"What are you going to do with her?" Claire hugged her arms to herself. She was referring to Sherry who'd been silent since they'd arrived at the hospital. She was currently listed as a civilian. But who knows how long that would last? 

"That's up to her." Leon rubbed his face with his hands. His back ached. He wondered if he was getting to old for this. "I think we're way past the time when everyone is going to tell her what's best for her." He gave Claire a pointed look. 

Claire nodded and hugged her arms tighter to herself. Leon noticed and put an arm around here. "Come here. She'll be fine." Claire leaned into him for a moment. When did we get so old? She marveled at how different the paths they had taken were, but they ended up in the same place. Things seemed to be coming full circle since they'd started in Raccoon City. 

Chris came through the doorway almost like he'd been summoned. He was dressed in civilian attire for once. The location was a medical facility, hidden for use by the government. It had bothered Leon more because he hadn't known of it's existence. Yet when he'd radioed for help this was the address given.  

There hadn't been time to get Jake fully acquainted with the inner workings of the DSO. Who to watch for, who to avoid. Leon wondered how long Sherry would stay working there.

"Where's Sherry?" Chris asked breaking into Leon's thoughts.  

"Upstairs." Leon nodded. Chris looked for a moment at Leon's arm around Claire's shoulders. 

"Don't start." Claire pulled away from Leon and stood up. "I'm getting coffee. Want any?"

"I'll take some." Leon glanced at Chris. He shook his head.

"I'm going in. There are more doctors on the way, more like scientists than actual doctors. I thought you should know." 

Leon paused looking at Chris, reading what he wasn't saying. It meant more studies, more time under the knife for Sherry, as if they hadn't taken enough pieces of her already.  And he would be expected to look the other way like he'd been forced to last time when Simmons became her guardian.  Claire had been allowed to check in on her then.  But now? He watched Chris leave the room. 

He got out his own phone to make a few calls. I need whiskey, not coffee, he thought. 

________________________________________________________________________________

Jake opened his eyes slowly. The bright lights hurt so he clamped them shut again. Well I'm not dead yet. The first thing he noticed was that he was not strapped to anything but in fact laying in a hospital bed. The second was he sensed rather than saw that Sherry was next to him, her head on his arm. She was asleep. He could hear her steady breathing. It was the one thing that kept him from leaping out of the bed in a panic. 

He had an IV in his right arm and his chest hurt. It felt like the worst chest cold he'd ever had. 

But he was alive.

He brought the arm up Sherry wasn't laying on and brushed his head. He felt a rough cloth on his face. His head was completely bandaged with openings around his eyes.

"Sherry?" He rasped. His voice was a little hoarse. 

Her head snapped up focusing on his face. Her eyes were red rimmed, but from exhaustion or crying he couldn't tell. "Oh my god, Jake!"

She grasped his hand. He grunted, it still hurt. It must have been pretty bad for him to be still feeling the pain. Twelve hours, Wesker had told him, the first time when he'd been shot in the back. Even then Wesker hadn't been sure he'd come back. It hadn't mattered, family or no, he was just part of the experiment.

"Where are we?"

"I'm not sure," said Sherry. It was then that Jake noticed her clothes were covered in massive amounts of dried blood.

He sat up suddenly. He was shirtless but wearing some kind of shorts. "Sherry, what the hell?" He reached for her and held her at arms-length staring at the amount of blood on her.

She looked down at herself as if seeing what she really looked like for the first time. "Sorry...I didn't want to leave you...you were pretty messed up."

"So that's not yours?"

"No. It's yours."

"Jesus!" He said in response, he released her and reached up to feel his face. He began pulling at the bandages in an attempt to rip them off.

"Let me help," she reached forward and took his hands away, unwinding the bandages herself.

"Fine," he was still having trouble the fact that she was covered in that much blood and it was HIS. He stared at her while she worked, neither of them commenting for a moment. There was still too much to take in. A baby? 

"The Ustanak is dead." She said as she unwound the clothe from his face.

"Good fucking riddance," he responded. He noticed the slightest trace of blond showing under the dark hair. The way her eyes looked everywhere but his face. Yet she was still here.

"Wesker got away."

Jake clenched his fist at this but made no reply. He had no doubt in his mind that there would be another encounter

"I guess we're going hunting again."

