11. Rebirth

The door opens and Chris runs in my direction. I stand there like frozen.

Rebecca's high voice echoes through the outside corridor. "Just wait until he's..." She stops at the door, sees me and lowers her voice. "Oh... So you're done. Well, then..." She gets out and closes the door behind her.

Chris stands in front of me, staring at me as if he couldn't believe what he sees. The only thing moving about him is his eyes that can't stand still. He scrutinizes me from top to bottom, examines my right arm which is still sparkling, but looking normal otherwise, and then we look into each other's eyes. It's hard for me to believe that he is really there, but what must it be like for him?

Still stunned, he lifts one hand and places it on my bare shoulder. It's warm. And it feels real. He must be thinking the same thing about my shoulder.

"You..." he mutters. "You are..."

"Wait," I say on spotting the curious looks on the other side of the window. Looks from people who happen to pass by for the fifth or sixth time by now, no longer looking as inconspicuous as they would like to think. When I get to the window and close the curtain, I swear I can hear a disappointed sigh, but some privacy should be allowed.

I turn around to go back to Chris, but he's already there. Before I can say something, he puts his arms around me and squeezes me so tightly I can barely breathe. But I won't complain. I just hug him back and we remain still like this for a few minutes.

Something warm, wet drips on my shoulder where Chris is hiding his face. One drop, then another one. I stroke his head gently and allow him to cry. Words are not necessary since tears create an own language the body automatically resorts to when words cannot describe the feelings within. I understand that only too well.

"I went to a bar again," he says suddenly, mumbling it into my shoulder so I can hardly hear it. "After your death... I resigned. Not officially, but I left the BSAA... and went to a bar."

"Again?" I ask, worried yet soft.

"All the time I was hoping for you to come through the door and talk sense into me again, like before our mission in China." He makes a short break to swallow the lump in his throat. "When you didn't come... I started drinking... thought if I just get drunk enough, I'll at least imagine you being there... But you stayed away."

"I've been here all the time," I explain and keep on stroking his head. "You probably won't believe it, but I owe my life to Ada Wong. She found me shortly after you were gone and persuaded me to flee with her... She gave me all kinds of stuff to keep the pain and the mutation under control..."

"Ada?" Chris lifts his head to look at me. His arms stay where they are and his eyes are reddened by the tears. "She's still alive?"

"Yes... I mean, no." I shake my head. "The Ada who fell off the roof right in front of our eyes, the Ada who killed our men in Edonia, that Ada is dead. But she was just a clone created by Derek Simmons to frame Ada for the bioterrorism attacks. Some kind of revenge because he was in love with her in Raccoon City, but she didn't..."

"Hold on a second! That's too fast for me," Chris interrupts me. "So Leon told the truth? Simmons was responsible for the attacks?"

"Yes. Well, he and his Ada doppelganger. Her real name was Carla Radames. Ada told me everything."

"So that's what Leon meant." Chris looks thoughtful, and when I start looking as confused as he feels, he finally continues. "During the first days after China I slowly recovered from my amnesia. Everything was on my mind again. I could remember my sister, and that she used to be with Leon... Somehow I hadn't known that before even though I'd been remembering Leon himself for quite some time. You know I talked to him on the phone shortly after Ada's... no, Carla's death, right?"

I nod.

"I told him Ada was dead," he continues. "When we first met after Lanshiang he blamed me for lying to him to make him stay with my sister... I didn't understand what he meant by that. I didn't even know he and Claire had relationship problems... But it seems like he's been in love with Ada, the real Ada, for a long time..."

"Then he probably met her again after your call, so he knew she wasn't dead, and thought you had only told him that so he believes Claire's competitor is no longer an option," I finish his train of thought. Yes, that makes sense. Sighing, I point at the bed with my head. "Let's sit down. This could take longer."

Arm in arm, we walk towards the bed and I keep on telling him about everything I've learned from Ada. "By the way, Sherry Birkin is innocent too. She was hired by Simmons to find Jake Muller, but her boss made her believe he was going to use his blood to create a C-virus antidote. In reality he wanted to have Jake out of the way so no one could get his blood, and had him and Sherry imprisoned for half a year."

Chris sits down first, but instead of allowing me to sit next to him, he pulls me onto his lap and puts both arms around me again as if he was never going to let me go again.

"Do you know that you owe this to Jake's blood?" He kisses my regenerated right arm. It startles me at first because I haven't been expecting something like this, but I eventually let it happen.

"So I figured," I reply. "Rebecca didn't want to tell me what kind of magic cure it is, and shortly after my admission I was suffering too much to think clearly. But with all that I know today, I did hit on that idea at some point."

I become aware of the irony of this whole situation. Not only that the blood of Jake Muller of all people, whose father was a bioterrorist in life, has cured me of my C-virus infection; it had to be Ada Wong of all people who saved me, one of Chris's men, from the underwater facility after her clone had killed the rest of our team – twice.

Chris rests his head on my chest and holds me tighter again. "Yes, he's Wesker's son. And yes, he's not the nicest guy. But I'm glad he exists. Because without him, you would be..." He stops.

We become silent again for a while. Both of us are still a bit too confused to grasp our situation. Our luck.

"What you did when I was attacked by the monster in the pod kind of reminded me of Wesker's last action," he says suddenly, and I wrinkle my forehead. Chris has never compared me to his ex-boyfriend before.

"While Jill, Sheva and I were flying out of the volcano in the chopper, he raised from the lava one last time, using the last of his strength to try to kill us," he goes on. "He died at it... and broke my heart."

