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megsblackfirewrites · 6 years ago

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We Could be Heroes

Gabriel purged his stomach into the toilet for the third time in the last ten minutes. He groaned, slumping against the bowl, and spat excess bile into the water. If there was a hell, there was no way it was worse than this.

His whole body felt like it was on fire. His nerves were constantly firing, telling him that he was in pain, but there was nothing nearby that was the cause of it. His muscles ached like he had just ran for three days straight. There was nothing in his stomach anymore since he kept throwing everything up. There was no chance of bladder retention; he pissed himself almost as soon as he drank something.

This was Hell and God was a lazy son of a bitch for creating His version.

“Hey,” Jack called as he poked his head in. “You good?”

Gabriel groaned and glanced at the kid. Eighteen, the kid was eighteen. He’d barely finished his basic training before the program snapped him up. He’d seen the file on Jack Francis Morrison and he was impressed. Kid had good stamina, could plan on the fly, and did not hesitate when he had his goals in mind.

The kid was also amazing at keeping him entertained. He didn’t know how someone could be so young and be such an amazing individual. He couldn’t think of any eighteen year olds from L.A. that were as interesting. It must have something to do with growing up out in the middle of nowhere. It filled you with a need to entertain others because you never knew when you were going to see someone.

Jack eased his way into the bathroom and grabbed a face cloth. He turned the water on and put his hand under it, waiting for it to warm up. He ran the face cloth under the water once he was satisfied with the temperature, wrung it out, and turned the water off.

“Here,” he said before he knelt down and started cleaning Gabriel’s face.

“Don’t mommy me,” Gabriel grumbled.

“I’m not, asshole,” Jack said before he brushed bile off of Gabriel’s jaw. “Week ten injections are that bad?”

“Every week sucks,” Gabriel said as he closed his eyes. “This one is just…kicking my ass.”

“Tell me about it,” Jack said as he stood up to rinse the face cloth off. “Makes me scared for when the big stuff starts getting shoved under my skin.”

“You’ll be fine; you’ve got good genetics,” he said.

Jack glanced at him and managed a smile. “Good genetics don’t mean sweet shit,” he shrugged.

Gabriel snorted. Genetics had a part to play in all of the parts of this program. The weak were winnowed out almost immediately; Gabriel didn’t like it, but that was the nature of war. They would get slaughtered by the damn omnics if they weren’t stronger and ready to keep going through Hell. Considering what they were going through now, war was going to be a fucking vacation.

“You don’t think your genetics are good, kid?” Gabriel asked.

“I’m your average American teenager, Gabriel,” Jack sighed. “There’s nothing special about me.”

“You haven’t seen your file then,” Gabriel smirked before he turned back to the bowl.

He threw up again, gagging hard on the ball of vomit that lodged itself in his throat for a moment. He came back to awareness to find a warm cloth on the back of his neck and Jack’s hands rubbing soothing circles into his back. Gabriel managed a smile before he slumped forward again.

“Fuck this shit,” he grumbled miserably.

Jack let out a soft hum before he rested a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “Do…do you think this is necessary?” he asked softly.

“Yes,” Gabriel said as he closed his eyes. “The omnics will slaughter us all. I know that; I’ve seen it. It…normal soldiers can’t deal with them. Germany had to build a squad of giants with shields and massive fucking hammers, Jack. We have to step up our game or we’re going to be eradicated.”

“I’ve seen the news,” Jack murmured. “I know that they’re heavily edited, but they were still horrific. It’s what made me join.”

Gabriel lifted his head. “Really? Haven’t always wanted to be soldier?”

“Always wanted to be a doctor,” Jack smiled. “Maybe a vet. But, I had to do my part. People need to be sewn up in the army so I thought it was the next logical step. No point going through for a doctorate if we get wiped out, right?”

“And now you’re here getting ready to get stuck full of needles,” Gabriel sighed before turning his head to vomit into the bowl.

“Yup,” Jack chuckled before he rubbed Gabriel’s back. “But I’m ready, even if it kills me. At least I can say that I tried.”

Gabriel sat back and wiped his chin off. His stomach settled enough to let him actually breathe. He glanced at Jack and reached out to ruffle the buzz cut blond hair. Jack looked at him in surprise, bright blue eyes blinking at the display of affection.

