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Chapter 5

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Feb. 11, 2021

They flew out the next morning.

Ethan still needed injections pretty regularly, but at least Mia felt confident she had enough now. Hound Wolf had a surprising amount of mutamycete samples they hadn't had the time to destroy, and with that surplus, she’d be able cultivate more once they'd arrived at the Blue Umbrella facility. Theoretically, Mia would be able to make enough to keep him alive indefinitely.

In practice, she didn't know if that would be enough. Was there something more he needed? Something else she could do? Chris had given her access to the E-Series notes they’d seized from the connections, but those weren’t as helpful as she’d like. Eveline hadn't been designed to take this much damage.

"We'll be turning all of this over to Blue Umbrella," Chris said, perhaps noting the growing frustration in her eyes. "Their researchers will know what to do with it."

Mia didn't reply. Couldn't reply. It should be me, she thought. I should be the one fixing this. I made the mess, it's my job to clean it up.

But there was no way she was going to voice that thought out loud. Not to Chris. Not to anyone. She didn't want any reassurance from him, and something told her he'd try.

I don't deserve that.

She buckled down and kept reading. If nothing else, it gave her something to do when she wasn't looking after Rose or checking Ethan for more damage.

Just like the day before, the flight to the facility felt endless, but their actual arrival suddenly sped up into the overwhelming. There was no decontamination gauntlet this time; there was a gaggle of men and women in lab coats who met them inside the facility. "I take it this is him?" asked one of the lab coated individuals, a man with graying brown hair, tanned skin, and an impressive set of glasses. When Mia nodded, he added, "And you're Mia?" She almost dreaded his response, but when she nodded a second time, he just smiled. "Doctor Gregory Marshall. I think you and I are going to have a lot to discuss."

He was well-prepared, Mia had to admit. Doctor Marshall had already prepared a file with all the information they had from Dulvey, and anything Chris had transmitted about Ethan’s current state. But there was still a lot to discuss—the nature of the booster, the ratios, the ingredients and what they were meant to do. They had to give Ethan another shot as they talked; Doctor Marshall took extensive notes on the process. Mia couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable with her husband being under a microscope like that, poked and prodded to the sound of scratching pens, just like Eveline had been.

Just like you did to her.

“Are you holding up okay?”

Mia was taken aback by the question. Was it so obvious? Yes, she was holding onto Rose more tightly, but she really had been trying to keep it together. There wasn’t time for a breakdown, no matter how overwhelming everything was. “...I just want him to get better,” Mia said. That wasn’t quite what he’d asked, but it was all Mia felt ready to share. “Whatever that takes.”

“I hear you. We want the same thing.” Doctor Marshall consulted his notes. “We can continue to support his physical recovery, but I think we should start developing a more efficient version of the serum. If he starts recovering unassisted before we’ve finished, well...” Doctor Marshall shrugged. “In the hopefully unlikely event that this happens to someone else, we’ll have options to help them.”

That was a good point. Mia hadn’t even thought about the ramifications of Ethan’s state beyond how it affected them. At this point, Mia didn’t trust that there wasn’t more of this stuff out there, and if the Connections had more samples...

This is so much bigger than any of us, she realized.

The realization felt near-debilitating. She had to stop and take another breath. “Uhm...do you know what we’ll be doing with my daughter? Where we’ll be staying?”

“We have a room set aside for the two of you. It’s not five star accommodations, but it will be comfortable, and I know that Chris said they’ll be sending over some of your things. We can find you someplace else if...”

“No, no, I need to be near Ethan.” They could make it work. She’d toughed it out in worse out of college, and at least this place was probably safe. Chris wouldn’t leave them here if it weren’t.

Then again, he thought Europe was safe, and look how that went.

“Do you want to get settled in? We’ll keep watch on Ethan until you’re back. He’ll be safe with us.”

Mia wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but a quiet protest from Rose changed her mind. “Okay. Okay, yeah, I’ll...get everything sorted and find you again.”

Chris was waiting for her outside the room. He looked tense, his eyes sharp as they scanned every face around them. “Everything okay?” Mia asked, suddenly nervous himself.

