Chapter Text
Mia pulled the box from the moving truck and smiled slightly as she looked at their new house. The BSAA could be assholes, but at least they had some semblence of taste when fucking up peoples lives.
The little european house was nestled snugly in a valley. Completely surrounded by thick forest, alive and vibrant in the comfortably warm autumn afternoon. A small town was a quick drive away whose people seemed friendly enough.
They're being smart, Mia thought to herself, close enough to people to survive and isolated enough for… whatever they have planned for us.
She mulled this over as she trudged into the entryway and stopped on the stairs to check what her box was full of before taking it to its proper room. They hadn’t exactly had time to meticulously label their belongings before being shipped off to wherever they were. Somewhere in Romania, judging by the townspeople. Another good choice; isolation through language barrier.
Mia’s frown deepened as she thumbed through old files of her work, preparing to take them upstairs to her new office.
“Something wrong, Mia?”
Mia looked up, startled out of her thoughts. Ethan looked at her, mildly worried and holding a moving box of his own.
“Yeah I’m good, just overthinking things I guess”.
Ethan shrugged. “Fair enough. After all of this I think we both could use some time to process,” he smiled “hey could you check this box for me? I forgot to look before I got it out of the truck.”
Mia smiled back and stood, leaving her box at her feet. She should focus on other things. There was no use thinking about what the BSAA had done, there was no changing that. She needed to think of her husband. Her wonderful, supportive husband who somehow had managed to forgive her for lying to him about her job for years. Who had forgiven her for what had happened down in Lou-
For what had happened.
Things were going to be alright. They had been through hell and back together. They could get through this. Things would be fine.
She opened the box and her mind went blank.
It was an engine block.
When they were on their honeymoon their car was parked in the cramped lot of a nice restaurant. Some other cars' brakes went while they were going too fast and the whole thing rolled over. They kept the engine block from the totaled car as a ‘conversation starter’ after cleaning it up. It had taken them a while to lug it into the living room of their previous house. It was stupid, but it was fun.
But this didn't really matter.
What really mattered was the fact that an engine block weighed around 200 lbs.
And Ethan Winters was holding it like it was nothing.
“Mia?” The box lid was leaning on Ethans face, obscuring his view. He was trying to blow it away.
“It's a present I didn't get the chance to give you.”
Oh god things were not fine.
“Don't look! I want to surprise you later!” She said, making her voice sound cheerful. After years of hiding what she did for a living she ought to know how to lie.
“Just put it in the garage for now” She smiled. She didn't even know why she was lying. It just happened. Things were not fine.
She shut the box
“Yes mam,” Ethan said back with a slight laugh. He walked back outside and presumably headed for the garage, with a spring in his step.
Mia kept her mind blank as she picked up her file box and walked up the stairs to her office. She set the files on her desk, put her back to the wall and promptly curled up into a ball on the floor.
Be logical. She stifled a sob, crying isn't going to figure this out. Ethan was nowhere near strong enough before the three years they were apart to pick up that block. Chris ‘I punch boulders’ Redfield hadn't been able to pick up that block by himself. Ethan could have gotten stronger while she was… indisposed.
He’s infected, a small voice whispered, he’s going to turn into a monster.
She shut that thought down quick. She had to slow down and think about this logically.
Ethan was fine, the BSAA said as much. Also, she could be wrong about the engine block weight, and maybe Chris wasn't that strong, and maybe in the span of three years Ethan really had gotten strong enough to lift that lesser than thought weight.
So many ‘ands’ she couldn't really know could she? Silly to jump to conclusions. She definitely wasn't going to look it up either. Yes, she was almost certain now that she was wrong, there wasn't a need to check.
The point was that her paranoid brain had been rambling, she overreacted. Mia wiped a tear away and gave a little laugh. No one could really blame her for overreacting could they? Not after everything.
The point was things were ok, and Ethan was the same as always. Albeit, maybe a bit stronger. And things were going fine.
Things were going to be fine.