“You’re a good kid,” Gabriel said before he tipped his head back and groaned. “Let’s hope you make it out of this with your life. World would be a miserable place if it lost you, boy scout.”

Jack let out a laugh before he helped hoist Gabriel’s larger body to his feet. His knees knocked together as he helped direct Gabriel to the bunk, but he didn’t falter all the way there. He helped Gabriel flop onto the bed, ignoring the groaning as he tucked Gabriel in and got him a puke bucket. Gabriel let out a grunt of thanks before closing his eyes and immediately falling asleep.

Jack watched Gabriel sleep after he got a trash can set up next to him. The last thing he wanted his friend to do was have to book it to the washroom if he had to be sick again. It would reek to high heaven, sure, but it was better to lean over and puke than try not to spew while running for another room.

He wasn’t going to lie to himself; seeing Gabriel react to the injections the way he was terrified him. Jack had a great pain tolerance, but if someone as strong and resilient as Gabriel was reduced to a puking heap, he didn’t stand a chance. He was almost half of Gabriel’s weight, a little shorter, and younger. Whatever was kicking his ass was going to tear his apart.

This was not what he had been expecting when he’d agreed to join the SEP. He hadn’t thought it would be injections. He hadn’t thought it would be endless tests, both physical and written, and he hadn’t thought that he would be fed horrible food to make sure nothing interfered with their body absorbing whatever the fuck they were being pumped full of.

He was scared.

He had joined the army to be a doctor. He wanted to help people, to help them keep living even if their bodies were ready to give up. He’d wanted to be the simplest hero around, just a face in the crowd that knew what they did had saved more lives than anyone could imagine. Instead, he was here in a bunker getting stuck full of needles with the promise that, if he lived, he’d be going head-to-head with the omnics.

“I can hear your teeth chattering, Jack,” Gabriel murmured. “You cold?”

Jack shook his head, glancing at Gabriel. He must have zoned out if Gabriel had woken up without a word. The man did not know how to be quiet when waking up; he yawned like a lion. Loud and wide to show off all of his teeth. It was adorably cute.

“Scared,” he admitted.

“Of?”

“What’s going to happen to us,” Jack sighed and rubbed his eyes. “What life we’re going to have if this all goes sideways. I’m…terrified.”

Gabriel pushed himself up onto an elbow and looked at Jack. “We’re going to be heroes if we survive,” he said. “Even if we don’t, we were willing to do everything in order to protect those that can’t defend themselves.”

Jack nodded and chewed on his lip. “But…what if that sacrifice isn’t enough? What if we do all of this and we still lose?”

“Then at least we tried,” Gabriel huffed. “And since when are you a defeatist?”

Jack looked at his knees. “I…I’m scared, Gabe, cut me a little slack.”

“Hey,” Gabriel’s smile translated easily through his voice, “don’t worry so much. Leave that to me, your commanding officer.”

“We’re all busted back down to ‘private’, Gabe. No one has any sort of rank outside of the people in charge of this madhouse.”

Gabriel shrugged a shoulder. “And? I’ve got fighting experience. I know what it’s like out there right now. You leave planning and worrying to me, okay? You need to focus on staying alive and not letting something as stupid as a little needle kill you.”

Jack let out a soft laugh and shook his head. “Isn’t this a flip of reality?” he asked. “Usually, I’m the one giving the pep talk.”

“We can’t be strong all the time, Jack. Hell, I’m puking my guts out over here and I haven’t been sick since grade 10 when I got strep throat. I’m not scared to put in the extra time if it means watching you smile, boy scout.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet,” Jack shot him a look. “Now I feel like an even bigger dumbass.”

“Don’t. I mean it. Your smile lights up a room, Jack. Makes all this pain seem worth it. Want to make sure that other people not only get to see that smile, but that there are generations after us that will have bright smiles like that.”

Jack found himself smiling. “Go back to sleep, old man; you’re getting sentimental.”

“Dick,” Gabriel laughed and dropped back onto the bed. “If I wake up in a few hours, get me something light to eat.”

“Toast, got it.”

“Ugh.”

