Chapter 14
“Daddy, it was so much fun,” Sherry said with an enthusiastic gleam in her eye. “The police station is so huge! Have you ever been there?”
“No, honey,” Birkin replied. “Did you get to meet lots of police officers?”
“The one who gave us the tour was named Marvin. I don’t know if we learned anyone else’s names, though. There were so many people, I never knew how many police worked in the city.”
“There must be a lot of crime for there to be so many cops,” Birkin said with a grin.
Annette frowned playfully, pouring him a cup of coffee. “Will, that’s not very nice. I’m sure that there are lots of police officers because they want to make sure that we’re all safe, right?”
Birkin leaned back and sipped the coffee. “When I was little, sometimes the police let children sit inside the prisoner cells, to scare them into obeying the law. Did they let you see the cells?”
“We walked by them, but didn’t go in. But we got to see lots of other cool stuff.”
“Well, I’m glad you had fun, honey.”
Dinner was over, so Annette put away the dirty dishes. Since Sherry spent most the school day at her field trip, she didn’t have much homework. Birkin helped her as best she could, and when she was done, they sent her up to her room to change into her pajamas.
He wanted to know more about Wesker’s phone call, but he didn’t want to ask. He didn’t want Annette to think it was important. She already knew it was strange. As she said on the phone, she didn’t even know that Wesker knew their home number. So Birkin pretended to dismiss it as something unimportant, even though he wished Wesker had given Annette more information. His curiosity was like an itch he couldn’t scratch, but he didn’t want to arouse Annette’s suspicions. To his knowledge, she had never even met Wesker in person. All she knew of him was what Birkin had told her long ago.
If Wesker didn’t call the lab, Birkin knew he would have to go and find out what was going on at the Arklay lab. It was just like Wesker to leave a mysterious message and force Birkin to abandon his work to investigate, rather than simply telling Birkin about it directly.
“Thanks for coming home,” Annette said as they walked into the living room. She gave him a kiss and touched his hand affectionately as they sat down in front of the television. “You said there were some developments this morning?”
“I changed around our schedule, that’s all,” Birkin said. “I decided to drop the tests with Progenitor-K and start up a new line of research into the G-virus. Do you remember that one?”
She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Yes, I remember it. Any particular reason you switched back to it? I thought you didn’t believe those ones were useful at all.”
“I changed my mind, I guess. I’m tired of getting nowhere with our current projects, so I decided to shake things up. Maybe we’ll be able to look at the G-virus with fresh eyes and see something we never noticed before.”
“How did everyone take it?”
“They were surprised, of course.”
“Well, it’s not like you to do something like that so suddenly.”
“It’s not like me to come home two nights in a row, either,” he said. “Maybe I’m turning over a new leaf.”
Annette smiled at him, the kind of genuine, loving smile that he so rarely saw from her anymore. He knew that he did little to earn such smiles from his wife, and seeing it again after so long made him realize how much he missed it.
Before he could say so, Sherry came rushing down the stairs. Once again, Birkin found himself subjected to an hour of animated animals getting into wacky hijinks. He still didn’t think much of Sherry’s choice of entertainment, but he really didn’t know what else he would watch if the choice had been his. He didn’t know any current television shows or movies. He didn’t watch sports or anything like that. He supposed that he would watch the news. It would surely be informative, since he had no idea what was going on the world. If not for Annette keeping him somewhat up-to-date on current events, he might not even know who the President was.
During one of the commercial breaks, Sherry turned and said, “My friend Stacy is having a sleepover at her house tomorrow night. Mommy already said I could spend the night there, but do you think it’s okay, too?”
“If Mom says it’s okay with her, then it’s okay with me.”
Sherry beamed at him, “Thanks, Daddy.”
When it was time for her to go to bed, Birkin led her to the bedroom and helped tuck her in. She was old enough that she no longer needed her parents to do that sort of thing, but Annette suggested it would be a good idea.
“Good night, Daddy.”
“Night, honey,” he said as he turned off the light.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
She paused. “You don’t have to come home tomorrow night if you don’t want to. I’ll be at Stacy’s house. So you can stay at work if you need to.”
