Work Text:
Fighting together again is easy. Learning to trust each other again, outside of battle, is hard.
Gabriel knows the new Overwatch has no good reason to trust him – hell, half of them still thinks he worked for Talon. He wanted to tell them I only worked for Talon in order to destroy them, but he knows the Reaper’s reputation is difficult to get over. And that includes Jack.
Who believes he was responsible for the destruction of the Swiss headquarters.
(He didn’t do that. Talon did.
But that was a story for another time. Once he knows more about what happened.)
***
(three months ago)
With the threat of a Second Omnic Crisis looming, he knew something had to be done. Overwatch is needed again.
The world could use more heroes indeed.
He was running out of ideas to trigger a recall, when Talon sent the mission to Watchpoint: Gibraltar his way. Gabriel knew a hidden opportunity when he saw it, and quietly thanked whatever deity up high was there before he got to work.
From surveillance data, he knew that the watchpoint was mostly abandoned. Its only caretaker was Winston – the UN left him alone after the Petras Act figuring that one single scientist couldn’t do harm, even if said scientist is a gorilla – and the former Overwatch AI, Athena.
And she was his target.
Gabriel had no doubt Winston would be able to defend himself – he would take it easy on him, just in case – but he asked Sombra for a favor. She agreed, but on the condition that he takes him with her if it succeeds.
(He doesn’t know what Sombra wanted in getting away from Talon.
She never told him, and he never asked.)
Trying to make it look realistic for the Talon mooks following him was easy – he always had a flair for dramatics, and the infiltration drills in Blackwatch back in the day helped. He just had to trust that Winston would buy into the act and initiate the Recall.
Leaving the mooks to face Winston alone, so no one would be watching when he took on the scientist and discover his intention. Shots to the armor instead of exposed flesh. Dropping a model on him instead of finishing him off.
But Winston did not rise to the bait – the wide-eyed gorilla boy of Overwatch was now grown up. Gabriel chuckled at the thought as he searched his mind for something, anything that can get Winston to see the danger he is in.
Something to get him to fight back, even if it is in self-defense.
(Calling Winston a monkey was a bit mean, but it was a sure-fire way to make him angry. Gabriel made a mental note to offer apologies later when he rejoin Overwatch.
The young gorilla scientist in his memory loved Captain Reyes’ peanut butter cookies.)
As his disintegrated form watched Winston pulling out the data spike, Gabriel mentally breathed a sigh of relief.
(He asked Sombra to modify the spike, so the virus would self-delete when it reaches a certain percentage.
Just in case Winston did not make it in time.)
He drifted away in a cloud of nanites. His job was done, now he just had to wait for the result.
***
When Sombra alerted him to the Recall, Gabriel knew his ploy worked.
Time to leave Talon and rejoin Overwatch. He will not let it be destroyed again.
(She also informed him that Soldier: 76 – revealed to be the long-thought-dead Jack Morrison – had also responded to the Recall.
Gabriel didn’t admit it at first, but a part of him wanted to see Jack again.)
At first, Gabriel wanted to take Widowmaker with him. Talon archives revealed that Amélie did not become… that… of her own will – she was brainwashed, both to kill her own husband and rejoining Talon after that. He had hoped that Overwatch might be able to undo the brainwashing and get the old Amélie back.
He soon realized that including Widowmaker created a whole slew of obstacles in his plan.
Reaper is a freelance contractor and could come and go as he pleases. Sombra can cut and run at a moment’s notice, and he does not doubt her skill to vanish from Talon’s eyes. The top assassin is going to get attention however. Not to mention with the loyalty Talon programmed into her, any intention of getting her to leave on her own will undoubtly be reported to the superiors.
(He wondered if Amélie herself would want to be saved. If there was even anything left to save.)
In the end he settled with getting whatever data he could lay his hands on about Talon’s weapons, operations and roster, along with Widowmaker’s medical data and conditioning process. Perhaps Overwatch can work on a cure and use it on Amélie once they managed to get her back.
Gabriel and Sombra booked a flight to Spain the next day, and didn’t look back.
They have an organization to join.