“That an ‘ugh’ to toast or…?”

Gabriel leaned over the bed to vomit into the trash bin.

“Well, that answers that question.”

#reaper76 #reaper76week #we could be heroes #SEP days

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0ldsold1ers · 6 years ago

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can’t wait to go home with you

Reaper76 week, TUES: keep yourself alive/ Omnic Crisis

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17850008

Reinhardt is stiller than Gabe’s ever seen him. There’s blood dripping from his collarbone, seeping through a bandage which is just hours old but he sits still and quiet, letting the healers take care of him.

They’ve taken cover in an evacuated set of flats. This portion of the city had been emptied a couple of days ago after the first attacks, so now they’re waiting for an emergency evacuation of their own - the closest aid had been forty minutes away. Things had gone wrong, really wrong this time around. It was meant to be a simple strike mission, destroy a bunch of the Bastion units which had been terrorising central Berlin from an abandoned hospital, and get out fast before they could summon other units. The intel had come straight from the Crusaders and the mission was top secret. Only Gabriel, Ana and Reinhardt had known any details.

Or it was supposed to be top secret, anyway.

Somehow the Omnics had known, they’d been prepared. The hospital had been swarming with them. And they were lucky so many of them had gotten out alive - his retinas are still burning red from the blood and his coat is stiff and stained dark. His shoulder is aching where a bullet wound has already been patched up. He doesn’t even want to think about how he must smell. He couldn’t think, even if he tried.

Because Jack hadn’t made it out with them.

He doesn’t know where he went or what happened - one minute they’d been fighting back to back, the next he’d vanished, running to a scream for help from across the corridor. Gabriel had tried to follow before Reinhardt had grabbed him and pulled him behind his shield - just in time, as a spray of bullets had almost reduced his face to mincemeat.

In the chaos, Gabriel hadn’t had the chance to look for Jack - he hates himself for it now, is plotting out a million different things he could have done to save everyone - but as commander, he had to get as many out alive as he could. There hadn’t been any chance to scout the area as they beat an immediate retreat, carving their way out through the mass of enemies. Staying would have meant death.

He tries not to think about what that means for Jack’s chances.

“He could still be alive, Gabriel.” Reinhardt says quietly, and just the fact that the German is so quiet tells Gabriel how weird and fucked up and unlikely the situation is. He nods once but doesn’t reply. He doesn’t trust himself to speak right now and keeps pacing.

The door crashes open once more, and Gabriel turns for the millionth time, hating himself for being disappointed when he sees black hair, not blonde.

Ana looks at him, angry and grieving and a million other things but still determined. “Choppers are five minutes out, Gabriel. We have to get ready to go.”

Gabriel feels his heart break a little. This can’t be the way they end. They’ve been through so much already, it’s not fair. There’s so much Gabriel never got the chance to say, so many unsaid words, unseen films, unspent moments they’ll never get to see now.

“Get the troops outside together. I’ll do final perimeter sweeps.” ‘I have to make sure he’s not coming.’ is what he doesn’t say. They both hear it anyway.

There’s nothing though. No signs of stragglers, no flash of gunfire, thankfully no Omnics in pursuit.

He keeps staring back at the smoke of the hospital over the skyline, waiting for a flash of blonde hair, a panicked cry for help, a blast from that insane rifle he insists on carrying - but there’s nothing. The air is thick with something which isn’t quite silence but drowns him all the more for it.

Until the insistent shuddering of helicopter blades breaks through his reality and it really hits home - he’s going to have to leave without Jack. His eyes are burning but he’s got another six troops in this old apartment building who need to get home and see their families again.

He scrubs at his eyes and is about to return to his squad when his wrist unit beeps once to let him know he has a message.

from: boyscout

message: fukc

He blinks once. There’s relief, so intense he thinks his hearts going to burst and he laughs out loud. He’s going to strangle the stupid motherfucker when he gets his hands on him. The device beeps again insistently.

from: boyscout

message: i fucked up, are you guys still here, need extraction, at church opposite hospital

Gabriel doesn’t blink again before he’s tearing back up the stairs to where Ana’s assembling the team on the roof and onto the helicopters.

