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moonshadowsIt was close to one in the morning when Jesse McCree pressed his hand to the scanner on the gate of the Zurich safehouse - or, as he thought of it, home. Sombra, bless her evil little heart, had made the upgrade some time back so that when he stumbled home too drunk to see straight, he could get in just by slapping his hand against the scanner's surface. He was damn grateful for that consideration now, although he hadn't touched a drop. Whatever bug he'd caught apparently thrived at thirty thousand feet because he'd had a throat tickle and felt vaguely lousy before getting on the plane, but when he woke up as they landed...
Jesse coughed as he stumbled through the open gate. He hadn't made it out of the terminal without needing to find a bathroom, and only years of hung-over puking had let him get into the stall in time. His head hadn't stopped pounding since, and he didn't want to know how high his fever was but he could barely hold himself upright and forget seeing straight. There were always omnic-driven taxis available no matter how busy an airport was, dumb human prejudices, but he'd been grateful for that because a human wouldn't have let him into their cab looking like he did, much less take him across town on the vague promise of being paid later because he was kind of completely broke. But omnics...he tells an omnic anywhere that he's Sombra's brother, and that's better than cash because shadow-sis tips absurdly heavy when people do nice things for her family. So he'd gotten to the gate of the safehouse okay, now all he had to do was get inside.
"Lean on me," an accented omnic voice said at his side, and fuck, he wasn't going to question it. Taxi driver must've told the gardener or something.
The trip upstairs was mostly a blur of accented narration - 'we're at the front door', 'we're at the foot of the stairs', 'one more step' - and then he was lying down and fuck it, that was good enough.
===
When he woke up, he immediately regretted it. He ached all over, something the shivering didn't help, and his mouth felt and tasted like something had died in it. Then he forced his hot, sandy eyes open a crack and had to swallow a lump. He was on the couch, that wasn't a surprise. But the coffee table had been moved so that he could reach it easily and there was a glass of water, a dose of liquid medicine, a big metal bowl, a bell, and his teddy bear all lined up waiting for him. He swallowed the medicine, chased it with half the water, and then pulled the white bear over to cuddle it. Someone - probably shadow-sis - had taken the time to set up all this stuff. Someone cared.
"You cold, mijo?"
It was Gabe's voice, Jesse realized. It was Gabe's voice, it was coming from the chair, and it sounded tired. "Dad?"
A rustle, and Gabriel Reyes stepped into his field of vision wearing a pair of pajama bottoms. He crossed his arms over his chest, a teasing smirk making his lips twitch. "Well, you're not hallucinating, so that's good, but you're shivering. Are you cold?"
"Yeah," Jesse sighed, feeling like the biggest little kid in history as Gabriel took a blanket from somewhere and spread it over him.
It was warm. Was this Gabe's blanket? Had he been asleep in the chair, warming this blanket with his own body heat, waiting for Jesse to wake up? Something told him the answer was yes.
"Thanks, Dad," he whispered, closing his eyes because he was sure he was gonna cry.
A pair of warm lips pressed against his temple. "You need anything," Gabriel said softly, "you ring that bell. I'll be right here. Got it, mijo?"
Jesse couldn't say anything past the lump in his throat, but he nodded.
"Okay. Goodnight, Jesse."
=
The next time Jesse clawed his way out of sleep, he was too hot but the blanket was tangled and he couldn't get it off.
"Jesse!" a cool voice said, followed by no, no, no, and a garble of French. Quiet-sis. Adrienne. She plucked at the blanket and peeled it off of him. "Better?"
"Yeah," he panted. "Thanks."
"Your bear fell to the floor."
"That's fine. Too hot."
Adrienne lifted the glass of water to his lips. He sucked it down and then coughed before leaning back. "More?" she asked.
Shaking his head did not seem like a good idea, not with how it was spinning. "Nah," he said instead.
"Mijo," Gabe called from the kitchen, "you okay in there?" A mutter and some footsteps followed.
