STTA 17: Emergence

[moonshadows]

A few hours after he and Sombra had retreated from the kitchen, Athena informed Jesse that everyone else had eaten breakfast and gathered in the common room if they wanted to introduce themselves.

They did.

“Yes,” Jesse announced as he sauntered into the common room, “I am alive. No hugs, please,” he added when Reinhardt looked ready to leap up from the couch and charge him. “I just got the holes patched up, and I’d rather not start leaking again.”

Two agents he didn’t quite remember jumped up from a love seat with gestures that he and Sombra should occupy it while they dragged a pair of chairs over from the table.

“It is good to see you,” Reinhardt declared stoutly. To either side of him, Genji and Brigitte nodded agreement. “After what happened in Zurich…I will not deny I feared the worst. And our friend here-” he pulled Genji into a one-armed hug “-has been disappointingly short on details! Sit! Tell us about your lovely friend.”

Jesse sat, with Sombra sprawling comfortably against him. “Ah, I know what you really want to hear. Y’all wanna know about Reaper.”

No one bothered to deny it. A few people gave apologetic shrugs. Winston looked embarrassed.

“You’ve all seen him do the smoke trick?” he drawled, settling in to enjoy telling the story. “Right, well, turns out a nanite swarm will let you survive being burnt to a crisp, and compared to that, a sniper’s bullet is nothing. So me’n Dad, we’re mindin’ our own business catchin’ a little shut-eye in a motel room when Blackwatch’s Bad Guy Numero Uno comes bustin’ in lookin’ to finish us off. Only…he wasn’t expectin’ my right hook. Now it’s me and Dad with the Reaper unconscious on the floor, so obviously it’s time to interrogate him. Who sent you, and all that.”

Knowing what had really happened, Sombra couldn’t help but be impressed with the way he was not only telling an essentially true but completely misleading version of the story, but also had the entire room hanging on his every word.

“Once we had everything he knew, he got a little long-delayed justice and Dad claimed his stuff. No one expects Reaper to be Commander Reyes, ‘specially if the Commander’s dead. So we made up a story about how I’d defected and wanted to sign up with Talon. That whole join the winning side deal. Then it was just working our way in deeper and waiting for an opportunity…with a side of meeting the most gorgeous woman in the world,” he added, laying a kiss on Sombra’s temple. “Didn’t hurt much of anything, her being the best hacker in the world on top of that. But either someone got wind of us planning exactly what you guys did, or they figured on making a power play, ‘cuz me’n Sombra, we got sent into a trap and if Dad hadn’t come for us…”

Several nods and winces followed the words trailing off. Winston raised his hand.

“Did, uh, anyone else know who Reaper was?” he asked the room in general, but shaken heads and curious glances all around were the only answer he got.

“Jack knew,” Jesse said. “And Ana. They kept it quiet, though. I mean…Jack’s thing wasn’t exactly subtle, and if Reaper’d been flirting with Soldier Seventy-Six, well…”

“That explains why Jack began wearing his wedding ring again,” Genji announced as though the thought had only just occurred to him. “With Talon defeated, they no longer need to hide their relationship.”

Reinhardt beamed. “I am just glad that I did not really lose the friends I mourned.”

“Enough about me and my family,” Jesse said firmly. “I wanna hear what you all were doing. Brigitte, does your dad know where you are?”

“Yes and no,” she laughed. “Following this big lug around and keeping him in one piece, yes. Where exactly that takes me…not always.”

The conversation devolved into banter and tale-telling between friends, with the other Overwatch agents fading from their awareness.

---

By the time any of them realized they were hungry, Sombra had already ordered food from a handful of different establishments and hijacked a delivery drone to collect their feast and bring it to the Watchpoint.

“You’re too good to me,” Jesse said when she’d finished listing the foods that would be there within minutes.

Smugly, she kissed him. “You gonna need your strength tonight,” she teased, eliciting good-natured whoops from Reinhardt and Brigitte and a chuckle from Genji.

“Shall I inform the Strike-Commander that lunch will arrive shortly?” Athena asked.

“Yeah, and let Dad know he can show his face, too.” Jesse looked around. “Where’d everyone else go?”

“The other agents have departed in the Talon ship, now that the mission is over and they have recuperated from it,” the AI informed him.

“Oh. Well then, definitely tell Dad to get out here.”

“They are on their way.”

Of course, the food arrived first and in the flurry of unpacking and claiming and serving, they almost forgot that they were expecting two more.

“My friends!” Reinhardt boomed as he turned, plate of wurst and spätzle in hand, to see the two entering cautiously. “Do not worry,” he added with a glance at his plate. “I will not hug you until after lunch.”

Jesse waved them over. “Sombra ordered a couple of subs. Dad, meatball…”

“Good girl. Your bedtime is never,” Gabriel muttered as he reached greedily for the wrapped sandwich Jesse was holding out. “Did you order Jack’s tasteless favorite?”

“…and Jack,” Jesse continued as if his dad hadn’t said anything, “I think this turkey on white is for you.”

“So you did.”

Jack stuck his tongue out as he accepted the sub. “There’s nothing wrong with turkey, Gabe.”