“Jack’s still down there,” he starts, and Ana’s relief matches his own.

“You’re going back.” It’s not a question. She knows him too well.

He nods. “If you hear nothing for fifteen minutes, leave without us.”

She looks at him before dipping her head once. He knows he can trust her to do things in his stead - he wouldn’t try and do this if it was anyone else. But it’s Ana.

And this is Jack.

He’s flying down the stairs and out the building before he can catch his breath. He knows he has to be quiet, but also fast - it sounds like Jack is in trouble and he briefly wonders how he’s going to be able to get him back to the others. Or why he didn’t just activate his location tracker.

The hospital comes into sight soon enough, and Gabriel thinks for a half second before running down a back road. The Bastion units might not be able to get heat signatures yet, but some of the other Omnics have infra-red sight modes.

The church Gabriel thinks Jack means is old - really old, and the grand architecture is obvious even from the tight alleys hidden in central Berlin. If Jack was going to pick an obvious place to hide…

There’s a tiny door at the back of the building his HUD informs him, and he eases it open before slipping inside. He’s hidden in a quiet chapel, carved stone saints peering down at him, and feels a prickle of discomfort. He’s never felt too comfortable in these places. He’d sworn off religion a long time ago.

He scans the interior of the building with his HUD display but there’s no trace of any other machinery in the vicinity. Which means that a) no Bastion units but also b) Jack’s tech is either offline or c) not here.

Neither of the latter options are great.

He leaves the chapel carefully, listening closely before he hears it.

There’s laboured breathing coming from the front of the pews and finally he lays eyes on the golden hair he’s been searching for, a fallen angel before the altar.

Something is wrong. He realises with a creeping dread just how much red is smeared into the gold, and drops any pretense of stealth, sprinting up the aisle.

“Wondered when you’d get here.” Jack says, strain clear in his voice.

The room spins for a moment as he lays eyes on him.

There’s a really nasty cut along his temple which would explain the HUD not showing up in the scan - it looks like the Omnics have gouged out the implant from his head. He’s holding a hand over his stomach, and from the copious quantities of blood, Gabriel would guess he’s probably been holding his intestines in since he left the hospital. He can’t see any other obvious injuries but the left leg of his pants is badly ripped up and stained as well, and he doesn’t seem to be focusing too well when he looks up at Gabriel.

He’s seen some nasty injuries before, but this… this is awful. Even SEP applicants have died from less.

“What the fuck happened, Morrison.” He breathes, not really expecting an answer. He’s guessing a pretty bad concussion from the lack of focus in the usually sharp blue gaze. Hell, he’ll take it right now, it’s better than the alternative. He pulls off his coat and starts ripping it into bandage strips as he places a call to Ana from his wrist unit, no longer caring if the Omnics can track his location from it.

“I’ve got him, Ana. He’s in a bad state, I don’t know if I can get him back like this.”

The audible sigh of relief is quickly taken over by a hum of concentration. “You might have to, Gabriel. There’s no way we can bring the choppers closer, it’ll be an obvious giveaway where you are. How bad are the injuries?”

He quickly lists off what he can see. “I don’t know if he can walk.”

Jack pouts at him. “You could ask, you know. I’m right here.”

Any other situation, Gabriel would have laughed at his childish expression.

“Do what you can, you might have to carry him. Keep me updated with progress. We might have to leave and arrange for a secondary evacuation if you can get far enough away.”

Gabriel nods, then remembers it’s a phone call. “Wheels up in fifteen minutes.”

Ana begins to complain, but he cuts across. “That’s an order, Captain.”

She goes silent, before a stilted “As you wish, Commander,” and then she hangs up. It doesn’t escape his attention that she hadn’t suggested for a second leaving Jack behind, and he’s beyond grateful.

Gabriel doesn’t think as he works, letting instinct take over as he wraps wounds as tightly as he can. He re-sets Jack’s leg - he’d cried out, the pain overwhelming the delirium for a second - but the healing factor would hopefully be able to do enough that they could walk out.

He pulls Jack to his feet, dragging one heavy arm across his shoulders. Gabriel staggers - Jack isn’t holding himself up properly, there’s still too much blood and he’s holding himself together with his hands at this point.