Chris visibly forced himself to relax. “Logo just makes me nervous,” he admitted. “Room is secure. More of your stuff should be in later today.”

“Thanks.” Maybe she could try to make the place feel a little more homey. Might help with the mood. She’d have her work cut out for her, though; stepping inside the room revealed that it was still very much a hospital room, cot and all. Some bags were on the floor—their grab bags, she realized. Better than nothing.

 “I need to talk to you about something if you have a minute,” Chris said from the doorway.

“Yeah, sure.” Mia carefully set Rose down in the crib and started going through Rose’s bag. Baby blanket, change of clothes...thank goodness. Grateful as Mia was for TerraSave’s generosity, it was disconcerting seeing Rose in clothes that weren’t hers.

Chris carefully stepped in the room. “I’m going back to Europe,” he said. “As soon as possible, probably this evening. They’re still doing cleanup back in the village and I want to make sure there aren’t any issues. I asked some friends of mine to come by. They’ll keep an eye on things here. If anything goes wrong, they’ll get you out.”

“Do you trust these people?” Mia asked.

“With my life.” That caught her attention. Chris hadn’t even hesitated. She knew there must have been people in his life he trusted—Hound Wolf, if no one else—but she’d never heard him be so openly earnest about anyone, outside the few times he opened up about Claire. “One of them, Jill...she was my partner, back when I was a cop. She helped me found the BSAA. I’ve known her half my life. Her husband is solid, too. They have as much experience with this shit as I do. Trust me, nothing you throw at them will phase them.” He hesitated again. “I didn’t tell them everything. Not in detail. They know there’s some parts that aren’t mine to tell.”

“...thanks.” He must’ve meant her parts about her criminal history. She could live with them not knowing unless they had to. "What kind of issues are you worried about?"

“BOWs we might've missed and BSAA interference, mostly. Speaking of, I'm getting Ethan's medical file from them today. I'll send that over. Hopefully something in there will help.” Chris’s phone chirped at him; he checked it, then glanced up at Mia. “They’re here. They’ll be coming up, if you’re ready to meet them.”

She wasn’t sure she was, but... “Sure, that's okay.” Might as well get it over with. She’d have to speak to these people at some point. She started putting their things away as she waited. She was already going to be living in a hospital room. She didn’t want to be living out of her backpack, too.

Eventually, someone knocked on the door. Mia stopped folding clothes and turned around to face it, bracing herself for whatever was to come. “What kind of bizarro dimension have I walked into, Chris?” asked the woman in the doorway.

Two things happened in quick succession that Mia had never seen before.

One: Chris relaxed.

Two: Chris smiled.

Mia had seen small smiles on his face that never seemed to last longer than a few seconds. But this one stayed, and it was genuine, and it was because of that woman: fair skin, white-blond hair cut into a chin length bob, intense blue eyes, leather jacket paired with jeans and boots. “Jill,” said Chris. He was full of surprises that day, because when the woman walked in the room, he gave her a hug. “Thank you for doing this.”

“No problem. I’m sure I owe you one still for something.” Jill’s voice was teasing, but the kind of teasing you used with someone you’d known for years. “Thought you’d given me the wrong address for a second, though.”

“I know. I’ll explain later.” Chris stepped back from the embrace to nod to a second figure who’d walked in. “Carlos.”

The second person—a man, longer graying hair half pulled back, scruffy beard, easygoing smile—immediately made on a gesture of mock hurt. “What, no hug for me? No, no, I get it...”

Chris laughing was enough to make Mia think that maybe this was, in fact, a bizarro dimension she’d been thrown into. “Stop it,” Chris scolded, though there was no real bite to it. Especially not when combined with a faster, but no less genuine hug. “Good to see you.”

Mia was so distracted by the truly baffling display of emotion from Chris Redfield that she almost missed Jill’s approach. “Mia, right?” she said. Her smile was friendly, but there was something inherently intimidating about this woman. Not like Miranda, or any of the other dangerous people Mia had met in her lifetime. Not even like unreadable brick shithouse Chris. She gave off the same aura as the girls Mia had wanted to be friends with in high school, but was always too afraid to approach because of how cool they were. She might not have known much about Jill but...

