Thinking Of You: Chapter 5

    Early dawn had hit with its rays burning into the maroon curtains strongly, but kept the light from reaching Joel's eyes. He rolled onto his side lazily as a hand stroked through the black hair on his forehead; The bare-chested male gave a sigh before finally letting his hand fall aside onto the other side of the bed, expecting to feel the soft touch of Bianca's nightgown, but felt only the stiff sheets under his fingertips. His eyes opened quickly, and proved his theory right. She was gone, the sheets ruffled back and the bedstand ajar as if pushed aside, and her cell phone was missing too.
    His first night with her was short-lived. Bianca wasn't so talkative anymore, at least, not to him. She liked his company, and appreciated his stay, but somehow, he felt as if she were preoccupied. He was just there to comfort her, hold her, when no one else would-and Joel didn't like that feeling. Despite his job being to ease the pain and minds of soldiers, he felt as if she were hiding something, and he was unable to dig any deeper.
    Why? Why would the girl he loved hide something from him? It was then that Joel managed to sit up in bed with his arms up to stretch before standing. He could hear shuffling outside the bedroom door, which meant she was probably up preparing her morning coffee-he hated the smell of coffee. He often asked her to not drink it too, but she refused politely, and chose to drink a cup when he was away at work.
    In this case, he realized he would just have to deal with it, and let the girl have her morning drink. Well, obsession rather. But Bianca wasn't in the kitchen as Joel took a quick glance over the room, and she wasn't in the living room either. The kitchen was devoid any signs she'd been there at all, all except for maxine whom stood flicking her tail in anticipation for him to get any closer. Nope, not today, he thought to himself. He'd learned that that cat was pure vicious.
    Strangely enough, even the coffee pot was undisturbed. There was almost no sign Bianca had been there at all that morning.
    "Babe?" He called with a slight worry in his tone. Had she gone out without telling him? "You in here?" no answer, but he heard the faintist shuffle from the office, which was an instant giveaway to his girlfriend's whereabouts. He was right, peeking into the door, he saw her as she closed the lid of the laptop hesitantly with her palm resting on her forehead. Joel knew that look-the look of being conflicted, and confused.
    "There you are, silly, didn't you hear me calling you?"
     Bianca turned to face him slowly with her bowed head hidden by her hands, which looked shaky and unsteady as they attempted to hide her eyes. He could see the tear-stained cheeks, puffy, but he wasn't sure if he should ask. Lately, she'd been temperamental about her emotions; It was only right to ask, but he knew she would get edgy about it.
    "Yeah-it's just that I was busy." She excused quietly before taking a seat in the worn out office chair. Clearly something was wrong. "Bad headache."
    "Is this a headache, or another one of those dreams?" Joel asked sweetly, offering a hand of concern as he touched her shoulder kindly. It wasn't one of those loving touches Bianca could return with a kiss, no, it was brotherly as if she were nothing more than his relative, and yet she sensed he was trying to care without invading her personal buisness. Why did that matter now since he'd been prodding that since day one.
    If this were a dream-someone needed to pinch her before she let her entire life change course! One phone call, and her mind was sent reeling for proof, proof that Chris sent by email, and let all the bottled up tears fall. It was true. She didn't know whether to jump for joy, crying with happiness that Piers Nivans had survived and was being cured at that very second, or to cry in sorrow-that wasn't her life anymore. She had someone new in her life, and Joel was a human being with feelings. Bianca couldn't just toss him aside like yesterday's news.
    "No, I'm ok. I feel a little sick, I guess."
    Joel laughed to himself as he let his hands massage discreetly into her tense shoulders. Bianca liked to worry over nothing sometimes, which is what made her so cute. "You guess?"
    "Maybe I'm just a little nervous." Came her final answer, an with that, he raised an eyebrow; his curiousity had been peaked.
    "Why so nervous?" He asked, though he tried to be casual. by the time she appeared to have heard him, he'd managed to lean against the wall beside the desk, focusing his full attention on Bianca. He could hardly focus with the bright orange walls nearly disrupting his senses, and clogging them with childhood memories in the nursery.
    "Look, Joel, I have something to ask you." She began, and he knew nothing good came out of it, when she used the word 'Look' in anything. He gave a stiff nod, and waited for her to continue. "I-I got a call this morning about..." Joel's eyes were helpless as he stared back at her. How could she do this to him-exactly, she couldn't. "About some old friends from high school, and they were thinking of having a get-together." Her lie was translucent-it was hardly expected he would accept it, but just nodded.
    "Must be hard seeing them after so long." He added as he seemed unaffected by the lie. Perhaps he hadn't noticed her stammering, and maybe he was dumber than he looked. "So, where is this get-together?" There was the hardest part of her lie, and she was sure her cover was about to be blown.
