Chapter 7: Training

March 26, 1998: Thursday

After Astrid told Frederick about what Albert did, and that he would be much more serious going forth that day he began to train her himself. Not only did he take her out of her classes, but he started to bring her to the training facility at Umbrella. The first time he introduced her as his girlfriend to the guys there made her face turn red, but it was easier now that she was on some name to name basis with some of them. Though most unnerved her still.

Today was her off day, and even though she wasn't as sore as the first week she still struggled to get most of her clothes on. She had bruises that covered her almost from head to toe, well they left her face alone. Thankfully, but told her that in a real fight she would have to learn how to block attacks. She was the best at evading and blocking so far. It helped with how small she was in stature, and quick.

He often scolded her that she needed to learn more offense maneuvers but it unnerved her to take on some of the men that he often put her up against. She would go on the strike but hesitate, and that would leave another wonderful addition to her collection of bruises.

However, Frederick and his comrades gave her praise for how quickly she was picking up with the firearms. He made sure that she was first proficient with handguns, and then slowly made his way up to the larger, and more powerful fire weapons.

She didn't want to think about it now. All she wanted was to sit in a tub full of ice to sooth the aches in her body and then pass out. She ran the coldest water she could get and was getting the ice out of the freezer when she heard the phone ring. She groaned and walked over to her phone setting it down before answering.

"Hello," she answered, and she could even hear how weary she sounded.

"Good evening," was Albert's curt reply over the phone. She bit back a sigh and rubbed her eyes.

"Yes, Albert," she replied and hoped he would make his point soon. She slowly sank to the floor and laid on the ground.

"My someone's in a mood," he in return replied with blandness. Astrid sighed.

"Yes, Albert," she said his name with a little more force. She was hoping it was a change of meeting or something of that sort. She was just too sore to move any more than necessary and was planning on sleeping all day tomorrow. Training be damned.

"We have a date tonight," He said, and at that time she groaned.

"Can't you tell them I'm sick," she asked him with a sigh.

"Are you sick?" He asked after a moment.

"Can I skip if I am," she asked. She heard him sigh.

"Give me a moment," and then the line was cut off. She sighed, and when upstairs to run a cold bath, and was relieved that there was a cordless phone upstairs. After letting the icy water numb her aches for a while her phone rang. She leaned over the side of the tub and answered the phone.

"Hello," she answered, and Albert went straight into talking.

"I'll be over in an hour, we were excused, but I'm coming over." He said and was about hang up before Astrid had the breath to speak.

"Excuse me, but what?" She nearly shouted in his ear. "Okay, fine, but why do you need to come over?" She held her breath.

"Because I said I would come over to take care of you. Barry's wife made me promise." He told her, and Astrid flushed.

"I will be just fine thank you very much," she told him. "Besides you don't seem like the type that anyone would be able to force you into anything unless it benefited you." She snapped. She heard a slight chuckle at the end.

"I'll see you shortly." He said, and he hung up. She stared at the phone in disbelief. Sighing she climbed out of the tub and inspected her nude body. Her curves were getting more defined with the building of muscles. Her waist was a lot smaller in all of her items of clothing for one thing. However, the eyesores were all the bruises on her body. Surely, Albert would notice even the smallest of mark on her and wondered how she got it. Fuck, maybe he already knew about her training. But she didn't need to give him anything to tease her on.

She pulled on one of Frederick's long sleeved shirts, and her sweat pants after choosing her underwear. She pulled her hair up into a messy bun at the top of her head and grimaced at the soreness of her muscles in doing so. The doorbell rang, and she walked down stairs

Albert passed her as she opened the door for him. "Shoes," she stated, and he stopped and looked at her before taking off his shoes. "Thank you." She replied curtly as she walked over to the sofa and sat down as she found something to watch.

It took another minute before Albert took a seat beside her, and pushing her back against the armrest of the sofa.

"I may as well get comfortable," he told her, and she grimaced. She leaned against the armrest as she finally found something to watch. She curled my knees to her chest as she leaned back into the sofa. Her body still ached, but as she sat there she could feel herself drifting off to sleep. She groaned aloud as she attempted to get comfortable. "Uncomfortable?" He asked with a smirk playing on his lips.

"A little bit," she conceded, and he sighed and scooted further away from her. She sighed and laid down using one of the decorative pillows. She pulled a blanket and covered her body. She snuggled against it, "thank you." She mumbled.

"You're welcome," he replied, and she continued to watch the movie. "Have you picked up training?"

"No," she replied snarkily. "I threw myself down a flight of stairs after thinking about you."

He laughed, but it was short. She did sense that he was amused with her reply. She didn't really want to spend any more time with him, but she supposed that for keep up the cover. "How long do you need to stay here?" She asked him.

"Just a couple of hours," he assured her. "Then I will be out of your hair." His lips curled up in a smirk. She didn't even have the energy say anything back, and surely, he was commenting on her hair. They went into almost a pleasant bout of silence before Albert decided to break it. "So how is the training going?" He asked.

"Fine," She replied. She was too tired to care at this point. Reckless, sure, but if he already knew there was no point in lying to his face. That would have been worse.