"Too hot," Jesse repeated. He was whining, he could hear it in his voice, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
"Usually that's my problem," Gabe joked as he came over to kneel by the couch, a bowl in one hand. He'd changed into jeans and a black tee with some sort of logo on it in white - oh. Reaper's mask. The hand he laid on Jesse's forehead felt like ice. "You're burning up. Get your brother some more of that medicine," he said to Adrienne. The bowl held water and a cloth, it turned out, and Gabriel started wiping the sweat off his son's face. "That's one hell of a bug you caught, chulo. Gonna need to smoke it out."
That meant... "Taco soup?" he asked hopefully.
"Si, taco soup. Your other sister's taking over for me right now. Should be ready by the time you're ready for food."
Other sister. "There's a taxi..."
"Already taken care of," Gabe assured him. "Good thinking, getting an omnic cab."
Jesse laughed, but it was a dry, hacking laugh. "Had to. 'M broke, Dad."
He'd been afraid that would get some kind of angry (or worse, disappointed) look, but Gabriel smiled teasingly instead as he squeezed out the cloth and then laid it on Jesse's forehead. "Tell me you at least got the good booze this time."
"Wasn't drinking."
That got a silent eyebrow raise of surprised approval. "Was she cute, then?"
Another hacking laugh."Like you wouldn't believe."
"That's my boy," Gabe said proudly.
Adrienne came back into the room with a bottle and a little plastic cup, and Gabriel slid one arm behind Jesse so he could sit up enough to drink the medicine. Quiet-sis took the opportunity to shove a pillow under his head before rescuing the bear from the floor and setting it on his lap. Jesse reached one finger out to touch the bear's nose.
"She was five," he said quietly, "and she was begging because her mom had a broken leg and couldn't work. I got the mom to a doctor, stayed around a few days cooking and cleaning, and then got myself the cheapest ticket to Zurich I could find and gave them everything I had left."
"That's my boy," Gabriel said again, but in a quieter, more sincere voice. Then he hugged Jesse and re-arranged the cloth on his forehead. "You hear that, Alé?"
"Si, Papi," Sombra called back from the kitchen. A few seconds later she came out to squeeze between their father and sister and perch on the edge of the couch. "You should have called, Jesse," she told him, taking his other hand in hers. Her skin felt pleasantly cool against his fevered flesh.
"Was going to on the flight, but I passed out as soon as we took off, and when I woke up..."
She nodded. "Taxi driver said you looked so bad they were surprised you could walk."
Jesse groaned. "I probably got everyone on that flight sick. I'll probably get you sick. I'm sorry, Alé. If I'd known it would be this bad, I woulda called for some money and holed up in a hotel for the week."
"You won't get me sick," Sombra said firmly. "My swarm is identifying what you're sick with right now. Papi's already has. Adrienne's got a swarm of her own from when she was being retro-conditioned. You sure you don't want to upgrade your immune system?" she teased.
That made him laugh tiredly. "I'm thinking about it," he said. "But right now, 's getting hard to think."
Gabriel grunted. "Good. Then the medicine's starting to work. Sleep, mijo. Taco soup will be ready when you wake up."
=
The grumbling of Jesse's stomach woke him up next, and once awake, the gnawing hunger and mouthwatering aroma of taco soup wouldn't let him go back to sleep. He rolled over, surprised that the motion didn't make anything worse, and discovered that the water glass had been refilled. In seconds, he'd drained it.
"Taco soup isn't done yet," quiet-sis said from her chair. "Papi said half an hour."
Jesse sat up and scratched at his scalp. "Sounds like I've got time to take a shower, then. If I can stay upright," he added as the dizziness came back.
"Shadow-sis to the rescue," Sombra declared, emerging from his room in the purple two-piece he remembered from their first trip to the beach as a pseudo-family. "Come on," she said as he let her help him to his feet, "it won't be nearly the most embarrassing thing we've ever done."
Trying to forget her waking his horse kept him occupied until she put his hands on a towel rack in the bathroom and started removing his clothes. "You're the best sister," he said quietly, leaning against the nice, cool tile while she argued with his pants.
"Hey, my teenage self would have killed to be doing this," she joked. "Just...not in this exact circumstance."
He noticed, as she walked him into the shower stall, that there were extra towels layered on the floor. Considering the stall wasn't really big enough for two, though, that made sense.