“Thanks, honey. I’ll think about it.”
He closed her door and went back downstairs. Annette was in the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of wine. She had a second glass next to hers and hesitated before pouring, looking up at him expectantly. “Would you like a drink too?”
“Do you want me to have a drink?”
She poured and slid the glass over to him. He picked it up without comment.
Annette sighed and sat down at the table. “Sherry won’t be home tomorrow night,” she said carefully, slowly moving her glass around so the wine swirled around within. “I was thinking that maybe you and I can go out to dinner.”
Birkin took a seat beside her. “We haven’t done that in a long time.”
“Not since … I don’t even remember. Since Sherry was a baby.”
“Sherry told me that I could stay at work all night if I needed to,” Birkin said. “I guess I’ve told her so often how important my work is, she’s starting to believe it.”
“It is important, Will. I know that. But it ...”
“Go ahead,” he said. “I know.”
“It’s not more important than your family,” Annette said. She took a drink of her wine. “I always feel the need to thank you when you come home. But the fact is, I shouldn’t have to thank you for coming home to see your daughter.”
Birkin nodded. “You’re right. I’m not a very good father. I admit that.”
“You could be,” Annette said, leaning forward, looking at him passionately. “You’re the smartest man I’ve ever known. You can do anything you set your mind to. Set your mind on being a better person, Will. A better father, and … and a better husband.”
“Having a family isn’t like solving a science problem,” he said. “There’s no solution that I can discover by doing experiments and making theories. Think about what I was like when you first met me, Annette. Remember how I used to be? If you hadn’t come into my life, I would still be that same person. I was a pathetic excuse for a human being. It’s taken me this long just to adapt to the life we have now.”
She finished her drink and then took his, which he had not touched. “When we first had Sherry, I thought that you would come around,” she admitted, as if to herself. “That once you saw that little angel in your arms, you’d stop being so obsessed about work. And for awhile, you did. But it just didn’t last.” She sighed again and gulped down the wine.
“Other professionals dedicate their lives to their jobs, too,” he said. “Business owners, lawyers, stock brokers. They miss out on their children’s lives, and for what? To make money? At least I’m trying to cure disease and help humanity, right? That’s got to count for something.”
“I just want to know when it’s going to be enough,” Annette said, looking at him. “When will you be satisfied? I think any normal person would have burned out long ago, but you still work just as hard as you always have. No vacations, no weekends. Working all night, b
arely getting enough sleep. Sometimes I have to practically beg you to come home. You’ve been at it for fifteen years, Will, and it’s still not enough, is it?”
“When we unlock the power of the Progenitor. That’s when it will be enough.”
“And what if that never happens? What if it’s impossible?”
“I can’t believe that,” he said. “I refuse to believe it.”
Annette looked at the two empty wine glasses and sighed again. “Then you have to make a decision, Will. You have to decide what’s more important to you. Your job or your family. Because I cannot spend the rest of my life like this. I want my husband to come home from work every night, I want to have a real family life, and I want to have another child.”
Birkin flinched as if he’d been slapped. “Annette, you … you never said you wanted another child. How long have you wanted one?”
“A couple years,” she admitted. “I’ve wanted to bring it up with you, but each time I tried to talk to you about it, I just decided not to. I knew how you’d react.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, and he meant it. “I never realized.”
“That’s because you can’t stop thinking about work, and you rarely take the time to think about me and Sherry. Your job is your real life, and your family is just an afterthought.”
Birkin realized that Annette must have already drunk some wine before he came downstairs. It was only the alcohol that gave her enough courage to say this to his face. Somehow, that bothered him more than the words themselves. Annette had never been afraid to say what was on her mind. It saddened him to think that she needed to get drunk to say what she really felt.
“What if I promised that I would try to be a better husband? That I would come home more often?” he asked. “All I can do is promise you.”
“Don’t make promises. Keep them. Prove to me that you’re serious about this.”
“I am serious. I don’t say it enough. I love you, Annette. And I swear that I would give up everything, all my work with Umbrella, if that’s what it took to prove it.”