"Only if we get our own cabin again." She muttered. He smiled at that. A dam somewhere inside of him burst. He had been afraid that she would talk about leaving, or that she'd lost the baby, something...  But she was holding out just like he was. As she unwrapped the last bandage off his face she stopped, suddenly startled. "Oh my god."

"What? What is it?"

"Your scar...it's gone." His face was completely smoothed over. He put his fingers on his skin and rubbed the spot where the familiar indent should have been. He felt nothing. He kept rubbing expecting it to be there.

"What exactly happened to me?" He put his hand down, for once feeling disturbed.

"You got beaten to a bloody pulp," came Chris's voice from the doorway. Jake looked at the older man for a moment. He couldn't even think of a witty come back at this point. 

"How long was I out?"

"Overnight." Sherry grabbed his hand again, lacing her fingers in his. "It was pretty bad. We weren't sure if you were going to make it."

"They had to keep you sedated most of the time," Chris continued. "You woke up and...started screaming...we knew you were in pain, but..." Chris didn't continue. He'd never seen anything like it and hoped to never again. He knew Sherry was capable of healing but he did not know what that looked like when it happened. Until he'd seen Jake do it.

It had happened almost instantly. One minute Jake was unconscious and they weren't sure if he was still breathing. The next his eyes had opened wide and he had begun screaming uncontrollably, complete with audible popping sounds as his body put itself back into place. They'd been forced to hold him down as he struggled. Sherry had gotten herself covered in blood for her effort, Chris had ditched his military gear for the time being. He'd need a whole new set after this.  He'd seen plenty of people die, get gruesome injuries, but that was something else altogether. He shuddered visibly. He had thought was a Jake a dead man. Seeing and hearing him heal back together was as gruesome as the stomping he had received at the hands of the Ustanak. "As for your face, you were barely recognizable. Your left cheek was ripped and smashed in...might explain the lack of scar."

Jake took that in quietly, staring down at his own lap, he was a bit shaken but he was not about to admit that in front of Redfield.

"How did you get the Ustanak down?" He addressed Chris with the question.

"Well...we all got a shot in, except Claire. Someone took her gun and fired the last rounds...that did it in."

"Someone?" Jake cast a glance at Sherry who was staring at her hands embarrassed.

Chris shot a glance over at Sherry and grinned. "Someone."

"There is one other thing," said Chris. "That Wesker we were fighting. He's not Wesker's son. He is his clone."

"What?" This hit Jake like a ton bricks. "Are you telling me that friggin' psycho in there was my father?"

"His clone." Corrected Chris. "Sherry can you give us a minute?"

Sherry hesitated.

"Go on," said Jake. "At least get changed, I'm kind of grossed out looking at all of my own blood on you."

Sherry finally did look down at herself. She was covered in blood; true she had washed her hands but she had refused to leave and so the bloody clothes were still on her.

"Claire brought you a bag," said Chris, "that's what I was coming to let you know. She's out there waiting in the hall."

Sherry nodded. She reached over and went to plant a kiss on his forehead only for Jake to pull her to him. He kept her close for a moment. He was so glad she was OK that he did not care if Chris or anybody else saw them. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the lips. Then he released her saying. "I'll be out of here shortly."

Sherry nodded and headed out the door.

Chris hesitated. "What did you want to know?" He decided it would probably best not to ask them about their relationship right now. He knew Claire's apprehensions, but he found that it didn't bother him as much as it did her. The kid had proven himself over and over again. 

"Was he like that, that guy in there. The clone?" 

When Chris hesitated, Jake's eyes narrowed. "Don't sugar coat my father. I already know he was a nut job."

"He was worse," said Chris. "He used to be my boss back when we worked together for S.T.A.R.S. He was my friend. He worked with Sherry's father initially, but when William Birkin was killed he continued on his own..." He paused not sure how Jake was taking this.

Jake nodded. "Go on." He sat up listening finally getting to hear what the rest of them knew.

Chris sighed. He sat down in the only chair in the room and stared at the floor. "Wesker was always working behind the scenes for his own ends. We...never knew where he was, he was always ten steps ahead. He was brilliant. We survived his first few "tests." I don't know when exactly he started turning himself into a monster but I think it was sometime before I encountered him on Rockfort Island. He was already changing, he had super human strength, speed, you name it."

"Alright," said Jake, "Skip to the part where you killed him..."

"My partner Sheva and I found him...he'd taken my previous partner Jill...now my wife, and experimented on her. Jill fought us, with the same inhuman speed and strength. She was being controlled, we eventually freed her and she escaped badly weakened. The only way we could defeat him was to over dose him on his own serum. That didn't slow him down so much as speed him up, make him angry. He made mistakes, we ended up crashing into an active volcano..."

