Family Ties

To Ride the Winds of Memory

By: Hotaru

Notes: So. I don't know if I'll end this soon, and make a sequel, or keep it going. I wouldn't like to have a fic with more than fifteen chapters. It seems excessive, don't you think? Also, in Chapter 12, I mentioned a J-Rock song. The tranlated lyrics anyhow. If you want to download it, please do: (i mean, buy the album!!) odd, waking up in a strange place. For a brief instant, you feel scared and out-of-place, until you realize where you are. But what if you don't know where you are? If the ceiling isn't familiar, and the smell isn't nostalgic, and the walls seem dreadfully dull?

Sherie woke up in a pale blue room, on a soft white bed. She still wore the clothes she had on yesturday, except her shoes had been removed and placed beside the bed. "Where am I?" She asked herself, trying to remember what had happened the day before. /So it wasn't a dream after all../ There was a knock on the door, and a brief pause before Wesker strode in.

"Good afternoon." He greeted, closing the door behind him.

"What time is it?" Sherie asked, laying back down.

"Nearly twelve."

"Am I really here?"

"Would you like me to pinch you?"

"No thanks. What do you want?" Sherie retorted, covering her eyes with her arm.

"I've got something important to tell you about your parents." Wesker replies.

"Oh yeah. What is it?"

"Well, it's going to be hard to explain. Your parents were..strange. They met and married quickly, but never seemed to really be in love. Birkin did nothing but concentrate on his work, which left your mother quite upset. Here, look at this." He handed her a piece of paper.

"What's this?"

"It's a DNA test. We do them quite often to come up with vaccines, medicines and the sort. They're 99.9% accurate."

"Good for you. What'd you test with this one?"

Wesker handed her another sheet of clear paper, with words scattered on it. "Put it over that one." Wesker instructed. Sherie did so. Where there were once blank white boxes, there were names, and words. "What the hell is my name doing on here?" Sherie asked.

"Read." Wesker replied. Sherie sighed, and skimmed the paper.

"A paternity test? What is this about?" She read on, and her jaw dropped. "This is some kind of joke...this has to be. It can't possibly be real!"

-=-

"Smell that fresh air!" Claire breathed, leaning against a bridge, looking at the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

"We don't have time to be all tourist-y. We really should be going." Leon sighed.

"Come on, Leon, this is the city of love. Relax a bit." Claire replied.

"In case you forgot, Claire, maybe you left your brain on the plane, but Sherie is missing! She's been kidnapped, and time's a factor!" Chris exclaimed. It seemed as if his sister had lost her marbles.

"I know. Why don't you call Peter, then? See if he has any news."

"Fine. After that, we're out of here." Chris said, going to find a payphone.

"Claire, are you okay? I mean...you seem out of it." Leon said worriedly, resting against the wall of the bridge.

"I'm...fine. I know she's missing, but I don't think Wesker is going to hurt her. We're kind of on a wild goose chase. What can we do without knowing exactly which city she's in?" Claire replied.

"Not much...but still. I figured you'd be the most worried out of us."

"Why? Because I'm a woman? Cause I'm supposed to get hysterical the minute something goes wrong?"

"Claire, calm down! What the hell is the matter with you?!"

The woman broke down, covering her face with her hands. "I'm...just depressed. I'm confused, I don't know what to do." She cried. Leon pulled her into his arms.

"Hey, hey...what are you confused about? Why are you depressed?" He asked gently.

"I...there's a chance I..."

"Claire, you can tell me."

"I...I might be pregnant again."

Chris walked back from the phone. Actually, he ran. "They're not in Paris, they're at the border of France and Switzerland!" He exclaimed.

"What? Slow down, what?" Leon stuttered, his mind in two different places.

"Peter said that Sherie called and said 'Not Paris, Jura'. He looked online, and found there was a mountain region called the Jura Mountains on the border of France and Switzerland!" Chris explained.

"Okay...what do we do now?" Leon asked, as Claire turned to wipe her eyes.

"Try to find a train that'll take us there. And we have to call Jill. Claire...what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I think there's something in my eye." She excused.

"Oh, well we should get going." Chris continued.

"Yeah. Let's go." Leon agreed, taking Claire's hand and following her brother.

-=-

Sherie folded her arms and threw the two documents to the floor. "You can possible expect me to believe this bullshit." She said, tears forming in her eyes.

"You can doubt me all you like, but you can't doubt the scientific proof." Wesker replied, picking the papers from the floor. "It's the truth."