“Except that it’s bland.”

“I like it.”

“You have no appreciation for flavor.”

“It has flavor!”

“Mayo’s not a flavor, Sunshine.” The grin on Gabriel’s lips gave lie to the razzing he was giving his husband.

“I have an appreciation for you,” Jack countered, leaning in to claim his sweetheart’s lips, free hand burying itself greedily in his hair.

They didn’t part for the cheering and whistling; not until Jesse mock-called, “Get a room!” did they come up for air.

“There’s chips and soda, too,” the cowboy continued as if the entire exchange hadn’t happened.

“If you put those plain chips on your sub, I’m divorcing you,” Gabriel threatened insincerely as his husband reached for one of the little bags.

“I would never!” Jack recoiled in false affront, then reached past the plain chips to pick up a different bag. “They’re salt and vinegar.”

Gabriel gave him a long, measuring look. “I’ll allow it,” he said at last.

Winston chuckled. “I must say, it’s good to see you two getting along again.”

“I agree,” Reinhardt interjected. “I did not say anything in front of the other agents, but I suspect there is more to Jack’s reappearing wedding ring than simply not needing to hide the relationship.”

Jack and Gabriel settled on the love seat, eyes averted and heads lowered.

“I won’t deny things were strained for a few years,” Jack said quietly, unwrapping his sandwich. “And I acted inexcusably the day everything went down. We’re working things through.”

Defiantly, Gabriel raised his head and tugged the chain out from under his hoodie. “Because I know at least one of you noticed,” he said before tucking his ring away again. “We’re working things through, and that’s all anyone else needs to know.” Glaring impartially at the rest of the room, he took an enormous bite of his sub and chewed angrily.

For a minute, there was silence broken only by the sounds of eating and Jack placing chips on his turkey sub.

Gabriel swallowed. “One more thing. Anyone says a single fucking word to Jack about what he did or said the say everything went down, I’ll kick your fucking ass in a heartbeat. The only one he answers to for that is me.”

The silence this time was broken by the muted crunch of chips as Jack bit into his sub.

“Uh…” Winston cleared his throat. “Now that Talon is…no longer a concern…what does that mean for the rest of us?”

Sombra sat up. “I’m working with Maximilien to continue the progress made by Papi assassinating the worst of the corrupt politicians that strangled Overwatch. Talon’s propaganda machine is going to turn public sentiment against the Petras Act. We hope to get it repealed within a year.”

“So we have a year to figure out how to dispute our legal deaths,” Jack said with a glance at Gabriel.

“And I’ve got a year for Angela to get these damned nanites out of me,” he muttered with another angry bite of his meatball sub.

“I’ll get you two hooked up with some fake ID in the meantime,” Sombra said. “Several countries are already penning Omnic rights legislation, including Mexico. But until then, one of you will have to buy a house for us to live in. You don’t object to settling down in Dorado, do you, Jesse?”

He swallowed his bite of baked ziti. “Not at all, honeysuckle.”

“Good. Because I like your dad’s idea of adopting a couple of kids, and it would be easier to do that if Omnics were allowed to own property and adopt.”

Winston looked up in surprise. “Wait – Sombra, you’re an Omnic?”

Brigitte’s eyes sparkled. “Jesse has an Omnic girlfriend?”

“Omnic girlfriends were an option?” Genji joked. “No one ever mentioned that to me!”

“Her mind’s organic,” Jesse protested. “She just…transferred herself into an omnic body.”

“I had no idea,” Winston flustered.

Sombra rolled her eyes. “You worked on my legs, how is this a surprise?”

“In his defense,” Genji said mildly, “I exist.”

For a moment, the room was silent.

“Point,” Sombra acknowledged. “But yes, my body is omnic and my mind is not.”

“But…wait…” Winston looked like he knew he was going to regret asking, but he couldn’t stop himself. “If she’s omnic, how do you…” Aborted hand gestures made the meaning clear.

Sombra pulled up a screen with her schematics, zoomed in, and digitally pulled the very fancy stroker out of its conveniently-located socket.

All eyes turned to Jesse, who smirked.

“Don’t be hating because you’re jealous my girl’s got three speeds of built-in vibration and five patterns of stroking action,” he said smugly.

Jack covered his eyes with a strangled sound. “We did not need to know that, Jesse,” he protested.

“Yeah,” Gabriel added, just a hair too dryly for genuine indignation. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

The cowboy’s smirk widened. “Yee-haw.”

Gabriel grinned at Sombra and shook his head while everyone else groaned.

---

Although Reinhardt, Brigitte, and Genji had left after lunch, the two couples decided to stay the night and head out to see Ana and Angela in the morning. Jack and Gabriel spent the afternoon soaking in the quiet of the outdoors, admiring the ocean or walking hand-in-hand with no destination in particular or just sitting under a tree, being together. Gabriel didn’t say anything, and Jack didn’t want to press his luck by starting a conversation that might end badly, so they just…were.

As they stood side by side, watching the sun begin to set, Gabriel said softly, “We never got enough time to just spend together.”

Jack swallowed. “We have it now. We have the rest of our lives, and nothing is more important to me than you.”

