Chapter 89: Old Flame

Rick had left Angela in the armory to familiarize herself with what kind of weapons she wanted to use on a regular basis. To his surprise he had convinced her of the superiority of the .45ACP over the 9mm against Zombies. While the 9mm was better against humans with its penetration and made less of a mess, the .45 caliber did more damage on impact. As such a zombie taking a headshot to the head from the former had chances of still being alive and going on while the latter more assuredly killed it. That was the only reason he was going with the .45 otherwise he too would use a 9mm. For the capacity mainly.

After telling her that she was free to do whatever she wanted until after lunch, because he had a checkup to do in the meantime, he took the elevator to the medical floor. Along the way he got more nods and smiles from the people he came across. One even thanked him in passing.

‘God, I hope they stop soon, it’s fucking creepy.’

Reaching the correct lab didn’t take long. When Rick stood in front of the door it opened on its own. Why that floor was equipped with automated doors and not the others was beyond him but it wasn’t up to him to question why things were in a certain manner.

Stepping inside the lab he felt something bumped into his chest and followed by a soft thud, as if something light had fallen onto the ground. Blinking, he looked down to see none other than Rebecca Chambers on her ass, rubbing her forehead with a cute frown on her face and paper scattered all around her.

‘Great the one person I wanted to avoid, bumps into me. Again.’

Inwardly sighing, Rick crouched down and offered a hand to Rebecca. She looked at it for a second and grabbed it. This resulted in her being pulled up effortlessly on her feet. Because of the height difference between the two, he was still on his knees and he picked up her documents to make one neat stack which he handed her in silence.

“Thank you.” She whispered, not daring looking up at him. However, as if she gathered her courage, she cleared her throat and thanked him louder, at proper volume level for a normal conversation with someone.

Rick gave her a simple nod and stepped aside to let her go through the door. As far as he was concerned, their interaction was over and done and they could both go back to what they were doing. Rebecca wasn’t of the same mind unfortunately for him.

This time she looked way up at him. “Sorry for bumping into you.”

This time, feeling it would be a bad move to simply nod and stay silent, he spoke. “That’s alright. It happens.”

An awkward silence followed that short exchange. Rebecca didn’t move a single inch instead of stepping out and going on her way. She began to fidget and with the tone of someone embarrassed, a bit hurried and louder than usual, broke the moment.

“You’re here for your check-up?”

“I a—”

She didn’t let him finish and kept talking, caught up in her momentum. “About time! You should have done one when you joined the BSAA and one every six months! Then there is the mandatory one you should have done after the Harvardville outbreak,” She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him inside the lab. Her change in attitude was so surreal to Rick that he made no movement to go against her. “Granted, the director immediately sent you to Italy to deal with the Queen Zenobia, but you should have done one on your return! Jill did!”

She reached a work table and put the stack of paper on it amidst microscopes and other equipment she used for her job.

“Bec—”

Once again he was interrupted. “You need a full one since there is absolutely no data and—”

“Rebecca.”

His voice, while not loud, was firm and full of authority. The former STARS immediately stopped talking on the spot, as if she had reacted on instinct at the tone of voice, like an adult scolding a child. A funny thing since she was thirteen months older than he was.

“Annette will do my checkup.”

Her eyebrows moved down into a frown, while her eyes, still fixed on his, narrowed.

“I’m perfectly capable and accredited to—”

“I know.” That brought her to another stop. This time however, he didn’t let her speak and continued. “I’m uncomfortable with checkups or anything medical related for a start and will be even more uncomfortable if you’re the one doing it.”

Rebecca’s reaction was immediate. She let go of his wrist as if it had burned her hand. Rick didn’t miss the hurt in her eyes and felt sorry for being the reason as to why it was there to begin with. She hadn’t said her last word however.

“Rick, it’s been eight years. Don’t you think it’s way too long to—”

He raised his hand to quiet her down. “I don’t hold a grudge, Becca. I never did.”

“Then why…”

“I’m embarrassed.” His confession was only half of the truth. Yes, he was embarrassed to be almost naked in a room with her while she examined his body fully but he also didn’t want her to discover what he was. “There will never be a day when I’m not embarrassed by the naivety I displayed back then. I probably will be able to handle my reaction to it better one day but that day is not today.”

Her facial expression didn’t change one bit from his confession. “So you’d prefer a total stranger to examine you than me?”

