Chapter Text
Hospitalised
——
Vibrating loudly on her wooden bedside table Claire’s phone rang. She was meant to be on vacation from work. It was a blocked number. Shit.
“Hello?” She yawned sitting on her bed sleepily.
“Is this Claire Redfield? You worked the cleanup in raccoon city, China, and other incidents.”
“I wouldn’t call it just clean up but yeah this is Claire. Who’s this?”
“I am not important, it’s the BSAA calling…”
“I already said I’m not interested in working a job for a company that turns into umbrella every 4 years.” Claire snapped. “This better be good!”
“We understand your feelings towards us but we need your expertise. We have a bow. Non aggressive and his infection is abnormal. Our scientists are monitoring it but we need someone with long term experience.”
“When?”
“We can fly you out first thing tomorrow. Rent and everything back home paid for by us.”
Claire paused. ‘Abnormal’ that could mean anything and she couldn’t just leave it. Especially if the former person was in pain. Plus she’d maybe see Chris and that was like finding out you’d won a scratch card.
“Send my tickets ASAP. I’ll leave tomorrow. Just do me a favour, monitor the BOW’s behaviour until I arrive. I mean everything it does.”
“Okay miss Redfield.”
Claire sighed loudly, it was 5 AM. Stupid military bases and their timing. Claire still had another 4 hours to sleep. She’d have to start packing, god she hadn’t even really unpacked yet and now they wanted her again. What was her life? No wonder she never got to raise Sherry, Leon was taken by the government and she well couldn’t fight for custody of a child she barely knew alone.
——
The B.O.W laid on his bed, well if you could call it that. A beeping monitor pinned his heart rate at 160 BPM, too high for what he was doing. Especially when sedated to the high heavens. He hardly could move his arms but it was for the best, after all when he was first brought in he tried to attack one of the scientists. At least that’s what it looked like.
Immediately he had been given a sedative and placed on a high injection of the antiviral inhibitors. They seemed to work well on the soldiers in 2005 so their improved design should be even more effective. It had already positively affected the bow too as his eyes became less milky white and more towards a blue colour. Most of the doctor thought this promising. Imagine one of the most powerful diseases cured by a simple shot. Just one a day. Like insulin or something similar. But what about the brain chemistry? Most of those viruses are at the brain. They wouldn’t know until his virus count plummeted however, he was still very high and very disoriented.
——
It was 9AM when Claire awoke, she quickly jotted down a to do list of jobs before she left.
1. Remove all perishable items from the fridge and throw the bins out.
2. Pack a suitcase for a few weeks. Note they didn’t say how long.
3. Lock all storage closets
4. Catch the airport for 3PM.
Claire ate a bowl of cereal and switched on the TV. There was more news about China and Simmons, Claire groaned just another high ranking official who thinks they can take over the world. Real people were affected by bows not just numbers.
Soon Claire had her suitcase out and an e mail sent to her from an air b&b about a 10 minute drive from the military base. It looked like a decent apartment 5 miles from a wall mart and with a decent kitchen but oddly sterile. White walls, couches, linoleum floors almost hospital like. Hopefully she would be away quickly and not go mad in that apartment.
1PM rolled around and Claire left for the airport. It would be a 2 and a half hour flight and when she got off the plane she would be picked up and brought to the air b&b to talk logistics. The airport was busy, people traveling abroad and within the country Claire waited in the Starbucks for her flight to be called and soon enough it was.
The flight was mostly empty a small government plane with no more than 10 passengers, most decorated soldiers sitting next to full rucksacks. Claire in her red jacket and tee looked out of place, most of the soldiers looked haggard and traumatised. They had seen too much yet somehow still had a future to fear. Claire no longer feared what was too come.
She had seen it all.
——
The B.O.W was awake and lucid. Stalking around the enclosure. It was a test, he checked the entire space thoroughly: looking under the bed, checking the door, trying to burst through the window. Making small pained noises as he observed his space. They’d be medicating him in a minute it seemed to have a positive impact still. He had become more vocal and less territorial, the many doctors and nurses could approach the room now and he would just watch. Cautious optimism moved through the room, imagine a completely cured B.O.W sure he’d likely never completely loose it but he’ll if he could do the occasional mission that would be effectively a miracle.
It was feeding time which meant strapping the B.O.W to a bed and force feeding a disgusting smoothie of familiar foods in hopes one worked for him.
——
Claire’s briefing was thorough. Mostly information she already knew. The c virus is damaging to the brain. Try to keep a physical distance with bows. Then signing a waiver. Suddenly after signing the chief’s face went dark.
“Redfield, what you’re about to see makes very little sense. He is infected and you need to treat him as such.”
Claire nodded, she was used to this. Small innocent children were often victims where she worked and many of her colleagues had been faltered and nearly infected by underestimating them.
“But his brainwaves, they’re oddly standard. Human almost. The amydala and prefrontal cortex remain standard. He seems calm. Truth be told we don’t know how much is him.”
Claire nodded. She’d never seen a brain scan of someone who was infected but she did know that the amygdala became inflamed as aggression increased within infections.
“You have to try to help his recovery. Please.”
Walking through the facility until standing outside of a hospital like room, Claire made a mental note to ask about all the laboratories on the way. She heard Chris’ doubts about the BSAA after the ship carrying the child weapon disappeared. It was too sterile, she was used to hospital tents and treating 5-20 impacted people at once not just one. This was too surreal surely there’d be a better person for the job than her.
Weird the BOW reminded her of something, same hair as an old friend she hadn’t seen last year. Always going on missions.
They locked eyes and she saw it in the striking blue.
“Cl-Aire” he stuttered out.
“LEON.” She near shouted.
This made no sense he was too far gone no way could he speak, what were they doing to cure him? Had they even gotten his consent. She looked to a scientist frantically writing, maybe this had been a one off occasion. Maybe it was to do with the vials in the Medicinal fridge. She had to find out.