Chapter Text
He was alive.
Dammit he was alive.
He and his baby.
Bloodied and raw and shoeless and exhausted. But Christ on a cracker he was still alive. Four walls of solid steel surrounded him. A human-sized autoclave that could blast him with disinfectant at any time. All while the scientists on the other side of the solid steel did whatever the fuck they were doing. They gave him a dose, then quickly set to making as many samples as possible before the helicopter arrived.
He’d live, he’d go back home and do whatever the fuck he could. Go back to chores and takeout and trying to make a life for himself and the little stowaway he’d known about for all of two hours He’d quit his job for fucks sake, take a long ass vacation and sit his ass down for a month. An extra-extra long paternity leave was just what he-
“-eep!”
Pain. Coming right from the side of his body. He grabbed at his hips and groaned. Riding out the pain before the realization hit him.
“No…nonononono-please please-“
He shouldn't have been this upset. This attached. Not when he was thankful enough to have his own life. Hell, if his high school science class was enough, this thing was barely alive. Just a clump of cells inside-
“Ough-“
A dull throb. An intense pain settling somewhere beneath his lungs. Rapid and quickening. He clutched at his sweater and pried his eyes shut.
“C’mon buddy you’ll stick it out…c’mon pal you’re gonna be ok” he gave his belly a few reassuring pats “you made it this far. You’re not gonna give out on me right-“
He looked down at his legs, looking for some sign of what was unfolding, only to remember he was already coated in blood.
“ah dammit-”
Just as the last syllable left his mouth. The pain intensified. Hard, sharp, like a bed of needles pressed into his back. Sending him to the iron floor in a nervous heap. He felt something twisting, curling, folding inside him. Pressing against every bit of his organs.
“This can’t be normal this can’t be normal please please god.”
He’d ask the super smart guys behind the door, but to be fair they were making a cure for the whole infected city shit. One dudes dead embryo was way way down on their list of priorities.
That was the last logical thought Bryan would have for the time being. Just as his organs were being crushed to oblivion by fuck knows what, his mind too was running on fumes. With shaking hands he tried to take off his top, hoping he’d gather some answers from there, only to see what lay beneath.
Well, the bite was gone. Just a faint mark and a bit of bleeding. Hell, the needle prick site hurt more. But it seemed his body wasn't out of the woods yet. His shirt had become tighter, seeing a noticeable growth beneath his body. Somehow he’d gone from barely detectable on a pregnancy test, to 6 months along. Bruises blossoming across the surface, the skin feeling as if it could tear at any moment.
“Fuck.”
He slammed his hand onto the floor.
“Fuck fuck fuck..” Bryan grabbed at his face “I’m havin’ this baby…mother of fuck…”
A strong ache stopped his words. Pressure taking over his form. A slow, creeping ache which pulsed downwards. He could feel each agonizing movement. The head pressing down on his cervix, the legs kicking against his abused lungs. Just as he’d done with his shirt, he discarded his pants. Bracing his body for the inevitable.
“Come on come on just stay in kid-“ He gasped “-give your old man some time…please please…I’ll get you an Xbox I’ll get you a pony just please wait until I can-“
He could barely parse what was going on. The pain was heavy. A twenty pound weight sitting in his pelvis. Fighting to get out. Fighting against him. His body screamed at him to push, but the living thing didn't care, it just wanted out.
“Donthurtmedonthurtme-“ He yelled “don’t hurt your papa don’t hurt your-ngh!”
His body lay hunched over. Hands clutching his hair as each fibre of his being forced him to push. Every inch of him felt like it was being electrocuted. Straining and straining. A nervous hand moved between his legs, met with the sensation of life very eagerly trying to force its way out. Far more powerful than a newborn should. He’d remembered hearing about the ring of fire once. And fuck, that was an understatement.
