Epilogue: Surprise party

[moonshadows]

 

Two weeks in Dorado with Gabriel Reyes is everything I ever daydreamed and more. Los Muertos are distinctly better off than they were when I left, which is only to be expected when I funneled a bunch of Talon's resources to them. Papi practically adopts the whole gang, claiming they're his kids by virtue of appreciating his aesthetic, and of course the whole "family" goes crazy at the fact that not only did their little shadow come back to them from the dead, but I brought Papi Gabriel back from the dead with me. We go to all the places, eat all the food, buy bags of clothes and souvenirs. He stares at the statues of the Overwatch Strike Force, each and every one of them arranged with himself dead center flanked by Jack and Ana, and tries to hide how choked up he is at having been so honored after how long he spent pushed out of the spotlight or swept under the rug. We startle the crap out of random people by listening for the phrase 'What would Papi Gabriel do?' and then having Papi burst into the conversation with what he would do. For some reason, no one actually expects Papi Gabriel to appear and offer his two cents and it amuses him to no end.

We go to the memorial for all the ones who died during the New Year's Massacre, something I never had the courage to do before I left. I find my mother's name and then spend the next half hour or so crying into Papi's shoulder while he hugs me and rubs my back gently.

To cheer me up after that, we go to the church I was made to attend before Los Muertos adopted me, and find the priest who kept telling me that God had a very special plan for me, and that's why He killed my mother. He remembers me, surprisingly (or maybe not, because a 6-year-old calmly demanding an explanation for the senseless death of her mother is probably not something he encountered much), but he's less than pleased when I inform him brightly that he was right, God did have a very special plan for me! ...I had to save Reaper from the Devil and help him become Gabriel Reyes again. The news that Commander Reyes believes in the Devil but not God because he'd met (and I’d killed) the Devil is also less than welcome.

"But then God sent this girl to you as an angel!" the priest protests.

Papi's having none of it. "Look, buddy," he snarls, "any god that would torture a small child to shape her into a weapon for killing the Devil is not a god I would describe as loving and kind so either you lose the fluffy love crap and admit that your god is a brutal motherfucker and I might acknowledge him..." He pauses for emphasis. "...or you can go fuck yourself because I know what my daughter's been through, and as her father, it makes me want to rip someone apart with my bare fucking hands so if your god truly sees us as his children, then he's a worse parent than my old man was, and that's saying something!"

He doesn't even wait for the priest to finish gaping like a dying fish. With a mutter of 'come on, we're out of here' he leads me out of the church and then hugs me when we're back in the sunlight.

"That may have been a little blasphemous," he says, not sounding sorry at all.

"And that's why you were my role model when I was little," I inform him cheerfully.

He laughs. "You are a wicked girl, Alé."

"I take after you, Papi." I grin at him. "Let's go get churros."

===

The flight back across the Atlantic is quiet. I spend it leaning against Papi, napping, the way I used to when he was Reaper and we were in Talon. He wakes me as we land, and suggests we shower and put on something nice before we do anything else. Considering breakfast was lost to time zones, I'm more than ready for lunch, but a hot shower and clean clothes followed by lunch sounds even better. Also, I'm not really awake yet.

As Jerome lowers the ramp, Papi hugs me and kisses the top of my head. "Happy birthday, Alé."

===

"Alé," Papi calls from the living room while I'm getting dressed, "the store's having a sale on ice cream. Go get me some."

It's a set-up for a prank, and I know it. I shout back, "Why am I getting it if you're the one who wants it?"

"Are you giving me lip, girl?" He's struggling to not laugh, I can hear it. "You don't pay no bills to be giving me lip," he finishes, which is a lie because I pay all the bills.

I walk out of my room and give him his own are you fucking shitting me?? look and we both laugh. "Okay, okay. What flavor you want, Papi?" I ask, playing along. Whatever he has planned, I trust that it won't be a cruel prank. Especially after last year.

"I can't decide," he says, and that's bullshit because we both know his taste in ice cream is 'chocolate and as much other stuff as you can cram into it'. "Get chocolate, but also vanilla. And strawberry. And whatever flavor you want."

The store is actually having a sale on ice cream, which is a surprise. Just to be a brat, I grab Papi's Rocky Road and a carton of coffee ice cream with espresso chocolate chips as well as the chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and some unholy birthday cake/bubble gum combo just because it's my birthday and it amuses me. Fran drives me back and Solen gets the door, since I'm carrying two bags full of ice cream. March up the curving stairway to the second floor, kick the door, and when it opens-

A corner of my mind registers that 'Rienne was the one to open the door for me, but Jesse's on my right and he puts an actual vintage cone-shaped party hat on my head to match the one he's wearing, and Adrienne is wearing, and...

...and...

The living room is crammed full of people, Uncle Jack and Tia Ana and Tante Angela and Linkbrother Genji and Winston and Tracer and Reinhardt towering the back throwing a handful of confetti and they're all yelling SURPRISE!! Jesse has a vintage noisemaker clenched in his teeth and it goes fwee as he blows it and I think everyone's wearing Jesse's dumb party hats but I can't see because I'm crying because oh my god Papi organized me a surprise party. Bright blurs have to be balloons clustered in the corners of the ceiling and I think I can see a HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner on the wall behind Reinhardt. There's presents in everyone's hands and piled up on the coffee table and somehow I'm sitting on Jesse's ottoman and Tracer's got the bags of ice cream and is pulling cartons out to stack up next to the presents. Then Papi comes out of the kitchen with a two-tier cake in his hands, my tears making the flames on the candles blur into a halo of flame encircling the second tier, and everyone starts singing Happy Birthday.

"...happy birthday, dear Alé, happy birthday to yooooou!"

Papi sets the cake on the table in front of me but I'm crying too hard to blow the candles out. Then he turns to Jesse and growls, "You didn't sing!" like he's going to kick his cowboy son's ass for this insult to his daughter on her birthday.

Unperturbed, Jesse takes the noisemaker from between his teeth, clears his throat, and sings:

"Happy birthday to you. You live in a zoo. You look like a monkey, and you smell like one too!"

Silence reigns for three beats while Jesse beams, and then Papi snorts and he's laughing and I'm laughing and everyone's laughing. Jesse offers me a birthday-themed napkin like it was a handkerchief, and I wipe my eyes and get my breathing under control and blow the candles out with my eyes closed while everyone cheers and applauds.

I don't make a wish. I already have everything I want.