***
The day he showed up at Watchpoint: Gibraltar, unarmed and with Sombra in tow, he was met with a committee of a dozen weapons of all kinds. He did not blame them; no one expects good things when Talon’s most dangerous mercenary and hacker suddenly show up at their doorsteps.
Even if said mercenary and hacker intended to come in peace.
A lot of talking and information exchange between Sombra and Winston later, the two were grudgingly given their own quarters in the Watchpoint. Winston welcomed the extra firepower and tactical support, even if he viewed them with suspicion.
After he entered himself in the roster and found his room, the first thing he did was to find Jack. Soldier: 76.
He spent two hours wandering around the base before the musician – Lúcio, that’s his name – told him that Jack left on an assignment an hour ago. While Gabriel was still stuck in the briefing room with Winston.
Something tasted like disappointment was stuck in the back of his throat as he returned to his room.
***
The first few days with the new Overwatch team was… tense. At least no one pulled a gun on him and Sombra – Winston’s request for peace was acknowledged, though Gabriel could feel the tension every time someone comes across him in the watchpoint.
Angela had bursted into tears the moment she saw him in the medbay.
He gave her Widowmaker’s medical data as an olive branch. She received it with shaking hands, and promised to find a cure for his condition. Gabriel did not hold her to that.
(She did not ask for forgiveness, and he did not give any.)
Jesse and Lena were glad to have him back, although he got a slap from his protégé (“That was for working with Talon, old man!”) before he found himself in an enveloping hug. Reinhardt broke down in tears (“He’s just overwhelmed by all the ghosts rising from their graves! Don’t worry!”) then grabbed Gabriel in a bone-crushing hug. He was pretty sure he would have ended up with broken bones if he was human.
The new recruits are less friendly, perhaps due to his reputation as Reaper. There’s Lúcio the Brazilian musician, Korean gaming celebrity and mech pilot Hana “D.Va” Song, Russian soldier Aleksandra “Zarya” Zaryanova and a Shambali omnic monk called Zenyatta. Apparently Winston had been diligent in putting out the word to recruit new blood for the organization, even if they are technically illegal due to the Petras Act now.
(He saw Widowmaker’s report on Mondatta’a assassination, and her run-in with Tracer.
Something like guilt tugged at him when he shook hands with Zenyatta.)
Genji – the Shimada kid that Ziegler found and turned into a cyborg – was also there, with someone that he introduced as his brother Hanzo before explaining that they managed to reconcile over what had happened. Even if their relationship was still lukewarm at best.
Genji was happy to have him back while Hanzo was more guarded, but both of them did not press further on his former ties with Talon.
(They understood what it was like to be a criminal seeking atonement.)
Throughout all of it, he did not see Jack even once.
***
It appears that old soldiers never stayed dead.
Five days after his return to Overwatch, he comes face-to-face with another ghost in the hallway at 3 AM.
Ana Amari.
She is older now, braided white hair framing a weathered face. A light blue hijab frames her face underneath the hood of a camouflage cloak. An eyepatch covers her right eye, leaving the left eye with the Eye of Horus tattoo to look straight into him.
(He saw the report, had accused Jack of leaving her to die.)
“Gabriel. It’s good to see you again.”
“Ana.” He hesitates. “How-?”
“It’s a long story.” Her eye briefly glints with sadness. “We can discuss this over tea, if you wish?”
He nods wordlessly before turning to follow Ana into the mess hall.
***
That night, Gabriel learned what happened to Ana after that mission.
So Amélie did not quite manage to kill her with that shot, although it took her cybernetic eye. And she had chosen to stay of her own volition.
(Another thing he will have to apologize to Jack once the other gets back.)
He understands the weariness of combat all too well, and didn’t blame Ana for what she did.
“Are you going to have that eye replaced?”
“I told Angela I wanted to keep it that way. It’s another of my battle scars. A reminder of what I fought.”
“I understand.” He nods. “It’s late, I should leave.”
“Good night.” Ana stands up to clean the teacups. “And Gabriel? Talk to Jack. He will be back tomorrow.”
“No promise, Ana. I’ve given him plenty of reasons to hate me.”
