed, watching as Ross approached Ethan, just before he could leave the community gym the meetings were held in. It didn’t take long for Ethan’s shoulders to visibly tense as Ross spoke to him, and after listening for a moment, he responded with something short. Ross’s head tilted, and he said one final thing to him, before walking away, leaving Ethan where he was in front of the gym’s double doors. Ethan lingered there for a moment, looking bemused, before he shook his head and pushed his way out of the building. 

Sophie watched the door swing shut behind him, and then jumped when someone gently touched her shoulder. She turned to face them, and let out a patchy breath of air when she recognized Louis, the older gentleman who was in therapy dealing with the grief of his lost wife. His pale green eyes sparkled in amusement as she glowered at him. 

“Don’t do that,” she scolded, pushing another chair into the rack. “Honestly, Lou.”

“I just get a kick out of it,” he said. “I saw you watching Ethan during the meeting.”

“So? I wanted to know who he was, same as everyone else.” Sophie put away the last of the chairs, which he’d brought over for her, and then she looked at him, an eyebrow raised. “Weren’t you curious?” 

“Young man like him in grief counseling? Course I was,” Louis responded. He frowned a little. “I just wish it hadn’t been his wife he’d lost.”

“Yeah, it’s sad, isn’t it?” Sophie sighed, glancing down at the floor of the gym. The line marking the edge of the basketball court looked like a ghost of what it might have once been. “It - didn’t it sound like… like he had reason to believe she wasn’t dead? What do you think that means?” 

Louis lifted his shoulders. “She probably went missing, first. Maybe ran out on him in the middle of the night, or went on a trip for work, and just… never came home, like he said.” He shook his head. “Only so many explanations for why that is.” 

Sophie wasn’t content. “Maybe,” she mumbled. 

“How’s your mom doing, really?” Louis asked her, and she looked up at him. 

“Not great,” she admitted. “She - she’ll have days where she’s all right, but then something will happen that reminds her of Kate, and she… she just breaks down all over again.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “She should be the one coming to these meetings, but she won’t let me bring her.” 

Louis hummed. “My daughter had to drag me kicking and screaming to my first meeting,” he said, “so I can relate to her position, but I could also tell her that it does help.” 

Sophie offered him a smile. “I doubt she’d believe you,” she said. She then exhaled, glancing at her watch. “I should get going.” 

Louis nodded. “Me too. Getting harder for me to see as it gets darker, nowadays.” 

“Maybe that means you shouldn’t be driving anymore, old man,” Sophie teased, tugging her car keys out of her pocket. 

“Ah, baloney,” Louis said, waving his hand dismissively. “I’ll be driving until I shrink enough to where I can’t reach the pedals anymore.” 

“Thanks for letting me know to drive as little as humanly possible from now on,” Sophie said. 

“I’ve been driving since the summer of 1960,” Louis stated, adjusting the sleeves of his shirt with an air of importance. “I know more about the craft than you ever will, sweetheart.” 

Sophie chortled. “All right, whatever you say,” she said. “I’ll see you next week, Louis.” 

“Bye, Sophie,” Louis responded, chuckling as well. Sophie made her way across the gym, and pushed open the doors onto the humid mid-August night. She headed across the parking lot to where she’d parked her Civic, fumbling with her car keys. She pulled open the door, and, before climbing in behind the wheel, noticed a figure sitting in a different car parked two spots down. It only took her a moment to realize that the person inside was Ethan. 

She hesitated for a moment beside her own car, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. It would be stupid of her to go up to the nice-looking, if older, Challenger and tap on the window. She knew this. All the same, something in her gut was tugging insistently at her, encouraging her to go over there. She had no notion of what she would say, even if he did roll down the window to address her, which she highly doubted. He’d think she was crazy, and never come back to another meeting. 

Then again, if she didn’t go over to his car, and attempt to speak to him, she might never see him again anyway, considering the way he’d stormed out of the gym after Ross had spoken to him at the end of the meeting. 

Sophie cursed under her breath, and closed the door of her Civic again. She locked it, not that it was necessary to do so, considering she’d be walking back to it within a few minutes, and made her way over to the Challenger. She slowed as she neared it, and then paused a few steps away from the driver’s side door. She could see that Ethan’s head was bowed again; he was probably messing with his phone in his lap, or something. Gingerly, she reached out and rapped on the window with her knuckle. 

Ethan’s head raised, and turned in the direction of the window. He frowned, seeing her, and she lifted her hand in a wave, feeling ridiculous. What the hell did she think she was doing? 

After a moment, she watched as the window rolled down, and she was free to speak to him without the barrier of glass. For a short moment, she wondered if it’d be too much to ask for him to roll it up again. 

“Uhm… hey,” she began, and forced herself not to wince. She was the worst. “I’m - I’m Sophie Garner. You’re Ethan?” 

“Yeah.” He frowned. “Ethan Winters.” 

Despite herself, Sophie felt the corner of her mouth quirk up in a smile. “Winters? No joke?” 

“Why would I joke about it? It’s my name.” 

“I just - Winters. It’s - it’s different.” She hated herself. “Sorry, I’m - this is going to sound stupid, but I just… I noticed the way you didn’t… y’know, really interact with the group tonight, and I get that it’s probably because this whole… grief thing is pretty new for you, but I just wanted to let you know that it gets easier, the more sessions you come to.”