“C’mon kid…c’mon
Something came loose. Something writhing, pulsing was ejected from him. Followed by a gush of blood and fluid from his core. Landing beneath his body as he caught them. All higher function was gone. So was most of his eyesight. Losing god knows how much blood does that to you. His arms mindlessly reaching for them. His baby. His baby was here. Alive and moving and breathing.
He dragged the strange little body against his chest, nearly dropping her when his fingers failed to cooperate. He caught her again and held her tighter, panting through the effort.
“Gotcha” His eyes fluttered “Papa’s gotcha.”
The newborn squirmed violently against him. Stubby arms and tentacles writhing all over the place.
“Shh… shh, shh, it's okay.”
A distorted cry came from her. Bryan froze for half a second, before his face broke into the faintest, most exhausted smile.
“I hear ya.”
She cried again, the sound wet and warped, almost unrecognizable as a human infant's voice.
“I know. I know, sweetheart.”
He lifted her up closer to his chest. Trying to get a better look at her through the haze behind his eyes.
“Easy baby…papas here.”
If anyone else could see them, they’d know immediately that the child was monstrous. Moving and writhing like something from the deep ocean. Its head split, swollen, pulsing with unknown strength. Eyes like foggy marbles, uneven and unfocused. Its neck near indistinguishable from its shoulders. A cluster of tentacles curled around a set of stubby limbs, wrapped around its body like veins around a heart.
Yet…Bryan held them with the tenderness a father showed his child. Because mutant or not, it was his. Even if its cry was warped and distorted, it was still that of a child new to the world. With his free hand, he reached for the nearest bit of clothing and covered them with it. Trying to warm them up in the cold, sterile room. Rubbing their back as he rested his chin on their head. An exhausted sigh escaped his lips.
“Hey it’s ok, see? All toasty warm” he kissed the creatures bald head "didn't think you’d be here so quickly…god I don’t even have a name.”
He wiped a bit of god knows what from its head. Running his blood-soaked hands across its cheeks. Checking its body for injuries or any sign of harm. He couldn't make out much in the way of human anatomy, so everything was guesswork.
“-girl!” He laughed at the realization “oh my little girl oh you’re so precious-“
Honestly, if he wasn't actively dying he would have said something better at that realization. Delerium makes thinking hard. But shame on him for wanting to be a girl dad. Bryan peppered little kisses across her head. Nuzzling and doting on her. Pats of reassurance and affection as her tentacles wormed their way around his hand.
“Well, hello.”
One of the tiny appendages wrapped around his finger. He gave it the gentlest squeeze.
“Look at you…god what a sweet little thing” his fingers traced her enlarged skull “what a big brain, I've got a smart little baby….”
He felt their tentacle curl around his thumb. Squeezing tightly as if begging him to stay. That alone made Bryan sob. Curling around his baby, pressing her against his chest.
“I’m not going anywhere….nope, I’m staying right here.”
A loud clang. The sound of the metal door opening, the roar of a helicopter above, and a whole mess of indistinct chatter. The same man who had led him through the door now stood looking down at Bryan and his new addition, staring with terrified eyes. A figure behind him raised a pistol, and Bryan retaliated.
“She’s ok she’s ok!” Bryan held up a hand “p-please, don’t hurt her.”
The armed man turned to the scientist “is this the one you said got the cure?”
Bryan nodded feverishly “please I-I’m fine she’s fine please don’t hurt her.”
“It doesn't fucking matter” he ran to Bryan’s side and grabbed his arm, ignoring both the child and the fact he wore nothing more than his birthday suit “we’ll figure it out at base. J-just get him to the damn chopper.”
Bryan was hardly conscious. Limping from the autoclave to the lab, up the small flight of stairs to the waiting helicopters above. Being dragged along by the scientist The winter cold would have frozen him in place, but if anything, it felt nice on his poor abused body.
“Jesus fucking christ what happened to him!” Some unknown voice asked from inside the chopper “-I-isthat thing infected?!”
