They were another anonymous couple walking on the street in a busy city. No one took a second glance at them. 

"Where the hell are we?" Jake asked Sherry, who could only shrug. The section of town looked active but the buildings also looked slightly run down. A safe house of sorts she guessed but that was all she could think of. It disturbed her to think that there was a hospital set up in the middle of a city.

It was dark and cold, thankfully they'd been supplied with jackets. There were tons of people milling about, and upon perusal Sherry couldn't even find signs they'd been in a hospital in the first place. It wasn't a hospital, she reminded herself. She had been more worried about whether or not Jake was going to come back then where they were going. After all Leon had been there, it was the good guys, right?

Definitely a safe house.

"Not sure," said Sherry finally. "I can't believe we didn't ask."

Jake was quiet for a moment. "You know the game is on his terms now."

"Whose?"

"Wesker's."

"Why would you say that?"

"Think about it. He's been one step ahead of this entire time. Even from the grave, he's dead and it still feels like he's running the show." Jake left out the parts he didn't want to discuss. How effective the virus had been for starters. He'd been beaten and should have died. Even a J'avo didn't survive the kind of hits he'd taken. He hadn't mutated, he was still human as much as he could think of himself as one. And he was still alive when he shouldn't be.

Sherry couldn't help but acknowledge what he was saying. Wesker had been a threat to her, almost her entire life. His death should have made things easier. But nothing was ever that simple.

"Our parents worked together?" Jake asked. He was almost afraid to hear it from her. He already knew the answer but it still felt like a lot of things coming full circle.

Sherry nodded at him. They were still standing on the street looking around. She pulled his hand and started walking down towards where she hoped they'd find a hotel that didn't ask too many questions after taking cash.

"You asked me once if I knew him in China. Do you remember?"

"Yeah in the locker room, first time I saw you nak--nevermind." His face flushed as she looked up at him. His missing scar was strange. It was such a part of him that she kept being surprised every time she saw that it wasn't there.

"Well yes, I'd seen him since childhood, I was just surprised that you knew about him. He worked with my Dad, although I didn't know much about it then. He said hello to me a few times. Was always nice but never wanted much to do with me until after I'd been infected with the G-Virus and survived."

"And then he hunted you."

"And then I became a Ward of the US Government...for my own protection," bitterness leeched out of her voice as they continued walking.

"Sure you were," sarcasm laced his voice, he was also lost in his own thoughts. Something in his tone made her glance at him. Suddenly his pocket started buzzing, he reached down and pulled out a burner phone. Jake glanced at Sherry, surprise etched across his features. "...and that was short notice."

It was Leon. "Where are you?"

"Hoping you could tell me, hero." Jake's tone was a little sarcastic, he had no idea where they were.

Leon paused, "hand Sherry the phone would you?"

Jake handed it over without another word.

"Hello?" She said taking phone, "Leon where are we?"

"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvannia."
"Pittsburgh? Why?"

"Just where we were instructed to fly Jake, nearest facility where they felt they could treat him I think. They weren't expecting him to heal up as fast as they did when they started setting the ribs and checking him out. Naturally they called their higher ups."

"Won't they be looking for us here?"

"Of course. But they don't know who you are, hell they don't even have a complete picture of Jake's face yet. You took his bandages off. Not them." 

"So where were the guards?"

"That was us, Sherry, Chris and I. Officially we were supposed to guard you. The docs there, had to back off. Not enough security clearance, when they realized Jake was going to pull through, they had to leave, be debriefed and relocated."

"Ok," Sherry was thinking hard." She listened to Leon for a few more minutes as he relayed instructions, instructions she wasn't sure if she was going to follow yet.

"Got it."

She clicked the phone off after a moment and stared at it.

"What did he say?"

"We're still dead. Might have to alter our appearance again."

Jake stared at her dark hair, "No make-up."

"You don't have a scar."

He reached up and felt his smooth cheek. He'd been doing it a lot, subconsciously  "Oh yeah."

"Evening folks." A man stepped in front of them with a rough accent that Jake couldn't place. In his hand he brandished a revolver.  Jake's senses went on overdrive. Was this an agent sent by Neo-Umbrella?  He pointed to an alley and Jake and Sherry both moved into it. 

Sherry sighed. "Really."

"I know," Jake muttered. He glanced back at the man.

"Empty your pockets or I'll put a bullet in your lady friend." Jake laughed. He couldn't help it. The man's eye brows shot up for a moment. Jake stopped laughing and stared at the man. He couldn't quite rob the grin off of his face. The man was trying to rob them. Neither one of them was the least bit afraid. They seemed more annoyed than anything.

He hesitated wondering if he'd bitten off more than he could chew. It was his last mistake. Jake's hand lashed out faster than he could see and tore the gun from his fingers while his other hand grabbed him by the neck. Jake hoisted the would be robber against the wall, his feet dangling off the ground. The gun he tucked into his waist band with the other. It might come in handy later. 

