Thicker than Water

"They were bitten, not dead and buried." Wesker corrected. "I'm sorry Alex, we are not having this discussion."

Alex's face fell. He couldn't help it. He wanted to chance to tell Parker how he really felt. He wanted so badly to tell his adopted father that he didn't hate him. But now...
He swallowed several times to keep his emotions in check and finally he succeeded. "Yeah." He murmured. "I was just kidding about the blood stuff anyway."

Wesker knew this was far from true, but let the matter drop anyway. "Wouldn't you like to see Sophie? I've had lunch prepared for the both of you." it was the closest thing to an olive branch Wesker would ever offer.

Alex nodded, offering Wesker a genuine smile. "Aren't you going to eat with us?" He asked, wanting to know more about his birth father.

"I'll join you." Wesker confirmed, though didn't say whether he would be eating or not. "Of course, whether Sophie wants me there is another matter..."

"MAybe you shouldn't treat her like you did." Alex observed, motioning for his father to lead the way. "She's just a librarian after all."

Wesker chuckled quietly as he walked. "Hardly, she's far from 'just' anything." He added, recalling the part of the conversation. When Sophie had said Violet reminded her of herself. He should have picked up on it there and then.

"Did I miss something?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow in a mirror of the other man's actions. "She didn't seem any more than a dowdy book worm."

Wesker laughed, and actually found himself ruffling Alex's blond hair. "You are far too young to see why she could possibly be anything else." He mused, not for a second thinking his son anything but naive.

"She's human. I would sense if she wasn't." Alex muttered, now lost in his own thoughts. "She has some residual virus like Jill did but...she's mostly human. I wonder if she was one of the test subjects mother used for my blood..."

Wesker stopped walking and looked down at Alex. "You can smell infection in people?" He asked, not sure if he believed this. "You didn't smell it in Violet. Had you done... You would have seen nothing but death."

"I'm not afraid of death." Alex told the elder man as if were that simple. "And death is not the only thing I smelled on her." He paused at the door where Sophie was kept, and looked up at Wesker expectantly.

"Then your claim to have a keen sense of smell is disproven. The girl was bred for death." Wesker replied, though didn't give Alex chance to respond, as he pushed open the door to Sophie's room without knocking.

Sophie was laying on the bed with her back to them, curled in a ball. She didn't even seem to notice that she was no longer alone.

"Sherry..." Wesker was sat on the edge of the bed, his lips close to the dark haired woman's ear.

Sherry Birkin stirred, giving herself away completely as she turned to see who had spoken her name. It had been so long since someone had said her true one that she barely recognized it.

Wesker smiled when she turned to the sound of his voice, his fingers gently brushing her dark hair back from her face. "We have a guest joining us for lunch." He breathed, his touch lingering longer than was needed.

"Wesker..." Sherry could do little more than breath the man's name. For a moment she stayed in her foggy state, her eyes blinking slowly. "A guest?" She asked finally. "What do you mean a guest?"

Wesker brushed Sophie's cheek again, then got back to his feet. "Alex, don't you have anything to say to miss Sophie?"

"Sophie!" Alex all but tackled the dark haired woman the moment she'd gotten off the bed. The two of them tumbled back onto it, laughing. "I'm so glad you're okay." The young boy breathed, squeezing her hard enough to make her grunt. "I was worried he was lying to me."
"No. No. I'm fine. But Violet. Where is she?" Sophie said softly, hugging the boy in return.
"She told me something and I...I didn't react like I should have and she ran off." Alex whispered, clearly ashamed of himself.
"It's okay." Sophie whispered. "We'll find her."

Wesker snorted at Sophie's comment. "Hardly." He remarked. "You cannot find a monster that does not wish to be found. Of course, if you were a monster yourself...

"Monsters come in many forms, Mr. Wesker." Sophie said darkly, lifting her head to give the elder man a frown. "You should know that better than anyone."

"Yes, and yet I missed the one sitting in my very home." Wesker countered. "Alex, what did Violet tell you that you reacted badly to?"

Alex shook his head. He wasn't about to bring up the terrible thing he'd done. He'd made her a promise and he'd let her down. "I thought we had lunch waiting for us." He muttered.

Wesker watched his son for a long moment in silence. He finally decided the boy was hiding something, but he would pursue the matter at a later date. "Of course, I enquired with your school to find out the thing you stole most frequently from the kitchen..."

Alex looked at the floor, his shame weighing even heavier on his shoulders. "My mother used to make cookies for me. They tasted kind of like them." Alex whispered.

"Your mother made cookies?" Wesker asked, his brow arching slightly. "I'm surprised she found the time." He added as he pushed the door open again.

"Parker is the best thing that happened to us." Alex exclaimed. "Mom is totally different when she was with him. Like...how she was supposed to be. Parker rocks."

"Too bad he's dead." Wesker replied icily. He didn't like the thought of Parker Luciani being around his son. "The man was a brute. Hardly a fitting father."

"Depends on your idea of a brute." Alex muttered. Sophie laughed at this inspite of her self. "Parker is the best dad ever!"