Chapter Text
Angela Zeigler was a pretty lady. Blonde hair, blue eyes, nice, gentle curves to her face and the arches of her eyebrows like the actresses in movies. Jesse McCree's first impression of her was a striking psychical similarity to a deceptively mean girl in his tenth grade English class way back when, but he tried to push that thought aside. Not nice to make assumptions like that. So, she was the pretty, smart lady who smiled genuinely at him the first time they were introduced. The prodigy who earned her doctorate at just seventeen. Jesse always felt a little inferior at the title. He was the same age as her, after all.
He couldn't help but be jealous when his higher ups listened earnestly to her talking about her project.
"It works how?"
Angela smiled modestly at their interest in her life work. She held the prototype caduceus staff in her hands and recited proudly, "The beam affects the cells at a microscopic level to repair tissue and kill bacteria! It's not perfect yet, but it will be!".
Ok, Jesse was a little jealous, childish as it may be. He didn't come to Overwatch with a world-changing project and a formal invitation. He was dragged up with a black eye and a shitty revolver by Gabriel Reyes. He tried to force down his contempt for Angela. We're both here for a reason, he told himself, watching from across the med bay as their current head medic gave his prosthetic arm its monthly tune-up, taking it apart piece by piece and inspecting every part for damage. The agents agents were walking away from her now, and she looked back at Jesse. He glanced down at his feet, a little embarrassed to be caught eavesdropping. But she strode towards him across the room casually, heels clacking on the linoleum floor.
"Jesse McCree, isn't it?", she asked amiably, "I believe we met briefly yesterday". Jesse looked back up to see her standing just a few feet away.
"Oh, yeah", he grunted, glancing back again at his prosthetic being worked on at the table beside him. Angela followed his gaze.
"Yours, I'm presuming?"
"...Yeah", Jesse was struggling for words in the prescience of someone if such high achievement at such a young age. He cleared his throat. "Lost it 'few years back 'n a rescue mission. Don't s'pose ya could make me a new one w'that there nanotechnology?", he cocked his brow in jest and Angela laughed.
"I'm afraid not, but it does appear to be a rather inticate prosthetic."
"Well, it certainly is, miss! I re'mber when I first got it an' it was was just a prototype, punched a guy dead in the nose and it malfunctioned from the force!", he leaned into the table with his human arm, "y'shoulda seen the other guy when I was done though". Angela smiled again, passively.
"That's.... very interesting!"
"Aw, shoot, did I just go off on a tangent?", Jesse slapped his hand down on his knee. "Sorry 'bout that, miss", he cleared his throat again, "How're you adjustin'?". Angela was still glancing at the arm being cleaned on the table, he noticed.
"—Hm? Oh, it's been nice. Though, I got a little lost on the first day trying to find the restroom", she cocked her head in embarrassment, and Jesse grinned earnestly in response.
"You ain't the first one that's happened to miss!", he reassured her. The gentle thud of metal against the workbench interrupted them and they both looked over to see Jesse's mechanical arm sitting newly put back together.
"It should be good for now, Mccree. Thank you for not being reckless with it this time", the medic said as they wiped down their hands. Jesse gave a gracious thank you as he slid it back into place on his arm and gave his hand a flex.
"Ahh, that lil' tic in the thumbs gone!"
"You had problems with it?", Angela asked.
"Well... sometimes when I grip too hard or just get too rough it gets all buggered... but why d'you ask?"
"Oh... no reason. But I have a meeting to attend to in a few minutes. It was nice getting to talk to you, Jesse". She gave a polite wave and was amused when Jesse tipped his hat in adieu. It would have to wait, but it would not be the only time she took interest in the cowboy and his mechanical arm.