Welcome To The Umbrella Corporation

Chapter Twenty-One

“Come here and see this,” Annette said, waving her arm enthusiastically, her eyes looking through the microscope. “Come here and look at this!”

Birkin set his notebook down on the edge of the lab table and hurried over to the microscope. Annette got out of the way and almost shoved Birkin’s head against the eye piece. He stared down into the greatly magnified image of human skin cells reacting to a synthesized protein by-product they had recently begun working on.

Slowly, he watched as the skin cells, which were visibly eroded on the outer cell wall, slowly regenerate their deteriorated portions in just a few seconds. Annette, hands on his shoulders, snickered gleefully.

“We did it,” she whispered in his ear. “We did it, honey.”

Birkin moved away from the microscope, a look of stunned amazement on his face. He looked at Annette and said it himself. “We did it,” he said, and then laughed. Annette jumped forward to embrace him and he spun her around excitedly, arms wrapped tightly around her. She laughed, her hair whipping around his face, and kissed him passionately. Birkin set her back on the ground and kissed her back before pulling away to look through the microscope once more.

For months, they had been attempting to alter one of the many protein enzymes secreted by Progenitor-infected hosts into something that could heal damaged human cells without the negative side effects that plagued the Progenitor. Skin cells were common for such testing because they were larger than other types of cells and subject to more kinds of cellular damage.

Also, there was a lot of money is cosmetic products, and a new medication that could heal damaged skin could be a very lucrative enterprise. Birkin would never openly admit to doing profit-based science, but even he had to admit that laboratories such as this were not cheap to run, and they occasionally had to create marketable products to justify their existence. Now, after only a few months of searching, it seemed they had found exactly what they were searching for.

“I can’t believe it,” Birkin said, looking through the microscope. The cells healed perfectly when exposed to the enzyme. He tried not to get his hopes up too much, since they still had to perform dozens of other tests to make sure the enzyme was safe to use. It would take several more months of work, but they had just jumped the biggest hurdle.

Annette rested her head on his shoulder. “I knew you could do it, honey.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” he replied, looking at her with a warm smile on his face. He touched her face gingerly. “We did it together.”

She smiled lovingly and kissed him again. “Sure you could have, it just would have taken longer.”

“If you say so,” he said, and in response she jokingly punched him in the ribs.

“You’re not supposed to agree with me.”

Birkin turned around and put his arms around her. “Okay, I promise never to agree with you again.”

Annette laughed again, and it was a sound that Birkin could never get enough of. Deep down, he wondered if he had been right the first time, and could not have done it without her. These days, he wondered if he could do anything without her.

In two years, they had become inseparable. When Annette moved into the lab with him soon after they began dating, he expanded the living quarters to occupy an adjacent room. They spent almost every moment together, either working side by side in the labs, spending time together after work, or sleeping together at night. It was as if an entire new world had opened up before him, or perhaps the same world viewed through new eyes. He looked back at his life before she arrived and shivered at the thought of his one-sided, lonely existence. He hadn’t been an entire person before, he knew that now, and it had taken Annette to give him the rest of his life.

When they got to know each other, it amazed Birkin how similar their backgrounds were. Like him, she was an only child and a prodigy, fascinated with science and chemistry before she got out of elementary school. She graduated from college at age twenty, three years later than he had but two years earlier than most. She came to Umbrella because they had the most advanced resources to put at her disposal, but unlike Birkin, they underestimated her potential and just assigned her to a lab without giving her a real chance to demonstrate her worth. Luckily for them both, she was assigned to Birkin’s lab. It only took him six months to realize how perfect she was.

They ran the lab together. On paper, Birkin was still the Research Project Manager, but in reality he and Annette shared the position. They conferred together on every decision, but it was usually unnecessary, since they agreed on almost everything. Never in his life had Birkin found someone who so perfectly mirrored his own ideas, views, and personal beliefs. They even had the same favorite color.

“Let’s call Spencer right now and tell him the good news,” Annette suggested.

“How about we wait until tomorrow? Let all the preliminary tests run first and tell him in the morning.”

“If that’s what you want.”

Birkin gently held her hands and let their fingers intertwine. “Besides, I already made plans for tonight.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. Spencer can wait.”

They spent the remainder of the day finishing some early test runs with the new enzyme, exposing it to different skin cells with different kinds of damage, exposing it to other cell types to test for possible negative reactions, running a wide variety of standard tests to check for allergic properties or other harmful reactions, the usual for any new medical or cosmetic product being developed. And of course, they had to be certain that the enzyme carried over nothing else from the Progenitor.