"Any bruises to speak of," he asked.

"I'm nearly one whole bruise." She replied. He nodded thoughtfully, and her eyes remained close. He made a noise of an affirmation.

"Birkin said that he saw you training nearly every day with the U.S.S.," He said. "An impressive group of soldiers to train with," he commented. If only Astrid could be more awake to agree with him.

Albert stared at her and noticed that she had fallen asleep. She was sleeping soundly and snoring lightly. The door opened, and the very one she was in a relationship with walked into the living room. "How has her training coming along?"

"She's learning quickly," He replied, and Albert tried to remember what was his code name. Human Unit Never Killed, that was it. "Has she been asleep for long?" He asked.

"No more for twenty minutes," he replied.

"Then you can go," he looked down at him as he started to shake her gently. She stirred slightly under his touch. Albert saw no point in staying around while he was here. Astrid was right, he could have simply said that he had come by to check and take care of her. She would have backed him up.

She was just waking up as she struggled to sit up, and he helped to do so. He was gone and out the door before she was fully awake.

"Frederick," Astrid woke up and realized that Albert was gone. "When did you get here?" She asked as she wrapped arms around his neck.

"Just a minute ago," he replied as he hugged her back. "How are you feeling?" He asked. She sighed and pulled away.

"Still sore," she answered. "I have a brand-new bruise." She showed him the mark on her shin. He laughed and she pouted in response.

"You can skip tomorrow," he told her, and she scoffed in replied. "You're a civvie after all." He teased. He lifted her up into his arms and brought her back upstairs to her bed.

"I'm not even insulted," she told him as he settled her down in her bed.

He kissed her forehead. "I figured you wouldn't, but I'm going to turn off everything downstairs." She nodded, as she made herself more comfortable in her bed. When he came back upstairs he went into the bathroom to take a shower after doing whatever security work Umbrella had needed him to do. Their schedule was almost similar as in he would have multiple days off in a row, and then he would be at work for a couple of days straight.

Which was nice, because between training they spent a lot of time with one another. He moved in with her recently, and it admitted that her place was a step from where he initially lived.

She eventually fell asleep feeling a lot more comfortable with Albert gone, and Frederick in his place.

She woke up to feel even sorer than last night. She sat up with a groan, and Frederick was sleeping next to her. Not wanting to wake him up she got out of bed and went downstairs to get something to eat. But mainly see if she could stretch her poor, poor muscles out. This must be not healthy to go as this hard as she was right now. Maybe she could ask to just do firearms for a bit, and work on that for a minute.

All the Security Service were good shots, but recently she has become acquainted with one of the members named Vladimir. He knew all kinds of shady information and was the one of the source intel for Umbrella. She made it in her best interest to get to know him. Despite his annoyance with her.

He was also one of the best snipers in the Service. It was possible she could ask him to help her out. He was the last person she sparred with, and he had rewarded her with the bruise with to her shin. But he also gave her praise. Her personality and her position made her seek praise in all fronts of her life, and combat was now one of them.

She muttered to herself as she tried to easily stretch out the tensed muscles. "I didn't go to school for this crap," she muttered out, and she heard a laugh. She jumped slightly to see that Frederick had joined. Her.

"Continue stretching," he told her. "I'll make breakfast. You need protein to rebuild muscles and a lot of vitamins and minerals." He explained. "Especially with as much and hard as we have been training you."

"Mhm," she agreed as she continued to try and loosen up the muscle. When she felt a little better but still sore. She laid her head on the table with a sigh. Being immobile was the only she didn't feel the pain screaming through her body.

"A couple members of Security Service is going to come over, and we're going to talk about altering your training," Frederick told her as he placed the plate in front of her. One piece of toast, eggs, and some vegetable. Actually, protein and vegetables were most the plate.

"What's the gist of it?" She asked as she began to eat.

"I'm going to suggest a couple of things," he began, and Astrid nodded in reply. "Mainly that we focus more on your firearm training and a little less on your hand to hand combat. You've already pretty good at evading offensive maneuvers. We can work with that a bit more, but for now, I think we should relax on it." He said.

She sighed gratefully as she almost went slack with relief. He gently rubbed her shoulder in reassurance. After breakfast, Astrid went upstairs to get ready for whenever they would come over. She had no clue who was coming over, but obviously, it was someone that he trusted enough.

She took a hot shower, and instead of drying her hair she pulled it up into a loose but neat bun. She found one of his shirts and one of her leggings. The Security Service didn't really care much for her appearance, and she was home.

After she was done, she felt a lot less sore than in the beginning in the morning. She sat down on the sofa while Frederick was now getting ready for when his fellow U.S.S members got here. She read a book until Frederick came back downstairs after showering as well. He sat close to her and to where she had her legs over his lap.

He had the television on, and she continued reading her book.

It was a couple of hours later when her doorbell first rang. It was a couple of women, and they were the people she had trained with or was teaching her at least. She knew that they all had cold names but they all just gave her their first names. Karena and Michaela came through the doorframe after she opened the door for them.

"Where is Spectre?" Frederick asked them.