Bryan collapsed into one of the seats. Being swiftly buckled in by the scientist, fighting with the belt as he spoke “look, this man is the reason we even have a cure. The creature seems harmless, let’s just get the hell out of dodge.”
The gunman laughed, shaking his head as he lowered his pistol “god, the scientists at base are gonna have a field day with the two of you.”
So, with some convincing, the chopper took off. Bryan struggled to keep his eyes open, to see a glimpse of the city beneath him, but his body rebelled. Sending him into slumber whether he wanted to or not.
———
“…sir, sir can you hear me?”
Oh he was somewhere else now. No longer in the helicopter, being wheeled in on a stretcher with baby in tow. One moment he was outside, rolling on some kind of road, the next moment he was in the bright sterility of a medical facility. The nurse pulling the stretcher looked back at him.
“Sir, what is your name.”
“Bryan..” he said, gesturing to the creature in his arms “n’this is…fuck I don’t knowwww.”
“Where did they come from.”
“Mhpussy…” his voice was unclear and jumbled “don’t tell ‘m they’ll g’weird..”
The stretcher was pulled into an empty room. Only then did he realize he had a whole crowd of doctors and labcoat people around him. Sharing shock and awe.. Bryan felt the prick of a needle in his arm. The tightening of bandages wrapped around all the scuffs and scratches he’d sustained. Bryan couldn't make out most of what they were saying.Their voices blended together beneath the hum of fluorescent lights and medical equipment. One of the taller labcoat folks thrust themselves into his face.
“Look at the morphology…”
“Extraordinary…”
“Is that—”
“Don't touch it yet.”
Something cold pierced Bryan's arm. He flinched. A needle and a much needed bloodbag.
Hands moved over him, wrapping bandages around the cuts and abrasions scattered across his body. Someone examined his ribs. Someone else checked his pupils. Another person pressed fingers against his neck. Bryan tolerated all of it without complaint. His eyes never leaving his daughter. One of the taller scientists stepped into his field of vision and crouched beside the stretcher.
“Sir.” They spoke “Is the creature hurting you?”
Bryan frowned. “N-no.” He shifted her slightly higher against his chest “H..pain to get out, though…” He groaned and looked around the room “y’guys got any Advil?”
Nobody laughed.
Another voice spoke from somewhere behind him “It isn't attacking us. If it had an active infection, we'd all be goners by now.”
Bryan barely registered the words. Lucidity only came when he felt hands approaching his daughter. His entire body tensed.
“No.”
The gloved hands stopped. Bryan pulled her against himself.
“Fuck off.” His voice cracked through the room “Don't touch her.”
Nobody spoke up. The child stirred in his arms. Bryan immediately softened.
“Hey…” He looked down at her. “Hey, hey. It’s alright.”
Her strange eyes drifted toward him, unfocused and glassy, while her tentacles curled tighter around his arms. She seemed utterly unconcerned by the crowd surrounding them. Bryan smiled weakly.
“That's it” His palm moved slowly over her back “You're bein’ so brave, papas strong little girl. Isn't that right” He kissed her head “Daddy's here.”
Someone in the room looked sharply toward him “Daddy? What the fuck-“
Bryan didn't hear them. He was too busy staring at her. Behind him, a voice spoke.
“Sedate him.”
Bryan's head lifted “What?”
“Get him intubated. Take tissue samples wherever possible.”
“And the creature?” Someone else asked
“Take it for examination.”
Bryan's face changed “No.”
A nurse approached with a syringe.
“No” He pulled his daughter tighter against his chest “No, no, no.”
“Sir-“
“Don't touch her don’t fucking touch her!”
The nurse moved closer. Bryan swung at her. His arm barely made it halfway before giving out. His knuckles brushed her sleeve in a weak, almost pathetic tap. He tried again. Nothing.
The needle entered his arm. Cold spread beneath his skin. His breath caught.
