Wesker was almost eerily silent while the handler brought him to the lab where Rebecca Chambers was working. The tall, sharp jawed blond man stood stubbornly quiet behind his black sunglasses as he followed behind the security man.

“Doctor Chambers?” the guard announced himself cautiously from just beyond the door.

Rebecca had been so deep in her concentration that she hadn’t noticed the approaching guard until his voice rang through the otherwise empty lab.She startled, fingers gripping tighter to the thrice-sealed vial containing a sample of the infamous ‘black mold’ that the project had collected for the sake of their grand project, before she set it back in the machine before her, hitting a button and sending it back into deep freeze.

Pushing her research notes to the side, she turned with a bright smile on her face.

“Hel– her voice died in her throat when she noticed the blond man looming over the guard in the doorway. “oh!!”

The guard ignored her startled reaction and offered her a clipboard. “I’m supposed to turn this guy over to your custody, doc.” He looked the small slip of a woman over, and then the man in his care, as if to wonder ‘think you can handle him?’

Wesker, meanwhile, was standing as stoically as before. It was impossible to see where his gaze fell behind his dark sunglasses.

Doctor Chambers took the clipboard and looked it over quickly.

The smile didn’t leave her face as she skimmed the information she was already sure would be there. “Of course…thank you.”

She lowered the clipboard enough to make a furtive attempt at eye contact with the large man. It’d been so long, after all…so long since… that incident in Arklay had ended in their Captain’s betrayal and years, after years, of nightmares to follow.

And yet she still found herself smiling to see him.

“I can handle it from here.”

“As long as I’ve got your hancock, doc,” The man nodded, unconcerned, and took back the clipboard. “Heard a lot about this one.”

“I can only imagine!” Rebecca laughed gently–covering nerves– before handing the guard back his pen. “…Captain Wesker has a long history with a lot of us here at the Project.”

“Doesn’t look as impressive as some of the pictures,” the guard observed. “Musta lost some mass in transition, eh? Anyway, good luck, doc.”

He cast one more look at Wesker, and then left through the automatic doors, leaving the two of them alone.

Just Rebecca. And Wesker.

It was a tense silence for a moment. Rebecca wasn’t sure what to say. It’d been so long, and the process that had been used on Wesker sometimes left memories a bit scrambled for a time.

But…she should say something, right? There must be something to say.

“Good evening, Mr. Wesker.” She managed to say without stammering, craning her neck to look up and meet his sunglasses. “Do you remember me?”

It was almost shocking to look at him. Rebecca had seen the pictures of him from recently before his death. The hollow, steely look in his face, the increased height, and frankly, width as well. The other changes. Scars. Worse.

But this man looked like the one she had known in her S.T.A.R.S days, tall and imposing to be sure, but with a lean, and somehow almost beautiful look to him, despite his obvious masculinity.

Were his eyes different? She couldn’t see them behind the sunglasses.

“Ms. Chambers,” he answered back, after a quiet moment. “Although, I see it’s doctor now.”

“You’re darn right about that!” she chirped, gesturing him towards a chair in the corner–away from the various dangerous test tubes and vials containing the subjects of her research while they ran through automatic tests. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him…. Alright. She didn’t. But she had good reason.

“…after the Arklay incident I went back to school.” she explained “Now i’m one of the project’s head researchers.” She laughed softly, a little tense with awkward nerves, and she rubbed her hands on her thighs. “Doctor Rebecca Chambers.”

She paused when he didn’t answer right away, and looked up at him. “Captain…I ah. ” she looked down at her shoes. “W-welcome back.”

“Thank you, Doctor Chambers.”

There was a quiet between them for a moment, and he offered her his hand. He was wearing black gloves. A black pressed shirt, and what looked like they were probably leather pants. Black too of course.

Of course , Rebecca thought, The only time we saw him out of black was in the S.T.A.R.S. uniform. She smiled inwardly, before taking off her rubber gloves, and discarding them in a nearby bin. Taking his hand in hers, feeling the leather against her palm, she gave it a gentle squeeze, before tugging him gently towards the chair.

“You’re welcome. Um, do you want a drink? I can make tea, if you want.”

Albert’s fingers just barely curled against hers, but he allowed himself to be led to sit down.