“Come on, you big lump,” he grumbles, pulling his best friend from the church, “there’s no way I’m dying in this hell hole.”

Jack sighs dreamily, and Gabriel really doesn’t like the sound of that. “Can’t wait to go home with you.”

Gabriel chuckles. “We don’t go home together, pendejo. You’re moving in with Vincent aren’t you?” Jack had spoken briefly about his plans a couple months ago, but Gabe hasn’t heard anything since. Delirium does funny things to the head anyway.

“Wish we could go home together though. Love you.” Jack sighs, and Gabe freezes for a second, heart pounding, before realising: he must have thought Gabe was Vincent. He almost laughs again, in relief, in love, in despair, but Jack won’t understand any of those.

So he just says, “Love you too, golden boy.” He wishes it was a lie as he drags him back to the apartment building.

“Next time I tell you to evacuate a war zone, you do it. Understood?” Gabriel stares down his unimpressed Captain from the sick bay lobby.

“You were on your way back. If Jack didn’t get immediate attention he could have died, from what you said.” Ana replies, mulish as she refuses to drop eye contact.

She’s obstinate and stubborn and determined, funny and deadpan and sometimes edging on rude. Gabriel wouldn’t have her any other way.

“How is he?” he asks instead of reprimanding her like he should. The doctors had ordered him to ‘fuck off and get some sleep,’ in their own words, and the doors had been programmed not to let him in until his brain was functioning at a certain level of activity again.

“He’ll be fine,” she says, mouth twitching up just a little, “but the doctors are a little worried about the head injury. They think removing the implant could have caused some long-term brain damage, but they won’t know until he wakes up. And he’ll have to stay in for a couple of days until his gut has healed anyway.”

Gabriel sits down heavily. That recovery time is slow for them but at least it’ll be fixed. But brain damage? Jack had been acting very strange, and the doctors had confirmed multiple concussions. His implant as well… it allows them to interface with their tactical visors without speaking, allowing everyone to see where the rest of the squad is. That the Omnics knew to rip it out is both awful and really worrying. They’re getting smarter.

“Gabriel?” he looks up at Ana as she crosses over and sinks into the seat next to him. He sees just how tired she really is in the sink of her spine, the tightness around her eyes. How she’s still so composed, he’ll never understand. He must look like a mess. “It’s not your fault. It’s because of you he’s even alive. Stop beating yourself up.”

He gives her a tired smile. “Shouldn’t have left him in the first place.”

She scoffs, shaking her head. “A saviour complex doesn’t suit you. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and tell him how you feel before you lose the opportunity again.”

He gapes at her for a moment, but why is he even surprised? Ana doesn’t really need her cybernetic eye when she sees everything anyway. She stands and moves to the door. “I need some sleep, I’m done babysitting stupid men for the day.” More softly, she smiles at him, properly this time. “I want to know the minute he wakes up.”

Gabriel just nods once before entering the ward. The scene which greets him is infinitely preferable to the one from twenty hours ago.

Jack is breathing, peacefully now, and Gabriel could watch the soft rise and fall of his chest for the rest of his life. All of his limbs are smooth, straight lines once more (he’d missed the broken arm in his rush to get the man back to safety), his hair is gleaming a soft yellow in the sunlight streaming from the window, and the heart monitor he’s hooked up to steadily beeps at his side.

He lowers himself into the chair next to the bed and tries not to frown as he sees the jagged scar running over Jack’s temple, narrowly avoiding the corner of his eye. “Dumb blonde,” he mutters, running his eye over the rest of his face, “why have you gotta put me through this bullshit?”

Jack’s always had a hero complex, it’s how he got picked for the SEP, throwing himself in front of his squad to protect them from an explosion. As soon as he’d been patched up, his CO had volunteered him for the programme – ‘mental fortitude’, the report Gabriel had read had said. And he sure does have buckets of it. If anyone will make it out of this…

He takes Jack’s hand on impulse, weaving their fingers together. “We’re gonna get through this, punk. You’re gonna see Vincent again, you’re going to move in together and go home with him. Just like you wanted.” He pauses for a moment. Ana’s words are ringing in his head. “That’s what’s gonna make you happy. That’s all I want for you, Jack. I wish…” he stops. “God, if you weren’t unconscious I wouldn’t even be saying this. I don’t know. I just wish I could be the one to make you happy.”