Ethan’s expression didn’t change, and Sophie only waited for him to say something for about three seconds before continuing herself: “So… if you were thinking about one-and-done-ing this, I’m gonna recommend… not? Doing that?” She sighed, and ran her hand through her hair. “Sorry. I’m just, like, speaking from experience, here, which you probably don’t give a shit about, but… it does help. Being able to talk to people you won’t see anywhere else is a really good way to… to parse through things you might not otherwise be able to.” 

“You sound like you’re reading a cue card for a really shitty commercial talking about the benefits of group grief counseling,” Ethan said, after a moment, and Sophie huffed out a laugh. 

“That’s kind of exactly what I’m doing,” she admitted, rubbing at her arm with her opposite hand. “Just - come to the next one, okay?”

“Why?” Ethan asked. “So people can ask me questions I don’t have any answers to?” 

“No,” Sophie said, after considering him and this suggestion. “No, so that… so that you can answer questions for yourself, that you don’t even know you have, yet.” She glanced up and down the length of his car. “Nice car, by the way. I hope I see it here again next week.” She backed up a few steps, and nodded to him. “Have a good night, Mr. Winters.”  

She turned and headed back to her Civic, feeling somewhere between giddy and appalled. She couldn’t believe she’d actually done that. She’d never tried to convince a newbie to come to the next meeting before. It really wasn’t her job to do that, it was Ross’s, as the group “facilitator.” Still, as she’d told Ethan, the meetings did help, over time. It had been hard for her to settle into the group, during the first few meetings, but once she had, once she realized that everyone in the gym was experiencing the same things she was, just for various reasons, because of various people in their lives, it had become easier. Easier to talk to the group, easier to offer advice to others in the group, easier to grieve. 

She slid behind the wheel of her Civic, and glanced out the passenger-side window towards where Ethan’s car had been, and still was. As she started her own car, she found herself thinking about how she’d meant what she’d said; she did hope to see it again, and parked in that same spot. 

***

It wasn’t there. 

Sophie frowned, pulling into the spot she usually occupied outside the gym. She parked the Civic, and turned it off, tugging the key free. She studied the vacant spot where Ethan’s Challenger had been parked, the week prior, willing the car to appear there. It didn’t, and she sighed, pushing her way out of the Civic. She locked the doors, and headed towards the gym, noting the presence of Louis’s Ford closer to the doors. 

She pulled open the door, and stepped into the gym. Louis was helping Ross set up chairs, the way he always did. Janice was setting up the refreshment table, the way she always did. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening, within the gym, but Sophie found herself disconcerted by this, rather than comforted. 

She approached the circle of chairs, putting her keys into her pocket. Ross nodded to her, and she nodded back, before greeting Louis. 

“Evening,” he returned, setting up the last of the chairs and sinking heavily into it. Sophie raised an eyebrow, and he huffed. “Don’t mind me. Long day, is all.”

Sophie didn’t believe him, but it had been a long day for her as well, so she elected not to pick a fight. She instead sat down in the chair next to his, her eyes straying towards the doors of the gym as she heard them open. Her shoulders fell when she saw it was Rachel coming through them, and she looked down at the floor, feeling stupid. 

Louis, unfortunately, had noticed. He nudged her arm with the back of his hand. “Waiting for Ethan, by any chance?” he queried. 

“Why would I be?” Sophie asked at once, and then winced, realizing how defensive she’d sounded. She did not look at Louis. “I’m not.” 

“Mm.” She disliked his knowing tone. “If you say so.” 

“Oh, what do you know?” Sophie grumbled, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair. 

“Nothing, Ms. Approaches-A-Stranger’s-Car-After-A-Group-Grief-Counseling-Session,” Louis responded with disinterest, and her head snapped in his direction just in time to see him smirk. “Nothing at all.” 

Sophie disliked the way she could feel her cheeks warming up with embarrassment. Of course it hadn’t been strictly nondescript of her, to approach Ethan’s car in the parking lot after the last meeting. It was a parking lot, after all. Still, she supposed part of her had hoped no one had noticed, so that she wouldn’t need to explain herself, the way she was going to have to do for Louis, who was now studying her with an expectant look on his wrinkled face. 

“Listen, I just told the guy to give it a chance, okay?” she said, managing not to clench her teeth the way she wanted to. “I told him that my experience with the meetings has been a good one, and that it really does help. I was hoping he’d at least come back for a second one, after hearing a review from a certified user.”

Louis cracked a grin. “A certified user, huh?” 

“You know what I mean,” Sophie said with a smile of her own, unable to help herself. 

Louis chuckled, and then nodded towards the door. “Looks like your testimony held more weight than you originally expected,” he said.

Sophie’s head swiveled around so that she could see the doors as well, and she sat up straighter in her chair when she spotted Ethan entering the gym as inconspicuously as he could. She waited to see if he’d notice her, or if he would even try to, and felt an odd rush of warmth go up her spine when his eyes moved around the gym, before settling on her, even if just for a brief moment. He lowered his head, and shuffled towards the circle of chairs. Sophie watched him grab the back of one two down from where she and Louis sat, and he tugged it a few feet away, so that when he sat in it, he was apart from the circle at large once again. 

A little disappointed that he hadn’t elected to sit beside her, but pleased that he’d come back at all, Sophie turned away from him. She found Louis watching her, eyebrows raised, and she made a face. 

“Don’t start,” she warned. 

Louis merely chuckled again.

Notes:

I read online that Ethan's car is Chrysler? Whether this is true or not I cannot speak to; I know nothing about cars.
Edit: My brother said it's more likely a Dodge Challenger, and I trust his opinion more than I trust those I find on the internet, so I've changed it.