“No…”
The room began to blur. The lights stretched into pale streaks above him. The voices became muffled, distant things, and his limbs grew heavier by the second. He tried to fight it. Tried to sit up. Tried to pull his daughter closer.
“She's…” His eyes struggled to focus. “She's mine…”
His hand slipped from around her. He reached for her again. Feeling the appendages grasping onto him.
“Don't…” His fingers brushed her tiny body “T-take…”
His eyelids closed.
“My little girl…”
The last thing Bryan felt was the warmth of her against his chest.Then even that disappeared.
———
“So, we’re a nursery now?”
Leon Kennedy stood behind the observation glass, staring into what had once been a sterile containment chamber and had somehow, over the course of two days, become a makeshift pediatric ward. A plastic crib sat in the center of the room, its reinforced sides padded with gauze, the infant inside secured by loose restraints around its wrists and ankles. The precautions looked excessive. The child had shown no inclination to fight, barely moving except when one of the technicians came too close.
The rest of the room was anything but still. Researchers moved between tables crowded with labeled blood vials, specimen containers, x-rays, photographs, and hastily scribbled observations. Cameras clicked whenever the baby shifted. Someone was recording its breathing. Someone else was taking its temperature for what was probably the sixth time that hour.
“Mister Kennedy,” the doctor beside him said, “it is in the government's best interest to keep the creature alive.”
Leon watched as a technician crouched beside the crib and fed the infant milk from a squeeze bottle. It drank with the placid indifference of a normal baby, which somehow made the entire scene more disturbing.
“I know, I know,” Leon muttered. “How’s the courier?”
“He's stable. He's been unconscious for two days. We induced the coma to give his body time to recover from the trauma and systemic damage. His vital signs have continued to improve, and barring complications, he should make a full recovery.”
“And the baby?”
The doctor's expression changed “That is considerably more interesting.”
Leon gave him a weary look. “That's usually a bad thing to hear from a doctor.”
The man opened his notebook. “The child does not have an active infection. We've confirmed that several times. There is no measurable viral replication, no progression of the disease, and no evidence that it poses an immediate infectious threat. All samples have come back clear.”
“Then what's wrong with it?”
“Nothing, strictly speaking.”
Leon looked through the glass again.
The doctor continued. “Its body simply retains physical characteristics associated with the virus” He pointed toward the sonogram pinned against the far wall “The virus crossed the placenta during gestation. We believe it accelerated embryonic development and altered the child's physiology while the organs were still forming. The mutations weren't acquired after birth as we initially thought. They were incorporated into the child's development. Rapidly accelerating tissue growth of the embryos cells.”
Leon stared at the infant “So the virus rewrote it before it was even born.”
“That's the simplest way to put it.”
“And the cure?”
“It eliminated the infection. It stopped further mutation and growth” The doctor closed his notebook halfway “It could not reverse what had already developed.”
“So they're stuck like this?”
“For the foreseeable future.”
Leon hummed.
The child had finished feeding and was now staring at the technician standing over the crib. Its eyes followed him with an attentiveness that Leon found more unsettling than any physical mutation.
“And you're sure it's healthy?”
“As healthy as it can be, given the circumstances. Its organs are functioning normally. Its metabolism is unusual, but stable. It's feeding properly. It's responding to stimuli. It even has all the newborn reflexes one would expect from a healthy child-“
“Then why all this?” Leon gestured toward the room.
“The courier requested that the child be kept alive.”
Leon turned toward him “He did?”
“He was barely conscious when they brought him in, but he was coherent enough to make the request” The doctor's voice lost some of its clinical detachment “Hoducavich is the reason we’re all alive. He’s the reason the cure was completed. The least we can do is keep the child alive. Mutated or not, that’s his child.”
Leon looked back through the glass “alrighty. I'll talk to him when he's awake.”
He turned toward the door, then stopped “Wait.”
The doctor looked up. Leon pointed toward the containment room.
“Did the virus give him a womb?”
“No, sir, He's transgender.”
