Origins.

Two months later.

"It should work correctly this time if you added the right solvent!" I snap at William as the Adravil on the tester once again foams up. "It's a gel not foam, William!"

"Well maybe if you stopped trying to take over the whole damned product then maybe I could get it right!"

"Or maybe just listen to me the first time around." I mumble.

"You two are the exact same. You're both too stubborn to realise that you're both wrong. The alcohol level is too high, hence why you're getting the wrong reaction." Annette chimed in from behind her desk, her goggled eyes just visible from above the apparatus of test tubes in front of her. My eyes darted down to my notes and quickly scanned for the alcohol percentage.

Crap. She was right.

I looked back up to William, an apologetic look upon my features. His scowl wavered somewhat and he quickly rose from beside me.

"I need a coffee. Does either of you two want anything whilst I'm gone?"

"No thank you." I said, re-reading my notes.

Annette's hand waved him away with a silent 'no' and he left the lab without another word.

"William doesn't like me much, does he?" I sigh to Annette.

"I wouldn't say that, I just think that he has a problem taking orders from someone much younger than him. He's actually pretty soft on the inside."

"I seem to have a problem making friends here. I'm too young..."

"You have a friend right here, which is why I'm telling you to tell William to lower the alcohol level by seven percent. Trust me, that'll get it moving in the right direction." She smiled at me before continuing on with her own work.

William re-entered the lab with his coffee, his face a little less full of anger and he calmly asked me what we should do next.

"I think we should lower the alcohol level by seven percent. In fact I don't think we should do that, I know we should."

"Seven percent!? That's over half the level we worked out!"

"Trust me, William. If this doesn't work then I'll let you take over for a while."

Intrigue flashed in his blue-grey eyes as he grabbed a new text container with the ointment base and syringed in the solvent before slowly syringing the alcohol in. We both watched the yellow base closely as no reaction happened this time. He gently stirred the vial and set it aside for a moment before turning to me.

"...You were correct. I'm sorry I didn't take you seriously before. I'll send the vial off for further testing and additions." He said standing up and putting a lid on the tube, settling it into the Styrofoam case and sealing it up before exiting the lab with it.

"Thank you, Annette. You saved my ass back there."

"You're more than welcome. Now go and get some food and fresh air. You can't stay cooped up in the lab all day. I swear you and William are exactly alike."

I took her advice and signed myself out of the labs and headed up to the break room. It was nice to have time away from the test tubes and other lab equipment. I had nearly spent three months of my life in that lab but if I was honest, it was much better than being around people that treated me appallingly due to being smart. Here I was treated as an equal. I may not have many friends but the respect I'd gained was worth so much more to me.

Six months later.

William burst into the laboratory one afternoon with a file full of papers, graphs and a lot of numbers.

"This is it! The fuckin' big time!"

"Language!" Annette's voice sounded from the other side of the lab.

"Sorry but this is huge! This project is from Spencer himself!"

"Well? Don't leave us hanging, what is it?" I asked, a big grin spreading across my face.

"It's working on a new strain of virus! One that is supposedly able to severely slow the growth of cancer cells! It's called t-Virus." He announced, placing the folders on his desk and grinning at Annette and me.

"William that's great! This is the break we've needed!" Annette shouted gleefully going over to her husband and hugging him tightly.

"I can finally make enough money to give the baby a good life. Maybe even leave the city and start over. Annette, this is really it. I can feel it." He placed his hands on Annette's protruding stomach.

"Do you need me for this?" I asked shyly, feeling as though I was intruding on a private family moment.

"Of course, Sam! You're the first person I chose. Well, after an old friend but I know you two will help us achieve the success we need with this project."

"Old friend? There's somebody else helping out?" I asked curiously, my eyes meeting Williams.

"Yeah. I can't have Annette working near this stuff in her condition."

"I'm pregnant William, not disabled. Besides, my belly doesn't stop me from doing paper work."

"Albert is already sorting it all."

"Albert? I thought he left the pharmaceutical field to pursue other lines of work?" Annette questioned.

"It's nothing for an old friend, though" Came a male voice from the door of the lab. A tall figure with blond slicked back hair entered and flashed us all a quick smile. Dark sunglasses hid his eyes and a while lab coat clung to his body. He was rather intimidating.

"You're early!" William laughed a little, shaking his hand firmly.

"Of course, did you expect me to be anything else?"

"No. You remember Annette?" William asked, gesturing to his wife.

"Annette, you go and rest. We can take things from here. I can take care of William and your other daughter."

My face flushed pink out of embarrassment.

"Oh no, that's Sam. She's actually in charge of our department." Annette explained.

"A mere child? Impressive. Albert Wesker, nice to meet you." He extended a gloved hand towards me which I shook shyly.

"I'm Sam. Sam Robertson."

"Now that all the pleasantries are out of the way we should probably read through the files and understand the virus before we make a start on anything." Albert suggested, taking his hand back from mine and sitting in the last available desk, between William and myself. William handed me a small pile of papers which included the overview of the T-virus which proved to be an interesting read. It also stated that we were not allowed to disclose the study of this virus to anybody else in the mansion. I suppose we didn't want any rival companies trying to copy our ideas and any potential formulas.

"The higher ups want us to test on live specimens, too. Does anybody not want to be a part of that?" Albert asked whilst still reading his file. "I'll take your silence as a 'no problems' then. The primary testing was on rats but from the looks of this file he wants us to try on a plethora of different species. Amphibians being the first one."

"Makes sense since some of them can regenerate parts of their bodies," I say, sitting back in my chair, "Wouldn't it be easier to use their DNA first?"

"We can do both once we have a base to work with." William piped up, standing and moving more paperwork across to us. "There are more details in here."

This was going to take a while...

End of Chapter.