"That just happened to be there?" Jake was only surprised because they had only managed to defeat the first Ustanak he and Sherry encountered by dropping it in lava that burned away most of its skin, and armor, leaving i's heart exposed.

"Hey look at the Underwater base off of China, running off geo-thermals..." responded Chris. "They have to run it somewhere that it won't be noticed on any grid."

Jake nodded. "Fair enough."

"We launched a few missiles, Sheva and I, from our escape helicopter. He died with his Uroboros virus."

"Are you sure?" Jake asked. "I mean he is still making a mess of things, and doing a hell of a job for a dead man."

Chris hesitated. "No one is ever sure where Wesker is concerned," he conceded. "But I'm sure the original Wesker is dead at any rate."

"You skipped a few parts," said Jake.

"I did," said Chris. "Sherry's been a Ward of the US Government since she was a kid because of Wesker wanting the G-virus in her system. Jill had a similar issue with the Virus she was injected with. It's why he kept her around instead of killing her. I messed up his first plans, we've been enemies ever since our S.T.A.R.S. days. He thought he would get revenge using Jill against me. Before that he had my sister held hostage, she lost Steve because of him. He and I go way back, so yeah, it was personal."

Jake narrowed his eyes and looked down at his hands. It hurt to hear that about his biological father. He didn't really need to hear too much more. He'd heard enough in China when he was stuck in the lab there. But sitting across from the man who'd helped to bring Wesker down. A man whose life he'd threatened before because of it. He'd been angry before when Chris had calmly announced to him that he'd killed his father.

Now here they were again, and Jake felt very differently about the whole ordeal.

Jake broke the silence. "Just for the record, I would have shot him too."

"What?" Chris looked at Jake surprise on his face.

"If I was in your place. I would have put a bullet between his eyes, and I would not have been sorry about it." Jake stared at his hands. He was itching to get out of this room, see Sherry, hunt Wesker, eat a steak. Anything besides sitting in bed. "Hell, I wish I still could."

"I'm not sorry." Said Chris softly. Jake studied him. "He took Jill for a while...I thought she was dead."

"Where is Jill now?"

"At home, office job. Away from the field till we know the full extent of what happened."

"Didn't waste time." Jake said.

"In my line of work, I've learned there's not time to waste. Just for the record," Chris continued. "I said I saw your father in you." Jake stiffened at those words. They had been painful to hear given everything he knew about Albert Wesker at that point. "I was wrong."

Jake let out a breath of air he didn't realize he'd been holding. He certainly didn't want anything thinking he was anything like Albert Wesker. Bearing a passing resemblance was bad enough. Chris could not have said anything more insulting to him when he'd mentioned the resemblance in the Neo-Umbrella base back in China.

Chris stood up. "So you going to pursue Sherry huh?"

"Pursue her?" Jake looked confused.

"You know you're six years younger than her right?"

"84," he said.

"What?"

"I was born in 84, not 92. That's some typo you guys have there."

"When was your mother with Wesker?"

"Don't know but she was young and so was he, not sure how he would have met up with her later, but she was already back in Edonia in 92."

"The year you were born."

"84." Jake repeated.

Chris stared at him. "So our file is wrong."

"Yep."

"Why would that be?"

"Don't know, don't care," said Jake lifting an eyebrow at him. His mother could have changed it for all he knew.  Most of the records concerning him in Edonia were long destroyed in the war torn country. He wasn't worried about them digging up anything to link him to the past there.

Sherry came in at that moment looking refreshed. She had showered in a hurry, changed, and was no longer covered in his blood. She smiled at him and his heart lifted.

"I'll leave you two to it," said Chris as he stood up and headed for the door.

"Thanks Redfield," said Jake. Chris paused in the doorway and nodded at him again before leaving and letting the door close behind him.

"That went well?" Sherry anxiety etched on her face took his hand again.

Jake nodded but didn't elaborate. Instead he changed the subject to one he had been waiting to talk about since he woke up. "A baby huh?"

This time Sherry turned beet red. "I...I was just as surprised," she said. "I haven't told anyone yet."

Jake smiled. "I was just hoping you weren't going to come back and say you'd lost it, or were going to get rid of it."

Sherry looked horrified.