Well, there had to be a hell of a story behind someone who could give Chris Redfield such a drastic 180 in his mood. Someone he said he trusted with his life. That went far higher than just high school cool.

Mia pushed past her nerves and held out a hand to shake. “That’s me. You’re Jill? He was just telling me about you...were you BSAA too?”

Jill nodded as she shook Mia’s hand. “Once, yeah.” There was something heavy about those words. Mia was starting to wonder what exactly had been going on behind closed doors at the BSAA. “And STARS before that. Chris and I go way back.”

“He mentioned that.” She was about to ask what STARS was when the man approached. “And...you’re the husband?”

You’re the husband? Really? Mia flinched at her own stupidity. She was about to apologize, but he actually looked kind of pleased. “Absolutely am,” he said with a bright smile, “but Carlos works, too.” He leaned past her to smile at Rose. “And that’s Rose, right? Hey, kiddo!”

Rose took one look at him and started fussing. Ah, damn it. “Sorry,” Mia said immediately. “There’s...a lot’s happened, she’s probably still tired...” And for all she knew, Rose had run out of trust for strangers. “It’s okay, baby. They’re here to help.”

Carlos, to his credit, took a step back as Mia picked up Rose to soothe her. “’s all right, I get it. I am kinda funny-looking.”

“Just a little,” Jill agreed with a slight smile. “How’s Ethan?”

“Still unconscious. I was going to see him again once I was done here.” As grim as it would be, she had to be there for him. No matter what.

“You mind if I go with?” Carlos asked. “Get a feel for the place? Only if you two are okay with it.”

“That’s fine.” She might feel safer if she had backup. “Jill...?”

“You guys go ahead. Chris and I need to chat. Catch up on some things.” She said it casually, but Mia had a feeling the conversation was about to get very weighty. “I’ll find you later.”

“You got it.” Carlos stopped to give Jill a quick kiss on the cheek. Mia wasn’t going to begrudge him that, of course, but she’d be lying if she said the gesture didn’t make her heart ache. “Good seeing you again, Redfield.”

“Good seeing you, Oliveira,” Chris replied.

Mia braced herself for small talk on the walk to Ethan’s room. She hadn’t known Carlos for long, but he seemed like the chatty type. She was grateful this assessment was wrong; he just followed behind her at a respectful distance, hands in his pockets, scanning the environment casually but no less sharply than Chris had. Rose watched him warily, her cheek pressed against Mia’s shoulder.

Hopefully, that was just Rose not being used to strangers and not some kind of warning about the man.

Despite some lingering distrust and initially not wanting to talk, by the time they hit the elevator and started heading up to Ethan’s level, the silence made her feel antsy. “...you were BSAA, too?” Mia asked, unsure of what else to ask.

“Yeah,” Carlos said. “UBCS before that.” He glanced her way, something like wariness in his eyes. “Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service. I’d say some of the old guard here might remember me, but...we were the security grunts. We didn’t really interact with the scientists much.”

It took Mia a second, but once she did... “Oh.” Strangely, she felt...safer, maybe, knowing that. Not that she’d be blabbing about the Connections any time soon, but if the truth ever came out...maybe at least one of them would be willing to believe she was trying to turn it around.

Even if your fuck ups keep coming back? Even if you were worse than him?

“They must’ve been pissed about the career change,” Mia said, trying to shake off the thought. “What was the severance package like?”

Carlos’s wariness faded immediately as he laughed.  “A clip of sniper ammo with your name on it,” he said. “Well, they tried. I’m just too damn pretty to die.” He shrugged. “That and I had Jill watching my back. Nothing gets past her. Trust me, you’re in good hands.”

She sure hoped so. It would be one less thing to worry about.

Ethan was still unconscious when she stepped in the room, still hooked up to machines. A nurse was wiping fresh blood off his face. “Is he okay?” Mia asked.

“He needed another injection, but we caught it before the damage was too severe. Facial wounds just bleed a lot.” The nurse smiled reassuringly. “Doctor Marshall stepped out for a moment. He’ll be back to discuss treatment options with you.”