"You want me to just steady you," she asked, "and let you do your thing? Or do you want to steady yourself and pretend you're in a spa?"
"I ain't pretty enough to go to a spa," he retorted. "But I wouldn't objected to being curried like a horse."
Sombra laughed. "You said it, not me."
Jesse braced himself against the molding in the stall, grateful for the nonslip floor, as the water came on and his hacker sister started scrubbing him down. It would have been awkward and tense with anyone else, but she was right, they'd been through more embarrassing together. Instead, it was just relaxing and refreshing. When he was clean, she shut the water off and draped one towel over his shoulders before attacking his hair with another, her own hair slightly wet but braided and pinned mostly out of the way.
"Clothes on your bed," she said as he wrapped the towel around his waist. "How you feeling?"
"Human," he answered. Then he pulled her into a long hug. "Thanks, Alé," he murmured into her hair.
She hugged him just a little tighter. "If you're thanking me now, what will you do when the taco soup is ready?"
"Thank Dad," he teased.
"Ingrate," she retorted, or tried to, but she was laughing too hard. "You gonna be okay to get dressed by yourself?"
He hugged her again before letting go. "Yeah. I mean it, shadow-sis: thank you. You're always puttin' up with my dumb shit, and I'm grateful."
"You my brother, Jesse," she said in a small voice. "If this isn't what family's supposed to do, then don't tell me because if I'm doing it wrong, I don't want to be right."
That got her hugged again.
"Go put your clothes on," she joked as he let her go again, "and I'll do the same and then...taco soup."
Taco soup. Jesse's stomach growled again.
=
Each of the safehouse living areas had a full dining room as well as the smaller table for four in the kitchen. But in all the time since Sombra had fled to Switzerland with Reaper and Widowmaker, leaving Talon in flames behind them, they'd barely used the dining room. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the kitchen was the heart of Casa Reyes. At first, it had been Sombra cooking food she couldn't enjoy for Reaper-the-dog and Jesse. Then, when Adrienne (before she had chosen the name) had come back from retro-conditioning, she and Sombra and occasionally Reaper would spend quiet hours learning or re-learning recipes. Once Reaper had transitioned to his old self, Gabriel Reyes took aggressive pleasure in cooking dinner for the little family. And then, finally, Sombra had followed her Papi into an organic body.
At that point, they'd all fought to cook for Alessandra.
Now, the kitchen was full of delicious scents, onions and peppers and chilies and spices over the heartier scents of meat and tomato. Jesse stood in the doorway a moment (leaning on the doorframe because that dizziness still hadn't gone away), eyes closed, breathing in the scents of comfort and intimacy. Adrienne was setting the table, bowls and spoons and tall glasses of water (and milk for herself), while Gabe stood at the counter, cleaver flashing as he cut tortillas into strips for the soup.
"Need a hand?" Sombra asked from behind him.
"Nah. I'm good."
Putting lie to his words, though, he had one hand braced against the wall as he made his way over to the table. His sisters formed a chain with their father, linking table and stove, filling bowls with the savory soup that threatened to burn out any infection and topping them with strips of tortilla that sank slowly, absorbing the spiced liquid.
When they were all seated, Gabriel beamed around at his family and took the ceremonial first spoonful of taco soup. Rolled it around in his mouth, a look of contemplation on his face. Swallowed. Nodded as beads of sweat popped out on his shaved scalp. "Good job, Alé," he said with a calmness everyone knew was sheer, iron will. "You've learned well. 'Rienne, you might want to add some sour cream to this."
Jesse grinned at his hacker sister, who grinned back. With pure, masochistic anticipation, he lifted the spoon to his mouth and took a bite.
FIRE. Delicious fire, but hoo boy he could feel himself sweat. Once he'd swallowed, he leaned over and took a good, long sniff to see if it would clear his sinuses. Then he leaned back and blinked until his eyes stopped watering.
"You okay, Jesse?"
"Yeah," he gasped, giving in and wiping his eyes on the collar of his shirt. "Good job, shadow-sis. I think I can feel that bug running for cover."
Gabe grinned at him. "Better flush it out, mijo. I want to see you eat that whole bowl of soup, or so help me, I will think of a threat!"