Jake held up his hands in defense. "I know we haven't talked about it, but in the middle of all of this...its not the worst thing ever...I mean I'm not going anywhere. Wesker is still out there, he knows...but no one else does. I don't want them locking you down anywhere. Hell I don't know what I'm saying." He pulled her forward into his lap resting his chin on her head. He had yet to see an actual doctor come in and check on him which was odd. He was ready to leave this place for good.

"Didn't Chris tell you?" Sherry whispered

"Tell me what?"

"We're still officially dead."

Jake paused. "No that asshole might have left that part out; we were talking about...other things."

When he didn't elaborate Sherry explained. "Right now we are two "rescued" civilians. I am not sure what hospital we are at, somewhere, but we can walk right out of here anytime now."

"You are sure?"

"Unofficially of course." She gave him a look that suggested this was possibly her preferred choice.

Jake threw off the blankets and yanked the IV out of his arm. His chest had stopped hurting during his conversation with Chris at some point. He hadn't noticed it. He still felt tired and was starving but he didn't want to stay in this room for another minute. He probably had a higher metabolism due to the healing...

"Here, I brought you something from the cafeteria." She handed him a shiny red apple.

"You read my mind." He bit into it, knowing it was just a snack. He felt like he was starving. His stomach even growled. He ignored it for now.

Wesker was still out there. Not his brother then but a living, breathing clone of what his father was.

He paused thinking of what had been done to Sherry and himself because of Wesker.

Oh yeah, I could put a fucking bullet in him, Chris.

"I'm unofficially going to walk out of here." He said looking down at himself for the first time. He had on a pair of white shorts. "Clothes for me?"

"I'll get-" Sherry started to say.

That's when Leon burst into the room. He dumped a pile of clothes on Jake and tossed a small bag at Sherry. Have to love his timing. Jake thought. He swore the man could read minds.

"What's going on?" Sherry asked, surprised by his sudden entrance.

"I'm not sure," said Leon. "But our two rescued civilians have just been ordered detained for questioning. It's not going to take them long to figure out who you are Sherry."

"Weren't they going to do that anyway?" Sherry glanced over at Jake.

"Yeah they were," said Leon, "by myself and Chris. We've just been ordered to turn you over to another agency."

"What agency?"

Leon hesitated. "BSAA science division. Partnered with the US Government, which is really odd. It's its own unit. I don't see any of it, Chris would never have worked in it at all. They test and record all the data recovered from Neo-Umbrella."

"This is bad because?" Sherry asked.

"Bad because you are supposed to be dead and Jake is supposed to be classified to the world and a free man," said Leon. He added quickly. "I think they are a division of Neo-Umbrella. A government sanctioned arm. Never had any proof. It was Simmon's project. But it wasn't shut down after he died, kind of moved to the side."

Jake was up dressing quickly. Sherry had turned away and was looking in the bag. It contained two 9mm and a huge wad of cash.

Leon shrugged apologetically. "It's what I had on short notice."

Sherry lifted an eyebrow at him. "Short notice? And what can you get with advanced notice?"

Leon only smiled at her which made Sherry wonder just what HIS connections were.

"Works for me." Said Jake, pulling up and buttoning his pants. He grabbed the bag pulled a 9mm out and after a quick glance, shoved it into his waist band. "Thanks Leon," He reached out and clasped the man's hand. He'd always respected Leon, especially after they'd fought together in China. Leon never judged him one way or the other for who his father had been. He never mentioned and Jake figured there was no way he didn't know.

Leon clasped his hand back and motioned for them to grab the coats he'd tossed in with Jake's clothes. "Got one for both of you, courtesy of Claire. She and Chris are down there right now either going to stall or provide a get-away."

"Stall." Jake and Sherry both said in unison.

"Glad you two are on the same page." Leon replied. He grabbed her shoulders. "Sherry wait, do you remember where Chris and Jill live?"

"Yeah why?" She glanced at Leon. She had met Chris's wife on a few occasions.

"Head there, tomorrow...get under cover tonight."

Sherry snatched up her coat and slipped it on. Leon had walked out the door, and Jake looked in the bag. He whistled when he saw the cash inside.

"No more train rides," said Sherry tucking the remaining gun into her coat pocket.

"Cabin at least?" asked Jake smiling. Sherry didn't smile back this time, simply looked away with her hand dropping to her belly. She shook her head and walked out into the corridor. No one was around yet to detain them. But soon they would be.

They were gone.