"My lady friend could tear you a new one," Jake snarled into the man's face. "She's nicer than me though, so just this once I'm going to go easy on you." The smell of urine filled the air, the robber had wet his pants. Jake dropped him in disgust and started to turn away. Whatever relief the man felt was obliterated when Jake suddenly turned and cracked him across the forehead. He dropped into the alley unconscious.

"I thought you said you were going easy on him?" Sherry didn't even blink at Jake's actions. 

"He's not dead." Jake answered with a shrug. He turned back to her. "I've forgotten what it's like to fight against another human again." He looked disturbed for a moment. "Men are slower.  It's not like fighting a monster." He stopped and didn't go on.

Sherry looked around...they could effectively disappear at this point. The Ustanak was dead, not that Wesker Jr. couldn't create another. Technically the only face they knew was hers. She could always alter her appearance again, go back to being a blonde. That was easy.

"Wesker said my father spread his genes around. You think I could have siblings out there. You know, who aren't crazy like him?"

Sherry stopped in her tracks and turned to him. Family, it hadn't occurred to her that that was something Jake might want, badly. Badly enough to risk finding out if he had siblings from the most psychotic person to walk the earth.

"It's possible," She started carefully. "But would you want to have been discovered given all you knew about Wesker now?"

Jake started walking, jamming his hands into his pockets, stone faced. "Hey it wasn't all bad. We had one hell of a ride in Edonia, that was a nice first date. And the 2nd one in China was even more amazing, hell the third one topped it all, our own little cabin..." he trailed off. He had been counting them off out loud and his face turned red as he remembered the days in the cabin.

They had yet to talk about the future. Sherry's face had turned red as well and he knew she was thinking along the same lines he was.

"Why don't we find a place to crash?" said Sherry pointing to what looked like a run-down hotel, desperate to change the subject. He didn't call her on it, but his raised eyebrow told her he would ask her about it later.

The hotel sign read: Mayberry Inn, but the chipping paint gave an indication that it was not the most respectable place to rent and the staff weren't likely to ask too many questions. If you paid cash and didn't draw too much attention to yourself.

He hung back as Sherry marched in and asked for a room. A few minutes later they were walking to door 112 on the bottom floor. Most of the hotel was painted white although the paint job could use a touch up, the place was dingy and well-aged. Some of the walls even appeared yellow. Graffiti covered the outside in some areas.

A quick scan of the area revealed nothing out of the ordinary for this side of town. There were plenty of streetwalkers and prostitutes walking about, cars stopping to pick them up but nothing that resembled anything Neo-Umbrella had sent after them in the past.

Sherry unlocked their room and Jake glancing around behind them again went inside.

There was one bed in the room, a small full sized bed that even Jake cringed at sleeping on. Sherry didn't even bother to pull back the blanket. The room smelled of cigarettes but neither went to open the window to let the night air in. The one chair that was in the room Jake took and wedged under the door knob. It wasn't necessarily paranoia. Not for them.

Once that was done, they sat on the floor next to each other in front of the bed.

"We going to talk about it?" Jake asked her quietly staring at the door.

"I don't want to talk about it." Sherry said. She placed a hand on her stomach and turned away from him. She would never have known, never suspected the pregnancy. She had no symptoms or signs and guessed she never would outside of a blood test. What bothered her was the fact that no matter what, this child could also be chased down and kept by the government for its own ends. Just like she was.

"Don't do that," said Jake reaching over and covering her hand with his. His accent came on a lot thicker when he was worried or angry. Sherry hadn't realized how much he'd hidden it since he'd been here. He picked up languages like most people breathed air, it was only during the few moments that he wasn't trying to blend in that it came out strongly.

"Do what?"

"Look I've seen what you Americans do. You like to put things off to talk about them later. Well we don't always have a fucking later. In Edonia, we have a saying 'Tomorrow you're dead so you live today.'"

Sherry flinched when he said that. "Sounds like a great way to party your life away."

"Hey look at me," said Jake pulling her around to face him. She stared at the floor so he pulled her chin up with his fingertips so she was looking him in the eye.

"I said I was never leaving you again. I meant that."

"It's not that," said Sherry warmth flooding her at his words.

"Then what is it?"

"We're the two most wanted people on the planet, people want to use us to make...make an immortality virus. And we go and have a baby together? What were we thinking? We're hunted all the time, at other people's mercy and that's the kind of life this kid will have?"

"I think we were thinking we didn't give a fuck what they thought."

"Be serious."

"I am." He snapped. "I was thinking I was with the one woman that I love more than anything in this world and I didn't give a fuck about Neo-Umbrella or the government or anything else. I was thinking that I'm still done being their guinea pig."

Sherry had tears coming down her eyes. Jake pulled her close and hugged her to his chest. That she was worried about the baby did not surprise him. It was Sherry after all. "Why don't we try to get some sleep, figure out our next move in the morning."

She nodded.

"I'll take first watch."

"First watch?"

"Well yeah," Jake said, "We're in the middle of... Pittsburgh? I don't know anything about this place, you've obviously never been here. Wesker's clone is looking for us, and the BSAA boy scouts are looking for us too. And I don't want to be caught by either of them."

"Let's move the bed," She said. Pointing towards the door.

"You don't want to sleep on it?" Jake asked.

