Work Text:
"Oh."
They're all gathered at Winston's lab, old agents found again as family. They all whip their heads up, but since Athena isn't exactly material, they can't turn to her to ask why the fuck an AI made a sound of surprise.
"Oh?" goes Winston, walking over to a screen that switched to display Athena's symbol.
"Someone is approaching."
"From where?"
"On what?"
"Over the cliff, on foot."
They look between them. The Watchpoint is carved into the cliff and is basically invisible from above - the rock above it goes further than the metal that makes it up. The hangar is the only open-sky spot in the entire base, along with twenty square centimeters directly above the comm tower.
Still, for someone to be willing to climb all the way up there, they probably know what they're looking for.
"On foot?"
"Yes. Rather slowly, in fact - they're probably not used to such climbs."
Winston scratches his cheek and sits down. "Do you have visual?"
"Not yet. They're pretty slow."
"Get us a video feed as soon as you can."
Torbjorn hoists himself up to sit on a cluttered desk. "I say send a drone and get it over with. Can't be good news."
"If they were a threat, they'd move faster. And probably get here by boat, if not helicopter. And in a team", Mercy offers. "I think we're fine."
"It could be some dumb journalist", Torbjorn insists.
"We don't kill civilians." Reinhardt glares at his friend, who only offers a shrug.
Genji and Tracer stand nearby, both too antsy to sit down but unwilling to climb around the intruder to confront them before they stumble into the base. The two exchange a look.
Tracer stops fiddling her hands long enough to pretend she's tipping the brim of a hat.
Genji bites his tongue and shrugs.
"Visual", Athena says. The whole room seems to jump.
A holoscreen comes up over her emblem. It's a feed over the rocks of Gibraltar, and indeed, a figure is clumsily approaching over the unsteady terrain.
"I can't see anything", Mercy says. "Does anyone recognise them?"
"They're too far away to tell..."
"Is this as zoomed as it goes?"
Athena zooms the image out to show a more defined feed. The figure can't even been seen.
"Zoom back in", Zenyatta offers. "They will eventually come close enough to be seen."
And that makes sense, sure, except minutes pass by and Reinhardt gets so stressed he starts clicking a pen on a desk until he realises the sound only agitates him more. But the wait is painful so he starts tapping his shoe instead.
The figure's wearing a hat.
"I think I might cry", Angela says, a hand over her mouth. "Is it McCree? We're all thinking it. Is it him?"
"Let's wait a bit more", Winston says. His hands and feet are all fiddling with each other.
Something glints over the intruder's waist as they stumble close enough to tell that the hat is definately a cowboy one.
"Please tell me he's not still wearing the belt."
"Oh my god."
"He would though, he totally would."
A minute more and somewhere between the spurs and the chaps they stop questioning his identity.
"Send a drone!" Torbjorn says. "Tell him to hurry up, we're dying here!"
"He's almost close enough to hear me", Athena says. "There's a loud enough speaker on the comm tower."
Her video feed zooms out to show how close he really is, and it's so much closer than it seemed when everyone was worried about an attack. It's not long before McCree stops moving and takes a cautious peek down at the comm tower.
"McCree?"
"Athena?"
"It's been a long time, McCree", she says over the speaker and inside the lab, almost like she forgot others could hear her. "You've been missed. I'm sending a drone to help you down."
"Thank ya kindly, darling", McCree says, with a tip of his hat. He slowly makes his way to the very edge of the uncarved stone and plops down. "I missed your voice."
"The feeling is mutual."
"Is anyone else here?"
"Plenty. They're watching you through the surveillance."
McCree looks around, catches sight of the camera like he knew where it was. He smiles and tips his hat at it. "Howdy."
"Oh my god!" Tracer groans, hiding her face behind her hands. "Someone get that man down here so I can hug his stupid face!"
"You'll get your turn", Angela mumbles over her lip between her teeth.
McCree turns to his right, watches the approaching drone that's still out of frame. "How is everyone?"
"Agitated to see you again", Athena laughs. "You took a while to stumble here."
"Did I? I was more occupied with staying on the cliff and not taking the dive to the fishes."
The drone comes to hover right next to McCree, and he climbs on it before it takes him down to the comm tower catwalk. As soon as he leaves the camera's line of sight, Tracer rushes out the upper door, screaming.
"Jesse!"
He climbs off the drone. "Lena?"
Tracer shouts his name again, but the sound is lost when she blinks over the gap to land on the catwalk. She glomps McCree flat on his back. They laugh.
The others rush out of the room in a more humane pace, cheering and yelling at the two to come down. They get huddled as soon as they do.
"I can't breathe", McCree laughs. "Ease up guys, I ain't gonna evaporate."
Angela keeps an arm around his shoulders, gives him a kiss. "We missed you, is all. Why did it take you so long to get here?"
"Hasn't been that long."
"It's been three months."
McCree shrugs. "Hard to travel with a bounty."
"Excuses."
Genji claps his hands to get their attention. The cling they make has never really been loud, but it's out of place so it draws the attention it needs to. "Jesse, I'd like to introduce you to someone."
Jesse raises an eyebrow.
"This is my master, Zenyatta. He was a member of the Shambali and he helped me with a lot of mental things. Master, this is Jesse McCree, the cowboy."
McCree untangles himself from Angela to offer a tip of his hat. "How come he gets an introduction all proper and all I get is 'the cowboy'?"
"I've spoked about you to Zenyatta plenty of times. He knows what I think of you. You've never even heard of him before. An introduction was in order."
"You spoke a me? What'd ya say?"
Zenyatta laughs. "If it's any consolation, I hold you in positive light."
"Oh my god" McCree goes. "Genji, you shit."
"What? I was just honest."
"Yes that's the problem." McCree makes to swat at Genji, who swats back for all of two seconds before he grabs McCree's wrist.
"When did this happen?"
The entire company looks at the metal on McCree's arm that dissappears under his serape, as if they couldn't have noticed without someone pointing it out.
"Must be about two years by now."
"...Was it an accident or?"
McCree huffs, tries to turn it into a laugh. "Nah, it was very much on purpose. But hey, fuck that, let's not bring the spirits down. Why don't y'all fill me in on your lives? What'd I miss here?"