Chapter Text
The first time it happened was an accident.
Fareeha remembered the assignment clearly to this day, but not because of their mission, but because of the person she met through it.
“You are going to work with an Ex-Overwatch Agent. She can keep up with all of you in the air so don’t worry about that. Your goal is to get in, free the hostages, and get out. Minimize casualties under all circumstances, Pharah, you are in charge. Good Luck.” Were the words her superior said to her during the briefing.
Little did she know that this Ex-Overwatch Agent wasn’t just anyone, but it was Mercy.
Fareeha found her sitting by herself, staring out of the window, watching the landscape fly by as the plane made its way to their destination.
She remembered Mercy from her mother’s stories and phone-calls. Ana had always been going off about the young Doctor and her tendency to overwork herself or butted heads with her when she locked herself off in the lab.
The words of her mother seemed to be true. Mercy had been keeping a professional distance to the rest of the team. She didn’t want to join the traditional shared dinner with the rest of the team the night before, and she had politely declined the invitations to various card games to pass the time during the 2 hours flight, effectively staying on the side and gazing out of the window.
Fareeha sighed and stood up, leaving the table where the rest of her Squad was still occupied with a Card Game she had lost 3 rounds ago. Even though Mercy had been present for the mission briefing she wanted to introduce herself personally, especially since they were assigned as each other’s partners and Mercy was supposed to fly with her.
‘Attention all guards. We will be arriving in 10 minutes. All pilots prepare for engagement.”
Groans and swears erupted from the table as Saleh mourned his certain victory when they had to stp their game and get ready . She started to laugh as she remembered his bragging from about 20 minutes ago when he had loudly declared that he was the unbeatable champion. Saleh even felt so self-confident he promised he would pay dinner if he didn’t win.
She didn’t know the code of conduct for when the game was interrupted, but from the way Raja grinned and cheered it seemed that dinner was going to be free for everyone but Saleh.
The man in question caught Fareeha’s sheepish smirk and rolled his eyes before grabbing her helmet and tossing it over to her.
“Oh shut up Cap, I had that round secure.”
“Yes, sure, whatever you say Saleh. I take Kushari.” She grinned and secured the straps around her chin, giving the helmet a firm tug to see if it stayed in place. Satisfied, she tugged the visor down and the suit prepared for combat procedure.
She looked at the watch on the bottom right of her visor. She had 7 more minutes to talk with Mercy.
Fareeha walked towards the seat where the woman was still dreamingly staring outside. She wondered if she had even heard the announcement or if she had been too distracted.
She cleared her throat and moved her gloved hand towards Mercy’s shoulder, lightly tapping on the white armored pads.
Fareeha was expecting many possible outcomes. She was thinking that maybe Mercy would calmly turn around and listen to her, she also thought it possible for Mercy to turn around sharply and give her a lecture about ‘respecting other people’s space since she heard from other people that the Doctor was sometimes a little bit difficult, and then there was the possibility that she would just flat out ignore her.
What Fareeha did not expect was to see the Doctor bolting upright like a scared cat as soon as she felt Fareeha’s touch.
Her head felt numb for a second as Mercy’s halo crashed into the beak of her helmet with a loud thud.
She shook her head, trying to get rid of the weird feeling that the loud noise of metal-on-metal coupled with the vibrations left behind.
“Oh my god I am so sorry are you alright?” She heard the doctor apologize as she rubbed the beak, hoping there was not a dent or scratch on it.
“ It’s alright, I’m sorry for scaring you.” She apologized as well, shaking her head as she tried to recompose herself. When she looked at Mercy, she saw that the Doctor was in a similar sort of daze, also checking the halo for possible damage while simultaneously to shake the feeling off.
“Sorry for crashing into you, I didn't realize that - .”
“I noticed. You seemed a little bit lost in the clouds…quite literally.” Fareeha said and was quite pleased when Mercy started to chuckle and ease up a bit.
“Anyway, we’re going out in 3 minutes I just wanted to formally introduce myself since we didn’t get the chance at the briefing. I’m Captain Fareeha Amari, or Pharah for short.”
She felt Mercy’s eyes dart to her face tattoo her as soon as she heard her surname.
“Amari, hmm? Well it’s a pleasure working with you, Captain. I’m sure you already know but I’m Angela Ziegler.”
They kept smiling at each other until a loud siren echoed through the plane, gently reminding them that a mission was about to start.