“Thanks.”

 I should’ve found some coffee. Anything to keep her from feeling so exhausted. Mia adjusted her grip on Rose so she could check Ethan’s temperature. He still felt chilled, as if the cold of Europe had sunk right into his skin. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Carlos, staring at Ethan with a strange look in his eyes. He looked sad—like he’d been through something like this himself.

With the life he’d lead, working with the BSAA, in this for as long as Chris had been...who knew what kind of tragedies he’d lived through?

“Chris said he took out some BOWs on his own,” he said.

Despite herself, Mia smiled. “Six major threats that I know of.”

Six? Damn.” Carlos pulled over a chair for her. “He’ll be all right, then. If he managed to pull that off, he can get through anything."

It was heartwarming that he was trying—even more heartwarming when Mia realized he really seemed to believe that.

She just hoped he was right.

 


 

“Okay, what’s with the face?”

Chris needed to talk to her about this. He knew that. Didn’t make it any easier.

“Listen, I...” Chris sat down in a nearby chair and sighed. “I know it’s been a few years, I know, but...why did you really leave the BSAA? Was it really just Wesker?”

Jill’s face went from curious to withdrawn near-instantly. “...it all stemmed from Wesker,” she said. “But it’s a more complicated than just him.”

“Did anyone at the BSAA do or say anything to make you feel unsafe?”

That turned the withdrawn look on Jill’s face into a concerned one. “I won’t lie, my doctors were a bit too interested in...” She didn’t finish, but she didn’t have to. The pale white of her once-dark hair spoke for itself. “It got to be too much. I couldn't handle it. That's why I pulled out of rehab. Leaving completely was a domino from there.”

Chris felt one hand grip into a fist; he forced himself to relax it. “What did they do, exactly?”

“It was just a lot of questions and lot of weird tests. Every time I thought I’d gained enough ground to be cleared for duty, they’d come up with something else they wanted me to do. They always said it was to make sure I’d recovered properly and wasn’t going to mutate or develop anything I couldn’t handle. I didn’t have any reason to disbelieve them, I just...didn’t come home to be treated like a lab rat again."

That made sense. Maybe if he'd heard about it back then, he would've trusted their explanation, while respecting that even well-intentioned poking was too much for Jill. But now?

Jill Valentine. Wesker’s experiments had left her stronger, more durable. Immune to the T-virus and fuck only knew what else after everything she’d been through. Combine that with over two decades of combat experience and she was formidable.

Jill Valentine. Sherry Birkin. Jake Wesker. Ethan and Rosemary Winters.

It’s a pattern. It’s a pattern and you missed it.

“This isn’t just about me, is it?” Jill asked.

Chris shook his head. “They should’ve known about Winters,” he said, “but they somehow mysteriously missed that he was on his way to becoming a BOW. Kennedy said they were trying to recruit Sherry Birkin, asking about Jake, and...”

The body in the test tube. Wesker’s voice in his ears. The ultimate life-form.

“They deployed Tyrants in Europe.”

It’s magnificent.

It said a lot about Jill that her first reaction wasn’t fear. He'd seen her afraid before, so he knew what it looked like. Her expression right now? That was sheer, blind rage. “You’re shitting me.”

“I wish I were.”

Jill took a second to process the news, her rage hardening to resolve. “I take it you’re not letting them get away with this?”

“Nope. I have a meeting in two hours, actually. Told them I wanted Ethan's medical files, for in case he passed anything on to Rosemary. They don’t know he’s alive and I want to keep it that way for as long as possible. Blue Umbrella knows the situation, but I prefer having someone here I trust.”

“Of course. Are they going to need a place?”

“Not yet, I don’t think, but if you know anywhere, it can't hurt to get those gears turning.”

“I can look into some options. Are you sure you’ll be okay? You look tired.”

Chris shook his head. “Jet lag.” Mostly. “I’ll feel better once I’m back in the field. You know how I feel about sitting around.”

“Oh, trust me, I do.” She punched his shoulder just a little too hard. “Promise me you won’t drop dead, okay?”

“I promise I will not drop dead.”