    "They thought it would be a great idea to visit China-this cute little city, you'd love it."
    Joel's jaw nearly dropped as I became so nonchalant about it. He hated China ever since the outbreak; The danger was gone, but his mind was stuuck on the past. He squirmed a bit as she stood to hug him gently, not sure if she could say she meant the loving gesture.
    "China-but WWTR insists we keep you away from there. Previous trauma could reoccur-" He began as she gave him a cute smile. This brought even the tiniest smile to his face, which was her goal all along. "It's not that i don't want my baby to have fun-because I do! I just worry about you, Bianca."
    "I promise you I'll be ok, and the girls are always very..."
    Heroic-ready to sacrifice themselves for you as the moment of pain draws near, and without a moment's hesitation you're shoved aside to safety as they fall, and you can't do a thing to change their mind. They love you-that's why they did it,  and the compensation never makes up for how they changed your life. All the scars, the pain, the blood they shed, and all for you.
    "I understand," He said, patting the girl's small shoulder as she grabbed the laptop from its place on the desk, and the charger was pulled with it as she tucked them under her arm. It wasa close escape, but it was then that she heard Joel speak again. "Hey-we could go together! Like a date, you know? It'd be nice."
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     Chris stood aloof in the crowd of men. It was apparent that something was lodged in his mind that was troubling him, but none of the rookies dared ask their superior what the matter was.
    He took a staggering step forward with the rest of his team filing into the conference room ahead. The director called a meeting just after having me give Ms. Bianca a call; he could tell that the call had left her emotionless. Chris couldn't blame her for not knowing what to say, hell, Piers had been his partner for a long while before China, and after watching such a death he was unsure if he could believe it either. There were so many questions he wanted to ask him.
    The rest of the men were already inside the round room as they awaited Chris's arrival. His slow steps were the result of his worry-he knew what the meeting was all about, and Chris was intending to fight for his position. HQ was ready to stop Umbrella, no matter what name they worked under, which meant finding Piers and putting him to questioning before Umbrella could lay another hand on him.
    "Captain-" A stray soldier said aloud with an innocent tone. Chris lifted his iron gaze from the floor as to look him over; He was a tall man who looked no older than twenty, and his tasseled, brown hair was neatly pushed aside to his left ear, where he could avoid having it all shaved off by restrictions. "They're waiting for you."
    He nodded. "I know, just-give me a minute."
    With an empathetic smile on his face, he gave Chris's shoulder a pat. "It's about a new lead on Umbrella, something urgent. Apparently there was some report about a biohazard threat." His smile was suddenly gone, and left only the serious look for Chris to see. No, it couldn't be. The biohazard threats-the threats people feared most after so many years of past attacks and outbreaks. Hadn't the innocent had enough?
    "No." He said aloud, storming into the room full of his comrades. If there was ever an emergency and a time to act, it was now. "No, there can't be another outbreak! Umbrella hasn't posed a threat in a year!"
    "All the more reason to suspect an attack." The director explained with his light grey hair glistening under the blinding, white lights. He stood elevated on his platform while all the rest of them stood below him in their rows of folding chairs, which were uncomfortable as hell during those long mission plans. chris refused to take a seat; He stood just below the director with his eyes narrowed furiously. "You didn't think Umbrella was going to let a subject escape without creating a diversion, did you? It's become average protocol."
    "Unleashing a deadly virus is protocol?" Chris shouted at the top of his lungs. The surrounding men flinched uncomfortably.
    The director hardly seemed amused by Chris's rage, in fact, he was a man of order. anything against his strict rules could get you penalized for months. At that moment, Chris didn't care. He wanted the security of knowing everyone would be ok, and to be sure not another life was lost. The BSAA had the blood of soldiers' spilled all over its record, but Chris had the death record down by memory as each innocent face burned into his mind as a last effort to say not to forget them.
    "This is Umbrella, Chris!" The director scoffed as if Chris was dumb enough to not realize that. "We steal their research, and they send in the terror. It's why we are funded! You fight to save those people-"
    "What about those who can't be saved because we were too late?"
    There were murmurs all around in the crowd of soldiers as their heads remained down to avoid eye contact with the director. Despite his name actually being Neil Arbogast, he was never called by such due to the superiority he had given himself. Someone needed to knock him off his high horse. If the me were agreeing with Chris, he wished they would have spoken up.
    "We don't have time to think about that! Right now there is a threat being directed in Beijing, and there is liitle time to act!" Arbogast snapped as he sent Chris recoiling back with his booming yell. "Right now, one of our former soldiers is headed ito the city's borders with our agent headed his way on flight. If we don't handle this now, the city, and our evidence will perish!"