“Tea,” he repeated slowly as he made himself comfortable– at least Rebecca hoped he did– he sat down at least.. “That…. would be great. Thank you.”

The doctor bustled around the room for a moment, in silence as she gathered a pot and a few mugs from under the table, in an isolated cabinet, along with a number of other items, including powdered green tea. She hummed softly as she did so, labcoat flapping behind her as she trotted from the small minifridge, back to the table.

“It’s my job to ah…m-make you feel welcome again, after all,” she murmured, trying to fill the silence with a smile, as she’s everything out, and got to work preparing two cups of green tea.

Suddenly, Rebecca felt a presence behind her, and she realized that she had turned her back on Wesker.

He loomed behind her, having stood silently while she was busy.

“It’s been a long time.”

A heat came to Rebecca’s face as she realized he was there,, her heart beating loudly in her ears as she worked to boil the water.

“It has been, hasn’t it?” she said softly, staring straight ahead and keeping her hands busy with her task. “You were gone for a long while, Cap….ah, Albert. Last time I saw you was back in Arklay…and I didn’t make tea for the office that morning.”

He was standing so close that he could feel the heat of his body on her, despite not touching him at all.

“That morning–” His voice was surprisingly soft. “It’s a shame you can’t call me captain any more.”

Somehow, that hadn’t been what she’d expected him to say.

“It is…” she murmured, concentrating on the work of stirring the tea into a froth instead of the heat behind her, and the heat of her own blushing face. “I keep catching myself. I’m pretty sure I’ve already slipped even, haha.”

He made a quiet noise in his throat, almost the rumbling of a cat. “I missed it.”

Rebecca bit her lip, before turning and presenting him one of the steaming mugs, a small and almost timid smile on her face. He did remember after all. Despite everything.

“You too, huh?”

He took the mug gingerly from her, as if he was afraid he might break it. “Things… did not proceed the way I planned.”

“I can imagine not!” Rebecca said with a pained smile as she grabbed her own mug. “Even after everything I heard…I… really hoped that you didn’t…, I mean…”

She tapped her nails against the ceramic, and took a sip of the fragrant, smooth tea to compose herself “…I held onto the hope that it was all just some…out of control misunderstanding. Or ..something…”

“Out of control… yes. It…,” he paused, picking his words.”It went completely out of control.” Wesker was quiet for another moment, sipping the tea. “It’s good. I missed your tea.”

Rebecca felt herself turn red, blinking in surprise. “O-oh! you did, captain?? I don’t know if it’s _that_ memorably good!”

She sipped her own tea, looking off to the side as thoughts of the incident gave way for the moment to a bit of pride and joy that Captain Wesker liked her tea.

“I thought about it, often during the time when… we were apart.”

The cup froze on her lips as she looked at him through the steam wafting into the air from the still hot drink.

“…you did…?” she breathed curiously, head cocking to the side.

He took a longer sip of his tea, face just as stern and impassive as it usually was. “There are not many people I would say this to, but… I have certain regrets. Yes. I missed your tea.” The steam of his drink had fogged his dark glasses.

What was unsaid was obvious. ‘I missed you’.

Rebecca’s heart nearly stopped.

All this time later, and he appeared like this , Rebecca thought, After The Arklay Tragedy , after the stories of the prison island, Tricell…. everything . After they bring him back from the dead to be with them again…

…and he missed me this whole time…? 

Her eyes teared up before she realized it, and her smile grew a little shaky again.

“Oh…” she breathed shallowly, covering her speechlessness with a long sip of tea. “I’ll be happy to make it for you anytime you like….c-captain. If you missed i-it that much.”

Wesker looked down at his tea, and finished it, nodding quietly.

“I’d like that.” He held the warm cup in his hands for a minute, and then offered it to her, empty.

Rebecca took it, and set it aside with her own, a shallow pool of green still remaining inside it. She put the two cups into the sink, and they clinked together.

She settled into her chair, trying not to fixate on Wesker standing there, watching her. “Any time, just ask…I’m never too busy for a tea break.”

“I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to stop by,” he said. She watched him move to lean on the table beside her, seeming to refuse to give her too much space.. “It’s not up to me, I think.”