For a long minute, Gabriel rested his head on Jack’s shoulder, their fingers tangling together. “It didn’t make me feel better,” he said finally.

“What didn’t, sweetheart?”

“Beating the crap out of you in that building. You asked if I felt better. I didn’t.”

“Didn’t beat me enough?” Jack asked, his heart stuck in his throat. “You can-”

“I don’t want to hurt you!” Gabriel’s hand tightened almost painfully around Jack’s. “Part of me did. The part that lashes out when I’m in pain. That part wanted to see you as miserable as you’d made me. But Jack…when I saw you in that cell, I remembered talking you into going to Vegas. I’d just learned you were alive, and my first thought wasn’t what you said or did in Zurich. It was how you tried so hard to not smile when you agreed to a secret theme wedding.”

Jack stroked the hand clutching his. “Was breaking me out Jesse’s idea?”

“No. Mine. I almost killed you in the warehouse. It would have been easy. But I couldn’t do it.”

“Gabe…” Jack turned to press a gentle kiss on his sweetheart’s forehead. “I forgive you for every second of pain or discomfort. I deserved it all for what I put you through. When we visited Angela, and she showed us where you…” He swallowed. “Well, let’s just say that sausage McMuffins are ruined for me now, and I’m glad the toilet still worked.”

Gabriel went still. “You threw up?”

“Sweetheart, I hurt you so badly that you set yourself on fire. Knowing that I did that to you, my husband, makes my stomach churn every time I think about it. I’d let you rip the beating heart out of my chest with Reaper’s gauntlets if that would stop the pain I caused you.”

“It wouldn’t.”

Jack gathered him into his arms, held him as warmly and tightly as he could. “I know. But hopefully it shows how far I’d go to fix things between us. Just say the word, babe. Whatever you need. Whatever you want. You tell me to jump, I’ll be two feet in the air before I stop to ask how high.”

That made Gabriel grin into Jack’s neck. “Drop and give me twenty, soldier,” he growled softly.

Immediately, Jack released him and threw himself at the ground, pumping out twenty push-ups in rapid succession before leaping to his feet again with a half-cocky, half-hopeful smile.

Gabriel laughed.

---

Jack stretched on the bed as Gabriel vanished into the bathroom with his bag. In the past, Gabe would have made it a striptease and things would have escalated and they would have gone to sleep a little sweaty but satisfied. Now his husband wasn’t comfortable undressing in the same room. Jack couldn’t blame him, though – after his years on the run, he wasn’t comfortable sleeping in anything lighter than sweatpants and a tee.

They were going to try sleeping in the same bed from the start instead of Gabe sneaking in with Jack at some unholy hour of the night. Both of them were pushing the limits of their comfort zones, fighting to get back to where they used to be. For Jack, it was just re-learning that he didn’t have to be vigilant every second of the day and night. But for Gabe…

The bathroom door opened, and Jack shut his eyes. He’d broken his husband’s heart, and shattered faith needed more than just time to rebuild. Although he seemed to be back to his old self when other people were around, there were still moments when Gabriel looked like a cornered animal, and Jack wasn’t the only one who’d seen it. Reinhardt had quietly told him to take care of Gabriel when they’d hugged goodbye, and Genji had said something about broken bowls repaired with care being more beautiful than before, but that first they had to be repaired. So Jack pretended not to notice as his husband padded over to the bed and moved across the mattress until he was close enough to touch.

“Remember when I’d turn getting undressed into a striptease?” Gabriel asked softly.

Jack grinned, eyes still shut. “And I’d pretend to try to pay you for a lap dance?”

“And then we’d wrestle to see who topped. I miss that.”

The grin faded slightly. “I miss that too, babe.”

“I’m not ready to do that again yet. I’m…not ready for going past first base at all. But I still want you, and…”

“I still want you, too,” Jack whispered.

“Will you let me…”

Jack turned towards Gabriel’s voice, eyes still closed so that his husband could see his expression but not feel pressured. “Whatever it is, yes.”

Lips fluttered against his. “Okay.”

Hands dipping under the band of his sweatpants weren’t entirely unexpected. It didn’t take long for Gabriel to stroke him to full attention, but the cool wetness of lube was…intriguing. Then he started working Jack’s erection into some kind of textured-

“Using it made me think of you,” Gabriel murmured.

Then the vibrations started, and the soft material enclosing him started moving, and Jack’s eyes rolled back while some unintelligible string of sounds escaped his lips.

When he was able to think again, through the golden syrupy afterglow that flooded him, Gabriel had cleaned him up and tucked him away and was now using his shoulder for a pillow with the sheet pulled up to cover them both.

“That was amazing,” Jack groaned.

Gabriel hummed softly. “You’re amazing,” he countered sleepily.

Carefully, Jack got his free hand up to stroke the short fluff of his husband’s hair. “Nah. You’re the amazing one. Love you, sweetheart.”

“Love you too, Sunshine. G’night.”

“Good night,” Jack murmured.

It would take time to completely fix things between them, Jack thought as Gabriel’s breathing slowed, and neither of them would be the same, but Genji was right. With enough care, what had been broken would become even more beautiful for having been repaired.