“The last time you two had a lover’s spat, Overwatch went down in flames. Try to talk to each other properly this time!”
(He had to admit that she has a point. Something about mothers know best.)
***
Soldier: 76 returns from his assignment on the next day.
Gabriel is lounging in the common room, wearing a black hoodie and sweatpants, when Athena announces over the speakers. “Soldier: 76 is back from the assignment.”
Ana catches his eyes and nods. He sighs before nodding back.
He gets up from the couch, before running out of the room and down the hallway. If he’s fast enough, he might be able to catch Jack in time-
And right into Jack.
The collision sends both of them tumbling on the floor. Somehow Gabriel ends up on top of Jack, arms on both side of the soldier’s head.
(He briefly registers the sound of the heavy pulse rifle as it collides with the laminate surface, but he doesn’t care.)
“Morrison. Jack.”
Jack is still in full gear, although his tactical visor is gone – leaving his face exposed. His hair, once blond and lushing, is thinned-out white. Frown lines around his eyes and mouth. Two thick scars bisecting his face.
And Gabriel still finds him beautiful.
“Reaper. What do you want?” Jack looks unimpressed. The frown lines around his mouth tightens.
“I-“ Gabriel is at a loss for words. What is he supposed to say to Jack? “I… just want to talk. To you.”
Icy blue eyes narrow on him. “We have nothing to talk about.”
Jack shoves hard at Gabriel’s chest to force the wraith off him. Gabriel tumbles backwards, off-balance from the sudden movement.
In the time Gabriel takes to recover from the disorientation, Jack has picked up the pulse rifle before pointing it at Gabriel’s face. “And stay away from me. If you lay a hand on me, I’ll kill you.”
“Jack- Wait!” Between one moment and the next, Jack is gone.
So much for talking.
(Something prickles in the corner of his eyes.
It stings more than he thought.)
***
The living room is a mess. Several pillows are left on the floor. The table is littered with glasses and beer mugs. A half-eaten plate of peanut butter cookies is on the table. Several beer and soda bottles are scattered under the table. All leftovers from the previous evening’s movie marathon.
Gabriel had ended up becoming the night’s snack provider. In his defense, it was completely a coincidence that he wanted to bake cookies on the new Overwatch’s movie night, but since he did anyway, they can have some of the goods. The agents – both old and new - descended on Gabriel’s cookies like a pack of hyenas, and he saw Winston taking several of them when he thought no one was looking.
(There was no way Ana, Jesse and the other Overwatch veterans would miss that. He was pretty sure they only accepted his flimsy excuse to humor him.)
Sombra enjoyed being with the new Overwatch, if only because she was a thirty-something woman acting like a teenager, if her pranks and movie marathons are anything to go by. Gabriel is simply glad that the team accepted her as one of their own, although he was never really close to her. Talon is not a good place to foster close relationships.
“He doesn’t want anything to do with me, Ana.”
And here he is, sitting in the messy room with Ana at 5 AM. The rest of the watchpoint are asleep, letting the two old soldiers have the space to themselves.
Ana is sipping from a cup of tea, her eye trained on Gabriel.
“Jack is in denial – he went through a lot, and he did that to protect himself. He trusted you, trusted Overwatch… and all of them blew up in his face.” Gabriel winces, but he stays silent. “You will have to earn his trust back.”
***
Getting Jack’s trust back is harder than it sounds.
Before their relationship went sour, Gabriel loved caring for Jack. Small things like cooking his favorite foods, comforting him when he woke up from a nightmare or getting Jack to relax after a stressful day from his duty as the Strike Commander. The habit dropped into nothingness when they started avoiding each other, before everything went up in flames at Zurich.
Being a vigilante had reduced Jack to needing only the barest of necessities, so Gabriel’s attempts to care for him went unnoticed. He could not even get close to Jack without the other man trying to force him away.
Gabriel knows that, but he keeps trying. The last time he gave up on Jack resulted in the destruction of Overwatch; now that he has a second chance, he’s not throwing it away again.
***
His first official mission with the new Overwatch was a disaster.
A small team – with both Gabriel and Jack – was sent to Watchpoint: Johannesburg to recover some items that would be of use for Winston. The mission was supposed to be simple: Go in, get the scrap, get out.