But the work went quickly and gracefully, lightened by the knowledge that they were already halfway there. Most of the workers went home by five, but Annette and Birkin stayed in the labs until ten. By the time they left the lab, they were giddy and euphoric.

“I’ll make dinner,” Birkin said as they returned to their living quarters, his arm draped over Annette’s shoulder. When they walked inside, Birkin set his worn leather briefcase on the floor and tossed his white lab coat in a laundry hamper. Before he met Annette, he didn’t even own a laundry hamper.

“What are we having?” she asked.

“Guess.”

“How about spaghetti?” she laughed, looking over her shoulder at him.. “It’s the only thing you know how to make.”

Birkin feigned offense at the remark. “Hey, I can make some great sandwiches. I’d advise you not to criticize my culinary brilliance.”

“Sure thing, honey,” Annette said sarcastically. “I’ll take a shower while you boil the pasta, okay?”

“Don’t take too long.”

“I won’t.”

Birkin changed clothes quickly, putting on a comfortable pair of blue slacks and a white t-shirt. He set a pot on the stove and set the spaghetti noodles in it to boil. He set the small table, putting two plates, two forks, and two knives down, and then retrieved a candle from the cupboards and set it in the center of the table. He got a bottle of wine from the back of the refrigerator and put it on the table as well, along with two thin wine glasses. Just as the noodles were done, Annette stepped out of the bedroom, wearing gray sweat pants and a pink shirt, her feet bare on the white tile floor. Her hair was still wet, hanging down the sides of her face.

Birkin set the noodles and a bowl of sauce on the table. “Dinner’s ready,” he said, sitting down. Annette sat across from him and looked curiously at the candle and wine bottle he had placed there.

“Is today a special occasion?”

“Of course it is. We discovered the right enzyme today.”

“So this is the first anniversary of our discovery?”

“Something like that,” Birkin said.

He scooped some limp noodles onto his plate, and then Annette’s. They ate small portions, since it was late and they would be going to bed soon. Birkin poured the wine and they tapped their glasses together, creating a perfect musical chime when the glasses touched.

“Cheers,” Annette whispered.

“Cheers,” Birkin repeated, looking into her eyes. They drank together, emptying their glasses. Birkin picked up the bottle to refill them, and when he pulled out the cork, it slipped out of his hand and fell to the floor.

“Oops, will you get that?”

Annette bent over and picked up the cork. When she sat back up, Birkin was holding something out to her. It was a small black velvet box, opened up to reveal a ring inside. The cork fell out of her hand.

“Annette Porter, I want to marry you,” he said.

Her eyes went wide as petri dishes, glimmering beautifully in the flickering light from the candles, and her voice became no more than a squeak. She reached out with a wavering hand to take the ring from Birkin, and held it in her hands. It was an elegant gold ring with three large diamonds set in a triangle on top, with a smaller ruby in the center. She blinked rapidly, and tears leaked down her face as she looked back up at Birkin, who was watching her expectantly.

“Will?” she whispered.

“Go ahead,” he answered. “Put it on.”

Hands trembling, she removed the ring and slid it onto her finger. She froze for just a moment, staring at it, and then stumbled out of the chair, rushing forward to Birkin. She fell into his arms and buried her face in his shoulder, sobbing gratefully. In her haste, she banged into the table and knocked the bottle of wine over. It fell onto its side and began to pour over the table, spilling onto the floor, but they didn’t care.

“I love you,” Birkin said in her ear, holding her tightly.

Annette burst out, half-laughing and half-crying, “I love you too, Will. I want to marry you too.”

“Let’s get married tomorrow. I don’t want to wait at all.”

“I can’t believe this is happening.”

“I was going to wait a little bit longer, but today felt right. I wanted to surprise you.”

“You did,” Annette laughed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “You surprised me all right.” She felt better now, her breathing slowed and her voice returned to almost normal. She looked down at the ring as it rested on her finger, hypnotized by how it twinkled and glittered even in the low light.

Birkin stood up, lifting Annette in his arms. Right now, nothing else in the world mattered but this. He carried her out of the kitchen and into the bedroom, leaving their unfinished dinner where it was. Gently, he laid her down on their bed, leaning down to kiss her lips. He wiped her still-wet hair from her face and carefully climbed into bed with her.

The next day, neither of them reported to the labs. It was the first day off Birkin allowed himself in over three years. When they came to the labs the day after that, they were man and wife.

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