“Don’t forget,” she said, with an attempt at a playful tone,”…you were turned over to my custody, Mr. Wesker. You’ll be busy, of course…but I’m the doctor in charge of your case, at least for the moment.”

“Your custody,” he repeated, appearing to look at the far wall. It was so hard to tell with the dark glasses. “I assumed that was for the afternoon. Was I wrong?”

She looked him over. Just once she wanted to see him without those glasses. Just once since he came back.

She smiled with a shrug of her shoulders “For this afternoon, yes, but I’m sure it’ll be far from the last time. I am a doctor now, Captain…and I hold a pretty good rank in this organization, meaning it’s likely this isn’t going to be the last time you’re stuck with me.”

“Just what are you implying ms.–doctor chambers?” There was a mere little twitch at the edge of his mouth. The ghost of an old smirk. It emboldened Rebecca terribly, even though she should really know better.

“That given your status as an asset of the project, and my status as one of its hardn working scientists…” she poked her fingers together, feeling a goofy grin spread on her face, “we’re likely to be paired up plenty…and ..w-well..”

Wesker’s slightly raised eyebrow invited her to continue. “Well?” The twitch of his smirk grew– just slightly.

“It means plenty of time for tea?” She squeaked. Yeah. Tea…

Rebecca remembered that old smirk of his. The kind that made her heart go a mile a minute when she was still a recruit. She swallowed, trying to save face with the slight deflection.

“Hm.”

That hm, that was familiar too. Maybe a little too familiar.

Rebecca bit her lip again, glancing off to the side. She was sure she was blushing now. He’d notice…he was sure to. And not just that…the Project’s cameras could probably see it at this point, too. She wasn’t sure which was worse.

“D-don’t you Hm me, mister!” she squeaked. “What do you think I’m implying, then?”

“I wouldn’t dare to guess, doctor chambers.” His voice was flat.

TOO flat. He had to be teasing her.

She huffed, crossing her arms and puffing out her cheeks “What if I asked you t-to elaborate. for my reports. What then?”

He looked down at her, his sunglasses sliding down just a bit. She could almost see his eyes over them.

“We have a lot of history between us, don’t we?”

A [ang shot through her chest. Slowly, she nodded. “Y-yeah. We do. you were my captain in S.T.A.R.S. …and we spent a lot of time together in those days, too. We packed a lot of history into that short time, Mr. Wesker…”

He leaned in even closer to her. “I can’t help but wonder if we can pick up that history where it left off, doctor chambers. Despite the intervening….. changes. Naive of me, I’m sure.”

“H-hoping to get another snapshot of me in the basketball uniform?” She managed to tease even as she stammered.

“Does this facility have a basketball team?” the smirk was almost in earnest now. That was dangerous. This whole line of conversation was dangerous. But she couldn’t stop herself. It was the captain, he was back .

“I can put in a word with the main office for one, if you need recreation, Mr. Wesker.” She said with a playful wink. She knew she shouldn’t be doing it,but…

“I’m sure if you’re amenable, we can come to some… other arrangement?” He leaned closer to her, his arm brushing her.

Rebecca turned scarlet, as she flashed back to all those years ago….

Late nights at the precinct office. The camera, his smirk and her smile. She swallowed

“M-maybe we can,” she said, her playful smile shot with shy hesitation she didn’t really feel. “…but maybe we should talk it over in another room…?” She glanced briefly at the cameras. That, if nothing else, was a barrier.

“And here I thought you were going to put me to work in the lab.”

“Plenty of time for those sorts of tests later!” She said.

In for a penny, in for a pound, huh, Rebecca?

She stood up and dusted her hands off. “Besides , I know the other team already got all sorts of samples from you.”

“Are you insinuating you need your own samples?” Wesker Crossed his arms, smirking still. “In any case, you’re in charge of me, Doctor Chambers, so if you say we’re going to another room, well. That’s how it will be.”

“Must be pretty weird, huh?” she asked with a little chuckle. “To have the tables turned?” Before he could answer, she continued, a terrible suggestion tumbling out of her lips. “I know the place…there’s a private breakroom nearby.”

“They say what’s good for the goose, Ms. Chambers. Lead the way.”