She shuddered and shook her head. Together they shoved the full sized bed against the chair under the knob. The curtains were kept closed. Sherry took off her coat and rolled it into a ball and then laid down on the floor next to Jake who sat up wide awake. He would have loved to be laying down next to her among other things but the last time he'd let his guard down an Ustanak had barreled through the door and Sherry had been nearly frozen to death. He wasn't about to let that happen again to her. To them, he corrected himself.

"Jake," she said after a moment. "Tell me about your mother."

Jake's face whipped around to look at Sherry lying next to him. "My mother?"

"Yes."

"Why do you want to know about her?"

"It seemed like she would have been the best parts of you." She said looking away.

Jake hesitated, unsure if he was ready to talk about his mother. He'd loved his mother more than anyone before Sherry. She'd sacrificed a lot for him but died before he could ever return the favor.

Oh god, did I really just give her a speech about opening up to me?

"She gave up a lot for me," he finally said to her. "Her money, her health, if we'd been anywhere else, she would probably still be alive." Sherry had turned to face him, looking up at him. "She taught me to play the piano?"

"You can actually play the piano," Sherry said incredulous. He'd mentioned it before but somehow she still couldn't picture it. "I think I'll need a demonstration before I believe that."

"Mom was good at it. She made me learn. Kind of weird skill for a mercenary to have, right?"

"No argument there," said Sherry. "At least you're well rounded." She paused for a second. "What was her name?"

"Her name?" Jake said. He never mentioned his mother's name to anyone, mostly because he didn't want them to go looking for her. It was a ridiculous idea he knew. If they wanted to find her they probably could. But a part of him held out the idea that he was somehow preserving his mother from being taken in by his biological father's legacy again. The guy was dead and still running things. It wasn't fair. But it was Sherry asking, and he stared at the top of her head. "Anja," he said after a moment, letting his home tongue accentuate the name fully.

"Anja," Sherry said to herself in a whisper. It was a good name, she decided.

"She loved to bake, when she was up for it anyway." He stopped. "Anyway, what about your mother? What happened to her? Why haven't you ever mentioned her before?"

This time it was Sherry who looked away, and Jake realized he'd touched on another sore subject. They definitely had a lot in common. Daddy issues, and apparently Mommy issues as well.

"Remember when I said my father's research killed him?" She said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Jake felt a knot tighten in his chest. "Yeah..."

"Well it killed her too."

Jake was again silent. He knew Sherry had been a ward of the government, that both parents had died. Pity for her rolled through him. He'd had his mother longer than she'd had hers.

"Come here," he said finally pulling her up. "Sit with me." He suddenly felt the need to just hold her, not really sure if she needed or wanted to be held but only knowing that he needed it. She got up and scooted between his legs and rested her head against his chest. She always felt so tiny and fragile to him but he knew she wasn't. Sitting her head rested against his chest and she was short enough for him to rest his chin on top of her head. He put his arms around her.

"What a fucking pair we make." He said finally.

"What do you mean?" She asked under his chin.

"Fucked up parents, and here we are reaping the rewards of their decisions." He said staring across the room.

"Well we don't have to be like them." Sherry replied in a low voice.

"No shit," said Jake. "We don't." He reached and lifted her chin so she was facing him and kissed her.

They broke apart and just sat there for a while.

"I meant what I said before," Jake said over the top of her head.

"Which part?" Sherry asked, opening her eyes.

"About walking you down the aisle."

"Oh," Sherry didn't know what to say back this time.

"I'm not going anywhere super girl. Not if I can help it." He moved a hand down to her belly and pulled her close.

She reached up with both arms and pulled him down towards her.

"Sherry..." Jake said pulling back slightly, not exactly pushing away. "Last time we had an Ustanak attack us. I don't want to let my guard down...and—"

"Who was it that told me that Edonian saying, about "tomorrow you're dead." Sherry replied into his lips as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Super girl...," he replied pulling her to him again.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Jake was groggy in the morning but when he sensed movement in the room he snapped instantly awake. It was only Sherry standing across the room in front of a long rectangular mirror that probably cost about 10$ from a Dollar Store. She was lifting her shirt and staring at her flat belly turning from side to side. She was carrying a life and trying to see some sign of it. She placed her hands on her stomach and stared at her reflection.

"That's not coffee, but it works, I'm definitely wide awake now," he said.

Startled she dropped her shirt and spun around. "I'm so sorry did I wake you?"

"Yes and no," he said, yawning. "Light sleeper. You look great. Hope you aren't worried about getting big."

"Just seeing...what there is to see."

"Nothing yet." Jake stretched.

"We need to get to Chris's house." She said stretching. She had been studying herself in the mirror all morning while he slept. Her eyes were slightly puffy from lack of sleep; her dark brown hair was curling up past her ears. Not much she could do about her appearance right now. She turned around. "Well?" 

"You look fine." He said, knowing she was not asking about her appearance. But after being on edge the past few weeks it felt good to rib her just a little.

"Jake!" She snapped. But a smile quirked at the corner of her mouth.

"Chris's house," he said sitting up and reaching for his clothes. "Got it."