"I don't believe it. You won't make me believe it."

"Sherie...do you want me to explain it to you?"

"Go ahead. I still won't believe you."

Wesker sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Your father got married when he was 26. He was young, foolish, and completely obsessed with his work. Your mother loved him, but I think she loved the researcher part of him more that who we was apart from that. One night, she confided in my that she didn't think he found her attractive, and accused him of cheating on her. Birkin denied it, but in a sense, he was cheating on her with his research."

"That's really dumb, you know." Sherie said, shaking her head.

"Anyway, she managed to go out of her way to 'confide' in me about her marriage troubles, and...you can imagine what that led to. When she told me she was pregnant, she was hysterical. She didn't know how to explain it to Birkin, as they hadn't made love in ages. Basically, she forced him to get away from the lab for one night so that he would believe the child was his. Obviously, she couldn't tell him about us, and I wasn't ready to deal with a baby--"

"That's very responsible of you." Sherie interrupted.

"Look, we both thought it would be better this way. She said that I'd see the baby all the time, since they both worked all the time, and when the right time came, she'd tell William. Unfortunately, that time never came. He loved you, and around the time you were born, we started work on the Nemesis project. You're familiar with it, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, eventually it led to the creation of the G-Virus...Birkin's own pride and joy. That man stayed up throughout the nights for days on end for that damned virus. I'd receive calls at un-Godly hours from Annette about how you wouldn't stop crying, and how you missed your Daddy. But you never meant me. I was the scary man that Daddy worked with." He smiled a bit.

"My dad...he was a real asshole, huh?" Sherie asked, finally starting to believe what Wesker was telling her.

"...he was a dedicated researcher, and far from a family man. Even through all this, Annette didn't want to tell him the truth. Once everything started to go wrong, which was about three years after the G-Virus's main research, something happened. Birkin went mad. I started to wonder if Annette finally told him, and that's why he snapped. I didn't put it past him to keep the G-Virus for himself, but to actually inject it into himself, that was a bit of a shock."

"So...you think that my mom told him that he wasn't my father, which is why he turned into a monster?"

"It's only a theory. Unfortunately, we'll never know. I didn't speak to your mother that day, when the facility went to hell. She left me a note, though, saying that something was wrong with William and that it was time. I didn't know what she meant, but...that's the last I heard from her."

"She left me at the police station when she went to look for him. I had no idea what was going on...she just said to stay there cause I'd be safe. Why didn't she tell me? I was old enough to understand, I knew my Dad wasn't the best person in the world--! God, why is this happening?"

Wesker sighed. "I thought you should know the truth. I'm...sorry that he wasn't the best father for you. But I don't know if I would do any better."

"So what now? You told me this big secret, turned my world upside down, so what are you going to do with me?" Sherie asked.

"You..still probably have traces of the G-Virus in your body. They're laying dormant, and no one knows when, or if they'll 'wake up' again. Currently, there is no vaccine. If you start to show symptoms...you would inevitably die."

"...and you...can prevent that..right?"

"I can try."

-=-

Claire, Chris and Leon were on board a train, ready to leave the station. They'd take a bus to the Jura mountains, and with any luck, they'd find the facility Wesker had taken Sherie to. "I should call Jill." Chris mumbled to himself.

"Yeah. Will she have enough time to gather up her troops or whatever?" Leon asked.

"I have no idea. We might get there before she does. I don't even know if she's in England anymore." Chris answered.

"Well...you should probably call anyway. We could use some back up. None of us have any weaponry to speak of."

"Yeah...you're right. Let me go find a phone."

Chris got up and squeezed past the Leon, and headed down the train car. Claire was staring out the window, her cheek resting against her hand. "Hey. You ok?" Leon asked, nudging her slightly.

"Sure." She replied half-heartedly.

"I don't believe you. Look...we need to talk more about...what you told me. When did you find out?"

"I don't know for sure. It's just...been more than a month and I'm just worried. I didn't want to buy a test."

"Why not?"

"I didn't want to bring back any memories. I didn't want to have to deal with that again."

"Well, don't you think it would be better if we knew for sure if you were pregnant, that way we could take any precautions that we didn't last time?"

"I guess."

"Claire, would you stop being so...indifferent?! God, this is a big fucking deal!" Leon hissed, hoping the other passangers wouldn't hear him.

"I know it is! But I don't think we should get worked up about something that might not even be!" Claire retorted. Leon clenched his fists, and chewed on his knuckles. It was a habit he had formed in high school; usually doing it during a test.