“Annette is not a stranger. I’ve known her and her daughter for years. I was the one who recommended her to O’Brian.”

It was apparently the wrong thing to say because Rebecca took a step back as if she’d been slapped. If there was one thing that she was, it was smart. She got her bachelor at 18 after all. It was easy for her to understand Rick’s machination.

Annette sudden recruitment, happening so fast and so soon after her own but most importantly after Rick was scheduled for a mandatory checkup, then him effing off to his vacations and only coming back after Annette had already started.

It all made clear sense to her. Rick had done his best to not have to interact with her. It hurt. A lot. Rick and her had been getting along very well back then. Her survival of the Umbrella training facility was partly thanks to him and they had developed a strong friendship over that night. Strong enough that when they made it to Spencer Mansion, she had made the first move and they slept together.

True, Rebecca hadn’t wanted a relationship, only comfort and sexual release as a coping mechanism. She had let him down gently after the whole ordeal and he had taken it well from what she remembered although she felt a bit guilty as it had sounded as if she had used him which was the case a bit. Still, she always believed they were alright. Maybe not tight friends but far more than acquaintances.

The one time she bumped into him a few years ago at Princeton had been awkward but she was glad to see him again. Unfortunately she was in a hurry, already being late and had scurried away. She had been surprised to see him as a student but thought they could catch up later. The disappointment was real when she learned he had special circumstances and was only present on campus for end of term exams. The opportunity of having someone, who went through the exact same horror she did, near had been a secret longing she had that couldn’t be achieved then.

Now that she was in the BSAA and knowing Rick was working there as a field agent, she had hoped once again they could rekindle their friendship. Apparently she was wrong. To her, it was clear they hadn’t parted ways on as good terms as she thought they did.

The hurt she currently felt, was replaced by sadness then replaced by anger.

Rebecca turned around, picked up her stack of papers and made her way outside with a huff. She gave him some parting words in a clipped tone. “Annette is on a break, she'll be back soon.”

The door opened and she bumped into her new colleague. This time, she didn’t fall on her ass. Annette’s 5’ 5” and her lithe frame was nothing compared to Rick’s 6' 5” and brick build, that is why the results were different.

“Sorry.” Rebecca said, pushing through the door and not looking back.

Annette looked at her departing back then turned to Rick for an explanation with a neutral face that meant she didn’t really care if she had it or not. He shrugged his shoulders.

“She didn’t take well that you are the one doing my checkup,” was the only thing he said.

With nothing to say to that, and her care dropping to zero, Annette fully entered the room and went straight to put some medical gloves on while at the same time giving orders.

“First things first, strip.”

The corner of his Rick’s mouth turned up and he obeyed. Right there.

Annette rolled her eyes when she saw what he was doing. “In that room.” Her finger pointed at a door. “We’re not doing this in the lab when everyone could walk in.”

Bare chested, he carried his clothes to the other room, the brunette following him. To his surprise, the place was rather spacious. There was a desk, a chair, a medical instrument, from a stethoscope to needles to take samples or inject things. There was a medical bed, the king that was uncomfortable and could fold. His clothes ended on it. After removing his boots, socks and pants, Rick was left in his underwear, sitting on the way too thin mattress.

Annette, sitting on a stool, rolled to his side a box of tubes and a needle in it. She put a garrote on his left arm to cut the blood flow and let it build. She tapped the inside of Rick's elbow a few times searching for a vein. It swelled obligingly under the pressure of the tourniquet, a faint blue line rising against his pale skin. She swabbed the area with an alcohol pad, the scent cutting through the sterile air of the room, then uncapped the needle with a practiced flick.

She instructed him to hold still, not looking up from her work. The needle slid in with barely a prick smooth, expert and Rick watched as dark red blood began to fill the first vial she attached. She swapped it out for a second, then a third, her movements well practiced. It wasn’t a surprise, it was her job and she had done this a thousand times before.

Once done, she stood up and put the vials on the desk. Turning around, she walked to Rick and handed him two empty transparent containers in silence. Rick looked at them in his hand, then backed up at her.

“What am I supposed to do with those?” Rick knew perfectly well. Dr. Hunt had given him plenty of them to fill over the five years in the Unit. Urine and sperm. He wasn’t about to let Annette go through all this without being messed with.