"Yessir," Jesse drawled, grinning so broadly that he almost couldn't get his mouth around the spoon.
Yeah, being sick sucked. But his family went out of their way to fuss over him, and he got taco soup, so really...he couldn't be too upset. Almost made him want to go out and get sick on purpose.
Almost.
Jesse coughed as he stumbled through the open gate. He hadn't made it out of the terminal without needing to find a bathroom, and only years of hung-over puking had let him get into the stall in time. His head hadn't stopped pounding since, and he didn't want to know how high his fever was but he could barely hold himself upright and forget seeing straight. There were always omnic-driven taxis available no matter how busy an airport was, dumb human prejudices, but he'd been grateful for that because a human wouldn't have let him into their cab looking like he did, much less take him across town on the vague promise of being paid later because he was kind of completely broke. But omnics...he tells an omnic anywhere that he's Sombra's brother, and that's better than cash because shadow-sis tips absurdly heavy when people do nice things for her family. So he'd gotten to the gate of the safehouse okay, now all he had to do was get inside.
"Lean on me," an accented omnic voice said at his side, and fuck, he wasn't going to question it. Taxi driver must've told the gardener or something.
The trip upstairs was mostly a blur of accented narration - 'we're at the front door', 'we're at the foot of the stairs', 'one more step' - and then he was lying down and fuck it, that was good enough.
===
When he woke up, he immediately regretted it. He ached all over, something the shivering didn't help, and his mouth felt and tasted like something had died in it. Then he forced his hot, sandy eyes open a crack and had to swallow a lump. He was on the couch, that wasn't a surprise. But the coffee table had been moved so that he could reach it easily and there was a glass of water, a dose of liquid medicine, a big metal bowl, a bell, and his teddy bear all lined up waiting for him. He swallowed the medicine, chased it with half the water, and then pulled the white bear over to cuddle it. Someone - probably shadow-sis - had taken the time to set up all this stuff. Someone cared.
"You cold, mijo?"
It was Gabe's voice, Jesse realized. It was Gabe's voice, it was coming from the chair, and it sounded tired. "Dad?"
A rustle, and Gabriel Reyes stepped into his field of vision wearing a pair of pajama bottoms. He crossed his arms over his chest, a teasing smirk making his lips twitch. "Well, you're not hallucinating, so that's good, but you're shivering. Are you cold?"
"Yeah," Jesse sighed, feeling like the biggest little kid in history as Gabriel took a blanket from somewhere and spread it over him.
It was warm. Was this Gabe's blanket? Had he been asleep in the chair, warming this blanket with his own body heat, waiting for Jesse to wake up? Something told him the answer was yes.
"Thanks, Dad," he whispered, closing his eyes because he was sure he was gonna cry.
A pair of warm lips pressed against his temple. "You need anything," Gabriel said softly, "you ring that bell. I'll be right here. Got it, mijo?"
Jesse couldn't say anything past the lump in his throat, but he nodded.
"Okay. Goodnight, Jesse."
=
The next time Jesse clawed his way out of sleep, he was too hot but the blanket was tangled and he couldn't get it off.
"Jesse!" a cool voice said, followed by no, no, no, and a garble of French. Quiet-sis. Adrienne. She plucked at the blanket and peeled it off of him. "Better?"
"Yeah," he panted. "Thanks."
"Your bear fell to the floor."
"That's fine. Too hot."
Adrienne lifted the glass of water to his lips. He sucked it down and then coughed before leaning back. "More?" she asked.
Shaking his head did not seem like a good idea, not with how it was spinning. "Nah," he said instead.
"Mijo," Gabe called from the kitchen, "you okay in there?" A mutter and some footsteps followed.
"Too hot," Jesse repeated. He was whining, he could hear it in his voice, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
"Usually that's my problem," Gabe joked as he came over to kneel by the couch, a bowl in one hand. He'd changed into jeans and a black tee with some sort of logo on it in white - oh. Reaper's mask. The hand he laid on Jesse's forehead felt like ice. "You're burning up. Get your brother some more of that medicine," he said to Adrienne. The bowl held water and a cloth, it turned out, and Gabriel started wiping the sweat off his son's face. "That's one hell of a bug you caught, chulo. Gonna need to smoke it out."