"If you want to continue to make these decisions by yourself, as if you're not even in a relationship, then that's how it's gonna be."

"...what are you saying?"

"What do you think? I'm a part of this, Claire. And if you keep deciding things without me...then you're going to be without me."

He got up in a huff, and went to be alone. He actually was going to look for Chris to see how things are going, but he also wanted to get away from the woman. /How can she be so...stupid about this? She didn't tell me before that she was pregnant, and she lost the baby. Now she tells me, but it's not even like she wants me to be a part of it!/ There was a train car devoted to telephones and laptops with internet connections. Chris was in one of the booths, so Leon tapped on the glass and waved. Chris nodded in response, and continued to talk to Jill, Leon presumed. After a minute or two, he hung up the phone and pulled the door of the booth open.

"What's up?" Leon asked.

"Well, Jill's back in France, thankfully. She said that she'll try to find aerial satellite pictures of the border to find the exact location, but it'll be tough." Chris replied.

"Jesus. The woman's got connections!"

"Yeah, thankfully." There was an awkward silence between the two.

"I...gotta go to the bathroom." Leon lied, walking past the elder Redfield. He really wanted to talk to someone about this, but who was there? Chris...exploded when he found out about Claire's first pregnancy. He refused to talk to his own sister while she was hospitalized. If Leon told him that she might be pregnant again.../We'd probably get into a huge fight. If he had a gun, he'd probably shoot me...in the crotch, so this wouldn't ever happen again./ Shuddering at the thought, Leon made his way to the bathrooms.

On the other end of the train, Chris sat down beside Claire. "What's wrong?" Chris asked. Claire was still staring out the window, her free hand resting on her stomach.

"Just feeling a little queasy." Claire replied dully.

"You want some water or something?"

"No."

"Maybe you should take a nap. It'll be awhile before we get off for the bus."

"Yeah. Sure." Chris got her a pillow and light blanket from beneath her seat. She lowered her seat and stuck the small pillow behind her head.

"Sweet dreams." Chris said, kissing her forehead.

"Not likely." Claire answered lightly, closing her eyes.

-=-

Sherie changed into a pair of clean clothes, after Wesker excused himself. A pair of jeans, and a long-sleeved canary colored shirt. She was hungry, and wanted to brush her teeth, but she was afraid to leave the room. She glanced up at the ceiling, looking for camera's or something. "Is anyone listening to me?" She said out loud. "I'm kind of hungry, and I want to leave."

The door to the room opened. Wesker stood in the doorway. "And where would you like to go?" He questioned. Sherie looked past him, trying to see the room behind him.

"A bathroom, perhaps. Then the kitchen." She answered.

"That can be arranged. Do you need to bring anything?"

Sherie rummaged around in her bag before finding her toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste in a plastic bag. "Let's go." She said, getting off the bed, and walking past him into the newly exposed room. "Jesus Christ, your house is huge!" She remarked. A few people that were milling about took a few glances in her direction, but looked away once Wesker turned to face them.

"Yes, it is. You can get lost very easily, so follow me and don't try to sneak off." He replied, staring towards a flight of stairs in the center of the room. Sherie's socked feet moved silently across the white tile floor, and up the carpeted stairs.

"So you have a lab here?" She asked.

"Yes. Several. The main one is on the first floor, which is why there are so many scientists walking around."

"So you have 'sub-labs'?"

"I guess you could call them that."

"What are they for?" Sherie continued, as they reached the top of the steps, and turned down a hallway.

"Call them doctors offices. People get blood work done, physicals, routine check ups. That sort of thing." Wesker replied, opening a door. "Here we are. After you're done, you can have some breakfast."

"Okay." Sherie steped into the sparkling clean bathroom. Closing the door behind her, she couldn't help but admire the spotless room. The floor tile was sparkling white, without any black crap in the crevices. There was a bright, white tub, with a light blue shower curtain. Light blue towels, and what seemed like a hand-painted border. It felt almost wrong to dirty the sink with toothpaste, but someone must get good money to clean up in here.

Spreading out its wings to fly,
the age passes quietly to a tiny sky
on the wind its brought a farewell to the morning.

We pretended not to notice. Maybe...
though we played innocently somehow we saw this time coming.

Don't hesitate to smile for me once more
You're so quiet today.
I want to go back to those days but...
we'll meet again, thank you.
until then... goodbye.

^ Sayounara by L'arc~en~ciel. I'm having too much fun wif songs. That you can't download at songjapan. Ah well.