He looks up to find an unnervingly blue gaze watching him. Shit.

“How much of that did you hear.” He demands. It vaguely registers that he’s still holding Jack’s hand.

Jack clears his throat and smiles his shit-eating grin. Fuck, he’s so far gone for this dumb bitch. “Everything since you called me punk and held my hand.”

Gabriel refuses to drop that, it would be proving a point if he let go now. “And you just laid there and let me talk? Puta.” He makes a point of looking away and sniffing.

Jack laughs croakily and starts coughing immediately. Gabriel look at him with concern. “Damn, feels like I got put through a meat grinder.”

“You did. You lost. I had to pull your dumb ass out afterwards.” Gabriel deadpans. He’s alive, and now he has to suffer the consequences – endless mockery.

Jack smiles sheepishly. “Thanks, Gabe. You saved my life.” He stops for a moment and looks unsure. “What you were saying-“

Gabe cuts across him, “Don’t, just pretend I didn’t say anything-“

“Shut up, Gabe.” He smiles up at him and Gabriel feels his heart flutter a little. “You do make me happy. I got separated from the group and all I could think while I was trying not to die was seeing your smile when I wasn’t dead. And then you ripping me to shreds yourself.” He manages another wheezy chuckle, and Gabriel feels his heart squeeze. This man is going to be the death of him. “You’re my best friend, and sometimes… sometimes I wish we were more. Even if you don’t feel the same.” He’s thoroughly avoiding eye contact with Gabriel now, who can’t believe what he’s hearing.

“Maybe you have got brain damage,” he says, watching the five stages of grief cross Jack’s face before he bothers to continue, “If you think I don’t feel anything for you.” The realisation blossoming in his mind is beautiful to watch.

“You… you feel the same?” Jack asks faintly, and Gabriel scoffs.

“Even Ana noticed what was going on. What about Vincent though?”

Jack looks confused. “What about him?”

Gabriel is staring at him. He was joking earlier, but maybe there is some memory damage or something. “You’re his boyfriend? You wanted to go home with him? I thought you were moving in together.”

Jack stares at him like he’s the one who’s being ridiculous. “Vincent and I broke up a month ago.”

“What.” Gabriel stares at him. How had he possibly missed that?

“I only spoke to Ana, and she wanted to tell you straight away for some reason…” It’s satisfying in the most frustrating way to watch realisation settle on his face. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.” Gabriel echoes, disbelief on his face. What an idiot. Why did he have to fall in love with such an idiot.

“No, but I knew you’d have been too sympathetic and close, and I couldn’t have handled that when I was already heartbroken!”

“So when you said you wanted to come home with me…”

Jack looks at him nervously. “I did mean you.”

“And the other thing?”

Jack licks his lips nervously. Gabriel can’t look away. “Yeah, that too.”

Gabriel leans forward and kisses him. It’s warm and slow and relief and ‘you absolute dumbass’, a knot slowly coming undone in his lower abdomen which he didn’t realise had been there for so long. Jack responds eventually, shakily placing a hand behind Gabriel’s head to deepen the kiss. He’s warm under Gabriel, and he has to brace himself on the bed with his hands so as not to lean on broken ribs.

They have to breathe eventually, and Gabriel stares at Jack, lips red and cheeks flushed. He notices now a small mole hidden just above his left eyebrow and raises a finger to stroke it without realising.

“You’re an idiot.” He idly comments.

Jack grins bashfully. “I know. But I’m your idiot, if you’ll have me.”

He tries to ignore the grip around his heart. “Does that mean I have to keep carrying your ass out of danger?”

Jack flashes him a boyish grin, and Gabriel feels dizzy for a moment. “Only if you want to.”

“Good thing you have a nice ass,” he grumbles, and Jack beams back at him like he’s smiling at the sun.

#reaper76week #r76 #day 2: keep yourself alive #omnic crisis #overwatch #ow #fanfiction #jack morrison #gabriel reyes #graphic injury description #first kiss #gabe sweetie im so sorry you gotta deal with this bs

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