Nothing in the briefing mentioned the presence of Talon. Apparently they decided to scavenge things in that particular watchpoint at the same time Overwatch did.
Which is why Gabriel ends up holding Talon mooks off a bleeding and delirious Soldier: 76.
(Jack got hit by a venom mine hidden behind the vault door.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. He should have never let Jack take point.)
A mook rounded the corner before taking a shell to the chest. Another tried to rush him, got shotgun whipped in the face and fell backwards over the nearby railing. His screams was cut off with a crunch.
Jack lies next to him behind a stack of crates, unconscious and breathing shallowly. His jacket is soaked with blood - a Talon grunt managed to land several shots on Jack when he was disoriented from the poison. Gabriel got him to cover and laid down a biotic field to take care of the gunshot wounds, but the nanites did not work for the poison. Jack needs medical attention, and the sooner the better.
(Gabriel had ripped the soul out of the grunt that shot Jack while he was still alive, with more force than what was necessary.
He couldn’t bring himself to regret it.)
A bullet whizzed by, tearing his sleeve and leaving a thin line of blood on his bicep. The shooter gets a shotgun shell to the face, head exploding in a shower of flesh and blood. Gabriel absorbs the soul with a look of disgust as the wound closes in seconds, completely markless.
When the last mook falls – broken skull from a thrown empty shotgun to the head – Gabriel kneels down next to Jack. He sighs in relief when he found Jack’s pulse fluttering beneath his fingers.
His comm crackled. “Reaper! Where are you?” It’s Lúcio. No sound of fighting in the background, which means that the Talon squad has been neutralized. They are safe.
“Give me your coordinates. It’s faster for me to travel to you and Jack needs medical attention stat.”
“What happened?”
“Poisoned by a venom mine. And some gunshot wounds, but a biotic field took care of the worst of it.”
“I can stabilize him, but the poison will have to wait until we get back to Gibraltar. Angela knows more about them than I do.”
Once he got the location of the other team, Gabriel holsters his empty shotguns before hefting Jack into a bridal carry. It’s time to go home.
(The other members give him weird looks when they see him coming out with Jack in his arms, but he couldn’t give a damn.
All he cares about is Jack’s safety.)
***
Angela whisked Jack into the operating room the moment they set foot on Watchpoint: Gibraltar.
Gabriel changes into casual clothes before deciding to wait outside the medbay door.
(He’s not letting Jack out of his reach again.)
Two hours in, Ana brings him leftovers from dinner. “He’s going to be fine, you two have been through worse.”
“I know that, but…”
“We all know you’re worried about him, Gabriel. And put a little trust in Angela.” She shoves the food into his hands, “Now eat. Jack wouldn’t like you skipping meals to wait for him, and you are going to need energy to wait.”
He had to concede that Ana has a point, as always. She knows both of them too well.
***
Gabriel had lost track of how long he has been sitting outside the medbay, when the door slides open to reveal Angela. She looks at him, and her eyes soften.
“Jack is going to be fine, but he needs rest. Do try not to disturb him too much.”
“Thank you… Angela.”
She blinks. “Jack is my friend too, Gabriel. Let me know if anything happens.”
Gabriel watches her leave before stepping into the medbay.
(Maybe, just maybe, he can trust Angela again. Some day.)
***
Gabriel’s eyes fly open the moment he felt something in his hair. He had been dozing in a chair next to Jack’s bed, keeping vigilance on his unconscious partner.
“Hey.”
Jack is trying to pet his hair, but the movements are slow and uncoordinated. Not a surprise considering that the man is still doped up on painkillers.
“I should call Angela, she will want to know you are awake.” Before Gabriel can reach for the call button, Jack’s hand stops him.
“Not now.”
“Alright. But just this time.”
Gabriel is about to leave when Jack speaks up again.
“Stay. Please?”
Gabriel briefly hesitates before gently laying a hand on Jack’s own.
“Rest, sunshine. I’ll be here.”
Jack smiles. His hand is warm under Gabriel’s skin.
(Something lights up in Gabriel’s long-dead heart.
Hope.)