That meant... "Taco soup?" he asked hopefully.
"Si, taco soup. Your other sister's taking over for me right now. Should be ready by the time you're ready for food."
Other sister. "There's a taxi..."
"Already taken care of," Gabe assured him. "Good thinking, getting an omnic cab."
Jesse laughed, but it was a dry, hacking laugh. "Had to. 'M broke, Dad."
He'd been afraid that would get some kind of angry (or worse, disappointed) look, but Gabriel smiled teasingly instead as he squeezed out the cloth and then laid it on Jesse's forehead. "Tell me you at least got the good booze this time."
"Wasn't drinking."
That got a silent eyebrow raise of surprised approval. "Was she cute, then?"
Another hacking laugh."Like you wouldn't believe."
"That's my boy," Gabe said proudly.
Adrienne came back into the room with a bottle and a little plastic cup, and Gabriel slid one arm behind Jesse so he could sit up enough to drink the medicine. Quiet-sis took the opportunity to shove a pillow under his head before rescuing the bear from the floor and setting it on his lap. Jesse reached one finger out to touch the bear's nose.
"She was five," he said quietly, "and she was begging because her mom had a broken leg and couldn't work. I got the mom to a doctor, stayed around a few days cooking and cleaning, and then got myself the cheapest ticket to Zurich I could find and gave them everything I had left."
"That's my boy," Gabriel said again, but in a quieter, more sincere voice. Then he hugged Jesse and re-arranged the cloth on his forehead. "You hear that, Alé?"
"Si, Papi," Sombra called back from the kitchen. A few seconds later she came out to squeeze between their father and sister and perch on the edge of the couch. "You should have called, Jesse," she told him, taking his other hand in hers. Her skin felt pleasantly cool against his fevered flesh.
"Was going to on the flight, but I passed out as soon as we took off, and when I woke up..."
She nodded. "Taxi driver said you looked so bad they were surprised you could walk."
Jesse groaned. "I probably got everyone on that flight sick. I'll probably get you sick. I'm sorry, Alé. If I'd known it would be this bad, I woulda called for some money and holed up in a hotel for the week."
"You won't get me sick," Sombra said firmly. "My swarm is identifying what you're sick with right now. Papi's already has. Adrienne's got a swarm of her own from when she was being retro-conditioned. You sure you don't want to upgrade your immune system?" she teased.
That made him laugh tiredly. "I'm thinking about it," he said. "But right now, 's getting hard to think."
Gabriel grunted. "Good. Then the medicine's starting to work. Sleep, mijo. Taco soup will be ready when you wake up."
=
The grumbling of Jesse's stomach woke him up next, and once awake, the gnawing hunger and mouthwatering aroma of taco soup wouldn't let him go back to sleep. He rolled over, surprised that the motion didn't make anything worse, and discovered that the water glass had been refilled. In seconds, he'd drained it.
"Taco soup isn't done yet," quiet-sis said from her chair. "Papi said half an hour."
Jesse sat up and scratched at his scalp. "Sounds like I've got time to take a shower, then. If I can stay upright," he added as the dizziness came back.
"Shadow-sis to the rescue," Sombra declared, emerging from his room in the purple two-piece he remembered from their first trip to the beach as a pseudo-family. "Come on," she said as he let her help him to his feet, "it won't be nearly the most embarrassing thing we've ever done."
Trying to forget her waking his horse kept him occupied until she put his hands on a towel rack in the bathroom and started removing his clothes. "You're the best sister," he said quietly, leaning against the nice, cool tile while she argued with his pants.
"Hey, my teenage self would have killed to be doing this," she joked. "Just...not in this exact circumstance."
He noticed, as she walked him into the shower stall, that there were extra towels layered on the floor. Considering the stall wasn't really big enough for two, though, that made sense.
"You want me to just steady you," she asked, "and let you do your thing? Or do you want to steady yourself and pretend you're in a spa?"
"I ain't pretty enough to go to a spa," he retorted. "But I wouldn't objected to being curried like a horse."
Sombra laughed. "You said it, not me."