He thought about asking her to go with him to the meeting, but he really did want her to keep eyes on the Winters. Carlos could probably handle it alone, even if Rose was getting skittish around new people, but Chris preferred two sets of eyes to one. Now he felt like he was walking into a lion’s den with no backup, but...

Well, he’d been in more than his share of those. At least this one was just politics, not actual physical danger.

 


 

The most disconcerting part was sitting down in the conference room and realizing he didn't know anyone there. To him, they were just three random people in office clothes. Not that he expected to know everyone at the BSAA, not when the organization was so large now, but he'd expected them to send someone he had some rapport with. I've really got no one left here, huh? "Captain Redfield," said the one woman there respectfully. "Glad to see you're doing well."

He'd rehearsed almost everything he wanted to say during the car drive over. Responding to bullshit fake concern hadn't been in the script, so he cut to the chase: "Do you have his files?"

"We do, but we'll still need…" The woman was cut off by Chris putting a piece of paper on the table and sliding it over to her. "...release from next of kin…" She took the file and passed it off to the other two. Once they'd all examined it, she slid over the folder. "So, Mrs. Winters is all right?"

"She's fine." Chris quickly skimmed through the contents of the folder. He didn't have time to read it all, but he wanted to make sure nothing was obviously missing. "Safe."

"And Rosemary?"

"Safe, too."

"May I ask…?"

"No."

An uncomfortable silence settled over the table. Chris glanced up at them. “Mia doesn’t want you involved. She’s figured it out on her own.”

“But if her child is...”

“Rosemary is fine. She has it handled.” Chris closed the folder. “Why did I find Tyrants in BSAA gear back in Europe?”

That really caught them off-guard. Not in a shocked way, either. In a how did he know about that way, or at least Chris thought so.  “You would...have to ask the European office about that,” said one of the other agents at the table, a man who looked like he’d never had to deal with an outbreak in his life.

“You’re really trying to tell me you don’t know anything about that?”

“...we’re not at liberty to discuss...”

Chris nearly lost his temper. Nearly. His exhaustion strangely worked out in his favor; it was the only thing keeping him from yelling. “That’s fine. I’ll ask at the Europe office.” He stood up from the table, picking up the medical file as he went. “I hope I don’t hear anything about Tyrants operating in the States.”

The third individual, another man who looked like a damn accountant, tried to bring on some bluster. “You don’t have any authority with the BSAA anymore, Redfield,” he said. “I’m not sure what...”

“You’re right, I don’t. But I’m very good at killing BOWs. I don’t especially care who they’re working for.” He lifted the folder. “Thanks for this.”

Chris wasn’t surprised when someone followed him out—in this case, the woman. “We do want what’s best for them,” she said. “I hope you believe that.”

“I don’t, but I’ll be sure to let Mia know.”

“They’re discontinuing the Tyrant program.” Credit to her; that did get Chris to stop walking. “The mission in Europe was considered a failure. Those were all the ones they had.”

Chris wanted to believe that. He really did. But he’d run out of trust a few years ago.“Did the European office tell you to tell me that?” he asked.

“They didn’t tell me to tell you anything. That was the official report concerning the mission. I read it before you came here.”

Sure. Maybe she wasn’t lying, maybe the main office hadn’t contacted her directly, but he couldn’t get it out of his head that they’d put that there on purpose, in case he went digging.

I don’t have the patience for this.

“Well, I’ll take that into account. Thank you.”

Taking that into account didn’t mean he wasn’t going to raise hell at the European office. Or call off Leon. Or magically decide to trust them with the Winters again.

Chris glanced back down at the folder in his hands. Ethan’s medical information. Documents that would either be full of lies or full of incompetence on the BSAA’s part.

He wasn’t sure which one was worse.

Notes:

Please note that I have not played RE:5. I know the lore of what happened, and I avoided mentioning any particulars so I wouldn't look dumb, but if I did mess up a detail or two...we'll chalk that up to the alternate timeline. (Jill leaving the BSAA IS a deliberate alternate timeline choice, for the record. I may have to explore that more in another fic, but hopefully the info here at least partially covers why.)