She spoke with her usual no nonsense voice. The logical and pragmatic one he appreciated and respected in general. “Urine and sperm. You can draw the curtain for some privacy for the latter, or you can do it in the restroom over there for both.”

With nothing else to say, she went back to the desk and began to put labels on the vials containing his blood paying no more attention to him. As she began writing on a form on a clipboard, her phone inside her breast pocket vibrated.

Annette picked it up and saw it was a text message from Sherry.

MOM! You have one chance to explain this! 😡

Right after it came a picture of Rick in his underwear, Annette very visible behind him. There was a caption. “Your mom told me to strip and to give her my sperm. Not the best pick up line but not the worst I got. Wish you were here, we’d have more fun.”

Annette closed her eyes and took a very deep breath. Of all the boys and men her daughter could have crushed on, it ended up being Rick Wald. Now there was nothing wrong with the man in her opinion. He was handsome, he was smart, he was strong. His logical and pragmatic mind was very endearing and dare she think: sexy. She understood why Sherry had chosen him and had many things been different she would have, perhaps, had a go at the young man herself.

Unfortunately, Rick was absolutely shameless. Not only that but bluntly shameless. And that drove her mad. Right now, she was of the mind to go inside the restroom and either stab him to death with a needle or strangle him with a tourniquet.

‘That would teach him to purposefully get a rise out of Sherry and create trouble for me.’

Another part of her mind however, went into a dangerous territory. She still remembered his bold declarations about her being a knockout, having no problem with sleeping with her, a possible mother-daughter threesome and more importantly, the smell of the hotel room she had fetched him back in late November. Yes, Annette wouldn’t mind being on her back and Rick thrusting into her with what she knew to be a very nice and fat tool, with super stamina.

She may be a widow, she may be a mother and a scientist focused on her work but she was also a woman and the woman she was had not had any proper action with a man ever since her asshole of a husband prefered touching himself in front of his horrific creation than doing his husbandly duties. That had been more than a decade ago.

Unfortunately for her, the one man who interested her, was also the one man her daughter was interested in too. Her love for her daughter, however, was more important than her physical and sexual needs and sleeping with Rick was a line she wouldn’t cross. She couldn’t lose Sherry, no matter what because she would be left with nothing.

Her musing was interrupted by another text message.

You want him? Fine! But me first! You can have him any time you want afterwards! 😠

Anette blinked. Slowly. For a moment, she believed she had read it wrong. That the emotional part of her brain had taken over and made her see things incorrectly. That’s why she read it again to have the real message. Her jaw dropped silently in a comical manner when she realized that it was the real message.

Sherry?!

I’m just doing his checkup. Nothing inappropriate is happening!

Don’t give me that, mom.😑 I caught you looking at his ass a few times and don’t you dare deny it .

I’m not interested in him!

Annette was in panic now. She didn’t even know why.

Right.🙄

I won’t be mad, mom. It’s about time you think about yourself and your own happiness. I’m living my life and you can’t keep on putting aside your wants and needs for me now that I’m gone.🥺

If you want Rick, I won’t be mad about it as I said but only after I get him first.

Sherry, I’m not going to sleep with the man you’re interested in.

It’s not like I’m going to get him, mom.😮‍💨There is no dating or marriage down the line because he’s still in love with Claire.😞 But I can still have fun and so can you, especially since he’s open to it. And that’s enough for me.☺️

You deserved better.

Life is not about what we deserve, it's about what we get. With my job, a serious relationship is impossible, so I’ll get the next best thing and that’s Rick. I know what I’m getting myself into with him and so do you.

Annette felt incredibly sad at the reading of that last message. Her daughter was on her way to leave her teens and become a real adult and she was already so mature for her age. Far more than the average young woman. With resignation, she worded her own message.

Whether or not anything happened between him and me,

albeit unlikely in the latter case, I promise it wouldn’t be before you get your chance.

Good! Send me pictures!🥺 Love you! 😘🥰❤️

A sigh escaped Annette’s lips. She missed her innocent little girl but she only had herself and William to blame for her disparition. Putting her phone back into the breast pocket of her lab coat, she jolted when she heard Rick’s voice.

Turning around she saw his head popped from the ajar door of the restroom.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear.”

“I said: do you have another container or a bigger one? T For the sperm sample.”

Annette looked at his stoic face with a deadpan expression. Inwardly, she screamed in frustration.