There was a brief silence. Leon tilted his head “The hell does that mean?”
“He was born female and later transitioned to male through medical intervention.”
Leon stared at him.
“You can just do that?”
“Yes.”
Leon looked toward the middle distance, visibly filing the information away alongside everything else that he had learned over the past several days.
“Huh. The more you know.”
—-
Bryan woke slowly, dragged toward consciousness by the ache of his own body.
For several seconds he kept his eyes closed. He was warm beneath a thin hospital blanket, but the rest of him felt cold and distant, as though his body belonged to someone else. Something tugged whenever he moved his arm. When he finally opened his eyes, he found the source: tubes taped into the crook of his elbow, IV lines disappearing upward into a spaghetti-mess of bags and tubing suspended above the bed.
A heart monitor clicked steadily beside him. The knot of his hospital gown dug into the back of his neck. His throat felt raw, his tongue thick and dry. He stared at the ceiling, trying to make sense of the room.
Hospital. That was good! Hospital meant he had survived! Yay him!
His memory came back in broken fragments: headlights cutting through snow, the road beneath his tires, the woman, the screaming, the thing chasing them, the gunfire. Then the baby-
His eyes opened fully.
The baby.
His baby.
He tried to sit up. Pain tore through his chest and forced the breath from his lungs. He collapsed against the pillow, gasping.
“Easy cowboy.”
Bryan froze. He hadn't noticed the other person in the room. A blond man sat beside the bed. He held a police badge between two fingers, extending it toward Bryan with the casualness of someone introducing himself at a traffic stop rather than a hospital room.
“Leon Kennedy. Raccoon City Police Department.”
Bryan stared at the badge without understanding the words. Kennedy lowered it.
“I've heard you've got quite a story to tell.”
Bryan's mind struggled to catch up “Where is she?”
Leon paused “Bryan-”
“Where is my baby?”
He tried to sit up again. Leon immediately caught him by the shoulder and eased him back.
“Don't.”
“Where is she?!” His eyes darted around the room “where is she!”
“She’s alive” Leon kept his hands on the man’s shoulders “she’s being kept under observation.”
“Please let me see her please please please-“ Bryan grabbed his arms “-she must be so scared I don’t want her to die please-“
“-hey hey don’t worry bud” Leon stood up “here, I’ll go to the nursery and check with the scientists, just stay in bed, doctors orders.”
Bryan let out a pathetic whine. Before begrudgingly sitting back in bed. Refusing to even look Leon in the eyes.
“Mmmgh.”
Without a clock in his room, time felt agonizingly slow. There was nothing to mark its passing except the muted sounds beyond the door—the squeak of rubber soles, the occasional murmur of nurses, the steady electronic beeping beside his bed. Someone had brought him a plate of food at some point, which was nice, but his appetite had never really returned. He managed the Jell-O and a few bites of pasty mashed potatoes, enough to settle the worst of the hunger pains, and left the rest untouched.
None of it mattered once Leon returned.
Bryan heard the squeak of the cart before he saw him. Leon appeared in the doorway, pulling along a plastic bin secured to a little wheeled cart, blankets folded inside it to make something resembling a bassinet. He looked down at the occupant, then back at Bryan.
“Hope I got the right one,” Leon quipped. He leaned over the bin, squinting “…Heh. Jeeze. You’re ugly.”
Bryan's head snapped toward him. For half a second, he simply stared. Then he saw her.
A broken, strangled sound escaped his throat, and he was moving before he'd even realized he'd decided to move. He shot upright, reaching toward her as the gauze restraints around her wrists strained and tore.
“B-baby!” He nearly fell out of the bed in his haste “Baby-!-oh my God. Oh my God, you're here.”
He pulled her against his chest, holding her with both arms, his hands trembling so badly that he had to readjust his grip twice.
“You’re here,” he whispered. “You're actually here.” His eyes squeezed shut. “You’re safe. You’re safe, okay? Daddy’s here” His voice cracked “I’m here, bub. I’m right here.”