Jesse braced himself against the molding in the stall, grateful for the nonslip floor, as the water came on and his hacker sister started scrubbing him down. It would have been awkward and tense with anyone else, but she was right, they'd been through more embarrassing together. Instead, it was just relaxing and refreshing. When he was clean, she shut the water off and draped one towel over his shoulders before attacking his hair with another, her own hair slightly wet but braided and pinned mostly out of the way.
"Clothes on your bed," she said as he wrapped the towel around his waist. "How you feeling?"
"Human," he answered. Then he pulled her into a long hug. "Thanks, Alé," he murmured into her hair.
She hugged him just a little tighter. "If you're thanking me now, what will you do when the taco soup is ready?"
"Thank Dad," he teased.
"Ingrate," she retorted, or tried to, but she was laughing too hard. "You gonna be okay to get dressed by yourself?"
He hugged her again before letting go. "Yeah. I mean it, shadow-sis: thank you. You're always puttin' up with my dumb shit, and I'm grateful."
"You my brother, Jesse," she said in a small voice. "If this isn't what family's supposed to do, then don't tell me because if I'm doing it wrong, I don't want to be right."
That got her hugged again.
"Go put your clothes on," she joked as he let her go again, "and I'll do the same and then...taco soup."
Taco soup. Jesse's stomach growled again.
=
Each of the safehouse living areas had a full dining room as well as the smaller table for four in the kitchen. But in all the time since Sombra had fled to Switzerland with Reaper and Widowmaker, leaving Talon in flames behind them, they'd barely used the dining room. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the kitchen was the heart of Casa Reyes. At first, it had been Sombra cooking food she couldn't enjoy for Reaper-the-dog and Jesse. Then, when Adrienne (before she had chosen the name) had come back from retro-conditioning, she and Sombra and occasionally Reaper would spend quiet hours learning or re-learning recipes. Once Reaper had transitioned to his old self, Gabriel Reyes took aggressive pleasure in cooking dinner for the little family. And then, finally, Sombra had followed her Papi into an organic body.
At that point, they'd all fought to cook for Alessandra.
Now, the kitchen was full of delicious scents, onions and peppers and chilies and spices over the heartier scents of meat and tomato. Jesse stood in the doorway a moment (leaning on the doorframe because that dizziness still hadn't gone away), eyes closed, breathing in the scents of comfort and intimacy. Adrienne was setting the table, bowls and spoons and tall glasses of water (and milk for herself), while Gabe stood at the counter, cleaver flashing as he cut tortillas into strips for the soup.
"Need a hand?" Sombra asked from behind him.
"Nah. I'm good."
Putting lie to his words, though, he had one hand braced against the wall as he made his way over to the table. His sisters formed a chain with their father, linking table and stove, filling bowls with the savory soup that threatened to burn out any infection and topping them with strips of tortilla that sank slowly, absorbing the spiced liquid.
When they were all seated, Gabriel beamed around at his family and took the ceremonial first spoonful of taco soup. Rolled it around in his mouth, a look of contemplation on his face. Swallowed. Nodded as beads of sweat popped out on his shaved scalp. "Good job, Alé," he said with a calmness everyone knew was sheer, iron will. "You've learned well. 'Rienne, you might want to add some sour cream to this."
Jesse grinned at his hacker sister, who grinned back. With pure, masochistic anticipation, he lifted the spoon to his mouth and took a bite.
FIRE. Delicious fire, but hoo boy he could feel himself sweat. Once he'd swallowed, he leaned over and took a good, long sniff to see if it would clear his sinuses. Then he leaned back and blinked until his eyes stopped watering.
"You okay, Jesse?"
"Yeah," he gasped, giving in and wiping his eyes on the collar of his shirt. "Good job, shadow-sis. I think I can feel that bug running for cover."
Gabe grinned at him. "Better flush it out, mijo. I want to see you eat that whole bowl of soup, or so help me, I will think of a threat!"
"Yessir," Jesse drawled, grinning so broadly that he almost couldn't get his mouth around the spoon.
Yeah, being sick sucked. But his family went out of their way to fuss over him, and he got taco soup, so really...he couldn't be too upset. Almost made him want to go out and get sick on purpose.
Almost.