"He should be here soon," Michaela said. "You did say to be here around this time." She mentioned. Frederick nodded, and they made themselves comfortable as Astrid went upstairs to put her book away. She figured that they would start talking about what they can do with her training.

When she walked into her room to place the book on her side of the bed. The door was closed behind her, and before she had to the chance to look behind her had pressed her to her mouth to cover her scream. The training she has done before in the classroom, and the advance training she did with them took over.

She buried her elbow into the person's stomach, and when he bent over she grabbed him by the back of his neck and flipped him over her. Her assailant grunted as his back made contact with the ground. Her hand his arm twisted in her grip, and her foot on his chest. She didn't remember when and how she grabbed ahold of him.

"Vladimir," Karena inquired as others must have heard the commotions upstairs and went to check on her. "Astrid let him up." She listened to her as she let him go, and stepped away from him. He got up and grinned down at her.

"What were you doing?" She asked him.

"Seeing what you knew," he replied as he walked by her, and followed the rest of them downstairs.

"You guys probably know more about what's going on than I do," she muttered as she followed them.

After a moment, they were all settled downstairs with Karena and Michaela sitting on the other sofa that she recently bought to the side of them. The sofas were placed in a L format in the living room. Frederick sitting next to her, and Vladimir leaning against the wall.

"Now what do you need from us?" Vladimir asked starting the conversation forward.

"We need to alter how we're training Astrid," Frederick began. "With how we're going we're going to run her down before she reaches her potential, and plus Management is keeping an eye on her. She is one of the faces of Umbrella." He added.

"She is advancing exactly along par with the other trainees," Karena argued. "If we lose sight she'll fall behind the others."

"You've gotten soft, Mr. Death," Vladimir scolded.

"She's my girlfriend, not a trainee," Frederick reminded them. "She doesn't need to be on par with anyone. She's doing this because she wants to be prepared because she knows what we're working with."

That silenced the others, and it almost made Astrid cry. But she stayed quiet as well. They were past soldiers and had more discipline than she did.

"We forgot, she was doing rather impressively," Karena added. "What do you suggest?"

"She is the best out of evading offensive maneuver, so we can work on that to where she can take out her assailants as well." He began. "She has also shown a good hand for firearms. We can start training her with the assault firearms." He looked over at her and patted her thighs. "Your cardio was already above average so keep working on that."

"You want to train her like a Surveillance expert," Vladimir noted.

"Exactly," he nodded. "That's why you're here." Vladimir nodded in reply, and it seems like he approved. So, it seemed like she didn't have to talk to him about teaching her how to shoot.

Also, it didn't seem like she would be in so much pain anymore, which was an extra bonus. "Why am I here?" Michaela asked.

"I want you to check her out," Frederick replied. "She's been in a lot of pain. I think it's because she didn't have the prior experience like we do."

"Come here," Michaela ordered her. She only hesitated a moment before going to her. She remembers mainly what Hector had told her about Michaela's past. "Actually, let's go into the kitchen." She said after a pause. She followed her into her own kitchen.

"Vlad," Karena said, "Come here."

"What you were going to sneak a peek," Astrid complained as she pulled her shirt off, and Vladimir chuckled.

"Don't take it personally," Michaela said as she checked Astrid out with the bruises. "He has checked out everyone if he has the chance." She pressed on her bruises and squeezed on her muscles. "You're going to have to get to a therapist about the tension."

"You don't say," Astrid retorted, and she only chuckled lightly.

"Go ahead and get dressed," she replied, and she pulled on her shirt and leggings. She went ahead to tell them whatever she didn't want to tell me. When she walked back into the living room they were all leaving.

"By the way," Vladimir began as he pulled out a pair of her panties. Astrid froze for a moment. He only grinned. "Nice pair." He teased. Her face burned, and she covered her face. She heard Frederick push him out of the house.

"You're really too easy," Frederick said as Astrid grabbed her underwear from him.

"What did Michaela say," She asked.

"That it was a good decision to pull back on the training," He said. "And to wait until the bruises to go away before you go, but that doesn't mean I can't do it for you."

"How bad was it?" She asked, and she felt a chill run down her spine.

"Nothing permanent," he tried to assure her. "I swear." She looked at him, and he was a far worse liar that herself. This was definite in showing she was a bad liar. "It's not all that bad," he amended as he pulled her to him. She buried her face into his chest as he rubbed her back.

"Okay but was I really on par with the other trainees?" She asked curiously. She looked up at him and he smiled down at her. She could see the pride in his eyes, and she knew that they were telling the truth.

"Yes, you were," he said. He brushed a hand through her hair. "But you don't have prior experience, and you don't need to be on their level." He told her as he leaned down to scoop her up into his arms.

He carried her upstairs for the rest of the night.

A/N: Hello everyone! I'm going to try and update the rest of my fanfics. I'm sorry I have been so MIA for the past couple of months. I had school (college how fun), and personal issues come up, and it just really, really got in the way of writing my fanfictions. I really do apologize, and thank that people who have stuck around, and added my stories since my absence!

Also! I am working on a couple of novels, and everything! So that's another factor. I'm trying to save money for the editing, and the artwork. I'm pretty excited for it. Anyways, please read and review. I would love to hear what you think of the fanfic: D