I don't really understand. It's not very flattering either. "And that has to do with me... what exactly?" I cannot completely dispel the anger from my voice.

"You, too, used the last of your strength for me, but not to kill me. You used it to safe me," he explains. "I will never forget that, no matter how many more amnesias I'll have to go through. In all the time that we were separated, the memory of my time with you was the most beautiful one... and the most painful one as well. Because I thought I'd never see you again."

"So you remember everything now?"

"Yes, my whole life. And I'm glad about finally having my memory back. Amazing how you only realize what you had once you've lost it, don't you think?"

I can only agree. I've never taken Chris for granted, not even in the eight months we were together. Yet still, after Edonia I had that oppressive feeling of having lost something before knowing how precious it truly was. The feeling to have it back now is hard to describe.

"I have to talk to you about something really important." The serious tone in Chris's voice makes me nervous when he gets out of our embrace and places his hands on my hips. He looks up to me like he means it.

"What is it?" I ask anxiously.

He gets straight to the point. "I'll get myself a different job and I want you to do the same. We've saved the world from bioterrorism often enough. I don't need another personal tragedy."

I frown. "You're the sole reason I wanted to be part of the BSAA," I admit. Well, that's not the whole truth, but certainly more than half of it.

"You can still be with me even if we don't work together anymore," he promises. "That means... if you're okay with it."

He says the last part at such a low voice that I can hardly understand him. But even when I hear the words, they don't make sense to me.

Chris puts one arm around me again, pushes the other one under my knees and gets up. I cringe and cling to him tightly, but that's not even necessary. He holds me safe, walks a few steps with me and puts me back on the floor a few meters away from the bed. My towel almost slips, but I manage to catch it.

"Stand still," he whispers into my ear and takes a step back. I'm still slightly confused.

He clears his throat meaningfully as if he was preparing for an important speech in front of a large audience. In fact, the audience consists of nobody but me and – I'm sure of it – a few pairs of nosy ears pressing themselves against the door in hopes of overhearing a thing or two.

"I know," he begins, "that I gave you hell during that night in Lanshiang which was already hellish enough in itself. I was vengeful, unnecessarily aggressive and a jerk who couldn't get hold of himself, especially towards you."

"You're only human."

Chris smiles, but shakes his head. "Do not try to protect me from myself. I mean everything I say and I know I deserve it."

A friendly way to say "Shut up and listen to me", and that's just what I'm going to do now.

He continues. "But that will change now. I will no longer be your captain as of now, but I ask you to let me be something else for you." And then, without a warning, he gets down on his knees.

I don't understand at once what that means, but when he looks up to me, reaching for my hand, the sudden realization makes my eyes widen. It's not exactly the right place – whenever I was actually considering something like this in the past, I always imagined it to happen in a place more romantic than a hospital –, but Chris is not a very romantic person anyway, and it's a lovely surprise that he even hits on an idea like this.

"The eight months I was allowed to spend with you were the most beautiful ones in my life since I lost said life to the fight against bioterrorism when I was just as old as you are now." There's no trace of heresy in his voice. It's just like he said; he means everything he says. "I want to revive that time and make sure it never ends again. Piers Nivans..." He takes a break, creating more tension, even though I know exactly what is about to come. "Will you marry me?"

Of course I want to, but when I open my mouth to tell him so, it doesn't work. I'm sure he already feels the way my hand is trembling, sweaty from excitement, and I wish that instead of my words he could hear my heart thundering against my rib cage as if it was about to break through and jump right into his hands. That's where my heart has belonged for a long time anyway: in his hands. And I know it will be in good hands.

"What do you think?" he asks with an insecure smile on his face. I know he doesn't want to urge me, but I can imagine how he feels at this moment. He's afraid I might say no.

"Do you think..." Those are the first hesitant words coming out of me, as if I wasn't sure, but I am. "Do you think I'm the right one for you?"

His smile gets wider and he briefly averts his gaze. "You were ready to sacrifice your life for me even though you could have been saved. You were afraid you might lose control and kill me. So you rejected your chance for rescue. For me. I don't need any bigger token of love, Piers."

I flush. Right, there is something like that in my memory as well...

"But..." I struggle to find the right words to describe my feelings. "It's not that I don't want it, it's... With this virus in my blood. And yes, it's still there and no one knows what consequences it will bring along... Am I even still human?"

Chris gets up and looks into my eyes, not letting go of my hand. It's the right hand, the one on the arm that looked like weed a few days ago. "I don't care what you are. To me, you're a hero. And even if you... develop abilities that aren't normal, or your arm goes on to sparkle like this forever, or you have mood swings like a pregnant woman..." Suddenly he laughs. "You had to bear that from me too in China, didn't you? Are you really afraid you're not good enough for me just because you carry a virus within?"

I nod slightly.

"You're talking to a man who was in love with Albert Wesker," he reminds me. "Wesker was not only a walking biological weapon like the monsters the BSAA is fighting against, he was also my enemy. He wasn't good for me. Actually you should be afraid that I might go crazy someday, not you. But you... You're the best that has ever happened to me."

I'm still speechless, but at least I can smile now, an honest smile, and he reciprocates it. Then I downright jump at him and squeeze him as tightly as I can.

This time it's my tears dripping on his shoulder. But as I said already: Sometimes tears can describe feelings better than words. And if you were just asked by the man of your dreams if you want to marry him, tears can say "yes", too.

~ The End ~