He pressed his cheek against her tiny head, breathing shakily “I’ve got you. I've got you, baby. I’ve got you.” A sob caught in his throat.
“I’m not leaving you. Do you hear me? I’m not going anywhere. Not anymore” He looked upward, tears slipping down his face. “No, no, I’m not. I promise. I promise I'm not leaving you again.”
Leon said nothing. Bryan barely seemed aware that he was there. His entire world had narrowed to the tiny creature in his arms. The little tentacles had already begun curling around him, wrapping themselves around his forearms and tightening whenever he shifted, and Bryan only laughed softly through his tears.
“Look at you,” he whispered. “Look at you, my girl” He carefully touched one of the tentacles with his fingertip “Oh, you’ve got a good grip, huh?”
His smile trembled “Yeah. I know. I know, baby. You don't have to hold on so tight. Daddy's not going anywhere.”
He kissed her forehead “You scared me, you know that?” Another shaky laugh escaped his lips “You really scared me.”
He looked over every inch of her now, and because the blood he'd lost had been replaced and he'd finally had several uninterrupted hours of sleep, there was no longer any haze between him and what he was seeing. Her fingers were tiny and underdeveloped, some fused together, yet they had curled into the fabric of his gown and refused to let go. Her eyes were uneven, her face asymmetrical, the cleft in her palate extending far higher than any ordinary newborn's. Her tongue and gums visible even when closed. The tentacles were unmistakably reminiscent of the appendages he'd seen twisting through the bodies of the infected, only smaller, softer, and impossibly delicate.
Bryan stared at them. Then he smiled “Well, aren’t you something?”
He gently ran his palm over the top of her head, feeling the faintest peach fuzz beneath his fingertips “Oh, look at that” His expression softened “You got hair.” He chuckled under his breath. He rubbed his thumb gently over her scalp. Bryan paused, studying her face “You're beautiful.”
The words came without hesitation “So beautiful” He kissed her cheek “I don't care what anybody says. You hear me? I don't care. They all think if you as a monster but the only thing you are is my precious baby.”
His voice grew firmer “You're my baby. That's all you gotta be” He looked down at her fused little fingers, holding her hand with his thumb “You don't have to look like anybody else.”
Leon watched him carefully from beside the bed. He'd expected the clarity to change something. When Bryan had first seen her, he'd been half-conscious, delirious with blood loss and exhaustion. Now he was fully awake. He could see every mutation, every alteration the infection had made. There was no hiding any of it from him.
But Bryan didn't recoil. If anything, his expression became softer.
“You know what?” he murmured to her. “I think you're gonna be such a little troublemaker, just like your papa when I was little” One of the tentacles tightened around his wrist. He laughed.
“Yeah. See? Look at that” He raised his arm slightly “Already showing me how strong you are!”
For several seconds, the only sound in the room was Bryan breathing. Then Leon finally pulled a chair over and sat beside the bed.
“So,” he said, quieter now. “You got a name picked out? Folks here need a better name beside ‘the creature’.”
Bryan looked down at the baby. For the first time, he seemed to realize there was another person in the room “Oh.” He laughed softly, wiping at his face with the back of one hand “Y-yea.”
He looked back at her. His fingers carefully enclosed one of hers “Lucy, maybe?” He said “it’s old but I think it works. Plus it sorta sounds like lucky, and god am I lucky to have you.”
“Alrighty, I’ll put her name down on the records” Leon said “Lucy Hodukavich. What a little freak you are.”
Bryan had gone back to Lucy. Tending to her like the outside world didn't exist. Tucking her beneath his hospital gown for some much needed skin on skin. Cocooned in warmth, she let out a happy coo, lulling her to sleep. Leon could see her tentacles curl up before becoming still. Only moving with her breathing.
“Sleep tight bub, I’m not lettin’ those doctors take you back.”